8 102. THE ANABAPTIST CONTROVERSY. 607
epportunity to become his children by free choice); Zwélf Artikel des christlichen Glaubens, etc.
On Hiibmaier, see SCHREIBER in the ‘‘ Taschenbuch fiir Gesch. und Alterthum Siiddeutschlands,’? Freiburg, 1839 and 40. CUNITZ in Herzog’s ‘‘ Encykl.,’’ 2d ed. VI. 344. RaAnkE, IIL. 118, 126; III. 366, 369. JANSSEN, II. 387, 486.
All the Reformers retained the custom of infant-baptism, and opposed rebaptism ( Wiedertaufe) as a heresy. So far they agreed with the Catholics against the Anabaptists, or Catabaptists as they were called, although they rejected the name, because in their view the baptism of infants was no baptism at all.
The Anabaptists or Baptists (as distinct from Pedobaptists) sprang up in Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, and organized independent congregations. Their leaders were Hiibmaier, Denck, Hatzer, and Grebel. They thought that the Reformers stopped half-way, and did not go to the root of the evil. They broke with the historical tradition, and constructed a new church of believers on the voluntary principle. Their fundamental doctrine was, that baptism is a voluntary act, and requires personal repentance, and faith in Christ. They rejected infant-baptism as an anti-scriptural invention. They could find no trace of it in the New Testament, the only authority in matters of faith. They were cruelly persecuted in Protestant as well as Roman Catholic countries. We must carefully distinguish the better class of Baptists and the Mennonites from the restless revolutionary radicals and fanatics, like Carlstadt, Miinzer, and the leaders of the Minster tragedy.
The mode of baptism was not an article of controversy at that time; for the Reformers either preferred immersion (Luther), or held the mode to be a matter of indifference (Calvin).
Luther agreed substantially with the Roman Catholic doctrine of baptism. His Taufbiichlein of 1523 is a trans-
608 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
lation of the Latin baptismal service, including the formula of exorcism, the sign of the cross, and the dipping. The second edition (1526) is abridged, and omits the use of chrisma, salt, and spittle! He defeated Carlstadt, Miinzer, and the Zwickau Prophets, who rejected infant-baptism, and embarrassed even Melanchthon. Saxony was cleared of Anabaptists; but their progress in other parts of Germany induced him a few years later to write a special book against Hibmaier, who appealed to his authority, and ascribed to him similar views.
Balthasar Hubmaier, or Hibmér, was born near Augsburg, 1480; studied under Dr. Eck at Freiburg-i.-B. and Ingolstadt, and acquired the degree of doctor of divinity. He became a famous preacher in the cathedral at Regensburg, and occasioned the expulsion of the Jews in 1519, whose synagogue was converted into a chapel of St. Mary. In 1522 he embraced Protestant opinions, and became pastor at Waldshut on the Rhine, on the borders of Switzerland. He visited Erasmus at Basel, and Zwingli at Zurich, and aided the latter in the introduction of the Reformation. The Austrian government threatened violent measures, and demanded the surrender of his person. He left Waldshut, and took refuge in a convent of Schaffhausen, but afterwards returned. He openly expressed his dissent from Zwingli and Gicolampadius on the subject of infant-baptism. Zwingli was right, he said, in maintaining that baptism was a mere sign, but the significance of this sign was the pledge of faith and obedience unto death, and such a pledge a child could not make; there-
1 See above § 45, p. 218, and the two editions of the Tazfbiichlein in the Erl. ed. XXII. 157, 291. In both editions dipping is prescribed (‘‘ Da nehme er das Kind und tauche es in die Taufe’’), and no mention is made of any other mode. The Reformed churches objected to the retention of exorcism as a species of superstition. The first English liturgy of Edward VI. (who was baptized by immersion) prescribes trine-immersion (dipping); the second liturgy of 1552 does the same, but gives (for the first time in England) permission to substitute pouring when the child is weak.