Anabaptist Lives

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Anabaptist Lives
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Geleyn Corneliss

• d. 1572
• Geleyn Corneliss, a shoemaker, was arrested
  during a worship service. He was suspended by his
  right thumb with a weight tied to his left foot.
  While he was suspended the commissaries of the
  Duke of Alva burned his underarms with candles
  and eventually settled down to play cards. Geleyn
  didn't give up any of the names of his fellow
  believers nor did he abandon his faith. He was
  burned at the stake with several others who had
  been arrested at the worship service.

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Conrad Grebel

• b. ca.1498, d. 1526
• Zwingli and Zürich
• Father of Anabaptism
• Performed first baptism, of George Blaurock
• Missionary travels
• Nature of community

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Andres Langedul

• d. 1559
• Andres Langedul was arrested on his front porch
  while reading the Bible. The charge was having
  secret meetings to listen to the Word of God. He
  was executed with the sword. One of the men who
  was executed at the same time wrote several hymns
  that were sent to their friends on the outside.

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Felix Manz

• b. ca. 1498, d. January 5, 1527
• Zwingli and Zürich with Grebel
• Hosted first community meetings
• First casualty of the Zürich council, and the
  first Swiss Anabaptist to be martyred at the
  hands of other Protestants

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Pieter Pietersz

• d. 1569
• Pieter Pietersz, a boatman, gathered believers on
  his boat to worship and study. When his child was
  born he took the child away to avoid infant
  baptism. For these crimes he was executed with
  fire.

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George Blaurock

• b. C. 1491, d. September 6, 1529
• With Grebel and Manz in opposition to Zwingli in
  Zürich
• Instigated first adult baptism in Zürich
• Beaten and permanently expelled from Zürich
• He kept moving - Bern, Biel, the Grisons,
  Appenzell, Tyrol.
• September 6, 1529, burned at the stake near
  Klausen.

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Ursel van Essen

• d. 1570
• Ursel van Essen was scourged with rods twice in
  one day on her bare skin. She bore all these
  tortures without complaint even though she was
  said to have tender skin. She was told by the
  court that she should not say anything on the
  street on the way to her execution. She said,
  "And may I not sing a little, and say something
  now and then?" They tied her mouth shut so she
  wouldn't have the chance. She was burned in a
  small hut.

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Michael Sattler

• b. 1495?, d. 1527
• Main leader when Manz, Grebel and Blaurock
  martyred or died
• Banished from Zurich in 1525 and traveled to
  Horb, Rottenburg, and eventually to Strasbourg
• Influential in developing Schleitheim Confession
• May, 1527, Sattler arrested by Roman Catholic
  authorities, along with his wife and several
  other Anabaptists
• Tried and sentenced to be executed as a heretic
• tongue was cut out
• red hot tongs were used to tear two pieces of
  flesh from his body.
• taken outside the city by wagon
• tongs were used on him five more times
• then burned at the stake

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Maeyken Wens

• d. 1573
• Maeyken Wens, a mother and teacher in the church,
  was burned at the stake along with several other
  women. At her execution a tongue screw was put on
  to keep her from singing or encouraging people in
  the crowd. Her son Adriaen kept the tongue screw
  as a remembrance of his mother. She wrote several
  letters to Adriaen before her death encouraging
  him to follow the Lord and to take care of his
  little brother Hans.

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Balthasar Hübmaier

• ca. 1480 March 10, 1528
• Fame as a pulpiteer widespread -gt preacher in
  Catholic church at Regensburg, 1516
• 1521, went to Waldshut
• March, 1523 in Zürich, met Zwingli
• 1525, met anabaptists in Waldshut -gt baptized
  Hübmaier
• December 1525, Hubmaier fled to Zürich
• Zwingli rather had him arrested
• Hubmaier requested a disputation on baptism.
  Lost. Hubmaier agreed to recant
• spiritual anguish brought on by his actions -gt "I
  cannot and I will not recant."
• In prison and under the torture of the rack, he
  did offer the required recantation.
• Left Switzerland for Nikolsburg in Moravia
• "I may err - I am a man - but a heretic I cannot
  be...O God, pardon me my weakness".
• 1527, Waldshut, seized by Austrian authorities,
  taken to Vienna
• Held in Castle Gratzenstain until March 1528
• Suffered torture on the rack, and was tried for
  heresy and convicted
• March 10, 1528, taken to the public square and
  executed by burning
• Three days later his wife was drowned in Danube
• All of his publications contained the motto Die
  warheit ist untödlich (Truth is Immortal).

