Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Plett Foundation

attitude of the Dordrecht elder. When Gerrit
visited Dordrecht, Cornelis dared not bring the
case before the brethren. He did not invite Gerrit
Claes to speak with them about the matter.
Having no success, the Danzig elder eventually
left, addressing the following words to Cornelis
“Your words differ from your acts.”
With the Danzig elder gone, Cornelis
celebrated communion with the followers
of Appeldoorn on October 14th, 1629. The
Rotterdam leaders summoned him to appear
before the brethren, but Cornelis didn’t show up.
Eventually the Rotterdam congregation banned
the Dordrecht elder as well as preacher Mels
Ghysbrechts. Later on, a preacher from Haarlem
was also banned. All these actions only led to
more harm. On July 27th, 1631 the followers of
Appeldoorn occupied the meetinghouse of the
Rotterdam congregation. By taking legal steps
they also tried to get possession of the goods
for the poor.
Having consulted most congregations, a
date was set for a gathering of Flemish and
Old-Flemish Gemeinden. At first the meeting
was supposed to be held in February 1632, but
it was later postponed to April 1632. The Flemish
congregations of the Province of Groningen
under the leadership of elder Jan Luies, as well
as those under elders Cornelis Jans and Tonnis
Gerrits were opposed to the union. Prior to the
meeting, the congregations in the Province of
Zeeland had also asked for a delay, though they
eventually signed the treaty.
On April 21st, 1632 seventeen Flemish
and Old-Flemish congregations appeared at
Dordrecht. Added to them were delegates from
the Old-Flemish at Amsterdam, Haarlem and
Rotterdam who had been punished. The merger
between the Flemish and Old-Flemish congregations
of Dordrecht was finalized, after which
all delegates signed the treaty. For this occasion
Adriaen Cornelis had drafted a new confession,
the so-called Dordrecht Confession. 32
From Old-Flemish to Danzig Old-Flemish
The signing of the Dordrecht Confession
in 1632 left the Old-Flemish branch severely
diminished. Dissatisfied members of the congregations
of Amsterdam, Haarlem (Lucas
Philipsfolk), Leiden and Rotterdam had sided
with the United Flemish. The same was true
of the entire congregations of Arnhem, Utrecht
and Emmerich/Kleef. During the years following
1632, the Old-Flemish congregations of
Amsterdam and Rotterdam had to fight a legal
battle over their meetinghouses and their budget
for the poor. No wonder they called their adversaries
“Housethieves” (Huisrovers) instead of
Hauskäufer (Huiskopers)!
Small congregations like Zaltbommel and
Bommel/Ooltgensplaat perished around 1635.
Other small congregations like Vianen and
Gorkum could only survive by accepting help
from the neighbouring bigger congregations of
Utrecht and Dordrecht. By doing so, they were
eventually drawn into the United Flemish camp.
About the congregation at Frieddrichstadt, Germany,
it is known that the Hauskäufer merged in
1631/32 with the local Old Frisians (Pieter Jans
Twiskfolk) and the High Germans. 33
A year after the unification between the
Flemish and the Old-Flemish took place, the
hand of peace was offered to Vincent de Hont
and his congregation in a letter, the Vredebode.
It was wisely signed by former Old-Flemish
representatives of the congregations of Arnhem,
Dordrecht, Haarlem, Leiden and Utrecht. They
expressed their sorrow over the breakup of 1620
and asked for reconciliation. 34 De Hont did not
respond, nor did he react to the peace offer of
Claes Claesz. in: Propositie ofte voorstellinghe
(Haarlem, 1634).
