The Reformation at 500
October 25, 2024 2025-05-30 22:43The Reformation at 500
Introduction
In January 2025, we will mark five hundred years since the free-church movement began to take shape in the form of a body of believers who voluntarily joined together through baptism upon their confession of faith in Christ. On January 21, 1525, a small group of laypeople in the Alpine city of Zurich gathered for prayer and Bible study in a citywoman’s home, apart from the parish church and its state-sanctioned clergy. It ended with one member asking another to baptize him “upon his faith,” representing his belief that his faith made the baptism an important moment in his life as a follower of Christ, rather than the official status of the baptizer or the links that his society made between baptism and recognition by the state.
The idea of a free church, loosed from reliance on the coercive potential of the state, was by no means new; it had been present throughout the centuries since the church began to experience the privileges of imperial patronage in the late Roman Empire. But popular excitement about reforming the Church in the 1520s—now that common people in Europe had easier access to printed copies of the Scriptures in their native languages—emboldened some reformers to imagine restarting a church that would be more like the one they read about from the days of the apostles. The proponents of a free church were guided by the Great Commission to preach the Gospel and make disciples, and then to baptize and train members in obedience to the commands of Christ. They believed the Great Commission implied that the church would not be composed of all people born within the territory of a Christian ruler, but rather of people who consciously decided to repent of their sins and lead distinctive lives in pursuit of conformity with Christ.
To help our college community recall God’s provisions for this movement, even in the midst of persecution and the leadership failings that are so common to human nature, we will be including a new feature in our weekly emails for the next few years: a developing “timeline” that will track events in the free-church movement as they happened 500 years ago.
The entries will draw on Reformation-era transcripts of theological debates and trials, letters and treatises of reformers, and chronicles of eye-witnesses to give us a “real-time” sense of the relationship of key events as they unfolded precisely 500 years ago. We hope you find it a valuable contribution to your appreciation of church history and even your devotional life.
Check back here regularly to read new entries in the series!
October 26-28, 1523: Zurich Holds Second Doctrinal Disputation
At the “Second Doctrinal Disputation” of Zurich, Conrad Grebel and Simon Stumpf challenged Ulrich Zwingli’s caution in reforming the Mass and removing images from churches. While Zwingli deferred to the Zurich town council’s authority, his challengers believed that church leaders should independently reform worship based on New Testament principles, setting the stage for a split from Zwingli’s more politically measured approach. Read More.
Late October – December, 1523: Zurich Council Issues Mandates to Preserve Public Peace over Worship
Zurich’s town council attempted to balance conservative and reformist views by restricting new religious imagery in churches while respecting existing artworks, and by mandating that the Mass continue unchanged. However, as tensions rose, reform supporters began disrupting services, prompting stricter council measures to prevent conflict, but also an openness to some congregational decision-making on worship matters. Read More.
November – December, 1523: Zurich Council Expels Simon Stumpf and Zwingli Rejects a Separate Church
In November 1523, the Zurich Council deposed Simon Stumpf from his pastorate after he advocated for church practices to be decided by clergy rather than the Council, which led to his eventual banishment from Zurich. Ulrich Zwingli, rejecting Stumpf’s vision of a separate “pure” church, insisted on a unified territorial church that included both devout and less devout members, citing Christ’s parables to argue for tolerance within a single community of believers. Read More.
Late 1523 – August 1524: Home Bible study group forms in Zurich / Zurich Bible is published / Conrad Grebel writes to Thomas Müntzer
A group of laypeople, including Conrad Grebel, started meeting in Zurich to study the Bible as well as the writings of evangelical preachers. Perceiving Andreas Karlstadt and Thomas Müntzer as the “purest proclaimers and preachers” of the “divine word,” Grebel wrote a letter to Müntzer in which he explained his vision of biblical worship most fully and advocated for Christian non-resistance against a backdrop of brewing peasant revolts. Read More.
August – November, 1524: Andreas Karlstadt Debates Luther and Publishes “Whether One Should Proceed Slowly”
Andreas Karlstadt, a reformer in Saxony respected by Conrad Grebel and his circle in Zurich, is banished after he and Martin Luther reach an impasse on the extent to which churches needed to be cleansed of icons and reenvision the sacraments of the eucharist and baptism. From his exile, Karlstadt publishes a pamphlet calling for clergy to be the vanguard of change by removing images from Christian worship spaces regardless of lay rulers’ or other lay people’s desire to continue old practices. Read More.
September – November, 1524: Balthasar Hubmaier Publishes “On Heretics and Those Who Burn Them” and Returns to His Pastorate in Waldshut
Balthasar Hubmaier, a talented preacher in southern Germany, argued against suppressing heretics with physical force, instead advocating for dialogue and discipline within the church. His tract “On Heretics and Those Who Burn Them” expressed faith that Christ had commissioned the church with sufficient tools for maintaining proper doctrine; it did not need to turn to the state’s remedies in criminal law to preserve the health of the body of Christ. Read More.
