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The Swiss Brethren are a branch of Anabaptism that started in Zürich, spread to nearby cities and towns, and then was exported to neighboring countries.^[1]:62 Today's Swiss Mennonite Conference can be traced to the Swiss Brethren.

In 1525, Felix Manz, Conrad Grebel, George Blaurock and other radical evangelical reformers broke from Ulrich Zwingli and formed a new group because they felt reforms were not moving fast enough.

Rejection of infant baptism was a distinguishing belief of the Swiss Brethren. Based on Sola Scriptura doctrine, the Swiss Brethren declared that since the Bible does not mention infant baptism, it should not be practiced by the church. This belief was subsequently refuted by Ulrich Zwingli. Consequently, there was a public dispute, in which the council affirmed Zwingli's position. This solidified the Swiss Brethren and resulted in their persecution by all other reformers as well as the Catholic Church.

Because of persecution by the authorities, many Swiss Brethren moved from Switzerland to neighboring countries. The Swiss Brethren became known as Mennonites after the division of 1693, a disagreement between groups led by Jacob Amman and Hans Reist. Many of the Mennonites in France, Southern Germany, the Netherlands and North America, as well as most Amish descend from the Swiss Brethren.

Schleitheim Articles[link]

In 1527 Michael Sattler authored the Schleitheim Articles, the first Anabaptist confession of faith.^[2]:17,22-23 It contained seven articles on the following topics:

• Believers baptism
• Church discipline
• Lord's Supper
• Separation from the world and evil
• Selection and role of pastors
• Nonviolence
• Prohibition of oath-swearing

Most Swiss Brethren accepted these seven articles.

Key leaders[link]

Dissatisfaction with the outcome of a disputation in 1525 prompted a group to part ways with Huldrych Zwingli.

George Blaurock (c. 1491–1529), was a co-founder of the Swiss Brethren movement. He was born in 1491 in Bonaduz. Blaurock was educated at the University of Leipzig and served as a priest, but departed from the Catholic Church before he arrived in Zürich around 1524, for he had already taken a wife. Though he came to see Huldrych Zwingli, he soon became attached to the reformer's more radical followers. After a break with Zwingli in January 1525 and acting against a Zürich city council ruling, Blaurock asked Conrad Grebel to baptize him upon a confession of faith in Christ. Grebel did so, and afterwards Blaurock proceeded to baptize the others who were present. Blaurock worked closely with Felix Manz until Manz was martyred in Zürich in 1527. On that same day, Blaurock was severely beaten and permanently expelled from Zürich. He kept moving, laboring at Bern, Biel, the Grisons, and Appenzell. After his arrest and fourth banishment in 1527, Blaurock left Switzerland never to return. He conducted a very successful ministry in Tyrol. In August 1529 he was arrested by Innsbruck authorities and tortured for information. On 6 September 1529, Blaurock was burned at the stake near Klausen.^[3]

Conrad Grebel (c. 1498–1526) was a co-founder of the Swiss Brethren movement. He was probably born in Grüningen about 1498. His family moved to Zürich around 1513. Grebel spent about six years in three universities, but without finishing his education or receiving a degree. In 1521 he joined a group gathered around Zürich reformer Huldrych Zwingli to study the Greek classics, the Latin Bible, the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. Core members of the group broke with Zwingli because they thought the reform process was proceeding too slowly. At a gathering in January 1525 George Blaurock asked Grebel to baptize him upon a confession of faith. Afterward, Blaurock baptized Grebel and the others, initiating a wave of rebaptisms that would spread throughout the Swiss cantons. Grebel died of the plague in 1526.^[2]:7

Margret Hottinger (before 1515–1530) was a charismatic and respected leader during the initial years of the movement.^{[1]:117;254–258} She joined early in 1525, at the time George Blaurock was evangelizing and baptizing in Zollikon. Her father and brothers were rebaptized early in 1525 also; Klaus Hottinger, an uncle, had been executed the previous year for his reformation activities. Hottinger was arrested along with other Anabaptist leaders including Blaurock, Grebel, Mantz, and Sattler in November of the same year. While Sattler and some others were released after swearing an oath promising to stop advocating rebaptism, Hottinger and the others refused and were imprisoned under harsh conditions. Hottinger relented after six months and signed a recantation, but before the year was out she was evangelizing in St. Gall. Hottinger and her family remained active in the area of Zürich even after most other Anabaptists had fled to Moravia because of intense persecution. Finally they too set out for Moravia in 1530, but were captured enroute near Waldsee. Hottinger was drowned because she refused to recant, her father Jakob was beheaded and her brother Felix was released because of his young age.

