died. But his teachings continued to find adherents. Calling themselves the Unity of Brethren, twenty years after ChelCicky's death they had ten thousand members among the Czechs. Forty years later a similar pacifist movement, the Anabaptists, rose up in German-speaking Switzerland. Such movements became part of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther insisted on nonviolence in personal relations, though he accepted warfare. The Anabaptists of Zurich broke with the Reformation in 1525, when Reformation leader Ul-rich Zwingli would not go as far as they wanted on such issues as a complete ban on violence.
Between 1525 and 1800 more than two hundred decrees were issued by various European governments denouncing the Anabaptists. These denunciations were often based on the Anabaptist position that conscious adult believers should be baptized and not unknowing infants. But they were also denounced for their refusal to bear arms. Like the early Christians, their refusal extended to any participation in the state. They also refused to swear oaths, including oaths of allegiance, a stand that can be traced at least as far back as the Cathars. In the Middle Ages oaths had been essential to the warrior code, and rejecting them was rejecting war. Today oaths seem less important, and most contemporaries never swear an oath. But Americans are still required as young children to pledge allegiance to the flag, one of the first steps in conditioning young Americans for war. This assertion can be easily tested: denounce the saying of the pledge of allegiance and see if the people who are outraged are not the same people who promote war.
The Anabaptists, seen as a threat to the state, were driven out of one town after another, exiled, and sometimes executed. Despite this, or perhaps as a result of their repeated exile, the movementspread as far west as Alsace, throughout Germany, Austria, and the Tirol. They were particularly disliked in Hapsburg lands, as they refused to fight the Turks. One Anabaptist leader, Michael Sattler, argued at his 1527 trial that the Turks were non-Christians and knew nothing of Christ's teachings, while the Christians who would go to war against them were “Turks after the spirit,” pagans who had rejected Christ's teachings. Sattler said he would rather battle them than the Turks. He was executed. Of all the dangerous Anabaptist heresies, none was more threatening to the state than this refusal to fight Turks.
But the movement continued to spread. By the seventeenth century it had traveled north to Holland and east to Poland. In 1658 the Polish Catholic Church forced Anabaptists to either convert to Catholicism or leave. Many left—for Transylvania, Germany, and Holland.
In 1568 Holland began its long war of independence against Spain. Suddenly groups appeared—the Mennonites, the Waterlanders—refusing military service and stating that they would not fight the Spanish. The Mennonites are so called because they followed Menno Simons, a sixteenth-century Dutch Catholic priest who had left the Church to work with the Anabaptist movement. In 1572 the Mennonites went to the prince, William of Orange, challenging the notion always hurled at pacifists, that they were unpatriotic. They told William that they wanted to find a non-violent way to support his cause. The Mennonites offered to raise money for the financially strapped king and with dazzling speed raised a sizable sum from their members. It became a tradition in Holland to tax Mennonites in time of war in exchange for exemption from military service. In the seventeenth century they agreed to serve in noncombatant roles. When Louis XIV of France invaded Holland in 1672, Mennonites volunteered as firemen in besieged cities. Such alternative efforts make pacifists better accepted. But the troubling issue of whether offering services is helping the war would remain for centuries.
A good lesson for the military is that the longer wars last, the less popular
Between 1525 and 1800 more than two hundred decrees were issued by various European governments denouncing the Anabaptists. These denunciations were often based on the Anabaptist position that conscious adult believers should be baptized and not unknowing infants. But they were also denounced for their refusal to bear arms. Like the early Christians, their refusal extended to any participation in the state. They also refused to swear oaths, including oaths of allegiance, a stand that can be traced at least as far back as the Cathars. In the Middle Ages oaths had been essential to the warrior code, and rejecting them was rejecting war. Today oaths seem less important, and most contemporaries never swear an oath. But Americans are still required as young children to pledge allegiance to the flag, one of the first steps in conditioning young Americans for war. This assertion can be easily tested: denounce the saying of the pledge of allegiance and see if the people who are outraged are not the same people who promote war.
The Anabaptists, seen as a threat to the state, were driven out of one town after another, exiled, and sometimes executed. Despite this, or perhaps as a result of their repeated exile, the movementspread as far west as Alsace, throughout Germany, Austria, and the Tirol. They were particularly disliked in Hapsburg lands, as they refused to fight the Turks. One Anabaptist leader, Michael Sattler, argued at his 1527 trial that the Turks were non-Christians and knew nothing of Christ's teachings, while the Christians who would go to war against them were “Turks after the spirit,” pagans who had rejected Christ's teachings. Sattler said he would rather battle them than the Turks. He was executed. Of all the dangerous Anabaptist heresies, none was more threatening to the state than this refusal to fight Turks.
But the movement continued to spread. By the seventeenth century it had traveled north to Holland and east to Poland. In 1658 the Polish Catholic Church forced Anabaptists to either convert to Catholicism or leave. Many left—for Transylvania, Germany, and Holland.
In 1568 Holland began its long war of independence against Spain. Suddenly groups appeared—the Mennonites, the Waterlanders—refusing military service and stating that they would not fight the Spanish. The Mennonites are so called because they followed Menno Simons, a sixteenth-century Dutch Catholic priest who had left the Church to work with the Anabaptist movement. In 1572 the Mennonites went to the prince, William of Orange, challenging the notion always hurled at pacifists, that they were unpatriotic. They told William that they wanted to find a non-violent way to support his cause. The Mennonites offered to raise money for the financially strapped king and with dazzling speed raised a sizable sum from their members. It became a tradition in Holland to tax Mennonites in time of war in exchange for exemption from military service. In the seventeenth century they agreed to serve in noncombatant roles. When Louis XIV of France invaded Holland in 1672, Mennonites volunteered as firemen in besieged cities. Such alternative efforts make pacifists better accepted. But the troubling issue of whether offering services is helping the war would remain for centuries.
A good lesson for the military is that the longer wars last, the less popular
Similar Books
