I
Kenny A. J. Macco
I By Kenny A. J. Macco
Prof. Dr. Geert Janssen
Second reader: Dr. Samuel Kruizinga University of Amsterdam
August 2019 19,509 words
Cover: Blurred adaptation and excerpt of Maarten van Heemskerck’s (1539-43), St. Lawrence
Altarpiece. Permanent Collection of Linköping Cathedral, Denmark.
‘Mijn Schilt ende betrouwen, Sijt Ghy, o Godt mijn Heer; Op U soo wil ick bouwen, Verlaet my nemmermeer. Dat ick doch vroom mach blijven, U dienaer taller stondt, Die tyranny verdrijven, Die my mijn hert doorwondt. (...) Als David moeste vluchten, Voor Saul den tyran, Soo heb ick moeten suchten, Met menich edelman; Maer Godt heeft hem verheven, Verlost uut alder noot, Een Coninckrijck ghegheven, In Israel seer groot.’
II was divided into four subquestions. The first asked is whether violence – a fundamental precondition for terrorism – was legitimized. Four influential writers with a history of exile and a selection of propaganda material were studied. Violence was barely legitimized by the selected writers, except for Aldegonde, but it was in propaganda. The religious, political, and economic grievances were similar in these sources and align with the literature about the contextual background of the Dutch Revolt. The second question asked whether cases of terrorism can be found between 1566 and 1584. Following the conceptual definition of Alex Schmid, an open approach became possible (similar to Marc Juergensmeyer’s approach) and cases of terrorism were indeed found. The third question referred to Habsburg policies in order to counter and/ or prevent violence (terrorism). These policies were often repressive and harsh. Consequently, instead of countering terrorism, this approach only deepened grievances and legitimized the rebel cause. The final question referred to the role of exile in violent radicalization. The question whether exile experience played a role in the violent radicalization of terrorists has been nuanced by applying four arguments. The first argument questioned the proposed causality. Different Beggars are exemplary for the fact that violent radicalization happened before their flight. The second argument nuanced the assumption of violent radicalization. The majority of exiles did not radicalize violently. Thirdly, focusing on the elite increases the plausibility of an alternative explanation: many elitist rebels had to flee in order to prevent persecution. Furthermore, those fleeing were often the most active, enterprising, radical, and were part of a social network and material means enabling their flight. A final argument diversified the influence of exile temporally. In the 1570s, the Protestant organization in exile came under the influence of other radicalized exiles. From then on, new refugees arrived among aggrieved individuals, some of them readying themselves for violent revenge. It is plausible that the influence of exile increased from then on. Furthermore, a connection between exile experience and violent radicalization of Catholic refugees is more plausible due to the circumstances and the role of the Jesuits. The endeavor to drive evil and darkness out and establish a just social, political and economic order fell within a religious framework. How the circumstances were interpreted and coped with depended on the positionality of the actors involved. To conclude then, this thesis shows that Early Modern terrorism in the Low Countries was ultimately influenced by a religious framework (macro), while economic and political (meso and micro) factors played important proximate roles among terrorists. The terrorists and the Habsburg regime were similar in their approach in that both fought against their perception of evil, summarized by the emblem Philip II got in his cradle: Donec Auferatur Luna.
III
I) Theory and Concepts ... 4
A) Defining Terrorism ... 6
B) Counterterrorism and Violent Radicalization ... 7
C) Debating Violent Radicalization in Exile ... 9
D) Overview Thesis ... 13
II) Justifying Violence ... 14
A) The Road to Rebellion ... 14
B) Justifying Violence and Rebellion ... 22
C) The Role of Violence in Propaganda ... 31
III) Terrorism and Counterterrorism in the Low Countries ... 36
A) Iconoclasm (1566) as Terrorism ... 36
B) The Beggars and the Spread of Violent Rebellion ... 39
C) Terrorism during the Counter-Reformation... 49
D) Habsburg Policies of Counterterrorism ... 55
IV) Discussing Exile Influence on Violent Radicalization/ Terrorism ... 60
A) The Assumption of Causality ... 61
B) The Assumption of Violent Radicalization ... 67
C) Elitist Myopia in Relation to the Beggars ... 73
D) Temporal Nuance ... 75
Conclusion and Discussion ... 77
1
Introduction
Until recently there was a consensus among terrorism researchers that this sort of violence is typically modern.1 Different contemporary terrorism scholars pushed the frontier of terrorism research by exploring its application before the revolutionary Jacobin La Terreur-regime, on which the term ‘terrorism’ is inspired.2 These contemporary scholars perceive terrorism as a universal phenomenon and limit the influence of La Terreur to the term alone.3 A necessary though insufficient precondition for terrorism is violent radicalization.4 Different scholars argued that exile had a generally radicalizing influence on those who helped organize the Dutch Revolt.5 However, a nexus between exile and ‘violent’ radicalization has barely been studied. In this thesis, both terrorism and the plausibility of a nexus between exile and terrorism will be explored among Protestants and Catholics in the Early Modern Low Countries (1566-1584). Both the monopolization of terrorism by modernity and the plausibility of a nexus with exile is questioned critically in this thesis. Terrorism and exile are important in contemporary western societies so that this study might be valuable input for contemporary challenges. The exploration starts by asking the following research question: ‘Can terrorism be traced in the Early Modern Low Countries (1566-1584), and did exile experience play a role in this?’
The different chapters in this thesis serve as building blocks and four subquestions are discussed chronologically. The first chapter serves as the foundation for this thesis. It discusses and proposes a universal definition for terrorism in section A, while counterterrorism and violent radicalization are discussed and defined in section B. A separate and extended discussion of the definition is necessary, due to the contested nature of terrorism and in order to anticipate on expected objections that studying pre-modern terrorism is anachronistic. Section C describes different theoretical positions in relation to exile experience and its
1 Standard narrative according to Carola Dietze, Die Erfindung des Terrorismus in Europa, Russland und
den USA 1858-1866 (Hamburg 2016).
2
Timothy Tackett, The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution (Cambridge 2015). 3
David Rapoport’s longue durée study is one example. Other examples are Robert Appelbaum’s
4 Alex P. Schmid, ‘Chapter 2: The Definition of Terrorism.’ In The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism
Research, edited by Alex P. Schmid (New York 2011), 86.
5
2 supposed nexus with the (violent) radicalization of Dutch Protestants and Catholics at the onset and during the first decades of the Dutch Revolt (1566-1584). Chapters two, three, and four chronologically treat the four subquestions. In the second chapter determines how violence was justified in the context leading to the Dutch Revolt because violence is a necessary precondition for terrorism.6 In section A the context is described, and in section B four Early Modern influential writers are analyzed to assess whether and how they legitimized violence against the Habsburg government. These writers are Philips of Marnix of Saint-Aldegonde (1540-1598), Adrianus Haemstedius (ca. 1525-1562), Dirck Volkertsz. Coornhert (1522-1590), and Justus Lipsius (1547–1606). In section C, a sample of Dutch cultural expressions is analyzed. Together they provide the answer on the first subquestion, namely whether and how violence was legitimized in the Dutch context.
