document_title: Mennonites

question_text: who came first the amish or the mennonites

question_tokens: who came first the amish or the mennonites

text: Mennonites

text: Radical Reformation[edit]

text: The early history of the Mennonites starts with the Anabaptists in the German and Dutch-speaking parts of central Europe. The German term is "Täufer" or "Wiedertäufer" ("Again-Baptists" or "Anabaptists" using the Greek ana ["again"]). These forerunners of modern Mennonites were part of the Protestant Reformation, a broad reaction against the practices and theology of the Roman Catholic Church. Its most distinguishing feature is the rejection of infant baptism, an act that had both religious and political meaning since almost every infant born in western Europe was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. Other significant theological views of the Mennonites developed in opposition to Roman Catholic views or to the views of other Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli.

text: Some of the followers of Zwingli's Reformed church thought that requiring church membership beginning at birth was inconsistent with the New Testament example. They believed that the church should be completely removed from government (the proto–free church tradition), and that individuals should join only when willing to publicly acknowledge belief in Jesus and the desire to live in accordance with his teachings. At a small meeting in Zurich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock, along with twelve others, baptized each other.[15] This meeting marks the beginning of the Anabaptist movement. In the spirit of the times, many groups followed, preaching about reducing hierarchy, relations with the state, eschatology, and sexual license, running from utter abandon to extreme chastity. These movements are together referred to as the "Radical Reformation".

text: Many government and religious leaders, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, considered voluntary church membership to be dangerous—the concern of some deepened by reports of the Münster Rebellion, led by a violent sect of Anabaptists. They joined forces to fight the movement, using methods such as banishment, torture, burning, drowning or beheading.[16]:142

text: Despite strong repressive efforts of the state churches, the movement spread slowly around western Europe, primarily along the Rhine. Officials killed many of the earliest Anabaptist leaders in an attempt to purge Europe of the new sect.[16]:142 By 1530, most of the founding leaders had been killed for refusing to renounce their beliefs. Many believed that God did not condone killing or the use of force for any reason and were, therefore, unwilling to fight for their lives. The pacifist branches often survived by seeking refuge in neutral cities or nations, such as Strasbourg. Their safety was often tenuous, as a shift in alliances or an invasion could mean resumed persecution. Other groups of Anabaptists, such as the Batenburgers, were eventually destroyed by their willingness to fight. This played a large part in the evolution of Anabaptist theology.

text: In the early days of the Anabaptist movement, Menno Simons, a Catholic priest in the Low Countries, heard of the movement and started to rethink his Catholic faith. He questioned the doctrine of transubstantiation but was reluctant to leave the Roman Catholic Church. His brother, a member of an Anabaptist group, was killed when he and his companions were attacked and refused to defend themselves.[citation needed] In 1536, at the age of 40, Simons left the Roman Catholic Church. He soon became a leader within the Anabaptist movement and was wanted by authorities for the rest of his life. His name became associated with scattered groups of nonviolent Anabaptists whom he helped to organize and consolidate.[citation needed]

text: Fragmentation and variation[edit]

text: During the 16th century, the Mennonites and other Anabaptists were relentlessly persecuted. This period of persecution has had a significant impact on Mennonite identity. Martyrs Mirror, published in 1660, documents much of the persecution of Anabaptists and their predecessors. Today, the book is still the most important book besides the Bible for many Mennonites and Amish, in particular for the Swiss-South German branch of the Mennonites. Persecution was still going on until 1710 in various parts of Switzerland.[17]

text: Disagreements within the church over the years led to other splits; sometimes the reasons were theological, sometimes practical, sometimes geographical.[original research?] For instance, near the beginning of the 20th century, some members in the Amish church wanted to begin having Sunday Schools and participate in progressive Protestant-style para-church evangelism. Unable to persuade the rest of the Amish, they separated and formed a number of separate groups including the Conservative Mennonite Conference. Mennonites in Canada and other countries typically have independent denominations because of the practical considerations of distance and, in some cases, language. Many times these divisions took place along family lines, with each extended family supporting their own branch.

text: The first recorded account of this group is in a written order by Countess Anne,[citation needed] who ruled a small province in central Europe. The presence of some small groups of violent Anabaptists was causing political and religious turmoil in her state, so she decreed that all Anabaptists were to be driven out. The order made an exception for the non-violent branch known at that time as the Menists.

text: Political rulers often admitted the Menists or Mennonites into their states because they were honest, hardworking and peaceful. When their practices upset the powerful state churches, princes would renege on exemptions for military service, or a new monarch would take power, and the Mennonites would be forced to flee again, usually leaving everything but their families behind. Often, another monarch in another state would grant them welcome, at least for a while.

text: While Mennonites in Colonial America were enjoying considerable religious freedom, their counterparts in Europe continued to struggle with persecution and temporary refuge under certain ruling monarchs. They were sometimes invited to settle in areas of poor soil that no one else could farm. By contrast, in The Netherlands, the Mennonites (nl: Doopsgezinden) enjoyed a relatively high degree of tolerance. The Mennonites often farmed and reclaimed land in exchange for exemption from mandatory military service.[citation needed] However, once the land was arable again, this arrangement would often change, and the persecution would begin again. Because the land still needed to be tended, the ruler would not drive out the Mennonites but would pass laws to force them to stay, while at the same time severely limiting their freedom. Mennonites had to build their churches facing onto back streets or alleys, and they were forbidden from announcing the beginning of services with the sound of a bell.

text: In addition, high taxes were enacted in exchange for both continuing the military service exemption, and to keep the states' best farmers from leaving.[citation needed] In some cases, the entire congregation would give up their belongings to pay the tax to be allowed to leave. If a member or family could not afford the tax, it was often paid by others in the group.

text: A strong emphasis on "community" was developed under these circumstances. It continues to be typical of Mennonite churches. As a result of frequently being required to give up possessions in order to retain individual freedoms, Mennonites learned to live very simply. This was reflected both in the home and at church, where their dress and their buildings were plain. The music at church, usually simple German chorales, was performed a cappella. This style of music serves as a reminder to many Mennonites of their simple lives, as well as their history as a persecuted people. Some branches of Mennonites have retained this "plain" lifestyle into modern times.

text: Russian Mennonites[edit]

text: The "Russian Mennonites" (German: "Russlandmennoniten")[18] today are of German language, tradition and ethnicity. They are descended from Dutch Anabaptists, who came from the Netherlands and started around 1530 to settle around Danzig and in West Prussia, where they lived for about 250 years. During that time they mixed with German Mennonites from different regions. Starting 1791 they established colonies in the south-west of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). Their ethno-language is Plautdietsch, a German dialect of the East Low German group, with some Dutch admixture. Today the majority of traditional Russian Mennonites uses Standard German in church and for reading and writing.

text: In the 1770s Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire acquired a great deal of land north of the Black Sea (in present-day Ukraine) following the Russo-Turkish War and the takeover of the Ottoman vassal, the Crimean Khanate. Russian government officials invited Mennonites living in the Kingdom of Prussia to farm the Ukrainian steppes depopulated by Tatar raids in exchange for religious freedom and military exemption. Over the years the Mennonite farmers were very successful.

text: Between 1874 and 1880 some 16,000 Mennonites of approximately 45,000 left Russia. About nine thousand departed for the United States (mainly Kansas and Nebraska) and seven thousand for Canada (mainly Manitoba). In the 1920s Russian Mennonites from Canada started to migrate to Latin America (Mexico and Paraguay), soon followed by Mennonite refugees from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Further migrations of these Mennonites led to settlements in Brazil, Uruguay, Belize, Bolivia and Argentina.

text: By the beginning of the 20th century, the Mennonites in Russia owned large agricultural estates and some had become successful as industrial entrepreneurs in the cities, employing wage labor. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War (1917–1921), all of these farms (whose owners were called Kulaks) and enterprises were expropriated by local peasants or the Soviet government. Beyond expropriation, Mennonites suffered severe persecution during the course of the Civil War, at the hands of workers, the Bolsheviks and, particularly, the Anarcho-Communists of Nestor Makhno, who considered the Mennonites to be privileged foreigners of the upper class and targeted them. During expropriation, hundreds of Mennonite men, women and children were murdered in these attacks.[19] After the Ukrainian–Soviet War and the takeover of Ukraine by the Soviet Bolsheviks, people who openly practiced religion were in many cases imprisoned by the Soviet government. This led to a wave of Mennonite emigration to the Americas (U.S., Canada and Paraguay).

text: When the German army invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 during World War II, many in the Mennonite community perceived them as liberators from the communist regime under which they had suffered. When the tide of war turned, many of the Mennonites fled with the German army back to Germany where they were accepted as Volksdeutsche. The Soviet government believed that the Mennonites had "collectively collaborated" with the Germans. After the war, many of the Mennonites in the Soviet Union were forcibly relocated to Siberia and Kazakhstan and many were sent to gulags, as part of the Soviet program of mass internal deportations of various ethnic groups whose loyalty was seen as questionable. Many German-Russian Mennonites who lived to the east (not in Ukraine) were deported to Siberia before the German army's invasion and were also often placed in labor camps. In the decades that followed, as the Soviet regime became less brutal, a number of Mennonites returned to Ukraine and Western Russia where they had formerly lived. In the 1990s the governments of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine gave these people the opportunity to emigrate, and the vast majority emigrated to Germany. The Russian Mennonite immigrants in Germany from the 1990s outnumber the pre-1989 community of Mennonites by three to one.

