Nördlingen (Freistaat Bayern, Germany)
Nördlingen is a town (population in the 1950s 13,000, in 2007 20,000) in Bavaria, Germany, situated on the Eger River. Formerly it was a free imperial city in which the Anabaptist movement occasionally found a following. Soon after the origin of the Swiss Brethren in Zürich, a congregation of former Catholics was formed in Nördlingen, which left it to the parents to decide whether they would baptize their infants after birth or have them consecrated by the laying on of hands in the presence of the congregation (Roosen, p.76 and 86), baptism on confession of faith to follow later.
Little is known about this group. Ambrosius Spittelmeier, who was seized in Erlangen and executed on 6 February 1528, had planned a visit to the Nördlingen congregation. In 1531 the city authorities succeeded in capturing two foreign Anabaptists, Melchior Gram of Geisslingen and Stephan Baltzer of Weil. They were banished from the city for refusing to swear a required oath. On 30 March 1534 the magistrate issued an order to expel all Anabaptists. Later on the Anabaptists who did not join the state church emigrated to Württemberg and Moravia.
Bibliography
Clauss, H. "Wiedertäufer in der ehemaligen Reichsstadt Nördlingen." Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins fiir Nördlingen und Umgebung (1933): 144-148.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967, III, 275.
Roosen, B. C. "Pieter Beets über die Einsegnung der neugeborenen Kinder." Mennonitische Blätter (1900): 76, 86.
Additional Information
Author(s) | Christian Hege |
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Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Hege, Christian. "Nördlingen (Freistaat Bayern, Germany)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 31 Aug 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=N%C3%B6rdlingen_(Freistaat_Bayern,_Germany)&oldid=111340.
APA style
Hege, Christian. (1957). Nördlingen (Freistaat Bayern, Germany). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 31 August 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=N%C3%B6rdlingen_(Freistaat_Bayern,_Germany)&oldid=111340.
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