A brief history of the John B. Goering – Jessie Schrag family through 1874, part I

by Rannie Goering / republished from the 6th issue of the Goering Gazette, November 1992

OVERVIEW AND PRELIMINARIES

The Swiss Anabaptists which were our ancestors originated from the canton of Bern in the Alp Mountains. The group split, taking somewhat different paths, although their [sic] were occasional interactions among the groups.  They came together in the Volhynia province of Russia, which is now in The Ukraine. There they became a fairly uniform ethnic group. They moved many times, sometimes in response to persecution and religious pressures, sometimes because of opportunities that arose to better their lives. Throughout the migrations, these same families stayed together fairly cohesively. They [sic] were intermarriages, hence several cross-links in the family tree. There were remarkably few marriages to other “locals” along the way. The group used a limited number of first names, and there were a limited number of families, so there are frequently repeated the same names in the same or different generations. At times, this causes some difficulty in placing an individual in the family tree. There also exists slight differences among various sources, particularly about dates. I’ll try to indicate where significant differences were found.

The historical context and political boundaries are also important to understand. The land was owned by lords and arranged in fiefdoms. Although they weren’t actually enslaved, the individuals and families were constrained by the political situations of the particular province in which they lived.

During this discussion, when I speak of relatives, I will use my grandparents, John B. Goering and Jessie Schrag, as the reference points.

I’ve included maps and a flow sheet of the main migrations that were undertaken. There’s also a family tree.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EARLY SWISS ANABAPTISTS

In the early 16th century, the church was in a time of spiritual poverty and was deeply imbedded [sic] into secular politics. Thee was a groundswell of desire to change or reform the church. Problems with the church included a hierarchical central power structure with dictatorial powers granted to the Pope, a belief that contact with God must be mediated by the priests, and that salvation is secured by performing works for the church rather than through grace and faith. Infant baptism was practiced, rather than a baptism of believers who could make the decision to become members of the church on their own.

Although the beginnings trace back into the 1400s to Erasmus of Rotterdam (known as The Great Humanist) and others, the beginning of the Reformation is usually dated to Oct. 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg.

In Zurich, Switzerland, in 1519, Huldrych Zwingli became head pastor. He led a movement to reform the church in the canton of Zurich. He attracted a following of young humanist intellectuals who were to become the leaders of the Anabaptist movement in Switzerland. These included Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and others. Zwingli was fairly conservative and was moving slowly with reforms, working together with a tenuous political alliance. He moved more slowly than some of his more radical followers would have liked. They because dissatisfied and eventually pushed a public debate with Zwingli on two successive Tuesdays in January, 1525. The issues for debate were infant baptism versus believer’s baptism. At root, this issue really was over the role of the church in society. The practice of infant baptism was a way of initiating all citizens into society. The church was inextricably inked to the political society. (This may be a bit hard for us to understand in a country where we’ve grown up with a doctrine for separation of church and state, pioneered by these Anabaptist forefathers.) Believer’s baptism, in contrast, saw baptism as a conscious act of obedience, and a commitment to become a disciple of Christ. They held to the idea that following Christ was a higher calling than following the law of the state. They were therefore perceived as a threat to the political society and the power structure that existed.

The young radicals were judged to have lost their debates with Zwingli, and an order was issued to banish those who would not have their children baptized within 8 days. 3 days later, on January 21, 1525, a group of 15 met in the home of Felix Manz. After prayer, Georg Blaurock, a former priest was baptized by Conrad Grebel, and then the remainder of the group received baptism. The term “Anabaptists” refers to “re-baptizers” for this reason.

The original group of Anabaptists suffered great persecution from the state, and may of the original group were dead within 5 years. Over 10,000 Anabaptists suffered execution or died in prison in middle Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Over 400 were martyred in Switzerland. Men were usually beheaded and women drowned. Martyrdom was viewed an necessary by the theology of the Anabaptists. It was part of the great fight between the divine order and the Satanic rule.  Satan could be overcome only by non-resistant suffering.

In Holland, the state leaders were somewhat more tolerant of the Reformation including Anabaptists. Menno Simons, a well-educated ex-priest joined the Anabaptists in 1536, and soon became a leader in the movement. His followers became knows as Mennists, and later Mennonites.

Jakob Amman (born Feb. 12, 1644) was another leader in the Anabaptist movement. He was an elder of a congregation of Swiss Brethren in the Emme valley in Canton Bern. He left through a schism in 1693, going briefly to the Palatinate before settling in Alsace in 1696. He emphasized the uniformity of dress, plain clothing without buttons, untrimmed beards, and the use of the Meidung (or the Ban), also known as Shunning.

The beliefs of the Anabaptists which set them apart from the existing religious structure included:

1. The importance of the concept of Community. The “Gemeinde” or congregation was the context for living out Christianity.
2. An “existential” Christianity. Instead of trying to systematize their theology, they simply lived out their religion with total commitment.
3. They were strongly eschatologic, believing that the end of the world was at hand.
4. All of a disciple’s relationships were to be governed by love and truth. This led to a refusal to participate in fighting and killing, even in defense of the political structures of society. (In particular, the cantons were threatened by the Infidel Ottoman Empire (Moslems) from the south.  Anabaptists refused to participate in defense of the state (and the established Church) against this political and religious threat.
5. Refusal to swear an oath (based on Christ’s refusal to swear an oath at his trial, and on the idea that one should also be truthful, not just when under oath.)
6. Communal holding of property. When one joined the community of believers, he put his property at the disposal of the community.

The Anabaptists viewed themselves as apolitical, but by their radical refusal to participate in the established structures, they were viewed as an intense political threat.

Coming next: Bern, Switzerland – Canton Bern and the Bernese Oberland