Summary: The First Anabaptist Baptism

In 1693, over a century after the first Anabaptist baptism, Swiss-born Jakob Ammann (1656 – 1708 to 1730) sought to adopt a more austere, structured way of life for his brethren. Ammann pointed to the first Anabaptist document, the Schleitheim Confession of Faith (1527), which lists seven guiding principles of the movement. They include:
1. Adult Baptism: Baptisms are allowed to adults who have repented, modified their lives and confirm Christ died for their sins. The adult must personally request the baptism.
2. The Ban (Meidung): If a congregant sins, he/she shall be warned up to two times privately. If a congregant sins three times, he/she will be publicly banned from the church.
3. Concerning Breaking the Bread: Congregants will be baptized
The Sword: Congregants will refuse to bear arms.
7. Rejection of Oaths: Congregants will not make promises.

Ammann’s main point of contention with the Mennonites was the practice and interpretation of the second principle, “Meidung,” or the expulsion of congregants who violated church doctrine. The Mennonites believed the Schleitheim Confession of Faith permitted families to eat meals with expelled members, drawing on Matthew 15:11 which states, “what enters the mouth does not defile a man, but what goes out of the mouth.” However, Ammann took a hard line, denouncing all social interaction with shunned members. Paul Wallace, author of Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation portrayed Ammann’s Meidung as:
When a husband or father (it is usually the man who errs) is ‘hit by the Meidung,’ as they express it, his wife is forbidden to eat or sleep with him, and the whole community is under obligation to ostracize him. There is nothing for him to do but, as they say, ‘go English,’ which means to leave the community and enter the world of the unsaved.

After failed negotiations with the Mennonites, Jakob moved to the Rhineland-Palatinate with his supporters, launching the new Amish sect (originally named the
Once established in Berks, Chester and Lancaster counties, the Amish settlers requested guidance from their German brethren on how to operate in America. In response, the heads of church developed the "Amish Ordnung,” a basic set of unwritten rules which regulate the congregation’s “private, public, and ceremonial life by oral tradition rather than by written rules.” The Ordnung maintains that all members must work hard, remain detached from the modern world, dress plainly and women must submit to their husbands. Over time, the Ordnung provided the Amish justification for turning away from modern technologies such as automobiles, public electricity, internet access and central