The 16th Century, Post Reformation, Lutheranism, Mennonism
| The era of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation inEurope spawned a number of radical reform groups, among them the Anabaptists. These Christians regarded the Bible as their only rule for faith and life. They denied the merit of infant baptism, however. Some Anabaptists were revolutionaries. Others, like Menno Simons (1496-1561), were more moderate. Because of their radical beliefs, the Anabaptists were persecuted by other Protestants as well as by Roman Catholics. During the 16th-century Reformation in Europe, the Protestant Anabaptist, or Christian Brethren, movement flourished in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and other countries. The basic belief of the Anabaptists was in adult baptism, but they also supported the separation of church and state and voluntary church membership. While there was no direct development from the Anabaptists to the growth of the Baptist churches in England, it is very likely that the latter were influenced in their beliefs and attitudes by the continental Brethren. In 1453, the last battle of the Hundred Years War was fought, and the English were routed from their last foothold in France. |
The reformation, initiated by Luther, resulted, unfortunately, in conflict among religious creeds and was followed by the most overwhelming calamity that ever befell any country. The Lutheran Church (orthodox Protestantism), which he founded, became the established church in the north German states as the House of Hanover. Lutheranism dates from 31 October, 1517, when Luther affixed his theses to the church door of the castle of Wittenberg. Others, like the Salzburgers, were Protestant refugees from the predominantly Catholic south.
Beginning in 1613, the Prussian royal family converted to Calvinism. By the Peace of Westphalia (1648) the concessions which had been made to the Lutherans in 1555 were extended to the Reformed. The critical state of the Pietistic Movement to the Evangelical Union (1689-1817) churches to the Bohemian Brethren caused many Protestants to long for a union between the Lutherans and the Reformed. Beginning in 1618 and lasting till 1648, the so-called Thirty Years' War swept over Germany.
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The Protestants.--This name comes from a manifesto to Emperor Charles V of Germany, drawn up in 1529 by a number of princes who had espoused the struggle of Luther, in the form of a protest against what they considered unjust measures by the Emperor and by the Pope. From this time forward the word "Protest-ants" applied to those opposed to the Pope and his party. These princes supported their claims by force of arms. The conflict between Catholics and Protestants was so severe that it finally settled into a Thirty Years' War that came to a close by the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. This treaty, among other things, stipulated a guarantee of religious toleration for Catholics and Protestants, but not for Anabaptists of Mennonites. The close of the War of the Reformation found the following Protestant bodies: Lutherans, Reformed, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians.
The first colony of German Lutherans was from the Palatinate. They arrived in 1693 and founded Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia. During the eighteenth century large numbers of Lutheran emigrants from Alsace, the Palatinate, and Würtemberg settled along the Hudson River and on the Atlantic coast, in New Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina. Their first representatives came from Holland to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands about 1624. Under Governor Stuyvesant they were obliged to conform to the Reformed services, but freedom of worship was obtained when New Amsterdam (New York) was captured by the English in 1664. The second distinct body of Lutherans in America arrived from Sweden in 1637.
| The Lutherans in Germany have maintained a largely unified church. Some of these divisions are due to differences in national origin between German and Scandinavian Lutherans, but some divisions involve doctrinal issues. The Missouri Synod, originally formed by German settlers in Missouri, has a reputation of leaning in the direction of conservativism. More than four centuries ago in Zurich, Switzerland, a new fellowship of Christian believers was formed. The Roman Catholic Church had become unspeakably corrupt. Martin Luther had separated himself from it but had continued the practice of infant baptism. Ulrich Zwingli also had separated from Romanism, but continued to grant to the political rulers the right to decide the policies and practices of the church. |
The year 1683 is rightfully celebrated as the beginning of group immigration from the German states. On October 6, 1683, thirteen Quaker families from Krefeld arrived in Philadelphia. From the outset, their settlement on the northern outskirts of Philadelphia was called Germantown. From then on, the tolerant Quaker colony of Pennsylvania served as a beachhead for the immigration of pietistic and other Protestant minorities, notably dissidents of the Reformed and Lutheran persuasion. A colony of Lutherans from Salzburg founded the settlement of Ebenezer, Georgia, in 1734. After 1771 the Swedes of Delaware and Pennsylvania dissolved their union with the Mother Church of Sweden. As they had no English-speaking ministers, they chose their pastors from the Episcopalian Church. Since 1846 these congregations have declared full communion with the Episcopalians. When the first American census was taken in 1790, Pennsylvania's German population was put at 225,000 which amounts to a third of the state's entire population. If we further count those Germans who in the course of the 18th century settled in the English colonies of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina, especially those from the Palatinate, Baden and Wurttemberg, and include their children, then Americans of German origin were about 9% of the total population of the youthful United States around the close of the 18th century.
