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The Political Resistance of the Calvinists in France and the Low Countries*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Robert M. Kingdon
Affiliation:
State University of Iowa

Extract

It seems to me that much can be learned by comparative studies of the histories of the several European countries, and that this is particularly true of their political histories during the sixteenth century. A stimulating start in this direction was made by H. G. Koenigsberger in an article in The Journal of Modern History, titled “The Organization of Revolutionary Parties in France and the Netherlands during the Sixteenth Century.” I would like to propose a further exploration of some of the interesting leads presented by Mr. Koenigsberger. For the present, however, I shall avoid attempting to survey the whole field he opens up for us. I shall limit myself to a study of the revolutionary Calvinist parties, and devote most of my attention to the period of their formation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1958

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References

1. Koenigsberger, H. G., “The Organization of Revolutionary Parties in France and the Netherlands during the Sixteenth Century,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol XXVII, No. 4 (12, 1955), pp. 335351CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. Mattingly, Garrett, Renaissance Diplomacy (London, 1955), pp. 193196.Google Scholar

2. Koenigsberger, op. cit., p. 336.

3. Edited copies of much of the archival material relating to the Low Countries can be found in de Heekelingen, Herman de Vries, Genève, pépinière du calvinisme hollandais; t. I, Les étudiants des pays-bas à Genève au temps de Théodore de Bèze (Fribourg, Switzerland, 1918)Google Scholar; t. II, Correspondance des élèves de Théodore de Bèze après leur départ de Genève (the Hague, 1924)Google Scholar. See also the many works of A. A. van Schelven. For discussion of the archival material relating to France, see Kingdon, Robert M., Geneva and the coming of the wars of religion in France, 1555–1563 (Geneva: Droz, 1956)Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as de Vries de Heekelingen and Kingdon, Geneva.

4. Not many of these testimonial letters have been preserved. For a good copy of one, see de Vries de Heekeingen, I, 297–298, a transcript of an entry in Geneva, Archives, Register of the Company of Pastors, B2, 1572, fol. 72v.

5. These dates, and much of the information in the paragraph, are taken from the official Registers of the Geneva Company of Pastors, preserved in the Geneva Archives d'Etat, consulted with the permission of the present Geneva Company of Pastors. See Kingdon, , Geneva, p. 2Google Scholar, and passim, for information on the first men officially sent. See Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français, VIII (1859), p. 76Google Scholar, for a list of pastors sent from Geneva, abstracted from these registers, which contains many errors of transcription but does include reliable information about the first man officially sent to the Low Countries.

6. See Kingdon, , Geneva, p. 46Google Scholar, and passim, on the French synod and local church organization. Source references can be found in the notes. On the Emden synod, see Rutgers, F. L., ed., Acta van de nederlandsche synoden der zestiende eeuw, in Werken der Marnix-Vereeniging, serie II, deel III (Utrecht, 1889), pp. 42119CrossRefGoogle Scholar; note also the articles adopted by an even earlier gathering (“samenkomst”) of representatives of the Low Countries' churches in Wesel, 1568, in Ibid., pp. 1–41. For information on Calvinist church organization in the Belgian provinces, see de Moreau, E., Histoire de l'église en Belgique, t. V (Brussels, 1952), pp. 215227Google Scholar. A useful collection of early provincial synodical records can be found in Kist, N. C., ed., “De synoden der nederlandsche hervormde kerken onder het kruis, gedurende de jaren 1563–1577, gehouden in Braband, Vlaanderen enz.,” Nederlandsche Archief voor Kerkelijke Geschiedenis, IX, in Archief voor Kerkelijke Geschiedenis inzonderheid van Nederland, XX (1849), pp. 114120Google Scholar. Mr. Maurice Edic and Miss Nancy Knapp called my attention to the last two references.

