History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

of the inhabitants of that important place were
Calvinists; Horn, therefore, feared to forbid the
public preachings. But no church and no spot
inside the walls would Horn permit to be defiled by
the Protestant worship; nevertheless, three places
outside the gates were assigned for sermon. The
eloquent Ambrose Wille, whom we have already
met, was the preacher, and his congregation
generally numbered from fifteen to twenty
thousand hearers. Permission was at last given for
the erection of churches on the three spots where
the field-preaching had been held; and Councillor
Taffen made what he judged an eminently
reasonable proposal to the magistrates touching the
cost of their erection. The Papists, he said, who
were not more than a fourth of the citizens,
retained all the old churches; the other threefourths,
who were Protestants, were compelled to
build new ones, and in these circumstances he
thought it only fair that the community should
defray the expense of their erection. The Romanists
exclaimed against the proposal. To be compelled to
refrain from burning the heretics was much, but to
be taxed for the support of heresy was an unheard-
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