The Revolt of The Netherlands, book 2 | Page 9

radiant
virtue. The heroic greatness with which the victims died made converts
to the opinions for which they perished. One martyr gained ten new

proselytes. Not in towns only, or villages, but on the very highways, in
the boats and public carriages disputes were held touching the dignity
of the pope, the saints, purgatory, and indulgences, and sermons were
preached and men converted. From the country and from the towns the
common people rushed in crowds to rescue the prisoners of the Holy
Tribunal from the hands of its satellites, and the municipal officers who
ventured to support it with the civil forces were pelted with stones.
Multitudes accompanied the Protestant preachers whom the Inquisition
pursued, bore them on their shoulders to and from church, and at the
risk of their lives concealed them from their persecutors. The first
province which was seized with the fanatical spirit of rebellion was, as
had been expected, Walloon Flanders. A French Calvinist, by name
Lannoi, set himself up in Tournay as a worker of miracles, where he
hired a few women to simulate diseases, and to pretend to be cured by
him. He preached in the woods near the town, drew the people in great
numbers after him, and scattered in their minds the seeds of rebellion.
Similar teachers appeared in Lille and Valenciennes, but in the latter
place the municipal functionaries succeeded in seizing the persons of
these incendiaries; while, however, they delayed to execute them their
followers increased so rapidly that they became sufficiently strong to
break open the prisons and forcibly deprive justice of its victims.
Troops at last were brought into the town and order restored. But this
trifling occurrence had for a moment withdrawn the veil which had
hitherto concealed the strength of the Protestant party, and allowed the
minister to compute their prodigious numbers. In Tournay alone five
thousand at one time had been seen attending the sermons, and not
many less in Valenciennes. What might not be expected from the
northern provinces, where liberty was greater, and the seat of
government more remote, and where the vicinity of Germany and
Denmark multiplied the sources of contagion? One slight provocation
had sufficed to draw from its concealment so formidable a multitude.
How much greater was, perhaps, the number of those who in their
hearts acknowledged the new sect, and only waited for a favorable
opportunity to publish their adhesion to it. This discovery greatly
alarmed the regent. The scanty obedience paid to the edicts, the wants
of the exhausted treasury, which compelled her to impose new taxes,
and the suspicious movements of the Huguenots on the French frontiers

still further increased her anxiety. At the same time she received a
command from Madrid to send off two thousand Flemish cavalry to the
army of the Queen Mother in France, who, in the distresses of the civil
war, had recourse to Philip II. for assistance. Every affair of faith, in
whatever land it might be, was made by Philip his own business. He
felt it as keenly as any catastrophe which could befall his own house,
and in such cases always stood ready to sacrifice his means to foreign
necessities. If it were interested motives that here swayed him they
were at least kingly and grand, and the bold support of his principles
wins our admiration as much as their cruelty withholds our esteem.
The regent laid before the council of state the royal will on the subject
of these troops, but with a very warm opposition on the part of the
nobility. Count Egmont and the Prince of Orange declared that the time
was illchosen for stripping the Netherlands of troops, when the aspect
of affairs rendered rather the enlistment of new levies advisable. The
movements of the troops in France momentarily threatened a surprise,
and the commotions within the provinces demanded, more than ever,
the utmost vigilance on the part of the government. Hitherto, they said,
the German Protestants had looked idly on during the struggles of their
brethren in the faith; but will they continue to do so, especially when
we are lending our aid to strengthen their enemy? By thus acting shall
we not rouse their vengeance against us, and call their arms into the
northern Netherlands? Nearly the whole council of state joined in this
opinion; their representations were energetic and not to be gainsaid.
The regent herself, as well as the minister, could not but feel their truth,
and their own interests appeared to forbid obedience to the royal
mandate. Would it not be impolitic to withdraw from the Inquisition its
sole prop by removing the larger portion of the army, and in a
rebellious country to leave themselves without defence, dependent on
the arbitrary will of an arrogant aristocracy? While the regent, divided