MENNO SIMONS

Initiator of Anabaptist reform movement. He abandoned his Roman Catholic priesthood on political and doctrinal principles – true Christianity entails adult believer’s baptism rather than infant incorporation and the ritual of bread and wine did not involve their ‘magical’ transformation into flesh and blood. To express its purity, his new community deliberately separated itself from the state and all its works, including armed forces and the legal system. Both he and his followers were persecuted by both Catholics and some fellow Protestants, but his teaching led to the creation of Mennonite communities throughout Europe and subsequently in N America.

Life

• Menno Simons and the Mennonites
• A biography of Simons

Writings

• Complete list of writings with links to a large number of texts
• The New Birth