Flemish Anabaptists and Witch Hunts

Political leaders have long used the term "witch hunt"--and there is an historical connection to Mennonites.
Anabaptists and so-called “witches” were arrested and tried for related reasons in the Low Countries in the 1500s: namely, as a means to divert God’s wrath.
The late-Medievals feared that heresy—in this case ana-baptism and the challenge to other sacraments—invited the wrath of God, and was an instrument for the devil’s own hellish apocalyptic assault.
The assumption: the devil's tactics to destroy Christendom included the use of both heretics and sorcerers. Gary Waite writes convincingly that both were seen as “polluting” the community and thus both had to be "excised."

"This fear of pollution, or scandalizing God or the saints, also explains why small numbers of peaceable Mennonites were so harshly treated during the second half of the sixteenth century. Plagues, fires, and economic and social crises were often blamed on the presence of even a small group of individuals believed to be incurring God’s wrath by their very existence within the community." (Note 1)

In Bruges in the 1560s, for example, Friar Cornelis Adriaensz who interrogated many Flemish Anabaptists, accused Herman Vlekwijk of being bewitched (3x), bedeviled (2x), devilish (7x), a devil’s martyr, a devil’s brood, devil possessed, diabolical, hellish (7x), accursed (15x)—not to mention many other things, like being a “great, stupid, awkward ass”! Cornelis warns that whoever drinks “from the venomous breasts of Erasmus” (note 2) to deny young children a church-sanctioned baptism, denies them a protective defense from the devil’s assaults, for in baptism “the devil is exercised by the priest" (note 3).

His use of language was particular vulgar, and could match that of some in the political sphere today.

Inquisitor Cornelis demonstrated a fearful fascination with women and with “that” which “your filthy, sinful wives do with you,” “your filthy, unchaste, carnal wives” (Sorry, it's all in the Martyrs Mirror !). He imagines that Anabaptist men have “maidens” and their “women in common … like dogs,” and on this basis “gain such a great number of adherents” in Bruges. It is at this point in the interrogation of Herman Vlekwijk that Brother Cornelis moves from interrogation to torture: “Bah, you are filthy, carnal, unchaste, voluptuous rogues, that you thus use the women in common, like dogs” (which he repeats), and then says: “Bah, if I cannot prevail upon you with kindness, I must try whether I can do it with severity" (note 4).

In particular, enmity directed at the church’s highest sacraments was deemed to be nothing short of demonic. Anabaptists openly desecrated Bruges’s most treasured and celebrated relic since the high medieval ages. “The Precious Blood of Jesus,” a cloth with the blood of Christ purportedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea was brought to the city after the sacking of Constantinople in the Second Crusade (see note 5; pic 2).

The cloth gave the Bruges basilica its name and glory, and the city God’s favour and protection--as was widely understood in the sixteenth century, just as Bruges's fortunes and shipping access to the sea were beginning to dry-up.

Anabaptist Jacob de Roore (or "Candle Maker"; pic 3) was accused by his Franciscan inquisitor in Bruges with the following (among other things): “Your breaking of bread, and distribution of the cup is the devil’s supper for you … [you] do not bless your cup, nor do you consecrate your bit of bread, but it is wine and bread, and remains wine and bread” (note 6).

“You Anabaptists neither believe nor observe anything of them [i.e., the Holy Councils], except it be very plainly stated in the holy Scriptures. … I could very well show you this from the ancient fathers, but you Anabaptists will rely most firmly on the holy Scriptures alone” (note 7).

In his rage and frustration with the responses by de Roore, the inquisitor declared that he was true victim of torture (witch hunt?):

“You would drive an hundred thousand doctors of divinity mad and crazy”; “see wherewith we are now tormented and vexed”; “I could tear my cap with anger”! (Note 8)

De Roore wrote his congregation from prison: “it will please you to know that I was with the scholars four times, and they would have liked to draw me from my faith. … Three times I was with the provincials of the Augustinians … and once with the preacher of the Gray Brothers [Franciscan], named Brother Cornelis” (note 9; see pic 3).

No doubt Friar Cornelis and other interrogators did their work with pious intention based especially upon their end-time expectations and fear of God's wrath.

And 450 years later ... we still talk about witch hunts, and sometimes Christians (on both sides) anxiously fear the wrath of God if something is not done or eradicated soon.

--Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: See Gary Waite, Eradicating the Devil’s Minions. Anabaptists and Witches in Reformation Europe (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 126f.; also 200 and 197. https://books.google.ca/books?id=Y0XbgWXKYAEC&lpg=PP1&dq=Eradicating%20the%20Devil%E2%80%99s%20Minions.%20Anabaptists%20and%20Witches%20in%20Reformation%20Europe.%20Toronto%3A%20University%20of%20Toronto%20Press%2C%202007.&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Note 2: Thieleman Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror: The Story of Fifteen Centuries of Martyrdom (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 2001), 789, 795; 793. https://archive.org/details/TheBloodyTheaterOrMartyrsMirrorOfTheDefenselessChristians/page/n783.

Note 3: Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror, 788.

Note 4: Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror, 796, 797; cf. also 779f.

Note 5: "The Procession of the Holy Blood," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procession_of_the_Holy_Blood; also "The Basilica of the Holy Blood," https://visit-bruges.be/see/churches/basilica-holy-blood.

Note 6: Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror, 791. With reference to 1 Corinthians 10:21 (“You cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons”), Menno’s 1539 “Foundation of Christian Doctrine” accused the Roman Church of the same, because it “admits all” (including the “avaricious, the proud, the ostentatious …”) and is celebrated with offensive “pomp and splendor” by ministers “who really seek nothing but worldly honor, ease and the belly” (Complete Writings of Menno Simons, edited by J. C. Wenger [Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1984], 142 [also here: https://archive.org/details/completeworksofm00menn/page/n8]; cf. also de Roore in van Braght, Martyrs Mirror, 783). With respect to Menno, in all points of doctrine the Flemish Mennonites were consistent with his “Foundation.”

Note 7: Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror, 789. See also A. L. E. Verheyden, Anabaptism in Flanders, 1530–1650 (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1961), 126, n. 32, https://archive.org/details/anabaptisminflan0000verh.

Note 8: Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror, 795, 789, 797, 794.

Note 9: Translated in Martha J. Reimer-Blok, “The Theological Identity of Flemish Anabaptists: A Study of the Letters of Jacob de Roore,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 62, no. 3 (July 1988), 318–331; 319.

Comments

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse...

Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links

Each of the "Commando Dr. Stumpp" village reports written during German occupation of Ukraine 1942 contains a mountain of demographic data, names, dates, occupations, numbers of untimely deaths (revolution, famines, abductions), narratives of life in the 1930s, of repression and liberation, maps, and much more. The reports are critical for telling the story of Mennonites in the Soviet Union before 1942, albeit written with the dynamics of Nazi German rule at play. Reports for some 56 (predominantly) Mennonite villages from the historic Mennonite settlement areas of Chortitza, Sagradovka, Baratow, Schlachtin, Milorodovka, and Borosenko have survived. Unfortunately no village reports from the Molotschna area (known under occupation as “Halbstadt”) have been found. Dr. Karl Stumpp, a prolific chronicler of “Germans abroad,” became well-known to German Mennonites (Prof. Benjamin Unruh/ Dr. Walter Quiring) before the war as the director of the Research Center for Russian Germans...

The Tinkelstein Family of Chortitza-Rosenthal (Ukraine)

Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in "New Russia" (later Ukraine), est. 1789. The last Mennonites left in 1943 ( note 1 ). During the Stalin years in Ukraine (after 1928), marriage with Jewish neighbours—especially among better educated Mennonites in cities—had become somewhat more common. When the Germans arrived mid-August 1941, however, it meant certain death for the Jewish partner and usually for the children of those marriages. A family friend, Peter Harder, died in 2022 at age 96. Peter was born in Osterwick to a teacher and grew up in Chortitza. As a 16-year-old in 1942, Peter was compelled by occupying German forces to participate in the war effort. Ukrainians and Russians (prisoners of war?) were used by the Germans to rebuild the massive dam at Einlage near Zaporizhzhia, and Peter was engaged as a translator. In the next year he changed focus and started teachers college, which included significant Nazi indoctrination. In 2017 I interviewed Peter Ha...

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...

Why study and write about Russian Mennonite history?

