ABSTRACT

The doctrines of Luther were first sown and took root amongst the Weavers and manufacturing population of Saxony, a soil the most genial for the reception of the new religion, and posterity is indebted to them for having received and sheltered that vigorous controversialist, and for having nourished and fanned the spark which afterwards blazed out far and wide, enlightened the European mind and freed it from the chains of darkness and superstition. Amongst men less dis posed to enquire and to question, and more inclined to bow to the dictates of authority, the nascent spark might have been extinguished. The Weavers in England, also, were among the earliest supporters of the Reformation, and were cruelly persecuted by Bonner.*

The new religion spread so fast amongst the mercantile and manufacturing population in the Netherlands, as to call down upon them the vengeance of the bigoted court of Spain, and in 1567 the Duke of Alva, a fit instrument for such a measure, was dispatched by Philip to execute it. More than one hundred thou sand were expatriated by his barbarous cruelties. These exiles, the most indus-

41 trious of the people, (for it was chiefly by the manufacturers and merchants that the opinions of the Reformers were embraced,) fled to other countries, carrying with them their industry, their arts and their manufactures. Elizabeth supported and protected the Worsted Weavers who took shelter in England, and with her encouragement numbers of them settled at Norwich.