MEN'NONITES, deriving their name from Simon Menno, are clahned by some Bap tists as t-heir predecessors, coming down directly front the Waldenses; but this blaim is -denied generally by other Protestant denominations, who regard the Mennonites simply zas the followers of Menno, who, in the 16th c. drew together the better ck.ss of the Anabaptists under new rules, and expounded to them the principles of revealed truth. As thus instructed they professed belief in the personal reign of Christ on the earth -during the millennium; in the unlawfulness of oaths, of war—even in resisting violence and wrong,—of lawsuits, and of allowing. civil magistrates to be members of the church. All immoral practices they, as a denomination, condemned; and in their own conduct -were exemplary, prudent, and devout. So far from being guilty of the excesses which have made the name Anabaptists odious, they are numbered bv some writers among the best Christians which the church ever knew, and the best citizens which the state ever had. Menno, in order to unite his followers together, separated them from all other
Dutch and German Protestants and .gave them a regular system of church order. His statements of.doetrine were so explained and modified that they resembled strongly the general system of the reformed churches, and thus greatly promoted the growth and influence of his followers. The stringent discipline which he maintained soon produced ‹livisions in the flock. The parties farmed were known by various names, as the fine Agiid the COarSC, denoting different degrees of strictness in discipline, the Flandrians and Waterlanders, named from the districts in which the disputants lived; the orthodox— qealled from their leader, Dr. Samuel Apostool, Apostoolians—and the remonstrants -were divided in their views concerning vital doctrines.