Anna Utenhoven

She did not attend mass or confession, and the parish priest concluded that she was an Anabaptist or associated with the Family of Love, both of which were considered heresy.

[4] As Utenhoven declined to recant her religious beliefs, which were illegal under Catholic Habsburg rule, the priest ordered the civil authorities from the Council of Brabant to arrest her on 21 December 1594.

An ecclesiastical court found her guilty, and condemned her to death by burial, the punishment prescribed for female heretics, which had not been used since the 1570s.

Archbishop Mathias Hovius, who was appointed in February 1596, was committed to protecting Catholicism in the mixed-faith Spanish Netherlands, and he visited Utenhoven to convince her to recant.

[4] In March 1597, Albert VII, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, wrote a letter to the Council of Brabant and urged Utenhoven's execution.

Jan Luyken 's drawing of Utenhoven being buried alive at Vilvoorde in 1597. In the drawing, her head is still above the ground and the priest exhorts her to recant her faith while the executioner stands ready to completely cover her up upon her refusal.