ter of the public school at Geneva; a man not indeed free from all faults, yet honest and distinguished for erudition and the elegance of his genius. As he would not praise all that Calvin and his colleagues did and taught, and especially as he rejected Calvin's and Beza's doctrine of pure and absolute predestination, he was required in 1544 to resign his office and go into exile. But the authorities of Basil received the exile, and gave him the Greek professorship in their university." between good actions and bad are false | enormities from which they have been and vain; that men cannot, properly acquitted by the judgment of posterity. speaking, commit sin; that religion con- Among these was Sebastian Castalio, massists in the union of the rational soul or the spirit with God; that if a person attains to this, by contemplation and directing his mind upward, he may freely obey the instincts of his nature; for whatever he may do, he will be innocent and after death will be united to God. These doctrines are so similar to the views of the ancient Beghards or Brethren of the Free Spirit, that I have very little doubt these Spirituals were their descendants; and the fact that this sect originated in Flanders, which in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was full of this sort of people, corroborates the supposition. decrees. For this he was cast into prison, and at last was compelled to leave the city. He returned to his native country, and to the Romish religion which he had before renounced; and now he assailed the reputation and the life and conduct of Calvin, and likewise of his colleague Beza, in the most slanderous publications. From Bolsec's calamity originated the enmity between Calvin and James of Burgundy, an illustrious descendant from the dukes of Burgundy, and a great patron and intimate friend of Calvin, who had been led by his attachment to him to fix his residence at Geneva. James employed Bolsec as his 41. Similar was the fate of Jerome Bolsec, a French Carmelite monk but greatly inferior to Castalio in learning and genius. 39. Totally different in character from He came to Geneva, allured by the Reforthese Spiritual Libertines, though not un-mation to which he was inclined, and there frequently confounded with them, were established himself a physician. But in those Libertines of Geneva with whom the year 1551 he most imprudently deCalvin had to contend fiercely all his life. claimed with vehemence in a public assemThe latter were no other than citizens bly against the doctrines of God's absolute of Geneva who could not endure Calvin's rigorous discipline, and who in opposition to his regulations defended with craft and violence, with factions, insults, and abuse, the dissolute morals of their progenitors, their brothels and carousals, their sports and frolics; all of which, as well as other indications of an irreligious spirit, Calvin most severely condemned and chastised. There were moreover in this turbulent faction, persons not only dissolute in their lives, but also scoffers and despisers of all religion. Such a character was James Gruet, who not only assailed Calvin with all his power and called him bishop of Ascoli and the new pope, but also discarded and opposed the divinity of the Christian religion, the immortality of the soul, the distinction between right and wrong, and whatever else was most sacred in the view of Christians; and for this he was punished capitally in the year 1550.3 40. Calvin had also at Geneva controversies with some who could not digest his doctrines, and especially his gloomy doctrine of absolute decrees. Being a man of excessive ardour and too jealous of his own reputation, he would not suffer them to reside at Geneva; nay, yielding to his passions in the heat of controversy, he frequently accused them of crimes and 4 We may venture to say this at the present day, since the Genevans themselves and other doctors of the Reformed church ingenuously confess that the great talents of Calvin were attended by no small defects of character, which however they thirk should be overlooked on account of his extraordinary merits. See the notes to Spon's Histoire de Genève, tome il. p. 110, &c. and elsewhere; also the Preface to the Lettres de Calvin à Jacques de Bourgogne, p. xix, &c. 5 See Uytenbogaerd's Ecclesiastical History, written in Dutch, part ii. p. 70-73, where he endeavours to evince the innocence of Castalio; Bayle's Dictionnaire, tome i. p. 792, &c. [article, Castalion, which is elabo rate, and appears to be candid.-Mur.] Colomesius, Lebensgeschichte Seb. Castellio, Frankfort and Leipsic, 1774, 8vo.- Schl. [Castalio was born in Dauphiny or Savoy, 1515, and spent his days at Strasburg, Geneva, and Basil, where he died in 1563. He was an elegant Latin and Greek scholar, and wrote much, particularly Italia Orientalis, p. 99, and others. [See Fucslin's translations into Latin and French. His Latin translation of the Bible is his most important work. He denied unconditional election, considered the Canticles as an uninspired book, and rejected Calvin's opinion respecting Christ's descent into hell. These were his chief errors.