A Letter of Guy de Brès to the Consistory of Capernaum (Antwerp)

Abstract

ABSTRACT A letter from Guy de Brès to the Consistory of Antwerp in 1565 sheds light on a project promoted by the Prince of Orange to forge a union between the Calvinists and Lutherans in the Netherlands in the early 1560s. Fundamental to this project was the Wittenberg Concord of 1536. De Brès concluded that he could sign the Concord if read in the light of Martin Bucer’s comments. On this basis, he hoped to persuade the Antwerp Reformed Church to unite with the Lutherans. However, the venture failed when de Brès realized that it was unable to bridge the gap between the Lutheran and Reformed interpretations of the Lord’s Supper. The project shows how entangled the complicated confessional landscape in the Low Countries had become with the political situation in the early 1560s. At the same time, the failure shows that it cannot be explained by political factors alone.