Menno Simons

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Engraving from the 17th century shows Menno Simons with a cane and a Bible

Menno Simons (* 1496 in Witmarsum, Friesland (Netherlands) ; † January 23 or 31, 1561 in Wüstenfelde near Bad Oldesloe ) was a Dutch-Frisian theologian . Simons was one of the leading representatives of the Anabaptist movement and was named after the Mennonites . His last name was also spelled Simonszoon , which means Simon's son .

Life

Memorial stone for Menno Simons in his place of birth Witmarsum

Youth and Studies

Not much is known about Menno Simons' family origins. In his memoirs, Menno Simons wrote that his father came from the neighboring village of Pingjum , Witmarsum . His parents probably worked in agriculture.

Menno Simons was baptized shortly after his birth in the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Boniface and decided at the age of 9 to become a pastor. Simons probably attended the Premonstratensian monastery school in Bolsward and then studied philosophy and theology in Utrecht . At the end of March 1524 he passed his theological exam and was finally ordained a priest on March 26 of the same year by the Utrecht auxiliary bishop Johannes Heetsveld.

Catholic priest

In the same year Menno Simons was appointed vicar in his home town of Pingjum. His income here was 100 guilders a year. In addition, the parish provided him with arable land for his own cultivation. Menno Simons later expressed himself critically about the first years as a pastor. Simons wrote that he was spiritually sad and that he did not even have a Bible in hand during his entire course of study and his time as a vicariate. He wrote, "I was afraid I might get astray reading them."

Menno Simons, according to his own statements, led a dissolute life in the first years as a pastor, which was characterized, among other things, by gambling and alcohol. This changed after Menno Simons began to doubt the dogma of Catholic transubstantiation . He initially considered these doubts to be “inspirations of the devil”, but after studying the New Testament he came to the realization that the Catholic doctrine of the transformation of the elements of bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ contradicts the biblical theology of the Lord's Supper . Menno Simons was probably already influenced by the movement of the sacramentarians at this point .

Menno Simons and the pastor who was his superior finally studied the writings of Martin Luther , Martin Bucer and also Erasmus von Rotterdam . When the Frisian authorities decreed in a decree of December 22, 1526 that all books by Martin Luther and his followers should be delivered to the office in Leeuwarden so that they could be "burned to powder in front of the house", Menno Simons and his superior refused so that the attorney general intervened and, with the help of the police, forced the two of them to hand over their books. On October 14, 1529, a public attack in the Frisian lands finally announced that possession of Reformation writings would be punished with death . Menno Simons continued to study Lutheran scriptures nonetheless, and within a short time his sermons changed. He got the reputation of being an evangelical preacher. In his memoirs, he reported that at this point in time, however, he had not yet repented .

In 1530 Menno Simons moved to Witmarsum and took on a vacant pastor's position there. Here he learned in March 1531 that a certain Sikke Snijder (actually Sikke Freerk or Freriks) had been executed in front of the office in Leeuwarden . Snijder was baptized by Jan Folkertsz Trypmaker in Emden in December 1530 and returned shortly afterwards to his homeland to establish an Anabaptist congregation there. In just a few weeks he had gathered a small circle around him. When this became known, the authorities stepped in and sentenced him to death.

The martyrdom Snijders impressed Menno Simons deep. Up until this point in time, infant baptism was a practice he had never questioned. Here, too, Simons took up the New Testament again : "I examined the Scriptures with diligence and accuracy", he reports, "but I could not find any trace of infant baptism". When his pastor also stated that the Bible did not know about infant baptism, Simons began to study the church fathers and the Reformation literature. His realization that infant baptism was unbiblical was further strengthened.

When his brother Pieter and a group of Anabaptists were murdered near Bolsward in 1535 , Simons went through a deep personal crisis: “I prayed to God with sighs and tears to be gracious to me, the great sinner, with a pure heart and, on the basis of the shed blood of Christ, to forgive me my impure life and my fruitless life. "

Connection to the Anabaptist Movement

In 1536, Menno Simons gave up his priesthood, married, and joined the Anabaptists. However, the date of his baptism is unknown. What is certain is that he was already in close contact with the Anabaptists in October 1536. In January 1537 he was finally ordained an elder in Groningen . The ordinators were the brothers Obbe and Dirk Philips , who had joined the Anabaptist congregation founded by Melchior Hofmann in Emden at the end of 1533 and are therefore included in the moderate wing of the Melchiorites .

Theological teacher in the Anabaptist movement

The temporary grave of Menno Simons was in the garden of the Mennokate

Menno Simons soon gained a great reputation within the Anabaptist movement. Through his frequent travels throughout the Dutch-North German area and his extensive literary work, his influence on the young movement became so strong that the Dutch and North German Anabaptists were soon referred to as Mennonites and Mennists , respectively. The first documented use of the term can be found around 1544/45 in a Frisian police code. Initially as a foreign name, the term was increasingly adopted by the Anabaptist communities in the Dutch-North German and later also in the Swiss-South German area as a self-name. The Anabaptist researcher William Esteb divided the history of the Anabaptist movement into the three periods "before Menno Simons, under Menno Simons and after Menno Simons". Menno Simons' particular merit was the gathering and organization of the scattered Anabaptists in the times of persecution. Menno Simons' book Das Fundamentbuch , published in 1540 (actually The Foundation of Christian Doctrine ), was of great importance for the establishment and further development of the Mennonites . Another well-known work by Menno Simons is the meditation of the 25th Psalm from 1539, into which he has woven his own inner life story.

