In 1608, John Smyth baptized himself in Amsterdam. He had been a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, but as a Separatist fled from the harsh rule of James I's England. After his death one of his associates, Thomas Helwys, led back to England a group that had split from Smyth's former congregation. They formed the first General or Arminian Baptist congregation in England at Spitalfields, London, in 1612.

By 1638 at the latest there were also congregations holding a Calvinistic theology in London who practiced believers' baptism ("Particular Baptists"). These Baptists grew out of the first congregation of English Independents; although it is not know exactly when they adopted full Baptist views. A radical look at church principles, in the Puritan manner, led first to the understanding of the church as a gathered community, and then to a realization that only the baptism of believers fitted such a view.

One of the early leaders, with Felix Manz, of the Anabaptist movement, more specifically of the Swiss Brethren at Zurich (of which the Mennonites and Hutterites are the direct theological descendants). Grebel and Manz, both well educated men of standing in Zurich were among the first supporters of Zwingli's reformation. But following the reformer's lead — the study of the Bible — they came to see the obvious differences in the apostolic churches and those of their own day. This difference lay most visibly in the practice of and theology behind infant baptism. Their resistance crystallized when in the Fall of 1524 Grebel's wife bore a son. The Grebels refused to baptize their son and other parents followed their example.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Conrad-Grebel, Felix-Manz, history, Hutterites, Mennonites, Reformation[/tags]

At the house of Felix Manz in Zurich on 21 January 1525, Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz met with fellows of like faith despite opposition from the town council. They had been commanded to stop holding Bible classes and had been warned by the council that all babies were to be baptized within eight days of birth or face banishment from the territory.

When George Blaurock, a former priest, stepped over to Conrad Grebel and asked him for baptism in the apostolic fashion — upon confession of personal faith in Jesus Christ, Grebel baptized him on the spot and Blaurock proceeded to baptize the others. Thus, Anabaptism was born. Today the direct descendants of the Anabaptists are the Mennonites and the Hutterites.

Persecution forced the Anabaptists north. Many of them found refuge on the lands of some exceptionally tolerant princes in Moravia. There they founded a long-lasting form of

Today the direct descendants of the Anabaptists are the Mennonites and the Hutterites. Only one section of the Mennonites today, the Old Order Amish, hold tenaciously to the old ways. What unites the various types of Mennonites is not a style of dress or a mode of transportation, but a shared set of beliefs and values. Many of these beliefs are now accepted by other Christians. So the distant relatives of the Anabaptists today include the Baptists, the Quakers and, in one sense, the Congregationalists.

[tags]Anabaptists, Baptists, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Congregationalists, history, Hutterites, Mennonites, Quakers[/tags]