Editing Beeldenstorm (section)

==Low Countries iconoclastic attacks in 1566==
[[File:Tachtigjarigeoorlog-1566.png|thumb|300px|Blue: The spread of the Beeldenstorm in the Low Countries. Brown: the independent [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]] (Luik).]]

On 10 August 1566, the [[feast-day]] of [[Saint Lawrence]], at the end of the [[pilgrimage]] from Hondschoote to [[Steenvoorde]], the chapel of the ''Sint-Laurensklooster'' ("Saint Lawrence monastery") was defaced by a crowd who invaded the building. It has been suggested that the rioters connected the saint especially with Philip II, whose monastery palace of the [[Escorial]] near [[Madrid]] was dedicated to Lawrence, and was just nearing completion in 1566.<ref>Arnade, 103–104</ref> Iconoclastic attacks spread rapidly northwards and resulted in the destruction of not only images but all sorts of decoration and fittings in churches and other church or clergy property. However, there was relatively little loss of life, unlike similar outbreaks in France, where the clergy were often killed, and some iconoclasts too.<ref>Arnade, 116</ref>

The attacks reached the commercial centre of the Low Countries, Antwerp, on 20 August, and on 22 August Ghent, where the cathedral, eight churches, twenty-five monasteries and convents, ten hospitals and seven chapels were wrecked. From there, it further spread east and north, reaching [[Amsterdam]], then a much smaller town, by 23 August, and continuing in the far north and east into October, although the main towns were mostly attacked in August. [[Valenciennes]] ("Valencijn" on the map) was the most southerly town attacked. In the east, [[Maastricht]] on 20 September and [[Venlo]] on 5 October saw attacks, but generally the outbreaks were restricted to more westerly and northern areas.<ref>See map with dates in Petegree, 118; Arnade, 90–91</ref> Over 400 churches were attacked in Flanders alone.<ref>Eire, 280</ref>

The eye-witness [[Richard Clough]], a Welsh Protestant merchant then in Antwerp, saw: "all the churches, chapels and houses of religion utterly defaced, and no kind of thing left whole within them, but broken and utterly destroyed, being done after such order and by so few folks that it is to be marvelled at." The [[Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)|Church of Our Lady in Antwerp]], later made the cathedral (illustrated at top): "looked like a hell, with above 10,000 torches burning, and such a noise as if heaven and earth had got together, with falling of images and beating down of costly works, such sort that the spoil was so great that a man could not well pass through the church. So that in fine [short], I cannot write you in x sheets of paper the strange sight I saw there, organs and all destroyed."<ref>Spicer, 109 (spelling modernized); see also Arnade, 146–148</ref><ref>[http://dutchrevolt.leiden.edu/english/sources/Pages/15660721.aspx Eye-witness Account of Image-breaking at Antwerp], Universiteit Leiden {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120709173750/http://dutchrevolt.leiden.edu/english/sources/Pages/15660721.aspx |date=2012-07-09 }}</ref>

[[Nicholas Sanders]], an English Catholic exile who was a professor of theology at [[Old University of Louvain|Louvain University]], described the destruction in the same church:
<blockquote>...&nbsp;these fresh followers of this new preaching threw down the graven [sculpted] and defaced the painted images, not only of Our Lady but of all others in the town. They tore the curtains, dashed in pieces the carved work of brass and stone, brake the altars, spoilt the clothes and corporesses, wrested the irons, conveyed away or brake the chalices and vestiments, pulled up the brass of the gravestones, not sparing the glass and seats which were made about the pillars of the church for men to sit in.&nbsp;... the [[Blessed Sacrament]] of the altar&nbsp;... they trod under their feet and (horrible it is to say!) shed their stinking piss upon it&nbsp;... these false bretheren burned and rent not only all kind of Church books, but, moreover, destroyed whole libraries of books of all sciences and tongues, yea the Holy Scriptures and the [[church Fathers|ancient fathers]], and tore in pieces the maps and charts of the descriptions of countries.<ref>Miola, 58–59, 59 quoted</ref></blockquote>

[[File:UtrechtIconoclasm.jpg|thumb|250px|Damaged relief statues in the [[Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht]].]]
Such details are corroborated by many other sources. Accounts of the actions of the iconoclasts from eyewitnesses and the records of the later trials of many of them make it clear that there was often a considerable element of [[carnival]] to the outbreaks, with much mockery of the images and fittings such as fonts recorded as the iconoclasts went about their work. Alcohol features largely in very many accounts, perhaps in some cases because in Netherlandish law being drunk could be regarded as a mitigating factor in criminal sentencing.<ref>Arnade, 105–111</ref>

