Laurens Verniers was involved in so much, and travelled so widely, that his story cannot be told along a single straight line. This account nevertheless tries to do so, as chronologically as possible, following the letters, disputes, places and people that shaped his life. It builds on what was already told in Post II on the blog, and draws on a large number of scholarly sources and archival records — from sixteenth-century letters and notarial deeds to Mennonite historiography from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, all of them traceable in the Library.

The wider backdrop: Ghent and the rise of the Reformation

To understand Laurens' later fortunes, it helps first to zoom out to the wider world he grew up in. Early in the sixteenth century the Bible found its way to the intellectual elite through the humanists, and biblical ideas and criticism of Roman Catholic practices such as indulgences and the sacraments were already voiced at the Ghent (1539) and Deinze (1549–1553 and 1566) rhetoricians' festivals. Between 1538 and 1550 this early movement split, giving rise to the Mennonites (named after Menno Simons), the Reformed, and the Calvinists — Laurens himself would join the first of these. In the turbulent Wonderjaar of 1566 it was mainly the Calvinists who called the tune in Flanders, with hedge-preaching, the Iconoclastic Fury, and the founding of their own churches and congregations. Philip II responded by sending the Duke of Alva, who suppressed the religious uprising with a heavy hand and made the population help pay for the Spanish troops through the Tenth Penny tax — the same Alva who in 1567 would also banish Laurens in absentia. Source

Despite this repression, Ghent became a Calvinist city between 1578 and 1584, and Flanders largely a Calvinist land — until the city fell to Alexander Farnese's troops in 1584. Flemish Calvinists, and with them Mennonites such as the Verniers, left the country en masse, heading for England, the Netherlands and Germany, and so contributed to the economic flourishing of the Dutch Golden Age. In Flanders itself, Catholicism was restored after the fall of Ghent, helped along by the Counter-Reformation driven by the Jesuits. Source

Confusion in the sources: Vernier or Vermeren?

Before going further, a word on who is actually speaking here. Much of what is known about Laurens comes from the work of K. Vos, who in his book "De Doopsgezinden te Antwerpen in de zestiende eeuw" carried out extensive research into the early Mennonite community in Antwerp and its teachers and elders — the source can be found in the Reference. Vos himself writes that the names from this period are constantly muddled, and that he had at first mistaken two different elders for one and the same person.

His conclusion, after much puzzling: the Franeker teacher who was banished by Alva and who, in the official sentence, is named Joachim Joesz Vernier — punished for having been baptized at 's-Hertogenbosch and at Antwerp — is none other than our own Laurens Verniers, who did indeed play a major role within the Mennonite brotherhood.

Vos did consider an alternative: there is a possibility of a misprint in the published sentence. If "Vermer" may be read for "Vernier", this would be a certain Joachim Vermeren, who disappeared from view in Cologne in 1563 and resurfaces in Franeker four years later. Vos investigated this lead seriously — he initially even thought this Joachim Vermeren was the same person as an elder named "Joost Vermeren" in the Antwerp archives, but that turned out to be a different man, Verbeeck. Even with this caveat, Vos's own conclusion remains that the sentence concerns Laurens Verniers. I therefore adopt this identification as the most likely one, while acknowledging that nineteenth- and twentieth-century Mennonite historiography discusses this kind of name confusion with some nuance.

Sentence of Banishment against a person of Franeker, 26 November 1569

Sentence of Banishment and Confiscation of Goods, against a person of Franeker, 26 November 1569 — source: J. Marcus, "Sententien en Indagingen van den Hertog van Alba", 1735, own library

Franeker: deacon and teacher

After his time in the Southern Netherlands, Laurens settled in Franeker. On his registration in the Franeker Burgher Book on 3 December 1560 he is recorded under the corrupted name "Lourens Wermer". He rose to become deacon and later teacher (elder) of the Franeker congregation — a position that placed him squarely in the great doctrinal disputes of his time.

