III. God in His election has not looked at the belief and the repentance

of the elect; but, on the contrary, in His eternal and unchangeable

design, has resolved to give to the elect faith and stedfastness, and

thus to make them blessed.

IV. He, to this end, in the first place, presented to them His only

begotten Son, whose sufferings, although sufficient for the expiation of

all men's sins, nevertheless, according to God's decree, serves alone to

the reconciliation of the elect.

V. God causest he Gospel to be preached to them, making the same through

the Holy Ghost, of strength upon their minds; so that they not merely

obtain power to repent and to believe, but also actually and voluntarily

do repent and believe.

VI. Such elect, through the same power of the Holy Ghost through which

they have once become repentant and believing, are kept in such wise that

they indeed through weakness fall into heavy sins; but can never wholly

and for always lose the true faith.

VII. True believers from this, however, draw no reason for fleshly quiet,

it being impossible that they who through a true faith were planted in

Christ should bring forth no fruits of thankfulness; the promises of

God's help and the warnings of Scripture tending to make their salvation

work in them in fear and trembling, and to cause them more earnestly to

desire help from that spirit without which they can do nothing.

There shall be no more setting forth of these subtle and finely wrought

abstractions in our pages. We aspire not to the lofty heights of

theological and supernatural contemplation, where the atmosphere becomes

too rarefied for ordinary constitutions. Rather we attempt an objective

and level survey of remarkable phenomena manifesting themselves on the

earth; direct or secondary emanations from those distant spheres.

For in those days, and in that land especially, theology and politics

were one. It may be questioned at least whether this practical fusion of

elements, which may with more safety to the Commonwealth be kept

separate, did not tend quite as much to lower and contaminate the

religious sentiments as to elevate the political idea. To mix habitually

the solemn phraseology which men love to reserve for their highest and

most sacred needs with the familiar slang of politics and trade seems to

our generation not a very desirable proceeding.

The aroma of doubly distilled and highly sublimated dogma is more

difficult to catch than to comprehend the broader and more practical

distinctions of every-day party strife.

King James was furious at the thought that common men--the vulgar, the

people in short--should dare to discuss deep problems of divinity which,

as he confessed, had puzzled even his royal mind. Barneveld modestly

disclaimed the power of seeing with absolute clearness into things beyond

the reach of the human intellect. But the honest Netherlanders were not

abashed by thunder from the royal pulpit, nor perplexed by hesitations

which darkened the soul of the great Advocate.

In burghers' mansions, peasants' cottages, mechanics' back-parlours, on

board herring smacks, canal boats, and East Indiamen; in shops,

counting-rooms, farmyards, guard-rooms, ale-houses; on the exchange, in

the tennis-court, on the mall; at banquets, at burials, christenings, or

bridals; wherever and whenever human creatures met each other,

there was ever to be found the fierce wrangle of Remonstrant and

Contra-Remonstrant, the hissing of red-hot theological rhetoric, the

pelting of hostile texts. The blacksmith's iron cooled on the anvil, the

tinker dropped a kettle half mended, the broker left a bargain

unclinched, the Scheveningen fisherman in his wooden shoes forgot the

cracks in his pinkie, while each paused to hold high converse with friend

or foe on fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge; losing himself in

wandering mazes whence there was no issue. Province against province,

city against city, family against family; it was one vast scene of

bickering, denunciation, heart-burnings, mutual excommunication and

hatred.

Alas! a generation of mankind before, men had stood banded together to

resist, with all the might that comes from union, the fell spirit of the

Holy Inquisition, which was dooming all who had wandered from the ancient

fold or resisted foreign tyranny to the axe, the faggot, the living

grave. There had been small leisure then for men who fought for

Fatherland, and for comparative liberty of conscience, to tear each

others' characters in pieces, and to indulge in mutual hatreds and

loathing on the question of predestination.

As a rule the population, especially of the humbler classes, and a great

majority of the preachers were Contra-Remonstrant; the magistrates, the

burgher patricians, were Remonstrant. In Holland the controlling

influence was Remonstrant; but Amsterdam and four or five other cities of

that province held to the opposite doctrine. These cities formed

therefore a small minority in the States Assembly of Holland sustained by

a large majority in the States-General. The Province of Utrecht was

almost unanimously Remonstrant. The five other provinces were decidedly

Contra-Remonstrant.

It is obvious therefore that the influence of Barneveld, hitherto so

all-controlling in the States-General, and which rested on the complete

submission of the States of Holland to his will, was tottering. The

battle-line between Church and State was now drawn up; and it was at the

same time a battle between the union and the principles of state

sovereignty.

It had long since been declared through the mouth of the Advocate, but in

a solemn state manifesto, that My Lords the States-General were the

foster-fathers and the natural protectors of the Church, to whom supreme

authority in church matters belonged.

The Contra-Remonstrants, on the other hand, maintained that all the

various churches made up one indivisible church, seated above the States,

whether Provincial or General, and governed by the Holy Ghost acting

directly upon the congregations.

As the schism grew deeper and the States-General receded from the

position which they had taken up under the lead of the Advocate, the

scene was changed. A majority of the Provinces being Contra-Remonstrant,

and therefore in favour of a National Synod, the States-General as a body

were of necessity for the Synod.

It was felt by the clergy that, if many churches existed, they would all

remain subject to the civil authority. The power of the priesthood would

thus sink before that of the burgher aristocracy. There must be one

church--the Church of Geneva and Heidelberg--if that theocracy which the

Gomarites meant to establish was not to vanish as a dream. It was founded

on Divine Right, and knew no chief magistrate but the Holy Ghost. A few

years before the States-General had agreed to a National Synod, but with

a condition that there should be revision of the Netherland Confession

and the Heidelberg Catechism.

Against this the orthodox infallibilists had protested and thundered,

because it was an admission that the vile Arminian heresy might perhaps

be declared correct. It was now however a matter of certainty that the

States-General would cease to oppose the unconditional Synod, because the

majority sided with the priesthood.

The magistrates of Leyden had not long before opposed the demand for a

Synod on the ground that the war against Spain was not undertaken to

maintain one sect; that men of various sects and creeds had fought with

equal valour against the common foe; that religious compulsion was

hateful, and that no synod had a right to claim Netherlanders as slaves.

To thoughtful politicians like Barneveld, Hugo Grotius, and men who acted

with them, fraught with danger to the state, that seemed a doctrine by

which mankind were not regarded as saved or doomed according to belief or

deeds, but as individuals divided from all eternity into two classes

which could never be united, but must ever mutually regard each other as

enemies.

And like enemies Netherlanders were indeed beginning to regard each

other. The man who, banded like brothers, had so heroically fought for

two generations long for liberty against an almost superhuman despotism,

now howling and jeering against each other like demons, seemed determined

to bring the very name of liberty into contempt.

Where the Remonstrants were in the ascendant, they excited the hatred and

disgust of the orthodox by their overbearing determination to carry their

Five Points. A broker in Rotterdam of the Contra-Remonstrant persuasion,

being about to take a wife, swore he had rather be married by a pig than

a parson. For this sparkling epigram he was punished by the Remonstrant

magistracy with loss of his citizenship for a year and the right to

practise his trade for life. A casuistical tinker, expressing himself

violently in the same city against the Five Points, and disrespectfully

towards the magistrates for tolerating them, was banished from the town.

A printer in the neighbourhood, disgusted with these and similar efforts

of tyranny on the part of the dominant party, thrust a couple of lines of

doggrel into the lottery:

"In name of the Prince of Orange, I ask once and again,

What difference between the Inquisition of Rotterdam and Spain?"

For this poetical effort the printer was sentenced to forfeit the prize

that he had drawn in the lottery, and to be kept in prison on bread and

water for a fortnight.

Certainly such punishments were hardly as severe as being beheaded or

burned or buried alive, as would have been the lot of tinkers and

printers and brokers who opposed the established church in the days of

Alva, but the demon of intolerance, although its fangs were drawn, still

survived, and had taken possession of both parties in the Reformed

Church. For it was the Remonstrants who had possession of the churches at

Rotterdam, and the printer's distich is valuable as pointing out that the

name of Orange was beginning to identify itself with the

Contra-Remonstrant faction. At this time, on the other hand, the gabble

that Barneveld had been bought by Spanish gold, and was about to sell his

country to Spain, became louder than a whisper. Men were not ashamed,

from theological hatred, to utter such senseless calumnies against a

venerable statesman whose long life had been devoted to the cause of his

country's independence and to the death struggle with Spain.

As if because a man admitted the possibility of all his fellow-creatures

being saved from damnation through repentance and the grace of God, he

must inevitably be a traitor to his country and a pensionary of her

deadliest foe.

And where the Contra-Remonstrants held possession of the churches and the

city governments, acts of tyranny which did not then seem ridiculous were

of everyday occurrence. Clergymen, suspected of the Five Points, were

driven out of the pulpits with bludgeons or assailed with brickbats at

the church door. At Amsterdam, Simon Goulart, for preaching the doctrine

of universal salvation and for disputing the eternal damnation of young

children, was forbidden thenceforth to preach at all.

But it was at the Hague that the schism in religion and politics first

fatally widened itself. Henry Rosaeus, an eloquent divine, disgusted with

his colleague Uytenbogaert, refused all communion with him, and was in

consequence suspended. Excluded from the Great Church, where he had

formerly ministered, he preached every Sunday at Ryswyk, two or three

miles distant. Seven hundred Contra-Remonstrants of the Hague followed

their beloved pastor, and, as the roads to Ryswyk were muddy and sloppy

in winter, acquired the unsavoury nickname of the "Mud Beggars." The

vulgarity of heart which suggested the appellation does not inspire

to-day great sympathy with the Remonstrant party, even if one were

inclined to admit, what is not the fact, that they represented the cause

of religious equality. For even the illustrious Grotius was at that very

moment repudiating the notion that there could be two religions in one

state. "Difference in public worship," he said, "was in kingdoms

pernicious, but in free commonwealths in the highest degree destructive."

It was the struggle between Church and State for supremacy over the whole

body politic. "The Reformation," said Grotius, "was not brought about by

synods, but by kings, princes, and magistrates." It was the same eternal

story, the same terrible two-edged weapon, "Cujus reggio ejus religio,"

found in the arsenal of the first Reformers, and in every

politico-religious arsenal of history.

"By an eternal decree of God," said Gomarus in accordance with Calvin,

"it has been fixed who are to be saved and who damned. By His decree some

are drawn to faith and godliness, and, being drawn, can never fall away.