The other Old-Flemish congregations tried to
aid each other as best as they could. The elders
of Rotterdam, Haarlem and Leiden assisted
the Amsterdam congregation in regaining their
meetinghouse. Although the congregational
nature of their movement remained, the Old-
Flemish formed a close fellowship. Only a few
examples of their connection can be given. Of
course, congregations that had no elder were
assisted by elders from elsewhere with baptism
and communion. Quarrels within the community
were settled, and standards for behavior and conduct
were upheld. For instance, the Rotterdam
congregation wrote in 1666 to the congregation
of Amsterdam that they considered persons
who participated in marriage parties (wereldse
bruiloften) were not eligible as elder or Diener. 35
Also other events happened. In 1662 the Leiden
congregation was in trouble. The Amsterdam
congregation invited all other churches to come
to Leiden to deal with the matter. In a letter of
March 21st, 1662 the Rotterdam congregation
responded to the invitation by stating that they
were not willing to send delegates because
the Leiden congregation should have invited
them. 36
The number of Danzig Old-Flemish congregations
in the Netherlands
Around 1680 there were eleven Danzig
Old-Flemish congregations left: Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, Delfshaven, Brielle and Oud-Beyerland
in the Province of Holland and Blokzijl,
Giethoorn, Oldemarkt and Zuidveen in the
Province of Overijssel, and two at Haarlem.
The Leiden congregation had perished shortly
after the death of elder Jan Rose. The former
Haarlem congregation of Lucas Philips was
about to perish, and the same was true of the
small Landsmeer congregation.
Of the remaining congregations Amsterdam
and the Haarlem Oude Gracht congregation were
still strong, both perhaps having about three hundred
members. Except for the small Oldemarkt
congregation, the Overijssel churches were also
strong. Within the next two or three decades
they launched a new Old-Flemish congregation
in the vicinity of Sappemeer. Peatworkers
from Blokzijl, Giethoorn and Zuidveen left
Overijssel to work in the peat settlements in the
Province of Groningen, and later formed a new
congregation.
Rotterdam seems to have lost a lot of its
member through outside marriages (buitentrouw)
and conflict. At the beginning of the
18th century it had to rely on the elders of the
Amsterdam and Haarlem congregation for baptism
and communion. One of the few remaining
preachers moved to Amsterdam in the 1630s.
Though the church tried to extend its life, it was
perishing by that time. Delfshaven, Brielle and
Oud-Beyerland were only small congregations.
Their end also came sometime in the thirties or
forties of the 18th century.
The connection to Danzig
As early as the Middle Ages, Dutch and
Flemish traveled East, set up their business and
sometimes remained in the land. There was extensive
ship travel between the Netherlands and
the Baltics and Prussia. Prussia was the granary
for the Netherlands, which included present-day
Belgium and the Netherlands. Because of this dependency
on grain, everything was done to keep
the narrow sea-passage of the Sont, the gateway
to the Baltic Sea, open for merchant-vessels.
Many refugees from Flanders went to the
Netherlands. Others fled to Emden or Cologne
in Germany. As noted earlier, some Flemish and
Dutch refugees went directly to Prussia, others
lived elsewhere and later arrived in Prussia.
Heavy persecution by the Duke of Alva from
1568 on only increased the stream of travelers
eastward. The Dutch were experts in milling,
land reclamation and farming, so they were
– even though they were Protestants or Anabaptists
– more than welcome to settle in the marshy
lands of the Vistula River.
That the refugees considered the East as the
“Promised Land” can be seen from the following.
In a play performed in 1638, the famous Dutch
writer and poet Joost van den Vondel described
the Prussian land in terms of the “Promised
Land,” where the refugee could forget all his
sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land. 37
Within the space of this article there is no
room to divulge any details of the rise of the
Mennonite congregations in Prussia. Suffice it to
say that during the time of Menno Simons there
was already a congregation at Danzig. His great
successor, Dirk Philips, is even considered to be
the first elder of this congregation. In the early
years there were also congregations at Elbing
and in the Gross Werder area.
When the first conflicts among Mennonites
in the Netherlands arose, the congregations in
the East were automatically involved. As soon as
the conflict between Flemish and Frisian erupted,
elder Dirk Philips was commissioned to go to the
Netherlands to resolve the matter. But Dirk did
not succeed, and died in 1568, shortly after the
first battles had been fought. Dirk had strongly
sided with the Flemish party, but it seems that
the congregations in the East tried to maintain
the peace in their own communities for as long
as they could. They received letters concerning
the conflict from the Netherlands. In 1582 delegates
from Danzig participated in a gathering
at Haarlem where attempts were made to heal
the breach. Among them was Quiryn Vermeulen,
elder of the Danzig congregation. Eventually the
conflict that had broken up the congregations in
the Netherlands also split the Prussian church.
Quiryn was banned by elder Hilchen Smit of the
Montau congregation. 38 In approximately 1590,
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