The Seven Articles of Schleitheim were written with Michael Sattler of Stauffen, Germany, as the chief author, it is believed. Sattler was originally an officer in a Roman Catholic monastery. He early embraced the faith of the Swiss Brethren and served until his early martyrdom (May 1527) as an outstanding leader. Van Braght lists the nine charges on which Sattler was sentenced to death, together with Sattler's reply. He also gives a brief account of his trial and a copy of a letter from "Brother Michael Sattler of Staufen" to "the Church of God at Horb" (1938 Martyrs' Mirror, 416-420). In his farewell pastoral letter Sattler wrote, "Remember our assembly, and strictly follow that which was resolved on therein," an undoubted reference to the Seven Articles and a hint as to his own leadership in the meeting.
The Schleitheim Confession was widely circulated. Ulrich Zwingli translated it into Latin and attempted to refute it already in 1527. It was in print in its original German form as early as 1533. John Calvin used a now-lost French translation of the Seven Articles in his refutation of Anabaptism published in 1544. By 1560 there was also a Dutch translation of the confession. The English translation in W. J. McGlothlin's Baptist Confessions of Faith, Philadelphia, 1911, 3-9, was made from Zwingli's Latin translation. For an excellent survey of known manuscript copies and printed editions of the Schleitheim Confession, see Robert Friedmann's article in The Mennonite Quarterly Review, XVI, 2 (April, 1942), 82-87.
The Seven Articles are not at all a full statement of Christian doctrine. They were written in days of fierce persecution when there was little interest in or possibility of erecting a grand system of Christian theology. Sattler wished only to set up certain pillars of truth against the unsound teachings of that period. He seems in particular to be setting up a defense against the doctrines of some "false brethren" with antinomian tendencies.
Along with the writings of Conrad Grebel (very limited in extent) and Pilgram Marpeck (extensive, but not of the quality of the Dutch Menno Simons) the Schleitheim Confession is of great significance for the determination of the teaching of the first Swiss Brethren.
The following is my translation of the full text of the pastoral letter, apparently from "Brother Michael Sattler," and which includes the Seven Articles of faith. For the German text used, see Walther Köhler: Brüderlich Vereinigung etzlicher Kinder Gottes sieben Artikel betreffend . . . (Flugschriften aus der ersten Jahren der Reformation, 2. Band, 3. Heft), Leipzig, 1908, 305-316, also Heinrich Böhmer: Urkunden zur Geschichte des Bauernkrieges und der Wiedertäufer, Bonn, 1910; second edition, 1921; reprint, Berlin, 1933, 27-35. The translation is somewhat free in places, particularly in the citation of Bible verses where the King James Version was followed unless the German text deviated too markedly. Here is the translation, reprinted from The Mennonite Quarterly Review, XIX, 4 (October, 1945), 247-253.
Note the words in brackets are inserted by the translator to clarify the text.The words in parentheses are a part of the original text. [J. C. W.]
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