God leaves all the rest in the general corruption of human nature and

their own misdeeds."

"God has from eternity made this distinction in the fallen human race,"

said Arminius, "that He pardons those who desist from their sins and put

their faith in Christ, and will give them eternal life, but will punish

those who remain impenitent. Moreover, it is pleasanter to God that all

men should repent, and, coming to knowledge of truth, remain therein, but

He compels none."

This was the vital difference of dogma. And it was because they could

hold no communion with those who believed in the efficacy of repentance

that Rosaeus and his followers had seceded to Ryswyk, and the Reformed

Church had been torn into two very unequal parts. But it is difficult to

believe that out of this arid field of controversy so plentiful a harvest

of hatred and civil convulsion could have ripened. More practical than

the insoluble problems, whether repentance could effect salvation, and

whether dead infants were hopelessly damned, was the question who should

rule both Church and State.

There could be but one church. On that Remonstrants and

Contra-Remonstrants were agreed. But should the five Points or the Seven

Points obtain the mastery? Should that framework of hammered iron, the

Confession and Catechism, be maintained in all its rigidity around the

sheepfold, or should the disciples of the arch-heretic Arminius, the

salvation-mongers, be permitted to prowl within it?

Was Barneveld, who hated the Reformed religion (so men told each other),

and who believed in nothing, to continue dictator of the whole Republic

through his influence over one province, prescribing its religious dogmas

and laying down its laws; or had not the time come for the States-General

to vindicate the rights of the Church, and to crush for ever the

pernicious principle of State sovereignty and burgher oligarchy?

The abyss was wide and deep, and the wild waves were raging more madly

every hour. The Advocate, anxious and troubled, but undismayed, did his

best in the terrible emergency. He conferred with Prince Maurice on the

subject of the Ryswyk secession, and men said that he sought to impress

upon him, as chief of the military forces, the necessity of putting down

religious schism with the armed hand.

The Prince had not yet taken a decided position. He was still under the

influence of John Uytenbogaert, who with Arminius and the Advocate made

up the fateful three from whom deadly disasters were deemed to have come

upon the Commonwealth. He wished to remain neutral. But no man can be

neutral in civil contentions threatening the life of the body politic any

more than the heart can be indifferent if the human frame is sawn in two.

"I am a soldier," said Maurice, "not a divine. These are matters of

theology which I don't understand, and about which I don't trouble

myself."

On another occasion he is reported to have said, "I know nothing of

predestination, whether it is green or whether it is blue; but I do know

that the Advocate's pipe and mine will never play the same tune."

It was not long before he fully comprehended the part which he must

necessarily play. To say that he was indifferent to religious matters was

as ridiculous as to make a like charge against Barneveld. Both were

religious men. It would have been almost impossible to find an

irreligious character in that country, certainly not among its

highest-placed and leading minds. Maurice had strong intellectual powers.

He was a regular attendant on divine worship, and was accustomed to hear

daily religious discussions. To avoid them indeed, he would have been

obliged not only to fly his country, but to leave Europe. He had a

profound reverence for the memory of his father, Calbo y Calbanista, as

William the Silent had called himself. But the great prince had died

before these fierce disputes had torn the bosom of the Reformed Church,

and while Reformers still were brethren. But if Maurice were a religious

man, he was also a keen politician; a less capable politician, however,

than a soldier, for he was confessedly the first captain of his age. He

was not rapid in his conceptions, but he was sure in the end to

comprehend his opportunity.

The Church, the people, the Union--the sacerdotal, the democratic, and

the national element--united under a name so potent to conjure with as

the name of Orange-Nassau, was stronger than any other possible

combination. Instinctively and logically therefore the Stadholder found

himself the chieftain of the Contra-Remonstrant party, and without the

necessity of an apostasy such as had been required of his great

contemporary to make himself master of France.

The power of Barneveld and his partisans was now put to a severe strain.

His efforts to bring back the Hague seceders were powerless. The

influence of Uytenbogaert over the Stadholder steadily diminished. He

prayed to be relieved from his post in the Great Church of the Hague,

especially objecting to serve with a Contra-Remonstrant preacher whom

Maurice wished to officiate there in place of the seceding Rosaeus. But

the Stadholder refused to let him go, fearing his influence in other

places. "There is stuff in him," said Maurice, "to outweigh half a dozen

Contra-Remonstrant preachers." Everywhere in Holland the opponents of the

Five Points refused to go to the churches, and set up tabernacles for

themselves in barns, outhouses, canal-boats. And the authorities in town

and village nailed up the barn-doors, and dispersed the canal boat

congregations, while the populace pelted them with stones. The seceders

appealed to the Stadholder, pleading that at least they ought to be

allowed to hear the word of God as they understood it without being

forced into churches where they were obliged to hear Arminian blasphemy.

At least their barns might be left them. "Barns," said Maurice, "barns

and outhouses! Are we to preach in barns? The churches belong to us, and

we mean to have them too."

Not long afterwards the Stadholder, clapping his hand on his sword hilt,

observed that these differences could only be settled by force of arms.

An ominous remark and a dreary comment on the forty years' war against

the Inquisition.

And the same scenes that were enacting in Holland were going on in

Overyssel and Friesland and Groningen; but with a difference. Here it was

the Five Points men who were driven into secession, whose barns were

nailed up, and whose preachers were mobbed. A lugubrious spectacle, but

less painful certainly than the hangings and drownings and burnings alive

in the previous century to prevent secession from the indivisible church.

It is certain that stadholders and all other magistrates ever since the

establishment of independence were sworn to maintain the Reformed

religion and to prevent a public divine worship under any other form. It

is equally certain that by the 13th Article of the Act of Union--the

organic law of the confederation made at Utrecht in 1579--each province

reserved for itself full control of religious questions. It would indeed

seem almost unimaginable in a country where not only every province, but

every city, every municipal board, was so jealous of its local privileges

and traditional rights that the absolute disposition over the highest,

gravest, and most difficult questions that can inspire and perplex

humanity should be left to a general government, and one moreover which

had scarcely come into existence.

Yet into this entirely illogical position the Commonwealth was steadily

drifting. The cause was simple enough. The States of Holland, as already

observed, were Remonstrant by a large majority. The States-General were

Contra-Remonstrant by a still greater majority. The Church, rigidly

attached to the Confession and Catechism, and refusing all change except

through decree of a synod to be called by the general government which it

controlled, represented the national idea. It thus identified itself with

the Republic, and was in sympathy with a large majority of the

population.

Logic, law, historical tradition were on the side of the Advocate and the

States' right party. The instinct of national self-preservation,

repudiating the narrow and destructive doctrine of provincial

sovereignty, were on the side of the States-General and the Church.

Meantime James of Great Britain had written letters both to the States of

Holland and the States-General expressing his satisfaction with the Five

Points, and deciding that there was nothing objectionable in the doctrine

of predestination therein set forth. He had recommended unity and peace

in Church and Assembly, and urged especially that these controverted

points should not be discussed in the pulpit to the irritation and

perplexity of the common people.

The King's letters had produced much satisfaction in the moderate party.

Barneveld and his followers were then still in the ascendant, and it

seemed possible that the Commonwealth might enjoy a few moments of

tranquillity. That James had given a new exhibition of his astounding

inconsistency was a matter very indifferent to all but himself, and he

was the last man to trouble himself for that reproach.

It might happen, when he should come to realize how absolutely he had

obeyed the tuition of the Advocate and favoured the party which he had

been so vehemently opposing, that he might regret and prove willing to

retract. But for the time being the course of politics had seemed running

smoother. The acrimony of the relations between the English government

and dominant party at the Hague was sensibly diminished. The King seemed

for an instant to have obtained a true insight into the nature of the

struggle in the States. That it was after all less a theological than a

political question which divided parties had at last dawned upon him.

"If you have occasion to write on the subject," said Barneveld, "it is

above all necessary to make it clear that ecclesiastical persons and

their affairs must stand under the direction of the sovereign authority,

for our preachers understand that the disposal of ecclesiastical persons

and affairs belongs to them, so that they alone are to appoint preachers,

elders, deacons, and other clerical persons, and to regulate the whole

ecclesiastical administration according to their pleasure or by a popular

government which they call the community."

"The Counts of Holland from all ancient times were never willing under

the Papacy to surrender their right of presentation to the churches and

control of all spiritual and ecclesiastical benefices. The Emperor

Charles and King Philip even, as Counts of Holland, kept these rights to

themselves, save that they in enfeoffing more than a hundred gentlemen,

of noble and ancient families with seigniorial manors, enfeoffed them

also with the right of presentation to churches and benefices on their

respective estates. Our preachers pretend to have won this right against

the Countship, the gentlemen, nobles, and others, and that it belongs to

them."

It is easy to see that this was a grave, constitutional, legal, and

historical problem not to be solved offhand by vehement citations from

Scripture, nor by pragmatical dissertations from the lips of foreign

ambassadors.

"I believe this point," continued Barneveld, "to be the most difficult

question of all, importing far more than subtle searchings and

conflicting sentiments as to passages of Holy Writ, or disputations

concerning God's eternal predestination and other points thereupon

depending. Of these doctrines the Archbishop of Canterbury well observed

in the Conference of 1604 that one ought to teach them ascendendo and not

descendendo."

The letters of the King had been very favourably received both in the

States-General and in the Assembly of Holland. "You will present the

replies," wrote Barneveld to the ambassador in London, "at the best

opportunity and with becoming compliments. You may be assured and assure

his Majesty that they have been very agreeable to both assemblies. Our

commissioners over there on the East Indian matter ought to know nothing

of these letters."

This statement is worthy of notice, as Grotius was one of those

commissioners, and, as will subsequently appear, was accused of being the

author of the letters.

"I understand from others," continued the Advocate, "that the gentleman

well known to you--[Obviously Francis Aerssens]--is not well pleased that

through other agency than his these letters have been written and

presented. I think too that the other business is much against his grain,

but on the whole since your departure he has accommodated himself to the

situation."

But if Aerssens for the moment seemed quiet, the orthodox clergy were

restive.

"I know," said Barneveld, "that some of our ministers are so audacious

that of themselves, or through others, they mean to work by direct or

indirect means against these letters. They mean to show likewise that

there are other and greater differences of doctrine than those already

discussed. You will keep a sharp eye on the sails and provide against the

effect of counter-currents. To maintain the authority of their Great

Mightinesses over ecclesiastical matters is more than necessary for the

conservation of the country's welfare and of the true Christian religion.

