How did the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) find its way into the northern ‘Low lands’, the present-day Netherlands? Surprisingly, when the 400^th anniversary of the HC was commemorated fifty years ago, this question received very little attention. In this contribution we will trace the way in which the Catechism found its way from Heidelberg into the Netherlands.

‘In Many Christian Congregations of the Netherlands’⤒🔗

Early in 1567, a package was sent from Deventer in the northern province of Overijssel to Antwerp, the largest city in the southern Netherlands (now Belgium). It contained hundreds of copies of the northern edition of the HC, which rolled from the presses in the same year as the Spanish Duke of Alba and his ‘Blood Tribunal’, which persecuted protestants with a ‘Spanish Inquisition’, made their entry. The title page of the Deventer edition explained that the doctrine set out in the Catechism had already been ‘...introduced, propagated and taught in many Christian congregations of the Netherlands’ (in veelen christelicken ghemeinten der Nederlanden, aenghevanghen is, ghedreven ende gheleert wordt).

Upon Alba’s arrival, the provinces of Holland and Zeeland were the first to rise in revolt. Dordrecht, the largest city of Holland, was soon liberated, and without delay the printing presses began to roll there also. Here – and shortly after in Leiden – the Catechism was published. By 1584, the year of Antwerp’s fall and the division between the northern and southern Netherlands, as many as 30 editions of the HC in the Dutch language saw the light of day. At least 23 editions were printed in the north, most of them in the heartland of the rebellion: Delft, Leiden, Dordrecht and Rotterdam.

In 1574, soon after the provinces of Holland took the side of the Prince of Orange, the churches there convened a provincial synod in Dordrecht. It was agreed that all churches would adopt the same catechism, that of Heidelberg. In addition, the decision was made to preach from the Catechism, and that all ministers would, by rotation, participate in a programme of training to expound the HC. This was done so that ministers might support each other in Catechism preaching, in order to strengthen the quality of this preaching. Moreover, ministers were charged to ensure that schoolmasters teach the HC to their students. In this early period, the Catechism sermon was sometimes preceded by a cycle of public reading of one-fifth of the 52 Lord’s Days. This reading from the pulpit of the five ‘Capita Religionis’ was intended to ensure that everyone, young and old, became familiar with the confession of the Church.

These decisions of Dort in relation to the Catechism preaching were in line with existing practice. In 1566, the year of the ‘Beeldenstorm’, Pieter Gabriel of Amsterdam, had at great risk to his life preached from the Catechism in open-air services each Sunday. Under the leadership of Jan Arentsz, a former itinerant open-air preacher, the Synod of North-Holland had agreed that henceforth all the northern churches would use the HC as a book of instruction. It was to be taught to all children in the schools. The same practice was also introduced in the province of South-Holland.

In Dordrecht, the Catechism had been expounded in the afternoon services from an early date. (Even so, the city governors did, for some time, protect one minister who had ceased such preaching.) Ten years later, however, Jeremias Bastingius, one of Dordrecht’s ministers and a student of Zacharias Ursinus, published his extensive commentary, Verclaringe op den catechisme (Exposition of the Catechism),¹ which was to become widely known. In rural areas, the introduction of Catechism preaching was less smooth. In the province of Gelderland, rural ministers were admonished because many of them neglected the Sunday afternoon preaching from the Catechism. The same occurred in the 1580s in many places within the classis of Rotterdam.

In 1593, Gouda was still resisting the trend. The preachers there were urged to continue with Catechism preaching, just as the other churches were doing, as long as even one child might attend who could recite the answers.

‘In order that the little children might be instructed in the Catechism’←⤒🔗

The exhortation directed at the ministers of Gouda illustrates the custom that children attended the worship services, listened to the Catechism sermons, and were examined during the service on their knowledge of the Catechism. The need was seen for instruction in the chief parts of Reformed doctrine, in order that young people might come to profession of faith. After the minister, the schoolmaster was seen as the most important link in this chain. He was an important instrument in the hands of the classis to ensure the acceptance of Reformed doctrine. Where schoolmasters neglected this aspect of Reformed education, admonition by the classis inevitably followed.

In the smaller villages where there were no schoolmasters, the ministers themselves took up this task ‘...in order that the little children might be brought up in the fear of the Lord, and instructed in the Catechism’ (‘Opdat de kynderkens in der vresen des Heeren opgetogen ende in den Cathecismo geleert mochten worden’).

From the very beginning, the Reformed churches – often in collaboration with the civil authority – had been intensively involved with religious instruction. The States of Friesland instructed ministers and classes to diligently ensure that schoolmasters guided the children in their church attendance, and to ensure that their knowledge of the Catechism was properly tested in the services. Some minutes of Frisian church councils even note the number of children who were able to recite the answers. The classis of Rotterdam agreed with a civil school regulation which stipulated that children of Anabaptists could be enrolled in the schools if they were able to learn the Catechism and accompany the schoolmaster to church, but that those whose parents withheld consent should not be admitted.

At the same time, within the classical region of Dordrecht there remained some resistance to instruction in the Catechism at school. In some villages, parents kept their children home from school because the schoolmasters there wished to instruct them in the Catechism.

