Anabaptists (from the Greek anabaptisein, to rebaptize) was a name given to a Christian sect by their adversaries, because, as they objected to infantbaptism, they re-baptized those who joined their body. The founder of the sect appears to have been Nicolas Storch, a disciple of Luther's, who seems to have aimed also at the reorganization of society based on civil and political equality. Gathering round him a number of fiery spirits, among whom was Thomas Munzer, he incited the peasantry of Suabia and Franconia to insurrection - the doctrine of a community of goods being now added to their creed. This insurrection was quelled in 1525, when Munzer was put to the torture and beheaded. After the death of Munzer the sectaries dispersed in all directions, spreading their doctrines wherever they went. In 1534 the town of Miinster in Westphalia became their centre of action. Under the leadership of Bockhold and Matthias their numbers increased daily, and being joined by the restless spirits of the adjoining towns, they soon made themselves masters of the town and expelled their adversaries. Matthias became their prophet, but he fell in a sally against the Bishop of Munster, Count Waldeck, who had laid siege to the city. Bockhold then became leader, assuming the name of John of Leyden, king of the New Jerusalem, and Munster became a theatre of all the excesses of fanaticism, lust, and cruelty. The town was eventually taken in June, 1535, and Bockhold and a great many of his partisans suffered death. This was the last time that the movement assumed anything like political importance.
In the meantime some of the apostles, who were sent out by Bockhold to extend the limits of his kingdom, had been successful in various places, and many independent teachers, who preached the same doctrines, continued active in the work of founding a new empire of pure Christians. It is true that they rejected the practice of polygamy, community of goods, and intolerance towards those of different opinions which had prevailed in Munster; but they enjoined upon their adherents the other doctrines of the early Anabaptists, and certain heretical opinions in regard to the humanity of Christ, occasioned by the controversies of that day about the sacrament. The most celebrated of those Anabaptist prophets were Melchior Hoffmann, the founder of the Hoffmannists or Millenarians; Galenus Abrahamssohn, from whom the sect of the Galenists were called; and Simon Menno, founder of various sects known as Mennonites.
Menno's principles are contained in his Principles of the True Christian Faith, 1556, a work which is held as authoritative on points of doctrine and worship among the Baptist communities of Germany and the Netherlands. The application of the term Anabaptist to the general body of Baptists throughout the world is unwarranted, because these sects have nothing in common with the bodies which sprung up in various countries of Europe during the Reformation, except the practice of adult baptism. The Baptists themselves repudiate the name Anabaptist, as they claim to baptize according to the original institution of the rite, and never repeat baptism in the case of those who in their opinion have been so baptized. Research Anabaptists
Theodore Beza (Theodore de Beze) was a French clergyman. He was born in 1519 at Vezelay, Burgundy and died in 1605. Educated in Orleans under Melchior Volmar, a German scholar devoted to the Reformation; in 1539 became a licentiate of law, and went to reside at Paris. His habits at this time were dissipated, and his Poemata Juvenilia, Latin verses of a more than Ovidian freedom, were afterwards a frequent ground of attack upon him.
The reforming influence of a severe illness led to marriage with his mistress, and to his retirement to Geneva in 1548, and his conversion to Protestantism. In 1549 he became professor of Greek at Lausanne, occupying himself with the completion of Marot's translation of the Psalms and the study of the New Testament, and corresponding frequently with Calvin. In 1558 he was sent by the Swiss Calvinists on an embassy to obtain the intercession of the Protestant princes of Germany for the release of Huguenots imprisoned in Paris. In the following year he went to Geneva as a preacher, and soon after became a professor of theology, and the most active assistant of Calvin.
He also rendered admirable service to the cause of the reformers at the court of the King of Navarre and in attendance upon Conde and Coligny. In the conference at St Germain in 1562 he spoke strongly against the veneration of images. At Calvin's death in 1564 the administration of the Genevese Church fell entirely to his care.
He presided in the synods of the French Galvinists at La Rochelle (1571) and at Nismes (1572); was sent by Conde (1574) to the court of the electorpalatine; and at the religious conference at Montpellier (1586) opposed James Andreas and the theologians of Wurtemberg. At the age of sixty-nine he married his second wife in 1588, and in 1597 wrote a lively poetical refutation of the rumour that he had recanted and was dead. In 1600 he resigned his official functions, and he died in retirement in 1605. Among his many works, his History of Calvinism in France from 1521 to 1563, and Theological Treatises, are still esteemed; but he is most famous for his Latin translation of the New Testament. Research Theodore Beza
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Research Anabaptists
