a strict and proper sense, appear to be those who not only rebaptize, when they arrive at an adult age, persons that were baptized in their infancy, but also, as often as any person comes from one of their sects to another, or as often as any one is excluded from their communion and again received into the bosom of their church, they baptize him. And such were many of the German Baptists. But the single opinion common to all the sects to which the name of Anabaptists has been indiscriminately applied, is that of the invalidity of infant baptism, in whatever way administered: And hence the general denomination of Antipaedobaptists; which includes Anabaptists, Baptists, Mennonites, Waterlandians, &c., as distinguished by their respective peculiarities; though Anabaptists seem to have been adopted by most writers as the general term.

To the above peculiar notion concerning the baptismal sacrament, the Anabaptists added principles of a different nature, depending upon certain ideas which they entertained concerning a perfect church-establishment, pure in its members, and free from the institutions of human policy.

The Anabaptists appear to have made little noise, or to have been little noticed, before the time of the reformation in Germany. The most prudent and rational part of them considered it possible, by human wisdom, industry, and vigilance, to purify the church from the contagion of the wicked, provided the manners and spirit of the primitive Christians could but recover their lost dignity and lustre; and seeing the attempts of Luther, seconded by several persons of eminent piety, prove so successful, they hoped that the happy period was arrived in which the restoration of the church to purity was to be accomplished, under the divine protection, by the labours and counsels of pious and eminent men. Others, far from being satisfied with the plan of reformation proposed by Luther, looked upon it as much beneath the sublimity of their views; and consequently undertook a more perfect reformation, or, to express more properly their visionary enterprise, they proposed to found a new church, entirely spiritual, and truly divine.

This sect was soon joined by great numbers, and (as usually happens in sudden revolutions of this nature) by many persons, whose characters and capacities were very different, though their views seemed to turn upon the same object. Their progress was rapid; for, in a very short space of time, their discourses, visions, and predictions, excited commotions in a great part of Europe, and drew into their communion a prodigious multitude, whose ignorance rendered them easy victims to the illusions of enthusiasm. The most pernicious faction of all those which composed this motley multitude, was that which pretended that the founders of the new and perfect church, already mentioned, were Anabaptists under the direction of a divine impulse, and were armed against all opposition by the power of working miracles. It was this faction that, in the year 1521, began their fanatical work, under the guidance of Munzer, Stübner, Storch, &c.

These persons were disciples of Luther; but well knowing that their opinions were such as would receive no sanction from him, they availed themselves of his absence to disseminate them in Wittenburgh, and had the address to over-reach the piety of Melanchthon. Their principal purpose was to gain over the populace, and to form a considerable party. To effect this, says Bayle, they were industrious and active, each in his own way. Storch wanting knowledge, boasted of inspiration; and Stübner, who had both genius and erudition, laboured at commodious explications of Scripture. Not content with discrediting the court of Rome, and decrying the authority of consistories, they taught, That among Christians, who had the precepts of the gospel to direct and the Spirit of God to guide them, the office of magistracy was not only unnecessary, but an unlawful encroachment on their spiritual liberty; that the distinctions occasioned by birth, or rank, or wealth, being contrary to the spirit of the gospel, which considers all men as equal, should be entirely abolished; that all Christians, throwing their possessions into one common stock, should live together in that state of equality which becomes members of the same family; that as neither the laws of nature nor the precepts of the New Testament had placed any restraint upon men with regard to the number of wives which they might marry, they should use that liberty which God himself had granted to the patriarchs.

They employed at first the various arts of persuasion in order to propagate their doctrine. They preached, exhorted, admonished, and reasoned, in a manner that seemed proper to impress the multitude; and related a great number of visions and revelations with which they pretended to have been favoured from above. But when they saw that these methods of making profelytes were not attended with such a rapid success as they fondly expected, and that the ministry of Luther and other eminent reformers were detrimental to their cause, they then had recourse to more expeditious measures, and madly attempted to propagate their fanatical doctrine by force of arms. Munzer and his associates, in the year 1525, put themselves at the head of a numerous army, composed for the most part of the peasants of Swabia, Thuringia, Franconia, and Saxony, and declared war against all laws, government, and magistrates of every kind, under the chimerical pretext that Christ was now to take the reins of civil and ecclesiastical government into his own hands, and to rule alone over the nations. But this seditious crowd was routed and dispersed, without much difficulty, by the Elector of Saxony and other princes; and Munzer their ring-leader ignominiously put to death, and his factious counsellors scattered abroad in different places.

Many of his followers, however, survived, and propagated their opinions through Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. In the year 1533, a party of them settled at Munster under the direction of two Anabaptist prophets, John Matthias a baker of Haarlem, and John Bockholdt a journeyman taylor of Leyden. Anabaptists made themselves masters of the city, they deposed the magistrates, confiscated the estates of such as had escaped, and deposited the wealth they amassed together in a public treasury for common use. They made preparations of every kind for the defence of the city; and sent out emissaries to the Anabaptists in the Low Countries, inviting them to assemble at Munster, which was now dignified with the name of Mount Zion, that from hence they might be deputed to reduce all the nations of the earth under their dominion. Matthias, who was the first in command, was soon cut off in an act of frenzy by the bishop of Munster's army; and was succeeded by Bockholdt, who was proclaimed by a special designation of Heaven, as he pretended, king of Zion, and invested with legislative powers like those of Moses. The extravagances of Bockholdt were too numerous to be recited: it will be sufficient to add, that the city of Munster was taken after a long siege and an obstinate resistance; and Bockholdt the mock monarch was punished with a most painful and ignominious death.

It must, however, be acknowledged, that the true rise of the numerous insurrections of this period ought not to be attributed to religious opinions. The first insurgents groaned under the most grievous oppressions; they took up arms principally in defence of their civil liberties; and the commotions that took place. The Anabaptist leaders above mentioned seem rather to have availed themselves, than to have been the prime movers. See the article Reforma-

in ichthyology, the trivial name of a species of cobbitts. See Cobitis.