plan for an armed uprising against Austrian rule. Weapons and revolutionary tracts were distributed. Most of the members of the organisation came from the liberal professions (such as lawyers, writers and merchants). Most were moderates who did not object to Joseph II's reforms in principle but because they had been levied on the territories without consultation. They were supported financially by the clergy. Initially members of the opposition were divided on how the uprising should occur. Unlike Van der Noot, Vonck believed that Belgium should liberate itself rather than rely on foreign aid. With the support of the Belgian clergy, all the opposition factions (including Van der Noot) agreed to unite and a Brabant Patriot Committee (Brabants patriottisch Comité) was formed in Hasselt. On 30 August, Pro Aris et Focis voted to install Jean-André van der Mersch (or Vandermersch), a retired military officer, as the commander of the émigré army in Breda. The Committee agreed that the rebellion should begin in October 1789. Revolution In the spring of 1789, a revolution broke out in France against the Bourbon regime of King Louis XVI. In August 1789, the inhabitants of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège also overthrew their tyrannical Prince-Bishop, César-Constantin-François de Hoensbroeck, in a bloodless coup d'état known as the "Happy Revolution" (Heureuse révolution). Contemporaries viewed the uprising in Liège, which was also inspired by Enlightenment ideas, as a symptom of revolutionary "contagion" from France. In the face of a rebellion proclaiming the ideas of liberty and equality, the Prince-Bishop soon fled to the neighboring Archbishopric of Trier and the revolutionaries proclaimed a republic in Liège. Invasion The Brabant Revolution broke out on 24 October 1789 when the émigré patriot army under Van der Mersch crossed over the Dutch border into the Austrian Netherlands. The army, which numbered 2,800 men, crossed into the Kempen region south of Breda. The army arrived in the town of Hoogstraten where a specially prepared document, the Manifesto of the People of Brabant (Manifeste du peuple brabançon), was read in the city hall. The document denounced Joseph II's rule and declared that he no longer held legitimacy. The text of the speech itself was an embellished version of the 1581 declaration (the Verlatinge) by the Dutch States-General denouncing Philip II's rule in the Netherlands. On 27 October, the patriot army clashed with a much-larger Austrian force at the nearby town of Turnhout. The ensuing battle was