1. true Christian baptism, i.e. that of grown up people who professed repentance and faith;
  2. the Lord’s Supper as a festival, in memory of the sufferings and death of Christ, as well as a thanksgiving for the grace of God thereby enjoyed, and as expression of the church’s faith in it;
  3. Marriage as a symbol of the espousals of Christ and His church (Eph. v. 23-32); and in some fashion
  4. the laying on of the hands of the elders in the ordination of the clergy.

Mass, confirmation, extreme unction, confession, and indulgence, worship of images, saints, and relics, as well as infant baptism, were utterly rejected by them. They were equally decided in denying all merit in fasting and observing the feast days, in repudiating the doctrine of purgatory, and many of the ceremonies of the Romish church. They also rejected the Lutheran and Zwinglian doctrine of justification, which they regarded as a remnant of antichristian Romanism. But as the true and only communion of saints they regarded themselves as alone constituting the true church. At the head of their community stood

  1. a bishop; and
  2. next him the ministers of the Lord, divided into apostles with the missionary calling for the spread of the church, preachers, and pastors over particular congregations, and helpers to give assistance to these;
  3. ministers of benevolence, i.e. dispensers to the poor and administrators of the possessions of the church; and
  4. the elders, as representatives of the church in conducting its government.

A particularly important factor for maintaining the union of the scattered communities was the synodal constitution introduced by Hubmeier. The superintendents of the smaller circuits met together for consultation weekly, and the deputies from the larger circuits met together once a month; while the general synods, embracing also the brethren beyond the bounds of Moravia, were convened for purposes of administration once a year, when that was possible.—Continuation, § 162, 2.

§ 147.6. The Venetian Anabaptists.—Down to the year 1540 the evangelical reform movement in Italy (§ [139, 22-24]) had an essentially Lutheran orthodox character. But after that an Anabaptist current set in, coming probably from Switzerland, and communicated through Italian refugees residing there, which subsequently took the direction of a unitarian rationalistic movement. Its main centre was in the domain of Venice, and its most zealous promoter an Italian, an exile from home on account of his faith, Tiziano, who, with no fixed place of abode, resided sometimes on this side, sometimes on the other side of the Alps. Fuller knowledge of him we owe to the confessions of one of his scholars, Manelfi, recently discovered in the Venetian archives, which he wrote out voluntarily and penitently before the Inquisition, first at Bologna and then at Rome, in Oct. and Nov., 1551. Don Pietro Manelfi, priest at San Vito, was led, in A.D. 1540 or 1541, by the preaching of a Capuchin, Jerome Spinazola, to the conclusion that the Romish church is contrary to Holy Scripture, and is a human, yea, a devilish invention. This same priest also introduced him to Bernardino Ochino (§ [139, 24]), who furnished him with several writings of Luther and Melanchthon, and taught him that the pope is antichrist and the mass satanic idolatry. Called by the “Lutherans” of Padua, he now for two years travelled through all northern Italy and Istria as Lutheran “minister of the word.” Then in Florence he made the acquaintance of Tiziano, and after long resistance yielded at last to be baptized by him. During a conversation which, in A.D. 1549, Tiziano had with him and several other friends at Vincenza, the question was raised, over Deuteronomy xviii. 18, whether Christ is God or man. It was agreed in order to decide the matter to summon an Anabaptist council, to meet at Vienna in Sept., 1550. There were somewhere about sixty deputies who responded, of whom between twenty and thirty were from Switzerland, mostly Italian refugees, who at the fortieth session of their secret conclave, “after prayer, fasting, and reading of Scripture,” laid down the following doctrinal propositions as binding upon all their congregations:“Christ is not God, but man, yet a man full of Divine power, son of Joseph and Mary, who after him bore also other sons and daughters: There are neither angels nor devil in the proper sense; but when in Holy Scripture angels appear, they are men sent by God for special purposes, and where the devil is spoken of the fleshly mind of man is meant: There is no other hell than the grave, in which the elect sleep in the Lord till they shall be awaked at the last day; while the souls of the ungodly, as well as their bodies, like those of the beasts, perish in death: To the human seed God has given the capacity of begetting the spirit as well as the body: The elect will be justified only by God’s mercy and love, without the merits, the blood, and the death of Christ: Christ’s death serves merely as a witness to the righteousness, i.e. ‘the mercy and love’ of God.” On their specifically Anabaptist doctrine, because not the subject of controversy, there was no deliverance. The denial of the supernatural birth of Christ, however, led to a limitation of the fundamental doctrine of the absolute authority of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament by the exclusion of the first chapters of the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which it was now affirmed had been forged by Jerome at the command of Pope Damasus. The decrees of the council were adopted by all the communities, with the exception of that of Citadella, which in consequence was cast out of the union. Manelfi, elected bishop, travelled in this capacity during a whole year among the churches assigned to him, always accompanied by a brother. Then he became penitent, and cast himself upon the grace of the papal Inquisition. His confessions, especially as bearing on the names and whereabouts of his former companions, Lutherans as well as Anabaptists, were sent from Rome to the Venetian tribunal of the Inquisition, which now began its work of persecution and vengeance with such zeal and success, that after some decades every trace of Lutheranism and Anabaptism was rooted out. Many escaped imprisonment by opportune flight; many also failed in courage, and retracted; but the steadfast confessors were burnt or drowned in great numbers. Meanwhile this fiery tribulation had proved in most of the communities a purifying fire. The radical heretic tendency that had prevailed since the council gave place by degrees to the more moderate views of earlier days. This change was greatly furthered by the close intimacy existing between the Italian Anabaptists and the Moravian Brethren from about the middle of A.D. 1550. The credit of having effected this alliance, and securing its benefits to their fellow countrymen, belongs especially to two noble-minded men, Francesco della Saga, formerly a student of Rovigo, and Giulio Gherardi, formerly subdeacon at Rome. But the latter, in A.D. 1561, the former a year later, fell into the hands of the Venetian Inquisition. After all attempts at conversion proved in vain, both were thrown by night into the Venice canal, Gherardi in A.D. 1562, and Saga in A.D. 1565.

