[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D. W. ]

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 5. 

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D. C. L. , LL. D. 

1855

ADMINISTRATION OF THE DUCHESS MARGARET. 

1559-1560 [CHAPTER I. ]

 Biographical sketch and portrait of Margaret of Parma--The state council--Berlaymont--Viglius--Sketch of William the Silent--Portrait of Antony Perrenot, afterwards Cardinal Granvelle--General view of the political, social and religious condition of the Netherlands-- Habits of the aristocracy--Emulation in extravagance--Pecuniary embarrassments--Sympathy for the Reformation, steadily increasing among the people, the true cause of the impending revolt--Measures of the government. --Edict of 1550 described--Papal Bulls granted to Philip for increasing the number of Bishops in the Netherlands-- Necessity for retaining the Spanish troops to enforce the policy of persecution. 

Margaret of Parma, newly appointed Regent of the Netherlands, was thenatural daughter of Charles the Fifth, and his eldest born child. Hermother, of a respectable family called Van der Genst, in Oudenarde, hadbeen adopted and brought up by the distinguished house of Hoogstraaten. Peculiar circumstances, not necessary to relate at length, had palliatedthe fault to which Margaret owed her imperial origin, and gave the childalmost a legitimate claim upon its father's protection. The claim washonorably acknowledged. Margaret was in her infancy placed by theEmperor in the charge of his paternal aunt, Margaret of Savoy, thenRegent of the provinces. Upon the death of that princess, the child wasentrusted to the care of the Emperor's sister, Mary, Queen Dowager ofHungary, who had succeeded to the government, and who occupied it untilthe abdication. The huntress-queen communicated her tastes to heryouthful niece, and Margaret soon outrivalled her instructress. Theardor with which she pursued the stag, and the courageous horsemanshipwhich she always displayed, proved her, too, no degenerate descendant ofMary of Burgundy. Her education for the distinguished position in whichshe had somewhat surreptitiously been placed was at least not neglectedin this particular. When, soon after the memorable sack of Rome, thePope and the Emperor had been reconciled, and it had been decided thatthe Medici family should be elevated upon the ruins of Florentineliberty, Margaret's hand was conferred in marriage upon the pontiff'snephew Alexander. The wretched profligate who was thus selected to matewith the Emperor's eldest born child and to appropriate the fair demesnesof the Tuscan republic was nominally the offspring of Lorenzo de Mediciby a Moorish slave, although generally reputed a bastard of the Popehimself. The nuptials were celebrated with great pomp at Naples, wherethe Emperor rode at the tournament in the guise of a Moorish warrior. At Florence splendid festivities had also been held, which were troubledwith omens believed to be highly unfavorable. It hardly needed, however, preternatural appearances in heaven or on earth to proclaim the marriageill-starred which united a child of twelve years with a worn-outdebauchee of twenty-seven. Fortunately for Margaret, the funerealportents proved true. Her husband, within the first year of their weddedlife, fell a victim to his own profligacy, and was assassinated by hiskinsman, Lorenzino de Medici. Cosmo, his successor in the tyranny ofFlorence, was desirous of succeeding to the hand of Margaret, but thepolitic Emperor, thinking that he had already done enough to conciliatethat house, was inclined to bind to his interests the family which nowoccupied the papal throne. Margaret was accordingly a few yearsafterwards united to Ottavio Farnese, nephew of Paul the Third. It wasstill her fate to be unequally matched. Having while still a child beenwedded to a man of more than twice her years, she was now, at the age oftwenty, united to an immature youth of thirteen. She conceived so strongan aversion to her new husband, that it became impossible for them tolive together in peace. Ottavio accordingly went to the wars, and in1541 accompanied the Emperor in his memorable expedition to Barbary. 

Rumors of disaster by battle and tempest reaching Europe before theresults of the expedition were accurately known, reports that the Emperorhad been lost in a storm, and that the young Ottavio had perished withhim, awakened remorse in the bosom of Margaret. It seemed to her that hehad been driven forth by domestic inclemency to fall a victim to theelements. When, however, the truth became known, and it was ascertainedthat her husband, although still living, was lying dangerously ill in thecharge of the Emperor, the repugnance which had been founded upon hisextreme youth changed to passionate fondness. His absence, and hisfaithful military attendance upon her father, caused a revulsion in herfeelings, and awakened her admiration. When Ottavio, now created Duke ofParma and Piacenza, returned to Rome, he was received by his wife withopen arms. Their union was soon blessed with twins, and but for acertain imperiousness of disposition which Margaret had inherited fromher father, and which she was too apt to exercise even upon her husband, the marriage would have been sufficiently fortunate. 

Various considerations pointed her out to Philip as a suitable person forthe office of Regent, although there seemed some mystery about theappointment which demanded explanation. It was thought that her birthwould make her acceptable to the people; but perhaps, the secret reasonwith Philip was, that she alone of all other candidates would be amenableto the control of the churchman in whose hand he intended placing thereal administration of the provinces. Moreover, her husband was verydesirous that the citadel of Piacenza, still garrisoned by Spanishtroops, should be surrendered to him. Philip was disposed to conciliatethe Duke, but unwilling to give up the fortress. He felt that Ottaviowould be flattered by the nomination of his wife to so important anoffice, and be not too much dissatisfied at finding himself relieved fora time from her imperious fondness. Her residence in the Netherlandswould guarantee domestic tranquillity to her husband, and peace in Italyto the King. Margaret would be a hostage for the fidelity of the Duke, who had, moreover, given his eldest son to Philip to be educated in hisservice. 

She was about thirty-seven years of age when she arrived in theNetherlands, with the reputation of possessing high talents, and a proudand energetic character. She was an enthusiastic Catholic, and had satat the feet of Loyola, who had been her confessor and spiritual guide. She felt a greater horror for heretics than for any other species ofmalefactors, and looked up to her father's bloody edicts as if they hadbeen special revelations from on high. She was most strenuous in herobservance of Roman rites, and was accustomed to wash the feet of twelvevirgins every holy week, and to endow them in marriage afterwards. --Heracquirements, save that of the art of horsemanship, were not remarkable. 

Carefully educated in the Machiavellian and Medicean school of politics, she was versed in that "dissimulation, " to which liberal Anglo-Saxonsgive a shorter name, but which formed the main substance of statesmanshipat the court of Charles and Philip. In other respects her accomplishmentswere but meagre, and she had little acquaintance with any language butItalian. Her personal appearance, which was masculine, but not withouta certain grand and imperial fascination, harmonized with the opiniongenerally entertained of her character. The famous moustache upon herupper lips was supposed to indicate authority and virility of purpose, an impression which was confirmed by the circumstance that she was liableto severe attacks of gout, a disorder usually considered more appropriateto the sterner sex. 

Such were the previous career and public reputation of the DuchessMargaret. It remains to be unfolded whether her character andendowments, as exemplified in her new position, were to justify thechoice of Philip. 

The members of the state council, as already observed, were Berlaymont, Viglius, Arras, Orange, and Egmont. 

The first was, likewise, chief of the finance department. Most of theCatholic writers described him as a noble of loyal and highly honorablecharacter. Those of the Protestant party, on the contrary, uniformlydenounced him as greedy, avaricious, and extremely sanguinary. That hewas a brave and devoted soldier, a bitter papist, and an inflexibleadherent to the royal cause, has never been disputed. The Baron himself, with his four courageous and accomplished sons, were ever in the frontranks to defend the crown against the nation. It must be confessed, however, that fanatical loyalty loses most of the romance with whichgenius and poetry have so often hallowed the sentiment, when the"legitimate" prince for whom the sword is drawn is not only an alien intongue and blood, but filled with undisguised hatred for the land heclaims to rule. 

