2025 marks the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/01/2025 (289 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Under cover of darkness, a dozen or so men quietly walked through the falling snow in Zurich, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, 1525. The winter wind seemed to match the chill in their hearts as they made their way through the narrow streets of the city to the home of Felix Manz. The city’s council had ordered them to stop meeting for Bible study. What should they do?

Once inside, they prayed for guidance. When the prayers ended, George Blaurock, a former priest, asked Conrad Grebel to baptize him. Grebel did so, and Blaurock proceeded to baptize the others.

The Anabaptist movement was born.

The year 2025 marks the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism, an event that will be marked this weekend in many Mennonite churches around the world.

According to Mennonite World Conference, the umbrella body for the worldwide Anabaptist movement, today there are an estimated 2.1 million Anabaptists in 86 countries, most of them belonging to Mennonite, Brethren and Brethren in Christ denominations and churches, along with the Amish and Hutterites.

Of that total, almost two-thirds of Anabaptist-Mennonites live in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. Thirty per cent live in North America, while only three per cent are found in Europe, the continent where the movement was born.

Statistics on Mennonites in Canada are hard to find, but it is estimated there may be between 180,000 to 200,000 people who identify as Mennonites. Around 50,000 live in Manitoba.

The world in which the Anabaptist movement started was one where church and state were firmly linked; everyone was expected to give primary allegiance to the government.

The early Anabaptists—the name comes from their persecutors and means “rebaptizers,” because of their desire to be baptized as adults, not as infants — rejected that idea. They believed Christians owed their ultimate allegiance to Jesus, rejecting claims of worldly power over their lives. This included a refusal to participate in war. Grebel, an early Anabaptist leader, said that true Christians do not “use worldly sword or war, since all killing has ceased with them.”

As for baptism, the Anabaptists believed following Jesus required a voluntary and informed adult decision. They also believed in what they called “the priesthood of all believers.” For them, everyone was called to serve God and anyone could lead church services and Bible study — not just clergy.

Today, the beliefs of the early Anabaptists — the right of every person to believe and practice their faith as they want — is seen as normal. Back then, however, it was a threat to the very fabric of society and Anabaptism was declared a heresy that was punishable by death. It is estimated that between 4,000 to 5,000 Anabaptists were executed in Europe during the Reformation years, although the true number is uncertain. This included Manz, who was drowned, and Blaurock, who was burned at the stake. Grebel was banished from Zurich and died of the plague.

Despite the persecution, the movement grew. One government official is reported to have said: “The more I execute them, the more they increase.”

One reason for the growth of the movement was how they lived. Even their critics were forced to admit that, as one wrote, the Anabaptists’ outward life was irreproachable — demonstrating humility, honesty and other virtues “in such measure that one would suppose they have the spirit of God.”

Not all early Anabaptists rejected violence. In 1535 a small group seized control of the German city of Münster and prepared to usher in the kingdom of God through violence. Within a few months, the rebellion was put down and the leaders killed.

After Münster, dispirited Anabaptists took heart through the ministry of Menno Simons. A former Dutch Roman Catholic priest, Menno traveled widely to visit Anabaptist groups scattered around northern Europe, encouraging the persecuted believers.

Determined to prevent further violence, he preached an unswerving commitment to pacifism. His actions saved Anabaptism from disintegration. In time, those who belonged to the movement became known as Mennonites, after his name.

One of Menno’s best-known quotes is, in part: “True evangelical faith … clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, comforts the sorrowful, shelters the destitute, aids and consoles the sad, does good to those who do it harm, prays for those who persecute it.”

Many of those early Anabaptists who were killed for their beliefs left behind their testimonies of suffering in Martyr’s Mirror, published in the Netherlands in 1660.

One of the most moving accounts is found in a letter of a young woman, Janneken Munetdorp, to her newborn daughter.

The child’s father had already been executed; the mother was reprieved long enough to give birth. Writing from a prison cell 1573, she said: “And now my dear lamb, I leave you this letter for a perpetual adieu and for a testament. Be not ashamed to confess our faith, since it is the true evangelical faith, another of which shall never be found.”

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