return to Table of Contents

The Fugger Newsletters

Religious Feuds in Antwerp

from Cologne, 20 April 1581

Those of the Reformed Faith in Antwerp now covet the Church of St. Michael, which has been previously refused to the adherents of the Augsburg tenets. It is supposed however, that those aforementioned will obtain not only this church, but finally all the churches. On the 13th day of this month Burgomaster Junius arrived in Antwerp at the Convent of St. Claire with the renegade Abbot of St. Bernard. They urged upon the nuns that it was not good to live so secluded a life, and exhorted them to leave the cloister and to be married. The spouse of the said Abbot is especially reported to have spoken many lewd words. This is the beginning of an attempt to entice all the clerics from the monasteries and the town of Antwerp.

from Antwerp, 2 May 1581

Eight days ago the soldiery and the Calvinists mutilated all of the pictures and altars in the churches and cloisters of Belgium. The clergy and near on five hundred Catholic citizens were driven out and several among them cast into prison. Thus an end has been made of the Catholic Faith in Brussels, and Calvinism has been installed in its stead. Since then, the masters of the guilds or brotherhoods, and the artisans, whose ancestors had founded several beautiful chapels and altars in the Church of our Dear Lady, have demanded that they temselves should be allowed to remove from the church the painted pictures and other ornaments. Upon the evening of the Feast of the Ascension they began to pull down the altars, occupied the churches and kept them locked until this day. . . . It is not known whether they will destroy everything within the church, but it is believed that it will come to pass here as it did in Brussels. . . . But as Catholics and Calvinists cannot keep peace with the Lutherans and Anabaptists it will ill serve the promotion of commerce and many persons will leave this town.

from Antwerp, 6 May 1581

Four ships lie here laden with sculptured and carved statues, bells, brass and stone effigies of saints, brass candlesticks and other such like ornaments from the churches. All these are to be dispatched to Narva and Moscow. The consigners hope to do good business with them.

Antwerp, 5 July 1581

In the past days the Calvinists here have wrought much havoc. On the day of St. Jacques they ravaged the Church of Our Lady, the Church of St. Jacques, and the Palace Chapel, as well as the Convent of St. Michel, where up to now the Catholics held their religious exercises and ceremonies, in such fashion that they have wrecked everything therein, with the exception of the organ and a few pictures. They spared nothing and destroyed everything completely. On the 27th day in broad daylight, a Captain of the burghers, a painter with sundry artisans went with large hammers and other iron instruments into all the monasteries, chapels, hospitals and other houses of God, in short to every place where there still existed picture and altars and destroyed them. Many of the wooden effigies were burned in the streets, where the burghers kept guard. Not one person did protest against this, since the rule of the clergy is completely destroyed and at an end here.

Questions

  1. Where were the Spanish? How could the Antwerpers get away with this?