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The Disputed Origins of Dutch Calvinism: Religious Refugees in the Historiography of the Dutch Reformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2017

Jesse Spohnholz  and
Mirjam G. K. van Veen
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Abstract

According to historiographical convention, the experience of exile by Protestants from the Habsburg Netherlands between the 1550s and the early 1570s played a critical role in promoting confessional Calvinism in the early Dutch Republic. But there are too many problems in the evidentiary basis to sustain this conclusion. This essay traces the historiography on the Dutch Reformation in order to isolate where and why this idea emerged. It demonstrates that no specific role for religious refugees in the development of Dutch Calvinism can be found in historical writing from the late sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Only in the late nineteenth century, during a debate about the role of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands, did the experiences of religious refugees come to take on a specific role in explaining the development of Dutch Calvinism. The idea first emerged among Neo-Calvinists who critiqued state supervision of their church. By the twentieth century, it came to be used by orthodox and moderate Reformed Protestants, as well as liberal and secular academic historians. This paper thus demonstrates that this key interpretive framework for understanding the Dutch Reformation was the product not of developments in the sixteenth-century Habsburg Netherlands, but of religious politics in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the late nineteenth century.

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Church History , Volume 86 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 398 - 426
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Copyright © American Society of Church History 2017 

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73 For an overview of the varying theological positions developing in the nineteenth-century Netherlands, see Rasker, Albert J., De Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk vanaf 1795. Haar geschiedenis en theologie in de negentiende en twintigste eeuw (Kampen: Kok, 1974)Google Scholar.

74 One exception to this was an 1869 essay by the Utrecht theologian Bernard ter Haar, who explained the popularity of Reformed orthodoxy by citing the energetic anti-Catholic energy and anti-hierarchical zealotry of Petrus Datheen and Herman Moded. Ter Haar credited this enthusiasm with the success of the Dutch Revolt, but expressed regret that the more moderate Reformed voice of Jean Taffin had not become dominant instead. This explanation for the spread of Calvinism is rooted in the idiosyncrasies of dynamic personalities rather than the structural or functionalist explanations that emerged in the twentieth century: ter Haar, Bernard, “Hoofdleiders der Hervorming (Vervolg.),” in Geschiedenis der christelijke kerk in Netherland, in tafeleeren, ed. ter Haar, Bernard and Moll, Willem (Amsterdam: Portieltje en zoon, 1869)Google Scholar, 2:52–70.

75 These sentiments led to a small-scale schism in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1834 (the so-called Afscheiding).

76 van Prinsterer, G. Groen, Handboek der geschiedenis van het vaderland (Leiden: Luchtmans, 1841)Google Scholar, 1:119. On the historical memories of this event, which later became known as the Convent of Wesel, see Spohnholz, Jesse, The Covent of Wesel: The Event that Never Was and the Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)Google Scholar.

77 On Kuyper's transition from 1860 to 1874, see Vree, J., Kuyper in de kiem. De precalvinistische periode van Abraham Kuyper, 1848−1874 (Hilverum: Verloren, 2006)Google Scholar. For Kuyper's personal account of his change, see Kuyper, A., Confidentie (Amsterdam: Höveker en zoon, 1873)Google Scholar.

78 He also saw the Dutch Revolt and the American Revolution as expressions of this Calvinist tradition of liberty, and the French Revolution as antithetical to it: Kuyper, A., Ons program (Amsterdam: J. H. Kruyt, 1879)Google Scholar. On this point, see Bratt, James D., Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2013)Google Scholar.

