Abstract
Abstract This article uses unpublished exile sermons exhumed from the Leiden manuscripts, theological dissertations, and synodal sources to explore the interfaith relationships of exiled societies in the Dutch Republic, in particular the links between Huguenot refugees and their multi-confessional host society. It examines how ministers viewed the exiles’ relationships with the other, as well as the theological motives for stigmatising such ties. By studying confessional interactions of competition and mutual attraction within the Refuge, this essay highlights the porous nature of religious boundaries, despite the Huguenot community’s isolate claimed by the ministers. It also reveals latent conflicts between diasporic societies: the United Provinces were not a peaceful asylum for the Reformed faith of refugees, but rather the scene of a counter-Catholic struggle that stretched even into the Spanish Netherlands. Finally, this survey shows that exile revived proselytist projects aimed at French-speaking Jews and supported extraterritorial religious struggles in the eighteenth century.
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