CHAPTER 2

A Seditious Prophecy

On 4 January 1558, the printer Frans Fraet was executed in Antwerp for publishing seditious books. Until quite recently, Fraet’s martyrdom was the only thing anyone knew about him as a printer, as there were no known copies of any book from his press.1 Instead, Fraet was known as an author and poet and as the translator and editor of the first Dutch emblem book, which had been printed twice by Maria Ancxt, in 1554 and 1556, and once more by her son, Hans van Liesvelt, in 1564.² Fraet had been a member of one of Antwerp’s rhetorician’s guilds, which were centers of Protestant agitation.³ Today, at least two pamphlets are known that bear the imprint of Frans Fraet, one praising the emperor’s power and the other praising his military victories. As with the prognostications of Willem de Vriese, however, the unwavering devotion to the emperor camouflaged a much different publication agenda. By carefully scrutinizing the type material of Antwerp printers, the Dutch scholar Paul Valkema Blouw was able to uncover many more editions that Fraet had printed under fictitious names, dates, and places of publication, which Valkema Blouw described in a 1992 article subtitled “Why Frans Fraet Had to Die.”⁴ Much of Fraet’s life and work remains obscure, but one thing is clear: during much of the 1550s, Fraet led a double life as the most important printer of forbidden Protestant works in Antwerp.⁵

As the legal records concerning Fraet’s arrest and trial attest, the matter drew the attention of the highest levels of government and threatened to upset Antwerp’s precarious civic affairs. From a response by Philip II to Jan van Immerseel, the Margrave of Antwerp, we know that van Immerseel had first reported Fraet’s arrest to Emmanuel Philibert, the Duke of Savoy and governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, in a letter (no longer extant) of 6 December 1557, and he sent another letter (also lost) on 31 December.6 Van Immerseel was also Antwerp’s schout, an office that simultaneously gave him the functions of both chief of police and prosecutor. He earned an evil reputation among adherents of the Reformation in the Netherlands by vigorously enforcing imperial decrees concerning heresy; the Martyrs’ History calls him a “bloodthirsty person.”⁷

According to city archival records, Fraet was charged with having “printed, sold, and distributed various seditious books such as prognostications and others under embellished and fictive names,” and his trial before the high tribunal began on 30 December 1557.⁸ Van Immerseel moved to strip Fraet of his citizenship and subject him to torture in order to discover who had commissioned the work or assisted Fraet. According to the report of the city council’s secretary and legal advisor, when the trial was continued the next day, the mayors and magistrates agreed with van Immerseel’s motion, but, as was often the case, the representatives of Antwerp’s citizenry rejected it.⁹ By 4 January 1558, Philip II, the king of Spain and lord of the Dutch provinces since 1556, had heard of the affair. While agreeing that there was more than enough evidence to warrant Fraet’s torture, the king had also heard of the “difficulties” that the third estate might cause, and he asked Jan van Immerseel, his margrave, to keep him informed of further developments.¹⁰

By then, however, the trial had reached its conclusion. Fraet was not tortured, but he was quickly found guilty of violating the imperial decrees against heresy, and Fraet’s argument that his prognostications were not seditious and therefore did not merit the death penalty was rejected.¹¹ Fraet was beheaded the next day, on 4 January 1558. Jan van Immerseel reported to Philip II on 6 January that Fraet’s “article of death publicly declared that he had no evil intentions, so that he died willingly and as a good Christian for the works that he said to have made in order to support his wife and children.”¹² Fraet left no inheritance, and his widow, Tanneken, who had been involved in the trial, was left destitute.¹³

Why did Frans Fraet have to die? Valkema Blouw’s implicit answer to that question is that Fraet had been discovered to be the anonymous printer of forbidden religious works, a view shared by Hofman.¹⁴ Yet there are several unusual aspects of Fraet’s case. Most printers found guilty of publishing heretical works escaped with modest punishments instead of execution, and leniency could be shown to defendants with children or to those who printed heretical works only to earn a living, rather than out of conviction. Both to avoid worrying foreign merchants and to maintain Antwerp’s privileges against the central government, the city magistrates exercised caution in repressing religious dissent. As Habsburg regent, Margaret of Parma often complained that the edicts against printing heretical works were unenthusiastically enforced. Beginning in 1558, most executions for heresy were not conducted in public (unlike Fraet’s beheading), in order to avoid the occasion for public unrest.15

So there are several reasons to suspect that what led to Fraet’s execution was not the printing of Protestant works but, rather, the publication of seditious ones, which the magistrates of Antwerp were more likely to answer with unmitigated severity.¹⁶ In fact, the documents of Fraet’s trial do not refer to the printing of religious works. While the law Fraet had violated was the imperial edict against heresy, the specific crime of which Fraet was accused was the anonymous and unauthorized printing of scandalous and seditious books. The only work specifically mentioned—one that is noted several times in the archival records—is a “very evil rebellious prognostication under the name of a Master Willem de Vriese.”¹⁷

Although this prognostication, as a central piece of evidence against Friess, was read by all members of Antwerp’s Great Council, the documents say little about its content. The primary complaint was that the prognostication printed by Fraet stirred up trouble between the common people and their rulers. The “prognostication or prophecy” contained “many grievous things against the secular and also the clerical rulers” and intruded in the affairs of “all clerical and secular princes and potentates and also the common people, arousing the same to sedition or desperation.”¹⁸

Frans Fraet and Hans van Liesvelt both printed works ascribed to Willem de Vriese. Fraet was beheaded, however, while Hans van Liesvelt continued to print prognostications for several more years. What can explain the disparity between their fates? We can assume that Frans Fraet, as the most prolific printer of forbidden Protestant literature in Antwerp under the Habsburgs in the 1550s, had learned to exercise the proper amount of caution, especially since he had had prior brushes with the law.¹⁹ Why had printing a prognostication by “Master Willem de Vriese” led to his swift arrest and execution? The evidence against Fraet must have been incontrovertible. Valkema Blouw surmised that copies of forbidden works were found in Fraet’s own workshop or that the proof was of a similarly incriminating nature.²⁰ The documents related to the trial are conspicuously silent on the events that led to Fraet’s arrest, however. The letter of Philip II to the Margrave of Antwerp refers to Fraet as a prisoner but also mentions another person, a witness. The letter offers few details but does note that the “above-mentioned witness cannot have done that thing alone, but undoubtedly helped him with evil, false, and seditious spirits, perhaps having a secret agreement with our enemies.”21 But no witness is named previously in the letter or elsewhere. Who was this witness, and what could he not have done without Fraet? Or, as the document is ambiguous, what could Fraet not have done without the aid of the witness? Without additional documentary evidence, there is no way to be sure.

The circumstantial evidence does suggest, however, that Hans van Liesvelt likely found himself in vexing circumstances. Not only had his press, as the producer of de Vriese’s annual prognostications, been brought into connection with the alleged author of a subversive tract, but the seditious subtext of de Vriese’s earlier pamphlets had now been made explicit for all to see. The appearance of the new prophecy would have made Hans van Liesvelt a suspect, and the subversive potential of the prognostications bearing van Liesvelt’s name and workshop address would have given the magistrates of Antwerp significant leverage over him. In 1566, when the magistrates of Antwerp wanted to identify the publisher of a subversive pamphlet, they were forced to rely on the expertise of a type cutter, whose unhelpful testimony blocked their inquiry, while investigations of anonymous pamphlets that secured the cooperation of the printing community were often successful.²² The publication of a seditious prophecy attributed to Willem de Vriese left Hans van Liesvelt in a compromised position. As a fellow Antwerp printer and as the son and sometimes partner of the publisher of Frans Fraet’s literary work, he almost certainly would have been able to identify products of Fraet’s workshop. Hans van Liesvelt had the means to identify Fraet as the printer, likely had an opportunity to do so, and undoubtedly had the motivation of seeing his own neck at risk. It is possible, of course, that Frans Fraet’s arrest resulted simply from an exceedingly poor choice of accomplices or from the efforts of a zealous government agent. Given the precarious situation into which Fraet’s publication of a seditious prophecy attributed to Willem de Vriese would have placed Hans van Liesvelt, it would be surprising if van Liesvelt had done nothing to preserve his life and livelihood. If Hans van Liesvelt did guide civic authorities to the real printer, however, it would have meant sending Frans Fraet to the same martyr’s death on the Great Market Square of Antwerp that van Liesvelt’s own father had suffered a decade earlier.

