Melchior Hoffman is credited with bringing the Anabaptist teachings to the Netherlands. He was born in Swabia, a region in southern Germany, in 1493, the year after Columbus arrived in the New World. A tanner or furrier by trade, he started out as a self-taught Lutheran preacher active in Sweden. Having been driven out of Sweden and later the region east of the Baltic Sea, he visited northern Germany and then Denmark. Opposition in those regions forced him to move on, ending up in Strassburg. There he heard about the Anabaptist teachings.

In 1530 he took up residence in Emden, a city just across the border from the northeastern portion of the Netherlands. From there he trained and sent lay preachers into the Netherlands and eventually went there himself. Hoffman died in prison but his efforts began to pay off.

The Netherlands was ripe for change. Subjugated under the heavy hand of the Spanish king, who also held the title of Holy Roman Emperor, the Dutch were ready for change and the idea of changing the authority structure sounded attractive. As many as thirty printings of different translations of the Bible had appeared between 1520 and 1530. All of this created a hunger for freedom and change. The disciples of Hoffman and others taught that the Kingdom of God was about to appear. The implication was that anything they could do to prepare the way would be pleasing to God, perhaps even hasten His arrival. This led some to believe that even physical violence designed to overthrow the civil authorities was acceptable.

The workers in the textile industries responded in large numbers. And in response to this new teaching came the persecution led by the ruling authorities and especially the monasteries that saw in this movement a direct attack on their power and license. The first martyrs in Flanders were Willem Mulaer, beheaded on July 15, 1535, and Arendt de Jagher and Jan van Gentbrugge who were beheaded four days later. As a result of the intense persecution that followed, the majority of the believers of this region fled to Friesland, in the northern part of the Netherlands.

The people of Flanders were referred to as Flemings, from which we have the term "Flemish Dutch." These believers, from the working class on the coast of present-day Belgium, mingled in with the Anabaptists of the Friesland area, resulting in a considerable cultural clash which led to problems in the Mennonite Church, beginning in 1566, that persisted for hundreds of years.

Subsequently two terms came to be associated with the different camps of the Mennonite followers: Flemish and Frisian. These terms are used to refer primarily to the two followings within the Mennonite church and have no bearing on the geographical origins of the people known by that term.

As the more radical teaching spread it found fertile ground in the city of Munster, Germany, near the border with the Netherlands. Jan Matthijs, a Dutch disciple of the followers of Hoffman, "now taught that the faithful were to prepare for the return of Christ beforehand by making a place for His kingdom by destroying the wicked. As a result, everyone in the city of Munster was soon forced to receive baptism and join the new community or leave the city. Military preparations were quickly made for the great battle which would usher in the kingdom."

The bishop of Munster wasn't humored by this takeover of his city and arranged the support of the German princes to attack the city. On June 24, 1535, the city fell and the perpetrators were arrested and imprisoned. The extreme measures used by the Anabaptists, in this instance, caused the opposition to Anabaptism to increase as those who persecuted felt encouraged to pursue those who were a perceived threat to social stability.

The Munster Rebellion became a watershed event, a turning point for the Anabaptist movement. The failure of the more-violence prone Anabaptists only confirmed to those who opposed violence that peaceful means were the only ones ordained by God. One of those so convinced was Obbe Philips, previously discipled by followers of Jan Matthijs, a disciple of Melchior Hoffman. Obbe Philips, in turn, taught and ordained others, with a strong emphasis on abstention from violence. One of those he ordained was Menno Simons.

Menno Simons, born in Witmarsum, Netherlands, studied and was ordained to the priesthood by the bishop of Utrecht in 1524. Approximately a year after taking on the role of priest he began to have doubts about the teachings of the Catholic Church. What most bothered him was the teaching of transubstantiation: that the elements of the Lord's Supper were transformed, in the hands of the priest, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Much like Martin Luther, he began to search the scriptures and came to the conclusion that the church was wrong.

Subsequently he heard that a disciple of Hoffman's had been beheaded in a nearby town for having himself rebaptized, as was the tradition of the Anabaptists. He again turned to the scripture and could find no foundation for the teaching of infant baptism as the church taught it. He even turned to the writings of Luther and other reformers and could not find the basis they purported to have found in scripture.

The turning point for Menno Simons came when supporters of the Munster rebellion took over a monastery near his town of Witmarsum, in the province of Friesland, Netherlands. The monastery was besieged, captured and most, if not all, of the perpetrators were either killed or executed. Among them is believed to have been Peter Simons, a brother of Menno.

Menno Simons agreed with many of the Anabaptist teachings but disagreed with their bent for violence. He saw that he could no longer be passive while so many were being misguided, even deceived by teachers who were misleading the people. In a public statement on January 30, 1536, he made a public commitment to the cause of Christ and then went into hiding.

