Hutterites in Translyvania

Strangers come to Alwinz

1.          Elias Wipf was scarcely seven years old and his cousins Gretel Wipf and Lorenz Tchetter were about the same age when they first met the two strangers from faraway Austria. It was spring 1756 when the two men came to Alwinz in Transylvania and then to the little, close-knit group of families who were known as Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren. At that time neither the children nor the strangers could have any idea what dangers and long, difficult journeys they would one day share together. Elias, Gretel and Lorenz, like their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents before them, had spent all their lives in the fertile valley of the River Mures, with the forested ridges rising beyond the well-tilled farmland, and Alwinz castle on its hill on the other side of the water.

        Of course they had seen strangers come to their community before. People came to Lorenz Tchetter's father for iron goods and to have their horses shod, for he was a skilled smith. They came to deal in livestock and grain with Elias's father and the other farmers in the group. They came to see the elder, Martel Roth, and to buy the beautifully glazed earthenware that he and others made in the pottery on the little hill this side of the river. They visited Joseph Kuhr who was the second elder and had such fine vineyards and orchards that even nobles and their ladies liked to view them.

        Poor folk came to visit Joseph Kuhr too, for everyone knew he was a generous man, always ready to help those in need. Besides, he could speak to nearly all of them in their own language. This was not to be taken for granted in Transylvania, where several different kinds of people lived, each with their own language. Some spoke Hungarian, others Rumanian. In Alwinz and the villages in the south, half the people spoke a kind of German. They were known as Saxons and their families had come from northern Germany more than six hundred years before. Elias, Gretel, and Lorenz and all the Hutterian children spoke German too, but it was a different dialect because their families had come long ago from south of Germany, from Switzerland and Tirol. Many people came and went through the gate in the long wall that enclosed the homes, workshops, and gardens of the Hutterian families. The children liked to watch them but they had not gotten to know many of them. There was not only the difficulty of language. Outside their small community people dressed differently. They went to a different meetinghouse or even a church. They sometimes acted wildly or roughly or got drunk. The children's parents did not act like this. They were kindly, hardworking people who wanted to live peacefully together as brothers and sisters serving God and each other.

        The two men from Austria were also different from others. They were much more like the children's fathers. Some of the Hutterian brothers met them in Alwinz village, where they were hiring themselves out as day laborers. The brothers spoke to them and were answered in a dialect almost like the Hutterites' own. The strangers' names were Georg Waldner and Andreas Wurz. Where are you from? asked one of the brothers. From Rumes, they answered, naming a village some twelve miles to the southwest of Alwinz. But before this we came from Carinthia. (Carinthia is in southwest Austria.) Did your families come with you? asked another brother. Yes, our wives and children are with us in Rumes. We must earn money to buy food for them. We came here to look for work.

        The brothers agreed to employ them. Perhaps at that time they needed more men for the spring work, or perhaps they saw Andreas and Georg's careworn looks and reached out a helping hand. Afterwards they realized that God had led them together.

        For the first few days the two said little. They were glad to work with friendly, peaceful people and they quietly took in all that was happening around them. They worked hard and reliably. When the brothers asked them, they said that back in Carinthia they had had good farms of their own. Last year they had given them up and traveled with their families to the distant land of Transylvania. Why did you do it? they were asked. For the sake of our faith, said Georg and Andreas. The imperial government forced us to move. You must be Lutherans, then, said a brother. Didn't you come as transmigrants, the people Empress Maria Theresa is sending here to join the Lutherans? We are transmigrants, the men said, but we are not Lutherans. We do not agree with the Lutheran church, and we have come into great trouble. Tell us, do you believe it is right to swear an oath? No, the brothers told them. It is against Scripture. Andreas and Georg's faces lit up with joy at the answer. Little by little, sometimes one and sometimes the other, they told their story In Carinthia we were Roman Catholics. Then we and others we knew began to see many things in the Roman Catholic Church which are not as the Scripture teaches and so are not as God wants. Peddlers who came to our villages secretly brought us Bibles in German, translated by a man named Martin Luther. They brought books written by him as well. He wrote against the pope and many of the teachings and usages in his church. It was dangerous to read these books, and especially the Bible, because in Austria only the Roman Catholic religion is allowed and everyone is supposed to obey the priests. But Luther seemed to us to teach the pure truth of God.

        We stopped attending the Roman Catholic services. We remained at home and read the Bible and the other books. We also held meetings secretly at night. It gave us such joy to hear God's word! We often went long distances in rain and snow and wind. We prayed, read the Bible, sang and talked together. The priests became angry that we no longer attended church. They reported us to the government, and the Empress Maria Theresa made laws against us. First we were ordered to hand in our books. We were punished if we did not surrender them. Then we were told that if we wanted to hold to the Lutheran faith, we must leave our homes in Carinthia and go into Transylvania where other religions are permitted.

        Because we believed what Luther wrote in his books, we thought that the church called after him would certainly live out the pure gospels. So we said we wanted to be Lutherans. There was a little group of us at Sankt Peter, Amlach and Paternion and in other villages near. We all felt the same. We gave up our homes and were brought here with a hundred or so other transmigrants. It was a long journey, many weeks by oxcart and river boat, always going eastwards, from Austria into Hungary and then into Transylvania. At the stopping places we were treated almost like criminals and lodged in the prisons. We were told that in this part of the country many people speak German and are Lutherans.

        That is true, the brothers agreed. The Saxons are all Lutherans. We were told we could join them, continued Georg and Andreas, so we arrived in Rumes, the whole group of us. Each of our families was quartered in a family in the village. It made their homes very crowded and they were not happy about it, but they had to obey the government officials.

        When we were still in Carinthia we had been promised farms in Transylvania in exchange for the ones we had left behind. But as soon as we came to Rumes we began to hear that although many hundreds of transmigrants have been brought to this country in the last few years, not one has ever received a farm. The imperial government has not kept its promise. That was a hard blow!

***************

The Transmigrants Protest

         Then something happened that was even worse for us. We were called to a meeting in a big room in the village. The Lutheran parson, a Lutheran councilman, and other Lutherans were there. They said that no one could have a farm unless he swore an oath of loyalty to the empress. We could not believe it. No, we could not believe it! We had given up our homes in order to obey the gospels, and now the Lutherans asked us to swear an oath, although Jesus forbids us to swear. Everywhere in the room people began to protest.

        Mathies Hofer, a young man from Amlach, spoke out boldly. He is one of our group and he knows a great deal about the Bible. How can you ask us to do what Christ forbids in Matthew 5?' he demanded. 'Christ said, You are not to swear at all - not by Heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; nor by your own head, because you cannot turn one hair of it white or black. Plain 'Yes' or 'No' is all you need to say: anything beyond that comes from the Devil. The councilman retorted, 'You may be able to read the Bible, but you don't understand it. Why didn't you quote Romans 13? Every person must submit to the supreme authorities.

        There is no authority but by act of God, and the existing authorities are instituted by him; consequently anyone who rebels against authority is resisting a divine institution, and those who so resist have themselves to thank for the punishment they will receive.

        Martin Resch and others of us supported Mathies. There was a great deal of argument and the meeting broke up with nothing clear. Afterwards the Lutheran councilman and pastor went around visiting and persuading the other transmigrants in the village until all but our group swore the oath.

        We heard that the magistrates had started asking for the oath only a short while before we came. Some of the transmigrants had grown very angry and had protested against the empress's broken promises. The magistrates grew angry in their turn. They punished the protesters and demanded an oath of loyalty from everyone else. It did not matter to us why they imposed it. We would not swear for any reason. It made a sad start for us in Transylvania.

        The winter was a difficult time. We got through as best we could, waiting for the spring field work. We now saw no future for ourselves except as day laborers. It was hard to get used to the different climate, food and water; and many people became sick. A young man in our group, Christoph Stephan Kleinsasser, and many other transmigrants died. And all the time we saw more and more clearly that Lutherans are no different from Roman Catholics. They have different church services on Sunday, but the way they live is the same. They live for their own pain and pleasure. They think obeying church rules is more important than obeying the gospel.

***************

Children Baptism

         We learned all this, and yet we did not know where we should turn. We went on attending the Lutheran church and had our children baptized there. Where do you have your children baptized? Here in your own meetinghouse? We do not baptize children, said Joseph Kuhr. God has told us to teach first and to baptize on confession of faith. It is impossible to do this for a baby in its mother's arms.

        But does not Jesus tell us to bring our children to him? asked Georg Waldner. My wife Anna and I had our baby daughter Barbara baptized in Rumes only a few weeks ago. We wanted to bring her to Jesus. All young innocent children belong to Jesus, said the brothers. We should teach them to know and love him through our words and lives. When they are old enough to understand and believe, they may, of their own free will, ask for and receive baptism.

        People often call us Anabaptists, rebaptizers, because we baptize grown people who were given so-called baptism as infants. But in fact we do not baptize over again. We give true baptism for the first time. It is all taught clearly in the Bible.

        This was a new, strange thought to Georg and Andreas. We would like to talk more about this, they said. We have already seen that you do many things as the Bible teaches. We want to learn more about your faith. We want to know how your faith differs from Lutheran and Roman Catholic teaching and why you believe as you do.

***************

Hutterian Teachings taught to the Transmigrants

         We will gladly teach you, said Joseph Kuhr, and we will lend you books of teachings written by our brothers long ago. They will show you how the Scriptures should be understood.

        As Andreas and Georg read the books and compared the teachings with the Bible, more and more fell into place for them. They read that true Christians do not carry weapons or serve as soldiers because every act of violence is against God and his love. They never bring accusations in a law court, for they leave all vengeance to God. If they are accused in such a court, they answer truthfully but do not inform against others. They suffer loss of goods and life rather than injure anyone else. For the two newcomers it was as light shining on passages and questions where they had only groped before. Then they were invited to come with the community to their readings and common prayer in the little meetinghouse.

        This was so unusual that the children could not help craning around to see Georg and Andreas sitting behind them. But Georg and Andreas were not noticing the children now. They were concentrated heart and soul on the meeting, listening to the teachings and joining in the songs as they were intoned, and then sung, line by line. After a number of days the two asked to go back to Rumes to visit their families and friends. They were eager to tell of the faith and way of life they had found among the Hutterian Brethren at Alwinz. With them they took some of the old teachings, so that others of the group could prove and recognize the truths of God as they were taught in the Hutterian church.

***************

We want to become Brothers and Sisters

         When Georg and Ardreas returned, the community flocked to welcome them. Joyfully they told the brothers and sisters that the others in their group had responded just as they had done. They had begun to read the teachings, compared them with the Scriptures, and again and again had felt a deep sureness in their hearts that this was the truth. They wanted to hear and learn more and more.

        In the following weeks others made their way from Rumes to Alwinz through a countryside full of a spring promise that matched the expectation in their hearts. They worked side by side with the brothers and sisters. They attended the meetings for worship, and their joy and certainty increased. The young corn grew higher in the valley fields; peach, almond, cherry and plum blossomed in the orchards; the wild pear thickets on the hills turned white with bloom. The oak woods at last grew green and shadowy with their late-coming leaves. As the year drew on to hay harvest, still more of the Carinthian group came to help in the brothers' fields. Many of them slept in Joseph Kuhr's barn at night.

        It was a wonderful summer. The helpers were so brimming with thankfulness that it overflowed into everyone else. The community children worked happily beside them, weeding and harvesting in the gardens; raking, turning and bringing in the mown hay. There were times too, for talks. Sometimes the grown-ups spoke together of their faith and its meaning for their daily lives. Sometimes the transmigrants told of their former homes, the persecution, and the long journey east. The children liked to hear about the journey, especially about the weeks in boats, moving downstream with the great Danube river past towns, islands and vast marshy plains full of water birds; and about the Bega Canal, where the boats had to be towed along the man-made waterway across the rich farming lands of the Banat to Temesvar.

        It impressed both grown-ups and children how much the whole story had in common with the history of their own forefathers. The brothers and sisters of long ago also had been driven out of Austria and forced to go as pilgrims and strangers eastwards. They however, had stayed many years in Hungary and had built up communities where they shared all their possessions as the first Christians had done in Jerusalem. There were still four communities in Hungary in this year 1756, including the mother community, Sabatisch, which had sent Märtel Roth to be the elder in Alwinz and had chosen Joseph Kuhr to help him.

        The transfer of a community from Hungary to Transylvania in 1621 was not by choice of the Hutterian church. A Transylvanian prince, Bethlen Gabor, had forced them to move. While leading his troops in a war that ravaged Hungary, he had come to know of the communities. He wanted some of their skilled craftsmen in his own country and insisted that a community be brought there. So neither the Hutterian Brethren nor the Carinthians had come of their own choice. Each had been led at far different times and for different reasons to this out-of-the-way village of Alwinz. They knew it was God who had brought them together, and they praised and thanked him for it. The meetings for teaching and prayer had always been the center of the communal life. Now, with new listeners on fire to hear each teaching, the words became more living for everyone; the singing grew more wholehearted. All the Carinthians had the same longing. They wanted to be part of the Hutterian church.

        The brothers at Alwinz frankly pointed out that theirs was a weak, backsliding community, untrue to the full commitment needed for discipleship. When they had come to Transylvania they had still lived in community of goods. Now, although they read from the old teachings Sunday by Sunday about God's will for them to live in unity and full sharing, and although many longed and prayed for a return to the old order, yet they still kept their private property. They helped each other a great deal, but they did not share all their money, property and work. Not even the oldest members could recall the days of the communal household. It was the same in the four communities still existing in Hungary, but the collapse had gone even further there, for they allowed the priests to baptize their newborn babies. Later, in secret, they baptized their young people on confession of faith.

        The Carinthians were not discouraged. Even now, they said, what you have here is better than anything we have found before. We want to become brothers and sisters.

        They wanted to go forward together with those in Alwinz, to obey God more and more perfectly.

***************

The Authorities are Alarmed

         Those of their group still in Rumes stopped attending the Lutheran services and stayed at home to read the Bible. The parson in Rumes soon noticed that a number of transmigrants no longer came to his church. One day he called the absentees to him and demanded: Why are you separating yourselves from my other parishioners? Why do you not attend church? They told him openly all that they had found lacking in his church and congregation. After he had tried without success to convince and win them back by quoting Scripture, he grew hostile and angrily denounced them to the city council in Hermannstadt, the chief town of the area.

        The Hermannstadt city council administered southwest Transylvania. Although up to half the people in the country were Rumanians (Vlaches) by race and belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church, only the Hungarians, Saxons, and Szeklers (a race akin to the Magyars) had political rights, and only the Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Unitarian religions were recognized. In the Saxon area around Hermannstadt, the village councils were Lutheran. The city council was part Lutheran, part Roman Catholic. Local rights of jurisdiction were also held by the owners of large estates, who were frequently Hungarians and either Roman Catholics or Calvinists. These had the right to try and imprison any of their tenants who broke the law. Alwinz happened to be the property of the Roman Catholic bishop of Karlsburg (Alba Iulia), and cases involving the brothers could be referred to him as well as to the city council. He could also initiate such cases himself.

        Over the Hermannstadt city council was the Transylvanian Council (Gubernium) which administered the whole province of Transylvania and which also had its seat in Hermannstadt. Theoretically the Transylvanian Council allowed equal representation to the four accepted religions Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Unitarian. Actually the Roman Catholics always had the advantage, since the empress, Maria Theresa, was an ardent Roman Catholic, and her government policies favored this religion. The central government was in Vienna and controlled all the countries under the empress's rule. Its orders were passed on through the provincial and city authorities, finally to the local officials. They were binding on all other levels of government, though often with considerable delays.

        It might be thought that the Lutherans, who themselves suffered from discrimination and at times persecution, would have had a fellow feeling for the Hutterites. Some few wanted to treat them with justice, even with sympathy. In the history of the Hutterian Brethren there are several instances of Lutherans who felt a conflict between obeying their ruler and following their better impulses toward fairness and humanity. But many, in their anxiety to preserve their own positions and privileges, tried to please those in power by special zeal against the Anabaptists.

        The parson at Rumes saw the transmigrant Hutterites as deserters from Lutheranism who required sharp discipline to return them to his flock, so he complained of their disobedience to the Hermannstadt city council). Some of the transmigrants here have gone over to the Anabaptists in Alwinz. They have been led astray by the Hutterites and will no longer accept my spiritual direction.

        A few days later the sheriff from the neighboring district of Reussmarkt and the parson from the village of Grosspold arrived at Alwinz. The sheriff assembled all the transmigrants in the community yard. Why have you come here? he demanded. The Carinthians spoke up bravely. We have found employment here they said. We have to earn money to buy our daily bread. Where do you go to church? he asked. Here with these German people, they replied. 'They teach the true, pure Gospel. But you can't share in the holy communion here, said the sheriff. These people belong to a sect outside our church.

        The transmigrants answered, According to the holy Scriptures we can hold it better here than in the Lutheran service. The sheriff was horrified. He and the parson began to beg and admonish them by turn to listen to advice and have nothing to do with such heresy, to remain in the Lutheran church and keep the beliefs they had already accepted.

***************

The Carinthians ordered to leave

         Although they had only just come to the Hutterian church, the Carinthians could not be shaken. They held to God and his truth. Finally the sheriff and the parson lost patience. They ordered the transmigrants to leave Alwinz. If, after this order, they were discovered with the Anabaptists in Alwinz, they would have to suffer the consequences. The two made a list of the transmigrants' names and rode off to Hermannstadt to report to the city council.

        The brothers and sisters and some of the children had gathered at a little distance. Now they hurried to their fellows in faith to hear all that had happened. Perhaps for most people in Alwinz it was the first time the sheriff had come to them in such a manner, to order and threaten. The children were frightened and confused. Why does he say Andreas and Georg and all of them must go away? they asked. Why won't he let them stay with us?

        Their parents tried to explain. Because the sheriff and the parson are Lutherans, and they think all the transmigrants should be Lutherans too. But they let us be Hutterites and live here. Why can't the others come to us and be Hutterites as well? It is not quite so simple. Only people from old Hutterian families are allowed to live here. We are forbidden to teach our faith to anyone except our own children and people from countries outside the imperial lands.