Viglius van Aytta van Zuichem was a learned Frisian, born, according tosome writers, of "boors' degree, but having no inclination for boorishwork". According to other authorities, which the President himselffavored, he was of noble origin; but, whatever his race, it is certainthat whether gentle or simple, it derived its first and only historicalillustration from his remarkable talents and acquirements. These inearly youth were so great as to acquire the commendation of Erasmus. He had studied in Louvain, Paris, and Padua, had refused the tutorshipPhilip when that prince was still a child, and had afterwards filled aprofessorship at Ingolstadt. After rejecting several offers of promotionfrom the Emperor, he had at last accepted in 1542 a seat in the councilof Mechlin, of which body he had become president in 1545. He had beenone of the peace commissioners to France in 1558, and was now presidentof the privy council, a member of the state council, and of the inner andsecret committee of that board, called the Consults. Much odium wasattached to his name for his share in the composition of the famous edictof 1550. The rough draught was usually attributed to his pen, but hecomplained bitterly, in letters written at this time, of injustice donehim in this respect, and maintained that he had endeavored, withoutsuccess, to induce the Emperor to mitigate the severity of the edict. One does not feel very strongly inclined to accept his excuses, however, when his general opinions on the subject of religion are remembered. Hewas most bigoted in precept and practice. Religious liberty he regardedas the most detestable and baleful of doctrines; heresy he denounced asthe most unpardonable of crimes. 

From no man's mouth flowed more bitter or more elegant commonplaces thanfrom that of the learned president against those blackest of malefactors, the men who claimed within their own walls the right to worship Godaccording to their own consciences. For a common person, not learned inlaw or divinity, to enter into his closet, to shut the door, and to prayto Him who seeth in secret, was, in his opinion, to open wide the gate ofdestruction for all the land, and to bring in the Father of Evil at onceto fly away with the whole population, body and soul. "If every man, "said he to Hopper, "is to believe what he likes in his own house, weshall have hearth gods and tutelar divinities, again, the country willswarm with a thousand errors and sects, and very few there will be, Ifear, who will allow themselves to be enclosed in the sheepfold ofChrist. I have ever considered this opinion, " continued the president, "the most pernicious of all. They who hold it have a contempt for allreligion, and are neither more nor less than atheists. This vague, fireside liberty should be by every possible means extirpated; thereforedid Christ institute shepherds to drive his wandering sheep back into thefold of the true Church; thus only can we guard the lambs against theravening wolves, and prevent their being carried away from the flock ofChrist to the flock of Belial. Liberty of religion, or of conscience, asthey call it, ought never to be tolerated. "

This was the cant with which Viglius was ever ready to feed not only hisfaithful Hopper, but all the world beside. The president was naturallyanxious that the fold of Christ should be entrusted to none but regularshepherds, for he looked forward to taking one of the most lucrativecrooks into his own hand, when he should retire from his secular career. 

It is now necessary to say a few introductory words concerning the manwho, from this time forth, begins to rise upon the history of his countrywith daily increasing grandeur and influence. William of Nassau, Princeof Orange, although still young in years, is already the centralpersonage about whom the events and the characters of the epoch mostnaturally group themselves; destined as he is to become more and morewith each succeeding year the vivifying source of light, strength, andnational life to a whole people. 

The Nassau family first emerges into distinct existence in the middle ofthe eleventh century. It divides itself almost as soon as known into twogreat branches. The elder remained in Germany, ascended the imperialthrone in the thirteenth century in the person of Adolph of Nassau andgave to the country many electors, bishops, and generals. The youngerand more illustrious branch retained the modest property and pettysovereignty of Nassau Dillenbourg, but at the same time transplanteditself to the Netherlands, where it attained at an early period to greatpower and large possessions. The ancestors of William, as Dukes ofGueldres, had begun to exercise sovereignty in the provinces fourcenturies before the advent of the house of Burgundy. That overshadowingfamily afterwards numbered the Netherland Nassaus among its most stanchand powerful adherents. Engelbert the Second was distinguished in theturbulent councils and in the battle-fields of Charles the Bold, and wasafterwards the unwavering supporter of Maximilian, in court and camp. Dying childless, he was succeeded by his brother John, whose two sons, Henry and William, of Nassau, divided the great inheritance after theirfather's death, William succeeded to the German estates, became a convertto Protestantism, and introduced the Reformation into his dominions. Henry, the eldest son, received the family possessions and titles inLuxembourg, Brabant, Flanders and Holland, and distinguished himself asmuch as his uncle Engelbert, in the service of the Burgundo-Austrianhouse. The confidential friend of Charles the Fifth, whose governor hehad been in that Emperor's boyhood, he was ever his most efficient andreliable adherent. It was he whose influence placed the imperial crownupon the head of Charles. In 1515 he espoused Claudia de Chalons, sisterof Prince Philibert of Orange, "in order, " as he wrote to his father, "to be obedient to his imperial Majesty, to please the King of France, and more particularly for the sake of his own honor and profit. "

His son Rene de Nassau-Chalons succeeded Philibert. The littleprincipality of Orange, so pleasantly situated between Provence andDauphiny, but in such dangerous proximity to the seat of the "Babyloniancaptivity" of the popes at Avignon, thus passed to the family of Nassau. The title was of high antiquity. Already in the reign of Charlemagne, Guillaume au Court-Nez, or "William with the Short Nose, " had defendedthe little--town of Orange against the assaults of the Saracens. Theinterest and authority acquired in the demesnes thus preserved by hisvalor became extensive, and in process of time hereditary in his race. The principality became an absolute and free sovereignty, and had alreadydescended, in defiance of the Salic law, through the three distinctfamilies of Orange, Baux, and Chalons. 

In 1544, Prince Rene died at the Emperor's feet in the trenches of SaintDizier. Having no legitimate children, he left all his titles andestates to his cousin-german, William of Nassau, son of his father'sbrother William, who thus at the age of eleven years became William theNinth of Orange. For this child, whom the future was to summon to suchhigh destinies and such heroic sacrifices, the past and present seemed tohave gathered riches and power together from many sources. He was thedescendant of the Othos, the Engelberts, and the Henries, of theNetherlands, the representative of the Philiberts and the Renes ofFrance; the chief of a house, humbler in resources and position inGermany, but still of high rank, and which had already done good serviceto humanity by being among the first to embrace the great principles ofthe Reformation. 

His father, younger brother of the Emperor's friend Henry, was calledWilliam the Rich. He was, however, only rich in children. Of these hehad five sons and seven daughters by his wife Juliana of Stolberg. Shewas a person of most exemplary character and unaffected piety. Sheinstilled into the minds of all her children the elements of thatdevotional sentiment which was her own striking characteristic, and itwas destined that the seed sown early should increase to an abundantharvest. Nothing can be more tender or more touching than the letterswhich still exist from her hand, written to her illustrious sons in hoursof anxiety or anguish, and to the last, recommending to them with as muchearnest simplicity as if they were still little children at her knee, torely always in the midst of the trials and dangers which were to besettheir paths through life, upon the great hand of God. Among the mothersof great men, Juliana of Stolberg deserves a foremost place, and it is noslight eulogy that she was worthy to have been the mother of William ofOrange and of Lewis, Adolphus, Henry, and John of Nassau. 

At the age of eleven years, William having thus unexpectedly succeeded tosuch great possessions, was sent from his father's roof to be educated inBrussels. No destiny seemed to lie before the young prince but aneducation at the Emperor's court, to be followed by military adventures, embassies, viceroyalties, and a life of luxury and magnificence. At avery early age he came, accordingly, as a page into the Emperor's family. Charles recognized, with his customary quickness, the remarkablecharacter of the boy. At fifteen, William was the intimate, almostconfidential friend of the Emperor, who prided himself, above all othergifts, on his power of reading and of using men. The youth was soconstant an attendant upon his imperial chief that even when interviewswith the highest personages, and upon the gravest affairs, were takingplace, Charles would never suffer him to be considered superfluous orintrusive. There seemed to be no secrets which the Emperor held too highfor the comprehension or discretion of his page. His perceptive andreflective faculties, naturally of remarkable keenness and depth, thusacquired a precocious and extraordinary development. He was brought upbehind the curtain of that great stage where the world's dramas weredaily enacted. The machinery and the masks which produced the granddelusions of history had no deceptions for him. Carefully to observemen's actions, and silently to ponder upon their motives, was thefavorite occupation of the Prince during his apprenticeship at court. As he advanced to man's estate, he was selected by the Emperor for thehighest duties. Charles, whose only merit, so far as the provinces wereconcerned, was in having been born in Ghent, and that by an ignobleaccident, was glad to employ this representative of so many greatNetherland houses, in the defence of the land. Before the Prince wastwenty-one he was appointed general-in-chief of the army on the Frenchfrontier, in the absence of the Duke of Savoy. The post was coveted bymany most distinguished soldiers: the Counts of Buren, Bossu, Lalaing, Aremberg, Meghem, and particularly by Count Egmont; yet Charles showedhis extraordinary confidence in the Prince of Orange, by selecting himfor the station, although he had hardly reached maturity, and wasmoreover absent in France. The young Prince acquitted himself of hishigh command in a manner which justified his appointment. 

