About The Book

These two early Anabaptist documents, from 1650 and 1560, give an impassioned witness to the life of discipleship of Jesus and to the possibility of true brotherly love in full community.

Andreas Ehrenpreis (1598–1662), a miller by profession, was a leader of the Hutterian Church who set himself the almost impossible task of reversing the decline in the church and reviving the spirit of brotherly love and discipleship. He was untiring in seeking to convince his brothers of the inescapable need for full community of goods if the church was to fulfill its purpose of following Christ’s command and being a church of disciples.

Claus Felbinger (d. 1560), a blacksmith from the Hutterian Church in Moravia, was arrested, interrogated and tortured by Bavarian authorities on the subject of infant baptism, the most controversial issue between the Anabaptists and the state at the time. His “Confession of Faith” published here was the only defense he gave before the authorities, and was not enough to save him from death by beheading.