In Conclusion: Authority And Order

Unity in religion was generally accepted to be a precondition for lasting peace and unity in the state. Religious truces were only temporary solutions to local problems. In Holland, William maintained a church that he regarded as the guardian of a universal Christianity. In the late sixteenth century it was far from naive to desire religious unity, and far from utopian to think that a religious disputation would further this cause. In a European perspective, the religious disputations in Leiden and The Hague hardly stood out. Coornhert initiated a controversy concerning the public church that was injurious to the authority of the States and threatened to undermine the political-religious settlement. The purpose of the debates in Leiden and The Hague was to legitimize, in adverse conditions, government support for the Reformed Church and its teachings. Keywords: authority; Holland; Leiden; political-religious settlement; Reformed Church; religious unity; universal Christianity; William