Provides lively, well-researched profiles of the courageous women who chose to risk persecution and martyrdom to pursue this unsanctioned religion a religion that, unlike the established religions of the day, initially offered them opportunity and encouragement to proselytize. Derived from 16th-century government record and court testimonies, hymns, and poems, these profiles provide a panorama of life and faith experiences of women from Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and Austria. (438pp. illus. index. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1996.)