Introduction

As has been well established and is described briefly in the introduction of this volume, the early modern Low Countries were remarkably diverse in terms of religious confessions. While the Reformed Church was clearly the privileged church in the Dutch Republic, other religious groups included Catholics, Jews, Muslims, any number of Anabaptist groups, and, later, Remonstrants. In the consistory records researched for this book, by far the most common other religious confessions were Catholics and Anabaptists; those two groups will be the focus of this chapter.

The relationship between Reformed consistories and Catholics or Anabaptists has been the focus of several academic studies. This chapter contributes a focus on rural communities and their unique strategies for navigating confessional relationships. As noted in my introduction, the majority of scholarship on confessional interactions in the Low Countries has focused on urban centers and the province of Holland. This chapter considers two rural Reformed congregations: the Reformed churches in Arnemuiden and in Sluis. These churches demonstrate that religious life in rural communities presented opportunities and challenges unlike those confronted by urban churches. With small populations that could foster more intimate relationships and less anonymity, how did Reformed churches approach confessional competition? Were individuals of other confessions treated more leniently since they were part of the small community, or were such individuals more harshly expunged from the community? What sorts of offenses were present?