Mennonism is considered as a religion close to Baptism. It is named after the founder Menno Simon (1496-1561). By the late 16th century the Mennonites had found political toleration in the Netherlands. Some groups had moved meanwhile to Poland and to Ukraine. The first Polish state was born in 966. Poland became a kingdom in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a long association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by uniting to form the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Later persecutions drove many into southern Germany, eastern France, and especially to North America. Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Many Mennonites, because of the fierce intensity of persecution, migrated to Russia. When their religious freedom was threatened there, they joined others in North America who had come from Germany, Switzerland and Holland. Simons, a Dutch priest, gathered the scattered Anabaptists of Northern Europe into congregations in 1536. These groups soon came to be called by his name.
The First Mennonites Come to Pennsylvania. Among the Germans looking for religious freedom were the Mennonites. The first Mennonite, Jan Lensen, arrived in October 1683. He came with 12 other German families who were Quaker weavers from Krefeld. They laid out the village of Germantown, north of Philadelphia. Following Jan Lensen's arrival in 1683, at least 20 other Mennonite families settled in Germantown. They were from northern Germany and the Netherlands. In 1698 they chose papermaker William Rittenhouse as their first minister. Mennonites for the original Anabaptists were the Swiss brethren who organized at Zurich, Switzerland, in 1525, which was the beginning of the organization of the Church which afterwards bore the name "Mennonite." In Roman times, Turicum was a tax-collecting point at the border of Gallia Belgica (from AD 90 Germania superior) and Raetia for goods trafficked on the Limmat river. A Carolingian castle, built on the site of the Roman castle by the grandson of Charlemagne, Louis the German, is mentioned in 835 ("in castro Turicino iuxta fluvium Lindemaci"). Louis also founded the Fraumünster abbey in 853 for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zürich, Uri, and the Albis forest, and granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority. In 1045, King Henry III granted the convent the right to hold markets, collect tolls, and mint coins, and thus effectively made the abbess the ruler of the city. The blue and white coat of arms of Zürich is attested from 1389, and was derived from banners with blue and white stripes in use since 1315.
In Austrian-controlled territories, the Jesuits had somewhat better success in persuading or coercing many Hutterites to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Mennonites in France, Southern Germany, the Netherlands and North America, as well as most Amish descend from the Swiss Brethren.
 | The word Anabaptist comes from the doctrine held by Mennonites and others that baptism to be valid must be upon confession faith and that people who have not been thus baptized, though they may belong to some church, must be baptized according to Scripture before they can be scripturally received into fellowship.Various groups at various times have been called Anabaptist, but this article focuses primarily on the Anabaptists of 16th century Europe. All people holding this belief were known as Anabaptists. The sufferings of Anabaptists during Reformation times were most severe, for being nonresistant they refused to fight for any purpose, against either Catholics or Protestants, and were therefore marks for malice and persecution from both these warring parties. Thousands were put to death, and the rest driven about from place to place, finding refuge wherever they could. Indigenous peoples continued to cultivate sunflowers on reservations, settlers grew a few as decorative or medicinal plants, but the agricultural community ignored sunflowers. |
Mennonites were tolerated in the Russia Empire. Even more, Catherine II invited them to emigrate to Russia and promised religious freedom to them. They really immigrate into Russia (1789-1820), settled on free lands in the Southern regions (now Ukraine) and near Volga river. The emigration of Mennonites was organized by Canada state and totally about 40,000 persons emigrated. Most of these persons were Germans by ethnicity. The fact that the Mennonites were counted up in the Census 1897 shows that this religion still was officially recognised. As the Mennonites had their clergy, it is possible to assume that in the Russia Empire they kept the civil registers in their parishes. After 1918 all civil registers were kept in the state offices. There are in Latvia quite a lot various religious sects today, but no Mennonites parish is registered. Modern day Mennonites number almost 1 million worldwide, with churches in North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Mennonites are known for their emphasis on issues such as peace, justice, simplicity, community, service, and mutual aid.
| The first Mennonites came mainly from Swiss and German roots, with many of the important martyrs of the early church coming from the area around Zurich. To escape persecution, many Mennonites fled western Europe for the more accommodating religious climate of the Americas or Catherine the Great's Russia, giving these two groups distinctly different cultural heritages. Many people in the older generation of this group continue to speak a low german dialect called "Plautdietsch" and eat traditional foods. Swiss German Mennonites migrated to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, settling first in Pennsylvania, then eventually across the Midwestern states. Mennonites generally are not culturally separatist, choosing to embrace the larger communities outside of their church rather than forming a separate community around the church. Approximately 20,000 would find their way to Canada between 1923 and 1927 when both the Soviet Union and Canada closed their borders. |
The first Mennonite settlers in Ontario travelled from Pennsylvania in Conestoga wagons in the 18th century in search of religious liberty and inexpensive land. Surrounded by the rush and urban sprawl of southern Ontario, the Mennonite communities of the Grand River valley. New Mennonite groups joined them from Europe. These were Amish Mennonites who followed a stricter code of behaviour. The Mennonite community in the late 1800s divided into one group ready to accept a faster pace of change and another conservative collection of "Old Order Mennonites." St. Jacobs is the commercial centre of Mennonite life in the Grand River valley.