When Martin Luther broke with the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, he began a reformation that rippled through the Christian world and across time. In 1519, Huldrych Zwingli of Zurich, Switzerland, followed Luther's example and began the radical Anabaptist Reformation Movement in Switzerland. The name Anabaptist[1] started as a derogatory term by their detractors, but quickly caught on. However, followers of Zwingli in Switzerland called themselves Wiedertäufer, or Täufer. Caves where Anabaptists met for prayer or sought refuge, called Täuferholes, were common[2].
A disciple of Zwingli was Konrad Grebel. In 1525, he preached throughout Switzerland. Grebel eventually broke with Zwingli, dreaming of a Christian brotherhood free and separate from the State and following the obligations of discipleship. From there, the movement began to splinter quickly. Different models of the Anabaptist Christian Church were proposed by other disciples, such as Burckhardt Aman. Followers of Aman called themselves Amish, removing themselves almost completely from the world. A movement began separately in Holland at about the same time as Zwingli was preaching in Switzerland. In anglo-saxon Friesland (the northern part of Netherlands), followers identified themselves with Menno Simons and called themselves Mennonists (eventually Mennonites)[3]. Because of their beliefs, Anabaptists were persecuted for almost 200 years.
The Palatine Migration
When persecution became unendurable, most Anabaptists quietly left Switzerland for the Palatinate[4]. The Palatinate, or Phalz as it was called in German, was a province in southern Germany between the Swiss and French borders along the headwaters of the Rhine. It was divided into two sections, the Upper and Lower Palatinate. The Upper Palatinate was located in what is now nothern Bavaria, extending from the Bohemian Forest of what is now the Czech Republic and following the course of the Main tributary of the Rhine as it flows in a westerly direction across southern Germany. The Lower Palatinate was west of the Upper Palatinate and included lands between the Main and Neckar tributaries. [ map of Palatinate]
In 1644, Anabaptists were officially permitted to settle the Palatinate where they were promised protection and religious freedom, and most settled in the Lower Palatinate -- the Rhine Valley of Alsace (now France) and further east (now southwestern Germany). It was here that the Anabaptists dropped much of the distinctive Swiss vocabulary and accent in favor of Palatine German, today referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutch). However, between 1689 and 1697, the troops of French King Louis XIV ravaged the area and much of it fell under the control of rulers not sympathetic to the radical Anabaptist Reform Movement. France would eventually annex the Alsace region, and the renewed atmosphere of persecution forced many of the early Mennonite and Amish settlers to seek sanctuary elsewhere[5].
Immigration to the Americas
Coming to England by floating down the Rhine through Holland, the Anabaptists found their theology meshed easily with that of Quaker William Penn, who supposedly invited the "Swissers," as he called them, to live in Penn's Woods[6]. Their views concerning pacifism were as noteworthy as that of the Quakers. In 1755, Mennonists in the Colonies petitioned the Pennsylvania General Assembly in Philadelphia for conscientious objection to taking up arms[7], stating in reference to the Naturalization Oath ...
In this oath, we are bound to help maintain the Title, and Reign of His Majesty, and to defend him with Heart, Hands and Life, not only against the Pretender, but likewise against all his other Enemies. But we must Humbly reply, that we cannot nor dare not, promise this in so extensive a manner. We are willing as far as we have the divine assistance, to pray for the King, that he may have a long and prosperous Reign, that his life may be one continued Scene of Peace and felicity, that he and all his Royal Issue may live continually under the Divine protection, and hereafter in the full fruition of Immortal Bliss; And more than this we dare not consistent with our peace of Conscience, comply with, it is our fixed principle rather than to take up Arms in order to defend our King, our Country, or our Selves, to suffer all that is dear to us to be rent from us, even Life itself, and we Think not out of Contempt of Authority, but that herein we act agreeable to what we think is the mind and Will of our Lord Jesus.
The influence of the Anabaptists is not strictly geographical, nor is it confined to the United States[8]. The theology of the early Anabaptists has been incorporated into the fabric of modern society in many places and in many forms. Separation of church and state is now common in most countries, and a fundamental right in the United States. The Baptist denomination of the the Protestant Church has incorporated many of the baptismal beliefs of those early Anabaptists, and concientious objection to military duty has been extended to many religions and in many countries. The sacrifices of the early Anabaptists, with their dream of creating a better world through personal choice and dedication to religious principles, were not made in vain.
|
|
Footnotes
1The main belief of the Anabaptists was that they felt infant baptism was non-biblical and taught that re-baptism was necessary after the age of discretion.
2Anabaptists also believed in an autonomous church, which was a far more dangerous idea than re-baptism. At the time, chuch and state were a single entity. Non-conformity was not simply a question of religious differences, but heresy against the church and treason against the state. The penalty for being a member of a sect such as the Anabaptists was often death and confiscation of property.
3The Amish and Mennonites who settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania did not splinter after their arrival in America. The schism had already occured on the Europeon continent. The two sects found that living in Quaker-controlled territory suited their religious needs. Their common language served to formulate a bond, but they would remain forever disctinct.
4The Palatinate originated from the lands of Count Palatine, a prince of the Holy Roman Empire who held large tracts of land in what is now southern Germany and part of France. During the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the Lower Palatinate west of the Rhine River, commonly referred to as Alsace-Lorraine, was incorporated into France and for a time, the Palatinate ceased to exist as it became absorbed into surrounding provinces. But in 1838, the Congress of Vienna again created the Palatinate. It is currently a province of Germany, situated primarily on the western bank of the Rhine River Valley from the French border to just before the Rhine reaches Bonn. The entire Palatinate today exists in a small northwestern corner of the old Lower Palatinate -- merely a remnant of its former glory.
5There are records of a Herr family, who were pioneers in Pennsylvania, living near Strasbourg on the Rhine River in what is now France. Like many of their brethren, they were forced to leave the Palatinate because of renewed religious persecution. The town of Strasburg, Pennsylvania, where they eventually settled, probably took its name from the Lower Palatinate village of Strasbourg where they lived for a time.
6That William Penn invited the persecuted Anabapsists seems consistent with Penn's character, but is undocumented. Following his expulsion from Oxford University in 1662 for speaking out against religious oppression in England, Penn was sent on a tour of the European continent by his parents who were concerned about his future and the dangerous path he was embarking upon. Penn must surely have come in contact with the Anabaptists who had been living in the Palatinate province of Germany since 1644. By 1672, after King Charles II had issued his Declaration of Indulgences freeing British subjects to worship as they please, Penn had turned his attention to America as a haven in which to establish a colony where complete freedom of conscience might be exercised. He may have only been thinking of his Quaker Friends at the time when he established his "Holy Experiment" in 1682, but by the 1690s, when persecution of the Anabaptists intensified, he may have thought of them as well. There is a persistent oral tradition that he travelled to the Palatinate to invite them to freely practice their religion in his new colony, but no evidence exists to support the claim.
7One of the signers of this petition was Jacob Graft. A similar petion, drafted to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia on behalf of the Mennonists and Dunkards of Rockingham County, Virgina was signed, among many others, by Christian Graff. The Graf family name (also spelled variously Graff, Grafft, Graft, and Groff) figures prominently in this family history, and they were most certainly pacifists.
8Today, there are extensive communities of Amish and Mennonites throughout the eastern United States, most notably in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. In New York, there is city called New Palz and a river crossing across the Mohawk in central New York called Palatine Bridge. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has become famous for its Amish community.
|