79 Kuyper's interest in Reformed exiles actually predated his Neo-Calvinism. In his 1560 Commentatio, as well as his 1562 Ph.D. dissertation, he was far more favorable to Lasco, Johannes à than Calvin, John: Vree, Jasper and Zwaan, Johan, eds., Abraham Kuyper's Commentatio (1860): The Young Kuyper about Calvin, a Lasco, and the Church, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2005)Google Scholar; Kuyper, A., Disquisitio historico-theologica, exhibens Joannis Calvini et Joannis à Lasco de ecclesia sententiarum inter se compositionem (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1862)Google Scholar. For his historical treatment of exiles from 1869 to 1874, see A. Kuyper, “De eerste Kerkvergaderingen of de vestiging onzer Hervormde Kerk, en de strijd om haar zelfstandig bestaan, 1550–1618,” and “De eeredienst der Hervormde Kerk en de zamenstelling van haar Kerkboek,” in Geschiedenis der christelijke kerk in Nederland, 2:71−113; Kuyper, A., De Hollandsche gemeente te Londen in 1570/1 (Hardewijk: M. C. Bronsveld, 1870)Google Scholar; Kuyper, A., Het Calvinisme. Oorsprong en waarborg onzer constitutionele vrijheden (Amsterdam: B. van der Land, 1874)Google Scholar.

80 Kuyper, De Hollandsche gemeente te Londen in 1570/1, 168.

81 Kuyper, “De eeredienst der Hervormde Kerk,” 80: “Volkomen autonomie tegenover het burgerlijke bestuur en krachtige eenheid naar binnen in belijdenis, gebruiken en eeredienst, of wil men,—de vrije Kerk in den vrijen Staat.”

82 Bronsveld, Andries Willem, Vluchtelingen en ballingen (Harderwijk: Bronsveld, 1870)Google Scholar; van Toorenenbergen, J. J., Vaderlandsche herinneringen (Rotterdam: M. Wyt en zonen, 1872)Google Scholar; Vos, Geerhardus Johannes, De tegenwoordige inrichting der vaderlandsche kerk (Dordrecht: J. P. Revers, 1884)Google Scholar; van Meer, Bernadus, De synode te Emden: 1571 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1892)Google Scholar; de Jong, Jan, De voorbereiding en constitueering van het kerkverband der Nederlandsche Gereformeerde kerken in de zestiende eeuw: Historische studiën over het Convent te Wezel (1568) en de Synode te Emden (1571) (Groningen: Jan Haan, 1911)Google Scholar; van der Zee, G., Vaderlandsche Kerkgeschiedenis: Deel II: De Hervorming (Kampen: Kok, 1937)Google Scholar.

83 Rutgers, F. L., De geldigheid van de oude kerkenordening der Nederlandsche gereformeerde kerken (Amsterdam: Wormser, 1890)Google Scholar; Rutgers, F. L., Calvijns invloed op de Reformatie in de Nederlanden (Leiden: D. Donner, 1899)Google Scholar.

84 While Van Schelven acknowledged the diversity among the exiles and their willingness to compromise, this did not keep him from mirroring Kuyper's overall narrative: De nederduitsche vluchtelingenkerken der XVIe eeuw in Engeland en Duitschland (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1909)Google Scholar.

85 Vree, J., “The Marnix-Vereeniging: Abraham Kuyper's First National Organisation (1868–89),” Dutch Review of Church History 84, no. 1 (2004): 388−475 Google Scholar; Vree, Kuyper in de kiem, 71−121. Kuyper explicitly modeled the Marnix Vereeniging on the Parker Society in England and the French Société du Protestantisme: see “Programma der ‘Marnix Vereeniging,’” 2.19.001, inventarisnummer 1, Nationaal Archief, The Hague, Netherlands. On the nineteenth-century interest in the editing of texts, see Mathijsen, M., Historiezucht. De obsessie met het verleden in de negentiende eeuw (Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2013), 207−232 Google Scholar.

86 Hessels, J. H., ed., Epistulae et Tractatus cum Reformationis tum Ecclesiae Londino-Batavae Historiam illustrantes, 1544–1622, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Ecclesiae Londino-Batavae, 1887–1897)Google Scholar; Hessels, J. H., Register of the Attestations or Certificates of Membership, Confessions of Guilt, Certificates of Marriages, Betrothals, Publications of Banns, etc., etc. Preserved in the Dutch Reformed Church, Austin Friars, London, 1568 to 1872 (London: David Nutt, 1892)Google Scholar. Meanwhile, the Huguenot Society of London (f. 1885) focused on the French-speaking communities. For example, Moens, W. J. C., ed., The Walloons and their Church at Norwich: Their History and Registers 1565–1832, vol. 1 (Lymington: The Huguenot Society of London, 1887)Google Scholar; Moens, W. J. C., The Registers of the French Church, Threadneedle Street, London, 2 vols. (London: The Huguenot Society of London, 1899)Google Scholar.

