Anabaptist beliefs history groups today
The short answer
An Anabaptist is a Christian in the movement called Anabaptism, which began in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1525. Anabaptists baptize only people old enough to believe and confess Jesus, and they try to live out the Sermon on the Mount: love for enemies, no oaths, and a church separate from the state. The Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites all come from them.
The name means “re-baptizer.” Their opponents gave it to them. Anabaptists are a family of churches, not one denomination.
At a glance
an-uh-BAP-tist noun also Anabaptists (the people) and Anabaptism (the movement)
| Began | , Zurich, Switzerland1 |
|---|---|
| First leaders | Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock |
| Part of | The Radical Reformation |
| Other early leaders | Michael Sattler, Balthasar Hubmaier, Pilgram Marpeck, Jakob Hutter, Menno Simons, Dirk Philips |
| Confessions | Schleitheim (1527, 7 articles); Dordrecht (1632, 18 articles)8 |
| Key books | Martyrs Mirror (1660); the Ausbund hymnal |
| Groups today | Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, Brethren groups, Bruderhof |
| Size today | About 2.03 million baptized believers in 87 countries14 |
| Marks | Believer’s baptism, nonresistance, no oaths, church discipline, two kingdoms |
This page is written by The Historic Faith, a ministry that studies the first three centuries of the church. We see the Anabaptists as a movement that tried to return to what the early church believed. Where we give our own view, we say so; facts and quotes are traced in the numbered notes.
The library
Encyclopedias tell you about the Anabaptists. Here you can hear them, watch their heirs, and read the early Christians they tried to follow. We know of no other site that has these.
766
For each conviction, a page of what the first Christians wrote: 766 belief topics, with up to 200+ passages each.
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Hear DiognetusiThe word
Short answer
“Anabaptist” comes from the Greek ana (again) and baptizo (baptize), so it means “re-baptizer.” Opponents used the word in the 1520s for Christians who baptized adults who had been baptized as babies. Those Christians rejected the name: to them infant baptism was no baptism at all, so they were not baptizing anyone again.
iiProtestant?
Short answer
Many Anabaptists say they are “neither Catholic nor Protestant.” They began during the Reformation and left Rome like the Protestants did, but they broke with Luther and Zwingli over infant baptism, state churches and the sword, and both Catholics and Protestants persecuted them. Historians often call the movement the Radical Reformation.
| Question | Catholic | Luther & Zwingli | Anabaptists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who is baptized? | Infants | Infants | Believers only |
| Church and state | Joined | Joined | Kept apart |
| May a Christian use the sword? | Yes | Yes | No (most) |
The heart of it
Short answer
Anabaptists hold the common Christian faith: one God in three persons, the Bible as God’s Word, and salvation by grace through Jesus Christ. What sets them apart is how they follow Jesus: baptism of believers only, love for enemies instead of force, no oaths, a church separate from the state, loving church discipline, and a simple life apart from the world.
Did the first Christians believe the same? Nearly 1,300 years apart, the same words.
“…children of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader”
“Those who are truly born again are the children of peace, for they have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they know war no more.”
Eight convictions. For each one an early Christian speaks first, then an Anabaptist, and every quote links to where you can read it.
c. AD 200Early Christian
“Accordingly, all thereafter who became believers used to be baptized.”
1632Anabaptist
“…all penitent believers… must, upon such Scriptural confession of faith, and renewing of life, be baptized with water”
In plain words: Anabaptists baptize people who repent, believe and ask for it, not babies. In 1525 this was a crime in Zurich, and it gave them their name. They saw themselves as returning to the church’s first practice.
c. AD 100Early Christian
“But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy.”
1527Anabaptist
“The true love of Christ shall not destroy the enemy”
In plain words: Anabaptists will not kill or use force against an enemy, in war or in private life. They call this nonresistance, from Jesus’ words “resist not evil.” It is not only refusing war; it is doing good to those who do harm.
