Abstract
The aim of this contribution is to direct attention to the pluriformity of Calvinism in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. This has received less than its due in a historiography which deals with Calvin himself and of calvinism as a movement from the angle of seventeenth-century controversies and schisms. Sometimes the Genevan reformer is described as though he had been a Dutch counter-remonstrant at the Synod of Dort. If this is how he is to be regarded, we are told of his ‘severe dogmas, particularly that of predestination’,1 that ‘desolate dogma’,2 without the least indication that for him this doctrine had by no means the preponderant position that it assumed in the dogmatic disputes before and during the Synod of Dort. The same straight identification occurs in discussion of the struggle of ‘remonstrants versus calvinists’,3 in which Beza’s disciple Jacobus Arminius4 is characterized as ‘the diametric opposite of Calvinism’ and his view of the dogma in question as ‘a total rejection of calvinism’.5 Thus from the outset the concept of Calvinism is a restricted one which fails to do justice to a historical situation whose front lines are shifting and sometimes even hard to discern and which leaves little room for many variants which do not fit the preconceived pattern. Think, to take one example, of the theologian Arend Cornelisz. (1547–1605),6 a figure of great authority in the Reformed Church, who in 1589 defended infralapsarian feelings against the ideas of the great Genevan authorities Calvin and Beza.7
This article is a translation of ‘Varianten binnen het Nederlandse Calvinisme in de zestiende eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor geschiedene, LXXXIX (Groningen, 1976) 358–72.
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References
L.J. Rogier, Eenheid en scheiding (Utrecht, 1968) 110.
Idem, Geschiedenis van het katholicisme in Noord-Nederland in de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw (3 vols.; Amsterdam, 1945–7) I, 162.
A.Th. van Deursen, Bavianen en Slijkgeuzen. Kerk en kerkvolk ten tijde van Maurits en Oldebarnevelt (Assen, 1974) 227–40 et passim.
C. Bangs, ‘Arminius as a Reformed Theologian’ in: J.H. Bratt, ed., The Heritage of John Calvin. Heritage Hall Lectures 1960–1970 (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1973) 209–22.
Van Deursen, Bavianen en Slijkgeuzen, 229. Here it is not only overlooked that Arminius felt himself so very much congenial to Calvin as to declare himself prepared ‘what he treats of this institution, in the third book thereof [on justification by faith] to set my hand to and to acknowledge as good’ (Verklaring van Jacobus Arminius, afgelegd in de vergadering van de Staten van Holland op 30 oktober 1608, ed. by G.J. Hoenderdaal (Lochern, 1960) 125), but also that it was Arminius’s conviction that free will, granted at the Creation, had been lost at the fall of man (ibidem, 32). His theological views merit a closer and more subtle judgment than his opponents allowed. In tracing the history of Church and dogma we lose our bearings if we qualify every deviation from Calvin as uncalvinist.
Crusius was from 1573 until his death preacher in his birthplace Delft; scriba at the synod at Dordrecht (1574) and of the national synod in that town (1578), praeses of the national synod at Middelburg (1581); assessor of the national synod at The Hague (1586).
H.J. Jaanus, Hervormd Delft ten tijde van Arent Cornelisz (1573–1605) (Amsterdam, s.a.) 189.
Ibidem, 192; R.B. Evenhuis, Ook dat was Amsterdam (5 vols.; Amsterdam, 1965-) I, 169 ff.;
K. Dijk, De strijd over infra- en supralapsarisme in de Gereformeerde Kerken van Nederland (Kampen, 1912) 58–63.
Evenhuis, Amsterdam, I, 170.
Jaanus, Hervormd Delft, 193.
J. Romein and A. Romein, De läge landen bij de zee (4th ed., 4 vols.; Zeist, etc., 1961) II, 20.
Cf. The careful judgment of A.A. van Schelven, Willem van Oranje (Amsterdam, 1948) 166 ff.
J. Romein and A. Romein, Erflaters van onze beschaving. Nederlandse gestalten uit zes eeuwen (9th ed.; Amsterdam, 1971) 148.
A.A. van Schelven, Het calvinisme gedurende zijn bloeitijd (3 vols.; Amsterdam, 1954–65) I, II.
