Protestant attitudes to violence: the early Dutch Republic

This article examines the attitudes of Protestant moralists and Reformed synods toward interpersonal violence in the Dutch Republic from the 1580s to the early eighteenth century. Protestants saw violence as an integral part of a sinful life style and argued that every quarrel which might lead to homicide fell under the sixth commandment. While disciplining the - sometimes violent - first generation of members and ministers, the Reformed Church condemned the traditional procedure of reconciliation after a homicide, despite their preference for reconciliation in almost every other conflict. With this, the Church contributed to the full criminalization of homicide. The moralists also condemned dueling and the honor code which underlay this custom. By the middle of the seventeenth century, when criminal trials for homicide had become the norm, the synods concentrated their efforts on combating the duel.