From us your dear friends,
At Meenen, in Flanders, on the 5th of December, A. D. 1572, there were sentenced to death as heretics, two pious witnesses of God, named Willem de Rijcker and Christoffel Fierens. When they were brought out to die, they came fearlessly, like two sheep for the slaughter. A brother said to Willem: “Dear brother, strive valiantly for the truth.” And a sister also cried: “O yes, dear brethren, strive valiantly.” Christoffel said: “O men, think of your salvation; for this is the way of truth unto life.” They were quickly conducted to the hut, without being able to speak much; but they cried to God for help and assistance, and said: “What we suffer is for the right truth.” Christoffel also said: “Sell your clothes, and buy Testaments; attend therein to the words of God: for therein you will find life; and fear not them that kill the body, but fear him that hath power to cast soul and body into hell.” He also thanked God, that he had permitted him to see this day, for which he had so greatly longed, and said further: “These members, which thou, O Lord hast given me, I will gladly deliver up again for thy doctrine.” Willem said: “I have been in many perils by sea and by land, and God has always helped me; hence I trust that he will also not leave me in this extremity, but succor me unto death.” They then offered up their prayer to God, in which they said with Stephen: “O Lord, forgive them what they do unto us, and do not lay this sin to their charge.” Willem then said: “I have now with Paul fought a good fight, kept the faith, finished my course,” etc. Finally they cried: “O heavenly Father, into thy hands we commend our spirits.” Many other words were spoken, which have partly been forgotten, and it would also take too long to write them all. The executioner then asked, whether they were ready; whereupon Christoffel replied: “Yes, my dear friend.” While Christoffel was being strangled, Willem cried: “O dear friends, my brother is now forbidden to speak.” After that he cried once more to the Lord, and then also inherited the crown of life. Thus did these two die for the name of the Lord, being first strangled, and then burnt, after Willem had been confined in prison for more than twenty-two months; and thus they became heirs of the promised land, in which all those that here lay down their lives for the word of God shall find it again.
During the time that Willem was imprisoned, one Cornelis van Eeckhoute was burgomaster at Meenen, who would very gladly have seen him released; he therefore sought to persuade the priest and others, that he [Willem] was half-witted, whereupon Willem was examined once, and his views asked respecting purgatory. Willem answered that he had once lived in a convent, where on Saturday always meat and other things were cooked for Sunday, and that the monks, sweeping together the fire by which they had cooked, called it purgatory.[335] Then the burgomaster said: Do you see my lords, by this you may perceive that the man is only half-witted, for these are not the words of a reasonable man. But Willem said that he did not want to be released from prison as half-witted, but that they should ask him concerning his faith, and that he should confess it to them reasonably enough. Thereupon he had to remain in confinement, and was finally, as already stated, sentenced to death, this burgomaster pronouncing the sentence. This man, some time after, driven away through war, fled to Bruges, where he, however rich he was, had to live very frugally, and nearly all the time borrow money to defray his household expenses, which when it became too great a vexation for him, he resolved to go home to Meenen, but he died very suddenly on the way.