but they were comparatively few, and the book is complete without this plate. The creed of the Dunkers differs from that of the Mennonites mainly in the fact that the former believe in the necessity of immersion, while the latter administer Baptism by sprinkling, and over this question the two sects have contended with each other quite earnestly. The plate referred to represented John the Baptist immersing Christ in the river Jordan, and consequently the Mennonites refused to have it bound in the copies which they purchased, and, on the other hand, in those secured by the Dunkers it was inserted. There was another plate prepared for the book, but for some unknown reason it was not used, and there is but a single known print from it.[1] These plates appear to have been engraved by M. Eben, at Frankfort in Germany. In some instances it was bound in two volumes. The title-page to the second part says that it was “out of the Dutch into the German translated and with some new information increased.” Among the additions made at Ephrata were twelve stanzas upon page 939, concerning the martyrdom of Hans Haslibacher; taken from the Ausbundt or hymn-book of the Swiss Mennonites. Some of the families in Pennsylvania and other parts of the United States, the sufferings of whose ancestors are mentioned in it, are those bearing the names of Kuster, Hendricks, Yocum, Bean, Rhoads, Gotwals, Jacobs, Johnson, Royer, Zimmerman, Shoemaker, Keyser, Landis, Meylin, Brubaker, Kulp, Weaver, Snyder, Wanger, Grubb, Bowman, Bachman, Zug, Aker, Garber, Miller, Kassel, and Wagner. In Lancaster County there are to-day many of the Wentz family. The story of the burning of Maeyken Wens, at Antwerp, in 1573, is more than ordinarily
- ↑ In the Cassel collection.
