throughout Holland but one note of joy: "Thanks be unto
the Lord who hath delivered the nation from the ruin which it had
prepared for itself, and into which infidelity had thrust it!"

FOOTNOTES:

[89] Owenusters.

[90] "Jedere Ketter heeft zyn Letter."

[91] Extract from a letter of Rev. P. J. Hoedemaker, dated September,
1864. The correspondence of this accomplished scholar, who has been some
time in connection with the University of Utrecht and in intimate
relations with the best minds of Holland, has been invaluable to us in
the preparation of the Chapters on Dutch Theology.

CHAPTER XV.

HOLLAND CONTINUED: THE NEW THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS, AND THE GREAT
CONTROVERSY NOW PENDING BETWEEN ORTHODOXY AND RATIONALISM.

The commencement of the new era in the religion and politics of Europe
was the restoration of peace after the battle of Waterloo. Wherever the
French bayonet had won territory to the sceptre of Napoleon, it opened a
new and unobstructed sway for the propagation of the skepticism taught
by the followers of Voltaire. But the same blow that repulsed the armies
of France produced an equally disastrous effect upon her infidelity. A
sincere desire began to animate many persons living in the subjugated
countries that, with the restoration of their nationality, there should
also be the return of the pure faith of their fathers.

Holland had passed through nineteen years of humiliating subjugation,
and she did not possess religious vitality enough to take full advantage
of the rare opportunity presented by the peace of 1814. The people
turned from France to Germany, and thought they found relief in the
Rationalism of Semler and Paulus.

Orthodoxy was inactive. The Mennonites had become so mystical that they
rather aided than arrested the incoming error. All the Socinian elements
gained strength. The discipline of the church was exercised with such
laxity that immorality was unrebuked. The Constitution of 1816, by its
reunion of church and state, threw a great weight in the balance with
Rationalism. William of Orange wielded a power over the church which he
dared not exercise upon any other corporation. The Synods and Classes
were driven back to forms, and allowed almost no freedom. Then came the
notorious Pastoral Declaration, established by the Synod of the Hague in
1816, which no longer required of candidates for the ministry an
unqualified subscription to the ancient Confessions. Their adherence