The Early Anabaptists Part I: Forerunners by Eberhard Arnold

If we wish to grasp the significance of the early Anabaptist movement of Reformation times, we must first realize that it was not a new movement that had never previously existed.

When I visited Bertha W. Clark in Chicago, her first significant question to me was, "Where did this tiny flickering flame of the Anabaptist movement come from that appeared in so many places in Switzerland and Tirol? What was its source? ”1 This question is usually answered, "All these tiny flames came from the great fire lit by the rediscovery of the Bible in German-speaking lands.” Doubtless this is true to a large extent. And yet it cannot be accurate; for the Bible, especially the Gospels, had been much published as early as the fifteenth century, not only in Latin but in German as well.

With the Bible question we come straightaway upon the Waldenses and all the other similar movements. It was Ludwig Keller, Director of Archives in Basel, who first advanced the thesis that the Anabaptists had their roots in movements that form an unbroken chain with evangelical movements going back to the very earliest time of Christianity. This thesis may be open to challenge, but one cannot simply disregard Keller’s book of 1885 on the Reformation.2 In the years around 1885 the way opened to an understanding of Anabaptist history. During that time Josef Beck (1815-1887) and Johann Loserth (1846-1936) were drawing Anabaptist history more and more into the light. This was also the time when Emil Egli, a minister and licentiate of theology from Zurich, published his collection of documents of the Zurich Reformation (Aktensammlung zur Geschichte der Züricher Reformation in den Jahren 1519-1533), his work about the Zurich Anabaptists at the time of the Reformation (Die Züricher Wiedertäufer zur Reformationszeit), and his booklet on the history of the St. Gall Anabaptists (Die St. Galler Täufer). At this time, too, Carl Adolf Cornelius (1819-1903) verified the origins of the Münster movement.3 All these writers, together with several other leading church historians, demonstrated that up to that time the Anabaptist movement had not been done justice, owing to the prejudices of the official church. It is of historical significance that the Didache or "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” and a wealth of Gospel texts were newly discovered at that time too.4 In addition, it was the era of new revival movements in connection with Oxford, which spread over England, Germany, and North America.5

Considering all this, it seems that God in his world government, through the interplay of hidden threads, intervenes in the spiritual world among men at very specific times and in very specific ways.

Keller well knew the objection that could be raised, namely, that the connection from the Anabaptists to earliest Christianity by an unbroken line of succession could not be proved. He said, "Here we are confronted with the same situation that until now has given us a false conception of the Anabaptists of Reformation times.” Previous historians confined themselves to names and dates that were of prime significance for the high policy of the state or the official churches. What was moving quietly below the surface, what influenced men’s hearts and their way of life without changing the state or the state churches, was not recorded. That is why we find among the historians of Jesus’ day practically nothing about the existence of Jesus, the Son of Mary. There are in fact only two passages, by Tacitus and Josephus, and even these are contested. No notice was taken of the movements based on the four Gospels except when their leaders collided with the state or the state churches. And they avoided collision since they had no desire to seek martyrdom for its own sake; they wanted to get on with their work. Certainly, they were ready at any time to be martyred if this was unavoidable ”“ unavoidable in the sense that avoiding martyrdom would have betrayed the truth.

Similarly, Anabaptist history of Reformation times is found in the documents of state and state-church authorities only insofar as the movement clashed with these great powers. The movement must therefore have been much stronger than appears from these documents. The same is true of the old evangelical movements and their interconnections that stretch from the first to the sixteenth century.

Keller traces the origins of the Waldensian movement back to the Poor of Christ, who existed long before the twelfth century. The year 1218 is important, but as early as 1150 one can discern the movement commonly known as the Waldenses. For example, we know that in 1150 the Inquisitors of Cologne reported that these "heretics” baptized adults, basing their faith on the Gospel of Mark 16:16, and that for the sake of this baptism "they went into death not only patiently, but with enthusiasm.”6

Thus in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries we find powerful movements claiming the title "apostolic brothers.” From this name Keller concludes that these movements were connected with similar trends in the fifth and sixth centuries, since at that time decrees were issued against heretics that point to exactly the same kind of movement.7 Already in those days, as well as later in 1150, departure from the "true rule of faith” was declared to be sin and heresy, a crime against the state. Some say that this movement, commonly known as the Waldensian movement but calling itself simply "Christian brothers,” goes back as far as 315 A.D., to the time of Pope Sylvester.8

Here we come very close to Tertullian and the Montanists.9 In the year 1250 we learn from an Inquisitor of the Roman church that "they (the Waldenses) are the greatest danger to the church because they go back the farthest; one can say they have existed since the time of Pope Sylvester,” and second, "there is hardly any country in which this movement is not found.” Third, he considered the movement so dangerous because they spoke no blasphemies but excelled in piety. The Inquisitor continued:

These heretics are to be recognized by their way of life and their manner of speech. Their lives are orderly and modest, without arrogance. Their dress is neither costly nor disorderly. They avoid any transaction involving lies and deception or swearing oaths. They seek no riches. They lead chaste and pure lives. They are moderate in eating and drinking. They never go to a tavern for dancing or other such wanton pleasures…They are industrious, teaching and learning much…They are recognized by their modest speech, which avoids any exaggeration. One never hears a useless word or backbiting from them. They avoid lying and swearing.10

And he concluded that they were all the more dangerous!