It was the Prince's shoulder upon which the Emperor leaned at theabdication; the Prince's hand which bore the imperial insignia of thediscrowned monarch to Ferdinand, at Augsburg. With these duties hisrelations with Charles were ended, and those with Philip begun. He waswith the army during the hostilities which were soon after resumed inPicardy; he was the secret negotiator of the preliminary arrangement withFrance, soon afterwards confirmed by the triumphant treaty of April, 1559. He had conducted these initiatory conferences with the ConstableMontmorency and Marshal de Saint Andre with great sagacity, althoughhardly a man in years, and by so doing he had laid Philip under deepobligations. The King was so inexpressibly anxious for peace that hewould have been capable of conducting a treaty upon almost any terms. He assured the Prince that "the greatest service he could render him inthis world was to make peace, and that he desired to have it at any pricewhat ever, so eager was he to return to Spain. " To the envoy Suriano, Philip had held the same language. "Oh, Ambassador, " said he, "I wishpeace on any terms, and if the King of France had not sued for it, Iwould have begged for it myself. "

With such impatience on the part of the sovereign, it certainlymanifested diplomatic abilities of a high character in the Prince, that the treaty negotiated by him amounted to a capitulation by France. He was one of the hostages selected by Henry for the due execution of thetreaty, and while in France made that remarkable discovery which was tocolor his life. While hunting with the King in the forest of Vincennes, the Prince and Henry found themselves alone together, and separated fromthe rest of the company. The French monarch's mind was full of the greatscheme which had just secretly been formed by Philip and himself, toextirpate Protestantism by a general extirpation of Protestants. Philiphad been most anxious to conclude the public treaty with France, that hemight be the sooner able to negotiate that secret convention by which heand his Most Christian Majesty were solemnly to bind themselves tomassacre all the converts to the new religion in France and theNetherlands. This conspiracy of the two Kings against their subjects wasthe matter nearest the hearts of both. The Duke of Alva, a fellowhostage with William of Orange, was the plenipotentiary to conduct thismore important arrangement. The French monarch, somewhat imprudentlyimagining that the Prince was also a party to the plot, opened the wholesubject to him without reserve. He complained of the constantlyincreasing numbers of sectaries in his kingdom, and protested that hisconscience would never be easy, nor his state secure until his realmshould be delivered of "that accursed vermin. " A civil revolution, underpretext of a religious reformation, was his constant apprehension, particularly since so many notable personages in the realm, and evenprinces of the blood, were already tainted with heresy. Nevertheless, with the favor of heaven, and the assistance of his son and brotherPhilip, he hoped soon to be master of the rebels. The King thenproceeded, with cynical minuteness, to lay before his discreet companionthe particulars of the royal plot, and the manner in which all heretics, whether high or humble, were to be discovered and massacred at the mostconvenient season. For the furtherance of the scheme in the Netherlands, it was understood that the Spanish regiments would be exceedinglyefficient. The Prince, although horror-struck and indignant at the royalrevelations, held his peace, and kept his countenance. The King was notaware that, in opening this delicate negotiation to Alva's colleague andPhilip's plenipotentiary, he had given a warning of inestimable value tothe man who had been born to resist the machinations of Philip and ofAlva. William of Orange earned the surname of "the Silent, " from themanner in which he received these communications of Henry withoutrevealing to the monarch, by word or look, the enormous blunder which hehad committed. His purpose was fixed from that hour. A few daysafterwards he obtained permission to visit the Netherlands, where hetook measures to excite, with all his influence, the strongest and mostgeneral opposition to the continued presence of the Spanish troops, ofwhich forces, touch against his will, he had been, in conjunction withEgmont, appointed chief. He already felt, in his own language, that "aninquisition for the Netherlands had been, resolved upon more cruel thanthat of Spain; since it would need but to look askance at an image to becast into the flames. " Although having as yet no spark of religioussympathy for the reformers, he could not, he said, "but feel compassionfor so many virtuous men and women thus devoted to massacre, " and hedetermined to save them if he could!' At the departure of Philip he hadreceived instructions, both patent and secret, for his guidance asstadholder of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht. He was ordered "mostexpressly to correct and extirpate the sects reprobated by our HolyMother Church; to execute the edicts of his Imperial Majesty, renewed bythe King, with absolute rigor. He was to see that the judges carried outthe edicts, without infraction, alteration, or moderation, since theywere there to enforce, not to make or to discuss the law. " In his secretinstructions he was informed that the execution of the edicts was to bewith all rigor, and without any respect of persons. He was also remindedthat, whereas some persons had imagined the severity of the law "to beonly intended against Anabaptists, on the contrary, the edicts were to beenforced on Lutherans and all other sectaries without distinction. "Moreover, in one of his last interviews with Philip, the King had givenhim the names of several "excellent persons suspected of the newreligion, " and had commanded him to have them put to death. This, however, he not only omitted to do, but on the contrary gave themwarning, so that they might effect their escape, "thinking it morenecessary to obey God than man. "

William of Orange, at the departure of the King for Spain, was in histwenty-seventh year. He was a widower; his first wife, Anne of Egmont, having died in 1558, after seven years of wedlock. This lady, to whomhe had been united when they were both eighteen years of age, was thedaughter of the celebrated general, Count de Buren, and the greatestheiress in the Netherlands. William had thus been faithful to the familytraditions, and had increased his possessions by a wealthy alliance. He had two children, Philip and Mary. The marriage had been moreamicable than princely marriages arranged for convenience often prove. The letters of the Prince to his wife indicate tenderness andcontentment. At the same time he was accused, at a later period, of"having murdered her with a dagger. " The ridiculous tale was not evencredited by those who reported it, but it is worth mentioning, as a proofthat no calumny was too senseless to be invented concerning the man whosecharacter was from that hour forth to be the mark of slander, and whosewhole life was to be its signal, although often unavailing, refutation. 

Yet we are not to regard William of Orange, thus on the threshold of hisgreat career, by the light diffused from a somewhat later period. In nohistorical character more remarkably than in his is the law of constantdevelopment and progress illustrated. At twenty-six he is not the "paterpatriae, " the great man struggling upward and onward against a host ofenemies and obstacles almost beyond human strength, and along the darkand dangerous path leading through conflict, privation, and ceaselesslabor to no repose but death. On the contrary, his foot was hardly onthe first step of that difficult ascent which was to rise before him allhis lifetime. He was still among the primrose paths. He was rich, powerful, of sovereign rank. He had only the germs within him of whatwas thereafter to expand into moral and intellectual greatness. He hadsmall sympathy for the religious reformation, of which he was to be oneof the most distinguished champions. He was a Catholic, nominally, andin outward observance. With doctrines he troubled himself but little. He had given orders to enforce conformity to the ancient Church, not withbloodshed, yet with comparative strictness, in his principality ofOrange. Beyond the compliance with rites and forms, thoughtindispensable in those days to a personage of such high degree, he didnot occupy himself with theology. He was a Catholic, as Egmont and Horn, Berlaymont and Mansfeld, Montigny and even Brederode, were Catholic. Itwas only tanners, dyers and apostate priests who were Protestants at thatday in the Netherlands. His determination to protect a multitude of hisharmless inferiors from horrible deaths did not proceed from sympathywith their religious sentiments, but merely from a generous and manlydetestation of murder. He carefully averted his mind from sacredmatters. If indeed the seed implanted by his pious parents were reallythe germ of his future conversion to Protestantism, it must be confessedthat it lay dormant a long time. But his mind was in other pursuits. He was disposed for an easy, joyous, luxurious, princely life. Banquets, masquerades, tournaments, the chase, interspersed with the routine ofofficial duties, civil and military, seemed likely to fill out his life. His hospitality, like his fortune, was almost regal. While the King andthe foreign envoys were still in the Netherlands, his house, the splendidNassau palace of Brussels, was ever open. He entertained for themonarch, who was, or who imagined himself to be, too poor to dischargehis own duties in this respect, but he entertained at his own expense. This splendid household was still continued. Twenty-four noblemen andeighteen pages of gentle birth officiated regularly in his family. Hisestablishment was on so extensive a scale that upon one day twenty-eightmaster cooks were dismissed, for the purpose of diminishing the familyexpenses, and there was hardly a princely house in Germany which did notsend cooks to learn their business in so magnificent a kitchen. Thereputation of his table remained undiminished for years. We find ata later period, that Philip, in the course of one of the nominalreconciliations which took place several times between the monarch andWilliam of Orange, wrote that, his head cook being dead, he begged thePrince to "make him a present of his chief cook, Master Herman, who wasunderstood to be very skilful. "

