Müller, Hans (1603-1663/1666)

Hans Müller, farmer and Anabaptist minister, was born 19 July 1603 in Edikon, Dürnten, Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, to Captain Müller and Maria Büeler. He was baptized in the Reformed Church on 27 July 1603. Captain Müller's first name is not known; he was a Captain in Zurich's militia. Hans Müller's brother, Rudolfi, also served in the militia.

In about 1627, Hans, "driven by the Holy Spirit.," became part of the Anabaptist movement. He was baptized by Jaggli Rüegg. Soon after his conversion, Hans married Anna Peter, who was also an Anabaptist. The marriage probably took place within the Anabaptist community and was not recorded in Reformed Church records. Hans and Anna had nine children, including two sets of twins, but only five survived childhood. The children were all baptized in the Reformed Church, as was typical of Zurich Anabaptists, because the law required this action. They assumed their children would make their own decision about church affiliation later in life.

Hans Müller and Anna Peter had a moderately successful farm. They owned about 23.8 acres of arable land, 12.2 acres of pasture, and 2.7 acres of forest valued at 3,600 guilders in 1849 when they left Switzerland. Hans could read and write (letters survive in his hand), and he was wealthy enough to own a Bible.

Hans Müller was ordained as an Anabaptist minister sometime before 5 January 1636 when the Zurich Council ordered his arrest as an Anabaptist "Lehrer" (teacher). He doubtless preached to various small Anabaptist groups, usually in the company of another ordained leader, often a bishop. Thus he also assisted in baptisms and matters of church discipline. The Anabaptist congregations in the Canton of Zurich usually ranged between 20 and 70 persons.

From 1636 to 1645, the Reformed Church and Zurich Council significantly increased harassment of the Anabaptists in the canton, which ultimately led to the departure of the Anabaptists to Alsace and Palatinate. Hans Müller was first arrested on 9 January 1636 along with three other leaders--Uli Wegmann of Rossau, Rudolf Egli of Zurich, and Felix Urmy of Baregg in Knonau. Urmy escaped, but the other three were released sometime after 24 May 1636.

Later in 1636, Anabaptists in the canton were summoned to explain their positions on baptism, the ban, and the Lord's Supper. Authorities found several written Anabaptist statements to be unacceptable, and on 11 October 1636, the Zurich Council ordered an inventory of Anabaptist properties and the arrest of Anabaptists, beginning with leaders. In May 1637, they tried to arrest Hans Müller but found him sick in bed. In June 1637, he was arrested again and sent to the Oetenbach prison in Zurich. Many debates with Reformed Church leaders on church discipline and the Lord's Supper followed. He was part of a prison escape on 26 March 1638.

On 17 November 1639, the authorities arrested Anna Peter and incarcerated her in the hopes of seizing her husband. In January 1640, Hans Jakob Haab, the bailiff of Rütli, gave Hans Müller three weeks of safe passage to allow M:Fuller to meet with him. However, a condition was that Müller attends no Anabaptist meetings. Haab learned that Müller had attended a small gathering and arrested him on 6 February 1640. Along with other Anabaptists, he worked at handicrafts in prison and had access to a Bible and a copy of the Anabaptist disputation at Zofingen. After his arrest, Anna Peter was imprisoned with her husband until they escaped with others on 24 April 1641.

Although they continued to live in secrecy, they operated their farm again in 1642 along with Hans Müller's brother. Authorities were unable to capture Müller, who was often gone visiting Anabaptist groups or was forewarned by neighbors. In January 1646, authorities again arrested Müller on suspicion he was a co-author of the "Anti-Manifesto" that had the title, "A Brief Christian Response by the Brothers, Servants, and ELders in the Zurich Area Regarding the Booklet, or Manifesto, Issued by the City of Zurich in 1639."

He underwent a lengthy interrogation on 17 February 1646, which has been preserved. He was released by April. Beginning in 1647, Anabaptist families began to leave the Canton of Zurich for Alsace. Hans Müller may have been briefly arrested one more time, but on 4 March 1649, Müller, his wife, and five surviving children left for the village of Mackenheim in Alsace. While there, he was one of the Alsace Anabaptists who in 1660 accepted the Dutch Mennonite Dordrecht Confession of Faith.

In 1662 Hans Müller and Anna Peter moved to the Ibersheimer Hof in the Electoral Palatinate. Throughout this time, Müller unsuccessfully tried to receive compensation for the land he had lost in the Canton of Zurich. He died sometime between 1663 and 1666, perhaps of the plague that killed other family members. He is not mentioned in the sources after 1662, but a source noted his death in 1666.

Bibliography

Braght, Thieleman J. van. Het Bloedigh Tooneel of Martelaers Spiegel der Doopsgesinde of Weereloose Christenen, Die om 't getuygenis van Jesus haren Salighmaker geleden hebben ende gedood zijn van Christi tijd of tot desen tijd toe. Den Tweeden Druk. Amsterdam: Hieronymus Sweerts, 1685: Part II, 811.

Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 1109. Available online at: http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/index.htm.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III: III, 178 f.

Leu, Ers B. "'The Evil Seducer from Edikon': Biographical Sketch of the Zurich Anabaptist Teacher Hans Müller (1603-1663/1666)." Mennonite Quarterly Review 95, no. 2 (April 2021): 141-208.

Stayer, James B., trans. "Transcription of a Hearing of Hans Müller, February 17, 1646." Mennonite Quarterly Review 95, no. 2 (Aprtil 2021): 209-223.

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

By Christian Neff. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 770. All rights reserved.

Hans Müller, a member of the Swiss Brethren community in the Grüningen district of the canton of Zürich, Switzerland, was arrested in 1635 as an obstinate Anabaptist; he was held for 20 weeks "under much cross, strife, and temptation" and was then released for a month to consult with his brethren whether they would join the state church. He was then again seized and imprisoned, and released on the condition that if he could not join the church, he should at least be obedient to the government in other respects. In 1639 he is said to have been seized again, but to have escaped. His wife was therefore taken in his stead and the order proclaimed in the Reformed churches that no one should give him food or drink. He accepted the offer of safe-conduct and presented himself to the authorities, whereupon they imprisoned him for 60 weeks, 16 of them in chains. He escaped on Good Friday. His wife too, who had been hard pressed, escaped. Their property was confiscated. From it the government drew an annual rental of 1,000 guilders. The fugitives evidently settled at Gerolsheim and Wallertheim in the Palatinate, Germany. Some of their descendants moved to Krefeld and to Holland, and achieved wealth and distinction.

Author(s)	Urs B Leu
Date Published	May 2021

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Leu, Urs B. "Müller, Hans (1603-1663/1666)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. May 2021. Web. 25 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=M%C3%BCller,_Hans_(1603-1663/1666)&oldid=171462.

APA style

Leu, Urs B. (May 2021). Müller, Hans (1603-1663/1666). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=M%C3%BCller,_Hans_(1603-1663/1666)&oldid=171462.

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