What the office of deacon meant in practice is nicely illustrated by the statement of a fellow believer from Antwerp, Jan van de Walle, who was arrested in 1571 (Marnef, 2008). Later in this story this same Jan vanden Walle turns up again: he is in fact the addressee of one of the two letters Hans Busschaert wrote from Cologne in 1570 — see "The letter of Hans Busschaert, 24 January 1570" below. Asked exactly what a deacon's office entailed, Jan van de Walle answered, in French: "de recoeullir les aulmosnes et distribuer aux povres" — in modern English: "to collect the alms and distribute them to the poor." That, then, was also the core of Laurens' own task as deacon: caring for the poor within the congregation.

Jan van de Walle's own remarkable life story is also known, and it illustrates well how mobile the persecuted Mennonite brotherhood was — a mobility that marked Laurens himself just as much. Van de Walle, a forty-year-old ribbon-maker, settled in Antwerp around 1554, moved after just over a year to Ghent (about eighteen months), fled to Holland (six months) when the inquisitor Titelmans was on his heels, spent some time in Middelburg in Zeeland, and then returned to the Antwerp region: a year and a half in Borgerhout, five years on the Markgravelei, and finally within the city walls — three years in the Vliersteeg, half a year in the Gasthuisbeemden, three to four months behind the Tapissierspand, and finally in the Kaasstraat, where he lived at the time of his arrest. There were close ties between the Mennonites of the city of Antwerp and those in surrounding villages such as Borgerhout and Wilrijk; the same elders, preachers and deacons operated in both, showing that this was one and the same network. The testimonies of Van de Walle and of Herman van den Greyn also show that teachers and deacons were chosen from the ground up, by the ordinary members of the congregation themselves.

Research into the occupations of Mennonite office-holders from this period shows a clear pattern: of 27 office-holders whose occupation could be traced, the textile and clothing sectors were by far the most dominant, with nine and seven mentions respectively, followed by trade with five. Construction and leatherworking each appear once, and crafts and the residual category "other" twice each. Craft occupations — with the textile sector foremost — were thus completely dominant; occupations presupposing a pronounced intellectual education were almost entirely absent (Marnef, 2008). Our stamvader Laurens, a cloth merchant by trade, fitted this pattern exactly: he too came from that same dominant textile sector.

The Frisian-Flemish disputes

The sixteenth-century Mennonite movement was far from unified. Around 1560 the Mennonite congregations of four Frisian towns — Harlingen, Franeker, Leeuwarden and Dokkum — concluded a secret "Covenant" of nineteen articles governing their mutual relations (Doopsgezinde Bijdragen, Scheffer, 1893). Out of this Covenant, and the way it came to light, arose the Frisian-Flemish disputes — later called "the darkest spot in our history" by K. Vos (Vos, 1914). Laurens, and his friend Jeroen Tinnegieter, found themselves right in the middle of this tension.

At Franeker the newcomers — refugees from the south — had succeeded in having their own fellow believer, the Hainaut man Jeroen Tinnegieter, elected as teacher. The Harlingen congregation had serious objections to this, and outside teachers were called in to settle the dispute: Dirk Filips, Hoyte Renix Santvoort, Nette Lipkes and Hans Bouwens Busschaert. They restored the peace, though Jeroen never forgot how deeply insulted he felt. During these negotiations it emerged what had partly moved the Harlingen congregation: the existence of the hitherto unknown Covenant, which meant that Jeroen's teachership would automatically also apply to Harlingen, Leeuwarden and Dokkum. When the brotherhood learned of this, great indignation followed, especially in Franeker.

Shortly afterwards, in Emden, another case arose that further inflamed tempers: the respected elder Leenaert Bouwens was suspended as elder there — after accusations (which incidentally proved false) of drinking and of accepting money for his services — by Dirk Filips and six associates. Among those judges were also Hoyte Renix and the Harlingen teacher Ebbe Pieters. Leenaert Bouwens then withdrew to a place just outside Harlingen, where he was warmly received and where people did not believe him guilty.

