Stories of the Hutterites

The Birth of a Believers' Church

Once, on a cold January night, three men met together. They met quietly in a private home in a very small country and no one could have guessed that out of this meeting would come a new movement that would bring new life to thousands of people in that generation, and still in our time, centuries later, has great meaning for us and for countless people throughout the world who may never have heard of these men.

        The place where they met was in Zurich, Switzerland. Although Switzerland was a small country and might seem unimportant beside the larger and more powerful countries around it was really a center for the new awakening of minds, the new learning that was driving out the ignorance and superstition that had covered Europe during what we call the Dark Ages. In the cities of Switzerland such as Basel and Zurich, were also gathered brothers from the old brotherhood movements such as the Waldensians, who, in spite of persecution, had kept alive the witness of the early Christians, and these brothers had an influence on the new awakening.

        The time of this meeting was the year 1525, more than 460 years ago. It was the time of the Reformation. In Germany, Luther, and in Switzerland, Zwingli, were preaching powerfully against some of the wrong things that had crept into the Roman Catholic Church, and many were being convinced by their sermons and writings.

        Now, who were these three men who met together? One was Conrad Grebel, a young nobleman who had been a brilliant student, especially in languages such as Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. His teachers and family had expected him to have a great career as a scholar, but as a young man he was also tempted by worldly pleasures. For a time he lost interest in his studies until he was awakened by the preaching of Zwingli. He became a follower and close friend of Zwingli- He threw himself enthusiastically into translating the New Testament from the original Greek into German, and he gathered around him a little circle of friends to study and discuss the New Testament.

        One of the members of this little study group was Felix Mantz, also a friend of Zwingli and a distinguished scholar who was busy translating the Old Testament from the original Hebrew into German. It was in the home of Felix Mantz's mother that this little group came to study, discuss, and pray.

        As they studied more in the New Testament, these men came to realize that while Zwingli was preaching against some of the things being done in the churches that were different from what the Bible taught, there were other things he never mentioned. One of these was baptism. For centuries the Catholic Church had been baptizing infants and teaching that this made them Christians and members of the church. When Grebel and Mantz asked Zwingli about this he agreed that the New Testament did not teach infant baptism, but he felt people were not ready for any change in this practice. He wanted the whole country to be part of his reformation and needed the support of the government for this, so he was not ready to go any faster than what the heads of the government wanted. Grebel and Mantz felt strongly that in matters of faith a Christian must be guided by the teachings of Christ and not by the government, and that baptism should be a sign of repentance and commitment to following Jesus, which was not possible for a baby. They saw that a true church could be made up only of those who had true faith based on God's Word and expressed in deeds of love; believers who would remain steadfast, no matter what it cost. Zwingli became very angry that these men who had been his friends and followers were questioning his authority, and he turned more and more against them.

        About this time another man came to Zurich to talk to Zwingli about matters of faith. He had been a monk and priest in the monastery in the town of Chur, but had seen that the life he was leading was not really following Jesus, so he left the monastery and married. Now he wanted help from Zwingli in the life of faith, but he also was disappointed in the weak stand Zwingli was taking. He heard that Grebel and Mantz were men more on fire, so he joined their study group.

        This man's name was Georg of the House of Jacob. In English we would call his name George, but in Switzerland it was often pronounced Jörg. He was a big and very strong man, with equally strong convictions which he could express with great force, so he was often called Starke Jörg (Strong Järg). However, he is most often known by another nickname. Once when a discussion was going on, a clear word was spoken in a strong voice. One of the listeners asked who had spoken and another answered, 'It was the man in the blue coat,' (blauer Rock), and ever since then he has usually been called Blaurock (blue coat).

        As Grebel, Mantz, Blaurock and others of their group tried to share their convictions, Zwingli became really bitter against them. He changed his position about infant baptism and started writing things defending it, but would not allow those who differed with him to publish anything in reply or to discuss it in public. Now he supports the Council which governs Zurich, in commanding all parents to have their babies baptized. They make a law that any parent who does not do this must leave the city within a week, and any non citizens who speak against infant baptism must also get out within a week. The Bible study group is forbidden to have any more meetings.

        Grebel has a baby daughter he does not intend to have baptized. Blaurock and several others in the group are not citizens of Zurich. Those who share their convictions are not allowed to meet privately or speak publicly. What are they to do now? So Grebel, Mantz and Blaurock meet once more secretly in the home of Mantz's mother to talk it over and seek the guidance of God.

        Only the Chronicle describes this meeting. It says that one day when they were meeting, fear came over them and struck their hearts. If they followed their consciences they knew they must face persecution, torture, perhaps death. For, though Zwingli in earlier years had spoken clearly against any use of violence, he now said Christians should support the

        government in doing whatever was necessary to put down those who differed with him. But if they kept silent, what would happen to this new awakening that was taking place in people's hearts, to the true church that the Spirit of God was seeking to bring into being? Would it all be lost? That was the thing they feared the most. So the three men fell on their knees before the almighty God in heaven and prayed that he would grant it to them to do his divine will.

        After this prayer Blaurock asked Conrad Grebel to baptize him with true Christian baptism on his faith and recognition of the truth. As he knelt down Grebel baptized him, and then Blaurock baptized the others. They confirmed each other for the service of the Gospel, to go out to spread the faith. So, in this hour, a believers' church was born and a new chapter started in Christian history.

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Witnesses to the Faith: Grebel, Mantz, and Blaurock

        In the last story you heard how Grebel, Mantz and Blaurock were baptized and how they commissioned each other to spread the faith. They started at once to preach and to baptize those who believed, and they were quickly joined in this work by others who shared their beliefs. The new movement spread like wildfire from Zurich to Zollikon, then to other parts of Switzerland, and before long to other countries as well. But the persecution they expected was not slow in coming. Within a week, Mantz and Blaurock were thrown into prison, and from that time on there were repeated questionings, fines, threats and torture as the laws passed to stop their activities became more and more harsh. But they went right on with their witnessing, even though they knew they were hunted men.

        By the fall of that same year, 1525, Grebel, Mantz and Blaurock were all imprisoned in the cold, dark dungeon of the tower on the Zurich city wall. At their trial in March of the next year, only a little more than a year since their baptism, they, along with nine other men and six women, are sentenced to be in this dungeon, bedded on straw and fed only bread and water until they are dead. The women are treated as harshly as the men. [ME p.473]

        But this is not the end of the story. One night, by the grace of God and perhaps the help of sympathizers among the guards, a shutter to a window above them in the tower is seen to be open. A chance to escape! At first Grebel, Mantz and Blaurock say they will stay and die in the dungeon, but are persuaded to join the others. They pile up whatever pieces of wood and books they can find and help each other up to the window and down over the city wall on the other side, using the rope with which they were tied when they were brought in. Of course there is a deep moat around the city wall, but the drawbridge is down! There is still a gate they must go through to get out of the city, but the watchman is a brother of one of the prisoners and lets them through. Now they have a chance to go on with their witnessing.

        They make the most of this chance, for they know it cannot last long. In less than a year Mantz and Blaurock are again captured and thrown into the tower. By this time Conrad Grebel is beyond the reach of the authorities. Already in the summer he had died of the plague. He was not yet thirty years old. He had never been strong, and after the cruel imprisonment of the winter before and his tireless traveling and preaching, his exhausted body was an easy victim of this dreaded disease. But the cause he had lived for lived on.

        The Zurich Council had passed a law that anyone who re-baptized or even attended Anabaptist preaching was to be drowned. After a month in prison Felix Mantz was taken down to the river for that punishment. His courageous mother shouted encouragement from the opposite bank. He again refused to recant and sang in Latin, 'Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,' and was thrown bound into the river. His drowning came only two years and four days after his baptism.

        Now only Blaurock remained of the first three baptized into a believers' church. Not being a citizen of Zurich, he did not come under the same laws, but he was beaten and chased bleeding out of the city and ordered never to return. From then on he spent his time mostly in hiding, preaching and baptizing secretly in the forests, and in this way went through much of Switzerland and then into Tirol.

        The new movement had already spread into Tirol, where it was growing strong and being strongly dealt with. One preacher was burned at the stake. Blaurock went to support his congregation and to start new congregations in the region. His preaching drew such crowds that it could not be kept secret. He had to move constantly from place to place, journeys that were hard and always dangerous. The authorities were determined to capture him and finally they did, in August, 1529. On September 6, 1529, Blaurock and a companion were burned at the stake. Even at the place of execution Blaurock spoke powerfully to the people, directing them to the Scriptures.

        In prison Blaurock had written a letter to his brothers which was really a prayer to God. It begins, 'Lord God, I will praise Thee now and until my end; because Thou hast given me faith, by which I have learned to know Thee,' and says at the end, 'I sincerely pray Thee for all our enemies, O Lord, however many there may be; do not lay their sins to their charge; Lord, I entreat Thee according to Thy will.' [Martyrs' Mirror, p.431] This shows the spirit in which he had lived and died. (Whenever you put on your blue shirts and jackets you can remember this man of the blue coat who witnessed so faithfully to Jesus and his way of love.)

        So now, in less than five years, the first three men to receive believers' baptism are all gone, but the movement they started swept on like a mighty tide that could not be turned back by threats, torture or death. In the crowd that saw Blaurock die, was a little boy named Peter Walpot. Later he joined the Hutterian Brethren and became one of their outstanding elders.

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Three More Brave Witnesses

        You have heard how Grebel, Mantz and Blaurock, the first three men to be baptized as believers, bravely gave their lives as witnesses to their faith. In the years that followed thousands of other faithful believers also lost their lives by fire, water and the sword. Most of their names are now known only to God and to their comrades in the Upper Church, but quite a number are also told about in books like The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren and The Martyrs' Mirror.

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The Flaming Heart That Did Not Burn

        The government authorities all over Europe were doing all they could to stop these Anabaptists (re-baptizers), as these believers were called. Sometimes weak believers were not able to hold out against the threats and terrible torture used, and recanted, that is, promised to give up their faith. Once several people who had been teaching their faith were made to give in by these tortures. Then the magistrates put them in front of a crowd of people and began to taunt them:

        Just see how wonderfully your teachers lay down their lives for you now! At this (a man named Thomas Hellmann pushed his way through the crowd, stood in front of them, and said joyfully, It is the truth that I have taught you and I will witness to it with my blood.

        He was immediately taken prisoner, tortured, and condemned to die by fire. Before he was burned at the stake he composed and sang a song which was afterwards treasured by his brothers, though we cannot find it now.

        After Thomas Hellmann's death it was found that his heart, which had been so on fire with love for Jesus, had not burned in the executioner's fire, so it was thrown into a lake.

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A Flower of Faith

        There were also other martyrs about whose deaths very remarkable stories were told. One of these was Leonhard Kaiser. Like Blaurock, he had once been a priest but gave that up and came to the brotherhood of believers and became a servant of the Gospel and of God's Word. He was taken prisoner and sentenced to be burned. The Chronicle tells us:

        He was taken to his death, bound to a cart, and priests rode beside him to talk to him, though he refused to listen. He stretched his hand down from the cart and picked a flower from the wayside, held it in his hand, and said to the judge who was riding beside him, See, I have picked a little flower; if this flower and I are consumed by the fire, then you have done right. But if not - if I and the flower are not burned and I hold the flower in my hand unconsumed - then think what you have done.

        At this, many cords of wood were used to burn him, but he was not burned. Then they took as much wood again and set fire to it a second time, but it was impossible to burn him. He still held the flower in his hand, as fresh as when he had first picked it.

        The judge received such a shock that he no longer wanted to hold office. He resigned and moved away from the place.

        A man named Leonhard Mittermaier. was at this execution and saw it all. He came to the church and became a brother.

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The Messenger of the Gospel Who Could Not Walk

        In the city of Augsburg in southern Germany there lived a rich nobleman named Hans Langenmantel, called Eitelhans (vain Hans) in those days. Another Hans, Hans Hut, came to the city. He was selling books and as Hans Langenmantel was interested in his books he invited him to stay in his home. Now Hans Hut was also a preacher of the Gospel, and when he shared the message about Jesus, Langenmantel saw that he was leading a sinful life, repented, and was baptized. Two of his servants, a manservant and a maidservant, also believed the message and were baptized with him.

        After Hans Hut left Augsburg, Hans Langenmantel continued to preach there. The authorities of the city didn't like that and threw him into prison. They didn't put him to death, perhaps because he belonged to a prominent family, but they wanted to get rid of him, so they banished him. (That means they told him he must leave and never come back.) Now he had become crippled so he could not walk. He was put in a chair, carried outside the city and let go. Somehow, possibly with the help of his two faithful servants, he managed to get to another city and continued to witness to the truth until he was again arrested and thrown into prison.

        Langenmantel's two servants were in prison with him and the three encouraged each other. They sent to their brothers a long and beautiful prayer they had made which began, '0 God, our heavenly Father, come with the power of Thy Holy Spirit, that Thou mayest rejoice our mind, heart and soul; give all three of us a manful heart, that in this anguish we fight and overcome.' [Martyrs' Mirror, p.430] With the courage given by God, the three of them went together to their deaths.

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Womanly Hearts With Manly Courage

        You have heard of a few of the men who bravely laid down their lives as witnesses to their faith in Jesus and in obedience to what he taught. Now not all who were put to death for their faith were men. There were also a great many women among them who faced death with equal courage. In speaking of two sisters, Anna and Ursula, the Chronicle says:

        They armed their womanly hearts with such manly courage in God, that everyone was astonished at their steadfastness. Thus they witnessed to the truth in life and in death.

        Usually the women were drowned but in some cases they also were burned at the stake, as in the case of a sister who had dared to go to a prison to comfort the other women imprisoned there.

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What Only God Could Give

        Among the martyrs to their faith were also some quite young people. Once nine brothers and three sisters, some of them young, were taken prisoner and for the sake of their faith were condemned to death, bound and taken to the place of execution outside the town. But they were joyful and said, Today we will suffer for the Word of God and offer him our sacrifice.. [They] knelt down and prayed to God from their hearts. Then they stood up joyfully and prepared themselves for the sword. The youngest brother encouraged the others to bear the pain willingly when their turn came. He kissed each one on the lips, saying, God bless you, my beloved brothers; today we will be together in paradise.

        Even the executioner was distressed at what he had to do. The three sisters were drowned. They refused to turn away from God. Several people saw the youngest smile down at the water. Some of them realized that this could come only from God.

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The Seven Lights

        In the southern part of Germany called Swabia, (the region our Opa Alfred came from) a Servant of the Word named Martin Maler, which means Martin the painter, was captured along with six others, one of them a boy who was only sixteen years old. He was called the miller's boy because he helped in a mill. They were told that if they recanted [gave up their faith] they would be completely free to return home to their wives and children. But they answered with a joyful no; they would willingly die rather than recant.

        They were thrown into prison, kept there about a year and then condemned to death. All seven of them were led out to the place of execution under escort and with drums. To reach the field of execution they had to cross a bridge.

        When Martin was led across the bridge, he had said, No more of the faithful will be taken across this bridge. This came true, for only a little later there was such a violent storm and flood that the bridge was torn down and carried away.

        As the miller's boy was taken to the meadow he spoke to the bystanders, telling them to turn from their sins and be converted to God, for there is no other way to heaven except through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and redeemed us.

        As the custom was, someone took a sword and drew a ring on the ground and all the prisoners were made to stand in that ring. Suddenly a nobleman rode up to the ring and said to the miller's boy:

        My son, recant this error and deny it. You are young. Hold on to your life! What has got hold of you? I will take you home with me and you shall stay with me for always. You will be provided for in my house and have good things all your life. Just follow me, my son.

        But the boy said: God forbid! If I kept my earthly life and deserted God, I would be doing evil, and I refuse to do that. Your possessions can help neither you nor me. I await something far better if I endure to the end. I will yield my spirit up to God and commend myself to Christ so that the bitter death he suffered and accepted on the cross may not be in vain for me.

        They all commended themselves to God and brother Martin prayed that he might grant them a blessed death and continue to care for his lambs. Then they were all burned at the stake.

        It was told that on the evening of that day a wayfarer was approaching the city and passed by the place of execution.

        On that very spot he saw seven lights like burning flames and heard a wonderfully sweet and beautiful song, as if angels were singing. On reaching the city he asked what had taken place and what it was he had heard and seen. When this report reached the city council, they made a deal with him, and he consented to say nothing about it.

        Oma Emmy's sister, Else von Hollander, wrote a beautiful poem about this story which we have in our Songs of Light and sometimes sing.

        Seven flames are burning in darkest night, Seven flames are burning in darkest night, A wayfarer far off from the distance hears A singing that rings loud and clearly.

        They've killed seven witnesses of the Lord, They've killed seven witnesses of the Lord, Oh, pain and suffering on this earth, When men cannot hear the truth spoken!

        The song they sing calls new witnesses, The song they sing calls new witnesses; They follow the Lamb of God into death, Their song means on earth they are victors!

        The flames are burning on and on, The flames are burning on and on, They kindle anew in every place The fires of love eternal.

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Witnesses in Weakness and in Strength

        10. A Weak Man Becomes Strong

        Because the tortures used against them were so terrible, sometimes in an hour of weakness a believer would give in and recant. Georg Baumann was one of these. He was told that he must go to the church three times and publicly confess he had been wrong in his beliefs. He did this twice, but then he began to think how he had dishonored God by saying what was not true.

        When he went to the church the third time he turned on the priests and their helpers and said,

        You scoundrels! You got the upper hand: you tortured and plagued me until I agreed to give up my faith and follow you. But now I am sorry I did it, and I repudiate it all. Then he restated that this was the divine truth and the true faith, yes, the way to life in Christ, that the idolatrous life and ways of the world lead astray and are opposed to God, and that he wanted to remain steadfast in his faith to the end.

        They immediately seized him again and sentenced him to death. He sang joyfully as they led him to the place of execution. It was very muddy in the village. His shoes got stuck in the mud, but he walked straight ahead, leaving them behind, and hurried to the execution place, singing for joy that God had again given him such courage. And so he was beheaded [with the sword).

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Death With a Smile

        There was another Georg, Georg Wagner, whom nothing could make waver. Because he would not give up his faith he was tortured so severely that the prince of that country was filled with pity and came to him personally, urging him to recant and promising to be his friend and give him a pension for the rest of his life, but Georg did not give in. Finally they brought his wife and child into the prison, hoping to make him weaken. But even this did not change him. He told the prince that his wife and child were so dear to him he would not sell them for all the prince's lands, but still he could not forsake his God on their account.

        Then Georg Wagner was condemned to be burned alive. He was taken by the executioner and led to his death. When they came to the town he said, 'Today I will confess my God before the whole world.' He had such a joy in Christ that his face did not grow pale nor did his eyes show any terror. He went to the fire with a smile on his lips.

        The cruel executioner intended to capture still other believers, but that night he died suddenly in his bed.

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Prisoners Rejoice and Their Enemies Become Fearful

        Some of the judges and executioners were troubled about what they were doing, but others became even more determined to stamp out the believers' church. There was Judge Lebisch in Moravia who was so anxious for the death of three brothers and two sisters who were in prison that he threatened the town council that if they did not sentence them he would go to the king himself and tell him that they were not obeying his orders, but if they would sentence them to be burned, his own horses would cart the wood for the burning. The council let him have his way, but even after these faithful believers had given themselves as a burnt offering to God, the judge was not satisfied. He offered money to anyone who would tell him where the believers met. One greedy man pointed out the house. The judge took guards to arrest them, but when he came opposite the house his foot suddenly went down into a hole that had been dug to hold a tavern sign. He screamed piteously for the guards to let the villains go and come to help him. His screams warned the believers, so they escaped from the house and were saved. Soon after the judge became dangerously ill and in his sickness would cry out, 'Oh, the baptizers, the baptizers!' Finally he died a miserable death. Many people realized this was because he had shed innocent blood.

        In the Austrian Empire the laws were especially strict against the believers, but it was just in one part of this empire, called the Palatinate, that the faith was spreading most rapidly. The count palatine who ruled over this district was told he must enforce these harsh laws, so he began to have everyone who was a believer taken prisoner, man or woman, young or old. In some places the prisons became full. The prisoners sang joyfully, so that their enemies outside the prison became much more fearful than those inside. They did not know what to do with these believers.

        In one city the official there had believers taken from any house known to shelter them and led to the place of execution. Not one turned from the faith they had received from God. While some were being executed, those who were waiting sang until the executioner took them too. They met death with joy. This official complained, 'What shall I do? The more I condemn and execute, the more of them there are.' He went to visit the count and while he was about to have a meal with him, he suddenly fell dead as he sat at the table.

        The count palatine was shocked by this death and other things that were happening. He had had more than 350 brothers and sisters put to death for their faith. He began to realize that his victims were innocent and in the end he was seized with great remorse. He is reported to have said that it had cost him a large sum of money to have so many people executed, but now he would readily spend the same amount again if he could undo what he had done. After that, executions in that area gradually stopped, though other forms of persecution continued.

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Can a Christian Carry a Sword?

        If you had passed by the castle of Nikolsburg one dark night in 1526 you might have been surprised to see coming down from a window a big net used to catch rabbits, but inside it not rabbit but a man. You would have been still more astonished to recognize this man as Hans Hut, the preacher of the Gospel we met in the home of Hans Langenmantel. How this came about is a long story which I will try to tell you.

        You have heard how the rulers of Europe, and especially the emperor of Austria, were determined to get rid of the Anabaptists, as the believers were called, and the terrible persecutions they used. However, there was one part of the Austrian Empire called Moravia where there was not so much persecution. The reason was that many of the older brotherhoods, such as the Hussites, had long been in Moravia and so the people and the lords who ruled over them were more sympathetic toward these new believers. This was especially true of the region around the city of Nikolsburg, ruled over by the Lords of Liechtenstein, Leonard and his brother Hans.

        To this city of Nikolsburg came Balthasar Hubmaier, known as a great scholar and eloquent preacher. People flocked to hear him and many were converted and baptized. The Lords of Liechtenstein themselves were baptized and became brothers. When believers in other parts of the empire heard that here was a place where they would not be persecuted they began flocking to Moravia and soon there were thousands of Anabaptists living around Nikolsburg.

        During this time this other powerful preacher of the Gospel, Hans Hut, also came to Nikolsburg. He and Hubmaler were agreed about most things, but there was one point on which they never could agree and that was whether a Christian could use a sword. Hubmeier, like the Lords of Liechtenstein, felt it was right to use weapons in self defense, but Hans Hut thought any violence was wrong.

        Now I want to tell you more about Hans Hut and how he came to believe in non-violence. He was a peasant by birth and had worked at the humble job of being a sexton, something like a janitor, but had somehow managed to get an education and learned the trade of bookbinding. Soon he began traveling about selling the books he bound. Once in his travels he met three other skilled workers, a miller, a tailor, and a weaver. They had a long discussion about baptism and Hans Hut became convinced that infant baptism was wrong, so when he returned home he refused to have his new baby baptized. Because of this he and his wife and five children were driven from their home and had to go to another city.

        Hans Hut continued to travel selling books and talked with believers wherever he met them. He heard of the Peasants' Revolt and went to where it had started. He had a great sympathy for these poor peasants and at first started to march with them, but when he saw all the killing he realized it was wrong and from that time on he strongly opposed any form of violence.

        The name Hans, a short form of the German name Johannes, which means the same as the English name John, was a very common name then as now. In his travels Hans Hut met still another Hans, Hans Denk, who persuaded him to join the Anabaptists. He soon became one of their strongest preachers and as he traveled from place to place with his books he also preached the gospel. When he came to Augsburg we have heard how he stayed in the home of Hans LangenmanteI and converted him and his two servants as well as many others in that city.

        In that same year, 1526, Hut came to Nikolsburg and met Balthasar Hubmaier and other Anabaptists there. They often disputed about whether a Christian could carry a sword or use violence. Hubmaier thought Christians had a right to defend themselves, but Hans Hut said that Jesus has told us to love our enemies, and that we cannot 'kill or harm them even if they kill us. Those who, like Hubmaier, felt they had a right to arm themselves were called sword-bearers, while those who refused to bear arms but only carried walking sticks were called staff-bearers.

        Now the Austrian emperor had heard how many Anabaptists were around Nikolsburg and he sent word to the Lords of Liechtenstein to get rid of them. Lord Leonhard refused and sent word back that if the emperor sent his officers to arrest Anabaptists they would be met with cannon balls. After that, he feared the emperor would really send his army against them, so he called the Anabaptists together and told them he had promised to protect them, but they also must arm themselves to help protect his territory. To Hubmeier and the sword-bearers this seemed reasonable, but Hans Hut and a small group of staff-bearers refused and stoutly maintained that it was contrary to the teachings of Jesus to bear arms or use violence.

        It made Lord Leonhard angry that Hans Hut had opposed him about bearing arms, and that is why he shut him up in his castle. Some of the people in the castle felt this was unjust, so they let him down in a rabbit net. He escaped into the night and was able to go on for a while with his preaching.

        The emperor did not send his army into Moravia at that time but he somehow managed to capture Balthasar Hubmaier and his wife and threw them into prison. While in prison Hubmeier thought of how he had opposed Hans Hut on the question of violence and he was sorry. He saw now that he had been compromising with the spirit of the world in saying that a Christian could defend himself. He told someone that if he could talk with Hans Hut now it would not take long to come to an agreement with him. He wrote back to one of the leaders he had worked with in Nikolsburg and asked him to put right what had been wrong there. When Hubmaier and his wife were put to death they died as faithful witnesses to Jesus.

        During this time Hans Hut was traveling from place to place preaching and baptizing. He was so successful in winning believers that the authorities were determined to capture him. They put out a sort of poster which described him in this way: The highest and chief leader of the Anabaptists is Johannes Hut, a well-educated, clever fellow, rather tall, a peasant with light brown cropped hair and a blond mustache. He is dressed in a gray, sometimes a black, riding coat, a broad gray hat, and gray pants. [ME p.846]

        Hut had many narrow escapes but it was not until about a year later that he was finally captured and thrown into prison. There he was tortured many times. After the last time, when he was thrown down in the straw, he lay like one dead. The guards went away, leaving a lighted candle in the straw. The straw caught fire and when they came back they found Hut dead. Because no sentence had yet been pronounced on him, the officials tied his dead body to a chair, took it to court, sentenced it to die and burned it at the stake.

        One of Hans Hut's daughters had already given her life for her faith. His son Philip, who told about his father's death, later became a member of the Hutterian Brotherhood.

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The Beginning of Community

        You have heard in the story of Hans Hut how some of the believers in Nikolsburg were called sword-bearers but those who did not believe in using a sword or any kind of violence were called staff-bearers. The man who became leader of the staff-bearers was named Jakob Wiedemann. He must have lost an eye in some kind of accident, for he was nicknamed one-eyed Jakob. After he had been in Nikolsburg for several weeks he felt that the sword-bearers were in many ways failing to live a brotherly life according to the Lord's Word. He and his followers admonished the others for using violence, paying taxes for carrying on war, and not taking in pilgrims and strangers, but the others did not listen to them. Wiedemann and the other staff-bearers then withdrew from the church in Nikolsburg and began meeting in each other's homes. They took in guests and strangers from other countries and tried to share together in some sort of community.

        One of the preachers of the sword-bearers named Spittelmaier spoke out publicly defending using swords, paying war taxes and such things and got Lord Leonhard von Liechtenstein all worked up against the others. He called Jakob Wiedemann and his community to come and explain to him why they had cut themselves off from the others. They told him of all the things they felt were not according to the Word of truth. Lord Leonhard was angry and said, 'If you refuse to go to the worship services my preachers hold and meet separately, I cannot tolerate you in my domain.' They answered, 'With God's help we will wait patiently for whatever the Lord permits to happen to us.' They warned Lord Leonhard to consider what he was doing, for he was known and respected as a brother. He cooled down a bit and said he personally did not object to their devout way of life but could not tolerate them because they caused division among his brothers. He did nothing more about it for the rest of that winter.

        In the spring of 1528 Spittelmaier again preached a sermon against the little community of staff-bearers and said no one should have anything to do with them. Again Lord Leonhard's hot temper flared up. He told Wiedemann and his followers they must pack up and leave. So they offered their goods for sale, sold what they could, just left the rest behind, and moved away together. There were about 200 adults besides many children. A number of people from Nikolsburg came to see them off, some weeping for sorrow that they were leaving and others arguing with them.

        That night these refugees camped in a deserted village. How were they to live, now that they had left their homes? They asked for the guidance of God and then appointed as stewards two men who had been stewards to the lord of Liechtenstein. One of them was named Jakob Mändel. Two helpers were, also appointed. These men took a cloak and spread it out in front of all the people and each one of them willingly came and laid on it everything he had so that everyone could be cared for, just as we read in the Book of Acts of how the first Christians did it.

        The next morning, as the refugees were about to move on, up rode Lord Leonhard and several mounted retainers. He asked them where they were going and said they could have stayed in Nikolsburg. In return they asked him why he had ordered them to leave and said they were only following their consciences, which could not agree with the lives and

        teachings of his preachers. When they broke camp and went on, Lord Leonhard rode with them to the river at the edge of his land. He gave them something to drink and let them cross the bridge without paying toll. Later he even had his people send them all the things they had had to leave behind, so he must have had a kind heart in spite of his hot temper.

        The next night they camped beside an old temple. But where were they to find a home and how were they to go on with all the small children and sick people too? At their next stop they sent four men to the town of Austerlitz to ask the lords who ruled there to take them in and allow them freedom of conscience. They mentioned some of the things that in the fear of God they could not do, such as fighting or paying war taxes. The lords were friendly, saying that even if there were a thousand of them they would take them in. They sent three wagons to help them travel.

        When the refugees came near Austerlitz they were shown a deserted farm where all the buildings had burned down. There they camped in the open for three weeks while they looked for a place to build their houses. They found a place called the potters' market and they were given permission to build there. The lords of Austerlitz even gave them the wood they needed and promised that for six years they would not have to pay rent or taxes or do the extra work the lords usually expected from those who lived on their land. The people of the town also were friendly and helped them in many ways. The Chronicle tells us, All this the brothers accepted thankfully as a blessing from God.

        Now there was a real community at Austerlitz and the members of the church increased in number. They might have been satisfied that they were getting along so well, but they weren't. We are told that their zeal and divine grace moved them to send brothers out to other countries, especially to Tirol. That was where there was the most terrible persecution of believers, a dangerous place for them to go. We will hear in the next story what came from these missionary journeys.

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The Gathering at Austerlitz

        You heard in the last story how a real community had been begun at Austerlitz and was growing and prospering, but how they had not been satisfied just to be strong and prosperous but felt they must do something to help spread the good news of Jesus. So they had sent out brothers to Tirol, the place where persecution was the worst. Do you remember Blaurock, the man in the blue coat, who was the first believer to be baptized? And how he and others imprisoned in the tower of Zurich had escaped through a window in the tower and swung down by ropes over the city wall? Then he had gone to Tirol, preaching powerfully and winning many converts, until he was captured and put to death.

        One of those who joined the persecuted believers in Tirol during this time was a young man named Jakob who was a hat-maker by trade, so he was called Jakob Hutter, or Jakob the hat-maker. It was soon seen that this young man had abundant gifts from God, so he was chosen for the service of the Gospel. He began to preach with power and won many to the believers' church, but they were persecuted more and more. Through the brothers who had been sent from Austerlitz, the persecuted church in Tirol learned that in Moravia, where there was not so much persecution, God had gathered a people in his name to live as one heart, mind and soul, each caring faithfully for the other. This sounded wonderful, so they decided to send Jakob Hutter and Simon Schützinger with other companions to Austerlitz to learn more about the church there.

        Jakob Hutter and the other messengers talked everything over with the elders of the church at Austerlitz and found that both groups were of one heart and soul in serving and fearing God. Then these messengers from Tirol, in the name of their whole church, united in peace with the church at Austerlitz.

        When Jakob Hutter returned with his companions to the believers in the mountains of Tirol, he joyfully told them about the community of saints he had seen and experienced at Austerlitz. He told how, in the name of them all, he had united with those at Austerlitz in peace and unity of soul and spirit. Then the whole community was full of joy, giving praise and thanks to God with all their hearts.

        After that, Jakob Hutter sent one small group after another with all their belongings from the persecuted church in Tirol to live in community with the believers in Austerlitz. It was a long, hard journey through many dangers, but under God's protection these little groups arrived one by one and were welcomed with joy.

        There was also a group of eighty or ninety believers from another region, called Bavaria, who had heard of how the church in Tirol had joined with the community in Austerlitz. These came to the community and also wanted to become one with them in Christ. That made a very large church gathered in Austerlitz, so large that they had their meetings in the open air, for there was no room large enough to hold them all.

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The Torch Is Passed to Auspitz

        You have heard how wonderfully God gathered together so many believers in the community at Austerlitz. We can never understand what happened next unless we remember that whenever God builds up something great, another power, which we call Satan or the Devil, right away tries to tear it down. This evil power knows that people are weak and he always attacks them at their weakest points. For most people these weakest points are their self-love, making them think they are more important than anybody else, and their pride, which tells them they are always right about everything.

        The Devil just waited for a chance to attack the Austerlitz community, and he found it when the weather became so cold they could no longer meet all together in the open air. Since there was no room big enough to hold them all, or even half of them, they had to divide into three groups with three different servants of the Word to lead them. Now these leaders didn't all have exactly the same ideas and taught somewhat different things, but each one was sure he was right and wouldn't listen to anyone else, so the people of the community became confused and began arguing and sometimes quarreling with each other.

        After these divisions came in, many things began to go wrong. Some of the servants who had been better educated than the others thought they deserved better food than the others and began to take it for themselves. Then other brothers followed their example and held back some pocket money to buy special things for themselves and their families. Many began to complain about how things were going, how church discipline was not properly used and the education of the children neglected, but it was hard to get the leaders to listen to these concerns. Once a brother wanted to bring his concerns to the church, but Wiedemann, the chief servant in charge of the church, accused him of trying to bring in some different teaching and would not let him speak. A number of other brothers and some of the other servants felt this brother should be heard and that the church should decide what was right. Wiedemann still would not listen and the whole church became divided, some siding with Wiedemann and some with the others. Wiedemann told those on his side they should have nothing to do with the others, and that caused still more division.

        When it came time for a meal, Wiedemann's group would not let the others share it, but treated them as if they were excluded. About 150 people gathered outside the house, sick at heart, and set out to find another home. Although they had handed in all they had, they had to leave empty-handed. They found a place in the city where they could leave the children and the sick and then they started on their journey toward another city called Auspitz.

        When they had left the city of Austerlitz behind, their servants of the Word said that whoever wanted to go with them should be ready, with them, to face the poverty of Christ and possibly even death. Therefore, anyone who did not feel the courage to suffer hunger, great need, misery, and poverty for the sake of truth should rather return to the city or to his home. But all of them wanted to dare it, trusting in God. Not one turned back. So they traveled on through many dangers until they reached the city of Auspitz. They were housed and given refuge by the people there but had to find work in the vineyards, a new work they didn't know much about. Because they were so poor, they often had to do a hard day's work with only water and a small piece of bread.

        Now they brought their children and sick people to a village near Auspitz where they thought they would be safe, and some lived there with them. But one night robbers broke in and took the little they had and beat some brothers so badly that one of them died. The Chronicle says this demanded great endurance on the part of the saints. They continued to care first for the children and the sick, even when the rest of them went hungry.

        Another hard trial was when some brothers went to work in the vineyard of a man who had come to the community at Austerlitz but had left. He pretended he had repented and wanted to join them and he invited them to stay in his house. They worked very hard in his vineyard with little to eat, but when the harvest was ended he turned them out empty-handed.

        At last these faithful believers were able to buy a house at Auspitz from some Catholic sisters called the nuns of Brünn, who also lent them some money. They brought the children and the sick to this house and all began to gather there. They appointed a God-fearing brother and several sisters to educate the children in the ways of the Lord. At night the children went to their parents to sleep.

        Since the community at Austerlitz and this new community at Auspitz had not been able to settle their differences, they each sent two brothers to Tirol to report to the church there about the division that had taken place. These four brothers asked the church in Tirol to send brothers to look into the matter. Jakob Hutter and Simon Schützinger were again sent. They examined the matter thoroughly and considered it in the fear of God. They found the community at Austerlitz the most guilty, for they had refused to listen to their brothers and expelled them unjustly. Then they had done other wrong things, such as allowing a return to private property and marriage with unbelievers. Jakob Hutter admonished them for these errors, but they would not listen to him, so when he had helped the community at Auspitz to put everything in order there, he and Schützinger returned to the church in Tirol, where God had been powerfully at work.

        After this the community at Austerlitz became more and more worldly and finally fell apart, so that it was left to the church in Auspitz to carry the torch of faith. In a later story you will hear how God brought back to the church those from the Austerlitz community who had been really faithful believers.

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Jakob Hutter Becomes Shepherd of the Church

        The Auspitz community had suffered many hard trials and it seemed like they deserved a little rest, but the Devil didn't want to rest, so they couldn't rest either. This evil spirit aimed his temptations especially at the servants of the Word. They must have become proud of carrying a service and started turning to their own ideas instead of turning to God, for one after another of them gave in to some temptation and did something wrong for which he had to be excluded from the church. Later some of them repented and could be taken back into the church, but at this time it came about that the church was without a shepherd, teacher, or servant of the Word, but they were zealous for the truth, punishing wrong without regard of persons.

        Immediately the Auspitz church sent someone to the church in Tirol with a letter telling of their need and pleading for a servant to be sent to care for them with the Word of the Lord. At once Jakob Hutter and Simon Schützinger were sent off. When they reached Auspitz they were satisfied that everything had been handled in the right way and praised the church for acting so zealously against wrong. Simon Schützinger was now appointed as shepherd of the church.

        At this time there were two other communities of believers in this area, one led by a man named Philip, who were called Philippites, and another led by a man named Gabriel, who were called Gabrielites. The Philippites also lived in Auspitz and the Gabrielites in a neighboring town. Hutter and Schützinger felt that these groups were standing for the same things as their community, so they united with them. Each community remained in its own place but the three leaders agreed to seek each other's advice in difficult matters. Jakob Hutter then returned to his work in Tirol and Simon Schützinger, Philip and Gabriel worked together in harmony for about two years. During this time Hutter continued to send many from Tirol, and many also came from other directions to the other two places, so the number of people in the church increased daily at all three places and the work of the Lord spread more and more.

        They were not without trials, however. A mob of soldiers marched through that area and plundered all three communities, carrying off everything they could. They wanted money and when they couldn't find any they beat the brothers and tore off their clothes. Then they turned on the sisters, showing no respect for their womanhood. In the middle of the robbery the soldiers found a bit of money in a little earthenware pot. At once they began fighting over this small sum. During the struggle one of them shot and killed a fellow soldier. This frightened them so that they ran away. The Chronicle says, the faithful left all vengeance to God, the righteous Judge, who rewards each one according to his deeds.

        All this time Jakob Hutter was in the mountains of Tirol, proclaiming the Lord's Word and doing the Lord's work. As persecution grew worse and worse, he sent one group after another to the community in Auspitz. We are told of one group which included twenty-five children that managed to get there safely, even though officials in two cities they had to pass had every path watched.

        Finally Jakob Hutter himself came with a group of refugees to Auspitz and was welcomed with great joy by the elders and the whole church. Schützinger and all the other leaders asked him to help them care for the people, which he promised to do. He had managed to bring them a little money to repay the nuns of Brünn, who had lent them money in a time of need.

