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Back to The
Anabaptist Vision Page
The Anabaptist
Vision
by Harold
S. Bender
Footnotes
1.
Reprinted from Church History (March 1944) Xlll, 3-24,
with slight revisions. 
2.
Rufus M. Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion (London,
1909) 369.
Professor Walter Köhler
of Heidelberg has recently expressed a similar evaluation, asserting
that the historical significance of the Anabaptists "erschöpft
sich nicht in dem Duldermut, der Arbeitstreue, dem kulturellen
Fleiss.... Nein, die Mennoniten düfen ohne Uberhebung einen
Platz in der Weltgeschichte beanspruchen als Bahnbrecher der
modernen Weltanschauung mit ihrer Glaubens--und Gewissensfreiheit."
3.
The results of this research are best found in: Mennonitisches
Lexikon, edited by Christian Hege and Christian Neff (Frankfurt
a. M. and Weierhof [Pfalz], Germany 1913 ff.), now at the letter
"N"; Ernst Correll, Das Schweizerishe Täufermennonttentum:
Ein Soziologischer Bericht (Tubingen, 1925); Mennonite
Quarterly Review (published at Goshen, Indiana, since 1927);
Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter (published at Weierhof
[Palatinate] since 1936); R. J. Smithson, The Anabaptists,
Their Contribution to Our Protestant Heritage (London, 1935);
John Horsch, Mennonites in Europe (Scottdale, Pa., 1942);
C. Henry Smith, The Story of the Mennonites (Berne, Indiana,
1941); L. von Muralt, Glaube und Lehre der Schweizerschen
Wiedertäufer in der Reformationszeit (Zurich, 1938).
Cf. also: Wilhelm Pauck "The Historiography of the German
Reformation During the Past Twenty Years; IV. Research in the
History of the Anabaptists," Church History (December
1940) IX, 335-364; Harold S. Bender, "Recent Progress in
Research in Anabaptist History," Mennonite Quarterly
Review (January 1934) VIII, 3-17. Only three volumes of the
great source publication, Quellen zur Geschichte der Wiedertäufer
(Leipzig, 1930 ff. ), published by the Verein fur Reformationsgeschichte,
have yet appeared.
4.
Quoted in translation by John Horsch, Mennonites in Europe,
325, from Bullinger's Der Wiedertäufferen Ursprung,
etc., Zurich, 1560.
5. Horsch,
293, from Sebastian Frank's Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichtbibel
(Strassburg, 1531).
6.
Heinrich Bullinger, Von dem unverschampten fräfel . . .
der selvsgesandten Widertouffern (Zurich, 1531), folio 2v.
7.
F. Roth, Augsburgs Reformationsgeschichte (Munich, 1901),
I, 230.
8.
Letter of Zwingli to Vadian, May 28, 1525, Huldreich Zwinglis
Sämtliche Werke ed. Egli, Finsler, Kohler, et al. (Leipzig,
1914) VII, 332.
9.
The full official text of the decree may be found in Aller
des Heiligen Roemischen Reichs gehaltene Reichstage, Abschiede
und Satzungen (Mainz, 1666), 210, 211. It is also edited
by Ludwig Keller in Monatshefte der Comenius Gesellschaft
(Berlin, 1900), IX, 55-57, and by Bossert in "Die Reichsgesetze
über die Wiedertäufer" in Quellen zur Geschichte
der Wiedertäufer, 1. Band Herzogtum Württemberg
(Leipzig, 1930), 1º-10º. See the excellent discussion
of Anabaptist persecution by John Horsch in "The Persecution
of the Evangelical Anabaptists," Mennonite Quarterly
Review (January 1938), XII, 3-26.
10.
Geschicht-Buch der Hutterischen Brüder, edited by
Rudolf Wolkan (Macleod [Alberta] and Vienna, 1923), 142,181.
11.
Ibid., 182-187. The following quotation is composed of extracts
selected from this account without regard to the original order,
chiefly from 186, 187.
12.
