Selected Hutterian Documents in Translation, 1542-1654

Selected Hutterian Documents in Translation brings together several earlier communal disciplines of the Hutterian Brethren written during a time-span of more than a century, beginning with the first generation of the Hutterian movement (1542), and continuing into the late Ehrenpreis era (1654).

The first section, "Concerning the Upbringing of Children," holds special significance in that the unit forms a major section of a pedagogical codex compiled by Vorsteher Claus Braidl. Although the school problems during the 1540s through the 1570s were certainly difficult to solve, the approach of the whole Brotherhood in general, and the leadership in particular, suggests a fine balance struck in attempting to cope with perennial problems within the schools, highly innovative for their times.

The beautiful catechism for children, lifted from a small pedagogical codex at Olomouc, CSSR, suggests the depth of the Hutterites' concern for teaching the children who have not yet been baptized; they are still to be brought up in the fear of God and taught respect and appreciation for all of God's creation, but especially for the church-community (Gemeinde), which God established and which the Hutterites were faithfully continuing in their response to God as His people.

The Taufreden (baptismal sermons) are unique among those extant in Hutterian literature in that they are the only known, full-length sermons which were not only written in the sixteenth century, but are taken from a sixteenth century codex (1599).

The "Regulation Concerning the Matching of the Young People for Marriage" (1643), the "Communal Discipline" (1651), and the "Barber-Surgeon Discipline" (1654) represent a later period of Hutterian life.