`They had said nothing about rebaptism’:TheSurprising Birth of Swiss Anabaptism Paul Brand (University of York )1 Anabaptism, the major movement ofradical dissent in the early Reforma- tion, was born in ZuÈ rich in 1525, and soon spread across northern Europe. 2 Within ten years, three distinct branches or traditions had formed: the Swiss Anabaptists, the South German or Austrian Anabaptists, and the North German or Dutch Anabaptists. 3 Despite heavy persecution from both Pro- testant and Catholic authorities, these Anabaptist communities were able to establish alasting tradition in Europe and, from the seventeenth century, in North America. The Mennonite Church, the largest group that traces its roots tothe Anabaptists ofthe sixteenth century, now has around 500 000 members worldwide. 4 The ®rst Anabaptists challenged the Lutheran and Zwinglian orthodoxies on anumber ofissues, 5 but were associated most directly with the practice of adult baptism. In many respects, this association proved bene® cial in the early attempts at missionary work. Adult baptism was areadily recognizable public act, by which followers could demonstrate their support for the movement. The simplicity ofthe act, and the range ofpossible motives for undergoing adult baptism (theological, social, emotional), which will be further discussed below, may also have helped tocover potential splits in the movement. Whilst the disparate interests ofurban and rural radicals 1 Iwouldlike to thank Professor WolfgangBehringer for his helpand support in the writing ofthis paper.I wouldalso like to thank the staŒ of theLondon Mennonite Centre for kindpermission to usetheir library. 2 This dissentis broadlysurveyed in George Huntston Williams, TheRadical Reformation (3rd edn,Kirksville, 2000). 3 OnAnabaptism, see C. ArnoldSnyder, AnabaptistHistory and Theology: An Introduction (Kitchener,1995). The historiography of Anabaptism has recently been assessed by James M. Stayer,`The Signi® cance of Anabaptism and Anabaptist Research’ ,inHans-Ju È rgenGoertz and JamesM. Stayer(eds), RadikalitaÈ tundDissent im 16. Jahrhundert (Berlin,2002), pp. 77 88. 4 SeeCornelius J. Dyck(ed.), AnIntroduction to Mennonite History (3rdedn, Scottdale, ¡ 1993). 5 Ausefulwork stressing theindependence of Anabaptist theology is WalterKlaassen, Anabaptism:Neither Catholic nor Protestant (3rdedn, Kitchener, 2001). GermanHistory Vol. 22 No. 2 10.1191/0266355404gh304oa # 2004The German History Society 156 Paul Brand may have meant that they accepted adult baptism for diŒerent reasons, they could at least agree on the need for the act itself. 6 Nevertheless, the practice brought with it many problems. If adult baptism served as areadily recognizable act for supporters, it also did so for persecuting authorities: the death penalty was attached tothe physical act of adult baptism, rather than the theological views behind it. 7 The practice of adult baptism, and its concomitant rejection ofinfant baptism, may also have posed something of aconceptual barrier for those who otherwise may have been attracted to the movement. For centuries, the Church had taught that children who died without receiving baptism would not be saved, that baptism was necessary toovercome the punishment for original sin. Much like main- stream Protestant reformers, and many Counter-Reformation Catholics, the Anabaptists struggled toovercome popular superstition and traditional ideas, not least about infant baptism. Lutheran visitors in Saxony-Weimar at the end ofthe sixteenth century found that some villages still used atradi- tional form ofrequest for infant baptism as part oftheir otherwise reformed service. The wording was not only pre-Reformation, but `suggests that peo- ple still accepted the Catholic teaching that baptism was aprecondition of safety here and ofsalvation after death’. 8 This continuation of traditional beliefs may also have been aproblem for the early Anabaptist movement, as the case ofGilg Schneider suggests. Schneider appears tohave accepted adult baptism and joined an Anabaptist fellowship whilst still holding avery traditional (pre-Reformation) under- standing of the power ofthe Eucharist. 9 His case suggests that the appeal ofAnabaptism may not have always been strong enough tofully overcome traditional or popular sacramental beliefs. But where did the practice ofadult baptism come from, and why was it attractive tothe early Anabaptist leaders? The ®rst adult, believers’ baptisms ofthe modern period took place on the evening of21 January 1525, amongst asmall group ofthose who had become disillusioned with the course ofthe Reformation in ZuÈ rich.1 0 This event, variously described as `theformal 6 On the rural urbansplit, seeClaus-Peter Clasen, Anabaptism.A SocialHistory, 1525 1618 (Ithaca,1972), pp. ¡305 309,where Clasen characterizes the ® rst decadeof Anabaptismas primarily ¡ urban.On theother hand, ¡ Werner O. Packull,`The Origins of Swiss Anabaptismin the Context of theReformation of the Common Man’ , Journalof MennoniteStudies ,12(1985),pp. 253 277 stres- ses thatthe Zu È richmovement was fromthe outset a combinationof urbanand rural radicals, ¡ and thatit was aruralideology that led to the eventual breakdown of the relationship with Zwingli. 