by these fanatics.[820]

The amount of injury inflicted during this dismal period it is not
possible to estimate. Four hundred churches were sacked by the
insurgents in Flanders alone.[821] The damage to the cathedral of
Antwerp, including its precious contents, was said to amount to not less
than four hundred thousand ducats![822] The loss occasioned by the
plunder of gold and silver plate might be computed. The structures so
cruelly defaced might be repaired by the skill of the architect. But who
can estimate the irreparable loss occasioned by the destruction of
manuscripts, statuary, and paintings? It is a melancholy fact, that the
earliest efforts of the Reformers were everywhere directed against those
monuments of genius which had been created and cherished by the generous
patronage of Catholicism. But if the first step of the Reformation was
on the ruins of art, it cannot be denied that a compensation has been
found in the good which it has done by breaking the fetters of the
intellect, and opening a free range in those domains of science to which
all access had been hitherto denied.

The wide extent of the devastation was not more remarkable than the time
in which it was accomplished. The whole work occupied less than a
fortnight. It seemed as if the destroying angel had passed over the
land, and at a blow had consigned its noblest edifices to ruin! The
method and discipline, if I may so say, in the movements of the
iconoclasts, were as extraordinary as their celerity. They would seem to
have been directed by some other hands than those which met the vulgar
eye. The quantity of gold and silver plate purloined from the churches
and convents was immense. Though doubtless sometimes appropriated by
individuals, it seems not unfrequently to have been gathered in a heap,
and delivered to the minister, who, either of himself, or by direction
of the consistory, caused it to be melted down, and distributed among
the most needy of the sectaries.[823] We may sympathize with the
indignation of a Catholic writer of the time, who exclaims, that in this
way the poor churchmen were made to pay for the scourges with which they
had been beaten.[824]

[Sidenote: ALARM AT BRUSSELS.]

The tidings of the outbreak fell heavily on the ears of the court of
Brussels, where the regent, notwithstanding her prediction of the
event, was not any the better prepared for it. She at once called her
counsellors together and demanded their aid