In this hospitable mansion, the feasting continued night and day. Fromearly morning till noon, the breakfast-tables were spread with wines andluxurious viands in constant succession, to all comers and at everymoment. --The dinner and supper were daily banquets for a multitude ofguests. The highest nobles were not those alone who were entertained. Men of lower degree were welcomed with a charming hospitality which madethem feel themselves at their ease. Contemporaries of all parties unitein eulogizing the winning address and gentle manners of the Prince. "Never, " says a most bitter Catholic historian, "did an arrogant orindiscreet word fall from his lips. He, upon no occasion, manifestedanger to his servants, however much they might be in fault, but contentedhimself with admonishing them graciously, without menace or insult. He had a gentle and agreeable tongue, with which he could turn all thegentlemen at court any way he liked. He was beloved and honored by thewhole community. " His manner was graceful, familiar, caressing, and yetdignified. He had the good breeding which comes from the heart, refinedinto an inexpressible charm from his constant intercourse, almost fromhis cradle, with mankind of all ranks. 

It may be supposed that this train of living was attended with expense. Moreover, he had various other establishments in town and country;besides his almost royal residence in Brussels. He was ardently fond ofthe chase, particularly of the knightly sport of falconry. In thecountry he "consoled himself by taking every day a heron in the clouds. "His falconers alone cost him annually fifteen hundred florins, after hehad reduced their expenses to the lowest possible point. He was much indebt, even at this early period and with his princely fortune. "We comeof a race, " he wrote carelessly to his brother Louis, "who are somewhatbad managers in our young days, but when we grow older, we do better, like our late father: 'sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper et insecula seculorum'. My greatest difficulty, " he adds, "as usual, is onaccount of the falconers. "

His debts already amounted, according to Granvelle's statement, to800, 000 or 900, 000 florins. He had embarrassed himself, not only throughhis splendid extravagance, by which all the world about him were made topartake of his wealth, but by accepting the high offices to which he hadbeen appointed. When general-in-chief on the frontier, his salary wasthree hundred florins monthly; "not enough, " as he said, "to pay theservants in his tent, " his necessary expenses being twenty-five hundredflorins, as appears by a letter to his wife. His embassy to carry thecrown to Ferdinand, and his subsequent residence as a hostage for thetreaty in Paris, were also very onerous, and he received no salary;according to the economical system in this respect pursued by Charles andPhilip. In these two embassies or missions alone, together with theentertainments offered by him to the court and to foreigners, after thepeace at Brussels, the Prince spent, according to his own estimate, 1, 500, 000 florins. He was, however, although deeply, not desperatelyinvolved, and had already taken active measures to regulate and reducehis establishment. His revenues were vast, both in his own right and inthat of his deceased wife. He had large claims upon the royal treasuryfor service and expenditure. He had besides ample sums to receive fromthe ransoms of the prisoners of St. Quentin and Gravelines, having servedin both campaigns. The amount to be received by individuals from thissource may be estimated from the fact that Count Horn, by no means oneof the most favored in the victorious armies, had received from Leonord'Orleans, Due de Loggieville, a ransom of eighty thousand crowns. Thesum due, if payment were enforced, from the prisoners assigned to Egmont, Orange, and others, must have been very large. Granvelle estimated thewhole amount at two millions; adding, characteristically, "that this kindof speculation was a practice" which our good old fathers, lovers ofvirtue, would not have found laudable. In this the churchman was right, but he might have added that the "lovers of virtue" would have found itas little "laudable" for ecclesiastics to dispose of the sacred officesin their gift, for carpets, tapestry, and annual payments of certainpercentages upon the cure of souls. If the profits respectively gainedby military and clerical speculators in that day should be compared, thedisadvantage would hardly be found to lie with those of the long robe. 

Such, then, at the beginning of 1560, was William of Orange; a generous, stately, magnificent, powerful grandee. As a military commander, he hadacquitted himself very creditably of highly important functions at anearly age. Nevertheless it was the opinion of many persons, that he wasof a timid temperament. He was even accused of having manifested anunseemly panic at Philippeville, and of having only been restrained bythe expostulations of his officers, from abandoning both that fortressand Charlemont to Admiral Coligny, who had made his appearance in theneighborhood, merely at the head of a reconnoitring party. If the storywere true, it would be chiefly important as indicating that the Prince ofOrange was one of the many historical characters, originally of anexcitable and even timorous physical organization, whom moral courage anda strong will have afterwards converted into dauntless heroes. Certainit is that he was destined to confront open danger in every form, thathis path was to lead through perpetual ambush, yet that his cheerfulconfidence and tranquil courage were to become not only unquestionablebut proverbial. It may be safely asserted, however, that the story wasan invention to be classed with those fictions which made him themurderer of his first wife, a common conspirator against Philip's crownand person, and a crafty malefactor in general, without a single virtue. It must be remembered that even the terrible Alva, who lived in harnessalmost from the cradle to the grave, was, so late as at this period, censured for timidity, and had been accused in youth of flat cowardice. He despised the insinuation, which for him had no meaning. There is nodoubt too that caution was a predominant characteristic of the Prince. It was one of the chief sources of his greatness. At that period, perhaps at any period, he would have been incapable of such brilliant anddashing exploits as had made the name of Egmont so famous. It had evenbecome a proverb, "the counsel of Orange, the execution of Egmont, " yetwe shall have occasion to see how far this physical promptness which hadbeen so felicitous upon the battle-field was likely to avail the hero ofSt. Quentin in the great political combat which was approaching. 

As to the talents of the Prince, there was no difference of opinion. Hisenemies never contested the subtlety and breadth of his intellect, hisadroitness and capacity in conducting state affairs, his knowledge ofhuman nature, and the profoundness of his views. In many respects itmust be confessed that his surname of The Silent, like many similarappellations, was a misnomer. William of Orange was neither "silent" nor"taciturn, " yet these are the epithets which will be forever associatedwith the name of a man who, in private, was the most affable, cheerful, and delightful of companions, and who on a thousand great publicoccasions was to prove himself, both by pen and by speech, the mosteloquent man of his age. His mental accomplishments were considerable:He had studied history with attention, and he spoke and wrote withfacility Latin, French, German, Flemish, and Spanish. 

The man, however, in whose hands the administration of the Netherlandswas in reality placed, was Anthony Perrenot, then Bishop of Arras, soonto be known by the more celebrated title of Cardinal Granvelle. He wasthe chief of the Consults, or secret council of three, by whosedeliberations the Duchess Regent was to be governed. His father, Nicholas Perrenot, of an obscure family in Burgundy, had been long thefavorite minister and man of business to the Emperor Charles. Anthony, the eldest of thirteen children, was born in 1517. He was earlydistinguished for his talents. He studied at Dole, Padua, Paris, andLouvain. At, the age of twenty he spoke seven languages with perfectfacility, while his acquaintance with civil and ecclesiastical laws wasconsidered prodigious. At the age of twenty-three he became a canon ofLiege Cathedral. The necessary eight quarters of gentility produced uponthat occasion have accordingly been displayed by his panegyrists intriumphant refutation of that theory which gave him a blacksmith for hisgrandfather. At the same period, although he had not reached therequisite age, the rich bishopric of Arras had already been preparedfor him by his father's care. Three years afterwards, in 1543, hedistinguished himself by a most learned and brilliant harangue beforethe Council of Trent, by which display he so much charmed the Emperor, that he created him councillor of state. A few years afterwards herendered the unscrupulous Charles still more valuable proofs of devotionand dexterity by the part he played in the memorable imprisonment of theLandgrave of Hesse and the Saxon Dukes. He was thereafter constantlyemployed in embassies and other offices of trust and profit. 

