10- Hans Denck: The Inner and the Outer Word

Hans Denck was born in Bavaria in 1495 and died of the bubonic
plague in Basel in 1527. Although he himself was not happy to be
known as an Anabaptist, it is almost certainly right to call him
such. But it is equally certain that he was far from being a typical
Anabaptist – if ever such a person existed. The truth is, if John
Calvin was on the right of the Reformation, to the right of Martin
Luther, with the Anabaptists on the left of Luther, then Denck
found himself well and truly on their left wing. He was what we
might call a Spiritual or Mystic Anabaptist. Indeed, it has been
claimed that he was a proto-Quaker. No wonder, then, that he met
with criticism – and worse!