Cornell Aniversity Dibvarp utch Reformation | ATI 3 1924 | Cornell Univ ‘sity Libra Hy il il of the str 01 THE DUTCH REFORMATION: A HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE IN THE NETHERLANDS FOR CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. BY W. CARLOS MARTYN, AUTHOR OF “A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PURITANS,” “A HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS,” ETC., ETC. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. »D ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by the Amertcan Tract Sociery, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. Tue Anglo-Saxons and the Dutch are cousins- german. The records of their respective histories are of mutual interest. To thoughtful Americans the annals of the Netherlands are of special con- cern. It was in Holland that British Protestantism found an asylum in the Marian epoch ; it was in Holland that New Esgland was conceived; it was in Holland that some of the stoutest of the colonial immigrants were cradled; it was in Holland that our statesmen of ’76 sought the model of the Fed- _ eral Republic. Nor do these links, strong and sufficient in them- selves, form the whole sympathetic chain. Regu- lated liberty comes to us as much from the Low Countries as from England. In the sixteenth cen- tury the Dutch soil was the battle-ground of human progress: when the Reformation was guaranteed there, it was won for Christendom. That struggle was a long conspiracy of king and _priest against religion and the masses. For a time it was local. On the one side the empire of the medieval Cesars, aggrandized by a multitude of _ dependencies, cis and trans Atlantic, rich beyond the dreams of Crcesus, puissant as the fabled Her- cules; on the other side a group of cities governed. by merchants and advocates— “these regarding profit, those standing upon vantage of quirks,” as Walsingham sneered; precariously planted on an un- 4 PREFACE. stable and meagre soil. Spain was strong in every thing but justice; the Netherlands were weak in all save right. -In the end, weak right conquered strong injustice. Spanish veterans, Italian condot- tieri, German mercenaries, papal bulis, Mexican gold mines-—all were pressed into service against the striving spirit of Dutch independence, only to be transformed, one after another, into stepping- stones to liberty and an empire world-embracing, when the hand of the Spaniard was palsied in de- crepitude. °*T'is a lesson worthy the conning. As the war went on it beeame of European im- portance. Distinctions of nationalities were lost. Morally, there were but two nations in existence— that of Protestantism and that of the popes ; for it was primarily a religious war. It took a sanction from the much-prized burgher-charters, but the new theology vivified the old dead forms. It is impos- sible to understand the Reformation era without a familiarity with this, its grandest chapter; a fact which gives the story an indisputable claim upon the attention of all thoughtful men. These pages undertake to photograph this agony of the Netherlands—fighting and conquering not for themselves alone, but for humanity. And as the struggle was inspired by the gospel, this narrative’ is written from the evangelical standpoint of the actors in it—an entente cordiale which is never bro- ken. The volume opens with a description of the .primitive condition of the provinces, analyzes the causes of the revolt against Madrid and the Vati- can, details somewhat minutely the events of the first decade of the prolonged contest, and closes at PREFACE. 5 the Union of Utrecht: not that the interest ends with that achievement, not that the war there furls its banners, but because that act assured the Refor- mation, and because thereafter fierce internal strifes began, sect raving against sect, each “swearing a prayer or two” against the other, a quarrel neither proper nor desirable for these sheets to depict; therefore a few paragraphs summarize the later his- tory of the republic. It would be impossible conscientiously to write a history of the Dutch Reformation without a thor- ough examination of the original records pro and con. Accordingly ail the leading contemporary chronicles and pamphlets of Holland, Flanders, Spain, France, Germany, and England have been studied—at least all obtainable in this country, very many more than any one not acquainted with the facts would suspect. These have been supplement- ed by a liberal use of the works of the Netherland archivists, and by citations from a multitude of. comparatively recent writers where these seemed likely to enhance the interest or enlighten the doubts of the narrative. For every statement of fact, au- thority, volume and page, is given. Possibly the imputation of tediousness and pedantry may be hereby incurred; but that-has been esteemed as nothing compared with the importance of an im- pregnable fortification of the text. The many friends who have lent their personal aid and their libraries to this work, are most cordi- cally thanked. Wherever it was possible, the actors in this drama have been summoned to ‘the witness-stand 1* 6 PREFACE. and made to tell their own story in their own words; for what basis can compare with that afforded by the written correspondence of the parties them- selves? “I have long believed,” says Ruskin, “that restored history is of little more value than restored painting or architecture; that the only history worth reading is that written at the time of which it treats, the history of what was done and seen, heard owt of the mouths of men who did and saw. One fresh draught of such history is worth a thou- sand volumes of abstracts and reasonings and sup- positions and theories.” Without accepting this dictum in its fullest sense, it may be conceded to‘ carry a modicum of truth. The facts of history may — be chalked down by the chronicler; the hidden causes of great movements—at the best but indis- tinctly and uncertainly—may be traced by the phil- osophic historian; but the spirit, the aroma, even the outward form of a picturesque age, can only be caught from the vivid, impassioned, roughshod writers of the time. Such a history of the Dutch Reformation—full, yet sufficiently compendious for general circulation, has long been a desideratum. Of course, this work falls sadly short of its aim ; but it is at least an hon- est attempt to focus and to popularize a marvellous story ; one of which the sages of the Porch and thé Grove in the great days of Athens would have loved to speak to their disciples, had Christian hearts beaten within their breasts; one which requires the pencil of a lineal descendant of Livy or of Tacitus to do it justice. New Yorr, 1868. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE DEBATABLE LAND-------------------------- PAGE 29 Characteristics of Modern Holland, 29; Lessons, 33; Earliest Features of the Netherlands, 35; Geography, 35; Pliny’s Ac- count, 36; Ethnography, 36; Theological Systems of the Celts and the Saxons, 37. CHAPTER IT. THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO -------------------- 38 Cesar in the Low Countries, 38; Belgium, Batavia, and Fries- land, 38; Characteristics of the Frisians, 39; Democratic Rudi- ments, 39; Polity of the Belgians and Batavians, 40; Valor of the Primitive Races, 40; Completion of the Roman Conquest, 41; Metamorphosis of the Belgic District, 41; Claudius Civilis, 42; Transformation confined to Belgium, 42; The Frisians under Tiberius and Vespasian, 43; The Menapians, 43; Commerce in” Embryo, 44; End of the Roman Domination, 45; Epoch of the Tnmmigration of Nations, 45; Empire ofthe Franks, 46; Belgium again denationalized, 46; The Frisians resume their Indepen- dence, 46; Introduction of Nominal Christianity, 47; Rome puts on the Triple Crown, 47; Early Missionaries, 47; Origin of the Bishopric of Utrecht, 47; Conflict between Christianity and the National Idols, 48; Charlemagne lays the Ghost of Woden, 49; Condition of the Netherlands under Charlemagne, 50; Progressive Steps of the Frisians and Flemings, 52; Rise of Guilds, 52; Social Progress, 53; European Politics revolu- ‘tionized, 53; Death of Charlemagne, 54; Subdivision of the Frankish Empire, 54; Fate of the Low Countries, 54. ; a ee CHAPTER III. DEVELOPMENT -----------------------------+--------- 55 Medizval Life, 55; Voluntary and Compulsory Servitude, 55, 56; Status of the Serfs, 56; Raids of the Norsemen, 57; Influence 8 CONTENTS. of the Crusades, 58; The Three Forces, 58; Feudalism, 59; Its Origin, 59; Allodial and Feudal Estates, 59; Demesne Lands, 59; Benefices, 59; Became Hereditary, 59; Rise of Nobility, 60; Nature of the Feudal Tenure, 61; Feudalism not planted in Friesland, 62; Its Influence there, 62; The Feudal Polity makes for Freedom, 62; Why and How, 63; Medival Eeclesiasticism, 63; Distinctive Features, 63; Rise of the Mu- nicipal System, 65; Influence of Wealth, 66; Progress of the Commons, 66; Republican Genius, 67; Results, 68; Growing Commercial Importance of the Netherlands, 69; The Nether- lands and the Norman Conquest of England, 70; Jacqueline, 71; Commencement of the Burgundian Rule, 71; Philip the Good, 71; Charles the Bald, 72; His Ambitious Projects, 72; Mary of Burgundy, 73; The ‘‘ Great Privilege,” 74; Mary and Maximilian, 74; Birth and Reign of Philip the Fair, 74; Birth of Charles V., 75; Results of two Fortunate Marriages, 75. CHAPTER IV. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION ---------------- 76 The Reformation a Development, 76; Troublesome Question- ers, 78; Course of the Native Churchmen, 78; Their Compara- tive Independence, 78; Early Opposition of the Low-Country Prelates to Rome, 78; Their Patriotism, 81; Conflict with Pope Hildebrand, 82; The Reproving Nathans of the Church begin to die off, 82; The New Race of Dissidents, 83; Nicknames, 83; 84; Character of the Dissidents, 84; Rise of the Netherland Baptists, 85; Vaudois Massacres, 85; Free Fairs the Seed- ground of Reform, 85; Translation of the Bible into Low Dutch Rhymes, 85; Dawn of Persecution, 86; First Execution of Her- etics, 86; Martyrdom, 86; Dissidents increase in Number, 87; John Baptists of the Reformation, 88; Increasing Profligacy of the Romish Church, 89; The Law commences to restrict Eccle- siastical Estates, 90; Spread of Intelligence, 91; Early Dutch Writers, 92; Medicval Literature revolutionized, 93; Cham- bers of Rhetoric founded in the Low Countries, 95; Invention of Printing, 96; Knights of the Golden Fleece, 96; How ‘All Things work together for Good,” 97; Men learn to discrimi- nate, 97. ' CHAPTER V. THE GERMAN CZESAR -----------------------+--------- 98 The Netherlands reach the Acme of Material Prosperity, 98; Evidences, 98; Metropolitan Importance of Antwerp, 98; Com- merce of the Middle Ages revolutionized, 99; Antwerp the CONTENTS. 9 Gainer, 99; Splendor of the City, 100; Ghent, 101; Its Wealth and Importance, 101; The Great Bell ‘‘ Roland,” 102; Political Constitutions of Ghent and Antwerp, 102, 103; Condition of the Low-Countrymen, 103; Educational Institutions, 103; The Women of the Netherlands, 104; Their Treatment and Influ- ence, 104; Agricultural, 105; Inventions, 105; Friesland isola- ted, 107; Setf-governing Instincts of the Frisians, 107; Civili- zation through the Stomach, 108; The German Cmsar, 108. CHAPTER VI. Pin NW RECN Basan coca cores esst ec tewaclaals 109 Time as a Reformer, 109; Dawn of the Sixteenth Century, 109; Rapid Decadence of Rome, 110; Rise of Public Opinion, 110; The Second Band of Apostles, 111; An Antithesis, 111; Tho Press an Agent of Reform, 112; Progress of the New Theology in the Low Countries, 112; Causes, 112; Attendant Circumstan- ces of the Reformation, 113; European Rivalries, 114; Charles V. enters the Lists against Reform, 115; Imperial Schemes, 116; Violent Outbreaks of the Republican Spirit, 116; Insidious Suc- cess of Charles, 116; Sagacious Despotism, 117; Great Vassals crippled, 118; Cunning outwits Itself, 118; Luther anathema- tized, 119; Imperial Decrees, 119; Despotism and Romanism clasp Hands, 120; Appalling Preparations, 121; An Initial Auto da Fé, 121; Vicissitudes of the Pontificate, 121; Pacification, 122; Use to which Charles put It, 123; Internal Dissensions of the Reformation, 123; The Munster Excesses, 124; Philosophy of Fanaticism, 126; The Governant’s Opinion, 128; The Empe- ror proposes to introduce the Spanish Inquisition, 128; Effect of the Threat, 128; A Shrewd Manceuvre, 129. CHAPTER VII PR WU NT eee eee marc ccann cee cadsamenddes 130 “A Gala-Day at Brussels, 130; Abdication of Charles V., 131; Reasons for the Act, 132; Retires to the Monastery of St. Juste, 135; His Character, 136; Philip’s Chief Inheritance the Revolution, 137. CHAPTER VIII. AFFINITIES----------------- 222-2222 eee eee eee e eee 138 Portrait of Philip II., 138, 139; Unnatural Union between Spain and the Low Countries, 144; Old Rivalries, 144; Imperilled Nationality asserts Itself, 145: Latent Revolution, 116. 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. SCHEMES .----------------------- 2-0 cere ec corr oe 147 Ascendency of the Monarchical over the Republican Spirit, 147; Wholesale Perjury, 147; The King and the Citizens, 148; Philip dissembles, 149; The People suspect, 149; Government set- tled, 149; Emanuel Philibert, Governor-General, 149; Compo- sition of the Court, 149; Crafty Preparations, 150; A Despot’s Desideratum, 150; Adroit Absolutism, 150; Reenactment of the Imperial Edicts against Heresy, 150; Popular Opposition, 151; Fires of Persecution lighted anew, 151; The King asks for a Subsidy, 152; Refused by the States-General, 152; A Com- promise, 152; Philip in a False Position, 153; War with France and the Pope, 153; Causes, 153; Pope Paul Caraffa, 154; Philip feels the Anomaly of his Position, 154; Council of Theologians, 155; Philip in England, 155; Triumphant Progress of Philip’s Arms, 156; Peace, 156; Alva’s Query, 157; Singular Terms of the Pacification, 157. CHAPTER X. THE MASK LIFTED ----------------------------------- 158 Position of Philip II. after the Treaty of Chateau Cambray, 158; His Purpose, 158; Rejoicings of the Low-Countrymen over the Pacification, 159; The King desires to return to Spain, 160; Necessary Preliminaries, 161; Ominous Restlessness of the Netherlands, 161; Sinister Arrangements, 162; Conduct of the Mercenaries, 162; A Trial of Wits, 162; Spirit of the Peo- ple, 163; The Rhetoricians, 163; Placard against Them, 164; Its Futility, 164; The New Bishoprics Scheme, 164; How the People received It, 165; Philip’s Severity, 165; Emanuel Phil- ibert resigns the Governor-Generalship, 166; Candidates for the Vacant Office, 166, CHAPTER XI. EGMONT AND ORANGE -----------------+------------5 167 Christierne, Duchess of Lorraine, 167; Sketch of Lamoral, Count Egmont, 167; Portrait of William of’ Orange, 169; His Birth and Early Education, 169; An Unexpected inheritance, 171; Transferred to the Imperial Court at Brussels, 172; Is trained under the Eye of Charles V., 172; Honored and trusted by the Emperor, 172; His Standing with Philip IL., 174; Earns the Surname of William the “Silent,” 174; Personal Appear- ance, 175; William’s Character at this Period, 176; Philip’s CONTENTS. 1l Instinctive Dread of Him, 177; Orange and Egmont fail to attain the Governor-Generalship, 177; Reasons, 177; Non-Suc- cess of the Duchess of Lorraine’s Suit, 179; Margaret of Parma appointed Governant, 179. CHAPTER XII. A CHECK ------------------------------+---------------- 180 Philip welcomes the New Governant to the Netherlands, 180; Romantic History of Margaret of Parma, 180; Her Ungainly Personal Appearance, 182; Policy of Her Appointment, 162; The Three Governmental Chambers, 183; The Consulta, 184; Barlaiment, 185; Viglius, 185; Anthony Perrenot, Bishop of Arras, 186; History and Character, 186; Distribution of the Provincial Stadtholderates, 190; Philip’s Address to the Grand Council of Mechlin, 190; Convocation of the States-General at Ghent, 190; The Feast, 191; Midnight Mission of the Prince of Orange, 191; Meeting of the National Deputies, 191; Perrenot’s Harangue, 192; Philip’s Dinner, 193; Reply of the Deputies to the King’s ‘‘ Request,” 193; Philip’s Anger, 195; Perrenot’s Advice, 195; Response to the ‘‘Remonstrance,” 195; Lies, 196; Philip and Orange, 196; The King embarks for Spain, 197; Mar- garet de Valois, 197; Philip at Home, 198; The Victims, 198. CHAPTER XIII. UNDERCURRENTS ------------------------------------ 199 Material Prosperity of the Netherlands, 199; A Glance below the Surface of Affairs, 200; The Seeds of Convulsion, 200; Con- tinued Assaults of the Court on the Republican Rudiments, 201; Status of the People, 201; Rottenness of the Aristocracy, 202; Profligacy of the Titled Ladies of the States, 202; Influ- ence of the Nobles, 204; Democratic Tendency of the Reforma- tion, 205;*Philosophy of this Fact, 205; Spread of the Reform, 205; The Counterpoise, 207; Protestantism in the Netherlands, 208; The People enter the Arena against Priestcraft, 209; The Baptism of Suffering, 210; Philip and Catharine de’ Medici, 211; The Governmental Book, 211. CHAPTER XIV. QUICKSANDS --------------- -2 2-2 o nen eee reece ere ee 212 Intimated Insanity of Philip II., 212; A Capital Blunder, 212; Pliability of Perrenot, 213; Management, 213; The Administra- tion opens Its Campaign, 214; The Papal Bull, 214; Object of CONTENTS. the Innovation, 214; Presto! 215; Trickery, 215; Constitational Opposition, 216; Voice of the Charters, 216; Perrenot’s Connec- tion with the New Bishoprics, 217; Advanced to the Primacy of the Netherlands, 218; Rage of the People, 218; The Minister instructs the King, 218; A Popular Syllogism, 218; The Bish- op’s Prayer, 219; Growing Excitement, 219; Ministerial Plati- tudes, 219; The Mercenaries in Zealand, 229; Alarm of the Court, 220; Correspondence, 221; Philip withdraws the Foreign Soldiers, 222; Jubilation, 222. CHAPTER XY. AGIPSA TON so iden staat ted et acess seceeresemsseceteee 223 Ultramontane Sighs, 223; Effect of the Departure of the Mer- cenaries, 223; The Agitation gathers to a Focus, 223; How the Cities received the New Bishops, 224; Perrenot gets the Red Hat, 225; The Cardinal’s Hauteur, 225; Altercations between Granvelle and the Seigneurs, 225; Conduct of the Consulta, 225; A Scene at the Council Table, 226; Relations between Orange and Granvelle, 226; A Hollow Friendship broken, 227; Orange and Egmont memorialize the King, 228; The Royal Answer, 229; Count Horn, 229; Voluminous Despatches, 229; Philip opens his Heart, 230; Financial Condition, 231; Plan for debasing the Coin, 231; The Royal Bankrupt resorts to Chica- nery, 231; The Abbeys and the New Bishops effect a Compro- mise, 232. CHAPTER XVI. THE TSG WISIT WE acecndccaerdtonnd aes eaeinsenuing 233 The Inquisition the Chief Cause of the Revolution, 233; Queries, 233; End and Means of Christianity, 234; Early Corruptions, 234; Latin and Greek Churches, 235; Nicene Council inaugu- rates Punishment for Heresy, 236; Character of the Penalties, 236; Decrees and Counter-Decrees of the Early Roman Empe- rors, 236; Rise of the Papacy, 237; Usurpations of the Popes, 238; Causes of Their Success, 239; Props of Usurped Author- ity, 240; Three Phases of the Inquisition, 241; Arbitrative Authority transformed into Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of all Causes, 242; Episcopal Form of the Inquisition, 243; Pontifi- cate of Innocent III., 243; The Vaudois, 244; Ecclesiastical Commission under Dominic, 245; Establishment of the Papal Inquisition, 246; Distinetive Features, 246; Inception of the Spanish Type of the Inquisition, 247; Torquemada, 247; Xim- enes, 250; Methods of Procedure of the Inquisition, 252; The “Black Book,” 255; The Torture-Room, 237; Procession to the CONTENTS. 13 Stake, 259; Statistios of Slaughter, 260; Instruments of the In- quisition, 261; Society of Jesus, 262; Marseillaise of the Coun- ter-Revolution, 262; Influence of the Inquisition, 263, ; CHAPTER XVII. THE EDICTS ------------------------------------------ 266 Early Introduction of the Episcopal Inquisition into the Neth- erlands, 266; Charles V. brings in the Papal Form, 266; Activ- ity of the Pontifician Censors, 266; Philip scheme to inaugu- rate the Spanish Inquisition, 267; New Bishoprics Part of that Programme, 268; Granvelle’s Slyness, 268; Fresh Impetus given to Reform, 268; Charlatan Reformers, 268; Open Conventicles, . 269; The Defiance of the Edicts provokes Renewed Persecu- tion, 269; The Royal Inquisitor, 270; Granvelle’s Complaint, 270; Commencement of an Inquisitorial- Campaign, 271; Ex- ploits of Peter Titelmann, 271; Titelmann and Red-Rod vis-d- vis, 272; Gratulatory Speech of Philip, 273; Granvelle’s Witti- cism, 273; The People resist the Inquisitors, 273; Count Ber- ghen denounced, 274; Riot at Valenciennes, 274; Margaret’s Revenge, 275; Protestantism of the Northern Provinces, 275; Immigration Thither, 275; Government essays to stop It, 276; Efforts of the Magistrates to shield the Reformed, 277; The Hoodwinked Commission, 277; Organization of the Reformed Dutch Church, 278. CHAPTER XVIII. MINES AND COUNTER-MINES -.----------------------- 279 Crisis in the Netherlands, 279; Unpopularity of Granvelle, 279; He presses Philip to return to Brussels, 279; The King vouch- safes no Answer, 279; The Minister carries It with a High Hand, 280; ‘The Smithy,” 280; League of the Nobles against Granvelle, 281; The Seigneurs entrench Themselves behind the Charters, 281; William of Orange leads the Opposition, 281; War in France between Catharine de’ Medici and the Hu- guenots, 282; Philip orders the Low-Countrymen to assist Catharine, 282; Amazement of the Governant, 283; The Dilem- ma, 283; Granvelle’s Rise, 284; The People clamor for the Convocation of the States-General, 284; Margaret convenes the Knights of the Golden Fleece, 285; Caucus at Nassau-House, 285; Decision of the Knights, 285; Montigny sets out for Ma- drid, 286; Granvelle’s Despatches, 286; Montigny’s Audiences with the King, 286; Royal Equivoques, 287; Margaret attempts “to alienate Egmont from Orange, 288; Reasons for Her Fail- ure, 289. 2: 14 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIX. GRANVELLE’S WITHDRAWAL -.----------------------- 290 The Netherlands on the High-road to Ruin, 290; March Letter of the Seigneurs to the King, 290; Granvelle instructs Philip how to answer, 291; The Reply, 292; ««* Will You walk into My Parlor?” said the Spider to the Fly,” 292; The Grandees embittered, 292; Second Letter to the King, 293; Orange, Eg- mont, afid Horn retire from the Council of State, 294; Alva’s Opinion, 294; A Skirmish of Pens, 294; Granvelle assailed by the Comedians, 295; Brederode and Robert de la Marck, 296; Grobbendonck’s Supper, 296; Fool’s Cap Livery, 296, 297; Po- sition of Granvelle, 297; Margaret deserts Him, 298; Mission of Armenteros, 298; Dismissal of Granvelle, 299; His Insou- ciant Departure, 299. “ CHAPTER XX. JUGGLING- ----------------++ 2222-2222 so ener er ee ec eee 301 Rumors of Granvelle’s Return, 301; Return ot the Grandees to the Council of State, 302; Their Diligence, 302; Margaret's Wrath against the late Minister, 302; Disgrace of the Whole Cardinal- ist Faction, 303; Programme of the Prince of Orange, 303; Privy and Finance Councils Sinks of Corruption, 304; Deprayv- ity of the Administration, 304; Crimination and Recrimination, 304; The Huckstering Governant, 305; Effects of the Admini3-, trative Venality, 306; Growth of Heresy, 306; Momentary Sus-= pension of the Inquisition, 306; Philip orders Persecution to be resumed, 307; Execution of Fabricius, 308; Antwerp Muti- nies, 308; The News at Madrid, 308; Flanders memorializes Philip against Titelmann, 309; Non-success of the Petition, 309; Sine Die Adjournment of the Council of Trent, 310; A: Glance at Its Work, 310; Philip orders the Tridentine Decrees to be received in the States, 311; General Surprise, 311; Margaret’s Dismay; 311; Advice of Viglius, 311; Counsel of Orange, 311; Embassy of Egmont, 311; Debate on His Instructions, 312; Chagrin of Viglius, 312; Is prostrated by a Stroke of Apoplexy, ' 312; Joachim Hopper, 312; Egmont sets out for Spain, 313; His Reception, 314; The Cozened Soldier, 315; Philip and the Theologians, 315; Hypocrisy, or Fanaticism? 316; A Pleas- ant Parting, 316; Egmont’s Return, 316; The Sealed Instruc- tions opened, 317; Astonishment of Egmont, 317; Indigna- tion of Orange, 318; Rebukes Egmont, 318; Egmont loses Caste, 318, CONTENTS. 15 CHAPTER XXI. THE DRAGON'S TEETH ------------------------------- 319 Couriers En-route, 319; Conclave of Ecclesiastics and Civilians, 319; The Mitigation, 320; Remark of Orange, 321; People’s Opinion of the Mitigation, 321; A Notable Admission, 322; Doctors Disagree, 322; Rumors, 382; The Bayonne Interview, 323; Incessant Conflicts between the People and the Inquisi- tion, 324; Activity of the Reformers, 325; Inquisitors petition Philip for Protection, 326; Decisive Reseript of the King, 32(; Meeting of the Council of State, 327; Viglius and Orange ex- change Roles, 328; Publication of the Canons of Trent, 329; Ominous Comments of the Populace, 330; Protest of the Bra- ‘ bantine Cities, 330; The Seigneurs refuse to enforce the Tri- dentine Decrees, 330; Orange’s Letter to the Regent, 331; Eg- mont vacillates, 331; The Last Year of Peace, 331. CHAPTER XXIL “THE BEGGARS” ------------------------------------- 332 Count Megen’s Announcement, 332; A Double Wedding at Brussels, 334; The Sermon at Culemburg-House, 334; Francis Junius, 334; Formation of a League against the Inquisition, 335; Signing of the Covenant, 335; Y; becomes the Fashion, 336; Brederocde, Nassau, and St. Aldegonde, 336;- Lesser Lead- ers of the League, 337; Grandees stand aloof from the Move- ment, 337; The Statesman Prince, 338; Meeting of the Seign- eurs at Breda, 339; Margaret convenes the Notables, 339; Emi- gration, 340; Discussion, 340; Argument of Orange against the Inguisition, 341; The Petitioners, 345; Wait upon the Regent, 346; Barlaiment’s Taunt, 347; Margaret’s Reply to the Peti- tioners, 347; The Confederates retire to consult, 347; Its Unsat- isfactory Nature, 348; Second Audience, 348; The Ultimatum, 348; Arrangements of the Leaguers, 348; The Carouse, 348; “‘Vivent les Guewx,” 349; Baptismal Rites of the ‘‘ Beggars,” 349; Orange and Egmont pledge the Gueuwx, 350; Universal Adoption of the ‘‘Beggar’s” Dress, 351. CHAPTER XXIJII. FIELD-PREACHING------------------ se0- rene renee eee 352 The Governant’s Portrait-painting, 352; The ‘‘Murderation,” 353; Margaret's Stratagem, 353; New Embassy to Spain, 254; March of Events, 355; A Forgery, 356; Field-preaching, 356; Characteristics, 357, The Preachers, 357; In the Fields, 359; 16 CONTENTS. Calvinists especially identified with the open Air Conventicles, 361; Field-preaching encouraged by the Gueux, 362; Feeling at Court, 362; Parchment Fiats, 362; The Reformed demand Legal Recognition, 363; Terror of the Antwerp Magistrates, 363; Orange in Antwerp, 364; The Court Cap-in-hand to Will- jam the Silent, 364; A Sjab in the Back, 365; Convention of the Gueux at St. Trond, 365; Duffel Conference, 366; The Vin- ication, 367; The Regent's Evasion, 368; A Sinister Threat, 368; Meeting of the Spanish Council at the Grove of Segovia, 368; Sentiments of the Royal Councillors, 369; Their Advice to Philip, 369; An Absurd List of Concessions, 370; Insincerity of the King, 370; Philip in the Confessional of the Vatican, 371; Granvelle’s Forebodings, 373; ‘Great and Admirable Voy- ages of King Philip II.,” 373. CHAPTER XXIV. THE IMAGE-BREAKERS------------------------------- 374 Field Conventicles characterized, 374; Image-worship De- nounced by the Reformed Preachers, 374; The Zealots, 375; Ecclesiastical Architecture in the Netherlands, $75; Outbreak of the Iconoclasts, 376; First Peltings of the Storm, 376; Re- ports of the Emente mach Antwerp, 378; General Excitement, 378; Ribald Jests, 380; Precursory Disturbances, 380; Bo-Peep of the Madonna, 381; Scuffle in the Cathedral, 381; Magis- trates im Council, 382; An. Uneasy Night, 382; The Morrow, 382; Sack of Antwerp Cathedral, 384; Continued Riot, 386; Inaction of the Citizens, 387; Antwerp Quicted, 388; The Image- Breakers sweep over the Netherlands, 389; Incidents, 389; Scene at Ghent, 390; Events at Valenciennes, 391; Oecurrences at Tournay, 391; Act of Posthumous Justice, 391; Extent of the Waste, 393; A Discriminating Destruction, 393; Vandalism, but not Blood-thirstimess, 393; Honesty of the Image-Breakers, 394; Their Insignificant Number, 396; Reforrned Party of the Low Countries not Responsible for the Outbreak, 336; Philosophy of the Iconomachy, 397; Consternation of the Court at Brus- sels, 399; Margaret in a Bellicose Mood, 339; Consults with the Seigneurs, 399; Events tame the Shrew, 400; The Governant decides to desert the Capital, 401; Midnight Interview with the Grandees, 401; Vain Expostulation, 102; Viglius’ Announce- ment, 402; Brussels secured against an Outbreak, 103; Marga- ret’s Relapse, 403; The Accord, 404; The Regent’s Letter to the King, 404; The Pupil of Loyola, 405; Vain Hopes of the Re- formers, 405. CONTENTS. 17 CHAPTER XXV. THE REACTION -------------------------------e- eee 466 Pacific Influence of the Accord, 406; The Seigneurs quit Brus- sels for Their Stadtholderates, 406; Orange in Antwerp, 406; Arranges Terms of Just Agreement between All Parties, 407; Margaret displeased, 408; Williain’s Reply to Her Remon- strance, 408; She dissembles, 408; Orange not deceived, 408; Departs for the North, 408; William’s Justice disarms Riot, 409; Hoogstraaten in Mechlin, 409; Megen in Guilders, 409; Egmont in Flanders, 410; Exchanges the Baton of St. Quentin for the Staff of Peter Titelmann, 411; Dishonorable Severity, 411; Count Louis of Nassau remonstrates, 412; Horn in Tournay, 412; Brief Interval of Religious Freedom, 414; Treachery and Dissimulation of the Regent, 414; Ceases to coquette with the Patriot Leaders, 415; Interview with Viglius, 415; Arrival of Philip’s Post Factum Concessions, 416; Margaret manceuvres, 416; Recalls Horn from Tournay, 417; Increasing Arrogance, 417; Nullification of the Accord by Construction, 418; Orange com- plains, 418; Varying Effect of Margaret’s Estrangement, 419; Philip learns of the Iconomachy, 419; Asks the Advice of His Councillors, 420; Their Opinion, 420; Ruy Gomez and the Duke of Alva, 420; Two Methods, 421; The King’s Determina- tion, 421; He conceals It, 422; Announces His Intention to visit the Netherlands, 422; The Governant duped, 423; The Royal Budget, 423; Dissolution of the League, 425; Orange Familiar with the King’s Programme, 425; The Use of Spies, 4:'5, Important Meeting of the Seigneurs at Dendermonde, 427; Eg- mont’s Defection prevents a Decision, 428; Weak Behavior of the Recusant Soldier, 429; Horn retires to Weert, 431; Isolation of William the Silent, 432; His Plea for Toleration, 432; Avows Himself a Protestant, 432; Reformed Consistories established, 433; Bickering Sects, 434; Antwerp Reformers attempt to sub- sidize the Court, 434; Margaret's ‘‘Study of Revenge,” 435; Bold Stretches of Arbitrary Power, 435; Accord revoked, 435; Foreign, Mercenaries called into the Provinces, 435; Ill-regu- lated and Fragmentary Resistance of the People, 436; Noir- carmes before Valenciennes, 436; The City shuts Its Gates in his Face, and appeals for Aid, 437; The Gueux in Motion, 438; New Petition, 439; Margaret’s Haughty Answer, 439; Confed- erates take Arms, 439; Nassau at Austruweel, 440; Tumult in Antwerp, 440; Appeased by Orange without Bloodshed, 440; Noircarmes defeats the Leaguers, 440; Elation of the Court, 441; Siege of Valenciennes pressed, 441; Capitulation of the City, 442; Chastisement, {42; Execution of De Bray and De la 2* 18 CONTENTS. Grange, 442; The New Oath, 443; Bead-roll of Court-Saints who took It, 444; Orange and Others refuse to take It, 444; Margaret endeavors to persuade the Prince to subscribe, 445; William and Berti t&te-a-téte, 445; Orange determines to quit the Netherlands for a Season, 445; Farewell Interview between Orange and Egmont at Willebrock, 445; A Prophecy, 447; The Prince’s Letter to Philip, Margaret, Horn, and Egmont, 448; Sets out for Germany, 449; Brederode’s Good-by Carouse, 450; Flight and Death of the “ Great Beggar,” 451; The Exodus, 451; Panic, 451; Licensed Spoilers, 452; Margaret enters Ant- werp at the Head of an Army, 452; Deputation from the Lu- theran Princes, 452; A New Edict, 453; The Governant’s Mis- take, 453; Triumph of the Court, 454; The Reaction Useful to Reform, 454. CHAPTER XXVI. ALVA ------------------ 2-22 one ener nnn nner eee e 455 The Outbreak, 455; Margaret awaits her Guerdon, 455; Philip determines to supercede Her, 455; A Morisco Precedent, 456; Alva to be sent into the Low Countries, 456; Warlike Prepara- tions, 457; Portrait of the Duke of Alva, 458; His Farewell In- terview with Philip at Aranjuez, 461; The Duke en-route, 461; Margaret strives to prevent his Incoming, 462; Mortification of the Governant, 462; Her Letter to Philip, 463; To Alva, 463; The King’s Reply, 464; Death of Berghen, 464; Alva’s Muster at Alexandria de Palla, 464; The March, 464; Character of the Invading Army, 465; The Corps of Courtesans, 465; Alva enters the Netherlands, 466; The Welcome, 467; Egmont meets the Duke, 467; ‘‘ Whom the Gods would destroy, They first make mad,” 468; Alva at Brussels, 468; His Sullen Reception, 468; The Ixodus, 468; The Duke’s Sang Froid, 469; His Interview with Margaret, 469; Incidents, 470; Alva exhibits His Commis- sion, 471; Preliminary Acts, 472; Omens, 473. CHAPTER XXVILI. THE COUNCIL OF BLOOD ---------------------------- 474 Purpose of the New Captain-General, 474; Philip and the Pope unite to facilitate His Labors, 474; The Netherlanders denation- alized, 475; Plot to arrest the Leading Seigneurs, 475; Treach- erous Pleasure, 476; Horn enticed to Brussels, 477; Continued Gloom of the Capital, 477; The Hour strikes, 477; Arrest of Egmont and Horn, 478; Other Arrests, 479; The Captive Seign- eurs sent to Ghent, 480; Elation of Alva and Philip, 480; Gran- volle’s Inquiry, 480; Titelmann’s Foreboding, 481; Margaret CONTENTS. 19 resents the Coup-de-main, 481; Demands Her Dismissal, 481; General Consternation, 482; Emigration at Flood-Tide, 482; Forbidden under Pain of Death and Confiscation, 482; Tho Ten Merchants of Tournay, 482; An Honest Churchman, 482; Alva affects to despise the Exodus, 483; His Efforts to stay It, 483; Absolutism, 483; Institution of the Council of Troubles, 484; Composition of the New Tribunal, 485; Alva’s Check on the Powers of the Blood-Judges, 486; Initial Meeting of the Council, 486. : CHAPTER XXVIII. AT WORK .-.-------------------------------------------- 487 Regulations of the Council of Blood, 487; Method of Proce- dure, 488; Treason defined, 489; Vargas’ Latin, 490; Terrible Industry, 491; The Judges in Session, 492; A Word concern- ing Vargas, 492; The Judges at Odds, 493; Sleepy Hassels, 494; Vargas again, 494; A Harvest of Death, 494; Civil War in France, 495; Refugees enter the Huguenot Service, 496; Com- plaints, 496; Decrees, 496; Catharine de’ Medici’s Despairing Cry, 496; Alva’s Response, 496; Aremberg marches into France, 497; Discontent of Margaret, 497; Procures Her Dismissal from the King, 497; Parting Scenes, 498; Silver Sorrow, 498; She urges Philip to be Merciful, 499; The Farewell, 499; Her Ad- ministration characterized, 500; Alva assumes the Governor- Generalship, 500; Brutum Fulmen against Orange, 500; The Prince’s Reply, 501; William’s Son, the Count of Buren, kid- napped, 501; Protests, 502; Vargas and the Dons of Louvain, 502; Whispers from Madrid, 502; General Feeling of Insecuri- ty, 503; Offenders executed in Gangs, 501; Examples, 504; Shrovetide Eve, 505; Status of the Sufferers, 505; Alva’s Gag, 506; Confiscations, 507; Proscription a Bad Paymaster, 507; Searching Despotism, 508; The ‘‘ Wild Beggars,” 509; Orange asked to take Arms, 510; He decides to do, 510. CHAPTER XXIFX. LIBERTY’S DRUM-TAP -------------------------------- 511 Aspirations of the Refugee Prince, 511; Efforts to redress.the Grievances of the States by P@aceful Means, 512; Alva and the Antwerp Burghers, 512; Intercession of the German Emperor rejected, 513; Wazlike Preparations, 514; The Antagonists, 514; William’s Activity, 515; Schemes for obtaining Foreign Coun- tenance, 516; Louis Nassau, 517; William invests Him with Authority to enroll an Army, 518; Pecuniary Embarrassments of the Patriots, 518; Individual and Municipal Contributions, 20 CONTENTS. 519; Character of the Levies, 520; Plan of Campaign, 520; The ‘Tripartite Invasion, 521; Defeat of De Villars, 521; Rout of De Cocqueville, 521; Louis Nassau in Groningen, 522; Aremberg despatched to repel Him, 524; Manceuvring, 525; Battle of Heiliger-Lee, 526; Rout and Death of Aremberg, 528, 529; Fall of Adolphus Nassau, 529; Count Louis’ Booty, 529. CHAPTER XXX. TRAGEDIES ------------------------ (MSESesSSecHSe eee sees 531 Effect of the Battle of Heiliger-Lee, 531; Alva’s Rage, 531; Rapid Vengeance, 532; Execution of Backerzeel, 533; Egmont and Horn brought to Brussels, 534; Two Facts, 534; Cumula- tive Illegality, 535; Interrogatories, 5385; Articles of Accusation against the Two Seigneurs, 536; They plead to the Jurisdic- tion, 537; Fruitless Efforts of Their Friends, 538, 539; Interces- sion of Foreign Powers, 539; Counsel retained, 540; Pleas of Counsel, 540; The Government embarrassed, 541; Alva appeals to Philip to stop the Harangues of the Advocates, 541; The King complies, 541; The Cases foreclosed, 542; Egmont and Horn sentenced to Death, 543; Reflections on the Trial, 543; Obsequious Viglius, 543; The Bishop of Ypres sent to shrive’ Egmont, 544; His Unavailing Prayer, 544; In the Cell of the Condemned, 545; Egmont’s Last Hour, 545, 546; Scene in Horn’s Cell, 547; Details of the Execution of the Grandees, 547; On the Scaffold, 549; The Headsman strikes, 549; Popu- lar Grief, 550; Results, 551. CHAPTER XXXII. DISASTROUS CAMPAIGNING -.--------------- “5 eeesee 552 Alva sets out for the North, 552; The Royalist Muster, 552; ‘“‘Have You seen the Bride?” 553; Whereabouts of Louis Nas- sau, 553; Skirmish at Groningen, 554; Retreat of the Patriots, 555; Position of Count Louis of Jemmiugen, 556; The Pursuit, 556; Tactics of Nassau, 556; Alva’s “Science,” 556; The Muti- ny, 557; The Attack, 557; Tremendous Defeat of the Patriots, 557; Elation of Alva, 558; Rejoicings, 558; The Duke’s Inquis- itorial Campaign, 559; Incidents, 560; Orange opens a New Campaign, 561; Alva marches to meet Him, 562; Williams’ Manifold Discouragements, 562; His Piety, 563; The Levies completed, 565; State Papers, 566; The Prince crosses the Rhine, 566; Passes the Meuse, 567; Agtonieheticat of Alva, 567; William challenges a Battle, 567; The Duke declines, 568; Masterly Tactics, 568, 569; Skirmishing, 569; Death of Hoog- CONTENTS. 21 straaten, 569; Painful Embarrassment of William, 569, 570; Junction with De Genlis, 570; Sufferings of the Patriots, 570; Disastrous Close of the Campaign, 570; Upright and Generous Conduct of Orange, 570; Passes into France to assist the Hu- guenots, 571. A CHAPTER XXXII. ALVA’S MILLENNIUM --------------------1+------------ 572 Renewed Mediation of the German Emperor, 572; Imperial Hypocrisy, 574; A Royal Alliance, 574; Triumphant Attitude of Alva, 575; Enforced Festivities, 575; The Duke erects a ‘‘Brazen Image,” of Himself, 576; An Historic Parallel, 577; Imbroglio with England, 579; Alva crowned by the Pope as Champion of Holy Church, 582; Stringent Measures against Heresy, 582, 583; Records of Persecution, 584; The Martyr Willemson, 584; Emigration, 585; Communication with the Refugees forbidden, 586; The Press put under Censorship, 586; A Brave Voice from Leyden, 587; Impecuniosity of the Viceroy, 588; Alva’s Financiering, 588; Determines to estab- lish an Arbitrary System of Taxation, 588; Mecting of the States-General, 589; The Duke demands the Hundredth, Twen- tieth, and Tenth Pennies, 589, 590; Protest of the Deputies, 590; Viglius hugs His Money-Bags, 591; Bickering, 592; The States-General partially agree to the Taxes, 593; Opposition of Utrecht, 593; Anger of Alva, 594; Dragonnading, 594; A Com- promise, 595; Philip’s Affianced Bride at Brussels, 595; The Duke requests His Majesty’s Leave to attend Her to Spain, refused, 595, 596; An Amnesty proposed, 596; A Pardon pro- claimed with Pompous Ceremony at Antwerp, 597, 598; The Amnesty ‘Characterized, 598; A Flood, 599; Between the Mill- Stones, 600. ‘ CHAPTER XXXIT. PENNIES AS REVOLUTIONISTS - -; --------------+----- 601 The Foreign Outlook, 601; The Status of England, 602; The Ridolfi Plot against Elizabeth, 603; The Pope excommuni- cates the Maiden Queen, 604; Philip countenances the Pro- posed Murder, 604; Orders Alva to codperate, 604; The Duke’s Opinion of the Essay, 605; Explosion of the Plot, 605; Chagrin of the King, 606; Further Efforts to compass the Assassination, 606; Orange in France, 606; Returns to Germany, 607; Deca- dence of His Fortunes, 607; His Christian Resignation, 608; The ‘‘Harangue,” 608; The Reformed Preachers empowered to collect Contributions in Aid of the Good Cause, 608; Their 22 CONTENTS. Success, 609; Peter Boomgard, 609; William resolves to make the Maritime Provinces His Next Scene of Action, 610; Secret Correspondence with the Chief Men of the North, 610; Well- Carried Plans, 611; Romantic Act of De Ruyter, 611, 612; The Prince decides to issue Privateering Commissions, 613; The “Water Gueux,” 613; Foundation of the Dutch Navy, 614; Alva the Unconscious Ally of the Prince, 615; Reopening of the Taxation Question, 616; Viglius Still in Opposition, 616; The Duke decrees the Collection of the Hundredth, Twentieth, and Tenth Pennies, 616; Violent Opposition of the Provinces, 616; Medina Cceli sent to supersede Alva, 617; This News causes a General Revolt against the Taxes, 617; Grinding Con- cessions, 617; Alva’s Correspondence with the King, 618; A Spanish Ambassador’s Opinion of the Situation, 618; The King perplexed, 619; Alva attempts to levy the Taxes fn, Brussels, 619; Universal Suspension of Business, 619; Rage of the Vice- roy, 620; Orders the Execution of Eighteen Tradesmen, 620; The Tragedy postponed by a Report of the Taking of Brille, 621. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE RISINGS =-.8e5 eee cates ee lee lee adde ns 622 The Count de la Marck, 622; His Inability to distinguish be- tween Meum and Tuum, 622; Draws on the Patriot Navy the Hostility of the European States, 623; The Buccanier Admiral at Anchor in Dover, 623; Alva gets Elizabeth to expel the Beg- gars of the Sea from Her Harbors, 623; De la Marck sets Sail, 623; The Descent on Brille, 624; The Ferryman Envoy, 624; The Place escaladed, 625; Revels of the Gueux, 625; Alva's Chagrin, 626; Sends Bossu to retake Brille, 626; The Repulse, 627; The Townsfolk take the Oath to Orange, 628; Bossu’s Treachery at Rotterdam, 628; Revolt of the Maritime Provin- ces, 629; Squibs and Witticisms, 629; Flushing revolutionized, 630; Spread of the Insurrection, 631; English Volunteers cross to Zealand, 632; The Iconomachy Redivivus, 632; Honorable Stipulations, 633; The Ballot supplements the Rising, 633; Sa- noy appointed Deputy Stadtholder of Holland, by William, 634; Tolerant Wisdom of the Prince of Orange, 634; Means and Results, 635. CHAPTER XXXV. TRIUMPHS ON THIS SIDE AND ON THAT .-.-------- 636 William and Count Louis, 636; Policy of the French Court, 636; The Huguenots cajoled, 638; Alarm of His Holiness, 638; CONTENTS. 23 Charles TX. and Coligny, 639; Charles IX. and Nassau, 640; Sagacity at Fault, 640; Count Louis surprises Mons, 641, 642; Effects of the News on Alva, 643; Spanish Thorns and Tuscan Lilies, 644; The Viceroy is doubtful where to begin the Recon- quest of the Provinces, 644; Decides to open the Campaign with the Siege of Mons, 644; The Duke of Medina Ceeli in the Mouth of the Scheldt, 615; Destruction of His Fleet off Flush- ing, 645; Narrow Escape of the New Viceroy, 646; Suspends His Commission in Favor of Alva, 646; Empty Courtesies, 646; Medina Cceli returns to Spain, 646; Alva holds out the Olive- Branch Vainly, 646, 647; Assembly of the Estates of Holland at Dort in the Interests of Orange, 647; Their Resolute Action, 647; Enthusiasm of the People, 649; Mons invested, 650; Posi- tion of Count Louis in the Town, 650; De Genlis advances to His Aid, 651; Total Defeat of the French Contingent, 651; Pious Rejoicings of the Royalists, 652; Alva arrives in Camp, 652; Efforts and Counter Efforts, 653; The Liberator’s New Cam- paign, 653; Incidents of His Advance, 653, 654; The Two Armies Face to Face, 655; Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 656; The Hilarity at Rome, 657; Extravagant Joy of Philip IL., 657; Orders Alva to kill all French Prisoners, 658; Effect of the News in Great Britain, 658; Orange ‘‘Struck as with a Sledge- Hammer,” 659; Throws down the Gauntlet to Alva, 669; The- Duke’s Wary Tactics, 660; The Prince forced to decamp, 661; Mutiny and Dissolution of His Army, 661; The Resolution, 661; Surrender of Mons, 661; Noircarmes in Mons, 662; Sack of Mechlin, 663; Alva justifies the Deed, 664. CHAPTER XXXVI. SCENES OF HORROBR----------------------0-r2+-- +--+ 665 Orange in Holland, 665; At Work, 665; Meeting of the Estates at Haarlem, 666; In Counsel, 666; William’s Faith, 667; Affairs in Zealand, 667; Patriots lay Siege to Middleburg, 668; Its Clever Defence, 668; ’T Zeraerts besieges Turgoes, 669; Roy- alist Plan for Its Relief, 669; Brilliant Expedition of Mondra- gone over the ‘‘Drowned Land,” 670; The Dénouement, 672; Zirickzee emancipates Itself, 672; March of the Spaniard into Holland, 672; Don Frederick's Circuit, 672, 673; Massacre of Zutphen, 674; Its Effect in the Northeast, 674; Naarden, 675; Attempts to resist the Invaders, 675; Subsequent Endeavor to capitulate, 676; Romero’s Pledge, 676; The Feast, 677; Treach- ery, 677; Pillage of the City, 678; Individual Cases, 679; Naar- den in Ruins, 680; Alva endorses the Massacre, 680. 24 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXVIL HEROISM- ---------------------2 7c ecrc cet eer rc cr errr 681 Resolute Despair of Holland and Zealand, 681; Isolation, 681; Amsterdam adheres to Spain, 681; Auto da Fé in the City Square, 682; Alva in Amsterdam, 682; Determines to reduce Haarlem, 682; Why, 682; The Citizen Deputies, 683; Ripper- da’s Speech, 683; Haarlem determines to resist, 684; Decisive Acts, 684; Orange promises his Aid, 684; A Battle on the Ice, 685; Commencement of the Siege of Haarlem, 685; Topography of the Vicinage, 686; Numbers of Besiegers and Besieged, 686, 687; Spaniards take the Fort of Sparendam, 688; Defeat of a Relieving Force under Command of De la Marck, 688; The First Assault; repulsed, 689; Activity of Orange, 690; Defeat of Batenburg, 691; Ghastly Pleasantries, 691; Mining and Coun- ter-mining, 691, 692; The Cross-gate, 692; A Slight Relief, 693; The Spaniard’s Second Assault; bloodily repulsed, 694; Toledo asks Permission to raise the Leaguer, 694; Alva’s Rebuke, 695; Change of Plan, 695; Royalist Fleet on Haarlem Meer, 695; A Patriot Flotilla, 695; Naval Victory of the Beleaguerer, 695; Frightful Suffering in Haarlem, 696; Sorties, 696; The Ama- zons, 696; Starvation, 697; Efforts of Orange, 698; Grand Attempt to relieve the Place; defeated, 699; Despair of the Cit- izens, 699; An Heroic Project, 699; The Surrender, 699; A Thorough Massacre, 700; Cost of the Victory, 700. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE PATRIOT HORIZON BRIGHTENS ---------------- 701 . A Calculation, 701; The Duke’s Monitory Circular, 702; The Hollanders Incorrigible, 702; Meeting of the Spanish Troops, 702; Finally quelled, 703; Patriots occupy the Interval in com- posing the Popular Fear, 703; Serenity of Orange, 703; His Letter to Count Louis, 703; An Enthusiastic Appeal, 704; Re- sponse of the Masses, 705; Siege of Alckmaar, 705; A Foiled Escalade, 706; The Beleaguerer driven off by the Opening of the Sluices, 709; Naval Victory of the Dutch on the Zuyder- Zee, 710; Solemn Thanksgiving observed through Holland, 707; Wry Face of the Viceroy, 711; Bossu and St. Aldegonde, . 712; Alva convenes the States-General of the Netherlands, and demands a Subsidy, 712; Counter Appeal of the Prince of Or- ange, 712; His Partial Success, 713; The ‘ Mpistle,” 714; Will- jam joins the Reformed Dutch Church at Dort, 714; Attitude of Alva, 715; His “New Way to pay Old Debts,” 715; Reque- sens sent to supersede Him, 716; Alva retires from the Low Countries, 716; Review of His Administration, 717-719, CONTENTS. 25 CHAPTER XXXIX. THE GRAND COMMANDER OF ST. IAGO------.------ 720 The New Governor-General, 720; His Reception at Brussels, 720; Whispers, 721; The Cue of Requesens, 721; Popular Measures, 721; The Viceroy’s Diagnosis of the Netherland Dis- ease, 722; Mondragone reduced to Extremities at Middleburg, 723; Expedition to relieve Him, 723; Defeat of Requesens’ Armada, 724; Middleburg capitulates, 724; The whole Island of Walcheren acquired thereby, 725; Invincibility of the Beg- gars of the Sea, 726; Inferiority of the Dutch to the Spaniards on the Land, 726; Orange renews Diplomatic Relations with France, 727; Help traded for Help, 728; Count Louis begins to recruit in Germany, 728; His Advance, 728; Plan of Campaign, 729; Counter Preparations of Requesens, 729; Count Louis foiled, 730; The Hostile Armies meet at Mookheath, 730; The Battle, 731; The Rout, 731; Fall of Duke Christopher, Henry Nassau, and Count Louis, 731; Character of Louis Nassau, 732; A Widow's Tears, 733; Mutiny of the Spaniards after the Fight, 733; Antwerp occupied by the Mutineers, 734; They gluttonize and guzzle at Free Quarters, 734; The Emeute composed, 734; Requesens accused of countenancing It, 735; Boisot’s Triumph in the Scheldt, 735; Philip equips an Armada for the Subjuga- tion of Zealand, 736; The Zealanders prepare to defend Their Archipelago, 736; A Plague stays the Spanish Fleet, 737; Re- quesens administers His Panacea, 737; His Amnesty scouted by the Netherlanders, 738. CHAPTER XI. “FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH” -------+------------------ 739 ' Leyden, Its Beauty and Importance, 739; Valdez lays siege to It by Alva’s Order, 740; Called off to defend the Frontier against Count Louis, 740; The Retutn of Valdez, and Renewed Siege of the City, 740; His Plan of Operations, 740; Culpable Neglect of the Citizens to Provision the Town, 740; Heroic Determina- tion to stand out the Leaguer, 741; John Van det Does, 741; Parleyings, 742; Orange encourages the Citizens, 742; Despe- rate Sorties, 742; Want begins to make Itself felt in Leyden, 743; William’s Project for Relief, by innundating Rhynland, 743; Hesitation of the States, 744; The Doubters convinced, 744; Opening of the Sluices, 744; Magnanimity of the People, 744; Exertions for the Relief of Leyden paralyzed by the Dan- gerous Sickness of the Prince, 744; Convalescence, 745; The Work resumed, 745; Rise of the Water, 745; The Wild Zealand- ers, 745; The Patriot Flotilla launched on the Extemporized ' Dutch Ref 3 26 CONTENTS. Sea, 745; Aground, 746; Frightful Sufferings of the Besieged, 746; The Plague clasps Hands with Famine, 747; Taunts, 747; Van der Werf’s Offer, 747; The Defiance, 748; The Spaniard becomes Uneasy, 748; The Wind shifts, 749; Boisot Afloat again, 749; dqnphibions Battles, 749; The Last Obstacles, 749; Midnight Combats, 749; Flight of the Spaniards, 750; Deliver- ance, 750; Scenes in the City, 751; Thanksgiving, 751; William informed of the Succor, 751; Crosses to Leyden, 751; The Re- ward of Merit, 752; Two Incidents, 752; Foundation of the University of Leyden, 752. CHAPTER XLI. DIPLOMATIC “PRACTICE” --------------------------- 54 A Fencing Match between the Diplomats, 754; St. Aldegonde’s Mission, 754; Conditions precedent to a Pacification, prescribed by the Revolted States, 755; Rejected by Requesens, 755; Re- newed Negotiations, 756; William and His Tempter, 756; Brave Words, 756; Universal Wish for Peace, 757; What Orange un- derstood by the Word, 757; Philip’s Idea, 757; Maximilian again proffers His Mediation, 758; Peace Congress at Breda, 758, 759; Proposition of the Dutch Deputies, 759; Response of the Royal Envoys, 759; The See-saw of Parties, 760; Angry and Indecisive Adjournment of the Congress, 760; The Confer- ence justifies the Patriot Cause at the Bar of Europe, 760; Other Gains, 760; Union of Holland and Zealand under the Stadtholderate of Orange, 761; Evangelical Religion becomes Lawful, 762; Romanism temporarily suppressed under Mar- tial Law, 762; Reasons, 762; The Suppression merely Nominal, 763; Sonoy imitates Juan Vargas. 763; Orange breaks up His Protestant Inquisition, 763; William and the Estates decide to proffer the Sovereignty of Holland and Zealand to some Friend- ly Power, 764; Philip deposed, 764; Question of the Succes- sion, 765; A Union with England esteemed most Desirable, 765; Embassy to Elizabeth, 766; She coquettes, 766; Substan- tial Failure of the Mission, 766; The Designs of Requesens, 746; Success of the Gueux at Sea, 767; A Submarine Project, 767; Expedition to recover the Island of Schouwen, 768; A Brilliant Feat of Arms, 770, 771; Siege of Zierickzee, 772; Chagrin of Orange, 772; Sublime Resolution, 772; Death of Requesens, 773. . CHAPTER XLIT. THE GHENT PACIFICATION - ---------------------22.. 774 The Council of State at Brussels assume the Government pend- ing the King’s Nomination of another Viceroy, 77 4; The Coun- CONTENTS. 27 cillors prosecute Requesens’ Plan of Operations, 775; Continued Leaguer of Zierickzee, 775; Efforts of Orange to relieve the Town, 775; Death of Boisot, 776; Surrender of Zierickzee, 776; Mutiny of Mondragone’s Veterans, 776; The Mutineers swarm into Brabant, 777; Alarming Spread of the Mutiny, 778; The Masses take Arms for Self-defence, 778; The Soldiery banned, 778; Movements of the Prince, 779; The Situation in Holland and Zealand, 780; A Financial Antithesis, 781; Watchful William, 782; Puts Himself in Communication with the Patriots in the Belgie Provinces, 782; The Councillors in Duress, 783; Two Claimants of Authority, 784; Meeting of the Inter-Provincial Congress at Ghent, 784; Siege of the Castle of Ghent, 784; Activity of the Brigands, 784; Sack of Maestricht, 784; “Span- ish Fury” at Antwerp, 785; The ‘‘ Pacification of Ghent,” 787; Act characterized, 788; Taking of Ghent Citadel, 789; Recov- ery of Zierickzee, 789; Arrival of Don John of Austria, the New «. Governor-General, 789. CHAPTER XLIii. PRAISE GOD --------------------------+----------+--+--- 7990 The Hero of Lepanto, 790; Double Meaning of His Appoint- ment, 791; Instructions, 791; Apprizes the States-General of His Arrival, 792; Perplexity of the States-General, 792; Apply to Orange for Advice, 792; The Prince’s Letter, 792; Prelimi- nary Negotiations with Don John, 793; Foreign Alliance solicit- ed, 793; Attitude of Elizabeth, 793; Union of Brussels, 794; The Council of State and the Doctors of Louvain on the Ghent Treaty, 796; Resumption of the Negotiations with Don John, 794; He accedes to the Ultimatum of the States, 795; A Pro- viso; granted and withdrawn, 795; The ‘‘ Perpetual Edict,” 795; Approval by Philip, 795; Words of Warning, 796; Depart- ure of the Spanish Soldiery, 796; Don John in Brussels, 797; Demise of Viglius, 797; Affairs in the Maritime Provinces, 798; Tour of Orange, 798; Treacherous Conduct of Don John, 799; A Crisis, 799; An Open Breach, 800; Quiil-driving, 800; The Intercepted Letter, 801; Preparations for War, 801; Expulsion of the Germans, 801; “The Jingling of the Guinea heals the Hurt that Honor feels,” 801; Razing of the Citadels, 802; Or- ange invited to Brussels, 802; The “Gallows Journey,” 802, State of Parties, 802; Aerschot’s Plot, 803; Archduke Matthias, 803; William’s Adroitness, 804; An Emente at Ghent, 805; Elec- tion of Orange to the Dignity of Ruward, 806; ‘‘Nearer Union of Brussels,” 806; The “Justification,” 806; Embassy to Eng- land, 806; An Alliance with Elizabeth, 807; Matthias enters 28 CONTENTS. the Capital, 807; Orange made Lieutenant-Governor of the Netherlands, 807; Don John at Namir, 807; Alexander Farnese leads the Spanish Regiments back from Itely, 808; The New Crusade, 808; Pious Motives, 808; A Royal Decree, 808; Army of the States, 808; Battle of Gemblours, 809; Accession of Am- sterdam to the Patriot Cause, 810; The States’ Army remod- elled, 810; Affair at Rymenant,-810; Disordered Condition of the Provinces, 810; The ‘‘ Religious Peace,” 811; William de- nounced, 811; Discord, 811; Prince Casimir leads the English Contingent into the Low Countries, 812; D’Alengon invited into the States, 812; The Abnormal Situation, 813; Death of Don John of Austria, 813; Departure of D’Alengon and Casi- mir, 813; Fresh Complications, 813; Farnese’s Dueat Argu- ments, 814; Defection of the Walloon Provinces, 814; Elements of Disuniom 815; William weaves the Web of a New Confed- eracy, 815; The Union of Utrecht, 816; Birth of the Dutch Republic, 817; The Reformation guaranteed, 817; a Summary, 817-823, THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER f. THE «‘DEBATABLE LAND.” THERE is a:gore of land in the extreme north- western corner of Europe which juts out into the German ocean, and seems, like Venus, to have just risen fresh and blooming from the sea-foam. In- deed, it can hardly be said to have arisen from the waves, for it is all afloat. The land is full of lakes, or the lakes are full of land—you may phrase it which way you please. “Tis an amphibious country: its legs are water; its body is a spongy soil; its arms are ships; its veins are canals; its eyes are schools and churches; its crown is liberty—for though of © late years it has had a king, he is but a name, and the state is in fact as free as Switzerland. Holland is the modern sphynx; everything about it is unique and: unprecedented. Nothing could be more prosaic than a sail along its long, low, sandy coast, which hugs the sea so closely that a* a 30 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. you cannot see it until you are within a stone’s toss. But, once landed, nothing could be more bewilder- ing, strange, and picturesque than the buoyant, breathing, thrifty landscape which salutes you. You seem to have entered an enchanted garden. Canals, spanned by ten thousand bridges, creep with their sluggish waters before and behind, to the right and to the left, interlacing the whole scene. The smooth, clean roads are embroidered with willows, and gemmed with beautiful suburban villas. Teem- ing cities and thriving villages—the wealthiest towns of continental Europe—vivify and humanize the landscape. The laughter of trade is heard. The commerce of two hemispheres crowds the har- bors. The land seems bursting with prosperity. Here runs a river, floating a flock of boats to mar- ket; there a church-steeple peers and beckons; yonder stands a group of happy citizens, chatting, and motioning to a canal-boat captain to pause and take them on board; and beyond looms a sen- tinel windmill, scooping up the ever-encroaching water with its tireless fingers, waging its never- . ending combat with the complaining sea, spoiled of its rights. That plain which touches France on one side and Prussia on the other, shelves towards the north- west, and ends in a marsh. Here sits Holland—a made country, a land of art. It is simply an allu- vial deposit, washed by the Rhine and its tributa- ries from the Alpine regions of the interior—mud, sinking to the bottom of the sea and rising with the THE ‘‘DEBATABLE LAND.” 31 gradual accumulations of ages into arid sandbanks, which the skill and grim persistence of the Hol- lander have transformed into fat and fertile pas- tures. Much of the land lies lower than the ocean level. At such points artificial dykes have been constructed and laced with willows, to bar the out- witted sea. The coast being thus secured, the Hollander next begins to pump out his half-submerged coun- try; and-he realizes dry ground by raising low, green mounds in all directions across the morass, so as to enclose sections or fields, which may be cleared by the individual proprietors. Fach of these leaky enclosures has wet ditches cut all around it and through its centre; then, for the pur- pose of drawing off the water and keeping it in subjection, windmills are stationed to work pumps; and these, set in motion by the wind, drain the soil, and send the reluctant water in channels along the tops of the dykes to the main canals, which inter- sect the country on a level with the sea; while the Dutchman rests in peace, knowing that “ Father- land” is made safer by the passage of each breeze. At times man has been momentarily beaten in this terrific-conflict between human intelligence and the blind force of the elements; then, surging over these frail barriers, the jubilant sea has roared and tum- bled, swamping villages, and drowning in an hour the toilsome acquisitions of long centuries. The whole country is a dead level, broken only by an occasional mound of sand; but it is so cun- 32 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. ningly filled up and variegated, so brimful of odd sights, that it is impossible to call it monotonous. From any point it is possible to command a pic- turesque coup d’eil. If we were in Amsterdam, by ascending to the dome of the Stadt-house, we might gaze upon a highly-finished and curious picture, rich with the fragrancy of meadows and the beauty of the abounding flower-gardens; or, if we stood in Rotterdam, we might ascend a lofty tower, and look down upon the buzzing city, and glance off to the country beyond—a delightful background, cultiva- ted like a continued garden, and stretching away to the misty horizon. Looking southward across the city, we should perceive the river Maas winding majestically on- wards to the sea, with the rich plains of Isselmonde on the opposite side, and thé towering dome of the old church at Dort in the distance. Turning tow- ards the northwest, we might see the sea-bordered territory of Holland spread out as far as the human eye could reach. The steeples of the towns of Schie- dam and Delft would seem quite at hand; while the spires of the Hague, more distant, might be dis- cerned rising above the mass of trees which veil the horizon. Gouda lies more in a southerly direction; while innumerable little villages, sprinkled over the scene, and hundreds of windmills revolving in every direction, would serve to decorate and animate the landscape. Everywhere we should see water; and then the land, so singularly flat, yet so rich and pastoral, would be flecked here and there with N THE ‘‘DEBATABLE LAND.” 33 straggling herds of those beautifully spotted cattle which Paul Potter loved so well to paint.* But the most wonderful feature of this marvel- lous country is its history. Springing from a few fisher-boats on a dreary coast, it grew gradually stronger, in arms, in intelligence, in wealth, until it would brook no superior by land and could have none by sea. The Hollander first created his “Fa- therland,” and then, standing on piles, conjured modern commerce into being. With territory just wide enough to give him elbow-room, he monopo- lized for centuries the trade of the world, and an- nexed continents as coffers wherein to garner his wealth, patching out his little country with vast colonial possessions, until he held a principality greater than Christendom before had known. In the darkest ages he was the merchant, the trader, the manufacturer of Europe. His municipal sys- tem was the germ of republicanism. His cities struck the key-note of civilization, resuscitating the industrial arts, and bequeathing to mankind that idea of union which begets and assures liberty. For a thousand years the Netherlandst were the camping ground of Europe; their whole exist- ence was a fight; and nobles of every nationality sped thither to flesh their maiden swords and to win their spurs. “ Mars,” says Strada, “ only trav- * Many of the facts above cited, and some bits of description, are taken from W. Chambers’ Tour in Holland in 1838; London, 1839; and from an old volume, entitled ‘“‘A Tour in Holland, by an American ;’ Worcester, 1799. ¢ From the Dutch, Neider land, under land, or low country. bt THE DUTCH REFORMATION. els other countries, and carries about a running war, but here he seats himself. Beyond poetic miracles, we have not only fought with man, but with mighty rivers; and not alone with these, but, breaking the cloister of the sea, we have challenged the ocean itself’ We walk upon the water as if it were firm ground; we let in the sea to make the land navigable, fighting in both elements at once.’* But it was in the sixteenth century, which Schil- ler calls “the brightest of the world’s epochs,’ that the Netherlands played the sublimest part. The backbone of that struggle was religion. When France was rent by faction, when Germany cow- ered, when England stood lukewarm, when the rest of Europe was actively hostile to reform, Holland espoused it—struck the tocsin of resistance to civil and religious tyranny. The gallant little territory collected its scattered energies, and flung its whole being into the spasm of its effort. It was humanity agonizing for its noblest rights; and “the resources of resolute despair” triumphed in this unequal con- test with a king who was the Croesus of moder times; who coined his gold in “either Ind;’ who had Spain and Germany for his fulerum; whose anathema-maranatha was the awful malediction of the church of Rome. If we would understand effects, we must study them through the medium of causes. Events, like Hebrew, are to be read backwards. A cursory te- © Strada, Hist. of the Low Country Wars. London, 1650. ¢ Schiller, Hist. of the Revolt of the Netherlands. THE ‘“‘DEBATABLE LAND.” 3D view of the rise and progress of the Netherlands before the dawn of the second birth in the sixteenth century, will help us to solve the riddle of that age; familiarize us with the mainsprings of Holland’s action, with the rationale of her development, with the causes of her revolution; tell us why, though Spain won battles and the Dutch Republic lost them, every victory brought tyranny only nearer to defeat; how Holland was snatched half drowned from the Netherland morass, and girt with benefi- cent sovereignty; and we shall learn that the secret of this Samson’s strength was in the well-thumbed Bible. Our earliest glimpse of the Netherlands is got- ten through Roman eyes. Half a century before the Christian era, Rome, while pushing her tri- umphal car around the world, stumbled upon these marshy meadows, and paused to gather the reluc- tant inhabitants into her heterogeneous retinue of conquest, dragging them into history. The Low Countries were then a huge bog—‘“a wide morass, in which oozy islands and savage for- ests were interspersed among lagoons and shal- lows.” This misshapen mudbank was born of three rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, which had been for ages spitting their slimy deposit among the dunes and sandbars heaved up by the ocean about their mouths. It is impossible to portray the geography of the Low Countries at the period of the Roman inva- sion. The coasts were mere slime-banks; inland, 36 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. trees might be seen, but they were rooted in a soil so marshy, that an inundation or a tempest threw down whole forests; and these are still sometimes discovered imbedded ten feet below the surface, of the earth.* The sea had no limits, the rivers no beds nor banks, the earth no solidity, and there was not a spot of ground which did not yield be- neath human footsteps.t Pliny the naturalist once visited the Nether- lands, and he has left us a dreary portrait of their aspect. ‘ There,” he says, “the ocean pours in its flood twice every day, and produces a perpetual uncertainty whether the country may be consid- ered as part of the continent or of the sea. The wretched inhabitants take refuge on sand-hills or in little huts, which they construct on the summits of lofty stakes, whose elevation is conformable to that of the highest tides. When the sea rises, they appear like navigators ; when it retires, they seem as though they had been shipwrecked. They sub- sist on the fish left by the refluent waters, and which they catch in nets formed of rushes or sea-= weed. Onthe shore is neither tree nor shrub. The people drink rain-water ; and their fuel is a kind of turf, which they gather and form with the hand.” In geography and ethnography the Netherlands belong partly to Gaul and partly to Germany. The Belgian provinces stretch out the right hand of fel- “ Grattan, Hist. of the Netherlands, p. 3. + Eumenius, Paneg. Const. Ces. } Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. 16. ‘THE «“‘DEBATABLE LAND.” 37 lowship to the Gallic tribes ; Holland is Saxon, and the Dutchman is the nearest blood relative of the Anglo-Saxon race.* This difference of race was as marked eighteen centuries ago as it is to-day. Tacitus noted it; and it is a fact which has colored the whole history of Europe. The Celt and the Saxon were alike physically; they were equally brave; and the Roman annalists ‘bear the most glowing testimony to their valor.t But in their social customs they were dissimilar, and in their theology they did not agree. The Gaul. was superstitious and priest-ridden; he wor- shipped a thousand blood-stained deities. The German held to a single supreme, almighty God— too sublime to be imaged, too infinite to be enclosed in earthly temples, visible always to the reverent eye of faith. Such is the Roman’s testimony to the lofty ‘conception of the Saxon.t And such were the Netherlands in their physical aspect and in their native tribes, when Cxsar essayed to leash them to his car of conquest. * Motley, Gibbon, Hume, Grattan. + See Cesar’s Comm. de Bell. Gall. Annu. Marcel., 15, 12, L Tacitus. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 9. 38 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER IIT. THE NETHERLANDS iN EMBRYO. Wuen, some twoscore years before Christ, impe- rial Cesar, having subjugated Celtic Gaul, paused to wipe the perspiration from his brow, he was told that the warlike tribes to the northeast, who made their lair in the tangled patches of the Ardennes wood, had refused to accept his alliance or to implore his protection. At once the conqueror pushed his legions into the Netherlands. Here he was met by a swarm of separate tribes, each of which, however, was allied to one of three oe nations who then occupied the morass. The district which stretches from the Scheldt to the Rhine, embracing substantially the modern territory of Belgium, was inhabited by a hardy race of warriors—men who ranged the interminable for- ests without a fixed home, indebted to rude agri- culture and the chase for their livelihood.* These were the Belgians. Beyond the Belgie flats, on the aa island of Batavia,t was another people, the Batavi,t fierce even beyond their savage neighbors, whose occupa- * Div. Cass. lib. 4. Cassar, Comm. de Bell. Gall. } Tacitus, de Mar. Ger. The name comes from Bet-ana ‘*g¢ood meadow.” t Ibid. Grattan, Motley. THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 39 tion was also war—a race which aforetime had streamed from the German highlands.* Still farther north, in what is now North Hol- land,, dwelt yet another nation, the Frisians, a nation of fishermen—of nascent traders, uniting the distinctive qualities of merchants and navigators; moderate, sincere, slow but sure, and implacable _ in anger, when once aroused. Their more south- ern neighbors were more inflammable, quicker to strike, and fiercer, but they were less steady and more ambitious; for they were rovers, while the fishermen sat contented on their piles, made slow progress towards civilization, thought little of con- quest, and gave their thoughts chiefly to the im- provement of their country.t Like the Germans, whose blood they shared, the Frisians lodged sovereignty in the people— built it upon the basis of individualism. At the full of the moon the popular assemblies met and legislated, electing their chiefs and deciding mooted points of policy.{ Almost alone among barbarians, they were not addicted to polygamy;§ and among them there were no slaves but their prisoners of war, and a few. unfortunates who had gambled away“their liberty ||—for gambling, one of the most deep-rooted and pernicious of the vices, was even then the curse of mankind, and as much in vogue * Pliny, Berlier, Préc. de l’Ancienne Gaule. + Grotius, de Antiquitate Reip. Batay. { Ibid. Davies, Hist. of Holland. § Ibid. Motley, vol. 1, p. 10. ||. Thid. 49 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. in the Netherland marshes as in the civilized haunts of the profligate Romans.* The Belgians and the Batavians knew nothing of this primitive democracy. Their polity recog- nized three classes, nobles, priests, and pariahs ; and Cesar testifies that their commonalty were all slaves.t In war, the nobles led their retainers to battle; in peace, the Druids, the bloodiest of priest- hoods, governed.{ These were the races whom Cesar had come to subdue. They defended their liberty with head- long valor; but discipline was invincible, and the hapless barbarians could only die sword in hand. Across these warm corpses stepped the grim Ro- man, and on he pushed, gaining now by his arms and now by his arts, until eventually he either con- quered all opposition, or seduced it into his alli- ance.§ First, the Belgians were subdued;| then the Batavians submitted, and entering the Roman service, became the most renowned cavalrymen of the empire, often clutching victory from the jaws of defeat. “Others,” says Tacitus, “go to battle; these go to war;’ and we are told how the Da- cians were terrified by the wild courage of these untamed horsemen, as they saw them in full armor plunge into and swim across the Danube.** = See Davies, vol. 1, p. 18. t Cesar, de Bell. Gall. ft Motley, vol. 1, p. 8, Grattan, Davies. § Cesar, de Bell. Gall. Tacitus, de Mar, etc., cap. 29. || Ibid. T Tacitus, Hist. ** Schiller, Hist. of the Revolt of the Nethcrlands, p. 2. THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 41 The Frisians attracted attention later, and the bogs among which they dwelt enhanced the price of conquest. But at last they too yielded, and their country was made the pedestal of farther con- quest; for “the Roman Darsus, warring in these swamps, cut a canal from the Rhine into the Flevo— now merged in the Zuyder. Zee—through which the imperial fleet penetrated into the German ocean, and thence, entering the mouths of the Ems and the Weser, found an easy passage into the interior of Germany.’* Now, for atime, the Netherlands were united in their servitude to Rome,:and the old Belgic tumults were pacified in a gilded slavery. At once a metamorphosis commenced. The cunning con- querors began to eradicate all feelings of national- ity in the victim races. They dazzled their rude auxiliaries with the splendor of their capital, encouraged them to identify themselves with the world’s masters, gave them Roman names, ener- vated them by initiating them into dissolute cus- toms; and thus the young Netherland adventurers returned, after twenty years’ service under the imperial eagles, and walked their native wilds with Roman hearts and tastes. Gradually the forests of the Ardennes were pierced with highways and cleared for towns; and these innovations completed the amalgamation of the allies; nationality was obliterated, or merged in the all-devouring epithet, “Roman.” The Belgians began to borrow the % Schiller, Hist. of the Revolt of the Netherlands, p. 2. : 4° 42, THE DUTCH REFORMATION, usages and to ape the manners of Italy, and they finished by speaking Latin.* The Batavians did indeed make one expiring effort to preserve their nationality as they saw it fading from history. Claudius Civilis, a Batavian soldier of fortune, who had studied war under the Roman eagles, is the phantom who flashes as the hero of this revolt. The confederacy was at first successful; the pillars of the prison-house began to totter ; a commonwealth was well-nigh cemented by the courage and talent and eloquence of a single chieftain. But reverses followed; the frail confed- eracy fell apart like a rope of sand; the lowland mate of the German Arminius saw that his cause was shipwrecked, and held out only to coerce hon- orable terms ; these were granted, and the Batavi- ans once more became the allies of Rome in the latter half of the first Christian centuryt—an alli- ance which proved fatal to their existence. They became rapidly degenerate ; and when, a hundred and fifty years later, the Franks overran their island, they said with a jeer: “The Batavians are not a nation; they are only a prey.” But this transformation was confined to the Belgic provinces—did not cross the Rhine. Isola- ted by their position, the Frisians were not corrupt- ed by the Romans. They were of the Saxon race—- a blood of unconquerable vitality, giving, not taking © Grattan, Hist. of the Netherlands, p. 9. Des Roches, Hist de la Belgique. } Tacitus, Motley, etc. } Tacitus, lib, 4 THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 43 its color. So the Frisian made an obeisance to the victorious eagles of the empire, and there stop- ped; he never intermarried with his conquerors ; he despised the super-refinement of the Sybarite Italians, and “Left to the soft Campanian His baths and his perfumes ; he hugged the memory of his murdered liberty; he. clung with fidelity to his ancient customs; he ad- hered to his language with religious care; he stood aloof from the Roman ranks; he rejected the titles” and distinctions for which others bartered inde- pendence; he asked no favors, and trusted solely to industry for support, educating himself through the stomach, by an incessant contest with famine and the sea; and, spite of its original unattractive- ness, as the Switzer loves his icy crags, so the Fris- ian adored his boggy “Fatherland.” The Frisians of the age of Tiberius and Ves- pasian differed little from their fathers, who, perched on their high-built huts, fed on ‘fish and drank the water of the clouds. Slow and successive improvements had taught them to cultivate beans, which grew wild among the marshes, and to. tend. and feed a small, degenerate kind of horned cattle., But, if these first steps towards eivilization were slow, they were certain; and they were taken by « race who never walked backward.* The Menapians, as that portion of the Frisians were called who occupied the west bank of the * Grattan, Hist. of the Netherlands, p. 7. 44 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Meuse, becoming at a later day the Flemings,* were a maritime people in the earliest ages, and had carried on a commercial intercourse with Eng- land from time immemorial. The staple article of this primitive traffic was salt, which they manu- factured and exported in vast quantities.t They also understood the preparation of salted meat, which they did with such perfection that it became of high repute even in Italy; and Ptolemy tells us that they had planted a colony on the eastern coast of Ireland, in the twilight of the world.t So marked was the difference between the races who inhabited the Netherlands when Vespasian wore the purple. The southron was brave, impul- sive, frank, but fickle; he was the shuttlecock of his time, and whoever held the battledore might buffet him which way he pleased. He took im- pressions easily, and any plastic hand might mould him. The northener was cool, phlegmatic, calcula- ting, self-dependent, untiring. He was able and determined to develop himself. The civilization of Italy he never accepted, for it suited neither his taste nor his genius. Like his country, he was self- made, and he grew his own civilization. This hardy and intrepid race were mariners by instinct; and when once possessed of the coast- line, they did not seek to make the least progress * Grattan, Hist. of the Neth., p. 7, Motley, Davies, Grotius. t Gibbon, Grattan, Grotius, Van Loon, Alande Hist, ¢ Des Roches, Hist. de la Belgique. THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 45 towards the interior. The element of their enter- prise, the object of their ambition, was the ocean. When they became too numerous for their narrow limits, they sent off the redundant population to colonize new regions.* When their veins became too full, the blood spouted in expeditions. Thus Saxon warriors seated themselves at the mouth of the Loire; thus Hengist and Horsa crossed the sea into England, departing, as it has been conjectured, from the Netherlands.t+ , The domination of the empire in the Nether- lands continued upwards of five centuries. Then Rome, gouty with excess, dizzy with license, stag- gered to its grave. The empire lost its cohesive power long before it crumbled. “Stately, exter- nally powerful, but undermined, putrescent at the core, and death-stricken,” nothing sustained it for a century but the ghost of its former prowess. Soon prying eyes detected this hidden weakness. “T am a Roman citizen” ceased to be a passport and a palladium ; and at length jubilant barbarism swooped to the sack of the Eternal City. “It was the opening of the fountains of the frozen North; and the waters prevailed, but the ark of Christian- ity floated upon the flood, As the deluge subsided, the earth returned to chaos, the great pagan empire was washed out of existence, but the dim, groping, faltering, ignorant infancy of Christian Europe began.” t Then came what Schiller terms “the epoch of '® Grattan, p. 14. + Ibid. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 19. 46 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. - the immigration of nations”*—the nomadic age. Europe was redivided. A confused horde of bar- barous tribes quarreled over, and fought for the possession of, the disjointed fragments of the Roman empire. Gradually from these ruins rose a new monarchy, that of the Franks.t Like their Roman prototypes, they too aspired to universal empire. In order to that, it was necessary to sub- jugate at the outset the adjacent territory. So the Netherlands once again shook beneath hostile foot- steps. The Belgians, already Romanized, were again denationalized, and with the pliancy of old days, they easily accommodated themselves to the new régime, becoming as enthusiastically French, under the pressure of necessity, as they had been Latin.{ The Frisians—who had resumed their indepen- dence on the fall of Rome, erecting a nation whose limits were nearly commensurate with those of the Dutch Republic in after-days$—prepared for a des- perate resistance. The death-tug continued through the sixth and seventh centuries; nor did it termi- nate definitely until Charlemagne throttled Fries- land.| Evil is the pioneer of good. War has been finely called religion’s “ hewer of wood and drawer of water.” It is the clearer of choked channels, the unknowing smiter of organized falsehood; in © Schiller, p. 364. t Ibid., p. 364. Davies, Grattan, Grotius, Van Loon. t Grattan, Hist. of the Netherlands, p.14. Grotius. § Ibid. Motley, vol. 1, p. 20. Van Loon. || Grotius, de Antiq. Reip. Batay. THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 47 twilight ages, the only light we see is the sabre’s gleam. And so now this epoch sowed gospel seed: The Franks, hewing their way to empire, opened a gap for the Bible. Nominal Christianity was plant- ed in the Netherlands—zominal Christianity, for it had been already emasculated and burdened with a host of idle ceremonies, and half-paganized by its adoption of the ‘heathen dogmas of the Academi- cians. Even thus early the bishopric of Rome had assumed dictatorial powers, and put the triple crown upon its*brow. The Eternal City, sighing for the sceptre of old days, said with the Greek, “The trophies of Miltiades will not let me sleep ;” and her ambitious prelates schemed—successfully, as the sequel proved—to cement a spiritual king- dom vaster and more world-embracing than the pagan empire of the Cesars. So, following in the wake of the Frankish armies, the popes sent their missionaries into the Low Countries. Early in the seventh century, Dago- bert, first -king of Austrasia,* contended with the Frisians, and conquering Utrecht, he planted there the emblem of the cross: this was the first Chris- tian church in Friesland.t Nor did it long exist; _ for in 692 Utrecht was again held by the Frisians; who were still stout unbelievers.