Present → past
Choose an era above, then follow a milestone into its people, original accounts, and sources.
1945–today
Living communities, worldwide fellowship, and the histories still being gathered.
Continuing today
The present-day story includes communities across continents and many different traditions. Local histories, migrations, mission, and relationships between churches are part of the record still being gathered.
1800–1944
Migration, new fellowships, mission, and the challenges of a changing world.
1925
The first Mennonite World Conference gathering was held in Basel in 1925. Later assemblies form part of the story of worldwide Anabaptist fellowship.
1920
Eberhard and Emmy Arnold, together with Else von Hollander, founded the Bruderhof in Germany in 1920.
1874
Hutterite communities began migrating from the Russian Empire to North America in the 1870s after changes affecting military exemption and community life.
1860
Renewal within Mennonite communities in the Russian Empire contributed to the formation of the Mennonite Brethren in 1860.
1600–1799
Written confessions, the preservation of memory, new branches, and journeys across borders.
1708
A group baptized in the Eder River at Schwarzenau began a movement shaped by both Anabaptist convictions and Pietism.
1693
Disagreements associated with Jakob Ammann in 1693 contributed to the emergence of the Amish from the Swiss Anabaptist tradition.
1660
Thieleman J. van Braght’s collection preserved accounts of Christian witnesses and Anabaptist martyrs, along with letters, confessions, and reflections.
1614
The account of Hans Landis in Martyrs’ Mirror shows that persecution of Swiss Anabaptists continued into the seventeenth century.
The north wind of persecution rose now more and more in the Knonow district, which also appeared in the case of an old sister, named Catharina Mulerin; who having also been apprehended and taken to Zurich, had to suffer much there in prison, for the faith and testimony of Jesus…
Read the storyNow when some brethren and sisters in the Swiss dominions had died in prison, of misery, want, hunger and grief, but five still lived in confinement, the remaining ones who were yet out of bonds, when they were threatened, especially by those of Berne, that they should expel…
Read the storyFROM 1600 TO 1660.
Read the story[After the preceding, sixteenth century closed with the burying alive of Anneken van den Hove, in the year 1597, the following, seventeenth century commenced, not without threats, and the shedding of the blood of the pious witnesses of the Lord.
Read the storyWith the beginning of this century, when the constraint exercised by the papists upon the faith and conscience of the pious, began to cease somewhat, some who had separated from popery, and yet nevertheless retained the disposition of the papists, in the matter of oppressing…
Read the storyThe burgomasters and the council make known: Whereas it has come to our certain knowledge that not only many in the city and in the jurisdiction of the same presume to exercise and practice, contrary to the treaty sworn to and made with the city, A. D. ’94, another religion than…
Read the story1500–1599
Believers’ baptism, gathered churches, persecution, and the emergence of distinct Anabaptist streams.
1569
Martyrs’ Mirror recounts how Dirk Willems turned back to rescue a pursuer who had fallen through the ice. He was recaptured and later executed.
1536
Jakob Hutter was executed in Innsbruck in 1536. His leadership and organization helped give the Hutterite tradition its lasting name.
1528
A community of Anabaptist refugees in Moravia began sharing their possessions. This practice became a defining feature of Hutterite life.
1527
Felix Manz was drowned in Zürich on 5 January 1527. His story is central to the memory of persecution among the Swiss Brethren.
1527
The Schleitheim Articles set out seven points of agreement for a gathered Anabaptist community, including baptism, communion, church discipline, and refusal of the sword.
1525
On 21 January 1525, Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock at a gathering associated with Felix Manz in Zürich. This is a central starting point for Swiss Anabaptist history.
