^  ^'  Die  ehe,  sagen  wir  und  halten  mit  der  Schrift,  das  sie  ist  eins  mans
und  weips  vorgaderong  und  vorpflichtong  in  dem  Herm  .  .  .  Got  hot  den
menchen  von  anfanck  gestthaffen,  ein  man  und  weip  hat  Er  sie  geschaflfen,
di  |)€ide  in  den  heiligen  estant  (ehestat)  voreiniget,  dos  di  peide  zwo  sellen
und  ein  fleische  solcn  sein.  Und  mage  also  kein  mensche  scheiden  seiche
voreinigong"  (pp.  457,  458).
POLYGAMY  465

It  is  true  that  the  Anabaptist  thought  of  **  separation/'
when  carried  out  in  its  most  extreme  way  and  to  its
utmost  logical  consequences,  struck  a  blow  at  the  sanctity
of  the  marriage  tie.  All  taught  that  the  "  believer/' i.e.
he  or  she  who  had  been  rebaptized,  ought  to  keep
themselves  separate  from  the  ''  world/'  i.e.  those  who  had
not  submitted  to  rebaptism;  and  in  the  more  extreme
sects  it  was  alleged  that  this  meant  that  spouses  ought
not  to  cohabit  with  ''unbelieving"  partners.  This  was
held  and  practised  among  the  MelchiorUes,  and  was  stated
in  its  extremest  form  in  the  Twenty-one  Bules  sent  to
Miinster  by  Jan  Matthys  by  the  hand  of  Bockelson.  They
contained  two  prescriptions — one  for  the  unmarried,
which  exhorted  them  only  to  marry  in  the  Lord ;  another
for  the  married,  which  implies  that  marriage  contracted
between  husband  and  wife  before  rebaptism  ought  to  be
repeated.  This  meant  that  marriages  contracted  by
persons  yet  "  in  the  world  "  were  not  valid,  and,  of  course,
destroyed  the  sanctity  of  all  marriages  outside  the  circle
of  the  brethren.  But  when  a  MelchiorUe  at  Strassburg,
Klaus  Frey,  whose  wife  yras  not  an  Anabaptist,  carried
out  the  principle  to  its  logical  consequences  and  married
an  Anabaptist  woman,  his  "  unbelieving "  wife  being  alive,
he  was  promptly  excommunicated.
