acteristic
teaching of the Zwickau prophets was not Anabaptism. (See, however,
ANABAPTISTS.) For although Muenzer repudiated infant baptism in theory, he
did not relinquish its practice, nor did he insist on the re-baptism of
believers. The characteristic teaching of the Zwickau movement, so closely
linked with the peasant rising, was the great emphasis laid upon the "inner
word." Divine revelation, said Muenzer, was not received from the church,
nor from preaching, least of all from the dead letter of the Bible; it was
received solely and directly from the Spirit of God. It is this daring
faith in divine illumination that brings the Zwickau teachers most nearly
into touch with the Anabaptists. But if they are not typical of Anabaptism,
still less are the later representatives of the movement in the last sad
months at Muenster.

The beginnings of the Anabaptist movement proper were in [v.03 p.0371]
Zuerich, where Wilheld Reubli (1480-1554), Konrad Grebel (d. 1526), Felix
Manz (d. 1527) and Simon Strumpf separated from Zwingli and proposed to
form a separate church. They repudiated the use of force, advocated a
scriptural communism of goods, and asserted that Christians must always
exercise love and patience towards each other and so be independent of
worldly tribunals. But their most radical doctrine was the rejection of
infant baptism as unscriptural. They rapidly gained adherents, among whom
was Hans Broedli, pastor of Zollikon. Their refusal, however, to baptize
infants, and the formation of a separate church as the outcome of this
refusal, brought upon them the condemnation of Zwingli, and a number of
them were banished. This act of banishment, however, drove Joerg Blaurock,
Konrad Grebel and others to take the step which definitely instituted
"Anabaptism": they baptized one another and then partook of the Lord's
Supper together. This step took them much farther than the repudiation of
paedobaptism. It formed a new religious community, which sought to fashion
itself on the model of primitive Christianity, rejecting all tradition and
accretions later than New Testament records. Its members claimed to get
back to the simple church founded on brotherly love. The result was that
their numbers grew with astonishing rapidity, and scholarly saints like
Balthasar Hubmaier (_ca._ 1480-1528) and Hans Denck (_ca._ 1495-1527)
joined them. Hubmaier brought no new adherents with him, and in 1525
himself baptized 300 converts. This