The Brotherly Union of Schlaten-am-Randen |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 1 of 29 | Next |
|
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
|
This page
All
|
INSTITUTE OF MENN01\JITE STUDIES Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries Elkhart, Indiana (Michael Sattler) The B:--otherly Unio~1 of Schlaten-am-Randen (Schleitheim) 1527 Anticipatory extract from: }. Yoder, ed. The Legacy of Michael Sattler not to be reproduced or quoted I - I/ , ft d@1 I} -13, scdfter -, -. r-·~ ""')J _,;;;f';J.__,...i;;.i 2 f. Introduction to Schleitheim Brotherly Union 1 I. The Significance of the Schleitheim Artie!~ At the beginning of 1527 the Swiss Brethren movement stood in serious danger of disttitegration. The repression from t(1e Protestant side had reached for the first time the level of capital punishment, with the execution of Felix Mantz in Zurich, Jam:a.ry 5. In t:astern Switzerland, where the movement had met with an initial wave of popular success, it had been put down very firmly in the city of St. Gall but the authorities continued to have difficulty in the sur-rounding countryside, especially in the canton of Appenzell, whe1e a combina-tion of state pressure, inadequate leadership, and the socio·economic fermentation of the times led to a degree of disorder which Conrad Grebel was probably at-tempting to counteract when he died of illness in the summer of 1526. Stras-bourg was the place where the greatest likelihood had remained open that an understanding, or at least a possibility of a continuing conversation, might be reached, between the Anabaptists and the official reformation; but this possibility had to be abandoned after Sattler' s visit in Strasbourg. 1 Pressure from the outside, confusion from the inside, loss of the guiding influence (which had never been especially clear or authoritative) of the ZCirich founders, and the growing realization that instead of holding forth a vision for widespread renewal the young movement would have to accept a continuing separate, suffering iden!:ity, combi.'led to make it quite possible that the entire movement might tilter away into the sand&. It was to this need that the Schleit±eim meeting spoke. We know nothing of how the meeting was called, the precise provocation which led it to take place JUSt at this moment, or who participated. The tradition according 3 to which Iv1ichael Sattler was the leading spirit in th~ meeting, and the author ot the aocument reproduced below, is so widespread as to be worthy of be!ief2, even though none of the early traditions to that effect are eye witness reports. This tradition :s confirmed by obvious parallels in thcught and phrasing between the Schleitheim text and the other writings known genuinely to be from Sattler' s har.d. The Seven Articles, which are the heart of the text, were presumably discussed, rewritten, and approved in the course of the meeting. Here Sattler's contriLution may well have been some drafting prim: to the !lleet-ing. The Seven Articles are imbedded in a letter writte11 in the first pe.r-son after the meeting, which is presumably altogether from the pe11 of s~ttler. Scholars have for some time been divided about the primary focus of this meeting. Jan Kiwiet has statea most strongly the argument that the primary polemic focus was upon the threats from within the Anabaptist movement, represented by the broader minds of men like Hans Denck in Germany, with their criticism of the more rigorous discipline of the Swiss Brethren movement. 3 The strength of this inrerpretation lies not in the Seven Articles themselves, but in the cover letter, and in the spirit of some of the other writings in this collection. 4 1 The other interpretation begins with the observation that, differing from a balanced catechism or creed, Schle.ttheim concentrated upon those points at which the brethren diffe:ed from the rest of Protestantism, It was thus a common man's handbook on AnaDaptist distmctives. This interpretatiox: is supported by the co1tent of the Seven Articles themselves, 4 which often circulated without the cover letter. Is is the way this text was understood by the reformers5 and ts today supported by Beatrice Jenny. 6 The present editor sees no real need to choose between these two in-terpretations. If there were persons vying for leadership within the young Anabaptist movement, the most obvious direction in which they would have led, in conflict to the orientation set by the Zurich beginners and Michael Satder, would have been toward a. spiritualizing of the dist:inctiveness of the Risible Anabaptist congregations, with the effect of greater subservience at least superficially, to the state church authorities, and greater con-formity to the pattems of behavior they required. The later documents in this collection confirm that one of the traits of "false prophets" and "evil overseers" was that they justified attendance at State church gatherings. 7 E\•en the antinomian "camal b.berty" of those who argued that sil'ce one is in Christ one can do anything without harm8, may just as appropriately be applied to arguments for conformity to the state church in externals as to drunkenness or disorderly social relations. The idea that if one is a believer one can do anything at all without harm to one's faith was not a pecatiar and licentioLLs invention of some marginal Anabaptist; it was (at least according to the misinterpretation of the popular mind) one of the outworkings cf Lutheran preaching when distorted by the desires of the li.s tener. 9 There is tr.us no ree.son to ne.:!d to decide between the two foci referred to above. The clear statement of what distinguishes the Swiss Brethren movement from the Protestant and Catholic churches was at the same time the solidest defense against confusion and cross purpc st:s within the ranks of the brotherhood. 5 The strategic significanc.e of tne acNevemen.t of Schleitheim is well demonstrated by the rapid and wide circulation of our text. Zwingli re-received his first copy in April from Johannes Oeko!ampad, who in turn had received it from Johannes Grell, a c.ountry pastor near Basel; by the time he wrote his Elenchus in the summer of that year he had in hand four different copies w.hich had come to him from as many different sources. We have surveyed above 10 the number of reprint1ngs and transla-tions which the Brotherly Union, tog~ther wjth some of the other follow-materials, underwent; always in these pamphlets it was the Scbleitheim text which appeared first and which gave its name to the title page of the entire coaection. According to Zwingli. "There is almost no one among you who does not have a copy of your so well founded commandments". 11 Calvin des-cribes the outliue as "seven articles to which all Anabaptists in common adhere • • • which they hold to be a reve1.at!on come down from neaven. "12 The authority which came to be ascribed to the Seven Articles within the Anabaptist movement is demonstrated on one hand by the nearly universal acceptance of the positions it represents, visible even in the repetition of phrasing and arguments in later documents. Especially is this true with regard to articles VI and VII, on the sword and the literal oath, and re-suited in a relatively great uniformity in Anabaptist positions on these mat-ters from now on (Hildebrand, Stayer).13 As late as 1557, we find the im-portance of the meeting being underlined by reference to the fact that one man who attended was the person in whose home the agreement had been drawn ~p, 14 The text of Schleitheim can also be cited explicitly.15 6 Since its recognition by the Dutch historian Cral'ler, perhaps the first modern witness to the deep significance of Schleitheim, 16 comments on the text and ].ts importance have beenflrequent. Several summaries of the histo1y of the t:ext are available. 