Frederick Spanheim Sr. (Fredericus Spanhemius), born 1600 at Amberg in Bavaria, Germany, died 1649 at Leiden, Holland, and his son Frederik Spanheim Jr. (born Geneva 1632, died Leiden 1707), both Reformed Theologians and professors at the University of Leiden, attacked the Mennonites in their writings. Spanheim Sr. wrote Varie disputationes anti-anabaptisticate (1643-48) and Diatribe Historica de Origine, Progressu et Sectis Anabaptistarum (Franeker, 1645; 2nd edition 1656), in which he maintained the old and false theory that the Dutch Mennonites were the descendants of the Münsterite Anabaptists. Spanheim Jr. in the second chapter of his book Controversiarum de Religione Elenchus historico-theological (Leiden 1687, reprinted 1694 and 1757) repeated the assertians of his father. His contentions were opposed by the Mennonites E. A. van Dooregeest in Briefaan den Heer F. Spanhemius (Amsterdam, 1693, 2nd edition 1693, 3rd edition augmented with a letter by Herman Schijn, 1700), and Galenus Abrahamsz in Verdediging der Christenen, die Doopgezinden genaamd worden (Amsterdam 1700).

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 591-592. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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