From Brüttisellen to Lushton 3

The road from Brüttisellen has led us thus far to a Hutterite Bruderhof in Moravia (see here). Before we stop and look around at our Moravian wilderness experience (to appropriate a biblical concept), we need to tie up some loose ends.

Little by little additional details of Heinrich Bühler’s life are falling into place, most recently thanks to an article on him in the Mennonitisches Lexikon. First the article in full (German original, written by Christian Neff, below), then a few observations.

Bühler, Heinrich, a Täufer [Baptist] from Brütisell in the county of Kyburg in Switzerland (Canton of Zurich) moved in 1602 with his wife and children to Moravia. Four times he came back to his home as an emissary of the Hutterite Brethren to work for emigration to Moravia. When he left Moravia the fourth time, he brought many letters given him by his Swiss brothers and sisters for their loved ones at home. He was imprisoned in the Wellenberg with his companion Joachim Arbel. During his interrogation he stated that he had come home from Weselen (a Hutterite Brethren Bruderhof), having received from the Brotherhood a command to visit his friends in Switzerland, to persuade them to go with him to Moravia. He had been in the country (Switzerland) six weeks. On 6 July 1614 the prisoners were released from their [imprisonment], after they promised not to return, “failing which it would be counted as perjury and they would be punished accordingly.” Their return to Moravia was delayed until autumn. Nothing further is known about them. See Loserth 1895. (Neff 1913, 290–91)

1. Heinrich’s return to Zurich in 1614 was not the first time he had made the 450-mile journey. In fact, it was his fourth trip home in twelve years.

2. Although Heinrich may well have hoped to claim his inheritance, as stated in The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren (see further here), that probably was not his primary reason for returning. Rather, his real purpose was missional: to convince Swiss citizens to join a Hutterite community in Moravia. It was the same reason that led him to return to Zurich the first three times. (As a side note, Heinrich would have turned over any proceeds from the inheritance to his Bruderhof, so he had nothing to gain personally by securing his inheritance.)

3. As stated in the Chronicle, Heinrich brought back letters from fellow Hutterites to their families in Switzerland. (The Loserth article cited at the end of the Neff entry tells quite a bit more about those letters; we will return to that topic in the near future.)

4. The Chronicle differs from the Neff entry in several details: (1) the last name of Heinrich’s companion is Arter in the Chronicle, Arbel here; (2) the Chronicle has the two Hutterites arrested on 9 July and released on 24 October, while the Neff entry does not indicate when the two were arrested but has them released on 6 July. Loserth agrees with Neff and cites the official acts for 6 July found in the Zurich State Archives as evidence.

5. Both sources agree that the two men returned to Moravia in the autumn. The Chronicle attributes this to a long imprisonment, but Loserth explains that the men stayed in the Zurich area until a third Hutterite, Heinrich Hartmann, was also released from prison (Loserth 1895, 209 n. 1).

6. Remarkably, and most important of all, we learn where Heinrich lived in Moravia: in a Bruderhof in Weselen. Now that we know exactly where to look, we are ready to stop and explore our family’s Moravian temporary home. We will do so in the next post in this series; for now a simple photo of Weselen will have to suffice.

Photograph © Honnyho Žblecht. Posted on Flickr here.

Bühler, Heinrich, ein Täufer aus Brütisell in der Grafschaft Kyburg in der Schwiez (Kanton Zürich), war 1602 mit Frau und Kindern nach Mähren verzogen. Viermal kam er wieder in seine Heimat als Emissär der huterischen Brüder, um für die Auswanderung nach Mähren zu wirken. Als er das vierte Mal Mähren verließ, kam er viele Briefe mit, die ihm seine schweizerischen Brüder und Schwestern für ihre Lieben in der Heimat mitgaben. Er wurde mit seinem Gefährten [291] Joachim Arbel in dem Wellenberg gefangen gehalten. Bei seinem Verhör gab er an, daß er von Hause Weselen (Haushabe der huterischen Brüder) gekommen sei und von der Bruderschaft daselbst den Befehl erhalten habe seine Freunde in der Schweiz zu besuchen, um sie zu bewegen mit ihm nach Mähren zu ziehen. Sechs Wochen habe er sich im Land (in der Schweiz) ausgehalten. Um 6. Juli 1614 wurden die Gesangenen aus ihrer hast entlassen, nachdem sie zuvor versprochen hatten nicht wieder zurückzukehren, “widrigenfalls es ihnen als Meineid angerechnet und sie darnach gestraft würden.” Ihre Rückkehr nach Mähren verzögerte sich bis in den Herbst. Weiteres ist nicht über sie bekannt. (s. Loserth, “Der Communismus d. mähr. Wiedert.).

Sources

Loserth, Johann. 1895. “Der Communismus der mährischen Wiedertäufer im 16. and 17. Jahrhundert: Beiträge zu ihrer Lehre, Geschichte and Verfassung,” Archiv für österreichische Geschichte 81:135–322. Available online here.

Neff, Christian. 1913. Bühler. Pages 290–91 in vol. 1 of Mennonitisches Lexikon. Edited by Christian Hege and Christian Neff. Frankfurt am Main: Hege and Neff.