[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 … ye Anabaptistes haue added.
1645. 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.