87 F. L. Rutgers, for instance, opposed the idea of a broad Reformation: “Maar vooreerst is er in dit opzicht van die allen nog niet zóóveel te zeggen, als ons nu gebleken is van Calvijn alleen” (Calvijns invloed, 32). See also Dankbaar, W. F., Hoogtepunten uit het Nederlandsche Calvinisme in de zestiende eeuw (Haarlem: H. D. Tjeenk Willink & zoon, 1946)Google Scholar.

88 Reitsma, Johannes, Geschiedenis der Hervorming en de Hervormde Kerk in der Nederlanden (Groningen: J. B. Wolters, 1893)Google Scholar, 99−133, 159−160, 195−198, 432−433.

89 Fruin, Robert, De tachtigjarige oorlog. Historische opstellen, vol. 1, Het voorspel van den tachtigjarigen oorlog (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1908)Google Scholar; Fruin, Robert, “De voorbereiding in de ballingschap van de Gereformeerde Kerk van Holland,” Archief voor Nederlandsche Kerkgeschiedenis 5 (1895): 1–46 Google Scholar.

90 The vr ijzinnigen wanted to take into account all the results of modern scholarship, be it in the natural sciences or in biblical exegesis. They thus questioned miracle stories in the Bible, including the resurrection of Christ. See, for example, Rasker, De Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk, 218−232.

91 Woudstra, Marten, De Hollandsche vreemdelingen-gemeente te London, gedurende de eerste jaren van haar bestaan (Groningen: J. B. Wolters, 1908)Google Scholar.

92 Ibid., 25.

93 Ibid., 101: “Maar men wenschte overeenstemming ten aanzien van den geest, niet van de woorden. Geen slaafsche navolging begeerde men, maar een eigen gebouw op hetzelfde fundament, dezelfde hoofdlijnen, maar een eigen stijl.”

94 Bouwman, H., Het Gereformeerd Kerkrecht (Kampen: Kok, 1928), 1:291–292Google Scholar; Lindeboom, J., De confessionelle ontwikkeling der reformatie in de Nederlanden (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1946)Google Scholar, 38, 55−56, 84, and passim. On these differences within the Reformed tradition, see Rasker, Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk, 213−275.

95 Geyl, Revolt of the Netherlands, 81, 110.

96 van Gelder, H. A. Enno, Revolutionnaire Reformatie: De vestiging van de Gereformeerde Kerk in de Nederlandse gewesten, gedurende de eerste jaren van de Opstand tegen Filips II, 1575−1585 (Amsterdam: P. N. van Kampen & zoon, 1943), 7−16 Google Scholar and passim. See also his later Getemperde vrijheid. Een verhandeling over de verhouding van kerk en staat in de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden en de vrijheid van meningsuiting in zake godsdienst, drukpers en onderwijs (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1972)Google Scholar.

97 Woltjer, J. J., Friesland in hervormingstijd (Leiden: Universitaire Pers, 1962), 104 Google Scholar: “Niet het lutherse en niet het calvinistische, maar de vaagheid van alle verschillen en overgangen is het voornaamste kenmerk van de kerkelijke situatie in Friesland tot na het midden van de eeuw.” See also Woltjer, J. J., Tussen vrijheidsstrijd en burgeroorlog over de Nederlandse Opstand 1555−1580 (Leiden: DBNL, 2008), 64−88 Google Scholar.

