History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

egan straightway to blaze.
The fires once kindled, there followed similar
edicts, which kept the flames from going out.
These made it death to pray with a few friends in
private; death to read a page of the Scriptures;
death to discuss any article of the faith, not on the
streets only, but in one's own house; death to
mutilate an image; death to have in one's
possession any of the writings of Luther, or
Zwingle, or CEcolampadius; death to express
doubt respecting the Sacraments of the Church, the
authority of the Pope, or any similar dogma. After
this, in 1535, came the edict of which we have just
made mention, consigning to the horrors of a living
grave even repentant heretics, and to the more
dreadful horrors, as they were deemed, of the stake,
obstinate ones. There was no danger of these cruel
laws remaining inoperative, even had the emperor
been less in earnest than he was. The Inquisition of
Cologne, the canons of Louvain, and the monks of
Mechlin saw to their execution; and the
obsequiousness of Mary of Hungary, the regent of
the kingdom, pushed on the bloody work, nor
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