Utrecht, Archdiocese of

UTRECHT, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese that coincides with the north-eastern part of the Netherlands, with 3.3 million inhabitants, of whom 780,000 are Catholics. Almost 57% are Protestants, mostly Calvinists of various sects; 16.5% have no 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 Drente 7%; in the others, namely Overijssel, Gelderland and Utrecht, 30-35% Catholics.

Catholics are divided into 22 deaneries and 415 parishes with 941 priests (836 secular and 105 regular). A great pastoral problem is that of mixed marriages: 4,002 valid mixed marriages and 18,448 invalid ones out of 119,205 valid marriages between Catholics. Major seminaries: the theological one at Driebergen-Rijsenburg, founded in 1857; the philosophical one since 1952 at Huis ter Heide; minor seminary at Apeldoorn. The current archbishop, Dr. Johannes 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: St. Clement). Coadjutor bishop since 1951 is Dr. Bernardus Alfrink.

HISTORY

In the city of U., originally a Roman fortification (Albiobola, Traiectum ad Rhenum), King Dagobert I founded a small church, which was later destroyed by the Frisians. St. Willibrord, the apostle of the Netherlands, laid the foundations at U. 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 U. (695). His diocese occupied the Netherlands north of the Rhine. The definitive conversion of this territory began only after its complete subjugation by Charles Martel in 734, and by the end of the 8th century the Church was everywhere established. The organization of U. as an archdiocese with some suffragans could not be realized, and therefore U. became a suffragan of Cologne in 745. In 753 St. Boniface, apostle of the Frisians, was made its bishop. Other notable missionaries are: St. Ludger (Groningen), Sts. Lebuin and Marcellinus (Overijssel and Drenthe).

In the Middle Ages it formed part of the Teutonic Kingdom. The incursions of the Normans obliged the bishops to move their residence frequently. Notable bishops are: St. Radbod (869-917), who made a collection of documents of U., the so-called Cartularium Radbodi, one of the principal sources for the history of U.; St. Ansfrid (995-1010); St. Adelbold (1010-25), who received from the Emperor Conrad several large territories and thus founded the territorial power of U.; the so-called "Sticht," further enlarged under St. Bernulf (1025-54). The diocese played a great part in the investiture struggle, for a long time taking the side of the emperor. The interference of the nobility in the elections of bishops diminished the importance of U. in the 14th century, a situation that improved in 1528 when the civil jurisdiction of U. was ceded to Charles V with the approval of Clement VII.

With the bull Super universas of 1559, Paul IV gave a new ecclesiastical organization, and the Netherlands were withdrawn from foreign jurisdiction. U. became an archdiocese with 5 suffragans. The first bishop was Frederick Schenk van Toutenburg. The war with Spain, the Union of U., by which Calvinism definitively gained the upper hand, and the consequent complete prohibition of Catholic worship prevented Schenk's two successors from occupying the see of U. After 1592 no other bishop was appointed, and the ecclesiastical regency was first in the hands of Sasbout Vosmeer (d. 1614), first as vicar general of U., then as vicar apostolic of the whole so-called "Dutch Mission," and in this office he had several successors until 1727, when the power passed to the internuncio of Brussels, assisted by 7 archpriests. The "vicariate of U.," that is, the canons assisting the vicar, became the cause of the schism of U.; the vicar Peter Codde, a sympathizer with Jansenism, was deposed in 1704, and the Chapter elected, despite the protest of Rome, Cornelius Steenoven, illegitimately but validly consecrated by the French bishop Varlet, who had already been suspended. They then formed a schismatic Church ("oud-bisschoppelijke clerccy") which after 1870 drew close to the Old Catholics of Germany. At present their Church still has 3 bishops in the Netherlands, with about 10,000 adherents.

In 1853, when the Dutch hierarchy was restored, U. again became an archdiocese with the suffragans of Haarlem, Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Roermond. The first archbishop was John Zwijsen.

The city of U. has several monuments: the cathedral, St. Martin's, one of the most important Gothic monuments of the Netherlands; the Romanesque-Gothic churches of St. John, St. Peter, the "Buurkerk," the oratory of St. Michael. U. has a school of sacred music. The University Library contains many manuscripts and precious miniatures, among them the famous Psalter of U. of the 9th century.

Pietro van den Baar
UTRECHT SCHISM - The Utrecht Schism is connected with Jansenism (v.). This heresy entered the Northern Low Countries in the second half of the 17th century, above all because the secular priests received their formation in the Dutch College of Louvain, where Jansenius himself had been the first rector, and then because certain apostolic vicars, such as John Neercassel and Peter Codde, belonging to the Oratory of Cardinal de Bérulle, gave hospitality to the leaders of the sect (Arnauld and Quesnel) who had been expelled from France under Louis XIV. For this reason the clash that already prevailed between secular and regular priests over questions of a juridical character, once transferred to the doctrinal field, grew more bitter.

Summoned to Rome under the accusation of Jansenism, Codde was suspended from his office in 1702 and deposed two years later. Having returned to Holland, he died in 1710, without having resumed his functions or been reconciled with the Church. His adherents, claiming the right to elect a successor, elected in 1723 a certain Cornelius Steenoven as archbishop of Utrecht and had him consecrated in 1725 by Dominic Varlet, a suspended bishop. To ensure the succession, they soon afterward associated with him two bishops at Haarlem and at 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 protested against the erection of the Catholic hierarchy in Holland (1853). Having made contact, after the Vatican Council, with the Old Catholics, for whom it consecrated bishops, and taking an active interest in the ecumenical movement, from which in 1931 an intercommunio in sacris with the Anglicans was born, the Church of Utrecht began to sacrifice certain points of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline, such as the Filioque, celibacy, the indicative form of absolution. Lately it has pronounced against the dogma of the Assumption of the B. Virgin. It currently numbers three bishops, about thirty priests and approximately 10,000 faithful. - See plate LXXXVII.

Ponzano Polman