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R. Wesel-Roth, Thomas Erastus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der reformierten Kirche und zur Lehre von der Staatssouveränität (Lahr, Baden, 1954).
R.M. Kingdon, Geneva and the Consolidation of the French Protestant Movement 1564–1572. A contribution to the History of Congregationalism, Presbyterianism and Calvinist Resistance Theory (Geneva, 1967) 43–137;
J. Rott, ‘Jean Morély, disciple dissident de Calvin et précepteur de Henri de Navarre (jusqu’a 1610)’, Bulletin philologique et historique, Anné 1969, II (Paris, 1972) 647–55.
R.D. Linder, The Political Ideas of Pierre Viret (Geneva, 1964) 67 ff.
The latest consequence of this was the union of the Alliance of Reformed Churches throughout the World holding the Presbyterian Order and the International Congregational Council in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (1970).
J. Lindeboom, De confessionele ontwikkeling der reformatie in de Nederlanden (The Hague, 1946);
O.J. de Jong, Nederlandse Kerkgeschiedenis (Nijkerk, 1972) 85–108;
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K. Galling, ed., Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Handwörterbuch für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (3rd ed., 7 vols.; Tübingen, 1957–65) III, 17 ff.;
H. Lang, Der Heidelberger Katechismus und vier verwandte Katechismen (Leipzig, 1907, reprint: Darmstadt, 1967) cii ff. These two tendencies, the reformed and the ecumenical, by no means make up a contradiction in Calvin’s thought and policy;
cf. W. Nijenhuis, Calvinus Oecumenicus. Calvijn en de eenheid der kerk in het licht van zijn briefwisseling (The Hague, 1959);
J.T. McNeill, ‘Calvin as an Ecumenical Churchman’, in: J.T. McNeill and J. Hastings Nichols, Ecumenical Testimony. The Concern for Christian Unity within the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches (Philadelphia, 1974) 13–26.
A.A. van Schelven, De Nederduitsche vluchtelingenkerken der XVIe eeuw in Engeland en Duitschland in hunne beteekenis voor de reformatie in de Nederlanden (The Hague, 1909);
H. Schilling, Niederländische Exulanten im 16. Jahrhundert. Ihre Stellung im Sozialgefüge und im religiösen Leben deutscher und englischer Städte (Gütersloh, 1972).
D. Nauta, ‘Emden, toevluchtsoord van ballingen’, in: D. Nauta, J.P. van Dooren, O.J. de Jong, ed., De Synode van Emden Oktober 1571 (Kampen, 1971) 7–21.
J. Lindeboom, Austin Friars. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Hervormde Gemeente te Londen 1550–1950 (The Hague, 1950).
Van Schelven, Vluchtelingenkerken, 51 ff.
Nijenhuis, Calvinus Oecumenicus, 26.
A.J. van’t Hooft, De theologie van Heinrich Bullinger in betrekking tot de Nederlandsche reformatie (Amsterdam, 1888) 148–56.
Schilling, Exulanten, 83 ff.
M. Micron, De Christlicke Ordinancien der Nederlantscher Ghemeinten te Londen (1554),ed. by W.F. Dankbaar (The Hague, 1956) 17 ff.
Ibidem, 39 ff.
Calvin to Nicolas des Gallars, 16 June 1550; G. Baum, e.a., ed., Joannis Calvini Opera (59 vols., Corpus Reformatorum, XXIX-LXXXVII; Brunswick, 1863–97) XVIII, 117.
Such as that of Christ’s descensus ad inferos, long a subject of discussion throughout the Reformation not only between lutherans and the reformed but also among the reformed themselves. Cf. E. Vogelsang, ‘Weltbild und Kreuzestheologie in den Höllenfahrtsstreitigkeiten der Reformationszeit’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, XXXVIII (Gütersloh, 1941) 90–132. In the Dutch Church in London the controversy had as a consequence an expansion of the catechism used, cf. Van Schelven, Vluchtelingenkerken, 74.
J.P. de Bie and J. Loosjes, ed., Biografisch woordenboek van protestantsche godgeleerden in Nederland (5 vols and one fasc.; The Hague, 1919–49) III, 439–46;
A.J. Jelsma, Adriaan van Haemstede en zijn Martelaarsboek (The Hague, 1970).
