USA > Pennsylvania > Historic background and annals of the Swiss and German pioneer settlers of southeastern Pennsylvania, and of their remote ancestors, from the middle of the Dark Ages, down to the time of the Revolutionary War > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
In the course of this narration of the sufferings of our early Swiss and German non-resistant ancestors, we now meet a name very familiar and very famous in our country,-the name Herr. Mr. Jacob Schnebeli of Obfelden, Switzerland, a historian of note there informs me that in 1440 Hansley Herr was one of the brave garrison of Greifensee, Canton of Zurich, of 60 men, in the "Old Zu- rich War," who under Wildhans von Breitenlandenburg, defended the cas- tle; and after the fall of the Castle was beheaded, May 27, 1444. Hansley
1 :
i
7
HORRIBLE SLAUGHTER OF WALDENSEANS
Herr was from Hagnau, Switzerland, near Uster. Thus while the Herrs are now non-resistant, some of them, at least, did not become Anabaptists or Waldenseans before 1450. But later they did largely become Walden- seans and eventually Mennonites; and a tradition in their own family is to the effect that, the broken spears which are a part of their coat of arms indicate that they denounced Knighthood and war and became non- resistant Christians.
Mr. Schnebeli wrote me also that the names of Christian and Hans Herr (now so familiar in our Coun- ty) were found in 1450 in the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland; and that an early branch of the Herr family was settled in the upper part of the Can- ton of Zurich (Southeast) called Zu- richer Oberland in very early times. The Tchudi and other familiar Lan- caster county families came from Glarus.
In 1453 says the author of the "Eby Family" the whole valley of the Lu- zerne in Switzerland was put under an edict against the Waldenses by the Church of Rome.
Persecutions of the Non-Resistant Christians in the Fifteenth Century.
The next prominent persecution re- corded by history against the non- resisting Waldenses is that which oc- curred in 1457 at Eichstadt, in Ger- many, (M. Mirror, p. 335).
In a convention in Sholka in 1467 the leader of the Bohemian brethren in the presence of the German Waldenses was consecrated through a Roman Waldensean priest, from the first church, (Müller, p. 65).
Showing that the doctrine of the Waldenses in every country where they existed was the same at all times as that which early in the 16th cen- tury they handed down to the Menno- nites, I relate that infant baptism was rejected by the brethren of Bohe- mia and Moravia. (Thus also the
early Moravians believed in the same faith.) They did not pay their preachers a salary but depended on hospitality. Their apostles or travel- ing preachers went throughout all the countries to Moscow, Asia Minor and Egypt. Their Bohemian teachers came on to Switzerland in 1474, (See Mül- ler, p. 56). Bohemia as we all know is part of the Austria Hungarian Mon- archy and lies northeast of Switzer- land, being separated from it by the province of Bavaria, part of the Ger- man Empire. Thus in our Mennonite researches it is interesting to notice that not only from Italy on the south but from Bohemia on the east, the Waldensean faith came into Switzer- land-one of the ancient homes of the Mennonites. In Bohemia too during this century the persecutions raged. The Spanish inquisition plied its fear- ful and horrible butcheries at this time, (M. Mirror, p. 336). In Ger- many also there were tortures and John of Wesel who was teaching the Waldensean faith at Worms was burned, (Do.).
The Waldenses who lived in the Catholic Bishopic of Basil where they began to be numerous about 1487 were one of the most zealous congregations in all Switzerland, and the authorities of the papal church were at their wits' end to know how to suppress them. As we shall show later the authorities of Basil and Berne in the 16th century held a convention to de- vise some plan to get rid of as they called them "these unchristian and damned heretics". (Müller, p. 235).
In 1487 came Pope Innocent's measures to exterminate the Walden- seans says the author of the "Eby Family", (Eby). This bill of the Pope was dated April 25 and in it he asked the whole confederation or league of Papal churches to help wipe the Waldenseans from the earth; and he also sent his legates and other mili- tary officers under Albrecht of Capi-
8
SIXTEENTH CENTURY PERSECUTIONS
taneis to Wallace for this purpose, PERSECUTIONS IN THE 16TH CEN- (Müller, p. 65).
In 149S says Müller. p. 65, a Bo- hemian deputation of the Waldenseans were present in Upper Italy as spec- tators, when Savanarola was burned for his faith in the mild doctrine. In this year under Pope Alexander VI this faithful and powerful Christian was strangled to death and then burned to ashes. He helped to pre- serve in large part the faith which the Waldenses kept inviolate and handed down to the Mennonites, who in the next century gladly received it.