In chapter three a selection of different actors and cases are analyzed in order to establish whether Early Modern Terrorism can be found in the Low Countries. This helps to answer the second subquestion which is done in section A: ‘Are there cases that can be labeled Early Modern terrorism in the Low Countries (1566-1584)?’ In chapter three the type of policies the Habsburg government applied to counter this violence is assessed. This is the input necessary to answer subquestion three which is done in section B: ‘If there are cases of terrorism in the Early Modern Low Countries (1566-1584), what type of counter-terrorist policies were applied by the Habsburg government?’ The fourth subquestion is the following: ‘Did exile experience play a role in violent radicalization, and if so, what was this role?’ Violent radicalization is important because it is a necessary though on itself insufficient precondition before an individual perpetrates a violent/ terrorist act.7 The plausibility of exile experience playing a role in violent radicalization is discussed in chapter four by discussing four arguments divided into separate sections. These arguments are related to the assumption of causality, the assumption of violent radicalization, an elitist approach, and a temporal differentiation.
6
It corresponds with the social identity of terrorists as proposed by Marc Sageman, or understanding what Juergensmeyer labeled the symbolic aspects of terrorism and the audience terrorists wished to reach in their selected theatre.
7
3 The sources studied to help answer these questions are varied. Firstly, secondary literature of different fundamental themes was studied.8 Secondly, primary works and letters of different writers and philosophers who went into exile were analyzed, both on their approach to violence and on the influence of exile. Thirdly, a sample of pamphlets, songs, and administrative accounts in the period 1566-1584 was analyzed. Because rebellion and exile are highly stressful situations, a psychological approach helped deepen the analyses.9 Coping
Mechanism is qualitatively analyzed by interpreting the context in relation to violent acts/
terrorism. Coping mechanism presupposes that individuals seek significance and wish to make meaning out of stressful situations.10 According to Paul Wong, Lilian Wong, and Carolyn Scott, dealing with stress is universal, but the way individuals cope with stressful situations (like war and repression), is structurally influenced by culture and context. This is something other foundational scholars in relation to the psychology of stress (like Lazarus, Folkman, and Charles Snyder) did not take into account.11 Stress and coping mechanism are interpreted from the primary sources in relation to the context in the Low Countries (1566-1584).
According to Eleftheriadou, violent radicalization contains different layers, namely micro (personal victimization and/ or grievances, possibly leading to exile), meso (violent/ radical groups connected to the refugees, level of political organization, presence of militants), and macro (political, religious, ethnic, socioeconomic societal rifts).12 Micro-analyses help to give the actors their agency back. Other influences are socioeconomic indicators (living conditions, crime and safety, discrimination), settlement patterns (whether one lives urban and
8
Namely (counter-) terrorism, Protestant and Catholic exile, the Inquisition (Black Legend), martyrdom, tyrannicide, the Iconoclasm (1566), pamphlet culture and satire, Early Modern justification of rebellion, the Beggars, and the policies of the Habsburg government.
9
Richard S. Lazarus and Susan Folkman, Stress, Appraisal, and Coping (New York 1984), 21.
10 Paul T. P. Wong and Lilian C. J. Wong, Handbook of Multicultural Perspectives on Stress and Coping (New York 2006), 16, 20.
11
Wong and Wong, Handbook of Multicultural Perspectives, 5, 20; C. R. Snyder, Coping. The Psychology of
What Works (New York 1999), 331: Snyder did give a hint on cultural influences when asking ‘To what
extent are our coping ideas a by-product of our Western society?’ 12
Marina Eleftheriadou, ‘Refugee Radicalization/Militarization in the Age of the European Refugee Crisis: A Composite Model.’ In Terrorism and Political Violence (2018).
4 central or rural and isolated), and external actors (states or leaders who try to influence the refugees).13 Eleftheriadou’s helpful framework is applied in the analyses.
Different considerations increase the importance and relevance of this thesis. Firstly, investigating pre-modern terrorism can deepen and widen terrorism research. It can serve as input for contemporary research questions in terrorism, possibly even enriching the field with new questions. Secondly, to understand how far the specific influence of exile went, assessing violent radicalization/ terrorism might be fruitful. The Protestant exiles, especially those who went to London and Emden, are known for their organizational influence, helping to establish the Reformed Church in the Low Countries. However, a nexus between exile and violent radicalization has barely been studied. The Catholics who fled the Low Countries when the Protestant refugees returned were important for the Counter-Reformation.14 This thesis asks whether exile was related to the cases of violent radicalization/ terrorism as part of this Catholic response. Finally, this study might also give clues on whether David Rapoport’s perception of pre-modern terrorism as religious is plausible.
I) Theory and Concepts
The consensus that terrorism is an exclusively modern form of violence can be labeled the ‘monopolization of terrorism by modernity’. Carola Dietze rightly argued that the ‘standard narrative’ of terrorism connects terrorism to modernity and that after the French Revolution typically modern developments15 informed the Russian Marxist Berufsrevolutionӓren.16 The origins of this standard narrative can be traced back to different transnational judicial institutions who were in need of precise definitions in order to sentence individuals questioning the state’s monopoly on violence by applying terrorism. This way, terrorism was drifting away
13
Eleftheriadou, ‘Refugee Radicalization/Militarization’, 4. 14 Judith Pollmann and Geert Janssen argue this.
15
Communication technology, modern means of transportation, new weapons, new strategies and means for violence.
16
Dietze, Die Erfindung des Terrorismus, 61, 76-77, 82, 630: ‘‘Terrorismus muss deshalb – genau wie die Eisenbahn oder der Kunstdϋnger – als eine Erfindung des 19. Jahrhunderts angesehen werden, nur dass es sich hierbei nicht um eine technische oder wissenschaftliche Erfinding handelt, sondern um die Erfindung einer Handlungslogik im Bereich von Politik, Gesellschaft und Medien.’
5 from the Irish and Russian Marxist revolutionaries who perceived it abstractly as a fear-generating form of violence similar to the Jacobin Terreur.17
Dietze introduced this standard narrative as an argument to denounce the study of pre-modern terrorism, but this is not convincing. Indeed, sticking to a definition of terrorism within the standard narrative would make this study a priori anachronistic. Randall Law extended the work of Rapoport and argued that terrorism is as old as humanity. Roger Griffin agreed, but distinguished pre-modern and modern terrorists, because modern terrorists have different goals and tactics.18 Although Griffin’s argument seems plausible, comparing contemporary with Early Modern terrorism is not part of this thesis. Furthermore, Robert Appelbaum argued that pre-modern terrorism was diverse, manifesting itself in the form of tyrannicide/ assassinations, mass killings, destruction of property, and massacres.19 While these studies are all evenly interesting, a clear scientific definition is missing. The following section proposes a conceptual definition, thereby opening the way for structural analyses into pre-modern terrorism. This enhances the transparency, comparability, and falsifiability of this study.
17 Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York 2006), 29-32. 18
Roger D. Griffin, ‘Modernity and Terrorism’. In Randall D. Law, The Routledge History of Terrorism (New York 2015), 370-372.
19 Robert Appelbaum, ‘Chapter 2: Early Modern Terrorism.’ In Peter C. Herman, Terrorism and Literature (Cambridge 2018), 38-39: ‘All these murders were cases of political violence, undertaken asymmetrically, and aimed at communicating political messages that were at once disruptive, theatrical, and hortatory, with strong measures of intimidation thrown in; they were all aimed at changing government policy, and for that matter the structure of government itself. They were, in a word, acts of terror.’; 41: ‘So there was assassination; there was mass killing; there was violence against property; and there was a kind of collective violence that combined all three elements. And there was at least one more type of early modern terrorism that needs to be taken into account: the massacre, especially as it broke out sporadically in France.’
Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin also argued that tyrannicide can be seen as pre-modern terrorism. La Terreur and Robespierre inspired their regime on the prevention of tyrannicide while their revolutionary was still in its infancy, and Lenin often referred to tyrants that stand in the way of a just society. See Histoire du Terrorisme de l’Antiquité á Daech (2015), 86-102, on pages 92-93: ‘L’exécution du tyran est symbolique car elle permet une purification du système politique et la possibilité d’un nouveau départ, l’objectif n’étant plus seulement de changer de régime politique mais aussi de transformer la société. (…) Mais, comme nous le verrons plus tard, le tyrannicide sert aussi de justificatif au terrorisme d’État, c’est-à-dire à la terreur employée par l’appareil d’État contre le peuple, et qui trouve son origine moderne dans la Révolution de 1789, celle précisément qui construisit son mythe autour de l’assassinat du souverain.’
6
A) Defining Terrorism
Leonard Weinberg, Ami Pedahzur, and Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler defined terrorism as ‘a politically motivated tactic involving the threat or use of force or violence in which the pursuit of publicity plays a significant role’.20 This inclusive definition does not monopolize the study of terrorism for modernity and stays close to definitions applied by other scholars in the past.21 Giovanni Sartori, an Italian political scientist, rightly argued that scientific transparency, comparability, and falsifiability of scientific studies increase with the application of conceptual definitions when they are standardized and systematized.22 The concepts related to terrorism are manifold, but some elements are perceived as part of the core of this concept. Alex P. Schmid empirically studied which elements of terrorism are most often found in scientific definitions, and concluded that violence is part of 83 percent of the definitions, political motives/ goals 65 percent, causing fear 51 percent, and consolidating this fear 47 percent.23
Schmid proposed a positive and negative conceptual definition and nuanced it by arguing that not all conceptual elements need to be manifest in every case of terrorism.24 The conceptual definition he proposed is adopted in this thesis: ‘Terrorism refers on the one hand to
a doctrine about the presumed effectiveness of a special form or tactic of fear-generating, coercive political violence and, on the other hand, to a conspiratorial practice of calculated, demonstrative, direct violent action without legal or moral restraints, targeting mainly civilians and noncombatants, performed for its propagandistic and psychological effects on various
20
Leonard Weinberg et al, ‘The Challenges of Conceptualizing Terrorism’. In Terrorism and Political
Violence 16:4 (2004), 777-794, on page 786.
21 By applying a definition applied by other scholars the scholarly community studying pre-modern terrorism does not discuss and debate alongside each other.
22 Giovanni Sartori, ‘Concept Misinformation in Comparative Politics.’ In The American Political Science
Review LXIV: 4 (1970), 1033-1053.
23
Schmid, ‘Chapter 2’, 74: Schmid’s definition brings terrorism back to its more abstract origins.
This aligns with definitions applied by other prominent terrorism researchers. Martha Crenshaw. ‘The Concept of Revolutionary Terrorism’. In David C. Rapoport, ed., Terrorism. Critical Concepts in Political
Science, vol. II: The Second or Anti-Colonial Wave (London & New York 2006), 70-87; Brigitte L. Nacos, Terrorism and Counterterrorism (London 2016), 37: ‘Terrorism is political violence of the threat of violence by groups or individuals who deliberately target civilians or noncombatants in order to influence the behavior and actions of targeted publics and governments.’
24
7
audiences and conflict parties.’25 Marc Juergensmeyer, theologian and sociologist, emphasized the symbolic aspect of terrorism: ‘like religious ritual or street theater, they are dramas designed to have an impact on the several audiences that they affect.’26 Juergensmeyer added that ‘By calling acts of religious terrorism "symbolic," I mean that they are intended to illustrate or refer to something beyond their immediate target: a grander conquest, for instance, or a struggle more awesome than meets the eye’.27 Terrorism is a medium to cause fear, which is also seen in this thesis as a core component of terrorism.28
Schmid also helped to delineate terrorism by arguing what it is not. Firstly, terrorism is not the single deed of damaging public property. Secondly, side-effects caused by the single deed of damaging public property are not terrorism either. Thirdly, assassinations aimed at the victim alone cannot be labeled terrorism. Fourthly, spontaneous political violence, like a rebellion or a demonstration is not part of terrorism. Finally, the legal use of violence in order to consolidate or recover public order and the rule of law is not terrorism, because it falls under the authority and monopoly of violence of the state. Schmid also argued that violence cannot be terrorism when it is perpetrated during wartime. However, this exclusion is problematic, especially in pre-modern contexts where it is often unclear if it was a war situation.29 Therefore, this element will be left out of the negative demarcation of terrorism. Lastly, terrorism is often applied as a discursive frame to delegitimize acts of violence. In order to solve this, contextual, positional, and normative reflections will be applied.
B) Counterterrorism and Violent Radicalization
If acts of terrorism can be found in the Early Modern Low Countries, the second subquestion aims to explore what type of policies were formulated and applied by the Habsburg regime, making that an Early Modern equivalent of counterterrorism. Counterterrorism aims to counter
25 Schmid, ‘Chapter 2’, 86. 26
Marc Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God (Berkeley 2003), 124. 27
Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind, 123. 28
Thus, under the umbrella of terrorism the elements diverse tactics, diverse violence, medium for fear,
diverse actors, ultimately aimed at political consequences are included.
29
Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution (New York 1978), 190-194; Tilly describes many different types of violence, like revolution, coup d’etat, civil war, revolutionary situation and great revolution.
8 the threat of violence and delegitimize the political consequences terrorists aim for.30 Counterterrorism should prevent terrorist methods because state terrorism gives terrorists the legitimacy they strive for.31 Terrorists question the state’s monopoly of violence. When the majority of the people support the ‘terrorists’, social contract theorists argued that the state loses its legitimacy. Consequently, not just the monopoly on violence shifts, but the territory and the subjects actually wish to enter a new social contract.32 Counterterrorism is invented to prevent this scenario. States will take all necessary steps to abolish the threat of terrorism in order to consolidate their legitimacy. The legitimacy of a state is essentially to consolidate the physical and psychological safety of its subjects. Therefore, terrorism threatens the legitimacy of a state, even when the values and goals of the terrorists are perceived to be inferior or against dominant values.33 However, understanding counterterrorism through social contract theory would be anachronistic for the period studied in this thesis. Therefore, the analyses are limited to a short discussion of the effectiveness of Habsburg (counter-terrorist) policies.34
One necessary though insufficient precondition for terrorism is violent radicalization. Violent radicalization is the development of deviant and dogmatic cultural, ideological, religious, and/ or political beliefs. When an individual radicalizes in a violent manner, this radicalization leads to the conviction that certain beliefs can and must be implemented, thereby legitimizing violence if deemed necessary.35 According to Marc Sageman in Turning to Political Violence, the development of deviant beliefs is largely informed by the individual’s social identity. However, Sageman’s approach structures the individual deterministically, leaving less space for individual
30 Olivier Lewis, ‘Conceptualizing State Counterterrorism’. In Scott Nicholas Romaniuk, Francis Grice, Daniela Irrera, Stewart Webb (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy (London 2017), 20: ‘the countering (1) of deliberately indiscriminate violence, (2) of threats of indiscriminate violence, and (3) of political demands made via threats of indiscriminate violence.’
