# Alexander Mack and the gathered Brethren

Documented activity 1708–1729 · Overview

Alexander Mack grew up in the Reformed Church in the Palatinate and was influenced by Pietism and Anabaptism. With other believers at Schwarzenau, he came to regard personal confession of faith as necessary to baptism. In August 1708 five men and three women met at the Eder River. One member baptized Mack, who then baptized the other seven.

The Church of the Brethren’s account connects this beginning to peaceful action, plain and compassionate living, and the common search for obedience to Christ. Evangelists carried their message into other parts of Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The movement called its members brethren and sought to give their profession of faith visible expression in community.

Persecution and economic hardship later contributed to migration. Peter Becker led a group to North America in 1719; the Germantown congregation was organized in 1723, and Mack brought a further group in 1729. These related Brethren beginnings are part of the supplied timeline’s account of renewal and migration.



- [Supplied Church History exhibit, IMG_9364, caption H](https://github.com/trueChristian/history.truechristian.church/blob/main/sources/church-history/photos/IMG_9364.jpg)
- [Church of the Brethren: institutional history](https://www.brethren.org/about/history/)

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Page: https://history.truechristian.church/en/people/alexander-mack/

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