communism, and believed that they were Divinely commissioned to destroy all magistrates and set up the Kingdom of God by waging war on all who did not accept their views.
Menno was a man alike pious and cultivated and well versed in theology. He maintained that no man was a Christian without a new birth "which is begun by God, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, of which the most certain fruit is a new life. Regenerate men constitute the true Christian Church, who worship Christ as their only and true King, who fight not with swords and carnal weapons, but only with spiritual weapons, i.e., with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. They seek no kingdom but that of grace. Their doctrine is the Word of the Lord, and everything not taught therein they reject." In opposition to the fanatical party, from which Menno wished to dissociate his followers, he held that no Christian could take oath or carry arms or wage war; and that magistrates should be obeyed in all things not contrary to the Word of God. Further, Menno maintained the need of careful discipline to preserve the purity of the Church, saying that the "visible Church vanished where discipline is not exercised," and that "the words and works of the members of a Church should agree". Baptism was administered only to adults, by pouring water on their head. It was preceded by evidence of a change of life in the person so admitted into the visible Church; but baptism was not held to confer any grace in itself; it was merely an emblem of the state of the believer who was already washed and cleansed by the Spirit of God.
