Sandstone Castle at Bad Bentheim
Dr. Jason Van Vliet and I cohosted a tour group of forty people through the Netherlands and Germany. Here is the second part of my summary of our trip.
Tuesday morning, July 16, we headed for Emden, Germany. Emden was the major city in this area in the sixteenth century. At that time it included 15,000 refugees in addition to its growing population. The first Dutch translation of the Heidelberg Catechism was printed in Emden already in 1563—the year it was first printed in German. The first official synod of the Reformed churches took place at Emden in 1571. This synod laid the foundation for the Great Synod of Dordt in 1618–1619, which, in addition to composing the famous Canons of Dordt, also determined that the Heidelberg Catechism should be preached each week in Reformed churches.
Rare Books at the John a Lasco Library
Our main stop in Emden was the John à Lasco library, which dates back to 1559, when it had more than a thousand volumes—about two hundred more than the historic University of Leiden! Though the library is in a smaller building today since the older building was largely destroyed in World War II, the library is still stunningly beautiful. It houses a good collection of Reformation materials, and an old collection of Latin books as well as a collection of primary and secondary sources related to German Pietism. Through the graces of the curator, five of us were allowed to see these last two collections, both of which contained thousands of antiquarian volumes. For me, it was like being a boy in a candy shop, who didn’t have enough time to look at all the candy.
The John à Lasco library does considerable work with other libraries around the world. It is open to scholars who want to do research there. I chatted for a while with Stephen Southerly, the only scholar studying there at present. Hailing from Iowa, he is working on a PhD that delves into how Calvin balanced individual and social responsibility in the Christian faith. Who would have thought that I would meet this brother from Iowa at the à Lasco library in Germany! Providence is amazing.
Beautiful old portraits hang throughout the library. Most importantly, there is the portrait of à Lasco, a Polish Reformer, who finally embraced the Protestant cause in 1543. Afterward, he became very influential in Reformed church polity, particularly in establishing the office of deacon. He died in Poland, trying to build up the Reformation cause there. The library is named after him to honor his work in Eastern Europe, not because it houses many of his books. À Lasco did managed to purchase the library of Erasmus of Rotterdam before he died, and some of Erasmus’s own works which à Lasco acquired are still in the library today
Other portraits of well-known and lesser known Reformers hang throughout the library as well. One that fascinated me was an oil painting of Abraham Schultet, one of the divines that Heidelberg sent to the Synod of Dort with the instructions to try to bring the Remonstrants (the Arminians) and the Contra-Remonstrants (the Reformed) together, if possible. However, the delegates were also instructed that if that were not possible, they should support the Contra-Remonstrants, which they subsequently did. While Synod was in session, Abraham Schultet preached a stirring, solidly Reformed sermon on the assurance of faith. Then, too, there was an impressive painting of Menso Alting, the minister who first brought the Reformation to Emden.
From Emden we traveled in a southerly direction paralleling the Dutch-German border to the town of Bad Bentheim. (“Bad” means bath for its mineral spas.) We visited Bad Bentheim’s stately and beautiful sandstone castle, whose history dates back to the eleventh century, and still has the feel of a medieval fortification. Since 1421 the castle has been home to the Counts and Princes of Bentheim and Steinfurt whose family descends from a branch of the Counts in Holland.
