Anabaptism: a history of persecution and resilience

Anabaptism (or Radical Reformation) emerged in the 1520s at the beginning of the Reformation, which was then sweeping across Europe. It combined a variety of elements, including popular medieval piety, humanistic criticism, and latent anticlericalism, as well as the influence of the Reformers' sermons and the agitation they provoked. After the failure of the communal and revolutionary movement of the Peasants' War (1525), those believers who, in an attempt to restore true Christianity, devoted themselves to a more radical reformation joined the Anabaptist movement. Increasingly estranged from Zwingli and Luther, they initially held the views of Thomas Müntzer and Andreas Karlstadt. Anabaptists (or rebaptists) came to be called all those who rejected infant baptism in favor of the baptism of adults instructed in the faith. What was new was not so much the form of baptism (by immersion) as the choice of church, which was to be confessional rather than polytheistic.

In Europe at least three major Anabaptist movements can be distinguished: The Swiss Brethren (mainly in Switzerland, Alsace, and southern Germany), the Mennonites (Netherlands and northern Germany), who, after the Millenarian episode in Münster (Westphalia) in 1535, gathered around Menno Simons, to found a free and pacifist church, and finally the Hutterites, who settled in Moravia (now Bohemia) after fleeing Tyrol, southern Germany, and Switzerland and were characterized by a communal way of life on farms where labor and goods were shared by all.

The first adult baptism on January 21, 1525 in Zurich among Zwingli's former pupils and friends was a seminal event for Swiss Anabaptism. Beginning in Zurich with Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, Jörg Blaurock, Johannes Brötli, Simon Stumpf, and Wilhelm Roiblin, this branch of Anabaptism spread rapidly through eastern Switzerland and southern Germany, to South Tyrol through Graubünden, to Basel and Alsace, and then to Bern. In many places the movement was inspired by other radical movements. Priorities differed according to context and personalities: Balthasar Hubmaier, for example, was influential in the Waldshut (D) region, while Hans Dekk and Pilgram Marpeck made themselves known in southern Germany and eastern Switzerland.

As regards Switzerland, the assembly held at Schleitheim in 1527, and the articles adopted on that occasion, are of great importance. Uniting under the name of the Swiss Brethren, and based on a confession of faith drawn up probably by Michael Sattler, the Swiss Anabaptists separated themselves both from other radical movements and from the official churches, forming the first Free Church (Sects and Free Churches). They were characterized by theological dualism, respect for the principles of Scripture, a desire for a consecrated life cut off from the outside world, congregations without magistrates, and acceptance of martyrdom. They demonstrated their nonconformity by refusing to attend the official church, take the oath of office, and serve in the military. Their radical criticism of the society and religious life of their time, as well as of the union of Church and State, which they considered pernicious, soon aroused the anger of the authorities, who made several attempts - until the seventeenth century - to bring them back into the fold of the official Church. For this purpose, more or less public theological disputations were organized. Most of them (e.g. in Zurich in 1525, Zofingen in 1532 and Bern in 1538) did not lead to any agreement and only fueled persecution. The quickly adopted repressions pushed the movement to spread not only in Switzerland, but also throughout Europe as far as Russia, and then to North and South America.

In the 16th century, the majority of Anabaptists lived in the reformed cantons of Bern and Zurich, with a minority in Solothurn, Basel, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, and Graubünden. The Anabaptists were imprisoned, tortured, dispossessed, exiled, and even executed (in Bern until 1571, in Zurich until 1614, and in Rheinfelden until 1626), they became increasingly isolated geographically and socially, and were sometimes cornered theologically. Internal conflicts led Jacob Ammann to found an Amish community in 1693. Periodic easing of persecution and the influence of Pietism and the Awakening led to further growth of the communities, although they remained secretive. Until the eighteenth century, Dutch Mennonites worked vigorously on behalf of their persecuted co-religionists in Switzerland, but it was not until after the Enlightenment and the French Revolution that Swiss Anabaptists found peace. The continuous presence of Anabaptist-Mennonite communities from the sixteenth century to the present day is attested only in the canton of Bern (especially in Emmental), which was nevertheless characterized by a particularly harsh attitude for over two hundred years, expelling hundreds of people. In Zurich, on the contrary, the Anabaptists, though at times very numerous, had almost entirely disappeared by the middle of the seventeenth century. In other cantons, such as Solothurn, Basel, and Schaffhausen, the number of Anabaptists was also greatly reduced during the seventeenth century.

Until the beginning of the seventeenth century, Anabaptists persecuted in the Confederacy found refuge in Moravia, then in Alsace and the Palatinate. Since the eighteenth century they have also found refuge in the Bishopric of Basel, the Neuchâtel Jura, the Montbéliard region, the Netherlands, and North America. In most of these places their genealogically active descendants still live today.