The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands ( nl, Oud-Katholieke Kerk van Nederland), sometimes known as the Dutch Roman Catholic Church of the Old Episcopal Order, the Church of Utrecht (Ultrajectine Church), or Jansenist Church of Holland, is an

Old Catholic The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the Great Chu ...

jurisdiction originating from the

Archdiocese of Utrecht (695–1580) Archdiocese of Utrecht or Diocese of Utrecht may refer to: * Diocese of Utrecht (695–1580), the historic diocese and after 1559 archdiocese before and during the Protestant Reformation :* Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht (1024–1528), the temporal j ...

. The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands is the mother church of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht. The jurisdiction is currently led by Archbishop Metropolitan

Bernd Wallet Bernd Wallet serves as the 84th Archbishop of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands. Elected on 15 February 2020, he was consecrated on 18 September 2021, after two delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Life and career The son of ...

History

Early history

St.

Willibrord Willibrord (; 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary and saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg. Early life His fath ...

evangelised the northern parts of the Netherlands (above the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

), bringing Roman Catholicism in the 7th century. The southern parts of the now so-called

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico- economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: ...

were already evangelised from the 4th century, beginning with St. Servatius, Bishop of

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

. Willibrord had been consecrated by

Pope Sergius I Pope Sergius I (8 September 701) was the bishop of Rome from 15 December 687 to his death, and is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected at a time when two rivals, Paschal and Theodore, were locked in dispute about wh ...

in circa 696 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. In 1145,

Pope Eugene III Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He ...

restricted the electorate to the

chapters Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

of the five

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...

es in the diocese. The

Fourth Lateran Council The Fourth Council of the Lateran or Lateran IV was convoked by Pope Innocent III in April 1213 and opened at the Lateran Palace in Rome on 11 November 1215. Due to the great length of time between the Council's convocation and meeting, many bi ...

confirmed this in 1215. In 1517,

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...

prohibited, in ', the

Archbishop-Elector of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne is an archbishop governing the Archdiocese of Cologne of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and is also a historical state in the Rhine holding the birthplace of Beethoven and northern Rhineland-Palati ...

Hermann of Wied Hermann of Wied (German: ''Hermann von Wied'') (14 January 1477 – 15 August 1552) was the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne from 1515 to 1546. In 1521, he supported a punishment for German reformer Martin Luther, but later opened up one of the H ...

, as ', to summon to a court of first instance in Cologne, Philip of Burgundy, his treasurer, and his ecclesiastical and secular subjects.

John Mason Neale John Mason Neale (24 January 1818 – 6 August 1866) was an English Anglican priest, scholar and hymnwriter. He worked and wrote on a wide range of holy Christian texts, including obscure medieval hymns, both Western and Eastern. Among his most ...

explained that Leo X only confirmed a right of the church but Leo X's confirmation "was providential" in respect to the future schism.

Reformation and Jansenism

Forced into hiding as a result of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

, the diocesan structures of the Catholic Church of the Netherlands were dissolved. The Holland Mission started when

Pope Clement VIII Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605. Born ...

erected the Apostolic Vicariate of Batavia in 1592. Eventually, the church obtained a comfortable enough status with the local authorities so as to allow it to practice Catholicism as long as this did not take place in public or semi-public buildings and areas. However, conflicts arose between Jesuit missionaries sent from Rome and the local clergy. This was augmented by an influx of

Jansenist Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by th ...

priests from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. The Jesuits accused Archbishop Petrus Codde, apostolic vicar, of Jansenism.

Pope Innocent XII Pope Innocent XII ( la, Innocentius XII; it, Innocenzo XII; 13 March 1615 – 27 September 1700), born Antonio Pignatelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 July 1691 to his death in September 1700. He ...

appointed a commission of cardinals who started an investigation of Codde, ending in exoneration. In 1700, Codde was summoned to Rome and brought before a second commission appointed by Pope Clement XI. When Codde refused assent to the ''

Formula of Submission for the Jansenists ' is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Alexander VII in 1665 which required, according to the '' Enchiridion symbolorum'', "all ecclesiastical personnel and teachers" to subscribe to an included '' for ...

'', Clement XI suspended Codde in 1701 and appointed a successor, , as apostolic vicar. This decision was not popular among the Dutch clergy, who demanded the return of Codde. Codde returned to Utrecht in June 1703 and formally resigned—protesting the circumstances—in a pastoral letter of March 19, 1704. He died on December 18, 1710. Although the historic archdiocese was suppressed in 1580, and its replacement, the apostolic vicariate, was erected in 1592, the chapter of the suppressed archdiocese arranged for Luke Fagan,

Bishop of Meath The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric. History Unt ...