As his Majesty would not allow this principle to be controverted in his

own realms, as his books clearly prove, so we trust that he will not find

it good that it should be controverted in our state as sure to lead to a

very disastrous and inequitable sequel."

And a few weeks later the Advocate and the whole party of toleration

found themselves, as is so apt to be the case, between two fires. The

Catholics became as turbulent as the extreme Calvinists, and already

hopes were entertained by Spanish emissaries and spies that this rapidly

growing schism in the Reformed Church might be dexterously made use of to

bring the Provinces, when they should become fairly distracted, back to

the dominion of Spain.

"Our precise zealots in the Reformed religion, on the one side," wrote

Barneveld, "and the Jesuits on the other, are vigorously kindling the

fire of discord. Keep a good lookout for the countermine which is now

working against the good advice of his Majesty for mutual toleration. The

publication of the letters was done without order, but I believe with

good intent, in the hope that the vehemence and exorbitance of some

precise Puritans in our State should thereby be checked. That which is

now doing against us in printed libels is the work of the aforesaid

Puritans and a few Jesuits. The pretence in those libels, that there are

other differences in the matter of doctrine, is mere fiction designed to

make trouble and confusion."

In the course of the autumn, Sir Ralph Winwood departed from the Hague,

to assume soon afterwards in England the position of secretary of state

for foreign affairs. He did not take personal farewell of Barneveld, the

Advocate being absent in North Holland at the moment, and detained there

by indisposition. The leave-taking was therefore by letter. He had done

much to injure the cause which the Dutch statesman held vital to the

Republic, and in so doing he had faithfully carried out the instructions

of his master. Now that James had written these conciliatory letters to

the States, recommending toleration, letters destined to be famous,

Barneveld was anxious that the retiring ambassador should foster the

spirit of moderation, which for a moment prevailed at the British court.

But he was not very hopeful in the matter.

"Mr. Winwood is doubtless over there now," he wrote to Caron. "He has

promised in public and private to do all good offices. The States-General

made him a present on his departure of the value of L4000. I fear

nevertheless that he, especially in religious matters, will not do the

best offices. For besides that he is himself very hard and precise, those

who in this country are hard and precise have made a dead set at him, and

tried to make him devoted to their cause, through many fictitious and

untruthful means."

The Advocate, as so often before, sent assurances to the King that "the

States-General, and especially the States of Holland, were resolved to

maintain the genuine Reformed religion, and oppose all novelties and

impurities conflicting with it," and the Ambassador was instructed to see

that the countermine, worked so industriously against his Majesty's

service and the honour and reputation of the Provinces, did not prove

successful.

"To let the good mob play the master," he said, "and to permit hypocrites

and traitors in the Flemish manner to get possession of the government of

the provinces and cities, and to cause upright patriots whose faith and

truth has so long been proved, to be abandoned, by the blessing of God,

shall never be accomplished. Be of good heart, and cause these Flemish

tricks to be understood on every occasion, and let men know that we mean

to maintain, with unchanging constancy, the authority of the government,

the privileges and laws of the country, as well as the true Reformed

religion."

The statesman was more than ever anxious for moderate counsels in the

religious questions, for it was now more important than ever that there

should be concord in the Provinces, for the cause of Protestantism, and

with it the existence of the Republic, seemed in greater danger than at

any moment since the truce. It appeared certain that the alliance between

France and Spain had been arranged, and that the Pope, Spain, the

Grand-duke of Tuscany, and their various adherents had organized a strong

combination, and were enrolling large armies to take the field in the

spring, against the Protestant League of the princes and electors in

Germany. The great king was dead. The Queen-Regent was in the hand of

Spain, or dreamed at least of an impossible neutrality, while the priest

who was one day to resume the part of Henry, and to hang upon the sword

of France the scales in which the opposing weights of Protestantism and

Catholicism in Europe were through so many awful years to be balanced,

was still an obscure bishop.

The premonitory signs of the great religious war in Germany were not to

be mistaken. In truth, the great conflict had already opened in the

duchies, although few men as yet comprehended the full extent of that

movement. The superficial imagined that questions of hereditary

succession, like those involved in the dispute, were easily to be settled

by statutes of descent, expounded by doctors of law, and sustained, if

needful, by a couple of comparatively bloodless campaigns. Those who

looked more deeply into causes felt that the limitations of Imperial

authority, the ambition of a great republic, suddenly starting into

existence out of nothing, and the great issues of the religious

reformation, were matters not so easily arranged. When the scene shifted,

as it was so soon to do, to the heart of Bohemia, when Protestantism had

taken the Holy Roman Empire by the beard in its ancient palace, and

thrown Imperial stadholders out of window, it would be evident to the

blindest that something serious was taking place.

Meantime Barneveld, ever watchful of passing events, knew that great

forces of Catholicism were marshalling in the south. Three armies were to

take the field against Protestantism at the orders of Spain and the Pope.

One at the door of the Republic, and directed especially against the

Netherlands, was to resume the campaign in the duchies, and to prevent

any aid going to Protestant Germany from Great Britain or from Holland.

Another in the Upper Palatinate was to make the chief movement against

the Evangelical hosts. A third in Austria was to keep down the Protestant

party in Bohemia, Hungary, Austria, Moravia, and Silesia. To sustain this

movement, it was understood that all the troops then in Italy were to be

kept all the winter on a war footing.'

Was this a time for the great Protestant party in the Netherlands to tear

itself in pieces for a theological subtlety, about which good Christians

might differ without taking each other by the throat?

"I do not lightly believe or fear," said the Advocate, in communicating a

survey of European affairs at that moment to Carom "but present advices

from abroad make me apprehend dangers."

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Aristocracy of God's elect

Determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt

Disputing the eternal damnation of young children

Fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge

Louis XIII.

No man can be neutral in civil contentions

No synod had a right to claim Netherlanders as slaves

Philip IV.

Priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests

Schism in the Church had become a public fact

That cynical commerce in human lives

The voice of slanderers

Theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country

Theology and politics were one

To look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures

Whether dead infants were hopelessly damned

Whether repentance could effect salvation

Whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans

Work of the aforesaid Puritans and a few Jesuits

THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND

WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR

By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D.

Life of John of Barneveld, 1613-15

CHAPTER IX.

Aerssens remains Two Years longer in France--Derives many Personal

Advantages from his Post--He visits the States-General--Aubery du

Maurier appointed French Ambassador--He demands the Recall of

Aerssens--Peace of Sainte-Menehould--Asperen de Langerac appointed

in Aerssens' Place.

Francis Aerssens had remained longer at his post than had been intended

by the resolution of the States of Holland, passed in May 1611.

It is an exemplification of the very loose constitutional framework of

the United Provinces that the nomination of the ambassador to France

belonged to the States of Holland, by whom his salary was paid, although,

of course, he was the servant of the States-General, to whom his public

and official correspondence was addressed. His most important despatches

were however written directly to Barneveld so long as he remained in

power, who had also the charge of the whole correspondence, public or

private, with all the envoys of the States.

Aerssens had, it will be remembered, been authorized to stay one year

longer in France if he thought he could be useful there. He stayed two

years, and on the whole was not useful. He had too many eyes and too many

ears. He had become mischievous by the very activity of his intelligence.

He was too zealous. There were occasions in France at that moment in

which it was as well to be blind and deaf. It was impossible for the

Republic, unless driven to it by dire necessity, to quarrel with its

great ally. It had been calculated by Duplessis-Mornay that France had

paid subsidies to the Provinces amounting from first to last to 200

millions of livres. This was an enormous exaggeration. It was Barneveld's

estimate that before the truce the States had received from France eleven

millions of florins in cash, and during the truce up to the year 1613,

3,600,000 in addition, besides a million still due, making a total of

about fifteen millions. During the truce France kept two regiments of

foot amounting to 4200 soldiers and two companies of cavalry in Holland

at the service of the States, for which she was bound to pay yearly

600,000 livres. And the Queen-Regent had continued all the treaties by

which these arrangements were secured, and professed sincere and

continuous friendship for the States. While the French-Spanish marriages

gave cause for suspicion, uneasiness, and constant watchfulness in the

States, still the neutrality of France was possible in the coming storm.

So long as that existed, particularly when the relations of England with

Holland through the unfortunate character of King James were perpetually

strained to a point of imminent rupture, it was necessary to hold as long

as it was possible to the slippery embrace of France.

But Aerssens was almost aggressive in his attitude. He rebuked the

vacillations, the shortcomings, the imbecility, of the Queen's government

in offensive terms. He consorted openly with the princes who were on the

point of making war upon the Queen-Regent. He made a boast to the

Secretary of State Villeroy that he had unravelled all his secret plots

against the Netherlands. He declared it to be understood in France, since

the King's death, by the dominant and Jesuitical party that the crown

depended temporally as well as spiritually on the good pleasure of the

Pope.

No doubt he was perfectly right in many of his opinions. No ruler or

statesman in France worthy of the name would hesitate, in the impending

religious conflict throughout Europe and especially in Germany, to

maintain for the kingdom that all controlling position which was its

splendid privilege. But to preach this to Mary de' Medici was waste of

breath. She was governed by the Concini's, and the Concini's were

governed by Spain. The woman who was believed to have known beforehand of

the plot to murder her great husband, who had driven the one powerful

statesman on whom the King relied, Maximilian de Bethune, into

retirement, and whose foreign affairs were now completely in the hands of

the ancient Leaguer Villeroy--who had served every government in the

kingdom for forty years--was not likely to be accessible to high views of

public policy.

Two years had now elapsed since the first private complaints against the

Ambassador, and the French government were becoming impatient at his

presence. Aerssens had been supported by Prince Maurice, to whom he had

long paid his court. He was likewise loyally protected by Barneveld, whom

he publicly flattered and secretly maligned. But it was now necessary

that he should be gone if peaceful relations with France were to be

preserved.

After all, the Ambassador had not made a bad business of his embassy from

his own point of view. A stranger in the Republic, for his father the

Greffier was a refugee from Brabant, he had achieved through his own

industry and remarkable talents, sustained by the favour of Barneveld--to

whom he owed all his diplomatic appointments--an eminent position in

Europe. Secretary to the legation to France in 1594, he had been

successively advanced to the post of resident agent, and when the

Republic had been acknowledged by the great powers, to that of

ambassador. The highest possible functions that representatives of

emperors and kings could enjoy had been formally recognized in the person

of the minister of a new-born republic. And this was at a moment when,

with exception of the brave but insignificant cantons of Switzerland, the

Republic had long been an obsolete idea.