        As far as anyone knew, the community had never disobeyed this law before. But now God had led people to them who wanted to learn his truth, and as disciples of Jesus they had to tell them. The brothers and sisters and their helpers returned to work, ignoring the sheriff's order.

        A day or so later, Joseph Kuhr was summoned to appear before his manorial lord, the Roman Catholic bishop of Karlsburg. Joseph set out for the bishop's residence, taking with him Andreas Wurz, Georg Waldner, and another Carinthian named Hans Kleinsasser. Everyone at Alwinz prayed for a good outcome for the interview and waited anxiously for their return.

        Karlsburg was only a few miles up the River Mures. As the brothers walked there, harvest was in progress on the stretches of level fields in the valley. The Saxon farmers were hard at work, with wives and children helping bring in the crops. The poor part of Karlsburg, straggling and ill-built, was on the flat land by the river. The richer part was laid out as a fortress on the hill above. It had been newly built some fifty years before, although Karlsburg (Alba Iulia) was an ancient city. Joseph and his companions climbed the winding road. At the center of the fortress was the old cathedral. The brothers made their way to the bishop's residence and were taken straight to an audience with him.

        Are you the preacher at Alwinz? he asked Joseph. Joseph replied that he was. As your manorial lord, said the bishop, I order you to refuse shelter and lodging to these transmigrants. You are not to give them work nor allow them to stay overnight. Joseph, in a friendly, respectful way, asked if he might have permission to say something. The bishop consented.

        Supposing, said Joseph, that you yourself had come as a stranger into this country and no one would help you, wouldn't you find it hard? The bishop said curtly, I am your manorial lord. I have the authority to decide what happens on my own land. Yes, you are the manorial lord, Joseph agreed, 'but the whole earth and all that is on it belongs to God, and God has commanded us to help the poor and thirsty and be ready to receive them into our homes.

        The bishop made no reply to this plea. He turned to the three Carinthians and said sharply, I order you to stop trespassing on my land. If any of your group is found on my property, I will have him arrested and imprisoned. You may go.

        That was how it stood. The transmigrants must either leave or else risk imprisonment. Neither group could bear to think of separating. They had come very close to each other in the weeks of working and seeking together. Could they, ought they to part when God had so clearly led them to each other? Would it be possible to appeal to the bishop further? Should they stand firm and remain together no matter what happened? Märtel Roth was the elder and therefore everyone gave special attention to his advice. He recommended that the Carinthians leave Alwinz, otherwise both groups might come into trouble.

        The Carinthians packed up their few small belongings and were ready to go. They were taking the teachings with them, in their hearts and in the books that were given them. They would remain true to their new faith. The children cried as they saw them go, a shabby little company tramping away in the summer sun between the stubble fields that they had helped to reap and the standing grain still waiting for the sickle. They would not be there to harvest the pears and apples that were ripening so beautifully in Joseph Ruhr's orchards. The place seemed empty and strange without them.

***************

Persecution begins

         The very day after they left, Treitler, the inspector for transmigrants, rode over from Hermannstadt with two lords from Szassvaros (Broos). They came into the community yard and wanted to know where the transmigrants from Rumes were. When he heard they had all gone, he and his companions went on to Rumes. Outwardly the Alwinz Community returned to the quiet of earlier years, but it was an unhappy quiet. Everyone was troubled about the departure of their fellows in the faith and anxious about what might happen to them.

        At Rumes, Treitler and the two lords attempted to cow the new Hutterites with threats, but the Carinthians, although they were so new in the faith, held firmly to the truth they had learned among the Hutterian brethren. They were asked, Why did you go to Alwinz and join the Anabaptist sect, when you could receive the pure words of the gospel in the Lutheran church?

        Once more it was Mathies Hofer who spoke out first. What your parsons teach the people is not the pure truth, he said. It is mixed with ideas people have invented. Some of them are the opposite of what the gospel really teaches. What is more, people in the Lutheran church often lead sinful, immoral lives.

        The three men retorted, Of course we have the pure words of the gospel. We have the Holy Scriptures, the German Bible which was translated from Greek and Hebrew by that inspired and learned man Dr. Martin Luther. Or do you think our Bible is not right either?

        The Bible itself is clear enough, said Mathies, But the way the parsons explain it is often false and misleading. This is why all kinds of wrong - lying, swearing, stealing, adultery, and other sins - are commonplace in your church.

        The three men then tried a different tone. In a very friendly way they began suggesting that, after all the transmigrants should think the question over, swear the oath of allegiance to the empress, and return to the Lutheran church. They spoke scornfully of the simple, plain ways of the Hutterian Brethren. It is all very clumsy and uninspiring, they said. No beautiful ceremonies, nothing uplifting at all.

        Their words had no effect. Not one in the group wavered, and God helped then, find answers to all the questions. Treitler rode with the two lords rode back to Szassvaros, but before he left he ordered the justice of the peace in Alwinz to send four brothers to him. Even though they knew arrest and imprisonment might follow, the brothers obeyed. Andreas Wurz, Joseph Müller, Mathies Hofer and Martin Angerman presented themselves at Szassvaros. Treitler, a commissar, and two Lutheran parsons questioned them.

        Andreas Wurz was taken first, and the interrogators tried in every way to make him deny his faith. But Andreas could not be moved one hair's breadth from the truth God had shown him. When Treitler saw this, he gave orders for him to be fettered and imprisoned in the church. Martin Angermann was second. He was so afraid of being chained and imprisoned too that he gave way, denied the truth, and promised to join the Lutheran church. He was released and permitted to return home. Then Joseph Müller and Mathies were each interrogated, with many questions and long disputes. They refused to give up their faith, so they too were fettered and put in the church with Andreas.

        How thankful the three prisoners were that they could be together! They prayed and sang together and encouraged each other. The Lutherans had hoped to frighten them into recanting, but instead their faith grew firmer. They saw this persecution as a sure sign they were on the right path, for they were meeting the ordeals that have come to Christians all through the centuries. The Lutherans, on the other hand, were only showing more clearly that they did not follow Christ's teaching. They were using bonds and imprisonment to force the brothers to change their belief. This was not what Christ and his apostles had done.

        After they had been in the church for two weeks, a Lutheran pastor came to dispute with them about state authority and the Lord's Supper. The brothers told him that Christ had not instituted laws for the sake of the righteous. In speaking of the Lord's Supper they quoted from John 6. The flesh is of no avail (meaning eating in a physical sense): the words which I have spoken to you are both spirit and life.

        The preacher retorted, That's not in my Bible! - blurting out the statement in a desire to discredit the brothers. But when they showed him the passage, he was the one to look foolish, for he was a preacher and yet did not know what was in the Bible. He did not even know the New Testament. He went away with a burning face.

        A short while later a smith came with his tools, took off the brothers' chains and replaced them with others. By now night had fallen. They were put on a wagon where they had to sit with their hands chained as well. At almost midnight they were taken from Szassvaros in pitch darkness so that no one could see them or know what had become of them. It was a terrifying experience, for they had no idea where they were going. Hardest of all was that they had not been able to take leave of their families and fellow believers. But they did not weaken in faith. Finally they arrived in Deva, miles down the Mures valley toward Hungary. For two weeks they were in a deep dungeon in the castle. Later their imprisonment was less severe. They were put in a room with one guard to watch them, and they remained there for seven weeks.

***************

The new believers are transferred to Grosspold

         Meanwhile the Transylvanian government was trying to deal with the problem of the hundreds of landless, penniless transmigrants. The first man appointed to arrange their settlement, Councilman Wankhel von Seeberg, had proved hopelessly inefficient. The Roman Catholic officials back in Austria cheated the transmigrants on the sale of the property they had left behind. Very little money was forwarded to Transylvania. The small amount that arrived was used by Councilman von Seeberg to erect large, barrack-like buildings on the outskirts of Hermannstadt. He planned them as a center for transmigrant craftsmen. But nearly all the transmigrants were farmers. At the beginning of 1756 they had no farms, no money to buy any, and no hope of a bearable future in Transylvania.

        A few fled the country and reported their wretched plight. Protestant countries such as England, Holland, and Sweden sent complaints to Empress Maria Theresa. She felt forced to dismiss Councilman von Seeberg. In June 1756 she appointed Baron Johann von Dietrich in his place. Baron Dietrich took the common sense view that discontent among landless farmers will soon disappear if they are given farms. He insisted that the Saxons provide a share of land for the newcomers, and he had simple dwelling houses built. In the farming country between the great oak woods near Grosspold he had places made for a hundred families.

        The Baron also believed that his plan would solve the problem of the Carinthians who wanted to be Hutterian Brethren. These men were farmers born and bred. He was certain that with the prospect of receiving good farms, they would settle down among the Saxons and the other transmigrants, forget their heretical ideas, and be good Lutherans like their neighbors.

        One day in October the authorities sent wagons to Rumes. The new Hutterite families were told to pack quickly and be ready to move to another village. Then the train of wagons took them out of Rumes and through the woods to Grosspold. To their amazement and joy, the three brothers from prison, Andreas Wurz, Mathies Hofer, and Joseph Müller, were already in the new village to meet them. They had arrived only a day or so earlier. We were released without conditions - without any burden on our consciences, they assured their fellow believers.

        After seven weeks in Deva castle, locked into a room and guarded day and night, they had been taken back to Szassvaros, then through Mühlenbach to Reussmarkt. Here they appeared before the sheriff again. He let their foot-chains be removed, and this time they were not replaced with others. Three days later he told them to join their wives and children at Grosspold. Inexpressibly thankful to God for their release, they walked the rest of the way together as free men. Their imprisonment had lasted three months.

        In the group now at Grosspold not one had sworn allegiance to the empress, yet each family was given its own house. They were told that if the men submitted and took the oath, they would receive arable land and meadows as well. But they were rock-firm in their refusal. They eked out a living partly by day labor and partly by the spinning and weaving that Georg Waldner helped organize as crafts they could do together in their homes.

        The parson in Grosspold had received instructions to devote every effort to win these heretical transmigrants back to the Lutheran fold. He had already encountered them that spring, when he and the sheriff from Reussmarkt had come to Alwinz to order them to return to Rumes. Like other Lutheran parsons in Transylvania, he had been university trained in theology and philosophy, and he expected the simple farmers in his congregation to accept his direction. He summoned the group from Rumes and began his instructions only a few days after their arrival.

        They staunchly resisted his attempts to mislead them. God stood by them in their weakness, and they remained together with one heart and purpose. They kept themselves apart from the Lutherans in the village, both from the Saxons and from the other transmigrants. On Sundays they met at Andreas Wurz's house and read, prayed and sang together. Georg Waldner, or sometimes Andreas Wurz, or Mathies Hofer; read out the teaching and led the prayer. They had no appointed preacher or servant of the Word. They simply did as best they could.

        The brothers from Alwinz had given them books to help them. The two most important were Peter Riedemann's Confession of Faith, written in prison in 1541, and a book dating from some twenty years later that defended the Anabaptists against slanderous attacks by the Lutherans. The group in Grosspold read the teachings together. They also sent a brother to Alwinz to bring them a copy of the communal prayer of the church.

***************

Two return to Alwinz

         The occasional visits from Grosspold gave joy and assurance to those in Alwinz. Although the time together had been so short and none of the new group had been baptized, the community felt them as true brothers and sisters who had committed themselves with all their hearts to God and his way. While the people at Alwinz turned to their winter tasks, they remembered the work and meetings of the previous spring and early summer. They missed the Carinthians with their glad enthusiasm that made everything seem new.

        They were all the more joyful, therefore, when very early in the new year 1757, Mathies Hofer and a young transmigrant named Rosina Bichler returned to work with them. The brothers and sisters welcomed them with open arms and soon found room and work for them. Rosina was with the Stahl family, Johannes and Judith and their little boy who was also called Johannes. She worked with Judith in the house and helped in the cowstall. Mathies who was a potter worked with Careth Gentner to learn to make the grey-white glazed dishes and pitchers for which the Hutterites were renowned. Well-versed in the Bible and on fire to learn more, he often had long talks with the brothers. Neither Märtel Roth nor anyone else seemed to want the two to go away.

***************

Imprisonment

         One day in March the clatter of hooves in the yard and the sound of loud, insistent voices brought brothers and sisters from their work. A report had reached the city council that two transmigrants were living in Alwinz. At once instructions were sent for the village justice of the peace to arrest them. He had now arrived with his helpers to carry out his task. He demanded to speak with the elder and ordered that Mathies and Rosina be handed over immediately. The brothers refused. The justice and his men threatened and shouted, but finding this had no result, they began a search.

        They must have had exact information, for they went straight to Careth Gentner's house. Mathies had hidden himself, however, and they did not discover him although his hiding place was so close that he could follow all that was going on. When the searchers left the house empty-handed, Mathies and the watching brothers and sisters began to hope they had given up looking for him. If only Rosina were equally well hidden, they might both escape. But the justice was not so easily foiled. He pointed to Careth Gentner. Arrest that man, he ordered. He can go to prison instead.

        Two guards seized the brother who had lodged and taught Mathies all these weeks. In a flash Mathies had slid from his place and gone out to give himself up. He could not stay in safety and let another brother suffer for him. The guards took Mathies in their grip and let Careth go free. While they bound Mathies's hands, the others went to Johannes Stahl's house and secured Rosina. She too was bound, and both prisoners were dragged out of the yard, over the bridge, and up the hill to the castle.

        All their lives the children had seen the high, strong walls of the castle on the hill across the Mures. They knew it was used as a prison. But this was the first time they had seen some of their own people taken there. The whole community was distressed and shaken. Paul Tschetter, Lorenz's father, set out just as he was, with his blacksmith's apron still on him, to bring news of the arrest to those in Grosspold.

        The prisoners were kept in the castle until an escort of two guards arrived. Then Mathies had both hands bound behind his back, Rosina had one hand bound to Mathies's hands, and in this way they had to go the long, hilly road to Hermannstadt. They were again brought before the transmigrant inspector, Treitler, and asked if they would attend the Lutheran church. When they refused, they were put in the penitentiary.

        A very hard time was in store for them. Mathies remained there for fifteen years. In the penitentiary all inmates had to help with making wool into blankets. Each prisoner had to card seventy pounds or tease one hundred pounds of wool in a week. If he failed, he was given a lash with a leather whip for every pound he was short. He was allowed a hunk of bread and a small copper coin a day to live on.

        Michel Hofer, Mathies's brother, was so distressed by the arrest that he set off for Hermannstadt and asked permission to see the prisoners. He was told that he was welcome to enter the prison, but would not be allowed out again. In spite of this warning he made his visit, and once in he never came out. A few weeks later, shortly after the death of his mother, Johann Amlacher tried to visit the prisoners. He too applied for permission and was told he would be let in but not out. He too disbelieved or ignored the warning and was kept a prisoner in the penitentiary. There were now four prisoners in

***************

New Measures

         In Grosspold the parson had been undeterred by his first lack of success. He no longer gathered the new Hutterites as a group, but called them to him individually, trying to detach each from the rest and so gradually win them all. This method was no more effective than the other. He could prove nothing to them on the basis of Scripture, and their eyes had long been opened to the unchristian way of life in the villages. Angered that all his efforts were wasted, he set off for Hermannstadt and informed the city council that they could do what they liked with this stubborn group of transmigrants. He could get nowhere.

        The city council and the authorities for the transmigrants met to discuss the case again. They decided their best way would be to take Baron von Dietrich's idea a step further. They would scatter the families into different villages many miles apart and would actually provide them with farms. Without one another's daily support, surrounded by no one but Lutheran farmers, they would surely come to their senses, busy themselves with their land, and lose all touch with the rest of the group.

***************

Families split

         On March 27, 1757, the sheriff from Reussmarkt came to Grosspold and ordered the new Hutterites to prepare for another move. Wagons were soon brought. The families had to load their few possessions onto them, then get on themselves. No one told them where they were going. The line of wagons jolted along the village street and out into the open country. Suddenly each driver began to take a different direction. Cries of distress arose, but every driver had his orders to go to a certain village and drove stolidly toward it in spite of the transmigrants' tears and pleas to be allowed at least to say farewell. Within a short time most of the wagons had lost sight of each other. One or two drove together for a while but then parted.

        Some of the journeys lasted several days and brought the travelers into different districts, many miles from the other families and over seventy miles from Alwinz. Andreas Wurz's household, including his two stepdaughters and the three Ehgarters, was brought to Eibesdorf; Joseph Müller and his family to Baasen; Georg and Lena Gurl and Valtin Resch to Gross-Alisch; Georg Waldner's family with Christina and Elisabeth Winkler to Hahnendorf (Henndorf) in the Schaessburg district; Johann and Elisabeth Platner to Schaas; the Christian Nagler and Johann Hofer families to Gross-Schenk in the Gross-Schenk district; Hans Kleinsasser and his family with Peter Müller to Kreuz - a village three days' journey on the other side of Hermannstadt; Christian Glanzer's household ever further, to Stein in the Reps district.

        In the new villages each family was given a house and a share of land to farm. In Stein, for example, Christian Glanzer (with his wife Maria, his three children Christian, Anna, and Andreas; his two brothers Paul and Veit; and his sister Margarethe) received a house opening onto the street, with a newly built living room and a yard 35 feet by 160 feet. To obtain wood for building his barn, stable, and sheds, he was allowed to fell timber from the village woodlot without making any payment for it, and he was allotted a share of arable land, meadow and pasture with access to water. Although not so fine a holding as the one he had left in Carinthia, it was an average farm for this part of the Saxon lands, and sufficient for a livelihood for his household. The other families were given similar farms.

        The scattered families had no intention of settling down on their new land however. From the minute they were forcibly, separated, their one concern was to join each other again and live as a church community on one place. Far from losing touch, within ten days each isolated family discovered where the others were. This was beyond anything they or their enemies had thought possible, and they knew it was God's working. In spite of the distances between them they visited one another, and from time to time one or two went to Alwinz to borrow books or ask advice. The more they read the old teachings, the more a longing rose in them to live a life of full community, to share all their goods and work as the early Hutterites had done.

