Excellent points Anthony. I think it is a travesty to bypass the Anabaptists when talking about the Protestant Reformation. Unfortunately, their history gets muddied by "less radical" Protestants and Catholics alike. I think that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a lot in common with the Anabaptists in one important aspect: Their enemies went to such great lengths to demonize them that it is almost impossible to have a clear picture of their history.
Noteworthy Characteristics of Anabaptists:
1.) Believer's Baptism - Baptism is to be administered to believers only. In other words, no infant baptism and baptism was only to occur at the point where the individual chooses to commit their life to Christ.
2.) Symbolism of Holy Communion - Communion is a memorial of the death of Christ, and transubstantiation does not occur.
3.) Restricted Communion - The bread and wine should be broken with baptized believers only.
4.) Religious Separation - Christians should be separated from the world. Some groups like the Mennoites and Ammish took this to the extreme of complete separation from society. Most Anabaptists of the 16th century did not practice separation in that fashion.
5.) Separation of church and state - Christians should not make an oath or hold the office of magistrate. Government and religion should be independant of one another.
7.) Pacifism - Christians should not exercise self-defense or go to war.
It was primarily item 1 and item 5 that were extremely unpopular with every other Christian religion at the time. In the mold of Catholicism, all of your more "moderate" reformation movements viewed State control of religion to be essential. The idea of separating Church and State was utterly preposterous. Additionally, "re-baptism" practiced by Anabaptists was considered extremely controversial at the time. More than one kingdom in Europe pronounced the sentence of death for the practice. Considering the era, rebaptism would have been the only possible way for believer baptism to occur since pretty much everyone had been baptized as an infant, but they went a step further by declaring all Catholic baptism to be invalid (because it did not hold the prerequisite of an individual dedicating their life to Christ at their baptism.)
I do find it completely fascinating how the world has changed as it relates to the Anabaptists and their views. We would hardly consider them the insane radicals that Europeans of the 16th century characterized them to be.
Protestantism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theology of Anabaptism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An interesting chart of the Protestant Reformation (only specifically references the largest movements of course.)