Balthasar Hubmaier was the foremost theologian of the Swiss Brethren.

Balthasar Hubmaier (c. 1480–1528) was one of the most well-known and respected Anabaptist theologians of the Reformation. He was born in Friedberg, Bavaria around 1480. In 1524, he married Elizabeth Hügline of Reichenau. He attended Latin School at Augsburg, received both a bachelor's and a master's degree from the University of Freiburg in 1511 and a doctor's degree from the University of Ingolstadt under Johann Eck in 1512.^[4]:329 After serving as the university's vice-rector, he left a pastorate of the Catholic Church at Regensburg in 1516 and then went to Waldshut in 1521. He was rebaptised there in 1525 by Wilhelm Reublin. He succeeded in establishing Anabaptism as the official religion for a short period first in Waldshut and then in Nikolsburg.^[1]:181 On 10 March 1528 Hubmaier was executed by burning for heresy.

Felix Manz (c. 1498–1527) was a co-founder of the Swiss Brethren movement. Manz was the illegitimate son of a canon of the Grossmünster in Zürich. His knowledge of Hebrew, Greek and Latin indicate a liberal education. Manz became a follower of Huldrych Zwingli and when Conrad Grebel joined the group in 1521, he and Manz became friends. They questioned the mass, the nature of church and state connections, and infant baptism. The Zürich city council declared Zwingli the victor of a January 1525 disputation and ordered the group to desist from arguing and submit to the decision of the council. Instead, the group gathered at the home of Felix Manz and his mother. Conrad Grebel rebaptized George Blaurock, and Blaurock in turn rebaptized the others. Manz proceeded to use his language skills to translate religious texts into the language of the people, and worked enthusiastically as an evangelist. Manz was arrested on a number of occasions between 1525 and 1527. While he was preaching with George Blaurock in the Grüningen region, they were taken by surprise, arrested and imprisoned in Zürich at the Wellenburg prison. The Zürich council had passed an edict that made adult rebaptism punishable by drowning. On 5 January 1527, Felix Manz became the first casualty of the edict, and the first of the Swiss Brethren to be executed at the hands of Protestants.^[5]

Hans Reist (fl. 1670–1704) was a central figure in the dispute that resulted in the formation of the Amish branch.^[6] Reist favored a milder form of church discipline and was strongly opposed by Jakob Ammann who advocated a strict form of the ban. The disagreement was fierce and the ill feelings generated by the exchange between Reist, Ammann, and other leaders resulted in an unrepairable breach. Reist is recognized as a leader of the Swiss Brethren group that later adopted the name Mennonite.

Felix Manz was executed by drowning within two years of his rebaptism.

Wilhelm Reublin (1484–c. 1559) was a prolific Swiss Brethren missionary who eventually left the movement. Reublin was born in 1484 in Rottenburg am Neckar. In 1521, after studying theology in Freiburg and Tübingen, he pastored at St. Alban in Basel then in Witikon. Reublin was with Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz in Zürich in January 1525 at the birth of the Anabaptist movement. Reublin took part in a disputation on 17 January 1525 after which Grebel, Mantz and Reublin were given eight days to leave the canton. Reublin proceeded to Hallau, where he establish a large Anaptist congregation. From Hallau Reublin successfully evangelized in other areas for the young Anabaptist movement. On Easter 1525 he baptized theologian Balthasar Hubmaier in Waldshut, where another center of the Anabaptism was developing. Michael Sattler was baptized by Reublin in Rottenburg. Other places evangelized by Reublin include Schaffhausen, Strasbourg, Reutlingen and Esslingen. By 1535 Reublin had left the Swiss Brethren.^[7]

Michael Sattler (c. 1490–1527) was particularly influential for his role in developing the Schleitheim Confession. Born in around 1490 in Staufen, Germany, Sattler became a Benedictine monk in the cloister of St. Peter and most likely became prior by the time he left, around 1525. He then married Margaretha, a former Beguine. That year they traveled to Zürich, which was then embroiled in controversy over infant baptism, and was expelled from the city in November. He became associated with the Anabaptists and was probably rebaptised in the summer of 1526. He was involved in missionary activity around Horb and Rottenburg, and eventually traveled to Strasbourg. In February 1527 he chaired a meeting of the Swiss Brethren at Schleitheim, at which time the Schleitheim Confession was adopted. In May, 1527, Sattler was arrested by Roman Catholic authorities, along with his wife and several other Anabaptists. He was tried and sentenced to be executed as a heretic. Before execution by fire, his tongue was cut out, and red hot tongs were used to tear two pieces of flesh from his body.^[8] Margaretha was executed by drowning.