text: By 2015 the majority of Russian Mennonites live in Latin America, while tens of thousands live in Germany and Canada.

text: The world's most conservative Mennonites (in terms of culture and technology) are the Mennonites affiliated with the Lower and Upper Barton Creek Colonies in Belize. Lower Barton is inhabited by Plautdietsch speaking Russian Mennonites, whereas Upper Barton Creek is mainly inhabited by Pennsylvania German speaking Mennonites from North America. Both groups do not use motors and paint.[20]

text: Jakob Ammann and the Amish schisms[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: In 1693 Jakob Ammann led an effort to reform the Mennonite church in Switzerland and South Germany to include shunning, to hold communion more often, and other differences. When the discussions fell through, Ammann and his followers split from the other Mennonite congregations. Ammann's followers became known as the Amish Mennonites or just Amish. In later years, other schisms among Amish resulted in such groups as the Old Order Amish, New Order Amish, Kaufman Amish Mennonites, Conservative Mennonite Conference and Biblical Mennonite Alliance.

text: North America[edit]

text: Persecution and the search for employment forced Mennonites out of the Netherlands eastward to Germany in the 17th century. As Quaker Evangelists moved into Germany they received a sympathetic audience among the larger of these German-Mennonite congregations around Krefeld, Altona-Hamburg, Gronau and Emden.[21] It was among this group of Quakers and Mennonites, living under ongoing discrimination, that William Penn solicited settlers for his new colony. The first permanent settlement of Mennonites in the American colonies consisted of one Mennonite family and twelve Mennonite-Quaker[22] families of German extraction who arrived from Krefeld, Germany, in 1683 and settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Among these early settlers was William Rittenhouse, a lay minister and owner of the first American paper mill. Jacob Gottschalk was the first bishop of this Germantown congregation. This early group of Mennonites and Mennonite-Quakers wrote the first formal protest against slavery in the United States. The treatise was addressed to slave-holding Quakers in an effort to persuade them to change their ways.[23]

text: In the early 18th century, 100,000 Germans from the Palatinate emigrated to Pennsylvania, where they became known collectively as the Pennsylvania Dutch (from the Anglicization of Deutsch or German.) The Palatinate region had been repeatedly overrun by the French in religious wars, and Queen Anne had invited the Germans to go to the British colonies. Of these immigrants, around 2,500 were Mennonites and 500 were Amish.[24] This group settled farther west than the first group, choosing less expensive land in the Lancaster area. The oldest Mennonite meetinghouse in the United States is the Hans Herr House in West Lampeter Township.[25] A member of this second group, Christopher Dock, authored Pedagogy, the first American monograph on education. Today, Mennonites also reside in Kishacoquillas Valley (also known as Big Valley), a valley in Huntingdon and Mifflin counties in Pennsylvania.

text: During the Colonial period, Mennonites were distinguished from other Pennsylvania Germans in three ways:[26] their opposition to the American Revolutionary War, which other German settlers participated in on both sides; resistance to public education; and disapproval of religious revivalism. Contributions of Mennonites during this period include the idea of separation of church and state and opposition to slavery.

text: From 1812 to 1860, another wave of Mennonite immigrants settled farther west in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. These Swiss-German speaking Mennonites, along with Amish, came from Switzerland and the Alsace-Lorraine area. These immigrants, along with the Amish of northern New York State, formed the nucleus of the Apostolic Christian Church in the United States.

text: There were also Mennonite settlements in Canada, who emigrated there chiefly from the United States (Upstate New York and Pennsylvania):

text:
St. Jacobs, Ontario c.1819
Kitchener, Ontario/Waterloo, Ontario c. 1800s
Cambridge, Ontario c. 1830s
Markham, Ontario, c. 1800–1820s
Stouffville, Ontario c. 1803–1805

text: During the 1880s, smaller Mennonite groups settled as far west as California, especially around the Paso Robles area.[27][28]

text: Moderate to progressive Mennonites[edit]

text: "Old" Mennonite Church (MC)[edit]

text: The Swiss-German Mennonites who emigrated to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries and settled first in Pennsylvania, then across the midwestern states (initially Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas), are the root of the former Mennonite Church denomination (MC), colloquially called the "Old Mennonite Church". This denomination had offices in Elkhart, Indiana, and was the most populous progressive Mennonite denomination before merging with the General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC) in 2002.

text: Mennonite Church USA[edit]

text: The Mennonite Church USA (MCUSA) and the Mennonite Church Canada are the resulting denominations of the 2002 merger of the (General Assembly) Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Total membership in Mennonite Church USA denominations decreased from about 133,000, before the merger in 1998, to a total membership of 120,381 in the Mennonite Church USA in 2001.[29] In 2013 membership had fallen to 97,737 members in 839 congregations.[30] In 2016 it had fallen to 78,892 members after the withdrawal of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference.[31]

text: Pennsylvania remains the hub of the denomination but there are also large numbers of members in Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, and Illinois.[32]

text: In 1983 the General Assembly of the Mennonite Church met jointly with the General Conference Mennonite Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in celebration of 300 years of Mennonite witness in the Americas. Beginning in 1989, a series of consultations, discussions, proposals, and sessions (and a vote in 1995 in favor of merger) led to the unification of these two major North American Mennonite bodies into one denomination organized on two fronts – the Mennonite Church USA and the Mennonite Church Canada. The merger was "finalized" at a joint session in St. Louis, Missouri in 1999, and the Canadian branch moved quickly ahead. The United States branch did not complete their organization until the meeting in Nashville, Tennessee in 2001, which became effective February 1, 2002.

text: The merger of 1999–2002 at least partially fulfilled the desire of the founders of the General Conference Mennonite Church to create an organization under which all Mennonites could unite. Yet not all Mennonites favored the merger. The Alliance of Mennonite Evangelical Congregations represents one expression of the disappointment with the merger and the events that led up to it.

text: Mennonite Church Canada[edit]

text: Mennonite Church Canada is a conference of Mennonites in Canada, with head offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Currently (2003) the body has about 35,000 members in 235 churches. Beginning in 1989, a series of consultations, discussions, proposals, and sessions led to the unification of two North American bodies (the Mennonite Church & General Conference Mennonite Church) and the related Canadian Conference of Mennonites in Canada into the Mennonite Church USA and the Mennonite Church Canada in 2000.

text: The organizational structure is divided into five regional conferences. Denominational work is administered through a board elected by the delegates to the annual assembly. The MCC participates in the Canadian Council of Churches, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, and the Mennonite World Conference.

text: Conservative Mennonites[edit]

text: Conservative Mennonites include numerous groups that identify with the more conservative or traditional element among Mennonite or Anabaptist groups but not necessarily Old Order groups. The majority of Conservative Mennonite churches historically has an Amish and not a Mennonite background. They emerged mostly from the middle group between the Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites. For more, see Amish Mennonite: Division 1850–1878.[33]

text: Those identifying with this group drive automobiles, have telephones and use electricity, and some may have personal computers. They also have Sunday school, hold revival meetings, and operate their own Christian schools/parochial schools.

text: Old Order Mennonites[edit]

text: The Old Order Mennonite are living a lifestyle similar or a bit more liberal than the Old Order Amish. There were more than 27,000 adult, baptized members of Old Order Mennonites in North America and Belize in 2008/9. The total population of Old Order Mennonites groups including children and adults not yet baptized normally is two to three times larger than the number of baptized, adult members, which indicates that the population of Old Order Mennonites was roughly between 60,000 and 80,000 in 2008/9.

text: Alternative service[edit]

text: Mennonites in Canada were automatically exempt from any type of military service during World War I by provisions of the Order in Council of 1873,[citation needed] yet initially many were imprisoned for their beliefs until this was affirmed by the government of the time.[citation needed]

text: During World War II, Mennonite conscientious objectors were given the options of noncombatant military service, serving in the medical or dental corps under military control, or working in parks and on roads under civilian supervision. Over 95% chose the latter and were placed in Alternative Service camps.[34] Initially the men worked on road building, forestry and firefighting projects. After May 1943, as a labour shortage developed within the nation, men were shifted into agriculture, education and industry. The 10,700 Canadian objectors were mostly Mennonites (63%) and Doukhobors (20%).[35]

text: In the United States, Civilian Public Service (CPS) provided an alternative to military service during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, 4,665 Mennonites, Amish and Brethren in Christ[36] were among nearly 12,000 conscientious objectors who performed work of national importance in 152 CPS camps throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The draftees worked in areas such as soil conservation, forestry, fire fighting, agriculture, social services and mental health.

text: The CPS men served without wages and with minimal support from the federal government. The cost of maintaining the CPS camps and providing for the needs of the men was the responsibility of their congregations and families. Mennonite Central Committee coordinated the operation of the Mennonite camps. CPS men served longer than regular draftees, not being released until well past the end of the war. Initially skeptical of the program, government agencies learned to appreciate the men's service and requested more workers from the program. CPS made significant contributions to forest fire prevention, erosion and flood control, medical science and reform of the mental health system.

text: Schisms[edit]

text: Prior to emigration to America, Anabaptists in Europe were divided between those of Dutch/North German and Swiss/South German background. At first, the Dutch/North German group took their name from Menno Simons, who led them in their early years. Later the Swiss/South German group also adopted the name "Mennonites". A third group of early Anabaptists, mainly from south-east Germany and Austria were organized by Jakob Hutter and became the Hutterites. The vast majority of Anabaptists of Swiss/South German ancestry today lives in the US and Canada, while the largest group of Dutch/North German Anabaptists are the Russian Mennonites, who live today mostly in Latin America.

text: A trickle of North German Mennonites began the migration to America in 1683, followed by a much larger migration of Swiss/South German Mennonites beginning in 1707.[37] The Amish are an early split from the Swiss/South German, that occurred in 1693. Over the centuries many Amish individuals and whole churches left the Amish and became Mennonites again.

text: After immigration to America, many of the early Mennonites split from the main body of North American Mennonites and formed their own separate and distinct churches. The first schism in America occurred in 1778 when Bishop Christian Funk's support of the American Revolution led to his excommunication and the formation of a separate Mennonite group known as Funkites. In 1785 the Orthodox Reformed Mennonite Church was formed, and other schisms occurred into the 21st century. Many of these churches were formed as a response to deep disagreements about theology, doctrine, and church discipline as evolution both inside and outside the Mennonite faith occurred. Many of the modern churches are descended from those groups that abandoned traditional Mennonite practices.

text: Larger groups of Dutch/North German Mennonites came to North America from the Russian Empire after 1873, especially to Kansas and Manitoba. While the more progressive element of these Mennonites assimilated into mainstream society, the more conservative element emigrated to Latin America. Since then there has been a steady flow of Mennonite emigrants from Latin America to North America.[citation needed]

text: These historical schisms have had an influence on creating the distinct Mennonite denominations, sometimes using mild or severe shunning to show its disapproval of other Mennonite groups.

text: Some expelled congregations were affiliated both with the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. The latter did not expel the same congregations. When these two Mennonite denominations formally completed their merger in 2002 to become the new Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada denominations, it was still not clear, whether the congregations that were expelled from one denomination, yet included in the other, are considered to be "inside" or "outside" of the new merged denomination. Some Mennonite conferences have chosen to maintain such "disciplined" congregations as "associate" or "affiliate" congregations in the conferences, rather than to expel such congregations. In virtually every case, a dialogue continues between the disciplined congregations and the denomination, as well as their current or former conferences.[38]

text: Schools[edit]

text: Several Mennonite groups have their own private or parochial schools. Conservative groups, like the Holdeman, have not only their own schools, but their own curriculum and teaching staff (usually, but not exclusively, young unmarried women).

text: Secondary schools[edit]

text: This list of secondary Mennonite Schools is not an exhaustive list. Most are members of the Mennonite Schools Council, endorsed by the Mennonite Education Agency.[39]

text: Canada[edit]

text:
Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Mennonite Collegiate Institute, Gretna, Manitoba
Mennonite Educational Institute, Abbotsford, British Columbia
Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Kitchener, Ontario
Rosthern Junior College, Rosthern, Saskatchewan
Westgate Mennonite Collegiate, Winnipeg, Manitoba

text: United States[edit]

text:
Belleville Mennonite School, Belleville, Pennsylvania
Bethany Christian Schools, Goshen, Indiana
Central Christian School, Kidron, Ohio
Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, Lansdale, Pennsylvania
Eastern Mennonite School, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Freeman Academy, Freeman, South Dakota
Greenwood Mennonite School, Greenwood, Delaware
Immanuel Schools, Reedley, California
Iowa Mennonite School, Kalona, Iowa
Lancaster Mennonite High School, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Mennonite High School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sarasota Christian School, Sarasota, Florida
Western Mennonite School, Salem, Oregon

text: Controversy in Quebec[edit]

text: Quebec does not allow these parochial schools, in the sense of allowing them to have an independent curriculum. As of 2007, the Quebec government imposed a standard curriculum on all schools (public and private). While private schools may add optional material to the compulsory curriculum, they may not replace it. The Quebec curriculum is unacceptable to the parents of the only Mennonite school in the province.[40] They said they would leave Quebec after the Education Ministry threatened legal actions. The Province threatened to invoke Youth Protection services if the Mennonite children were not registered with the Education Ministry; they either had to be home-schooled using the government approved material, or attend a "sanctioned" school. The local population and its mayor supported[41] the local Mennonites. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada wrote that year to the Quebec government to express its concerns[42] about this situation. By September 2007, some Mennonite families had already left Quebec.[43]

text: Post-secondary schools[edit]

text: Canada[edit]

text:
Bethany College, Hepburn, Saskatchewan
Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford, British Columbia
Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ontario (part of the University of Waterloo)
Menno Simons College, Winnipeg, Manitoba (part of Canadian Mennonite University but affiliated with and located at the University of Winnipeg).
Steinbach Bible College, Steinbach, Manitoba

text: United States[edit]

text:
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana
Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas
Bluffton University, Bluffton, Ohio
Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Fresno Pacific University, Fresno, California
Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana
Hesston College, Hesston, Kansas
Rosedale Bible College, Rosedale, Ohio
Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas

text: Sexuality, marriage, and family mores[edit]

text: The Mennonite church has no formal celibate religious order similar to monasticism, but recognizes the legitimacy of and honours both the single state and the sanctity of marriage of its members. Single persons are expected to be chaste, and marriage is held to be a lifelong, monogamous and faithful covenant between a man and a woman. In conservative groups, divorce is discouraged, and it is believed that the "hardness of the heart" of people is the ultimate cause of divorce. Some conservative churches have disciplined members who have unilaterally divorced their spouses outside of cases of sexual unfaithfulness or acute abuse.[citation needed] Until approximately the 1960s or 1970s, before the more widespread urbanization of the Mennonite demographic, divorce was quite rare. In recent times, divorce is more common, and also carries less stigma, particularly in cases where abuse was known.

text: The Mennonite Brethren Church and the Conservative Mennonite Conference have been nearly unanimous in their condemnation of homosexuality.[44] A few North American Mennonite churches identify as LGBT-affirming churches. Congregations have been disciplined by or expelled from their regional conferences for taking such a stance,[45][better source needed] while other congregations have been allowed to remain "at variance" with official Mennonite Church USA policy.[46][better source needed] Some pastors who performed same-sex unions have had their credentials revoked by their conference,[47] and some within the Mennonite Church USA have had their credentials reviewed without any disciplinary actions taken.[48][49] Most recently, the Mountain States Mennonite Conference licensed an openly gay pastor in February 2014.[50]

text: Theology[edit]

text: Mennonite theology emphasizes the primacy of the teachings of Jesus as recorded in New Testament scripture. They hold in common the ideal of a religious community based on New Testament models and imbued with the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. Their core beliefs deriving from Anabaptist traditions are:[citation needed]

text:
Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
The authority of scripture and the Holy Spirit.
Believer's baptism understood as threefold: Baptism by the spirit (internal change of heart), baptism by water (public demonstration of witness), and baptism by blood (martyrdom and asceticism or the practice of strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline).
Discipleship understood as an outward sign of an inward change.
Discipline in the church, informed by New Testament teachings, particularly of Jesus (for example Matthew 18:15–18). Some Mennonite churches practice the Meidung (shunning).
The Lord's Supper understood as a memorial rather than as a sacrament or Christian rite, ideally shared by baptized believers within the unity and discipline of the church.[51]

text: One of the earliest expressions of Mennonite faith was the Schleitheim Confession, adopted on February 24, 1527. Its seven articles covered:

text:
The Ban (excommunication)
Breaking of bread (Communion)
Separation from and shunning of the abomination (the Roman Catholic Church and other "worldly" groups and practices)
Believer's baptism
Pastors in the church
Renunciation of the sword (Christian pacifism)
Renunciation of the oath (swearing as proof of truth)

text: The Dordrecht Confession of Faith was adopted on April 21, 1632, by Dutch Mennonites, by Alsatian Mennonites in 1660, and by North American Mennonites in 1725. There is no official creed or catechism of which acceptance is required by congregations or members. However, there are structures and traditions taught as in the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective[52] of Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA.

