34 / European Background of the Ohio Mennonites and Amish

In 1632 the subject of how to deal with excommunicated persons found expression in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith, a document still widely followed in Amish and Mennonite circles. It was signed by fifty-one Mennonite preachers in Holland, northern Germany, the Palatinate, and the Upper Rhine. In 1660 thirteen more ministers from Alsace signed it. By 1698 there was evidence that the Swiss Mennonites also subscribed to the Dordrecht Confession which has been the most unifying document in Mennonite history. 20

The Dordrecht Confession devoted Article XVI to "the ecclesiastical ban or excommunication from the church" and Article XVII to "the shunning of those who are expelled." Excommunication was for the "spiritual correction by the church, for the amendment, and not for the destruction, of offenders; so that what is pure may be separated from what is impure." The excommunicated person was an example and warning to others and he was to be so regarded "that he may again be convinced of the errors of his ways, and brought to repentance and amendment of life."

The article dealing with shunning states that those who withdraw or are expelled from the fellowship must "be shunned and avoided by all the members of the church (particularly by those to whom his misdeeds are known), whether it be in eating or drinking, or other such like social matters. In short, that we are to have nothing to do with him   The article then goes on in a redemptive spirit saying that

moderation and Christian discretion be used, that such shunning and reproof may not be conducive to his ruin, but be serviceable to his amendment. For should he be in need, hungry, thirsty, sick or visited by some other affliction, we are in duty bound, according to the doctrine and practice of Christ and his apostles, to render him aid and assistance, as necessity may require; otherwise the shunning of him might be more conducive to his ruin than to his amendment. I Thess. 5:14.

With this background the causes for the Amish division can be better understood and the account of the schism more easily traced. For many generations the facts behind this division were not accurately known and incorrect ideas were held as to the causes. In recent years, however, the historian has not been at a loss to understand the causes and to trace the course of events that brought about this major division in Mennonite history.`

It may seem strange that the events leading to the schism