In the late 1520s persecution drove many Anabaptists to Moravia where, throughout the sixteenth century, they continued the commoners' resistance to privilege in church and state. Stayer argues that in Münster, however, where there had been no Peasants' War and where urban notables were prominent in the Anabaptist leadership, Anabaptist communism was badly corrupted. The historical continuities which Stayer establishes between the Peasants' War and Anabaptism in Switzerland, south Germany, and Moravia can in part explain this contrast.

James M. Stayer is Professor of History, Queen's University.

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"This work ... by one of the most eminent historians of the radical Reformation, will doubtless provoke controversy in this busy area of scholarship." Michael Mullet, European History Quarterly. "Stayer offers a provocative and far-reaching revision of the existing picture of Anabaptism ... by setting out the case for the concept of the community of goods as the common source of their religious and social beliefs." Alexander Cowan, Journal of Ecclesiastical History. "A tour de force ... Stayer is one of the most scrupulously careful historians in sixteenth-century studies today ... Stayer's theme of unity may indeed ... signal a movement toward the search for synthesis among Anabaptists, based as much on socio-religious grounds as on theology." John Oyer, Goshen College, Indiana.