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 84in Moravia and grew rapidly, consisting of over ten thousand people in about forty-two Bruderhofs by 1600. These communities had “a comprehensive and diversified organization both in spiritual and in economic matters.” 5 As prophesied in Utopia, according to the report of an eyewitness: “No one was idle, everyone was busy doing what he was told . . . just like the inner workings of a clock.” 6 During their golden years, the Hutterite communities were economically successful, demonstrating that the Utopian ideals of Raphael ­ Hythlodeus (or of Thomas More?) were not merely “utopian” after all. After centuries of on-and- off persecution in Europe, the Hutterites immigrated to North America in 1877. They established three colonies then; today about 550 Hutterite communities exist in the United States and Canada, home to more than seventy thousand souls. In addition to community of goods, the Hutterites are also characterized by an uncompromising commitment to peace. Based on their understanding of the gospel, they, like most Anabaptists, strictly reject any participation in violence. Notably, the rejection of violence seems to go hand in hand with the rejection of property. In Utopia too – though it never appeals to Christian scripture – the communitarian life, free of property, is linked to a strong commitment to peace. As Raphael Hythlodeus describes it: They detest war as a very brutal thing, and which, to the reproach of human nature, is more practiced by men than by any sort of beasts. They, in opposition to the sentiments of almost all other nations, think that there is nothing more inglorious than that glory that is gained by war. . . . They reckon that a man acts suitably to his nature when he conquers his enemy in such a way as that no other 32 Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 Sixteenth-century paintings show an illicit Anabaptist meeting followed by the arrest of two Anabaptist preachers. From a collection in the Central Library of Zurich, obtained from Heinold Fast