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Menno Simons
(men' - oh see' - mohns)
(1496-1561)
General Information
Menno Simons (1496-1561) was a Dutch religious reformer, from whom the religious body called
Mennonites takes its name. A moderate Anabaptist leader in the Low Countries, he restored the
reputation of the movement after the suppression (1535) of the theocratic Kingdom of Munster, set up
by militant Anabaptists. Formerly a Roman Catholic priest, Menno joined (1536) the Anabaptist
movement when the Obbenite faction (a peaceful group of Dutch Anabaptists led by Obbe Philips)
prevailed upon him to become their minister. Menno believed that the apostolic church pattern called
for the organization of individual congregations of regenerated believers moved by the Holy Spirit
to lead lives of peace and service. His basic beliefs were summarized in his highly influential Book
of Fundamentals (1539). The Mennonites take their name from Menno.
Born at Witmarsum in Friesland, Menno was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1524. Doubts about
transubstantiation, infant baptism, and other church dogmas led him to a close study of the New
Testament and writings of Martin Luther. He gradually came to agree with Luther's position that the
Bible should be the Christian's highest authority, and he left the Roman Catholic church. Although
he opposed the revolutionary Anabaptists who led an unsuccessful uprising at Münster in 1535, his
efforts to help them put him in danger of arrest, and he went into hiding for a year. In 1537 he
became an Anabaptist preacher at Groningen, where he was married. In the following years he was
active as a missionary, carrying the new faith to other parts of Friesland, to Zuid-Holland (South
Holland), and Germany. He died on January 31, 1561, near Ordesloe, Holstein.
Menno adhered fundamentally to orthodox beliefs but rejected those that were not mentioned in
the New Testament. He believed in the divinity of Christ and baptized only those who asserted
their faith in Christ. In his view, military service and killing were unlawful, as were the taking
of oaths, the holding of the office of magistrate, and marriage to persons outside the church. He
also taught that prayer should be performed in silence. His writings were collected as The Complete
Writings of Menno Simons (1681; trans. 1956).
Advanced Information
Menno Simons is best known as the founder of a loosely related group of Reformation believers
known today as Mennonites. In the days of Menno family names were not yet established in the
Netherlands; the name Simons is simply a patronymic: "son of Simon." We know little more
of his life than he himself writes in his book directed to the Reformer Jelle Smit, who wrote under
the name Gellius Faber. That brief autobiography was written to demonstrate that Menno had no
connection with the Munsterites, the militant wing of the Melchiorites.
Menno was born in the Fsisian village of Witmarsum and trained for the Roman priesthood. He was
consecrated in 1524 at the age of twenty-eight. His first parish service was from 1524 to 1531 at
the neighboring village of Pingjum, and from 1531 to 1536 in his home town of Witmarsum.
In the first year of his priesthood Menno came to doubt the doctrine of transubstantiation, and
after much distress he fearfully took up the Scriptures for the first time in his life. As a result
of reading the NT, he gave up the doctrine of the miraculous change of the bread and wine into the
body and blood of the Lord. In 1531 Menno heard of the execution of Sicke Snijder at Leeuwarden,
capital of Friesland, for being rebaptized. This terrified him also, and led to much soul searching.
In the end he came to believe that baptism should follow conversion. Finally, Menno's brother joined
a nonpeace group of Anabaptists and perished in a struggle with the authorities in 1535. This
tragedy broke Menno's heart, and he made a total surrender of himself to Christ. For about nine
months he remained in the Catholic Church, preaching his new understanding of the gospel.
On January 31, 1536, Menno renounced his Roman Catholicism and went into hiding. He accepted
baptism, probably from the leader of the Peace Wing of the Frisian Anabaptists, Obbe Philips, who
also ordained Menno as an elder (bishop) in the province of Groningen in 1537. Menno served in the
Netherlands (1536-43), in northwest Germany, mainly in the Rhineland (1543-46), and in Danish
Holstein (1546-61). The first major collection of his writings appeared in 1646.
Menno was a good shepherd and leader, and escaped martyrdom only by moving about. He was an
evangelical who held to the major doctrines of the Christian faith. He differed from Luther and
Calvin by defending the baptism of believers only, by teaching the doctrine of peace and
nonresistance, and by rejecting the oath. He assumed the separation of church and state. He held to
the Melchiorite doctrine of the incarnation, which taught that Christ brought to earth his own
"heavenly flesh," receiving nothing from Mary, not even his humanity. And since no man was
the earthly father of Jesus, God must have created a body for him. Our Lord was therefore in Mary
prior to his birth, yet he was not of Mary.
Also, see:
Mennonites
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ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I
am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. - Matthew 28:19-20
