Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th CenturiesJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Religion
Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Jones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Mysticism; Reformers
[13] _De arte dubitandi_.
[14] Under the nom-de-plume of John Theophilus, Castellio translated
the _Theologia Germanica_ into Latin, and published it with an
Introduction. His translation carried this "golden book" of mystical
religion into very wide circulation, and became a powerful influence,
especially in England, as we shall see, in reproducing a similar type
of religious thought.
The Quaker William Caton, who spent the latter part of his life in
Holland, cites Castellio seven times in his Tract, _The Testimony of a
Cloud of Witnesses, who in their Generation have testified against that
horrible Evil of Forcing of Conscience and Persecution about Matters of
Religion_ (1662), and he seems very familiar with his writings. He
also cites Schwenckfeld and Franck on pp. 37 and 17 respectively.
[15] Castellio's plea for toleration, _Traite des Heretiques a savoir,
si on les doit persecuter_ (Rouen, 1554), has just been reissued in
attractive form in Geneva, edited by Olivet and Choisy.
{104}
CHAPTER VII
COORNHERT AND THE COLLEGIANTS--A MOVEMENT
FOR SPIRITUAL RELIGION IN HOLLAND
The struggle for political liberty in the Netherlands forms one of the
most dramatic and impressive chapters in modern history, but the story of
the long struggle in these same Provinces for the right to believe and to
think according to the dictates of conscience is hardly less dramatic and
impressive. Everybody knows that during the early years of the
seventeenth century Holland was the one country in Europe which furnished
cities of refuge for the persecuted and hunted exponents of unpopular
faiths, and that the little band of Pilgrims who brought their precious
seed to the new world had first preserved and nurtured it in a safe
asylum among the Dutch; but the slow spiritual travail that won this soul
freedom, and the brave work of spreading, on that soil, a religion of
personal insight and individual experience are not so well known.[1] The
growth and development of this great movement, with its numerous
ramifications and differentiations, obviously cannot be told here, but
one or two specimen lines of the movement will be briefly studied for the
light they throw upon this general type of religion under consideration,
and for their specific influence {105} upon corresponding spiritual
movements in England and America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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