Patrons of the Old Faith is the first full-length study on the Catholic nobility in the Dutch Republic. Based on a detailed prosopographical analysis and through the examination of their marriage strategies, interaction with Protestants, religiosity and contributions to the Holland Mission, Jaap Geraerts shows how the behaviour of the Catholic nobility was highly distinctive and differed from their co-religionists and Protestant peers as it was influenced by a specific set of noble and Catholic values. Due to the synthesis of their noble and confessional identities, the Dutch Catholic nobility in Utrecht and Guelders acted as patrons of their faith and were instrumental for the survival of Catholicism in the Dutch Republic.
Jaap Geraerts, Ph.D. (2015), University College London, is Research Associate at the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters. He has published on the ‘radical’ Reformation, early modern Catholicism, and the Catholic nobility in the Dutch Republic.
Contents Acknowledgement ix List of Figures and Tables xi List of Abbreviations xii xiii Introduction 1 1 A Restrictive Marriage Strategy 29 2 Interaction with Protestants 71 3 Religiosity 129 4 Shaping the Missio Hollandica 190 Conclusions. Confessional Nobilities in Post-Reformation Europe 250 Appendix A: Charitable Donations Made by Catholic Nobles 267 Appendix B: Priests Housed by Catholic Nobles 269 Appendix C: Godparents of the family De Wael van Vronestein 273 Bibliography 276 Index 313
Specialists interested in the religious history of the Dutch Republic, and more broadly students of minority Catholicism, confessional identities, confessional coexistence, and the early modern nobility.