Jelsma, Van Haemstede, 87–104.
Lindeboom, Austin Friars, 45.
Jelsma, Van Haemstede, 171, 179–82.
Ibidem, 174.
Ibidem, 194 ff.
S. Cramer and F. Pijper, ed., Bibliotheca Reformatoria Neerlandica (10 vols.; The Hague, 1903–14) IX, 187–489; on Cooltuyn see De Bie and Loosjes, Biografisch woordenboek, II, 199–211.
L.A. van Langeraad, Guido de Bray. Zijn leven en werken (Zierikzee, 1884) 102, 104, 107.
W. van’t Spijker, ‘Stromingen onder de reformatorisch gezinden te Emden’, in: Nauta, Van Dooren, De Jong, Synode, 50–74.
For example in P.J. Blok, e.a., ed., Robert Fruin’s Verspreide geschriften (11 vols.; The Hague, 1900–5) II, 235–76.
Nauta, ‘Wesel en Emden’, passim: idem, Opera minora (Kampen, 1961) 30–56.
W. Nijenhuis, ‘De synode te Emden 1571’, Kerk en theologie, XXIII (The Hague, 1972) 43 ff.
Idem, Ecclesia Reformata. Studies on the Reformation (Leiden, 1972) 97–114.
G. Brandt, Historie der Reformatie (4 vols.; Amsterdam, 1671–1704) I, 386 ff.;
M.F. van Lennep, Gaspar van der Hey den 1530–1586 (Amsterdam, 1884) 60–4; Evenhuis, Amsterdam, I, 64–6.
J. Breen, ‘‘De kinderlere’ van Laurens Jacobszoon Reael’, Archief voor Nederlandsche kerkgeschiedenis, VI (The Hague, 1897) 129–57.
Ibidem. 153.
C. Bangs, Arminias. A Study in the Dutch Reformation (Nashville-New York, 1971) 133.
Evenhuis, Amsterdam, I, 102 ff.
C. Boer, Hofpredikers van Prins Willem van Oranje. Jean Taffin en Pierre Loyseleur de Villiers (The Hague, 1952).
Chr. Sepp, Polemische en irenische theologie. Bijdragen tot hare geschiedenis (Leiden, 1881) 75–80; Boer, Hofpredikers, 108–12, 190–2.
‘He who cleaves to Rome cleaves to schismatics, heretics and idolaters. He who cleaves to our assemblies cleaves to the true holy catholic Church’: art. 28.
Baptism: art. 13; martyrdom: art. 14. Cf. Nijenhuis, Calvinus Oecumenicus, 235–7.
Boer, Hofpredikers, iii.
Ibidem, 110.
Th. Ruys, Petrus Dathenus (Utrecht, 1919) 140–53.
On Calvinism in that city: A. Despretz, ‘De instauratie der Gentse Calvinistische Republiek (1577–1579)’, Handelingen der Maatschappij voor geschiedenis en oudheidkunde te Gent, Nieuwe Reeks, XVII (Gent, 1963) 119–229.
Nijenhuis, Calvinus Oecumenicus, 296 ff.
His propositions in: Boer, Hofpredikers, 193 ff.
F.L. Rutgers, ed., Acta van de Nederlandsche synoden der zestiende eeuw (The Hague, 1889) 363; Ruys, Dathenus, 178 ff.
Boer, Hofpredikers, 51.
On him also Chr. Sepp, Drie evangeliedienaren uit den tijd der Hervorming (Leiden, 1879) 1–80.
Rutgers, Acta, passim.
Boer, Hofpredikers, 174.
Evenhuis, Amsterdam, I, 165; Bangs, Arminius, 143 ff.
Ibidem, II, 40.
H. Heppe, Geschichte des Pietismus und der Mystik in der reformirten Kirche, namentlich in den Niederlanden (Leiden, 1879) 95–8;
F.E. Stoeffler, The Rise of Evangelical Pietism (Leiden, 1971) 121–4.
Boer Hofpredikers, 161–71.
Sepp, Polemische en irenische theologie, 93 ff.
