Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/576

AMYRAUT. the Edict of Nantes. Before this time all save Roman Catholic deputies had addressed the King on their knees; but Amyraut refused to speak unless he could stand as did the Romanists, and carried the day, his rehearsal charming even his adversaries. His oration is an historic landmark of French Protestantism. He held fast to Calvinism, but with an unusual liberality. He was repeatedly accused, but never convicted, of heresy, because in his Traité de la prédestination (1634) he advocates a modification of the strong predestination theory of the Synod of Dort by the "Universalismus hypotheticus," i.e.. the theory that God offers salvation to all under the conditions of faith. This is known as Amyraldism, and found many adherents — among them Baxter, Andrew Fuller, and the New England divines. He died at Saumur, January 8, 1664. He left many religious works.

AN, or ON. The Egyptian name of Heliopolis (q.v.).

A'NA. A termination added to the names of remarkable men, to designate collections of their sayings, anecdotes, etc.; as in the works entitled Baconiana, Johnsoniana. Such titles were first used in France, where they became common after the publication of Scaligerana by the brothers Dupuy (The Hague, 1666). In English literature there are many works of this kind. America, also, has its Washingtoniana, and Jefferson's Anas are well known to students of our history.

AN'ABAP'TISTS (Gk., anabaptizein, to rebaptize). A term applied generally in Reformation times to those Christians who rejected infant baptism and administered the rite only to adults; so that when a new member joined them, he or she was baptized, the rite as administered in infancy being considered no baptism. Still, because all other branches of the church considered this a second baptism, the term Anabaptist, i.e., one who baptizes again, was naturally applied to them. The name is, however, not now used by the present Baptists.

The primitive baptism was doubtless of adults only, but infant baptism early became the Church practice. Opposition to it was kept up by a number of minor and obscure sects in the Middle Ages. When the Reformation unshackled the popular mind it came into prominence. Unfortunately, it was linked with other unpopular ideas of a revolutionary character, and adopted by a set of fanatical enthusiasts called the prophets of Zwickau, in Saxony, at whose head were Thomas Münzer (q.v.) (1520) and others. Münzer went to Waldshut, on the borders of Switzerland, which soon became a chief seat of Anabaptism, and a centre whence visionaries and fanatics spread over Switzerland. They pretended to new revelations, dreamed of the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth, and summoned princes to join them, on pain of losing their temporal power. They rejected infant baptism, and taught that those who joined them must be baptized anew with the baptism of the Spirit; they also proclaimed the community of goods, and the equality of all Christians. These doctrines naturally fell in with and supported the &ldquo;../Peasant War/&rdquo; (q.v.) that had about that time (1525) broken out from real causes of oppression. The sect spread rapidly through Westphalia, Holstein, and the Netherlands, in spite of the severest persecutions. The battle of Frankenhausen (see )

crushed their progress in Saxony and Franconia. Still scattered adherents of the doctrines continued, and were again brought together in various places by traveling preachers. In this capacity Melchior Hoffmann, a furrier of Swabia, distinguished himself, who appeared as a visionary preacher in Kiel in 1527, and in Emden in 1528. In the last town he installed a baker, John Matthiesen, of Haarlem, as bishop, and then went to Strassburg, where he died in prison. Matthiesen began to send out apostles of the new doctrine. Two of these went to Münster, where they found fanatical coadjutors in the Protestant minister Rothmann, and the burghers Knipperdolling and Krechting, and were shortly joined by the tailor Bockhold, of Leyden, and Gerrit Kippenbrock, of Amsterdam, a bookbinder, and at last by Matthiesen himself. With their adherents they soon made themselves masters of the city; Matthiesen set up as a prophet, and when he lost his life in a sally against the Bishop of Münster, who was besieging the town, Bockhold and Knipperdolling took his place. The churches were now destroyed, and twelve judges were appointed over the tribes, as among the Israelites; and Bockhold (1534) had himself crowned king of the &ldquo;New Sion,&rdquo; under the name of John of Leyden. The Anabaptist madness in Münster now went beyond all bounds. The city became the scene of the wildest licentiousness, until several Protestant princes, uniting with the bishop, took the plan, and by executing the leaders put an end to the new kingdom (1535).

But the principles disseminated by the fanatical Anabaptists were not so easily obliterated. As early as 1533 the adherents of the sect had been driven from Emden and taken refuge in the Netherlands, and in Amsterdam the doctrine took root and spread. Bockhold also had sent out apostles, some of whom had given up the wild fanaticism of their master; they let alone the community of goods and women, and taught the other doctrines of the Anabaptists, and the establishment of a new kingdom of pure Christians. They grounded their doctrines chiefly on the Apocalypse. One of the most distinguished of this class was David Joris, a glass painter of Delft (1501-56). Joris united liberalism with Anabaptism, devoted himself to mystic theology, and sought to effect a union of parties. He acquired many adherents, who studied his book of miracles (Wunderbuch). which appeared at Deventer in 1542, and looked upon him as a sort of new Messiah. Being persecuted, he withdrew from his party, lived inoffensively at Basel, under the name of John of Bruges, and died there in the communion of the Reformed Church. It was only in 1559, when his heretical doctrines had come to light, that the council of Basel had the bones of Joris dug up and burned under the gallows.

Contemporary with these fanatical Anabaptists there were those who united denial of the validity of infant baptism with mystical views, and even with denial of the deity of Christ. But in Switzerland and South Germany the Antipædo-Baptists, who date from 1523, and were dominated by the theological views of Balthazar Hubmeier, though reckoned with the other Anabaptists and cruelly persecuted and suppressed, held only at worst defective political views, but had no part or parcel with any immoral practices. Their creed can be learned from Zwingli's