Willem de Cuyper (d. 1534)
Willem de Cuyper (Willem de Propheet), an Anabaptist martyr, beheaded on 26 March 1534, at The Hague, Holland (not at Haarlem, as is sometimes stated). Willem was a native of Heusden in the Dutch province of North Brabant. He was particularly active in Brabant and at Amsterdam. On 5 January 1534, he arrived at Münster, Westphalia, as an apostle of Jan Matthijsz van Haarlem. Soon after, he was back in Amsterdam, where he and others ran through the streets on 22 March with a naked sword to announce the wrath of God to the city, on which occasion he and his companions were arrested. Willem de Cuyper, whom Vos and Mellink list as a thoroughly revolutionary Anabaptist, was rather, as has been explained by Kühler, a true and radical disciple of Melchior Hofmann, whose chiliastic views were easily and involuntarily adapted to revolutionary ideas. Willem de Cuyper was a dangerous and influential leader, not because of revolutionary ideas, but because of his prophecies.
Willem was married by Jan Volkertsz Trypmaker in 1531 to Margriete Willems uyt Hitlant, who after the death of her husband continued his Anabaptist activities and was executed by hanging on 10 July 1535.
Bibliography
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1917): 100 f., 103, 111, No. 19, 151 f.
Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: I, Nos. 24, 27, 745.
Kühler, Wilhelmus Johannes. Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Doopsgezinden in de Zestiende Eeuw. Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink, 1932: I, 73, 75, 105 f.
Mellink, Albert F. De Wederdopers in de noordelijke Nederlanden 1531-1544. Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1954.
| Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Willem de Cuyper (d. 1534)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Willem_de_Cuyper_(d._1534)&oldid=111984.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Willem de Cuyper (d. 1534). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Willem_de_Cuyper_(d._1534)&oldid=111984.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 953. All rights reserved.
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