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Title: Anabaptist movement Author: Soma Marik Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: Christianity, proto-anarchism, history Source: Retrieved on 21st November 2021 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0038 Notes: Published in The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest.
The Reformation had several strands, including the “Radical
Reformation,” which refers to all individuals and groups who rejected
both the Roman Catholic tradition and the mainstream Protestant
alternatives. Many radicals and their leaders, mostly literate
ex-clergy, rejected any connection with the state and any state church.
They appealed to the same audience and used some of the same anti-Roman
or anti-clerical arguments as did the preachers of the mainstream
Reformation, but they had a more popular social base. Often called
Anabaptists, or “rebaptizers” by their contemporary Catholic and
Protestant enemies, they advocated adult rather than infant baptism and
saw the church as a body of saints in which membership was voluntary,
and the most severe form of discipline was banning or shunning. In their
separation from the temporal domain, many Anabaptist groups refused to
serve the state as magistrates or soldiers, and some even refused to pay
war taxes.
In Switzerland, Anabaptism developed from Conrad Grebel’s circle and
priests from the outlying areas of Zurich. Seeing the Bible as an
alternative authority to Rome, these “Swiss Brethren” sought to purify
the city’s religion of Catholic elements like the mass and establish
self-governing people’s churches in the rural communities. They opposed
tithes, or the payment of one-tenth of produce as tax to the church. In
1525 their meetings were forbidden, and parents were ordered to have
their infants baptized within eight days or face expulsion from the
city. In response, on January 21, Conrad Grebel, a layman often called
the “first Anabaptist,” baptized George Blaurock, an ordained priest.
The movement spread rapidly. The Brethren began evangelizing the
surrounding territories with great success, converting and baptizing
many. Leaders were arrested and rebaptism was banned by the council on
March 7, 1526. The penalty for disobedience was death by drowning. In
December Blaurock, who was not a citizen of Zurich, was tried and was
whipped and banished. Felix Manz was executed by drowning on January 5,
1527, thereby becoming the first Anabaptist martyr. The attempt to
emerge as a mass movement failed, and there emerged instead the idea of
the church of a separated minority. By 1527, Swiss Anabaptists were
being unified through the Schleitheim Confession. Drafted by Michael
Sattler, this document attempted to separate congregations of Anabaptist
followers from non-believers.
Radical reforming zeal and peasant radicalism also combined in southern
Germany. The “Zwickau Prophets,” Thomas Dreschel, Nicolas Storch, and
Mark Thomas StĂĽbner, claimed to be directly commanded by the Holy Spirit
and rejected infant baptism and any authority other than the spiritual
command of God. They in turn influenced Thomas MĂĽntzer, a priest who
became acquainted with Martin Luther around 1519. During the Peasant
Rebellion in 1524–5, Müntzer supported the peasants’ cause. Seeing the
events of 1525 as resistance to godless tyranny and God’s instrument to
purify Christendom, he placed his considerable talents at the disposal
of the great uprising of the peasants and “common man.” Although not its
instigator, he became one of its theologically most articulate
defenders, ultimately being tortured and beheaded for the cause.
Other German Anabaptists included Hans Hut, who disagreed with the need
to form separatist communities, and Balthasar Hubmaier, who believed
that the state was ordained by God, envisaged the possibility of a
Christian magistrate, and sanctioned capital punishment and just wars.
Hut’s more radical followers called for common ownership of goods and
denied that Christians could use the sword in self-defense, serve as
magistrates, or pay taxes.
Another radical faction from Austerlitz, which followed Jacob Hutter and
was known as Hutterites, was the first Anabaptist community to form a
completely communistic society administered by elected officials. They
believed that if all things were held in common, selfishness could be
overcome and the true imitation of Christ attained. Eventually,
Ferdinand I succeeded in getting the Hutterites expelled from Moravia.
Hutter was arrested by the Austrian authorities in Tyrol, and burned to
death on February 25, 1536. Subsequently, Hutterites moved back to
Moravia and were given protection by some nobles. Periods of persecution
and relaxation followed. By 1572 they had built up flourishing and
hard-working communities, but the death of their protector and
unrelenting persecution destroyed the communities in Moravia.
Another major Anabaptist movement developed in MĂĽnster through the
influence of Melchior Hofmann, who died after ten years’ imprisonment in
Strasbourg. Two lines developed to continue and transform his legacy.
Soon after learning about Hofmann’s arrest, the Haarlem baker Jan
Matthys, in the presence of Low Country Melchiorites, professed to be
driven by the Spirit, and claimed to be the second witness of the
apocalypse. Meanwhile, in the city of MĂĽnster in Westphalia, Bernhard
Rothmann, influenced by the Melchiorites, moved to a more radical
position, and his followers won the town council, declaring property
communal and adopting such biblical practices as polygamy. Adopting a
strongly patriarchal line, Rothmann demanded complete obedience of the
wife to the husband. All Lutherans and Catholics who refused to join the
movement were expelled by early March 1534, but eventually the bishop of
MĂĽnster, aided by both Catholic and Protestant rulers, captured the city
on June 25, 1535. Many of the inhabitants negotiated surrender, only to
be executed after they had laid down their weapons.
The survival of Anabaptism after the suppression of the MĂĽnster
Rebellion was largely the work of Menno Simons, who from 1536 to 1543
worked first in the Netherlands and then in North Germany to reorganize
and consolidate the scattered Anabaptist communities. Due to his role in
creating a structured network, many Anabaptists came to be called
Mennonites.
Bender, H. S. (1944) The Anabaptist Vision. Church History (March) 13:
3–24.
Stayer, J. M. (1991) The German Peasants’ War and Anabaptist Community
of Goods. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Williams, G. H. (2000) The Radical Reformation. Kirksville: Truman State
University Press.