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The Expanded History of Reformation THE EXPANDED HISTORY OF REFORMATION March 26,2017 5. The Radical Reformation and the Anabaptists The Back Story: What were some collateral forces unleashed when Luther and others began their work of reforming the church in the sixteenth century? A) As one views two thousand years of church history, there are some overarching trends. B) There has long been a tension between flesh vs. spirit in Christian history, resulting in monasticism. C) In troubled times, common people listen to strong, loud leaders, resulting in the papacy. D) The sinful human heart is perpetually bent on believing human effort in some way can make one acceptable to God, resulting in works righteousness and synergism. E) Up to the time of the Reformation, the trend in church history was adding in some way to the Word of God (medieval Catholicism); since the Reformation, the trend in church history is subtracting from the Word of God (theological liberalism). F) At various times in church history, there has been a strong tendency to go back to the simplicity of New Testament Christianity. G) The Reformation promoted many ideas that were attractive to the downtrodden peasants of Germany; the Bible and the liturgy in the common language; Christian freedom; the priesthood of all believers. H) The Reformation began in an urban environment, in a university setting, but through the printing press and word of mouth, it quickly spread into the countryside. I) As the Reformation spread over Germany, its message became more diverse and its message began to absorb preexisting social and economic grievances and many peasants began to politicize some of the tenants of the Reformation, resulting in the Peasants' War,7524-7525. D Thomas Müntzer, who early on was consisted to be a Lutheran, began advocating direct revelation from God; he became one of the main agitators of the Peasants'n War; which was violently put down by the nobility and their mercenary army; Müntzer WaS among those who were executed. K) In Müntzer's life of about thirty-six years, he initiated contact with several other Protestants who shared a similar theology; most of these were pioneers in the Anabaptist movement. II. The Front Story: What were the underlying reasons for some Protestants to reject infant baptism and become known as the "Anabaptists." A) New Testament Christian baptism had its roots in the ceremonial washings of the Israelites in the Old Testament. B) Baptism originated among the Jews as a way to initiate Gentile coverts into Judaism. C) Baptism is first mentioned in the New Testament with the ministry of fohn the Baptist; it was an understood practice when it was first described in the Bible. D) The Bible does not speciflr any chronological age for baptism or administering the Lord' Supper to a person; Acts 16 (Lydia's household and the jailer's family). E) Biblical Christianity and Lutheranism have always baptized infants for the simple reason that infants need Jesus since they are born with a spiritual birth defect called original sin; baptism causes regeneration in an infant's heart; a means of grace for entering into the kingdom of God. F) Especially in Switzerland, soon after Zwingli began his reformation in Zurich, some of his followers began denying infant baptism and insisted upon being baptized again as adults: "Anabaptist." G) Conrad Grebel, once a loyal follower of Zwingli, is considered the father of the Anabaptists; differences soon surfaced; debated Zwingli in L525; refused to have his infant daughter baptized. H) Grebel and Felix Manz and others form an opposition congregation in Zurich called the Swiss Brethren; re-baptizing of former priest George Blaurock occurs on January 27,1525, the birthdate of the Anabaptist movement; Grebel becomes a traveling preacher and dies of the plague in L526. D In March 1526, the Zurich city council made believers'baptism a capital offence punishable by drowning, i.e. "the third baptism." D Felix Manz, one of the leaders of the Swiss Brethren, is the first to be drowned by order of the Zurich city council, fanuary 5,L527. KJ Balthasar Hubmaier becomes the chief theologian of the Anabaptists; advocates A¡abaptists separating from the world and being a part of a confessing community of believers; he and his wife are both executed. L) Michael and Margaretha Sattler; a former monk and a nun marry and become committed Anabaptists; Sattler becomes one of the authors of the Schleitheim Confession, which outlines Anabaptist beliefs; both he and his wife are brutally executed in L527. M) Menno Simons becomes the father of a major branch of the Anabaptists known as the Mennonites; advocated the necessity of a conversion experience; writes the Foundation of Christian Doctrine; dies in L561. Protestant nation, largely through the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer. K) Thomas Cranmer popularized the English Bible among the common people; produces the Book of Common Prayer; writes The Forty-Two Articles, which are a summary of Protestant doctrines; significantly influenced by Lutheranism, but with a spiritual presence concept of the Lord's Supper. L) England is a Protestant nation by the time Edward VI dies at fifteen. II The Front Story: What type of Christianity did England and Scotland eventually have at the end of the Protestant Reformation? A) The dying Edward VI did not want either one of his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, to succeed him. B) After a nine-day rule of the sixteen year old Lady fane Grey; Catholic Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, becomes queen of England; Mary attempts to reverse the Protestant Reformation in England. C) Although Mary proclaimed that none of her subjects would be forced to follow her religion, Parliament repealed her father's religious laws. D) The "Marian Persecutions" begin; 280 Protestants are burned at the stake during Blood Mary's five year reign; Thomas Cranmer is martyred, even after recanting; martyred as a Protestant believer. E) After Mary's death, her sister, Elizabeth (1533-1603), the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, becomes queen; Elizabeth like her half-brother, Edward VI, was a Protestant; she reverses Mary's religious policy and reintroduces the Protestant Reformation to England. FJ The Elizabethan Religious Settlement once and for all established the Church of England or the Anglican Church as the Protestant church in England. G) The Act of Supremacy in 1558 established the Church of England as a separate church from Roman Catholicism; the Act of Uniformity in 1559 established the governance ofthe Church of England (episcopacy) and regulated its worship life, mandating the Book of Common Prayer. H) Scotland also becomes a Protestant country, significantly through the work of a devotee of John Calvin, fohn Knox (c.I574-t572). I) A former Catholic priest Knox was influenced by the Protestant martyr George Wishart; Knox went to France, Switzerland, England, eventually became the leading reformer in Scotland; established a presbyterian (elder) form of church government. D The Thirty-Nine Articles remain the basic doctrinal statement of the Church of England (Anglican/Episcopalian); the Westminster Confession of Faith remains the basic doctrinal statement of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian)..
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