Joriaen Simons, Clement Dirks, and a Woman Named Mary Joris, in the Year 1557

At this time three other pious witnesses of the truth fell into the hands of the tyrants, at Haarlem, in Holland. They were Joriaen Simons, Clement Dirks, and a woman named Mary Joris. They all, as faithful servants, through the grace of God, steadfastly endured at that place hard imprisonment and severe examinations for the truth of Christ, and they did not hide in the earth, as the slothful servant did, the talent they had received, but put it out very earnestly at interest, and boldly proclaimed the Word of the Lord from the door of their prison, to the building up of everyone; and moreover, through a hymn they composed, they made known the cause of their imprisonment: namely, that they did not suffer as thieves and murderers, or as people who coveted other men's property, but that they suffered only for the faith of the truth and a pure conscience; and that they, on the other hand, because of the pure fear of God, could not follow falsehood. They set forth the chief points of this in a hymn, as follows

1. That with all true witnesses of God they believe and confess, by virtue of the holy Scriptures, that Jesus Christ, blessed forever, came from above, from heaven, and proceeded from God His heavenly Father, and is therefore pure and spotless, and is not of Adam's sinful and corruptible nature.

2. Because they were baptized upon their faith, according to the ordinance of Christ, and on the contrary confessed that infant baptism was not of God, but contrary to His Word; and that it is well known, from Christ's own words, that infants are fully in the grace of God, and in a saved condition, without baptism or any other ceremony having to be administered to them, they therefore hold that everything done by such means, as being necessary for the salvation of infants, is nothing but empty human presumption.

3. Concerning the Lord's Supper, they confess that they also observed it, according to the command of the Lord, and according to the institution of Christ, as He, blessed forever, held it with His apostles; in which each one is to examine himself well before he goes to this table, and that Christ did not hold His supper with drunkards and adulterers, or with such of whom evil things were known, as is customary with the papists.

4. On the contrary, they emphatically rejected the papists' little piece of baked bread, or consecrated host, which they recommend to people as the true, essential Son of God, from whom to ask grace and salvation in time of need; and they confessed that those who worship such bread, or put any divine confidence in it, grossly err.

5. Because they could not recognize the pope and the Roman church as the church of God, but opposed it and all its ceremonies; nor could they hold the traffic which they carry on in it to be of God.

6. Because they recognized no other punishment of transgressors in the church than evangelical separation, by which the evil can be kept away from the good, in order to present to the Lord a pure church, in which none who are unclean or polluted may dwell, but from which they are expelled. This church they confess to be the queen and bride of Christ.

By this and the like, the fire of the Gospel burned so mightily in Haarlem, in spite of the violence of these tyrants, that on the very night when they were thus accused, a glorious exhortation was fearlessly preached to the building up of all, by the God-fearing Bouwen Lubberts, in Schouts' street; and this exhortation did much good.

When, on the 26th of April 1557, the above-mentioned Joriaen and Clement were brought out to death, the common people greatly pitied them; but they said: "Do not weep for us, but for your sins, and truly repent." After they had offered up their prayer to God with a fervent heart, each was placed at a stake, and they said: "We do not suffer for evildoing, but only for obedience to the truth." And having, with a firm trust, commended their spirits, or souls, into the hands of God, they courageously offered their necks for the truth, and were first strangled and then burned; and so they, to the comfort and joy of many pious people, remained steadfast to the end in the accepted truth of the holy Gospel.

When they had finished their tyranny by strangling and burning, they also thought to burn their books, in order to quench their doctrine (for, as old writers tell us, Joriaen Simons was engaged in selling books); but when the books were seen to be on fire, such an uproar arose among the people that the lords took to flight, whereupon the books were thrown among the crowd, who reached for them eagerly; so that, through divine providence, the truth, instead of being quenched, as they sought to do, was spread all the more, by the reading of so great a number of these books.

The above-mentioned Mary Joris also remained faithful in this trial, and likewise confessed her faith boldly before the lords, and was ready to give up her life, together with her brothers, for the name of the Lord. But being pregnant, she had to wait until her delivery; however, the Lord ordered it otherwise: she died in childbirth, and was thus released from the flesh, so that these tyrants could not carry out their desire with her. And so she fell asleep in the Lord, with her brothers.

If anyone wishes, let him read this account in the old hymn book, as put into verse by these witnesses themselves, in prison, and also by the pious Bouwen Lubberts.