Cornelius Steenoven
| Cornelius van Steenoven | |
|---|---|
| Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht | |
 |
|
| Church | Old Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese | Utrecht |
| Elected | April 27, 1723 |
| In office | 1724-1725 |
| Predecessor | Petrus Codde |
| Successor | Cornelius Johannes Barchman Wuytiers |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | October 15, 1724 by Dominique Marie Varlet |
| Personal details | |
| Died | Leiden |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Denomination | Old Catholic |
Cornelis van Steenoven (also known as Cornelius Steenoven; died April 3, 1725 in Leiden) was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who later served as the seventh Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht from 1724 to 1725. Consecrated without the permission of the pope, Steenoven was at the center of the 18th-century controversy between national churches and what many considered to be the overreaching powers of the papacy.
Steenoven was educated in Louvain, then in Rome, where he received his Doctor of Theology. He was ordained a priest in 1689. Steenoven served as a pastor in Amersfoort from 1692 to 1719. Beginning in 1700, Steenoven served as a canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Utrecht, which was suspended by Rome in 1700 after a conflict during the time of Petrus Codde, the former Archbishop of Utrecht, whom Steenoven came to know in Rome. Like Van der Croon, a later Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, van Steenoven was one of 300 priests in six diocese who had previously signed a protest in support of Archbishop Petrus Codde in 1700 or 1701. In 1719, Steenoven was elected vicar general of the Chapter of Utrecht and served in this capacity together with Gisbert Van Dyck under the Chapter's dean, John Christian Van Erkel.
The Chapter of Utrecht convened at The Hague on April 27, 1723. All eight canons were present: John Christian Van Erkel (dean), Steenoven and Gilbert Van Dyck (vicars general), Daellenoort, Oosterling, Van der Croon, Kemp, and Broedersen. In addition to the canons, other priests were present, including Jacob Krys and Van Haen. After the Mass of the Holy Ghost, the canons prepared to advance the rights of the Catholic episcopate over the papacy by electing their own archbishop. They adopted a measure to proceed with an election by scrutiny; Jacob Krys served as protonotary of the election, and two non-canon priests served as witnesses. Steenoven received the majority of votes and was named Archbishop-elect of Utrecht.
The Chapter of Utrecht and the archbishop-elect asked Pope Innocent XIII to permit the consecration of Steenoven, but they received no response. The election of Steenoven as Archbishop-elect of Utrecht became the conversation of the European Roman Catholic Church, with various voices wondering whether Rome would allow the election, whether the canons would persevere in advocating for their right to elect their own archbishop, whether three bishops could be found to consecrate the archbishop-elect, and whether a single bishop would dare to perform the consecration alone. French Bishop and Jansenist theologian Pierre de Langle (of the Diocese of Boulogne in Northern France), wrote: "I can think of nothing except the present state of the glorious church of Utrecht.”
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