History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

in those days, the bread of their souls in the high
places of the fields.
The movement steadily maintained its march
northwards. It advanced along that famous
seaboard, a mighty silent power, bowing the hearts
of young and old, of the noble and the artisan, of
the wealthy city merchant and the landward tiller
of the soil, and gathering them, in defiance of fiery
placards, in tens of thousands round that tree
whereon was offered the true Sacrifice for the sins
of the world. We have seen the movement advance
from Flanders into Brabant, and now we are to
follow it from Brabant into Holland. In vain does
Philip bid it stop; in vain do the placards of the
governor threaten death; it continues its majestic
march from province to province, and from city to
city, its coming, like that of morning, heralded by
songs of joy. It is interesting to mark the first
feeble beginnings of Protestant preaching in a
country where the Reformation was destined to win
so many brilliant triumphs. In an obscure street of
Amsterdam, there lived at that time Peter Gabriel,
formerly of Bruges, with his wife Elizabeth, who
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