Kurt Beringer, an Anabaptist (?) from Neunheiligen in Thuringia, Germany, was seized in September 1534 with two companions, a man and a woman, and subjected to a long trial. The "confession" he made there has been published by Paul Wappler in his work, Die Täuferbewegung in Thüringen von 1526-1584 (Jena, 1913) 361. If this confession is authentic, Beringer was apparently a follower of Thomas Müntzer. The woman who was captured with him was said to have stated that she had been led to the faith by a sermon she had heard Müntzer preach ten years previously at Mühlhausen, whereas Beringer stated that his own spirit had put his faith into him. Finally all three stated that two men from Görmar (near Mühlhausen), one of them called Spann (probably Ludwig Spon) and the other Moler (Lorenz Moller, of Görmar), had converted them.

In Beringer’s confession he rejected the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, and called infant baptism "nothing but a poor water-bath." Christ died for Himself alone and not for us, and finally "He has no opinion of any Scripture or Gospel except what His Father, rich in mercy, who is in Heaven, has given Him, and has received it from no other than from Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, and through the Holy Ghost."

The Lord’s Prayer, which was added, had the form peculiar to the Anabaptists of Thuringia and played an important role in the court trials. The fourth petition said, "Thy true bread give us, dear Lord: Thy Holy Word is food to our poor soul." Nothing more is known of these Anabaptists.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 283-284. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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