Career
Guy was converted between the age of 18 and 25. It is almost certain he became familiar with the Reformed faith through printed works. On 22 September 1540 a proclamation banned a large number of books: by Erasmus in Latin, Melanchthon, Eobanus Hessus and others, as well as the New Testament, the Gospels, the Epistles, and the Prophetical books of the Bible in French and Flemish. These books were deemed heretical by the Roman Catholic Church authorities. In 1543 books were burned in the marketplace of Lille: La Doctrines des Enfants (a Lutheran catechism), also Lamentations of Jesus Christ, La Sant Otraison and a book by a Flemish priest entitled: Letters Institution 2.
In 1548, while Guy was still in Mons, he forged a friendship with an English couple: Mr. Nicholas and his wife. Mr Nicholas, his friend and two wives were caught by the authorities and charged with subversion of the Roman Catholic faith. They were imprisoned together with a number of Protestants from that area. Guy then fled to England. This was during the reign of Edward VI. On 4 November 1547 the English parliament had decided to allow the two elements used in the communion to be enjoyed by all people. Guy probably kept company with a number of refugees from continental Europe: Tremellius, Valérand Poullain, Martin Bucer, John a Lasco, Jan Utenhove, Marten de Klyne (Marten Micron or Micronius), Wouter Deelen, François Perucel de la Rivière and others. Whilst in England Guy attended the church of John a Lasco, and in 1551 he also became familiar with a Lasco's London Confession. The largest group of refugees came from the Low Countries. John a Lasco served as superintendent to a number of foreign congregations including the Dutch. A Lasco was a Polish nobleman with Zwinglian tendencies.(1551). Guy left England in 1552 before Mary, Queen of England came to the throne.
De Bres went to Germany and later moved back to Geneva. Around 1559 he returned to the Low Countries, but now as a travelling Calvinist preacher. In the years 1559 to 1561 he served as the resident minister in Tournai. In 1561 De Bres authored the Belgic Confession. This confession was meant for the Spanish Government to show them that the Calvinists weren't a radical Anabaptist sectarian movement, but demanded a Reformation in the biblical sense of the Roman Catholic Church. The text is strongly influenced by Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion" and the creed of the French Huguenots. The creed was printed by Jean Crespin in Geneva. On the night of November 1, 1561, De Bres threw his creed over the castle wall of Tournai, where Margaret of Parma, governor of the Netherlands stayed, to bring the confession to the attention of the Spanish government.
Read more about this topic: Guido De Bres
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