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The Anabaptist |
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It is a universal opinion that the modern Baptists have their roots in the old Anabaptists of Europe. This would include the Mennonites and Dutch Baptist who played a part in the history of the English Baptist. Protestant Baptists claim that all Baptist today are descendants from either the Particular or General Baptist of England (Both of whom are Reformers). So we ask, “Who were the Anabaptists?” No serious student of Baptist history will fail to discover that there are many who assert that the Anabaptist originated during the Reformation period. If this assertion were true then that would make the Baptist to be in the class of the Protestants. Thus there is a need to investigate this issue of the Anabaptist origin.
Here is the story behind the "Protestant" Anabaptist as gathered from protestant writers.
It begins in 1524 with four men who were to play a prominent part in the formation of a new "Anabaptist" group. These men were, Felix Manz a catholic priest, Balthasar Hubmaier a disciple of Luther and a Luthern preacher, Conrad Grebel a disciple of Zwingli, and George Blaurock a married ex-Catholic priest. These men had looked to Zwingli of Zurich Switzerland to be a champion of believers' baptism and for the abolition of Mass and images in the church. Initially Zwingli embraced these reforms but later turned from them. In the eyes of his followers he had become a false prophet. So they became dissenters of Zwingli and the council of Zurich.
On January 17, 1525, the city council of Zurich ordered all unbaptized children to be presented for baptism within eight days. The dissenters distressed at this edict met on the evening of January 21,1525 at a house belonging to Felix Manz's mother. According to an eyewitness account the following occurred. "After they had prayer, George Blaurock (the married ex-priest) implored Conrad Grebel for God's sake to baptize him with the true Christian baptism upon his faith and knowledge. And when he had knelt down with such a request and desire, Conrad baptized him, since at that time there was no ordained minister to perform such work." After his baptism by Grebel, Blaurock proceeded to baptize all the others (15) present. The newly baptized then pledged themselves as true Disciples of Christ to live lives separated from the world and to teach the gospel and hold the faith. From this it is declared “Anabaptistism” was born, the birth of the Anabaptist.
With this first baptism, the earliest church of the Swiss Brethren was constituted.
The following week these men held open revival meetings. They led prayer meetings in private homes. For those who experienced regeneration were baptized by affusion (sprinkling or pouring). - There are accounts where they later practiced immersion. - They also administered the Lord's Supper in these homes.
Through these faithful acts, the dissenters formed themselves into a separated community, a "gathered church" of "genuine believers." By their opponents they were nicknamed "Anabaptists," or rebaptizers. They are today called Swiss Brethren. But, this title was both inaccurate and prejudicial, since they recognized but one baptism, that for adults only, and so denied the validity of their baptism in infancy. They called themselves simply "brothers" and "sisters."
Here are some of their beliefs. However, at what time in their existence these beliefs were embraced it is not told. Nor is it clear which Anabaptist held these beliefs. Since the position is taken that all Anabaptists were of them, no effort is given to distinguish between them and others and hence the doctrines of each body.
They maintained that a life of saintliness must be the test of true faith, discipleship, and the spiritual rebirth. The true church of God is made up not of all professed Christians, who have entered upon church membership through baptism in infancy, but only of all convinced believers, who have received baptism as adults in full consciousness of faith and who now display in their lives the palpable fruits of faith. They refused to have any part in inclusive state-churches. Thus, they were the first to practice separation of church and state. They took the position of freedom of worship and belief (or the refusal of it) of individuals. One of their ministers, Hubmaier, baptized more than three hundred men out of a milkpail. Foot washing was engaged in by the newly baptized.
They are reported to have grown rapidly and expanded into Germany, Moravia, and throughout the high valleys of the Alps [apparently only in Switzerland and not Italy].
On February 24, 1527 there was held a synod of Swiss Brethren at Schleitheim. From this synod came the drafting of the "Schleitheim Confession." This confession affirmed believers' baptism, that the church is regarded as composed of only of local associations of baptized regenerated Christians, united as the body of Christ by the common observance of the Lord's Supper; its sole weapon is excommunication (the ban), and absolute rejection of all "self-indulgence of the flesh." The forms of worship of the Roman, Lutheran, and Zwinglian churches are explicitly repudiated as unchristian. The duties of the pastor - who is now regarded as a settled minister rather then an itinerant evangelist - are clearly defined: his chief responsibility is to read the Scriptures and to teach and admonish in their light; he leads in prayer; and he presides at the Supper, in which connection he disciplines and bans in the name of the church.
This account is taken from the book, "The Anabaptist Story," by William R. Estep. Many others have picked up on his position of the origin of the Anabaptists.
