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The Reformation and the Anabaptists
Steps to Reconciliation
26 June, 2004,
Zurich, Switzerland
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Reflecting on Zurch
by Franklin Yoder, Kalona, Iowa
On Saturday, June 26, I was privileged to attend a meeting of reconciliation between Mennonites and the Reformed Church of Zurich. This meeting was held at the invitation of the Reformed Church as part of a celebration of the 500th year anniversary of the birth of Heinrich Bullinger, an important leader in the early Reformed Church. Bullinger was head of the Zurich church from 1531 until 1575 and during this period, several Anabaptists were martyred or banished by the city of Zurich with the encouragement of Reformed Church leaders.
In that time, the church and state were closely intertwined and Bullinger believed the Anabaptists posed a very real threat to the religious institutions and to civil society. He, along with other church leaders, encouraged the city council of Zurich to punish Anabaptists and between 1527 and 1614, seven Anabaptists were killed in Zurich. As the present-day Reformed Church of Zurich planned this celebration of Bullinger’s birth, they decided to include a time of reconciliation for acts they now believe were wrong.
Most of our meetings were held in the Grossmünster, a large prominent church in which the Reformed Church came into being under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli in the early 1520s. Zwingli was a powerful Reformation figure who steered Zurich away from Catholicism and Martin Luther toward a new brand of Protestantism that emphasized the importance of Biblical preaching, viewed communion as a symbol and not a sacrament, and rejected the role of the mass and the Catholic clergy. Zwingli resigned his position as a priest of the Catholic Church and asked the City Council of Zurich to reinstate him under their authority which they did in January 1523. This marked the beginning of the Swiss Reformation and it was the first Protestant state church.
Among Zwingli’s followers were several young men who pushed for even more radical reforms. Specifically, they said that only adults should be baptized, various practices that were linked to older Catholic traditions should be abandoned, and they wanted Zwingli to separate himself from the City Council of Zurich and accelerate a program of reforms. Zwingli refused and urged the city council of Zurich to reject the radical steps proposed by Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and others of the first group of Anabaptists. When the City Council did refuse, Grebel, Manz, Georg Blaurock, and several others baptized one another in defiance of church and city laws. Since these actions threatened the authority of the church and the state, they were seen as treasonous and Anabaptists were labeled heretics. Zwingli helped direct the proceedings that sentenced Felix Manz to death. Manz was drowned in the Limmat River on January 5, 1527.
Ulrich Zwingli died in 1531 while fighting Catholic armies in Kappel, Switzerland. Following his death, Heinrich Bullinger became the new Reformed leader, a position he held for the next 44 years. Like Zwingli, he saw the Anabaptists as heretics and law breakers and he advocated punishing them for their action, a belief he acted upon.
The celebration commemorating Bullinger’s birth was largely celebratory. Bullinger was a prolific writer and preacher and he gave critical leadership to a movement that was in its infancy. But the planners noted that there was a dark side to this time and at the dedication of a plaque marking the death of Felix Manz and the other martyrs, we heard the following words offered by Reudi Reich, president of the Reformed Church of Canton of Zurich:
We commemorate here our brothers in Christ who were cruelly tortured and executed for their faith during the Reformation. The Reformation in Zurich regarded itself as a rediscovery of the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this, the members of the newly forming protestant Church were also ready to give up their lives.
We are therefore all the more ashamed and pained that the Reformed Church should have become a persecutor. In the Zurich of the Reformation, our brothers in the faith of anabaptist convictions were persecuted, tortured and cruelly executed in a combined action by Church and State. We acknowledge this historic sin and, from today’s point of view, consider it a betrayal of the Gospel. Before God and before men, we point to this dark side of the Reformation, and we ask God and you, dear brothers and sisters of the Mennonite faith, to forgive us. We are grateful for the fellowship with the Mennonites in the past and today. In the midst of a violent world, we wish to work together for peace, reconciliation and justice. May this reconciliation with each other give us the strength to work together commissioned by Jesus Christ as agents of reconciliation, in small things and in great ones. For this, we ask God’s blessing with all our heart.
