ROVENIUS, PHILIP. — Filippo van Roveen, born in 1575 in Holland, died at Utrecht on 15 October 1651; from 1607, dean of Oldenzaal and provicar of the diocese of Deventer. On 11 October 1614, Paul V appointed him apostolic vicar of Holland (in a certain sense, the first apostolic vicar in the modern sense).
In the Consistory of 17 August 1620 he was appointed titular archbishop of Philippi and confirmed as apostolic vicar of Holland and Zeeland. On 8 September 1620 he was consecrated bishop at Vorsten near Brussels by the nuncio Sanseverino. During his administration, persecution of the Catholics intensified on account of the Spanish war. In 1628, departing from Brabant and at very great risk, R. visited Holland, ordaining and confirming throughout the country. From 1630 he lived in hiding. A court sentence of 10 March 1640 condemned him to confiscation of his property and exile; he nevertheless managed to remain concealed at Utrecht, where he died. He was buried in the house in which he had found refuge.
R., who had approved the Augustinus of Jansenius, was a rigorist. He was in dispute with the missionary religious Orders, which asserted their privileges and refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the apostolic vicar. The agreement with the Jesuits of 1634 was rather a truce, although the Pope and Propaganda insisted on observance (Jus pontif., I, 54-59). He acquired a reputation as a theorist of the missions through the Tractatus de missionibus ad Propagandam Fidem et Conversionem Infidelium et Haereticorum instituendis (Rome 1624), republished in his Respublica christiana, Antwerp 1648. The first two editions were prohibited by the nuncio because the author did not recognize the privileges of the missionary Orders.