Life and Work
Hutter was born in Moos near St. Lorenzen in the Puster Valley in the County of Tyrol (South Tyrol - Italy today). He learned hat making in Prags in the Puster Valley and became an itinerant craftsman.
He first encountered Anabaptists in Klagenfurt and soon thereafter was converted to their belief. He began preaching in the Tyrol region, forming several small congregations. In early 1529, authorities in the Tyrol began to persecute Anabaptists there. Hutter and a few other went to investigate Moravia, because they heard the persecution was not as severe there. They found the situation was indeed more tolerant and the Tyrolean Anabaptists decided to emigrate. As small groups moved to Moravia, Hutter remained in the Tyrol to pastor the those who remained.
Hutter escaped capture by the authorities because other captured Anabaptists would not reveal his whereabouts, even under severe torture. In 1527, Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria declared that seductive doctrines and heretical sects "will not be tolerated."
Hutter went to Moravia in 1533, when the persecution of the Anabaptists in the Tyrol was at its peak. Many Anabaptists from the Pfalz, Schwaben and Silesia also came to Moravia. Hutter united the local Anabaptist congregations, enabling Anabaptism in Moravia to flourish. Under Hutter's leadership, several of the congregations adopted the early Christian practice of communal ownership of goods, in additions to their Anabaptists beliefs of nonviolence, and adult baptism.
In 1535 the Moravian government expelled all Anabaptists from Moravia and they scattered to surrounding countries. Hutter returned to the Tyrol where he was arrested on 30 November 1535 in Klausen and brought to the fortress Castle Branzoll. On 9 December, Hutter was moved to Innsbruck where he was interrogated and pressured to recant. Even under severe torture he would not recant or reveal the names of other Anabaptists. Hutter was sentenced to death by fire and died on 25 February 1536 on the stake in Innsbruck in front of the Golden Roof. According to the Hutterian Chronicle, a total of 360 Anabaptists were executed in the Tyrol.
Hutter's words are recorded in eight letters, written under severe persecution.
Read more about this topic: Jacob Hutter
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