Catholicism and Resistance to the Reformation in the Netherlands

Abstract

The initial reactions of catholics in the Netherlands to Revolt and Reformation, apparently so different from those of their co-religionists in France under roughly similar circumstances, pose an interesting problem. Answers do not easily spring to mind. We do not know much about the Dutch catholics. Rogier, in his impressive Geschiedenis van het katholicisme in Noord-Nederland in de 16e en 17e eeuw inventoried the institutional apparatus of the church before the onslaught of the Reformation, deplored the protestantizing policies of the new regime and recorded the rebuilding of a catholic community afterwards. The crucial period of the 1560s through the 1570s falls somewhere in between. Interpretation fills the gap. Rogier argues that the hierarchy failed to respond adequately. Where priests remained on their posts the Reformation met with resistance and the catholic faith persisted. In too many places they were absent. It was the absence of pastoral care that shaped the opportunity for concerted action by calvinist church and local magistrates to force protestantism on the population ...