The letter of Hans Busschaert, 24 January 1570

Remarkable documents from the period are two letters that Hans Busschaert wrote from Cologne in mid-January 1570. They are two separate letters, with two different addressees. The first letter is addressed directly to Laurens; the second to Jan vanden Walle (or the servants) at Antwerp, in which Hans asks that a message be passed on to Laurens. Both thereby confirm precisely that Laurens was in and around Franeker at the time, not in Antwerp (Génard, XII, 26-27).

Letter 1 — to Laurens Verniers, at Franeker

In this letter Hans reports on his journey, his visits to Breda and 's-Hertogenbosch, and the reception of his "verclaerynghe" — his explanation of the Frisian-Flemish disputes — which was well received by some, though not by all. The full text reads (original sixteenth-century Dutch, left untranslated as a primary source):

"Aen de eersamen Lauwereys Verniers, tot Franeker. Van God tot eewigher saelicheyt. Amen. Voort, naer alle vrintlieke groetenesse, so laet ick horen dat ick met ghesontheyt tot Kuelen ghecomen ben de 20 oft 19 Janewary, hebbende een seer moeylicke reyse. Tot Bree hebbe ick ghewest; het staet daer tamelick wel, ende ten Bo: hebbe ick gheweest, daer mocht met someghe wel beter staen. Dan myn verclaerynghe behaechde haer allen wel dan sy seyden een paert; die ander seghen haer saeke oock seer scoon. Daarop ick haer seyde dat ick beryt was sulcx te ghestaen als ick gheseyt hadde teghen die sulcx teghen te spreken hadden, sodat ick hope dat noch ten besten commen sal. Daer moet noch toe ghedaen worden. Ick en gaf my niet gern by haer in dienst om te vermaenen, omdat ick verstont vut someghe als die Holandsche oft Vriesche qwaeraen, sy wildense oock laeten vermaenen, ende dat docht my enen onformelicken reghel te syn. Ick wees haer an dat sy van beyden niet connen bedient worden, dan ondersceyt mosten vernemen by wien recht waere, ende alsdan in vreden."

(Notes on this letter: Hans signs as "your weak brother" — identified by Vos as Hans Busschaert. "Bree" is Breda or the hamlet Breedorp; "Bo:" is 's-Hertogenbosch; the "verclaerynghe" is his explanation of the Frisian-Flemish disputes. See also D. Bijdr., 1893, p. 16.)

Letter 2 — to Jan vanden Walle, at Antwerp

This second letter, also written on 24 January 1570 in Cologne, is addressed to Jan vanden Walle (or the servants) at Antwerp, where it was received on 29 January 1570. In it Hans discusses his visit to Eindhoven, and to Gillis, who had been asked to serve the congregation at Kleve but did not wish to accept this because of the difficulties surrounding Emmerich and his own inexperience there; further his journey to Aachen, Rees and Neuss, and the servants of Cologne, who because of the scattering could do little at that moment, with the proposal to write to Dordrecht once the opportunity arose. Also a personal note about his son, who was staying in Breda and would have liked to be taught reading and writing there. At the end Hans explicitly asks that a message be passed on to Laurens. The full text reads (original, left untranslated):

