Peter Riedeman

Peter Reideman (?-1556) was an elder of the Hutterian Church from 1542-1556. While he was imprisoned in 1540, he wrote The Confession of Faith, which Hutterites still use today. He also wrote Love is like Fire.

Steinebrunn Story In 1539, King Ferdinand's marshals from Vienna arrived without warning at Falkenstein Hutterites and the Gabrialites were meeting. They attacked this group at Steinebrunn in the evening of December 6, 1539.

Most of all they wanted to capture elders and servants of the church, hoping to get large sums of money and goods from them, but those they were after were not at to be found. They questioned the imprisoned brothers. In the end, ninety brothers were led away from Falkenstein to the sea, after being imprisoned six and a half weeks, where they were to serve as galley slaves. With God's help, most of these men escaped, but twelve were recaptured, led back to sea, and never heard from again. The other seventy-eight brothers returned safely to the church. Fortunately, Riedeman was not among those captured.

In November 29 1529, he was taken prisoner at Gmunden. He was tortured almost to the point of death, but he remained faithful to his vows to Christ. After three years he was released.

In 1533 he and a companion were send into Francoia. They were captured and imprisoned again for four years.

In 1540 Riedeman was sent to Hesse, where he was re-captured and imprisoned at Marburg and then at Wolkersdorf in Hesse. He was released in 1542.

Under the co-eldership of Riedeman and Leonard Lanzenstiel, the Hutterite believers solidified their beliefs, doctrine and organization.

Riedeman died at Protzka in Hungry in 1556. He had served the church as a servant of God's word for 27 years. Nine of those years were spent in prison.