History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

Wrapt in luxury and ease, it had seen its
martyrs burned, the disciples of the Gospel driven
away, and it returned to that faith which it had been
on the point of abandoning, and which, by
retaining the soul in vassalage to Rome,
perpetuated the serfdom of the Spanish yoke; and
yet Antwerp saw no immediate evil effects follow.
The ships of all nations continued to sail up its
river and discharge their cargoes on its wharves. Its
wealth continued to increase, and its palaces to
grow in splendor. The tempests that smote so
terribly the cities around it rolled harmlessly past
its gates. Antwerp believed that it had chosen at
once the easier and the better part; that it was
vastly preferable to have the Romish faith, with an
enriching commerce and a luxurious ease, than
Protestantism with battles and loss of goods; till
one day, all suddenly, when it deemed calamity far
away, a blow, terrible as the bolt of heaven, dealt it
by the champions of Romanism, laid it in the dust,
together with the commerce, the wealth, and the
splendor for the sake of which it had parted with its
Protestantism.
430