-Mur. 6 See Bayle's Dictionnaire, article Bolsec, tome 1. p. 592; Spon's Histoire de Genève, the note, tome ii. p. 55; Bibliothèque Raisonnée, tome xxxii. p. 446. and tome xxxvi. p. 409. personal physician, and therefore supported | cipline, scarcely allowed to the Reformed him all he could, when borne down by the the name and the prerogatives of a true influence of Calvin, to prevent his being church. This moderation resulted from entirely prostrated. This so exasperated prudence, from the fear of offending a Calvin, that to avoid his resentments James thought proper to retire from Geneva into the country.' 42. Bernardino Ochino, an Italian of Sienna and formerly vicar-general of the order of Capuchins, a man of a well informed and discriminating mind, who preached to an Italian congregation at Zurich, was in the year 1563 condemned and ordered into exile, by the decision of the whole Reformed church of Switzerland. For, in his books which were numerous, among other opinions differing from the common views, he taught in particular that the law respecting the marriage of a single wife was not in all cases without some exceptions. His works show that he speculated on many subjects more boldly than that age would permit, and in a manner different from the Swiss theologians. Yet there are those who maintain that his errors, when being old and indigent he was compelled to forsake Switzerland, were not so great as to deserve to be punished with banishment. He retired into Poland, and there united with the Antitrinitarians and Anabaptists, and died in the year 1564.2 43. While the Reformed punished with so great severity the audacity of those who conceived some change was requisite in the prevailing doctrines, they believed that the greatest mildness and gentleness ought to be manifested in those most violent contests between the English puritans and Episcopalians. For while they were particularly attached to the Puritans, who contended for the doctrines and discipline of the Swiss, they still regarded the Episcopalians with brotherly affection, and urged their confederates the Puritans to do the same; notwithstanding the Episcopalians injured most sensibly the greater part of the Reformed community, and by proclaiming the divine origin of their own dis See the Lettres de Calvin à Jacques de Bourgogne, Preface, p. viii. &c.; Bibliothèque Raisonnée, tome xxxii. p. 444, and tome xxxiv. p. 406. 2 Boverius, Annales Capucinorum; and from these Annals, the author of the book entitled, La Guerre Seraphique, ou Histoire des Perils qu'a couru la Barbe des Capucins, livr. ii. p. 147, livr. iii. p. 192, 230, &c.; Observationes Halenses Latina, tom. iv. observ. xx. p. 406, tom. v. observ. i. p. 3, &c.; Bayle's Dictionnaire, tome iii. p. 2105; Sand's Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitar. p. 4, &c.; Niceron, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Hommes Illustres, tome xix, p. 166, &c. [See the sketch of his life, p. 603, above, near the end of note 1. -Mur. [For a full account of Ochino's history and writings, see Trechsel's Lelio Sozini u. d. Anti-trinitarier seiner Zeit, p. 202-276. The English reader may consult M'Crie's Reformation in Italy, p. 431, &c.-R. high-spirited and prosperous nation and its most powerful queen, whose influence governed even Holland also; and finally, from the danger of a destructive schism among the Reformed. For it is one thing to coerce and to cast out feeble and unarmed individuals, who are disposed to disturb the peace of a city by advancing opinions, not perhaps absolutely absurd nor of dangerous tendency, yet really novel; and quite another thing to provoke and drive to a secession a noble and most flourishing church, which may be defective in some respects. Moreover, the ground of the dissension [in England] hitherto did not seem to be religion itself, but its external forms, and the constitution of the church. Yet soon afterwards, some of the great principles of religion itself were brought under discussion.3 44. No one can deny or be ignorant of the fact, that the Reformed church in this age abounded in very eminent men, who were distinguished for their acquisitions of knowledge both human and divine. Besides Ulric Zwingli, John Calvin, and Theodore Beza, men of inexhaustible genius, the following have acquired by their writings immortal praise; namely, John Ecolampadius, Henry Bullinger, William Farell, Peter Viret, Peter Martyr, Theodore Bibliander, Wolfgang Musculus, Conrad Pellican, Lewis Lavater, Rudolph Hospinian, Zacharias Ursinus, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Szegedinus, and many others; whose names and merits may be learned from the common writers of literary history, especially from Melchior Adami, Anthony Wood, Gerhard Brandt, Daniel Neal, an Englishman, the very learned and industrious author of the History of the Puritans, and from other writers.'