I could fill another volume just telling you about all the wonderful books, maps, magazine articles, and pamphlets God brought across my pathway. Here I will mention the most important items in three categories: (1) my mainstays that I referred to continually, (2) an assortment of others that will give you an idea of the scope of the research, and (3) books I suggest to you if you are interested in digging into the sixteenth century for Reformation/Anabaptist history.
Alfen, H. J. P. van. Dagregister van ‘s Prinsen Levensloop. [Journal of Prince Willem’s Life.] No publication information available. Incredible chronological record of details of Willem’s entire life (1533–1584)—where he was when, what he was doing and why.
Beenakker, A. J. M. Breda in de Eerste storm van de Opstand (Van Ketterij tot Beeldenstorm, 1545–1569) [Breda in the First Storm of the Revolt, From Heresy to Iconoclasm.] Tilburg: Stichting Zuidelijk Historisch Contact, 1971, 187 + pp.
*Braght, Thieleman J. van. Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians, trans. from the original Dutch 1660 edition by Joseph F. Sohm. Scottsdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 1950. First English edition printed in 1837, 1157 pp.
Brouwers, J. A. Kruiden In Het Bredase Begijnhof [Herbs in the Breda Beguinage] Dienst Beplantingen in Samenwerking met Bureau Voorliching, n.d. Catalogue of herbs growing in the Beguinage of Breda today with notes about their history and uses.
*Gerard, John. The Herbal or General History of Plants, 1597. Complete 1633 edition revised and enlarged by Thomas Johnson. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1975, 1678 + pp.
Geschiedenis van Breda, de Middeleeuwen [History of Breda, Middle Ages,] o.r.v. F. F. X. Cerutti e.a. Tilburg: W. Bergmans, 1952.
Goor, Thomas Ernst van. Beschrijving der Stadt en Lande van Breda [Description of City and Land of Breda.] ‘Gravenhage: Jacobus van den Kieboom, 1744. Mostly archival sources.
Guicciardini, Ludovico. Beschrijvinghe van Alle de Nederlanden [Description of the Low Lands.] Haarlem: Fibula-van Dishoeck, facsimile reprinting, 1979. Original, Amsterdam: Willem Jantzoon, 1612, 396 + pp. Built around maps of eighty Dutch cities, mostly completed by 1566.
Hogenberg, Frans. De 80-Jarige Oorlog in Prenten [The Eighty Years’ War in Prints.] Den Haag: Van Goor Zonen, 1977.
*Motley, John Lothrop. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. 3 volumes. Philadelphia: David McKay, n.d. Issued by Harper & Brothers: New York, 1868–1869.
Mulder, A. W. J. Juliana van Stolberg, “Ons Aller Vrouwe-Moeder.” Amsterdam: J. J. Meulenhoff, n.d., 238 pp. + family chronology chart.
Poortvliet, Rien. De Tressor. Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1991, 208 pp.
*_____. Daily Life In Holland in 1566. New York: Harry N. Abrams Ink Publishers, 1991, 208pp.
Prescott, William H. History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain. 3 volumes. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1868.
*Verduin, Leonard. The Reformers and Their Stepchildren. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1964, 292 pp. Great picture of what made the Anabaptists distinctive from other Protestants of their day.
*Wedgwood, C. V. William the Silent. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1944, 1968, 256 pp.
Williams, George Huntston. The Radical Reformation. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1962, 924 + pp.
Ach Lieve Tijd: Acht Eeuwen Breda en de Bredenars [Oh, Dear Me: Eight Centuries of Breda and Bredeners,] vols. 1, 3, & 13. Zwolle: Waanders, 1986. Magazine format, highly illustrated history of Breda in 13 volumes.
Archives Ou Correspondence Inedite de la Maison D’Orange-Nassau [Unedited Archives and Correspondence of the House of Oranje-Nassau.] 8 volumes + supplement. Leiden: M. G. Groen van Prinsterer, 1835–1847.
*Bainton, Roland H. Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1960.
*Barnouw, Adriaan J., trans., The Miracle of Beatrice—A Flemish Legend of c. 1300. New York: Pantheon Books, 1944.
Blok, P. J. Geschiedenis Eener Hollandsche Stad [History of a Dutch City—Medieval Leyden] ‘S-Gravenhage: Matinus Nijhoff, 1920.
Bonger, H. Het Leven en Werk van D.V. Coornhert [The Life and Work of D.V. Coornhert.] Amsterdam: G. A. van Oorschot, 1978.
Brown, Christopher. Images of a Golden Past—Dutch Genre Painting of the 17th Century. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984.