"Tot iynd: hebbe ick ghewest; daer staettet oock taemelick wel. Voort hebbe ick by Gillis ghewest; het staet daer oock taemlick wel, ende hy was aanghesocht om te dienen int lant te Kleef; het welcke hy niet wel wilde annemen, overmidts dat daerduer die swaricheyt leyt tot Eymryck ende hy daer weynich in ervaren is, ende inde moeyte qwaelick dient, so verclaerde hy my van Aeken, Ree ende Nus dat daer oock noot waere dat ick daer reysde om etlicke oorsaeken vande handel te Kleef; so seyde ick hem dat my over de mate voorhanden was, dat nootsaekelick waere, so en hebbe ick niet anghenomen sulcx te doen; so heeft hyt oock niet connen aennemen. So staet dat tussen beyden ende oock weet dat het wel nut waere... so hebbe ick... te vernemen oft haer die... van Kuelen souden connen helpen an wat hantreykinghe waerop ick die D. van K. hebbe angesproken, so en connen sy op dese tyt niet ghedoen door die verstroynghe, so dat sy wel mochten an die van Do: scryven altyt 'o vere als dese connen tot gheleghender tyt wat ghedoen, dat sullen sy wel doen; dan sy en derven niet scryven, noch haer op dese tyt daerop verlaten. Voorts so hadden wy woorden van myn soon die te Breda is; ick en hebbe niet wel ghelech connen vinden tot Breda; so daer wat ghelechs waere dat hy wat lesens ende scryvens mocht leren, dat wilde ick wel. Ick hadde hem oock ghern op breyen, ghy mocht wat overlegen. Hier met den Heere bevolen. Met haest ghescreven de 24 Janewary in Kuelen. Scryft an L. Ver. dat hy haest antwoort scryft wanneer dat Hertman verdich wesen sal. Ick groete u allen hertelick met des Heeren vrede. By my u s. b. Hans b. Anden eersaemen Jan vanden Walle oft ande D..., tot Antwerpen. Ontfangen de 29e January 1570."

(Notes on this letter: "Tot iynd:" is Eindhoven; "Ree ende Nus" is Rees and Neuss; "D. van K." are the servants of Cologne; "Do:" is Dordrecht; "L. Ver." is Laurens Verniers himself; and the final "D..." in the address stands for "servants".)

Friendship with Leenaert — and the question: was Hans his brother?

In his biography of Menno Simons, Vos goes further into these two men, in a chapter titled "Hoyte, Hans en Herman" (Vos, Menno Simons, 1914). Hoyte Reynx Santvoort (named after the hamlet of Zandfirden or Sandvoordery near Bolsward) was the first, and Hans Busschaert — also called "the Weaver" — the second elder confirmed by Leenaert. Scheffer calls the latter "Hans Bouwens Busschaert". If that is correct, the question arises: was Hans a brother of Leenaert?

That question arises because Hans, in a letter to "Lauwerys Verniers, deacon at Franeker", dated 24 January 1571, asks that his greetings be passed on to "his brother and his wife". At that time Leenaert — with whom Laurens was very close — lived "just outside Harlingen". This letter is striking: the same date (24 January) and the same addressee (Lauwerys Verniers at Franeker) also occur in Letter 1 above, although Vos there gives the year as 1570 rather than 1571 — a common confusion with January dates from this period, since the year did not then begin everywhere on 1 January. It is thus quite possible that this is the same letter, though this cannot be established with certainty.

Vos himself acknowledges that nothing further is known of this. It would moreover have been remarkable if, in 1567, Leenaert had sided with the Frisians and Hans with the Flemings — and Vos even wonders whether Blaupot ten Cate was mistaken here, when he spoke of "Hans Bouwens" instead of Busschaert (Blaupot ten Cate, via Vos). This question therefore remains open.

Hoyte Reynx, elder at Bolsward, played a role in the Frisian-Flemish disputes just as Busschaert did. He sided with the Frisians, and in 1590 took part in the disagreements over "outside marriages" (members who had married non-Mennonites), separating himself together with Pieter Willems Bogaert and Lubbert Gerrits (Vos, Menno Simons, 1914).

