How Swiss Anabaptists founded a modern-day movement
07-02-2025
Central Europe
Harm Veldman, RD
A Mennonite family poses near their home in Chihuahua, Mexico. Mennonites can trace their origins to the Anabaptist movement. Photo AFP, Herika Martinez
Central Europe
Baptists around the world are celebrating their 500th anniversary this year. We know this movement as Anabaptism. It emerged fairly soon after the start of Luther and Zwingli's Reformation.
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On 21 January 1525, the leaders of this movement founded a church congregation in Zurich. Such an act seems the most ordinary thing in the world to us, but it caused great upheaval in church and state at the time.
The fact that the Anabaptist direction was increasingly taking root in Switzerland at the time leads us to ask whether Zwingli played a substantial role in this. As a young clergyman, this reformer had been influenced by Erasmus, the great apostle of peace, prior to his reformation.
Zwingli appreciated Erasmus for his Greek-Latin edition of the New Testament. This prompted Zwingli to study the Bible in depth. It became the path to the Reformation for him. In 1519, he became pastor at Zurich's Grossmünster and at that time set the tone for a new form of preaching.
Indeed, Zwingli himself determined the choice of Bible text on which he would preach. However, this was reserved for the bishop in that region. Zwingli's method was named "lectio continua", meaning successive reading and explanation of a complete book of the Bible. This became a big step towards a better understanding of the cohesion of the Bible. A great development for many compassionate church members.
In the atmosphere of renewal that emerged then, a group of younger intellectual church members appeared and began to highly value this move by Zwingli. As a result, they did a lot of Bible study. They agreed with his innovations. But they were irritated by the slow pace of further church renewal. Did the church not remain too much stuck in old Roman Catholic practices?
Zwingli
Zwingli's sermons were good, but practical application took too long to come. This was partly because Zwingli was out of action for months because of the plague epidemic in Zurich. Another reason was that the local government wanted to preserve church unity for peace in society. Some unrest did arise in church services, the preacher was more than once interrupted by shrill calls from Catholic sympathisers.
Partly for this reason, the city government (!) decided to hold an open dispute between supporters and opponents of reform on 29 January 1523. Zwingli drew up a list of 67 theses that reflected the essence of his reformation.
Before an audience of 600 in Zurich's great council chamber, Zwingli demonstrated the need for reformation. His opponent failed to save the cause of the papal church. The city government decided already after the morning session to declare Zwingli as the winner of the dispute. What was the consequence? The reformation that had begun could continue as usual with government support. Further elaboration did not get underway.
Dissatisfaction with this led to a second dispute on 26 October 1523 over the mass and images in the Church. The interest in the debate was even greater than in January: 900 people attended.
The discussion was between Zwingli and his associates and the leaders of the radicals. Afterwards, the council announced that, in view of the spiritual state of the church congregation, the statues would remain for the time being and the mass was also maintained. The radical youths were perplexed. Zwingli was apparently unable to stop such a decision.
Meanwhile, the issue of infant baptism attracted increasing attention. The radicals had strong objections to it.
And this was linked to their view of the holiness of the church. The church was a community of only holy believers. They could receive baptism of faith.
This created a contrast with Zwingli; he was in favour of infant baptism because, according to the Bible, children also belonged to God's covenant and thus received its token.
Radical differences
To strengthen their view, the radicals sought contact with two German theologians who also rejected infant baptism. In October 1523, Konrad Grebel and Felix Mantz spoke in Schaffhausen with Thomas Müntzer, who had turned his back on Luther and was now the revolutionary leader of the German peasants who protested serfdom.
In the same month, former professor Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, former colleague of Luther, visited Zurich. Karlstadt had been radicalised, especially in his thinking on infant baptism. He neglected to visit Zwingli himself.
There were also differences of opinion among the radicals. These gave proof to the letter of 5 September 1524 from Grebel and Mantz to Müntzer to dissuade him from violence in the looming Farmers War. However, the war had just begun.
