52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 44
Prompt – Scary Stuff
My great grandfather on my father's
side was David Peters. He was born in a South Russian Mennonite
Colony. His wife was Katharina Mueller (Miller) and she was also
born in a Mennonite Colony in South Russia. After marriage and
several children they immigrated to Canada in 1875 to settle in
Manitoba's Mennonite Colony. They moved to Hague, Saskatchewan about
1901. They died in this region.
In the March 1989 Mennonite Magazine,
Bruce Wiebe writes about the Muellers. He states that the progenitor
of this line is traced back to Michael and Maria Miller. They were
from Amlach, province of Carinthia in Austria. They had a son, Peter
Miller, born in Amlach on September 25, 1694. Peter Miller married a
Dorothea Santer on February 6, 1719.
Austria was a very Catholic country.
Michael, Maria and their son Peter Mueller and his wife Dorothea were
Catholic. Austria was beginning to feel the affects of The Lutheran
Reformation. However at this time the Anabaptist (baptized as adults
such as Hutterites, Mennonites & Amish) movement had not reached
Austria. Empress Maria Therese stated she would not tolerate
dissenters in Austria.
Peter and Dorothea Mueller had a son
born November 20, 1721 in Unteramlach, Austria. His name was Petrus
Mueller. Petrus grew up with his families catholic beliefs. However
as Petrus grew older he began to be influenced by the Lutheran
dissenters. Empress Maria Therese found the dissenters to be a huge
problem to her Austrian rule and solved the problem by exiling them
to Transylvania. On September 10, 1755 Petrus Mueller and his future
wife, Elisabeth Innerwinkler were exiled. Bruce Wiebe writes:
After the tortuous death of her
husband, Elisabeth and son Peter Mueller escaped to Vischenka,
Russia. Some 3 or so years later Elisabeth died and Peter Mueller was
an orphan at 5. The orphan Peter Mueller did live to adulthood and
married Susanna Stahl and together they had 7 children. The Vischenka Bruderhoff had a falling out over “communal property” of all
things. Two of the seven children of Peter and Susanna left in 1819
to live in The Chortitza Mennonite Colony. Andreas and Matthias
Mueller married Mennonite women and remained in the Mennonite colony. Hutterites Muellers became Mennonites.
I have to wonder if Petrus, the
martyred Hutterite was aware of the plight and persecution that the
Hutterites had suffered over the previous century or two. Anabaptist
belief in free will, adult baptism, pacifism, and communal living
posed a huge problem for the hierarchical feudal system in place in
the 1500's. Considered heretical they were punished by death often
by beheading, drowning or burning at the stake. But further their
corpses were put on public display to warn the other heretics.
In the Turkish – Hapsburg War of 1593
to 1606; 16 communal communities were attacked killing most and
enslaving those not killed.
The Thirty Years War of 1618 to 1648
followed. Catholics and Protestants fought against each other.
Hutterites were among those that were severely persecuted. Of the 40
communal farming villages (called Bruderhoffs), 29 were attacked by
the Roman Catholics. A Hutterite Chronicler of the time wrote of the
1620 attack on Pribitz Colony by the Polish military.
"It is impossible to write or tell of
all the great and inhuman cruelties which came upon us and others in this ungodly,
accursed and devilish war at the hands of the . . .imperial forces. . . . Women with child
and mothers in childbed as well as virgins were shamelessly attacked. The men were
burned with glowing iron and red-hot pans; their feet were held in the fire
until the toes were burned off; wounds were cut into which [gun] powder was poured and
then set afire; fingers and ears were cut off; eyes forced out by inhuman tortures on
the wheel; men were hung by the neck like thieves; all sorts of such brutality
and unheard of godlessness were committed, half of which is not to be written for shame."
And an even scarier accounting of this
cruel punishment was written up in
Das kleingeschichtsbuch der
Hutterischen Brüder (The Smaller History of the Hutterian Brethren)
chronicled the 16th to 17th century
persecution of the Taufer; an Anabaptist group considered to be the
precursor to The Hutterites wrote in part this.
Some were tortured terribly on the
rack, so that they were torn apart and died.
Some were burned to ashes and powder as
heretics.
Some were roasted on beams.
Some were torn with red-hot irons.
Some were penned up in houses and all
burned together.
Some were hung on trees.
Some were killed with the sword and
their bodies chopped to pieces.
Many had gags put into their mouths,
and their tongues tied, so that they
could not testify to their faith, and
were thus led to the stake or scaffold. . . .
Many women were cast into the water and
then taken out again and asked if
they would recant and save their lives.
Seeing that they were steadfast, the
executioners cast them again into the
water and drowned them. . . .
Others were starved to death in dark
towers where they were deprived of the
light of day.
Some were cast into deep, noisome
dungeons where they lay among bats and
vermin.
Many were tortured with hunger and only
given insufficient bread and water
before they were executed. Many who
were adjudged too young to be slain,
were bound and beaten miserably with
rods. . . .
In some places they literally filled
the prisons and dungeons with them, as did
the Count Palatine of the Rhine. They
thought they could dampen and extinguish the fire of God. But the
prisoners sang in their prisons and rejoiced
so that the enemies outside (who
supposed that the prisoners would be in fear)
themselves became more fearful than the
prisoners and did not know what to
do with them.
Petrus Mueller was very much aware of
all of this. Joining The Hutterites was done based on his faith and
belief that aligned with them. Petrus was tortured for these beliefs
and died for these beliefs.
Petrus Mueller was born November 21,
1721 and died December 8, 1769.
He was my 4th Great
Grandfather.
Wendy
