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Ordines Militares Xxiii ORDINES◆ MILITARES COLLOQUIA TORUNENSIA HISTORICA XXIII Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders ! " # $ ISSN (print) "$&'-!""$ / ISSN (online) !*+#-',#! DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/OM.2018.009 pp. 235–271 R E. B *1 Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis / Departmment of History and Art History Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen / Faculty of Humanities Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University Drift 6 3512 BS Utrecht The Netherlands [email protected] THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER BAILIWICK OF UTRECHT, 1560!2006 K"#$% history; military orders; Early Modern and Modern History; Teutonic Order; Calvinism; Aristocratic Distinction; Charity; Netherlands A&%'()' The radical amendments to its statutes in +--4 notwithstanding, the Teutonic Order Bailiwick of Utrecht is still defined by its Protestant outlook and its roots in ancient nobility, an identity that dates back nearly four centuries. Between ;4;< and ;4=-, despite having remained Catholic over a remarkably long period, it had broken with the central order in Germany, becoming an institution for Reformed, married noblemen. The ad - mission requirements were four noble quarters and membership of the Reformed church. In this way, the order fitted seamlessly within the structures of the Dutch Republic. In the revolutionary period after ;JQ<, the order sought to survive by keeping a low profile. In ;V;; Napoleon dissolved the Bailiwick. After the restoration of Dutch independence, this measure was reversed by King William I. In the new kingdom, adherence to the old admission criteria demarcated the old nobility not only from the new aristocracy, but also from the old Catholic nobility in the South. After the rupture of the kingdom in ;VX- and the introduction of the liberal constitution in ;V=V – which introduced a parliamentary system, abolished the rights of the aristocracy and brought equal - ity of religions – the Protestant nobility assumed a leading role in the defence of traditional values. Into this picture fits the reinforced Protestant identity of the Bailiwick of Utrecht. In the twentieth century, this identity expressed itself through the increasing importance of its donations policy. * ORCID: https://orcid.org/--------;-QV-;-VQ4X Czasopismo jest wydawane na zasadach licencji niewyłącznej Creative Commons i dystrybuowane w wersji elektronicznej Open Access przez Akadmicką Platformę Czasopism www.apcz.umk.pl received: ;J. -<. +-;V | accepted: ;4. ;;. +-;V © Copyright by Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, 2018 236 RENGER E. DE BRUIN t is not easy to become a member of the Knightly Teutonic Order, Bailiwick of Utrecht. Not only are members required to be “of a Protestant family or affiliation”, they must also submit their patents of nobility: “one paternal no- Ible quarter and one maternal noble quarter, in which the paternal quarter should belong to a lineage whose nobility predates ;JQ<”. ; Before its statutes were amend- ed in +--4, matters were even stricter, requiring four quarters of old nobility and membership of a Protestant denomination. These requirements are at the heart of the identity of the Bailiwick of Utrecht as an organisation of Protestant nobles in the Netherlands. Today, the website formulates the order’s charitable objectives in the following words: “Guided by a Protestant vision, the fund benefits a range of target groups and projects, such as prevention, social projects and individual assistance.” + In this article, which is based on two lectures I gave in September +-;J, I show how this institution of Protestant nobles in the Kingdom of the Netherlands de- veloped from a Catholic Military Order in the Holy Roman Empire. X By following events from the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, I was able to identify long-term trends. This approach is relevant to various areas of re- search. The first area is the history of Military Orders such as the Order of St John and the Teutonic Order in the period after the Reformation, which has been ex- plored relatively little. While much has been published on the origins and golden age of these orders of the time of the Crusades and in the three subsequent centu- ries, there is much less on the period after ;4--. A second domain is the history of the aristocracy, especially in the Netherlands. By following an aristocratic organi- sation over a longer period, such study can provide greater insight into the compo- sition of the Dutch elite. The image of the Netherlands as a bourgeois, urban soci- ety has long been debated, one aspect being the much underestimated importance ; Akte van Statutenwijziging Ridderlijke Duitsche Orde, Balije van Utrecht, +--4, Utrecht, Ar- chief Ridderlijke Duitsche Orde – Nieuw Archief (From ;V;;) (henceforth as ARDO-NA ), no inv. number, art. V-+a, p. =; see also Nederlands Adelsboek +--4–+--J. + RDO Balije van Utrecht , Ridderlijke Duitsche Orde, last modified +-;V, accessed +; February +-;V, http://www.rdo.nl/ X The first lecture entitled “Calvinists only! The religious admission policy of the Teutonic Or- der