Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/470

 remaining in great dispute and hatred with these Cantons, and the others, which will, perhaps, cause the rejection of some of the articles.

That there is no purgatory, wherefore those things which are done for the dead are done in vain.

That the images of the saints are to be abolished.

There is another heretical sect * which increases greatly, not- withstanding their being violently persecuted everywhere, namely of Brethren and Sisters, who have everything in com- mon, and cause themselves to be rebaptized.

The heresy maintained by them is that infant baptism is un-' necessary, as children are pure, but adults, being in sin, re- quire it.

That original sin is removed by the death of Christ.

That the real body of Christ is not contained under the sacrament of the Eucharist. . They do not acknowledge any other sacrament.

They break the communion bread without any r^fard for the sacrament or the regulation.

They choose everything to be in common, and those who re- fuse are compelled to consent.

There are also others who maintain that Lucifer is not damned.

Others admit two principles, and two Gods, one good and one evil.

Others have no belief at all in our Lady or the saints.

These sectarians multiply so that in many places they might constrain the others, but, being all discordant, it may be ex- pected instead that they will all dissolve, though in the mean- while they might doubtless do some mischief, most especially those who, having wasted their own property, would fain con- sume in the like manner that of their neighbors, and, therefore, choose everything to be in common.

^The Anabai>ti8ts. They were 8i>reftd widely throoghotit South Germany and Switzerland, and the dogmas of the different groups and teachers were diyersc. The teachings here described cannot be identified as the doctrines of any par- ticular groupw They agree only in small part with the Seven Articles of Schlatt, prepared by Michael Sattler, February 24, 1527, and adopted by several of the Swiss and South German groups as a confession of faith. C/. H. Bohmer, Vrkunr den aur geschichU des Bauemkrieges und dtr WUdtrtaAftr (1910), pp. JSff., and W. Kohler, BrUderlich Vereimgung etzlicher Kinder gottes (1908).

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