"Capricious, Seductive, and Insurrectionary": Anabaptism, the Circumcellions, and the Rhetoric of Sedition
In the polemically-charged world of the sixteenth century, Anabaptist sects were often portrayed by the early magisterial Reformers as merely the latest iteration of another purist, rebaptizing brand of heretic: the Donatist church of North Africa. By mapping Anabaptism onto this paradigm, its oppon...
| Auteur principal: | |
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| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
De Gruyter
2016
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| Dans: |
Journal of Early Modern Christianity
Année: 2016, Volume: 3, Numéro: 1, Pages: 71-98 |
| Classifications IxTheo: | KAB Christianisme primitif KAG Réforme; humanisme; Renaissance KCD Hagiographie KDD Église protestante KDG Église libre KDH Sectes d’origine chrétienne |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Augustine
B Anabaptism B Donatism B polemical literature B Circumcellions |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Résumé: | In the polemically-charged world of the sixteenth century, Anabaptist sects were often portrayed by the early magisterial Reformers as merely the latest iteration of another purist, rebaptizing brand of heretic: the Donatist church of North Africa. By mapping Anabaptism onto this paradigm, its opponents could safely dismiss its theology by appealing to the writings of Augustine. But there was another reason why the slur was often cast against the Anabaptist movement, one with more political overtones: Donatists, or more accurately a radical subset of the dissident church known as the "Circumcellions," were commonly associated with sedition. In this article, I examine the ways in which the Circumcellion epithet was used to characterize the nascent Anabaptist movement of the sixteenth century. By linking the "Donatist" beliefs of Anabaptist communities to the charge of "Circumcellion" sedition, their opponents were able to legitimate the use of force against them and negate their claims to martyrdom. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-6656 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Journal of Early Modern Christianity
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/jemc-2016-0003 |