FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTES[1]An acquaintance, who lives in Bucks County, tells me that his father, a Mennonite preacher, voted “pretty much always.”[2]The rule against judgment bonds is not universal.[3]For another estimate, seeAppendix.[4]Kohl-slaw (i.e., kohl-salat or cabbage-salad) is shredded cabbage, dressed with vinegar, etc. A rich dressing is sometimes made of milk or cream, egg, vinegar, etc. It may be eaten either as warm slaw or cold slaw.[5]Some account of Peltz-nickel in Germany will be found in theAppendix.[6]Written about 1868.[7]Amish is pronouncedOmmish, theabeing very broad, likeaw. This article was first published some years ago.[8]I learn, 1882, that the Amish feet-washing is public.[9]Our German Baptists are more decidedly non-resistant than the Quakers. Some of them refuse to vote for civil officers.The term Anabaptist is from the Greek, and signifies one who baptizes again. All Baptists baptize anew those who were baptized in infancy. The term Anabaptist, in the present essay, is used indifferently with Baptist, and, in a degree, with Mennonite.[10]Of the heretics executed by Alva in the Spanish Netherlands, a large proportion were Anabaptists.—Encyclopædia Americana.[11]Zschokke, in his History of Switzerland, accuses the Anabaptists of causing great trouble and scandal. Some account of the furious or warlike Anabaptists of Holland may be found in Appleton’s Cyclopædia.[12]This must not be understood as aid in bearing arms.[13]One of Menno’s brothers is said to have been connected with the Anabaptists of Münster, those who took up arms, etc. Of these, whose course was so very different from the lives of our pacific Baptists in this country. Menno may have received some, after their defeat, to come under the peaceable rule. There are in the Netherlands, says a recent authority, 40,000 Mennonites. They are a true, pure Netherlandish appearance, which is older than the Reformation, and therefore must not be identified with the Protestantism of the sixteenth century.Menno does not merit to be called the father of the Netherlandish Mennonites, but rather the first shepherd of the scattered sheep,—the founder of their church community.The ground-thought from which Menno proceeded was not, as with Luther, justification by faith, or, as with the Swiss Reformers, the absolute dependence of the sinner upon God, in the work of salvation. The holy Christian life, in opposition to worldliness, was the point whence Menno proceeded, and to which he always returned. In the Romish church we see ruling the spirit of Peter; in the Reformed Evangelical the spirit of Paul; in Menno we see arise again James the Just, the brother of the Lord.See articlesMennoandMennonites, andHolland, in Herzog’s “Real-Encyclopädie,” Stuttgart and Hamburg, 1858.Many of the Mennonites of Holland at the present day seem to have wandered far from the teachings of Menno, and to be very different from the simple Mennonite communities of Pennsylvania.[14]The burying of Menno in his garden can be explained by the great secrecy which in times of persecution attended the actions of the persecuted sects. The family graveyards of Lancaster County, located upon farms, may be in some degree traditional, from times of persecution, when Baptists had no churches, but met in secret.[15]To the writer it is a question of some interest how far George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, was acquainted with the lives, sufferings, and writings of the Anabaptists.The common people of England may readily have obtained some knowledge of the Baptists from the number that were cruelly put to death. In 1534, Henry VIII. commanded foreigners who had been baptized in infancy, and had been rebaptized, to leave the realm in twelve days, on pain of death. It seems that certain Dutch Baptists braved the threatened punishment; for twenty-six were, in different places, and at different dates, burned within a few years. Under Edward VI., many Baptists suffered extreme punishment, Cranmer and Latimer, Ridley and John Rogers, either approving or actually assisting as inquisitors. See “The Baptists; Who they are, and What they have done,” by George B. Taylor, D.D.The year 1534, in which Henry VIII. issued the proclamation alluded to, was the time of the Anabaptist occupation of Münster. The feelings of Henry towards the Peasants’ War and the Münster kingdom doubtless resembled those of his successor, in 1798, towards the French revolutionists,—but George III. did not put any one to death by fire.Since the above was written has been published Barclay’s “Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth,” London, 1876. This author speaks of George Fox as having promulgated opinions and founded churches closely approximating to the Mennonite churches in Holland. He further says George Fox tells us that he had an uncle in London who was a Baptist.[16]Hans (or John) Landis is the name of the sufferer just spoken of. Several Landises are mentioned in the martyrologies, and the name is very common in Lancaster County at this time. John Landis is remarkably so.In quoting from the Martyr-book I employ the English version, “Martyr’s Mirror.” I have lately had an opportunity of seeing an old German copy, from the press of the Brotherhood at Ephrata, about 1750. I find that it is differently arranged from the modern English version, and I suspect there are other variations.[17]From Schaffhausen came some of the Stauffer family, as I have read. The Stauffers are numerous in our county. For some family traditions, see the close of this article.[18]In the duchy of Cleves, the town of Crefeld, some fifty or sixty years later, gave refuge to the Dunkers. It appears also to have harbored some of the French Protestant refugees at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. See “Ephrata.”[19]They were probably conscientiously opposed to the death penalty.[20]Martyr’s Mirror.[21]The troops of the empire of Germany, or of Germany and Spain combined. See Voltaire’s “Age of Louis XIV.”[22]“Age of Louis XIV.” The following is testimony for the Mennonites: “In the words of the Dutch embassador (Van Beuning) to Monsieur de Turenne: ‘The Mennonites are good people, and the most commodious to a state of any in the world; partly because they do not aspire to places of dignity; partly because they edify the community by the simplicity of their manners, and application to arts and industry; and partly because we fear no rebellion from a sect who make it an article of their faith never to bear arms.’ The said industry and frugality they carried with them to Pennsylvania, and thereby are become very wealthy.”—Morgan Edwards.[23]Several towns and townships in southeastern Pennsylvania bear record of the Palatinate, etc. In Lancaster County we have Strasburg, doubtless named for that city in Alsace, and both town and township of Manheim. Adjoining counties have Heidelbergs. The Swiss Palatines do not seem to have preserved enough affection for the land of their origin to bestow Swiss names upon our Lancaster County towns. What wonder?[24]“This year of which I am now writing must ever be remembered as the most fatal to the Protestant religion. In February a king of England declared himself a papist. In June, Charles, the Elector Palatine, dying without issue, the electoral dignity went to the house of Newburgh, a most bigoted popish family. In October the King of France recalled and vacated the edict of Nantes.”—Burnet’s History of his Own Time.[25]This was twenty-eight years after the founding of Penn’s colony. Several years earlier, or in 1701, some Mennonites bought land in Germantown, and in 1708 built a church (or meeting-house). For this information I am obliged to Dr. Seidensticker, of the University of Pennsylvania.“In the year 1708 about fifty Palatines, who were Lutherans and were ruined, came over to England. Queen Anne allowed them a shilling a day, and took care to have them transported to the plantations; and from these circumstances there arose a general disposition among all the poor of that country to come over. They came to Holland in great bodies: the Anabaptists there were particularly helpful to them, both in subsisting those in Holland and in transporting them to England. Great numbers of these were sent to Ireland, but most of them to the plantations in North America, where it is believed their industry will quickly turn to a good account.”—See Burnet’s “Own Time.” I am told that of those thus sent to Ireland many afterwards came to America; of such was Philip Embury, who, being converted in Ireland, came to New York, and was the first to introduce Methodism on the continent. He and his family were from the Palatinate.Mention has just been made of Lutherans going to England from the Palatinate. I infer that many who fled thence were of the Reformed Church. The French Huguenots would in Germany probably join the Reformed Church?[26]Barclay’s “Religious Societies of the Commonwealth.” London, 1876.[27]Rupp.[28]Ibid.[29]The question has been discussed, what did the Germans select the limestone lands, and the Scotch-Irish take those less fruitful? Different hints upon this subject may be found in Day’s Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. Under the head of Lancaster County he says that a number of Scotch-Irish, in consequence of the limestone land being liable to frost and heavily wooded, seated themselves (1763) along the northern line of the counties of Chester and Lancaster. It seems that the Germans did not fear the labor of clearing off heavy timber.A gentleman of Lancaster County says that ninety in one hundred of the regular members of the Mennonite churches are farmers, and that they follow the limestone land as the needle follows the pole.[30]The Pequea Creek (pronounced Peckʹway) waters some of the finest land in the county, if not the very finest. “The Piquaws had their wigwams scattered along the banks of the Pequea.”[31]Not always as at present spelled. The present Kendig appears as Kindeck, Breneman as Preniman, Baumgardner as Bumgarner, Eby as Abye. These were probably English efforts at spelling German names. Rupp says that he was indebted to Abraham Meylin, of West Lampeter Township, for a copy of the act. There appear to have been among the Palatines who came into our county some Huguenot families; but, from intermarrying with the Germans, and speaking the dialect, they are considered “Dutch.” The name of the Bushong family is said to have been Beauchamp.[32]This mention of the Switzers’ wagons reminds me of the great Conestoga wagons, which, before the construction of railroads, conveyed the produce of the interior to Philadelphia. With their long bodies roofed with white canvas, they went along almost, I might say, like moving houses. They were drawn by six powerful horses, at times furnished with trappings and bells; and the wagoner’s trade was one of importance.[33]A test-oath, or oath of abjuration, seems to have been in force at one time in Pennsylvania, concerning the Roman Catholics. (See Rupp’s History of Berks and Lebanon.) Must we not attribute this act to the royal home government rather than to William Penn?[34]“I fear this volume will be deemed a heap of dry records, without a sufficient number of anecdotes to give them a relish; this is owing to the peace and liberty which the Baptists have ever enjoyed in Pennsylvania. In other provinces they have had their troubles, which will make their history interesting to every reader.”—Morgan Edwards: Advertisement [or preface] to “Materials towards a History of the Baptists in Pennsylvania, both British and German.” 1770.[35]Day says that there was policy in the order above given; that the Irish were warlike, and could defend the frontier. It was not long after the above date (in 1763) that the “Paxton Boys” made a raid down to Lancaster and massacred the remnant of the Conestoga Indians in the jail of this town.[36]The Amish seem to have originated in Europe, about the year 1700, when Jacob Amen, a Swiss preacher, set up, or returned to, the more severe rule, distasteful to brethren in Alsace, etc., and enforced the ban of excommunication upon some or all of those who disagreed with him. Appleton’s Cyclopædia calls him Amman, and says that the Amish rose in 1693, in Alsace. A small pamphlet upon this subject has been published at Elkhart, Indiana, and is for sale at the office of theHerald of Truth.[37]See Herzog.[38]The German wordleute, people, is here pronouncedlite.[39]Traditionary stories exist in our county concerning the Swiss origin, etc., of certain families. I have heard one concerning the Engles and one of the Stauffers. A member of the Johns family has also told me of their Swiss origin, and of their name being formerly written Tschantz.It is probable that other traditionary stories concerning Swiss families could now be collected, if some one would exert himself to do it before their custodians “fall asleep.” But let those who gather these stories beware of the “fine writer,” lest he add what he considers embellishments, and make the narratives improbable.The Stauffer traditions were mentioned to me by a venerable member of the family, one who has kindly lent me his aid and sympathy in some of my records of the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” John Stauffer is now a great-grandfather, and he calculates that it was, at the nearest, his own great-great-grandfather who, with his mother and his three brothers, came to this country, his ancestors being of Swiss origin. “The mother,” says my neighbor (in substance), “weighed three hundred, and the sons made a wagon, all of wood, and drawed her to the Rhine. When they got to Philadelphia, they put their mother into the wagon and drawed her up here to Warwick township. There they settled on a pretty spring; that is what our people like.”The reader of this little story may remember the “pious Æneas,” who “from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulders,” the old Anchises bore. [John Stauffer is now dead, 1882.]The tradition of the Engle family was narrated to me by two of its members. Mr. Henry M. Engle has felt some difficulty in reconciling the tradition with the fact of the family’s having been in this country only about one hundred years, and with his idea that the Swiss persecution must have ceased before that period. But we have seen that some Baptist families tarried in the Palatinate, etc., before coming here, and a circumstance like the imprisonment of one of their women would be remembered among them for a long time.Tradition says that it was the grandmother’s mother or grandmother of Henry M. Engle and Jacob M. Engle, who was a prisoner in Switzerland for her faith. The turnkey’s wife sympathized with the prisoner, because she knew that Annie had children at home. So she said to her, in the Swiss dialect, “Annie, if I were you, I would go away once.” (“Annie, wann i die wär, i det mohl geh.”—“Annie, wenn ich dich wäre, ich thut einmal gehen.”)She therefore set Annie to washing clothes, and, turning her back upon her, gave her opportunity to escape.Annie’s husband was not a Baptist; nevertheless, he was so friendly as to prepare a hiding-place for her, into which she could go down, if the persecutors came, by means of a trap-door; and she was never taken prisoner again.[40]TheHerald of Truth, a Mennonite paper of this country, under the date of July, 1873, contains a “Letter of Authority,” beginning, “We, the Bishops and Directors of the entire body of the Swiss Mennonites in the colonies of Kotusufka, in the district (county or canton) of Schitomir, state of Volkinien, Russia.”This Letter of Authority concerns the proposed migration above alluded to. Of the six names signed thereto, one at least appears to belong also to this county of Lancaster, where it is now sometimes written Graybill; in the Russian letter Krehbiehl. A similar name is found among the Schwenckfelders, who were of Silesian origin.[41]See the article “Ephrata,” in this volume.[42]See article “Ephrata” in this volume.[43]Our “Dutch”—all of them, I believe—use the singular pronoun “du,”thou.[44]A friend tells me that he once heard a discourse from a celebrated Dunker preacher, named Sarah Reiter. She was allowed to preach, it seems, by a liberal construction of Paul’s celebrated edict, because she was unmarried. Even when afterward married, by a more liberal construction still, the liberty to preach was not forbidden her. Possibly it was assumed that herhusband at homewas not able to answer all her questions upon spiritual matters. She removed to Ohio.In the Encyclopædia Americana the following are given as propositions of some of the former Anabaptists: “Impiety prevails everywhere. It is therefore necessary that a new family of holy persons should be founded, enjoying without distinction of sex the gift of prophecy, and skill to interpret divine revelations. Hence they need no learning, for the internal word is more than the outward expression.”At this time, however, while our German Baptists still believe in an unpaid, untaught ministry, none of them, I think, hold to the doctrine that the gift of prophecy or preaching is without distinction of sex. In this respect, George Fox seems to have agreed with the early Anabaptists just mentioned.