In a pecuniary point of view, too, he had not fared badly during his

twenty years of diplomatic office. He had made much money in various

ways. The King not long before his death sent him one day 20,000 florins

as a present, with a promise soon to do much more for him.

Having been placed in so eminent a post, he considered it as due to

himself to derive all possible advantage from it. "Those who serve at the

altar," he said a little while after his return, "must learn to live by

it. I served their High Mightinesses at the court of a great king, and

his Majesty's liberal and gracious favours were showered upon me. My

upright conscience and steady obsequiousness greatly aided me. I did not

look upon opportunity with folded arms, but seized it and made my profit

by it. Had I not met with such fortunate accidents, my office would not

have given me dry bread."

Nothing could exceed the frankness and indeed the cynicism with which the

Ambassador avowed his practice of converting his high and sacred office

into merchandise. And these statements of his should be scanned closely,

because at this very moment a cry was distantly rising, which at a later

day was to swell into a roar, that the great Advocate had been bribed and

pensioned. Nothing had occurred to justify such charges, save that at the

period of the truce he had accepted from the King of France a fee of

20,000 florins for extra official and legal services rendered him a dozen

years before, and had permitted his younger son to hold the office of

gentleman-in-waiting at the French court with the usual salary attached

to it. The post, certainly not dishonourable in itself, had been intended

by the King as a kindly compliment to the leading statesman of his great

and good ally the Republic. It would be difficult to say why such a

favour conferred on the young man should be held more discreditable to

the receiver than the Order of the Garter recently bestowed upon the

great soldier of the Republic by another friendly sovereign. It is

instructive however to note the language in which Francis Aerssens spoke

of favours and money bestowed by a foreign monarch upon himself, for

Aerssens had come back from his embassy full of gall and bitterness

against Barneveld. Thenceforth he was to be his evil demon.

"I didn't inherit property," said this diplomatist. "My father and

mother, thank God, are yet living. I have enjoyed the King's liberality.

It was from an ally, not an enemy, of our country. Were every man obliged

to give a reckoning of everything he possesses over and above his

hereditary estates, who in the government would pass muster? Those who

declare that they have served their country in her greatest trouble, and

lived in splendid houses and in service of princes and great companies

and the like on a yearly salary of 4000 florins, may not approve these

maxims."

It should be remembered that Barneveld, if this was a fling at the

Advocate, had acquired a large fortune by marriage, and, although

certainly not averse from gathering gear, had, as will be seen on a

subsequent page, easily explained the manner in which his property had

increased. No proof was ever offered or attempted of the anonymous

calumnies levelled at him in this regard.

"I never had the management of finances," continued Aerssens. "My profits

I have gained in foreign parts. My condition of life is without excess,

and in my opinion every means are good so long as they are honourable and

legal. They say my post was given me by the Advocate. Ergo, all my

fortune comes from the Advocate. Strenuously to have striven to make

myself agreeable to the King and his counsellors, while fulfilling my

office with fidelity and honour, these are the arts by which I have

prospered, so that my splendour dazzles the eyes of the envious. The

greediness of those who believe that the sun should shine for them alone

was excited, and so I was obliged to resign the embassy."

So long as Henry lived, the Dutch ambassador saw him daily, and at all

hours, privately, publicly, when he would. Rarely has a foreign envoy at

any court, at any period of history, enjoyed such privileges of being

useful to his government. And there is no doubt that the services of

Aerssens had been most valuable to his country, notwithstanding his

constant care to increase his private fortune through his public

opportunities. He was always ready to be useful to Henry likewise. When

that monarch same time before the truce, and occasionally during the

preliminary negotiations for it, had formed a design to make himself

sovereign of the Provinces, it was Aerssens who charged himself with the

scheme, and would have furthered it with all his might, had the project

not met with opposition both from the Advocate and the Stadholder.

Subsequently it appeared probable that Maurice would not object to the

sovereignty himself, and the Ambassador in Paris, with the King's

consent, was not likely to prove himself hostile to the Prince's

ambition.

"There is but this means alone," wrote Jeannini to Villeroy, "that can

content him, although hitherto he has done like the rowers, who never

look toward the place whither they wish to go." The attempt of the Prince

to sound Barneveld on this subject through the Princess-Dowager has

already been mentioned, and has much intrinsic probability.

Thenceforward, the republican form of government, the municipal

oligarchies, began to consolidate their power. Yet although the people as

such were not sovereigns, but subjects, and rarely spoken of by the

aristocratic magistrates save with a gentle and patronizing disdain, they

enjoyed a larger liberty than was known anywhere else in the world.

Buzenval was astonished at the "infinite and almost unbridled freedom"

which he witnessed there during his embassy, and which seemed to him

however "without peril to the state."

The extraordinary means possessed by Aerssens to be important and useful

vanished with the King's death. His secret despatches, painting in sombre

and sarcastic colours the actual condition of affairs at the French

court, were sent back in copy to the French court itself. It was not

known who had played the Ambassador this vilest of tricks, but it was

done during an illness of Barneveld, and without his knowledge. Early in

the year 1613 Aerssens resolved, not to take his final departure, but to

go home on leave of absence. His private intention was to look for some

substantial office of honour and profit at home. Failing of this, he

meant to return to Paris. But with an eye to the main chance as usual, he

ingeniously caused it to be understood at court, without making positive

statements to that effect, that his departure was final. On his

leavetaking, accordingly, he received larger presents from the crown than

had been often given to a retiring ambassador. At least 20,000 florins

were thus added to the frugal store of profits on which he prided

himself. Had he merely gone away on leave of absence, he would have

received no presents whatever. But he never went back. The Queen-Regent

and her ministers were so glad to get rid of him, and so little disposed,

in the straits in which they found themselves, to quarrel with the

powerful republic, as to be willing to write very complimentary public

letters to the States, concerning the character and conduct of the man

whom they so much detested.

Pluming himself upon these, Aerssens made his appearance in the Assembly

of the States-General, to give account by word of mouth of the condition

of affairs, speaking as if he had only come by permission of their

Mightinesses for temporary purposes. Two months later he was summoned

before the Assembly, and ordered to return to his post.

Meantime a new French ambassador had arrived at the Hague, in the spring

of 1613. Aubery du Maurier, a son of an obscure country squire, a

Protestant, of moderate opinions, of a sincere but rather obsequious

character, painstaking, diligent, and honest, had been at an earlier day

in the service of the turbulent and intriguing Due de Bouillon. He had

also been employed by Sully as an agent in financial affairs between

Holland and France, and had long been known to Villeroy. He was living on

his estate, in great retirement from all public business, when Secretary

Villeroy suddenly proposed him the embassy to the Hague. There was no

more important diplomatic post at that time in Europe. Other countries

were virtually at peace, but in Holland, notwithstanding the truce, there

vas really not much more than an armistice, and great armies lay in the

Netherlands, as after a battle, sleeping face to face with arms in their

hands. The politics of Christendom were at issue in the open, elegant,

and picturesque village which was the social capital of the United

Provinces. The gentry from Spain, Italy, the south of Europe, Catholic

Germany, had clustered about Spinola at Brussels, to learn the art of war

in his constant campaigning against Maurice. English and Scotch officers,

Frenchmen, Bohemians, Austrians, youths from the Palatinate and all

Protestant countries in Germany, swarmed to the banners of the prince who

had taught the world how Alexander Farnese could be baffled, and the

great Spinola outmanoeuvred. Especially there was a great number of

Frenchmen of figure and quality who thronged to the Hague, besides the

officers of the two French regiments which formed a regular portion of

the States' army. That army was the best appointed and most conspicuous

standing force in Europe. Besides the French contingent there were always

nearly 30,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry on a war footing, splendidly

disciplined, experienced, and admirably armed. The navy, consisting of

thirty war ships, perfectly equipped and manned, was a match for the

combined marine forces of all Europe, and almost as numerous.

When the Ambassador went to solemn audience of the States-General, he was

attended by a brilliant group of gentlemen and officers, often to the

number of three hundred, who volunteered to march after him on foot to

honour their sovereign in the person of his ambassador; the Envoy's

carriage following empty behind. Such were the splendid diplomatic

processions often received by the stately Advocate in his plain civic

garb, when grave international questions were to be publicly discussed.

There was much murmuring in France when the appointment of a personage

comparatively so humble to a position so important was known. It was

considered as a blow aimed directly at the malcontent princes of the

blood, who were at that moment plotting their first levy of arms against

the Queen. Du Maurier had been ill-treated by the Due de Bouillon, who

naturally therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured to the

government to which he was accredited. Being the agent of Mary de'

Medici, he was, of course, described as a tool of the court and a secret

pensioner of Spain. He was to plot with the arch traitor Barneveld as to

the best means for distracting the Provinces and bringing them back into

Spanish subjection. Du Maurier, being especially but secretly charged to

prevent the return of Francis Aerssens to Paris, incurred of course the

enmity of that personage and of the French grandees who ostentatiously

protected him. It was even pretended by Jeannin that the appointment of a

man so slightly known to the world, so inexperienced in diplomacy, and of

a parentage so little distinguished, would be considered an affront by

the States-General.

But on the whole, Villeroy had made an excellent choice. No safer man

could perhaps have been found in France for a post of such eminence, in

circumstances so delicate, and at a crisis so grave. The man who had been

able to make himself agreeable and useful, while preserving his

integrity, to characters so dissimilar as the refining, self-torturing,

intellectual Duplessis-Mornay, the rude, aggressive, and straightforward

Sully, the deep-revolving, restlessly plotting Bouillon, and the smooth,

silent, and tortuous Villeroy--men between whom there was no friendship,

but, on the contrary, constant rancour--had material in him to render

valuable services at this particular epoch. Everything depended on

patience, tact, watchfulness in threading the distracting, almost

inextricable, maze which had been created by personal rivalries,

ambitions, and jealousies in the state he represented and the one to

which he was accredited. "I ascribe it all to God," he said, in his

testament to his children, "the impenetrable workman who in His goodness

has enabled me to make myself all my life obsequious, respectful, and

serviceable to all, avoiding as much as possible, in contenting some, not

to discontent others." He recommended his children accordingly to

endeavour "to succeed in life by making themselves as humble,

intelligent, and capable as possible."

