DOCSLIB.ORG

Religious Nonconformity and Cultural Dynamics: the Case of the Dutch Collegiants

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Religious Nonconformity and Cultural Dynamics: the Case of the Dutch Collegiants Religious Nonconformity and Cultural Dynamics: The Case of the Dutch Collegiants Der Fakultät für Geschichte, Kunst- und Orientwissenschaften der Universität Leipzig eingereichte D I S S E R T A T I O N zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE (Dr. phil.) vorgelegt von Rosa Ricci geboren am 14.03.1984 in Benevento Leipzig, den 30.10.2013 Summary Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Nonconformity and cultural dynamics: some preliminary remarks ..................... 9 Chapter 1. The nature and spread of the Collegiant movement ........................................... 13 1.1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 13 1.2. The Rijnsburg general assembly: a network of Collegiants ........................ 15 1.3. Spread of the collegia prophetica and their territorial characterization ...... 27 1.3.1.The case of Amsterdam's collegium ..................................................... 29 1.3.2. The other collegia: Rotterdam, Leiden and Haarlem ............................ 39 1.4.Nonconformity as development of anticonfessional and anticlerical thought in the 17th century .......................................................................................... 44 1.5.Conclusions ............................................................................................... 49 Chapter 2. The question of nonconformity and the Collegiants' model of anticonfessionalism .............................................................................................. 53 2.1.English nonconformity and its European dimension .................................. 53 2.2.The XIX Artikelen: nonconformity and the Church without God .............. 59 2.3.Freeprophecy and the specificity of the Collegiants' reading of the Bible .. 65 2.4. Conclusions .............................................................................................. 76 Chapter 3. The communitarian projects and the utopian question in the works of Plockhoy van Zierikzee (1659-1663) .................................................................................... 79 3.1.Introduction ............................................................................................... 79 3.2.The political value of Plockhoy's works ..................................................... 80 3.3.Plockhoy's English period .......................................................................... 82 3.3.1. A question of attribution ...................................................................... 84 3.3.2. The English works............................................................................... 85 3.4.Plockhoy's Dutch works ............................................................................. 92 3.5.Plockhoy's community projects and the utopian question ........................... 95 Chapter 4. Collegiants' tolerance: theoretical and religious roots ...................................... 101 4.1.Introduction ............................................................................................. 101 4.2.Castellio and the definition of verdraagzaamheid in 17-th century Holland ......................................................................................................... 103 I 4.3.Onbepaalde verdraagzaamheid and the possibility of resolving the conflicts .......................................................................................................... 114 4.4.The “Bredenburgse twisten” and the dichotomy of tolerance.................... 122 Chapter 5. Epistemology and inner light in the Collegiant movement ............................... 127 5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 127 5.2. The epistemological paradigm of Descartes and Spinoza ........................ 133 5.2.1 Balling and the imaginatio ................................................................. 138 5.2.2 Balling and the scientia intuitiva ....................................................... 140 5.3 Collegiants' dispute with the Quakers and the position of Het licht op den Kandelaar ..................................................................................................... 142 5.4 Het licht op den Kandelaar, the possibility of knowledge, and the inner light ............................................................................................................... 150 5.5 The idea of God and the true religion in Balling's Het licht op den Kandelaar ...................................................................................................... 155 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 163 Appendix 1: XIX Artikel ......................................................................................................... 167 Introduction ................................................................................................... 167 Appendix II: Occurrence of the word nonconformity, nonconformist and nonconfrmism between 1500 and 1789 ...................................................................................... 173 Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 175 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. 