Notice concerning baptism

This week I'm going to start going through the Schleitheim Confesion, an Anabaptist statement of faith that dates from 1527 and is still used today. It has seven articles, and begins with baptism, which is appropriate since that was the major issue between them and everyone else.

Note that there is some hard language for certain people, but keep in mind that at the time pretty much everyone else was torturing and killing them. That's not an excuse, but it is a reason.

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I. Notice concerning baptism. Baptism shall be given to all those who have been taught repentance and the amendment of life and [who] believe truly that their sins are taken away through Christ, and to all those who desire to walk in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and be buried with Him in death, so that they might rise with Him; to all those who with such an understanding themselves desire and request it from us; hereby is excluded all infant baptism, the greatest and first abomination of the pope. For this you have the reasons and the testimony of the writings and the practice of the apostles. We wish simply yet resolutely and with assurance to hold to the same.