A member of a 16th-century radical Protestant movement that practiced adult baptism and rejected state church authority.
From Greek 'ana-' (again) + 'baptists' (one who baptizes). Originally a derogatory label applied by mainstream Protestants and Catholics to describe this group, the term eventually became the standard historical designation for the movement.
Some Anabaptists believed in radical pacifism and refused to use violence even in self-defense—centuries before Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. made nonviolence famous. Their radical approach to faith and community influenced countless social reform movements that followed.
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