J. Reitsma, Franciscus Junius. Een levensbeeld uit den eersten tijd der Hervorming (Groningen, 1864);
F.W. Cuno, Franciscus Junius der Aeltere (Amsterdam, 1891); De Bie and Loosjes, Biografisch woordenboek, IV, 604–16.
Not in May as Junius himself later mistakenly recorded: D. Abr. Kuyperus, ed., D. Francisci Junii Opuscula Theologica Selecta (Amsterdam, 1882) 26.
Van Langeraad, Guido de Bray, 137 ff.
Text in Cuno, Junius, 27–30.
J. Reitsma and S.D. van Veen, ed., Acta der provinciale en particuliere synoden, gehouden in de Noordelijke Nederlanden, gedurende dejaren 1572–1620 (8 vols.; Groningen, 1892–9) IV, 98 ff.
O.J. de Jong, ‘Die Emder Generalsynode vor dem Hintergrund der westeuropäischen Reformationsgeschichte’, Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für niedersächsische Kirchengeschichte, LXVIII (Blomberg, Lippe, 1970) 21.
Rutgers, Acta, 84–6.
Cuno, Junius, 170–80; Bangs, Arminius, 199–203.
‘Eirenicum de pace ecclesiae Catholicae’ in: Kuyperus, Junii Opuscula, 393–494; Cuno, Junius, 140–51; H.A. Enno van Gelder, Vrijheid en onvrijheid in de Republiek (Haarlem, 1947) 214 ff. The tenor of the writing is splendidly represented in the fragment in: Documenta reformatoria (2 vols.; Kampen, 1960–2) I, 230 ff.
Brandt, Historie der Reformatie, II, 36–42, with extensive quotations from the work.
Kuyperus, Junii Opuscula, 476.
Since this theologian is still comparatively unknown the following data may be useful: Saravia was born in 1532 at Hesdin (Artois); left the Franciscan monastery at St Omer, went over to the Reformation and fled at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign to England, where he joined the Dutch Church in London; minister of the French-speaking community in Antwerp and with Jean de Toulouse, brother of Marnix, founder of the Walloon Church in Brussels; 1564 headmaster of Elizabeth College, Guernsey; ca. 1570 headmaster of King Edward VI School, Southampton; 1578 minister in Ghent; 1582 in Leiden; 1584 professor, 1585 and 1586 rector magnificus of the university; 1587 owing to involvement in the Leicester disturbances in Leiden fled to England; 1588 rector of Tatenhill (Staffordshire), in 1591 in addition canon of Gloucester Cathedral; 1595 canon of Canterbury Cathedral and vicar of Lewisham (see of Rochester), 1601 also canon of Westminster Abbey, 1610 also rector of Great Chart (Kent); collaborator in the Authorized Version (1611). In his theological and political writings, published in the nineties, defender of the Elizabethan establishment against the puritans, of episcopal Church order, also against the Reformed Church in the Netherlands and of the absolute sovereignty of the monarch. Saravia died in Canterbury in 1613 and is buried in the cathedral. Some data and literature on him in P.C. Molhuysen, e.a., ed., Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek (10 vols.; Leiden, 1911–1937) IX, 934–9.
W. Nijenhuis, ‘Saravia en het optreden van Jacobus I tegen de benoeming van Vorstius te Leiden’, Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, LV (Leiden, 1975) 171–191.
C.C. de Bruin, ‘Radicaal spiritualisme te Leiden’, Rondom het Woord. Theologische etherleergang, XVII (Kampen, 1975) 69–73.
Saravia to J. Wtenbogaert, 23 april 1612: Praest. ac erudit. virorum epistolae ecclesiasticae et theologicae, ed. IIIa (Amsterdam, 1704) 294 ff.
Ibidem.
Maidstone, Kent Archives Office, PRC 32/42, f 153r°: Saravia’s Last Will.
Nijenhuis, Ecclesia Reformata, 194–8.
De Bie and Loosjes, Biografisch woordenboek, IV, 316–22; Molhuysen, Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, I, 1158 ff.; Brandt, Historie der reformarte, I, 702, ff; J. Smit, ‘De vestiging van het protestantisme in Den Haag en zijn eerste voorgangers’, Nederlands Archief Kerkgeschiedenis, XIX (The Hague, 1926) 205–64.
