RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Mennonites
All those, however, who might have given a theological formulation of their doctrines and have become leaders of distinction were soon snatched away by death. It is impossible to speak, therefore, of uniformity in their dogmas, especially as their doctrinal interests paled before their enthusiasm for practical Christianity. Their hymns, the treatises of Denk and Hubmaier, the letters of Sattler, and other memorials of the martyrs all breathe the same spirit; love of Jesus and the Bible; the cross as the token of the Christian; the joy of the consciousness of salvation; gratitude for safety from this evil world and horror of it; brotherly love; and full freedom of conscience. In all else there was the widest divergency. Denk, Kautz, and Hetzer regarded Christ as their predecessor and example, not as the mediator in the presence of God; but in their Getrewe Warming the Strasburgers " know not why Anabaptists call Our Lord ' Jesus Christ of Nazareth,' since he is of heaven." On the one hand, their baptismal hymn
runs:
" I am alone the only God,
I am alone, I am not three ";
while Hoffmann, on the other, was an avowed Trinitarian. The inner word interpreted the Scriptures to Denk, others based their exegesis on the literal meaning, and some Anabaptists laid special stress on revelations, visions, and dreams. The pantheistic trend of Denk was offset by the deep pietistic morality of Sattler and the chiliasm of Hut. Some regarded baptism as indifferent, and the washing of feet was practised but rarely, as in Zurich and the Harz. All, however, followed Zwingli in the breaking of bread in the Lord's Supper, as a witness of unity, while Arianism, sleep of the soul, and universal salvation were here and there taught among them. Their unifying bond was the belief that by the baptism of repentance and by the individual fear of God and love to him they were members of the church of Jesus Christ, separated from the world and purified by the power of the ban. Their creed, which was not dogmatic, but practical, was the " Brotherly Union of some Children of God," formulated at the conference of Schlatten. This confession was known at Zurich as early as 1527 and was attacked by Zwingli in that year and by Calvin in 1541. In its articles some of their teachers united concerning seven points: baptism of repentance and change of life, the ban, the breaking of bread, separation, pastoral care, the sword, and the prohibition of oaths — all practical problems, rather than doctrinal. Over the questions of private property and the paying of taxes levied for purposes of war a schism arose in Moravia in 1528.
About 1530 not only did the extension and the persecutions of the Anabaptists enter upon a new stage, but the obscurity which had thus far enveloped them was dissipated, and in the previous year the man was found and baptized at Strasburg who was to give the church a new home in the north, Melchior Hoffmann (q.v.). The same period was the beginning of the two tendencies which have continued side by side among the Mennonites
to the present time, although both are equally opposed to an official church which teaches faith and salvation by means of dogma and sacrament. The one body (Swiss, Moravian), founded by Hoffmann, lays stress on personal piety and the formation of a church which is to have sharp external delimitations. The other party (Denk, Hubmaier) regards Christianity as a sum total of inner feelings and as a spiritual tendency in the world, having no earthly church, yet retaining the ban.
After 1530 the outward condition of the Anabaptists gradually altered. Although many, including Luther and Melanchthon, still regarded them as rebels, they were free from peril of death in some districts, and they might live there in comparative quiet, despite occasional oppression, imprisonment, and banishment. Their numbers also increased in the Palatinate, Alsace, Hesse, the eastern part of the Canton of Bern, the bishopric of Basel, and especially in Moravia. Elsewhere, however, they were exposed to constant persecution, and every trace of them disappeared, the few survivors either dying out or fleeing to Moravia, this being the case especially in Bavaria, the Tyrol, Austria and Silesia, and eastern Switzerland. Despite many vicissitudes and even banishment in 1535, Anabaptists from Austria, Carinthia, and Silesia sought refuge in Moravia, whence some of them later emigrated to Poland, Hungary, and Transylvania, while about 1550 and after 1561 the Venetian Anabaptists came into relation with their Tyrolese brethren. Many of these churches became very important. In 1537 the one at Lorsch contained some 240 adults; there were 250 at Griinberg (Hesse) in 1538; between 1,400 and 1,500 were at the controversy of Rhenish Anabaptists held at Worms in 1556; and in the great Strasburg congress of 1557 representatives were present from nearly fifty churches in Moravia, Swabia, Switzerland, Wiirttemberg, Breisgau, and Alsace. In 1545, according to a moderate estimate, the Moravian Anabaptists numbered but 2,000; exact historians show that at a later time the church had increased considerably. Elsewhere, however, the persecutions continued with unremitting severity. In 1581, the Anabaptists knew of executions in South Germany and Austria to the number of 2,169, and many executions are not reported.
In the sixteenth century the Anabaptists remained closely united, but at the close of this period the intercommunication diminished, partly in consequence of the disappearance of many Anabaptists through persecution, and partly because the condition of the others had become more settled and quiet. Simultaneously with this new security, on the other hand, came differentiations and even dissensions. The communistic followers of the Tyrolese Jacob Hutter separated from the other Germans, whom they called " Swiss Brethren." In 1533 he succeeded in organizing the great majority of Moravian Anabaptists into a communistic body which remained unshaken for a century and a half, inspiring it with his spirit and giving it his name when he died at the stake in Innsbruck in 1536. During the administration
Mennonites