The soldiers were not disbanded, as the States of Utrecht were less occupied with establishing the soundness of their theory than with securing its practical results.
They knew very well, and the Advocate knew very well, that the intention to force a national synod by a majority vote of the Assembly of the States-General existed more strongly than ever, and they meant to resist it to the last.

The attempt was in their opinion an audacious violation of the fundamental pact on which the Confederacy was founded.

Its success would be to establish the sacerdotal power in triumph over the civil authority.
During this period the Advocate was resident in Utrecht.

For change of air, ostensibly at least, he had absented himself from the seat of government, and was during several weeks under the hands of his old friend and physician Dr.Saul.He was strictly advised to abstain altogether from political business, but he might as well have attempted to abstain from food and drink.

Gillis van Ledenberg, secretary of the States of Utrecht, visited him frequently.