Neercassel, Joannes van
NEERCASSEL, JOANNES VAN
Bishop of Castoria in partibus, and sixth vicar apostolic of the Dutch Mission; b. Gorcum, 1623; d. Zwolle, June 6, 1686. After studies in Cuyck, Louvain, and Paris, where he joined the Congregation of the Oratory, he was ordained in 1648. He became vicar-general of the archbishopric of Utrecht in 1653, coadjutor of Vicars Zacharias de Metz in 1661 and Balduinus Cats in 1662. He succeeded Cats in the next year. His was a brilliant, somewhat capricious personality, formed in the Berullian school and inclined toward Jansenistic rigorism. Of his writings, Amor poenitens (1683) was censured by the Index in 1690; the Tractatus de sanctorum… cultu (1675) was criticized for disparaging the cult of the saints; and the Tractatus de lectione Scripturarum (1677) was reproved for allowing the reading of the Bible in the vernacular. Though he signed the anti-Jansenist formula of Alexander VII without restriction, he had relations with the Abbey of port-royal and invited Antoine arnauld to settle down at Delft.
Bibliography: r. r. post, ed., Romeinsche bronnen (The Hague 1941—). l. j. rogier, Geschiedenis van het katholicisme in Noord-Nederland, 3 v. (Amsterdam 1945–47) v. 2.
[p. polman]