European Background of the Ohio Mennonites and Amish / 33

the first Anabaptist martyr, was drowned in Zurich. 18

The Schleitheim confession was important for several reasons. First of all, it was widely circulated among the brotherhoods. Though not a full statement of Christian faith the confession embodied certain essential tenets in those days of severe persecution. It discussed baptism, excommunication, breaking of bread, separation from evil, duties of the pastor, the use of the sword, and the taking of oaths. The second article had to do with the "ban" or excommunication and shows the deep desire for a church that was "pure" and unified. The "ban" was to be used with "all those who are baptized into the one body of Christ and who are called brethren or sisters and yet who slip sometimes and fall into error and sin, being inadvertently overtaken."

The article goes on to say that those who slip "shall be admonished twice in secret and the third time openly disciplined or banned according to the command of Christ. Mt. 18." The article concludes by saying that this disciplinary measure is to be done before the breaking of bread or communion time, "so that we may break and eat one bread, with one mind and in one love, and may drink of one cup."

As with all groups who adopt such a measure, conflict and difference arose. Frequent references to the "ban" or excommunication are found in the writings of the early Mennonites. The question became one for discussion and disagreement at church conferences. Later confessions of faith were to say something on how the church was to deal with its erring member and so maintain its standards of Christian life and behavior.

In 1557 a conference at Strassburg discussed the problem of avoiding the excommunicated." The problem evidently was more alive in Holland than among the congregations in Switzerland and southern Germany. The Brethren from the southern regions did not favor as strict a practice as that advocated by certain Dutch leaders. In particular they did not favor observing the avoidance in the case of married couples and so indicated in a report addressed to Menno. Simons. Unity on the matter was never achieved. The Brethren in the northern countries continued for some time a strict practice of shunning the excommunicated in all social and economic relations, while the Brethren in the southern countries applied the doctrine by not having spiritual fellowship nor eating bread with them at the communion table.