Preachers in the Middle

Abstract

The Calvinist Church and its preachers played the most paradoxical role—after 1600 perhaps the most important as well—in our story of the Dutch pamphlets. For these reasons, their contribution is analyzed separately. Even more than the regents, Remonstrants and orthodox Calvinists alike vigorously opposed unauthorized pamphleteering and labored diligently to control the press. Offensive books, pamphlets, and printers received nearly as much attention as any other subject discussed in synodal proceedings.¹ On the other hand, preachers were not adverse to pamphleteering as such, only to pamphleteering by the wrong people. Since the church lacked any powers of suppression, its preachers scarcely hesitated in countering unfriendly tracts with pamphlets of their own. Conflict within the church also stimulated controversy in print, as both orthodox and Remonstrant factions felt completely justified in their frequent use of the polemical press. Table 19, for instance, shows that nearly half of the known authors of random pamphlets on Dutch topics were preachers. The paradox’, then, was this: the church went to great lengths to restrict pamphleteering, yet the readiness of preachers to put their concerns into print actually promoted the practice. Both actions reflect not only the effective influence pamphlets were believed to exert, but again the growing political importance of winning the hearts of the gemeente.