Preserving the Quality of the Catechism Preaching←⤒🔗

Sound preaching of the Catechism requires solid preparation. One of the means of achieving this was the adoption of resolutions that sermon proposals on the catechism be regularly presented before classis. This practice occurred in all provinces. Within the classes of Overijssel, ministers met each Monday for this purpose. The evaluation of these proposals included consideration whether the sermon was really guided by the questions and answers of the part of the Catechism being dealt with, and whether the sermon was thorough, edifying, and Scriptural. In practice, however, the decisions made in this regard were not always followed up. In the classis of Dordrecht, the evaluation of sermon proposals was already being crowded out in the early 1580s. The same occurred in the classis of Gorinchem. In the early years, instructions to this effect were still noted, but the execution of such decisions was only sporadically recorded. The classis of Sneek, in Friesland, took a different approach. Here, the practice of a regular disputation, a discussion concerning the content of the Catechism, was adopted, which was already the rule at the Franeker Academy, beginning with the first question and answer. It appears, however, that this idea, while readily accepted, never made much progress beyond the planning stage. The intentions of the classes to discuss themes from the Catechism proved to be beyond their reach.

Ecclesiastical examinations of candidates for the ministry were another important safeguard for the quality of the Catechism preaching. A booklet used as part of preparatory examinations, with 150 questions, has been preserved. The Catechism was used as a guide for these classis examinations. Simply repeating the answer given in the Catechism was not sufficient: at each point the positions taken were to be defended, and supported with evidence from Scripture. Broad connections had to be understood, and any objections raised by the examiners were to be answered.

Similarly, in the region of Holland, it was stipulated that candidates would not be allowed to present sermon proposals unless they had first been ‘sharply’ examined concerning the Catechism. The candidate was required not only to recite the text from memory but also to explain the sense and meaning of its words and expressions, and support them with references from Scripture.

The quality of Catechism preaching was also linked to the size and quality of the ministers’ libraries. In 1601, one of the ministers in the classis of Nijmegen was reprimanded for not having a satisfactory library. He was instructed to purchase, at his own expense, a copy of Ursinus’ Latin commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, along with Bullinger’s Huysboeck (consisting of 50 sermons) and Spindler’s Postilla. A second minister, whose sermon proposal was judged to be unsatisfactory, was directed to study diligently, and to ensure that he thoroughly understood the text of the Catechism, in order that his audience might be truly instructed and edified. He too was required to purchase copies of the aforesaid books.

A year later (1602), the classis of Nijmegen proposed an even more farreaching action to improve the preaching. It was deemed advisable that each classis not have just one, but two sermon proposals on the Catechism, one at the beginning of the meeting, and another at the end. Here too, however, there was a large disparity between the expressed intention and its practical execution: the rules adopted by the classis set high standards, but the practice proved to be resistant to improvement.

The Heidelberg Catechism, Object of Study and Discussion←⤒🔗

From the beginning, the status of the Heidelberg Catechism as a confessional document was the object of discussion. In most provinces, proposals for revision of the text met with strong reluctance, since the Catechism was widely regarded as fully Scriptural.

A polemical publication from a Roman Catholic source, the Catholijcke Catechismus of 1594, gives an entirely different evaluation. According to its author, the Heidelberg Catechism was replete with ‘ignorant disregard of Scripture’ (schriftshoorich onverstant); its doctrine had been ‘brought up from hell’ (van der helle gebrocht) and had its source ‘in Lucifer’. The Catechism is characterized as a ‘Pseudechismus, Parechismus and Antichismus’. In other words, as anything but a real catechism.

With regard to discussion of the Catechism, the first collection of Catechism sermons in the Dutch language, published in 1588 by Johannes Gerobulus, is worthy of note. Entitled Vier ende vijftich predication, (‘Fifty-four sermons’) it includes as an appendix Gerobulus’ Censuren ofte berispingen over den christelijken Catechismus (‘Censures or reprimands concerning the Christian Catechism’). This appendix consists of a public defence of both the Catechism itself, as well as its use in the preaching. Apparently, towards the end of the 1580s there was a need for such a defence. In turn, this defence of the Catechism provoked a critical rejection by the humanist-spiritualist Dirck Volkertszn Coornhert in his Dolingen des Catechismi (‘Errors of the Catechisms’, 1590). Toward the end of the 16^th century, the first set of commentaries on the Catechism appeared: Wtlegghinge des catechismi der gereformeerde Christelicke Kercke in Neerduytslandt, (Explanation of the Catechism of the Reformed Christian churches in the Netherlands), a large volume of 860 pages by Cornelis Corstens. In his preface to this earliest exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism, Corstens emphasizes the continuing need for instruction in the Catechism. All Christians must train themselves in the foundations of Reformed doctrine, for ignorance is dangerous: it leaves believers vulnerable to the attractions of sectarianism and a worldly life-style.

Around the same time, some members of the congregation in Delft took the initiative for regular mutual edification by means of the Catechism. They asked the church council for permission to meet each Sunday after the morning service, to train themselves in the Word of God by discussing the questions and answers of the Catechism. The council granted its permission to this form of Bible study and mutual training in the faith, on condition that a minister was present. In his absence, the participants could study Bastingius’ Verclaringe op den Catechisme (Expositionof the Catechism) instead.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

This contribution shows how, already within the 16^th century, the Heidelberg Catechism filled an important role in the Netherlands: in ecclesiastical examinations, in the Sunday preaching and recitation during the worship services, and in the catechesis at school. From the very beginning, the Reformed churches involved themselves intensively in religious instruction. Ecclesiastical assemblies set high standards in safeguarding the quality of preaching and instruction, although they were rather less successful in putting these standards into practice. From the beginning, the Heidelberg Catechism was the object of study and discussion, throughout the Netherlands.

Taken together, this evidence clearly shows that the Catechism of Heidelberg filled a pivotal role in the Netherlands, in defining and shaping its Reformed identity.