§ 147.7. The older Apostles of Anabaptism in the North-West of Germany.—In the north-west no less than in the south and east, from the lower Rhine as far as Friesland and Holstein, in Jülich, Cleves, Berg, in Hesse, Westphalia, and Lower Saxony, as well as in Holland and Brabant, where the Reformation had begun to gain some footing, Anabaptism also secured an entrance and some success. Among their older apostles labouring in these regions the most distinguished were Hoffmann and Ring.

  1. Melchior Hoffmann, a currier from Swabia, had even in his early home taken part in the religious movements of the age, and in A.D. 1524, in the prosecution of his handicraft, went to Livonia, and became the herald of these views in Wolmar, Dorpat, and Reval. When his followers in Dorpat broke down the images and attacked the monasteries, he was obliged to flee, and carried on his operations for some time in Stockholm (§ [139, 1]). Expelled by-and-by from that city, he next made his appearance in Wittenberg. Luther took offence at his prophetic-apocalyptic fanaticism, and pointed him to his handicraft as his legitimate calling. He now went to Holstein, where King Frederick of Denmark afforded him a fixed residence at Kiel, with permission to preach throughout the whole land. By contesting the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, and representing the sacrament as of merely symbolical import, and the partaking as purely spiritual, he caused offence even here, and was, after a public disputation with Bugenhagen at Flensburg in A.D. 1529, driven out of the country. He sought refuge in Strassburg, where Bucer received him with open arms. There for the first time, under the influence of the Swiss Anabaptists, was full and clear expression given to those objections to infant baptism which long before had been cherished in his heart. He had himself baptized, and became from this time forth the most zealous apostle of Anabaptism throughout all North Germany. In this capacity he wrought unweariedly and successfully, issuing forth from Emden in East Friesland, where he had settled in A.D. 1529, and by his travels, preaching, and writings spread his doctrines far and wide. Besides his heterodox doctrine of the sacraments and his apocalyptic-fanaticism, which led him to proclaim that the second coming of Christ would take place within seven years, and ultimately to announce that he himself was the prophet Elias foretold in Malachi iv. 5, 6 as its forerunner, he brought forward his theory about the incarnation of Christ, according to which the eternal Word did not assume from Mary flesh and blood but Himself became flesh and passed through Mary, simply “as the sun shines through glass,” because otherwise not Christ’s but Mary’s flesh would have suffered for us. In other respects he utterly rejected the wild, fantastic notions of the Anabaptists which were some years later developed in Münster. In his own life he was thoughtful, pure, and strictly moral, in disposition mild, benevolent, and charitable. In A.D. 1533 we find him again at Strassburg, where his fanatical-prophetical preaching soon produced such dangerous results that the magistrates felt obliged to shut him up under bolts and bars, where he could be out of the way of doing mischief. He was still in prison in A.D. 1543, and from that time onward nothing more is known of him. But a sect of Melchiorites, by no means few in number, held their ground for a long time in Alsace and Lower Germany.
  2. According to other accounts Melchior Ring, a currier of Swabia, is represented as having wrought during the same period and throughout the same places in Sweden, Livonia, Holstein, and East Friesland, entertaining similar christological, prophetico-apocalyptic, and Anabaptist views. The identity of the Christian name, fatherland, handicraft, doctrinal tenets, date, and spheres of labour is so striking, that one is almost tempted to identify him with Melchior Hoffmann, especially as John of Leyden in his later examination is said to have affirmed that Melchior Hoffmann had actually borne the name of Ring. We feel compelled, however, to maintain the distinctness of their personalities, since, according to Hochbuth’s researches in the history of the Anabaptists in the Hessian state, Ring had been actively engaged in Hesse at a time during which it can be proved that Hoffmann was at work elsewhere.

