1569; sentence dated 16 May · event
Dirk Willems saves his pursuer
Martyrs’ Mirror recounts how Dirk Willems turned back to rescue a pursuer who had fallen through the ice. He was recaptured and later executed.
Dirk Willems fled across the ice at Asperen in 1569 while an officer pursued him. When the officer broke through, Dirk turned back and helped him out of the water. Martyrs’ Mirror makes the rescue the decisive moment of the account: he chose to save the life of the man who was trying to capture him.
The rescued officer wished to let him go, but the burgomaster ordered him to remember his oath. Dirk was seized again, imprisoned, and condemned to death. The book preserves a copy of the town’s sentence, dated 16 May 1569, alongside the narrative of his suffering.
The illustration depicts Dirk reaching toward his pursuer in the water. Read together with the account and sentence, it presents mercy toward an enemy as a costly act of discipleship. The rescue itself is dated to the year; the surviving sentence supplies the precise May date.
Sources for this history: [1]
