The Bible was soon translated into Dutch, and in the course of eight years four editions of the whole Bible and twenty-five editions of the New Testament were called for, though the complete Scriptures had never been printed in Dutch before.
[Sidenote: October 14, 1529] Alarmed by the spread of heresy, attributed to too great mildness, the government now issued an edict that inaugurated a reign of terror.

Death was decreed not only for all heretics but for all who, not being theologians, discussed articles of faith, or who caricatured God, Mary, or the saints, and for all who failed to denounce heretics known to them.
While the government momentarily flattered itself that heresy had been stamped out, at most it had been driven under ground.

One of the effects of the persecution was to isolate the Netherlands from the Empire culturally and to some small extent commercially.
But heresy proved to be a veritable hydra.

From one head sprang many daughters, the Anabaptists, [Sidenote: Anabaptists] harder to deal with than their mother.

For while Lutheranism stood essentially for passive obedience, and flourished nowhere save as a state church, Anabaptism was frankly revolutionary and often socialistic.