Tongue Screws and Testimonies - Anabaptist studies

I just picked up this book, Tongue Screws And Testimonies: Poems and Essays Inspired By The Martyrs Mirror.

[From the inside flap]

Three-hundred-fifty years after its first publication in the Netherlands, the Martyrs Mirror still has the power to evoke awe, fear, inspiration and horror. This remarkable collection of poems, stories, essays, and artwork is microcosm of contemporary Mennonite culture refracted through the prism of this powerful text. Original and creative, Tongue Screws and Testimonies is a witness to the collective memory and spirituality of a people. Read it to be informed, stirred, and possibly even provoked.
--John D. Roth, professor of history, Goshen College

I think this would be a great addition to anyone who is interested in Anabaptist history whether your blood line runs from it, or you're part of the community now.

mm.

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Comments

Daniel Yoder

This would be a valuable addition.

Will this ever make it into production?

https://www.logos.com/product/23994/anabaptist-and-mennonite-studies-collection

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/580457#Comment_580457

@ Daniel,

It will. I already have it ordered as a pre-pub.

I take it you are familiar with the following:?

This last collection is one of my favourites. Especially the book, Rambles Round Reformed Lands. The following is taken from this and is illustrative of the volume. Good is like a modern day treasure/Indiana Jones researcher who has the flare and words to bring the land(s) where the Reformers, Radicals and saints walked. Through the Alps, up and down hills that surround lakeside towns and villages and through forests Black. I highly recommend the series.

Hint: I Google map some of the places he mentions and if I'm lucky I can get a 'street view' of some of the towns he mentions. Brings the whole book alive.

It is Fourth of July. But how strange a Fourth to an American! No sight of fire-works or sound of shooting-crackers. Last night we spent in a very unpatriotic way at Ragatz, waiting for the King of Saxony to arrive at the hotel. A real live king is a curiosity to an American; so we stayed up to see him. He arrived, but he was not at all different from other men. He bowed very courteously to us as we rose to do him honor. So we prepared for the Fourth of July by doing honors to a king. What strange patriots we are!
Ragatz is a famous bathing place in north-eastern Switzerland. It contains near it a great natural curiosity, the gorge of the Tamina, a gorge from 30 to 50 feet wide, through which rushes a brawling torrent. High above you for hundreds of feet is the mountain, while the gorge is so narrow that the one mountain seems to lean over and rest on the other, and yet does not touch it. In this gloomy gorge is a bath-house, to which many come to be treated for various diseases. To Ragatz it was that Zwingli came to rest after his herculean labors at Zurich. But he did not rest long, for the plague broke out at Zurich, and, faithful shepherd that he was, he hastened home to attend to the sick. In so doing, he was himself brought down very near to the gates of death by the plague.

Good, J. I. (1889). Rambles Round Reformed Lands (pp. ix–10). Reading, PA: Daniel Miller.

Hope this helps - mm.

George Somsel

I found on the internet that some tongue screws have been reproduced. I think that in addition to their use as illustrations of the persecution of the Mennonites, they should be sent to many universities today who are prohibiting or severely restricting free speech on topics which the leftist administrations disapprove. It would show that they are doing the equivalent.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/580477#Comment_580477

I found on the internet that some tongue screws have been reproduced.

I'd rather that more of this type of screws were produced:

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/smiley-face-screws-by-yuma-kano

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/580477#Comment_580477

@ George,

Not quite sure what you mean brother.

We didn't have the Martyrs Mirror, but he (dad) made sure we knew about Maeyken Wens of Antwerp, who refused to renounce her beliefs and was burnt in 1573. They clamped her tongue with a specially fitted screw to prevent her from singing hymns or preaching heresies. Her son stood on a bench at the back of the crowd, but the sight overcame him and he fainted. Afterwards, he sifted the ashes and, finding no trace of her body, kept the screw. A century later, as van Braght compiled the stories, he knew of this souvenir. Perhaps he even saw it; perhaps he held it in his hand. I thought my father had seen it, too. He held out his hand, empty, and we imagined the cruel screw nesting inside.

Picture from: Mennonite Library and Archives. Mennonite Church USA Archives - North Newton

Not sure if there is a similarity between my ancestry and the martyrdom of faithful folk to what you are mildly suggesting. I could be wrong about that, but I don't know much of the persecution that is going on at universities. IMHO

mm.

Milkman

GaoLu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1090748#Comment_1090748

Seems futile, but may as well use this as a bump for this stalled out gem:

https://www.logos.com/product/23994/anabaptist-and-mennonite-studies-collection

David Wanat

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1090782#Comment_1090782

Good luck. I’ve had a bid in for the Catholic Encyclopedia since 2006. Some things don’t wan5 to move.