David of Augsburg, another famous Inquisitor of the thirteenth century, reports, "The Poor of Lyons and the other brothers like them are all the more dangerous, the more they make a show of their piety…and appear humble and modest.”11

Because they were persecuted so severely by the Inquisition, they had to keep as quiet as possible. Names such as Winkeler and Grubenheimer, meaning people who had their homes in hideouts or in the woods, therefore appear in the fourteenth century. At the same time they were called "the good,” "the pure,” "the perfect.” (Strangely enough, the word "heretic” in its German form, Ketzer, is derived from the Greek word katharos, meaning "pure”). Further, they were called spirituales, that is, men of the Spirit, and enthusiastai. From all these names we are able to understand the character of the movement. The names attached to these old movements in all their shades of meaning were applied to the Anabaptists as well. This is true of all the names I have mentioned, as well as such odd names as magistri barbati, which means "bearded masters.” This name was applied both to the Waldensians and the early Anabaptists.12

A great deal could still be said about the early history of the brothers. There is, however, no doubt that the movement around Peter Waldo (c. 1177), who is wrongly considered to be the founder of the Waldenses, was closely connected with the movement around Arnold of Brescia, who died in Italy in 1155.13 Peter Waldo was simply a reformer and leader of the movement, not its founder.14 The Waldenses, then, were part of the movement that traced its origins to the disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ. They were of the opinion that with the Emperor Constantine and Pope Sylvester in the fourth century (from 315 A.D. on) primitive Christianity had come to an end, while until that time the forces of primitive Christianity had still been struggling against those of the official church. This thesis is confirmed by modern scholarship, although there is a tendency to put the date still further back, to the time of Tertullian. Pope Nicholas, too, is mentioned in this connection.

The Waldenses and related movements claimed that the authority of the apostles to bind and to loose was the basis of their faith and life. They appealed to the apostolic commission, which demanded an itinerant life of complete poverty to proclaim the Gospel to men. Their attitude to the state was one of great freedom. They knew they would necessarily be persecuted by the state--by every type of state. "Freedom and the Gospel” was the motto of men like Arnold of Brescia and Peter Waldo. By "Gospel” they meant the words of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount, his life and the redemption he brought. Their freedom was based on the Gospel; they desired no other freedom. Therefore their watchword was imitatio Christi, the discipleship of Christ.

It can be proved historically that Francis of Assisi and Thomas Ã Kempis (who belonged to the Catholic Church) were part of this movement in its broadest sense. Admittedly, Francis of Assisi represented the poverty of discipleship of Christ without the freedom of the Gospel; and Thomas Ã Kempis, discipleship without the freedom of the Gospel. Nevertheless they were within the sphere of influence of this powerful movement.15

Around 1177 this movement penetrated deep into Germany, especially to Frankfurt and Nuremberg, and into Bohemia. Already then we find evidence of adult baptism, the strictest concept of marriage, rejection of the established church, readiness to accept death enthusiastically for the sake of one’s convictions.16

The brothers had their own bishop, their own elder, among the itinerant preachers. They claimed apostolic succession for themselves, stating that around 1215 their first period of apostolic succession led to a second period.17 That was a time when severe persecution swept over them. In Strasbourg alone five hundred were arrested in 1212, people from all walks of life. This shows how strong the movement must have been in Strasbourg at that time (which, by the way, also throws a remarkable light on the activity of Meister Eckhardt in that city). The prisoners testified that there were many like them in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Bohemia. At that time eighty were burned at the stake. Their elder or bishop, Johannes, was among those burned. Face to face with death, he said, "We are all sinners; but not because of our faith or because of the vices we are accused of without cause. We expect the forgiveness of our sins from God, without human help and without the mediation of a priest.”18

It must be added that the name "Poor of Christ” (a name also given to the Franciscans, who were called minores ”“ "lesser ones,” or "proletarians,”) proves that a link existed between the Waldenses and the Beguines and Beghards. The latter were active long before 1370 and were similar to the third order of St. Francis. The Beguines as sisters and the Beghards as brothers kept communal households, practicing community of goods. They cared in particular for the poor and the weak, for people who were physically or mentally handicapped. For themselves they also chose poverty and a life without possessions. They demanded utmost simplicity of dress, refusing to conform to fashion. Therefore their dress developed a certain uniformity, though it did not really become a monastic garb. Because they cared for the homeless, the poor, the weak, and the sick, they were forerunners of the deaconesses. They also worked in the field of education, bringing to mind the rural boarding schools of twentieth-century Germany. They worked communally.

