Tudor. Hosts of Germans, during the ‘Thirty
Years’ War,’ obtained on the banks of the
Amstel and the Rhine, that religious liberty, which
they had in vain claimed in their own country.
But the greatest emigration was that of the
Walloons,
from the bloody tyranny of the Duke of Alba, and the
Count of Parma. For a long period the Reformed
faith had found adherents in the Provinces of the
Low Countries. Here the first churches were
under
the Cross, or
in the Secret, as it was
styled, and they concealed themselves from the raging
persecution, by hiding, as it were, their faith, under
mystic names, the sense of which believers only knew.
We will mention only a few. That of Tournay,
‘
The Palm-Tree;’ Antwerp, ‘
The
Vine;’ Mons, ‘
The Olive;’
Lille, ‘
The Rose;’ Douay, ‘
The
Wheat-Sheaf;’ and the Church of Arras had
for its symbol ‘
The Hearts-Ease.’
In 1561, they published in French, their Confession
of Faith, and in 1563, their Deputies, from the Reformed
Communities of Flanders, Brabant, Artois, and Hainault,
united in a single body, holding the first Synod of
which we have any account. These regions were
an old part of the French Netherlands, or Low Countries;
and a small section of Brabant was called
Walloon;
and here were found innumerable advocates of the Reformed
faith. The whole country would probably have become
the most Protestant of all Europe, were it not for
the torrents of blood poured out for the maintenance
of the Roman religion by the Duke of Alba.
Welcomed by the States General, Walloon Colonies were
formed from the year 1578 to 1589, at Amsterdam, Harlaem,
Leyden, Utrecht, and other places. But new persecutions
arising, the Reformed French retired to Holland, where
new churches arose at Rotterdam, in 1605, Nimeguen,
1621, and Tholen, in 1658. It was natural, therefore,
that the Huguenots of France should afterward settle
in a country of so much sympathy for the Walloon refugees,
whom they regarded as their brethren. When Henry
III. commanded them to be converted to the Romish
Church or to leave the kingdom in six months, many
of them repairing to Holland, joined the Walloon communities,
whose language and creed were their own. After
the fall of La Rochelle, this emigration recommenced,
and was doubled under Louis XIV., when he promulgated
his first wicked and insane edict against his Protestant
subjects. From that unfortunate period, during
a century, the Western Provinces of France depopulated
themselves to the benefit of the Dutch Republic.
Many learned men and preachers visited these Walloon
churches, while endeavoring to escape the persecuting
perils of every kind, to which they were exposed.
Among the ministers we may mention the names of Basnage,
Claude, Benoit, and Saurin, who surpassed them all,
by the superiority of his genius, who was the patriarch
of ‘The Refuge,’ and contributed more than
all the rest to prevail on the Huguenots to leave
France.