[45]See the questions in full,—1 Corinthians, chap. vi.[46]See Hazard’s Register, vol. v. C. L. F. Endress, D.D., preached twelve years in Trinity (Lutheran) Church, Lancaster. To the learned Dr. Seidensticker, of Philadelphia, and to Mr. I. D. Rupp, I am indebted for assistance.[47]A new movement in German theology arose in the second half of the seventeenth century, through Spener, the founder of Pietism. The central principle of Pietism was that Christianity was first of all life, and that the strongest proof of the truth of its doctrines was to be found in the religious experience of the believing subject. The principles of the Pietists were in the main shared by the Moravians. (See American Cyclopædia, articleGerman Theology.) Compare this statement of the main principle of Pietism with this of the Anabaptists, whom the mass of our Dunkers so much resemble: “The opinions common to the Anabaptists are founded on the principle that Christ’s kingdom on earth, or the church, is a visible society of pious and holy persons, with none of those institutions which human sagacity has devised for the ungodly.” (See American Cyclopædia, articleAnabaptists.)[48]They took for themselves the name of Brethren, says an article in Rupp’s “Religious Denominations.” The Dunkers in our county call themselves Brethren,—“Old Brethren,” “River Brethren,” etc. Whether the Ephrata Dunkers took the same name, I cannot say.[49]Speaking of a certain Seventh-Day Baptist, an “Old Mennonite” writer says that he was “doubtless unaware that the Lord Christ is also Lord of the sabbath, and that in him no day, except for sake of common law, is to be observed above another.” SeeDer Waffenlose Waechter(orUnarmed Watchman), Jan. 1873.[50]In the time of the Millerite excitement above alluded to, many prepared ascension robes. One of my acquaintances went to the roof of his house, where, in his robe, he could look for the coming of Christ, and whence he was prepared immediately to ascend. More recently, namely, in August of 1873, I recollect meeting with a person who told me that he writes for Advent papers. He was himself aTime-ist, thinking that “the second coming of the Lord will take place this year.”[51]“Afterward, she held to edification for many years, in the sister-convent, the office of a sub-prioress, under the name of Marcella. Finally, in her age, she was induced by her son to return to her husband,—although another motive was the severe manner of life in the encampment, which she could no longer bear.”—Chronicon Ephratense, p. 45.[52]Are these the married women just spoken of, who had become single?[53]These remarkable men seem to deserve especial notice. In Rupp’s History of Lancaster County it is stated that they were from Germany, and had been brought up Catholics. Israel Eckerlin (Brother Onesimus) became prior of the brother-house at Ephrata. Peter Miller, in an original letter, complains that he obliged them to meddle with worldly things further than their obligations permitted; and that when money came in it was put out at interest, “contrary to our principles.”They could not, however, have been very rich, for when in 1745 a bell arrived in Philadelphia, from England, which had been ordered by Eckerlin, and which cost eighty pounds, they knew not how to pay for it. The name of Onesimus (or Eckerlin) had been placed upon the bell. When the news of its arrival was received, a council was held in the presence of the spiritual father, Beissel, and it was concluded to break the bell to pieces and bury it in the earth. The next morning, however, the father appeared in the council, and said that he had reflected that as the brothers were poor, the bell should be pardoned. It therefore was sold, and was placed upon the Lutheran church in Lancaster, where it was long in use. Afterwards it was sold to a fire company, and is now on the tower of the house of the Washington Company. It bears a Latin inscription with the name of the “reverend man,” Onesimus.Miller says that the prior (Eckerlin) conceived a notion to make himself independent of Beissel, and was stripped of all his dignities.The Eckerlins appear to have gone into the wilderness, and encamped on a creek flowing into the Monongahela, in Pennsylvania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard Creek, which it still bears. They afterward seem to have removed to Dunkards’ Bottom, on Cheat River, which they made their permanent residence. After many vicissitudes, Miller tells us that Eckerlin and his brother were taken prisoners by Mohawks, and sold to Quebec, whence they were transported to France, “where, after our prior had received the tonsure and become a friar of their church, they both died.” The Ephrata Chronicle says (chap. xxiii.) that the prior wentout of timetwenty years before Beissel. The latter died in 1768. By the former reckoning, the prior went out of time in 1748, or about three years after the difficulty about the bell at Ephrata.[54]The reader is referred to an article alluded to in the preceding essay, namely, Dr. Seidensticker’s “A Colonial Monastery,” inThe Centurymagazine for December, 1881. Dr. S. is a professor in the University of Pennsylvania.[55]The Tulpehocken Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill, which rises in Lebanon County, and empties at Reading, in Berks County.[56]In Rupp’s “Thirty Thousand Names” of immigrants to Pennsylvania will be found, under date of August 29, 1730, the names of Palatines with their families, imported in the ship “Thistle” of Glasgow, from Rotterdam, last from Cowes. Among these occurs Peter Müller, whom by a note Rupp connects with the Peter Miller of the text. As to the name John Peter, as given by Andrews, it is surprising to see how many of these immigrants bear the names of John, Hans, Johan, Johann, and Johannes, prefixed to other names. I count twenty in a column of thirty-four.[57]Mr. Andrews, from whom I quote, was a graduate of Harvard, who seems to have come to Philadelphia in 1698, and to have preached in an Independent or Presbyterian church, or in both.[58]The Conestogas were a small tribe ... consisting in all of some dozen or twenty families, who dwelt a few miles below Lancaster. They sent messengers with corn, venison, and skins, to welcome William Penn. When the whites began to settle around them, Penn assigned them a residence on the manor of Conestoga. (Day’s Historical Collections.)[59]When this letter was written, Miller was about eighty years old. He doubtless spoke German during the sixty years that he lived at Ephrata, as well as before that time. It will be observed that he does not write English elegantly.[60]In the year 1740, says Fahnestock, there were thirty-six single brethren in the cloisters, and thirty-five sisters; and at one time the society, including the members living in the neighborhood, numbered nearly three hundred.Rev. C. Endress says that some were anxious to retain the solitary life, and some (it appears) were opposed to giving to Beissel the title of Father. Sangmeister left the society and retired to Virginia (whence, however, he returned to Ephrata). “His book,” says the same writer, “is much tainted with bitterness, and undertakes to cast a dark shade upon the whole establishment.”[61]Larger accommodations were afterward built in the meadow below; a sister-house, called Saron, a brother-house, named Bethania, etc. Most of these are still standing, I believe, in 1882; but the former buildings on the hill long since disappeared.[62]The Ephrata Chronicle speaks nearly in this manner of that of the sisters:Their dress was ordered, like that of the brethren, so that little was to be seen of the disagreeable human figure (von dem verdriesslichen Bild das durch die Sünd ist offenbar worden). They wore caps like the brethren, but not pointed ones. While at work these caps or cowls hung down their backs; but when they saw anybody, they drew them over their heads, so that but little could be seen of their faces. But the principal token of their spiritual betrothal was a great veil, which in front covered them altogether, and behind down to the girdle. Roman Catholics who saw this garment said that it resembled the habit of the scapular.[63]The Chronicle tells us that once, in Beissel’s absence, a costly feather bed was brought into his sleeping-room. He made use of it one night, but sent it away afterward,—and not even in dying could be brought to give up the sleeping-bench (die Schlafbanck).[64]In “Carey’s Museum” for 1789, will be found a letter from a British officer to the editor of theEdinburgh Magazine, whence it appears that at that time, 1786, a rug was laid upon the sleeping-bench. The writer says that each brother had a cell, with a closet adjoining; that the smallness of the rooms was very disagreeable, and that they were not clean. The churches were clean and neat, but perfectly unadorned, except by some German texts. The house “occupied by the nuns” was uniformly clean, and the cells were in excellent order. (Some of the statements of this writer appear very loose.)[65]At Ephrata, in the winter of 1872, I was told that Miller was once met, as he was taking a load of paper from the mill to the press, by a certain man named Widman. This Widman, according to tradition, had been a vestryman in Miller’s former church. “Is this the way they treat you,” said Widman, “harnessing you up to a wheelbarrow?” and he spat in Miller’s face.Allusion will be made hereafter to the traditionary tale of Miller and Widman.[66]Of one of the collections of hymns published at Ephrata, Fahnestock says that four hundred and forty-one were written by Beissel, seventy-three by the brethren in the cloister, one hundred by the single sisters, and one hundred and twelve by the out-door members. Endress speaks in unfavorable terms of the literary merits of some of the Ephrata hymns.[67]“Materials towards a History of the American Baptists.” 1770.[68]Dr. Fahnestock resided for a while in the latter part of his life in the sister-house, at Ephrata. Here Mr. Rupp, the historian, visited him. Rev. Mr. Shrigley, librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, who visited Ephrata, has spoken to me of Fahnestock’s venerable appearance.[69]In after-years they seem to have been much troubled by litigation. Dr. Fahnestock says that they considered contention with arms, and at law, unchristian; but that they unfortunately had to defend themselves often in courts of justice. To set an example of forbearance and Christian meekness, they suffered themselves for a long time to be plundered, until forbearance was no longer a virtue. He says (Hazard’s Register, 1835) that the society is just escaping from heavy embarrassments which they incurred in defending themselves from the aggressions of their neighbors. The British officer, whose statement was published as early as 1789, speaks of Peter Miller as often engaged in litigation.In a recent work (Belcher’s History of Religious Denominations, 1854), the Seventh-Day Baptists at Ephrata are said to possess about one hundred and forty acres.[70]Morgan Edwards, in speaking of the recluses at Ephrata, says that they took the vow of celibacy. But, as so many of our German Baptists are opposed to oaths, I presume that they did not. “Teach, by example, that a promise is truly an oath,” says a late Pennsylvania paper.[71]Somewhat altered from the original.[72]A writer in the Chronicle speaks of being at one of the count’s conferences, where there were Mennonites, Separatists, and Baptists. But when he came home, he told thevorsteherthat he regarded the count’s conference as a snare to bring simple awakened souls again into infant-baptism and church-going. Then they held a council, and resolved to have a yearly conference of their own.The above expression—infant-baptism and church-going—sounds so much like the account of the Baptist or Anabaptist persecutions narrated in the Martyr-book, that we might almost conclude that the Dunkers had a direct connection with the Anabaptists, instead of originating among the Pietists. But it will be remembered that the Ephrata Dunkers had printed an edition of the great Martyr-book, and it is most probable that some of them were familiar with it. Still, there may have been among the Pietists some who were or had been Baptists.[73]Near the close of this sketch mention is made of “Hoeckers a Creveld.” Perhaps Ludwig belonged to the same family.[74]Paxton township is now in Dauphin County. The Paxton church was three miles east of Harrisburg.[75]The Ephrata Chronicle says that, as the enemy approached (the Indians came within thirteen miles of Ephrata), many persons sought refuge in the cloister, with those who were themselves in need of protection. As reports of murders reached Ephrata day after day, the celibates (Einsamen) became despondent, and even the leader turned pale,—a thing that had never been witnessed before. When danger was so imminent, the fathers proposed to take the sisters away on wagons to a safer place. It was then that Beissel received by night a divine revelation to the effect that no Einsamer should perish by the hands of the Indians.Accordingly they remained at their station, and it really turned out as Beissel had predicted. The people who took refuge in the monastery probably stayed at Ephrata, not with a view of finding protection behind the wooden walls of the cloister, but for the sake of shelter and support. The statement that the government sent a company of soldiers for the protection of Ephrata seems to be verified by the mention in the Chronicle ofRothröckeor Redcoats.[76]The Mennonites and Quakers were peaceably disposed towards the Indians, but the Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, who had settled at Paxton, felt a deadly animosity against them, and, as Day says, against the peaceful Moravians and Quakers, who wished to protect the Indians, at the expense, as the Paxton men thought, of the lives of the settlers. The Paxton rangers were commanded by the Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Colonel Elder, who seems to have opposed the massacre of the Indians at Lancaster by the “Paxton boys.” Day says that no historian ought to excuse or justify the murders at Lancaster and Conestoga, and adds that they must ever remain dark and bloody spots in our provincial history.[77]See Carey’s “American Museum.”[78]An insignificant hill overlooking the meadow where the brother- and sister-houses now stand.[79]A remarkable statement.[80]Compare this inflated language with Miller’s letter, as quoted.[81]The different modes of spelling what appears to be the same name will not surprise those who are familiar with our Pennsylvania German names.[82]It may be observed how nearly this description of the chapel agrees with that given by the British officer of the one he visited here some eighty-five years ago.[83]Fahnestock says that, like some dilapidated castles, Ephrata yet contains many habitable and comfortable apartments. The brother- and sister-houses, etc., form but a small part of the modern village of Ephrata. He wrote some time ago.[84]See article “Francis Daniel Pastorius,” by Dr. Seidensticker, in thePenn Monthly, January and February, 1872.[85]The name Hacker, still heard at Ephrata, is doubtless the same as the above.[86]Schneeberger, or people of Snow Hill?[87]Mr. Endress tells us that with many of the single brethren and sisters at Ephrata, the mystical idea of the union with Christ was evidently used to gratify one of the strongest natural affections of the human heart. “The Redeemer was their bridegroom or bride.... He was the little infant they carried under their hearts, the dear little lamb they dandled on their laps.”He adds that this at least was found much more among the single than among those whose affections were consecrated in a conjugal life. “The powers of human nature would evince their authority.” “According to Sangmeister, some sank under the unceasing struggle.” See Hazard’s Register, 1830.[88]Upon this subject of the New Testament as a creed, etc., all or nearly all our German Baptist sects seem to unite.[89]This article now appears nearly as it was published in the second edition of this work, issued several years ago.[90]The general use of the lot was abrogated in 1817. Although marriage by lot is no longer obligatory, yet a Moravian gentleman has told me that this manner of decision is still resorted to,—and frequently in Europe. Bishops are usually appointed by lot.[91]Thelease system, so called, was abolished in 1844. The Moravian communities abroad, especially upon the continent of Europe, are close communities, no one being allowed to buy of their lands who is not a member of the Moravian Church. They retain more plainness of dress in Saxony and Prussia, and even in Great Britain, than prevails in America. There the women all wear caps in religious services.[92]The heavy expense entailed by enterprises so great does not fall entirely upon the Church. The Mission Report of 1872, in speaking of Australia, mentions that the missionaries are cheered by the sympathy and aid of Christians of different denominations; and adds that the mission has sustained a loss in the death of the Rev. Mr. Mackie, of the Presbyterian Church, in Melbourne. TheMoravian Manualalso speaks of missions that are self-supporting, and of missionaries who labor, like Paul, for their own support.