The Protestant Reformation in the Low Countries: Developments in Twentieth-Century Historiography

Abstract

The twentieth-century historiography of the Protestant Reformation in the Netherlands (1520-1620) reflects four major shifts in approach: from a partisan or compartmentalized to a neutral and from a chiefly theological to an integrated approach, from a national to an international perspective, and from a focus on the national to one on the local and regional level. Moreover, the increasing multidisciplinarity within the field has resulted in a broadening of the range of sources and a discussion on the academic position of church history. These shifts mirror contemporary socio-cultural changes, such as depillarization, ecumenism, and internationalization. The concept developed by Juliaan Woltjer (1962) of a large and heterogenuous middle group of ‘Protestantizing’ Catholics between small groups of fervent Protestants and conservative Catholics caused a watershed in the research. These moderate Catholics proved a significant factor in local politics, depending on the extent to which they were loyal to the church leaders or allowed themselves to be driven into the arms of the Protestants by the unbending authorities. Woltjer initiated ongoing research into the interaction between church and state and into the fundamental multiformity and the ‘fourth stream’ in the Dutch Reformation: the amalgam of spiritualist objectors to institutionalized religiosity.