Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/498

AMSTERDAM 442 AMSTERDAM the Emperor Maximilia", and the street which led to it is still known as the "Holy Way". The Reformation found an early entrance into Amsterdam. In 1535 occurred the bloody rising of the Anabaptists, and in 1566 the destruction of holy images. The city long remained true, how- ever, to the Catholic cause, despite the lapse of the Netherlands into apostasy. It was only in 157S that the Calvinists gained the upper hand, drove out the officials who were loyal to the Spanish Gov- ernment, and, in 1579, joined the Utrecht Union, which stipulated in its fourteenth article that no other public exercise of religion except the reformed should be allowed. The city authorities of Am- sterdam, however, were, in the interests of their trade with Catholic nations, more tolerant in the enforcement of this regulation than most of the cities of the Netherlands. Certain orders, such as the Franciscans and the Jesuits, were able, in conse- quence of the prevailing toleration, to remain there for a long time, practically unmolested, and even, in offices of State. Negotiations were, indeed, opened at Rome for the conclusion of a Concordat, and Amsterdam was to have been made a bishopric, but the Calvinistic-Orangist party were able to prevent the execution of the Concordat. The situa- tion, however, improved imder William II. The new Constitution of 1848 brought the Catholics complete liberty, and equality with the Protestants, while the year 1853 witnessed the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy, by which Amsterdam became a deanery subject to the Diocese of Haarlem. Catho- lic progress has kept pace since then with that of the city, which has once more risen to be the chief mercantile city of the Netherlands and one of the most important in Europe. The Catholics, who, in 1817, were 44.000, had risen, in 1865, to over 68,000. Amsterdam has eighteen Catholic parishes; the most important churches being: the Romanesque Byzantine church of St. Nicholas, with its three towers; the Gothic churches of the Most Sacred Cttobch op St. Nicbolas, Amsterdam the pl.ague which raged in the latter half of the seven- teenth century, openly to administer the consolations of religion to the (Jatholic faithful. Amsterdam, in- deed, was at this period rising to the position of the first trading city of the world, a rise due to the fall of Antwerp in 1585, the blockade of the mouths of the Scheldt, and a series of glorious battles with England. The city became, on the contrary, less tolerant under the influence of the Jansenists. In 16()() the public exercise of the Catholic religion was forbidden, on which account the churches dating from that period have the outward appearance of private houses. The religious houses which still existed in 1708 were done away with, and their cliurclics closed. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that Catholics gained any considerable measure at religious liberty, which was chiefly due to the found- ing by Napoleon of the Kingdom of Holland, of which Amslcrdain became the capital, 1808-10. The fall of the Napoleonic dynasty and the accession of William I meant the practical cessation of this Ulx.Tly, and Catholics were debarred from all the Heart of Jesus and of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception; the church of St. Willibrord, with its seon towers, the largest in the country; and the Jesuit Church of St. Francis Xavier, on the Krijt- berg. The following orders of men have houses in Amsterdam: the Jesuits, who also conduct a classical college; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Redemp- torists, Augustinians, and Brothers of Mercy; of women, among others, the IV'guines, whose convent dates from the fourteenth century; the Franciscan Sisters, Sisters of Our Lady of Tilburg, Dominican Sisters, Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo, Daughters of Mary and Joseph, anil others. The most notctl Catholic benevolent institutions are the orphanage for boys ami girls, the St. Bernard's almshouse for old men and women; that of St. Nicholas, for eirls; of St. Aloysius, for abandoned orphans, "Our Dear Lady's Hospice" (hospital and polyclinic); a second hospital, the Catholic Juniorate for the Diocese of Haarlem, St. James's almshouse for old people, etc. The following Catholic societies should also be men- tioned: the Netherlands Catholic People's Union,