Showing Them How to Die; Showing Them How to Live

This story of the Michael Sattler family, the Paul Glock family, and the Klaus von Grafeneck family has never been told before. On the surface, it is not a story at all but two rather isolated Anabaptist events, one in the 1520s involving Michael Sattler and one in the 1550s–70s involving Paul Glock. The courage and spirit displayed in these events, however, touched the lives of the van Grafenecks and make one historical vignette about the witness of dying and living in the spirit of Christ.

The marriage of Michael and Margaretha Sattler was the most natural thing that could have happened, a logical outcome of a common vision of love, faith and hope. Except Michael and Margaretha were out of step with their times. For a simple priest to marry broke Catholic canonical law, and Michael was already a prior, second only to the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter’s in the Black Forest in southern Germany. Margaretha, a refined and comely woman, had been a Beguine; even though it was a lay order, she, too, was breaking a vow. To compound matters, Michael and Margaretha had joined the fledgling Anabaptist movement. It was less than two years old, full of vitality yet without singleness of purpose, seen by the ecclesiastical and magisterial powers as dangerously virulent.

Michael and Margaretha Sattler must have felt the weight of their decision. Yet they took courage from their choices. They were part of a group composed solely of mature believers gathered in the name of Christ, giving their ultimate obedience to their Lord God and only a qualified obedience to the magistracy. They were committed to the principle of mutual address: Whatever they would do, would be done only in the light of careful counsel of the community of the faithful.

Sattler felt at home in this movement that he had joined in 1526. The choice of adult baptism as a nonconformist act paralleled in a way the adult, monastic vows of nonconformity he had taken earlier. Likewise, the posture of peace taken by the Zurich Brethren—Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, Wilhelm Reublin and others—struck him as essential to Christian faith. In Strassburg that year he had realized that this movement needed a form. Perhaps his conversations with Reformers and other Anabaptists prompted this realization. A form must set boundaries and yet preserve freedom. It must equip its followers to resist the onslaught of fanatics, the coercion of “Christian” governments, and the cleverness of persuasive preachers. What he had put together in Strassburg, a group of Anabaptists meeting on 24 February 1527 in a small South German town of Schleitheim adopted as the seven articles of their faith. This “Brotherly Union” (see The Schleitheim Confession) was the essence of what they could agree upon; it organized them into a church.

It is one thing to witness through powerful words; quite another, to witness with one’s blood. Yet with their adult commitment, Anabaptists invited a baptism of water, of the Spirit, and of blood.

On their return from Schleitheim Michael, Margaretha, and others were captured. While searching Michael, officials found the “Brotherly Union” and some important notations on the plans and activities of the Swiss Brethren.

What a catch! Nine charges were assembled. When the two-day trial opened on Friday, 17 May, in Rottenburg, on the defendants’ beech sat Michael, Margaretha, and nine other men and eight women. The charges dealt with violations of Catholic doctrine and practice—the Eucharist, baptism, unction, and the veneration of the saints. Additionally, Sattler was charged with having left the monastery, marrying, and urging nonresistance toward the Turks. This last charge implied both sedition and heresy; however, this was a case largely of violations of church law.

Speaking for the group and for himself, Sattler refuted the charges. Concerning the last point, Sattler admitted that he had taught that if the Turk should come, no armed resistance should be made in accordance with the commandment: Thou shalt not kill. Sattler also admitted having said that if war were right, he would rather march against supposed Christians who persecute, capture, and kill the God-fearing. “The Turk knows nothing about the Christian faith; he is a Turk according to the flesh. But you want to be considered Christians, boast of being Christ’s, and still persecute his pious witnesses. You are Turks according to the spirit.”