According to Hofman, the prognostication of Willem de Vriese has never been found, and Valkema Blouw points only to a reprint from 1566, of which no trace has been seen in over two hundred years.23 As no copies of Fraet’s edition of the prophecy are known to survive, one more mystery arises. What could Fraet have printed that could plausibly connect the name of Willem de Vriese, whose earlier prognostications were dutifully loyal to the Habsburg emperor, with a work said to instigate popular rebellion against both ecclesiastic and secular authorities? Without an extant copy to consult, this question would likely remain insoluble. However, soon after Fraet’s execution, the prophecies of Willem de Vriese—or “Wilhelm Friess,” as he was called in Germany—were on their way to becoming a minor publishing sensation, with at least nineteen German editions issued by 1568 that preserve the prophecies of Wilhelm Friess in four different versions.

The German prophecies that appeared beginning in 1558 treat “Wilhelm Friess of Maastricht” as recently deceased. Curiously, however, a calendar and prognostication by Willem de Vries, a medical doctor of Maastricht, were published in 1581, and another calendar by him was published in 1596 (see the list of editions in appendix 3). One way to resolve this mystery is to consider Willem de Vriese as having not only a real biography but also a son: “Meester Willem de Vriese den ouden” would then be not just aged but “Willem de Vriese Sr.” The pamphlets and broadsides published in 1581 and 1596 are illustrated by the same crest that is found on the prognostication for 1556, although they were printed decades later and by a different printer. The name Wilhelmus Phrisius Buscoducensis is attested for a student at Louvain in 1552, although any connection to Willem de Vriese remains uncertain.²⁴ If we suppose that a junior Willem de Vriese followed his father into the medical profession and into publishing astrological prognostications—and there are certainly several contemporary examples of father-son pairs authoring astrological prognostications—then the younger de Vriese also seems to have shared his father’s religious tendencies. The uncensored calendar for 1581, published during Antwerp’s period as a Calvinist republic, supplements its notes about the upcoming weather with anniversaries of important events in the Dutch Revolt, while the prognostication intersperses its predictions for wind and weather with disasters (particularly war and sedition) and with pointed observations concerning the fates of monks, bishops, princes, and the state of religion in Spain. The calendar for 1596, published when Antwerp was once more under Habsburg rule and again subject to the approval of clerical and secular authorities, largely confines itself to noting the weather, planetary movements, and feast days, although it was likely also printed along with a prognostic booklet whose contents and tenor remains unknown.

Yet there are reasons to suspect that Willem de Vriese was not the name of a father and son duo of prognosticating Protestant physicians from Maastricht but, instead, a pseudonym that was identified with a particular kind of political and religious agitation. For all his alleged fame, the name of Willem de Vriese does not appear anywhere in the city records of Maastricht.25 The legal documents from the trial of Frans Fraet treat Fraet as the author who had both invented and printed the seditious prophecy.²⁶ Willem de Vriese appears as Fraet’s pseudonym, not as the name of an author whose rights had been infringed or who might be suspected of authoring other seditious tracts. Fraet published several of his editions under the pseudonym “Niclaes van Oldenborch,” which was used by as many as eight Dutch printers for forbidden works of Protestant literature.²⁷ It is quite possible that Fraet, in similar fashion, did not associate the name Willem de Vriese with any living person but, rather, saw in it a pseudonym available to anyone writing something of similar purpose. In this analysis, the name Willem de Vriese combines one of the most common given names of the time with a reference to the province of Friesland, while the alleged age and medical profession of the bearer of that name merely serve to increase the text’s perceived authority.²⁸ That Fraet published a combination of prophecy and protest under the name Willem de Vriese suggests that Fraet recognized the subversive message and prophetic undercurrent in de Vriese’s prognostications. Rather than a historical person and author, “Willem de Vriese” would be an authorial identity that was associated with anti-Habsburg polemics disguised as prophecy or astrology, which is how the name Willem de Vriese functioned again in 1581. In either case, German readers knew nothing about “Wilhelm Friess” beyond the few details offered on the pamphlets’ title pages.

