Anabaptists are Christian believers whose tradition originated during the sixteenth-century Radical Reformation, breaking with both Roman Catholicism and mainstream Protestant reformers over adult baptism. Defining Anabaptist beliefs include voluntary believer's baptism, absolute nonresistance and pacifism, community accountability, and strict separation between the church and secular civil government.
The Radical Reformation: Zurich 1525 and the First Rebaptisms
The origins of Anabaptist history began in Zurich, Switzerland, during the opening decade of the Protestant Reformation. While Martin Luther in Germany and Huldrych Zwingli in Zurich led what historians call the Magisterial Reformatio—eforms supported and regulated by municipal councils and prince— circle of earnest young humanists and scholars argued that the Reformation had stalled halfway.
This group, which included Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and a former Catholic priest named George Blaurock, initially studied the Greek New Testament under Zwingli's guidance. However, sharp disagreements arose over the pace of reform and the relationship between church and state. While Zwingli deferred to the Zurich city magistrates regarding the removal of the Catholic Mass and church images, Grebel and his companions insisted that the Word of God alone, not secular politicians, must govern Christ's church.
The critical theological breaking point was infant baptism. For more than a millennium across Western Europe, infant baptism had served as the civic foundation of Christendom, automatically enrolling every newborn child as both a subject of the state and a member of the church. The Zurich dissidents studied the New Testament and concluded that water baptism was nowhere commanded for infants; rather, it was exclusively administered to adults who had first consciously repented of sin and confessed personal faith in Jesus Christ.
On January 17, 1525, the Zurich city council ordered Grebel and Manz to cease their unauthorized Bible studies and commanded all unbaptized infants to be brought for christening within eight days. Four days later, on the freezing evening of January 21, 1525, a dozen believers met secretly at the home of Felix Manz near Zurich's Grossmünster cathedral. In an atmosphere of intense prayer, George Blaurock knelt and asked Conrad Grebel to baptize him in the name of the Triune God upon his confession of faith. Blaurock then baptized the others present. Opponents quickly labeled them "Anabaptists—eaning "rebaptizers" from the Greek anabaptizein. The believers rejected the label, insisting they were not rebaptizing anyone, since infant sprinkling was an unscriptural ceremony and therefore no baptism at all.
Severe Persecution and the Martyrs Mirror
The practice of adult believer's baptism was viewed by sixteenth-century rulers not merely as religious error, but as dangerous political sedition. By rejecting infant baptism, Anabaptists effectively denied the state's authority to enforce religious uniformity, refused to swear civil oaths, and declined to bear arms in municipal militias.
Civil and religious authorities across Europe responded with brutal suppression. In 1529, the imperial Diet of Speyer revived ancient Roman legal codes, declaring Anabaptism a capital crime punishable by death without trial. Both Roman Catholic and Protestant magistrates hunted down Anabaptist leaders. Thousands of men and women were beheaded, burned at the stake, or starved in dungeons. In a cruel parody of their beliefs, authorities often sentenced Anabaptists to drowning, mockingly labeling execution in rivers and lakes as their "third baptism." In January 1527, Felix Manz became the first Anabaptist martyr executed by Protestants when he was bound and thrown into the icy waters of the Limmat River in Zurich, singing praises as he drowned.
Rather than destroying the movement, persecution dispersed the believers across Switzerland, southern Germany, Austria, and the Low Countries. In 1660, Dutch elder Thieleman J. van Braght compiled these harrowing stories into a monumental volume titled The Bloody Theater, or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians. Containing historical testimonies, prison letters, and detailed engravings by Jan Luyken, the Martyrs Mirror chronicles the deaths of more than four thousand Christian martyrs. For centuries, this weighty volume stood beside the family Bible in Anabaptist homes, instilling an enduring commitment to nonviolence, patient endurance, and spiritual fidelity.
The Schleitheim Confession of 1527: Core Anabaptist Beliefs
To distinguish themselves from revolutionary radicals and unify scattered fellowships, Swiss Anabaptist leaders gathered secretly in February 1527 in the village of Schleitheim, near the Swiss-German border. Under the leadership of Michael Sattler, a former Benedictine prior who had joined the Brethren, they drafted the Schleitheim Confession, the earliest formal statement of Anabaptist beliefs.
The confession articulated seven core articles that established the theological boundary lines of the movement:
First, baptism is administered only to those who have learned repentance and amendment of life through faith in Christ. Second, the "ban" (church discipline) must be exercised according to Matthew 18, privately admonishing errant members twice before excluding unrepentant individuals from communion, thereby preserving the purity of the church. Third, the breaking of bread is celebrated as a memorial of Christ's broken body and shed blood, shared only among those united in baptism and righteous living.
Fourth, believers must maintain strict separation from the wickedness and idolatry of the world, avoiding drinking houses, civic offices that require violence, and worldly entanglements. Fifth, local congregations must select pastors from within their own ranks, men of good moral character who will lead, preach, and administer communion. Sixth, the swor—epresenting warfare, coercion, and capital punishmen—s an instrument of secular government outside the perfection of Christ; true disciples must practice absolute nonresistance, refusing to kill enemies or litigate in civil courts. Seventh, Christians must completely refuse to swear oaths, following Christ's clear instruction in Matthew 5:34 to "Swear not at all."
