The Early Church Was Anabaptist
Proof from the Ante-Nicene Fathers (AD 100–313)
Every distinctive Anabaptist conviction—believer’s baptism, nonresistance, refusal of the oath, economic sharing, separation of church and state—was already taught by the Christians of the first three centuries, before Constantine fused the church to the empire in AD 313.
The standard story of Anabaptism, told by both Catholic and Protestant historians, is that it began in 1525 when a small group of radicals in Zürich rebaptized one another in defiance of church and state. The Anabaptists themselves told the story differently. They were not innovators, they insisted—they were restorers. The convictions they recovered in 1525 had been the convictions of the Christian church for its first three centuries, until the emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in AD 313 and the church inherited the sword, the oath, the magistrate’s seat, and infant baptism.
This page is the demonstration. Below are ten Anabaptist distinctives, each followed by direct quotations from the Ante-Nicene Fathers—Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Hippolytus, Cyprian, and others writing between AD 90 and 313. Every quote is verifiable in the standard Ante-Nicene Fathers edition; many can be read in their full original context in our complete library of early Christian writings.
The point is not that the Anabaptists were the first to teach these things. The point is that they were the last to recover what the early church had already taught.
Believer's baptism
Bercot on baptism →
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As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting…Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we ourselves were regenerated.
Justin Martyr, First Apology 61 c. AD 155 -
And so, according to the circumstances and disposition, and even age, of each individual, the delay of baptism is preferable; principally, however, in the case of little children. For why is it necessary—if it be not a case of necessity—that the sponsors likewise should be thrust into danger?
Tertullian, On Baptism 18 c. AD 200 -
They who are about to come to baptism ought to fast, and pray, and be vigilant, and to confess all their past sins.
Didache 7 c. AD 90
Nonresistance and refusal of military service
In Guns We Trust →
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A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism.
Hippolytus of Rome, Apostolic Tradition 16 c. AD 215 -
We Christians no longer take up sword against nation, nor do we learn war any more, having become children of peace, for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader.
Origen, Against Celsus 8.73 c. AD 248 -
We who were filled with war and mutual slaughter and every wickedness have…changed our warlike weapons—our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of agriculture—and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope.
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 110 c. AD 160 -
Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in the battle when it does not become him even to sue at law?
Tertullian, On Idolatry 19 c. AD 211
Refusal of the oath
Let your Yes be Yes →
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Concerning our not swearing at all, but always speaking the truth, He commanded thus: Swear not at all; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Justin Martyr, First Apology 16 c. AD 155 -
And touching the prohibition of swearing, the testimony of Christ Himself is sufficient. He says: Let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay…for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Tertullian, On Idolatry 11 c. AD 211 -
But I assert that…the Christian must abstain from oaths. The Lord, in the Gospel, says simply, Swear not at all.
Origen, Commentary on Matthew (on Matt 5:34) c. AD 246
Economic sharing and community of goods
The ministry of serving others →
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The Christian poor man is rich; even though he has nothing on which to live, yet he has all things in Christ. So we who are united in mind and soul have no hesitation about sharing property. All things are common among us, except our wives.
Tertullian, Apology 39 c. AD 197 -
We who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need.
Justin Martyr, First Apology 14 c. AD 155 -
When they see a stranger, they bring him under their roof, and rejoice over him as over a brother indeed…Whatever they have, they give without complaining to those who have nothing. If any among them is poor or in need and they have not abundance of necessaries, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with necessary food.
Aristides, Apology 15 c. AD 125
Enemy love and the Sermon on the Mount as binding
Sermon on the Mount library →
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We have learned not only not to return blow for blow, nor to go to law with those who plunder and rob us, but to those who smite us on one side of the face to offer the other side also, and to those who take away our coat to give likewise our cloak.
Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 1 c. AD 177 -
The whole world is wet with mutual blood. And if individuals commit it, it is a crime; but it is called a virtue when it is committed in the name of the State. Not the reason of innocence, but the magnitude of savagery, gives the right of impunity to crimes.
Cyprian, To Donatus 6 c. AD 246 -
We who formerly used to murder one another do not only not make war on our enemies, but, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ.
Justin Martyr, First Apology 39 c. AD 155
Separation from the world
Gospel Simplicity: Why Anabaptism? →
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Christians are not distinguished from other men by country, language, or customs. They live each in his native land—but as resident aliens. They share all things as citizens, and suffer all things as foreigners. Every foreign land is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign.
Epistle to Diognetus 5 c. AD 130-200 -
We renounce all your spectacles, as strongly as we renounce the matters originating them, which we know were conceived from superstition, when we give up the very things which are the basis of their representations.
Tertullian, On the Spectacles 4 c. AD 197 -
We do not partake of those public feasts, nor are we present at the public games. We do not engage in the pomp of the marketplace.
Minucius Felix, Octavius 12 c. AD 200
A voluntary, regenerate church
Early Christians on salvation →
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On the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read…Then we all rise together and pray, and bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability.
Justin Martyr, First Apology 67 c. AD 155 -
They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh.
Epistle to Diognetus 5 c. AD 130-200 -
No one is born a Christian; he becomes one.
Tertullian, Apology 18 c. AD 197
Church discipline (the ban) for restoration
Menno-Protestants on the ban →
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You shall reprove one another not in anger but in peace, as you find it in the Gospel. And let no one speak with him who has done a wrong against his neighbor, neither let him be heard among you, until he repents.
Didache 15 c. AD 90 -
It is true that the discipline of the Lord forbids me to associate with such persons; but charity, which fulfills the law, requires that I should approach as one of them, that I might gain the more.
