take weeks. He assumed that meanwhile the requested suspension of enforcement would be in effect. That evening the petitioners held a banquet at which they toasted the king and themselves as "beggars". Henceforth the Geuzen would be the name of their party. Aftermath The king took a long time to react to the petition, and when he finally did, he rejected its requests. Meanwhile a large number of Protestants had returned from exile, and other Protestants now dared come out into the open. Large numbers of Protestants, especially Calvinists, started holding prayer meetings outside the walls of many cities. These open-air sermons by Calvinist preachers, though initially peaceful, caused much anxiety for the local and central authorities. In August 1566, in the depressed industrial area around Steenvoorde a rash of attacks on Catholic church property started, in which religious statuary was destroyed by irate Calvinists, for whom those statues contravened the Second Commandment against graven images. Soon this Beeldenstorm or Iconoclastic Fury engulfed the entire country. Though the central authorities eventually suppressed this insurrection, it led to the severe repression by the Duke of Alba that would precipitate the Dutch Revolt and Eighty Years' War. Notes Sources (1992) The Political Thought of the Dutch Revolt 1555-1590 Cambridge U.P., paperback. (1911) William the Silent, Prince of Orange (1533-1584) and the Revolt of the Netherlands, pp. 161ff. External links Text of the Petition (Dutch) Translation of the Petition (English) 1566 in the Habsburg Netherlands Eighty Years' War Political compromises in Europe it:Compromesso di Breda