31
Lewis, ‘Conceptualizing State Counterterrorism’, 21.
32 Timothy Poirson, ‘Assessing Terrorist Threats and Counterterrorism Responses in Post-Gaddafi Libya’. In Scott Nicholas Romaniuk, Francis Grice, Daniela Irrera, Stewart Webb (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of
Global Counterterrorism Policy (London 2017), 948.
33
Lewis, ‘Conceptualizing State Counterterrorism’, 26.
34 Ibidem, 20: ‘the countering (1) of deliberately indiscriminate violence, (2) of threats of indiscriminate violence, and (3) of political demands made via threats of indiscriminate violence.’
35
9 agency.36 The deep analyses in relation to violent radicalization by Juergensmeyer in Terror in
the Mind of God can only be reached through a more open method.37 Coping Mechanism, Eleftheriadou’s framework, and a conceptual definition of terrorism help are beneficial for the openness of this thesis. The theoretical background of a nexus between violent radicalization and exile will be discussed in the following section.
C) Debating Violent Radicalization in Exile
In his article for The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism, David Teegarden framed the classical act of tyrannicide as an act of terrorism, referring to ‘Harmodius blow’ killing the brother of the tyrant Hippias. According to Teegarden’s reading of Thucydides, Herodotus, and Aristotle, some of those exiled to Attica kept harassing Hippias’ regime and finally succeeded in toppling his tyranny with the help of a legion of Spartans.38 Teegarden saw, in this case, an early form of terrorism and connected exile with violent radicalization/ terrorism. However, it stays unclear whether these refugees violently radicalized during their exile, or that they were already radicalized before leaving Athens. In relation to the period and topic of this thesis, Heiko Oberman described in Europa Afflicta (1992) how Calvinist refugees spread and organized the Reformation.39 According to Oberman, John Calvin gave the Reformation a new stimulus halfway the sixteenth century and felt part of a transnational Protestant people’s army, while not legitimizing violence.40 Even though the Calvinist people’s army was not under his direct leadership, and even though Calvin felt he merely prophesied God’s truth, Calvin indirectly
36
Marc Sageman, Turning to Political Violence. The Emergence of Terrorism (Philadelphia 2017), 362. 37 Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind.
Another example of these deep analyses is Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko, Friction.
How Radicalization Happens (Oxford 2011).
38 David A. Teegarden, ‘Acting like Harmodius and Aristogeiton: Tyrannicide in Ancient Greek Political Culture.’ In The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism (Oxford 2014), 1-6; David A. Teegarden,
Death to Tyrants! Ancient Greek Democracy and the Struggle against Tyranny (Oxford 2014): These
refugees were led by the aristocratic Alcmaeonidae family. 39
Heiko A. Oberman, ‘Europa Afflicta: The Reformation of the Refugees’. In Archiv für
Reformationsgeschichte, 83 (1992), 91–111, on pages 102-103, 108: Europa Afflicta means ‘Tormented
Europe’. 40
Heiko A. Oberman, The Two Reformations. The Journey from the Last Days to the New World (Yale 2003), 112-113, 115, 145.
10 inspired initiatives to organize and govern Protestant resistance. Together with their belief in predestination, Calvin’s thought served as a coping mechanism for aggrieved Protestants.41
Andrew Pettegree took up Oberman’s theory that a specific Exulantentheologie was established in exile, but extends and connects this to the Dutch Revolt.42 Pettegree argued that exile experience bred rebels, assassins, and helped organize the militants.43 He asserted that exile can explain why so many leaders of the revolt (Beggars) were former exiles.44 According to Pettegree, the second wave of exile was a result of the Iconoclasm of 1566 and established the influence of Calvinism on the Dutch Revolt.45 Recently, Jesse Spohnholz and Mirjam van Veen criticized this supposed consensus about a nexus between exile and radicalization. They argued that a coherent exile experience cannot be found, because ‘displacement in many cases encouraged Reformed to temper, not harden, confessional commitments’, for example in relation to Dirck Volkertsz. Coornhert.46 Secondly, exile Churches were relatively open with all types of Protestants visiting the services and leaving space for individuals to participate in Reformed rituals.47 Lastly, primary sources of individuals who went into exile mostly do not place any significant meaning to their exile experience.48
41 Many exiled lost their house, family, and social status. Predestination insured Calvinists that they would endure their misery with Gods’ assistance, and that it was all part of God’s larger plan.
42
Andrew Pettegree, Emden and the Dutch Revolt (Oxford 1992), 56. 43 Pettegree, Emden and the Dutch Revolt, 113, 116, 126.
44
Ibidem, 229-230. Some scholars doubt that, arguing that Heinrich Bullinger was more influential in the Low Countries than Calvin.
45 Ibidem, 244. 46
Jesse Spohnholz and Mirjam G. K. van Veen, ‘The Disputed Origins of Dutch Calvinism: Religious Refugees in the Historiography of the Dutch Reformation’. In Church History 86:2 (June 2017), 398–426, on pages 400-402; Veen, M. (n.d.). ‘Dirck Volckertz Coornhert: Exile and Religious Coexistence’. In J. Spohnholz & G. Waite (Eds.), Exile and Religious Identity, 1500–1800 (pp. 67-80), on page 79.
47
Spohnholz and Van Veen, ‘The Disputed Origins’, 398–426, on page 406. 48 Ibidem, 398–426, on page 409.
Spohnholz and Van Veen argued that the dominant role of exiled Calvinists in freeing the Low Countries from religious and political suppression was a discourse initiated in the nineteenth century by Abraham Kuyper and others. They concluded that constitutive scholarly works helped to consolidate this over-estimated role of the refugees, as the works of Aart van Schelven and Heiko Oberman’s catchy phrase ‘Reformation by the Refugees’ show. However, according to Spohnholz and Van Veen, the sources these works base their arguments on are questionable or incomplete, on page 425 and A. A. van Schelven, De
Nederduitsche vluchtelingenkerken der XVIe eeuw in Engeland en Duitschland in hun betekenis voor de Reformatie in de Nederlanden (‘s Gravenhage 1907); Heiko Augustinus Oberman, The Two Reformations. The Journey from the Last Days to the New World (London 2003).
