RESEARCH NOTES

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Thomas A. Billings, "The Old Order Amish vs. the Compulsory School Attendance Laws: An Analysis of Conflict" (Ph.D., University ol Oregon, 1961). Lester J. Glick, "A Conceptualization and Operationalization of Social Functioning of College Sophomores" (D.S.W., Washington University, 1961). D. H. Hack, "Die Kolonisation der Mennoniten im Paraguayischen Chaco" (Ph.D., University of Amsterdam, 1961). Harold D. Lehman, "A Comparative Study of Day and Resident High School Seniors in Academic and Personality Adjustment" (Ed.D., University of Virginia, 1961). Paul M. Miller, "An Investigation of the Relationship between Mennonite Theology and Mennonite Worship" (Th.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1961). A. Don Augsburger, "The Influence of the Former Control Patterns Upon Behavior and Personal and Social Development Among Freshmen from Several Mennonite Colleges" (Ed.D., Temple University, 1962). Leland D. Harder, "The Quest for Equilibrium in an Established Sect: A Study of Social Change in the General Conference Mennonite Church" (Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1962). Janice A. Egeland, "Health Problems and Practices of the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania" (Ph.D., Yale University. In progress). Frank H. Epp, "An Analysis of National Socialism in the Mennonite Press in the 1930's" (Ph.D., University of Minnesota. In progress).

THE ECONOMICS OF ANABAPTISM, 1525-1560 An abstract of a dissertation submitted to the faculty of the History Department in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Southern California, 1962.
PETER JAMES KLASSEN*

Reformation research has tended to neglect the economic views and practices of the Anabaptists. Those brief treatments of the subject that have appeared have usually discussed Anabaptist economics as being communistic, and therefore holding a special appeal for the oppressed classes. A careful study of source materials pertinent to the history of those areas where Anabaptism was especially heavily concentratedSwitzerland, South Germany, Moravia, and the Low Countriesindicates that the movement had no special class appeal, but drew its adherents from all walks of life. The notion that the destitute flocked to the movement to gain economic security does not bear critical scrutiny for Anabaptism stressed giving, not receiving, much less grasping. For the Anabaptists, economic factors formed an integral part of the Christian's life of discipleship. All facets of life were regarded as constituting an indivisible unity that must be permeated by the spirit of Christ. The firm conviction that the divine lordship extended to all
* Peter James Klassen is teaching history in Pacific College and in Fresno State College. Fresno, California.

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aspects of human experience necessarily produced a corresponding deemphasis of personal interest. Anabaptists maintained that material possessions were held in trust, to be used as sacred responibility might direct. Each member of the congregation was expected to think in terms of the whole group of believers, rather than of himself. The hardshipsor successesof one were not to be considered on an individualistic basis, for the suffering of one was the suffering of all. Anabaptists agreed that no man had a right to a strictly private and selfish use of his earthly goods, but they did not agree completely in their understanding of the methods that would most adequately express the practice of sharing in economic matters. Most of the Anabaptists held that the spirit of love could be most fully operative where mutual aid was practiced within a framework of complete voluntarism. As each member of a closely knit congregation learned of the problems of his tellowbelievers, he would respond as though the need were his own. Among the communitarian Anabaptists, this philosophy of love and mutual aid found expression in more regimented fashion. Economic resources were pooled in the attempt to establish a congregation of complete equality. That this dedication to a communal way of life stemmed from a sincere desire for a full expression of the love ethic is readily apparent, for the severest persecution failed to eradicate the determination to follow this conviction. Anabaptists agreed that the secular authority ought not to intervene in spiritual matters. The functioning of the state should not include the support or enforcement of articles of faith. Thus, tithes, although paid in obedience to the law, were regarded as an unwarranted intrusion of temporal power into the spiritual realm. Ministers should be voluntarily supported by the congregation, not the state authorities. While Anabaptists admitted the government to be a divine institution, they could not therefore acquiesce in all government practices. Man ought never to surrender his conscience to the state. If temporal authority required the individual to violate his commitment to God, there could be only one response. Although Anabaptists were in basic agreement on this fundamental principle, they were divided in its application. Thus, some held that where taxes were being gathered for evil purposes, the Christian should refuse to pay them. Others, however, insisted that economic obligations imposed by the government must be met in accordance with the Biblical injunction. The obedient Christian was not the keeper of the government's conscience.

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