17 Modern translations have been prepared in Eng:iish18 and. Frenc1119 and Heinold Fast has published a mocerD. Ge:.-man vers.io~. 20 f. Schleitheim Introduction: AIW.otaticn Prefatory note concen1lng am:otation: numerous of these notes are incomplete, or refer to other portions of the complete volume, and are thus not inteLded to be meaningful in the September 1966 mimeographed reproduction. 1. See above, Item 1 2. The earliest explicit testimony to this tradition is in a tract of Leopold Scharnschlager which quotes article VI regarding governmeetl (ARG, 1956, page 212). 3. Jan Kiwiet, Pilgr~ Marpeck, Kassel 1957, pp. 43ff. ; cf. also Geo. H. Williams, Radical Reformation, p. 182. 4. See below, especially pages ---- 5. "They included ::he s•1m cf what they hold wMch is contrary both to us and to the papists, in seven a::ticles • • • " John Calvin, Brieve Instruction, page 44. Thus it was moat appropriate that Calvin should take this text as I.he outline of his own refutation. Zwingli likewise considered the Seven Articles a r.ciost appropriate cutline for a :refutation; immediately upon 7 receiving the first manuscript from Berchtold Hal.ler of Bern he responded at length with a letter, answering point by point, on April 28, 1527 (Z vol IX, Jetter No., 610, page 108); again the use of the Seven Articles in Zwingli's Elenchus is a testimony to their representative character. It cannot be the concern of this volume to r~view at length these refutations by the Reformers or the substantic:r.l differences between them; we shall refer to the Zwingli and Calvin texts only as they assist us in textual criticism. 6. Beatrice Jenny, Be!<:enntis. page 39. 7. See below especiaEy pages ---- 8. This is evident especially in the introductory paragraphs of Michael Sattler's cover letter. Reference to a similar concern can be seen as well in the later tracts (below pages ). 9. Zwingli points to the same danger in his tract of December 1524, Who Gives Occasion for Unrest (Z Ill pp. 374 ff). A major source c-f social unrest, Zwingli says, is those persons who misin~erpret gospel preaching as a loosening of sound moral requirements. This topic was later to become one of the standing disagreements between the Anabaptists and official Protestantism (cf. Harold Bender, "Walking in rhe Resurrection," MQR, XXXV, April, 1961, pp. 96 ff). The popularity of contextual ethics in .American Protestantism in the late 1960' s is further testimony that such a position is quite thinkable in Protestant circles. lC. Note above pages ___ .. {survey o~ printings). 11. Z, VI, page 106. 12. (Calvin source) 13. James IV~. Stayer, whose work on this theme, The Doctrine of the Sword in 8 the First Decade of Anabaptism, Cornell Ph.D. dissertation 1964, gives the most attention to chronological development, divides the entire treatment into the periods "before and after the impact of Schleitheim". Clarence Bauman, Gewaltlosigkeit im Taufertum, Dissertation in Theology, Bonn, 1961, calls Schleitheim "the most important document for the time of the foundinp- of Anabaptism" (p. 5). Hans J. Hillerbran<l, Die PoUtische Ethik des Oberdeutschen Taufertums, Leiden/K<nn 1962, and "The Anabaptist View of the State" (MQR XXXII, Apr:i.11958, 83 ff), disregards the aspect of chronological development and therefore gives more attention to later and longer texts. 14. Blaupot ten Cate, Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Groningen, emz. 1842, I, 258ff., and Hulshof, Straatsburg, p. 229. This is a part of a letter re-porting on the major Anabaptist conference in Strasburg in 1557, one of the major landmarks in relations between South German Anabaptists and tre Mennonites of the Netherlands. The letter was translated into Dutxth before 1587, and has been preserved only in that version. 15. Cf. above Note 2. 16. "In this so brief, so clear, so easily retained way they rendered a service to the Anabaptists of their day and later, for which they cannot be grateful enough. Certainly they die what they did in all simplicity of heart, and with no ideas of world conquest. They were driven by oo other goal than to !Je respons.ib!e for their church, according to God's will for her. They had really nothing at all to do wi!h high ideals; they rather set rules, pre-scriptions and proscriptions., by means of which the church in the present can guide: her doing and her leaving unc1one. Thereby they accomplished a gocd wc.rk toward a future d which they themselves hardly thought. They 9 thus brought firmness and definiteness into the spiritual movement in which they had been placed. They saved it from the danger of be· coming a chaos of uns~able, confused and co!lfusing ideas, of floating groups, fostered by the most varied tendencies, mostly contradictory, even though , they were i mostly (not always) well mear.ing people. Througr. their formulation they drew the boundaries of their movement and made it possible that an oxdered fellow3hip, an organization, modest as it was, came into being. By creati:ag such solid forms for the unique Christianity of their brotherhood, Sattler and his follow elders preserved it from diffusion, helped it through the somber days of bloody persecution, and assured it a future. Not a sing!e trait of the "Brotherly Union" do we fail to find again in the later Mennonite brotherhood. Hardly a phrase does not recur." Cramer, BRN, V, 1909, page 593. Cramer's first statement of the sig-nificance of Schleitheim is found in his article Mennonite_!! in the Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk!op~die fUr protestantische Theologie und Ki_!:SEe, 3rd edition, Vol. XII. 1903, p. 600. Our own estimation of the significance of the meeting was first stated independently of Cramer in Taufertum und Reformation; Die Gesprache, Karlsruhe 1962 ~Schriftenheihe des M<:>nnonitischen Geschichtsvereins), pp. 98f: "That it could happen, that L.1 the course of a meeting men could change their opinions and come to unity, is not only a striking rarity in the history of the Reformationi it is also the most important event in the whole history of Anabaptism. Had it not happened, the Anabaptism of Grebel, Blaurock, Mantz and Sattler would have died out together with 10 its founders. But now it has taken on a viable fa. ." Ill and was in a position to resist the licentiousness of the fanatics, the coercion of christian governments and the persu.lsiveness of the preachers.'' 17. Robert R. Friedmann, "The Schleitheim Confession (1527) and other doctor!