And thus ended the 15th century amid blood and martyrdom. Those who first about the year 850 in a weak way announced their dissent from the Church of Rome, and their approval of what they understood to be the plain simple teachings of the Savior, found themselves greatly strengthened about 1175 by the sect of the Waldenseans. These spread throughout Southern and Central Europe in swarms and through fire and the sword and all manner of per- secution and death turned upon them, defended the doctrine until the end of the 15th century and into the 16th, when about 1527 the new sect of the Mennonites accepted the same from the old Waldenseans, and also de- fended it and died for it as we shall see through two full centuries and more, in face of both Catholic and Re- formed tortures against them; and finally taking it to Holland and the Palatinate for safety, handed it down in all its purity to the new world in the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury.
Before we can describe the events of that happy latter century, the blood and the turmoil, and torture and martyr-death of the 16th and the 17th centuries lie before us, which we must next proceed to narrate.
TURY OF PENNSYLVANIA'S EUROPEAN ANTE- CEDENTS
1500-Menno Simon
This century begins with the in- fanthood of a notable character in religious history, - Menno Simon, founder of the Mennonites. He tells us he was born in 1496 in Witmarsum, Friedland, in Holland. See his story of his conversion in Funk's "Com- plete Works" of Menno Simon (Elk- hart, 1871) page 3. He says, "In the year 1524, then in my 28th year, I un- dertook the duties of a priest, etc." Rupp, (p. 84) therefore mistakably fixes his birth in 1505. Thus the Mennonite faith dates back nearly to the discovery of America. Indeed, as we have shown before, it is several hundred years older than that, as without much modification it was and is a continuation of the Waldensean doctrine, beginning at least as early as 1170. The coming of Menno Si- mon simply changed the name of one branch of the Waldensean sect; and gave new strength and vigor to its believers.
1507 - Non- Resisting Waldenseans Persecuted in Hungary. -
As we shall show in a later item, both Holland and Hungary were ripe at this time for the leadership of Menno Simon as the faith which he espoused when he came to mature manhood (the Mennonite Faith) was already strong in these places. Other places had their leaders, viz :- Ger- many had Luther in 1517 and Switzer- and had Zwingli about the same date. But Hungary and Holland including Moravia, etc., had to wait for Menno Simon about 1525. We shall give more of this later. In 1507 the Waldenses of Hungary and Moravia delivered a defense of their faith against certain unfounded accusations, because of which they were persecuted. This de-
9
MENNONITES AND REFORMERS CO-EXISTENT
fense they made to the king of Bo- hemia, (M. Mirror, p. 397).
1509-Holland Mennonites Flee to Germany.
The Congregation of Mennonites at Leer, a Prussian town on the Leeda river, at the beginning of this century was Flemish, that is, they were not native Germans, but came from Flan- ders, which in these early days in- cluded parts of Holland, Belgium and France. Thus the earliest centers of distinctively Mennonite faith were Holland and adjacent places, and Hungary. In 1509 they had ap- proached East Friedland, in Holland and were settled there. One of them suffered the death of a Martyr this same year at Holstein. Persecutions at once were begun against them by the Roman Church and the Govern- ment in Flanders, and they fled to Germany and particularly to Cologne, (See A. Brons, Annabaptists or Men- nonites of Europe, page 245-a Ger- man work published in Norden).
1510-Mennonites and "Reformation" Growing Up Together
From the convent of Trub in Bo- hemia the reformation was promoted early. The Abbott, Thuring Rust of Wahlhusen, famous until 1510 as Vi- car in Lauperswyl (Austria) felt him- self possessed of the new faith. He resigned the dignity of Abbott and went out to the little valley of the Trub Mountains, and married and supported himself and his wife by making shingles, and carried on the Reformation in the Valley, (Müller, p. 22). He left the Church of Rome, which forbade him as an Abbot from marrying and became a "Reforma- tionist."
We cite this passage from Müller to show that the various branches of the Protestant Church, especially the Mennonites, Reformed, Lutheran and Moravian branches grew out of the same causes-the abuses and degen-
eracy of the Church of Rome. Differ- ent leaders took hold of it in differ- ent places in Central Europe about the same time. They all suffered persecution from the Established Church and State; but some defended by war while others did not resist. This difference in the manner of meeting persecution in the course of one hundred years or more caused a wide difference between these branches of the great body of Re- formers and with differences of view on the subject of baptism and other questions gave rise to a new perse- cution by one branch of the new faith against another and thus we later find the Reformed and Lutherans, persecuting and destroying the Men- nonites, more severely than Rome ever did.
1510-Conditions Which Moved Lu- ther and Zwingli.
Brons tells us (p. 13) that as Lu- ther when he went in 1510 to Rome became acquainted with the . corrup- tion of the heads of the establish- ed church, so also Zwingli had his eyes opened as Chaplain among the soldiers of the Romish army in Switzerland; and from being a
staunch defender of that faith he turned aside to find purity; and this helped to prepare him to join with zeal and go into the cause, which the old Waldenses started and which Lu- therans, Reformed and Mennonites were now carrying on. He and Lu- ther differed widely on the question of the sacrament and their followers differ today on the same point.
1515-The First Fierce Effort to De- stroy the Holland Mennonites.
About this time the Bishop of Ut- recht caused thirty-five towns in Hol- land to be burned, to purge the Country of the Waldensean descen- dants (who a few years later were called Mennonites). This was the condition under papal power. While
10
WICKED CONDITION OF ZURICH
it may astound us to learn that a Bishop could do this, we must not for- get that such was the power of the State Church, that almost anything it asked of the civil rulers, those rulers gave the Church power to carry out. About the same time came floods and conflagration and famine; and the people believing that this was a pun- ishment on them for leaving the Romish church, again went back to it for consolation; but they found no consolation. Instead they found con- tinual demands for heavy pay- ments of money to pay for spiritual benefits as they were called. No wonder says Brons, (p. 397) the people lost faith in the church and lifted their hearts and minds to
Heaven. Thus suffered these Wald- ensean parents of the Mennonites in Holland in the beginnig of the 16th century.
1515-Zwingli Still Adheres to Ro- mish Church-Not Friendly to the Mennonites.
In 1515 Zwingli a second time went with the banner of the Canton of Glarus as chaplain to Italy. The Swiss troops were to drive out the French who had made a stand at Milan. But here bribed by French gold, they made a disgraceful treaty with the French. Zwingli now preached with wrath against this bribery and want of fidelity to Keiser and Pope and the honor of Switzerland, (Brons, p. 13).
We jot down this item simply be- cause it gives us a view of the atti- tude of Switzerland and particularly of the Canton or State of Glarus at this time. We remember that Glarus was the ancient home of a branch of the Herrs. The Reformer Zwingli, who later found many of the same faults with the Church of Rome as did the Mennonites had not yet re- nounced papacy, though as we no- ticed in a former article, he denounc- ed many of its doings.
1516-Zwingli Begins Approving the Waldensean Faith.
Zwingli now accepted a position as preacher in the Abbey of Maria Ein- sielden, and he found rest though still a Catholic. He. now began to preach to the pilgrims who came for forgiveness of sins. He told them they must not rely on indulgences and that all outward service is in vain -- that the picture of Mary has no power-and no priest could for- give sins. Many a seed corn did the pilgrims carry away with them from his speeches, (Do.)
Then too, Erasmus from Rotterdam published a Greek new testament for the priests as the language of the priests was in Greek.
1518-Wicked Condition of Zürich.
In 1518 Zwingli accepted a call as secular priest in Zurich. There were there delegates and foreign powers and Swiss soldiers to be enlisted. Money flowed in streams to Zurich. Zwingli saw here that there was great looseness of morals-great joy, delight and pasttimes. Gentlemen and boys took to drink, gambling and courting. Some of the first families took the lead in this abandon. Zwingli saw that the heads of the Church made sport of the commandment to fast and on Palm Sunday they made pig roasts. These things influenced Zwingli. He says on these festive days the people played, fought, gambled, drank and committed mortal sins. If one mended shoes during this holy season, he was called a heretic; but not if he did these things. For all this he says the State Church was the fault.
We insert this item simply to show the condition of Zurich at this time just about the time the Mennonites began to grow in this sink of iniquity, where religious degeneracy was rank and the government winked at it.
---------
-
11
NENNONITES IN BOHEMIA AND HOLLAND
1519-Swiss Government Frowns on the Rising Reformed and Menno- nite Doctrine.
Egli in his Züricher Wiedertauffer Zur Reformationszeit, a German work published in Zürich, he says, (p. 7), that it has been said when Zwingli came to Zürich in 1519 to preach the new doctrine the Government powers were in his favor-blamed the wick- edness of the place on the Roman Church and wanted to get rid of it. But he says it would be wrong to say the heads of the State were with him, for the Council of that day were anx- iously working against his novelties. And he says the Council forbade at- tacks upon the Romish doctrine.
