Philips van Marnix, Baron Sainte-Aldegonde,
renowned as a Dutch Protestant theologian and
statesman, was born at Brussels in 1538 and died
at Leyden Dec. 15, 1598. After receiving a thor
ough
education, he resided for a time in Geneva,
where he formed a friendship with Calvin and Beza.
Returning to his native country between 1560 and
1562, he lived for a time in retirement, from which
he was summoned to the struggle to free the Neth
erlands from Rome and Spain. Here
his first activity was the preparation
of the "Compromise" by which the
Dutch nobles pledged themselves to
resist the introduction of the Inquisition, while the
petition to the Regent Margaret of
Parma (Apr. 5,
1566) on the same subject was also written by him.
He defended the iconoclastic riots in Antwerp in
Aug., 1566, in his
Van de beelden afgheworpen in de
Nederlanden in Augusto 1666
and
Vraye narration
et apologie des ehoses passes au Pays-Bas.
Before
long he also took up arms in the cause of the Ref
ormation, but, with his brother and Brederode,
was repulsed at Austruweel (Mar. 13, 1567) in an
attempt to raise the siege of Valenciennes, and fled
successively to Breda and Germany. He was ban
ished by the "Council of Blood," Aug. 17, 1568,
and his estates were confiscated; but in this exile
he became the life-long friend of William the Si
lent, in whose honor he wrote late in 1568 or early
in 1569 the famous "William's Lay," a poem which
is still a favorite folk-song in Holland. Meanwhile
he had entered the service of the Reformed elector
palatine, Frederick III., and at Heidelberg he
wrote on Christology and the Eucharist, besides
composing his
De bienkorf der heiligt roomsche
187
M~'~
t do Paenuier
kercke (Emden, 1569) and attending the convention at Wesel (Nov., 1568) and the synod at Emden (Oct. 4-14, 1571).
Holland soon claimed the services of Marnix, whose principal political activity was exercised between 1572 and 1585. In the former year he was the plenipotentiary of William and secured the promise of the Estates to renew the war with Spain. On Nov. 4, 1573, however, he was him If captured by the Spaniards at Maaslandasluis. He was taken first to The Hague and then to Utrecht, where he was induced to make vain negotiations for peace. He was exchanged on Oct. 15, 1574, and from March to June of the following year he acted as William's deputy at the fruitless conferences at Breda. Holland and Zeeland declared themselves independent of Spain and offered the crown, under certain conditions, to Elizabeth of England, Marnix being the head of the embassy which remained in England from Christmas, 1575, to Apr., 1576, in a vain endeavor to persuade Elizabeth to become the sovereign of the Dutch. In the latter year, moreover, he was a leader in the "Pacification of Ghent." Don John of Austria, the Spanish viceroy, who carried through the "Eternal Treaty" (Feb. 17, 1577), recognizing in Marnix a dangerous enemy of Roman Catholicism, now unsuccessfully demanded his expulsion from Brussels. The Spanish attack on the citadel of Namur (July 24, 1577) roused the Dutch to a sense of their situation. Don John was retired from his office on Dec. 7, and three days later the second Brussels union was concluded for mutual protection and toleration. Marnix, as privy councilor after Dec. 29, 1577, first put down the revolts in Groningen and Artois, and, at the Diet of Worms (May 7, 1578), secured German neutrality in the Dutch struggle with Spain.
At this juncture, Marnix and William were attacked in an anonymous pamphlet, to which the former replied in his Response apologetique (see below, § 4) which is particularly interesting for its numerous details of his own life. After
Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. |