An Outline of Baptist History

Seite” -10- "The only fault charged against them by their contemporaries, that is supported by evidence, is that they had the courage and honesty to interpret the Scriptures as Baptists today interpret them." p. 91, Vedder. 3. The German Baptists. ''The name Anabaptist stands in the literature of the Lutheran Reformation as a synonym for the extremest errors of doctrine, and the wildest ex- cesses of conduct.'' Vedder, p. 92. The German Baptists were different from the Anabaptists of Switzerland where they denoted a single party, the same in faith and practice. In Germany, however, there were men of devergent views and acts. (1) Three principle parties of Anabaptists in Germany, FirstPeriod,1525-1530. Balthaser, Hubmaier and John Denck were the leaders. Second Period, 1530- 1535. Melchior Hofmann and Joseph of Leyden were the leaders. Third Period, 1535- . Menno Simons was the leader. (2) The outstanding German Anabaptist. Balthasar Hubmaier , (1481-1528). Hub- maier had an excellent education, receiving this Th. D degree from the Univer- sity of Ingolstadt. He became the professor of Theology at this University. In 1516 he became pastor at the cathedral at Ratisbon, where he became a great success as a preacher. In1523, he visited Zwingli when Zwingli was favorable to the Anabaptists. He found that loyalty to the Scriptures compelled him to re- ject infant baptism. On Easter, in 1525, William Reublin, an Anabaptist prea- cher from Switzerland baptized Hubmaier and 110 others on profession of faith. Shortly thereafter, Hubmaier baptized 300 more. In 1524, the Emperor deman- ded the surrender of Hubmaier, but the townspeople refused to permit his surren- der. Hubmaier thought that the people might be punished for defending him, so he withdrew. In 1525, when he fled from the Austrian army, he sought refuge in Zurich, but now Zwingli, at one time his friend, is his enemy. Toward the end of 1527, he was seized by the order of the Emperor, and conveyed to Vienna. He was kept in prison for three months while some of the Roman theologians tried to get him to recant. On March 10, 1528, he was taken through the streets of the city in a wagon and red hot pincers were thrust in his flesh on the way to the scaffold. His head fell under the headmans axe and his body was burned. Cairns says, ''His wife was drowned in the Danube by the Roman Catholic authorities." As an Anabaptist, Hubmaier insisted on the following teachings: (1) The separation of the church and state; (2) The authority of the Bible; (3) The baptism of believers. (3) The Fanatical Anabaptists of Northern Germany. MelchiorHofmann was one of the leaders of these fanatical Anabaptists. He was a mystic who lacked the know- ledge of the Scriptures in the original tongue and held rather strange views. ''There was a great difference between Anabaptists and Anabaptists. There were those amongst them who held strange doctrines, but this cannot be held against the whole sect. If we should attribute to every sect whatever senseless doctrines two or three fanatical followers have taught, there is no one in the world te whom we could not ascribe the most abominable errors." Vedder, p.117. Hofmann published a boek in 1526 which was an interpretation of Daniel 12. He said Christs' kingdom would come in 1533. Straussburg was to be the New Jeru- salem. He was arrested on the year the "kingdom" was suppose to come and spent 10 years in prison, dying at the close of 1543,