There was no doubt as to his profound and varied learning, nor as to hisnatural quickness and dexterity. He was ready witted, smooth and fluentof tongue, fertile in expedients, courageous, resolute. He thoroughlyunderstood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors. He knewhow to govern under the appearance of obeying. He possessed exquisitetact in appreciating the characters of those far above him in rank andbeneath him in intellect. He could accommodate himself with greatreadiness to the idiosyncrasies of sovereigns. He was a chameleon tothe hand which fed him. In his intercourse with the King, he coloredhimself, as it were, with the King's character. He was not himself, butPhilip; not the sullen, hesitating, confused Philip, however, but Philipendowed with eloquence, readiness, facility. The King ever found himselfanticipated with the most delicate obsequiousness, beheld his strugglingideas change into winged words without ceasing to be his own. Noflattery could be more adroit. The bishop accommodated himself tothe King's epistolary habits. The silver-tongued and ready debatersubstituted protocols for conversation, in deference to a monarch whocould not speak. He corresponded with Philip, with Margaret of Parma, with every one. He wrote folios to the Duchess when they were in thesame palace. He would write letters forty pages long to the King, andsend off another courier on the same day with two or three additionaldespatches of identical date. Such prolixity enchanted the King, whosegreediness for business epistles was insatiable. The painstaking monarchtoiled, pen in hand, after his wonderful minister in vain. Philip wasonly fit to be the bishop's clerk; yet he imagined himself to be thedirecting and governing power. He scrawled apostilles in the margins toprove that he had read with attention, and persuaded himself that hesuggested when he scarcely even comprehended. The bishop gave advice andissued instructions when he seemed to be only receiving them. He was thesubstance while he affected to be the shadow. These tactics werecomparatively easy and likely to be triumphant, so long as he had only todeal with inferior intellects like those of Philip and Margaret. When heshould be matched against political genius and lofty character combined, it was possible that his resources might not prove so all-sufficient. 

His political principles were sharply defined in reality, but smoothedover by a conventional and decorous benevolence of language, whichdeceived vulgar minds. He was a strict absolutist. His deference toarbitrary power was profound and slavish. God and "the master, " as healways called Philip, he professed to serve with equal humility. "Itseems to me, " said he, in a letter of this epoch, "that I shall never beable to fulfil the obligation of slave which I owe to your majesty, towhom I am bound by so firm a chain;--at any rate, I shall never fail tostruggle for that end with sincerity. "

As a matter of course, he was a firm opponent of the national rights ofthe Netherlands, however artfully he disguised the sharp sword of violentabsolutism under a garland of flourishing phraseology. He hadstrenuously warned Philip against assembling the States-general beforehis departure for the sake of asking them for supplies. He earnestlydeprecated allowing the constitutional authorities any control over theexpenditures of the government, and averred that this practice under theRegent Mary had been the cause of endless trouble. It may easily besupposed that other rights were as little to his taste as the claim tovote the subsidies, a privilege which was in reality indisputable. Menwho stood forth in defence of the provincial constitutions were, in hisopinion, mere demagogues and hypocrites; their only motive being to curryfavor with the populace. Yet these charters were, after all, sufficiently limited. The natural rights of man were topics which hadnever been broached. Man had only natural wrongs. None ventured todoubt that sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God. The rights ofthe Netherlands were special, not general; plural, not singular;liberties, not liberty; "privileges, " not maxims. They were practical, not theoretical; historical, not philosophical. Still, such as theywere, they were facts, acquisitions. They had been purchased by theblood and toil of brave ancestors; they amounted--however open tocriticism upon broad humanitarian grounds, of which few at that day hadever dreamed--to a solid, substantial dyke against the arbitrary powerwhich was ever chafing and fretting to destroy its barriers. No menwere more subtle or more diligent in corroding the foundation of thesebulwarks than the disciples of Granvelle. Yet one would have thoughtit possible to tolerate an amount of practical freedom so differentfrom the wild, social speculations which in later days, have made bothtyrants and reasonable lovers of our race tremble with apprehension. The Netherlanders claimed, mainly, the right to vote the money which wasdemanded in such enormous profusion from their painfully-acquired wealth;they were also unwilling to be burned alive if they objected totransubstantiation. Granvelle was most distinctly of an opposite opinionupon both topics. He strenuously deprecated the interference of thestates with the subsidies, and it was by his advice that the remorselessedict of 1550, the Emperor's ordinance of blood and fire, was re-enacted, as the very first measure of Philip's reign. Such were his sentiments asto national and popular rights by representation. For the people itself--"that vile and mischievous animal called the people"--as he expressedit, he entertained a cheerful contempt. 

His aptitude for managing men was very great; his capacity for affairsincontestable; but it must be always understood as the capacity for theaffairs of absolutism. He was a clever, scheming politician, an adroitmanager; it remained to be seen whether he had a claim to the characterof a statesman. His industry was enormous. He could write fifty lettersa day with his own hand. He could dictate to half a dozen amanuenses atonce, on as many different subjects, in as many different languages, andsend them all away exhausted. 

He was already rich. His income from his see and other livings wasestimated, in 1557, at ten thousand dollars--[1885 approximation. Thedecimal point more places to the right would in 2000 not be out of line. D. W. ]--; his property in ready money, "furniture, tapestry, and thelike, " at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. When it is consideredthat, as compared with our times, these sums represent a revenue of ahundred thousand, and a capital of two millions and a half in addition, it may be safely asserted that the prelate had at least made a goodbeginning. Besides his regular income, moreover, he had handsomereceipts from that simony which was reduced to a system, and which gavehim a liberal profit, generally in the shape of an annuity, upon everybenefice which he conferred. He was, however, by no means satisfied. His appetite was as boundless as the sea; he was still a shamelessmendicant of pecuniary favors and lucrative offices. Already, in 1552, the Emperor had roundly rebuked his greediness. "As to what you say ofgetting no 'merced' nor 'ayuda de costa, '" said he, "'tis merced andayuda de costa quite sufficient, when one has fat benefices, pensions, and salaries, with which a man might manage to support himself. " Thebishop, however, was not easily abashed, and he was at the epoch whichnow occupies us, earnestly and successfully soliciting from Philip thelucrative abbey of Saint Armand. Not that he would have accepted thispreferment, "could the abbey have been annexed to any of the newbishoprics;" on the contrary, he assured the king that "to carry out soholy a work as the erection of those new sees, he would willingly havecontributed even out of his own miserable pittance. "

It not being considered expedient to confiscate the abbey to anyparticular bishop, Philip accordingly presented it to the prelate ofArras, together with a handsome sum of money in the shape of an "ayuda decosta" beside. The thrifty bishop, who foresaw the advent of troubloustimes in the Netherlands, however, took care in the letters by which hesent his thanks, to instruct the King to secure the money upon crownproperty in Arragon, Naples, and Sicily, as matters in the provinces werebeginning to look very precarious. 

Such, at the commencement of the Duchess Margaret's administration, werethe characters and the previous histories of the persons into whose handsthe Netherlands were entrusted. None of them have been prejudged. Wehave contented ourselves with stating the facts with regard to all, up tothe period at which we have arrived. Their characters have beensketched, not according to subsequent developments, but as they appearedat the opening of this important epoch. 

The aspect of the country and its inhabitants offered many sharpcontrasts, and revealed many sources of future trouble. 

