Freitäufer was a designation for those persons in the era of the Reformation who neither championed nor rejected infant baptism, asserting that the Holy Scriptures neither forbade nor commanded the bap­tism of infants. The name was first used by Bishop Aug. Marius of Brod to refer to Oecolampadius, the local reformer, who at first did not take a clear posi­tion on the question. The term was not widely used in the literature of the 16th century.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 392. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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