Around this issue in Holland the Anti- Revolutionary Party, sketched out by Groen van Prinsterer, was

consolidated in the 'seventies by the greatest leader whom Dutch Protestantism in modern times has
produced, Dr. Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper is an outstanding example of the tendency, found throughout the
history of the Protestant contribution to Christian Democracy, to combine the battle for the acceptance and
good use by Protestants of modern social techniques with that for a better order within the Church, more
firmly based on the ultimate foundation of Revelation. Himself a minister and a great theologian, Kuyper
led for twenty years a struggle to re-shape the Hervormde Kerk on stricter Calvinist lines. This struggle led
in 1886 to the separation from the Hervormde Kerk of the 'Complainants', led by Kuyper, and to the
formation of the 'Gereformeerde' churches, which to this day supply the hard core of the Protestant political
and social movement. Meantime however Kuyper went into politics, founded in 1872De Standaard, still
the chief Anti-Revolutionary paper, and six years later reorganised and consolidated the Anti-
Revolutionary group in parliament. Dutch Catholics on their side went through a similar evolution.
1
(Michael P. Fogarty, Christian Democracy in Western Europe, 1820-1953 (Notre Dame, IN: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1957), 172, http://www.questia.com/read/22115363.)

The Dutch Protestant political movement had from the start at least a few leaders with a strong social
sense. This was particularly true of Abraham Kuyper himself. He was responsible, along with
Patrimonium, for bringing together the Christian Social Congress of 1891, the most remarkable event of its
kind in Dutch history. The speech with which he opened it is read and re-read to this day. As a statement of
Christian social principles and policy it is worthy of the year which also saw the appearance of Rerum
Novarum. Patrimonium itself, as the first major element in the Protestant workers' movement, helped to
reinforce this trend. It adopted its first social programme in 1894, and in 1901 two of its leaders entered
Parliament. One of them, the Rev. A. S. Talma, who besides his personal experience as a pastor had been
influenced by the efforts of Stcker in Germany and of Maurice and Kingsley in England, in due course
entered the Cabinet and made an important contribution to social legislation.
1

1. Michael P. Fogarty, Christian Democracy in Western Europe, 1820-1953 (Notre Dame, IN: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1957), 301, http://www.questia.com/read/22115363.
Kuyper, the leader of the Anti-Revolutionaries, was also in his theological capacity the leader of the
'Complainants' of 1886 and of the new, strict Calvinist, Gereformeerde churches which grew out of it. The
Christian Historicals tended to be Hervormd, resentful of the 'Complaint', and to draw their doctrine from
the natural law to an extent hard to reconcile with strict Calvinist orthodoxy. Theology again played a part
later in the formation of the small, rigidly Calvinist, and rather markedly anti-Catholic ' Political
Gereformeerde Party'. It may be that these theological distinctions were significant less in themselves than
as pegs on which to hang personal and political differences. It is known for instance that Baron de Savornin
Lohman, the founder of the Christian Historical Union, felt towards the end of his life that they could and
should be bridged again. But there remains a distinct difference of theological as well as political climate
between the Protestant parties, and all of them keep in their rules or statutes their characteristically
Protestant formulas. There has been less change on their side than among the Catholics: less, in fact, than in
any of the other major Christian Democratic political movements mentioned here.
1

1. Michael P. Fogarty, Christian Democracy in Western Europe, 1820-1953 (Notre Dame, IN: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1957), 317, http://www.questia.com/read/22115363.