Wismar Resolutions
Wismar Resolutions, called in Dutch Besluyt tot Wismar, also Bespreck van Wismar, were the result of a conference of Mennonite elders held in 1554 at Wismar in Mecklenburg, Germany. Present were (according to Vos) Menno Simons, who was then living in Wismar, Dirk Philips, Leenaert Bouwens, Gillis van Aken , Herman van Tielt, Hans Busschaert, and Hoyte Riencx. The Besluyt tot Wismar contains nine articles. The first five articles deal with shunning or avoidance (ban). Article 6 deals with the question of young believers needing the approbation of their elders for getting married. Article 7, which is not quite clear, deals with the right of believers to invoke the aid of a worldly court. Article 8 treats the subject of bearing arms; this article also is not very clear but it seems that the elders at Wismar did not profess absolute nonresistance. Article 9 states that only a person who is ordained by a congregation or an elder may teach and admonish, i.e., function as a preacher in a congregation.
The Besluyt tot Wismar was printed several times. It appears at the end of Menno's Een lieftlijcke vermaninghe van dat schouwen der valscher broederen (Harlingen, likely 1576), in the Successio Anabaptistica of 1603 (reprinted BRN VII, 51-53), rand in Grouwelen der Hoojt-ketteren (Leiden, 1623). It is also found in Blaupot t. C, Groningen I, 252-54, and Vos, Menno Simons (Leiden, 1914) 123-27. The first three articles were printed in Het Brilleken (Haarlem, 1630).
See Wismar Articles for the full text.
Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
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Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Wismar Resolutions." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 1 Sep 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wismar_Resolutions&oldid=109801.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Wismar Resolutions. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 1 September 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wismar_Resolutions&oldid=109801.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 966. All rights reserved.
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