text: In 1911 the Mennonite church in the Netherlands (Doopsgezinde Kerk) was the first Dutch church to have a female pastor authorized; she was Anna Zernike.[53]

text: Service projects[edit]

text: The Mennonite Disaster Service, based in North America, is a volunteer network of Anabaptist churches which provide both immediate and long-term responses to hurricanes, floods, and other disasters in the U.S. and Canada.[54]

text: Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), founded on September 27, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois,[55] provides disaster relief around the world alongside their long-term international development programs. Other programs offer a variety of relief efforts and services throughout the world.[citation needed] In 1972, Mennonites in Altona, Manitoba, established the MCC Thrift Shops[56] which has grown to become a worldwide source of assistance to the needy.[57]

text: Since the latter part of the 20th century, some Mennonite groups have become more actively involved with peace and social justice issues, helping to found Christian Peacemaker Teams and Mennonite Conciliation Service.[58]

text: Worship, doctrine, and tradition[edit]

text: There is a wide scope of worship, doctrine and traditions among Mennonites today. This section shows the main types of Mennonites as seen from North America. It is far from a specific study of all Mennonite classifications worldwide but it does show a somewhat representative sample of the complicated classifications within the Mennonite faith worldwide.

text: Moderate Mennonites include the largest denominations, the Mennonite Brethren and the Mennonite Church. In most forms of worship and practice, they differ very little from other Protestant congregations. There is no special form of dress and no restrictions on use of technology. Worship styles vary greatly between different congregations. There is no formal liturgy; services typically consist of singing, scripture reading, prayer and a sermon. Some churches prefer hymns and choirs; others make use of contemporary Christian music with electronic instruments. Mennonite congregations are self-supporting and appoint their own ministers. There is no requirement for ministers to be approved by the denomination, and sometimes ministers from other denominations will be appointed. A small sum, based on membership numbers, is paid to the denomination, which is used to support central functions such as publication of newsletters and interactions with other denominations and other countries. The distinguishing characteristics of moderate Mennonite churches tend to be ones of emphasis rather than rule. There is an emphasis on peace, community and service. However, members do not live in a separate community—they participate in the general community as "salt and light" to the world (Matt 5:13,14). The main elements of Menno Simons' doctrine are retained but in a moderated form. Banning is rarely practiced and would, in any event, have much less effect than those denominations where the community is more tight-knit. Excommunication can occur and was notably applied by the Mennonite Brethren to members who joined the military during the Second World War. Service in the military is generally not permitted, but service in the legal profession or law enforcement is acceptable. Outreach and help to the wider community at home and abroad is encouraged. The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a leader in foreign aid provision.

text: Traditionally, very modest dress was expected, particularly in conservative Mennonite circles. As the Mennonite population has become urbanized and more integrated into the wider culture, this visible difference has disappeared outside of conservative Mennonite groups.

text: The Reformed Mennonite Church, with members in the United States and Canada, represents the first division in the original North American Mennonite body. Called the "First Keepers of the Old Way" by author Stephen Scott, the Reformed Mennonite Church formed in the very early 19th century. Reformed Mennonites see themselves as true followers of Menno Simons' teachings and of the teachings of the New Testament. They have no church rules, but they rely solely on the Bible as their guide. They insist on strict separation from all other forms of worship and dress in conservative plain garb that preserves 18th century Mennonite details. However, they refrain from forcing their Mennonite faith on their children, allow their children to attend public schools, and have permitted the use of automobiles. They are notable for being the church of Milton S. Hershey's mother and famous for the long and bitter ban of Robert Bear, a Pennsylvania farmer who rebelled against what he saw as dishonesty and disunity in the leadership.

text: The Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, a group often called Holdeman Mennonites after their founder John Holdeman, was founded from a schism in 1859.[59] They emphasize Evangelical conversion and strict church discipline. They stay separate from other Mennonite groups because of their emphasis on the one-true-church doctrine and their use of avoidance toward their own excommunicated members. The Holdeman Mennonites do not believe that the use of modern technology is a sin in itself, but they discourage too intensive a use of the Internet and avoid television, cameras and radio.[citation needed] The group had 24,400 baptized members in 2013.[60]

text: Old Order Mennonites cover several distinct groups. Some groups use horse and buggy for transportation and speak German while others drive cars and speak English. What most Old Orders share in common is conservative doctrine, dress, and traditions, common roots in 19th century and early 20th century schisms, and a refusal to participate in politics and other so-called "sins of the world". Most Old Order groups also school their children in Mennonite-operated schools.

text:
Horse and Buggy Old Order Mennonites came from the main series of Old Order schisms that began in 1872 and ended in 1901 in Ontario, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Midwest, as conservative Mennonites fought the radical changes that the influence of 19th century American Revivalism had on Mennonite worship. Most Horse and Buggy Old Order Mennonites allow the use of tractors for farming, although some groups insist on steel-wheeled tractors to prevent tractors from being used for road transportation. Like the Stauffer or Pike Mennonites (origin 1845 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania), the Groffdale Conference, and the Old Order Mennonite Conference of Ontario, they stress separation from the world, excommunication, and the wearing of plain clothes. Some Old Order Mennonite groups are unlike the Stauffer or Pike Mennonites in that their form of the ban is less severe because the ex-communicant is not shunned, and is therefore not excluded from the family table, shunned by their spouse, or cut off from business dealings.
Automobile Old Order Mennonites, also known as Weaverland Conference Mennonites (having their origins in the Weaverland District of the Lancaster Conference—also calling "Horning"), or Wisler Mennonites in the U.S. Midwest, or the Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference having its origins from the Old Order Mennonites of Ontario, Canada, also evolved from the main series of Old Order schisms from 1872 to 1901. They often share the same meeting houses with, and adhere to almost identical forms of Old Order worship as their Horse and Buggy Old Order brethren with whom they parted ways in the early 20th century. Although this group began using cars in 1927, the cars were required to be plain and painted black. The largest group of Automobile Old Orders are still known today as "Black Bumper" Mennonites because some members still paint their chrome bumpers black.

text: Stauffer Mennonites, or Pike Mennonites, represent one of the first and most conservative forms of North American Horse and Buggy Mennonites. They were founded in 1845, following conflicts about how to discipline children and spousal abuse by a few Mennonite Church members. They almost immediately began to split into separate churches themselves. Today these groups are among the most conservative of all Swiss Mennonites outside the Amish. They stress strict separation from "the world", adhere to "strict withdrawal from and shunning of apostate and separated members", forbid and limit cars and technology and wear plain clothing.

text: Conservative Mennonites are generally considered those Mennonites who maintain somewhat conservative dress, although carefully accepting other technology. They are not a unified group and are divided into various independent conferences and fellowships such as the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church Conference. Despite the rapid changes that precipitated the Old Order schisms in the last quarter of the 19th century, most Mennonites in the United States and Canada retained a core of traditional beliefs based on a literal interpretation of the New Testament scriptures as well as more external "plain" practices into the beginning of the 20th century. However, disagreements in the United States and Canada between conservative and progressive (i.e. less emphasis on literal interpretation of scriptures) leaders began in the first half of the 20th century and continue to some extent today. Following WWII, a conservative movement emerged from scattered separatist groups as a reaction to the Mennonite churches drifting away from their historical traditions. "Plain" became passé as open criticisms of traditional beliefs and practices broke out in the 1950s and 1960s.[citation needed] The first conservative withdrawals from the progressive group began in the 1950s. These withdrawals continue to the present day in what is now the growing Conservative Movement formed from Mennonite schisms and from combinations with progressive Amish groups. While moderate and progressive Mennonite congregations have dwindled in size, the Conservative Movement congregations continue to exhibit considerable growth.[citation needed] Other conservative Mennonite groups descended from the former Amish-Mennonite churches which split, like the Wisler Mennonites, from the Old Order Amish in the latter part of the 19th century. (The Wisler Mennonites are a grouping descended from the Old Mennonite Church.) There are also other Conservative Mennonite churches that descended from more recent groups that have left the Amish like the Beachy Amish or the Tennessee Brotherhood Churches.

text: Progressive Mennonite churches allow LGBT members to worship as church members and have been banned from membership in some cases in the moderate groups as result. The Germantown Mennonite Church in Germantown, Pennsylvania is one example of such a progressive Mennonite church.[61]

text: Some progressive Mennonite Churches place a great emphasis on the Mennonite tradition's teachings on peace and non-violence.[citation needed] Some progressive Mennonite Churches are part of moderate Mennonite denominations (such as the Mennonite Church USA) while others are independent congregations.

text: Membership[edit]

text: In 2009, there were 1,616,126 Mennonites in 82 countries. The United States had the highest number of Mennonites with 387,103 members, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 220,444 members. The third largest concentration of Mennonites was in Ethiopia with 172,306 members, while the fourth largest population was in India with 156,922 members. Europe, the birthplace of Mennonites, had 64,740 members.[1]

text: Africa has the highest membership growth rate by far, with an increase of 10% to 12% every year, particularly in Ethiopia due to new conversions. African Mennonite churches underwent a dramatic 228% increase in membership during the 1980s and 1990s, attracting thousands of new converts in Tanzania, Kenya, and the Congo.[62] Programs were also founded in Botswana and Swaziland during the 1960s.[63] Mennonite organizations in South Africa, initially stifled under apartheid due to the Afrikaner government's distrust of foreign pacifist churches, have expanded substantially since 1994.[63] In recognition of the dramatic increase in the proportion of African adherents, the Mennonite World Conference held its assembly in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 2003.[62]

text: In Latin America growth is not a high as in Africa, but strong because of the high birth rates of traditional Mennonites of German ancestry. Growth in Mennonite membership is slow but steady in North America, the Asia/Pacific region and Caribbean region. Europe has seen a slow and accelerating decline in Mennonite membership since about 1980.[64]

text: Organization worldwide[edit]

text: The most basic unit of organization among Mennonites is the church. There are hundreds or thousands of Mennonite churches and groups, many of which are separate from all others. Some churches are members of regional or area conferences. And some regional or area conferences are affiliated with larger national or international conferences. Thus, there is no single authorized organization that includes all Mennonite peoples worldwide.

