The prince of Orange's brilliant compromise with religion in the Netherlands

The flexible Orange and the rigid Calvinists. Religious pragmatism in the Early Modern period part 2: The Netherlands. How religious toleration came about and turned out to work quite well.

This article is about pragmatic motives for religious toleration in the Netherlands around 1600.

In 16th century France, as we saw last time, the debate was mainly about multiple religions in one kingdom. Most people did not like the idea of religious diversity, but the Protestant minority had become so large that oppression seemed impossible. If things …