The Dutch Republic was a refuge for religious and political dissidents from abroad, including such groups as Jews and Huguenots, as well as such noted individuals as Baruch de Spinoza (1632–77) and René Descartes (1596–1650). In 1796 the Dutch National Assembly declared all religions to be equal. In the 1848 constitution state and church were formally separated, and the freedom of religious organization was acknowledged. The contemporary growth of Islam in Dutch society has made the issue of religious tolerance important again.
Major Religion
Christianity
DATE OF ORIGIN Seventh century C.E.
NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS 8.5 million
History
Before Christianity arrived in western Europe, tribes such as the Frisians and Batavians had their own gods and sacred places. The first evidence of Christian presence in the Low Countries (the region now comprising the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) was a church built in Maastricht in the fourth century during the rule of the Roman Empire, but Christianization on a larger scale did not begin before the end of the seventh century. Anglo-Saxon missionaries Saint Willibrord (658?–739) and Saint Boniface (c. 675–754) tried to convert the Frisians by founding churches and monasteries and destroying pagan shrines. About a century later the Low Countries were more or less Christianized, although under the Christian surface pagan beliefs and rites continued to exist, some until the present day.
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