{ But in that same year, another of the Frankish monarchs, Pepin, vanquished Radbod, the Frisian chief, forcing him * Afterwards the duchy of Lorraine. , + ‘Davies, Hist. of Holland, vol. 1, p. 26. Grotius, Motley, etc. ¢ Ibid. : 48 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. to exchange a royal for a ducal title;* then, as the fierce pagan continued turbulent, the tremendous blows of Pepin’s bastard, Charles the Hammer, ~ pounded a large part of Friesland into Christian- ity.t Radbod himself was persuaded to allow him- * self to be baptized. But the imprudence of a monk spoiled all; for after Radbod had immersed one leg in the baptismal font, a thought struck him, and he paused. “Where are my dead forefathers?” que- ried he. “In hell,” said the officiating priest. “ Mighty well,” retorted the pagan; “then I would rather feast with my ancestors in the halls of Wo- den, than shiver and starve alone in the heaven of the Christians ;’ and he declined the rite.t Radbod did not, however, actively oppose the conversion of his people. In 719, Gregory II. despatched Willibrod, an Anglo-Saxon monk, from England, into Friesland to preach the gospel§— selecting him because the languages of the English and the Frisians of that period were very similar. This priest was created archbishop of Friesland by the pontiff;/ and now, landing in the Netherlands, = Motley, vol 1, p. 20. / + Ibid. Des Roches, Hist. de la Belgique. Van Loon, Alande Hist. } Vita Sti: Bonifacii. § Brandt, Hist. of the Ref. in and about the Low Countries. || ‘So late as the sixteenth century, the dialect of Friesland bore more resemblance to English than to any other fongue— Guicciardini, Des Belg., tom. 2, p. 288, duod. ; and even now an acquaintance with the Dutch language is an excellent glossary to- our old poets, for it has sustained little change in the lapse of tame.” Davies, Hist. of Holland, vol. 1, p. 18, note. * 1 Bede, Hist. Ecel., lib. 5, cap. 11. .THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 49. he fixed the seat of his see at Utrecht, rebuilt the ruined church, supplemented it by a monastery, and gave a nucleus to the Christianity of the marshes.* Thus England proselytized the Low Countries; and such was the origin of the famous bishopric of Utrecht. For many years it was piously fostered. Charles Martel granted the royal domains and priv- ileges in the adjacent territories to the bishops of this see, enriching them besides by the cession of several other more distant estates.t Gradually they assumed to levy taxes and collect customs, until, in the lapse of ages, they vied in splendor and autocratic sovereignty with the Roman pontiffs. From the date of the definitive establishment of the bishopric of Utrecht, the fight between Chris- tianity and the national idols was spasmodic. Join- ing hands with the Saxons, the Frisians rebelled in the middle of the eighth century; but Charles Martel stamped down the rising ;{ and Charlemagne for ever laid the perturbed ghost of Woden—for the first time since the sack of Rome, uniting the Netherlands under one crown imperial.§ Once before, the low- land provinces had been united in their servitude to Cesar. Eight hundred years had passed away, and now they were again made one in their subjec- tion to Charlemagne—a conqueror of whom men might say, as Cassius said of Cesar: © Hist. Wil. Hede in Willibrodo, p. 25; Bede, Hist. Eccles., lib. 5, cap. 11. + Davies, Hist. of Holland, vol. 1, p. 26, et seq. t Grotius, Motley, Grattan. § Motley, vol. 1, p. 22. sp sh seas e 50 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. ‘‘He doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, and peep about To find curselves dishonorable graves.”9 Through all these vicissitudes the Frisians and the Menapians clung tenaciously to their national- ity; of that nothing could rob them. “They agreed, however, to obey the chiefs whom Charlemagne should appoint to govern them, according to their own laws—laws which were then collected, and are still extant. The vernacular version of their Asega book contains the Frisian customs, together with the additions of the Franks. The general statutes of Charlemagne were of course in force; but that great legislator knew too well the importance at- tached by all mankind to local customs, to allow his imperial capitulars to imterfere unnecessarily with the Frisian laws.”} “The Frisians shall be free as long as the wind blows out of the clouds and the world stands;’t so ran the text of their statute book. It was the spirit as well as the letter of their law, even in chains; it was the consolation and the aspiration of their servitude. From the recitals of the missionary monks who went into the Netherlands to preach Christianity, we may get an idea of their condition under Char- lemagne. The old difference between the southern provinces—some of which have since been incor- porated with France—and those of the north, was S Shakespeare, Julius Cesar, act 1, se. 2. + Motley, vol. 1, p. 22. t Ibid THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 51 as perceptible as ever. On the French border “the inhabitants had forgotten their former names; they were designated by the appellations of their rivers, woods, and towns, classified as accessories to inan- imate objects; and having no monuments to remind them of their origin, they became without recollec- tion or association—sank into a people without an ancestry.”* The country was a desert. The mon- asteries, if we may credit the words of their char- ters, were established amid vast solitudes. The French nobles came into Brabant only for the sport of bear-hunting in its interminable forests A race of serfs now cultivated the domains of haughty lords and imperious priests. The clergy held immense estates in these wastes; a single abbey, that of Nivelle, owned fourteen thousand families of vassals.{ : The peoples to the north mounted one step high- er with each age. A maritime race, they were more industrious, ingenious, prosperous, and happy than most others of that rude time; and the natural ferocity of their Saxon blood had been somewhat tempered by habits of labor. “They are handsome and well clothed,” say the old chroniclers, “and their lands are well cultivated and abound in fruits, milk, honey.”§ Friesland then swept from the Scheld to the Weser; and numbers of the Hano- verian and Westphalian Saxons, decimated by a barbarous edict which ordered every warrior of = Grattan, p. 17. ¢ Ibid, p. 14. } Ibid, p. 18. § Acta Sanct. Belyii. 52 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. their tribes who exceeded the height of his own sword to be beheaded,* had adopted the Frisian name. The descendants of the Menapians began now to be called Flemings, and they had so greatly improved their provinces, that Pliny’s shade would not have recognized the old morasses of his day. Already the turbulent waters had been gotten in hand—subdued to purposes of utility. Already dykes were built and canals were dug. The plains thus partially reconquered from the sea were dis- tributed in portions, according to their labor, by those who had reclaimed them, except the parts reserved for the chieftain, the church, and the poor. This vital necessity for the construction of dykes had given to the Frisians and the Flemings a habit of union, good-will, and reciprocal justice ; because it was necessary to make common cause im this good work of mutual preservation.{ Indeed, at this very period the Flemings so well understood the principles of association, that they had formed. political clubs as barriers to the despotic violence of their more barbarous conquerors; these they called guilds,§ and they comprised, besides their covenants for mutual protection, an obligation, which bound every member to succor every other in sickness, or shipwreck, or distress.| The guilds were the sure breeders of the free towns, and the 8 Van Loon, Alande Hist. } Ibid. t Grattan, p. 18. § Gilden, or in the Latin of those times, gildonia. || Grattan, p. 20. THE NETHERLANDS IN EMBRYO. 63 principle on which they were based originated the most ancient corporations.* The increasing influ- ence of these social compacts alarmed the quick- sighted despotism of Charlemagne, and he pro- hibited them. But the imperial ban was powerless when opposed to the popular will; so the guilds stood their ground, and within a century after their prohibition they had cobwebbed Flanders with cor- porate towns.t Already Bruges and Ghent, Ant- werp and Courtray, Bergen-op-zoom and Thiel, were the seats of an ever-increasing trade; and Thiel contained in the tenth century fifty-five churches, from which, in the absence of other evidence, we may conjecture the extent of its population. Contemporaneously with this social transfor- mation in the Netherlands, a political revolution occurred in Europe. The old Batavian and the later Roman forms faded away, and were succeeded by anew polity. No great popular assembly assert- ed its sovereignty, as in the primitive epoch. The elective power had been lost under the Romans, who had, after conquests, conferred the administra- tive power over their subject provinces upon offi- cials appointed by the metropolis. So did the Franks; and Charlemagne completed the revolu- tion. Popular assemblies, popular elections were ignored. Military, civil, judicial officers were the creatures of the king. Counts, earls, dukes, were not then the hereditary heads of noble families ; @ Grattan, p. 20. + Ibid. } Ibid. § Motley, vol. 1, p. 25. 5 54 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. they were merely the officials of the empire, remov- able at will, possessing no hereditary rights.* But Charlemagne did not live long enough to consolidate his revolution; and when he died, chaos came again. Europe had lost its old forms, and it had not yet acquired new ones. The great law- giver reigned too soon. He was five centuries in advance of his epoch. Prodigious as was his geni- us, it was still too weak to remould society single- handed; and so, since he left no kindred soul saga- cious enough to comprehend his plans, his clumsy, swollen, heterogeneous empire began to crumble. Cold masses up all things, sticks, stones, earth, and water, into dirty ice; heat first makes separation, then reunites elements of the same nature. Char- lemagne was the cold, massing the empire; his dawdling descendants were the heat, severing the congealed lump, which, as it severed, reunited kin- dred particles; and thus Friesland found itself once more in its desolate corner, a cohesive unit. But it was not independent. The kings who had divided and subdivided Charlemagne’s vast dominion, ceded the Netherlands now to the German, now to the Frenchman, until the country grew dizzy with changing masters; but the provinces were still parts of the loose, disjointed empire.t In this oscil- lation Friesland shared; and thus that narrow hook of land which was destined in future ages to be the cradle of a great republic, was for a time the oft« bartered victim of chaffering barbarians. * Grattan, p. 19. t+ Motley, ut antea. DEVELOPMENT. aa 55 CHAPTER III. DEVELOPMENT. Tat Netherlands now trembled upon the thresh- old of those ages to which historians have fitly prefixed the epithet “dark.” Medizval life was sub- terranean. Europe at large groped in a fog-bank ; saw “as through a glass, darkly” —‘“saw men as trees walking.” Since Charlemagne there had been no central authority. Each local patch of territory was plundered, in the name of government, by who- ever in the hurly-burly could usurp the rule; and though the continental provinces were nominally attached to one or the other of the several monar- chies among which Europe was parcelled out, in fact each robber noble, each grasping prelate, swayed an absolute sceptre in whatever domain he had contrived to snatch. ‘ Power, the more subdi- vided, became the more tyrannical. The sword was the only symbol of law; the cross was a weapon of offence; the bishop was a consecrated pirate; every petty baron was a burglar; while the people, alter- nately the prey of duke, prelate, and seignor, shorn and butchered, esteemed it happiness to sell them- selves into slavery, hoping thereby to gain shelter beneath the eaves of a convent, or to huddle for protection under the castle walls of some little potentate.”* * Motley, Rise of the Dutch Rep., vol. 1, p. 26. 56 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Besides this voluntary entrance into servitude, made by the timid or the weak, slavery was also compulsory. Criminals, vagrants, strangers, ship- wrecked sailors, prisoners-of-war, were commonly reduced to serfdom.* There were three classes in this brotherhood of woe. Lowest grovelled the slaves of laymen—mere human cattle; brutes, with no claim to a fraction of their own labor, without rights, and with no mar- riage, except under infamous conditions.t One step higher stood the villeins, or villagers, only less for- lorn. But they had a beneficial interest in their own flesh and blood; for “they could commute the labor due their owner by a fixed sum of money, after annual payment of which they were graciously per- mitted to work for themselves.”{ Then there were the serfs of the cloisters and the various ecclesi- astical establishments. With cunning policy, the churchmen made their slavery milder and more humane than that of the rude barons—as showing the superior clemency of their rule and the prefera- ble status of their serfs. And, indeed, Motley assures. us that “the lot of a church-slave was freedom in comparison with that of his fellow-bondmen. To kill him was punishable by a heavy fine. He could give testimony in court: he might inherit, was able to make a will, and could plead before the law, if law could be found.’§ For these reasons most of the voluntary sales were made to ecclesiastics; © Motley, Rise of the Dutch Rep., vol. 1, p. 26. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 33. } Ibid., Grotius, Davies, § Ibid. DEVELOPMENT. 57 and this gave the church an. immense number of retainers; the number held by the bishopric of Utrecht is said to have been enormous.* The picture is sickening. But there was another still darker: for ‘cin the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour men, opened wide, | To which the hell they suffered seemed a heaven.” The Norsemen—as that pagan race was called which then inhabited Denmark and Sweden and Norway—began their ferocious raids. These fierce freebooters had long infested the northern seas, making desultory descents upon the coasts of Fries- land, England, and France. Towards the close of the ninth century} they waged.a wider, more deter- mined war. Quitting their wild eyries in vast flocks, they swooped to batten on European civili- zation at large. The Netherlands were quickly overrun; Germany was harried; France was pil- laged.t One province alone successfully resisted their first onset. Flanders, the patrimony of Bald- win Bras-de-fer—confirmed to him of the iron arm, with the title of count, by the king of France as the reluctant reward of his romantic and daring elopement with Judith, the monarch’s: daughterS— was preserved unplundered throughout the life of that doughty knight. But on his death, the Flem- * Motley, Grattan. ¢ 882. Wheaton, Hist. of the Northmen. t Michelét, Hist. of France ; Grotius, Hume. § Van Loon, Alende Hist., Grotius. 58 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. ings, too, succumbed; and the whole Netherlands wore the terrible shackles of the sea-kings.* But the domination of the Normans was not long. Their chief was assassinated by the com- mand of Charles the Fat, the German emperor; and this left the nuisance to abate, just on the edge of the tenth century.t It was an alleviation ; one link in the chain of the serfs was broken. The Crusades snapped another. Many knights, anxious to win barren laurels on the Syrian sands, were unable to command the money necessary for their outfit. Such always found a Shylock in the church. Ecclesiastics would dole out their hoarded gold to purchase the estates of the needy adventurers; and these were glad to sell or mortgage their serfs, if thereby they might get the means of fighting the Paynims.t Besides, any one might beccme a soldier of the cross—a service which took precedence of every other. The serf was invited to combat for the holy sepulchre equally with the noble ; and he who did so returned a freeman :—liberty which many were adventurous enough to purchase at such an honor- able price.§ Thus the Crusades—those Quixotic tilts against.an Asiatic windmill—became at once educators and emancipators. But throughout this period there were no longer laws—there were only forces, of which three were preéminently potent: feudalism, ecclesiasticism, and © Grattan, p. 24, Mallet, Northern Antiquities. t Ibid. $ Michaud’s Hist. of the Crusades. § Motley, vol. 1, Introd, DEVELOPMENT. +59 the rising municipal power. Each of these extended an unwitting hand to civilization: in their grinding friction a light was struck. The first force, and for a time the most powerful, was the feudal system—emblematic of the un- sheathed sword. Even this brute power was a growth. It sprang from land; land, then as now, the pedestal of influence, almost of manhood. Estates were then of two kinds; proprietary, or allodial—a word synonymous with the fee-simple of our common law*—and /eudal.t Besides the lands held in each kingdom by local owners, care was always taken, in those days, to reserve many estates to the crown, ' partly for the support of its dignity, partly for the exercise of its munificence.t These desmense lands, as the territory thus reserved was called,§ were the chief source of the royal revenue.| Often they were granted in trust to favored courtiers, to be held of and for the king, as benejices.{ Though conferred originally during the royal pleasure, in the course of time benefices became hereditary ;** the claim of a son to succeed his father was frequently too plausible or too formidable to be rejected; and thus were laid the foundations of the half-independ- ence of the great medizval vassals.tt+ : “A natural consequence of hereditary benefices,” * Hallam, Hist. Middle Ages, p. 65. + This word is probably the barbarous synonym of the Latin beneficium. See Du Cange v. Freedom. ¢ Hallam, p. 70. § Montesquieu, L’ Esprit des Lois. _ || Tbid. 1 Ibid. Maine, Ancient Law. eo [bid. Hallam. tt Hallam, pp. 67 and 73. 60 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. remarks Hallam, “was that those who possessed them carved out portions to be held of themselves by a similar tenure of service and fealty.”* Soon the law begau to look upon allodial ownership with dislike, and to favor the more popular tenure, until eventually lands held in fee-simple were exceptional and rare.t The same change occurred in the nature of the crown offices. The kingdom of Charlemagne, and of his predecessors, was divided into a number of districts called counties, each under the government of a count—a name long familiar to the Romans, and by which they rendered the graf of the Ger- mans{t—whose duty it was to administer justice, pre- | serve tranquillity, collect the public revenue, and lead his retainers into the field to the assistance of his monarch in time of war.§ The title of duke implied a still higher dignity, and commonly gave authority over several counties.| At the outset these offices, like the benefices, were awarded at pleasure; but like the others, they, too, gradually hardened into hereditaments, so that at last titled families came to regard the usurped duchies or counties which they governed as theirs de jure as well as de facto.{ From this double usurpation nobility sprouted. Tn early times, all distinctions of rank were founded = Hallam, p. 72. ¢ Leg. Burgundy, tit. 26. Hallam, Montesquieu. + Hallam. § Ibid. || See Hallam, p. 67, note. 1 Montesquieu, L'Esprit des Lois. Grotius. DEVELOPMENT. 61 on the possession of land and on civil employ- ments.* When these became hereditary, and were shut up to a few fortunate families, a patrician caste was the inevitable result; “that landed aristocracy arose which became the most striking feature in the political system of Europe during many cen- turies, forming in fact its chief distinction both from the despotism of. Asia, and the equality of republi- can government.’’+ The customs of an epoch will always be moulded _ by its habits. So now, what had begun through ambition: was at last dictated by necessity. “In that dissolution of all law which ensued on the death of Charlemagne, the turbulent nobles among . whom his empire was divided, constantly engaged in internecine strife, placed their chief dependence upon men whom they attached to their respective banners by gratitude, and bound by strong condi- tions. The oath of fidelity which they had taken on their accession ‘to power, the homage which they had paid to their sovereign, they exacted from their vassals in turn. To render military service became in that age, when war was a passion and a business, the essential obligation which the tenant of a ben- efice undertook ; and out of those old royal grants, now become for the most part hereditary, there grew up in the tenth century both the name and the reality of feudalism.”’t Such in its more salient aspects was the feudal system. In many of the Netherland provinces, it © Hailam, p. 69. t Ibid. Grotius. t Hallam, p. 72, 62 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. took early and deep root ; in Friesland it was never planted.* Under various pretexts, the sagacious tra- ders contrived to retain their proprietary interest in the soil. Man and the land were linked together ; they were lawfully married for life or deaths the Frisian had wedded his bogs. Thus it was that in Friesland the lands were cultivated, not by laborers or by serfs, as elsewhere, but by owners; and the swamps yielded, some tenfold, some twenty-fold, and some a hundred-fold, because they were loved. It was one of the secrets of Frisian progress. Each man was interested in the improvement of his coun- try, and this fact nerved every arm, emboldened every heart, to grapple with the sea, to erect dykes and windmills; as ‘Onward for aye, though diligently slow, The firm, connected bulwark seems-to grow 3 Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar, Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore.” But though feudalism did not ground itself in Fries- land, it had an influence there. Indeed, the essen- tial principle of a fief, which Hallam defines to have been “a mutual contract between suzerain and ten- ant of support and fidelity,”{ was already exempli- fied among the Frisians in the spirit of complete concert which united them against the tyranny of the ocean, and against the despotism of man; and it might also be traced in the Flemish guilds.§ But the feudal polity was an advance, and made * Motley, vol. 1, pp. 21 and 38. Grattan, Grotius, Van Loon. { Goldsmith, Traveller. {Hallam,p.75. § See chap. 2, p51, DEVELOPMENT. 63 for civil freedom chiefly in this, that at a time when the desolating hand of power seemed about to sweep individualism into the abyss, as it had done in Asia, it preserved the name, if not the essence, of right, and privilege, and honor ; and it-cherished the idea of private justice, as we may learn from the consid- ~ eration of the limitations of the services of ‘vassal- age, so cautiously marked out in those old law- books which record the customs of the past, and from the reciprocity of obligation between the lord and his tenant, from the consent required in every legislative measure, and from the security which every vassal found in the privilege of judgment by his peers.* In its chivalric notions of the -inviolability of faith, of the necessity for honor, and of the honesty of truth, the feudal system was an excellent school of moral discipline in an age drutk with excess, careless of treachery, vicious from habit, and riot- ous with power. In just these respects it was a help to civilization—the go-cart which held up its infant feet and strengthened them to walk. By the side of feudalism, at one time inferior to it, but finally controlling it, stood another and a different force—the religion of the popes. With the jus divinum on its lips, every step it took was tow- ards empire—temporal as well as spiritual. Dow- ered by the pious donations of the successors of Charlemagne, who chiefly signalized their authority ® See the very able resumé of the influence of feudalism, in Hallam, p. 123, et seg. 64 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. by lavishing territorial gifts on the church ;* organ- ized by the subtlest wit of man on an amalgamated basis of truth and shrewd imposture; officered by the most consummate genius of the age; engross- ing the scholarship of the time: the Roman see swept on conquering and to conquer. Europe was cob-webbed with episcopal cities which gradually became so many principalities, independent of the civil law, taking orders from the popes alone; dic- tating the political policy of the world; deposing and setting up princes; consolidating their usurped power, now by force, now by fraud; intriguing, ubiquitous, all-powerful. The clergy of that day were not merely church- men, they were huntsmen and warriors; and so: “careering in helm and hauberk with other ruff- ians, they bandied blows in the thickest of the fight, blasted their enemies with bell, book, and candle; forced sovereigns at the head of armies to grovel in the dust at their feet, and offer abject submission for the kiss of peace; exercised the same conjury over ignorant baron and cowardly hind, making the fiction of apostolic authority to bind and loose as prolific in acres as the other divine right to have and hold; thus the force of cutivated intellect, wielded by a chosen few, and sanctioned, as the assumption went, by supernatural power, became more potent than the sword ”—directed its blows, told it when and where to strike, and became the guiding brain of. feudalism. °Tis an instructive * Grattan; p. 21, DEVELOPMENT. 65 picture, and it teaches the tremendous power of knowledge, the inevitable superiority of educated mind over brute violence. And this was why the holy see so carefully monopolized learning—know- ing the secret of its authority, it could not but frown upon popular intelligence. But God made the wrath of man to praise him ; even priestcraft had its mission. It preserved and fostered art; it treasured up in crypts and con- vents the fossils of antique learning; it incarnated some of the Christian precepts; and at last its bold assumption and its corruptions provoked inquiry— forced honest men, spite of themselves, to investi- gate and to protest. Cap in hand to feudalism and the Roman see knelt a third force—the rising municipalities of Europe. The constant tendency of mankind is tow- ards aggregation. Even individualism gravitates towards population. And so now the clustering hovels of the villiens began to expand into towns. The nascent burghers built better houses, and threw up ramparts. Elbowing. each. other on the street,. brought into daily contact, they commenced to com- bine and to trade. Little by little manufactures were started; the different trades were born, and each had its guild. Then money was made. Gold began to assert itself. Commerce was: launched, and “plucking up half-drowned Holland by the locks, it poured wealth into her lap.” The nobles, scenting no danger, at first: encour- aged the towns, rewarded them with charters, erected . 6* 66 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. them into corporate bodies, and were bribed into complacence by burgher gold. The church, sus- pecting no heresy, spread out her arms in blessing over the rising municipalities, and dictated the recompense. The cunning citizens long made no claims, only asked leave to be. But gradually they grew in power and wealth. “Fishermen and river raftsmen became ocean adventurers and merchant princes. Needy Flemish weavers became mighty manufacturers.” Like the imprisoned spirit in the fabled casket, when the seal was broken, the little towns lifted into colossal shape. “Armies of work- men, fifty thousand strong, tramped through the swarming streets. Silk-makers, clothiers, brewers, became the gossips of kings, lent their royal friends vast sums, and burned the royal notes in fires of cinnamon wood.” The opulence of the merchants of this period,. and their sumptuous style of living, quite shamed. the aristocracy, impoverished by war and frequent spoliation. On one occasion, it is related that the count of Flanders invited a number of Flemish magistrates to dine with him. The chairs which they were to occupy at table were unfurnished with cushions. The proud burghers, not satisfied with- bare seats, stripped off their valuable velvet cloaks, and folding these, sat on them during the repast, After the feast they were about to retire in appa- rent forgetfulness of those costly articles of dress. A courtier ventured to remind them of their man- tles: but the burgomaster of Bruges replied, “We: DEVELOPMENT. 67 Flemings are not in the habit of carrying away the cushions after dinner”—and the cloaks were left in the count’s dining-hall.* ’Tis an illustrative anec- dote ; and though there was a spice of insolence in it, the action was high and authoritative. But spite of the equivocal attitude in which they stood, the medieval municipalities were the sole depositories of those rights which lay hid under the epithet “ privileges.” The logical sequence of their life was independence. Every dollar they coined meant emancipation. The keen competition of their trades opened men’s eyes, and awakened intellect. The burghers were democratic by instinct; and this was why their cities were sure to become the cra- dles of republican and protestant ideas. Indeed, the maritime spirit, wherever it showed itself, already bore the countenance of republican- ism. In Italy the Lombard merchants were demo- crats.t Venice, then towering in her pride of place, with no sea-weed tarnishing her marble halls, the fresh, beautiful bride of the Adriatic, was an oligar- chical republic. Avignon, and Arles, and Marseillés, commercial cities in the south of France, tottered to their feet and stood a moment as free common- wealths in the middle of the twelfth century.{ The alliance of town with town for maritime purposes was common. Narbonne formed one with Geneva in 1166,§ and nearly a century later the fa- © Chambers’ Tour in Holland, p. 9. + Sismondi, Hist. des Rep. Ital. t Velly, t. 14, p. 446. § Hallam, Middle Ages, p. 119. 68. THE DUTCH REFORMATION. mous Hanseatic* League was formed, and the chief cities of Germany cemented a union whose purpose it was to foster and protect commercial interests.t But it was in the Netherlands that the munici- pal system was carried to the greatest perfection. In Holland especially, the towns were not, as else- where, merely portions of the state; the state itself was rather an aggregate of. towns, each of which formed a little commonwealth within itself, provi- ding for its own defence, governed by its own laws, holding separate courts of justice, administering its own finances; the legislative sovereignty of the whole being vested in the towns, forming in their collective capacity the assembly of the states.{ Each community elected its own municipal au- thorities ;. and thus inspired with the breath of life, with plenty of blood in their veins, the miniature republics made their gold weigh up the other forces: in the end, spite of the jus divinum.§ “Stability,” says Schiller, “the security of life and property, arising from mild laws and an equal. administration of justice—these are the parents of activity and industry.”| This advantage the Low Country cities had. They became established marts. Antwerp, Amsterdam, Dort, Ostend, and the rest, were more or less affiliated with the Hanse-towns.{ Their burghers, launching their ships, visited first * From the German Hansa, a union. ft Appleton’s Cyc., Art. Hanseatic League. } Davies, vol. 1, p. 76, et seq. § Motley, || Schiller, Rev. of the Netherlands, p. 369. 1 Appleton’s Cyc., in loco. DEVELOPMENT. 69 the neighboring coasts of Denmark and England; and the wool which they brought back employed thousands of industrious hands in Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp; while by the middle of the twelfth century the cloths of Flanders were extensively worn in France and Germany.* Nor did the Netherland seamen pause here: with unprecedented daring, “they ventured, without a compass, to steer under the North pole, round to the most northern cape of Russia. And in this voyage they received from the Wendish towns a share of the Levant trade, which then passed from the Black sea, through the Russian territories, to the Baltic. When, in the thirteenth century, this trade began to decline, the crusades having opened a new passage through the Mediterranean for In- dian merchandise, and after the Italian municipal- ities had usurped this lucrative branch of commerce, the Netherlands became the emporium between the Hanseatic League in the north and the Italian tra- ders in the south. The main current of this trade flowed through Bruges, in Flanders, for several centuries, and fat- tened that favored city. ‘Here,’ if we may credit Schiller, “a hundred and fifty vessels might often be counted at one time, entering the harbor of Sluys. Besides the rich factories of the Hanseatic League, here were seated fifteen trading companies, with warehouses, and merchants’ families from every European country. This also was the market for * Schiller, 70 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. all the northern products for the south, and for the Levantine trade bound north.”* Bruges rolled in prosperity. The meanest citizen nursed his person in velvet and silk.t Such was the origin, such the varied influence, of the three great medisval forces, which “ builded better than they knew.” Meantime, the Netherlands remained divided into numberless small provinces, whose rulers did homage at one time to the German emperors, at another to the kings of France. To recite the names and achievements of these “illustrious ob- scure” might well cause even the most patient gene- alogist to shudder, and is foreign to the purpose of these pages. One of them, Count Baldwin of Flan- ders, was the father-in-law of William of Normandy ; and when the conqueror crossed the channel into England, Netherland ships ferried him over, and Netherland men-at-arms helped him subdue the island{—assistance which he recompensed by the annual payment of three hundred silver marks into the Flemish treasury;$ which proves that even in the middle of the eleventh century, and in family transactions, the Flemings looked sharply to the main chance. It was Mathilda, William’s Flemish wife, who worked with her own fair hands that cele- brated tapestry of Bayeux, on which was deftly embroidered the whole story of the conquest.|| : Another of these petty sovereigns, and the last, © Schiller, pp. 870, 371. ¢ Ibid. Grattan, p. 29. ‘ t Hume, Hist. of Eng., in loco. § Grattan, p. 28. || Thid. DEVELOPMENT. 71 was Jacqueline, the most lovely, intrepid, and tal- ented woman of her times—the Helen of the Middle Ages. She was as unhappy as she was beautiful; Succeeding in her seventeenth year to an inheri- tance of three counties—Holland, Zealand, Hai- nault—she was mated successively with three greedy but titled adventurers, who persecuted her, tore her provinces by dissensions incessantly fomented, and drove her to implore the intervention of her cousin Philip of Burgundy; who, in his turn, despoiled her of her last possessions, and degraded her, on her marriage with Vrank Von Borselen, a gentleman of Zealand, whose gentle and knightly spirit consoled her for: the: cowardice and brutality of her former husbands, to-be the lady-forester of her own domin- ions.* On the death of Jacqueline, in 1436, the uncourfly usurper took undisputed possession of her titles, drowning remorse in his thirst for aggran- dizement.t Thus began the rule of the Burgundian dukes -in the Netherlands: that ambitious house, leaping into the saddle, was now to run its appointed race in pur- ‘suit of the illusive phantom of empire. By-the various shifts of: purchase, legacy, and bargain, Philip, sur- named “the Good,” added territory after. territory to the nucleus states which he had wrung from the reluctant hands of his fair cousin, until, finally, he united:under his ducal coronet eleven of the richest ‘provinces of Enurope.t His court rivalled. that -. © Davies, vol. 1, p. 217, et seg. Motley, vol. 1,p. 40. Grattan, p. 47, et seg. ¢ Ibid. Van Loon. ¢ Schiller, p. 365. 72 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. of the Vatican in ostentatious magnificence; and flushed with success, the smooth usurper proceeded to curtail the privileges of his burgher subjects. But he was so subtle and insidious in this spolia- tion, that the parchment liberties of the Netherlands were partially suppressed ere the cities awoke to protest. Besides, the citizens were so enervated by luxury, that they lacked heart to resist, and feared that they might lose every thing by claiming any thing. Meantime, their material prosperity in- creased, and they hoarded gold which their descend- ants were to melt into bullets and beat into swords. Philip died in 1467; and his son Charles the Bold succeeded to the extensive and compact duke- dom which he had so unscrupulously consolidated. Charles augmented his domains by the conquest of two additional provinces; then, casting an*envious eye on the diadem of Louis XI., he aspired to expand his own coronet into a crown by carving out with his sword a kingdom which should surpass France in extent, as its present dukedom exceeded it in wealth. The vaulting and restless spirit of this meteoric prince devised a scheme of conquest embracing the whole line of country from the Zuyder Zee and the old mouth of the Rhine away to Alsace, with the icy and granite battlements of Switzerland as the ramparts of his realm.* His execution was not equal to his conception. Narrow-minded, short- ® Schiller, p. 365. Motley, Grattan. Kirk, Life of Charles the Bold. DEVELOPMENT. 73 sighted, despotic, as a conqueror, he was as far removed as possible from Hannibal to whom he was fond of comparing himself ;:and as a politician, he could outwit no one but himself.* Charles at once put his project afoot. Regard- ing the Netherlands only as an inexhaustible bank on which he had carte blanche, he confined his inter- course with his states to the extortion of vast sums of money with which to pamper his quixotism; and, since his military career was singularly unsuccess- ful, the frequency of these demands well-nigh drove the patient burghers to despair. By oaths and bra- vado he was nearly successful in establishing a cen- tral despotism on the ruins of the ancient provincial charter, when, in a happy moment for the Nether- lands, he collected an army and dashed to the con- quest of Switzerland—meeting, not the victory of which he felt assured, but an obscure death in the méée at Nancy; and this awful rout saved the republicanism of the Swiss, and partially restored the liberties of the Low Countries.t For the Lady Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of the infatuated paladin, now became scle mistress of this magnificent dukedom—a woman as young, fair and unprotected as poor Jacqueline had been. Her strait was the opportunity of the burghers. Enyironed by difficulties, menaced by Louis XL, the most treacherous and subtle of kings, she ap- pealed, as was usual in such cases, to the commons. Naturally, the citizens demanded a quid pro quo. ® Motley, vol. 1, p. 48. t Ibid. Kirk, Life of Charles. Dutch Ref. « 7 74 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. A convention was summoned to meet in Ghent, and the deliberations flowered in the “Great Privi- lege,” an instrument which was the Magna Charia of the Dutch, and which, though it was afterwards rescinded, became the corner-stone of the Dutch republic.* Thus a stroke of the pen restored the pristine Netherland charters; and Mary, besides, bound her- self not to marry without the consent of the states.t The richest and most beautiful princess in Europe, she had many wooers; two were especially promi- nent. Louis XI. claimed Mary for the French dauphin; Frederick IIL, the German emperor, de- manded her for his son, Maximilian of Austria; ‘and: to one of these suitors the choice soon nar- rowed itself. Then the states made an unfortunate choice. Dreading Louis XI., whose kingdom bor- dered on their territories, and aware that Mary’s husband must become the most powerful prince in Christendom, they finally awarded the hand of their duchess to Maximilian, accelerating the very evil which they were striving to forestall.t A decade of squabbles succeeded; then Mary died, after giving birth to a son, Philip the Fair. This prince, young, handsome, engaging, was mated with Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile and Aragon, a bride who brought Spain and the two Sicilies as her dower. From this © Grotius, Motley, Van Loon, Grattan, Davies. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 50. Schiller. $ Schiller, p. 365, Q Ibid. \ “DEVELOPMENT. 75 union sprung Charles V. Born in 1501, he was destined to unite in his simple person this vast domain acquired partly by conquest, but chiefly by two fortunate marriages. The reign of Philip the Fair was short and | turbulent.* _ Dying in 1506, while on a visit to his brother-in-law, the king of Spain, he was speedily followed to the grave by Joanna, who became mad from grief at his loss, after nearly losing her senses from jealousy during the life of the handsome profligate.t The regency of the Netherlands reverted to: Maximilian, now become emperor of Germany, on this event; and he at once named his daughter Margaret governant of the states during the in- fancy of the second Charlemagne. And this brings the political history of the Low Countries into the. dawn of the sixteenth century, when God said, “Let there be light.” : _ * We must not omit to notice the existence of two factions. which, for two centuries, divided and agitated the whole popula- tion of Holland and Zealand. One bore the title of Hoeks— fish-hooks ; the other of Kaabeljaus—codfish. The origin of these’ grotesque names was « dispute between two parties at a feast, as to whether the codfish took the hook, or the hook the codfish. This apparently frivolous dispute was made the pretext for a seri- ous quarrel: and the partisans of the nobles and those of the towns ranged themselves on either side, and assumed different badges of distinction. The Hoeks were partisans of the towns, and wore red caps ; the Kaabeljaus were the friends of the nobles, and wore gray bonnets. These factions were finally extinguished in 1492. Grattan, p. 49, note. + Ibid., p. 65. 76 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER IV. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. Ir is an authoritative declaration of Michelét, that “ whoever restricts himself to the present, the actual, will never comprehend the present and the actual. Whoever contents himself with seeing the exterior, and painting the form, does not even see it. To see it correctly, to paint it faithfully, we must know that which is within, the motor; no painting without anatomy.”