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The Reformation in Antwerp: Its Rise and Impact

Angelo Serrentino

Introduction

The city of Antwerp, on the eve of the Protestant Reformation, was a thriving centre of commercial and cultural exchange. The opening of trade with English wool merchants, who had been boycotted in Brabant and Flanders, and the establishment of the annual fair had brought

Antwerp economic prosperity.1 Merchants and wealthy bankers from the whole of Europe flocked to the city on the Scheldt, which by 1501 had gained the economic favour of the

Portuguese crown and was awarded a monopoly on spice trade.2 The expanding wealth of

Antwerp was matched by its demographic and cultural development; by the mid-sixteenth century, Antwerp’s population had risen to 100,000 and its markets were renowned for their splendid art.3 It was in this economic state of bliss that the Protestant Reformation took hold in

Antwerp. Martin Luther (1483-1546) and his nailing of the “Ninety-Five Theses” on the doors of the castle church in Wittenberg (1517) ushered in an era of unprecedented religio-political strife in Antwerp and Europe. As the Catholic Church struggled to maintain the reins of power, Luther and other Reformers utilized increasingly modern techniques to popularize their religions, such as the printing of vernacular bibles and texts.4 The channels of international trade and commerce soon brought Protestantism into Antwerp, initiating sweeping religious changes within the city.

The rise of the Reformation in Antwerp may be attributed to the city’s pre-existing tensions with

1 Leon Voet, “Antwerp, the Metropolis and its History,” in Course Anthology: Volume Two, ed. Ethan Matt Kavaler (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 7. 2 Ibid., 7. 3 Herman Van der Wee and Jan Materné, “Antwerp as a World Market in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Course Anthology: Volume Two, ed. Ethan Matt Kavaler (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 12. 4 Kenneth R. Bartlett, The Renaissance and Reformation in Northern Europe (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 62.

9 the Catholic Church, as well as its prominence as a centre of printing and exchange. Following its rise, the Reformation transformed the societal landscape of Antwerp, as represented by changes in government and iconoclasm.

The Rise of the Reformation in Antwerp

In his work Antwerp in the Age of the Reformation, the historian Guido Marnef describes the success of the Protestant Reformation as contingent on the condition of the Catholic Church within a given territory.5 In the case of Antwerp this statement rings true; thus, to understand the rise of Protestantism in Antwerp, one must pay heed to the state of the Catholic Church in the city prior to the Calvinist seizure of power between 1566-67. The Catholic Church maintained its presence in Antwerp in the form of a chapter known simply as “Our Lady”. The chapter exercised a great degree of religious influence within the city through the will of its well- educated canons, who operated relatively free from the scrutiny of the Bishop of Cambrai,

Antwerp’s diocese.6 The distance of Cambrai from Antwerp meant that the bishop’s visits to the city were infrequent, and more importantly that the city did not enjoy the prestige of such momentous occasions. So powerful was the chapter of Our Lady in Antwerp, that all parish churches functioning within the city were subject to its decisions regarding pastoral nominations and financial compensation.7 The canons of the chapter grew ambitious in establishing familial dynasties for themselves, with many of them beginning to become more concerned with the affairs of the temporal realm. This led to the emergence of nepotism within the chapter itself, much to the ire of the local population.8 As a result of these actions, a culture of anticlericalism

5 Guido Marnef, Antwerp in the Age of the Reformation: Underground Protestantism in a Commercial Metropolis, trans. J. C. Grayson (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1996): 48. 6 Ibid., 48. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid., 49. 10 began to arise in Antwerp, whose people had grown increasingly frustrated at the decadence of the chapter. Without the regulation of a bishop, the chapter continued its pursuit of temporal riches in the refusal to contribute financially to the construction of Antwerp’s new walls in

1540.9 Anticlerical sentiment thus found a base in the resentment of the Church’s economic privileges to resist tax collection. Furthermore, the expansion of Antwerp’s population could not be matched by the ranks of the clergy, which was spread increasingly thin by the mid-sixteenth century.10 By the time Antwerp was created as a diocese in the mid-sixteenth century,

Protestantism had already gained traction within the city. The Catholic Church’s inability to exercise effectively the cura animarum in Antwerp, as exemplified by the decadence of its chapter canons and the thin ranks of its clergymen, came to be coupled with a growing disinterest among the city’s magistrates to enact anti-heretical policies due to the potential economic repercussions of a less tolerant government. The poor condition of relations between

Antwerp and the Catholic Church in the years leading up to the Calvinist rule of the city was thus a significant factor in the rise of the Reformation, which was further accelerated by the city’s printing industry.