- m~l writings of the Swiss brethren ••• " MQR, XVI, 1942, p. 82ff. John C. Wenger. "~te Schleitbeim Confession of Faith'', MQR, XIX, 1945, p. 243 ff. Fritz Blanke, Beobachtungen zum mtesten Tauferbekenntis, ARG, XXXVII, 1940, pp. 242f.f. ME, Vol. - • Heinrich Bohmer, Urkunden zur Geschichte des Bauernkrieg::s und der W1edert'clufer, De Gruyter, Berlin, 1933, page 25ff. 18. Samuel Macauley Jackson, who translated Zwingli's~~ in his Selected Works of Huldreich Zwingli (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press and New York, Longmans Green, 1901) pp. 123-258, thereby also translated the Seven Articles into English at secondhand. Jackson was ignorant of the existence of the KGerman original and of the document's historical importance. He referred to the text only as ''the confession of the Bernese Baptists". This was probably the first English translation of the text, since Calvin's "A Short Instruction ••• " published in London in 1549, included only snatches from the Schleitheim text. W. J. McGlothlin, who was more aware than Jackson of the significance of the German original, but was still unaware of the existence of several printings in the sixteenth century,. reproduced· the translation as Jackson had lifted it from the~~· in his Baptist Confessions of Faith, American 11 Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1911, pages 3 ff. The translation by Wenger (s. above p. _ ) , which did the most to make American readers aware of the significance of Schleitheim, has been broadly reprinted. 19. Pierre Widmer and John Yoder, "~ipes et Doct~ines Mennonites", Brussels and Montbeli...1.rc:!. l.951? pp._. 20. Heinold Fast, Der linke FH.tge~ Reformation; Klassiker des Protestantismus, Bend IV; Sammlung Dietrich, Carl SchUnnemann Verlag, Bremen, 1962, pai;es 60ff. Brotherly Union of a Number of Children of God Concerning Seven Articles May joy, peace and mercy from our Father, through the atonement1 of the blood of Christ Jesus, together with the gifts of the spirit - who is sent by the ?'ather to all believers to c give 1 strength and consolation and constance in all tribulation until the end" Amen - Be with all who !o_,.e God and all chi_ldren of light, who are scattered everywh~re, wherever they mlght have been placed2 by God our Father, wherever they might be gathered in unity of spirit in one God and Father of us all; Grace and peace of heart be wi!h you all, Amen. Beloved brethren and sisters in the Lord; First and primordially we are always concerned for your consolation 8.nd the assurance of your conscience, (which was sometime confused) so that you might not always be separated from us as aliens and by right almost completely excluded, but that you might turn again to be true implanted members of Christ, who have been armed through patience and the knowledge of self, and thus be again united with us in the power 12 of a godly Christian spirit and zeal for God. It is manifest with what manifold cunning the devil has turned us aside, so that he might destroy and cast down the work of God, which in us mercifully and graciously has been partially begun. But tbe true Shepterd of our souls, Christ, who has begun such in us, will direct and teach3 the same unto the end, to his glory and our salvation, Amen. Dear brothers and sisters, we who have been assembled in the Lo::d at Schleitheim on the Rande 4 made known. in points and articles, unto all that love God, that as far as we are concerned, we have been united5 to stand fast in the Lord as obedient children of God, sons and daughters, who have been a;1d shall be separated from the world in a!l that we do and leave undone, and (the praise and glory be to God alone) uncontradicted by all the brethren, com-pletely at peace. 6 Herein we have sensed the unity of the Father and of our common Christ as present with us in their spirit. For the Lord is a Lord of peace and not of quarreling, as Paul indicates. 6a So that you understand at what points this occurred, you should observe and ur.derstand c what follows 1: A very great offense has been introduced by some false brethren among us, whereby several have turned away from the faith, thinking to practice and observe the freedom of the spirit and of Christ. But such have fallen short of the truth and (to their own condemnation) are given over to the lasciviousness and license of the flesh. They have esteemed that faith and love may do and to permit every· thing and that n..:>thing r.an harm nor condem::i them, r,ince they are "believers". ~ Note well, you members' of God in Christ Jesus, that faith in the heavenly Father through Jesus Christ is not thus formed; it produces and brings foith no su~h things as these false brothers and sisters practice snd teach. Guard your-selves and be warned of such people, for they do not serve our Father, but their 13 father, the devil. But for you it is not so; for they who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with all its lusts and desi:-es. ?b You understand me8 well. and cknow 1 the brethren whom we mean. Separate yourselves from them, for they are perverted. Pray the Lord that they may have knowledge unto repentance, and for us that we may have constance to per$evere along the path we have entered upon, unto the glory of God and uf Christ his Son. Amen. 9 The articles we have dealt with, and in which we have been united, 9a are these: baptism, ban, the breaking of bread, separation from abomination, shep-herds in the congregation, the sword, :he oath. I. Notice concerning baptism. Baptism shall be given to all those who have been taught repentance and the amendment of life and c who 1 believe truly that their sins are taken away through Christ, and to all those who desire to walk in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and be bu.cied with him Ltt death, so that they might rise with him; to all those who with such an understanding themselves desire and request it from us; hereby is excluded all infant baptism, the greatest and first abomination of the Pope. For this you have the reasons and the testimony of the writings and !:he practice of the apostles. 9b We wish simply yet resolutely and with assurance to hold to the same. I!. We have been united as follows concerning the ban. The ban shall be employed with all those who have given themselves over to the Lord, to walk after c Him 1 lO in His commar.,.dments; those who have bem baptized into the one body of Christ, and let themselves be called brothers or sisters, and still some-how slip and fall into error and sin, being inadvertently oYertaken. 11 The same 14 c shall1 be warned twice privately and the third time he publicly admonished before the entire congregation12 according to the command of Christ (Matt 18)12a. But this shall be done according to the orderjng of the spirit of God before the breaking oi bread, 13 so thc;.t we may all in one spirit and in one love break and eat from one bread and drink from one cup. III. Concerning the breakbg of bread, we have become one and agree1 4 thus: Ai! those who desire to break the one bread in remembrance of the broken body of Christ and all those who wish to drink of one drink in remembrance of the shed blood of Christ, they must beforehand be united15 in the one body of Christ, that is the congregation of God, whose head is Christ, and that by baptism. For as 15a Paul indicates , we cannot be partakers at the same time of the table of the Lord and the table of devils. Nor can we at the same time partake and drink of the cup of the Lord a11d the cup of devils. That is: all those who have fellowship with the dc;.ad ~orks vf darkness have no part in the light. Thus all who follow the devil and the world, have no part with those who have been called out of the world unto God. All those who lie in evil have no part in the good. So it shall and must be, that whoever does not share the calling of the one God to one faith, to one baptism, to one spirit, to one body together with all the children