PART II. CENT. uncertainty will not appear surprising, when it is XVI. considered, that this sect started up all of a SECT. III. sudden, in several countries, at the same point of time, under leaders of different talents and different intentions, and at the very period when the first contests of the Reformers with the Roman pontiffs drew the attention of the world, and employed the pens of the learned, in such a manner, as to render all other objects and incidents almost matters of indifference. The modern Mennonites not only consider themselves as the descendants of the Waldenses, who were so grievously oppressed and persecuted by the despotic heads of the Roman church, but pretended moreover, to be the purest offspring of these respectable sufferers, being equally averse to all principles of rebellion, on the one hand, and all suggestions of fanaticism on the other [g]. Their adversaries, on the contrary, represent them as the descendants of those turbulent and furious Anabaptists, who, in the sixteenth century, involved Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and more especially the province of Westphalia, in such scenes of blood, perplexity, and distress; and allege, that, terrified by the dreadful fate of their associates, and also influenced by the moderate councils and wise injunctions of Mennon, they abandoned the ferocity of their primitive enthusiasm, and were gradually brought to a better mind. After having examined these two the origin, progress, and revolutions of their sect. And, indeed, after all, the Mennonites have not much reason to boast either of the extraordinary learning or dexterity of this their patron; nay, it is even to be imagined, that they may easily find a more able defender. For an accurate account of the Mennonite historians, and their confessions of faith, see Jo. Christ. Koecheri Bibliotheca Theol. Symbolicæ, p. 461. [g] See Herm. Schyn, Plenior Deductio Histor. Mennon. cap. i. p. 2. as also a Dutch work, entitled Galenus Abrahamzon, Verdediging der Christenem, die Doopsgezinde gename worden, p. 29. XVI. SECT. III. two different accounts of the origin of the Ana- CENT. baptists with the utmost attention and impartiality, I have found that neither of them are exactly conformable to truth. PART II. account of baptists. II. It may be observed, in the first place, that The most the Mennonites are not entirely mistaken when probable they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, the origin Petrobrussians, and other ancient sects, who are of the Anausually considered as witnesses of the truth, in the times of universal darkness and superstition. Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay concealed, in almost all the countries of Europe, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany, many persons, who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrine, which the Waldenses, Wickliffites, and Hussites had maintained, some in a more disguised, and others in a more open and public manner; viz. "That the kingdom of Christ, or the visible church he had established upon earth, was an assembly of true and real saints, and ought therefore to be inaccessible to the wicked and unrighteous, and also exempt from all those institutions, which human prudence suggests, to oppose the progress of iniquity, or to correct and reform transgressors." This maxim is the true source of all the peculiarities that are to be found in the religious doctrine and discipline of the Mennonites; and it is most certain, that the greatest part of these peculiarities were approved of by many of those, who, before the dawn of the Reformation, entertained the notion already mentioned, relating to the visible church of Christ [h]. There [h] See for an account of the religious sentiments of the Waldenses, Limborch's excellent History of the inquisition, translated into English by the learned Dr. Samuel Chandler, book I. chap. viii.—It appears from undoubted testimonies, that the Wickliffites and Hussites did not differ extremely from the Waldenses, concerning the point unde consideration. See also Lydii Waldensia, and Allix's Ancient churches of Piedmont, ch. xxii-xxvi. p. 211–280. N. SECT. III. CENT. There were, however, different ways of thinking XVI. among the different members of this sect, with rePART II. Spect to the methods of attaining to such a perfect church-establishment as they had in view. Some who were of a fanatical complexion on the one hand, and were persuaded on the other, that such a visible church as they had modelled out in fancy, could not be realised by the power of man, entertained the pleasing hope, that God, in his own good time, would erect to himself an holy church, exempt from every degree of blemish and impurity, and would set apart, for the execution of this grand design, a certain number of chosen instruments, divinely assisted and prepared for this work, by the extraordinary succours of his Holy Spirit. Others of a more prudent and rational turn of