I'm Not Making This Stuff Up

I have a love-hate relationship with footnotes...

Whenever I read well-researched historical material, I internally shudder as I see a superscript number coming up. I know I cannot resist the impulse to look down to the bottom of the page and read the footnote. I have found that about one in thirty footnotes have something interesting and definitely worth reading in them (the “love” part). The other twenty-nine footnotes just serve to interrupt my train of thought and slow down my reading fluency (the “hate” part). In deciding upon the format for this blog, I decided to write it how I would want to read it myself – without footnotes to distract me from the information my brain is trying to absorb. I have always appreciated the writer who puts all the footnotes in the back of the book so I won't be tempted to look down. This being a blog, however, and one of undetermined and open-ended length, there is no “back of the book” to put footnotes in. In places where I have quoted material from a specific source, I will attribute the source within the paragraph where it is quoted. But for general information, much of which I've gotten from reading multiple sources, I will not attribute it specifically to each source. I do, however, want to spend some time now sharing my sources with you. You may want to do some of your own Haban exploration, or you may just want to be assured I am not making this stuff up...

Here are my major sources:

GAMEO – No, not an online gaming site. GAMEO stands for Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Looking a little like Wikipedia in format, GAMEO is a well documented online encyclopedia with a wealth of information on all things Anabaptist. It has entries for Habáner, Sobotiste, Sankt Johann (Svätý Ján), many Hutterite family names and all the historical information you could possible want to read relating to anything Anabaptist. You can check it out here (the Habáner page): http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hab%C3%A1ner

Hutterite Society by John A. Hostetler (1997)

This is the book containing the photo of Grandpa's sister. Hostetler writes a readable, thorough history of all things Hutterite, including the Haban transition to Catholicism as well as an interesting study of present day Hutterite culture. Available through interlibrary loan in most library systems. (I bought my own copy on Amazon...)

The books: We know as much about the Hutterites as we do because they were such meticulous chroniclers of the events of their lives. Their two major "chronicles" have survived through the ages. Originally written by hand, in German, then published, in German, and fortunately for me,

both finally translated into English in the past several decades. The first, the Great Chronicle a.k.a. Geschichts-Buch a.k.a. The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, Volume I was written by Kaspar Braitmichel until his death in 1573. It was then continued by seven more chroniclers, eventually covering the history of the Hutterites from 1517 to 1665. (Translated and edited by the Hutterian Brethren, Plough Pulishing House, Rifton, New York, 1987) The Small Chronicle a.k.a Kleine-Geschichtsbuch a.k.a The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, Volume II was written by Johannes Waldner, who included a recap of the Great Chronicle, continuing the story into the 1800s. (Translated and edited by the Hutterian Brethren Crystal Spring Colony, Ste. Agathe, Manitoba, Canada, 1998) “Great” and “Small”, by the way, don't refer to size as much as “honor”. The Great Chronicle is given, in humility, the higher honor by the writer of the Small Chronicle because it came first and contains the stories of the Golden Era of the Hutterites. The second chronicle, however, is the one that contains the details of the forced conversion to Catholicism in both Grandpa and Grandpa's towns. Both books are available through interlibrary loan, usually from some university library. I've gone through both books, and own my own copy of Volume II. How I obtained that copy is a story in itself, one that I might share in a later post.

Hutterite Studies by Robert Freidmann (1961)

A series of essays by a noted Hutterite researcher. Hard to buy now, but available through interlibrary loan.

The Hutterian Brethren, 1528-1931: A Story Of Martyrdom And Loyalty by John Horsh (1931)

Another Hutterite researcher, Horsh provided English excerpts from the Great and Small Chronicles in the years before there was a complete English translation of these books. Available on Amazon and interlibrary loan.

Remembering Mama and Papa – The memoir my mother, Lillian Cederle Zima, wrote about her mother and father (Grandma and Grandpa). I think most of the cousins have access to a copy of this book. I believe my mom gave at least one copy to each family of cousins.

Mom's letters from Europe – For years, my mother, fluent in Slovak, had a written correspondence with several of her cousins in Slovakia. When I sent my mother the picture of what would later be identified as Grandpa's sister, she started sending me English translations of the letters she received back from her cousins. These letters, covering a ten plus year span from the early 1990s through the early 2000s, were fascinating glimpses into the spiritual mindset of the Haban remnant in Grandpa and Grandma's families. I will be sharing some of these in a later post.

Various online encyclopedias and websites: Encyclopaedia Britannica (britannica.com), Foundation for East European Family History Studies (feefhs.org), Hutterites.org, Family Search (familysearch.org). This last one, a Morman-based website, contains copies of church documents. I was able to view the baptismal records of Grandpa and all his sisters. Since the baptism issue was such a big deal for the Habans, I'll eventually do a blog post and include snips of the actual baptismal records.

