Mirror of the Martyrs

Some four centuries ago, thousands of Christians died because they dared to refuse to join the state church in medieval Europe. Their reading of the Holy Bible and their consciences led them to believe that church membership should be a voluntary, adult decision.

These believers died public, tortured deaths as martyrs. Many modern-day Christians claim these persons of courage as their spiritual ancestors. Many of those scenes were etched on copper plates by Jan Luyken, a Dutch artist who worked in the late 1600s. Many of these copper plates still exist. Mirror of the Martyrs reproduces 30 of these etchings and tells the courageous stories of these people of faith.

These stories ask hard questions including:

• Is the teaching to love one’s enemy practical counsel?
• Why do good people torture and kill good people?
• Why do the powerful fear the weak?
• Why do good people resist other good people acting for their common good?
• Does anyone have the right to abuse the body of another of God’s creatures?
• Why do modern governments continue to torture and kill?
• Does capital punishment dissuade potential criminals?
• What beliefs are worth dying for?