Batenburgers
Encyclopedia
The Batenburgers were members of a radical Anabaptist
sect led by Jan van Batenburg, that flourished briefly in the 1530s in the aftermath of the Münster Rebellion
.
, and became mayor
of a town in the Oversticht, present day Dutch
province of Overijssel
. The Oversticht was occupied by the duke of Gelderland and was conquered by the Habsburgers. At some point in time — it is unknown when or why — he fell out with the local Habsburg
-Burgundian authorities, was exiled, and lost his property. Van Batenburg thenceforth regarded the Holy Roman Emperor
as his mortal enemy.
During the early 1530s, Van Batenburg converted to Anabaptism and found himself the leader of a large number of his co-religionists in Friesland
and Groningen
. His sympathies originally lay with the revolutionary Anabaptists who held Münster
during the Münster Rebellion
, but between Easter
and Pentecost
1535, the Batenburgers from Groningen urged him to declare himself as 'a new David
'. Before long Van Batenburg had established a new and completely independent sect
, which quickly became the most extreme of all the early Anabaptist movements.
in a final attempt to maintain the unity of Anabaptism. At this meeting the major areas of dispute between the sects were polygamous
marriage and the use of force against non-believers. David Joris
tried to compromise by declaring the time had not yet come to fight against the authorities, and that it would be unwise to kill any 'infidel
' (non- Anabaptists), lest the Anabaptists themselves be seen as common thieves and killers. Accounts of the outcome of the meeting differ; however, Joris and his followers subsequently split from the other Anabaptist groupings.
Van Batenburg, correctly suspecting that his fervent belief in both polygamy and the use of force would be condemned by other Anabaptist leaders, had stayed away from the conference at Bocholt, although he had sent representatives. He was disgusted by Joris' propositions, called him 'the son of a whore' and threatened to kill him. The rivalry between the two Anabaptist leaders would last until Van Batenburg's death.
. The Batenburgers believed that every man, and everything on earth, was owned, in a literal sense, by God
. They also believed that they were God's chosen children. It followed, in their theology, that everything on earth was theirs to do with as they pleased. There was nothing wrong in making a living by robbing 'infidel', by which they meant any man who was not a member of their sect; indeed killing infidel was pleasing to their God. Those who joined the sect after 1535—when the Münsterite leadership had declared the door to salvation to be closed—could never be baptised, they thought, but these men and women would nevertheless survive the coming apocalypse
and be reborn in the coming Kingdom of God
as servants of the Anabaptist elite. The Batenburgers also shared the views of the radical Münsterites on polygamy and property; all women, and all goods, were held in common. A few Batenburger marriages did occur, and Van Batenburg himself retained the right to present a deserving member of his sect with a 'wife' from the group's general stock of women. But such unions could be ended just as readily, and on occasion the prophet
did order an unwilling wife to return to servicing the remainder of the Batenburger men.
and the Netherlands
for several years after the fall of Münster. They recognised one another by secret symbols displayed on their houses or their clothing, and by certain ways of styling their hair. It was only after Van Batenburg himself was captured and burned at the stake, at Vilvoorde
, Brabant
, in 1538, that they came together at last, transforming themselves into a robber-band and infesting the Imperial marches for at least another decade under the leadership of a Leyden weaver called Cornelis Appelman. By this point the group had been reduced to a core of no more than 200 men, most of whom were joined by bonds of family or marriage.
Appelman remained active until his own capture in 1545. He was considered more extreme than Van Batenburg, giving himself the title of 'The Judge' and killing any of his followers who refused to join his criminal activities, or proved themselves lax in killing, robbing or committing arson
. Like Van Batenburg, he preached and practised polygamy, with the additional refinement that the women of his sect could leave their husbands at any time should they decide to marry a man further up the Batenburger hierarchy. Appelman himself murdered his own wife when she refused him permission to marry her daughter, and subsequently killed the girl as well.
