Willem de Rijcker, and Christoffel Fierens, in the Year 1572

At Meenen, in Flanders, on the 5th of December in the year 1572, two pious witnesses of God, named Willem de Rijcker and Christoffel Fierens, were sentenced to death as heretics. When they were brought out to die, they came fearlessly, like two sheep for the slaughter. A brother said to Willem: "Dear brother, strive valiantly for the truth." And a sister also cried: "Oh yes, dear brothers, strive valiantly." Christoffel said: "O men, think of your salvation; for this is the way of truth to life." They were quickly taken to the hut, without being able to speak much; but they cried to God for help and assistance, and said: "What we suffer is for the right truth." Christoffel also said

"Sell your clothes, and buy Testaments; attend there to the words of God: for there you will find life; and do not fear those who kill the body, but fear him who has power to cast soul and body into hell." He also thanked God that He had allowed him to see this day, for which he had longed so greatly, and said further: "These members, which You, O Lord, have given me, I will gladly give up again for Your doctrine." Willem said: "I have been in many perils by sea and by land, and God has always helped me; so I trust that He will not leave me in this extremity either, but will help me even to death." They then offered up their prayer to God, in which they said with Stephen: "O Lord, forgive them what they do to us, and do not lay this sin to their charge." Willem then said: "I have now with Paul fought a good fight, kept the faith, finished my course," and so on. Finally they cried

"O heavenly Father, into Your hands we commend our spirits." Many other words were spoken, which have in part been forgotten, and it would also take too long to write them all. The executioner then asked whether they were ready, and Christoffel replied: "Yes, my dear friend." While Christoffel was being strangled, Willem cried: "O dear friends, my brother is now forbidden to speak." After that he cried once more to the Lord, and then also inherited the crown of life. So these two died for the name of the Lord, being first strangled, and then burned, after Willem had been kept in prison for more than twenty-two months; and so they became heirs of the promised land, in which all those who lay down their lives here for the word of God shall find it again.

During the time that Willem was imprisoned, a certain Cornelis van Eeckhoute was burgomaster at Meenen, who would very gladly have seen him released; he therefore tried to persuade the priest and others that he [Willem] was half-witted, and so Willem was examined once, and asked his views about purgatory. Willem answered that he had once lived in a convent, where on Saturday meat and other things were always cooked for Sunday, and that the monks, sweeping together the fire by which they had cooked, called it purgatory.* Then the burgomaster said: [n1089-1] "Do you see, my lords, by this you may perceive that the man is only half-witted, for these are not the words of a reasonable man." But Willem said that he did not want to be released from prison as half-witted, but that they should ask him about his faith, and that he would confess it to them reasonably enough. So he had to remain in confinement, and was finally, as already stated, sentenced to death, this burgomaster pronouncing the sentence. This man, some time afterward, driven away by war, fled to Bruges, where, however rich he was, he had to live very frugally, and nearly all the time borrow money to pay his household expenses; and when this became too great a vexation for him, he resolved to go home to Meenen, but he died very suddenly on the way.