Hans Scheerder was a Dutch Anabaptist leader, who was very active in propagating a revolutionary type of Anabaptism. In the fall of 1534 he baptized in Amsterdam. Here he met with Jacob van Campen, Jan Paeuw, Cornelis Pieters wt den Briel, and other leaders; about Easter 1535 he was in the province of Groningen as an accomplice of the Münsterite leader Jan van Batenburg. After this he is found at the conference held at Bocholt in 1536, and in 1537 he operated as a church-robber near Kleve and Wesel. So "the former Obbenite (follower of the peaceful Obbe Philips) of 1534, the Münsterite leader in the Ommelanden (of Groningen) of 1535, became after Bocholt a Batenburger church-robber" (Mellink, Wederdopers, 396). Then he disappears from sight. Hans, who was a native of Leeuwarden, Dutch province of Friesland, had been baptized there in January 1534, together with Obbe Philips, by Bartholomeus Boeckbinder. On the next day both Obbe and Hans had been ordained elders by laying on of hands. Hans Scheerder is also called Hans Barbier (barber), but this is an error because Scheerder means wantscheerder, i.e., shearer of cloth. Hans van Gulik may be identical with this Hans Scheerder. He is also called Hans Wantscheerder  "uit Appingedam."   

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 651. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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