Since this blog is ongoing, there may be other resources that come up that I haven't stumbled onto yet. I'll include them when I do. The Mennonite Quarterly Review looks like a promising resource, and I have a librarian at our local public library who has worked her magic and provided me with articles from that periodical's distant past. I'm also stalking some possible Slovakian relatives on facebook who I hope may provide some information about what the Haban sections of Grandma and Grandpa's town are like now. Even Google street view has given me glimpses of what Sobotište and Svätý Ján look like now. Writing this blog is proving to be a fun historical, genealogical, geographical on-going adventure...

To Baptize Or Not To Baptize (Or When To Do It...Or Not To Do It)

(Church History Part II)

Despite Martin Luther and Henry VIII's falling out with Rome, many similarities between the Lutheran Church, the Church of England and the Catholic Church remained. One thing they all saw as a good idea was infant baptism. Pouring water on the head of a baby and baptizing that baby in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost secured the next generation for the Church, but more importantly, guaranteed the baby's entry into heaven. During centuries of high infant mortality rates, infant baptism seemed to be a spiritual no-brainer. Parents wanted their children to be assured of heaven...

...But wait, say some of the scripture-reading Protestants, the Bible doesn't mention anything about babies being baptized. Jesus is “presented” in the temple shortly after his birth, but the reason for the family being there is Mary's purification, as required by Jewish law, not any kind of infant baptism. Jesus is just along for the ride. John the Baptist preaches a baptism of repentance and baptizes adults. Jesus comes to John at the Jordan River and is also baptized...as an adult.

When the Haban split off from their Hutterite brethren, the issue of infant baptism was very much in the forefront of the conflict. I will eventually write in detail about that conflict between the Hutterites and the Jesuits, but for now I want to continue with another hopefully brief, very condensed timeline of church history, from the Protestant Reformation to the origins of the Hutterites.*

1520s - Huldrych Zwingli, a Swiss contemporary of Martin Luther, is reforming the church in Switzerland at the time Martin Luther is reforming the church in Germany. He is debating what to do about the Mass and infant baptism. He works with the local governing body on deciding if these formerly Catholic practices should go or stay. (There is no such thing as separation of church and state at this point in history. The relationship between the two has been intertwined for hundreds of years – the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire, and now the Protestant churches and the local magistrates.)

1525 – Conrad Grebel, a follower of Zwingli, decides Zwingli is moving too slowly on the reforms. Running with the “...But wait, the Bible doesn't mention anything about babies being baptized”, he does two radical things – he baptizes another follower, George Blaurock, an adult (!!) and then refuses to baptize his infant daughter Issabella (!!!). George Blaurock, in turn, starts baptizing other adults. Zwingli is not happy. The governing powers are not happy. Anabaptism – a derogatory name meaning rebaptism - is born and is promptly persecuted.

1525 – 1700s – Grebel's and Blaurock's Anabaptist followers are now referred to as the Swiss Brethren. Their views on baptism and their refusal to cultivate relationships with the civil government infuriates both Roman Catholics and Lutheran reformers alike. The Swiss Brethren, and any related Anabaptist splinter groups – and there are many - are persecuted and scattered throughout Europe, mostly in the lands that will become Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

1532-1535 – Münster, Westphalia (Germany), becomes the “New Jerusalem” of radical (read “fanatic”) Anabaptism. Chased and persecuted Anabaptists from the Netherlands and other northern European areas gather in Münster to catch their collective breaths and are lead by some wild and crazy guys. They blend some of the New Testament beliefs (such as community of goods) with some Old Testament customs (polygamy) and decide that an Anabaptist nonviolent commitment to peace at all costs is too costly. They lead a violent revolt, one that is promptly and brutally suppressed. Because the Münsterites shared some of the same beliefs as other Anabaptists, “Münsterites” and “Anabaptism” are now words firmly linked in the minds of Lutherans and Catholics alike. The hot persecution against any and all Anabaptists gets hotter.

1536 – Menno Simons, a Dutch priest, leaves the Catholic Church and joins the Anabaptist movement. Eventually the Swiss Brethren take his name and become known as Mennonites (Later, in 1693, Jakob Ammann attempts to reform the Swiss Brethren-now-Mennonite church. It does not go well. His splinter group of followers become known as the Amish...)

