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Dutch Protestantism and its pasts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Peter Van Rooden
Peter Van Rooden*
Affiliation:
Research Centre Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam
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Extract

The Dutch Reformed Church acquired its modern past fairly recently, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, during the first years of the new Kingdom of the Netherlands. From 1819 to 1827 the four volumes of Ypeij and Dermout’s History of the Dutch Reformed Church appeared, some two and a half thousand pages all together. The work has not fared well. Its garrulous verbosity, weak composition, and old-fashioned liberalism have been rightly denounced. Only the four accompanying volume with notes, more than a thousand dense pages full of facts and quotations, have been admired for their scholarship. Protestant academic ecclesiastical history prefers to trace its origin to the founding in 1829 of its scholarly journal, the Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, by the two first occupants of the newly founded chairs for Church history at the universities of Leiden and Utrecht.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 33: The Church Retrospective , 1997 , pp. 393 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1997

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References

1 Ypeij, A. and Dermout, I.J., Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk, 4 vols (Breda, 1819-27)Google Scholar.

2 A. Fris, Inventaris van de archieven behorende tot het ‘Oud Synodaal Archief van der Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk, 1566–1816 (The Hague and Hilversum, 1991), pp. xvi-xviii; J. W. Verburgt, ‘De totstandkoming van den Staten-Bijbel en de bewaring zijner oorspronkelijke stukken’, Leids Jaarboekje, 30 (1938), pp. 138–63.

3 Peter van Rooden, ‘Van geestelijke stand naar beroepsgroep; De profesionalisering van de Nederlandse predikant, 1625–1874’, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis, 17 (1991), pp. 361–93.

4 Wiltens, N., Kerkelyk Plakaatboek, 5 vols (The Hague, 1722-1807)Google Scholar; Smetius, J., Ordre of reglement voor de classis in Gelderland (Nijmegen, 1698)Google Scholar; Smetius, J., Synodale ordonnamiën ende resolutiën (Nijmegen, 1699)Google Scholar; Nauta, C., Compendium der kerkelijke wetten (Leeuwarden, 1757)Google Scholar; Lindeboom, J., ‘Classicale wetboeken. Een bijdrage tot de kennis van het kerkelijke leven in de achttiende eeue’, Nederlands Archie I voor Kerkgeschiendenis, 41 (1956), pp. 65–95 Google Scholar.

5 Soermans, M., Kerkelijk Register [Synod of South-Holland] (Dordrecht, 1695; 2nd edn Haarlem, 1702)Google Scholar; Veeris, M., Kerkelyk Tyd-registerz [Synod of North Holland] (Amsterdam, 1697; 2nd edn Amsterdam, 1705)Google Scholar; Rhenen, H. van, Lyst van … de Predikanten [Synod of Utrecht] (Utrecht 1705; 2nd edn Utrecht, 1724)Google Scholar; Moonen, A., Naamketen van Predikanten [Synod of Overijssel] (Deventer, 1709)Google Scholar; Adami, C., Naam-lyst der Predikanten [Synod of Groningen] (Groningen, 1721; 2nd edn Groningen, 1730)Google Scholar; Azn, H. de Jongh, Naam-lyst der Predikanten [Synod of Gelderland] (Leiden, 1750)Google Scholar. In Friesland, separate books were published for the six classes making up the provincial synod, by M. Laurman, J. Engelsma, W. Columba, H. Grevenstein, A. Greydanus, and H. Reinalda, all appearing in Leeuwarden in the years 1751–63. In Zeeland, where the Estates did not allow the meeting of a provincial synod, no lists of ministers were published.

6 C. A. van Swigchem, T. Brouwer, and W. van Os, Een huis voor het Woord. Het protestatine kerkinterieur in Nederland tot 1900 (The Hague and Zeist, 1984), p. 283.

7 Smytegelt, Bernardus, Keurstqffen of verzameling van vyftig uitmuntende predicatien (Middelburg and The Hague, 1765), p. 429 Google Scholar.