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Joris Wippe

• d. 1558
• Joris Wippe, was drowned in a wine cask filled
  with water by a soldier because the executioner
  would not do the job. The executioner didn't want
  to do it because Joris had often fed his wife and
  children. He was known as being liberal to the
  poor. It seemed no one wanted him dead for they
  respected his life and faith. He wrote several
  letters while imprisoned but he was watched
  closely so he couldn't get any ink. He wrote his
  final letter to his family with mulberry juice.

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Menno Simons

• b. 1496, d. January 3,1561
• born in Friesland, Holland.
• Little known of early life and education
• 1524, ordained as Roman Catholic priest
• Study of the New Testament soon began to produce
  doubts
• Luther's writings also influenced him to leave
  the Roman Church
• Went farther than either Luther or Calvin, soon
  allied himself with the Dutch Anabaptists
• Baptised in 1537 by Obbe Philip
• Fame as a writer and as a preacher grew, soon the
  Anabaptists of that area acknowledged him as
  their leader
• Aftermath of Münster disaster
• Preached non-violent type of Anabaptism in the
  Netherlands until 1544, became much pursued
  heretic
• constant activity made possible the survival and
  spread of the original, peaceful Anabaptist
  movement when it was most threatened by
  persecution

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Maria von Monjou

• d. 1552
• On the way to being drowned for her faith, Maria
  of Monjou, said, "I have been the bride of a man,
  but today I hope to be the bride of Christ, and
  to inherit His Kingdom with Him." She had been
  baptized upon her confession of faith and now
  with her drowning was baptized with suffering.

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Jacob Hutter

• b. ?, d. February 25, 1536
• Hutterites
• Radical community
• Community of goods
• Nonviolence
• Believers baptism
• tortured and burned alive on February 25, 1536

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Anneken Heyndricks

• d. 1571
• Anneken Heyndricks, at age 53, was sentenced to
  be burned alive. One of her neighbors betrayed
  her to the officials. She had been an Anabaptist
  for almost 20 years and had married a fellow
  believer. After she was tied to the ladder she
  said, "I firmly trust in God, who shall help me
  out of my distress." Her executioners didn't let
  her talk anymore but filled her mouth with
  gunpowder and carried her out to the fire.

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Gerrit Hasepoot

• d. 1556
• Gerrit Hasepoot, a tailor, was sentenced to be
  executed. With an infant in her arms, his wife
  came to bid him farewell. When Gerrit was placed
  at the stack of wood, he kicked his slippers from
  his feet, saying, "It were a pity to burn them
  for they can be of service to some poor person."
  When the rope that was being used to strangle him
  slipped he said, "Brethren, sisters, all,
  goodbye! We must now separate, 'till we meet
  beyond the sky, with Christ our only head."

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Jacques D'Auchy

• d. 1559
• When Jacques D'Auchy was arrested he was asked if
  there were any complaints against his behavior to
  which the reply was no. His only crime was in
  believing the wrong things. His pregnant wife
  visited him while he was in jail. Jacques was so
  popular with the town people that he was killed
  secretly at night so no one would know. The
  person who turned him in to the authorities was
  driven out of town and never returned.

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Maria Ursula Van Beckum

• d. 1554
• When the authorities came to arrest Maria at her
  home she asked her sister-in-law Ursula to
  accompany her. They steadfastly held their claim
  to the truth of the Word (Bible) and were
  sentenced to death. They embraced and prayed to
  God to forgive their judges. Ursula watched Maria
  be burned, and then stepped onto the woodpile for
  her own execution.

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Hans Bret

• d. 1570
• Hans Bret was arrested with the whole house where
  he was an apprentice. While in prison for his
  faith he wrote many letters. In one he complained
  to a woman he "loved from the heart," that the
  torturers had taken away all of the letters she
  had written to him. These letters had been such a
  comfort to him. He had given up hope of an
  earthly marriage but he looked forward to
  marriage to Christ Jesus following his execution.
  He had a tongue screw put in his mouth to keep
  him from witnessing with words on the way to this
  death.

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Dirk Willems

• d. 1569
• When Dirk Willems fled from the palace where he
  was being held and ran over ice on a pond, the
  guard chasing him fell in. When the others with
  the guard did not help him, Dirk went back and
  pulled him to safety. The guard then seized Dirk
  and took him back to captivity. He was executed
  by fire.