Summary in English

Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/20582 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Visser, Willem Gerrit Title: De classis Brielle 1574-1623 Issue Date: 2013-02-28 Summary This book consists of a completely annotated transcription of the acts of the Brielle classis covering the years 1574-1623, preceded by a comprehensive Introduction. In 1953 the Royal Commission for National History initiated a project to publish the acts of the classes of South Holland in the period 1574-1620. In the decades that followed about three-quarters of the acts from South Holland were published as well as the acts from the Deventer, Kampen and Steenwijk-Vollenhove classes of Overijssel province and the Walcheren and South-Beveland classes of Zeeland province; the acts of the Tholen and Schouwen- Duiveland classes will follow. In the summer of 2012 the acts of the Gelderland classes came out. The acts of the classes are important sources for writing local and regional church history. The acts of the classes also shed light on the middle position of the classes between church councils and provincial synods. The classes served as the bodies that prepared the synod meetings and later implemented the decisions taken by the synods. The acts of the classes have great importance for church history and, up to a certain level, we can also learn from the decisions taken by the classes about the development of canon law or church order. They can be used in writing intellectual history and biographies as well. Finally, the acts of the classes are an irreplaceable source for a view of how Calvinism spread in the countryside even though they leave many detailed questions on the local level unanswered. The Introduction to the transcription provides historical context and the background for the acts of the Brielle classis and begins with a discussion of the concept of classis: ‘the official assembly where a number of delegated office-holders of neighboring churches come together to provide leadership for collective living and working in their jurisdiction.’ The classis served, on the one hand, as a Reformed alternative to the middle level of the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church and, on the other, as a means to guarantee the unity of the church. The classes formed the middle level of the Reformed Church, the link which joined the local congregations to the provincial and national synods. Beginning with the 1571 synod of Emden we can witness a gradual development of the classis to the status of a fully-fledged church institution by the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century. This development is described on the basis of the provisions regarding the classes adopted by successive synods. This account is constructed on three elements: the composition of the classis (personae), the scope of activities (res) and the operating procedures (processus). Although the original intention was that the elders would participate in the work of the classes, in practice it was the ministers who dominated and carried out the work. The classis functioned in the first instance as a forum for the supervision and disciplining of the ministers. The classes also supervised the local congregations, dealt with all the issues pertaining to religion, advised upon request the local church councils and sent delegates to the provincial synods. One of the most important duties of the classis was to train and examine candidates for the ministry. The classis played an active role in recruiting new ministers, especially in rural congregations. The synods determined the frequency and the direction of the meetings of the classes. Under the influence of the Historical School of Law historical writing about the classis at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century focused primarily on the formal juridical aspects dealing with the rules governing church life. Later we observe a shift of focus away from juridical towards institutional concerns where the procedures and functions of the classis as an institution take center stage (see Tukker’s work on the Dordrecht classis). In the 1960s and 1970s social-historical aspects get more attention: the socio-economic position of the ministers as a group (Groenhuis), the geographic origins of the ministers (Van Lieburg), religious life on the local level (Van Deursen) and the proselytizing of society (Abels and Wouters’s work on the Delft classis, Geudeke’s work on the Edam classis). 664 From 1980 on, in parallel to the historical works, editions were published in the ‘small series’ of the Rijks- Geschiedkundige Publications (Royal Historical Publications). These contained the acts of several classes: those of Dordrecht, Rotterdam, Walcheren and South Beveland, Delft, Leiden and Woerden, Gorinchem (accompanied by a detailed introduction by Verschoor) and, recently, the Gelderland classes. The second part of the Introduction focuses on the environment in which the Brielle classis emerged and in which it operated. Given the area’s geographic characteristics, the way the classis functioned was in part determined by its physical environment: roughly the present-day islands of Voorne, Putten and Goeree- Overflakkee. Natural conditions made this area difficult to travel through, especially in winter, and the living conditions were considered unhealthy by people of the time. Located on the periphery of the heavily urbanized province of Holland this watery region was home in the late 16th and early 17th century to a rural population that for the most part earned its living from agriculture and, in some places, from fishing. The only town of any significance was Brielle, which occupied only a modest position among the towns of Holland. In the western province of Holland as a whole around half of the population lived in cities or towns, but the percentage of urban dwellers in the islands of Voorne, Putten and Goeree- Overflakkee was only 15% It is probable, although data are lacking, that in this period the area profited in a limited way at best from the favorable economic situation in Holland. The islands of Voorne, Putten, Goeree-Overflakkee and a few even smaller ones combined to form a pair of administrative entities: the seigniory of Voorne and the protectorate of Putten, each with its own administrative structures. They were in fact two different bailiwicks with their own rights, statutes, administration of justice and finance, and with their own administrators from the different upper and lower ranks of officials. Because religious and political life were closely linked, the classis was in regular contact with the officials of the secular government: the bailiffs of Voorne and Putten and the bailiffs and sheriffs of the seigniories, who represented their principals in the classis. The classis was formed in 1574 in an area which had already experienced a half century of Protestantization. From the beginning of the 16th century the traditional, nearly ubiquitous Catholic Church and the Catholic faith of the population had been showing increasing signs of decay. Shortly after Luther’s actions heretical ideas about the holy sacrament and the veneration of saints had attracted adherents in this region. After 1530 the Anabaptists also appeared. This group, in particular, was severely persecuted in some periods. Calvinism arrived here in the 1560s. A visitation committee reported in 1571 that on Voorne and Putten the church was divided with some of the clergy adopting Protestant views while another group held an eroded sense of Catholic norms and duties. By the time Reformed worship services were instituted in 1572/1573 a part of the population of Voorne, Putten and Goeree-Overflakkee was in a sense experienced in Protestant views, which is not to say that the Reformed Church could count on massive support among the people. There certainly were many within the Catholic Church who had some Protestantising views but when in 1573 Catholic worship was outlawed in Holland did not become convinced members of the Reformed Church. On the contrary: if we are talking about the professed members of the Calvinist church we are talking at this time about only a small minority of the population. A large part of the community was in the growing group of the ‘undecided’; some of these did attend the Reformed Church and were known as ‘lovers of the truth’. In 1622 a third of the population of Brielle could be considered as belonging to the Reformed Church (including the ‘lovers of the truth’), while in the rural areas (where the figures varied from village to village) at most a quarter of the population can be counted in this group. 665 We do not know precisely how the Brielle classis came into being; perhaps it split off from the Dordrecht classis. We do know that the first meeting was held on April 19, 1574. After some discussion of the question of whether Overflakkee should be part of the Brielle classis or of the Schouwen-Duiveland- Tholen classis it was finally decided that the classis would include the following areas: the islands Voorne, Putten, Korendijk, Piershil, Westvoorne and Overflakkee (except for the enclave of Sommelsdijk which belonged to Zeeland) and the town of Bommenede that was an enclave of Holland in/on Schouwen island. The borders of the classis thus largely followed the administrative borders in this part of Holland. Within these borders the former parochial divisions remained intact. Conditions obliged the classis to at least temporarily make do with combined congregations; in the beginning not every place could be provided with a minister. In spite of the fact that the classis was hesitant to create new congregations, many villages took the initiative in this regard. The operating procedures of the classis took shape in the early years of its existence.

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