Dutch Golden Age - Religion

Religion

Calvinism was the state religion in the Dutch Republic. This does not imply that unity existed. Although the Netherlands was a tolerant nation compared to neighboring states, wealth and social status belonged almost exclusively to Protestants. The cities with a predominantly Catholic background such as Utrecht and Gouda did not enjoy the benefits of the Golden Age. As for the Protestant towns, unity of belief was also far from standard. In the beginning of the century bitter controversies between strict Calvinists and more permissive Protestants known as Remonstrants, split the country. The Remonstrants denied predestination and championed freedom of conscience, while their more dogmatic adversaries (known as Contra-Remonstrants) gained a major victory at the Synod of Dort (1618–19). In the end the sheer number of reformist branches may well have worked as an antidote to intolerance.

Renaissance Humanism, of which Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536) was an important advocate, had also gained a firm foothold and was partially responsible for a climate of tolerance.

This tolerance was not so easy to uphold towards Catholics, since religion played an important part in the Eighty Years' War of independence against Spain (with political and economic freedom being other important motives). Hostile inclinations could however be overcome by money. Thus Catholics could buy the privilege to hold ceremonies in a conventicle (a house doubling inconspicuously as a church), but public offices were out of the question. Catholics tended to keep to themselves in their own section of each town despite making one of the largest single denominations (for example, the Catholic painter Johannes Vermeer lived in the "Papist corner" of the town of Delft). The same applied to Anabaptists and Jews.

Overall, levels of tolerance were sufficiently high to attract religious refugees from other countries, notably Jewish merchants from Portugal who brought much wealth with them. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France in 1685 resulted in the immigration of many French Huguenots, many of whom were shopkeepers or scientists. However, some figures, such as the philosopher Baruch de Spinoza (1632–1677) experienced social stigma for their ideas.