426 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Simons the "community," and obstinacy, while he was deeply conscious of his responsibility as elder of the people of God. None of his Dutch con
6. Charac temporaries surpassed him in ability
terization. to write in a popular and edifying
vein, or in ease of composition.
Through his toil, his books and letters, and the love
which he bore his followers, with which he in
spired them in their turn, he enabled the community
to increase in numbers and to hold fast to their
lofty morality. Every trace of the excesses of
Munster and Joiis had vanished, and henceforth the
community was to remain true to the teachings of
the New Testament as their sole rule of faith. Thus
the followers of Menno reverenced him deeply,
though only as one of their pious teachers. Grad
ually all his works were printed, not only as a
source of appeal in the controversies over excom
munication and the doctrine of the Incarnation,
but also for edification. The pietistic element
among the Anabaptists called themselves by his
name, as their opponents had done since 1544. In
Upper Germany and along the Rhine, on the other
hand, the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century were
estranged from him on account of their controver
sies [due to his insistence on his doctrine of the in
carnation and marital avoidance in case one of the
married pair was under discipline. Cf. A. H. New
man, Hist. of Antipedobaptism, pp. 309 312, Phila
delphia, 1897], but in the seventeenth and eight
eenth centuries his name and writings won their
esteem as the representative of their separatiatio
life and their opposition to the established church.
The works of Menno, still preserved (so far as extant) in their original editions at Amsterdam, were written in colloquial Low German and translated into Dutch after his death. The first edition of a small collection appeared in 1562, followed by larger collections in 1601, 1646, and 1681, the latter being almost complete. A German edition of all his writings was published at Elkhart, Ind., in 1876, and Eng. transl., in 1871. Although there a;e several portraits of Menno, none of them were taken from life, and only one, which is preserved .at Utrecht, seems to have come from a circle which knew him personally. In his later years he was a
cripple. S. CxAMEx. II. Second Statement: Menno Simons and his coworkers differed from the more prominent reformers of the sixteenth century in rejecting the doctrinal system of Predestination (q.v.). Prior to Jacobus Arminius (q.v.) they taught the freedom of the will. Of the doctrine that freedom of choice is not granted man, and yet he is held responsible and punished for sin, Menno speaks as " an abomination above all abominations " (Merino Simons, Complete Works, ii. 94, i. 221, Elkhart, Ind., 1871). John Calvin, in turn, who had evidently never acquired a first hand knowledge of Merino's teachings, speaks of Merino in most contemptuous terms.
While, according to the leading German reformers, " what is not against Scripture is for Scripture and Scripture is for it " (Luther), Merino held that, as concerns Christian doctrine and ceremonies, nothing can be rightly maintained that is not expressly taught and authorized in the New Testament. Need
less to say that he attributed to the opinion of neither pope whom he considered Antichrist nor
Church Fathers any authoritative z. Views of weight. On the relation of the Old
Scripture. Testament to the New Testament
Scriptures he differed fundamentally from Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin. Menno, as well as the Swiss Brethren and Huteritea (see MENNONTTE9), held that " Christ alone is our law giver." The Old Testament precepts were largely intended for premessianic times and have been restated by Christ and the apostles so far as they are to be applied to the Christian Church. The Old Testament Scriptures are indeed a part of the Word of God, they are the foundation and groundwork for the New, while the latter is the fulfilment of the Old; but in matters of Christian worship, practise, and life, the New Testament Scriptures are the only authority. While the Reformers Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin justified, on Old Testament authority, a union of Church and State, war, capital punishment, the oath, and in part also ritualism, Menno rejected the same on New Testament authority. Of the doctrine of the inner light, as held by Hans Denk (q.v.) and a few other Anabaptists and later by the Quakers, not a trace is found in his writings.