This is added here only to show the difficulties the Reformed Christian thought, of which the Mennonite was one phase, had to encounter at all times in the places of its origin.
1519-Mennonite Faith in Bohemia.
· In 1519 John Schlechta of Gostelek had written to Erasmus, concerning the Bohemian brethren, (Moravians). He was told that they choose out of the laity and not the learned Greek bishops and priests to teach them. Their ministers married and had wives and children-they called them- selves brethren and sisters and recog- nized only the Old and New Testa- ments as sacred, despising all other teachers. Those who joined the sect were obliged to submit to baptisms with ordinary water, (not Holy Water). They regarded the sacra- ment as a memorial of the sufferings of Christ. They regarded petitions to priests, pennances, auricular confes- sions as out of place. They kept Sun- day, Christmas, Easter, etc., (Müller, p. 56).
These people we see were Walden- seans of Bohemia, a species of Men- nonites in early times, afterwards Moravians.
Who were the Weldenseans asks Müller? Then he says, "The Catholic Church called the Weldenseans the old Evangelicals, who gradually gath- ered in the valleys of the Piedmont and around Mt. Visa, on the borders of France." By the same name the Catholic Church called all the Evan- gelicals of Germany and Switzerland, who like the Piedmont brethren be- fore the reformation adhered to the old Evangelical principles in opposi- tion to the Romish Church, (Müller, p. 56). They stretched from Southern France and Bohemia and Northward and Southward across the Alps.
1520-Mennonite Faith in Holland.
Says Müller, (p. 159) the Dutch Baptists (or Mennonites) derived their origin from the Waldenses who lived there. He also calls our atten- tions to a letter spoken of by Brons from the Swiss Baptists (or Menno- nites) in 1522. This shows the con- nection of Swiss and Holland Menno- nites very early. .
Other authorities relied on by Mül- ler prove that from 1520 to 30 Swiss refugees were already present in Amsterdam, Holland with their Men- nonite brethren. The Reformation movement in the Netherdands from the beginning had all the marks of being led off by these Baptists or Mennonites, says Müller (Do.). Menno Simon a little later became the leader through his serious reflection upon the execution of Sicke Schneider, who was thus executed because he was re-baptized, deeming his infant bap- tism in the Roman Church of no avail.
1521 - Decree Against Mennonites Zwinglians and Lutherans.
This year, under permission of Um- peror Charles V of Germany, a decree was issued forbidding anyone to read, buy, carry, give or have possession of any book containing the doctrines of the Mennonites, Zwinglians or Lu-
12
EARLY MENNONITE HOLD IN BERNE
therans. This decree was not made by the State; but by the mother Church, yet tolerated by the State. An old writer calls it, "the first prohibition or decree concerning religion and brought into the Netherlands without the consent of the State-rather toler- ated than confirmed by the State". The reason for this decree is explain- ed by Brons, (p. 57). Congregations of the mother church were fast going to pieces and something had to be done. He says, "The movement (Anabap- tism) was going on. The churches became empty, the sacraments neg- lected, children not baptized, monks and nuns were leaving the convents and the preachers became indifferent to the mother church. Thus Charles
Of course if the Government of V ordered those who were indifferent Berne would dismiss such charges as to be punished."
1522-Swiss Became Religious Refugees.
Brons speaks (p. 53) of fifty con- gregations, presumably Swiss, out of which the delegates, elders and teach- ers, numbering 600 had gathered at Strasburg about 1522. At least, he says, most of them were Swiss refu- gees, while other Swiss joined the Bo- hemians and Moravians, within the Wald as ancient documents show. The Canton of Switzerland, South of Zurich is called Unter Walden. Lu- ther had correspondence with these Waldensean or Mennonite refugees in 1522.
1522-The Waldensean "Reform" in Berne.
Says Müller, "In Berne we find a vigorous reform spirit in the aspiring element of the citizens, or the pro- gressive, intelligent and business classes. Especially in all the guilds. The Munster Cathedral stone masons showed themselves full of it." It is supposed that we generally know that about the end of the middle ages the guilds or lodges of cut stone masons
and mechanics were very intellectu- ally and artistically advanced and that they had a monopoly of all Ca- thedral building in Central Europe, (Müller, p. 20).
