The reformed church in the Netherlands...

Preface

The attempt to reply satisfactorily to an inquiry concerning a couple of the earliest Synods of the Eeformed Church in the Netherlands, carried me farther than I at first designed. That inquiry, addressed to one of the Editors of the Christian Intelligencer, was by him referred to me with the request that I would contribute a series of papers on these original assemblies.

Reflecting upon the period in the history of the Eeformed Church in which they occurred, I instinctively applied to it the term "formative." As I advanced in my investigations, not only was I prompted to retain that term because it clearly expressed the character of that period, but it also forcibly urged me to enter upon the study of the subsequent history. Indeed, as by a logical sequence, it led me to the division of that part of the history into equally plainly defined periods, and to the application to each of them of a title that should in like manner at once indicate its general tenor.

Conscious of the necessity that, under the circumstances, succinctness must characterize my contributions, it became my object to select, from the abundant material at hand, that which strikingly illustrates a comprehensive governing idea or principle. When it had been clearly discerned, the hint of it was embodied in the heading of the chapter in which it was set forth and illustrated. Thus the appellations of the four designated periods, and the distinctive titles of the sketches under

PREFACE.

each of them, together constitute an analysis of the History, which may readily fix itself in the mind of the reader, while at the same time it points out the line along which a closer investigation may be pursued.

The adoption of what may be called the biographical method of presenting the operation of a principle, and the introduction into the narrative of events, of seemingly trivial incidents, must be ascribed to the desire to make the history vivid and interesting to the general reader, as well as to the student of ecclesiastical annals, to whom, particularly, the copious index may prove of value.

Thirty-seven of the forty-seven chapters of the book appeared in the columns of the Christian Intelligencer. These are now reprinted with necessary alterations and important additions.

The favor with which these papers were received by the scholarly readers of that journal, encouraged me to accede to the frequently expressed wish that they might be put in a permanent form.

A list of the sources and authorities that have been consulted, is subjoined for the convenience of those who desire to prosecute the study of this branch of historical literature.

Notwithstanding the defects of my work, apparent to the eye of the severely impartial critic, the author trusts that the judgment passed upon it may be that of a kind charity. Especially he hopes that it may prove the means of stimulating the members of the Eeformed Church in their attachment to the Church of their Fathers, and all G-od's people of whatever name, who may be pleased to honor it with their notice, in their devotion to the Lord's cause and kingdom in the earth.

m. a. h.

LITERATURE.

Acquoi, J. G. R. — Kerk en Staat ten tyde der Republiek.

(XXXI. tafereel in Geschiedenis der Christelyke Kerk in

Nederland.) Auerbach, B. — Spinoza.

formeerde Kerken.

Bekker, B. — De betooverde wereld.

Brand, G. — Historie der Reformatio

Calkoen, J. M. A. — De Synode te Dordrecht (X* taf. in Geschied.

der Chr. Kerk in Nederl.) D'Aubigne, J. M. — History of the Reformation in the time of

Calvin.

Diest-Lorgion, E. J. — De Nederduitsche Hervormde Kerk in Friesland.

Het volksgeloof (XXII. taf. in Gesch. der

Chr. Kerk in Nederl).

Geschiedenis der Kerk-hervorming in ons

Vaderland.

Ducker, A. C. — Kerkelyke twisten. (XIX. taf. in Gesch. der

Chr. Kerk in Ned.) Ens, Johannes. — Kort historisch berigt van de formulieren. Glasius, B. — Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Christelyke Kerk

na de hervorming. s'Gravezande. — Eerste Synode der Nederlandsche Kerken. Handelingen der Hervormde Synoden.

Le Long, Isaac. — Kort historisch verhaal van den eersten oorsprong der Nederlandsche Kerken onder 't Kruis.

Lohr, H. C. — Mystiek en Fanatisme. (XXIV taf. in Gesch. der Chr. Kerk in Nederl.)

Motley, J. L. — Rise of the Dutch Republic.

LITERATURE.

Oordeel (Het) van de Nationale Synode van Dordrecht over de

Post- Acta van de Synode van Dordrecht. Schotel, G. D. J. — Anna Maria Van Schurman. Scott, Thomas. — Translation of articles of Synod of Dort. Spinoza, B. — Ethics.