Menno Simons turned away from violent Anabaptists such as the Anabaptists in Münster and the Batenburgers that followed, as well as the messianic David Jorists around David Joris . In 1541, Menno Simons published On Right Christian Faith and His Strength , which was implicitly directed against the Anabaptists around David Joris. In this way Simons stabilized the still young Northern European Anabaptist movement and created a path away from any form of militancy and apocalyptic that is still characteristic of the Anabaptist movement today. He also consciously followed the pacifist line of the early Swiss-South German Anabaptists.

The religious conversation between Menno Simons and the Reformed theologian Johannes a Lasco , which took place in Emden , East Frisia, at the end of January 1544, was also important . Although the two sides could not come to an agreement, both parted in friendship. The ongoing theological differences, however, led to an increasingly personal dispute in the following years.

Although Simons was one of the non-violent Anabaptists, Charles V had an edict drawn up in December 1542 according to which anyone who supported Menno Simons or who owned or distributed his writings was threatened with the death penalty. In addition, a bounty of 100 gold guilders was placed on his head. The edicts were implemented ruthlessly. In April 1545 a man was burned in Groningen because he had been baptized by Menno Simons six years earlier.

From July 1544 onwards, Menno Simons worked in Cologne in the Rhineland , where he was able to work relatively freely under the evangelically oriented Bishop Hermann V von Wied until his exile in 1546. Afterwards Menno Simons stayed mainly in the Holstein area. At times he was also in Wismar , in the area around Danzig and also in Livonia .

In 1552 an Anabaptist meeting took place in Lübeck in the presence of Menno Simons, at which the anti-Trinitarian positions of Adam Pastor were discussed and which ended with the exclusion of Pastors and his group of Adamites or Adamites named after him from the Mennonite congregations. In 1555 another Anabaptist synod took place in Wismar , at which the Wismar articles were passed, which dealt primarily with marriage. When the northern German Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Hamburg, Rostock, Stralsund, Wismar and Lüneburg decided on an edict directed against the Anabaptists in August 1555, many Anabaptists had to flee Wismar, so that Simons had to go on the journey again.

Menno Simons went back to the Duchy of Holstein and found refuge on Gut Fresenburg , where Bartholomäus von Ahlefeldt had previously housed Anabaptists. He died in Wüstenfelde near Bad Oldesloe in 1561 and was buried in the garden of the Mennokate , later named after him . Later it was transferred to Witmarsum, his birthplace. Menno Simons had two daughters and a son.

The Mennokate still exist today with a small museum that can be visited.

Works (selection)

Menno Simons in his writing
  • Dat foundation of the christelyken empty doer Menno Simons op dat alder corste schreuen (1539–40)
(The foundation of Christian doctrine, written in the shortest possible way by Menno Simons)
  • Een corte vermaninghe vth Godes woort doer Menno Simons van die niegeboorte, Vnde like the ghene syn, the belofte hebben (around 1539)
(A brief admonition from the Word of God by Menno Simons about being born again and what people are like who believe in it)
  • Verclaringhe des christelyken double in den water duer menno Simons wt dwoort gods In war manner dat sy van christo Jesu beuolen is ende van synen heylighen appostelen emptied ende ghebruycket is (around 1542)
  • Een korte end clear belijdinge ... van der Mensch-werdinge onses lieven Heeren Jesu Christi ... geschreven aen de Edele ende Hoogh-Geleerde Heeren, H. Johan a Lasco , with t'samen sijne hulperen in Emden (1544)
  • Een korte klaeglycke ontschuldinge der ellendige christens end verstroyde vreemdelingen, aen all writings-empty end preachers of the Duytscher Natien (1552)
  • A clear answer, over a writing Gellii Fabri, preacher tot Emden (1554)
  • Kindertucht (= "raising children"). Een schoon onderwys end empty, hoe alle vrome olders (= "parents") haer kinderen (nae wtwijsen der scriptueren) guilty end gheholden zijn te rule, te castyen (= "chastise"), te or judge, end in een vroom duechdelik end godsalich leeuen op te voeden (= “and to be raised to a pious, efficient and godly life”). With een christelike benedicite voor den eeten end een christlicke gratias na den eeten (= "with a Christian blessing prayer before and a Christian thanksgiving prayer after dinner") (1557)

Remembrance day

German bronze medal from 1912 with the picture of Menno Simons, minted on the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Mennonite community in Berlin. The inscription on the front reads: GOD THE HONOR FREE THE DOCTRINE / MENNO SIMONS / GEB. TO WITMARSUM IN FRIESLAND 1492 / GEST. TO WSTENFELDE NEAR OLDESLOE 13 JAN. 1559

Honors

Menno Simons is the namesake of the preaching prize, which has been awarded annually since 2008, for sermons "which bring the biblical testimony to language in the light of the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition".

Fonts

literature

Web links

Commons : Menno Simons  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Menno-Kate
  2. ↑ Menno Simons Preaching Prize on the website of the Theology of the Peace Churches at the University of Hamburg
personal data
SURNAME Simons, Menno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simonszoon, Menno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch theologian; Namesake of the Mennonites
DATE OF BIRTH 1496
PLACE OF BIRTH Witmarsum , Friesland ( Netherlands )
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1561 or January 31, 1561
Place of death Wüstenfelde near Bad Oldesloe