MENNONITES IN EUROPE
Menno Simon, the founder of the Mennonite Sect was born in Friesland (Holland)
in 1505. Although becoming a Roman Catholic priest in 1529, after later
examining the New Testament for himself, he seceded from the Church. "About
1537 he was earnestly solicited by many Protestants to take upon himself the
rank and functions of a public teacher, which he did. He founded many
congregations, suffered more persecution and endured more than all of the
Reformers of his day, dying at Fresenburg, January 31, 1561."(1)
Mennonites (Anabaptists) did not believe in infant baptism. Instead, they were
convinced that the Scripture taught that the ceremony should be postponed until
adolescence when the candidate could recognize the spiritual significance of the
act, the washing away of sin. Mennonites (Anabaptists) "suffered continuous
persecution in Switzerland. In addition to their insistence upon adult baptism
and their opposition to a state church, their refusal to take oaths or bear arms
had made them objects of condemnation. Many were executed by drowning, burning,
and beheading…the mildest sentence was exile and confiscation of property,
forbidding a return to Switzerland on pain of death."(2)
There was a division among the congregations of Mennonites in Berne, Switzerland
in 1693, a faction following Jacob Ammon (the Amish) while the remainder stayed
under the leadership of Hans Reist. This split originated in Holland and was
based upon strictness vs. liberality of rules. Those who believed in a strict
unworldliness followed Jacob Ammon.(3) The schism in no way alleviated the
persecution, however.
During the late 1600's William Penn visited Switzerland and Germany touting the
advantages of his colony in the New World, especially its freedom from religious
persecution. "It was the Reist Mennonites who first reached the Pequea
valley here in Pennsylvania."(4) The first influx of immigrants arrived
around 1710 with another around 1717. Those coming from Germany were very often
Swiss exiles (as were the Brenemans and probably the Stehmans/Stonemans). By
1718 there were 500-600 Mennonites in Lancaster County. There were practically
no other inhabitants in the Conestoga and Pequea Creek valleys at this time
since the Scotch-Irish had not yet come to Donegal.(5)
Even in Pennsylvania the "unworldliness" of the Mennonites led to
conflicts with authorities. The government required naturalization if the
Mennonites expected their children to be heirs. The Mennonites complained of
civil and military domination, being subject to laws which they did not want. "We do not go to the elections -
we do not go to your Courts of Justice - we hold no offices, either civil or
military."6 However, by 1729, an act to invest certain Mennonites with the
privileges of natural-born subjects was passed. This act was apparently never
considered by the Crown but was allowed to become law by lapse of time, in
accordance with the Proprietary Charter. Joseph and Christian Stoneman were
among those invested with all rights, privileges and advantages.
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(1) Ermentrout, Adelaide L. The Story of My Maternal Ancestors: Kendig, Barr, Herr, Breneman, Neff.
(2) Gerberich, Albert H. The Brenneman History, pg. 1.
(3) Eshleman, H. Frank. Swiss and German Pioneer Settlers, pg. 128.
(4) Ibid., pg. 128.
(5) Ibid., pg. 207.
(6) Ibid., pg. 204.