A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

him earlier. Until the end of his life twenty-five years later, Menno remained true to his vision and calling. He preached the gospel, instructed new converts, organized believers' churches, defended the faith against attacks from without and dangers from within, and guided the entire brotherhood to a deeper understanding of "costly grace" and true Christian discipleship. Judged by the personal sacrifice he made and by the principles which he practiced in establishing churches according to the apostolic pattern, Menno must be regarded as one of the noblest and most heroic Christians of his age — and perhaps any age. He and his associate ministers were trailblazers and pioneers in insisting on freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, and the renunciation of war and violence. Speaking from the present vantage point, it appears extremely unfortunate that the Swiss Brethren and the Dutch Anabaptists did not enter into a closer association and dialogue during the sixteenth century. The two movements could have complemented and enriched each other, and thus given expression to a fuller and more balanced form of New Testament Christianity. The Dutch Mennonites with their strict and sober biblicism and a tendency toward legalism, would have profited from a more intimate fellowship with the Swiss Brethren with their broader sympathies and warmer evangelical piety. Perhaps the subsequent history of the Dutch, Prussian, and Russian Mennonites would have taken a different course as a result of such influence. Already during Menno's lifetime the Mennonites (as peaceful Anabaptists came to be known after 1544) established congregations in Northern Germany and the Vistula Delta. The movement spread to those areas largely as a result of the continued severe persecution in the Netherlands. In the Schleswig-Holstein area Mennonites were able to settle on the estates of sympathetic noblemen who welcomed these refugees because of their knowledge about dikes and the recovery of marshy land for farming. Congregations were founded near Hamburg and Luebeck, and eventually in Altona, near Hamburg. Menno moved into this area for the last years of his life. He lived in Wismar (on the Baltic Sea) until he had to flee after a theological debate with Micron in 1554. He then settled on an estate of the Baron von SPIRITUAL HEIRS OF THE EARLY ANABAPTISTS 11 Ahlefeldt located between Luebeck and Hamburg. Here, in the village of Wuestenfelde, he built a printshop and was active in writing. He died on January 31, 1561, and was buried in his own garden. The movement, however, to which he had given such outstanding and heroic leadership for twenty-five years, did not die but continued to grow and expand. Mennonite congregations were established in the Vistula Delta and also in the free city of Danzig, where government authorities exercised greater religious tolerance. Close ties were maintained with the churche