This is certainly not a very high type of character, but a safer one for

business than that of the arch intriguer Francis Aerssens. And he had

arrived at the Hague under trying circumstances. Unknown to the foreign

world he was now entering, save through the disparaging rumours

concerning him, sent thither in advance by the powerful personages

arrayed against his government, he might have sunk under such a storm at

the outset, but for the incomparable kindness and friendly aid of the

Princess-Dowager, Louise de Coligny. "I had need of her protection and

recommendation as much as of life," said du Maurier; "and she gave them

in such excess as to annihilate an infinity of calumnies which envy had

excited against me on every side." He had also a most difficult and

delicate matter to arrange at the very moment of his arrival.

For Aerssens had done his best not only to produce a dangerous division

in the politics of the Republic, but to force a rupture between the

French government and the States. He had carried matters before the

assembly with so high a hand as to make it seem impossible to get rid of

him without public scandal. He made a parade of the official letters from

the Queen-Regent and her ministers, in which he was spoken of in terms of

conventional compliment. He did not know, and Barneveld wished, if

possible, to spare him the annoyance of knowing, that both Queen and

ministers, so soon as informed that there was a chance of coming back to

them, had written letters breathing great repugnance to him and

intimating that he would not be received. Other high personages of state

had written to express their resentment at his duplicity, perpetual

mischief-making, and machinations against the peace of the kingdom, and

stating the impossibility of his resuming the embassy at Paris. And at

last the queen wrote to the States-General to say that, having heard

their intention to send him back to a post "from which he had taken leave

formally and officially," she wished to prevent such a step. "We should

see M. Aerssens less willingly than comports with our friendship for you

and good neighbourhood. Any other you could send would be most welcome,

as M. du Maurier will explain to you more amply."

And to du Maurier himself she wrote distinctly, "Rather than suffer the

return of the said Aerssens, you will declare that for causes which

regard the good of our affairs and our particular satisfaction we cannot

and will not receive him in the functions which he has exercised here,

and we rely too implicitly upon the good friendship of My Lords the

States to do anything in this that would so much displease us."

And on the same day Villeroy privately wrote to the Ambassador, "If, in

spite of all this, Aerssens should endeavour to return, he will not be

received, after the knowledge we have of his factious spirit, most

dangerous in a public personage in a state such as ours and in the

minority of the King."

Meantime Aerssens had been going about flaunting letters in everybody's

face from the Duc de Bouillon insisting on the necessity of his return!

The fact in itself would have been sufficient to warrant his removal, for

the Duke was just taking up arms against his sovereign. Unless the States

meant to interfere officially and directly in the civil war about to

break out in France, they could hardly send a minister to the government

on recommendation of the leader of the rebellion.

It had, however, become impossible to remove him without an explosion.

Barneveld, who, said du Maurier, "knew the man to his finger nails," had

been reluctant to "break the ice," and wished for official notice in the

matter from the Queen. Maurice protected the troublesome diplomatist.

"'Tis incredible," said the French ambassador "how covertly Prince

Maurice is carrying himself, contrary to his wont, in this whole affair.

I don't know whether it is from simple jealousy to Barneveld, or if there

is some mystery concealed below the surface."

Du Maurier had accordingly been obliged to ask his government for

distinct and official instructions. "He holds to his place," said he, "by

so slight and fragile a root as not to require two hands to pluck him up,

the little finger being enough. There is no doubt that he has been in

concert with those who are making use of him to re-establish their credit

with the States, and to embark Prince Maurice contrary to his preceding

custom in a cabal with them."

Thus a question of removing an obnoxious diplomatist could hardly be

graver, for it was believed that he was doing his best to involve the

military chief of his own state in a game of treason and rebellion

against the government to which he was accredited. It was not the first

nor likely to be the last of Bouillon's deadly intrigues. But the man who

had been privy to Biron's conspiracy against the crown and life of his

sovereign was hardly a safe ally for his brother-in-law, the

straightforward stadholder.

The instructions desired by du Maurier and by Barneveld had, as we have

seen, at last arrived. The French ambassador thus fortified appeared

before the Assembly of the States-General and officially demanded the

recall of Aerssens. In a letter addressed privately and confidentially to

their Mightinesses, he said, "If in spite of us you throw him at our

feet, we shall fling him back at your head."

At last Maurice yielded to, the representations of the French envoy, and

Aerssens felt obliged to resign his claims to the post. The

States-General passed a resolution that it would be proper to employ him

in some other capacity in order to show that his services had been

agreeable to them, he having now declared that he could no longer be

useful in France. Maurice, seeing that it was impossible to save him,

admitted to du Maurier his unsteadiness and duplicity, and said that, if

possessed of the confidence of a great king, he would be capable of

destroying the state in less than a year.

But this had not always been the Prince's opinion, nor was it likely to

remain unchanged. As for Villeroy, he denied flatly that the cause of his

displeasure had been that Aerssens had penetrated into his most secret

affairs. He protested, on the contrary, that his annoyance with him had

partly proceeded from the slight acquaintance he had acquired of his

policy, and that, while boasting to be better informed than any one, he

was in the habit of inventing and imagining things in order to get credit

for himself.

It was highly essential that the secret of this affair should be made

clear; for its influence on subsequent events was to be deep and wide.

For the moment Aerssens remained without employment, and there was no

open rupture with Barneveld. The only difference of opinion between the

Advocate and himself, he said, was whether he had or had not definitely

resigned his post on leaving Paris.

Meantime it was necessary to fix upon a successor for this most important

post. The war soon after the new year had broken out in France. Conde,

Bouillon, and the other malcontent princes with their followers had taken

possession of the fortress of Mezieres, and issued a letter in the name

of Conde to the Queen-Regent demanding an assembly of the States-General

of the kingdom and rupture of the Spanish marriages. Both parties, that

of the government and that of the rebellion, sought the sympathy and

active succour of the States. Maurice, acting now in perfect accord with

the Advocate, sustained the Queen and execrated the rebellion of his

relatives with perfect frankness. Conde, he said, had got his head

stuffed full of almanacs whose predictions he wished to see realized. He

vowed he would have shortened by a head the commander of the garrison who

betrayed Mezieres, if he had been under his control. He forbade on pain

of death the departure of any officer or private of the French regiments

from serving the rebels, and placed the whole French force at the

disposal of the Queen, with as many Netherland regiments as could be

spared. One soldier was hanged and three others branded with the mark of

a gibbet on the face for attempting desertion. The legal government was

loyally sustained by the authority of the States, notwithstanding all the

intrigues of Aerssens with the agents of the princes to procure them

assistance. The mutiny for the time was brief, and was settled on the

15th of May 1614, by the peace of Sainte-Menehould, as much a caricature

of a treaty as the rising had been the parody of a war. Van der Myle,

son-in-law of Barneveld, who had been charged with a special and

temporary mission to France, brought back the terms, of the convention to

the States-General. On the other hand, Conde and his confederates sent a

special agent to the Netherlands to give their account of the war and the

negotiation, who refused to confer either with du Maurier or Barneveld,

but who held much conference with Aerssens.

It was obvious enough that the mutiny of the princes would become

chronic. In truth, what other condition was possible with two characters

like Mary de' Medici and the Prince of Conde respectively at the head of

the government and the revolt? What had France to hope for but to remain

the bloody playground for mischievous idiots, who threw about the

firebrands and arrows of reckless civil war in pursuit of the paltriest

of personal aims?

Van der Myle had pretensions to the vacant place of Aerssens. He had some

experience in diplomacy. He had conducted skilfully enough the first

mission of the States to Venice, and had subsequently been employed in

matters of moment. But he was son-in-law to Barneveld, and although the

Advocate was certainly not free from the charge of nepotism, he shrank

from the reproach of having apparently removed Aerssens to make a place

for one of his own family.

Van der Myle remained to bear the brunt of the late ambassador's malice,

and to engage at a little later period in hottest controversy with him,

personal and political. "Why should van der Myle strut about, with his

arms akimbo like a peacock?" complained Aerssens one day in confused

metaphor. A question not easy to answer satisfactorily.

The minister selected was a certain Baron Asperen de Langerac, wholly

unversed in diplomacy or other public affairs, with abilities not above

the average. A series of questions addressed by him to the Advocate, the

answers to which, scrawled on the margin of the paper, were to serve for

his general instructions, showed an ingenuousness as amusing as the

replies of Barneveld were experienced and substantial.

In general he was directed to be friendly and respectful to every one, to

the Queen-Regent and her counsellors especially, and, within the limits

of becoming reverence for her, to cultivate the good graces of the Prince

of Conde and the other great nobles still malcontent and rebellious, but

whose present movement, as Barneveld foresaw, was drawing rapidly to a

close. Langerac arrived in Paris on the 5th of April 1614.

Du Maurier thought the new ambassador likely to "fall a prey to the

specious language and gentle attractions of the Due de Bouillon." He also

described him as very dependent upon Prince Maurice. On the other hand

Langerac professed unbounded and almost childlike reverence for

Barneveld, was devoted to his person, and breathed as it were only

through his inspiration. Time would show whether those sentiments would

outlast every possible storm.

CHAPTER X

Weakness of the Rulers of France and England--The Wisdom of

Barneveld inspires Jealousy--Sir Dudley Carleton succeeds Winwood--

Young Neuburg under the Guidance of Maximilian--Barneveld strives to

have the Treaty of Xanten enforced--Spain and the Emperor wish to

make the States abandon their Position with regard to the Duchies--

The French Government refuses to aid the States--Spain and the

Emperor resolve to hold Wesel--The great Religious War begun--The

Protestant Union and Catholic League both wish to secure the Border

Provinces--Troubles in Turkey--Spanish Fleet seizes La Roche--Spain

places large Armies on a War Footing.

Few things are stranger in history than the apathy with which the wide

designs of the Catholic party were at that moment regarded. The

preparations for the immense struggle which posterity learned to call the

Thirty Years' War, and to shudder when speaking of it, were going forward

on every side. In truth the war had really begun, yet those most deeply

menaced by it at the outset looked on with innocent calmness because

their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze. The passage of arms in the

duchies, the outlines of which have just been indicated, and which was

the natural sequel of the campaign carried out four years earlier on the

same territory, had been ended by a mockery. In France, reduced almost to

imbecility by the absence of a guiding brain during a long minority,

fallen under the distaff of a dowager both weak and wicked, distracted by

the intrigues and quarrels of a swarm of self-seeking grandees, and with

all its offices, from highest to lowest, of court, state, jurisprudence,

and magistracy, sold as openly and as cynically as the commonest wares,

there were few to comprehend or to grapple with the danger. It should

have seemed obvious to the meanest capacity in the kingdom that the great

house of Austria, reigning supreme in Spain and in Germany, could not be

allowed to crush the Duke of Savoy on the one side, and Bohemia, Moravia,

and the Netherlands on the other without danger of subjection for France.

