Abstract
This project focuses on the involvement of Catholics in secular societies and masonic lodges in the Dutch Republic. These organizations were devoted to science, literature, education, moral improvement and charity. They were the home base for the development and circulation of Enlightenment thought that questioned and re-shaped concepts of religion, state and individual, church and secular society throughout Europe. However, while the presence and activities of Catholics in these societies and lodges have been documented for countries surrounding the Dutch Republic, the involvement of Catholics in Dutch sociability has remained underresearched, thus sustaining the widely held belief that eighteenth century Dutch Catholics were passive, conservative and aloof from Enlightenment ideals. Concentrating on the period between 1750 and 1800, the heyday of Dutch sociable life, the proposed research will investigate the membership of Catholics in secular societies and masonic lodges with the aim of establishing the significance of the Catholic contribution to Dutch sociability as well as the extent to which this contribution expressed an adherence to Enlightenment ideas. The project will focus on the cities of Amsterdam, Den Haag, Leiden, Bergen op Zoom, Den Bosch and Nijmegen, and examine societies that operated at the national level, like the Oeconomische Tak. In so doing, the project aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the changing status of Catholics in Dutch sociable life under the influence of Enlightenment thought.