Menno Simons, Father of the Mennonites

How many Mennonite or Mennonite heritage people do you know?  In the Fraser Valley alone, there are at least 24 Mennonite Churches, led by over 100 pastors.  Menno Simons has birthed a remarkable Mennonite movement of around 200,000 in Canada and over two million people in at least 86 countries. 

If you attend a church, like millions of Baptist, Pentecostal, Alliance, or independent congregations, that practice believer’s baptism, you can thank Menno Simons. And if you value freedom of religion and conscience, you can thank Menno Simons.  Many of his ‘unusual’ ideas have become normalized in evangelical Christian culture. 

Menno Simons (1496 –1561) grew up in poverty as a peasant in Friesland, At that time already, Friesland and Holland were separate jurisdictions, all under control of Emperor Charles V. At an early age, he was enrolled in a monastic school, possibly at the Franciscan monastery in Bolsward, to prepare for the Catholic priesthood. In March 1524, at the age of 28, he was ordained at Utrecht and assigned to the parish at Pingjum, near the place of his birth. Seven years later in 1531, he became the village priest in his home parish at Witmarsum. Simons learned Latin and some Greek, but never read the Bible out of fear that it would lead him into heresy. Instead, he did a lot of cardplaying and drinking as the parish priest. He commented: “Finally I got the idea to examine the New Testament carefully.” After reading Luther’s books, Simons became known as an evangelical preacher because he began preaching from the bible. Simons’ favourite bible verse was 1 Corinthians 3:11 “No one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, Jesus Christ.” Luther never met Simons and didn’t appreciate Anabaptists.

Simons’ first exposure to ‘rebaptism’ came when he heard of Sicke Snijde’s beheading following his adult baptism. The idea of believer’s baptism initially ‘seemed very strange’ to Menno as he had baptized his churchgoers only as infants.

In 1535, his brother Pieter, and some people from his congregation, were among a group of 300 Anabaptists killed during a violent revolution led by Jan van Geelen in Munster, just a few miles away from Simons’ parish. Of the ones who did not lose their lives in the attack, 37 were then beheaded and 132, both men and women, were taken to Leeuwarden, where another 55 were executed after a short trial. Simons admired their zeal compared to his own complacency: “I saw that these zealous children, though in error, willingly gave their lives and their estates for their doctrine and faith…But I myself continued in my comfortable life and acknowledged abominations simply in order that I might enjoy comfort and escape the cross of Christ.”

Seeing Munster as the apocalyptic New Jerusalem, the Munsterites had embraced polygamy and forced people to be rebaptized on pain of death. This shocked Simons and so he denounced the Munsterites and embraced non-violence: “The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are children of peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks.”

We are called, said Simons, to be a church of peace: “True Christians do not know vengeance. They are the children of peace.  Their hearts overflow with peace. Their mouths speak peace, and they walk in the way of peace.”

Simons was careful, thoughtful, and reflective, a welcome contrast to the more extreme Munsterite Anabaptists. When he became an Anabaptist on January 12, 1536, he joined a movement in dangerous peril. Almost all of its initial leaders were dead, either by disease (Conrad Grebel) or execution (Felix Manz, Michael Sattler, Hans Hut, Hans Denck, Balthasar Hubmaier, Georg Blaurock, and Jakob Hutter). Melchior Hoffman who brought Anabaptism to the Netherlands was in prison. Anabaptist leaders usually died within two to three years. The authorities conveniently lumped the Munsterites and the peaceful Anabaptists together. Baptist historian William Estep suggested that the history of Anabaptists can be divided into three periods: “before Menno, under Menno, and after Menno.” His decision to get rebaptized was very costly: “I prayed to God with sighs and tears that He would give to me, a sorrowing sinner, the gift of His grace, create within me a clean heart, and graciously through the merits of the crimson blood of Christ, He would graciously forgive my unclean walk and unprofitable life.”

After Simons’ rebaptism in 1536, he became a fugitive. He spent a year in hiding, seeking God’s direction for his new ministry. During this time, he wrote Van de geestlijke verrijsenisse (The Spiritual Resurrection), De nieuwe creatuere (The New Birth), and Christelycke leringhen op den 25. Psalm (Meditation on the Twenty-fifth Psalm). More than 40 of his writings survived.  

In 1537, he was ordained by the Anabaptist leader Obbe Phiips, and married Gertrude. They had two daughters and a son. Only one daughter outlived him. 

Many, including Herman and Gerryt Jansz, were arrested, charged and beheaded for having taken Simons as a lodger. In 1544, Jan Claess’ head was cut off on Amsterdam’s Dam Square and stuck on a stake; his body was placed on a wheel to be eaten by animals and birds. His crimes included rebaptism by Simons and publication in Antwerp of about 600 copies of Simon’s books. In 1549, Elisabeth Dirks, was arrested on suspicion of being Simons’ wife (she wasn’t), endured imprisonment, inquisition, torture, and finally death.  

Simons taught the Mennonites, in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, to value simplicity and avoid pride: “I voluntarily renounced all my worldly honour and reputation…and at once willingly submitted to distress and poverty, and the cross of Christ.”

In 1542, the Holy Roman emperor Charles V promised 100 guilders reward to bring about Simons’ arrest. In 1543, the Netherlands ordered the death sentence for anyone publishing, spreading, or reading Simons’ work. At that time the Netherlands and Germany were under control of the Holy Roman Empire. Pardon of all crimes, and a hundred guilders, was promised in 1544 to criminals who could deliver Menno Simons to the government. Simons’ publisher John Claus was executed that following year. Around this time, the term ‘Mennist’ or ‘Mennonite’ came into use, a phrase that Simons tried unsuccessfully to discourage. Finally in 1544, the Simon’s found safe refuge in a Holstein cottage near Lubeck, Germany. After his peaceful death in 1561, he was buried in his garden. In the 1550s, between 2,000 and 4,000 Mennonites were tortured, beheaded or buried alive. The stories of the martyrs are recorded in the 1660 Martyrs Mirror by Thieleman J. van Braght.

Simons’ sought to establish a believers’ New Testament Church. His desire to separate church from state was unusual in a time of state churches. He saw the church’s identity as a spotless bride ready for her coming husband. His pacifist convictions brought great suffering to his Mennonite followers who left Holland, then Prussia, then South Russia (Ukraine), and moved to Canada in order to say no to violence. While Canada initially promised military exemption and private schools in the language of choice, the government reneged on their educational promise, forcing Mennonite children to attend public English schools. Over 7,000 Mennonites moved to Mexico and Paraguay because of this betrayal by the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments. In 1920 to 1921, Canada banned Mennonites from entering Canada because of their unCanadian pacifist views. Then again from 1929 to 1945, Mennonites were not permitted to move to Canada.  

A major theme of Simons’ writings is the new birth. He was strongly Christ-centered, desiring believers to not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk as new persons. Out of his deep suffering came a conviction of caring for other hurting people: “True evangelical faith … cannot lie dormant. … It clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it … it binds up that which is wounded … it has become all things to all people.”

Simons’ compassion has inspired the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) to help millions, particularly those who are refugees. Many lost people first meet Jesus through the practical caring of Mennonites. Encouraged by the example of Menno Simons, Mennonite communities regularly show the highest level of charitable giving in Canada.

Like their founder, Mennonites tend to be independently minded people. Life for Mennonites is often like a Mennonite patchwork quilt of joy and suffering. Because Mennonites fight with words rather than weapons, they have developed a rich body of literature exploring their history and identity. We thank God for Menno Simons and his caring, peaceful and generous Mennonites who have made Canada a better place to live.