Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:28 — 13.4MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | TuneIn | RSS
The movement that became known as Anabaptists was characterized by its focus on Scripture and gatherings of scholars for the purpose of study. These gatherings often included Latin, Hebrew, and Greek scholars, and men trained in theology. This is the kind of group that studied Scripture in Zurich with Zwingli from 1515 to 1523. As in other cities where these kinds of groups met, the discussions surrounded the meaning of the sacraments and a wide range of subjects surrounding the life of the community of faith.
In Zurich, these discussions included issues like capital, interest, church taxes, infant baptism, icons, and the Mass. Until June 1523, the group meeting with Zwingli agreed about many of these issues, but as time passed, Zwingli gave Zurich City Council more and more authority to make decisions about religious reform. In October 1523, the religious disputation concerning vestments and Mass led to a final break between Zwingli and the future Anabaptists, and the primary issue was the role of government in the life of the church.
Then, in December 1523, Zwingli decided to go ahead with a change in the mass, but since the council would not support the decision, Zwingli backed up and said he would leave the decision in the hands of the council. The council decided there would be no change at that time. Zwingli accepted this indefinite delay, which led first to disillusionment and then to an official break of the followers of Conrad Grebel with Zwingli.
The main factors contributing to this break were: 1) differing views of the role of government. Zwingli believed religious decisions should be made by Zurich City Council lest a change would cause unrest. 2) Differing views of how to use Scripture: Zwingli believed that whatever is not condemned in Scripture is allowed, and since infant baptism is not condemned in Scripture it is allowed. Anabaptists said that whatever is not taught in Scripture by command or example is forbidden.