The Strange Prophecy of Wilhelm Friess

The publication history of the strange prophecy of Wilhelm Friess opens, as we have now seen, with a tale of duplicity, betrayal, sedition, and covert resistance to political and religious oppression. To fully understand the severity of the sentence handed down on Frans Fraet, we need to look away from historical events for a moment and into the text printed by Fraet. As the text of Fraet’s edition is not available directly, we will have to draw on the extant German pamphlets and determine how Fraet’s edition fits into the textual history of the prophecies. While the German pamphlets differ considerably among themselves, all versions of the prophecy provide a concise summary of the medieval Christian end-time drama, with all the disasters and conflicts on a cosmic scale that the end of the world entails. In the following pages, I provide an English rendition of the most popular German version of the “unusual prophecies prophesied by the old Master Wilhelm Friess of Maastricht, recently deceased, which were found with him after his death, extending from 1558 to 1563, in which very unusual and horrible changes are prophesied” (an edition of the German text is found in appendix 1).²⁹

I consider nothing more wicked and unfortunate than when someone lives forever in joy and has never borne suffering or faced opposition, for he cannot understand himself. I consider that person unhappy who is without persecution, for human life is (as Job says) nothing but a constant war with the devil. Therefore I advise you, my dear friends, that you yield yourselves willingly to affliction, for there has never been such suffering as will fall upon all Christendom in the next five years since God created the world. Or, if God will turn aside his righteous judgment, we must be reconciled to God in his anger. God will have mercy on us if we turn from our sins to him during this time, which will be very evil for five years, and then after that everything will become better.

The entire clergy will be brought low, oppressed, and terrified by great hunger. The monasteries will be destroyed and the monks and priests in them will be driven into severe poverty and find no place where they are safe. The prelates of the Church will not clothe themselves with velvet, scarlet, or colorful cloaks, for in that time the Roman Curia will be assailed everywhere. Neither pope nor cardinal, neither legate nor bishop, nor any of the great prelates (who live in all kinds of blasphemy and disgusting depravity) will retain their positions. They will lose all their riches, worldly power, and great palaces because of their pride, greed, and other grievous sins. All great lords, princes, and kings will heap scorn and disgrace upon them and rob them of all their majesty, splendor, power, arrogance, and indeed of all ecclesiastic estates both large and small that they have acquired by lying and murder, and leave them so utterly naked that they will barely have a little cloak or cloth to cover their bodies. After that, their persecutors will regard them favorably.

They will be driven out and mocked, and they will run from one corner to the other to seek a place where they can hide. When they see and experience these things and are unable to avoid them but rather must suffer them, these things will give them understanding so that they will humbly confess their sins and failings and will call upon the Lord with crying eyes and hot tears and say: “O Lord, it is just that we endure suffering and sore persecution, for we have sinned grievously against you in our tremendous greed, pride, debauchery, and sloth, and in countless other grievous sins.” When the clergy confess and are sorry for their sin, God will return them to their original condition as they were in the beginning of the apostolic church. They will be provided with a suitable income so that they can lead an honest and God-fearing life, but they will not receive excessive benefices and pensions again, and they will not be allowed to exercise control or tyranny over their people.

Such a plague and misfortune will come over the clergy that it cannot be spoken or written. You should diligently read and consider the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, where you will find unusual prophecies that will come upon the clergy.

In addition, dear friends, do not think that such fear and persecution will only come upon the clergy. Every person will likely receive his portion, so that no one will be able to mock anyone else. For so much suffering, wailing, and misfortune will come upon all Christendom in 1560 and 1561 and the following years that no one could truly believe it, no matter how great his intelligence and wisdom. Unbearable and unspeakable signs will appear in order to bring the world to repentance.

First, worms will come that look as if they could easily be destroyed, but they will gain such power and strength that they will attack and almost kill lions, wolves, leopards, dragons, bears and oxen. The little birds like titmice, finches, sparrows, larks, thrushes, and starlings will attack and kill sparrow hawks, falcons, hawks, and griffins in great numbers. This sign is certain proof that all people will be in great sorrow because of their afflictions and suffering during these five years.

Among the common people a great uproar will arise against the lords. The nobility will uncover the traitors, deliver them to the sword, take from them all their goods and riches, and permit them to have no protection or peace any longer. In sum, no person can in any way imagine in their hearts or speak with their mouths the evil, persecution, and sorrow that will come upon princes and the nobility in those days. For in truth, before these five years come to an end, disloyalty and betrayal will be so rampant among the people that no one will find a friend or companion that can be trusted. Many great and terrible plagues will come over the entire world from the unbelieving Saracens and Turks. All who follow Mohammed will attack the Christians and destroy many lands and places, especially Italy, Hungary, and a large part of Germany. In addition, many unbearable plagues will come upon the entire world. Turn your hearts to God, for between 1558 and 1559 a great and grievous pestilence much worse than anyone could imagine will occur everywhere.

