Official Record of Apostolic Succession of

On 25 May 1717, five doctors of the theological faculty of the University of Louvain publicly sided with the
Archepiscopal See of Utrecht by stating that the Church of Utrecht had not been reduced to the status of a
mere mission, that the Chapter of Utrecht had survived, and that the Vicariate established by + Rovenius
was the ancient Chapter of Utrecht. Later, 102 doctors of theology at the University of Paris, together with
the whole law faculty, publicly agreed with the doctors of Louvain. As a result of the support of the theology
faculties of two French universities, three French Bishops (Soanen of Senez, Lorraine of Bayeux, and
Caumartin of Blois) declared that they were ready to ordain priests for the Chapter of Utrecht, and actually
did so.
Upon the death, in AD 1710, of + Peter Codde, the deposed Archbishop of Utrecht, the Cathedral Chapter
(exercising its historically recognized right) elected a successor. No Bishop, however, could be found who
would ignore the Pope's Inhibition by consecrating the Archbishop-elect. The Church of Holland continued to
send Her candidates for the priesthood out of the country for ordination by foreign Bishops; Her children,
without a diocesan Ordinary, were left unconfirmed. At this point the Jesuits and Rome sought and anxiously
anticipated the total capitulation of the autocephalous Dutch Church.
A turning point in the Dutch Church's struggle with Rome came in AD 1719 when + Dominique Maria Varlet,
former missionary priest in The Louisiana Territory in North America, stopped in Amsterdam for a few days
on his way to his new post in Persia. A local Dutch priest, Father Jacob Krys, begged the new Bishop to
confirm 604 orphans and other poor children as an act of charity, which he did. He then continued his
journey to Persia, arriving at his residence at Schamake (now Shemakh near Baku in the Republic of
Azerbaijan) on 9 October 1719. On 26 March 1720, the Bishop of Babylon was presented with a formal
Notice of Suspension from his office, sent by the Bishop of Ispahan by order of the Congregation de
Propaganda Fide, and delivered by a Jesuit priest (Fr. Bachou) because of the confirmations in Amsterdam.
Like the late Archbishop Codde, Bishop Varlet elected not to remain in office while fighting the Papal action.
After careful consideration and prayer, the good Bishop immediately left Persia and returned to Amsterdam,
where he settled permanently.
The Chapter of Utrecht had meanwhile repeatedly attempted to get the Pope to allow the election and
consecration of an archbishop; Pope Innocent XIII ignored their petitions. The Chapter next turned to the
leading canon lawyers of the day. They were told that the Chapter had the canonical right to elect their
archbishop and get him consecrated without the consent of the Pope (recent precedents in both France and
Portugal supported this position). Nineteen doctors of the theological faculty of the Sorbonne (University of
Paris), and others from Nantes, Rheims, Padua, and Louvain, gave their agreement to this position, as well
as assuring the Chapter that in the case of necessity one bishop alone might preside at the consecration.
With the approval of the government, the Chapter met at The Hague on 27 April 1723 and, after a Mass of
The Holy Spirit, elected, with all the canonical forms, Cornelius Steenoven to be Archbishop of Utrecht.
Although Fr. Steenoven was elected as the candidate likely to be the least objectionable to Rome, the Pope
refused to answer the Chapter's request to permit his consecration. The Chapter finally begged the Bishop
of Babylon to consecrate their candidate. He consented. The government also consented to this the first
consecration of an Archbishop of Utrecht since the Reformation. Thus at 6:00am on Pentecost XX, 15
October 1724, Cornelius van Steenoven was consecrated in the presence of the whole Chapter by the
Bishop of Babylon in Amsterdam to be the seventh Archbishop of Utrecht and canonical successor of St.
Willibrord.
The Bishop of Babylon was called upon by The Chapter to consecrate four archbishops for the See of
Utrecht before his death on 14 May 1742 at The Hague.
OLD CATHOLIC ULTRAJECTINE SUCCESSION I
through Archbishop William Montgomery Brown
Archbishop Gerard Gul (Old Catholic Church of Utrecht), assisted by Bishop Johannes Jacobus van Thiel
and Bishop Nicholas Bartholomaeus Petrus Spit (both with The Old Catholic Church of Utrecht) and Bishop
Josef Demmel (Old Catholic Church in Germany), consecrated to the Sacred Episcopate:
Archbishop-Primate Arnold Harris Mathew on 28 April 1908 as Archbishop of London and Primate of the
Old Catholic Church in England. Archbishop Mathew consecrated to the Sacred Episcopate: