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Trijnken Keuts A. D. 1559
From "Martyrs Mirror"

Trijnken Keuts was a widow who lived in the city of Maestricht. Having come to the knowledge of the divine truth through the holy Gospel, she in her simplicity laid the matter to heart, and continued day and night in earnest prayer, until the Lord further enlightened her with the clear, shining light of His divine grace, and endowed her with power of faith, so that she; believing and penitent, had herself baptized, upon the true faith, in the name of Jesus Christ, a member of the body and church of Jesus Christ; and as she lived according to her faith and no longer resorted to the papal idolatries, but abstained from every abomination, and entered upon a new life, the venomous beast could not endure this, and she was therefore accused and reported as a heretic to the authorities of said city.

Thereupon the burgomasters cited her to appear in the Landtskroon (the house in which the burgomasters and the council hold their court). When she received this summons, through a servant of the burgomasters, she went to- the Landtskroon. Arriving there, she was asked and examined by the burgomasters, in regard to what had been reported to them, as to whether it was so with her; and when she frankly answered them, and confessed the truth, they imprisoned her there. Having been confined for a time, in the meanwhile undergoing many importunities and conflicts, she was finally caused to be rigorously examined by the priests (one of whom was a Dominican monk), before whom she freely confessed her faith.

When asked whether she was rebaptized, she replied, "I was baptized upon my faith according to the doctrine of Christ;" in regard to which they had yet many more words together; but she adhered to the truth. The priests also questioned her concerning the sacrament, whether she did not believe that when the priest had pronounced five words over the bread, Christ was present in it, essentially with flesh and blood, just as He had hung on the cross. Trijne said that she believed that Christ had ascended to heaven, and was sitting on the right hand of God, His heavenly Father. And she asked, saying, "How should He come into the bread?"

When she thus steadfastly adhered to the truth, these priests condemned her to be burnt to ashes here, and to burn forever in hell. Trijne said, "When you, in a few days, will follow me before the judgment seat of God; you will find it to be otherwise." Upon this judgment, Trijne was delivered to the bailiff and the judges, by whom she was sentenced, that she should be led forth, according to the imperial mandate; and be burnt to ashes; which Trijne gratefully received, willingly submitting to it. She was therefore, with her mouth gagged, led to the Vrijthof, where she put off her tabernacle, and was burnt to ashes, having commended her soul into the hands of God. I Pet. 1:14. This occurred in the year 1559, on Palm Eve, in Lent.

It was currently reported as true, that one of the afore-mentioned priests, namely, the Dominican monk, three days after Trijnken was offered up and burnt, was unexpectedly (he not having been known to be sick), and secretly found dead in his cell, and that he was being eaten up by lice; but what part God had in this matter, this we leave to His righteous judgment, who will give to everyone his merited reward.

The First Persecution, Under Nero, A.D. 67
From "Fox's Book of Martyrs"

The first persecution of the Church took place in the year 67, under Nero, the sixth emperor of Rome. This monarch reigned for the space of five years, with tolerable credit to himself, but then gave way to the greatest extravagancy of temper, and to the most atrocious barbarities. Among other diabolical whims, he ordered that the city of Rome should be set on fire, which order was executed by his officers, guards, and servants.

While the imperial city was in flames, he went up to the tower of Macaenas, played upon his harp, sung the song of the burning of Troy, and openly declared that 'he wished the ruin of all things before his death.' Besides the noble pile, called the Circus, many other palaces and houses were consumed; several thousands perished in the flames, were smothered in the smoke, or buried beneath the ruins.

This dreadful conflagration continued nine days; when Nero, finding that his conduct was greatly blamed, and a severe odium cast upon him, determined to lay the whole upon the Christians, at once to excuse himself, and have an opportunity of glutting his sight with new cruelties. This was the occasion of the first persecution; and the barbarities exercised on the Christians were such as even excited the commiseration of the Romans themselves.

Nero even refined upon cruelty, and contrived all manner of punishments for the Christians that the most infernal imagination could design. In particular, he had some sewed up in skins of wild beasts, and then worried by dogs until they expired; and others dressed in shirts made stiff with wax, fixed to axletrees, and set on fire in his gardens, in order to illuminate them. This persecution was general throughout the whole Roman Empire; but it rather increased than diminished the spirit of Christianity. In the course of it, St. Paul and St. Peter were martyred.

To their names may be added, Erastus, chamberlain of Corinth; Aristarchus, the Macedonian, and Trophimus, an Ephesians, converted by St. Paul, and fellow-laborer with him, Joseph, commonly called Barsabas, and Ananias, bishop of Damascus; each of the Seventy.

Faes Dircks, and Two Others
A.D. 150

In the year 1570, on the 7th of April, there was apprehended for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, at Gouda, in Holland, a pious follower of Christ, named Faes Dircks, a chairmaker by trade. Afterwards, the 27th of May, he was very unmercifully and tyrannically tortured by the bloodthirsty servants of antichrist, and led forth under the blue sky, and on the 30th of May of the same year, put to death, and burned for the genuine faith of the truth, following the footsteps of his Lord and Master Christ Jesus.

Some time prior to this two other pious followers of Christ were put to. death at Gouda, for the testimony of Jesus, one of whom according to the counsel of God, was not yet baptized upon his faith; but the God of all grace, who knows the heart, mind and thoughts of all men, accepted in him the will for the deed. Thus they suffered with Christ, and shall be received. with Him into eternal glory, at that time when all the earthly, carnal generation of men shall weep and lament over themselves eternally.

Subsequently, when Gouda was taken by the troops of the prince of Orange, it was deliberated upon to exhume the priest who had been the cause of the imprisonment and death of said Faes Dircks, and of the dispersion and persecution of many of those who feared God. They afterwards changedtheir mind, but hired a man for about four guilders, who took down the bones of Faes Dircks from the scaffold, and opened the grave of the aforesaid priest, who had previously died, and been interred in the church of the Franciscans, near the high altar, and then laid the bones of Faes Dircks upon the body of the priest; thus deriding this traitor, because he had deemed the God-fearing unworthy to live with him in the same town, and, after their death, their bodies unworthy of burial, but they had to be given as food to the birds of heaven.

But at the speedy coming of Christ from heaven, this idolatrous priest shall find, when it will be too late for repentance, who of them both will be acknowledged and accepted by the chief Shepherd as an acceptable sheep, or as a rejected goat.

Concerning this martyr Faes Dircks~ we have obtained three examinations, namely, two without torture and one on the rack, just as the same have been extracted by the secretary there from the town records of Gouda, which we therefore will communicate to our fellow believers for the greater confirmation of the foregoing account; they read as follows.

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