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ANABAPTISTS (" re-baptizers," from Gr...
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See also:ANABAPTISTS (" re-baptizers," from Gr. apa and J3airri tt') , a name given by their enemies to various sects which on the
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occasion of See also:Luther's revolt from Romanism denied the validity of See also:infant See also:baptism, and therefore baptized those whom they quite logically regarded as not having received any See also:Christian See also:initiation at all.
On the 27th of See also:December 1521 three "prophets " appeared in See also:Wittenberg from See also:Zwickau, See also: Compelled to leave Zwickau, Munzer visited Bohemia, resided two years at Alltstedt in Thuringia, and in 1524 spent some See also:time in See also:Switzerland. During this See also:period he proclaimed his revolutionary doctrines in See also:religion and politics with growing vehemence, and, so far as the See also:lower orders were concerned, with growing success. The crisis came in the so-called Peasants' See also:War in See also:South See also:Germany in 1525. In its origin a revolt against feudal oppression, it became, under the See also:leader-See also:ship of Munzer, a war against all constituted authorities; and an See also:attempt to establish by force his ideal Christian See also:commonwealth, with See also:absolute equality and the community of goods. The See also:total defeat of the insurgents at See also:Frankenhausen (May 15, 1525), followed as it was by the See also:execution of Munzer and several other leaders, proved only a temporary check to the Anabaptist movement. Here and there throughout Germany, Switzerland and the See also:Netherlands there were zealous propagandists, through whose teaching many were prepared to follow as soon as another leader should arise. A second and more determined attempt to establish a See also:theocracy was made at See also:Munster, in See also:Westphalia (1532-1535). Here the See also:sect had gained considerable See also:influence, through the See also:adhesion of Rothmann, the Lutheran pastor, and several prominent citizens; and the leaders, Johann Matthyszoon or Matthiesen, a See also:baker of See also:Haarlem, and Johann Bockholdt, a tailor of See also:Leiden, had little difficulty in obtaining See also:possession of the See also:town and deposing the magistrates. Vigorous preparations were at once made, not only to hold what had been gained, but to proceed from Munster as a centre to the See also:conquest of the See also:world. The town being besieged by See also:Francis of Waldeck, its expelled See also:bishop (See also:April 1534), Matthiesen, who was first in command, made a sally with only See also:thirty followers, under the fanatical See also:idea that he was a second See also:Gideon, and was cut off with his entire See also:band. Bockholdt, better known in See also:history as See also: With this pre-tended See also:sanction he legalized See also:polygamy, and himself took four wives, one of whom he beheaded with his own hand in the See also:market-See also:place in a See also:fit of frenzy. As a natural consequence of such See also:licence, Munster was for twelve months a See also:scene of unbridledprofligacy. After an obstinate resistance the town was taken by the besiegers on the 24th of See also:June 1535, and in See also:January 1536 Bockholdt and some of his more prominent followers, after being cruelly tortured, were executed in the market-place. The outbreak at Munster was the crisis of the Anabaptist movement. It never again had the opportunity of assuming See also:political importance, the See also:civil See also:powers naturally adopting the most stringent measures to suppress an agitation whose avowed See also:object was to suppress them. It is difficult to trace the subsequent history of the sect as a religious See also:body. The fact that, of ter the Munster insurrection the very name Anabaptist was proscribed in See also:Europe, is a source of twofold confusion. The enforced See also:adoption of new names makes it easy to lose the See also:historical identity of many who really belonged to the Munster Anabaptists, and, on the other hand, has led to the See also:classification of many with the Munster sect who had no real connexion with it. The latter See also:mistake, it is to be noted, has been much more See also:common than the former. The See also:Mennonites, for example, have been identified with the earlier Anabaptists, on the ground that they included among their number many of the fanatics of Munster. But the continuity of a sect is to be traced in its principles, and not in its adherents, and it must be remembered that Menno and his followers expressly repudiated the distinctive doctrines of the Munster Anabaptists. They have never aimed at any social or political revolution, and have been as remarkable for sobriety of conduct as the Munster sect was for its fanaticism (see MENNONITES). In See also:English history frequent reference is made to the Anabaptists during the 16th and 17th centuries, but there is no See also:evidence that any considerable number of native Englishmen ever adopted the principles of the Munster sect. Many of the followers of Munzer and Bockholdt seem to have fled from persecution in Germany and the Netherlands to be subjected to a persecution scarcely less severe in See also:England. The mildest measure adopted towards these refugees was banishment from the See also:kingdom, and a large number suffered at the stake. It was easier to See also:burn Anabaptists than to refute their arguments, and contemporary writers were struck with the intrepidity and number of their martyrs. Thus See also:Stanislaus See also:Hosius (1504-1579), a See also:Polish See also:cardinal and bishop of Warmie, wrote (See also:Opera, See also:Venice, 1573, p. 202) :
" They are far readier than followers of Luther and See also:Zwingli to meet See also:death, and See also:bear the harshest tortures for their faith. For they run to suffer punishments, no See also:matter how horrible, as if to a banquet; so that if you take that as a test either of the truth of See also:doctrine or of their certitude of See also:grace, you would easily conclude that in no other sect is to be found a faith so true or grace so certain. But as See also:Paul wrote: ' Even if I give my body up to be burned and have not charity, it avails me naught.' But he has not charity who divides the unity.... He cannot be a See also:martyr who is not in the See also: The earliest Anabaptists of See also:Zurich allowed that the Picardi or Waldensians had, in contrast with Rome and the Reformers, truth on their See also:side, yet did not claim to be in their See also:succession; nor can it be shown that their adult baptism derived from any of the older Baptist sects, which undoubtedly lingered in parts of Europe. Later on See also:Hermann Schyn claimed descent for the peaceful Baptists from the Waldensians, who certainly, as the records of the Flemish See also:inquisition, collected by P. Fredericq, prove, were wide-spread during the 15th See also:century over See also:north See also:France and See also:Flanders. It would appear from the way in which Anabaptism sprang up everywhere independently, as if more than one See also:ancient sect took in and through it a new See also:lease of See also:life. See also:Ritschl discerned in it the See also:leaven of the Fraticelli or Franciscan See also:Tertiaries. In See also:Moravia, if what Alex. Rost related be true, namely that they called themselves A postolici, and went barefooted healing the sick, they must have at least absorbed into themselves a sect of whom we hear in the 12th century in the north of Europe as deferring baptism to the age of 30, and rejecting oaths, prayers for the dead, See also:relics and invocation of saints. The Moravian Anabaptists, says Rost, went See also:bare-footed, washed each other's feet (like the Fraticelli), had all goods in common, worked everyone at a handicraft, had a spiritual See also:father who prayed with them every See also:morning and taught them, dressed in See also:black and had See also:long See also:graces before and after meals. Zeiler also in his German Itinerary (1618) describes their way of life. The See also:Lord's Supper, or See also:bread-breaking, was a See also:commemoration of the See also:Passion, held once a See also:year. They sat at long tables, the elders read the words of institution and prayed, and passed a See also:loaf See also:round from which each See also:broke off a See also:bit and See also:ate, the See also:wine being handed round in flagons. Children in their colonies were separated from the parents, and lived in the school, each having his See also:bed and blanket. They were taught See also:reading, See also:writing and summing, cleanliness, truthfulness and See also:industry, and the girls married the men chosen for them. In the following points Anabaptists resembled the medieval dissenters:—(1) They taught that Jesus did not take the flesh from his See also: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 See also:water through a See also:pipe, into the world. In pictures and sculptures of the 15th century and earlier, we often find represented this idea, originated by See also:Marcion in the and century. The Anabaptists were accused of denying the Incarnation of Christ: they did, but not in the sense that he was not divine; they rather denied him to be human. (2) They condemned oaths, and also the reference of disputes between believers to See also:law-courts. (3) The believer must not bear arms or offer forcible resistance to wrongdoers, nor wield the See also:sword. No Christian has the See also:jus gladii. (4) Civil See also:government belongs to the world, is See also:Caesar. The believer who belongs to God's kingdom must not fill any See also:office, nor hold any See also:rank under government, which is to be passively obeyed. (5) Sinners or unfaithful ones are to be excommunicated, and excluded from the sacraments and from intercourse with believers unless they repent, according to Matt. xviii. 15 seq. But no force is to be used towards them.
Some sects calling themselves Spirituales or Perfecti also held that the baptized cannot See also:sin, a very ancient tenet.
They seem to have preserved among them the primitive See also:manual called the Teaching of the Apostles, for Bishop Longland in England condemned an Anabaptist for repeating one of its See also:maxims " that See also:alms should not be given before they did sweat in a See also:man's hand." This was between 1518 and 1521.
On the 12th of April 1549, certain See also:London Anabaptists brought before a See also:commission of bishops asserted.
" That a man regenerate could not sin; that though the outward man sinned, the inward man sinned not; that there was no Trinity of Persons; that Christ was only a See also:holy See also:prophet and not at all God; that all we had by Christ was that he taught us the way to heaven; that he took no flesh of the Virgin, and that the baptism of infants was not profitable."
The Anabaptists were See also:great readers of See also:Revelation and of the See also:Epistle of See also: The See also:Lutherans and Zwinglians never converted the Anabaptists. Those who yielded to stressof persecution See also:fell back into Papalism and went to swell the See also:tide of the See also:Catholic reaction. (See also:Leipzig. 1748) ; Tielmann See also:Janssen See also:van Bracht, Martyrologia Mennonitarum (Haarlem, 1615-1631) ; Joh. Gastii, Tractat. de Anabapt. Exordia (See also:Basel, 1545); Jehring, History of the Baptists; Auss Bundt, or See also:hymns written by and of the Baptist martyrs from 1526-1620, first printed without date or place, reprinted Basel, 1838. (F. C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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