History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

shade exhorted the men who were in the fire. As
regarded a "General Council," for which they were
bidden to wait, the Reformers had had ample
experience, and the result had been uniform -- the
mountain had in every case brought forth a mouse.
They were able also by this time to guess, one
should think, what the emperor was likely to do for
them. Almost every year brought with it a new
edict, and the space between each several
fulmination was occupied in giving practical
application to these decrees -- that is, in working
the axe, the halter, the stake, and the pit.
A new impetus was given about this time to the
Reform movement, by the translation of Luther's
version of the Scriptures into Low Dutch. It was
not well executed; nevertheless, being read in their
assemblies, the book instructed and comforted
these young converts. Many of the priests who had
been in office for years, but who had never read a
single line of the Bible, good-naturedly taking it for
granted that it amply authenticated all that the
Church taught, dipped into it, and being much
astonished at its contents, began to bring both their
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