Jacob Hutter was a hat maker from South Tirol (northern Italy today). He became the leader of a radical Christian movement that swept through the German-speaking regions of Europe in the 1520s to 30s. Men and women broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, which in their opinion had become corrupt and no longer gave them the spiritual nourishment they craved. Thousands were baptised again, believing that their baptisms as infants were invalid. At the time, this criminal offence carried the death penalty. In Moravia (present-day Czech Republic) religious tolerance was granted. Here the Anabaptists, as they came to be called, gathered under Hutter’s leadership. They practiced the communal ownership of goods, nonviolence, and baptism of adult believers.