7 Onthepersecution of theAnabaptists, see Clasen, Anabaptism, pp. 358 422. 8 SusanKarant-Nunn, TheReformation of Ritual (London,1997), pp. 61 ¡62,quotation on p. 62; thewhole chapter, `To beat the Devil: Baptism and the conquest of sin’,pp.¡43 71,contains much interestingmaterial, although with littlereference to Anabaptist practice. ¡ 9 D.JonathanGrieser, `Eucharistic Piety and the Appeal of Anabaptism in Tyrol: The Case of GilgSchneider’ , Archiv fuÈ rReformationsgeschichte ,90(1999),pp. 211 229. 10 Onthe origins and early development of Swiss Anabaptism,see Snyder, ¡ AnabaptistHistory and Theology, pp. 51 65;andG.R. Potter, Zwingli (Cambridge,1976), pp. 160 197.Primary sources are availablein translation ¡ in Leland Harder (ed.), TheSources of Swiss Anabaptism¡ (Scottdale,1985). The Surprising Birth ofSwiss Anabaptism 157 beginning of Anabaptism’, 11 `thebirthday ofthe movement’, 12 and the point at which `the ®rst gathered church of sectarian ``Protestantism’’came into being’,13 clearly occupies acentral place in Anabaptist history. However, his- torians are yet tocome toa consensus about why the baptisms took place. The most recent full analysis and interpretation of these baptisms came in Walter Klaassen’sessay `The Rise ofthe Baptism ofAdult Believers in Swiss Anabaptism’. 14 Within Klaassen’sessay, it is possible todiscern two diŒer- ent approaches tounderstanding the believers’ baptisms ofJanuary 1525. The ®rst is that which Klaassen himself oŒers: seeing the baptisms as the result ofwhat had come before, namely the intellectual development of opposition to infant baptism. The second, that which Klaassen identi® es in the work ofmany previous scholars, is tosee the baptisms in light ofwhat came after, namely the institutional and theological developments ofthe believers’ churches that have continued tothe present day. It is the intention ofthis paper tosuggest athird way ofreading the baptisms: by focusing on the event itself and its immediate precursors toassess what these baptisms meant for the participants and why they took place at that particular time. I:TheEvent and theSources The Reformation in ZuÈ rich is unavoidably linked with the arrival of Huldrych Zwingli, and the start of his preaching at the GrossmuÈnster in January 1519. 15 His sermons were not based on the set texts ofthe liturgical calendar, but, starting with the Gospel ofMatthew, were expositions of whole NewTestament books, `notonly scriptural preaching’,but an `educa- tion in the Bible’. 16 Scriptural preaching became acall for reform based on Scripture with the deliberate breaking ofthe Lenten fast in 1522, when the printer Christoph Froschauer led agroup in the eating of some sausages, all watched by Zwingli. His subsequent defence oftheir actions led tocon¯ict with Hugo von Hohenlandenberg, Bishop ofConstance; on 29 January 1523, Zwingli metJohann Faber, the Bishop’srepresentative, in adisputa- tion in ZuÈ rich. The result was aZuÈ rich City Council order for clergy tolimit their preaching towhat could be supported by Scripture. Atthis point, Zwingli was holding together arather uneasy coalition: on the one hand, he had friends and supporters onthe city Council who were sympathetic tohis aims but were wary ofthe political problems that could 11 J.DennyWeaver, BecomingAnabaptist (Scottdale,1987), p. 41. 12 HaroldS. Bender, ConradGrebel, c. 1498 1526 (reprintedScottdale, 1998), p. xiv. 13 Williams, RadicalReformation , p. 213. ¡ 14 WalterKlaassen, `The Rise of the Baptism of Adult Believers in Swiss Anabaptism’,inWalter Klaassen(ed.), AnabaptismRevisited (Scottdale,1992), pp. 85 97. 15 See Potter, Zwingli; for ageneralsurvey of the early ¡Reformation in Zu Èrich,see Carter Lindberg, TheEuropean Reformations (Oxford,1996), pp. 169 181. 16 Lindberg, Reformations , p. 174. ¡ 158 Paul Brand be caused by abreak from tradition; on the other, there were also many grass-roots followers who expected radical changes in line with the Scripture he had read with them. Amongst this second group, who would gradually come toresent Zwingli’swillingness to compromise with the authorities, were those who would play aleading role in the events of21 January 1525, most notably Conrad Grebel. 1 7 The weakness ofthis coalition was shown at the second ZuÈ rich disputa- tion of October 1523, called