        Now the Devil, who never tires of trying to tear down the work of God, continued to try to bring division in the church. Although Schützinger, with the others, had asked Hutter to help care for the people, in his heart he resented sharing any of his authority, and whenever Hutter tried to correct anything that was going wrong, he would oppose him. He tried to keep Hutter from speaking and finally made it clear that he wanted to be the only shepherd of the church, the only one to teach.

        The elders in the church had wanted both men to share equally in this task, but Schützinger had managed to get Philip and Gabriel, the leaders of the other communities, to support him in wanting to be the chief leader, and they caused a real division in the church. Some wanted one thing and some another. Finally they agreed to let Schützinger remain as the chief servant and asked Hutter just to assist him. Jakob Hutter accepted this for the sake of love, peace, and unity, though he knew it was not just.

        Now it seemed that God was taking a hand, for Schützinger became very ill and it was left to Hutter to teach and guide the church, which he did in the power of God. At this time a new family came to the community. When they turned in their possessions, it was found that the wife, unknown to her husband, had kept back some of the money. She was admonished and disciplined by the elders of the church, including Schützinger. We read in a letter that was written later that she had repented and been forgiven and was called our dear sister, but first she had to accept church discipline.

        This incident made Hutter wonder if there were others who had kept back something for themselves. The elders agreed that everyone's room should be searched, beginning with Hutter's own room and those of the other elders. When he and the others making the search came to Schützinger's room they were shocked to find quite a lot of bed linen and shirts and also money in a chest. Schützinger admitted he knew about it and brought out still more money he had hidden. When he was called before the brotherhood they were all horrified, for he had taught them full surrender and community of goods, but had not practiced it himself. He had to be excluded from the church.

        Then the brotherhood saw what a mistake they had made in asking Schützinger to be their chief servant. For eight days they prayed together, asking God to forgive them and show them who should be their shepherd. As they prayed, God gave them a united heart and mind in wanting Jakob Hutter as their shepherd, so they accepted him as a gift from God and were all united in great love. Then the Word of God grew in power among them; peace, love, and the fear of God increased daily.

        Of course the Devil was angry and made one more attempt to break up the unity of the church. It seems that all along Philip and Gabriel, the leaders of the other communities, had been secretly envious of Jakob Hutter's gifts and wanted to make trouble for him. One day they appeared quite unexpectedly in the Auspitz community. At first they pretended to be friendly and began asking questions about Schützinger and others who had been excluded for their sins, but before long they started saying all sorts of false and mean things about Hutter. When their false accusations were not accepted by the brotherhood, they left in great anger.

        A number of attempts were made to restore the harmonious working together of the three communities of believers, but since Philip and Gabriel had poisoned the minds of their communities against Hutter and his community, the unity between them could not be restored. Each group went its own way and the church led by Hutter came to be called Hutterian, as it still is today.

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Out on the Open Heath

        Jakob Hutter wanted, the church in Tirol to know of what had happened to them in Auspitz, so he wrote them a long letter, which you can one day read in the Chronicle, telling of all the troubles they had had. It is full of both joy and sorrow. There is much sorrow for the sufferings of the church in Tirol and for the divisions that had come among them at Auspitz and also fear that some might never repent, though Hutter said, I certainly do not want to deny God's grace to anyone. But there is also joy over the faithful in the church and for others who have come to them. He writes,

        So we reckon that in the short time of three or four weeks the Lord added more than one hundred and twenty souls to the church of God. Adults and children, all those who came from other lands as well as from your area, were welcomed here with great joy as we would welcome the Lord himself. God's children here are blossoming like beautiful flowers in the fields.

        In this letter Hutter also described a strange thing they had seen during this time. We saw three suns in the sky for a good long time, about an hour, as well as two rainbows. These had their arches turned toward each other. After a time the rainbows disappeared and two of the suns, but the brightest sun remained. Hutter was sure this was a sign from God, but he does not try to explain it. We can imagine that perhaps the three suns stood for the three communities that had worked together for a time to spread the light of truth. After they separated, the Philippites and Gabrielites later fell apart and finally disappeared, but the community led by Hutter continued to witness to the light.

        Maybe the two rainbows were God's promise of faithfulness to the persecuted believers in Tirol and in Moravia. Both of them needed the support that only God could give, for their troubles increased more and more. Persecution grew still worse in Tirol. Some who pretended to be sincere seekers for the truth were really spies and as soon as they found where the believers lived they would go and tell the authorities and have them thrown into prison. Many more of these persecuted believers now tried to go from Tirol to Moravia. Some of them were captured on the way and imprisoned in some castle, but others, like the little group led by the faithful servant Hans Amon, reached Auspitz safely.

        Besides the groups of true believers that came to strengthen the church at Auspitz, there were others who were only troublemakers. One group tried to bring in false teachings and when they refused to give them up, had to be sent away. Another group found fault with everything in the community. When they complained about the food, Hutter offered to let their cooks prepare the meals and was willing to make many other changes, even to let them live in a house to themselves, but nothing satisfied them, so they, too, had to be sent away.

        You remember that the land the Auspitz community was living on belonged to the nuns at Brünn. They had also lent them money, but Hutter had brought money to pay them back. Now the abbess at the head of these nuns wanted to borrow money from the brothers, but they refused because the church needed the money so much. Then she had Jakob Hutter, Hans Amon and other elders thrown into prison, but when they still didn't give her the money she let them go, ordering them off her property. She did not make them leave right away, however.

        The brotherhood felt they could not continue to have any dealings with religious leaders who were not really following Jesus but were using their money selfishly or for making images, which they saw as idols. Therefore, they gave notice to the abbess at Brünn that they could no longer work in her vineyards. This made the abbess furious and she again ordered them off her land, so on Ascension Day, 1535, the community left their houses at Auspitz and moved to the village of Schakwitz, a half mile away, on the lands of the lord marshal. There they again started to build houses, but worse troubles were coming that kept them from living long in these houses.

        You remember that these believers were called Anabaptists, or rebaptizers, because they felt baptism should mean that people had repented of their sins, and really intended to follow Jesus, so they baptized again those who had been baptized as babies, when they couldn't know what it was all about. Of course the Hutterian Brothers weren't the only Anabaptists; there were thousands of them all over Europe. Most of these Anabaptists were also sincere followers of Jesus who were willing to give their lives for what they saw was right. There were a few groups, however, who followed their own notions instead of really following Jesus. These groups used violence and did wrong things that brought much trouble on the sincere Anabaptists.

        One very evil group took violent possession of the city of Münster, in Germany, and drove out all who did not agree with them. Their leader made himself king and even behaved as if he thought he was Christ, but he did not act at all like Jesus. Instead, he did very cruel and wicked things. At last he and his followers were conquered and their evil rule ended, but the news of their wicked ways had spread all over Europe and people were saying, 'If that is what Anabaptists are like, we had better get rid of all of them.' Unfortunately they didn't bother to find out that most Anabaptists weren't at all like that and had strongly condemned the wicked ways of the Münsterites; they just persecuted them because they were called Anabaptists, so great numbers of true followers of Jesus had to suffer for the sins of a few false ones.

        After this, the Emperor Ferdinand was more determined than ever to get rid of all Anabaptists, so he sent word to the lord marshal to get rid of the brothers without delay. The lord marshal didn't want to do it, for he really liked the brothers, but he was afraid of the emperor, so he told Jakob Hutter they would have to go but that he should gather his people again when these troubles were over. This was very hard, for the community had been in their new homes in Schakwitz only a few days.

        The lord marshal sent his officers to call all the neighbors from the villages round about. They soon came with drums beating, flags flying, and weapons in hand to the community at Schakwitz. The officers asked the brothers to leave and not bring trouble on their master, as he had to obey the higher authorities. After talking together for a while, Jakob Hutter and the other servants took their bundles on their backs and all brothers and sisters and children followed in pairs. They had to go through the crowd of villagers, who were grinding their teeth in rage and wanting to attack them, but the officers would not let them.

        The Chronicle says: The little band of the righteous were driven into the open like a herd of sheep. They were not permitted to camp anywhere until they had left their lord's lands. They finally found a place to camp in a deserted village on the land of the lord of Liechtenstein. But they weren't left in peace for long there either. Someone reported them to the governor, saying they were carrying guns. The governor sent messengers to the camp to see, but instead of muskets and spears they found many children and sick people. When Jakob Hutter told them their story the messengers asked him to write something explaining the community's ideas and intentions.

        Hutter wrote a strong letter to the governor telling how they had lived in the fear of God and had not troubled or harmed anyone, yet, he says,

        So we now find ourselves out in the wilderness, under the open sky on a desolate heath. Now since you have commanded us to leave without delay, we give you this answer: We know of no place to go. Besides, we have among us many widows and orphans, many sick people and helpless little children who are unable to walk or travel. Their fathers and mothers were murdered by that tyrant Ferdinand. He also robbed them of their goods. These poor and weak ones are entrusted to us by God the Almighty, who commands us to feed, clothe and house them, and in every way to serve them in love. So we cannot leave them behind or send them away. We dare not disobey God for the sake of man's command, though it cost our life.

        Hutter goes on to say: We do not want to hurt or wrong anyone, not even our worst enemy. Rather than strike our worst enemy with our hand - to say nothing of spears, swords, and halberds such as the world uses - we would let our own lives be taken. However he gives a sharp warning of the terrible punishment in eternity that awaits those who shed innocent blood.

        Unfortunately this letter did not soften the governor's heart but only made him angry. He immediately sent men with strict orders to arrest Jakob Hutter.

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The Shepherd Is Taken

        19.        But the Scattered Flock Remains United

        The governor of Moravia was angry about the letter Jakob Hutter wrote pointing out how cruelly and unjustly the believers were being treated, so he sent his servants to arrest him. They searched the place where the refugees were camping and the house in Schakwitz, but they could not find him, so they took two other brothers and threw them into prison. The reason they could not find Hutter was because the church had foreseen what might happen and had decided to send him to Tirol. He entrusted the care of the church to his co-worker, Hans Amon. With many tears and sorrowful hearts the church had commended Hutter to the grace of God and sent him on his dangerous journey.

        For some time Hutter had been longing to visit the persecuted church in Tirol, so now, in spite of the great danger, he traveled about encouraging and gathering the scattered believers and spared no effort to bring the message of salvation to many others. He wrote back to the church in Moravia, The Lord is still daily adding those who are saved to his holy church. One disciple awakens another.

        It did not take the authorities long to notice all this renewed activity and to realize that Hutter was again at work in Tirol. They determined to put a stop to it and offered a large reward to anyone who would betray him. A cruel order was also sent out that if anyone took in one of the believers he should have his house burned to the ground.

        In spite of these threats Hutter continued his work until the night of November 29, 1535, when he and his wife Katharina were betrayed and captured at Klausen. Soon Hutter was taken to Innsbruck, the seat of King Ferdinand's government, with a gag tied in his mouth to keep him from speaking. There they tried every cruel torture they could think of to make him deny his faith. They also tried to make him appear ridiculous by putting a hat with a tuft of feathers on his head and leading him into the church where people came to kneel before the images.

        Hutter remained firm in his faith through everything and when he was led out to the market place to be burned at the stake in February, 1536, he said to his executioners, This fire will harm my soul as little as the fiery furnace harmed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. A huge crowd was present and saw his steadfast witness. King Ferdinand, who was in Innsbruck at the time may have been watching from the balcony on the government building.

        During 1986, 450 years later, several of our brothers from both East and West, as well as many other people, went to a conference held at Jakob Hutter's birthplace especially to commemorate his martyrdom. This part of Tirol is now a part of Italy. Most of the people of this region are still Catholics, but they now respect Jakob Hutter and the Anabaptists and welcomed our brothers as honored guests.

        The brothers in Tirol sent the sad news of the capture and execution of Jakob Hutter to Hans Amon and the church in Moravia. Hutter had been their chief shepherd for less than three years, but in that time he had made them a people gathered and built up for the Lord, who are still called Hutterian Brethren. To express our thankfulness for the witness of Jakob Hutter in his life and his heroic death, plans were made in 1986 to publish The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren in English.

        After Jakob Hutter had left the refugee church out on the open heath, they had moved from place to place, unwilling to part from one another. But when they were refused all provisions and even water, they at last had to separate into groups of eight or ten. Each brother with the little group entrusted to him had it laid on his heart very earnestly that they should care for one another as God gave them grace and that no one should hold back from helping another. The people wandered about the land in misery and suffering for almost a whole year.

        During this time Hans Amon and his assistants tried to visit the scattered groups wherever they were, up and down the country, and faithfully providing for all their needs as far as possible. Each little group tried to find shelter and work wherever they could. Leonhard Lanzenstiel with his group crossed the border into Austria and found work harvesting. Others found work in the mines or as carpenters.

        At Easter 1536 Hans Amon and the elders who assisted him summoned the people from wherever they were living up and down the country. They gathered the church in the pine forest between Nikolsburg and Puffgram and celebrated the blessed meal of remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ in great joy. The local magistrates came upon them there and ordered them to leave the grounds. So after their meeting they commended themselves to God's care and returned to the places they had come from, joyfully praising God.

        This celebration of the Lord's Supper showed how the scattered church had remained united in spirit.

        After this, things began to go better for the faithful believers. The Chronicle says that God moved the hearts of the population to have compassion for them and give them shelter. A nobleman let them have a house near Steinebrunn. There they once more built up Christian community. We might call it the Stony Spring Bruderhof. Groups of believers started gathering also in other towns along the Moravian border.

        The members of Christ's church met eagerly with great joy and courage. They came by day and night, walking many miles through wind, rain, snow, and mud to hear the Word of the Lord. Each cared for the other in a brotherly, Christian way, with warmth and tenderness, ready to serve each other in love. They had to make do with small, cramped dwellings, all moving closer together and putting up with many shortages and worries. Yet they wholeheartedly thanked and praised God for it all. They were all kind and patient, as befits the saints who say they are guests and sojourners on earth. They seek a better country, a heavenly one ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is why they bear with one another patiently, like guests in a foreign land.

        Their children were brought up communally, entrusted to God-fearing sisters, who conscientiously took care of them and led them to the Lord through Christian discipline.

And so the faithful continually praised God, who had provided dwelling places for them.

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Other Sheep Are Gathered to the Fold

        You remember that the first real community or Bruderhof was started at Austerlitz in Moravia, but because they did not listen to each other, there had been a separation and part of them had to move to Auspitz and then to Schakwitz. Soon they were driven from their home there and suffered many hardships but had remained faithful to God and united in

        spirit. Now what about those who stayed in Austerlitz? They were driven out in the same persecution, but because they had become more worldly they were not able to stay united. Many went back to private property and lived just as other people in the world.

        However, among the Austerlitz refugees there was one group who really wanted to live in community. Since at that time they could not settle anywhere in Moravia they fled to Poland, but in Poland they were also treated badly and many thrown into prison. Their servant of the Word, Ulrich Stadler, wrote to the Polish authorities saying that this was unjust and that they wanted to leave the country. He had to write in Latin because he did not know Polish. Then those in prison were released and the group left Poland. They tried to go back to Moravia but there were so many robbers along the way that they stopped in Slovakia and bought a house there.

        This group remembered the devout brothers and sisters who had split away from the community at Austerlitz and gone to Auspitz, and they had a longing to be united with them again, so they sent Ulrich Stadler and two other leaders to visit Hans Amon and the Hutterian Brethren in Moravia. Stadler and the others confessed that they had done wrong in siding with the group in Austerlitz against those who left. Then the church sent some of their leaders and other brothers back with them to Slovakia. They united with the brothers and sisters there, so that there was now a Hutterian Bruderhof in Slovakia. There were about one hundred in the group, but others joined them so that their number grew daily.

        A lord in Slovakia, who must have heard about this community, asked the church to send someone who could instruct his people in the true faith.

        His request was granted and Leonhard Lochmair, a servant of the Word who had been a priest and knew Latin well, was sent with several others. He preached the gospel in that place through an interpreter. A number of those who heard him accepted the divine Word, and after confessing their faith they were united with the church of Christ through Christian baptism. Among them were two blood brothers of noble birth. Thus a community of believers started in that place, too. Their lord gladly granted them land for this purpose, where they lived until the year 1540. In the drought that summer about sixty of them moved to the church of God in Moravia and stayed there.

        At this time a brother was released from prison who became very important in Hutterian history. That was Peter Riedemann. He was a cobbler by trade and must have joined the believers when he was quite young, for he was only twenty-three when he was chosen as a servant of the Word. Soon after that he was arrested and thrown into prison. Although he was tortured in many ways, almost to the point of death, he remained faithful. After more than three years he was released and went to the community, which at that time was at Auspitz.

        Not long after, Riedemann was sent on a missionary trip into Germany, where he was captured and again thrown into prison in the tower of Nuremberg. This time he was held for over four years but still remained faithful. In July 1537, the Nuremberg Council decreed that the Anabaptist fanatic in the tower should be released if he would go straight to his brothers in Moravia. They even gave him clothes and a bit of money for food.

        Now at the time Peter Riedemann had been sent on mission from Auspitz, the Hutterite, Philippite and Gabrielite communities were still working together in harmony and he was grieved to hear about the split that had taken place. He wanted to hear from all of them what had happened and then trust God to show him what was right. The Philippites, who had been driven from Moravia by the persecution, had settled in Upper Austria and Riedemann visited them first and heard their complaints. They appointed two of their number to go with him to get a full report from the other groups. When they came to one of the Hutterian communities in Moravia they found that, by God's good timing, a servant from the Gabrielites had also come, seeking repentance for what he had done wrong at the time of the division. He told step by step all that had happened and Peter Riedemann was convinced by it that the Hutterian church had been in the right, so he joined with them. After this he tried very hard to hold out a brotherly hand to the Philippites and Gabrielites and by letters and visits to win them back. Not all of them were ready to listen, but from this time on we hear of some of them, sometimes as individuals or small groups, coming to seek unity with the Hutterian church.

        A short time later Peter Riedemann was sent by Hans Amon and the church to a part of Germany called Hesse, where a group of believers had asked for teaching and for inner guidance. He seems to have spent most of the year 1539 faithfully carrying out this mission. When he returned to the community at Steinebrunn in the week after St. Nicholas Day (December 6), he was astonished not to find any brothers there, but only weeping women and children. The reason for this you will hear in the next story.

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From Falkenstein to the Sea

        In the last story you heard how, when Peter Riedemann came back from his mission to Germany, he found no brothers in Steinebrunn but only weeping women and children. Where were all the men?

        When some of our brothers visited Steinebrunn in 1974 they could see from the village, some ten or more miles away, a steep, rocky hill rising high above the surrounding country, and on this hill the ruins of an old castle. That was the castle of Falkenstein, which means the stone of falcons, fierce big birds that kings and noblemen used to use in hunting smaller birds. It was a fitting name, for from this castle soldiers could swoop down like birds of prey to capture helpless people. This castle was where all the men from the community in Steinebrunn had been taken and put in prison.

        This is how it happened. Some of the priests and others who were special enemies of the believers kept carrying false reports about the community to King Ferdinand and got him all worked up, so that he sent his royal marshal and other officers with the attendants on horseback to the castle of Falkenstein. There they got together a reckless mob and swooped down on the peaceful community at Steinebrunn in the late evening of St. Nicholas Day, December 6, 1539. With a terrifying uproar they seized all the men and older boys and locked them up in one room and the women and girls in another. Then they began plundering the community, taking everything they could find, not even leaving any food for the children.

        They wanted most of all to capture the leaders of the church, thinking they could get large sums of money from them, but somehow God helped these leaders to escape. The brothers and sisters who were locked up did not know what would happen to them and prepared themselves to sacrifice their lives for God and die by fire or the sword.

        In the midst of all this confusion a group of men arrived from the Philippites, seeking to find unity with the Hutterian Brethren. These were also captured and taken along with the brothers and older boys from Steinebrunn to the castle of Falkenstein. This made about 150 of them all together. In this group, besides those who were baptized members of the church, there were others not yet baptized and also some excluded members who were seeking repentance. What should be done about this? They met together and the brothers felt that all, including the Philippite brothers, who would put their lives in Christ's hands in this time of suffering and danger, should be considered as fellow heirs of God's Kingdom. An account of this proposal was sent to Steinebrunn and all in the church there heartily agreed with it. When this decision was told to those who were not members, they accepted it as a gift from God's grace and they did indeed prove faithful witnesses in all distress.

        So began a very sad and painful Christmas season for those imprisoned in Falkenstein as well as for those left behind in Steinebrunn. King Ferdinand sent priests and scholars as well as officers and an executioner to question the prisoners, sometimes under torture, trying to make them give up their faith. They asked about their beliefs and especially about where they kept their treasure, for they still hoped to get some money from them, but the prisoners would only answer that their dearest treasure was Jesus Christ. This went on for a long time, but finally those sent by the king returned to him in his capital in Vienna, while the prisoners remained in Falkenstein.

        Early in the next year, 1540, the royal marshal came again to Falkenstein accompanied by Lang Hans (tall Hans) and other officers and armed riders. Again they questioned the brothers one by one and when they held firm to their faith they were bound in pairs with their hands chained together. Word got around that these men were to be sent to the sea to be galley slaves, to row in the galleys of the king's warships. They all said they would rather die than serve in these ships, which were only for murder and robbery.

        When this terrible news reached Steinebrunn many sisters came, probably having to walk those ten or fifteen miles and then climb the steep, rocky hill. They were mothers, wives, daughters and other relatives and friends of the prisoners, come to say farewell to their loved ones. They knelt down and prayed fervently to their Father, the most high God, for protection from all sin and evil on land or sea and for steadfast hearts that remain faithful to the truth until death.

        After they had prayed, Lang Hans gave orders for everyone to get ready to leave. They took leave with many bitter tears, encouraging one another to hold firm to the Lord and to the truth. Each one commended the other to God's merciful protection, not knowing if any would ever see the other again on this earth. Even the marshal and some of his men could not hold back their tears at this sight. Ninety brothers were marched through the gate, two by two, and started on their long journey to the sea.

        The sisters had to stay behind in the castle. They climbed on the wall and, heartbroken with grief, gazed after their brothers, to whom they were bound by divine love, until they could see them no longer. Then they were sent away from the castle to return home. At this time the lord of the castle vowed he would place an inscription above the castle gate, stating that since it was built there had never been so many devout people in it as at that time.

        Since only ninety of the 150 prisoners were being marched to the sea, there must have been about sixty left. These were the ones who were too young, too weak or too sick for the hard work of rowing in the galleys. Some of the young boys were given to Austrian noblemen to serve them but nearly all of these returned to the church. The rest were finally released from the castle.

        According to the king's commands, the prisoners on their way to the sea were marched under guard from one courthouse to the next, where they were treated very harshly by the magistrates and given little to eat. Their patience and faithfulness in all these hardships won the respect of the soldiers sent to guard them. As a result, the brothers were able to pray to God every morning and evening without anyone stopping them. Any brother who was given words of solace or encouragement from God could speak without fear and so bring comfort to his brothers. The believers were deeply grateful for this special gift and mercy of God.

        This among others things worked a change in people's attitude toward them in many places, with the result that they were regarded with sympathy instead of being taken for criminals as when they first arrived. As well as that, the soldiers who accompanied them frequently spoke on their behalf and encouraged them to witness to their faith in songs and other

        ways, instead of passing through the towns in silence.

        During this time the church at Steinebrunn did not forget these prisoners. Hans Amon sent brothers to follow their march and do what they could to-help and comfort them. Some of these brothers brought back letters from the prisoners telling of their hardships and in return took letters from Hans Amon encouraging them and giving news of their families. Several of these letters can still be read in the Chronicle.

        So the prisoners went on their hard journey, going first to Vienna, the capital, and then on through many, many towns and villages, over high mountains and through deep valleys. In many places the people had never heard the truth for which these believers were suffering and even in places where the language was different, so that they could not understand their words, they were touched by the witness of the patient endurance of these men and moved to seek out the faith for which they were willing to suffer so much.

        In this way the weary prisoners came at last to the seaport of Trieste, where they were thrown into the prison, and there we must leave them until the next story.

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Joyful Returns to the Church

        At the end of our last story we had to leave our band of faithful believers in prison at Trieste waiting to be put into warships as galley slaves. During this time they prayed earnestly to God, asking for his help. As they prayed, God showed them that they should agree among themselves how the strong were to take care of the weak and how one would help the other. On the twelfth night in Trieste they all got free of their bonds and walked out of the prison. There were watches posted all around the city walls, but God showed them a place right next to the sentry box where they could all let themselves down from the city wall, using the same ropes that had bound them when they were led into the prison.

        When all of them, sick and healthy, were safely over the wall, they knelt down to praise and thank God. Of course as soon as their escape was discovered, pursuers came after them, but most of them were able to escape and return to the church in Moravia, their hearts filled with joy and peace. They reached Steinebrunn shortly before Easter and were welcomed by the church with great joy and thanksgiving as a gift from God. One of the brothers who returned, Kaspar Braitmichel, in later years began the writing of the Chronicle.

        However, twelve of those who escaped were recaptured and handed over to the admiral in charge of the king's warships. A brother was sent from the church with a handkerchief as a gift of love to each of them and a comforting letter saying that it was to remind them, as they wiped their eyes in their grief and misery, that God would one day wipe away all tears. Sad to say, the brother was not able to find the prisoners. They must have already been sent out to sea and what really happened to them only God knows. Later that same year some monks from the monastery on Mt. Athos in Greece came to the church in Moravia asking about the basis of their faith and some people have wondered how they could have heard about the Hutterian Brethren unless these brothers, or some of them, had managed to escape to Greece and were taken in by these monks.

        At this time the church in Moravia was sending out brothers in all directions, for their faithful witness under persecution had drawn people to them and made them eager to hear the truth that had given them such courage in all difficulties and such love to each other and even to enemies. All King Ferdinand's efforts to wipe out the believers' church were only causing it to grow more and more. The brothers were allowed to buy back the big house they had built at Schakwitz, the one they had been driven out of almost as soon as they had moved in, and to add a number of other houses to it, so that they again had a growing community there.

        Among those sent on mission was Peter Riedemann, who was asked to go again to Hesse. Here he was soon captured along with a companion and put into prison for the third time. He wrote that at first they took us and threw us into a dark hole, where they kept us in great privation, enduring hunger and thirst. Later they were released from this dungeon and allowed to walk about unchained and also to receive visits from brothers and sisters. It was during this time that Riedemann wrote his Confession of Faith, which makes clear what Hutterian Brethren believe and practice. Even today we take this book, next to the Bible, as a guide to our faith and our life together as a church. It is truly remarkable that this clear and powerful book was written by a man who by training was a cobbler!

        During the time Peter Riedemann was in prison in Hesse some other brothers came to Hesse. They had not been sent by the church; instead, they were in exclusion because of the disturbance they had caused by opposing the love of the church in welcoming back the escaped prisoners, and by being envious when the church did anything to show love to the servants of the Word. When one of these troublemakers met a sudden death, Hermann Schmidt, who had been their leader, was struck in his conscience about the evil he had done. He sought out Riedemann in prison and confessed his sins with many tears, begging to be sent back to the church. When Riedemann saw that he was repentant, he did send him to the church in Moravia and with him a forceful letter pointing out that the church should show special love to its servants who make so many sacrifices to carry on its work.

        After Peter Riedemann had been in prison for about two years, he received word that Hans Amon, who had served the church so faithfully as its leader, had died of the plague that was sweeping across Moravia and that Leonhard Lanzenstiel, who had been chosen to take his place, wanted him to come as soon as possible to help him. So when Riedemann left the prison soon after that, he returned to Moravia and was appointed to share with Lanzenstiel in leading the church, which he did with true dedication until his death. The Lord gave his blessing, the church grew, and the number of believers increased daily.

        Peter Riedemann continued to serve faithfully, also by writing many songs and letters, until his death, which came before he was yet fifty years old. He had served the church as servant of God's Word for twenty-seven years, including his imprisonments, which totaled nine years. On his deathbed he wrote the last of his many songs, which begins, From death's bonds Christ redeemed us, from the devil's might he freed us.

        Another prisoner who had returned to the church should not be forgotten. That was Peter Voit, one of the brave brothers who had carried letters back and forth between Jakob Hutter in Auspitz and the church in Tirol. After he had delivered Hutter's last letter to the brothers in Tirol, (the one that told about the three suns and two rainbows) and was returning through Austria, he was captured and thrown into prison. The Chronicle tells us:

        Both his legs were so tightly clamped in stocks that gangrene set in and they rotted away; then the mice took the toes from his feet right before his eyes. By the time he was released from prison, his body was utterly ruined. He returned to the community, which had been driven from house and home and was living in open fields, and then he had both legs amputated. He lived for many years after this and fell asleep in the Lord at the age of seventy.

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Hieronymus Käls, the Schoolmaster

        How would you feel if your teacher was taken and thrown into prison? That is what had happened to the Hutterian children at this time. Their teacher was Hieronymus Käls. He must have had other teachers to help him, for he often had to be away from this school because he was sent on mission trips. When Jakob Hutter went for the last time to Tirol,

        Hieronymus was one of the brave brothers who carried letters between him and the church in Moravia.

        After Jakob Hutter was taken prisoner, the church again asked Hieronymus and two companions to make the dangerous journey to Tirol. On the way they had to go through the capital city of Vienna and stopped at an inn for the night. Some men were doing a lot of drinking at the inn, giving toasts to each other. They tried to get the brothers to take part in this and when they refused the people around suspected that they were Anabaptists and began repeating evil lies about their community. The brothers told them that these stories were not true. At the end of the meal one of the men at the table wrote a letter in Latin saying that there were three men at the inn they thought were Anabaptists.

        Hieronymus Käls knew Latin, so he understood what the letter said and later told the others. They talked it over and agreed not to try to run away but to wait and see what would happen.

        After two hours the judge's servants arrived, bound them and took them co the judge. When he found out that they were from Jakob Hutter's church he said they were undoubtedly the right men. They said, Praise to God, we are indeed the right men! He had them taken to his house and put in a common prison.

        A week later the judge called them to appear before his court and urged each of them individually to recant. They answered that with God's grace they would hold to the truth to the end of their lives. They also urged their hearers to change from their unbelief and no longer misuse the precious name of Christ by calling themselves Christians. This made the judge furious. After he had questioned Hieronymus ten times and always received the same answer, the members of the court said to the judge, 'This evil man is not worthy of your honor's anger.'

        After another week in prison the brothers were again called to the court and questioned by three priests who tried very hard to show them that they were wrong in their beliefs, but Hieronymus answered cheerfully, 'We are on the right path, and our mission is from God, as Christ has taught us. We are ready to give all men an account of our faith and the foundation of our hope.' After more than two hours of hard questioning and many pleas to think of their wives and children, the brothers still did not waver, so they were put back in prison.

        To keep them from supporting each other they were put in separate cells, but they found they could hear each other if they sang or shouted loud enough, and they even found ways of getting letters to each other. In one letter Hieronymus wrote,

        Praise be to God, I rejoice with all my heart to hear you sing in the Lord, especially when you sing evening songs. I can understand almost every word if you are sitting right by the window and I listen carefully. The very fact that it hurts Satan so much is a sure sign that it is pleasing to God; for they think they have prevented us from talking and comforting one another. So let us shout until we are hoarse! When the ungodly start their blasphemy and idle talk, I start making up songs as if I were deaf so that I don't hear their ungodly talk.

        While he was in prison Hieronymus, knowing he might soon be put to death, wrote a very moving letter of farewell to his wife:

        My own dear wife, my most beloved Traindl, I, Hieronymus, wish you everything good from God our faithful heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, his beloved Son, our Lord. Amen. My beloved sister Traindl, I am sending you a Christian song, which I sang with a sincere heart in my prison through God's Spirit. May the Lord teach you, too, to sing it to his praise and glory. I am sending it out of heartfelt love to remind you of my loving plea and admonition when I last took leave of you: remain God-fearing, faithful and steadfast in the truth. I thank my heavenly Father who in his grace gave you to me and united us through his faithful servants. Now I have given you back to him, my chosen gift from God, and with all my heart commend you to the Lord's keeping, along with the children whom he in his grace gave us both. Set your heart on good and godly things so that you may see me and I you and that we may all see the Lord with joy on the last day.

        While Hieronymus was still with the school he had taught the children a prayer to use at mealtimes. It goes like this:

        O Lord almighty, eternal and merciful God, our Father, we your little children praise, honor and thank you with all our hearts. We thank you that you tend us as your little children at all times with your faithful and fatherly care and give us food and drink for body and soul and at all times graciously provide us with all we need. We praise and glorify you in your holy heaven and give thanks to you with all our hearts through Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen.

        He also gave them quite a long prayer to use at night before going to sleep and after getting up in the morning. This is part of it:

        We all ask you with our whole heart, O beloved Father, look down from heaven with your merciful eyes upon us poor, helpless little ones. May we learn to serve you and to honor and glorify you together with your holy people. O holy Father, we who are still very young pray to you with all our hearts for our parents, whom you have given us. Give them grace and strength, understanding and wisdom, to bring us up according to your divine will, to keep us from evil and to teach us what is good. O holy Father, we pray for our beloved brothers and sisters in prison the world over.

        When they learned that their own beloved teacher was in prison, you can imagine how these Hutterian children of 450 years ago prayed this prayer for prisoners more fervently than ever. They must have felt deep pain when they heard that he and his two companions had been burned at the stake only a week before Good Friday, 1536, yet they surely also felt the victory that these three brothers, like their Master Jesus, had been faithful even to death. These prayers that their teacher had given them must have meant more and more to them as the years passed.

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Klein Michael and Lisel

        You have heard of how some of the brothers suffered in prison for Christ's sake and there were many, many more. This story is about a few of them. There was a servant of the Word named Michael. He must have been a small man, for he was called Klein Michael (Small Michael). He and his wife Lisel were in Carinthia, probably on a mission journey, and were captured. When questioning and arguing could not make them give up their faith they were bound in chains and led through the region of Styria to the city of Vienna. There they were thrown into a dungeon where some other brothers were already in prison. They greeted each other with great joy and praised God for bringing them together. After a time the other brothers were put to death for their faith but Klein Michael and his wife were left in prison for almost three years. Then a fire broke out in the city and, as was the custom, the prisons were opened but the city gates were closed. After the fire was put out a man of that city was moved by God to help Klein Michael and Lisel to escape, so they returned to the church community unharmed and in peace.

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Hans Mändel

        There was one brother who managed to escape from prison twice. That was Hans Mändel. He was first captured just after he was baptized, when he was still only a young boy, and cruelly beaten with rods. When he would not give up his faith he was thrown into prison. After over six months he noticed that a careless jailer had not properly locked the prison door, so he was able to slip out and make his escape. Later as a grown man he was sent on mission to Tirol and there he was again captured and thrown into prison. After nearly six months, during which he was cruelly tortured but remained faithful, he managed to flatten the iron fetters around his ankles by hammering them with two stones, and was able to slide his feet out. Then with the ropes that had been used to torture him he let himself down from the top of the tower. So he was free, with his heart and conscience at peace.

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Jörg Liebich and Ursula Hellrigel

        One of the brothers who had the worst experiences in prison was Jörg Liebich. He was shut up in a dungeon where he suffered terrible temptations from the devil. Sometimes the devil appeared to him in what may have been dreadful dreams or visions and would accuse him of all the things he had ever done wrong and would make them appear much worse than they really were, but when Jörg reminded him that his brothers had already disciplined him for these faults and had forgiven him, then the devil had to leave him in peace. At other times the devil tempted him in various other ways but when Jörg refused to yield to him he would finally vanish, leaving behind him such a horrible odor that poor Jörg almost fainted.

        Sometimes the temptations came in mean tricks his jailers or other persecutors played on him. One man came claiming to be a famous preacher, but only tried to mislead him. Once someone came dressed like a brother and pretended to bring news of the church in Moravia. When he said they had all been driven away from the community and scattered, so that not

        one remained with another, Jörg knew this could not be true and reproved him for his dishonesty, now quite obvious, and sent him away with earnest words of advice, which gave him enough to think about for a long time.

        During this time a beautiful young girl of seventeen was put in prison for her faith. The wicked jailers put her in the same dungeon with Jörg for quite a while, chaining them together. The jailers hoped they could make the prisoners tempt each other to do wrong, but instead these faithful believers strengthened each other in their faith.

        It was somehow given to Jörg Liebich to know on which day of what month he would be released, but not which year, so each year when that day passed he knew he must endure imprisonment for another year. Finally he was released on that very day and returned to the church. The young girl, Ursula Hellrigel, who was the daughter of a farmer, was kept in prison for six years. Then, when her guardian offered to pay the costs of the case, she was released and could return to the church. Like many of the imprisoned believers, Ursula Hellrigel and Jörg Liebich wrote songs expressing their faith. Ursula's song begins, Eternal Father in heaven, to you I call most fervently, and one of Jörg's starts, Above all I would praise my God.

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Johannes Bair

        A brother who had to endure one of the longest imprisonments was Johannes Bair, who lay for twenty-three years in a dungeon. After he had been in this dark hole for nearly twenty years, he wrote a letter to the elders of the church thanking them for a package they had sent him. He was grateful for the writing tablet, pens and six candles and the Account of our Religion, Doctrine and Faith, but he wrote sadly that he did not receive the Bible they mentioned, which was what he wanted most of all. He said, 'I have had such a great hunger and thirst for the Word of the Lord for many long years, and he asked them to pray to God to deliver him from his great need. We don't know whether he ever got the Bible he longed for. He had to endure prison for another three years and then, we are told, He fell asleep in the Lord with a peaceful heart and has attained the victor's crown. So Johannes Bair never got to return to the church on earth, but we can imagine what a joyful welcome he had in the Church above.

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Georg Fasser

        All this time the Hutterian Church, which now had communities at Steinebrunn and several other places in Moravia, was sending out brothers to other regions to search out those who were zealous for God and for the salvation of their souls. One of these, Georg Fasser, was sent to Austria. Now this brother could not even read, yet he preached the Gospel with

        power. Although he had just returned from prison in Austria, he set joyfully about the Lord's work, gathered the believers, and established a church community. This faithful brother was betrayed by a man who pretended he wanted to learn the true faith, and was again thrown into prison, where he was cruelly tortured. He remained steadfast and was put to death with the sword, witnessing to the divine truth with his blood. Then those who were in the community he had started went to join the church in Moravia.

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Bastel Glaser and Hansel Grünfelder

        About this time two brothers were taken prisoner in Tirol. The Chronicle tells us that when they were taken out to be executed:

        They were executed with the sword and then burned. They testified to God's holy Word and his truth with a joy so great that it defies description. About a thousand people were present at their execution. Hansel shouted as he spoke to them, challenging and warning them, and so did Bastel, right up to their death. The people were deeply shaken. It was impossible to burn their bones, so they were thrown into the water, and the heart of one of them did not burn. Such testimony was certainly not in vain.

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Leonhard Lochmaier and Onophrius Griesinger

        The next spring the church felt led by God to send two other brothers to Tirol, Leonhard Lochmaier and Onophrius Griesinger, both servants of the Word, to gather the chosen of the Lord. The Chronicle says:

        The saints took leave of them by interceding for them and commending them to God's mercy. They then left for Tirol, where they carried out their service with utmost dedication, in constant danger of persecution. They helped many to find eternal joy and salvation and after a fitting farewell, sent them home to the church of God.

        It was not long before Leonhard Lochmaier was captured and put in prison. He had been a priest before he became an Anabaptist and now he was worked upon and tormented by the bishop and priests until, in a weak moment, he promised to recant. The authorities were ready to pardon him and set him free, but he was asked to go around the country with another priest, preaching against the truth he had accepted as a believer. He saw he could never do this and refused, so he was kept in prison. He was in deep distress over the sin he had committed in giving in to the priests and renouncing his faith and he felt a great fear of God's judgment.

