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.