The Anabaptists of Zurich, Zollikon, the Netherlands and humanists from Basel
7 September 2024
While many Protestant citizens from the (Habsburg) Low Countries and later the Republic of the Seven United Provinces were students at the academy (founded in 1559) of John Calvin (1509-1564) in Geneva, other Protestant citizens fled the Netherlands precisely for Calvin and his teachings.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) initiated the Reformation in 1517. Many predecessors had already tried in vain to reform the church, often resulting in burning at the stake. Luther succeeded partly due to the printing press and support from powerful German princes. The Reformation reached the Swiss Confederation (Eidgenossenschaft) as early as the 1520s.
Zurich, Grossmünster, Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) was the leading reformer in Zurich, and by 1524, the city was already Reformed. However, Zwingli differed from Luther in terms of specific religious points.
On one subject, however, they agreed: the Anabaptists were a threat to the new faith and social order and had to be ruthlessly persecuted: ‘Eine verdorbene Art von Menschen, die Pest der Wiedertäufer und das Unkraut der Wiedertäufer’ (Huldrych Zwingli, Schriften IV, Theologischer Verlag Zürich 1995). Das (katholisch geprägte) Deutsche Reichsgesetz vom 23. April 1529 war auch deutlich:
Anabaptists who did not renounce their faith will be killed by stake, sword or other means without trial. In Zurich, drowning in the Limmat was one such method.
Zollikon, the house of one of the first meetings of the anabaptists
This movement emerged from the Reformation around 1525-1527 in Zurich and nearby Zollikon. Felix Manz (1498-1527) and Konrad Grebel (1498-1526) were its most prominent leaders.
They rejected infant baptism, conscription, and the church as state institutions. Only adults could be baptised; the church was not an organ of the state but a private organisation of individuals, and military conscription was rejected.
Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, his successor Heinrich Bullinger(1504-1575), and other reformers regarded this movement as a clear and present danger. They persecuted the Anabaptists with a ‘Protestant Inquisition’, including executions. A memorial table in Zurich on the banks of the Limmat still recalls the execution of leaders and other Anabaptists.
Zurich, Grossmünster
However, the movement was very successful and quickly spread in Catholic and Protestant areas, including the Netherlands, which was still Catholic then. However, Anabaptists were also persecuted in Catholic countries. There, too, they were seen as a threat, and they were Protestants, i.e. heretics.
Only a few Catholics and Protestants, including the Catholic Erasmus of Rotterdam and the Protestant theologian Sebastian Castellio in Basel and local rulers, including the Duke of Württemberg and the Counts of Hesse and Oldenburg, pleaded for religious tolerance, in vain. Persecution was relentless in Catholic and Protestant areas.
Zurich, the house of Konrad Grebel
This movement was recognized only after the French creation of the Batavian Republic (1795) and the Helvetic Republic (1798) in the 19th century. The Constitution of the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) provided for Anabaptists’ freedom of religion. The first Anabaptist church was consecrated in Basel in 1847, and the first World Anabaptist Congress was held in 1925. Reconciliation by the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church gained momentum later in the 20th century.
Finally, on 26 June 2004 in Zurich, there was the formal rapprochement and apology by the Evangelical Church under the slogan’ Die Reformation und die Täufer. Gegeneinander – nebeneinander-miteinander’, including the memorial stone on the Limmat.
The execution of Felix Manz and other anabaptists, January 5th, 1527. Illustration: Heinrich Thomann (1544-1619), Abschrift (1605) sur Heinrich Bullingers Reformationsgeschichte (Source: Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Ms. B 316, Fol. 284v)
However, many Anabaptists had fled to other continents until the 19th century. The descendants of these refugees are the Amish, Quacker, Swiss Brethren, Mennonites, Anabaptists or Baptists, and other varieties of Anabaptists. Mennonites take their name from Menno Simons (1496-1561), an Anabaptist from the Netherlands. Swiss Brethren is an English name for Swiss Anabaptists.
The persecution of Anabaptists by Protestants is an almost forgotten chapter in the history of the Reformation. Not only the Catholic Church but also the Protestant Church was ruthless towards dissident voices.
The dogmatic disputes between Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and their successors also indicate the absence of tolerance within the Protestant church. The ‘Protestant Inquisition’ towards Anabaptists is also evident in writings by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Bullinger.
The humanist Erasmus (1469-1536), Sebastian Castellio, his alter ego Martin Bellius alias Basilius Montfort (1515-1563), David Joris alias Jan von Brugge/Johann von Bruck (1505-1556), and others published what they could in Basel.
The Basler scholar Bonifaz Amerbach and his Erasmus-Stiftung, founded in 1536, supported Castellio financially. A recently published issue of the Internationale Castellio Gesellschaft uniquely highlights this humanist contribution from Basel.
Sebastian Castellio, De haereticis an sint persequendi, Basel, 1554. Collection Universitätsbibliothek Basel, VD16 C 2130
After a monk’s work (to use a Catholic religious term) of ten years, an international editorial team has published Castellio’s groundbreaking publication De haereticis an sint persequendi in the original Latin (Johannes Oporins publishers, Basel, 1554), German (Von Ketzeren, Strasbourg 1555), French (Traicté des heretiques, Lyon 1557) language and in the edition by Joachim Clutensius (Strasbourg, 1610).
Part I presents the Latin, German, and French texts in parallel, extensively referencing relevant texts by church fathers (including Augustine, Hieronymus, and Chrysostomus) and contemporary authors (including Erasmus, Calvin, and Luther).
Part II provides a comprehensive historical context and discusses religious discussions from this period. Moreover, a thorough account of the German and French translations and the 1610 publication is not missing.
Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer, Kilian Schindler (Ed.) in cooperation with Sonja Klimek and Daniela Kohler, Sebastian Castellio De haereticis an sint persequendi (Schwabe Verlag, Basel, 2024)
Conclusion
This two-volume edition of over 1,300 pages is a brave venture by the publisher and a successful content and design by editors and authors in this digital world. Above all, the content has lost none of its relevance, or as Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) put it in 1936:
‘Als Manifest der Toleranz und mit der Toleranzargumentation von Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563) wurde eine neue Stufe im neuzeitlichen Diskurs der Toleranz erreicht’ (Castellio gegen Calvin, 1936).
It is no coincidence that Zweig had published the book Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam (1934) two years before and after 16 years of Communist and one year of National Socialist terror and dictatorship.
Or in the words of Winston Churchill (1874-1965):
‘Fascism was the shadow or ugly child of Communism’. (The Second World War, The Gathering Storm, London 1947). A topical ‘warning from history’, including a new religious ‘ism’.
Source : Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer, Kilian Schindler (Ed.), in cooperation with Sonja Klimek and Daniela Kohler, Sebastian Castellio De haereticis an sint persequendi (Schwabe Verlag, Basel, 2024); M. Baumann (Ed.), Gemeinsame Erbe. Reformierte und Täufer im Dialog, Zurich 2007)
Impressions of Zollikon
