Editors’ Note: We’ve had enough of Reformed trendiness - the manner so many of us have of lauding pagans and Catholics and whatnot while looking down our noses at our “Armenian” counterparts. Doctrinal differences can be excused for, say, G. K. Chesterton, but what about the more Anabaptist members of Christendom? As much as we might try to disown them, these brothers are brothers, and in their walks with the Lord we might find inspiration and courage for our own. Let’s see what Menno Simons has to teach us.

Europe in the 1520s and 30s rocked with religious ferment. The emerging Reformation divided countries, families, and friends. Former monks, nuns, and priests grappled with their new understandings of scripture. Some of the struggles were more public than others, as in the case of Martin Luther. In a quiet corner of Holland, however, a Catholic priest was undergoing his own crisis of faith and conscience, which would lead him on a reformer’s path and give his name to an entire movement.

Menno Simons was born in 1496 to Dutch parents. His aptitude in Latin appears to have steered him toward the priesthood. Upon ordination, he embarked upon the duties of a priest, although he had not yet read most of the Bible. Almost from the beginning, he struggled with the doctrine of transubstantiation. In desperation, he turned to the Bible, and could find no justification for the doctrine. His perusal of Luther’s writings encouraged him to trust scripture over church tradition, and he no longer attempted to believe in transubstantiation.

Some time later, Menno became aware of another issue – baptism. He was astonished to hear that a Dutch tailor was executed because he’d been baptized again as an adult. Menno could not understand why anyone would do such a thing. Again he turned to scripture, and was distressed to find, in his opinion, no support for infant baptism. He became more aware of the fledgling Anabaptist movement, which had begun in 1525 in Switzerland with Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and others who had originally followed Zwingli. As they searched the New Testament, they became convinced that the Protestant Reformers were not going far enough. The group developed a theology of a visible, separated church, made up of believing adults. Baptism became for them a sign of repentance and commitment to Christ and His church. They also rejected the alliance of church and state. For these reasons, they were considered traitors. Within 6 years, all of the original leaders of this Anabaptist movement were killed by Catholics and Protestants.

The Anabaptist movement was widely scattered and theologically diverse. A radical group took over the city of Muenster in the 1530s, claiming it as the New Jerusalem. They instituted polygamy and forced conversion. Authorities stormed the city and slaughtered the group. This episode firmly fixed the “Anabaptist/heretic/dangerous traitor” idea in many minds.

Menno Simons heard of the debacle at Muenster. He believed they had completely corrupted the true nature of the movement, and wrote an unpublished polemic against their leader. Menno found himself more and more in sympathy with the peaceful Anabaptists of northern Holland. Here, non-resistance was becoming a crucial tenet of the faith. The Muenster movement sobered him in another way, however. Wrong though they were, the Muensterites were willing to die for their beliefs. Menno, meanwhile, continued to lead a double life. He was now fully committed to Anabaptist beliefs, but continued to hold his priesthood. Finally, in 1536, he renounced his ordination.

This was no small step. To align oneself with the Anabaptist movement in 16th century Europe was an almost sure guarantee of persecution and death. The core beliefs of adult baptism, separation of church and state, and non-resistance made Catholic and Protestant alike consider them a seditious element in society. Menno spent the rest of his life on the run from authorities. Torture and execution by burning or drowning would await if he were captured.

As Menno and his family (he married and had 3 children) dodged about Europe, he was preaching and writing. Over the course of his life, his ideas had a great influence on the shape of the Anabaptist movement. He, perhaps more than any other early leader, kept the movement from degenerating into a cult. Menno preached salvation by grace through Jesus Christ, and was firmly grounded in the Bible. In this, he followed other Protestant Reformers.

Menno and other Anabaptists developed certain emphases, however, that distinguished them. They looked to the life of Jesus as a pattern for life, and greatly emphasized the Sermon on the Mount. The New Testament held a higher place in their thinking than did the Old Testament, which was seen as God-inspired and valid, but also written to people living under the old covenant. With the coming of Jesus, and the new covenant, the New Testament became the most faithful guide for the Christian believer.

Menno Simons also stressed the importance of the church. To him, the church was to hold a high place in the Christian’s life. It was to be a visibly separate, holy body of Christ, made up of believing adults who recognized the seriousness of their commitment. The church was a prime way in which Christ worked on earth.

Also crucial to Anabaptists was the idea of holiness in the life of the believer. While all Anabaptists believe in salvation by grace, they also emphasize that a truly saved person will live a holy life – “by their fruits ye shall know them.” Works save no one, but a transformed, non-conformed life is considered a hallmark of the true Christian. Again, the Sermon on the Mount and the life of Jesus were seen as guides for every believer. From this arose the belief in non-resistance, not only in one’s personal life, but also in the way one related to the world. Anabaptists refused to take up arms for the state, and Menno was highly distressed at the thought of Christians taking up the sword against each other.

Another distinctive feature of Anabaptist was their recognition that persecution often came to followers of Christ, which was certainly true in the 1500s. “The bitter Christ,” the Christ who leads one through suffering, found a place in their theology. To join their movement was an invitation to come and die, an invitation to suffer for the name of Christ.

By the 1560s, Menno’s thoughts and writings had so influenced many of the Anabaptists that they began to be known as “Mennists” or “Mennonites.” They became recognized for peaceful, simple, righteous living. Even those who persecuted them admitted grudgingly that their lives were often exemplary, and their testimonies astounding. Many Anabaptists were able to quote prodigious amounts of scripture by memory and spoke so well at their executions that the authorities began gagging their mouths and holding executions in private.

Menno himself escaped the fate of most of his contemporaries. He was one of the few early leaders to die a natural death in his own bed. His name and influence live on, however, in the thousands of Mennonites in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. I have a feeling he might not be entirely pleased at being considered the founder of a movement, however. To him, “No other foundation can man lay than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” This he lived and taught.

Julia (Hess) Whitfield can trace Mennonite ancestors on both sides of her family back to the 16th century. As far as she knows, however, she is not a descendant of Menno Simons.