Itinerant Anabaptist bishops from the Lower Rhine in the 1540s and 1550s:contributors and dissidents of the post-Münsterite ‘Mennonite tradition’ in the Netherlands and North-Germany

This dissertation challenges the prevailing narrative in Anabaptist history and offers a fresh perspective on the regrouping of Anabaptists in the Habsburg Netherlands and adjacent German territories during the 1540s and 1550s. It disputes the widely accepted view that Menno Simons and Dirk Philips played centralized and autocratic roles in the expansion of Anabaptism during this period, arguing instead that itinerant Anabaptist bishops from the Lower Rhine region formed interconnected networks of Melchiorite and (pre-)Münsterite origin. These bishops were instrumental in expanding and connect... Mehr ...