M E N N O. 10? 
Ills father, called Pinningum, and afterwards at the place 
of his birth. With all his zeal, however, he led a profli¬ 
gate life, as he himfelf confeffes ; but, becoming ac¬ 
quainted with fome Anabaptifts, he received ferious im- 
preflions, and gradually became a convert to their princi¬ 
ples. For fome time-lie frequented their affemblies with 
the utmoft fecrecy ; but, in the year 1536, he threw off 
the mafk, refighed his ftation and office in the Romifh 
church, and publicly embraced their communion. The 
members of that left with whom Menno connected him¬ 
felf were Ample and inoffenfive men, exempt from that 
fanatical frenzy which had difgraced the Anabaptifts of 
Munfter, and holding the fame religious opinions with the 
reformed churches, excepting their own peculiar tenets, 
which will be . hereafter noticed. About a year after 
Menno had joined himfelf to them, feveral of the feft ear- 
neftly folicited him to undertake the office of a public 
teacher; to whofe entreaties he yielded, and was accord¬ 
ingly ordained at Groningen. Menno pofl'efied genius; 
had the advantage of a natural and perfuafive eloquence, 
and a fufficient portion of learning to pafs for an ora¬ 
cle in the eyes of the multitude. He was alfo a man of 
probity, of a meek and t raft able fpirit, gentle in his man¬ 
ners, and accommodating in his commerce with perfons 
of all ranks and charafters. He was at the fame time ex¬ 
tremely zealous in promoting practical religion and virtue, 
which he recommended by his example, - as well as by his 
precepts. With fuch talents’and diipofitions, he was ex¬ 
cellently qualified to gain a number of adherents wherever 
he exercifed his miniftry. That office he diligently dif- 
chatged during five-and-twenty years, travelling with his 
wife and children from one country to another, under 
prefl'ures and calamities of various kinds, and continually 
expofed to the danger of falling a viftim to perlecuting 
and fanguinary laws. He viiited Ealt and Weft Friefland, 
Groningen, Holland, Guelderland, Brabant, Weftphalia, 
the German provinces which lie on the coaft of the Baltic 
Sea, and penetrated as far as Livonia. In all theie coun¬ 
tries he gained a prodigious number of prolelytes to his 
left. The peculiar tenets which he inculcated on them 
were, That it was an unfcriptural abule and proftitution 
of the facrament of baptifm to adminifter it to infants, 
adult perfons only, who are come to the full ufe of their 
reafon, being the proper fubjefts of it; the doftrine of the 
Millenium, or thoulaud years reign of Chrift upon earth ; 
the excltifion of civil rulers from their communion, and 
the prohibition of any of their members from performing 
the funftions of magiftracy ; the unlawfulnefs of repelling 
force by force, and confequently of war in all its fhapes ; 
the a'ofolute unlawfulnefs of oaths, either in confirmation 
of truth or on any other occafion ; and the vanity, as well 
as pernicious effefts, of human fcience. Menno alio de¬ 
nied that Chrift derived from his mother the body which 
he. affirmed; and thought, on the contrary, that it was 
produced out of nothing, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, 
by the creating power of the Holy Ghoft. Thefe opinions 
the eloquence of Menno fet off to great advantage ; and 
the number of his followers rapidly increaled, notwith- 
ftanding the.inhuman and bloody perfecutions with which 
they were harafied. In the latter part of his life, Menno 
refided at the country-feat of a certain nobleman, not far 
from the city of Oldenfloe, who, moved with compaffion 
at a view of the perils to which he was expofed, and the 
fnares that were daily laid for his ruin, took him, together 
with certain of his. affociates, under his protection, and 
gave him an afylum. Here he died in 156-1, about the age 
of fifty-fix. He was the -author of various productions in 
defence of his peculiar opinions, which are almoft all corn- 
pofed in the Dutch language, and were publilhed toge¬ 
ther in folio at Amfterdam, in the year. 1651. 
Though the Mennonites ufually pafs for a feft of Ana¬ 
baptifts, yet M. Herman Schyn, a Mennonite minjfter, 
who has publilhed. their hiftory and apology, maintains, 
that they are not Anabaptifts either in principle or by 
origin. However, nothing can be more certain than this. 
