Simon the Shopkeeper, in the Year 1553

About the year 1553 there was at Bergen op Zoom, in Brabant, a shopkeeper named Simon, who stood in the marketplace to sell his wares. When the priests passed him with their idol, this Simon did not dare to give divine honor to this idol made by human hands (Daniel 3, verse 18), but, according to the testimony of God presented in the holy Scriptures, would worship and serve only the Lord his God. He was therefore arrested by the upholders of the Roman antichrist, and examined concerning the faith, which he freely confessed, rejecting their self-invented infant baptism together with all human commandments, and holding fast only to the testimony of the Word of God; so he was sentenced to death by the enemies of the truth, and was thus led outside the city, and burned for the testimony of Jesus. Many of the people present were therefore greatly astonished when they saw the great boldness and steadfastness of this pious witness of God, who thus through grace obtained the crown of eternal life.

The bailiff who had him executed, on returning home from this deed, was laid upon a bed of severe sickness, and constantly cried out with sorrow and remorse: "O Simon, Simon!" and although the priests and monks tried to absolve him, they were nevertheless not able to give him the least comfort, but he soon died in despair, an instructive and memorable example to all tyrants and persecutors. Second Maccabees 9, verses 9 and 28; Acts 12, verse 23.