Anabaptist

[From Late Greek anabaptizein, to baptize again : Greek ana-, ana- + Greek baptizein, to baptize (from baptein, to dip).]

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In the years following Christianity's sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, freedom from the rigid structures of the Roman Catholic Church resulted in movements far removed from Martin Luther's original ideas of reforming the church of his day. Once the process began, various groups quickly formed what later would be called denominations. Points of theology became catalysts for fervent debate. With the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, debates spread quickly. Followers of charismatic leaders like John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli could distribute convincing sermons and rebuttals to masses of people hungry for spiritual direction.

By 1523, especially in Zurich, Moravia, and the Netherlands, baptism was the topic of conversation that caught the attention of leaders such as Conrad Grebel, Balthasar Hubmaier, and Feliz Manz. At this time, the long-revered custom was that children should be baptized. This sacrament, in the words of the Book of Worship of the United Church of Christ, "was the mark of their acceptance into the care of Christ's church, the sign and seal of their participation in God's forgiveness, and [the] beginning of their growth into full Christian faith and life." Because the children were not old enough to be able to make the commitment themselves, their parents and godparents stood in for them. When the children matured to an age of understanding, they then confirmed for themselves their baptism vows.

But for some reformers, biblical precedent seemed to imply that only people who had attained the age of responsibility could be capable of promising their lives to Jesus and the church. Because these theologians could find no scriptural pattern for the two-part process of baptism/confirmation, they began to insist on adult baptism, often called believer's baptism. This meant that people who had already been baptized as infants were baptized again, this time by full immersion into water, following the pattern set by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.

These people were called Anabaptists, "ana" meaning "again." They would lead the way for groups such as the Mennonites and various Baptist denominations.

They were, of course, persecuted. Established religions, both Catholic and Protestant, took exception to the fact that their infant baptism was deemed less than adequate, let alone heretical.

But baptism was only the beginning. Anabaptists soon became known as a radical wing of the Protestant Reformation. Along with a strict policy of baptized, believers-only membership in the church, they insisted on strict conservative biblical interpretation with a literal reading of the Bible as history and dogma.

Sources: Douglas, J. D., ed. The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1974.

Anabaptism is the name for several related branches of continental European lay Protestantism. These groups first began emerging after 1525 and were most prominent in (but not limited to) German- and Dutch-speaking territories. In German and Dutch the terms Wiedertäufer and wederdooper (rebaptizers) carry old, negative connotations. By contrast, Täufer or dooper (baptists), Taufgesinnten or doopsgezinden (the baptism-minded), and Mennonites (strictly speaking a group-specific term that is sometimes applied loosely as an umbrella category for all later Anabaptists except the Hutterites) are used more widely today. In current scholarly English the name Anabaptist ("one who baptizes again") is widely accepted as a neutral term that has lost its older, polemical sense. While the first Anabaptists were often baptized twice, once as infants in the medieval church and again as adults in the early years of the Reformation, the overwhelming majority throughout the early modern era were baptized only once as adults, after first confessing their faith publicly.

There were some features common to most Anabaptist groups throughout the early modern period. Like other Protestants, Anabaptists rejected papal authority in favor of biblical authority. However, while most other Protestants began establishing new professional clerical elites soon after the initial ferment of the Reformation, Anabaptists maintained their reliance on lay leadership much longer, and it was not uncommon among early groups to believe that ordinary men and women could receive direct inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Like other Protestants, Anabaptists emphasized the importance of grace for salvation, but they also placed a great deal of emphasis on the need for true faith to result in the transformation of believers' lives. And like other Protestants, Anabaptists accepted only two sacraments, communion and baptism. Their symbolic, commemorative understanding of communion was similar to that held by Reformed Protestants. But unlike the majority of other major Christian communities, Anabaptists rejected child baptism in favor of believers' baptism as practiced by the earliest Christian communities.

Interpreting Anabaptism

One of the dominant twentieth-century interpretations of Anabaptist history was outlined by the Mennonite historian Harold Bender in an influential essay from 1944 entitled "The Anabaptist Vision." In it he argued that "Anabaptism proper" had a single point of origin (Zurich) and an unchanging core of ethical features (discipleship, brotherhood, and nonresistance) that defined it. The reason for this narrow definition was to establish a clear distinction between true and false Anabaptists. The latter were those who, although they practiced believers' baptism, also participated in revolutionary politics and/or held mystical, spiritualist beliefs. From the point of view of church historians trying to establish an appropriate pedigree for modern Mennonites, these kinds of "fanatics" were not appropriate forebears.

By contrast, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Marxist historians were among the first sympathetic interpreters to raise the theme of radical politics to prominence in Anabaptist studies. They were interested in Anabaptists as defenders of an ideology of the poor at a crucial stage of the Reformation when mainstream reformers were allying themselves with the interests of capital and the feudal ruling class. Few historians of Anabaptism today are Marxists, but issues the Marxists addressed—the social character of Anabaptist groups and the centrality of revolutionary events like the German Peasants' War of 1525 and the period of Anabaptist rule in Münster from 1534 to 1535—continue to be prominent.