11 The role of exile on (violent) radicalization is also proposed by Geert Janssen in relation to Catholic refugees. Janssen explained how Protestant refugees returning from exile after 157249 influenced the Catholic community. Some Catholics decided to flee, fearing revengeful radical Protestants. The Catholic exile community was smaller in size but played a central role in the Counter-Reformation because of their exile experience.50 According to Janssen, the intense solidarity among Protestant refugees in exile was similar among Catholic exiles.51 Catholics mainly came together in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen in the Northern provinces, or Douai and St. Omer in the South. Many refugees fled to Cologne, Emmerich, and Liѐge.52 Catholics developed a legitimation of flight, ensuring their salvation by escaping a polluted Corpus Christi while pointing at Biblical precedents. On the other hand, staying meant legitimizing rebel rule.53 Janssen expanded what Judith Pollmann had started. Pollmann argued that Catholics returning from exile were strong in their confessional commitments, often militant, and enjoyed a higher status within the Catholic community.54
Other prominent scholars of Dutch history also emphasize the importance of exile and relate this to the establishment of the Netherlands as a distinct political and even cultural entity. Jonathan Israel argued that a difference manifested itself over time between the northern and the southern Low Countries. During the Dutch Revolt, north and south drifted further apart. Janssen outlined the role of exiles and religion in the deepening north-south divide and described how Protestant refugees went to the northern Low Countries due to the religious and political status quo there, while Catholic refugees fled to the southern provinces from Calvinist persecution beginning in the 1580s.55
The historiographical background discussed thus far informs the expectation that experience of exile led to violent radicalization and might have inspired some of these
49 After Brill was conquered by the Beggars. 50
Geert H. Janssen, The Dutch Revolt and Catholic Exile in Reformation Europe (Cambridge 2014), 6. 51 Geert H. Janssen, ‘Quo Vadis? Catholic Perceptions of Flight and the Revolt of the Low Countries, 1566– 1609.’ In Renaissance Quarterly, 64: 2 (2011), 472-499, on pages 475-476.
52
Ibidem, on page 476. 53
Ibidem, on pages 484-487.
54 Judith Pollmann, ‘Being a Catholic in Early Modern Europe’. In Alexandra Bamji, Geert H. Janssen, and Mary Laven, The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation (Farnham 2013), 174, 176. 55
12 individuals to perpetrate acts of terrorism in the Early Modern Low Countries from the Wonderyear 1566 until 1584, the year of the assassination of William of Orange. The theoretical background shows that exile experience is proposed as an important push factor, leading to a radical, uncompromising, and/ or hardened attitude among many, a violent attitude amongst some. Besides assessing Early Modern terrorism, the specific influence of exile on those that radicalized violently is explored in this thesis. An important aspect for rebels and terrorists is their legitimacy. Therefore, in the next chapter important contextual factors that led to the Iconoclasm (1566) and the Dutch Revolt is described, because this is an important step in understanding how possible terrorists justified violence.
13
14
II) Justifying Violence
Acts of violence, terrorism being one manifestation of it, needed to be legitimized. This chapter starts with a description of important contextual developments in justifying violence against the Habsburg regime in section A. Four writers are analyzed in section B in relation to the justification of this violence. These are the written works and letters of Adrianus Haemstedius (ca. 1525-1562), Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert (1522-1590), Justus Lipsius (1547–1606), and Philips of Marnix of Saint-Aldegonde (1540-1598). These authors are selected because of their own exile experience, making an analysis of the influence of exile possible in chapter four. Section C analyzes a selection of pamphlets and songs to explore if and how violence was justified in the context of the Dutch Revolt. In these analyses the influence of the Inquisition in legitimizing the Dutch revolt and acts of terrorism is noticeable. This chapter explores how the religious, political, and economic context influenced thinking about violence and rebellion at the onset and during the first decades of the Dutch Revolt.
A) The Road to Rebellion
In order to understand important grievances of rebels/ terrorists in the Low Countries, a selective historical background is of fundamental importance. This section aims to explain the intricate relations between religious, political, and economic developments that served as a breeding ground for the Iconoclasm (1566) and the Revolt. The perceived injustices in the Low Countries led to frames of Madrid and Rome in an evil alliance. Grievances of Catholics developed especially after 1566 when Protestant rebels took matters into their own hands. Abuse of power by the Church – like selling indulgences, the monopoly on scriptural interpretation, and increasing worldly power exemplified by the placards – became the prerequisite for religious schisms and violence in sixteenth-century Europe. These practices bred the necessity of a Reformation.56 Catholics and clergymen became increasingly dissatisfied
56 Reformation has later been summed up by the five solas: sola fide (by faith alone), sola gratia (by mercy alone, sola scriptura (by scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), soli Deo gloria (all honor for God alone); Alec Ryrie, Protestants. The Faith that Made the Modern World (New York 2017), 20-21, 32, 62-63,
15 because of the harsh and repressive measures in the Low Countries, sometimes leading to sporadic outbursts of Iconoclasm and violence against Church officials.57 Reformed clergymen often went into exile to flee persecution, because they were perceived to diabolically infect the unity of the Christian body. Between conservative Catholics and Protestants was a large majority of moderates or protestantizing Catholics.58 Reformative ideas were denied at the Council of Trent (1545-1563), whereby in more than a decade of gatherings, all Protestant points were denied and the Church came out restored and better organized/ centralized than before.59
Calvin did not dispute the right of the Church to execute heretics, nor did he a priori deny the legitimacy of violence in some situations.60 Calvin quoted the Biblical passage in the Second Epistle to Timothy: ‘Once [false doctrines] are allowed they spread till they completely destroy the church. Since the contagion is so destructive we must attack it early and not wait till it has gathered strength, for then there will be no time to give assistance.’61 Calvin proposed theories that legitimized violence, not by advocating violence against the Church but against the devil, which he perceived to have penetrated the Church.62 While reformed ideas spread, the Habsburg King and Lord of the Netherlands Charles V (1500-1558)63 increased its repressive policies against the expansion of Protestantism in order to safeguard Catholics from what they
78-79; James B. Collings and Karen L. Taylor, Early Modern Europe. Issues and Interpretations (Oxford 2006), 12; Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806 (Oxford 1995), 79; John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe. From the Renaissance to the Present (London 2010), 93, 99. 57
M. Backhouse, Beeldenstorm en Bosgeuzen in het Westkwartier (1566-1568). Bijdrage tot de
geschiedenis van de godsdiensttroebelen der Zuidelijke Nederlanden in de XVIe eeuw (Middelburg 2008),
42.
58 Israel, The Dutch Republic, 79; Jan Juliaan Woltjer, Tussen vrijheidsstrijd en burgeroorlog (Amsterdam 1994), 13-14, 90-104; Andrew Pettegree, Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge 2005), 31.
59 Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, 117; Israel, The Dutch Republic, 100; Jan Juliaan Woltjer, Tussen
vrijheidsstrijd en burgeroorlog (Amsterdam 1994), 17, 104; Robert Fruin, Het voorspel van de Tachtigjarige Oorlog (Utrecht, second print from the original printed in 1865), 103.
60
Michael C. Thomsett, The Inquisition. A History (London 2010), 201-203. 61 Oberman, The Two Reformations, 153.
62
Ibidem, 105. 63
16 perceived to be infectious heresies in the Low Countries.64 Charles V consolidated his rule by implementing new laws against the threatening ideas of Calvin.65 Local developments were monitored closely, for example by exchanging noble rulers for lay administrators to increase monarchical control over the Low Countries and centralizing local offices to the Provincial States.66 Already in his cradle, Charles’s son Philip II had received an emblem with the text
Donec auferatur Luna, which translates to ‘until darkness [the moon] disappears’. Darkness,
represented by all kinds of heresies and infidels (above all Islam), should be replaced by the light of a united social order based on Catholic Christian principles.67
On October 25, 1555, Charles V abdicated and leaned on the shoulders of William of Orange.68 Orange knew that religious tolerance due to German particularism since the Peace of Augsburg (September 1555) under Charles V led to relative stability and peace.69 During the rule of Philip II, repression and persecution of heretics increased, even when local governments in the Low Countries often denied the de facto implementation of top-down policies that went against freedom of conscience.70 Philip’s endeavor to control individual conscience only added fuel to the fire, deepening existing grievances.71 Philips’ ideology of unity might have been a
64
Petrus Johannes Blok, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Volk, Deel 2 (Leiden 1924), 141; L.C.J.J. Bogaers, ‘9. Politieke en Religieuze Radicalisering.’ In Geschiedenis van de Provincie Utrecht;
65 Fruin, Het voorspel, 20. 66
Woltjer, Tussen vrijheidsstrijd, 61; Israel, The Dutch Republic, 38-39: ‘Here again, there was a marked tendency, under Charles V, for non-nobles to replace nobles’.
