ABSTRACT
The rise of the Dutch Republic paralleled the rise of a vast Dutch maritime empire. One industrious group who benefited and contributed to the economic and cultural success of the Dutch Golden Age was the Mennonites. Mennonites were a small religious minority in the Netherlands but they were economically and culturally significant. In the Dutch Republic, religious tolerance, a commercial economy, and the highest level of urbanization in Europe required Mennonites to wrestle with how to be faithful in a capitalist setting, particularly one situated in an aggressive overseas trading empire. Protestant leaders despaired over the ignorance of parishioners. Amsterdam merchants in general were reluctant to invest in the West India Company, fearing that military ventures would reduce profits as had initially happened in the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC). Based on confessions of faith and other printed sources, Samme Zijlstra stated, 'The Mennonites kept their distance as much as possible from government and all that went along with it'.
