Brethren is a name adopted by a wide range of mainly Christian religious groups throughout history which do not necessarily share historical roots, including some of the earliest primitive churches, like the Brethren of the Free Spirit. The Paulicians, the Bogomils, the Schwarzenau Brethren and Anabaptist groups, the Moravian Brethren, and the Plymouth Brethren, among many others as part of the historical Brethren Movement. See The Pilgrim Church by Edmund Hamer Broadbent.
Apostolic Brethren (13th century), mendicant order similar to the FranciscansKalands Brethren (13th century), German charitable organizationBrethren of the Free Spirit (13th century), mystical reform movementThe Brethren of the Common Life (14th century), intentional communities dedicated to serviceThese groups grew out of the Anabaptist movement at the time of the Protestant Reformation (16th century).
The Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren are descendants of German, Swiss, and Tyrolean Anabaptists led by Jacob Hutter, who was burned at the stake in 1536 for refusing to renounce his faithThe Swiss Brethren were an early Anabaptist group that later divided into the Amish and Mennonite groups (particularly the Swiss Mennonite Conference)The Mennonite Brethren originated among Russian Mennonites in 1860The Moravian Brethren or Unitas FratrumThe Schwarzenau Brethren originated in 1708 in Schwarzenau, Bad Berleburg, Germany, with Alexander Mack. Their roots are in the Radical Pietism movement but they were strongly influenced by Anabaptist theology. They have also been called "Dunkers" or "German Baptist Brethren". The group split into three wings in 1881–1883:
Old German Baptist BrethrenOld BrethrenOld Brethren German BaptistOld Order German Baptist BrethrenOld German Baptist Brethren, New ConferenceChurch of the BrethrenDunkard BrethrenThe Brethren ChurchFellowship of Grace Brethren ChurchesConservative Grace Brethren Churches, InternationalBrethren Reformed ChurchThe various Plymouth Brethren bodies originated in the 1820s work of John Nelson Darby and others in Ireland and the United Kingdom as well as India:
Exclusive BrethrenPlymouth Brethren Christian ChurchLocal Churches or also known as Church Assembly HallOpen BrethrenGospel Hall BrethrenNeeded Truth BrethrenIndian BrethrenKerala Brethren Assembly or Verbada SabhaThe River Brethren owe their origins to the combined labors of Reformed pastor Philip William Otterbein and Mennonite Martin Boehm, beginning in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the latter half of the 18th century. They were also influenced by the Schwarzenau Brethren and include (amongst others):
Brethren in Christ ChurchChurch of the United Brethren in ChristChurch of the United Brethren in Christ (New Constitution)Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution)Evangelical United BrethrenOld Order River BrethrenApostolic United Brethren, a Mormon fundamentalist groupThe Brethren, an apocalyptic Jesus people movement from the 1970sBrethren of Purity, an esoteric Muslim sectThe Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America is neither Anabaptist nor Pietistic, but is the result of a late 19th-century spiritual awakening among Lutheran congregations in the upper Midwestern United States. They formed a separate synod in 1900.Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, a Czech Lutheran–Reformed Protestant churchThe Moravian Brethren (also known as United Brethren or Unitas Fratrum and Bohemian Brethren), descend from the followers of Jan Hus, a Czech reformer burned at the stake in 1415 and mainly Bohemian 15th-century nobleman and theologian Peter ChelcickyThe Unity of the Brethren also traces its roots to the work of HusThe Polish Brethren—also known as Socinians—were an Anti-trinitarian group, forerunners for the UnitariansThe Social Brethren originated in Saline County, Illinois in 1867, the result of an attempt to put the slavery issue away in favor of uniting on a common belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus ChristStudite Brethren, a society in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic ChurchUnited Brethren, a group of Methodists who later joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsThe United Seventh-Day Brethren is an Adventist body"The Brethren" is also a commonly used collective name for the general authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 