Tuesday, December 28, 2010

THE SECOND EDICT BY THOSE OF ZURICH, IN WHICH ALL SO CALLED ANABAPTISTS ARE THREATENED WITH DEATH, A.D. 1530

Huldrych Swingli was a Swiss reformer who lived from 1484-1531.  Along with the Catholics he broke away from, Martin Luther, John Calvin and the other reformers, he harshly persecuted the Anabaptist using the power of the state and his fake church.  There were two groups of Anabaptists at different times:  Ones who were nonresistant to evil by force--a voluntarily defenseless and impoverished little flock; and others who took up the sword against their enemies.  Anabaptist simply means re-baptized.

The below information is from the Martyr’s Mirror:

There has existed, writes a certain author, in the Zwinglian churches, from their beginning, a great hatred and bitterness against the Anabaptists, or more properly speaking, against those baptized according to the ordinance of Christ as history certifies; by which they commenced very early to tyrannize over them; for we believe the Zwinglian church was not yet ten years old when said abuse occurred. Yet it did not stop at this, but they proceeded, the longer, the worse, in this tyranny; so that those of Zurich, A. D. 1530, emitted an edict very much like the bloody decrees of the Roman Emperor, in which they write as follows:

"Therefore we strictly command all the inhabitants of our country, and those who are in any wise united with them, particularly high and low magistrates, bailiffs, constables, judges, elders of churches, and ecclesiastical officers, that, if they hear of any Anabaptists, they give us information concerning them; by virtue of the oath with which they are bound to us; that they nowhere tolerate them, or allow them to multiply; but that they apprehend them, and deliver them to us; for we shall punish with death, according to the purport of our laws, the Anabaptists with all those who favor them or adhere to them; and we shall also punish without mercy, according to their deserts, as having violated the faith and oath which they swore to their authorities," those who assist, and do not report, drive away, or bring as prisoners to us, all such persons.

This we have taken word for word from the edict, as Bullinger (contra, etc.) has cited it. Compare the note in the preface to the Offerboeck der Doopsgesinde, A. D. 1615, letter Y, with P. J. Twisck's, Chron., p. 1031, col. 1, from different authors.

No comments:

Post a Comment

“Reason dictates that persons who are truly noble and who love wisdom will honor and love only what is true. They will refuse to follow traditional viewpoints if those viewpoints are worthless...Instead, a person who genuinely loves truth must choose to do and speak what is true, even if he is threatened with death...I have not come to flatter you by this written petition, nor to impress you by my words. I have come to simply beg that you do not pass judgment until you have made an accurate and thorough investigation. Your investigation must be free of prejudice, hearsay, and any desire to please the superstitious crowds. As for us, we are convinced that you can inflict no lasting evil on us. We can only do it to ourselves by proving to be wicked people. You can kill us—but you cannot harm us.” From Justin Martyr's first apology 150 A.D. Martyred A.D. 160