Yet the aim of the Queen-Regent was to cultivate an impossible alliance

with her inevitable foe.

And in England, ruled as it then was with no master mind to enforce

against its sovereign the great lessons of policy, internal and external,

on which its welfare and almost its imperial existence depended, the only

ambition of those who could make their opinions felt was to pursue the

same impossibility, intimate alliance with the universal foe.

Any man with slightest pretensions to statesmanship knew that the liberty

for Protestant worship in Imperial Germany, extorted by force, had been

given reluctantly, and would be valid only as long as that force could

still be exerted or should remain obviously in reserve. The

"Majesty-Letter" and the "Convention" of the two religions would prove as

flimsy as the parchment on which they were engrossed, the Protestant

churches built under that sanction would be shattered like glass, if once

the Catholic rulers could feel their hands as clear as their consciences

would be for violating their sworn faith to heretics. Men knew, even if

the easy-going and uxorious emperor, into which character the once busy

and turbulent Archduke Matthias had subsided, might be willing to keep

his pledges, that Ferdinand of Styria, who would soon succeed him, and

Maximilian of Bavaria were men who knew their own minds, and had mentally

never resigned one inch of the ground which Protestantism imagined itself

to have conquered.

These things seem plain as daylight to all who look back upon them

through the long vista of the past; but the sovereign of England did not

see them or did not choose to see them. He saw only the Infanta and her

two millions of dowry, and he knew that by calling Parliament together to

ask subsidies for an anti-Catholic war he should ruin those golden

matrimonial prospects for his son, while encouraging those "shoemakers,"

his subjects, to go beyond their "last," by consulting the

representatives of his people on matters pertaining to the mysteries of

government. He was slowly digging the grave of the monarchy and building

the scaffold of his son; but he did his work with a laborious and

pedantic trifling, when really engaged in state affairs, most amazing to

contemplate. He had no penny to give to the cause in which his nearest

relatives mere so deeply involved and for which his only possible allies

were pledged; but he was ready to give advice to all parties, and with

ludicrous gravity imagined himself playing the umpire between great

contending hosts, when in reality he was only playing the fool at the

beck of masters before whom he quaked.

"You are not to vilipend my counsel," said he one day to a foreign envoy.

"I am neither a camel nor an ass to take up all this work on my

shoulders. Where would you find another king as willing to do it as I

am?"

The King had little time and no money to give to serve his own family and

allies and the cause of Protestantism, but he could squander vast sums

upon worthless favourites, and consume reams of paper on controverted

points of divinity. The appointment of Vorstius to the chair of theology

in Leyden aroused more indignation in his bosom, and occupied more of his

time, than the conquests of Spinola in the duchies, and the menaces of

Spain against Savoy and Bohemia. He perpetually preached moderation to

the States in the matter of the debateable territory, although moderation

at that moment meant submission to the House of Austria. He chose to

affect confidence in the good faith of those who were playing a comedy by

which no statesman could be deceived, but which had secured the

approbation of the Solomon of the age.

But there was one man who was not deceived. The warnings and the

lamentations of Barneveld sound to us out of that far distant time like

the voice of an inspired prophet. It is possible that a portion of the

wrath to come might have been averted had there been many men in high

places to heed his voice. I do not wish to exaggerate the power and

wisdom of the man, nor to set him forth as one of the greatest heroes of

history. But posterity has done far less than justice to a statesman and

sage who wielded a vast influence at a most critical period in the fate

of Christendom, and uniformly wielded it to promote the cause of

temperate human liberty, both political and religious. Viewed by the

light of two centuries and a half of additional experience, he may appear

to have made mistakes, but none that were necessarily disastrous or even

mischievous. Compared with the prevailing idea of the age in which he

lived, his schemes of polity seem to dilate into large dimensions, his

sentiments of religious freedom, however limited to our modern ideas,

mark an epoch in human progress, and in regard to the general

commonwealth of Christendom, of which he was so leading a citizen, the

part he played was a lofty one. No man certainly understood the tendency

of his age more exactly, took a broader and more comprehensive view than

he did of the policy necessary to preserve the largest portion of the

results of the past three-quarters of a century, or had pondered the

relative value of great conflicting forces more skilfully. Had his

counsels been always followed, had illustrious birth placed him virtually

upon a throne, as was the case with William the Silent, and thus allowed

him occasionally to carry out the designs of a great mind with almost

despotic authority, it might have been better for the world. But in that

age it was royal blood alone that could command unflinching obedience

without exciting personal rivalry. Men quailed before his majestic

intellect, but hated him for the power which was its necessary result.

They already felt a stupid delight in cavilling at his pedigree. To

dispute his claim to a place among the ancient nobility to which he was

an honour was to revenge themselves for the rank he unquestionably

possessed side by side in all but birth with the kings and rulers of the

world. Whether envy and jealousy be vices more incident to the republican

form of government than to other political systems may be an open

question. But it is no question whatever that Barneveld's every footstep

from this period forward was dogged by envy as patient as it was

devouring. Jealousy stuck to him like his shadow. We have examined the

relations which existed between Winwood and himself; we have seen that

ambassador, now secretary of state for James, never weary in denouncing

the Advocate's haughtiness and grim resolution to govern the country

according to its laws rather than at the dictate of a foreign sovereign,

and in flinging forth malicious insinuations in regard to his relations

to Spain. The man whose every hour was devoted in spite of a thousand

obstacles strewn by stupidity, treachery, and apathy, as well as by envy,

hatred, and bigotry--to the organizing of a grand and universal league of

Protestantism against Spain, and to rolling up with strenuous and

sometimes despairing arms a dead mountain weight, ever ready to fall back

upon and crush him, was accused in dark and mysterious whispers, soon to

grow louder and bolder, of a treacherous inclination for Spain.

There is nothing less surprising nor more sickening for those who observe

public life, and wish to retain faith in the human species, than the

almost infinite power of the meanest of passions.

The Advocate was obliged at the very outset of Langerac's mission to

France to give him a warning on this subject.

"Should her Majesty make kindly mention of me," he said, "you will say

nothing of it in your despatches as you did in your last, although I am

sure with the best intentions. It profits me not, and many take umbrage

at it; wherefore it is wise to forbear."

But this was a trifle. By and by there would be many to take umbrage at

every whisper in his favour, whether from crowned heads or from the

simplest in the social scale. Meantime he instructed the Ambassador,

without paying heed to personal compliments to his chief, to do his best

to keep the French government out of the hands of Spain, and with that

object in view to smooth over the differences between the two great

parties in the kingdom, and to gain the confidence, if possible, of Conde

and Nevers and Bouillon, while never failing in straightforward respect

and loyal friendship to the Queen-Regent and her ministers, as the

legitimate heads of the government.

From England a new ambassador was soon to take the place of Winwood. Sir

Dudley Carleton was a diplomatist of respectable abilities, and well

trained to business and routine. Perhaps on the whole there was none

other, in that epoch of official mediocrity, more competent than he to

fill what was then certainly the most important of foreign posts. His

course of life had in no wise familiarized him with the intricacies of

the Dutch constitution, nor could the diplomatic profession, combined

with a long residence at Venice, be deemed especially favourable for deep

studies of the mysteries of predestination. Yet he would be found ready

at the bidding of his master to grapple with Grotius and Barneveld on the

field of history and law, and thread with Uytenbogaert or Taurinus all

the subtleties of Arminianism and Gomarism as if he had been half his

life both a regular practitioner at the Supreme Court of the Hague and

professor of theology at the University of Leyden. Whether the triumphs

achieved in such encounters were substantial and due entirely to his own

genius might be doubtful. At all events he had a sovereign behind him who

was incapable of making a mistake on any subject.

"You shall not forget," said James in his instructions to Sir Dudley,

"that you are the minister of that master whom God hath made the sole

protector of his religion . . . . . and you may let fall how hateful the

maintaining of erroneous opinions is to the majesty of God and how

displeasing to us."

The warlike operations of 1614 had been ended by the abortive peace of

Xanten. The two rival pretenders to the duchies were to halve the

territory, drawing lots for the first choice, all foreign troops were to

be withdrawn, and a pledge was to be given that no fortress should be

placed in the hands of any power. But Spain at the last moment had

refused to sanction the treaty, and everything was remitted to what might

be exactly described as a state of sixes and sevens. Subsequently it was

hoped that the States' troops might be induced to withdraw simultaneously

with the Catholic forces on an undertaking by Spinola that there should

be no re-occupation of the disputed territory either by the Republic or

by Spain. But Barneveld accurately pointed out that, although the Marquis

was a splendid commander and, so long as he was at the head of the

armies, a most powerful potentate, he might be superseded at any moment.

Count Bucquoy, for example, might suddenly appear in his place and refuse

to be bound by any military arrangement of his predecessor. Then the

Archduke proposed to give a guarantee that in case of a mutual withdrawal

there should be no return of the troops, no recapture of garrisons. But

Barneveld, speaking for the States, liked not the security. The Archduke

was but the puppet of Spain, and Spain had no part in the guarantee. She

held the strings, and might cause him at any moment to play what pranks

she chose. It would be the easiest thing in the world for despotic Spain,

so the Advocate thought, to reappear suddenly in force again at a

moment's notice after the States' troops had been withdrawn and partially

disbanded, and it would be difficult for the many-headed and many-tongued

republic to act with similar promptness. To withdraw without a guarantee

from Spain to the Treaty of Xanten, which had once been signed, sealed,

and all but ratified, would be to give up fifty points in the game.

Nothing but disaster could ensue. The Advocate as leader in all these

negotiations and correspondence was ever actuated by the favourite

quotation of William the Silent from Demosthenes, that the safest citadel

against an invader and a tyrant is distrust. And he always distrusted in

these dealings, for he was sure the Spanish cabinet was trying to make

fools of the States, and there were many ready to assist it in the task.

Now that one of the pretenders, temporary master of half the duchies, the

Prince of Neuburg, had espoused both Catholicism and the sister of the

Archbishop of Cologne and the Duke of Bavaria, it would be more safe than

ever for Spain to make a temporary withdrawal. Maximilian of Bavaria was

beyond all question the ablest and most determined leader of the Catholic

party in Germany, and the most straightforward and sincere. No man before

or since his epoch had, like him, been destined to refuse, and more than

once refuse, the Imperial crown.