7. For an authoritative study of these refugee churches, see van Schelven, A. A.De nederduitsche vluchtelingenkerken der XVIe eeuw in Engeland en Duitschland, in hunne beteeknis voor de reformatie in de Nederlanden (the Hague, 1909)Google Scholar. On the London church see also Lindeboom, J., Austin Friars: History of the Dutch Reformed Church in London (the Hague, 1950).Google Scholar

8. de Wal, J., “Nederlanders en personen die later met Nederland in betrekking stonden, studenten te Heidelberg en Genève sedert het begin der kerkhervorming,” Maatsch. Ned. Letterk. Handelingen & Mededeelingen (1865), pp. 59270Google Scholar; J. de Wal, “Nederlanders, studenten te Heidelberg,” in ibid. (1886), pp. 1–55; cited by de Vries de Heekelingen, I, 188.

9. Geneva, Archives, Registres du Conseil, 5 August 1586, quoted in de Vries de Heekelingen, I, 23.

10. The best documented example of such a muster is that supervised by the synod of upper Guyenne held in Ste.Foy, in November 1561. See Histoire ecelésiastique des églises réformées auroyaume de France, ed. by Baum, G. and Cunitz, Ed., I (Paris, 1883), pp. 803804Google Scholar (original pagination). For further information see Kingdon, , Geneva, pp. 109 and ff.Google Scholar

11. The relevant text in the synodical minutes is quoted by van den Brink, Bakhuizen, in his introduction to van den Brink, R. C. Bakhuizen, van Bergh, L. Ph. C., & de Jonge, J. K. J., eds., Les archives du royaume des pays-bas: recueil de documents inédits pour servir à l'histoire des pays-bas (the Hague, Leipzig, Brussels, Paris, 1855), pp. 2728Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Bakhuizen van den Brink.

12. Geisendorf, Paul-F., Théodore de Béze (Geneva, 1949), pp. 34Google Scholar, quotes from the text of the 1551 patent of reintegration into the nobility, granted to his father. See the succeeding pages for further biographical information. For general information on France during this period, see de la Tour, P. Imbart, Les origines de la Réforme, t. IV, Calvin et l'Institution Chrétienne (Paris, 1935)Google Scholar, and Romier, Lucien, Les origines politiques des guerres de religion, 2 vols. (Paris, 19131914)Google Scholar; La conjuration d'Amboise … (Paris, 1923)Google Scholar; Catholiques et Huguenots à la cour de Charles IX… (1560–1562) (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar; Le royaume de Catherine de Médicis…, 2 vols. (Paris, 1922).Google Scholar

13. Elkan, Albert, Philipp Marnix von St. Aldegonde; teil I: Die Jugend Johanns und Philipps von Marnix (Leipzig, 1910), pp. 7 and ffGoogle Scholar., discusses the documents which provide proof of Marnix's nobility. One of them was published by Marnix himself. See Lacroix, Alb., ed., Oeuvres de Ph. de Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde, t. V. Ecrits politiques et historiques (Brussels, 1859), pp. 8693Google Scholar, originally published as an appendix to text of Marnix's, Response à un libelle fameux nagueres publié contre Monseigneur le Prince d'Orenges (Antwerp, 1579)Google Scholar. This collection hereafter cited as Marnix, Oeuvres, Lacroix ed.

14. Droz, E., “Antoine Vincent: la propagande protestante par le psautier,” Aspects de la propagande religieuse (Geneva: Droz, 1957), pp. 276293.Google Scholar

15. van Toorenenbergen, J. J., ed., Philipp van Marnix van St. Aldegonde: godsdienstige en kerkelijke geschriften, 3 vols. plus supplement (the Hague, 18711891)Google Scholar, I, l-lxxi, for commentary; 183–438, for text. Hereafter cited as Marnix, Geschriften, van Toorenenbergen, ed.

16. van Kalken, Frans and Jonckheere, Tobie, Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde (1540–1598): le politique et le pamphlétaire; le pédagogue (Brussels, 1952), pp. 1528.Google Scholar

17. Geisendorf, op. cit., pp. 439–441, contains a preliminary list of Beza 's works, practically all of which are discussed in his text. A complete bibliography of Beza's works has yet to be published.

