“Judged by the reception it met at the hands of those
in power, both in Church and State, equally in Roman Catholic and in Protestant
countries, the Anabaptist movement was one of the most tragic in the history of
Christianity; but, judged by the principles, which were put into play by the
men who bore this reproachful nickname, it must be pronounced one of the most
momentous and significant undertakings in man’s eventful religious struggle
after the truth. It gathered up the gains of earlier movements, it is the
spiritual soil out of which all nonconformist sects have sprung, and it is the
first plain announcement in modern history of a programme for a new type of
Christian society which the modern world, especially in America and England, has
been slowly realizing—an absolutely free and independent religious society, and
a State in which every man counts as a man, and has his share in shaping both
Church and State.”