absorbed into itself all similar tendencies and local groups and
movements having like aims to itself. As was natural under such
circumstances, we find many different strains in the developed
Anabaptist movement. The theologian Bullinger wrote a book on the
subject, in which he enumerates thirteen distinct sects, as he terms
them, in the Anabaptist body. The general tenets of the organization,
as given by Bullinger, may be summarized as follows: They regard
themselves as the true Church of Christ well pleasing to God; they
believe that by rebaptism a man is received into the Church; they
refuse to hold intercourse with other Churches or to recognize their
ministers; they say that the preachings of these are different from
their works, that no man is the better for their preaching, that their
ministers follow not the teaching of Paul, that they take payment from
their benefices, but do not work by their hands; that the Sacraments
are improperly served, and that every man, who feels the call, has
the right to preach; they maintain that the literal text of the
Scriptures shall be accepted without comment or the additions of
theologians; they protest against the Lutheran doctrine of
justification by faith alone; they maintain that true Christian love
makes it inconsistent for any Christian to be rich, but that among the
Brethren all things should be in common, or, at least, all available
for the assistance of needy Brethren and for the common cause; that
the attitude of the Christian towards authority should be that of
submission and endurance only; that no Christian ought to take office
of any kind, or to take part in any form of military service; that
secular authority has no concern with religious belief; that the
Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law courts nor should
ever make use of their tribunals; that Christians do not kill or
punish with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion from
the body of believers; that no man should be compelled by force to
believe, nor should any be slain on account of his faith; that infant
baptism is sinful and that adult baptism is the only Christian
baptism--baptism being a sacrament which should be reserved for the
elect alone.

Such seem to represent the doctrines forming the common ground of the
Anabaptist groups as they existed at the end of the second decade of
the fifteenth century. There were, however, as Heinrich Bullinger and
his contemporary, Sebast