Scholars since the 1960s and 1970s have generally rejected these interpretations. If the older Mennonite scholarship has influence today, it is mainly in the general interest in ethics and beliefs. Scholars since the later twentieth century have continued to investigate these themes, usually without imposing modern denominational assumptions about "Anabaptism proper." In part because of the influence of Marxist research, most acknowledge today that the first Anabaptists held a wide range of views about the use of force, as well as the proper relationship between believers and secular rulers. The newer social and intellectual history has shown that regional diversity was one of the hallmarks of Anabaptism. The way ideas spread among Anabaptist groups plus the important role of women in early Anabaptist groups have also received more attention in recent scholarship.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century it was common to write about Anabaptism as part of the "Radical Reformation." In the 1960s George Williams had defined this term in contrast to the "Magisterial Reformation" and the "Counter-Reformation" and gave it a meaning that emphasized intellectual and theological features. By contrast, in the 1970s the German historian Hans-Jürgen Goertz had proposed defining as "radical" those groups and individuals who broke with the social, political, and ecclesiastical norms of their day. In Goertz's interpretation, anticlericalism and laicism were key impulses shared by the first reforming movements in the early 1520s. By the mid-1520s rifts developed among reformers. Those who founded mainstream Protestant churches moderated their once radical positions when it became possible to establish alliances with secular authorities. Anabaptist groups were among the early campaigners for radical reforms who refused to compromise with authorities and therefore eventually found themselves forced to the margins of society. The early coalitions of radicals included not only Anabaptists, but also spiritualist opponents of child baptism. While leaders at first could campaign for a complete Anabaptist reformation of society, separatism became the main option left open to those proponents of adult baptism who were active a few years after the Peasants' War and the period of Anabaptist rule in Münster. The focus on radical reform is significant, because it integrates Anabaptist history into the main currents of early Reformation studies.

After the first stage of the Reformation, Anabaptist groups underwent a transformation from dynamic early reforming movements to more established communities. The concentration of Anabaptist and Radical Reformation studies on the period until about 1550 has meant that the character of institutionalized Anabaptism of the early modern period remains largely unexplored.

Early Anabaptist Groups

Throughout Europe the first generation of Anabaptists included men and women from a wide range of social backgrounds. University-educated scholars, former priests and monks, and artisans and other commoners were among their first leaders. Even the educated, many of whom quickly fell victim to executioners, tended to hold anti-intellectual prejudices, preferring the simplicity of a life lived according to Christ's example to the intricacies of academic theology. Like medieval dissenters and reformers, most early Anabaptists emphasized active holiness and ascetically disciplined lives as prerequisites for salvation, and they frequently held apocalyptic, prophetic, spiritualistic, mystical, and anti-institutional understandings of their connections with God. Radical reformers like Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, Thomas Müntzer, and Kaspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig were among those who rejected child baptism before 1525. Although they never baptized adults, their influence on Anabaptist groups was strong.

Ever since Klaus Depperman, Werner Packull, and James Stayer published the essay "From Monogenesis to Polygenesis" in 1975, it has been common to make distinctions among three regional forms of Anabaptism: Swiss, southern German and Austrian, and northern German and Dutch. The authors' further research has shown that there were many interactions and exchanges connecting groups, especially in Swiss, southern German, and Austrian territories. Nonetheless, it remains useful to chart differences, as well as interactions, between regional cultures of Anabaptism.

In Swiss, southern German, and Austrian territories there was a strong affinity between the Peasants' War and Anabaptism. In the aftermath of the conflicts of 1525, disillusioned activists sought to give religious expression to the ideals that the peasants and commoners had fought for earlier. The Anabaptist practice of community of goods emerged as a result.

The first adult baptisms began in Swiss territories in early 1525. The Swiss Brethren included many of Huldrych Zwingli's early supporters, who had become dissatisfied with his conservative turn. Key leaders in this branch included Konrad Grebel (1498–1526), Balthasar Hubmaier (1485–1528), Felix Mantz (1498–1527), and Wilhelm Reublin (c. 1484–after 1559). Their Christianity tended to be legalistic, literal, and scriptural in character. The Schleitheim Articles of 1527 are a famous expression of Swiss Anabaptism in its most radically separatist mode.

Compared to Swiss Anabaptists, southern German and Austrian Anabaptist groups were influenced much more strongly by Thomas Müntzer's brand of spiritualism and mysticism. Apocalyptic expectations among believers were also especially strong into the later 1520s. Key leaders in this branch included Hans Denck (c. 1500–1527), Hans Hut (d. 1527), Pilgram Marpeck (1492–1556), and Melchior Rinck (c. 1493–1553?). After the 1520s these groups became indistinguishable from the Swiss—except for Marpeck's group, which was prominent for publishing ventures in which writings by such diverse figures as Luther and Schwenckfeld were edited to serve Anabaptist doctrinal objectives.

Anabaptists were faced with often severe persecution. From an anti-Anabaptist point of view, the baptism of adults was an anti-Christian rebaptism that threatened to disrupt unity and order in the Christian polity. Thus, sixteenth-century rulers tended to interpret the act of baptizing adults as an act of rebellion and heresy. Although Anabaptists amounted to only a small minority in most territories, the attention paid them by authorities meant that their impact was much greater than their numbers might suggest. At the 1529 Diet of Speyer rebaptism was declared a capital crime in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Both Catholic and Protestant governments executed unrepentant Anabaptist men and women.

