UTRECHT, ARCHDIOCESE OF. – A city and archdiocese coinciding with the north-eastern part of the Netherlands, with 3.3 million inhabitants, of whom 780,000 are Catholic. Almost 57% are Protestant, mostly Calvinists of various sects; 16.5% are without religion. There is an annual increase of 23,700 Catholic children and 1,700 converts, against 5,100 deaths. Local distribution of Catholics: in the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe, 7%; in the others, namely Overijssel, Gelderland, and Utrecht, 30-35% Catholic.
Catholics are divided into 22 deaneries and 415 parishes with 941 priests (836 diocesan and 105 religious). A major pastoral problem is that of mixed marriages: 4,002 valid mixed marriages and 18,448 invalid ones out of 119,205 valid marriages among Catholics. Major seminaries: the theological one in Driebergen-Rijsenburg, founded in 1857; the philosophical one since 1952 in Huis ter Heide; minor seminary in Apeldoorn. The current archbishop, Dr. Giovanni de Jong, known for his pastoral letters against the usurpations of the National Socialists during the last war, was created cardinal in 1946 ( titular church: S. Clemente). Bishop-coadjutor since 1951 is Dr. Bernardo Alfrink.
HISTORY. – In the city of Utrecht, originally a Roman fortification (Albioloba, Traiectum ad Rhenum), King Dagobert I founded a small church, later destroyed by the Frisians. St. Willibrord, the apostle of the Netherlands, laid the foundations in Utrecht for the conversion of this country with the help of the Carolingians. Pepin of Herstal sent him to Pope Sergius I, who consecrated him archbishop of Utrecht (695). His diocese covered the Netherlands north of the Rhine. The definitive conversion of this territory began only after the complete submission made by Charles Martel in 734, and by the end of the 8th century the Church was established everywhere. The organization of Utrecht as an archdiocese with some suffragans could not be realized, and therefore Utrecht became in 745 a suffragan of Cologne. In 753, St. Boniface, apostle of the Frisians, was made bishop there. Other notable missionaries include St. Ludger (Groningen), SS. Lebuin and Marcellinus (Overijssel and Drenthe).
In the Middle Ages it was part of the Teutonic Kingdom. The incursions of the Normans forced the bishops to move their residence frequently. Notable bishops include: St. Radbod (869-917), who compiled a collection of Utrecht documents, the so-called *Cartularium Radbodi*, one of the principal sources for the history of Utrecht; St. Ansfried (995-1010); St. Adelbold (1010-25), who received large territories from Emperor Conrad and thus founded the territorial power of Utrecht, the so-called *Sticht*, later expanded under St. Bernolf (1025-54). The diocese played a major role in the Investiture Controversy, siding for a long time with the Emperor. The interference of the nobility in the election of bishops diminished Utrecht’s importance in the 14th century, a situation that improved in 1528 when Utrecht’s civil jurisdiction was ceded to Charles V with the approval of Clement VII.
With the bull *Super universas* of 1559, Paul IV reorganized ecclesiastical affairs and the Netherlands were removed from foreign jurisdiction. Utrecht became an archdiocese with five suffragans. The first bishop was Frederik Schenck van Toutenburg. The war with Spain, the Union of Utrecht, by which Calvinism definitively gained the upper hand, and the consequent complete prohibition of Catholic worship prevented Schenck’s two successors from occupying the see of Utrecht. After 1592 no other bishop was appointed, and ecclesiastical governance was initially in the hands of Sabbold Vismer (d. 1614), first as vicar general of Utrecht, later as apostolic vicar of the entire so-called “Dutch Mission,” a role that had several successors until 1727, when authority passed to the internuncio of Brussels, assisted by seven archpriests. The “vicariate of Utrecht,” i.e., the canons assisting the vicar, became the cause of the Utrecht Schism; the vicar Petrus Codde, sympathetic to Jansenism, was deposed in 1704, and the Chapter, despite Rome’s protest, elected Cornelius Steenoven, who was illegitimately but validly consecrated by the French bishop Dominique Varlet, already suspended. They then formed a schismatic Church (“oud-bisschoppelijke clericy”), which after 1870 drew closer to the Old Catholics of Germany. Today their Church still has about three bishops in the Netherlands, with approximately 10,000 adherents.
In 1853, when the Dutch hierarchy was restored, Utrecht once again became an archdiocese with the suffragans of Haarlem, Breda, ’s-Hertogenbosch, and Roermond. The first archbishop was Johannes Zwijsen.
The city of Utrecht has several monuments: the Cathedral of St. Martin, one of the most important Gothic monuments in the Netherlands; the Romanesque-Gothic churches of St. John, St. Peter, the “Buurkerk,” and the oratory of St. Michael. Utrecht has a school of sacred music. The University Library contains many manuscripts and precious miniatures, including the famous Utrecht Psalter of the 9th century.
Utrecht, archdiocese of – Silver bust of St. Plechelm (8th century), executed in 1480 – Oldenzaal, church of St. Plechelm.
Pietro van den Baar
UTRECHT SCHISM. –
The Utrecht Schism is connected with Jansenism (v.). This heresy entered the northern Netherlands in the second half of the 17th century, especially because secular priests received their formation at the Dutch College in Louvain, where Jansen himself had been the first rector, and also because some apostolic vicars, such as Johannes Neercassel and Petrus Codde, belonged to the Oratory of Cardinal de Bérulle and gave hospitality to the leaders of the sect (Arnauld and Quesnel) expelled from France under Louis XIV. For this reason, the clash that already existed between secular and regular clergy over legal matters, when transferred to the doctrinal field, became more acute.
Summoned to Rome on charges of Jansenism, Codde was suspended from his office in 1702 and deposed two years later. Returning to the Netherlands, he died in 1710 without resuming his functions or reconciling with the Church. His followers, claiming the right to elect a successor, chose in 1723 a certain Cornelius Steenoven as archbishop of Utrecht and had him consecrated in 1725 by Dominique Varlet, a suspended bishop. To ensure succession, they soon afterwards consecrated two bishops at Haarlem and Deventer. Attempts at reunion made in the 18th century failed. A council held at Utrecht in 1763 shows the Church of Utrecht still faithful to all Catholic beliefs and practices, except the primacy of the Pope. In the 19th century it rejected the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and opposed the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in the Netherlands (1853). After contact with the Old Catholics following the First Vatican Council, for whom it consecrated bishops and took an active interest in the ecumenical movement that led in 1931 to intercommunion with Anglicans, the Church of Utrecht began to abandon certain points of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline, such as the *Filioque*, clerical celibacy, and the indicative form of absolution. More recently it has opposed the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. It currently has three bishops, about thirty priests, and approximately 10,000 faithful. — See pl. LXXXVII.