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Dutch Theology, Trade, and War: 1590–1610

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Carl Bangs
Carl Bangs
Affiliation:
Mr. Bangs is professor of historical theology inSaint Paul School of Theology, Methodist, Kansas City, Missouri
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Extract

In the two decades from 1590 to 1610, there were three major events in the life of the Seven Provinces of the United Netherlands. In theology there was the outbreak of the so-called Arminian controversy over predestination and related issues, culminating in the polarizing of the Dutch Reformed Church into Remonstrant and Contra-remonstrant parties. In economics there was the transition from late-medieval and intra-European trade patterns to the new global and colonial patterns of the Dutch East India Company. In politics there was the signing of a truce with Spain, with the unprecedented granting of independence to a new nation by a great power.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 1970 , pp. 470 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1970

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References

1. A good recent account of the Alteration is given by Evenhuis, R. B., Ook Dat Was Amsterdam. I (Amsterdam. 1965), 97 ffGoogle Scholar. Evenhuis draws on the work of Elias, J. E., Geschiedenis van het Amsterdamsche Regentenpatrciaat (The Hague, 1923).Google Scholar

2. Brandt, Caspar, The Life of James Arminius, D. D. (Amsterdam, 1724; English translation, Nashville, 1857), p. 81.Google Scholar

3. Sweelinck (1562–1621) played at the Old Church from around 1580 until his death.

4. Breen, J. C., “De ‘Kinderlere’ van Laurens Jacobs. Reael,” Archief voor Nederlandsche Kerkgeschiedenis, 6 (1897), 129–157.Google Scholar

5. In this and other items relating to the Amsterdam City Council, I am indebted to the historical-genealogical work of Elias, J. E., De Vroedschap van Amsterdam, 2 vols. (Huarlem, 1903 and 1905).Google Scholar

6. The standardized spellings of Elias are used, except for persons known to Englishreading scholars in Anglicized spellings. The -z. ending is an abbreviation of zoon, son, thus Florisz., Fransz, etc.

7. Caspar Brandt, op. cit., p. 82.

8. The question of the role of the magistrate was the ecclesiastical side of the Arminian controversy. Arminius upheld the right and duty of magistrates to maintain the peace of the church in his Leiden rectoral oration of February 8, 1606, “On Reconciling Religious Dissensions among Christians.”

9. Arminius' massive expositions of Romans 7 and of Romans 9 date from this period, and also his “Conference with Junius” and the very important “Examination of Perkins' Pamphlet.”

10. Since at least the late fifteenth century there had been in Amsterdam one of the foremost Chambers of Rhetoric, De Egelantier, in which Arminius' father-in-law and other reformers of '66 were leaders.

11. An excellent summery of these developments in English is found in Masselman, George. The Cradle of Colonialism (New Haven and London, 1963), books 1 and 2.Google Scholar

12. See Davies, D. W., A Primer of Dutch Seventeenth Century Overseas Trade (The Hague, 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The first Amsterdam exchange bank was not organized until 1609.

13. This point is defended by Roorda, D. J., “The Ruling Classes in Holland in the Seventeenth Century,” in Britain and the Netherlands, II (Groningen, 1964), 109–132Google Scholar. In addition to the fundamental work of Elias, see also van Raveateyn, Willem Jr, Onderaoekingen over de Economische en Sociale Ontwikkelling van Amsterdam Gedurende de 16de en het Eerste Kwart der 17de Eeuw (Amsterdam, 1906).Google Scholar

14. The great study of the issue of trade with the enemy is Kernkamp, J. H., De Handel op den Vijand 1572–1609, 2 vols. (Utrecht, 1931).Google Scholar

15. Masselman, op. cit., pp. 48–49.

16. Ibid., p. 114.

17. van Dillen, J. G., Het Oudste Aandeelhoudersregister van de Kamer Amsterdam der Oost-Indische Compagnie (The Hague, 1958), p. 51.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., p. 47.

19. Elias observes of the new generation that ‘the epigones had not shared in the fearful years of poverty and strife of their fathers’ years of exile. The beginning of their careers was free from all material cares. They found a well-organized society in which they occupied a privileged position.” De Vroedschap van Amsterdam, I, xlvii.Google Scholar

20. See van Dillen, J. G., Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van het Bedrijfsleven en het Gildewezen van Amsterdam, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1929 and 1933), I, xxxii ffGoogle Scholar.; van Schelven, A. A., Omvang en Invloed der Zuid-Nederlandsche Immigratie van het Laatste Kwart der 16e Eeuw (The Hague, 1919)Google Scholar; and Barbour, Violet, Capitalism in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century (Baltimore, 1950), p. 17.Google Scholar

21. Elias, , Vroedschap, I, xlviii.Google Scholar

22. From 1581 to 1585, seventy-nine Dutch students matriculated at Geneva. See de Heekelingen, Herman de Vries, Genève: Pépinière du Calvinisme Hollandaise, I, Les Étudiants des Pays-Bas à Genève au Temps de Théodore de Bèze (Fribourg, 1918), 44 ff.Google Scholar

23. Geldorp and Bogerman had published Beza's treatise, in fact, in an effort to deprive Anabaptists at Sneek of their civil liberties. See Brandt, Gerard, History of the Reformation in the Low Countries, English translation, II (London, 1721), 2Google Scholar. Bogerman was later the president of the Synod of Dort.

24. See Gerard Brandt, Ibid., p. 4; and Reitsma, J. and van Veen, S. D., eds., Acta der Provinciale en Particuliere Synoden Gehouden in de Noordelijke Nederlanden Gedurende de Jaren 1572–1620(Groningen, 1892–1899), III, 136Google Scholarpassim, and I, 280 passim.

25. van Dillen, J. G., Ret Oudste Aandeelhoudersregister, pp. 200, 259.Google Scholar

26. Jan den Tex says that opposition to the truce became Maurice's idée fixé. Reynier Pauw was Maurice 's close adviser in this period. See den Tex, , Oldenbarnevelt, 3 vols. (Haarlem, 1962), II, 633–4.Google Scholar

27. See Hannay, David, The Great Chartered Companies (London, 1926), p. 88.Google Scholar

28. Snapper, Frits, Oorlogsinvloeden op de Overzeese Handel van Holland 1551–1719 (Amsterdam, 1959), p. 63.Google Scholar

29. Caspar Brandt, op. cit., p. 297–8.

30. See Bangs, Carl, “Arminius and the Reformation,” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 30 (06, 1961), 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar