Looking beyond home shores: Dutch tolerance at the end of the seventeenth century

ABSTRACT

The Dutch history of the golden century, a formula which had effectively imposed this interpretative paradigm well beyond the seventeenth century, has been analysed in a more conscientious manner by more recent historiography. This has tempered the hagiographic reading and confirmed the fact that, in the second half of the century, the question of tolerance had become primarily a political conquest and a value shared by other nations. A supernational, European value, but which had also begun to cross the Atlantic several decades earlier. It is interesting to explore how writers facing each other across the two shores of the Channel, on one side observed and interpreted and on the other side presented themselves, offering to foreign eyes the concept of tolerance that had been consolidated in the Netherlands. In the appendix to the essay, besides sinignifcative images, is transcribed the rare and meaningful pamphlet titled ‘A LETTER from HOLLAND, touching Liberty of Conscience, &c.’

KEYWORDS:

• Tolerance
• European value
• liberty of conscience
• seventeenth century

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Luisa Simonutti http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0475-3566

Notes

1 William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands (London: A. Maxwell, 1673), Preface.

2 The bibliography is extremely large; among the numerous contributions I would mention the series Britain and the Netherlands begun in 1960; C.W. Schoneveld, Intertraffic of the Mind. Studies in Seventeenth Century Anglo-Dutch Translation, with a Checklist of Books translated from English into Dutch, 1600–1700 (Leiden: Brill, 1983); Jonathan I. Israel, The Anglo-Dutch Moment. Essays on the Glorious Revolution and its World Impact (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); Id., ‘England, the Dutch Republic, and Europe in the Seventeenth Century’, The Historical Journal, 40, no. 4 (1997): 1117–21; The Exchange of Ideas. Religion Scholarship and Art in Anglo-Dutch Relations in the Seventeenth Century, eds. Simon Groenveld and Michael Wintle (Zutphen: Walburg Instituut, 1994); Gijs Rommelse, ‘The Role of Mercantilism in Anglo-Dutch Political Relations, 1650-74’, The Economic History Review, New Series, 63, no. 3 (2010): 591–611; Kenneth Morgan, ‘Anglo-Dutch Economic Relations in the Atlantic World, 1688–1783’, in Dutch Atlantic Connections, 1680–1800. Linking Empires, Bridging Borders, ed. Gert Oostindie, Jessica V. Roitman (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 119–38.

3 Charles Wolseley, Liberty of Conscience the Magistrates Interest: or, To grant Liberty of Conscience to persons of different perswasions in matters of Religion is the great interest of all Kingdoms and States and particularly of England; Asserted and Proved, London 1668. See also Violet Barbour, ‘Dutch and English Merchant Shipping in the Seventeenth Century’, The Economic History Review, 2, no. 2 (1930): 261–90; James Walker, ‘The English Exiles in Holland during the Reigns of Charles II and James II’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 30 (1948): 111–25; Geoffrey F. Nuttall, ‘English Dissenters in The Netherlands 1640-1689’, Nederlands archief voor kerkgeschiedenis/Dutch Review of Church History, nieuwe serie, 59, no. 1 (1978): 37–54; Andrew R. Murphy, Conscience and Community: Revisiting Toleration and Religious Dissent in Early Modern England and America (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, 2001); Literatures of Exile in the English Revolution and its Aftermath, 1640–1690, ed. Philip Major, with a foreword by Lisa Jardine, (New York: Routledge, 2016).

4 By way of example we can mention William Popple, translator of Locke’s Letter concerning toleration (1689), who was a merchant, and a wine trader in Bordeaux, and Benjamin Furly who settled in Rotterdam where his house became a benchmark not only for Quakers heading overseas but also for English travellers. 

5 See Bernard Cottret, ‘Tolérance et constitution d’un espace européen France-Angleterre-Pays-Bas à l’aube des Lumières (1685-1688)’, Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 134 (1988): 73–86.

6 Avis salutaire sur la puissance des Rois et sur la liberté des peuples (Cologne: Pierre Marteau, 1688), 35.

7 Ibid., 61.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid., 65.

10 Ibid., 74.

11 Ibid., 75.

12 Ibid., 86.

13 Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde representées par des figures dessinées de la main de Bernard Picard: avec une explication historique, & quelques dissertations curieuses, 7 vols., t. IV (Amsterdam: J. F. Bernard, 1723–1737), 43. See also http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/picart/tableContents.html.

14 ‘A dissertation on the Reformed Church of England’, in The ceremonies and religious customs of the various nations of the known world. Together with historical annotations, and several curious discourses equally instructive and entertaining. Vol. I, in two parts. Part I. containing the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, of the Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Quakers, &c. Part II. containing the various sects of Mahometans, with an appendix of the lives of Mohammed, Omar, and Ali. Written originally in French, and illustrated with a large number of folio copper plates, all beautifully designed by Mr. Bernard Picart; and curiously engraved by most of the best hands in Europe. Translated into English (London: printed for Claude du Bosc, engraver at the Golden Head in Charles-streets Covent-Garden, 1737), 38.