67 Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, 171-172; Geoffrey Parker, Imprudent King. A New Life of Philip
II (Cornwall 2014), 40, 62, 137.
68
Israel, The Dutch Republic, 135. 69
Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, 103; Philip S. Gorski, The Disciplinary Revolution. Calvinism and
the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe (Chicago and London 2003), 15-16; R. Po-Chia Hsia, A Companion to the Reformation World (Cambridge 2004), 274; Judith Pollman, ‘Countering the
Reformation in France and the Netherlands: Clerical Leadership and Catholic Violence 1560-1585.’ In Past
& Present 190 (February 2006), 83-120, 91: ‘the repressive policies of the crown had become a European
anomaly’.
70 Israel, The Dutch Republic, 143; Woltjer, Tussen vrijheidsstrijd, 10, 18: ‘De regionale en vooral de lokale overheden konden de druk van de repressie enigermate beperken door zoveel mogelijk door de vingers te zien.’
71
Gorski, The Disciplinary Revolution, 44; Israel, The Dutch Republic:, 132; Blok, Geschiedenis van het
Nederlandsche Volk, Deel 2, 20, 51; Fruin, Het voorspel v, 88; A. Th. van Deursen, De last van veel geluk. De geschiedenis van Nederland 1555-1702 (Amsterdam 2004), 38; Pollman, ‘Countering the Reformation’,
17 product of his Iberian context, where continuous interreligious tensions developed a deeply intolerant mentality in relation to religious dissidence.72 The Iberian region had been dominated by tensions for centuries between the three Abrahamic religions, while the expansive Ottoman Empire reconfirmed the necessity of Philips’ efforts against all infidels. This context might have influenced Philips’ specific coping mechanism with heresies and can explain why religious dissidence distressed him so deeply.
The rebellious Dutch subjects (both Protestants and Catholics) became more active in their resistance. Renewed religious and political vitality led to a largescale Iconoclasm, starting in the Flemish town Steenvoorde on August 10, 1566, and quickly spread north to the rest of the Low Countries.73 In the Low Countries, the opinion spread that the industrious Dutch had to give up all their economic surplus and that their religious freedoms and political privileges were suppressed (going against Dutch tolerance). The dominant narrative among the rebellious part of the Dutch population was one where the Habsburg regime was comparable to the Jacobin La
Terreur (September 1793-July 1794). The Jacobin terrorists also spread fear among political
enemies, large-scale persecutions, dictatorial rule and centralization of power.74 The Inquisition represented this diabolic union in the perception of the aggrieved subjects in the Low Countries.75 Emperor Charles V had introduced the Inquisition, thereby initiating largescale persecutions and book burnings in order to consolidate the Corpus Christi.76 The Inquisition was perceived as an important instrument of the diabolic alliance between Rome and Madrid.
Propaganda and transnational developments seemed to have informed public opinion about a ‘Spanish’ Inquisition that likely did not exist. The dominant narrative about the Spanish Inquisition in the Low Countries possessed all components of a state institution serving a regime
between 1523 and 1566 at least 1,300 people had been executed, and thousands more had been indicted, fined or banished.’
72 Parker, Imprudent King, 137; Janssen, The Dutch Revolt, 17-19, 23. 73
Van Deursen, De last van veel geluk, 51. 74 Tackett, The Coming of the Terror, 340-349. 75
The Inquisition falls with the meso-sphere in Eleftheriadou’s scheme, the Habsburg regime in the macro-sphere.
76
James D. Tracy, The Founding of the Republic. War, finance and politics in Holland, 1572-1588 (Oxford 2008), 20; Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, 95; Martin van Gelderen, The Political Thought of the
Dutch Revolt 1555-1590 (Cambridge 1992), 169, 179, 221; Pieter Geyl, Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse stam (Amsterdam 1948-59), 197, 255; Fruin, Het voorspel, 33.
18 of terror. In this narrative, reiterated in pamphlets (analyzed in chapter two) and by the rebel Protestant faction, the Inquisitorial grip was portrayed as tyrannical. Orange’s Apology is one example, but also Marcus van Vaernewijck who complained about the Inquisition by placing himself in the position of Inquisitor Pieter Titelmans in De Clage vanden Inquisiteur is exemplary.77 Even when accused heretics denounced their heresies they would hardly survive. The tortured heretics, often with limbs decapitated, beheaded, and various body parts put on sticks at every gate of the town or city where the execution took place served to frighten heretics. These cruel punishments were meant to save the innocent from damnation, an example for a wider public in order to consolidate the Corpus Christi by preventing the spread of this Protestant disease.78 The Inquisition helped consolidate the political and religious status quo by applying different tactics and different means of violence, not just to punish the victim, but a larger audience. In this narrative, the (Spanish) Inquisition is a form of (state) terrorism within the conceptual definition of Schmid.
This dominant narrative about the Inquisition in the Low Countries has been criticized and labeled the Black Legend by a number of revisionists because this is how the Spanish were portrayed to have treated the Indians in their American colonies.79 The revisionists argued that the dominant narrative about the Spanish Inquisition is a frame, whereby some aspects of the Inquisition were selected, some were made more salient, and some elements even invented out of thin air with the purpose to delegitimize and frame the immorality of Habsburg rule over the Low Countries.80 When the Inquisition is stripped from these frames, stereotypes, and myths, the Inquisition comes to the fore as far less evil or even as an organization that did not exist at
77
Herbert H. Rowen, ‘The Dutch Revolt: What Kind of Revolution?’ In Renaissance Quarterly 43:3 (1990), 570-590, 570; Willem van Oranje, Apologie, ofte Verantwoordinghe (C.A. Mees, Santpoort / De Sikkel Antwerpen 1923), 11: M. van Vaernewyck, De Clage vanden inquisiteur, meester Pieter Titelmanus (omstreeks oktober 1566), A3r-A4v: ‘Adieu Souvereins dienaers/ groet ende cleene Die om schandelic gewin/ brochten in desolatie de uutvercoren kinderen/ in grooten weene die ick ghebrant hebbe/ tot den naecten beene Waer duer gods toren/ sal op my haest welven Hebbic gheen deel/ met Christum van Nazareene Wien wil ic dat wyten/ anders dan my zelven’.
78
Werner Thomas, In de klauwen van de Inquisitie. Protestanten in Spanje, 1517-1648 (Amsterdam 2003), 9; F.E. Beemon, ‘The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition and the Preconditions for the Dutch Revolt’, 254. 79
B.A. Vermaseren, ‘Who was Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus?’ In Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et
Renaissance 47: 1 (1985), on page 47.
