Alexander Gordon

“ Hence the bitter persecutions which, when the safety of toleration was not imagined, made martyrs of these humble folk, who simply wished to cultivate the religious life apart from the world. There was something in this ideal which answered to that medieval conception of separation from the world which had leavened all middle-class society in Europe ”

“ Hence the new teaching and praxis spread rapidly from Switzerland to Germany, Holland and France. While the horrors of the Münster fanaticism, which culminated in 1534, made Anabaptism a byword, and increased the severity of a persecution directed against all Baptists indiscriminately, the reaction against the fatal errors of the Münster experiment increased also the adherents of communities which discarded the sword; thus Menno was brought into their ranks. Each community was independent, united with others only by the bond of love. ”

“ While in Germany the Mennonites exist in considerable numbers, more important are the German Mennonite colonies in southern Russia, brought there in 1786 by Catherine II., and freed, by the grant of complete religious liberty, from the hardships imposed by Prussian military law. ”