by Menno Simons, are the origin of the Mennonites, the largest contemporary
Anabaptist group, as well as their offshoot, the Amish. The German branch
of the Anabaptists came to be known as Moravian Anabaptists.
Rejecting infant baptism has radical implications for one’s view of church,
society, and Christian identity. Baptism is an initiation rite which marks
the social boundaries of the church, the
difference between those who belong inside
the Body of Christ and those who do not. To
reject the baptism of another church is to say
it is not really Christian or a church.
Anabaptist teaching, in the 16th-century
context, implied that no one outside their
group was really Christian. The Swiss
Anabaptists thus regarded all groups and
institutions outside their community as “the world.” They regarded not
only the Catholic church but the Zwinglian churches and the Swiss town
governments as un-Christian. Other churches regarded this as heresy,
and governments treated it as sedition, that is, a crime worthy of death.
Anabaptists were persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants through most
of the 16th century.
Anabaptists were hated in large measure because they were a threat to
Christendom. “Christendom,” characteristic of the medieval and early
modern period, means a society in which the body politic is understood to
be a Christian body. Christendom requires Christian rulers, known as “the
sword” of Christendom, who are concerned for the welfare of the church
and are willing to enforce this concern. Anabaptist paci¿ sm implies that the
responsibilities of the ruler, including warfare and enforcement of religion,
are not really Christian.
The Anabaptists took a different route from the magisterial Reformation,
that is, the Lutheran and Reformed, who were eager to enlist the support
of Christian rulers or magistrates. Unlike the Lutherans and the Reformed,
the Anabaptists never enlisted the support of the state or tried to become
a state church. Instead, they began a series of private meetings in Zurich,
The Anabaptists can
be thought of as taking
a step further away
from Catholicism,
beyond the Reformed.