Mennonite Handbook of Information/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
MENNONITE CONFESSION OF FAITH
The first account we have of a Confession of Faith issued by Mennonites was on April 21, 1632, at the time of a peace convention held at Dort in Holland. This was signed by fifty-one ministers and teachers representing sixteen cities and towns of Holland, Lower Germany, the Palatinate and the upper country of the Rhine Valley in the following order:
DORT
- Isaac Koenig
- Johann Cobryssen
- Jan Jacobs
- Jacuis Terwin
- Claes Dirksen
- Mels Gysbaerts
- Adrian Cornelis
ROTTERDAM
- Balden C. Schumacher
- Michael Michiels
- Israel von Halmael
- Heinrich Apeldoren
- Andreas Lucken
UTRECHT
- Herman Segers
- Jan Heinrich Hochfeld
- Daniel Horens
- Abraham Spronk
- Wilhelm von Brockhuysen
THE UPPER COUNTRY
- Peter von Borsel
- Anton Hans
FLISSINGEN
- Dillaert Willeborts
- Jacob Pennen
- Lieren Marymehr
MIDDLEBURG
- Bastian Willemsen
- Jan Winkelmans
HARLEM
- John Doom
- Peter Gryspeer
- Dirk Wouters Kolenhamp
- Peter Joosten
SCHIEDAM
- Cornelis Bam
- Lambrecht Paeldink
CREVELDT
- Wilhelm Kreynen
- Herman Op den Graff
GORCUM
- Jacob von Sebrecht
- Jan J. von Kruysen
ARNHEIM
- Cornelis Jans
- Dirk Renderson
AMSTERDAM
- Tobias Goverts
- Peter Jansen Mayer
- Abram Dirks
- David Ter Haer
- Peter Jan von Zingel
BOMMEL
- Wilhelm Jan von Exselt
- Gispert Spiering
LEYDEN
- Christian de Kopink
- Jan Weyns
BLOCKZYL
- Claes Claesson
- Peter Peterson
ZIRICZEB
- Anton Cornelis
- Peter Jan Zimmerman
ZEALAND
- Cornelis de Moir
- Isaac Claes
Twenty-eight years after—February 4, 1660—thirteen ministers and elders met at Ohnenheim, Alsace, and after examination found this Confession founded on the Word of God, and adopted it entirely as their own, and in testimony signed with their own hands as follows:
MAGENHEIM
- John Miller
ISENHEIM
- Henry Schneider
OHNENHEIM
- Ulrich Husser
- Jacob Gochnauer
HEIDELHEIM
- John Ringer
KUNENHEIM
- Rudolph Egli
JEPSENHEIM
- John Rudolph Bumen
KUNENHEIM
- Henry Frick
BALDENHEIM
- Jacob Schelbly
MARKIRCH
- Adolph Schmidt
- Jacob Schmidt
- Bertram Habich
DUERRSANZENHEIM
- Jacob Schneider
These declarations in the form of a Confession of Faith were printed in the Dutch language of Holland in the year 1660 in The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror by Thielman J. Van Braght. In the year 1748 it was translated into German directed by Heinrich Funck and Dielman Kolb at Ephrata, Pa.
In 1837 the long Confession of Faith of 33 Articles was translated into English and published by Peter Burkholder of Virginia. It was also translated into English in 1859 at Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, by a committee, representing the Mennonite Church in Canada, and still later the Eighteen Articles were translated out of the original Dutch language of Holland and published in the Ministers' Manual by Mennonite Publishing Company at Elkhart, Indiana, in 1890. This Confession of Faith is still in common use in our churches.