1 "L’Eglise et la Cité de Liége est une pucelle du tout vierge et impollüe que nulle hérésie a sçu jusques ores inquiner ou fouiller" translated by Th. Bouille in Histoire de la ville et du pais de Liége (Liège, 1751); quoted in Jean Lejeune, "Religion, morale et capitalisme dans la société liégeoise du XVIIe siècle" Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 22 (1943): 116.

2 Etienne Hélin, "Renaître et résister" in Jacques Stiennon, ed., Histoire de Liège (Toulouse: Privat, 1991), p. 162.

3 Although this did happen in Haarlem; see Joke (Johanna Willemina) Spaans, Haarlem na de Reformatie: Stedelijke cultuur en kerkelijk leven, 1577-1620 (The Hague: Stichting Hollandse Historische Reeks, 1989), especially pp. 23-69.

4 "La cité de Liége, proverbialement appelee Le paradis des Prebstres, à raison des riches eglises collegiales, monasteres & convents compris en son enclos, avoit esté iadis abreuuee du sang de quelques Martyrs, lors qu’Eurard de la Marche teindit son chapeau de Cardinal." Jean Crespin, Histoire des vrays Tesmoins du verité de l’Evangile . . . (Geneva, 1570; repr. Liège, 1964), f. 617. He also lists two natives of the principality of Liège executed at Antwerp in 1561 (ff. 577-577v).

5 Léon-Ernest Halkin, Le Cardinal de la Marck, prince-évêque de Liège (Liège: Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, 1930), pp. 131-32.

6. The execution cited in 1528 by Halkin, Le Cardinal pp. 161-62, probably never happened; the only chronicle that mentions it is very likely in error. See Paul Harsin, "Les Premières Manifestations de la réforme luthérienne dans le diocèse de Liège" Académie royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques Fifth series, vol. 48 (1962): 273-294.

7 Halkin, Le Cardinal pp. 148-55; Emile Fairon, "La Repression de l’hérésie et la question constitutionelle dans la principauté de Liège pendant le XVIe siècle" in Miscellanées historiques (Liège: L. Gothier, 1945), pp. 95-122.

8 The resolutions (sieultes) of the mercers are found in Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Métiers (merciers), reg. 151, ff. 12v, 14, 18v, 21.

9 The text of the edict is given in Recueil des ordonnances de la principauté de Liège ed. Mathieu-Lambert Polain, Second ser., vol. 1 (Brussels, 1869), p. 94.

10 Halkin, Le Cardinal pp. 172-73.

11 Halkin, Le Cardinal, p. 174.

12 Halkin, Le Cardinal, pp. 165-68.

13 Halkin, Le Cardinal pp. 174-88; cf. his Histoire religieuse des règnes de Corneille de Berghes et de Georges d’Autriche, princes-évêques de Liège (1538-1557) (Liège: Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, 1936).

14 Fernand Lemaire, "Le Procès et l’exécution du protestant liégeois Thomas Watlet (1562)" Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique. Commission royale d’histoire. Bulletin 115 (1950): 219-283.

15 The text is given in Recueil des ordonnances pp. 271-73.

16 Lemaire, "Le Procès et l’exécution," pp. 240-42.

17 He did, in fact, try to disinherit his brother’s widow, but the courts upheld her rights; see Lemaire, "Le Procès et l’exécution," pp. 253-54. Lemaire’s conclusion may be doubted, however, because death was the penalty for heresy even without Robert’s edict. Wathelet was more likely trying to exculpate himself.

18 The text of the rescript is given in Recueil des ordonnances p. 273; Lemaire discusses its authenticity and its effects, "Le Procès et l’exécution," pp. 245-46.

19 Gérard Moreau, Histoire de Protestantisme à Tournai jusqu’à la veille de la Révolution des Pays-Bas (Paris: Belles-Lettres, 1962) [Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université de Liège, fasc. 167], p. 384.

20 Moreau, Histoire de Protestantisme à Tournai, pp. 63, 69.

21 J. Crespin, Actes des martyres (Geneva, 1564), p. 812; quoted in Alain Lottin, Lille, citadelle de la Contre-Réforme? (1598-1668) (Dunkirk: Westhoek-Editions, 1984), p. 142.

22 "Les placards étaient donc appliqués rigoreusement, le calvinistes étaient sans ministre, et le catholicisme y était encore solide." Lottin, Lille, citadelle de la Contre-Réforme?, p. 142.

23 Lottin, Lille, citadelle de la Contre-Réforme?, pp. 143-47.

24 "Remanserunt tamen haud dubie multi heresi infecti sed minus ferventes." Quoted in Lottin, Lille, citadelle de la Contre-Réforme, p. 147.

25 See Jean Rey, "Note sur l’origine liégeoise d’Idelette de Bure, femme de Calvin" Bulletin de la Société d’histoire du protestantisme belge Second series, vol. 3 (1922): 111-23.

