printed in 1550, displayed in the Anabaptist Room of the Local History Museum in
Schleitheim, Switzerland
Switzerland Anabaptism in Switzerland began as an offshoot of the church reforms instigated by
Ulrich Zwingli. As early as 1522, it became evident that Zwingli was on a path of reform preaching when he began to question or criticize such Catholic practices as
tithes, the
mass, and even infant baptism. Zwingli had gathered a group of reform-minded men around him, with whom he studied classical literature and the scriptures. However, some of these young men began to feel that Zwingli was not moving fast enough in his reform. The division between Zwingli and his more radical disciples became apparent in an October 1523 disputation held in Zurich. When the discussion of the mass was about to be ended without making any actual change in practice, Conrad Grebel stood up and asked "what should be done about the mass?" Zwingli responded by saying the council would make that decision. At this point, Simon Stumpf, a radical priest from
Höngg, answered saying, "The decision has already been made by the Spirit of God." This incident illustrated clearly that Zwingli and his more radical disciples had different expectations. To Zwingli, the reforms would only go as fast as the city council allowed them. To the radicals, the council had no right to make that decision, but rather the Bible was the final authority of church reform. Feeling frustrated, some of them began to meet on their own for Bible study. As early as 1523, William Reublin began to preach against infant baptism in villages surrounding Zurich, encouraging parents to not baptize their children. Seeking fellowship with other reform-minded people, the radical group wrote letters to
Martin Luther,
Andreas Karlstadt, and Thomas Müntzer.
Felix Manz began to publish some of Karlstadt's writings in Zurich in late 1524. By this time the question of infant baptism had become agitated, and the Zurich council had instructed Zwingli to meet weekly with those who rejected infant baptism "until the matter could be resolved". Zwingli broke off the meetings after two sessions, and Manz petitioned the council to find a solution, since he felt Zwingli was too hard to work with. The council then called a meeting for January 17, 1525. to part ways with
Huldrych Zwingli. The council ruled in this meeting that all who continued to refuse to baptize their infants should be expelled from Zurich if they did not have them baptized within one week. Since Grebel had refused to baptize his daughter Rachel, born on January 5, 1525, the council decision was personal to him and others who had not baptized their children. Thus, when 16 of the radicals met on January 21, the situation seemed particularly dark. The
Hutterian Chronicle records the event: Afterwards Blaurock was baptized, and he in turn baptized others at the meeting. Even though some had rejected infant baptism before this date, these baptisms marked the first re-baptisms of those who had been baptized as infants and thus Swiss Anabaptism was born on that day.
Tyrol Anabaptism appears to have come to
Tyrol through the labors of Blaurock. Similar to the German Peasants' War, the Gaismair uprising set the stage by producing a hope for social justice.
Michael Gaismair had tried to bring religious, political, and economical reform through a violent peasant uprising, but the movement was quashed. Although little evidence exists of a connection between Gaismair's uprising and Tyrolian Anabaptism, at least a few of the peasants involved in the uprising later became Anabaptists. The common link was the desire for a radical change in the prevailing social injustices. Disappointed with the failure of armed revolt, Anabaptist ideals of an alternative peaceful, just society probably resonated on the ears of the disappointed peasants. Before Anabaptism was introduced to
South Tyrol, Protestant ideas had been propagated in the region by men such as Hans Vischer, a former Dominican. Some of those who participated in
conventicles where Protestant ideas were presented later became Anabaptists. The population in general seemed to have a favorable attitude towards reform, be it Protestant or Anabaptist. Blaurock appears to have preached itinerantly in the
Puster Valley region in 1527, which most likely was the first introduction of Anabaptist ideas in the area. Another visit through the area in 1529 reinforced these ideas, but he was captured and burned at the stake in
Klausen on September 6, 1529.
Jacob Hutter was one of the early converts in South Tyrol and later became a leader among the Hutterites, who received their name from him. Hutter made several trips between Moravia and Tyrol, and most of the Anabaptists in South Tyrol ended up emigrating to Moravia because of the fierce persecution unleashed by
Ferdinand I. In November 1535, Hutter was captured near Klausen and taken to
Innsbruck where he was burned at the stake on February 25, 1536. By 1540 Anabaptism in South Tyrol was dying out, largely because of the emigration to Moravia of the converts because of incessant persecution.
Low Countries and northern Germany Melchior Hoffman is credited with the introduction of Anabaptist ideas into the
Low Countries. Hoffman had picked up Lutheran and Reformed ideas, but on April 23, 1530, he was "re-baptized" at
Strasbourg and within two months had gone to
Emden and baptized about 300 persons. For several years Hoffman preached in the Low Countries until he was arrested and imprisoned at Strasbourg, where he died about 10 years later. Hoffman's apocalyptic ideas were indirectly related to the
Münster rebellion, even though he was "of a different spirit".
