Empresa: SUMAK MIKUY

Anabaptist congregations were radically decentralised. It is claimed that there were over twenty groups within the first two decades of the Reformation. Thereafter, more groups appeared in Europe under different names. Anabaptism was therefore a heterogeneous society with diverse emphases as dictated by the circumstances of the leaders. A brief history of some of the leaders illustrates the situation:

Bodenstein (1486-1541)

He was one of the fathers of Anabaptism because he embodied radical attitudes advocating for more religious and social changes than that traditionally supported by Luther’s revolution. He, like Luther, taught at the University of Wittenberg. He turned an egalitarian intellectual; cast aside his doctoral degrees, wore plain clothing, tried to become a peasant and preferred to be called “brother”. In 1521 when Lutheranism was beginning, Bodenstein celebrated the first publicly Protestant Communion on Christmas 1521 in a distinct way: (1) without vestment, (2) without fixed prayer of Eucharistic consecration, (3) without elevation of the elements, (4) service was conducted not in Latin but in German vernacular, (5) Lay communicants took bread in their hands and shared in the wine. In his reformation that followed, he encouraged participation in common worship, introduced congregational singing of the Psalms in the vernacular and restored foot washing after communion. He did not resort to rebaptism but abolished infant baptism. He encouraged a total break with sacramentalism.

He provided the biblical and theological groundings for many features of sixteenth century radicalism in the Reformation.

Thomas Müntzer (1490 - 1525)

He was a leading German radical Reformer during the Protestant Reformation. He was among those (sometimes called “spirituals”) who emphasised that the Anabaptists were living at the end of all ages. Although he began his religious revolt by following Luther's theological doctrines, he soon went his own way. . He believed that the common people, because of their lack of property and their unspoiled ignorance, would disclose the will of God and rule the world. He became the leader of the abortive Peasants' Revolt in Thuringia in 1524–25. Marxists in the 20th century viewed him as a precursor in the struggle for a classless society. He was executed after leading the revolt of 1525.

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Balthasar Hubmaier (1485 -1528)

Balthasar Hubmaier was one of the foremost leaders of the Anabaptists, who advocated adult baptism in Nicholsburg, Moravia. He was a scholar and a cathedral preacher at Regensburg in 1516. From 1521 when he arrived in Switzerland, he became a leader of the fledgling Anabaptists.

Hubmaier was especially influential through his writings and represented the more moderate strain of the movement, in contrast to the millenarian gang of Thomas Müntzer. He stressed the community of goods modelled on the primitive church in Jerusalem. Constantly hunted by imperial authorities, Hubmaier was ultimately captured and burned at the stake as a heretic at Vienna. Under the leadership of Jakob Hutter, the growing communistic colonies assumed his name. The Hutterite survived and are now primarily located in the western United States and Canada.

Melchior Hofmann

Melchior Hofmann was the Anabaptist apostle in the Netherlands, where he developed a very large following. He taught that the world would soon end and that the new age would begin in Strasbourg, where he was imprisoned in 1533 and died around 1543. He rebaptised a Dutchman Jan Mathijs who succeeded him. Some of Hofmann's followers came under the influence of the Jan Mathijs and of John of Leiden who attracted many refugees to settle in 1534 in Münster, Westphalia, where they gained control of the city and established a communistic theocracy.

Jan Mathijs

He was more radical than his mentor Hofmann. Unlike other Anabaptist leaders who supported pacificism, in 1534, he overthrew the government of German city of Munster and forced out the Bishop of Munster. He proclaimed the “kingdom of a thousand years” and forced the whole population to undergo baptism. He opened up the city to thousands of Anabaptists who flocked there from across Europe. They held goods in common ownership and burnt all books except the Bible. The community introduced death penalty for adultery but allowed polygamy. Mathijs led the way with 15 wives. He was killed when the city was sieged with troops raised by German princes with the support of the Bishop of Munster. Jan Beukels (later called King John of Leiden) succeeded Mathijs and crowned himself the ruler of ‘New Zion’ in Munster. In 1535 Münster was captured, and in 1536, the Anabaptists' “king” was executed with two of his accomplices. After Munster, Menno Simons emerged as the leader of original pacifist Anabaptist.

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Menno Simonsz (Simons) (1496-1561)

He was a Dutch and ordained Roman Catholic priest in 1524. Doubts about transubstantiation, infant baptism, and other Church dogmas led him to leave the Roman Catholic Church. Although he opposed the revolutionary Anabaptists who led an unsuccessful uprising at Münster in 1535, his efforts to help some of those who were escaping put him in danger of arrest, and he went into hiding for awhile. In his view, military service and killing were unlawful and he frowned at political office holders who claimed that they were Christians. Late in 1536 or early 1537, he received believer's baptism, and was called to leadership by the peaceful wing of Dutch Anabaptism. In 1537 he became an Anabaptist preacher and a missionary, carrying the new faith to other parts of South Holland, and Germany. Menno adhered fundamentally to orthodox beliefs but rejected those that were not mentioned in the New Testament. He baptised only those who asserted their faith in Christ and also taught that prayer should be said in silence. He found time for extensive writing and established a printing press to circulate Anabaptist writings. His followers formed the Protestant sect called Mennonites. The Mennonites were among the first to espouse the principle of separation of church and state and to condemn slavery. They have traditionally obeyed the civil laws, but many refuse to bear arms or to support violence in any form. The more conservative Mennonite groups are distinguished by plain living and simplicity of dress.

Joris David

He was a painter and a member of the Anabaptist movement who founded the Davidists, or Jorists movement. He settled in Delft (now in The Netherlands) in 1524 where he was soon swept into controversies of the Reformation and engaged in outspoken attacks against the Roman Catholic Church. Joris later presented himself as a prophet, basing his claim on mystical visions that he was the “third David.” after David the king and Christ the son of David. In 1543 Joris, accompanied by some of his followers, fled to Basel, where he took the name Jan van Brugge (John of Bruges). After his death controversy arose in his sect between those who wished to dissolve the movement in the wake of his abdication and those who persisted in their belief that he was the third David. In 1559, three years after his death he was tried and condemned posthumously as a heretic. His body was then exhumed and burned at the stake. Repeated heresy trials of his followers caused the sect to die out by the end of the century.

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