Europe in the Age of the Reformation

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The Anabaptists

Aftermath of Münster

Münster sealed the fate of the Anabaptists. Catholics, Calvinists and Lutherans alike sought to eradicate them from their territories, as accounts of what was practiced and proclaimed at Münster grew more and more lurid.

In Holland and Friesland alone, between 1535 and 1545, over thirty thousand Anabaptists were put to death. Luther and Calvin both wrote virulent tracts against them, as did scores of lesser writers.

Of all the many Anabaptist communities, two notable groups survived: the Hutterites in Moravia, and the Mennonites (named after Menno Simons) in Germany and Holland. But the persecutions in the wake of the massacre at Münster ensured that Anabaptism would exist only on the margins of European Christianity.