Radical Reformation

Oversimplified

• The "left wing" of the Reformation — Anabaptists and other radicals who rejected infant baptism, state churches, and much inherited tradition, going further than Luther or Calvin.
• Its logic of restoring a "pure" New Testament church by private reading illustrates where private judgment leads.

Summary

The Radical Reformation names the 16th-century movements — Anabaptists, Spiritualists, and others — that judged Luther and Calvin insufficiently thorough. They rejected infant Baptism (rebaptizing believing adults), separated church from state, and often dismissed creeds, councils, and sacramental theology as accretions.

An Orthodox appraisal

Orthodoxy sees here the sola scriptura principle running to its end: with each person and group free to reconstruct the "true" church from the Bible alone, fragmentation multiplied. The rejection of infant baptism cuts against the ancient witness (Hippolytus, the household baptisms of Acts). It highlights the need for the living Sacred Tradition and the Church that gave and reads the Scriptures. See Anabaptist, The Right to Private Judgment, Baptism.