Ter Haar, B. — Stryd en verdeeldheid in de Nederlandsche Kerk.

(XXXIII. taf. in Gesch. der Chr. Kerk in Nederl.) Ueberweg, F. — History of Philosophy. Von Mosheim, J. L. — Institutes of Ecclesiastical History. Van Prinsterer, Groen — Handboek der Geschiedenis van het

Vaderland.

Wiarda, J. — Wysbegeerte en de Kerk (XXVI. taf. in Geschied.

der Chr. Kerk in Nederl.) Ypey en Dermout. — Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk.

Aanteekeningen.

Table Of Contents

FORMATIVE PERIOD.

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I. The plan stated 13

Contents

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V. The situation just before the great Synod of Dor-

drecht 133

II. The Influence Of An Advanced Educational System

In the fourteenth century, superstition and barbarism in the Church, and also in the state, since correctness in civil things disappears when religion has become destitute of spiritual force, were at their height and had reached the proportions wherein, with the certainty that characterizes the pendulum's swing between opposite extreme points, a reaction had become inevitable. The calamities and the distress of the times had become indescribable. There were contentions between the pontifical power (Boniface VIII.) and the civil power (Philip the Fair of France), resulting in the removal of the seat of Papal government from Eome to Avignon and in what is called the Babylonish captivity. Subsequently, there were conflicts between ecclesiastical factions, each of them rallying around the person of its own representative, and resulting in the singular and anomalous spectacle of the existence at the same time of two pontiffs, each one claiming to be the true Vicegerent of Christ on earth. What but perplexity and anxiety could come from this to all who thought that without subjection to the representative of Christ they could not be saved? The expenses incurred by the duplicate papal courts, each organized on a footing of great extravagance, were enormous. As sources of revenue, titles were issued to those who would pay for them, and the fears of the guilty, who were willing to give their gold that the sting might be taken out of their consciences, were allayed. The under-clergy who did not throw off all restraint and live in open profligacy, occupied themselves with the hair-splitting dialectics of the schoolmen. Troops of idle mendicants strolled through the countries, and the religious orders of the Francisicans and the Dominicans, instead of uniting in the effort to promote the spiritual interests of the people, quarreled among themselves for the supremacy.

Among the people it was starless night. Of the truths of the gospel they were kept in entire ignorance. The desire for a reformation in the church, in capite et in membris, became a reigning passion in the breasts of the few whom God always reserves to himself. But how was it to be effected? As sheep which the shepherd has forsaken will flock the closer together in a time of apprehended danger, so in this century the good and the honest associated themselves for mutual profiting in spiritual things, and for the benefit of those around them whom they might be able to reach.

The central figure about whom such spirits in the Netherlands rallied, and who became the founder of institutions of a religious educational character which there and in other lands were perpetuated through centuries, until they made way, among Protestants, for a better school, and among Roman Catholics, for those of a Jesuitical order — was Gerhard Groote. He was born in Deventer in 1340, of very respectable parents. The family appears to have been possessed of wealth. When a young man he secured the best education that the times could afford, and in Paris and Cologne pursued the study of the sciences and of theology with such zeal that he soon acquired a reputation for great learning. Returning to

FORMATIVE PERIOD.

his native land, he was called upon to occupy positions of honor and respectability.

One day he visited a Carthusian convent near Arnheim, whose superior had been his confessor when he was in Paris. That visit was the means of changing the entire coarse of his subsequent life. His friend conversed with him most earnestly upon the vanity of all earthly prosperity, death, eternity, and the summum bonum, with the effect that Groote resigned his honors, relinquished the advantages of his wealth, took up his abode within the convent, and applied himself to the reading of the Scripture and to meditation. After a certain time, receiving permission from the powerful bishop of Utrecht, he began to address the people upon religious topics, in their native language, at Deventer, Zwol, Kampen, Utrecht, Leyden, Delft, Gouda, Amsterdam, and so successfully that crowds thronged to hear him. The thoughts thrown out by him and his sucessors were such as these:

