Bureau of Continuing Education

[ by Charles Cameron — Anabaptists, Amish, Mennonites and Robespierre, rock’n’roll, gaming ]

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I knew the Amish and Mennonites tended towards a pacifist interpretation of Christianity, but I had no idea until this evening that Robespierre had granted them special recognition on that account:

The matter was referred for a decision to the Committee of Public Safety. And on 19 August 1793 this body issued what was indeed not formally a decree, but simply a recommendation, in effect brief guidelines directed to local authorities, concerning the proper procedure to be adopted in dealing with drafted Mennonites. Among those signing, or confirming, this document we find the names of such prominent Jacobins as Robespierre, Carnot, Couthon, Hérault de Séchelles, and St Just. ‘We have observed the simple hearts of these people,’ states their arrêté, ‘and believing a good government ought to employ all kinds of virtue for the public good we ask you to treat the Anabaptists with a mildness that matches their character, to prevent them from being harrassed in any way, and finally to allow them to serve in such branches of the armed forces as they may agree to, like the pioneers or the teamsters, or even to allow them to pay money in lieu of serving personally.’

Peter Brock, Against the Draft: Essays on Conscientious Objection from the Radical Reformation to the Second World War, University of Toronto Press, 2006, p. 76.

Amish Warfare, on the other hand, is either a rock band, or a playlist of YouTube videos “designed for various Call of Duty related topics”, or both.

Quite a name for a band.

Quite a stand to take, right at the start of the Reign of Terror.