THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

He would stand by him and grant him patience. He was thereupon released from prison and allowed to recover during the next two days in the vicinity of the castle so that he might learn to walk again. But that was no easy matter, for he had become extremely weak through his imprisonment and confinement in the stocks, where he had been handcuffed and bound in chains; he had spent two years less five weeks in this condition and had not seen the sun for a year and a half. Hans was placed in the custody of an official with whom he traveled to the sea. On the second day of the journey they entered an inn where the official became drunk, and Hans utilized the favorable occasion to make good his escape. He recovered his health and strength, managed to return to the brethren, was called to the ministry of the Gospel and died in peace in the year 1583. Thus did the servants of God suffer in Germany. c) “The persecution in Germany and Switzerland was so severe that there seemed to be no other way out of it than to emigrate. In the year 1530, under the leadership of Jakob Hutter, many thousands of Anabaptists emigrated from Switzerland, the Tyrol, the Austrian lands, Styria and Bavaria, and settled in Moravia. They purchased landed estates, built churches, and for a period of time enjoyed great prosperity in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. Many others, banished from their homelands, joined them so that their numbers increased steadily. But in the year 1535 Ferdinand of Bohemia commanded that they be expelled, and dispatched a military expedition against them to execute his command. Their property was confiscated, and all that they were able to accomplish was to be allowed to take their tools and implements with them. They retreated into the forests and lived there as best they could, conducted their chinch services and composed their souls to be patient. Hutter encouraged and consoled them. ‘Be thankful to God,’ he said, 'that you have been deemed worthy to suffer persecution and the hardships of banishment for His name’s sake. Those are the wages of the elect in the clearing-house of the world, through which your heavenly father affirms that you are well-pleasing in His sight. Let every trace of Persecutions 21 sorrow be far from you; let go of all care and sorrow, and consider how great will be the reward which awaits you for all of the sufferings that you now endure.’ d) “Jakob Hutter’s letter to the governor of Moravia, which he wrote in the name of the brethren, is no doubt worthy of being kept in unfading remembrance. A short excerpt follows; ‘. . . We now find ourselves in the wilderness, in the forests and under the open skies; but we bear all this with patience and praise God that we have been deemed worthy to suffer for His name's sake. But for your sakes we deplore the fact that you treat the children of God so harshly and with so much ill-will. Those who fear God have been called to