A previous generation of scholars has argued that the earliest Reformation impulses in the Low Countries were, to a large degree, eradicated by the comprehensive efforts of Charles V and his representatives. The emperor's broad campaign swept up reform-minded humanists, adherents of Luther's ideas, printers and booksellers, and anyone else with Reformation tendencies. More recent studies, including this one, suggest that early Reformation impulses survived these efforts, at least in some localities and among some groups. As an institution, certainly the Reformed Augustinians must be counted among the success stories of the authorities’ campaign. With the burning of Vos and van den Esschen, the destruction of the Augustinian cloister in Antwerp, the formal separation of the Province of Lower Germany from the control of the German Reformed Congregation, and the installation of Johann van Mechelen as Vicar General of the new autonomous province, the anti-Reformation forces were able to prevent the cloisters of the Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany becoming beachheads of the Reformation. For this reason these friars have received little attention in histories of the Reformation, particularly those that focus on the Low Countries.

But to suggest that the events leading up to and including the executions of Vos and van den Esschen had no impact on the Reformation in the Low Countries would be false.