Anabaptism

Overview

Anabaptism is the Radical Reformation movement that began in Zürich in January 1525, when followers of Zwingli baptised one another as adults, rejecting infant baptism in both the Catholic and the new Protestant churches. 'Anabaptist,' meaning re-baptiser, was a hostile label; adherents called themselves simply brethren. They held that the church should be a voluntary community of believers, separate from the state, following the Sermon on the Mount literally, including its command against oaths and the sword. Catholic and Protestant rulers alike executed roughly two thousand Anabaptists for rebaptism, a capital crime across much of the empire. Out of this persecuted movement came today's Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren, distinguished chiefly by how strictly they separate from the world, whether property is held in common, and how straying members are disciplined.^{[1, 3–4, 6, 9–13]}

History

Zürich, 1525, and Schleitheim, 1527 1525–1527

On 21 January 1525, Conrad Grebel baptised George Blaurock in Zürich, the first known adult rebaptism of the Reformation, after Grebel, Felix Manz and others broke with Zwingli over the pace of reform and the rightness of infant baptism. The city council banned their meetings and ordered infant baptism on pain of exile; Grebel was imprisoned in 1525 and died of plague after escaping in 1526, while Manz was drowned by the Zürich authorities in 1527, ironically by the method the city used to punish rebaptism. That year a group of Swiss Anabaptists meeting at Schleitheim adopted a confession, probably written by Michael Sattler, setting out believer's baptism, church discipline, the rejection of oaths, and nonresistance to violence.^{[1, 5, 14–17]}

Münster, persecution and Menno Simons 1533–1561

A radical, violent offshoot briefly seized the German city of Münster in 1534–35 under Jan of Leiden, imposing communal property and polygamy before an army crushed it; the episode let hostile governments brand all Anabaptists as dangerous revolutionaries, though most rejected violence entirely. The 1529 Diet of Speyer had already made rebaptism a capital offence across the empire, and persecution by Catholic and Protestant rulers alike killed an estimated two thousand Anabaptists. A former Catholic priest, Menno Simons, left the church in 1536 and became the leading voice of the peaceful wing from 1537, and his followers, who stressed nonresistance and separation from the world, became known as Mennonites.^{[12, 18–22]}

Hutterites, Amish and migration 1533–1750

In Moravia from 1533, Jakob Hutter led Anabaptist refugees who adopted full community of property as an article of faith; expelled from Moravia in 1535, Hutter was captured in Tyrol and burned at the stake at Innsbruck in February 1536, but his communal congregations survived as the Hutterites. In Switzerland, the Mennonite elder Jakob Ammann broke with his colleague Hans Reist in 1693 over strict shunning of excommunicated members, including by their own spouses, and over plain dress; his followers became the Amish. Many Amish and Mennonites accepted William Penn's offer of religious toleration and settled in Pennsylvania from 1717 onward, while Hutterites eventually moved on to Russia and then, in the 1870s, to the American and Canadian plains.^[23–29]

The Brethren, a second root 1708–today

Not every church now called Anabaptist traces to Zürich. In 1708 at Schwarzenau, Germany, eight Pietists led by Alexander Mack covenanted to live by the New Testament alone and baptised one another by threefold immersion in the Eder river, blending German Pietism with Swiss Anabaptist convictions on believer's baptism and nonresistance. Known popularly as Dunkers, from their immersion baptism, their American descendants organised as the German Baptist Brethren and took the name Church of the Brethren in 1908; smaller, more traditional Brethren bodies kept plainer dress and stricter discipline, paralleling the Old Order Amish and Mennonites.^[30–33]

Key moments

1. 1525 CEThe first Anabaptists · Zürich

Beliefs

Believer's baptism

Baptism is for those old enough to confess faith for themselves, not for infants; this single point, radical in the 1520s, gave the movement its name and remains the one doctrine shared by every Anabaptist-descended church.^[4]

Nonresistance

Following the Sermon on the Mount literally, Anabaptist-descended churches teach that Christians must not use violence, even in self-defence or war; Mennonites paid exemption fees or hired substitutes rather than fight in the American Civil War, and many members claimed conscientious-objector status and performed alternative service in the First and Second World Wars.^{[11, 34]}