As early as 1230 we read of congregations where the poor lived together and worked for the poor. Their opponents spoke ironically of their places as "poorhouses” and "workhouses” ”“ a mockery that could apply to the present-day Bruderhofs as well. They themselves, however, called their communal settlements "houses of God.” They tackled the social problem just as seriously as the religious one. They solved it by having their goods in common and by working in community. And while tackling the religious-social problem, they came to grips with the educational problem as well and solved it by establishing special schools and centers of education. As a result people gave them the nickname "the young folks’ good people” or "the good boys.” They called themselves "apostles,” a name that was current since before the time of Peter Waldo, who was active in southern France around 1177. In 1306 the Archbishop of Cologne said that these people had been called "Beguines, Beghards, and apostles” since old times. They were also called "friends of God,” especially in the Rhine district; also "apostolic brothers,” "bearded men,” and "witnesses.” The movement was a large one indeed.19

These movements confessed to the inspiration of Christ’s Spirit. They believed that the Bible was inspired, especially the Gospels, and so were the apostles. They confessed particularly to the words of Jesus, to his commands and his commissions. They believed that Christ was with them according to his promise, "Lo, I am with you always, unto the end of the world.” They believed that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, entered into the hearts of those who were dedicated to Christ. Thus they believed that the same Spirit was at work in the Gospels and in the words of the apostles. They attached special importance to the words of Christ, considering them evangelical commandments; the Roman Catholic Church calls the same words the "evangelical counsels.”20

Christ’s whole life was an example to them. They wanted to follow him, to go the same way he had gone. Therefore they followed the evangelical commandment or counsel to deny oneself and follow Jesus and often called themselves "followers of Christ.” Their lives were to be no different from the life Jesus himself had lived, in both its inner nature and its outward form. They believed in the Spirit of truth. They believed that this Spirit is imparted to all Christ’s disciples. The Spirit brings healing and strengthening of the will, which means freedom of will. The Spirit makes the inward eye sharp to distinguish good from evil, the Christlike from the antichristlike. The Spirit of truth illumines the heart through deep inner revelation. He writes the Word of God into heart and conscience. Jesus’ redemption and the discipleship of Christ become reality in the heart through Christ’s Spirit.

To the apostolic brothers the inner light is the seed, the grain of salt, of Christ’s power. The inner light constantly reminds us of all that Jesus said, especially his Sermon on the Mount. To these brothers the Sermon on the Mount is the evangelion katexochen ”“ the Gospel at its sharpest and most definite, and in its clearest and broadest form. As a result, the brothers always stressed, "Deal with others as you would have them deal with you.” Compassion and purity are the characteristics of this new attitude toward men. If I want to do for people what I hope they will do for me, I cannot be richer than others. I must neither judge them nor criticize them. Nor can I kill them, regardless of who commands it.21 I for my part cannot recognize or carry out any death sentence. Therefore I cannot hold public office, because I live only for the Kingdom of peace and love, as Jesus lived for it. I cannot serve any vengeance, either on a personal or governmental level. Even self-defense is denied to me as a follower of Jesus. Discipleship of Jesus binds me to such honesty and trust that I can neither accept nor take any oath. I am called to such great trust that I must love my enemies with a special trust. In this context one of the Waldenses said, "Love to one’s friends alone is a small love. The great and all-embracing love means loving even one’s enemies.” Therefore we cannot answer abuse with abuse or avenge evil with evil.

All this was represented by the brothers with the support of the true church. The direct, spontaneous working of grace is linked to the true church. Those who follow Christ and obey his words belong to his church. True love exists only where God is loved; it is love to the church and love to one’s enemies.

Read the second of this two-part series: The Early Anabaptists Part II.

Note: This article was taken from a lecture given by Eberhard Arnold on November 10, 1935 and was first printed in English as the booklet The Early Anabaptists(Plough 1970).

Footnotes:

1. Bertha W. Clark, "The Hutterian Communities. I,” The Journal of Political Economy, XXXII (June 1924), 357-374.
2. Ludwig Keller, Die Reformation und die älteren Reformparteien (Leipzig, 1885); Robert Friedman, "Old Evangelical Brotherhoods: Theory and Fact,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review (MQR) XXXVI (1962), 349-354; Ernst Troeltsch, T
3. The Mennonite Encyclopedia (ME), I, 714-715 mentions Cornelius’s smaller works (1851-1853) on this movement as well as his principal work, Geschichte des Münsterischen Aufruhrs, I and II (1855 and 1860) and part of his studies for a third volume (unfinished) published in various periodicals.
4. Eberhard Arnold, The Early Christians After the Death of the Apostles, selected and edited from all the sources of the first centuries, 2nd ed. (Rifton, NY, Plough Publishing House, 1972), Didache, pp. 181-189; for other Gospel texts (e.g. the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, the Freer Logion, the Strasbourg Coptic Gospel Fragment, the Epistle of the Apostles) see Index.
5. Karl Kupisch. Studenten entdecken die Bibel. Die Geschichte der Deutschen Christlichen Studenten-Vereinigung DCSV ( Hamburg, 1964). D. L. Moody and Robert P. Smith, at a conference in Oxford in 1874, won German representatives for evangelism. Later John Mott’s influence was widespread, especially among university students.
6. Keller, 17-19, 23.
7. Keller, 395-396.
8. Keller, 1-2, 66.
9. Arnold, 42-43, 300ff., 352, 407-410 passim.
10. Keller, 5-6.
11. Keller, 7-8.
12. Keller, 9-12.
13. Elgin S. Moyer, Who Was Who in Church History (Chicago, 1968), 19-20.
14. Keller, 17.
15. Keller, 18-21, 66. Friedmann, MQR, 349.
16. Keller, 23.
17. Keller, 25 footnote 6, 71.
18. Keller, 26; Thieleman J. van Braght, Martyrs Mirror (Scottsdale, 1951), 309-310.
19. Keller, 28-35.
20. For the beliefs held by these movements, see Keller, 36-62.
21. Karl Kautsky in his book Vorläufer des neueren Sozialismus, Vol. II: Der Kommunismus in der deutschen Reformation (Stuttgart, 1913), 128-129, also stresses the peace-loving tendencies of the Waldenses and the Beghards in Switzerland.