mind, entertained different views of this matter. They neither expected stupendous miracles, nor extraordinary revelations; since they were persuaded, that it was possible, by human wisdom, industry, and vigilance, to purify the church from the contagion of the wicked, and to restore it to the simplicity of its original constitution, provided that the manners and spirit of the primitive Christians could but recover their lost dignity and lustre. III. The drooping spirits of these people, who had been dispersed through many countries, and persecuted every where with the greatest severity, were revived when they were informed that Luther, seconded by several persons of eminent piety, had successfully attempted the reformation of the church. Then they spoke with openness and freedom, and the enthusiasm of the fanatical, as well as the prudence of the wise, discovered themselves in their natural colours. Some of them imagined, that the time was now come in which God himself was to dwell with his servants in an extraordinary manner, by celestial succours, and to establish upon earth a kingdom truly spiri tual SECT. III. tual and divine. Others, less sanguine and chime- CENT. rical in their expectations, flattered themselves XVI. nevertheless, with the fond hopes of the approach PART II. of that happy period, in which the restoration of the church, which had been so long expected in vain, was to be accomplished, under the divine protection, by the labours and counsels of pious and eminent men. This sect was soon joined by great numbers, and (as usually happens in sudden revolutions of this nature) by many persons, whose characters and capacities were very different, though their views seemed to turn upon the same object. Their progress was rapid; for, in a very short space of time, their discourses, visions, and predictions excited commotions in a great part of Europe, and drew into their communion a prodigious multitude, whose ignorance rendered them easy victims to the illusions of enthusiasm. It is, however, to be observed, that as the leaders of this sect had fallen into that erroneous and chimerical notion, that the new kingdom of Christ, which they expected, was to be exempt from every kind of vice, and from the smallest degree of imperfection and corrruption, they were not satisfied with the plan of reformation proposed by Luther. They looked upon it as much beneath the sublimity of their views, and, consequently, undertook a more perfect reformation, or, to express more properly their visionary enterprize, they proposed to found a true church, entirely spiritual, and truly divine. the Ana IV. It is difficult to determine, with certainty, The first the particular spot that gave birth to that seditious motions of and pestilential sect of Anabaptists, whose tumul- baptists. tuous and desperate attempts were equally pernicious to the cause of religion, and the civil interests of mankind. Whether the first arose in Switzerland, Germany, or the Netherlands, is, as yet, a matter of debate, whose decision is of no great importance. PART II. CENT. importance []. It is most probable, that several XVI. persons of this odious class made their appearance, SECT. III. at the same time, in different countries; and we may fix this period soon after the dawn of the Reformation in Germany, when Luther arose to set bounds to the ambition of Rome. This appears from a variety of circumstances, and especially from this striking one, that the first Anabaptist doctors of any eminence, were, almost all, heads and leaders of particular and separate sects. For it must be carefully observed, that though all those projects of a new, unspotted, and perfect church, were comprehended under the general denomination of Anabaptists, on account of their opposing the baptism of infants, and their rebaptising such as had received that sacrament in a state of childhood in other churches, yet they were, from their very origin, subdivided into various sects, which differed from each other in points of no small moment. The most pernicious faction of all those that composed this motley multitude, was that which pretended that the founders of the new and perfect church, already mentioned, were under the direction of a divine impulse, and were armed against all opposition by the power of working miracles. It was this detestable faction that, in the year 1521, began their fanatical work, under the guidance of Munzer, Stubner, Storck, and other leaders of the same furious complexion, and excited the most unhappy tumults and commotions in Saxony and the adjacent countries. They employed at first the various arts of persuasion, in order to propagate their doctrine. They preached, exhorted, admonished, [i] Fueslin has attempted to examine, whether the Anabaptists first arose in Germany or Switzerland, in a German work, entitled, Beytrage zur Schweizerisch Reformat. Geschichte, tom. i. p. 190. tom. ii. p. 64, 65, 265, 327, 328. tom. iii. p. 323. but without success. |