HUTTERIAN BRETHREN. The Hutterian Brethren are a branch of Anabaptist Christians originally organized by Jacob Hutter (d. 1536). Hutter's followers, known still as Hutterites, accept the year 1528 as the date of their founding because it was then that the founders decided to pool their resources and—unlike their Anabaptist counterparts the Amish and the Mennonites—to hold "all things common." Although they have no objection to the name Hutterites, they prefer to be known as Hutterian Brethren or simply Brethren.

Jacob Hutter, a hat maker whose surname means hatter, was a Swiss Anabaptist minister who promulgated the practice of adult baptism, rejection of oaths, pacifism, and nonassimilation. He apparently had some education, since he spoke well and had knowledge of geography and basic mathematics. He was also a firm disciplinarian and a brilliant organizer. Journeying in 1529 from the Tyrol to Moravia, he found disarray and dissension among...