Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Anti-Catholic = Anti-Spanish
The anti-Catholic laws imposed by Protestants were partly
retribution for the Catholics' own oppressive rule, partly
a desire to reform what was seen as a corrupted religion...
but mostly they were political. By a quirk of royal marriage,
Holland was ruled from afar by Spain—Europe's most mili-
tantly Catholic country, home of the Inquisition, the Jesuits,
and the pope's own Counter-Reformation army.
In 1578, Amsterdam's hard-line Protestants staged the
“Alteration”—a coup kicking out their Spanish oppressors and
allying the city with the Prince of Orange's rebels. Catholics
in the city—probably a majority of the population—were con-
sidered guilty by association. They were potential enemies,
suspected as puppets of the pope, spies for Spanish kings,
or subverters of the social order. In addition, Catholics were
considered immoral worshippers of false idols, bowing down
to graven images of saints and the Virgin Mary.
Catholic churches were seized and looted, and promi-
nent Catholics were dragged to Dam Square by a lynch mob,
before being freed unharmed outside the city gates. Laws
were passed prohibiting open Catholic worship. For two
centuries, Protestant extremists gave Catholics a taste of
their own repressive medicine. However, Amsterdam's long
tradition of tolerance meant that Catholics were not actually
arrested or prosecuted under these laws. Still, many families
over many generations were torn apart by the religious and
political strife of the Reformation.
in Rome—to Calvinists, the center of corruption, the “whore of
Babylon.”
• Later, we'll head down the stairs here, but first climb the stairs to the
first balcony above the church.
Lower Balcony
The window to the left of the altar (as you face it) looks south
across ramshackle rooftops (note the complex townhouse-with-
back-house design of so many Amsterdam buildings) to the steeple
of the Old Church (Oude Kerk). The Old Church was the main
Catholic church until 1578, when it was rededicated as Dutch
Reformed (Protestant), the new official religion of the Netherlands.
For the next hundred years, Catholics had no large venue to gather
in until Our Lord in the Attic opened in 1663.
The 1749 organ is small, but more than adequate. These days,
music-lovers f lock here on special evenings for a
Vondelkonzert
(wandering concert). They listen to a few tunes here, have a drink,
then move on to hear more music at, say, the Old Church or the
Royal Palace.
