Monasteries

   Monastic orders and communities played an impor tant role in the spread of Christianity in western Europe during the early Middle Ages. Influential monasteries were founded in the Low Countries, for example, near Egmond by the Benedictines and sev eral convents in Frisia and Groningen by the Cistercian order near Aduard and elsewhere. The monks not only were active as scholars and teachers but also took part in economicactivities. During the Re volt against the Roman Catholic Spanish king Philip II, many monasteries and convents were destroyed. The remaining posses sions of the orders were confiscated by the new Calvinistic authori ties. Catholic priests were tolerated again in the course of the 17th century. Relations with the Holy See in Rome were restored in the be ginning of the 19th century by a concordat, yet the (Northern) Netherlands was considered to be a mission field until the restoration of the episcopal hierarchy in 1853.