includes among the Baptist or the defenceless martyrs. I suppose that
he includes them among the Baptists on the ground that they were not
baptized in infancy, but upon faith. From these the great story comes
down in one thousand octavo pages, describing the intense cruelties of
the Roman emperors, telling of persecutions by the Saracens, persecutions
of the Waldenses and Albigenses, and describing especially the sufferings
which the Baptists (in common with other Protestants) endured in Holland
under the reigns of Charles V. and Philip II.[10]
The narrative of the persecution of the Anabaptists of Switzerland by
their fellow-Protestants is mostly found at the close of the volume. It
comes down to the year 1672, and must therefore be, in part at least, an
appendix to the original volume.
Allusions to the severe treatment of the Anabaptists of Switzerland may
also be found in Herzog’s and Appleton’s Cyclopædias.
In the former work we read that Anabaptism, after a public theological
disputation, was by the help of the authorities suppressed in
Switzerland. And how thoroughly it was suppressed may be inferred from
the statement in the latter of the population of Berne. In 1850 the
population is given (in round numbers) as 458,000,—of which only 1000 are
Baptists, 54,000 are Catholics, and the remainder of the Reformed Church.
In Appleton’s Cyclopædia (article Anabaptists), we read that Melanchthon
and Zwingle were themselves troubled by questions respecting infant
baptism, in connection with the personal faith required by Protestantism.
Nevertheless, Zwingle himself is said to have pronounced sentence upon
Mentz, who had been his friend and fellow-student, in these words:
“Whosoever dips (or baptizes) a second time, let him be dipped.” “_Qui
iterum mergit, mergatur._” This humorous saying seems to be explained in
the Martyr-book, for we read that Felix Mentz was drowned at Zurich for
the truth of the gospel in 1526. The persecution of such men is said to
have shocked the moderate of all parties.
Upon the authority of Balthazar Hubmor (whom I suppose to be the Hubmeyer
of the Cyclopædia), the Martyr-book states that Zwingle, etc., imprisoned
at one time twenty persons of both sexes, in a dark tower, never more
to see the light of the sun. This early Swiss Protestant persecution
occurred, it will be observed, about 1526, and the latest recorded in the
Martyr-book in or about 1672, covering a period of nearly one hundred and
fifty years.[11]
At the same time that the Swiss Baptists were suffering at the hands
of other Protestants, Anabaptists of the peaceful class were found in
Holland in large numbers. The record of their sufferings and martyrs
(says Appleton’s Cyclopædia) furnished a touching picture in human
history. William of Orange, founder of the Dutch republic, was sustained
in the gloomiest hours by their sympathy and aid.[12] That great prince,
however importuned, steadily refused to persecute them.
Menno Symons, born at the close of the fifteenth or the commencement of
the sixteenth century, educated for the priesthood of the Roman Catholic
church, converted in manhood to the faith of the Anabaptists, became
their chief leader. Mennonites and Anabaptists have from his time been
interchangeable terms.[13]
It was about seventeen years after the drowning of Mentz in Switzerland,
and while the Catholic persecution was raging in Holland, that in the
year 1543 an imperial edict was issued against Menno; for both parties
persecuted the Baptists,—the Catholics in the Low Countries, the
Protestants in Switzerland. The Martyr-book tells us that a dreadful
decree was proclaimed through all West Friesland, containing an offer of
general pardon, the favor of the emperor, and a hundred carlgulden to all
malefactors and murderers who would deliver Menno into the hands of the
executioners. Under pain of death, it was forbidden to harbor him; but
God preserved and protected him wonderfully, and he died a natural death,
near Lubeck, in the open field, in 1559, aged sixty-six. It is further
mentioned that he was buried in his own garden.[14]
About fourteen years after the death of Menno, or in the year 1573, we
read in the Martyr-book that Dordrecht had submitted to the reigning
prince, William of Orange, the first not to shed blood on account of
faith or belief.
But the toleration which William extended to the Baptists was not
imitated by his great compeer, Elizabeth of England. For the Martyr-book
tells us that in 1575 “some friends,” who had fled to England, having met
in the suburbs of London “to hear the word of God,” were spied out, and
the constable took them to prison. Two of these were burnt at Smithfield,
in the eighteenth year of Elizabeth. Jan Pieters was one of them, a poor
man whose first wife had been burnt at Ghent; he then married a second,
whose first husband had been burnt at the same place.