Also: Is nonresistance the same as pacifism? Every Bible verse on nonresistance The Sermon on the Mount on nonresistance
early 300sEarly Christian
“…but he will not even swear, lest at any time, either by necessity or through habit, he should fall into perjury.”
1632Anabaptist
“…that they should not swear at all, but that yea should be yea, and nay, nay”
In plain words: Jesus said “swear not at all” (Matthew 5:34). Anabaptists take that as it reads. In court or anywhere else they affirm instead of swearing, and try to make every plain word as true as an oath.
c. AD 155Early Christian
“Thus, we worship God alone, but in other matters, we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men”
1632Anabaptist
“…must acknowledge and honor them as the ministers of God… especially in that which is not contrary to the law, will, and commandment of God”
In plain words: The church is one kingdom and the world’s governments are another. Anabaptists honor rulers, pay taxes and pray for them, but their first loyalty is to Christ. So they do not take the sword for any nation.
Also: Two-kingdom theology, an Anabaptist insight A Change of Allegiance (free course) Kingdom Christianity
c. AD 200Early Christian
“…for as our mind is relaxed by luxury, so it is strengthened by frugality.”
1500sAnabaptist
“…clothes the naked; feeds the hungry; consoles the afflicted; shelters the miserable”
In plain words: Plain dress, modest homes and a quiet life are not rules for their own sake. They free time and money for the poor, and keep the heart from loving the world.
Also: Separation from the world (207 passages) Christian dress
c. AD 200Early Christian
“Heretics, however, have no fellowship in our discipline, whom the mere fact of their excommunication testifies to be outsiders.”
1632Anabaptist
“…a ban, separation, and Christian correction in the church, for amendment, and not for destruction”
In plain words: A church of believers keeps watch over its members. When someone will not turn from open sin, the church may set them outside its fellowship (“the ban”), always hoping they will come back.
c. AD 195Early Christian
“For this is the wish of the Word, since it is becoming for her to pray veiled.”
todayAnabaptist voice
We do not quote an old Anabaptist text here. Instead, hear a sister explain in her own words why she began to wear a covering.
How I started wearing head coverings and dressesIn plain words: Following 1 Corinthians 11, Anabaptist women cover their heads in prayer and worship, and in many churches all day. The first Christians wrote about the same practice.
c. AD 250Early Christian
“If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
1632Anabaptist
“…washed His apostles’ feet, thereby giving an example that they should likewise wash one another’s feet”
In plain words: Many Anabaptist churches wash one another’s feet at communion, as Jesus did in John 13. It is a lesson in humility you do with your hands.
“Passages” on our belief pages are gathered from early Christian writings and the Bible; some are later writers. Each page shows where every passage comes from.18 See them side by side on Anabaptist convictions and the early church, or take the free course Questions for Anabaptists.
iiiNonresistance
Short answer
Not quite. Pacifism is usually a position against war that may seek to change governments. Nonresistance is the Anabaptist teaching from Jesus’ words “resist not evil” (Matthew 5:39): a Christian does not use force against anyone, even in self-defense, and does not go to law for revenge, while leaving the sword to the state.
“the Lord Christ has forbidden and set aside to His disciples and followers all revenge and retaliation”
ivConfessions & books
Short answer
Anabaptists wrote short confessions of faith, letters from prison, hymns and martyr stories. The best known are the Schleitheim Confession (1527, seven articles), the writings of Menno Simons, the Dordrecht Confession (1632, eighteen articles), the Martyrs Mirror (1660) and the Ausbund hymnbook, still sung by the Old Order Amish.
We do not yet host these texts. Our guides: The Schleitheim Confession The Martyrs Mirror. Planned pages: Dordrecht Confession Menno Simons
Watch Listen
Short answer
Start with one short conversation, then the history. Watch “The Essence of Anabaptism” with Dean Taylor, listen to Menno Simons’ own testimony read aloud, and take the free 22-lecture history course at your own pace. Every video has a transcript, and many have discussion questions for your family or church group.