        In Alwinz, under the quiet surface, a new stirring and questioning had come through their new brothers and sisters. Many asked themselves, How would we act if we were faced by the same dangers and decisions? Some had been disturbed at Märtel Roth's advice to send the Carinthians back to Rumes to avoid trouble. Here and there one admitted to the other a deep uneasiness that they had accepted the weakened state of the community for so long and had not asked God enough for the faith, hope and love that would give them new strength and zeal for the brotherly way. They felt challenged by the fresh, new spirit that said, Let us go forward. Let us go the whole way with God whatever it may cost.

        Perhaps it was during this time that Lorenz Tschetter, now about nine years old, first felt the resolve in his heart to follow Jesus the whole way. His father had a great love for Mathies and Rosina and had invited them to his house whenever he could. Lorenz had often heard Mathies speak in his fervent, compelling way about the message of the Gospels, and it impressed him deeply that Mathies had given himself up and was in prison for his love to God and to the brothers. Elias Wipf and his cousin Gretel may also have been awakened for Jesus by the new, burning love they had felt among the newcomers.

***************

In the Penitentiary

         Both old and new Hutterites kept Mathies and the other prisoners in their thoughts and prayers. In the penitentiary many attempts were made to convince the four of them that they had done wrong in going to the Anabaptists, especially in attending their worship services, since this was against the direct orders of government officials. The prisoners refused to admit any guilt. For a year they worked at teasing and carding wool, receiving blows if they did not achieve the standard amount. Mathies Hofer wrote verses about it.

        We were taken from the church and brought

        As prisoners to Hermannstadt.

        We suffered shame and mock,

        O God, we tell our grief to thee.

        Locked in the penitentiary there,

        Forced to work for a year and more,

        We were given a groschen each day, and bread.

        We do not complain. We were blessed by God.

        We had to work there with blankets and wool,

        A hundred pounds to pluck or seventy to pull.

        For each pound lacking we got a blow

        And were reviled as lazy and slow.

        At the end of 1757 Michel Hofer died in prison. It was a hard blow for Mathies, especially as his brother had come to the penitentiary for his sake, and it may well have helped plunge him into the intense brooding that occupied much of his time as a prisoner.

        During the following year, 1758, Mathies became convinced that he and Johann and Rosina should no longer do the work imposed on them. This work, he said, is part of the punishment for wrongdoing. To perform such work is therefore an admission that we are guilty. But in fact we have not committed any offense. We should insist on our innocence, refuse the punishment, and not do any more prison work. He won his fellow prisoners to his view, and from that time on they would not work with the wool no matter what threats and blows they received. Their refusal provoked great ill-will from the authorities. The prison was supported by town funds. Each prisoner's labor was counted on to defray his expenses so that prison costs were kept low. The expense of maintaining Anabaptists, who would not work and earn their own keep, soon became a sore subject and led to many complaints at municipal, provincial, and state levels.

        In 1759 the number of prisoners increased again. Anna Ehgarter and Andreas Wurz's two stepdaughters, Elisabeth and Christina Strauss, were in Hermannstadt one day on some errand from Eibesdorf. They thought to use the opportunity to visit the prisoners, but as the prison warden would not admit them unless they had a permit from the transmigrant inspector, Petrus Hann von Hannenheim, one of the three girls went to him and asked for a pass. For some reason Petrus Hann was in an ill humor. Perhaps he was provoked by the obstinacy of those in the penitentiary. He played the same cruel trick that had made Michel and Johann prisoners, only this time there was no warning. The girls visited Rosina and the brothers, then found that they too were incarcerated. When Petrus Hann thought over what he had done to these innocent sisters, only twenty years old or less, he was very sorry and tried to have them released. But he found himself powerless to undo the injustice he had inflicted. The three sisters remained in the penitentiary for thirteen years. *

***************

Holding out and Gathering Together

         The new Hutterites in the scattered villages were not behaving as Baron von Dietrich had hoped. A report made family by family in June 1758 showed they were still holding fast to their faith. Not one of them farmed their land.

        The report tells us that in Eibesdorf, Andreas Wipf with his wife and children still clung to Anabaptist doctrine. In the village they behaved themselves quietly and inoffensively. His house was paid for from his own means. Fields had been measured out and given to him for cultivation, but because he was not allowed the religious teachings he wanted, he refused to earn his bread by any occupations except the spinning he carried on in his own household.

        In Baasen, the report on Joseph Müller with his wife and three children was that he had misled Johann Platner and his sister Elisabeth into joining the Hutterian sect. He was to be put in the penitentiary.... Just like Andreas Wurz, he refused to farm his land.

        In Gross-Alisch, Valtin Resch and Georg and Magdalena Gurl held to the Anabaptist teaching. They made no disturbance, but they also refused to farm their land because they were not allowed the religious teachings they wanted.

        In Henndorf, Georg Waldner and his wife and four children kept to the Anabaptist sect as persistently as ever. He absolutely refused to attend the Lutheran church although the parson repeatedly spoke to him about it. He lived in a new-built house and had received 72 gulden of the money owed to him. It would be possible for him to use this to set up a farm.

        In Schaas, Johann Platner and his sister Elisabeth had been allowed to go to Schaessburg to provide for themselves as their house was not ready. They had been seduced to the Anabaptist sect by Joseph Müller.... As soon as this was discovered they were sent back to Schaas. If they did not return to the Lutheran church within two weeks, they were to be put in prison. (Apparently these threats were never carried out.)

        In Kreuz, Hans Kleinsasser, his wife and two children, and his two brothers Mathias and Joseph were as stiff-necked as the others and refused to do any farming.

        In Stein, Christian Glanzer with his wife and two children, his brothers Martin, Paul, and Veit, and sister Margarethe were exactly like those already listed.

        In Gross-Schenk lived Johann Hofer with his wife and seven children. He was declared to be a dangerous man who quietly went to different places trying to draw others of his countrymen into the errors of the Anabaptist sect. All efforts and warning by the local pastor were in vain. The entire parish wished to be rid of him, since it feared that this evil would make inroads into the Saxon nation as well. He had paid for his house but did no farming whatsoever.

        The Nagler family at Gross-Schenk was not mentioned.

        In January 1760 Baron von Dietrich included this report in a letter to the provincial government. He admitted that in spite of all efforts the parsons had achieved nothing. The new Hutterites still persisted in their faith, and while some were no disturbance, others such as Joseph Müller and Johannes Hofer tried to win people over to their sect, especially from among their fellow countrymen from Carinthia. He felt that strong measures had quieted them down a certain amount. All the same, to give the other transmigrants the chance to become solidly established in their new country, it might be a wise move to transfer the Anabaptist families to another part of the empire that tolerated them, or else exile them to Poland.

        Baron von Dietrich also asserted that the sect had spread under the name of Herrenhutters. At that time the Herrenhutters or Moravian Brethren were taking their message to many parts of Europe, and other officials beside the baron confused them with the Hutterites. The names were similar, and the Hutterites, too, had once lived in Moravia. Both groups represented a more living Christianity than was accepted in the state churches. This mistake made the Hutterites seem more widespread than was actually the case, and therefore added to the people's fear of them. On the other hand, it clouded the issue so that some officials hesitated to act, uncertain who or what they were attacking.

        While measures against the Hutterites hung fire with the Lutherans in Transylvania, ruthless persecution had begun against the Hutterian communities in Hungary. Led by the Jesuits, a Roman Catholic order pledged and trained to root our heresy, it had the support of Empress Maria Theresa, who was gradually increasing control of her outlying possessions.

        First the books of teachings were confiscated (as they had been in Carinthia). Many were burned. Next the people were ordered to attend the Roman Catholic services. When they did not obey, they were threatened with arrest and imprisonment. When they still refused, the elders, the brothers with responsible services, and any who encouraged resistance were bound, put on wagons, and taken to prison. The other brothers fled to the woods, where some held out for months even in wintertime. But they were hunted down by dogs, caught, and imprisoned too. The Hutterian church in Hungary was in its death struggle.

        They have already left God's way so far that he no longer wants to help them, said a despairing voice in Alwinz. And what about us? asked others. Joseph Kuhr opposed any faintheartedness, though he found it even in his own son. I do not believe God has deserted us, he maintained. Even if we are killed for it, we must stay faithful as our forefathers did. Don't any of you older ones remember the terrible pestilence here when we were children? We thought we would die to the very last one. But God saved us then. He saved thirty-six of us from the plague. To me that has always been a sign that God still has a purpose for us. Now he has led new people to us. They are a pledge that God still requires our service.

        The community at Alwinz, especially the younger ones, began looking more and more for help and encouragement from the new people and their steady enthusiasm to become part of the Hutterian church. The families scattered in the villages were slowly but surely gathering and working towards establishing a new community. They were having sorrows and setbacks, but they were going valiantly forward.

        The sicknesses that had killed so many transmigrants claimed more of their members. Among them were three fathers of young families. Christian Nagler and Johann Hofer died in 1760 in Gross-Schenk. Christian's widow, Dorothea, moved with her three little girls to the Kleinsasser family at Kreuz. Johann's widow, Anna, moved with her nine children to Christian Glanzer's household at Stein. Shortly afterwards Christian Glanzer died as well.

        At Alwinz, too, there were deaths in these years. Joseph Ruhr lost his wife. Elias Wipf's father died. Elias, not yet in his teens, was left as oldest to help his mother with the four younger ones: Johannes, two or three years his junior; his two sisters, Margareta and Ännele; and Samuel, who was not much more than a baby. His mother, Anna, was a brave and capable woman, able to turn her hand to various kinds of work and to help out as a nurse or midwife. The community certainly assisted them, but it was a sad, difficult time for the family. Elias had to work hard, take on responsibility, and think for himself.

        In this time of grief, it was somehow comforting to have one of the new people living in the community with them. Peter Müller had been staying at Alwinz for some time. He was not a person who stood out or struck one as remarkable in any way. He was so little noticeable that the authorities never discovered he was at the community, and he was able to pass from village to village without attracting attention. He had a great longing for close working together between brothers and sisters, and an eager desire to help build up the church. During his time at Alwinz he was baptized on confession of his faith. Later he returned to Kreuz.

        The group at Kreuz continued to grow. Georg Waldner with his family and three single sisters moved there from Henndorf in the spring of 1761. They moved with the knowledge and consent of the village justice of the peace. Georg and Lena Gurl, an older couple, came from Gross-Alisch in June. In September Peter Müller's brother Joseph and his wife and three children came from Baasen in Medias County.

***************

The start of a new Hutterian Community

         At first the villagers in Kreuz welcomed the new arrivals because the brothers and sisters worked for them as day laborers. The Saxon farmers were glad for their help in the fields, especially at seeding and harvest time. The only exception made by the community was with the Lutheran parson. They refused to work for him after they had read in the Hutterian history book that brothers of long ago had recognized they should not serve priests and parsons, since such labor helped support state churches and their false teaching. To explain their refusal they showed the passage in the book to the parson.

        In this and every other way the group at Kreuz wanted to be like the brothers and sisters in the early years of the Hutterian church. They were eager to find the same clear faith and to live in the same way. They longed to re-establish community of goods, communal education for their children, and communal work departments. Realizing, however, that they lacked a leader, a brother to have the chief responsibility and guide the growing community, they sent two brothers to Alwinz to seek advice. In a long talk with Märtel Roth and Joseph Kuhr the brothers from Kreuz asked for help to choose a servant of the Word so that they could build up in the right way - the way of the apostolic church and the church communities established through the wonderful grace and insight granted to Jakob Hutter.

        After considering carefully, Märtel and Joseph counseled them that all brothers from Kreuz and Stein should meet together, name two or three from their number whom they believed to have the best gifts for such a difficult task, and then find which of them received most voices in his support. They should let the elders at Alwinz know who was chosen, and then would be told what to do next.

        It was a wonderful, yet a very serious responsibility to share in the beginning of a new community. At Stein, too, the brothers and sisters were hoping to live in community of goods. There would soon be three Hutterian communities instead of one. The young people at Alwinz welcomed the idea with enthusiasm. The community at Alwinz had been alone for the hundred and forty years of its existence.

        Perhaps more will grow up after that, said Lorenz Tschetter. Perhaps there will be communities all along this valley of the Mures. Imagine a valley with many communities, every few miles another one! Perhaps if the others live in community of goods, we will too, said Elias Wipf. I know my mother hopes for that. Many long for it, said his cousin Gretel. Brothers from Kreuz came back to Alwinz to report on the meeting that had been held at Stein. The brotherhood had put forward the names of two men whom they felt had the gifts to carry out the service of the Word. One was Hans Kleinsasser from Kreuz, the other was Veit Glanzer from Stein. Most voices then spoke for Hans Kleinsasser. He was chosen to be servant of the Word although he, like everyone except Peter Müller, had not been baptized.

        All of them longed for baptism as a sign of their complete commitment to God and the brothers and sisters. In the Hutterian church, this life promise was taken with utmost seriousness. Those who asked for baptism received careful instruction in the faith and had to prove themselves sincere. With the service of the Word, too, there was a time of testing or proving until all members agreed that the chosen brother

        was truly given God's help and blessing for the task. When there was wholehearted certainty, the brother was confirmed in his service. Only a confirmed servant of the Word carried out baptisms and marriages.

        At the end of April 1762, Hans Kleinsasser, accompanied by Joseph and Peter Müller, came to Alwinz for his appointment to the time of testing. These were solemn, yet festive days with many important church meetings. On May 3 Hans and Joseph were baptized. Afterwards Hans Kleinsasser was appointed as servant of the Word.

        The children had been at a baptism before, but never had they known and shared so keenly in the struggles that led up to it. Hans and Joseph had made it very plain that in entering the Hutterian church they utterly rejected their old life and came to a new life in Jesus.

        Hans's appointment was deeply moving. While the young people looked joyfully to the future and to establishing a new community, the older ones realized it was the first appointment without the help and approval of the mother church in Hungary.

        Both Märtel Roth and Joseph Kuhr had been appointed there. Now the communities in Hungary were being relentlessly blotted out. It was a shaking thought. All that then remained of the Hutterian church - once with many communities, and with up to thousand people in each one - was the small, weakened group at Alwinz and the brave new beginning of a few dozen wholehearted but totally inexperienced believers at Kreuz, Stein, and Eibesdorf.

***************

The Communities of Kreuz and Stein go forward, but not together

         Even among the new believers, who had held so loyally together, a rift was growing. Hans Kleinsasser, chosen to lead and take first responsibility for the new little community, wished to follow the order of the church, and his people were prepared to wait for baptism and marriage until his service was confirmed. But Andreas Wurz at Eibesdorf hurried ahead. One day in mid-December 1761, after Hans had been chosen but before he was appointed, Peter Müller baptized Andreas at his request and on confession of his faith. Andreas then baptized his wife Gretel and his two daughters Magdalena and Anna. Two months later Andreas baptized all the adult members of the household at Stein.

        Soon afterwards, Andreas Wurz and the brothers at Stein agreed to two weddings: the marriage of Paul Glanzer to Barbara Hofer, and of Johann Hofer to Barbara Wurz. Hans Kleinsasser opposed these matches, for he felt the young couples had come together too much by their own wishes and too little by the guidance of the church. Those from Stein pointed out that the apostle Paul had spoken in 1 Cor. 7: 39 of a woman being free to marry whom she liked. Much discussion and argument followed. In spite of Hans's misgivings and the lack of agreement with Kreuz, Andreas again went ahead, married the couples, and presided over the festive wedding meal. This led to a separation between Kreuz and Stein. Although both sides longed to be reconciled, neither would admit to being in the wrong. Yet in spite of the rift, they went on building up a communal life. Brothers continued to go from Kreuz and Stein to Alwinz to ask for books and instructions.

        In January 1763 Hans Kleinsasser and Peter Müller came again to Alwinz, Peter to testify that the church community at Kreuz was well satisfied with the way Hans was carrying out the service of the Word. Peter brought a letter affirming that the brothers and sisters felt the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts and grace of God at work in the elder they had chosen.

        The Alwinz community was again called together for an important meeting. A teaching was read explaining the tasks and responsibility of a servant of the Word, who must be a true shepherd to the people. He must give a fearless testimony to the faith, protecting those in his care from all danger of false doctrine, and he must be the first to bear the brunt of persecution, standing firm as an example to the others.

        Did Märtel Roth remember how as a young roan of twenty-four he had been sent to Alwinz, to a weak, failing community isolated in Transylvania; how he had known himself entrusted with the care of the church and of watching over the souls of the people, and had afterwards written, May God the Almighty grant me understanding and wisdom from his heavenly armory so that I can go before his people in all that is good? Later, when he had proved too yielding in his nature, Joseph Kuhr had been chosen to help him stand firm. Joseph Kuhr still stood staunchly beside him.

        In front of them on the backless benches in the plain meetinghouse were the families of the Alwinz community. Some, like Märtel Roth himself and Johannes Stahl had moved to Alwinz from the communities in Hungary. Joseph Weber, a Bohemian weaver, and his mother had joined quite recently from outside the community.

        Most of them Joseph had known from childhood. There were Careth Gentner, Michael Kuen, Jakob Stutz, and Michel Wipf, all brothers who were much respected in the community for their dedication and sound advice; there were the other Wipf families, among them Anna, the widow, and near her Judith Stahl, who had grown up with her and who in the last few years had tried to comfort her in her loneliness. The Zilliches were there, and at the front sat the children and young people, including Joseph's own children. Michael Kuhr was now grown up, but Andreas and Gretel were still small. Lorenz Tschetter and Elias and Gretel Wipf were there, eager and attentive.

        In those old enough to understand, every heart was in some way stirred as Hans Kleinsasser knelt and Märtel Roth and Joseph Kuhr laid their hands on him in confirmation of his service. The whole community joined in singing songs of faith written by brothers long ago in prison and under persecution. Afterward the brothers and sisters exchanged the greeting of peace.

        During the next few days, Märtel and Joseph instructed Hans in the important tasks he must undertake. They lent him Books to help him carry out baptism, marriage, and the Lord's Supper, to exclude those who had done serious wrong and to reaccept those who were repentant. Then they said Peter Müller should return with Hans to Kreuz, tell the church all that had been done, and instate Hans in his work.

        Hans and Peter were overjoyed, for they knew how much this would mean to their little group. Now they could begin to live in full community!

