Violent Dreams, Peaceful Coexistence. On the Absence of Religious Violence in the Dutch Republic

Abstract

Despite confessional diversity, religiously inspired violence appears to have been rare in the Dutch Republic, making the country somewhat of an exception in early modern Europe. ‘Religious toleration’ does not sufficiently explain this situation. After exploring the possible sources of friction, mostly between members of the Reformed church and Catholics, and, to a lesser extent, between members of the Reformed church and Arminians, it is argued that in the public sphere accommodation of religious difference was found through de-emphasizing the boundaries between the various communities of faith — in the criteria for eligibili­ty to public office, in civil religion and in social convention. Finally it is suggested that in this situation confessional adherence largely became a matter of personal choice, and that whenever this choice was a difficult one, e.g. in confessionally mixed families, conflicts were interiorized, rather than fought out through public violence.