Separation from the world

Churches in this family hold that true Christians form a visible community set apart from surrounding society; how far that separation goes, from the Amish limiting technology to Mennonites engaged in ordinary civic life, is the main difference between the branches.^[13]

Practice

Adult baptism and church discipline

New members are baptised only after a personal confession of faith, never as infants. Congregations practise church discipline, including the ban, or temporary exclusion, of members who break their vows.^[35–36]

The Ordnung and plain dress · Ordnung

Amish congregations govern daily life by an unwritten Ordnung, a set of community rules on dress, technology and conduct agreed by each local church; plain, largely uniform clothing and limits on cars, electricity and public power lines are the best-known results.^[37]

Community of goods

Hutterite colonies hold land, buildings and income in common and provide for members' needs communally, a practice going back to Jakob Hutter's congregations in the 1530s, unlike the private property kept by Mennonites, Amish and Brethren.^[23]

People

Scripture

The Schleitheim Confession

1527

The earliest and most influential Anabaptist statement of faith, probably drafted by Michael Sattler, laying out believer's baptism, the ban, rejection of oaths and the sword, and separation from a sinful world.^[5]

The Dordrecht Confession

1632

A Dutch Mennonite confession whose article on shunning excommunicated members, including by their own households, became the flashpoint for the 1693 split that produced the Amish.^[38]

Places

Zürich, Switzerland

CHE

The city where Grebel, Manz and Blaurock baptised one another in January 1525, and where Manz was drowned in the Limmat in 1527 for continuing to do so.^{[1, 17]}

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

USA

Settled by Amish and Mennonite migrants from the 1710s under William Penn's policy of religious toleration, it remains one of the largest and best-known Amish settlements in North America.^[28]

Art & objects

Public-domain objects from museum collections. Select one to see it at the museum.

"Amish Plain" QuiltOhio, c. 1890Mennonite 'Crazy Quilt'Pennsylvania, about 1890-1900Cornelis Claesz Anslo, Mennonite PreacherNetherlands, 1641A Philadelphia Anabaptist Immersion during a StormAmerican, 1811–ca. 1813Amish sampler with lettering and motifsAmerican, early 19th centuryRegnier Hansloe, an Anabaptist Minister, and His Wife (Cornelis Claesz Anslo and His Wife Aeltje Gerritsdr Schouten)May 1, 1781Portrait of Jan van Leiden, a Dutchman and leader of the Münster Anabaptistsca. 1615Portrait of Bernt Knipperdolling, a leader of the Münster Anabaptistsca. 1615Beheading of Anabaptist MartyrsDutch, ca. 1640

Numbers

Global Anabaptist family

c. 2.1 million baptised members worldwide^[8]

Mennonite World Conference (self-reported, 2025): 1.44 million baptised members in its own 110 member churches across 61 countries, or 2.13 million across the wider Anabaptist family in 86 countries.

Amish in North America

c. 401,000 (2024)^[39]

Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College (academic research centre), annual Amish population estimate.

National censuses

Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0342-01 Religion by visible minority and generation status: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts, released 2022-10-26. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Anabaptist

From Greek for 're-baptiser': a hostile label for a movement that baptised adults already baptised as infants, now used as a neutral umbrella term for Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren.^[3]

Believer's baptism

Baptism given only to those old enough to profess their own faith, rejecting infant baptism.^[4]

The Ban

Temporary or permanent exclusion of a member from the congregation and its fellowship for breaking church discipline.^[36]

Shunning (Meidung) · Meidung

Social avoidance of a banned member, including by family, demanded strictly by Jakob Ammann in 1693 and still practised by some Amish and Old Order groups.^[26]

Ordnung · Ordnung

The unwritten set of community rules, agreed locally, by which Amish congregations govern dress, technology and daily conduct.^[37]

Nonresistance

The refusal, grounded in the Sermon on the Mount, to use violence even in self-defence or military service.^[34]

Community of goods

The Hutterite practice of holding land, housing and income in common rather than as private property.^[23]

Old Order

A label for the more traditional branches of Amish and Mennonite life that resist modern dress, technology or worship styles adopted by other member congregations.^[13]

Dunkers

A popular name for the Brethren, from their practice of baptising new members by threefold immersion rather than pouring.^[32]