cannot exist intact in purity and piety. A Church without the proper apostolical ban or excommunication is like a city without walls or gates, like a field or gar- den without a fence, or like a house without walls or doors. For without it the Church would stand open to all seducers and evil-doers, to idolators and wilfully per- sistent smners." He insisted upon excommunication to such an extent that members of his congregation at Wismar who had listened to the sermons of Lutheran clergymen were excommunicated as if they had com- mitted public crimes, or indulged in gross passions.
The works of Simon ^Menno, of which the last were printed in his own printing establishment, were pub- lished collectively in 1600, under the title Sommaria of Byllnvergaderinrj van sommige schriftelyke Beh ntm- issen des geloo/s, mitsgaders eenige ivaarachtige y< nuit ivoo7-dinge7i, gedaan door Menno Simons. It was, how- ever, a very imperfect compilation; much better was that of 1646, 4to ; but the best appeared in 1681, in sm. fol., at Amsterdam, entitled Opera omnia fheolo- gica, of al de Godgeleei-de werJcen van Menno Simonis, etc.
Besides the histories on his followers, quoted in the article Mennonites, see Biographie des Protest, eelebres (Paris), ii, 59-70 ; Cramer, Ilet leven an de verrigtingen von Menno Simons (Amst. 1837), perhaps the most im- portant work to be consulted ; Harder, Lehen Menno Si- mons (Konigsb. 1846) ; Roosen, Menno Simons den evan- gelischen Mennonitengemeindengeschildert (Leipsic, 1848). (J.H.W.)
Mennonites is the name of a Christian sect which sprung up in Holland and Germanj' about the time of the Reformation, though it cannot be said to have actu- ally originated in the great revolution of the 16th cen- tury. The Baptists claim the Mennonites as their fore- runners, and regard them to be the direct descendants of the Waldenses (q. v.) ; but this origin of the Mennon- ites is disputed by most Pa2<lobaptist writers, who recog- nise them simply as the followers of one Simon Menno (q.v.), who gathered the more moderate of the Anabap- tists (q. v.), gave them a new code of discipline, and be- came to them the interpreter of the law and the (iospel. Because of the excesses committed by the more fanatic and unruly of the German Anabaptists in the reforma- tory period, the Baptists and Mennonites take exception to this classification. M. Herman Schyn, a Mennonite minister, who has published their history and apology, seeks to maintain that they are not Anabaptists, either by principle or by origin. Besides the necessity of adult baptism, the Mennonites in the 16th century held, in com- mon with the Anabaptists, the belief in Christ's personal reign during the millennium — the unlawfulness of oaths and wars, even in resistance to injur\' — the impropriety of engaging in lawsuits — and the exclusion of the civil magistrate from the Church. But with the wild notions, which were indulged in by many, of setting up Christ's kingdom on earth by violence and bloodshed, they had no sympathy. Every immoral practice, also, they as a sect discountenanced; and they deserve to be held up as a Christian body characterized by consistency and moderation. In the days of their founder they were certainly among the most pious Christians the Church ever saw, and the worthiest citizens the State ever had. " It must be at once conceded," saj's Hardwick {Church Hist, during the Ref. p. 280), " that the principles of thfe sect are free from nearly all the dark fanaticism which stains the records of the older party."
Mennonites, the Anabaptists of the Netherlands first called themselves in 1536, the year in which the hith- erto scattered community celebrated its union. iMenno, seeing clearly that "in union lies strength," had ob- tained a regular state of Church order, separate from all Dutch and German Protestants, and thus secured an ecclesiastical establishment. He laid do^vn rules for the guidance of the congregations, and furnished them with a sort of " confession of faith." His iloctrines were free from the anti-social and licentious tenets and the
MENNONITES
96
MEXXOXITES
pretensions to inspiration which are ascribed to the An- abaptists; but he agreed with them in condemning the baptism of infants (Matt, xxviii, 19), in expecting a per- sonal reign of Christ on eartli for a thousand years at tlic millennium, in excluding magistrates from the Christian Church (Schyn, i, 214), and in maintaining that all war was unlawful (Matt, xxvi, 52), that the taking of oaths was prohibited by Christ (Matt, v, 37), and that hu- man science is useless and pernicious to a Christian. But these tenets were so explained and moditied by Menno as (o differ very little from the doctrines gener- ally held by the lieformed churches, securing a high degree of credit to tlie religious system of this famous teacher, and thus contributing to the rapid progress of his followers both in numbers and in influence. He in- sisted upon the strictest attention to moral duties, and exercised a most severe disci|)line upon offenders, and in a very short time succeeded in excluding from ttiis fel- lowship those fanatics that had so dishonored the name of Anabaptists, and gradually built up a large and tioiur- ishing sect.
The severe discipline which ^lenno exercised over his followers had, however, ultimately the effect of pro- ducing divisions within his Hock. Oftentimes the pro- priety or impropriety of excommunicating from the fellowship of the Church those who had incurred its censures was questioned. Menno insisted upon the ex- pulsion of all guilty of misdemeanor, even if the erring ones sliowcd signs of repentance. Some in the flock took exception to this severity, and insisted upon it that an excommunicated might at least be readmitted if signs of repentance were clearly manifest. This divi- sion of opinion residted finally in the division of the sect into two parties, named respectively "die Feinen" the Fine, and "■die Groben" the Coarse. They were also called "Flemings" or '• Flandrians" and "Water- landers," from the districts in which they resided. The former was the more rigid of the two ; but ere long it was also divided into Flandrians and Frieslanders. This separation arose, out of a question as to what should constitute a sufficient cause for excommunication. One l)arty regarded those only who were open contemners of the divine law to be deserving the highest censure of the Church, while the other party considered offences of the most trivial kind a reason for the instant rejec- tion of the offender. Menno liimself officially sided with tiie Flemings, and he was forced to pronounce-tlie expul- sion of the milder party, although his sympathies were supposed to be with them.