At this junction I leave off the story of this group of people called "Anabaptist." It must be observed that the leaders of the Swiss Brethren were courageous, dedicated, zealous, and fearless. Many were put to death cruelly and others suffering in daily persecutions. If any Protestants were to be praised, it would be due them. They were heroic in what they believed.
But our argument is not with these people. It is against the claim of modem writers that they and they alone were the Anabaptist existing during the sixteenth century and that there were no others before them. The statement that on that night on January 21, 1525 was the birth of the Anabaptist is grossly inaccurate. It may have been the birth of a new group, which was labeled Anabaptist, but it was not the birth of the Anabaptists. Ever since the third century true, pure churches were rebaptizing and carried the name Anabaptist. If the point were pressed even the Apostle Paul was an Anabaptist since he "rebaptized" a group of believers in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7). We have seen in our previous studies that in every century, in many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa churches were called Anabaptist.
What is at the heart of this false proposal is the failure to distinguish the Anabaptists. This same failure is seen in the false proposals of the Waldenses. The Swiss Brethren called Anabaptist was a Reformation church. So it is important for all to distinguish between the Ancient Anabaptist and the Reformation Anabaptist. Their doctrines, which on some points they agree, were not entirely similar. Their practices were certainly different. Absolutely their historical linage is different. The ancient Anabaptists who proceeded yet were contemporary with the Swiss Brethren Anabaptist were of the Paulicians, the Waldenses of the Peidmont (not those of Peter Waldo), and the Albigenses.
Let us contrast the beliefs of the two Anabaptists.
- The Swiss administered baptism by sprinkling, pouring and immersion. The historical Anabaptists insisted on immersion only. To the Swiss scriptural baptism only meant that adult believers were baptized. While as the other Anabaptists believed this to be true, but it also had to be administered by the proper authority. The original Anabaptists rejected all baptisms at the hands of Heretical or man-originated churches. They claimed that scriptural authority must exist in the church's lineage to the New Testament era. In other words, the very act of the Swiss Anabaptist in their impromptu baptizing of one another would not have been recognized as valid. To them no man or group of men could simply take it upon themselves to administer baptism and have it considered scriptural. The same holds true for the administration of the Lord's Supper.
- The Lord's Supper would never be offered to those outside the church, nor would they have taken part in it if offered to them. That was a key issue with them when they refused the Catholic mass.
- Foot washing was unheard of among the ancient Anabaptists.
- The true Anabaptist did practice excommunication of members, but nowhere can it be found that this process was in the exclusive hands of the pastor. All that they stood for was against such practices of "preacher rule" as they knew of the abuses of the outside clergy.
- It may seem that the Swiss believed in the local church as opposed to the universal church, but this is not the case if you observe carefully what they believed about the church. They said that the church is regarded as composed of only of local associations of baptized regenerated Christians, united as the body of Christ by the common observance of the Lord's Supper. So then any united group of baptized regenerated Christians who observe the Lord's Supper constitutes a scriptural church. These baptized regenerated Christians are simply those who were first saved and then baptized as adults without any regard as to the baptismal method or authority. Their point was that a believer could not be in the church if he had only infant baptism. It did not matter to them if the Catholics, the Lutherans, the Zwinglians, or the next-door neighbor baptized them.
There must have been interaction between these Swiss Anabaptists and the original Anabaptist on a friendly basis. There was much they had in common and there was no threat of mistreatment from either of them. The Swiss seemed to be very open to the truth of the Bible, and accounts are that they appreciated any who opened the Scriptures to them. They appear as children in the faith but as giants in their dedication even unto martyrdom. It can be seen that many came more into line with the doctrines of the older Anabaptists in that they altered their baptisms to immersion and some left off foot washing. Originally they had no position on the constitution of the church, but that too changed. So theirs was an evolving, growing, and developing system of faith. The other Anabaptists were fully developed in their cardinal beliefs and practices since they had had them from the first century.
Nothing can be more insulting to the ancient Anabaptists than to say that the Swiss Brethren were the first and only people to oppose the church-state. Ever since the unholy union of the Roman government with the Roman Catholic Church 313 A. D. the Anabaptists have always practiced separation of church and state!
If one reads carefully the works of these modem authors, a rather remarkable fact comes into play. They either carefully avoid naming the groups such as the Albigenses and Waldenses as Anabaptist, by which name they were well known, or only briefly mention them as existing before 1525, but gloss over that fact. As it has been seen the Lutheran Historian, Mosheim, and the Catholics maintained that they existed in every century and in vast numbers. This fact goes unnoticed by these writers. Another point to observe is that of the number and the locations in which the Anabaptists were found in the 1500s. If it is true they had their beginning in 1525 with 15 persons then it would be nothing short of an actual miracle that in so short of time they covered practically all of Europe in huge numbers. The following is an excerpt from the history of the German and Dutch Baptist:
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“It is highly possible, that the gospel was preached in the area of Germany from the apostolic times. It is absolutely certain that the Goths professed Christianity several centuries before their kings became Catholics. The Catholics all through this early period called them Anabaptist, Heretics, and not Christians.
