MennoLink Books and Music

Copyright 1954.

This third edition of The Anabaptist Story has been substantially revised and enlarged to take into account the numerous Anabaptist sources that have come to light in the last half-century as well as the significant number of monographs and other scholarly works on Anabaptist themes that have recently appeared. Estep challenges a number of assumptions held by contemporary historians and offers fresh insights into the Anabaptist movement.

Copyright 1995.

Dirk Philips was one of the most important early leaders and bishops of the Dutch Anabaptists, later called Mennonites. Although he usually worked in Menno's shadow, in his later years he emerged as an important leader in his own right, and author of many important and systematic theological treatises.

Here is a collection of accounts of more than 4,011 people burned at the stake, of countless bodies torn on the rack, torn tongues, ears, hands, feet; gouged eyes, people buried alive, crucifixions, beheadings, stonings, drownings, smotherings whippings, and of people dying in dungeons; stories of songs, letters, prayers, and confessions, of many who were willing to bear the cross of persecution and death for a faith which followed the New Testament teachings.

A Worth Heritage

Van Braght collected the accounts of martyrdom in MARTYRS MIRROR with the hope that they would inspire the reader to hold as tenaciously to the faith as did the martyrs of whom he wrote. The heritage of bloodshed and persecution for the sake of a clear conscience and a pure faith grounded in the Word of God is the heritage of the Christian church. Such a faith, worthy of so dear a price, is worthy of perpetuation and should serve to challenge its descendants even today to a greater loyalty to biblical teachings.

For Today

MARTYRS MIRROR has a timeless value in teaching of the position of Christians in human conflict today. When Christians sincerely want to know their responsibility in world conflagrations, this book presents an answer based on the life of Christ. An overflowing heart is greater than an exciting mind. The testimonies of these thousands of martyrs disclose a heart in likeness of our Savior. MARTYRS MIRROR is for today!

to read these accounts of court trials and martyrdoms of a people who expressed supreme allegiance to their Lord and Master is to learn that, come what may, the Christian life is one of supreme discipleship, of strict adherence to the way of life as expressed by Jesus and his apostles.

Many Editions

The first American edition of MARTYRS MIRROR was a translation from the Dutch into German and was printed at the Ephrata Cloisters, at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in 1745.

The first English edition, translated from the German, was published at Lampeter Square, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1837. The second English Edition was published in 1853 in London, England. The third English edition, published in 1886 in Elkhart, Indiana, was a translation from the original Dutch language edition of 1660.

A reprint of the third English edition was published in 1938 at Scottdale, Pennsylvania. Reprints were released in 1950, 1951, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1975.

The eleventh English printing, 1977, and subsequent prints, include reproductions of the engravings.

The Mirror of the Martyrs exhibit developed after longtime Mennonite historians Robert S. Kreider and John S. Oyer became aware of 23 existing copper plates from etchings included in the 1685 publication of the Mennonite book Martyrs Mirror. An Inter- Mennonite Martyrs Mirror Trust Fund purchased them and, in 1990, Kreider and Oyer mounted a traveling exhibit of the plates and their prints. When Oyer and Kreider agreed that hymns related to these plates would enrich the visual experience of the exhibition, Oyer began searching 16th and 17th century German hymnals for texts written by the martyrs represented in the prints, or about the martyrs. Later, tunes were chosen by a hymnology class at the Associated Mennonite biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, and combined with the texts. The Eastern Mennonite University Chamber Singers perform choral settings of these martyr hymns and ballads.

The recording also features 20th century responses to stories from the Martyrs Mirror. Prompted by organist and CD producer Shirley Sprunger King, composer Brent Weaver wrote three works for solo organ inspired by poetry by Sarah Klassen. Klassen's poems, a response to the Mirror of the Martyrs exhibit, are included on the recording, read by Raylene Hinz-Penner. A final composition by Weaver, I Sing With Exultation, is a setting of a hymn text by Anabaptist leader Felix Manz and features the EMU Chamber Singers with organ accompaniment by Shirley Sprunger King.