everywhere required as the condition of receiving baptism .
Menno withdrew from the Roman Church and devoted his life to teaching the truths which he had received . In both Germany and the Netherlands a class of fanatics had risen , advocating absurd and seditious doctrines , outraging order and decency , and proceeding to violence and insurrection . Menno saw the horrible results to which these movements would inevitably lead , and he strenuously opposed the erroneous teachings and wild schemes of the fanatics . There were many , however , who had been misled by these fanatics , but who had renounced their pernicious doctrines ; and there were still remaining many descendants of the ancient Christians , the fruits of the Waldensian teaching . Among these classes Menno labored with great zeal and success .
For twenty-five years he traveled , with his wife and children , enduring great hardships and privations , and frequently in peril of his life . He traversed the Netherlands and northern Germany , laboring chiefly among the humbler classes but exerting a widespread influence . Naturally eloquent , though possessing a limited education , he was a man of unwavering integrity , of humble spirit and gentle manners , and of sincere and earnest piety , exemplifying in his own life the precepts which he taught , and he commanded the confidence of the people . His followers were scattered and oppressed . They suffered greatly from being confounded with the fanatical Munsterites . Yet great numbers were converted under his labors .
Nowhere were the reformed doctrines more generally received than in the Netherlands . In few countries did their adherents endure more terrible persecution . In Germany Charles V had banned the Reformation , and he would gladly have brought all its adherents to the stake ; but the princes stood up as a barrier against his tyranny . In the Netherlands his power was greater , and persecuting edicts followed each other in quick succession . To read the Bible , to hear or preach
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