Obbe Philips
c.1500-1568. Netherlands Anabaptist leader. Brother of Dirk Philips,* he studied medicine. At Leeuwarden he witnessed the execution of the first Anabaptist martyr in the Netherlands, Sicke Freercks (1531). Drawn to Anabaptists influenced by Melchior Hofmann, he was baptized (1533), began to preach and baptize, and was forced to move first to Amsterdam, and then to Delft where he baptized and ordained David Joris (1534). He also baptized and ordained Menno Simons* (c.1536). He remained aloof from the revolutionary Anabaptists responsible for the Münster catastrophe, and for a time led the peaceful Anabaptists, so that they were often called “Obbenites” or “Obbites.” Later he withdrew, and Menno Simons became leader of this group. After his death, Philips's Confession was published, in which he described his religious development.