The Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeuwarden was a short-lived (1559-1580)

Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...

Dutch

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ...

in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...

of the Archbishopric of Utrecht. 19-08-07 leeuwarden

History

The Diocese of

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

was established in principle on 12 May 1559, canonically split from the then Diocese of Utrecht, which was simultaneously promoted to an Archdiocese and became Leeuwarden's Metropolitan. Its territory was defined by the papal bull ''Regimini universalis'' of 7 August 1561 as the territory of

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

with the islands

Terschelling Terschelling (; fry, Skylge; Terschelling dialect: ''Schylge'') is a municipality and an island in the northern Netherlands, one of the West Frisian Islands. It is situated between the islands of Vlieland and Ameland. Wadden Islanders are k ...

and

Ameland Ameland (; West Frisian: It Amelân) is a municipality and one of the West Frisian Islands off the north coast of the Netherlands. It consists mostly of sand dunes. It is the third major island of the West Frisians. It neighbours islands ...

. The episcopal see was to be the church of St Vitus, formerly a parish church. Diocesan finances were derived from the income of the

regular canon Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

s of

Burgum Burgum is the largest and administrative town of the municipality of Tytsjerksteradiel, in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Friesland. It had a population of 10,058 inhabitants in January 2017. On 1 January 1989 the official name of the villa ...

and the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

Pingjum Abbey near

Bolsward Bolsward (, West Frisian: ''Boalsert'') is a city in Súdwest-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. Bolsward has a population of just under 10,200. It is located 10 km W.N.W. of Sneek. History The town is founded on thr ...

, with the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

financed from Mariengaard Abbey in

Hallum Hallum is a village in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It is a village in the municipality of Noardeast-Fryslân and it had a population of around 2,746 in January 2017. The primary language spoken is West Frisian. Before 2019, the vil ...

. The first bishop to be appointed, in 1561, was Remi Drieux (Remigius Driutius), who never took possession of his see. Despite this, in October 1565, Dreux did take part in the provincial council of Utrecht as bishop of Leeuwarden. In 1569 Drieux was appointed to the diocese of Bruges, and was succeeded in Leeuwarden by

Cunerus Petri Cunerus Petri (ca. 1530–1580) was the first bishop of Leeuwarden to take possession of the see.J. De Jong, "Cunerus Petri", in ''Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek'', vol. 5 (Leiden, 1921), 122-124. He was nominated in succession to Remi ...

. In 1578, during the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...

, part of the

Eighty Years War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) ( c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Refo ...

(when Catholic Habsburg lost the northern provinces), bishop Petri was captured by the rebel

stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

(governor) of Friesland,

George de Lalaing George de Lalaing count Rennenberg (c. 1550 – 23 July 1581), was stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel in the service of Philip II of Spain from 1577 to 1581. The Lalaing family came from Hainaut and had a tradition o ...

, Count of Rennenberg, and imprisoned in Harlingen. The bishop was to die in exile in Germany in 1580. In 1579 Rennenberg sequestered the revenues of the diocese, and transferred them to the

States of Friesland The States of Friesland were the sovereign body that governed the province of Friesland under the Dutch Republic. They were formed in 1580 after the former Lordship of Frisia (a part of the Habsburg Netherlands) acceded to the Union of Utrecht ...

. The diocese was legally suppressed, along with Catholic worship, in 1580.W. Eekhoff, ''Geschiedkundige beschrijving van Leeuwarden'', vol. 1 (Leeuwarden, 1846), pp. 226-227. From 1592 the diocesan territory was ecclesiastically part of the

Dutch Mission The Holland Mission or Dutch Mission ( or ') (1592 – 1853) was the common name of a Catholic Church missionary district in the Low Countries during and after the Protestant Reformation. History Pre-reformation diocese and archdiocese of ...

. The diocesan title would reappear in 1969, when the

Diocese of Groningen The Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden ( nl, Bisdom Groningen-Leeuwarden; la, Dioecesis Groningensis-Leovardiensis) is a suffragan Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern part of the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Roman Ca ...

was refounded as

Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden The Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden ( nl, Bisdom Groningen-Leeuwarden; la, Dioecesis Groningensis-Leovardiensis) is a suffragan Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern part of the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Roman Ca ...

Residential Bishops of the suffragan see

* Remi Drieux (15 March 1560 – 16 September 1569 ''nominal''), later

bishop of Bruges The Diocese of Bruges (in Dutch Bisdom Brugge) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolis (religious jurisdiction), metropolitan Arch ...

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

(16 September 1569 – death 12 May 1594) *

(16 September 1569 – death 15 February 1580)

References

Sources and external links

GCatholic
Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Europe History of Catholicism in the Netherlands {{Netherlands-stub

History

Residential Bishops of the suffragan see

See also

References

Sources and external links