Lutherse predikanten in de Nederlandse Reformatie. De stadsreformatie van Woerden tussen lutherse en gereformeerde confessionalisering (1572-1586)

Samenvatting

The religious and political situation in the Northern Netherlands during the Revolt has been considered as generally intolerant towards Lutheranism. A majority of studies on Dutch Lutheranism describes processes of confessionalization and calvinization. In order to reassess this picture, this article examines the Reformation in the town of Woerden, beginning with the magistrates’ decision to join the Revolt in 1572. Subsequently, it highlights the role of two radical preachers and their background in German Lutheranism. This article argues that an understanding of these preachers as agents in a process of religious and political identification, will resolve the unfruitful opposition of Lutheranism and Calvinism. A more detailed and ambiguous accounts of Reformation processes, especially political identification, better explains the interaction between religious minorities and magistrates, without disregarding confessionalization. This approach also accounts for different phases of confessionalization among exiled Lutherans and Calvinists. The conflict with Lutheranism is best understood as taking place between an almost completed Lutheran confessionalization and an incipient Reformed confessionalization.