Katholiek in de Republiek : subcultuur en tegencultuur in Nederland, 1570- 1750

Abstract

Through the lens of individual

believers, and on the basis of their own literary and visual output, this

thesis

investigates how post-Reformation Catholics in the Dutch Republic understood themselves. Offering for the first time a systematic and long term approach of the Catholic experience in the Dutch Republic, this thesis participates in an international scholarly debate about early modern Catholicism in Protestant states. In order to analyze how individual Catholics manifested themselves as mediators of Catholic identity and culture, this study introduces two theoretical frameworks, subculture and habitus; it is further organized around windows that represent new historical methods. This thesis brings to light, among many other things, that Dutch Catholics followed very different paths to adapt to their new social reality, revealing the complex nature of the Catholic subculture. This thesis also illustrates that Catholics purposely cultivated those parts of their habitus that were detested and ridiculed by the Calvinists, but to which the Calvinists, at the same time, remained receptive. By drawing a comparison with the Generality Lands, the transition from sub- to counterculture is explored. The analysis of the Catholic Schism of 1723 sheds further light on the dynamics within the Catholic subculture.