Anabaptists were one form of what has been called the radical wing of the Reformation of the 1500’s. The Anabaptists believed that the church was a gathering of people united by faith, repentance, obedience, and discipline. Therefore, baptism as an entrance to this community should be limited to believers old enough to choose membership. People called them anabaptists (rebaptizers) because they baptized adults who had been baptized in infancy. The Anabaptists condemned government involvement in religion, which eventually led to the idea of the separation of church and state.
Many Anabaptists were persecuted in both Protestant and Roman Catholic countries. Their movement was concentrated in Switzerland, southern Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. The Anabaptists’ beliefs survive today in Mennonite and Hutterite religious communities (see Mennonites ; Hutterites ).
