Life and setting
A former Catholic priest, Menno Simons became a leading advocate of peaceful Anabaptism, believers’ baptism, disciplined church life and nonviolence.
Reformation • Anabaptist / Mennonite
Menno Simons
1496 – 1561 • Pastor and Anabaptist leader
Why this person matters
His leadership helped consolidate communities that later took the name Mennonite and preserved a distinct Radical Reformation tradition.
What should not be sanitized
Sixteenth-century Anabaptism was diverse; Menno rejected the violent apocalyptic movement associated with Münster.