In this account from The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, Hans Kräl, an itinerant preacher and bishop of the Hutterites, portrays life during the “golden period” of the Hutterites in Moravia (1565–1592).¹

During these years God gave his people quiet times. In honour of his name we must record this in detail, for after the Lord had purified his church in various ways, allowing it to experience all kinds of tribulation and poverty for years . . . , God granted his people quiet times and rich blessings, as he did to the devout Job after his temptation. This he did to see how they would prove themselves in such times and to make sure that his work and plans would be publicly carried out and become known to all people far and wide. God did this and gave his people peaceful times, contrary to the intentions of the whole world, with the result that for twenty years or more there was no general persecution (as will be seen in this chronicle), except for a few incidents now and then.

However, in these times many accusations were made and decrees issued by the emperor and the king at the Imperial Diets, as well as in the Provincial Diets, which were made up of various Estates and faiths. Although they were otherwise quite disunited, in this they all agreed: that these people should be exterminated and not tolerated anywhere. But the Lord prevented this in many ways and at many times. On one occasion he gave the persecutors something else to worry about. Another time he made them lose courage to carry out their plans, for he can trim the sails according to his own wind.

Many resolved not to lay their heads on a pillow until they had expelled and exterminated God’s people, and they received power (but not from God) for this purpose. But the Lord destroyed them before they could begin. Many intended to inflict suffering on our people but only brought harm to themselves.

There was a great deal of discussion. One counselled that they [the believers] should all be hanged; another wanted to burn them; a third to seize their elders, thereby destroying them at the roots. A fourth wished he had the power to deal with them as he pleased and wipe them off the face of the earth. But most of these people did not live long, and the years of their lives were cut short by death. This we have experienced. We could even give names.

As usual, wherever possible, the tribe of priests kept stirring up the powers that be. But the Lord our God stood in the way. The Archangel Michael stood watch over his people; otherwise they would long since have been swallowed up and devoured like bread. But as a hen gathers her young under her wings, protecting them by pecking at all that want to attack her own – indeed, as an eagle hovers over its young – this and much more God did for the sake of his people. Even the unbelievers often had to acknowledge that God refused to let this people be driven away or annihilated.

They lived in the land God had provided especially for them. They were given the wings of a great eagle and flew to the place God had prepared for them, and they were sustained there as long as it pleased him. Thus they gathered in peace and unity and preached the Word of God publicly. Twice a week, sometimes more often, they held meetings in which the communal, united prayer was offered to God, asking him for all the needs of the brotherhood and giving joyful thanks for all the good things they enjoyed. Likewise, intercession was made for emperor, king, princes, and worldly authorities, that God might make them think about the office entrusted to them and conduct it properly, so as to govern peacefully and protect the faithful.

Furthermore, the Christian ban was used against the wicked when they were discovered in the brotherhood. The brotherhood banned and punished, each according to his sin. When they showed true repentance, they were re-accepted into the church.

In accordance with the Lord’s command and the practice of the apostles, Christian baptism was given to adults who could hear the Word of God and could understand, accept, and believe it, infant baptism being the complete opposite and totally false.

The people met and celebrated the Lord’s Supper to remember and continually refresh the holy memory of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ: through his death he redeemed us who were otherwise lost and brought us back, making us of one mind as members of his body. It was a celebration of thanksgiving for his love and unspeakable kindness in what he has done for our sakes; this we in turn should do for his sake in thanksgiving. Such a celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the opposite of the idolatrous sacrament of the priests.

They practiced Christian community of goods as Christ taught it and lived it with his disciples and as the first apostolic church practiced it. No one else dared to join them. Those who earlier had been rich or poor now shared one purse, one house, and one table – the healthy with the healthy, the sick with the sick, and the children with the children.

Swords and spears were forged into pruning knives, scythes, and other tools. There was no musket, sabre, halberd, or any other weapon of defence. Each was a brother to the other. They were a thoroughly peaceful people who never took part in any war or bloodshed by paying war taxes, much less by active participation. They did not resort to revenge – patience was their weapon in all strife.

They were subject to the authorities and obedient to them in all good works, in all things that were not against God, their faith, or their conscience. They paid their taxes, annual dues, interest, tithes, and customs, and they did their compulsory labour. They honoured the governing authorities because of their divinely ordained office, which is as much needed in this wicked world as daily bread.

In conclusion, all twelve articles of the Christian apostolic faith and all things founded on Holy Scripture were confessed and observed.

Christian mission was carried out according to the command of the Lord: “As my Father has sent me, so I send you.” Also: “I have chosen and appointed you that you go out and bear fruit.” Therefore each year servants of the Gospel and their assistants were sent out into the lands where there was a call. They visited those who wanted to change their lives, who sought and enquired after the truth. These they led out of their land by day and by night at their request, heedless of constable and hangman, with the result that many lost their lives for the sake of this cause. Thus they gathered God’s people in a manner befitting good shepherds.

They separated themselves from the world and its evil, unjust life. They shunned especially the false prophets and false brothers.