* In obedience to this rule, we have traced the progress of the Netherlands towards civilization— seen men getting “first a house, and then a wife, and then an ox to plough,” as Hesiod has phrased it,t and so slowly developing into society—a plural unit formed by daily exigency. It remains for us to retrace our steps a little, that we may thread the maze of the more distinctive rudiments of the Ref- ormation by holding their clue. And if we look back, we shall see that the Ref- ormation itself was not an émeute, but a develop- ment, often most alive when it seemed most torpid ; \ * Michelét, The People, p. 15. t Tremenheere, Political Experience of the Ancients, p. 2. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. [77 for every earnest opponent of ecclesiastical pride, of scandalous errors, of ill-morals in the early ages was a reformer. Luther in embryo lurked under the cowls, went girt by the cord, walked in the san- dals of a hundred monks, preaching patches of truth, and uttering piecemeals of protest, centu- ries before the famous Wittemburger collected and moulded these disjecta membra into one body, armed by God with a flaming sword to smite the pretend- er who “Sat upon the Seven Hills, 7 And from his throne of darkness ruled the world.” In the march of the Roman see to its suprem- acy, thoughtful men see less to marvel at than to deplore. When Christianity lost the democratic simplicity of the apostolic age, and began, like the Athenians, to “spend its time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing,’* the reign of bastard prelates—half fanatics and half mountebanks, dealers in terrible phantasmagoria, but unable to meet each other in the street without laughing, like the Roman augurs who were their prototypes—was insured.t Though the Netherlands, with the rest of Eu- rope, had been persuaded or coerced to break their idols and accept the pagan Mosaic, which the Ital- ians called the gospel, they were always resiless * Acts 17:21. + See Brandt’s rationale in his History of the Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. 1, Introduction. ae 4 78 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. and fretful believers, prone to ask the reason of their faith, “why this?” and “ why that ?’—terrible questioners, in which undutiful and puzzling be- havior they were long aided and abetted by their native churchmen. “Heresy,” says Grotius, ‘“ was the Hollander’s immemorial inheritance.”* Indeed, the Low Country prelates, the bishops of Utrecht especially, were more indebted to the pious donations of kings and kaisers for their wealth and influence, than to the good-will of the pontiffs; therefore, as they were more independent of the metropolitan see than most other churchmen, they frequently, in the midnight ages, shouted “veto” when the popes made extravagant demands or set afloat new pretensions. Thus, if you will have an illustration, in 860, King Lotharius requested Nicholas I., who then wore the purple, to decree his divorce from Tend- berg his consort, as being too near of kin to him,t or because of her scandalous life, as some say. The pontiff said no; whereupon the monarch con- vened a synod at Aix la Chapelle, which Hunger, bishop of Utrecht, attended; and this assembly pronounced the divorce lawful and proper. The enraged pontiff at once cited these ecclesiastics to answer for their bold action at Rome, pretending that his decision in such cases was final and unim- peachable. The archbishops of Treves and of * Grotius, de Antig. Reip. Batay. + Reginonis, chron. 11, p. 47. t Blondel, de Papa poema, p. 136. § Brandt, vol. 1, p. & RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 79 Cologne were delegated by the rest to answer at the bar of the Vatican.* On reaching Rome, these high dignitaries were kept in waiting almost a month ere they were admitted to an interview with his holiness; and when they were at length conducted to his audience- room, they found themselves “surrounded by a company of ruffians, who treated them as robbers are accustomed to treat the entrapped,” were insulted by the pope, and finally, without any attempt at confutation, they and theirs were bound by a scandalous sentence, “inconsistent with the Christian faith,” which “bereaved them of all hu- man assistance, and interdicted the use of every thing sacred: or profane.”’t On their return, the aggrieved bishops indited a letter to Pope Nicholas, which closes thus: “God has made his queen and spouse the church a noble and everlasting provision for her family, with a dowry that is neither fading nor cor- ruptible, and given her an eternal crown and scep- tre; all which benefits, you, like a thief, intercept. You set up yourself in the temple as God; instead of a shepherd, you have become as a wolf to the sheep. You would have us believe you sunreme bishop; you are rather a tyrant; under the mask of a pastor you hide your horns. Whereas you ought to be a servant of servants—as you call your- self, you intrigue to become lord of lords. What- * Blondel, de Papa poema, p. 136. ¢ See their Letter, cited in Brandt, ut antea. 80 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. ever you desire, you think lawful; thus you have become a deceiver of Christians. .For all these reasons, neither we nor our brethren and friends regard or submit to your commands—know not your voice, and fear not your bulls. You condemn all for irreligious and impious that do not obey your despotic precepts, forbidding them the use of the sacraments. We smite you with your own sword, because you bring the commands of God into con- tempt, dissolving the unity of spiritual assemblies, and violating peace, the badge of the Prince of heaven. The Holy Ghost is the builder of all churches as far as the earth extends. The city of our God, of which we are citizens, reaches to all parts of the heavens; and it is greater than the city, by the holy prophets named Babylon, which pretends to be divine, equals herself to heaven, and brags that her wisdom is immortal; and finally, though without reason, that she never did err, nor ever can.”* Such was the impeachment of a pontiff in the ninth century; and this tremendous indictment for- cibly recalls Luther before the Cardinal-legate Ca- jetan eight hundred years later. The scenes are so much the same, that unless you knew the difference. by the dates and names, you would fancy yourself present at the Augsburg interview. “For in human things,” remarks Strada, “however times and per- sons die, still the same causes and events revive;’t * Cited in Brandt, vol. 1, pp. 5, 6. + Strada, Hist. of the Low Country Wars, p. 2. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 81 and Schiller can tell us that “like conditions pro- duce like phenomena.’”* Leap now over a hundred and thirty years. In 992, that famous synod which deposed Pope John XY. was convened at Rheims, and among the as- sembled bishops were several Netherlanders. Ar- nulp, bishop of Orleans, presided. “This pontiff,” said he, “is antichrist;’ and he added, “In the Low Countries and in Germany, both near us, there may be found priests of God—men eminent in reli- gion. Wherefore it seems to me much more expe- dient and proper, were it not for the godless obsti- nacy of contending kings, that we should seek in those parts for the judgment of bishops, than in that city which is now set'to sale, and whose deter- minations ponderate according to the weight of gold.’ + So also these early churchmen often sank their esprit du corps in their patriotism; for whenever the popes encroached upon the imperial crown, as they constantly did in those days, the great part of the Netherland bishops invariably sided with the em- peror, and opposed mitre to mitre.t| When Hilde- brand excommunicated Henry IV. in 1076, William, bishop of Utrecht, responded by procuring an epis- copal vote which excommunicated Gregory himself; because “he had confounded profane and holy things, by attempting to screw himself into the man- agement of the popedom and the empire ;” because % Schiller, p. 361. { Cited in Brandt, vol. 1, p. 6. $ Thid. 82 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. “he deceived the common people with a hypocriti- cal religion;” and “because he would make every- body believe that none were rightly consecrated but such as bought the priestly office of his gold- suckers.”* The clergy of Liege espoused the impe- rial cause in this same spirit, were always the bitter opponents of Hildebrand and his innovations— stoutly Ghibelline and never Guelph.t It was this same Hildebrand who in 1076 pre- scribed clerical celibacy, a manceuvre by which the wily pope meant to insure the consolidation of church spoils, and the ecclesiastical reversion to each churchman’s property ; for if the priests were deprived of marriage, they could have no legiti- mate children among whom to portion out either their personal estates or the domain of the church over which they might happen to preside.t This decree provoked a storm of indignation. In the Netherlands the imprecations were loud and deep. Sigebent, a monk of Gambloon in Brabant, inveighed against the prohibition as “a rash sen- tence, contrary to the sentiments of the holy fathers;”§ while the Hollanders compelled their priests to marry, saying, “The man who has no wife will naturally seek for the wife of another.”’| But with the dawn of the twelfth century these plain, brave speakers, these. reproving Nathans % Cited in Brandt, vol. 1, p. 6. | Brandt, vol. 1, pp. 8-10. Motley, vol. 1, p. 67. f{ Ranke, Hist. of the Popes. Mosheim, ete. § Blondel de Pap. poema, p. 3. Chron. W. Heda. || Grattan. p. 32. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 83 among the clergy, began to die off. "Tis true in- deed that when, in 1122, the canons of Middleburgh disgraced their eloth by lasciviousness, Godebald, bishop of Utrecht, drove them out of their cloister, and replaced them by other religionists.* It is the last instance of attempted reformation within the ehurch for four centuries; and now we must seek for reformers elsewhere than upon archiepiscopal thrones and within monastery walls. The chain of protest was not interrupted; but in the latter decades of the twelfth century a differ- ent class of dissidents appeared—reform changed .front. The priests shut their eyes to the abound- ing and flagitious abuses, awed by the half-omnipo- tence of the holy see, and stripped of lay support by the entente cordiale patched up between the empire and the Vatican. Just at. this period, a sect which grounded its plea upon the Scriptures, holding doctrines which agreed in every vital point with the tenets of mod- ern Protestantism, and haloed by unimpeachable antiquity, entered the Netherlands, and began to teach the primitive doctrines.t Their missionaries were known by a variety of appellations—names which originated either in their habits or in the localities in which they worked. They were inde- fatigable in prayer, and they were called “Beg- hards.”{ They were Puritans in religion, and they - & Chron. W. Heda, p. 147. + Brandt, vol. 1, p. 12. Mosheim, Justin, ¢ Eccl. Hist.; vol. 2, p. 224. St THE DUTCH REFORMATION. were styled “Cathari.”* They were handicrafts. men by trade, and they were named “ Weavers.”t They were humble, and they were nicknamed “ Aumilists."{ One of their chief seats was in the French county of Alby, and they were styled - “ Albigenses.”§ Among their most famous teach- ers was Pierre Waldo, and they were called “ Vau-- dois.”|| In Bohemia they proclaimed the brother- hood of Christianity, and they were named “ Bohe- mian Brothers.”{| But whatever the sobriquet in which they were clothed, their characteristics were everywhere the same—zealous, untiring, patient in suffering, constant in well-doing, sheathed in the panoply of that charity which “beareth all things, hopeth all things,” and is “kind;’ they were, if not in fact, as some have claimed,** at least in spirit, the lineal descendants of Peter and Paul and that disciple whom Jesus loved, for they were the resur- rectionists of Christianity. = Sismondi, Hist. of Albig. + Ibid. Brandt. t Brandt, ut antea. § Ibid. Hist. of the Huguenots, Am. Tract Soc., 1866. || Tbid. Unless, as many hold, Vaudois and Waldonan were older than Pierre Waldo, and meant simply a Valleyer, an inhab- itant of the high valleys sloping from Mount Viso, early and long the seats of a purer faith, which Rome branded as heresy. Ibid. ©5 Tt is certain that the Vaudois themselves claimed a descent from the apostles, and several of their writings do indeed bear intrinsic evidence of such antiquity ; but some authoritative schol- ars have denied their apostolic descent, though conceding great antiquity to them. The question has been much discussed pro and con; nor is it probable that it will ever be definitely settled. Consult and compare Vanema’s Eccl. Hist. in loco, ‘The Noble Lesson” in Blair, vol. 1, pp. 473, 484, Sismondi’s History of the Vaudois, Gibbon, Bossuet, Hist. des Variations, ete. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 85 Some of these teachers rejected infant bap- tism ;* and from these Baptists claim descent, -tracitiy their genealogy through them up to apos- tolic times.t They won proselytes with almost inconceivable rapidity; and when Pope Innocent TII. launched his crusaders once, twice, thrice against the French Vaudois, slaging a million of the most industrious artisans and pure citizens in Christendom,} the dazed and maimed survivors fled into Germany, into Bohemia, into the Nether- lands, to swell the ranks of their brothers in the faith.§ The free fairs which the chief Low Country cities held once or twice every year for business pur- poses, and which attracted traders from all coun- tries,| became the seed-ground of these reformers.4 A word spoken, a convert won in the market towns of Holland, Flanders, and Brabant, was sure to spread the principles of dissent far and wide: and in the bustle, their first growth might easily escape notice, and be accelerated by concealment. Finally, the Beghards translated the Bible, which Waldo had previously turned into French, into Dutch rhymes, in imitation of the Teutons, who had long been accustomed to record their most memorable * Brandt; vol. 1, p. 12. Allix, chh., Pied., chap. 16, pp. 140- 143. + Orchard, Foreign Baptists. p. 324, et seq. t Sismondi, Hist. of the Albig., passim. Hist. of the Hugue- nots, passim. § Mosheim, Waddington, Clark, Martyn, p. 96, etc., Brandt, || Schiller, p. 873, 8 7 Ibid., p. 381. 86 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. affairs in verse; because, said they, “there is great advantage in it; no jests, no fables, no trifles, no deceits, naught but words of truth. There is, in- deed, here and there a hard crust, but even in this- the marrow and sweetness of what is good and holy may easily be discovered.”’* Then Rome awoke from the dog-nap into which she had fallen, weary with the Languedocian mas- sacres. Incensed and alarmed at the wonderful growth and the increasing boldness of the reform- ers, the pontiffs—who had banned the Bible, pub- lished new decrees, and reinterpreted and glossed the early teachings—at once summoned the tempo- ral sword to their assistance, and began the -extir- pation of the heresy which opposed what they assumed to be the church, Previous to 1135, the punishment of death for heresy was unknown in the Netherlands.+ In that ‘year the bishop of Utrecht burned several victims before the doors of his archiepiscopal palace, be- cause they were charged with holding with Beren- garius, that the corporeal presence was a fable.t From this initial pyre the fire spread fast, until the whole horizon was red and fetid with burning bodies. Human bloodhounds were unleashed and put upon the scent. Hordes of idle priests were set to ferret out the heretics. Monks prowled in every city eager to clutch victims. Spies were bribed to became betrayers. A bounty-fund was raised for apostates. Suspicion was proof. Heayier-and fiercer © Brandt, vol. 1, p. 14, 4 Ibid, p. 11. t Ibia. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 87 grew the persecutions; closer grew the scrutiny ; severer grew the tests of orthodoxy. To doubt was heresy ; to deny was death—not speedy death, but death by agonizing inches, by prolonged spasms. Human ingenuity racked itself to invent new tor- tures which should wring but not kill too soon. In Flanders, the accused were stripped and bound to a stake, and then flayed from the neck to the navel; on this quivering, lacerated flesh, swarms of wasps or bees were let loose to fasten and sting to a death of exquisite torment.* One of the bitterest of these persecutors was Monk. Robert, surnamed Bulgarius. He was an apostate, and so when he assumed the Dominican hood he brought with him an acquaintance with the haunts, manners, signs, and hiding-places of the reformers, which made him the most successful of inquisitors. In his hands murder became a fine art. Butchery was his meat and drink: so much so that at last he even turned the strong stomach of the holy see, which vomited him into imprison- ment.t But spite of blazing fagots and torture-rooms dissidents increased in numbers and in knowledge. They held the Bible to be the sole infallible author- ity in religion:{ they proclaimed that “no man should be coerced to believe, but should be won by preaching ;’§ and they held to the democracy of ' & Brandt, vol. 1, p. 14. Motley, vol. 1, p. 68. + Brandt. t Bossuet, Hist. des Variations. Motley, vol. 1, p.. 68, § Brandt, ut antea. 88 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Christianity; for Voltaire himself confesses that they strove to implant in every breast the idea that all men are created equal.* Truly a formidable list of heresies—an indict- ment on each of whose counts men might easily have been condemned in that bitter age. And we are to trace their story, as the Alpine hunters do the wounded chamois, by their bloody footsteps. Whenever, wherever discerned, Rome endeavored to stamp them out. She wounded them especially in their chief teachers. The famous Beghard, Wal- ter Lollard, 2 Dutchman whose remarkable elo- quence filled England with dissenters, and bathed the valley of the Rhine in light, was apprehended and burned in 1320.t { Wickliff’s long life was a miracle. Huss and Jerome vanished in the lurid fire of Constance early in the fifteenth century.t But the gaps thus made were always filled; and even in 1457, Germany, highland and lowland, was so full of Vaudois that in travelling from Cologne to Milan, from Antwerp to the Zuyder Zee, they could lodge nightly with their co-religionists; while it was their custom to affix private marks to their signs, to write cabalistic letters on their gates as an invitation and assurance to the Christian passer; and this Trithemius can substantiate.§ These were the “gap men” of the Middle Ages. Waldo, Lol- lard, Wickliff, Huss—these were the John the Bap- tists of the Reformation. © Cited in Orchard, p. 336. + Mosheim. } Ibid. § Danvers’ Hist., p. 25. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 89 Rome never succeeded in suppressing them, and though she drowned their voices by her thunders, often the very means she took to crush them only increased their influence. For instance, when the Hussites rose in Bohemia to defend their faith, Rome preached a crusade. Many Netherlanders, tempted by the brave words and the indulgences of the pope, enlisted to share in the glory and to reap the reward. They got little of either, for Ziska, the illustrious Bohemian chieftain, always bafiled the invaders of his country ; and the Dutchmen, becom- ing familiar with the tenets and manners of the heretics in their campaigns, returned home with a greater aversion to the church for which they had fought than to the Hussites whom they had attacked.* Meantime, the pride and the power, the extor- tion and the presumption of the priesthood, in- creased apace. They asserted their independence of the civil authority. They insinuated themselves into the management of temporal affairs by hold- ing the pens of princes, and cities, and towns—ne- cessitated by the prevalent ignorance to seek their clerks among ecclesiastics. Then taking advantage of their position, they wrote in cloister-latin, a jar- gon understood by the monks alone, and often they got the civil magistrates to sign and seal instru- ments of bequest to the church—to sign and seal unwittingly; and these would be trumped up and used in after years.t * Brandt, vol. 1, p. 19. 5 t Ibid., p. 15. 90 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Nor was their avarice less than their ambition. The bishops, not content with their old revenues, laid new burdens upon trade and land from time to time. In some places the husbandman was forced to pay so much wheat and oats for every plough he owned. The landless were charged a certain meas- ure of corn as a fine for their poverty. Rapacious churchmen exhausted the laity by every species of extortion, establishing new orders of monks and friars, endowing abbeys, and enlarging and building countless monasteries with the spoils.* Since the estates of the church might not be taxed, of course every acre of land which was added to the already enormous ecclesiastical domain in- creased by so much the burdens, and decreased in the same proportion the ability of both lord and burgher on whom alone the state expenses fell. Nor was this all. Numbers of the clergy became huck- sters; and since they were shielded by their cloth from all taxation, they undersold the lay merchants. Common shopkeepers began to starve for want of custom, and deep were the curses which they mut- tered against priests who thus took bread out of the mouths of those who fed them. In this way it hap- pened that monasteries were converted into shops, convents into warehouses, and the mansions of secular churchmen into inns and tap-houses—typi- fying exactly the prior change in the ethics of the church. Then the avarice of the clergy partially accom: % Boxham, Ned. Hist., p.179. Brandt. t+ Ibid. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 91 plished what their cruelty and paganism had been powerless to do. The people began to murmur at the burden thrown on their backs. Haughty nobles ‘disputed the right of lazy priests to enjoy vast estates while refusing to be taxed or to draw the sword in the state’s defence. Princes, piqued by the superior wealth of the churchmen, and ag- grieved by their withholding of all rents, opened the law books and feed attorneys to hunt up or invent some statute which should salve this wound.* Soon the Netherland sovereigns began to im- pose restrictions upon the right of the clergy to hold and acquire property—restrictions which grew sterner and more general in the lapse of time.t And so the instinct of self-interest began to sharpen the eyes of all classes. Men’s pockets were enlisted against Rome. Then, too, the people of the Netherlands were slowly rising into intelligence. Their language was - already one of the grandest as it was among the old- est of Europe. France had not yet begun to under- mine the Belgie tongue, and Holland and Flanders still conversed in the same idiom :—an idiom which the nobles already began to hate as that of freedom and commerce, and which the clergy still more dis- liked as that of heresy and moral independence.t Still, the Low Dutch,§$ as it was styled to distin- & Boxham, Ned. Hist., p. 179. Brandt, Motley. + Brandt, vol. 1, p.23, et seg. t Bowring, Sketch of the Lang. and Literature of Holland. Amsterdam, 1829, p. 9. § Neder-duitsche. 92 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. guish it from the High Dutch* or German lan- guage, was the Netherland tongue as the German was that of the upper plains—and the coexistence of these idioms has been historically proved since the eighth century.t In the beginning of the thirteenth century deeds began to be drawn up in the national language ; and in that same century Van Maerlant and Uten- hove gave a brilliant impulse to their native tongue through their poetical writings.{ Van Maerlant, born at Damme, in Flanders, in 1235, was a philosopher, an orator, and a poet whose influence was singularly broad and marked.§ He has been honored with the title of “Father of Dutch literature ;”|| and what entitles him to espe- cial distinction is, that he was a layman—a layman renowned for taste and learning in an age when reading was almost exclusively the prerogative of the clergy.{ Before him “ poetry was a vagrant art, which, in the long winter evenings, took refuge in the chim- ney corners of great feudal castles, where it served to amuse and console maidens, who repaid the efforts of the troubadour by a sympathetic tear of compassion. Disdaining cities, the minstrel of that period was to be seen wherever noble blood presi- ded, and it was an exception when he occasionally condescended to bestow a poem upon the most emi- * Hoch-deutscha, t Delepierre, Hist. of Flemish Literature, p. 5. $ Ibid, p. 11. § Bowring, Batavian Anthology, p. 22. || Tbid. 7 Ibid. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 93 nent among the plebeian classes. At court he was ever welcome; the princes loaded him with favors, and sought to make him one of their retinue; for it was to the minstrel’s art alone that they were in- debted for their fame.”* _ The quality of the troubadour’s muse corre- sponded with the vagrant character of his life, and with the habits of the time. They sang of love and war to the exclusion of higher themes; though even in the Middle Ages translations of the masterpieces of Athenian and Roman literature were not wholly unknown to the Germanic races. Translations of the Odyssey and the Aneid were rare, but they ex- isted,t while the legend of King Arthur was familiar as a household tale throughout Europe. Van Maerlant revolutionized early literature. He wrote in the vernacular, and for the people; and he gave the Dutch, which is peculiarly adapted to the expression of devout, dignified emotion, the high tone of religious feeling and sublimity which has ever since distinguished it, and which made it at ‘one time the representative of Christian thought.§ Beginning life as a minnesinger, Van Maerlant soon gave up the composition of madrigals to devote himself to sacred and profane history... Henceforth his writings were didactic ; and he taught his coun- trymen philosophy, and medicine, and the natural sciences, through the medium of his verse. He dealt the Romanists of his age a hard blow, and when * Delepierre, p. 31. t Ibid., p. 19. t Ibid., Bowring, Hallam. § Bowring, Batav. Anth., pp. 13,14 94 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. he touched upon the duties of men, his pure and vigorous style enabled him to demonstrate that a title of nobility is something more than a sheet of parchment, and that the virtue of a priest does not lie in his tonsure.* Inveighing against the vices of the church, he put the Bible into verse. “ What,” says he, “the reading of the Bible is forbidden to the people, and they listen to the adventures of T'ristan and Laun- celot, imaginary personages, while throughout the world love and war stories alone are read, and the Gospel is thought to be too grave because it teaches truth and justice.”’t And he exclaims again, “Is Antichrist already come into the world? If I dared, I would say, Yes. Let a cunning serf become a judge or a priest, and he will be listened to in the councils of princes. Does a fool become a grain the wiser by increasing the size of his tonsure even to his ears?” t This energetic and unwonted language gradually acted on the awakening minds of the Hollanders, and abandoning lighter reading, they opened books of history and science: the useful began to prevail over the merely entertaining. The classics began to be dug up. The best thoughts of the ancients were pondered and acted upon, so that Van Maerlant himself could sing with truth : ‘cAll these realities have we sought, And out of Latin to Dutch brought, From the books of Aristotle.”§ * Delepierre, p. 38. + Ibid. t Ibid., pp. 41, 4% § Bowring, Batay. Anth., p. 63. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 95 This iconoclastic poet had many admirers and im- itators: arace of nobler minnesingers was begotten by his stately verse. Then the stream of literature ‘began to gather as it rolled a thousand contribu- ting rivulets. In the fourteenth century the Cham- . bers of Rhetoric were founded. Diest lays claim to the possession of a poetical society as early as 1302 ;* and ere long the “ Rhetoricers” covered Flanders and Brabant.. The object of these associations was ‘the cultivation and exercise of letters ; and though they introduced much exaggeration of expression, and many foreign idioms, their influence could not fail to make for progress at that time, by awakening thought and rewarding literary effort. It is to the Greeks and Romans that we are in- -debted for the theatre in its modern sense; but the muse of Aischylus and of Terence had long been silent, and when the Chambers of Rhetoric resur- rected the drama, it took a different form, became the repository of medieval Christianity, and was ‘surrendered to ‘scenic representations of the life of Christ.t At a later day these religious plays became the engines of reform. Rhetoricers making the circuit of the provinces, satirized the abuses and immoralities of the clergy through the theatrical representations, and thus helped largely to break the charm of the Roman church: fer ridicule is the most potent of.spell-breakers. But the crowning * Delepierre, p. 63. : t Ibia. } Bowring, Sketch of Lang. and Lit, of Hol., p. 28. Schiller, p. 381. 96 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. achievement of the Middle Ages was the invention of the printing press. “At the very moment when Philip the Good, in the full blaze of his power and flushed with the triumphs of territorial aggran- dizement, was instituting at Bruges the famous order of the Golden Fleece, ‘to the glory of God, of the blessed Virgin, and of the holy St. Andrew, pa- tron saint of the Burgundian family,’ and enrolling the names of the kings and princes who were to be honored with its symbols, an obscure citizen of Haarlem, Lorenz Koster, succeeded in printing a little grammar by means of movable type.* The invention of printing was accomplished, but it was not ushered in with such a blaze of glory as her- alded the contemporaneous erection of the Golden Fleece. Fhe humble setter of type did not deem emperors and princes alone worthy of his compan- ionship. This invention sent no thrill of admiration throughout Christendom; and yet what was Philip of Burgundy, with his knights of the Golden Fleece, and all their effulgent trumpery,in the eye of human- ity and civilization, compared with this poor citizen and his wooden type ?”’t From this time popular intelligence marched forward with vast strides and to assured triumph. * The question of the invention of printing has long been a mooted one. Germany claims it for Faust, Holland for Koster. It will most probably never be satisfactorily settled. But all the Netherland historians give Koster the honor, fixing the time vari- ously between the years 1423 and 1440. The first and faulty edie tions of Koster are still religiously preserved at Haarlem. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 45. RUDIMENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 97 -Rome could no longer monopolize learning. Books soon became cheap and plenty; and whereas men before were shut up to the use of manuscripts, and for one copy of the Bible tolerably written upon vellum, were wont to pay five hundred crowns, now as the art of printing grew common they might buy one for four crowns. Thus the people who could not reach the price of the Scriptures in manuscript, found it easy to purchase and read them in Koster’s prints.* Towards the close of the fifteenth century a Dutch translation of the Old Testament was made from the Vulgate, and this, first printed in 1477, is at once’'a monument of language and a remarkable specimen of primitive typography.t Thus “all things worked together for good.” The first protests of the monks; the worn voices of the Waldenses; the songs and plays of the minne- singers; and Koster’s type—these were rudiments of reform, the creators of thought; and growing knowledge was the spear of Ithuriel, whose touch made masked impiety and hidden despotism start up and reveal themselves. The world, long agoni- zing to speak, now possessed the most potent of voices. Analysis began. Men of nisi—*I take an > exception ;” and of distinguo—*I draw a distinction,” entered the long-closed temple to investigate and to dispute. Christendom was at last prepared to listen intelligently to the protest of the Reformation, stood ready to shout, “Welcome Luther, and all hail.” ® Brandt, vol. 1, p. 23. + Bowring, Sketch of the Lit. and Lang. of Hol., p. 27. Dutch Ref, 9 G3 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER V. THE GERMAN CZSAR. Wuey, in 1515, Charles V.,* a boy of fifteen, placed the crown upon his brow and grasped the sceptre, the Netherlands had reached the acme of material prosperity. The tamest portrait of their condition looks like exaggeration. Seventeen proy- inces,t huddled in an obscure morass, extending, when counted together, but three hundred Flemish miles, covering an area not a fifth part as large as Italy, had: dug themselves out of the mud, and now stood bathed in the meridian sun of a splendor as unexampled as it was honorable. Grouped within this narrow neck of land were three hundred and fifty cities, humming with trade, alive with industry, many of them fortified by their natural position, and secure without artificial bar- riers, six thousand three hundred market-towns of a large size, and scores of farming hamlets and picturesque castles, imparting to the landseape a singular aspect of unbroken, breathing life ; while * Chap. 3, pp. 77, 78. + The duchies of Brabant, Limburg, Luxembourg, and Guel- ders, the seven counties of Artois, Hainault, Flanders, Namur, Zutphen.-Holland, and Zealand, the margravate of Antwerp, and the five lordships of Friesland, Mechlin, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen. THE GERMAN CHISAR. 99 the whole was guarded by a belt of sixty fortresses of maiden fame, hitherto uncaptured.* Antwerp was at this time the commercial metrop- lis of Europe, the entrepot and the exchange of nations. She scrawled “Antwerp” on her bills, and they passed current from Peru to Pekin. Beau- tifully seated on a plain beside the river Scheldt, shaped like a bent bow, with the water for its string, the city had long been a bustling one; but it was indebted to a recent discovery for its sudden importance. The Levant trade no longer rolled overland to pour itself into Europe through the Italian cities; it now took ship, and sailing round the cape of Good Hope, landed in Portugal for European distribution—a divergence which rev- olutionized the commerce of the Middle ages,t help- ed largely to wither the Hanseatic league, and sent ruin into the counting-rooms of the Mediterranean ; robbed Genoa of her sails; and degraded the city of the doges to sit a beggar amid the broken pil- lars and defaced frescoes of her choked and weedy palaces—gave her nothing to do but bathe her feet in the stagnant waters of her canals, and hug the bitter memory of the past. On this ruin the new metropolis fed and was fattened; and while Verona, Venice, Nuremburg, Augsburg, Bruges, were sinking, Antwerp, with its deep and convenient river, stretched its arm to the ocean and caught the golden prize as it fell from © Schiller, p. 388. Motley, vol. 1, p. 91. ¢ Van Loon, Grotius. 100 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. its sister-cities’ grasp.* The Portuguese established the mart of their East India trade in Brabant, and ' “the spices of Calicut were displayed for sale in the markets of Antwerp.” Here, too, centred the West Indian merchandise, with which the haughty indolence of Spain repaid the industry of the Neth- erland burghers. Here the Hanse towns stored the manufactures of the north.{ Here the English had a factory which employed thirty thousand hands.§ And here, on the new Rialto, the great medieval commercial houses, the Gaulteratti and Bouvisi of Italy, the Velseus, the Ostetis, the Fuggers of Ger- many, established themselves and competed for custom.|| Hundreds of splendid buiidings dignified the city. Here was the cathedral of Nétre Dame; here the stately Exchange, thronged daily by five thou- sand merchants, prototype of all similar establish- ments throughout the world.7 In its harbor between two and three hundred ships might often be seen loading at one time; “no day passed on which the boats: casting or weighing anchor did not exceed five hundred; on market- days the number was swollen to eight or nine hun- dred. Daily more than two hundred carriages drove through its gates; above two thousand heav- ily-laden wagons arrived each week from Germany, % Motley, vol. 1, p. 82. } Schiller, p. 374. Van Meteren, Hist. der Nederlanden. $ Ibid. § Camines, Preuves des Memvires. || Van Meteren, Schiller, Motley. : @ Ibid. THE GERMAN CHSAR.- 101 France, Lorraine, without reckoning the farmers’ carts and corn-vans, seldom less than ten thousand in number.”’* Thus it was that, while the culture of grain, flax, the breeding of cattle, grazing, the chase, and fisheries enriched the peasant, arts, manufactures, and trade brought wealth to the burgher, sent Flemish and Brabantine manufac- tures to either India, and as far east as Araby and the Persian steppes, making this the distinctive characteristic of the Netherland seaman—that he made sail at all seasons, and never laid up for the winter. Antwerp had a twin, Ghent; like itself one of - the most important and influential cities in Europe. “Erasmus, who, as a Hollander and a courtier, was not likely to be partial to the turbulent Flemings, asserted,” so Motley reports, “that there was no town in Christendom to be compared with it for size, power, political constitution, or the culture of its citizens. It was rather a country than a city. The activity and wealth of its burghers was prover- bial. The bells were rung daily, and the draw- bridges over the many arms of the river which intersected the streets were raised in order that business might be suspended while the armies of workmen were going to or returning from their labors. As early as the fourteenth century, the age of the Arteveldes, Froissart estimated that Ghent could bring eighty thousand men-at-arms into the field; and now, by its jurisdiction over many other © Schiller, p. 375. ft Ibid., 374 * 9 102 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. large but subordinate towns, it could muster up- wards of two hundred thousand. “Placed in the midst of well-cultivated plains, Ghent was surrounded by strong walls, the external circuit of which measured nine miles. Its streets and squares were spacious and elegant; its church- es and public buildings were many and splendid. The sumptuous church of St. John, where Charles V. had been baptized, the ancient castle whither Baldwin Bras de Fer had brought the stolen daughter of Charles the Bald, the City Hall, with its graceful Moorish front, the well-known belfry, where for three centuries had perched the dragon sent by the emperor Baldwin of Flanders from Constantinople, and where swung the famous Ro- land, whose iron tongue had called the citizens, generation after generation, to arms—all were con- spicuous in the city and celebrated in the land. Especially the great bell was the object of the burghers’ affection, and generally of the sover- eign’s hatred; while to all it seemed a living per- sonage, endowed with the human powers and pas- sions which it had so long inflamed and directed.’* Both Antwerp and Ghent were essential repub- lics in miniature. Each guarded its charters—the trophies of a dozen centuries of toil and struggle— with jealous care. Each was scrupulously watch- ful of the personal and domiciliary rights of the citizen. Ghent divided its population into fifty-two guilds of manufacturers, and thirty-two tribes of = Motley, vol. 1, pp. 59, 60. THE GERMAN CHSAR. 103 weavers; each fraternity elected its own deans and subordinate officers annually or biennially. The city senate, composed of twenty-six members, was the administrative and judicial power; but was subject to the supervision of the grand provincial council which sat at Mechlin.* Antwerp was gov- erned by the sovereign—solemnly sworn as Mar-’ quis of Antwerp to rule under the charters—who shared his authority with the four municipal es- tates—the senate, the deans of the guilds, and two officers called respectfully the schout and the am- man, who represented the king, one in criminal, the other in civil affairs.t The condition of the people at large correspond- ed with the importance and wealth of their cities. Thrift had dowered them with plenty. ‘There were but few poor; and these did not seek, but were sought by the almoners. Schools were excel- lent and cheap. It was difficult to find a child of sufficient age who could not read, write, and speak at least two languages; and the sons of the wealth- ier citizens were sent to the universities of Louvain, Douay, Paris, or Padua, where education, though feeling the onward movement of the age, still pre- served its monkish spirit, and now wrapped learn- ing in the ancient cere-cloths, and the stiffening sarcophagus of a by-gone age which had once saved it from annihilation.” Tis a high saying of Macaulay that “The man- * Motley, vol. 1, pp. 83, 84. Van Meteren, t Ibid. f{ Ibid. Schiller, pp: 388, 389. 104 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. ner in which a nation treats its women is a correct criterion of its civilization.” In the Netherlands, woman’s influence was broad and healthful. There the harems of the East, the jealous surveillance of the Spaniard, the hothouse culture of the medizwyval epoch, when woman was looked on as the toy of passion, as a drudge to be watched, were happily unknown. Treated as sentient beings, the Dutch girls mixed from infancy with all classes and sexes, travelled alone, and so became self-reliant, frank, courteous ; while their morals were as pure as their decorum was undoubted.