THE NETHERLANDS. – The Netherlands (Nederland), of which Holland (or Holland) is only the central-western part, correspond to the northwestern edge of the Germanic plain, from the mouth of the Scheldt to that of the Ems.
**SUMMARY**:
I. Geography
II. Civil and ecclesiastical history
III. Legal status of the Church
IV. Literature
V. Art
VI. Educational system.I. GEOGRAPHY – The territory is almost entirely flat, indeed about two-thirds lie below sea level, from which it was and continues to be (Zuiderzee) reclaimed by means of grand drainage works (pumps, canals) and protective measures (dikes). The climate, temperate oceanic, is extremely humid (fog), with mild winters and cool, rainy summers. Poor in forests, with about one-quarter of its surface productive, the land is occupied by two-thirds pasture and one-third arable land (the areas near the sea are best suited for agriculture); in the interior and to the northeast, heathlands, marshes, and barren stretches of sand prevail. Both cultivation and livestock raising are intensive and conducted with modern methods. Cereals, potatoes, and sugar beets yield very high unit returns; the extensive and successful development of market gardening (Haarlem region) is related to the strong fragmentation of landholdings. Live cattle (bovine), butter, cheese, eggs, and condensed milk fuel a rich export trade. Fishing, especially maritime (herring), and oyster culture (Zealand) are flourishing. Despite being hampered by the lack of metallic raw materials, industry, which can rely on the coal of Limburg (11–12 million tons of anthracite annually), is varied and widespread: all branches are represented, from textiles (Leiden) to metallurgy (Velsen), from shipbuilding (Amsterdam) to food processing (sugar refineries, cocoa). Trade, particularly in relation to the territory and population, is among the most active in the world: the Netherlands benefits from its position between Central Europe and England. The Dutch merchant marine is today the sixth largest in the world (2.9 million tons gross). Inland navigation benefits from an excellent network of canals (7,750 km). With over 10 million inhabitants, the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe (310 inhabitants per km²); ethnically homogeneous (90% Dutch), it shows, from a religious standpoint, a slight Protestant majority (43%) over Catholics (39%). There are many large urban centers: three cities exceed half a million inhabitants (Amsterdam, the capital, Rotterdam, and The Hague, seat of the court and government), and eight exceed 100,000 (Utrecht, Haarlem, Eindhoven, Groningen, Tilburg, Nijmegen, Enschede, and Arnhem).
The Netherlands is organized as a hereditary constitutional monarchy (also in the female line) within the House of Orange-Nassau (1848), with a bicameral representative government (States General). The Second Chamber is elected by universal direct, secret, and proportional suffrage; the First Chamber by the provincial States, local diets with administrative and fiscal competence.
Of the vast Dutch colonial empire (over 2 million km² with 70 million inhabitants in 1939), most has become an independent state (Indonesia), linked to the Netherlands by a personal union; the remainder (560 km² with 600,000 inhabitants) includes New Guinea, Guyana, and the Antilles.
**Capital** (population
| Capital (population in thousands) | 
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| North Brabant | 4905 | 1267 | 's-Hertogenbosch (58) | 258 |
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NETHERLANDS — 1) State boundary; 2) ecclesiastical circumscriptions; 3) railways.
of the revolt, which met with success in Holland and the neighbouring province of Zeeland. The Spanish army, immediately sent northwards, achieved some temporary successes, such as the recapture of Haarlem after a long siege (1573), but failed to take other cities such as, e.g., Alkmaar (1573) and Leiden (1574). With the recall of the Duke of Alba to Spain (Dec. 1573), not only did the majority of the territories north of the rivers join the revolt, but temporarily even those to the south, so that the Prince of Orange was able to return to Brussels and Antwerp; and, thanks to the so-called Pacification of Ghent, the seventeen provinces united again in defence of the national cause. Unfortunately, however, contrary to the Prince of Orange’s intentions, the Calvinists—both in the north and in some Flemish cities—identified the national cause with their own sect and gradually annihilated Catholic worship in all the territories that fell into their power, and this not always without cruelty, as in the case of the nineteen Martyrs of Gorkum (v. trucidati a Brielle, nel 1572). The Pacification of Ghent was therefore short-lived.
