Christelijck Huys-boeck, a heavy quarto volume (Hoorn, Holland, 1643), written by Ian de Buyser, a preacher of the Dutch-speaking Mennonite congregation of the Huiskoopers in Hamburg-Altona 1640-1670, is a devotional and doctrinal reader, containing the major enunciations of the Mennonite Fathers and contemporary leaders on many topics. In this Mennonite anthology Vincent de Hondt is more frequently quoted than any other author; so it is clear that to the compiler de Hondt's authority was quite superior to that of any other Mennonite leader. The book has never been critically analyzed. It is a fact, however, that its "radicalism," which was striving toward a pure church without spot or wrinkle, had some appeal to the stricter Mennonites of the Netherlands and North Germany. Later, when the group had completely died out, the book still continued to be cherished among the Mennonites as a devotional manual as long as the Dutch language was used in the Hamburg-Altona congregation, that is, until about 1820.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 575. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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