26 See Léon-Ernest Halkin, "Protestants des Pays-Bas et de la Principauté de Liège refugiés à Strasbourg" in Strasbourg au coeur religieux du XVIe siècle: Hommage à Lucien Febvre [Actes du Colloque international de Strasbourg, 25-29 mai 1975. Publications de la Société savante d’Alsace et des régions de l’Est, v. 12] (Strasbourg: Librairie Istra, 1977), pp. 297-307.

27 Lejeune, "Religion, morale et capitalisme," p. 124; see Frokje Breedvelt-van Veen, Louis de Geer, 1587-1652 (Amsterdam: H.J. Paris, 1935), pp. 2-5.

28 Léon-Ernest Halkin, "La dissidence religieuse dans une paroisse de Liège à la fin du XVIe siècle" Bulletin de l’Institut archéologique liégeois 67 (1950): 141-76; see also his "Religion et morale dans la paroisse Saint-Servais à Liège" Bulletin de l’Institut archéologique liégeois 99 (1987): 147-51.

29 Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Prévôté, reg. 13, f. 13.

30 This will, in Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Saint-Martin-en-Ile, ptf. 9, mentions a deceased son Simon, for whom he founded an anniversary mass, and another Simon, his youngest son.

31 Halkin, "Religion et morale," pp. 148, 150; cf. Pierre Hanquet, "Les Mulkea, Protestants liégeois et leur alliés" Loedium 45 (1948): 40-48.

32 Citing the testimony of Phillippe de Hurges; see Hélin, "Renaître," p. 162.

33 "Pensans et cogittans au salut de noz poeures ames crees a limage et semblant de Dieu leur createur et de la saite Trinite indivisee, rachaptees tant precieusement de la mort et dampnation eternele par la doleureuse passion amere et angoissieuze de Jhesucrist fil de Dieu et dotees de dons et grasces de benoite Saint Esperit." Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Echevins de Liège, Convenances et Testaments, reg. 27, f. 237v. This will, dated 13 August 1519, also incudes legacies to confraternities and the foundation of several anniversary masses.

34 R. Po-chia Hsia, "The Myth of the Commune: Recent Historiography on City and Reformation in Germany" Central European History 20 (1987): 213. See also his Society and Religion in Münster 1535-1618 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984).

35 Barbara Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 38.

36 Marc R. Forster, The Counter-Reformation in the Villages: Religion and Reform in the Bishopric of Speyer, 1560-1720 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992).

37 Forster, Counter-Reformation in the Villages, p. 6.

38 Hsia, Religion and Society, especially chap. 5.

39 Heinz Schilling, Religion, Political Culture, and the Emergence of Early Modern Society: Essays in German and Dutch History (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992), especially chapters 1 and 2.

40 Schilling, Religion, Political Culture, and the Emergence of Early Modern Society, p. 129

41 Thomas Brady, Ruling Class, Regime, and Reformation in Strasbourg, 1520-1555 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978), p. 269.

42 R. W. Scribner, "Why Was There No Reformation in Cologne?" Bulletin of the Institute for Historical Research (London University) 49 (1976): 217-41; For a full discussion of much of the German research on the subject, see Kaspar von Greyerz, "Stadt und Reformation: Stand und Aufgaben der Forschung" Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 76 (1985): 6-63.

43 See, for example, Natalie Z. Davis, "The Sacred and the Body Social in Sixteenth-Century Lyon" Past and Present 90 (1981): 47-49; and Philip Benedict, Rouen during the Wars of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 78-81.

44 John Martin, Venice’s Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Reniassance City (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 150-73.

45 Halkin, "Dissidence religeuse"; most do not have any profession indicated.

46 Schilling, Religion, Political Culture, and the Emergence of Early Modern Society, p. 80.

47 Henry Dieterich, "Brotherhood and Community on the Eve of the Reformation" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1982), p. 138; this is probably the Salve service described in R. W. Scribner, "Ritual and Popular Religion in Catholic Germany at the Time of the Reformation" Journal of Ecclesiastical History 35 (1984): 51.

48 Dieterich, "Brotherhood and Community," p. 107-8.

49 Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Saint-Martin-en-Ile, reg 128, f. 139v.

50 Léon Lahaye, "La Paroisse Saint-Martin-en-Ile à Liège" Bulletin de la société d’art et d’histoire du diocèse de Liège 25 (1934): 116-17; idem, "La Paroisse Saint-Jean-Baptiste à Liège" Bulletin de la société d’art et d’histoire du diocèse de Liège 22 (1930): 6-7; at Saint-Jean-Baptiste the churchwardens were the masters of parish hospital.

