In 1535, Menno Simons, a Catholic priest from Witmarsum, Holland, wrote a blistering attack against Jan van Leiden, a revolutionary Anabaptist leader.
The piece was called “Against the Blasphemy of Jan of Leiden.” Upon completion, however, Simons felt accusation from God instead of relief. So he put the “Blasphemy” in a drawer and never mentioned it. It was discovered among his daughter’s papers in 1627 and published.
Simons grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and by 1524 had been ordained a priest. By 1525, the writings of Martin Luther attacking the Catholic doctrine of the mass came to Simons’ attention. As he celebrated mass, he began to doubt that the bread and wine were really being changed into the flesh and blood of Christ. He read further in the writings of the reformers but found a confusion of human opinions. Like Luther, he turned to the Bible. Finding no confirmation for the Church’s teachings, he concluded that the Church had misled him.
Around 1532 he heard Sicke Snyder had been executed for being baptized upon his confession of faith. Once again, he turned to the reformers’ writings, then to the Bible, but could find no justification for infant baptism.
Simons studied the Bible diligently. By 1534, when the emissaries of Jan van Leiden appeared in his region, he had studied it for nine years. People around Witmarsum called him an “evangelical preacher” because of his biblical expertise, and he easily defeated the messengers from Muenster in public debates. When his brother was misled by them, he turned angrily on their leader.
Simons’ new theological insights had not motivated him to leave the Catholic Church. He continued to perform its sacraments though he no longer believed in them. But as he was writing the “Blasphemy,” he stumbled upon the Matthew 7 story of the person who clearly saw the splinter in his brother’s eye but could not see the beam in his own.
Like Paul on the Damascus road, Simons saw Christ accusing him of hypocrisy. For 10 years, his knowledge of Christ’s teachings had increased, but he refused to live up to it. His anger against Jan van Leiden turned into a cry for mercy to God: a cry for forgiveness and grace to take up the cross of Christ and follow him.
Simons left the Catholic Church, accepted baptism upon confession of his faith, and took his place with the persecuted persons who had been misled by Jan van Leiden. The first tracts he wrote dealt with conversion. Through his example and preaching of the new birth, Simons transformed the movement.
Simons’ example teaches that a knowledge of God’s truth, as important as it may be, does not make people Christians. Knowledge of the truth without conversion all too often leads to arrogance and contention; conversion leads to humility and service. Having experienced conversion at the time he had completed the “Blasphemy,” Simons knew he was at least as guilty in God’s sight as Jan van Leiden, perhaps more so because he knew better. If that were so, how could he be Leiden’s accuser?
This profile, written by Abraham Friesen, was originally featured in the Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission’s Spring 2001 edition of Profiles of Mennonite Faith. It has been edited for length and is reprinted with permission.
The Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission is responsible for fostering historical understanding and appreciation within the Mennonite Brethren Church in Canada and the United States. It fulfills this goal by: coordinating the collection, preservation and cataloging of Mennonite Brethren conference archival records and publishing books and audio-visual material relating to the history of the Mennonite Brethren Church.