80
Robert Entman, ‘Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm.’ In Journal of Communication
19 all.81 Especially Kamen argued that the Inquisition did not exist in the Low Countries, but was a generalization made by Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus from the Spanish context and made popular due to the shocking practices of inquisitorial practices during the French Guerre de
Religion.82 Debunking the Black Legend only became possible after the death of the Spanish ruler Francisco Franco in 1975, which gave scholars the opportunity to dig in Inquisitorial archives formerly hidden for scholars.83 According to Henry Kamen, first among the revisionists, the Protestants framed the Inquisition as Spanish in order to differentiate the Inquisition ethnically and picture the institution as evil. The revisionists also argued that the Dutch depicted themselves as more peaceful and tolerant by nature, while the Spanish were depicted as inherently repressive, violent, and profane.84 Kamen and other revisionists did not deny that the
81
Vermaseren, ‘Who was Reginaldus’, on page 52; Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition. A Historical
Revision (Yale 2014), 139, 443; Werner Thomas, ‘De mythe van de Spaanse inquisitie in de Nederlanden
van de zestiende Eeuw’. In BMGN 105: 3 (1990), 325-353, 326; Werner Thomas, In de klauwen van de
Inquisitie. Protestanten in Spanje, 1517-1648 (Amsterdam 2003), 111, 138; Beemon, ‘The Myth of the
Spanish Inquisition’, 246-248, 254.
Some revisionists argued that there was no Inquisition in the Low Countries at all. The proof for this argument is thin but valid. Firstly, Philip II himself denied in different letters he wanted to set up the ‘Spanish’ Inquisition in the Low Countries because these provinces already had their own organization and practice to deal with local heretics. Kamen argued that it was not in Philip’s interest to spend resources on an institution while the Low Countries already had a system for the persecution of heresies operating.81 Thus, under the umbrella of ‘the Inquisition’ internal differences were present. According to Beemon, the myth of the Spanish Inquisition resulted from a reorganization of dioceses in the Low Countries, thereby catalyzing existing suspicions. Secondly, there is no physical proof like there is in Spain or France. The headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition, the Castillo de San Jorge in Seville or the Dominican Monastery in Toulouse (used to exterminate the Cathar heretics), serve as proof of the existence of a hierarchical and functioning organization. Thirdly, no Grand Inquisitor for the Low Countries was appointed, while this did happen for instance in Portugal during this time. Pieter Titelmans (1501-72) was an inquisitor until 1566, but never gained the official position of Grand Inquisitor by the Habsburg regime.
82
Vermaseren, ‘Who was Reginaldus’, 47-77, on pages 47-49, 54, 61.
For one sixteenth century eyewitness the Spanish Inqusition surely existed: in W. Bergsma and E. H. Waterbolk, Kroniekje van een Ommelander boer in de zestiende eeuw (Groningen 1986), 38; ‘maekte het veele droefnis, noot, vreese end verschrickinge onder het gemeene volck, beijde onder edell end onedell. Want elck dese tijrannie verschrickte end groote verbitteringe onder ’t volck maeckte. Want ’t liet hem aensien (ja, des conincx mandaten bevolent) dat men de inquisitie naer Spansche wijse int land solde invoren, datter dan noch een vele grooter tijranije end moort solde vollenbracht worden end niemandt sijn lijff end goet seker blijven’.
83 Following Franco’s death in 1975 the archives containing documents about the Inquisition was opened. However, it is unknown whether the Franco-regime made a selection of the archival material.
84
20 Inquisition tortured and executed heretics. However, they nuance the dominant narrative about the Inquisition in the Low Countries.
Figure 1: Eugenio Lucas Velázquez (ca. 1860), Condemned by the Inquisition. Permanent Collection of Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain85
Kamen radically denied the existence of a Spanish Inquisition in the Low Countries, but some aspects remain undiscussed. Firstly, the Franco-regime might have made a selection of the
85 In the engravings of Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), and the Romantic painter Eugenio Lucas Velázquez (1817-1870), the Black Legend manifested itself. This image depicts the expressionist painting of Velázquez (ca. 1860) named Condemned by the Inquisition. Two condemned heretics are led to the scaffold on horseback, completely dishonored because they seem even not worthy enough to wear their
sanbenito (sacred cloth), while the furious masses around them despise and strike the convicted. The
convicts are on their way to be burned, thereby ritually cleansing and curing the Corpus Christi from diabolic heresies.
Helen Rawlings, ‘Goya’s Inquisition: from black legend to liberal legend’. In Vida Hispanica 46 (2012), 15-21;
21 archive, since it was in their interest to destroy evidence of the less uplifting parts of Spanish history. Kamen took the archives for granted. Secondly, historian and revisionist Helen Rawlings studied Early Modern Spanish religious culture and concluded that it was an existing organization throughout the Habsburg Empire, including the Low Countries.86 Revisionist Michael C. Thomsett also revised the Black Legend but anyway believed the Dutch rebels fought an existing institution.87 Finally, Dutch historian Jan Juliaan Woltjer argued that the Inquisition was not ethnically ‘Spanish’. On the contrary, the Holy Office was filled with dutiful local (i.e. Dutch) Catholics, so that ‘Spanish’ was a myth, but the Inquisition itself was not.88
The debate concerning the Inquisition shows that it can be confidently established that the Dutch generally perceived the Inquisition as an existing organization, responsible for treating dissident voices in an illegitimately harsh manner, sharply in contrast with the Erasmian spirit dominant in the Low Countries.89 Kamen argued that the inquisitorial practices were less harsh and less random because the conviction always took place within religious prescriptions.90 The [Spanish] Inquisition was anyway perceived as tyrannical in the Low Countries. In their perception, it applied diverse and violent tactics to unify the Corpus Christi and setting examples to warn or fear other souls to stay on the straight path.91 In this narrative the Inquisition contains what Schmidt termed ‘a special form or tactic of fear-generating, coercive
political violence and, on the other hand, a conspiratorial practice of calculated, demonstrative, direct violent action without legal or moral restraints, targeting mainly civilians and noncombatants, performed for its propagandistic and psychological effects on various audiences and conflict parties’, and can thus be labeled state terrorism.92
86
Helen Rawlings, The Spanish Inquisition (Oxford 2006). 87 Thomsett, The Inquisition, 204.
88 Woltjer, Tussen vrijheidsstrijd, 20. 89
Johannes Cornelis Alexander de Meij, De Watergeuzen. Piraten en bevrijders (Bussum 1980), 9. 90 Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition, 285, 288, 290.
91
Ibidem, 171. 92
Alex P. Schmid, ‘Chapter 2’, 86; Pettegree, Emden and the Dutch Revolt, 110.
