Before his days as an Anabaptist, Pilgram Marpeck enjoyed a good financial status and was a highly respected citizen of Rattenberg on the Inn River.
His services were evidently in great demand, for, although the city issued reprimands and warnings to desist, Marpeck continued his activities as a minister among the Anabaptists.
In addition to his labors as a pastor and church organizer, Marpeck made other important contributions to the Anabaptists, the chief of which flowed from his pen.
Marpeck debated with Martin Bucer and Kaspar Schwenkfeld, but also attacked the incarnation view of Melchior Hoffman, the Münsterite use of force, and the Hutterian community of goods.
Marpeck attributed the German Peasants' War, the Münster Rebellion, Ulrich Zwingli's death, and many of the excesses of the Catholic Church to the failure to make this distinction.
He was similar in a few ways to Hans Denck in his views of following the leading of the Holy Spirit, and he warned others against the legalistic standards others were imposing on baptism, communion, church discipline, and dress codes.
Full-length monographs have considered his hermeneutics (William Klassen), his social thought (Stephen Boyd), his Christology (Neal Blough), and his theological method (Malcolm Yarnell).