Menno, Simox, one of the "shining lights" of the 16th century, a Reformer whose apostolic spirit and labors have thus far failed to receive the recognition they deserve, probably because of the relation he sus- tained to that peculiar sect of Christians called after him, Mennonites (q. v.).
Life. — The early history of Menno is somewhat ob- scured; it has not yet been definitely determined when he was born. The year generally fixed upon is 1498 ;
his friends of the Netherlands believe it to have oc- curred in 1496, but Gobel, the noted German Church historian, holds that Menno saw the light nf day in 1505 {Gesch. d. christl, Lebens in d. Rhein. \Vi:.<tjili. , nm- gel. Kirche, i, 191). His native place was the little vil- lage of Witmarsura, in Friesland. He was reared and educated under the influence of the Church, and finally decided to devote his life to her service. In 1524 he took orders as priest, and was located at the village of Pingium. His religious condition at this time was anything but desirable. "He was," we are told, "in utter darkness of mind and worldliness of spirit, yet not without some tenderness of conscience and apparent piety." In 1530 he was induced to examine the New Testament with diligence, in consequence of doubts con- cerning transubstantiation. He now became through grace gradually enlightened, his preaching changed, and he was called by some an evangelical preacher, though he says of himself, " At that time the world loved me, and I the world." His preaching found favor among the people, and he gained daily in popularity. In 1531 finallj' came the turning-point which resulted in his departure from the mother Church. In this j'ear he witnessed the martyrdom of Sieke Snyder, at Leeu- warden, for Anabaptism. This severity towards one who had dared to differ for conscience sake rather enlisted his sympathy, roused him to a similar inquiry concern- ing the sacrament of Baptism, and resulted in his em- bracing the views of the persecuted Baptists, though he for several years struggled to suppress his secret con- victions, on account of the odium and suffering which the avowal must incur. " By the gracious favor of God," he observes, " I have acquired my knowledge, as well of baptism as of the Lord's Supper, through the enlight- ening of the Holy Spirit, attendant on my much read- ing and contemplating the Scriptures, and not through the efforts and means of seducing sects, as I am ac- cused."
Mosheim has taken advantage of this hesitating course on the part of ]\lenno after his conversion to the cause of the Anabaptists, and has accused our subject of duplicity, as guilty of having held " clandestine in- tercourse with the Anabaptists" until he found it con- venient " to throw off the mask." This, however, is unjust and cruel. IMeimo was never truly an Ana- baptist. He never sympathized with the excesses com- mitted at Miinster and elsewhere (for he actually pub- lished a severe censure against the erroneous opinions and vile practices of John of Leyden in 1535 ), and his views of baptism were so peculiar that to this day the Mennonites stand alone in their mode of oliserviiig this sacrament. The only tliiiiL,'- he held in common with the Anabaptists was opposii urn to infant baptism. Men- no, however, associated (jnite freely with the Anabap- tists, and exerted a most salutary influence over them, making many friends among that sect. In 1537 he was actually invited by a number of Anabaptists of Groningen to assume among them the rank and func- tions of a public teacher ; and as he looked upon the persons who made this proposal as exempt from the fanatical frenzy of their brethren at Minister, he yield- ed to their entreaties. His conversion from Romanism he himself alludes to in the following strain : " I be- sought my God with sighing and tears that to mei'^ troubled sinner, he would grant the gift of his grace; that he would endue me with wisdom, spirit, frankness, and manly fortitude, so that I might preach his worthy name and holy word unadulterated, and proclaim his truth to his praise. At length the great and gracious Lord, perhaps after the course of nine months, extended to me his fatherly spirit, help, and mighty hand, so that I freely abandoned at once my character, honor, and fame, which I had among men, as also my antichris- tian abominations, mass, infant baptism, loose and care- less life, and all, and put myself willingly in all trouble and poverty under the pressing cross of Christ my Lord. In my weakness I feared God ; I sought pious people,
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and of these I found some, though few, in good zeal and doctrine. I disputed with the perverted, and some I gained through God's help and power, and led them by his word to the Lord Christ ; but the stiff-necked and obdurate I commended to the Lord. Thus has the gra- cious Lord drawn me, through the free favor of his great grace. He first stirred in my heart: he has given me a new mind ; he has Inmibled me in his fear; he has led me from the way of death, and, through mere merc\', has called me upon the narrow path of life into the com- pany of the saints. To him be ])raise forever. Amen." According to Yan Oosterzee (in Merzog's Real-Encyklo- pddie, ix, 339 sq.), Menno was led to separation from Rome by the cruel treatment of the Anabaptists in 1535. Manj' of the sufferers at this time had been hearers of the word of God as dispensed by IMenno, and had been made disciples of the new sect by his declarations against infant baptism and the opinion of a " real presence" in the Eucliarist. Indeed, his own brother had suffered a martyr's death on this occasion, and tliis may have con- tributed in no small measure to the decided step which Menno took shortly after.