CHURCH: History and Today April 28

Other Anabaptists: The Hutterites and the Amish

Good morning! I’m glad you could all make it out today. Last week we took a quick look at the Anabaptism movements around Europe, and also the first 100 or so years of Mennonite history. Today, we want to focus in on some other Anabaptists that also found their beginnings around the time of the Mennonites: the Hutterites and the Amish.

What do we know about the Hutterites and the Amish? What do we know about what they believe?

The Hutterites

The Hutterite movement finds its first beginnings in the country of Austria. Anabaptist ideas had spread from Switzerland and neighboring Bavaria (see the map in the back) into Austria. Unfortunately, the Catholic leaders in Austria were especially harsh in their persecution of Anabaptists, even creating special Täuferjäger, or Anabaptist hunters, to find and kill them. So while there was a lot of Anabaptist preaching and baptism in Austria, because of this severe persecution they fled to Moravia. The first few leaders were captured and killed in Austria, so other leaders had to rise up in exile.

Interestingly enough, Moravia was under the same ruler as Austria! However, the Moravian nobles were more independent, and the man in charge had less direct influence over the nobles there. So while he still tried to suppress the Anabaptists there, the persecution was less severe and it only came slowly.

In Moravia, two camps of Anabaptists came about. The leaders of these two different groups were Belthasar Hubmaier and Hans Hut. Hubmaier was a former Catholic priest from Austria who was in close contact with Ulrich Zwingli during his reforming days. Hubmaier is known as a well educated scholar and theologian, and eventually came to disagree with Zwingli, and his church congregation agreed with him. In fact, almost his entire congregation got baptized as adults along with him! Due to persecution, he left Austria and settled in Moravia.

Hans Hut was from a place called Thuringia, which is now part of Germany. He was known as a fiery preacher and evangelist. He went from town to town in places like Bavaria, Austria and Moravia, preaching and baptizing. One historian says that Hut won more people to Anabaptism than all the other Anabaptist missionaries combined!

While there was some disagreement among the Anabaptists in Moravia, Hans Hut helped to bring them to a head. So while he didn’t exactly start the other side of the dispute, he became somewhat of a spokesperson. Here’s a quote from Dyck:

“One of the most pressing issues was that of the war tax. It was brought on by the somewhat feverish preparations of the Austrian political leaders and some Germans to fight the Turks. Should a Christian pay war tax? Hubmaier had always sided with the major reformers on letting the state regulate religious affairs. Consequently he was interested in winning political leaders to his cause in whose lands he and his fellow Anabaptists could find refuge. When those political rulers faced the necessity of levying a war tax, it naturally had to be paid. Hut was far less willing than Hubmaier to support political rulers in any shape or form, but especially when they asked for money to outfit their armies against the Turks. Hut believed the Turks were being used by God to destroy the political rulers of Europe. Of course the Christian could not pay war tax.” (Dyck, 71-72).

What is the concensus here about paying war taxes or supporting war in other ways? Who would you agree with more, Hubmaier or Hut? Can both sides learn something from each other? If so, what?

These two men had other major disagreements as well. Hut believed more in special divine revelation by visions and dreams (a witness to the ongoing influence on him by Melchior Hoffman) while Hubmaier taught the revelation of God by Scripture. This was connected to Hut’s belief in the imminent return of Christ. While Hubmaier agreed that Christ would return soon, he wasn’t as radical or as focused on it. And while Hubmaier believed that Christians could take part in government and serve God there, Hut rejected this idea. Finally, one other major difference was that Hut and his followers taught that believers should share all their material goods, while Hubmaier did not teach this. All in all, these differences led to two major camps of Anabaptists: the Schwertler (swordbearers) and the Stäbler (staffbearers).

In some ways, Hut seems to represent a more charismatic perspective, while Hubmaier took a more traditional approach. In other ways (his stance towards government, for example), it is Hubmaier who does not fit into the regular Anabaptist mold. Are the issues they disagreed on still a hot topic today? Any thoughts or comments on the topics of divine revelation, the second coming, or government?

Both these men didn’t live long after, for they were both captured, tortured, and killed. With Hubmaier’s death the Schwertler Anabaptists faded away. However, even before they were captured some of the Stäbler believers had withdrawn from interaction with the other group. In 1528, under renewed persecution, they were forced to leave. “Outside of Nikolsburg they spread a coat on the ground and “each one laid his possessions on it with a willing heart - without being forced - so that the needy might be supported...” Under their leaders Jacob Widemann and Philip Weber, they increased in number through the addition of refugees.” (Dyck, 73).