98 For a collection of influential essays, see Duke, Alastair, Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries (London: Hambledon Press, 1990)Google Scholar. Also Nijenhuis, Willem, “Variants within Dutch Calvinism in the Sixteenth Century,” Acta Historiae Neerlandicae 12 (1979): 48−64 Google Scholar; Marnef, Guido, “Belgian and Dutch Post-war Historiography on the Protestant and Catholic Reformation in the Netherlands,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 100 (2009): 271−292 Google Scholar.

99 Schilling, Heinz, “Calvinistichen Presbyterien in Städten der Frühneuzeit—Eine Kirchliche Alternativform zur Bürgerlichen Repräsentation? (Mit einer quantifizierenden Untersuchung zur Hollandischen Stadt Leiden),” in Städtische Führungsgruppen und Gemeinden in der werdenden Neuzeit, ed. Ehbrecht, Wilfried (Cologne: Böhlau, 1980), 385−444 Google Scholar; Pettegree, Emden; Heiko A. Oberman, John Calvin.

100 The examples are too numerous to cite here, but they include: Selderhuis, H. J. and Abels, P. H. A. M., eds., Handboek Nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis (Kampen: Kok, 2006), 287 Google Scholar; Bergsma, W., Tussen Gideonsbende en publieke kerk: Een studie over het gereformeerd protestantisme in Friesland, 1580–1650 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1999)Google Scholar; van Gurp, Gerard, Reformatie in Brabant: Protestanten en katholieken in de Meierij van ‘s-Hertogenbosch, 1523–1634 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2013), 123−175 Google Scholar.

101 See, for example, Becker, Gemeindeordnung und Kirchenzucht.

102 Denis, Les églises d’étrangers, 174−177.

103 Oberman, John Calvin; Oberman, Die Reformation, 283−299.

104 For the Netherlands, see Marnef, “Belgian and Dutch Post-war Historiography,” 271–292; Janse, Wim, “The Protestant Reformation in the Low Countries: Developments in Twentieth-Century Historiography,” Reformation and Renaissance Review 6, no. 2 (2004): 179–202 Google Scholar. For Germany, see Kaufmann, Thomas, “Die deutsche Reformationsforschung seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 100 (2009): 15–47 Google Scholar; Karant-Nunn, Susan, “Changing One's Mind: Transformation in Reformation History from a Germanist's Perspective,” Renaissance Quarterly 58, no. 4 (2005): 1101‒1127 Google Scholar. In general, see Holt, Mack P., “The Social History of the Reformation: Recent Trends and Future Agendas,” Journal of Social History 37, no. 1 (2003): 133–144 Google Scholar.

105 For example, Dickens, A. G. and Tonkin, John M., The Reformation in Historical Thought (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985)Google Scholar; Dixon, C. Scott, Contesting the Reformation (Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)Google Scholar. For England, O'Day, Rosemary, The Debate on the English Reformation (London: Metheun, 1986)Google Scholar. For the Netherlands, see Paul, Herman and Wallet, Bart, “A Sun That Lost its Shine: The Reformation in Dutch Protestant Memory Culture, 1817‒1917,” Church History and Religious Culture 88, no. 1 (2008): 35‒62 Google Scholar; Harinck, George, Paul, Herman, and Wallet, Bart, eds., Het gereformeerde geheugen: Protestantse herinneringsculturen in Nederland, 1850–2000 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2009)Google Scholar.

106 Backus, Irena, Historical Method and Confessional Identity in the Era of the Reformation 1378‒1615 (Leiden: Brill, 2003)Google Scholar; Levitin, Dmitri, “From Sacred History to the History of Religion: Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity in European Historiography from Reformation to ‘Enlightenment’” The Historical Journal 55, no. 4 (2012): 1117–1160 Google Scholar.

107 See also Shagan, Ethan, “Can Historians End the Reformation?,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 97 (2006): 298–306 Google Scholar; Fasolt, Constantin, “Hegel's Ghost: Europe, the Reformation, and the Middle Ages,” Viator 39, no. 1 (2008): 345–386 Google Scholar; Johnson, et al., eds., Archeologies of Confession.