History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

abbeys and religious houses in the open country.
These they ravaged as they had done those of the
city. The libraries of some of these establishments
they burned. The riotings continued for three days.
No attempt to put them down was made by any
one. The magistrates did nothing beyond their visit
to the cathedral on the first day. The burghal militia
were not called out. The citizens kept themselves
shut up in their houses, the Protestants because
they suspected that the Roman Catholics had
conspired to murder them, and the Roman
Catholics because they feared the same thing of the
Protestants. Though the crowd was immense, the
actual perpetrators of these outrages were believed
not to number over a hundred. A little firmness on
the part of the authorities at the beginning might
easily have restrained them. "All these violences,
plunderings, and desolations," said those of the
Spanish faction, "were committed by about a
hundred unarmed rabble at the most." The famous
Dutch historian, Hooft, says: "I do not think it
strange, since there are good and bad men to be
found in all sects, that the vilest of the [Reformed]
party showed their temper by these extravagances,
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