Anabaptist responses to persecution varied. In the immediate aftermath of the Peasants' War a small minority chose to fight back, though futilely. Some believers recanted when threatened with punishment, while others stayed steadfast in the face of hardship, hoping for rescue upon Christ's imminent return. When confronted with the choice, some preferred martyrdom over the betrayal of their faith; about two thousand died for their faith, about as many as the martyrs drawn from the far more numerous Protestant churches. Another option was Nicodemism, hiding their forbidden faith from central authorities while pretending to conform. Many chose exile.

One region where persecution was particularly intense was the Catholic Habsburg Tyrol. Here Anabaptism in the late 1520s was the main form of popular reform. Jakob Hutter (d. 1536) and other leaders arranged the relocation of large numbers of believers from the Tyrol to Moravia, where some members of the local nobility were willing to provide the Anabaptists with land to live in peace. The relative safety of Moravia also attracted many refugees from Switzerland and southern Germany. In the Moravian sanctuaries, competing branches melded into new hybrid forms of Anabaptism.

In Dutch and northern German territories, where the Peasants' War was of little consequence, Anabaptism had a largely (although not entirely) separate history. Melchior Hofmann (c. 1495–1543/1544) began baptizing believers in these territories in 1530. In 1531, after harsh repression, he decided to suspend baptisms until the End Times, which he felt were then soon approaching. The suspension of adult baptism did not halt the movement's spread. A turning point came in February 1534, when an Anabaptist faction won elections in the Westphalian city of Münster. By that time the city had become a New Jerusalem for believers from the surrounding region and the Netherlands after baptisms had resumed. Catholic and Protestant authorities in neighboring territories reacted by laying siege to the city. Under the stresses of the siege, community of goods and polygamy were practiced. The siege armies broke through the city's walls in June 1535. The captured leaders, including Jan van Leyden, the self-styled Anabaptist king, were executed in gruesome fashion.

Dutch and northern German Anabaptists after 1535 had to come to terms with the shock of the Münster years. Melchior Hofmann's distinctive belief in Christ's nature untainted by human corruption remained a characteristic of successor groups for many decades. A number of leaders vied for influence among the Melchiorite remnant after 1535. These included Jan van Battenburg, who led a militant minority; David Joris (1501/1502–1556), whose brand of spiritualism attracted many adherents before 1540; and Menno Simons (1496–1561), a former Catholic priest who advocated the formation of disciplined, separatist communities of nonresistant believers as an alternative to the excesses of Münster. The Mennonites were the most successful faction after about 1540.

Later Developments

The character of Anabaptist groups went through some significant transformations over the course of the early modern era. While the first Anabaptists were voluntary converts to the new faith, most Anabaptists after the middle of the sixteenth century were born into established communities of faith. They accepted both adult baptism and political discrimination as part of their inheritance. It was only after the first generation of the Reformation that nonresistance (which denominational historians emphasized in their interpretations) rose to the central position that it enjoyed throughout most of the rest of the early modern period. Over the course of the sixteenth century the separatist Anabaptists' radical rejection of mainstream society diminished, and secular governments tended to be more accepting of the peaceful, withdrawn dissenters the Anabaptists had become.

In southern territories, persecution forced believers to relocate from cities and towns to the more secluded countryside. Anabaptists in the Swiss highlands were hunted by authorities until the middle of the eighteenth century. The Amish, followers of Jakob Amman (c. 1644–c. 1730), formed in the 1690s, in part to try to establish pure communities of the faithful without any compromises. Many emigrated eventually to North America. Unlike the single-family households the Swiss Brethren preferred, a unique feature of Moravian Anabaptism was that a portion of its members organized themselves in large social, religious, and economic cooperatives that have remained typical of Hutterite communities (named after Jakob Hutter) to the present day. Hutterites thrived in Moravia beside other non-communitarian Anabaptist groups until the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, when they lost noble protection and migrated to new havens in Slovakia, after which they were driven farther east, until in the late nineteenth century they joined the wave of Russian emigration to North America.

Anabaptist groups thrived in the Protestant Netherlands and northern German territories, largely because they had received special privileges from secular authorities after the 1570s. Mennonites, the dominant group of Anabaptists in these regions, had strong communities in the Dutch countryside (as in Friesland) and in urban centers like Amsterdam, and even as far east as Danzig (Gdańsk). Under the stresses of war and persecution, Anabaptists had left the southern Low Countries in the sixteenth century for the relative safety of Protestant-controlled territories to the north. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, new Anabaptist communities formed. These included groups known as Waterlanders, Flemish, Frisians, and High Germans, and later also Lamists and Zonists. Although their ecclesiastical affairs were organized mainly locally and congregationally, conferences or synodal structures did emerge in the seventeenth century to link communities. The Dutch and northern German Mennonites were the first Anabaptists to employ professional, university-trained clergymen.

Most Mennonites were what we might call "conforming nonconformists." They were religious nonconformists in their unique practice of believers' baptism, as well as in their refusal to swear oaths or bear arms. In the seventeenth century, they (like other Protestant groups) commonly expressed their desire to preserve a unique confessional identity by using confessions of faith. In these statements, they also typically emphasized their adherence to the basic doctrines of the Christian creeds, and their politically conformist view that true Christians were obedient subjects. As communities they paid taxes, even war taxes. In some jurisdictions Mennonites held minor political offices, but in most cases they accepted exclusion from positions of public authority.