. 3 The sarcasms of Mosheim in this section against the Reformed, do him no honour. The note of Maclaine however is worth inserting. It is this: "All the Protestant divines of the Reformed church, whether Puritans or others, seemed indeed hitherto of one mind about the doctrines of faith. But towards the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, there arose a party who were first for softening, and then for overthrowing the received opinions concerning predestination, perseverance, free-will, effectual grace, and the extent of Christ's redemption. These are the doctrines to which Mosheim alludes in this passage. The clergy of the episcopal church began to lean towards the notions concerning these intricate points which Arminius propagated some time after this; while, on the other hand, the Puritans adhered rigorously to the system of Calvin. Several episcopal doctors remained attached to the same system, and all these supporters of Calvinism, whether Episcopal or Presbyterian, were called doctrinal Puritans."-Mur. All the larger biographical dictionaries may be CHAPTER III. who are also denominated Mennonites, from the celebrated man to whom they owe a HISTORY OF THE SECT OF ANABAPTISTS OR large share of their present prosperity, is MENNONITES. J. THE origin of the sect who, from their repetition of the baptism received in other communities, are called Anabaptists, but consulted, and also the Encyclopædias, particularly that of Dr. Rees. To these may be added Middleton's Biographia Evangelica, and Brook's Lives of the Puritans, besides the numerous biographies of individual men. The means of becoming acquainted with the lives, characters, and writings of distinguished modern theologians are so abundant, and the extent of the subject so great, that full lists of all the authors of cach century will not be given in the notes to the centuries in this volume as in those prior to the Reformation.Mur. [The above reference to Brook's Lives of the Puritans must have been an oversight; for that work, as its very name imports, contains no account of any of these foreigners. Within the last few years separate biographies of several of these leading reformers have appeared in Germany which have supplanted previous works. In addition to Schuler's life of Zwingli, Herzog's life of Oecolampadius, and Kirchhofer's life of Farell mentioned in the note at page 572, and Henry's life of Calvin, in note 3, page 663, above, I may add here Baum's Theodore Beza nach handschriftlichen Quellen dargestellt, Leip. 1843, vol. 1st. I believe the second volume of this valuable work, which was much wanted, has not yet appeared. Hess, the author of a meagre life of Zwingli, has also published Lebensgeschichte H. Bullingers. Zur. 1828, two parts, though never completed. A full biography of this influential Reformer, so well known and so highly respected in Britain, is very desirable; and for such a work much new and valuable materials have been recently rendered accessible in the Zurich Letters published by the Parker Society. There are no separate lives, of any great value, of the other foreign reformers mentioned in the text. Of Archbishop Cranmer we have had two recent lives; the one by the Rev. H. J. Todd, Lond. 1831, 2 vols. Svo, which is the preferable one; and the other by the Rev. C. W. Le Bas, Lond. 1833, 2 vols. 12mo.-R. 2 The modern Mennonites are offended with this term, and profess to be entirely free from the practice of repeating baptism, on which this name is founded. They admit that the old Anabaptists had the custom of re-baptizing such as joined them from other denominations of Christians; but they say, the custom at this day is laid aside by much the greater part of their community. See Schyn's Historia Mennonitarum plenior Deductio, cap. ii. p. 32. But, unless I am altogether deceived, these good men here lose sight of that simplicity and ingenuousness, which they at times so highly recommend; and artfully conceal the true ground of this appellation. They pretend that their predecessors were called Anabaptists, for this reason, that they thought those who had been baptized in other communities after they becaine adults and attained to the full use of reason, were to be baptized again. But it is certain that the name was given to them not only for that reason, but more especially because they considered the persons who were initiated into the Christian church by baptism in their infancy, as not belonging to the church at all; and therefore when such persons would join the Anabaptists, they baptized them a second time. And in this sentiment all the sects of Anabaptists continue down to the present time, however much they may