December 6, 1524: Zwingli Holds First Discussion on Baptism and Writes a Treatise “Against Those Who Cause Rebellion”
Objectors to infant baptism in Zurich hold the first of several meetings with Ulrich Zwingli and other clerical leaders specifically about baptism. Zwingli comes away from the meeting viewing their position on baptism as linked to Grebel’s earlier push for a separatist church. He admonishes the objectors that their separatist disposition was rooted in spiritual pride and a lack of love for neighbors. Read More.
December 13, 1524: Zwingli Holds Second Discussion on Baptism and Felix Mantz Writes “Petition of Defense” for Believers’ Baptism
Conrad Grebel and others who were critical of infant baptism had a contentious meeting with the leading clergy in Zurich. In response, Felix Mantz wrote a petition to the Zurich Council, arguing that baptism should follow personal repentance for sins and a desire to live a reformed life with Christ. It was the clearest rationale for believers’ baptism that Grebel’s circle produced. Read More.
January 17, 1525: Zurich Holds First Disputation on Baptism
The Zurich Council held a formal disputation on the matter of baptism, giving Conrad Grebel, Felix Mantz, and Wilhelm Reublin a chance to argue for believers’ baptism alone. But the Council supported Zwingli’s arguments for infant baptism and followed up the disputation with a threat of banishment for anyone who failed to have their newborn children baptized. Read More.
January 21, 1525: Prayer Service Revives Believers’ Baptism
On the evening of January 21, 1525, a group of about fifteen critics of infant baptism met in Zurich to pray after several of their colleagues were ordered into exile. There they felt led to revive the practice of believers’ baptism. Read More.
January 22-30, 1525: An Anabaptist Congregation Sprouts in Zollikon, but Arrests Quickly Follow
In the week following the January 21 prayer meeting in Zurich, a congregation of people excited about believers’ baptism began to commune frequently and share in intimate fellowship in the village of Zollikon. But on Jan. 30, the cantonal government imprisoned 25 individuals in an effort to squelch the growth of a movement that it feared would divide the state church. Read More.
January 30 – February 8, 1525: Zollikon Anabaptists Defend Rebaptism in Prison
On February 8, the 25 imprisoned Anabaptists from Zollikon were released after their examinations by the Zurich town council’s special delegation. Among the conversations they had in prison was an interview with Ulrich Zwingli over the scriptural precedent for rebaptism. The Anabaptists referred to early believers’ action in Acts 19 to show precedent for undertaking a new baptism upon confession of faith in Jesus. Read More.
Mid-February, 1525: Hans Brötli Writes Letters from Exile to the Zollikon Congregation
After complying with Zurich’s order of banishment, Hans Brötli and his family journeyed with Wilhelm Reublin to the northern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, where they found hospitality and a receptive audience for Anabaptist preaching among local villagers. Brötli’s continued to support his young congregation in Zollikon, however, with two letters based on the models of the apostolic epistles, professing great love for the Christian fellowship and constancy in the faith that they shared. Read More.
February 24-26, 1525: Blaurock is Released from Prison and Baptizes More in Zollikon
On the Sunday after George Blaurock’s release from prison, around 200 people in Zollikon gathered in two house-church meetings, where they heard Blaurock preach and witnessed the baptisms of several more women and men. Read More.
February 27 – March 1, 1525: Upper Swabian Peasants Call for Congregational Authority over Pastors and Tithing in their “Twelve Articles”
South German peasants mobilizing for armed rebellion against their lords held an assembly of their leaders, who published a manifesto summing up their grievances and visions for reform. Among them, they set out demands for congregational elections of pastors and management of tithes by congregationally-elected officials. Both of these reforms would have significantly reduced the role of the state in church life. Read More.
March 8-15, 1525: Zollikon Congregation Grows with Eighty Baptisms and Blaurock Is Imprisoned Again
It was an eventful week among the vibrant Zollikon congregation of Anabaptists, as eighty new people asked for baptism during meetings there. The congregation’s members were meeting frequently, sharing in the Lord’s Supper even outdoors amid an orchard. But the growing meetings soon came to the attention of the Zurich Council, which began planning a crackdown. Read More.
March 16, 1525: Nineteen Members of the Zollikon Congregation are Arrested and Interrogated
Zurich officers rounded up most of the men in Zollikon who had been baptizing adults in the region and brought them to Zurich for questioning. Zwingli personally tried to convince some of the prisoners to accept the instruction of the church regarding baptism. In the midst of this pressure to conform to the state church’s practices, one prisoner wrote a touching letter to the Zollikon congregation expressing his desire to stay strong in the faith and praying for God to raise up someone to baptize and teach in the absence of the congregation’s first leaders. Read More.
March 20-22, 1525: Zurich Holds a Second Public Disputation on Baptism
At a three-day disputation with Anabaptists, Ulrich Zwingli and the other people’s priests of Zurich criticized the Anabaptists for a perfectionist and schismatic spirit, calling their approach to baptism a “new legalism” that was more aligned with monastic practices than with evangelical teachings on salvation by faith. Ultimately, Zwingli viewed Anabaptists’ concept of the church as a voluntary association as creating a division between “Christian” and “secular” societies, threatening his vision for all people in his state to think of themselves as unified in a single Christian society. Read More.