Early modern Mennonites were instrumental in creating a sense of pan-Anabaptist identity. They argued that their Anabaptist forebears were not fanatics, heretics, or rebels, as many Catholic and mainstream Protestant polemicists alleged. Rather, they were believers who had been especially faithful to Christ's teachings. A rich martyrological tradition emerged in which Mennonite writers memorialized executed believers from groups all across Europe. Significant numbers of Mennonites prospered economically in the early modern era, and some were able to establish substantial merchant enterprises. They used part of their wealth to support coreligionists suffering hardships in other regions.

In the eighteenth century, Dutch Mennonites tended to be well integrated into their societies, and some even participated in Pietist or Enlightenment circles. In the 1780s a significant proportion were active in the Dutch Patriot Movement during its rebellion against the Orange regime. Some even gave up the principle of nonresistance to bear arms against the government. After the early nineteenth century this radical phase was eagerly forgotten.

Bibliography

Driedger, Michael D. Obedient Heretics: Mennonite Identities in Lutheran Hamburg and Altona during the Confessional Age. Aldershot, U.K., and Burlington, Vt., 2002.

Dyck, Cornelius J., ed. An Introduction to Mennonite History: A Popular History of the Anabaptists and the Mennonites. Scottdale, Pa., 1993.

Goertz, Hans-Jürgen, ed. Profiles of Radical Reformers: Biographical Sketches from Thomas Müntzer to Paracelsus. Scottdale, Pa., and Kitchener, Ont., 1982.

The Mennonite Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Reference Work on the Anabaptist-Mennonite Movement. 5 vols. Hillsboro, Kans., 1955–1990.

Mennonite Quarterly Review. Goshen, Ind., 1927–. One of the key forums for scholarship on Anabaptism. Includes important essays like "The Anabaptist Vision" and "From Monogenesis to Polygenesis."

Packull, Werner O. Hutterite Beginnings: Communitarian Experiments during the Reformation. Baltimore, 1995.

Snyder, C. Arnold. Anabaptist History and Theology. Kitchener, Ont., 1997.

Snyder, C. Arnold, and Linda A. Hecht. Profiles of Anabaptist Women: Sixteenth-Century Reforming Pioneers. Waterloo, Ont., 1996.

Stayer, James M. Anabaptists and the Sword. 2nd ed. Lawrence, Kans., 1976.

——. The German Peasants' War and Anabaptist Community of Goods. Montreal, 1991.

——. "The Radical Reformation." In Handbook of European History, 1400–1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation. Vol. 2. Edited by Thomas A. Brady Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, and James D. Tracy. Leiden and New York, 1995.

Stayer, James M., and Werner O. Packull, trans. and eds. The Anabaptists and Thomas Müntzer. Dubuque, Iowa, 1980. A collection of influential essays and excerpts from books, many translated from German and Dutch.

Williams, George Huntston. The Radical Reformation. 3rd ed. Kirksville, Mo., 1992.

—MICHAEL D. DRIEDGER

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Protestantism (The Ninety-Five Theses)

The Reformation History Pre-Reformation movements Hussites  • Lollards  • Waldensians Reformation era movements Anabaptism • Anglicanism • Calvinism • Counter-Reformation • Lutheranism • Polish Brethren • Remonstrants

Anabaptists (Greek ανα (again, twice) +βαπτιζω (baptize), thus "re-baptizers"^[1]) are Christians of the Radical Reformation. This article describes the Anabaptists of 16th-century Europe and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites.

Anabaptists rejected conventional Christian practices such as wearing wedding rings, taking oaths, and participating in civil government. They adhered to a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount and Believer's baptism. The name Anabaptist is derived from this, because credobaptism was considered heresy by all other major Christian denominations at the time of the reformation period. As a result, Anabaptists were heavily persecuted during the 16th century and into the 17th by both Roman Catholics and Protestants.

Contents 1 Origins 1.1 Forerunners 1.2 Views 1.2.1 Monogenesis 1.2.2 Polygenesis 1.2.3 Apostolic succession 2 Types 3 Spirituality 3.1 Charismatic manifestations 3.2 Holy Spirit leadership 4 History 4.1 1520s and 1530s 4.1.1 Zwickau prophets and the Peasants' War 4.2 Münster Rebellion 4.3 Persecutions and migrations 5 Today 6 Heritage 7 Popular culture 8 See also 9 Footnotes and references 10 Further reading 11 External links

Origins

Forerunners

Though opinion is that Anabaptists, by name, began with the Radical Reformers in the 16th century, certain people and groups may still legitimately be considered their forerunners. Petr Chelčický, 15th century Bohemian Reformer, taught most of the beliefs considered integral to Anabaptist theology. Medieval antecedents may include the Brethren of the Common Life, the Hussites, Dutch Sacramentists^[2][3] and some forms of monasticism. The Waldensians also represent a faith similar to the Anabaptists.

In the following points Anabaptists resembled the medieval dissenters:

1. They condemned oaths, and also the reference of disputes between believers to law-courts in accordance with 1 Corinthians 6:1-11.
2. The believer must not bear arms or offer forcible resistance to wrongdoers, nor wield the sword. No Christian has the jus gladii (the right of the sword).
3. Civil government (i.e., "Caesar") belongs to the world. The believer, who belongs to God's kingdom, must not fill any office, nor hold any rank under government, which is to be passively obeyed.
4. Sinners or unfaithful ones are to be excommunicated, and excluded from the sacraments and from intercourse with believers unless they repent, according to 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 and Matt.18:15 seq. But no force is to be used towards them.
5. Only some Anabaptists followed Menno Simons in teaching that Jesus did not take the flesh from his mother, but either brought his body from heaven or had one made for him by the Word. Some even said that he passed through his mother, as water through a pipe, into the world. We often find this idea, originated by Marcion in the 2nd century, represented in pictures and sculptures of the 15th century and earlier. The Anabaptists were accused of denying the Incarnation of Christ: a charge that Menno Simons repeatedly rejected.

