In the past twenty-five years research into the pedagogy of Pietism has unveiled new dimensions about Pietistic educators, their works, and their aspirations. Especially Reformed Pietism in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic has been the focal point for historical pedagogical research. Spiritual and moral training in the pious family was a means to further reforming manners in church and civil society. In English Puritanism, Dutch Pietism found good advice and models for child-rearing practices and family devotion. By stressing the importance of early training of children, both Puritans and Pietists revealed their indebtedness to Christian Humanism. Pietists such as Jacobus Koelman held the view that parents served as God's assistants in preparing 'corrupt' children for conversion. Their great belief in the power of Christian nurture revived during the nineteenth century in several orthodox Protestant denominations and movements, but was mistrusted by the 'predestinarian' wing of those who had seceded from the Dutch Reformed Church.