Thus it befell the unfortunate Jan that while his wife was burnt by
Catholics, he himself suffered at the hands of English Protestants.[15]
The expression “sheep” or “lambs,” which is applied to some of the
Baptist martyrs, alludes, I suppose, to their non-resistance. Thus, in
1576, Hans Bret, a servant, whose master was about to be apprehended,
gave him warning, so that he escaped, but himself, “this innocent
follower of Christ, fell into the paws of the wolves.... As he stood at
the stake, they kindled the fire, and burnt this sheep alive.”
The next year after this, William of Orange had occasion to call to
order, as it appears, some of his own subjects. The magistrates of
Middelburg had announced to the Baptists that they must take an oath of
fidelity and arm themselves, or give up their business and shut up their
houses. The Baptists had recourse to William, promising to pay levies and
taxes, and desiring to be believed on their yea and nay. William granted
their request, their yea was to be taken in the place of an oath, and the
delinquent was to be punished as for perjury.
In William Penn’s Treatise on Oaths it is stated that William of Orange
said, “Those men’s yea must pass for an oath, and we must not urge this
thing any further, or we must confess that the Papists had reason to
force us to a religion that was against our conscience.”
About nine years after William had thus reproved the magistrates of
Middelburg, or in the year 1586, the Baptists came to grief elsewhere.
It is stated that those called Anabaptists, who had taken refuge in
the Prussian dominions, were ordered by “the prince of the country” to
depart from his entire duchy of Prussia, and in the next year from all
his dominions. This was because they were said to speak scandalously of
infant baptism.
About the close of the century, pleasanter times for the Baptists seem
to have followed. “When the north wind of persecution became violent,
there were intervals when the pleasant south wind of liberty and repose
succeeded.”
“But now occurred the greatest mischief in Zurich and Berne, by those who
styled themselves Reformed;” but others of the same name, “especially the
excellent regents of the United Netherlands,” opposed such proceedings.
The Martyr-book says, in substance, “It is a lamentable case that those
who boast that they are the followers of the defenceless Lamb do no
longer possess the lamb’s disposition, but, on the contrary, have the
nature of the wolf. It seems as if they could not bear it that any
should travel towards heaven in any other way than that which they go
themselves, as was exemplified in the case of Hans Landis, who was a
minister and teacher of the gospel of Christ. Being taken to Zurich, he
refused to desist from preaching and to deny his faith, and was sentenced
to death,—the edict of eighty years before not having died of old age.
They, however, persuaded the common people that he was not put to death
for religion’s sake, but for disobedience to the authorities.”[16]
After the death of Hans Landis, persecution rested for twenty-one years,
when the ancient hatred broke out afresh in Zurich.
The Baptists now asked permission to leave the country with their
property, but this was not granted to them. “They might choose,” says
the Martyrology, “to go with them [the Reformed] to church, or to die in
prison. To the first they would not consent; therefore they might expect
the second.”
This brings us to the era of the persecution described in the hymn-book
of which I formerly spoke,—the book now in use among the Amish of our
county.
This little volume—little when compared to the ponderous
Martyr-book—gives an account of the persecution in Zurich between the
years 1635 and 1645. Many of the persons mentioned in the hymn-book as
suffering at that time appear to be of families now found in Lancaster
County,—not merely from the hymn-book’s being preserved here, but
especially because some of the surnames are the same as are now found
here, or only slightly different. Thus we have Landis, Meylin, Strickler,
Bachmann; and Gut, now Good; Müller, now Miller; Baumann, now Bowman.
Mention is made of about eighteen persons who died in prison during this
persecution, in the period of nine or ten years. Proclamation was made
from the pulpits forbidding the people to afford shelter to the Baptists:
even their own children who harbored them were liable to be fined,—as
Hans Müller’s wife and children, who were fined forty pounds because
“they showed mercy to their dear father.”
