Meantime the rumor had gone abroad that the Request of the nobles had
already produced good fruit, that the edicts were to be mitigated, the
inquisition abolished, liberty of conscience eventually to prevail.
"Upon these reports," says a contemporary, "all the vermin of exiles and
fugitives for religion, as well as those who had kept in concealment,
began to lift up their heads and thrust forth their horns." It was known
that Margaret of Parma had ordered the inquisitors and magistrates to
conduct themselves "modestly and discreetly." It was known that the
privy council was hard at work upon the project for "moderating" the
edicts. Modestly and discreetly, Margaret of Parma, almost immediately
after giving these orders, and while the "moderation" was still in the
hands of the lawyers, informed her brother that she had given personal
attention to the case of a person who had snatched the holy wafer from
the priest's hand at Oudenarde. This "quidam," as she called him--for
his name was beneath the cognizance of an Emperor's bastard daughter--had
by her orders received rigorous and exemplary justice. And what was the
"rigorous and exemplary justice" thus inflicted upon the "quidam?" The
procurator of the neighboring city of Tournay has enabled us to answer.
The young man, who was a tapestry weaver, Hans Tiskaen by name, had,
upon the 30th May, thrown the holy wafer upon the ground. For this
crime, which was the same as that committed on Christmas-day of the
previous year by Bertrand le Blas, at Tournay, he now met with a similar
although not quite so severe a punishment. Having gone quietly home
after doing the deed, he was pursued, arrested, and upon the Saturday
ensuing taken to the market-place of Oudenarde. Here the right hand with
which he had committed the offence was cut off, and he was then fastened
to the stake and burned to death over a slow fire. He was fortunately
not more than a quarter of an hour in torment, but he persisted in his
opinions, and called on God for support to his last breath.