First of all, I proclaim to you a great famine, and after that such a terrible storm that no one born from mother’s womb has ever seen greater. The waters will rise so high in many places that all people will be horrified. Lands and cities will be in discord and disagreement and suffer such great fear, especially in Italy and France and also in other lands, that many people will fall into bitter poverty and deprivation because of it. Food will disappear. No one will have mercy on others, which will cause great sorrow.

This plague of discord, war, storm, and death will come upon the whole world until the year 1562. It will begin between Italy and France. Let those who desire grace from the Lord turn their hearts to God, for beginning in 1559, insomuch as our Lord God does not turn aside his wrath, France will be in such a dire state and all princes, counts, heralds, knights, and noblemen of that kingdom will be brought so low and weakened during this time that they will not be able to defend or protect themselves or others, for the French will have a large and powerful people as their enemy. The oppression is beyond my power to describe. Read the fifth chapter of Ezekiel, where you will find the great affliction mentioned above that will come upon France and the French in these five years.

After that a false heathen emperor from the west will join with those in the east and come down upon the entire land. He will persecute and torment the Christians with utmost cruelty and spare nothing, but rather devastate and destroy everything over which he gains power. All suffering and persecution since the beginning of the world cannot be compared with the plagues that will occur during the reign of this emperor, for no city or fortress, no matter how large or strong it may be, will be able to stand before him. When one writes the year 1561, whatever has survived until then will be destroyed.

The world will be in such great suffering from the tempests and warfare that will traverse the entire earth until the year 1563 that every person should be clothed with the clothes and weapons of virtue and patience so that they do not fall into despair.

Now that you have heard how the Christians will be plagued with persecution, fear, hunger, and war, you will also hear and learn the first remedy or teaching concerning how one can flee from this persecution.

God teaches in the Gospels that one should call on him with humility and true faith and cease all evil acts so that he would forgive our sins and give us patience in suffering and distress. The second teaching is that everyone who is able should acquire provisions for five years so that they can stave off hunger in the coming five years. For you should know (as was said above) that from 1558 to 1563 there will be such awful distress and deficiency because of famine and hunger in all lands that many people will likely die because of hunger and famine, and all people will be frightened because of the famine’s severity. Whoever is wise and truly prudent will prepare supplies until the year 1564, for then all misfortune will be past. You should also know that great earthquakes will occur in Germany, Burgundy, and Spain. When we are in such great suffering, false prophets will arise who will convince the people of incredible things through their false teaching. Do not rely on your own reason and wisdom when you come to hear them or to see the signs and miracles that they will perform, for God will permit them to do many things because of our sins. The devil will act very cunningly through them in order to deceive the people and turn them away from God. I would therefore advise that the people who do not want to be poisoned by false teaching should avoid them and seek secret places and corners wherever they can to escape from such evil.

The third teaching to escape such misfortune is that we must avoid all lust and repent of all sins according to our ability and with sincere remorse and penitence, for all stubborn and unrepentant people who remain in their sins will die in great fear and distress. The supplies that they have hoarded will not help them, because not all people will die from hunger, the sword, or war, but rather many will leave this life through various accidents such as tempests, flooding, and earthquake, which will not spare people of any station.

At the time when the unchristian emperor and tyrant reigns, the Lord will awaken two pious and holy men who will be clothed with virtue and holiness. They will preach the true and pure word of God against the false teachers and will have great power from God over good and evil. They cannot be killed by any mortal creature or human being. They will also have great power from God to strike and plague the unbelieving and stiff-necked people wherever they want, but no one will feel or be aware of it. They will have force and power from the Lord God to work whatever signs they choose here on earth in order to awaken people to virtue. They will preach throughout the lands and proclaim the day of the Lord against the many false teachers. Afterwards one of the two will be chosen as the highest bishop by the true Christians. He will restore the holy apostolic church to its proper order, which has lain ruined for so long. He will lead a life of great holiness. He will ordain talented and worthy people to the preacher’s office. After that, human power will not be considered important and no one will possess great benefices or bishoprics for the sake of money. Only those who are worthy and can proclaim the word of the Lord will be chosen, even if the world regards them as the lowest of all people, as in the beginning of the holy apostolic church. Indulgences, requiems, and other things like that will wither away. Everyone will conduct his church office in his own place. They will receive only the appropriate sustenance.

