In 1528, a report was presented to Emperor Charles V by the Council of the Archbishop of Cologne about the growing number of Anabaptists. The document stated that the Anabaptists call themselves “true Christians,” that they practice baptism by immersion, and they hold to a community of goods, “which has been the way of Anabaptists for more than a thousand years, as the old histories and imperial laws testify.” Despite several other statements tying their faith to the written Word of God, on this day in 1529 the Emperor issued a edict stating, “yet do we find daily that, contrary to the promulgated common law and also to our mandate issued, such ancient sect of the Anabaptists condemned and forbidden many hundreds of years ago – more and more advances and spreads.” The Emperor called for the following penalty: “…that all and every Anabaptist and re-baptized man or woman of intelligent age shall be sentenced and executed by fire, sword, or the like.”
Through the writings of our enemies, it is evident that even 500 years ago, it was known that the so-called “Anabaptists” did not spring from the Reformation movement. They descended from the churches of the New Testament.