The hymn-book states that the _Gelehrte_ (the learned or the clergy?)
accompanied the captors, running day and night with their servants. Many
of the persecuted fell into the power of the authorities,—men and women,
the pregnant, the nursing mother, the sick.
In the midst of this, the authorities of Amsterdam, themselves Calvinists
or Reformed, being moved by the solicitations of the Baptists of
Amsterdam, sent a respectful petition to the burgomaster and council of
Zurich to mitigate the persecution; but the petition, it is said, excited
an unfriendly and irritating answer.
It seems that some of the Baptists, harassed in Zurich, took refuge
in Berne; and about the time that the persecution in Zurich came to a
close, or about 1645, it is stated that “those of Berne” threatened the
Baptists. About four years after, “those of Schaffhausen” issued an edict
against the people called Anabaptists.[17]
Only a few years later, or in 1653, as we read in the Martyr-book,
there was another persecution elsewhere. The record says, in substance,
“As a lamb in making its escape from the wolf is eventually seized by
the bear, so it obtained for several defenceless followers of the meek
Jesus, who, persecuted in Switzerland by the Zwinglians, were permitted
to live awhile in peace in the Alpine districts, under a Roman Catholic
prince, Willem Wolfgang. About this year, however, this prince banished
the Anabaptists, so called. But they were received in peace and with joy
elsewhere, particularly in Cleves, under the Elector of Brandenburg, and
in the Netherlands. ‘When they persecute you in one city,’ saith the
Lord, ‘flee ye into another.’”[18]
About six years after, or in 1659, an edict was issued in Berne, from
which extracts are given in the Martyr-book. If the edict in full brings
no more serious charges against the Baptists than do these extracts, this
paper itself may be regarded as a noble vindication of the Anabaptists of
Switzerland at this era.
According to the substance of this Bernese edict the teachers of this
people—_i.e._, the preachers—were to be seized wherever they could be
sought out, “and brought to our orphan asylum to receive the treatment
necessary to their conversion; or, if they persist in their obstinacy,
they are to receive the punishment in such cases belonging. Meantime the
officers are to seize their property, and present an inventory of the
same.
“To the Baptists in general, who refuse to desist from their error,
the punishment of exile shall be announced. It is our will and command
that they be escorted to the borders, a solemn promise obtained from
them, since they will not swear, and that they be banished entirely from
our country till it be proved that they have been converted. Returning
unconverted, and refusing to recant, they shall be whipped, branded, and
again banished, which condign punishment is founded upon the following
reasons and motives:
“1. All subjects should confirm with an oath the allegiance which they
owe to the authorities ordained them of God. The Anabaptists, who refuse
the oath, cannot be tolerated.
“2. Subjects should acknowledge that the magistracy is from God, and with
God. But the Anabaptists, who declare that the magisterial office cannot
exist in the Christian church, are not to be tolerated in the country.
“3. All subjects are bound to protect and defend their country. But the
Anabaptists refuse to bear arms, and cannot be tolerated....
“5. The magistracy is ordained of God to punish evil-doers, especially
murderers, etc. But the Anabaptists refuse to report these to the
authorities, and therefore they cannot be tolerated.[19]
“6. Those who refuse to submit to the wholesome ordinances of the
government, and who act in opposition to it, cannot be tolerated. Now the
Anabaptists transgress in the following manner:
“They preach without the calling of the magistracy; baptize without the
command of the authorities; ... and do not attend the meetings of the
church.
“We have unanimously resolved that all should inflict banishment and the
other penalties against all who belong to this corrupted and extremely
dangerous and wicked sect, that they may make no further progress, but
that the country may be freed from them; on which, in grace, we rely.
“As regards the estate of the disobedient exiles, or of those who have
run away, it shall, after deducting costs, be divided among the wives and
children who remain in obedience.
“We command that no person shall lodge nor give dwelling to a Baptist,
whether related to him or not, nor afford him the necessaries of life.
But every one of our persuasion should be exhorted to report whatever
information he can obtain of them to the high bailiff.
“And an especial proclamation of this last article shall be made from the
pulpit.”
This Bernese edict, being read in all parts, was a source of great
distress, and it appeared to the Baptists as if “the beautiful flower
of the orthodox Christian church” would be entirely extirpated in those
parts.