Burke, Gerald L. The Making of Dutch Towns. London: Cleaver/Hume Press Ltd., 1956.
Chrisman, Miriam Usher. Strasbourg and the Reform. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1967. Helpful picture of Swiss Anabaptism in the early days of the movement. Shows its early experiments with government and use of force.
*Christian History Magazine (The Radical Reformation: The Anabaptists.) 4, no. 1 (1985). Several issues were helpful.
Claessens, Bob & Jeanne Rousseau, Bruegel. New York: Portland House, 1987—originally Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1969.
Coryat, Thomas. Coryat’s Crudities, vol 3. London: W. Cater, reprinted from 1611. A fascinating travelogue of an Englishman through the Netherlands.
Deventer, Jacob van. De Kaarten van de Nederlandsche Provincien. [Maps of the Dutch Provinces.] Wonderful large maps from 1557–1575. I made copies in sections and pieced them together on large poster boards. I also have copies of some of his city plans.
Denis, Valentin. Het Volkslied in Vlanderen tot Omstreeks 1600 [Folk Music in Flanders Up to About 1600.] Brussels: Museum of Fine Arts, 1942.
Duinkerken, Anton van & P. J. G. Huincks, Dicthers Om Oranje [Poets of Orange: Poetry About the House of Orange from Willem to the Present.] Baarn: Hollandia, 1946.
*Ebers, George. The Burgomaster’s Wife. New York: William. S. Gottsberger, 1882. Novel of the siege of Leyden. Makes for fascinating reading and understanding of what happened.
Einstein, Elizabeth L. “The Advent of Printing and the Protestant Revolt: A New Approach to the Disruption of Western Christendom.” In Transition and Revolution: Problems and Issues of European Renaissance and Reformation History, edited by Robert Kingdon. Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Company, 1974.
Estep, William R. The Anabaptist Story. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975.
Fishman, Jane Susannah. Boerenverdriet: Violence Between Peasants and Soldiers in Early Modern Netherlands Art. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1979, 1982.
*Foote, Timothy. The World of Bruegel, c.1525–1569. New York: Time-Life Books, 1968.
*Frommer, Arthur. A Masterpiece Called Belgium. Prepared for Sabena Belgian World Airlines, 1984. Led us to many choice historical sights in Belgium and prepared us to find Pieter-Lucas’ and Aletta’s footprints there.
Fruin, R. The Siege and Relief of Leyden in 1574. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1927.
Geurts, P. A. M. De Nederlandse Opstand in de Pamfletten 1566–1584 [The Dutch Revolt in Pamphlets, 1566–1584.] Utrecht: H & S Publishers, 1978.
Geyl, Peter. The Revolt of the Netherlands. New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1958.
*Gleysteen, Jan. Mennonite Tourguide to Western Europe. Scottsdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 1984.
*Gottschalk, Louis. Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.
Gray, Janet Glenn. The French Huguenots: Anatomy of Courage. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1981.
Hale, J. R. Renaissance Europe. Berkeley: U.C. Press, 1971.
Halsema, Thea B. van. Glorious Heretic: The Story of Guido de Bres. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961.
Hamilton, Alastair, Sjouke Voolstra, and Piet Visser, From Martyr to Muppy (Mennonite Urban Professionals.) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1994. A historical introduction to cultural assimilated processes of a religious minority in the Netherlands: the Mennonites.
Heeroma, K. Protestantse Poëze der 16de en 17de Eeuw [Protestant Poetry of the 16th and 17th Century.] Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1940.
Huizinga, J. The Waning of the Middle Ages. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1949. “A study of the forms of life, thought and art in France and Netherlands in the dawn of the Renaissance.”
Huygens, Constantijn. Use and Non-Use of Organ in the Churches of the United Netherlands. Translated and edited by Ericka E. Smit-Vanrotte (n.d., but Huygens lived from 1596–1687.) Short and fascinating!
Hyma, Albert. The Christian Renaissance. New York: The Century Co., 1925. Story of Brethren of Common Life that preceded and paved the way for the Reformation in the Low Lands.
Irwin, Joyce. Womanhood In Radical Protestantism, 1525–1675. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1979.
Jones, Rufus M. Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries. London: Macmillan & Co., 1914.
Jones, Sydney R. Old Houses In Holland. London: The Studio Ltd., 1913.
Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition. New York: New American Library, 1965.
Kossman, E. H. and A. F. Mellink, Texts Concerning the Revolot of the Netherlands. Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1974. Documents from the revolt.
Lecler, Joseph. Tolerance and the Reformation. New York: Association Press, 1960. Translated by T. L. Westow.
*Loon, Hendrick Willem van. The Arts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1939.
