Michael Sattler

vers 1490-1527 16th century

Refusing the weapon, including when one is the one being struck.

Who was Michael Sattler?

A former Benedictine monk from Swabia who had joined the Anabaptist movement, in 1527 he drew up the Schleitheim articles: adult baptism, refusal of the oath, refusal of the sword. Arrested a few weeks later near Rottenburg, he was tried, mutilated and burned. His wife Margaretha was drowned a few days later. The record of his trial was printed the same year and circulated widely.

In their own words

If the Turks should come, we ought not to resist them; for it is written: Thou shalt not kill.

His confession and the record of his trial, Rottenburg, May 1527, in the Martyrs Mirror (van Braght, 1660; English translation by Joseph Sohm, 1886), public domain

Ye ministers of God, I admonish you to consider the end for which God has appointed you.

His confession and the record of his trial, Rottenburg, May 1527, in the Martyrs Mirror (van Braght, 1660; English translation by Joseph Sohm, 1886), public domain