Bishops in the Habsburg Netherlands on the Eve of the Catholic Renewal, 1515-1559

This essay provides a survey of the composition and the social origins of the Netherland’s episcopate during the reign of Emperor Charles V. Although in theory local cathedral chapters elected their bishops, there was substantial government influence on the outcome of the elections. Nearly all bishops originated from the ranks of the aristocracy. In 1559 the papal bull Super Universas redesigned the ecclesiastical map of the Netherlands. Henceforth the Habsburg monarch nominated bishops in the vastly increased number of bishoprics. Thereby he finally acquired a privilege that his father had already obtained, not without difficulties, for his Iberian realms in 1530, whereas the French kings nominated their bishops already since 1516, by virtue of the Concordat of Bologna. Although Philip II and his advisers thus secured the nomination of a contingent of university-trained bishops that fostered the Catholic renewal, scions of the local aristocracy continued to occupy the most prestigious sees, including the three archbishoprics. This last phenomenon has been hardly noticed in the historiography on the subject.status: publishe