SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE
1924

         
PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE EARLY EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT.  
    
THE MENNONITES. (con't)

		From Switzerland and Holland the Mennonite movement spread to
Germany, Austria, Roumania, Moravia and Hungary. What was known
as the Bruederhoef Mennonite Church traced its origin to one Jacob Huter,
who for his heretical faith was burnt at the stake at Innsbruck, Tyrol, in
1536. This branch was once represented by twenty-four communities in
Moravia, but the endless chain of persecution which all Mennonites ap-
pear to have suffered, drove them from Moravia into Hungary. In 1767
they were driven out of Hungary into Roumania: but after a stay of only
two years they moved on into Southern Russia and from Southern Russia,
in the early seventies some of them came to the United States and to
Canada. It is interesting to note that the first settlement of the Mennon-
ites in the United States was made in 1683 in Pennsylvania, when the
great Quaker pioneer William Penn, invited them to come over to Penn-
sylvania and enjoy full religious liberty. These Mennonites belonged to
the oldest of the Mennonite branches, known as the Mennonite Church,
and this church is now represented in seventeen States and has some
25,000 communicants. The total number of communicants in the United
States today is probably about 60,000. They publish several periodicals.
It is doubtful whether it is correct to say that the Mennonites or Douk-
obors, or any other sect which declines to obey the law of the land in which
they live, are the objects of "persecution." The law of the land is, or
should be, paramount, and a law-breaker is an offender whether his mo-
tives be religious or secular; but it is difficult to withhold a certain measure
of admiration for men who, generation after generation in the face of
obloquy and obstacle adhere to what they, unmistakenly perhaps, believe
to be religious truth and practice.



Bibliography follows: