Nicolaas Meyndertsz van Blesdijk

Nicolaas Meyndertsz van Blesdijk (* 1520 in Blesdijk, Netherlands; † 1584 in Freinsheim ) was a representative of the Reformation Anabaptist movement who was best known as a collaborator of David Joris .

Live and act

At the age of 16, Blesdijk joined the radical Reformation Anabaptist movement in 1536. Blesdijk, who had a good knowledge of Latin and Greek, had already studied the works of the ancient church fathers as well as those of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Philipp Melanchthon . One year after converting to the Anabaptists, he finally became aware of the writings of the spiritualistic Baptist David Joris and began to deal intensively with Joris and his views. From 1539 he himself can be assigned to the David Jorists. Just two years later he accompanied David Joris' deputy Joriaen Ketel to observe the religious talks at the Reichstag in Regensburg , where he met Martin Bucer , among others . In 1544, Blesdijk met Johannes a Lasco in Emden to explore the chances of rapprochement between the Anabaptist David-Jorists and the Reformed . Blesdijk showed himself to a Lasco ready to recognize the reformed sacramental practice , the orthodox formulas of the Trinity and even infant baptism (although not as necessary for salvation), but he was not ready to give up the Anabaptist conception of free will . He avoided a debate about the prophetic claim of David Joris. An integration of the David-Jorists into the Reformed Church thus ultimately failed. As a result, the David-Jorists now sought the strategy of external conformity with the large churches, which led to conflicts with other branches of the Anabaptist movement (such as the Mennonites).

In order to avoid persecution, which nevertheless continued to increase , David Joris and some of his students moved to Basel . Blesdijk, too, moved with his family from the Netherlands to Basel in 1544. Here Blesdijk and Joris came across a circle of humanistic intellectuals, including Sebastian Castellio . Blesdijk and Joris were also involved in the conversations in the run-up to the text collection De haereticis published by Castellio in 1554 , an sint persequendi ( From the heretics, whether they should be persecuted ), which dealt critically with John Calvin and the burning of the Antitrinitariars Michael Servetus argued.

In 1546, Blesdijk met the representatives of the Mennonites Menno Simons , Dirk Philips , Leenaert Bouwens and Adam Pastor in Lübeck , but they ended in discord. Blesdijk saw similarities between David-Jorists and Mennonites in the essential points. He saw differences mainly in the simple way of life demanded by the Mennonites and the practice of child baptism and attending church services in the established churches, which the David Jorists allowed. According to the spiritualistic view of Blesdijk, the Mennonites placed too much emphasis on appearance, which put the individual members in unnecessary danger due to the persecution of the Anabaptists.

In Basel itself, however, there were also increasing conflicts between Blesdijk and Joris themselves. Blesdijk was not ready to accept the prophetic and apocalyptic role Joris had ascribed to himself. Instead, he clung to the authority of the Gospels and New Testament letters alone . Blesdijk finally moved to Freinsheim in the Palatinate, where he was still active as a Reformed pastor until his death. Shortly before leaving for Freinsheim, in 1559, he wrote a biography of David Joris entitled Historia vitae doctrinae ac rerum gestarum Davidis Georgii , which was only printed in Deventer in 1642 . A second biography, printed in Basel in 1559 under the title Davidii Georgii Holandi haeresiarchae vita et doctrina, comes from Caelius Secundus Curio. Both biographies are still of great importance today as sources for David Joris and his movement.

Web links

• James M. Stayer: Blesdijk, Nicolaas Meyndertsz. van. In: Mennonite Lexicon . Volume 5 (MennLex 5).
• Christian Neff: Blesdijk, Nikolaas Meyndertsz van (approx. 1520–1584) . Use in: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online .