[*] The people of Ypres,
though they fought on the French side, had good reason to be proud
of the way in which they defended their homes; but the consequences
of the siege were disastrous, for the commerce of the town never
recovered the loss of the large working-class population which
left it at that time.
[Footnote *: 'Thuin,' or 'tuin,' in Flemish means an enclosed space,
such as a garden plot.]
[Illustration: A FARMSTEADING]
The religious troubles of the sixteenth century left their mark
on Ypres as well as on the rest of Flanders. Everyone has read
the glowing sentences in which the historian of the Dutch Republic
describes the Cathedral of Antwerp, and tells how it was wrecked
by the reformers during the image-breaking in the summer of 1566.
What happened on the banks of the Scheldt appeals most to the
imagination; but all over Flanders the statues and the shrines,
the pictures and the stores of ecclesiastical wealth, with which
piety, or superstition, or penitence had enriched so many churches
and religious houses, became the objects of popular fury. There
had been field-preaching near Ypres as early as 1562.[*] Other
parts of West Flanders had been visited by the apostles of the New
Learning, and on August 15, 1566, the reformers swept down upon
Ypres and sacked the churches.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98