*_______, Hendrick Willem van. Life and Times of Rembrandt. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., 1930.
*Mander, Carel van. Dutch and Flemish Painters, trans. by Constant van de Wall from the Schilderboek, 1604. New York: McFarlane, Warde, McFarlane, 1936.
Norwood, Frederick A. Strangers and Exiles: A History of Religous Refugees. 2 vols. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1969.
Oranje, Prins Willem van. Brieven [Letters,] ed. by M.W. Jurriaanse and trans. into modern Dutch by Dr. C. Seeurier. Middelburg: G. W. Den Boer, 1933.
*Pearl, Chaim. Theology in Rabbinic Stories. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997.
Plooij, D. The Pilgrim Fathers From a Dutch Point of View. New York: New York University Press, 1932.
Plantin, Christopher. Calligraphy and Printing in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Department of Printing and Graphics Arts, Harvard College Library, 1940. Translation and notes by Roy Nash. Printed with French and Flemish Text in facsimile from original publication in 1567 in Antwerp. Fascinating little book.
*Potok, Chaim. Wanderings: History of the Jews. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1978.
Rachum, Ilan. The Renaissance: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: Mayflower Books Inc., 1979.
Renaud, J. G. N. De Leidse Burcht [The Leyden Citadel.] Koninklijke Nederlandse Toeristenbond ANWB, 1982.
*Ross, James Bruce, and Mary Martin McLaughlin. The Portable Renaissance Reader. New York: Viking, 1953. Good collection of writings from the time period.
Sabbe, Maurits. Christopher Plantin, trans. by Alice van Riel-Goransson. Antwerp: J. E. Buschmann, 1923.
Schama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
Straaten, Evert van. Koud Tot Op Het Bot [Cold to the Bone.] ‘S-Gravenhage: Staatsuitgeverij, 1977. Fascinating book of drawings and painting of winter in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
*Spitz, Lewis. The Protestant Reformation 1517–1559. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.
*_______. Editor The Reformation—Material or Spiritual? Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath & Co., 1962.
_______. The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, Volume 2: The Reformation. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1972.
*Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish Literacy. New York: William Morrow & Co., Inc., 1991.
Trevor-Roper, H. R. The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1967.
Veldman, Ilja M. Maarten van Heemskerk and Dutch Humanism in the Sixteenth Century, trans. by Michael Hoyle. Maarsen: Gary Schwartz, 1977.
Williams, Sir Roger. The Actions of the Low Countries. New York: Cornell University Press, 1964. First published in England in 1618. First-person account of the Dutch Revolt by an English soldier who served in Ludwig’s army.
Williams, George H. and Angel M. Mergal, editors, Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1957.
Zumthor, Paul. Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland. New York: Macmillan, 1963.
Several of my readers have indicated that Pieter-Lucas and Aletta have enticed them to go back and dig into some church history for themselves but have wondered where to begin.
Start with a basic text and a good dictionary of Church history:
Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through the Centuries. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1981.
Douglas, J. D., editor. Dictionary of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1978.
Subscribe to:
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Pay a visit to the various libraries in your community. Spend some time browsing. It may surprise you what a wide variety of resources you will find there. Read as voraciously and widely on the subject as you can. Don’t forget to check the children’s section of a library. It is always an excellent source of materials to help you get a good first look at any subject. If you have children in your charge, this will enable you to begin to build into them an appreciation for the great heritage of the Church.
One word of caution about historical novels. Many people think they are a good way to get history in a delectable dessert rather than in a hard-to-swallow pill. But you need to know that not all novelists are historical scholars. Look for two things:
(1) If the characters in a novel seem to think, talk, and act like twentieth-century characters, or (2) the obvious sole purpose of the book is the romantic plot, which could easily take place essentially unchanged in any time or place in history, then be aware that the history and/or the thought patterns of the characters may not be accurate. Do not rely on such books to give you a true picture of the history of the period, place, or movement you are studying.
If you are interested in more of an in-depth look at the specific events surrounding the lives of Pieter-Lucas and Aletta and their friends, go through the lists of resources I used and note those marked with an asterisk (*). These I would specifically recommend to you. Not all will be currently in print. Investigate your local church, public, college, or seminary libraries. When all else fails, request a book on an Inter-Library-Loan, usually available from your public library.
You might also contact the publishing house of your church’s denomination or some other denomination you are wanting to study. They are usually excellent sources of books for your study. Denominational colleges and headquarters often have museums and/or archives packed with wonderful first-hand resources.
Remnants of the history of the Church are all around you. Just grab a shovel and start digging. I guarantee that, while you may get a bit dusty here and there, you will find some choice gems and just may become addicted.