differ in other opinions and customs. Among the ancient Anabaptists, those in particular who are called Flemings or Flandrians most fully merit this appellation. For they rebaptize not only those who received baptism in other denominations in their childhood or infancy, but likewise those who received it in adult years. Nay, cach particular sect of Anabaptists rebaptize those who come to them from the other sects of their denomination, for each sect considers its own baptism to be the only true and valid baptism. The more moderate Anabaptists, or the Waterlandians as they are called, are a little wiser, because they do not rebaptize such as were baptized at adult years in other denominations, nor those who were baptized in other involved in much obscurity.3 For they sects of Anabaptists. And yet they are justly denominated Anabaptists, because they rebaptize those who patrons of the sect most carefully keep this custom.out received baptism in their infancy. Still however the of sight; because they are afraid lest the almost extinguished odium should revive, and the modern Mennonites be regarded as descended from the flagitious Anabaptists, if they should frankly state the facts as they are. Hear a very recent writer, Schyn (ubi supra, p. 32), where he endeavours to show that his brethren are unjustly stigmatized with the odious name of Anabaptists. He says, "that Anabaptism has become wholly obsolete; and for many years past, no person of any sect whatever who holds the Christian faith, if baptized ACCORDING TO THE COMMAND OF CHRIST, when he wishes to join our churches, is rebaptized." On reading this, who would not readily suppose that the repetition of baptism no longer exists among the Mennonites of our times? But the fallacy is in some measure betrayed by the words which we have printed in capital letters, "according to the command of Christ." For the Anabaptists contend that it is without any command of Christ, that infants are admitted to baptism. And the whole design is more clearly indicated by the words which follow; sed illum etiam ADULTORUM baptismum, ut sufficientem agnoscunt. And yet, as if he had fully established his point, Schyn thus concludes his argument:-Quare verissimum est, illud odiosum nomen Anabaptistarum illis non convenire. But it does certainly belong to them; because the very best of the Mennonites, equally with those from whom they are descended, think that the baptism of infants has no validity; and therefore they cause those who have already been baptized among other Christians, to be again baptized with their baptism. There are many things which induce me to believe that reliance cannot always be placed on the Confessions and the exposi tions of the modern Mennonites. Being instructed by the miseries and sufferings of their fathers, they conceal entirely those principles of their sect from which their character and state would most clearly appear; and the others which they cannot conceal, they most studiously disguise that they may not appear too bad. [This long and invidious note of Mosheim the translator would gladly have omitted, if he had felt himself at liberty to suppress anything contained in the book. For to what purpose are such discussions? The point at issue is, whether the Mennonites or Baptists are properly denominated Anabaptists. And the fact is that according to their own principles they are not, in the literal and proper sense of the word, Anabaptists or Rebaptizers. But according to the principles of all believers in infant. baptism they are, literally and truly, Anabaptists. For they hold infant baptism to be no valid Christian bap tism; and therefore, to be consistent, when they receive to their church one who had been baptized in infancy, they must give him baptism; for he is on their princi ples an unbaptized person. But according to the believers in infant baptism, such a person had previously received a real Christian baptism; and therefore to baptize him now is to rebaptize him. Such being the true state of the case, is not Mosheim's eagerness to fasten on the Mennonites the odious name of Anabaptists, as good proof-to say the least-of disingenuousness, as is their cagerness to get rid of it? He f successful gains nothing, except to render them odious. They are striving to have a fair trial of their case solely upon its merits, without being exposed to the prejudice of words and names.-Mur. 3 The writers who treat of the Anabaptists and who confute them, are enumerated at large by Sagittarius, Introductio ad Hist. Eccles. tom. i. p. 826, &c.; and by Pfaff, Introduct. in Histor. Literariam Theol. par. i. p. 349, &c. To their lists must be added the very rccent writer and doctor among the Mennonites, Herman Schyn, who first published his Historia Mennonitarum, Amsterd. 1723, 8vo. and afterwards his Historia Mennonitarum Plenior Deductio, Amsterd. 