This dissertation examines the rhetoric of martyrdom in seventeenth-century Protestant culture, exploring how Puritans, Baptists, and Quakers imagined themselves within biblical and historical narratives of persecution both to strengthen their authority in matters of religion and to reinforce a model of the true spiritual life. Memories of persecution, especially stories of the Protestants killed during the reign of Queen Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, were central to a model of sanctity that had powerful devotional and political applications.

In examining how the notions of persecution and affliction move in and out of the literature of the period I find that how early modern Protestants conceived themselves is closely related to how stories of historic suffering were appropriated by different groups. The sense of being uniquely threatened and marginalized had striking implications for inter-group conflict and for the justification of aggression against Native Americans during King Philip's War. This examination of the historical imagination and persecution contributes to our understanding of the meaning of suffering and holiness in Protestant religious culture, of the significance of trauma on the religious experiences of future generations, and of the role of religion in justifying violence, as well as in furnishing the moral conscience.