Anabaptist Perspectives · Episode 1 · 2018
The first episode of Anabaptist Perspectives: Dean Taylor on what lies at the core of Anabaptist belief. A good first 26 minutes for anyone asking what Anabaptists are about.
Nearly 2,000 videos from 12 Anabaptist channels: teaching, testimonies and a cappella singing, in one place.
The cost
Short answer
In 16th-century Europe every baby was baptized into the state church, so baptizing adults broke the law. Anabaptists also refused oaths and military service, which rulers took as rebellion. Catholic and Protestant authorities alike jailed, drowned, burned and beheaded them. Thousands were imprisoned and many were executed, yet they did not fight back.
In 1569 Dirk Willems escaped from prison across a frozen pond in Holland. The man chasing him broke through the ice. The Martyrs Mirror tells what happened next:
“Dirk Willems, perceiving that the former was in danger of his life, quickly returned and aided him in getting out, and thus saved his life.”
The man he saved wanted to let him go, but the burgomaster ordered him seized, and Dirk was burned at the stake. Felix Manz had written before his death: “The true love of Christ shall not destroy the enemy.”10 At his trial, Michael Sattler was charged with teaching that “if the Turks should invade the country, no resistance ought to be offered them.”11
Almost all were not. Stirred by end-times predictions from followers of the preacher Melchior Hoffman, a radical group seized the German city of Münster in 1534. Under Jan Matthys and then John of Leiden they took up arms. The city was besieged and retaken in June 1535. The peaceful Swiss and Dutch Anabaptists, Menno Simons among them, rejected it, and nonresistance became the mark of the movement that lasted.4
Lecture: The Münster tragedy and Melchior Hoffman Read: The Martyrs Mirror
Anabaptist history
Short answer
It started in Zurich, Switzerland, on January 21, 1525. Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock and a few friends had studied the Bible with the reformer Ulrich Zwingli but wanted a church of believers only. Days after the city council ordered infant baptism, they met in a Zurich house, standard accounts say the Manz home, and baptized one another as adults.
On January 21 the first adult baptisms take place in Zurich. Within days more believers are baptized in the nearby village of Zollikon.1
Lecture 7: The Birth of the AnabaptistsFelix Manz is drowned in January. On February 24 the Swiss Brethren agree on seven articles at Schleitheim; Michael Sattler is burned that May.2
Lecture 9: Sattler and the Schleitheim ConfessionRefugees begin to share all goods, as in Acts 2. Under Jakob Hutter, burned at Innsbruck in 1536, they become the Hutterites.6
Lecture 13: The Birth of the HutteritesA radical group seizes the city by force and is crushed after a siege. The peaceful majority rejects it.
Lecture 15: The Münster TragedyA Catholic priest in Friesland leaves the priesthood and gathers the scattered, peaceful Dutch Anabaptists. They become known as Mennonites.5
Lecture 16: Menno SimonsDutch Mennonites agree on 18 articles of faith. Swiss Brethren in Alsace accept it in 1660; many Amish and conservative Mennonites still teach from it.8
Lecture 17: The church splits of HollandThieleman J. van Braght gathers the stories of Christians who died for their faith, Anabaptists among them. Jan Luyken’s etchings are added in 1685.
Why were Anabaptists persecuted?Mennonite families settle at Germantown, Pennsylvania. Swiss Mennonites farm in Lancaster County from 1710, and Amish families follow from the 1730s.7
Lecture 19: The Anabaptists Come to AmericaJakob Ammann, an elder in Alsace, calls for stricter shunning and church order. Those who follow him become the Amish.
Lecture 11: The Birth of the AmishMennonites from Prussia found the Chortitza colony in today’s Ukraine. From the 1870s many move on to the plains of the United States and Canada.