On original sin Menno teaches that through the fall all men inherit a sinful nature. Christ, the sec
ond Adam, has atoned for the guilt of z. Sin; original sin, hence no one will be conJustificatioa demned for the sin of Adam. All in
by Faith. fants are saved through the atonement
of Christ,, according to his express promise. Condemnation awaits those who reject the means of salvation offered them. The doctrine of justification by faith is given great prominence in Menno's system. Luther's teaching on the sacraments (baptismal regeneration and forgiveness of sin through the observation of the Lord's Supper) he rejects as inconsistent with this doctrine. " To teach and believe," says Menno, " that regeneration is the result of baptism, my brethren, is terrible idolatry and blasphemy against the blood of Christ. For there is neither in heaven nor on earth any other remedy for our sins, be they inherited evil propensities or transgressions, than the blood of Christ alone, as we have often shown in our first writings " (Works, ii. 200). " The blood of Christ is and will ever be the only and eternally valid means of our reconciliation, and not works, baptism, or Lord's Supper " (i. 158). The statement that " Christ is the only means of grace " is found oftentimes in Menno's writings; all the riches of grace may be obtained through faith in Chriatrby no means through works and ceremonies.
Probably no contemporary of Merino Simons insists with more emphasis on the inseparable con
nection of an obedient, holy life with 3. Holy true faith. " Behold, beloved reader," Living; the says Merino, " thus true faith begets
Ordinances. love and love begets obedience to the
commandments of God " (Works, ii. 246). " For this can never fail, where there is true Christian faith, there is also dying to sin, a new creature, true repentance, a sincere regenerated, unblamabie Christian " (i. 118). " True faith which
6lmons
THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG avails before God is a living and saving power which is, through the preaching of the holy Word, wrought of God in the heart, renewing, changing and regenerating it to newness of mind " (i. 59). On the Christian ordinances Menno says: " All the rites ordained of God, both in the Old and New Testament, have been instituted that our faith may be exercised and our obedience proven " (i. 34). The baptism of infants is invalid. Incidentally baptism is spoken of as the reception of " a handful of water " (i. 38, i. 124). Menno also observes that " the poor world has hitherto believed the new birth to consist in immersion in the water while the words are said, I baptize thee," etc. (ii. 215). He did not hold that believers' baptism to be valid must be administered by a representative of a church that is entirely orthodox. On the Lord's Supper his teaching concurs with that of Zwingli; he disapproves of " open " communion.
Menno defines the Church as the assembly of those " who hear, believe, accept, and rightly fulfil " the teachings of God's Word (ii.
4. The 345), hence a true Christian church is
Church. necessarily established on the volun
tary principle. He says: " Faith is
the gift of God, therefore it can not be forced upon
any one by worldly authorities or by the sword."
" Tell me, kind reader, where have you in all the
days of your life read in the apostolic Scriptures
that Christ or the apostles called upon the power
of the magistracy against those who would not hear
their doctrine and obey their word? " (ii. 71). " Be
hold how haughtily and how wickedly the princes
assume, without any awe or fear, the authority of
God and the ofce of the Holy Ghost " (i. 186).
Toleration, accordingly, means the rejection of all
persecution. Menno would have taken it as an in
sult had he been charged with advancing the mod
ern idea that false doctrine is, on the ground of
Christian love and forbearance, to be tolerated in
the Church. The government of the Church was
administered by the elders. Questions of faith and
practise were not to be referred to individual con
gregations. The idea that among the early Men
nonites " every church was a law unto itself " is
erroneous. Menno and his colaborers withdrew
from congregations that sanctioned what they be
lieved to be unscriptural doctrine. The great mis
had left in their care numerous widows and orphans,
and in which many had lost their possessions, no
one of the church which he represented, nor their
children, had been known or would have been per
mitted to beg (ii. 309). The Church, according to
Menno, is the " communion of saints " in deed and
in truth; nevertheless there is always a possibility
of those having a form of godliness and denying the
power thereof being found in it. In his writings he
refereed to the fact that there was a hypocrite
even among the apostles, but insists that neither
offensive sin and transgression nor false doctrine
426
must be tolerated in the Church. Of church discipline he says: " In short, as a vineyard without a fence or inclosure, or a city without walls or gates, so is a church without discipline and the excommunication." Members of the church were not permitted to eat or do business with those who had been excluded, except in cases of emergency (I Cor. v. 11; II Thess. iii. 14). On this point both Menno and Dirk Philips wrote treatises against; the Swiss Brethren who disapproved of the " avoidance " of the excommunicated. The interesting history of this practise and the reasons why Menno advocated it can not be stated in a few sentences. That on his death bed he expressed regrets for the stand which he had taken in this matter, as was believed by the " Waterlanders," who were of one mind with the Swiss, is evidently a fable. In the last weeks of his life he wrote a little book which was published after his death, insisting on " avoidance ' as stringently as ever.
