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| Anna Jansz on her way to execution: Jan Luiken (1685) |
The Honors Seminar is going extremely well, and I will write about it a little later this week. The demands of the semester are pretty significant right now, but, because of the class, I have been able to complete the section on Domenica Fetti (last weekend), and I am working now on both George Herbert and some Islamic receptions of the parables. I am especially enjoying seeing some of the receptions of the parables that my students have discovered.
I do also want to write about John Calvin's reception of the parables in his commentary on the Gospels, but first let me talk (for a couple weeks) about Anna Jansz of Rotterdam.
Anna Jansz was born in an upper-class family in Briel, a
Dutch city located on the island of Putten (near Rotterdam and The Hague). She
married a physician, Arent Jans, and they soon converted to Anabaptism.
Anabaptists (literally “rebaptizer”) believed that infant baptism is not
biblical; the only true baptism documented in the New Testament, they argued,
is of an adult who has undergone a conversion, made a personal pledge of faith,
and committed to a holy life of discipleship. Anabaptists based their community
of faith on what they believed to be the beliefs and practices of the earliest
Christian congregations as found in the New Testament. Anabaptists also
committed other acts of civil disobedience, such as refusing to take oaths (cf.
Matt 5:34; James 5:12) and believing in the separation of church and state.
Anabaptists thus were considered enemies of the state and church and were often
hunted down, fined, imprisoned, and/or executed, by both Catholics and
Protestants (both of whom believed in a state church). Although most
Anabaptists were pacifists, some early Anabaptists were militants whose apocalyptic
expectations included working for the overthrow of the current corrupt world
order. Such militant Anabaptists were elected to power in Münster in 1534 and
transformed the city by expelling the “godless” and inviting other believers to
join them to create a “New Jerusalem.” This transformation, and the war over
the city that resulted in thousands of deaths, led to deep suspicion of
Anabaptists, as well as polemical attacks and persecution (Bradstock and
Rowland 2002: 84).
Anna and Arent Jansz became Anabaptists in early 1534. They
were baptized by Meynaart van Emden an early leader in the Dutch Anabaptist
movement, but soon (June 1534) fled to England, along with a number of other
local Anabaptists, because of persecution. The fact that Meynaart belonged to a
pro-Münster, more militant and apocalyptic faction of Anabaptists may have
contributed to the tenuous situation of the Anabaptists in Briel and elsewhere.
Anna certainly shared in this apocalyptic fervor. Her hymn,
“I can hear the Trumpet Sounding” (Ick hoorde die Basuyne blasen) is filled with apocalyptic fervor, and it
apparently revels in the vengeance that God will soon deliver upon the godless.
It uses Ezekiel 9 to urge the faithful to endure persecutions and to persevere,
since the faithful will be vindicated and rewarded by God (cf. the eleventh and
twelfth stanzas). This hymn first was published in 1539 along with a letter by
David Joris of Delft—an Anabaptist leader with a significant number of
followers—and it later appeared in a collection of hymns published by Joris (I will need to come back and document/footnote this detail).
The next post will discuss the persecution and martyrdom of Anna Jansz, which eventually led to the 18th Hymn in the Ausbund. That hymn will be the major focus of the reception of the parables section of the book for Anna Jansz.
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