, to ordain priests for the suppressed archdiocese in 1716. The canonical matters arising from the supposed Roman violations of ' led to the case being brought before the Pontifical Catholic University of Leuven in May 1717, which found in favour of the chapter of the suppressed archdiocese, but was unable to resolve the matter with Rome; this led to a ''de facto'' autonomous Catholic church in the Netherlands. Finally in 1723, dissatisfied Dutch clergy elected as archbishop of the suppressed Archdiocese of Utrecht. He was consecrated in 1724 without a papal mandate by suspended Bishop

Dominique Marie Varlet Dominique-Marie Varlet (15 March 1678 in Paris – 14 May 1742 in Rijswijk) was a French prelate and missionary of the Catholic Church who served as vicar general of the Diocese of Quebec. Later, as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Babylon, he cause ...

, who had been living in Amsterdam since 1721. Both Varlet and Steenoven were suspended for illicit episcopal consecration, and excommunicated for claiming a diocesan see of jurisdiction without the permission of the Roman Pontiff. Varlet later reconciled with the Catholic Church, but subsequently consecrated, again without a papal mandate, four more bishops for the independent Ultrajectine church, which would become known as "Old Catholic" after 1853. Petrus Johannes Meindaerts, after his consecration by Varlet without a papal mandate in 1739, consecrated bishops to the suppressed dioceses of Deventer, Haarlem, and The apostolic vicariate was reduced to a mission ''sui iuris'' by

Pope Benedict XIII Pope Benedict XIII ( la, Benedictus XIII; it, Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May ...

in 1727. Most Dutch Catholics nevertheless continued to follow the

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, first under missionary administrative structures and, from 1853, under the reestablished episcopal hierarchy in the Netherlands, when Catholics were permitted to worship publicly after two and a half centuries of

secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

and private religious worship.

Vatican I

After reestablishment of the episcopal hierarchy in the Netherlands in 1853 by Pope Pius IX, the breakaway Church of Utrecht adopted the name "Old Catholic Church" to distinguish itself from the newly created Roman hierarchy by its seniority in the Netherlands. In 1870 the First Vatican Council was convened, and the bishops of the Church of Utrecht were not invited because they were not seen as being in communion with the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

. At the First Vatican Council, papal primacy in jurisdiction and the

Catholic dogma A dogma of the Catholic Church is defined as "a truth revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church declared as binding." The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' states: Dogma can also pertain to the collective body of the church's d ...

papal infallibility Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks '' ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the apos ...

were defined, to the objection of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands and some communities in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and Switzerland. Several separate communities were formed at this time and sought apostolic succession from the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, eventually forming the

Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches The Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches, most commonly referred to by the short form Union of Utrecht, is a federation of Old Catholic churches, nationally organized from schisms which rejected Roman Catholic doctrines of the First ...

, and these German speaking communities adopted the name ''Old Catholic''. The schism was able to continue.

Doctrine

Old Catholics have celebrated

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

in the vernacular virtually since their foundation, even if not everywhere, doing so as early as the 18th century in Utrecht. They reject the Catholic dogmas of the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

and

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...

as well as papal infallibility. Old Catholics believe they preserve ancient Catholic doctrine through adherence to the "ancient Catholic faith". Their practice of private

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...

has fallen into disuse in most areas. Since 1878, Old Catholic clergy have been allowed to marry at any time. It would also seem that, by the beginning of the 20th century, the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

ic fast had been abandoned, along with Benediction of the

Blessed Sacrament The Blessed Sacrament, also Most Blessed Sacrament, is a devotional name to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist. The term is used in the Latin Church of the ...

and the veneration of the saints; in his declaration of ecclesial independence of December 29, 1910, Arnold Harris Mathew wrote to the Old Catholics of Utrecht deploring the lack of these practices among Old Catholics on the European continent.

Old Catholic Archbishops of Utrecht

The Metropolitan

Archbishop of Utrecht List of bishops and archbishops of the diocese and archdioceses of Utrecht. Medieval diocese from 695 to 1580 Founders of the Utrecht diocese * * * * * Bishops * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

(not to be confused with the Catholic prelate who holds the same title) is the leader of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, and chairman of its governing bodies. He is also ''ex officio'' the

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

(''primus inter pares'' leader) of the entire Old Catholic Church. The current archbishop is

. Individual national or regional Old Catholic churches maintain a degree of autonomy, similar to the practice of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

, so that each

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht has a diocesan bishop, and countries with more than one diocese have a bishop who is appointed "bishop in charge" (or similar title). All, however, recognise the Archbishop of Utrecht as primate. * Cornelius van Steenoven (1723–1725) * Cornelius Johannes Barchman Wuytiers (1725–1733) * Theodorus van der Croon (1734–1739) * Petrus Johannes Meindaerts (1739–1767) * Walter van Nieuwenhuisen (1768–1797) * Johannes Jacobus van Rhijn (1797–1808) *

Willibrord van Os Willibrord van Os served as the thirteenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1814 to 1825. Early ministry Before serving as Archbishop of Utrecht, van Os served as grand vicar of the Archbishop of Utrecht. After the death of Archbishop Johannes Jac ...

