74), to the fact that they came immediately after the overthrow of the great political movement of 1552.

But although the older Anabaptism did not itself take political shape, it succeeded in keeping alive the tendencies and the enthusiasm out of which, under favourable circumstances, a political movement inevitably grows.

The result was, as Cornelius further observes, an agitation of such a sweeping character that the fourth decade of the sixteenth century seemed destined to realize the ideals which the third decade had striven for in vain.
The new direction in Anabaptism began in the rich and powerful Imperial city of Strassburg, where peculiar circumstances afforded the Brethren a considerable amount of toleration.

It was in the year 1526 that Anabaptism first made its appearance in Strassburg.

It was Anabaptism of the original type and conducted on the old theologico-ethical lines.