The Spanish cause revived FARAONE (v.) as viceroy; the Walloon provinces wished to return to obedience to the King, while even in Flanders and Brabant the majority could ill tolerate Calvinist intolerance. The northern provinces (together with many Brabantine and Flemish cities) then concluded the so-called Union of Utrecht (1579), devised by the Stadtholder of Guelders, John of Nassau, brother of the Prince of Orange, but against the latter’s wishes, as he opposed accentuating religious divisions. However, the anger of the Spaniards focused on him, and in 1580 he was outlawed. The States-General of the seven rebel northern provinces (Guelders, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overijssel, Groningen) then, with the so-called Act of Abjuration, declared Philip II deposed from his sovereignty, which was offered to the Duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III of France. He came to the Netherlands with a small army, arousing the hostility of all the people. After his return to France, the States of the province of Holland decided to offer the comital dignity to William of Orange, but he was assassinated at Delft by a fanatic in the service of Alexander Farnese (1584).
The offer of the comital dignity was not repeated to his seventeen-year-old son Maurice (the eldest, Philip William, who had been abducted by Philip II from the University of Louvain, lived as a Catholic in Spain), but the States appointed him Stadtholder in succession to his father. The sovereignty of the rebel provinces was offered to the King of France and to Elizabeth of England, but both refused. The latter, however, sent her confidant, the Earl of Leicester, who remained in the country until 1587, earning the enmity of Holland’s leaders for his exclusive support of the Calvinists. After his departure, the States-General, tired of seeking foreign help, assumed sovereign power themselves (1588). Thus the Union of Utrecht, which had originally been merely a wartime alliance, assumed the character of a constitution for the duration of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. It was indeed that vague character of the system that left ample room for the play of internal political forces. For example, the essential question of whether the Republic was a federal State or a confederation of States was never resolved, and in practice one or the other concept prevailed at different times. Generally, the powerful province of Holland, which alone accounted for 58% of the entire federal budget, espoused the latter theory, while the six smaller provinces, together with the Princes of Orange, followed the idea of a tighter union. The constitution varied slightly from province to province: in Holland, the great merchant bourgeoisie, concentrated in the various cities, each of which had a vote in the Provincial States, predominated. Among the Dutch cities, Amsterdam predominated, having succeeded Antwerp as a world emporium after the latter was recaptured by Farnese in 1585, which led to a real exodus of Calvinists and other merchants to Amsterdam. In the other provinces, the rural nobility, closely dependent on the House of Orange, predominated. Opposite the various Provincial and General States, seated in The Hague, were the States-General, permanently established there. There was no restriction on the freedom of the provinces to delegate as many deputies as they wished to this “permanent congress of ambassadors”; voting, however, was by province, and in theory unanimity was required for every important decision. A semi-monarchical aspect of the Republic is due to the fact that the high office of Stadtholder became virtually (in theory from 1747 onwards) hereditary in the House of Orange. In theory the office was provincial, but, with the exception of Friesland (at least during the 17th century), the Princes of Orange were almost always simultaneously Stadtholders of the various provinces and, moreover, as “Captains-General” commanded the armed forces. After the Stadtholder, the most important figure was the “Grand Pensionary” of the province of Holland (exponent of the particularism of the latter against the unifying tendencies of the Orange party), to whom fell the direction of the Republic’s foreign affairs. Indeed, while Prince Maurice continued the struggle against the Spaniards, the pensionary Oldenbarnevelt continued the diplomatic work of William the Silent. Although not yet de iure, Spain recognized de facto the independence of the rebel provinces, which were not only able to keep the Scheldt blocked but also to continue their colonial expeditions to Spain’s detriment (1602, founding of the Dutch East India Company; 1619, founding of Batavia in Java; 1621, founding of the Dutch West India Company; 1626, purchase of—
In the religious sphere, the infiltration of Jansenism led to the end of the “Missio Hollandica.”
