Europe in the Age of the Reformation

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The Reformation in England

Introduction

Catholics against Lutherans, Calvinists against Catholics, even Lutherans against Calvinists, but one group was consistently and universally opposed and persecuted by all the major divisions within Christianity: the Anabaptists. The term "anabaptist" is applied to a variety of groups and individuals, only a few of which ever formed formal churches. Anabaptism is worth a closer look because it generally represents the "extreme" elements within the Reformation movement.

Anabaptism is a general term, but there is a core of beliefs that were common to all. The most of important of these beliefs was that of "believer baptism," which is what gave the movement its name. Other characteristic beliefs include a strict separation of true Christians from the State, insistence on freedom of conscience and of worship, pacifism, a belief in a voluntary church, emphasis on the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, rejection of oaths and of law suits, mutual help, and an emphasis on discipleship.

Many of these ideas no doubt seem abstract or even opaque to our modern eyes, so I will try to explain them before narrating the development of the movement itself.