A poem written halve a century later by Pieter Christiaenszoon Bor describes the religious, political, and economic grievances in relation to the Inqusition: in Den oorspronck, begin ende aenvanck der
Nederlandtscher oorlogen. Geduyrende de regeringe vande Hertoginne van Parma, de Hertoge van Alba ende eensdeels vanden groot Commandeur (Leiden 1617), 4, 7, 10:
22
B) Justifying Violence and Rebellion
Did the religious, political, and economic grievances established so far and represented largely by the Inquisition play a role in justifying violence against the Habsburg regime? And if so, how was this done? In order to answer this question, which is fundamental because violence is part of the definition of terrorism, this section discusses the work of four influential writers who went into exile.93 The first individual discussed is Adrianus Haemstedius. He converted to Calvinism and witnessed firsthand how other reformed priests and individuals were being executed in Antwerp. He fled to Emden in 1558, where he had lived in exile some years before as well. Here Haemstedius worked on his theological-historical book on Christian martyrs, while also laboriously writing letters to high officials, complaining about Habsburg repression. Haemstedius went to Aachen on February 1559, and became a preacher in London later that year, when the Protestant Queen Elizabeth was inaugurated. Because he believed in the Incarnation of Christ, he was excommunicated from London as well, but his coreligionists in Emden kept supporting him.94 The Christian martyrs described in his book served as examples for contemporary coreligionists to mimic. Placing God in the center of one’s life and help
‘Des Conincx sin, en vast besluyt hiel in, Om int begin, al waert sonder gewin, De straffe placcaten t'executeren, En d'Inquisiteuren te assisteren: Datmen oock 't Concili van Trenten sou Onderhouden, al quamer om in rou Mer dit vangen, hangen, branden met vier, En holp niet, noch de straffe placcaten: Brandemen een, daer quamer hondert schier In die plaetse, dies mocht dit al niet baten, Want het gestorte bloet der martelaren Is 'tsaet der kercken (so Ciprianus seyt) Dus condemense daermet niet vervaren, Want de religy wert te meer verbreyt.
D'Inquisiti, daermen wel voor mocht vreesen, Is een ondersoeckinge so wy lesen, Van het geloof, 'twelck te werck wert gestelt, Deur personen, diem' onder wrede telt.
Inquisiteurs, so werdense geheten, Haer daden sijn-vol listige secreten, Die niemant hoe wijs, cloeck off eel van aert, En can ontgaen als hy daer wert beswaert.
De voorsmaeck hadmen hier alree beproevet, Want daer deur warender al veel bedroevet, Om lijf, goet, bloet ende 'tleven gebracht, Die gecomen waren onder haer macht.’
93
The influence of exile on these authors is analyzed in chapter four. 94
Petrus Johannes Blok and Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen, Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek.
Deel 1 (1911), 1013-1016; Jan Pieter de Bie, Jakob Loosjes, Biographisch woordenboek van protestantsche godgeleerden in Nederland. Deel 3 (1919-1931), 439-446; Abraham Jacob van der Aa, Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden. Deel 8. Eerste stuk (1867), 50-52.
23 establish His kingdom on earth with the possibility of being martyred was venerated by Haemstedius throughout the book, and a popular theme already for a longer time among the French Huguenots. Preaching the truth to those who satanically exchanged justice for injustice is portrayed as an obligation for any true believer.95 Haemstedius’ book essentially inspired right-minded coreligionists to – if necessary – die for the sake of truth against the blind and idolatrous (Papists), just like the brave martyrs and persecuted had done in the past against other unbelievers, infidels, and tyrants.96
For Haemstedius, going through hardships for your beliefs would increase the probability of being allowed into heaven, so his book offers input to cope with the stress of religious persecution.97 One example was the story of St. Lawrence (225-258 CE), born in Valencia as a child of two martyrs, he became a deacon in Rome and was martyred as well during the persecution of Christians. He was roasted to death, but his horrific pains were bearable because of his unquestioned belief in God.98 The cover of this essay contains a blurred adaptation of Lawrence’s death painted by the Renaissance painter Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), a contemporary of Haemstedius. This painting was made for the St-Lawrence Church in Alkmaar, which became Protestant during Heemskerck’s life in the first years of the Dutch Revolt (1573). Whether Van Heemskerck became Protestant is unknown, though it is easy to understand the significance of St. Lawrence, who was also repressed for his religious beliefs.99 Haemstedius took the risk of becoming martyred himself with all his brave hedge preaching in the region around Antwerp.100 Haemstedius’ book is an encyclopedia of those who did not compromise, but he never justifies the application of violence.101 In his letter from
95 Adriaan van Haemstede, Geschiedenis der Martelaren (Arnhem 1868, Originally published 1559), vii; Ulrich Niggemann, ‘Chapter Four: Inventing Immigrant Traditions in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century Germany The Huguenots in Context.’ In Jason Coy, Jared Poley, and Alexander Schunka,
Migrations in the German Lands, 1500-2000 (New York/ Oxford 2016), 91.
96
Van Haemstede, Geschiedenis der Martelaren, vi.
97 A Catholic pendant was a book by Christiaen van Adrichem, Martyrologium (ca. 1575–1581). 98
Van Haemstede, Geschiedenis der Martelaren, 55. 99
Backhouse, Beeldenstorm en Bosgeuzen, 54. 100
W.G. Goeters, ‘Dokumenten van Adriaan van Haemstede, waaronder eene gereformeerde geloofsbelijdenis van 1559’. In Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History
5:1 (1912), 27.
101
24 Emden to Mayken in February 1561, he argued that the persecuted are blessed, exemplifying how he passively underwent the hardships of being poor and was sensitive for events that would serve as proof that God was on his side.102 When he wrote about arms, he referred to spiritual arms in order to defend the Corpus Christi against the work of the devil103, exemplified by his newborn son Emanuel who was born with a helmet.104 His deepened religiousness helped him to cope with the troubles. He lost his connection to anything earthly so that when he was in exile he found his spiritual home in God.105
The humanist Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert went into exile to Cologne in 1567 in fear of Habsburg revenge for the Iconoclasm. After a short return, he went back to Cologne in 1568 and went on to Xanten.106 Coornhert suffered a great deal at the onset and during the Dutch revolt. A contemporary of Coornhert described him as ‘’born to contradiction’’.107 According to the literature, he was a pacifist who tried to unite Catholics and Calvinists by showing the failures of both. Coornhert argued that violence breeds more violence: ‘D’een moorderije baart dander ende deen bloedstortinghe roept d'ander.’108 Jaap Gruppelaar argued that the following dialogue between a Catholic, a Reformed, and a Pacifist (Coornhert) is exemplary:
‘Catholic: That is due to the rebelling and Iconoclast Beggars!
Reformed: Well, what about the Papists with their bloodthirsty massacres!
Pacifist: Calm down men. So flinthearted, that is not Christian. You want to be a Christian right? Then stop this hateful swearing. Show
102
Joannes Henricus Hessels, Epistulae et Tractatus Ecclesiae Londino-Batavae Historiam (London/ Amsterdam 1889), 145-146: Haemstedius saw proof of God’s intervention on many occasions: ‘Wij betrouwent hem wel toe. Daerom heeft de zee ons schadeloos te lande gebracht.’
103 Like the diabolic murder of his friend Gilles Verdicht about which he complained in a letter to Fredrick III of the Palatinate.
104
Hessels, ‘Epistulae’, 146.
105 Especially noticeable in his letter to Jacobus Acontius: Hessels, ‘Epistulae’, 165. 106
In ‘Brief aan koning Filips II’ (1576). In Jaap Gruppelaar (red.), D. V. Coornhert. Politieke geschriften.
Opstand en Religievrede (Amsterdam 2009), 55.
107
Marianne Roobol, Disputation by Decree. The Public Disputations between Reformed Ministers and
Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert as Instruments of Religious Policy during the Dutch Revolt (1577–1583)
(Leiden 2010), 14: “Ad contradicendum natus.” 108