The song: Veelderhande liedekens (1582)

Laurens' name and standing within the Mennonite community were apparently so well known that a song was written about him: he appears in the songbook "Veelderhande liedekens, gemaect uut den Ouden ende Nieuwen Testamente" of 1582, one of the early Mennonite hymnals. He is also mentioned in F. C. Wieder's standard work "De Schriftuurlijke Liedekens: Inhoudsbeschrijving en Bibliographie" ('s-Gravenhage, 1900) — on page 117, among the offertory songs, under the name Louwereys Verniers. The existence of the song, in two independent sources, is in itself fine evidence of his standing within the congregation. The lines in which he is named read as follows (original sixteenth-century Dutch):

Lauwereys Verniers oock int ghetal
Hoept dat hy mede strijden sal
Gheneghen zijnde tot dichten
Om zijnen Naesten te stichten.

From: "Veelderhande liedekens, gemaect uut den Ouden ende Nieuwen Testamente", 1582 — Source 30

The Huiskopers dispute (1588–1590) and the Contra-Huiskopers

A second major schism in which Laurens played an active part is the so-called Huiskopers dispute, described extensively by S. Blaupot ten Cate (Blaupot ten Cate, Groningen/Overijssel/Oost-Friesland) and, with many more names and dates, in the article by Willem Stuve, "Herrie om een huis: de Huiskopertwist kritisch bekeken" (Stuve, 2005). The dispute centred on a certain Bintgens, against whom a disciplinary case was underway.

This latter article also sheds new light on Laurens himself: he was originally elder at Antwerp, corresponded with Hans Busschaert, and in the Flemish-Frisian conflict took the side of the Flemings. Two years before Alva banished him in absentia from Antwerp in 1567, he had already left for Franeker. As an "adherent" of Dirck Philips he favoured a strict stance against "outside marriage" (marriages outside the congregation). In the autumn of 1569 he appears, as elder of Franeker, at Kleve, where together with the elders Hendrik van Roosevelt and Jan van Ophoorn he settled a dispute within the congregation there — the same trip to Kleve already mentioned in Post II of the blog.

On 19 January 1588 the case against Bintgens was pursued further. Jacob Pieters wanted to know precisely how Bintgens had sinned, whereupon Jacques Walraven explained this further — with the result that the discussion was no longer only about suspension, but about Bintgens' complete exclusion from the brotherhood. Gillis van Aken, Guillaume uit d'Eenhoorn and Laurens Vermers — our stamvader — held the same view. The judges themselves, however, became divided: some continued to support Bintgens. A dispute of principle arose over procedure: should the case go immediately before all the congregations, or first be investigated by a few? Busschaert, Jan Roelands, Jacob Pieters and Bintgens himself wanted the dispute to be judged first according to 1 Timothy 5.

In July of the same year the meetings resumed, with the same disagreement over whether the investigation should be by elders and servants, or by the congregations themselves. Against the advice of the Amsterdammers, but in line with the view of the Haarlem congregation, the first option was chosen; the other party left, though not before asking whether the judgment of Brixius Gerrits and others from Groningen, Emden and Cologne would also be taken into account. At a meeting in Haarlem in 1589, Hans Busschaert, Jan Roelands and Jacob Pieters were accused by the Amsterdammers of having covered up Bintgens' wrongdoing at Franeker the year before. Bintgens and Michiel Reijers in turn disputed the legitimacy of the unrequested arrival of the Groningen and East Frisian delegates. The latter departed, but wrote a letter from Amsterdam on 3 November 1589 to the Haarlem congregation to refute the accusation and to urge gentleness and peace. The Haarlem meeting nevertheless ended with Haarlem continuing to support the party in favour of Bintgens, and Amsterdam the party against him.

The matter escalated further when it emerged that Hans Busschaert had helped ban Jacob Reininghen (or Keest), an early opponent of Bintgens, while at the same time leaving open whether this man should also be shunned. This eventually led Brixius, Ganglofs and many concerned congregations to side fully with Jacob Keest: Bintgens, Busschaert and Jacob van der Molen were banned from one another in turn.