§ 147.8. So far in respect of place and time as the influence of Hoffmann reached,—and it seems down to the time of his imprisonment to have been widely predominant throughout the whole of the north-western district,—the life and movement of the Anabaptists there kept clear of any social revolutionary tendencies, and in their aberrations from the ways of the reformers were restricted to the purely religious domain. In the beginning of the year 1530, however, a movement broke forth again in Holland, in which there was a resurrection of the spirit of Thomas Münzer, and the demand for a thoroughly radical and revolutionary reconstruction of social and political relations was brought into prominence. The most important representative of this tendency was a baker, Jan Matthys of Haarlem, who, claiming to be a prophet, proclaimed the introduction of the millennium of glory as the proper and principal task of the Baptists. For the fulfilment of this task he insisted upon the overthrow of the present order in church and State, resistance to their enemies with weapons in hand, even the destruction of all “the ungodly” from the face of the earth, in order that “the saints,” as promised in Scripture, should rule over the world, and lead to completion the kingdom of God. The doctrine of the new prophets may even already have taken root in the minds of the Baptists, roused and excited by continued persecution, without their having clearly perceived what it would ultimately lead to if successfully carried out. But when in Münster these fanatical theories were shown forth as actual realized facts, when John of Leyden set up his pretentious kingdom in that “New Jerusalem,” and sent out into all the world his numerous apostles with the demand for adhesion, in many cases they found a too willing audience. The miserable collapse of the Münster kingdom was the first thing that again called people back to their senses, and rendered their remnants susceptible to the purification of Anabaptism to which Menno Simons devoted his whole life.

