This review brings together research in three areas of Anabaptist studies and the Radical Reformation. The first part focuses on 16th-century Anabaptism, re-examining the polygenesis model of Anabaptism articulated by Stayer, Packull and Depperman. The second part deals with the connections between Anabaptists and other Reformation dissenters, their marginalization as social groups and their relations with the intellectual movements of the age. The final section addresses historiographic and comparative issues of writing the history of marginalizaed groups, investigating some preconceptions which influence historians' approaches to Anabaptism and their implications for understanding other religious organizations.

Diverse primary sources bring out unique characteristics of one branch of the Radical Reformation. The South German/Austrian branch of the Anabaptist family was unique in its mystical origins, spiritualist emphases, fascination with the end times, and communal forms of Anabaptism. These newly translated sources--from influential pre-Anabaptist writings by Jörg Haugk von Jüchsen and Hans Hergot, through writings of Hans Hut and confessions of Ambrosius Spitelmaier in the 1520s, to the experiences of the Hutterite missionary Hans Schmidt in 1590--shed light on this part of the Anabaptist world. The collection includes testimonies of Anabaptist leaders, writings by Protestant clerics, and testimonies and hymns from Anabaptist women including Katharina Hutter and Helena von Freyberg. This is the tenth volume in the Classics of the Radical Reformation, a series of Anabaptist and Free Church documents translated and annotated under the direction of the Institute of Mennonite Studies.