The Printing Industry and its Role

Soon after its introduction to the Southern Netherlands by Dirk Martens (1450-1534) in

1473, the printing industry became a prominent fixture of society in Antwerp. During the post incunabulum period (ca. 1501-40), Antwerp rose as the dominant centre of printing in the

Netherlands.11 It was also between 1523-45 that Antwerp became the main international centre

9 Ibid., 51. 10 Marnef, Antwerp in the Age of the Reformation, 50. 11 Francine De Nave, “A Printing Capital in its Ascendancy, Flowering, and Decline,” in Course Anthology: Volume Two, ed. Ethan Matt Kavaler (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 60. 11 of printing vernacular translations of the Bible, with the first whole Bible published in Dutch emerging in 1526.12 However, the 1526 bible in Dutch was the translation of a Lutheran edition of the New Testament known as the Septembertestament, demonstrating the growing local demand for Lutheran rather than Catholic versions of the Bible.13 By 1525, the Antwerp presses worked around legal restrictions to populate the city’s market with four different Lutheran editions of the New Testament.14 Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-56) had become aware of the growing market for Lutheran texts in Antwerp, and as a result issued a series of edicts intended to suppress Protestant publications. The harsh political climate for the publication of such texts culminated in the executions of Adriaen van Berghen (1542) and Jacob van Liesvelt (1545), two of the publishers responsible for the printing of Lutheran religious texts.15 Charles V had thus put an effective and brutal end to the Antwerp printing industry’s continued production of heretic texts by 1545, an act cemented by the establishment of the first Index of Prohibited Books in

1546 by the Leuven Faculty of Theology.16 Despite this, some clandestine publishing of

Protestant works continued, as exemplified by the efforts of Frans Fraet between 1551-57.17

Overall though, the crackdown by the imperial government had proven effective in forcing the silence of the Protestant printing presses in Antwerp. Galvanized by continued resentment toward the Catholic Church and the actions of the Holy Roman Emperor, individual pockets of

Protestant communities coalesced and began to present a more united front against orthodoxy.

12 Paul Arblaster, “Totius Mundi Emporium: Antwerp as a Centre for Vernacular Bible Translations, 1523-1545,” in The Low Countries as a Crossroads of Religious Beliefs, ed. Arie-Jan Gelderblom et al. (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2004), 10. 13 Ibid., 14. 14 Ibid., 17. 15 De Nave, “A Printing Capital in its Ascendancy,” 61. 16 Ibid. 17 Marnef, Antwerp in the Age of the Reformation, 40. 12

The Reformation and its Political Impact in Antwerp

By 1550, Anabaptism and Calvinism had gained the most traction within Antwerp, with small informal groups of individuals banding together in secret in the form of underground societies.18 The harsh treatment of heretics by Charles V had instilled a sense of fear in Antwerp, but ultimately could not prevent the establishment of secret underground groups. The Calvinist movement in Antwerp became the most prominent sect of Protestantism in the city, with preachers such as Gaspar van der Heyden responsible for the promulgation of Calvinism in

Antwerp.19 As the underground Calvinist societies of Antwerp multiplied, so too did their organization; this in turn resulted in efforts to refine and clarify Calvinist doctrines in Antwerp.20

Despite the aggression of Charles V against heretics in the empire, the aldermen of Antwerp saw little benefit in focusing the intensity of the emperor’s edicts in the form of total religious persecution. This standpoint of toleration was adopted out of pragmatism, demonstrating the extent to which humanism and economic expansion had altered the social and cultural landscape of Antwerp. One was a heretic second to their economic standing in Antwerp; if an individual contributed significantly to the economic development of the city, the aldermen were likely to turn a blind eye.21 This policy of “pragmatic tolerance,” as the historian Victoria Christman coins the term, made it difficult for the effects of imperial policy to remain persistent in Antwerp. It was thus in this favourable political condition of “pragmatic tolerance” that Calvinists in particular were able to consolidate their ranks. Hedge-preaching became a regular occurrence outside the city walls, which compensated for the elimination of the Protestant publishing market

18 Ibid., 49. 19 Ibid., 62. 20 Ibid., 61. 21 Victoria Christman, Pragmatic Toleration: The Politics of Religious Heterodoxy in Early Reformation Antwerp, 1515-1555 (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2015), 57. 13 in Antwerp.22 As the organization of the Calvinists improved so too did their public support.

Between 1558-59, five Calvinists were burnt at the stake in Antwerp, and instead of the usual jeering insults flung at the accused by the crowd, most onlookers were distressed.23 By 1566, the political situation in Antwerp had become so unstable, due to the increased activity of Calvinist preachers, that merchants threatened to flee the city and conduct business elsewhere. By the time

William the Silent (1533-84) was invited by Antwerp’s magistrates to rule and restore order to the city, the Calvinist community had already emerged from the underground. Mass open-air preaching and iconoclastic riots characterized political life in Antwerp during the summer of

1566, with the destruction of holy images beginning on 20 August 1566 within the walls of the city.24 The frustration with the Catholic Church and the influence of the printing industry’s publication of Protestant works had thus had a significant political impact in Antwerp, manifested by the rise of the Calvinists in what became known as the “Wonderyear” (1566-67).