I went to the Zurich not certain of what to expect. Personally, I had never anguished over the fact that the Reformed Church had played a major part in Felix Manz’s execution. I harbored no ill-will toward people who call themselves Reformed and I was not sure how to be reconciled to someone who had done me no wrong. But as I attended the various events, I found the experience to be fulfilling and my perspective on this time was broadened and changed.
Two things impressed me about this event. First, being in Zurich and seeing the church, the setting, and being able to see more clearly how the situation in 1525 unfolded deepened my understanding of how and why the events of this time led to Manz’s death. There is no substitute for being at the place where history has been made and this was true for me.
An exhibit inside the Grossmünster told the story of Heinrich Bullinger and it helped explain why the Reformers saw people such as Manz as serious threats. This was a turbulent time and the Reformed Church and the city leaders in Zurich found themselves caught between Catholics and Anabaptists. By leaving the Catholic Church, Zwingli and other reformers took a tremendous risk that placed their lives and the lives of the citizens of Zurich in danger. When Manz, Grebel, and others agitated for even more radical change, the threats came from the opposite direction. In the minds of Zwingli, other Reformed leaders, and members of the Zurich city government, the Anabaptists raised the potential for anarchy and chaos. In order to stop this movement from undermining an already fragile society, they felt they needed to make an example to show the citizens of Zurich the consequences of disobedience to the church.
Secondly, even though I did not feel a compelling need to be reconciled to the Reformed Church of Zurich, I found the event to be moving. It was humbling to be told of the mistakes of others and to be asked to accept the request of forgiveness. It is hard to know how to respond when groups speak of forgiveness, reconciliation, and retribution for wrongs committed centuries ago and in one sense, the appropriate time for this to happen was many years earlier. Nonetheless, the words I heard reminded me that wrongs can be addressed years later and a sense of healing can still be present.
A related question is whether there is meaning in one group of people asking another group for forgiveness? No one from the Reformed Church who was at the meeting had persecuted any of the Mennonites who attended. There are other movements today to make amends for wrongs committed centuries ago and I have always viewed these efforts with uncertainty. I am not sure what my responsibility is for an action committed by someone who lived in another time and place and to whom I am connected only by nationality, religion, or race.
But as I watched and listened, I decided there can be value in such requests. I was especially impressed with the expressions of regret and statements of hope offered by the Reformed Church. They were taking their history seriously and by not ignoring this aspect of their past, they showed an honesty and sense of responsibility I found refreshing and uplifting. The Reformed Church may have received the greatest benefit from this time because asking for forgiveness is more difficult and perhaps more meaningful than accepting forgiveness.
By taking this action, the Reformed Church recognized their connection to their past. We are always quick to celebrate our triumphs and claim them as our own but we are often less willing to acknowledge our shortcomings and failures. The Reformed Church accepted their failures honestly and openly.
Part of me wondered if we as Anabaptists should have also apologized for the actions of our spiritual ancestors. Our own histories have mostly overlooked the chaos and disruption our Anabaptist forbearers brought to the society in which they lived. I do believe that killing the Anabaptists was wrong but I also saw how their actions were at times extreme and unhelpful. There is ample evidence that some early Anabaptists operated with a sense of righteous indignation, uncertainty, stubbornness, and arrogance that is characteristic of people who believe they alone have an insight into God’s will. There are usually two sides to every story and that is the side of our history we speak of infrequently, if at all.
One lesson that comes from this time is that changing religious ideas and practices is rarely smooth or easy. We look back on this time with the benefit of almost 500 years of perspective and from the comfort of a society that tolerates and accepts us. To us, the issues that set people against one another in Zurich in 1525 seem distant and even odd. But we should not forget that to those who lived in those times, the problems were very real and had far-reaching consequences. The Reformed Church of Zurich dealt with some of those consequences in June 2004 and by doing so, they set an example we would do well to emulate.