Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/401

MENNONITES 389 found in fresh water. Menhaden oil is of val- ue, being used principally in leather dressing, but also to some extent in rope making and for painting. The scrap or refuse, after ex- tracting the oil from the boiled fish, is used in the manufacture of fertilizers. The business of catching menhaden for oil and guano has within 15 years assumed extensive propor- tions. It is carried on from Maine to New Jersey, and is especially prominent in the E. portion of Long Island. They are caught chiefly in purse nets as far out as 30 m. from land, but also in shore seines and other nets. Those taken on the Maine coast yield more oil than those caught further south. In 1873 there were 62 factories in operation on the coast of New York and New England, employing 383 sailing vessels and 20 steamers, with 2,306 men on shore and at sea; capital invested, $2,388,000 ; total catch, 1,193,100 barrels (250 fish to a barrel), yielding 2,214,800 gallons of oil and 36,299 tons of guano ; value of prod- ucts, about $1,600,000. MEMOMTES, a denomination of Protestants who reject infant baptism and baptize adult persons only on a profession of faith, and prac- tise non-resistance and abstinence from oaths. They thus combine some of the leading prin- ciples of the Baptists with some of the distinc- tive views of the Friends, though historically they preceded both. Originally they were called by their opponents Anabaptists, while they called themselves in Switzerland and south Germany Taufer, i. e., baptizers ; in the Netherlands Doopsgezinde, i. e., persons hold- ing special views as to baptism. They were called Mennonites because they were reorgan- ized and more fully indoctrinated by Menno Symons. The chief points in their history are the following. In January, 1525, at Zurich, two young scholars, Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, and a former monk, George Blaurock, organized the .first church which professed all the leading principles of the body. They rap- idly spread in Switzerland, being most numer- ous at St. Gall. Persecution soon drove many of them to southern Germany, where Augsburg and Strasburg became their strongholds. Here also persecution broke out, and more than 3,000 of them suffered martyrdom in Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and Tyrol. They found ref- uge in Moravia, where they greatly increased, until the thirty years' war drove them away. About 1545 a confession of faith was published by them in Moravia (republished, Berlin, 1869), which distinctly enjoins pouring as the mode of baptism. When in 1527 and 1528 various leaders of the Anabaptists had perished at the stake, enthusiasts rose in their places. The chief among these was Melchior Hoffmann, a Swabian, through whom the principles of the Anabaptists, mixed with his chiliastic views, were first disseminated in the Netherlands. His fanatical follower, John Matthias of Haar- lem, in 1533 inaugurated the atrocities of Mun- ster in "Westphalia, which, though committed by men who had deviated from the original principles of the sect, were charged to the whole body. The history of the Dutch Men- nonites, as after the accession of Menno Sy- mons the Anabaptists were called, is written in blood. About 6,000 of them suffered mar- tyrdom under the rule of Philip II. of Spain. When the Netherlands rose for their indepen- dence, William of Orange favored them, but other leaders of the reformed party opposed them, and it was not till 1651 that toleration was secured to them by a general law. Besides oppression, internal dissensions greatly checked their growth. In 1557 they were divided into two parties, the more rigid being called the Frisians, the more moderate the Flemings, to which a third party, the Waterlanders, was soon added. The points of difference between these parties related only to church order and discipline. About the middle of the 17th cen- tury doctrinal dissensions brought about new divisions. All Mennonites agreed in doctrine with the Remonstrants or Arminians of Hol- land ; but when some of them, with a large part of the Remonstrants, adopted Socinian views, the other Mennonite churches opposed them. It was not till 1801 that all Dutch Mennonites were reunited in one body and founded a theological seminary at Amsterdam. At present they enjoy full religious liberty, and are highly respected ; many of them are among the richest men in the country; but their number has decreased from 160,000 in 1700 to fewer than 20,000 in 1873. In Switz- erland the Mennonites, up to the middle of the present century, were oppressed in many ways, one of which was, that their infants were for- cibly taken from them to be christened. In consequence of this, large numbers emigrated to Alsace and the Palatinate. At present they number in Switzerland and southern Germany about 8,000 communicants, and in East Fries- land, the province of West Prussia, and other parts of northern Germany, about the same number. They are more numerous in southern Russia, whither they began to emigrate from West Prussia in 1783, settling first on the banks of the Dnieper, and later near the sea of Azov. Here they acquired considerable wealth, and in 1870 formed a population of about 40,- 000. By special decrees of the emperors they were exempted from military duty. In 1871, however, this privilege was abolished, and no alternative was left them except conscription or emigration, the privilege of emigration be- ing confined to. the period from 1871 to 1880. This measure caused thousands to emigrate to the United States. The first colonies, arriving in 1873, settled in Minnesota and Kansas. The emperor subsequently modified the decree rel- ative to conscription with a view of arresting the movement. The emigration of Mennonites to the United States began with the settlement of New York, some of them having been among the first Dutch settlers. The first church was organized in 1683 at Germantown near Phila-