The stepchildren of the Reformation were called many things by the Reformers: Donatisten (Donatists), Stabler (staff-carriers), Catharer (heretics), Sacrement-schwarmer (sacramentarians), Winckler (those who gather in a Winckel, or secluded place, for religious exercises), Wiedertaufer (Anabaptists), and Rottengeister (agitators).

The author devotes a chapter to each aspect of Anabaptist faith and life suggested by these terms of reproach. The rift between them and the Reformers, writes the author, "was the result of a problem that perennially besets the Church of Christ, the problem of how to relate the Church to its environment."