of God, may not be made one loaf together with them, as must be true if one wishes truly to break bread according to the command of Christ. IV. We have been united corcerning the separation that shall take place from the evil and the wickedness which the devil has planted in the world, simply is this; that we have no fellowship with them 17• and do not run with them in the multitude of their abominations. So it is; since all who have not entered into the obedience of faith ar,d have not united themselves with God so that they will 15 to do his will, are a great abomination refore God, t.'lerefore nothing e \se can or really will grow or spring forth from them than abominable things. Now there is nothing else in the world and all creation than good or evil, believing and un-believing, darkness and light. the world and those who are , come" out of the world, God's temple and idols, Christ and Belial, and none will have part with the other. To us then the commandment of the Lord is also obvious, whereby he orders us to be and to become separated from the evil one, and thus he will be our God and we shall be his sons and daughters. l?b Further he ac!monishes us therefore to go out from Babylon and from the earthly Egypt, that we may not be partakers in theiI torment and suffering, which the Lord wili. bring upon them. l7c From all this we should learn that everything which has not been unitect18 with our God in Christ is nothing than abomination whic.h we shculd sun. lSa By this are meant all papistic and anti-papistic works and worship, gatherings, church attendance1 19 winehouses, guarantees and commitments of unbelief, 20 and other things of the kind, which the world regards highly, and yet which are car-nel or flatly counter to the command of God, after the pattern of all the iniquity which is in the world. From all this we shall be separated and have no part with sue h, for they are nothing but abominations, which cause us to be hated before our Christ Jesus, who has freed us from the servitude of the flesh and fitted us for the service of God and the spirit whom he has given us. u 22 Thereby shall also fall away from us the diabolical weapons of violence, - such as sword, armor and the like, and all of their use to protect friends or against enemi.es - by virtue of the word of Christ: "you shall not resist evil. "22a 16 V. We have been united as follows concerning shepherds in the church of God. The shephe:::d in the church of God shall be a person according to the rule 22b of Paul, fully and completely, who has a good report of those who are outside ~ the faith. The office of such a person shall be to read and exhort and teach, warn, ad;:nonjsh or ban in the congregation, and properly to preside among the sjsters and brethren in prayer. and in the J::reakiilg of bread, 23 and in all thi.ngs to take care of the body of Ct1rist, that it may be built up and developed, so that the name of God might be praised and honored through us, and the mouth of the mocker be stopped. He shall be supported, wherein he has need, b~ the congregatiop. which has chosen him, so that he who serves the gospel can also live therefrom, as the Lord has ordered. 23b But should a shepherd do something worthy of reprimand, nothing shall be done with him without the voice of two or thr€e witnesses. If they sin they shall be publicly reprimanded, so that others might fear. 24 ~ But if the shepherd should be driven away or led home to the Lord by the ~ ~ . cross, at the same hour another shall be ordained to his place, SQ ~~t the little folk and the little flock of God may not be destroyed, but be preserved by warning and be consoled. VI: We have been united as follows concerning the sword. The sword is an ordering of God outside the perfection of Christ. It punishes and kills the wicked. and guards and protects the good. In the Law27 the sword is established28 over the wicked for punishment and for death, and the secular rulers are estab-lished to wield the same. But within the perfection of Christ only the ban is used for the admonition and exclusion of the one who has sinned, without the death of the flesh~9 simply the warnmg and the command to .Jiu no more. 17 Now many, who do not understand Christ's will .for us, will ask: whether a Christian may or should use the sword against the wicked for the protection and defense of the good, or for the sake of love. The answer is unanimously revealed: Christ teaches and commands us to learn from him, for he is meek and lowly of heart and thus we shall find rest fer our souls. 30 Now Christ says to the woman who was taken in adultery, 30a not that she sr.ould be stoned according to the law of his father (and yet he says, "what the father commanded me~ that I do")30b, but wL:h mercy and forgiveness and the warnir1g to sin no more, says~ "Go, sin no more. " Exactly thus should we also proceed, according to the rule of the ban. Secondly is asl<ed concerning the eword: whether a Christian shall pass sentence in disputes and strife about worldly matters, such as the unbelievers have with one another. The answer: Christ did not wish to decide or pass judg-ment between brother and brother concerning inheritance, but refused to do so. 30c So should we also do. Thirdly is asked concerning the sword: whether the Christian should be a magistrate if he is chosen thereto? This is answered thus: Christ was to be made king. but he fled end did not discern the ordinance of his father. 31 Thus we should also do as He did and follow after Him, and we shall not walk in darkness. For he himself says: Whoever would come after me, let him deny himseU and take up his cross and follow me. 3 Ia He Himself further forbids the violence of the sword when he says; "The princes of this world lord it over them etc. , but among you it shall not be so • .,alb Further Paul says, "Whom God has foreknown, the same he has also predestined to might be conformed to the image of his son, etc. 3lc Peter also says: "Christ has suffered (not ruled) and has left us an example, that you should follow after in His steps. ,,Sld 18 Lastly one can see in the following points that it does not befit a Christian to be a magistrate: The rule of the government is according to the flesh, that of the Christians according to the spirit. Their houses and dwelling remain in this world, that of the Christians is in heaven. Their citizenship is in this world, that of the Christians is in heaven. 3 Ie The weapons of their battle and warfare a!."e carnal and only against the flesh, but the we3.pons of Christians are spirltual, against the fortification of the devil. The worldly are armed with steel and iron, but Christians are armed wh;h the armor of God, with truth, righteousness, peace, faith. salvation, and with the word of God. In sum: As Christ our head is minded, so also must be minded the members of the body of Christ through him, so that there be no aivision in the body, through which it would be des-troyed • J lf s.m ce t h en ''-"'' h n.s t i. s as 1. s wri.t ten o f h.i m, so m ust h.i s mem b ers a 1s o be the same, so that his body may remain whole and unified for its own advance-ment and upbuilding. VII. We have been united as follows concerning the oath. The oath is a con-firmation among those who are quarreling or making pro1nises. In the law it is commanded that it should be done only in the name of God, truthfully and not falsely. Christ, who teaches the periection of the law, forbida his c followersi all swearing, whether true nor false; .. neither by heaven nor by earth, neither by Jerusalem nor by our head; and that for the reason which he goes on to give: "For you cannot make one hair white or black." You see, thereby all swearing is forbidden. We cannot perform what is promised :!.n swearing, for we are not able to change the smallest part of ourselves. 