MENNONITES.
3. In Holland 1700-1909. V. On the Lower Rhine, and in North Germany and Russia 1700- 1909. VI. South German and Swiss Mennonites, 1600-1909. 2. In Holland and North Germany VII. In the (United States and Canada, 1580 (1640)-1700. 1683-1909.
I. Origins.
II. Swiss and South German Antipedobaptists. III. Mennonites in Holland prior to 1536. IV. In the North. 1. In Holland 1536-80 (1640).
VIII. In America.
1. Antecedents.
Swiss Brethren (§1).
Obbenites (§ 2).
Two Groups of Churches (§ 3).
2. Doctrinal and Statistical Descrip-
tion.
I. Origins: The Mennonites form a number of religious bodies which originated on the continent in the sixteenth century, where they were characterized by antipedobaptist and antisacerdotal doctrines. Since the seventeenth century their chief center has been Holland. They must be sharply distinguished from the Baptists, for though the General Baptists were developed from the Mennonites, 1609 onward, their distinctive tenet of immersion was both late and infrequent among the older body. As early as the sixteenth century the term Anabaptists [used opprobriously of Antipedobaptists of all types.
a.h.n. ] did not connote any special church, but was applied to an entire tendency which developed in western and central Europe between 1521 and 1550 from the popular side of the German Reformation, from which it borrowed form and coloring. Under the influence of the newly discovered " Gospel," it rejected the Christianity received through infant baptism on the ground that it did not effect regeneration. It therefore required not only adult baptism, but also a Christianity based upon personal faith, and awaited the coming of the regeneration of the heart and of all Christendom, or rather the
Mennonites
THE NEW SCHAFF-IIERZOG
establishment of a living church of Christ within the world. As the representative of voluntary, or even of subjective Christianity, moreover, it taught the absolute separation of religious and secular life, thus advocating freedom of conscience. After the middle of the sixteenth century some churches, especially those of a unitarian trend, came into close connection with the Mennonites. The adherents and the spirit of these became in later years, subsequent to 1640, an independent force in England among such bodies as the Quakers. About a century earlier, however, it had received a permanent organization in communities which have continued to the present time and are still called Mennonites.
The term Wicdertaufer (" Re-baptizers ") may be employed to connote that faction of the Anabaptists which aimed to establish the kingdom of Christ on earth through temporal force, and did not seek to reform social conditions simply by the regeneration of individuals. The type of this faction was the kingdom of Mtinster and its plans of social revolution (see Mvxster, Anabaptists in). The only party of antipedobaptists which has preserved a historic continuity until the present day is the Mennonites, who now have some 250,000 members, divided both historically and geographically into (1) Swiss and South German; (2) the Dutch, who form the basis of the West and North German, and these, in their turn, of the Russian; and (3) the American. [The remnant of the Huterites that settled in South Dakota in 1874, who have never been identified with the Mennonites, constitutes at least one exception, a. h. n.]
II. Swiss and South German Antipedobaptists: The first independent church within the general Anabaptist movement was formed at Zurich in 1523. On Jan. 18, 152.5, the church began to baptize on profession of faith, despite the efforts of the authorities to suppress it by force, and about the same time kindred societies were founded at Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Worms. The plan of forming churches of pious Christians separated from the world originated in the Unitas Fratrum, and was not unknown to Luther, while at first infant baptism was not regarded as obligatory by Zwingli, Butzer, Farel, Erasmus, Capito, Schwenckfeld, Billican, Hiibmaier, or Brunner. Although Anabaptism was no baseless phenomenon, suddenly evolved from the Reformation, there seems to be little evidence to show that it was derived from older religious bodies. Anabaptists denied the doctrine of a grace which was decreed from without, and which was, therefore, independent of personal piety and devoid of influence on life. Faith, they declared, must be personal, and they were, accordingly, influenced by the same spirit which led Michael Sattler to reject infant baptism simply because " piety and salvation are sought through it," and because they " would not abandon their separation from the world " (i.e., the worldly churches). The doctrine that the grace of God must be regained by man, however, has been common among Protestants from the earliest times, while the monastic ideals of poverty and celibacy, attributed to the Anabaptists, were in reality antipodal to their real tenets. Nor did they consider themselves without sin, al-
though they held that a Christian might have a good conscience and live blamelessly.
Immediately after the Peasants' War, Anabaptist communities sprang up throughout Germany in Strasburg, Augsburg, Salzburg, and elsewhere, headed by Denk, Gross, and Kautz. As early as Feb. 24, 1527, an assembly was convened at Schlatten near Schaffhausen by Sattler, who had founded the communities of Horb and Rottenburg-on-the Neckar. Throughout the Palatinate of the Rhine and Swabia many deserted both the Roman Catholics and the Protestants for the Anabaptists, even though the itinerant preachers, controlling neither the press nor large congregations, could only urge individuals to repentance and baptism. Communities also existed in St. Gall, Bern, and Basel, while in 1526 the Anabaptists entered the Tyrol and Moravia. After the spring of 1527, the extension of the movement was attended, except in Moravia, by bitter persecutions. According to the government records of Innsbruck, 700 persons were executed, banished, or otherwise punished in the Tyrol in 1530, while 600 were put to death in Ensisheim before 1535. Only Strasburg, Nuremberg, and Philip of Hesse refrained from the effusion of blood, and in Augsburg, which was protected by imperial privilege and the edict of Worms, Hut barely escaped the stake (see Hut, Hans). [But Hans LeupolJ, the minister of the antipedobaptists of Augsburg, was beheaded (cf. F. Roth, Augsburgs Reformationsgeschichte, 1517-30, p. 251, Munich, 1901). J. Hoesch.] The Evangelical authorities at the Diet of Speyer concurred in the imperial decision of 1529 that all Anabaptists should be executed without a trial before ecclesiastical judges, their motive probably being their fear that the separatistic tendency of the body would destroy all civil and social institions.
The erroneous opinion has long existed that antipedobaptism involved communism and the abolishment of private property. These were practised, however, only in Moravia, and even there surrender of private rights was purely voluntary and confined to members of that church. It is clear, on the other hand, that they denied the State the right to compel belief and to regulate religion, or to expel from home on account of belief, for " the earth is the Lord's "; yet, though " in the perfection of Christ " there was neither magistracy nor sword, they rendered obedience to the temporal authorities. It was an exception that Hut and some others taught the speedy coming both of the day of judgment and of the condemnation of the wicked by the righteous. Although Zwingli constantly charged the Anabaptists with immorality, there is no basis for his assertions, nor is it known that there were cases of polygamy among them, as there were later in Minister. This does not imply, however, that no discordant elements entered into Anabaptism, or that their persecutions, in particular, did not lead them to excesses. The position of the majority of the martyrs, as well as the wealthy members of the communities of the Tyrol, the writings of Denk, the Worms translation of the Prophets, and the rich hymnology, render it certain that the Anabaptists did not belont o the lowest grades of society.