By this act a new state was born.

Orange still continued to labor for union with the Southern provinces, but he failed.

A bitter religious war broke out in the cities of the South.

At Ghent the churches were plundered anew.
[Sidenote: 1581] At Brussels and Antwerp the Protestant proletariat won a temporary ascendancy and Catholic worship was forbidden in both cities.

A general emigration from them ensued.