18. Ibid., pp. 65 and ff.

19. Marnix, , Geschriften, van Toorenenbergen, ed., II, ii–xxi, for commentaryGoogle Scholar; 1–240, for text.

20. Geisendorf, op. cit., passim; Marnix, Geschriften, van Toorenenbergen, ed., passim.

21. Geisendorf, op. cit., pp. 82 and ff.

22. Naef, Henri, La conjuration d'Amboise et Genève (Geneva, 1922), pp. 487496, 555 and ff.Google Scholar, and passim.

23. For a detailed description of this plot see Romier, Lucien, La conjuration d'Amboise… (Paris, 1923), pp. 215231Google Scholar. Cf. Naef, op. cit., pp. 519–521, and Kingdon, , Geneva, p. 75.Google Scholar

24. Geisendorf, op. cit., pp. 125–166, and passim.

25. See Kingdon, , Geneva, pp. 106114Google Scholar, for documentation on the succeeding details of Beza's activity.

26. Geisendorf, op. cit., pp. 360 and ff.

27. For information on Marnix's career see van Kalken and Jonckheere, op. cit., and van Schelven, A. A., Marnix van Sint Aldegonde (Utrecht, 1939)Google Scholar. A good introduction to the general history of Low Countries' diplomacy during this period is Geyl, P., The revolt of the Netherlands (1555–1609) (London, 1932Google Scholar; reprinted 1945). See also the works of van Gelder, H. A. Enno, e.g. Revolutionnaire reformatie (Amsterdam, 1943).Google Scholar

28. Marnix, , Oeuvres, Lacroix ed., V, 1722.Google Scholar

29. For general studies of Calvinist political theory, see Allen, J. W., A history of political thought in the sixteenth century (London, 1951), pp. 4972; 103120; 302331Google Scholar; also Mesnard, Pierre, L'essor de la philosophie politique au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1952), pp. 269385Google Scholar; and for the Low Countries, Ch. Mercier, , “Les théories politiques des calvinistes dans les pay-bas à la fin du XVIe et au début du XVIIe siècle,” Revue d'histoire ecolésiastique, XXIX (133), 2573.Google Scholar

30. e.g. Allen, op. cit., pp. 58–59; Mesnard, op. cit., p. 294. The original text can be found in Calvin, John, Ioannis Calvini Opera quae supersunt omnia (Corpus Reformatorum, Vols. 29ff., Brunswick, 18631900), II, 1116 and ffGoogle Scholar. (1559 Latin ed. of Institutes) and IV, 1160 and ff. (1560 French ed. of Institutes).

31. Kingdon, Robert M., “The First Expression of Theodore Beza's Political Ideas,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, XLVI (1955), Heft 1, 88100Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Kingdon, Beza.

32. e.g. Calvin as quoted in Naef, op. cit., pp. 462–463. cf. Kingdon, , Geneva, p. 69Google Scholar, and passim.

33. A contemporary description of these events can be found in Sleiden, John, The General History of the Reformation of the Church… (London, 1689, translated from the original Latin), p. 436Google Scholar, and passim. The publication of the Magdeburg, Bekenntnis is described on p. 496Google Scholar. Allen, op. cit., p. 104, n. 2, is wrong in saying that Sleidan misdates the Bekenntnis. He actually describes two separate pamphlets; the one which is clearly the Bekenntnis is correctly dated. Mr. Elmer L. Lampe, Jr., called this source to my attention. For a more modern account, see Hülsse, Friedrich, Die Stadt Magdeburg im Kampfe für den Protestantismus während der Jahre 1547–1551 (Halle a. S., 1892).Google Scholar

34. Kingdon, , Beza, 9394.Google Scholar

35. Relevant sources cited, and some quoted, in Geisendorf, op. cit., pp. 312 and ff.

36. Full title: “DV DROIT / DES MAGISTRATS / SVR LEVRS SVBIETS. / Traitté tres-necessaire en ce temps, pour ad- / uertir de leur devoir, tant les Magistrats que / les Subiets: publié par ceux de Magdebourg / l'an MDL: & maintenant reueu & / augmenté de plusieurs raisons / & exemples. / (mark) / PSAL. 2. / Erudimini qui iudicatis terram. / M.D. LXXIX. /” I used the copy in the Newberry Library.