Lecture 18: The Russian Mennonite fireAnabaptist churches meet on every inhabited continent. Almost half of the baptized believers now live in Africa.14
Lecture 21: The 20th-Century Mission MovementConrad Grebelc. 1498–1526A leader of the first brethren in Zurich; died of the plague.
Felix Manzc. 1498–1527A Hebrew scholar, drowned by Zurich for rebaptizing.
George Blaurockc. 1491–1529A former priest and bold preacher, burned in Tyrol.
Michael Sattlerc. 1490–1527A former Benedictine prior; helped write the Schleitheim articles.
Jakob Hutterdied 1536The leader whose name the Hutterites carry.
Menno Simons1496–1561Priest turned Anabaptist pastor; the Mennonites carry his name.
Dirk Philips1504–1568Menno’s close co-worker and a writer for the Dutch churches.
Dirk Willemsdied 1569Saved the man who was chasing him, and died for it.
Thieleman J. van Braght1625–1664Dordrecht minister who compiled the Martyrs Mirror.
Jakob Ammannc. 1644–before 1730Swiss Brethren elder whose followers became the Amish.
The family today
Short answer
“Anabaptist” is the whole family; Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites are branches of it. Mennonites take their name from Menno Simons, the Amish parted from the Swiss Brethren in 1693, and Hutterites share all goods in common. Baptists are a separate movement, begun by English believers in 1609, that also baptizes believers but mostly does not teach nonresistance.
| Group | Began | Named after | Who is baptized | Nonresistance | Property | Dress & technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anabaptists the whole family | Zurich, 1525 | Opponents’ word “re-baptizer” | Believers only | Historic teaching | Mostly private, with mutual aid | Varies widely |
| Mennonites | Netherlands, from 1536 | Menno Simons | Believers only | Taught in most conservative churches | Private, with mutual aid | From modern to plain dress |
| Amish | Alsace & Switzerland, 1693 | Jakob Ammann | Believers, as young adults joining the church | Yes | Private, with strong mutual aid | Plain dress; most do not own cars |
| Hutterites | Moravia, from 1528 | Jakob Hutter | Believers only | Yes | Shared in common on colonies | Plain dress; modern farm machines |
| Baptists not an Anabaptist branch | Amsterdam, 1609 (English believers) | Believer’s baptism | Believers only, usually by immersion | Not held by most | Private | Modern |
Today & numbers
Short answer
Yes. Anabaptist churches — Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite, Brethren and others — meet on every inhabited continent. The newest count is about 2.03 million baptized believers in 87 countries. Other counts run up to about 4 million, because each source counts something different: baptized members or whole families, one network of churches or every related group.
2.03million
Baptized believers in 87 countries, the whole Anabaptist family. Children are not counted. Almost half live in Africa.
Mennonite World Conference, read November 2026 · mwc-cmm.org14
421,200
Amish in North America, adults and children, in 33 states and three Canadian provinces, June 2026.
Young Center, Elizabethtown College · Amish Studies16
2,131,000
Baptized members in 86 countries in the 2018 census. The total moves as churches join, leave or report.
MWC 2018 census · Anabaptist World15
about 4million
A broad estimate of all Anabaptists in the world. No method is given.
These are outside counts, not ours. When you see a number for “Anabaptists,” ask: members or people? which groups? what year?
Start here
Pick the one that sounds like you. Each path is three steps; tap it to open.
Short answer
Look for congregations that call themselves Mennonite, Conservative Mennonite, Beachy Amish, Brethren, Hutterite or Kingdom Christian. Most welcome visitors on a Sunday morning. Before you go, read what they believe; when you visit, ask about baptism, nonresistance and how they practice church discipline, and dress modestly.
Many plain churches are small and not online. Two places to start:21
The Encounter conference, February 25–28, 2027, at Joy El, Greencastle, Pennsylvania.
About EncounterFind an Anabaptist church · coming Anabaptist groups today · coming
Questions
Short, plain answers. Tap a question to open it.
No. Anabaptism is a family of churches that share the same roots and convictions, not one denomination with one headquarters. Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, Brethren and many independent fellowships all belong to it, and each has its own leaders, customs and conferences. Some conservative churches today simply call themselves Kingdom Christians.
Yes. Anabaptists confess the Apostles’ Creed faith: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ crucified and risen, and the Bible as God’s Word. They stress that faith in Jesus must be lived out in obedience, especially to the Sermon on the Mount, inside a committed church of baptized believers.
Yes. The Amish are one branch of the Anabaptist family. They began in 1693, when Jakob Ammann, an elder in Alsace, parted from other Swiss Brethren over how strictly to practice shunning and other points of church order. His followers became the Amish. About 421,200 Amish live in North America today.
No. Both baptize believers only, but Baptists began separately, among English believers in Amsterdam in 1609, almost a century after the Anabaptists. Most Baptists accept military service and oaths and do not practice the ban or plain dress. The comparison table above shows the differences side by side.
No single person. The first leaders in Zurich in 1525 were Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz and George Blaurock. Michael Sattler, Balthasar Hubmaier, Pilgram Marpeck, Jakob Hutter and Menno Simons led other early groups. Anabaptists themselves point back past all of them to Jesus and the apostles.
The first Anabaptist statement of faith, agreed at Schleitheim, Switzerland, on February 24, 1527, with Michael Sattler as its main author. Its seven articles cover baptism, the ban, the breaking of bread, separation from evil, shepherds of the church, the sword, and the oath. Sattler was executed a few months later.
Menno Simons (1496–1561) was a Catholic priest in Friesland, in the Netherlands, who came to believe in believer’s baptism. In 1536 he left the priesthood and spent the rest of his life as a hunted leader and writer for the peaceful Dutch Anabaptists. The Mennonites are named after him.
A large book first published in Dutch in 1660 by Thieleman J. van Braght. It tells the stories of Christians who died for their faith, from the apostles to the 1600s, and above all of Anabaptist martyrs. The 1685 edition added Jan Luyken’s etchings. Many Amish and Mennonite homes still keep a copy.
Because in the New Testament people are baptized after they hear the gospel, repent and believe. A baby cannot repent or confess faith. Anabaptists dedicate children to God and teach them, then baptize them when they can freely ask for it and commit to the church.
Jesus said “Swear not at all” (Matthew 5:34) and “let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay” (Matthew 5:37). Anabaptists take this plainly. In court they affirm instead of swearing, which most countries now allow. In the 1500s refusing the oath was treated as disloyalty and was one reason they were persecuted.
Anabaptists said they were going back to the church of the apostles. Christians who wrote before AD 325 — the Didache, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen and others — speak of baptism after faith, of loving enemies instead of fighting, and of refusing oaths. You can read their own words here and judge for yourself.
No. Quakers began in England in the 1650s under George Fox, more than a century after the Anabaptists. They share a peace witness and plain living, and Quakers and Mennonites worked side by side in early Pennsylvania, but Quakers do not practice water baptism and are a separate movement.
We do not yet host them. Public-domain English texts are online: the Dordrecht Confession of 1632 on Wikisource, Menno Simons’ Complete Works of 1871 at mennosimons.net, and the 1886 Martyrs Mirror at homecomers.org. You can hear Menno Simons’ own testimony read aloud on this site.
Dordrecht Confession Menno Simons, Complete Works Martyrs Mirror Menno, read aloud
Begin
Press play on Menno Simons’ own story of his conversion, or start the free 22-lecture history course.
Pages we are building. They are not links yet. We do not yet host the full texts of the confessions or the Martyrs Mirror.
Lectures, belief pages and library chapters are on The Historic Faith. Outside sources are named with their address.
Cite this page: The Historic Faith editorial team, “What Is an Anabaptist?”, The Historic Faith, reviewed November 6, 2026, https://thehistoricfaith.com/anabaptist.
