Conrad Grebel

Lived

c. 1498–1526

Era

Reformation

Where

Zurich

Tradition

Anabaptist

The first believers' baptism, in January 1525

A patrician's son and one of Zwingli's own circle, who concluded that the Zurich reformation was conceding too much to the city council and that a church should consist of those who had chosen it.

Why it matters

On 21 January 1525, in defiance of a council order, he baptised George Blaurock at a house in Zurich and Blaurock baptised the others — the act from which every Anabaptist body descends. He was imprisoned, escaped, and died of plague at about twenty-eight, less than two years later. Felix Manz, of the same group, was drowned in the Limmat by the city in 1527.

In the record

1. 1525 AD Reform

   The Radical Reformation

   Performed the first believers' baptism, in January 1525

All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.