March 16, 1525

Following up on its mandate from March 11, the Zurich Council began its crackdown on the Zollikon congregation on Thursday, March 16. Officers arrested nineteen members who, their information sources told them, had been baptizing others despite the earlier warning that the Zurich government had given them to desist.

The prisoners were brought to the former Augustinian monastery in Zurich, where several of them had been held in early February. There, over the course of nine days, authorities interrogated them for information about the meetings they had held during the five weeks since their release. It is from the Zurich clerks’ notes of these interrogations that most of our information about the Zollikon congregation comes. The imprisoned men were rather forthcoming about the worship services and personal conversations that led them to be baptized and then to baptize others.¹

Whereas most of the arrested Zollikon Anabaptists had been kept together in the same room in February, this time the prison wardens separated them into separate cells so that they would not know what their companions were saying in their interviews. This time, Zwingli also gave them personal attention, taking the time to visit at least several prisoners face-to-face and seek to convince them of the soundness of Zurich’s baptism practices. But the point of the arrests was not to give opportunity for further theological disputations; the authorities informed the Anabaptists that they could be released on the condition that they pledge to desist from further rebaptisms and refrain from speaking or acting against infant baptism. The penalty for failing to abide by these prohibitions would be banishment for themselves and their families.²

In the midst of this pressure, one of the prisoners managed to write or dictate a letter on behalf of the group, hoping it would get back to the rest of the congregation in Zollikon. It is a beautiful expression of confidence in the companionship of Christ in the midst of trials and commitment to faith. It also shows concern—with most of the initial baptizers and preachers in prison—that the congregation continue to have someone willing to step forward to baptize and teach. Because it is the earliest of hundreds of letters that Anabaptists wrote from prison with similar prayers, it is worthy of a full translation:

“The peace of God be with all the brothers and sisters at Zollikon. Grace, mercy and the illumination of God, and of the Holy Spirit, be also with all the brothers and sisters. And know that we brothers are imprisoned in Christ, our Lord Jesus, to Him be praise and thanks. By the same Lord, we urge you not to be frightened when your brothers are placed in prison by the will of God; it is no other than a test from God, and we wish to be strong in Him. That we will do, with the help of God, till the end. Also, we pray for you, for Christ’s sake, that you may also be strong in Christ and not let yourselves be discouraged when you are alone. For you are not alone; Christ is, with the truth, among you. And first, when you come together, offer a pure prayer to Christ, the Father, and ask that He give you someone who can baptize and teach. And may each one encourage the other and fear no one, neither power nor sword; for God will be with you if you pray in Him with true faith.”

The letter ended with two interesting postscripts. The first wanted to make clear that the letter was envisioned as an epistle to be read aloud for the good of the entire community of believers, noting: “This letter belongs to all the sisters and brothers at Zollikon.” The second turned more personal to the domestic relationships of the author: “And say to my wife that she should send me the song ‘Christ is Risen.’ And send it to me right away.”³ This parting request indicates that the prisoner and his wife kept a copy of a song that was meaningful to them in their home and likely sang it together as part of their family devotions. It also indicates that the prisoner was eager to have the song’s words to keep his spirits lifted while lingering alone in a prison cell. The reminder that Christ had overcome death and Satan could give him confidence that in Christ he could, indeed, stay strong “till the end.”

About This Series

This post is part of a series entitled “The Reformation at 500: Timeline of the Free-Church Movement.” Click here for more information on this series.

Featured image courtesy of the Wick’sche Sammlung, ca. 1575, Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Ms. F 23, fol. 294.

1. The transcripts are published in Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer in der Schweiz, vol. 1, eds. Leonhard von Muralt & Walter Schmid (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1952), 61-74. ↩︎
2. Stellungnahme einzelner Täufer (Mar. 25, 1525) and Urteil des Rates (Mar. 25, 1525), in Quellen, 73-74; Fritz Blanke, Brothers in Christ: The History of the Oldest Anabaptist Congregation (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1961), 58-59. ↩︎
3. Einer im Namen der gefangenen Täufer an die Brüder und Schwestern in Zollikon (Mar. 16-25, 1525), in Quellen, 69-70. ↩︎