        God had pity on his distress and allowed his companion, Onophrius Griesinger, to be captured and put in the same prison, near enough for them to talk to each other. That was a great comfort to Leonhard, for now he could confess his sin to a brother. On the bottom of his plate he wrote a request for forgiveness and managed to get that to Onophrius. As a servant of the Word Onophrius was able to pray for Leonhard and then assure him of God's forgiveness. He also helped him to write a loving letter to his wife and to his brothers in the church, asking for their forgiveness and declaring his determination to remain faithful unto death. Onophrius also wrote a letter in which he sent warm greetings to the dear schoolchildren with their school mothers.

        Soon after this Onophrius was threatened with torture unless he would betray his brothers in the church. He answered:

        Rather than betray my brothers, I will undergo this with strength from God. I have surrendered myself to suffer unto death as much pain and torture as a man can bear. I knew very well that this would happen to me. I am in your hands. Do with me whatever God allows you. If you want to ill-treat me, you may. God will find you out. I have nothing to say and no information to give.

        Onophrius was also asked whether, if his community grew in numbers, they would rise up and kill those who refused to join them. He said, If we did that, we would not be Christians. but only false Christians like you. If you were Christians, you would not mistreat, torture or kill anyone. He was then cruelly tortured, and this was done again a week later, but he never wavered from what he had said. The next week monks came to try to persuade him, but we are told, they did not stay long after he made their ears ring with their own wickedness and injustice. He was then condemned to death and was burned to ashes. Thus he witnessed valiantly to his faith and teaching with the constancy of a Christian hero and sealed this with his blood on All Saints' Eve [October 31], 1538.

        Onophrius' companion, Leonhard Lochmaier, was also sentenced to death, but because he had once been a priest it was not felt proper to put him to death by fire, so he was executed with the sword a few days later, remaining faithful to the end as he had promised.

        The imperial provost or chief officer for the whole empire, named Aichelin, was so struck by the sincerity and faithfulness of these martyrs and terrified by the part he had in their deaths that he raised his hand and swore that, as long as he lived, he would never again condemn a brother.

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Hans Blüetel

        Hans Blüetel had been sent to Bavaria to preach the Gospel, but the magistrates there wanted to stop him, so they offered a reward to anyone who would catch him. A man who pretended to be very friendly to Hans begged him to come to his house. Hans went, thinking that the man wanted to find the way to salvation, but when they reached the house the man locked the door and said, 'Hans, you are a prisoner.' The man then asked Hans to give him money to let him go and when he refused, he went to tell the magistrate. While he was gone his wife offered to let Hans go if he would give her money. Hans again refused, saying that with God's help he was ready for any tribulation.

        Then the magistrate came with a crowd of armed men and seized Hans and bound him with ropes. Because they found so little money on Hans they thought the man who betrayed him must have stolen it, so they seized him and his wife and bound them too and took them all to the market place. There Hans was cruelly tortured and the man and his wife were also tortured, so they got nothing but trouble for their treachery and greed.

        After Hans had been in prison four or five weeks he was condemned to death and taken to be burned. On the way priests tried to persuade him to give up his faith, but he said, Today I have more important things to do than to listen to your false prophecies. I must follow the Lord my God, in Christ, and fulfill my promise to him.'

        When he came to the place of execution he thought of the church community of God and called out in a loud voice that could be heard by the whole crowd, 'Oh, if there were someone here who could be trusted to send word to the church in Moravia that I, Hans Blüetel, have been burned to death for the sake of the Gospel.' A man in the crowd promised to tell the church, and Hans was encouraged to go on witnessing to his faith and begging people to repent. Even after he was put into the fire he was alive and singing for quite a long time, praising Christ and praying for the people.

        Hans had foretold that the smoke from the fire would rise straight up and his spirit would rise up to heaven with it and it happened just that way. Several people said they saw a snow-white dove circle in the fire and soar up into the sky. He had also said, 'This very day, God will give you a sign in heaven that this is the way to eternal life.' This also happened, for although the sky was clear and cloudless, the sun grew pale and dim.

        As Hans was being led to the place of execution he met a peddler he knew very well and gave him a warm smile. The peddler was amazed that he could go to death by fire with a smile on his lips. This struck his heart and also his wife's. She went three days without food, mourning and weeping over his innocent death. Later both of them joined the church community and became believers and so did other people in that place.

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The Church Grows Through Persecution

        In our stories you have heard of only a few of the many, many brothers who suffered imprisonment, torture and death for their faith during a period of only about twenty years since the first three brothers were baptized. Many of these went to their death joyfully, praising God that he found them worthy of the death of true Christian heroes. Once seven brothers who were about to be executed wrote to their servants of the Word, inviting them to be witnesses at their wedding.

        A great many sisters had suffered just as bravely during this time. Wives sometimes went with their husbands on their dangerous mission journeys. Jakob Hutter's wife Katharina was captured and imprisoned along with him at Klausen. After he was taken to Innsbruck she had managed to escape, but about two years later was again captured and drowned. Appolonia, the wife of the servant of the Word Leonhard Lanzenstiel, was with him when he was on mission in Tirol and was captured and drowned many years before his death. Drowning was the usual punishment for women believers, though some were burned at the stake. To make it harder, the women were often pushed into the water and then pulled out and asked to recant. When they refused they were pushed in again and drowned.

        Sometimes even young girls had to suffer for their faith. We have heard how the farmer's beautiful daughter, Ursula Hellrigel, was put in prison when she was only seventeen and kept there six long years. Another girl, Anna Tuchmacher, was cruelly beaten with rods before she was even sixteen. The Chronicle says: Before going to the place of death, many young girls put on their finest dresses and adorned themselves as for a day of rejoicing.

        Because of the brave witnessing of brothers and sisters, more and more people were led to seek the truth for which they so gladly suffered and died. The authorities were alarmed when they saw that their efforts to stamp out the believers' movement only caused it to spread more and more, so they began to hold their executions secretly at night, but still more and more seekers flocked to the church from all directions.

        More Philippites and Gabrielites were now seeing that they had been misled by Philip and Gabriel when they had broken away from the Hutterites, so they were seeking to unite with them again. At one time 300 Gabrielites came from where they were living in Silesia and united with the church in Moravia.

        All these new people had to have somewhere to live and we read over and over in The Chronicle of the buying of new houses and the starting of new communities. Sometimes we read of the building of a bath house or of acquiring a mill or vineyard for one of these places. The Chronicle lists twenty-five new communities that had been started during this time but it says, Satan could not stand this for long, so still greater troubles were ahead for the Hutterian Church.

        Alarmed by the rapid growth of the Hutterian communities, the priests and other enemies kept going to King Ferdinand with false stories and again got him so worked up against the believers that he sent out a stern command that they must all be driven out of the land. The lords on whose lands they lived did not want to do this, for it would mean giving up their best workers, but the king would not listen to them and made more and more cruel threats until they became so fearful they began to obey him. In the next story you will hear of the terrible suffering that followed.

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The Church Is Again Scattered

        You have heard how there were now many believers living in many Hutterian communities in both Austria and Moravia, but how King Ferdinand had ordered them all to be driven out. The lords in Austria were the first to become so frightened by the king's threats that they began driving out all the Hutterians from the communities on their lands. These homeless people then fled to the mountains of Moravia, where they lived in caves. After a time the Moravian authorities discovered they were there and commanded them to leave.

        The Moravian lords also began to drive the Hutterites from their land, ordering them to leave on short notice, taking with them the young and the old, the weak and the sick. They were told they could stay if they broke up into small households of five to seven people, but they felt they should stay together. When no one in Moravia dared to give them any shelter

        they turned to God, asking him to show them which way to go, if he wanted them to stay together. They were guided to seek refuge in Hungary, where at first they were gladly welcomed by the lords there. In a short time a dozen communities were started on the lands of the Hungarian lords.

        Everything had first to be built and set up, and many wild stretches of land had to be cleared and plowed if the believers wished to live there and house their sick people and children. These lords were well pleased to see the work of clearing, cutting and building, and they were very obliging. But that did not last long.

        After the king had twice ordered them to drive out the brothers, the frightened nobles began to send them away.

        One of the Lords who had welcomed these believers the most eagerly when he thought it was to his advantage, now was the most cruel in driving them out. He told them they must be out in three days, but before that time had passed he began to use violence even against the old and the sick, mothers and little babies, to hurry them out. He had a gallows put up, threatening to hang the brothers if they were too slow. It was cold wintertime and there was nowhere to go but the woods. Guards were posted to keep them from taking too much with them.

        As the Chronicle describes it:

        The children had just sat down for supper and given thanks to God for food and drink when these ungodly men came and forced them from the table. The weak had to get out of bed or were thrown out. The believers begged them humbly and urgently to have some pity for the children, just till the next day, because it was already night. But no pleading was of any avail. The answer was, Get out! Go! Get out of the house and leave no one behind.

        Some of the crowd even threatened to take away their children.

        But the brothers managed to load the little children into two boats and tried to get them away by water in the dark of night. They had not gone far before the wicked crowd realized what was happening. They hurried after, turned the boats around, and brought them back to land. Then the poor children were left sitting on the bank a long time, suffering from the wind and the cold, while their persecutors jeered at them, saying they ought to be sweating. The night was bitter, and the children suffered terribly as they sat there together shivering, their teeth chattering with cold.

        Some brothers were taken prisoner and carried off to the castle. The rest of the community left together the next morning and traveled all day, reaching the March River by night. They crossed over by boat and camped in the woods. But even there robbers soon came and went through the camp, taking whatever they wanted. The refugees started to move deeper into the woods, but before they had gone more than half a mile the judge rushed after them, ordering them to leave that property too. So they had to keep moving from place to place, finding no place where they were welcomed or even tolerated.

        As they wandered about in the woods they were joined by refugees from other communities. Not all of the lords had been as cruel as the first one, some even sending guards to protect them as far as their borders, but out of fear of the king they had all ordered the believers to leave their lands quickly. So the group of homeless refugees grew. Day and night, for five weeks, they lived in the woods with their wives and children, widows and orphans, the sick, the young and the old, like the animals that live in the wild. Again and again they were attacked by robbers, who stripped many of them naked and even murdered one brother.

        The elders comforted and encouraged the suffering people all they could, reminding them that persecution is the true sign of the disciples of Christ and urging them to hold fast to God and his truth until death. They sent out brothers in all directions to look for a place of refuge, but nowhere could they find one. The believers wanted most of all to stay together, but as the winter cold became more bitter they saw that this was impossible and divided into little groups. They took leave of one another, many being unable to speak for weeping. The tears ran down their cheeks as they shook hands, blessed one another over and over again, put themselves in God's hands, and set out, each group in a different direction.

        These little groups returned to Moravia, from which they had earlier been expelled, but could find no place to stay, spending one night here, one there, always hungry and thirsty. Some had to spend nights under hedges in the snow. There was great distress and misery on account of their sick and old people, their helpless little children, their lame and blind. Their hardships were made more bitter by the ridicule and abuse heaped on them from all sides, especially when it came from false brothers now comfortably settled in house and farm. Through all this distress, they praised God, held to truth and godliness, and, though driven here and there, did not lose heart all that long winter.

        As the persecution grew still worse and the time of homeless wandering stretched into years, some who had joined the communities during better times now grew discouraged and became unfaithful, but many remained faithful through all the hardships. They had to divide into still smaller groups, which they did with great pain. Those who hired the brothers only exploited them, making them work hard and giving them little in return, but they were thankful to accept anything if they could find shelter for their children, their old and sick. Some employers even sent them away without the wages they had promised them.

        When the king heard that these little groups were still wandering about the country, he made still more cruel laws. Anyone who sheltered them was to be fined or put in prison, so now the believers had to stay away from people's houses and fled to the woods and mountains in the cold of winter. The Chronicle tells us that they dug holes in the earth to live in, like foxes. In southern Moravia many underground dwellings have been found, a real maze of rooms and tunnels, all made according to the same plan. It is thought that these are the holes in the earth where many Hutterites lived during this time. There is a diagram of one of these on p. 822 of the Chronicle.

        Other groups of faithful believers were driven from Moravia into Hungary, from Hungary back into Moravia, out of Moravia into Austria, and out of Austria back into Moravia. It is not possible to tell of all that the faithful believers had to suffer during this time. In spite of this long and harsh oppression they did not waver. They thanked the Lord that they were found worthy to suffer for his name's sake. During these times of great tribulation, God added many to the church. People came from many places and believed, changed their lives, and took up the cross. More joined then than later in good times.

        During these years of wandering the scattered brothers often thought, If God should ever gather us again, how dear and precious would each one be to us, how we would love one another, and how we would thank God! It was only after five long years of great distress that they were able to start gathering again in communities.

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The Faithful Are Gathered From Far and Wide

        After five years of homeless wandering and bitter suffering, the persecution against the Hutterian Church began to ease. The believers could start again to gather in communities, and soon Bruderhofs were springing up in many places. Sometimes they were still driven out of their new homes, but now it always seemed possible to find some other place where they could start again. One place the brothers started a community in 1556 was at Nikolsburg, the city from which they had been driven almost thirty years before because they would not bear arms.

        Two years later the brothers leased a mill from the lords of Liechtenstein, which they rebuilt. Around it grew a community called Neumühl (new mill), which became an important Hutterian center, one which our brothers try to visit when they travel in that region. It was here that part of the Chronicle was written.

        Not only were communities started again in regions where they had once been, but brothers were sent out far and wide to gather those seeking to follow the truth of the Gospel. They went all through the German-speaking lands and beyond, to Bavaria, to the Swiss Brethren in the Rhineland and in the Netherlands, and even into Italy. Everywhere they found some listening ears and open hearts, and for the sake of these, whether few or many, they were willing to risk all the persecutions and dangers they had to face.

        The believers still had many enemies who were determined to wipe them out, but more and more people had become sympathetic and wanted to befriend them, even at some cost to themselves. Sometimes servants refused to take part in torturing prisoners or secretly helped them to escape. Often it was the lady of the castle who pleaded for mercy to be shown and in a few cases even Lutheran chaplains spoke for them. Many in high places had become frightened at what had happened to some of the judges and executioners who had soon met tragic deaths, and they wanted nothing more to do with the persecutions. This period of active mission work is full of stories of heroic suffering and sometimes exciting escapes.

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From the Rhineland

        At this time the Swiss Brethren, who were also Anabaptists but did not live in community, had congregations in many parts of Europe. In some of these, errors and sins had been allowed to creep in and much disunity had followed, especially among the leaders, so that many were dissatisfied and wanted to find a more true church. One group from the region of the Rhine River sent to the Hutterian Church in Moravia to ask about the basis of their faith. After long discussions they decided they wanted to join with the Hutterians and were taken into the church individually on confession of their faith. They all moved to a church community and their minister became a servant of the Word. That was in 1556.

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From the Netherlands:

        36. Hans Schmidt, Hans Arbeiter, and Heinrich Adams

        The next year a servant of the Word named Hans Schmidt was sent for mission work in the Netherlands. There he met Hans Arbeiter, a member of one of the Swiss Brethren congregations there. After much discussion Hans Arbeiter was convinced that church community was based on the Word of God, so he explained to the Swiss Brethren in Aachen why he must leave them and go to the church community in Moravia.

        A year later Hans Schmidt came back to Aachen and was able to gather together a little group of earnest seekers. One night when they had gathered together in a house to speak of God's Word and to pray, someone betrayed them. Constables came with spears, ropes and chains and surrounded the house with torches. Hans and eleven other brothers and sisters, including a mother with a baby, were seized and bound.

        But the prisoners were undaunted. They encouraged each other not to give way to fear, for they were being arrested for God's sake. So they began to sing with joy and confidence. Then they were separated and taken to prison. Even the sisters were cheerful and sang, which terrified other people.

        Early the next morning, the judge summoned the prisoners and spoke to each one individually, but finding them steadfast, he had them taken back to prison. The following day, the servant (Hans Schmidt) was called before the lords again and asked how many he had baptized, where they were, and where the church gathered. He made it quite clear that he would lose his life rather than tell them and be a traitor.

        After that he was questioned and cruelly tortured many times.

        Finally they told Hans Schmidt that if he were ready to repudiate his baptism and confess that he had been mistaken, they would pardon him, and he could save himself and others too. But he answered that he had learned the pure truth of God and would stand by it. They said they were sorry but they could not help him. The king or the new emperor would punish them if they did not punish such beliefs, and they were afraid.

        The other brothers were also questioned many times and each time God put such wise and joyful answers into their mouths that their questioners could not find anything in them wrong or worthy of death. Yet they were afraid of the emperor.

        One of the brothers, named Heinrich Adams, was once questioned by a great scholar.

        The learned man tried to prove that the apostles had instituted infant baptism. After Heinrich's reply, he was forced to admit that no infants were baptized in the apostles' time. Brother Heinrich also said that infants do not have faith. In the presence of the lords he wrote this on the table with a piece of chalk, saying it was to underline his testimony. His opponent was reduced to silence, and Heinrich said to the lords, So will all your learned men be brought to shame by the Lord's Word. In response, some of the lords said to each other that if that man - meaning Heinrich - had his head cut off, they would like to have it on their own shoulders. They became quite friendly to him at that point.

        On one occasion the brothers were allowed to be in the same prison with the sisters from four in the morning until ten at night. Together they rejoiced in the Lord, prayed together, and praised God. Hans, as the servant, spoke the prayer for them in his loudest voice, so loud that people from all sides gathered to listen. As soon as the city magistrates heard of this, they sent an official to find out why there was such a noise in the town. The brothers said they had been praying and had finished just before he came. Brother Matthias [Schmidt] added, We intend to lift our voices to God whether anyone else approves or not. When they were separated again at ten in the evening, they sang songs of faith as they were taken through the town.

        Some of the councilors wanted to kill them, but others opposed this because they had come to realize that the brothers were innocent. Five times the executioner came, ready to execute them, but the council could not reach a verdict.

        Some members of the council were determined to put Hans and Heinrich to death in the hope that this would make the others give in.

        When Hans heard he was to die, he began to sing for joy. He gave thanks to God and prayed with all his heart that God might protect his people.

        The date of the execution of Hans Schmidt and Heinrich Adams was set for August 13. Hans, the servant, was brought before the court, and then brother Heinrich was brought to join him under the arches by the pillory in the square, where a crowd had gathered. Some who felt sympathy for them and had sent them food and drink from time to time now came to offer their hand to Hans. He shook hands and smiled at them. Even when he had walked through the crowd in the square, there had been a smile on his lips. People had swarmed about him right and left, in front and behind, as he was being taken before the court, which made him exclaim, What a wonderful wedding I am having, with so many people attending! He was full of joy, for he hoped that evening to be in Paradise with his brothers and sisters and all the faithful, of whom he had known many on earth.

        However the members of the jury still had not agreed, so their execution was put off and they had to endure many more weeks of cruel imprisonment before they could give their lives as a witness. When the day of execution finally came, as Hans was being led through the town, he sang a long song that had been written by the schoolmaster, Hieronymus Käls. Some of the verses go like this:

        In you, O Father,

        Is my joy,

        Though I must suffer here! 

        Let me be scorned

        By everyone

        If your grace still is near!

        Our thanks and praise

        To you we raise,

        While yet on earth we have a place. 

        May never need

        Or suffering or hateful deed

        Part us from your great love, we plead.

        God Father, Son, and Spirit, too - 

        To them all praise and glory due 

        Be given by his people true.

        Lord, lead your band

        With gracious hand

        Out of this world to your own land!

        One of the members of the council who was most determined to put the brothers to death was warned by Heinrich Adams that he would not live to see them die, and it really happened that he died on the same day that Hans was executed. When Heinrich was led to his death three days later his hands were tightly bound with ropes, but they fell off again and again until finally the executioner said to the furious judge, 'Can't you see that it is useless to tie him up?' The last time it happened Heinrich threw the ropes out over the crowd, but no one could find them. Three others from that little group in the Netherlands also died bravely as a witness to the truth, even though they had never had the privilege of living in a church community or even seeing one.

        After long imprisonment and cruel treatment, the six sisters were beaten with rods and set free. They returned to the church in the peace of God.

        The endurance of these brothers and sisters so shook and convinced the people of Aachen that they stopped hunting them and left them unmolested. They felt a deep remorse for what they had done, especially those who were directly involved.

        From this time onward, many people from the Netherlands, Aachen, and the Rhineland were filled with zeal, wanting to change their lives, and they joined the church.

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The Mission of Valtin Hörl to Tirol

        Tirol continued to be one of the main mission fields for the Hutterian Brethren, where they met the greatest response and the bitterest opposition. There two wealthy brothers from the same family had been driven from their estates because they had become believers. Each had children and a wife with a young baby. A brother named Valtin Hörl, who had been a purse-maker by trade, was sent to try to find shelter for them, but he was seized in the street by the judge and taken to prison.

        On being asked whether he was an Anabaptist, Valtin replied that he was one of those to whom people gave this name. Then he was taken to the judge's house. The judge told his servant to put the prisoner in irons, but the servant refused. At this the judge himself put Valtin's hands and feet in irons and brought him to Kaltenhaus, a mile away, where he handed him over to his officers. They were unwilling to take him but had to obey the judge because of their positions, so they took him without delay to Schöneck Castle. A midwife who had been attending a woman in childbirth at Kaltenhaus heard that a prisoner had been taken up to the castle, so she ran after them and said she did not agree with such a man being taken prisoner.

        The officers carried out the judge's orders and took Valtin to the castle, where they locked him in a narrow cell in the deepest dungeon. But the lady of the castle felt compassion for him. She sent him a message through her cook that she would be glad to see him escape. As she was unable to help him herself, she sent her daughter with better food and drink than was ordered for him, for she knew that in a week's time the judge and his jurors would question him under torture.

        The very day before they were to interrogate him, God prompted a compassionate servant girl to smuggle a tool to Valtin to take the iron door off its hinges. But as he feared that he might dishonor the name of the Lord or stain his conscience if he did this, he turned to the Lord again and again in fervent prayer, asking God to speak to his heart and show him whether he should escape or remain in prison to await what would be done to him. When he was assured that he should try to open the door and found that it was possible, he prayed to God to direct him. The answer was always the same: to continue his efforts. He took the door off its hinges but was still unable to get out. Then he found a way to force the door, and the chain on the outside broke from the strain.

        He hurried out of the prison and hid under the stairs, afraid everyone would come running because of the loud crash in the dungeon. But no one came. He had been under the stairs two or three hours when he heard the lady talking to her servants about him, telling them that she believed him to be a God-fearing man.

        When everyone in the castle was asleep, Valtin risked going upstairs and out into the courtyard. The cook had warned him of the fierce dogs in the courtyard, so he had armed himself with plenty of bread to throw to them if they should try to attack him. But dogs and people had fallen so deeply asleep that not one of them made a sound. All this convinced Valtin that it was God's will and special intervention.

        Following the cook's instructions, he got out of the courtyard by a little door into the keep and climbed over a low, broken-down wall. So with God's help he escaped from their chains.

        Now the judge had set Valtin's hearing for the following day, so he and his assessor came to the castle to proceed with the case. But the lady rushed up to the judge with loud cries of distress, clasping her hands above her head and pretending to be greatly upset by the escape, although she was actually glad.

        When the people saw that the door had been broken open, they were astounded, for it seemed unbelievable that such a strong iron chain could have broken into pieces, and they could find no tool that Valtin might have used to break his way out. His friends reported to him afterward that everyone was saying they would really have liked to see a man so strong that he was able to break that chain.

        In fact, brother Valtin himself had thought it impossible to break the chain. His hope had been to twist the door instead (because he had lifted it from its hinges), although it had bands of iron running both ways. However, things did not turn out according to his plan, but according to God's will. So he felt clearly that God was helping him by making the iron as weak as a rotten piece of rope and thus sparing his life, granting him a longer time on earth.

        Sixteen years later Valtin Hörl and other brothers were again sent to this same region in Tirol, but this time they found few seekers and were about to leave when, while traveling by night, they were stopped by a constable and asked who they were. The others managed to slip away while Valtin answered that they were honest and God-fearing men. The constable arrested him and took him to the house of the attorney, where he had to shout to awaken the attorney.

        At this point Valtin escaped from his grip, but not knowing which way to run, he fell over a wall in the dark. The constable grabbed at his coat and chased him about the village until he had hold of him again. Then he took him back to the attorney's house, where they kept guard over him all night. In the morning the attorney put thumbscrews on both hands, screwing them hard and fastening them with a lock. He took him to the castle at Schöneck, where Valtin had been imprisoned sixteen years before but had escaped through God's help.

        When the attorney learned that Valtin was the same man who had escaped from that castle sixteen years earlier, he would not put him in that same dungeon, but chained him in the top of a tower that had many prison cells. The next day the attorney came with the jury to ask why he had come to that region. Valtin answered, God in his grace allowed us to see the sinful and demonic life that we, like the rest of the world, were leading - it was not leading to salvation. So we acted on what he showed us and changed our lives through true repentance. God has commanded us to seek out and warn others as we have been sought out and warned, so that is our duty.' This was written down and given to the proper officials.

        Two days later the constable came to the tower, showed Valtin an order to bring him to the attorney's house, and set out with him, unchained. About halfway there, they met a woman panting with haste, bringing a letter for the constable. He let Valtin read it. It was an order for Valtin to be kept in the tower until further notice. So they turned back, but the constable let him walk free beside him. Back in the tower, the constable put the fetters on Valtin's feet without fastening them, so for two days he could walk up and down inside the tower.

        It seemed that they were ashamed to release him in broad daylight, for that would have been admitting that he had been unjustly imprisoned. At midnight two days later, in the midst of a violent rainstorm, the judge arrived at the tower with the attorney and the clerk. They told Valtin that he could be released if he promised never to return to this area.

        He replied that he could not make such a promise. He had surrendered himself to God, and now it was in God's power to send or use him wherever he willed. The judge repeated that if he would not promise, they could not release him. God's will be done, Valtin answered.

        When they found that they could not change Valtin's mind, they finally decided to release him anyway and took the fetters off his feet. The judge's wife had been troubled about Valtin, knowing he had been unjustly imprisoned. The judge asked him to go by his house to let her know that he had been released from the tower, since he had other business that kept him from going home. Valtin did this and then continued his journey back to the church. We are told that the constable was severely taken to task for arresting him in the first place.

        The Chronicle reports that in 1589, eighteen years after his release, brother Valtin Hörl, an old and faithful servant of the Word, fell asleep in the Lord.

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A Heroic Witness and Its Fruit

        Hans Pürchner and Leonhard Dax

        Another brother sent on mission to Tirol and captured there was Hans Pürchner.

        There he was brought before the governor, a cruel tyrant who was ready to stab Hans to death out of sheer fury. He had him interrogated under torture and put on the rack to make him tell who had given him lodging, and because he refused, they racked him again the same day. But to their great vexation their torture was useless.

        They racked Hans again and again. They left him hanging on the rope several hours until he was so torn that he could neither stand on his feet nor walk one step nor bring his hands to his mouth to feed himself. Nevertheless he refused to give in and remained steadfast in the Lord. Then they put him in stocks, hands and feet, in a dark, stifling dungeon and kept him there over six months.

        Many educated people, priests, monks, nobles, and others, attacked his faith for two days and a night, trying to lead him astray. But he put them to shame by pointing out their errors. He was joyful and courageous and would not be intimidated.

        Then they condemned him to death and led him to the place of execution. There he called the crowds to repentance. He could not kneel, because they had racked and tortured him so cruelly, so they supported him with a block of wood against his back and then beheaded him.

        The constable who arrested him had told Pürchner that he would not let him go at any price. Later, however, he was overcome by remorse and would have been glad to pay any amount to undo what had been done.

        At the time Hans Pürchner was being plagued by priests trying to make him give up his faith, he could hardly have guessed that one of them, Leonhard Dax, would not be able to forget the witness of his clear words and his heroic death. Only three years later, Leonhard gave up the priesthood in which he had served for thirteen years and came to the Hutterian Brethren. Soon he was being sent out on dangerous missions. Once he courageously greeted other brothers who were about to be put to death in Tirol.

        Later Leonhard Dax was chosen and confirmed as a servant of the Word. Then he and his wife Anna, with another sister and several brothers, were sent on mission to the lands along the Rhine. There they were captured and thrown into prison. After two weeks they were questioned by a Zwinglian preacher about their faith.

        Leonhard Dax gave a powerful answer based on Scripture when asked about his mission, the basis of his faith, the reason for our separating from people like themselves, community of goods, and infant baptism. Then he was taken back to the dungeon and advised to think it over; they would take serious measures.

        In about six weeks Leonhard was brought out for another hearing, and the Zwinglian preacher again argued with him about the church, the use of the sword, and marriage, but was unable to uphold any point.

        He urged Leonhard to accept his advice and follow the Zwinglian religion. Then the noble Lord and sovereign of this country, the count palatine, would provide him with a splendid position and he could live wherever he liked in his country.

        But Leonhard told him that he could not show him Christ's truth if he did not live it. Besides, he said, his beliefs were no error but were founded on the true grace of God, and with God's help he would be faithful. Nobody should expect anything else of him.

        He was taken back to prison with the threat that he would soon see how serious his situation was but Leonhard replied that Gods will should be done. He was ready to defend his faith and the people of God, not only with words but with his life, if it was God's will. And with God's help no one was going to stop him.

        He and his fellow prisoners were kept in prison for the rest of the winter but were released at the end of February.

        Leonhard Dax had the special gift of expressing in clear words the faith to which other brothers and sisters witnessed in their dedicated lives and often by their suffering and death. Because of his education, he was able to speak to Catholics, Lutherans, or Zwinglians in the way each could best understand, and so was able to win many to the Hutterian faith. When he fell asleep in the Lord six years after his release from prison, he left behind him many forceful writings which the Hutterian Church has used ever since to make clear the basis of its life and mission.

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The Mission to Bavaria

        39. Michael Veldthaler, Christoph Achtznit and Hans Mändel

        A nobleman in Bavaria sent a message to the Hutterian Church asking for a servant of the Word and several brothers to establish a community there, promising to bear patiently whatever might happen to them, cost what it may, and pleading with the brothers to risk it for their sake.  He especially asked for Michael Veldthaler to come since he already knew him. This Michael Veldthaler had also once belonged to the Bavarian nobility and had been a county administrator, but when he became a Hutterian he had learned the trade of cabinet making.

        The church sent out Michael Veldthaler, Christoph Achtznit and several other brothers, with plans for Hans Mändel, now a servant of the Word, to follow. They expected to find a man on fire to talk about questions of faith, but before they arrived the nobleman had completely changed his mind. He denied that he had asked for Veldthaler or the others to come, said he did not want them to visit him and that he was not going to meet them. He also tried to turn against them those who were friendly and acknowledged that the brothers' faith, teaching and way of life were better than their own.

        When Hans Mändel arrived and began preaching, many eager hearts responded to him and received the Word of God. But this caused an uproar among their enemies, and anger and hatred flared up in the heart of the nobleman, who spread lies about the believers. Although he had promised that they could meet at his castle, he did not keep his word but arranged for the meeting at a farmhouse in a very dangerous situation and assembled there all their worst enemies.

        The brothers felt this was a dangerous trap, but They put their trust in the Lord and dared to go that night to the appointed place. The room was filled to overflowing, with people standing on benches and outside the windows. When the brothers entered, they wished everyone the grace of God through Jesus Christ. The nobleman started out with lies, saying

        he had not asked them to come, had nothing to discuss with them, and did not need their teaching. He spoke disrespectfully of their way of life and even of St. Peter, whom he blamed for starting community of goods. When the brothers tried to answer him, he told them to be quiet and not interrupt him and promised that later he would listen to them for a whole hour.

        When the nobleman accused them of misleading people, a man in the audience who had recently become a brother spoke up and said he had not been misled but that what he had been taught had been the very truth. At this the nobleman began to threaten, saying that there were spies everywhere and that when they were caught their heads would be cut off, which would be a good thing. With that he started to leave, and though the brothers reminded him of his promise to listen to them, he again did not keep his word. He rushed away with his followers, and the brothers felt it was only by the special protection of God that they were able to get away safely.

        After this the brothers decided that Hans Mändel should go on to preach in other towns along the Alz River. The local courts sent spies to try to catch him.

        Some of these pretended that they wanted to hear what the faithful taught and were eager to become believers. But when this fraud failed to track Hans Mändel down, the officers of the law came out in full force, especially those from Mermos. The district judge with twenty-four men in armor, equipped with every kind of weapon, came on horseback and on foot to where the believers were gathered, since their meeting place had been betrayed. But God in his grace defeated the enemies' purpose. It was so cold that the ground crunched underfoot, and the moon was very bright. Besides, the brothers were keeping good watch. Their enemies knew all this but still set out, hoping to make a surprise attack. But the Lord made them lose heart. So halfway there they turned back, saying, The devil tells them everything. They were furious because they had tried for eleven nights in vain.

        Similar attempts were made on the other side of the Alz. Day and night, they worked for the devil: homes were raided in the hope of finding the brothers; every room was searched; they thrust their spears and swords into ovens and chests, through hay and straw, and everything was flung about. A farmer's wife suspected of sheltering the brothers was thrown down the steps into the cellar. The searchers acted like mad beasts.

        When this proved fruitless, the enemies sent spies all over the place to listen by the houses, by walls and by windows. Everywhere they lay in wait for the believers. They crept into wash houses; they lurked at drop gates and gratings, at crossroads, behind woodpiles, by landing places, and wherever else they thought the brothers would pass; among ferrymen, sailors, and fishermen; among young and old - in short, everywhere. It was forbidden under penalty of death to shelter the brothers or ferry them across rivers. In cities, market towns, and villages careful watch was kept, in order to arrest them. If they attempted to escape or defend themselves, they were to be beaten down and shot dead. Such deeds would be considered worthy, and the duke promised a good reward.

        So the path was narrow and fraught with danger. This lasted for eleven weeks. Special efforts were made to track down Michael Veldthaler and a pension for life was promised to anyone who deliver him up. This meant that he and Christoph Achznit were not safe for one moment, since the magistrates had no intention of letting them escape. They wandered about in constant danger, but the Lord was their faithful protector.

        Nineteen brothers and sisters, who were young in faith and had just been baptized, were caught and taken to Mermos. Each was brought to a different court so that they would not be together. Michael Veldthaler and Christoph Achtznit tried hard to get them out of prison with the help of other believers, but it was all in vain.

        Their enemies tormented and tempted them until, being young in faith, they all recanted except one, Christel, who remained faithful. He testified to the truth and held to it, and because of his steadfastness, he was condemned to death and executed with the sword at Mermos in the early months of 1555. He had never lived in the church community, but once he had come to know and accept the truth, he defended it with his blood in the strength of God.

        Messages came from those in prison asking that their little children be taken into the brothers' care and sent to the church community. The brothers would have been glad to do this, but it was impossible. After some consideration, however, they sent for one brother's children who were. in the jurisdiction of Merinos. The children were to come to a place about a mile away, where the brothers were hiding for a day and a night in the straw. When the boy arrived with his little sister, the brothers considered what to do, explaining that the parents had asked them to help the children, but at that moment it was impossible to get them out of the country because the river was frozen and every highway and byway was being watched. They asked the children if they had any relatives in the neighborhood. Yes, they had a cousin. He, too, had received a message from their parents in prison to look after them. The brothers asked several times whether their cousin could be trusted if they were to approach him, and the children assured them there was no danger, they could trust him. So they sent the two children to this cousin, asking him to come that night to their house. The brothers would come too, but the children should give them a warning if they heard anything strange, which they promised to do.

        After the children had explained it all to their cousin, he went straight to the judge at Merinos to inform him. The judge was delighted. Hoping to make a name for himself, he set out early with twenty-four well-equipped men, occupied the house, and had every path watched to prevent any escape. The brothers suspected nothing. The judge kept watch with his ungodly band until midnight. He got quite angry when time passed and the brothers did not come. Several times he seized the boy by the hair and called him a young liar. At the end he said it was a deliberate trick.

        The boy replied, My lord, they are sure to come. But the judge said, The devil tells them everything, because the same thing had happened to him several times before. He went away like a man who had been deceived, but to be on the safe side he left. the four most efficient rogues to watch the house. He gave orders that if the brothers came they should be taken alive if at all possible. If not, they should be killed by any available means: struck down, shot, or strangled. He promised that this would earn them a pension for life from his highness, the prince of Bavaria.

        The men were going to do their best. They tried to plan it so that no one could escape.

        Time went by, and it was two in the morning before the brothers came and knocked a few times. The scoundrels in the house, figuring the moment had come, flung the door open and fell on the brothers with loud yells. They struck at them with their spears. The brothers fell over backwards in terror. The men attached Christoph Achtznit and struck him down as if he were an ox, and his whole head was covered with blood. Then they bound him and took him away to Burghausen.

        Brother Michael Veldthaler fled in terror, not knowing which direction to take. He ran across the garden to the fence, which was high and covered with thorns, and flung himself over head first. The thorns tore his face badly, but in his terror he never noticed. He ran across a plowed field and on through the moonlit night in the bitter cold, until his feet were soaked from the snow and mud. He reached a forest and fell on his knees to pray to the Lord. Soon after, he found himself at the inn from which he and Christoph Achtznit had set out earlier. He told the innkeeper his plight, but the man did not want him under his roof because the noblemen in Mühldorf had heard of their earlier stay at the place. So Michael had to leave the house, not knowing where to go. He was wet through and through, and it was snowing and raining. He went into the woods with no prospect of anything but freezing to death, for he dared not be seen. He stopped by a thicket and took the clothes off the upper part of his body to wrap around his legs against the frost and cold. While this was a help to the lower part of his body, the upper part froze. When he could stand the cold no longer, he thought, rather than freeze, he would go into a house, whether or not he was caught. Better to die an honorable death than to freeze to death sc miserably. Trusting in the Lord, he risked returning to the man who had sheltered them before, since there was nowhere else to go.

        Soon a brother came to the house and asked through the window whether Michael Veldthaler and Christoph Achtznit were there. They did not know whether the two had been taken prisoner or not, he said. Michael was overjoyed - it was as if the Lord had sent him an angel.

        Michael set out with the brother and that same night they said farewell to a group who were on their way to the church community in Moravia. This was an encouragement, and for many weeks he continued his dangerous mission, spreading the message among people who were eager to learn the truth. Then he traveled home with those who wanted to join the church community.

        All this happened in Bavaria, where the light of truth was breaking in among the people. God's messengers, who help others escape destruction, risk paying a high price in this world, and thus it has been from the beginning.

        Christoph Achtznit, who had remained steadfast in prison in Bavaria, managed to escape with the help of his sister Juliana and returned to the church community. Later he was appointed a servant for temporal affairs. He and his wife were often especially greeted in letters from brothers in prison. We will hear of still other adventurous missions carried out by Michael Veldthaler and Hans Mändel.

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Witnessing in Swabia

        40. Michael Veldthaler and Paul Schnitzer

        Only two years after his adventurous mission in Bavaria, Michael Veldthaler was sent out on another mission, this time to the Rhine Valley, along with Paul Schnitzer. They had to pass through Swabia and over the Swabian Alps. They were arrested right there on the road by Count Wolf von Üttingen with four mounted men. For years Veldthaler had feared falling into the hands of this man, who was well known to him and to his father. One of the men rode up to the brothers and asked where they were from and where they were going. Without thinking, brother Michael said they were from Moravia, heading toward the Rhine. When the count heard this, he called them over. Furious, he thundered at Michael, asking what he was doing in his county. Was he planning to mislead the people as he had done in Bavaria? He threatened to send Michael to the prince of Bavaria. But Michael, pale with fright, pleaded with the count not to do it because he had already spilled enough innocent blood.

