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The Exile Churches and the Churches ‘Under the Cross’: Antwerp and Emden During the Dutch Revolt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Andrew Pettegree
Andrew Pettegree
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ
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Extract

In the middle years of the sixteenth century Antwerp reached the zenith of its economic power. With ninety thousand inhabitants it was far from being the largest city in Europe, but its pre-eminence as a centre for European trade was now universally acknowledged. As a money market, commodity market and, above all, as a centre of the cloth trade Antwerp had by 1550 eclipsed its rivals in Flanders and Brabant and made itself indispensable to merchants from all over the continent. Germans made up the largest contingent among Antwerp's foreign merchant community, but there were substantial numbers of both Portuguese, still dominant in the international spice trade, and Italians, who had first introduced the sophisticated financial and accounting techniques which were now developed to a new peak of refinement in Antwerp. The concentration of capital in the city was an inducement to every major banking house to maintain a permanent representation there, as did their most regular clients, the princely houses of Europe. The real foundation of Antwerp's greatness, however, was the trade in English broadcloths, established there since the turn of the century and carried on by an English merchant community that numbered three or four hundred by 1560. All this frenetic economic activity was presided over with studied negligence by the city elders, whose tradition of minimum controls was calculated to avoid alarming an extremely heterogeneous trading community.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , April 1987 , pp. 187 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

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3 Hagedorn, Ostfriesland, 144.

4 Ramsay, City of London, 229–30.

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10 It should perhaps be emphasised at this point that my attention will largely be confined to the reformed or Calvinist communities; the quite separate Lutheran churches and the numerous anabapist groups, which occupied so much of the secular authorities' energies, will be touched on only briefly. Although the Lutherans attracted a large following in Antwerp, and their Church was of considerable political significance, their contacts with the reformed exile communities were slight, and for that reason their history falls outside the scope of this study. See Pont, J. W., Geschiedenis van het Lutheranisme in de Nederlanden tot 1618, Haarlem 1911Google Scholar . Similarly, although there was both a Dutch- and a French-speaking (or ‘Walloon’) Reformed Church in Antwerp, I will be concentrating mainly on the Dutch.

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18 Jelsma, Haemstede, 56; Emden KP, 13 Sept. 1557.

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20 Emden KP, 7 Mar. 1558.

21 Jelsma, Haemstede, 65–6.

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23 Emden KP, 27 Feb. 1558.

24 Emden Archiv, Rep. 320-A-13.

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29 Emden Archiv, Rep. 320-A-43, 44, Emden Letters, 1–5.

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32 Decavele, Dageraad, i. 417; A. A. van Schelven, ‘Het Begin van het gewapend verzet tegen Spanje in de i6e Eeuwsche Nederlanden’, Handelingen en Mededeelingen van de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkundc te Leiden, 1914–15, 135–7.

33 Van Schelven, op. cit. 137–8; Kerkcraads-Protocollen der Nedcrduitsche Vluchtelingen-Kerk te Londen, 1560-1563, A. A. van Schelven (Werken der Historisch Genootschap te Utrecht xliii, 1921), 349,397.

34 On the Winghen affair see Van Schelven, op. cit. 152–78; Pettegree, Foreign Protestant Communities, 242–52.

35 Emden KP, 5 Apr. 1563.

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37 L. Knappert, Het outstaen en vestiging van het protestantisme in de Nederlanden, Utrecht 1924, 297; J. N. Bakhuizen van den Brink, De Nederlandse Belijdenisgeschriften, 2nd edn, Amsterdam 1976, 21–3; Haemstede, De Geschiedenisse ende den doodt der vromer Martelaren, 1559; Marnix de St Aldegonde, De Bienkorf der H. Roomsche Kercke, 1569 (copies of both in Leiden University Library and The Hague Royal Library).

38 H. F. Wijnman, ‘Grepen uit de Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Emigrantendrukkerijen te Emden’, I: Het Boek xxxvi (1963–4), 140–68; II: Het Boek xxxvii (1964–6), 121–51; P. H. Vogel, ‘Der Niederlandische Bibeldruck in Emden 1556–1568’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 1961, 162–71.

39 Wijnman, ‘Emigrantendrukkerijen’ I, 155–7.

40 Briels, J. G. C. A., Zuidnederlandse boekdrukkers en boekverkopers in de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden omstreeks 1570–1630, Nieuwkoop, 1974, 4.Google Scholar

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43 H. de la Fontaine Verwey, ‘Hendrik van Brederode en de Drukkerijen van Vianen’, Het Boek xxx (1949–51), 40.

44 Felix Rachfahl, Wilhelm von Orangien und der niederldndische Aufstand, Halle 1906–8, ii. 457; Decavele, Dageraad i. 414–15.

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46 Emden KP, 1 Aug. 1558 (Michiels), 3; 10 June 1560 (van der Erve).

47 See note 13, above.

48 Decavele, Dageraadi. 371.

49 Letter of Antwerp community, Feb. 1558, Emden Letters, 59–85; NNBW, iii. 1495 (Wybo in Breda and Mechelen).

50 Jelsma, Haemstede, 67, quoting van Haemstede, De Geschiedenisse ende den doodt der vromer Martelaren, Emden 1559, 429.

51 Gérard Moreau, ‘Les synodes des églises walonnes des Pays-Basen 1563’, Nederlands Archeif voor Kerkengeschiedenis xlvii (1965–6), 1–11.

