The Origin of Anabaptists
A Paper
Submitted to Dr. Sutton
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Course
CHHI 665- B-05
By
Andrew Tressler
L21478349
February 2, 2014
Table of Contents
Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
Anabaptist Beginnings--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
The Founders of the Anabaptist Movement----------------------------------------------------------10
Persecution of the Anabaptists--------------------------------------------------------------------------12
Conclusion---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15
Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16
Introduction At a surface level looking at Anabaptists one will see a radically reformed sect of Christianity. Digging deeper will bring to light many groups coming together under the belief that the state church was no longer leading and teaching biblical theology. There were groups that popped up all across Europe in the wake of reformation lead by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli. Even before the time of the Anabaptist movement there was a high level of persecution for those who stood against the state church and the pope. There was a difference between what the reformers were doing and what the Anabaptists were doing. “The Reformers aimed to reform the old Church by the Bible; the Radicals attempted to build a new Church from the Bible.” There are also many great leaders from this radical group of Christians that need to be studied to know where this group was coming from. There is much more to this radical group known as the Anabaptists than meets the eye. Looking at the origin of the Anabaptist faith it is seen as diverse and persecuted across
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