1729, 8vo. Both the works will aid in acquiring a knowledge of the affairs of this sect; but neither of them deserves the title of a History of the Mennonites. For the writer lay at the foundation and was the source of all that was new and singular in the religion of the Mennonites; and the greatest part of their singular opinions, as is well attested, were approved some centuries before Luther's time, by those who had such views of the nature of the church of Christ. Some of this class of people, perceiving that such a church as they had formed an idea of would never be estab suddenly started up in various countries of Europe, under the influence of leaders of dissimilar characters and views; and at a time when the first contests with the Catholics so distracted the attention of all, that they scarcely noticed any other passing Occurrences, The modern Mennonites affirm that their predecessors were the descendants of those Waldenses who were oppressed by the tyranny of the papists; and that they were a most pure offspring, and most averse from any inclinations towards sedition as well as from all fanatical 2 As respects the Waldensians, see Limborch's Historia Inquisitionis, lib. i. cap. viii. p. 37. [See also views.1 On the contrary, their adversaries Lydius Waldensia, and Allix's Ancient Churches of contend that they are descended from those Piedmont, chap. xxii.-xxvi. p. 211-280, N.-Macl.] That the Wickliffites and Hussites were not far from turbulent and furious Anabaptists, who in the same sentiments can be shown by adequate testithe sixteenth century involved Germany, mony. [That the Mennonites, as being one of those Holland, Switzerland, and especially West- Protestant sects which renounced the Romish religion in the 16th century, resembled very much the Walphalia, in so many calamities and civil wars; denses, the Wickliffites, and the Hussites, those earlier but that being terrified by the dreadful fate revolters from the Romish worship, is undoubtedly of their associates, through the influence of true. And it may therefore be justly said that "the greatest part of their singular opinions," meaning those Menno Simonis especially, they have grain which they differed from the Romish church, "were dually assumed a more sober character. approved some centuries before Luther's time." After duly examining the whole subject with impartiality, I conceive that neither statement is altogether true. 2. In the first place, I believe the Mennonites are not altogether in the wrong, when they boast of a descent from those Waldensians, Petrobrusians, and others, who are usually styled the Witnesses for the truth before Luther. Prior to the age of Luther, there lay concealed in almost every country of Europe, but especially in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany, very many persons, in whose minds was deeply rooted that principle which the Waldensians, the Wickliffites, and the Hussites maintained, some more covertly and others more openly; namely, that the kingdom which Christ set up on the earth, or the visible church, is an assembly of holy persons, and ought therefore to be entirely free, not only from ungodly persons and sinners, but from all institutions of human device against ungodliness. This principle deems it more his business to defend and justify his sect, than to give a regular narrative of their origin, progress, and revolutions. Yet he does not perform the functions of a vindicator so learnedly and judiciously, that the Mennonites could not have a better patron. Of the historians and Confessions of the Mennonites, Köcher treats expressly, in his Bibliotheca Theol. Symbolica, p. 461, &c. [The principal English histories of baptism and of the Baptists or Mennonites, are Wall's Hist. of Infant Baptism, 2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1705; his Defence of the History, and Gale's Reflections on Wall's History; Crosby's Hist. of the [English] Baptists, 4 vo's. 8vo, 1738-40; Robert Robinson's Hist. of Baptism, Lond. 1790, 4to; and Benedict's General Hist. of the Baptists, Boston, 1813, 2 vols. 8vo. Mur. [See also Ivimey's History of the English Baptists to the death of George III. Lond. 1811-30, 4 vols. 8vo.-R. 1 Abrahamzon's Verdediging der Christenen, die doopsgesinde genand worden, p. 29; Schyn's Plenior deductio Histor. Mennonit. cap. i. p. 2, &c. And this, I think, must be all that Mosheim intended to say. For, that in most of the points in which they appeared singular among Protestants, they bore a nearer resem blance to the proper Waldenses, the Wickliffites, and same belief which their fathers had maintained for lished by human means, indulged the hope | same time—that is, not long after the comthat God himself would in his own time mencement of the Reformation by Luther erect for himself a new church, free from there arose men of this sort in several every blemish and impurity; and that he different countries. This may be inferred would raise