        Many who talked with them in those days at Alwinz longed to return with them to take the joyful new step. If only they too could be setting out along the snowy valley road, by the ice-fringed river, and through the bare woods to Kreuz! If only they too could help build up community of goods anew! Or would it be possible right here in Alwinz, in spite of the long years they had been too weak to put their faith into full practice? There was much hope as well as doubt and anxiety at Alwinz. As the people went about their work they sang the songs of praise and faith they had sung at Hans's confirmation.

        And in Kreuz, after the joyful welcome meeting and in great thankfulness for their newly-confirmed servant, they set up community of work and goods step by step. A new dwelling house had already been built to make room for the growing household. In February the community celebrated the first wedding: the marriage of Peter Müller to Elisabeth Winkler. The Alwinz community rejoiced at the news, and rejoiced again when they heard sometime later that Rosina Bichler was once more in Kreuz. A citizen in Hermannstadt, sorry to see her kept so many years in the penitentiary, had arranged for her transfer to his house, to work as a servant girl. In spring 1763 she was able to return home.

        She arrived in time to take part in the baptism preparation that Hans Kleinsasser held during the summer. On July 26, Rosina, Peter Müller's wife Elisabeth, Georg and Anna Waldner, Dorothea Nagler and eight others were baptized on confession of their faith. The new brothers and sisters took up their tasks in the communal life with gladness and dedication, everyone working his best out of joy to serve the others. Each day they gathered in a united circle for prayer and thanksgiving to God. Members who did wrong were earnestly admonished and disciplined. And the Lord blessed the little group and let them earn enough to live on without need of begging.

        In Stein, too, the brothers and sisters were living in community of goods. Even at Alwinz it seemed for a few weeks as if they would start out afresh, pool all that they had, work together, eat together, with the houses and buildings in the brotherhood enclosure once more belonging to everyone as they had done when they were built. To many it was as if the fog and doubt of long years had lifted. *

        Then we too can be true brothers and sisters, they said jubilantly.

        But somehow the new way of community did not go forward at Alwinz. There were misgivings and problems. The attempt collapsed. It was a bitter disappointment to those who had been most eager and hopeful. They could only stand back and watch others build.

        Kreuz now had its big school for the children over six, and a little school for the younger ones. Georg Waldner had been chosen as schoolteacher. He was to teach reading, writing, and Christian knowledge. The young people at Alwinz were delighted when they heard he was appointed. They remembered the kindness and interest he had shown them when they were small children and he had first come as a day laborer.

        Lorenz Tschetter and his cousin Elias were over school age now and were learning the weaver's craft from Joseph Weber, the brother from Bohemia. They were especially interested that spinning and weaving had become the main work departments in Kreuz. Except for the brothers and sisters with particular tasks in the household - Joseph Müller who was steward, Joseph Kleinsasser his helper, Dorothea Nagler who was responsible in the kitchen, and those caring for the children, laundry, clothing and so on - everyone worked in the spinning and weaving rooms. Georg Waldner had started them on these crafts when they were still in Grosspold, and now cloth making was the one big income earning-department. No one went out as a day laborer any more.

***************

Trouble brewing for Kreuz

         The urge to stop day labor had come from Mathies Hofer. He was still a prisoner in Hermannstadt and spent much of his time studying the Bible. Sometimes he brooded over a word or passage until he was convinced he had found a new way to make the community's life better and nearer to scriptural teaching. Then he wrote to the community at Kreuz, or spoke with anyone visiting him, insisting they should do as he saw good. He was able to justify his own ideas with so many texts from Scripture that people often felt compelled to do as he said, even when something in their hearts told them he was mistaken. It was the more difficult to know what was right because Mathies was a dedicated and inspiring person. In prison he wrote many religious songs and copied out in his clear writing many books from Alwinz for use in the community at Kreuz. Hans Kleinsasser in particular respected and valued him highly.

        Now Mathies said the community at Kreuz should stop working for their neighbors in the village because such work only served private property. So the brothers agreed they should rather work at home, spinning and weaving. They stopped raising their hats in respect, or giving a word of greeting to passers by, because Mathies said he had learned in the Scriptures that believers should show no honor or friendship to unbelievers. He also said that as Jesus had done his work of healing on the Sabbath, the community should work on Sunday the same as any other day in the week. After he had represented this, the community had a worship service on Sunday morning, but in the afternoon they continued their everyday work.

        If the brothers and sisters in Alwinz heard that these customs had been introduced in Kreuz, they probably wondered about them and found them strange, for they were certainly different than those followed by the Hutterian Brethren in earlier years. But the obvious zeal and love in the new community far outweighed any misgivings.

        With their neighbors in Kreuz the changes brought anger and bitter resentment. There had already been complaints against the community because its members wanted neither to have soldiers quartered with them, nor to contribute to the soldier's upkeep, nor even to take part in the home guard (Dorfwache) to protect their own families and property. But at least the brothers and sisters had been useful and friendly. Now they would no longer work nor have a civil word for anyone but themselves. As for working on Sunday, the neighbors said it was against all Christian practice. On one occasion the outraged villagers went with the justice of the peace and confiscated all that had been produced on Sunday, but the community continued working just as before. By now the villagers in Kreuz were ready to support any effort to eject the Hutterian Brethren.

        By now, too, it was clear even to Baron von Dietrich that his common sense methods had failed with the new Hutterites. To them faith was more than farming. In February 1763 Petrus Harm von Hannenheim, the transmigrant inspector, wrote a long letter to the Hermannstadt city council reporting the complaints he had received about the Anabaptists: They had not remained in the villages where the baron had scattered them. 'In obstinate disobedience they had moved around and grouped themselves in only three places. Thirty-three of them were now at Kreuz instead of the original seven, and twenty-one at Stein instead of the original nine. Their continual visits to one another created local disturbance.

        Those in the penitentiary refused to work and were a drain on public funds. Those at liberty had vacated the farms assigned to them and left the houses to fall to ruin while they constructed another building at Kreuz without official permission. Their aim was to live in community of goods. In their brotherhood they carried out Acts properly belonging to a minister - preaching, baptizing, holding marriages and the Lord's Supper.

        These Hutterites insisted that their strict way of life harmed no one. Yet they persisted in profaning Sunday with weekday work. They paid imperial taxes but nothing more. All the burden of protecting their village and country through the home guard, army recruits, or billeting of soldiers was rejected and left to others. The villagers wanted to be rid of them, for they might lead more people astray. Already a few among the Saxons approved of this sect and began to doubt their own religion.

        It should be considered whether to send all of them to Alwinz, where their brothers lived, or to banish them all from the country. The way they intended to live and organize their economic affairs was not fit to be heard about, far less allowed to prosper!

        The city council forwarded Petrus Hann's letter to Baron von Dietrich, emphasizing that in spite of every effort the Anabaptists remained stubborn. As the poison of their damnable heresy might contaminate others, the council requested that they be exiled from Transylvania.

        The baron sent the letter on to the imperial council in Vienna, where it did not come before the commission of religion until July. Meanwhile on march 19 he wrote a stern letter to the city council in Hermannstadt saying that the impudent resistance of this Anabaptist sect constituted the gravest threat to the public. Therefore the most stringent measures must be taken against it. Anabaptist fathers of families in Kreuz and Stein must be imprisoned and the single young men must be put in the penitentiary.

        The city council appear to have ignored the baron's orders. They imprisoned no one at this point. and in spite of his fierce words, Baron von Dietrich must have had an uneasy feeling about his condemnation of the Hutterites. He asked the (Lutheran) Superintendent bishop, Georg Jeremias von Haner, to make further enquiries about them. On receipt of the information in early July, he still found the matter too unclear. He wrote on July 19 to the Hermannstadt City Council: Your fine report notifies me of the enquiry instituted by the Superintendent concerning the Anabaptists. Since it was not possible to reach complete certainty about their aims, it is good that my earlier orders for their imprisonment were not carried out The Lutherans in Transylvania hesitated. The Roman Catholics in Hungary went inflexibly on. During the months of March to May 1763, they crushed out the last efforts at resistance in the Hutterian communities. Some of the elders held in the monasteries had begun to give way and weaken in the previous year. The brothers captured from hiding places in the forest were still resisting valiantly, although they had been held for many weeks in prison and treated with great cruelty. When imprisonment did not shake them, they were lashed daily with leather thongs, some until their flesh was in strips. Under this brutality their courage failed, and one after the other renounced his faith. In the end all the elders fell away too, with the exception of one who died mysteriously, probably poisoned for defending his faith.

        On July 31 the commission of religion in Vienna considered what must be done with the Transylvanian Hutterites. One of the councilmen, Anton Maria von Stupan, represented that it was good to tolerate Protestant sects, for the more the Protestant church was divided, the weaker it would become. Councilman, Epyd Valer von Borie took a different line. He advocated stern measures.

        Under a mask of great virtue and meekness, he said, the 'Herrnhut' sect runs into fanatical excesses and hold goods and persons in common. I learned in the German imperial states what fruits come from this vile teaching. Let us endeavor to convert these people. If all efforts fail, they must be shut up in the penitentiary or banished from the country.

        Most of the council supported Enyd von Borie. On August 24, 1763, a rescript was issued, signed by the empress. (A rescript is an order explaining how existing laws should be understood and applied.) It said that the Anabaptists were to be dealt with in three groups.

        Those who had been tolerated for many years (the group at Alwinz) were to be tolerated no more. Their preachers were to be removed and a Roman Catholic priest was to conduct church services. If the people failed to improve within six weeks, they must be exiled.

        The Anabaptists from Carinthia (the group at Kreuz, Stein, and Eibesdorf) were recognized as incorrigible. They were to be put in the penitentiary and their children were to be educated in their parents' previous faith.

        The third group, the Herrnhutters, were to be warned and instructed. If disobedient, they were to be treated like the Carinthians.

        Should the Lutherans fail to convert the Anabaptists, the task must come into the hands of the Roman Catholics. *

***************

Trouble for Alwinz

         In the fall of 1763 Hans Kleinsasser went from Kreuz to visit the prisoners in Hermannstadt. While in the city, he heard that the Empress Maria Theresa had concluded peace with her enemies and so ended seven years of war. In itself this was welcome news, but peace left the empress free to pursue her own plans at home. One of her plans was to crush out all groups that did not belong to the state churches. On this same visit Hans heard of the empress's orders against the Hutterites.

        Probably Hans tried to send word to warn the brothers and sisters at Alwinz. Official news of the rescript reached them on September 25. On that day the local justice of the peace with a higher court judge and several of the landed gentry arrived at the community and ordered the people to assemble. The families soon stood before them in the yard. Then the imperial orders were read out to them. The Anabaptists were to leave the country within six weeks. However, if any or all of them would give up their wrong beliefs and become either Roman Catholics, Lutherans, or Zwinglians, her majesty the empress would graciously allow them to remain. She permitted them these four choices - exile, or to accept one of the three recognized religions. Each must give an answer.

        Exile! Now the moment of decision had come, the decision they had often heard about but never faced themselves. The brothers did not hesitate. As one man they chose exile for the sake of their faith.

        With God's help and grace, they said, we will hold to our faith and rather leave the country than give up our beliefs. They asked for a pass to leave Transylvania and go wherever God might lead them.

        The higher court judge replied, We have no authority to give you a pass out of this country. You must go to the Transylvanian Council in Hermannstadt and apply for one.

        The officials turned away and left them. The brothers gathered to encourage one another and to talk of what must be done. It was now late September. The harvest was almost in, reward of their long summer of toil on the fields by the Mures. Before the winter snow began flying they must leave this place and travel beyond the mountains to an unknown country.

        Elias Wipf, now fifteen, looked across at the meadows and barn where he had often tended the cattle with his father. Every corner was full of memories, even for him who was young. He looked at his mother. Anna held Samuel's hand and Ännele pressed close against her. Her eyes were turned to the burial garden where her husband and many beloved brothers and sisters and many, many little children were lying.

        It would be bitterly hard to go. Yet there was reassurance and comfort because all had stood firmly together for their faith and were determined to go as one united people under God' s protection.

        The brothers decided that Joseph Kuhr and Careth Gentner should approach the Transylvanian Council in Hermannstadt to ask for a pass for the group. The two traveled to the city and brought their request before the council.

        We can do nothing for you here, said the councilmen. All matters to do with your group involve religion, and so must be dealt with by the church authorities. You should apply to the Roman Catholic bishop in Karlsburg.

        Joseph and Careth retraced their steps almost to Alwinz, then turned north along the Mures valley and climbed the hill to Karlsburg. The bishop who gave them audience was a different man from the one Joseph had visited with the three Carinthian transmigrants in 1756. The present bishop, Joseph Anton von Batjay, had been instated in 1760. The two brothers asked for a pass to leave the country. Without one, they would not be allowed across the frontier.

        The bishop said, Wouldn't it be better to accept the true Christian religion and stay in Transylvania? Why do you want to leave?

        The brothers replied, We already have the true faith and are not going to accept any other.

        The bishop began talking to them in a friendly, persuasive way, trying to win them over.

        Listen to good advice, he said. Give up your heretical sect and adopt the Roman Catholic faith, for if you do not submit willingly, you will be forced into it.

        Brother Joseph asked if he might say something in reply, and the bishop granted permission.

        I was once at a Roman Catholic burial service, said Joseph Kuhr, and I listened to the priest give his funeral sermon. The priest told the people, 'A man who holds to his faith to the very end is a jewel of great price.' If your priests believe that a man is a jewel of great price when he holds to his faith until the end, why do you want to compel us to forsake our faith?

        The bishop gave no answer. He rose and went from the room, leaving the two alone. They returned home without the pass. They now felt certain that the authorities had never intended to give them one. It was only a way of testing the Hutterites' resolve.

        The brothers again met to talk over what they could do. They put together a petition to the imperial government. This petition, written in Latin, was handed in to the Transylvanian Council in Hermannstadt on October 7, 1763, to be forwarded to Vienna. The brotherhood appealed for the freedom of religion originally granted them by Bethlen Gabor and later confirmed by laws passed in the Transylvanian Council. If, however, the empress wished to tolerate them no longer, they asked for passes so that they could leave the country in safety. They also asked for enough time to sell their property before their departure. While the petition was awaiting consideration, the imperial authorities left the group at Alwinz in peace.

***************

Lutherans make a last attempt with Anabaptists-Jesuits take over

         Meanwhile the Lutherans attempted to deal with the new Hutterites at Kreuz, Stein, and Eibesdorf. According to the imperial rescript, the grown-ups were to be imprisoned and the children to be brought up as Lutherans. But Baron von Dietrich still felt he had too little knowledge to proceed. He forbade the Hermannstadt city council to punish anyone until full and clear information was obtained about the two heretical sects known as Hutterites and Herrnhutters. - Who belonged to which group? Were there members in other villages? Why was their teaching so harmful?

        He directed Superintendant Bishop von Haner to draw in the local parsons and make an exhaustive enquiry. [The bishop was delayed for four weeks because he had not been sent a copy of the rescript. On notifying the city council of this omission, he received their apologies and the necessary document and was able to set to work.] Bishop von Haner compiled a list of over fifty questions based on the Augsburg Confession, the official Lutheran confession of faith. He aimed at discovering how Hutterites and Herrnhuters differed from Lutherans in their beliefs, and why they separated themselves from the Lutheran Church.

        On October 20 the Hutterian families in Kreuz were summoned one after another to a hearing held by the dean of Reps and the parsons from Reps and Kreuz. First Hans Kleinsasser and his family were called. Next came Georg Waldner and his household, and then Joseph Müller, Georg and Magdalena Gurl, and Peter and Elisabeth Müller and their households. *

        Johannes Waldner, about eleven years old at the time, described many years later what the hearing had been like. The dean asked each one for name and age. Then he began the interrogation. The parson from Kreuz wrote everything down while the other parson simply listened. These three sat at a table. Johannes stood with his parents and brother and sisters while his father answered question after question down the long list.

        The brothers replied as clearly and straightforwardly as they could, as God lent them grace. All held steadily to the truth and did not let themselves be misled by the Lutheran clergy who tried to draw them from their faith.

        At the end of the hearing the parson from Kreuz asked, 'Do you intend to keep to this testimony? It is to be forwarded to high government officials.

        Hans Kleinsasser's answer was, We believe our testimony to be the divine truth, and we intend with God's help to live and die by it. We will wait in patience for whatever he permits to happen to us.

        On October 31 the Glanzer household at Stein was questioned by the same dean and parsons. The other new Hutterites were not questioned until the beginning of 1764, the five prisoners in the penitentiary on January 30 and the Wurz household on February 1. But the answers from Kreuz and Stein were sufficient to convince the city council that none of this group would give up their faith, and already on January 10 a report about the findings was sent to Baron von Dietrich. The council said it was useless to try to convert these people. Even harsh measures such as beatings and imprisonment had been unsuccessful. The baron forwarded a detailed account to the commission for religion in Vienna, and from this point on he left the struggle with the new Hutterites to be taken up by the Roman Catholics.

        Baron von Dietrich's report must have reached Vienna at almost the same time as a letter from the Bishop of Karlsburg, manorial lord of Alwinz and the old Hutterites. Bishop von Batjay recommended that all Hutterites be exiled to Poland. Thus urged, the commission for religion once more considered the problem. Councilman von Stupan again represented the advantage to the Roman Catholics from ever-increasing division, and therefore weakening, among the Protestants.

        Banishing this sect will not benefit the Roman Catholic church, it will only deprive the country of some hardworking people.

        Eventually the council decided not to exile the Alwinz Hutterites but to return to earlier regulations. The Hutterites must confine themselves to their own community, they must not try to instruct others, and no one might join them. In addition, a missionary was to be sent to convert them. He must not be opposed in any way.

        Months of delay - followed before this recommendation was made law. But the local Roman Catholics took immediate action. Early in February a Jesuit preacher was sent to Kreuz to win over the new Hutterites. He spent the night at the house of the justice of the peace, and the next morning he summoned the brothers to him. He at once began arguing points of faith with them, trying with mild and devious words to undermine their convictions. The brothers contradicted him when he said something untrue. They spoke straight out in front of him and all the people he had brought with him.

