The Heidelberg Catechism was written in the struggles between Calvinism on the one hand and Lutheranism and Romanism on the other hand, as these struggles were bitterly fought out in Frederick's Palatinate. The Canons of Dordt arose out of the fierce battle with Arminianism which all but engulfed the churches in the Netherlands in the first part of the 17th century. The Confession of Faith (Sometimes called, The Belgic or Netherlands Confession) was written during and reflects the bitter persecution of the saints in the Lowlands in the early years of the Reformation.
It is this persecution, in the midst of which it was written, that gives to the Confession of Faith its moving power. The affirmations of the confession, "We all believe ..."; "We confess ..."; "We believe and profess ..." take on new meaning when we understand that they are shouts that arise from scaffolds, burning piles of tinder, deep prison cells, and cruel torture chambers.
Its author, Guido de Brès, died on the scaffold for his faith. To his story we know turn.
Early Life And Conversion
Guido de Brès was born in Mons in 1522, the fourth child of a family of glass painters. In Mons the art of glass painting had been highly developed, and Mons deservedly had an international reputation for the skill of its artists. Guido himself was trained for this work.
Guido's family carried on the traditions of the guilds in Mons, although the children were split on Reformation doctrine. John, the oldest, while remaining Roman Catholic all his life, helped Protestants in times of persecution. Christophe was a seller of glassware, but spent his entire life distributing Bibles and Protestant literature, often at great risk to his life. Jerome became a cloth dyer and remained within the Romish Church. Marlette, the only girl, married a Protestant in Valenciennes and, with her husband, was deeply involved in Protestant affairs.
The city of Mons was on the border of France and the Lowlands, that part of the Lowlands which is now Belgium. Here Lutheranism had first come and had been eagerly studied by the citizens; but the Hugenots from France soon followed with the purer Reformation doctrines of John Calvin.
Guido, already in his teens, heard from others Reformation truths and could not help but listen to the stories of those who, already then, were being killed for the sake of the gospel. He was only 14 when the news reached him of Tyndale's cruel martyrdom. It may have been Tyndale's willingness to die for the sake of translating the Bible into the language of the people that led Guido to study the Scriptures. But it was through this study that God led him to true faith in Jesus Christ.
Guido decided, perhaps because of persecution in the Lowlands, to go to London and join a refugee Church in East London. East London was a haven for refugees from many different countries in Europe who were forced to flee because of persecution. And so in that part of London could also be found a Walloon congregation composed of French-speaking citizens of the Lowlands, to which Guido joined himself. The refugees had peace in England because of the benign rule of Edward VI who, though young, favored Protestantism. Here he studied for the ministry and listened to the powerful preaching of the great Reformers á Lasco and Martin Bucer.
Work In The Lowlands
But Guido's love was for his native land, and in 1552 at the age of 30, he returned -- as an evangelist and traveling preacher. From that moment on his life was in almost constant danger.
His first field of labor was the city of Lille, in which a large secret Protestant community had been established under the name, the Church of the Rose. From Lille he went to Ghent, where he published a tract entitled Le Báton de la foi ("The Staff of the Faith"), a stirring defense of the Reformed faith.
Guido enjoyed a brief interlude at this time. Traveling to Frankfurt in Germany, Guido met Calvin and was persuaded to come to Geneva. In the three years he spent in Geneva, Guido learned the Reformed faith more perfectly, mastered Greek and Hebrew under Beza and Calvin, and was more fully equipped for the gospel ministry. During this period (1559), he also married Catherine Ramon and with her had four or five children, the oldest named Israel, and the second, Sara.
While Guido was in Geneva, Charles V retired, weary and careworn, to a monastery in Spain, and his cruel son Philip II came to the throne. Philip was determined to stamp out all "heresy," especially in the Lowlands. While, therefore, up to this time persecution had been sporadic and relatively light, it now became more severe and bitter.
de Brès, after returning again to the Lowlands, was forced to travel in disguise and under the pseudonym of Jerome. Although the cities in southern Belgium and northern France (Lille, Antwerp, Mons) were the area of his labor, his headquarters was in Doornik where he ministered to the congregation which had chosen as its name, the Church of the Palm.
Here two former ministers had been burned at the stake for their faith; here the congregation knew de Brès only as "Jerome"; here the meetings of the congregation were always held in secret and at night, with small groups of not more than 12 attending at one time.