189 Introduction There is ample reason to engage in research around the Collegiants, a minority religious movement in the Netherlands of the 17th century. An exploration of this topic can be interesting not only for a contribution to the history of Religion but also to understand the development of some central concept in the early modernity. Prominent, in this research, is the question that initially stirred my personal interest in the Collegiantism; i.e. to define and understand the religious and cultural background that represents the practical field of confrontation of Baruch Spinoza's philosophy. This historiographical question had the purpose of highlighting the relationship between Spinoza and the religious movements of his time in order to fully understand the public to whom he addressed his texts. Collegiants, however, constitute an interesting field of research not only for the study of Spinoza, but widely to understand the cultural and social dynamic of the Dutch Golden Age, a backdrop against which emerged a new idea of religion. This dissertation is not exploring a curiosity or an inconsistent exception in the history of the 17th century, but rather the centrality of a group that was influenced by and largely influenced its Dutch social, political and religious context. One of the major problems in capturing the significance of the Collegiants arises from the difficulty in defining this movement, which chose never to formulate a confession of faith and consciously refused to be classified within a specific Church, sect, or congregation. The name, Collegiants, was not the consequence of an active choice but a label that arose, together with that of Rijnsburgers, in the polemic pamphlets of the epoch. The difficulties to define such elusive religious group make, however, the Collegiants a fascinating field of research. In this dissertation the Collegaints are termed a “movement” in order to emphasize their explicit lacks of norms or model and to highlight the continual change and redefinition of their religious identity. This process can be properly defined using Deleuze's concept of becoming minorities: Les minorités et les majorités ne se distinguent pas par le nombre. Une minorité peut être plus nombreuse qu'une majorité. Ce qui définit la majorité, c'est un modèle auquel il faut être conforme [...] Tandis qu'une minorité n'a pas de modèle, c'est un devenir, un processus [...] Quand une minorité se crée des modèles, c'est parce qu'elle veut devenir majoritaire, et c'est sans doute inévitable pour sa survie 1 ou son salut.1 This definition can help us to see both the positive and the productive side of the Collegiant movement, even thought it defined itself negatively in order to protest against the institutional Church and normative religion. The Collegiants were involved in this process of “devenir minoritaire” in a highly conscious way. They decided willfully to avoid strict affiliation to Churches or congregations and criticized explicitly the necessity of an identitarian definition. It can hardly be denied, indeed, that the religious reflection of the Collegiants was characterized by the conscientious refusal to construct a model or a norm to which they could refer. In this dissertation the term “minority” will therefore be used, always in reference to this concept, without drawing too much stress to the effective number of the Collegiants' members. This question appear, indeed, misleading because it does not take into account the position that Collegiants' member occupied in the economic, political and intellectual life of the United Provinces. It is the case of a group which, indeed, demonstrated in several occasions its deep influence in the Dutch religious life. Collegiants' continuous efforts towards de-institutionalization and their aspiration to an egalitarian and democratic religious life have to be conceived as an invitation to their coeval confessions, to undertake the way of evolving minorities renouncing whichever exclusivity and authority. The
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Righteous Citizens: The Lynching of Johan and Cornelis DeWitt,The Hague, Collective Violens, and the Myth of Tolerance in the Dutch Golden Age, 1650-1672 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2636q95m Author DeSanto, Ingrid Frederika Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Righteous Citizens: The Lynching of Johan and Cornelis DeWitt, The Hague, Collective Violence, and the Myth of Tolerance in the Dutch Golden Age, 1650-1672. A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Ingrid Frederika DeSanto 2018 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Righteous Citizens: The Lynching of Johan and Cornelis DeWitt, The Hague, Collective Violence, and the Myth of Tolerance in the Dutch Golden Age, 1650-1672 by Ingrid Frederika DeSanto Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles Professor Margaret C Jacob, Chair In The Hague, on August 20 th , 1672, the Grand Pensionary of Holland, Johan DeWitt and his brother Cornelis DeWitt were publicly killed, their bodies mutilated and hanged by the populace of the city. This dissertation argues that this massacre remains such an unique event in Dutch history, that it needs thorough investigation. Historians have focused on short-term political causes for the eruption of violence on the brothers’ fatal day. This work contributes to the existing historiography by uncovering more long-term political and social undercurrents in Dutch society. In doing so, issues that may have been overlooked previously are taken into consideration as well.
    [Show full text]
  • JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS in the SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Studies and Documents
    JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Studies and Documents Edited by J. VAN DEN BERG and ERNESTINE G.E. VAN DER WALL KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON Contents Foreword V STUDIES R.H. Popkin Some Aspects of Jewish-Christian Theological Inter- changes in Holland and England 1640-1700 3 J. van den Berg Proto-Protestants? The Image of the Karaites as a Mir- ror of the Catholic-Protestant Controversy in the Seven- teenth Century 33 P. T. van Rooden Constantijn L'Empereur's Contacts with the Amsterdam Jews and his Confutation of Judaism 51 Ernestine G.E. van der Wall The Amsterdam Millenarian Petrus Serrarius (1600- 1669) and the Anglo-Dutch Circle of Philo-Judaists 73 A.K. Offenberg Jacob Jehuda Leon (1602-1675) and his Model of the Temple 95 VIII DOCUMENTS Ernestine G.E. van der Wall Johann Stephan Rittangel's Stay in the Dutch Republic (1641-1642) 119 J. van den Berg John Covel's Letter on the Karaites (1677) 135 Ernestine G.E. van der Wall 'Without Partialitie Towards All Men": John Durie on the Dutch Hebraist Adam Boreel 145 R.H. Popkin & D.S. Katz The Prefaces by Menasseh ben Israel and Jacob Judah Leon Templo to the Vocalized Mishnah (1646) 151 R.H. Popkin & Ernestine G.E. van der Wall Samuel Hartlib, John Worthington and John Durie on Adam Boreel's Latin Translation of the Mishna (1659-1661) 155 J. van den Berg Latin Table of Contents from the Hebrew Work of Menasseh ben Israel, Nishmat Chajjim 161 R.H. Popkin & J.
