The Infanta and the English Benedictine Nuns: Mary Percy's Memories In 1634

1997 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Arblaster
Keyword(s):  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Philip Ii ◽  
Southern Netherlands ◽  
Northern Policy ◽  
The Church

In 1598 Philip II, King of Spain since 1559 and ruler of many other dominions, granted the ‘Burgundian’ segment of his inheritance (the Low Countries and the County of Burgundy) to his daughter Isabella as a dowry, and gave her in marriage to her cousin Albert, Archduke of Austria. The couple governed that part of the territory effectively under their control — the northern provinces having formed the Dutch Republic — as ‘sovereign princes’, essentially enjoying domestic autonomy under the protection of the Spanish army. They were responsible for the ‘northern’ policy of the Spanish monarchy, including day-to-day relations with England and the protection of the British Catholics. As sovereign princes they rebuilt the Church in the Southern Netherlands, patronised the reformed religious orders, and did much to establish the particular South Netherlandish identity which was eventually to lead to an independent Belgian state. In 1621 Albert died, and his childless widow's dowry reverted to her nephew Philip IV. Isabella remained in Brussels as Governess-General, enjoying greater independence than the title might suggest, both from her long career as co-sovereign and from the trust and admiration of her nephew the king. She died in 1633, the governship passing to another of her nephews, the Cardinal-Infant Don Ferdinand (1635–1641).

Quo Vadis? Catholic Perceptions of Flight and the Revolt of the Low Countries, 1566–1609*

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 472-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert H. Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Identity ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Dutch Revolt ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Southern Netherlands ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis article examines Catholic views of flight, exile, and displacement during the Dutch Revolt. It argues that the civil war in the sixteenth-century Low Countries generated a new imagery of exile among Catholics, a process that was to some extent similar to what had happened to Protestant refugees a few decades earlier. Yet the Dutch case also demonstrates that the contrasting outcomes of the revolts in the Northern and Southern Netherlands led to very different appreciations of exile in Catholic communities in both areas. Habsburg triumph and Tridentine militancy sparked a Counter-Reformation movement in the Southern Netherlands that glorified exile and presented refugees as exemplary forces of an international militant church. In the northern Dutch Republic the revolt created a more ambiguous Catholic identity, in which loyalty to an officially Protestant state could coincide with commitment to the Church of Rome.

scholarly journals Reformations and Revolt in the Netherlands, 1500–1621

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Pollmann ◽  
Alastair Duke ◽  
Geert Janssen
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Dutch Revolt ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Southern Netherlands ◽  
Reformation History ◽  
Religious Landscape

The Low Countries have a special place in Reformation history, both because of the great diversity of the religious landscape and because they experienced a genuine Reformation “from below,” as well as fierce repression of Protestant heresies. Protests against the latter helped to trigger the revolt that resulted in the split of the Habsburg Netherlands. In the northern Netherlands, the Dutch Republic gave the Reformed Church a monopoly of worship but also guaranteed freedom of conscience to dissidents. The southern Netherlands, once “reconciled” with the Habsburgs and having expelled its Protestant inhabitants, became a bulwark of the Counter-Reformation. For more on the revolt, see the Oxford Bibliographies in Renaissance and Reformation article “The Netherlands (Dutch Revolt/Dutch Republic)” by Henk van Nierop.

European Catholicism (1500–1700)

2020 ◽  
pp. 233-259
Author(s):  
David W. Kling
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Personal Relationship ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Catholic Reformation ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Teresa Of Avila ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Church

The long Catholic Reformation, which lasted from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, is one of the most active, intense, and expansive in the history of Christian conversion. This chapter begins with an examination of the conversions of two profoundly influential Catholics from the Iberian Peninsula (Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Ávila) and then considers efforts by the religious orders to re-Catholicize Europe. With the Jesuits leading the way, the Church evangelized the masses, drawing them into a personal relationship with God by encouraging the very things Protestants condemned: cults of intercession, pilgrimages, concern with purgatory, feast days, adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, and devotion to the saints. The chapter then moves to a discussion of conversion in the context of religiously mixed communities (Catholics and Protestants) in the Low Countries and France and ends with a discussion of Pierre Bayle’s defense of free conscience as the basis of true conversion.

