Model Martyrs: Sixteenth-century Anabaptist Martyr Narratives as Living Texts

Beginning with Het Offer des Heeren (1561), Dutch Anabaptists collected and circulated narratives describing the deaths of their martyrs in ever-expanding volumes, culminating in the Martyrs Mirror (1685). These martyrologies intersperse accounts of the martyrs' deaths with theological treatises and prison letters, as well as purported interrogation records and official court sentences. This paper examines the editorial decisions made by the compilers of martyrologies to advance their apologetic aims of presenting Anabaptist Christianity as both legitimate heir to the Apostolic church and non-threatening to the state. It identifies themes and literary tropes borrowed from early Christian martyr texts and medieval hagiography and demonstrates how Anabaptist martyrologists put these to use to establish their martyrs as true Christians—not heretics deserving execution.