| PUBLISHER'S PREFACE TO THIRD ENGLISH EDITION, 1886 |
| As the English language, year by year, becomes more prevalent among our Mennonite people, the necessity of presenting to them in that language the doctrines, teachings and practices, as well as the story of the sufferings, the faithful endurance and the final triumphant deaths, of those of like faith with us who lived in the earlier ages of Christianity, becomes apparent to every reflecting mind. |
| These doctrines, teachings and practices together with the examples of faithful devotion to Christ and His Word, and the unfaltering endurance under the severest persecution, are powerful incentives to Christians today, to inspire many sincere souls to live a more consecrated life, to practice greater self-denial, to live more separated from the world, and show a greater zeal in the work of the Lord and the salvation of souls; and they are especially precious to us, as Mennonites, because through these people it pleased God to hand down to us the living exemplification of the peculiar tenets and doctrines which we hold and practice at the present day. |
| The reading of books of this kind will also help us to appreciate more highly the privileges with which God has blessed us above our forefathers. While they oftentimes were not permitted to have permanent places of abode, and were driven about and hunted down like wild beasts, compelled to dwell in caves and mountains, and other secluded places, hold their meetings in secret, and suffer every imaginable form of injustice and persecution, because to be a true follower of Christ in those days was considered the very worst of crimes, we enjoy all the privileges of citizenship and are protected in the fullest enjoyment of our religion and forms of worship. |
| It is the duty of the church to maintain and teach the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ and to transmit the same to coming generations, and as we contemplate these facts, what a glorious treasure of pure Christian devotion shines in these pages of the Story of the Martyrs, and how much this grand record of their sufferings has done, and may yet do to perpetuate the pure doctrines of the Gospel, eternity alone will reveal. |
| For these reasons and many others that might be referred to, the publishers of this edition, have, in the fear of God, for the promotion of His glory, undertaken the publication of "The Bloody Theater or Martyrs' Mirror" and herewith give it to the public, in the hope that it may be the means of promoting the glory of God and of doing much good among the children of men. |
| NOTE.-The translation of this work was made from the Dutch Edition of 1660, and where questions of doubt occurred, the edition of 1685 as well as the German editions were consulted. |
 | | THE PUBLISHER. |
| PUBLISHER'S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH PRINTING OF 1950 |
| It was in the year 1742 that the Mennonites of eastern Pennsylvania wrote to their brethren in the Netherlands reporting their numerical growth in the New World and their fear of war being imminent. Three years later they wrote again, repeating the contents of their first letter and making a special appeal for assistance in the publication of a German edition of van Braght's Bloody Theater or Martyrs' Mirror. The six Skippack ministers who signed the letter stated that they wrote at the instance of the other congregations. They were concerned to prepare their people for the cross of testing and suffering which war would bring with it. They said simply that "it becomes us to strengthen ourselves for such circumstances with patience and endurance, and to make every preparation for steadfast constancy in our faith." They had a special concern for the generation of young men in their congregations who were not able to read the Dutch Martyrs' Mirror. The story of the eventual publication of a German Martyrs' Mirror at Ephrata in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1748-49 is too well known to require rehearsal here. |
| Two centuries after the publication of the first American edition of this sixteenth century Dutch Mennonite classic, we again find the Mennonite brotherhood laboring to strengthen its young people in the nonresistant faith of the fathers by the publication of another English edition of the Martyrs' Mirror of T. J. van Braght, 1625-64. Indeed the loyalty of the Mennonite brotherhood to its historic peace principles has been tested in the first and second world wars more severely than at any time since the sixteenth century. The pressures of the contemporary culture upon the group to surrender this historic principle are strong. It is evident that vigorous efforts must be made to capture the loyalty of our youth if the Biblical doctrine of nonresistance is to be preserved. May God add His blessing to this effort to glorify His name. |
| -J. C. WENGER, SECRETARY OF THE HISTORICAL
COMMITTEE OF THE MENNONITE GENERAL CONFERENCE
MENNONITE PUBLISHING HOUSE
SEPTEMBER 20, 1949 |
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