Heterogeneous religion: imperfect or braided?

Abstract

Abstract This essay describes the intertwined syncretism of Italian Anabaptism. It uses the term composite religion to describe a religious heterogeneity in which Antitrinitarianism and Anabaptism are regarded as constituent elements. The circulation of Italian Anabaptists in the Transalpine region facilitated the accumulation and braiding of radical intellectual influences; thus, passing from one creed to the other was fairly unproblematic and those who relocated fostered the circulation of the ideas that soon became the backbone of a movement. In Transylvania and Poland, local variants of Antitrinitarian Anabaptism developed simultaneously – at times cooperating, but also contradicting each other on various occasions, and eventually taking different paths towards the development of mature religious churches.