uenster. The third denomination, the
Calvinists, far out-numbered both of the other two. They were also the
most active in the spirit of proselytism. They were stimulated by
missionaries trained in the schools of Geneva; and as their doctrines
spread silently over the land, not only men of piety and learning, but
persons of the highest social position, were occasionally drawn within
the folds of the sect.

The head-quarters of the Calvinists were in Flanders, Hainault, Artois,
and the provinces contiguous to France. The border land became the
residence of French Huguenots, and of banished Flemings, who on this
outpost diligently labored in the cause of the Reformation. The press
teemed with publications,--vindications of the faith, polemical tracts,
treatises, and satires against the Church of Rome and its errors,--those
spiritual missiles, in short, which form the usual magazine for
controversial warfare. These were distributed by means of peddlers and
travelling tinkers, who carried them, in their distant wanderings, to
the humblest firesides throughout the country. There they were left to
do their work; and the ground was thus prepared for the laborers whose
advent forms an epoch in the history of the Reformation.[763]

These were the ministers or missionaries, whose public preaching soon
caused a great sensation throughout the land. They first made their
appearance in Western Flanders, before small audiences gathered together
stealthily in the gloom of the forest and in the silence of night. They
gradually emerged into the open plains, thence proceeding to the
villages, until, growing bolder with impunity, they showed themselves in
the suburbs of the great towns and cities. On these occasions, thousands
of the inhabitants, men, women, and children, in too great force for the
magistrates to resist them, poured out of the gates to hear the
preacher. In the centre of the ground a rude staging was erected, with
an awning to protect him from the weather. Immediately round the rude
pulpit was gathered the more helpless part of the congregation, the
women and children. Behind them stood the men,--those in the outer
circle usually furnished with arms,--swords, pikes, muskets,--any weapon
they could pick up for the occasion. A patrol of horse occupied the
ground beyond, to protect the assembly and prevent interruption. A
barricade of wagons and other vehicles was thrown across the avenues
that led to the place, to defend it