Upon being resisted, he enforces collection with the armed hand.

The sword and the pen, strength and intellect, no longer the exclusive servants or instruments of priestcraft, are both in open revolt.

Charles the Bold storms one fortress, Doctor Grandfort, of Groningen, batters another.
This learned Frisian, called "the light of the world," friend and compatriot of the great Rudolph Agricola, preaches throughout the provinces, uttering bold denunciations of ecclesiastical error.

He even disputes the infallibility of the Pope, denies the utility of prayers for the dead, and inveighs against the whole doctrine of purgatory and absolution.
With the beginning of the 16th century, the great Reformation was actually alive.

The name of Erasmus of Rotterdam was already celebrated; the man, who, according to Grotius, "so well showed the road to a reasonable reformation." But if Erasmus showed the road, he certainly did not travel far upon it himself.