Some individuals and groups rejected the idea that church and state needed to be united, and sought to create a voluntary community of believers as they understood it to have existed in New Testament times. In terms of theology and spiritual practices, these individuals and groups varied widely, though they are generally termed “radicals” for their insistence on a more extensive break with the past. Many of them repudiated infant baptism, for they wanted as members only those who had intentionally
Chosen to belong; some adopted the baptism of believers - for which they were given the title of “Anabaptists” or rebaptizers by their enemies - while others saw all outward sacraments or rituals as misguided and concentrated on inner spiritual transformation. Some groups attempted to follow Christ’s commandments in the gospels literally, while others reinterpreted the nature of Christ. Radicals were often pacifists and refused to hold any office or swear oaths, which were required of nearly everyone with any position of authority, including city midwives and toll-collectors, as well as anyone involved in court proceedings. Some groups attempted communal ownership of property, living very simply and rejecting anything they thought unbiblical. Different groups blended these practices in different ways, and often reacted very harshly to members who deviated, banning them from the group, and requiring other group members - sometimes including spouses - to shun, or have no contact with, the offending member until he or she changed behavior and asked for forgiveness. Others, however, argued for complete religious toleration and individualism; that idea was especially common among those radicals who rejected the idea of the Trinity and viewed Christ as thoroughly human.
Individuals known for their more radical ideas include Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (1486-1541), who taught with Luther at the University of Wittenberg and celebrated the first communion service in German there; Conrad Grebel (c. 1498-1526), an associate of Zwingli’s in Zurich who conducted the first adult baptism in 1525; Kaspar von Schwenkfeld (1489-1561), a German nobleman who asserted that Christ worked directly in the human soul so that no external ceremonies were very important; Menno Simons (c. 1496-1561), a Dutch pastor who developed a very Christ-centered theology and opposed the use of violence; Jacob Hutter (150o?-36), an Austrian hat-maker turned preacher who set up a system of complete communal sharing of property among his followers; Fausto Sozzini (1539-1604), an Italian reformer who saw the importance of Christ in his resurrection, not his divine nature, and thought that true religion was consistent with reason. Highlighting the role of specific individuals when looking at the radical Reformation may be even more misleading than focusing only on Luther in the magisterial Reformation, however, for the majority of those who accepted radical beliefs were not highly learned. They were artisans and peasants who opposed hierarchies within the church, wanted the congregation to have a more active role in the church service, and expected the second coming of Christ - predicted in the Book of Revelation - to be imminent. Many of them were women, and a key issue facing many Anabaptist groups became that of “mixed marriages,” that is, whether spouses who differed in matters of religion should be allowed - or even required - to divorce and remarry.
In some cases eschatological ideas about the end of the world were linked with political insurrection. Some radical reformers, including Thomas Muntzer (d. 1525), supported the peasants in the 1525 German Peasants’ War (see below), for which he
Was eventually executed. In Munster, a city in northwestern Germany, several charismatic preachers gathered increasing numbers of followers when they predicted that the city would be the site of a New Jerusalem that would survive God’s final judgment. In 1534 people streamed into Munster to be rebaptized, a city council sympathetic to these views was elected, and those who refused rebaptism were expelled. Material goods were redistributed, polygyny was introduced (justified because the Old Testament patriarchs had several wives), and leaders in Munster proclaimed their city an independent kingdom. This attempt to transform society according to radical religious principles was absolutely unacceptable to both Catholic and Lutheran authorities, and combined armies successfully besieged the city and executed its leaders.
The insurrection at Munster and the radicals’ unwillingness to accept a state church were both used as justification for intense persecution. The emperor made Anabaptism a crime punishable by death in 1529, and both Catholic and Protestant religious and political leaders complied. Over the next century thousands of radicals were tortured and executed in many parts of Europe, often in very gruesome ways; Jacob Hutter, for example, was burned at the stake, and many female Anabaptists were drowned. Records of their trials are one of the few sources we have for the religious ideas of people who were illiterate. From these records, we learn that many unlearned men and women had memorized large parts of the Bible by heart and could argue complicated theological concepts. Anabaptists themselves compiled accounts of trials and executions, along with letters and other records, into martyrologies, which were published and read widely.
Persecution also led radical leaders and their followers to migrate to parts of Europe that were more tolerant. Sympathetic nobles in the Empire sometimes allowed them to live in their territories, as did nobles in Moravia (in modern-day Slovakia and the Czech Republic), Silesia (in modern-day Poland), and other parts of eastern Europe. Eventually many of these groups were forced to move even further. In the seventeenth century Polish Socinians (the anti-trinitarian followers of Sozzini) went into exile in Transylvania (in modern-day Hungary) and Mennonites and Hut-terites moved to southern Russia. In the eighteenth century Schwenkfelders went to Pennsylvania, and in the nineteenth century Hutterites moved to South Dakota, where they have survived to the present day. (The Hutterites in South Dakota migrated to Canada because they were persecuted for their pacifism during World War I; after the end of the war, they gradually returned to the United States, where they still live communally.) Many other religious groups, such as the Baptists, Unitarians, and Quakers, have their roots in the radical Reformation. The radicals’ notions that religious allegiance should be voluntary, and that church and state should be separate, later became part of the United States Constitution, and are widely accepted in Europe today.
World History