        The count answered, There is no other way but to take you along as prisoners. He ordered two of his mounted men to take the brothers with them while he himself hurried to the village (which was not his) and urged the peasants there to accompany him. He acted as if he were a constable. He took the brothers to the inn, sat them down at a table, and ordered one of his men to keep close watch on them. The count left quickly and sent home for a cart with two horses, eight foot-soldiers, and three mounted men. They arrived fully armed and stood ready with muskets cocked. The cart was brought to the door and people - lined the path on both sides so that the brothers had to pass between them. The constable went up to them and said, Now, you fellows, out with you. I've got to tie you up. His Lordship has given me strict orders to take good care of you.

        Brother Michael responded, Do what God allows you to do. And so, with firm trust in God, the two brothers followed him to the cart. A large crowd of men and women had gathered. As the prisoners climbed into the cart, Michael told the people how the count had seized them, not because they were thieves or murderers - they had no wish to rob anyone or harm anyone but simply because of their faith. The people were moved to sympathy, and the innkeeper even begged the mounted men on the brothers' behalf to spare them the terrible dungeon where no one remained alive.

        At that point the constable said, I have orders from his Lordship to tie your feet together under the cart, but if you promise to sit still and behave, I won't do it. Michael Veldthaler replied that if he would trust them, they would make their own way to the castle. So the constable left them unbound, sat down in the cart, pointed a spear at them, and said, If either of you moves, I'll run him through. He gave orders to start. Eight foot-soldiers surrounded the cart and three riders led the way. But as they left the village, the driver refused to go farther unless the prisoners were bound, because that had been the count's order. So the constable bound the brothers' feet together under the cart, and they drove the rest of the way in this miserable manner.

        When they reached castle, the head steward, who had been Michael's friend in the days when he was a nobleman holding a high office, exclaimed, 'Oh, Michael, Michael, I am distressed to see you like this.' He ordered the constable to untie the brothers and had them taken from the cart. Paul Schnitzer was locked up with another prisoner.

        The head steward, with a doctor and the bailiff, as well as a priest and a clerk with pen and ink, came to Veldthaler and began asking him what he was doing in his Lordship's county and what business he had there. Michael told them they were doing nothing; they were only passing through on their way to the Rhine to join their companions in the faith. Then the head steward asked him how he had come to the faith and how long ago that was. Michael said the steward must surely remember how he, Michael, had gone to Falkenstein in Austria and how the brothers working for the lord of the castle there had told him that a man who leads a worldly life cannot please God, much less obtain salvation. So he considered his soul's salvation and accepted the truth; that was about ten years ago. The head steward agreed that it was ten years ago and said approvingly that he had never known Michael to be anything but truthful. He went on to ask Michael who had baptized him, and Michael told him. Then he asked him what position he held - he had heard that he was the leader and what kind of work he did. Michael answered that he was the least of all the believers and that he worked as a cabinetmaker. The other asked, Didn't you learn that before you joined the community? Michael answered that he had learned that and other work in the community.

        When he had answered all the questions, adding, Even if you bring three executioners, I will not say anything different, they handed him over to the jailer, who put him in a deep dungeon. He was told it was sixty feet down and no one could remain alive in it for long. The jailer ordered him to hand over everything he had, made him sit on a wooden bar by the hole, and told him to watch out and hold tight to the rope so as not to fall. Then he was lowered down. The rope twisted and swung around as if there were no bottom.

        When he had reached the bottom and the jailer had shut the hole and left, Michael fell on his knees, and, in his distress, prayed to the Lord as never before in his life. He prepared himself to yield up his life as a sacrifice to God. He prayed unceasingly, not for God to help him escape, for he had given up hope of that, but that he might be an honor to God and a joy to all the faithful.

        It was so pitch-dark in the dungeon that he could see nothing. Around midday for about half an hour a little light came in through a window nearly fifty feet above him. At night it was so damp and hot he thought he would suffocate. He took off all his clothes except his shirt and would have been glad to strip this off too, if he had not felt shame, before himself, let alone before God. Food was lowered down to him, but he did not take much of it.

        The clerk came to the top of the dungeon and tried to persuade him to let himself be turned back to the old Christian faith, saying that his brother Paul was ready to listen, and that he too should recant. Michael said, That I will not do, nor do I believe that my brother Paul has recanted. It was not the truth either. They did the same with Paul, telling him that his brother Michael was willing to change his mind and he should be willing too.

        But the Brothers continued praying to God. They knelt down their hands lifted up to heaven, until they were too faint to go on. The Lord heard their prayers and changed the count's heart, for the head steward, the doctor, and the count's ladies pleaded with him for the sake of Michael Veldthaler's father, whom the count knew and liked well. Finally, after thinking it over, the count sent the head steward and the doctor to the prisoner. From the top of the dungeon the jailer shouted down to Veldthaler to get his things together and sit on the wooden bar. Michael thought, O Lord, my God, stand by me and help me endure. Now they will send me to the galleys. He sat on the wooden bar. The rope swung from side to side. The head steward encouraged him to hold on tight so as not to fall; he himself guided the rope through the narrow hole at the top.

        When Michael emerged very pale, the head steward offered him his freedom provided he would make his way home without traveling any farther. He must never set foot in the count's territory again. It had cost a great effort to win the count over to this. But Michael replied, That I cannot do. I thank you for all the trouble you have taken on my behalf, but I cannot go straight home and abandon the land that belongs to the Lord in heaven. It may well be that I never come back here again; but it may also happen that God gives me a reason for returning. That is something I do not know. The Lord may direct us to travel further or to go straight home. We will do whatever he shows us.

        At these words the head steward got angry and said, Then all our pleading was in vain, and His Grace won't agree. So you may as well go back to the dungeon. We will report your obstinacy to His Grace. I am sure he will not let you go.

        Then they left him, and in the presence of the clerk, Michael fell on his knees, asking God for protection against all evil and praising him for his great mercy. About an hour later they returned from the count and repeated the same stipulations, to which Michael gave the same answer. At this the head steward said, God is showing you that you should go home and never come back here again. It is the devil who tells you to go on. Besides, this land does not belong to the Lord in heaven; it belongs to His Lordship. God has given it to him, and my lord does not want you in his land.

        As he got nowhere with Michael, he said that if the doctor, too, was willing to take the risk, they would take it on themselves to let him go. But Michael should be on his guard. Every place was watched, and if he did not go straight home and was seized again, he would not have a second chance. He should remember that.

        So he was released, and they told him they had begged for his companion's release too. Shortly afterward they brought his brother Paul to him at the gate. Before anything else, Michael asked Paul whether he was still true and steadfast. When Paul answered yes, they clasped hands, embraced, and praised God that he had restored them to each other as faithful brothers. Then they were ready to go, but the jailer demanded his prison fees. They told him, We owe you nothing and will give you nothing. We were unjustly imprisoned. The jailer shouted to the gatekeeper not to let them out and went to the count to ask what he should do. The message came back just to let them out.

        They traveled with joy and in the fear of God, again and again praising him who leads into prison and out again. They put their trust in the Lord, and after they had reached the Rhine and carried out their task in obedience to their mission from the church, they returned joyfully to the church community with good consciences.

        Three years later Michael Veldthaler was appointed to the service of the Word, in which he was later confirmed. Thirty years after his release from prison, the faithful old servant fell asleep in the Lord. We hear of Paul Schnitzer again only when he and his wife Anna are greeted in a letter from a prisoner.

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The Brave Witness of Klein Hansel (Hans Mändel)

        We have already met Hans Mändel several times. He was often called Klein Hansel, probably because he was short in stature. Certainly he was never small in faith or courage, for from the time he was imprisoned and cruelly beaten and tortured soon after he was baptized in a forest in Tirol, while he was still only a young boy, until his martyr's death

        twenty-four years later, his life was never free from danger and suffering. We remember how he escaped from his first imprisonment when he found that the jailer had not properly locked the prison door, and how he later escaped a second time by flattening the iron bands around his legs.

        Only a few years after this, when he and another brother were in Tirol, they were captured and were put in chains in a dungeon for eleven weeks. They were cruelly tortured and racked to make them reveal who had given them shelter, but they refused. They would betray no one, friend or enemy, so their torturers got nowhere and had to give up. The brothers were taken back to prison and told to think the matter over, for in two days they would be questioned further. But they commended their cause to God, determined to remain steadfast, whatever he might do with them.

        Then they somehow managed to escape with the help of a woman servant, a nurse for babies, who traveled back to the church with them. Soon after that Klein Hänsel was appointed a servant of the Word.

        We have already heard how, as a servant of the Word, Hans Mändel was sent to help Michael Veldthaler and Christoph Achtznit in Bavaria, where the treacherous nobleman changed his mind and turned against the messengers of the church he had invited to come. Because there were people in that region who were eager to hear the Word of God, in spite of the great danger, Hans continued to travel and preach for eleven weeks, by God's help making many narrow escapes from the traps that were laid for him on every side. After this we get glimpses of him continuing his mission work in Upper Austria and the mountains of Tirol.

        Five years later we find Klein Hänsel again in Bavaria with two other brothers, Jörg Rack and Eustachius Kotter. This time they were seized and imprisoned. Because Hans was a servant of the Word, he was treated even more harshly than the others, being put in a deep dungeon. He wrote that it was full of worms and vermin. The bats flew around him until the dungeon whirred with them, and the mice carried away his food and ran around him in great numbers.

        It was the same dungeon in which Jörg Liebish had been so terribly tormented by evil spirits. Some strange spirit still seemed to be there, but this time it seemed to be a messenger from God sent to help him. The Lord forewarned him through such a spirit when the noblemen were coming to question him. It called him by name and told him to prepare himself and to be ready to suffer.

        The three brothers had been imprisoned in November, but it was not until January that they were given a trial. The authorities used both friendliness and cruelty in questioning Hans Mändel and also questioned the other two, each separately. All three brothers faithfully defended what they believed. Jörg Rack gave an interesting account of how he came to his belief.

        Before he came to the faith, he had heard that a man named Jakob Hutter, who was burned at the stake here at Innsbruck, was gagged on the way here to prevent people from hearing the truth he proclaimed. Jörg had also heard that at Klausen, Ulrich Mulner, who was well liked by the people, was executed because of this same faith. Finally he, Rack, had seen with his own eyes how others of the same faith were burned at the stake in Steinach. Jörg had taken all this to heart, thinking that it must be a powerful grace and strength that enabled them to remain firm in their faith until death. This first prompted him to inquire about those people and to listen carefully to what they said. Then he realized that life in the world was very unlikely to lead him to salvation.

        After their trial the brothers were put back into prison, where they stayed until June, when they were condemned to death.

        A great crowd was present at their execution. The brothers spoke sharply of God's judgment that the authorities were bringing upon themselves: shedding innocent blood would cause their own damnation, even though they said they had to judge according to the imperial mandate.

        But Hans Mändel told them, You blind world, judge each according to your own conscience, so that you can answer for it before God! If you judge and condemn according to the imperial mandate, how can you answer to God?

        Brother Eustachius also said, What do we care about the imperial mandate you read out to us? Read out our confession of faith, based on Holy Scripture. It is God's truth for which we must suffer today. They spoke joyfully and called the people to repentance.

        When brother Jörg Rack and Eustachius were led out of the courthouse, Jörg began to call to people all along the streets till they reached the place of execution. He urged them to repent and follow the way of truth, for it was for truth's sake that he was being executed that day.

        Then the servant Hans Mändel was brought to the place of execution, and the brothers met in great joy and praised God. Brother Leonhard Dax came too. They shook hands and took leave of one another, joyfully praising God that they had seen another believer.

        Hans Mändel spoke to the people, calling them to repent of their sins and follow the truth of God so that they would not be damned but might find salvation in Christ Jesus. Yes, he raised his voice valiantly, saying, What I have taught and confessed is divine truth, and today I will witness to it with my blood. And he did not stop proclaiming repentance.

        So the judge said several times, Now, Hans, listen a moment! Then he was quiet for a while, but afterward he went on speaking until he was almost hoarse. Right up to their death, the brothers exhorted the people to turn away from the unjust life of this world. They were not cut short but given ample opportunity to speak.

        They were also allowed to pray together. So they brought their earnest prayer to God, praising and thanking him for keeping them steadfast in faith all this time and asking that he continue to do so until their death, now so close upon them. They commended their spirits into the Lord's hands when body and soul should part.

        Then there was read out a paper telling how their beliefs were different from those of the Catholic Church. For each point they first stated the Roman Catholic position and then that of the brothers. The clerk who had put the record together had great understanding for the brothers and did not want to give it a slanderous and blasphemous slant as is usually done.

        After that, the brothers were taken to their execution on the hog meadow near the huntsman's shed. There Eustachius, who was sickly and weak, was beheaded first. Next Jörg Rack went joyfully up to the executioner, spun around on one foot, and cried out, Here I forsake wife and child, house and home, life and limb for the sake of divine truth! He knelt down, and the executioner beheaded him too.

        Hans Mändel was last. When he saw the two lying there beheaded, he said to himself, My brothers, he who overcomes will inherit all things. The executioner took him, bound him to the ladder, kindled the fire, and pushed him in. Then he put the two beheaded bodies on the pyre as well and burned them all to ashes.

        In this manner, the three brothers courageously sealed their witness to the true faith in Christ with their lives and their death, their words and their blood, and God gave them the victory.

        As a servant of God's Word, Hans Mändel had converted and baptized about four hundred men and women.

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The Message of Hans Kräl's Shirt Collar

        One of the most challenging stories in the Chronicle is that of Hans Kräl, which we can tell in the words of the Chronicle itself:

        In 1557, shortly before Ascension Day, brother Hans Kräl was taken prisoner for his witness to Jesus Christ and the divine truth. He was traveling for God's cause when he was captured at Taufers in the Puster Valley. About a mile from the castle he met a group of five men including the judge. The judge greeted him, since he did not know him, and rode past, and Hans acknowledged the greeting. Then the judge's clerk rode up to him and asked where he was from. Hans said, from Moravia. The clerk inquired about his business, and Hans told him he had been visiting his brothers. When the clerk asked him whether the Anabaptists were his brothers and Hans admitted they were, the clerk arrested him on the spot. The judge turned around, dismounted from his horse, and, taking brother Hans's own belt from his body, bound him as tightly as he could and led him alongside his horse. Hans had to run like a dog through the mud and puddles for a whole mile until they reached the castle. He was blue with suffocation from running and from the tight belt. He could hardly stand on his feet. The lord of the castle, named Füeger, sharply reprimanded the judge for binding him so tightly.

        Then they searched him, took everything they found, and put him in prison for two days. The next day, a Thursday, they brought him out for a hearing. Lord Füeger and three others questioned him about his faith and his view on baptism and the mass. He witnessed to the divine truth and spoke about his beliefs, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Then they stopped questioning him and pressed him to recant. When he told them not to expect him to abandon what he had acknowledged as the truth, they took him back to prison.

        A week later Lord Füeger and six others questioned him again, but as they got nowhere, they returned him to the prison again.

        Another week went by, and he was brought out for a hearing before the whole council. The judge called his faith heresy and the church of God a sect. Brother Hans said it was neither heresy nor a sect but the church of God. The devil take you if you think you are the church of Gad! the furious judge replied. He repeated it every time he heard Hans mention the church of God and said he would teach him not to say it again. But brother Hans persisted all the more. Then the judge told him that an order had come from Innsbruck demanding the names of the leaders who sent brothers out on mission and of those who gave them food and shelter. He answered, We are not sent out to harm anyone. Our mission is the salvation of men, to call them to repent and change their lives. But this last question, he added, was not about articles of faith; they did not need to know and he would not tell them.

        Then the judge warned him sternly to consider his own safety. Unless he would tell who gave them shelter, food, and drink, they would use physical violence on him. So brother Hans asked the judge and the whole council how they would like it if he betrayed them after they had done him a good turn. The members of the council looked at one another and said they would not like it at all. The judge became angry. He asked him if he was trying co accuse an honorable council of making him betray someone and repeated his warning to take care, because they were going to deal with him in earnest. Since Hans refused to tell them what they wanted to know, he was sent back to prison. He had to go hungry, while they went to eat.

        When they rose from the table, they fetched him back and led him to the torture chamber. He took off his cloak himself and sat down so willingly beneath the rope that the bystanders could not hold back their tears.

        The torturer stretched him up by the rope, and the judge warned him again to spare himself and confess. But brother Hans said he would betray no one. He would wait on God's will. A big stone was brought. The judge was angry when he realized that he was getting nowhere and said, You all swear that you won't betray or inform on one another.

        Hans answered, We do not swear; we betray no one, because it is wrong.

        Then the judge said, You are a scoundrel. I have already caught you telling a lie. Why do you allow yourself to be tortured? It is all over with you anyhow. The brother protested; he was no scoundrel - what lie had they caught him in? The judge answered,

        You said you were not a teacher, but we have learned that you are. Brother Hans replied that he was not a teacher, but if he were, he would not be ashamed of it, for it is honorable before God. So they left him hanging from the rope and went to the council room.

        The torturer remained with him and pleaded with him to give the information. They will not stop until they have torn you apart. Hans answered that he would wait and see how far God would let them go. They could do no more than God permitted. The torturer scoffed, Aren't you a fool to think God can see what we are doing to you in this hole!

        Then the council returned, saying the lady of the castle had asked them not to torture him and therefore they would stop. They sent him back to prison.

        After that, Lord Füeger rode to Innsbruck, the seat of government. When he returned, he had the priests interrogate Hans in his presence for two days running, Friday and Saturday.

        No matter what they tried, they got nowhere with their false teaching and insistent pleading. It would take too long to tell it all. Hans remained firm and, in a word, said he was standing in the truth and would remain in it with God's help. By that time Lord Füeger was furious. You stubborn dog! I have tried everything with you, but I won't give up. I will send you to the stake, and then we'll see how you honor God.

        Hans answered, I will not be suffering because I did anything wrong but solely for the sake of the truth, and that will not dishonor God.

        Three days later they put him in a deep, pitch-dark dungeon in the castle keep, where he could see neither sun, moon, nor light of day. He could not tell whether it was day or night but noticed it was night when the dungeon became somewhat cooler. During the day it was hot and steamy at the bottom of the dungeon, and he sweated. His clothes rotted away on his body until he was almost naked, and for a long time he had no shirt, only a rough blanket that had been let down to him. He wrapped it around himself, and there he sat in misery and darkness. His shirt rotted away until not a thread remained except the collar around his neck, which he finally hung on the wall. He could not stand the daylight and fresh air anymore. When the brood of Pilate hauled him up for a hearing to see if he would recant, the air and light were so painful to him that he was glad when they let him down into the dungeon again.

        He stank so terribly from the foulness of this dark pit that no one could stand being close to him. When they brought him out, they had to stand back. The councilors said they had never known even a carcass to stink so badly.

        There he lay in the terrible dungeon that was so full of worms and vermin that he had to cover his head by wrapping it in an old rag someone had mercifully thrown down to him. For a long time no one had been in the dungeon; that is why the vermin had become so bad. Hans had a great horror of them until he finally got used to them.

        The rats and mice even ate his food. When his meals were let down, he had to be sure to get hold of the bowl before it reached the ground, otherwise the vermin would be all over it before he had a chance. When he pushed the bowl away, they fought over it and bit one another, clattering the bowl around and cleaning it up in no time. He could not keep any food, because the vermin would have smelled it and eaten it off his very body. But there was no question of keeping food, for there was never any left over. They all but starved him. When he was well, he could easily eat the little he did get. When he was sick and could not eat, their attitude was, Go without until you feel like eating.

        The vermin lifted the lid and drank from his water container until he got a heavy stone and placed it on top so they could no longer get it open.

        His greatest sorrow was that no messages got through to him from the church. At that time Hans Mändel, a servant of the Lord's Word, was in the mountains of Tirol. He had a great longing for news from Hans Kräl and got word to him in the dungeon, asking him to send some sign that he was still faithful to God and his church. If he had nothing else, he should send a little bundle of straw. Hans Kräl would gladly have done so, but he did not even have so much as a bundle of straw in the dungeon. That is how poor he was. Then he remembered the collar of his rotted shirt, which he had hung on the wall, and glad that he had it, he took it down and sent it to the brothers as a sign that he was at peace with God and the church. When they received the collar and saw how destitute he was, it went to their hearts and they wept out of pity for him. They sent a message back to him in the dungeon that they would be more than happy to send him a shirt or anything else, if only they knew how. But he did not want them to try, because if it were discovered he would be tortured again and those who brought it would have to suffer. So he let them know they should not send him anything. He must clothe himself with the garments of patience.

        In this state he spent all summer in the dungeon, until fall, when they noticed that his feet were beginning to rot. They brought him to another prison, where conditions were so harsh that nothing could be worse. Here he was hung by one hand and one foot in the stocks for thirty-seven weeks. He had to sit on a tilted board and hang in the stocks in such a way that he could neither lie down nor sit properly, and he could not stand up at all.

        On top of all this misery, he was subjected to mockery from the godless folk who taunted him: There lies a holy man. No one is as wise as he, and he alone knows it. There lies the chosen people of God! This was because he testified steadfastly about the church.

        On the other hand, since he could receive no message of comfort from the church, on one occasion God gave him great comfort through an unbeliever, a nobleman who told Hans to take courage and not be afraid: many people knew very well what was true and what was right, only they did not follow it and so would not tolerate it. This was a great encouragement.

        It so happened that God prompted Hans to send for the clerk who had taken him prisoner. The clerk soon came, sat down, and asked why he had been called. Brother Hans said, Because, as you well know, you are guilty of my imprisonment and of the great misery I am suffering, although I am innocent I have to tell you this. Never in my whole life have I done you any harm. The clerk sat there, dumb with shock and unable to answer. All he could say was that he had no choice. Brother Hans said, Indeed, it is God's judgment upon you that has been driving you. Because you have been so bloodthirsty against the believers, you will riot be able to avoid bringing about your own judgment by this last deed. You have brought a severe sentence upon yourself. God will deal with you and punish you for your sin. The clerk was so terrified he could not say a word.

        He left, and less than two weeks later he died in the night. He had been in good health, then within fifteen minutes he was dead. God brought him to his end in great fear. He howled and wailed and admitted that he had sinned. His superiors were displeased and said he deserved a fitting reward from the devil. They told him (in Hans's hearing) that it must have been demonic possession that made him unable to leave Hans Kräl alone, and the devil should have carried him off for taking Hans prisoner. He hardly ever smiled again from that time on, because of what he had done, and in the end he had to pay for it.

        It happened that on the night the clerk died, such great joy came over brother Hans that he prayed and gave thanks to God all night long, for he was given the certainty that he would return to the church of the Lord. Never in his whole life had he experienced such a night. In the morning the jailer's wife came and told him about the clerk's sudden and terrible death that same night.

        After what had happened to the clerk, the lords of the castle were very much afraid and tried to find ways to get rid of Hans. One evening about a week later, a farmhand who did fieldwork for the castle came to brother Hans with the keys and asked if Hans would trust him to let him out. Brother Hans said he would see what the man would do after he was out. The laborer tried to unlock the door but could not find the right key. Brother Hans told him not to try - it would get him into trouble. The man said that was for him to worry about. He looked for the right key but could not find it, so he had to give up. It was not to be this time.

        The lady of the castle sent her servant to the dungeon to call down to brother Hans, Her ladyship wishes to tell you she will send to the judge and jurors. If you say just two words indicating that you are willing to be instructed or that you have been wrong, you will be released. If you are afraid to do it because you think it would be a sin, she is ready to take the sin on herself and you would be free of it.

        But Hans said, Go and tell your lady she is already burdened with enough sin and should turn away from it. She does not need another's sin.

        As a result he had to stay in prison for another winter. The following spring an order came from the government in Innsbruck, which the lords came and read to him. It said that because he was so stubborn and would not accept any correction, he would be sent to the galleys. They told him how he would fare on the ocean, that the prisoners were stripped naked and scourged. But he answered that he would trust God, his Lord, who was on the sea just as much as on the land, to help him endure.

        Then he was taken out of the dungeon and allowed to go about the castle for two days to learn to walk, since he was completely crippled from the imprisonment, the stocks, and the fetters. He had been in prison for two years minus five weeks; for eighteen months of that time he had not seen the sun.

        A constable was made responsible for taking him to the galleys. Hans said farewell to everyone in the castle and called them to repentance. The lady of the castle sent a message telling him to come to her too, which he did. She let him come into her writing room, where he took leave of her and called her to repentance too. He asked her to let the faithful continue their work unhindered and not to imprison them anymore. She agreed and wept. With tears running down her cheeks she said, As long as I live I will never again take a believer captive. Then she gave him some traveling money and dismissed him.

        The constable led him away. This was an ungodly man, who called brother Hans a scoundrel every time he spoke to him. One evening two days later, the constable got drunk in the inn at Niederdorf. They had given him so much wine that he fell across the table, and when he and Hans were taken to bed, the constable collapsed on.the bed dead drunk. Then dear brother Hans opened the bedroom door, then the door of the house, closed it behind him, and was gone.

        That was how God helped him escape that night early in 1559, and he returned in peace and joy to the church of the Lord.

        There is a story, handed down by word of mouth among the Hutterian Brethren, that when Hans Kräl returned, ragged and travel-stained, to his home community, he went to the house where beggars were received. His own wife, who was busy in the kitchen, stopped her work to give him a bowl of food but did not recognize him. It was customary in those days for everyone, even beggars, to carry their own spoons, so when he also asked for a spoon she lost patience and burst out,

        Do I have to give my spoon to every fool? She had not recognized him but thought he was just another beggar, which is understandable, considering what he must have looked like. After the meal he wrote on the plate: The one who ate here was brother Hans Kräl. Then he went away and hid in the straw in a barn. Meanwhile someone had discovered the writing, and soon quite a crowd had gathered. They went to look for him and found him.

        It is said that his wife was disciplined for the way she had spoken to him, for though she could not be blamed for not recognizing him, she should not have called anyone a fool.

        Later Hans Kräl became a servant of the Word and finally elder of the whole Hutterian Church.

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The Testing of a Servant of the Word: Klaus Felbinger

        Klaus Felbinger, a locksmith, was sent on mission to Bavaria while he was still in a time of testing as a servant of the Word. Shortly before Easter, 1560, he and another brother were arrested and cross-examined about their faith. Because they held firmly to it.

        Early on Palm Sunday they were chained to two carts and sent to Landshut with a guard of riders and foot soldiers. There they were put in separate cells, and Klaus was put in chains.

        Early the same week, the lords of Landshut, the captain, the old prison warden, the chancellor, and all their attendants summoned the brothers. They talked with them but could not get anywhere.

        Church officials from the city were also sent to question them. But the brothers gave such a good testimony, founded on divine witness that they had to give up.

        The prisoners were then cruelly tortured and racked twice to make them tell where they had been going and who had given them shelter. But brother Klaus replied, We have no obligation to tell you, and it does you no good to know. Why? they asked. Because you hound the people and torment them. You rob them and sin against them. Far be it from us to betray those who have done good to us. We do not betray our enemies, much less our friends. Very well, they said, then we're not going to spare your skin. They left him hanging in agony until at last the torturer put in a word for him, saying, He has hung there all day and won't tell anything.

        For months these questionings were carried on by the lords of Landshut, government officials, priests and scholars, sometimes with pretended friendliness, sometimes with cruelty and threats. But the brothers held firmly to their witness through it all. They vowed they would remain true in the simplicity of Christ. One official finally said to brother Klaus, 'I don't believe you are so simple. I don't believe one in a hundred could defend himself like you. I don't take you for a fanatic like those others who don't know what they are talking about.'

        The Chronicle says, For the Lord himself gave Klaus words and wisdom, as can be seen in the letters he wrote to the church from prison and in the songs he made while in chains. He also wrote a confession of our faith, addressed to the lords and governing authorities in Landshut, and the church still has a copy. All through the centuries since, Klaus Felbinger's clear confession of faith has been used to help people understand the meaning and spirit of the Hutterian faith. We have published it in one of our booklets called Brotherly Community: the Highest Command of Love, which you will one day want to read.

        In a letter Klaus wrote back to the church he explains that he is able to write because a kindhearted servant girl gave him paper and ink. He tells of all he and his companion Hans have had to endure and how Hans has grown weak physically. He adds, . I am chained up in a dungeon all the time. Praise God who makes me worthy to be his witness! When I think about it, I am filled with an inward joy, for. I recognize God's great love in it. In this letter he shows his great love for all the brothers and sisters by many personal greetings and messages.

        After long months of suffering in prison, the two brothers were condemned to death and in July were taken out to be executed.

        Brother Klaus had his tongue bound to prevent him from speaking to the people at his execution, but in the end his tongue was freed long enough for the two brothers to speak to each other. Brother Hans Leutner, who was to be first, said to Klaus, Now brother Klaus, if my death will terrify you, then you go first and I will wait till last.

        Brother Klaus replied, No! Oh, no! I will not be terrified.

        So Hans gave his neck to the sword, and Klaus looked on undismayed. He did not even turn pale. Anyone who did not know would have thought it did not concern him. Then he, too, stepped forward, knelt down, and gave his head for the sake of faith and divine truth. Both brothers witnessed valiantly with their blood.

        Klaus Felbinger's time of testing was over and his service was confirmed by his courageous death.

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The Brothers Called Wolf

        44. Wolf Mair, Wolf Huber, and Wolf Binder

        Wolf seems a strange name for peaceable Hutterian brothers, yet quite a few had that as a first or last name. There are, indeed, two ways in which the brothers were like wolves. One is that wolves live and hunt in packs, which are a sort of community. They all care for their young very lovingly and all members of the pack help to feed the wolf pups even when they are not their own. The other way is that wolves are fearless and this same courage was shown by the brothers many times.

        It once happened that two with this name, Wolf Mair and Wolf Huber, were arrested and imprisoned together.

        Wolf Mair was questioned under torture twice. He was repeatedly racked and had to endure terrible pain, but he would not say anything against his conscience. The clerk of the court said, You must tell me who gave you shelter, food, and drink, or else you must die on the rope.

        Wolf replied, Then I must die, for I will not speak against my conscience or denounce those who showed me kindness. So they left him. Later the priests tried various tactics, some gentle, some brutal, to make the two recant. They used all kinds of threats and attacked their faith with blasphemous words, which the brothers rejected, vigorously defending the truth. The Lord gave them strength; they held their lives cheap for the sake of divine truth.

        Then monks, priests, and others tried once more to seduce them from their faith, but it was in vain. The brothers put them to shame through God's Word. In their steadfastness, they proved that their faith was the way of divine truth leading to eternal life in Christ Jesus. With God's help, they would remain true to it, whatever the priests and the devil might do, sing, or say.

        They were then taken back from Salzburg to Tittmoning (whence they had been sent) and condemned to death. When the indictment was read out to them, they spoke bravely against every untruth in it, saying that their faith was in no way heretical or seductive.

        As they were led through the city, some women wept with pity that they were to be killed for their faith, but the brothers said, You should not weep for us. Weep for yourselves and for your sins. They sang joyful songs because their end and deliverance was so close at hand.

        When they were brought to the place of execution, brother Wolf Mair cried out to the people, Today I will offer my God the true burnt offering, fulfill my vow, and witness to divine truth with my blood. They were executed with the sword and then burned. With courage and joy they surrendered their earthly lives for the sake of eternal life, as they testified in the song they wrote.

        A few years later another wolf, Wolf Binder, was on a boat on the Danube River helping a sister bring her children from Bavaria to the church in Moravia. When they reached Schärding, a man on the boat betrayed them to an official there, who came to arrest them. The sister managed to escape, but had to leave her children behind, which was a grief to her for the rest of her life. Brother Wolf was tied up and taken to another city, where he was assailed by the rabble of false prophets, priests, and other worldly-wise men who put pressure on him to renounce his faith and accept their teaching. They spared no efforts and used all their cunning to make him recant, first with smooth, gentle words, then with false teachings, and even with coarse threats. But he would not be turned aside from the way of truth God had led him to know.

        When the priests' efforts failed, it was the executioner's turn. He seized brother Wolf and tortured and racked him so brutally that the sun could have shone through him. His hands were so badly swollen that they looked as if they were cut at the joints. He was so torn and mistreated that he could not stand on his feet, let alone walk.

        Two priests visited the brother and one of them urged him to turn from his error. But though in agony from the torture, brother Wolf answered him courageously, saying, You priest, you are the one who needs to repent of your sinful life and distorted teaching! You are a false prophet, one of those scoundrels who go about in sheep's clothing, hiding their deceit under their long cassocks. Inwardly you are ravening wolves, and the Lord Christ has cried woe upon you many times. The priest repeated these words to a man who had been very kind to Wolf. The man told Wolf it had gladdened his heart to hear that the priest was told the truth for once.

        Finally, when they achieved nothing with this faithful brother who loved God, they sent him back to Schärding, where he had been captured. In both places they had seen enough of him but did not know how to get rid of him. As he was not willing to be instructed in the false teachings of the priests, he had to die. They appointed a day and in the early morning took him without warning to his execution. There had been no legal process and no verdict. Brother Wolf pointed this out to them, adding that it was no wonder since there was nothing to accuse a believer of and no reason to kill him, there could be no verdict and no justice.

        The executioner took him and turned back the collar from his neck, but he did it in fear and trembling. Brother Wolf knelt down and commended his spirit to the Lord his God. The executioner had great difficulty beheading him; he just could not strike accurately. He had to finish cutting off the brother's head on the ground as best he could. He was afraid, and his own life was endangered by the mob. This experience made him say later that he would never execute another brother as long as he lived. Many people were present and saw how steadfast Wolf had been. This was soon after Candlemas [February 2 1571. Brother Wolf had been in prison all through the winter since fall. He had never studied the Scriptures and could not read, but God taught him abundantly through his Spirit.

        The man who had betrayed Wolf Binder later became insane and had to be chained up. The official who had arrested him was found to be a thief and escaped being executed only because he fell sick and died first. The wolves in sheep's clothing were put to shame by the courageous man called Wolf, who had given himself like a lamb to be slaughtered.

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An Old Servant is Given New Light: Farwendel

        Farwendel, who had long served as a servant among the Swiss Brethren, who were also Anabaptists, as an old man was thrown into prison for his faith.

        After several weeks in prison, he was summoned to a hearing by the priests. He answered them quite well and was not distressed by their questioning. But back in his dungeon, he was seized with terror and doubts and such physical pain that for three days he did not eat, drink, or sleep. He cried out day and night, pleading to the Lord without finding relief.

        He feared that he might deny the truth and blaspheme God's name. A blackness of despair more terrible than the blackness of his dungeon almost overcame him.

        He searched his heart and examined his whole life to see if there was anything that might have offended God, but at first he could find nothing.

        As he pleaded with God to show him if he had done wrong, Farwendel suddenly realized, as clearly as if someone had spoken to him, that he had still been clinging to his own will. Besides, he was still living in private property and therefore had not yet truly died to himself. He was horrified and immediately remembered the stand the Hutterian Brethren took. Dumbstruck, he thought, True, there were several articles of their faith I was never able to agree with. He thought about these points and prayed about them, and God gave him such enlightenment that he could no longer oppose our basic beliefs. As soon as his heart turned toward us, he was filled with such comfort and joy in the Lord that he was no longer afraid but full of courage and absolutely decided to witness to our faith until death. He would confess to everyone that ours is the true church of God.

        He had also made up his mind that if God helped him out of prison, he would not go to any of his brethren before he was united with us [the Hutterian Church). He had prayed for eight weeks that God might grant him peace with us.

        As an answer to Farwendel's prayer, Klaus Braidl, a servant of the Word, and two other brothers were sent on mission to the Rhineland where he was imprisoned. The day they arrived, Farwendel and other Swiss Brethren sent two of their number to seek out these brothers with the message that he was anxious to see them, and it did not take them long to find the brothers. When these brothers visited him in prison, he told them what he had experienced and expressed his fervent longing to be united with the Hutterian Church.

        At first the brothers hesitated and admonished Farwendel seriously for how he had opposed our brothers and been a stumbling block to many.

        Then he began to open his heart and told them everything. With a good conscience he could say that he had never opposed them willfully, since until now his eyes had not been opened. His deepest sorrow was that in his blindness he had misled so many and caused their destruction.

        But he asserted that he had never deliberately opposed the truth when he knew better. After the servant Klaus Braidl had talked almost all night long with him, with the result that neither of them so much as closed his eyes, Farwendel pleaded that he might be united with us if possible. He was afraid he would be taken to another place (which then did happen), and he did not know if he would ever see any of our people again with his mortal eyes.

        Even if we could not yet decide to accept him, he was resolved, with God's help, to stand with us on the same foundation and never break faith. But if now in his great need he could be united with us, he would praise God and feel more confident. He was determined never to bring disgrace on the church of the Lord by being unfaithful.

        The brothers felt the urgency of his situation. There in the dungeon they took counsel in great fear of God, wanting to do neither too much nor too little. They agreed in the Lord to grant Farwendel his wish then and there in the prison, for he told them of the fear and distress he had been in for nearly eight weeks, pleading that God's will might be done.

        Thus he and his wife were received into the church, and also many other brothers and sisters from his group, including his two sons. At Farwendel's request our brothers spoke to his church, and many were moved to unite with us. We accepted them, and they came to join us here.

        Farwendel was later released from prison. He moved to the church and after some years fell asleep among us in the Lord. Others who had come with him also remained steadfast. It was for their sakes as well as for Farwendel's that the Lord had intervened.

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Persecution Continues but Respect Grows

        Now we have come to the period called the Golden Years, though at the beginning of this time its bright promise seemed in danger of being turned into complete blackness. When the Bohemian chancellor from Neuhaus was in Vienna, Austria,

         he begged the Emperor, Maximilian II, for permission to drive the brotherhoods out of Moravia with the support of the bishop. If everything had gone as he wished, it would have caused great distress for the church of God. As soon as the emperor yielded to his persistent requests and gave him a letter to that effect, he set out. He took leave of the lords in Vienna, saying, If God helps me cross this ditch (the Danube), you'll hear some news. He started out, but as his carriage drove onto the bridge, a beam gave way under him. The bridge fell into the Danube, taking horse, carriage and all with it, and the chancellor and two others were drowned. Only his servant boy managed to keep afloat. When the boy saw that his lord was dead and being carried away by the current, he seized him by the beard and shouted for help. Both of them were pulled out of the river and brought to the emperor. The emperor took the dead chancellor's golden chain from his neck and put it on the boy, then had the dead man carried back to Neuhaus.

        So the news that reached Vienna was very different from what the chancellor had intended! The emperor and everybody else saw it as a judgment of God. For the next quarter of a century the Hutterian communities had a time of relative peace and prosperity, though opposition to them never ceased. During most of this time the faithful servant Peter Walpot was shepherd or elder of the whole Hutterian Church and under his wise guidance every phase of their life was built up in a harmonious order that witnessed to their love and unity. Many new communities were established. The last of the Gabrielites and a number of Swiss Brethren came to the Hutterian Church during this period.

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Hans Arbeiter

        Those who went out on mission to other lands still had to face great danger and cruel persecution from the authorities, but there was growing sympathy for them from many people, even some officials. We can see this in the story of Hans Arbeiter. We have already heard of how he had left the Swiss Brethren in the Netherlands and come to the Hutterian Church in Moravia, where he became a servant of the Word and was used for mission work.

        Hans Arbeiter and another brother, Heinrich Schuster, were captured near the Rhine River while they were on mission to that region. So that they would not have to take them to the castle that night, the village mayor and other officials asked them to make a solemn promise, shaking hands on it, or else pay for several rounds of drinks for the men guarding them, but they refused to do either, instead warning them of the judgment that would come on those who were unjust to the faithful.

