[2] Their followers were persecuted which created disagreement among them as to how to handle this, either by taking up arms to resist or passive defiance.
[6] In Flanders Flemish Anabaptism grew strongly in the 1550s, inspired by Menno's teachings, but at great cost, with hundreds of executions.
This created tensions between various groups of Anabaptists regarding doctrine, organisation, and life-style.
Flemish Anabaptism was now no longer a reference to geographical location of the group but one of confessional bloc.
By the 1640s the great majority of the 75,000 Dutch Anabaptists belonged to either the new moderate conservative bloc of United Flemish, Frisians, High Germans or Waterlanders.