The aristocracy of the Netherlands was excessively extravagant, dissipated, and already considerably embarrassed in circumstances. Ithad been the policy of the Emperor and of Philip to confer high offices, civil, military, and diplomatic, upon the leading nobles, by whichenormous expenses were entailed upon them, without any correspondingsalaries. The case of Orange has been already alluded to, and there weremany other nobles less able to afford the expense, who had been indulgedwith these ruinous honors. During the war, there had been, however, manychances of bettering broken fortunes. Victory brought immense prizes tothe leading officers. The ransoms of so many illustrious prisoners ashad graced the triumphs of Saint Quentin and Gravelines had beenextremely profitable. These sources of wealth had now been cut off; yet, on the departure of the King from the Netherlands, the luxury increasedinstead of diminishing, "Instead of one court, " said a contemporary, "youwould have said that there were fifty. " Nothing could be more sumptuousthan the modes of life in Brussels. The household of Orange has beenalready painted. That of Egmont was almost as magnificent. A rivalry inhospitality and in display began among the highest nobles, and extendedto those less able to maintain themselves in the contest. During the warthere had been the valiant emulation of the battlefield; gentlemen hadvied with each other how best to illustrate an ancient name with deeds ofdesperate valor, to repair the fortunes of a ruined house with the spoilsof war. They now sought to surpass each other in splendid extravagance. It was an eager competition who should build the stateliest palaces, havethe greatest number of noble pages and gentlemen in waiting, the mostgorgeous liveries, the most hospitable tables, the most scientific cooks. There was, also, much depravity as well as extravagance. The morals ofhigh society were loose. Gaming was practised to a frightful extent. Drunkenness was a prevailing characteristic of the higher classes. Eventhe Prince of Orange himself, at this period, although never addicted tohabitual excess, was extremely convivial in his tastes, tolerating scenesand companions, not likely at a later day to find much favor in hissight. "We kept Saint Martin's joyously, " he wrote, at about thisperiod, to his brother, "and in the most jovial company. Brederode wasone day in such a state that I thought he would certainly die, but he hasnow got over it. " Count Brederode, soon afterwards to become soconspicuous in the early scenes of the revolt, was, in truth, mostnotorious for his performances in these banqueting scenes. He appearedto have vowed as uncompromising hostility to cold water as to theinquisition, and always denounced both with the same fierce and ludicrousvehemence. Their constant connection with Germany at that period did notimprove the sobriety of the Netherlands' nobles. The aristocracy of thatcountry, as is well known, were most "potent at potting. " "When theGerman finds himself sober, " said the bitter Badovaro, "he believeshimself to be ill. " Gladly, since the peace, they had welcomed theopportunities afforded for many a deep carouse with their Netherlandscousins. The approaching marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Saxonprincess--an episode which will soon engage our attention--gave rise totremendous orgies. Count Schwartzburg, the Prince's brother-in-law, andone of the negotiators of the marriage, found many occasions tostrengthen the bonds of harmony between the countries by indulgence ofthese common tastes. "I have had many princes and counts at my table, "he wrote to Orange, "where a good deal more was drunk than eaten. TheRhinegrave's brother fell down dead after drinking too much malvoisie;but we have had him balsamed and sent home to his family. "

These disorders among the higher ranks were in reality so extensive asto justify the biting remark of the Venetian: "The gentlemen intoxicatethemselves every day, " said he, "and the ladies also; but much less thanthe men. " His remarks as to the morality, in other respects, of bothsexes were equally sweeping, and not more complimentary. 

If these were the characteristics of the most distinguished society, it may be supposed that they were reproduced with more or less intensitythroughout all the more remote but concentric circles of life, as far asthe seductive splendor of the court could radiate. The lesser noblesemulated the grandees, and vied with each other in splendidestablishments, banquets, masquerades, and equipages. The naturalconsequences of such extravagance followed. Their estates weremortgaged, deeply and more deeply; then, after a few years, sold to themerchants, or rich advocates and other gentlemen of the robe, to whomthey had been pledged. The more closely ruin stared the victims in theface, the more heedlessly did they plunge into excesses. "Such were thecircumstances, " moralizes a Catholic writer, "to which, at an earlierperiod, the affairs of Catiline, Cethegus, Lentulus, and others of thatfaction had been reduced, when they undertook to overthrow the Romanrepublic. " Many of the nobles being thus embarrassed, and some evendesperate, in their condition, it was thought that they were desirous ofcreating disturbances in the commonwealth, that the payment of just debtsmight be avoided, that their mortgaged lands might be wrested by mainforce from the low-born individuals who had become possessed of them, that, in particular, the rich abbey lands held by idle priests might beappropriated to the use of impoverished gentlemen who could turn them toso much better account. It is quite probable that interested motivessuch as these were not entirely inactive among a comparatively smallclass of gentlemen. The religious reformation in every land of Europederived a portion of its strength from the opportunity it afforded topotentates and great nobles for helping themselves to Church property. No doubt many Netherlanders thought that their fortunes might be improvedat the expense of the monks, and for the benefit of religion. Evenwithout apostasy from the mother Church, they looked with longing eyeson the wealth of her favored and indolent children. They thought thatthe King would do well to carve a round number of handsome militarycommanderies out of the abbey lands, whose possessors should be boundto military service after the ancient manner of fiefs, so that a splendidcavalry, headed by the gentlemen of the country, should be ever ready tomount and ride at the royal pleasure, in place of a horde of lazyepicureans, telling beads and indulging themselves in luxurious vice. 

Such views were entertained; such language often held. Thesecircumstances and sentiments had their influence among the causes whichproduced the great revolt now impending. Care should be taken, however, not to exaggerate that influence. It is a prodigious mistake to referthis great historical event to sources so insufficient as the ambition ofa few great nobles, and the embarrassments of a larger number of needygentlemen. The Netherlands revolt was not an aristocratic, but apopular, although certainly not a democratic movement. It was a greatepisode--the longest, the darkest, the bloodiest, the most importantepisode in the history of the religious reformation in Europe. Thenobles so conspicuous upon the surface at the outbreak, only driftedbefore a storm which they neither caused nor controlled. Even the mostpowerful and the most sagacious were tossed to and fro by the surge ofgreat events, which, as they rolled more and more tumultuously aroundthem, seemed to become both irresistible and unfathomable. 

For the state of the people was very different from the condition of thearistocracy. The period of martyrdom had lasted long and was to lastloner; but there were symptoms that it might one day be succeeded by amore active stage of popular disease. The tumults of the Netherlandswere long in ripening; when the final outbreak came it would have beenmore philosophical to enquire, not why it had occurred, but how it couldhave been so long postponed. During the reign of Charles, the sixteenthcentury had been advancing steadily in strength as the once omnipotentEmperor lapsed into decrepitude. That extraordinary century had notdawned upon the earth only to increase the strength of absolutism andsuperstition. The new world had not been discovered, the ancient worldreconquered, the printing-press perfected, only that the inquisitionmight reign undisturbed over the fairest portions of the earth, andchartered hypocrisy fatten upon its richest lands. It was impossiblethat the most energetic and quick-witted people of Europe should not feelsympathy with the great effort made by Christendom to shake off theincubus which had so long paralyzed her hands and brain. In theNetherlands, where the attachment to Rome had never been intense, wherein the old times, the Bishops of Utrecht had been rather Ghibelline thanGuelph, where all the earlier sects of dissenters--Waldenses, Lollards, Hussites--had found numerous converts and thousands of martyrs, it wasinevitable that there should be a response from the popular heart to thedeeper agitation which now reached to the very core of Christendom. Inthose provinces, so industrious and energetic, the disgust was likely tobe most easily awakened for a system under which so many friars battenedin luxury upon the toils of others, contributing nothing to the taxation, nor to the military defence of the country, exercising no productiveavocation, except their trade in indulgences, and squandering in tavernsand brothels the annual sums derived from their traffic in licences tocommit murder, incest, and every other crime known to humanity. 

The people were numerous, industrious, accustomed for centuries to astate of comparative civil freedom, and to a lively foreign trade, bywhich their minds were saved from the stagnation of bigotry. It wasnatural that they should begin to generalize, and to pass from theconcrete images presented them in the Flemish monasteries to the abstractcharacter of Rome itself. The Flemish, above all their other qualities, were a commercial nation. Commerce was the mother of their freedom, sofar as they had acquired it, in civil matters. It was struggling to givebirth to a larger liberty, to freedom of conscience. The provinces weresituated in the very heart of Europe. The blood of a world-wide trafficwas daily coursing through the thousand arteries of that water-in-woventerritory. There was a mutual exchange between the Netherlands and allthe world; and ideas were as liberally interchanged as goods. Truth wasimported as freely as less precious merchandise. The psalms of Marotwere as current as the drugs of Molucca or the diamonds of Borneo. Theprohibitory measures of a despotic government could not annihilate thisintellectual trade, nor could bigotry devise an effective quarantine toexclude the religious pest which lurked in every bale of merchandise, andwas wafted on every breeze from East and West. 

