The Netherlands, popularly known as Holland, is a land of contrasts: despite having hardly any natural resources, it is a great economic power thanks to the technical development and work capacity of its population, 18 million inhabitants living in an area twelve times smaller than Spain. The population density is one of the highest in the world.
One fifth of the country's surface is below sea level and has been 'conquered' from the sea over the centuries. A large part of the country is a delta into which flow, among other rivers, several branches of the Rhine and the Meuse. Despite its poor sandy soil, Holland has considerable agricultural production thanks to advanced farming methods.
Historical origins
The struggle against the sea and, more generally, the control of water in the countless canals, rivers and lakes, have forged the Dutch character. Its history is made by the sea. Before the inhabitants of these lands built the first dikes, wrote the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (47 AD):
"Twice a day, a vast ocean tide sweeps over a great expanse of land and settles the eternal dispute as to whether this region belongs to the land or belongs to the sea. There, these peoples live on mounds or on platforms built on the highest level reached by the sea. On these they have built their huts, and when the tide is high they are like sailors in their ships, but when it is low they seem more like castaways, for around their huts they hunt fish that retreat with the sea. (...) They gather mud by hand, dry it in the wind and then in the sun, and using this earth as fuel [peat], they heat their food and their very entrails, frozen by the cold of the north. And such peoples claim to be enslaved when they are conquered by the Roman people."
Pliny could not understand why the inhabitants of the coastal area of today's Holland and Germany (the Frisians) did not want to leave their precarious life and become subjects of the Roman Empire. And indeed they never were. When the Romans in the 5th century abandoned these regions, giving way to various barbarian peoples, the Frisians remained independent. Only centuries later did they gradually begin to mix with the Franks and other peoples, maintaining a great deal of autonomy in the coastal areas.
Christianization of the land
Although the south of the present-day country was Christianized as early as the 4th century, it was not until three centuries later that the English monk St. Willibrordo landed in the north of the country to evangelize the Frisians. Even so, the inhabitants of the coastal areas maintained quite a few pagan customs; it lasted for centuries until the culture was truly Christianized. Several missionaries, including St. Boniface (+ 754), were killed in Friesland.
Probably as early as the 10th century, each region took care of its dams, with an effectively organized system of popular representatives who, with great autonomy from the central and regional authorities, carried out their functions of quality control and maintenance. The first "Water Board" (Waterschap) of the Rhine delta was erected in 1255, bringing together several small local associations. Today there are 21 such "Boards" throughout the country.
Electing their leaders by direct elections, these "Boards" are among the oldest democratic institutions still existing in Europe; at the service of the local communities and ensuring their security, they contributed greatly to the development of a practical, supportive and self-sufficient mentality, with a certain aversion to centralism and the accumulation of power. These characteristics have shaped the way in which the Dutch throughout history fought for what they considered their rights, be it in the political, economic, ideological, moral or religious spheres.
The nature of the Dutch
We could say that the Dutch way of being is characterized by a great love of freedom (sometimes bordering on individualism), anti-centralism and pragmatism. They are more pragmatic than intellectual. They also have a moralizing tendency, along the lines of the popular saying: "country of pastors [Protestant preachers] and merchants".
The importance the Dutch attached to their right of self-determination (also economically) was undoubtedly one of the reasons why the revolt in the Netherlands was so successful when Philip II demanded total loyalty, expressed in the payment of high taxes to finance the multiple wars. Support for the revolution does not seem to have been determined primarily by religious factors, as much of the provinces that broke away from the monarch remained largely Catholic until much later.
Arrival of Protestantism
The Protestant Reformation in Holland was fundamentally Calvinist. More than the Lutherans, it was the Calvinists who supported with more fervor the interests of William, Prince of Orange and leader of the uprising against Philip II. In 1573, William, under pressure from the more radical Calvinist leaders and against his tolerant tendency, forbade Catholic worship in the first two provinces he managed to wrest from Spanish authority.
In 1581, the seven northernmost provinces became independent and formed the States General, which would govern the conglomerate of provinces united in the Federal Republic. Even without being a confessional government, the Dutch Reformed Church and its members enjoyed a privileged position, while other groups - Catholics, Jews and Anabaptists among others - suffered discrimination.
Even so, Dutch Catholics remained in the majority well into the 17th century, making up the total population of the seven northern provinces. Those who remained Catholic became second-class citizens. Although in general they were not forced to convert to Calvinism, they did suffer considerable discrimination: they were not allowed access to studies, could not exercise any public function, could not worship publicly and were forbidden to have ecclesiastical hierarchy and to have contact with priests.
