Anabaptist
(ænəˈbæptɪst)
[ad. mod.L. anabaptista: see prec. and -ist. Cf. Fr. anabaptiste.]
1. lit. One who baptizes over again, whether frequently as a point of ritual, or once as a due performance of what has been ineffectually performed previously. Hence:
2. Ch. Hist. Name of a sect which arose in Germany in 1521.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 1557, 656/2 Those abominable heresies..y⊇ Anabaptistes haue added. 1645 E. Pagitt Heresiogr. Ep. Ded., The illuminated Anabaptists, who blasphemously affirm the Baptism of Children to be the mark of the Beast. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 225 The Anabaptists of Munster..had filled Germany with confusion by their system of levelling and their wild opinions concerning property. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. I. 364 An anarchical Germany..seething with fanatical anabaptists. |
3. Applied (more or less opprobriously) to the Protestant religious body called Baptists; formerly also, somewhat loosely, to other rejecters of Anglican doctrine as to the sacraments and ‘holy orders.’ arch. or Obs.
| 1586 H. Barrowe in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 30 Q. Do you hold it lawful to baptise children? A. Yea; I am no anabaptist I thanke God. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. v. (1851) 115 But is not the type of Priest taken away by Christs comming? No, saith this famous Protestant Bishop of Winchester; it is not, and he that saith it is, is an Anabaptist. 1644 (title) The Confession of Faith of those Churches which are commonly (though falsely) called Anabaptists. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 385 An Anabaptist is a Water-Saint, that, like a Crocodile, sees clearly in the Water, but dully, on Land. 1809 Kendall Trav. I. xii. 132 The baptists, more properly called anabaptists. 1883 Dr. J. Angus (in let.) Baptists never called themselves anabaptists; as they did not admit that immersion even was baptism, unless accompanied with an intelligent concurrence, practically, an avowal of faith, on the part of the recipient. |
4. attrib.
| 1708 Swift Sacram. Test. Wks. 1755 II. i. 131 A presbyterian or anabaptist preacher. 1808 Syd. Smith Wks. 1859 I. 106/2 Missions of Anabaptist dissenters. 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. IV. xxiii. 488 To check Anabaptist and Puritan excesses. |