powers were limited by the necessity of having to secure the goodwill of the higher clergy, of the nobles and of the cities, and also because of his relations to the German king and the pope as an ecclesiastical prince of the empire. The middle ages were marked by constant wars between the bishops of Utrecht and the counts of Holland and Gelderland. The growth of the power of Holland, however, under a succession of strong and capable rulers led to the bishopric becoming, during the 14th century, almost a dependency of the county. The death of every bishop was always the signal for violent disputes among the neighbouring feudal states, each of them intriguing to secure the election of its own candidate; but, as stated above, Brabant and Gelderland had at last to recognize the fact of the supremacy of Holland over the see. In the 15th century this supremacy passed to the dukes of Burgundy, and finally, in 1527, Bishop Henry of Bavaria sold his temporal rights to the emperor Charles V. In 1559 the see of Utrecht was by Pope Paul IV. raised to the dignity of an archbishopric. At the time of the revolt against Spain Utrecht took the Protestant side, and was one of the seven provinces which signed the Union of Utrecht in 1579. Each of these provinces retained in a large measure its sovereign rights and its own laws, privileges and customs. During the republican period the estates of Utrecht consisted of three “members.” The chapter of the see was secularized, and out of the members of the five colleges a certain number, known as “the Elected” (Geéligerden), were chosen by the other two “members” of the estates. They held office for life, and were reckoned as the “first member” of the estates. The knights formed the “second member,” the representatives being chosen by co-option. The city of Utrecht, with the four smaller towns of Amersfoort, Rheenen, Wijk-by-Duurstede and Montfoort, made up the “third member.” (G. E.)
The later history of the see of Utrecht is of considerable ecclesiastical interest. The last archbishop of Utrecht, Frederick van Schenk van Toutenburg, died in 1580, a few months before the suppression of Roman Catholic public worship by William of Orange. Two successors were nominated by Spain, both of whom were unable from political causes to take possession of the see. In 1583 the chapter elected Sasbold Vosmeer, Catholic priest at the Hague, vicar-general; the election was confirmed in 1590 by the papal nuncio at Brussels, and in 1602 Vosmeer was consecrated at Rome archbishop of Philippi in partibus. After Vosmeer's death (1612) Philip Rovenius van Ardensul was elected by the chapter and confirmed by the pope. In 1631 he formed the surviving members of the chapters of Utrecht and Haarlem into a collegiate body which became known as the chapter of Utrecht. Rovenius was succeeded as vicar-general in 1651 by Jacob de la Torre, consecrated as archbishop of Ephesus. Under his vicariate trouble with Rome began, the pope insisting on his right as universal bishop to appoint the vicar-general's coadjutor and successor. It was not, however, until the vicariate of Peter Codde, consecrated vicar-general with the title of bishop of Sebaste in partibus in 1669, that the quarrel came to a head. Codde was the nominee of the Dutch secular clergy, and these had for years past been at violent odds with the Jesuits, the champions of the ultramontane principle. The publication of an anonymous pamphlet in 1697, entitled “A Short Memoir on the State and Progress of Jansenism in Holland” (Kort gendenkschrift van den staat en voortgang van het Jansenisme in Holland), gave the latter their opportunity. Codde was accused of being its author, and though he successfully refuted this charge, he was ultimately deposed for Jansenism (1702), his opponent, Theodor de Kock, being appointed in his place. The result was a schism which was only temporarily checked by the expulsion of de Kock from the country by the states-general. Codde himself died in 1710. The Church of Utrecht was now without a bishop, and it was believed at Rome that the movement of revolt would soon perish for want of priests, especially as, with the constant influx of regulars, the number of Codde's adherents had steadily decreased. As a result of the publication of the bull Unigenitus by Pope Clement VII. in 1713, however, many French Jansenist priests took refuge in Holland, and so kept the church alive. In 