Augustine the Baker, in the Year 1556

In the year 1556, or thereabouts, there was in Beverwijk a brother named Augustine, a baker by trade, who had forsaken the world and been baptized upon his faith, according to the ordinance of Christ, which the papists could not endure. At that time there was a burgomaster who was very bitter, and filled with perverted zeal, who sometimes said that he would furnish the peat and wood to burn Augustine. The bailiff had said that he would not arrest Augustine without warning him beforehand; but he did not keep his word, for he came at a time when Augustine was at his work, kneading dough. Seeing him, Augustine tried to flee, but he was seized at once by his pursuers and cast into prison; and since he was a man who was much loved, it grieved the bailiff's wife greatly, and she said to her husband: "O you murderer, what have you done!" but it was all in vain; he had to follow his Lord Jesus as a lamb is led to the slaughter. Since he held steadfastly to his faith, they passed a cruel sentence on him, namely, that he should be tied to a ladder, and so cast alive into the fire and burned. On his way to death he saw one of his acquaintances, to whom he said

"Farewell, Joost Cornelissen." The other, prompted by his good opinion of him, replied in a friendly manner: "I hope that we shall hereafter be together forever;" whereupon the said burgomaster replied out of a heart that judged with partiality: "He will not get to the place where you will go; but he goes from this fire into the eternal." Then Augustine said to the burgomaster: "I summon you to appear within three days before the judgment seat of God." As soon as the execution was over, the burgomaster was struck at once with a raging sickness, and he cried out continually, with a guilty conscience: "Peat and wood, peat and wood!" so that it was terrible to hear; and before the three days had expired he died, which was a great sign of the all-seeing eye of God, who would not allow such cruelty to go unpunished, as an example to all those who out of perverse blindness should commit such deeds. For it is often seen that those who think to do God service by exercising tyrannical cruelty over the pious come to a bad end; for the apostle James also says that they shall have judgment without mercy who have shown no mercy. May the Lord enlighten those who are in such blindness.