The swearing of oaths he believed to be forbidden by Christ. Of war he speaks as a " wicked, abominable business " (i. 137). Capital punishment he considered incompatible with Christian principles; he suggests confinement for life in its stead (ii. 407). Frequently he denounced the " houses of intemperance," " the accursed drunken taverns." He was an advocate of "the simple life"; churchmembers who permitted themselves to drift into worldliness were strictly disciplined by the church. Menno believed the coming of Christ near, not, however, to inaugurate the millennium, but for judgment.
The old accusation of some of Menno's opponents that he denied the divine nature in Christ, an insinuation which was vigorously re
son and is of heaven" (ii. 151, Elkhart, Ind., 1871).
Not only was he truly God from eternity, but his
human nature was also of heaven and was not the
result of a creation. Of Mary's body he partook
not otherwise than as a seed of grain partakes of
the field in which it is planted (ii. 337). To assert
that he could in that case not be truly human is to
deny God's omnipotence. Had he, as regards his
humanity, " been of the impure, sinful flesh of
Adam, he would be guilty also, through the eternal
justice of God, of judgment and death. And if he
himself owed a debt, how could he pay ours ?"
That this doctrine has a tendency toward the denial
of Christ's divinity was indignantly denied by
Menno. His opinion was, on the contrary, that
what is generally considered the orthodox view of
the incarnation dishonors Christ's divinity, repre
senting him as a creature as concerns his body.
" If the man [human nature of] Christ was of the
flesh and blood of Mary, it is manifest that he was
not God's son but a created being " (ii. 158). " That I
have ever said this [that the Word was changed into
flesh and blood] no one will, 1 believe, ever be able
to prove; nevertheless they have the effrontery to
427 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA ~9lmoas say and write such of us. I have spoken of this as the eminent apostle has taught me, namely, that the Word was made flesh " (ii. 159). " As he is the only and true Son of God, he must also have the nature of the one of whom he is, this is too plain to be controverted" (ii. 392). " Although he humbled himself and laid down his divine splendor, privileges, and glory, nevertheless he was God and God's Word " (ii. 164). Menno states that " there are many among us " who have never " heard or asked a word " concerning the question of the origin of Jesus' body, and also testifies that he never refers to this doctrine in his sermons, " but I teach simply and plainly that Christ Jesus is truly God and man, a Son of God and a Son of man, conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the pure virgin Mary " (ii. 332). The said doctrine of the incarnation was held by the Obbenites (see MENNONITES)before Menno identified himself with them, and it was, according to his own confession, only after severe and prolonged mental struggles that he arrived at the conclusion that it is entirely Scriptual (ii. 330).
The supposition that the teachings of Menno and his coworkers were tinged with rationalism is without foundation. His faithful colaborer,
6. Relation Dirk Philips, of whom he observes that
to Ration " Dirk and I are entirely of the same alism. mind " and whose extant writings fill a stately volume an English translation is now in press occupied the same position toward rationalism as Menno, and the same is true of the Swiss Brethren. The Dutch historian Brandt asserted that the excommunication of Adam Pastor (q.v.) for denying the deity of Christ was the work of Dirk Philips. Others have opined that Menno was at variance with Dirk in this matter. From Pastor's Underscheit tusschen rechte leer uncle valsche leer (published in vol. v. of Bibliotheca Reformatoria Neerlandica), it is clear that he held Menno responsible for his excommunication, and the latter testifies that Pastor was no longer of their number (ii. 96; the English translation of the passage is inaccurate, see Menno Symons' Wercken, p. 312, Amsterdam, 1681). In his refutation of Pastor, Menno speaks of the denial of the eternal preexistence of Christ as " a terrible blasphemy, curse, and abomination" (ii. 184). The hymn of Ludwig Haetzer (q.v.), expressing antitrinitarian sentiments, is not found in the hymn books of Swiss and South German Anabaptists, nor of the Mennonites. It is doubtful whether its author was rebaptized or baptized others, although he agreed with the Anabaptists in their opposition to state churchism and on a few other points (cf. F. Roth, Augsburgs Reformationsgeschichte, pp. 221 222, 232, Munich, 1901; Heberle in TSK, 1858, p. 845). His friend Hans Denk, unlike Haetzer, a man of unimpeachable character, was an advocate of liberalistic sentiments although not an antitrinitarian, and became the leader of an Anabaptist party called " Denkians," but before his death retracted his former teaching on the necessity of rebaptism. Unfortunately Menno and the Mennonites have sometimes been judged from the writings of such men, with whom in fact they had nothing to do.
