| The sixteenth-century Dutch religious landscape was unique. Although the reformed church gained a privileged position, the early modern Republic also gave room to other confessions. These other churches (Catholics, Anabaptists, and Lutherans) had a weak minority position: they were tolerated. Still the reformed felt seriously troubled by these minority groups. The public church was afraid to lose its position, and felt pressed to defend itself against the dissenting churches. The reformed church had indeed reason enough to feel troubled; both the Anabaptists and the Catholics were a strong presence in the Low Countries; the Libertines who gained themselves aloof from every visible church were a serious alternative beside these churches. Polemic was an important weapon to gain adherents, to strengthen one s own identity, to hamper the opponent and to reassure one s own adherents. Catholics, Anabaptists and Libertines pictured the privileged church in the darkest tones. According to them the reformed were mere hypocrites, striving for power. These dissenting authors warned their readers that the Reformed were about to replace the Spanish Inquisition by a Genevan one. So far little has been done on this polemic and no attempt has been made to study this polemic as a whole. The aim of my research project is to describe and analyze how these dissenting groups tried to create an image of the reformed, to find out how these polemical treatises were intertwined, and to describe the differences between Catholic, Libertine, Anabaptist and Lutheran polemic. |