In spite of the problems which the congregation faced, de Brès organized the church with elders and deacons and faithfully administered the sacraments.
But even this situation did not remain, for a more radical group of the believers, under the leadership of Robert du Four, thought it cowardly and unfaithful to Christ to keep their faith secret. The group, several hundred strong, moved in public procession through the city singing Psalms in open defiance of the authorities. The next night, September 30, 1561, 500 Protestants gathered for the same purpose. The result was that Roman Catholic investigators were sent with orders to suppress Protestantism in the city.
Although Guido managed to hide until December and flee in safety, all the information of the secret congregation was discovered, Guido's true identity was found out, the people of the church were forced to flee or be killed, and Guido's rooms were ransacked and his papers (including letters from Calvin) were burned. Guido was hanged in effigy.
Guido concentrated his work for several years in northern France, perhaps some of the quietest years of his ministerial career. Although also in France persecution against the Hugenots raged, in Guido's area the church had peace. He worked in Amiens, Montdidier, Dieppe, and Sedan, building up the congregations and preaching faithfully the gospel.
But he could not refrain from making periodic trips into his own country, a "lion's den" of danger. He traveled three times to Doornik, his old congregation, once to Brussels to meet with William of Orange concerning matters of union between Calvinists and Lutherans, once to a secret Synod of the Reformed Churches held in Antwerp (the password for entry was "Vineyard") where de Brès' Confession was adopted as the official confession of the Reformed Churches.
In 1566 de Brès went to Valenciennes to become a preacher in the church there, a congregation which called itself the Church of the Eagle. While the Protestant faith grew so rapidly that the Roman Catholic authorities dared not interfere in the religion of God's people, certain radical elements once again stepped forward and created trouble. Stirring up large mobs, they went through all the cathedrals smashing, burning, destroying anything that in the least smelled like popery. Philip II, infuriated at this, sent troops to lay siege to the city, which surrendered on Palm Sunday, 1567. Although de Brès escaped with four companions, he was soon captured and imprisoned.
His Martyrdom and Importance
de Brès spent the first part of his captivity in a prison in Doornik, where he could receive visitors. Many of his visitors, however, were enemies who came to taunt him. But just as was the case with the apostle Paul (Philippians 1:12-14), Guido's imprisonment became an occasion for him to witness to the truth. When a princess, along with many young court ladies, came to mock, and the princess said in horror at Guido's heavy chains, "My God, Mr. de Brès, I don't see how you can eat, drink, or sleep that way. I think I would die of fear, if I were in your place," Guido responded: "My lady, the good cause for which I suffer and the good conscience God has given me make my bread sweeter and my sleep sounder than those of my persecutors." And, then, still responding to the princess, "It is guilt that makes a chain heavy. Innocence makes my chains light. I glory in them as my badges of honor."
Soon Guido was transferred to Valenciennes and thrown into a dark, cold, damp, rat-infested dungeon known as The Black Hole. In spite of the cold, the hunger, the horror of this hole, Guido wrote a tract on the Lord's Supper and letters to his friends, his aged mother, and his wife. A letter to his wife is an especially moving testimony of his faith.
Reproduced below is Guido de Brès' letter to his wife, dated April 12, 1567. He was hung on May 31, 1567.
"The grace and mercy of our good God and heavenly Father, and the love of His Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, be with you, my dearly beloved.
Catherine Ramon, my dear and beloved wife and sister in our Lord Jesus Christ: your anguish and sadness disturbs somewhat my joy and the happiness of my heart, so I am writing this for the consolation of both of us, and especially for your consolation, since you have always loved me with an ardent affection, and because it pleases the Lord to separate us from each other. I feel your sorrow over this separation more keenly than mine. I pray you not to be troubled too much over this, for fear of offending God. You knew when you married me that you were taking a mortal husband, who was uncertain of life, and yet it has pleased God to permit us to live together for seven years, giving us five children. If the Lord had wished us to live together longer, he would have provided the way. But it did not please him to do this and may his will be done.
Now remember that I did not fall into the hands of my enemies by mere chance, but through the providence of my God who controls and governs all things, the least as well as the greatest. This is shown by the words of Christ, “Be not afraid. Your very hairs are numbered. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall to the ground without the will of your Father. Then fear nothing. You are more excellent than many sparrows.” These words of divine wisdom say that God knows the number of my hairs. How then can harm come to me without the command and providence of God? It could not happen, unless one should say that God is no longer God. This is why the Prophet says that there is no affliction in the city that the Lord has not willed.
