Anabaptists and the Sword (1972; revised edn. 1976) is the first book to challenge the consensus, dating from the seventeenth century, that sixteenth-century Anabaptists were nonresistants, or Christian pacifists. While recognizing the importance of the nonresistance tradition among Anabaptists, the book gives equal attention to more militant elements in Anabaptism. It is also pioneering in giving attention to Anabaptist practice as well as Anabaptist teaching on this subject.

James M. Stayer is emeritus professor at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He is a historian of sixteenth-century Anabaptism. Besides Anabaptists and the Sword (1972; revised edn. 1976), he is author of The German Peasants' War and Anabaptist Community of Goods (1991) and Martin Luther: German Saviour, Evangelical Theological Factions and the Interpretation of Luther, 1917-1933 (2000).