The Revolt of The Netherlands, book 4 | Page 6

submit in civil matters to the municipal
authorities and the Prince of Orange. They should be liable, like the
other citizens, to all imposts. No one should attend sermons armed; a
sword, however, should be allowed to each. No preacher should assail
the ruling religion from the pulpit, nor enter upon controverted points,
beyond what the doctrine itself rendered unavoidable, or what might
refer to morals. No psalm should be sung by them out of their
appointed district. At the election of their preachers, churchwardens,
and deacons, as also at all their other consistorial meetings, a person
from the government should on each occasion be present to report their
proceedings to the prince and the magistrate. As to all other points they
should enjoy the same protection as the ruling religion. This
arrangement was to hold good until the king, with consent of the states,
should determine otherwise; but then it should be free to every one to
quit the country with his family and his property. From Antwerp the
prince hastened to Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht, in order to make
there similar arrangements for the restoration of peace; Antwerp,
however, was, during his absence, entrusted to the superintendence of
Count Howstraten, who was a mild man, and although an adherent of
the league, had never failed in loyalty to the king. It is evident that in
this agreement the prince had far overstepped the powers entrusted to
him, and though in the service of the king had acted exactly like a
sovereign lord. But he alleged in excuse that it would be far easier to
the magistrate to watch these numerous and powerful sects if he
himself interfered in their worship, and if this took place under his eyes,
than if he were to leave the sectarians to themselves in the open air.
In Gueldres Count Megen showed more severity, and entirely
suppressed the Protestant sects and banished all their preachers. In
Brussels the regent availed herself of the advantage derived from her
personal presence to put a stop to the public preaching, even outside the
town. When, in reference to this, Count Nassau reminded her in the
name of the confederates of the compact which had been entered into,
and demanded if the town of Brussels had inferior rights to the other
towns? she answered, if there were public preachings in Brussels before
the treaty, it was not her work if they were now discontinued. At the

same time, however, she secretly gave the citizens to understand that
the first who should venture to attend a public sermon should certainly
be hung. Thus she kept the capital at least faithful to her.
It was more difficult to quiet Tournay, which office was committed to
Count Horn, in the place of Montigny, to whose government the town
properly belonged. Horn commanded the Protestants to vacate the
churches immediately, and to content themselves with a house of
worship outside the walls. To this their preachers objected that the
churches were erected for the use of the people, by which terms, they
said, not the heads but the majority were meant. If they were expelled
from the Roman Catholic churches it was at least fair that they should
be furnished with money for erecting churches of their own. To this the
magistrate replied even if the Catholic party was the weaker it was
indisputably the better. The erection of churches should not be
forbidden them; they could not, however, after the injury which the
town had already suffered from their brethren, the Iconoclasts, very
well expect that it should be further burdened by the erection of their
churches. After long quarrelling on both sides, the Protestants contrived
to retain possession of some churches, which, for greater security, they
occupied with guards. In Valenciennes, too, the Protestants refused
submission to the conditions which were offered to them through Philip
St. Aldegonde, Baron of Noircarmes, to whom, in the absence of the
Marquis of Bergen, the government of that place was entrusted. A
reformed preacher, La Grange, a Frenchman by birth, who by his
eloquence had gained a complete command over them, urged them to
insist on having churches of their own within the town, and to threaten
in case of refusal to deliver it up to the Huguenots. A sense of the
superior numbers of the Calvinists, and of their understanding with the
Huguenots, prevented the governor adopting forcible measures against
them.
Count Egmont, also to manifest his zeal for the king's service, did
violence to his natural kind-heartedness. Introducing a garrison into the
town of Ghent, he caused some of the most refractory rebels to be put
to death. The churches were reopened, the Roman Catholic worship
renewed, and all foreigners, without exception, ordered to quit the
province. To the Calvinists, but