Diocese in
Utrecht. Translation:
In the year 1939, twelve centuries after his death, the blessed work of the apostle Willibrord, the preacher of the Gospel in these lands, is unitedly and thankfully commemorated. According to the
Catholic Encyclopedia, the founding of the diocese dates back to
Francia, when St.
Ecgberht of Ripon sent St.
Willibrord and eleven companions on a mission to
pagan Frisia, at the request of
Pepin of Herstal. The Diocese of Utrecht () was erected by
Pope Sergius I in 695. In 695 Sergius consecrated
Willibrord in
Rome as Bishop of the
Frisians.
John Mason Neale explained, in
History of the so-called Jansenist church of Holland, that bishops "became warriors rather than prelates; the duties of their pastoral office were frequently exercised by suffragans, while they themselves headed armies against the Dukes of Guelders or the Counts of Holland."
Adalbold II of Utrecht "must be regarded as the principal founder of the territorial possessions of the diocese," according to Albert Hauck, in
New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, especially by the acquisition in 1024 and 1026 of the counties of
Drenthe and
Teisterbant; but, the name "Bishopric of Utrecht" is not used in the article. '''' was Pope Leo X's 1517 prohibition to the
Archbishop-Elector of Cologne,
Hermann of Wied, as '''', to summon, to a court of first instance in Cologne,
Philip of Burgundy, his treasurer, and his ecclesiastical and secular subjects. Leo X only confirmed a right of the Church, explained Neale; but Leo X's confirmation "was providential" in respect to the future schism.
Archdiocese The diocese was elevated to an archdiocese in 1559. The
hanging of the nineteen
Martyrs of Gorkum in
Brielle in 1572 is an example of the persecution which Catholics suffered.
Vicariate Apostolic of Batavia The
Holland Mission started when the vicariate was erected by
Pope Clement VIII in 1592. "For two centuries after the [1648]
Peace of Westphalia much of Holland was under vicars apostolic as mission territory, as England was in the same period; although some areas had
archpriests dependent on the
nuncios in
Cologne and
Brussels." ==List of diocesans==