Bishop Longland in England condemned an Anabaptist for repeating one of its maxims "that alms should not be given before they did sweat in a man's hand." This was between 1518 and 1521.^{[citation needed]}

Views

Research on the origins of the Anabaptists has been tainted both by the attempts of their enemies to slander them and the attempts of their supporters to vindicate them. It was long popular to simply lump all Anabaptists as Munsterites and radicals associated with the Zwickau Prophets, Jan Matthys, John of Leiden (also Jan Bockelson van Leiden, Jan of Leyden), and Thomas Müntzer. Those desiring to correct this error tended to over-correct and deny all connections between the larger Anabaptist movement and this most radical element.

The modern era of Anabaptist historiography arose with the work of Roman Catholic scholar Carl Adolf Cornelius' publication of Die Geschichte des Münsterischen Aufruhrs in 1855 (The history of the Münster riot). Baptist historian Albert Henry Newman (1852–1933), who Bender said occupied "first position in the field of American Anabaptist Historiography," made a major contribution with his A History of Anti-Pedobaptism. Though a number of theories exist concerning origins, the three main ideas are that,

1. Anabaptists began in a single expression in Zürich and spread from there (Monogenesis),
2. Anabaptists began through several independent movements (polygenesis), and
3. Anabaptists are a continuation of New Testament Christianity (apostolic succession or church perpetuity).

Monogenesis

A number of scholars (e.g., Bender, Estep, Friedmann) have seen all the Anabaptists as rising out of the Swiss Brethren movement of Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, et al. The older view among Mennonite historians generally held that Anabaptism had its origins in Zürich, and that the Anabaptism of the Swiss Brethren was transmitted to southern Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and northern Germany, where it developed into its various branches. The monogenesis theory usually rejects the Münsterites and other radicals from the category of true Anabaptists. In this view the time of origin is January 21, 1525, when Grebel baptized George Blaurock, and Blaurock baptized other followers. This remains the most popular single time posited for the establishment of Anabaptism. But in the last quarter of the 20th century, Deppermann, Packull, and others suggested that February 24, 1527 at Schleitheim is the proper date of the origin of Anabaptism. That day the anabaptists made a declaration of belief called the Schleitheim Confession. This correlates with the following polygenesis theory.

Polygenesis

James M. Stayer, Werner O. Packull, and Klaus Deppermann disputed the idea of a single origin of Anabaptists in a 1975 essay entitled "From Monogenesis to Polygenesis". That article, emphasizing distinctive characteristics and distinct sources, has become a widely accepted treatment of the plural origins of Anabaptism. The authors noted the agreement among previous Anabaptist historians on polygenesis even when disputing the date for a single starting point: “Hillerbrand and Bender (like Holl and Troeltsch) were in agreement that there was a single dispersion of Anabaptism-…, which certainly ran through Zurich. The only question was whether or not it went back further to Saxony.”^[4] After criticizing the standard polygenetic history, the authors found six groups in early Anabaptism which could be collapsed into three originating "points of departure": "South German Anabaptism, the Swiss Brethren and the Melchiorites."^[5] South German–Austrian Anabaptism "was a diluted form of Rhineland mysticism," Swiss Anabaptism "arose out of Reformed congregationalism", and Dutch Anabaptism was formed by "Social unrest and the apocalyptic visions of Melchior Hoffman". Pilgram Marpeck's Vermanung of 1542 was deeply influenced by the Bekenntnisse of 1533 by Münster theologian Bernhard Rothmann. The Hutterites used Melchior Hoffman's commentary on the Apocalypse shortly after he wrote it. David Joris, a disciple of Hoffman, was the most important Anabaptist leader in the Netherlands before 1540. Grete Mecenseffy and Walter Klaassen established links between Thomas Müntzer and Hans Hut, and the work of Gottfried Seebaß and Werner Packull clearly showed the influence of Thomas Müntzer on the formation of South German Anabaptism. Steven Ozment's work linked Hans Denck and Hans Hut with Thomas Müntzer, Sebastian Franck, and others. Calvin Pater has shown that Andreas Karlstadt influenced Swiss Anabaptism in areas including his view of Scripture, doctrine of the church, and views on baptism.

Apostolic succession

It is believed by some^[who?] that the 16th century Anabaptists were part of an apostolic succession of churches ("church perpetuity" or "Baptist successionism") from the time of Christ.

The opponents of this theory emphasize that these non-Catholic groups clearly differed from each other, that they held some heretical views, are not successors of the Apostles, or that they had no connection with one another with origins that are separate both in time and place. This view is held by some Baptists, some Mennonites, and a number of "true church" movements.^[6] Somewhat related to this is the theory that the Anabaptists are of Waldensian origin. Some hold the idea that the Waldenses are part of the apostolic succession, while others simply believe they were an independent group out of whom the Anabaptists arose. Estep asserts "the Waldenses disappeared in Switzerland a century before the rise of the Anabaptist movement." Ludwig Keller, Thomas M. Lindsay, H. C. Vedder, Delbert Grätz, and Thieleman J. van Braght all held, in varying degrees, the position that the Anabaptists were of Waldensian origin.

