tist sects, accepted this demand. The Swiss Brethren and Mennonites believed that the Church consists only of those who accept Christ and follow His teachings and are separated from and not identified with the world.
For a number of years a severe persecution of these followers of the Lord prevailed and many were put to death for their faith, but in no country did the persecution of the Mennonites continue so long as in Switzerland. The last martyr was Elder (bishop) Hans Landis, the most prominent minister of the Swiss Brethren in that period, who was beheaded in Zurich, 1614. The persecution, however, continued until well into the eighteenth century. Nowhere else did the Church show such vitality. Many fled from Switzerland to South Germany, France, Holland, and America.
The Mennonite pioneers in America were thirteen families from Crefeld, Germany, who came on the ship Concord in 1683, and settled at Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the following century many Swiss Mennonites came from South Germany (Palatinate) and France, because of serious oppression, while others came direct from Switzerland. The majority of American Mennonite churches are of Swiss origin.
Until the beginning of the last century, all Mennonites coming to America settled in eastern Pennsylvania, whence they spread to other states and to Ontario. A large immigration of Russian and Prussian Mennonites to America took place in 1874 and the succeeding years. The Russian Mennonites are mostly of Dutch ancestry, their forefathers
