Herman Schaepman

Herman Johannes Aloysius Maria Schaepman (Tubbergen, Overijssel, 2 March 1844 – Rome, 21 January 1903) was a Dutch priest, politician and poet.

[1] He made his studies in the college of Oldenzaal[2] and went to the seminaries of Culemborg and Rijsenburg, was ordained as a Catholic priest at Utrecht in 1867, and obtained the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1869 at Rome.

[3] According to Tjerk de Reus Schaepman fought against the marginalization of Dutch Catholics by depicting liberals as the “propagandists of the devil”.

But even at that time he entertained the idea of an eventual coalition between Catholics and Protestants, and for that reason supported the project for the revision of the Constitution (1887).

Schaepman, in the beginning of his political career, was averse to paternalism in government and wished to limit its functions to what was absolutely necessary.

[2][3] Schaepman's merits were recognized by Pope Leo XIII, who bestowed upon him the rank of domestic prelate and prothonotary Apostolic.

By turns lofty, incisive, sarcastic, vigorous, witty, his whole soul finds expression in his prose, the originality of its style being so striking that its authorship is recognized at first glance.