An ode published in 1532 by the same Alardus of Amsterdam who was mentioned above refers to a visit to the Holy Stead by Charles V: "On account of a pious vow he made abroad, Charles, as soon as he arrived in Holland, visited the chapel as piously as he could to endow it with imperial donations." This visit is said to have taken place in March 1531, that is about "Corpus Christi in Lent." Charles did in fact visit the Low Countries in that year. It is remarkable that this visit was not recorded in the official chronicles. The theologian Kölker has suggested that Charles''s visit was perhaps of a personal devotional nature. Whatever the truth about this private initiative, the fact is that Charles''s Eucharistic devotion was well-known in Amsterdam and that many assumed that he therefore also favored the Holy Stead. This assumption is borne out by a curious action taken by several members of the women''s guild of the Holy Stead. As has been seen in the first chapter, this guild had been founded shortly after the 1345 Miracle to further the glory of the Holy Stead, and on several occasions in the sixteenth century it would prove to be a particularly resilient women''s movement.

In May 1531, the Amsterdam city authorities decided to build a workshop for wool processing in the narrow garden beside the Holy Stead. But after the pits for the foundations had been dug, they were filled up again by a group of approximately 300 city women on the evening of May 31. These women apparently regarded the works as a violation of the sacred space of the sanctuary. Their action shows to what extent a large part of the population was attached the Holy Stead as something that connected them to God and to one another. The burgomasters strongly opposed this; for them stimulating the urban economy was of overriding importance. Their response was strict: a fortnight after the pits were filled up, on June 14, three of the four women who constituted the board of the guild of the Blessed Sacrament and who had planned the action, the so-called overwiven, were banished from the city for four years. The fourth escaped this fate by paying a fine of fifty guilders. But that was not the end of the matter.

Together with a number of female friends and the parish priest of the New Church, Master Claes Boelen or Boelens, the three exiles went to the Low Countries'' seat of residence, Brussels, where they wished to complain to Charles about the proposed desecration of land belonging to the Holy Stead. They arrived in the Brabant capital on June 23, and had ample opportunity there to express their concerns about lutherij and the insults given to the Blessed Sacrament. Finally, on July 14, they succeeded in gaining access to the emperor in person, who was just about to sit down to table. Master Claes asked him for grace and support, as the women were fighting a just cause. The emperor, taken aback, left the case in the hands of his chancellor, Jean Carondelet. Carondelet discussed the issue with one of the burgomasters of Amsterdam who, shrewdly, had also travelled to Brussels. The two gentlemen evidently decided to regard the case as a purely administrative issue and not to attach any significance to the overwiven''s imputations. The chancellor just maintained the sentence by giving them the choice of paying a fine of fifty guilders or banishment.

The women were no more successful with the emperor''s confessor and the papal legate, who both confirmed the option the women had been given. None of this prevented them from making a truly triumphal entry into the city when they returned to Amsterdam on July 28 - nearly two months after their departure. They rode through the streets in their carriage and waved to the public as if they had been entirely vindicated by the emperor''s decision. The fine of fifty guilders was not much of a problem for them, because all three came from wealthy and important families. Other women from the large group of 300 also had to pay fines, but found this considerably more difficult. New pits were dug at the Holy Stead on August 7 and the wool house was built without further incident. The equilibrium between sacred and commercial interests had been restored. The whole case shows that the impulsive women''s guild had overestimated its power, given that the emperor - or his chancellor - had not the slightest inclination to go against the city authorities.

The latter used the case to show that they would tolerate no social unrest, regardless of the perpetrators'' intentions. Nevertheless, the Amsterdam women''s assertive reaction does indicate that in the 1530s a large part of the population was ready to defend the old faith and its local "personification," the Holy Stead. This background makes it more significant that Alardus of Amsterdam would, one year later, dedicate his book on communion to his friend and sympathizer Claes Boelen, the women''s guild''s coach and companion. (excerpted from chapter 2).