15 Ibid., Footnote k.

16 ‘A Dissertation concerning the Ecclesiastical Discipline of the Presbyterians’, in The ceremonies and religious customs of the various nations of the known world, 85–6.

17 ‘A Dissertation concerning the Religion of the Quakers’, in The ceremonies and religious customs of the various nations of the known world, 119. See Giovanni Tarantino, ‘Tolerance’, in Early Modern Emotions: An Introduction, ed. Susan Broomhall (London: Routledge, 2017), 280–3.

18 Bernard Picart, Impostures Innocentes; ou, Recueil d'Estampes d'après Divers Peintres Illustres (Amsterdam: Veuve de Bernard Picart, 1734), 9.

19 ‘As Liberty of Conscience here, is that they fear above any thing, so it would insensibly more weaken them than all the Victories we have obtained over them’, Charles Wolseley claimed in 1668 in his essay Liberty of Conscience, the Magistrates Interest, 9–10.

20 A Letter from Holland, touching Liberty of Conscience (Amsterdam, 1688), 2. There is also a Dutch version entitled Een brief uyt Holland aangaande de vryheyd van conscientie, 1688, (W. P. C. Knuttel, Catalogus van de pamfletten-verzameling berustende in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 9 vol., 1889 -1920: pamphlet n.12927). Although both the ‘Early English Books Online’ database and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, among others, give Cornelius De Witt as the author of the Letter, considering the date shown at the end – Amsterdam 1688 – and the date of De Witt’s death in 1672, definitive evidence for this attribution is lacking.

21 A Letter from Holland, touching Liberty of Conscience, 2.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., 3.

26 Pieter de la Court, [Johan de Witt], The True Interest and Political Maxims of the Republick of Holland and West-Friesland (London, 1702), 1–2.

27 A Letter from Holland, touching Liberty of Conscience, 3.

28 Hans W. Blom, Morality and Causality in Politics. The Rise of Naturalism in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Political Thought (Ridderkerk: Offsetdrukkerij Ridderprint, 1995) enriched by an extensive bibliographic appendix; Arthur Weststeijn, Commercial Republicanism in the Dutch Golden Age. The Political Thought of Johan and Pieter de la Court (Leiden: Brill, 2011), partic. ch. V.

29 Algernon Sidney, Court Maxims, Discussed and Refelled, eds. H. W. Blom, E. Haitsma Muller, R. Janse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 176.

30 Ibid.

31 Original Letters of Locke, Algernon Sidney, and Anthony Lord Shaftesbury, ed. Thomas Forster (London: J. B. Nichols, 1830), 85–8.

32 See Carrive, Paulette, La pensée politique d’Algernon Sidney (1622–1683): la querelle de l'absolutisme (Paris: Méridiens Klincksieck, 1989); Luisa Simonutti, «Bayle et ses amis: Paets, Furly, Shaftesbury, et le Club de ‘La lanterne’», in Pierre Bayle dans la République des Lettres. Philosophie, Religion, Critique, eds. Antony McKenna and Gianni Paganini (Paris: H. Champion, 2004), 61–78.

33 Adriaan van Paets, Lettre de monsieur H. V. P. à monsieur B****. sur les derniers troubles d'Angleterre: où il est parlé de la tolerance de ceux qui ne suivent point la religion dominante (Rotterdam: Reinier Leers, 1686). See also F. R. J. Knetsch, ‘Jurieu, Bayle et Paets’, Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 117, (1971): 38–61.

34 William Baron, Regicides no Saints nor Martyrs: freely expostulated with the publishers of Ludlow’s third volume, as to the truth of things and characters. With a touch at Amyntor’s Cavils against our King’s curing the evil, and the thirtieth of January fast. A supplement to the just defence of the royal martyr; by the same author (London: W. Keblewhite, 1700).

35 William Baron, The Dutch way of toleration, most proper for our English Dissenters (London: printed for the author, 1698). On its appearance it enjoyed great popularity, and two editions were printed in the space of two years, 1698, 1699.

36 Ibid., 19.

37 Ibid., 17.

38 Les fondements philosophiques de la tolérance, eds. Yves Charles Zarka, Franck Lessay, John Rogers, 3 vols., vol. 1 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2002), 102–8.

39 Edward Stillingfleet, The unreasonableness of separation, or, An impartial account of the history, nature, and pleas of the present separation from the communion of the Church of England to which, several late letters are annexed, of eminent Protestant divines abroad, concerning the nature of our differences, and the way to compose them (London: T.N. for Henry Mortlock, 1681), Preface, lxxxv.

