Introduction: The Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany

Abstract

The burnings of the Reformed Augustinian friars Hendrik Vos and Johann van den Esschen in Brussels on 1 July 1523 were the first executions of the Protestant Reformation. This chapter challenges the notion that they were peripheral to the key events of the early Reformation. Personal connections and frequent interactions existed between the Reformed Augustinians in the Low Countries (=Lower Germany) and those in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther was a member; the individuals responsible for the executions were intimates of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and Popes Leo X and Adrian VI. An awareness of these connections raises questions about the importance of this event in the early Reformation and about how that movement functioned in its earliest stages.