Tertullian, On Modesty 7 c. AD 220 -
For the Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without. For if she is with Novatian, she was not with Cornelius. But if she was with Cornelius, who succeeded the bishop Fabian by lawful ordination…Novatian is not in the Church.
Cyprian, Epistle 75 c. AD 254
Plainness and simplicity
Gospel Simplicity →
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Wherefore neither are we to provide for ourselves costly clothing any more than variety of food….For the Lord enjoins us to take no thought for life, what we shall eat, nor for the body, what we shall put on; for the life is more than meat, and the body more than raiment.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.11 (On Clothes) c. AD 198 -
The very dyeing itself of wool with the secret juices of herbs was not pleasing to God….He could have produced purple and scarlet sheep at their original creation, if He had wished it. But because He did not wish it, neither was it made by art.
Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women 1.8 c. AD 200
Two kingdoms: separation of church and state
The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down →
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A Christian, even when he is condemned, gives thanks. There is no greater joy than that to which we hasten when we are tortured for the Name. The blood of the martyrs is seed.
Tertullian, Apology 50 c. AD 197 -
Nothing is more foreign to us than the State. We acknowledge one all-embracing commonwealth—the world.
Tertullian, Apology 38 c. AD 197 -
For this reason it is that none of us, when he is apprehended, makes resistance, nor avenges himself against your unrighteous violence, although our people are numerous and plentiful.
Cyprian, To Demetrian 17 c. AD 252
What changed at AD 313
The Edict of Milan ended persecution and made Christianity legal. Within seventy years it became the empire’s official religion. The cost was profound. The church inherited the sword, the oath of office, the magistrate’s seat, and the obligation to fight Rome’s wars. Within a century, Augustine articulated just-war doctrine, and infant baptism became universal because the church now baptized whole subject populations.
The convictions the Ante-Nicene fathers had taught were abandoned—and would not be recovered until 1525, when a small group of young men in Zürich asked Conrad Grebel to baptize them on confession of their faith.
Frequently asked questions
Did the early church really teach believer's baptism?
The earliest baptismal documents we have—the Didache (c. AD 90), Justin Martyr's First Apology (c. 155), the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (c. 215), and Tertullian's On Baptism (c. 200)—all describe baptism as following catechesis, fasting, and personal confession of faith. Tertullian explicitly recommends delaying baptism for children. The first undisputed evidence of routine infant baptism comes from the early third century, and the universal practice does not appear until well after Constantine.
Did the early Christians refuse military service?
For the first three centuries the witness is overwhelming. Tertullian, Origen, Hippolytus, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Lactantius, and the Apostolic Tradition all teach that Christians do not bear the sword. The Apostolic Tradition explicitly requires soldiers seeking baptism to refuse to kill or be rejected from the church. Origen states that Christians "no longer take up sword against nation." This unanimous early witness only begins to break down after Constantine's conversion in AD 312.
Was the early church pacifist?
On killing, yes. Every named writer of the pre-Nicene era who addresses war, capital punishment, abortion, or gladiatorial combat condemns Christian participation. There is no surviving pre-Constantine Christian writing that endorses Christian use of lethal force. The just-war doctrine that became standard after AD 313 is a post-Constantinian innovation, not an apostolic teaching.
Why does this matter for Anabaptism?
Anabaptists from 1525 onward explicitly modeled themselves on the pre-Constantinian church. They saw their movement not as an invention but as a recovery—returning to the practice of believer's baptism, nonresistance, the rejection of the oath, and a voluntary regenerate church that the early Christians had taught. The Anabaptist claim is not "we are right because we are new" but "we are right because we are old—older than Catholicism, Lutheranism, or Calvinism, because we go back to the pre-Constantine church."
What changed at AD 313?
The Edict of Milan (313) ended persecution and made Christianity legal; within seventy years it became the empire's official religion. The cost was profound: the church inherited the sword, the oath of office, the magistrate's seat, and the obligation to fight Rome's wars. Within a century, Augustine articulated just-war doctrine, and infant baptism became universal because the church now baptized whole subject populations. The convictions the Ante-Nicene fathers had taught were abandoned—and would not be recovered until 1525.
Are these quotes verified?
Every quote on this page can be verified in the Ante-Nicene Fathers series, the standard 10-volume English edition of pre-Nicene Christian writings, edited by Roberts and Donaldson. The Historic Faith's complete library of Ante-Nicene writings reproduces the full source texts so any reader can read each citation in its original context.
Did the early Christians take the Sermon on the Mount literally?
Yes. Justin Martyr in his First Apology summarizes Christian ethics by quoting the Sermon on the Mount commands directly—love of enemies, refusal of retaliation, refusal of the oath, almsgiving, marital faithfulness. Tertullian, Athenagoras, Origen, and Cyprian all treat these commands as binding rules of life, not as ideals or counsels of perfection. The same literal reading is what the Anabaptists recovered in 1525.
Were Catholics or Protestants ever this Anabaptist?
In the New Testament and Ante-Nicene period, the historic Christian church already taught what Anabaptists later recovered. After Constantine, the eastern and western state churches gradually departed from these convictions, and the Magisterial Reformation (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin) retained infant baptism, just-war doctrine, and the state-church partnership. Only the Anabaptists, in 1525, asked the question: "What if the early church was right and we are wrong?"
About this page. Quotations are drawn from the standard Ante-Nicene Fathers series (10 vols., ed. Roberts & Donaldson). Full source texts are reproduced in our complete Ante-Nicene library, where each citation can be read in its original context. Edited by Dean Taylor for The Historic Faith. Suggest a correction.