As I said in the introductory module, before the 12th century ideas and actions to promote peace – peace movements – were primarily held by religious individuals and groups; at least this is true in the western world. This is aside from the examples we just looked at in the ancient world and for Indigenous peoples (though for the latter certainly spiritual understandings undergirded the Great Law of Peace). While official church institutions were frequently perpetrators of the worst violence of the past – think about the Crusades or the Inquisition – there were also dissident thinkers or groups who were pacifist or promoted peace in their particular historic context. I will talk about just a few examples that have contemporary manifestations.
Some of the peace movements within the early Christian church were based on monastic communities and religious orders, such as that led by St. Francis of Assisi (died in 1226) in the 13th century. While on a spiritual journey, Francis was converted to a belief in peace and nonviolence – a fairly radical position to take within the Catholic church of the day. He founded the Franciscan Order whose members took vows of poverty, service, and nonviolence.
According to legend, on one occasion St. Francis undertook an unarmed walk through the war zones of the Crusades in Egypt and met with the Sultan in an effort to bring an end to violent conflict between Muslims and Christians.
St. Francis had a particular reverence for nature and intentionally deprived himself of material possessions (even limiting his food intake) in order to identify more closely with the poor. Today we might call it a ‘sustainable’ lifestyle. Because of this emphasis, he is sometimes linked with the contemporary environmental peace movement.
St. Francis continues to be a symbol of peace within the Christian church and in secular society. His birthplace in Assisi, Italy was the host city for the first international Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986. In 2002 it was the site for a gathering of 200 religious leaders from around the world in the aftermath of 9/11. Unfortunately, the media did not report much on this or the other many peace initiatives which occurred in response to that horrific day of violence that sparked wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (we will explore some of these in Module 12).
You may be familiar with the famous Christian prayer, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace” which is often called the Prayer of St. Francis, although there is no evidence that he actually wrote it. Regardless, here are the words associated with St. Francis that continue to resonate across the globe, in both religious and non-religious settings.
Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
The term Historic Peace Churches was applied to three small Christian denominations in the early 20th century as a way of differentiating them from the secular (non-religious) peace movement. However, their origins go back to reformation movements 500 years ago.
Sometimes they are called ‘sectarian pacifists’ – a sect being a dissenting or distinctive religious group, occasionally viewed as extreme. However, until recently they referred to their peace position as nonresistance (definition in Module 1), and their main objective was exemption from military service during war (we will discuss this in more detail in Module 5).
The three groups are: Mennonites, Quakers, and Church of the Brethren (in Canada this would include Brethren in Christ). Each group emerged as break-away movements and dissenters from the mainstream church of the day, mainly Protestantism. Here are quick summaries of their histories and beliefs.
Mennonites:
- emerged in the 1500s in Switzerland, Germany, and Netherlands;
- were initially called Anabaptists (means re-baptism) because of their rejection of infant baptism into the church;
- experienced severe persecution, including imprisonment and execution, for their beliefs;
- refused to do military service, or serve in public positions that required the use of force; and
- migrated across the globe to escape persecution and seek religious freedom, first arriving in North America (U.S.) in the late 1600s.
Menno Simons (d. 1561) is considered the founder of Mennonites in the Netherlands. One of his famous quotes is: "The regenerated do not go to war nor engage in strife. They are the children of peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and know of no war."
Bürkner, 1854
Church of the Brethren:
- were founded in Germany in the early 1700s;
- had nonresistant beliefs similar to the Mennonites;
- were also called ‘Dunkers’ because of their mode of baptism into the church (literally, dunking in water);
- migrated to America beginning in the 1720s; and
- are similar to the Brethren in Christ (in Canada) who are called ‘Tunkers’ in your reading by Peter Brock on “Peace Sects of Upper Canada and the Military Question.”
Quakers:
- were founded in mid-17th century England;
- emphasized following an inner law of God rather than external law (of state or society);
- engaged in acts of civil disobedience (defined in Module 1) such as not paying taxes;
- tended to be more absolutist in their pacifism than other peace churches;
- received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 because of their humanitarian work in the Second World War; and
- refused to pay war taxes during the war between the English and French but instead directed those monies to Indigenous people to compensate them for injuries, including loss of land.
'This Medal represents William Penn, or as the Indians call him, "Brother Onas," at a council fire, offering the calumet of Peace to an Indian chief and pointing to the sun as characteristic both of the purity and durability of the friendship which the Friendly Association designed to promote.'
Parrish, 1877
The reading "The Peace Sects of Upper Canada and the Military Question," by Peter Brock, examines how these three peace churches responded to the militarism of the War of 1812 in Upper Canada (Ontario). They faced the dilemma of remaining true to their nonresistance/pacifism in the midst of state demands for varying forms of service.
How did their response differ? Which group, in your opinion, held most closely to their beliefs?
All three of these religious groups exist around the world today. Factions within each group have become more activist in their peace beliefs. That is, their peace position is not only about non-participation in military service but includes speaking out against war and violence. For example, in the 1990s they joined together to create Christian Peacemaker Teams a ‘peace movement’ organization that sends teams of trained individuals who bring nonviolent direct action to locations of lethal conflict around the world.
Before you leave this module, take a few minutes to look at what happened this week in The Year in Peace and Justice History. Are there any events profiled that link directly or indirectly to any of the themes and information in this module? Reviewing this site may also provide you with ideas for a topic for your Research Essay for the course.
Stop and Ask
What are the aims/goals, methods/tactics, ideology/philosophy, and symbols of these movements?
© Course Author and University of Waterloo
Text References
- Saint Francis of Assisi, "Prayer of Saint Francis," Wikipedia, c. 1912, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_of_Saint_Francis.
Image References
Hugo Bürkner, "Meno Simonis," Wikimedia Commons, 1854, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meno_simonis.jpg.
Samuel Parrish, "Medal of the Friendly Association for Regaining and Preserving Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures," Wikimedia Commons, 1877, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medal_of_the_Friendly_Association_for_Regaining_and_Preserving_Peace_with_the_Indians_by_Pacific_Measures.png.