Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (Grandvelle), Lord of Granvelle (b. 20 August 1517, d. 21 September 1586), Roman Catholic bishop of Utrecht 1567, Archbishop of Mechelen and a cardinal, was one of the most influential advisers of Margaret, Duchess of Parma, since 1559 Regent of the Netherlands (both the present Netherlands and Belgium). He was an opponent of William of Orange and an ardent fighter of "heretics," both Calvinists and Anabaptists, and influenced the regent to maintain the imperial decrees and to take to drastic action. In a letter of 1566 he wrote: "If we should give freedom . . . to everyone to believe whatever he wishes, we would have not only 'Hugenots' (Calvinists) . . . but also several kinds of Anabaptists, whose intentions are very pernicious for the Republic (common cause) as one might see by what has happened during our memory at Münster and Amsterdam, and a hundred thousand other monstrous sects."

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 564. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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