Princely Auctoritas or the Freedom of Europe: Justus Lipsius on a Netherlands Political Dilemma

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 303-329
Author(s):  
James Tracy
Keyword(s):  
Dutch Government ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Classical Scholar ◽  
Philip Ii ◽  
University Of Leiden ◽  
The North ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Southern Netherlands ◽  
The University ◽  
The Military

AbstractLike not a few of his compatriots, Justus Lipsius changed his allegiance more than once during the long civil war between the Spanish crown and the Dutch rebels. What makes him unusual is that this noted classical scholar was also a voracious and critical consumer of reports about events of his own time and place; Lipsius' voluminous correspondence thus opens a rare window into what the Dutch Revot looked like to an anxious and well-informed citizen of the Low Countries. Unable to live under the tyranny of the duke of Alba, he accepted a post at the University of Leiden; from here he viewed the rebel provinces of the north as a bulwark against a Spanish hegemony that threatened to engulf Europe. Yet, as a devoted adherent of the monarchical principle of government, he found that he also could not live under a "polyarchy" of provicial parliaments, in which, as Lipsius saw things, wealthy burghers governed in their own interest. Hence he took a new position at the University of Louvain, in his native Brabant. It was not at first a fortunate choice, for just as Lipsius moved the military fortunes of the Dutch government changed for the better, while Philip II was distracted by plans to put a Spanish princess on the French throne. Only when Spain's ambitions in France were thwarted by the successes of Henry IV did Lipsius's hopes revive: in Albert and Isabella, 'natural' princes who intended to focus on the southern Netherlands, he seems to have found at last a government he could accept.

Sic vivere est devote vivere

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-39
Author(s):  
Tom Gaens
Keyword(s):  
Religious Orders ◽  
Imitation Of Christ ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

This essay outlines the theology of “modern-day” devotion, as it can be found in the works of the Carthusian monk Henry of Coesfeld (d. 1410). This theology consists of a classical Thomist framework, infused with ideas from Brabantine and Rhineland mysticism (e.g., Ruusbroec, Suso) and Carthusian spirituality, in which contempt for the world, purity of the heart, progression in the virtues, repentance and inner renewal, Eucharistic piety, meditation on Christ’s humanity and passion, “Christiformity,” and the imitation of Christ, play a central role. While pointing at the “present-day” moral decline in the religious orders and the church, Henry’s idea of devotion relates to personal reform, a process of becoming congruent with the “ancient” examples of Christ and the saints. His theology is not anti-mystical and anti-intellectual in nature, but at the same time it warns against the pitfalls of curiosity (curiositas) and the excesses of mysticism.

Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Central Section ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Charles V ◽  
Religious Women ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Southern Netherlands

During the Late Middle Ages a unique type of ‘mixed media’ recycled and remnant art arose in houses of religious women in the Low Countries: enclosed gardens. They date from the time of Emperor Charles V and are unique examples of ‘anonymous’ female art, devotion and spirituality. A hortus conclusus (or enclosed garden) represents an ideal, paradisiacal world. Enclosed Gardens are retables, sometimes with painted side panels, the central section filled not only with narrative sculpture, but also with all sorts of trinkets and hand-worked textiles.Adornments include relics, wax medallions, gemstones set in silver, pilgrimage souvenirs, parchment banderoles, flowers made from textiles with silk thread, semi-precious stones, pearls and quilling (a decorative technique using rolled paper). The ensemble is an impressive and one-of-a-kind display and presents as an intoxicating garden. The sixteenth-century horti conclusi of the Mechelen Hospital sisters are recognized Masterpieces and are extremely rare, not alone at a Belgian but even at a global level. They are of international significance as they provide evidence of devotion and spirituality in convent communities in the Southern Netherlands in the sixteenth century. They are an extraordinary tangible expression of a devotional tradition. The highly individual visual language of the enclosed gardens contributes to our understanding of what life was like in cloistered communities. They testify to a cultural identity closely linked with mystical traditions allowing us to enter a lost world very much part of the culture of the Southern Netherlands. This book is the first full survey of the enclosed gardens and is the result of year-long academic research.

scholarly journals Confessional Coexistence in the Habsburg Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Roman Roobroeck
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Stable System ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Interreligious Relations ◽  
Private Devotion ◽  
Religious Differences ◽  
Public Worship