March 25, 1525: Imprisoned Zollikon Anabaptists are Released, as well as Michael Sattler
Most of the Anabaptists who had been arrested in Zollikon ended their stay in prison by agreeing to cease Anabaptist activities and show respect for Ulrich Zwingli’s doctrinal instruction. Among them was also Michael Sattler, a visitor to the Zurich region, who returned to his home area in the Black Forest region after his brush with law enforcement. However, four individuals, as well as George Blaurock and Felix Mantz, refused to be swayed from their convictions about baptism. Read More.
Early April, 1525: Martin Luther writes “An Admonition to Peace” as Peasants’ War Begins
Seeking to head off growing violence, Luther wrote a tract urging the German lords to treat the peasants more justly while also urging the peasants to follow Christ’s teachings on non-resistance to injustice. But after many peasants turned to arms, nonetheless, Luther aligned more with the nobles who bore the sword to suppress rebellion. Whereas Luther was initially supportive of congregations choosing their own pastors, he now saw the possibility of peasants following violent pastors, like Thomas Muentzer, and he became increasingly comfortable with temporal rulers assuming a large role in protecting the doctrine of the church and selecting its pastoral personnel. Read More.
April 9, 1525: Conrad Grebel Baptizes Many People in St. Gall
Five hundred years ago this weekend, the churches also celebrated Palm Sunday. And on Palm Sunday 1525, a large group of people from the Swiss city of St. Gall walked out of town for two miles to a nearby river. Many of them then entered into the waters of the stream to have Conrad Grebel baptize them. This service was the culmination of several weeks of preachings and Bible study readings by Grebel and two native St. Gall residents who engaged the townspeople’s eagerness to gather in informal settings outside of church to hear the Scriptures read and exposited. Read More.
April 13, 1525: Zwingli Introduces a Reformed Communion Service in Zurich
On Maundy Thursday, the Zurich churches instituted the first reformed Communion service in place of the Roman liturgy of the Mass. The new practices were marked by sensory simplicity and greater agency of the laity in sharing the bread and cup. Based on Zwingli’s theology of the sacraments, which emphasized their social purpose for confirming individuals’ faith to their congregation, this reformed approach to Communion heightened expectations of congregational unity and uniformity–which those who separated from state churches, such as the Anabaptists, desired to see in members’ commitments to everyday Christian discipleship. Read More.
April 15-22, 1525: Balthasar Hubmaier Baptizes Three Hundred People in Waldshut
On the Saturday before Easter, Balthasar Hubmaier, the leading pastor of the churches of Waldshut, underwent rebaptism, “publicly in the pulpit,” alongside sixty other adults in his parish church. The next day, Easter Sunday, Hubmaier celebrated the Lord’s Supper according to a new form, presenting it as a memorial meal, rather than the Mass. In local services over the course of Easter Week, he then offered believers’ baptism to all who desired it, and close to 300 individuals came forward to receive it. Waldshut quickly became a city where it seemed believers’ baptism might become a normative element of local evangelical reform. Read More.
Early May, 1525: Hans Hut Joins the Peasant Revolt in Frankenhausen
In early May 1525, tens of thousands of peasants were on the move against their lords, joining armed bands that looted monasteries and castles. The largest uprising began in Frankenhausen on April 29. This uprising proved to be a formative experience for Hans Hut, who would later become the major evangelist of Anabaptism in parts of southern Germany and Austria and an objector to sword-bearing in Moravia. As a supporter of the radical preacher Thomas Müntzer at the time, he joined Müntzer’s “Eternal League” and met up with the group in Frankenhausen after they learned of the peasants’ initial success. Swayed by Müntzer’s conviction that God was on the side of the oppressed, they awaited a clash with the assembling armies of the princes. Read More.
May 14-15, 1525: Thomas Müntzer is Captured at the Battle of Frankenhausen, but Hans Hut and Melchior Rinck Escape
Peasants who gathered with Thomas Müntzer in Frankenhausen suffered a brutal defeat, despite their belief that God was on their side. Müntzer was captured and later executed. But two of his followers escaped unharmed: Hans Hut and Melchior Rinck. Although both continued to hold revolutionary ideas initially after the battle, they would eventually confess error in their apocalyptic rationalizations of violence and attempts to institute the kingdom of God by military means. Read More.
May 27-29, 1525: Zwingli’s Treatise on Baptism Provokes Popular Opposition in St. Gall; Bolt Eberli and a Companion Become the First Anabaptist Martyrs
At the end of May, the St. Gall town council witnessed the strength of support for Anabaptist teachings among their townspeople when they gathered for a reading of Zwingli’s newly-published treatise on baptism and expressed discontentment with the pastors’ endorsement of Zwingli’s teachings. Meanwhile, Bolt Eberli, a peasant who had preached effectively on Anabaptist emphases in St. Gall at Easter time, had been arrested when he journeyed home to the canton of Schwyz. He and his companion, an unnamed former priest, became the first to suffer execution on account of Anabaptist ideas. Read More.
Featured image courtesy of the Wick’sche Sammlung, ca. 1575, Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Ms. F 23, fol. 294.
