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BOOK IV.
THE ICONOCLASTS.
The springs of this extraordinary occurrence are plainly not to besought for so far back as many historians affect to trace them. It iscertainly possible, and very probable, that the French Protestants didindustriously exert themselves to raise in the Netherlands a nursery fortheir religion, and to prevent by all means in their power an amicableadjustment of differences between their brethren in the faith in thatquarter and the King of Spain, in order to give that implacable foe oftheir party enough to do in his own country. It is natural, therefore,to suppose that their agents in the provinces left nothing undone toencourage their oppressed brethren with daring hopes, to nourish theiranimosity against the ruling church, and by exaggerating the oppressionunder which they sighed to hurry them imperceptibly into illegalcourses. It is possible, too, that there were many among theconfederates who thought to help out their own lost cause by increasingthe number of their partners in guilt; who thought they could nototherwise maintain the legal character of their league unless theunfortunate results against which they had warned the king really cameto pass, and who hoped in the general guilt of all to conceal their ownindividual criminality. It is, however, incredible that the outbreak ofthe Iconoclasts was the fruit of a deliberate plan, preconcerted, as itis alleged, at the convent of St. Truyen. It does not seem likely thatin a solemn assembly of so many nobles and warriors, of whom the greaterpart were the adherents of popery, an individual should be found insaneenough to propose an act of positive infamy, which did not so muchinjure any religious party in particular, as rather tread under foot allrespect for religion in general, and even all morality too, and whichcould have been conceived only in the mind of the vilest reprobate.Besides, this outrage was too sudden in its outbreak, too vehement inits execution altogether, too monstrous to have been anything more thanthe offspring of the moment in which it saw the light; it seemed to flowso naturally from the circumstances which preceded it that it does notrequire to be traced far back to remount to its origin.
A rude mob, consisting of the very dregs of the populace, made brutal byharsh treatment, by sanguinary decrees which dogged them in every town,scared from place to place and driven almost to despair, were compelledto worship their God, and to hide like a work of darkness the universal,sacred privilege of humanity. Before their eyes proudly rose thetemples of the dominant church, in which their haughty brethren indulgedin ease their magnificent devotion, while they themselves were drivenfrom the walls, expelled, too, by the weaker number perhaps, and forced,here in the wild woods, under the burning heat of noon, in disgracefulsecrecy to worship the same God; cast out from civil society into astate of nature, and reminded in one dread moment of the rights of thatstate! The greater their superiority of numbers the more unnatural didtheir lot appear; with wonder they perceive the truth. The free heaven,the arms lying ready, the frenzy in their brains and fury in theirhearts combine to aid the suggestions of some preaching fanatic; theoccasion calls; no premeditation is necessary where all eyes at oncedeclare consent; the resolution is formed ere yet the word is scarcelyuttered; ready for any unlawful act, no one yet clearly knows what,the furious band rushes onwards. The smiling prosperity of the hostilereligion insults the poverty of their ow