Menno Simons (1496–1561) was a Dutch Catholic priest who left the church in 1536 to become a leader of the Anabaptists, a persecuted movement that taught believer’s baptism, a church of committed disciples, and a refusal to use violence. For twenty-five years he lived as a hunted man, traveling secretly to encourage scattered congregations and writing books that defined their faith. His followers came to be called Mennonites, and his influence lives on in Mennonite, Amish, and other free churches around the world.
A Priest Who Had Never Read the Bible
Menno was born in 1496 in the village of Witmarsum in Friesland, in what is now the northern Netherlands. His father was named Simon, so he was “Menno, Simon’s son.” He came from a humble farming family but was trained for the priesthood, learning Latin, some Greek, and the writings of the early church fathers. He was ordained in Utrecht, and in 1524 he began serving as a priest in Pingjum, near his hometown.
Menno later admitted something surprising about those years: he had never read the Bible. He said he feared that if he read it, he would be misled. Like many village priests of his time, he performed the Mass, heard confessions, and spent much of his free time playing cards and drinking with his fellow clergy. Nothing about his early ministry suggested he would one day lead a movement of radical reform.
Troubling Questions
Within a year or two of arriving at Pingjum, Menno began to doubt that the bread and wine of the Mass truly became the body and blood of Christ. The thought troubled him so much that he finally opened the New Testament. What he found there convinced him that Scripture, not church tradition, had to be the final authority for his faith. He read the writings of Luther and other Reformers, but he resolved to test even them by the Bible.
In 1531, Menno heard news that shook him. A tailor named Sicke Freerks Snijder had been beheaded in nearby Leeuwarden for being “rebaptized.” Menno later wrote that the idea of a second baptism sounded very strange to him. He had never questioned infant baptism. But he searched the Scriptures and concluded that the New Testament pictures baptism as a step taken by people who have repented and believe.
Romans 6:3-4 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Menno saw baptism as a public sign of dying to an old life and rising to a new one with Christ, something he believed an infant could not choose. That conviction had already given the Anabaptist movement its name, which means “rebaptizers.” It began in Zurich in 1525, when a group of Ulrich Zwingli’s former students baptized one another as adults. Catholic and Protestant authorities alike treated believer’s baptism as a crime, partly because infant baptism tied every citizen to the state church. Thousands of Anabaptists were executed in the decades that followed.
Münster and a Brother’s Death
Not every Anabaptist was peaceful. In 1534 a radical group seized the German city of Münster, declared it the New Jerusalem, and prepared to bring in God’s kingdom by force. Under the self-proclaimed king Jan van Leiden, the city practiced polygamy and violent rule until it fell to a siege in June 1535. The Münster disaster made the word “Anabaptist” a byword for chaos across Europe.
The violence touched Menno personally. In March 1535 a band of about three hundred Anabaptists, some inspired by Münster, occupied a monastery called the Oldeklooster near Bolsward. Troops stormed it in April, and hundreds died. Among them was Menno’s brother Pieter. Menno was devastated. He could not stop thinking about how sincerely these people had given their lives, even for a cause he believed was badly mistaken. These misguided people had been willing to die for their beliefs, while he, who understood the gospel better, was still living comfortably as a priest. He wrote against the Münsterite errors, but his conscience would not let him stay where he was.
Menno later described this season as one of intense inner struggle. He prayed with sighs and tears, asking God for grace and a clean heart, and for the courage to preach the truth openly. He began preaching repentance and the new birth from his own pulpit, still wearing the robes of a priest, but he knew that couldn’t last.
Leaving Everything
In January 1536, Menno publicly renounced the Catholic Church and his priesthood. It was a costly decision. He gave up his income, his status, and his safety, and joined a scattered and despised people. He was probably baptized soon afterward, and around 1537 a group of peaceful Anabaptists, including the leader Obbe Philips, persuaded him to become an elder and shepherd their congregations.
Menno chose a verse that appeared on the title page of every book and pamphlet he wrote. It summed up what he believed the church must be built on.
1 Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
For Menno, building on Christ meant more than holding correct beliefs. It meant a changed life. In his writings he insisted that true evangelical faith “cannot lie dormant,” but shows itself in love: clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, comforting the sorrowful, and sheltering the destitute. He wanted a church made up of genuine disciples who followed Jesus in everyday life.
A Shepherd With a Price on His Head
Around 1539–1540, Menno published The Foundation of Christian Doctrine, a clear explanation of Anabaptist beliefs that helped gather and steady the movement after Münster. He taught that Christians should not swear oaths, take up the sword, or use force in matters of faith. Those beliefs came straight from his reading of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:43-44 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
Menno practiced what he taught. In 1542 an imperial edict issued in the name of Emperor Charles V placed a reward of one hundred gold guilders on his head and forbade anyone to shelter him or read his books. People who did help him were sometimes executed. Menno married a woman named Gertrude, and they had at least three children, but the family lived on the move. He traveled through the Netherlands and northern Germany, preaching in homes and barns, baptizing new believers, and writing letters and books, often at night.
He was aware of what this cost his wife and children. In one writing he described how he could not find a cabin or hut anywhere in the country where his wife and little children could live safely for a year, or even half a year. Yet he kept going, convinced that the scattered flock needed a shepherd. Around 1546 he settled for several years near Wismar on the Baltic coast, and later found refuge in Holstein, always writing to strengthen believers who were being imprisoned and executed for their faith.
Hard Edges and Lasting Fruit
Menno’s legacy isn’t without controversy. He taught an unusual view that Christ’s flesh was “heavenly” rather than taken from Mary, which most Christians, then and now, consider mistaken. In his later years he also supported a strict use of church discipline, called the ban, including shunning members who were expelled, even within families. Disagreements over how strictly to apply it caused painful splits among his followers, and Menno himself seemed torn over the issue.
Menno died on January 31, 1561, at Wüstenfelde in Holstein, in northern Germany, where a nobleman had given refugees shelter. He was buried in his own garden. He had lived longer than almost any other early Anabaptist leader, which in itself was a kind of miracle. His followers became known as Mennonites, and later groups like the Amish grew from the same roots. If you’re curious about one of those branches today, read Who Are the Old Order Mennonites?
Many convictions Menno suffered for are now common among evangelicals: believer’s baptism, the separation of church and state, religious freedom, and a church of committed disciples rather than everyone born in a region. The story of how those ideas grew into the free church movement is told in How Did the First Denominations Begin? Menno’s life also reminds us that saving faith always bears fruit.
James 2:17-18 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
Menno never believed good works could save anyone. He trusted in Jesus’ death and resurrection alone. But he refused to separate believing from following, and that challenge still speaks to us. For a Reformer who approached church and state very differently, see Lesson 8 on John Calvin.
The Takeaway
Menno Simons left a comfortable priesthood to shepherd persecuted believers, living for twenty-five years with a price on his head. He built his life on Jesus Christ, taught that baptism belongs to those who choose to follow him, and called the church to love its enemies. Though he had flaws, his conviction that real faith “cannot lie dormant” still challenges every Christian to show their trust in Jesus through everyday obedience.
https://www.pursuegod.org/history-makers-of-the-reformation/
