rhaps the
buffoonery--of the preacher. But far the larger portion of the audience
went with the purpose of joining in the religious exercises, and
worshipping God in their own way.[766] We may imagine what an influence
must have been exercised by these meetings, where so many were gathered
together, under a sense of common danger, to listen to the words of the
teacher, who taught them to hold all human law as light in comparison
with the higher law of conscience seated in their own bosoms. Even of
those who came to scoff, few there were, probably, who did not go away
with some food for meditation, or, it may be, the seeds of future
conversion implanted in their breasts.

The first of these public preachings--which began as early as May--took
place in the neighborhood of Ghent. Between six and seven thousand
persons were assembled. A magistrate of the city, with more valor than
discretion, mounted his horse, and, armed with sword and pistol, rode in
among the multitude, and undertook to arrest the minister. But the
people hastened to his rescue, and dealt so roughly with the unfortunate
officer, that he barely escaped with life from their hands.[767]

From Ghent the preachings extended to Ypres, Bruges, and other great
towns of Flanders,--always in the suburbs,--to Valenciennes, and to
Tournay, in the province of Hainault, where the Reformers were strong
enough to demand a place of worship within the walls. Holland was ready
for the Word. Ministers of the _new religion_, as it was called, were
sent both to that quarter and to Zealand. Gatherings of great multitudes
were held in the environs of Amsterdam, the Hague, Haarlem, and other
large towns, at which the magistrates were sometimes to be found mingled
with the rest of the burghers.

But the place where these meetings were conducted on the greatest scale
was Antwerp, a city containing then more than a hundred thousand
inhabitants, and the most important mart for commerce in the
Netherlands. It was the great resort of foreigners. Many of these were
Huguenots, who, under the pretext of trade, were much more busy with the
concerns of their religion. At the meetings without the walls, it was
not uncommon for thirteen or fourteen thousand persons to assemble.[768]
Resistance on the part of the magistrates was ineffectual. The mob got
possession of the keys of the city; and, as most of the Calvinists were
armed, they constituted a formidable force. Conscious of their stre