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John Robinson and the Dutch Reformed Church
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Whilst the English Separatists and Non-Separating Independents, the forerunners of the congregationalists as delineated by Dexter, Arber, Powicke, Burrage, and more lately by Miller and Stearns, were conducting their internecine warfare in the Netherlands in the early seventeenth century, the Dutch Reformed Church was also going through difficult times. John Robinson, who came to the Netherlands in 1606, and whose ‘broadly tolerant mind’ and ‘undying spirit’ ‘dominate the consciences of a mighty nation in the land beyond the seas,’ as is stated on the plaque to his memory inside the mighty Pieterskerk in Leiden, was truly ecumenical. For not only did he deplore the disputes of the Congregationalists among themselves, but also their hostility to the Dutch Reformed Church and its English branches, such as that at Amsterdam.
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1966
References
Page 232 of note 1 Dexter, H. M., The Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, as Seen in Its Literature, New York 1880, especially Lectures V & VI Google Scholar. , H. M. & Dexter, M., England and Holland of the Pilgrims, Boston and New York1 1905, especially Books V & VI Google Scholar.
Page 232 of note 2 Arber, E., The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1606-1623, London 1897 Google Scholar.
Page 232 of note 3 Powicke, F. J., Henry Barrow and the Exiled Church at Amsterdam, London 1900 Google Scholar. F. J. Powicke, John Robinson, London 1920.
Page 232 of note 4 Burrage, C., The Early English Dissenters in the light of Recent Research, Cambridge 1912 Google Scholar.
Page 232 of note 5 Miller, P., Orthodoxy in Massachussetts, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1933 Google Scholar.
Page 232 of note 6 Steams, R. P., Congregationalism in the Dutch Netherlands, Chicago 1940 Google Scholar.
Page 233 of note 1 J. Toulmin (ed.), Mr. Neal’s History of the Puritans, Bath 1794, II, 46-7, 120-1.
On p. 46 Neal states that although Robinson upheld ‘the lawfulness and necessitie of separation’ from the reformed churches, he held these all the same to be ‘true churches.’
Page 233 of note 2 Brook, B., Lives of the Puritans, London 1813, II, 334-44Google Scholar. On p. 337 Robinson is described as ‘a semi-separatist’.
Page 234 of note 1 Op. cit., Chap. I, 1-40.
Page 234 of note 2 ib., Chap. II, 40-98.
Page 234 of note 3 ib., Chap. III, 99-124.
Page 234 of note 4 ib., Chap. IV, 125-135.
Page 234 of note 5 ib., 126.
Page 234 of note 6 ib., Chap. V, 135-147.
Page 234 of note 7 ib. 150-1. Cf. Powicke, Robinson, p. 52, summarizing Robinson’s view, in A Just and Necessarie Apologie of certain Christians. . . [Leiden (?) 1625] on Baptism.
Page 234 of note 8 The English Reformed Church in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century, Amsterdam 1964, Part I, Chap. IV.
Page 234 of note 9 Defence, 155.
Page 235 of note 1 An Answer to Two Treatises of John, Mr. Can[ne],the Leader of the English Brownish in Amsterdam, the former called ‘A Necessitie of Separation from the Church of England, proved by the Non Conformists’ Principles’. The other ‘A Stay against Straying, wherein in Opposition to Mr. John Robinson he undertakes to prove the unlawfulness of hearing the Ministers of the Church of England, London 1642, Part I, 141 Google Scholar.
Page 235 of note 2 And especially J. Calvin, Ep[istolae] Col [lectenna], 170, 478.
Page 235 of note 3 These letters, in an envelope docketted ‘John Robinson’ in a late nine teenth century hand, are in the archives of the Begynhof Church, recently deposited at the Gemeente Archief, Amsterdam.
Page 236 of note 1 pp. 592-3. cf. Plooij, J., The Pilgrim Fathers from a Dutch Point of View, New York 1932, 51-3Google Scholar. In Dexter it is noted (op. cit., 593) that Robinson ‘grew increasingly liberal in mind with advancing years’.
Page 237 of note 1 Arber, op. cit., 227. Plooij, op. cit., 236, n. 1.
Page 237 of note 2 A. C. Carter, ‘The Ministry to the English Churches in the Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century,’ Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 1960.
Page 237 of note 3 All Acta of classes and Synods in Amsterdam, and those printed, are in Dutch.
Page 237 of note 4 Carter, op. cit., 234, n. 8. Part I, Ch. III.
Page 237 of note 5 Eekhof, A., Three Unknown Documents concerning the Pilgrim Fathers in Holland, The Hague 1920, 8–17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
Page 238 of note 1 Op. cit., 88-9.
Page 238 of note 2 Paget, J., An Arrow Against the Separation of the Brownists, Amsterdam 1618, 39 Google Scholar.
Page 238 of note 3 Robinson, J., Observations Divine and Moral, Leiden 1625, 39 Google Scholar.
Page 239 of note 1 ib., 44.
Page 239 of note 2 ib., 45.
Page 239 of note 3 Geyl, P., The Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century, London 1961, Part I, especially pp. 38–84 Google Scholar. Cf. Plooij, op. cit., 51-2.
Page 239 of note 4 Observations, 47.
Page 239 of note 5 Cf. Powicke, Robinson, 115-6.
Page 240 of note 1 Bernard, R., Christian Advertisements and Counsels of Peace, London 1608 Google Scholar. Cf. Dexter, Congregationalism, Appendix, 22, 24.
Page 240 of note 2 op. cit., 112
Page 240 of note 3 op. cit., 11-12.
Page 240 of note 4 Pub. 1614; preface, final paragraph.
Page 240 of note 5 An Answer to John Robinson of Leyden (sic) by a Puritan Friend, Harvard Theological Studies, IX, 1920.
Page 240 of note 6 Jones MS. 30.
Page 241 of note 1 Resolution Book of Ruling and Former Burgomasters, 20 January 1617.
Page 241 of note 2 Plooij, loc cit. Cf. Ant. Walaeus, Opera Omnia, Leiden 1647,1, 467, De Senioribus, ‘Eorum .... [sc. senioribus] duo genera regentes et docentes.’ G. D. J. Schotel, De Openbare Eeredienst der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk, 2nd ed., Leiden post 1900, a handy constitutional and institutional study, does not emphasise the distinction. Cf. 305-9, and especially 308, also authorities cited on 429.
Page 241 of note 3 Powicke, Robinson, 55, summarizing Robinson’s passages on the Eldership in A just and Necessarie Apologie of certain Christians, states that all the elders must be apt to teach as well as to govern.’ The advice to Brewster seems clear, but Robinson advises ‘consilium capere in arena.’