Many saintly persons who were before us consoled themselves in their afflictions and tribulations with this doctrine. Joseph, having been sold by his brothers and taken into Egypt, says, “You did a wicked deed, but God has turned it to your good. God sent me into Egypt before you for your profit.” (Genesis 50). David also experienced this when Shimei cursed him. So too in the case of Job and many others.
And that is why the Evangelists write so carefully of the sufferings and of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, adding, “And this was done that that which was written of Him might be accomplished.” The same should be said of all the members of Christ.
It is very true that human reason rebels against this doctrine and resists it as much as possible and I have very strongly experienced this myself. When I was arrested, I would say to myself, “So many of us should not have traveled together. We were betrayed by this one or that one. We ought not to have been arrested.” With such thoughts I became overwhelmed, until my spirits were raised by meditation on the providence of God. Then my heart began to feel a great repose. I began then to say, “My God, you have caused me to be born in the time you have ordained. During all the time of my life you have kept me and preserved me from great dangers and you have delivered me from them all – and if at present my hour has come in which I will pass from this life to you, may your will be done. I cannot escape from your hands. And if I could, I would not, since it is happiness for me to conform to your will.” These thoughts made my heart cheerful again.
And I pray you, my dear and faithful companion, to join me in thanking God for what he has done. For he does nothing that is not just and very equitable, and you should believe that it is for my good and for my peace. You have seen and felt my labours, cross, persecutions, and afflictions which I have endured, and have even had a part in them when you accompanied me in my travels during the time of my exile. Now my God has extended his hand to receive me into his blessed kingdom. I shall see it before you and when it shall please the Lord, you will follow me. This separation is not for all time. The Lord will receive you also to join us together again in our head, Jesus Christ.
This is not the place of our habitation – that is in heaven. This is only the place of our journey. That is why we long for our true country, which is heaven. We desire to be received in the home of our Heavenly Father, to see our Brother, Head, and Saviour Jesus Christ, to see the noble company of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and many thousands of martyrs, into whose company I hope to be received when I have finished the course of my work which I received from my Lord Jesus Christ.
I pray you, my dearly beloved, to console yourself with meditation on these things. Consider the honour that God has done you, in giving you a husband who was not only a minister of the Son of God, but so esteemed of God that he allowed him to have the crown of martyrs. It is an honour the like of which God has never even given to the angels.
I am happy; my heart is light and it lacks nothing in my afflictions. I am so filled with the abundance of the richness of my God that I have enough for me and all those to whom I can speak. So I pray my God that he will continue his kindness to me, his prisoner. The One in whom I have trusted will do it, for I have found by experience that he will never leave those who have trusted in him. I would never have thought that God would have been so kind to such a poor creature as I. I feel the faithfulness of my Lord Jesus Christ.
I am practicing now what I have preached to others. And I must confess that when I preached I would speak about the things I am actually experiencing as a blind man speaks of colour. Since I was taken prisoner I have profited more and learned more than during all the rest of my life. I am in a very good school: the Holy Spirit inspires me continually and teaches me how to use the weapons in this combat. On the other side is Satan, the adversary of all children of God. He is like a boisterous, roaring lion. He constantly surrounds me and seeks to wound me. But he who has said, “Fear not, for I have overcome the world,” makes me victorious. And already I see that the Lord puts Satan under my feet and I feel the power of God perfected in my weakness.
Our Lord permits me on the one hand to feel my weakness and my smallness, that I am but a small vessel on the earth, very fragile, to the end that he would humble me, so that all the glory of the victory may be given to him. On the other hand, he fortifies me and consoles me in an unbelievable way. I have more comfort than the enemies of the gospel. I eat, drink and rest better than they do. I am held in a very strong prison, very bleak, obscure and dark. The prison is known by the obscure name “Brunain.” The air is poor and it stinks. On my feet and hands I have irons, big and heavy. They are a continual hell, hollowing my limbs up to my poor bones. The chief constable comes to look at my irons two or three times a day, fearing that I will escape. There are three guards of forty men before the door of the prison.
I have also the visits of Monsieur de Hamaide. He comes to see me, to console me, and to exhort me to patience, as he says. However, he comes after dinner, after he has wine in the head and a full stomach. You can imagine what these consolations are. He threatens me and says to me that if I would show any intention of escaping he would have me chained by the neck, the body and legs, so that I could not move a finger; and he says many other things in this order. But for all that, my God does not take away his promises, consoling my heart, giving me very much contentment.
Since such things have happened, my dear sister and faithful wife, I implore you to find comfort from the Lord in your afflictions and to place your troubles with him. He is the husband of believing widows and the father of poor orphans. He will never leave you – of that I can assure you. Conduct yourself as a Christian woman, faithful in the fear of God, as you always have been, honouring by your good life and conversation the doctrine of the Son of God, which your husband has preached.
As you have always loved me with great affection, I pray that you will continue this love toward our little children, instructing them in the knowledge of the true God and of his Son Jesus Christ. Be their father and their mother, and take care that they use honestly the little that God has given you. If God does you the favour to permit you to live in widowhood with our children after my death, that will be well. If you cannot, and the means are lacking, then go to some good man, faithful and fearing God. And when I can, I shall write to our friends to watch over you. I think that they will not let you want for anything. Take up your regular routine after the Lord has taken me. You have our daughter Sarah who will soon be grown. She will be your companion and help you in your troubles. She will console you in your tribulations and the Lord will always be with you. Greet our good friends in my name, and let them pray to God for me, that he may give me strength, speech, and the wisdom and ability to uphold the truth of the Son of God to the end and to the last breath of my life.
Farewell, Catherine, my dearly beloved. I pray my God that he will comfort you and give you contentment in his good will. I hope that God has given me the grace to write for your benefit, in such a way that you may be consoled in this poor world. Keep my letter for a remembrance of me. It is badly written, but it is what I am able to do, and not what I wish to do. Commend me to my good mother. I hope to write some consolation to her, if it pleases God. Greet also my good sister. May she take her affliction to God. Grace be with you.
At the prison, April 12, 1567.
Your faithful husband, Guy de Brès, minister of the Word of God at Valenciennes, and presently prisoner for the Son of God at the aforesaid place."
Sources: "A Reformation Martyr Comforts His Wife" by W.L. Bredenhof
http://underdogtheology.blogspot.com/2011/05/love-letter-of-all-love-letters-guido.html
Guido was publicly hanged on May 31, 1567 at the age of 47. He was pushed off the ladder while comforting the crowd which had gathered and urging them to faithfulness to the Scriptures. His body was left hanging the rest of the day and buried in a shallow grave where dogs and wild animals dug it up and consumed it.
Guido de Brès is the author of our Confession of Faith, although he was assisted by Adrien de Saravia (professor of theology in Leyden), H. Modetus (chaplain of William of Orange), and G. Wingen. It was written in the vain hope that it would persuade the cruel Philip II to see that the views of the Calvinists were truly biblical and to stop persecution against them. Roman Catholics had lumped the Calvinists with the radical and wild-eyed Anabaptists who rejected the authority of magistrates, and the Confession sets the Reformed faith over against Anabaptism.
The Confession was thrown over the wall in Doornik and ultimately did reach the king but it served only to arouse Philip to greater fury against the saints of God.
In a letter which was added to the Confession, Guido and his co-workers protested being called rebels. They solemnly averred that though they number over 100,000 and were cruelly oppressed by "excommunications, imprisonments, banishments, racks, and tortures, and other numberless oppressions which they had undergone," they obeyed their government in all things lawful, and that "having the fear of God before their eyes, and being terrified by the threatening of Christ, who had declared in the Gospel that he would deny them before God the Father, in case they denied him before men, they therefore offered their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to the fire."
From this spilled blood God caused to emerge a confession of faith which has held a special place in the hearts of Reformed believers. It is as if, knowing that the confession was written in blood, the saints receive it as a sacred trust, precious and vibrating yet with the faith of their fathers.
Our fathers both knew what they believed and were faithful to it, even to death. We have received, by the Spirit of truth, the glorious fruit which God worked through them. It is entrusted to our care that we may be faithful to it and teach it to our children.
We ought earnestly to pray that we may know as they did the faith, and that we may be faithful to it as they were, for persecution shall soon also be our lot.
http://www.prca.org/books/portraits/debres.htm
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