§ 147.9. The Münster Catastrophe, A.D. 1534, 1535.—The preacher Rothmann of Münster had for some time maintained the Zwinglian theory of the Lord’s Supper, and then he took a further step in the repudiation of infant baptism. A public disputation in A.D. 1533 yielded no result, and he refused to obey an order to retire into exile. He now sought, and that successfully, to increase his following, by the adoption of new elements of the Anabaptist creed. On the festival of the Three Holy Kings in A.D. 1534, John of Leyden or John Bockelssohn made his entrance into the city. An illegitimate son of a girl in the Münster province, brought up by relatives in Leyden, whither he returned after several years spent in travelling about as a journeyman tailor, he was in the autumn of A.D. 1533 converted by the prophet Matthys, and soon became his most zealous apostle. In Münster the young man, now in his twenty-fifth year, handsome in appearance and endowed with rich intellectual abilities, was favourably received in the house of a rich and respectable cloth merchant, Bernard Knipperdolling, who had been long interested in the religious movement, and married his daughter. In the meantime Jan Matthys also was called from Amsterdam to Münster. Both now wrought in common among the inhabitants of the city. Their sermons, delivered with glowing eloquence, produced a great impression, especially among the women, and their following grew to such an extent that they believed they might act in defiance of the council. In consequence of a riot the magistrates were weak and yielding enough to enter into an agreement with them by which they obtained legal recognition. Then from all sides Anabaptist fanatics crowded into Münster. After some weeks they secured a majority in the council, and Knipperdolling was made burgomaster. The prophet Matthys declared it to be God’s will that all unbelievers should be expelled. This was done on 27th February, 1534. Seven deacons divided among the believers the property of those who had been banished. In May the bishop began the siege of the city. This much at least resulted from that proceeding, that the epidemic was confined to Münster. After all images, organs, and books, with the exception of the Bible, had been destroyed, they introduced the principle of community of goods. Matthys, who regarded himself as called to slay the besieging foes, in a sortie fell by their swords. Bockelssohn took his place. The council in consequence of his revelations was dissolved, and a theocratical government of twelve elders, who were ready to receive their inspiration from the new prophet, was set up. In order that he might marry Matthys’ beautiful widow, he introduced polygamy. He took seventeen wives; Rothmann satisfied himself with four. In vain did the remnants of moral consciousness existing still among the inhabitants protest. The discontented, who gathered round the smith Mollenhök, were overcome and all of them were put to death. Bockelssohn, proclaimed by one of his fellow prophets, John Dusendschur, king of the whole earth, set up a splendid court, and perpetrated the most revolting iniquities. He regarded himself as called to bring in the millennium, sent out twenty-eight apostles to spread his kingdom, and appointed twelve dukes to govern the world under him. The besiegers had meanwhile, in August, 1534, made an utterly unsuccessful attempt to storm the city. Had they not toward the end of the year received assistance from Treves, Cleves, Mainz, and Cologne, they would have been obliged to raise the siege. Even then they could only think of securing the surrender of the city by famine. It had already been reduced to sore straits. But on St. John’s night, 1535, a deserter led the soldiers to the wall. After a most determined struggle the Anabaptists were utterly overthrown. Rothmann rushed into the hottest of the battle, and there met his death. King John and his premier Knipperdolling and his chancellor Krechting were taken prisoners, and on 22nd January, 1536, were pinched to death with redhot pincers and then hung in iron chains from St. Lambert’s tower. Catholicism was finally restored to absolute and exclusive supremacy.

§ 147.10. Menno Simons and the Mennonites.—Menno Simons, born at Wittmarsum in Friesland in A.D. 1492, from A.D. 1516 a Catholic priest, had from careful study of Holy Scripture come to entertain serious doubts as to the Romish doctrine. The martyr courage of the Baptists called his attention to the Baptist views of this sect, and soon he came to feel convinced of their correctness. He resigned his priest’s office at Wittmarsum in A.D. 1536, and had himself baptized. Amid indescribable difficulties and with unwearied patience he laboured on, wandering from place to place, devoting all his powers to the reorganization of the sect. He gave it a definite doctrinal formula, “The Fundamental Book of the True Christian Faith,” in A.D. 1539, which in point of doctrine attached itself to the Reformed confessions, and was distinguished from these only by the rejection of infant baptism, and by an unconditional spiritualization of the idea of the church as a pure communion of true saints. It distinctly forbade military and civil service, as well as all taking of oaths, introduced feet washing in addition to baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and by severe church discipline maintained a simple manner of life and strict morality. The quiet, pious demeanour of the Mennonites soon secured for them in Holland, and later also in Germany, toleration and religious freedom. Menno died in A.D. 1559.—Even during Menno’s lifetime his Dutch followers split up into two parties, called “the Fine” and “the Coarse.” The former enforced in all its severity Menno’s strict discipline, and indeed went beyond it by prohibiting all intercourse with the excommunicated, even should these be parents or husbands and wives. The latter wished to allow to the ban only ecclesiastical and not civil disabilities, and to have it exercised only after repeated exhortations had proved ineffectual.—Continuation, § 162, 1.