historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

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Chapter 5. Times of trouble. Taking a stand
What Boxhorn does mention about the prince’s primary political concerns
takes the form of a warning against several future threats as he had done
two years earlier in his Oratio panegyrica de Belgarum pace. Boxhorn recalls
how William II shared the concerns of a person ‘of very great standing in this
town’, that is, Leiden, about the great multitude and diversity of religious
sects that could endanger the recently won peace and ruin the Dutch Republic.
176 The anonymous person believed, ‘and he believed certainly wisely’, that
the Dutch Republic, although at peace, was in danger of falling victim to civil
wars, ‘which are often the works of Spaniards’. Civil wars would threaten
to weaken the position ‘of the lovers and protectors of the true faith and the
commonwealth’ and they would give the upper hand to ‘bad citizens’, who
‘are neither well-disposed towards religion, nor towards the commonwealth
and the fatherland’. 177 Since ‘the matters of the church and the commonwealth
are connected here with such a close tie, that the latter cannot exist nor last
without the former’, such a course would spell doom for the Republic. 178 To
prevent this from happening, special care should be taken of the church, ‘in
order that we have a more prosperous church, and thus a more secure commonwealth,
while the quarrelsome license of those who have an opinion is
more and more suppressed’. 179
Another great concern of the prince had been the well-being of the WIC.
After a flying start, during which the Dutch had acquired a new empire in
the Americas, the Company had experienced some severe setbacks. These setbacks
had both foreign and domestic causes. A foreign cause was ‘the wickedness
and treachery of certain Portuguese’, who pretended to be friends,
but who were in fact enemies. On the Dutch side idleness, a lack of enthusiasm,
and a slow decision-making process were to blame for the WIC’s mis-
176 Ibidem, pp. 21-22. ‘Eum ego hic praesentem intueor, virum amplissimae in hac urbe dignitatis, &
interioris apud Principem admissionis, cum quo cum nonnunquam de Religionum sectarumque omnis
generis in hac Republ. multitudine ac varietate verba faceret, eam praecipuam sollicitudinem esse significavit,
ne ea res aliquando in exitium Reipublicae cederet, & vehementer pacem ejus turbaret.’ A
possible candidate is Johan van Wevelinchoven (c.1620-1660), pensionary of Leiden and secretary of the
college of curators and burgomasters of Leiden University. In a letter of March 16, 1651 (KB, 135 D 19),
Boxhorn informs Van Wevelinchoven that he has adopted his funeral oration according to the wishes of
the college and that he awaits their approval.
177 Ibidem, p. 22. ‘Judicabat enim, & profecto prudenter judicabat, motibus forte civilibus ac turbis,
quae Hispanorum fere artes sunt … motibus, inquam, & turbis forte sic excitatis, minorem haud
dubie futuram veram Religionem & Rempublicam amantium ac tuentium manum, & magno ac prope
immenso numero superiores eos, qui neque Religioni, neque Reipublicae ac patriae bene volunt, &, ut
mali cives, praesentium pertaesi, votis consiliisque omnibus & destinationibus non incumbunt nisi in
sectantium sese incrementum, & eorum quae composita sunt mutationes …’
178 Ibidem. ‘Quare & sapienter judicabat; Ecclesiae ac Reipublicae res arcto adeo hic esse nexu conjunctas,
ut haec sine illa salva esse non possit aut constare.’
179 Ibidem. ‘Quare & censebat idem, in eam inprimis curam esse incumbendum, ut repressâ magis
magisque diversa sentientium licentiâ, florentiorem ecclesiam, & sic securiorem Rempublicam habeamus.’