        After this, the others wanted to let the prisoners go, but the mayor refused and ordered the constable to tie them up. The constable answered, You cannot order me to chain these men, who are much more devout than I am. Had I known they were to be put in prison, I would have warned them.'

        So the mayor bound them himself and brought them to Kirrweiler. This took place on Sunday night. The next day the mayor went to a market at Neustadt in the Haardt Mountains. On Tuesday he fell ill, and on Wednesday they buried him. Everyone said he must have sinned. After that, the constable said, not even for a hundred gulden would he make himself guilty of imprisoning the brothers. But Hans Arbeiter was put in a dark dungeon, cut off from the light of day, and Heinrich was put in the Kirrweiler jail.

        After two weeks the bishop sent his sheriff and nine others to give each of the two prisoners a separate hearing, asking why they had entered their lord's estate and misled his people. Hans Arbeiter said he had neither misled nor deceived anyone - his intention had been not to mislead anyone but to teach the divine truth.

        After answering more questions about infant baptism, he was taken back to his dark dungeon.

        Ten or twelve days later the bishop sent a high-ranking Jesuit priest to try to convince Hans about infant baptism, but did not succeed. When after a second and third attempt he still failed to change Hans, the priest threatened that he would be drowned in the Rhine. Hans said he was willing for whatever God would permit and today rather than tomorrow. When he was put back in prison he was given less food and threatened that he would be left to starve to death.

        Some time later, after Hans had become very thin and weak, the priest came again. This time he pretended to feel great love and sympathy for Hans, even fell on his neck and kissed him as he pleaded with him to return to the faith of his childhood. But Hans Arbeiter said, 'That is the kiss of Judas,' and told him in no uncertain terms to leave, and he never returned. The dear brother had to go back to his prison.

        Finally the chief bailiff came twice, saying that if the brothers would promise never to enter the country again, they would be released. The brothers refused, saying they had to go wherever God sent them at any time and could not promise to stay out of any area.

        In the end, after twenty-nine weeks in prison, they were released without any conditions. They returned to the church, steadfast and in peace and joy, and the church rejoiced and praised God.

        Seven years later we find this entry in the Chronicle:

        Our dear brother Hans Arbeiter from Aachen in the Netherlands, a loyal servant of God's Word and his church, traveled that year from Wessely to Sabatisch in Hungary to preach the word of God to the brothers and sisters there. While he was there, he became ill and fell asleep in the Lord on July 21.

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Konrad Haintzeman, the Cobbler

        Konrad Haintzeman, a young brother who was a cobbler, was traveling from Swabia with a group of believers when he was seized near. the Danube River. He was taken before the magistrates along with another brother, Bastel Binder, who was captured earlier and treated so terribly that he had renounced his faith. Then priests brought a new-born baby and baptized it before them. They asked Bastel if this was true Christian baptism and he said it was. Konrad said, Bastel, you are speaking against God and your own conscience. ' Then Bastel denied his faith again in a terrible way and was released. He started out toward Moravia, perhaps hoping he could repent and be taken back into the church, but on the way he caught the plague and died.

        Konrad was taken to Vienna, where he was imprisoned for over a year along with thieves and criminals. There he almost starved, for these unfortunate prisoners were given nothing to eat except what people brought to them. They were also tortured by burning and the terrible odor from these wounds nauseated Konrad so that he could not eat even when there was food. Twice he was brought before the bishop of Vienna and asked to give up his faith, which he steadfastly refused to do. This was done before daylight, so that no one would hear his witness to the truth. The second time the executioner was waiting outside, ready to behead him in the darkness, but somehow God did not let this happen.

        Konrad was taken back to prison, where the priests continued to argue with him. They threatened to leave him to rot in the dungeon.

        But he was prepared; he had set his hope on the Lord, who would be able to free him from the dungeon and from all the power of his enemies. He rejoiced greatly that the Lord had accepted him as a witness to the truth. He was so upright and undaunted that many were alarmed; some said they wished they had never met him - he made them quite uneasy.

        Then something unusual happened. The baker at the court of King Maximilian had heard of the cruel plans against Konrad.

        He told the king's Lutheran chaplain, who informed the king, putting in a good word for the prisoner. He said Konrad was young and it would be a pity to execute him like this. King Maximilian commanded them to stop tyrannizing him and to release him. This was done.

        When brother Konrad was told how his release had come about, he went to these men and thanked them for the freedom God had given him through them. Then, with unsullied heart and a good conscience, he traveled back to 'Moravia and to the 'church community, who rejoiced at his coming. He was soon given a service.

        Konrad must have continued to suffer from what he had endured in prison, for ten years after his release, while still quite a young man, we read that he crossed the Hungarian mountains to the thermal springs to get help for his ailments. Later he returned to Sabatisch and there he fell asleep in the Lord after much suffering.

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Hans Missel, the Weaver

        Some years later another young brother, Hans Missel, a weaver, was also sent to Swabia for mission work. The people who had sheltered him wanted to hear his witness to the truth of God. While he was reading and singing with them, someone reported him to the lady of the castle, who was a widow. She sent her scribe, who came with constables to seize Hans. He drew his sword and struck him hard over the heart several times with the hilt, then sulking him several times with the flat of the sword. He threatened that he could kill him then and there if he wished. Hans Missel showed no fear, but calmly advised the scribe not to lose control of himself or do anything rash.

        The scribe then bound Hans and they took him to a house where he and the other officials ate and drank and had a gay time, making fun of Hans all the time. When morning came they put him in a dungeon of the castle.

        In the following days many priests came to try to persuade Hans to recant, but he would not stray one step from the way of faith in divine truth. The lady of the castle asked these priests for advice, for as a widow she did not know what to do, and they told her that by imperial mandate, Hans ought to die.

        A few members of the court would not agree to his death, but they were outnumbered. His execution was set for the following morning, but his friends came by night to help him escape from the dungeon. They dug until they had almost reached him. When he heard them, he sternly reproved and warned them not to continue. He wanted to go out by the same hole by which he had come in. So they had to leave it.

        Before his execution he was offered a good meal, but he did not want to eat. Knowing his last hour had come, he asked for a quiet place where he could be alone for a while. They did not know why he made this request, but they granted it and set a guard, who crept after him to see what he would do. Hans Missel raised his hands to heaven in earnest prayer, praising God for counting him worthy of this hour and for giving him strength and courage to die the death of a steadfast and public witness to God. He thanked God for all the goodness he had shown him again and again. He prayed that in this his last hour God would help him to the end, and he gave himself into God's hands. The executioner said, This man is more devout than any of us. When Hans had finished praying, he met the people with a smile on his lips and went willingly to his death.

        When they read out his sentence - that he was to be executed with the sword and burned he told them that the Gospel says, You shall not kill. How did they interpret this, since they too claimed to be Christians? But Felix the scribe reviled him and said, Just hand him over to the executioner and take him to the market place.

        A priest went with him on the way, still trying to get him to recant and save himself, but Hans Missel told them that they were the ones who should repent of their evil lives.

        When they arrived at the place, the executioner told Hans that he could still spare him if he recanted. But Hans refused, saying he would testify to his faith with his blood then and there. The executioner should do what he had to do. Then he was beheaded and burned.

        Before his execution, Hans had foretold that wonders would occur and that his blood would be seen in the sun. This came true three days later. At noon the sun turned blood-red, shining through people's windows and onto their tables, so red that many thought a fire had started and ran into the streets to look.

        The lady who had him imprisoned and executed was horrified and filled with remorse at what had happened. She could never be happy again. Everybody admitted how terrible it was that innocent blood had been shed.

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Nikolaus Geyersbühler, an Illiterate Miller

        Nikolaus took the name Geyersbühler from the village in Tirol where he was born, but he was also called Müller because he was a miller. Two of his brothers had become Hutterites, but he did not readily accept this faith. According to his testimony later, when he was on trial for his faith, (which can be found in The Golden Years of the Hutterites by Leonard Gross): It took many brethren and many years to convince him of the correctness of the Hutterian way. He finally submitted his life to God, accepted the truth and desired true Christian baptism. The witness of his own brother Wolf, who had come from Moravia on his request, persuaded him to go to Moravia.

        Nicholaus was baptized by Peter Riedemann about 1555. He was appointed head miller and became overseer of the mill and dairy farm of a Bohemian nobleman. Later he was appointed servant for temporal affairs or steward.

        In 1566 he was sent on mission to his native Tirol. After saying farewell to his wife Magdelina and his four-year-old daughter Maria, he set out with two other brothers. There were now fewer seekers after truth in Tirol and the brothers were able to win only seven converts. They were trying to return to Moravia with these converts when they were arrested. The new converts were released and his two companions recanted and were also released, but Nicholas held firm to his faith.

        After that he was put in prison. Over and over priests tried to get him to recant, but he refused. Finally he was given a list of forty-seven questions which he had to answer one by one while being cruelly tortured on the rack. Although he could not read or write, even in his suffering he was able to answer simply and clearly all the questions about his faith. As for telling the, names of other believers, he would not do it, nor reveal the names of innkeepers or boatmen who had treated him well, or even of those who had not. In the end he was condemned to death and beheaded. With his blood he gave valiant witness to the way of divine truth that leads to eternal life, and in this noble battle he defended the field in Christ.

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Veit Uhrmacher, the Red-bearded Clock Maker

        At the other end of the educational scale was Veit Grünberger, who had been a Lutheran minister in Nikolsburg for three years before he came to the Hutterian faith. When he came to the community he became a clock maker and from then on was usually called Veit Uhrmacher (clock maker). It may have been his well made clocks that inspired the writer of the Chronicle to say, when he was trying to describe the life of a Hutterian community,

        Think of the ingenious works of a clock, where one piece helps another to make it go, so that it serves its purpose.

        Veit Uhrmacher was sent on a mission to Austria along with Veit Scheich. Their activities were noticed by the authorities, who put a price on their heads. On their way back to Moravia they stopped at an inn for breakfast and said a prayer of thanks before eating. Two peasants saw this as a sign that they were the wanted Anabaptists and, greedy for the promised reward, reported them to the sheriff. He came with other officers, shackled their hands behind their backs, and took them to the castle dungeon. However he seemed uneasy about his part in the matter and asked forgiveness for doing his duty by arresting them. His kindhearted wife and cook saw to it that they received good food and good treatment while they were there.

        After five weeks, however, they were taken on a long, hard journey over the mountains to Salzburg and were put in separate cells in the great fortress there. They never saw each other again. The clock maker wrote later that on a stop along the way, people had gathered and stared at them as if they were sea-monsters. They were in the prison there for nearly three years before they were ever given a hearing.

        Before the hearing Uhrmacher was advised to give answers that would please his examiners. He answered, 'My lord, we dare not be hypocritical in matters of faith.' In a letter to Peter Walpot he described the beginning of the hearing: 'There sat the fellows in their four-cornered hats, each with paper and ink before him, and the sheriff bade me sit down on the chair standing there. Then the cathedral chaplain began, bowing to the sheriff and to the other priests.'

        Three hours of cross-examination followed. They accused Uhrmacher of belonging to a devilish sect, but he replied that this could not be true unless they considered the teachings of Jesus to be devilish, for the Hutterian teaching and way of life was based on Jesus. Although as a former Lutheran minister he had been well trained to carry on theological discussions, the clock maker did not feel it worthwhile to get into such disputes. To their questions about his faith he answered that they already had the statements of the recent martyrs Klaus Felbinger and Hans Mändel and he could not improve on these. When they told him that they were examining him out of sincere love, he responded that if they considered his three years imprisonment love, God should receive them with the same sort of love. He reminded the court that they too stood under judgment. They had to admit the godly lives of the Hutterites and one member of the court even said that no people on earth could be found more steadfast, yet they still accused them of false teachings and practices.

        The other brother, Veit Scheich, at his hearing had been pressured into denying his faith and was released. He returned to Moravia and, after a long repentance, with great remorse and bitter weeping, he was finally again accepted into the brotherhood.

        Veit Uhrmacher, however, remained absolutely steadfast and was returned to his dungeon. The sheriff, who seemed to have a real respect for him, assured him that he would not be put to death but that he would have a long imprisonment.

        The clock maker wrote a long letter to Peter Walpot telling about their capture, imprisonment and trial. We can read part of it in the Chronicle. After that for three years the church heard nothing more of him and became very worried, but all their inquiries were in vain. Then one day he arrived in Moravia, and we can imagine their joy. He had made a rope of old clothes and let himself down from a very high window, then climbed over the wall. He was sure he could not have done it except by God's help.

        The next year Veit was chosen as a servant of the Word and later confirmed. Several years later he seems to have been sent on at least two more missions to Austria and each time managed to avoid being caught by the authorities. Shortly after the last mission, about ten years after his escape from prison, he fell asleep in the Lord.

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Julius Klampferer, Almost a Priest

        A number of brothers had come from northern Italy. They had been so struck by the truth of the Hutterian teaching and way of life that they had overcome the barriers of language, culture and former training to become Hutterian Brethren. One of them wrote an enthusiastic letter back to a friend, saying, I would wish for you and the whole world to be in the company and brotherhood in which I now find myself. Some of these brothers were sent on mission to their native Italy, and at least one became a servant of the Word.

        One of these Italian brothers was Giulio Gherlandi, who had studied to be a priest but, before he was ordained, had come to the Hutterian faith. He had become a tinsmith and lantern maker and was known among the Hutterites as Julius Klampferer. He had been sent on mission and imprisoned several times. The last time he was imprisoned at Venice. There he was questioned many times.

        His examiners argued with him to make him recant, but he answered every question with the simple truth. In the end, after he had shown great steadfastness, he was sentenced to be thrown in the depths of the sea. On hearing this he said, I am not surprised. From the very beginning of my commitment to God, I have been aware that I would have to die for the sake of his truth. But what concerns me most is that the lords of Venice consent to this and forget that on the last day they will have to render an account before God for such a crime.

        This made the lords angry and they hurried him back to prison without letting him say anything more. Since he had been almost a priest, they unfrocked him, that is, degraded him from being a priest. Then one evening they fetched him as if for a hearing, took him out, and drowned him without giving him any warning. He remained joyful and sang all the time, praising God until he won the crown of the martyrs of Christ and of the faithful witnesses to the truth.

        About a year later two other Italian brothers, who had been captured and imprisoned in pitch-dark dungeons, were also cast into the sea to drown at Venice. The Martyrs Mirror gives the story of still another, an Italian count, who had been with the church in Germany for several years and, in spite of his high rank, had served in a very humble way. He was on his way back to Venice to fetch his wife when he was betrayed. The authorities were afraid to take him to Venice for trial, since he was a nobleman of such high rank, so they drowned him secretly on the way. Through faith he forsook and abandoned all nobility of this world, choosing rather to suffer reproach with the people of God than to enjoy temporal honor and distinction among his own people.

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Paul Glock, Prisoner of Conscience

        Paul Glock was born in Wurttemberg and called Jung-Paul (young Paul) because his father had the same name. His family must have been wealthy, for in his youth he liked to go about in silks and satins, with gold and silver ornaments. He loved a lively time, with music and dancing and not always good companions, which led him to fall into serious sin. Perhaps the shock of this caused him and his parents to seek a different way of life, for in 1550 he was in prison with them for their Anabaptist faith. When the Lutheran ministers tried to get them to give up their faith they refused, but said that if Lutherans would repent and live without sinning, they would attend the Lutheran church services. From then on, the pleasures of the worldly life were cast aside by Jung-Paul. Only his love of music remained, turned now to the praise of God.

        We do not know how Jung-Paul got out of prison or what became of his parents, but eight years later we find him again in prison. He had been seized while on a mission journey to his native Württemberg and had been cross-examined under torture. By autumn he was locked in the prison of the great Hohenwittlingen Castle. Around Easter of the next year another brother, Adam Horneck, had also been imprisoned there. They were no doubt a comfort to each other but, as a result of their treatment, by September both were ill. When the duke over the territory heard of it, he ordered the warden, Hans von Talheim, to let them exercise three or four hours a day in the inner court, but not let them speak to anyone.

        The next news of the prisoners comes from several years later, when Jung-Paul wrote a letter, dated April 1563, to his wife Else, a teacher in a Hutterian school. In it he expressed the hope that God's grace might daily sustain her and the whole brotherhood. He urged her to be quiet in her behavior, as was fitting for a woman. He closed the letter with the reminder to the whole brotherhood that God's people should be like a mirror in the world, reflecting the life of Christ himself.

        In this letter Jung-Paul also described the court hearing he had the previous September before members of the nobility and other citizens, Lutheran ministers and theologians, and Klaus von Grafeneck, a magistrate from the neighboring town of Urach. He and Adam Horneck were told they could free themselves by giving the correct answers, but they answered that they could speak neither more nor less than what God gave them to say. They had to refuse the invitation from one of the ministers to help him make his congregation a Christian one, feeling that it was impossible to bring a living faith out of a dead one. Since they would not compromise on any point, they were returned to their cells.

        Conditions in the prison improved for the brothers, probably because they had won the respect and friendship of Klaus von Grafeneck who interceded for them. They were allowed to see each other almost every day. Their simple prison diet of bread, water, soup and porridge was sufficient, better than many free people were getting in a land where famine was spreading. They were also given ink and paper for writing. Margarethe von Grafeneck, Klaus's wife, was especially sympathetic and arranged for Paul GIock's letters to be sent to Moravia and letters from the church to be given to him. She was a follower of Schwenkfeld. Her daughter Christine also aided Glock. [ME p.562]

        After a year Horneck was released and banished from the land, leaving Jung-Paul very lonely. When news came of the death of his wife and a child, he was sad indeed, but was comforted by frequent messengers from the church in Moravia.

        In 1565 a most surprising thing happened: Paul Glock was given almost complete freedom. His doors were left unlocked at night and he could come and go as he liked, just on his promise to return. He spent much time at Urach Castle, often eating with the von Grafenecks and working in the castle garden. In a letter he mentioned planting a beautiful vine in their garden. He could also earn money by working in the harvest. He was even allowed to make visits and talk about his faith to anyone who was interested.

        All this freedom raised Jung-Paul's hopes that he would soon be released, but the Lutheran ministers had quite a different hope. They thought that, in return for all his privileges, Glock would surely be willing to compromise and say that Lutherans were good Christians. When after six months he still could not honestly say this, they were so angry that they suddenly cook away all his freedom and put him in solitary confinement in a windowless cell, warning him that he could never be released until he was ready to call them good Christians. They would not let the von Grafenecks visit him any more and took away all his paper except one sheet for a last letter. In the darkness it was hard to write even on that. He let the brotherhood know that he could no longer write to them but could still receive letters through Margarethe von Grafeneck.

        About a year later Paul Glock managed to write another letter to Peter Walpot which he thought might really be his last. A diet of only bread and watery broth had left him very thin and suffering from scurvy, a terrible disease caused by lack of vitamins. His mouth was so sore he could not chew the bread, and he was so crippled he could not walk or even dress himself. He had appealed to the authorities for medical help, but they said his sickness was because of his sins and to get help he must repent and accept Lutheran teachings. Jung-Paul was willing to die, but he felt it was God's will for him to live and go on witnessing, so he spent his last coins for a medicine he thought would help him, and asked for the prayers of the brotherhood.

        The brotherhood surely did pray for Paul and also sent medicine. Although no one at that time knew anything about vitamins, from experience the Hutterian doctors had developed a medicine to cure scurvy, a berry juice concentrate. It was almost two years before he was given enough freedom to write again. Then he thanked the brotherhood for their prayers and for the medicine. He told of his recovery and how he now got two good meals a day and had a warm and pleasant room.

        From then on for several years Glock's situation seemed to get better and better. I sing, I read, I write, he wrote; I braid cord for people in Urach. By this weaving he was able to earn money, and when he had enough he bought thread and wove 900 yards of cord which he sent to the community, asking that it be given to the wives of the servants of the Word and of temporal affairs and other sisters he named. He copied by hand all of Riedemann's Confession of Faith and gave it to a friendly official, knowing that he would read it.

        The von Grafenecks continued their friendship, arranging for letters to be sent to and from the brotherhood. They even entertained at Urach Castle the Hutterian messengers who came. In gratitude for all this kindness, Paul asked the brotherhood to send them some of the carved, antler-headed knives and spoons for which the Hutterites were now famous. Around 1572 he was even allowed to be their guest at Urach Castle for a year, given full freedom on his promise not to escape.

        The brotherhood wrote asking Paul to escape and return to Moravia, but he replied that it would be breaking his promise, which he felt he should not do, though it had often been a great temptation. If he should escape it would bring great trouble on the officials who had been kind and trusted him and would also make it harder for other Hutterian prisoners, who would not be trusted again. He continued to ask to be released, but Klaus von Grafeneck, in spite of his friendship dared not ask for that.

        For a time the Lutherans did not press Glock to change his faith, and some of the ministers seemed more friendly, taking meals with him and even speaking favorably to their congregations about some of the Hutterian practices. But they must have been disappointed that he still did not compromise, for after his year of freedom there was a sudden order to lock him up again in the great fortress of Hohenwittlingen. The old warden there, who was criticized for allowing him too much freedom, now became quite harsh with him. However in time he retired and his son, who became warden, was quite friendly.

        In 1575 Glock had the comfort that another Hutterian prisoner, Matthias Binder, was transferred to Hohenwittlingen. This brother had given such a witness to his faith to the two armed men who had transferred him from one prison to another, that they wept when they parted from him. Glock and Binder were a strengthening to each other, even after the church officials forbade them to see each other any more and when all hope of release for either seemed to have vanished. They were both determined to remain faithful until death, Glock wrote to the church, and perhaps that was not far off. His nineteen years in prison had taken their toll of his health and, although not really so old, he began to sign his letters Alt-Paul (Old Paul) instead of Jung-Paul, as he had always been called. However both brothers continued to work - Binder sewing, Glock weaving and they took comfort in reading and singing.

        Then suddenly everything changed again. A fire broke out in the castle. The two brothers might have used the confusion as a chance to escape, but instead they bravely helped to fight the fire, saving more supplies and equipment than anyone else. Again they asked for release and this time it was granted, even with money for their trip home, so they could at last

        return to the church with good consciences and great joy. They reached Moravia about New Year's Day, 1577.

        There is a tradition among Hutterites that when Paul Glock reached his community there was a wedding being planned, and one of the brides was his daughter, who had been born about the time he had started on his mission journey.

        Six weeks after he returned, Glock was appointed as a servant of the Word. Eight years later we find the entry in the Chronicle: On January 30, 1585, the faithful and beloved brother Paul Glock, a servant of God's Word, fell asleep in the Lord. No doubt his grieving brothers found comfort in the verse he had written in prison:

        It is Christ who is my life; And death, my highest gain.

        (This story was based chiefly on The Golden Years of the Hutterites by Gross and on Glock's letters given in footnotes in the Chronicle.)

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Narrow Escapes From Death

        54. Andreas Schlosser and Adam Schneider

        All through these Golden Years brothers continued to go out on mission, risking prison, torture, and death. Among these were two brothers, Andreas Schlosser (a locksmith) and Adam Schneider (a tailor), who were captured in Bavaria and thrown into prison. There a priest pleaded with them to recant and not to let their young bodies be ruined, but they chose to accept the terrible torture instead. Later, when they were given a hearing and still refused to give up their faith, one of the priests said, 'Well, if you are men like the apostles, why aren't you freed from your prison and chains like the apostles? Even though such a release didn't seem likely, the brothers were determined to remain faithful. They were warned that the executioner was coming soon.

        The Chronicle reports:

        God, however, wanted to help them escape, and it occurred to Schlosser, the locksmith, that if only he had a nail he could undo both his locks. Then if the outer door, which separated him and his fellow prisoner Adam and had a huge lock, was left unfastened just once, he could free his brother as well. Now it so happened that the wardress changed the

        locks on his chains. She put the stronger lock (which he needed both hands to open and had not been able to reach) on the chain around his feet. The one from his feet, which he could unlock with one hand, she put on the chain that ran through a hole in the door. Her intention was to make sure he would not escape, since she did not trust him with the other lock (previously on his feet). But she achieved the opposite. In fact, she was doing him the best service she could have done.

        Then it happened that he found a nail sticking out in the prison wall, and that same night the wardress forgot to shut the outer door. Seeing that things were falling into place, he prayed to the Lord to help him if that were his will and pleasure. If not, he would gladly bear his punishment and cross. Then he tried and was able to open both locks. He went in to his fellow prisoner Adam, saying, Pray to the Lord while I work at your locks and see if I can open them too. For a long time he could not open them and was almost in despair, telling his brother Adam, I will never be happy again if I have to leave you behind. Finally he said, I will try once more, and if it is God's will for us to escape, the lock will open. If it is not his will, it will not open now either.

        While he worked on the lock, the other prayed, and before long it opened. He had opened four locks, three of them with two bolts each. The brothers came out on the town wall just by the prison. There they prayed, asking God for further help since he had already given them so much. They climbed down as well as they could, clambering and falling. At the bottom they praised God for his wonderful help at every turn. At that very moment the heavens opened with a brilliant flash of lightning.

        By these means God showed them as well as their enemies that he can still release his own from prison as in the days of the apostles. Their enemies had intended to make short work of them and take their lives, but God had a different plan and, to the enemy's great amazement, freed them from their grasp. Joyfully the brothers returned to the church, still faithful and with good consciences. Praise the Lord!

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Wastel Anfang

        The next year Wastel Anfang, a servant of the Word, and two other brothers, also had a very narrow escape from death. They had been captured in Switzerland and were kept in prison, with many questionings and tortures, for about five months, because they would not betray those who had given them lodging, or promise not to preach again in that land. Since most of the councillors wanted to give them the death sentence, all plans were made to execute them, for which they were completely prepared. They had even been given the hangman's meal, as the last meal given to prisoners before execution was called, when a final meeting was held, and this time the majority voted to let them live. The brothers had their ears branded and were driven out of town with rods, but were all set free. All three returned to the church in peace and joy and with good consciences, praising God who had made them worthy to suffer for the sake of their faith and his name.

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Joseph Schlosser

        Joseph Schlosser and three other brothers were sent on mission to Poland.

        They were betrayed, and officials and nobility with their servants surrounded the house, arrested them, and led them away, vowing in their fury that they would make an example of them as a warning to others.

        Their captors were pleased to have finally laid hands on the brothers - they had wanted to do that for a long time. And now they behaved as if they had a fortune. They put the brothers in the stocks with iron fetters.

        The lord ordered the chief magistrate to keep a good eye on them and set a guard of six until the following day. So the magistrate armed six men with spears and guns and told them on pain of death to watch the brothers well. The next day the local official and the nobleman returned and spent the whole day arguing with them, cursing and swearing at them.

        The nobleman quoted the words of Christ: Beware of false prophets who come to us in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves. He told the brothers, That is what you people are. They replied, Have you ever heard of sheep tearing wolves? That would be a new one! Everybody knows that wolves tear sheep. Since you hunt us down, torture and kill us, it should be obvious to you that you are the wolves at heart, claiming to be Christ's sheep. No sheep has ever killed a wolf. The nobleman was silent and acted as if he did not understand.

        It seems that some of the others did get the point of what the brothers were saying and became more and more uneasy about their part in the affair. The priest who was supposed to examine them refused to come. When the lord ordered the magistrate to search them and take everything they had, he and the other officials refused, saying, 'Dear sir, we find it difficult to take belongings from God-fearing people who only confess their faith and have done no harm to anyone.' When these officials were finally intimidated by the lord's threats, they set about their task in fear and trembling, asking the brothers for forgiveness. The brothers assured them they would not take revenge, but warned them that when they acted against their consciences they would have to face the judgment of God.

        The lords and magistrates were harsh toward the brothers, but the common people mostly had compassion. Many came daily, shocked to see them so cruelly chained in the stocks; many wept about it. The officials who came to argue with them about the Christian faith soon became confused and had to give up. Finally a lord came to their prison, he ordered their release, saying, 'You are also Christian' people. I know you and what you stand for. I will neither despise nor condemn you.'

        Soon after, they were released and started home. Before they had gone far, however, Joseph was betrayed by an official who pretended he wanted to be taught by him and was again put in prison. Many who were eager to hear the truth came to talk with him. When after a week the lords heard of this, they had him put in stocks in a barn, with guards to keep anyone from talking to him. He was threatened with the death penalty but could not be intimidated. When after two more weeks he was brought before the lord for a hearing, he answered the questions about his faith so well the lord refused to let him talk any more, because so many people had gathered to listen.

        The clerk then tried to get Joseph to take an oath as a condition for being released, but he refused. When the clerk realized that he was getting nowhere, he ordered Joseph to leave the place before sunset, saying that if he were to catch him again, it would cost him his life.' Although Joseph said, 'I can't promise anything. If it pleases God, I might come here again, ' he was released anyway and could also return to his community with joy.

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The Strong Smith and the Gentle Wolf

        57. Hans Zuckenhammer and Wolf Rauffer

        Wolf Rauffer and Hans Zuckenhammer were captured in Bavaria. Wolf was a tailor and Hans a big, red-bearded blacksmith who perhaps got the name Zuckenhammer from the powerful way he could swing a hammer. While they were in the house of another smith, two constables came with drawn weapons, seized the brothers and struck Zuckenhammer so hard that the blood flowed. They tied up the brothers so tightly that Hans's hands turned black, but Wolf's ropes fell off and had to be tied again.

        Two priests came hurrying to dispute with them and later that day they were cross-examined in the judge's house, but as they held firmly to their witness they were taken to the castle. There they were put in cells, with both their feet in stocks. Hans was fastened with seven locks and Wolf with nine. The next day they were cross-examined again with threats of being burned with hot irons, but they did not give in.

        Orders came from the government to deal with the brothers with severity, but most of the local people did not want to have anything to do with it. They tried to transfer the case to another town, but that town would not accept it. Then they tried to send them to the bishop, but he did not want them either. The local priest would not come to their hearing because he knew they would remind him of the evil life he was leading. The warden, however, was furious with them, threatening them with torture, fire and the sword if they did not recant.

        He would have had them tortured and racked then and there, but his wife, who was Austrian and knew very well what our brothers represented, pleaded on their behalf, asking why he wanted to torture such people.

        In our country, she said, these people are the most skillful, hardworking, and faithful, the most liked and trusted workers in the house and on the farm. And God used her pleading to save the brothers from the rack.

        When the warden started threatening again, the ropes fell from brother Wolf's hands of their own accord for the second time

        The threatening and questioning went on for many weeks, and the learned men sent to convert the brothers found they had no answer for their clear witness. One of them ordered that Wolf should be released from the stocks and only held in prison. Later the bishop's chaplain had to agree that they were right about many points and said, 'I commend you for the way you fight for the kingdom of heaven.' Then behold, brother Wolf's ropes fell off for the third time!

        After three more weeks, an order for the brothers' release came from the bishop.

        After sixteen weeks of imprisonment and mortification of their flesh through hunger, they walked out of the town in broad daylight.

        Most of the people in the town were glad for the brothers' release, because they believed in their innocence. Thus Hans and Wolf were set free, since no reason for putting them to death could be found. That they were released was like a miracle from God in that place - no one could have foreseen that the authorities would release them of their own free will; this had never happened before in that area. It was an intervention from God.

        Both these brothers continued to go out on dangerous missions. Zuckenhammer was never captured again and in time became a servant of the Word. Sad to say, the strong smith, who had stood up so bravely under danger and suffering, was not able to stand up under this responsibility but became proud and domineering. He would not listen to his brothers or even to the elders, so after seventeen years the brotherhood decided he should give up his service and be disciplined. At first Hans's hot temper flared up and he rejected this judgment, but soon he calmed down, saw the justice of his discipline and repented. He was reaccepted in the church and was at peace with his brothers when he fell asleep in the Lord the next year.

        As for brother Wolf, six years after his release from prison he was again traveling in the mountains of Bavaria with two companions. They stopped at an inn for something to eat, praying before and after their meal. At once the innkeeper sent a message to the constable that he had Anabaptists in his house. Before he had finished counting the money the brothers gave him, the officers arrived and arrested all three brothers. After over three months in prison, when neither persuasion nor threats of death could make them waver from their faith, they were taken to the town hall. There the judge commanded the executioner to take them in charge, lead them to the place of execution, and there turn life into death with the sword. Not life into death, but death into life eternal!' responded brother Wolf.

        At the place of execution he said to his companions,

        Now, dear Georg, we take leave of each other, and of you too, dear Hans. Let us be joyful, for the Lord is with us.

        They began a resounding song in the market place. Brother Wolf praised and thanked God that the time had come for them to be tested.

        Wolf spoke once more to the executioner. My heart is not the least bit heavy, not the very least, and he laughed. If my brothers and my wife and children knew of this, they would rejoice for our sake, even though they might weep and mourn in the flesh. I pray that God will send someone to our community to convey our heartfelt farewell to all brothers and sisters, to our wives and children, and to all those we know. As he said this, brother Wolf walked to the place of execution. Georg and Hans were already inside the enclosure. He joined them and all three said a final, heartfelt farewell to each other, praying together in the enclosure.

        They were beheaded one after another. Their only request had been that someone should take an account of their joyful end to their brothers and sisters in Moravia, and this was done.

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Andreas Pürcher

        Although some brothers who were captured while on mission journeys were able, by God's help, to make very marvelous escapes, most had to pay for their witness with their lives, but they did it with joy, as we have seen with Wolf Rauffer and his companions. There was the tile-maker, Andreas Pürcher, who said it was enough for him if just one poor soul were converted to the truth through the shedding of his blood. The day was cloudy, but as he knelt down at the place of execution, a bright sunshine shone full on his face. He rejoiced and said,

        God be praised, thou dearest sun, that I may see you once again before my end. The executioner had drawn his sword and raised it for the first blow when the people shrieked at him to stop and implored Andreas to recant and save his life. But he refused and courageously laid his head on the block. The executioner beheaded him and he gave up his spirit peacefully.

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Christian Gasteiger

        The priests were so furious with brother Christian Gasteiger, whom they had not been able to sway after three months of arguing, that they spat in his face as he was being led out to die. The crowds watching were outraged at this and the executioner himself wiped the brother's face. When he reached the place of execution, he was so full of confidence in God that he leaped for joy, for he saw that the crown he was fighting to win was now very near. He remained steadfast and joyful to the end.

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Peter Saimer

        When the judge's staff was broken above the head of Peter Saimer (that was the sign of the death sentence), he gave a glad cry, saying he had only one head, but even if he had two or three, he would rather offer them all than renounce his faith.

        A great crowd was there at the execution. They wept bitterly, and many said it was a shame that he should die. As he was led to the block, he sang with joyful and confident heart. Then he knelt and made his last prayer to God in heaven, and while he was kneeling in prayer, the executioner beheaded him. As the head fell to the ground, it turned in a remarkable way so that the face was upward, and the people were filled with wonder.

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Georg Wenger

        Georg Wenger was captured in Tirol, near where Jakob Hutter had been born. When they tried to make him tell who his companions had been and who had given them shelter he said, 'We do not betray our enemies, who have wronged us. Am I to betray those who have done us good, or even my dear brothers? With God's help, no man will get that out of me. When they could not persuade him to tell, they brought out instruments of cruel torture and the warden said, 'If kindness will not move you, here is the instrument.' Georg answered, 'And here am I. God gave me healthy limbs, and to him I will sacrifice them. If I cannot escape with a good conscience, neither will I leave with a defiled heart.'

        Because of his firmness, this brother was tortured many times. He was put in a dungeon, chained to a wall full of scorpions and other vermin, so that he had to keep his head covered. The date for his execution was set several times, but each time something happened to prevent it. When he was finally led out to be executed, after more than a year of imprisonment and torture, he lifted up his hands in praise to God, who had given him grace and strength until now.

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Matthias Mair

        While brother Matthias Mair was in Switzerland, he was noticed one day by a priest coming from church.

        At once he told his cook to follow Matthias out of the village and get into conversation with him. She was to pretend that she was eager to go [to Moravia] and that others were coming to talk with him too. She kept him talking until the priest had time to send peasants after him, who seized him and took him to Baden. Six days later, on July 27, the ungodly band of priests brought about his death because he refused to renounce his faith as they had wanted.

        On the way to his death he asked his relatives, who were in the crowd, to ask his brothers and sisters to care for his wife and child. One of the relatives shouted encouragement to him, for which he received threats and a blow from behind.

        The executioner pushed brother Matthias into the water and pulled him out three or four times, to ask him if he would recant. He answered no for as long as he could speak. He was drowned on July 27, only six days after his arrest. Through God's power and might he remained steadfast in faith until his death.

        There was much talk about his death among high- and lowborn alike. They said it was murder, and they cried out for vengeance on the treacherous, Judas-like priest and on the town of Baden, for brother Matthias was known to be a truly God-fearing man. This is why God had given him fortitude to endure to the end.

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Heinrich Müller and Jacob Mändel

        When Heinrich Müller and Jacob Mändel were told they were to be killed, they said it was an even greater joy to them than celebrating a wedding.

        When they were led out, they spoke courageously to the great crowd that had gathered, admonishing them to repent from their sinful life and turn to God. The two brothers began to sing with overflowing hearts, lifting their voices in a lovely song of praise to the Lord. Those present told us that the people were startled and shaken to hear them sing together so joyfully. Many of that great gathering wept as they heard the singing; it touched their hearts that the brothers should have such an inner joy and peace in the very moment of meeting death. They sang until they came to the edge of the water where they were to be drowned. Then Heinrich said, My brother Jacob, we have traveled long and far together. So now, together still, let us pass through this temporal death into the life of the world beyond.

        Before their death they had sent a loving farewell to the whole church community, urging that each one should remain steadfast and true so that we might meet with joy in the other world, where thousands of the faithful await us.

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Michael Fischer

        The crowds became more and more sympathetic towards these brothers who could give their lives so joyfully, and the executioners more and more uneasy about killing them. In the case of Michael Fischer, who had walked with a quick step, willing and unafraid, to the place of execution, the executioner was so unnerved that he hardly managed to cut the brother's head off at all. Afterwards he was himself put in prison for his poor performance!

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Michael Hasel

        The weaver Michael Hasel gave his life in a different way. He died in the great fortress of Hohenwittlingen after being in the prison there for over four years, during which he had suffered great misery but had remained firm, faithful, and confident in the Lord. The warden in the castle said he had been a devout man, and if this brother did not get to heaven, he himself would not even dare to knock at the gates.

        After Michael's death a little book was found among his personal belongings. It contained Hutterian writings and songs, all beautifully handwritten, and was so small it could be carried hidden in his boot when he was on mission journeys. Copies of this little book are still treasured in Hutterian circles.

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Peter Walpot, Faithful Shepherd

        Much of the blossoming of the Hutterian communities during the Golden Years was due to the inspired leadership of Peter Walpot. He was one of the many brothers who had come from Tirol, and as a little boy of about eight he had seen Georg Blaurock burned at the stake. The fire of this martyrdom had kindled a flame in his heart that could not be put out by all the persecutions and hardships he had to endure with the rest of the faithful.

        By trade Walpot was a cloth-shearer, but when he was only twenty-four years old he was chosen as a servant of the Word. This task he had carried out with such dedication and wisdom for twenty-three years that when, in 1565, a new Vorsteher or chief elder was needed, the brotherhood felt guided by God to choose Peter Walpot as the shepherd for the whole Hutterian Church.