The violent actions of the Calvinists resulted in Iconoclasm, a phenomenon William the Silent was unable to contain initially due to the indecisiveness of the States General.25 The Reformation in Antwerp thus had a significant political impact, which in turn greatly affected the city’s artistic realm.

Iconoclasm in Antwerp: The Wonderyear

The church of Our Lady was the first target of Iconoclasm organized by the Calvinist mobs, who believed religious icons and relics distracted an individual from the word of God in the scripture and sermon.26 Drawing upon the support of their followers and the general

22 Marnef, Antwerp in the Age of the Reformation, 87. 23 Ibid., 87. 24 Ibid., 88. 25 Ibid., 89. 26 Kavaler, Lecture 6 – Reformation 14 frustration of the population, Calvinists were able to recruit swarms of individuals intent on smashing religious icons and images in churches.27 Among the most frequently targeted were sacrament houses and the statues of saints.28 The Iconoclasm in Antwerp thus represents the physical culmination of Calvinist supremacy, as well as the mob-mentality surrounding the pent- up resentment for the Catholic Church. Even after the Calvinist armies were defeated on the Meir and driven from the city in March 1567, the damage had been done. Many of Antwerp’s churches lay bare and stripped of their riches and icons. More significant however, was the decline of Antwerp’s once flourishing art market. The Iconoclasm and poor political conditions in the Low Countries and other regions in Europe such as Italy, had resulted in a sharp decrease in demand for art.29 The trauma of Iconoclasm and the destruction of so many sacred images had a great psychological effect in Antwerp itself, with the humanist cartographer Abraham Ortelius

(1527-98) writing that “the next day [21 August 1566] it appeared that in all the churches the devil had kept house for a hundred years.”30 With the outbreak of the Dutch Revolt in 1568, the political situation in Antwerp had deteriorated further as groups of artist fled the city and merchants began to avoid the region altogether.31 It was thus beginning with the Iconoclasm on

20 August 1566 that Antwerp’s art market experienced a sharp decline, first on a basis of the immorality of sacred images and then due to the adverse political situation of the Dutch Revolt.

With the lines drawn between Catholic Spain under Phillip II and the Protestant Low Countries,

27 Paul J. Hauben, “Marcus Perez and Marrano Calvinism in the Dutch Revolt and Reformation,” Bibliothéque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 29.1 (1967): 125. 28 Ethan Matt Kavaler, “The Reformation, Iconoclasm and the Revolt in the Netherlands,” (Lecture 6, University of Toronto, 2017). 29 Filip Vermeylen, “Between hope and despair: The state of the Antwerp art market, 1566-85,” in Art after Iconoclasm: Painting in the Netherlands between 1566 and 1585, ed. Koenraad Jonckheere and Ruben Suykerbuyk (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2012), 95. 30 A. T. Woollett, The Altarpiece in Antwerp, 1554-1615; Painting and the Militia Guilds (New York: Columbia University, 2004), 55. 31 Vermeylen, “Between hope and despair,” 98. 15 the Dutch Revolt was a disastrous enterprise resulting in the complete annexation of the region by the Spanish Empire in 1585, marking the decline of the Antwerp art market.

Conclusion: The Significance of the Reformation in Antwerp

The Reformation took root in Antwerp due to the weak influence of the Catholic Church in the region, as well as the local population’s resentment of the economic privileges of the clergy. The negative sentiment toward the Catholic Church was exacerbated because of the highly accessible nature of Lutheran religious texts in the vernacular, published by the prolific

Antwerp printing houses. Despite Charles V’s harsh measures against the printers, the circulation of vernacular Lutheran texts had made a significant impact on the city’s population. As a result,

Protestant sects – namely the Calvinists – established underground societies that grew in organization and consequently in influence due to the tactic of “pragmatic toleration” employed by Antwerp’s government. The rising influence and power of the Calvinists through hedge- preaching swayed public support in their favour, resulting in the eruption of the 20 August 1566 iconoclastic riots and the establishment of Calvinist political administration. The Iconoclasm had far-reaching effects, further destabilizing Antwerp’s political climate and initiating the decline of the city’s once pre-eminent art market, a decline that continued with the Spanish annexation of

Antwerp in 1585 following the Dutch Revolt. The Reformation was thus a significant occurrence in Antwerp, having deep-seated repercussions for the city that would last well into the seventeenth-century.

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Bibliography

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