Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/482

 4:50 ANABAPTISTS gained signal advantages. His fanaticism rose with his success, and, issuing forth again with only 30 followers relying on their spiritual pre- tensions, was with all of them put to death. John Boccold was now raised to the throne of David, in obedience to divine commands made known in visions. He wore a crown, clothed himself in purple, coined money, and appointed judges. But the fanaticism, when it had reached the height of spiritual folly, passed by an easy transition to license and sensuality. The obligations of matrimony were declared invasive of spiritual liberty, and freedom of divorce and licentiousness followed. King John himself multiplied his wives, honoring, however, one of them only as his queen. The example of the monarch was not lost upon the people, and the name of Munster during the reign of the Ana- baptists has passed to history as the synonyme of unbridled and indecent lust. The city was taken June 24, 1535, after a brave defence, in which Rothmann was slain. John Boccold, and Knipperdolling and Krechting, leading associ- ates, were tortured with red-hot pincers, and then hung up in iron cages, which are still pre- served in Munster. Thus in 15 months per- ished the kingdom of the Anabaptists. Even now, however, the delusion did not cease. It subsided indeed into its more spiritual char- acter, and its excesses were chiefly individual and local. But the fanaticism of this class of Anabaptists remained the reproach of the re- formation, and the terror of civil society. There was another class of Anabaptists, widely different from those who have been described. In some instances, undoubtedly, when the for- mer class fell back upon their purely spiritual views, the two parties coalesced. Brandt re- fers to an instance in which the moderate were brought into difficulty by being found in such association with the fanatical. The distinction, however, is real, and may be traced. It is a mistake to suppose that the rejection of infant baptism during the reformation was found among the unlearned only. Melanch- thon, Zwingli, and (Ecolampadius were all troubled by the questions which arose respect- ing the adjustment of this rite to the personal faith required by Protestantism. Some of those who became leaders of the Anabaptists were the associates and equals of these reformers. Mantz, Grebel, and Hubmeyer were men of learning the last of great genius and elo- quence. Mantz had been the friend and fel- low student of Zwingli, and was an early mar- tyr in the cause of the Anabaptists, Zwingli himself pronouncing his sentence in the words, " Qui iterum mergit, mergatur." The persecu- tion of such men and their followers in Swit- zerland shocked the moderate of all parties. In expressing his views of this persecution, Erasmus pays a tribute to the character of the sufferers in these words: "A people against whom there is very little to be said, and con- cerning whom we are assured there are many who have been reformed from the worst to the ANABAS SCANDENS best lives; and though, perhaps, they may foolishly err in certain opinions, yet have they never stormed towns nor churches, nor entered into any combinations against the authority of the magistrate, nor driven anybody from his government or estate." These people, so per- secuted, demanded a church composed of spir- itual persons, introduced into it by a voluntary baptism. They demanded likewise the separa- tion of the church from the state, and the non- interference of the magistrate in matters of re- ligion. Anabaptists of the same class were found in the Netherlands in large numbers. The record of their sufferings, their martyrs multiplied by thousands, furnishes a melancholy and affecting chapter in human history. Wil- liam of Orange, founder of the Dutch republic, was sustained in the gloomiest hours of his struggles by their sympathy and aid, and has left his testimony to their loyalty, industry, and virtue. That great prince, however impor- tuned, steadfastly refused to persecute them. The same class were found in England during the reign of Edward VI., and Burnet declares that books, not flames, were used in reply to their arguments. One of the doctrinal peculi- arities of the Anabaptists, which seems to have been almost universal among them, related to the origin of the human nature of Christ. They denied that he took his flesh of Mary, ex- plaining his incarnation by a higher miracle. Doubts have arisen, on the one hand, as to whether they believed in the reality of his human nature, and on the other, as to whether they believed him to be a divine person. The records of the examination of some of them before the courts ought to remove all questions of this kind. They believed fully in his com- plete humanity, and their answers show that their questionings in regard to the origin of his human nature did not necessarily imply any departure from the common views of his divin- ity. Menno Simonis became their chief leader, and the instrument of their organization into a recognized body of Protestant Christians. ' Mennonites and Anabaptists have from his tune been interchangeable terms, and the communi- ties so called have descended to the present age. (See MENNO SYMONS, and MENNONITES.) ANABAS SCANDENS (Cuv.), an acanthopte- rygious fish, of the family of labyrinthibran- chida, and the only species of the genus. This family, which has been known from remote antiquity, is remarkable for the peculiar struc- ture of some of the pharyngeal bones and for the serrations of the gill covers. The palate is toothless ; the jaw teeth are villiform, the outer ones the strongest ; the lower is tooth- less in front, but far back among the three supe- rior pharyngeals the teeth are crowded, conical, and large. The head is round and wide, and its scales, as well as those of the body, are large, hard, and strong ; the dorsal and anal fins are of nearly equal height ; the branchiostegal rays are six. The inferior and three posterior up- per pharyngeals are of the usual form, and provi-