* Distinguished by beauty of feature and form, and glowing with health, they were fond of dress—a taste which their burgher husbands, fathers, lovers, were always eager to gratify. “Really,” exclaimed a queen of France, with astonishment not unmixed with envy, when on a visit to Bruges she witnessed the splendor, the fine linen, silk, and velvet in which the common ladies were habited, “really, I thought myself the only queen here ; but I see six hundred others who appear more so than I.’’t No, the Dutchman did not think with that old Chinese sage whom Aristotle endorsed, “A wife should be a shadow and an echo in the house.” He enthroned her in his heart and at his hearthstone, where she became the genius of economy and order 3 while each addition to her influence was a step in morality. Not only so, but as, in Italy, Vittoria Colonna and Veronia Gambara were the friends and % Motley, vol. 1, p, 91. Comines. } Graitan, p. 75, THE GERMAN CASAR. 105 equals of Michael Angelo, the women of the Neth- erlands became the counsellors of princes, the silent heroines of suffering, the inspiration of many thril- ling dramas of the revolution, the jewelled setting of the picture of Low Country life. It has been said that modern civilization gets its conscience from the Hebrew, its brains from the Greek, and its hands from the Roman. The Neth- erlander was heir to this inheritance—indeed, he was the Yankee of the middle ages. Never a nig- gard, he was yet an economist, and knew how to utilize. His cattle, grazing on the bottom of the sea, were the finest in Europe.* His agriculture was esteemed the wisest in Christendom.t That he could make money we know, as also that his liberality kept pace with his opulence. When John the Fearless was captured at the battle of Nicopolis, a single merchant of Bruges ransomed him at two hundred thousand ducats.{ And once a provost of Valenciennes, visiting Paris during one of the great fairs periodically held there, purchased, on his own account, every article that was for sale.§ Nor was the Netherlander content to grub for wealth alone. Ranging above the splendid linens, woollens, silks, and tapestries which his looms wove, he became an inventor, an artist, a discoverer— work to which his genius, developed by commerce, and by intercourse with many nations, pushed him. In the lap of abundance and liberty, all 2 Motley, vol. 1, p. 90. + Ibid. t Grattan, p. 75. Guicciardini. § Ibid. || Schiller, p. 375. 106 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. arts, all sciences, were cultivated and perfected. From Italy, to which Cosmo de’ Medici had lately restored its golden age, painting, architecture, and’ the arts of carving and engraving on copper, were transplanted into the Netherlands, where, in a new soil, they flourished with fresh vigor.* The Flemish artists were the brothers of Titian and the teachers of Angelo. One of their number, John Van Eyck, discovered the art of painting in oil, and thereby immortalized the vivid touches of the brush, the sweet blushes of the canvas.t The Dutch musicians were the first in Europe—the instructors of Italy, the amusers of France.t| The weaving of tapestry, the art of painting on glass, of polishing diamonds, of making sun-dials and pocket watches—all these, so Guicciardini tells us, were the original. inventions of Low Country workmen.$ Even the points of the compass were known by Flemish names; and when Koster perfected his type, the industrial pyramid of the Netherlands was capped, while the Dutch, seizing the new engine, recognized it from the outset as an eman- cipator. Where they did not originate, they per- fected; for Schiller says, “The people of the Netherlands united with the most fertilo inventive genius a happy talent for improving the discoveries of others; so that there are probably few of the mechanical arts and manufactures which they did not either produce or perfect.”'| © Schiller, p. 375. } Grattan, p. 75. Guicciardini. a tibia. + § Guicciardini. || Schiller, p. 376. THE GERMAN CASAR. 107 While the Netherlands, as a whole, were thus felicitously cireumstanced, Freisland had been tem- porarily wrenched from her connection with the sister provinces, partly by natural, partly by politi- cal causes. In the thirteenth century, the slender ‘ stream which alone separated Hast and West Freis- land was swollen into the Zuyder Zee by a tremen- dous inundation. A watery chasm yawned between kindred people, destroying at once the political and geographical continuity of the land. West Freis- land was ere long absorbed in Holland; the eastern section, isolated, left somewhat free, became a federation of self-governing maritime provinces. Each of its seven little states was subdivided into cantons, governed by their own laws and by griet- men of their own selection ; while the whole confed- eracy was ruled by an annual congress, .presided over by the podesta, an elective magistrate identical in name and functions with the chief officer of the Ttalian commonwealths.* Here there were few towns, no magnificence. The people lived in patriarchal simplicity. Their fine instinct had led them to curb the clerical power ; priests were not recognized as a political estate ;t monasteries were not common, but they existed ; and one of the old chroniclers relates that a convent of Benedictines was once terrified at the yoracity of a Saxon sculptor, who had been employ- ed to decorate the chapel. The monks implored him to go elsewhere for his meals, because he and % Motley, vol. 1, p. 37, et seq. + Grattan, pp. 31, 32. 108. THE DUTCH REFORMATION. his sons consumed enough to eat out the entire brotherhood in a week.* The Frisians were sure to become civilized, for they had capacious stomachs. In the last years of the fifteenth century, Maxi- milian had prevailed upon East Freisland to elect the duke of Saxony as podesta ;t and when Charles V. succeeded to his paternal inheritance in the Low Countries, the Saxons held the nominal sovereignty of Freisland—a title which he purchased,{ thereby reuniting a kindred race. In 1516, the ambitious boy caused himself to be proclaimed king of Spain, in right of his mother, mad queen Joanna ;§ and a few years later his skil- ful intrigues won for him the imperial crown of Germany, which made him sovereign of the Neth- erlands, monarch of the twin kingdoms of Spain, lord of the two Sicilies, duke of Milan, emperor of Germany, dominator of Asia, Africa, America, auto- erat of half the world: and this combination of titles gained him also that other surname of the German Cesar. = Chron. Menconis Abb. in Weram. j Motley, vol. 1, p. 55. Grotius, Van Meteren. t Grattan, p. 67. § Robertson, Hist. of the Reign of Charles V., vol. 1, p. 189, dt seq. || Tbid., passim. THE NEW REGIME. 109 CHAPTER VI. THE NEW REGIME. Time is the finest of organizers, the greatest of reformers. It transforms impediments into instru- ments, and subdues the most formidable mischiefs of the past into the most useful slaves of the future. Growth itself is the fruit of time; and. growth is but another name for progress. “The fossil strata,” says Emerson, “show us that nature began with rudimental forms, and rose to the more complex as fast as the earth was fit for their dwelling-place ; and that the lower perish as the higher appear.’”’* Civilization is a similar development, unfolding naturally from its causes. In the sixteenth century these causes flowered. Want with its scourge, war with its cannonade, trade with its money, art with its portfolios, had long tapped the tough chrysalis ; but the vivifying power still lagged, until reformed Christianity came with its charity, with its spiritu- ality, with its holiness, and broke the shell, set the dull nerves throbbing, and helped the new epoch to emerge erect and free.t Thus out of the past there grew at last an age whose “mouth was to speak great things ;” words which should liberate the human soul, long a pris- oner in the Vatican ;{ whose hands were to new- % Emerson, Conduct of Life, p. 143. + Ibid. { “‘I?Anima nostra e sempre prigioniera nel Vaticano.” De Boni, La Chiesa Romana e I’ Italia, p. 19. zo 110 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. model the map of Europe. The dawning atmo- sphere of the sixteenth century was heavy with rev- olution. Widespread abuses necessitated change. Rome had touched the muddiest bottom, and like Jerrold’s profligate, insisted with drunken gravity that all mankind should lie beside it in the gutter ; to which decent men objected. In an age of rising intelligence and progressive tendency, the Holy See held to the maxims, preached the dogmas, and claimed the absurd, wornout prerogatives of the darkest epochs—set itself in resolute opposition to the spirit of the time. The pontiffs became a tribe of deplorers and copiers. They esteemed the vir- tues of the present vices, and the vices of the past virtues. They stoned the saints of their day, and canonized medieval sinners. They endeavored to manufacture the antique, and strove to reénact the Innocents and Hildebrands. In the meantime, Platonism, which the Medici had resurrected in Italy, the communal idea, which had grown from the German municipalities, the printing press, and the Waldense protests in the Netherlands, all combined to spread intelligence and to awaken inquiry.. Then a new power arose— public opinion ; for heretofore there had been but two kinds of opinion, the opinion clerical, and the opinion baronial. Enlightenment popularized thought; and thought was the pool of Siloam, in which blind Europe bathed its eyes and recovered sight. Suddenly men saw, and what they saw both shocked and amazed them. An ecclesiasticism THE NEW REGIME. 111 which they had immemorially worshipped as an inspiration and a saviour, revealed itself as the most brazen of mountebanks, whose greed was insatiable, whose morals were licentious to a prov- erb, whose schemes looked only to self-aggrandize- ment, whose forged keys rattled only to lure men to destruction. Such was the awakening of the human intellect ; and the danger was that the force of the rebound would send Europe over into jeering infidelity. Then God commissioned a second band of apestles to arrest this fate, and to point out the true path— reformation, not abolition. “ Rome banned the Bible; “it must be put into all hands, and diligently searched,’* said Luther. Rome promised Paradise as the reward of meri- tovious works; “if must be won by prayer, and faith, and a renewed spirié through Christ,”+ said Zwingle. Rome made fine distinctions between the priestheod and the laity; “we are all sons of God and heirs of heaven, if we but accept the Saviour,”t said Melancthon. Rome talked loudly of the supererogatory merits of the saints, a fund which the popes administered, and labelled “ indul- gences ;’ “all a snare and a delusion,”§ said Bucer. Rome rattled the keys of St. Peter; “they are forged,”| said Luther. Rome claimed and held = John 5 :39. f Gal. 2:16; Rom. 5:1; Rom, 3:28. } Gal. 3:26; 2 Cor. 6:18; Rom. 8:17. § Psa. 143:2; Augustine, Confess., ix. Luther, L. Opp. Lat 1, 211. || 2 Thess. 11:9. 112 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. the temporal sword; “Christ’s kingdom is not of this world ’* said Zwingle. Rome went clothed in purple and fine linen and “ fared sumptuously every day ;’ “the Son of man had not where to lay his head,” + said Melanethon: Rome forbade the clergy to marry ; “marriage is one of the most honorable of earthly estates,” } said Bucer. These and kindred sayings spread throughout Christendom with amazing rapidity. The infant press groaned beneath the load of pamphlets which were printed for the “healing of the nations.”§ The writings of the reformers were publicly hawked by the booksellers of the period, and by hundreds of monks who had been “born into the Spirit.” Everywhere the sheets were seized and scanned while yet wet with printer's ink.{ In the castle of the noble, in the dwelling of the burgher, in the hovei of the peasant, nothing was talked of but the Reformation. In the Netherlands especially, the new tenets received the most speedy, heartfelt, and unanimous welcome.** For this there were many reasons. Instinct is often keener than intellect; and the democratic instincts of the Netherlanders had long recognized an enemy in the Roman oligarchy. They were also more broadly educated than any other race. Thinkers from habit, they had always = John 18 : 36. 7 Luke 9. 58. } Matt. 19:4-6. § Seckendorf, Hist. Ref. D’Aubigne, etc. {| Ibid. Michelét, Life of M. Luther. %% Schiller, Davies, Motley, Grotius, Van Loon, Van Meteren, THE NEW REGIME. 113 listened half ineredulously to the fables of the priests. For them the- charm of the papacy was broken. Their cities and their nobles had fre- quently united to curtail ecclesiastical estates. They had themselves questioned, and they had heard others question many of the assumed prerog- atives of the Holy See. The burghers in the happy leisure of affluence, had forsaken the narrow circle of immediate wants, and pushed by the spirit of independence, which is wont to go hand in hand with abundance, learned to examine the authority of antiquated opinions.* Moreover, in a country where industry was the most lauded virtue, men- dicancy the most abhorred vice, a slothful horde like the monks must have been objects of long and deep aversion.t Thus Romanism, which was indigenous to Italy, was an exotic in the Netherlands. Rome was the antithesis of Holland. The Dutch were half-prot- estantized before the Reformation, and when Luther began to preach, they instinctively accepted the pure gospel.. If Saxony bore and nursed the re- form, Holland was the guardian and defender of its maturer growth.{ A happy collocation of circumstances attended the inception of the Reformation. The elector Frederick of Saxony shielded Luther from the first onset of Rome, and enabled him to develop and organize the principles of his dissent. In 1519, = Schiller, p. 352. t Ibid., p. 381. { Davies, History of Holland, vol. 1, p. 358. oF 114 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Maximilian died. At once the succession had as many claimants as Christendom had kings, each of whom began to demonstrate his unquestionable right to wear the imperial purple—a right which each proved to be just as clear as his sword was long. In the interregnum caused by this squab- ble, the disputed dominions were without a defin- itive rule, and the gospel theology was thus left free to ground itself. Finally, Charles V. clutched his grandfather’s sceptre;* and then God so oc- cupied his time in politics, compelling him to defend himself now against home-bred mischief, now against the Saracen, that the environed em- peror could never pause long enough to strangle heresy. For there were political as well as moral giants in those days. A constellation of great princes gemmed the horizon. Leo X. wore the tiara, Hen- ry VIIL ruled England, Francis I. was king of France; and while Charles V. was being crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, one of the most accomplished, enterprising, and victorious of the Turkish sultans, Solyman the Magnificent, ascended the Ottoman throne.t Each of these sovereigns had his own ends to subserve, and a singular scrub-race for power ensued. Leo X. used all the arts of his pro- tean see to cheat Europe into a new crusade against reform. Henry VIII. fomented discord, and then @ Tn 1520. ae Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles V., vol. 1, p THE NEW REGIME. 115 laughed at those he had entangled from the safe distance of his island throne. Francis I. was wrestling with Charles V., and Solyman, the con- stant and formidable rival of the rest, led his Mos- lem hordes into the heart of Christendom, planting the Orient now here, now there; for in those days the Porte was not the “sick man” of Europe, and its continued existence had not become a mere diplomatic juggle. Still, spite of this dizzy and incessant rivalry, Charles V. did make spasmodic efforts to curb the -_prodigious progress of the innovating tenets. The same astute instinct which had won the Nether- lands to espouse the Reformation, made the em- peror, a despot from temper and position, its im- .placable enemy, for he recognized in it the essence of republicanism. As a papist and as a king, he could not fail to despise its teachings, and to-perse- cute its adherents. Besides, there were other causes for the violence with which he now began to hack the Low Country reformers—causes which aggravated the more placid dislike which he bore to the innovation generally into a passion in the Netherlands. Since his acces- sion to the Spanish throne, Charles had become accustomed to the exercise of absolute power. In Aragon and Castile he was an irresponsible despot, vexed by no barriers, troubled by no questioners. But when he entered the provinces all was changed. There he was only the first citizen ; multitudinous checks, in the form of privileges and charters, © Robertson, ut antea. 116 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. which the burghers defended and extended with unsleeping vigilance, constantly fretted and thwart- ed his arbitrary will. Inflated with pride, stagger- ing beneath titles, and habituated to the submis- sion of the commons, Czsar’s stomach was turned by the hardy independence of the haggling burghers. “This talk of privileges I hate,” said he.* Moreover, it has been well said that, as the whole government of the famous emperor was but one tissue of plots and manceuyres to enhance his authority, it was, of course, necessary from his standpoint, that he should become absolute mas- ter of the various links of his mighty empire, so that he might move all or any at will, effec- tually, suddenly; and this necessitated centrali- zation—he must make himself the soul of his dominions.+ In the execution of this scheme, Charles met with little opposition outside of the Netherlands. There the citizens, awakened to the distrust which always accompanies comparative weakness, had never before been so alive to their constitutional rights, never before so jealous of the royal preroga- tive. Violent outbreaks of the republican spirit and ominous mutterings warned him of danger; yet he persisted, and even made insidious prog- ress. He subjected the decrees of the national courts of judicature to the revision of a royal council © Robertson, Hist. of the Reign of Charles V. t Schiller, p. 378. $ Ibid., p. 377. THE NEW REGIME. 117 seated in Brussels, and his echo.* He ousted all doubtful natives from office, and intrusted the most vital functions of the provinces to his foreign crea- tures—men whose only tenure of office was his favor, and consequently certain to infringe privi- leges which they knew to be obnoxious to their master, but of which otherwise they knew nothing.t He, like his predecessors, regarded the provinces as an inexhaustible bank, on which he might draw at will, and “the ever-increasing expenses of his warlike government pushed him as steadily to augment his resources; and in this, trampling on the most sacred guarantees, he imposed new and strange taxes. To preserve even the name of their liberties, the states were forced to grant what he had been so modest as not to extort; for the his- tory of this emperor’s government in the Nether- lands is a continual list of imposts demanded, refused, and finally accorded. Contrary to the constitution, he introduced mercenary troops into these territories, directed the recruiting of his oft- decimated armies in the provinces, and involved his burgher subjects in wars which could not advance if they did not injure their interests, and to which, against all precedents, they had not been even so much as asked to assent.” [ But Charles V. was much too sagacious not-to foster the business enterprise of the Netherlands— the exchequer of the empire ; so much was essen- © Davies, Hist. of Holland, vol. 1, p. 857. Grotius. Van Loon ¢ Ibid. Van Meteren. { Schiller, pp, 382, 383. 118 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. tial to the success of his politics. Their commerce was his strength ; and since liberty was the creator of commerce, he spared just so much of it as he could work over into the sinews of war; which explains why he did not strip the Low Countries of all their hated privileges.* But while the wily emperor did, in a certain sense, protect and enlarge the business of the states, he hit upon an ingenious plan for the grad- ual impoverishment of the most wealthy and dan- gerous families of the land. “He crippled the great vassals of the crown ”—it is Schiller who says it—“by expensive embassies, under the specious pretext of honorary distinctions. Thus, William of Orange was despatched to Germany with the impe- rial crown; and Count Egmont was commissioned to conclude the marriage contract between Philip and Queen Mary. Both afterwards accompanied the duke of Alva to France, to negotiate the new alliance of their sovereign with Madame Elizabeth. The expenses of these journeys amounted to three hundred thousand florins, towards which the em- peror did not contribute a single penny. The Netherland nobles were also encouraged to keep open table, and display a lavish magnificence. By these and kindred arts, the nobles were soon bank- rupt.”’+ But in this Charles outwitted himself. The great vassals, reduced from affluence to poverty, became needy adventurers, and finally midnight © Guicciardini, Descriptio Belgii. + Schiller, pp. 389, 399, _ THE NEW REGIME. 119 conspirators—plotters from necessity and from pique ; for, already ruined, they had no motive to preserve the peace, and could not fail to gain from revolution. When the emperor had thus bled the Nether- lands, and, as he supposed, somewhat thinned the veins of their exuberant independence, his rext step was to restrain their religious. liberty.* At the Diet of Worms, in 1521, he formally anathematized the person and the teachings of Martin Luther.t+ This anathema was, a few weeks later, published in the Low Countries, and soon supported by an edict forbidding the composition or publication of lam- poons on the church, or of any writings on matters of faith, under pain of “punishment according to temporal and spiritual justice ;’ terms which were afterwards construed to mean death by torture.t Spite of the imperial decree, the reformers con- tinued to talk, write, publish, propagate. In 1522, Charles commissioned a special agent to weed out the heretical books, and fulminated a new edict; measures which proved futile.§ Then the emperor, enraged by this contemptuous disregard of his parchment jiats, and bent on convincing Pope Leo—who affected to doubt his zeal, and was then coquetting with Francis I.| of the sincerity of his * Davies, vol. 1, p. 357. Brandt. + Ranke, Hist of Popes, Leo X. Mosheim. Michelét, etc. t Davies, vol. 1, p. 358. § Brandt, Hist. of Ref. in Low Countries, vol. 1, book ii. || Robertson, Hist. of Charles V., p. 280, et seg. 120 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. faith, rained a tempest of decrees upon the obsti- nate provinces. By these, to open the evangelists was pronoun- ced a crime; to attend any meeting, secret or pub- lic, to which religion lext its name, even by impli- cation, was an indictable offence; to converse on the subject of reform, at home as abroad, was damnation.* Everywhere unheard-of courts were established to enforce these laws; and a conviction of holding, diffusing, or listening to heretical doc- trines was death—if a man, by the sword; if a woman, by burial alive. Even apostacy was ban- ned, for all recanters were ordered to be burned.t Despotic politics and bastard religion now clasp- ed hands in the raid on freedom. “ The fiefs of the condemned were confiscated, contrary to the statute law, which permitted the heir to redeem them after payment of a trifling fine; and in defiance of an express and valuable privilege of the citizens of Holland, by which they were not to be tried out of their own province, culprits were forced beyond the” limits of the native judicature, and condemned by foreign tribunals. Thus Romanism guided the fal- tering hand of despotism, to attack with its sacred *® Brandt, Schiller, Van Meteren. + Ibid. ‘The usual mode of executing the punishment of burial alive was to lay the victim in an open coffin, placed on the scaffold, of a length and breadth just sufficient to contain her; three iron bars were then placed, one on the neck, another on the stomach, and a third on the legs ; through a hole at the upper end of the coffin was passed a rope, fastened round the neck, which the exe cutioner drew tight from under the scaffold as the body was cov- ered with earth.” Davies, vol. 1. p. 383, note. THE NEW REGIME. 121 weapon, and without danger of opposition, liberties which were inviolable to the secular arm.”* But these appalling preparations could not aifright the dauntless, and they made no converts, while the gospellers still prayed, and sang, and spoke of Christ.t Then Charles invoked the fire goblins. On the first of July, 1523, the initial autos-da-é were kindled in the Netherlands. Two Augustine monks, convicted of heresy, were drag- ged through the streets of awe-struck Brussels, and publicly burned.t “Alas,” sighed Erasmus, the “doubting Simon ” of the age, the twin of Bunyan’s “Mr. Facing-both-ways,” “two heretics have been burned at Brussels, and that city now begins stren- uously to favor Luthgranism.’§ Some eight months previous to these executions, the papal throne, left vacant by the premature decease of Leo X., who died “as the poppy fades,’’| was filled by the election of the venerable Cardinal Tortosa, who reigned under the title of Adrian VI. This pontiff was a Netherlander by birth, the son of a boat-maker, educated at Lou- vain by charity, and by nature of an austere and monastic temper; but his genuine piety was sadly distorted by those prejudices which he had sucked ~ out of the divinity of the schools.** By his attempts at the regeneration, in some sense, of his church, % Schiller, p. 383. + Brandt, vol. 1, book ii, passim. t Ibid, p. 49. Motley. § Erasmus, Epist. || Ranke, Hist. of the Popes, p. 31. q Ibid. eo Brandt, vol. 1, p. 47. Dutch Ref, II 122 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. and by his fierce denunciation of the reformers, he won the hatred of both parties in those pas- sionate days, dying after a stormy rule of twenty months, profoundly convinced that the greatest misfortune of his life was to have worn the triple crown.* Tortosa was in his turn succeeded by the crafty Giulio de’ Medici, who took the name of Clement VII. ;+ and be, dying in 1534, was followed by a number of short-lived pontiffs, until, on the com- mencement of the Dutch Revolution in 1566, Pius V. was on the throne.t But while the history of the pontificate was marked by these vicissitudes, the march of mighty necessities which swayed the destiny of Christen- dom went on and on, fulfillmg Goethe’s maxim, “Without haste, without rest.” In 1529, the clash of arms ceased for a moment, and Europe was permitted to catch breath in the pause occasioned by the treaty of Cambray, some- times styled the “ Ladies’ Peace,” because it was negotiated by two statesmanlike women—Louise, queen-mother of France, and Margaret, the singu- larly able and astute governante of the Nether- lands.§ ® Ranke, Motley. { Ranke, uf antea. tIbid. ~ § Dumont, Corps Dip., tom. 4, p. 2, pa, 42. Margaret was the emperor’s aunt. She had been twice married --to Charles VIII. of France, who had broken from the nuptial contract before its consummation ; and to the Infant of Spain, who died immediately after the union. While on a voyage to Spain, to wed the heir ap- parent of that kingdom, the vessel in which she had sailed was THE NEW REGIME. 123 But Charles V. made a bad use of the pacifica- tion, for he employed the interval of leisure in re- newing edicts against reform, and in sharpening the punishment and narrowing the tests of heresy.* He was a physician of the heroic school, and blood- tetting was his panacea. Or, if you will have another figure, he was a schoolman of the mediaeval pattern, and the scaffold was his favorite sylogism. Worst of all, while the Reformation was thus excommunicated, and imperilled, and hacked from without, internal dissension commenced to tear its vitals, and it lost the fine moderation and the dig- nified unity which had characterized its inaugura- tion. The good cause began to split into sects—a dangerous tendency in the face of the common enemy in hostile array, and moving to the storm of the camp. At such a crisis, division looked like suicide. “This is the true path,” said Luther. “Nay, hither it runs,” cried Zwingle. ‘“ Wrong,” affirmed Menno Simon, the able and famous Neth- erland teacher who organized the Mennonites ;+ tempest-tossed, and all hope was given up ; whereupon the cour- ageous princess wrote her own epitaph, as follows > “Here gentle Margaret sleeps beneath the tide, Who twice was wedded, yet a maiden died.” She was not shipwrecked after all. See Davies, vol. 1. p. 386. * Brandt, vol. 1, book 2, passim. + “The venerable Menno Simon was born at Witmorsam in Friesland, in 1496. His education was such as was generally adopted in that age with persons designed for the priesthood. He entered the church in the character of a priest in 1524, and had then no acquaintance with the Bible, nor would he touch it, lest he should be seduced by its doctrines. At the end of three years, 124 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. “wrong; “tis as clear as,day that I am on the only road.” All good men, and true; but at that criti- cal moment, when the safety of the cause they loved dictated union against the foe of each, somewhat too heatedly wedded to subordinate phases of the grand movement for reform. The gospel phalanx was confused and embarrassed. The soldiers of the cross took sides. Some said, “I am of Paul;” some, “I am of Apollos;’ others, “I am of Ce- phas.” Did they forget those wise words of the apostle to the Gentiles: “Is Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ?”’* But a blacker and still more portentous cloud dimmed the horizon. The Reformation was being compromised by the excesses of an insane gang robed in its colors and mouthing its watchwords. A horde of apocalyptic visionaries, in motion throughout Europe, were especially violent in the Netherlands. What have been called the “ana- baptistical} atrocities” commenced. “A handful he began to doubt the dogma of transubstantiation ; but attributed the doubt to Satan. Dissipation could not put the cries of con- science to sleep, and he was won to search the Scriptures ; and this, with the aid of Luther’s writings, convinced him of the error of popery.” In 1536, he became a gospel preacher. The plan of doctrine and practice, which he threw into the form of catechisms, did for the Low Country Baptists what Calvin’s ‘ Christian Insti- tutes” did for nascent Protestantism at large. See Orchard, For- eign Baptists, p. 365, et seg. Also, Mosheim, vol. 3, p. 329. #1 Cor. 1:13. } ‘It is but justice to observe, that the Baptists of Holland, Exgland, and the United States are essentially distinct from the seditious and fanatical individuals who were called Anabaptists at THE NEW REGIME. 125 of madmen,” says Mosheim, “who had got into their heads the absurd notion of a new spiritual kingdom, soon to be visibly established in an ex- traordinary manner, formed themselves into a soci- ety under the guidance of a few illiterate leaders chosen out of the populace. And they persuaded, not only the ignorant multitude, but even several among the learned, that the city of Munster was to be the seat of this new Jerusalem, whose ghostly dominion was to be propagated thence to all the ends of-the earth. The ringleaders of this furious tribe were John Matthison, a baker of Haarlem, John Brockhold, a tailor of Leyden, one Gerhard, with some others, whom the blind rage of enthusiasm, or the still more culpable principles of sedition, had embarked in this extravagant and desperate cause. The band made themselves masters of Munster, deposed the magistrates, and committed every crime which perversity could suggest, every folly which an infernal imagination could devise. Brockhold pro- claimed himself King of Zion, and substantiated his title by running naked through the streets and mar- rying eleven wives at one time. But his reign was transitory and his end was awful; for Munster was the Reformation. They do not consider the word applicable to their sect.” D’Aubigne, Pref. to Hist. of Ref, p. 10. «The true origin of that sect which acquired the name of Ana- baptists, by their administering the rite of baptism even to those who came over to their communion, and derived that of Menno- nites from that famous man, to whom they owe the greatest part of their present felicity, is hid in the remote depths of antiquity, and is consequently extremely difficult to be ascertained.” Mos- heim, vol. 3, -pp. 318, 319. Ed. of 1826. re 126 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. retaken in 1636, the New Jerusalem of the fanatics was destroyed, and the mock monarch, chained for a time in an iron cage, was finally put to a painful and ignominious death.’* This did not stay the plague. Scenes of tumult, license, blood, were every where exhibited. On one bitter winter night at Amsterdam, in 1535, the snug burghers were roused as the clock chimed twelve, by a hideous outcry in the street. Quit- ting their cosy couches, they ran shivering to their windows, and lo, they saw seven naked men and five nude women raving and bawling as they hur-- ried over the cold pavement, “ Woe, woe, woe to Bab- ylon.” When, after being seized and brought before the magistrates, clothes were proffered them, they refused them stoutly, crying, “We are the naked truth.”+ And when marshalled for execution they sang and danced upon the scaffold.t Romanists have often pointed to these, and to kindred wild outbreaks as the logical result of schism; and nonplussed Protestants have some- times relieved themselves of the odium by saying, “<«Thou canst not say I did it,’ for these madmen did not belong to my sect.” But no sect is to be judged by its exceptions; none is responsible for the acts of fanatics whom it disowns. Venner called himself a Puritan; were the Puritans Fifth Mon- archy men and seditious because he was? In Ger- many every audacious varlet who broke into churches and cloisters and plundered altars, called himself a © Mosheim, vol. 3, p. 328, et seq. + Ibid., note. } Ibid. THE NEW REGIME. 127 Lutheran ; were the Lutherans a horde of pilferers because one robber stole and stabbed under that name ? Perhaps you will say, Why, then, charge fraud, and ambition, and irreligion upon Rome because Hildebrand, and Innocent, and Loyola were church- men? For this reason: these infamous churchmen were not the exceptions, they were the rule of the papacy—the type-men and the models of the holy see for ages; the logical, consummate fruit of that ecclesiasticism, never disowned, never even depre- cated. When the Baptists canonize the Munster madmen, when the Puritans organize a propaganda under the name of St. Venner—then, and not till then, can they be asked to adopt the enfants perdus of the past, and defend their atrocities with com- placent infamy. Many Protestants have been fanat- ‘ics, and some have been intolerant and bloodthirsty ; but on the shield of such warriors is the bar-sinister which marks them as the bastards of reform: Nei- ther Protestantism as a whole, nor Protestantism in its sects, is to be impeached for their offences— offences alien to the spirit and to the letter of the faith. Emeutes like that at Munster were sure to mark the Reformation. Such outbreaks are the inevi- tablé concomitants of revolution. Inténse social, moral, intellectual agitation is certain to fanaticize weak minds “whose zeal is without knowledge;” and demagogues and profligates will always saddle fanaticism and ride it booted and spurred to the 128 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. goal of their ambition. What then, shall there be no reform? Reform must be; and the evil which accompanies it is to be charged, not to progress, but back upon the opposition which seeks to conserve the ignorance and the wrong of whose embrace fanaticism is begotten. But this aside. These fanatical antics were un- fortunate for the Reformation, for they armed the emperor with a pretext for fresh severities; stimu- lated him to redoubled exertions to extirpate a creed which policy and superstition united in his mind to condemn; and furnished him with a spe- cious plea against the new doctrines on the ground of decency and outraged nature. “In my opinion,” wrote Mary, queen-dowager of Hungary, who had succeeded Margaret in the government of the Netherlands, to her brother the emperor, “In my opinion all heretics, whether repentant or not, should be persecuted with such severity as that error might at once be extinguished, care only being taken that the provinces be not wholly depopulated.”* In this opinion .Charles so fully concurred that he promised to introduce the Spanish Inquisition into the Netherlands.+ This bare threat paralyzed the nation. Antwerp was shocked, shut its shops, left its ships to rot, hushed the hum of its market-place, hid its gold, and dropped the prices and rents of its houses be- low zero; while the chief foreign merchants pre- pared to quit the ruined metropolis.t At once the % Motley, vol. 1, p. 80. } Schiller, p. 383. } Ibid. THE NEW REGIME. 129 shrewd emperor abandoned this resolution in form, but he kept the fact, and established the tribunal by hiding the frightful name of inquisitor under the milder title of Spiritual Judge.* “Then,” says Schiller, “this abhorrent court proceeded to rage with the inhuman despotism which has ever been peculiar to it. And we may get an idea of its suc- cess in slaughter by the fact that during the reign of Charles V. fifty thousand persons perished by the hand of the executioner for the sole crime of imputed heresy.” In the midst of these orgies, the wailing, bleed- ing Netherlands learned that Charles V. had deter- mined to abdicate—learned and marvelled with mankind. % Schiller, p. 383. t Ibid., p. 384 130 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER VII. EXEUNT. On the morning of the 25th of October, 1555, there was an unusual stir in the good old town of Brussels. It was not the bustle of traffic, for trade was at a stand-still, and the only marketable com- modity was talk. The city had emptied itself into the streets. Thousands of promenaders, brave in their gala garb, blocked up the thoroughfares, and broke into eager, excited groups; here a dozen ranged about a shop-door, yonder a score under the windows of a mansion. The gay capital was draped for a festa. Flags and quaint devices, rare flowers and costly tapestries were lavishly displayed in each of the irregular, picturesque streets through which the town climbed, in the form of an amphi- theatre, from the banks of the little river Senne up the steep hillside to the border of the forest of Soigniers, ending abruptly at its gates. Brussels, unlike its lowland sisters, did not spring from the ocean mud; it nestled in the lap of a bluff, wrapping around it “a wide expanse of liy- ing verdure, cultivated gardens, shady groves, fertile cornfields,” flowing like a mantle. “In the heart of the place rose the audacious and exquisitely em- broidered tower of the Stadt-house, three hundred and sixty-six feet high, a miracle of needlework in stone, rivalling in its intricate carving the cobweb EXEUNT. 131 tracery of that lace which for centuries has been synonymous with the city, and rearing itself above a fagade of profusely decorated and brocaded archi- tecture. The crest of the elevation was crowned by the towers of the old ducal palace of Brabant, with its extensive and thickly wooded park on the left, and by the stately mansions of the Flemish gran- dees, of Orange, of Fgmont, of Aremberg on the right. Just at hand lay the forest, dotted with monasteries and convents, swarming with every kind of game, whither the citizens made their sum- mer pilgrimages, and where the nobles chased the wild boar and the stag.””* Such was Brussels, and such was now the scene within its walls. Why met the burghers? and why ‘stirred the city? It was the day appointed by Charles V. for his abdication and for the corona- tion of his sont—an eventful day for Brussels, for the Netherlands, for Christendom; and the loyal towy had draped itself and proclaimed a holiday that it might fitly say good-by to Cesar, and ery welcome to King Philip. The drama was enacted in the grand hall of the ducal palace. Kings were the actors; seven crowned heads, the foreign ambassadors, the knights of the "Golden Fleece, the Netherland nobles, the Low Coun- tries, present by delegates—these were the audience. Charles was fond of ceremony, and he knew its = Motley, vol. 1, p. 96. _ + Van Meteren, Hist. der Nederlanden, vol. 1, p. 16. Badavaro, Relazione, MS. } Ibid. 132 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. effect; and, determined that this last publie act should be a fit close to his stormy career, he lay- ished his gold and his skill to make it so. He succeeded ; Christendom looked on with open mouth, and the emperor not only sent his immediate auditors home weeping—stranger still, he wept him- self.* Could men have foreseen the future, there had been greater cause for tears; facts would have been more pathetic than leave-taking Cesar. Two sentences will summarize the imperial ad- dress: “In a quarter of a century of successful war I have heaped up a mighty dominion, which is now menaced by religious heresy and by political assault-——so fiercely threatened, that to defend its integrity youthful vigor must enter the arena. At fifty-five I am an old man, with shattered health; but here is my son, I seat him on my throne as the defender of the faith, as the ruler of my realm.’ + This was the spirit of the abdication, and it was the emperor’s solution of the riddle. What-says history? «History acquiesces in this dictum, but finds additional motives. Charles was the greatest glutton of his day,t and after forty years of unex- ampled abuse, his long-patient physique revolted. Lame with gout, half choked with asthma, he was also a confirmed dyspeptic, and physiologists can tell what whims a disordered stomach puts into the * Pontus Heuterus, 14, pp. 336-339. t See the address in eatenso in Gachard, Anal. Belg., pp. 81 102. It is also given in Pont. Heut. 14, p. 338, et seg. } Godelerus, Motley. and others. EXEUNT. 