        We read in the Chronicle of the period that followed:

        After the Lord had purified his church in various ways, allowing it to experience all kinds of tribulation and poverty for years. God granted his people quiet times and rich blessings. For twenty years or more there was no general persecution except for a few incidents now and then. They lived in the land [Moravia] God had provided especially for them. Thus they gathered in peace and unity and preached the Word of God publicly. Twice a week, sometimes more often, they held meetings in which the communal, united prayer was offered to God, asking him for all the needs of the brotherhood and giving joyful thanks for all the good things they enjoyed.

        They practiced Christian community of goods as Christ taught it and lived it with his disciples and as the first apostolic church practiced it. Those who earlier had been rich or poor now shared one purse, one house, and one table. Swords and spears were forged into pruning knives, scythes, and other tools. There was no musket, saber, halberd, or any other weapon of defense. Each was a brother to the other. They were a thoroughly peaceful people who never took part in any war or bloodshed by paying war taxes, much less by active participation. They did not resort to revenge - patience was their weapon in all strife.

        They were subject to the authorities and obedient to them in all good works, in all things that were not against God, their faith, or their conscience. They paid their taxes, annual dues, interest, tithes, and customs, and they did their compulsory labor. They honored the governing authorities because of their divinely ordained office.

        Leadership was entrusted to the elders, men who guided the people with the Word of God by reading, teaching, and exhorting them through Scripture. They practiced admonition and reconciliation, putting right any mistakes and wrongdoings.

        Some men were carefully chosen to take charge of the management of temporal affairs. They made and received payments, provided for food and supplies, and did the buying and selling. Others were in charge of organizing the work, and sending each one to the job he knew and could do well. There were brothers charged with serving at table.

        Certain brothers were responsible for the school. Together with the sisters, they looked after the children and their needs in all areas.

        There was no usury, no buying and selling for gain. There was only honest labor to earn a living through the daily toil of those who worked as vinedressers and farmers in the vineyards, fields, and gardens.

        In short, no one was idle; each did what was required and what he was able to do, whatever he had been before - rich or poor, aristocrat or commoner. Even the priests who joined the community learned to work.

        Everyone, wherever he was, worked for the common good to supply the needs of all and to give help and support wherever it was needed. It was indeed a perfect body whose living, active members served one another.

        Think of the ingenious works of a clock, where one piece helps another to make it go, so that it serves its purpose. Or think of the bees, those useful little insects working together in their hive, some making wax, some honey, some fetching water, until their noble work of making sweet honey is done, not only for their own needs but enough to share with man. That is how it was among the brothers.

        There were all kinds of agricultural laborers, millers, carpenters, potters, cobblers, and workers in the many other crafts needed in that time of hand labor. For each kind of work careful rules were made to ensure excellence. Their fine pottery became famous and examples of it can still be seen in museums. Their doctors were so skilled that many of the nobility forgot their prejudices and asked their help. Even the emperor was cured by a Hutterian doctor after others had failed. Some preferred to have brothers rather than anyone else working for them and serving them, so there were not enough brothers in the land, since - because of their reliability everyone wanted them for his own benefit. But because of their religion they were always thought to be too many.

        Through the clear witness of the many missionaries who had been imprisoned and often put to death in all the neighboring countries, the brotherhood had become widely known.

        Moreover, emperors, kings, princes, lords, and those at their courts, especially in the German-speaking lands, became acquainted with the brotherhood's religion, teaching, faith, and life. They often came to see for themselves, and commoners came too, and learned that the communities were harmless and that the evil reports about the brothers were untrue. Many were convinced and praised them as a devout people that must have been established by God, otherwise it would have been impossible for so many to live together in unity.

        Peter Walpot realized how important children are, so that one of his first acts had been to speak to a meeting of schoolmasters. He emphasized that the upbringing of children should not be left just to the sisters, but should be shared by brothers as well. He laid down rules for cleanliness and health far in advance of the practices of that day. He pointed out the need to recognize individual differences and to find positive ways of keeping good discipline rather than just relying on using the rod.

        The principles that Waipot laid down became the foundation of Hutterian education and resulted in a school system designed to meet the needs of both younger and older children. Hans Arbeiter could truthfully write to the authorities from his prison cell,

        The lords are well acquainted with our way of life; they often bring other noblemen and ladies to look around our places, to visit our schools and our homes and see how and what our children eat and how they are looked after. Many are amazed at the high standard of our child care and at the good order they see everywhere.

        Walpot also realized the importance of understanding the foundations of their faith and of having a record of their history. In Neumühl, the Bruderhof where he lived, he gathered together the statements of faith given by many missionaries when on trial and also all the records of their experiences from the beginning of the Anabaptist movement. He appointed Kaspar Braitmichel to bring these together in a connected history, which became our Chronicle. Braitmichel had been one of the brothers who had been marched from Falkenstein to the sea and then had escaped. In the quarter of a century since, he had shared in the many hardships and persecutions of the Hutterian Church. Now, as an aging servant of the Word, he gave himself with enthusiasm to this new task. When he was no longer able to carry it on, it was taken up by others, brought up to date, and then faithfully continued as a record of important events right up to the present day.

        Under Walpot the Neumühl Bruderhof had become the heart of the whole Hutterian Church. There servants of the Word were appointed and confirmed and from it brothers were sent out on mission. Those who were held in prison poured out their hearts in letters to Walpot, letters often circulated among all the brotherhoods, and he wrote back many letters of advice and encouragement. The unity he had brought about among all the communities and the good order achieved in all aspects of their lives was so firmly established that it would continue even after he was gone.

        Toward the end of January, 1578, Peter Walpot fell ill. Although not yet sixty years old, he was exhausted by the hardships he had endured and the heavy responsibilities he had carried. At seven o'clock one morning he gathered all the elders around him, raising himself a little in his bed, and in spite of his weakness spoke to them with warmth and clarity. He entrusted the church to them, urging that they watch faithfully over it, for you know that it is no small task, but a mighty one, that the Lord has laid upon you. Let your special care be for the needy and the young and for the widows and orphans. He added, If I have ever hurt or offended anyone in any way, I ask for forgiveness. I can hardly speak anymore, I am so weak, but I am fully confident that the Lord will not abandon his church.

        Early in the morning of the next day, he fell asleep in the Lord. He had carried the service of the Word for thirty-six years, with responsibility for the whole church for the last thirteen years of that time. The Chronicle says of him: He was a faithful shepherd, an outstanding teacher, and a godly leader of the whole church; a man with much experience in all matters, who got along well with people, friendly and humble toward everyone, but stern when necessary. Above all, he was richly gifted by God with his Word and teaching, bringing great joy and strengthening to the church.

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The Storm Clouds Gather

        Although these Golden Years had been the most peaceful and prosperous in early Hutterian history, they were far from being free from difficulties. From time to time in Moravia and surrounding countries there would be times of drought when crops failed, resulting in shortages of food and very high prices. Three such times of serious famine are mentioned during this period. We read that never in people's memory had there been such a famine in Moravia as the one that came in 1569 and was at its worst for about two years.

        Throughout this long and difficult time, God so mercifully provided for his people that on the whole no one suffered severe privation in the true sense of the word, considering the serious conditions at that time.

        God provided through the diligence and foresight of the elders, servants of the Word, and servants for temporal affairs, who faithfully cared for his people. They were constantly trying to find ways to support and feed his church community, with its widows and orphans. They challenged the people to be grateful and shared out the church's resources faithfully, giving help and advice in a loving and brotherly way. And God gave us such a blessing and sufficiency that we were able to help other poor people in Moravia outside our communities. But we had to live very frugally compared with those times when we were certain to have bread on the table. In these difficult years the church was almost drained of its resources, and if the shortage had lasted any longer, there would have been great distress, since there were so many of us living together. But the Lord, who knows the right time, mercifully intervened. Praise and thanks be to him for all his help.

        Again in 1585 there was a great scarcity of food. In many communities they gathered less grain than they had sown and in some none at all.

        There was not even old grain to be had in the country; they had to buy grain and cart it all the way from Austria. The drought was so severe that the water dried up. In many places the livestock died of thirst and Iack of pasture, fodder, and straw. In our communities in Hungary they took the straw out of mattresses and used it for the cattle. Many people stripped the thatch from their roofs and cut up the straw to keep their cattle alive through the drought.

        This famine hit the church hard and was a time of testing, because our grain crop failed completely and everything had to be bought for cash. But God sustained us and brought us through. In the following year, 1586, there was a plentiful grain harvest. Praise be to God!

        In 1591 the famine was at its worst in the neighboring country of Bohemia, but so much grain was sent there from Moravia that there, too, food became scarce and prices high. But God had thought of his people and had given their elders such prudence that their bread supply was never low enough to cause actual want.

        During this period what is known as the Counter Reformation was taking place in the Catholic Church, when every effort was being made to win people back to the church by persuasion or by force. The Jesuits were particularly active in this and were often the ones most responsible for the torture and death of imprisoned brothers. In 1579 they came to Nikolsburg and with the support of its count forced the whole district to return to the Catholic Church.

        Our brothers on the Nikolsburg estates suffered greatly because they would not take their hats off to these Jesuits, who had made a point of demanding it, so insolent were they in their pride. Many brothers were knocked to the ground for not taking their hats off to the Jesuits. They even put our schoolmaster from Pergen in the stocks for two and a half days. His hands and feet were put in irons and in his mouth they tied a gag smeared with a bitter substance, because they had heard him say, They don't act like the religious people they claim to be.

        Our steward at Pergen was put in the dungeon in Nikolsburg for several days, in the cold of winter, on account of a boy who had joined the brothers and whose father was at Pergen, although the steward had no part in it. These Jesuits were always trying to find something against us and bringing complaints to the count. But we in no way gave in against our wills.

        After Peter Walpot had passed on, the brotherhood had been united in feeling that Hans Kräl, whose faithfulness had once been attested by the collar of his rotted shirt, should be chosen as the next shepherd of the whole church. He carried this responsibility with the same courage and devotion during this time of increasing difficulties.

        During the whole period of the Reformation and the Anabaptist movement, the power of the Turks was growing, causing terror in Europe. They repeatedly invaded and conquered parts of southeastern Europe, fighting with great cruelty, and the so-called Christian armies that fought against them were equally cruel and merciless. Any territory either army marched through was plundered and ravaged. In 1576 horses were taken by force from three Hutterian communities to be used for fighting in Hungary. Later some of them were returned, but in poor condition.

        Because armies and wars are expensive, new taxes began to be imposed. In 1579 a tax was imposed on every person over sixteen years old.

        We could not pay it as it was for war purposes, which is not in accord with our faith in Christ, who demands a peaceful people. So we were the object of much hostility from the lords in Moravia, who sent their servants to count the people in our houses and took the tax accordingly in oxen, cows, sheep, and other livestock. Some took it from what they owed us for our work. We could only lay it all before the Lord our God and rather suffer robbery than willingly give anything and defile our consciences.

        In one district the lord put a tax on everything that was made and when the brothers refused to pay it he furiously ordered them all to leave his estate within two weeks. They were all packed up ready to leave when he had second thoughts and asked them to stay.

        From this time on the question of war taxes plagued the Hutterian communities, but they held firmly to their position that it was against their consciences to pay them.

        We had explained this many times to the lords and stated clearly that we could never consent to pay. We were ready to give notice on their estates and suffer hardship rather than let them continue taking these taxes from us as they had been doing - because we refused to pay, they had been deducting them from what they owed us.

        In 1584 the Provincial Diet, the law-making assembly in Moravia, began to listen to the brothers and decided not to demand these taxes. However this lasted only six months and then the authorities again began taking their wages, supplies, or livestock for taxes. In 1589 the brothers had to leave a community where they had lived for many years. The lady of the estate would not pay us for the work we had done in her vineyard and wanted to deduct the war taxes from our wages. In the end she ordered us to leave and took our house away from us.

        Finally the authorities, tired of this endless struggle, in 1590 asked the brothers what they could do for the benefit of the country that was not against their consciences, and the brothers seriously considered this, as they wanted to pay their fair share for the support of the government. They assured the authorities, We would be willing to pay an annual sum on each house where we have a communal kitchen, as long as we can be assured that the money will be used profitably for the country and for people in need. We wish to offer our help in whatever serves a good cause. The Provincial Diet taxed them accordingly and at last there was peace on this issue.

        Other difficulties, however, only increased, and during the later years of this period more and more communities were forced to leave places where they had lived, often for many years. In one case it was because a sister, who was the housekeeper for the count over that region, refused to help with a wedding banquet, explaining, It would burden our consciences to assist at weddings and banquets where there is no thought of God, only indulgence in the lusts of the flesh, luxurious living, ostentation, and excessive eating and drinking. The count and countess were furious, and were further worked up by their chaplain, so that all the Hutterites had to leave the estate and could only sell at great loss what they had built up with so much toil. The count, however, regretted his actions soon enough. So much misfortune plagued the count with the new servants on his estate that we really pitied the old man. Several of his horses and other livestock died, and people said nothing would prosper again on the estate because of the guilt incurred toward us.

        In most instances the evictions were caused by the growing pressure to force everyone to return to the Catholic Church. This was the case in the Nikolsburg area where three communities had to leave the estate where they had served faithfully for over thirty years. Earlier they had left Sabatisch in Hungary, where they had been for thirty-five years, but after ten years the landowners begged them to return.

        In another case the brothers were forced off the estate before their contract had expired because the farm manager, to whom the contract was given by the landlord, was illiterate and did not know its value and had carelessly let it be destroyed. The greedy landlord took advantage of this situation to evict them from his land, robbing them of household goods, livestock, equipment, and unreaped grain. We had to bear with this and leave it in God's hands.

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The Ravages of the Turkish War

        In 1593 the war between the Turks and what was called The Holy Roman Empire began in Croatia. Although the fighting was still far to the south, the Hutterian communities in Moravia quickly felt its effects.

        Many soldiers passed through the country, taking horses, oxen, and other things. In Neumühl a brother called Heinrich, a smith, was shot to death through the gate. That was the beginning of a time of great tribulation. Therefore the elders of the church exhorted us in this time of need to persevere in prayer more fervently than ever. They agreed that whenever the servants of the Word could arrange it, any time of day or night, we should unite in prayer, humbly asking God to remember us and help us, for there is no one in the whole world upon whom we can rely; that even if we should suffer loss of temporal goods, he might keep our souls from harm and our people from suffering violence and dishonor; that he might protect us all - the widows and orphans, the many inexperienced young people, and our wives and children from the bloodthirsty tyrant, the enemy of Christ; that he might keep us from being dispersed or sold among the heathen, from being drawn into their blasphemous and unchristian way of life.

        Another immediate effect of the war came in new and higher taxes. As this tax was levied in wartime and we knew it would be used for bloodshed, for conscience sake we could not pay it. As a result, during this period we read over and over of livestock and other provisions being taken or wages being held back to make up for the taxes, often more than the taxes really amounted to. We suffered great loss during those years.

        Many people had the mistaken idea that the brothers had great wealth hidden away somewhere. In 1596 the emperor, now hard pressed for money, sent a letter demanding that they lend him a large sum of money. The elders wrote back a respectful letter explaining how hard it was for them to earn even a meager living with the high taxes already imposed on them, and how many children as well as old and sick people were dependant on them. All brothers agreed to this letter. They said they would rather accept whatever God might allow to happen than give away what belonged to widows and orphans. Perhaps the emperor was convinced they could not lend him the money, for he seems to have dropped his demands at this time.

        However a man who was plotting with others to get money for themselves came with a document demanding a large sum of money for the emperor and it cost the brothers much time and trouble to prove that this document was false. Then the guilty man begged them not to take revenge on him, which of course they did not do.

        Eight years later came another sharp demand that they give the emperor an even larger sum or else furnish horses and wagons. Again they wrote a similar letter, also pointing out how much they had lost by soldiers being quartered in their communities and horses and provisions being stolen. Yet in spite of our severe losses, the Provincial Diet still took so much from us that we did not have enough to feed ourselves. Again the emperor's demand was not pressed.

        During this whole time more and more of their livestock and other provisions were taken for taxes or to feed soldiers quartered among them.

        In addition, many horses were stolen by soldiers in different parts of the country. The great damage and the many expenses drained our resources. We were being harassed and plagued to such a degree that were it all written down, it would make very painful reading.

        Indeed the reading becomes more and more painful as we read of more and more pillaging by soldiers and cheating and theft even by the lords on whose estates they lived. They had to submit to this robbery and leave it all in God's hands.

        All this time the soldiers caused a great deal of trouble and anxiety for the brothers. Other people around, who accepted this trouble less peacefully, often fared even worse at the hands of the soldiers.

        On another occasion soldiers came to the market at Damborschitz with no friendly intent toward the townspeople. The brothers found it necessary to intervene, and they appeased the soldiers with their good will. The soldiers declared publicly that if it had not been for the brothers, they would have burned down the whole marketplace.

        Added to all their other troubles, there again came times of famine, and at the same time a disease that killed vast numbers of cattle, the like of which was almost unheard of. In many of our communities almost all the cows and oxen died.

        In previous times of famine (though it had never been so severe) the church of the Lord had been quite hard hit. Yet in this unusually serious situation we felt no marked effects, God alone be praised. For a short time we went without the mid-afternoon lunch; that was all. Otherwise our daily needs were provided as before. Compared with the suffering of others this was no privation.

        Some communities did not have enough to tide them over until the harvest, but brotherly love and Christian community were practiced through the elders' devotion and foresight - other communities stretched out a helping hand by contributing grain, flour, and other things. All the faithful pulled through together, and no one in the church community suffered real want.

        We were even able to help many others in need and so felt deeply how God's mercy and his strong hand were with his people. We can never thank him enough.

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Still Greater Suffering

        In 1605, in addition to the Turkish War, there came civil war in Hungary. The country was split into three parts and one of these even allied themselves with the Turks against the Holy Roman Empire.

        It so happened that the imperial troops in Hungary, who were on their way to fight the Turks (having already been at war with them for twelve years), clashed with the Hungarians, and there was violence on both sides. In the end, Hungarian troops reinforced by Turks and Tartars attacked Moravia and Austria in great numbers, robbing, murdering, burning, and carrying off prisoners, and leaving a trail of misery and destruction.

        Just before all this began, the church had held the Meal of Remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ in all communities in the peace and protection of the Almighty. Soon afterward the troubles began.

        Some towns surrendered to the advancing armies of Hungarians, Turks, and Tartars, and so did many Hungarian lords, on some of whose estates our brothers were living. The enemy drew closer and closer, and the burning, murdering, and pillaging began. The church had to undergo great privation and terror and untold anguish of heart, such as they had never heard of or suffered before.

        It began when the enemy made a night raid on Sabatisch on May 3. Through God's providence our people had fled into the woods, but two brothers who were still in the house were horribly tortured.

        On May 4, a great mob of Hungarian soldiers came and raided our community at Velke Leväre, mistreating and wounding many brothers and sisters so severely that some died. Then they flung into wagons everyone who had not escaped - wounded and unwounded, old and young forty-two people in all and took them away. This brought deep grief to all the church elders and all the children of God.

        But God provided a wonderful means of freeing - without ransom all those who had been carried off, and they returned to the church community. It happened like this: At this very time a brother named Hans Zwinckeberger a barber-surgeon, was in the town of Tyrnau. From a sister (who as one of the prisoners had been given to the commander) he learned where our people were. He pleaded with the lords of Tyrnau to help his unfortunate brothers and sisters who had been deported. Hans Zwinckeberger convinced the lords to accompany him straightaway to the camp of Ferencz Redey, Bocskay's colonel-general, to ask for a letter in his own hand and with his seal, stating that all those people should be released without ransom.

        When the lords of Tyrnau had gathered our people, they provided a strong escort as far as the March River. The brothers could not thank the lords enough, but above all they thanked the great and merciful God in heaven, source of every good gift.

        That same night there was a raid on Protzka. Although our people were still in the house, God prevented the enemy from entering until nearly all had escaped. Later, when the brothers and sisters were camping beside the March River, waiting for the ship to take them across, the enemy tried again to get them. But God frustrated their plans a second time. As the soldiers attempted to ride over the bridges, both by the mill and further upstream, they could not make a single horse cross over, however hard they tried. It was bright moonlight, and right in front of their eyes were the people they wanted to murder or carry off in their usual barbaric way. Although they did their utmost to force their horses over the bridges, they could not fight against the Lord God. They had to turn back furious at having to abandon the pursuit.

        And so the tragic tale goes on, with records of more and more raids in which brothers were murdered, sisters mistreated, and many taken prisoner. In some cases threatened raids were prevented in ways that seemed almost miraculous.

        The enemy, two thousand strong, gathered outside Rohatetz to make further raids into Moravia. But God did not allow it, for when they were coming by way of the Luschitz dam near Göding, three hundred German cavalry soldiers put them to flight in terror.

        On another occasion an army of four thousand was driven back by a much smaller force. So God, to whom all praise belongs, again drove the enemy back. By human reckoning this would have been impossible with so few men.

        Strong enemy forces advanced into Moravia even to the cherry orchard at Neurnühl. Neumühl was threatened many times, even by some Hungarian lords (so we heard) on whose estates our brothers were living. But God stood in their way, making them panic and take flight. After the war some Hungarians who had been there told our brothers that when they rode into Neumühl, the streets were full of people on horseback and on foot; yet everyone knows that there was no one in the streers at all, Let us give all honor to almighty God in heaven, who heard the prayers of his faithful, confused the sight of the enemy, and drove them back.

        Another time this large army was driven back by a relatively small number of cavalrymen.

        The captain of these cavalrymen, who was billeted in the brothers' house at Altenmarkt, said it had seemed impossible, but God had done the fighting. The same captain asked the brothers to hold zealously to the Word of God and to be diligent in prayer; then they would be doing their part, for during the battle he had thought of the brothers' prayers and had been greatly encouraged.

        There were twelve such terrible raids, lasting until August, and in many of them the Hutterian communities, along with the neighboring villages, had to experience the full horror of war between equally ruthless armies. We suffered violence from both sides.

        The situation in Moravia was desperate. Behind us was the enemy, devastating and murdering, and around and ahead of us were the soldiers, who were supposed to protect the country but in reality plundered at will. And when our brothers fled before the enemy, the peasants, including our neighbors, would break into our houses and plunder them.

        In some places the brothers were in great difficulties when no matter how great their need, our widows and orphans, women and children, were refused passage, as well as the food and drink they needed. Malicious lies, stemming from envy and hatred, were told against the church as if it were our fault that the enemy was attacking the country.

        The brutality and terror lasted three months. Sixteen communities, large and small (including eleven schools), were destroyed. All were robbed, torn down, and burned by the enemy.

        About 240 brothers, sisters, and children were taken from us as prisoners.

        The number of people murdered in all that terrible violence came to about eighty-one. Three of those killed were stewards.

        Most terrible of all was the way they ruthlessly carried off innocent little babies, thrown on the horses' backs with feet bound together and head hanging down. Many mothers had to witness that. There was much weeping and heartache for all the brothers and sisters and boys and girls who were carried off. Husbands were separated from their wives, wives from their husbands, parents from children, and one friend from another. Some had been born in the community, but some had come from other countries for the sake of faith and Christ's name. Now they were carried off to foreign lands and sold into slavery.

        The writer of the Chronicle admonishes:

        Every believer should always remember their misery as if he himself were suffering with those who were tortured and imprisoned, hungry and destitute, or driven with whips to heavy labor. We cannot describe the great inner pain and distress they suffered because they were deprived of hearing God's Word and deprived of the communal life. We know of this from dear brothers and sisters whom God in his mercy has freed from all that misery and brought back to the church. Honor, praise, and glory be to him in all eternity!

        Now, dear brothers, whom God out of pure grace has called from many places in the world to be his people in these last, evil days, let each one of you cherish this precious time of peace (once more granted through God's mercy) and this life together in love, beyond comparison with anything on earth. Here the zealous can receive teaching, the hungry bread, the thirsty drink, the sick a doctor, and the weak care and a place to rest. Here we can work in the light of day and are not locked up in darkness.

        Each one should make good use of his time and not waste even one hour, for we do not know what the almighty God still has in store for us. If one day any one of us should be deprived of his brothers and sisters, he will be able to draw strength from this time to help him overcome the mountain of sorrows and so attain the eternal crown of glory. Amen.

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War Ends but Suffering Continues

        This time of great suffering brought much heart-searching to the church and especially to some servants of the Word and servants of temporal affairs. They were asked if they had shown enough concern for their communities. In one instance a servant of temporal affairs had sent twenty-three strong young sisters into the harvest field against the advice of the Elder, Klaus Braidl. He thought he would be warned in time of the approach of the enemy by scouts he had sent out, but the army came too fast and the sisters were carried away captive. Those who were found guilty of such negligence and willfulness had to be excluded from the church, but after serious repentance were taken back.

        The problem remained of what to do about the captives. Should the church try to get them back by paying ransoms for them? The question was seriously considered whether this was God's will. It had never been thought right to ransom those who were imprisoned for their faith, but this was a different situation. Therefore it was agreed to help the prisoners by paying ransom or by doing whatever could be done. We could not desert them. The Turks or Hungarians set high prices.

        Every effort was made to get the captives back. John Hofer, in The History of the Hutterites, writes: Salomon Böger, a Hutterite miller, spent thirty-two months searching for his wife and child and any other captured Hutterites. Although his travels took him all over Turkey and as far as Constantinople, he found no trace of either his wife or child. He managed however, to recover six Hutterite women and two men. He never returned from his fifth trip.

        Of the 240 captives who were taken, through God's wonderful intervention, about ninety, both old and young, were later released and returned to the church, some as late as 1614. There was great rejoicing in the church, where they were received as a gift from the Lord, with praise and thanks. But there were about 150 of whom we heard no more.

        In September, 1606, peace was made between the government and the Hungarian rebels and on November 11 of that year peace was at last made with the Turks. Unfortunately that did not bring the troubles of the communities to an end, for the soldiers who had been fighting in Hungary marched back across Moravia, plundering as they went. Then rivalries for the Hungarian crown caused other movements of troops. The government also continued to confiscate their supplies to pay off their war debts.

        In the spring of 1608 the church was in great danger. At that time the provincial governor of Moravia was a papist nobleman. There were signs that the country would be overrun in a surprise attack to bring the whole population to the papist faith. Several troops of horsemen, recruited for this purpose under the leadership of two counts, arrived unexpectedly and noiselessly at Moskowitz. For two hours they surrounded our community and the entire village on their horses, expecting word from the said Lord Berka to begin the assault. Berka was away at Brünn and with his followers planned to attack the members of the Provincial Diet. The soldiers could hardly wait and thought this was the day for them to sate the malice of their evil hearts at the expense of poor widows and orphans. They made no secret of how they intended to deal with us and how they would lord it in our houses. The faithful were thrown into an agony of grief, for death and destruction seemed to stare them in the face. In deep humility they called upon the Lord in heaven to have mercy on his people (who trust in him and have no other help), to comfort and rescue them in their great need.

        The almighty God in heaven heard their sighing and pleading and came to his children with wonderful help. He frustrated the purposes of these ungodly men, for they received a message that was different from the one they had hoped for. They heard that all their plots had been betrayed and were known to the Provincial Diet at Brünn. Lord Berka, the provincial governor, was arrested, and their commander Count Monfertili with his four hundred cavalry soldiers turned tail and fled from Brünn.

        This news thoroughly alarmed the horsemen at Moskowitz, so they forgot all their eagerness. They were so terrified that they no longer wished to hurt anyone and, leaving food and drink untouched, fled headlong as if pursued and rode several miles that same day to the Bohemian border. With swiftness beyond all human comprehension, the almighty God rescued his people from the imminent danger and showed his might and power.

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Struggles With Landlords and Rulers

        War was not the only cause of distress to the Hutterian communities during this time. The Counter-Reformation, with its determination to bring all areas back into the Catholic Church, was growing stronger. The Lords of Nikolsburg, once protectors of Anabaptists, were now Catholics. Lord Maximilian von Dietrichstein, on whose estate two communities were located, began to demand such high rents that they could not pay them. When they tried to explain this he would not listen but ordered them off his estates. Since he allowed them to take or sell their possessions, they began to pack up and move. When he saw they were serious about leaving, then he changed his mind and was willing to let them pay the same rent as before, so they came back and stayed.

        The next year his brother, Lord Franz von Dietrichstein, became a bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. This made a fresh problem for the brothers, who felt it against their consciences to get involved with priests or Catholic affairs. Lord Franz asked them to stay on his estates and, since he had always treated them fairly, the Elder and Servants considered it. before God and decided they could continue to serve him just as a landlord. They wrote a letter explaining how they could serve only on his Nikolsburg estates and not on lands he held as bishop. When the cardinal received the letter he flew into a rage because they had not addressed him by his proper title of cardinal, but then he calmed down and again promised them good conditions if they would continue to serve him.

        This relationship caused many complications, for it was often unclear which of the many services the cardinal demanded were as their landlord and which were for the Catholic Church. When he ordered them to haul marble from Vienna to Nikolsburg in seven or eight wagons, each with four strong horses, the brothers felt it was against their consciences and

        refused. Then he flew into a great rage, harassed them in many ways, and threw some into prison. He made all sorts of false accusations against them and terrible threats, including having them shot. When he saw that we were prepared to suffer and would await whatever God permitted, he relented again. However it was only when the cardinal's brother, Lord Maximilian, took a hand in the matter that it was finally settled.

        Many lords began to take advantage of the unsettled times and the growing pressure against the Hutterian faith to demand more and more from the brothers who lived on their estates. One of the worst examples of this was Lord Bernhard at Frischau. He had invited the brothers to come to his estate and assured them of just and generous treatment both by solemn promises and in a written contract, so they had built a community there at their own expense.

        Lord Bernhard, however, did not keep his word but, as the years went on, oppressed us so harshly with excessive compulsory labor and other unfair arrangements that we were unable to cover the needs of our community or maintain our fields. But not only that, our people were often badly beaten and even unjustly imprisoned, and in wartime their horses were taken. Once a brother had his teeth knocked out and was treated so badly that he suffered from it all his life.

        We made frequent complaints to Lord Bernhard, telling him it was impossible to live there and endure such mistreatment. He declared he would improve matters and treat us well again, so we waited patiently, hoping things would change. But we had to wait many years.

        Conditions became even harder, and we had to do more compulsory labor than ever. Finally, after sixteen years of injustice we saw that the longer we stayed the worse it became. So we decided to tell him well in advance that we simply could not live under him any longer. But before giving notice we wanted to take the best things out of the house as a precaution, since we did not know what would happen in the end.

        Lord Bernhard, however, found out about our plans and appeared at our place with his lady and servants. No pity was shown to the old, the expectant mothers, or babies at the breast; they were driven out of the house by force and had to leave everything behind.

        Two mothers with tiny babies only two weeks old had to go, as well as eleven other children with their mothers. Any baby that happened not to be in his cradle had to be carried by his mother; the cradle was left behind. The mother was not allowed even a diaper for her child, let alone a cradle or anything else.

        If the sick did not leave their beds, they were thrown out. One married couple had been bedridden for twenty-one weeks, but even they were not spared. One brother was beaten to the ground like a dog and lay as if dead.

        The sisters in the laundry in their old, worn-out clothes were driven out with violence and not allowed to fetch other clothes. Those who did not leave fast enough were beaten as well. No pleading helped.

        They were driven out of their own houses with drawn swords, muskets, and clubs, accompanied by rude cursing.

        They had to leave their houses and farm buildings, their fields, meadows, gardens, and the stock. We got no wages for work we had done for him, nor the money and grain owed to the dairy workers, which was no small amount.

        We bear this devastating robbery in patience for God's sake. We leave it in God's hands.

        The community at Bochtitz had a similar experience, being driven out empty-handed after serving there for forty years. However a year later the brothers moved back to both these places because the lords persistently requested our return.

        In 1611 the brothers and sisters at Schadowitz packed up to leave the estate of Lord Albrecht. Because of his tyrannical, unchristian treatment of our people. He had thrown the steward into prison more than once for no reason at all - an old brother who was white-haired, bent, and ailing. There this brother had been put in the stocks with a chain round his body like a criminal. He was publicly mocked by being put in the pillory, where he was nearly strangled.

        Lord Albrecht had maliciously struck one of the elders, a servant of the Word, inflicting three wounds on his head. This was Adam Neyffer, then about seventy-seven years old and scarcely able to walk for age and weakness.

        The cellarer, an old gray-haired man, had also been beaten, as were other brothers working for Lord Albrecht, including the head smith. Lord Albrecht had burdened the community at Schadowitz beyond all reason, although it was already impoverished and unable to provide for itself. Because he refused to hear our complaints, we could endure it no longer but felt compelled to leave and take flight.

        When most things were moved and Lord Albrecht saw that we were in earnest, ready to leave house and home and risk everything rather than endure such oppression, he thought the matter over. He asked us not to move and said he was still a stranger in the country and did not know much about the brothers. In future he would live with us on better terms and no longer treat us so unjustly. He made very favorable offers and asked to be forgiven for what had happened; it would not happen again.

        After meeting many times to consider Lord Albrecht's good offers, which included a new contract, we agreed to try again to live at Schadowitz.

        Not all lords were unjust in their treatment of the brothers living on their estates. Some really befriended them and even pleaded with other landlords not to be so unjust. At one time many of the lords wanted to make an agreement for all to pay the same wages to all the

        Hutterites they employed, regardless of the contracts they had made, but other lords opposed it, so their plan failed. Once even the provincial governor intervened to get more just treatment for two communities. At one time when a community was moving from an estate where they were very badly treated, the old lord who had oppressed them died, and the young lord who had inherited it promised better treatment, so they stayed. The brothers also moved back to Sabatisch, from which they had been driven eight years before by the raids of soldiers and mobs, because the lords there had always befriended them.

        However there were many other instances of hateful and unjust treatment of the brothers by the lords, who beat and imprisoned them in revenge for any misfortune that might happen. An Austrian lord of Lutheran faith had employed a brother to look after his wine cellars and, contrary to his contract, expected him to look after 4290 casks in twenty-four wine cellars at five different places, castles, or market towns. Although he had given written assurance that neither the community nor the cellarer himself was to be held responsible for any damage in the course of his service, yet when some of the wine was found to be spoiled, which had probably happened even before the brother was hired, he demanded that the community pay a large sum to cover the loss. When they did not do it, the cellarer, his wife, and his children were put in the stocks like criminals and then put in prison.

        This merciless and unchristian lord had no compassion and was not moved by any appeals, spoken or written, from great princes and lords. In his arrogance he said that he would not release them even if the emperor commanded it. So the poor, innocent prisoners had to remain in prison until God the Lord would bring about their release.

        We humbly laid the grief of this great violence and injustice before God in heaven, the Judge of all. We prayed constantly for his fatherly compassion on their misery, as on all the wretched and oppressed. We implored that they be helped and sustained in accordance with his divine will and given patience in suffering, to the praise of his glorious name.

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Mission to Denmark

        In these troubled times, with so much need and suffering in their communities, it hardly seemed possible for any mission work to be done, yet brothers continued to go out on mission. In 1603 three brothers were on their way to Denmark when their ship was captured by subjects of the Swedish king and they were taken as prisoners to Sweden. The brothers frayed earnestly and after four days were released, for which they gave heartfelt praise to sod. When they got to Denmark they visited several people there but could not accomplish much since they did not know the language, so they returned home.

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Mission to Prussia

        That same year a group of elders went to Prussia to visit the Mennonites there. These Mennonites were divided among themselves into several groups that did not have fellowship with each other. Some were not happy about how things were going with them and showed an interest in joining the brothers, so the next year several families were sent to start a community in Prussia. They leased a farm for ten years, but the authorities were unfriendly and made all sorts of difficulties for them. The craftmen's guilds were also hostile and about a hundred apprentices threatened to burn their farm. Still worse, those who came to them did not show a good spirit, so the community in Prussia did not last long.

        In short, the dear brothers and sisters from Moravia had had a miserable time among them. Some who were supposed to be united with us had mocked our brothers and sisters for their simple clothing, saying they looked like gypsies.

        The move had cost the church a great deal in the way of goods and money but had borne little fruit for God. However a lesson had been learned.

        The church of the God-fearing, who glorify none but the crucified Christ, must guard against accepting such people without serious testing and must give them time to prove themselves.

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Mission to Swabia and Switzerland

        Brother Konrad Blossy, a servant of the Word, was traveling in Switzerland that year [1612] with three other brothers. In keeping with the task of the brotherhood, they were sent to gather God's people for his church. They were on their way back to the community, but brother Konrad had not taken to heart the warnings they had been given, and the brothers were captured in Swabia on the open road they were taken to the town of Vöhringen and all four were held in custody in the town hall.

        The first evening, the count's clerk and several other men came to the brothers in prison, gruffly demanding what business they had in the gracious lord's domain. They ordered someone to search them immediately and take whatever was found.

        This first search was not enough, however, and they were searched a second and a third time. Each brother had to strip to his undershirt, and every part of their clothing was carefully searched - even the seams. The soles of their shoes were also searched for money, for these wicked men were only out to rob, and they stole whatever they found on our brothers.

        Sad to say, a weak brother named Klaus Prändtel had been captured in the bishopric of Constance.

        The false prophets had induced him to recant and so misled him that he not only dared to blaspheme the divine truth (against his own heart and conscience) but also to betray brothers, especially those who were then in Switzerland and Swabia.

        He had told the authorities that brothers brought back money from Switzerland to Moravia, so,

        At that time there were spies in Swabia watching out for the brothers day and night, particularly in all the districts under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Constance. One of our doctors had been in the city of Zurich and in Swabia for over a year. God had blessed his work, and he had rendered good service to many prominent people with his medicines, especially during the epidemic in Zurich when eight thousand people died within a short time. He had made a lot of money. In addition, his faithful care had prompted the lords at Zurich to allow more than usual of the money inherited [by the brothers from Switzerland] to go out of the country to the church [in Moravia]. As a result brother Konrad Blossy had a large sum of money for the church. But all this was betrayed by the renegade Klaus Prandtel and taken from the church by robbery and violence.

        The four brothers were held in prison at Vöhringen for ten days. The priests came almost every day to the prison and did their utmost to convert the prisoners to their own false beliefs.

        Their efforts were fruitless, however, and they had to leave in shame, for the brothers showed the priests what sinful and ungodly lives they were leading and refused to listen to their alien voice. The clerk, the magistrate, and a doctor of theology also summoned the brothers several times and tried to confuse them and make them waver in their faith.

        Several days later they summoned brother Konrad by himself and asked him what he now thought. He told them, What I have said, I still say. I will not renounce my faith.

        Since you are so stubborn and refuse to be corrected, they said, we have orders from His Lordship, our gracious count, to burn you at the stake as a heretic. If you will only take our advice, we will show you mercy and spare your life, and we will take the consequences.

        Brother Konrad replied, I have told you many times that I will not renounce my faith, which is the true and right one, but will hold to it. I am in your power, and you can do with me whatever God allows. You can burn me, cut my head off, and tear my limbs apart, as you wish, but with God's help I will not weaken in my faith.

        They said, Then you must promise that if we should set you free, you will never return to the lands of our gracious lord.

        Brother Konrad answered, I cannot promise never to come back, for the earth and all that is in it belongs to the Lord in heaven.

        The clerk sent for the executioner and in fury ordered him to rack the brother until he was ready to obey.

        The executioner (who already had his tools out) took charge right away and bound brother Konrad's hands behind his back. He was about to take him to be tortured, but brother Konrad told them earnestly that he was unjustly imprisoned: he had harmed no one. He urged them to consider what they were doing. If you tear and destroy my body even though I am innocent, you will burden your souls with a heavy guilt, and on the last day you will have to account for it before God, who is a strict Judge. Truly, that will be very bitter.

        After this warning, the clerk ordered the executioner to release the prisoner and let him go on his way. But he warned brother Konrad, If you are ever caught again in my lord's territory, you will be treated very differently. And with that he let him go.