Types

Main article: Theology of Anabaptism

Different types exist among the Anabaptists, although the categorizations tend to vary with the scholar's viewpoint on origins. Estep claims that in order to understand Anabaptism, one must "distinguish between the Anabaptists, inspirationists, and rationalists." He classes the likes of Blaurock, Grebel, Balthasar Hubmaier, Manz, Marpeck, and Simons as Anabaptists. He groups Müntzer, Storch, et al. as inspirationists, and anti-trinitarians such as Michael Servetus, Juan de Valdés, Sebastian Castellio, and Faustus Socinus as rationalists. Mark S. Ritchie follows this line of thought, saying, "The Anabaptists were one of several branches of 'Radical' reformers (i.e. reformers that went further than the mainstream Reformers) to arise out of the Renaissance and Reformation. Two other branches were Spirituals or Inspirationists, who believed that they had received direct revelation from the Spirit, and rationalists or anti-Trinitarians, who rebelled against traditional Christian doctrine, like Michael Servetus." Most of the Anti-Trinitarian Anabaptists were modalistic monarchians and baptized in the shorter formula of the name of Jesus Christ. They also spoke in ecstatic languages and prophecies known as "speaking in tongues." Holiness was a very important doctrine to them.

Those of the polygenesis viewpoint use Anabaptist to define the larger movement, and include the inspirationists and rationalists as true Anabaptists. James M. Stayer used the term Anabaptist for those who rebaptized persons already baptized in infancy. Walter Klaassen was perhaps the first Mennonite scholar to define Anabaptists that way in his 1960 Oxford dissertation. This represents a rejection of the previous standard held by Mennonite scholars such as Bender and Friedmann.

Another method of categorization acknowledges regional variations, such as Swiss Brethren (Grebel, Manz), Dutch and Frisian Anabaptism (Menno Simons, Dirk Philips), and South German Anabaptism (Hübmaier, Marpeck).

Historians and sociologists have made further distinctions between radical Anabaptists, who were prepared to use violence in their attempts to build a New Jerusalem, and their pacifist brethren, later broadly known as Mennonites. Radical Anabaptist groups included the Münsterites, who occupied and held the German city of Münster in 1534–5, and the Batenburgers, who persisted in various guises as late as the 1570s.

Spirituality

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Memorial plate at Schipfe quarter in Zürich for the Anabaptists, murdered in early 16th century by the Zürich city government

Charismatic manifestations

Within the inspirationist wing of the Anabaptist movement, it was not unusual for charismatic manifestations to appear, such as dancing, falling under the power of the Holy Spirit, "prophetic processions" (at Zurich in 1525, at Munster in 1534 and at Amsterdam in 1535),^[7] and speaking in tongues.^[8] In Germany some Anabaptists, "excited by mass hysteria, experienced healings, glossolalia, contortions and other manifestations of a camp-meeting revival".^[9] The Anabaptist congregations that later developed into the Mennonite and Hutterite churches tended not to promote these manifestations, but did not totally reject the miraculous. Pilgram Marpeck, for example, wrote against the exclusion of miracles: "Nor does Scripture assert this exclusion...God has a free hand even in these last days." Referring to some who had been raised from the dead, he wrote: "Many of them have remained constant, enduring tortures inflicted by sword, rope, fire and water and suffering terrible, tyrannical, unheard-of deaths and martyrdoms, all of which they could easily have avoided by recantation. Moreover one also marvels when he sees how the faithful God (who, after all, overflows with goodness) raises from the dead several such brothers and sisters of Christ after they were hanged, drowned, or killed in other ways. Even today, they are found alive and we can hear their own testimony...Cannot everyone who sees, even the blind, say with a good conscience that such things are a powerful, unusual, and miraculous act of God? Those who would deny it must be hardened men".^[10][11] The Hutterite Chronicle and The Martyr's Mirror record several accounts of miraculous events, such as when a man named Martin prophesied while being led across a bridge to his execution in 1531: "...this once yet the pious are led over this bridge, but no more hereafter." Just "a short time afterwards such a violent storm and flood came that the bridge was demolished".^[12]

Holy Spirit leadership

The Anabaptists insisted upon the "free course" of the Holy Spirit in worship, yet still maintained it all must be judged according to the Scriptures.^[13] The Swiss Anabaptist document titled "Answer of Some Who Are Called (Ana-)Baptists - Why They Do Not Attend the Churches". One reason given for not attending the state churches was that these institutions forbade the congregation to exercise spiritual gifts according to "the Christian order as taught in the gospel or the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 14." "When such believers come together, "Everyone of you (note every one) hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation," etc...When someone comes to church and constantly hears only one person speaking, and all the listeners are silent, neither speaking nor prophesying, who can or will regard or confess the same to be a spiritual congregation, or confess according to 1 Corinthians 14 that God is dwelling and operating in them through His Holy Spirit with His gifts, impelling them one after another in the above-mentioned order of speaking and prophesying".^[14]

History

1520s and 1530s

In the 1520s and 1530s Anabaptist preachers spread the movement throughout central Europe, and authorities, either from a lack of knowledge about the new sect, desire to maintain orthodox doctrine, or a variety of other nuanced reasons, usually responded with executions and banishment although a few leaders did exercise moderation in dealing with the Anabaptists.

