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Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers General Editors Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers General Editors John Baillie (1886-1960) served as President of the World Council of Churches, a member of the British Council of Churches, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Dean of the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. John T. McNeill (1885-1975) was Professor of the History of European Christianity at the University of Chicago and then Auburn Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Henry P. Van Dusen (1897-1975) was an early and influen- tial member of the World Council of Churches and served at Union Theological Seminary in New York as Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology and later as President. THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers Edited by GEORGE H. WILLIAMS AB, BD, ThD, DD and ANGEL M. MERGAL AB, BD, ThD © 1957 The Westminster Press Paperback reissued 2006 by Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmit- ted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For infor- mation, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Cover design by designpointinc. com Published by Westminster John Knox Press Louisville, Kentucky This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 standard.© PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. ISBN-13: 978-0-664-24150-6 ISBN-10: 0-664-24150-6 GENERAL EDITORS' PREFACE The Christian Church possesses in its literature an abundant and incomparable treasure. But it is an inheritance that must be reclaimed by each generation. THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS is designed to present in the English language, and in twenty-six volumes of convenient size, a selection of the most indispensable Christian treatises written prior to the end of the sixteenth century. The practice of giving circulation to writings selected for superior worth or special interest was adopted at the beginning of Christian history. The canonical Scriptures were themselves a selection from a much wider literature. In the Patristic era there began to appear a class of works of compilation (often designed for ready reference in controversy) of the opinions of well-reputed predecessors, and in the Middle Ages many such works were produced. These medieval anthologies actually preserve some noteworthy materials from works otherwise lost. In modern times, with the increasing inability even of those trained in universities and theological colleges to read Latin and Greek texts with ease and familiarity, the translation of selected portions of earlier Christian literature into modern languages has become more necessary than ever; while the wide range of distinguished books written in vernaculars such as English makes selection there also needful. The efforts that have been made to meet this need are too numerous to be noted here, but none of these collections serves the purpose of the reader who desires a library of representative treatises spanning the Christian centuries as a whole. Most of them embrace only the age of the Church Fathers, and some of them have iong been out of print. A fresh translation of a work already 9 10 GENERAL EDITORS PREFACE translated may shed much new light upon its meaning. This is true even of Bible translations despite the work of many experts through the centuries. In some instances old translations have been adopted in this series, but wherever necessary or desirable, new ones have been made. Notes have been supplied where these were needed to explain the author's meaning. The introductions provided for the several treatises and extracts ll, we believe, furnish welcome guidance. JOHN BAILLIE JOHN T. MGNEILL HENRY P. VAN DUSEM CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS * . • • « • 14 PREFACE . „ . • • « 15 PART ONE DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE RADICAL REFORMATION INTRODUCTION . 19 I. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ANABAPTIST REFORMA- TION REMINISCENCES OF GEORGE BLAUROCK (1525) Introduction ...... 39 Text ....... 41 II. SERMON BEFORE THE PRINCES BY THOMAS MUNTZER (1524) Introduction ...... 47 Text ....... 49 III. LETTERS TO THOMAS MUNTZER BY CONRAD GREBEL AND FRIENDS (1524) Introduction . 71 Text ....... 73 IV. WHETHER GOD IS THE CAUSE OF EVIL BY JOHN DENCK (1526) Introduction ...... 86 Text ....... 88 V. ON FREE WILL BY BALTHASAR HUBMAIER (1527) Introduction . .112 Text . .114 11 12 CONTENTS VL TRIAL AND MARTYRDOM OF MICHAEL SATTLER (1527) Introduction . , 136 Text . 138 VII. A LETTER TO JOHN CAMP ANUS BY SEBASTIAN FRANCK (1531) Introduction . s 145 Text ....... 147 VIII. AN ANSWER TO LUTHER'S MALEDICTION* BY CASPAR SCHWENCKFELD (c. 1544) Introduction . 161 Text . 