52 Gérard Moreau, Histoire du Protestantisme à Toumai jusqu'à la veille de la Revolution des Pays Bos, Paris 1962; M. P. Willems-Closset, ‘Le protestantisme a Lille jusqu'a la veille de la révolution des Pays-Bas’, Revue du Nord lii (1970), 199–216. For references to the French Church in Antwerp in 1556 see Joannis Calvini Opera, ed. G. Baum et al., Brunswick 1863–80, xvi. nos 2501, 2506, 2561. A reference to ‘les freres d'Envers’ in a letter of Frangois de la Riviere, written in September 1554 may indicate that there was a functioning French congregation even at this early date. See Van Schelven, Vluchtelingenkerken, 423–30.

53 Emden KP, 16 Sept., 11 Nov. 1566.

54 Parker, Geoffrey, The Dutch Revolt, London 1977, 68–117Google Scholar ; Robert van Roosbroeck, Het Wonderjaar te Antwerpen, 1566–1567, Utrecht 1930; Rachfahl, Wilhelm von Orangien, ii. 517-901.

55 Langeraad, L. A. van, Guido de Bray, Zijn leven en werken, Zierikzee 1884Google Scholar ; Boer, Cornelia, Hofpredikers van Prins Willem van Oranje, The Hague 1952, 19–21Google Scholar.

56 Wegg, Jervis, The Decline of Antwerp under Philip of Spain, London 1924, 58–72Google Scholar ; Ant. Arch. ii. 386; Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 6–19.

57 Wegg, op. cit. 76–80; Parker, Dutch Revolt, 74–8; see also Crew, Phyllis Mack, Calvinist Preaching and Iconoclasm in the Netherlands 1544–1569, Cambridge 1978, 5–38.Google Scholar

58 Hagedorn, Ostfnesland, 206; Crew, Calvinist Preaching, 39–50, 83–106.

59 Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 85–6.

60 Ibid. 83–5, 88–90, 143.

61 L. van der Essen, ‘Les progres du lutheranisme et du calvinisme dans le monde commercial d'Anvers’, Vierteljahrschriftfiir Sozial- und Wirlschaftsgeschichte xii (1914), 219.

62 F. R.J. Knetsch, ‘The national synod of Dordrecht, 1578, and the position of the Walloon Churches’, Low Countries History Year Book xiii (1980), 40–50.

63 Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 93–4, 145–7; Wegg, Decline of Antwerp, 91.

64 Roosbroeck, op. cit. 151–69.

65 Ibid. 21 iff.

66 J. P. van Dooren, ‘Der Weseler Konvent 1568. Neue Forschungsergebnisse’, Monatshefte fur Evangelische Kirchengeschichte des Rheinlandes xxxi (1982), 41–55.

67 Roosbroeck, Wondcrjaar, 352–3; Wegg, Decline of Antwerp, 106–10; Parker, Dutch Revolt, 97–8.

68 Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 38iff; Wegg, Decline of Antwerp, 111–18.

69 Hagedorn, Ostfriesland, 209.

70 Emden KP, 1, 8, 28 May 1567.

71 Emden KP, 19 July 1568.

72 Emden KP, 9 May 1569; Stukken betreffende de diaconie der vreemdelingen te Emden, 1560-1576, ed. J. J. van Toorenenbergen (Marnix Vereeniging, series 1, part 2, 1876), 18, 22, 24.

73 Emden KP, 1 May 1567.

74 Emden KP, 30 Oct., 6 Nov., 20 Nov., 1 Dec. 1567.

75 Emden KP, 21 Aug., 9 Nov. 1569.

76 A. Franz, ‘Ostfriesland und die Niederlande zur Zeit der Regentschaft Albas, 1567–1573’, Jahrbuch der Gesellschaftfur bildende Kunst und vaterlandische Altertiimer zu Emden xi (1895), 1–82, 203–398.

77 Emden KP, 2 Aug. 1568.

78 NNBW 1. 228 (Balck); Hessels ii. 291. Wybo did not accept this call to London immediately but was certainly in London by early 1569.

79 Stukken betreffende de diaconie, 14, 17.

80 Wegg, Decline of Antwerp, 126–37. One of the victims of the repression in 1568 was the minister Joris Coomans (information supplied by Mr Guido Marnef). Mr Marnef is at present engaged on a study of Protestantism in Antwerp between 1567 and 1585, which promises to shed further valuable light on the reformed community under Alva.

81 Wegg, Decline of Antwerp, 128.

82 Emden KP, 29 Sept. 1569. Kerkeraads-Protocollen der Hollandsche gemeente le Louden, 1569-1571, ed. A. Kuyper (Marnix Vereeniging, series 1, part 1, 1870), 52.

83 Hesselsii. 105,149; Crew, Calvinist Preaching, 192; Die Aktcnder Synode der Niederlandischen Kirchen zu Emden, ed J. F. G. Goeters, Neukirchen 1971, 88.

84 See E. Lomberg, ‘Ursachen, Vorgeschichte, Verlauf und Auswirkengen der Emder Synode von 1571’, Emder Synode 1571–1971, Neukirchen 1973, 29.

85 Hagedorn, Ostfriesland, 252.

86 Ibid. 286.

87 Emden Archiv Rep. 320-A-80. Letter, 26 Apr. 1573, Emden Letters, 10–12; Meiners, Geschiedenisse ii. 39–41; Hessels iii. 222.

88 Briels, Zuidnederlandse boekdrukkers, 46–52.

89 Hagedorn, Ostfriesland, 335–6.

90 Ibid. 240–51.

91 Ibid. 331ff.

92 Hessels iii. 278.

93 See Hessels ii. 631, 664. Returns of Aliens ii. 202–12 for list of contributors.

94 Emden Archiv, Rep. 320-A-5, Emden Letters, 26-7.

95 Ramsay, City of London, 251–83.