In the Name of Freedom: Female Opposition to the Reformed Church in the Dutch Republic (c.1650–1700

This chapter examines the religious assemblies promoted by a nonconformist group called the Collegiant movement, focusing on the participation of Reformed women in them and their opposition to the Dutch Reformed Church that tried to stop them. Relying on archival minutes of the Reformed consistories from Amsterdam and Rotterdam (c.1650-1700), it demonstrates that Reformed women were regular participants of such meetings and in some cases, they were also actively involved in their organization. When facing the Reformed consistory, these women regarded and justified their participation in such meetings as a matter of personal freedom – they were entitled to freely choose which religious opinions to follow, which Christian people to converse with, and which meeting to attend.