Govert Jaspers, Put to Death, in the Year 1558

About this time a lay brother named Govert Jaspers, with two others, left the monastery of the Cross brothers at Goes. However, they did not stay together long; for one of them completely forsook the good way, and took up the love of this world; the other, out of fear of persecution, went to Friesland, where he became a brother in the church, and died a pious man; but this Govert Jaspers was arrested by the bailiff, soon after he left the monastery, as he was sitting in the field, reading in a Testament. He was brought to the city of Brussels, in Brabant, where he had to suffer much, indeed, finally even death, for the testimony of the truth, in which he steadfastly persevered; and so, as a valiant soldier of Jesus Christ, he pressed through the strait gate, in order to take by force the kingdom of God, which he had preferred far above all the kingdoms of this world.