Wijngaard, Tobias Govertsen van den (1587-1669)

Tobias Govertsen van den Wijngaard (Wyngaert), born 1587 at Amsterdam, died there in 1669, was from 1617 a preacher and soon after an elder of the Amsterdam Flemish Mennonite congregation. In this church he was an influential leader. Outside his home church he also had great authority. He often preached in other congregations as far as Hamburg, Germany. In 1659 van den Wijngaard ordained Bastiaen van Weenigem at Rotter­dam. At first van den Wijngaard was a man of broad views. He wholeheartedly co-operated with his fellow ministers in 1626 in drawing up the Olijftack confession with the preceding Brief tot Vreed-Bereydinge (letter to prepare for the union of the Dutch Mennonites). In 1632 he was active in bringing about the merger of the Flemish Mennonites with the Old Flemish on the basis of the Dordrecht confession, and he sincerely rejoiced over the merger of his own congregation with the High German-Frisian congregation in 1639. But he gradually grew more conservative, and from 1663 he was the leader of the opposition to Galenus Abrahamsz, who was a minister of the same congregation, and insisted on separation from the Galenists. He withdrew from the Lamist church in June 1664 with Samuel Apostool and some 500 members to found the Amsterdam Zonist congregation, of which he served as elder until 1667, when he retired after having served for fifty years. At an advanced age he also took an active part in organizing the conservative Men­nonites into the Verbondt van Eenigheydt . Van den Wijngaard published Vrede-Presentatie . . . aen Galenus Abrahamsz (1663); Compromis tusschen D. Galenus Abrahamsz nevens sijne medestanders en Tobias Govertsz en sijne medestanders (Amsterdam, 1665), and probably also a letter to the congregations in Friesland, printed at Amster­dam in 1664. The original of this letter is found in the Amsterdam Mennonite archives.

Bibliography

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1881): 38; (1896): 46 f., 48; (1900): 20, 26, 29, 31, 36.

Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: I, Nos. 566, 598, 609; II, Nos. 1232-34, 1270-72, 1387.

Meihuizen, H. W. Galenus Abrahamsz. Haarlem, 1954.

Schijn, Hermann. Aanhangzel Dienende tot den Vervolg of Derde Deel van de Geschiedenis der Mennoniten .. . in het welke noch Negentien Leeraars der Mennoniten . . .  Amsterdam: Kornelis de Wit, 1745: III, 237-49 (with portraits).

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1959

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Wijngaard, Tobias Govertsen van den (1587-1669)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 23 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wijngaard,_Tobias_Govertsen_van_den_(1587-1669)&oldid=111980.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Wijngaard, Tobias Govertsen van den (1587-1669). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wijngaard,_Tobias_Govertsen_van_den_(1587-1669)&oldid=111980.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 951. All rights reserved.

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