For decades, early modern historians have stressed the religious differences between the Dutch Republic and the Habsburg Netherlands. The former is usually represented as a tolerant Reformed state, while the latter is represented as a repressive Catholic regime. By consequence, the similarities in terms of confessional coexistence have never been considered. This article seeks to fill that gap by reviewing the Geuzenhoek, a small rural Reformed minority group in Flanders. Fortunately, a plethora of available sources allows us to research the interactions between the Protestants and the Catholic majority. This article shows that the divide between public worship and private devotion played a key role in keeping peaceful interreligious relations and that a stable system of connivance dominated the local framework. This situation was very similar to that of the Dutch Republic. As a result, this study concludes that confessional coexistence in the Habsburg Netherlands should be re-evaluated and merits further investigation. Vroegmoderne historici hebben jarenlang vooral de religieuze verschillen tussen de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden en de Habsburgse Nederlanden benadrukt. De een werd gewoonlijk voorgesteld als een tolerante gereformeerde staat, terwijl de andere bekendstond als een repressief katholiek regime. De gelijkenissen op vlak van confessionele co-existentie zijn daarom nooit nader onderzocht. Dit artikel wil dit hiaat opvullen door de Geuzenhoek, een kleine landelijke gereformeerde minderheidsgroep in Vlaanderen, onder de loep te nemen. Dankzij een ruime collectie aan bronnen konden de interacties tussen de protestanten en de katholieken in beeld gebracht worden. Dit artikel toont aan dat de scheiding tussen publieke en private devotie een grote invloed had op het bewerkstelligen van vredige contacten, en dat in deze lokale context een systeem van ‘oogluikendheid’ domineerde. Deze situatie is vergelijkbaar met die in de Republiek. De conclusie van deze studie is dan ook dat de confessionele co-existentie in de Habsburgse Nederlanden een herevaluatie en verder onderzoek verdient. ActualiteitsparagraafVrienden noch vijanden? Katholieken en protestanten in vroegmodern Vlaanderen Over de interacties van protestanten en katholieken in het verleden overheersen ook vandaag nog hardnekkige clichés: ze konden elkaars bloed wel drinken, geweld tussen religieuze groepen kwam vaak voor en verdraagzaamheid was vrijwel onbestaand. Toch was de historische realiteit vaak anders. Roman Roobroeck toont in zijn artikel in BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review over de Geuzenhoek aan dat de verhoudingen tussen katholieken en protestanten in het zeventiende-eeuwse overwegend katholieke Vlaanderen opvallend vreedzaam waren. Tussen de leden van deze rurale protestantse groep nabij Oudenaarde en hun katholieke buren ontsponnen zich conflicten, maar over het algemeen waren hun relaties vreedzaam. De protestantse dorpelingen profiteerden van het afwachtende beleid van de Habsburgers en ontwierpen samen met de lokale katholieken een gedoogsamenleving. Deze vorm van religieuze co-existentie kwam dus niet enkel in de Noordelijke Nederlanden voor, maar ook in de Habsburgse Nederlanden. Misschien was het religieuze klimaat in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden dan toch niet zo rigide als vaak gedacht?

scholarly journals De vrede verzilverd?

1970 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 61-77
Author(s):  
Elisa Masschelein ◽  
Violet Soen
Keyword(s):  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Don Juan ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Philip Ii ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
The City

After troublesome negotiations, on 12 February 1577 an 'Eternal Edict’ was signed inMarche-en-Famenne, in order to end the struggle between the rebelling States-General inthe Low Countries, and the newly arrived Habsburg governor-general of these regions, Don,Juan de Austria, half-brother to King Philip II. Afterwards, Don Juan travelled to the universitycity of Leuven. Historiography hardly ever deals with this peace treaty, and evenless with its implementation, as the treaty ended less than seven months later when DonJuan occupied the citadel of Namur. This contribution, however, warns for a too teleologicalinterpretation of the failure of the Eternal Edict. It analyzes the sparked pacification processon three levels: first, the mise-en-place by the Habsburg councilors, second, the mise-en-scène by the city of Leuven, and third, the mise-en-intrigue by the citizens and opponentsin the Low Countries. This threefold analysis will show that peacemaking in earlymodern Europe consisted of a complex interplay between words, deeds, and performances.

IV Letters of Bolingbroke to the Earl of Orrery 1712-13

1992 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 350-371
Author(s):  
H.T. Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Effective Barrier ◽  
Southern Netherlands ◽  
The Hague

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, was one of the Secretaries of State in Queen Anne's Tory administration of 1710–14 which sought to bring an end to the increasingly burdensome War of the Spanish Succession. Employing somewhat dubious means, he and his ministerial colleagues eventually made peace with France by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713; a treaty which paid more attention to the interests of Great Britain than to those of her allies, the Dutch and Austrians. In seeking peace at almost any price Bolingbroke and his colleagues faced a particular problem with the former Spanish territory of the Southern Netherlands (or Flanders). The Dutch were particularly interested in this territory because they hoped to secure possession of strong fortresses there which would provide them with a secure barrier against a sudden attack by the French. The Austrians, for their part, hoped to gain this territory as part of the Emperor's inheritance of former Spanish possessions. Britain herself was concerned to serve her allies in this territory at least. She also had commercial interests in Flanders and had long sought an effective barrier to French efforts to expand into the Low Countries. These concerns were reflected in Bolingbroke's correspondence with Charles, Earl of Orrery, one of his Tory friends, who was appointed in 1711 as the Queen's envoy-extraordinary to the States General in The Hague and to the Council of Flanders in Brussels. Orrery served in this capacity for most of 1711. In late 1712 he returned to these duties and served there for a further year

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