HUTTERITES:
an ANABAPTIST SECT which emerged in Moravia in 1529 and was re-organized by
Jacob HUTTER in 1553. Until 1599 they enjoyed considerable success in establishing about a
hundred bruderhos or farm colonies with a membership or around 25,000. A period
of persecution followed and they fled to Slovakia and Transylvania where they produced
some remarkable devotional literature over the next 150 years. Renewed persecution led
them to the Ukraine in 1770 where they remained until 1870 when the threat of military
conscription led them to emigrate to the United States of America: some groups emigrated
from America to Canada in 1917. Today there are around 10,000 Hutterites who are
distinguished by their communal living, traditional dress and hostility to MODERN CULTURE.
