EUROPE BEFORE THE ANABAPTISTS
The Reformation of the 16th century was a revolution of ideas. For over a thousand years the Papacy had controlled the minds and destinies of the European population. Whether you were a prince or a pauper you paid homage to the Pope and to the ordinances of the church, especially if you wanted to secure your eternal destiny.
At a time when mortality was astonishingly high and education equally low, the church became the center of wisdom and authority in matters of life and death. The superstitious beliefs that had crept into the Catholic church through the mingling of Roman paganism, served to transform the general populous of Europe into a mass of fearful humanity.
When the plague ravaged Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries the teachings of the church with regard to death, hell and purgatory became even more relevant. It seemed that the church alone had the answers to what happened in the misty depths of the afterlife.
The reformation changed all of this progressively. When Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others began presenting the Bible as the only source of infallible authority, they immediately impugned the authority of the Pope and the Papacy. More than anything else the Reformation gave men and women permission to think for themselves. By leading people to the Bible, the Reformers taught the people how to commune with God personally and individually.
In place of the old and tired Papal dictate of nulla salus extra ecclesiam meaning outside of the church there is no salvation, they showed people that indeed salvation could be found outside of the church though not outside of Christ. Instead of turning to the Pope for the hope of Salvation and eternal life men and women could now turn to Christ himself.
If they wanted to understand the mysteries of what happened after death or the mechanics of salvation men and women could now look for answers in the Bible. The Reformation was, in many ways, a revolution of ideas and ideologies. It changed the way people thought and so it changed the world.
One of the core tenants of the Reformation was the idea of freedom of conscience. The concept that a man’s conscience is captive to God alone and never to another man. Luther’s famous statement at the Diet of Worms in 1521 encapsulates this maxim. Speaking directly to the Papal Legate and Emperor Luther said: “my conscience is captive to the Word of God”. This sentiment was one of the keynotes of the Reformation. No longer did the Pope or any other mortal man have the right to hold sway over the conscience of another. That privilege belonged to God alone.
But even as the Reformers understood and embraced this concept, years within the Papal system made it extremely difficult for them to effectively apply it. Nowhere is this reality seen more clearly than in the treatment of the Anabaptists and the rise of what is now known as the Radical Reformation.
