I’ve been reading The Pilgrim Church, by E. H. Broadbent. The book discusses church history from around AD 100 to 1900.
Did you know that during the Reformation, millions of people were tortured and, if they refused to recant, were put to death for their Christian beliefs and practices?i And did you know that the people who put them to death were leaders of three major branches of Christianity?
The crime was believer’s baptism. Believer’s baptism was violently rejected by Catholics, the Reformed, and the Lutherans. They all taught that babies should be baptized and that being baptized twice was sacrilege. Lutherans, Reformed, and Catholics all put the so-called Anabaptists to death.
Why such a violent reaction to a seemingly minor difference?
There were several reasons for putting to death those who practiced believer’s baptism.
First, infant baptism was an important way to control people.
Second, salvation was seen as being dispensed by the church. People were to bring their babies into the church so that the infants could gain initial salvation by baptism. To reject infant baptism was to reject the idea that the church doles out salvation.
Third, while those who practiced believer’s baptism were not uniform in their beliefs, most of them held other views that infuriated the state churches. Those views included pacifism, unwillingness to take oaths, belief that the communion elements were not the actual body and blood of Christ, and teaching that Mary and the so-called saints were not to be venerated.
Broadbent suggests that in every generation from the apostles to today there have always been small, independent churches that have met in homes. He says that they were persecuted, and their writings destroyed. While he does not discuss the Free Grace issue, he implies that there have been people in every generation who have held the Free Grace view.
I had previously read that both Luther and Calvin had Anabaptists beheaded and burned at the stake. And I knew that the Catholics put people to death. But had I thought the number of those put to death to be relatively small. The number was, in fact, quite large.
I’m glad that there is religious freedom in most countries today.
As you study church history, do not forget to keep grace in focus.
i See the article by David Plaisted, “Estimates of the Number Killed by the Papacy in the Middle Ages and Later.” He suggests that between 50 and 150 million people were killed by the Catholic Church (p 2). He does not include those put to death by the Lutherans and the Reformed.
