The Geuzen Path
Catholics who saw him pass would say, “There goes that Geus again!”
In the past, faith played a much greater role in people’s lives than it often does today. North Brabant was long seen as a Catholic region, but that’s not the whole story. Protestantism also had a presence in this province—two branches of Christianity whose followers, at times, could hardly stand each other.
In the Barony of Breda, both Catholics and Protestants lived side by side. This Geuzen Path tells that story well. The local minister would walk this sandy path from Gilze to the Reformed Church in Chaam. Catholics who saw him pass would say, “There goes that Geus again!” The word Geus—originally used in the Middle Ages—was a not-so-flattering nickname for Protestants.
This text has been translated using AI.