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The wilds and forests of Germany would prove asylums to dissenters through the rise and assumption of the Catholic Church. That Germany was inhabited by persons of this description is evident, and that such persons must have been very active in disseminating the truth becomes plain, since it is recorded that the Baptist itinerant preachers, could in their travels pass, during the ninth century, through the whole German empire, and lodge every night at the house of one of their friends. It is very probable these traveling ministers were Paulicians or Paterines from Bulgaria or Italy.
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The Waldenses and the Albigenses took refuge in Germany when they were driven out of their countries because of persecutions, in the 11th century. A Dutch man, Walter Lollard, came to Germany and embraced the Anabaptist views and his followers were called the Lollards, in 1315. His association was with the Albigenses. In 1320 Walter Lollard was apprehended and burnt. The Lollards spread into England and became very prominent there.
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In 1457 a great number of Waldenses were discovered by inquisitors in the diocese of Eiston in Germany, and were put to death. Trithemius, living at this time, wrote that Germany was full of Waldenses prior to the Reformation by Luther; for he mentions it as a well known fact that so numerous were they, that in traveling from Cologne to Milan, the whole extent of Germany, they could lodge every night with persons of their own profession, and that it was a custom among them to affix certain private marks to their signs and gates whereby they might be known to each other.
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Mosheim asserts, "before the rise of Luther or Calvin, there lay concealed, in almost all the countries of Europe, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany, many persons, who adhered tenaciously to the doctrine of the Dutch Baptist, which the Waldenses had maintained."
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These German Baptists were also known as Picards. The Emperor of Germany at the time of the Picards concurred that their views and practice were nearer to apostolic precedent than any other religious sect. Their bitterest enemies, who were eyewitnesses of their actions, said that they resembled the ancient Donatist.
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In the early 1500's the state of the priest of the Catholic Church was that of tyrants, and they lived rioting in luxury wrung from their respective peasants. The ignorance of the priests was extreme. Numbers of them could not read, and few had ever seen a Bible. Many, on oath, declared they knew not that there was a New Testament.
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The Picards in their conduct in re-baptizing, awakened the anger of the Catholic priesthood. Consequently, in 1510, the clergy and bishops prevailed upon the Sovereign to use means equal to the danger, whereupon, an edict was made, that all the Picards, without distinction of sex, age or quality should be slain. The threatening aspect of affairs in Germany suggested to the Picards the necessity of emigrating, and Mosheim asserts, "that the German Baptist passed in Shoals into Holland and the Netherlands, and in the course of time, amalgamated with the Dutch Baptist."
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Mosheim also stated, "there were certain sects and doctors against whom the zeal, vigilance and severity of Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were united. The objects of their common aversion were the Anabaptists."
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At Zurich, in 1522, the senate warned the people to desist from the practice of re-baptizing. When the warnings failed they took monetary measures against the re-bapitizers, a fine of a silver mark was set upon all such as should suffer themselves to be re-baptized, or should withhold baptism from their children. (It had been death to refuse baptism, and now it was death to be baptized; such is the condition of a state religion.) When the fines failed, they took stronger measures and decreed that all persons who professed Anabaptism or harbored the professors of the doctrine should be punished with death by drowning.
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When prince Frederick, in 1532, conferred privileges on the German Protestants, he excluded the Baptist. In 1533, a reward of 12 guilders was promised to any person who should apprehend an Anabaptistical teacher.
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In 1555 a council was held at Augsburg and a peace treaty was signed between the Catholics and the Lutherans. In this treaty it was agreed that neither party would persecute the other. The Baptists were ignored in the terms of the treaty and were not granted any rights by the governments. Both the Lutherans and Catholics freely persecuted the Baptists without any restraint.”
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So the claim that the birth of the Anabaptists came with the Swiss Brethren is to be rejected. So also to be rejected is the claim that all who are called Anabaptist or Baptist are of their stock. Those who hold the view that Baptists are Protestants need to be aware of the distinctive characteristics of the Anabaptists. Also, for those who hold the view that the ancient Anabaptists are not Protestant have to beware of lumping together all who are labeled with this title. It can cause embarrassment to make universal claims to all Anabaptists as the modernists have labeled them. The title of Anabaptist may have been applied to the Swiss Brethren but only as a generic term. All that the Anabaptists were does not apply to them, and hence, they should always be regarded as the Swiss Brethren.
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This page last updated May 25, 2005
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