History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

of the authorities had broken out, they sought to
wall in by placards. Every day, new and severer
prohibitions were arriving from the Duchess of
Parma against the field-preachings. In the end of
June, she sent orders to the magistrates of Antwerp
to disperse all these assemblies, and to hang all the
preachers.[6] Had the duchess accompanied these
orders with troops to enforce them, their execution
might have been possible; but the governor, much
to her chagrin, had neither soldiers nor money. Her
musketeers and cross-bowmen were themselves, in
many instances, among the frequenters of these
illegal meetings. To issue placards in these
circumstances was altogether idle. The magistrates
of Antwerp replied, that while they would take care
that no conventicle was held in the city, they must
decline all responsibility touching those vast
masses of men, amounting at times to from fifteen
to twenty thousand, that were in the practice of
going outside the walls to sermon.
About this time Tournay became famous for its
field-preachings. Indeed, the town may be said to
have become Protestant, for not more than a sixth
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