The kind of cursing and profanity without which the world cannot speak was never heard among them. No oaths were sworn or promises made. There was no dancing, gambling, or carousing. They did not make fancy, slashed, fashionable, or immodest clothes; such things were done away with. They did not sing shameful, immoral songs, which the world is full of, but Christian and spiritual songs and songs of Bible stories.

Leadership was entrusted to the elders, men who guided the people with the Word of God by reading, teaching, and exhorting them through Scripture. They practiced admonition and reconciliation, putting right any mistakes and wrongdoings.

Some men were carefully chosen to take charge of the management of temporal affairs. They made and received payments, provided for food and supplies, and did the buying and selling.

Others were in charge of organizing the work and sending each one to the job he knew and could do well, in the fields or wherever necessary. These were the work distributors.

There were brothers charged with serving at table. The meals began with prayer and thanksgiving to God, and thanks were given at the end before returning to work. Thanksgiving and prayer were offered at bedtime and again in the morning before going to work.

Certain brothers were responsible for the school. Together with the sisters, they looked after the children and their needs in all areas.

There was no usury, no buying and selling for gain. There was only honest labour to earn a living through the daily toil of those who worked as vinedressers and farmers in the vineyards, fields, and gardens. Carpenters and builders went out within Moravia and as far as Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia to build many large mills, breweries, and other buildings at fair wages for the lords, nobles, and other citizens. A brother was especially assigned for this purpose, an experienced builder who organized the carpenters, accepted work, bargained, and made agreements on behalf of the brotherhood.

Many of the brothers were millers, and there were many mills in that area whose owners asked the brothers to take them over and look after the grinding for a third or a fourth share, which was a fair deal according to current practice. So the brotherhood appointed a brother to oversee the mills. With the advice of the elders, he made all the agreements, assigned the millers, and saw to it that the mills were staffed and functioning well.

For a long time the lords and noblemen (especially those on whose land we lived) employed our people to run their farms and other work departments, some for a third share, some for wages, or whatever was acceptable to both parties. A brother was responsible for taking on such farms as the community could manage, often after repeated requests by the landlords. He made the arrangements and saw to it that enough people were available to staff them.

In short, no one was idle; each did what was required and what he was able to do, whatever he had been before – rich or poor, aristocrat or commoner. Even the priests who joined the community learned to work.

All sorts of honest, useful trades were represented: those of mason, scythesmith, blacksmith, coppersmith, locksmith, clockmaker, cutler, plumber, tanner, furrier, cobbler, saddler, harness maker, bag maker, wagon maker, cooper, joiner, turner, hatter, cloth maker, tailor, blanket maker, weaver, rope maker, sieve maker, glazier, potter, beer brewer, barber surgeon, and physician. In each work department one brother was in charge of the shop, accepted orders and planned the work, then sold the products at their fair value and handed the proceeds over to the church.

Everyone, wherever he was, worked for the common good to supply the needs of all and to give help and support wherever it was needed. It was indeed a perfect body whose living, active members served one another.

Think of the ingenious works of a clock, where one piece helps another to make it go, so that it serves its purpose. Or think of the bees, those useful little insects working together in their hive, some making wax, some honey, some fetching water, until their noble work of making sweet honey is done, not only for their own needs but enough to share with man. That is how it was among the brothers. So there has to be an order in all areas, for the matters of life can be properly maintained and furthered only where order reigns – even more so in the house of God, whose Master Builder and Establisher is the Lord himself. Where there is no order, there is disorder. There God does not dwell, and the house soon collapses.

The brotherhood became widely known through those servants of the Word and other brothers imprisoned in different places for the sake of their witness to Jesus Christ and his truth. In many different ways, they were closely questioned about the basis of their faith. This happened all over the German-speaking lands, wherever brothers were imprisoned, some for long periods of time. In word and deed, by their life and their death, they testified that their faith was the truth.

Moreover, emperors, kings, princes, lords, and those at their courts, especially in the German-speaking lands, became acquainted with the brotherhood’s religion, teaching, faith, and life. They often came to see for themselves, and commoners came too, and learned that the communities were harmless and that the evil reports about the brothers were untrue. Many were convinced and praised them as a devout people that must have been established by God, otherwise it would have been impossible for so many to live together in unity, whereas among them, when only two, three, or four live together in one house, they are constantly in each other’s hair and quarrel until they have to part company.

Some preferred to have brothers rather than anyone else working for them and serving them, so there were not enough brothers in the land, since – because of their reliability – everyone wanted them for his own benefit. But because of their religion they were always thought to be too many.

It was a remarkable situation: Some lords were angry and ill-disposed toward the brothers because of their faith, and they did not want them to be tolerated in the land. Others were angry that not more brothers were assigned to work for them, although they had kept asking for many years. In short, some wanted to have them accepted, others wanted to have them expelled. Some said the best about them, others the worst.

The world did not want to tolerate them but had to. God divided the sea – the raging nations of this world – so that people could be gathered from all lands and dwell together in great numbers, fearlessly doing the work of the Lord against the devil and the world. Indeed, it is a wonderful handiwork of God, when you think about it. Some people thought it was right for those who had the strength. Others wished they, too, could live like that. Still others, the majority, in their blindness saw it as error and seduction or as a human undertaking.