Through his apostasy the Prince of Neuburg was in danger of losing his

hereditary estates, his brothers endeavouring to dispossess him on the

ground of the late duke's will, disinheriting any one of his heirs who

should become a convert to Catholicism. He had accordingly implored aid

from the King of Spain. Archduke Albert had urged Philip to render such

assistance as a matter of justice, and the Emperor had naturally declared

that the whole right as eldest son belonged, notwithstanding the will, to

the Prince.

With the young Neuburg accordingly under the able guidance of Maximilian,

it was not likely that the grasp of the Spanish party upon these

all-important territories would be really loosened. The Emperor still

claimed the right to decide among the candidates and to hold the

provinces under sequestration till the decision should be made--that was

to say, until the Greek Kalends. The original attempt to do this through

Archduke Leopold had been thwarted, as we have seen, by the prompt

movements of Maurice sustained by the policy of Barneveld. The Advocate

was resolved that the Emperor's name should not be mentioned either in

the preamble or body of the treaty. And his course throughout the

simulations, which were never negotiations, was perpetually baffled as

much by the easiness and languor of his allies as the ingenuity of the

enemy.

He was reproached with the loss of Wesel, that Geneva of the Rhine, which

would never be abandoned by Spain if it was not done forthwith. Let Spain

guarantee the Treaty of Xanten, he said, and then she cannot come back.

All else is illusion. Moreover, the Emperor had given positive orders

that Wesel should not be given up. He was assured by Villeroy that France

would never put on her harness for Aachen, that cradle of Protestantism.

That was for the States-General to do, whom it so much more nearly

concerned. The whole aim of Barneveld was not to destroy the Treaty of

Xanten, but to enforce it in the only way in which it could be enforced,

by the guarantee of Spain. So secured, it would be a barrier in the

universal war of religion which he foresaw was soon to break out. But it

was the resolve of Spain, instead of pledging herself to the treaty, to

establish the legal control of the territory in the hand of the Emperor.

Neuburg complained that Philip in writing to him did not give him the

title of Duke of Julich and Cleve, although he had been placed in

possession of those estates by the arms of Spain. Philip, referring to

Archduke Albert for his opinion on this subject, was advised that, as the

Emperor had not given Neuburg the investiture of the duchies, the King

was quite right in refusing him the title. Even should the Treaty of

Xanten be executed, neither he nor the Elector of Brandenburg would be

anything but administrators until the question of right was decided by

the Emperor.

Spain had sent Neuburg the Order of the Golden Fleece as a reward for his

conversion, but did not intend him to be anything but a man of straw in

the territories which he claimed by sovereign right. They were to form a

permanent bulwark to the Empire, to Spain, and to Catholicism.

Barneveld of course could never see the secret letters passing between

Brussels and Madrid, but his insight into the purposes of the enemy was

almost as acute as if the correspondence of Philip and Albert had been in

the pigeonholes of his writing-desk in the Kneuterdyk.

The whole object of Spain and the Emperor, acting through the Archduke,

was to force the States to abandon their positions in the duchies

simultaneously with the withdrawal of the Spanish troops, and to be

satisfied with a bare convention between themselves and Archduke Albert

that there should be no renewed occupation by either party. Barneveld,

finding it impossible to get Spain upon the treaty, was resolved that at

least the two mediating powers, their great allies, the sovereigns of

Great Britain and France, should guarantee the convention, and that the

promises of the Archduke should be made to them. This was steadily

refused by Spain; for the Archduke never moved an inch in the matter

except according to the orders of Spain, and besides battling and

buffeting with the Archduke, Barneveld was constantly deafened with the

clamour of the English king, who always declared Spain to be in the right

whatever she did, and forced to endure with what patience he might the

goading of that King's envoy. France, on the other hand, supported the

States as firmly as could have been reasonably expected.

"We proposed," said the Archduke, instructing an envoy whom he was

sending to Madrid with detailed accounts of these negotiations, "that the

promise should be made to each other as usual in treaties. But the

Hollanders said the promise should be made to the Kings of France and

England, at which the Emperor would have been deeply offended, as if in

the affair he was of no account at all. At any moment by this arrangement

in concert with France and England the Hollanders might walk in and do

what they liked."

Certainly there could have been no succincter eulogy of the policy

steadily recommended, as we shall have occasion to see, by Barneveld. Had

he on this critical occasion been backed by England and France combined,

Spain would have been forced to beat a retreat, and Protestantism in the

great general war just beginning would have had an enormous advantage in

position. But the English Solomon could not see the wisdom of this

policy. "The King of England says we are right," continued the Archduke,

"and has ordered his ambassador to insist on our view. The French

ambassador here says that his colleague at the Hague has similar

instructions, but admits that he has not acted up to them. There is not

much chance of the Hollanders changing. It would be well that the King

should send a written ultimatum that the Hollanders should sign the

convention which we propose. If they don't agree, the world at least will

see that it is not we who are in fault."

The world would see, and would never have forgiven a statesman in the

position of Barneveld, had he accepted a bald agreement from a

subordinate like the Archduke, a perfectly insignificant personage in the

great drama then enacting, and given up guarantees both from the

Archduke's master and from the two great allies of the Republic. He stood

out manfully against Spain and England at every hazard, and under a

pelting storm of obloquy, and this was the man whose designs the English

secretary of state had dared to describe "as of no other nature than to

cause the Provinces to relapse into the hands of Spain."

It appeared too a little later that Barneveld's influence with the French

government, owing to his judicious support of it so long as it was a

government, had been decidedly successful. Drugged as France was by the

Spanish marriage treaty, she was yet not so sluggish nor spell-bound as

the King of Great Britain.

"France will not urge upon the Hollanders to execute the proposal as we

made it," wrote the Archduke to the King, "so negotiations are at a

standstill. The Hollanders say it is better that each party should remain

with what each possesses. So that if it does not come to blows, and if

these insolences go on as they have done, the Hollanders will be gaining

and occupying more territory every day."

Thus once more the ancient enemies and masters of the Republic were

making the eulogy of the Dutch statesman. It was impossible at present

for the States to regain Wesel, nor that other early stronghold of the

Reformation, the old Imperial city of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). The price

to be paid was too exorbitant.

The French government had persistently refused to assist the States and

possessory princes in the recovery of this stronghold. The Queen-Regent

was afraid of offending Spain, although her government had induced the

citizens of the place to make the treaty now violated by that country.

The Dutch ambassador had been instructed categorically to enquire whether

their Majesties meant to assist Aachen and the princes if attacked by the

Archdukes. "No," said Villeroy; "we are not interested in Aachen, 'tis

too far off. Let them look for assistance to those who advised their

mutiny."

To the Ambassador's remonstrance that France was both interested in and

pledged to them, the Secretary of State replied, "We made the treaty

through compassion and love, but we shall not put on harness for Aachen.

Don't think it. You, the States and the United Provinces, may assist them

if you like."

The Envoy then reminded the Minister that the States-General had always

agreed to go forward evenly in this business with the Kings of Great

Britain and France and the united princes, the matter being of equal

importance to all. They had given no further pledge than this to the

Union.

It was plain, however, that France was determined not to lift a finger at

that moment. The Duke of Bouillon and those acting with him had tried

hard to induce their Majesties "to write seriously to the Archduke in

order at least to intimidate him by stiff talk," but it was hopeless.

They thought it was not a time then to quarrel with their neighbour and

give offence to Spain.

So the stiff talk was omitted, and the Archduke was not intimidated. The

man who had so often intimidated him was in his grave, and his widow was

occupied in marrying her son to the Infanta. "These are the

first-fruits," said Aerssens, "of the new negotiations with Spain."

Both the Spanish king and the Emperor were resolved to hold Wesel to the

very last. Until the States should retire from all their positions on the

bare word of the Archduke, that the Spanish forces once withdrawn would

never return, the Protestants of those two cities must suffer. There was

no help for it. To save them would be to abandon all. For no true

statesman could be so ingenuous as thus to throw all the cards on the

table for the Spanish and Imperial cabinet to shuffle them at pleasure

for a new deal. The Duke of Neuburg, now Catholic and especially

protected by Spain, had become, instead of a pretender with more or less

law on his side, a mere standard-bearer and agent of the Great Catholic

League in the debateable land. He was to be supported at all hazard by

the Spanish forces, according to the express command of Philip's

government, especially now that his two brothers with the countenance of

the States were disputing his right to his hereditary dominions in

Germany.

The Archduke was sullen enough at what he called the weak-mindedness of

France. Notwithstanding that by express orders from Spain he had sent

5000 troops under command of Juan de Rivas to the Queen's assistance just

before the peace of Sainte-Menehould, he could not induce her government

to take the firm part which the English king did in browbeating the

Hollanders.

"'Tis certain," he complained, "that if, instead of this sluggishness on

the part of France, they had done us there the same good services we have

had from England, the Hollanders would have accepted the promise just as

it was proposed by us." He implored the King, therefore, to use his

strongest influence with the French government that it should strenuously

intervene with the Hollanders, and compel them to sign the proposal which

they rejected. "There is no means of composition if France does not

oblige them to sign," said Albert rather piteously.

But it was not without reason that Barneveld had in many of his letters

instructed the States' ambassador, Langerac, "to caress the old

gentleman" (meaning and never naming Villeroy), for he would prove to be

in spite of all obstacles a good friend to the States, as he always had

been. And Villeroy did hold firm. Whether the Archduke was right or not

in his conviction, that, if France would only unite with England in

exerting a strong pressure on the Hollanders, they would evacuate the

duchies, and so give up the game, the correspondence of Barneveld shows

very accurately. But the Archduke, of course, had not seen that

correspondence.

