By the spring of 1567 Philip II of Spain sent the Duke of Alva to punish the perpetrators of the Iconoclastic Fury. Alva oversaw the Council of Troubles which tried and sentenced over a thousand people to death over the following six years.

Alva’s violent repression deeply affected the Reformation. While countless Protestants recanted their faith, others were forced to flee The Netherlands in search of refuge. They landed in places like Enaldn and Germany, where a special community of refugees clustered in the city of Emden. 

Those who remained in The Netherlands were forced underground where they continued to worship in secret and maintain their ties with the exiled Protestant communities abroad.