European Background of the Ohio Mennonites and Amish / 29

learned that this fear had no justification whatsoever. They were persecuted with great tyranny, being imprisoned, branded, tortured, and executed by fire, water, and the sword. In a few years very many were put to death. Some have estimated the number of those who were put to death in this period to be far above two thousand. They died as martyrs, patiently, and humbly endured all persecution."

Social and Economic Developments in Mennonite Life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

No one can write a "complete" history of a religious group without paying some attention to the social and economic phases which issue from the religious faith of that group. Ernst Correll points out that "as a cultural group in history the economic significance of the Mennonites is a distinct by-product of their religiosociological existence."" Both in Europe and America the Mennonites and later the Amish offshoot provide an example of how religious faith and economic behavior interact. To understand the economic role of the Mennonites from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries the historian must recognize that the Mennonites were to a considerable degree a refugee group that was literally seeking a land in which to dwell.

Earliest records indicate that the Swiss Brethren or Mennonites were a tenant group. Even after persecutions had subsided, the members of Mennonite communities found it difficult to own land because of regulations which perpetuated the tenant status of dispossessed groups. The Palatine law known as jus retractus enabled members of the state churches to regain the land which the Brethren may have bought. This was done by the payment of the sum for which the land was originally sold and without any payment being made for the improvements which the Brethren may have added. "

Displaced from productive lands in Switzerland, the Brethren moved into Germany where in mountainous and unproductive areas they sought to earn a living as best they could. It was a matter of sheer survival that forced them to develop the meager resources of the remote hinterlands in southern Germany. As a result of their plight the Brethren were forced to use new methods of fertilizing the soil, feeding their livestock, and planting their crops. They gradually developed superior methods and results. In time their points of excellence began to attract the landowners who