Obbe and
Dirk Philips had been baptized by disciples of
Jan Matthijs but were opposed to the violence that occurred at Münster. Obbe later became disillusioned with Anabaptism and withdrew from the movement in about 1540, but not before ordaining
David Joris, his brother Dirk, and Menno Simons. Joris and Simons parted ways, with Joris placing more emphasis on "spirit and prophecy", while Menno emphasized the authority of the Bible. For the Mennonite side, the emphasis on the "inner" and "spiritual" permitted compromise to "escape persecution", while to the Joris side, the Mennonites were under the "dead letter of the Scripture". Because of expansion, some of the Low Country Mennonites emigrated to the
Vistula delta, a region settled by Germans but under Polish rule until it became part of
Prussia in 1772. There they formed the
Vistula delta Mennonites, integrating some other Mennonites mainly from northern Germany. In the late 18th century, several thousand of them migrated from there to Ukraine (which at the time was part of Russia), forming the so-called
Russian Mennonites. Beginning in 1874, many of them emigrated to the prairie states and provinces of the United States and Canada. In the 1920s, the conservative faction of the Canadian settlers went to Mexico and Paraguay. Beginning in the 1950s, the most conservative of them started to migrate to Bolivia. In 1958, Mexican Mennonites migrated to Belize. Since the 1980s, traditional Russian Mennonites migrated to Argentina. Smaller groups went to Brazil and Uruguay. In 2015, some Mennonites from Bolivia settled in Peru. In 2018, there were more than 200,000 of them living in colonies in Central and South America.
Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia Although Moravian Anabaptism was a transplant from other areas of Europe,
Moravia soon became a center for the growing movement, largely because of the greater religious tolerance found there. Hans Hut was an early evangelist in the area, with one historian crediting him with baptizing more converts in two years than all the other Anabaptist evangelists put together. The coming of Balthasar Hübmaier to
Nikolsburg was a definite boost for Anabaptist ideas to the area. With the great influx of religious refugees from all over Europe, many variations of Anabaptism appeared in Moravia, with Jarold Zeman documenting at least ten slightly different versions. Jacob Wiedemann appeared at Nikolsburg and began to teach the pacifistic convictions of the Swiss Brethren, on which Hübmaier had been less authoritative. This would lead to a division between the (sword-bearing) and the (staff-bearing). Wiedemann and those with him also promoted the practice of
community of goods. With orders from the lords of
Liechtenstein to leave Nikolsburg, about 200 withdrew to Moravia to form a community at
Austerlitz. Persecution in South Tyrol brought many refugees to Moravia, many of whom formed into communities that practised community of goods. Others came from
Silesia, Switzerland, German lands, and the Low Countries. With the passing of time and persecution, all the other versions of Anabaptism would die out in Moravia leaving only the Hutterites. Even the Hutterites would be dissipated by persecution, with a remnant fleeing to
Transylvania, then to Ukraine, and finally to North America in 1874.
South and central Germany, Austria and Alsace led the German peasants against the landowners. South German Anabaptism had its roots in
German mysticism. Andreas Karlstadt, who first worked alongside Martin Luther, is seen as a forerunner of South German Anabaptism because of his reforming theology that rejected many Catholic practices, including infant baptism. However, Karlstadt is neither known to have been "rebaptized", nor to have taught it. Hans Denck and Hans Hut, both with German mystical background (in connection with Thomas Müntzer) both accepted "rebaptism", but Denck eventually backed off from the idea under pressure. Hut is said to have brought more people into early Anabaptism than all the other Anabaptist evangelists of his time put together. However, there may have been confusion about what his baptism (at least some of the times it was done by making the sign of the
Tau on the forehead) may have meant to the recipient. Some seem to have taken it as a sign by which they would escape the apocalyptical revenge of the Turks that Hut predicted. Hut even went so far as to predict a 1528 coming of the kingdom of God. When the prediction failed, some of his converts became discouraged and left the Anabaptist movement. The large congregation of Anabaptists at
Augsburg fell apart (partly because of persecution) and those who stayed with Anabaptist ideas were absorbed into Swiss and Moravian Anabaptist congregations. Pilgram Marpeck was another notable leader in early South German Anabaptism who attempted to steer between the two extremes of Denck's inner Holiness and the legalistic standards of the other Anabaptists.
Persecutions and migrations was executed by drowning within two years of his rebaptism. of
Anabaptist martyr Ursula in
Maastricht, 1570; engraving by
Jan Luyken from
Martyrs Mirror Roman Catholics and
Protestants alike persecuted the Anabaptists, resorting to torture and execution in attempts to curb the growth of the movement. The Protestants under Zwingli were the first to persecute the Anabaptists, with Manz becoming the first Anabaptist martyr in 1527. On May 20 or 21, 1527, Roman Catholic authorities executed
Michael Sattler. King Ferdinand declared drowning (called the
third baptism) "the best antidote to Anabaptism". The
Tudor regime, even the Protestant monarchs (
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 the ancient laws of
Theodosius I and
Justinian I which were passed against the
Donatists, and decreed the death penalty for anyone who practised rebaptism.
Martyrs Mirror, by Thieleman J. van Braght, describes the persecution and execution of thousands of Anabaptists in various parts of Europe between 1525 and 1660. Continuing persecution in Europe was largely responsible for the mass emigrations to North America by the Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Unlike
Calvinists, Anabaptists failed to gain recognition in the
Peace of Westphalia of 1648, and as a result they continued to be persecuted in Europe long after that treaty was signed. Anabaptism stands out among other groups of martyrs, in that Anabaptist martyrologies feature women more prominently, "making up thirty per cent of the martyr stories, compared to five to ten per cent in the other accounts." == Beliefs and practices ==