Many listen to the mass who are in mortal sin; for them the mass availeth not. One must pray from the heart, with the mouth, and by his works. When our conduct harmonizes with our thoughts and our words, a sweet melody sounds in the ears of God. I would rather have you turn the heart toward God for two minutes, than to spend an entire day in thoughtless reading. If hell be our desert, it will be a worse place for us than for Jews or heathen. He who dies in his sins perishes, though the Virgin and all the saints interceded for him. The nobility which is of the birth and after the flesh only, is of no account in the esteem of God. To him who obeys, eternal life can be promised, without purgatory. A sister obedient and docile, though poor, is to be preferred to one who is rich, though destitute of these graces. When the simplest person who on earth lives virtuously shall come to see God, he shall be wiser than all the learned of this world. Would we therefore be wise hereafter, let us learn to be obedient.

As he fearlessly exposed the evil of the times, he made many enemies, and consequently permission to preach was withdrawn. Eecognizing the authority of the Church in such matters, he submitted, but his influence for good ceased not to be exerted. He gathered around him a band of young men to whom he gave instruction in private, and whom he put in the way of earning a competence by transcribing the sacred books, which in these days included not only inspired Scripture, but also the writings of the Fathers. Among these youngmen was the afterward celebrated Florentius Radewynsz. One day the latter addressed Groote:

" Dear master, what harm if my fellow-clerks and I put our earnings together and live in common?"

"In common?" was the reply/' but the mendicants will not allow this. They will certainly oppose it with all their might."

"But, master, suppose we try it. Perhaps God will give his blessing upon it."

" Well, then," Groote answered, " in his name make the trial. I shall defend you against every assailant."

And this was the starting-point of the Institution of the Brethren" or the Common Life, an agency productive for years of an incalculable amount of good, both to the membership and to the people of the places where the Brotherhood became established, in the efforts that were put forth to instruct and enlighten every one who could be reached. From the tree thus planted in the Netherlands, was gathered such fruit as Thomas a Kempis, the author of the inimitable " Imitation of

FORMATIVE PERIOD.

Christ;" Zerbolt, who so nobly argued for the translation of the Bible and devotional books into the vernacular; Wessel Gansvort, and Erasmus.

" The root of your study," said Groote to the members of his fraternity/' and the mirror of your lives, should be the Gospel, which sets before us the Life of Christ; then, the biographies and the sayings of the Fathers; then, the epistles of Paul and the histories of the Apostles; and finally, the writings of Bernard, Anselm, Augustine and others." The great design of Groote was to join education to religion, or rather, to make education prepare the way for religion. The schools which Charlemagne, and his son, the Emperor Lewis, had ordered the chapters and the monks to establish throughout the empire, and which, in the case of the chapters, were held outside of their cathedrals, and in that of the monks, within the convent walls, had, through the ignorance and the carelessness of their teachers, fallen into decay. Groote regretted this, and he applied himself to their restoration. He was so efficient in this that soon numerous young men flocked to Deventer, and schools were established also at Zwol, Groningen, Amersfort, Utrecht, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp. These schools took a strong hold upon the affections of the people of the Netherlands. They manifested their interest in them by opening their homes for the accommodation of the young students — in some instances eight or ten young men being received into one family and provided with board and lodging free of charge. Even mechanics, dependent for the support of themselves and their families upon daily labor, hesitated not to vacate one room in the house for the benefit of a scholar. Thus early was the importance of religious culture to intelligent piety recognized.

As thus contributing toward the Eeformation in the Netherlands together with a reaction from the prevalent corruption, Gerhard Groote may well be regarded as a stone in the foundation walls upon which it pleased God, two centuries later, to erect the temple of the Protestant Dutch Eeformed Church. This noble man went to his rest in 1384, in the forty-fifth year of his age.

FORMATIVE PERIOD.

III. The Influence Of The Diffusion Of Leaening

The fifteenth century is a very remarkable one because of a number of events that occurred in the course of it, so important each of them as to be worthy of a special notice. They were, as we now see them to have been, full of promise as regards the promotion of the best interests of man, for the reason that they are more or less closely related to the restoration of the purity of the faith, and to the extension of the kingdom of God into a hitherto unknown portion of the globe.

