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.