8 The various works are reviewed by Christiaan Sepp, Bibliotheek van Nederlandsche Kerkgeschiedschrijvers (Leiden, 1886), pp. 27–36.

9 Breen, J. C., ‘Gereformeerde populaire historiografie in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw’, in Christendom en Historie (Amsterdam, 1925), pp. 213–42 Google Scholar.

10 Fruytier, Jacob, Sions worstelingen, of historische samenspraken over de verscheide en zeer bittere wederwaerdigheden van Christus’ kerke, met openbare en verborgen vyanden. I. In de Reformatie II. Ten tijde van de Remonstranten. III. In dese onse dagen (Rotterdam, 1715)Google Scholar.

11 Only the Arminians published books about the Synod of Dordrecht and its previous history: J. Utenbogaert, Kerckelicke Historie (n.p., 1646) and the magisterial work of G. Brandt, Historie der Reformatie, 4 vols (Rotterdam, 1671–1704). Theologians of the public Church published refutations of these works. Attempts undertaken by the public Church in the direct aftermath of the Synod to publish an official history came to nought: J. G. R. Acquoy, ‘Mislukte pogingen der Nederlandsche kerken om hare geschiedenis te doen beschrijven’, in Ceschiedkundige opstellen aangeboden aan Robert Fruin (The Hague, 1894), pp. 229–58.

12 Rooden, Peter van, Religieuze regimes. Over godsdienst en maatschapij in Nederland, 1570–1970 (Amsterdam, 1996), ch. 3Google Scholar.

13 Duke, A., ‘The ambivalent face of Calvinism in the Netherlands’, in idem, Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries (London, 1990), pp. 269–941 Google Scholar.

14 Fruytier, Sions worstelingen, pp. 177, 583, 836.

15 Ibid., pp. 814–15.

16 Ypeij and Dermout, Geschiedenis 1, pp. 47–160, 161–293.

17 Ibid., 1, pp. 98–9.

18 Ibid., 1, pp. 202–3.

19 Ibid., 3, pp. 46–7.

20 Ibid., 3, p. 114; 4, pp. 28–9.

21 Ibid., 1, p. 474; 3, pp. 7, 49–50.

22 Ibid., 2, pp. 294–5.

23 Ibid., 4, pp. 203–5.

24 Ibid., 1, p. 378; 2, pp. 230–1.

25 Ibid., 3, p. 50.

26 Ibid., 1, p. 201; 3, p. 176.

27 Ibid., 1, p. 24; 2, pp. 293–4; 3, p. 6.

28 Margaret C. Jacob and Wijnand W. Mijnhardt, eds, The Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century: Decline, Enlightenment and Revolution (Ithaca and London, 1992).

29 Glasius, B., Geschiedenis der Christelijke kerk en godsdienst in Nederland, 3 vols (Amsterdam, 1842-4)Google Scholar; Haar, B. ter, et al., Geschiedenis der Christelijke kerk in Nederland, 2 vols (Amsterdam, 1864-9)Google Scholar; Azn, G. J. Vos, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche kerk, 2nd edn (Dordrecht, 1888)Google Scholar; Rooden, Peter van, ‘Het Nederlands protestantisme en zijn vaderland’, in de Valk, J. M. M., ed., Nationale identiteit in Europees perspeclief (Baarn, 1993), pp. 95–115 Google Scholar.

30 D. Nauta, ‘De reformatie in Nederland in de historiografie’, Serra Histórica, 2 (1970), pp. 44–71; J. C. H. Blom and C. J. Misset, ‘“Een onvervalschte Nederlandsche geest”: Enkele historiografische kantekeningen bij het concept van een nationaal-gereformeerde richting’, in E. K. Grootes and J. den Haan, eds, Geschiedenis Godsdienst Letterkunde (Roden, 1989), pp. 221–32.

31 Peter van Rooden, ‘Contesting the Protestant nation: Calvinists and Catholics in the Netherlands’, Etnofoor, 8 (1995), pp. 15–30.