In May, 1569, Anabaptist Dirk Willems turned back to rescue his pursuer, a prison guard whose weight caused him to break through the ice on the frozen pond they were crossing, rather than continue his escape to freedom. Willems was apprehended and died a prolonged and excruciatingly painful death at the stake four days later.
|
After Anabaptists were hunted, hounded and martyred all over Europe for well over a century, a special Swiss unit was formed for the sole purpose of finally rooting out these dissenters for good.
"The operational framework for Anabaptist hunters, known as Täuferjäger, formalized in Bern during the 17th century amid ongoing resistance, with a 1669 secret government directive authorizing the recruitment of informers and bounty-hunting Täuferjäger to pursue Anabaptists in remote valleys, mountains, and forests, offering initial payments of 30 Kreuzer per captured individual funded by confiscated property. These armed envoys operated independently of local sheriffs, crossing cantonal borders to conduct house-to-house raids and interrogations, with rewards scaling to 100 talers for preachers, 50 for deacons, 30 Kronen for lay members, and 15 for women by 1714, reflecting intensified efforts after the 1659 establishment of an Anabaptist Commission to systematize arrests and property seizures. Hunters faced frequent popular sympathy for Anabaptists, as seen in a 1702 Emmental raid thwarted by community warnings via horns and shouts, and a 1714 incident in Sumiswald where 60-70 locals freed captives, underscoring tensions between state enforcers and rural populations who sheltered nonconformists."
Source: https://grokipedia.com/page/anabaptist_hunters
Sixteenth-century free church believers in western Europe who formed underground congregations separate from officially established state churches were labeled Anabaptists (re-baptizers). But their objection to state-mandated infant baptism was not just because they believed there was no New Testament basis for the practice, but because they saw it as a forced means of officially registering (documenting) people as not only citizens of the state but as members of the state-aligned church.
Today most Christians have become totally "anabaptist" in their support of this kind of freedom of religion, but at that time everyone was either Catholic, Lutheran or Reformed based solely on the place of ones birth and residence. It was considered necessary that all citizens of the same jurisdiction belong to and to practice the same faith.
This meant that the unbaptized children of Anabaptist resisters were not only undocumented, but whole families were frequently stripped of their rights as citizens and were arrested, prosecuted and/or forced into exile. Many, like my ancestors, chose to emigrate to the new world because they could no longer find refuge and relative freedom to practice their faith without fear of being charged with crimes for doing so.
Ironically, many of our undocumented neighbors today are desperately seeking legal status as citizens, whereas our ancestors rejected being forced into becoming members of a system that failed to grant what they believed was their God-given right to choose.
While there are many differences between circumstances in the 16th and 17th century and those of today, there are also similarities. In both scenarios the hunters are clearly on the side of following and strictly enforcing established laws, and those they were pursuing were clearly violating them. Yet throughout the Bible, they believed, God consistently sided with the oppressed rather than with their oppressors, with the hunted rather than their hunters, as illustrated in stories of the Pharoahs, Herods and Caesars of Biblical times. And they saw far more references in the Torah, God's law, in support of welcoming refugees than even for things as basic as observing the Sabbath.
Immigrants have always been a boon to our economy, and many US Nobel prize winners have been first-generation immigrants. We have greatly benefited from welcoming good hardworking people "yearning to be free" into our communities, regardless of their faith, race or ethnic backgrounds. And Christians should be concerned that many being deported today, especially from Latin American countries, are fellow believers and that only a small percentage, from whatever countries of origin, are guilty of any crime other than their lack of, or loss of, their legal status.