While this first action of sharing was based on an immediate need among the fellowship, soon afterwards they started practicing it more completely. In trying to do this, there were some problems that showed up; problems in leadership and in resource management that led to tension.

Jacob Hutter

This is where a man named Jacob Hutter enters the scene. At first he simply came into contact with the Brethren (as they were then called) as he was looking for a place for Anabaptist refugees from his hometown. He was a ‘vigorous’ leader, and was asked multiple times to step in and help settle disputes. At one point he stayed with them for two years to help make sense of things. While he wasn’t part of their group at first, eventually he become the key leader of the time.

Because of more severe persecution of the leaders of different movements, the Brethren urged Hutter to leave them and escape the persecution. However, he was captured and killed. Obviously his influence was great, for the communities he helped became known as the Hutterian Brethren, or Hutterites.

Communal living was - and still is - of great importance to the Hutterite communities. What is their Biblical basis for this? What is our Biblical basis for not agreeing with them?

What can we learn from the Hutterites?

Throughout the next few decades, the Hutterites thrived. From about 1555-1595 they had what they called their “Golden Period.” They sent out missionaries and had a population of approximately 100 communities and about 20,000-30,000 members. They developed highly efficient systems of organization and task management, so that they became very successful, to the point that other peasants complained about unfair competition! They were also busy during this time writing out documents and tracts, rules and regulations concerning their faith and communal living. They also developed a fine educational system, so much so that nearby nobles sometimes sent their children to the Hutterite schools!

The End of an Age

However, renewed persecution came again. They lived on the fringes of the European world, so not only did the governments persecute them, but the invading Turks would raid them as well, at times taking captive their women and children. With war and persecution around them, things went into decline. In 1767, there was a migration of Hutterites into Ukraine, and in the 1870’s again from Ukraine to Canada and the United States. The remaining colonies in the old regions became Catholic, and now almost all Hutterite communities are found in North America.

Even when the Hutterites became physically successful, their disipline and communal lifestyle kept them from seeing the same kind of internal decay and spiritual laziness that happened to other Anabaptist groups, such as the Mennonites in the Netherlands. What does one do - or what should one do - to not let worldly success get the best of your spiritual life?

The Amish

To find Amish origins, we turn to a different area and a different time. The year is 1648 (over 100 years after the time of Jacob Hutter), and the country is France. France had just received the area called Alsace in a treaty. Alsace is a region in northeast France, sharing borders with Germany and Switzerland. Because of this treaty, there were many Mennonite refugees coming into the region over the next few years. One of them was a man named Jacob Amman. Born in 1644, he became a minister and elder in a local congregation.

“There he became troubled over the lack of church discipline in his and other Alsatian and Swiss congregations. Appealing to the Dordrecht Confession which the congregations had now adopted, he insisted that church discipline should include avoidance. In its strictest form this meant that even family members must avoid excommunicated persons, making them eat, sleep, and live completely alone. The goal of this action was to bring them to repentance. Ammann also insisted that all congregations should practice foot washing, that members wear simple clothing including beards for the men.” (Dyck, 153)

What does church discipline look like? What should it look like? Better yet, what characterizes a disciplined life?

The original goal of the ban in Anabaptist practice was to bring people to repentance. How has that changed?

“Though he met with considerable opposition…Amman traveled through the churches in Alsace and Switzerland to share his convictions, frequently banning those who disagreed with him. Numerous attempts were made at reconciliation…but without success. Gradually this division became sharper among the churches with most of the Alsation congregations following Amman, and with most of the Swiss and South German congregations opposing his teaching. From this time (1694-1697), his followers have generally been known as Amish Mennonites, or simply Amish.” (Dyck, 153-154)

The original goal of the ban in Anabaptist practice was to bring people to repentance. How has that changed? Is that the only way the it seems to have been used in history?

Shortly after this division, the Amish were given an expulsion order by the French authorities in 1712. Some left, but most of them stayed, even after repeated orders to leave. It was during this time that one of their leaders wrote up documents on Amish church structure, which is mostly still adhered to today. In about 1720, the first Amish migration took place to Pennsylvania, with other large migrations happening in the 18th and 19th centuries. They settled in Pennsylvania, Canada (there is a large Amish population in Ontario), Ohio and other midwestern states.

It seems as if many of these Mennonites were leaning towards a legalistic reading of the Bible, including Jacob Amman. We still see the effects of this today. How do we live out our faith without becoming legalistic about it?

To close I want to read some verses from Ephesians and Colossians.

Ephesians 2:8–10 NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:

Colossians 1:21–23 NIV

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Colossians 1:21-