51 Dieterich, "Brotherhood and Community," p. 205.

52 Lahaye, "La Paroisse Saint-Jean-Baptiste," pp. 10-12.

53 In fact, the apparent average of 600 persons per parish is even lower when the parish of St. Nicholas Outre-Meuse, by far the largest (and poorest) parish in the city is deducted. The population figures for Liège used here are based on Etienne Hélin, La Population des paroisses liégeoises aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles [Documents et mémoires de la Commission communale pour l’histoire de l’ancien pays de Liège, fasc. 4] (Liège: Commission communale pour l’histoire de l’ancien pays de Liège, 1959) and Irène Vrancken-Pirson, "Démographie liégeoise du XVe siècle" Bulletin de Statistique 37 (Brussels: Institut national de statistique, 1951): 599-600. For the method used to approximate a figure for the early sixteenth century, see Dieterich, "Brotherhood and Community," pp. 65-66.

54 Philip T. Hoffman, Church and Community in the Diocese of Lyon 1500-1789 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 9, 11.

55 Lottin, Lille, Citadelle de la Contre-Réforme?, pp. 25-26.

56 Hsia, Society and Religion, pp. 12, 31.

57 In addition, the single parish of St. Bavo included four surrounding villages: Spaans, Haarlem na de Reformatie, p. 23.

58 Kaspar von Greyerz, The Late City Reformation in Germany: The Case of Colmar, 1522-1628 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980), p. 27-31.

59 Martin Brecht and Heinrich Ehler, Südwestdeutsche Reformationsgeschicht: Zur Einführing der Reformation im Hertzogtum Württemberg, 1534 (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1984), p. 29.

60 Forster, Counter-Reformation in the Villages, pp. 135, 137.

61 Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross, p. 11, citing Jean-Pierre Babelon, Nouvelle histoire de Paris. Paris au 16e siècle (Paris, 1986), p. 219

62 Wolfram Heitzenröder, Reichsstädte und Kirche in der Wetterau: Der Einfluß des städtischen Rats auf die geistlische Institut vor der Reformation [Studien zur Frankfurter Geschichte, 16] (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Waldemar Kramer, 1982), p. 163.

63 Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Saint-Martin-en-Ile, reg. 50, f. 39. Baldwin had three other sons who were priests as well; see Dieterich, "Brotherhood and Community," p. 205.

64 Hélin, "Renaître et résister," p. 170.

65 Paul Ansiaux, "Grégoire Sylvius, inquisiteur et évêque auxiliaire liégeois (1502-1578)" Bulletin de la société d’art et d’histoire du diocèse de Liège 26 (1935): 1-20.

66 Ansiaux claims he was the son of Baldwin de Scagier, churchwarden of Saint-Martin-en-Ile, but this is certainly false. Ansiaux is following [Joseph Abry], Recueil héraldique des bourgmestres de la noble cité de Liège. . .depuis l’an 1200 jusques en 1720 (Liège: J. P. Gramme, 1720), p. 358. The origin of this error seems to be that Sylvius was the brother-in-law of Wilhem Beeckman de Tonnelet, husband of Pirette de Scagier (Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Echevins de Liège, Oeuvres, reg. 122, f. 158). Pirette, however, was the daughter not of Baldwin but of Johan de Scagier (Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Echevins de Liège, Convenances et Testaments, reg. 29, ff. 140-41). Johan died in 1502, and his wife Francheuse remarried Jacques de Falcomont, or de Tonnelet, who died in 1520 (Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Echevins de Liège, Oeuvres, reg. 129, f. 155v; cf. membership records of the Confraternity of Our Lady). Thus either Johan or Jacques was Grégoire’s father, probably the former. Francheuse and both her husbands were members of the Confraternity of Our Lady, as was Wilhem Beeckman and his wife. Wilhem inherited the "Tonnelet" house and name from his mother-in-law Francheuse when he married Pirette in 1521. In is not clear how Grégoire came to be called "Sylvius"; in the records of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament he is called "Gregoire de Tonnelet."

67 Ansiaux, pp. 9-10.

68 Halkin, Histoire religieuse, pp. 58-59.

69 Archives de l’Evêché, Liège, reg. H. III. 6.

70 Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Saint-Martin-en-Ile, reg. 124bis.

71 Archives de l’Etat, Liège, Saint-Martin-en-Ile, reg. 128, ff. 135, 139v. The earlier of these banquets was held in the "maison de Tonnelet," Sylvius’s childhood home.

72 Lejeune, "Religion, morale, et capitalisme," p. 115-17.

73 F. Willocx, L’Introduction des décrets du Concile de Trente dans les Pays-Bas et dans la principauté de Liège (Louvain: Librairie Universitaire, 1929), pp. 230-248.

74 Louis Châtellier, L’Europe des dévots (Paris: Flammarion, 1987).

75 John Van Engen, "The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem" American Historical Review 91 (1986): 536.