14 October 1529 A.D. Belgian Government’s Edict Against Belgian Reformers. Persecutions: Game On!
Dr. Rusten tells
the story.
By
the 1530s, Antwerp was becoming the richest and busiest cities in Europe. The
port on the Schedlt River made it the center of international trade and
commerce. The whole region was known as Flander. Charles V, the Emperor of the (Holy Roman,
being neither Holy nor Roman) Empire received ½ of its tax revenues from this
area alone.
Charles
V gave many benefits to this region, except for religious freedom.
The
Reformation began in 1517. It soon
reached Antwerp. Lutherans and
Anabaptists flocked there. Calvinists from Switzerland and France went there.
Tyndale, an Englishman, resided in Antwerp to translate the Bible into English,
a fugitive from Inquisitor-TFO types in England.
Many
Augustinian monks in and around Antwerp followed Luther. One example was James Probst, friend of
Martin Luther, and prior of the convent at Antwerp. He preached justification by faith alone, a
doctrine now in eclipse in the 21st century in the West. Yet,
it was central to the Reformation.
Many
Augustinians supported the Reformation doctrines—from Dordtrecht, Hague,
Utrecht, and Ghent. By the 1520s,
Luther’s books were being translated into Dutch.
But
the Emperor, Charles V, and his IOOs (Inquisitor-Office-Operatives) were
opposing Reformation theology in favor of Romanism. One Dominican reprobate claimed, “I’d like to
fasten my teeth around Luther’s throat and I’d proudly go to the Lord’s Supper
with his blood dripping from my lips.”
An
IO-representative from Rome arrived. The
book-burnings began. Erasmus was in
Antwerp at the time and said, “The books leave the shelves, but not the
people’s hearts.”
By
1521, the Antichrist of Rome and Gospel-hating bishop of Rome, asked Charles V
to forbid the reading or publication of Luther’s books. Charles V ordered
courts to enforce the Edict of Worms passed earlier in that year—an Edict that
condemned Luther and his followers.
James
Probst, the Augustinian prior, and two friends were arrested in Antwerp. We covered that for a 1 July post.
By
1522, 2 Augustinian friars, Henry Voes and Johann Eck, were burned at the stake
in Brussels—the first martyrs of the Protestant Reformation. Erasmus said that the martyrs only made more
Lutherans. Interest in Lutheran thinking
swelled in Antwerp. Every allusion in
plays or sermons to Romanist corruptions was cheered and applauded, an
indication of the stature of Romanism.
In
1527, while Cranmer was stilling figuring out who and what he was, the English
Ambassador reported that 2/3rds of Antwerp held Luther’s opinions.
Alarmed
by the progress of Reformation theology, the Belgian Parliament issued an Edict
on 14 October 1529, the beginning of
the reign of terror.
The
Edict decreed:
Death for heretics
Death not only for
theologians, but for laity expressing support for Lutheran views
Prohibition of the
discussion of any article of religion.
The
art and trade of the Spanish Inquisition had arrived in Flanders. It continued for decades.
During
the 16th century, 600 Protestant churches were destroyed. Untold 1000s perished.
William
Tyndale would be one Englishman who fell to the Flanders-IOO of Romanism.
The
Holocaust was successful too. Belgium expunged the Protestant and Reformed
faith. But, these Churchmen relocated
and continued to Confess and Profess the true, Protestant, Reformed and
Catholic Faith.
Questions:
What of Foxe’s Acts and Monuments?
What of the history of
the Belgic Confession and the history of the Belgian Reformed Church? Why didn’t WTS speak of this more?
What of the history of
the French Huguenots?
What did Elizabeth 1
think of these developments in the late 16th century? The Archbishops of Canterbury? Why did they give refuge to the Reformed and
what do that TFOs say?
What of John Strype?
Sources
Durant.
The Reformation. 136-42, 631-7.
Edwards.
God’s Outlaw.
Johnstone.
Operation World. 5th ed.
114-5.
Smith.
Age of the Reformation. 234-46.
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