Menno Simons

Menno Simons
"Menno Simons from Friesland" 1608 engraving by Christoffel van Sichem
Church	Mennonites
Personal details
Born	1496 Witmarsum, Friesland, Holy Roman Empire
Died	31 January 1561(1561-01-31) Wüstenfelde, Holy Roman Empire
Buried	Bad Oldesloe
Denomination	Roman Catholic (until 1536), Anabaptist (from 1536)
Spouse	Geertruydt Jansdochter
Children	Two daughters, one son
Profession	Catholic priest (until 1536), Anabaptist minister and author (from 1536)

Menno Simons (1496 – January, 31 1561) was a former Catholic priest from the Friesland region of the Low Countries who became an influential Anabaptist religious leader. Simons was a contemporary of the Protestant Reformers and it is from his name that his followers became known as Mennonites.

"Menno Simons" (/ˈmɛnoː ˈsimɔns/) is the Dutch version of his name; the Frisian version is Minne Simens (/ˈmɪnə ˈsimn̩s/), the possessive "s" creating a patronym meaning "Minne, son of Simen" (cf. English family names like Williams and Rogers).

Menno Simons was born in 1496 in Witmarsum, Friesland, Holy Roman Empire. Very little is known concerning his childhood and family except that he grew up in a poor peasant environment. His father's name was Simon, Simons being a patronym, and he had a brother named Pieter.

Simons grew up in a disillusioned war-torn country. Friesland was ravaged by war in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Landsknecht soldiers haunted the Frisian lands in the 1490s to force the 'Free' Frisians to accept the duke of Saxony-Meissen as their head of state. The duke was the governor of the Netherlands for the Habsburg family. One of the archenemies of the Habsburgs, the Duke of Guelders, invaded Friesland in 1515 and conquered half of it. Saxony ceded the other half to the Habsburgs. The Frisians tried to regain their freedom but they were too weak and eventually accepted the imperial authority of the Habsburg emperor Charles V.

Simons learned Latin and some Greek, and he was taught about the Latin Church Fathers during his training to become a priest. He had never read the Bible, either before or during his training for the priesthood, out of fear that he would be adversely influenced by it. When he later reflected upon this period in his life, he called himself stupid.