Zwingli did all he could to refute radical views. He wrote an illuminating book, "Commentary on True and False Religion". He also visited radicals. In 1524, the government had authorised the removal of statues in churches. But this did not stop the radicals from offering alternatives. They wanted a "free church," separate from Zwingli and also separate from the government; both of these were counted as part of "the world," with which they did not want to maintain fellowship.
Zwingli, as long as he did not convert to the radical position, was labelled "the antichrist in the Grossmünster". He responded with his booklet "Wer Ursache gebe zum Aufruhr" (Who gives cause for revolt). But the radicals did not abandon their judgements. They addressed the government through Felix Mantz to refute the accusation of rioting.
True Christian
In January 1525, a child was born into the Grebel family. Father Konrad pertinently refused to have it baptised. Following a submitted protest by the radicals against maintaining infant baptism, the government convened another dispute on 17 January 1525, this time between Zwingli and the radical leaders. Unfortunately, without result. The Anabaptist radicals henceforth judged the government to be anti-Christian.
The next day, the Zurich council declared Zwingli the winner and ordered Grebel and Mantz to stop holding religious meetings at their house. But they did not comply.
The spacious living room of Felix Mantz's home, in Neugasse close to Zurich's Grossmünster, was the venue on the evening of 21 January for the founding of the first Anabaptist congregation in the Canton of Zurich. Summoned by Grebel and Mantz, the believers present were not dismayed by the government's ban; they expressed joy at this persecution and suppression. That was part of being a true Christian.
Then the ex-priest Georg Blaurock stood up and asked Grebel if he would baptise him, again. This met with approval, and so Grebel performed the first baptism of faith. With this, Anabaptism officially became a fact.
The next day, they met again in Zollikon, a village south of Zurich. The flock of Anabaptist believers grew rapidly as 35 villagers made a confession of faith and were subsequently also baptised. A real revival movement had begun in the Alps. The appearance of Balthasar Hubmaier created new Anabaptist congregations in eastern Switzerland. Among them came ecstatic incidents, including scenes of sexual derailment.
Grebel
As early as 30 January 1525, the Zurich authorities took action. Blaurock and Mantz, along with 25 newly baptised people, were arrested and transferred to prison. Grebel still managed to escape but was later caught and sentenced to life imprisonment. The group from Zollikon regained its freedom under the solemn promise not to start a fight again.
Grebel escaped from prison but died of the plague in August 1526. Mantz was sentenced to death for his pertinent disobedience to the government. The execution took place on 5 January 1527 in Zurich by drowning in the Limmat river. Zwingli had often spoken to prisoners, but many stuck to their new beliefs.
With the exile or death of several leaders, the Anabaptist movement went increasingly underground. Some Anabaptist families emigrated to safer regions, including the more tolerant city of Strasbourg.
This article was translated by CNE.news and published by the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad on January 23, 2025
The context
One cannot separate the start of the Anabaptist congregation from the time in which it happened. The culture of the early 16th century was increasingly open to all kinds of criticism. Renaissance and humanism were partly outside the influence of the Catholic Church.
In the process, the Christian humanist Erasmus strove for renewal. Literature and science revived through the printing press into a new freedom. In this, the new reformers Luther and Zwingli also served in their ministry. But when they discussed “fundamental” themes, they did at first go some way with the new mindset, but in the end they had a different perspective from Erasmus. This separation of minds became characteristic of the 16th century.
Personalities
Who were these young people from the circle around Zwingli? I mention two people from Zurich and one older person from elsewhere:
The Christian humanist Konrad Grebel (born around 1498), where he would become the father of the Anabaptist congregation.
Felix Mantz (born around 1498), son of a Roman Catholic clergyman.
The German theologian Dr Balthasar Hubmaier (born 1480/85); this church leader from Bavaria wrote in 1525 "Von dem christlichen Tauff der Gläubigen" (About the Christian baptism of believers), short for "Das Taufbüchlein" (The Baptism booklet) – an exposition on faith baptism.
Together, these three formed the core of the opposition to Zwingli and his associates.
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