9.

5 Anabaptism
Anabaptism is a radical that grew out of the Reformation
movement
controversies. The Anabaptists took scripture as a guiding principle for

ordering human life. Anabaptism arose in Zurich among members of

Zwingli's circle. The Anabaptist protested his gradualism and demanded
a complete and immediate break with all anti-scriptural ceremonies and
doctrines. It crystallized as a distinct variety of Protestantism when the
layman Conrad Grebel rebaptised a former priest who in turn rebaptised
other men and women. Anabaptists initially called themselves Brethren.
Their enemies called them Anabaptist or rebaptist. They
rejected infant
baptism as meaningless and called for adult baptism. Its first important
 MOderi.
180 An Introduction to Early

Schleitheim Confession
(1527). After about
aoctrinal statement was the
excesses the
sect was reorganized by
and
WO decades of
persecution within the
Later a Mennonite faction
Menno Simons (1496-1561).
movement grew up.
called the step-children of the Reformation.
The Anabaptists have been
Co-Reformation.
or the
It has also been called the fourth Reformation
was linked up
with medieval
t was certainly medieval in spirit as it
wrote 'the Martyrs' Mirror
mysticism. Hans de Reis and T.J. Van Braght
which remains one of the most moving and important works for an
of the sixteenth century
understanding of the outlook and spirit Thomas
were Conrad Grebel,
Anabaptists. The leaders of this movement
could follow the
Munzer, Balthasar Hubmaier, Manz and Blaurock. They
to do so. They would
commandments literally as Christ called upon them
not swear asit was forbidden Mathew. Their refusal to take oath
by
isolated them in a society which was accustomed to it. In Paul they got
the idea that the Christian should not go to law, so they avoided lawyers
and law courts. They believed that the early Christians held all property
in common. So they put emphasis on community of goods and strict
religious discipline. The centres of Anabaptist movement in Europe were
Switzerland, the Tyrol, North Germany, Holland, Moravia and Hungary.
They put emphasis on two aspects of Christian life -purity and martyrdom.
They stood for an inward, apostolic Biblicism claiming that they were
but carrying to its logical conclusion Zwingli's own principle of reliance
on scripture. The main characteristics of the Swiss movement were the
practice of believers' baptism, a voluntary church, emphasis on the
precepts of the Sermon or the Mount, the ejectioh ottheoat uak
ecng2nea a
and legal proceedings, 'and insistence on farreachihg mutul material
help. Some Anabaptists practised evangelical communism. Because Christ
advised them not to resist evil they were normally pacifists. In the face
of persecution they were usually non-resistant. There were several
aberrations but normally they were peaceful, humble, patient, honest
and temperate. The followers of this movement were mostly men of the
lower orders. Luther called them work-saints as they sought salvation not
by faith but by hard work.
A profound moralism was at the heart of Anabaptism. They rejected
one of the cardinal principles of Protestantism--predestination and the
bondage of the will. The realm of civil government was completely
separate from that of conscience. They rejected the idea of a civil
 Origins of Reformation
181
sietrate. They denied that the civil
lnterfere in matters of laith. Anabaptists authorities could legitimately
withdrew from the world as
ffectively as medieval monks had done. They were in favour of adult
haptism which creates a sect, a voluntary
In their views church and state were
congregation of true believers
separate entities Free chruch in a
free state was their policy. The Swiss Brethren, the Hutterites and the
Mennonites were the three most important representatives of the
movement. Early in the 1530s the Anabaptists gained control of Munster
in north-western Germany. In 1534 and 1535 they were attacked and
destroyed. The revolt of Munster opened the eyes of the European
governments. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants made serious
attempts to stamp them out in the Swiss cantons, Moravia, Hungary.
Germany and low countries. No fewer than thirty thousand Anabaptists
were put to death in Holland and Friesland alone. No other movement
for spiritual freedom in the history of the church has such an enormous
martyrology.
The Anabaptist vision included three major points of emphasis. First.
a new conception of the essence of Christianity; second, a new conception
of the church as a brotherhood; and third, a new ethic of love and non-
resistance. They were enthusiasts, many of them were fanatics or driven
into fanaticism. But most of them showed a deep moral earrnestness. In
the long run one of their greatest contributions to the modern world lay
in their pleas for religious freedom. Hubmaier's tract Concerning heretics
and those that Burn them' is a forceful plea for toleration and freedom
of conscience. Some of the religious sects of later times were inftuenced

by their ideas. It was the church which would decide its membership. The
civil authority had nothing to do with it. The people of the lower orders
became associated with this movement. Most of them were peasants,
artisans and miners. The peasants of Germany joined the Anabaptist
movement as it upheld their cause. The people most affected by economic
distress and social injustice were attracted to Anabaptism. They were led
by educated middle class people who percelved that there was a close
connection between social unrest and religious disaffection. The religious
Protestants were also a socially persecuted lot. The peasant revolt (1524
25) and the Munster uprising swelled the followers of the movement.
They failed toeffect a religious and perceptible social change. But there
was still much to be learned from the Anabaptists. Early modern Europe
was very much influenced by this radical Protestant movement.