David G. Rempel’s credentials as an historian of the Russian Mennonite story are impeccable—he was a mentor to James Urry in the 1980s, for example, which says it all. In 1974 Rempel wrote an article on Mennonite historical work for an issue of the Mennonite Quarterly Review commemorating the arrival of Russian Mennonites to North America 100 years earlier ( note 1). In one section of the essay Rempel reflected on Mennonites’ general “lack of interest in their history,” and why they were so “exceedingly slow” in reflecting on their historic development in Russia with so little scholarly rigour. Rempel noted that he was not alone in this observation; some prominent Mennonites of his generation who had noted the same pointed an “extreme spirit of individualism” among Mennonites in Russia; the absence of Mennonite “authoritative voices,” both in and outside the church; the “relative indifference” of Mennonites to the past; “intellectual laziness” among many who do not wish to be distu...

Mennonite Literacy in Polish-Prussia

At a Mennonite wedding in Deutsch Kazun in 1833 (pic), neither groom nor bride nor the witnesses could sign the wedding register. A Görtz, a Janzen, a Schröder—born a Görtzen – illiterate. “This act was read to the married couple and witnesses, but not signed because they were unable to write.” Similarly, with the certification of a Mennonite death in Culm (Chelmo), West Prussia, 1813-14: “This document was read and it was signed by us because the witnesses were illiterate.” Spouse and children were unable to read or write. Names like Gerz, Plenert, Kliewer, Kasper, Buller and others. 14 families of the 25 Mennonite deaths registered --or 56%--could not sign the paperwork ( note 1 ; pic ). This appears to be an anomaly. We know some pioneers to Russia were well educated. The letters of the land-scout to Russia, Johann Bartsch to his wife back home (1786-87) are eloquent, beautifully written and indicate a high level of literacy ( note 2 ). Even Klaas Reimer (b. 1770), the founder t...

Becoming German: Ludendorff Festivals in Molotschna, 1918

During the friendly German military occupation of Ukraine at the end of WWI, patriotic “Ludendorff Festivals” were encouraged by German forces to raise funds to support injured German soldiers. A first such festival in the Molotschna was held on June 25, 1918 in Ohrloff, and was attended by “a great many German officers, soldiers and colonists with music, [patriotic] speeches and social interaction” From the perspective of the German army press, the event was “extremely enjoyable;” it was accompanied with music by a 30-piece regiment orchestra, and beer, sausage, sandwiches, ice-cream, raspberries and cherries were sold. It closed with a “small dance,” raising 7,387 rubles or 9,850 German marks in donations ( note 1 ). Later that summer, a Ludendorff Festival in Halbstadt began with Sunday worship, followed by an early concert, games and performances by the Selbstschutz , as well as “entertainment and merriment of every kind,” with short plays and dancing into the morning ( note ...

1871: "Mennonite Tough Luck"

In 1868, a delegation of Prussian Mennonite elders met with Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Berlin. The topic was universal conscription--now also for Mennonites. They were informed that “what has happened here is coming soon to Russia as well” ( note 1 ). In Berlin the secret was already out. Three years later this political cartoon appeared in a satirical Berlin newspaper. It captures the predicament of Russian Mennonites (some enticed in recent decades from Prussia), with the announcement of a new policy of compulsory, universal military service. “‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire—or: Mennonite tough luck.’ The Mennonites, who immigrated to Russia in order to avoid becoming soldiers in Prussia, are now subject to newly introduced compulsory military service.” ( Note 2 ) The man caught in between looks more like a Prussian than Russian Mennonite—but that’s beside the point. With the “Great Reforms” of the 1860s (including emancipation of serfs) the fundamentals were c...

Mennonites in Danzig's Suburbs: Maps and Illustrations

Mennonites first settled in the Danzig suburb of Schottland (lit: "Scotland"; “Stare-Szkoty”; also “Alt-Schottland”) in the mid-1500s. “Danzig” is the oldest and most important Mennonite congregation in Prussia. Menno Simons visited Schottland and Dirk Phillips was its first elder and lived here for a time. Two centuries later the number of families from the suburbs of Danzig that immigrated to Russia was not large: Stolzenberg 5, Schidlitz 3, Alt-Schottland 2, Ohra 1, Langfuhr 1, Emaus 1, Nobel 1, and Krampetz 2 ( map 1 ). However most Russian Mennonites had at least some connection to the Danzig church—whether Frisian or Flemish—if not in the 1700s, then in 1600s. Map 2 is from 1615; a larger number of Mennonites had been in Schottland at this point for more than four decades. Its buildings are not rural but look very Dutch urban/suburban in style. These were weavers, merchants and craftsmen, and since the 17th century they lived side-by-side with a larger number of Jews a...

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws. It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog