Who was he? Where did he come from?
His family originated in Nassau, in Germany. They inherited land in France in the province 'Orange', and William became known as Prince William of Orange. Even back in 1560, so this was even before the 80 Year War started, he was involved in the resistance to the Spanish government, the Inquisition and, as the Orange family were Catholic, assisted by the Netherlands Catholic Church.
Most of the Netherlands was occupied by Spain. There was a congeries of revolts by different classes and groups with many, often conflicting motives. They needed help and hired Prince William of Orange with his army to expel the Spanish. The Netherlands did not have a king or government. Prince William was not only the boss of his rental army, he was a politician as well, so quite likely, early in the piece he must have considered to fill that royal vacuum. He must have realised that for him to fill that gap he had to get the trust and support of the population.
The Calvinist movement became very rebellious and powerful, which was perhaps the reason why the Spanish army was crueller to Presbyterians than to Catholics. This must have created division between these religions. They became nasty towards the Catholics. William, the politician, knew 'which side his bread was buttered', so to achieve his objectives and get the support of the strongest group, the Presbyterians, he dropped his Catholic religion in 1573. His slogan became 'Freedom of Religion'. What he really meant was 'Freedom for the Presbyterians'.
Presbyterians never agreed with statues that you find in Catholics churches, and on 22 August 1566, after a sermon delivered by a Calvinist minister, famous for his fierce sermons, a few hotheads, joined by hooligans, attacked the Catholic church in Middleburg. They smashed stained windows, statues and other artefacts. This was repeated in other towns, and it spread all over Holland. It became known as the “Beelden storm” (Statue raid). Catholics were chased out of their churches which were taken over by Presbyterians. Prince William confiscated a Catholic monastery in Delft (next to the 'New Church') and moved in. He called his new home 'het Prinsenhof', which means 'Home for the Prince'.
Even so, the Catholics were in the forefront resisting the Spanish, (as they were in 1940 when Germany occupied Holland) especially the more wealthy class as they were heavily taxed to pay for the war effort. In 1663 all Catholic churches were officially confiscated and have been kept and used by Presbyterians ever since. To this day the Catholic Church has never been compensated for this. The Catholic religion was suppressed and from 1578 Catholics were no longer allowed to worship openly.
Churches went 'underground' for over two centuries and were only known by secret names like 'the Parrot', 'the Dove', etc. One of these churches in Amsterdam, in the Kalverstraat, still has a parrot statue hanging at the back of the church. Many wealthy owners of large houses let their homes be used as a church. The corrupt authorities allowed this, but demanded regular stiff payments for 'not noticing' this. There were still restrictions. For instance, these houses should not show any markings to indicate that they were used as churches, and it should not be advertised in any way. Catholics were not even allowed to enter through the front door. One of these houses in Amsterdam, which was owned by a trader, still exists and is now a museum that can be visited. It has a narrow entrance at the side where people had to enter and leave. This ‘church’ is known as ‘Our Lady in the attic’ as the church part is up in the attic. You find it on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40, Amsterdam, which is within walking distance from the Central Railway Station. ( You find more details on www.museumamstelkring.nl )
Even though these houses in the center of
Amsterdam are expensive real estate, they are narrow and long, just like this
‘Church in the attic’. This was done because their rates (local government tax)
depended on the width. There are even one or two houses which have only the
width of a door. Back to our story:
The Catholic religion got more and more suppressed and Catholic could no longer
hold important positions, so what happened to the Brassers?
There are several indications that the Brassers have always been Catholic.
Jan Brasser, around 1500, had a son, Vincent, who was a priest. There is evidence that Aletta Brasser, around 1600, was a Catholic. The last generations, 1800 onwards were certainly Catholic.
Up till this time the Netherlands had no government. There were
just landowners, living in a castle and getting their income from the farmers
that rented their land.Prince William founded the first Dutch national government and his first Minister of Finance was a Brasser. BUT... being a Catholic this Brasser had to make a choice; either remain Catholic and lose his job or become a Presbyterian. Many Catholics kept their religion secret and some got themselves even officially registered as being Protestant, just to keep their position in society. Obviously some Brassers did not. They rather stick to principals. Accordingly this Brasser lost his ministerial position.
The next generation was only allowed to become mayors of cities. The following generation was degraded again and they were only aldermen (councillors). For the following generation that was not allowed either. We know that there were farmers by our name. We know that there was at least one major on the army of Prince William fighting the Spanish. Did he hide his religeon? We know that Aletta did. I can expand on this, and one day I will.
It is hard to believe, but it was not until about 1887, about 300 years later, that Catholics were again allowed the freedom of worship and allowed to build churches. No, they did not get their old churches back. No, they were not compensated. All these centuries the Catholic religion in The Netherlands was suppressed, but thrived.
By the way, one interesting little detail: In 1860 they dug a canal from Amsterdam to the North sea. Land for this project was taken by the government of the day. One farm somewhere near Velsen-Ymuiden belonged to a Brasser. Apparently the government did not pay the landowners in one lump sum for their land. My grandmother, a century later, was the last person in the family who still received an annual instalment. Once a year she received the grand total of one guilder! This amounts to about one New Zealand dollar, or 65 US cents.
BIG DEAL!
Anything YOU can tell US on this topic could be emailed to
Harry Brasser at brasser@ihug.co.nz.
That would be appreciated. Thank you.