        Although he had made no headway, he came the following day to inspect the community. He went into the room where the children, were at school and once more launched into a speech, praising the Roman Catholic faith in the most glowing terms. The whole place was full of people: Saxons from the village, the justice of the peace, and many others.

        The Jesuit imagined everyone would be carried away by his brilliant flow of language. But God stood by his people and gave them words and wisdom to disprove the false teaching. In the end, in front of all the people, he had to change his approach. Now he began pleading again, in a mild, concerned way.

        I beg of you, do as I say and accept my advice. If you do not submit and return to the Roman Catholic faith, you will be sorry for it on the Last Day. God will say to you, 'I sent you a Roman Catholic priest who tried to teach and guide you, but you would not listen to him. Therefore depart from me, you unbelievers!

        None of the brothers responded to his pleading. The children, who in the previous autumn had stood through the long questioning by the Lutherans, now sat in their school benches and listened as their fathers defended their faith simply and staunchly against the attacks of the highly educated priest. Outside everything was covered with snow. Bitter winds whirled the flakes high and blotted out the familiar landscape. Inside, in the crowded schoolroom among all the strangers, the brothers stood valiantly for the new vision, the life and joy that God had given them.

        Finally the Jesuit resorted to threats.

        The Transylvanian Council in Hermannstadt has decided that if you refuse to recant, you will be banished from the country. (They did not know, of course, of the commission for religion's new recommendations.)

        The brothers said, God's will be done. Nothing can happen to us unless God permits it.

        The Jesuit left them and went on to Stein. Here again he did his utmost to make some fall from their faith. But he could win no one over and had to withdraw, red with embarrassment, from his fruitless attempt.

        Alwinz, too, received a visit from a Jesuit preacher. Bishop von Batjay of Karlsburg was not content with sending a letter of complaint to Vienna. He also sent the director of the Karlsburg Jesuit College to convert the Hutterites. When the priest arrived in the community, the brothers would have nothing to do with his message. They told him they were determined to keep to their own faith. Other means were then used against them. In early April, 1764, Märtel Roth and Joseph Kuhr were arrested, taken to Karlsburg, and imprisoned by the new gate. They were guarded by a soldier with weapon in hand.

        The priests mostly left them alone. Once, however, the father superior came with two German lords and asked why they were in prison.

        They replied, The bishop is persecuting us. He is keeping us in prison for believing in the divine truth. You priests are such good Christians that whenever you see a light beginning to shine, you rush and snuff it out.

        In his anger at this reply, all the father superior could say was, You wait, you heretics! You are going to be taught a lesson.

        Summer came again, and at Alwinz, although they keenly felt the loss of their elders, the Hutterites went forward with their fieldwork as they had done for decades past. In July in far away Vienna an imperial order was issued based on the February recommendation of the commission for religion: The Anabaptists were to be tolerated but must not spread beyond Alwinz, and no imperial subject might join them. A Jesuit missionary must most definitely be sent to convert them to Roman Catholicism. He must not be opposed in any way.

        This order was sent to the Transylvanian Council. As it involved money for the missionary's salary, there was another delay. Meanwhile, in line with the new direction, Märtel Roth and Joseph Kuhr were released from prison and returned home in September. Everyone in Alwinz rejoiced and thanked God they were back.

        The brothers and sisters did not know of the new imperial orders. A whole year had gone by since the order of exile had been read out to them. It had seemed then as if the time of testing had come. All had responded with one will to hold to their faith and give up everything for the divine truth. Now another harvest had been sown and reaped in the same familiar fields. Their elders had been released from prison with unblemished consciences. Hopes may have risen in some hearts that the storm was passing by and that their life could continue as it had before.

        But six weeks after the elders' return, the Alwinz Anabaptists were told of the new ruling. At the same time the Jesuit missionary arrived and was presented to them. The man appointed for the task was Johannes Theophilus Delphini. (Some records give the name as Delpini.)

***************

Delphini arrives at Alwinz

         Delphini had been in Hungary and had helped to destroy the communities there. He was eager to continue this work in Transylvania. A very able man, he impressed and attracted many he met, but he pursued his goal with an icy determination, without mercy or scruple, until even an admirer could be repulsed by his cunning.

        He lodged at the bishop's residence at Karlsburg, coming almost every day to the Alwinz community and working through it house by house, summing up everyone and everything. The imperial order had forbidden the people to hinder him, so they let him enter their houses and look around. The children shrank back and avoided him. As soon as the brothers and sisters realized that he might come at any time, they hid away the old, precious books of teachings.

        This was a wise move, for after Delphini had been to every house in turn, he appeared one day with a crowd of officials and peasants. He called the brothers together, posted guards at the house doors, and demanded that all Hutterian books and writings should be handed over to him.

        Again the brothers did not hesitate. They answered as one, No, we will never give up our books. Delphini was undeterred. He took the county officials with him and searched every house from top to bottom. Some books were found and carried off. This was how it had been in Carinthia, and soon afterward had come exile. This was how it had been in Hungary, and soon after had come persecution; when the people had refused to attend the Jesuit sermons they had been subjected to torture and in the end they had been completely broken and defeated.

        But we are standing together, the whole community standing together, some comforted themselves. And Transylvania has different laws from Hungary. Perhaps we can win through.

        Delphini came again. He again told Märtel Roth to call the brothers together. He showed them an official document and explained that her gracious majesty Empress Maria Theresa had sent him to convert them from the errors of their sect and bring them to the true Christian faith. She wanted them to listen to him and obey him. He would guide and teach them.

        Once more the brothers replied with one and the same answer: We are not going to accept any other beliefs. We already have the true Christian faith, and with God's help we will hold to it.

        After a long, keen look at them, the Jesuit turned and left. Their refusal meant nothing to him. He was perfectly sure of himself and his goal. He had helped destroy the communities in Hungary, and he fully intended to destroy those in Transylvania - first the one at Alwinz and then the two that had unexpectedly sprung from the old. The power of the church and the government was with him. He went forward step by step without haste or delay.

        There was something unnerving in his assurance. In their homes and workplaces the brothers and sisters tried to hearten one another, but a weakening fear and self-doubt was in nearly every one of them. In the weaving shop Joseph Weber, Lorenz, and Elias thought of the transmigrants at Kreuz and Stein.

        Persecution brought them closer. Perhaps it will bring us closer. We must go on standing together and hold to God and his truth even if we have to suffer. . . .

        A week passed and the Jesuit returned. He went to the elder's house and asked Märtel Roth to call the whole community together. The little family groups came from their houses, crossed the yard, and sat in order in the meeting house as they usually did. But it was not their own preachers who were to speak. The elder and the responsible brothers had given this permission to the Jesuit. He sat at the preachers' table and those appointed by the brotherhood - their teachers of the divine truth - sat silent beside him, listening with the congregation.

        Delphini took his text from John 16, especially the words Christ spoke to his disciples, There is still much I could say to you, but the burden would be too great for you now. He twisted this around to mean that the brothers and sisters understood too little about the gospel. The next verse is, However, when he comes who is the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth. This the Jesuit applied to himself and his zeal to teach them the true faith. He quoted Jesus' words from Matthew 5. Truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move over here,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you.

        This text, said Delphini, makes clear to us that wherever there is true faith it will be confirmed with signs and wonders. You Hutterian Brethren pride yourselves on your faith, but you cannot cast out demons or perform any miracles. This shows that your faith is false and mistaken. Roman Catholics, on the other hand, have performed many miracles.

        He told stories of a Jesuit who had moved a mountain, and of other such wonders. These he took as proof that the Roman Catholic Church was the true assembly of believers, whereas the Anabaptists were heretics and should be rooted out.

        To conclude his sermon he added, Her imperial majesty has taken pity on you in your terrible error. She has sent me in all haste to turn you from your heresy to the Roman Catholic Church. I have come to promise merciful treatment from both empress and pope to all who are good-willing and ready to accept conversion. But those of you who refuse and cling to your heresy will be in peril of your lives.

        Have you all understood? What do you say to this?

        Märtel Roth was elder and should have answered. People looked to him, awaiting a direction. But he sat without moving, without a word, and those looking to him did the same. Only Joseph Kuhr rose and faced the Jesuit across the preachers' table, A tall, powerfully built man with chestnut hair and red beard, he stood confronting the black-robed priest.

        What you have quoted from the Bible, I know as well as you do. What you said about your many saints, I do not believe. And what you repeated about a Jesuit who moved a mountain is nothing but a Jesuit lie. Christ was not talking about natural mountains. Christ and his apostles did not move natural mountains. They were content to leave them where God put them. Christ meant those with power and high position on earth, who often put mountains in the way of believers. Such mountains are to be removed by the firm, unshakable faith of the believers!

        Delphini tried to dispute with him, in particular to make a case for infant baptism, but Joseph would not let his arguments stand. He disproved them with passages from the Scriptures.

        After they had striven with one another for a considerable time, Joseph said, With God's grace and help I trust that you will never make a Roman Catholic out of me, and from this day on

        I am never coming to another of your sermons.

        Turning to the whole community, he cried, If any of you still count yourselves brothers and sisters, give a witness and follow me!

        With determined steps he started for the door. Now was the moment to move, as he passed between the benches, between the sisters on one side and the brothers on the other - now, before he left the meetinghouse! Still no one moved. Not even his own son followed him. He reached the door and went out. It fell shut behind him, and the moment was gone. The painful silence continued. At last Märtel Roth spoke. He asked the Jesuit for time to think the question over. Delphini graciously consented and brought the service to a close.

        When Märtel came from the meetinghouse, Joseph Kuhr was waiting outside to challenge him. Why had he, as the elder of the church, failed to represent the congregation more forcefully? Was he perhaps a hireling and no true shepherd?

        Märtel Roth said, We still have time to think things over. We can discuss the matter and decide what we should do. Joseph answered, There is no need for time to think things over. We must be sure of our faith at all times. But I can see how things are going with our church. May God have mercy!

        The people went to their homes scarcely able to grasp what they had let take place. Many wept, some in despair, some in burning shame at their own cowardice. Where was their united stand now?

        How could we sit there and do nothing? It was as if we were turned to stone - just because of that evil priest and his threats. He hadn't even laid a finger upon us. Mind Joseph Kuhr called to us, but not one of us moved.

        In the following weeks Joseph went among them urging them to hold fast to their faith. Once, when he was with all the brothers and sisters, he appealed to them with upraised arms to remain steadfast in the truth. Many of them, having seen their own terrible weakness, now sought for deeper trust and commitment to God. Others sided with Märtel Roth.

        After all, they argued, the authorities had forbidden us to hinder the Jesuit and so we just sat and listened. That does not mean we have denied our faith. Maybe Märtel Roth is right and it is better to ask for time rather than provoke a head-on collision with the Jesuit. Joseph Kuhr is sometimes very fiery and hasty.

        Some may have recalled the incident with an unfaithful brother named Valtin Jänko, an incident from years back that was soon to give Delphini a handle against Joseph. For the Jesuit could see that Joseph was the backbone of the resistance in Alwinz, and he was determined to get rid of him. One day when he met him in the village street, he shook his finger threateningly at him and said, You wait, I'm going to teach you a lesson.

        Joseph returned calmly, What are you going to teach me? You can do nothing to me except what God permits.

        Threats never daunted Joseph, nor did quotations from the Scriptures. Delphini wanted to fault Joseph on some issue other than religion. He wanted to discredit him completely, not make him appear a martyr. The incident with Valtin Jänko was a perfect opportunity.

        Valtin Jänko, once a brother, had been excluded for acting against God's commandments. In his resentment he joined the Roman Catholic church. He should rightly have left the community's land, but in spite of the brothers' urging he refused to give up his house. Some of the brothers then pulled the house down, Joseph Kuhr taking a leading part. Valtin had nursed a bitter grudge against him ever since. He tried getting satisfaction by law, but was unsuccessful. When he brought his complaint to court a local lord told him, My dear man, I'm thankful you have now accepted the Christian faith, but the land in question belongs to the Hutterian Brethren and to no one else.

        Delphini's campaign against the community gave Valtin Jänko fresh hope. He again brought forward his complaint, claiming sixty gulden for his dismantled house. Delphini at once took up the case before Joseph's manorial lord, the bishop of Karlsburg. It would now be possible to arrest Joseph on a civil charge - as a troublemaker and destroyer of property. Once he was in prison, it would be easy to keep him there on religious grounds.

        In early April the senior judge summoned Märtel Roth, Joseph Kuhr, Careth Gentner, and Michael Kuhen to appear in court. He demanded that sixty gulden be paid to Jänko for his house. Joseph Kuhr declared he wouldn't pay a penny. He appealed to the privileges granted and confirmed by law to the Hutterian Brethren. But the ancient privileges were overridden. Joseph was arrested, his hands were tied behind his back, and he was sent with two Rumanians to the senior judge at Wairwaiss.

        The three others were released and made their way back to Alwinz. Delphini acted as if he were distressed to hear that. I have no ready money by me at the moment, or I would gladly pay the amount so that Joseph could go free.

        This was a flat lie, for though the brothers paid the sixty gulden, the prisoner was not released. For a long time no one in Alwinz knew where he was held. His oldest son, Michael, looked after the two younger children. A very hard time began for those who longed to be faithful to their promises to God.

        As soon as Joseph was out of the way, Delphini asked for permission to build a house for himself within the community enclosure. Märtel Roth called the brothers together and represented the Jesuit's request for a piece of land to build on. Brothers like Michel Wipf and Joseph Stutz protested.

        If we allow him a house on the community property, he'll settle down here and we'll never be rid of him.

        But Märtel Roth said no harm would come of it.

        It might even be a good thing. When the Jesuit moves away, we can use the building as a school.

        So Delphini was allowed to build his house. No one had the courage to oppose him. Joseph Weber, Lorenz, and Elias might share their unhappiness about it in the privacy of the weaving shop, Judith Stahl might confide to Anna Wipf her fear of the Jesuit with his cold, intent gaze, but Joseph Kuhr with his zeal and courage was in prison, no one knew where, and none of the others was brave enough to stand alone.

***************

Kreuz and Stein are reconciled

         The new imperial order of July 1764 had not mentioned the Hutterites at Kreuz and Stein. They continued to build up their communal life, each within their own group. The neighbors and local officials had given up all hope of converting them and demanded again and again that these heretics should be driven into exile. At one point all preparations had been made by the authorities, soldiers were ready to deport the Hutterites, and all that was needed was the final order from the general in command.

        Delphini intervened to prevent it. He was still convinced he could force the communities to accept Roman Catholicism, first Alwinz and then Kreuz and Stein. He was now concentrating his attack on Alwinz, so Kreuz and Stein were again granted a respite. As Johannes Waldner wrote many years later, this and all the other delays were God's working. God let the new Hutterites stay in Transylvania until they had found unity in the Spirit and had helped rescue the handful of faithful believers at Alwinz.

        In the spring of 1765 the brothers at Kreuz asked Peter Müller to go over to Alwinz. They were much concerned for the community there, for they knew it was in the grip of increasing persecution. Peter was deeply troubled for Alwinz, and he was also troubled by the persistent disunity between Kreuz and Stein. Instead of taking the more direct route through Hermannstadt, he turned toward Medias, and after putting sixty or so kilometers behind him he reached Eibesdorf. There he went to the Wurz's house and persuaded Andreas to accompany him on his errand. The three or four days' journey gave them ample chance to talk, and Andreas was able to see for himself the plight of those still holding faithful at Alwinz.

        The visit had to be made without the knowledge of Delphini or of any who supported him, since contact between old and new Hutterites was strictly forbidden. Peter found a way in unnoticed, as he had done before, and he and Andreas were able to talk to some of the loyal brothers and sisters. Several took old books and manuscripts out of hiding and gave them to Peter to take back to Kreuz. They were amazed and delighted to see Peter and Andreas together, for they knew of the rift between Kreuz and Stein.

        Are you reconciled now? they asked eagerly.

        I have every hope we soon will be, was Peter's reply.

        On the way back home the two brothers had much to think over. They were both horrified by the stranglehold Delphini was gaining in Alwinz. Before Peter left Andreas at Eibesdorf he felt completely at one with him and shook hands as a sign of peace between them.

        Peter knew, however, that the brothers at Kreuz might have serious questions about his re-opening the contact with the other group, so at first he reported only about the distress at Alwinz and he showed the precious books he had been given. He said nothing at all about Andreas.

        Two days later at table someone asked him, 'Where did you spend the night on the way to Alwinz? Peter answered, In Eibesdorf.

        This caused some surprise. As Eibesdorf was not on the direct route to Alwinz, Peter must have gone there of set purpose.

        'Then you took the Medias road? asked a brother.

        Yes. said Peter.

        Did you by any chance stop with Andreas Wurz in Eibesdorf?

        Yes, said Peter.

        And did the 'farm boss' go all the way to Alwinz with you? (Farm boss was a nick-name for Andreas.)

        Peter again said, Yes.

        Don't you realize, the brother demanded, that we are not in unity with Andreas and are shunning him?

        Peter replied, I can't say that Andreas's beliefs are any different from ours. What he said was in accordance with the Scriptures and I found nothing to contradict or correct. That is why we made peace with one another and are reconciled.

        But here Peter had gone too far.

        We are not in agreement with what you did, the brothers told him. You were not sent to Eibesdorf by the brotherhood, and you will not be considered at peace with the church unless you bring clear proof that Andreas is ready to obey what is right and just.

        When, Peter saw how badly he had misjudged the situation, he admitted he had not gone about things in the right way. But he was not altogether daunted, for he had good hopes that Andreas would now listen to his brothers at Kreuz.

        I will visit him again and have a talk, he suggested. If he holds to what he said before, I have every hope he will unite with us. But if he goes back on his words, I will tell him he and I do not agree and I am no longer at peace with him. And I will gladly take on myself whatever discipline the church requires me to bear for my guilt.

        But I have a request: I would like another of our brothers to come to Hermannstadt, and I will bring Andreas to meet him there. Then the three of us can go to our prisoners in the penitentiary and talk the question over. The brother from here can report back all that Andreas has said.