On 5 February 1590 the Franeker congregation issued a public declaration inviting anyone who believed they had a grievance to come and demonstrate this in person. A number of Haarlem brethren wished to take up this invitation — which displeased the Haarlem elders so much that, between 5 February and 13 May 1590, it was precisely these men whom they banned: Willem Jansz. Buis, Laurens Verniers, Jacques Outerman, Cornelis de Cuper and Jaques Gerrits, plus the Amsterdammer Cornelis van Tongerloo (Stuve, 2005). Our stamvader was thus himself banned by Haarlem, even before he travelled to Franeker together with the Amsterdammers.

These same delegates travelled to Franeker on 13 May 1590, with a stop at Harlingen. From Harlingen they sent two not-yet-banned brethren ahead on 15 May to ask Bintgens to remain in Franeker. Once arrived in Franeker, Bintgens refused to accept letter after letter, precisely because the signatories — Laurens among them — had by then been banned. These letters were signed by Willem Jans Buys, Cornelis de Keyser, Laurens Vermers, Jaques Outermans, Cornelis van Tongerloo, Jaques Walraven, Gillis van Aken and Guillaume uit d'Eenhoorn — Laurens once again explicitly present. An attempt to involve the Dokkum elder Jan Alberts also failed: on 18 and 20 May he refused to be separated from his company, whereupon he too was banned by Bintgens. Having been treated very rudely, the delegates returned to Amsterdam, with the result that the Flemish congregation there finally aligned itself with the Contra-Huiskopers party. On 3 September 1590 they drew up a report of the whole affair in Amsterdam.

Around the same time Bintgens also lost his support in Groningen, East Frisia and Overijssel, after Jan Alberts — summoned to Franeker by Bintgens himself, but unwilling to come without his Groningen and East Frisian company — was banned without stated reason by a delegation of Bintgens. Jan Alberts calmly returned to Dokkum, but rumour of this caused people in the three provinces, and in Amsterdam, to abandon Bintgens' side entirely. The Huiskopers eventually collapsed; after Van der Molen also banned Bintgens' own protector Busschaert, Van der Molen and Bintgens became the leaders of what became known as the Bankeroetiers party.

The main finding from "Herrie om een huis" is that this dispute — despite its small, personal cause (a house purchase) — grew into a lasting rift between Amsterdam and Haarlem, only truly healed in 1632 with the reunification of the Old and Young Flemings. Almost everyone involved, on both sides, originally came from Flanders — Laurens included — which shows that the dividing line ran not so much between north and south, but right through the Flemish refugee community itself.

Amsterdam: Van Dillen, De Oranjeboom and the cloth trade

In Amsterdam, Laurens is recorded in 1585 in the work of Van Dillen (Van Dillen). He owned a house there on the Kalverstraat (1585), and later the house "De Oranjeboom" on the Warmoesstraat (1591). A Master's thesis in Urban History at the University of Amsterdam, "Welvaartsspreiding in Amsterdam ten tijde van de Capitale Impositie, 1585", gives an even more precise picture of his residence that year: in the tax register of the Capitale Impositie he is recorded on the eastern side of the Warmoesstraat, from the northern corner of the Sint-Annastraat towards the church — with the assessment code "Q Q 37 Q Q Q Q" (Capitale Impositie 1585). The precise meaning of this code still needs further investigation, but the location places him right in the heart of the merchant quarter of the day, close to the Oude Kerk — where, fifteen years later, he would also be buried.

By trade he was a cloth merchant — an occupation that occurred remarkably often among Mennonites. Many Flemish refugees carried their knowledge of the textile industry from the south to the north, and the trade in cloth and other fabrics was, unlike some guilds, less strictly controlled by ecclesiastical oaths and guild obligations that could pose a problem for religious dissenters.

Death and burial

Laurens Verniers was buried on 27 December 1600 in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal near the Varkensluis (DTB 1042, folio 260). His widow, Grietge Joosten, sold the house "De Witte Voet" in 1601.

This story is built up from fragments and quotations from K. Vos's research, and will be supplemented as more sources become available — among other things about his first marriage, and the full text of the 1582 song.