When the believers greatly increased under persecution and the cross (Ex. 1:12), there was, in Bavaria, a learned priest of the mass, named Leonhard Keyser, who examined the writings of Zwingli and Luther, and also went to Wittenberg, where he conferred with the doctors and…
Read the storyAbout the year 1550, it happened in the bishopric of Bamberg, that two young girls espoused and received Christ by faith, were baptized upon their faith, according to the doctrine of Christ, and arising from sin, sought to walk in newness of life with Christ. On this account the…
Read the storyAt Antwerp three brethren, named Andries Langedul, Mattheus Pottebacker and Lauwerens van der Leyen, were apprehended for the truth. Andries Langedul was apprehended at a time when a meeting had just been held in his house for the preaching of the word of God. Some one had spied…
Read the storyIn the year 1569 a pious, faithful brother and follower of Jesus Christ, named Dirk Willems, was apprehended at Asperen, in Holland, and had to endure severe tyranny from the papists. But as he had founded his faith not upon the drifting sand of human commandments, but upon the…
Read the storyThe same year 1592, on Mary Magdalene’s day, Mattheus Mair was apprehended at Wier, in the district of Baden. This was brought about by a priest, who upon coming out of the church, and noticing the brother, sent his servant maid after him, to see whether he should leave the…
Read the storyThus it appears clearly, that the old true Waldenses existed, and practiced their worship not only throughout the fifteenth century, but also long afterwards, as will be seen from the sequel of our account. But that the number of the witnesses which we have produced from the…
Read the story500–1499
The medieval accounts remembered by Martyrs’ Mirror, read in their historical and literary context.
Explore the source accounts below. Detailed milestones can be contributed as research grows.
When Clement, having come from Scotland, had joined the aforesaid Albert as a companion, and united with him in regard to doctrine, he not only began, but ceased not, even as the friend whom he had found, to combat with the spiritual armor, and 222if possible, to overcome, in an…
Read the storyAbout A. D. 850, the Saracens, who were adherents to the Mohammedan religion, invaded various islands of the Mediterranean Sea, and also the kingdom of Spain, in which they penetrated so far that their king had his court in the city of Cordova.
Read the story“Robert Altisidorensis states of said martyrs of Orleans, that they were of the best or chiefest laymen of Orleans, and that for this reason a council was convened there against them, in which they were unanimously condemned and sentenced, as heretics, to the fire; and that they…
Read the storyIn the fifteenth book of the Chronijck van den Ondergang, page 788, are found the following words: “William Wicht, or William White, a learned, upright, honest, and eloquent man, a priest in England, forsook his ministry, and published the Gospel, by writing, preaching, and…
Read the storyBesides, that in the first three centuries after the death of the apostles, nothing was known in the Roman church, as regards rulers of the same, but common bishops or overseers, until the time of Constantine the Great, and from that time on to the year 600, only archbishops and…
Read the storyRead this section in the source collection.
Read the story30–499
The Christian beginnings and early witnesses to whom later Anabaptists looked for inspiration.
Date not assigned
The account in Acts provides the Christian beginnings to which later Anabaptist communities looked for their understanding of discipleship, baptism, and shared life.
About three thousand, nine hundred and seventy years after the creation of the world, in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, the second Roman emperor, when the whole world was at peace, Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary, in the little town of Bethlehem, being…
Read the storyThis John, surnamed the Baptist, because he was ordained of God to baptize the penitent, was the son of the priest Zacharias, and his wife Elisabeth; whose name was made known to his parents through the angel of God, before he was born. Luke 1:5,13.
Read the storyStephen, which in Greek signifies a crown, was one of the seven deacons of the church at Jerusalem, a man full of faith and the wisdom of God. Acts 6:5.
Read the storyJames, surnamed the Greater, was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and a fisherman by occupation; but, Christ having called him to be his disciple, he abandoned fishing, and followed Christ. Matt. 4:21; Mark 1:19.
Read the storyPhilip, a native of Bethsaida, in Galilee, had a wife and daughters of very honorable life. John 1:44; 12:21; Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 3. cap. 30; 31.
Read the storyJames the Lesser was the son of Alpheus, and Mary Cleophas, sister to the mother of Christ; he is called the Lord’s brother. Matt. 10:3; Gal. 1:19.
Read the storyThe Church History photographs guide coverage of the later traditions and migrations.
