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SETTING THE STAGE

THE ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT sprang from the Reformation. In the midst of the theological debates that began when Martin Luther published his ninety-five theses in 1517, three men in Zurich, Switzerland, took a radical step in 1525: they baptized one another.

The Catholic Church of the sixteenth century was powerful and corrupt. Common people were unable to read the Bible for themselves, and the clergy grew rich on their tithes and taxes. The first Anabaptist leaders were well educated and able to read the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew. They concluded that much of Catholic doctrine – including infant baptism, transubstantiation, worship of saints, and the sale of indulgences – was false teaching.

The movement spread rapidly through the German-speaking world. Rulers in church and government saw their authority threatened. They arrested Anabaptists, banished them, and forbade them to preach, but were unable to quell the movement. It wasn’t long before “rebaptism” was punishable by death. Yet in spite of persecution the movement continued to spread.

PETER RIEDEMANN was one of the early apologists of Anabaptism. He is best known for his “Confession of Our Religion, Teaching, and Faith,”¹ written in prison in 1540, which remains the most complete doctrinal statement of the Hutterian church. The shorter document contained in this book was written during an earlier incarceration, before Riedemann joined the Hutterites. About this imprisonment the Hutterian Chronicle reports simply:

In this year of 1529 many brothers were arrested in Upper Austria, and some were executed. Among those arrested was Peter Riedemann, born at Hirschberg in Silesia, a cobbler by trade, who was taken prisoner at Gmunden on St. Andrew’s Eve (Nov. 29) in 1529. Although he was tortured through many and various means almost to the point of death, he remained faithful. Finally, after having lain in prison for over three years, he was freed by the providence of God.²

On his release in 1532, Riedemann went to Moravia, where there were several Anabaptist communities. He was soon sent as a missionary to Franconia. He was arrested again and spent another four years in prison. When he returned to the communities in Moravia, he found division and tension between three Anabaptist factions. The Chronicle reports: “He told them that since God had helped him out of prison, he wanted, as far as the Lord permitted, to visit all who had been at peace when he left and to find out from each side what had happened.” At this point he joined the Hutterite group, led by Jacob Hutter’s successor, Hans Amon.

Over the next years, Riedemann spent much time as a missionary in what is now Austria and Germany. He repeatedly sorted out differences between groups and individuals, working to unite the people of God. When Hans Amon died in 1542, Riedemann was called back to Moravia to assist his successor, Leonhard Lanzenstiel. He served in this capacity until his death in 1556 at the age of fifty. Unlike many other early Anabaptist leaders, Peter Riedemann died at home of natural causes, having spent a total of nine years in prison for his faith.

RIEDEMANN was clearly well versed in the Bible. It is unlikely that he had a copy with him in prison – although Bibles were being printed they were still very large and expensive – but the number of passages he quotes suggests that he had memorized many verses.

In this book, Riedemann includes Anabaptist views on two of the most controversial topics of his day: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He is scathing in his criticism of Catholicism, personified in the pope, whom he calls the Antichrist. If this sounds extreme to the modern ear, it should be remembered that the Anabaptists were dying for their beliefs and Riedemann himself had just been tortured “almost to the point of death.” They believed they were living in the last times, of which John says: “This is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18).

Riedemann was one of the most prolific early Anabaptist writers. Almost forty of his letters have been preserved – letters written to encourage members in prison, and reports and admonitions written in his capacity as a leading minister. These letters reveal many details of his life and the life of the church.³ The Chronicle says of him: “Both in prison and in the church community, he wrote many beautiful Christian songs, spiritual and biblical, for he was rich in all the secrets of God. The gift of God’s Word flowed from him like running water and brimmed over. All who heard him were filled with joy.”⁴

Emmy Barth Maendel