Menno Simons - wood engraving by Christoffel van Sichem 1610
Menno Simons (1496–January 311561) was an Anabaptist religious leader from Friesland (today a province of The Netherlands). His followers became
known as Mennonites. Cf. Protestant
reformers.
Birth to priesthood
Menno Simonszoon (Simon's son) was born in Witmarsum, Friesland. Friesland was ravaged by war in the late 15th and early 16th century. Landsknecht soldiers haunted the Frisian lands in the 1490s to force the 'Free' Frisians to accept the duke
of Saxony-Meissen as their head-of-state. The duke was the governor of the Netherlands for the
Habsburg family. One of the archenemies of the Habsburgs, the Duke of Guelders invaded Friesland in 1515 and conquered half of it. The other half was ceded by Saxony to the
Habsburgers. The Frisians tried to regain their freedom but they were too weak and eventually accepted the imperial authority of
the Habsburg emperor Charles V. Simons grew up in this disillusioned and
war torn country. Very little is known concerning his parents or his childhood. He was of poor peasant parentage, and his
education was limited to his training to become a priest. Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1524 at Utrecht, he was then made
a chaplain in his father's village Pingjum.
Theological efforts
Around 1526 or 1527, questions surrounding the doctrine of transubstantiation
caused Menno to begin a serious and in-depth search of the scriptures, which he confessed he had
not previously studied, even being a priest. At this time he arrived at what some have termed an "evangelical humanist" position.
Menno's first knowledge of the concept of "rebaptism", which he said "sounded very strange to me", came in 1531. This
came through the means of hearing of the beheading of Sicke Freerks Snijder at Leeuwarden for
being "rebaptized". A renewed search of the scriptures left Menno Simons believing that infant
baptism is not in the Bible. He discussed the issue with his pastor, searched the
Church Fathers, and read the works of Martin
Luther and Heinrich Bullinger. While still pondering the issue, he was
transferred to Witmarsum. Here he came into direct contact with Anabaptists, preaching and practicing credo baptism. Later, some of the Münsterite disciples came
there as well. While he regarded them as misled and fanatical, he was drawn to their zeal and their view on the Bible, the
Church, and discipleship. When his brother Pieter was among a group of Anabaptists killed near Bolsward in 1535, Menno experienced a spiritual and mental crisis. He said he "prayed to God with sighs and
tears that He would give to me, a sorrowing sinner, the gift of His grace, create within me a clean heart, and graciously through
the merits of the crimson blood of Christ, he would graciously forgive my unclean walk and unprofitable life…"[1]
Menno Simons rejected the Catholic church and the priesthood in January of 1536, casting his lot with the Anabaptists. His
date of baptism is unknown, but by October of 1536 his connection with Anabaptism was well-known. In that month Herman and Gerrit
Jans were arrested and charged with having lodged Simons. He was probably baptized not long after leaving Witmarsum in early
1536. He was ordained around 1537 by Obbe Philips. Obbe and his brother, Dirk Philips, were among the peaceful disciples of Melchior
Hoffman (the more radical having set up the kingdom in Münster). It was Hoffman who
introduced the first self-sustaining Anabaptism to the Netherlands, when he taught and practiced believers' baptism in
Emden in East Frisia.
Menno evidently rose quickly to become a man of influence. Before 1540, David Joris, an
Anabaptist of the "inspirationist" variety, had been the most influential leader in the Netherlands. By 1544, the term
Mennonite or Mennist was used in a letter to refer to the Dutch Anabaptists.
The house that Menno Simons is believed to have worked in
Twenty-five years after his renunciation of Catholicism, Menno died at Wüstenfelde,
Holstein, and was buried in his garden. He was married to a woman named Gertrude, and
they had at least three children, two daughters and a son.
Menno Simons influence on Anabaptism in the Low Countries was so great that Baptist
historian William Estep suggested that their history be divided into three periods:
"before Menno, under Menno, and after Menno". He is especially significant in coming to the Anabaptist movement in the north in
its most troublesome days, and helping not only to sustain it, but also to establish it as a viable Radical Reformation movement.
Quotes
- "True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant. It clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters
the destitute, it serves those that harm it, it binds up that which is wounded, it has become all things to all people."
- "The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are children of peace who have 'beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning forks, and know no war' (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3). ... Our weapons are not weapons with
which cities and countries may be destroyed, walls and gates broken down, and human blood shed in torrents like water. But they
are weapons with which the spiritual kingdom of the devil is destroyed. ... Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of
defense; the Word of God our sword. ... Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and
swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value."
- "We who were formerly no people at all, and who knew of no peace, are now called to be ... a church ... of peace. True
Christians do not know vengeance. They are the children of peace. Their hearts overflow with peace. Their mouths speak peace, and
they walk in the way of peace."
Notes
- ^ Menno Simon's Renunciation of the Church of Rome. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
References
- Dutch Anabaptism: Origin, Spread, Life and Thought (1450–1600), by Cornelius Krahn
- The Anabaptist Story: An Introduction to Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism, by William Roscoe Estep ISBN 0-8028-0886-7
- The Complete Writings of Menno Simons…, translated by Leonard Verduin and edited by John C. Wenger, with a biography
by Harold S. Bender ISBN 0-8361-1353-5
External links
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