. The last of the Batenburger splinter groups, and also the largest, was the 'Folk of Johan Willemsz'. This sect persisted until about 1580, living by robbery and murder in the countryside around Wesel
. When Willemsz himself was burned at the stake, the remnants of the group fled west. A remnant is believed to have found their way to Friesland
, where they hid themselves among the local Mennonite
community and were eventually absorbed into it.
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
sect led by Jan van Batenburg, that flourished briefly in the 1530s in the aftermath of the Münster Rebellion
Münster Rebellion
The Münster Rebellion was an attempt by radical Anabaptists to establish a communal sectarian government in the German city of Münster. The city became an Anabaptist center from 1534 to 1535, and fell under Anabaptist rule for 18 months — from February 1534, when the city hall was seized and...
.
Jan van Batenburg
Jan van Batenburg was born around 1495, the illegitimate son of a nobleman from GelderlandGelderland
Gelderland is the largest province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. The capital city is Arnhem. The two other major cities, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn have more inhabitants. Other major regional centers in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Tiel, Wijchen,...
, and became mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of a town in the Oversticht, present day Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
province of Overijssel
Overijssel
Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...
. The Oversticht was occupied by the duke of Gelderland and was conquered by the Habsburgers. At some point in time — it is unknown when or why — he fell out with the local Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
-Burgundian authorities, was exiled, and lost his property. Van Batenburg thenceforth regarded the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
as his mortal enemy.
During the early 1530s, Van Batenburg converted to Anabaptism and found himself the leader of a large number of his co-religionists in Friesland
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...
and Groningen
Groningen (province)
Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...
. His sympathies originally lay with the revolutionary Anabaptists who held Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
during the Münster Rebellion
Münster Rebellion
The Münster Rebellion was an attempt by radical Anabaptists to establish a communal sectarian government in the German city of Münster. The city became an Anabaptist center from 1534 to 1535, and fell under Anabaptist rule for 18 months — from February 1534, when the city hall was seized and...
, but between Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
and Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
1535, the Batenburgers from Groningen urged him to declare himself as 'a new David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
'. Before long Van Batenburg had established a new and completely independent sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
, which quickly became the most extreme of all the early Anabaptist movements.
Bocholt meeting
In August 1536, the leaders of the various Anabaptist groups met in BocholtBocholt
There are two towns called Bocholt:* Bocholt, Germany* Bocholt, Belgium...
in a final attempt to maintain the unity of Anabaptism. At this meeting the major areas of dispute between the sects were polygamous
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
marriage and the use of force against non-believers. David Joris
David Joris
David Joris was an important Anabaptist leader in the Netherlands before 1540.-Life:Joris was probably born in Flanders, the son of Marytje and Georgius Joris de Koman, an amateur actor and shopkeeper...
tried to compromise by declaring the time had not yet come to fight against the authorities, and that it would be unwise to kill any 'infidel
Infidel
An infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
' (non- Anabaptists), lest the Anabaptists themselves be seen as common thieves and killers. Accounts of the outcome of the meeting differ; however, Joris and his followers subsequently split from the other Anabaptist groupings.
Van Batenburg, correctly suspecting that his fervent belief in both polygamy and the use of force would be condemned by other Anabaptist leaders, had stayed away from the conference at Bocholt, although he had sent representatives. He was disgusted by Joris' propositions, called him 'the son of a whore' and threatened to kill him. The rivalry between the two Anabaptist leaders would last until Van Batenburg's death.
