Baptismal ages

One of the Deutsch-Wymsyle posts (here) noted that the daughters of Tobias and Petronella Penner Buller—Emilie, Anna, Elisabeth, Helene, and Julianna—had their dates of baptism entered in the church records. Based on that data we could calculate that the oldest, Emilie, was baptized at age twenty-two; the others were baptized at a much younger age, either fourteen or fifteen.

Glenn Penner writes to offer additional background on the baptismal ages of Mennonites and how it varied among several prominent branches of the Mennonite church. He explains, “The baptismal age for *Flemish Mennonites was around 18–20 years, with very few being baptized over 21 or under 17. For the Frisian Mennonites, the range was 14–16 years, with very few older than 17 [and] none (that I recall) under 12.” The Old Flemish—which is the the branch with which the Przechowka church and the Deutsch-Wymysle church were aligned—“are a different story. Their baptismal ages are all over the place—ranging from 16 to 22.”

Viewed in this light, the disparity in ages between Emilie (22) and her four sisters (14–15) seems not unusual in the least. Deutsch-Wymysle, as an Old Flemish congregation (I assume it was Groningen Old Flemish, since many of its members came from Przechowka), was characterized by a wide range of ages at baptism ages.


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* The Flemish Mennonites were not the same as the Old Flemish, and there were several branches of Old Flemish as well: the Groningen Old Flemish (e.g., Przechowka) and the Danzig Old Flemish. The Old Flemish and Flemish separated in the late sixteenth century, as Christian Neff and Nanne van der Zijpp explain:

Twenty years after the Flemish-Frisian schism a new division arose in the main Flemish body. In Franeker, Friesland, the elder of the Flemish congregation, Thomas Bintgens, bought a house; because Thomas's purchase seems not to have been above reproach a quarrel arose in 1586 and the Franeker Flemish congregation was divided into two groups, that of Bintgens, soon called Huiskoopers (Housebuyers), and a group led by the deacon Jacob Keest, called Contra-Huiskoopers. Attempts were made by the Flemish congregations of Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Hoorn to reconcile the two groups, but in vain, and soon the whole Flemish body was divided in two parties: Huiskoopers, Thomas Byntgens-volk, or as they were mostly called, Oude Vlamingen (Old Flemish), while the others were called Contra-Huiskoopers, Jacob-Keest-volk, Zackte (mild) Vlamingen, or simply Vlamingen (Flemish).

It seems somewhat ridiculous and even sad, that the buying of a house could divide the Mennonites, but this was only the outer motive. The point of the quarrel was rather a different conception of the church among the Flemish, whether the church should be conceived as strictly separated from the world, as a church without spot or wrinkle or not.… The (mild) Flemish were less conservative than the Old Flemish, and more moderate in banning and shunning. 

Source Cited

Neff, Christian and Nanne van der Zijpp. 1956. Flemish Mennonites. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Available online here.