By Ian Wilson (G)
Not much is known about the childhood of the Belgian Protestant Reformer, Guy de Bres. He was born in the year 1522, in the Belgian town of Hainaut. While nothing is known of his father’s profession, he was apparently prosperous enough to afford to send Guy to university, where he first encountered the Reformation doctrines of sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia solus Christus, and soli Deo gloria. He was converted to the Reformed Protestant faith, and was forced to flee to London by the persecution of the Spanish government, who ruled over Belgium at the time.
After studying and writing alongside his fellow Reformed exiles, Guy returned to Belgium, where he worked alongside other Protestant Reformers under severe persecution. This eventually forced de Bres to escape to Germany, where he lived among the British refugees of the Reformed faith, who fled the persecution of Bloody Mary Tudor.
By the late 1550s, Guy de Bres had traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland to study with Theodore de Beza, the great Reformed thinker and close friend of John Calvin. The two then traveled to Geneva, where de Bres lived for two years, before returning to his beloved Belgium. There, de Bres preached a series of sermons that eventually became what we now know as the Belgic Confession, a document affirmed by the Reformed Church of Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as other Reformed denominations worldwide.
He then was forced to leave once again in 1561, and fled to France where he served as Court Chaplain in Sedan. However, he made frequent return trips to Belgium to preach and administer the sacraments. His fiery preaching made him public enemy number one of the Spanish authorities. They eventually cornered him and his fellow Reformed minister, Peregrine de la Grange, in the city of Valenciennes, Belgium. After a four month siege, the Spanish captured the city and imprisoned de Bres and de la Grange.
After a lengthy imprisonment, the two were publicly hanged on May 31st, 1567. However, de Bres preached one final sermon on Romans 13 as he was about to be hanged from the gallows, reminding his followers of the importance of obeying the authorities.
May our courage of conviction be as strong as Guy de Bres.
LogoSophia Magazine 