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
3 - The Antwerp Cloister
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
Being central to the events leading to the executions of Vos and van den Esschen, the history of the Reformed Augustinian cloister in Antwerp receives its own chapter. From its controversial founding in 1513 as part of Staupitz's push to expand the Congregation's influence into Lower Germany, a development that elicited the ire of local ecclesiastics and their legal representative Adrian Floriszoon (future Pope Adrian VI), to its destruction in early 1524 at the command of Emperor Charles V, this chapter traces the brief and troubled history of Lower Germany’s flagship cloister. It also introduces key actors connected to the cloister’s early history before it became a leading ‘hearth’ of Reformation ideas in the Low Countries.
Key Words: Antwerp Augustinians, Jerome Aleander, Margaret of Austria, Jacob Probst, Hendrik van Zutphen, Inquisition
At the epicentre of the approaching struggle over the Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany stood the Congregation's Antwerp cloister. More than any other of the Province's seven houses, the actions of the Antwerp Augustinians demonstrate the Congregation's expansionist strategy under Staupitz, the means used to confirm Observance in the new house, and how the methods to spread Observant Reform were repurposed in the service of the Reformation. Given this arc, it is not surprising that the forces opposed to Reformation ideas would focus their sights most closely on the Antwerp cloister. Because of its pivotal role in this narrative, it is necessary to show as precisely as possible what happened in and to that cloister in the years and months leading up of the executions of Vos and van den Esschen, in order to deconstruct and analyse these events and then examine their impact in later chapters.
The Antwerp cloister from its founding to the installation of Jacob Probst as Prior
Of the six houses to join the German Reformed Congregation during Staupitz's tenure as Vicar General, the Antwerp cloister represents the most audacious example of the group's expansionist tendencies.
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- Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020