Gillis and Elizabeth, in the Year 1551

On the 21st of July, in the year 1551, two pious Christians, a brother by the name of Gillis, and a sister named Elizabeth, were sentenced to death as heretics, according to the imperial decree, at Ghent, in Flanders. They were not led out to death at the usual time, but at one o'clock in the afternoon. When they had gone up onto the scaffold, they prayed to God. Meanwhile the executioner unlaced Elizabeth's gown, which, when she rose, fell down, so that she stood there in her shift and linen trousers, which the executioner, by way of mockery, had made her put on. Feeling greatly ashamed on this account, she went at once to the stake, and then said: "I thank You, O Lord, that I am worthy to suffer for Your name. I now stand at the touchstone, at which God's elect are tried. O Lord, strengthen me, and do not delay."

Gillis said: "Dear sister, be patient in your suffering, and comfort yourself in God; He will not forsake you."

"O dear brother," she said, "I will never depart from Him."

Gillis then cried: "O Lord, forgive them their sins, who inflict death upon me; for since they do not know You, they do not know what they do."

Finally they cried out: "O heavenly Father, into Your hands we commend our spirits." And so, through fire, they died a blessed death, well pleasing to God.