183 heads of men. Depression caused by dyspepsia— this cropped out in abdication. Originally of an athletic, well-proportioned frame, though always of an ugly countenance,* the emperor was now a sad wreck. ‘“ When physicians questioned his lower limbs, Death-in-life answered, ‘I am here; when their eyes, rising attentively by way of his hands and arms, questioned upward to the muscles round the protruding Burgundian jaw, Death-in-life an- swered, ‘I am coming.’” Charles was keen enough not to sit still and rot into the grave, sceptre in hand; by a splendid affectation of unselfishness, he with- drew decorously from public view; withdrew because he willed to do so, not because he was compelled— and got the credit of unprecedented self-abnegation. But racking disease was not the only ingredient in the bitter cup of the emperor's last years. Politi- cal misfortune began to overtake him. The con- queror at Pavia had, on two recent occasions, been humiliated, outwitted, defeated. Young Maurice of Saxony, who had once sat at the feet of this Gama- liel to verse himself in war and diplomacy, left his master when he had learned the lesson, and, putting himself at the head of menaced German Protestant- ism, dashed down upon the emperor while he was seated in solemn conclave at Innspruck forging thunderbolts with which to smite reform; drove him to hasty and ignominious flight in a peasant’s wag- on; defeated his troops a little later at Fiissen ; forced the sick and half-stunned monarch to an- $ Van Meteren, Gachard. 12 134 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. other headlong midnight flight through the difficult Alpine gorges in an awful storm; permitted his escape only because “for such a bird he had no convenient cage ;” and, finally, anchored the Refor- mation in Germany by the advantageous treaty of Passau—a peace which he compelled the staggered emperor to sign.* So, too, when Charles had attempted to retake the French town of Metz; of the hundred thou- sand men whom he brought to the siege, he returned balked and bloody with a loss of forty thousandt— returned to hear that the Protestant princes, that the Turkish sultan, that the Holy Father had formed a “triple alliance” against his tottering throne.t ‘For some days,” says Strada, “he kept his chamber, and ever after his disease grew sharper. Nay, it was commonly believed that Cx- sar’s fortune, glutted and grown coy, began to retire, and that the happy genius of this long-unconquered emperor was fled to Henry the French king; Cesar himself, not able to dissemble it, being heard to say, ‘It seems fortune is the young man’s mistress.’ And therefore for his device of Hercules’ pillar, and the motto plus ultra—‘more beyond’—there was painted on his palace walls a crab, with the words plus citra— more on this side’—a jeer agreeable to the times. ‘The emperor,’ said some, ‘does like a wary gambler at dice, who, having drawn a great sum of money in many hours’ play, holds his hand, and suffers not himself to be stripped of all his * Robertson, vol. 2. + Ibid., Strada, t Ibid., Motley, EXEUNT. 135 victorious heap at one throw.’”* On the other hand, it has been contended that the abdication came from no soreness of defeat, but was the con- summation of a purpose avowed many years before this lesson of the mutability of success, to Francis’ Borgia, when Charles confessed that “he was minded to divest himself of all the cares and baggage of this world,” and seek peace in quietude; recalling the words of an old cavalry officer who had petitioned for a discharge from service, giving this reason : “I wish to put a space of religious contemplation betwixt my life and my tomb.’ However all this may be, it is certain that from one motive or another Charles did resign his digni- ties and retire, “like a nobody,” to a private house in Brussels. His tarry was not long. One night a comet was discerned flaming athwart the sky, pre- saging—as was at that time thought—disaster, and the death of princes. MMe mea fata vocant— my fates call for me,” t he said; and at once embarking, the self-discrowned emperor sailed for Spain, and buried himself in the monastery of St. Juste,§ where he died in 1558,| after a residence embittered by the mem- ory of the world he had surrendered; after hours wasted in reading despatches, in whining over dishes, in making epigrams on his cook’s inability to tickle his tanned palate.” T So passed the last years of Charles V.—what “ * Strada, pp. 8, 9. + Ibid. $ Godelwrus, p. 645, § Robertson. || Sept. 21st, 1 Stirling, Cloister Life of Charles V. 136 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. was he at his best? An able soldier, a shrewd, unscrupulous politician, a cool, determined despot. He had no convictions—only a purpose. He had no heart—only a muscle to circulate his blood. His ‘most familiar weapons were trickery and brute force. Charles qui triche—such was the sobriquet which his frauds had won him.* To aggrandize his house, this was his object ; and to this he bent every thing, as one might twist a nose of wax. He persecuted from policy, not bigotry, and stabbed reform because he was keen enough to see that its talk of religious rights neces- sitated civil rights—meant political as well as moral heresy. He plucked the bud, that he might kill the flower. The glass of his history reflects no fanatic; every action of his life turned on the well-oiled hinge of imagined policy. Policy made him listen to Luther at Worms, and dismiss him in peace. Policy persuaded him to proclaim The Interim, that bastard juggle of a creed. Policy pushed him to permit his German troops to listen to the exhorta- tions of their own chaplains, accompanying them from city to city. Policy led him at the same time to bury alive in the Low Countries any woman who should read her Bible. Policy urged him to sign the treaty of Passau, the Papal coup de graze in Germany. Policy led him, first since Attila, to sack the “ Eternal City.” Policy decided him to fling an offending pontiff into the dungeons of the castle of St. Angelo. © Brantoéme, Art. Charles Quint. EXEUNT. 137 Yet spite of his finesse, spite of the connivance with which he met connivance, spite of his tri- umphs, and his titles, and his power, greatest since Charlemagne, his career was a magnificent failure, a gilded cheat. He lived to see the Reformation which he had essayed to crush, triumphant in Eng- land, conqueror in Germany, and spreading in the Netherlands—men reading the interdicted evange- lists in the lurid light of the very fire kindled to consume them. So with the empire which he had massed. Al- ready it was crumbling. The imperial crown went to his brother Ferdinand, the Roman throne passed also into his tenacious possession.* In what re- mained there was no cohesion—a mere congeries of victim states held under the lock and key of despo- tism, tending inevitably to dismemberment: like the rich mud of our Mississippi, shifting with every flood from one side to the other of the channel.t Vast and rich as was his realm, Philip’s chief inher-- itance was the revolution. fi ® Robertson. { Wendell Phillips, Letters and Speeches, p. 350. 12* 138 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER VIII. AFFINITIES. Unver Charles V., the Netherlands were decima- ted by ambition; under Philip II. they were deci- mated by fanaticism. Standing on the threshold of his reign, let us pause a moment to analyze this king—for it is a safe rule of the ancients, “If you would comprehend events, understand men.” Philip IT. was the Sphinx of his own day; he is the spelled riddle of our time. The iron mask which, unlike the famous Bastile prisoner, he wore from choice, not necessity, has been torn off by the hand of time, and we may read his features—see him as a man of starch and buckram. It was his constant effort to divorce himself from humanity. If he ever had a heart, he murdered it in boyhood, and he was more stoical than the stoics. This icy temper—which caused his courtiers to shiver when they approached him, which made them hear a crash when he smiled—was exactly typical of his mind. Narrow, incapable of generalization, tied down to minutie, sluggish, chained in forms, enamored of the letter of the law which kills, he yet had a remarkable memory, and when he once em- braced a purpose, he moved to execution with tedious but pitiless certainty. He was singularly patient. “Time and I,” such AFFINITIES. 139 was bis boast, “are a match for any two.”* But it has been well said that time was not always his ally—sometimes refused to hunt in couple; for time succors virtue and helps genius, tenders to the one golden opportunities, which must be snatched with ready grasp, and renders to the other tardy justice. Philip’s patience often balked him; for while he advanced with measured, methodical step, success was clutched by a more rapid hand. While the man of system delikerated and shaped his plan, the man of action, inspired by the moment, extemporized a triumph. While Philip was writing a despatch, his father would have conquered a kingdom. Gloomy, sour, conceited, ascetic, Philip had not the faculty, and he lacked the desire to please. He would-not compromise his pride by affecting to be debonair. He studied solitude, stood apart from choice. Surrounding himself with mystery and ter- ror, he aped deity. In this he was unlike Charles V. “When the emperor returned to his palace escorted, as he usu- ally was, by a train of nobles and princes of the empire,” observes Prescott, painting him on one occasion at Augsburg, “he courteously took each of them by the hand, and raised his hat on parting. But Philip then, and always, walked directly to his apartments, without so much as turning round, or condescending in any way to notice the courtiers who accompanied him. In fact, it was said of him, that he considered himself greater than his father, © Gayarré, Philip II. of Spain, p. 59. 140 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. inasmuch as the son of an emperor was greater than the son of a king.”* This sullen haughtiness was his by nature, but it was increased by untoward circumstances. He was born and educated in Spain. “Castile, Ara- gon, Leon,” Grattan reminds us, “were in some degree excluded from European civilization. A con- test of seven centuries between the Mohammedan tribes and the descendants of the Visigoths, cruel, like all civil wars, and, like those of religion, not merely a contest of rulers, but essentially a war of races, had given to the manners and feelings of the Spaniard a deep stamp of barbarity. The fero- city of military chieftains had become the basis of government and law. The Christian kings had adopted the perfidious and degrading etiquette of the despotic sultans whom they had displaced. Magnificence and tyranny, power and cruelty, saga- city and dissimulation, respect and fear, were insep- arably associated with government in the minds of such a people. They could comprehend nothing in religion but a God armed with omnipotence and vengeance ; nothing in politics but a king as terri- ble as the deity he represented.” t It was in such a school that Philip was cradled and taught. His earliest lesson was the omnipotence and irresponsibility of royalty. “The vassal who kills a man by his sovereign’s order,” so wrote his confessor at a later day, “is free from blame, be- cause the king, being master of the lives of his sub- © Prescott, Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella. + Grattan, p. 79 AFFINITIES. 141 jects, can dispose of them as he pleases, either with or without the formality of law.’* This was the doctrine which the monarch was set to learn. Is it strange that the unquestionable despot of the south should become the usurping master of the north? Besides this, Philip was isolated by ignorance, Two out of three of the Netherland burghers could speak several languages; their king was master of but one, and he never became sufliciently familiar with the modern languages to be able to do more than write a little French and Italian with painful slowness.t Of the Dutch he could not speak a word, and he was the most prejudiced of foreigners when he essayed to govern the Low Countries—-domina- ted solely by a hatred of their liberties, which barred him from the absolutism to which he was habitua- ted; and by a contempt for ‘the hearty, familiar manners of the burgher populace, whose character was so fatally antipodal to his, whose loquacity was so constant a reproach upon his taciturnity, whose somewhat boisterous joy grated so harshly on his cynical ear, whose freedom was so perpetual a menace to his despotism. Philip was a manikin, not a man. He had a low instinct of cunning, and flattered himself that he could read men. He mistook deceit for sagacity, and esteemed cruelty to be an imperial quality. He thought he had an aptitude for business, and was indcfatigable in work. A passion for contemptible details was his most prominent intellectual trait ; * Cited in Gayarré, p. 163, et seg. + Grotins, Motley, Gratian. 142 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. and his chief delight was to pen, despatch, receive, and scrawl silly comments on despatches, in which he was a glutton.* “He hated to converse; but he could write a letter eighteen pages long, when his correspondent was in the next room, and when the subject was, perhaps, one which a man of talent could have settled with six words of his tongue. The world, in his opinion, was to be moved upon protocols and apostilles. Events throughout his dominions had no right to be born without a pre- paratory course of his obstetrical pedantry; and he could never learn that the earth would not rest on its axis while he wrote out a programme of the way in which it was to turn.’ He was grossly licentious, as well as cruel and unscrupulous, yet he was as constant and regular at mass, at sermons, at vespers, as a monk.t He prob- ‘ably esteemed himself a model Christian, for it is Schiller who informs us that “egotism and fanati- cism were the title-page and contents of his life.”’§ Philip was the contented jackal of Rome. “My mission,” said he, “is the suppression of heresy.” The man was worthy of the mission, and the mis- sion was worthy of the man. In the prosecution of this atrocious purpose, he embarked his diminutive soul, stuck at no oaths, balked at no barrier, scru- pled at no crimes; for had he not read and pondered that papal canon which sanctifies the means if the % Motley, vol. 1, p. 142. Watson, Life of Philip II. t Ibid. tIbid., p. 145. Gayarré. § Schiller, p. 392. || Gayarré, p. 30. Grattan, Van Meteren, ete. ; AFFINITIES. 148 end be good? “Keep no faith with heretics ”—it was the essence of his ethics; there was merit in the breach, sin in the observance. Constitutionally and systematically Philip was the champion of immobility. Movement disturbed him. Progress of any kind smelt of heresy in his nos- trils. “No innovation,” cried he, when reform was broached. ‘We cannot but fancy,” observes his biographer, “that if Philip had been gifted with omnipotence, he would have delighted in creating a world without motion. Creeping things might per- haps have been tolerated, but the wind would cer- tainly have been excluded ; and he would have said to the ocean, ‘ Peace, be still.’’”’* } Philip’s person corresponded with his intellect— like that was narrow, angular, meagre, and awry. He had the air of an habitual invalid; and his timid, shrinking frame was surmounted by a small: head and a pinched face, weighed down by the heavy, protruding Burgundian jaw.t In this human cage his tiger spirit crouched and growled. Such in temper, mind, and body was Philip IT. when, at the age of twenty-eight,{ he entered the Netherlands to succeed the wornout and gouty emperor. Other traits he had, which time was to develop, and some which we have sketched were still in embryo; but if this was Philip in the green tree, what was to be expected of him in the dry? & Gayarré, p. 302. + Pont. Heut. 14, p. 346, et seg. Watson, Life of Philip IL. ¢ He was born in May, 1527. 144 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Now we may be sure that an outbreak will not be long in coming. Philip piqued himself on being a foreigner—widened the chasm which already yawned between the Netherlands and himself; dis- missed his father’s Dutch officers; would be attend- ed by none but Spaniards, and brought in his reti- nue and cantoned on the Netherlanders a swarm of needy Castilian adventurers.* The unnatural union into which Spain and the Low Countries were now forced was pregnant with ill. No two people could be more dissimilar. Each misunderstood the other. There had always been ill-blood between the Spaniard and Netherlander; and now, when the burgher saw his old enemy quartered on his coun- try in the guise of a conqueror; and under a mon- arch who took no pains to disguise his contempt ’ for the time-honored customs and parchments which he so highly prized, the seeds of bitter discontent were sown in his heart prior to the commission of any overt act. This mutual jealousy was sharpened by the religious differences of the time. Spaniard and Romanist were synonymous words. Just as synonymous were Netherlander and Protestant. While the Spaniard saw in the Dutchman a heretie in religion, a Jew in trade, and a rebel in politics, the Dutchman saw in the Spaniard a fanatic in © faith, a slothful mendicant in business, and an igno- rant slave in civility.t ® Meteren, Grotius, Motley, ete. ¢ Grotii Annal. Belg. Latin., 1, 4, 5, et seq. AFFINITIES. 145 This feeling extended to all classes in the Low Countries. Even the nobles whom Charles V. had done so much to corrupt and impoverish, paused between their cups to-hiccough curses upon Spain ; while all whose chief demand, like the Roman sav- ages under the empire, was for food and amuse- ment—panem et circenses—echoed a deep amen. It was imperilled nationality rising to assert itself. The manner of Philip and the insolent presence of his Spanish satellites awakened thought. A strong republican reaction set in. Men began to question the jus divinwm of Madrid as they already had that of Rome. The absurdity of an hereditary monarchy which might lapse into absolutism at any moment, was almost as generally felt as that of the -establishment which the Reformation had exploded, and to which Fletcher of Saltoun com- pares it—an hereditary professorship of divinity. For the Reformation had created a people— taught men to think—educated men through re- sponsibility. The religious conflict had been let down to common comprehension; it was seen to be no quarrel in the upper air between angry and loquacious priests, each afraid to soil his latinity by a popular appeal. And when the reformers “awoke all antiquity from the sleep of the libraries,” and moved to their work, not “to the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders,” but with lips touched like Isaiah’s, they planted— without intending to do so, for their sole purpose Dutch Ref. I 3 146 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. was religious reformation—they planted the rude idea of political democracy, and left it to unfold through Christian martyrdom and faith in God. But all this was latent—in the minds, not yet in the acts of the people. The burghers still stood intrenched behind their parchment guaran- ties, and fought inside of constitutional forms. Hoping against hope, they applied a rule to Philip which Coleridge has put into an epigram: “ When you cannot understand another’s ignorance, account yourself ignorant of his understanding.” But the rules of construction have their limits, and patience, if entertained too long, becomes a vice. SCHEMES. 147 CHAPTER IX. SCHEMES. Wen Philip II. placed his father’s discarded crown upon his head, he grasped with it the sceptre of a limited monarch ; for already the prerogative of the throne had gained a visible ascendency over the republican spirit.* Still, many of the ancient franchises remained in nominal force, and these had acquired fresh importance, in the estimation of the provinces, by the wholesale oaths of office which the new king had not scrupled to take. Seven years before the abdication, Philip had visited the Netherlands at the request of Charles; coming to receive their oaths of future fealty, and to swear in return to support the whole round of privileges which hedged in the sturdy burghers— indiscriminate concessions which king and emperor alike believed would be an opiate certain to make vigilance slumber, and which, as each knew, need not shackle an unscrupulous conscience.t By these oaths Philip assented to larger liberties than any of his ancestors had yielded since Mary of Bur- _gundy signed the “ Great Privilege” {—assented all the more readily because he did not mean to hold himself bound by his amen. * Schiller, p. 389. t Meteren, Davies, Motley. ¢ Chap. IIL, pp. 76, 77. 148 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Thus it was that the wily monarch began his connection with the Low Countries, not as emperor, not as king, but as hereditary prince. This was the theory, the fact had a different face. Philip and the burghers had hated each other at first sight—one reason why the citizens had bound their prince with so many and so unusual green withes of concession. For, this haughty, sul- len, retiring, impassible foreigner, what confidence could he inspire in the hearts of one of the most lively, frank, energetic, and progressive of the Euro- pean races? Vainly had they striven to make him smile by the warmth of their greeting. Brussels exhausted itself in festivities, Antwerp outdid itself in the magnificence of its celebrations,Ghent shouted itself hoarse in his honor; and yet the icy phlegm of Philip remained unthawed. The joyous roar of the populace grated on his ear, the frequent expres- sion of popular rights he esteemed the voice of incipient rebellion, the magnificence of the display offended his jealous vanity.* “Well, then,” said the angered citizen, “if we can- not make this frigid sefior smile at our greeting, we will see if we cannot make him wince by our de- mands.” The good burghers were doubly piqued, for Philip subscribed concessions as imperturbably as he received addresses of welcome. This was in 1548.t Now, in 1555, Philip was again on Netherland soil, this time not as heir but * Wagener, Varderlandsche Historie, vol. 4, p. 294, ef seq Meteren, 1, f.13. Motley, vol. 1. Grattan, p. 81. t Ibid. SCHEMES. 149 as master. Both prince and citizens remembered the former visit—both anticipated trouble. But there was quiet in the land, that frightful calm which precedes a storm. Philip began to dissem- ble; it was not safe yet to throw off the mask. As for the Dutch, they put their fingers to the lips of their foreboding suspicions, and waited. Meantime the government was settled. The old governant, Mary of Hungary, had resigned her office on the abdication of the emperor, alleging that she was “too old to recommence and learn a new alphabet” under another reign.* Philip reluctantly assented to her resignation,t and, convening an assembly of the state, inducted into the governor- generalship of the Netherlands his cousin Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy—a brilliant and astute ad- venturer, who had been spoiled of his estates, and stripped of every thing but his title and his skill by French usurpation.{ The court—a herd of Spanish grandees, with here and there a Netherland noble for appearance’ sake§—had been organized prior to the appoint- ment of the pauper duke.: At about the same time Philip seated half a dozen Spaniards at his council- board—among the rest the duke of Alva, destined later to play an awful part in the opening drama. of the revolution ; and Ruy Gomez, the royal favorite, = Papiers d’état du Cardinal Granville, vol. 4, p. 476. + Gachard. { Brantéme vol. 1. Badavaro, MS., cited in Motley, vol. 1, p. 150, et seq. : § Badavaro, ut antea. || Apolog. d’Orange, p. 47, ef seg. 13° 150 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. valet, councillor, and finance minister, the king’s right hand, the gate to his good-will, the power behind the throne.* These preliminaries settled, Philip, with the mingled craft and caution of his nature, began to smooth the way towards the accomplishment of his lifework. It was the nature of this man to plot in. secret, to stab in the dark, to act in enigmas. He would have been a midnight conspirator, if he had not been a despot. He never went straight towards an object—always chose the crooked path, and would naturally tell a lie unless he had a dozen dif- ferent and distinct reasons for speaking the truth. So now, resting with one hand on Alva’s shoul-- der, and with the other upon that of Ruy Gomez, “the pillars of his power,” as the shrewd Venetian envoy, Suriano, called them,t he did not command, he schemed. Philip was anxious to cement his authority before he strained it. Yet, like his father, he desired to regard the Netherlands as a whole, and not as a congeries of provinces, and he hated the antique liberties, the obstinate privileges, which interfered with his ideas of symmetry; and he, too, like the emperor, locked about him for some engine which should crush these irregular, heterogeneous rights into the uniformity of despotism. Philip’s first move was adroit. He reénacted his father’s merciless edict of 1550, which made burning, = Brantome, Art. Philip II. Gayarré. + Suriano, MS., cited in Motley, vol. 1, p. 147. t Motley, vol. 1. p. 155. ‘SCHEMES. 1bL hanging, drowning, and burial alive the punishment which awaited even a suspicion of heresy ;* and then, skulking behind the emperor’s ghost, he cried, “I do not innovate, I simply reénact. These punishments are a part of the national institutions which I find, do not bring, here. They have received Cexsar’s sanc- tion, and have been sustained by past generations.”’t But though the act was subtle, though innumer- able appeals were made to the conservative senti- ment, and to the patriotism of the commons; though they were summoned to enforce the edict because it had been acquiesced in by their ancestors, and because Philip had made no change in it, but only essayed to stand in the old ways of thg emperor, “of very laudable memory;” yet, spite of all, the people growled ominously. Antwerp refused to pub- lish the placard ;{ other cities echoed this veto of the commercial metropolis ;$ and these protests drove Philip to recede in their case, though in sections where the: placards had been published it was ordered to be enforced—a strange anomaly, to subject some towns to the Inquisition and to ex- cuse others; yet advantageous, because it made the resistance of Antwerp and the rest all the more conspicuous.|| In the meanwhile the fire of persecution wanted vo human fuel to feed on. At Mons, in Hainault, two men, suspected of heresy because they were diligent in their study of the Bible, were first im- * See Chap. VI., pp. 126-128. } Motley, utantea. Meteren. } Brandt, vol..1, p. 110. § Ibid. || Ibid. 152 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. prisoned, and then, without any very close scrutiny into their notions of religion, condemned to be beheaded. One Adrian Van Lappen, a citizen of Bruges, returning from a fair at Frankfort, halted for the night at Aste, in Hainault, and gave his satchel to the landlady of the inn: she being curi- ous, opened it in his absence, and found it to be filed with heretical books. Some of these she showed to the village priest; the hapless merchant was at once arrested, and after a brief space, burned to death in a slow fire.* These are two instances out of hundreds. Philip would have kindled similar fires throughout the Low Countries had it not been for the protest of brave Antwerp; which he heeded, because he was anxious to disarm suspicion, and by securing a sub- sidy, emancipate himself from the control of the popular deputies.t He had already demanded of the assembly which met to confirm Emanuel Phili- bert, that a tax be imposed on Flanders, Brabant, Holland, and the sister provinces, which should fill his exchequer without the intervention of the states. “No,” said the provinces; but they softened the refusal by granting Philip a generous commutation in gold.t . In the midst of these intrigues, when partially balked in one direction and partially successful in another, Philip found himself suddenly compelled to suspend this congenial campaign of trickery and * Brandt, vol. 1, p. 108. + Meteren, Wagener, Grattan. } Ibid. Davies, vol. 1, p. 490, et seq. SCHEMES. 153 murder, in order to defend himself against exterior assault: France menaced him on one side, the pope thundered on the other. The jackal of Rome had heen forced into the false position of foeman to the Holy See. This was how it happened. The emperor’s half century of life had been an incessant battle. Now he smote Francis I. ; now he caged a Protestant prince ; now he buffeted the pope; now he pulled the beard of the paynim Solyman. But he was a lover of ‘dramatic effect; and when he decided upon abdica- tion he was anxious to improvise a peace, that a serene sky might lend lustre to the pageant. He began to intrigue. “Hush,” said Caesar; and he juggled up a truce, hollow, treacherous, made to be broken, but solid enough to bridge over the period of the imperial comedy. A farce of a pacification was signed at Vaucelles early in 1556.* It was ostensibly an armistice for . five years, and suspended hostilities throughout Hurope. “Ah ha,” cried Charles. “’ Tis well,” said Philip. ‘“ Good,” exclaimed Henry. Complacent diplomacy rubbed its hands. “The science of gov- ernment is fraud,” says Machiavelli; and while the negotiators were assembled at Vaucelles, Henry I. and the pope had concluded an offensive and defen- sive alliance against Spain, whose object was the expulsion of the Spaniards from the Italian penin- sula.t Henry was to aid the pontiff to emancipate * Meteren, De Thou, Brantéme. + Brantéme, Mémoires de Coligny. 154 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. himself from neighbors whose influence reduced him to the position of head chaplain to the court of Madrid; and as a reward he was to be permitted “to carve thrones for his royal brood out of ihe confiscated realms of Philip—out of Naples and Milan. When was France ever slow to sweep upon Italy with such a hope? How could the ever-glow- ing rivalry of Valois and Hapsburg fail to burst into a general conflagration, while the venerable vicege- rent of Christ stood beside them fan in hand ?”* The reigning pope, Paul IV., was the Faust of ecclesiasticism, the antithesis of Charles. While the emperor laid down a crown to become a monk, Paul Caraffa quitted his convent cell—whither he had betaken himself after abdicating the episcopal dig- nity—to assume at eighty the tiara, and then im- merse himself in the vanities of earth, to stir up wars with his trembling fingers, to croak havoc with his aged voice, and to strut and totter in the purple in his second childhood.t Such was the game which was now afoot, and such was the pontiff who had launched it. With a heavy sigh and a muttered curse, Philip postponed his Netherland schemes, and turned to the consideration of foreign affairs. He hated war— for he was not a soldier, he was only an assassin. He preferred autos da fé to battle-fields; the pleas- ure was greater, and the risk was less. Besides, he felt the anomaly of his position—he, the Romanist, the fanatic, the antagonist of the pope. It was his © Motley, vol. 1, p. 153, et seq. t Ranke, Brandt. SCHEMES. 155 dream to consolidate a league of the papal powers, for the purpose of uprooting heresy. Evidently, then, this absurd crusade of mutual friends against each other must be ended; and how end it more fitly than by union against Protestantism, the com- mon foe? To the consummation of that purpose, the royal plotter determined to demand every thing, or to sacrifice every thing, as circumstances might dictate; for whatever he might win, or what- ever he might lose, all was gained if that was gained.* Meantime this sluggish prince acted for once with strange energy, the vicious activity of his mind conquered even the stubborn slowness of his body. Convening a council of theologians, he asked, “Is it lawful for me to wage war against the Holy See?” “Yea, truly,” responded the chorus, “so it be only in defence.” + With this decision in his pocket, Philip crossed into England to cajole Queen Mary, his wife—fit consort for such a king—and to browbeat the Brit- ish parliament, exactly contrary to his marriage vows, into a participation in the pending contest— which concerned England just as much as it did the Arabs.{ He succeeded. England declared war ; and while arming, dropped from her girdle Calais, the key to France.§ * Watson, Life of Philip II. Apolog. d’Orange. + Michele, Relatione, MS. Cited in Motley, vol. 1, p. 163, Gayarré. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 169. § De Thou, Brantéme, Hume, in loco. 156 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. While the king was thus occupied, Ruy Gomez, absent in Spain, had raised a contingent and sent it to the seat of war ;* and Philip, on his return from England, wrung the money which paid for this strife, and two thirds of the soldiers who won barren laurels in it, from the Netherlands. Then followed siege and counter-siege, marching and counter- marching, mélée, and rout, and death. Finally, Guise, who had passed the Alps into Piedmont, was worsted by Alva, who held Italy for Philip; Coligny, who had been ravaging Artois, was cooped up in- the fatal city of St. Quentin ; and France heard one day that her power had been broken in two awful routs, at St. Quentin and at Gravelines, and that her noblest children were either dead or prisoners—a double Pavia ;t while Pope Paul IV., also in ex- tremity, craved peace for his old age. Philip, elate and triumphant, then exhibited his true character. “TI crave peace at any price,” said het—why, we know. He granted the baffled occu- pant of St. Peter’s chair terms which astonished no one more than Paul himself; ordered the victorious Alva to make an abject submission for him to the pope, and to kiss the great toe of his holiness; and crowned this pitiful surrender to the vanity of a peevish old dotard by a congenial act of perfidy— for he confirmed his grumbling captain’s consent to the confiscation of the estates of those Italian * Documentos Ineditos para la Hist. de Espafia, vol. 9, p. 487. + Brantéme, De Thou, Motley. t{ Watson, Life of Philip II. Gayarré, p. 40. SCHEMES. 157 princes who had espoused his cause.* “Sire,” que- ried Alva, “Do we capitulate, or does the pope?” Having thus placated the beaten pontiff by treating with him as the conqueror, Philip next cemented peace with France. In this treaty he compelled Henry II. to concede important advan- tages,t but he did not ask all that he might, because he gained all that he wished when he was assured that Henry would cordially unite with him in any scheme which looked to the extirpation of here- sy.{ The gloomy and victorious bigot was now at leisure to resume his interrupted game in the Neth- erlands—to resume it with fresh advantage, forti- fied on the right hand and on the left. So bright was the out-look for despotism—so -portentous were the prospects of reform—when, in April, 1559,§ the facile diplomats scrawled their signatures across the treaty of Chateau-Cambray. © Grattan, p. 82, ef seg. Gayarré, Motley. + Meteren, Grotius, De Thou. t Apolog. d’Orange. De Thou, lib. 22, cap. 6. Davies, vol. 1, p. 497. § De Thou, Meteren. 14 158 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER X. THE MASK LIFTED. THE pacification of Chateau-Cambray placed in Philip’s hand the baton of the dictator of Christen- dom—recognized in him a dreaded superiority which menaced the independence of Europe. His wealth seemed inexhaustible; deep as the unfath- omed gold mines of Peru and Mexico, which formed his coffers in the West, untold as the glittering dia- mond heaps of Borneo and Golconda, which formed his dowry in the Orient. His captains were the ablest of the age. His soldiers were veterans har- dened by war, accustomed to victory, habituated to obey the daring genius of their leaders with blind, unquestioning audacity—soldiers whose tread, like that of Czesar’s cohorts, shook Europe; soldiers who had scaled the pyramids, and planted the Spanish banners on the walls of Rome. Had he been Alex- ander, he would have ground the world under the heel of his military boot. Had he been Cesar, he would have carved out an empire whose limits would have been the globe. But he was Philip IL, and it was his ambition to become the assassin of Netherland reform. This was the pivotal point of his policy; upon it he brought all bis terrible resources to bear. “I will succeed, or I will sink Europe,” said he. Philip was narrow, dogmatic, fanatical; but he had a purpose, and he was in THE MASK LIFTED. 159 deadly earnest—the chief promoters of success in any sphere. But cunning and powerful as he was, this bold, bad man had one antagonist on whom he did not count, God; God, whose name is love, and whose other name is justice, which was before Philip, before Rome, and will be after it. Still, Philip entered the arena with all the ma- terial forces on his side. Peace is the essential condition of successful commerce, and the Netherlanders craved it. When they heard that a pacification had been signed, the jocund, excitable burghers were wild with delight. The holiday was nine days long. Bonfires blazed, bells pealed, cannon belched pacific flame. But thoughtful men looked on the jubilee with gloomy faces and foreboding hearts—what meant the con- ditions of the peace? Rumor had already bruited the alliance of crowned heads for the extirpation of heresy.* Across keen souls there fell the chilling shadow of the future. Suspicion might well awaken thought. “ Philip had not made peace with all the world that the Netherlanders might climb on poles, or ring bells, or strew flowers in his path for a joyous movement, and then return once more to their counting-rooms and looms.” This treaty meant deadlier war, war bitter for its peaceful garb ; and when the unthink- ing populace rose to hail it, they shouted over the initial step in a scheme which Philip meaat to end in a national murder. * Davies, vol. 1, p. 497. Thuanus, Mete.vn. 160 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. The king had long pined for the congenial atmo- sphere of Madrid ;* in 1559 he determined to quit the Netherlands and return to Spain. He had a twofold motive: he thought that it would be safer for him to direct the movements of his satellites at a distance and by impersonality; he dearly loved to write voluminous despatches.t Evidently, Madrid was preferable to Brussels. Possibly, two additional considerations may have influenced this decision. Charles V. had just breathed his last, bewailing his impious folly in permitting Luther to slip through his fingers at Worms.} and employing the last fevered spasms of his strength in writing these lines to his son, whose eager spirit did not need a spur: “Deal to all heretics the extremest rigor of the law, without respect of persons, and without regard to any favor- ing pleas.”§ Philip could now return to Spain more really a king than he would have been while Cesar lived, even though weakened and fanaticized by a rot of his faculties, and buried in a monastery. The battle of St. Quentin, one of the most deei- sive of the recent war, had been fought and won on the festival of St. Laurence, to whose intervention Philip attributed the success of his arms. In egrate- ful homage to the saint, and to commemorate the manner of his martyrdom, he vowed to erect a mon- ument in the form of a gridiron, as a memorial—an idea which gradually expanded, in thirty-two years * Watson, Gayarré. } Ibid., Brantéme. } Stirling. Cloister Life of Charles V. § Ibid. THE MASK LIFTED. 161 of incessant labor, into that gigantic architectural absurdity, the Escurial, at once a palace, monas- tery, and mausoleum.* Philip’s anxiety to return to Spain may have been heightened by his pious ardor, for, soon after, he laid the foundation-stone of the marble anachronism. But many things remained to be done before he could shake the Netherland dust from off his feet. “Tet me see,” thought the king: “some grave matters await adjustment; delicate and menacing questions must be answered ;. a programme for the future will have to be written. out; the instruments of my despotism must be selected, and so selected as:not to provoke suspicion; and the government must be deputized and: new modelled.” 'To these several duties. Philip at once addressed himself. It: was work to his taste; for, as the petrel: loves the storm,.so his element was. chicanery. The Netherlands were ominously restless and fretful. Illegal robbery,.under the name of taxa- tion, fettered trade, and mortgaged the labor of the future.t A bureau. of ubiquitous spies made. all. classes: anxious and uneasy by their surveillance. The. merciless: execution of the merciless: edicts. against heresy, stirred constant riot$ and insured rebellion; for what is it that the old saw says? “Persecution necessitates revolt.” The most potent and eloquent of reformers was the Inquisition ; for every auto da, fé that it kindled illuminated a score of & Watson, Gayarré. }:Meteren, Wagener. {- Watson, Hoofd. ut § Hoofd, Meteren. +t 162 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. darkened sonls. The early victims begat the later soldiers of the Reformation. The gospel throve even amid devastation; and when a martyr died, the multitude saw liberty and virtue burning by his side. Philip had taken care, on the conclusion of peace, to canton his Spanish men-at-arms on the large cities of the Netherlands, for the double pur- pose of overawing local mutiny and having them at hand in case of need.* At the same time he split the renowned Low Country cavalry—but three thousand strong in time of peace, for the Nether- lands had a sturdy republican distrust of standing armies, though still redoubtable to the fears of despo- tism-—into infinitesimal squads, and scattered these in different sections under independent captains.t These sinister movements increased the popular discontent, and were universally construed to be a menace to the nationality of the provinces.{ The conduct of the foreign soldiers added fuel to the fire. Their ribaldry and licentiousness were pro- verbial ; and since their pay was kept habitually in arrears by Philip that he might have a pretext for. their retention, they did not hesitate to indemnify themselves at the expense of the citizens.§$ A trial of wits ensued. The burghers exhausted persuasion in their effort to win Philip’s assent to the departure of his troops; the king was fertile in ® Grattan, Schiller, Motley, Wagener. ¢ Grattan, p. 85. Motley, vol. 1, p. 210, et seg. } Van der Vynckt, vol. 1, p. 135. § Schiller, p. 400. THE MASK LIFTED. 