PAGE 11

Clearly, this book, which has involved detective work in not less than fifteen countries and at least eight different languages, could never have been the outcome of the author's efforts alone.

So many helpful people have contributed that the problem is where to begin and end by way of acknowledgement. Most have stressed that they need no thanks. They seek only the approval of the Almighty and need no praise from men. But it would be most ungrateful of author and publishers not to mention specifically some whose assistance was directly sought and most generously given.

First, thanks is expressed to many Christadelphians in the Adelaide area of Australia whose practical help, personal encouragement and financial assistance made this whole project possible at all.

Then the author greatly appreciates the altruism which led friends and even government officials to extend the kind of help that was needed to carry out the necessary work in the communist countries of East Europe. Only because their assistance was vital are the following mentioned by name: Dr. Geza (Charles) Cserey, Dr. Ferenc Sebe, Dr. Lajos Kovacs, Dr. Gabor Kereki, and the cultural attaché at the Romanian embassy in London who so courteously smoothed the way in his country.

The staffs of many libraries and universities are entitled to the author's profuse thanks for assistance beyond the call of duty: those at the Library of Congress, far too many to name; Dr. Hermann Frodl of the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna; Mgr. Tadeusz Fraczyk of the Czartoryski Library in Krakow; and the very helpful personnel of the Harvard, Andover-Harvard and Bodleian libraries. Among many others, the author remembers with particular pleasure the delightful and extremely knowledgeable assistant provided by the Stadtsbibliothek in Bern, who retrieved so many treasures at such short notice but who modestly refrained from giving her name.

In the matter of translation, an especial thanks is due to Mr. Alan George Carrington, classicist at the University of the West Indies, for help with some Latin documents; Bro. Paul Kolonusz of Worcester, Mass. for Hungarian; Sis. Adele Charewitz, Sis. Sophie Dereki, Bro. Harry Stowe and Mrs. E. Stowe, all of Australia, for some assistance with Polish documents; and Dr. Sebe for being the perfect interpreter while the author was examining material in Romania.

No book which concerns itself with the Polish Brethren could omit to acknowledge a debt to Professor George Huntston Williams of

PAGE 12

Harvard University. As Professor of Ecclesiastical History he knows more about their faith and life than anyone alive today in the English speaking world. His towering scholarship and linguistic skills have brought the work of Polish writers within easier reach of English readers. Some of his translations are included in this volume.

Indeed, few will quarrel with the assertion that it is mainly through the tireless, objective, yet sensitively committed research of three great American scholars -- Prof. Williams of Harvard University, Prof. Roland Bainton of Yale University and Prof. Harold Bender of Goshen College -- that the English speaking world has come to learn of this almost forgotten heritage of faith which flowered in what Williams calls the 'radical Reformation' but which would be better termed the 'biblical Reformation'.

Thanks must be given to Dr. V. Mulchansingh, the author's own head of department, for his constant encouragement; for allowing the author's religious interests to merge with his academic ones; and for helping to make possible his several lengthy trips abroad.

Finally, the author is grateful to his wife and family for their strong commitment in bringing what must have seemed to them a superhuman task to fruition.

This volume presents several documents that had not been translated previously into English. It should be stressed, however, that there are still thousands of documents in Latin, Italian, Polish, German, Hungarian and Czech which have not been yet made available in English. It is unlikely that more than a fraction of these will be so translated before the Day comes when all men and women will worship Yahweh of Hosts with "a pure tongue" and serve Him with one consent. For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then we shall know, even as we are known.