Mennonites

a sect of Christians. They took the name from Menno, a religious reformer of the Netherlands. He lived 1492-1561. He taught the divinity of Christ, the propriety of adult baptism, the right of excommunication, the sinfulness of war, the impropriety of taking a formal oath, the uselessness of science, and the coming of a millennium. It was his aim to imitate the humility and nobility of Christ. His followers took the name about 1536. Various divisions of opinion and wholesale excommunications broke the church up into sects, a very general reunion of which occurred in 1811. The Mennonites appear to have extended into central Europe, and to have thriven with genuine Dutch industry until they were overtaken by the policy of enforced military service. At one time there were 20,000 in Moravia alone, but various European sovereigns drove them out or forced them into the army and into other church affiliations. In 1900 there were but 18,000 Mennonites in all Germany.

When the German rulers persecuted the Mennonites Catherine II of Russia invited them to settle in her country. They were made welcome until toward the close of the nineteenth century, when they were given ten years' notice to leave the country or take their turn in serving in the army.

The sect is of special interest because so large a migration has reached the United States. Colonies were planted by William Penn at Germantown and elsewhere. Settlements grew up from time to time in Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, and of late years leaders sent out to find new homes have located large parties of Russian Mennonites in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba.

Like the Lutherans, the Mennonites are divided into no less than a dozen independent organizations, having in all (1910) 604 churches, 1,006 ministers and 54,798 members. The people are noted everywhere for industry, thrift, and a disposition to avoid publicity.

See Moravia; Anabaptists