Jakob Ammann (fl. 1696–before 1730) was an elder who became the founder of the Amish Mennonites.^[9] Ammann advocated the strictest form of the ban, insisting that there be no contact with an excommunicated member, even among family members. He had firm views on clothing style, opposed trimmed beards and introduced foot washing. He traveled among the Swiss Anabaptist communities in the Cantons of Switzerland, Alsace and the Palatinate promoting his views and excommunicating any who opposed him. Because of his unbending convictions and harsh rhetoric, an irreparable breach developed between the two groups that continues centuries later in North America. Ammann later regretted his contribution to the split and asked for forgiveness, but by 1700 the rift was too great.^[6]

Early locations[link]

In Appenzell a congregation of 1500 formed soon after the movement was driven from Zürick. Zwingli complained that the canton was too tolerant of Anabaptists. Increased enforcement of anti-Anabaptist decrees drove most congregations out by 1530, although some persisted into the 17th century.^[1]:116[10]

Others[link]

• Alsace
• Basel
• Bern
• Hallau
• Moravia
• Palatinate (region)
• Schaffhausen
• St. Gallen
• Strasbourg
• Waldshut
• Zollikon
• Zürich

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Snyder, C. Arnold (1995). Anabaptist History and Theology: An Introduction. Kitchener, Ontario: Pandora Press. ISBN 0-9698762-0-3. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Smith, C. Henry (1981). Smith's Story of the Mennonites. Newton, Kansas: Faith and Life Press. ISBN 0-87303-069-9. 
3. ^ Neff, Christian (1953). "Blaurock, Georg (ca. 1492-1529)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B55760.html. Retrieved 2010-12-03. 
4. ^ Qualben, Lars P. (1964). A History of the Christian Church (Revised ed.). New York: Thomas Nelson. 
5. ^ Neff, Christian and Harold S. Bender (1957). "Manz, Felix (ca. 1498-1527)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/M36872.html. Retrieved 2010-12-03. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Geiser, Samuel (1959). "Reist, Hans (17th/18th century)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/reist_hans_17th_century. Retrieved 2011-02-21. 
7. ^ Bossert, Gustav, Jr. and James M. Stayer (1989). "Reublin, Wilhelm (1480/84-after 1559)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/R515.html. Retrieved 2010-12-06. 
8. ^ Bossert, Gustav, Jr., Harold S. Bender and C. Arnold Snyder (1989). "Sattler, Michael (d. 1527)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/S280.html. Retrieved 2010-10-05. 
9. ^ Bender, Harold S. and Sam Steiner (2005). "Ammann, Jakob (17th/18th century)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/A463ME.html. Retrieved 2011-02-21. 
10. ^ Brandt, Theodor (1953). "Appenzell (Switzerland)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/A6752.html. Retrieved 2011-02-22. 

Michael Sattler (c.1490 – 20 May 1527) was a monk who left the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation to become one of the early leaders of the Anabaptist movement. He was particularly influential for his role in developing the Schleitheim Confession.

Title page of the Schleitheimer Confession (1527), bearing Sattler's name.

Born in approximately 1490 in Staufen, Germany.^[1] Sattler became a Benedictine monk in the cloister of St. Peter and most likely became prior.^[2] He left St. Peter's probably in May 1525 when the monastery had been overcome by the troops from the Black Forest fighting in the Peasants' War^[3]. He later married a former Beguine named Margaretha.^[4] When Sattler arrived in Zurich is not known except that he was in town before being expelled from the city November 18, 1525 in a wave of expulsions of foreigners resulting from the November 6-8 disputation on baptism.^[5] Some believe that Sattler is to be identified as the "Brother Michael in the white coat," mentioned in a document dated March 25 of that year,^[6] thus placing Sattler in Zurich before Snyder's estimation of when he left St. Peter's.^[7] Snyder believed that Sattler possibly arrived in Zurich to attend that disputation.^[8] He became associated with the Anabaptists and was probably rebaptised in the summer of 1526. He was involved in missionary activity around Horb and Rottenburg, and eventually traveled to Strasbourg. In February 1527 he chaired a meeting of the Swiss Brethren at Schleitheim, at which time the Schleitheim Confession was adopted.

In May 1527, Sattler was arrested by Count Joachim von Zollern, regent of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, along with his wife and several other Anabaptists. He was tried and sentenced to be executed as a heretic. The sentence to execution read, "Michael Sattler shall be committed to the executioner. The latter shall take him to the square and there first cut out his tongue, and then forge him fast to a wagon and there with glowing iron tongs twice tear pieces from his body, then on the way to the site of execution five times more as above and then burn his body to powder as an arch-heretic."^[9] The other men in the group were executed by sword, and the women, including Margaretha, were executed by drowning.

A memorial plaque at the site of his execution reads: "The Baptist Michael Sattler was executed by burning after severe torture on the 20th of May, 1527 here on the "Gallows Hill". He died as a true witness of Jesus Christ. His wife Margaretha and other members of the congregation were drowned and burned. They acted for the baptism of those who want to follow Christ, for an independent congregation of the faithful, for the peaceful message of the Sermon on the Mount."

See also[link]

• Martyrs Mirror, which includes an account of his death.

Works cited[link]

• Gstohl, Mark (2004). "Michael Sattler". Retrieved May 25, 2006.
• Horsch, John. Mennonites In Europe. Rod and Staff Publishers, 1942, 1995, pp. 70-78. Cited at http://www.anabaptists.org/history/sattler.html
• Snyder, C. Arnold. The Life and Thought of Michael Sattler. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8361-1264-4
• Kauffmann, Karl-Hermann Michael Sattler - ein Märtyrer der Täuferbewegung. Brosamen-Verlag Albstadt 2010 ISBN 978-3-00-032755-1
• Yoder, John Howard. The Legacy of Michael Sattler. Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald, 1973. ISBN 978-0-8361-1187-3

Reflist[link]

External links[link]

• Michael Sattler in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
• Memorial stone at location of Michael Sattler's execution in Rottenburg, Germany, Sites of Memory webpage
• Theological Biography of Michael Sattler at BaptistTheology.org
• Two Kinds of Obedience Modern English version of tract usually attributed to Sattler

Hanan Ashrawi
Born	(1946-10-08) October 8, 1946 (age 65) Nablus, British Mandate for Palestine
Occupation	Politician
Spouse	Emile Ashrawi
Children	Amal, Zeina
Parents	Daoud Mikhail, Wadi'a Ass'ad

Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi (Arabic: حنان داوود خليل عشراوي ‎, born October 8, 1946) is a Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar. She was a protégé and later colleague and close friend of Edward Said. Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada, served as the official spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process, and has been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Ashrawi is a member of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's Third Way party.^[1] She is the first woman elected to the Palestinian National Council.^[2]

Ashrawi serves on the Advisory Board of several international and local organizations including the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Human Rights Council.^[3]

She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in literature in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut. Ashrawi also has a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia.

Personal life[link]

Ashrawi was born to Palestinian Christian parents on October 8, 1946 in the city of Nablus, British Mandate for Palestine, now part of the West Bank.^[4] Her father, Daoud Mikhail, was one of the founders of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Her family later moved to Ramallah, where she attended the Ramallah Friends Girls School. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in literature in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut. While a graduate student in literature at the American University in Beirut she dated Peter Jennings of ABC News who was then stationed there as ABC's Beirut bureau chief.^[5] When the Six-Day War broke out in 1967, Ashrawi as a 22 year-old student in Lebanon, was declared an absentee by Israel and denied re-entry to the West Bank. For the next six years, Ashrawi traveled and completed her education gaining a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia. Ashrawi was finally allowed to re-join her family in 1973 under the family reunification plan.^[6]

On August 8, 1975 she married Emil Ashrawi (born 1951),^[7] a Christian Jerusalemite who is now a photographer and a theater director.^[8] Together they have two daughters, Amal (born 1977) and Zeina (born 1981).^[9]

Ashrawi received an Honorary Doctoral Degree at the American University of Beirut on June 28, 2008 as part of an award ceremony coinciding with the university's 139th commencement.^[10] She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Palestine Studies.^[11]

Ashrawi holds honorary degrees from Earlham College and Smith College.

Ashrawi is a passionate advocate of many human rights and gender issues. She is the recipient of numerous international peace, human rights and democracy awards, such as the Olof Palme Award, the Defender of Democracy Award, the Jane Addams International Women's Leadership Award, the Distinguished Alumna Award of the University of Virginia Women's Center, the Distinguished Lifetime Achievements AUB Alumni Award, and the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation.^[3]

Ashrawi is a non-practicing Anglican.^[12]

On September 26, 2009, in an interview on Riz Khan’s One on One on Al Jazeera English, Ashrawi defined her current role in the following way: "I think of myself essentially as a human being with a multidimensional mission. Basically, I am a Palestinian, I am a woman, I am an activist and a humanist, more than being a politician. And at the same time I feel that quite often things are thrust upon us rather than come as a result of a calm and deliberate choice."^[13]

Politics and activism[link]

Ashrawi in 2008

While voluntarily a student but denied re-entry to the occupied West Bank, she became the spokes-person for the General Union of Palestinian Students in Lebanon, helped organize women’s revolutionary groups and served as a guide to foreign reporters visiting refugee camps.