[93]Its use is taught it seems even to barbarians, for the Mission Report, in speaking of an Esquimaux church, says, “The corner-stone was solemnly laid, when the native trombone players discoursed sweet music.”[94]In the following from the litany, I observed an inconvenience:Preacher.—“By thy glorious resurrection and ascension,By thy sitting at the right hand of God.”Congregation.—“Bless and comfort us, gracious Lord and God.”[95]The frequent repetition of the word love-feast has caused it to be often shortened in conversation, it being pronounced by some as if writtenluff-east.[96]To the Rev. W. C. Reichel, author of several historical works, I am indebted for a correction in the article “The Dunker Love-feast.”[97]Tombstones are placed on the newly-made graves, old tombstones are cleaned, etc. These stones are “breast-stones,” not of large size, and lie flat upon the graves,—in the Moravian manner.[98]I am quite at a loss to know why the colored eggs, purple, red, and yellow, in use among the Moravians (as among other Germans), should here have been called rabbits’ eggs, and the idea been held out that the eggs were of different colors because different rabbits brought them.(This note was published in the second edition. Other remarks on the subject of the Easter rabbit and eggs will be found in theAppendix.)[99]A lady in Bethlehem told me that she had expected a man to help her put down carpet, who had failed to appear. About nine the next morning she met him upon the street somewhat intoxicated and friendly and communicative. “Oh, Mrs. ⸺,” said he, “I couldn’t come yesterday. It was mybursday.” Whence we may infer that the celebration of birthdays has spread in the community.[100]The bell upon Nazareth Hall is still rung at a quarter before twelve, daily.[101]The brethren’s house was thus given up in 1812, some time before the date above assigned.[102]An enthusiastic friend says, “It is a well-known and abundantly substantiated fact that fewer unhappy marriages were known among the Moravians than among the same number of people in any other denomination of Christians while the lot was in practice.” If so, let us burn our romances.[103]This perhaps occurred during Zinzendorf’s banishment from Saxony. See note at close of this article.[104]This building, Ephrata, was once a “nursery,” where as many as fifty-six young children were placed at one time. Some were removed from their mothers at as early an age as eighteen months, and placed under the common charge. See Transactions of Moravian Historical Society, 1857-58.[105]A friend adds: “These Christmas dialogues are still to be heard in Moravian towns, in their parochial schools.”[106]The tendency to pronounceslikeshwill be observed.[107]A friend says, “Schmaus” is a vulgar term,—use “Fest.”[108]The corpse is sent to the corpse-house by some families, to this day.[109]Another person says, that if a man had no proposal to make, he left it to the authorities to suggest a woman; but the authorities never forced a woman upon him against his will.[110]A lady whom I met at Nazareth spoke of the visits that she used to make in the widow-house, when they went at one, had vesper of coffee and sugar-cake at two, and left at five.[111]Upon this passage, a friend makes the following remark: “Not regular occupants, but Moravian missionaries or strangers who might arrive in large bodies; twenty, I think, would be a large number.”[112]AyfrahtawI heard this word pronounced.[113]There were two log houses, says a friend.[114]They not only receive tuition here, but board and clothing, and a similar privilege is extended to the sons of preachers.[115]During the period of the anti-slavery agitation, preceding the war, the Moravians as a body did not take an anti-slavery stand. Their members were allowed to hold slaves, like those of almost all the other sects in this country. Their European brethren did not agree with them on this subject.[116]A recent writer tells us that the upper, middle, and lower parts of Montgomery County, the lower end of Berks, and the south corner of Lehigh contain the only settlement of Schwenkfelders in the wide world. He adds that it is no misnomer to call these people the Pennsylvania German Quakers. It will be seen, however, that they are more ancient than George Fox.[117]Phlox subulata.[118]This feminine termination has not disappeared from the dialect. Mr. Rauch speaks of “de olt Lawbucksy,” which is rendered, old Mrs. Lawbucks.[119]The decline in the severity of the cap seems to have reached its lowest point among the Moravians, where but few women in this country wear caps in church. See “Bethlehem and the Moravians.”[120]At Flourtown, or Chestnut Hill, the English language is used, and there is no instruction in German.[121]See article “Ephrata.”[122]It appears that there was also extemporaneous prayer during the exercises.[123]Why is not Schwenkfeld spoken of by the titlevon Ossing? We read of Ulrich von Hütten, German scholar and reformer.[124]In using the name Schwenkfeld, I have abbreviated it a little, giving it as it is in the New American Cyclopædia, which calls him, however, Von Schwenkfeld. The Cyclopædia, in speaking of his writings, some ninety treatises, says that they are regarded as one of the most valuable sources of the history of the Reformation.[125]A copy of this volume has been deposited for reference in the library of the German Society, Philadelphia.[126]That portion of Silesia which was the home of the Schwenkfelders lies east of Saxony, the home of Count Zinzendorf. It, or the greater part of it, was conquered by Frederick the Great, and added to Prussia.[127]The clergy,die Gelehrten.[128]Erläuterung.—Schwenkfeld appears to have abstained from the sacraments for a great part of his life,—from the outward forms, at least, if we may add the expression.[129]The three folios before spoken of in this article were published within ten years after his death, and it seems possible that the place of printing was omitted on account of the opposition to his works.[130]In the New American Cyclopædia Schwenkfeld is said to have differed from Luther and others upon the deification of the body Christ. In the latter part of this essay this point is spoken of again.[131]Ulm, a town in Würtemberg, on the left bank of the Danube. It was long an imperial free city.[132]This title was probably not in former times their chosen name. In a little inartistic aria, near the close of theErläuterung, they are twice calleddie Stillen, or the quiet ones. Looking in a German dictionary for this word, I find “die Stillen” is rendered Quakers. In the same aria they are calleddie Friedlichen, or the peaceful ones. One of Schwenkfeld’s volumes, a collection, states that they were gathered and put in order bythe fellow-confessors and lovers of the glories and truth of Jesus Christ.[133]As in the principality of Lower Silesia Lutheran preachers had been installed in nearly all the offices, many of the common people who had accepted Schwenkfeld’s teachings stood back in stillness, not being able conscientiously to agree with these teachers. This was very offensive to the parsons, and they soon made use of their high dignity against tender consciences to force such persons to their means of grace,—to make them come to the baptismal font, to the pulpit, and the altar.—Schwenkfeld’s Erläuterung, chap. iv. The Schwenkfelders express the opinion that the action of the Lutheran clergy, in calling attention to them, frequently caused their persecution by the Catholic authorities.[134]Digging trenches for military defence, and working the galleys or great boats of the Mediterranean.[135]They do not seem to have been very profitable as soldiers. One man can lead a horse to water, but several cannot make him drink.[136]Herrschaft.The narrative is condensed from theErläuterung, or Explanation.[137]Mention is made of the time when the destroyer came upon the destroyer because his measure was full,—namely, the Thirty Years’ War, and the banishment of the Lutherans from the imperial dominions.[138]SeeErläuterung, or Explanation. The passage is slightly abridged.[139]Hence we may infer that the Schwenkfelders forbade marriages with those not of their own persuasion. During the period of their troubles it seems that marriage by the church was at times refused them, no doubt from their refusing the sacrament. Maimed funeral rites were also among the persecutions of which they complained. In speaking thus of their decline, they may, however, overestimate their numbers in former times.The following characteristic sketch may be introduced here nearly in the words of the original: The two pastors in Harpersdorf having been called to a new church, there came as pastor Herr John Samuel Neander (the pastor Neander who died in July 1759). He was by nature a very fiery man, so that he hardly knew how to govern his passions; by birth a Brandenburger, from Frankfort on the Oder. When he was installed, the Herr Superintendent in Liegnitz brought before him that he was a stranger, and therefore he might not know how it was in Harpersdorf, that there was a people there, who had already lived there about two hundred years, called Schwenkfelders. Therefore he would give him good advice, that he should leave these people in peace; preceding pastors had tried it enough, and had accomplished nothing by force. But if he thought he could not endure these people, he should say so, and another would be put into the place.But Herr Neander promised everything good, and did not keep to it. For soon after entering upon his office he gave out that he had sworn to bury none of the Schwenkfelders as before practised, and this he began to carry out. SeeErläuterung, chap. v.[140]The aria already alluded to says,—“Throw their dead away, like foul corruption,The cow-path is too good; don’t tread upon the grass;The father shall not follow the body of his child,Nor the wife accompany her husband to the house of death.”The word that I have translated cattle-path, etc., isviehweg. A note upon this verse of the aria says, “1722. Three hundred persons lie upon the cow-paths at Harpersdorf and Langendorff.” If so many were buried during the time of the Catholic mission, these people must have been numerous.[141]Zinzendorf’s estate of Berthelsdorf was, it seems, near the town of Gorlitz.[142]By agriculture? rather than in the town of Gorlitz.[143]See “Bethlehem and the Moravians.”[144]The word translated gingerbread isPfeffer-kuchen, or pepper-cakes. Pepper-nuts are now made in Lancaster County,—a delicate cake, as I have seen them, somewhat resembling jumbles. If plainer they would be like the New England cookies. Cooky comes from the Germankuchen?In Allentown, a young gentleman tells me that the people of Lehigh County, all through, eat Schwenkfelder-cake. “Our mothers made them for us. They are a kind of vesper-cake, or rusk baked in a loaf.” In Allentown the name is sometimes pronounced Schwinkfelder.[145]No one should confound these emigrants from the Palatinate with the Palatines for whom William Penn desires the friendship of the Indians. See “Swiss Exiles,” in this volume. The numerous refugees from the Palatinate probably came from different motives; some for religious freedom, and some to earn their bread. Many German emigrants were redemptionists,—i.e., they sold their time to pay for their voyage. Of this class, we learn, was an ancestor of the late John Covode.[146]Mr. Weiser tells us, in speaking of the Schwenkfelders, that on a late occasion, having heard that the tombs of their ancestors, near Liegnitz and Gorlitz, were fast being desecrated, and the earth, with their very dust, carried away for road-making purposes, their Pennsylvania posterity collected a handsome sum and forwarded it to the authorities, with a view of purchasing the grounds, and having them set apart and enclosed as the burying-ground of the Silesian Schwenkfelders. It is not believed, however, he adds, that their moneys were appropriated to the laudable end which they had in view.This narrative might apply to those Silesians who were buried upon the cow-paths (Mr. Weiser says, taken to the carrion pit or bone commons), but does it apply to them after they had taken refuge at Gorlitz?[147]It has been estimated that ninety-five in one hundred of the Schwenkfelders are farmers.[148]In the Rules and Ordinances of the Schwenkfelder community may be found this passage: “Yet a Christian places no holiness in wearing the oldest fashioned clothes; he also takes care not quickly to ape all new fashions, much less does he make it his business to bring up new ones.”[149]Mr. Weiser speaks as if the singing was in the dialect. The following is a copy of some lines which were sung at their meeting-house when I attended, from which the student of German may observe the quality of the language, and the theologian may notice, as it seems to me, two or three of their peculiar doctrines:“Jehovah, Vater, Sohn, und Geist!O Segens Bronn, der ewig fleuszt!Durchfleusz Herz, Sinn, und Wandel wohl;Mach uns dein’s Lob’s und Segens voll!”Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit! Oh, spring of blessing, forever flowing! Flow through heart, thought, and life; make us full of thy praise and blessing![150]Wheat bread is now used. At a Schwenkfelder house I ate apple-butter, sweet, because made from sweet apples, and seasoned with fennel, of which the taste resembles anise.[151]It may be observed that I have used Mr. Weiser’s language.[152]Before public schools were established the Schwenkfelders had a fund for the education of their poorer members.[153]“Which these ordered back into our fund, to supply the wants of the poor, when we should arrive at Philadelphia.”[154]It is probable that baptism will be introduced, but only optionally.[155]Mr. Weiser tells us that a mother whose adult daughter entered the Reformed Church, by baptism, earnestly protested against the performing of the sacrament over her, on the ground that “prayers were had for their child in the meeting-house.”[156]All Quakers do not teach the inferiority of the written word. Mr. Weiser says, “In general terms it may be said that Caspar Schwenkfeld has been the George Fox of Silesia, or the veritable George Fox, perhaps somewhat educated and sublimated.”Although some of the doctrines taught by George Fox seem to have been given before him by Schwenkfeld, yet were these not previously taught among the Anabaptists, and possibly among the Waldenses?It has been said that the better classes of Anabaptists claimed a descent from the Waldenses, the Wickliffites, and the Hussites, who had struggled for a church separated from the world and distinguished by the holiness of its members.[157]A note says, “No one can deny that at last all books must perish, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.”[158]On his death-bed Schwenkfeld declared that he believed that all in the Old and New Testament was profitable for salvation to the elect; that he was certain that his own writings, if read impartially, and after prayer, agreed with Holy Scripture, but he must acknowledge to the praise of God that they proceeded more from gracious revelation.[159]See theErläuterung, or Explanation, chap. x. These passages in general are greatly abbreviated, or are picked out, I may say.[160]Erläuterung, chap. xi.[161]The passage alluded to is doubtless this: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”[162]The thoughtful reader may perhaps find something in this answer to contrast with these passages from the decrees of the late Ecumenical Council at Rome:“If any one shall say that human sciences ought to be pursued in such a spirit of freedom that any one may be allowed to hold as true their assertions, even when opposed to revealed doctrine, and that such assertions may not be condemned by the church, let him beanathema. If any one shall say that at any time it may come to pass, in the progress of science, that the doctrines set forth by the church must be taken in another sense than that in which the church has ever received and yet receives them, let him beanathema.” Quoted from a report of a dogmatic decree on Catholic faith, confirmed 1870.[163]Ausführliche Geschichte Kaspar v. Schwenkfelds, etc.[164]Kadelbach tells us of George Mattern, a teacher in Silesia, who inclined to the opinions of Schwenkfeld, and who migrated to Holland, and afterward to England, where he joined the Quakers. He wrote a letter with this expression: “Dear father, thou must not be surprised that I thee and thou thee.Dich. dutze.”[165]This letter is dated 1875. It was late in 1873 that I heard of baptism as having been administered among them.[166]I believe the paper is discontinued, 1882.[167]I received permission to use the name of Mr. Mahony, the manufacturer. His brother wrote “The Bells of Shandon.” The other names used are substitutes.[168]Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary, County Cork.[169]One was erected a few years ago at Manchester, and I was told there that the Queen and Prince of Wales had not visited the town since.

FOOTNOTES

[1]An acquaintance, who lives in Bucks County, tells me that his father, a Mennonite preacher, voted “pretty much always.”

[2]The rule against judgment bonds is not universal.

[3]For another estimate, seeAppendix.

[4]Kohl-slaw (i.e., kohl-salat or cabbage-salad) is shredded cabbage, dressed with vinegar, etc. A rich dressing is sometimes made of milk or cream, egg, vinegar, etc. It may be eaten either as warm slaw or cold slaw.

[5]Some account of Peltz-nickel in Germany will be found in theAppendix.

[6]Written about 1868.

[7]Amish is pronouncedOmmish, theabeing very broad, likeaw. This article was first published some years ago.

[8]I learn, 1882, that the Amish feet-washing is public.

[9]Our German Baptists are more decidedly non-resistant than the Quakers. Some of them refuse to vote for civil officers.The term Anabaptist is from the Greek, and signifies one who baptizes again. All Baptists baptize anew those who were baptized in infancy. The term Anabaptist, in the present essay, is used indifferently with Baptist, and, in a degree, with Mennonite.

[9]Our German Baptists are more decidedly non-resistant than the Quakers. Some of them refuse to vote for civil officers.

The term Anabaptist is from the Greek, and signifies one who baptizes again. All Baptists baptize anew those who were baptized in infancy. The term Anabaptist, in the present essay, is used indifferently with Baptist, and, in a degree, with Mennonite.

[10]Of the heretics executed by Alva in the Spanish Netherlands, a large proportion were Anabaptists.—Encyclopædia Americana.

[11]Zschokke, in his History of Switzerland, accuses the Anabaptists of causing great trouble and scandal. Some account of the furious or warlike Anabaptists of Holland may be found in Appleton’s Cyclopædia.

[12]This must not be understood as aid in bearing arms.

[13]One of Menno’s brothers is said to have been connected with the Anabaptists of Münster, those who took up arms, etc. Of these, whose course was so very different from the lives of our pacific Baptists in this country. Menno may have received some, after their defeat, to come under the peaceable rule. There are in the Netherlands, says a recent authority, 40,000 Mennonites. They are a true, pure Netherlandish appearance, which is older than the Reformation, and therefore must not be identified with the Protestantism of the sixteenth century.Menno does not merit to be called the father of the Netherlandish Mennonites, but rather the first shepherd of the scattered sheep,—the founder of their church community.The ground-thought from which Menno proceeded was not, as with Luther, justification by faith, or, as with the Swiss Reformers, the absolute dependence of the sinner upon God, in the work of salvation. The holy Christian life, in opposition to worldliness, was the point whence Menno proceeded, and to which he always returned. In the Romish church we see ruling the spirit of Peter; in the Reformed Evangelical the spirit of Paul; in Menno we see arise again James the Just, the brother of the Lord.See articlesMennoandMennonites, andHolland, in Herzog’s “Real-Encyclopädie,” Stuttgart and Hamburg, 1858.Many of the Mennonites of Holland at the present day seem to have wandered far from the teachings of Menno, and to be very different from the simple Mennonite communities of Pennsylvania.

Menno does not merit to be called the father of the Netherlandish Mennonites, but rather the first shepherd of the scattered sheep,—the founder of their church community.

The ground-thought from which Menno proceeded was not, as with Luther, justification by faith, or, as with the Swiss Reformers, the absolute dependence of the sinner upon God, in the work of salvation. The holy Christian life, in opposition to worldliness, was the point whence Menno proceeded, and to which he always returned. In the Romish church we see ruling the spirit of Peter; in the Reformed Evangelical the spirit of Paul; in Menno we see arise again James the Just, the brother of the Lord.

See articlesMennoandMennonites, andHolland, in Herzog’s “Real-Encyclopädie,” Stuttgart and Hamburg, 1858.

Many of the Mennonites of Holland at the present day seem to have wandered far from the teachings of Menno, and to be very different from the simple Mennonite communities of Pennsylvania.

[14]The burying of Menno in his garden can be explained by the great secrecy which in times of persecution attended the actions of the persecuted sects. The family graveyards of Lancaster County, located upon farms, may be in some degree traditional, from times of persecution, when Baptists had no churches, but met in secret.

[15]To the writer it is a question of some interest how far George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, was acquainted with the lives, sufferings, and writings of the Anabaptists.The common people of England may readily have obtained some knowledge of the Baptists from the number that were cruelly put to death. In 1534, Henry VIII. commanded foreigners who had been baptized in infancy, and had been rebaptized, to leave the realm in twelve days, on pain of death. It seems that certain Dutch Baptists braved the threatened punishment; for twenty-six were, in different places, and at different dates, burned within a few years. Under Edward VI., many Baptists suffered extreme punishment, Cranmer and Latimer, Ridley and John Rogers, either approving or actually assisting as inquisitors. See “The Baptists; Who they are, and What they have done,” by George B. Taylor, D.D.The year 1534, in which Henry VIII. issued the proclamation alluded to, was the time of the Anabaptist occupation of Münster. The feelings of Henry towards the Peasants’ War and the Münster kingdom doubtless resembled those of his successor, in 1798, towards the French revolutionists,—but George III. did not put any one to death by fire.Since the above was written has been published Barclay’s “Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth,” London, 1876. This author speaks of George Fox as having promulgated opinions and founded churches closely approximating to the Mennonite churches in Holland. He further says George Fox tells us that he had an uncle in London who was a Baptist.

[15]To the writer it is a question of some interest how far George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, was acquainted with the lives, sufferings, and writings of the Anabaptists.

The common people of England may readily have obtained some knowledge of the Baptists from the number that were cruelly put to death. In 1534, Henry VIII. commanded foreigners who had been baptized in infancy, and had been rebaptized, to leave the realm in twelve days, on pain of death. It seems that certain Dutch Baptists braved the threatened punishment; for twenty-six were, in different places, and at different dates, burned within a few years. Under Edward VI., many Baptists suffered extreme punishment, Cranmer and Latimer, Ridley and John Rogers, either approving or actually assisting as inquisitors. See “The Baptists; Who they are, and What they have done,” by George B. Taylor, D.D.

The year 1534, in which Henry VIII. issued the proclamation alluded to, was the time of the Anabaptist occupation of Münster. The feelings of Henry towards the Peasants’ War and the Münster kingdom doubtless resembled those of his successor, in 1798, towards the French revolutionists,—but George III. did not put any one to death by fire.

Since the above was written has been published Barclay’s “Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth,” London, 1876. This author speaks of George Fox as having promulgated opinions and founded churches closely approximating to the Mennonite churches in Holland. He further says George Fox tells us that he had an uncle in London who was a Baptist.

[16]Hans (or John) Landis is the name of the sufferer just spoken of. Several Landises are mentioned in the martyrologies, and the name is very common in Lancaster County at this time. John Landis is remarkably so.In quoting from the Martyr-book I employ the English version, “Martyr’s Mirror.” I have lately had an opportunity of seeing an old German copy, from the press of the Brotherhood at Ephrata, about 1750. I find that it is differently arranged from the modern English version, and I suspect there are other variations.

In quoting from the Martyr-book I employ the English version, “Martyr’s Mirror.” I have lately had an opportunity of seeing an old German copy, from the press of the Brotherhood at Ephrata, about 1750. I find that it is differently arranged from the modern English version, and I suspect there are other variations.

[17]From Schaffhausen came some of the Stauffer family, as I have read. The Stauffers are numerous in our county. For some family traditions, see the close of this article.

[18]In the duchy of Cleves, the town of Crefeld, some fifty or sixty years later, gave refuge to the Dunkers. It appears also to have harbored some of the French Protestant refugees at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. See “Ephrata.”

[19]They were probably conscientiously opposed to the death penalty.

[20]Martyr’s Mirror.

[21]The troops of the empire of Germany, or of Germany and Spain combined. See Voltaire’s “Age of Louis XIV.”

[22]“Age of Louis XIV.” The following is testimony for the Mennonites: “In the words of the Dutch embassador (Van Beuning) to Monsieur de Turenne: ‘The Mennonites are good people, and the most commodious to a state of any in the world; partly because they do not aspire to places of dignity; partly because they edify the community by the simplicity of their manners, and application to arts and industry; and partly because we fear no rebellion from a sect who make it an article of their faith never to bear arms.’ The said industry and frugality they carried with them to Pennsylvania, and thereby are become very wealthy.”—Morgan Edwards.

[23]Several towns and townships in southeastern Pennsylvania bear record of the Palatinate, etc. In Lancaster County we have Strasburg, doubtless named for that city in Alsace, and both town and township of Manheim. Adjoining counties have Heidelbergs. The Swiss Palatines do not seem to have preserved enough affection for the land of their origin to bestow Swiss names upon our Lancaster County towns. What wonder?

[24]“This year of which I am now writing must ever be remembered as the most fatal to the Protestant religion. In February a king of England declared himself a papist. In June, Charles, the Elector Palatine, dying without issue, the electoral dignity went to the house of Newburgh, a most bigoted popish family. In October the King of France recalled and vacated the edict of Nantes.”—Burnet’s History of his Own Time.

[25]This was twenty-eight years after the founding of Penn’s colony. Several years earlier, or in 1701, some Mennonites bought land in Germantown, and in 1708 built a church (or meeting-house). For this information I am obliged to Dr. Seidensticker, of the University of Pennsylvania.“In the year 1708 about fifty Palatines, who were Lutherans and were ruined, came over to England. Queen Anne allowed them a shilling a day, and took care to have them transported to the plantations; and from these circumstances there arose a general disposition among all the poor of that country to come over. They came to Holland in great bodies: the Anabaptists there were particularly helpful to them, both in subsisting those in Holland and in transporting them to England. Great numbers of these were sent to Ireland, but most of them to the plantations in North America, where it is believed their industry will quickly turn to a good account.”—See Burnet’s “Own Time.” I am told that of those thus sent to Ireland many afterwards came to America; of such was Philip Embury, who, being converted in Ireland, came to New York, and was the first to introduce Methodism on the continent. He and his family were from the Palatinate.Mention has just been made of Lutherans going to England from the Palatinate. I infer that many who fled thence were of the Reformed Church. The French Huguenots would in Germany probably join the Reformed Church?

“In the year 1708 about fifty Palatines, who were Lutherans and were ruined, came over to England. Queen Anne allowed them a shilling a day, and took care to have them transported to the plantations; and from these circumstances there arose a general disposition among all the poor of that country to come over. They came to Holland in great bodies: the Anabaptists there were particularly helpful to them, both in subsisting those in Holland and in transporting them to England. Great numbers of these were sent to Ireland, but most of them to the plantations in North America, where it is believed their industry will quickly turn to a good account.”—See Burnet’s “Own Time.” I am told that of those thus sent to Ireland many afterwards came to America; of such was Philip Embury, who, being converted in Ireland, came to New York, and was the first to introduce Methodism on the continent. He and his family were from the Palatinate.

Mention has just been made of Lutherans going to England from the Palatinate. I infer that many who fled thence were of the Reformed Church. The French Huguenots would in Germany probably join the Reformed Church?

[26]Barclay’s “Religious Societies of the Commonwealth.” London, 1876.

[27]Rupp.

[28]Ibid.

[29]The question has been discussed, what did the Germans select the limestone lands, and the Scotch-Irish take those less fruitful? Different hints upon this subject may be found in Day’s Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. Under the head of Lancaster County he says that a number of Scotch-Irish, in consequence of the limestone land being liable to frost and heavily wooded, seated themselves (1763) along the northern line of the counties of Chester and Lancaster. It seems that the Germans did not fear the labor of clearing off heavy timber.A gentleman of Lancaster County says that ninety in one hundred of the regular members of the Mennonite churches are farmers, and that they follow the limestone land as the needle follows the pole.

A gentleman of Lancaster County says that ninety in one hundred of the regular members of the Mennonite churches are farmers, and that they follow the limestone land as the needle follows the pole.

[30]The Pequea Creek (pronounced Peckʹway) waters some of the finest land in the county, if not the very finest. “The Piquaws had their wigwams scattered along the banks of the Pequea.”

[31]Not always as at present spelled. The present Kendig appears as Kindeck, Breneman as Preniman, Baumgardner as Bumgarner, Eby as Abye. These were probably English efforts at spelling German names. Rupp says that he was indebted to Abraham Meylin, of West Lampeter Township, for a copy of the act. There appear to have been among the Palatines who came into our county some Huguenot families; but, from intermarrying with the Germans, and speaking the dialect, they are considered “Dutch.” The name of the Bushong family is said to have been Beauchamp.

[32]This mention of the Switzers’ wagons reminds me of the great Conestoga wagons, which, before the construction of railroads, conveyed the produce of the interior to Philadelphia. With their long bodies roofed with white canvas, they went along almost, I might say, like moving houses. They were drawn by six powerful horses, at times furnished with trappings and bells; and the wagoner’s trade was one of importance.

[33]A test-oath, or oath of abjuration, seems to have been in force at one time in Pennsylvania, concerning the Roman Catholics. (See Rupp’s History of Berks and Lebanon.) Must we not attribute this act to the royal home government rather than to William Penn?

[34]“I fear this volume will be deemed a heap of dry records, without a sufficient number of anecdotes to give them a relish; this is owing to the peace and liberty which the Baptists have ever enjoyed in Pennsylvania. In other provinces they have had their troubles, which will make their history interesting to every reader.”—Morgan Edwards: Advertisement [or preface] to “Materials towards a History of the Baptists in Pennsylvania, both British and German.” 1770.

[35]Day says that there was policy in the order above given; that the Irish were warlike, and could defend the frontier. It was not long after the above date (in 1763) that the “Paxton Boys” made a raid down to Lancaster and massacred the remnant of the Conestoga Indians in the jail of this town.

[36]The Amish seem to have originated in Europe, about the year 1700, when Jacob Amen, a Swiss preacher, set up, or returned to, the more severe rule, distasteful to brethren in Alsace, etc., and enforced the ban of excommunication upon some or all of those who disagreed with him. Appleton’s Cyclopædia calls him Amman, and says that the Amish rose in 1693, in Alsace. A small pamphlet upon this subject has been published at Elkhart, Indiana, and is for sale at the office of theHerald of Truth.

[37]See Herzog.

[38]The German wordleute, people, is here pronouncedlite.

[39]Traditionary stories exist in our county concerning the Swiss origin, etc., of certain families. I have heard one concerning the Engles and one of the Stauffers. A member of the Johns family has also told me of their Swiss origin, and of their name being formerly written Tschantz.It is probable that other traditionary stories concerning Swiss families could now be collected, if some one would exert himself to do it before their custodians “fall asleep.” But let those who gather these stories beware of the “fine writer,” lest he add what he considers embellishments, and make the narratives improbable.The Stauffer traditions were mentioned to me by a venerable member of the family, one who has kindly lent me his aid and sympathy in some of my records of the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” John Stauffer is now a great-grandfather, and he calculates that it was, at the nearest, his own great-great-grandfather who, with his mother and his three brothers, came to this country, his ancestors being of Swiss origin. “The mother,” says my neighbor (in substance), “weighed three hundred, and the sons made a wagon, all of wood, and drawed her to the Rhine. When they got to Philadelphia, they put their mother into the wagon and drawed her up here to Warwick township. There they settled on a pretty spring; that is what our people like.”The reader of this little story may remember the “pious Æneas,” who “from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulders,” the old Anchises bore. [John Stauffer is now dead, 1882.]The tradition of the Engle family was narrated to me by two of its members. Mr. Henry M. Engle has felt some difficulty in reconciling the tradition with the fact of the family’s having been in this country only about one hundred years, and with his idea that the Swiss persecution must have ceased before that period. But we have seen that some Baptist families tarried in the Palatinate, etc., before coming here, and a circumstance like the imprisonment of one of their women would be remembered among them for a long time.Tradition says that it was the grandmother’s mother or grandmother of Henry M. Engle and Jacob M. Engle, who was a prisoner in Switzerland for her faith. The turnkey’s wife sympathized with the prisoner, because she knew that Annie had children at home. So she said to her, in the Swiss dialect, “Annie, if I were you, I would go away once.” (“Annie, wann i die wär, i det mohl geh.”—“Annie, wenn ich dich wäre, ich thut einmal gehen.”)She therefore set Annie to washing clothes, and, turning her back upon her, gave her opportunity to escape.Annie’s husband was not a Baptist; nevertheless, he was so friendly as to prepare a hiding-place for her, into which she could go down, if the persecutors came, by means of a trap-door; and she was never taken prisoner again.

It is probable that other traditionary stories concerning Swiss families could now be collected, if some one would exert himself to do it before their custodians “fall asleep.” But let those who gather these stories beware of the “fine writer,” lest he add what he considers embellishments, and make the narratives improbable.

The Stauffer traditions were mentioned to me by a venerable member of the family, one who has kindly lent me his aid and sympathy in some of my records of the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” John Stauffer is now a great-grandfather, and he calculates that it was, at the nearest, his own great-great-grandfather who, with his mother and his three brothers, came to this country, his ancestors being of Swiss origin. “The mother,” says my neighbor (in substance), “weighed three hundred, and the sons made a wagon, all of wood, and drawed her to the Rhine. When they got to Philadelphia, they put their mother into the wagon and drawed her up here to Warwick township. There they settled on a pretty spring; that is what our people like.”

The reader of this little story may remember the “pious Æneas,” who “from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulders,” the old Anchises bore. [John Stauffer is now dead, 1882.]

The tradition of the Engle family was narrated to me by two of its members. Mr. Henry M. Engle has felt some difficulty in reconciling the tradition with the fact of the family’s having been in this country only about one hundred years, and with his idea that the Swiss persecution must have ceased before that period. But we have seen that some Baptist families tarried in the Palatinate, etc., before coming here, and a circumstance like the imprisonment of one of their women would be remembered among them for a long time.

Tradition says that it was the grandmother’s mother or grandmother of Henry M. Engle and Jacob M. Engle, who was a prisoner in Switzerland for her faith. The turnkey’s wife sympathized with the prisoner, because she knew that Annie had children at home. So she said to her, in the Swiss dialect, “Annie, if I were you, I would go away once.” (“Annie, wann i die wär, i det mohl geh.”—“Annie, wenn ich dich wäre, ich thut einmal gehen.”)

She therefore set Annie to washing clothes, and, turning her back upon her, gave her opportunity to escape.

Annie’s husband was not a Baptist; nevertheless, he was so friendly as to prepare a hiding-place for her, into which she could go down, if the persecutors came, by means of a trap-door; and she was never taken prisoner again.

[40]TheHerald of Truth, a Mennonite paper of this country, under the date of July, 1873, contains a “Letter of Authority,” beginning, “We, the Bishops and Directors of the entire body of the Swiss Mennonites in the colonies of Kotusufka, in the district (county or canton) of Schitomir, state of Volkinien, Russia.”This Letter of Authority concerns the proposed migration above alluded to. Of the six names signed thereto, one at least appears to belong also to this county of Lancaster, where it is now sometimes written Graybill; in the Russian letter Krehbiehl. A similar name is found among the Schwenckfelders, who were of Silesian origin.

This Letter of Authority concerns the proposed migration above alluded to. Of the six names signed thereto, one at least appears to belong also to this county of Lancaster, where it is now sometimes written Graybill; in the Russian letter Krehbiehl. A similar name is found among the Schwenckfelders, who were of Silesian origin.

[41]See the article “Ephrata,” in this volume.

[42]See article “Ephrata” in this volume.

[43]Our “Dutch”—all of them, I believe—use the singular pronoun “du,”thou.

