This is a pre-translation first draft of an article published in the Mennonitisches Lexikon (http://www.mennlex.de/doku.php?id=top:obrigkeit). Please consult the published German version before citing. Obrigkeit is a category for analyzing political authority before the modern era. In the medieval vision, European society was organized hierarchically into estates. In this view of the social order ecclesiastical and secular rulers belonged to two classes of people that were separate from and superior to commoners. In a well-ordered society all three estates worked together harmoniously: the clergy prayed for the well-being of all, the nobility protected everyone, and commoners laboured for and were loyal to their superiors. Clergymen remained among in the ranks of the ruling estates in Catholic territories after the Reformation. However, Protestant anticlericalism and the ideal of the priesthood of all believers resulted in the formal end of the clerical estate in Protestant territories. 1. The Anabaptists’ Willing Subordination in the Society of Estates After decades of research on Reformation anticlericalism, the role of Anabaptists and other radical reformers in the weakening of the clerical estate is well documented. However, the Anabaptists’ Reformation-era revolt did not lead to their fundamental rejection of the society of estates. For example, early Anabaptists often sought noble or other secular allies in their battles against the clerical hierarchy. Even though Protestant territorial rulers did not recognize the clergy as a separate estate with special legal privileges, they did tend to accept the medieval idea that confessional unity was an important foundation for good socio-political order. After the first decades of the Reformation, new generations of Anabaptists sought ways to survive and thrive as religious nonconformists in territories controlled by Catholics, Lutherans, or Calvinists. A common strategy used by all early modern Anabaptist groups was to emphasize publicly their loyalty to God (not a territorial church) but also to the secular authorities in all matters not contrary to God’s wishes. It was not uncommon for Anabaptist leaders to codify this loyalty to secular authorities in confessions of faith and other religious documents. The acceptance of special Privilegien from territorial rulers also reinforced the role of Anabaptists as loyal, obedient subjects. These Privilegien did not grant Anabaptists modern legal rights but rather rights (and duties) that were tied to the personal authority of a noble lord. When a new ruler took power, the Anabaptists had to seek new Privilegien. In other words, early modern Anabaptists recognized their subordinate role as Untertanen in the hierarchical society of estates. (For more, see the article on -> Konfessionalisierung.) 2. Anabaptists and the Erosion of obrigkeitliche Autorität Several factors relevant in post-Reformation Anabaptist studies contributed to the weakening of the personal authority of territorial rulers. One was rapid urbanization in the Low Countries. Dutch Taufgesinnte were among the burgher elite in the quickly growing early modern towns and cities of Holland, Friesland and other Dutch provinces. In these urban centres the Dutch developed a strong republican ideological tradition that emphasized the rights of citizens to freedom from oppression. A second factor was the intellectual tradition of European mysticism and spiritualism. This tradition tended to emphasize the individual autonomy of believers and encourage ideas about religious (and sometimes also political) freedom. Despite the long, well-established Dutch Mennonite confessional tradition, spiritualist ideas and ideals continued to have a noticeable appeal to some Taufgesinnte in the Low Countries throughout the early modern period. A third factor was the spread of -> the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. Enlightened ideas sometimes contributed to the legitimization of absolutist rulers of the Old Regime, but others undermined the authority of the society of estates. 3. Revolutions and the Rise of the Modern Democratic State Order The old European society of estates came to an end with the spread of democratic revolutions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thereafter die obrigkeitliche Organisation der politischen Autorität gave way to economic or class hierarchies combined with der staatlichen, konstitutionellen Organisation der politischen Autorität. In the new democratic, constitutional order in Western Europe and North America citizens had rights as individuals, not as members of a corporate group. A result for Mennonites was the end to special exemptions for oath swearing or armed service to the secular authorities. (For more, see the article on -> Moderne, especially section 6.) Because factors like these were strong in the United Provinces, it should be little surprise that Holland was the centre of the first modern European democratic revolt. The Patriot Movement of the 1780s included numerous Mennonites in its ranks, even in leading roles. Mennonite preachers like François Adriaan van der Kemp were among the vocal advocates for the separation of church and state as well as full democratic rights for all male citizens. Dutch Mennonite engagement in Enlightenment -> Gesellschaften for social, economic, and cultural improvement were perhaps a training ground for these revolutionaries. Several decades later in Prussia, Mennonites such as Hermann von Beckerath were again among the leaders of another democratic revolution in the 1840s. (For more on Mennonites in the age of democratic revolutions, see -> Enlightenment, section 4.) By the middle of the 19th century, the institutions of the Old Regime were obsolete, thanks in part to Anabaptist activism. Bibliography …