        The other three brothers were treated in a similar way. They defended their faith simply and truthfully, as God gave them wisdom, and refused to be frightened by the threats of ungodly men.

        So after ten days at Vöhringen they were released and escorted through the city in broad daylight, and they returned to the church community with good consciences. But they were forced (as said above) to leave behind all they were bringing to relieve the church's poverty, for it was stolen by ungodly men. They continued their journey empty-handed, with not so much as a penny to buy bread. But the Lord in heaven graciously provided for them so that they did not have to go hungry. He helped them return to the church in peace, praise be to him forevermore!

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Mission Along the Rhine

        Two other brothers, Wendel, a clothmaker, and Georg, a tailor, were captured for their faith in a city on the Rhine and were brought before the magistrate. He stormed at them, asking where they came from and why they had come to his gracious lord's territory to deceive and mislead people. The brothers replied that they had not come to mislead anyone, but rather to show the way to turn from evil to good.

        You're a fine pair! The magistrate said, I can tell from your feathers what kind of birds you are; it's a good thing we've got you. I know just how to deal with you. And he had them locked up separately right away.

        Each brother was questioned separately by Jesuit priests. At first they pretended friendship, making all sorts of fair promises of the benefits they and their families would enjoy if they returned to the Catholic faith and how they could live as good Christians among them.

        A fine Christian I would be if I followed your ways! answered Wendel. My brothers and I have done no harm to you or anyone - we have not so much as made a child unhappy, but you have us thrown into a dungeon as if we were the vilest thieves and murderers. When did Christ and his apostles ever do such a thing or command it to be done? They suffered imprisonment themselves and submitted to this kind of persecution from the world.

        The Jesuits treated brother Georg in the same way, trying to trip him up first with smooth, gentle words and then with rough, angry ones.

        They were returned to their separate cells and at the next questioning the Jesuits tried to make each brother believe that the other had recanted, but they refused to believe the lie. As they held firm to their faith, the Jesuits turned them over to the magistrate, saying of brother Wendel, He is very stubborn. He would sooner lose his life. These heretics are willing to suffer. Many have let themselves be killed for their faith, but they were heretics all the same.

        The magistrate demanded that he tell them who sent them out to mislead people. When Wendel refused, saying he had not been sent out to mislead anyone but to help people to turn from evil to good, the magistrate threatened, I'll have you racked so badly that you'll have to come out with it.

        The brother answered, My body is in your power. I hope to suffer in patience whatever God allows.

        He was sent back to prison and so was brother Georg when he gave the same sort of witness.

        A little later they were brought from prison and told by the magistrate that he had received orders from the bishop to have them beaten with rods and banished from the country.

        He said he would show mercy, however, and take the responsibility for releasing the brothers from the beating. He handed them over to the executioner to be put in the pillory for three hours, after which they were to be expelled from the country. He also told the executioner that since he knew the brothers would not swear oaths or confirm promises with a handshake, he should not force them to do so.

        So the executioner took charge of them. He bound their hands and fastened a heavy rope around their waists. Then he led them from the castle down to the courthouse and put them in the pillory in the public square. There they had to stand for over an hour.

        A great crowd of people had gathered. Some wept, full of sympathy because they realized the brothers had done nothing to deserve this. But most of them enjoyed the spectacle and mocked them. The brothers bore it all patiently and praised God that they were found worthy to suffer contempt for his name.

        After thirteen days of imprisonment, they were released, taken to the border of the Palatinate, and allowed to go their way. The bailiff escorted them and told the brothers how the Jesuits and the senechal had begged the magistrate not to have them beaten with rods. Earlier the brothers had seen the rods the executioner carried under his cloak, ready to beat them.

        Plainly both the Jesuits and the magistrate had been moved by the brothers' courageous witness.

        These two brothers returned to us, the Lord's church community, at peace and with clear consciences. The Lord's name be praised in all eternity.

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In Switzerland Again

        76.        On July 9, 1614, two brothers - Heinrich Bühler, a vinedresser, and Joachim Arter, a brewer were captured at Zurich in Switzerland and imprisoned there for fifteen weeks.

        On the third day several lords of the council came to them in prison and summoned each brother separately. They asked them what they were doing in the country - had they come to mislead the people?

        The brothers replied that they had letters and messages to deliver in Zurich and other places, but the main reason for their coming was that both had an inheritance to claim.

        A week later the warden of the dungeon was sent to the brothers with a message that the lords would release them if they promised to leave the country at once and never return.

        The brothers said that on no account could they do this as it was against their faith and conscience.

        After a few days the lords came once more to them in the prison and first rebuked them for obstinately refusing to see that they, the lords, wanted only the best for them.

        Then they accused the brothers of misleading people, despising governmental authority, and rejecting the Christian church, which meant that they were an evil sect and could not be tolerated in the country. The brothers told them quite simply that they had no intention of misleading anyone. They were sorry that so many people were already misled and imprisoned in sin.

        They said they wished to respect governmental authority, as God commands, and be obedient in all that is right, besides paying their rents, taxes, and tithes. But in anything that would be against their faith and conscience, they would obey God rather than men. Regarding the Christian church, they said they valued it so highly that they had left home and fatherland in their desire to join the true church.

        These answers so enraged the lords that they refused to listen any longer. They withdrew in indignation, threatening to send them to the galleys, put them in the pillory, or beat them with rods.

        The town clerk and the town constable in particular sought out the brothers and urged them to abandon their plans and obey the lords if they ever wanted to see their wives and children again.

        The brothers answered that their wives and children were in good hands, so they were not worried about them even if they were never to see them again in this life. They would wait patiently for whatever God ordained.

        For quite a long time after this, the lords neither came to the brothers nor did anything further about them.

        On the last day of the month of July, a violent and terrifying storm broke over the city of Zurich. The Wellenberg tower where the brothers were imprisoned was struck by lightning in three different places. The cathedral and the Spitalkirche were struck too.

        This event filled many people with great fear. They believed the storm was a punishment for their sins and for letting innocent men be kept in prison, because the brothers imprisoned in Wellenberg were completely unharmed. Some encouraged the brothers by saying that these happenings might lead to their release.

        Many others, however, especially the band of Calvinist ministers (before they knew that the great cathedral and the Spitalkirche had also been struck) put the worst interpretation on it, saying that in the storm God showed his displeasure with that sect - he was obviously punishing it, since the authorities were unwilling to do so.

        Within the next few weeks the lords came twice to the brothers in prison, each time with the question whether they had thought it over - were they ready to promise never again to enter the country?

        The brothers said they could not give such a promise, for the earth and all that is in it belongs to the Lord of heaven.

        They were again threatened with the galleys, the pillory, and beating with rods. One of the lords told them how terrible it would be in the galleys - they would certainly regret not having listened. The brothers replied that they would trust in God, whose eyes penetrate even into the depths of the sea.

        Try as they might, the lords could make no headway, for Heinrich and Joachim refused to give in. The brothers were taken from prison to the town hall, where the court official pointed out how extremely vexed the lords were by their obstinacy and their refusal to accept instruction.

        However, on account of the long imprisonment and the lightning that had struck the tower, it had already been decided that the brothers should return home to their people.

        Since the prisoners would neither swear nor even make a promise instead of an oath, the lords swore that if they were ever caught in their jurisdiction or territory again, they would receive very different treatment.

        Through God's intervention, the two brothers were released on Friday morning, October 24. After fifteen weeks in prison they returned to the church of the Lord with clear consciences and completely at peace. Let us praise God for this!

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Brothers in Bavaria

        Mission work was also going on in Bavaria. Two brothers, Marx, a cartwright, and Hansel, a tailor, were betrayed and captured. They were held in prison for fifteen weeks and during this time various methods were used to make them renounce their faith. Both the parish priest and Jesuits from another town tried to convert them.

        But the brothers were not to be swayed. They always answered according to the truth and simplicity of Christ, that with God's help they would remain true until the end to the faith he had shown them; even if enemies took their lives, they could not harm their souls.

        The false teaching of the priests was of no avail, so the executioner was ordered to try his skill. The brothers were severely racked twice and questioned under torture about who had given them lodging and whom they were intending to visit, but they refused to tell the priests, saying there was no need for them to know.

        Because the brothers would not be dissuaded, an order finally came from the government at Burghausen that they were to be executed with the sword, then burned.

        At the place of execution, brother Marx asked the executioner to behead brother Hansel first, and he did so. Then brother Marx said to all the many people present, God be praised, my brother has overcome! Marx was also executed and afterward both were burned.

        So as heroes of faith these two brothers gave witness to the truth, sealing it with their blood. Eternal praise be to God for giving them the strength.

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A Brother Who Never Saw Community

        On May 24 [1618] Jost Wilhelm, a well-to-do, God-fearing man, was sentenced to death and executed with the sword at Au in the Bregenzer Wald for the sake of his zeal and true Christian faith. Because he refused to turn from this faith that God had given him, he was cruelly imprisoned for almost a year, and so was his wife, who was also devout and longed to join the church.

        During that time the ungodly priests and false prophets tried in many ways to turn the prisoners away from their good intent in following the narrow way of life.

        When they could achieve nothing despite all efforts and persistence, they called their high priest, the executioner, to help them. He had brother Jost Wilhelm brutally racked twice, once leaving him stretched for an hour. After letting him down they brutally shoved him into a wooden shackle in the prison and did not come back till the following day.

        They tore and crippled his limbs so badly that he could no longer get his hand to his mouth. They wanted to know who else in Bregenz shared his faith and conviction, but he refused to give any information.

        He willingly endured the agony of torture, saying that Christ the Lord had suffered much more for mankind's sake.

        As they were about to pull him up on the rack, he warned his torturers that they should show the same mercy they wanted God the heavenly Father to show them on judgment day. He also said that he believed that if Christ the Lord were to come again on this earth in the same form as before, they (who claim to be Christians) would treat him worse than the Jews had done.

        He admonished the priests so severely about their shameful and ungodly lives. that they all left and did not want to speak with him again.

        Jost told them openly that if they released him, he would testify more zealously than ever against their false teaching and depravity and witness publicly to the divine truth.

        Just as he was being condemned to death and the rod was being broken over his head a terrifying hailstorm suddenly arose, and many people thought the last day had come. Almost all the people present wept that this innocent, God-fearing man should die.

        This valiant Christian and true fighter for God remained unshaken. He said he was glad to suffer for Christ's sake and bear his cross in patience. He told the people that they should also be prepared to face the same death. He praised God with all his heart that he could give his life for the divine truth and die the death of an upright man.

        When he reached the place of execution, he told the executioner to get his work done. The executioner said he was not yet ready. Brother Jost Wilhelm replied, But I am ready, and he thanked God again from the depth of his heart that his end was so near.

        When the moment came to kneel and meet his death, he looked with a smile on his lips toward one of his friends standing by him, thus conveying his joyful courage, steadfast faith, and trust in God.

        The priest from Au in the Bregenzer Wald (who had brother Jost Wilhelm imprisoned and so was responsible for his death) was at the execution. On returning home he was taken sick and died within ten days. This, many people believed, was God's punishment for the death of a devout and innocent man.

        Another priest from the parish in Egg, where brother Jost Wilhelm was executed, had often visited him in prison. He had learned so much of Jost's faith and had been so convinced in his heart by it that he not only pleaded against his execution but after he was executed wanted him buried in his churchyard. He said no other man there had been as devout as Jost. The priest was grieved by this innocent man's death.

        After the execution, a prominent member of the council who had been one of those to condemn Jost to death said that no one should grieve for Jost Wilhelm, for he was in heaven as surely as the Lord Christ himself.

        Brother Jost Wilhelm had never seen the Lord's church community with his own eyes. He had only heard of it - this spiritual Jerusalem and true church of Christ through its witnesses. Yet through God's grace, he was filled with an unshakable faith and confidence, and he fought to gain the blessed end: the baptism of blood and the martyr's crown of the faithful witnesses to Jesus. And Christ Jesus himself, the heavenly King, will crown him with this glorious crown upon Mount Zion.

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A Sister With Manful Determination

        This year, a woman in Bregenz named Christine Brünner, also on fire for the truth, had prepared to travel to the community where her daughter was. She was about to leave her house when the constable and the executioner's assistant arrested her unexpectedly. They took her to Egg, a village about two miles from the town of Bregenz. There she was

        severely racked six times to make her abandon her good resolve and betray those who had sheltered the brothers and shown them kindness. This she refused to do. She armed her woman's heart with manful determination and held faithfully and firmly to the truth God had shown her, even though she had not been baptized by water and had never seen the church community of the Lord with her own eyes.

        So, because of Satan's bloodthirsty hatred and envy, she, too, was condemned to death. She was executed with the sword on August 4 of this year, 1618.

        So powerfully did God the Lord show his might and grace in this simple woman that she reckoned all temporal suffering as of little account. Her short suffering will be repaid with everlasting joy.

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Tribulations in Moravia, 1618 - 1620

        Before the Hutterian communities could recover from all the losses and suffering of the Turkish Wars, there came a time of still greater distress in the terrible Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants. It started in Bohemia in 1618, when a Protestant leader there resorted to violence in protest against persecution by the Catholic emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Soon acts of brutality were being done on both sides. The struggle soon spread to Moravia, where Protestant lords took control and deposed the Catholics who had been ruling. In 1620 these Protestant lords asked the communities to supply people and money to help them in their war effort.

        Because it was against our faith and conscience, we refused outright, both verbally and in writing. It pained us that the lords should make such a request when we had lived so long on their estates in Moravia and they knew very well that we had never given any help during the Turkish wars. They accepted the elders' answer and declared that they did not wish to require anything of us that was against our faith and conscience.

        While the Protestant troops were away fighting elsewhere, the emperor sent in his troops to punish Moravia.

        This terrible and remorseless punishment fell most heavily on the church communities of the Lord, although they were innocent of all that was going on. They suffered incalculable damage and unspeakably great sorrow, trouble, and anxiety from robbery, murder, and fire at the hands of soldiers.

        The list of all the instances of violence is too long and painful to repeat. One community after another was plundered and burned, brothers were murdered, sisters abused, even children and babies killed. There was a little boy three or four years old who in his childlike way wanted to take his coat off and give it to the soldier so he would not hurt him, but the wicked man shot him all the same.

        This incident is typical of what happened many times:

        Our fugitives from Pribitz, trying to return home, had put their nursing mothers, their old, their sick, and all the children into the twelve wagons in which they had fled. Not far from the little village of Tillnitz on the other side of Menitz, they fell into the hands of the enemy, who shot down the three brothers in charge of the wagons. They scattered the sisters and children and hounded some into the swamp where they had to remain all night, not knowing in their terror how to escape. They were scattered so far and wide that they found their way together again only after three or four days. About forty horses were stolen along with the wagons and most of the household goods.

        The Moravian forces, numbering twelve thousand cavalry and foot soldiers, had encamped at Neumühl for almost two months and the Hungarians who numbered ten thousand or more, encamped there for a week. Anyone can imagine the amounts of the community's meat, wine, fat, beer, bread, flour, oats, hay, and many other things too numerous to list, that were consumed.

        Our community at Neumühl, which had been such a beautiful home for the brothers and sisters, was ravaged beyond belief. The gardens were devastated, the trees cut down, the fences torn up and burned, the whole year's produce from field and garden carried off, not to mention the great damage done secretly in the houses to the beds, the rooms, and the cellars - all this was done by those who should have been friends and protectors of our country.

        The enemy did not rest either but kept up the firing against us, louder and heavier than ever before. During the two months referred to above, they fired over three hundred rounds of iron cannonballs weighing eighteen and twenty-four pounds, some red-hot. These were aimed at the roofs in Neumühl and were meant to burn down the houses. But God protected us in his mercy: not only was nothing burned down, but not the slightest harm came to any of the brothers in Neumühl (although many were there the whole time), whereas it cost some of the soldiers their lives.

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The Chronicle summarizes the losses in 1619

        In these hard times, twelve of our communities were burned down and completely destroyed, including six schools. Seventeen communities were desolated through plunder. But our greatest heartache was that forty men and women were cruelly murdered.

        Two hundred horses and many oxen, cows, hogs, and sheep were stolen from the church, both at our communities and on the roads.

        The tremendous loss and damage to the church of the Lord in this year is beyond all description.

        There was no safety anywhere. The enemy attacked us in the north, then in the south, and finally all over the country. We had to flee from our houses, and we were not safe on the roads or footpaths, not even in the woods. We were in danger not only from the enemy but from the peasants, and in some places, when the enemy was gone, the peasants were even worse. Everyone was out to rob. There was no sparing of the old or sick, the mothers with newborn babies, or the young children. For many weeks we went with them from place to place through the woods and villages, suffering want, misery, and death. Reports of disaster followed thick one after another, and one depth of terror called to the next. It is impossible to overstate the depths of the need and pain we suffered. Many God-fearing people wished they might die rather than see the great misery of our poor little flocks. Many said they would be content with bread and water and would never stop thanking God if only they could remain peacefully under one roof.

        But from the beginning of the world, the almighty God has always helped his people in times of greatest need, when all human hope is gone. He faithfully did so now, and in his holy heaven he heard the unceasing, fervent pleading of his people. More than once he threw the enemy into such panic that even though no one was after them, they fled as if pursued by a great army. In spite of great tribulation, we were very much aware of the many ways God opposed the enemy or changed their fury to kindness toward the devout.

        In spite of all that the communities suffered from the armies and their commanders, they could still have a merciful heart for them when they were in need. We learn from a letter written by a commander that the prince of Saxony, who had been wounded in a battle near Nikolsburg, had been taken in by the brothers and, although he had been offered a room in Nikolsburg Castle, preferred to stay with the Hutterites, who were giving him good care.

        In the next year the war with its horrors spread even farther, but one bright spot is recorded.

        In June 1620, through God's protection despite the ever-present ravages of war, we were able to celebrate the Lord's Supper at thirteen communities in peace and with great thanksgiving.

        This year, too, we followed the example of our forefathers by sending out several brothers to various places in Germany. They went to seek those on fire for the truth and to call people to repentance. It amazed many people in Bohemia (where both hostile armies were encamped) as well as in Germany that our defenseless members set out in a time of such terrible danger, when scarcely anyone, whether of high or low estate, could travel in safety. But the Lord was their protector, and they relied on him alone. When their task was completed (through the intercession of his people), he led them home again in peace and safety.

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Communities in Flight, 1620 - 1621

        In November of 1620 came the Battle of White Mountain in Bohemia, in which the Protestant forces were defeated by the emperor. Then the ravaging of communities became even more terrible. Whole communities began to flee, those who could escape from communities in the north taking refuge with their brothers farther south. Before long these communities were also plundered and many people had to cross the border into Hungary. Over three thousand gathered at Sabatisch, but it was impossible for this small community to support them all, especially since a large number of soldiers were quartered there, so they were forced to cross the Little Carpathian Mountains.

        God in his wonderful intervention had prepared a place where they were received with respect and great sympathy for their plight and could buy food and drink at a reasonable price. But it was not what they were used to in the community; there was great lack of clothing and bed linen. As a result of the terror, hunger, and cold they had suffered because of those wicked people, and perhaps still more as a result of God's hand lying heavy on us, the Hungarian sickness broke out among the fugitives. So many were lying ill that they were unable to take proper care of one another. Consequently, five hundred people died within a short time at our various places on the other side of the Little Carpathians.

        The distress and misery already described continued into the year 1621. It was an evil year, full of anguish.

        On April 23 the entire Polish army, which had committed such wicked atrocities in Hungary, arrived at Schakwitz. They numbered over three thousand men. For ten days they made themselves at home in our community and in the village. They consumed almost everything we had in the community and took what they pleased. But in spite of their fiendish, ungodly behavior elsewhere, they had some compassion on us when they saw our honesty and goodwill. Their commander in particular gave us enough protection to prevent anyone from being assaulted or injured, and even allowed most brothers and sisters to continue living in their own homes. The soldiers also told some of us that if they had known what kind of people we were, they would not have treated us so cruelly at Pribitz. While they were quartered in the village at Schakwitz, a fire broke out and the Polish soldiers ran straight to our community to help put the fire out as diligently as if the house had been their own. They even sent a brother and one of their soldiers to ride full speed to Neumühl, asking for brothers from there to help save the building. So everything is possible for our God.

        On May 22 General Hans Breuner had come down to Pausram with a complete regiment of infantry and several detachments of cavalry. They had seized whatever they wanted from our workshops and from other places in the community. The general himself had given away the brothers' wine as booty. There were seven barrels of it, all of which was drunk in half a day, and as a result there had been considerable mischief. From Pausram these soldiers had made for Neumühl to work off their wild spirits and make a big raid. They had said publicly that the general was going to let them plunder Neumühl all they wanted. They had been so eager to get to Neumühl that they did not even take time to eat or drink on the way, and the people at Neumühl had been in terror of their coming. But when the general arrived in advance with some of the cavalry and found the people friendly and respectful, God changed his heart. At once the general sent orders to the approaching infantry to turn off behind the Neumühl cherry orchard and march through the corn fields to Saitz. His soldiers were disgusted at the order. So once more God averted disaster from our community at Neumühl.

        During this dangerous time Cardinal von Dietrichstein discovered that a ten-year-old boy in the community at Nikolsburg was studying a writing against the papacy which his teacher had unwisely given him. For this, both the school-master and the boy were put in prison for over four months.

        So this year of 1621 ran its course of misery and cruelty. During this year one third of the people in the communities met their death. The nightmare continued into the following year.

        On January 4 the imperial army turned toward the communities more ungodly and brutal than ever. they stripped brothers and sisters and even schoolchildren to their undershirts - some even stark naked - and drove them out of the house into the cold of winter. The plundering and robbery went on for several days until a French cavalry captain arrived, who took our people under his protection.

        Often at times of greatest fear and need, God provided a merciful way out, beyond all human comprehension. He prompted generals completely unknown to us - generals of foreign nations and languages to take us under their protection. When they saw how inhumanly we were treated despite the fact that we were people of goodwill, they gave us protection in preference to many of our countrymen. Many were amazed at our ordered way of life and were full of sympathy for the ordeals and losses we suffered.

        It is impossible to record all the inhuman savagery vented on us and other people during this ungodly, cursed war. Anyone who has not himself known the anguish of hearing and seeing it all would not believe that a man who claims to be a Christian can commit acts so vile and devilish.

        May God, into whose hands we entrust all judgment, open their eyes.

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Tears and Treasure Hunts, 1621 - 1622

        The faithful chief elder of the church, Ulrich Jaussling, exhausted by all the hardships and anxieties of the time, departed from this vale of tears, leaving the church without a shepherd. Only after four weeks could the elders get together to choose another, Rudolf Hirzel. By means of an ugly plot this new elder and two of his assistants were captured and imprisoned. After five weeks the cardinal came to talk to them. He said the emperor knew the communities had large amounts of money hidden and that there was great danger that the money would be seized by the other army, so he urged Rudolf to tell him where it was.

        The cardinal swore to them by God's honor and truth and as surely as day was day that the money would not be taken. At the same time he threatened terrible consequences if His Majesty's word was not trusted and the whereabouts of the money not revealed. He already had imperial command to exterminate our entire church: he would slaughter the men and send the women and children as bondservants to towns throughout Moravia. If we did not believe it, he would start the very next morning at Nikolsburg and Neumühi.

        These threats reduced Rudolf to a state of terror for he did not trust the Lord in heaven enough in this affair and he admitted that he knew of five places where money was buried, shown him in trust.

        Then began a great treasure hunt, for the deceitful cardinal and his helpers started to dig for the money that the elders had at great sacrifice saved to take care of emergencies in the church. In one place they found it the first day, in another after a week, but in two others they could not find anything at all. In the fifth community, the wicked Allanz arrived, hoping to win great acclaim by discovering money. He appeared unannounced at Stiegnitz with four wagons and several mounted soldiers and musketeers. He had ordered peasants to come and dig. So he went with the peasants into our farmyard at Stiegnitz, where many years before a woodcutter's hut had stood and there still remained an earthen floor and a walled-up window. There the peasants were set to dig as part of their compulsory labor service.

        When they had dug down about a man's, height they came on a piece of wood or a board. Allanz was overjoyed. He had the wagon brought to the spot and had someone clean out the chest he intended for the money. But his joy was short-lived; there was nothing but the one wooden board. The peasants had to dig deeper, because Allanz said he had been told that money was sure to be there, so it must be there unless the devil had made off with it. After they had dug and searched for a long time, they finally hit an iron wedge that had somehow got into the ground. That was all the treasure any of them found. So that liar Allanz went away empty-handed, to the delight of many of our neighbors.

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Expelled From Moravia, 1622 - 1623

        In 1622 the cardinal complained to the emperor that the brothers were rebels, enemies of His Majesty, and had caused him nothing but trouble during the war.

        Through this false accusation the cardinal gained the power his malicious heart desired; he received authority from the emperor to drive our whole church out of Moravia. He wasted no time in carrying out his commission - and even more. Two days after his return from Vienna he made a start on his own properties at Nikolsburg. Without warning, he sent his officials and soldiers to these three communities on one day and had all the rooms, cellars, grain lofts, flour lofts, attics, and bedrooms sealed off, so no one could enter his own room. Soldiers were set to watch the houses. Then the people were called together and an imperial document was read to them: Neither they nor their fellows in faith were to be tolerated any longer, not only in Moravia but in any country under the emperor's power. Even in Transylvania they would not be safe but would be a people marked for death. Those, however, who would renounce their error and let themselves be taught by the priests and Jesuits were to remain in their homes, have the use of their property, and like all the other subjects in the country, receive the protection and favor of emperor and cardinal.

        Following this, each of our people had to declare individually whether or not he would comply. Already at that point 230 people, young and old, from those three communities on the cardinal's land shrank back from Christ's bitter way of suffering.

        But most declared that theirs was the right faith, the truth, and the way to eternal life; come life, come death, they would not give way.

        On all three places our people were forbidden to take even the little they could carry, and no tools at all. All livestock and whatever was in the houses, fields, or vineyards had to be left behind. They also stripped some brothers and sisters. The lord cardinal's servants searched for money in garments and shoe soles. The adz was withheld from the carpenter and the shears from the tailor. The faithful service we had given the cardinal, all the hard work over many years, was repaid with crass ingratitude.

        Winter was already upon us, and we did not know where we could possibly house our needy flock of so many thousands of souls. Humble appeals were made to the cardinal and other officials and even to the emperor. But we were denied all mercy by the emperor.

        Thereupon the persecution for our faith and witness to Christ intensified. They were driven empty-handed from many more communities.

        But in several places people managed, even with the help of some soldiers, to get away secretly with some clothing and bed linen. A few lords, knowing we were innocent, wanted to show us sympathy and allowed us to take some of our goods. But often the transport cost almost as much as the things were worth. The damage the church suffered for the sake of truth in this persecution is beyond all description.

        We had to leave Moravia and go into Hungary practically empty-handed. Winter was approaching, and it was a difficult time, when everything was very expensive. Because of our great poverty, many of our people suffered. A large number had gathered, and there was very little food. Yet the elders, and especially Valentin Winter, Vorsteher of the whole church, did not spare any effort but did their utmost day and night to obtain bread and shelter. God moved the hearts of many Hungarian lords, with the result that they were glad to take our people in. They were even upset if we did not settle on their estates.

        The great famine in Hungary, worse than any ever recorded in history books or chronicles, hit the church of God especially hard.

        Yet in these days of famine the peasants in our areas provided bread for the people of God's church, and so (thanks be to God) no one had to starve. Through God's grace, in the midst of the misery and distress we were far better off than our enemies would have expected. The Lord in heaven, who never abandons his children, mercifully helps us through, even in the greatest fear and need.

        Thus in the cold and near-famine conditions of that winter, in spite of poverty and many obstacles, our communities began anew in Hungary.

        During this time one event happened which seemed painful at the time, but more than a century later proved to be an act of Divine providence. The king of Hungary, who was also prince of Transylvania, wanted Hutterian workers on his estate in Transylvania, but none wanted to move so far away from the rest of the church. When he could not persuade them to go, he just had a group of 185 brothers, sisters, and children, including a servant of the word and a steward, loaded into wagons and taken into Transylvania, where they were settled at Alwinz. Through God's providence, they were treated with much kindness by people who were strangers to them, both on the way and in Transylvania.

        A song was written about this experience which contains this prayer:

        Lord God, you have taken us from your church and its shepherds and led us afar into a strange land, where some of us do not have your Word and your comfort. 0 Lord, let us not perish, give us courage through your power. Let us not be faced with great temptation; uphold us with your Word. We will praise you and honor you from now on for all your goodness and praise your name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

        We will only find out much later what happened as a result of this forced move. 

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Continuing Tribulation in Hungary, 1623-1624

        The communities that had found refuge in Hungary hoped now for a time of peace and building up, and for a little while it seemed that this might be given, but in the fall of 1623 the imperial army moved into Hungary.

        This proved a disastrous time for the church as well as for other people in the country. Several farmsteads and houses we were occupying were burned to the ground by foreign troops, and most of the others were pillaged. In several places where we had taken flight to the woods, the local people stole from our houses and fields anything the soldiers had left. The ravages of this war reduced many of our people to destitution and cost many their lives. 

        On the other side, the Protestant king of Hungary, who was supposed to be protecting his people from the soldiers of the Catholic emperor, had hired foreign troops, many of them Turks and Tartars, who pillaged and plundered the country even more terribly.

        On Saturday, October 21, at ten in the morning, a new tragedy befell the church. All our people from Sabatisch, with the old, the sick, and the children, had fled to the mountain on which Branc Castle is situated, because on that day a great horde of Turks and Tartars were crossing the Little Carpathians. Some makeshift huts and shelters that had been erected on the mountain for people and animals were set on fire through the carelessness of a slovenly neighbor from Sabatisch, who had his hut right next to ours outside the palisade. The church lost all kinds of commodities, such as cloth, linen, wool, salt, lard, and other expensive items to the value of several thousand gulden, but above all thirty-one of our people met an agonizing death in the fire. Because the flames blazed so fiercely, driven by a tremendous wind, they were not able to help each other or to save anything from the fire. Within fifteen minutes everything was alight, and almost everything was destroyed. The pain and shock was greater than any the community had ever known. We laid the misery of our plight before the Lord in heaven, who brings true comfort to souls that trust in him.

        That same day, the Turks and Tartars who were moving through the country set fire to the buildings on the Senitz estate, where our people Iived, and also burned down Lord Emmerich Czobor's castle at Egbell, which we had rented on a three-year lease. We had lived in the castle for less than a year, and the church suffered great losses there, yet poor as we were, we had to pay a year's rent.

        On October 24 the place we were renting at St. Johannes was pillaged by the Turks and Tartars. Several brothers were stripped and severely beaten, and a poor, ailing sister named Eva was dragged from the sick room and carried off.

        On November 1, All Saints' Day, while the imperial army was under heavy siege from Prince Bethlen at Göding and most of the Turks and Tartars were encamped on this side of the March River, a great number of these barbarians attacked Sabatisch. In spite of all our kindness to them, they tried to force their way into our houses. They rode around our place for two hours with wild shrieks and bloodcurdling yells, then set fire to the village close by. Those who ran from the house in terror of the flames fled with their belongings up a stream to a neighbor's garden and were robbed there by soldiers. The soldiers carried off two fourteen-year-old girls and stole three horses. To this day we have heard nothing about these young girls. There was intense fear and distress, piteous sobbing and wailing from young and old, for the enemy and the fire on all sides was like a nightmare. But the almighty God, who can do all things, intervened, so the outcome was far better and more merciful than we expected, since those who remained in the house were not harmed in the least. All honor be to God alone.

        On November 4, during the siege of Göding described above, our people of St. Johannes suffered the worst disaster of all. They were encamped in the wood, hoping they were safe from the enemy, when a band of Turks and Tartars suddenly broke in upon them. They not only robbed them but seized twenty-six people - by far the greatest grief to us. Sisters and children were ruthlessly carried off, weeping and crying out in distress.

        We did all that we could to get them released. At the risk of our lives, we approached Prince Bethlen and his councillors and even the Turkish Pasha himself, offering ransom as we had done previously, but there was no way at all to free them from the power of these barbarous people. Only two sisters escaped from the Turkish camp at Skalitz with intense danger to their lives. One of them, to her intense pain, had to leave her child behind.

        They returned to the church in peace, with unblemished consciences. The other twenty-four captives, including sister Eva. had to endure the anguish of going into slavery among the Mohammedans. It is our hope that the Lord will have released many of them from this great misery, letting them die from lack of food and the bitter cold of winter.

        The looting and destruction by both armies went on and on.

        As a result of this wicked war, the church lost altogether sixty-nine souls in October and November of this year 1623. They were taken captive or killed by fire or the sword. Thirty souls, young and old, are still missing, most of them women and girls. We entrust them to the Lord in heaven, who can free them from all distress and turn their days of sorrow into everlasting joy.

        We read later how, through God's wonderful intervention, two sisters who had been taken captive by the Turks returned to the church. They had been in captivity in Ofen (Buda) for two and a half years, during which they endured brutal treatment and abuse against their will. They came back to the church with unharmed consciences. Praise and thanks be to God Almighty in all eternity for freeing them from this Mohammedan bondage and keeping them firm in faith.

        On November 21 another community was burned to the ground.

        So the church - already desperately poor suffered immense and irreplaceable losses in many communities through pillage, robbery, fires, and other ordeals that have been only briefly recorded. Then, as if that were not enough, at a time when we had little housing or food for man or beast, there came an extremely severe winter with some forty snowfalls, the worst in living memory. The first snow stayed on the ground for over three months. There was so much snow in the whole country that all the ditches and deep lanes were filled and the fences covered. The result was one level expanse, and in some places it was impossible to travel.

        As a result, food became very scarce and expensive. Yet the Lord in heaven always provided for us, so we cannot thank him enough for his gifts.

        The severe winter ruined the beautiful winter grain, especially the rye. In many places both in our own and other areas there were wide fields with nothing to cut, and only in a very few could enough be gathered for seed.

        The faithful would have suffered greatly from hunger and lack of bread if the almighty God, who knows best in everything, had not allowed the summer crops, grapes, and other fruit to grow plentifully in this ill-fated year of 1624. We ground barley, millet, oats, buckwheat, peas, and lentils together to bake bread.

        We have every reason to thank God our life long for graciously helping us through the long, lean times and providing us with our humble share.

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Persecution and Plundering in Hungary and Transylvania, 1625 - 1648

        Some of the lords in Moravia had ignored the order to expel the Hutterian brothers or had invited them back again, but in 1625, at Cardinal von Dietrichstein's instigation, a new decree and strict mandate was issued in Moravia and Austria in the name of Emperor Ferdinand II. It stated once again that anyone belonging to our church and brotherhood who refused to become Roman Catholic was to leave these countries and not be seen there. on pain of death.

        So against their will these lords turned us out of their farms, mills, and all other services.

        The cardinal even seized two children, boys about two and ten years old, and baptized them, giving them different names. The poor parents suffered the anguish and heartbreak of being robbed of their dear children.

        The lord cardinal, this bitter enemy of the faithful, had arranged a meeting of the Provincial Diet at Olmfltz and wanted to aim his arrows with all their force against the church. Then the Lord God let him hear the tumult of his enemies, the storm of approaching war, and immediately he had to postpone the persecution he had planned. The Diet broke up with nothing decided, for it was the will of the Lord our faithful God, who does nothing without good cause, that this evil against his people should be frustrated.

        During the spring and summer of the year 1626 the church community had quite a long respite from the dangers of war and other troubles. All kinds of summer crops thrived and provided plenty of food. This lasted till fall.

        In September the imperial general, Albrecht von Wallenstein, advanced unexpectedly into this country of Hungary with a great army of about fifty thousand infantry and cavalry and many large pieces of artillery. He encamped along several miles of the road on this side of the Waag River. (Prince Bethlen was encamped on the other side, also with a very large force of Hungarians, Turks, and. Germans.)

        It lasted four months, however, right into the cold of winter, and most of our places on both sides of the mountains were again sacked by imperial soldiers. Much of the food that we had sweated to grow and harvest was carried off.

        On September 11 a large band of cavalry made a raid on Dechtitz and plundered our houses from top to bottom.

        On September 12 several hundred cavalry came to Dechtitz and once more searched every corner, taking whatever they found. 

        That same day a few hundred of the cavalry soldiers and a large number of dragoons made a raid right into the village and even as far as Gutwasser Castle.

        Our people from Dechtitz had fled to the castle along with other country folk and taken shelter behind some ancient walls, also known as the old fortress. So this ungodly rabble fell on them too, filling them with dread, for most of our people expected nothing but death. But there can be no doubt that God the Almighty heard their fervent prayers and helped them to escape. Not one life was lost and the sisters' honor was saved. All praise to the Lord in heaven, who rescued them from their enemies' hands. God's help was powerfully felt when so many of our sisters jumped from the high walls to save their honor and not one of them was hurt, which is incredible from a human point of view.

        The weeks from early September until the end of the year were full of fear and misery. The entire community had to flee from one place to another during those four winter months - women and children, the old and the sick. We did not have enough food or drink. We suffered cold and privation and even death. Yet we were glad and deeply thankful to God that our houses were left standing, which meant that we did have shelter from the bitter winter [when we returned]. In other ways, too, we felt God's bountiful help, for however savage and tyrannical the soldiers were elsewhere to the extent that even some lords and nobles dared not risk being seen - they were often friendly and even protective toward us. All praise to the Lord in heaven!

        In the quarter of a century that followed, with the opposing Catholic and Protestant forces sweeping back and forth across Hungary and Transylvania, the same tragic pattern of looting, burning, murdering, and taking captive, accompanied by famine and plague, continued with painful monotony.

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Fire was often the cause of great loss and suffering

        In 1627 On May 14 the church suffered another blow when fire broke out in our community at Tschäskowitz. no one knew how it started. The brothers' house was completely destroyed, and eight barrels of flour and a horse were burned. Twenty-four houses in the village were also burned down, and the brotherhood was more concerned about the peasants' houses than about their own great loss.

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Another time

        On September 1 [1630] a fire broke out at the mill in Dechtitz, where our miller was employed by the lord. Our people were at the Sunday morning meeting. The roof and all the barns were burned, a great loss for the church, as we had to rebuild it all for the lord at great cost. We also had to pay damages to the Slovakian clothmakers who had some lengths of cloth in the mill for fulling and storage - everything was burned and we had to pay for it. One miller even lost a child in the fire. So let us be careful with fire.

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Worst of all

        On March 27, 1636, at eight in the morning, a fire broke out at Sabatisch in the house of our neighbor. opposite our threshing yard. More than sixty houses in the village, ours included, were burned to the ground. In spite of every effort to control the fire, within fifteen minutes everything was in flames because of the wind. Not a roof was left to shelter so much as one person. Fire fighting was of no use. Because of the terrible wind, people could not escape fast enough, and nine lost their lives.

        Even with the greatest haste, we were barely able to rescue the children from the school. We suffered severe losses of grain and flour, household utensils, livestock, and all kinds of tools and provisions. It was beyond description - nothing was left.

        The elders were in great distress and took counsel how to find shelter for their people. They thought to divide them among other communities and even wanted to leave their land and the site of the fire to go elsewhere.

