The Anabaptist rebellion at Münster alarmed a Dutch priest named Menno Simons. Reading the scriptures, he had secretly arrived at the same conclusions as the nonviolent Anabaptists.
He admired their commitment and zeal but regretted the errors of Münster. He wished to help but was reluctant to give up his position for the life of a hunted man.
The event that led him to abandon his life as a priest was the death of his brother, executed with 300 others for a violent takeover at the Old Cloister near Witmarsum. He left the Catholic church in 1536 at the age of 40. For the rest of his life, he was on the run.
Menno gave heart to the dispirited believers. He admonished those who advocated armed rebellion. He traveled from village to village, preaching, writing about church life, teaching the Bible, encouraging love and peace.
He told them: “The regenerated do not go to war or engage in strife. They are children of peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.”
The authorities despaired of eradicating the Anabaptists as long as he was free. Edicts were announced against him. People who gave him shelter were arrested and killed. Pardon was offered to any Anabaptist who would betray him, but no Judas ever came forward.
Later, looking back on his ministry, he wrote: “With my wife and children I have, for 18 years, endured anxiety, oppression, affliction, misery and persecution. We have to be on guard when a dog barks for fear that the police have arrived.”
So great was his influence that his followers became known as Mennonites.
Menno died quietly at home, 25 years after joining the movement, at age 65 in 1561. Seventeen years later his followers in the Netherlands were granted toleration.
He left behind a church that was stronger, better trained, more peaceable. One of his best-remembered sayings is:
True evangelical faith cannot lie sleeping.
It clothes the naked. It comforts the sorrowful.
It feeds the hungry. It shelters the destitute.
It cares for the sick. It becomes all things to all [people].
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