Between Tolerance and Iconoclasm: The Plight of Roman Catholics in Dutch Brazil

Founded as instruments of war against their Catholic Iberian enemies, the Dutch East and West India Companies usually practiced tolerance vis-à-vis the Roman Catholics they came to govern in the seventeenth century. Such tolerance, evolving differently in each colony, was not a matter of policy, but rather the result of local Roman Catholic pressure and of discussions between Dutch secular and religious authorities, who often had competing perspectives on the role of the Calvinist church. This paper focuses on the Dutch presence in Brazil (1624-54), where the West India Company made elaborate concessions to facilitate the transition to Dutch rule. The conditions for capitulation presented in 1634 to the inhabitants of Paraíba, for example, included freedom of conscience and further use of churches and divine sacrifices; priests and images would not be molested. In practice, however, the Dutch often vented their displeasure on Catholic churches in Brazil, as they did elsewhere in the Atlantic world. Time and again, soldiers committed acts of iconoclasm, revealing enduring antipathies and jeopardizing the peaceful coexistence between both religious groups.