The Early Anabaptists
Part II: Anabaptism in the Reformation
Eberhard Arnold

The original Anabaptist movement was closely connected with those earlier movements. We see this in the fact that, according to existing records, the brothers who later founded the Anabaptist movement took part in meetings of those circles both in Basel and in Zurich. Their opponents called such a circle of "spirituals” a "school of heretics.” 22

The basic ideas, found as early as 1515 in Basel and Zurich, are the same as those the Anabaptists represented later. Staupitz represented the same principles in Nuremberg in 1515. Basel was a center of the German book trade and printing. Nuremberg was a center for all the brotherhood movements as well as a cultural center of the time. Luther was led to the Gospel by Staupitz. Staupitz had contact with the old evangelical church through the old patrician families in Nuremberg, especially the Tucher family, but also Albrecht Dürer and Hans Sachs. Zwingli’s closest friends were Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz. Manz had been at home in the circles of the Old Brothers in Basel and Zurich.23

It is clear, then, that in the movement generally called Anabaptist we are not dealing with a human invention or the ideas of individual leaders. The school of heretics in Zurich and also in St. Gall was called "reading of the spirituals” because they read old heretical writings and especially the Bible.24

It can be proved that Zwingli was in contact with the school of heretics in Zurich. Zwingli’s original opposition to charging interest and to capitalism stems from this school. As late as 1523 Grebel wrote to his brother-in-law, Joachim Vadian, who was a member of the Great Council of St. Gall, that interest and tithes would soon be abolished in Zurich with Zwingli’s agreement. A month later, unfortunately, he had to write that Zwingli had defected from his own convictions and had agreed with the decision of the Council, which had come out in favor of tithes and of charging interest. This came about because Zwingli was convinced that the reformed church could not exist without the help of the state.25 He felt that compromise with the state was essential for the movement to overcome Catholicism; the movement needed the power of the state.

The attitude to the state is the decisive difference between Zwingli and those who until then had been his friends. But note well ”“ the attitude to the state resulted from the attitude to the church! Zwingli was of the opinion that the state’s cultural task must be supported; in the hands of the state, the organized church must serve the state’s cultural task, and the state must be Christianized.26

The separation between Zwingli and Grebel, who had been particularly close friends, had to do with the problem of church and state. The two go together; not the church problem apart from the state problem, but the two seen together as one problem ”“ that is what divided Zwingli and Grebel. This was quite clear to Zwingli, and he expressed it repeatedly. He conceded, for instance, that baptism in itself would not be important enough to arrest and execute people. He often declared infant baptism to be unjustified, but he felt he had to resist the Anabaptists because in baptism they had found the symbol of their dissenting attitude to church and state. Zwingli repeatedly referred to what Grebel and others had said to the effect that there was no better way of coming to grips with the state or of eluding it than through baptism. In this very concern for the true church as opposed to Roman Catholicism and in the concern about injustice committed by the state, the Anabaptists saw in baptism the token for separation of church and state.27

Waldensian tradition had always declared that apostles of Jesus Christ cannot fulfill any political function. The believing church of Jesus Christ cannot uphold any political order. The believing church follows Jesus Christ’s commands and thus needs no state laws. The state exists for the suppression of evil in an ungodly and satanic world. It is not for the believing disciples of Jesus Christ to suppress evil in the world around them; they are redeemed from evil.28

Zwingli saw the church as a state-constituted society based on law. The church of the brothers was a community of heart and life based on the Spirit. It could be a voluntary church only; it could be a church only through the inspiration of the Spirit.29 Thus as early as October 1523, two years before the abolition of the mass, Simon Stumpf told Zwingli he should on no account give the power of abolishing the mass to the Zurich City Council, that is, to the government. As a Christian, Zwingli had no authority to place such religious matters as the abolition of the mass in the hands of the government: "Master Ulrich, you do not have the right to place the decision on this matter in the hands of my lords, for the decision has already been made, the Spirit of God decides.”30

Thus, believers who were to advocate adult baptism in 1525 represented two years earlier that the state authorities cannot be allowed to have anything to do with the church, and vice versa. The tremendous success Luther and Zwingli achieved outwardly was due to their going along with the state, but their ideas of reformation had long been advocated very clearly, perhaps even centuries before, by the brotherhood movements, especially by Staupitz and the other brothers. By resorting to the power of the state, Luther and Zwingli betrayed the Gospel. They wanted to win the masses. They represented that the Gospel sets too high a standard for the common people to live up to!31

The differences, then, are obvious. For instance, Zwingli could never have agreed with the refusal to swear oaths. He himself said, "To the Eidgenossen ["comrades of the oath,” as Swiss citizens are called], the oath has since olden days been a solemn declaration of their allegiance to the state. It is therefore an unavoidable necessity.” To the brothers the name Schweizer Eidgenossen was repugnant because it showed the antichristian nature of the Swiss state. The same contrast existed in the question of bearing arms, the question of nonviolence. For Zwingli the bearing of arms was the glory of his republican consciousness, the citizen’s badge of honor, a sign of love for the fatherland. And so he fell in battle at Kappel in 1531.32

Zwingli wanted the state to control matters of faith. The apostolic brothers declared that the state had nothing to do with these matters. The state cannot exist without court law, sword, or prison. To the brothers, any mixing of the state’s affairs with the apostolic task was an insult to the apostles.

