Walled in

"I found one!"
The Inquisitor held up the forbidden book as he called to his assistant. "Bring
in the mayor and his family. Someone is studying the Bible in this house!
In the 16th century,
Philip II sent the Duke of Alba to Flanders to stamp out the Protestants who
insisted on reading the Scriptures in their own language.
Anyone found studying
the Bible was hanged, drowned, torn in pieces, or burned alive at the stake
The Inquisitors
had found the Bible while inspecting the house of the Mayor of Brugge.
One by one, family members were questioned, but everyone claimed they knew nothing
about how the Bible got to their house.
Finally the officials
asked the young maid-servant, Wrunken, who boldly declared, "I am reading it!"

The mayor, knowing
the penalty for studying the Bible, tried to defend her,
saying, "Oh, no, she
only owns it. She doesn't ever read from it."
But Wrunken chose
not to be defended by a lie. "This book is mine. I am reading from it, and it
is more precious to me than anything!"
She was sentenced
to die by suffocation. A place would be hollowed in the city wall, she would
be tied in it, and the opening would be bricked over.
On the day of
her execution, as she stood by the wall, an official tried to get her to change
her mind, saying, "So young and beautiful - and yet to die."

Wrunken replied,
"My Savior died for me. I will also die for Him."
As the bricks
were laid higher and higher, she was warned again. "You will suffocate and die
in here!"
I will be with
Jesus," she answered.
Finally, the wall
was finished, except for the one brick that would cover her face. For the last
time, the official tried to persuade her. "Repent - just say the word and you
will go free."
But Wrunken refused,
saying instead, "O Lord, forgive my murderers."
The brick was put
in place. Many years later, her bones were removed from the wall and buried in the cemetery of Brugge.