most of whom were joined by bonds of family or marriage. Appelman remained active until his own capture in 1545. He was considered more extreme than Van Batenburg, giving himself the title of 'The Judge' and killing any of his followers who refused to join his criminal activities, or proved themselves lax in killing, robbing or committing arson. Like Van Batenburg, he preached and practised polygamy, with the additional refinement that the women of his sect could leave their husbands at any time should they decide to marry a man further up the Batenburger hierarchy. Appelman himself murdered his own wife when she refused him permission to marry her daughter, and subsequently killed the girl as well. Closing stages After The Judge's death, the Batenburger sect fragmented into several tiny groups, one of which, the Children of Emlichheim, was active in the middle 1550s. Its sole creed appears to have been revenge against the infidel; on one notorious occasion its members stabbed to death 125 cows that belonged to a local monastery. The last of the Batenburger splinter groups, and also the largest, was the 'Folk of Johan Willemsz'. This sect persisted until about 1580, living by robbery and murder in the countryside around Wesel. When Willemsz himself was burned at the stake, the remnants of the group fled west. A remnant is believed to have found their way to Friesland, where they hid themselves among the local Mennonite community and were eventually absorbed into it. References Books LG Jansma (1977). Melchiorieten, Munstersen en Batenburgers: een Sociologische Analyse van een Millennistische Beweging uit de 16e Eeuw. Buitenpost: np. Articles L.G. Jansma (1984). 'Revolutionaire wederdopers na 1535.' In MG Buist et al. (eds), Historisch Bewogen. Opstellen over de radicale reformatie in de 16e en 17e eeuw. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff. S. Zijlstra (1984). 'David Joris en de Doperse stromingen (1536-1539). In ibid. M.E.H.N. Mout (1996). 'Spiritualisten in de Nederlandse reformatie van de zestiende eeuw'. In Bijdragen en Mededelingen Betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 111 External links Jan van Batenburg (1495-1538) in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online Anabaptism 16th-century Anabaptists