Gottfried Keller's Werke, ed. by Max Nussberger (Leipzig,
n. d.) VI, 309. See Elizabeth Horsch Bender, "The Portrayal
of the Swiss Anabaptists in Gottfried Keller's Ursula,"
Mennonite Quarterly Review [July, 1943] XVII, 136-150.
13.
In Switzerland, this group was called "Swiss Brethren,"
in Austria "Hutterites," in Holland and North Germany,
"Menists." All these groups seriously objected to the
name " Anabaptists" which was a term used to designate
a punishable heresy and which after the tragic Münster episode
(1534-35) was a name of odious opprobrium. I use the term here
only for custom's sake. The term "Mennonite" came into
wider use in the seventeenth century and was ultimately applied
to all the groups except the Hutterites.
14.
Ernst H. Correll, Das Schweizerische Täufermennonitentum
(Tübingen, 1925), "Allgemeine historisch-soziologische
Kennzeichnung," 3-10, gives an excellent concise survey.
See particularly 6, footnote 1. See also Karl Kautsky, Communism
in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation (1897).
Troeltsch rejected the theory of the socioeconomic origin of
the Anabaptists.
15.
Albrecht Ritschl, Geshichte des Pietismus (Bonn, 1880).
Cf. R. Friedmann, "Conception of the Anabaptist," Church
History (December 1940) IX, 351.
16.
Ludwig Keller, Die Reformation und die älteren Reformparteien
(Leipzig, 1885). Cf. also Friedmann, op. cit., 352.
17.
Max Göbel, Geschichte des Christlichen Lebens, etc.
(Coblentz, 1848), 1, 134. Ritschl, op. cit., 22, characterizes
Gobel's views as follows "Die WiedertäufereI also soll
nach Göbel die gründlichere, entschiedenere, vollstandigere
Reformation sein, welche als 'Kind der Reformation' Luthers und
Zwinglis zu erkennen aber von Luther seit 1522, von Zwingli seit
1524 aufgegeben worden wäre." Ritschl (op. cit.,
7) himself states the Anabaptist position as follows: "Nicht
minder haben die Wiedertäufer sich dafur angesehen, dass
sie das von Luther und Zwingli begonnene Werk der Wiederherstellung
der Kirche zu seinem rechten Ziel führten."
18.
Horsch, op. cit., 289.
19.
Letter of Conrad Grebel to Thomas Müntzer, Sept. 5, 1524,
Thomas Müntzers Briefwechsel, ed. H. Bohmer, and
P. Kirn (Leipzig, 1931), 92; English translation, Walter Rauschenbusch,
"The Zurich Anabaptists and Thomas Münzer." American
Journal of Theology (January 1905) IX, 92.
20. Taken
from an unpublished manuscript in the Staatsarchiv des Kantons
Bern, (Unnütze Papiere, Bd. 80), entitled Acta des Gesprächs
zw¨schenn predicannten und Touffbrüderenn (1538), Copy
in the Goshen College Library.
21.
Karl Holl, Gesammelte Aufsätzezur Kirchengeschichte
(2nd and 3rd ed. ) (Tübingen, 1923), 359.
22.
Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum (Leipzig, 1911), II, 280 f. See also
K. Ecke, Schwenckfeld, Luther und der Gedanke einer apostolischen
Reformation (Berlin, 1911), 101 f. See also the discussion on
this topic in J. Horsch, "The Rise of State Church Protestantism,"
Mennonite Quarterly Review (July 1932), VI, 189-191.
22a.
See Luther's Deutsche Messe, translated in Works of Martin
Luther (ed. C. M. Jacobs et a1.) VoI VI (Philadelphia, 1932),
172, 173.
23.
" Drei Zeugenaussagen Zwinglis im Täuferprozess"
in Huldreich Zwinglis Sämtliche Werke (Leipzig, 1927),
IV, 169.