Henry Vedder, in his book entitled A Short History of the Baptists, has this to say of Menno Simons. "Menno was an apostle of the truth, preaching and founding churches across the whole of Northern Europe, from France to Russia. In spite of the severest edicts and the bloodiest persecutions, he continued faithful to his calling, and found willing hearers of the gospel wherever he went. He enforced a strict standard of morals, repressed all tendencies toward fanaticism, and gradually molded his followers into the mild, peaceful, and moral people that the Mennonites have ever since been."

It is interesting to note that during this period it was the Lutherans and Calvinists (Reformed) that fought change and opposed the Anabaptist movement. They held to the idea that society could not function unless it had a single church organization. Departing from this conventional wisdom, Menno Simons taught that the church is a voluntary gathering of believers. Church members were bound together solely on the basis of their loyalty to Christ and love for one another. The use of the sword or other means of the state to enforce the will of the church was contrary to the example and teaching of Christ.

During much of Menno Simons' later years he was a hunted criminal, subject to imprisonment and execution. In January, 1539, Tjaard Renicx of Kimswerd, Friesland, Netherlands, was executed for having given shelter to Simons. Only one of Simons' children outlived him during these harsh times. In the Holy Roman Empire anyone who was baptized a second time was put to death. Although Emperor Charles V had tolerated Luther because he needed the support of the German princes, he did no such thing in the Netherlands. As many as 2,500 believers lost their lives in martyrdom between 1528 and 1574 in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Not untypical of the spirit and kindness of the brethren of this new movement was the example shown by Dirk Willems. "He was pursued by a company of Anabaptist hunters when he escaped from prison in the midst of winter. He fled across the thin covering of ice on a river and seemed to have made good his escape when, looking back, he saw one of his pursuers break through the ice and cry for help. Dirk immediately turned back and managed to rescue him, but on orders of the burgomaster on the other side of the river, the man he saved arrested him on the spot. He was burned at the stake on May 16, 1569, paying for this deed of mercy with his life."

In An Introduction to Mennonite History we read, "So powerful was the Anabaptist witness at the time of execution, that they were increasingly carried on in secret, or the martyrs were gagged. Since some of them managed to free their tongues, however, a clamp was henceforth placed over their tongue and the tip burned so that it would not slip back through the vise."

Since our spiritual heritage dates back to this period of history, it seems appropriate that we understand to some degree the uncompromising sacrifice that so many endured to keep the flame of truth alive. An example, chosen from dozens of equally moving stories follows. Sometime in the early part of the 1600's Thieleman Jansz van Braght took it upon himself to research in the public archives and publish a book on this subject entitled Martyrs Mirror. His research has been proven to be accurate and unbiased, to the extent that one can remain unbiased upon reading accounts such as these.

An excerpt of his account of the deaths of David van der Leyen and Levina Ghyselins in Gent (currently East Flanders, Belgium) in 1554, follows.

During this period of persecution the Mennonites scattered in many directions. One area of particular interest to us is the Vistula Delta surrounding the modern-day city of Gdansk, Poland. Named for the Vistula River which proceeds northward through much of modern-day Poland, this area became home to generations of Mennonite families beginning as early as 1530. It was easily accessible for the Dutch merchants who already carried on trade with this city and it provided good farmland for the farmers practiced to reclaiming wetlands in their country of origin. Motivated by the intense persecution in the Netherlands, Menno Simons visited the area in 1549 and Dirk Philips, his fellow laborer, came to live in the area in 1561. Church centers were established to provide for teaching and worship.

By the end of the 1500's the political situation had changed and the persecution began to abate from its former intensity. The last recorded martyrdom in Holland occurred in 1574. While sporadic persecution continued in various parts, the Mennonite community in general enjoyed the prosperity of their own hard work in many areas of the continent. The Dutch Mennonites, excluded for so long from the political discourse and from teaching careers now moved into areas of trade and merchant activity. This in turn led to social, cultural, and educational interests and influence.

The 17^th and 18^th centuries saw a period of relative prosperity for the Mennonite community in general. It was during this period that the Dutch Mennonites made contact with the English Quakers. The Amish Mennonites, followers of Jacob Ammann, became a distinct entity at the beginning of the 18^th century in the Alsace area of France/Germany. The book Martyrs Mirror and other writings appeared for the primary purpose of challenging the church to stay firm in its original convictions and teaching.

Wealthy Mennonites in the Netherlands organized relief efforts to aid the fellow believers in Poland and Prussia (1711). Others Mennonites in the Netherlands founded societies to aid in such diverse efforts as helping the families of sailors lost at sea, funding for museums, and scientific research. While the church at large seemed to prosper and economic conditions improved in Germany and the Low Countries, the Mennonites in Prussia were beginning to make their mark also.