The Reformation of Community: Social Welfare and Calvinist Charity in Holland, 1572–1620

by Charles H. Parker

• ISBN13: 9780521025409
• ISBN10: 0521025400
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

By the time of the Calvinist Reformation, the cities of Holland had established a very long tradition of social provision for the poor in the civic community. Calvinists however intended to care for their own church members, who were by definition 'within the household of faith', through the deaconate, a confessional relief agency. This book examines the relationship between municipal and ecclesiastical relief agencies in the six chief cities of Holland - Dordrecht, Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Amsterdam and Gouda - from the public establishment of the Reformed Church in 1572 to the aftermath of the Synod of Dort. The author argues that the conflict between charitable organizations reveal competing conceptions of Christian community that came to the fore as a result of the Dutch Reformation. This is the first comparative study of poor relief in Holland, which contributes to our understanding of the Reformation throughout Europe.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

2. The municipal community and parish charity in late medieval Holland

3. The civic community and poor relief, 1500-1614

4. Poor relief in a confessional community: the creation of the Dutch Reformed diaconate, 1566-1578

5. The dynamics of the Reformed community: discipline and poor relief, 1572-1620

6. Municipal welfare and the Calvinist diaconate, 1572-1620

7. The pillars of a new society: religious pluralism and confessional identity in Reformation Holland

Bibliography

Index.