[44]A friend tells me that he once heard a discourse from a celebrated Dunker preacher, named Sarah Reiter. She was allowed to preach, it seems, by a liberal construction of Paul’s celebrated edict, because she was unmarried. Even when afterward married, by a more liberal construction still, the liberty to preach was not forbidden her. Possibly it was assumed that herhusband at homewas not able to answer all her questions upon spiritual matters. She removed to Ohio.In the Encyclopædia Americana the following are given as propositions of some of the former Anabaptists: “Impiety prevails everywhere. It is therefore necessary that a new family of holy persons should be founded, enjoying without distinction of sex the gift of prophecy, and skill to interpret divine revelations. Hence they need no learning, for the internal word is more than the outward expression.”At this time, however, while our German Baptists still believe in an unpaid, untaught ministry, none of them, I think, hold to the doctrine that the gift of prophecy or preaching is without distinction of sex. In this respect, George Fox seems to have agreed with the early Anabaptists just mentioned.

In the Encyclopædia Americana the following are given as propositions of some of the former Anabaptists: “Impiety prevails everywhere. It is therefore necessary that a new family of holy persons should be founded, enjoying without distinction of sex the gift of prophecy, and skill to interpret divine revelations. Hence they need no learning, for the internal word is more than the outward expression.”

At this time, however, while our German Baptists still believe in an unpaid, untaught ministry, none of them, I think, hold to the doctrine that the gift of prophecy or preaching is without distinction of sex. In this respect, George Fox seems to have agreed with the early Anabaptists just mentioned.

[45]See the questions in full,—1 Corinthians, chap. vi.

[46]See Hazard’s Register, vol. v. C. L. F. Endress, D.D., preached twelve years in Trinity (Lutheran) Church, Lancaster. To the learned Dr. Seidensticker, of Philadelphia, and to Mr. I. D. Rupp, I am indebted for assistance.

[47]A new movement in German theology arose in the second half of the seventeenth century, through Spener, the founder of Pietism. The central principle of Pietism was that Christianity was first of all life, and that the strongest proof of the truth of its doctrines was to be found in the religious experience of the believing subject. The principles of the Pietists were in the main shared by the Moravians. (See American Cyclopædia, articleGerman Theology.) Compare this statement of the main principle of Pietism with this of the Anabaptists, whom the mass of our Dunkers so much resemble: “The opinions common to the Anabaptists are founded on the principle that Christ’s kingdom on earth, or the church, is a visible society of pious and holy persons, with none of those institutions which human sagacity has devised for the ungodly.” (See American Cyclopædia, articleAnabaptists.)

[48]They took for themselves the name of Brethren, says an article in Rupp’s “Religious Denominations.” The Dunkers in our county call themselves Brethren,—“Old Brethren,” “River Brethren,” etc. Whether the Ephrata Dunkers took the same name, I cannot say.

[49]Speaking of a certain Seventh-Day Baptist, an “Old Mennonite” writer says that he was “doubtless unaware that the Lord Christ is also Lord of the sabbath, and that in him no day, except for sake of common law, is to be observed above another.” SeeDer Waffenlose Waechter(orUnarmed Watchman), Jan. 1873.

[50]In the time of the Millerite excitement above alluded to, many prepared ascension robes. One of my acquaintances went to the roof of his house, where, in his robe, he could look for the coming of Christ, and whence he was prepared immediately to ascend. More recently, namely, in August of 1873, I recollect meeting with a person who told me that he writes for Advent papers. He was himself aTime-ist, thinking that “the second coming of the Lord will take place this year.”

[51]“Afterward, she held to edification for many years, in the sister-convent, the office of a sub-prioress, under the name of Marcella. Finally, in her age, she was induced by her son to return to her husband,—although another motive was the severe manner of life in the encampment, which she could no longer bear.”—Chronicon Ephratense, p. 45.

[52]Are these the married women just spoken of, who had become single?

[53]These remarkable men seem to deserve especial notice. In Rupp’s History of Lancaster County it is stated that they were from Germany, and had been brought up Catholics. Israel Eckerlin (Brother Onesimus) became prior of the brother-house at Ephrata. Peter Miller, in an original letter, complains that he obliged them to meddle with worldly things further than their obligations permitted; and that when money came in it was put out at interest, “contrary to our principles.”They could not, however, have been very rich, for when in 1745 a bell arrived in Philadelphia, from England, which had been ordered by Eckerlin, and which cost eighty pounds, they knew not how to pay for it. The name of Onesimus (or Eckerlin) had been placed upon the bell. When the news of its arrival was received, a council was held in the presence of the spiritual father, Beissel, and it was concluded to break the bell to pieces and bury it in the earth. The next morning, however, the father appeared in the council, and said that he had reflected that as the brothers were poor, the bell should be pardoned. It therefore was sold, and was placed upon the Lutheran church in Lancaster, where it was long in use. Afterwards it was sold to a fire company, and is now on the tower of the house of the Washington Company. It bears a Latin inscription with the name of the “reverend man,” Onesimus.Miller says that the prior (Eckerlin) conceived a notion to make himself independent of Beissel, and was stripped of all his dignities.The Eckerlins appear to have gone into the wilderness, and encamped on a creek flowing into the Monongahela, in Pennsylvania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard Creek, which it still bears. They afterward seem to have removed to Dunkards’ Bottom, on Cheat River, which they made their permanent residence. After many vicissitudes, Miller tells us that Eckerlin and his brother were taken prisoners by Mohawks, and sold to Quebec, whence they were transported to France, “where, after our prior had received the tonsure and become a friar of their church, they both died.” The Ephrata Chronicle says (chap. xxiii.) that the prior wentout of timetwenty years before Beissel. The latter died in 1768. By the former reckoning, the prior went out of time in 1748, or about three years after the difficulty about the bell at Ephrata.

They could not, however, have been very rich, for when in 1745 a bell arrived in Philadelphia, from England, which had been ordered by Eckerlin, and which cost eighty pounds, they knew not how to pay for it. The name of Onesimus (or Eckerlin) had been placed upon the bell. When the news of its arrival was received, a council was held in the presence of the spiritual father, Beissel, and it was concluded to break the bell to pieces and bury it in the earth. The next morning, however, the father appeared in the council, and said that he had reflected that as the brothers were poor, the bell should be pardoned. It therefore was sold, and was placed upon the Lutheran church in Lancaster, where it was long in use. Afterwards it was sold to a fire company, and is now on the tower of the house of the Washington Company. It bears a Latin inscription with the name of the “reverend man,” Onesimus.

Miller says that the prior (Eckerlin) conceived a notion to make himself independent of Beissel, and was stripped of all his dignities.

The Eckerlins appear to have gone into the wilderness, and encamped on a creek flowing into the Monongahela, in Pennsylvania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard Creek, which it still bears. They afterward seem to have removed to Dunkards’ Bottom, on Cheat River, which they made their permanent residence. After many vicissitudes, Miller tells us that Eckerlin and his brother were taken prisoners by Mohawks, and sold to Quebec, whence they were transported to France, “where, after our prior had received the tonsure and become a friar of their church, they both died.” The Ephrata Chronicle says (chap. xxiii.) that the prior wentout of timetwenty years before Beissel. The latter died in 1768. By the former reckoning, the prior went out of time in 1748, or about three years after the difficulty about the bell at Ephrata.

[54]The reader is referred to an article alluded to in the preceding essay, namely, Dr. Seidensticker’s “A Colonial Monastery,” inThe Centurymagazine for December, 1881. Dr. S. is a professor in the University of Pennsylvania.

[55]The Tulpehocken Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill, which rises in Lebanon County, and empties at Reading, in Berks County.

[56]In Rupp’s “Thirty Thousand Names” of immigrants to Pennsylvania will be found, under date of August 29, 1730, the names of Palatines with their families, imported in the ship “Thistle” of Glasgow, from Rotterdam, last from Cowes. Among these occurs Peter Müller, whom by a note Rupp connects with the Peter Miller of the text. As to the name John Peter, as given by Andrews, it is surprising to see how many of these immigrants bear the names of John, Hans, Johan, Johann, and Johannes, prefixed to other names. I count twenty in a column of thirty-four.

[57]Mr. Andrews, from whom I quote, was a graduate of Harvard, who seems to have come to Philadelphia in 1698, and to have preached in an Independent or Presbyterian church, or in both.

[58]The Conestogas were a small tribe ... consisting in all of some dozen or twenty families, who dwelt a few miles below Lancaster. They sent messengers with corn, venison, and skins, to welcome William Penn. When the whites began to settle around them, Penn assigned them a residence on the manor of Conestoga. (Day’s Historical Collections.)

[59]When this letter was written, Miller was about eighty years old. He doubtless spoke German during the sixty years that he lived at Ephrata, as well as before that time. It will be observed that he does not write English elegantly.

[60]In the year 1740, says Fahnestock, there were thirty-six single brethren in the cloisters, and thirty-five sisters; and at one time the society, including the members living in the neighborhood, numbered nearly three hundred.Rev. C. Endress says that some were anxious to retain the solitary life, and some (it appears) were opposed to giving to Beissel the title of Father. Sangmeister left the society and retired to Virginia (whence, however, he returned to Ephrata). “His book,” says the same writer, “is much tainted with bitterness, and undertakes to cast a dark shade upon the whole establishment.”

Rev. C. Endress says that some were anxious to retain the solitary life, and some (it appears) were opposed to giving to Beissel the title of Father. Sangmeister left the society and retired to Virginia (whence, however, he returned to Ephrata). “His book,” says the same writer, “is much tainted with bitterness, and undertakes to cast a dark shade upon the whole establishment.”

[61]Larger accommodations were afterward built in the meadow below; a sister-house, called Saron, a brother-house, named Bethania, etc. Most of these are still standing, I believe, in 1882; but the former buildings on the hill long since disappeared.

[62]The Ephrata Chronicle speaks nearly in this manner of that of the sisters:Their dress was ordered, like that of the brethren, so that little was to be seen of the disagreeable human figure (von dem verdriesslichen Bild das durch die Sünd ist offenbar worden). They wore caps like the brethren, but not pointed ones. While at work these caps or cowls hung down their backs; but when they saw anybody, they drew them over their heads, so that but little could be seen of their faces. But the principal token of their spiritual betrothal was a great veil, which in front covered them altogether, and behind down to the girdle. Roman Catholics who saw this garment said that it resembled the habit of the scapular.

[62]The Ephrata Chronicle speaks nearly in this manner of that of the sisters:

Their dress was ordered, like that of the brethren, so that little was to be seen of the disagreeable human figure (von dem verdriesslichen Bild das durch die Sünd ist offenbar worden). They wore caps like the brethren, but not pointed ones. While at work these caps or cowls hung down their backs; but when they saw anybody, they drew them over their heads, so that but little could be seen of their faces. But the principal token of their spiritual betrothal was a great veil, which in front covered them altogether, and behind down to the girdle. Roman Catholics who saw this garment said that it resembled the habit of the scapular.

[63]The Chronicle tells us that once, in Beissel’s absence, a costly feather bed was brought into his sleeping-room. He made use of it one night, but sent it away afterward,—and not even in dying could be brought to give up the sleeping-bench (die Schlafbanck).

[64]In “Carey’s Museum” for 1789, will be found a letter from a British officer to the editor of theEdinburgh Magazine, whence it appears that at that time, 1786, a rug was laid upon the sleeping-bench. The writer says that each brother had a cell, with a closet adjoining; that the smallness of the rooms was very disagreeable, and that they were not clean. The churches were clean and neat, but perfectly unadorned, except by some German texts. The house “occupied by the nuns” was uniformly clean, and the cells were in excellent order. (Some of the statements of this writer appear very loose.)

[65]At Ephrata, in the winter of 1872, I was told that Miller was once met, as he was taking a load of paper from the mill to the press, by a certain man named Widman. This Widman, according to tradition, had been a vestryman in Miller’s former church. “Is this the way they treat you,” said Widman, “harnessing you up to a wheelbarrow?” and he spat in Miller’s face.Allusion will be made hereafter to the traditionary tale of Miller and Widman.

Allusion will be made hereafter to the traditionary tale of Miller and Widman.

[66]Of one of the collections of hymns published at Ephrata, Fahnestock says that four hundred and forty-one were written by Beissel, seventy-three by the brethren in the cloister, one hundred by the single sisters, and one hundred and twelve by the out-door members. Endress speaks in unfavorable terms of the literary merits of some of the Ephrata hymns.

[67]“Materials towards a History of the American Baptists.” 1770.

[68]Dr. Fahnestock resided for a while in the latter part of his life in the sister-house, at Ephrata. Here Mr. Rupp, the historian, visited him. Rev. Mr. Shrigley, librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, who visited Ephrata, has spoken to me of Fahnestock’s venerable appearance.

