About the same time (April 1645) Schoock was summoned before the university of Groningen, of which he was a member, and forthwith disavowed the more abusive passages in his book.
At Leiden, Utrecht, Groningen, Franeker, Breda, Nimeguen, Harderwyk, Duisburg and Herborn, and at the Catholic university of Louvain, Cartesianism was warmly expounded and defended in seats of learning, of which many are now left desolate, and by adherents whose writings have for the most part long lost interest for any but the antiquary.
In the bishopric of Utrecht, in Gelderland and Friesland, the privileges accorded to Utrecht, Groningen, Zutphen, Stavoren, Leeuwarden followed rather on the model of those of the Rhenish " free cities " than of the Franco-Flemish commune.
The primatial see was placed at Malines (Mechlin), having under it Antwerp, Hertogenbosch, Roermond, Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres constituting the Flemish province; the second archbishopric was at Cambray, with Tournay, Arras, St Omer, and Namur, - the Walloon province; the third at Utrecht, with Haarlem, Middleburg, Leeuwarden, Groningen and Deventer, - the northern (Dutch) province.
Groningen is connected with the Drente plateau by the sandy tongue of the Hondsrug which extends almost up to the capital.