Zwickau prophets and the Peasants' War

Main articles: Thomas Müntzer, Zwickau prophets, and Peasants' War

On December 27, 1521, three "prophets", influenced by and in turn influencing Thomas Müntzer, appeared in Wittenberg from Zwickau: Thomas Dreschel, Nicolas Storch and Mark Thomas Stübner. The crisis came in the Peasants' War in southern Germany in 1525. In its origin a revolt against feudal oppression, it became, under the leadership of Müntzer, a war against all constituted authorities, and an attempt to establish by revolution an ideal Christian commonwealth, with absolute equality and the community of goods.

Münster Rebellion

Main articles: Münster Rebellion and Münster

A second and more determined attempt to establish a theocracy was made at Münster in Westphalia (1532–5), led by Bernhard Rothman, Bernhard Knipperdolling, Jan Matthys and John of Leiden.

Persecutions and migrations

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Dirk Willems saves his pursuer.

Much of the historic Roman Catholic and Protestant literature has represented the Anabaptists as groups who preached false doctrine and led people into apostasy. That negative historiography remained popular for about four centuries. The Roman Catholics and Protestants alike persecuted the Anabaptists, resorted to torture and other types of physical abuse, in attempts both to curb the growth of the movement. The Protestants under Zwingli were the first to persecute the Anabaptists. Felix Manz became the first martyr in 1527.

On May 20, 1527, Roman Catholic authorities executed Michael Sattler. King Ferdinand declared drowning (called the third baptism) "the best antidote to Anabaptism". The Tudor regime, even those that were Protestant (Edward VI of England and Elizabeth I of England) persecuted Anabaptists as they were deemed too radical and therefore a danger to religious stability. The persecution of Anabaptists was condoned by ancient laws of Theodosius I and Justinian I that were passed against the Donatists which decreed the death penalty for any who practiced rebaptism.

Thieleman J. van Braght's Martyrs Mirror describes the persecution and execution of thousands of Anabaptists, such as Dirk Willems, in Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and other parts of Europe between 1525 and 1660. Continuing persecution in Europe was largely responsible for the mass immigrations to North America by Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites.

Today

Several existing denominational bodies may be legitimately regarded as the successors of the Continental Anabaptists—Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, Mennonites, and Bruderhof Communities. Some historical connections have been demonstrated for all of these spiritual descendants, though perhaps not as clearly as the noted institutionally lineal descendants. Although many see the more well-known Anabaptist groups (Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites) as ethnic groups, the Anabaptist bodies of today are no longer composed mostly of descendants of the Continental Anabaptists. Total worldwide membership of the Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and related churches totals 1,297,716 (as of 2003) with about 60 percent in Africa, Asia and Latin America.^[15]

Groups deriving from the Schwarzenau Brethren, often called German Baptists, while not directly descended from the 16th-century Anabaptists, are usually considered Anabaptist because of an almost identical doctrine and practice.

Puritans of England and their Baptist branch arose independently, but were influenced by the Anabaptist movement.^[16]

Heritage

• Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice
• Freedom of religion
• Pacifism
• Priesthood of all believers

The Anabaptists were early promoters of a free church and freedom of religion (sometimes associated with separation of church and state).^[17] When it was introduced by the Anabaptists in the 15th and 16th centuries, religious freedom independent of the state was unthinkable to both clerical and governmental leaders. Religious liberty was equated with anarchy; Kropotkin^[18] traces the birth of anarchist thought in Europe to these early Anabaptist communities.

According to Estep,^[19]

Where men believe in the freedom of religion, supported by a guarantee of separation of church and state, they have entered into that heritage. Where men have caught the Anabaptist vision of discipleship, they have become worthy of that heritage. Where corporate discipleship submits itself to the New Testament pattern of the church, the heir has then entered full possession of his legacy.

In addition, it may be argued that one of the historical Anabaptist doctrines, specifically that one must volitionally, consciously, and personally relate to God, is likewise found among much of Evangelical Protestantism, even though these churches may not be historically linked to the Anabaptists.^{[original research?]}

Popular culture

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• In Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, the character of Chaplain Tappman identifies himself as an Anabaptist. He states that for this reason, it is not necessary to call him "Father".

• Voltaire's novel, Candide, features a character named James, who identifies himself as an Anabaptist and helps the eponymous protagonist and his teacher Pangloss but later drowns in Lisbon harbor.

• The novel Q, by the collective known as 'Luther Blissett' features an Anabaptist as the central character and is set in the 16th century, touching on key elements of Anabaptist history such as the siege of Munster.

