James Stayer (born #onthis day, 1935)

March 15, 2026March 15, 2026Mike Driedger

James M. Stayer was born on March 15, 1935. This is a short post to remember Jim as an influential historian, teacher and friend.

This past September 15 (2025) I spoke at the Acadia University Divinity College about 2025 as an anniversary year in Anabaptist history. The presentation took place soon after Jim’s death on April 23, 2025. In the presentation I make several mentions of Jim’s ideas about and contribution to Anabaptist studies.

A recording of the talk is available at https://acadiadiv.ca/event/zeman-2025/.

For some more about James Stayer, go to https://amsterdamnified.com/JamesMStayer/.

Peasants’ War Tour 2025

June 23, 2025July 16, 2025Mike Driedger

This summer I will visit several sites in Germany connected with the German Peasants’ War of 1524-26.

The latest update is from the middle of July, looking back on my June tour.

James M. Stayer (15 March 1935 – 23 April 2025)

April 24, 2025June 23, 2025Mike Driedger

This is a quick post to announce the death of my doctoral supervisor, co-author, and friend, James (Jim) Stayer. He was 90. He died this morning (23 April) in Kingston, Ontario, where he taught for many decades at Queen’s University.

For more about his publishing career, see https://amsterdamnified.com/JamesMStayer/.

Jan. 1, 1484: Birth of Huldrych Zwingli

January 1, 2025April 24, 2025Mike Driedger

On January 1, 1484, Zwingli was born. His life and career were entangled with central events of his age, most notably the rise of anti-Papal reforms. He originally worked with but later reacted against Conrad Grebel and other Christian biblicist radicals — and the same could be said for his relationship with Martin Luther. Like Luther, Zwingli was an early opponent of Anabaptists, and his polemics against them has done a lot to shape historiography of “the fanatical Anabaptists”.

December 29, 1625: Birth of Thieleman J. van Braght

December 29, 2024June 23, 2025Mike Driedger

On December 29, 1625, Thieleman Jansz van Braght (Bracht) was born in Dordrecht, the Dutch Republic.

He is most famous for his editorial work on The Martyrs Mirror (Martelaars Spiegel). His original edition was published by …. in 1660. The most famous version of The Martyrs Mirror appeared in 1685, about two decades after van Braght’s death in 1664. The second edition is famous for its 100+ engravings by Jan Luyken.

He played a central role in the “War of the Lambs” (Lammerenkrijgh) among mid-seventeenth-century Dutch Mennonites.

— Last updated: 30 Dec. 2024 —

December 27, 1521: Zwickau Prophets

December 27, 2024April 24, 2025Mike Driedger

On or around December 27, 1521, a small group of lay preachers began public criticism of sacramental orthodoxy in Wittenberg. Starting in 1522 with Martin Luther’s attacks, they became known popularly as the Zwickau Prophets, since at least one of their leading figures, Nicholas Storch, was from the central German town of Zwickau.

New address for Amsterdamnified!

December 20, 2024June 23, 2025Mike Driedger

In addition to this website, I also maintain the website for the research project “Amsterdamnified!”. The URL for that site has changed over the years. The Amsterdamnified website started as a subdomain of DutchDissenters.net, and for several years it had its own domain at amsterdamnified.ca. That site is now owned by a shoe company!?! The reason: I was not paying attention to the site for about a year, and in that time I lost ownership of the domain name.

The website has a new address. You can now find it at https://amsterdamnified.com/.

Two-Eyed Seeing Applied to 16th-Century History and to Astronomy (with New / Medieval Perspectives on Animal Rights) (#podcastpairings)

April 24, 2023April 24, 2023Mike Driedger

This post connects two recent programs from CBC Radio’s Ideas series that provide very helpful Indigenous perspectives on the history of encounters between Indigenous Americans and Europeans in the early modern era, and on the reorientation of knowledge about astronomy.

The 5 April 2023 Ideas broadcast features a discussion between host Nahlah Ayed and British historian Caroline Dodds Pennock about her 2023 book On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe (2023).
The 21 April 2023 Ideas broadcast, “Perimeter Institute Conversations About Science and Identity,” features the research of Hilding Neilson on Indigenous (particularly Mi’kmaw) astronomy.

True Crime and Conspiracy Theories: The Sherman Murders (#podcastpairings)

March 19, 2023March 19, 2023Mike Driedger

In December 2017 a Canadian billionaire couple, Barry and Honey Sherman, were found dead in their Toronto home. At first the police suspected a murder-suicide, but after protests from the family and a private counter-investigation, the police were persuaded to change their theory of the case. The investigation is ongoing. This post provides links to three podcast series that I find helpful for learning about the case in all its complexities.

Podcast Pairings (#podcastpairings): A Preview of More Posts (2023)

March 4, 2023March 7, 2023Mike Driedger

This blog series is focused on my main research subjects: the history of Dutch- and German-speaking adult baptizing Protestants (Mennonites, Doopsgezinden and others maligned as “Anabaptists”) and other European religious minorities before about 1850. This is a very specialized area of research.

With this post I’m starting a new focus for upcoming entries: “Podcast Pairings”. I plan to use posts under this heading to record my broader reading and listening interests.

Dutch Dissenters

Prof. Mike Driedger's research website

Research on early Anabaptism

Illustration: a 17th-century etching portraying Anabaptists calling for repentance in 1534

Research on "Golden Age" Mennonitism

Illustration: Rembrandt's portrait of Cornelis Claesz Anslo and Aeltje Gerritsdr Schouten from 1641

Research on religion, Enlightenment, & politics

Illustration: a political cartoon from 1786 showing F.A. van der Kemp as a soldier-preacher