Jacob Dircks, with his Two Sons, Andries Jacobs and Jan Jacobs, in the Year 1568

In this bloody and dangerous time of persecution, the pious Jacob Dircks and his two sons, Andries Jacobs and Jan Jacobs, also fell into the hands of the tyrants. This Jacob Dircks, a tailor by trade, lived with his family at Utrecht, and since he was found out there as one who belonged to the persuasion of the Mennists, and the lords wanted to arrest him, he fled to Antwerp for fear of the tyrants. His wife, who did not hold these views, remained there for some time longer, and the thief catchers seized their property and took about half of it. While Jacob Dircks was living with his family at Antwerp, his wife died there, and he and the two sons already named, though they had escaped the hands of the tyrants at Utrecht, afterwards fell into the claws of the wolves at Antwerp, where the trial of their faith was found much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire (First Peter 1, verse 7); so that they were condemned together to be burned, each at a stake, only for the divine truth and for living according to it, and not for any crime they had committed. On their way to death, Jacob Dircks' youngest son, named Pieter Jacobs, met them, and when in his great sadness and sorrow he put his arms around his father's neck, he was at once most cruelly seized by the thief catchers and thrown under the feet of the people who followed. With what sorrow the father and the brothers saw this is easily imagined. When the father and his two sons had each been placed at a stake, he said: "How is it, my dear sons?" Each replied: "Very well, my dear father." Andries Jacobs was betrothed at the time, and his bride and his sister watched this offering from a distance, with sorrowful hearts and weeping eyes: how their bridegroom and brother, forsaking a temporal bride and a temporal tie, chose the eternal Bridegroom, Christ Jesus, above all visible things. So these heroes were strangled, each at a stake, and then burned, sealing the truth with their death and blood on the 17th of March 1568. Therefore they shall also, for their severe suffering, hear the sweet and welcome voice of Christ: "You good and faithful servants, you have been faithful over a few things; I will make you rulers over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord." And again the king will say: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25, verses 23 and 34.

This account is recorded from the reports of trustworthy persons who witnessed this offering themselves.