The Anabaptists first became prominent about the year 1525, in Zurich, Switzerland. From that city their beliefs spread rapidly to many parts of Europe. The early 16th-century Reformation had made some changes, but in the eyes of the Anabaptists, it had not gone far enough.

In their desire to get back to the Christian teachings of the first century, they rejected more of the Roman Catholic dogma than did Martin Luther and other reformers.

The Anabaptists were misunderstood, as were the early Christians. Like them, they were viewed as upsetting the established order of society, ‘overturning the inhabited earth.’ (Acts 17:6) In Zurich, Switzerland, the authorities, linked with reformer Huldrych Zwingli, especially took issue with the Anabaptists over their refusal to baptize infants. In 1527 they cruelly drowned Felix Manz, one of the Anabaptist leaders, and so bitterly persecuted the Swiss Anabaptists that they were almost wiped out.

In Germany the Anabaptists were bitterly persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants. An imperial mandate, passed in the year 1528, imposed the death penalty on any who became Anabaptists​—and that without any form of trial. Persecution in Austria caused most Anabaptists there to seek refuge in Moravia, Bohemia, and Poland, and later on in Hungary and Russia.