To ask and answer the question ‘Why were our Reformers burned?’ could not be more pertinent to the times in which we live, according to Roger Carswell in his Introduction to this edition of J. C. Ryle’s tract on the English Reformers.

This is a booklet that needs to be read carefully and prayerfully. Its aim is not to lead anyone to smug self-righteousness or complacency. To understand the error of a theological system ought to stir within us compassion and winsome boldness towards those who are caught up in it.

We ought to feel deeply thankful to God for those who lived and laid down their lives for the truth of the gospel. The world was not worthy of them: they took up their cross and followed their Saviour. We need to understand why the Reformers of the sixteenth century lived and died as they did, and in our times cultivate a similar, costly commitment to the truth of the gospel.