Touching the position of Menno and his friends with respect to the leading Reformers, it is to be noted that Menno's personal estimate of Luther was congenial and appreciative, far
q. Relation more so than the opinion entertpined
to the by Luther concerning any Anabaptists.
Reformers. Menno freely acknowledges that " the Lord has effected much good through Luther's first writings " (Works, i. 29). He severely criticizes Luther for permitting himself to lose sight of the principle of toleration which he had originally advocated. The Reformation, so far as it was identified with state churchism, was in Menno's opinion quite superficial: it leas, says Menno, not brought a change in the life of the people and its foundations were not laid along Scriptural lines. In the Lutheran states of central and northern Germany the priests were given orders to accept the new standards of faith and practise prescribed by the heads of the State. The priests, as a rule, accepted the new order of things and the populace followed them (no other creed being tolerated by the civil authorities) with the exception of those who accepted Anabaptist teachings. If we may believe Menno's testimony, both shepherds and flock continued " with few exceptions " in their old inconsistent life. There can be no doubt that Menno was eye witness of much that must give him an unfavorable opinion of State Church Reformation. It is interesting to notice his evident surprise upon forming the acquaintance of Johannes a Lasco (q.v.), that a man of his piety was a representative of Zwinglianism. Menno addresses him in one of his books as his " beloved, holy brother." In his view it was an inconsistency that while the pope was held to be antichrist, his ordination was accepted as valid. " The little gods of Babylon," says Menno, had been abandoned, but that which was in fact responsible for prevailing superficiality and inconsistencies had been left untouched.
Menno, in his extant writings, never mentions or even alludes to any of the great leaders of the Swiss Brethren. Was he not informed
tion. He denounced John of Leyden as a blas neither on Roman Catholic nor Protestant terri
phemer, seducer, and worthless character, notwith tory. He complains bitterly that " not only among
standing his unusual gifts as a leader. He says of Papists and Turks, but among those who boast of
the Mansterites: " Their seditious abominations, the holy word 11 and " in their first writings said
429 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA s oamy
much of faith, that it is the gift of God and that it must not be forced upon any one by the sword of iron " (i. 196) whoever refused to accept the creed of the State was relentlessly persecuted. Even the ruler of Saxony and sovereign of Luther, Elector John Frederick, treated " Anabaptism " as a capital crime. In 1536 a number of Anabaptists were beheaded at Jena in Saxony, upon Melanchthon's advice, for no other cause than error in doctrine. Menno says: " I seek . . . the praise of the Lord and my salvation and the salvation of many souls. For this I, my poor feeble wife and little children have for eighteen years endured extreme anxiety, oppression, affliction, misery, and persecution, and wherever we sojourned, we were in fear and danger of life. Yea, when the preachers [of the state churches] repose on easy beds and downy pillows, we generally must hide ourselves in secluded corners . . . and when the dogs bark, it may mean that the catch polls are upon us here. Whilst they are gloriously rewarded for their services with large incomes and easy times, our recompense and portion must be fire, sword, and death " (i. 7).
The writings of Menno Simons and Dirk (Theodor) Philips are the principal sources for the study of the principles and aims of the most prominent dissenting party of the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland of Reformation times. Not only were these men the spokesmen of their immediate followers, but the Swiss Brethren were of one mind with them on all vital points of doctrine and practise. A view of the Reformation which fails to take due account of the great body of Christians which attempted, with unexcelled devotion to principle the Reformed historian Ernst Muller speaks of them as " a church of martyrs " the restoration of the Church to its primitive purity and power; which, at variance with the leading Reformers, insisted on the voluntary principle and separation of Church and State, must necessarily be inadequate.
JOHN HoRscH.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Biographies have been written by A. M. Cramer, Amsterdam, 1837 (still the best); C. Harder, Konigsberg, 1846; B. C. Roosen, Leipsic, 1848; Browne, Philadelphia, 1853; F. Bastian, Strasburg, 1857; and C. Fleischer, Amsterdam, 1892. See also the literature under MENNONITES.