Of Severe Slanders Against The Anabaptists In The Province Of Holland, Etc. (To Instigate To Persecution), And How They Defended Themselves To The States Of Said Country, On The 8th Of October, A. D. 1626.

Note.—Just in time two manuscript tracts, in the Swiss language, were sent to us, both of them having been sent before this date, from the Swiss parts, to divers churches of our fellow-believers, but principally to those of Amsterdam, at the request and in the name of some of the oppressed brethren; also, in general, of the ministers and elders of the church in the Palatinate and Alsace.

The first was written and completed on the 15th of September 1645, and bears the signature of Jeremiah Mangold.

The second, in the month of February, 1658, by M. Meyli.

These two tracts, both of them written with one design and purpose, and sent to us, shall aid us in the carrying out of the work we have undertaken; namely, to extend the history of the holy martyrs who suffered for our common Christian faith, to this our present time, and bring it to a completion.

In order to do this in the best manner, and to bring these matters (which in one tract are described very diffusely, and in the other, very briefly, and sometimes abruptly), into a convenient form or shape, we shall not grudge the labor of treating them from their first rise, and to follow up the matters chronologically (though they are described indiscriminately), and to indicate each time, in order that no error be made, as to which tract from which we have taken it.