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Anabaptists
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For Anabaptists, the true Christian church is a community of individuals who have chosen to accept grace, which means accepting Jesus Christ as their savior. Each member is equal to all others, because each is in direct contact with God. Each church is independent of all others, too. Each elects its own leaders. There is no professional clergy and no church hierarchy. In this way, they see themselves imitating the original disciples of Jesus, witnessing for their faith and preaching it to others with no formal organization.
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One of the most notable features of the early Anabaptists is that they regarded any true religious reform as involving social amelioration. The socialism of the 16th century was necessarily Christian and Anabaptist. Lutheranism was more attractive to grand-ducal patriots and well-to-do burghers than to the poor and oppressed and disinherited. The Lutherans and Zwinglians never converted the Anabaptists. In Austrian-controlled territories, the Jesuits had somewhat better success in persuading or coercing many Hutterites to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church.
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After explaining all this, the Confession continues that "therefore" Anabaptists must have nothing to do with the state or government, because they are manifestations of the sinful world. The principal mark of the state is its constant use of "the sword"¾ violence¾ to enforce its laws. Since an Anabaptist may not participate in the state or anything worldly, an Anabaptist may not use the sword or any "unchristian devilish weapons of force." The Confession generalizes from this principle to forbid all forms of violence.
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In Appenzell, 1525, the Anabaptists had three places where meetings were held. The largest was Teufen, with a second at Herrisau, and the third at Brunnen. In all of these places the services were under the open sky, while the converts were baptized in the neighboring brooks and streams. (Burrage, p. 119).
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Like Lutherans and Calvinists, the Anabaptists believed in the paramount importance of personal faith in God, as opposed to ritualism, and to the right of independent personal judgment. The Anabaptists differed from Lutherans and Calvinists... in that they advocated, among other practices, nonviolence and opposition to state churches. They based their movement on voluntary congregations of converts (those who had undergone believer’s baptism). The state church was organized hierarchically, based on the geographic parish, in which the members are all those born and resident in the parish. Some Anabaptists wished to establish communal and egalitarian Christian communities and opposed participation in civil government and the taking of oaths. The ultimate form of church discipline, the ban, was excommunication and ostracism of unrepentant sinners.
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The Anabaptists were often far from the stereotype of a quiet people who just wanted to worship God accurately and privately. In the early days, which is when they established their reputation, they often challenged the Reformers publicly. They used the usual sixteenth century names for their opponents. They publicly denounced the reformers in their preaching to the people, attempting to draw them away from the public worship that was being established and reformed. Estep records one incident: "Like the first English Quakers, Blaurock's zeal sometimes exceeded his judgment. He even disrupted the worship services of the Reformed churches.
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Anabaptists