The Conversion of Menno Simons

Abraham Friesen

The theological transformation of Menno Simons began in 1525, at least six years before he ever heard about "rebaptism". In 1524 he was ordained and appointed Roman Catholic priest in the Dutch village of Pingjum, the village next to his father's farm. Only one year later, he began to have doubts about the Catholic teaching of the Mass known as transubstantiation (the idea that the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper actually became the body and blood of Christ). Somewhere he had read (perhaps in the writings of Luther or Erasmus) about the preeminent importance of the Bible. (Priests, at that time, were not required to read the Bible. They needed only to recite the ceremony of the mass--in Latin--and to perform the other Catholic sacramental rituals.) Menno began to read the Bible, looking for passages dealing with the Lord's Supper. Not long into his quest, he concluded that the Church had deceived him in the matter. For further clarification, he turned to the writings of the Protestant Reformers, but found only disagreement. This forced him back to the Bible.

In 1531 Menno heard of the execution of an Anabaptist named Sicke Freerks in nearby Leeuwarden for the "crime" of being rebaptized. Menno had never heard of baptism upon confession of faith as an adult. Again he consulted the Reformers, but again they differed in their justifications for infant baptism. Menno, once again, turned to the Bible, but he could find none of the Reformers' views substantiated there. Again he felt betrayed by his Church.

In 1532 Menno was transferred to the parish church in Witmarsum. By this time, he had "acquired considerable knowledge of the Scriptures". One year later, Anabaptists began moving into the region and baptizing converts by believers' baptism. In 1534, Menno also encountered for the first time representatives from the heretical Anabaptists in Muenster, Germany. Menno opposed them, debated them privately and publicly, and refuted their views. Though they erred in doctrine, (particularly regarding the end times) he recognized their zeal. In January, 1535, a few disciples of Jan of Leiden and the Muenster Anabaptists sought to capture Amsterdam as well; in March, they took over the monastery in Bolsward. In the latter place, the authorities captured and massacred the rebels, Menno's brother Pieter among them.

Probably immediately after his brother's death, Menno took up his pen for the first time and wrote a tract entitled Against the Blasphemy of Jan of Leiden. Written in anger, it was a frontal attack. Menno never wrote another piece like it, nor did he ever publish it. It was later discovered among his daughter's papers after her death and first published in 1627. Since it speaks of Jan of Leiden as still alive, it must have been written between March, 1535 and the collapse of Muenster in June, 1535. In the tract, Menno described Jan of Leiden as a "false prophet" who had subverted the Anabaptist movement from within; he addressed it to all "true brethren of the covenant scattered abroad". His purpose, apparently, was to call the Anabaptist movement back to its orthodox beginnings.

Before Menno could publish the tract, Muenster must have fallen. He decided not to publish it because that would be like celebrating on the graves of his enemies. But perhaps there was another reason for not publishing. In his brief autobiography, Menno describes himself during this period as a hypocrite. He knew what was right and he knew how the "erring sheep" could be helped; but, for his own ease and convenience, he chose to remain in the Catholic Church and let the "misguided sheep" go to their doom. When his brother was killed, he picked up his pen and--out of guilt and anger--attacked Jan of Leiden, who was responsible for the disaster. But as he did so, the words of Christ in Matthew 7 about the splinter in the brother's eye and the beam in his own eye came back to haunt him. Here he was, denouncing his brother, while his own conscience was punishing him for his own hypocrisy. Was he not at least as damned in the eyes of God as any Jan of Leiden, who may have acted in ignorance?

Confronted by the realization of who he really was, Menno broke down before God, repented his sins and received a new heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now he knew that theological knowledge of itself provided no power; it led only to arrogance and strife with those who disagreed with him. It had not made him a Christian, for he had continued his old lifestyle. Will, as well as mind, had to be transformed and brought into subjection to God; conversion had to be added to correct theological knowledge; life had to brought into conformity with faith.

Obbe and Dirk Philips, who were leaders of the peaceful Anabaptist movement, sought out Menno after his conversion and baptized and ordained him after January, 1536. For the next 25 years, Menno laboured as a leader of the Anabaptist movement in the Netherlands. Having given up his Catholic Church salary, he married and lived in relative poverty. Despite some narrow escapes, he managed to avoid arrest and execution. He travelled extensively, preaching baptizing, teaching and writing.

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