So the brothers, including those later called Anabaptists, demonstrated again and again that the state existed on the basis of Roman law, that even the republican states lived according to the imperial law of Rome, and that therefore the nature of the state was pagan and Roman, not even Old Testament or Mosaic; it had nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount.33 The disunity between Zwingli and his friends was bound to be extreme; the antithesis was bound to reach a climax. This went so far that Zwingli agreed to the execution of his former friend Felix Manz.

For a time Nuremberg and Basel became the two centers that replaced Strasbourg, the former center of the brotherhood movement. We will not say much about Nuremberg at this point, because that historical line leads particularly to Luther, Müntzer, Staupitz, and Hans Hut. Between Nuremberg and Basel there was very close contact, especially of the Nuremberg printers and artists and those of Basel. The outstanding printers in Basel were Amerbach, Froben, and Petri. Eminent artists, scholars, and able businessmen, such as Pamphilus Gengenbach, Andreas Cratander, and Valentin Curio, were active in the printshops. These names point to a strong tie with Zwingli and the brothers in Zurich, for Basel had a strong influence on Zurich, while on the other hand Basel also had strong connections with Lyons and other Waldensian centers, for example with Franz Lambert of Avignon. Hans Holbein, too, kept up a lively contact with these circles and supplied woodcuts for various books printed in Basel.”34

In no other century have scholars, artists, and craftsmen worked together in such a brotherly way as here at Basel. Hans Holbein and Hans Franck in particular were part of the Brotherhood of Heaven. This brotherhood accepted into membership especially craftsmen, printers, and scholars. At that time Erasmus of Rotterdam also lived in Basel and was in touch with this circle. Oecolampadius, the reformer of Basel, and Hans Denck had contact with the circle around Erasmus as early as 1515. To this circle also belonged a close friend of the young patrician Conrad Grebel: Heinrich Loriti from Ennenda in Glarus, who had connections with other people in Basel as well. Apart from him, those especially worthy of mention are Michael Bentinus (a friend of Hans Denck’s), Richard Crocus, Wolfgang Capito, and Johann Oecolampadius.35

This circle met in chapter brotherhoods concentrating on the New Testament, the study of Greek language and grammar, and such scholarly research as was important to them for a better understanding of the New Testament. In 1523 Hans Denck published a complete Greek edition of the grammar of Theodore Gaza of Thessalonica, which was printed by Valentin Curio. On the title page Denck wrote a verse in Greek, revealing his identity as the editor. From Basel, Erasmus wrote in 1516, "I am in a veritable seat of the Muses. There is no one here in Basel who does not know Latin and Greek, and most of them Hebrew too. One person is better versed in history, another in mathematics, the antiquities, or jurisprudence.” He was particularly impressed by the friendship and harmony among them.

Oecolampadius wrote to Pirkheimer at Nuremberg that one of the main principles of the community founded later had already been stated in this circle in 1515. Already in 1514, the holy communion of the Roman Catholic Church had been attacked at Basel. Thus Oecolampadius shows that the ideas of the Anabaptists were being voiced in Switzerland as early as 1515. Keller makes a point that it was not as though something new had been discovered; these were the old ideas of the brotherhood.36

We have no time to go into the old Bible translations; there are many incunabula of the Bible in German traceable to the period before the year 1500, and in the fifteenth century ninety-eight complete editions of the Bible in Latin were in circulation. In Germany eighteen complete Bible editions and many partial ones appeared in German between 1466 and 1518. In 1494 Sebastian Brant’s poem Narrenschiff ("Ship of Fools”) said quite rightly, "All lands are now full of Holy Scripture.” It is striking that in these old Bibles the likeness of the pope was painted among the devils of apocalyptic hell. This shows that these Bibles were not published by Catholics, but by brothers who later merged with the Anabaptists.37

Only at this point can we appreciate the significance of these words found in the Hutterian chronicles: "In the year 1525 the long-suppressed church (or church-community) began to raise her head again.” That is to say, this true church, this community, had previously been there, but now she raised her head as she had not done before. She raised her head in the sense that she no longer worked in obscurity, but in the broadest spheres of public life. The first great period of the Anabaptist movement gathered such large numbers of people within its ranks and had such an impetus of Spirit and power that it was equal in influence and importance to the Catholic and Protestant churches of that time.38

The true name of the supporters of this movement was not Anabaptists (meaning re-baptizers) but simply Christians and brothers, or "evangelicals,” as they had called themselves for many centuries. Consequently the writings of the brothers in Zurich since 1525 speak of the Zwinglians and Lutherans as "new evangelicals” and of themselves as "evangelicals,” as those who conform to the Gospels. Later, when they were being suppressed by the state, they called themselves "old evangelicals” in contrast to the Lutherans and the "new evangelicals,” because their name was derived exclusively from the Gospel and their deeds as well were in accordance with the Gospel.39 Love was the hallmark of their faith. It was their whole being. This is borne out by all their songs and confessions and by the records of their martyrdoms.

