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MENNONITES' CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD THE CITY: A VIRGINIA EXAMPLE Charles A. Heatwole In recent years religious beliefs and phenomena have commanded the scholarly attention of a growing number of cultural geographers. As a result, the geography of religion has become an important subfield of cultural geography and has given rise to a substantial body of literature. (I)A fair portion of this literature treats of the relationship between religion and settlement. Observable aspects of this relationship , such as the distribution and cultural landscape of specific religious groups, have been the subjects of several articles. (2) By comparison, abstract linkages, exemplified by the impact of religious beliefs or religion-based attitudes upon settlement, have received minor attention. (3) This paper seeks to add to an understanding of the latter through a case study of the relationship between religion and settlement. CASE STUDY CONTEXT. Between 1910 and 1920 Americans became a predominantly urbanized people. Although urban residents now account for about three-quarters of the American population, the United States contains various affinity groups which traditionally have avoided the cities. Religion is often the tie which sanctions a negative attitude toward urban areas and toward urban life. The Mennonites, numbering in excess of 215,000 people, are probably the most numerous of these sectarians. (4) Geographic interest in the Mennonites has been evidenced in the writings of Krause, Landing, Murdie, Sawatsky, and Warkentin. (5) Although these authors have addressed many aspects of settlement, little attention has been given to the traditionally negative attitude toward cities, the reasons for this attitude, and the status of the centuries-old viewpoint among present-day Mennonites. These considerations constitute the foci of this paper. The Mennonite enclave in Rockingham County, Virginia (located in the Shenandoah Valley), Dr. Heatwole « Associate Professor of Geography at Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10021. 2 Southeastern Geographer was selected as a representative community for examining and assessing the urban perspective of a contemporary population. THE MENNONITE HERITAGE. Mennonite origins may be traced to the early sixteenth century in northern Switzerland and southern Germany. (6) Because Mennonites are usually associated with a rural agricultural environment, it is noteworthy that most of the original believers lived in municipalities. One vocational study suggested that perhaps 80 to 90 percent of the earliest Mennonites resided in towns and cities. (7) Considering the times, that residential propensity is not surprising. Throughout the Reformation urban areas served as centers of intellectual activity and as the foci of evangelistic work for the Mennonites and other young Protestant sects. The urban orientation of the Mennonites was short-lived, however, for established church and secular authorities became hostile to certain Mennonite beliefs. In accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ against war and violence, for example, Mennonites were opposed to conscription and refrained from carrying weapons. They were also opposed to medieval Catholicism's role of intercessor between God and man, as well as to the taking of any oath which affirmed allegiance to either church or secular authority. These and other tenets constituted heresy in the eyes of the Catholic Church and treason in the eyes of the state. Both were punishable by death. (8) Thus began a severe persecution of the Mennonites. By 1535 more than 5,000 Mennonites had been executed in Switzerland and adjacent territories. (9) The persecution campaign was particularly successful in the cities, where most Mennonites were readily accessible . Because the Mennonites wore distinctive plain dress, practiced nonresistance, and carried no weapons, they were identified and dispatched with ease. In the 1600s the policy of bloodshed was replaced by harrassment. In many locales surviving Mennonites were forbidden to proselytize, to marry non-Mennonites, or to enter the universities and guilds. (10) Most noteworthy were additional decrees which prohibited them from living in cities without special permission. (11) As a result, a movement that had begun and blossomed in the cities, and had been led by educated urbanités, found itself relegated to a rural environment and composed almost entirely of uneducated lower class agriculturalists. (12) Vol. XIX, No. 1 This radical change in settlement was soon matched by a radical change in attitude toward cities. What had...

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