[69]In after-years they seem to have been much troubled by litigation. Dr. Fahnestock says that they considered contention with arms, and at law, unchristian; but that they unfortunately had to defend themselves often in courts of justice. To set an example of forbearance and Christian meekness, they suffered themselves for a long time to be plundered, until forbearance was no longer a virtue. He says (Hazard’s Register, 1835) that the society is just escaping from heavy embarrassments which they incurred in defending themselves from the aggressions of their neighbors. The British officer, whose statement was published as early as 1789, speaks of Peter Miller as often engaged in litigation.In a recent work (Belcher’s History of Religious Denominations, 1854), the Seventh-Day Baptists at Ephrata are said to possess about one hundred and forty acres.

In a recent work (Belcher’s History of Religious Denominations, 1854), the Seventh-Day Baptists at Ephrata are said to possess about one hundred and forty acres.

[70]Morgan Edwards, in speaking of the recluses at Ephrata, says that they took the vow of celibacy. But, as so many of our German Baptists are opposed to oaths, I presume that they did not. “Teach, by example, that a promise is truly an oath,” says a late Pennsylvania paper.

[71]Somewhat altered from the original.

[72]A writer in the Chronicle speaks of being at one of the count’s conferences, where there were Mennonites, Separatists, and Baptists. But when he came home, he told thevorsteherthat he regarded the count’s conference as a snare to bring simple awakened souls again into infant-baptism and church-going. Then they held a council, and resolved to have a yearly conference of their own.The above expression—infant-baptism and church-going—sounds so much like the account of the Baptist or Anabaptist persecutions narrated in the Martyr-book, that we might almost conclude that the Dunkers had a direct connection with the Anabaptists, instead of originating among the Pietists. But it will be remembered that the Ephrata Dunkers had printed an edition of the great Martyr-book, and it is most probable that some of them were familiar with it. Still, there may have been among the Pietists some who were or had been Baptists.

The above expression—infant-baptism and church-going—sounds so much like the account of the Baptist or Anabaptist persecutions narrated in the Martyr-book, that we might almost conclude that the Dunkers had a direct connection with the Anabaptists, instead of originating among the Pietists. But it will be remembered that the Ephrata Dunkers had printed an edition of the great Martyr-book, and it is most probable that some of them were familiar with it. Still, there may have been among the Pietists some who were or had been Baptists.

[73]Near the close of this sketch mention is made of “Hoeckers a Creveld.” Perhaps Ludwig belonged to the same family.

[74]Paxton township is now in Dauphin County. The Paxton church was three miles east of Harrisburg.

[75]The Ephrata Chronicle says that, as the enemy approached (the Indians came within thirteen miles of Ephrata), many persons sought refuge in the cloister, with those who were themselves in need of protection. As reports of murders reached Ephrata day after day, the celibates (Einsamen) became despondent, and even the leader turned pale,—a thing that had never been witnessed before. When danger was so imminent, the fathers proposed to take the sisters away on wagons to a safer place. It was then that Beissel received by night a divine revelation to the effect that no Einsamer should perish by the hands of the Indians.Accordingly they remained at their station, and it really turned out as Beissel had predicted. The people who took refuge in the monastery probably stayed at Ephrata, not with a view of finding protection behind the wooden walls of the cloister, but for the sake of shelter and support. The statement that the government sent a company of soldiers for the protection of Ephrata seems to be verified by the mention in the Chronicle ofRothröckeor Redcoats.

Accordingly they remained at their station, and it really turned out as Beissel had predicted. The people who took refuge in the monastery probably stayed at Ephrata, not with a view of finding protection behind the wooden walls of the cloister, but for the sake of shelter and support. The statement that the government sent a company of soldiers for the protection of Ephrata seems to be verified by the mention in the Chronicle ofRothröckeor Redcoats.

[76]The Mennonites and Quakers were peaceably disposed towards the Indians, but the Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, who had settled at Paxton, felt a deadly animosity against them, and, as Day says, against the peaceful Moravians and Quakers, who wished to protect the Indians, at the expense, as the Paxton men thought, of the lives of the settlers. The Paxton rangers were commanded by the Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Colonel Elder, who seems to have opposed the massacre of the Indians at Lancaster by the “Paxton boys.” Day says that no historian ought to excuse or justify the murders at Lancaster and Conestoga, and adds that they must ever remain dark and bloody spots in our provincial history.

[77]See Carey’s “American Museum.”

[78]An insignificant hill overlooking the meadow where the brother- and sister-houses now stand.

[79]A remarkable statement.

[80]Compare this inflated language with Miller’s letter, as quoted.

[81]The different modes of spelling what appears to be the same name will not surprise those who are familiar with our Pennsylvania German names.

[82]It may be observed how nearly this description of the chapel agrees with that given by the British officer of the one he visited here some eighty-five years ago.

[83]Fahnestock says that, like some dilapidated castles, Ephrata yet contains many habitable and comfortable apartments. The brother- and sister-houses, etc., form but a small part of the modern village of Ephrata. He wrote some time ago.

[84]See article “Francis Daniel Pastorius,” by Dr. Seidensticker, in thePenn Monthly, January and February, 1872.

[85]The name Hacker, still heard at Ephrata, is doubtless the same as the above.

[86]Schneeberger, or people of Snow Hill?

[87]Mr. Endress tells us that with many of the single brethren and sisters at Ephrata, the mystical idea of the union with Christ was evidently used to gratify one of the strongest natural affections of the human heart. “The Redeemer was their bridegroom or bride.... He was the little infant they carried under their hearts, the dear little lamb they dandled on their laps.”He adds that this at least was found much more among the single than among those whose affections were consecrated in a conjugal life. “The powers of human nature would evince their authority.” “According to Sangmeister, some sank under the unceasing struggle.” See Hazard’s Register, 1830.

He adds that this at least was found much more among the single than among those whose affections were consecrated in a conjugal life. “The powers of human nature would evince their authority.” “According to Sangmeister, some sank under the unceasing struggle.” See Hazard’s Register, 1830.

[88]Upon this subject of the New Testament as a creed, etc., all or nearly all our German Baptist sects seem to unite.

[89]This article now appears nearly as it was published in the second edition of this work, issued several years ago.

[90]The general use of the lot was abrogated in 1817. Although marriage by lot is no longer obligatory, yet a Moravian gentleman has told me that this manner of decision is still resorted to,—and frequently in Europe. Bishops are usually appointed by lot.

[91]Thelease system, so called, was abolished in 1844. The Moravian communities abroad, especially upon the continent of Europe, are close communities, no one being allowed to buy of their lands who is not a member of the Moravian Church. They retain more plainness of dress in Saxony and Prussia, and even in Great Britain, than prevails in America. There the women all wear caps in religious services.

[92]The heavy expense entailed by enterprises so great does not fall entirely upon the Church. The Mission Report of 1872, in speaking of Australia, mentions that the missionaries are cheered by the sympathy and aid of Christians of different denominations; and adds that the mission has sustained a loss in the death of the Rev. Mr. Mackie, of the Presbyterian Church, in Melbourne. TheMoravian Manualalso speaks of missions that are self-supporting, and of missionaries who labor, like Paul, for their own support.

[93]Its use is taught it seems even to barbarians, for the Mission Report, in speaking of an Esquimaux church, says, “The corner-stone was solemnly laid, when the native trombone players discoursed sweet music.”

[94]In the following from the litany, I observed an inconvenience:Preacher.—“By thy glorious resurrection and ascension,By thy sitting at the right hand of God.”Congregation.—“Bless and comfort us, gracious Lord and God.”

[94]In the following from the litany, I observed an inconvenience:

Preacher.—“By thy glorious resurrection and ascension,By thy sitting at the right hand of God.”Congregation.—“Bless and comfort us, gracious Lord and God.”

Preacher.—“By thy glorious resurrection and ascension,

By thy sitting at the right hand of God.”

Congregation.—“Bless and comfort us, gracious Lord and God.”

[95]The frequent repetition of the word love-feast has caused it to be often shortened in conversation, it being pronounced by some as if writtenluff-east.

[96]To the Rev. W. C. Reichel, author of several historical works, I am indebted for a correction in the article “The Dunker Love-feast.”

[97]Tombstones are placed on the newly-made graves, old tombstones are cleaned, etc. These stones are “breast-stones,” not of large size, and lie flat upon the graves,—in the Moravian manner.

[98]I am quite at a loss to know why the colored eggs, purple, red, and yellow, in use among the Moravians (as among other Germans), should here have been called rabbits’ eggs, and the idea been held out that the eggs were of different colors because different rabbits brought them.(This note was published in the second edition. Other remarks on the subject of the Easter rabbit and eggs will be found in theAppendix.)

(This note was published in the second edition. Other remarks on the subject of the Easter rabbit and eggs will be found in theAppendix.)

[99]A lady in Bethlehem told me that she had expected a man to help her put down carpet, who had failed to appear. About nine the next morning she met him upon the street somewhat intoxicated and friendly and communicative. “Oh, Mrs. ⸺,” said he, “I couldn’t come yesterday. It was mybursday.” Whence we may infer that the celebration of birthdays has spread in the community.

[100]The bell upon Nazareth Hall is still rung at a quarter before twelve, daily.

[101]The brethren’s house was thus given up in 1812, some time before the date above assigned.

[102]An enthusiastic friend says, “It is a well-known and abundantly substantiated fact that fewer unhappy marriages were known among the Moravians than among the same number of people in any other denomination of Christians while the lot was in practice.” If so, let us burn our romances.

[103]This perhaps occurred during Zinzendorf’s banishment from Saxony. See note at close of this article.

[104]This building, Ephrata, was once a “nursery,” where as many as fifty-six young children were placed at one time. Some were removed from their mothers at as early an age as eighteen months, and placed under the common charge. See Transactions of Moravian Historical Society, 1857-58.

[105]A friend adds: “These Christmas dialogues are still to be heard in Moravian towns, in their parochial schools.”

[106]The tendency to pronounceslikeshwill be observed.

[107]A friend says, “Schmaus” is a vulgar term,—use “Fest.”

[108]The corpse is sent to the corpse-house by some families, to this day.

[109]Another person says, that if a man had no proposal to make, he left it to the authorities to suggest a woman; but the authorities never forced a woman upon him against his will.

[110]A lady whom I met at Nazareth spoke of the visits that she used to make in the widow-house, when they went at one, had vesper of coffee and sugar-cake at two, and left at five.

[111]Upon this passage, a friend makes the following remark: “Not regular occupants, but Moravian missionaries or strangers who might arrive in large bodies; twenty, I think, would be a large number.”

[112]AyfrahtawI heard this word pronounced.

[113]There were two log houses, says a friend.

[114]They not only receive tuition here, but board and clothing, and a similar privilege is extended to the sons of preachers.

[115]During the period of the anti-slavery agitation, preceding the war, the Moravians as a body did not take an anti-slavery stand. Their members were allowed to hold slaves, like those of almost all the other sects in this country. Their European brethren did not agree with them on this subject.

[116]A recent writer tells us that the upper, middle, and lower parts of Montgomery County, the lower end of Berks, and the south corner of Lehigh contain the only settlement of Schwenkfelders in the wide world. He adds that it is no misnomer to call these people the Pennsylvania German Quakers. It will be seen, however, that they are more ancient than George Fox.

[117]Phlox subulata.

[118]This feminine termination has not disappeared from the dialect. Mr. Rauch speaks of “de olt Lawbucksy,” which is rendered, old Mrs. Lawbucks.

[119]The decline in the severity of the cap seems to have reached its lowest point among the Moravians, where but few women in this country wear caps in church. See “Bethlehem and the Moravians.”

[120]At Flourtown, or Chestnut Hill, the English language is used, and there is no instruction in German.

[121]See article “Ephrata.”

[122]It appears that there was also extemporaneous prayer during the exercises.

[123]Why is not Schwenkfeld spoken of by the titlevon Ossing? We read of Ulrich von Hütten, German scholar and reformer.

[124]In using the name Schwenkfeld, I have abbreviated it a little, giving it as it is in the New American Cyclopædia, which calls him, however, Von Schwenkfeld. The Cyclopædia, in speaking of his writings, some ninety treatises, says that they are regarded as one of the most valuable sources of the history of the Reformation.

[125]A copy of this volume has been deposited for reference in the library of the German Society, Philadelphia.

[126]That portion of Silesia which was the home of the Schwenkfelders lies east of Saxony, the home of Count Zinzendorf. It, or the greater part of it, was conquered by Frederick the Great, and added to Prussia.

[127]The clergy,die Gelehrten.

[128]Erläuterung.—Schwenkfeld appears to have abstained from the sacraments for a great part of his life,—from the outward forms, at least, if we may add the expression.

[129]The three folios before spoken of in this article were published within ten years after his death, and it seems possible that the place of printing was omitted on account of the opposition to his works.

[130]In the New American Cyclopædia Schwenkfeld is said to have differed from Luther and others upon the deification of the body Christ. In the latter part of this essay this point is spoken of again.