It was therefore concluded to send certain persons from the cities of
Dordrecht, Leyden, Amsterdam, etc., to the Hague, where the puissant
States-General were in session, to induce them to send petitions to Berne
and Zurich for the relief of the people suffering oppression.
The States-General, as “kind fathers of the poor, the miserable, and the
oppressed,” took immediate cognizance of the matter.
Letters were written “to the lords of Berne” for the liberation of
prisoners, etc., and to the lords of Zurich for the restoration of the
property of the imprisoned, deceased, and exiled Baptists. The letter to
Berne narrates (in brief) that “the States-General have learned, from
persons called in this country Mennonists, that their brethren called
Anabaptists suffer great persecution at Berne, being forbidden to
live in the country, but not allowed to remove with their families and
property. We have likewise learned that some of them have been closely
confined; which has moved us to Christian compassion.
“We request you, after the good example of the lords-regent of
Schaffhausen, to grant the petitioners time to depart with their families
and property wherever they choose. To this end we request you to consider
that when, in 1655, the Waldenses were so virulently persecuted by the
Romans for the confession of their Reformed religion, and the necessities
of the dispersed people could not be relieved but by large collections
raised in England, this country, etc., the churches of the Baptists, upon
the simple recommendation of their governments, and in Christian love and
compassion, contributed with so much benevolence that a remarkably large
sum was raised.... Farewell, etc. At the Hague, 1660.”
The letter of the States-General to Zurich is similar to the foregoing
abstract.
Besides these acts of the States-General, several cities of the United
Netherlands, being entirely opposed to restraint of conscience, reproved
“the members of their society in Switzerland,” and exhorted them to
gentleness.
Thus, the burgomasters and lords of Rotterdam, speaking in behalf of
the elders of the church called Mennonist, whose fellow-believers in
Berne are called in derision Anabaptists: “As to ourselves, honorable
lords, we are of opinion that these men can be safely tolerated in the
commonwealth, and for this judgment we have to thank William, Prince of
Orange, of blessed memory, who established, by his bravery, liberty of
conscience for us, and could never be induced to deprive the Mennonites
of citizenship.
“We have never repented of this, for we have never learned that these
people have sought to excite sedition, but, on the contrary, they have
cheerfully paid their taxes.
“Although they confess that Christians cannot conscientiously act as
officers of government, and are opposed to swearing, yet they do not
refuse obedience to the authorities, and, if they are convicted of a
violation of truth, are willing to undergo the punishment due to perjury.
We indulge the hope that your lordships will either repeal the onerous
decree against the Mennonists or at least grant to the poor wanderers
sufficient time to make their preparations, and procure residences in
other places.
“When this is done, your lordships will have accomplished a measure
well pleasing to God, advantageous to the name of the Reformed, and
gratifying to us who are connected with your lordships in the close ties
of religion. Rotterdam, 1660.”
These appeals of the States-General and of the cities of Holland seem to
have had very little effect, at least upon the authorities of Berne, for
there arose eleven years later, or in 1671, another severe persecution
of the Baptists in that canton, which was so virulent that it seemed as
if the authorities would not cease until they had expelled that people
entirely.
In consequence of this, seven hundred persons, old and young, were
constrained to forsake their property, relations, and country, and
retire to the Palatinate. Some of them, it seems, took refuge in Alsace,
above Strasburg.
An extract from a letter given in the Martyr-book says, “Some follow
chopping wood, others labor in the vineyards; hoping, I suppose, that
after some time tranquillity will be restored, and they will be able to
return to their habitations; but I am afraid that this will not happen
soon.... The authorities of Berne had six of the prisoners (one of whom
was a man that had nine children) put in chains and sold as galley-slaves
between Milan and Malta.”
(We may infer that this, however, was not the first infliction of this
punishment at Berne. A list in the Martyr-book of persons put to death
for their faith concludes thus: “Copied from the letter of Hans Loersch,
while in prison at Berne, 1667, whence he was taken in chains to sea.”)
This severe penalty of being sold as slaves to row the galleys or great
sail-boats which traversed the Mediterranean was also impending over
other able-bodied prisoners, as it is said, but “a lord of Berne,” named
Beatus, was excited to compassion, and obtained permission that the
prisoners should leave the country upon bail that they would not return
without permission.
