ABSTRACT
In 1573, regulations were drawn up for the maintenance of law and order and the re-establishment of the urban privileges of Le Cateau. The town lay in the territories of the archbishop of Cambrai but seven years earlier it had rebelled against the authority of its sovereign prince. The regulations began by recounting the circumstances that had prompted this uprising against the archbishop:
Following these events in late August 1566, the archbishop attempted to restore order and appealed to the Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire for assistance. The Circle ordered the Reformed to leave Le Cateau in 15 days or, if they remained, to convert and submit to the Catholic faith. The publication of this decree on 12 October prompted a further iconoclastic outburst in the town and the expulsion of the Catholic clergy and religious. The uprising was finally suppressed by military force on 24 March 1567 and
subsequently 18 were executed and over 300 people were banished from the town.2 There were further executions and banishments ordered in the surrounding villages. The iconoclasm and rebellion at Le Cateau-Cambrésis has been the focus of several studies and a number of the related documents were published in the nineteenth century.3 This chapter will therefore not provide a detailed examination and analysis of these particular events, but an overview of the iconoclasm, placing it more widely in the context of the politico-religious conflicts of the 1560s in France and the Southern Netherlands, and in relation to the differing theological attitudes towards images.
