Amish
Anabaptist · 1693–1697 · Switzerland/Alsace historically; North America (~350,000)
Ammann pressed strict shunning (Meidung) of the excommunicated, more frequent communion, and sharper separation from the world; when the Swiss elders under Hans Reist would not adopt his discipline, his followers separated — the plainest of the plain churches ever since.
Amish was formed between 1693 and 1697, as a process rather than a single event. Amish continues today. Amish's institutional line runs back through Mennonites, Anabaptist, Reformed, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.
Between the post-apostolic church and Amish stand 4 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.
At a glance
- Formed
- Between 1693 and 1697, as a process rather than a single event
- Family
- Anabaptist
- Region
- Switzerland/Alsace historically; North America (~350,000)
- Key figures
- Jakob Ammann, Hans Reist (opposing elder)
- Cause tags
- Doctrine, Governance
- Also known as
- Amish Mennonites
What it separated from
- Separated from Mennonites. From the Swiss Brethren stream, which after 1693 came to be called Mennonite.
On the tree
Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2.
Adherents
About 350,000 adherents (research-center estimate, as of 2021).
World Christian Database figures run higher than other cross-national series; see the methodology page.
Source: amishstudies.org population profile via secondary
Sources
Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-10.