    [Show full text]
  • ' Anti-Theological Foundations of Modern Constitutional Theory: The
    ‘ Anti-Theological Foundations of Modern Constitutional Theory: The Dutch Revolt, Locke’s Dualism and the Spinozist Basis of Modern Freedom of Expression’ Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton One of the Enlightenment’s principal roots, historians would generally agree, should be sought in the seventeenth-century ‘general crisis’, the deeply divisive effects of confessionalization, the Wars of Religion (1567-1648), and the impact of what Cartesians interpreted as the post-1600 Galilean ‘scientific revolution’. The Netherlands, of course, shared in these experiences like the rest of Europe, no more and no less; yet there are concrete, structural reasons why the Radical Enlightenment’s beginnings and early rise should have first occurred in Holland rather than England, Italy or elsewhere: no other seventeenth century republican milieu had its very existence and rationale so profoundly challenged by an anti-republican alignment as the United Provinces during the seventeenth century. No less than three times - in 1618-19, in 1650, and in 1672 - the patrician oligarchy of ‘regents’ rejecting monarchical and ecclesiastical power and offering extended religious toleration, was dragged helplessly into major conflict with the ‘Orangist’ alliance of the Stadholder, public Church and common people. Prince Maurits, William II, and William III were right in calculating that if it came to a trial of strength, as it did each time, they would gain the upper hand and overpower the republican oligarchy because they had Church and common
    [Show full text]
  • Netherlandish Culture of the Sixteenth Century SEUH 41 Studies in European Urban History (1100–1800)
    Netherlandish Culture of the Sixteenth Century SEUH 41 Studies in European Urban History (1100–1800) Series Editors Marc Boone Anne-Laure Van Bruaene Ghent University © BREPOLS PUBLISHERS THIS DOCUMENT MAY BE PRINTED FOR PRIVATE USE ONLY. IT MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER. Netherlandish Culture of the Sixteenth Century Urban Perspectives Edited by Ethan Matt Kavaler Anne-Laure Van Bruaene FH Cover illustration: Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Three soldiers (1568), Oil on oak panel, purchased by The Frick Collection, 1965. Wikimedia Commons. © 2017, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2017/0095/187 ISBN 978-2-503-57582-7 DOI 10.1484/M.SEUH-EB.5.113997 e-ISBN 978-2-503-57741-8 Printed on acid-free paper. © BREPOLS PUBLISHERS THIS DOCUMENT MAY BE PRINTED FOR PRIVATE USE ONLY. IT MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER. Table of Contents Ethan Matt Kavaler and Anne-Laure Van Bruaene Introduction ix Space & Time Jelle De Rock From Generic Image to Individualized Portrait. The Pictorial City View in the Sixteenth-Century Low Countries 3 Ethan Matt Kavaler Mapping Time. The Netherlandish Carved Altarpiece in the Early Sixteenth Century 31 Samuel Mareel Making a Room of One’s Own. Place, Space, and Literary Performance in Sixteenth-Century Bruges 65 Guilds & Artistic Identities Renaud Adam Living and Printing in Antwerp in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • Literature of the Low Countries
    Literature of the Low Countries A Short History of Dutch Literature in the Netherlands and Belgium Reinder P. Meijer bron Reinder P. Meijer, Literature of the Low Countries. A short history of Dutch literature in the Netherlands and Belgium. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague / Boston 1978 Zie voor verantwoording: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/meij019lite01_01/colofon.htm © 2006 dbnl / erven Reinder P. Meijer ii For Edith Reinder P. Meijer, Literature of the Low Countries vii Preface In any definition of terms, Dutch literature must be taken to mean all literature written in Dutch, thus excluding literature in Frisian, even though Friesland is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the same way as literature in Welsh would be excluded from a history of English literature. Similarly, literature in Afrikaans (South African Dutch) falls outside the scope of this book, as Afrikaans from the moment of its birth out of seventeenth-century Dutch grew up independently and must be regarded as a language in its own right. Dutch