Colleges and their alternatives in the educational strategy of early modern Dutch Catholics

Abstract

Like other Catholic communities in Protestant jurisdictions, the Dutch had their own early modern collegial network. The early modern Dutch state is commonly known as a Protestant bulwark from which the Catholics were by and large expelled. However, due to the efforts of the Catholic Reformation and the reluctance of many Dutch to embrace Calvinism in its orthodox variety, Dutch Catholicism managed to survive on a rather large scale, though often with a particular colour marked by lay power and imbued with Jansenism, a rigid variety of Catholic theology rather similar to orthodox Calvinism. Whereas Catholic elementary education continued to be provided in private schools, Catholic colleges and universities, as public institutions, were not allowed in the Dutch Republic. During two centuries Dutch Catholics, at least the militant among them, had to go abroad for their secondary and higher education. Foreign colleges played a major role in their education and intellectual debates: the Dutch colleges of Cologne, Dole, Douai and Rome remained faithful to the Old Church, whereas those of close-by Louvain were the breeding-ground of Jansenism. Significant numbers of Dutch students went to other Catholic universities, at Reims in France, at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine, or at different German universities. The Jansenist schism of 1723 led to the creation of the Old Catholic Church with its own college at home, at Amersfoort, tolerated by the Dutch authorities. The scale of the Catholic communities posed a multi-confessional challenge for the Dutch. This was overcome by a high level of official connivance, permitting the tacit creation of Catholic teaching institutions on a private basis, including some small colleges, and the organization of Catholic confraternities at the public universities. Similarly, the Calvinist ‘regents’ mostly closed their eyes to the stream of Catholic students towards foreign colleges in spite of their repeated interdiction by the States-General. This essay will look at four educational strategies adopted by Dutch Catholics to ensure their survival as a confessional community.