Shortly after presiding over the Schleitheim gathering, Michael Sattler was captured by Austrian authorities. Following a show trial, his tongue was cut out, pieces of his flesh were torn away with hot irons, and he was burned at the stake in Rottenburg. His wife, Margaretha, was drowned in the Neckar River days later after refusing to recant.
Menno Simons and the Rise of the Mennonites
While the Swiss Brethren developed a peaceful, disciplined theology, northern Anabaptism in the Netherlands and northwestern Germany was rocked by a catastrophic scandal known as the Münster Rebellion of 153–535. Extremist apocalyptic preachers seized the city of Münster, expelled the local bishop, proclaimed the city the "New Jerusalem," and instituted mandatory polygamy and communal property enforced by violence. Combined Catholic and Lutheran forces besieged the city, recapturing it in June 1535 and slaughtering the defenders.
The Münster catastrophe threatened to discredit all Anabaptists as dangerous fanatics. Into this leadership vacuum stepped Menno Simons (149–561), a Dutch Roman Catholic parish priest in Witmarsum, Friesland. Simons had spent years studying the New Testament and wrestled with doubts regarding the real presence in the Eucharist and infant baptism. Devastated by the tragic waste of human life at Münster and moved by the peaceful faith of biblical Anabaptists, Simons resigned his priesthood in January 1536.
Simons devoted the remainder of his life to rallying, organizing, and stabilizing the nonviolent Anabaptist remnant across northern Europe. Living as a hunted fugitive with a price on his head, he traveled constantly, preaching, baptizing, and authoring prolific theological treatises that emphasized peaceful discipleship, believer's baptism, and the spiritual new birth. His steady biblical pastoral guidance unified the scattered northern fellowships, who became known popularly as "Mennonites." His life and legacy form the foundation of our historical overview of the history of the Mennonites in America.
Community, Pacifism, and the Diverse Anabaptist Family
Over five centuries, the Anabaptist movement developed into several distinct ecclesiastical streams, all sharing historic commitments to pacifism, adult baptism, and simple living:
The Mennonites represent the largest branch, originating from both Swiss Brethren and Dutch traditions. Today, they span a spectrum from conservative, plain-dressing horse-and-buggy communities to modern urban congregations involved in higher education and global relief.
The Hutterites emerged in Moravia in 1528 under the leadership of Jakob Hutter. Relying on Acts 2 and 4, Hutterites practice absolute community of goods, living in communal agricultural colonies (Bruderhöfe) where all property, housing, and agricultural equipment are held in common. Surviving intense persecution across Eastern Europe and Russia, they relocated to the North American Great Plains in the 1870s.
The Amish originated in 1693 in the Alsace region when Swiss elder Jakob Ammann led a conservative separation from the Swiss Brethren. Ammann advocated for stricter church discipline, the practice of foot washing, and complete avoidance or shunning (Meidung) of excommunicated members to shield the community from worldly assimilation. Today, Old Order Amish maintain plain clothing, horse-drawn transportation, and German-dialect church services.
In 1708, a related revival movement arose in Schwarzenau, Germany, led by Alexander Mack. Known as the German Baptist Brethren or "Dunkers," this tradition blended Anabaptist nonresistance and simple community with the warm personal piety of German Pietism, practicing trine immersion baptism. For an exploration of their modern expressions, see our analysis of the Brethren churches explained.
While often grouped alongside other historic peace traditions like the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Anabaptists maintain distinct liturgical and sacramental commitments. Similarly, while sharing certain congregational characteristics with independent bodies like the Plymouth Brethren, Anabaptists are rooted in sixteenth-century continental theology rather than nineteenth-century British revivalism. These diverse lineages are mapped in our study of the family tree of Christian denominations.
Migration to North America and Pennsylvania Settlement
Continued economic discrimination, military conscription, and religious intolerance across Europe drove thousands of Anabaptists to seek refuge in the New World. In 1681, English Quaker leader William Penn founded Pennsylvania as a haven of religious liberty, advertising his "Holy Experiment" across Germany and the Netherlands.
In October 1683, the first thirteen Mennonite and Quaker families from Krefeld, Germany, arrived in Philadelphia aboard the ship Concord, founding Germantown. Over the next century, waves of Swiss and German Mennonites and Amish settled in southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly in Lancaster, Montgomery, and Berks counties. Their farming expertise, cooperative work ethic, and peaceful neighborliness shaped the enduring heritage of religion in Pennsylvania.
As farmland grew scarce, Anabaptist families migrated westward into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Ontario, Canada. In the 1870s, a major influx occurred when more than eighteen thousand German-speaking Mennonites and Hutterites emigrated from southern Russia to escape revoked military exemptions. Settling in Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, these Russian Mennonites brought drought-resistant Turkey Red winter wheat, transforming the American Great Plains into the breadbasket of the world.
Anabaptist Churches in America Today
Today, the global Anabaptist fellowship comprises more than 2.1 million baptized believers in over eighty countries. Remarkably, the majority of Anabaptists now reside in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with substantial memberships in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and India.
In North America, Anabaptists demonstrate remarkable resilience. While Old Order Amish and conservative Mennonite groups continue to grow through large families and strong cultural boundaries, mainstream denominations like Mennonite Church USA engage actively in urban ministries, environmental advocacy, and international peacebuilding through the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
To locate a congregation or explore regional communities near you, search our directory of Mennonite churches and examine state-by-state geographic distributions across Mennonite churches by state.