Yet all the world so hated and envied them that they might have said with David, “We have more enemies than hairs on our head.” As soon as they stepped outside the door, they were abused and called Anabaptists, re-baptizers, new baptizers, schismatics, agitators, and all kinds of insulting names. People everywhere disparaged them and taunted them with gruesome lies, accusing them of eating children and other horrible things that would have shocked us deeply had we even dreamed of them, much less done them. Many slanderous accusations of things that are not human, let alone Christian, were brought against the brotherhood to lay it open to suspicion and hatred.

The world hated and persecuted us solely for the sake of Christ’s name and his truth, because we followed him, and for no other reason. And this was a sure sign: If someone travelled with only a staff in his hand to show that he did not mean to harm anyone, or if he prayed before eating, he was called an Anabaptist, a heretic. Such is the stupidity of the devil. But if someone became unfaithful and walked according to the ways of the heathen, a sword at his side and a musket at his shoulder, from that moment on he was welcome to the world and “a good Christian” in their eyes.

A man who wore no ruff round his neck or other signs of vanity in his attire, who declared that gambling, haughtiness, gluttony, drunkenness, and carousing are evil and against God, and conducted himself in a quiet way with patience and other qualities befitting a disciple of Christ – such a person was reckoned by the world to be a heretic, a sectarian, a deceiver, or a fool. He was hated and despised by people who had never seen him before and could accuse him of no wrongdoing, since he had harmed no one and had no wish to do so. This just shows what the world has come to.

But as soon as someone was unfaithful, returned to the world, and stepped into the inn saying, “Boys, let me treat you to a drink,” singing immoral songs, drinking wildly with others, and sticking a plume in his hat like a fool; as soon as he indulged in gambling and dancing, wearing a huge ruff round his neck, baggy breeches, and clothes with ornamental slits, making a show of their thousand and one much-honoured sacraments, spreading syphilis and other dreadful diseases, and swearing and blaspheming God – from that moment on such a person was befriended by the world and acknowledged again as one of them. They approved of him and said, “Well done! You were right to leave the brothers and be converted and become a good Christian. Now that you have the true faith never let yourself be led astray from our church again. You did well to leave the brothers and separate yourself from their sect” – as they call us. Wherever he went, he found good friends. People liked him and accepted him, even if they had never seen him before. They could see all his wicked deeds and vices, and still he was liked by the world because he had forsaken the truth of God. From all this it is clear that they hate and persecute us simply because we are zealous for God. Envy, stemming from the old serpent, is behind their hatred of God’s truth. No one wants to admit it, but there is no denying it.

Eventually even the people living in our area began to hate and envy us, as Esau envied Jacob, on account of the blessings God poured out on us over and above what we earned with the toil of our hands. We had what we needed in house and home and – thank God – food, while they for the most part had to make do with very little because they spent it all on drink. They wasted their time and often squandered their money on drinks before they had even earned it. They loved to be idle and lazy.

What shall we say, then, about the false brothers and communities who complained about God’s brotherhood more than about anyone else? They found fault with the brotherhood on every point. They hated us and resented it when we admonished them about their deviations. That verse in the Gospel is indeed true where Christ says about his own, “You will be hated by everyone for my name’s sake.” Because the Lord’s Word truly applies to us, all this simply reassures and strengthens us all the more.

The Lord also strengthens us, his church, through those who forsake the truth and return to the world. Many of them – however long they live outside – have no peace in their hearts day in, day out, waking or sleeping. No matter what they set themselves to do, their consciences smite them constantly and their hearts pound with fear because of their unfaithfulness. They return deeply convicted, and in tears they repent and confess their sins, seeking peace with God and his church, ready to die rather than forsake the truth again.

Indeed, the number of such experiences gives us a deep certainty. It caused us great pain and shock to see for ourselves the despair of those backsliders who had once confessed and accepted God’s truth but then deviated from it. Then God struck them down with sickness, and death hovered over them (a time when all things are revealed to a man). But too late and in vain they were overcome with remorse because they had turned away from the truth and had to die in their apostasy.

Some saw their punishment before their very eyes and carried on frightfully, crying out “Woe is me!” and seeing themselves as beyond help. Others said that with their own feet they had kicked the door of heaven shut in front of them. Still others admitted that if only they had remained brothers and had repented, they would gladly die and part from this life. Many prayed in fear and trembling and pleaded with God to restore their health just once more. Then they would repent and return to what they had forsaken. Those who recovered did just that without a moment’s hesitation. Many, however, were never able to experience such a reconciliation but, as already stated, died with a burdened conscience and in deep dread because they had mocked God too many times. When God had called them, they did not want to listen. Now, when they pleaded, the Lord turned a deaf ear.

Here we will end this part of the account and return again to the description of other matters.

This text appears in the recently published For God’s Truth: A Hutterite History Reader, edited by Jesse Hofer and Kenny Wollman (MacGregor, MB: Hutterian Brethren Book Centre, 2024).

1. The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, vol. 1, trans. and ed. by the Hutterian Brethren (Rifton, NY: Plough Publishing House, 1987), 402–10. Used with permission. ↩︎