163 excuses— now he dreaded a sudden invasion from France, although that kingdom, rent by the League and Huguenot wars, was too weak to send a trooper across her frontiers ; now he said that they were to form the escort of his son, Don Carlos, whom he was careful to retain in Castile; again they were his creditors, and since the exchequer was empty, “quite exhausted, gentlemen, I assure you,” he dared not bid them go unpaid lest they should mutiny—such were the expedients to which he had recourse.* These men-at-arms were a part of Philip’s pro- gramme of usurpation, and necessary to his pur- pose; he never meant to say good-by to them. Despots love bayonets. Cannon were the props of this king’s throne. But the greater the desire which Philip showed to retain his docile Spaniards in the country, the more obstinately the states insisted upon their removal:+ on that point all classes were a unit. The spirit showed itself in various ways—especially in the “ Chambers of Rhetoric.” The rhetoricians were the newspapers of that day—filled the exact place occupied by the modern press, and used their influence better than some editors use theirs in the middle of the nineteenth century. They were emi- nently liberal in their tendencies, and they made it their business to spin verses and street farces out of the raw material of public sentiment.t Civil and religious tyranny was their constant butt; and | “sharing with the pulpit the only power which then © Schiller, p. 401. + Ibid. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 340. 164 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. existed capable of moving the passions and direct- ing the opinions of the people,” they used their influence nobly. The best of their comedians was not even cousin-german to Aristophanes; but if they had less attic salt, they had equal heartiness in their truculent, effective, homely satire, and they. made “the galled horse wince.” The court had long suspected and watched these homely wits; and now, when they began to satirize the king’s men-at-arms, the bishop of Arras urged that they be gagged under heavy pains, and a pla- card to that effect was issued early in 1559.* “At this time,” wrote Sir Richard Clough to a friend in England some years later, “these plays are forbid- den much more strictly than any of the works of Martin Luther.”+ But it is easier to ban than to suppress. Public opinion. cannot be gagged by statutes. So new comedies were still written and enacted—‘“ plays which first opened the word of God in the Low Countries, and which, as they were persisted in, cost many thousand lives.” At this same time, Philip, always anxious to enlarge the boundaries of the ecclesiastical realm,,. solicited from the pontiff permission to erect four- teen new bishoprics in the Netherlands—sending the request to Rome on the two feet of a double reason: the insufficiency of the existing sees to sup- ply the spiritual wants of an increasing population ; and their weakness, unenlarged, as a barrier against ® Burgon, Life and Times, vol. 1, p. 377, et seq. } Burgon, ut antea. t¢ Ibid. THE MASK LIFTED. 165 heresy.* The octogenarian pope, willing to pleas- ure a prince whose victorious viceroy had kissed his toe, and eager to smite reform, readily granted a bull decreeing the innovation.t Perhaps this manceuvre was the most generally odious of Philip’s acts thus far; the Netherland churchmen were incensed because the revenues of the new sees were to be created by alienating a portion of the funds of the existing bishoprics and abbeys—against which their fat pockets vehement- ly protested ;{ the nobles were angered because the prelates thus created were certain to be the subser- vient tools of the Spanish interest, eclipsing them by superior power and dignity ;$ the people, largely converted to a purer faith, and detesting the very name of priest, were convinced by their keen in- stincts, and rightly convinced, spite-of the king’s declaration that the project was a century old, be- queathed from father to son and neglected till now, but now enforced by the emperor’s dying admoni- tions,| that the “sole purpose for which the new bishops were instituted was to increase the efficien- cy of the Inquisition—a conviction substantiated by the fact that each prelate was empowered to appoint nine prebendaries in his cathedral to assist the agents of that abhorrent tribunal, while two of their own number were themselves inquisitors.” 7 But the conflicting excuses from day to day put * Strada, p. 17. Mirai Dip., tom. 3, p. 523. + Ibid. Davies, vol. 1, p. 497. Grattan. t Ibid. § Ibid. || Strada, p. 17. Davies, vol. 1, p. 498. 1 Ibid. 166 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. forth for the retention of the Spanish troops, the placard against the comedians, the erection of the new sees, and the sullen temper of the provinces, did not disturb the icy serenity of Philip, nor make him hesitate; they only quickened his movements and pushed forward the reorganization of the goy- ernment—necessitated by his approaching depart- ure, and by Emanuel Philibert’s resignation of the governor-generalship of the states, in consequence of the restoration to him by France of his long-lost duchy of Savoy, in compliance-with a clause of the treaty of Chateau-Cambray.* It was necessary to refill the deserted office at * * an early day, since Philip grew hourly more impa- tient to quit Brussels. Who should succeed the re- cusant duke? The court was perturbed, the citizens were anxious. The merits of those most likely to succeed Philibert were ardently canvassed. In this talk of the drawing-rooms and the sidewalk, three names were especially prominent—the duchess of Lorraine, Count Egmont, and the prince of Orange.t Who were they? * De Thou, Brantome. + Meteren, Strada, Wagener. EGMONT AND ORANGE. 167 CHAPTER XI. EGMONT AND ORANGE. One of the three personages who seemed most certain to succeed Philibert in the Netherland regency, was Christierne, duchess of Lorraine, Cxe- sar’s niece, and cousin-german to the king. A woman of rare political talent, she had been fore- most in negotiating the recent treaty of peace; and this circumstance, added to her high rank and per- sonal fitness, gave her claim to no small authority.* The suit of Lamoral, Count Egmont, prince of Gavere, was pressed by his own great achievements and by the popular voice. He was the most dash- ing and brilliant captain of his age; worthy to have filled the vacant seat among the Round Table knights. It was to him that Philip was indebted for the crushing victories of St. Quentin and Grave- lines,t and the wars of the emperor had been tho ‘school of his genius. Though his brow was crown- less, he could boast of as lofty a lineage as most anointed kings; for he traced his origin up to the Frisian Radbold, while many illustrious marriages had allied him to scores of the first European fami- lies, and centred in him some of the proudest titles and some of the richest estates of the Low Coun- tries.t ‘Flemish pride, like a fond mother, exulted © Strada, p. 19. Meteren. { Ibid., Brantéme. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 171. 1€8 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. over this illustrious son, who had filled Christen- dom with admiration. His appearance on the street was a triumphal procession; every eye which was fastened upon him recounted his exploits; his deeds lived in the plaudits of his companions-in-arms ; at the games of chivalry mothers pointed him out to their children as a model.”* Egmont was at this time thirty-eight years oldt — in the noon of a life as yet sunny and unclouded. Happy and prosperous himself, he was inclined to underrate the dangers which menaced his country. Indeed, his temper led him to see every thing couleur de rose; for, light and buoyant, the cares which ploughed his heart at one moment, only insured a harvest of fresh hopes at the next. The truth is, that he was volatile and vain—vain of his handsome person, of his magnificent cos- tume, of his dark lovelocks, of his soft brown eye, of his smooth cheek, of his features, almost femi- ninely delicate, but emboldened by a slight mus- tache ;{ vain of his fame and of his popularity.§ For, though a Dutchman, Egmont resembled the fickle Walloons of the southern provinces, and fatally lacked the firmness of character, the tenacity of purpose which have placed the Saxon race in the van cf modern civilization. He was easily cozened and easily led, and open to a fault. Carrying his unsuspecting soul on his brow, “his frankheart- edness managed his secrets no better than his S Schiller, p. 401. + He was born in 1522. } Motley, vol. 1, p. 100. § Brantéme, Schiller, Davies. EGMONT AND ORANGE. 169 lavish benevolence did his immense estate, and a thought was no sooner his than it was the property of all”’—a dangerous trait in that age, and one unfitting him for diplomacy, which Machiavelli and the Medicis had reduced to a science of fraud. Egmont had a conscience, but was without fixed principles. His religion was of the mildest Roman type, and not enlightened, because it derived its light from a code which he had learned by rote, not from the heart and the intellect.* In a word, though fascinating and pure-minded, he was a mere sol- dier; beyond that, he was a childish bungler—a human pipe played on by cunning fingers. He often fettered his patriotism by lower duties; was as timid in council as brave in-the field; and was sure to bend when he should stand firm, and to stand firm when he should have bent. Thus he was at one time the puppet, at another the victim, of Spanish perfidy. The prince of Orange was another of these can- didates. From this moment Orange becomes the pivotal man of the Netherland drama—the brain and the right hand of the revolution; it is fit, there- fore, for us to pause and make his acquaintance. William of Nassau, prince of Orange, was born at the castle of Dillembergh, in the German county of Nassau, on the 25th of April, 1533.t God granted him to be the heir of a glorious past as well as the inaugurator and liberator of a grander future ; for = Schiller, p. 409. + Lives of the Princes of the House of Orange, p. 2. London, 1734. Dutch Ref. 15 170 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. he, too, like Egmont, was the representative of an august and ancient family, able to boast, with the Venetian oligarchy, that it stood upon the basis of a thousand years, yet whose age had been from time to time reinvigorated by puissant alliances, until now its head was as wealthy and as influential as most kings.* For many generations the house of Nassau was divided—a kind of double unit. One branch re- mained in Germany—tarried to wear the purple in the person of Adolph of Nassau, and to give, besides, countless captains, bishops, and electors to the Fa- therland. The other branch, though retaining the sovereignty of the modest birthplace of their house, Nassau, emigrated to the Netherlands and at once attained influence and authority.t Just previous to the birth of the liberator, two brothers held the entire estates, Count Henry inheriting the Low Country properties, Count William succeeding to the German sovereignties.{ It was Count Henry to whom Charles V. was indebted for his empire— he who cheated Francis I. out of the crown—he who placed that royal bauble on the head of Czsar at Aix-la-Chapelle :§ spite of which, Francis, with singular generosity, married him to Claude de Cha- lons, whose dowry was the sovereignty of Chalons. From this union sprang René of Nassau, who, later, = Lives of the Princes of the House of Orange, p. 2. London, 1734. Archives de la Maison d’Orange. Nassau, tom. 1. + Motley, vol. 1, p. 235. t Lives of the Princes, etc. Archives, etc. § Ibid. . EGMONT AND ORANGE. 171 acquired the little principality of Orange, in France, as heir to his mother’s brother Philibert of Chalons, prince of Orange, who died childless.* Meantime, Count William also had married a noble lady, Juli- ana of Stalberg; and this couple, too, had a son— the first of a numerous progeny—whom they named William, and whose earliest breath was drawn in the ancient cradle of his race.t Years sped, and little William was in his eley- enth year, when news reached Dillembergh that Prince René had been killed at the emperor’s feet. in the trenches before St. Dizier, leaving to his cousin the whole magnificent inheritance of Nassau, Chalons, and Orange—a retinue of principalities stretching from Germany through Holland, Flan- ders, Brabant, and Luxemburgh, to the old king- dom of the popes.{ So much for the genealogy of the Nassaus; let genealogists look closer if they will, we know enough for the purpose of these pages. -Of course, this accidental union in his person of the immense possessions of his house, broadened aud elevated the young prince’s destiny. “Yes, yes,” muttered Charles, “this brave little monsei- gneur must be looked to; I'll have him here at court.” This purpose was strengthened by the fact that William’s parents were Lutherans, and had been among the first to embrace, and the most ac- tive to propagate, the principles of the Reformation.$ = Archives, etc., ut antea. + Ibid. tIbid. Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays Bas, tom. 1. § Ibid. Robertson, Hist. of Charles V. 172 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Thus far the boy had been educated in the gospel faith.* The emperor saw this with alarm; and one of the chief objects of his proposed removal of the prince was to run him, like ductile metal, m the mould of Latin orthodoxy.t Villiam was brought to Brussels at the age of twelve, and placed in the family of Queen Mary of Hungary, then governant of the Netherlands, where he was bred in the Roman tenets.t| He became and remained through his early manhood, a nomi- nal papist; but the prayerful letters of his pious mother, and the good seed sown in his boyish heart in the old Dillembergh castle, fiowered at last in ardent Protestantism, as we shall see. At fifteen, the prince was transferred into the imperial household, and passed under Cresar’s eye as his special page.§ Charles prided himself on his ability to read and use men, and his discernment in this case proved that he possessed that crucial test of greatness ; for he at once recognized the extraor- dinary character of his youthfal attendant, and made him his intimate, confidential friend.|| Here William resided for nine years; here he was initia- ted into the tortuous politics of his epoch; here he studied history with attention, and learned to speak and write Latin, French, German, Dutch, and Span- ish with equal facility and elegance.T But chiefly the thoughtful boy studied men; Le * Robertson, Hist. of Charles V. Lives of the Princes of the House of Orange. ft Ibid., p. 7. f Ibid. Prescott, Schiller,ete. § Ibid. |[Ibid. WTiIbia EGMONT AND ORANGE. 173 monde est un livre—the world is a book; and this volume he mastered thoroughly. In the earliest months of his residence at court, Charles was accus- tomed to retain him at his side even in interviews with the highest diplomats, and on the gravest ques- tions.* The secrets of the empire were intrusted to his discretion; and Cesar once declared that William had often furnished him counsel, and ex- temporized for him expedients of which otherwise he had never thought.t In such a school “the perceptive and reflective faculties of the future statesman, naturally of remarkable keenness and depth, acquired a precocious and extraordinary development. He was brought up behind the cur- tain—in the green-room of that great stage where the world’s dramas were daily enacted; therefore the machinery and masks which produced the grand delusions of history had no deception for him. Carefully to observe men’s actions, and silently to ponder their motives—this was the favorite occupa- tion of the prince during his apprenticeship at court.” } Charles loved to honor him ; now employing his dexterous wit, now invoking his military genius. It was Orange, scarcely yet of age, whom he appointed generalissimo in the place of Philibert, in the French war which preceded his abdication—chose him, too, in his absence, unsolicited, against the unanimous advice of his council, and to the exclusion of his © Prescott, Schiller, etc. Motley, Davies, Vandervynckt. T Vandervynckt, Meteren. + Motley, vol. 1, pp. 236, 237. : * 35 174 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. laurel-crowned band of heroes—Egmont, who was twelve years his senior, among the rest—and found no reason to repent his selection of the youthful “tyro” in arms, who grappled with Guise and baffled Coligny.* It was Orange on whose shoul- der he rested during the delivery of his farewell address.| It was Orange whom he despatched with the imperial crown to his brother Ferdinand of Germany.t So ripe was the prince in honors even while so young in years. The marks of confidence and friendship which the emperor had showered upon William, would alone have sufficed to bring him into disrepute with Philip ; who seems to have laid it down for himself as a rule, to avenge the slights of the Spanish grandees, for the preference which his father had, on all important occasions, shown to the Low Country nobles, by a similar leaning toward the other side.§ Still, the prince had not been inactive since Philip’s coronation. He bore an important part in the negotiations which resulted in the pacification of Chateau-Cambray; and he was one of the hosta- ges left in the French king’s hands for the fulfil- ment of the treaty.§ It was during his residence at Paris in this capacity that he earned his sur- name of the “silent.” One day he was hunting © Schiller, p. 405. Prescott, Hist.of the Reign of Philip II. t Ibid. Lives of the Princes, ete. Archives,ete. t Ibid. § Schiller, p. 405. § Motley, Vandervynckt, Meteren, Archives, etc. EGMONT AND ORANGE. 175 beside Henry IT. in the forest of Vincennes. Sud- denly Valois paused, laid his hand on William’s arm, and opened to him a budget of perfidy— imagining that Orange, like Alva, was in the plot. A general extirpation of Protestants was to be the cement of the pacification; Henry was to assist Philip in strangling heresy in the Netherlands, Philip was to aid them in assassinating the Hugue- nots of France; and in these massacres the Spanish regiments detailed in Flanders were to bear a.cen- tral part: such was the revelation of the king. William heard him with horror; but suffered no trace of surprise or disgust to appear in his imper- turbable countenance, and they called him later the “silent,” because he knew when to hold his peace as well as when to speak.* Henry’s blunder enabled the keen prince to fathom the muddy policy of Philip, forewarned him, and did much to ripen him for his after work; and he it was who had evoked and organized the pro- test against the continuance of the Spanish troops on Netherland soil.t The prince of Orange was at this time but twen- ty-six, though he had been married and was now a widower.{ Like Egmont, he was a tall and stately man. His features were dark, well chiselled, and symmetrical; his head was well turned and finely placed upon his shoulders; his forehead was lofty, spacious, and already prematurely engraved with = Meteren, Vandervynckt, Motley. $ Ibid. + Lives of the Princes, etc. 176 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. the lines of anxious thought; his eyes were brown, full, well opened, and expressive of profound reflec- tion.* 7 His courtly bearing and charm of manner fasci- nated all who came within the sphere of his influ- ence.t Graceful, familiar, caressing, yet dignified, Orange was king of hearts.{ ‘Never did an arro- gant or indiscreet word fall from his lips,” remarks a chronicler who was his bitter foe; “nor did he upon, any occasion manifest anger to his inferiors, however much they might be in fault, but con- tented himself with admonishing them graciously, without menace or insult. For he had a gentle and agreeable tongue with which he could turn all the gentlemen at court which way he liked.’$ In some respects his sobriquet was a misnomer, for Motley tells us, what others have avouched, and what William’s life proves, that “he was neither ‘silent’ nor ‘taciturn’ from habit; though these are the epithets which will be for ever associated with the name of a man, who, in private, was the most affable, cheerful, and delightful of companions, and who on a thousand public occasions was to prove himself, both by pen and by speech, to be the most eloquent man of the age.” | He was ambitious, not with the vulgar pur- pose of self-aggrandizement, but to enrol himself * Motley, vol. 1, p. 106. R ¢ Ibid., p. 246. Schiller, Strada. t Ibid. § Pontus Payen, MS., cited in Motley, ut antea. || Motley, ut antea. EGMONT AND ORANGE. 177 among the builders of states by liberating his country. No one was ever more perfectly equipped to organize a revolution. Imperturbable, cautious yet decisive and irresistible, master of men, coolest and firmest in disaster, sound and commanding in body as in mind, sitting apart, as the heathen dei- ties talked from peak to peak all round Olympus, yet easy himself and able to make others share his ease—persistent, kind, forbearing—Orange was all this, and more, even from the outset. In the Neth- erlands he had no mate in genius—was, like most great men, a unique. “The Scipioism of Scipio,” says an epigrammatist, “was precisely that part of him which he could not borrow.” The Orangeism of Orange was exactly that part of him which none other could imitate. And though Egmont, his friend and compeer, was fully his equal as a soldier, as a statesman he was not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes. Such was the duchess of Lorraine, such was Count Egmont, such was the prince of Orange, when, in the spring of 1559, they competed with each other for the governor-generalship of the Neth- erlands. They were none of them to be successful. Philip had an instinctive dread of Orange. These two men, so unlike in most respects, had two points of contact. Both were gifted with intuition; and the king saw deeply enough into the character of the prince to know that, while he possessed the qualities as a politician which he highly prized, he 178 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. yet bottomed his statesmanship upon a theory which was fatal to absolutism—human rights; and was therefore necessarily his foeman. Then, too, both had sat at the feet of the same master, only Philip had learned by rote and was an imitator; William had looked deep, and completely mastered the per- ilous arts by which thrones then rose and fell; and the king had an especial dread of him because he was aware that in him he had an antagonist who was armed against his policy by forecast, and who in a great cause, was able to command the science and resources-of a bad one.* Add to this instinctive hatred William’s popu- larity and wealth; and we shall see that, notwith- standing the deep sea and fair wind on which he sailed, in Strada’s figure, the bark of his chances was sure to founder.t As for Egmont, his family had been, in times past, the bitter and successful foes of the house of Austria. He was a soldier; he was the popular idol. “If I intrust the supreme stadtholdership to him,” thought Philip, “ he may endeavor to revenge the oppression of his ancestors on the son of the oppressor ; nay, but I’ll none of him.’’t Thus it was that what seemed the clearest titles of Egmont and Orange to the succession, were really fatal to their success; while the king was supplied with an excellent pretext for passing both by on the ground that where merit was so equal it was impossible to decide. © Schiller, p. 407. T Strada, p. 19. * Schiller, p. 10¢. EGMONT AND ORANGE. 179 William’s sagacity speedily convinced him of the hopelessness of his success; and, therefore, he shrewdly withdrew his claims and pressed those of the duchess of Lorraine, to whose daughter he was paying suit, “with the intention,” if we may credit Strada, “of giving his proposed mother-in- law the title, and taking to himself the power.’”* The advocacy of Orange ruined the prospects of Christierne, for Philip made a point of always run- ning against the current of the prince’s will; and one morning Brussels was astonished to hear that Margaret of Parma had been appointed governant, and had already quitted Italy to take her seat. Philip the Taciturn had for once outmanceuvred William the Silent. The prince was soon to return the compliment. * Strada, ut antea, 180 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER XII. A CHECK. Wu Orange and Egmont were digesting the disappointment of their hopes, dashed by the an- nouncement of the new governant’s name, and while the burghers were still sulking over the rebuff of the national favorites, Philip, trailing after him a glit- tering cortége, sped towards the Netherland fron- tier to welcome Margaret of Parma.* It was in1559, in the early days of June, pregnant with summer, that he met her, and, accompanying her to Brussels, inducted her into office, with a pomp which recalled the days of the abdication.t Margaret’s story was a romance. The natural daughter of Charles V. by a Flemish orphan of gentle blood, named Van Gheest, and born in 1522, she had been acknowledged by the emperor, and educated as became a princess.t For a time she was the ward of the emperor’s aunt, then regent of the Netherlands; but the little waif was only in her eighth year when this lady died; whereupon the guardianship devolved upon her successor, Queen Mary of Hungary.§ According to the custom of that age, when hearts were the chattels of princes, and when marriage * Strada, p. 24. Meteren, Vandervynckt. } Ibid. f Strada, p. 20. Prescott, Levensbusch, Nederl. Man. en Vrou- men. § Ibid. Brantome. A CHECK. 181 was a mere counter in diplomatic games, this child was wedded at twelve to the passé duke of Tuscany, Alexander de’ Medici.* A dozen months elapsed, and this profligate was assassinated by a kinsman in the streets of Florence.t A widow at thirteen, the girl was once more in the matrimonial market, finding many bidders. But Charles was in no haste to find Margaret another husband, and it was not until she was a woman of twenty that she was again mated, this time to Ottavio Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III., and a boy of thirteen—thus at the age of ma- turity being married to a child, as in her infancy she had been sold to a man.t To Farnese she brought the duchies of Parma and Piacenza as her dowry;$ but the youth of the prince inspired her with such contempt for him that, as Strada remarks, “ her indifference was only soften- ed into a kindlier feeling when she had been long separated from him.” This, roughly outlined, was the history of the woman whom Philip had installed as governant of the Low Countries. As for her character, she did not lack ability; but qualities which might other- wise have raised her above mediocrity, were fatally biased by a monkish superstition learned at the feet of Ignatius Loyola, who had been her confes- sor while she tarried in Italy{—the chiefest of her recommendations to Philip. & Brantéme. + Ibid. | f Schiller, p. 412. § Ibid. Strada, p. 22. || Ibid., p. 23. @ Ibid. Prescott, Motley, Schiller. 15 182 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. In person, Margaret was tall and ungainly. Upon her upper lip a mustache had sprouted.* “Her gait itself was so devoid of grace,” as Schiller paints her, “that one was far more tempted to take her for a disguised man than for a masculine wom- an; and nature, whom she had derided by thus transgressing the limits of her sex, revenged itself upon her by a disease peculiar to men—the gout.’ + Spite of the surprise it caused, the appointment of this odd woman to the regency was dictated by profound policy, and was, as rumor had it, the result of Alva’s counsel and the bishop of Arras’ advice.t For, while certain to be the puppet of the king, Margaret had four excellent recommenda- tions: she was earnest for the faith; she was Phil- ip’s sister ; she was a Netherlander by birth; she had spent her youth in Brussels, where she had acquired a knowledge of the national manners, while the duchess Margaret and Queen Mary of Hungary, the two regents under whose eyes she had grown up, had gradually initiated her into the maxims by which they had governed in the past. It was, indeed, a formidable list of recommendatory cir- cumstances, and justified the choice. ‘“ Withal,” observes Strada, “ Philip hoped that the Low-Coun- trymen, for the reverence they bore the name of Charles V., would cheerfully obey his daughter, born among them, and bred up to their fashions, and be able the better to digest her government, because © Strada, ut antea. t Schiller, p. 412. t Schiller, p. 413. § Ibid., p. 412. A CHECK. 183 subjected people think themselves partly free if ruled by a native.”* Besides, the Netherlands were habituated to female government; and the king thought that the innovations he had designed would be more popular coming from a lady—like an incis- ion, that pains the less when made by a soft hand.t With the prevision of a despot, Philip seldom trusted individuals—never, unless he had a curb in their mouths. So now he put a double check upon his sister by demanding her little son, Alexander Farnese—a name famous in the Low Countries at a later -day—as a hostage, and by equipping three chambers to assist her in the administration of the government. The organization of these chambers was a mas- terpiece of political skill. The idea was old, it was only the composition that was unique. There had been a council of finance, a privy council, and a state council under the emperor—all composed of Netherlanders.§ Now just so many citizens were seated at these council-boards as were deemed suf- ficient to deceive the nation with a show of repre- sentation—not enough to command a majority on any one important measure, the decision resting with the creatures of the court. The royal juggler shouted, “ Presto,” and instantly a republican bar- rier was transformed into the citadel of despotism. To the board of finance was intrusted whatever & Strada, p. 24. + Ibia. $ Vandervynckt, vol. 1, p. 148. Meteren, Wagencer. ’ § Hoofdt, vol. 1. p. 22. Meteren, 24. || Ibid. Grattan, pp. 84,85, 184 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. related to the royal exchequer in the states, and its president was Count Barlaiment.* To the privy council was given the general administration of jus- tice, and its president was Viglius.t To the council of state was referred all matters of foreign inter- course, all inter-provincial affairs, and its president was the bishop of Arras:t of this board Orange, and Egmont, and Horn, and Aerschat were members,§ sharing in the responsibility of the government, but powerless to shape its policy. These three boards were quite independent of each other, with this im- portant exception : while the members of the coun- cil of state had no voice in the other two chambers, the privy and finance councillors, together with the knights of the Golden Fleece, had access to their deliberatious|—an arrangement which lassoed that board to Philip’s feet, and reduced the national nobles to titled nullities at Brussels. But to make surety doubly sure, the wily mon- arch created another board behind the government, back of the councils, hidden, tireless, omnipresent, all-powerful—the Consulta. “It was a committee of three members of the state chamber, by whose deliberations the regent was secretly instructed to be guided at all critical moments. The three, Barlaiment, Viglius, and Arras, who composed this back-stair conclave, were in reality but one. The bishop of Arras was in all three, and the three together constituted only the bishop of Arras.” . * Hoofd, Meteren, ubi sup. } Ibid. $ Ibid. § Ibid. || Schiller, Hoofd, Strada. 1 Motley, vol. 1, p. 209. A CHECK. 185 Barlaiment was an antique. He had the un- qualifying, blind, audacious temper of the darkest ages. He had been dug up from the crusades. The simple lesson which his life was devoted to learning and teaching was, submission to superiors, subor- dination of inferiors. He had no brains—he had scraped his skull clean on entering Philip’s service, and he stood asking, not, Is this right ? but, What shall Ido? In war he was a soldier ; in politics he was an ultra absolutist; in religion he was a fanatic.* Barlaiment was just honest enough to be a tool; just wise enough to be an ultramontanist ; just reli- gious enough to be a bigot. Philip treated him as a human bull-dog; Arras subdued him to be his lackey. Viglius was a pedant, but de did not lack talent. Unlike Barlaiment, he was of “ boor’s degree,”t but a round of studies at the ‘Lorraine, Padua, and Paris schools had kindled ambition in his heart, and set him scheming, until now in the autumn of his life, he had acquired fame, and wealth, and influ- ence.t Infirm and overtasked, he still held on to power and was singularly patient of work. Ambi- tion has been defined to be satiety with desire. — Perhaps it was this which held Viglius still feeding at the public trough. A small, brisk man, round, timid, sleek, with rosy cheeks, glittering green eyes, and a flowing beard,§ Viglius was a jurist of extensive erudition; & Hoofd, Materen, Levensbusch. { Levensbusch, vo}. 4,, 75. tIbid § Motley, vol. 1, p. 101, iG* 186 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. a monarchist by instinct, a papist from policy; able to quibble with any one; adroit enough to bafile most antagonists; plausible enough to cheat the majority of hearers; eloquent enough to hide the intentions of the court beneath a fluent stream of common places; and unscrupulous enough to balk at nothing.* Politics is the hospital for broken scoundrels ; and this Bohemian, this political bri- gand under the mask of a legal doctorate, had drifted into it to end his days. But the bishop of Arras was the soul of the trio, as he was the Mephistophiles of the tragedy whose prelude these days were. Anthony Perrenot of Granvelle, bishop of Arras, was born in 1517, at Besancon, in Burgundy.t His father had risen, step by step, from the condition of an humble country attorney to the chancellorship of the empire under Charles V.{ The secret of this marvellous career was hidden in two words—syco- phancy and industry. By the one he gained the heart of Cesar; by the other he mastered the sci- ence of government, and deserved confidence. In 1517, the elder Perrenot was the emperor’s favorite minister, successful, honored, courted. Thus he was able to secure for his son Anthony a sunny opening to his career. The boy was precocious. He learned as others play. At twenty he had mastered the civil and the canon law, and spoke seven lan- &% Prescott, Meteren, Motley. + Levensbusch, Strada, Motley. $ Prescott, vol. 1, p. 405. Meteren, Levensbusch. A CHECK. 187 guages without halting.* Three years later he was chosen acanon of the Liege cathedral, through whose massive door he entered, though under age, the rich see of Arras.t In 1548, the youthful bishop, commis- sioned as plenipotentiary, entered the council of Trent, where his dulcet eloquence so captivated Charles that the dazzled emperor created him a councillor of state. From that time his rise was rapid. With con- summate art he insinuated himself into the con- fidence of Cesar, remembering the secret of his father’s success—sycophancy in winning, industry in preserving confidence. At the abdication, Charles recommended this crafty, prévoyant chancellor to Philip’s confidence,§ bidding him rely upon an intellect which had lifted. him out of many a “slough of despond,”. caged. for him numberless birds, sung for him count- less syren songs. Such a recommendation would have been as useless in his case as in that, of Orange, had not the keen priest known how to rec- ommend himself. He vanquished Philip’s doubt of him by one master-stroke. It was hewho put into the treaty of Chateau-Cambray the secret clause which was to cement peace in the blood of Protestantism, and which Orange so strangely discovered in the Vincennes wood. This rascality was exactly in the vein of the gloomy bigot whom the facile chancel- * Prescott, Meteren, Levensbusch, Motley. + Ibid. ¢ Ibid., Schiller. § Ibid. -|| Prescott, Motley, Schiller. 188 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. lor termed “the master.” Henceforth, two such men were needful to each other. This all-powerful prelate had the subtlest of in- tellects; he had also profound and varied learning.* To talent of a high order he wedded patience—a rare union. He was, too, a man of thoughtful, meé- chanical regularity. Always vigilant, always col- lected, nothing escaped him; and he weighed the most important and the most insignificant affairs with the same scrupulous attention.t In a combat of finesse, a duel of intrigue, no one could outwit him. Cool, wary, imperturbable, hiding all concern under an easy nonchalance, masking inor- dinate ambition under an insouciance which never disclosed a feature of the real Perrenot, he walked calmly on—this serene, smiling priest—and with paternal benignity did Satan’s work. Arras was diplomacy personified: he had that fine quality which is colorless because inscrutable, and irresistible because far-seeing—acumen: acu- men, which crowns genius and dethrones kings. And this silkiest, most dulcet of churchmen aimed at ubiquity, withal. Monsignore had his politic webs spun over Italy, over France, over Austria, over England, over Spain. Monsignore had his secret spies of the ablest. Monsignore was the lover of great ladies who played Iscariot for him in palaces. Monsignore never gave a Benedicite with- out some diplomatic touch. Monsignore never ad- ministered the Viaticum that the church was not * Motley, vol. 1, p. 248. t Schiller, p. 421. A CHECK. 189 the richer for a legacy. Monsignore never yet was compromised by a lie, and never yet w was driven to the vulgarity of a truth. But what would you have? Even Achilles could be shot in the heel; and Monsignore himself had his weaknesses. One of them was, that he disbe- lieved in any virtue that was proof against a bribe, or capable of preferring a creed to a sovereignty. He could not credit it, that any one should be so mad as not to exchange, if it were made worth his while, the Phrygian bonnet for a coronet. Another was, that, educated between the throne and the confessional, he knew of no other relation between man and man than that of rule and subjection.* This idea was the rock on which his bark was to be wrecked; for, in the Netherlands, half republican and two-thirds Protestant, the statesmanship which bottomed itself on absolutism, however adroit, was certain to be suicidal. The prescient wit, the ex- haustless capacity which would have lifted this man into a statesman at Rome or in Spain, dwindled him into a mere politician at Brussels; for his rationale did not suit that atmosphere. He could weary half a dozen amanuenses at a sitting, but he could not tire out a people determined to be free. So much shall suffice to depict the government, and so much to paint the persons who composed it, in that smiling June when Margaret of Parma entered Brussels. The initial ceremonies of the gov- ernant’s reception once over, Philip pressed on to * Schiller. 190. THE DUTCH REFORMATION. anotber arrangement. Some of the provinces were supplied with new executives; others had those local rulers whose credentials bore the imperial seal, confirmed.* In this distribution of offices, the prince of Orange was accredited as stadtholder of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and West Friesland.t To Egmont were awarded Flanders and Artois. And among others of the national grandees, Arem- berg, Bergen, Barlaiment, the remainder of the states were parcelled out;§ but Brabant was re- served to the regent, who was there executive ex officio. | This done, nothing remained but to say fare- well—for on several recent occasions the king had exerted the whole weight of his personal influence to impress upon the country the paramount impor- tance of the edicts against heresy; and once he had stammered out an address to the grand council at Mechlin, with his own lips emphasizing his demand for Protestant blood.4 On the 7th of August, 1559, an assembly of the states was convoked at Ghent.** The court was gay and giddy with triumph. Diplomats smiled pla- cidly. The bishop of Arras was as serene as the summer sky above him. Even Philip lost a little “ Vandervynckt, Meteren. | Ibid. t Ibid. § Ibid. || Did. 1 Meteren, Ivach, Hopperus, Hoynckt. "To give eclat to his presence in Ghent.a chapter of the Golden Fleece was held just before the convocation of the states-general, and fourteen knights were admitted to the order. This chapter was the last ever held. After this date, knights were preferred to the honor of the Fleece by the king’s nomination. Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. 2, p. 21. A CHECK. 191 of his hauteur. On the eve of the convention all whirled in a thoughtless glitter. There were wines of the rarest. There were feastings of the daintiest. Turkish and Levantine fruits imported by the Ant- werp merchants, with crystallized confections in sil- ver baskets, which dainty statuettes of Odalisque slaves and Greek girls held up in a shower of flow- ers. Every palace was transformed into a chamber of revelry, and in the perfume and the lustre human rights were mocked at, and heresy was impaled on dainty skewers, with a light laugh, amid the whirl of the dance and the glitter of gold and azure, of silver and scarlet, while the air was drowsy with the odor of wines, and spices, and incense, While the orgy was at its maddest, a stately but haggard man might have been seen to quit the sup- per-room and wend his way with quick, firm step past the stadthouse, past the tower where Roland had swung, on through the quaint, crooked streets, towards the quarters of the town where the depu- ties found shelter. It was William of Orange going at midnight to warn the delegates of the lurking danger, and to suggest a plan of action for the mor- row.* How well his warning was heeded we shall see. In the morning the states assembled. Here the king, the governant, Philibert of Savoy, and the courtiers, still drowsy with the night’s excess; yon- der in the body of the hall the deputies, cool, col- lected, determined. For the sturdy burghers took their seats in no friendly mood. For once, as- % Grattan, p. 85. Archives of the House of Orange—Nassau. 