text: For the most part, there is a host of independent Mennonite churches along with a myriad of separate conferences with no particular responsibility to any other group. Independent churches can contain as few as fifty members or as many as 20,000 members. Similar size differences occur among separate conferences. Worship, church discipline and lifestyles vary widely between progressive, moderate, conservative, Old Order and orthodox Mennonites in a vast panoply of distinct, independent, and widely dispersed classifications. For these reasons, no single group of Mennonites anywhere can credibly claim to represent, speak for, or lead all Mennonites worldwide.

text: The twelve largest Mennonite/Anabaptist groups are:

text:
Mennonite Brethren (426,581 members on six continents worldwide)[65]
Old Order Amish (300,000 in North America)
Meserete Kristos Church in Ethiopia (120,600 members; 126,000 more followers attending alike churches)[66]
Old Colony Mennonite Church (120,000 in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, Paraguay, Belize and Argentina)
Communauté Mennonite au Congo 87,000 members
Mennonite Church USA with 78,892 members in the United States[31]
Old Order Mennonites with 60,000 to 80,000 members in the U.S., Canada and Belize
Kanisa La Mennonite Tanzania with 50,000 members in 240 congregations
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeinden in Deutschland or Deutsche Mennonitengemeinden with 40,000 members in Germany[67]
Mennonite Church Canada with 31,000 members in 225 congregations across Canada[68]
Conservative Mennonites with 30,000 members in over 500 U.S. churches[69]
Church of God in Christ, Mennonite with 24,400 members, of whom 14,804 (2013 data) were in United States, 5,081 in Canada, and the remainder being found in various countries of Africa, Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe.[60]

tag: ol

text: The Mennonite World Conference is a global community of 95 Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Mennonite national churches from 51 countries on six continents. It exists to "facilitate community between Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, and relate to other Christian world communions and organizations", but it is not a governing body of any kind. It is a voluntary community of faith whose decisions are not binding on member churches. The member churches of Mennonite World Conference include the Mennonite Brethren, the Mennonite Church USA, and the Mennonite Church Canada, with a combined total membership of at least 400,000, or about 30% of Mennonites worldwide.

text: Organization: North America[edit]

text: In 2015, there were 538,839 baptized members organized into 41 bodies in United States, according to the Mennonite World Conference.[9] The largest group of that number is the Old Order Amish, perhaps numbering as high as 300,000.[citation needed] The U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches comprises 34,500 members.[65] 27,000 are part of a larger group known collectively as Old Order Mennonites.[70][71] Another 78,892 of that number are from the Mennonite Church USA.[31]

text: Total membership in Mennonite Church USA denominations decreased from about 133,000, before the MC-GC merger in 1998, to about 114,000 after the merger in 2003. In 2016 it had fallen to under 79,000. Membership of the Mennonite Church USA is on the decline.[31][64]

text: Canada had 143,720 Mennonites in 16 organized bodies as of 2015.[9] Of that number, the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches had 37,508 baptized members[65] and the Mennonite Church Canada had 31,000 members.[68]

text: As of 2012, there were an estimated 100,000 Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico.[72][73] These Mennonites descend from a mass migration in the 1920s of roughly 6,000 Old Colony Mennonites from the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In 1921, a Canadian Mennonite delegation arriving in Mexico received a privilegium, a promise of non-interference, from the Mexican government. This guarantee of many freedoms was the impetus that created the two original Old Colony settlements near Patos Nuevo Ideal, Durango, Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua and La Honda, Zacatecas as well as many communities in Aguascalientes.[74]

text: On the other hand, the Mennonite World Conference cites only 33,881 Mennonites organized into 14 bodies in Mexico.[9]

text: Organization: Europe[edit]

text: Germany has the largest contingent of Mennonites in Europe. The Mennonite World Conference counts 47,202 baptized members within 7 organized bodies in 2015.[9] The largest group is the Bruderschaft der Christengemeinde in Deutschland (Mennonite Brethren), which had 20,000 members in 2010.[65] Another such body is the Union of German Mennonite Congregations or Vereinigung der Deutschen Mennonitengemeinden. Founded in 1886, it has 27 Congregations with 5,724 members and is part of the larger "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeinden in Deutschland" or AMG (Assembly/Council of Mennonite Churches in Germany),[75] which claims 40,000 overall members from various groups. Other AMG member groups include: Rußland-Deutschen Mennoniten, Mennoniten-Brüdergemeinden(Independent Mennonite Brethren congregations), WEBB-Gemeinden, and the Mennonitischen Heimatmission.[67] However, not all German Mennonites belong to this larger AMG body. Upwards of 40,000 Mennonites emigrated from Russia to Germany starting in the 1970s.[75]

text: The Mennonite presence remaining in the Netherlands, Algemene Doopsgezinde Societeit or ADS (translated as General Mennonite Society), maintains a seminary, as well as organizing relief, peace, and mission work, the latter primarily in Central Java and New Guinea. They have 121 congregations with 10,200 members according to the World Council of Churches,[14] although the Mennonite World Conference cites only 7680 members.[9]

text: Switzerland had 2350 Mennonites belonging to 14 Congregations which are part of the Konferenz der Mennoniten der Schweiz (Alttäufer), Conférence mennonite suisse (Anabaptiste) (Swiss Mennonite Conference).[76]

text: In 2015, there were 2078 Mennonites in France. The country's 32 autonomous Mennonite congregations have formed the Association des Églises Évangéliques Mennonites de France.[77]

text: Once home to tens of thousands of Mennonites, the number of Mennonites in Ukraine in 2015 totaled just 499. They are organized among three denominations: Association of Mennonite Brethren Churches of Ukraine, Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Ukraine), and Evangelical Mennonite Churches of Ukraine (Beachy Amish Church – Ukraine).[13]

text:
Christianity portal
Anabaptism portal

text: The U.K. had but 326 members within two organized bodies as of 2015.[9] There is the Nationwide Fellowship Churches (UK) and the larger Brethren in Christ Church United Kingdom.[78] Additionally, there is the registered charity, The Mennonite Trust (formerly known as "London Mennonite Centre"), which seeks to promote understanding of Mennonite and Anabaptist practices and values.[79]

text: In popular culture[edit]

text: Mennonites have been portrayed in many areas of popular culture, especially literature and television. Notable novels about and/or written by Mennonites include A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews, Peace Shall Destroy Many by Rudy Wiebe and A Year of Lesser by David Bergen. Rhoda Janzen's memoire Mennonite in a Little Black Dress was a best-seller. In 2007, Mexican director Carlos Reygadas directed Silent Light, the first ever feature film in the Russian Mennonite dialect of Plautdietsch. In 2017, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced the TV series Pure, a drama about conservative Mennonites in Southern Ontario. Mennonites have also been featured in or mentioned on episodes of The Simpsons, Longmire, and Modern Family. Satire site The Daily Bonnet pokes fun at Mennonite culture and religion.


document_title: France in the American Revolutionary War

question_text: what country decided to support america because of the victory at saratoga

root

text: American origins of the conflict[edit]

text: After its defeat in the Seven Years' War in 1763, France lost its vast holdings in North America. Meanwhile, the American colonists and the British government began to fight over whether Parliament in London or the colonial assemblies had primary responsibility for taxation. As part of that conflict, the colonists organized the Boston Tea Party in response to a tax on tea. The British government responded by passing the Intolerable Acts, which included the closing of Boston Harbor and the revocation of Massachusetts's colonial charter.[1] This conflict exacerbated tensions further. The ideological conflict escalated into open warfare in 1775, at which point the American patriots revolted against British rule. France, who had been rebuilding her Navy and other forces, saw this as an opportunity to seriously weaken her perennial enemy. [2]

tag: p

text: French involvement[edit]

text: France bitterly resented its loss in the Seven Years' War and sought revenge. It also wanted to strategically weaken Britain. Following the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was well received by both the general population and the aristocracy in France. The Revolution was perceived as the incarnation of the Enlightenment Spirit against the "English tyranny." Benjamin Franklin traveled to France in December 1776 in order to rally the nation's support, and he was welcomed with great enthusiasm. At first, French support was covert: French agents sent the Patriots military aid (predominantly gunpowder) through a company called Rodrigue Hortalez et Compagnie, beginning in the spring of 1776. Estimates place the percentage of French supplied arms to the Americans in the Saratoga campaign at up to 90%.[3] By 1777, over five million livres of aid had been sent to the American rebels.

