The Quiet in the Land - Film about Christopher Dock and the German Martyrs Mirror Printing
Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 8:03 am
Here is a link to a film from the early 70's that I first viewed nearly 20 years ago.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko-NhvQxPI0&t=9s
This film stars John L. Ruth as Christopher Dock and shows the need for a German Martyrs Mirror in America.
At the time, I was doing research in preparation for publishing The Great Book Series of children's books on the saga of the first Martyrs Mirror Printing in America.
The Continental army needed paper for wadding in muskets and the Continental Congress learned that the print shop at Ephrata Cloisters had a lot of paper. (unbound printed copies of the German Martyrs Mirror.)
The army, under George Washington's orders, seized about 325 copies of the Martyr Book, and converted about 150 copies into murder books to be used against their British brothers.
"Thus, two wagons and six soldiers
arrived, seizing the martyr books
but correctly paying for them.
This caused great offense in the
land, and many people felt that
the war would not end favorably
for the country because the
testimonies of the holy martyrs
had been quite maltreated."
-Peter Miller
10 years later, Joseph von Gundy, who appears to have been a convert to Anabaptism, was part of a delegation to Philadelphia to pick up the 175 copies that were not used for wadding. Some of these copies had missing pages but were bound and sold anyhow, inserting blank paper in place of the missing pages. (setting up a print press to print some missing pages would not have been worth the time. A person could always handwrite the missing pages later if they wished) Some of these recovered Martyrs Mirrors can be viewed at that Ohio Amish Library and Muddy Creek Farm Library.
Read more here.
https://ohioamishlibrary.org/wp-content ... Mirror.pdf
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko-NhvQxPI0&t=9s
This film stars John L. Ruth as Christopher Dock and shows the need for a German Martyrs Mirror in America.
At the time, I was doing research in preparation for publishing The Great Book Series of children's books on the saga of the first Martyrs Mirror Printing in America.
The Continental army needed paper for wadding in muskets and the Continental Congress learned that the print shop at Ephrata Cloisters had a lot of paper. (unbound printed copies of the German Martyrs Mirror.)
The army, under George Washington's orders, seized about 325 copies of the Martyr Book, and converted about 150 copies into murder books to be used against their British brothers.
"Thus, two wagons and six soldiers
arrived, seizing the martyr books
but correctly paying for them.
This caused great offense in the
land, and many people felt that
the war would not end favorably
for the country because the
testimonies of the holy martyrs
had been quite maltreated."
-Peter Miller
10 years later, Joseph von Gundy, who appears to have been a convert to Anabaptism, was part of a delegation to Philadelphia to pick up the 175 copies that were not used for wadding. Some of these copies had missing pages but were bound and sold anyhow, inserting blank paper in place of the missing pages. (setting up a print press to print some missing pages would not have been worth the time. A person could always handwrite the missing pages later if they wished) Some of these recovered Martyrs Mirrors can be viewed at that Ohio Amish Library and Muddy Creek Farm Library.
Read more here.
https://ohioamishlibrary.org/wp-content ... Mirror.pdf