Theobald Wolfe Tone is of course an icon of the Irish nationalist cause, and lauded for his vision of an inclusive republic, as expressed in these famous words from his Memoirs:
"... To unite the whole people of Ireland: to abolish the memory of all past dissension; and to substitute the common name of Irishmen in place of the denomination of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter—these were my means...".
Our secularised age tends to not understand the precise meaning of this. Tone states that all three are faith denominations. "Protestant" meant Church of Ireland. "Catholic" is of course pretty obvious. "Dissenter" doesn't mean "neither" of those, ie agnostic or irreligious, but rather it refers to Reformed traditions which weren't Anglican, such as Presbyterians.
Sometimes known as the "three strands" of traditional identity in Ireland, these religious denominations also map onto the cultural communities of English, Irish and Scottish, and onto the three languages too. Wolfe Tone gets the credit, but I have been told that it was his fellow 'United Irishman' the Belfast Presbyterian William Drennan who used this expression first. Worth further research.
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William III, Prince of Orange was in that triple "headspace" over 100 years before Tone. In his Declaration of 10 October 1688, authored by Gaspar Fagel, and translated into English by Gilbert Burnet, he included these words:
“…making such Laws as may establish a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters; as also, for the covering and securing of all such who would live peaceably under the Government, as becomes good Subjects, from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion, even Papists themselves not excepted…”.
Conscious that translations can sometimes lose the meaning of the original language, I found Fagel's original Dutch version - Declaratien van syn Hoogheyt Wilhem Henrik - on the excellent Brill.com website. It was worded as follows –
"... ende van gelijken tot het maken van soodanige Wetten, die bequaem zijn een goede eendragt tusselien de Kerk van Engelant en alle de Protestantse Dissenters te weegh te brengen: als mede tot beschermingh ende geruft- ftellingh van alle die gene, die vreedsamelijk als goede Onderdaenen onder de Regeeringh willen leven, fouder de minste vervolgingh ter oorsake van haer Religie, de Papisten selfs niet uitgesondert; ende tot het besorgen van alle andere saken, welke beide de Huisen des Parliaments sullen geraden vinden voor de Vrede, eer en behoudenis van de Natie ..."
So I put that text into Google Translate, and it gave me back an English translation which was virtually identical to Burnet's of 1688. Feel free to try it.
(image above from Alamy.com)
William's published Declaration of 10 October 1688 was followed a few weeks later by a published Resolution by the States General government of the Netherlands on 28 October (see previous post here), assuring European leaders of William's intentions –
"... His Highness hath declared to their Highness, that he is resolved, with Gods Grace and Favour, to go over into England, not with the least insight or intention to Invade or Subdue that Kingdom, or to remove the King from the Throne, much less to make himself Master thereof, or to invert or prejudice the Lawful Succession, as also not to drive thence, or persecute, the Roman Catholicks, but only and solely to help that Nation in Re-establishing the Laws and Priviledges that have been broken, as also in maintaining their Religion and Liberty..."
The religious toleration stated by these two Dutch documents can be traced back to William III's grandfather.
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William I Prince of Orange was recognised as the Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht in 1572. He had rebelled against the oppression of Spain. A Spanish sympathiser assassinated him in 1583. The late Professor Lisa Jardine CBE, who I posted about a few days ago, wrote this article entitled Liberalism Under Pressure for the BBC website in 2006 –
"... In July 1572, the Protestant leader of the northern Netherlands, William I of Orange - still celebrated today as the father of the Dutch nation - publicly proclaimed the right of all individuals to freedom of thought and worship at a political assembly at Dordrecht.
He vowed "to protect and preserve the country from foreign tyrants and oppressors", and he promised the Dutch people that "the free exercise of religion should be allowed as well to Papists as Protestants, without any molestation or impediment".
When, a month later, Catholic France turned on her own Protestants, and tens of thousands of Calvinist Huguenots were brutally murdered in the St Bartholomew's Day massacre, it was Holland which took in large numbers of the ensuing flood of refugees. It was Holland too which for centuries welcomed the Jews, displaced from all over Europe by Christian persecution ..."
• From this 2006 BBC article about Ayaan Hirsi Ali - online here
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