Pilgram Marpeck

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Pilgram Marpeck (died 1556) was an important South German Anabaptist leader in the 16th century. Some writings may also give Pilgram Marbeck or Pilgrim Marpeck.

Marpeck was a native of the Tyrol, Austria. His father, Heinrich Marpeck, moved from Rosenheim in Bavaria to Rattenberg, Austria, where he served as a city councilman. Heinrich also served as a judge (1494-1502) and mayor (1511). Pilgram attended the Latin school in Rattenberg.

Before his days as an Anabaptist, Pilgram Marpeck lived in good financial status and as a highly respected citizen of Rattenberg on the Inn River. He was a mining engineer, a member of the miners' brotherhood, and served on both Rattenberg's inner and outer councils.

Records of Marpeck's conversion to Anabaptism are not extant. It is known that in his position as a mining magistrate, he was required by Archduke Ferdinand to expose miners in sympathy with the Anabaptist movement. Leonhard Schiemer was executed by authorities two weeks before Marpeck left his mining position on January 28, 1528. It is generally believed that he lost his position because he refused to aid authorities in capturing the Anabaptists. Marpeck was quickly reduced from a prominent citizen of Rattenberg to a "wandering citizen of heaven".

From 1528 to 1532, Marpeck lived in Strasbourg, serving for two years as a timber supervisor, before he was expelled from the city because of his Anabaptist activity. For the next 12 years, he lived a wanderer's life in Switzerland, and traveled to Tyrol, Moravia, South Germany, and Alsace. He established Anabaptist congregations in these areas.

In 1544, Pilgram Marpeck was working in the city forest of Augsburg, and on May 12, 1545 he was employed as the city engineer. He held that position until his death in December of 1556. His services were evidently in great demand, for, though the city issued reprimands and warnings to desist, Marpeck continued his activities as a minister among the Anabaptists.

In addition to his labors as a pastor and church organizer, Marpeck made other important contributions to the Anabaptists, the chief of which flowed from his pen. Marpeck debated Martin Bucer and Kaspar Schwenkfeld, but also attacked the incarnation view of Melchior Hoffman, the Münsterite use of force, and the Hutterian community of goods. He held both the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, but distinguished the New Testament as the authoritative rule of faith and practice for Christian brethren. Marpeck attributed the Peasants' War, the Münster Rebellion, Ulrich Zwingli's death, and many of the excesses of the Catholic Church to the failure to make this distinction. Pilgram held a middle position among Anabaptists, criticizing the positions of both the legalists and the spiritualists. His writings include the Vermanung (a revision of Rothmann's Bekentnisse), the Verantwortung (a reply to Schwenkfeld), and the Testamentserläuterung. William Estep proposes that Marpeck was to South German Anabaptism what Menno Simons was to Dutch Anabaptism.

Pilgram Marpeck married Sophia  ? , by whom he had one child. After her death, he married a woman named Anna. They had no offspring, but adopted three children.

[edit] References

• Covenant and Community: the Life and Writing of Pilgram Marpeck, by William Klassen
• Mennonite Encyclopedia, Harold S. Bender, Cornelius J. Dyck, Dennis D. Martin, C. Henry Smith, et al., editors ISBN 0-8361-1018-8
• The Hermeneutics of Pilgrim Marpeck, Walter Klaassen
• The Writings of Pilgram Marpeck, J. C. Wenger, editor
• Pilgram Marpeck: His Life and Social Theology, Stephen B. Boyd

[edit] External links

• Marpeck, Pilgram (d. 1556) at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
• A Clear Refutation - essay by Marpeck in which he defends baptism and other practices from spiritualists who wished to abolish them.
• Exposé of the Babylonian Whore - essay by Marpeck in which he designates the Papacy as Whore of Babylon (from the Apocalypse) and discusses issues related to separation of Temporal and Spiritual authority.
• Pilgram Marpeck: An Ecumenical Anabaptist? - looks at Marpeck's work in the context of the broader Anabaptist movement.