40 Edward Stillingfleet, The unreasonableness of separation, Lxxxv–lxxxvi. William Baron uses the passage word for word in The Dutch way of toleration, 8.

41 William Baron, The Dutch way of Toleration, 17.

42 William Baron, An Historical Account of Comprehension and Toleration (London: J. Chantry, 1705).

43 The Dutch better friends than the French to the Monarchy, Church, and Trade of England. In a Letter from a Citizen, to a Country Gentleman (London: John Clark, 1713). According to the information given in The Journal of Sacred Literature (London: Blackadder and Co., 1854), n.s, vol. VI, 512-3, the pamphlet appeared in 1709. It was an immediate success and was translated into French in the same year as Lettre où l’on prouve que les Hollandois sont meilleurs amis de l’Angleterre que les François, tant à l’égard de la Monarchie, que de l’Eglise et de leur Commerce (Rotterdam: Jean Hofhout, 1713).

44 Ibid., 4.

45 Ibid., 5.

46 Ibid., 11.

47 Ibid., 16.

48 Ibid., 11.

49 Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, ‘Dutch contribution to Religious Toleration’, Church History, 79, no. 3 (2010): 585–613.

50 William Popple, To the Reader, in John Locke, A Letter concerning Toleration (London: Awnsham Churchill 1689). It is interesting to note that these words: ‘Absolute Liberty, Just and True Liberty, Equal and Impartial Liberty’ written by Popple in the preface were placed under the portrait of Locke on the page before the frontispiece of the book The life of John Locke, with Extracts from his Correspondence, Journals, and Common-place Books, edited by Lord King, (London: Henry Colburn 1829).

51 William Popple, To the Reader, in John Locke, A Letter concerning Toleration.

52 The list of errata which Popple had noted during his reading of the third letter concerning toleration and which he had sent to his friend Locke, is indeed conserved among the Locke Papers in Oxford.

53 Although no letters between Popple and the members of the Shaftesbury family appear to have survived, the friendship nevertheless transpires in the frequent references present in the letters between Locke and Popple and between the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury and Benjamin Furly.

54 William Popple, A Letter to Mr. Penn, in Thomas Clarkson, Memoirs of the Private and Public Life of William Penn, 2 vols., vol. II (London: R.Taylor, 1813), 14.

55 William Popple, Three Letters tending to Demonstrate how the Security of this Nation against all Future Persecution for Religion, lys in the Abolishment of the Present Penal Laws … and the Establishment of a New Law for Universal Liberty of Conscience (London: 1688). Cf. C. Robbins, ‘Absolute liberty: the Life and Thought of William Popple, 1638-1708’, in William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. 24 (1967), 190–223: 190 and ff.

56 William, I. Hull, Benjamin Furly and Quakerism in Rotterdam (Swarthmore, PA: Swarthmore College Monographs on Quaker History, Number Five, 1941), 45.

57 William Penn, An Account of W. Penn travelles in Holland and Germany. Anno 1677 (London, 1694), 4.

58 C. D. Van Strien, British travellers in Holland during the Stuart period (Leiden: Brill, 1993), 254.

59 Ibid., 314.

60 Ibid.

61 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Locke MS. f8, 105.

62 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Locke MS. f8, 114–21: 115. See also Peter King, The Life of John Locke (London: H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1829), 162–3.

63 For a rich picture of the history of toleration, see Benjamin J. Kaplan, Divided by Faith. Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); John Coffey, Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England 1558-1689 (New York: Routledge, 2013); Teresa M. Bejan, Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2017).

64 Directions for travelling through Holland and Germany … , London, J. Wilford, 1734, Preface.

65 Nicolas de Parival, Les délices de la Hollande, revue, corrigée et augmentée de nouveau par François Savinien d'Alquie. Dernière édition (Amsterdam: Jean de Ravestein, 1669).

66 Les Délices des Pays-Bas, ou Description géographique et historique des XVII provinces belgiques. [Par J.-B. Christyn, F. Foppens, P. Foppens.] 6e édition revue, corrigée et considérablement augmentée de remarques curieuses … [Par le P. Henri Griffet.] 5, vols., vol.1 (Liége: J.-F. Bassompierre, 1769), 8.

67 Carlo Antonio Pilati, Lettres sur la Hollande, vol.1 (La Haye: J. H. Munnikhuiozen et C., 1780), 5. Cf. what has been written by Stefano Ferrari and Gian Paolo Romagnani, Carlantonio Pilati: un intellettuale trentino nell'Europa dei lumi (Milano FrancoAngeli, 2005), 172, who point out that the anonymous author of the preface to the Lettres cited the words of Descartes: ‘Ici, comme tout le monde, excepté moi, est occupé au commerce, il ne tien qu’à moi de vivre inconnu à tout le monde’ to stress the condition of intellectual freedom, as well as political and religious liberty, enjoyed in the country.