[131]Ulm, a town in Würtemberg, on the left bank of the Danube. It was long an imperial free city.

[132]This title was probably not in former times their chosen name. In a little inartistic aria, near the close of theErläuterung, they are twice calleddie Stillen, or the quiet ones. Looking in a German dictionary for this word, I find “die Stillen” is rendered Quakers. In the same aria they are calleddie Friedlichen, or the peaceful ones. One of Schwenkfeld’s volumes, a collection, states that they were gathered and put in order bythe fellow-confessors and lovers of the glories and truth of Jesus Christ.

[133]As in the principality of Lower Silesia Lutheran preachers had been installed in nearly all the offices, many of the common people who had accepted Schwenkfeld’s teachings stood back in stillness, not being able conscientiously to agree with these teachers. This was very offensive to the parsons, and they soon made use of their high dignity against tender consciences to force such persons to their means of grace,—to make them come to the baptismal font, to the pulpit, and the altar.—Schwenkfeld’s Erläuterung, chap. iv. The Schwenkfelders express the opinion that the action of the Lutheran clergy, in calling attention to them, frequently caused their persecution by the Catholic authorities.

[134]Digging trenches for military defence, and working the galleys or great boats of the Mediterranean.

[135]They do not seem to have been very profitable as soldiers. One man can lead a horse to water, but several cannot make him drink.

[136]Herrschaft.The narrative is condensed from theErläuterung, or Explanation.

[137]Mention is made of the time when the destroyer came upon the destroyer because his measure was full,—namely, the Thirty Years’ War, and the banishment of the Lutherans from the imperial dominions.

[138]SeeErläuterung, or Explanation. The passage is slightly abridged.

[139]Hence we may infer that the Schwenkfelders forbade marriages with those not of their own persuasion. During the period of their troubles it seems that marriage by the church was at times refused them, no doubt from their refusing the sacrament. Maimed funeral rites were also among the persecutions of which they complained. In speaking thus of their decline, they may, however, overestimate their numbers in former times.The following characteristic sketch may be introduced here nearly in the words of the original: The two pastors in Harpersdorf having been called to a new church, there came as pastor Herr John Samuel Neander (the pastor Neander who died in July 1759). He was by nature a very fiery man, so that he hardly knew how to govern his passions; by birth a Brandenburger, from Frankfort on the Oder. When he was installed, the Herr Superintendent in Liegnitz brought before him that he was a stranger, and therefore he might not know how it was in Harpersdorf, that there was a people there, who had already lived there about two hundred years, called Schwenkfelders. Therefore he would give him good advice, that he should leave these people in peace; preceding pastors had tried it enough, and had accomplished nothing by force. But if he thought he could not endure these people, he should say so, and another would be put into the place.But Herr Neander promised everything good, and did not keep to it. For soon after entering upon his office he gave out that he had sworn to bury none of the Schwenkfelders as before practised, and this he began to carry out. SeeErläuterung, chap. v.

The following characteristic sketch may be introduced here nearly in the words of the original: The two pastors in Harpersdorf having been called to a new church, there came as pastor Herr John Samuel Neander (the pastor Neander who died in July 1759). He was by nature a very fiery man, so that he hardly knew how to govern his passions; by birth a Brandenburger, from Frankfort on the Oder. When he was installed, the Herr Superintendent in Liegnitz brought before him that he was a stranger, and therefore he might not know how it was in Harpersdorf, that there was a people there, who had already lived there about two hundred years, called Schwenkfelders. Therefore he would give him good advice, that he should leave these people in peace; preceding pastors had tried it enough, and had accomplished nothing by force. But if he thought he could not endure these people, he should say so, and another would be put into the place.

But Herr Neander promised everything good, and did not keep to it. For soon after entering upon his office he gave out that he had sworn to bury none of the Schwenkfelders as before practised, and this he began to carry out. SeeErläuterung, chap. v.

[140]The aria already alluded to says,—“Throw their dead away, like foul corruption,The cow-path is too good; don’t tread upon the grass;The father shall not follow the body of his child,Nor the wife accompany her husband to the house of death.”The word that I have translated cattle-path, etc., isviehweg. A note upon this verse of the aria says, “1722. Three hundred persons lie upon the cow-paths at Harpersdorf and Langendorff.” If so many were buried during the time of the Catholic mission, these people must have been numerous.

[140]The aria already alluded to says,—

“Throw their dead away, like foul corruption,The cow-path is too good; don’t tread upon the grass;The father shall not follow the body of his child,Nor the wife accompany her husband to the house of death.”

“Throw their dead away, like foul corruption,

The cow-path is too good; don’t tread upon the grass;

The father shall not follow the body of his child,

Nor the wife accompany her husband to the house of death.”

The word that I have translated cattle-path, etc., isviehweg. A note upon this verse of the aria says, “1722. Three hundred persons lie upon the cow-paths at Harpersdorf and Langendorff.” If so many were buried during the time of the Catholic mission, these people must have been numerous.

[141]Zinzendorf’s estate of Berthelsdorf was, it seems, near the town of Gorlitz.

[142]By agriculture? rather than in the town of Gorlitz.

[143]See “Bethlehem and the Moravians.”

[144]The word translated gingerbread isPfeffer-kuchen, or pepper-cakes. Pepper-nuts are now made in Lancaster County,—a delicate cake, as I have seen them, somewhat resembling jumbles. If plainer they would be like the New England cookies. Cooky comes from the Germankuchen?In Allentown, a young gentleman tells me that the people of Lehigh County, all through, eat Schwenkfelder-cake. “Our mothers made them for us. They are a kind of vesper-cake, or rusk baked in a loaf.” In Allentown the name is sometimes pronounced Schwinkfelder.

In Allentown, a young gentleman tells me that the people of Lehigh County, all through, eat Schwenkfelder-cake. “Our mothers made them for us. They are a kind of vesper-cake, or rusk baked in a loaf.” In Allentown the name is sometimes pronounced Schwinkfelder.

[145]No one should confound these emigrants from the Palatinate with the Palatines for whom William Penn desires the friendship of the Indians. See “Swiss Exiles,” in this volume. The numerous refugees from the Palatinate probably came from different motives; some for religious freedom, and some to earn their bread. Many German emigrants were redemptionists,—i.e., they sold their time to pay for their voyage. Of this class, we learn, was an ancestor of the late John Covode.

[146]Mr. Weiser tells us, in speaking of the Schwenkfelders, that on a late occasion, having heard that the tombs of their ancestors, near Liegnitz and Gorlitz, were fast being desecrated, and the earth, with their very dust, carried away for road-making purposes, their Pennsylvania posterity collected a handsome sum and forwarded it to the authorities, with a view of purchasing the grounds, and having them set apart and enclosed as the burying-ground of the Silesian Schwenkfelders. It is not believed, however, he adds, that their moneys were appropriated to the laudable end which they had in view.This narrative might apply to those Silesians who were buried upon the cow-paths (Mr. Weiser says, taken to the carrion pit or bone commons), but does it apply to them after they had taken refuge at Gorlitz?

This narrative might apply to those Silesians who were buried upon the cow-paths (Mr. Weiser says, taken to the carrion pit or bone commons), but does it apply to them after they had taken refuge at Gorlitz?

[147]It has been estimated that ninety-five in one hundred of the Schwenkfelders are farmers.

[148]In the Rules and Ordinances of the Schwenkfelder community may be found this passage: “Yet a Christian places no holiness in wearing the oldest fashioned clothes; he also takes care not quickly to ape all new fashions, much less does he make it his business to bring up new ones.”

[149]Mr. Weiser speaks as if the singing was in the dialect. The following is a copy of some lines which were sung at their meeting-house when I attended, from which the student of German may observe the quality of the language, and the theologian may notice, as it seems to me, two or three of their peculiar doctrines:“Jehovah, Vater, Sohn, und Geist!O Segens Bronn, der ewig fleuszt!Durchfleusz Herz, Sinn, und Wandel wohl;Mach uns dein’s Lob’s und Segens voll!”Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit! Oh, spring of blessing, forever flowing! Flow through heart, thought, and life; make us full of thy praise and blessing!

“Jehovah, Vater, Sohn, und Geist!O Segens Bronn, der ewig fleuszt!Durchfleusz Herz, Sinn, und Wandel wohl;Mach uns dein’s Lob’s und Segens voll!”

“Jehovah, Vater, Sohn, und Geist!

O Segens Bronn, der ewig fleuszt!

Durchfleusz Herz, Sinn, und Wandel wohl;

Mach uns dein’s Lob’s und Segens voll!”

Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit! Oh, spring of blessing, forever flowing! Flow through heart, thought, and life; make us full of thy praise and blessing!

[150]Wheat bread is now used. At a Schwenkfelder house I ate apple-butter, sweet, because made from sweet apples, and seasoned with fennel, of which the taste resembles anise.

[151]It may be observed that I have used Mr. Weiser’s language.

[152]Before public schools were established the Schwenkfelders had a fund for the education of their poorer members.

[153]“Which these ordered back into our fund, to supply the wants of the poor, when we should arrive at Philadelphia.”

[154]It is probable that baptism will be introduced, but only optionally.

[155]Mr. Weiser tells us that a mother whose adult daughter entered the Reformed Church, by baptism, earnestly protested against the performing of the sacrament over her, on the ground that “prayers were had for their child in the meeting-house.”

[156]All Quakers do not teach the inferiority of the written word. Mr. Weiser says, “In general terms it may be said that Caspar Schwenkfeld has been the George Fox of Silesia, or the veritable George Fox, perhaps somewhat educated and sublimated.”Although some of the doctrines taught by George Fox seem to have been given before him by Schwenkfeld, yet were these not previously taught among the Anabaptists, and possibly among the Waldenses?It has been said that the better classes of Anabaptists claimed a descent from the Waldenses, the Wickliffites, and the Hussites, who had struggled for a church separated from the world and distinguished by the holiness of its members.

Although some of the doctrines taught by George Fox seem to have been given before him by Schwenkfeld, yet were these not previously taught among the Anabaptists, and possibly among the Waldenses?

It has been said that the better classes of Anabaptists claimed a descent from the Waldenses, the Wickliffites, and the Hussites, who had struggled for a church separated from the world and distinguished by the holiness of its members.

[157]A note says, “No one can deny that at last all books must perish, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.”

[158]On his death-bed Schwenkfeld declared that he believed that all in the Old and New Testament was profitable for salvation to the elect; that he was certain that his own writings, if read impartially, and after prayer, agreed with Holy Scripture, but he must acknowledge to the praise of God that they proceeded more from gracious revelation.

[159]See theErläuterung, or Explanation, chap. x. These passages in general are greatly abbreviated, or are picked out, I may say.

[160]Erläuterung, chap. xi.

[161]The passage alluded to is doubtless this: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

[162]The thoughtful reader may perhaps find something in this answer to contrast with these passages from the decrees of the late Ecumenical Council at Rome:“If any one shall say that human sciences ought to be pursued in such a spirit of freedom that any one may be allowed to hold as true their assertions, even when opposed to revealed doctrine, and that such assertions may not be condemned by the church, let him beanathema. If any one shall say that at any time it may come to pass, in the progress of science, that the doctrines set forth by the church must be taken in another sense than that in which the church has ever received and yet receives them, let him beanathema.” Quoted from a report of a dogmatic decree on Catholic faith, confirmed 1870.

[162]The thoughtful reader may perhaps find something in this answer to contrast with these passages from the decrees of the late Ecumenical Council at Rome:

“If any one shall say that human sciences ought to be pursued in such a spirit of freedom that any one may be allowed to hold as true their assertions, even when opposed to revealed doctrine, and that such assertions may not be condemned by the church, let him beanathema. If any one shall say that at any time it may come to pass, in the progress of science, that the doctrines set forth by the church must be taken in another sense than that in which the church has ever received and yet receives them, let him beanathema.” Quoted from a report of a dogmatic decree on Catholic faith, confirmed 1870.

[163]Ausführliche Geschichte Kaspar v. Schwenkfelds, etc.

[164]Kadelbach tells us of George Mattern, a teacher in Silesia, who inclined to the opinions of Schwenkfeld, and who migrated to Holland, and afterward to England, where he joined the Quakers. He wrote a letter with this expression: “Dear father, thou must not be surprised that I thee and thou thee.Dich. dutze.”

[165]This letter is dated 1875. It was late in 1873 that I heard of baptism as having been administered among them.

[166]I believe the paper is discontinued, 1882.

[167]I received permission to use the name of Mr. Mahony, the manufacturer. His brother wrote “The Bells of Shandon.” The other names used are substitutes.

[168]Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary, County Cork.

[169]One was erected a few years ago at Manchester, and I was told there that the Queen and Prince of Wales had not visited the town since.

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