THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
expression in the controversies over the ban and the avoidance of the faithful who had lapsed, as well as of everything connected with the secular church and religion. Their other characteristics were denial of original sin and emphasis of the freedom of the will, with a consequent standard of measurement in terms of morality, so that regeneration was the improvement of life, while they remained indifferent to all scholastic dogmas. It was doubtless from fear of exclusion from Christendom that Adam Pastor was attacked by Menno and banned by Dirk Philips for denying the Trinity, and asserting that Christ was one with the Father in works and purpose, but not in essence, else he could not have prayed to God in Gethsemane. In the eyes of the Mennonites neither baptism nor the Lord's Supper was, strictly speaking, a sacrament. In their gatherings only the Germans prayed audibly, which usage gradually permeated Holland also after the seventeenth century.
In 15.55 the " Waterlanders " seceded from the strict Mennonites, rejecting the ban without previous warning, as well as avoidance of the lapsed in any relations except those of religion, and opposing patience and adaptability to the rigor of the elders. Between 1566 and 1567 the church was divided into the Frisians and the Flemings, the latter permitting themselves greater luxury in clothing, insisting on a more friendly attitude toward the world, and opposing certain organizing and centralizing measures of the elders. The result was unending division and subdivision, until after 1600 many adopted the point of view of the " Waterlanders," who regarded the church as an ordinance of man and granted the individual local congregations a considerable degree of self-government. In Holland, the government by elders was retained, however, by the " Old Frisians " and the " Old Flemings," who adhered most closely to tradition, until the end of the eighteenth century, while in Prussia and Russia it has survived until the present time, like rebaptism and the washing of feet, both of which disappeared in Holland about 1780.
2. In Holland and North Germany 1580 (1640)- 1700: After the " Waterlanders" and their leader Hans de Ries (1553-1638) had striven from 1577 on to unite their own communities, and all others which were available, into an organic union free from a rigorous application of the ban, the milder Mennonites grew closer and closer together. Many "Waterlanders" attended the Frisian and High German conference at Cologne, May 1, 1591. Conventions of that sort were held occasionally until 1640. The conferences gave rise to the first symbolic writings of the Mennonites, such as the creed of Hans de Ries and Lubbert Gerrit at Cologne (1591), the symbol adopted at a conference between " Waterlanders " and a community of English Brownists or Independents (1615; see Browne, Robert; and Congregationalism, I., 1, §§ 1-2), the creed of the olive-tree (1627) and of Jan Cents (1630) and the Dort symbol of Adrian Corneli.sz (1632). All these symbolical statements were formulas of union, not of government in dogmatics.
A new factor bad meanwhile entered the church.
Since 1580 the unitarian tendency of the Mennonites had received fresh life from the Socinians, despite the opposition of Hans de Ries and others. The " Old Flemings," most strict in regard to the community and practical life, were the most liberal in doctrine. Many Mennonites stood in equally close relations with the Remonstrants, and sought their theological training in the Remonstrant seminary. Both parties furnished recruits for the Collegians or Rhynsburgers, who in 1622 borrowed from the Socinians baptism by immersion. This entire Socinian and anti-ecclesiastical rationalistic tendency was blended with pietistic elements, but an intense opposition developed, which led at Amsterdam in 1664 to a division between the liberals and the conservatives. Almost without exception the Dutch churches took sides with one faction or the other, but the controversy was of short duration, and the two parties were working together in brotherly harmony in 1672, although the dual administration continued in Amsterdam until 1801.
Throughout the seventeenth century the Mennonites were opposed by the Reformed as despising the Church and denying Christian doctrines, original sin, predestination, and the divinity of Christ, although their principle of non-resistance and their refusal to take oaths were respected. They were debarred, however, like all the non- Reformed, from official positions. Notwithstanding this, their numbers and their wealth rendered them an influential body. Between 1580 and 1660 they counted at least 200,000 adherents, more than a tenth of the population, and they included some of the greatest artists, poets, and engineers of Holland's prime. Since the Reformed theological faculties were closed to them, they devoted themselves chiefly to medicine and science. It was not until the eighteenth century that they had salaried pastors who did not occupy themselves with other callings.
3. In Holland 1700-1909: The Mennonites and the Remonstrants were the most zealous adherents and propagandists of the scientific and philosophical doctrines of the illumination which made headway in Holland in the eighteenth century. They grudged neither financial nor diplomatic aid in behalf of their oppressed coreligionists in Switzerland, the Palatinate, Julich, Poland, and Lithuania, while they became more and more convinced that all ecclesiastical distinction was antiquated. Additional elements of dissolution were the sympathy felt for the Moravians by the pietistic party among them, the restriction of public office to those who belonged to the Reformed Church, and the frequent lack of preachers in the country districts. Increasing numbers joined the established church, and neither the theological seminary founded by the community at Amsterdam in 1735 nor the unions of congregations for mutual financial and spiritual support could check the movement. In 1S08 the Mennonites numbered but 28,000. This decline was ended, however, by the foundation of the Alqemcene Doopsgezinde Socivteit at Amsterdam in 1811, which took charge of the theological seminary and the care of needy communities. Now all congregations have ministers who have received academic train-