Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt - Religious Conflict in The Netherlands

Religious Conflict in The Netherlands

The immediate effect of the truce was a strengthening of Oldenbarnevelt's influence in the government of the Dutch Republic, now recognized as a free and independent state; external peace, however, was to bring with it internal strife. For some years there had been a war of words between the religious parties, the strict Calvinist Gomarists (or Contra-Remonstrants) and the Arminians.

In 1610 the Arminians, henceforth known as Remonstrants, drew up a petition, known as the Remonstrance, in which they asked that their tenets (defined in the Five Articles of Remonstrance) should be submitted to a national synod, summoned by the civil government. It was no secret that this action of the Arminians was taken with the approval and connivance of Oldenbarnevelt, who was an upholder of the principle of toleration in religious opinions.

The Gomarists in reply drew up a Contra-Remonstrance in seven articles, and called for a purely church synod. The whole land was henceforth divided into Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants; the States of Holland under the influence of Oldenbarnevelt supported the former (Remonstrants), and refused to sanction the summoning of a purely church synod (1613). They likewise (1614) forbade the preachers in the Province of Holland to treat the disputed subjects from their pulpits.

Obedience was difficult to enforce without military help. Riots broke out in certain towns, and when Maurice was appealed to, as Captain‐General, he declined to act. Though in no sense a theologian, he then declared himself on the side of the Contra-Remonstrants, and established a preacher of that persuasion in a church in The Hague (1617).