See also

• Abecedarians
• Amish
• Apostolic Christian Church
• Brethren in Christ
• Christian anarchism
• Eythorne Baptist Church
• Mennonite
• Peace churches
• Protestant Reformation
• Radical Reformation
• Schleitheim Confession
• Shunning
• Simple living
• The Upside-Down Kingdom

Footnotes and references

1. ^ Anabaptist at answers.com
2. ^ van der Zijpp, Nanne. "Sacramentists". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/S2384.html. Retrieved 2007-04-12. 
3. ^ Fontaine, Piet F.M. (2006), The Light and the Dark A cultural history of dualism, XXIII Postlutheran Reformation Chapter I - part 1 Radical Reformation - Dutch Sacramentists, Utrecht: Gopher Publishers, http://home.wanadoo.nl/piet.fontaine/volumes/overview.htm 
4. ^ James M. Stayer, Werner O. Packull, and Klaus Deppermann, "From Monogenesis to Polygenesis: the historical discussion of Anabaptist origins," Mennonite Quarterly Review 49.2 (Ap 1975): 83.
5. ^ Stayer, 86.
6. ^ A "true church" movement is a part of the Protestant or Reformed group of Christianity that claims to represent the true faith and order of New Testament Christianity. Most only assert this in relation to their church doctrines, polity, and practice (e.g., the ordinances), while a few hold they are the only true Christians. Some examples of Anabaptistic true church movements are the Landmark Baptists and the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite. The Church of God (Charleston, Tennessee), the Stone-Campbell restoration movement, and others represent a variation in which the "true church" apostatized and was restored, in distinction to this idea of apostolic or church succession. These groups trace their "true church" status through means other than those generally accepted by Roman Catholicism or Orthodox Christianity, both of which likewise claim to represent the true faith and order of New Testament Christianity.
7. ^ Walter Klaassen, Anabaptism: Neither Catholic Nor Protestant (Waterloo, Ontario: Conrad Press, 1973), 63
8. ^ Franklin H. Little, The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism (New York: Beacons, 1964), 19
9. ^ George Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), 443
10. ^ William Klassen and Walter Klassen, ed. and trans
11. ^ The Writings of Pilgram Marpeck (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1978), 50
12. ^ Martyrs' Mirror (Scottdale: Herald Press, 1950), 440
13. ^ John S. Oyer, Lutheran Reformers Against Anabaptists (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1964), 86
14. ^ Paul Peachey and Shem Peachey, trans., "Answer of Some Who Are Called (Ana-)Baptists - Why They Do Not Attend the Churches," Mennonite Quarterly Review 45, no. 1 (1971): 10, 11
15. ^ Mennonite World Conference 2003 Mennonite & Brethren in Christ World Membership
16. ^ London Baptist Confession of Faith A.D. 1644, "Of those CHURCHES which are commonly (though falsely) called ANABAPTISTS;"http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/bc1644.htm
17. ^ The origins of religious freedom in the USA is traced back to the Anabaptists in Verduin, Leonard That First Amendment and The Remnant published by The Christian Hymnary Publishers (1998) ISBN 1-890050-17-2
18. ^ "Anarchism" from The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910 By Peter Kropotkin.
19. ^ The Anabaptist Story – see Bibliography.

Further reading

• A History of Anti-Pedobaptism, From the Rise of Pedobaptism to A. D. 1609, by Albert H. Newman, (Google Books, ISBN 1579785360)
• Anabaptist Bibliography 1520–1630, by Hans Hillerbrand, (Google Books, ISBN 0910345031)
• Anabaptists and the Sword, by James M. Stayer, (Google Books, ISBN 0872910814)
• An Introduction to Mennonite History, by Cornelius J. Dyck, (Google Books, ISBN 0836136209)
• Covenant and Community: The Life, Writings, and Hermeneutics of Pilgram Marpeck, by William Klassen, (Google Books)
• Hutterite Beginnings: Communitarian Experiments During the Reformation, by Werner O. Packull, (Google Books, ISBN 0801850487)
• In Editha's Days. A Tale of Religious Liberty, by Mary E. Bamford LCCN 06006296 (republished as The Bible Makes Us Baptists, Larry Harrison, ed.), (Google Books)
• Mennonite Encyclopedia, Harold S. Bender, Cornelius J. Dyck, Dennis D. Martin, Henry C. Smith, et al., editors, (Google Books, ISBN 0836110188)
• Revelation & Revolution: Basic Writings of Thomas Muntzer, by Michael G. Baylor, (Google Books, ISBN 0934223165)
• The Anabaptist Story, by William R. Estep, (Google Books, ISBN 0802815944)
• The Anabaptist Vision, by Harold S. Bender, (Google Books, ISBN 0836113055)
• The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror, by Thieleman J. van Braght, (Google Books, ISBN 083611390X)
• The Encyclopedia of American Religions, by J. Gordon Melton, (Google Books, ISBN 0810369044)
• The German Peasants' War & Anabaptist Community of Goods, by James M. Stayer, (Google Books, ISBN 0773508422)
• The Pursuit of the Millennium, by Norman Cohn, (Google Books, ISBN 0195004566)
• The Reformers and their Stepchildren, by Leonard Verduin, (Google Books, ISBN 0801092841)
• The Anatomy of a Hybrid : a Study in Church-State Relationships by Leonard Verduin, (Google Books, ISBN 0802816150)
• The Tailor King: The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster, by Anthony Arthur, (Google Books, ISBN 0312205155)
• The Radical Reformation, by George Hunston Williams, Third Edition. Sixteen Century Journal Publishers, 1992.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anabaptism

• "Anabaptism". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/A533ME.html. Retrieved December 15, 2005. 
• "The Story of the Church: The Protestant Reformation: The Anabaptists and Other Radical Reformers". Ritchie Family Page. http://www.ritchies.net/p4wk4.htm. Retrieved December 15, 2005. 
• "The Anabaptist Story". The Reformed Reader. http://www.reformedreader.org/history/anabaptiststory.htm. Retrieved December 15, 2005. 
• The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists, by E. Belfort Bax 1903

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