Dirk Anoot and Willem de Zager

When the Duke of Alba tyrannized with great violence against the Gospel, as Antiochus did against the law, Second Maccabees, chapter 7, prisoners were brought into Ypres, in Flanders, in the year 1569: one Dirk Anoot, of Westvleteren, and one named Willem, a wood sawyer. Since they could in no way be drawn away from the truth by tribulation, by fear, or by any suffering inflicted on them, they were finally condemned and sentenced to the fire, and were then brought into the marketplace, before the city hall, with a stick fastened in their mouths, so that they could not speak. There each was placed at a stake and burned. So they, as those who did not love their life, but gave it up for the Gospel, offered up their bodies as a burnt sacrifice to God, their Lord.