William III, for whose descendants the office of Stadtholder had been made hereditary, died without issue (1702). It was not until 1747 that the other office was entrusted to William IV, head of the so-called Frisian branch of the dynasty. Thus, for the first time, the seven provinces were united under the aegis of a single head and sovereign. Yet neither he nor his son William V (1751–95) were equal to their task, nor were the ruling estates, who bore all the disadvantages of a veritable oligarchy. The Orangist Party increasingly relied on England and Prussia, while the liberals (or “Patriots”), growing ever more numerous, looked to France. In the year 1795 the French army entered the country at the invitation of the “Patriots,” and the Republic of the United Provinces was transformed into the Batavian Republic, with no further discrimination among citizens on grounds of religion.
Under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was in turn transformed into the Kingdom of Holland (the first time in history that this name became official) under Louis Bonaparte, until in 1810 Napoleon incorporated the country into his Empire, with Amsterdam declared its third capital. The leaders of the “Liberation Movement” proclaimed sovereign the then Prince of Orange, eldest son of the aged William V, who had died in exile (Nov. 1813), and two years later, when the Congress of Vienna reunited Belgium with the northern provinces under the name of the Netherlands under William I. As is well known, this union failed, not least because of the King’s incomprehension and the Protestant spirit of the northern regions in contrast to the predominantly Catholic south; while the Catholics of the north, though now in possession of full political rights, still felt too weak and uncertain to assert themselves. Moreover, the King pursued in Belgium an ecclesiastical policy similar to that of Joseph II of Austria. Nevertheless, in 1827 the King concluded a concordat with the Holy See that erected the episcopal sees of Bois-le-Duc and Amsterdam, but the Protestants obstructed II.
After the Treaty of Separation of Belgium (1839), the aged King abdicated in favor of his son William II, who, far more favorable to Catholics, promulgated the Constitution of 1848.
Five years later (1853), under William III (1849–90), Pius IX reestablished with the brief *Ex qua die arcano* the Catholic hierarchy with a metropolitan see at Utrecht and suffragan sees at Haarlem, Bois-le-Duc (’s‑Hertogenbosch), Breda, and Ruremonde. The new ecclesiastical province, however, remained under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith until 1908. The Catholics, who had been compelled to collaborate with the liberals out of fear of the Protestants, after 1870 formed with them the so‑called coalition with the Anti‑Revolutionary Party and the Christian‑Historical Party, in order to support the “school struggle,” that is, the claim for the rights of denominational education, a struggle that ended with the complete equalization of such education and the establishment of state schools. The leading “emancipator” and political leader of the Catholics at that time was Msgr. Herman Schaepman (1844–1903). The coalition dissolved in 1926, when the Protestant parties opposed the opening of a legation to the Holy See.
In 1890 King William III was succeeded by his daughter Wilhelmina. During the war of 1914–18 the Kingdom observed strict, albeit precarious, neutrality. In May 1940, however, despite its neutrality, the Kingdom was invaded by the German army, and the Queen departed for London with her government to continue the struggle. In 1941 the Netherlands Indies also suffered harsh occupation at the hands of the Japanese. The European territory was partially liberated in the autumn of 1944, and the two provinces of Holland (North and South) only in May 1945 after a terrible “Hunger Winter.” Meanwhile, in the Indies a strong nationalist independence movement arose, which, supported by the United Nations, led to the cessation of Dutch sovereignty (Dec. 1948) and the proclamation of the Netherlands‑Indonesia Union. In August of that same year the Queen abdicated in favor of her daughter Juliana. After the elections of 1946, the government was formed by the Catholic‑People’s and Labour parties.
The Netherlands today count one metropolitan diocese, Utrecht (q.v.), and four suffragan sees: Breda (q.v.), Haarlem (q.v.), Ruremonde (q.v.), and ’s‑Hertogenbosch (q.v.).
III. LEGAL STATUS OF THE CHURCH
The Dutch Constitution guarantees equal freedom for all religious denominations (Art. 168) and ensures them all the protection of the law (Art. 169). Adherents of different cults enjoy the same civil and political rights and may equally hold dignities, perform functions, and occupy offices (Art. 170); though in practice Catholics, for example, are debarred from access to the diplomatic‑consular career.Worship is permitted within church buildings and in general in enclosed places, within the limits of public order; it is forbidden outside such places, except in those regions where it was permitted, according to the laws and regulations, in 1887, at the time when the Constitution was promulgated, with many modifications still in force.
