cahn

ahaha that footnote is.......technically accurate but a bit misleading. Although strong strands of Anabaptism developed in the Low Countries in the 16th & 17th centuries, they were persecuted there and most left for other places long before Voltaire's era! Some did remain, and by the 18th century they were mostly tolerated in Holland and were indeed productive members of society, but a) the religious tolerance was new and b) the productive members of society was not new. Also the Dutch Anabaptists of that era were not very religiously tolerant of each other :P