        Those in the penitentiary at this time were Mathies Hofer, Elisabeth and Christina Strauss (who were Andreas' 5 stepdaughters), and Anna Ehgarter. Johann Amlacher, prisoner with them for six years, had died in 1764 while still in prison. Mathies and the three sisters had had no part in the division between Kreuz and Stein. They had been incarcerated before it took place.

        The brothers at Kreuz agreed to the proposal, and Georg Waldner was chosen to go to Hermannstadt. Peter went to Eibesdorf, explained his mission to Andreas, and asked him to come for the talk Andreas refused.

        I do not wish to go, he said, and I am not going.

        Peter Muller insisted. He challenged Andreas sharply and said he must come, For if you refuse, I shall know for a fact, from your own act ions, that you are as disobedient as they say you are.

        Eventually he persuaded Andreas to accompany him. In Hermannstadt they went to the imprisoned brother and sisters. Here Georg Waldner joined them and they talked of the rift that had grown between them. Although they did not reach complete agreement, Andreas promised to go to the brothers in Stein, and bring one or two with him to Kreuz to talk more about the question. If possible they would fully unite with the brothers there.

        They parted in great hopes of reconciliation. Andreas kept his promise. He took his son-in-law Johann Hofer with him and went to Stein. Here they told of Peter Muller's concern the talk in Hermannstadt, and the longing for re-uniting. After persuading the brothers to make the attempt, they took Martin and Veit Glanzer along with them to Kreuz.

        Again the talk did not go well. There were accusations and contradictions, and both parties insisted they were in the right. It looked as if their efforts were doomed to failure. The disputants had, in fact, already parted and those from Stein and Eibesdorf were on their homeward way. Suddenly Andreas stopped and turned back. It was a moment when the future hung on the response of one man's heart.

        We ought to give in, said Andreas. All we should care about is that we come to peace. Otherwise there will soon be no brothers in Transylvania. Alwinz is falling apart and Kreuz and Stein are divided. Shouldn't the few of us who are still left unite with each other?

        They went straight back to Kreuz.

        We have changed our minds, they told the brothers there, We want to submit and re- unite with you.

        The brothers at Kreuz saw God at work in the four brothers from Stein. Their own hearts were moved, and they joyfully accepted Andreas's words. The four then acknowledged that they had been in the wrong. They gave all glory to God for judging and convicting them. They humbled themselves before the brotherhood and expressed their remorse. Then the brotherhood came to forgiveness and re-uniting with them.

        Afterwards Hans Kleinsasser went with them to Hermannstadt and they re-united with Mathies and the sisters in prison. This was on June 16, 1765. It was deeply moving for the prisoners to share in the meeting, especially for Elisabeth and Christina, Andreas's step-daughters. At Kreuz and Stein all the brothers and sisters were full of joy. They could not thank God enough for touching their hearts and bringing them to new love for one another.

        Directly after the re-uniting, the whole brotherhood decided that everyone from Stein and Eibesdorf should move to Kreuz. They could not all go at once, for the neighbors would have noticed such a sudden influx and been provoked beyond all bounds. But they would move a few at a time whenever opportunity offered.

***************

Flight from Alwinz

         While the new Hutterites were joyfully drawing together, the group at Alwinz grew more and more painfully divided.

        Delphini's house-building was going forward rapidly in the summer weather, and he was continually visiting the community families in their homes, fixing people with his piercing gaze, never letting them escape his persuasive talking or his pressure and threats. Before a blow was struck, some began to fall away and become Roman Catholic. Those who recanted had to stand in the meetinghouse and swear oaths, cursing and reviling their former faith. The oaths were so terrible that Johannes Stahl and Lorenz Tschetter fled from the meetinghouse when they heard them. Appalled, the two said again and again to each other that they would never swear such an oath.

        But it was becoming harder and harder to stay firm. By summer Märtel Roth had openly recanted.

        In any case we didn't keep to the beliefs of the Hutterian Church, he said. Community of goods was given up long ago. However long we hold out, we will be forced to turn Roman Catholic in the end. But one day God may change these terrible circumstances. Maybe war will come and we will have a different government, and we will be able to go back to our old faith.

        He put himself completely on Delphini's side and worked with him to destroy the community.

        Deserted by the one who should have strengthened them, the brothers and sisters struggled to find courage and discernment. Yes, Märtel Roth was right that they could not stand firm on ground that had long been crumbling under them. But he was wrong to say they must give in and fall to utter ruin. The right way was to seek for the rock, as Christ had told them, and to build on a sure foundation. The right way was to leave the foundering community at Alwinz and to join the community at Kreuz or Stein.

        One day Gretel Wipf slipped away from the communal enclosure and resolutely made her way to Kreuz. She was only sixteen and had to traverse over seventy miles of mountainous country alone, but she reached Harts Kleinsasser's community and they took her in.

        Others planned to follow her. This time a group of twenty set out: Jakob Stutz and his mother, Joseph Weber and his mother, Michel Wipf with his wife and two children, Johannes and Judith Stahl with four children, and Anna Wipf with five children and her nephew Lorenz Tschetter. It was not easy for so many people to get away undetected. They were scarcely beyond the village when they were caught and brought back. Only Jakob Stutz managed to escape and make his way to Kreuz. The rest were taken across the river and up to Alwinz castle, ancient and forbidding on its hill.

        More than half the prisoners were teen-agers and younger children. With the exception of Michel Wipf's family, this was the group at the storm center of the Jesuit's attempt to make the Hutterites become Roman Catholic. The oldest, Lorenz and Elias, were about seventeen. Margareta Wipf was probably fifteen. Then came Johannes Wipf and Johannes Stahl, both about twelve, and Ännele Wipf, a year or so younger. Samuel, the youngest of Anna Wipf's children, was seven, the same age as Gretel Stahl. Heinrich and Benjamin Stahl were four and two years old respectively. During the following two years they suffered repeated imprisonment, threats, beatings, and separation from their parents. Somehow they all held through. Those old enough to understand the struggle stood staunchly by the community at Kreuz and protected the little ones.

        Now they were thrust into a cold, dark room in the castle. The heavy door was slammed behind them and locked. It was very frightening, for from minute to minute they had no idea what might happen to them. But the first day went by, the seemingly endless night, another day, and nothing further was done to them. They were left together and for the most part left alone. They spent the days in prison reading the Bible, encouraging each other with the word of God and with singing. The children loved singing, especially Gretel Stahl, who could sing for hours with her high, clear little voice.

        Sometimes Michel Wipf would tell them stories from the old history book, how in days gone past the castle had not been a prison but a refuge for the people from Alwinz. They had fled to it with their herds, grain, and goods to escape marauding Turks and other enemy troops. There was a story about three brothers who were surprised by enemy raiders and had blocked the bridge over the Mures with their loaded wagons, so gaining time to flee to the castle. That was a good story. Others, of hunger, sickness, and betrayal even by brothers, were sad and frightening. It was better to hear stories of the martyrs whom God had helped stay true to the end, or of those he had given wonderful ways of escape.

        The long, dim days and pitch-dark nights in the dirty, evil-smelling room were hard to bear. There was no sun or fresh air, little space for movement, only a few bundles of straw on the rock floor for a bed, and very little to eat. And always the uncertainty: What was going to happen to them? Would they be kept here month after month, year after year, Like Mathies and the sisters in the penitentiary? Would they be torn apart and moved to crueler prisons? They prayed for more trust in God and for courage to remain faithful.

        Suddenly one day there was a commotion outside. The door opened and armed men pressed in. They told the prisoners that the women and children were to go back to their homes in Alwinz. The grown men were to remain in prison. Michel Wipf and Johannes Stahl would be transferred to another place. Joseph Weber was to stay in Alwinz castle.

        There was hardly time for the fathers to embrace and say farewell to their wives and children, for them to urge each other to be faithful to God and his truth. Weeping and in dread of what lay ahead in Alwinz, the women and their families were escorted down the hill, back over the river bridge, and put in their former houses. Delphini ordered them to stay there and to hold no more meetings.

        The women now stood completely alone, three of them with the responsibility for their children.

        In the next few days they heard from others still resisting Delphini that Gretel Wipf had been brought back from Kreuz on government order. She had not remained there, however. Resolute as always, she had bided her time until opportunity offered and had again made good her escape. Another Elias Wipf, several years older than Anna's son, had also left Alwinz about this time and was with the brothers at Stein.

        The mothers and children could not escape so easily. But they did not obey Delphini. They continued holding their meetings in Michel Wipf's house. Meanwhile at Kreuz Jakob Stutz had told of their troubles and of their longing to join the brothers and sisters. Soon after their return from the castle, Hans Kleinsasser sent Peter Müller to help them. By now Peter had made the journey many times and learned the hidden byways. He brought first Jakob Stutz's mother and Judith Stahl and her children to Kreuz, then returned for Anna Wipf and her children and Lorenz Tschetter. Michel Wipf's family and Joseph Weber's mother remained in Alwinz.

        Once they were well away from Alwinz, the fugitives plied Peter with questions about the new home. How was it now between Kreuz and Stein? Had the reconciliation taken place as Peter had hoped it would when he came to Alwinz with Andreas in the spring?

        Yes, Peter said joyfully, We are all united again.

        He told how some from Stein, especially the school children, had moved over to Kreuz.

        You will have plenty of friends, Peter assured the Wipf children. There are many boys and girls about your age. And plenty of little ones, too.

        He now had a little boy of his own, named Michael, who was two years old. His wife Elisabeth would be waiting eagerly for Anna and her family to arrive, so that she could show them her little son.

        At last, after days of travel, they came to Kreuz between its forest ridges. Everything looked smaller and closer than at Alwinz. The valley was narrower. The village was smaller, with a fortified church standing on a hill. (In this area, which had suffered many enemy raids, the churches were often built like small fortresses, with store rooms for provisions and a strongly walled yard where people could take refuge. They were also used as prisons.) The community and its buildings were smaller and more crowded than in the great enclosure at Alwinz. But hearts and arms were open to them. Everyone welcomed them with overflowing love. It was a joyful, wonderful difference after the tension and division in their old home. They met brothers and sisters every day instead of the black-robed Jesuit and people who had become strangers because they had denied their faith.

***************

Together at Kreuz

         A new life began for them, since none of them had lived in community before. Kreuz was in any case a young community. The members constantly found fresh amazement and joy that God had led them together. They worked with full-hearted dedication, eager to do their tasks because each was for God and their brothers. And they shared one another's sorrows and need. There were many griefs to bear in the little group. The harsh beginning years in Transylvania with all their sickness and death had left many orphans. The widowed Dorothea Nagler with her three children had been some years in Kreuz. Anna Hofer and Maria Glanzer from Stein were both widows. With Anna Wipf's and Judith Stahl's families from Alwinz, it meant that more than half the children in the school were fatherless. Georg Waldner, the schoolteacher, who set himself with great devotion to help them in a fatherly way, had also had the sorrow of losing a little child this year, a little girl called Christina, only a few weeks old.

        There were practical hardships too, for the little community was full to bursting. Accommodation was short. Readjustments had to be made in kitchen, laundry, workrooms, and school. Inevitably there were moments of strain and discouragement. But the brothers and sisters helped each other over the low points, and with renewed faith and trust they went on again.

        The children were in their communal groups nearly all the time, with their teachers by day, in dormitories with a sister to watch over them by night. The widows, just like the married couples, each had an attic room in one of the community's dwelling houses – small, plain rooms where they could sometimes invite their children. Every day there was some family time, but in the fine weather they were often outside. Everyone of school age and up spent some or all of their working in the main work department, helping weave or spin. Sometimes the girls in the big school helped in the little school, cleaning, making beds, or tending the younger children. The boys helped with carpentry and with caring for the animals, as well as working in the weaving shop.

        Before breakfast there was a short meeting and prayer together. Afterwards the brothers and sisters greeted one another with a handshake, the brothers giving brothers, the sisters giving sisters the kiss of peace. At morning, midday, and evening smaller groups met for prayer; married brothers, married sisters, unmarried brothers, and unmarried sisters were in separate prayer groups. One person led the prayer, each taking a turn to do so, and at midday there was a reading as well. Before supper there was another meeting, when the servant of the Word read out a psalm in place of a prayer, going steadily on through the Book of Psalms day by day. Then two chapters were read from the Bible or another book. The meeting ended with a song and the people went to supper. At midnight the night watchman called them to prayer again, but this time they prayed in their rooms, kneeling up in bed.

        So many daily meetings had not been the custom at Alwinz, nor in the first communities in Moravia. It was something Mathies Hofer, from his imprisonment in the penitentiary, had urged on Hans Kleinsasser as the right order for the church. In the small community with one main work department it was more practicable than it would have been in large communities. To the fugitives from Alwinz, the ordered life of prayer and work and the firm handshake and greeting of peace each day were a deep comfort.

        On October 13 there was another cause for rejoicing. Andreas Wurz and his wife Gretel moved over from Eibesdorf with their youngest child, Sara. Their older children were already in Kreuz. Andreas had sold his farm and all his property and had come with wholehearted enthusiasm to join the brothers and Sisters.

        Around this time the brotherhood sent Paul Glanzer and the older Elias Wipf to visit Michel Wipf and Johannes Stahl at Aiud Enyed. The prisoners were together in a vale, stinking dungeon, and Michel Wipf had become very sick. Paul and Elias comforted them with news of the community and of their families, and encouraged them to remain true to their faith no matter what the cost might be. The two travelers then returned safely to Kreuz to assure the brotherhood and families that Michel and Johannes were still holding firmly to the divine truth.

***************

Forced return to Alwinz

         It was not possible that Delphini would rest content at Alwinz and let so many slip through his fingers. As soon as he discovered where the fugitives had gone, he appealed to the authorities to have them returned. Only the slowness of government procedure allowed the Wipfs, Stahls, and Stutzes to stay so long at Kreuz.

        December had already come when a marshal arrived at the community with a list of the refugees from Alwinz. His orders were to arrest and bring them to Hermannstadt. He came to Hans Kleinsasser accompanied by the village justice of the peace and a number of local people and demanded that the brothers hand over the fugitives to him, since he did not know which they were. But the brothers and sisters from Kreuz and Stein refused to inform against other community members, and as those from Alwinz would not identify themselves and so separate from the believers by their own action, the marshal remained at a loss about whom he was to take.

        The villagers had been eager for a long time to rid themselves of the community. Some of them said to the marshal, If they won't show you the right ones, take them all! Others joined in. Yes, arrest the lot, and good riddance! We'll take them to Hermannstadt for you in our own wagons!

        Urged by the villagers, the marshal followed this advice. He arrested nearly all the community. A few brothers and sisters were left behind to look after the animals and do other chores. The rest were pushed onto the wagons amid the jubilation of the crowd. The slow oxen were goaded forward, and the marshal set off for Hermannstadt with three or four times the number of prisoners he was supposed to bring.

        The weather was bitter and the prisoners were totally unprepared for the journey. They huddled together, holding the smallest children close and wrapping their cloaks around them as they jolted over the half-frozen ruts. Sometimes they sang. Sometimes they told stories of valor and adventure and of God's help. Sometimes it was so cold that they had to draw scarves or jackets across their faces and stay silent. They jolted on in the ox-wagons for two days. On the third day, as they neared Hermannstadt, they caught glimpses of the high, snowy mountains that walled in Transylvania to the south. Jakob Stutz said that the mountain chain went all around the country except to the west toward Hungary. Beyond the high mountains to the north was Poland, with its vast plains, now under snow, and its rivers frozen so hard that you could walk across them. South was Walachia and the great Danube - the river that had brought the transmigrants by boat from far Carinthia. To the east lay Moldavia, the Black Sea, Turkey, and Russia.

        The marshal halted his train of wagons at a village half-a-mile from Hermannstadt and quartered prisoners and guards there for the night. The wagoners wondered impatiently why he did not push on the same day to the city and hand over his charges at once. They discovered later that he had grown more and more uneasy the nearer they came to his headquarters, for he was bringing over fifty people and his list contained only sixteen, with their names clearly written out for him. He rode on alone that evening to explain his quandary to the authorities.

        The next day he returned with some of the magistrates. Again it was a question of separating the Alwinz people from those from Kreuz. As neither group would separate of their own free will, the magistrates said, Just arrest some of them - any will do - and tie them up.

        The armed escort at once seized Hans Kleinsasser, the servant of the Word and elder of the church.

        Then Jakob Stutz stepped forward and said, I am from Alwinz.

        He would have been recognized in any case because he was wearing a blue Hungarian sheepskin jacket. The two brothers' hands were tied behind their backs, and the guards prepared to take then to Hermannstadt.

        No one knew what might happen to them. Others had been taken to prison and had not returned. Tears fell as the two brothers and those they were leaving urged each other to hold firm to God and the truth. The magistrates watched the scene, then moved off with the marshal, guards, and prisoners. The wagoners, left with the brothers and sisters and their children, were angry that they had been unable to hand them all over to the prison authorities, and were uncertain what to do next.

        The group from Kreuz were in deep distress. They had refused to part from their fellows in faith, and now their elder had been seized and would bear punishment on their account.

        Shouldn't we have giver ourselves up like Jakob did? they asked each other.

        Yes, came the answer from each one's heart. We are bringing the whole community into trouble by our silence.

        But what should they do? The marshal and his company were already out of sight round a curve in the snowy road,

        Suddenly they stared and gasped with amazement. Back into sight came the same company of magistrates, guards, prisoners, and the marshal. When they had nearly reached the watching group, the guards released Hans and Jakob. Immediately they were surrounded by their people, embracing them, shaking hands, asking questions.

        Hans! - Jakob! - What has happened?

        The magistrates were struck in their hearts, replied Hans. They saw how we wept at parting. After we had gone a little way they stopped and said, 'We do not want to stain our hands with your blood.' So they brought us back.

        The older Elias Wipf said, All of us from Alwinz are going to give ourselves up. Otherwise we will harm the whole church.

        He and the Stahls, Stutzes, Wipfs, and Lorenz Tschetter stood forward for the marshal and his men to take them. The brothers and sisters from Kreuz could only thank them for their love, try to express their own in return, and assure them they would not be forgotten.

        Two other marshals were ordered to take over escort duty, one for those going on to Alwinz, the other for those returning to Kreuz. The sullen wagoners had to transport their hated neighbors back home again. Both journeys lasted nearly three days in the cold of December 1765.

