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During the early modern era, there were hundreds of political borders in Europe between states with different official religions. People of different faiths encountered one another across these borders, practicing a form of coexistence which histories of religious toleration have largely ignored. The case of Vaals, a village in Dutch Limburg, reveals much about the tenor of religious life in border communities. Located where the borders of the Dutch Republic, the Habsburg Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire (the Imperial City of Aachen) intersected, Vaals was a site of encounter and intensive engagement between Protestants and Catholics. An examination of relations between Protestants and Catholics in Vaals and its surrounding region highlights the practical limits of the famous principle, cuius regio eius religio. Religious groups of all stripes made creative use of the political borders between states to pursue their religious aims, and dissenting groups in particular found that the proximity of such borders facilitated their survival and worship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]