[1] Both Martin Luther and John Calvin were active during the Reformation in the Dutch provinces, a populous and economically important territory.
Starting in 1567, the Duke of Alba, governor of the Netherlands on behalf of Habsburg emperor, King Philip II of Spain, brutally suppressed Calvinism and the initial Dutch Revolt.
This action triggered the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), which eventually resulted in the independence of the United Netherlands.
The aim of the Wesel Convention of 1568 was to give these communities a uniform presbyterial structure and to network them through a synodal superstructure.
The deacon is responsible for care of the poor, while the teacher or "prophet" (this office is not clearly profiled in the resolutions) has the task of theological training of the community.
In 1571, the Synod of Emden confirmed the decisions of Wesel in all essential respects and transformed them into a church order.
However, the office of the teacher or "prophet," which was not clearly profiled in Wesel, was no longer mentioned, and the election of preachers and elders in the form of collegial electoral bodies of neighboring communities was abandoned in favor of direct election by the individual community.
The church organization established in Wesel was thus realized on all three levels (community, class, synod).
The power of presbyter-synodal church order was so strong that within a few years this system was used in a number of German communities.
[3] The theory was later modified by Owe Boersma,[4] which led Herbert Kipp to state that the place mentioned in the protocol (Wesel) and the time (November 1568) make this seem plausible.
[6] Spohnholz' book The Convent of Wesel: The Event that never was and the Invention of Tradition was published in 2017 by Cambridge University Press.