up certain persons and fill from the fact that nearly all the first leaders them with heavenly light for the accom- of any note among the Anabaptists were plishment of this great object. Others, founders of distinct sects. For though all more discreet, looked for neither miracles these reformers of the church, or rather nor inspiration; but judged that the church these projectors of new churches, are called might be purified from all the contamina- Anabaptists, because they all denied that tions of evil men, and be brought into the infants are proper subjects of baptism, and state that Christ had intended, by human solemnly baptized over again those who had efforts and care, provided the practice and been baptized in infancy, yet from the very the regulations of the ancient Christians beginning, just as at the present day, they were restored to their pristine dignity and were split into various parties which disainfluence. greed and disputed about points of no small importance. The worst part of this motley tribe, viz. that which supposed the founders of their ideal and perfect church would be endued with divine powers and would work miracles, began to raise great disturbances in Saxony and the neighbouring countries in the year 1521, under the guidance of Thomas Munzer, Mark Stubner, Nicholas Storck, and other chiefs. They first pursued their object by means of harangues, discussions, and the detail of divine visions to which the leaders of their party made pretensions. But finding these means less efficient than they could wish, and that their influence was resisted by the arguments of Luther and others, they rushed to arms. Munzer and his associates having collected a vast army from among the credulous populace, particularly in the rural parts of Suabia, Thuringia, Franconia, and Saxony, proclaimed war in the year 1525 against all law and civil governments, and declared that Christ alone would reign from that time forward. But these forces were routed without much difficulty by the elector of Saxony and other princes; Munzer, the firebrand of sedition, was put to death, and his aiders and abettors were dispersed.2 3. The spirits and courage of this people who had long been severely persecuted and scattered over many countries, revived as soon as they heard that Luther, aided by many good men, was successfully engaged in reforming the very corrupt state of the church. According to their different principles and views, some supposed that the time was now come when God himself would take possession of men's hearts and would set up his heavenly kingdom on the earth; others concluded that the longexpected and wished-for restitution of the church, to be effected indeed under the providence of God but yet by human agency, was now at hand. With these, as is common in such great revolutions, were joined many everywhere of similar aims but of unlike capacities; who in a short time by their discourses, their dreams, and their prophecies, roused up a large part of Europe, and drew over to the party a vast multitude of the ignorant and ill-informed people. The leaders of this great multitude, erroneously conceiving that the new kingdom which they foretold was to be free from all evils and imperfections, because they considered the reformation of the church which Luther had commenced as not corresponding with the magnitude of the case, did themselves project a more perfect reformation of it, or rather projected another and altogether a divine church. 4. Whether the origin of this discordant sect which caused such mischief in both the civil and religious community, is to be sought for in Switzerland or in Holland and Germany, or in some other country, it is not important to know and is impossible fully to determine.1 In my opinion this only can be affirmed, that at one and the 1 Whether the Anabaptists appeared first in Germany or in Switzerland is made the subject of inquiry by Fueslin, Beyträge zur Schweizerischen Reformationsgeschichte, vol. i. p. 190, vol. il. p. 64, 65, p. 265, 327, 328, vol. iii. p. 323. But he is not self-consistent in the discussion, nor has he accomplished anything. 5. By this bloody defeat, the others who were actuated by the same turbulent and fanatical spirit were rendered indeed more timid but not more wise. It appears that from this time onward there roamed about Germany, Switzerland, and Holland, many persons infected with the same criminal principles which had proved the ruin of Munzer; that in many places they disturbed both the church and the state by their seditious discourses; that they gathered here and there larger or smaller congregations, and in the name of God announced sudden destruction as about to overtake the magistrates and the civil governments; and 8 See Seckendorf's Historia Lutheranismi, llb. 1. p. 192, 304, &c. lib. ii. p. 13; Sleidan, Commentarii, lib. v. p. 47; Camerarius, l'ita Melancthonis, p. 44, &c. |