During that century the art of printing was invented (1423); Constantinople was captured by the Turks and the scholars who had been collected within its walls were scattered over Europe (1453); Luther was born (1483); America was discovered (1492); and a path eastward was traced around the Cape of Good Hope (1498).

The value of the first-mentioned of these events — the invention of the art of printing by a native of the Netherlands — is perceived to be great indeed, as it is measured by the importance of another event that took place within the bounds of that same favored land, in the birth of the man who, while the art of printing was still in its infancy, consecrated it by making it subservient to the issue of a new edition of the Greek New Testament, which he also translated into pure Latin and enriched with learned annotations.

One day in the year 1423 a citizen of Haarlem, John

Laurens Koster, then fifty-three years old, sat down to rest in the woods near his native city. He amused himself by cutting with his pen-knife, from the bark of a tree, the letters of the alphabet. He thought he would take them home to his children and wrapped them in a piece of paper. When he had returned to his family he undid the package, and behold, the sap in the green bark had been the means of transferring to the paper the form of the letter that had been next to it. This was the origin of that tremendous power for good or for evil by which, ever since the time that it was brought into existence, the world has been swayed. Immediately it began to make its influence felt. The sacred books which hitherto had been transcribed by hand at a great expenditure of time and labor, now could be multiplied at a very small proportion of either, and could be obtained, consequently, at a greatly diminished cost. To be sure, avarice attempted to neutralize that effect, in that, the type being molded after the form of letters in use by amanuenses, there appeared so little difference between a printed book and a written one, that the former was sold at Paris to an unskilled person for sixty crowns, which was the price of the latter; but the deception soon came to be exposed and could no more avail those who were disposed to practice it. Great were the facilities which then were furnished for the dissemination of the results of the labors of the scholars who had been confined to the East, but who, driven thence before the victorious banner of Mahomet II., now pursued their study of the Greek and Roman classics in the European cities where they had found a refuge, and, with the aid of the printing-press, laid the gems of ancient literature before every one whom inclination, wealth and leisure enabled to employ this means of mental cult-

FORMATIVE PERIOD.

nre. Singularly enough, too, this very invention, incomparable for the issues dependent upon it, helped, by the very brightness of the light which it cast, to increase the moral darkness prevalent in the church; but, for that reason, too, subserving the interests of the Reformation by intensifying a desire for it. Idleness is the mother of wickedness, and the men who formerly were kept busy in the copying of the Scripture and of the writings of the Fathers, having had their occupation taken from them, had time given them, to waste in the gratification of the base appetites of the flesh, and to pervert in occupations altogether foreign to the great interest to which they had consecrated their lives.

It may readily be perceived, if a man of great learning and favorable to the Reformation were to arise in the Netherlands, how strong the bearing would be upon his influence of Roster's happy thought. Such a man did arise. He was the man whom few know by the humble name of Gerard Gerardsz, but who, as Desiderius Erasmus, is of an immortal and world-wide reputation. When Thomas a Kempis was an old man of eighty-seven; when Wessel Gansvort and Agricola were in the prime of manhood, the one in his forty-eighth year and the other in his thirty- eighth; when sixteen years more were to elapse before Luther should come, Erasmus was born in Rotterdam, on Oct. 28, 1467. A claim for the honor of his birth has been made by Gouda, but it has not been substantiated. Beza said of him that the world has not contained another such a great man. His earliest education he received at the schools of Gouda and Utrecht. In his eleventh year he was sent to the celebrated school which Groote had established in Deventer. Here he made such progress that Agricola, on the occasion of a visit to the school, predicted his future great - 3 ness. After a stay there of two years lie went to Hertogenbosch, where he remained for the same length of time. When he was in that school the attempt was made to induce him to assume the vows of monasticism, but it failed since he strenuously resisted every proposition of the kind. His next retreat was a convent near Arnheim which was known by the Scriptural name of Emmaus. Here he accumulated knowledge to the degree that his reputation for learning became continental. The Bishop of Kameryk engaged him to act as his secretary during a visit to Eome for the transaction of important business. The project, however, was not carried out, and Erasmus, being released, went to Paris and other university cities. He wrote numerous erudite works, among which the above-mentioned edition of the New Testament, printed at Basle in 1516, and his farfamed " Praise of Folly," are the most noted.