At the same time, an emperor will arise whose power will extend throughout the whole world. He will fear God and be so pious that he will be loved by young and old and by rich and poor. He will wear no crown on his head for the sake of Christ, who was crowned with sharp thorns because of our sins. He will also be loyal to the holy apostolic church and do everything in his power for God’s honor. It is certainly true that the world, which before was in great fear and anxiety, will be brought to honor and peace through these two persons, the emperor and the bishop. They will eradicate the sects of the unbelievers unless they are converted and thereby return to grace. Most will deny their false opinions. The unbelievers will deny the false religion of Mohammed and receive holy baptism from the Christians.

Afterward, in the year 1564, there will be one religion and faith, and it will no longer be necessary to carry any kind of weapons. The bishop and emperor will make a law that no one should bear any kind of weapon that can be used for killing, and whoever violates it will be killed with the same weapons that are found with him without a lengthy trial or appeal.

The entire world will strive for unity, for people will remain in proper order and in harmony forever after. Indeed it will be such a unity as has not existed since the creation of the world.

After that the emperor will travel over the ocean, conquer the Promised Land, and have the Christian faith proclaimed there. After that has been done, he will return and take leave of the world and his empire and lead a holy life. He will leave someone after him who will rule the land wisely, but it will not last long. His rule will last five years. The highest bishop will not survive the emperor by five years, which will trouble the holy apostolic church greatly. Then after that the entire world will enjoy wonderful peace and joy without any discord or contention. People will live forever after in true and sincere love for one another. Every person will be filled with virtue, and everyone will have understanding and wisdom like the apostles at the beginning of the apostolic church. They will be illuminated by the Spirit of God in holy scripture, which had previously long been dark. They will also understand all prophecies and predictions that the prophets have prophesied and foretold. There will also be many who will not only understand the prophets but will themselves also proclaim future things by the Holy Spirit.

No one will have power to deceive others or to lead them into false doctrine or down to Hell. But to proclaim the time, hour, and day when the Son of Man will come—Christ speaks in Matthew chapter 24 that no one knows of the day and hour, not even the angels in heaven, but only the Father. Therefore let us ask with humble hearts our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered the most ignominious death for the human race, that he might be our advocate before his Heavenly Father so that we receive a merciful judgment. Amen.

Conclusion

Wake up, you Christians, from the sleep of sin! Open your ears, sharpen your senses, and hear my words! For you have cast God’s word from you into the puddles of disunity, forgetfulness, and disdain, and have begun to make use of vice, and you are also very wise in doing evil, and cunning and crafty. You pervert all honor and you drink yourselves drunken in the blood and sweat of the miserable widows and orphans. There are few days remaining until the Christian cities will be destroyed. Therefore put on the clothing of sorrow and penance, and run to the Lord with wailing and lamentation. If you do not do this, the days of tribulation will come very quickly, from which you will flee to the ends of the sea. You will call on them to help end your life quickly and gently.

There will be such lamentation and wailing among the Christians that one will say to another, “Would it not have been better if we had died in our mother’s womb?” Therefore let us ask the Lord humbly for his grace with remorse for our sins so that he might turn away all of this from us. But if God has called us to suffering, let us bear it patiently and willingly as punishment for our sins so that we might be rewarded by the Lord with eternal life, which eternal life our dear Lord Jesus Christ (whether it be after a fortunate or unfortunate time) may in his mercy grant to us, to whom be honor and praise throughout all eternity. Amen.

This is the prophecy of Wilhelm Friess, at least in the version that became most popular in Germany. What Frans Fraet printed in Antwerp was certainly different in some ways. The precise wording of Fraet’s edition is beyond recovery, but we can establish certain facts about his text with some degree of confidence, and these facts will help answer the question of why Frans Fraet had to die.

While the legal documents treat Fraet as the author of a pseudonymous prophecy, this was certainly not the case. Although Fraet had considerable talent as a writer and likely edited the text he published, he was not its creator. Perhaps Fraet recognized the subversive message or believed that he recognized the source of the prophetic undercurrent in de Vriese’s astrological prognostications and chose to attribute the text to Willem de Vriese to stave off accusations toward himself of seditious publication. Or perhaps the prophecy of “Wilhelm Friess” is precisely what it claims to be, a text found with Willem de Vriese of Maastricht after his death, which Frans Fraet then edited and published. One way or the other, Fraet seems to have come into possession of an old prophecy in late 1557. He should have expected trouble to follow its publication, however, as the text he chose to print and distribute to the citizens of Antwerp was one that, almost exactly two centuries earlier, had earned its author a life spent mostly in prison.