33 Now there are some who do not believe the simple commandment of God and who say, ''But God swore by himself to Abraham, because he was God (as he promised him that he would do geed to him and would be his God if he kept his 19 commandments). Why then should l not swear if I pr·omise something to someone?" The answer~ Hear what scripture says: "God, since He wished to prove overabundantly to the heirs of his promise that his will did not change, inserted an oath so that by two immutable things we might have a stronger consolation (for it is impossible that God should lie)". 33h Notice the meaning of the passage: God has the p...>wer to do what he forbids you, for everything is pos-sible to him. God swore an oath to Abraham, scripture says, in order to prove that his counsel is immutab!e. That means: no one can withstand and thwart his will; thus he can keep his oath. But we cannot, as Christ said above, hold or perform our oath, therefore we should not swear. Now some ·others say that it cannot be forbijden in the New Testament and commanded in the Old to swear by God, but is forbidden only to swear by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, and our head. Answer: Hear the scripture. He who swears by heaven, swears 33bb by God's throne and by him who sits thereon. Observe: swearing by heaven is forbidden, which is only God's thronE; how much more is it forbidden to swear by God himself. You blind fools, what is greater, the throne er he who sits upon it? Others say, if it is then wrong to use God for truth, 33cthen the apostles Peter and Paul also swore. Answer: Peter and Paul only testify to that which God promised Abraham with the oath. They themselves promise nothing, as the ex-amples clearly indicate. Testifying and swearing are two different things. When one swears, one promises future things, as Christ was promised to Abraham, whom we long after have received. But when one testifies, one testifies concerning that which is present, whether it be good or evil. Thus Simeon spoke of Christ to Mary and testified to her: "This one is ordained for the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign which will be spoken against. .. 33d 20 Christ taught us similarly when he says34: Your speech shall be yea, yea; and nay, nay: for what is more than that comes of evil. He says, your speech or your word shall be yes and no, so that no one might understand that he had permitted it. Christ is simply yea and nay, and all those who seek him simply will understand his word. Amen. 35 Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord; These are the articles which some brethren previously had understood wrongly and in a way not conformed to the true meaning. Thereby many weak consciences were confused, whereby the name of God has been grossly slandered, for which reason it was needful that we should be brought to agreement36 in th.;! Lord, which has come to pass. To God be praise and glory! Now that you have abundantly understood the will of God as revealed through us at this time, you must fulfi!l this will, now known, persistently and unswerv-ingly. For you know well what is the reward o"!: the servant who .knowingly sins. Everything which you have done unknowingly and now confess to have done wrongly, is forgiven you, through that believing prayer, which is offered among us in our meeting for all our shortcomings and guilt, through the gracious for-giveness of God and through the blood of Jesus Christ, Amen. 21 Watch out for all who do not walk in simplicity of divine truth, which has been stated by us in this letter in our meeting, so that everyone might be governed among us by the rule of the ban, and that henceforth the entry of false brothers and sisters among us might be prevented. fut away from you that which is evil, and the Lord will be your God, and you will i>e his sons and daughte::rs. 37 Dear brethren, keep in mind what Paul admonishes Titus. 38 He says: "The saving Grace of God has appeared to all, and disciplines us, that we should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live circumpstect, righteous and godly lives in this world; awaiting the same hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all unrighteousness and to purify unto himself a people of his own, that would be zealous of good works:" Think on this. and exercise yourselves therein, and the Lord of peace will be with you. May the name of God be forever blessed and greatly praised, Amen. May the Lord give you his peace, Amen. Done at Schleitheim, St. Matthew's Day, Anno MDXXVII Schleitheim Brotherly Union Footnotes as of September 1966 22 1. A most significant concept in the thought of Michael Sattler is that of Vereinigung, which according to the context must be translated L'l many different ways. In the title we render it "Union"; here in the salutation it obviously must be translated "atonement"; later in the text, in the passive participial form, it will mean "to be brought to unity". Thus the same word can be used for the reconciling work of Jesus Christ, for the procedure whereby brethren come to a common mind, for the state of agreement in which they find themselves, and for the doc~ment which states the agreement to which they have come. 2. Or, literally "ordered"; the rendering of J. C. Wenger, "scattered everywhere as it has been ordained of God our father", is a good paraphrase if "ordained" may be understood without any sacramental or predestinarian connotations. 3. "Direct" and "teach" have as their object "the same", i.e. the "work of God partially begun is us". Wenger's paraphrase, "direct the same and teach c lJS 1 " is smoother but weakens the striking image of a "work of God" within man which can be "partially begun", "cast down", "directed", and "taught". 4. "Der Rancle" is a hill overlooking Schleitheim and not, as a modern reader might think, a reference to the fal:.t that Schleitheim is near the (contemporary, political) border. 5. The verb here is again "vereinigt"· Wenger's translation, "we are of one mind to abide in the Lord" is the best paraphrase but sacrifices the passive verbal construction which is important to the writer. Schleitheim Brotherly Union Footnotes as of September 1966 22 l. A most significant concept in the thought of Michael Sattler is that of Vereinigung, which according to the context must be translated L'l many different ways. In the title we render it "Union"; here in the salutation it obviously must be translated "atonement"; later in the text, in the passive participial form, it will mean "to be brought to unity". Thus the same word can be used for the reconciling work of Jesus Christ, for the procedure whereby brethren come to a common mind. for the state of agreement in which they find themselves, and for the document which states the agreement to which they have come. 2. Or, literal!y "ordered"; the rendering of J. C. Wenger, "scattered everywhere as it has been ordained of God our father", is a good paraphrase if "ordained" may be understood without any sacramental or predestinarian connotations. 