This week in Christian history: ‘Black National Anthem’ debuts, naked protest, missionary is born
Anabaptists stage naked protest in Amsterdam – February 10, 1535
This week marks the anniversary of when a dozen Anabaptists warned about coming judgment from God by stripping themselves naked and running through the streets of Amsterdam.
Melchiorite Anabaptist Hendrick Hendricks Snyder led the incident. Those involved became known as "naaktlopers," or “naked walkers” in English.
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Those involved in the protest were quickly arrested and some given death sentences for their actions. The incident was frequently cited by critics of the Anabaptist movement.
“The naaktlopers’ demonstration provided ample fodder for polemicists who sought to warn their readers about the dangers and excesses of Anabaptism,” notes the Anabaptist Historians blog.
“A little more than a decade after the incident, in 1548, the Dutch humanist and Catholic priest Lambertus Hortensius published a scathing account of Anabaptism in the Low Countries. Hortensius’ account circulated in several editions well into the seventeenth century and in several countries.”