The edicts of the Emperor had been endured, but not accepted. Thehorrible persecution under which so many thousands had sunk had producedits inevitable result. Fertilized by all this innocent blood, the soilof the Netherlands became as a watered garden, in which liberty, civiland religious, was to flourish perennially. The scaffold had its dailyvictims, but did not make a single convert. The statistics of thesecrimes will perhaps never be accurately adjusted, nor will it beascertained whether the famous estimate of Grotius was an exaggerated oran inadequate calculation. Those who love horrible details may findample material. The chronicles contain the lists of these obscuremartyrs; but their names, hardly pronounced in their life-time, soundbarbarously in our ears, and will never ring through the trumpet of fame. Yet they were men who dared and suffered as much as men can dare andsuffer in this world, and for the noblest cause which can inspirehumanity. Fanatics they certainly were not, if fanaticism consists inshow, without corresponding substance. For them all was terriblereality. The Emperor and his edicts were realities, the axe, the stakewere realities, and the heroism with which men took each other by thehand and walked into the flames, or with which women sang a song oftriumph while the grave-digger was shovelling the earth upon their livingfaces, was a reality also. 

Thus, the people of the Netherlands were already pervaded, throughout thewhole extent of the country, with the expanding spirit of religiousreformation. It was inevitable that sooner or later an explosion was toarrive. They were placed between two great countries, where the newprinciples had already taken root. The Lutheranism of Germany and theCalvinism of France had each its share in producing the Netherlandrevolt, but a mistake is perhaps often made in estimating the relativeproportion of these several influences. The Reformation first enteredthe provinces, not through the Augsburg, but the Huguenot gate. Thefiery field-preachers from the south of France first inflamed theexcitable hearts of the kindred population of the south-westernNetherlands. The Walloons were the first to rebel against and the firstto reconcile themselves with papal Rome, exactly as their Celticancestors, fifteen centuries earlier, had been foremost in the revoltagainst imperial Rome, and precipitate in their submission to herovershadowing power. The Batavians, slower to be moved but moresteadfast, retained the impulse which they received from the same sourcewhich was already agitating their "Welsh" compatriots. There werealready French preachers at Valenciennes and Tournay, to be followed, as we shall have occasion to see, by many others. Without undervaluingthe influence of the German Churches, and particularly of the garrison-preaching of the German military chaplains in the Netherlands, it may besafely asserted that the early Reformers of the provinces were mainlyHuguenots in their belief: The Dutch Church became, accordingly, notLutheran, but Calvinistic, and the founder of the commonwealth hardlyceased to be a nominal Catholic before he became an adherent to the samecreed. 

In the mean time, it is more natural to regard the great movement, psychologically speaking, as a whole, whether it revealed itself inFrance, Germany, the Netherlands, England, or Scotland. The policy ofgovernments, national character, individual interests, and othercollateral circumstances, modified the result; but the great cause wasthe same; the source of all the movements was elemental, natural, andsingle. The Reformation in Germany had been adjourned for half a centuryby the Augsburg religious peace, just concluded. It was held in suspensein France through the Macchiavellian policy which Catharine de Medici hadjust adopted, and was for several years to prosecute, of balancing oneparty against the other, so as to neutralize all power but her own. Thegreat contest was accordingly transferred to the Netherlands, to befought out for the rest of the century, while the whole of Christendomwere to look anxiously for the result. From the East and from the Westthe clouds rolled away, leaving a comparatively bright and peacefulatmosphere, only that they might concentrate themselves with portentousblackness over the devoted soil of the Netherlands. In Germany, theprinces, not the people, had conquered Rome, and to the princes, not thepeople, were secured the benefits of the victory--the spoils of churches, and the right to worship according to conscience. The people had theright to conform to their ruler's creed, or to depart from his land. Still, as a matter of fact, many of the princes being Reformers, a largemass of the population had acquired the privilege for their owngeneration and that of their children to practise that religion whichthey actually approved. This was a fact, and a more comfortable one thanthe necessity of choosing between what they considered wicked idolatryand the stake--the only election left to their Netherland brethren. InFrance, the accidental splinter from Montgomery's lance had deferred theHuguenot massacre for a dozen years. During the period in which theQueen Regent was resolved to play her fast and loose policy, all thepersuasions of Philip and the arts of Alva were powerless to induce herto carry out the scheme which Henry had revealed to Orange in the forestof Vincennes. When the crime came at last, it was as blundering as itwas bloody; at once premeditated and accidental; the isolated executionof an interregal conspiracy, existing for half a generation, yetexploding without concert; a wholesale massacre, but a piecemeal plot. 

The aristocracy and the masses being thus, from a variety of causes, inthis agitated and dangerous condition, what were the measures of thegovernment?

The edict of 1550 had been re-enacted immediately after Philip'saccession to sovereignty. It is necessary that the reader should be madeacquainted with some of the leading provisions of this famous document, thus laid down above all the constitutions as the organic law of theland. A few plain facts, entirely without rhetorical varnish, will provemore impressive in this case than superfluous declamation. The Americanwill judge whether the wrongs inflicted by Laud and Charles upon hisPuritan ancestors were the severest which a people has had to undergo, and whether the Dutch Republic does not track its source to the samehigh, religious origin as that of our own commonwealth. 

"No one, " said the edict, "shall print, write, copy, keep, conceal, sell, buy or give in churches, streets, or other places, any book or writingmade by Martin Luther, John Ecolampadius, Ulrich Zwinglius, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, or other heretics reprobated by the Holy Church; nor break, or otherwise injure the images of the holy virgin or canonized saints. . . . Nor in his house hold conventicles, or illegal gatherings, or be presentat any such in which the adherents of the above-mentioned hereticsteach, baptize, and form conspiracies against the Holy Church and thegeneral welfare. . . . . Moreover, we forbid, " continues the edict, in nameof the sovereign, "all lay persons to converse or dispute concerning theHoly Scriptures, openly or secretly, especially on any doubtful ordifficult matters, or to read, teach, or expound the Scriptures, unlessthey have duly studied theology and been approved by some renowneduniversity. . . . . Or to preach secretly, or openly, or to entertain any ofthe opinions of the above-mentioned heretics. . . . . On pain, should anyonebe found to have contravened any of the points above-mentioned, asperturbators of our state and of the general quiet, to be punished in thefollowing manner. " And how were they to be punished? What was thepenalty inflicted upon the man or woman who owned a hymn-book, or whohazarded the opinion in private, that Luther was not quite wrong indoubting the power of a monk to sell for money the license to commitmurder or incest; or upon the parent, not being a Roman Catholic doctorof divinity, who should read Christ's Sermon on the Mount to his childrenin his own parlor or shop? How were crimes like these to be visited uponthe transgressor? Was it by reprimand, fine, imprisonment, banishment, or by branding on the forehead, by the cropping of the ears or theslitting of nostrils, as was practised upon the Puritan fathers of NewEngland for their nonconformity? It was by a sharper chastisement thanany of these methods. The Puritan fathers of the Dutch Republic had tostruggle against a darker doom. The edict went on to provide--

"That such perturbators of the general quiet are to be executed, to wit:the men with the sword and the women to be buried alive, if they do notpersist in their errors; if they do persist in them, then they are to beexecuted with fire; all their property in both cases being confiscated tothe crown. "

Thus, the clemency of the sovereign permitted the repentant heretic to bebeheaded or buried, alive, instead of being burned. 

