BULLINGER AND THE ANABAPTISTS

In George Williams' "The Radical Reformation" (1962) he has this comment about Bullinger on page 201:

"Bullinger is introduced at this point in our narrative as a major historian of the Reformation in Switzerland and as a tendentious chronicler and lifetime opponent of Anabaptism."

What do you think of Williams' assessment of Bullinger to correctly interact with the Anabaptists of his time?

BULLINGER AND THE ANABAPTISTS

Bullinger had some harsh words to say about the Anabaptists. The following is taken from sermon V.8 of The Decades:

“… since Anabaptism is nothing else but a confederacy, conspiracy, and a certain linking together by one mark into a new and schismatical church, and into a new and strange kind of doctrine, and as contrary as can be to the doctrine of Christ and his apostles; truly it is no marvel, that the obstinate anabpatists are kept under and punished by common law. For otherwise these things are damnable, and not to be dissembled or suffered or a christian magistrate.”

(The Decades – Parker ed. p 395)

Zurich and the Anabaptists

At the end of the recent RefoRC conference with the theme “The myth of the Reformation” held in Zurich, Peter Opitz, director of the Institute for Swiss Reformation History, took some of the conference attendees on a tour of places of key historical interest for the Swiss Reformation.

Opitz showed the place on the bank of the Limmat River (near the Hotel Am Storken across the Limmat from the Grossmunster). One of the ‘myths’ about the Swiss was their seemingly ‘uncivilized’ way of execution of the Anabaptists by drowning in the Limmat. What actually happened was that Muntzer and others were first held in the tower what used to be in the Limmat just beyond the Wasserkirche and only released when they gave an oath that they would desist from spreading their teaching about rebaptism. When they were caught and reconvicted of spreading this teaching they would be imprisoned in the tower for a longer period of time. This was repeated several times with increasing periods of time of imprisonment in the tower. Eventually Muntzer and others were warned of the death penalty if they continued to disobey the authorities. According to the account, Muntzer’s own wife and children urged him not to give up stating that he would continue to disseminate his views on baptism and gladly be drowned for his belief. Technically, Muntzer and others were executed by drowning for their repeated disobedience of the authorities despite the authorities showing them much patience.