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Forced into hiding during the reformation, the Church of Utrecht continued to thrive, even eventually obtaining a comfortable enough status with the local authorities so as to allow it to freely and openly express Catholicism. Strangely, despite the "Debitum Pastoralis" and the waivers it provided, in 1592 the Ancient Church came under persecution from counter-reformist Jesuits, who, despite opposition from Rome accused Petter Codde , ArchbishopIn Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop heading a diocese of particular importance due to either its size, history, or both, called an archdiocese. When a bishop becomes an archbishop, he is not in any sense being ordained nor otherwise recei of the Church of Utrecht of favoring the so-called Jansenist heresyHeresy according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a "theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church. Pope Innocent XIIInnocent XII ne Antonio Pignatelli ( March 13, 1615 September 27, 1700) pope from 1691 to 1700, was the successor of Alexander VIII. He came of a distinguished Neapolitan family and was educated at the Jesuit college in Rome, he in his twentieth year beca appointed a Commission of CardinalA cardinal is an official of the second-highest rank of the Roman Catholic Church, inferior in rank only to the Pope. The cardinals serve a number of functions: they advise the Pope, they run the Vatican administration and the Roman Curia (the governments who investigated Archbishop Codde, ending in exoneration. In 1700 Archbishop Codde was summoned to Rome and brought before a second Commission appointed by Pope Clement XI. After another acquittal, Clement XI suspended the Archbishop in 1701 and appointed his successor to the See of Utrecht.
This was not a popular decision in Holland, culminating in a demand by the Dutch for the return of Codde, and their refusal of his successor. Codde returned to Utrecht in June of 1703. Codde formally resigned, protesting the circumstance in his Pastoral Letter of 19 March 1704. He died December 18, 1710.
Lacking an archbishop, the Church was able to arrange for Irish bishop, Luke Fagan , Bishop of Meath (later Archbishop of Dublin), to ordain priests for the Church of Utrecht. The legal matters arising from the violations of "Debitum Pastoralis" led to the case being brought before the University of Louvain in May of 1717, which found in favor of the Ancient Church, but was unable to resolve the matter with the Roman Church, leading to an autonomous, independent catholic church.