163 IX. THE ORDINANCE OF GOD BY MELCHIOR HOFMANN (1530) Introduction . „ . .182 Text .184 X. A CONFESSION! BY OBBE PHILIPS (c. I560) Introduction ...... 204 Text ....... 206 XL THE CHURCH OF GOD BY DIETRICH PHILIPS (c. I560) Introduction . .226 Text . 228 XII. ON THE BAN: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS BY MENNO SIMONS (1550) Introduction . .261 Text ........ 263 XIII. CHERISHED INSTRUCTIONS ON SIN, EXCOMMUNICA- TION, AND THE COMMUNITY OF GOODS BY ULRICH STADLER (c. 1537) Introduction . .272 Text 274 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATERIAL IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION WRITTEN BY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RADICAL REFORMATION (I524-1575) ..... 285 * The first part translated by Selina Gerhard Schultz. •f Translated by Christiaan Theodoor Lievestro. CONTENTS 13 PART TWO EVANGELICAL CATHOLICISM AS REPRESENTED BY JUAN DE VALDfiS INTRODUCTION ....... 297 I. A DIALOGUE ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE Introduction ...... 320 Text . .321 II. ONE HUNDRED AND TEN CONSIDERATIONS Introduction ...... 330 Text 335 III. THE CHRISTIAN ALPHABET Introduction . , . 351 Text 357 BIBLIOGRAPHY . • • . * 391 INDEXES ......... 395 ABBREVIATIONS MQR . Mennonite Quarterly Review BRN . Bibliotheca Reformatoria Neerlandica WA . Weimar Ausgabe, Luther's works GS . Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum PL . Patrologia Latina GQR . Goshen College Quarterly Record PREFACE This volume comprises a group of sixteenth-century writings once cherished and influential in fairly wide circles and intrin- sically of no slight importance, but little known to modern readers. The editors of THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS are confident that in both parts of the volume the selection has been carefully made and that the texts significantly represent the far more extensive body of material by Spiritual and Anabaptist writers from which they are drawn. We are glad to have been able to enlist the scholarly services of Professor Williams and Professor Mergal, the former to explore the literature of the Radical Reformation in Northern Europe, and the latter to present an impressive selection from the work of the most important among the Spanish "reformers" of this period, Juan de V aides. A considerable number of the documents included by Dr. Williams, revealing and arresting as they are, have hitherto been read in the English-speaking world by only a handful of scholars and have escaped notice even in the more copious histories of the Reformation. We believe that the presentation of these texts to the many readers of this Library not only will help materially to give a sound understanding of what has often been called "the left wing of the Reformation," but also will produce fresh insights into the meaning of Christianity itself. JOHN T. MGNEILL HENRY P. VAN DUSEN PART ONE DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE RADICAL REFORMATION Introduction ROM ALL SIDES WE ARE COMING TO RECOGNIZE in the Radical Reformation a major expression of the Freligious movement of the sixteenth century. It is one that is as distinctive as Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism, and is perhaps comparably significant in the rise of modern Christianity. In assembling a collection of documents representative of this "Fourth" Reformation, the present editor had to decide, in the allotment of space, between the temptation to prepare the audience with an ample introduction and the claims of the dissidents to be heard directly. The only fully satisfactory intro- duction would be a fresh account of the history of that aspect of the Reformation Era into which the sometimes obscure and disparate figures selected for this volume would plausibly fit.1 i The best general histories in English of the whole or of important segments of the Radical Reformation are the following: For the Anabaptists: Albert H. Newman, A History of Anti-Pedobaptism to A.D. 1609 (Philadelphia, 1897); G. H. Smith, The Story of the Mennonites, re-edited by Cornelius Krahn (3d ed., Newton, Kans., 1950); John Horsch, Tfie Mennonites in Europe (rev. ed., Scottdale, Pa., 1950); Franklin Littell's stress on one aspect of the movement is so comprehensive that it may serve as an intro- duction, The Anabaptist View of the Church (2d ed., Boston, Mass., 1956). Geographically circumscribed but still general are H. S. Burrage, History of the Anabaptists in Switzerland (Philadelphia, 1881); H. E. Dosker, The Dutch Anabaptists (Philadelphia, 1921); and for Moravian Anabaptism, John Horsch, The Huiterian Brethren, 1528-1931 (Goshen, Ind., 1931). For the Spiritualists there is no comprehensive survey. The nearest to it is Rufus Jones, Spiritual Reformers in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
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