The various religious denominations and their ministers are guaranteed economic support, pensions, and other benefits already enjoyed from the State. No government intervention is required for the publication of religious instructions (Art. 174). The Holy See is entirely free in the appointment of bishops.
Dutch legislation admits divorce (Art. 254 of the Civil Code) and recognizes only civilly contracted marriages, which must precede religious ones. In 1940, moreover, Parliament approved a bill that, by amending Art. 888 of the Civil Code, restricted the scope of the impediment of affinity, thereby further undermining the marital bond according to canonical conception.
The Netherlands has maintained diplomatic relations with the Holy See since 1815, though with a long interruption from 1870, when, following the occupation of Rome, it suppressed its legation, until 1915, when, with the outbreak of the First World War, it found it expedient to restore, albeit temporarily, its representation to the Holy See. In 1923 the legation became permanent once more.
The papal representation has not been interrupted, although it has not been free from unfortunate events. In 1890, in fact, the Holy See was forced to withdraw its internuncio from The Hague after being excluded from the Peace Conference. The representation was thus entrusted to a chargé d'affaires until 1910, when it was decided to entrust the management of the Internunciature for the Netherlands to the pro tempore nuncio of Belgium, with the rank of internuncio.
In 1921 the papal representation was restored to its full integrity, so that now the two parties are represented respectively by a resident apostolic internuncio at The Hague and by a minister plenipotentiary.
IV. LITERATURE
One can speak of a true and proper literature of the Netherlands only from the 13th century onward. Everything written before belongs generically to Germanic literature. The writers of the Netherlands still used their own dialects: particularly important are the southern dialects (Brabant, Flanders). The literary genres are approximately those of French literature, as the French influence is considerable. The Carolingian chivalric romance is reflected in the well-known Karel en Elegast. Outstanding for its delicate and refined tone is the tale Floris en Blanchefloer; but what is most characteristic of the spirit of the Netherlands is the satirical epic inspired by the animal world, Van den Vos Reineerde, a parody of chivalric romances. In the same period there are prose and lyric works imbued with mysticism by Hadewych, a "beguine" of Brabant: this is the highest manifestation of the poetry of the time. Important as a "mirror of the 13th century" is the didactic and moralizing work of Jacob van Maerlant (1235-1300), who wrote, besides chivalric romances, lives of saints and "scientific" works for popular use (notably his Rijmbijbel, or Bible in verse).The 14th century is marked by the vigorous mystical prose of Jan van Ruusbroec (1294-1381), among whose works De chierheit der gheestelijke Brulocht (The adornment of the spiritual marriage) is particularly noteworthy for its considerable influence on the devotio moderna (q.v.). Also of interest are several lives of saints and legends (notably Beatrice), miracles and mysteries (Marieken van Nieumeghen and Elckerlyc). In popular farces the realistic sense so typical of the Netherlands is evident. Completing the literary picture of this period are spiritual and secular songs.
In the transitional period toward the Renaissance, the struggle between the old and the new faith is reflected. Anna Bijns writes her Refereinen (often of an apologetic nature), while Marcus van St. Aldegonde writes with anti-Catholic intent, in prose, De Bijenkorf der H. Roomschen Kerke (The beehive of the Holy Roman Church); to him is owed the Dutch national anthem. After the fall of Antwerp (1585), the center of culture and literature shifts northward. The 17th century—the golden age—is also a period of flourishing for letters. Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679), who converted to Catholicism in 1641, may truly be considered the "prince" of Dutch poets: his tragedies are particularly important. Of commercial origin and self-taught, he succeeded in deepening his knowledge of the classics and theology; from this combination of studies and interests sprang his lyrical dramas (Lucifer and Adam in exile) and his didactic poetry (Mysteries of the altar). His famous drama Gijsbrecht van Aemstel is still performed every year. As a lyric poet, too, Vondel ranks among the greatest poets of his age. The most characteristic exponent of the Renaissance is Pieter Cornelisz Hooft (1581-1647): while his dramas (Granida, a pastoral play in the manner of Guarini’s Pastor Fido) are rather weak, he owes his fame to his lyric poems and prose. In his Nederlandse Historien he sought to emulate the style of Tacitus. Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero (1585-1618) displayed notable talent in lyric poetry and comedy (De Spaanse Brabander); in his comedies and