192 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. tonished absolutism was to listen to republican truth.* With a benignant smile, the bishop of Arras stepped forward to harangue the states as the mouth- piece of the king. Very smoothly, very plausibly he spoke, skipping, like a chamois, from topic to topic, touching lightly on obnoxious, dwelling largely upon popular subjects; insinuating, elab- orating, always with a glacial smile upon his face, and with roguery at his heart. Not a word did he say about the Spanish troops; his only reference to the disordered state of the public finances was when, in calling attention to his majesty’s “request,” he asked the deputies to vote him an additional sum of three millions of gold florins;+ but his allu- sion to reform was pregnant. “These beggars and vagabonds,” smiled the suave orator, “who, under cover of religion, traverse the land for purposes of plunder and disturbance—asit regards them, his majesty desires to follow in the footsteps of his august father. Therefore he has commanded the regent, Margaret of Parma, for the sake of religion and the glory of God, accurately and exactly to en- force the edicts made by his imperial majesty and renewed by his present majesty, for the extirpation of all sects and heresies.’’t The complacent rhetorician sat down ; the dep- uties, according to an ancient custom, adjourned to © Prescott, Schiller. : { Documentos Inédits, vol. 1, p. 326, ef seg. Vandervyncht t Bor,, vol. 1, p. 19, e¢ seq. A CHECK. 193 deliberate,* and the court awoke ont of its dog-nap to dine. Philip, however, occupied himself in pen- ning a last exhortation to the Mechlin council, the supreme court of the Low Countries, in which appendix to his recent speech he commanded them anew to be diligent above all things in “inquiring on all sides as to the execution of the placards, employing the utmost rigor not alone against trans- gressors, but equally against such judges as should dare to prove remiss in their prosecution of here- tics, without respect of persons.” Some thought that the placards were fulminated against Anabap- tists alone. - The wily fanatic corrected the error, * All who reject Rome are heretics,” said he; “ en- foree the edicts against all sectaries, without any distinction or mercy, if they be merely spotted with Luther’s errors.”{ This was Philip’s dinner. On the morning of the eighth of August the states again convened. They had voted their con- tingents to the “request;” but made the removal of the Spanish squadrons a condition precedent to the payment of their respective quotas.§ “Sire,” demanded the blunt syndic of Ghent, addressing Philip in person, “why are foreign hands needed for our defence? Is it that the world shall consider us too stupid or too. cowardly to protect ~ ourselves? Why have we made peace, if the bur- dens of war are still to oppress us? In war, neces- © Pontus Payen, MS. Bentivoglio. + Cited in Motléy, vol. 1, p. 218. $ Ibid. § Motley, vol. 1,p. 216. Vandervynckt, Datch Ref, 17 194 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. sity enforced endurance ; in peace, our patience is exhausted by its burdens. Or shall we be able to restrain these licentious bands, which your pres- ence is powerless to restrain? Here Cambray, there Antwerp, cry for redress. Here Thionville, there Marienburg, lie waste. Surely you have not bestowed upon us peace that our cities may become deserts? Perhaps you desire to guard us from exte- rior assault? °Tis a wise precaution; but the report of our neighbors’ preparations will long outrun their hostilities. Have you not still at your command the same brave Netherlanders to whom your father intrusted the republic in far more troublous times ? Will not they be able to sustain themselves, when they held their country inviolate for so many cen- turies ?”’* Each of these short, sharp interrogatories cut Philip to the heart; as for the courtiers, they gaped in wonder. The pithy sentences of the burgher orator, and the addresses of the separate states, all in the same strain, were followed by a remonstrance, drawn up in the name of the states-general, and signed by Orange, Egmont, and a long bead-roll of patricians.t A gallant stand was also made that day for lib- erty of conscience. ‘Every people,” it was so they argued, “ought to be treated according to their natural character, as every individual should be in accordance with his idiosyncrasies. Thus the south * Schiller, pp. 401, 402, { Meteren, vol. 1, p. 24. Bor., vol. 1, p. 22. A CHECK. 195 may be considered happy under a certain degree of constraint, which would press intolerably on the north. Different nations often require different laws. What suits the Spaniard would not for that reason suit the Netherlander. The Inquisition is ill-adapted to men accustomed from their cradles to freedom of action and of thought.”* Philip was dumb with anger. This tone, un- heard of in Castilian legislative halls, and new to his haughty ears, made him gasp for breath. The shock was so great that it threw down the barriers of his self-possession. Rising from his seat and rushing from the hall, he flung back this query: “TI, too, am a Spaniard and a papist; must I therefore quit the land and resign all authority over it?”’+ The assembly adjourned in disorder. The wise- acres put their heads together. Philip closeted himself with the bishop of Arras. They decided to dissemblet{—a policy kindred to both their natures. They were driven to that last resource of bafiled despotism, a compromise. On one point, however, the king was firm. The religious edicts must remain intact.§ “It may lose you the provinces, sire,” said the minister. “Well, then,’ responded the inexorable bigot, “better not reign at all than reign over heretics.” | A few days later, the king, who would not again face the deputies, sent to the assembly a response to their remonstrance—a wily, plausible paper, * Schiller, Prescott. } Wagener, Vaderl. Hist., vol. 6. f Ibid. Motley. § Ibid. || Vandervynckt, Schiller, Wagener. 196 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. which bore the imprint of Arras’ brains. It was to this effect : “I desire not to place strangers in the " government—as witness my selection of Margaret, your countrywoman, as governant, I regret not having learned your wishes sooner touching the re- moval of the troops. Their pay is in arrears, and I cannot order them away unpaid. Immediately on reaching Spain I will forward the moneys owed them, and within three months you shall be quit of their presence. Meantime, Orange and Egmont shall command them.”* Philip IT. was a He with a moral at the bottom of it. The moral was this: Trust him least when he promises most. Now, the king’s three months stretched into eighteen; and at last the Spanish regiments were withdrawn, “rather hastily than wil- lingly,” because farther delay meant insurrection, and because the exigencies of the state ealled for their presence in another quarter of the globe.+ But this was in the future when the king sent this word to the states, and the deputies were fain to be content.t With an undisturbed mien, but with the anger of humiliation gnawing at his heart, Philip now set out for the Netherland seaport of Flushing, whence he was to embark for Spain. He was accompanied by a throng of nobles, William of Orange among the rest. The irate despot suspected that it was the prince’s hand that had upset his ® Response du Roy 4 la Remonstrance, cited in Documents Inédits, vol. 1, pp. 326-329. + Schiller. { Meteren, Suriano, Relatione MS. § Motley, vol. 1, p. 219. A CHECK. 197 schemes and given this check to his tyranny. Just as he was about to quit the seashore for his fleet, ° he gave voice to this suspicion. Turning abruptly upon Orange, who stood close beside him, he Wluntly accused him of having engineered the op- position which had partly wrecked his policy. “Sire,” rejoined the imperturbable prince, “that is to be regarded not as the work of any individual, but as the act of the states.” “No,” hissed Philip, shaking his antagonist fiercely by the wrist, “ No los. Estados, mas vos, vos, vos” —not the states, but you, you, you!* William was silent, and by his silence he admit- ted the glorious accusation—admitted that he had earned his title to the hatred of the king, and the gratitude of his country.t The royal fleet at once set sail. Philip left the Netherlands never to see them more; left them agonizing to reach Spain, in which, so he was told, the Reformation had ventured to raise its voice.{ A widower for the second time by the death of Mary Tudor in 1558, he was to celebrate his mar- riage with the beautiful Isabella de Valois, “ dis- creet, witty, and good,” as Brantéme paints her,§ on reaching Toledo.| After a stormy voyage, he landed at Laredo in ® “Vos” is an epithet of contempt in the Castilian, equivalent to “toi” in French. This anecdote rests on the authority of Aubéry, whom Vallaire terms a ‘well-informed writer.” See Mé- moirés de l’Aubéry du Maurier, p. 9. + Grattan, p. 88. t Prescott, Hist. Reign of Philip I1., vol. 1., chap. 3, passim. t Brantéme, Cuvres, tom. 5, p 126. || Prescott. re 198 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. the early days of September, and found an auto da fé awaiting him. Report had spoken truth. Spain itself, where Romanism was at once a principle of _ honor and a part of the national history, where for eight centuries the Spaniard had been fighting the battles of the church at home; where every inch of the soil was won by arms from the infidel; where life had always been a crusade for Rome; Spain was infected with the distemper of heresy.* Philip was half crazed. The Inquisition was invoked. Human bonfires blazed merrily. At Valladolid the king paused to witness one. “Sire,” cried one of the sufferers, young Carlos de Lessa, a noble of talent and distinction, “how can you look on and permit me to be burned?” “I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal, were he like you, a heretic,” rejoined the royal brute.t On reaching Seville, Philip had the happiness to witness another auto da.fé of fifty living heretics. This scene so refreshed him in body and in soul, that immediately afterwards he solemnized his mar- riage. ‘These human victims, chained and burn- ing at the stake, were the blazing torches which lighted the monarch to his nuptial couch.” t » Prescott, ut antea. Hist. Crit. de ’Inqui., vol. 2, chap. 18. + Cabrera, vol. 5, p. 236. t Motley, vol. 1, p. 223. UNDERCURRENTS. 199 CHAPTER XIII. UNDERCURRENTS. To a casual observer, unfamiliar with the causes and effects of history, it would have seemed that the Netherlands were never more prosperous, never more snugly well-to-do, than on that day when Philip II. weighed anchor for Castile. The states were lapped in a luxury that recalled the Sybarites. “Not the most minute strip of the soil,” says Guic- ciardini, “was. without its production; even the sand-heaps afforded shelter to vast numbers of rabbits, esteemed for their delicate flavor; and on every creek of the sea were to be found incredible flocks of water-fowl and their eggs, both of which formed a reliable article of export.”* It was indeed so: the shrewd Italian painted to the life. Off the coasts of Holland, Zealand, and Fries- land, two thousand boats found daily employment in the fisheries.t Flanders freighted fifty ships in a single year with household furniture and utensils for Spain and the colonial wants.t A single city— Bruges—sold annually stuffs of Spanish and Eng- lish wool to the amount of eight millions of florins,§ and the least value of the florin then was quadruple its present worth.| ® Guicciardini, Belg. Des., tom. 2, p. 95. } Velius Hoorn, book 2. t Grattan, p. 88. § Ibid. _ || The florin was a coin originally made in Florence. The name 200 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. The English commerce of the provinces, less important than that with Spain, was valued yearly at twenty-four millions of florins.* Amsterdam was a rising town, but Antwerp was still the pivot of Enropean trade.t Oftentimes the table service of her wealthy burghers consisted entirely of solid silver ;t and these merchant princes were the money-changers of Christendom. Germany, Eng- land, France, Italy, Spain, constantly fed their lean exchequers from the fat coffers of the burghers. Immense loans were asked and gotten, not in ne- gotiable bills, or for unredeemable debentures; but in hard gold, and on a simple acknowledg- ment.§ , But beneath the sunny surface of this material prosperity crouched death and chaos, soon to reveal themselves. The useful and inoffensive Nether- landers wished to add yet one thing more to their immense possessions—the gospel. Aghast Rome and angered despotism leagued to crush it out. From that fanatic effort sprang the revolution. Many historians have run up and down, groping for the causes of the prodigious convulsion that now begins to rumble beneath our feet, for scenes of tremendous horror are just at hand. It needs no long search. The past sows the seed, which the is given to different coins of gold and silver, of different value in different countries. The silver florin now varies in value from twenty-three to fifty-four cents. The gold florin of Hanover is now held at Gs. 11d. sterling. % Grattan, p. 88. Vandervynckt. + Ibid. ¢ Velius Hoorn, book 2, p. 142. § Grattan, ubi sup. UNDERCURRENTS. 201 present ripens, and the future reaps. In one sense, it was the reopened New Testament which brought the sword into the Netherlands; in another sense, it was an emasculated church, shod in ambitious worldliness, and clothed in fanaticism, that lighted the conflagration ; a church prolific as Proteus in disguises, but, like him, ever the same under what- ever mask it lurked. To restore to the provinces the uniformity of papistry, to break the codrdinate power of the nobility and the states, and to exalt the royal authority on the ruins of the old repub- lican rudiments—this was the purpose of King Philp IL.* For that he plotted, and for that he dissembled ; and that purpose was the germ which flowered in revolt. Margaret was commissioned; and so was the bishop of Arras, to compass that object ;t ard this fact at once reduced the so-called government of the regent to a colossal fraud, to a chartered hypocrisy, to a conspiracy against justice and honest men, to a junta of licensed stabbers. The ship in which Philip sailed for Spain was hardly hull-down upon the ocean, before the gover- nant and her crafty Mentor began to carry out the prescribed programme of despotism, heedless of the increasing excitement of the people —that “ mischievous animal” which the bishop of Arras held in such supreme contempt. Before opening the Medician volume of govern- mental acts, let us glance briefly at the status of the Netherlanders towards the close of the year © Schiller, p. 426. Ibid. +} Papiers d’ Etat, vol. 7, p. 397. i e 202 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. 1559, and familiarize ourselves with the mainsprings of the national action, with the affected indifference, but real bitterness of the patrician, with the senti- ments of the burgher, with the inspiration of the boor. As for the aristocracy, it was, like all others, rotten to the core; indeed it had sunk lower than kindred castes in other countries; for the lavish expenditure, the eager competition, the profligate habits into which Charles V. had lured the Low- land nobles, had, as he wished, steeped them to the lips in ruin, and left them bankrupt in character as well as purse.* But, though stripped of their property, they retained their tastes, and hungered morbidly for the luxuries of the past. Many a seedy noble took to gambling as a panacea for his ills) The money thus gotten was lavished in riotous debauchery : they worshipped a carouse, and a banquet was their god. Those patricians who still retained their estates were doing their utmost to waste them in lavish display. “They spent twice as much as they were worth,” remarks a contemporaneous critic, “on their palaces, furniture, troops of retainers, costly liveries, and sumptuous entertainments.” And another observer says, “Instead of one court at Brussels, you would have said that there were fifty.”} * Pontus Payen, MS. ft Albertos de Flandes, MS,, cited in Prescott, vol. 1, p. 477. } Pontus Payen, MS. UNDERCURRENTS. 203 As the nobles grew poorer, their orgies waxed madder. “Dum vivimus, vivamus” was the motto of every bacchanal. Drunkenness was a wide- spread vice. “When a Flemish gentleman finds himself sober, he thinks that he is ill,” sneered the bitter Badovaro,* one of those keen Italians, half spy, half ambassador, whom the Venetian doges kept at the different European courts, that they might acquaint themselves with the most intricate phases of the social and political life of Christen- dom. The English Camden phrased it more naively when he said that, “in drinking others’ health they ‘impaired their own.”t Nor was this wild life confined to the gentlemen of the Lowland cities: the ladies of the higher ranks were every bit as fond of presiding at mid- night orgies; and at the best, the distinction between the morals of what modern /euilletonists style the monde andthe demi-monde, were very shadowy. As a body, this aristocracy was without princi- ple and without patriotism, but not without hate; and the more they became impoverished, the bitterer grew their hate of the Spaniard who had tricked them into ruin, the closer they drew towards the burgher class which held the wealth of Croesus in its iron boxes, and the more they labored to stir up sedition ; for an émeute meant, possibly, the repudi- ation of their debts, and mortgaged lands wrested ®@ Badovaro, Relatione MS. + Camden, book 3, p. 263. ¢ Badovaro, Pontus Payen, etc. 204 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. from the maw of creditors; at the worst, beggar- ed lords and mendicant gentlemen had naught to fear. No question but the nobles joined the republi- can ranks and swelled the chorus for reform, more from pique than from conviction, and more from selfishness than from either. But while this is so, we should not therefore conclude with the Roman publicists, or believe, as the bishop of Arras pre- tended to believe, that the trouble now at hand was stirred by a few score of needy and ambitious patri- cians; for revolutions are not made, they grow, and this one was begotten of the collision of two radi- cally antagonistic ideas—Christian liberty and Ro- man despotism. It was a popular, not an aristo- eratic movement. The patricians joined it, not from choice, but from necessity, and impelled by the hope of gain. “Those nobles so conspicuous in the surface at the outset, only drifted before a storm which they neither caused nor controlled,” as Motley records. “Even the most powerful and sagacious were tossed to and fro by the surge of great events, which, as they rolled more and more tumultuously around them, seemed to become both irresisible and unfathomable.”’* If the Prince of Orange was an exception to all this, it was not be- cause he was a patrician, but because he was a Christian patriot, earnest to serve God and to ad- vance the common weal. The movement for reform in the Netherlands % Motley, vol. 1, p. 256. UNDERCURRENTS. 205 had been democratic from the commencement, and it grew constantly more and more popular. How could it be otherwise? Had not the Reformation called the people into being? Had it not crumbled classes into men? Had it not dug out of the low- est, dirtiest boor the diamond of an immortal soul ? Truly, the pariah classes, the villains of the feudal ages, might well love the gospel and die for it; for ‘it had enfranchized them. Who can marvel that such a gospel, “the hidden might of Christ,” had ever a victorious power joined with it, like him in the Apocalypse that went forth on the white horse, with his bow and his crown, conquering and to con- quer? Who can feign to wonder that it leaped the Rhine, and clasped Germany to the bosom of its faith? that it won Switzerland by a word, and en- throned its great apostle at Geneva? that it lisped in England, and was buried in ten times ten thou- sand hearts? that it sighed in France, and awaken- ed the Huguenots? that it pleaded in Holland, and subdued the Netherlands? The lowermost classes of all tribes and tongues could not choose byt love and adhere to the reform, which resurrected Christ for the second time—Christ, who had promised to reward all who loved him with “the glorious liberty ~ -of the sons of God.” And still the reform spread. The Sclavonian races hailed it with rapture. Scandinavia entered the gospel fold with eager alacrity. Bugenhagen, the founder. of Lutheranism in Denmark, could find no words to describe the zeal with which the Danes ‘ 18 206 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. listened to his preaching, “even on work-days, even before daylight, on holidays, and all day long.”’* The evangelical pastors had traversed the ice-fields of Lapland in company with the Swedish govern- ors.t On the south shores of the Baltic Protestant- ism was predominant.t Already the great cities of Polish Prussia had confirmed the ritual of Luther by express charter. And in Poland itself it was a common saying, “A Polish nobleman is not subject. to the king; is he to be the vassal of the pope?” Hungary swarmed with reformers; the mountains of Franconia echoed to their exhortations.{ In Vienna, twenty years had elapsed since a single student of the university had taken priests’ orders.** Scotland was as Protestant as Knox could make it.tt In England, an alliance between the Refor- mation and the throne had moulded the ecclesias- ticism of the island into the peculiar form which it still wears from the south of the Thames to the Tweed.t{ As for France, the Venetian ambassador at Paris, Micheli, gave this testimony to the doge: “Your highness, with some few exceptions, this nation has quite fallen away from the Latin faith, especially the nobles and the young men under forty almost to a man; and though many still go to mass, they do so for appearance sake, and out of © Narrative of D. Pomerani, 1539. + Ranke, Hist. of the Popes, p. 130. } Ibid. § Ibid. || Ibid. @ Ibid. ©° Ranke, ubi sup. tt Chambers, Rebellions in Scotland, 1638-1660. tf Hist. Eng. Puritans, Am. Tract Soc., 1867. UNDERCURRENTS. 207 fear; when they think themselves unobserved, they turn their backs on both mass and church.* Protestantism everywhere triumphant; Roman- ism everywhere subdued and despoiled—such was the jubilant European fact in the middle decades of the sixteenth century. Why was it that the reform- ed faith did not extend its sway over the whole of Christendom at this auspicious moment, when, con- queror in the east, in the north, in the west, it had insinuated itself into that holy of holies of the popes, the Spanish peninsula, and stood knocking at the gates of the Vatican itself? Why? Balmes, an em- inent Romanist pamphleteer, shall answer: “ Philip IL, a prince devoted with his whole soul to the interest of the Latin church, and at the head of the most powerful empire in the world, by his energy and determination afforded a counterpoise to the Protestant cause, which prevented it from making itself complete master of Kurope.”’+ It was, indeed, Philip’s dogged fanaticism which assisted the holy see to organize and launch its counter movement. Of course, while the atmosphere of Europe was in this highly electric state, the Netherlands could not fail to inhale heresy. Their very position made them the reservoir of opinion. Among them, at least, it was impossible to put an effectual embargo on thought, for the great majority of the people could read. Seated “in the heart of Europe, the blood of a world-wide traffic was daily coursing © Micheli, Relatione delle cose di Francia, l’anno 1561. + Balmes, Protestantism and Catholicity compared, p. 215. 208 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. through the veins of their water-inwoven territory. There was a mutual exchange between the Low Countries and all the world, and ideas were as lib- erally interchanged as goods. Truth was imported as freely as less precious merchandise. The psalms of Marot were as current as the drugs of Malacca or the diamonds of Borneo. The strict prohibitory measures of a despotic government could not anni- hilate this intellectual trade; nor could bigotry de- vise an efficient quarantine to exclude the religious pest, which lurked in every bale of merchandise, and was wafted in every breeze from east and west.’’* Besides, the history and the habits of this peo- ple tended to alienate them from Rome. The old bishops of Utrecht, the medizval Waldenses, had bitterly opposed the holy see. The precious parch- ments which guaranteed their liberties had been clutched from ecclesiastic as well as from feudal lords. Then, too, the republican virtues of thrift and intelligence had taught them to loathe the priests—a horde of lazy epicureans, telling beads, and pampering themselves in luxurious vice on the earnings of others.t Added to all this, the burgh- ers were men accustomed to think and act for them- selves. This independent spirit they brought to the discussion of the new doctrines. Read in this way, the gospel tenets looked reasonable and true, the papal dogmas seemed absurd and atrocious. They began to love the one and to doubt the other. The authority on which the gospel rested was the & Motley, vol. 1, p. 258. + Ibid. UNDERCURRENTS. 209 Bible. The authority on which popery depended was the haughty ipse dixit of a priest. The shrewd burghers remembered that the Greeks believed the legends in Herodotus—that the Romans credited the figments in Livy. “Are not the Italians as credulous and as nationally vain as the Greeks of the Athenian forum, as the Romans of the heathen empire?” queried they; and they demanded better: sponsors for their creed. For a time the Netherlands held to Protestant- ism as an intellectual conviction; but when the fiery field-preachers of the south of France entered the states, they speedily kindled this cold adhesion of the brain into a blazing faith in the heart, ready to ery with Paul: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’* For Protestantism entered the provinces, not by the Hapsburg, but the Huguenot gate.t It was the Netherland people, thus enlightened by their memories of the past, thus inspired by the grace of Christ aglow in their hearts, that now entered the arena, armed like David with a simple pebble, the gospel, to contend with the two Goli- aths of Spain and of the Vatican. The- nobles? they were but the gilded hands on the outside of the dial; the hour to strike was determined by the * Rom. 8:38, 39. 13% +t Motley, vol. 1, p. 259 210 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. people, the obscure but weighty movements hid within.* A bitter baptism of suffering, trying the faith of the Netherland disciples “so as by fire,” had ripen- ed them for heroic deeds, for martyrdom is the grandest developer of revolutions. For years the pitiless edicts of Charles V. had hacked them; of late the yet more merciless placards of Philip II. meted and peeled them; and though content to «Wait beneath the furnace-blast the pangs of transformation,” quivering lips could not at all times choke the wail, “ How long, O Lord, how long?” Singularly enough, the Reformation, hypocriti- cally acquiesced in for a space in Germany, peace- fully settled in England by the recent accession of Elizabeth to the throne, armed and militant in France, was still banned and burned in the Nether- lands, and all the more fiercely persecuted, because the general pacification left Philip nothing else to do. From the east and from the west the clouds rolled away, leaving a comparatively bright and peaceful atmosphere, only that they might concen- trate themselves with portentous blackness over the devoted soil of the Netherlands.t Philip did indeed lend his assistance to the ultramontane party in France, and scheme to set on foot another “Sicilian vespers.” But the splintered lance which pierced the brain of Henry II. in the dismal tournament of 1559, postponed the Hugue- not massacre for a dozen years, and seated a wom- © Motley. ¢ Ibid. UNDERCURRENTS. Q11 an in the regency whose tenure of power depended upon the division of the kingdom into hostile fac- tions. The power of Catharine de’ Medici grew from her policy of balancing Coligny against Guise, Huguenot against Romanist; therefore “the per- suasions of Philip and the arts of Alva were power- less to induce her to carry out the scheme which Henry had revealed to Orange in the forest of Vin- cennes.” Eventually the queen-mother thought that she might say “yes” to the project without being the suicide of her own influence; but “ when the crime came, it was as blundering as it was bloody ; at once premeditated, and accidental; the isolated execution of an integral conspiracy, exist- ing for half a generation, yet exploding without concert; a wholesale massacre, but a piecemeal plot.”* But St. Bartholomew was still in the future, and we have to do with the Netherlands in the year 1559. We know now what their status was, and what their sentiments. What remains then but to open the governmental book? * Motley. 212 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. CHAPTER XIV. QUICKSANDS. Hap Philip II. been Aurelius, or had he risen to the level of the old philosophers of Academus, he would have known that a system of toleration in the domain of faith, and of liberality in the realm of politics, would be best suited to the genius of the Netherlands; but he was a: fanatic, and it was his grim ambition either to desolate the coun- try—sweep it clean as the palm of his hand, or to Romanize it. Some say the king was mad. Gayarré bids us remember that “his royal line sprang from insanity in the person of his mother, Joanna of Castile, and ended as it began, in the idiotic madness of Charles IL. the last Hapsburg on the throne of Spain.’* *Tis an ingenious argument; but if it be indeed so, we cannot fail to think that Philip had “method in his madness.” Still, his departure from the Netherlands on the eve of the battle between absolutism and conscience, was a capital error. He should have remained, to give his innovations the advantage of the personal presence of royalty. Delegated power is at best but weak; and when, as now, the government was known to be but the shadow of a shadow—for Mar- © Gayarré, Hist. of Philip II., p. 83. QUICKSANDS. 218 garet was seen to be but the puppet of Arras—the people were still less disposed to brook insulting changes and to pocket wrongs. Besides, their lingering loyalty forbade them to connect the king with their grievances: they strapped the load upon the shoulders of his minis- ter; and borrowing the tactics of their ancestors, who, while pretending, were really shaking off obe- dience to Tiberius and Vespasian, they pelted the usurpations of the regency as treason against the throne,* which had been an impossible ruse, with Philip at Brussels. As for the minister, he had a wit that could easily new-cast itself into any mould. He endeav- ored to veil his influence from vulgar eyes; for which purpose he revived a custom which draws its date from the times of Augustus and Tiberius, and transacted his business with the government through the medium of notes, even though they were both dwelling under a common roof—a practice which Arras esteemed to have this further advantage, of more deeply imprinting his counsel upon Marga- ret’s mind, and affording him data to fall back on in case of need.t “But ’tis hard to deceive the keen eyes of the court,” says Strada; “and now no man doubted but that Arras inspired every move; and as often happens in such cases, even matters in which he really had no hand, when once his name was up for a favorite and a do-all, were held © Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. 2. ¢ Strada, ubi sup. ‘ 214 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. to be his doings.”* It was an early and striking application of that graceful fiction of modern par- liamentary law in England, which shields the sov- ereign beneath ministerial responsibility. In J anuary, 1560, the administration opened its campaign against the people by the publication of the papal bull creating those new bishoprics which Philip had solicited while yet at Brussels.t The object of the innovation was palpable, for it sought to destroy the equilibrium and to corrupt the independence of the three orders, the clergy, the nobility, and the cities, whose delegates formed the states-general of the Netherlands. For many years the clergy had been a free and powerful order in the state, governed and represented by four bish- ops, chosen by the chapters of the towns, or elected by the suffrages of the monks of the abbeys.t Pos- sessing an independent territorial revenue, and not directly subject to the influence of the crown, these churchmen had to some extent interests and feel- ings in common with the nation; while bishops and abbots occupied the upper benches of the states- general, side by side with their good friends the barons.§ Thus circumstanced, and immensely wealthy, these recluses were lazy to a proverb. Like Erasmus, they were optimists, so long as their ease and purse were left them. Philip saw that he could never spur these epicurean monks into preaching a crusade against heresy, in which they © Strada, ubi sup. { Chap. X., p. 160. } Vandervynckt, Grattan. § Ibid. QUICKSANDS. 215 were certain to gain nothing, and exposed to lose much.* Besides, he could not reach them, for they were within the spiritual jurisdiction of the two archie- piscopal sees of Cologne and Rheims in France— an extra-provincial allegiance which had long been a stumbling-block to the Low Country sover- eigns.t Presto! and now look. The bull authorized Philip to increase the number of the Netherland bishops from four to eighteen, he to have the nom- ination, the pope to retain the confirmation. Three archiepiscopates were established, one at Cambray, one at Utrecht, one at Mechlin, which snatched the prerogative from the alien archbishops; and to crown all, Perrenot was made archbishop of Mech- lin, and promoted from the see of Arras to the pri- macy of the Netherlands. A trick was to insure the subserviency of the abbeys. From a pretended motive of economy, the new prelates were endowed with the title of abbots of the chief monasteries of their respective dioceses, which not only insured them a reversion in the gold chests of these establishments; but, better still for despotism, made them the legal heirs of the politi- cal rights of the abbots, after the death of those then living; secured the dominance of the ecclesi- astical order to the creatures of the court; and gave % Motley, vol. 1, p. 265. + Schiller, p. 428. Meteren, Vandervynckt. } Strada, p. 40. 216 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. Philip the control of that estate in the national assembly.* When the papal fiat announced this programme, the Netherlands were filled with consternation, for the negotiations with the holy see which resulted in the decretal had been kept secret, and were known to but few.t For once, priest, noble, and citizen united to execrate this fatal usurpation. “It is impious, for it confiscates our houses, perverts to selfish objects riches which a devout charity has placed in our chests for the relief of the unfortu- nate, and usurps for the plunderers of the poor the places of superiors elected by and among ourselves from time immemorial,” cried the abbots. “’Tis a trick, by means of which we are to be out-voted in the states-general by lackey churchmen bound to enact what the king shall be pleased to dictate,” said the barons. “It is the entering wedge of the Inquisition—part of the merciless machinery of per- secution,” exclaimed the citizens.{ With one accord the innovation was hooted as a fraud, and scouted as unconstitutional — fatally against the ancient charters of the states; and so it was. For the constitution of Brabant contained these three provisions among others: “The prince of the land shall not elevate the clerical estate higher than of old has been customary and by former princes settled, unless by consent of the other two estates, * Grattan, p. 92, } Papiers d’Etat, tom. 5. Cor. de Philippe II., tom. L ¢ Schiller, p. 430. Motley, vol. 1, p. 271, et seg. ' QUICKSANDS. 217 namely, the nobility and the cities.” “The prince shall appoint no foreigners to office in Brabant.” “Should the prince, by force or otherwise, violate any of these privileges, the inhabitants of Brabant, after regular protest entered, are discharged of their oaths of allegiance, and as free, independent, and unbound people, may conduct themselves as seems to them best.”* So spoke the charter of Brabant, to which Philip II. had sworn and set his seal; and so that of Hol- land, its twin brother; and so the rest.t To these brave old parchments the Netherlanders now had recourse, and a combat of words, a battle of pens, a war of letters at once commenced. The humblest citizen could quibble, when liberty was in peril from a misconstruction of statute law, as glibly as the primate himself, and closely and widely were the constitutions studied. The people were keen to see and quick to note. It was quite impossible to cheat their instincts, for the Reformation had been their teacher, and the Reformation was a schoolmaster that carried its pupils up from room to room in the university of the mind. However, the masses did err in attributing the inception of this assault upon their privileges, as everybody did, to the new metropolitan. They mis- took when they thought Perrenot had spun his hon- ors out of his own brain, as spiders spin their houses out of their own bowels. For once the churchman * Meteren, vol. 1; p. 28. Bor, vol. 1, p. 19. { Ibid. { Papiers d’Etat, tom. 6, p. 554. Datch Ref. I9 218 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. was innocent. Until the bull came, he knew nothing of the project ;* but when it came, by adopting and attempting to enforce it he made the offence his own. When it was bruited on the streets that Perrenot had accepted the see of Mechlin, the rage of the people was portentous. Even the minister’s match- less serenity was a trifle disturbed. When Holiness strangled Error, in Spenser’s immortal poem, ‘Her vomit full of books and papers was.” When report made Perrenot the originator of this innovation, his alarm was full of despatches. Once, twice, thrice he hurried couriers off to Madrid, freighted with letters to this effect: “They say that the episcopates were devised to gratify my ambi- tion; as your majesty did not consult me in the matter, I pray you contradict these ill reports.”{ And the docile monarch sent back the denial as repeatedly as it was asked for.| But it was use- less; denials subscribed “Philip, Rex,” and piled as high as the dome of St. Peter’s, would not have absolved him in the minds of the people. He was the friend of Spain; Spain had the Inquisition; therefore he wished to plant it in the Netherlands; and the syllogism seemed without a flaw. “Bah!” cried they, with a bitter, incredulous smile; “is not Perrenot the lion of this fable? Who is it that is striving to settle the new order?” No epigram was made that did not blister him; not one after-din- ner speech but took him for its text. At last the ® Papiers d’Etat, tom. 6, p. 554. t+ Ibid., pp. 552-562. $ Cor. de Phil. IL, tom. 1, p. 207. QUICKSANDS.~ 219 complacent prelate, who had patted the new arrange- ment on the head and styled it “a holy work,” warmly pledging fortune, blood, and life to its suc- cess, wailed this prayer in the ears of the Spanish ambassador at Rome: “ Would to God that the erection of these new sees had never been thought of. Amen; amen.’’* The excitement of the people, already finding voice in a menacing chorus, was tuned to a still higher pitch by the continued retention of the Span- ish soldiers in the Netherlands. Three months, six mouths, nine months, twelve months passed, and yet they lingered, in the teeth of the royal promise that they should be speedily removed.t ‘“ What- ever else is left undone, retain the men-at arms,” said the royal liar to the minister, at their parting interview.t Perrenot strained every nerve to obey the mandate. Setting his imagination at work, he invented evils which the presence of the soldiers could alone avert. Trading on credulity, he based their tarry on events which he knew would never take place. Thus, by elevating fables into realities, he illustrated the old saying, that “there is nothing so false as figures but facts.” But the platitudes of the prelate were unheeded. It was an open secret that the men-at-arms were part and parcel of the conspiracy against the states.$ Fiercer and louder grew the clamor. The Zealand- * Papiers d’Etat, tom. 6, p. 341. Cited in Motley, vol. 1, p. 275, and in Prescott, vol. 1, p. 501. } Chap. XIL, p. 212. } Vandervynckt, Meteren. § Apologie d’Orange. 220 THE DUTCH REFORMATION. ers, among whom the mercenaries were quartered for a time, were so exasperated at their presence that they refused to go near the dykes, then in need of the annual repairs, and indeed threatened to swamp the province, unless speedily ridden of the -pest.* Some time before Margaret learned of the feel- ing in Zealand, she had cajoled the Low Country merchants into advancing the pay of these soldiers, on pretext of the necessity of settling their arrears before removing them, pledging the royal treasury to refund the debt.t Now, disgusted with the treaty of Philip, and convinced that there was no intention to send off the troops, they too lent their voices to swell the chorus of dissatisfaction, and even went so far as to refuse to pay their taxes to the government collectors.{ At last the court was alarmed. In October, 1560, a session of the council of state was held, on which occasion Orange threw up the command of his legion, and affirmed, supported by Viglius and by the primate himself, that the longer retention of the Spanish regiments would inevitably provoke a revolt. The governant begged that action might be deferred until the return of Egmont, then absent on an embassy to Spain, but expecting ere long to return to Brussels; but this proposition was nega- tived without dissent.§ * Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas. + Meteren, Grotius. } Strada, p. 51. § Documents Inedits, tom. 1, pp. 330, 331. QUICKSANDS. 221 Nothing remained but to succumb.