***************

Escape and Capture

         When the fugitives arrived at Alwinz, Delphini followed the same procedure as before. He released them, put them into their former homes, and forbade them to meet. Again they disobeyed him by holding meetings in Michel Wipf's house, where they sang, prayed, read the Bible, and encouraged one another. Jakob Stutz took a leading part. He knew the Bible well and was an intelligent and skillful man. Delphini at once noted him. Convinced that the widows' and orphans' resistance would soon yield if they were left alone, he sent for the sheriff to arrest Jakob. Shortly afterwards armed guards broke into the quiet meeting in Michel Wipf's room.

        But Jakob could think and move swiftly. As soon as he realized they wanted him and no one else, he eluded them and hid. He concealed himself so well that though the sheriff and his men searched high and low for him, they could not find him. When at last they had gone, Jakob emerged from his hiding place and fled to Kreuz.

        The community there had been working hard to restore order after the confusion of their sudden forced journey. They had labored hard and joyfully together, grateful to be united again, but the thought of their beleaguered brothers and sisters in Alwinz did not leave them. After Jakob's arrival they decided, in spite of the danger that Veit Glanzer should go with a sled and pair of horses to bring them away. Under God's merciful protection he was able to reach them and help them escape, and the return journey through the snowbound countryside went safely.

        This time the long, cold way was not so bitter, for they were going back to their real home in the community. They were again welcomed with great love and given food, warmth, and care. Once more there was the joy of being with brothers and sisters and sharing the daily work and prayers. The children were back among their friends. They were able to see the two babies born in mid-December, a little girl named Catherine to Peter Müller and Elisabeth, a son named Stephen to Joseph and Maria Kleinsasser, and the newest baby, Rebecca, born to Paul and Barbara Glanzer on January 10.

        The brothers were still anxious about the fugitives' safety, however. They knew that Delphini had a long arm, and they felt that Jakob Stutz and the older Elias Wipf would be better out of the way for a time. They decided to send them to visit Joseph Kuhr, whom they now knew was imprisoned in the Jesuit monastery at Klausenburg. After a farewell meal and meeting the two set off, eager to meet Joseph and share news and encouragement with him.

        Sorrow came again to the community with the death of little Joseph Kleinsasser, just over a year old, the first child of Joseph and Christina. In the second week of February Peter and Elisabeth Müller also lost their first child, Michael. The shared grief as well as the shared joy brought the community very close together. In March was a baptism preparation, and on March 23 Christian Glanzer and Gretel Wipf were baptized by Hans Kleinsasser.

        But Delphini was determined to force the Alwinzers back under his control. He wrote to the authorities in Hermannstadt. Very soon afterward the captain of the city militia arrived in Kreuz with an armed escort. He went first to the village justice of the peace. The following day he came to the community with the justice and a number of officials. He then repeated the government orders: The people at Kreuz were strictly forbidden to have anything to do with those from Alwinz, either through books or any other way. They were not to lodge or shelter them. They must reject them completely.

        The brothers from Kreuz replied, We must obey God rather then men. In the Scriptures the Lord commands us to take guests and strangers into our houses.

        So again it came to the point of separating the people from Alwinz and those from Kreuz. The captain found it a hard task. He particularly asked for Jakob Stutz and Elias Wipf, but no one told him they had been sent to Klausenburg. Many of the brothers, sisters, and children were forced to go to the justice's house for the captain to question them. By nature he was not harsh or cruel, but a kindly man, and he hoped by friendliness to coax the children into telling him who was from Alwinz and where Jakob and Elias had gone.

        Most of the children simply said, We are not going to betray anyone. It is against love to our neighbor.

        The captain persisted with his efforts to talk to them. It is very probable that the people from Alwinz spoke with a slightly different accent from the Carinthian transmigrants, so that by careful listening he could gradually distinguish between them. Finally he succeeded in finding all the Alwinz people except Jakob Stutz and Elias Wipf. He sent those from Kreuz home. The Alwinz group he took with him to Hermannstadt, and the villagers had to provide wagons for transport. Anna Wipf and her daughter Margareta were held in the city prison for a time. The others were returned to Delphini in Alwinz.

        While they had been away, Michel Wipf had been released from prison and sent home because he was very sick. At this point he was still faithful to the Hutterian church. To their grief, Joseph Weber had gained his freedom by recanting. In Alwinz castle he had been put under great pressure, with terrible threats used against him, because he was a former Roman Catholic who had turned Hutterite. As soon as he gave in, he was allowed to go back to the community.

        Very soon sad news reached them about Jakob and Elias, who had set out so bravely to visit Joseph Kuhr. Too careless or too naive, they had asked a stranger to go into the monastery at Klausenburg and enquire about Joseph for them. The messenger went in and asked openly for the man from Alwinz. He was allowed to see Joseph and speak with him, but was then taken to the head of the monastery. When he was questioned about who had sent him, he soon told where the brothers were. Armed men were dispatched to catch them, and they too were imprisoned.

***************

Collapse at Alwinz

         Conditions in Alwinz were now much worse than before. In the new year Delphini had become impatient. Conversion was going too slowly. A few had become Roman Catholic, but most still held out against him, even if they did not want to join the community at Kreuz. He threatened to put soldiers in their houses to force them to obey him.

        Märtel Roth begged him not to do it. If only Delphini were patient, he, Märtel, would persuade the people into recanting, and soldiers would be unnecessary. But Delphini had no confidence in Märtel's protestations. He saw clearly enough that most of the people would never recant of their own free will. When he applied for soldiers to assist him, the authorities sent a corporal and four or five common soldiers. He quartered each in a different house. The family had to provide the soldier with food and drink. His orders were to watch them and to drive them with blows to attend the Roman Catholic service in the meetinghouse on every Sunday and church festival.

        Lorenz Tschetter was put with Joseph Weber. The soldiers were ordered to watch him closely. He refused to live and work with an unfaithful member and tried to go elsewhere. Three times the soldiers brought him back and beat him for his disobedience. Michel Wipf spoke some words of encouragement to him, telling him to be valiant, stand firm, and not be intimidated. The soldiers overheard and beat Michel Wipf as well. Lorenz did not know where to turn. His conscience would not let him remain with the weaver, but if he attempted to go to anyone else, he would be beaten harder than before. Desperate, he took the risk and escaped very early one morning, making his way to Kreuz and telling them what was now happening in Alwinz.

        Judith Stahl and her children were put back in their old house. Shortly afterwards Johannes was released from prison and sent home. Their joy at uniting was turned into misery when Delphini put a soldier with them who watched their every move. They had to supply him with whatever he demanded. On Sundays he forced them toward the meetinghouse, beating them mercilessly if they would not go. The brutality to Johannes was so great that he dared not remain at home any more. He fled from Alwinz and went into hiding in the neighborhood. Sometimes he crept back at night to visit his wife and children.

        Anna Wipf and Margareta were released from Hermannstadt and sent to join her other four children in Alwinz. Delphini quartered a soldier in her house too.

        The Jesuits' cruel methods were beginning to have their effect. In prison in Klausenburg, Jakob Stutz and the older Elias Wipf weakened in faith and promised to become Roman Catholics. In Alwinz, Careth Gentner and Michel Kuhen fell away, two men who had been spiritual leaders in the community. Even Michel Wipf recanted. When others saw that those most highly regarded in the church were giving their oaths to Delphini, they too gave up the struggle one by one, for they said, Those are the ones who are learned in the Scriptures, so they will know what they are doing. As soon as they yielded to the Jesuit, the soldiers were taken from their houses. Before long the only ones remaining faithful were those who held to the community at Kreuz.

        Now that success seemed in sight, Delphini had the resisters treated with ever greater brutality. Anna Wipf and Judith Stahl in particular were given harsh beatings. Their lives became a nightmare. Anything they said to their children, every move they made could be reported to the Jesuit or punished immediately with harsh blows. They could not even pray freely. They were forced to go to the Roman Catholic services. Bruised and bleeding, they must listen to former brothers and sisters swear terrible oaths, and to Delphini reviling the Hutterian faith.

        The soldiers with them could do as they pleased. The two women lived in constant terror of what might happen to their children. Judith had the dread that Johannes might try to return to her at night, be caught, and perhaps be crippled or killed from the ruthless beatings. They were cut off from everyone and there seemed no way out.

        The day came when even those who had been at Kreuz could no longer withstand the persecution. Their courage failed them, and they submitted to Delphini. Now only three were still faithful: Joseph Kuhr, Johannes Stahl, and Lorenz Tschetter, and none of these was at Alwinz. *

        Like all others who recanted, they had to swear an oath in front of the congregation that they accepted the Roman Catholic faith and cursed their former faith and everything that belonged to it. Then the soldiers were taken away and they returned to quiet houses. They could kneel and pray. They could speak to their children. But what could they say? They had sworn against God and denied their faith.

        A grief and horror seized their hearts more tormenting than the soldiers' cruelty. They had cast away their salvation and were destroying their children's souls. The children, shaken by all that had happened and not knowing how to help their mothers, were only able to stammer of the one place and way that seemed to hold out hope to them. Mother, let's go back to Kreuz. At Kreuz the brothers will help us. They will help you to tell God you are sorry

        Anna, Judith, and the others could not believe they would be accepted by the brothers. They were traitors to the church. Yet the brotherhood at Kreuz was the only place they could go to express their great, agonizing remorse for what they had done. Now that they were no longer watched, they were able to find some moments for one sister to meet with another to exchange a few words of their need and repentance. They resolved to make the desperate attempt and go to Kreuz. Once more they escaped with the children from the communal land and trudged the long roads eastward.

***************

Kreuz once more

         The brotherhood at Kreuz scarcely knew what to do when the handful of broken-hearted women and young people arrived with the bewildered, guiltless children. These sisters and brother had foresworn the church. They had accepted the Roman Catholic doctrine point by point. They were apostates and could not share the common life. But they could not be sent away if they were truly repentant. Shelter and food were given them, and the brothers talked earnestly with them, testing what was really in their hearts. As they told of their remorse, the brothers were convinced of their sincerity. They humbled themselves, confessed their sin before God and the church, and pleaded for forgiveness. From now on they would hold true to the church through good days and evil days. Then the brotherhood made peace with them and prayed to God for them, and they and their children were taken into the community's care.

        Delphini had thought he could first crush every spark of resistance in Alwinz and then turn to Kreuz. He now recognized Kreuz was too serious an obstacle to his plans to be ignored any longer, so he decided to go there at once and begin to force the community to become Roman Catholic. The Transylvanian Council at Hermannstadt provided a lord of the council and a hundred men to support him. With this escort he went to the justice of the peace at Kreuz. He also took with him the son of the unfaithful elder, Märtel Roth, perhaps in order to identify the people from Alwinz. The Jesuit explained that he had an important mission to execute for the Transylvanian government and that the justice and his villagers must assist him in everything. Although these all belonged to the Lutheran faith, they were afraid to disobey him.

        The next day Delphini and his crowd of supporters entered the community, the Jesuit walking ahead, the others following. They went through every room right to the attics. Wherever he saw someone from Alwinz, he pointed with his finger and the justice and his armed attendants seized the one indicated. When he had them all, the villagers and armed escort forced them to go to the justice's house, where the peasants stood guard over them to prevent any escape.

        Then the Kreuz community was assembled in the yard. When everyone had quieted and was listening, the councilman from Hermannstadt read out an order from the Transylvanian Council. They were to meet at ten o'clock the next day and attend to the words of the priest now before them.

        Delphini added, Tomorrow and every Sunday from now on.

        He pointed his finger at himself and said, Yes, you are to listen to me. To me!

        The brothers flatly refused.

        We are not going to stir a single step to please this false prophet, far less listen to his lying testimony!

        We know all the tricks and deceit of the Roman Catholic Church already. We've heard their priests and their falsehoods before.

        Thank God we have been saved from such appalling error!

        You Jesuit, you! You needn't think you will ever get us to follow you and go over to your Roman Catholic religion!

        No, they all said, we are resolved that with God's help we will endure death rather then go back to such error and such an untrue faith.

        Each brother spoke straight out to Delphini's face, standing courageously for the truth. The sisters did not keep silent either, but bravely said what they believed. The Jesuit walked back and forth, scowling. All he could say was, Just you wait! I am going to teach you a lesson. With this, he and the whole company turned and left the community yard. It was clear to him that his task in Kreuz would not be easy. For the time being he withdrew to make new plans.

***************

The Brothers are imprisoned; the Women & Children hold out alone

         At Kreuz the vil1agers seized a wagon and four horses from the community and with these transported the fugitives from Alwinz a day's ride toward Hermannstadt. The next day the official in charge changed wagons and sent the oxen back. This journey was in the heat and dust of August, the sun pitiless on the roads, the oak forests dark and heavy with late summer foliage. Man and beast longed for the occasional stop at a stream, where they might be allowed to drink. Once, on a long, weary stretch, they found a pitcher of water that a compassionate farmer had placed by the wayside for travelers. They held the water in their mouths and swallowed the precious drops slowly and thankfully.

        As they neared the city, the mountains to the south looked almost dreamlike in the haze, but just as high and hard to cross as in the winter. They reached Hermannstadt on the third day, and the fugitives were imprisoned in the town hall.

        Delphini, too, had gone to Hermannstadt. He used the opportunity to get out a search warrant for Johannes Stahl, whom he described as a man of about fifty, of smal1 stature, with black, curly hair. Johannes was still hiding out in the neighborhood, sheltered by first one acquaintance, then another. He had not gone to Kreuz even when his family was there. By chance he came into the city at this time and heard that the fugitives from Alwinz were in the town hail. Since he had not seen his wife and children for months, he visited them in the jail. He discovered they were short of food, so went out into the town and bought some bread.

        As Johannes was returning through the gateway to the courtyard of the town hail, he came face to face with Peter Hann von Hannenheim, recently transmigrant inspector, and a respected member of the city council. Peter Hann gave a sharp exclamation, stopped, and asked Johannes his name and his reason for being there. Johannes frankly told him who he was and that his business was to visit his wife and children in jail. Peter Hann was extremely annoyed. He was a Lutheran and not at all eager to oblige the Jesuits, but he was aware there was a warrant out for Johannes and as a council man it was his duty to make the arrest.

        Angry with himself, with Johannes and the unlucky chance of meeting him, he said, I am under orders to search for you and arrest you, and you run right into my hands! I am obliged to take you prisoner whether I want to or not!

        Johannes replied, I am in your power. You must do with me what you think right.

        So Johannes Stahl was put in prison with the others. It was a great shock, especially to Judith, when he was brought in as a prisoner. But at least they were able to have a little time together after the weeks of fear and sorrow both had suffered. She could confess her denial of faith and tell him of the forgiveness and reuniting at Kreuz. They could encourage one another to remain true to God and the church. Johannes could talk to his children, especially his eldest son, now thirteen years old.

        Soon they were all taken back to Alwinz. The women and children were once more put in their former homes, but Johannes Stahl and Lorenz Tschetter were imprisoned in the castle. Before many weeks were over, the sisters and children escaped and were back in Kreuz. As the brothers held resolutely to their faith, they were still incarcerated in the castle. In October Delphini ordered their transfer to Klausenburg to be imprisoned with Joseph Kuhr and later exiled with him. They set out under escort. The River Mures lay beneath them. On its further bank they could see the little hill with Joseph Kuhr's house among the orchard trees and with the pottery where Johannes had worked for many years, before and after his marriage and as his children were growing up. Grief-stricken, he wondered if he would ever see them or Judith again.

        Someone caught up with them along the road and walked beside them. To the two brothers' astonishment it was Jakob Stutz, who had recanted in prison and was back at Alwinz as a Roman Catholic. In a voice rough with pain he began urging them never to deny their faith.

        If you fall away and deny the truth, he said, you will be like me and never have peace of heart again. Your conscience will accuse you all the time, gnawing and tearing at you. Hold firm! Be steadfast and God will help you. He will give you the strength.

        Although he had been unfaithful himself, at that moment his words consoled and encouraged the prisoners.

        Judith and Anna also had to face new trouble. The next time Delphini sent law officers and armed men to Kreuz to claim the fugitives, he did not list the older people, only the children under fourteen years of age: the two Johanneses, now thirteen; Ännele, who was twelve; seven-year-old Samuel Wipf and Grete Stahl; and the two little boys, five-year-old Heinrich and three-year-old Benjamin. In spite of the older children's attempts to care for the younger ones, it was a neglected, woeful-looking group that arrived in Alwinz after almost a week of traveling. The times of love and care at Kreuz had been all too short for them to recover from the many strenuous journeys, the imprisonment, fear, and hunger they had gone through in the past year. Now they were torn from their mothers and friends and brought to a man and a place they dreaded.

        Don't let him see you cry, begged the older ones, as they turned in at the once friendly and familiar gateway that was now an entrance to their prison.

        With a great show of generosity Delphini took them into his own house. They could wash, and were given new clothes and footwear, clean beds, and good food. The Jesuit even had them baptized as if they were infants.

        The children were not bought over. They passively resisted all they were taught, and their one desire was to escape back to the community and their mothers. When they could not find a way alone, they waited and hoped for a brother to come and help them as had happened before.

        Don't worry, they encouraged each other when they could exchange a few words in secret We will get away somehow.

        The older children prayed the Hutterian children's prayer each day, asking God to protect and help them and their parents.

        But October turned to November, and gradually November was half gone. It was not that the community at Kreuz had failed to send help. Already in early November Peter Müller and Veit Glanzer had been sent to rescue them. This time, however, even Peter, who had succeeded so often before, was unable to make contact with them and bring them away. Anna and Judith were in great distress, especially when Veit and Peter returned without the children. They knew what pressure was being used on these young, defenseless boys and girls.

        Anna appealed to Hans Kleinsasser, Let me go for them. I know the place and the people. I might be able to find a way.

        She reached Alwinz late at night on Saturday, November 22, and made her attempt very early on Sunday morning, when the household order was a little relaxed before a day of rest. She fetched the children away undiscovered. In the early light someone saw her and the fugitives making for Mühlbach. Several hours later, after the Roman Catholic service in the once Hutterite meetinghouse, the new missioner at Alwinz heard the news from his congregation. He at once notified the bishop, but by that time Anna and the children were well away and on the road to Kreuz.