literature, then, is the literature written in Dutch as spoken in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the so-called Flemish part of the Kingdom of Belgium, that is the area north of the linguistic frontier which runs east-west through Belgium passing slightly south of Brussels. For the modern period this definition is clear anough, but for former times it needs some explanation. What do we mean, for example, when we use the term ‘Dutch’ for the medieval period? In the Middle Ages there was no standard Dutch language, and when the term ‘Dutch’ is used in a medieval context it is a kind of collective word indicating a number of different but closely related Frankish dialects.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Exemplary Forewardnesse to Advance Knowledge'
    ‘Exemplary forewardnesse to advance Knowledge’ Een studie naar de vertakking van Samuel Hartlibs informatienetwerk in de Lage Landen (c.1630-1662) Teun Faber Masterscriptie Geschiedenis Geschiedenis Universiteit van Amsterdam Scriptiebegeleider: Dhr. prof. dr. Geert H. Janssen Tweede lezer: Dhr. dr. Jonas van Tol 17 juni 2019 Inhoudsopgave Inleiding ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Database en methode ......................................................................................................................... 15 1. Johann Moriaen: spil in het netwerk te Amsterdam…………………………………………………………18 1.1 Pansofie en alchemie als ideaal .................................................................................................... 19 1.2 Vanuit de Duitse contreien naar de Republiek .......................................................................... 20 1.3 Persoon met vele contacten ........................................................................................................ 23 2. De Schotse theoloog John Durie en de Zeeuwse hebraïst Adam Boreel .......................... 26 2.1 Durie: een bijzondere band met de Lage Landen ..................................................................... 26 2.2 Boreel: een bijzondere band met Engeland ................................................................................ 28 2.3 Boreel in de Hartlib-kring ...........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    1 Atheism, Agnosticism, and Theism Non - Religious Ethics is at a very early stage. We cannot yet predict whether, as in Mathematics, we will all reach agreement. Since we cannot know how Ethics will develop, it is not irrational to have high hopes. (Derek Parfi t, 1984) 1 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) Let us start with what people most often associate with “ the secular outlook. ” If with anything at all, they associate it with atheism. But what is atheism? Sometimes atheism is presented as a coherent worldview, encompassing all the other traditions supposedly associated with the secular outlook. On this basis the Christian theologian and physicist Alister McGrath (1953 – ) writes: “ Atheism is the religion of the autonomous and rational human being, who believes that reason is able to uncover and express the deepest truths of the universe, from the mechanics of the rising sun to the nature and fi nal destiny of humanity. ” 2 The fi rst thing that strikes us is that atheism is presented here as a “ religion. ” A second point that is remarkable is that McGrath depicts as “ atheism ” beliefs that most people would associate with “ rationalism. ” In clarifying his defi nition the author even introduces other elements, such as optimism. Atheism, so McGrath writes, “ wasCOPYRIGHTED a powerful, self - confi dent, and aggressiveMATERIAL worldview. Possessed of a boundless confi dence, it proclaimed that the world could be fully 1 Parfi t , Derek , Reasons and Persons , Clarendon Press , Oxford 1984 , p.
    [Show full text]
  • Final Copy 2019 11 28 Curtis
    This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Curtis, Rodney Title: Christian Philosemitism in England from Cromwell to the Jew Bill, 1656-1753. A Study in Jewish and Christian Identity. General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Christian Philosemitism in England from Cromwell to the Jew Bill, 1656-1753. A Study in Jewish and Christian Identity. Rodney Malcolm Curtis University of Bristol November 2018 Christian Philosemitism in England from Cromwell to the Jew Bill, 1656-1753.