text: Motivated by the prospect of glory in battle or animated by the sincere ideals of liberty and republicanism, volunteers like Pierre Charles L'Enfant joined the American army. The most famous was Lafayette, a charming young aristocrat who defied the king's order and enlisted in 1777 at age 20. He became an aide to George Washington and a combat general. More importantly, he solidified a favorable American view of France. Kramer argues that Lafayette provided a legitimacy for the war and confidence that there was serious European support for independence. Lafayette's personal style was highly attractive; the young man learned quickly, adapted to the Patriot style, avoided politics, and became a fast friend of General Washington. Fifty years later, after a major career in French politics, he returned as a beloved hero of the war.[4]

text: Debate over quiet aid or declaring open war[edit]

text: Up against the British power, the young nation lacked arms and allies, and so it turned towards France. France was not directly interested in the conflict, but saw it as an opportunity to contest British power by supporting a new British opponent. Through negotiations conducted first by Silas Deane and then by Benjamin Franklin, France began covert support of the American cause.

text: Secretly approached by Louis XVI and France's foreign minister, the comte de Vergennes, Pierre Beaumarchais was authorized to sell gunpowder and ammunition to the Americans for close to a million pounds under the veil of the French company Rodrigue Hortalez et Compagnie. The aid given by France, much of which passed through the neutral Dutch West Indies port of Sint Eustatius, contributed to George Washington's survival against the British onslaught in 1776 and 1777. The aid was also a major factor in the defeat of General Burgoyne's expedition in the Champlain corridor that ended in a British disaster at Saratoga. French ports accommodated American ships, including privateers and Continental Navy warships, that acted against British merchant ships. France provided significant economic aid, either as donations or loans, and also offered technical assistance, granting some of its military strategists "vacations" so they could assist American troops.

text: Silas Deane, appointed by the Americans and helped by French animosity towards Britain, obtained unofficial aid, starting in early 1776. However, the goal was the total involvement of France in the war. A new delegation composed of Franklin, Deane, and Arthur Lee, was appointed to lobby for the involvement of European nations. Franklin, age 70 and already well known in French intellectual circles for his scientific discoveries, served as the chief diplomat with the title of "minister" (the term "ambassador" was not used). He dressed in rough frontier clothes rather than formal court dress, and met with many leading diplomats, aristocrats, intellectuals, scientists and financiers. Franklin's image and writings caught the French imagination – there were many images of him sold on the market – and he became the image of the archetypal new American and a hero for aspirations for a new order inside France. When the international climate at the end of 1777 had become tenser, Habsburg Austria requested the support of France in the War of the Bavarian Succession against the Prussia in line with the Franco-Austrian Alliance. France refused, causing the relationship with Austria to turn sour. Under these conditions, asking Austria to assist France in a war against the British was impossible. Attempts to rally Spain also failed: Spain did not immediately recognize potential gains, and the American revolutionary spirit was seen as threatening the legitimacy of the Spanish Crown in its own American colonies.

text: Public opinion in France was in favor of open war, but King Louis and his advisors were reluctant due to the possible risks and heavy expenses involved. The king's economic and military advisors, in particular, remained reluctant. The French Navy was being rapidly rebuilt, but there were doubts as to how ready it was for serious conflict. Financiers Turgot and Necker warned war would be very expensive for France's wobbly system of taxation and finance.

text: The Americans argued that an alliance of the United States, France, and Spain would assure a rapid defeat of the British, but Vergennes, waiting until his navy was ready, hesitated. On July 23, 1777, Vergennes decided that it was time to decide either total assistance, with war, or abandonment of the new nation. The choice, ratified by the king, was war.[5]

text: Entry into the war[edit]

text: The British had taken Philadelphia in 1777, but American victory at the Battle of Saratoga brought back hope to the Patriots and enthusiasm in France. The army of Burgoyne surrendered to American forces after Saratoga and France realized that the United States could be victorious. The king directed Vergennes to negotiate an alliance with the Americans.[6]

text: France formally recognized the United States on February 6, 1778, with the signing of the Treaty of Alliance. Hostilities soon followed after Britain declared war on France on March 17, 1778. The British naval force, then the largest fleet afloat, and French fleet confronted each other from the beginning. The British avoided intercepting a French fleet that left Toulon under the comte d'Estaing in April for North America, fearing the French fleet at Brest might then be used to launch an invasion of Britain. France had kept the Brest fleet to protect commercial shipping in European waters, and it sailed out only after a British fleet was confirmed to have left in pursuit of d'Estaing, thus weakening the British Channel fleet. In spite of this reduction, the British fleet still outnumbered the French fleet at Brest, and Admiral d'Orvilliers was instructed to avoid combat when he sailed in July. D'Orvilliers met the fleet of Admiral Augustus Keppel in the indecisive Battle of Ushant on July 27, after which both fleets returned to port for repairs.

text: France did consider the landing of 40,000 men in the nearby British Isles but abandoned the idea because of logistical issues. On the continent, France was protected through its alliance with Austria which, even if it did not take part in the American Revolutionary War, affirmed its diplomatic support of France.

text: Other nations in Europe at first refused to openly join the war but both Spain and the Dutch Republic gave unofficial support to the American cause. Vergennes was able to convince the Spanish to formally enter the war in 1779 and, in 1780, Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic over claims of Dutch violations of neutrality.

text: North American operations[edit]

text: French participation in North America was initially maritime in nature and marked by some indecision on the part of its military leaders. In 1778, American and French planners organized an attempt to capture Newport, Rhode Island, then under British occupation. The attempt failed, in part because Admiral d'Estaing did not land French troops prior to sailing out of Narragansett Bay to meet the British fleet. He then sailed to Boston after his fleet was damaged in a storm. In 1779, d'Estaing again led his fleet to North America for joint operations, this time against British-held Savannah, Georgia. About 3,000 French joined with 2,000 Americans in the Siege of Savannah, in which a naval bombardment was unsuccessful. An attempted assault of the entrenched British position was repulsed with heavy losses.

text: Support became more notable when, in 1780, 6,000 soldiers led by Rochambeau landed at Newport, itself abandoned in 1779 by the British, and then established a naval base there. These forces were largely inactive since the fleet was closely watched by the British fleet from its bases in New York and eastern Long Island. By early 1781, with the war dragging on, French military planners were finally convinced that more significant operations would be required in North America to bring a decisive end to the war. That year's West Indies fleet was commanded by the comte de Grasse, and specific arrangements were made to coordinate operations with him. De Grasse asked to be supplied with North American pilots and to be informed of possible operations in North America to which he might contribute. Rochambeau and Washington met in Wethersfield, Connecticut in May 1781 to discuss their options. Washington wanted to drive the British from both New York City and Virginia (the latter led first by Benedict Arnold, then by Brigadier William Phillips and eventually by Charles Cornwallis). Virginia was also seen as a potent threat that could be fought with naval assistance. These two options were dispatched to the Caribbean along with the requested pilots. Rochambeau, in a separate letter, urged de Grasse to come to the Chesapeake Bay for operations in Virginia. Following the Wethersfield conference, Rochambeau moved his army to White Plains, New York and placed his command under Washington.

text: De Grasse received these letters in July at roughly the same time Cornwallis was preparing to occupy Yorktown, Virginia. De Grasse concurred with Rochambeau and subsequently sent a dispatch indicating that he would reach the Chesapeake at the end of August but that agreements with the Spanish meant he could only stay until mid-October. The arrival of his dispatches prompted the Franco-American army to begin a march for Virginia. De Grasse reached the Chesapeake as planned and his troops were sent to assist Lafayette's army in the blockade of Cornwallis's army. A British fleet sent to confront de Grasse's control of the Chesapeake was defeated by the French on September 5 at the Battle of the Chesapeake and the Newport fleet delivered the French siege train to complete the allied military arrival. The Siege of Yorktown and following surrender by Cornwallis on October 19 were decisive in ending major hostilities in North America.[7]

text: Other theaters[edit]

text: Other important battles between the French and the British were spaced out around the world, from the West Indies to India. France's navy at first dominated in the West Indies, capturing Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Montserrat, Tobago, and St. Kitts, but losing St. Lucia at the beginning of the war. A planned Franco-Spanish invasion of Jamaica was aborted after the decisive Battle of the Saintes in 1782. At the end of the war. the French captured the Turks and Caicos Islands. In European waters, France and Spain joined forces with the entry of Spain into the war in 1779. An attempted invasion of Britain failed due to a variety of factors. French and Spanish forces besieged Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783, but were unsuccessful in either storming the site, or preventing repeated British relief of its garrison. They were more successful in capturing Minorca in Europe and Demerara and Essequibo in South America in February 1782.

text: In India, British troops gained control of French outposts in 1778 and 1779, sparking the Kingdom of Mysore, a longtime French ally, to begin the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Allied with the French, the Mysoreans for a time threatened British positions on the east coast, but that war ended status quo ante bellum in 1784. A French fleet commanded by the Bailli de Suffren fought a series of largely inconclusive battles with a British fleet under Sir Edward Hughes, and the only major military land action, the 1783 Siege of Cuddalore, was cut short by news that a preliminary peace had been signed.

text: Because of decisive battles on American soil, the French were in a strong position during the peace negotiations in Paris.

