MARNIX, Filips van

(1540–1598)

   Theologian and writer. This lord of St. Aldegonde was born into a Savoyan family that immigrated in the service of Margaret of Austria, governor of the Low Countries. Marnix studied under the theologians Theodore Beza and John Calvin in Geneva and was converted to Calvinism. He participated in the po litical and military actions of the dissenting nobility against the gov ernmentof KingPhilip IIof Spain. In 1569, Marnix published De Bi encorf, a famous sharp satire against the Roman Catholic Church. In the 1570s, he was a confidant of the leader of the Dutch Revolt, Prince William (I) of Orange, and he was one of the architects of the peace treaty of 1576 (the so-called Pacification of Ghent). After his disgrace in the 1580s, Marnix left the Low Countries and devoted himself to let ters, living mostly as a private scholar and writing theological treatises, among others against the Anabaptists.