Page:The silent prince - a story of the Netherlands (IA cu31924008716957).pdf/31



all the large towns and cities throughout Holland and Belgium, and even in Brussels, where resided the Regent, the preaching of the reformed faith was carried forward. Now winked at, now persecuted with the utmost vigor, always exposed to mortal peril, the Reformation never lacked fearless and devoted preachers. Some of these were converted monks, like Christopher Fabricius, Hermann Strycker and Peter Dathenus. Others were men of humble calling and no education, who, unfortunately for themselves and others, remembered at this time that the early disciples were not doctors of theology or the proud possessors of diplomas from the centres of learning. These curriers, barbers, tinkers, and dyers began to preach also. It is a sad fact that their ill-timed exhortations sometimes did more to retard the cause of the Reformation than to advance it.

But the charge of illiteracy could not be levelled at stich preachers as Ambrose Wille, Guy de Bray, Peregrine de la Grange and Francis Junius, all 25