4. 
faft, viz. that the firft Mennonite congregations were 
compofed of the different forts of Anabaptifts, of thofe 
who had been always inoffenfive and upright, and of 
thofe who, before their converfion by the miniftry of 
Menno, had been feditious fanatics; befides, it is alleged, 
that the Mennonites do aftuaily retain, at this day, fome 
of thole opinions and deftrines, which led the feditious 
and turbulent Anabaptifts of oid to the commiffion of lb 
many and fuch enormous crimes: fuch particularly is 
the doftrine concerning the nature of Chrift’s kingdom, 
or of the church of the New Teftament, though modified 
in fuch a manner as to have ioft its noxious qualities, 
and to be no longer pernicious in its influence. 
The Mennonites are iubdi vided into feveral lefts, where¬ 
of the two principal are the Flemingians and the Water- 
landians. The opinions, fays Molheim, that are held in 
common by the Mennonites, feem to be all derived from 
this fundamental principle, “ that the kingdom which 
Chrift eltablilhed upon earth is a vifible church or com¬ 
munity, into which the holy and juft alone are to be ad¬ 
mitted, and which is confequently exempt from all thofe 
inftitutions and rules of difeipline that have been invented 
by human wifdom, for the correftion and reformation of 
the wicked.” This principle, indeed, was avowed by the 
ancient Mennonites, but it is now almoft wholly re¬ 
nounced: neverthelefs, from this ancient doftrine many 
of the religious opinions that diftinguilh the Mennonites 
from all other Chriltian communities feem to be derived j 
in confequence of this doftrine, they admit none to the 
facrament of. baptifm but perfons that are come to the 
full ule of their reafon ; they neither admit civil rulers 
into their communion, nor allow any of their members 
to perform the funftions of magiftracy; they deny the 
lawfulnefs of repelling force by force, and confider war, 
in all its fhapes, as unchriltian and unjuft ; they entertain 
the utmoft averfion to the execution of capital punilh- 
ments; and they alfa refufe to confirm their teftimony 
by an oath. The particular fentiments that divided the 
more confiderabie locieties of the Mennonites are the 
following: The rigid Mennonites, called the Flemingians, 
maintain, with various degrees of rigour, the opinions of 
their founder Menno, as to the human nature of Chrift; 
the obligation that binds us to walk the feet of ftrangers, 
in confequence of our Saviour’s command ; the neceffity 
of excommunicating and avoiding, as one would do the 
plague, not only avowed fianers, but alfo all thofe who 
depart, even in fome flight i ,fiances pertaining to drefs, 
&c. from the simplicity of their anceftors; the contempt 
due to human learningjand other matters of lefs moment. 
However, this aultere fyftem declines, and the rigid Men¬ 
nonites are gradually approaching towards the opinions 
and difeipline of the more moderate, or Water landians. 
. The firft fettiement of the Mennonites, in the United 
Provinces, was granted them by William prince of Orange, 
towards the dole of the 16th century; but it was not 
before the following century that their liberty and tran¬ 
quillity were fixed upon folid foundations, when, by a 
confeffion of faith publilhed in the year,16 26. they cleared 
themfelves from the imputation of thofe pernicious and 
deteftable errors that had been laid to their charge. In 
order to appeafe their inteftine dilcords, a confiderabie 
part of the Anabaptifts of Flanders, Germany, and 
Friefland, concluded their debates in a conference held 
at Amfterdam in the year 1630, and entered into the 
bonds of fraternal communion, each referving to them¬ 
felves a liberty of retaining certain opinions. This alfo- 
ciation was renewed and confirmed by new refoiutions 
in the year 164.9 ; in confequence of which, the- rigorous 
laws of Menno and his fucceffors were, in various refpects, 
mitigated and correfted. Brandt's FUJI. of the Reforma¬ 
tion in the Low Countries, book iii. and iv. Mojheim's Eech 
Fiji. fee. xvi. 
MEN'OCHIO (Jacopo), a learned Italian jurift, was 
born at Pavia, where he was probably educated ; and was 
elected, in 1555, to the profeiforihip of civil law in its 
vuiiverfity. 
