A Martyrs Mirror Martyr Story
Since first published in 1660 in the Netherlands, Thieleman van Braght’s Martyrs Mirror has been a foundational collection of accounts of Christian martyrdom. The stories it contains of Christians staying true to their faith and principles of nonresistance have inspired thousands of Anabaptists throughout history. Musselman Library’s Mennonite Historical Collections is home to copies of several different editions of this Martyrs Mirror, including early Dutch editions and the first German translation, which was actually published in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in 1748, just prior to the birth of our nation. This particular edition has quite an intriguing and ironic history…
A return to faith. With the French and Indian War looming near, Mennonites in the colony of Pennsylvania were concerned that their faith would soon be tested by the conflict, and they sought to publish an edition of the Martyrs Mirror in German to “help their brethren to remain faithful to the principle of nonresistance.” When a request for translation assistance from the Dutch was denied, these Mennonites approached the Ephrata Cloister, which had just established both a printing press and a paper mill. Peter Miller, one of the Seventh-Day Baptist brethren at the cloister took on the task of translating the large volume into German.
A record-setting result. The result of the effort at Ephrata was monumental. The first German edition of the Martyrs Mirror numbered 1300 copies. It was over 1500 pages long and, after being bound in boards and leather, weighed 13 pounds and measured 10 x 14 x 4.5 inches. “It was the largest book printed in Colonial America.”
1500 pages long, weighed 13 pounds
and measured 10 x 14 inches
A paper shortage leads to “martyrdom.” David Luthy, director of Pathway Publishers and the Heritage Historical Library in Alymer, Ontario, has published an account of the 1748 Ephrata Martyrs Mirror in the 1990 and 1996 Pathway editions of the Martyrs Mirror. His words continue the story of the fate of copies of the Ephrata edition:
“Several hundred [copies] still lay unbound at the Ephrata Cloister when the Revolutionary War began in 1775. Since there was a serious shortage of all war materials including paper, the unbound Martyrs Mirrors were confiscated by the Patriots. Six soldiers arrived one day at the Cloister, demanded the unbound copies, paid for them, and loaded them into two wagons. They were taken to a munitions factory in Philadelphia where about 150 were used to make cartridges for the Patriot’s muskets.”
What a terrible, ironic end for the pages of a book printed to strengthen its reader’s heart and mind against violence! The Martyrs Mirror became, in one sense, a martyr itself.
A survivor story. In a January 1986 article for Family Life, David Luthy tells the story of how he came to know of one such copy of the 1748 Ephrata edition – a copy that made that wagon ride to the munitions factory but was saved from the musket-packing fate of its cousins. Some time after the unbound copies were confiscated and used as musket-packing material, the government put a stop to this use and allowed the Pennsylvania Mennonites to buy back the copies which were still intact – about 175 of them. Luthy now has one such copy, rescued in 1786 by a man named Joseph Von Gundy, on display in the Heritage Historical Library.
Musselman Library owns six copies of the 1748 Ephrata Martyrs Mirror. Though it is unlikely that any of these were part of the group of copies purchased by the soldiers and bought back from the government, it is interesting to think about the amazing tale of sacrifice and, indeed, martyrdom, which their cousins in the printing of 1300 copies experienced so long ago. —Carrie Phillips
1. Luthy, D. “German Printings of the MARYTRS MIRROR.” Der blutige schauplatz : oder Märtyrer-spiegel. . . Alymer, Ontario: Pathway Publishing Corp. 1990.
2. Ibid.
3. Luthy, David. “The Ephrata MARYTYRS’ MIRROR – Shot from Patriots’ Muskets.” Family Life (January 1986): 21-23.