1723 the chapter of Utrecht, in order to preserve the canonical succession of the Dutch clergy, elected Cornelius Steenoven archbishop. He was consecrated (15th October 1724) by Dominique Varlet, bishop of Babylon in partibus, who, having been deposed by the pope for Jansenism, had settled in Amsterdam in 1720. The pope replied to this by excommunicating all those who had taken part in the election and consecration. Undeterred by this, the chapter, on the death of Steenoven, elected as archbishop Cornelis Jan Burchman, who was consecrated by the bishop of Babylon on the 30th of September 1725. From this time onward the Jansenist Church of Holland has continued as an independent body, accepting the authority of the general councils, up to and including that of Trent, but basing itself on the Gallican theory of Episcopacy (q.v.) and rejecting the Vatican council, the infallibility of the pope and the papal dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Under Archbishop Peter Jan Meindaerts (d. 1767) two suffragan sees were created, that of Haarlem in 1742, that of Deventer in 1757. The Church had shrunk considerably since the 18th century, but in the first decade of the 20th showed signs of revival as a point d’appui for Catholics restive under the yoke of the ultramontanism dominant in the Roman Church. With the Church of Utrecht the Old Catholic movement in Germany at first established close relations, the first German Old Catholic bishop, Dr Reinkens, being consecrated by H. Heykamp, bishop of Deventer, in 1873. The Jansenist Church is, however, intensely conservative, and viewed with extreme disapproval the departures made by the German Old Catholics from Catholic tradition, notably in the matter of clerical celibacy. l It refused, moreover, to recognize the validity of Anglican orders, and consequently to follow the example of the other Old Catholics in establishing inter communion with the Church of England. This attitude towards the English Church was accentuated by the consecration, on the 28th of April 1908, of Mr Arnold Harris Mathew[1] as bishop of the Old Catholics in England by Dr Gerard Gul, Jansenist archbishop of Utrecht. The singular offshoot of the Church of Utrecht thus created established its headquarters in a former Congregational chapel (dedicated significantly to the Englishman St Willibrord, the first bishop of Utrecht) in River Street, London, N., the minister of which had joined the movement with his congregation, In 1910 Bishop Mathew claimed that his community numbered between 500 and 600, with ten priests, and that he had had many inquiries from both Roman Catholic priests, discontented with the Vatican policy, and Anglican clergy, uneasy about the validity of their orders (see an “interview” in the Daily Graphic, September 4, 1910). Meanwhile, in Holland itself the Roman Catholic hierarchy had been restored by Pope Pius IX. in 1851, with Utrecht as the archiepiscopal see. (W. A. P.)
Authorities.—K. Burmen, Utrechtsche Jaarboeken, &c ., annals and documents (3 vols., 1750); A. Buchelius, De Episcopis Ultrajectensibus, containing the chronicles of J. de Beka and G. Heda (Utrecht, 1643); J. van d. Water, Groot Placaetboek der Stadt Utrecht (3 vols., Utrecht, 1729); J. J. de Geer, Bijdragen tot de Geschied. en Oudheiden der Provincie Utrecht (Utrecht, 1861); T. van Riemsdijk, Geschted. van de Kerspelkerk van St Jacob te Utrecht (Leiden, 1882); S. Muller, Openbare verzamelingen der Gemeente Utrecht (Utrecht, 1881); V. T. Blondeel, Beschrijving der Stad Utrecht, de opvolging der Bischoppen (Utrecht, 1757); S.. Muller, Rechtsbronnen der Stad Utrecht (2 vols., Utrecht, 1883); R. Fruin, Geschied. der Staats-Instellingen in Nederland (the Hague, 1901). For the Old Catholic Church see the article “Jansenistenkirche,” by Dr J. A. Gerth van Wijk, in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1900), pp. 599–606, where further references are given.
UTRECHT, a city of Holland, capital of the province of Utrecht, on the Crooked Rhine, which here divides into the
- ↑ Bishop Mathew (b. 1855) about the year 1892 claimed and for a while assumed the title of earl of Llandaff (sic), as grandson of Arnold Nesbit Mathew (d. 1820), who was said to have been the eldest son of the first earl of Llandaff, though neither he nor his eldest son ever claimed the title (see G. E. C(okayne)); Complete Peerage; corrigenda to vol. v. in vol. viii. p. 450).
