On the Nazarene Sect

On the Nazarene Sect, Which Has Spread in Hungary, Serbia, and Croatia

The essence of the Nazarene teaching consists in following the teaching of the New Testament, particularly the Sermon on the Mount. They do not recognize any hierarchy, written doctrine, or organization in general; their teaching is not fixed but changing, differing in dogmatic respects in different communities—even in one and the same community there are members who believe in their own way. But the moral teaching is one and the same for all. They all lead a strictly moral and temperate life. They consider as the main rules of life: industriousness, meekness in dealing with people, humble endurance of injuries, and abstention from participation in violence. They do not recognize courts, do not voluntarily pay taxes, do not take oaths, and refuse military service; in general they relate to the state as to an institution unnecessary to them.

Into their communities, consisting mainly of working people, the Nazarenes accept only those who have been “resurrected in spirit,” who have repented and are living a new life. Therefore the children of Nazarenes are not considered Nazarenes until they come to the age of reason and themselves wish to enter the community of believers.

The Nazarenes’ refusal of military duty provokes persecution against them by the Austrian government. But the Nazarenes firmly hold to their conviction that military service is incompatible with Christianity and humbly bear the punishments imposed on them without betraying the law of Christ.

The Nazarenes base their refusals of military duty on the words of Christ: “But I say unto you, resist not evil” (Matt. 5:38) and “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you” (Matt. 5:44).

Simple peasant lads, the Nazarenes often astonish their persecutors with the firmness with which they endure all torments. And not only recruits act this way, but also reservists—that is, those who became Nazarenes after completing active service. When they are called up for maneuvers, they refuse to take weapons in their hands. Knowing that they can be sentenced to lifelong imprisonment for this, they arrange their households in advance so that their wives can manage alone, and they say farewell as if forever to their families. Their families for the most part sympathize with their martyrdom.

Thus, several years ago, Joha Radovanov (a Serb) from Vetchbas (Bačka), having been enrolled in Pest in the 6th regiment, 6th company, refused to take up weapons, saying that his faith did not allow him to do so. The court sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment. His older brother, sentenced to imprisonment in 1894, was already sitting in his tenth year. The mother of these two brothers came to visit the younger one. The authorities did not allow her the visit. She stood weeping in the prison yard. And at that moment she saw in one of the windows the face of her son and immediately cried out to him: “Sine moj zlati, ne moj za boga uzeti pušku! (My golden son, for God’s sake don’t take up the rifle!)”

At the end of August 1895, reservists of the Szeged reserve regiment were called up. When rifles were distributed to the reservists, two of them would not accept rifles because, as they said, their Nazarene faith did not permit them. Captain Olchvari began to tell them that God loves the army, that after all they were not now going to war but only to maneuvers, where no one would shed blood. The Nazarenes replied to this: “But we are being taken to maneuvers in order to be taught to kill people.”

The captain tried to influence them with fear. He told them that last autumn one Nazarene also behaved this way and was punished several times, and finally confined for seventeen years in a fortress prison.

“Let them shoot us,” the Nazarenes calmly replied, “but we cannot go against the laws of God.”

Other reservists went to the families of these Nazarenes, and their wives, who were not yet in the sect, tearfully begged their husbands to submit to the authorities, but they did not agree. The captain put them in heavy arrest for ten days as a preliminary measure. When they were led away, they parted from their families in tears.

“Remain with God,” they said. “We are being buried alive for the sake of the Lord God, for the sake of holy innocence and purity of soul, because people must be as the lambs of God.”

Franko Novak was to serve his military duty in Temesvár. When he was first taken together with other recruits to the training ground, he refused to accept a weapon. Noticing the commotion around Novak, the general who was on the grounds rode up to that spot and asked what had happened. He was informed. The general kindly asked Novak why he did not want to take a weapon. Novak took out of his pocket a small Gospel and said: “The higher authorities allow this book to be printed and also do not forbid living according to the precepts stated in it. And in this book it is said: ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ I do not accept a weapon because I wish to follow the precepts of the Savior.”

The general calmly heard Novak out to the end, then said to him: “However, it is said in this same book: ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.’”

Novak was at first confused and was silent, but then, collecting himself, he took off his military cap, the weapon, the uniform, and laying all this down, said: “Here is all this that belongs to His Majesty the Emperor; here, I give him all that is his.”

In 1897, a decrepit old man came to the town notary of Velika Kikinda. In his hands he held a sheet of paper: a certificate of pension rights for an invalid of ‘48.

“Please record, Mr. Notary,” said the old man, “that I renounce my pension.”

The astonished notary asked the old man: “What’s this, Vanda, have you found a treasure?”

“Exactly, quite right, Mr. Notary,” replied the old man. “I have found a treasure. I have found, Mr. Notary, my Lord, who is dearer to me than all the treasures of this world and who does not like His servant to be fed with bread earned by weapons.”

Despite the strict measures used against them by the government, the Nazarenes do not betray their faith.

—V. Olkhovsky (From the book “The Nazarenes in Hungary,” published by Posrednik)

---

Translator’s Notes:

• The Nazarenes (Nazareni) were founded by Samuel Heinrich Fröhlich (1803-1857), a Swiss Reformed pastor who rejected infant baptism and state Christianity. The movement spread to Hungary and the Balkans, where it took root among peasants and artisans.
• “Posrednik” (The Intermediary) was a publishing house founded in 1884 by Tolstoy and his follower Vladimir Chertkov to publish inexpensive books of moral and religious content for the common people. It published many accounts of conscientious objectors and pacifist communities.
• The “invalid of ‘48” refers to a veteran of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution against Habsburg rule—making the old man’s renunciation of his military pension particularly striking.
• The Serbian mother’s cry to her son—“Sine moj zlati, ne moj za boga uzeti pušku!”—is rendered phonetically in the Russian original; proper Serbian would be “Sine moj zlati, nemoj za boga uzeti pušku!”
• Captain Olchvari’s argument that “God loves the army” represents the official position of state churches that blessed military service. The Nazarenes’ reply—that maneuvers exist “to teach killing”—cuts through this rationalization.
• Novak’s response to the “render unto Caesar” argument—stripping off his uniform as “Caesar’s”—demonstrates the quick-witted biblical interpretation for which the Nazarenes became known.
• Tolstoy was deeply interested in groups like the Nazarenes, the Doukhobors, and the Quakers as evidence that Christian non-resistance was not mere theory but lived practice. He corresponded with and supported many conscientious objectors throughout Europe and Russia.