Bailiwick of Utrecht,;4;<–+--4” was presented at Piety, Pugnacity and Property , Military Orders Conference J in Museum of the Order of St. John, St. John’s Gate (London), J–;- Sep- tember +-;J; the other one, “Die religiöse Identität der Ballei Utrecht des Deutschen Ordens, ;<4-–+--4”, was given at the conference Die Ritterorden in den regionalen kirchlichen Struk- turen (Diözesen, Pfarreien, andere geistliche Institutionen) : XIX Ordines Militares, Colloquia Torunensia Historica, at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (Toruń), +-–+X September +-;J. THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER BAILIWICK OF UTRECHT, 1560!2006 237 of the aristocracy. = Part of this project is my current research into members of the Bailiwick of Utrecht. To follow these developments over the long term, I take a chronological ap- proach that first outlines how the Bailiwick of Utrecht changed its religious iden- tity from a Catholic Military Order in ;<4- to a club comprised of married Prot- estant nobles who had broken with the Grand Master in ;4=-. In the subsequent period, which ends in ;JQ<, I examine the position of the Bailiwick in the Dutch Republic, a state in which the religion was officially Dutch Reformed, but in which other denominations were tolerated. The period that followed was one of revolution and restoration, in which the aristocracy and the churches that had do- minion lost their positions of privilege, only partially to regain them once more. The final period started in ;V=V, the year of European revolutions, when the Neth- erlands gained a liberal constitution that abolished aristocratic privileges and put all denominations on an equal footing. With regard to the Bailiwick of Utrecht, I establish how an organisation that was so much part of the pre-revolutionary es- tablishment maintained itself in modern times, and examine the adaptations it un- derwent. The end point is +--4, when the current statutes were established and the criteria for membership were reformulated. A %$# (' '$ P$'%'(' % (;<4-–;4=-) In the third quarter of the sixteenth century, radical change came to the territories where the Bailiwick of Utrecht had its possessions. The Northern Netherlands were part of the Burgundian Circle in which Charles V had united his lands on the North Sea. Some areas had been brought under Habsburg control just shortly before. The incorporation of the Duchy of Guelders in ;<=X brought all the Utre- cht commanderies under the authority of a single ruler. Until the middle of the sixteenth century, Utrecht was an integral part of the Teutonic Order under the Grand Master and the German Master. The Bailiwick thus shared in the fluctu- = Paul Brusse and Wijnand Wilhelmus Mijnhardt, Towards a New Template for Dutch His- tory: De-urbanization and the Balance between City and Countryside , trans. Beverly Jackson (Zwolle: Waanders, +-;;), 4X–QQ; In#estment behaviour, political change and economic growth in the Netherlands $%&'–$*+' , O.C Gelderblom, Research project NWO (+-;J–+-;X), last modified +-;V, accessed Q April +-;V, https://www.nwo.nl/onderzoek-en-resultaten/onder- zoeksprojecten/i/J=/+V-J=.html. In this article the words nobility and aristocracy are being used as synonyms as a translation for the Dutch word “adel”. In Dutch, “aristocratie” is simply a synonym for “adel”. Egbert J. Wolleswinkel, Nederlands Adelsrecht. Wettelijke adeldom als his- torisch gegroeid instituut (The Hague: Nederlandsche Leeuw, +-;+), ;;–;J. 238 RENGER E. DE BRUIN ating tendencies of development and recovery. Its structure was the classical one of knight-brethren and priest-brethren. < Religious identity was part of the order’s tradition. 4 As in the other bailiwicks, the original ideals – fighting for the faith and caring for the sick and wounded – faded away. Increasingly, the order served the needs of its members and became a “hospice of the German nobility”. J In the mid-sixteenth century, the Bailiwick of Utrecht was affected by abuses such as drunkenness, luxurious lifestyles, the breaking of celibacy and the sale of offices. Two land commanders – Albert van Egmond van Merestein and Frans van Loo – openly conducted relationships with women. Van Loo, who was suspected of Protestant sympathies, also ended the recruitment of priests. V Protestantism, which was then emerging mainly in its Calvinist variant, was persecuted by Philip II, who, in ;<<<, succeeded his father Charles V in both the Netherlands and Spain. The dissatisfaction caused by his policy was expressed par- ticularly by the nobility led by William the Silent, stadtholder of Holland, Zee- land and Utrecht. Due to their social background, the Teutonic knights found themselves aligned with the political opposition. Tensions escalated rapidly, com- ing to a head in a wave of iconoclasm in the summer of ;<44, which reached Utrecht at the end of August. While the church of the Teutonic Order was spared, considerable damage was wrought to the neighbouring Church of St Mary. Pro- foundly shocked, Philip II appointed his general, the Duke of Alba, governor of the Netherlands, and dispatched him to restore order – which the Iron Duke pro- ceeded to do with the utmost harshness.
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