24. Against
this interpretation of Luther (and Zwingli) it may be argued
that Luther never completely and consistently adopted the concept
of a church of "earnest Christians only" which is here
attributed to him, but that along with it he also retained the
contradictory concept of the church functioning as a " corpus
regens," that is, as an institution of social control. It
may be agreed that Luther held the two concepts for a time and
that he finally abandoned the former in favor of the latter,
but the fact nevertheless remains that the former was for a time
dominant, and that it is the implicit meaning of his whole basic
theological position. The retention and eventual dominance of
the second concept is an evidence of the carry-over of medievalism
in Luther's thought. In regard to Zwingli, Wilhelm Hadorn says:
"It must be admitted that not only Zwingli but also other
Swiss and South German Reformers, e.g., Oecolampad and Capito,
originally held views similar to the Anabaptists" (Die Reformation
in der Deutschen Schweiz. [Leipzig, 1928]. 104). Walter Köhler,
the best living authority on Zwingli, says; "Es ist, wie
bei Luther auch, die Kapitulation der autonomen kirchgemeinschaft
vor der Obrigkeit eingetreten." (Zwinglis Werke [Leipzig,
1927], IV, 29).
25.
Karl Müller, Kirchengeschichte, II, I, 476, Müller
describes the essential goal of the Anabaptists as follows: "Es
bedeutete inmitten der Auflösung aller Verhältnisse
genug, dass hier eine Gemeinschaft stand, die die Heiligung des
Lehens allem anderen voranstellte und zugleich in dem unteren
Volksschichten wirklich Fuss gefasst, sie mit selbstandiger Religiöstät
gefüllt hat." (Kirchengeschichte. II, 1, 330.)
26.
Johannes Kuhn, Toleranz und Offenbarung (Leipzig. 1923),
224 says: "With the Anabaptists everything was based on
a central idea. This central idea was concretely religious. It
was Jesus' command to follow Him in a holy life of fellowship."
Professor Alfred Hegler of Tübingen describes the Anabaptist
ideal as "liberty of conscience, rejection of all state-made
Christianity, the demand for personal holiness, and a vital personal
acceptance of Christian truth." Professor Paul Wernle says,
"Their vital characteristic was the earnestness with which
they undertook the practical fulfillment of New Testament requirements
both for the individual and for the church." These and other
similar quotations are to be found in Horsch. "The Character
of the Evangelical Anabaptists as Reported by Contemporary Reformation
Writers." Mennonite Quarterly Review (July 1934).
VIII, 135.
27.
Pilgram Marpeck, the outstanding writer of the Swiss and South
German Brethren, is an example. See J. C. Wenger, "The Theology
of Pilgram Marpeck." Mennonite Quarterly Review (October
1938), XII, 247.
28.
The German (Luther) translation of I Peter 3:21 calls baptism
" Der Bund eines guten Gewissens mit Gott."
29.
Bullinger, Von dem unverschampten fraäfel (1531),
fol. 75 f.
30.
S. M. Jackson, Selected Works of Huldreich Zwingli (Philadelphia,
1901), 127.
31.
Bullinger, Der Widertäufferen Ursprung, fol. 15 v.
32.
Joachim von Watt, Deutsche Historische Schriften, ed.
Ernst Götzinger (St. Gall, 1879), II, 408.
33.
C. A. Cornelius, Geschichte des Münsterschen Aufruhrs
(Leipzig, 1860), II, 52.
34.
W. J. McGlothlin, Die Berner Täufer bis 1532 (Berlin,
1902), 36.
35.
J. J. Simler, Sammlung alter und neuer Urkunden (Zurich,
1757), I, 824.
36.
Karl Rembert, Die Wiedertäufer im Herzogtum Jülich
(Berlin, 1899), 564.
37.
Ernst Muller, Geschichte der Bernischen Taüfer (Frauenfeld,
1895), 88. Müller speaks (p. 89) of the mandate of 1585
as conceiving of "das Tüuferwesen" as a just judgment
of God on the church and the people of Berne.
38.
Sebastian Franck, Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichtbibel
(Strassburg, 1531), folio 444v.
39.
Schwenckfeld's Epistolar (1564), 1, 203.
40.
Bullinger, Der Widertüufferen Ursprung (1561), fol.
170r.
41.