text: Peace and consequences[edit]

text: Starting with the Siege of Yorktown, Benjamin Franklin never informed France of the secret negotiations that took place directly between Britain and the United States. Britain acknowledged that the United States owned all the land south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River, except for Florida (which went to Spain). However, since France was not included in the American-British peace discussions, the alliance between France and the U.S. was weakened. Thus the influence of France and Spain in future negotiations was limited.[8]

text: The war formally ended in September 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. France gained (or regained) territories in the Americas, Africa, and India. Losses in the 1763 Treaty of Paris and in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) were in part regained: Tobago, Saint Lucia, the Senegal River area, as well as increased fishing rights in Terra Nova. Spain regained Florida and Minorca, but Gibraltar remained in the hands of the British.

text: Because the French involvement in the war was distant and naval in nature, over a billion livres tournois were spent by the French government to support the war effort, raising its overall debt to about 3.315 billion. The finances of the French state were in disastrous shape and were made worse by Jacques Necker, who, rather than increase taxes, used loans to pay off debts. State secretary of Finances Charles Alexandre de Calonne attempted to fix the deficit problem by asking for the taxation of the property of nobles and clergy but was dismissed and exiled for his ideas. The French instability further weakened the reforms that were essential in the re-establishment of stable French finances. Trade also severely declined during the war, but was revived by 1783.

text: The war was especially important for the prestige and pride of France, who was reinstated in the role of European arbiter. However, Great Britain, not France, became the leading trading partner of the United States.[9] The French took pride in their cultural influence on the young country through the Enlightenment, as attested by Franklin and Jefferson, and as embodied in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the United States Constitution in 1787. In turn, the Revolution influenced France.[10] Liberal elites were satisfied by the victory but there were also some major consequences. European conservative Royalists and nobility had become nervous, and began to take measures in order to secure their positions. On May 22, 1781, the Decree of Ségur closed the military post offices of the upper rank to the common persons, reserving those ranks exclusively for the nobility.

text: Financial aspects[edit]

text: In all the French spent 1.3 billion livres to support the Americans directly, in addition to the money it spent fighting Britain on land and sea outside the U.S.[11][12][13]

text: France's status as a great modern power was re-affirmed by the war, but it was detrimental to the country's finances. Even though France's European territories were not affected, victory in a war against Great Britain with battles like the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781 had a large financial cost which severely degraded fragile finances and increased the national debt. France gained little except that it weakened its main strategic enemy and gained a new, fast-growing ally that could become a welcome trading partner. However, the trade never materialized, and in 1793 the United States proclaimed its neutrality in the war between Great Britain and the French Republic.[14]

text: Some historians argue that France primarily sought revenge against Great Britain for the loss of territory in North America and India from the previous conflict. But Jonathan R. Dull states that France intervened because of dispassionate calculation, not because of Anglophobia or a desire to avenge the loss of Canada.[15]


document_title: Showdown (poker)

question_text: when do you have to show your cards in poker

text: Showdown (poker)

text: In poker, the showdown is a situation when, if more than one player remains after the last betting round, remaining players expose and compare their hands to determine the winner or winners.

text: To win any part of a pot if more than one player has a hand, a player must show all of his cards faceup on the table, whether they were used in the final hand played or not. Cards speak for themselves: the actual value of a player's hand prevails in the event a player mis-states the value of his hand. Because exposing a losing hand gives information to an opponent, players may be reluctant to expose their hands until after their opponents have done so and will muck their losing hands without exposing them. Robert's Rules of Poker state that the last player to take aggressive action by a bet or raise is the first to show the hand—unless everyone checks (or is all-in) on the last round of betting, then the first player to the left of the dealer button is the first to show the hand.[1]

text: If there is a side pot, players involved in the side pot should show their hands before anyone who is all-in for only the main pot.[1] To speed up the game, a player holding a probable winner is encouraged to show the hand without delay. Any player who has been dealt in may request to see any hand that is eligible to participate in the showdown, even if the hand has been mucked. This option is generally only used when a player suspects collusion or some other sort of cheating by other players. When the privilege is abused by a player (i.e. the player does not suspect cheating, but asks to see the cards just to get insight on another player's style or betting patterns), he may be warned by the dealer, or even removed from the table.[1]

text: There has been a recent trend in public cardroom rules to limit the ability of players to request to see mucked losing hands at the showdown. Specifically, some cardrooms only grant the right to view a mucked losing hand if the requesting player articulates a concern about possible collusion. Under such rules, players do not have an inherent right to view mucked hands.[2][3][4][5]


document_title: Negotiable instrument

question_text: a person who is ordered to pay the amount of bill of exchange is known as

text: Negotiable instrument

text: Definition[edit]

text: In the Commonwealth of Nations almost all jurisdictions have codified the law relating to negotiable instruments in a Bills of Exchange Act, e.g. Bills of Exchange Act 1882 in the UK, Bills of Exchange Act 1908 in New Zealand, Bills of Exchange Act 1909 in Australia,[1] the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 in India and the Bills of Exchange Act 1914 in Mauritius. The Bills of Exchange Act:

text:
defines a bill of exchange as: 'an unconditional order in writing, addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand, or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person, or to bearer.
defines a cheque as: 'a bill of exchange drawn on (behalf of) a banker, which is payable on demand (by banker)'
defines a promissory note as: 'an unconditional promise in writing made by one person to another, signed by the maker, engaging to pay on demand, or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person or to bearer.'

text: Additionally most Commonwealth jurisdictions have separate Cheques Acts providing for additional protections for bankers collecting unendorsed or irregularly endorsed cheques, providing that cheques that are crossed and marked 'not negotiable' or similar are not transferable, and providing for electronic presentation of cheques in inter-bank cheque clearing systems.

text: History[edit]

text: Common prototypes of bills of exchanges and promissory notes originated in China, where special instruments called feitsyan were used to safely transfer money over long distances during the reign of the Tang Dynasty in the 8th century.[2]

text: In the mid-13th century, the Ilkhanid rulers of Persia printed the "cha" or "chap" which was used as paper money for limited usage for transactions between the court and the merchants for about three years before it collapsed. The collapse was caused by the court accepting the "cha" only at progressive discount.

text: Later, such documents were used for money transfer by Middle Eastern merchants, who had used the prototypes of bills of exchange – suftadja/softa from the 8th century to present. Such prototypes came to be used later by the Iberian and Italian merchants in the 12th century. In Italy in the 13–15th centuries, bills of exchange and promissory notes obtained their main features, while further phases of their development have been associated with France (16–18th centuries, where the endorsement had appeared) and Germany (19th century, formalization of Exchange Law). The first mention of the use of bills of exchange in English statutes dates from 1381, under Richard II; the statute mandates the use of such instruments in England, and prohibits the future export of gold and silver specie, in any form, to settle foreign commercial transactions.[3] English exchange law was different than continental European law because of different legal systems; the English system was adopted later in the United States.[4]

text: The modern emphasis on negotiability may also be traced to Lord Mansfield.[5] Germanic Lombards documents may also have some elements of negotiability.[6]

text: Distinguished from other types of contracts[edit]

text: A negotiable instrument can serve to convey value constituting at least part of the performance of a contract, albeit perhaps not obvious in contract formation, in terms inherent in and arising from the requisite offer and acceptance and conveyance of consideration. The underlying contract contemplates the right to hold the instrument as, and to negotiate the instrument to, a holder in due course, the payment on which is at least part of the performance of the contract to which the negotiable instrument is linked. The instrument, memorializing: (1) the power to demand payment; and, (2) the right to be paid, can move, for example, in the instance of a "bearer instrument", wherein the possession of the document itself attributes and ascribes the right to payment. Certain exceptions exist, such as instances of loss or theft of the instrument, wherein the possessor of the note may be a holder, but not necessarily a holder in due course. Negotiation requires a valid endorsement of the negotiable instrument.

text: The consideration constituted by a negotiable instrument is cognizable as the value given up to acquire it (benefit) and the consequent loss of value (detriment) to the prior holder; thus, no separate consideration is required to support an accompanying contract assignment. The instrument itself is understood as memorializing the right for, and power to demand, payment, and an obligation for payment evidenced by the instrument itself with possession as a holder in due course being the touchstone for the right to, and power to demand, payment. In some instances, the negotiable instrument can serve as the writing memorializing a contract, thus satisfying any applicable statute of frauds as to that contract.

text: The holder in due course[edit]

text: The rights of a holder in due course of a negotiable instrument are qualitatively, as matters of law, superior to those provided by ordinary species of contracts:

text:
The rights to payment are not subject to set-off, and do not rely on the validity of the underlying contract giving rise to the debt (for example if a cheque was drawn for payment for goods delivered but defective, the drawer is still liable on the cheque)
No notice need be given to any party liable on the instrument for transfer of the rights under the instrument by negotiation. However, payment by the party liable to the person previously entitled to enforce the instrument "counts" as payment on the note until adequate notice has been received by the liable party that a different party is to receive payments from then on. [U.C.C. §3-602(b)]
Transfer free of equities—the holder in due course can hold better title than the party he obtains it from (as in the instance of negotiation of the instrument from a mere holder to a holder in due course)

tag: ul

text: Negotiation often enables the transferee to become the party to the contract through a contract assignment (provided for explicitly or by operation of law) and to enforce the contract in the transferee-assignee’s own name. Negotiation can be effected by endorsement and delivery (order instruments), or by delivery alone (bearer instruments).

