MENNAS: Patriarch of Constantinople 536-552; d. at Constantinople Aug. 5, 552. Nothing is known of his early life. He was a priest and president of the Hospice Samson when he was appointed to the patriarchate at the desire of Justinian in the Place of Anthimus (who had been deposed by a synod at Constantinople in 535), and was consecrated by Agapetus, being the first Eastern patriarch to receive consecration from a pope. He presided at a synod held at Constantinople in 536, called to finish the case of Anthimus, left uncompleted by the death of Agapetus. His administration is marked by ability and regard for the peace of the Church. He is commemorated by the Greek Church On Aug. 24, and by the Latin on Aug. 25.

Bibliography: ASB Aug., v. 164-165; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 571, 763 sqq., 787 sqq., 812 sqq., 855-856, Eng. transl., iv. 193-194, 218, 285-286; DCB, iii. 902-903.

MENNO SIMONS. See Simons, Menno.

MENNONITES.

1. Origins.
2. Swiss and South German Antipedobaptists.
3. Mennonites in Holland prior to 1536.
4. In the North.
1. In Holland 1538-80 (1840).
2. In Holland and North Germany 1580 (1640)-1700.
3. In Holland 1700-1909.
5. On the Lower Rhine, and in North Germany and Russia 1700-1909.
6. South German and Swiss Mennonites, 1600-1909.
7. In the United States and Canada, 1683-1909.
8. In America.
1. Antecedents.

Swiss Brethren (§ 1).

Obbenites (§ 2).

Two Groups of Churches (§ 3).

2. Doctrinal and Statistical Description.

I. Origins: The Mennonites form a number of religious bodies which originated on the continent in the sixteenth century, where they were characterized by antipedobaptist and antisacerdotal doctrines. Since the seventeenth century their chief center has been Holland. They must be sharply distinguished from the Baptists, for though the General Baptists were developed from the Mennonites, 1609 onward, their distinctive tenet of immersion was both late and infrequent among the older body. As early as the sixteenth century the term Anabaptists [used opprobriously of Antipedobaptists of all types. a.h.n.] did not connote any special church, but was applied to an entire tendency which developed in western and central Europe between 1521 and 1550 from the popular side of the German Reformation, from which it borrowed form and coloring. Under the influence of the newly discovered "Gospel," it rejected the Christianity received through infant baptism on the ground that it did not effect regeneration. It therefore required not only adult baptism, but also a Christianity based upon personal, faith, and awaited. the coming of the regeneration of the heart and of all Christendom, or rather the

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establishment of a living church of Christ within the world. As the representative of voluntary, or even of subjective Christianity, moreover, it taught the absolute separation of religious and secular life, thus advocating freedom of conscience. After the middle of the sixteenth century some churches, especially those of a unitarian trend, came into close connection with the Mennonites. The adherents and the spirit of these became in later years, subsequent to 1640, an independent force in England among such bodies as the Quakers. About a century earlier, however, it had received a permanent organizes. tion in communities which have continued to the present time and are still called Mennonites.

The term Wiedertkufer (" Re-baptizers ") may be employed to connote that faction of the Anabaptists which aimed to establish the kingdom of Christ on earth through temporal force, and did not seek to reform social conditions simply by the regeneration of individuals. The type of this faction was the kingdom of Münster and its plans of social revolution (see Münster, Anabaptists In). The only party of antipedobaptists which has preserved a historic continuity until the present day is the Mennonites, who now have some 250,000 members, divided both historically and geographically into (1) Swiss and South German; (2) the Dutch, who form the basis of the West and North German, and these, in their turn, of the Russian; and (3) the American. [The remnant of the Huterites that settled in South Dakota in 1874, who have never been identified with the Mennonites, constitutes at least one exception. A. H. N.]