AN'ABAP'TISTS (Gk. dvai3a7r-rie,'Etv, anabap tizcin, to rebaptize). A term applied generally in Reformation times to those Christians who rejected infant. baptism and administered the rite only to adults; so that when a new member joined them, he or she was baptized, the rite as administered in infancy being considered no bap tism. Still, because all other branches of the church considered this a second baptism, the term A nabaptist, i.e.. one who baptizes again, was naturally applied to them. The name is, however, not now used by the present Baptists.
The primitive baptism was doubtless of adults only, but infant baptism early became the Church practice. Opposition to it was kept up by a number of minor and obscure sects in the Middle Ages. When the Reformation unshackled the popular mind it came into prominence. Un fo•tunately, it was linked with other unpopular ideas of a revolutionary character, and adopted by a set of fanatical enthusiasts called the prophets of Zwickau, in Saxony, at whose head were Thomas Miinzer (q.v.) (1520) and others. Mtinzer went to Waldsbut, on the borders of Switzerland, which soon became a chief seat of Anabaptism, and a centre whence visionaries and fanatics spread over Switzerland. They pre tended to new revelations, dreamed of the estab lishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth, and summoned princes to join them, on pain of losing their temporal power. They rejected infant baptism, and taught that those who joined them must be baptized anew with the baptism of the Spirit; they also proclaimed the community of goods, and the equality of all Christians. These doctrines naturally fell in with and supported the "Peasant War" (q.v.) that had about that time (1525) broken out from real cau-ses of oppression. The sect spread rapid ly through Westphalia. Holstein, and the Neth erlands, in spite of the severest persecutions. The battle of Frankenhausen (see MPNzEtt) crushed their progress in Saxony and Franconia. Still scattered adherents of the doctrines con tinued, and were again brought together in vari ous places by traveling preachers. In this capa city Melchior Hoffmann, a furrier of Swabia, dis tinguished himself, who appeared as a visionary preacher in Kiel in 1527, and in Emden in 1528. In the last town he installed a baker, John Mat thiesen, of Haarlem, as bishop, and then went to Strassburg, where he died in prison. Matthie
sen began to send out apostles of the new doc trine. Two of these went to Mfinster, where they found fanatical coadjutors in the Protes tant minister Rothmann, and the burghers Knip perdolling and Krechting,, and were shortly joined by the tailor Bockhold. of Leyden. and Gerrit. Kippenbroek, of Amsterdam, a bookbind er, and at last by Matthiesen himself. With their adherents they soon made themselves masters of the city; Matthiesen set up as a prophet, and when he lost his life in a sally against the Bishop of Minister, who was besieg ing the town, Boekhold and Knipperdolling took his place. The churches were now destroyed, and twelve judges were appointed over the tribes, as among the Israelites; and Boekhold (1534) had himself crowned king of the "New Sion," under the name of John of Leyden. The Anabaptist madness in Minster now went be yond all bounds. The city became the scene of the wildest licentiousness, until several Prot estant princes, uniting with the bishop, took the plan, and by executing the leaders put an end to the new kingdom (1535).
But the principles disseminated by the fanati cal Anabaptists were not so easily obliterated. As early as 1533 the adherents of the sect had been driven from Emden and taken refuge in the Netherlands, and in Amsterdam the doc trine took root and spread. Bockhold also had sent out apostles, some of whom had given up the wild fanaticism of their master; they let alone the community of goods and women, and taught the other doctrines of the Anabaptists, and the establishment of a new kingdom of pure Christians. They grounded their doctrines chief ly the Apocalypse. One of the most distin guished of this class was David Joris, a glass painter of Delft (1501-56). Joris united liber alism with Anabaptism, devoted himself to mys tic theology, and sought to effect a union of parties. Be acquired many adherents, who studied his book of miracles (Irani/crime/), which appeared at Deventer in 1542, and looked upon him as a sort of new Messiah. Being per secuted, be withdrew from his party, lived inof fensively at Basel, under the name of John of Bruges, and died there in the communion of the Reformed Church. It was only in 1559, when his heretical doctrines had come to light, that the council of Basel had the bones of Joris dug up and burned under the gallows.