Wassenberger Prädikanten, the intellectual leaders of the district of Wassenberg in the duchy of Jülich 1528-32, under the protection of the bailiff (Drost) Werner von Pallant, who zealously worked for the Reformation. They did not have a unified system of thought, but were quite independent of each other. The unifying factor was their antipathy to the Roman Catholic Church. Most of them rejected infant baptism and were in many respects akin to Anabaptism. When Werner von Pallant was threatened with loss of his position - the threat became fact in 1533 - most of them betook themselves to Münster, where they joined the Anabaptists and found an early death. Rembert, who gives the most detailed and reliable account of them (Wiedertäufer, 149 ff.), describes them as follows:
Prädikanten was what they called those "heretical" preachers who streamed together there [at Wassenberg], Joh. Campanus, Klopreis, Dionysius Vinne, Slachtscaep, Roll, and others. They preached busily in the neighborhood and won a considerable following, especially in Dremmen, Huckelhofen, Breeberen, also in Süstern and Hongen. . . . Since the preachers concentrated their work in northwestern Jülich, but especially in Wassenberg as their center, they were commonly called "the Wassenberger Prädikanten." For more than three years most of them could continue their work undisturbed before the government took action against them. During this time significant and dubious changes took place in the theology of these men.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967.
Rembert, Karl. Die "Wiedertäufer" im Herzogtum Jülich. Berlin: R. Gaertners Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1899.
|Harold S. Bender|
Cite This Article
Hege, Christian and Harold S. Bender. "Wassenberger Prädikanten." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 24 Jun 2018. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wassenberger_Pr%C3%A4dikanten&oldid=61832.
Hege, Christian and Harold S. Bender. (1959). Wassenberger Prädikanten. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 June 2018, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wassenberger_Pr%C3%A4dikanten&oldid=61832.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 894. All rights reserved.
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