Remembering Guido de Bres, the Author of the Belgic Confession
The doctrinal standard of the Reformed churches is called the Belgic Confession because it originated in the Southern Netherlands (which was then known as The Lowlands) and is the region today known as Belgium. Its chief author, Guido de Bres, was born in 1522, the same year Charles V became Holy Roman Emperor. His son, Phillip II was King of Spain, and Spain had dominion over the Lowlands at that time.
Charles was so concerned about stopping the spread of the Reformation, that he threatened to put to death “any layman who discussed the Christian faith.” The Spanish Inquisition, which extended to the Lowlands was an extension of Charles V’s desire to stamp out Calvinism, through his son Phillip II.
At least 2,000 non-Catholics from the Lowlands were burned at the stake between 1523 and 1566, and tens of thousands more endured cruel persecution to the point of death.
Though raised in a Roman Catholic home, Guido de Bres did become a Protestant somewhere between 18-25. Due to persecution, he was constantly on the move. He spent time in England, Geneva, and Germany, studying under some of the brightest minds of the Reformation, including Martin Bucer, and John Calvin, Theodore Beza.
After becoming a pastor, he served in a number of churches in the Lowlands, including a church in the city of Doornik (where the former pastor Pierre Brully was martyred in February 1545). During De Bres’ pastorship in Doornik, a father, mother, and two sons from his church were captured by the government and martyred for the faith. De Brès began to wear disguises as he traveled between different groups of believers in Belgium and France. He went by the name Jerome. The persecuted churches in that area that he ministered to were known as the Churches Under the Cross.
De Brès decided to follow the example of some other Reformers and he worked on writing up a confession of faith which would serve two purposes. The first was to unify the believers in the Churches Under the Cross in what the Bible systematically taught, giving them unity in the same faith. The second was to show King Philip II of Spain that these Protestant Christians were law-abiding citizens who professed the true catholic faith according to the Holy Scriptures, who were respectful of civil authority, and who were not to be confused with the radical anti-government Anabaptists.
The Confession was addressed to King Phillip II. The introduction read “A Confession of the Faith generally and unanimously maintained by the Believers dispersed throughout the Low Countries, who desire to live according to the purity of the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
On the night of 1 November 1561, de Bres threw his confession over the castle wall of Tournai, where Margaret of Parma, governor of the Netherlands stayed, in hopes of bringing the confession to the attention of the Spanish government.
Together with the confession was an address in which De Bres and his fellow petitioners declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to the fire,” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.
They also wrote this in an address: “If you try [to stop us] by killing, for everyone who dies, a hundred will rise in his place. If you will not forsake your hardness and your murder, then we appeal to God to give us grace patiently to endure for the glory of his name…and heaven and earth will bear us witness that you have put us unjustly to death.”
The letter reached the King, but only served to rouse his anger, rather than pacify it. And thus, the persecutions continued. In 1567, 5 years after the Belgic Confession was first written, Guy De Bres was caught and imprisoned.
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. 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." "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. Despite the cold, the hunger, and the horror of this hole, Guido wrote a tract on the Lord's Supper and letters to his friends, his aged mother, and a letter to his wife Catherine, which is an especially moving testimony of his faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Here are a few excerpts:
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:
…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.
…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.
…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.
…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.
…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. …Grace be with you.
On the morning of May 31, 1567, the guards came and took Guido to the gallows. Just before mounting the scaffolding to be hung for the crime of ‘sedition’ by the Spanish Inquisition, Guy de Brès voiced the following words: “My brothers, I am condemned to death today for the doctrine of the Son of God, praise be to Him. I would never have thought that God would have given me such an honor. I feel the grace of God flowing in me more and more. It strengthens me from moment to moment, and my heart leaps within me for joy.” Even as the rope was lowered around his neck Guido was proclaiming God's faithfulness, and urging the people to obey the civil magistrate. Guido DeBres was hung till he died. He was buried in a shallow grave, and his body was dug up by the wild animals and dogs and consumed.
Guido de Bres’ life was not a happy one by human standards but this man lived and died for God's truth. He left for us his greatest work, one of the most powerful confessional documents of all time, the Belgic confession. Our fathers in the faith 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 once delivered to the saints, and that we may be faithful to it as they were, for persecution may very well soon be our lot as it has been theirs.