Beliefs
Comparatively little is known of Van Batenburg's theologyTheology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
. The Batenburgers believed that every man, and everything on earth, was owned, in a literal sense, by God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. They also believed that they were God's chosen children. It followed, in their theology, that everything on earth was theirs to do with as they pleased. There was nothing wrong in making a living by robbing 'infidel', by which they meant any man who was not a member of their sect; indeed killing infidel was pleasing to their God. Those who joined the sect after 1535—when the Münsterite leadership had declared the door to salvation to be closed—could never be baptised, they thought, but these men and women would nevertheless survive the coming apocalypse
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
and be reborn in the coming Kingdom of God
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.The term "Kingdom of God" is found in all four canonical gospels and in the Pauline epistles...
as servants of the Anabaptist elite. The Batenburgers also shared the views of the radical Münsterites on polygamy and property; all women, and all goods, were held in common. A few Batenburger marriages did occur, and Van Batenburg himself retained the right to present a deserving member of his sect with a 'wife' from the group's general stock of women. But such unions could be ended just as readily, and on occasion the prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
did order an unwilling wife to return to servicing the remainder of the Batenburger men.
Leadership
Jan Van Batenburg seems to have commanded the loyalty of at least several hundred men. Members of his sect were required to swear oaths of absolute secrecy, however, and had to endure a painful initiation designed to ensure they would be able to resist torture if they were ever captured, so the true extent of his following never emerged. The Batenburgers did not gather openly in public, and had their leader's dispensation to pose as ordinary Lutherans or Catholics, going to church and living apparently normal lives in the lands along the borders of the Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
for several years after the fall of Münster. They recognised one another by secret symbols displayed on their houses or their clothing, and by certain ways of styling their hair. It was only after Van Batenburg himself was captured and burned at the stake, at Vilvoorde
Vilvoorde
Vilvoorde is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the city of Vilvoorde proper with its two outlying quarters of Koningslo and Houtem and the small town of Peutie...
, Brabant
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...
, in 1538, that they came together at last, transforming themselves into a robber-band and infesting the Imperial marches for at least another decade under the leadership of a Leyden weaver called Cornelis Appelman. By this point the group had been reduced to a core of no more than 200 men, most of whom were joined by bonds of family or marriage.
Appelman remained active until his own capture in 1545. He was considered more extreme than Van Batenburg, giving himself the title of 'The Judge' and killing any of his followers who refused to join his criminal activities, or proved themselves lax in killing, robbing or committing arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
. Like Van Batenburg, he preached and practised polygamy, with the additional refinement that the women of his sect could leave their husbands at any time should they decide to marry a man further up the Batenburger hierarchy. Appelman himself murdered his own wife when she refused him permission to marry her daughter, and subsequently killed the girl as well.
Closing stages
After The Judge's death, the Batenburger sect fragmented into several tiny groups, one of which, the Children of Emlichheim, was active in the middle 1550s. Its sole creed appears to have been revenge against the infidel; on one notorious occasion its members stabbed to death 125 cows that belonged to a local monasteryMonastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. The last of the Batenburger splinter groups, and also the largest, was the 'Folk of Johan Willemsz'. This sect persisted until about 1580, living by robbery and murder in the countryside around Wesel
Wesel
Wesel is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district.-Division of the town:Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighoven, Ginderich, Feldmark,Fusternberg, Büderich, Flüren and Blumenkamp.-History:...
. When Willemsz himself was burned at the stake, the remnants of the group fled west. A remnant is believed to have found their way to Friesland
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...
, where they hid themselves among the local Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
community and were eventually absorbed into it.
Books
- LG Jansma (1977). Melchiorieten, Munstersen en Batenburgers: een Sociologische Analyse van een Millennistische Beweging uit de 16e Eeuw. Buitenpost: np.
Articles
- LG Jansma (1984). 'Revolutionairee wederlopers na 1535.' In MG Buist et al. (eds), Historisch Bewogen. Opstellen over de radicale reformatie in de 16e en 17e eeuw. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff.
- S. Zijlstra (1984). 'David Joris en de Doperse stromingen (1536-1539). In ibid.
- MEHN Mout (1996). 'Spiritualisten in de Nederlandse reformatie van de zestiende eeuw'. In Bijdragen en Mededelingen Betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 111
External links
- Jan van Batenburg (1495-1538) in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online