Quellen zur Geschichte der Wiedertüufer, 1. Band
Herzogtum Württemberg, ed. Gustav Bossert (Leipzig,
1930), 216 f.
42.
Ibid., 259 ff.
43.
Complete Works of Menno Simons (Elkhart, Indiana, 1871),
II, 37b.
44.
Handlung oder Acta der Disputation gehalten zu Zofingen
(Zurich, 1532).
45.
Bohmer-Kirn, op. cit., 97.
46.
Horsch, op cit., 386.
47.
P. Tschackert, Die Entstehung der Lutherischen und reformierten
Kirchenlehre (Göttingen, 1910), 133, says of the Anabaptists
that they were "a voluntary Christian fellowship, striving
to conform to the Christian spirit for the practice of brotherly
love.
48.
Johannes Kühn, op. cit., 231. fol. 22 v.
49.
Ernst Müller, op. cit., 44. See Ernst Correll, op.
cit., 15 f. on the attitude of the various Anabaptist groups
on community of goods.
50.
Horsch, op. cit., 317.
51.
A. Hulshof Geschiedenis van de Doopsgezinden te Straatsburg
van 1525 tot 1557 (Amsterdam, 1905), 216.
52.
Bullinger, Der Widertüufferen Ursprung, fol. 129v.
53.
John Horsch, The Hutterian Brethren 1528-1931 (Goshen,
Indiana, 1931), gives the only adequate account in English of
the Hutterian Brethren. It is of interest to note that Erasmus,
Melanchthon, and Zwingli condemned private ownership of property
as a sin. See Paul Wernle, Renaissance und Reformation
(Tübingen, 1912), 54, 55, for the citations of Erasmus and
Melanchthon, and Horsch, Hutterian Brethren, 132, footnote
126, for the citation of Zwingli. Wilhelm Pauck says that Bucer's
ideal state was that of Christian communism, "Martin Bucer's
Conception of a Christian State," in Princeton Theological
Review (January 1928), XXVI, 88.
54.
Not all the Anabaptists were completely nonresistant: Balthasar
Hubmaier for instance for a brief period (1526-28) led a group
of Anabaptists at Nikolsburg in Moravia who agreed to carry the
sword against the Turk and pay special war taxes for this purpose.
This group, which became extinct in a short time, was known as
the "Schwertler" in distinction from other Moravian
Anabaptists called the "Stäbler," who later became
the Hutterites and have continued to the present. It is obvious
that Hubmaier and the "Schwertler" represent a transient
aberration from original and authentic Anabaptism. Bullinger
(Von dem unverschampten fräfel [1531] fol. 139v.
) testifies that the Swiss Brethren considered war to be "das
ergist uebel das man erdencken mag," and (Der Widertäufferen
Ursprung [1561] fol. 16 r.) says "they do not defend themselves,
therefore they do not go to war and are not obedient to the government
on this point." See also, extensive compilation of evidence
by John Horsch in his booklet, The Principle of Nonresistance
as Held by the Mennonite Church, A Historical Survey (Scottdale,
Pa., 1927), 60 pages.
55.
Letter of Grebel to Müntzer, Böhmer-Kirn, op. cit.,
97.
56.
(Pilgrim Marpeck), Testamenterleütterung (n.d., n.p.,
ca. 154-1), fol. 313r.
57.
(Peter Riedemann), Rechenschaft unserer Religion, Lehre und
Glaubens, von den Bruedern die Man die Hutterischen nennt
(Berne, Indiana, 1902), 105.
58.
The Complete Works of Menno Simons (Elkhart, Indiana,
1871), 1, 170b and 81b. The quotations were revised by comparison
with the Dutch editions of 1646 and 1681.
59.
Mennonites of Holland, Germany, France, and Switzerland gradually
abandoned nonresistance in the course of the nineteenth century.
The emigrant Mennonites in Russia and North America have maintained
it. The Mennonites of the United States furnish 40 percent of
all conscientious objectors in Civilian Public Service in the
present war, and the Mennonites of Canada a still higher percent
of the conscientious objectors in that country.
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