1533-1536 – Jakob Hutter, a Tyrolian (Austrian) convert to Anabaptism, works with Tyrolean (Austrian) Anabaptist groups, moving them to Moravia when things get too hot for them in Tyrol. He settles their disputes, wisely ministers to their physical and spiritual needs, and encourages true godly community. He proves himself to be such a great all-round leader that these former Swiss Brethren Anabaptists take their name from him and are now known as...yep...Hutterites. And here is where our Haban story really begins...

* Again, PLEASE, mercy from my seminary-educated readers...

The Curse of Martin Luther

(Church History Part I)

There was a pretty church building a few miles from where I lived as a child. It was small, built of red brick and had a white steeple with a plain cross on the top. The Catholic church we attended was large and darkly cathedral-like and for some reason this small simple church attracted my curiosity. Maybe could we go there some Sunday, I asked my mother. She told me no, that we were Catholic and the small church was not a Catholic church. I was young enough to only have a Catholic worldview at that point, and thinking that all churches were, of course, Catholic, asked my mother how come that church was not a Catholic church. She told me that a person had a disagreement with the pope and decided to start a new church of their own, but it wasn't really God's church, just that person's idea of what a church should be. I tried to wrap my five- or six-year-old brain around this monumental theological revelation and spent the next year or two with the somber knowledge that somewhere in the world, living in opposition to both God and the pope, was a wicked woman named Grace Lutheran...

Grace Lutheran Church, Bellmore, NY, as it looks today

Needless to say, my grasp of the Protestant Reformation has expanded somewhat since that day. And living my church life on the Protestant side of the fence for the past 27 years has made me appreciate Martin Luther as more of a hero of the faith than the villain of my childhood (who I was surprised to find out, eventually, was a man...). Still, I do feel the tension between my Catholic upbringing and the evangelical protestant faith I presently dwell within. I now live functionally popeless, but I do admit to being a little sad at the plethora of denominations that have sprung up since Luther first nailed a copy of his 95 theses to the door of a Wittenberg church. In traveling around the country in the past several decades, I would often pass the time in the hotel counting the number of non-Catholic churches listed in the yellow pages of the phone book. A medium-sized town would have one, maybe two Catholic Churches, but dozens of Protestant churches of various denominations with additional subsets within denominations. Since Martin Luther and the Protestant reformation, the freedom of the individual and local church to read and study the Bible naturally led to different interpretations and/or emphases which led to divisions and different denominations within the Protestant church. The doctrine of salvation by faith alone and the belief in the sole authority of scripture are the blessings of Martin Luther. The tendency to divide into denominations and subdenominations over doctrinal disagreements is his curse...

To understand the Haban's Hutterite roots, we first need to understand the Protestant Reformation's role in creating the atmosphere that emboldened groups such as the Anabaptists to appear and spawn communities such as the Hutterites. But I promised this blog would be both interesting and readable, so I will now attempt only a very brief, very condensed version of church history from Jesus to the Protestant Reformation.*

First Century – Jesus lived, died, was resurrected, ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, and presto - the Church is born!

First Century – 1054 . - The Church was persecuted, grew wildly in numbers, had some political alignments, was generally ruled by the spiritual descendants of the apostle Peter known as popes.

1054 - The Church splits geographically and culturally into East and West in a Great Schism. The pope in Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople mutually excommunicate one another. East goes on to become the Eastern, Greek, and Russian Orthodox churches, the West goes on as the Roman Catholic Church.

1054 – 1500s – The Roman Catholic Church is the Church in Europe, chugging along largely intact and in alliance with the Holy Roman Empire.

1517 – 1521 – Martin Luther, a German Catholic priest, writes his Ninety-five Theses (1517), takes issue with some Catholic practices, indulgences being one of them, refuses to renounce his writings, and is excommunicated by the pope (1521).

1534 – 1538 - Henry VIII of England, in disagreement with the pope over the validity of his first marriage, declares himself “the only Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England” (1534). The Church of England (Anglican Church, eventually the Episcopal Church in America) is born. The pope not so promptly excommunicates him (1538).

1500s – The Protestant Reformation takes hold. Martin Luther spells out what he feels the Catholic Church has gotten away from, that salvation and eternal life are not obtained by being good (or being bought, as in the case of indulgences) but are the free gift of God's grace when one believes in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only means to salvation. He also declares that the Bible is the one and only source of God's revelation. Martin, and to some extent, Henry, wrest spiritual authority from the priests and pope and put it in the hands of the Bible-reading, believing common men and women. For Protestants, everyone gets to be his or her own pope, his or her own priest now.

And so the proliferation of denominations begins...

*To any of my seminary-educated readers out there, I beg – BEG! - for your mercy...

Next:

To Baptize Or Not To Baptize (And When To Do It...Or Not To Do It)

(Church History Part II)