Birth of the Anabaptists

There are Roman Catholics and Protestants.

History Professor Michael Haykin

One of the legacies of the Reformation is the emergence of these two main religious groups in Western Europe claiming to be Christian. And though they disagreed with each other on key matters that this column has already noted – issues like the nature of salvation and the question of religious authority – it is important to recognise that both groups were agreed that the state had a vital role to play in the life of the church. Like their RC opponents, most 16th-century Protestants could not envision a world where state and church were not working together for the cause of Christ.