Mission land
Today's Holland became to all intents and purposes a 'mission land', served by more or less clandestine clerics or religious who depended on the Papal Nuncio in Cologne or Brussels. After decades with hardly any contact with priests and little opportunity for Catholic worship, a majority of Catholics in the northern part of the Netherlands gradually turned to Calvinism.
And what happened in the south? Discrimination against Catholics was also carried out in the southern provinces, which were later annexed by the Republic and which formed a border area with the regions that remained under Spanish rule, in present-day Belgium. These southern provinces of the Netherlands, Limburg and Brabant, whose capitals are Maastricht and 's-Hertogenbosch, did remain largely Catholic until the end of the 20th century. However, Calvinism as a cultural forge had a great influence on the entire Dutch mentality and culture, also in these predominantly Catholic areas.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
The French occupation (1795-1813) put an end to the republic of the Netherlands. Napoleon restored to Catholics - at least legally - some civil and religious rights. Under the law, Catholics and other minority groups were no longer second-class citizens, and there was even some attempt to restore the hierarchy. But this process of emancipation was to last for decades to come. After more than two centuries of oppression, the Catholic part of the population consisted mainly of peasants and merchants with little culture, influence or economic power. In 1815, at the wish of the governors of the different provinces and with great popular support, Holland became a constitutional monarchy, with William I as king (descendant of the insurrectionist Prince William of Orange).
When the hierarchy was restored in 1853, the emancipation of Catholics (who then made up 38% of the population) received a new impetus. To overcome their economic and cultural backwardness vis-à-vis their Protestant fellow citizens, they had to help each other, a task which they skillfully undertook. Guided by their newly appointed bishops, and supported by numerous religious orders and congregations, they literally set to work: between 1850 and 1920 they built some 800 churches, founded schools and hospitals, published newspapers and started a Catholic radio station.
First half of the 20th century
In 1923 they erected the Catholic University of NijmegenThe first Catholic to become prime minister took office in 1918 and the Catholic party he represented participated in all the governments of the country between 1918 and 1945.
In some cases, this resurgence of Catholics and the increase of their influence in society resulted in uneasiness and even protests from the Protestant "establishment", which felt threatened by this bloc that until then had no visibility or voice or vote, but was becoming an undeniable force at all levels.
Social bubbles
Catholics, for their part, felt threatened not only by Protestant groups, but also by other enlightened, liberal or socialist groups. It was for this reason that Catholics began to create confessional institutions to protect and help each other. In this way they intended to create an adequate context to live their faith and facilitate their development and emancipation. Mass attendance, reception of the sacraments and the high birth rate reached unsuspected and unthinkable levels in most Catholic countries.
Thus, Catholics built a social wall around 'their world' and progressively isolated themselves, seeing non-Catholics as strangers and competitors, if not enemies. The so-called "Catholic" institutions embraced not only religious aspects, but also education and culture, and even, little by little, all areas of society: the press, radio and television, the trade union or labor field, the guilds, politics, and even recreational and sporting activities.
This, which - although to a lesser extent - also occurred among liberals, socialists and Protestants, gave rise to the so-called "columns": self-sufficient sectors or portions of the population that lived with hardly any contact with the other groups of the population (the other "columns"). Protestants, liberals, socialists and, above all, Catholics, were thus grouped together from cradle to grave, and distanced themselves from the other population groups. These columns were what today we would call social bubbles.
Columnization: the process by which Dutch society as a whole segregated itself more or less spontaneously and freely into various groups -or columns-: Catholic, Protestant and, to a lesser extent, liberal and socialist.
Human power
According to the famous Catholic historian Louis Rogier, an important part of the identity of a Dutch Catholic in the first half of the 20th century consisted of this: "I am not a Protestant". This translated into an effective social control that unconsciously favored group mentality. And who were the leaders of the group? Above all, priests and religious, since most of the laity were not well trained and prepared. Indeed, a large number of clerics not only led parishes or other religious institutions, but also formed part of the management and advisory bodies of newspapers, radio and TV stations, political parties, trade unions, etc.
The result is not surprising: a fairly uniform group or project of political, social and media pressure. It was what was called "the Catholic Cause" ("de Roomsche Zaak") in which the spiritual life gradually moved into the background and the social movement to help Catholics into the foreground. As a consequence, the Church in general and the clergy in particular acquired a lot of power, which they usually used to help the Catholic population, but not exclusively in the spiritual field. In some cases there were excesses and partisanship, and a group spirit was created that could easily suffocate the legitimate desire for freedom in temporal matters. The clergy frequently interfered in temporal matters, which, although related to "The Catholic Cause", could be detrimental to their spiritual mission.
Forthcoming articles
In a following article we will see how the "columnization" in Holland, with the consequent interference of the clergy in the social, political, family and personal life of Catholics, - at best - did not favor the development of inner freedom in Catholics, especially with regard to their religious practice.
