Anabaptism
was introduced in the lower Rhine and
northern Germany in
about 1529. A succession
of leaders Melchior Hoffman, Jan Matthys and Jan van Leiden embarked on
a
militant type of millenarianism. According to their interpretation of
Daniel
and Revelations, Münster would be the New Jerusalem, and the
radical
Anabaptists (Melchiorites) were predestined to help God usher in the New
Kingdom by
force. The episode ended
tragically. Thousands of misguided people were killed. The bodies of
the two
leaders, Jan van Leiden and Bernhard Knipperdolling were placed in an
iron cage
and suspended from the pinnacle of the St.
Lambert’s
Church tower in Münster.
The cage is a tourist attraction to this day.
In
1536 after the Münster tragedy, the moderate Anabaptists
approached Menno Simons, a Catholic priest who had embraced the
Anabaptist
faith, to become their leader. In the course of time the whole movement
adopted
his name.
The
map shows many of the places where Menno Simons lived:
Witmarsum, Groningen, Emden, Cologne, Wismar and
Bad Oldesloe. He also
visited the Mennonite Church in
the Vistula Delta.