Dutch Golden Age

The Dutch Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world.

Religion

Calvinism was the predominant belief in the Low Countries. This does not imply that unity existed. The opposite seems true. In the beginning of the century bitter controversies between strict Calvinists and more permissive Protestants split the country. The latter (known as 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 Dordrecht. In the end the sheer number of reformist branches may well have worked as an antidote to intolerance.

Related Topics:
Protestant - Predestination - Synod of Dordrecht

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Also humanism, of which Desiderius Erasmus was an important advocate, if not the founding father, had gained a firm foothold and was partially responsible for a climate of tolerance.

Related Topics:
Humanism - Erasmus

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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 (political and economic freedom were other important motives). Hostile inclinations could however be overcome by money. Thus catholics could buy the privilege to held ceremonies in a conventicle (a house doubling inconspicuously as a church), but public offices were out of the question. The same applied to Anabaptists and Jews.

Related Topics:
Anabaptist - Jew

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All in all levels of tolerance were sufficiently high to attract religious refugees from other countries, notable Jewish merchants from Portugal who brought a lot of wealth with them. Also the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France in 1685 made a lot of French Huguenots and Jews emigrate to the Dutch Republic, many of whom were scientists. Still tolerance had its limits, as philosopher Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677) would find out.

Related Topics:
Portugal - Edict of Nantes - France - 1685 - Huguenots - Baruch de Spinoza - 1632 - 1677

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