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Priest and Layman in a Minority Church: the Roman Catholic Church in the Northern Netherlands 1592–1686

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Mathieu G. Spiertz
Mathieu G. Spiertz*
Affiliation:
Catholic University, Nijmegen
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Extract

In 1572, when the provinces of Holland and Zeeland were almost completely overrun by the ‘Geuzen’, Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) succeeded to the Holy See. In 1578 this Pope forbade the Roman Catholics in the rebellious provinces to give any civil or military service to the rebels’ authority—on penalty of excommunication—and identified Catholicism with being faithful to the Spanish cause. When this Pope died in 1585, there was reasonable hope held in Rome that the recapture of the Northern Netherlands—and hence the restoration of Catholicism—would soon be realized, as Parma’s campaign was succeeding in the South of the Netherlands and one town after another fell into his hands.

During the pontificates of Sixtus V (1585-1590) and Clement VIII (1592–1605) it gradually became clear to the Holy See that in the Northern Netherlands an independent state under Calvinist authority might be in the making. In these provinces the episcopal sees, set up in 1559, were either vacant or deserted since the bishops lived in exile. In spite of requests by Philip II the Holy See postponed the appointment of new bishops. However, in 1592 Clement VIII appointed an administrator, a ‘vicar apostolic’, who, in the name of the Pope, was to administer all the provinces where Calvinism had gained the upper hand, notably the area north of the great rivers in the present-day Netherlands. This vicar apostolic Sasbout Vosmeer (1592–1614) was consecrated in 1602 and given the title of archbishop of Philippi inpartibus infidelium.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 26: The Ministry: Clerical and Lay , 1989 , pp. 287 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989

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References

1 Spiertz, M. G., L’église Catholique des Provinces-Unies et le Saint-Siège pendant la deuxième moitié du XVII siècle (Louvain, 1975), pp. 8-23, 119, 154Google Scholar.

2 Spiertz, M. G., ‘De ontwikkelingsgang van de katholieke Missie in Friesland’, Archief voor de Geschiedenis van de katholieke kerk in Nederland (-AGKKN), 21 (1979), pp. 290–1 Google Scholar. “Godsdienstig leven van de katholieken in de 17de eeuw’, Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, D. P. Bloket al., eds., 8 (Bussum, 1979), p. 346.

3 Rogier, L. J., Geschiedenis van het katholicisme in Noord-Nederland in de tie en de 16e eeuw (Amster dam, 1947), 2, pp. 352–4.Google Scholar

4 Nijcnhuis, W., ‘Religiegeschiedenis 1621-1648, kerk in het meervoud’, Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 6, pp. 397–9 Google Scholar.

5 Mars, K. H. M., ‘Seger Stevens Sueck’, AGKKN 18 (1976), pp. 143–7 Google Scholar.

6 Rogier, L.J., Geschiedenis, 2, pp. 98–9.Google Scholar

7 The sources of the consulted reports of the Dutch Mission are mentioned in: M. G. Spiertz en J. A. M. M. Janssen, Gids voor de studie van Reformatie en Katholieke Herleving in Nederland 1520–1650, Archiefdienst Nederlandse Hervormde Kcrk (Den Haag, 1982), pp. 113–21. The results of the mission-reports of 1656 and 1701 can be found in L. J. Rogier, Geschiedenis, 2, pp. 362–7. 392–9. 424. 435–9, 471–7.

8 Spiertz, M. G., L’église, p. 113.Google Scholar

9 van Moorsel, P. P. V., ‘De devotie tot St. Willibrord in Nederland van ongcveer 1580 tot ongeveer 1750’, Ons Geatelijk Erf, 32 (1958), pp. 128–9 Google Scholar. Bevesrigingh in’t Geloof en Troost in Vervolgingh, door Jan Baptist, priester van ‘t Oratorie Jesu Christi (Brussel, 1670), p. 64.

10 Spiertz, M. G., ‘De onrwikkelingsgang’, pp. 278–81. Groot Placaatbock, Cornelis Cau, ed., 1 (The Hague, 1658), cols 203–9.Google Scholar

11 M. G. Spiertz, ‘Pastorale problemen in de Noordnederlandsc katholicke kerk van de zevcn-tiende eeuw’, Kleio, 20 (1979), pp. 126 32 Google Scholar.

12 Willem Frijhoff, ‘Vraagtekens bij het vroegmodernc kersteningsoffensicf’, Religieuze volks-kultuur, Gerard Rooyakkers and Theo van der Zee, eds. (Nijmegen, 1986), pp. 81–6. M. G. Spiertz, ‘Godsdienstig leven’, pp. 351—3.

13 Ibid., pp. 348–50.

14 M. G. Spiertz, ‘De ontwikkelingsgang’, pp. 284–5, 291.

15 E. M. R. Schulte-van Kessel, Geest en Vlees in godsdienst en wetenschap (The Hague, 1980), pp. 51–7, 76–7, 101–6. E. B. F. Pey, ‘De manuscripten van Trijn Jans Olij als bron voor een prosopografisch onderzoek naar de klopjes van ‘De Hoek’ te Haarlem van 1583–1650’, AGKKN 28 (1986), pp. 138–43.

16 E. E A. J. M. Theissing, Over klopjes en kwezels (Utrecht, 1935), pp. 39–62, 184-99.

17 E. M. R. Schulte-van Kessel, Geesten Vlees, pp. 53—6.

18 I. H. van Eeghen, ‘De eigendom van de Katholieke kerken in Amsterdam ten tijde van de Republiek’, Haarlemse Bijdragen, 64 (1957), p. 269.