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MENNONITES

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 132 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MENNONITES , a See also:

body of religionists who take their name from Menno Simons (see below), the most valued exponent of their principles. They maintain a See also:form of See also:Christianity which, discarding the sacerdotal See also:idea, owns no authority outside the See also:Bible and the enlightened See also:conscience, limits See also:baptism to the believer, and See also:lays stress on those precepts which. vindicate the sanctity of human See also:life and of a See also:man's word. The See also:place of origin of the views afterwards called Mennonite (see See also:BAPTISTS)' was See also:Zurich, where in 1523 a small community See also:left the See also:state See also:church and (from See also:Jan. 18, 1525) adopted the tenet of believers' baptism. Unlike other Reformers, they denied at once the See also:Christian See also:character of the existing church and of the See also:civil authority, though, in See also:common with the first Christians, it was their See also:duty to obey all lawful requirements of an See also:alien See also:power. By Protestants as much as by Catholics this position was not unnaturally regarded as subversive of the established See also:foundations of society. Hence the See also:bitter persecutions which, when the safety of See also:toleration was not imagined, made martyrs of these humble folk, who simply wished to cultivate the religious life apart from the See also:world. There was something in this ideal which answered to that See also:medieval conception of separation from the world which had leavened all See also:middle-class society in See also:Europe; and the revolt from See also:Rome had prepared many minds to accept the further idea of separation from the church, for the pursuit of holiness in a society pledged to See also:primitive discipline. Hence the new teaching and praxis spread rapidly from Switzer-See also:land to See also:Germany, See also:Holland and See also:France. While the horrors of the See also:Munster fanaticism, which culminated in 1534, made See also:Ana, baptism a byword, and increased the severity of a persecution directed against all Baptists indiscriminately, the reaction against the fatal errors of the Munster experiment increased also the adherents of communities which discarded the See also:sword; thus Menno was brought into their ranks. Each community was See also:independent, See also:united with others only by the See also:bond of love. There was no See also:hierarchy (as with the See also:Familists), but " exhorters " chosen by the members, among them " elders " for administering baptism and the See also:Lord's Supper; an arrangement so readily renewed that the sure way of putting down such a body was the See also:execution of all its constituents, often by drowning, anappropriate end, according to See also:Zwingli's quip.

The remnant of the Swiss Mennonites (not tolerated till 1710) See also:

broke in 1620 into two parties, the Uplanders (or Amish, from their See also:leader See also:Jacob See also:Amen) holding against the Lowlanders that See also:excommunication of See also:husband or wife dissolved See also:marriage, and that razors and buttons were unlawful. In Holland the Mennonites have always been numerous. An offshoot from them at Rhijnsburg in 1618, founded by the four See also:brothers, farmers, See also:Van der Kodde, and named Collegianten from their meetings, termed collegia (thus, as not churches, escaping the penal See also:laws), has been compared to the See also:Plymouth Brethren, but differed in so far as they required no conformity of religious See also:opinion, and recognized no See also:office of teacher. With them, as See also:Martineau notes, See also:Spinoza had " an intense See also:fellow-feeling." Later, the exiled Socinians from See also:Poland (166o) were' in many cases received into membership. There had previously been overtures, more than once, for See also:union with Mennonites on the See also:part of See also:Polish Socinians, who agreed with them in the rejection of oaths, the refusal to take human life, the consequent See also:abstinence from military service and magisterial office, and in the Biblical basis of See also:doctrine; See also:differences of doctrinal See also:interpretation precluded any See also:fusion. In Holland the Mennonites were exempted from military service in 1575, from See also:oath-taking in 1585, from public office in 1617. In See also:Zeeland exemption, from military service and oaths was granted in 1577; afterwards, as in See also:Friesland, a heavy See also:poll tax was the See also:price of exemption from military service; but since 1795 they have enjoyed a legal exemption from oath-taking. In France the Mennonites of the See also:Vosges were exempted from military service in 1793, an exemption confirmed by See also:Napoleon, who employed them in See also:hospital service on his See also:campaigns. That he did not exempt the Dutch Mennonites is due to the fact that " they had ceased to See also:present a united front of resistance to military claims " (Martineau); in fact they sent a large See also:band of See also:volunteers to See also:Waterloo (See also:Barclay). While in Germany the Mennonites exist in considerable See also:numbers, more important are the See also:German Mennonite colonies in See also:southern See also:Russia, brought there in 1786 by See also:Catherine II., and freed, by the See also:grant of See also:complete religious See also:liberty, from the hardships imposed by Prussian military See also:law. These colonies have sent many emigrants to See also:America, where their See also:oldest community was settled (1683) at See also:Germantown, See also:Pennsylvania. Their See also:settlement in See also:Canada See also:dates from 1786.

Among the See also:

American Mennonites there are three sections, and a progressive party, known as New School Mennonites. S. See also:Cramer gives (1903) the following See also:statistics: in all, some 250,000 members, of whom over 8o,000 are in the United States, 70,000 in Russia, 6o,000 in Holland, 2o,000 in Canada, 18,000 in Germany, 1500. in See also:Switzerland, Boo in France, and the same number in Poland and See also:Galicia. (A. Go.

End of Article: MENNONITES

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