Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: The Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany
- 2 The German Reformed Congregation and its Province of Lower Germany
- 3 The Antwerp Cloister
- 4 The Authorities Respond: Pope and Emperor Seize the Initiative
- 5 Wittenberg’s Influence on the Events in Lower Germany
- 6 Reformation Ideas in the Low Countries
- 7 ‘Summer is at the Door’: The Impact of the Executions on Martin Luther
- 8 The Impact of the Executions in the Low Countries
- 9 The Impact of the Executions in the German-Speaking Lands of the Holy Roman Empire
- 10 The Marian Dimension
- 11 The Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany and the Dynamics of the Early Reformation
- Bibliography
- About the Author
- Index
8 - The Impact of the Executions in the Low Countries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: The Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany
- 2 The German Reformed Congregation and its Province of Lower Germany
- 3 The Antwerp Cloister
- 4 The Authorities Respond: Pope and Emperor Seize the Initiative
- 5 Wittenberg’s Influence on the Events in Lower Germany
- 6 Reformation Ideas in the Low Countries
- 7 ‘Summer is at the Door’: The Impact of the Executions on Martin Luther
- 8 The Impact of the Executions in the Low Countries
- 9 The Impact of the Executions in the German-Speaking Lands of the Holy Roman Empire
- 10 The Marian Dimension
- 11 The Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany and the Dynamics of the Early Reformation
- Bibliography
- About the Author
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Chapter Eight questions the general scholarly consensus that the vigorous response of the ecclesiastical and temporal authorities in the Low Countries was largely successful in limiting the spread of Reformation ideas there (at least initially). In particular, this chapter examines the impact of the authorities’ campaign against religious dissent in the Reformed Augustinian cloisters of Lower Germany, demonstrating that in most cases that campaign was successful, but not always. In the Cologne cloister, the tactics employed by Wittenberg to spread Reformation ideas had an important and extended impact; what is more, the memory of these events and of the friars’ executions continued to influence the religious sensibilities of the laity in the Low Countries.
Keywords: Claes (Nicolaas) vander Elst circle, Cologne Augustinian Cloister, Heinrich Himmel, Lambert Thorn
A previous generation of scholars has argued that the earliest Reformation impulses in the Low Countries were, to a large degree, eradicated by the comprehensive efforts of Charles V and his representatives. The emperor's broad campaign swept up reform-minded humanists, adherents of Luther's ideas, printers and booksellers, and anyone else with Reformation tendencies. More recent studies, including this one, suggest that early Reformation impulses survived these efforts, at least in some localities and among some groups. As an institution, certainly the Reformed Augustinians must be counted among the success stories of the authorities’ campaign. With the burning of Vos and van den Esschen, the destruction of the Augustinian cloister in Antwerp, the formal separation of the Province of Lower Germany from the control of the German Reformed Congregation, and the installation of Johann van Mechelen as Vicar General of the new autonomous province, the anti-Reformation forces were able to prevent the cloisters of the Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany becoming beachheads of the Reformation. For this reason these friars have received little attention in histories of the Reformation, particularly those that focus on the Low Countries.
But to suggest that the events leading up to and including the executions of Vos and van den Esschen had no impact on the Reformation in the Low Countries would be false.
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- Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020