With English summary. John Calvin (1509-1564) and Dirck Volckerts Coornhert (1522-1590) are both exponents of movements which have profoundly influenced Dutch society. Calvin was convinced that faith required a church, whereas Coornhert held that one could be a good believer without a church. The polemic between Coornhert and Calvin (1560-1562) centered around this theme.In this book the arguments of Coornhert and Calvin are analysed and compared to those of contemporaries who participated in the same debate. Moreover Coornhert's treatise against Calvin is edited and thus accesible to the modern reader.