Jan van Batenburg

Jan van Batenburg (* around 1495 , † 1538 in Vilvoorde ) was the leader of the militant Anabaptist group named after him, the Batenburger (also Zwaardgeesten ).

Life

Jan van Batenburg was born around 1495 as the illegitimate son of Dirk van Batenburg from the Dutch Gelderland . Batenburg later became mayor of the city of Steenwijk in the Overijssel region . When Overijssel fell to the Habsburgs in 1528 , he lost both his post as mayor and his property under the new government.

After 1530, Batenburg joined the newly formed Reformation Anabaptist movement and soon gathered its militant offshoots around itself. After the fall of the Anabaptist empire of Munster , the Batenburger or Zwaardgeeste named after him rejected any form of baptism , legitimized polygamy and declared, according to their apocalyptic theology, that the time of God's grace was over and that the time of his anger had come instead. With their connection between religion and violence , they consciously placed themselves in opposition to the other Anabaptist groups, who, in the spirit of the Stäbler, represented a religiously motivated pacifism . Batenburg itself took part in an uprising in the Frisian Oldeklooster as early as 1535.

In August 1536 there was a meeting in Bocholt of representatives of the Batenburgs, the Jorists named after David Joris and the Obbenites named after Obbe Philips (who were later called Mennonites), at which David Joris in particular asked for a balance between the diverging Anabaptist groups was trying. However, no real agreement was reached. The group around David Joris soon turned back to the established churches and the later Mennonites in particular strictly rejected violence as a religious method. Menno Simons saw corrupt sects in the Batenburgers and also in the David Jorists .

Jan van Batenburg was arrested in Brabant in 1538 and burned at the stake . Despite the death of Batenburg and their increasing isolation, part of the group stayed until 1580. They were mainly active in the Overijssel area, where they robbed and murdered under the pretext of divine vengeance. It was run by the weaver Cornelis Appelman from Leiden until 1545 . As their last representative, the polygamist Jan Willems was burned at the stake in 1580.

Web links

• Jacob Loosjes: Jan van Batenburg . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online