The Anabaptists

Believer Baptism

This was the the most characteristic belief held by Anabaptists, the one from which their name was derived, though not really the belief that earned them the opprobrium of all other sects. Without this belief, though, an individual or group cannot be called anabaptist.

Baptism Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists alike held similar views regarding baptism. Only Lutherans and Catholics considered it a sacrament, but all three were agreed that a person was not a Christian until baptism and, most importantly, that baptism should be performed as early as possible in a Christian's life. Thus, a child born to Christian parents was baptized as soon as it was physically safe to do so—the usual term is "infant baptism."

The Criticism Another chararcteristic of the Anabaptists was that they tended to a literal interpretation of the Bible. Because they found no evidence of infant baptism there, but only of adult baptism, they argued that there was no justification for infant baptism. Moreover, they said, baptism celebrated and confirmed the believer's true conversion to the faith, which could obviously only be done by a mature person (the customary minimum age was around thirteen).

The obvious corollary of this position was that infant baptisms were invalid, and all true Christians had to be baptized again, an act that was a significant violation of canon law. So, two highly visible acts were associated with the Anabaptists: they refused to baptize their children, and they baptized adult converts.

This is the one that got them in the most trouble and earned them the loathing of governments everywhere. Anabaptists believed that the true Christian was separate from the State and lived in the Kingdom of God. At a time when every Christian prince was preoccupied with the burning question of what religion to nurture and which to root out, this implied declaration of independence was pernicious and dangerous.