Müller continues that when in 1522 the dean of Münsingen prosecuted the Minister York Bruner in Kleinhoch- stetten before the Council of Berne, the Council took the side of Bruner and sentenced the Chapter of Mün- singen to pay the costs. Bruner's of- fense was that of speaking publicly of the Pope, cardinals and bishops, as devils and anti-christs and the priests and monks as cheats, seducers and oppressors of the poor; and wolves who kill and destroy body and soul.
not heretical, it shows that the Coun- cil and all the heads of the Berne Government at this time were ap- provers of or at least not opponents of the reformed doctrines of the Waldenseans and Zwinglians, which were taking root here.
Müller also tells us, (p. 159) that in 1522, these Anabaptists were in different parts of Switzerland and wrote letters encouraging other sec- tions.
1522-Early Hold of the Mennonite Doctrines in Berne.
The Bible in the time of the Refor- mation had a wide circulation and this was the same in Berne as else- where. In a Shrove Tuesday play or drama in 1522 written by Nicholas Manuel, the monks in the play com- plain that the farmers know all about the New Testament. Among the Weldenseans the Sermon on the Mount and the apostolic administra- tions were regarded as the law of those Christian communities. Müller continues (p. 54) and says the chief question as to the Reformn in the early fifteen hundreds is whether there is only family or race relation-
:
1
:
13
MENNONITE GROWTH IN ZURICH
ship between the Baptists or Anabap- tists of the time and the old Walden- seans or whether both these concep- tions of the Reform movement are different phenomena of one and the same religious community. .
Thus Müller argues that there is a close relationship between the early Baptist or Mennonite views and the Reformed and Lutheran views, and that both have many points of belief, identical with the ancient Waldenses. But whether these beliefs were in- herited ones or beliefs merely adopted and just happened to be similar to the ancient Waldensean belief, he does not undertake to say. However this be, our ancient Mennonite faith grew up out of the same soil as did that of the followers of Waldo in 1170.
1523-Melchoir Hoffman's Religious Labors in Zurich.
Melchoir Hoffman born in Swabia, (anciently the Northern part of Switzerland; and as we have seen, home of a branch of the Herr family) was a tanner by trade about 1523, in Waldshut. When the movement of re- ligious reformation began, which emanated from Zurich, inspired him with the contents of the Bible which many common people now first began to read, he became a great student of it and learned it. In the Wald, in Switzerland, he began to make his faith known. Even in Zurich as Zwingli says, in a letter dated 1523, this pious Anabaptist's work and ac- tivity were felt. Hoffman went fur- ther than Zwingli. £ He did not stop with the "Reformed " principles but embraced what were then Anabap- tists' views, similar to the new Men- nonite non - resistant doctrine. Zwin- gli says of him, "The good-for- nothing fellow who dresses hides has turned up here as an evangelist and has brought me under suspicion." Contemporaries speak of Hoffman as a man of strictly moral walk and con-
versation,-having great eloquence and holy zeal for the cause, (See Brons, p. 373). I mention him be- cause his is a familiar Lancaster county name; and because he seems to have been a vessel filled with Men- nonite doctrine in and about Zurich, the home of many of our eastern Pennsylvanians' ancestors.
1523-Zurich Officials Favor the New Religion, But Fear the Estab- lished Church.
In Dr. Emil Egli's Zurichter Weid- ertaufer (p. 8), it is stated that the Government was in sympathy with the great mass of people rising from the corruption in religious matters and freeing themselves to do their own thinking as the Bible taught them; but against the Roman Church as an institution did nothing. The Government went only so far as the public compelled. The Government held back as long as it could says Egli, and therefore so much more jeal- ous became the Reformers. Zwing- lians, Lutherans and Evangelicals all had strong friends in the Government officers.
1523-The Anabaptist (Mennonite) Movement in Zurich.
Says Dr. Egli, (p. 10), the Evangeli- cals showed as much zeal as the Re- formed and Lutherans. Simon Stumpf of Hongg, near Zurich, began teach- ing the mild doctrine; and Rouplin seems to have taught the same doc- trine in Wyttikon, Switzerland. At least the Council in the Spring of 1523 took action with regard to the tithes of his congregation. That is, that un- like the Lutherans and Reformed, (who while they did not longer prac- tice the doctrine of the Roman Church, continued to give tithes for the use of the buildings in which they worshipped, as they were the property of the Catholic Church), Rouplin asserted that his congrega-
.
14
EARLY MENNONITE LEADERS
tion was cut loose entirely from the Roman Church and that the buildings belonged to this congregation. So they refused to pay tithes and they not only ceased worshipping, but took down and removed the pictures of the Virgin and various saints. Thus we learn that soon a radical party was gathered, and opposed this delay of the Government. From this founda- tion the Zurich Anabaptism or Men- nonitism took its rise, says Egli.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.