was the Five Points men who were driven into secession, whose barns were
nailed up, and whose preachers were mobbed. A lugubrious spectacle, but
less painful certainly than the hangings and drownings and burnings alive
in the previous century to prevent secession from the indivisible church.

It is certain that stadholders and all other magistrates ever since the
establishment of independence were sworn to maintain the Reformed
religion and to prevent a public divine worship under any other form. It
is equally certain that by the 13th Article of the Act of Union--the
organic law of the confederation made at Utrecht in 1579--each province
reserved for itself full control of religious questions. It would indeed
seem almost unimaginable in a country where not only every province, but
every city, every municipal board, was so jealous of its local privileges
and traditional rights that the absolute disposition over the highest,
gravest, and most difficult questions that can inspire and perplex
humanity should be left to a general government, and one moreover which
had scarcely come into existence.

Yet into this entirely illogical position the Commonwealth was steadily
drifting. The cause was simple enough. The States of Holland, as
already observed, were Remonstrant by a large majority. The States-
General were Contra-Remonstrant by a still greater majority. The Church,
rigidly attached to the Confession and Catechism, and refusing all change
except through decree of a synod to be called by the general government
which it controlled, represented the national idea. It thus identified
itself with the Republic, and was in sympathy with a large majority of
the population.

Logic, law, historical tradition were on the side of the Advocate and
the States' right party. The instinct of national self-preservation,