In regard to his relation to the Reformation there are differing opinions. Some go so far as to say that he was at the foundation of the Reformation; that Luther worked after the plan furnished by him; that he was the flame at which the great German reformer afterward kindled his torch; that he was the Moses to the Lutheran Joshua; and that the correctness of these opinions has its witness in the fact that the first Reformers in the Netherlands were not called Lutherans, but Erasmians. Hugo Grotius speaks of him in the highest commendatory terms as the first and the greatest of the Reformers, and ends an elegant Latin panegyric, of which he is the subject, with the lines:

" When I perceive how death cuts down the gods among us here, The rustling of a leaf's enough to fill my soul with fear."

It must be admitted with Ypey and Dermout, that he

FORMATIVE PERIOD.

exerted an influence in behalf of the Beformation in that, casting light upon the literature of the ancients, he awakened a keen appreciation of the beautiful ; in that, casting light upon the several departments of theological science, he awakened a strong love for true, which he had discovered under the false by which it had come to be obscured and rendered imperceptible; and in that, casting light upon the hidden ways of wickedness wherein many ecclesiastics walked, he awakened an earnest desire after the good in thought and conduct. Van Prinsterer admits that he forged weapons for the reformers and removed many an obstacle that lay in their path, but denies that he was a reformer in the evangelical sense of the word. He says that Erasmus had no true insight into the substance of the errors that had crept into the church, and that he zealously maintained, even against Luther, such a freedom of the human will as is inconsistent with justification through faith alone. He lacked the courage which, in the fear of the Lord, has no regard to danger. He desired peace even at the expense of the truth. "When oppression and persecution for the Gospel's sake appeared, he was offended and immediately withdrew. He loved the honor that comes from men more than that which comes from God. He said, "Let others seek martyrdom; as for me I am unworthy of it." He seemed to have forgotten that the Lord said, He that loveth his life more than Me is not worthy of Me.

A middle position between the two extreme opinions of the merits of Erasmus as an ante-reformer, is probably the correct one. His influence as a learned man who applied his immense erudition to a better interpretation of the Scripture, was very great. That influence God doubtless designed to use as a preparation for the Ref or-

28 EEFOEMED CHUECH IN THE NETHERLANDS.

mation when He gave to men the art of multiplying the results of learning, just before he brought Erasmus upon the scene. G-erardsz died in Rotterdam in 1536, of dysentery, in the full use, to the last, of his mighty intellect, and wholly trusting in the infinite mercy of God in Christ. A statue of the great man is one of the ornaments of his native city.

FORMATIVE PERIOD.

IV. The Influence Of A Consecrated Martyrdom

When the first quarter of the sixteenth century had come to an end, the Beformation was making great progress. Eight years before (1517), Luther had nailed his ninety-five theses against the door of the church at Wittemberg. Melancthon, Luther's friend and fellowsoldier, was twenty-eight years old, and, with the cunning of the serpent and gentleness of the dove, was furthering the cause of the gospel. Zwingle, thirteen years older than Melancthon, was sounding the trumpet in the land of snow-capped mountains, Switzerland; and Calvin was a youth of sixteen in France, preparing himself unconsciously for the great work which God was about to commit to his hands. It was not possible that the leaven, which was thus working among the nations, should not influence also the people among whom Gerhard Groote, Gansvort, Zerbolt and Agricola had taught, and Erasmus still was a shining light.

If the hierarchy had met in solemn conclave for the purpose of devising means by the use of which the leaven was to be made still more efficient to pervade the entire mass of the people, it could not have adopted an agency better calculated to produce this result than the erection of the stake and the sacrifice, in the fiery flames kindled around it, of the proto-martyr Pistorius. He perished as to his poor, weak body, but his cause acquired greater strength from this injudicious attempt to overthrow it.

30 REFORMED CHTTRCH IN THE NETHERLANDS.

It is the lesson which all history teaches and shall continue to teach, until the stream of events, for which God -has marked out its proper course, shall no more burst beyond its banks in destructive inundations because all efforts to dam up its waters have ceased.

