e,
and it was formally abandoned by the Synod of Middleburg in 1581. In
the city of Wesel, however, there continued to be deaconesses attached
to the city churches until 1610. In Amsterdam local churches preserved
the office still later than at Wesel. Already in 1566 we read that in
the great reformed Church not only deacons but deaconesses were elected.
The terrible days of the Spanish fury swept away all Church organization
for a time, but when it was restored in 1578 both classes of Christian
officers again resumed their duties. From 1582 lists of deaconesses were
kept, showing at first three; later, in 1704, twenty-eight, and in 1800
only eight. At the present time there are women directors of hospitals
and orphanages in Amsterdam who are called by the title of deaconesses.
The helpless, sick, and neglected children are now gathered in
institutions instead of being cared for individually as was formerly the
custom, and women having positions of control in these institutions are
designated by the name formerly applied to those who had the personal
care of the same needy classes.

It is interesting to note that there was one association of women in the
century of the Reformation that bears close resemblance to the Beguines
and the Sisters of the Common Life. These were the Damsels of Charity,
established by Prince Henry Robert de la Mark, the sovereign prince of
Sedan in the Netherlands. In 1559 he, together with the great majority
of his subjects, embraced the doctrines of the Reformed Church, and
instead of incorporating former church property with his own
possessions, as did so many princes of the Reformation, he devoted it to
founding institutions of learning and of charity. These latter he put
under the care of the "Damsels of Charity," an association of women
which he had instituted. The members could live in their own homes or in
the establishments, but in either case they devoted themselves to the
protection and succor of the poor and sick and the aged. While taking no
vows, they were chosen from those not bound by the marriage vow, and
were subject only to certain rules of living. The Damsels of Charity
have been held by some to be the first Protestant association of
deaconesses, although not called by the name.[24]

There are two evangelical societies, small in numbers, but one at least
powerful in influence, which have retained deaconesses from their origin
to the present time. These are the Mennonites or