3. "Direct" and ''teach" have as their object "the same", i.e. the "work of God partially begun is us". Wenger's paraphrase, "direct the same and teach c us1 " is smoother but weakens the striking image of a "work of God" within man which can be "partially begun", "cast down", "directed", and "taught". 4. "Der Rande" is a hill overlooking Schleitheim and not, as a modern reader might think, a reference to the fat..t that Schleitheim is near the (contemporary, political) border. 5. The verb here is again "vereinigt"· Wenger's translation, "we are of one mind to abide in the Lord" is the best paraphrase but sacrifices the passive verbal construction which is import.'lnt to the writer. 23 6. Beginning with the parer.thesis "(the praise and glory be to God alone)", the closing phrases of this paragraph refer not simply to a common determi-nation to be faithful to the Lord, but much more specifically to the actual Schleitheirn experience and the sense of unity (Vereinigung) to which the members had come in the course of the meeting. "Without contradiction of c..11 the brethren" is the formal description and "completely at peace" is the subjectivz definition of this sense of Holy Spirit guidance. 6a. I Cor. 13:33. 7. "Glieder" (members) has in German only the meaning related to the image of the body; the overtone of "membership" in a group, which makes the phrase "members of God" unusual in modern English, is not present in the original. 7b. Gal. 5: 24. 8. The use of the first person singular here is the demonstration that the introductory letter was written, probably after the meeting, by an individual. 9. This is the conclusion of the introductoq letter and of the epistolary style. 9a. With one exception, every article begins with the same use of the word vereinlgt as a passive participle which we have rendered thus literally as a reminder of the meaning of Vereinigung for Sattler. Huldrych Zwingli (page 56) considered the very fact that the Schleitheim group laid claim to having come together, as already a sign of secta:dan intentions. 9b. Here the printed version of 1527 identifies the following scripture texts (giving chapter numhers only): Matt. 28:19, Mark 16:6, Acts 2:38, Acts 8:36, Acts 16:31-33, 19:4. ( (~~· Z. p. 56 - This note to be expanded later) 24 10. Nachwandeln is the nearest approximation in the Schleitheim text to the concept of discipleship (nachfolge) which was later to become especially current among Anabaptists. 11. Two interpretations of this phrase are possible. "To be inadvertently overtaken" might be a description of falling into sin, parallel to the earlier phrase "somehow ~lip :rnd fall". This would mean that sin is for the Chris-tiar. disciple partly a matter of ignorance or inattention. Or the reference can be to the way in wh.i.ch the guilty person has been discovered. 12. The printed version of 1527 inserts "or banned". 12a. This reference to Matt. 18 is the only scripture reference in the earliest handwritten text. Other scrip~ure illusions identified in the footnotes are not labeled in the text. This abundant citation of scriptu1·al language without being concerned to indicate the source of quotation is an indication of the fluency with which Anabaptists thought in biblical vocabulary; it is probably also an indication that they thought of those texts as expressing a meaningful truth rather than as "proof texts". 13. At this point Walter Koehler, the editor of the printed version, suggests the text Matt. 5: 23. If "the ordering of the spirit" relates specifically to "before the breaking of bread" and means to pcint to a scripture text, this could be a likely one; or I Cor. 11 could possibly be alluded to; but "ordering of the spirit" is not the usual way in which the Anabaptists refer to a Bible quotation. The phrase can also mean a call for a personal and flexible attitude in the application of the concern for reconciliation. 14. This is the one point at which the word ~inigt is not used at the beginning of an article, presumably because it occurs later in the same sentence. 25 15. vereinigt. Here the word has none of the meanings detailed above, but points to the work of God in constituting the unity of the Christian Church. !Sa. I. Car. 10: 21. 17. Note the shift from "world" to "they". "The world" is not discussed inde-pendently of the people constituting the unregenerate order. 17b. II Cor. 6:17 (possible Old Testament allusion in the Anabaptist phrase 'command of the Lord"?), 17c. Rev. 18:4ff, 18. vereinigt. 18a. The 1527 printed versi.on adds "and flee". 19. Kilchgang, literally meaning church attendance, has no congregational di-mension to it but refers to the conformity to establish patterns of those who, while perhaps sympathizing with the Anabaptists, still avoided any public reproach by regularly being seen at the state church functions. 20. If the original burgschaft is correct, then this entire phrase "guarantees and commitments" probably refers to the economic realm; to such matters as the si.gning notes and mortgages in less than perfect good faith. The printed version replaces purgschaft with bu:r~~erscha~- (citizenship). 21. The 1527 printed version adds "doubtless". 22. The printed version reads "unchristian and". 22a. Matt. 5: 3 9. 22b. I Tim. 3: 7. 23. The printed version adds, "to lead the brothers and sisters in prayer, to begin to break bread • 23b. I Cor. 9:14. . . " . 26 24. The change in number here from'a shepherd" to "if they sin" is explained by the fact that this sentence is a quotation from I Tom. 5: 20. 25. "Cross" is already by this time a very clear "technical term" designating martyrdom. 26. Perhaps "installed" would be less open to the sacramental misunderstanding. "Verordnet" has no sac ... amental meaning. 27. "Law" here is a specific reference to the Old Testament. 28. Significantly the term here is not ~ordnet but merely geordnet; conveying even less of a sense of permanence or of specific divine institution. 29. "Without the death of the flesh" is the clear reaciing of the earliest manuscript. Ulrich Zwingli however understood it "toward the putting to death of the flesh", a possible illusion to I Cor. 5; the differe:..1ce in the original is only between a and o. 30. Gospe 1 source. 30a. John 8: 11. 30b. John 8: 22. 30c. Luke 12: 13. 31. Two interpretations are possible for "did not discern the ordering of his Father". This may mean that Jesus did not respect, as being an obligation for him, the service in the state in the office of king, even though the ex-istence of the state is a divine ordinance. More likely would be the interpre-tation that Jesus did not evaluate the action of the people wanting to make him king as having been brought about (ordered) by His Father. 3la. Matt.16: 24. 3lb. Matt. 20: 25. 3lc. Rom. 8:30. 3ld. I Peter 2: 21. 3le. Phil. 3: 20. 27 3lf. Here the printed version adds Matt. 12: 25: "For every kingdom divided against itself will be destroyed". 33. Matt. 5:34-37. 33b. Heb. 6: 7ff. 33bb. Matt. 5:35. 33c. "Use God for truth" would probably most correctly be rendered "use the name 'God' as a confirmation". 33d. Luke 2: 34. 34. The difference in tense between "taught" and "says" is in the original; it results from the fact that scripture references are always given in the present: "Christ says", "Paul says", "Peter says". 35. This concludes the Seven Articles. 36. vereinigt. 37. A second reference to II Cor. 6:17. 38. Titus 2: 11-14.