text: Classes[edit]

text: Promissory notes and bills of exchange are two primary types of negotiable instruments.

text: Promissory note[edit]

text: Although possibly non-negotiable, a promissory note may be a negotiable instrument if it is an unconditional promise in writing made by one person to another, signed by the maker, engaging to pay on demand to the payee, or at fixed or determinable future time, certain in money, to order or to bearer. (see Sec. 194)[clarification needed] The law applicable to the specific instrument will determine whether it is a negotiable instrument or a non-negotiable instrument.

text: Bank notes are frequently referred to as promissory notes, a promissory note made by a bank and payable to bearer on demand. According to section 4 of India's Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, "a Promissory Note is an writing (not being a bank note or currency note), containing an unconditional undertaking, signed by the maker to pay a certain sum of money only to or to the order of a certain person or the bearer of the instrument".[citation needed]

text: Introduction of bill of exchange[edit]

text: A negotiable instrument or "draft" is a written order by the drawer to the drawee to pay money to the payee. A common type of bill of exchange is the cheque (check in American English), defined as a bill of exchange drawn on a banker and payable on demand. Bills of exchange are used primarily in international trade, and are written orders by one person to his bank to pay the bearer a specific sum on a specific date. Prior to the advent of paper currency, bills of exchange were a common means of exchange. They are not used as often today.

text: A bill of exchange is essentially an order made by one person to another to pay money to a third person. A bill of exchange requires in its inception three parties—the drawer, the drawee, and the payee. The person who draws the bill is called the drawer. He gives the order to pay money to the third party. The party upon whom the bill is drawn is called the drawee. He is the person to whom the bill is addressed and who is ordered to pay. He becomes an acceptor when he indicates his willingness to pay the bill. The party in whose favor the bill is drawn or is payable is called the payee. The parties need not all be distinct persons. Thus, the drawer may draw on himself payable to his own order. A bill of exchange may be endorsed by the payee in favour of a third party, who may in turn endorse it to a fourth, and so on indefinitely. The "holder in due course" may claim the amount of the bill against the drawee and all previous endorsers, regardless of any counterclaims that may have disabled the previous payee or endorser from doing so. This is what is meant by saying that a bill is negotiable. In some cases a bill is marked "not negotiable" – see crossing of cheques. In that case it can still be transferred to a third party, but the third party can have no better right than the transferor.

text: In the United States[edit]

text: In the United States, Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) govern the issuance and transfer of negotiable instruments, unless the instruments are governed by Article 8 of the UCC. The various state law enactments of UCC §§ 3–104(a) through (d) set forth the legal definition of what is and what is not a negotiable instrument:

text: § 3–104. NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENT.

text: (a) Except as provided in subsections (c) and (d), "negotiable instrument" means an unconditional promise or order to pay a fixed amount of money, with or without interest or other charges described in the promise or order, if it: (1) is payable to bearer or to order at the time it is issued or first comes into possession of a holder; (2) is payable on demand or at a definite time; and (3) does not state any other undertaking or instruction by the person promising or ordering payment to do any act in addition to the payment of money, but the promise or order may contain (i) an undertaking or power to give, maintain, or protect collateral to secure payment, (ii) an authorization or power to the holder to confess judgment or realize on or dispose of collateral, or (iii) a waiver of the benefit of any law intended for the advantage or protection of an obligor. (b) "Instrument" means a negotiable instrument. (c) An order that meets all of the requirements of subsection (a), except paragraph (1), and otherwise falls within the definition of "check" in subsection (f) is a negotiable instrument and a check. (d) A promise or order other than a check is not an instrument if, at the time it is issued or first comes into possession of a holder, it contains a conspicuous statement, however expressed, to the effect that the promise or order is not negotiable or is not an instrument governed by this Article.

text: Thus, for a writing to be a negotiable instrument under Article 3,[7] the following requirements must be met:

text:
The promise or order to pay must be unconditional;
The payment must be a specific sum of money, although interest may be added to the sum;
The payment must be made on demand or at a definite time;
The instrument must not require the person promising payment to perform any act other than paying the money specified;
The instrument must be payable to bearer or to order.

text: The latter requirement is referred to as the "words of negotiability": a writing which does not contain the words "to the order of" (within the four corners of the instrument or in endorsement on the note or in allonge) or indicate that it is payable to the individual holding the contract document (analogous to the holder in due course) is not a negotiable instrument and is not governed by Article 3, even if it appears to have all of the other features of negotiability. The only exception is that if an instrument meets the definition of a cheque (a bill of exchange payable on demand and drawn on a bank) and is not payable to order (i.e. if it just reads "pay John Doe") then it is treated as a negotiable instrument.

text: UCC Article 3 does not apply to money, to payment orders governed by Article 4A, or to securities governed by Article 8.[8]

text: Negotiation and endorsement [edit]

text: Persons other than the original obligor and obligee can become parties to a negotiable instrument. The most common manner in which this is done is by placing one's signature on the instrument (“endorsement”): if the person who signs does so with the intention of obtaining payment of the instrument or acquiring or transferring rights to the instrument, the signature is called an endorsement. There are five types of endorsements contemplated by the Code, covered in UCC Article 3, Sections 204–206:

text:
An endorsement which purports to transfer the instrument to a specified person is a special endorsement – for example, "Pay to the order of Amy";
An endorsement by the payee or holder which does not contain any additional notation (thus purporting to make the instrument payable to bearer) is an endorsement in blank or blank endorsement;
An endorsement which purports to require that the funds be applied in a certain manner (e.g. "for deposit only", "for collection") is a restrictive endorsement; and,
An endorsement purporting to disclaim retroactive liability is called a qualified endorsement (through the inscription of the words "without recourse" as part of the endorsement on the instrument or in allonge to the instrument).
An endorsement purporting to add terms and conditions is called a conditional endorsement – for example, "Pay to the order of Amy, if she rakes my lawn next Thursday November 15th, 2007". The UCC states that these conditions may be disregarded.[9]

text: If a note or draft is negotiated to a person who acquires the instrument

text:
in good faith;
for value;
without notice of any defenses to payment,

text: the transferee is a holder in due course and can enforce the instrument without being subject to defenses which the maker of the instrument would be able to assert against the original payee, except for certain real defenses. These real defenses include (1) forgery of the instrument; (2) fraud as to the nature of the instrument being signed; (3) alteration of the instrument; (4) incapacity of the signer to contract; (5) infancy of the signer; (6) duress; (7) discharge in bankruptcy; and, (8) the running of a statute of limitations as to the validity of the instrument. The holder-in-due-course rule is a rebuttable presumption that makes the free transfer of negotiable instruments feasible in the modern economy. A person or entity purchasing an instrument in the ordinary course of business can reasonably expect that it will be paid when presented to, and not subject to dishonor by, the maker, without involving itself in a dispute between the maker and the person to whom the instrument was first issued (this can be contrasted to the lesser rights and obligations accruing to mere holders). Article 3 of the Uniform Commercial Code as enacted in a particular State's law contemplate real defenses available to purported holders in due course. The foregoing is the theory and application presuming compliance with the relevant law. Practically, the obligor-payor on an instrument who feels he has been defrauded or otherwise unfairly dealt with by the payee may nonetheless refuse to pay even a holder in due course, requiring the latter to resort to litigation to recover on the instrument.

text: Usage[edit]

text: While bearer instruments are rarely created as such, a holder of commercial paper with the holder designated as payee can change the instrument to a bearer instrument by an endorsement. The proper holder simply signs the back of the instrument and the instrument becomes bearer paper, although in recent years, third party checks are not being honored by most banks unless the original payee has signed a notarized document stating such.

text: Alternatively, an individual or company may write a check payable to "cash" or "bearer" and create a bearer instrument. Great care should be taken with the security of the instrument, as it is legally almost as good as cash.

text: Exceptions[edit]

text: Under the Code, the following are not negotiable instruments, although the law governing obligations with respect to such items may be similar to or derived from the law applicable to negotiable instruments:

text:
Bills of lading and other documents of title, which are governed by Article 7 of the Code. However, under admiralty law, a bill of lading may either be a negotiable or 'order' bill of lading or a nonnegotiable or 'straight' bill of lading.
Deeds and other documents conveying interests in real estate, although a mortgage may secure a promissory note which is governed by Article 3
IOUs
Letters of credit, which are governed by Article 5 of the Code

text: Modern relevance[edit]

text: Although often considered foundational in business law, the modern relevance of negotiability has been questioned.[10] Negotiability can be traced back to the 1700s and Lord Mansfield, when money and liquidity was relatively scarce.[5] The holder in due course rule has been limited by various statutes.[5] Concerns have also been raised that the holder in due course rule does not align the incentives of the mortgage originators and the assignees efficiently.[5]