        Dear brother Heinrich Hartmann sent to all the lords of Branc, telling them of the terrible situation and the terrible damage. He asked them to release us so that we could care for the people elsewhere, since everyone considered it impossible to rebuild the community to its former state. The lords had great sympathy and offered help and materials, such as wood for building; they did not want us to leave. Lord Ludwig Niary was particularly compassionate. The fire had not spread to his castle, and in the moment of our greatest need he sent to the field where our people and children, who had fled from the fire, were out in the cold wind, not knowing where to go. He had them brought to the castle and opened all the rooms to them, putting up as many as possible until enough rebuilding had been done to provide housing for them. The nobles and the entire neighborhood at Sabatisch also helped as much as they could, taking our people into their houses and providing for them as long as there was need. In neighboring villages, particularly at Senitz, great sympathy was shown. Some of the nobility and others sent bread and food from their kitchens and showed us kindness in many ways.

        We saw it as a special grace of God that we could still count on our neighbors to such an extent. The elders heard the generous offer of the lords and their promise to help us with wood and other building materials, and they saw the neighbors' friendliness and help. They also took into consideration that we had lived at Sabatisch for more than ninety years, and although these years had not been without difficulties with the lords, the church had met with much kindness and often been given shelter, for example, when we moved from Moravia to Sabatisch on the Branc estate and when we fled in wartime.

        With all this in mind, the elders decided that if the lords would help us and relieve us of all compulsory labor, taxes, and other demands for two or three years, we would undertake to rebuild at the site of the fire. As a result, the lords made a new agreement with the brothers and drew up a new contract, freeing them from all taxes and compulsory labor for two years.

        Building was begun. The old, the sick, and the children were divided among the other communities. Most of those who were strong and in good health were needed for the building. So much building was done that summer with the help of other communities that by winter almost all could be accommodated. May God in his grace protect us in times to come from such misfortune and damage.

        This was not their last such misfortune, however.

        On May 9 [16431 at about one o'clock in the afternoon, a fire broke out in a neighbor's house in the marketplace at Sabatisch. Our place burned down again along with the whole marketplace, except for the church and a few small houses. Because of the fierce wind and the smoke and dust, no one could put out the fire or save anything. It is not hard to imagine what a great loss this was for the church. We accepted it in patience and put ourselves in God's hand.

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Once it was a flood which caused great damage

        On April 15, 1630, nearly all the brothers and sisters from Sabatisch had gathered at other places for the Lord's Supper, when about midday a sudden downpour caused a huge flood at Sabatisch. At our community there the workshops of the ropemaker, binder, potter, and hatter - mostly new buildings became so sodden that they collapsed. Other buildings were badly damaged, and the walls were undermined by the water. The damage cost the church hundreds of gulden. The people who were left at home were terrified. One old brother was crushed under a falling building and killed. Imagine how many would have lost their lives if the flood had occured at night, since it would hardly have been possible to escape from such an unexpected downpour in time. Many household goods were swept away and not found again. May the Almighty God protect us in the future from such disasters.

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Periods of dry weather also brought great need

        The summer of 1637 was very dry. Very little grain grew, and most of the fruit and vegetables dried up. Because of the drought, nothing matured, and there was a famine, which caused great suffering for man and beast. Little fodder was harvested.

        The next year was even worse.

        This summer again there was such a drought that the fields of grain, the orchards, and the gardens yielded hardly anything. Because the fodder was virtually gone, many people had to get rid of their animals. There followed a severe famine, and man and beast went hungry. It continued into the next year, 1639, making the price of a peck of grain rise to five or six Hungarian talers before the crops could be harvested. The need was so great that when spring came, many kept themselves and their children alive for several weeks with wild herbs and roots that they cut up and boiled. Some mixed white clay with their flour for baking. But our Lord and faithful God, to whom be everlasting praise, blessed his church so much through the foresight of the dedicated elders that the faithful suffered neither hunger nor want but were even able to help others in need. Some communities gave alms and shared their bread with fifty to sixty people, in some cases even up to eighty adults and children.

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Greedy Landlords and Desperate Peasants

        Besides all that the Hutterian brothers suffered from the plundering of armies, even the Lords on whose estates they served so faithfully sometimes turned against them.

        Lord Januss Czobor of Schossberg dealt a blow to our trust in him. Our Protzka community was on his estate, and we had expected good treatment from him. But he listened to the advice of some malicious and irresponsible people and committed an act of great injustice by plundering our community at Velkd Levare with his hussars [soldiers] and the neighboring gentry. They began by forcing their way into our community, yelling loudly and shooting. Four brothers in the yard were fatally shot and three more gravely wounded, one of whom died a few days later. The outlook was black. Just at this point a servant of Bethlen's arrived with a letter from his prince, which made Januss Czobor give up his cruel plan and withdraw immediately. Nevertheless, the raiders had taken the lives of five brothers and had stolen a lot of goods as they rushed off.

        Two years later Lord Januss demanded a gift of cloth and knives and a large sum of money, without any cause or reason at all. But the community at Protzka had been burned down twice in three years, and Lord Januss Czobor had charged them excessive sums for their refuge in Schossberg Castle during the Turkish disturbance. They told him they were too poor to comply with his impossible demands. As a result, he ordered his captain to arrest two old brothers, the steward and the buyer, bring them to the castle at Schossberg, and hold them until they delivered the money, cloth, and knives. If we wanted to free the brothers, we would have to face not only the danger but also the effort and expense. So we had to send a servant of the Word with two companions several miles beyond Kaschau to Lord Czobor, and as a result of their strenuous efforts the two brothers were released after two months under arrest.

        In December of that year Lord Czobor summoned some brothers to come to settle the debts between them.

        It turned out to be a peculiar kind of settlement. Lord Czobor owed us 313 gulden, and by rights we owed him no more than eighty gulden rent for the two places. He wanted to let the debts cancel each other, and we were to have no further claims on him. In addition, Lord Czobor demanded two thousand talers for protecting our brothers and sisters at Protzka during the Turkish disturbance (although he had taken all their hogs at the time) and to compensate him for his one-ninth share (seventeen pecks) of the grain from the brothers' fields which had been stolen by the Turks along with ours.

        The brothers rejected these demands as unchristian and completely unjust, at first with pleading and finally in plain, simple words, saying they could never agree, no matter what the consequences. By now it was evening, time for the Iights. It was bitter cold and snowing hard. In the elders' presence, Lord Januss Czobor sent for his hussars (about fifty stationed in the surrounding villages) to come immediately to the castle, with the intention of Ietting them raid our community at Protzka.

        They were ready to go, prepared to plunder our place at ten o'clock that night. But in the end, kindly people persuaded Lord Czobor to give up his cruel plan.

        Since Lord Czobor's only concern was money and without it we could come to no settlement with him, the brothers consulted together and finally offered to pay him a hundred gulden for one year's rent at Protzka and for his ninth share of all grain harvested. In addition, so as to make some money available to him, we would buy a quantity of grain (which we actually needed very badly) and would pay ten shillings a peck in cash.

        This would be on condition that the contract for Protzka made with the old lord his father (which he had wanted to change completely) should be honored by him and its terms left unaltered. In the end Lord Czobor agreed to this offer. So finally, after many earnest discussions back and forth, this difficult affair, which had posed such a threat to us, was settled.

        Difficulties with this lord did not end, however, even with his death.

        On February 12, 1628, the widow of Lord Januss Czobor sent her chief official Ferencz Diack to the brothers at Protzka. She demanded forty gulden for the funeral of her husband, who had died in northern Hungary the year before. As we owed her nothing and for reasons of conscience could never assist in such pomp, the said official from Schossbere had the four best oxen forcibly taken from our community the very same day.

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Ugly affair at Sabatisch

        In 1633 a very ugly affair was started at Sabatisch by Lord Franz Nagy-Michaly, one of the lords of Branc. This lord had demanded that the brothers, with six horses, take him to a town across the mountain. They had refused, since this was contrary to the contract they had made with the lords of Branc. There were a dozen or more of these lords who were joint owners of the Branc estates, so it had been agreed that the brothers could pay a fixed sum of money, instead of doing compulsory service for each one. Lord Franz had signed this agreement himself, but now he was furious that the brothers would not do this special service for him. With his hussars he tried to take our horses from the stable by force and struck several brothers who were in the yard. At this, our people came running from all sides with flails, forks, sticks, and hoes to stop them, but our people did not attack them. The lord with his hussars rode away in a passion. Next he sent his head steward from Rabenska with a number of hussars to take our pigs from the field. Our swineherds ran home, shrieking. Several brothers gave chase, along with neighbors and some servants of Lord Ludwig Niäry, and got the pigs back. The raiders fled, wounded and bleeding. This enraged Lord Franz Nagy-Michaly even more, and he swore to take revenge. Dear brother Heinrich Hartmann sent a written account of the whole matter to all the lords of Branc. At this the lords from both the Niäry and the Tardy families reassured us, telling us not to be afraid, we had done nothing wrong in protecting our property in the face of such injustice and violence. But soon after, some of the lords claimed the opposite.

        Now these lords of Branc were divided into two factions, each trying to take advantage of the other. The Niäry families took the side of the brothers, while the Tardy families soon changed to support Lord Franz. Heinrich Hartmann, who was the elder, and four brothers were forced to appear in court to answer charges that they had attacked and tried to kill their lord. Brother Heinrich humbly pointed out that this was not true and that those who had used violence in resisting the soldiers had already been disciplined, but the court paid no attention to his words. The twelve jurors, who were all noblemen, did not care about the soldiers who had been wounded. Violence may be met with violence, they said, but no subject has the right to rebel against his manorial lord.

        The community was ordered to pay a very large sum of money to Lord Franz. On the advice of the Niäry lords, the brothers refused to pay, so brother Heinrich and the others were thrown into a dirty cellar where dogs had been kept. They were mocked and threatened with all kinds of terrible things, including being sold to a Hungarian captain at a border fortress.

        The Niäry family tried in vain to get the brothers released. Lord Franz, fearing they might try to release the prisoners by force, had them taken to a castle where he turned then over to the officer in charge, called a burgrave. The burgrave roared at them, threw a pair of heavy iron chains down in front of each and said, 'Now you are prisoners and in my hands. His Grace, my lord, has given me orders to have you put in chains, and you will have to work in them carting rock and limestone and carrying water, wood, or anything else that is needed.' Then they were thrown into a stinking dungeon, having had nothing to eat all day.

        Now it happened that the steward of another community was at the castle and was great in distressed at the way the brothers were treated. He begged the burgrave and Lard Franz to take them out of the stinking dungeon. And because he persisted, he finally succeeded. He also brought them food and drink, which refreshed and strengthened them a little.

        That night those dear brothers had to lie on the bare ground outside the prison, but they found this a great mercy, for at least they were out of the filth and stench.

        All the elders did their utmost, making journeys and sending messages wherever they thought something might be achieved toward freeing the brothers. However, because of the two factions among the lords of Branc, no settlement could be reached.

        The wife of Burgrave Stefan Palffy also took up the brothers' cause, making pleas and writing letters to other lords and ladies, leaving no stone unturned in an effort to reach a settlement. Some brothers, seeing that nothing else would help, also took up the matter. Because Lord Franz Nagy-Michaly asserted that the costs of the law case and the care of the wounded hussars had been high, the brothers offered to forgo the little he owed those who worked for him and to pay a sum of money in addition. He and the other lords were satisfied with this, and the matter was settled. So the brothers returned to the church with unblemished consciences, and in great joy all the faithful praised and thanked God.

        Because of so much plundering by armies, the peasants around the communities were also in great poverty and sometimes tried to make up for their losses by plundering the communities.

        The thieving peasants took possession of our houses at Velke Levare, St. Johannes, and Protzka. They opened up the holes where things were hidden underground and took away everything they found. This plundering continued for a number of weeks, and no brother could show himself during that time. At St. Johannes they brutally murdered two brothers, and at Velke Leväre they burned down the school and the workshops of the tailors, cobblers, and cutlers.

        So we see how greatly the Hutterian communities suffered from armies, from landlords, from neighbors, and from other calamities during this tragic period of war.

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Problems Within the Church

        Besides all the heavy blows that the Hutterian Church suffered from without, there were also problems that arose from within.

        An unusual matter arose at Velke Leväre, the like of which had never happened before. It began with ten people, mostly men, and soon spread to other places as well. Therefore the elders had to look into it straightaway.

        To tell it briefly, this group separated itself from other brothers and sisters and adopted a peculiar way of praying. They chose unusual times of day to meet for prayer in corners or secretly in the woods, regardless of whether or not their work allowed time for it. They let nothing stop them but insisted that they owed obedience and service to God rather than to men. Three millers at Marchegg held the same opinion and often followed this strange practice instead of running the mill responsibly as they should have done. When they were rebuked, they answered that they had to hold their worship service. They were told that there was a time for prayer and a time for work and running the mill. But they were not willing to give up their practice. This going off together and separating themselves from their fellow workers caused division and quarreling.

        Since their strange practice was hypocrisy and no service to God at all, the whole question was laid before dear brother Valentin Winter, who came immediately with other elders and summoned the three millers and those involved at VeIke Levdre. He appealed to them in different ways and pointed out that while prayer in itself is good and useful, yet everything has its time.

        But not one of them would give in. They all persisted in their opinion and said that God had revealed it to them, that they had had a vision, and that the last day was soon to come. Soon their belief would be proved right. Brother Valentin and the other servants of the Word and many trusted brothers appealed to them in an earnest and kindly way with words from Scripture and many sound arguments, but to no avail.

        As they would not accept brotherly correction, the church in Velke Leväre was called together. When they would not listen to the church either but stubbornly held to their wrong ideas, they were excluded and separated from the church. None of them found repentance but went further astray. Their community soon broke up because they were not founded on the true rock, Jesus Christ. And then, as they had to earn their own food and clothing, their hours of prayer soon came to an end.

        Around Easter 1633, a sad affair for the church arose at Alwinz, Transylvania. It came about through their elder, Isaak Baumann, who, reporting about Alwinz in a letter to a friend in Croatia, wrote something against the authorities. As the letter was left with a judge, who did not send it on right away but kept it for a time, it was found by one of the prince's servants. He opened it and brought it to the court. This was a shock and a great blow to the church at Alwinz. It not only caused serious losses but endangered the brothers' and sisters' lives. The matter was set right, however. Baumann was excluded for his negligence, but he repented and found the right way again. He fell asleep in the Lord about a year later.

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Problem with Benjamin Kengel

        In June 1645 a problem arose with Benjamin Kengel, a tailor at Sabatisch. He withdrew from the communal worship meetings. When spoken to, he replied that the righteous have no need of instruction, since the Holy Spirit will teach them, and that the common prayer is only a human custom, not prompted by the Holy Spirit. He also maintained that baptism is useless and unnecessary and nothing but a means of coercion to bring about human obedience, which is against the freedom of Christ. He considered all servants and teachers as serfs under contract and their work as ungodly. He completely rejected their authority to bind and to loose sin, saying that no man can be of any help to wash away another's sin.

        In the same way, he said about the Lord's Supper that outward ceremonies and Ordnungen are not necessary for a true Christian. Likewise marriage and what it involves is not fitting for a Christian.

        In short, the church in his opinion had never been right but in error about these and many other things. On the basis of truth - the teaching of Christ, the example of the first church in Jerusalem, and the work of the Holy Spirit - Kengel was admonished many times to give up his wrong ideas. When this had been said enough and he still arrogantly persisted in his own ideas, he was excluded and separated from the church.

        He made a passionate plea to be allowed to stay in the community and live according to his own beliefs, but as he was an evil root and harmful weed, this was quite out of the question. He sought for true repentance yet did not find it, although he continued seeking for a long time, coming before the church and confessing openly that he had been in error. He said he had imagined that he understood something, and now he was heartily sorry and for the rest of his life wanted nothing to do with such wrong ideas. But at this point he fell ill and died. Some of his followers confessed, repented, and found the way again.

        More serious than these isolated errors was the growing spirit of lukewarmness and selfishness which was bringing a decline in the inner life of the church. The violent spirit of the times had crept in, as can be seen from the brothers who had to be disciplined for using violence in resisting the soldiers who tried to take away their pigs. At this critical time, God in his wisdom gave to the church an especially strong and wise leader. This was Andreas Ehrenpreis.

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A Faithful Shepherd for a Time of Need: Andreas Ehrenpreis

        Andreas Ehrenpreis was a miller when he was chosen for the service of the Word in 1621, and he served with great dedication under three elders.

        After the peaceful passing of our dear brother Heinrich, all servants of the Word, servants for temporal affairs, stewards, buyers, and storekeepers and many other trusted brothers from the whole church gathered at Sabatisch on October 3. In earnest prayer they considered the matter, asking God to give them another faithful shepherd and elder for the church. The choice fell on dear brother Andreas Ehrenpreis, who received a unanimous and joyful testimony from the brothers. This service of caring faithfully for an church of the Lord was laid on him on October 4, 1639.

        Ehrenpreis showed a loving concern for the sufferings and problems of all the scattered communities in Hungary and Transylvania. Of special concern to him was the community which had been moved by force to Alwinz in Transylvania, far away from the rest of the church. In the Chronicle we have two loving letters he wrote to them. He seems to have had reports of laxness in work and wastefulness in using what the community had, so in 1642 he wrote about this problem with advice we still need to take to heart.

        We understand that you have lost many capable people whose help was badly needed for your livelihood. If it were possible, we would gladly supply your need. But you know very well that unfortunately there are fewer and fewer believers from day to day, not only among you there, but here too. Recently we even had to send gleaners into fields and vineyards, and we have to be thankful and content with what the Lord provides. It is all the more necessary for each of the devout to see to it that order is kept for the sake of our subsistence. Each one must be prepared to do all he can in his work, instead of wasting half his time and doing less than half the work, with the result that a penny diligently earned in one place is wasted in another. Besides, whatever is saved and kept is safer than what has yet to be earned. Since it is God's order that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, we should do this not only for twenty, thirty, or more years, but until we return to the dust from which we were taken. Lastly, Paul points out that he always taught that the weak must be supported by the work of the strong.

        Likewise, there should be proper moderation and order in the use of food. It should be remembered that when we work outside, we have to do strenuous work, but that does not mean we should indulge in an extravagant consumption of food and drink, which does take place, according to hearsay. Since we are brothers and one people, it would be good if we did things the same way. We also should not neglect to share in an orderly way. If we eat everything up in summer, we must starve in winter.

        In the same way, if our dear forefathers had not thought of this and made good provision, the church would most certainly have died of starvation in times of war or persecution. Many of us know that in spite of great thrift and in spite of what the community laid by, there were times of acute shortage and hunger. Therefore it is right that we remember our forefathers, consider the fruits of their lives, and follow their faith.

        You must not only think how you can find means of subsistence but also remember that we may need your help in difficult times if God the Lord should visit us with poverty and allow us to suffer persecution. Therefore you should think ahead about ways of helping the church.

        And now we ask each of the devout in the whole church to show faithfulness and diligence in all things and to be thankful and content. Seek peace and true unity and avoid all strife and disunity.

        Moreover, we exhort all the faithful to whom God has given children, if they truly love them and value their welfare and purity, to bring them up in the fear of God.

        Similarly, all the school teachers, the heads of work departments, and all those responsible for the young are urged to be good builders in the house of God. The young people (including those who may already be members of our covenant) should not be left to run free and unsupervised. Order and obedience should be expected of them on Sundays just as during the week. They should be brought up to follow God's way and his will, so that after we are gone they remain an upright people who uphold the honor of God.

        Seven years later Ehrenpreis again felt there was cause for concern about how things were going in Alwinz and in Bodock, another community in Transylvania far from the rest of the church, so he wrote another loving letter of advice and admonition.

        We have to see and hear that not only the world lies in sin and evil. It is not only in the world that wickedness increases. Even in the church, especially among the young, many are bent on worldly ways and delight in wickedness. Some even loathe and oppose the order of the church. They lose the fear of God and tenderness of conscience; they despise diligence and honest hard work. It is terrible when this happens.

        Therefore, dear brothers and sisters and friends, I exhort and plead with all of you who have devout and zealous hearts and still stand firm, longing for the church's well-being: do not grow weary of building and planting but continue to warn, admonish, and discipline.

        He goes on to say:

        I have been informed that even among you some have so given way to their fallen nature and to unwatchfulness that they despise the service of the Gospel and its servants, thinking and speaking mockingly and disrespectfully about them. These people no longer treasure their salvation or the guidance given, and their indifference is a sure sign of decline.

        Therefore we warn each one to put every effort into rooting out such thorns and thistles, first from his own heart and mind, then from the church.

        No flock has ever been able to remain on the right way without a shepherd.

        Then he adds, To begin with, those who have the leadership and pronounce judgment should speak with humility, clarity, and kindness.

        He also mentions with sorrow how some who had been sent from Sabatisch to help them had been received by some with ingratitude and even unfriendliness. He gives many examples from the Bible to show the terrible consequences of all these errors, both in this life and the life to come. He assures them that all he has said is the same that is taught daily in Sabatisch, and he closes the letter with heartfelt expressions of love.

        During this time, The long-drawn-out, devastating war, about which we have reported a great deal, finally came to an end. However ravaging armies still swept across Hungary and Transylvania on their way home, so there was little real peace, and Ehrenpreis continued his wise guidance of the church in the troubled years that followed.

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Andreas Ehrenpreis fell asleep in the Lord

        On August 1, 1662, at a quarter past nine in the morning, our dear, faithful brother Andreas Ehrenpreis fell asleep in the Lord at Sabatisch with a peaceful heart and clear conscience. He was a loyal, devout, and zealous servant of the Gospel and Vorsteher of the whole church of God.

        His mind remained clear until the end. Shortly before his death he took a tender farewell of the elders who had come to visit him, giving his last words of counsel.

        Above all, my beloved brothers, I commend to you the faithful care of the church. Watch over her and neglect nothing, keeping steadfastly to the teaching. You can see that corruption is spreading in the community. Beware of quarrels and division so that no disunity arises among you. The Lord is often moved by diligent prayer to send his hell and show us mercy, so it is essential not to slacken in prayer when wickedness is gaining the upper hand, not only outside our communities but inside as well.

        With tears in their eyes, the brothers expressed their deep gratitude and blessed him with the peace of Christ.

        He was seventy-three years old and had faithfully carried out the service of the Gospel for forty-one years. He had led the church with great dedication as a true shepherd and elder for twenty-three years, giving teaching, admonition, and discipline.

        Ehrenpreis wrote a number of hymns and even his name suggests a hymn of praise. Today we especially treasure his epistle Brotherly Community as the Highest Command of Love.

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A Lull Between Storms, 1649 - 1656

        After the Thirty Years War finally ended there were a few years of relative quiet before fighting broke out again. The communities were exhausted and impoverished from all they had suffered. Food was still scarce, with prices high, and it was a hard struggle to survive when weather conditions were unfavorable. In 1651 it was recorded:

        This year and continuing into the next, prices rose so high in Upper Hungary in the area of Bodock that a peck of grain sold for eight or nine gulden. The community here [at Sabatisch] and at Alwinz had to give so much help to our brothers at Bodock that all three communities were impoverished.

        In July [1652] there were unbelievably heavy rains in Hungary and Moravia. Many people and much livestock drowned, and the hay and some crops rotted in the fields. But the grain, grapes, and fruit did well. 

        On July 14 [1654] between four and five in the morning, there was a severe hailstorm at Alwinz, Transylvania. The grainfields and vineyards were badly damaged. At the same time there was also a big earthquake.

        In 1655 During the month of September a terrible epidemic swept through the land, asking many deaths. At Velke Leväre our people suffered great pain and misery, and about two hundred and seventy died a pitiful death.

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In spite of all the difficulties, the zeal for mission had not been lost

        On May 31, 1654, a medical doctor named Daniel Zwicker came to Sabatisch with three other men from Danzig. These four men traveled around the communities for ten days, asking many questions about every aspect of our life. Daniel Zwicker read the church's confession and the five articles of our faith. He saw that it was all truly Christian, accepted it, believed it, and confessed to it. He was then taken into the church by the elders with the laying on of hands and became our brother.

        Since he was a learned and zealous man, the service of the Gospel was laid on him, and he was confirmed in it. He was to go to Prussia and Poland and wherever the Lord would show him an opportunity to visit the zealous, gather people for the Lord, and be fully used in this service as a faithful worker for men's salvation.

        In October of this year we received word that it might he possible to start a community in the Palatinate, whereas in Hungary in many places we were not allowed to accept more people. So two brothers were sent to the count palatine in Heidelberg, and he received us in a friendly way. Following this, we were offered a place in the city of Mannheim, which

        we accepted, and then we began to build. May God the Lord bless the work and make it fruitful to his praise.

        Six years later it was recorded:

        On August 8 two brothers. traveled from Mannheim in the lower Palatinate to the church to seek advice. On August 18 they left for home, but on the way they were taken prisoner for the sake of their faith. They were held in harsh conditions and their captors intended to torture them, but since they had a pass from His Serene Highness the Elector, issued at Heidelberg, inquiries were sent to the government at Munich, and at the end of ten days' imprisonment the order came for their release. Thus God delivered them from prison. They were, however, escorted for twelve miles through Bavaria by the constable and had to submit to that.

        We hear of Mannheim once more in 1665 when two brothers stopped there on their way to the Netherlands on an important mission, but we do not know how much longer that community existed.

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Tragedies of Renewed Fighting, 1657 - 1665

        In less than ten years after the end of the Thirty Years War we hear of renewed fighting. It started in Poland but by 1658 had spread to other parts of Europe. Around Whitsun of that year, a colonel of the imperial army entered Hungary with an army of five thousand German soldiers. They did great damage in the Schutt Islands. There they ruined many crops in the field, with the result that people had no harvest and could neither sow nor plant in the fall.

        The next year it was the Hungarian soldiers who robbed and plundered Alwinz. By 1661 Hungary and Transylvania were over-run by still larger forces of both the imperial army and the opposing Turkish army. On May 6, sixteen thousand German soldiers from the imperial army advanced over the Little Carpathians into Hungary. They cost the church much in bread, wine, beer, salt, oats, and gifts for the bodyguards.

        On May 29 two regiments of dragoons crossed the Little Carpathians, following the previous troops. Once again, the church suffered. On June 7 yet another army of several thousand German imperial soldiers marched over the Little Carpathians into Hungary, again costing the church huge quantities of beer, wine, bread, oats, and cooked food. In addition there was the cost of the special food consumed by the officers who moved into our community. These three contingents cost our community at Sabatisch seventy-eight gulden in ready money for the bodyguards alone; the contribution of knives amounted to seventy gulden more, not counting pottery and other articles.

        In July a Turkish pasha led a large army into Transylvania, and they camped on the brothers' fields at Alwinz, not far from our houses. But with the help of God our people fled to the fortress, taking most of their belongings with them. Some of our brothers were still in the yard with three wagons when the enemy arrived, but God the Almighty made it possible for them to get the three laden wagons onto the bridge, and in this way they blocked the enemies' pursuit. While the Turks unharnessed the animals and pushed the loaded wagons into the Maros River, our brothers made their escape. Meanwhile our community, which had only just been rebuilt, was set on fire in several places; not only house, stable, and barn were burned but also the precious grain. Nearly all the grain had been cut, and a good part. carried from the fields across the stream to the fortress. The brothers did not want to risk bringing it to our place and hoped it would be safe there. But it was all burned and ruined, not only in the fields but everywhere. Not even a handful of grain was left. Our people had to remain in the fortress, miserable in their worry and poverty. An epidemic broke out, and the best of our craftsmen died. In all we lost 150 people during this time.

        In October of this year the Turkish forces withdrew and returned home, causing tremendous damage wherever they passed. They discovered such animals as we still had - cows and sheep - and stole them even from quite near the fortress. So our people lost all their livestock and were left with nothing. That fall they could neither plant nor sow but had to remain in the fortress. We may well grieve over such misery, but nonetheless we should thank God for keeping our people together; no one was taken away.

        On October 31 another force of a thousand German imperial soldiers. crossed the Little Carpathians from Hungary. Again the church had to bear the exorbitant cost of provisions and other things.

        On December 31 General Spurk, who had marched into Hungary with an army three thousand strong, returned over the Little Carpathians with a wretched little band of 180 men. And again the church could not avoid the cost of provisions.

        So this year 1661, which had brought the church much fear and anxiety, ended in grief. Yet God the Almighty stood by us and protected us. To him alone be all honor and glory.

        It was not until the next summer that the refugees from Alwinz could leave the castle.

        On August 21 they left the fortress and returned to their homes, where they lived in huts that they put up between the burned-out walls.

        The Turkish pasha gave them a letter safeguarding them from marauding Turks. God in his mercy provided help throughout this time. To him alone be praise.

        During this year bad weather added to their miseries.

        On May 16, the same year, a cold spell set in with strong winds, snow, and frost. This lasted until May 23. Although the grapes, fruit, and berries had looked very promising and the grain in the fields was mostly in flower and as fine as one could wish, in many places everything was frozen and ruined. So the cold was followed by a time of famine. The church community was badly affected, for at Velke Leväre, Protzka, and St Johannes they had nothing but empty straw to harvest. On June 14 there was a very bad hailstorm at Sabatisch. Hailstones as big as pigeons' eggs fell down. 

        On October 3 one thousand German imperial soldiers came through Hungary. They did great damage everywhere, emptying the poor people's underground stores and starting fires in several villages when they did not get what they wanted. This brought further loss to the church.

        So this year of 1662 ended in widespread terror of the troops moving back and forth. The soldiers were meant to be fighting the Turks, but all they achieved was to ruin the country. They left famine and hunger in their wake among the poor population. 

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The next year the situation became still worse

        On July 7, all lords, nobles, and landowners were called up and required to supply one foot soldier for every twenty men to fight against the perennial foe, the Turks.

        On July 8 the Hungarian levies from the Branc estate, on their way to the muster. passed through our community at Dechtitz, causing great disturbance to our people in the yard and knocking down doors as if it were a full-scale robbery. Suddenly God sent such a violent storm that the ruffians fled in terror.

        In August 1663, when the imperial troops were moving back and forth around Schindau our people from Farkeschin also took flight, some making for Tyrnau and others for Bibersburg Castle. They had to clear out their community completely and leave, fleeing to Kegselsdorf with their oxen, cows, and sheep. They stayed there until the enemy attacked Kesselsdorf and made off with their animals as well as other people's.

        After Farkeschin was sacked and plundered, our houses there were burned to the ground. Hardly any of our people from Farkeschin survived; they were lost in the unending warfare. Most of them died on the continual flights. So we lost our community at Farkeschin. Everything was gone - people and goods and chattels.

        Along with the Turks and other troops came 10,000 even fiercer Tartars.

        The fear, misery, desperate flight, and death caused by this Tartar invasion in Hungary, Austria, and especially in Moravia, defy description. All one could see from a distance was fire everywhere.

        This terrible wave of fear, misery, and death also struck the church of the Lord with great force. Our farms and houses on the other side of the mountains were attacked and pillaged without warning.

        On September 3 the Turks and Tartars quite unexpectedly invaded the country on this side of the Waag and swept down on Dechtitz at half past ten in the morning.

        Thirty-five people from our community there were either carried into captivity by the enemy or killed.

        Then the buildings were set on fire, and all household supplies, tools, and grain stored inside were burned. The grain remaining in the fields was ruined, and all the cattle, sheep, and hogs were stolen.

        Exactly the same happened on that same day at our community in Kesseisdorf. Betweer ten and eleven in the morning some of our people who were in the yard were attacked quite unexpectedly by the Turks and Tartars. Most of our people were at home, hoping to bring the rest of the grain and other stores to the castle. They ran to the pond in an attempt to escape, but in their terror some did not know where to go. They ran out into the fields toward the castle to save themselves from the dreaded enemy, but they could not run fast enough.

        Within fifteen minutes these pagan tyrants had laid hands on forty-six of our people, who were carried off in misery or murdered. They stole the livestock in our yard and many good household supplies. quite apart from the grain we had grown.

        Anything they could not take away, they burned along with the whole place on September 6. Not only did the church repeatedly have to bear the heartbreak of brothers and sisters being carried off into captivity, but they also had to endure the crippling losses of livestock and other movable property.

        Our place at Kesselsdorf was now completely destroyed and deserted. The few remaining people sought refuge at Bibersburg Castle for a year and several weeks, but it was a miserable existence.

        Then, as they no longer had food for the community, the elders decided that the people must go into the neighboring villages to look for provisions. Since about twenty-six people had died during that time, a group of old brothers and sisters, with widows and orphans, went to the community at Sabatisch to find help. Several, however, went their own way in those troubled times and left the church community. It was not until the following year, 1665 that our people moved together again.

        The same tragic tale was repeated over and over, as one community after another was plundered and burned. In all, 122 people from the church were taken in bondage to foreign countries or murdered by the perennial foe, the Turks and Tartars.

        The year 1663 drew to an end with misery, terror, and death on all sides, with much heartache, groaning, and weeping. The land was laid waste, and men and cattle perished. Anything that had not been robbed was lost in other ways.

        The whole church was again brought into utter poverty and ruin, for they could harvest hardly any field or garden crops.

        This is only a brief report, included here for the sake of our descendents. May God the Almighty grant a better future.

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Friends and Brothers in the Lord, 1665

        In the spring of 1664 the outlook for the church had seemed a little more hopeful. The Turks had been driven back by the imperial army. From among the captives who had been carried off, one boy, a millers apprentice, had fallen into German hands. Then his father paid a ransom for his release. Sarah Weber came back from Turkey (in 1665] with the imperial ambassadors, all the way from Constantinople to Vienna, and from there she returned to the church. The Lord be praised!

        In March and April (1664] there was still hope of getting something into the ground and seeding the fields at Dechtitz. Then the marauding hussars returned and took two of our horses straight from the plow in the field.

        In spite of the great danger and loss, our people managed to sow and raise some field crops until harvest time, though in these months they had to flee from their houses several times, not from the Turks but from the imperial troops. Just at harvest, when they were looking forward to enjoying some of it and most of the hay and grain had been carried home, the imperial forces again invaded the country.

        First of all a regiment came through Dechtitz and stole whatever they found. They stripped and beat up any brothers they caught. They carried off a mass of booty, threw the sick people out of their beds, and stole the bed linen. Our people had to abandon Dechtitz for the summer and autumn, and the little they had left in house, garden, field, and vineyard was stolen from them day after day in countless raids. Even the two cows still left after the Turkish raids were now seized and carried off by the Germans.

        On September 28, when the Imperial camp was moved near Dechtitz, a thousand German and French soldiers suddenly came into the village of Gutwasser, robbing and plundering at will, taking grain, hay, and whatever else they could find. They emptied people's underground store places and drove off with loads of hay that the community at Dechtitz had hauled to this village. Five of our horses were stolen from behind the castle, where we had thought they would be safe. The soldiers beat the wagoner cruelly and carried him off for some distance but then let him go again.

        From this time on until almost winter, our community at Dechtitz was continually being plundered, and no one dared be seen by the Germans. Afterward, our poverty-stricken people came back to the empty, burned-out, and ruined houses. Those who survived the enemy suffered bitter hardship and great hunger.

        On October 11 Colonel Nikolaus and Sergeant Major Stang took up quarters in our place at Velk Leväre with fifty-five horses and a large number of people. We had to give them twelve pecks of oats daily and enough hay and straw too. We had to buy old wine for them. This went on for a week. Counting all the extra gifts, it cost the community over a

        hundred gulden.

        On October 17, no sooner had the Germans left than the French arrived. The people at Velke Leväre were preparing to hold the evening prayer meeting but had to break off flee. When the soldiers found hardly any of our people there, they plundered and did a lot of damage in the community. 

        On October 18 the Saxon artillery horses were stabled at Sabatisch, costing us a great deal. Seven stable hands with fourteen horses stayed at our place for seventeen days.

        The same day a cavalry regiment arrived under the command of Count von Nassau. They remained until October 22, but were no particular burden to us, praise God, except for the gifts we gave them out of good will.

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The year 1665 only brought renewed misfortune

        On March 26 at two o'clock in the afternoon a fire broke out in our community smithy at Sabatisch as a result of carelessness. Not only the smithy burned down, but also the sickle-smiths' and wheelwrights' shops, the saddlers' and wheelwrights' huts, as well as a few little sheds between the burned-out walls of the shoe-makers', blacksmiths', and cutlers' shops. The floors, however, were saved. None of the peasants' houses were burned down.

        After the great fear and poverty we had endured during the oft-reported, sudden, and terrible war with the Turks and Tartars, misery and ruin had fallen on the whole church of the Lord, as well as on many thousands of other people in the land, high- and lowborn alike. On April 7 we met at Sabatisch in our great poverty, as we had done several times before, to take counsel on how to feed and care for our poor widows and orphans, many of whom had been brought there from the other communities during this difficult time.

        We unanimously agreed to appeal for help to the [Mennonite] churches in the Netherlands. We counseled together before the Lord and in reverent fear of God decided that the two brothers both servants of the Word of God, should be sent from Sabatisch on April 21 on this mission for the Lord's work. In great fear of God and under divine protection, they went to Mannheim in the Palatinate and from there to Amsterdam. They traveled in Holland, Zeeland, Flanders and Friesland.

        By word of mouth and in a letter from all the elders of the church, we asked the congregations in the Netherlands for help and support, telling them how we had come into such extreme poverty and misery.

        In earlier times there had been a certain amount of rivalry between Mennonites and Hutterites, and when there was a contact between these two Anabaptist groups there had been questioning, criticising, and even accusing of each other. But in this time of need all this is forgotten and the elders appeal to the Mennonites as our very beloved friends and trothers in the Lord.

        They write:

        Previously we did not know you, but now we have come especially close to you and have experienced the Christian compassion that characterizes you, the warm affection, the unity of love with which all of you receive needy, distressed, and grieving strangers and reach out a hand to help and comfort them. We know you are responsive to the divine influence that inspires you to help us.

        The long letter explaining their situation also says:

        Oh, you dear friends, brothers and sisters in the Lord, in the natural order of things many of us should already have starved to death during these times of want because we were so poor. Those of us who are healthy, praise God, work hard from sunup to sundown to till our fields and ply at least some trades, yet it brings us very little profit, for the land is impoverished and ruined, a deserted wilderness, and this has caused a steep rise in prices.

        Most dear and esteemed friends and brothers in the Lord, we well remember the Christian charity and generous gifts from brothers and sisters in the Lord and other well-wishers who were concerned for the Lord's work in Germany. You brothers may have noticed that these contributions, which were intended for a good purpose and given and received in Christian love, were not used rightly in the ways that you and we had intended. This grieved us very much and still does, so we want to apologize here in all humility and Christian friendship. Nevertheless, we are continuing in our efforts, working as steadily and devotedly as we can to bring community life into true Christian order and nearer perfection in both spiritual and temporal affairs, setting it on its feet and establishing a work pleasing to the Lord. Even in extreme poverty we have never given up communal living in this country.

        The letter closes:

        We greet you in the Lord a thousand times as those who also belong to the bride of Christ, fellow heirs of the promise of an eternal inheritance, heavenly glory, and the future kingdom of Christ.

        God the Lord moved their hearts to help his church and send a good contribution to support us. Glory, honor, and praise be to God the Almighty to all eternity.

        On October 28 the two brothers returned home safely from their long journey to Holland and other places. They arrived in peace, under God's protection, having completed their task. God be praised for bringing them safely there and back.

        On this note of praise The Chronicle ends, except for a little paragraph about the extremely high prices. In the unsettled times of great need that followed, no orderly, year by year record of events was kept for over a century, though special happenings were recorded and finally made into another chronicle. To continue the story of the Hutterian Brethren we will have to wait until this later chronicle has been translated.

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Other Calamities

        As war goes on, diseases and plagues follow. The year 1645 is an example of this. During that year the plague took a high toll in towns and villages far and wide. In November and December many died at Sabatisch also, including fine and active people. A few years later it was recorded, At Sabatisch more than fifty of our children died of smallpox or measles.