37. van Prinsterer, G. Groen, ed., Archives ou correspondance inédits de la maison d'Orange-Nassau, series I (Leiden, 18351847, 8 vols. plus index vol.), vol. II, 37Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Archives d'Orange-Nassau.

38. van Schelven, A. A., “Beza's De Iure Magistratuum in Subditos,” Archiv für Reformationsgesohichte, XLV (1954), Heft I, p. 63 and n. 3.Google Scholar; Ritter, Moriz, “Über die Anfänge des niederländischen Aufstandes,” Historische Zeitschrift, LVIII (neue folge XXII) (1887), 425Google Scholar. The first article hereafter cited as van Schelven, Beza.

39. Bakhuizen van den Brink, p. 27.

40. Archives d'Orange-Nassau, series 1, vol. VI, 35.Google Scholar

41. van Schelven, , Beza, pp. 6568Google Scholar. The question of the relation between Machiavellism and Protestant social thought is dealt with in broader fashion in Mosse, George L., The Holy Pretence: a study in Christianity and reason of state from William Perkins to John Winthrop (Oxford, 1957)Google Scholar. He does not mention this physical uniting of the two theories.

42. Archives d'Orange-Nassau, series 1, vol. VII, 132.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., p. 254.

44. “THE APOLOGIE / OR / DEFENCE, OF / THE MOST NOBLE / Prince William, by the grace of God, / Prince of ORANGE,… / Printed in French and in all other languages. / AT DELFT / 1581. /,” signature H-3 verso. I used a microfilm of copy #30716 in the Huntington Library. The passage is also quoted in Mercier, op. cit., p. 49.

45. It is very likely that a Calvinist wrote the Apologie for William. Grotius attributes the authorship of it to Pastor Villiers, who was Orange's chaplain, and, incidentally, served as one of the intermediaries in the correspondence previously noted between John of Nassau and the pastors of Geneva. Others have attributed authorship to Hubert Languet, prominent Calvinist nobleman, diplomat, and publicist. Evidence for both views is diacussed in Bayle, Pierre, “Hubert Languet,” Dictionnaire historique et critique, 4th ed., III (1730)Google Scholar. It is, of course, possible that Calvin and the author of the Apologie both drew the analogy to the Ephors of Sparta independently from some classical source. The most likely source seems to be Cicero, , De legibus, III, 16Google Scholar, a passage which draws an analogy between the Ephors and the Roman Tribunes which is much like Calvin's, but omits Calvin's erroneous references to the “demarchi” of Athens. For the precise references in Calvin's Institutes, see above, n. 30. For evidence that Calvin frequently borrowed ideas from the De legibus and other writings of Cicero, see Bohatec, Josef, Calvin and das Recht (Feudingen in West-falen, 1934)Google Scholar, and Budé und Calvin: Studien zur Gedankenwelt des französischen Frühhumanissnus (Graz, 1950).Google Scholar

46. Baron, Hans, “Calvinist Republicanism and its Historical Roots,” Church History, VIII (1939), 3042.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47. Knox, John, History of the Reformation in Scotland. The most recent critical edition is that of William Croft Dickinson (London, et al., 1949, 2 vols.). See II, 129130Google Scholar, for Knox's reference to the “Apology of Magdeburg.” For the best examples of his resistance theory, see the David, Laing edition of The Works of John Knox, vol. IV (Edinburgh, 1895), 349540.Google Scholar