Sikke Freriks

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Sikke Freriks , also written Frerichs , Freerks , Frericx and also called Sikke Snyder or Sikke Snijder after his profession († March 20, 1531 in Leeuwarden / Friesland ), was a craftsman and martyr of the Anabaptist movement .

Life

Expansion of the Anabaptist movement from 1525 to 1550 - Leeuwarden as one of the Anabaptist centers

Nothing is known about the origin of Sikke Frerik. His name appears for the first time in connection with the Anabaptist community founded by Melchior Hofmann in Emden in 1530 . Here he was baptized by the pastor Jan Folkertsz Trypmaker appointed by Hofmann on December 11, 1530 and shortly afterwards he moved to the Dutch province of Friesland, where he - presumably commissioned by Trypmaker - appeared as an Anabaptist missionary. Due to its effectiveness, an Anabaptist congregation of Melchiorite character emerged in Leeuwarden , whose members called themselves Confederate Brothers. Important Anabaptist personalities emerged from this congregation, including the brothers Obbe and Dirk Philips .

Frerik's effectiveness only lasted a few months. In March 1531 he was imprisoned in Leeuwarden and charged as a heretic . In the interrogation, Sikke Freriks confessed not only to be a Protestant , but also to be a Baptist. Since he was not ready to revoke his teaching, he was publicly beheaded on March 20th on the Leeuwarden market square. His body was then braided on a wheel and his head was placed on a stake as a deterrent.

Afterlife

This execution caused great outrage among the population. News of this also reached Menno Simons , who later founded the Mennonite movement. At the time of Sikke Frerik's death he was still a Roman Catholic village priest in Witmarsum, West Frisia . The deep impression this news made on Menno Simons is reflected in a quote from his autobiographical work Uytgang uit het pausdom , written in 1553 . There it says: “Then it happened, before I had ever heard of any brothers, that a godly, pious hero, named Sicke Snyder, was beheaded in Leeuwarden because he had renewed his baptism. It sounded very strange to my ears that they should talk about a second baptism. I researched the Scriptures diligently and considered them seriously, but could not find any evidence of infant baptism . When I noticed this, I held discussions about this matter with the priest I mentioned, and after many words I got him to the point where he had to admit that there was no reason for infant baptism in Scripture. ”Frerik's martyrdom thus became Menno Simons' an important impulse on his way to the Anabaptists.

Literature (selection)

  • Christian Hege, Christian Neff : Mennonite Lexicon. Vol. I, Frankfurt a. M. 1913, p. 695.
  • Karel Vos: Menno Simons. Leiden 1914, pp. 24, 182.
  • Christoph Bornhäuser: Menno Simons' life and teaching. A Struggle for the Foundation of Faith (around 1496–1561). Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1973, ISBN 3-7887-0364-4 , pp. 10–15, 86, 140. (Volume XXXV in the series Contributions to the History and Teaching of the Reformed Church. )
  • Klaas-Dieter Voss: The Mennonites in East Frisia. In: Ostfriesische Mennonitengemeinden of the Northwest German Conference (Hrsg.): The Mennoniten in Ostfriesland. History. Resumes. Communities. Emden 2006, p. 13f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaas-Dieter Voß: The Mennonites in East Friesland in The Mennonites in East Friesland. History. Resumes. Communities (Ed. Ostfriesische Mennonitengemeinden of the Northwest German Conference), Emden 2006, p. 13
  2. ↑ Karel Vos: Sicke Freerks (d. 1531) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online ; accessed on March 28, 2011
  3. ↑ Heinold Fast (Ed.): The left wing of the Reformation. Testimonies of faith of the Anabaptists, spiritualists , enthusiasts and anti-Trinitarians , Volume IV in the series Classics of Protestantism (edited by Christel Matthias Schröder ), Bremen 1962, p. 318
  4. ↑ Klaas-Dieter Voß: The Mennonites in East Friesland in The Mennonites in East Friesland. History. Resumes. Communities (Ed. Ostfriesische Mennonitengemeinden of the Northwest German Conference), Emden 2006, p. 14
  5. ↑ Menno Simons: Uytgang uit het pausdom (German: Exit from the Papacy) , written in 1553, printed in Emden in 1554
  6. ↑ Quoted from Heinold Fast (ed.): The left wing of the Reformation. Testimonies of faith of the Anabaptists, spiritualists, enthusiasts and anti-Trinitarians , Volume IV in the series Classics of Protestantism (edited by Christel Matthias Schröder), Bremen 1962, p. 151
personal data
SURNAME Freriks, Sikke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frerichs, Sikke; Freerks, Sikke; Frericx, Sikke; Snyder, Sikke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Artisans and martyrs of the Anabaptist movement
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1531
Place of death Leeuwarden , Friesland