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Church Ordinances and Regulations of the Dutch Synods ‘Under the Cross’ (1563-1566) Compared With the French (1559-1563)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

F. R. J. Knetsch
F. R. J. Knetsch*
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
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Extract

In 1559 Philip II left the Netherlands for Spain, where, from then on, he was to rule his empire. The government of the Provinces united by his father, Charles V, was left to his bastard sister Margaret, Duchess of Parma. Although she faithfully followed the Habsburg line, which in religion meant opposing Protestantism, her reign was characterized by a certain lack of firmness, enabling opposing factions to assert themselves. Shortly before Philip’s departure, Henry II, his French rival, had died in a tournament. His children and widow were as unable to quell the religious unrest in France as Margaret was in the Netherlands. In this situation, Calvinism grew irresistibly: from around 1555, it had already increased greatly in strength under Henry II, and in 1559 it had managed to hold a synod in Paris. That synod, as well as drawing up a Confession of Faith, produced its Discipline or Church Ordinance; and the best way of tracing the growth of Calvinism is to examine how rapidly the synods met, and to see how the Church Ordinances were adjusted to meet particular circumstances. That this development in the French Reformed Church had repercussions in the adjoining Netherlands, where the same language was spoken, at least in part, needs scarcely to be emphasized. Besides, during the reign of Elizabeth I, Calvinist refugee congregations were established in England, and these, in turn, could be used as bases for serving the Netherlands.

Type
Part I. The Church in Europe
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 8: Humanism and Reform: The Church in Europe, England, and Scotland, 1400-1643 , 1991 , pp. 187 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1991 

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References

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9 To be found in Crespin, Jean, Histoire des Martyrs [according to Francois Méjan, Discipline de I’glise Réformée de France (Paris, 1947), p. 300Google Scholar, already in the 1562 edition; I used the 1582 edn, fol. 465); Pierre de la Place, Commentaires de festal de la religion et république soubs les roys Henry et Francois seconds et Charles neuviesme, 1565;(Paris, 1836), pp. 14, 15; Popelinière, Henry de La, Histoire de France depuis 1550 iusques à ces temps (La Rochelle, 1581)Google Scholar [copy at Utrecht University Library]; Histoire ecclésiastique’des églises réformées au royaume de France [‘Beza’] (Anvers, 1580), pp. 186–90. Also a different version in Jean Aymon, Synodes nationaux, and in the English translation by John Quick, Synodikon in Gallia Reformata (London, 1692). Besides Méjan, Discipline, see also Pannier, J., Les origines de la Confession de Foi et de la Discipline (Paris, 1936)Google Scholar.

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11 For the last-mentioned article see Moreau, ‘Les Synodes’, p. 3; in ‘Le Bouton’ it is quoted almost literally as article 1.

12 Cf. Appendix I for a condensed survey of these data.

13 Cf. Appendix II for a schematic outline of the derivations.

14 Kist, ‘De Synoden’, note to article 45 of ‘La Vigne’, 1 May 1564.

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