Comans family
Comans was a Dutch Mennonite family living at Rotterdam in the 17th century and belonging to the Flemish church in this town. Michiel Michielsz Comans was a preacher of this congregation, already serving in 1632; in that year he signed the Dordrecht Confession for his congregation of Rotterdam. He disagreed with his fellow preachers because of their conservatism and their belief that only the Flemish church could be considered the true Christian church. Comans had been influenced by Collegiant principles, and believed the true church could also be found among other Christians, Mennonite as well as non-Mennonite. In 1655 he left the Flemish congregation and joined the Waterlander congregation, which he served as a preacher until his death in 1664.
His son Michiel Michielsz Comans, a cloth-dyer and a member of the Flemish church, left Rotterdam about 1645 to live in Amsterdam. Here he founded a Rijnsburg college about 1648, together with Adam Boreel and Daniel de Breen, and became an ardent participant. At the meetings of this college he came in close contact with Galenus Abrahamsz, the preacher of the Flemish Mennonite church bij't Lam at Amsterdam and a warm friend of Collegiantism. Comans did not join the Mennonite church in Amsterdam, for he could not obtain a certificate of membership (aanwijs) from his Rotterdam congregation, since he was under censure there because of his advocacy of open communion. Michiel Michielsz Comans died in 1687.
Bibliography
Meihuizen, H. W. Galenus Abrahamsz. Haarlem, 1954: see "Index."
Slee, J. C. van. De Rijnsburger Collegianten. Haarlem, 1895: 135, 140, 162.
Vos, Karel. Geschiedenis der doopsgezinde Gemeente te Rotterdam. Rotterdam: W. Nevens, 1907: 15, 17, 42, 43.
| Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1954 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
van der Zijpp, Nanne. "Comans family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1954. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Comans_family&oldid=79803.
APA style
van der Zijpp, Nanne. (1954). Comans family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Comans_family&oldid=79803.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 647. All rights reserved.
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