f which, under
favourable circumstances, a political movement inevitably grows. The
result was, as Cornelius further observes, an agitation of such a
sweeping character that the fourth decade of the sixteenth century
seemed destined to realize the ideals which the third decade had
striven for in vain.

The new direction in Anabaptism began in the rich and powerful
Imperial city of Strassburg, where peculiar circumstances afforded the
Brethren a considerable amount of toleration. It was in the year 1526
that Anabaptism first made its appearance in Strassburg. It was
Anabaptism of the original type and conducted on the old
theologico-ethical lines. But early in the year 1529 there arrived in
Strassburg a much-travelled man, a skinner by trade, by name Melchior
Hoffmann. He had been an enthusiastic adherent of the Reformation, and
it was not long before he joined the Strassburg Anabaptists and made
his mark in their community. Owing to his personal magnetism and
oratorical gifts, Melchior soon came to be regarded as a specially
ordained prophet and to have acquired corresponding influence. After a
few months Hoffmann seems to have left Strassburg for a propagandist
tour along the Rhine. The tour, apparently, had great success, the
Baptist communities being founded in all important towns as far as
Holland, in which latter country the doctrines spread rapidly. The
Anabaptism, however, taught by Melchior and his disciples did not
include the precept of patient submission to wrong which was such a
prominent characteristic of its earlier phase.

Some time after his reception into the Anabaptist body at Strassburg,
Hoffmann, while in most other points accepting the prevalent doctrines
of the Brethren, broke entirely loose from the doctrine of
non-resistance, maintaining, in theory at least, the right of the
elect to employ the sword against the worldly authorities, "the
godless," "the enemies of the saints." It was predicted, he
maintained, that a two-edged sword should be given into the hands of
the saints to destroy the "mystery of iniquity," the existing
principalities and powers, and the time was now at hand when this
prophecy should be fulfilled. The new movement in the North-west, in
the lower Rhenish districts, and the adjacent Westphalia sprang up and
extended itself, therefore, under the domination of this idea of the
reign of the saints in the approaching millennium and of the notion
that passive non-resistance, whi