Ashrawi returned to the West Bank under the family reunification plan in 1973 and established the Department of English at Birzeit University. She served as Chair of that department from 1973 to 1978, and again from 1981 through 1984; and from 1986-1990 she served the university as Dean of the Faculty of Arts. She remained a faculty member at Birzeit University until 1995, publishing numerous poems, short stories, papers and articles on Palestinian culture, literature, and politics.

Ashrawi's political activism in the Occupied Palestinian territories began almost as early as her academic career at Birzeit. In 1974, she founded the Birzeit University Legal Aid Committee and Human Rights Action Project. Her political work took a greater leap in 1988 during the First Intifada, when she joined the Intifada Political Committee, serving on its Diplomatic Committee until 1993. From 1991 to 1993 she served as the official spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process and a member of the Leadership/Guidance Committee and executive committee of the delegation.

From 1993 to 1995, with the signing of the Oslo Accords by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, Palestinian self-rule was established, and Ashrawi headed the Preparatory Committee of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights in Jerusalem. Ashrawi has also served since 1996 as an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Jerusalem Governorate.

In 1996 Ashrawi was appointed the Palestinian Authority Minister of Higher Education and Research, but she resigned the post in 1998 in protest against political corruption, specifically Arafat's handling of peace talks.

In 1998, Ashrawi founded MIFTAH -- the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, an initiative which works towards respect for Palestinian human rights, democracy and peace.

In April 2007, Ashrawi visited the Palestine Center in Washington, DC and gave a lecture entitled, "Palestine & Peace: The Challenges Ahead"

In July 2011, she represented the Palestinian people in a meeting with the Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and convinced him to visit the Palestinian territories.^[2]

Sydney Peace prize[link]

In 2003 Ashrawi was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize. Her selection drew praise from Mary Robinson (former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and former President of Ireland), and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Madeline Albright, former US Secretary of State also supported the selection and said, "She [Dr. Ashrawi] is a brilliant spokeswoman for her cause."^[14]

Her selection was controversial among some Jewish political organisations. Michael Kapel, a member of the board of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council called her "an apologist for Islamic terror".^[14] Activist Antony Loewenstein argued in his book My Israel Question that the Australian media, and various Jewish organizations, defamed and vilified Ashrawi in order to prevent her winning the Peace Prize.^[15] Of the controversy, Israeli politician Yael Dayan said, "And this Hanan Ashrawi... I think she's very courageous, and she contributes quite a lot to the peace process."^[16] Baruch Kimmerling a sociologist from the Hebrew University wrote, "As an Israeli, as a Jew and as an academic I am deeply sorry and ashamed that members of the Australian Jewish community are acting against this rightful nomination."^[14]

Works Published[link]

• Anthology of Palestinian Literature (ed).
• The Modern Palestinian Short Story: An Introduction to Practical Criticism
• Contemporary Palestinian Literature under Occupation
• Contemporary Palestinian Poetry and Fiction
• Literary Translation: Theory and Practice
• This Side of Peace: A Personal Account (ISBN 0-684-80294-5)

See also[link]

• Palestinian Christians

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hanan Ashrawi

• "The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy". MIFTAH (an NGO headed by Hanan Ashrawi). http://www.miftah.org/. 
• Kreisler, Harry (2000). "Conversation with Hanan Ashrawi". Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Ashrawi/ashrawi-con0.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
• "The life and times of Dr. Hanan Ashrawi". The Middle East Stage. world trek for service and education. http://www.worldtrek.org/odyssey/mideast/ashrawi/ashrawibio.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
• "Hanan Ashrawi (brief biography)". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ashrawi.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
• Horsley, Sarah K (n.d.). "Biography of Hanan Ashrawi". FemBio. http://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/hanan-ashrawi. Retrieved 2007-05-23. 
• "Profile of Hanan Ashrawi". Ynet news lexicon. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3020617,00.html. Retrieved 2007-05-23. 
• Booknotes interview with Ashrawi on This Side of Peace: A Personal Account, June 4, 1995.

opposing views

• Hanan Ashrawi on Al Jazeera English Riz Khan