Abstract
While the Anabaptist movement was still fluid in the early 1520s, it soon crystallized into factions with sharp differences. Although the Moravian Anabaptists never succeeded in creating common doctrines and practices, the Central and East European experience was not merely a marginal part of the great Anabaptist story. Out of these divergent tendencies grew a strong sect that survived exile through a radical social experiment. Hutterite colonies, settled in a hostile environment, flourished for a long period while other sects disappeared within a few years. The factors that determined the advance and survival of the Hutterites point beyond religious motives. This social experiment was dependent on the integrated social structure enabling them to cope with an aggressive environment without assimilating. Various epochs of the Hutterite history show that communal life was never a uniform and perfect experience, but variants of the structure persisted in the colonies as they evolved in their local circumstances.
Highlights
In January 1525, the three founders of the Swiss Brethren, Georg Blaurock, Conrad Grebel and Felix Mantz baptized one another in Zürich
One of the projects dear to the Swiss Brethren was the Liebeskommunismus, which stemmed from their nonconformity; the Hutterites promoted the restoration of the community of goods practised by the apostles in Jerusalem after Pentecost, while the Dutch Mennonites expressly rejected such a radical interpretation of the Christian message (STAYER 1995; FRIEDMANN 1953)
In 1526 the last king of Bohemia and Hungary, Louis II fell in a battle against the Turks, and his successor Archduke Ferdinand of Austria tried to make Moravia thoroughly Catholic, an endeavour in which all Habsburgs failed up to 1620
Summary
In January 1525, the three founders of the Swiss Brethren, Georg Blaurock, Conrad Grebel and Felix Mantz baptized one another in Zürich. At least twenty Anabaptist sects could be distinguished in this area alone (CLASEN 1972: 32); as such, my essay will address the changing ideological character of Moravian Anabaptism by focusing on its formative years and the survival of the Hutterites, known in later periods as the Habaner/Habans.2 It will show how, under constant persecution from the outside and with numerous conflicts and schisms from the inside, the Anabaptists started exile communities that, even with millennial expectations, could offer protection to their members.
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