The edict further provided against all misprision of heresy by makingthose who failed to betray the suspected liable to the same punishment asif suspected or convicted themselves: "we forbid, " said the decree, "allpersons to lodge, entertain, furnish with food, fire, or clothing, orotherwise to favor any one holden or notoriously suspected of being aheretic;. . . . . And any one failing to denounce any such we ordain shall beliable to the above-mentioned punishments. "

The edict went on to provide, "that if any person, being not convicted ofheresy or error, but greatly suspected thereof, and therefore condemnedby the spiritual judge to abjure such heresy, or by the secularmagistrate to make public fine and reparation, shall again becomesuspected or tainted with heresy--although it should not appear that hehas contravened or violated any one of our abovementioned commands--nevertheless, we do will and ordain that such person shall be consideredas relapsed, and, as such, be punished with loss of life and property, without any hope of moderation or mitigation of the above-mentionedpenalties. "

Furthermore, it was decreed, that "the spiritual judges, desiring toproceed against any one for the crime of heresy, shall request any of oursovereign courts or provincial councils to appoint any one of theircollege, or such other adjunct as the council shall select, to presideover the proceedings to be instituted against the suspected. All whoknow of any person tainted with heresy are required to denounce andgive them up to all judges, officers of the bishops, or others havingauthority on the premises, on pain of being punished according to thepleasure of the judge. Likewise, all shall be obliged, who know of anyplace where such heretics keep themselves, to declare them to theauthorities, on pain of being held as accomplices, and punished as suchheretics themselves would be if apprehended. "

In order to secure the greatest number of arrests by a direct appeal tothe most ignoble, but not the least powerful principle of human nature, it was ordained "that the informer, in case of conviction, should beentitled to one half the property of the accused, if not more than onehundred pounds Flemish; if more, then ten per cent. Of all such excess. "

Treachery to one's friends was encouraged by the provision, "that ifany man being present at any secret conventicle, shall afterwards comeforward and betray his fellow-members of the congregation, he shallreceive full pardon. "

In order that neither the good people of the Netherlands, nor the judgesand inquisitors should delude themselves with the notion that thesefanatic decrees were only intended to inspire terror, not for practicalexecution, the sovereign continued to ordain--"to the end that the judgesand officers may have no reason, under pretext that the penalties are toogreat and heavy and only devised to terrify delinquents, to punish themless severely than they deserve--that the culprits be really punished bythe penalties above declared; forbidding all judges to alter or moderatethe penalties in any manner forbidding any one, of whatsoever condition, to ask of us, or of any one having authority, to grant pardon, or topresent any petition in favor of such heretics, exiles, or fugitives, onpenalty of being declared forever incapable of civil and military office, and of being, arbitrarily punished besides. "

Such were the leading provisions of this famous edict, originallypromulgated in 1550 as a recapitulation and condensation of all theprevious ordinances of the Emperor upon religious subjects. By its styleand title it was a perpetual edict, and, according to one of its clauses, was to be published forever, once in every six months, in every city andvillage of the Netherlands. It had been promulgated at Augsburg, wherethe Emperor was holding a diet, upon the 25th of September. Its severityhad so appalled the Dowager Queen of Hungary, that she had made a journeyto Augsburg expressly to procure a mitigation of some of its provisions. The principal alteration which she was able to obtain of the Emperor was, however, in the phraseology only. As a concession to popular, prejudice, the words "spiritual judges" were substituted for "inquisitors" whereverthat expression had occurred in the original draft. 

The edict had been re-enacted by the express advice of the Bishop ofArras, immediately on the accession of Philip: The prelate knew the valueof the Emperor's name; he may have thought, also, that it would bedifficult to increase the sharpness of the ordinances. "I advised theKing, " says Granvelle, in a letter written a few years later, "to make nochange in the placards, but to proclaim the text drawn up by the Emperor, republishing the whole as the King's edict, with express insertion of thephrase, 'Carolus, ' etc. I recommended this lest men should calumniatehis Majesty as wishing to introduce novelties in the matter of religion. "

This edict, containing the provisions which have been laid before thereader, was now to be enforced with the utmost rigor; every officialpersonage, from the stadholders down, having received the most stringentinstructions to that effect, under Philip's own hand. This was the firstgift of Philip and of Granvelle to the Netherlands; of the monarch whosaid of himself that he had always, "from the beginning of hisgovernment, followed the path of clemency, according to his naturaldisposition, so well known to all the world;" of the prelate who said ofhimself, "that he had ever combated the opinion that any thing could beaccomplished by terror, death, and violence. "

During the period of the French and Papal war, it has been seen that theexecution of these edicts had been permitted to slacken. It was nowresumed with redoubled fury. Moreover, a new measure had increased thedisaffection and dismay of the people, already sufficiently filled withapprehension. As an additional security for the supremacy of the ancientreligion, it had been thought desirable that the number of bishops shouldbe increased. There were but four sees in the Netherlands, those ofArras, Cambray, Tournay, and Utrecht. That of Utrecht was within thearchiepiscopate of Cologne; the other three were within that of Rheims. It seemed proper that the prelates of the Netherlands should owe noextraprovincial allegiance. It was likewise thought that three millionsof souls required more than four spiritual superintendents. At any rate, whatever might be the interest of the flocks, it was certain that thosebroad and fertile pastures would sustain more than the present number ofshepherds. The wealth of the religious houses in the provinces was verygreat. The abbey of Afflighem alone had a revenue of fifty thousandflorins, and there were many others scarcely inferior in wealth. Butthese institutions were comparatively independent both of King and Pope. Electing their own superiors from time to time, in nowise desirous of anychange by which their ease might be disturbed and their richesendangered, the honest friars were not likely to engage in any veryvigorous crusade against heresy, nor for the sake of introducing orstrengthening Spanish institutions, which they knew to be abominated bythe people, to take the risk, of driving all their disciples into revoltand apostacy. Comforting themselves with an Erasmian philosophy, whichthey thought best suited to the times, they were as little likely as theSage of Rotterdam himself would have been, to make martyrs of themselvesfor the sake of extirpating Calvinism. The abbots and monks were, inpolitical matters, very much under the influence of the great nobles, inwhose company they occupied the benches of the upper house of the States-general. 

Doctor Francis Sonnius had been sent on a mission to the Pope, for thepurpose of representing the necessity of an increase in the episcopalforce of the Netherlands. Just as the King was taking his departure, the commissioner arrived, bringing with him the Bull of Paul the Fourth, dated May 18, 1559. This was afterwards confirmed by that of Pius theFourth, in January of the following year. The document stated that"Paul the Fourth, slave of slaves, wishing to provide for the welfare ofthe provinces and the eternal salvation of their inhabitants, haddetermined to plant in that fruitful field several new bishoprics. Theenemy of mankind being abroad, " said the Bull, "in so many forms at thatparticular time, and the Netherlands, then under the sway of that belovedson of his holiness, Philip the Catholic, being compassed about withheretic and schismatic nations, it was believed that the eternal welfareof the land was in great danger. At the period of the originalestablishment of Cathedral churches, the provinces had been sparselypeopled; they had now become filled to overflowing, so that the originalecclesiastical arrangement did not suffice. The harvest was plentiful, but the laborers were few. "

In consideration of these and other reasons, three archbishoprics wereaccordingly appointed. That of Mechlin was to be principal, under whichwere constituted six bishoprics, those, namely, of Antwerp, Bois le Due, Rurmond, Ghent, Bruges and Ypres. That of Cambray was second, with thefour subordinate dioceses of Tournay, Arras, Saint Omer and Namur. Thethird archbishopric was that of Utrecht, with the five sees of Haarlem, Middelburg, Leeuwarden, Groningen and Deventer. 

The nomination to these important offices was granted to the King, subject to confirmation by the Pope. Moreover, it was ordained by theBull that "each bishop should appoint nine additional prebendaries, whowere to assist him in the matter of the inquisition throughout hisbishopric, two of whom were themselves to be inquisitors. "

To sustain these two great measures, through which Philip hoped once andforever to extinguish 1he Netherland heresy, it was considered desirablethat the Spanish troops still remaining in the provinces, should be keptthere indefinitely. 

The force was not large, amounting hardly to four thousand men, but theywere unscrupulous, and admirably disciplined. As the entering wedge, bywhich a military and ecclesiastical despotism was eventually to be forcedinto the very heart of the land, they were invaluable. The moral effectto be hoped from the regular presence of a Spanish standing army during atime of peace in the Netherlands could hardly be exaggerated. Philip wastherefore determined to employ every argument and subterfuge to detainthe troops. 

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Burned alive if they objected to transubstantiationGerman finds himself sober--he believes himself illGovern under the appearance of obeyingInformer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one halfMan had only natural wrongs (No natural rights)No calumny was too senseless to be inventedRuinous honorsSovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of GodThat vile and mischievous animal called the peopleUnderstood the art of managing men, particularly his superiorsUpon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissedWilliam of Nassau, Prince of Orange