For the same reason little help could be expected from the German princes, for the mutual animosity that was the curse of the Protestant churches prevented their making common cause against the same enemy.
As the Huguenots--for so they began to be called in Brabant as well as in France--were as yet too few {256} to rebel, the only course open was to appeal to the government once more.

A petition to make the Edicts milder was presented to Margaret in 1566.

One of her advisers bade her not to be afraid of "those beggars." Originating in the scorn of enemies, like so many party names, the epithet "Beggars" (Gueux) presently became the designation and a proud one, of the nobles who had signed the Compromise and later of all the rebels.
Encouraged by the regent's apparent lack of power to coerce them, the Calvinist preachers became daily bolder.

Once again their religion showed its remarkable powers of organization.

Lacking nothing in funds, derived from a constituency of wealthy merchants, the preachers of the Reformation were soon able to forge a machinery of propaganda and party action that stood them in good stead against the greater numbers of their enemies.