By 1714, the University of Groningen was in such a deplorable state that the authorities decided not to celebrate the university's first centenary. And yet, not for the last time in its history, the university showed proof of great resilience in its second century in existence. By appointing many ‘enlightened’ professors, Groningen even managed to overtake Franeker on the virtual ranking of Dutch universities and to rightfully claim the title of the most important northern university. However, the Enlightenment, so popular in Groningen, also had its limits, as more than one professor was to discover.

Enlightened minds

When the last professor in the Faculty of Law died in 1716, the States-General finally took action and decided to appoint no less than five new professors. This gave the university a new élan. Soon enrolments were once again up to 60 a year – not as many as in the mid-17th century but enough to allow the university to once again function normally. It would have been unrealistic for the university to expect to match its 17th-century heyday, since international students were no longer forced or willing to come to the Republic in such large numbers. What's more, the university now had to compete with other forms of higher education throughout Europe that were more tailored to practical life and therefore very popular.

One of Groningen's new professors was the jurist Jean Barbeyrac, an outspoken representative of the early Enlightenment in Europe. Barbeyrac was appointed professor in Lausanne, a Protestant university that increasingly suffered from the intolerance of the Swiss Reformed community, which demanded strict adherence to the Reformed Church Creeds. Barbeyrac was prepared to sign the creeds but only ‘to the extent that they were consistent with the Bible’, which was not good enough for the orthodox authorities. Although Groningen was also Protestant, Barbeyrac believed the Dutch Republic to be more tolerant than Switzerland. And he was right: he enjoyed the full support of the city magistrates and provincial nobility who protected him against attacks from strict Calvinists. This allowed Barbeyrac to fully focus on European academia. He became a great advocate of intellectual and religious freedom and tolerance based on natural law.