Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84either paying for it or leaving anything in exchange. There is no reason for giving a denial to any person, since there is such plenty of everything among them; and there is no danger of a man’s asking for more than he needs; they have no inducements to do this, since they are sure they shall always be sup- plied. . . . No man is poor, none in necessity, and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich. Naturally, Utopia also boasts an elaborate system of hospitals and nursing care. In general, it is a society that defines wealth differ- ently than we do: What can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties; neither apprehending want himself, nor vexed with the endless complaints of his wife? He is not afraid of the misery of his children, nor is he contriving how to raise a portion for his daughters; but is secure in this, that both he and his wife, his children and grand-children, to as many generations as he can fancy, will all live both plentifully and happily. Having sketched out this daring vision, how does the author Thomas More conclude his Utopia? Unsurprisingly in view of his literary approach, he leaves the book open-ended, forcing readers to make up their own minds. After Raphael finishes his narrative account, the character “Thomas More” offers this sphinx-like conclusion: When Raphael had thus made an end of speaking, though many things occurred to me, both concerning the manners and laws of that people, that seemed very absurd, as well in their way of making war, as in their notions of religion and divine matters – together with several other particulars, but chiefly what seemed the foundation of all the rest, their living in common, without the use of money. . . . In the meanwhile, though it must be confessed that he is both a very learned man and a person who has obtained a great knowledge of the world, I cannot perfectly agree to everything he has related. However, there are many things in the commonwealth of Utopia that I rather wish, than hope, to see followed in our governments. When Thomas More wrote these words in 1516, he could not have known how differently the sixteenth century would turn out from what he and his fellow human- ists hoped. After 1517, as the phenomenon that would later be called the Reformation got underway, their high-minded discussions, anchored in a shared commitment to reason, gave way to bitter doctrinal disputes. Yet the Reformation was by no means a monolithic or uniform movement – a fact that is often overlooked. It was, on the contrary, colorfully diverse. By 1525 at the latest, when the Anabaptist movement arose in Ulrich Zwingli’s Zurich, it would be more accurate to speak of Reformations in the plural. In an intriguing parallel to the humanist movement of Erasmus and More, the radical wings of the Reformation were far less concerned with doc- trine than with how human life was to be lived. Though subject to horrific persecution almost immediately after it emerged, the Anabaptist movement gave rise to a way of life remarkably close to the social vision described by Thomas More. Jakob Hutter, an Anabaptist from Tyrol, developed a communal church that rejected all private property. According to Grete Mecenseffy, an authority on Hutter and his movement, “the decisive issue for him was the organization of communal life, the establishment of production and consumer cooperatives known as Haushaben or Bruder- höfe.” 4 These communal groups found refuge Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 31