In the year 1672 the brethren in the United Netherlands (the Mennonites
or Baptists) sent some of their members into the Palatinate to inquire
into the condition of the refugees, and the latter were comforted and
supported by the assistance of the churches and members of the United
Netherlands.
There were among the refugees husbands and wives who had to abandon
their consorts, who belonged to the Reformed Church and could not think
of removal. Among these were two ministers, whose families did not belong
to the church (Baptist), and who had to leave without finding whether
their wives would go with them, or whether they loved their property more
than their husbands. “Such incidents occasioned the greater distress,
since the authorities granted such persons remaining permission to marry
again.”[20]
Alsace and the Palatinate (lying upon the Rhine), where our Swiss exiles
had taken refuge, were soon after devastated in the great wars of their
ambitious neighbor, Louis XIV., King of France. Turenne, the French
general, put the Palatinate, a fine and fertile country, full of populous
towns and villages, to fire and sword. The Elector Palatine, from the top
of his castle at Mannheim, beheld two cities and twenty towns in flames.
Turenne, with the same indifference, destroyed the ovens, and laid waste
part of the country of Alsace, to prevent the enemy from subsisting.[21]
About fourteen years after, or in the winter of 1688-89, the Palatinate
was again ravaged by the French king’s army. The French generals gave
notice to the towns but lately repaired, and then so flourishing, to
the villages, etc., that their inhabitants must quit their dwellings,
although it was then the dead of winter; for all was to be destroyed by
fire and sword.
“The flames with which Turenne had destroyed two towns and twenty
villages of the Palatinate were but sparks in comparison to this last
terrible destruction, which all Europe looked upon with horror.”[22]
Between the time of these two great raids there occurred several
noteworthy incidents. There came to Holland and Germany, in the year
1677, a man who was then of little note, a man of peace, belonging to
a new and persecuted sect, but who has since become better known in
history, at least to us who inhabit Pennsylvania, than Marshal Turenne,
or the great Louis XIV. himself. It was the colonizer and statesman, the
Quaker William Penn.
The Elector Palatine then reigning was a relative of the King of England.
Penn failed to see this prince, but he addressed a letter to him, to the
“Prince Elector Palatine of Heydelbergh,” in which he desires to know
“what encouragement a colony of virtuous and industrious families might
hope to receive from thee, in case they should transplant themselves into
this country, which certainly in itself is very excellent, respecting
taxes, oaths, arms, etc.”
I know not what encouragement, if any, the Elector offered to Penn; but
only about four years later Penn’s great colony was founded across the
Atlantic, a colony which afforded refuge to many “Palatines.”[23]
Of this journey to Germany and Holland, just spoken of, Penn kept
a journal, and there is mention made at Amsterdam of Baptists and
“Menists,” or Mennonites; but whether he ever met on the Continent any
of our Swiss exiles I do not find stated in history. Of his other two
journeys to Germany, no journal has been found.
Eight years after Penn’s journey there occurred, in the year 1685, a
circumstance which may have especially interested our Swiss Baptists and
have operated to bring their colony to Pennsylvania; for in June of that
year the Elector Palatine dying without issue, the electoral dignity went
to a Roman Catholic family.[24]
The Swiss exiles that first took refuge in Lancaster County came here
about thirty-eight years after the severe Bernese persecution of 1671.
Rupp, the historian of our county, tells us that in 1706 or 1707 a
number of the persecuted Swiss Mennonites went to England and made
a particular agreement with the honorable proprietor, William Penn,
for lands. He further says that several families from the Palatinate,
descendants of the distressed Swiss, emigrated to America and settled in
Lancaster County in the year 1709.[25]
The sympathy of the Society of Friends, William Penn’s co-religionists,
was at this time called out for this people in a substantial manner.
Barclay says, “Not only did the leaders of the early Society of Friends
take great interest in the Mennonites, but the Yearly Meeting of
1709 contributed fifty pounds (a very large sum at that time) for the
Mennonites of the Palatinate who had fled from the persecution of the
Calvinists in Switzerland.”[26]