The Church from Age to Age: A History from Galilee to Global Christianity by Edward A. Engelbrecht

Author:Edward A. Engelbrecht [Engelbrecht, Edward A.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Concordia Publishing House
Published: 2011-07-03T04:00:00+00:00

CALVINISM IN THE LOW COUNTRIES

While the wars of religion were being waged in France, a religious revolution had started in the Low Countries to the north. The seventeen provinces that made up the Low Countries were a part of the Holy Roman Empire under Charles V. Again, religious convictions formed only a part of the issues that led to war and to a struggle for independence from Catholic Spain. Even though the Low Countries were an early center of mysticism, the condemnation of Luther’s works, and the burning of the first Lutheran martyrs (1523), there Protestantism in its various forms gained a firm hold. Persecutions were intensified by the government, especially against the Anabaptists, despite the general unpopularity of such action.

When Charles V divided his possessions and gave the Low Countries to his Spanish-educated son Philip in 1555, and when Philip became the ruler of Spain the next year, tensions increased rapidly in the Low Countries. Philip II failed to understand the temper of the people and the times and offended Catholics and Protestants alike by his appointment of Spanish officials, his demands for money, and his cruel repression of the Protestants, now strengthened by an influx of aggressive Calvinists. Philip left the Low Countries in 1559, but by that time, a clash between Spanish rule and the people was inevitable.

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