§ 24. ZWINGLI'S CONFLICT WITH RADICALISM. 73
rament to 3^ears of discretion.^ He rejected the Roman doctrine of the necessity of baptism for salvation and the damnation of unbaptized infants dying in infancy. He understood the passage, Mark 16 : 16, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," as applying only to adults who have heard the gospel and can believe, but not to children. On maturer reflection he modified his views. He learned from experience that it was impossible to realize an ideal church of believers, and stopped with what was attainable. As to infant baptism, he became convinced of its expediency in Christian families. He defended it with the analogy of circumcision in the Old Testament (Col. 2:11), with the comprehensiveness of the New Covenant, which embraces whole families and nations, and with the command of Christ, " Suffer little children to come unto Me," from which he inferred that he who refuses children to be baptized prevents them from coming to Christ. He also appealed to 1 Cor. 7 : 14, which implies the church-membership of the children of Christian parents, and to the examples of family baptisms in Acts 16 : 33, 18 : 8, and 1 Cor. 1 : 16.
The Radical movement began in Zurich in 1523, and lasted till 1532. The leaders were Conrad Grebel, from one of the first families of Zurich, a layman, educated in the universities of Vienna and Paris, whom Zwingli calls the corypheus of the Anabaptists ; Felix Manz, the illegitimate son of a canon of the Great Minster, a good Hebrew scholar ; Georg Blaurock, a monk of Coire, called on account of his eloquence " the mighty Jorg," or " the second Paul " ; and Ludwig Hatzer of Thurgau, chaplain at Wadenschwyl, who,
^ Hagenbach (p. 357), on the strength of Hottinger, states that the Council of Zurich, at the advice of Zwingli, by a mandate of Jan. 17, 1525, allowed a delay of eight years for the baptism of children. But this must be an error; for on the eighteenth of January, 1525, the Council, after a disputation with the Anabaptists, commanded the baptism of all unbaptized children within eight days, on pain of the banishment of the parents. Egli, Actensammhmg, p. 276.
74 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
with Hans Denck, prepared the first Protestant translation of the Hebrew Prophets,^ and acted as secretary of the second Zurich disputation, and edited its proceedings. With them were associated a number of ex-priests and ex-monks, as William Reubli, minister at Wyticon, Johann Brodli (Paniculus) at Zollicon, and Simon Stumpf at Hong. They took an active part in the early stages of the Reformation, prematurely broke the fasts, and stood in the front rank of the image-stormers. They went ahead of public opinion and the orderly method of Zwingli. They opposed the tithe, usury, military service, and the oath. They denied the right of the civil magistracy to interfere in matters of religion. They met as " brethren " for prayer and Scripture-reading in the house of " Mother Manz," and in the neighborhood of Zurich, especially at Zollicon.
The German Radicals, Carlstadt and Miinzer, were for a short time in Switzerland and on the Rhine, but did not re-baptize and had no influence upon the Swiss Radicals, who opposed rebellion to the civil authority. Carlstadt gradually sobered down ; Miinzer stirred up the Peasants' War, seized the sword and perished by the sword. Dr. Hiibmaier of Bavaria, the most learned among the Anabaptists, and their chief advocate, took part in the October disputation at Zurich in 1523, but afterwards wrote books against Zwingli (on the baptism of believers, 1525, and a dialogue with Zwingli, 1526), was expelled from Switzerland, and organized flourishing congregations in Moravia.
The Radical opinions spread with great rapidity, or rose simultaneously, in Berne, Basle, St. Gall, Appenzell, all along the Upper Rhine, in South Germany, and Austria. The Anabaptists were driven from place to place, and travelled as fugitive evangelists. They preached repentance
1 Their translation of the Prophets appeared at Worms in 1527 (and often), and preceded that of the Zurich Bible (in 1529), and that of Luther, which was not completed till 1532.