Somewhat later the Anabaptist movement made great headway in Holland and Friesland, especially in Amsterdam.

The chief leaders of the Anabaptists were natives of Holland, including the famous or infamous John of Leyden, who with some thousands of these fanatical sectaries perished at Muenster in 1535.

Between 1537 and 1543 a more moderate form of Anabaptist teaching made rapid progress through the preaching of a certain Menno Simonszoon.

The followers of this man were called Mennonites.

Meanwhile Lutheranism and Zwinglianism were in many parts of the country being supplanted by the sterner doctrines of Calvin.