        For the moment Delphini had lost possession of the children. He devised a way to secure them better in future. He would take all the Hutterian children by force, those from Kreuz and Stein

        as well, and put them in a Roman Catholic orphanage. The grown-up Hutterites would be imprisoned. If they refused to recant, they would be exiled.

        (Although the community did not know it, Joseph Kuhr and Johannes Stahl had already been sent into exile that same November 1766, and were now in Poland. Lorenz Tschetter was still in prison in the far north of Transylvania.

        Delphini moved to Hermannstadt for the time being, to obtain and prepare a house for the orphanage. As the lords in Hermannstadt were reluctant to help him in such a cruel plan, they refused to act unless he had orders from the empress. So the Jesuit set out for Vienna to obtain authorization from the imperial government. He took the unfaithful elder, Märtel Roth, along with him.

        Even in Delphini's absence someone informed against the fugitives again. A few weeks into the new year a marshal and armed men came to Kreuz to escort them back to Alwinz. *

        On his arrival the Alwinzers hid among the rest of the community in the various rooms and work places. They knew the others would never betray them. But the marshal was a hard, heartless man, chosen for this reason to do such tasks. He had dealt with the Alwinz fugitives before, so he could pick some of them out for himself. Very soon he caught sight of one of the older boys and recognized him as Johannes Stahl. He gripped hold of the boy and forced him to go from room to room in front of the searchers.

        Find us your mother, he ordered.

        When Johannes hung back, the marshal lashed him with a leather strap. Judith saw what was happening. She must have longed to remain with the sisters in Kreuz, for she was expecting a child in the spring. But she could not endure letting her son be so cruelly whipped for her sake. She came from among the other sisters and gave herself up.

        You shouldn't have shown yourself, mother, protested Johannes, weeping as he had not done under the lash. I would never have betrayed you.

        I know you wouldn't, said Judith, weeping too, but I couldn't bear to watch him thrash you.

        Then she tried to assure him, It is really better this way. It is better that I come with the little ones.

        In such ways the marshal found all those from Alwinz, one after the other.

        Johannes Kleinsasser, elder of the community, rebuked the marshal for his harsh treatment of the defenseless women and children. In revenge, the marshal had the elder dragged into the street with his hands bound behind his back. Johannes was tied to a horse as if he were to be taken to Hermannstadt, then forced to run beside the horse for a long distance before the marshal released him. **

        Meanwhile the forlorn little company of fugitives was again on the road to Alwinz. Anna Wipf was put in prison at Hermannstadt. Perhaps the authorities were afraid of her courage and resolution and of her capacity to find ways of escape. But her niece Gretel Wipf, who was equally courageous and determined, was sent all the way to her old home.

***************

Lorenz Tchetter returns

         In March of that same spring, Lorenz Tschetter came back to Kreuz. Once the amazement and joy at his arrival had quieted down a little, he told of what had happened to him and Joseph Stahl after they had been imprisoned in Klausenburg the previous October.

        Would you believe it? We found that Joseph Kuhr was there, in the same prison! They had brought him from the monastery and put him in the guards' room. Only we weren't allowed to see each other. He wasn't even told we were there. But somehow he got to know that two men from Alwinz had been brought in as prisoners. Then he talked to the guards the way Joseph can, and gradually he won them over to let us three brothers meet for a while. How wonderful it was to see him! We never, ever expected it! We thought Joseph had been exiled long ago. We talked and talked, sharing our hearts, and then we had a little food together before we had to go back to our prison cell. But Joseph had given us new courage and strengthened us in faith. There were two priests who came to have a long discussion with us. They wanted to make us recant. But we refused to listen and managed to get them to leave. Four days after that, all three of us were taken from prison and escorted by an armed guard to the justice of the peace in the next village. The justice posted four peasants to watch us that night. They gave us no chance to escape, I can tell you! I was chained to Johannes. Joseph was chained by the feet, and they used very strong locks for him. After that, a commissar and four peasants escorted us all the time.

        We went north - always northward - from one county to the next. It was November, of course. It was bleak and biting weather, and we were always going over mountains, with sleet and snow squalls and a wind to cut you like a knife - everything grey and white and dreary - and we were going further and further away from all of you in the community. We began to see the high northern mountains, and we knew we were getting near the border into Poland. They brought us to a town named Sighet and put us in the prison there.

        Two weeks later Joseph and Johannes were taken from the prison. Joseph asked the guards to let me go with them, but they would not do it. The brothers never came back, and I stayed there alone. It felt very far away, right on the other side of Transylvania front home. I think the Jesuits hoped that as I was so young they would wear me down by keeping me in prison. They kept me there three months and tried to scare me into giving way. They threatened to force me to serve as a soldier and other horrible things. But God helped me, and I held out against them.

        Then they took me from prison and put me in charge of two guards. I knew they had exiled Joseph and Johannes and I thought they would exile me too. But we started going away from the high mountains at the border. A lot of the time it was grey and rainy, and the mud on the roads was terrible, but whenever the sun shone I could tell that we were moving south. Besides, I recognized some of the towns and places we had passed through in November. I did not know what to make of it.

        I talked quite a bit with the two guards on the way. They weren't at all harsh. I told them about the community. We came near Klausenburg, and I began to wonder if I was to be imprisoned in Hermannstadt. I was hoping I would be put with Mathies and the others. Then one day the guards simply weren't there! They had gone off without me. It was unbelievable, just unbelievable! And then I realized I was free. I could go where I wanted. So I took the road for Medias and from there toward Kreuz. I was more joyful and excited at every step. I wondered if Joseph and Johannes would also be back again!

        No, the brothers told him, Unhappily they are not. We have not even heard from them. But if they are in exile we can be thankful they are free and together, and they may one day get a message through to us.

        Where is Judith? asked Lorenz, I could at least tell her about our time in. prison, how Johannes thinks of her and the children, and how courageous and steadfast he is.

        He learned that Judith and her children, Gretel Wipf, and three of Anna's children had been taken back to Alwinz. The children were in the hands of the Jesuit, well-cared for in body, but suffering from the separation from Kreuz. They were forced to listen daily to hateful accusations against their parents and their religion, and to attend instruction they could not believe because it was the religion of persecutors. Doggedly they resisted and waited for the day when escape would be possible.

***************

The long Struggle Continues

         On April 14, Georg Waldner's son Johannes was baptized. He was fifteen years old. Most of the young people growing up in the community were baptized at about this age, the girls around fifteen, the boys at sixteen or less. Johannes Waldner was almost the same age as Johannes Wipf and Johannes Stahl who were now facing persecution in Alwinz. He himself had already seen and felt something of the vicious hate against the Hutterites. In spite of the danger, he chose God's way of peace and love. He certainly must have thought often about his two namesakes who were exposed to all the temptations and pressures Delphini could bring to bear on them.

        On April 19 in Alwinz, a baby was born to Judith, a little girl whom she named Rebecca. Not much over a week later, Gretel Wipf led young Johannes Stahl and Anna Wipf's children in an escape toward Kreuz. On their way they went into Hermannstadt so that Johannes Wipf with Ännele and Samuel could visit their mother in prison. Anna rejoiced to see them, although in acute anxiety that they too might be caught and kept there and not allowed to go on to Kreuz. Her heart smote her to see how white and tired they looked from their journey. But their eyes shone. They flung their arms around her and whispered: It was terrible in Alwinz without you, mother. We wish you could come back to Kreuz.

        Anna wished so too, with all her heart. When she heard about Judith's baby, she wished she had been in Alwinz to assist her friend, for over the years she had often helped as a midwife. In this brief, precious visit she could only embrace her children and beg them to continue brave and faithful. Then it was time to say goodbye to them while they could still get out of the prison safely. She sent many, many greetings to all at Kreuz, and her dear love to Judith for when she, too, could escape from Alwinz.

        Baby Rebecca was less than three weeks old when Judith and her four little children got away. Brothers were sent to help them and they were brought to the community at Kreuz. There was still no news of Joseph and Johannes. Every day the community prayed for God's protection over them in a strange land and for their safe return home, and for his help and courage for those in prison.

        Again sorrow struck in the community. In the second week in May a little girl, Aganetha, was born to Andreas and Gretel Wurz, but the baby lived only six days. The following week a random group of school children and teenagers was seized and taken to Hermannstadt. No explanation was given. As it chanced, all but one were children without fathers, and an especial burden of anxiety fell on the widows. Paul Hofer, the oldest of the group, was a baptized member, but only sixteen years old. Johannes Glanzer, the youngest, was eight. In between were six girls and one boy, ranging from twelve to fifteen years old: Anna and Andreas Glanzer, Christina and Maria Nagler, Ännele and Margareta Wipf, and Barbara Kleinsasser. Perhaps they were rounded up in an endeavor to secure the Wipf children. Perhaps it was done by the villagers in an outbreak of spite against the community. Even though the group was not more than a week or so in prison and were then returned home, it had been a frightening time.

        Relations with the villagers in Kreuz had, if anything, grown worse. The village officials repeatedly petitioned the government to have the community removed. They were angry because wagons and horses or oxen were commandeered from one or another farmer each time the fugitives were transferred back to Alwinz. This meant losing the use of the wagons and animals for two weeks, and nothing was paid in return. It was, of course, the government and not the community members who made free use of the villagers' property, but the villagers were in no mood to be reasonable. In any case they could do nothing against the government officials, whereas they could vent their feelings with impunity on the outsiders who had forced themselves on the village. Once a mob of infuriated villagers raided the community to refund themselves, and carried off about a thousand tiles, linen, and other goods.

        Rumors were spreading of Delphini's intention to put all Hutterian children in an orphanage, and alarm grew among the brothers and sisters. The Jesuit was still in Vienna, but they knew he might return any day to make final arrangements. The hot, dry summer went on in fear and uncertainty. In mid-July Johannes Glanzer died. He was eight years old, youngest of the group that had been seized and imprisoned a few weeks before. His death made a deep impression on the children, especially on those who had shared the frightening journey to Hermannstadt with him. Elisabeth Platner died also. Twelve years earlier she and her brother Johann had come from Carinthia as young people, leaving home and family to follow Jesus. Johann had died in 1761 in Henndorf. Elisabeth had had the joy of receiving baptism and of joining in the first wonderful years of the new community. Now she too had died in this beautiful but alien and unfriendly country.

***************

We are going to remain together

         ???the second week in August the enemies of the Hutterites launched another attack. The same ruthless marshal was sent by the Hermannstadt city council as on previous occasions. His orders were to remove from Kreuz all people who had congregated there without government authorization. As usual, the justice of the peace summoned the community elder, Hans Kleinsasser. He and one other brother had to appear before the marshal in the village and were informed that all brothers were to remain at home on the following day, August 11. Not one might absent himself, because a government order was to be read out to them. The marshal said nothing of what the order might be, but there were many rumors in the village of the troubles in store for the community. The brothers and sisters could only prepare themselves for whatever God would permit for them.

        The next day all the village elders and officials, the freemen, and many peasants thronged with the marshal onto the community property as if it belonged to them. The justice of the peace read out the order; All persons who had made unauthorized transfers to Kreuz from other places must return to their former villages without delay. If they refused to do this of their own free will, force would certainly be used against them.

        The brothers replied, We cannot do it. We are not going to move. It is against God, our faith, and our consciences to leave our communal household and separate from one another. As soon as they heard this

        answer, the peasants started smashing and seizing things as if they meant to tear the houses, barns, and everything else to the ground. One furious knot of men broke the kiln, another tore the brandy vat from its place. The justice of the peace had to intervene to stop them.

        We have no orders to wreck the houses and buildings, he said. We are only ordered to make the people move.

        After he had spoken, the riot subsided.

        Then he asked the brothers not legally assigned to Kreuz, Are you going to move, or are you not?

        Georg Waldner was the first to answer.

        No, we are not going to move, he said firmly.

        The justice of the peace swung round to the peasants and said, Tie him up!

        The words were scarcely out of his mouth before the peasants had fallen on Georg, knocked him to the ground, and tied his hands so tightly at his back that his fingers turned black. Then they pushed and dragged him out through the gate into the villane street. Here he was held on a rope and guarded by several peasants.

        While this was happening, the judge urged the other Hutterites to go out to the street without being forced.

        If you won't go, you'll only be whipped and beaten for it, and you'll have to give way in the end. Christian Hofer said, I refuse to go out and leave the community of my own free will. He was a young brother of eighteen. The marshal was furious that such a youngster should disobey and talk back to him. In his rape he gripped Christian by the hair, pulled him to the ground, and rolled him over and over in the dust. Then he ordered his assistants to force him out into the street and tie him up beside the other brother.

        Paul Hofer, Christian's sixteen year old brother, met with the same treatment. When he would not go out of his own accord, the marshal took him by the hair, shook him back and forth, and struck him again and again with a staff. Then Paul, too, was thrust out through the gate.

        The villagers knew very well which family had been originally sent to Kreuz and who had come afterward. One after another the later arrivals were singled out and dragged from the community land into the street. When they were all collected, a mob of farmers and peasants surrounded them and forced them up the hill to the fortress-like church. They were locked inside the high, solid wall of the churchyard, forty-six men, women, and children in all.

        The separation followed. Those who came from Stein were sent back with a wagon and two guards. This group at least had brothers and sisters to receive them at the end of their journey, for there were still some community members living in Stein and waiting an opportunity to join the main group at Kreuz. Georg Waldner and his family were taken back to Henndorf, Dorothy Nagler with her three daughters to Gross-Schenk. Joseph Müller with his and Andreas Wurz's family were sent through Medias to Baasen and Eibesdorf. (Andreas was away from home at the time.) Georg Gurl, an old, bent man, was sent with his nearly blind wife Lena to Gross-Alisch. No pity was shown for the old, sick, weak, or very young. They all had to go the long wagon journeys in the intense, oppressive heat of the Transylvanian summer. It almost seemed as if this time the group might be split apart and destroyed. The villagers were well satisfied. *

        For several days the Kreuz community was painfully small and empty. The future seemed dark and uncertain for their fellows in faith. Then within a week and contrary to all expectations the brothers and sisters began gathering again. Although they had been scattered far apart, they were completely united in their decision to return to each other no matter who threatened and forbade them.

        I'm not going to stay here unless you tie me up, said Georg Waldner to the deputy marshal in Henndorf.

        When the deputy, infuriated by such firm opposition, began striking Georg, the brother thanked God that he was found worthy to suffer a little for the sake of divine truth. As soon as the deputy had gone on his way to Hermannstadt, the Waldner family set out from Henndorf and were back at Kreuz in three days.

        Those from the Medias direction reached Kreuz late on the same evening. The authorities at Gross-Schenk would not even receive Dorothea Napler with her Katharina, Christina, and Maria. They said it was no business of the Kreuz officials to tell them what to do unless they could show a written order from the Hermannstadt government. The Kreuz villagers had not brought one, so were forced to take the Naglers back to the community.

        Those who had been sent to Stein also came back a few at a time. Within a week everyone had returned to Kreuz. How they rejoiced, praising and thanking God for leading them together once more!

        The village officials soon learned that the people were all back in the community. The baffled justice of the peace and several others came to demand what they were doing there.

        You will have to be locked up inside the church walls if you won't leave Kreuz, he threatened them.

        We are not going to leave, the brothers and sisters told him. It makes no difference what you do to us. We are going to remain together and await whatever God has in store for us.

        About thirty of them were taken prisoner and shut up in the strongly-walled yard adjoining the church. The officials repeated that they would be released if only they would agree to leave Kreuz. The justice of the peace then informed the authorities in Hermannstadt about his prisoners. What was he to do with them? Orders came back, Keep them in the churchyard until you receive further instructions.

***************

Records

         The names and ages of the Hutterites from Carinthia are listed on official records (see Hermannstädter Akten, p.3; Erich Buchinger p.175.) References to age do not always tally exactly, but are mostly within a span of two or three years. There are no such lists for those from Alwinz. Where the Kirchenbuch gives both the date of death and the age at death, it is possible to establish the year of birth with moderate accuracy. According to the Church Record, Anna Wipf (died 1795 at age 70) was born c.1725; Elias Wipf (died 1795 at age 48) was born c.1749; Johannes Wipf (died 1792 at age 38) was born c.1754; Samuel Wipf (died 1804 at age 45) was born c.1759. Ännele Wipf was baptized 1769 and married 1773. If her baptism and marriage took place at the normal age for Hutterian girls at the period, this would place her birth about 1754. Margareta was usually called Gretel, but as her cousin had the same name, I have kept to her full name to distinguish them. For her I have found only the date of her marriage, 1773. As she was imprisoned in 1767 and did not reach the community in Russia until 1772, she could not have married earlier, whatever her age. A record of October 1765 gives her age as 16. This cannot be taken as proof, for some of the other information in this record is inaccurate, but it is possible that Margareta was next to Elias in age. They both have no baptism date, which may indicate that they were already baptized at Alwinz and are therefore not in the new Church Register. They were both omitted when Delphini removed the children of fourteen and under to his house in Alwinz. Johannes Waldner, Klein-Geschichtsbuch p.300, wrote of Margareta as Anna's oldest daughter. However, Erich Buchinger, p. 258, calls her Anna's youngest daughter and gives her age as very near to Ännele's. I do not yet know his grounds for this.

***************

Herrenhutters

         Some of the new Hutterites were also unclear on this point. In their interrogation in 1763 - 1764, the Lutherans put the question, Are you Herrenhutters, or members of the church of the Moravian Brethren? The following answers were given:

        Hans Kleinsasser: We know very little about the Herrenhutters and have nothing to do with them.

        Christian Glanzer: We are neither the one nor the other. We have some Herrenhut writings, but accept only what we find to be in agreement with the Holy Scriptures.

        Mathies Hofer: I am a member of Christ, but I am not ashamed of the teachings of the Moravian church, and whatever you may have heard, theirs is the true teaching.

        Johann Amlacher: Yes, people call us Moravians.

        Andreas Wurz: Yes, we belong to the Moravian Brethren and are counted in with them.