Anabaptists
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Anabaptists. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in church history, the name given a sect which caused considerable disturbance in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and other places during the period of the Reformation. The word signifies rebaptism, and had reference to the belief that infant baptism is not real or valid baptism. While this belief gave the sect its name, it was in reality the least important part of its system. Its members believed in the absolute equality of all Christians, in obeying the letter of biblical command, in personal revelation. Denying the right of civil and ecclesiastical authority and advocating communism, they allied with themselves vast numbers of the pauper populace, as well as serfs suffering under serious oppression. From hating the established order, they soon grew to hate all order. The sect spread rapidly in spite of the united efforts of Roman Catholics, Protestants, and civil magistrates. The crisis came in the "Peasant War" in south Germany, 1525. The battle of Frankhausen crushed the sect in Saxony and Franconia. Munzer, the Anabaptist leader, was put to death, with many of his followers who refused to recant. New associations were immediately formed; new leaders, Knipperdolling, Matthias, and Bockhold or Bockelson arose. Munster, in Westphalia, became the center of action. The established churches in this city were destroyed, the bishop expelled, all books but the Bible burned, and soon all sorts of excesses prevailed. The power of the Anabaptists was, however, of short duration. Several Protestant princes joined forces with the bishop, and the city was taken in 1535. The leaders were killed, and their bodies hung up in iron cages which are still preserved at Munster. Thus the kingdom of New Zion, as it was called, came to an end. The name Anabaptist was proscribed and severe measures taken to prevent any revival of the sect. The doctrines that gave the sect its name survived and the present Baptist church is doubtless an outgrowth of these views. Many other sects which reject infant baptism have been inaccurately classed with the Anabaptists. The name at the present time is very commonly applied to the Mennonites. See Mennonites ; Moravia ; Baptists ; Munster The German peasants were in a more deplorable condition than those of France or England. The new religious doctrines spread among them in somewhat distorted form, accompanied by new ideas of property rights. In 1525 the peasants rose in arms, avenging centuries of suffering by terrible cruelties toward their masters. Luther seems to have sympathized with their earlier demands, but evidently he came to fear that his reform would be associated with anarchy, and he called loudly upon the Protestant princes to put down the rebels with the sword. The rising was finally stamped out, and apparently the peasantry won no improvement from it. Some of these radical Protestants were called Anabaptists, because of their doctrines about baptism. Ten thousand of them are said to have been put to death in the cruel vengeance of the victorious lords.--West. 2026 Editor's Note: The Anabaptists' spiritual descendants live on as the Amish , Mennonites and Hutterites, whose pacifism and plain living still set them apart in North America. The 'considerable disturbance' the entry alludes to was the wild apocalyptic takeover of Münster in 1534, whose violent end tarred the whole movement for centuries. (Ed: BR 2026-07-01)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
members of a wellknown sect, which largely figured in the ecclesiastical and civil history of the 16th century. It began to attract notice within four years of the ever-memorable 31st of October, 1517, on which Luther affixed his "theses" to the gate of the castle church of Wittenberg. The most eminent of its early leaders were Thomas Münzer, Mark Stubner, and Nicholas Storck. They had been disciples of Luther; but, becoming dissatisfied with the moderate character of his reformation, they cast off his authority, and attempted more sweeping changes than he was prepared to sanction. During his absence, they, in 1521, began to preach their doctrines at Wittenberg. Laying claim to supernatural powers, they saw visions, uttered prophecies, and made an immense number of proselytes. In 1525, the peasants of Suabia, Thuringia, and Franconia, who had been much oppressed by their feudal supe- The Anabaptists riors, rose in arms. cast in their lot with the insurgent peasantry, and became their leaders in battle. After a time the allied princes of the empire, led by Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, put down the rebellion, and Münzer was defeated, captured, and ultimately beheaded. In 1532, some extreme Anabaptists from Holland, led by a baker called John Matthias, and a tailor, John of Leyden, seized on the city of Münster, in Westphalia, with the view of setting up in it a spiritual kingdom. The name was changed to Mount Zion and Matthias became its actual king. On June 24, 1535, the Bishop of Münster retook the city by force of arms, and John of Leyden, who had succeeded Matthias, was put to death. It was in 1534, when John of Leyden was in the height of his glory in Münster, that Ignatius Loyola took the first step toward founding the Order of the Jesuits.