Veit Pelgrims, at Glabbeck, in the Year 1532

The manly and divinely confirmed steadfastness of Veit Pelgrims, a German brother, must by no means be left out here; he regarded nothing so much as the salvation of his soul. In spite of the cruelty of those who follow in the footsteps of Cain by shedding innocent blood, he freely confessed the Gospel, and ordered his actions and his manner of life in accordance with it, in all uprightness and simplicity. But since the world was reproved of its wickedness by his holy life, it could not endure it; so he was arrested in the winter of the year 1532, at Glabbeck, in the Duchy of Juelich. He was ready to testify by suffering to his doctrine and his life; but through the help of his friends and relatives he was released from prison for that time. But since he nevertheless walked undauntedly, in holiness and godliness, in the same heavenly way, he again fell into the hands of the bloodthirsty, and had to suffer much from the wicked. On the one hand, the priests and monks, by much crafty examining, and through wiles and strategies, sought, though in vain, to make him apostatize; on the other hand, they tried to deter him by severe tortures. But overcoming all these vexations and tortures, he valiantly confirmed the truth, and showed that above all temporal and visible things he had something higher in view, that is, the eternal and heavenly riches. So, not regarding his own life, and counting it blessedness to suffer for the name of Christ, he said with remarkable frankness that he hoped the sheep was now ready and fat for the slaughter. The bloodthirsty, seeing that they could in no way prevail on this unconquerable hero and soldier of Christ, resorted to the most extreme means that cruelty could invent. They brought it about that sentence of death was passed on him. When the hour had come for him to offer up his sacrifice, they (O inhuman tyranny!) opened his left side, and poured in boiling oil. Then, having been contemptuously laid on a sled, he was brought to the place of execution, where he commended his soul to God and was burned to ashes.