Reitsma and Van Veen, Acta, II, 257.
G.D.J. Schotel, Kerkelijk Dordrecht (2 vols.; Utrecht, 1841–5) I, 125–44;
C.A. Tukker, De Classis Dordrecht van 1573 tot 1609 (Leiden, 1965) 52–6.
P.A.M. Geurts, De Nederlandse Opstand in de pamfletten 1566–1584 (Nijmegen, 1956) 39 ff.
A copy of the pamphlet is to be seen in the library of the Eglise Wallonne, housed in the Hospice Wallon, Amsterdam. A new edition in: M.G. Schenk, ed., Verantwoordinge, verklaringhe ende waerschoumnghe mitsgaders eene hertgrondighe begheerte des edelen, lancmoedighen ende hooghgeboren Princen van Oraengien (Amsterdam, 1933) 129–55.
Ibidem, 140.
Ibidem, 142 ff.
Van Schelven, Willem van Oranje, 125 ff.
Schenk, Verantwoordinghe, 136.
On their actions, Despretz, Gentse Calvinistische Republiek, 173–89. It is striking that this author whether dealing with education or naming the calvinist ministers (ibidem, 185–8) makes no mention of Saravia.
Hadrianus Saravia, ‘De imperandi authoritate et Christiana obedientia libri quatuor’ (London, 1593) in: Hadrianus Saravia, Diversi tractatus theologici (London, 1611) 312.
Ibidem, 174.
Idem, ‘Examen Tractatus D. Bezae de triplici episcoporum genere’ (London, 1610) in: Saravia, Diversi tractatus, aaaz.
Saravia to Walsingham, 3rd Sept. 1582: London, Public Record Office, SP 83/17, no. 5.
J. Taffin to A. Cornelisz, 27th Oct. 1582: Werken der Marnixvereeniging (9 vols.; Utrecht 1870–85) III, 5, 207.
J. A. van Dorsten, Poets, Patrons and Professors. Sir Philip Sidney, Daniel Rogers and the Leiden Humanists (Leiden, London, 1962) 128.
These remarks have been substantiated in the author’s Adrianus Saravia (± 1532–1613). Dutch Calvinist, first Reformed Defender of the English Episcopal Church Order on the Basis of the Ius Divinum, Pillar of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Establishment: Materials for a Biography (Leiden, 1979).
Hadrianus Saravia, ‘De diversis Ministrorum Evangelii Gradibus’ (London, 1590) in: Saravia, Diversi tractatus, 113.
Ibidem, 72.
Saravia, ‘Examen tractatus Bezae’, T2, 76.
Hadrianus Saravia, ‘Defensio Tractationis De diversis Ministrorum Evangelii Gradibus’ (London, 1594) in: Saravia, Diversi tractatus. 313.
Saravia to John James, 11th May 1590. Oxford, Bodleyan Library, Ms Tanner 79, fol. 148.
‘Before the days of Laud, not a single English congregation or English chaplain really adhered to the English forms in their worship in the Netherlands’, says K.L. Sprunger, ‘Archbishop Laud’s Campaign against Puritanism at The Hague’, Church History, XLIV (Philadelphia, 1975) 309. Leicester’s taking Saravia’s advice would have led to an exception to this.
P. Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (London, 1967) 36 and passim.
Nijenhuis, ‘Saravia en Jacobus I’, 184–91.
Tractaet Van’t Ampt ende Authoriteyt eener Hoogher Christelicker Overheydt, In Kerkelicke Saecken (The Hague, 1610).
Saravia to Wtenbogaert, 29th Sept. 1612: H.C. Rogge, ed.,Brieven en onuitgegeven stukken van Johannes Wtenbogaert (3 vols.; Utrecht, 1868–75) 193, 205.
A copy of the undated letter to Helmichius is appended to the note of 23 April 1612 to Wtenbogaert: Praest. ac eruditorum virorum epistolae, 295.
J.J. Woltjer, Kleine oorzaken, grote gevolgen (Leiden, 1975) 14.
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Nijenhuis, W. (1979). Variants within Dutch Calvinism in the sixteenth century. In: The Low Countries History Yearbook 1979. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6803-8_3
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