This movement, then, was a renewal of the old brotherhood movement, which took place in quiet between the years 1515 and 1523. In the time from 1523 to 1525 it became generally known in Zurich. Grebel’s religious convictions, which he later confirmed through baptism, can be documented already for the year 1523. It was the time when Conrad Grebel lived in Zurich and was still a close friend of Zwingli’s.40 The communities of the brothers experienced an inner rebirth and the powerful emergence of an existing movement.

This inner rebirth of the true church, of brotherhood and itinerant apostolic mission, had first been prepared in the minds of scholars in Basel and Zurich during the period from 1515 to 1523. Basel was the foremost meeting place of the men who were later to lead the movement. Hubmaier, Denck, and Grebel are the well-known names among those who were in Basel at that time. It is interesting that the Frenchman, Jean Canaye, wrote in 1524 about Basel that it had become a haven of refuge and salvation, adding, "Basel is truly a royal city, for the King of kings wants his Gospel and his eternal laws to flourish and to be read and proclaimed there!”41 Until 1525, the advocates of the evangelical movement in Basel championed the same point of view concerning the Gospels that Grebel later defended in Zurich, Hubmaier in Waldshut, Denck in Nuremberg, and Oecolampadius, the reformer, in Basel itself.

The struggle over baptism began in Basel in 1523, partly even earlier. In the summer of 1524 Erasmus was aware that there were many in Basel who opposed infant baptism. In 1522 Coccinius Doggius had published in Basel certain theses by Ulrich Hugwald which he said Hugwald had represented already in the winter of 1521-1522. Six of these favored baptism on confession of faith.42

In that same year the statutes of the "Heavenly Brotherhood,” as it was called, were newly ratified. These statutes already contain the basis for the teaching and constitution of the brothers later known as the Anabaptists. In 1524 there were some important chapter meetings held in Basel, as they are known to have been held by the brothers since much earlier times. There still exists a handwritten invitation by Hubmaier dated June 11, 1524, asking the brothers to come to his house with their Bibles for the next chapter meeting. He mentions an agenda of eighteen theses on religious questions and reminds them of the bond of brotherly love, the holiness of Christian peace, and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He adds that these chapters or brotherhood meetings are an old tradition passed on from apostolic times and that they used to be called "synods.”

The members who took part in these chapter meetings were well known in the Basel printing houses too. The books of the old "Friends of God” were published by these printers, and so were (in about 1523) the writings of John Wycliffe, Johann Wessel of Groningen, and especially Marsilius of Padua, all men later excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church as heretics. In 1522 the Fridschirmbuch ("Defender of Peace Book”) was printed by Valentin Curio, whose associate and proofreader at that time was Hans Denck.

FelixManz
Oliver Wendell Schenk, Felix Manz
CONTRIBUTED BY
Eberhard Arnold
Eberhard Arnold
Eberhard Arnold was a theologian, educator, publisher, and community leader.

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In 1521, Grebel appeared in these printing houses. He lived in Basel and also worked in the printing shops. He arrived in August, and his closest friends were members of the chapter brotherhood of Denck and Hubmaier. Grebel was still a student at that time. Dr. Ursinus called him "an excellent young man.” Everyone praised his talents and his outstanding erudition. Vadian, the physician who later condemned him, said he was a man of great gifts. At this time Grebel experienced his spiritual conversion and also married.

The circle in which Grebel moved included Wilhelm Reublin, who was later for a short time a Hutterian brother, and also a number of prominent theologians. Among these, Simon Stumpf, who later went to Zurich, interests us most in this context. It is very interesting that one of the later Anabaptist leaders from the Grisons had also come to Basel as early as 1520. This was the famous bookseller and printer Andreas Castelberger, known as "Andreas on Crutches.” 43 We meet him again in Zurich, St. Gall, and Chur as well as in Basel. He was a close friend of Blaurock’s and later became a servant of the Word ”“ an apostolic messenger. (He was often called "Limping Andreas.”)

So there was a constant coming and going of these apostolic brothers in the printers’ houses of Basel. Yet it was not in Basel but in Zurich that the movement was to experience its tremendous public outburst. Basel’s ties with the old evangelical brothers were strong. Utmost secrecy prevailed concerning the brothers sent out as apostles, lest they should be betrayed to the authorities and executioners. However, we can read in a letter from Basel dated December 17, 1524, "They are called apostles, evangelists, and bishops,” the same expressions used in the circle of Grebel, Denck, and Hubmaier. This important message was written by one Petrus Tossanus. Keller concludes from it that these apostolic messengers took part in the meetings of the Heavenly Brotherhood.44

Baptism itself, however, was not introduced in Zurich until January 1525.45 In Grebel, Zwingli saw the leader of the movement. A son of Jakob Grebel, a respected Zurich patrician and councillor, he was born in Zurich around 1490, the eldest son of seven children. Most of his childhood was spent in Grüningen. His father saw to it that all seven children received a thorough scholarly education, an enormous achievement for a family with seven children, even for a patrician family. He sent Conrad to Vienna, Basel, Paris, or wherever he wished to go. Conrad first devoted himself to the study of languages and the humanities. He went to Vienna in 1515. In 1518 he went to Paris to study, not theology, but Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He returned to Zurich in 1520 and followed his bent for scholarship. In 1521-1522 we find him in Basel working with Erasmus as well as in the printery with Cratander. The years 1521 and 1522 were the time when he experienced his great inner change, influenced by Zwingli and by the circle at Basel.

Now Grebel threw himself with his whole energy and the whole strength of his spiritual interest into the study of the New Testament and the entire Bible. In August 1520 Zwingli still spoke of him as a particularly noble and erudite young man. Grebel was utterly determined to make the discipleship of Jesus ”“ his demands, his life ”“ the substance of his own life. Thus in 1522 a sharp tension arose between Zwingli and Grebel.46

In Zurich, Grebel had made friends with Klaus Hottinger and Heinrich Aberli. On July 7, 1522, these three were seriously warned to stop speaking against the monks and to refrain altogether from discussing church matters.47 In 1523 Grebel and his friends made a sharp attack on capital, interest, and church taxes and demanded their total abolition. In June 1523 Grebel wrote that Zwingli held the same convictions and would be joining him, and that interest would be abolished. A month later he had to write, "In the matter of tithes the people of the world [the Zurich City Council] act like tyrants.” 48 All of Zwingli’s friends reproached him, saying that so far he had preached against tithing but that since making friends with the Council he was retracting everything he had said against tithing.

At the same time, Grebel and his friends thrust energetically forward in their quest for the true church. The true church was to consist of a Christian people living innocent lives, who would cling to the Gospel and have nothing to do with interest or other forms of profiteering. So that same summer there was a clash with Zwingli. Stumpf and Grebel went to see him and told him, in effect, "You are too slow and too lukewarm in all things concerning the true church and the Kingdom of God. Don’t you realize which way the times are pointing? Don’t you see where the Spirit of God is blowing? Now is the time to act with the greatest and holiest sincerity!” 49 They begged Zwingli to realize the impossibility of leading an entire city to a general alliance of Christians. They told him to look at the apostolic church in Jerusalem and consider how it was founded; the true church in Zurich must come into being in just the same way. The true church could be formed only by those who were gripped by God’s Spirit, who were ruled and guided by God’s Spirit. Whoever followed Christ would be ready to live in such a church community.

Above all, Stumpf and Grebel reproached Zwingli for placing decisions concerning faith and the true church in the hands of the government. God’s Word is free! It is not for the government to rule over the Word of God or even to control the preaching of God’s Word by force. But Zwingli rejected these thoughts, saying he could not possibly found a church that would be independent of the state. So the brothers left Zwingli and founded chapter brotherhoods ”“ small groups that met to read and study the Bible. Now the name of Felix Manz comes to our attention again, for these meetings took place at his mother’s house. On these occasions Felix Manz translated the Old Testament from the original Hebrew text; Grebel, the New Testament from the Greek. They prayed to Christ that they might show a strong faith. Soon they undertook a new attack on Zwingli, this time especially against the vestments and ritual of the mass.

In October 1523 the religious disputation concerning these points led to the final break between Zwingli and Grebel. Again, state and government were the issues. Grebel demanded a decision to abolish the mass. Zwingli declared that this could be done only by the power of the state. As we have seen, Stumpf declared that Zwingli had no right to turn these questions over to the Council, since the Spirit of God had already decided them. Grebel contested Zwingli’s opinion just as energetically and got into a violent argument with him. The Council was very much encouraged by Zwingli’s attitude and immediately decreed that only the Word of God should be preached; that there should be no more talk about such questions as interest, the mass, and so on. In the end everything stayed as it was. In November Zwingli made a sharp attack on the brothers, who had so recently been his friends, in his Kurze Christliche Anleitung ("Short Christian Introduction”).50 On November 4, 1523, a friend of Grebel’s was exiled from Zurich for destroying a crucifix. His name was Jakob Hochrütiner, and he returned to St. Gall.

For a time, Zwingli had been inclined to agree with the brothers on the question of baptism, as well as on that of interest. In 1524 the struggle about infant baptism began anew in Zurich. Grebel and his friends declared infant baptism to be an abomination and a work of the devil. On September 3, 1524, Grebel wrote that he had contacted Andreas Carlstadt and Thomas Müntzer; perhaps he would also make a sharp attack on Martin Luther, prompted by his trust in the Word of God; he was now reading the Gospel of Matthew with several listeners.51 On September 5, 1524, the brothers wrote an important letter to Müntzer, warning him and begging him to give up any form of an armed insurrection.52 That ended the contact with Müntzer. The relationship with the mystic Carlstadt was deeper and lasted longer. The brothers had been corresponding with him since July 1524. His treatise Ob man langsam verfahren soll in Sachen, die Gottes Willen sind ("Whether one should proceed slowly in things that are God’s will”) was greeted joyfully by Grebel and his friends; in October 1524 they distributed booklets and writings by Carlstadt.53 Later this connection also ceased.

