The francophone history of the Netherlands is often described in terms of tolerance for religion. The Dutch generously received Huguenot refugees in the 18th century.
Based on the huge influence of both the Walloone Calvinists in the 16th century (first two Dutch Reformed Synods were bilingual) and the direct link between Guillaume d'Orange and French Huguenots it might be more helpful to propose a different reading; The Bilingual Republic.
So many hard to understand facts of Dutch history fall into place once we accept this heuristic. But let's add Emden to the mix. At the 1571 Emden Synod three documents were adopted:
'The synod affirmed the presbyterian character of the Reformed Church, organized churches within a geographical region into "classes", adopted the 1561 Confession of Faith (later known as the Belgic Confession), and approved use of the Heidelberg Catechism in Dutch-speaking congregations while promoting the Geneva Catechism for French-speaking churches'The bilingual character of the Dutch Church is obvious from this short statement. The influence of Petrus Datheen is ...
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