Calvinists and Catholics During Holland's Golden Age: Heretics and Idolaters. By Christine Kooi. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. ix + 246 pp. $103.00 hardback.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Calvinists and Catholics During Holland's Golden Age: Heretics and Idolaters . By Christine Kooi . New York : Cambridge University Press , 2012. ix + 246 pp. $103.00 hardback.Book Reviews and NotesNoting the multi-confessional Dutch society, Kooi describes the interconfessional conviviality (4) of Catholics and Calvinists as they operated together in a pluriform society. Confessional coexistence forged a unique living experience during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Kooi studies this by outlining how the Catholics and Reformed interacted in three distinct arenas: confessional space, civic space, and private space (11-12).In chapter 1, Kooi identifies the historical context that birthed the heterogeneous landscape. The Netherlands, revolting against Catholic Spain, became the new Dutch Republic under William of Orange. The political upheaval fueled religious antagonism, bringing both the disestablishment of the Catholic church in the 1570s and the creation of a Reformed state church. Uniquely, however, the new Dutch Republic was committed to private freedom of conscience yet formally allowed only one official church--the Reformed. The Catholic contingency was therefore in one sense illegal but in another allowed. Kooi summarizes this well: one could profess personally but not practice publically (31).Chapter 2 explains the interaction that occurred in confessional space, especially during the high points of confessional development throughout 1620-1660. The Catholic contingent, despite technical illegality (53), was organized as the Holland Mission. Services were private, and altars were portable. During this time, Reformed opposition continued, but it was really limited to the realm of rhetoric, such as the printing of pamphlets and placards. Confessions were used for not simply condemning but distinguishing and demarcating between groups (109).The local magistrates maintained public peace in the civic space, which Kooi handles in chapter 3. Officially, and nationally, Catholicism was outlawed; yet, locally it was tolerated --though, likely this term is too optimistic and problematic to be used, at least in the sense it is understood today (22, 92). Across the six major cities this was on a continuum, with Amsterdam and Haarlem being the most lenient and Dordrecht being the least accommodating. The latter, as Kooi notes, is not surprising given the city's penchant for Reformed orthodoxy (117). Kooi demonstrates how the machinery that allowed Catholic existence developed quickly (103). Recognition money made invisibility [for Catholics] in civic space possible through official connivance (105). Though wrestling through turmoil for decades, by 1660 Catholics and Calvinists were in a state of relatively peaceful coexistence (125).Confessional adherents from either side were able to traverse what was at best only a semi-permeable dividing line. This is surveyed in chapter 4, where Kooi details conversion accounts and statistics from both the Catholic and Reformed perspectives. Missionary activity was the lifeblood of the Catholic Holland Mission--by definition a proselytizing body (153). The klopjes, women who lived communally but did not take vows--perhaps numbering five thousand strong by the end of the seventeenth century--were instrumental in advancing the Catholic cause. …