Object Description
Title | The Brotherly Union of Schlaten-Am-Randen (Schleitheim), 1527 |
Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ |
Institution | Mennonite Historical Library |
Original format |
text |
Language |
English |
Collection Name |
AMBS and GC John Howard Yoder Digital Library |
Date created | 1966 |
Subject |
Sattler, Michael, -1527 Theology -- History -- 16th century Anabaptists -- Doctrines |
Creator |
Yoder, John Howard |
Publisher |
Goshen College |
Description | From "The Legacy of Michael Sattler." |
Rights Explanation |
Used by permission of Martha Yoder Maust. |
Extent | 28 p. |
Digital format |
pdf |
Local item ID | MHL Paper/Article File (SATTLER, Michael ) |
Item ID | im-amdc-jhy-0203 |
Rights-Rights Holder | Martha Yoder Maust |
Description
Title | The Brotherly Union of Schlaten-am-Randen |
Institution | Mennonite Historical Library |
Original format |
text |
Language |
English |
Collection Name |
AMBS and GC John Howard Yoder Digital Library |
Date created | 1966 |
Subject |
Sattler, Michael, -1527 Theology -- History -- 16th century Anabaptists -- Doctrines |
Creator |
Yoder, John Howard |
Publisher |
Goshen College |
Description | From "The Legacy of Michael Sattler." |
Rights Explanation | Used by permission of Martha Yoder Maust, copyright holder. Users may only access the digital documents under the terms of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported” license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). |
Extent | 28 p. |
Digital format |
pdf |
Local item ID | MHL Paper/Article File (SATTLER, Michael ) |
Item ID | im-amdc-jhy-0203 |
Text |
INSTITUTE OF MENN01\JITE STUDIES
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries
Elkhart, Indiana
(Michael Sattler)
The B:--otherly Unio~1 of Schlaten-am-Randen (Schleitheim)
1527
Anticipatory extract from:
}. Yoder, ed.
The Legacy of Michael Sattler
not to be reproduced or quoted
I - I/ , ft d@1
I} -13, scdfter
-, -. r-·~ ""')J
_,;;;f';J.__,...i;;.i
2
f. Introduction to Schleitheim Brotherly Union 1
I. The Significance of the Schleitheim Artie!~
At the beginning of 1527 the Swiss Brethren movement stood in serious
danger of disttitegration. The repression from t(1e Protestant side had reached
for the first time the level of capital punishment, with the execution of Felix
Mantz in Zurich, Jam:a.ry 5. In t:astern Switzerland, where the movement had
met with an initial wave of popular success, it had been put down very firmly
in the city of St. Gall but the authorities continued to have difficulty in the sur-rounding
countryside, especially in the canton of Appenzell, whe1e a combina-tion
of state pressure, inadequate leadership, and the socio·economic fermentation
of the times led to a degree of disorder which Conrad Grebel was probably at-tempting
to counteract when he died of illness in the summer of 1526. Stras-bourg
was the place where the greatest likelihood had remained open that an
understanding, or at least a possibility of a continuing conversation, might
be reached, between the Anabaptists and the official reformation; but this
possibility had to be abandoned after Sattler' s visit in Strasbourg. 1
Pressure from the outside, confusion from the inside, loss of the guiding
influence (which had never been especially clear or authoritative) of the ZCirich
founders, and the growing realization that instead of holding forth a vision for
widespread renewal the young movement would have to accept a continuing
separate, suffering iden!:ity, combi.'led to make it quite possible that the entire
movement might tilter away into the sand&.
It was to this need that the Schleit±eim meeting spoke. We know nothing
of how the meeting was called, the precise provocation which led it to take
place JUSt at this moment, or who participated. The tradition according
3
to which Iv1ichael Sattler was the leading spirit in th~ meeting, and the
author ot the aocument reproduced below, is so widespread as to be
worthy of be!ief2, even though none of the early traditions to that effect
are eye witness reports. This tradition :s confirmed by obvious parallels
in thcught and phrasing between the Schleitheim text and the other writings
known genuinely to be from Sattler' s har.d.
The Seven Articles, which are the heart of the text, were presumably
discussed, rewritten, and approved in the course of the meeting. Here
Sattler's contriLution may well have been some drafting prim: to the !lleet-ing.
The Seven Articles are imbedded in a letter writte11 in the first pe.r-son
after the meeting, which is presumably altogether from the pe11 of
s~ttler.
Scholars have for some time been divided about the primary focus of
this meeting. Jan Kiwiet has statea most strongly the argument that
the primary polemic focus was upon the threats from within the Anabaptist
movement, represented by the broader minds of men like Hans Denck in
Germany, with their criticism of the more rigorous discipline of the
Swiss Brethren movement. 3 The strength of this inrerpretation lies not
in the Seven Articles themselves, but in the cover letter, and in the spirit
of some of the other writings in this collection. 4
1
The other interpretation begins with the observation that, differing
from a balanced catechism or creed, Schle.ttheim concentrated upon those
points at which the brethren diffe:ed from the rest of Protestantism, It
was thus a common man's handbook on AnaDaptist distmctives. This
interpretatiox: is supported by the co1tent of the Seven Articles themselves,
4
which often circulated without the cover letter. Is is the way this text was
understood by the reformers5 and ts today supported by Beatrice Jenny. 6
The present editor sees no real need to choose between these two in-terpretations.
