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The Anabaptists of the Sixteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2009

Henry Sweetser Burrage
Affiliation:
Editor of Zion's Advocate, Portland, Me.

Extract

New methods of historical study are securing important results. The demand now is not only that those who write history shall go back to the sources, but that by a thorough examination of the materials which the sources furnish, and by the employment of sound canons of criticism, the facts, so far as possible, shall be obtained. Because of this demand not a little of what has hitherto been regarded as veritable history has been discovered to be untenable and misleading. In no field of historic research are these results more conspicuous than in that which has been traversed in recent years by those who have directed their attention to the history of the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Church History 1891

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References

page 148 note 1 Herzog, , Das Leben J. Oekolampads, S. 302.Google Scholar

page 149 note 1 Geschichte d. protestantischen Theologie, S. 132.Google Scholar

page 150 note 1 Berner Beiträge, S. 237Google Scholar: “Von der hohen Werthschätzung der Schrift aus, in Folge deren die ersten Anabaptisten auf die urchristlichen Prinzipien zurückgriffen, erklären sich leicht alle die verschiedenen Forderungen, welche sie aufgestellt haben. Es ist also nicht falsch, wenn wir sagten, der Anabaptismus habe mit mittelalterlichen Richtungen die gleiche Grundtendenz. Aber Nachweis einer äussern historischen Verbindung zwischen der Wiedertäufern und ihren Vorgängern braucht es nicht. Auch darf man nicht vergessen, dass ja die ganze Reformation mit jenen Richtungen, die man ihre Vorläufer nennt, im Zusammenhang steht; und so ist es das kürzeste und zutreffendste, wenn man sagt, der Anabaptismus sei ein Kind der Reformation; und speziell der schweizerischen Anabaptismus ein Kind der schweizerischen (zwinglischen) Reformation.”

page 151 note 1 Werke, ii., S. 245.Google Scholar

page 151 note 2 “Zwingli und die andern Prädicanten begriffen diesen Eifer anfangs nicht, bis sie merkten, dass es auf die Wiedertaufe als auf ein Abzeichen der angestrebten Sonderkirche abgesehen sei.” Egli, , Die Züricher Wiedertaüfer, S. 17.Google Scholar

page 151 note 3 Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, S. 293, 294.Google Scholar

page 153 note 1 As yet no question in reference to the act of baptism seems to have been raised, and Grebel and his associates administered the ordinance in accordance with the usual practice in Switzerland at that time. Shortly after, however, as Kessler tells us (Sabbata, i., S. 266Google Scholar), Wolfgang Ulimann, on a journey to Schaffhausen, met Conrad Grebel who instructed him so highly in the knowledge of Anabaptism that he would not be sprinkled out of a dish, but was drawn under and covered with the waters of the Rhine. Sicher, a Roman Catholic eye-witness (Arx, , Geschichte d. Stadt St. Gallen, ii., S. 501Google Scholar), says: “The numbers of the converted (at St. Gall) increased so that the baptistery could not contain the crowd, and they were compelled to use the streams and the Sitter River.” DrSchaff, (Baptist Review, 07, 1889, p. 272, note)Google Scholar says: “The river Sitter which flows from the Santis into the Thur, is deep enough for immersion, and in that river modern Baptists perform the ceremony of immersion. So I am informed by an intelligent Swiss of that region.”

page 155 note 1 Beck, , Die Geschichts-Bucher der Wiedertäufer, S. 448.Google Scholar

page 156 note 1 DrKeller, L., in Preussische Jahrbücher, 09, 1882, S. 238.Google Scholar

page 156 note 2 Dorner, , Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, S. 132.Google Scholar

page 157 note 1 Geschichte d. Münsterischen Aufruhrs, ii., S. 67.Google Scholar

page 157 note 2 Baptist Review, 07, 1889, p. 263.Google Scholar

page 157 note 3 Wer nach der Taufe wieder in Sünde verfalle, solle mit dem Bann ausgeschlossen werden.—Egli, Die Züricher Wiedertäufer, S. 28.Google Scholar

page 158 note 1 Grebel und seine Anhänger berufen sich nirgends auf unmittelbare göttliche Eingebungen, nirgends setzen sie der Bibel, als dem todten Buchstaben, das innere Wort oder die lebendige Stimme Gottes entgegen; was sie wollen ist die Schrift, nichts als die Schrift, die ganze Schrift, und wenn sie sich des rechtes Geistes rühmen, so ist damit nicht eine Quelle neuer Offenbarungen gemeint, sondern das subjective Prinzip des christlichen Erkennens und Lebens.—Cited in Berner Beiträge, S. 236.Google Scholar

page 158 note 2 “The Anabaptists produced some of the earliest Protestant hymns in the German language, which deserve the attention of historians. Some of them have passed into orthodox collections in ignorance of the real authors. … They dwell on the inner life of the Christian, the mystery of regeneration, sanctification, and personal union with Christ. They breathe throughout a spirit of piety, devotion, cheerful resignation under suffering, and readiness for martyrdom. They are hymns of the cross, to comfort and encourage the scattered sheep of Christ, ready for the slaughter in imitation of their Divine Shepherd,”—DrSchaff, Philip, Baptist Review, 09, 1889, p. 273.Google Scholar

page 160 note 1 Köstlin, , Studien u. Kritiken, 1878, S. 125, 126.Google Scholar

page 163 note 1 Die Täuferei ist äusserlich unterlegen, und doch hat sie Vieles erreicht. Egli, , Die Züricher Wiedertäufer, S. 93Google Scholar. Wie manchem Gedanken der Täufer ist eine spätere Zeit, wenn auch in anderer Form gerecht geworden? Strasser, , Berner Beiträge, S. 238.Google Scholar

page 163 note 2 The interest in this matter just now in Germany is significant. Rev. Dr. J. H. W. Stuckenberg, pastor of the American Chapel, in Berlin, recently wrote to the Independent (London): “The proposals for the improvement of the Church are so numerous, and have come so suddenly, that they are bewildering. It looks as if the crisis were hurrying beyond the hope of a reformation to a revolution. Free the Church from the dominion of the State is now the demand of many who a few years ago denounced all who dared to advocate a free Church. Every day it is becoming more evident that secular power is not fit to manage the kingdom of God. Not only are the energies of Christians undeveloped, because the government professes to do for them what they ought to do themselves, but they are hampered by the State when they want to work.”

page 164 note 1 Art. IX. Damnant Anabaptistas, qui improbant Baptismum puerorum et affirmant pueros sine Baptismo salvos fieri. “There are few Lutherans who would subscribe to this condemnation now.”—DrSchaff, Philip, Baptist Quarterly Review, 07, 1889, p. 270 (note).Google Scholar