The destruction frequently included ransacking the priest's house, and sometimes private houses suspected of sheltering church goods. There was much looting of common household goods from clergy houses and monasteries, and some street robberies of women's jewellery by the crowd; after the images were smashed and the property occupied, "men fed their stomachs in a carnivalesque indulgence of beer, bread, butter and cheese, while women carted off provisions for the kitchen or bedroom".<ref>Arnade, 111–112 (quote from 112); 102 for women's jewellery robbed.</ref>
[[File:Famien Strada Histoire-Beeldenstorm Antwerpen-ppn087811480 MG 8893T1p329.tif|thumb|A later book illustration of the destruction in [[Antwerp]], 1727]]

There are many accounts of rituals of inversion, in which the church sometimes stood for the whole social order. Children sometimes participated enthusiastically, and street games afterwards became play battles between "[[papist]]s" and "[[Geuzen|beggars]]". One child was killed in Amsterdam by a stone thrown in such a game.<ref>Arnade, 111–114; for the whole paragraph: 104–122</ref> Elsewhere the iconoclasts seemed to treat their actions as a job of work; in one city the group waited for the bell rung to mark the start of the working day before beginning their work. The tombs and memorial inscriptions of the [[Patrician (post-Roman Europe)|patriciate]] and nobility, and in some cases royalty, were defaced or destroyed in several places, although secular public buildings such as town halls, and the palaces of the nobility, were not attacked.<ref>Arnade, 116–124</ref> In Ghent, on the one hand the memorial in a church to Charles V's sister Isabel (and so Philip's aunt) was carefully left alone, but a statue in the street of Charles V and the Virgin was destroyed.<ref>Arnade, 119–120</ref>

The actions were controversial among Protestants, some of whom implausibly tried to blame Catholic [[agent provocateur]]s,<ref>Petegree, 117–119</ref> as it became clear that "the more popular elements of the dissident movement were out of control".<ref>Wells, 91</ref> Protestant ministers and activists returning from exile in England and elsewhere played a significant role, and individual wealthy Protestants were widely suspected of hiring men to do the work in some places, especially Antwerp.<ref>Petegree, 116–117, and elsewhere, on returning exiles; Arnade, 146–147 on paid iconoclasts</ref>

In some rural areas gangs of iconoclasts moved across country between village churches and monasteries for several days.<ref name="Kleiner2010">{{cite book|last=Kleiner|first=Fred S.|title=Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Concise History of Western Art|date=1 January 2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|language=en |isbn=9781424069224|page=254|quote=In an episode known as the Great Iconoclasm, bands of Calvinists visited Catholic churches in the Netherlands in 1566, shattering stained-glass windows, smashing statues, and destroying paintings and other artworks they perceived as idolatrous.}}</ref><ref>Arnade, 101–102; 104–109</ref> Elsewhere there were large crowds involved, sometimes locals, and sometimes from outside the area. In some places the nobility gave assistance, ordering the clearing of churches on their estates. Local magistracies were often opposed, but ineffective in stopping the destruction.<ref>Petegree, 119–124; Arnade, 120–122</ref> In many towns the archer's guild, who had a function in controlling public order, took no steps against the crowds.<ref>Arnade, 120</ref>

In 1566, unlike the situation after the [[Eighty Years' War]] and today, Protestantism in the Low Countries was mainly concentrated in the south (roughly modern [[Belgium]]), and much weaker in the north (roughly now the [[Netherlands]]). Iconoclasm in the north began later, after news of the events in Antwerp was received, and was more successfully resisted by local authorities in some towns, though still succeeding in most.<ref name="Brouwer2016">{{cite book|last=Brouwer|first=Maria|title=Governmental Forms and Economic Development: From Medieval to Modern Times|date=11 August 2016|publisher=Springer|language=en|isbn=9783319420400|page=224|quote=The city of Amsterdam pursued a policy of restraint against the Calvinists. The iconoclast movement reached Amsterdam in August 1566, but the city government had moved and stored away many church possessions before the iconoclasts reached the city. All churches were closed to tame the fury.}}</ref> Once again socially prominent laymen often took the lead.<ref>Petegree, 124–128</ref> In many places there were, or were later said to have been, false claims of official commissions from some local authority to perform the actions, and by the end of the outbreak some northern towns removed images by order of the local authority, presumably to prevent the disorder that would accompany a mob action.<ref>Arnade, 120–122</ref>

Analysis of the records of the later trials shows a wide range of occupations, covering craftsmen and small tradespeople, especially in the textile trade, and also a variety of church employees, at a fairly low level. Where wealth and property are recorded, it is "modest at best".<ref>Arnade, 102</ref> But [[Weyn Ockers]], executed with her maid after their trials in 1568 for their actions on the first day of the Amsterdam outbreak, was the well-off married daughter of a [[notary]], and her husband's house was in an expensive area. Her mother had been executed in the 1530s, after being involved in Anabaptist rioting.<ref name=FD>Femke Deen, [http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Adriaen%20Ockersdr Adriaen Ockersdr., Weyn Duijf]</ref>