THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

might cross those of the members of the ruling [Reformed] church! How dare they prepare fancy meals to please their palates, allow their portraits to be painted by the best artists of the day, or let themselves be lauded in song by the poets! Is it not going too far when one finds the finest, the most beautiful, and best tasting things in their villas [summer homes] and on their landed estates?! Thus Justus van Effen fires many an arrow in their direction in his Hollaendische Geschichte [Dutch History). But no matter how much he mocks them or of what he accuses them, he is forced to grant to them the honor of being morally upright. And in spite of the fact that they may have ridden in dainty carriages or beautiful calashes according as they desired, served delicious meals, or surrounded themselves with all the comforts their age provided, they would have no part in the crude entertainments of their day. They spent ‘‘much money,” 58 but in a refined manner. d) They were indeed luxurious, and that to a high degree. Would Galenus Abrahams de Haan , 59 that highly meritorious teacher in Amsterdam, otherwise have found cause to castigate them? But by what criteria are we to measure them? For, according to the opinion of some of his own Anabaptist brothers, Galenus Abrahams was himself no competent judge. Even he had not separated himself from the main stream and Jan Stevens van Ryeveen [an Anabaptist writer of that time] tauntingly accused him of having set aside his double occupation of minister and doctor for a time to live outside the city in order to “indulge his appetites,”— as if the man’s twofold occupation did not give him the right to relax and recuperate! But then this same Jan Stevens was also known as an opponent of the comforts of life and of everything that might appear to beautify it. Defiantly he boasts that an etching or a picture has never adorned his house, that he does not even possess a portrayal of a biblical scene or picture of Christ. Other homes of wealthy Mennonites were often collection centers of the choicest pieces of classical art available at the time, and artists found friends and patrons in the rich Mennonites. Thus far according to the Zondagsbode. e) All of this surprises us. On the other hand, this splendid social status was not the lot of all the Mennonites of the time. And, in spite of everything, it must be said to the credit of the Dutch Mennonites of that period, that they did not spend these huge sums of money on artists, poets, scholars, and industrialists because of pressure or as a calculated Customs and Character 79 move to impress the state, or for their honor and amusement, but their “much money” also flowed freely in the direction of their oppressed and persecuted fellow believers, especially to those in Switzerland, the real vale of tears of our Anabaptist brethren till well into the 18th century. Waldensians, too, were the recipients of their liber