of the Edict of Worms was affirmed for the Burgundian
provinces. The edict was read publicly at Antwerp [Sidenote: July 13,
1521] while four hundred of Luther's books were burnt, three hundred
confiscated from the shops and one hundred brought by the people. {242}
Whereas spiritual officers were at first employed, civil magistrates now
began to act against the innovators. In the beginning, attention was
paid to municipal privileges, but these soon came to be disregarded, and
resistance on any pretext was treated as rebellion and treason. The
first persons to be arrested were the Prior of Antwerp, Probst,
[Sidenote: 1522] who recanted, but later escaped and relapsed, and two
other intimate friends of Erasmus.

[Sidenote: The Inquisition]

Charles wished to introduce the Spanish inquisition, but his councillors
were all against it. Under a different name, however, it was exactly
imitated when Francis van der Hulst was appointed chief inquisitor by the
state, [Sidenote: April 23, 1522] and was confirmed by a bull of Adrian
VI. [Sidenote: June 1, 1523] The original inquisitorial powers of the
bishops remained, and a supreme tribunal of three judges was appointed in
1524.

[Sidenote: Martyrs, July 1, 1523]

The first martyrs, Henry Voes and John Esch of Brussels, said Erasmus,
made many Lutherans by their death. Luther wrote a hymn on the subject
and published an open letter to the Christians of the Netherlands.
[Sidenote: 1524] Censorship of the press was established in Holland in
vain, for everything goes to show that Lutheranism rapidly increased.
Popular interest in the subject seemed to be great. Every allusion to
ecclesiastical corruption in speeches or in plays was applauded.
Thirty-eight laborers were arrested at Antwerp for assembling to read and
discuss the gospel. [Sidenote: 1525] Iconoclastic outbreaks occurred in
which crucifixes were desecrated. In the same year an Italian in Antwerp
wrote that though few people were openly Lutheran many were secretly so,
and that he had been assured by leading citizens that if the revolting
peasants of Germany approached Antwerp, twenty thousand armed men would
rise in the city to assist them. [Sidenote: July 31] When a Lutheran
was drowned in the Scheldt, {243} the act precipitated a riot. In 1527
the English ambassador wrote Wolsey from the Netherlands that two persons
out of three "kept Luther's opinions," and that while the English New
Testament was be