The Restricted Eschaton of the Dutch Roman Catholics in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Abstract

What did the eschaton of the Dutch Roman Catholics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries look like? That is the question I will attempt to answer in this article. Before doing so, I should like to note that it is essential to know the expectations, eschatological and otherwise, of a group to get to know its mentality. It is difficult, however, to gauge the nature of expectations and the way in which they operate and it is impossible to arrive at exact ‘measurements’. This article will therefore above all be concerned with the way in which expectations were nourished by doctrinal and devotional books. In addition, it will also refer to the literature about the history of the so-called Dutch Mission—the Roman Catholic Church in the Republic of the United Provinces—in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.