The cursed bells of Breda

September 1581: Spanish troops under Haultepenne had retaken Breda. Spanish priest Diego de la Vega came to the Grote Kerk, found the three main bells (Maria, Christus, Geest) recast by the Reformed in 1577. He spoke over each bell one curse: «Bell, you are no more consecrated bronze, you are common metal. Your sound has no power for God.» The three bells stayed hung, were used by both Spanish and Reformed services for 22 years, but the Breda folk said: «The sound is different since 1581. Not as before.»

Petrus van Aerssen, Reformed minister since 1601, was in 1603 asked by an old Bredan (Hendrik Beuckelaer, 78): «Minister, can you free the three bells from the Spanish curse? My mother told me in 1582 the Spanish priest had cursed them.» Van Aerssen, though not Catholic and not believing in curses, thought three nights. On 14 March 1603 (Good Friday) he climbed the tower with a hammer and struck each bell once with the words: «I free you not by counter-curse. I free you by blow — your own sound — for your sound is what you are. You are a bell. A bell needs no curse and can carry none. Your sound is your truth; your truth is your liberation.» According to Hendrik Beuckelaer (at 78 in good health and present) the strike-sound rang «for the first time in twenty-two years again as of old». Beuckelaer died four days later; on his grave stands «I have heard the bells again».