If there were persons vying for leadership within the young
Anabaptist movement, the most obvious direction in which they would have
led, in conflict to the orientation set by the Zurich beginners and Michael
Satder, would have been toward a. spiritualizing of the dist:inctiveness of
the Risible Anabaptist congregations, with the effect of greater subservience
at least superficially, to the state church authorities, and greater con-formity
to the pattems of behavior they required. The later documents
in this collection confirm that one of the traits of "false prophets" and
"evil overseers" was that they justified attendance at State church gatherings. 7
E\•en the antinomian "camal b.berty" of those who argued that sil'ce one
is in Christ one can do anything without harm8, may just as appropriately
be applied to arguments for conformity to the state church in externals
as to drunkenness or disorderly social relations. The idea that if one is
a believer one can do anything at all without harm to one's faith was not a
pecatiar and licentioLLs invention of some marginal Anabaptist; it was
(at least according to the misinterpretation of the popular mind) one of the
outworkings cf Lutheran preaching when distorted by the desires of the
li.s tener. 9
There is tr.us no ree.son to ne.:!d to decide between the two foci referred
to above. The clear statement of what distinguishes the Swiss Brethren
movement from the Protestant and Catholic churches was at the same time
the solidest defense against confusion and cross purpc st:s within the ranks
of the brotherhood.
5
The strategic significanc.e of tne acNevemen.t of Schleitheim is well
demonstrated by the rapid and wide circulation of our text. Zwingli re-received
his first copy in April from Johannes Oeko!ampad, who in turn
had received it from Johannes Grell, a c.ountry pastor near Basel; by
the time he wrote his Elenchus in the summer of that year he had in hand
four different copies w.hich had come to him from as many different
sources. We have surveyed above 10 the number of reprint1ngs and transla-tions
which the Brotherly Union, tog~ther wjth some of the other follow-materials,
underwent; always in these pamphlets it was the Scbleitheim
text which appeared first and which gave its name to the title page of the
entire coaection.
According to Zwingli. "There is almost no one among you who does
not have a copy of your so well founded commandments". 11 Calvin des-cribes
the outliue as "seven articles to which all Anabaptists in common
adhere • • • which they hold to be a reve1.at!on come down from neaven. "12
The authority which came to be ascribed to the Seven Articles within the
Anabaptist movement is demonstrated on one hand by the nearly universal
acceptance of the positions it represents, visible even in the repetition of
phrasing and arguments in later documents. Especially is this true with
regard to articles VI and VII, on the sword and the literal oath, and re-suited
in a relatively great uniformity in Anabaptist positions on these mat-ters
from now on (Hildebrand, Stayer).13 As late as 1557, we find the im-portance
of the meeting being underlined by reference to the fact that one
man who attended was the person in whose home the agreement had been
drawn ~p, 14 The text of Schleitheim can also be cited explicitly.15
6
Since its recognition by the Dutch historian Cral'ler, perhaps the
first modern witness to the deep significance of Schleitheim, 16 comments
on the text and ].ts importance have beenflrequent. Several summaries of
the histo1y of the t:ext are available. 17 Modern translations have been
prepared in Eng:iish18 and. Frenc1119 and Heinold Fast has published a
mocerD. Ge:.-man vers.io~. 20
f. Schleitheim Introduction: AIW.otaticn
Prefatory note concen1lng am:otation: numerous of these
notes are incomplete, or refer to other portions of the
complete volume, and are thus not inteLded to be
meaningful in the September 1966 mimeographed
reproduction.
1. See above, Item 1
2. The earliest explicit testimony to this tradition is in a tract of Leopold
Scharnschlager which quotes article VI regarding governmeetl (ARG, 1956,
page 212).
3. Jan Kiwiet, Pilgr~ Marpeck, Kassel 1957, pp. 43ff. ; cf. also Geo. H.
Williams, Radical Reformation, p. 182.
4. See below, especially pages ----
5. "They included ::he s•1m cf what they hold wMch is contrary both to us and to
the papists, in seven a::ticles • • • " John Calvin, Brieve Instruction, page 44.
Thus it was moat appropriate that Calvin should take this text as
I.he outline of his own refutation. Zwingli likewise considered the Seven
Articles a r.ciost appropriate cutline for a :refutation; immediately upon
7
receiving the first manuscript from Berchtold Hal.ler of Bern he responded
at length with a letter, answering point by point, on April 28, 1527 (Z vol IX,
Jetter No., 610, page 108); again the use of the Seven Articles in Zwingli's
Elenchus is a testimony to their representative character. It cannot be
the concern of this volume to r~view at length these refutations by the
Reformers or the substantic:r.l differences between them; we shall refer to
the Zwingli and Calvin texts only as they assist us in textual criticism.
6. Beatrice Jenny, Be!<:enntis. page 39.
7. See below especiaEy pages ----
8. This is evident especially in the introductory paragraphs of Michael Sattler's
cover letter. Reference to a similar concern can be seen as well in the
later tracts (below pages ).
9. Zwingli points to the same danger in his tract of December 1524, Who Gives
Occasion for Unrest (Z Ill pp. 374 ff). A major source c-f social unrest,
Zwingli says, is those persons who misin~erpret gospel preaching as a
loosening of sound moral requirements. This topic was later to become
one of the standing disagreements between the Anabaptists and official
Protestantism (cf. Harold Bender, "Walking in rhe Resurrection," MQR,
XXXV, April, 1961, pp. 96 ff).
The popularity of contextual ethics in .American Protestantism in the
late 1960' s is further testimony that such a position is quite thinkable in
Protestant circles.
lC. Note above pages ___ .. {survey o~ printings).
11. Z, VI, page 106.
12. (Calvin source)
13. James IV~. Stayer, whose work on this theme, The Doctrine of the Sword in
8
the First Decade of Anabaptism, Cornell Ph.D. dissertation 1964, gives
the most attention to chronological development, divides the entire
treatment into the periods "before and after the impact of Schleitheim".
Clarence Bauman, Gewaltlosigkeit im Taufertum, Dissertation in
Theology, Bonn, 1961, calls Schleitheim "the most important document for
the time of the foundinp- of Anabaptism" (p. 5).
Hans J. Hillerbran |