John De Bakker, or, John Van Woerden, whose name, according to the custom of the times, was changed into the much more euphonious one of Pistorius, was born in Woerden, in 1499. His father held the humble position of sexton to the church in that city, but still seems to have been a man of some consequence, since he is reputed to have been the friend of Erasmus. He early designed his son for the priesthood, and sent him to the school of Utrecht of which John Rhodius was rector. Ehodius was a diligent student of the New Testament, and aided in the translation of it into the Dutch, which was published in Amsterdam in 1525. As the father of Pistorius suspected the rector of holding Lutheran views, he removed his son from Utrecht and sent him to Louvain. Having finished his preparatory studies, the young man, then twenty-three years old, was ordained to the priesthood in Utrecht. In submitting to this ordination, he rather pleased his father than himself. His ministry commenced in his native city. As he was thought to depart in his pulpit services from the teachings of the Church, he was summoned to Utrecht, but, fearful of the result, he refused to go, and, upon complaint of the authorities of Utrecht to the court of Holland, was arrested by the commandant of the fortress of Woerden and cast into the prison, The citizens of Woerden, however, regarded this arrest as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their privileges, and loudly protested. The consequence was that Pistorius was set at liberty, upon the pretext that a contagious

FORMATIVE PEKlOD.

disease had broken out among the prisoners. He then went to Wittemberg, the head-quarters of the German reformation, for the purpose of seeing and hearing Luther.

Upon his return after three months, he was a second time summoned to Utrecht, and was ordered to go to Rome and to remain there three years. In the conviction that obedience to this command would not result in producing an alteration in his opinions of the doctrines and the practices of the Church, and dreading the effects of his contumacy, since an order for his arrest had again been issued from Utrecht, he went for greater safety to the province of Holland. Deeming himself now wholly released from his priestly vows, and his official connection with the Church to have been sundered, he established himself in Woerden as a private citizen, married, and earned his subsistence by working at the trade of a baker, or as a laborer on a farm. During the evenings he privately taught the truths of the gospel to his neighbors in their homes. ' He might have gone on thus to the end of his life, were it not that the visit to Woerden of one who offered indulgences to the people, kindled his zeal anew. He again entered the confessional and there labored to implant in all who came to him, the principles of a true Christian religion, according to which absolution was not a matter of sale and purchase; and to strengthen the weak and disturbed consciences of men with the gospel of Christ. The regular priest then laid charges against him before the magistrates of the city, but not so persistently that these felt impelled to take any action upon them. In the event of this priest's decease, which occurred soon after, his successor, not so leniently disposed, pursued the matter and secured a summons to Pistorius to appear for examination.

In answer to inquiries concerning his views in regard to the papacy, purgatory and the sayings of the Fathers, he replied that in vain is God worshipped by means of human institutions. In reference to his marriage he expressed a desire to be heard before a larger and a more learned court. The result of this proceeding not proving satisfactory to the complainant, he forwarded an accusation against Pistorius to the regent, Margaret of Austria, by whose orders the latter was seized and conveyed to the Hague. Here his imprisonment was shared by others who were suspected of having adopted the opinions of Luther or Zwingle. They were Bernard, a Carmelite monk, who afterward suffered martyrdom; Sartor, the rector of the Latin school at Noordwyk; JSTamrius, the rector of the Latin school at Alkmaar; Fredericks, a scholar of Naarden; Hoon, a lawyer of Holland, and Gnaphaeus, the rector of the Latin school at the Hague. The last mentioned lived to publish a full account of the examination of Pistorius. Three professors of the University of Louvain were appointed to confer with Pistorius. They were Van Bergen, Eosemond and Tapper. This number was afterward increased by five more men, dignitaries in the Church and in the State. They conjointly labored hard to bring Pistorius to a change of views. At the last even the aged father of the prisoner was introduced into the dungeon, but without avail, the patriarch rather encouraging his son, and saying that, like Abraham of old, he was prepared to give him up, thus giving evidence to a state of mind different from that only a few years before when he feared that his son would be led astray by the evangelical tendency of Ehodius.