Meanwhile, fires were being kindled everywhere... the stubborn resolution of those who were carried off to the gallows, where they were seen, for the most part, to be deprived of life rather than courage, stupefied several people. Because when they saw innocent, weak women submit to torture so as to bear witness to their faith, facing death calling out only to Christ, the Savior, and chanting various psalms; young virgins heading more joyfully for the gallows than they would have gone to the bridal bed; men exulting upon seeing the dreadful and frightful preparations for and implements of death which were readied for them, and half charred and roasted, they looked down from the stakes with invincible courage at the blows incurred from the hot pincers, bearing a brave mien; and sustaining themselves joyfully between the bayonets of the hangmen, they were like rocks standing against waves of sorrow, in short they died while smiling.
-- Florimond de Raemond, Histoire de la Naissance Progrez et Decadence de l'Heresie de ce Siecle (1605), translated by Solomon Langermann, quoted in Lewis W. Spitz' The Protestant Reformation, 1517-1559

[JOURNAL NOTE: The remarkable thing about this passage is that de Raemond had returned to Catholicism from Protestantism prior to composing it. Although it is not fair to call him a "hostile witness", there was little inclination among the sons of Rome towards ecumenism as the passage itself clearly reveals.]