(1814–1825) *

Johannes van Santen Johannes van Santen served as the fourteenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1825 to 1858. He was part of the last attempt of the Church of Utrecht to reconcile with the Roman Catholic Church at that time. Early Ministry Before serving as Archbish ...

(1825–1858) *

Henricus Loos Henricus Loos served as the fifteenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1858 to 1873. Together with Bishop Hermann Heykamp of Deventer, Loos is known as one of only two bishops whose orders were recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, but who were not ...

(1858–1873) * Johannes Heijkamp (1875–1892) *

Gerardus Gul Gerardus Gul (27 October 1847 – 9 February 1920) served as the seventeenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1892 to 1920. He is known for his role in assisting the persons who would later found the Polish National Catholic Church in the United State ...

(1892–1920) *

Franciscus Kenninck Franciscus Kenninck served as the eighteenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1920 to 1937. Early Ministry Before serving as Archbishop of Utrecht, Kenninck served as president of Amersfoort Seminary in the Netherlands. Archbishop of Utrecht Fo ...

(1920–1937) *

Andreas Rinkel Andreas Rinkel (10 January 1889 – 25 March 1979) was a Dutch priest who served as the nineteenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1937 to 1970. Early ministry Before serving as Archbishop of Utrecht, Rinkel served as a parish priest in Amersfoort, ...

(1937–1970) *

Marinus Kok Marinus Kok (8 February 1916 - 31 July 1999) was a Dutch priest who served as the twentieth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1970 to 1982. After studying at the Old Catholic Seminary i Amersfoort, Netherlands, he was ordained to the diaconate and pri ...

(1970–1982) *

Antonius Jan Glazemaker Antonius Jan Glazemaker (19 April 1931 – 20 January 2018) served as the twenty-first Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, from 1982 to 2000. Born on April 19, 1931 to Old Catholic parents, Glazemaker was raised in the Netherlands during a peri ...

(1982–2000) *

Joris Vercammen Joris August Odilius Ludovicus Vercammen (born 14 October 1952) served as the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands from 1 July 2000 to 11 January 2020. Life and career Vercammen was born in Lier, Bel ...

(2000–2020) *

(2020–present)

Old Catholic Bishops of Haarlem

The Old Catholic Bishops of Haarlem continue to govern the see first overseen by Bishops Nicolas van Nieuwland (1560-1569) and Godfrey van Mierlo (1569-1578) of the Catholic Church. * Hieronymus de Bock (1742-1744) * Johannes an Stiphout (1745-1777) * Adrianus Johannes Broekman (1778-1800) * Johannes Nieuwenhuis (1801-1810) * Johannes Bon (1819-1841) * Henricus Johannes van Buul (1843-1862) * Lambertus de Jong (1865-1867) * Gaspardus Johannes Rinkel (1873-1906) * Johannes Jacobus van Thiel (1906-1912) * Nicolas Prins (1912-1916) *

Henricus Johannes Theodorus van Vlijmen The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Thomas Dale, Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English overseas ...

(1916-1945) * Jacobus van der Oord (1945-1967) * Gerhardus van Kleef (1967-1987) * Teunis Johannes Horstman (1987-1994) * Jan Lambert Wirix-Speetjens (1994-2008) * Dirk Jan Schoon (2008-)

Old Catholic Bishops of Deventer

The Old Catholic Bishops of Deventer continue to govern the see first overseen by Bishops Johannes Mahusius (1560-1570) and Egidius van den Berge de Monte (1570-1577) of the Catholic Church. * Bartholomaeus Johannes Byeveld (1758-1778) * Nicolas Nellemans (1778-1805) * Gisbertus de Jong (1805-1824) * William Vet (1825-1853) * Hermannus Heykamp (1853-1874) * Cornelius Diependaal (1875-1893) * Nicolas Bartholomaeus Petrus Spit (1894-1929) * Johannes Hermannus Berends (1873-1906) * Johannes Jacobus van Thiel (1929-1940) *

Engelbert Lagerwey Engelbert may refer to: *Engelbert (name), including a list of people with the name *Herr Engelbert Von Smallhausen, in the British sitcom Allo 'Allo!'' *Engelbert, Netherlands Engelbert is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is a par ...

(1940-1959) * Petrus Josephus Jans (1959-1979) *

(1979-1982)