VI. Tfo Reformed Church of Holland. Nowhere did the Reformation find a more favorable soil than in the Netherlands, which were closely united with Germany, being regarded as a fief of the empire. The people were noted for their industry and love of freedom, and were then lore inclined to an earnest opposition to every form of ecclesiastical and civil despotism. Besides, the Brethren of the Common Life, the Begbards, and other religious communities had awakened and fostered an interest in a purer, more scriptural form of Christianity, which, at the beginning of the Kith century, was far from being extinct. Therefore Luther's writings, al- though they were condemned by the University of Lou- vain, were enthusiastically received in the flourishing cities "f Flanders, Brabant, and Holland. As the Neth- erlands were the hereditary laud of the emperor Charles V. he made the utmost efforts to suppress the reforma- tory movemenl : and the penal law which was issued al Worms in 1521 was carried out with greater earnestness in the Netherlands than in Germany. In 1528 twoAu-
gustinian t d*s. Henry Yos and John Esch, were exe-
cuied at Brussels the first martyrs of the Reformation. Other edicts against the Protestants followed, and with t hem new executions. The progress of the Reformation was, however, not (lucked ; hut. in consequence of the closer connect ion of i he people with Prance and Switzer- land, it took a Reformed rather than a Lutheran type. The vigor of the persecution during the reign of Charles tewhal mitigated by the mild disposition of the two Mad i holders. Margaret of Savoy, and Mary, widowed queen of Hungary, the latter of whom, a Bister of the as even suspected of a secrel sympathy with mation; and in many places the execution of the obnoxious decrees was even prevented hy the out- spoken personal inclinations of municipal and provincial authorities. An effort made by CharlesVl 1550) to es- tablish a regular inquisition, after the pattern of the Spanish, was not successful. Philip II did not shrink from measures of the utmost cruelly to enforce Bubmis-
Bion to the laws and to the Council of Trent; hut. in- stead of submitting, the people rallied for the defence of their religious and civil liberty. A Cahinistic con-
fession of faith i Confessio Belgica) was in 1562 drawn up by Guido de Bres, and in 1566 it was recognised by a synod of Antwerp as a symbolical hook of the Re- formed churches of the Netherlands. In the latter year a defensive league, the Compromiss, was also concluded by the nohh-s. which spread with great rapidity. The name ol Gueux | Beggars), hy which the court at lirst had ridiculed the confederates, was received by the people as a title of honor, and served as a rallying-point lor a great national movement towards freedom. When the stadtholder Margaret of Parma fell unable to curb any longer the rising opposition, the duke of Alba undertook to extinguish the Reformation with lire and sword. In the southern provinces he was successful; hut seven of the northern provinces formed, in 1579, the Union of
Utrecht, and renounced allegiance to the king of Spain. A long and bloody war of independence followed, which
terminated in the establishment of the independent Dutch Republic. In the southern provinces, which re- mained under the crown of Spain, the Reformation was almost wholly extinguished. The Dutch Republic, though only one of the smaller Protestant states of fat- rope, soon added to the reputation of the Reformation by the conspicuous position it occupied in regard to lit- erature and art. to civilization and to maritime con- quest. In the inner history of the Reformed churches, the Arminian controversy [see ARMINIANISM ] and the Synod of l>ort (q. v.)— which was attended by dele- gates of the English Episcopal Church and the churches of Scotland, the Palatinate, Hesse, Switzerland, Wette- ran. Geneva, Bremen, and Emden — were of considerable importance. The decision of the Synod of Don led for a time, both in Holland and in the Reformed churches of several oilier countries, to a complete victory of strict Calvinism over a party which demanded more Biblical simplicity and less rigid conformity with the system of any theologian, even if it he Calvin: hut soon strict Cal- vinism lost more ground in Holland than in any other Reformed Church, and rationalism obtained an ascen- dency so decisive and of so long duration that in the 19th century a numerous party of orthodox members of the National Church separated from the latter and consti- tuted a free Reformed Church. The Hutch Reformed
Church has planted large and flourishing ofFsl ts in
North America and several countries of South Africa, and thus contributed an important share to the ascen- dency which Protestantism enjoys in these regions. In Belgium, under the cruel rule of the Spaniards, but very few and small Reformed congregations were able to con- tinue their always endangered existence, until, in the 19th century, the reunion of the country with Holland began an era of greater freedom and of progress, which continued after the erection of Belgium into an inde- pendent kingdom. Now Belgium has again a National Reformed Church, which is still one of the smallest Re- formed national churches of Europe, but is recognised by the Slate, enjoys a steady progress, and the out- spoken sympathy of many of the foremost statesmen of the country.