The 1886 Dutch Reformed Church split, also known as the Doleantie (from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''dolere'', 'to feel sorrow'), was the name of a prominent

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

in the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

(''Nederlands Hervormde Kerk'') that took place in 1886 and was led by a renowned minister,

Abraham Kuyper Abraham Kuyper ( , ; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist pastor and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upo ...

. The Doleantie was not the first schism in the Dutch Reformed Church. Another schism, the Secession of 1834 ''(Afscheiding van 1834)'', had led to the formation of the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands (). In 1885, the first moves towards schism were made when Kuyper and his supporters issued a formal complaint about liberalising practices in the Dutch Reformed Church. Their complaint never won broad support within the church, and in the winter of 1885-1886, the call for schism grew stronger amongst a large number of conservative congregations, most of which were located in the

Veluwe The Veluwe () is a forest-rich ridge of hills (1100 km2; 420 sq. mi.) in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes, including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand ...

area and elsewhere in what is now called the Dutch Bible Belt. The first congregation to secede was

Kootwijk Kootwijk (West Low German: ''Kodek'') (population estimate: 280) is a small village in the municipality Barneveld, located in the middle of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. History It was first mentioned between 1333 and 1334 as ...

, which on 7 February 1886 appointed a minister who had been trained at the

Free University of Amsterdam The (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the othe ...

without waiting for permission of its classis. The following, day the congregation in

Voorthuizen Voorthuizen ( Dutch Low Saxon: ''Voorthuzen'') is a village in the municipality of Barneveld, in the Dutch province of Gelderland. Tourism Voorthuizen is a tourist village, located on the edge of the Veluwe. East of the village is a high ...

followed suit. The seceded congregations united in the ''Low German Reformed Church (Dolerende)'' (). ''Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk'' had been the official name of the Dutch Reformed Church until 1816. With that name, the seceded churches wanted to show that they thought of themselves as the legitimate continuation of that church, which had been highly prominent in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

. The suffix ''(Dolerende)'', meaning 'those who feel sorrow', was added to show their disapproval with the Dutch Reformed Church. Later in 1886, Kuyper and his supporters occupied the New Church in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, the seat of the governing body of the Reformed Church, to force a settlement in the conflict over church property that had followed the Doleantie. In July 1886, the ''dolerenden'' had to accept a verdict against them. In 1892, the ''Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerken (Dolerende)'' merged with the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands to form the

Reformed Churches in the Netherlands The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (, abbreviated ''Gereformeerde kerk'') was the second largest Protestant church in the Netherlands and one of the two major Calvinist denominations along with the Dutch Reformed Church since 1892 unti ...

References

{{Authority control History of Reformed Christianity in the Netherlands Dutch Reformed Church 19th-century Reformed Christianity 1886 in Christianity

See also

References