    [Show full text]
  • Dit PDF Bestand Downloaden
    tntl 124 (2008) 187-200 Henk J.M. Nellen Over doornen en distels Het gebruik van brieven als een bron voor historisch onderzoek naar aanleiding van de biografie over Hugo Grotius Abstract – The correspondence of the Dutch humanist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) is used here in a cautious attempt to characterize the status of the letter written as mail – and non-fictional in character – in the first half of the seventeenth century. It is demonstrated that, at the time, the letter played a specific role in the commu- nication process. It served as a personal, multifaceted and almost chameleonic doc- ument because, as a rule, the writer adapted subject matter, style, length and the use of polite phrases to match the relationship linking him to his correspondent. The level of confidentiality expressed in the letter varied as well, fluctuating be- tween the strict intimacy of private conversation and the openness of an official publication. Furthermore, the current article argues that the ephemeral, lapidary and often veiled information conveyed by the letter calls for an inter-textual ap- proach, i.e. a continuous confrontation with other relevant sources, particularly contemporary letters. Een veelzijdige briefwisseling De titel van deze bijdrage, ‘Over doornen en distels’, stamt uit een brief van Ma- ria van Reigersberch, de voorbeeldige echtgenote van Hugo Grotius. In deze brief beklaagde zich zij over de moeizame ballingschap die vooral op haar gezin had doorgewerkt.1 ‘De swaricheyt die de Hollanders ons hebben aenghedaen voelen wij meest in onse kinderen’, schreef ze een jaar eerder al in grote bitterheid,2 en die gemoedsgesteldheid, die veel van haar brieven kenmerkt, is maar al te goed te be- grijpen, want als de brieven van beide ouders de waarheid spreken waren hun kin- deren onopgevoed, eigenwijs, spilziek, dom en lui.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism Cliteur, P.B. Citation Cliteur, P. B. (2010). The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism. Boston: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/16692 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/16692 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). 1 Atheism, Agnosticism, and Theism Non - Religious Ethics is at a very early stage. We cannot yet predict whether, as in Mathematics, we will all reach agreement. Since we cannot know how Ethics will develop, it is not irrational to have high hopes. (Derek Parfi t, 1984) 1 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) Let us start with what people most often associate with “ the secular outlook. ” If with anything at all, they associate it with atheism. But what is atheism? Sometimes atheism is presented as a coherent worldview, encompassing all the other traditions supposedly associated with the secular outlook. On this basis the Christian theologian and physicist Alister McGrath (1953 – ) writes: “ Atheism is the religion of the autonomous and rational human being, who believes that reason is able to uncover and express the deepest truths of the universe, from the mechanics of the rising sun to the nature and fi nal destiny of humanity. ” 2 The fi rst thing that strikes us is that atheism is presented here as a “ religion.
    [Show full text]
  • Sacred Covenant and Huguenot Ideology of Resistance: the Biblical Image of the Contractual Monarchy in Vindiciae, Contra Tyrannos
    religions Article Sacred Covenant and Huguenot Ideology of Resistance: The Biblical Image of the Contractual Monarchy in Vindiciae, Contra Tyrannos Andrei Constantin Sălăvăstru Social Sciences and Humanities Research Department, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, 700506 Iasi, Romania; [email protected] Received: 8 October 2020; Accepted: 3 November 2020; Published: 6 November 2020 Abstract: The Bible had been a fundamental source of legitimacy for the French monarchy, with biblical imagery wielded as a powerful propaganda weapon in the ideological warfare which the kings of France often had to wage. All Christian monarchies tried to build around themselves a sacral aura, but the French kings had soon set themselves apart: they were the “most Christian”, anointed with holy oil brought from heaven, endowed with the power of healing, and the eldest sons of the Church. Biblical text was called upon to support this image of the monarchy, as the kings of France were depicted as following in the footsteps of the virtuous kings of the Old Testament and possessing the necessary biblical virtues. However, the Bible could prove a double-edged sword which could be turned against the monarchy, as the ideological battles unleashed by the Reformation were to prove. In search for a justification for their resistance against the French Crown, in particular after 1572, the Huguenots polemicists looked to the Bible in order to find examples of limited monarchies and overthrown tyrants. In putting forward the template of a proto-constitutional monarchy, one of the notions advanced by the Huguenots was the Biblical covenant between God, kings and the people, which imposed limits and obligations on the kings.
    [Show full text]
  • Topic 2.4: Wars of Religion
    AP® European History Study Guide Topic 2.4: Wars of Religion FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION OVERVIEW By the mid-sixteenth century, Calvinism As Protestantism spread across parts of Northern and had spread beyond Switzerland to Western Europe, religious conversions created new rifts neighboring France. French Calvinists, between monarchs and local nobles, resulting in military known as Huguenots, included leaders of conflicts that included the French Wars of Religion several powerful noble families from the (1562-1598) and the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). southern and western regions of France. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Initially, Catherine de’ Medici, who ruled France as queen regent on behalf of her The Wars of Religion in the sixteenth and seventeenth minor son, tried to accommodate the centuries represented the end of an era of religious Huguenots with limited toleration, but she conflict that had been ongoing since the start of the and her son later saw the Huguenots as a Reformation. The Thirty Years’ War was the last threat and sided with the Catholics. While major war in Europe that was fought primarily over several Protestant nobles were in Paris for a religion. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) shifted the wedding in 1572, Catholics killed thousands Balance of Power away from the Habsburg family and established the right of Christian religious of Protestants in what became known as minorities to practice their faith in private. the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. When the French king died without an KEY TERMS heir in 1589, the throne passed to Henry Henry IV of France, depicted as Hercules of Navarre, a leader of the Huguenot faction, who reigned as Henry IV.
    [Show full text]