St. Jacob's New Collegiate Chapter of Canons and Their Choir

CHAPTER 7 St. Jacob’s New Collegiate Chapter of Canons and Their Choir

7.1 Introduction

In 1656 Ambrosius Capello, bishop of Antwerp, warned of the crisis that threat- ened St. Jacob’s. The city’s largest and finest church after the Cathedral, and with the most parishioners, could not meet its debts because of high construc- tion costs (for the Rubens Chapel) and declining gifts in hard times. Divine services, celebrated there “since time immemorial,” had declined and might stop entirely (see above, chapter 3, for an account of this crisis). The best remedy, said the bishop, was to found a new college of canons who would chant the hours, strengthen the position of the whole church, and add to its luster.1 His confidence in this solution was justified. Founding a chapter of canons at that time went against the developing consensus of Catholic opinion. But that decision successfully tied St. Jacob’s to the families among its wealthy parishioners who aspired to social distinction. One result was to transform the choir of the church into a magnificent inner sanctum that remains today the best preserved example in the Netherlands of a distinct kind of ecclesiastical space.

1 FAA K 315: Ambrosius Capello, bishop of Antwerp, December 15, 1656, approval of the erec- tion of the chapter in St. Jacob’s: “. . . aen ons van weghens de kerckmeesters der parochiaele kercke van St. Jacobs binnen dese stadt, is verthoont hoe inde selve kercke (wesende ten opsichte van magnificentie ende groote des Bouws, als oock vande menichte der prochian- tien de eerste ende principaelste naer de Cathedraele) de Goddelycke, ende andere diensten aldaer van immemoriaele tyden gewoon synde gescheden. Nu onlancx door het verminderen vanden offer ende beswaernisse der fabricque mits den Bouw soodanichlyck hebben begin- nen te verslappen, dat de selve van nu aff ten deele syn geschorst, ende vervolghens staen, om geheelyck naer gelaeten te moeten werden, ten sy daer tegens behulp middelen werden verdacht, ende cortelincx de remedien int werck gestelt suggerende tot dyser eynde als den bequaemsten middel, ende meest streeckende tot luystere & voordeel vande voorschreven parochiaele kercke. . . .”

7.2 The Unique Status of St. Jacob’s Collegiate Chapter of Canons

On May 21, 1657, five months after he approved its foundation, bishop Capello presided over the installation of St. Jacob’s new chapter of canons.2 It was a remarkable event, given that most chapters were vestiges of the late-Middle Ages.3 By the 17th century, reformers, in support of the Council of Trent, viewed collegiate chapters as entrenched institutions concerned only with protecting their own privileges and power.4 This held true especially in the Netherlands, where Philip II’s reorganization of the bishoprics in 1559, intended to strengthen the administrative structure of the Catholic Church, dislodged the chapters of canons from their dominant positions at the top of the secular clergy. Antwerp’s first bishops fought long and hard to establish their authority over what became, after 1559, the Cathedral Chapter. The Jesuits in Antwerp ridiculed canons as statues with mouths who could not talk and sat hidden in their choirs.5 Why then would the bishop want to found a new college of these useless men who undermined his efforts? The answer comes first out of the principal duty performed by colleges of canons. Their purpose was to chant the canonical hours. Capello approved its foundation because above all St. Jacob’s chapter would assure the proper cel- ebration there of the divine offices.6 Devoting themselves to the praise of God, canons were like angels on earth, David singing psalms, or the twenty-four elders of the Revelation (5: 8–10) worshipping the lamb, at least if the canons learned plain chant and attended services, as was expected.7 In Antwerp during the late 1650s this chorus for the constant praise of God supplied an espe-

2 RAAKASJA Old Number 181/17: placard posted May 20, 1657. 3 In Pasture 1925, 5–50, and Pasture 1926, 5–69, all chapters extant in the Spanish Netherlands during the reign of the Archdukes had been founded earlier. 4 Loupès 1985, 15; Rauch 1976, 271, 275–278. 5 Marinus 1995, 103–119; Lottin 1984, 75 and 80. 6 See above, n.1. 7 Loupès 1985, 57 and 263; Erectio 1705, 5: holders of prebends in the chapter are to live an honorable life, be of good fame, dress appropriately in religious habit, and gain experience in church song (“Kerkelycken sanck”) during their first year of residence. We learn what kind of song was meant when we read that only a priest capable of plain-chant could substitute for one of the canons in the divine offices: 10: “eenen eerlycken Priester die synen simpelen sanck sal connen.” Indeed, each canon was assigned an adjutant chaplain expert in music, with sonorous voice, to keep harmony in the choir on Sundays and feast days, and the anni- versary mass for J. de Weerden, celebrated on Dec. 1, 1665, was sung in “cantu gregoriano”: RAAKASJA 2797, Actorum Capituli Liber I, 1656–1675, 34 for chaplains, 257 for Gregorian chant.