In the meantime, the movement in Zurich was spreading fast. A growing number of parents refused to have their children baptized. The Council threatened recalcitrant parents with severe punishment. The parents based their stand on the Bible. Grebel reported this in a letter to his brother-in-law, Vadian, in St. Gall, dated December 15 1524, and added, "I don’t believe that persecution can be avoided. May God give us grace!” 54 At the end of 1524, Zwingli wrote his treatise, Gegen die, welche Ursache geben zu Aufruhr und wer die wahren Aufrührer sind ("Against those who cause rebellion, and who the true rebels are”).55 They were of course his former friends ”“ Grebel, Manz, and the rest. Thereupon Grebel appealed to the Council in January 1525 and declared that he had never provoked or taken part in rebellion; anyone who had ever listened to him could witness to this. He asked the Council not to stain their hands with innocent blood. Thereupon the Council fixed January 17, 1525, as the date for a public debate on infant baptism. The result: Zwingli stuck to his opinion, and Grebel and his friends to theirs. The Council took Zwingli’s side just as Zwingli had come out on theirs. On January 18, 1525, the Council decreed infant baptism as a state law, and any person who violated the law was threatened with instant banishment.56

ConradGrebel
Oliver Wendell Schenk, Conrad Grebel
In the meantime Jörg Blaurock had joined the circle around Grebel and Manz. Blaurock had been a monk at St. Lucius monastery near Chur. He was born in Bonaduz on the upper Rhine and had gone to school at Chur. By 1525 he was in Zurich. Apparently he had already been a champion of the principles of brotherhood, which explains the tremendous energy with which he fought for baptism of faith in Zurich. It is noteworthy that the bookdealer Andreas auf der Stülzen ("Andreas on Crutches”), as well as Johannes Brötli and Wolfgang Schorant (Uolimann), who later led the Anabaptist movement in St. Gall, also came from Chur. The latter had been a fellow monk of Blaurock’s. When Blaurock came to Zurich in 1525 he was already married, which would have been impossible if he had still been a monk. He was about thirty years old, a tall, powerful man, so that people would call out, "Here comes Strong Jörg!” He had fiery eyes and black hair with a bald spot. He used his family name, "Jörg of the House of Jacob.” 57 The Hutterian chronicles continue the story:

He met with them, that is, with Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, to talk about questions of faith. They came to unity about these questions. In the fear of God they agreed that from God’s Word one must learn true faith, expressed in deeds of love, and on confession of this faith receive true Christian baptism as a covenant of a good conscience with God, serving him from then on with a holy Christian life and remaining steadfast to the end, even in distress.” 58

Blaurock, a onetime monk, was the commoner among the early leaders. He had none of the erudition of Grebel, Manz, or Hubmaier. A man of the common people, he spread the movement far and wide among the people. Again and again we read in accounts of his life: "Suddenly there was a crowd of people; they stood in the market places and in the squares and listened to Blaurock talking about a better life, conversion, brotherly justice, and God’s Kingdom.” With his captivating eloquence, his popular appeal, Blaurock was a man of dauntless courage. As a true apostle of Jesus Christ, he went from house to house and village to village to build up the community of love in every place. It is to be noted that he established baptism among the brothers shortly after the disputation of January 17 and the mandate of January 18, 1525, which decreed infant baptism and the penalty of banishment for violators. Blaurock asked Grebel to baptize him on his faith. This took place. Jörg Blaurock then baptized the other brothers, and they straightaway held the Lord’s Supper. This first meeting of the newly emerging movement was gripped by deep religious experience. The Hutterian chronicles describe it in these words:

It happened one day when they were meeting that a fear befell them and they felt an urge in their hearts. They bent their knees and prayed to the highest God in Heaven, asking him who knows the hearts of men to help them to do his divine will and to be merciful to them. For it was not flesh and blood or human wisdom that urged them; they knew well what they would have to suffer for this.

After the prayer Georg from the house of Jacob stood up and asked Conrad Grebel to baptize him for the sake of God with true Christian baptism upon his faith and recognition of the truth. With this request he knelt down, and Conrad baptized him, since at that time there was no appointed servant of the Word. Afterwards the others turned to Georg in the same way, asking him to baptize them, which he did. And so, in great fear of God, they all surrendered themselves to the name of the Lord, confirmed one another for the service of the Gospel, and began to teach the faith and to keep it. This was the beginning of separation from the world and its evil.59

Zwingli once said of Grebel, "He talks as though the Messiah had already come.” 60 In this statement two things are being said. One is that Jesus is the Messiah, that he will begin an earthly Kingdom of God in righteousness, peace, and brotherhood. The other is that this Messiah-King is present here and now in the true church. Zwingli could not tolerate this, for it means that the church lives messianically, and so he added, "I did not understand in what sense he meant this.”

Let us live in such a way that Christ is the Messiah-King, that he is here, that we live in a messianic time because the Messiah Christ has come!