The Advocate knew what was plotting, what was impending, what was

actually accomplished, for he was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon

with an anxious and comprehensive glance. He knew without requiring to

read the secret letters of the enemy that vast preparations for an

extensive war against the Reformation were already completed. The

movements in the duchies were the first drops of a coming deluge. The

great religious war which was to last a generation of mankind had already

begun; the immediate and apparent pretext being a little disputed

succession to some petty sovereignties, the true cause being the

necessity for each great party--the Protestant Union and the Catholic

League--to secure these border provinces, the possession of which would

be of such inestimable advantage to either. If nothing decisive occurred

in the year 1614, the following year would still be more convenient for

the League. There had been troubles in Turkey. The Grand Vizier had been

murdered. The Sultan was engaged in a war with Persia. There was no

eastern bulwark in Europe to the ever menacing power of the Turk and of

Mahometanism in Europe save Hungary alone. Supported and ruled as that

kingdom was by the House of Austria, the temper of the populations of

Germany had become such as to make it doubtful in the present conflict of

religious opinions between them and their rulers whether the Turk or the

Spaniard would be most odious as an invader. But for the moment, Spain

and the Emperor had their hands free. They were not in danger of an

attack from below the Danube. Moreover, the Spanish fleet had been

achieving considerable successes on the Barbary coast, having seized La

Roche, and one or two important citadels, useful both against the

corsairs and against sudden attacks by sea from the Turk. There were at

least 100,000 men on a war footing ready to take the field at command of

the two branches of the House of Austria, Spanish and German. In the

little war about Montserrat, Savoy was on the point of being crushed, and

Savoy was by position and policy the only possible ally, in the south, of

the Netherlands and of Protestant Germany.

While professing the most pacific sentiments towards the States, and a

profound anxiety to withdraw his troops from their borders, the King of

Spain, besides daily increasing those forces, had just raised 4,000,000

ducats, a large portion of which was lodged with his bankers in Brussels.

Deeds like those were of more significance than sugared words.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Almost infinite power of the meanest of passions

Ludicrous gravity

Safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust

Their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze

Therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, ENTIRE JOHN OF BARNEVELD 1609-1615:

Abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour

Advanced orthodox party-Puritans

Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body

Almost infinite power of the meanest of passions

And now the knife of another priest-led fanatic

Aristocracy of God's elect

As with his own people, keeping no back-door open

At a blow decapitated France

Atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy

Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics

Christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient

Conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined

Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty

Could not be both judge and party in the suit

Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries

Deadly hatred of Puritans in England and Holland

Determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt

Disputing the eternal damnation of young children

Doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense

Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother monarch

Epernon, the true murderer of Henry

Estimating his character and judging his judges

Everybody should mind his own business

Fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge

Father Cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets

Give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required

Great war of religion and politics was postponed

He was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin

He was a sincere bigot

He who would have all may easily lose all

He who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself

Impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants

Intense bigotry of conviction

International friendship, the self-interest of each

It was the true religion, and there was none other

James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry

Jealousy, that potent principle

Jesuit Mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings

King's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day

Language which is ever living because it is dead

Louis XIII.

Ludicrous gravity

More fiercely opposed to each other than to Papists

Most detestable verses that even he had ever composed

Neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic

No man can be neutral in civil contentions

No synod had a right to claim Netherlanders as slaves

No man pretended to think of the State

None but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say

Outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency

Philip IV.

Power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist

Practised successfully the talent of silence

Presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made

Priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests

Princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never

Putting the cart before the oxen

Queen is entirely in the hands of Spain and the priests

Religion was made the strumpet of Political Ambition

Religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult

Safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust

Schism in the Church had become a public fact

Secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers

Senectus edam maorbus est

She declined to be his procuress

Small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one

Smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial

So much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality

Stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel

That cynical commerce in human lives

The defence of the civil authority against the priesthood

The assassin, tortured and torn by four horses

The truth in shortest about matters of importance

The voice of slanderers

The Catholic League and the Protestant Union

The vehicle is often prized more than the freight

Their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze

Theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country

Theology and politics were one

There was no use in holding language of authority to him

There was but one king in Europe, Henry the Bearnese

Therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured

They have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried Concini

Things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful

Thirty Years' War tread on the heels of the forty years

To look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures

Uncouple the dogs and let them run

Unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry

Vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration

What could save the House of Austria, the cause of Papacy

Whether repentance could effect salvation

Whether dead infants were hopelessly damned

Whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans

Wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant

Work of the aforesaid Puritans and a few Jesuits

Wrath of the Jesuits at this exercise of legal authority

THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND

WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR

By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D.

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 98

Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Complete, 1614-23

Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v7, 1614-17

CHAPTER XI.

The Advocate sounds the Alarm in Germany--His Instructions to

Langerac and his Forethought--The Prince--Palatine and his Forces

take Aachen, Mulheim, and other Towns--Supineness of the

Protestants--Increased Activity of Austria and the League--Barneveld

strives to obtain Help from England--Neuburg departs for Germany--

Barneveld the Prime Minister of Protestantism--Ernest Mansfield

takes service under Charles Emmanuel--Count John of Nassau goes to

Savoy--Slippery Conduct of King James in regard to the New Treaty

proposed--Barneveld's Influence greater in France than in England--

Sequestration feared--The Elector of Brandenburg cited to appear

before the Emperor at Prague--Murder of John van Wely--Uytenbogaert

incurs Maurice's Displeasure--Marriage of the King of France with

Anne of Austria--Conference between King James and Caron concerning

Piracy, Cloth Trade and Treaty of Xanten--Barneveld's Survey of the

Condition of Europe--His Efforts to avert the impending general War.

I have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of

momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of

the Republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand

the bearings and the value of the Advocate's actions and writings at that

period. This work aims at being a political study. I would attempt to

exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them

among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate

humanity-upon the march of great events, upon general historical results

at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. It may

also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure

and workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for

the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale.

Perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty

and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our

own country and epoch. The system of Switzerland was too limited and

homely, that of Venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us

now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially

instructive. The lessons taught us by the history of the Netherland

confederacy may have more permanent meaning.

Moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an

all-important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always

an historical possession of value to mankind. That of him who furnishes

the chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected

or perhaps misunderstood by posterity. History has not too many really

important and emblematic men on its records to dispense with the memory

of Barneveld, and the writer therefore makes no apology for dilating

somewhat fully upon his lifework by means of much of his entirely

unpublished and long forgotten utterances.

The Advocate had ceaselessly been sounding the alarm in Germany. For the

Protestant Union, fascinated, as it were, by the threatening look of the

Catholic League, seemed relapsing into a drowse.

"I believe," he said to one of his agents in that country, "that the

Evangelical electors and princes and the other estates are not alive to

the danger. I am sure that it is not apprehended in Great Britain. France

is threatened with troubles. These are the means to subjugate the

religion, the laws and liberties of Germany. Without an army the troops

now on foot in Italy cannot be kept out of Germany. Yet we do not hear

that the Evangelicals are making provision of troops, money, or any other

necessaries. In this country we have about one hundred places occupied

with our troops, among whom are many who could destroy a whole army. But

the maintenance of these places prevents our being very strong in the

field, especially outside our frontiers. But if in all Germany there be

many places held by the Evangelicals which would disperse a great army is

very doubtful. Keep a watchful eye. Economy is a good thing, but the

protection of a country and its inhabitants must be laid to heart. Watch

well if against these Provinces, and against Bohemia, Austria, and other

as it is pretended rebellious states, these plans are not directed. Look

out for the movements of the Italian and Bavarian troops against Germany.

You see how they are nursing the troubles and misunderstandings in

France, and turning them to account."

He instructed the new ambassador in Paris to urge upon the French

government the absolute necessity of punctuality in furnishing the

payment of their contingent in the Netherlands according to convention.

The States of Holland themselves had advanced the money during three

years' past, but this anticipation was becoming very onerous. It was

necessary to pay the troops every month regularly, but the funds from

Paris were always in arrear. England contributed about one-half as much

in subsidy, but these moneys went in paying the garrisons of Brielle,

Flushing, and Rammekens, fortresses pledged to that crown. The Ambassador

was shrewdly told not to enlarge on the special employment of the English

funds while holding up to the Queen's government that she was not the

only potentate who helped bear burthens for the Provinces, and insisted

on a continuation of this aid. "Remember and let them remember," said the

Advocate, "that the reforms which they are pretending to make there by

relieving the subjects of contributions tends to enervate the royal

authority and dignity both within and without, to diminish its lustre and

reputation, and in sum to make the King unable to gratify and assist his

subjects, friends, and allies. Make them understand that the taxation in

these Provinces is ten times higher than there, and that My Lords the

States hitherto by the grace of God and good administration have

contrived to maintain it in order to be useful to themselves and their

friends. Take great pains to have it well understood that this is even

more honourable and more necessary for a king of France, especially in

his minority, than for a republic 'hoc turbato seculo.' We all see

clearly how some potentates in Europe are keeping at all time under one

pretext or another strong forces well armed on a war footing. It

therefore behoves his Majesty to be likewise provided with troops, and at

least with a good exchequer and all the requirements of war, as well for

the security of his own state as for the maintenance of the grandeur and

laudable reputation left to him by the deceased king."

Truly here was sound and substantial advice, never and nowhere more

needed than in France. It was given too with such good effect as to bear

fruit even upon stoniest ground, and it is a refreshing spectacle to see

this plain Advocate of a republic, so lately sprung into existence out of

the depths of oppression and rebellion, calmly summoning great kings as

it were before him and instructing them in those vital duties of

government in discharge of which the country he administered already

furnished a model. Had England and France each possessed a Barneveld at

that epoch, they might well have given in exchange for him a wilderness

of Epernons and Sillerys, Bouillons and Conde's; of Winwoods, Lakes,

Carrs, and Villierses. But Elizabeth with her counsellors was gone, and

Henry was gone, and Richelieu had not come; while in England James and

his minions were diligently opening an abyss between government and

people which in less than half a lifetime more should engulph the

kingdom.

Two months later he informed the States' ambassador of the communications

made by the Prince of Conde and the Dukes of Nevers and Bouillon to the

government at the Hague now that they had effected a kind of

reconciliation with the Queen. Langerac was especially instructed to do

his best to assist in bringing about cordial relations, if that were

possible, between the crown and the rebels, and meantime he was

especially directed to defend du Maurier against the calumnious

accusations brought against him, of which Aerssens had been the secret

sower.

"You will do your best to manage," he said, "that no special ambassador

be sent hither, and that M. du Maurier may remain with us, he being a

very intelligent and moderate person now well instructed as to the state

of our affairs, a professor of the Reformed religion, and having many

other good qualities serviceable to their Majesties and to us.

"You will visit the Prince, and other princes and officers of the crown

who are coming to court again, and do all good offices as well for the

court as for M. du Maurier, in order that through evil plots and

slanderous reports no harm may come to him.

"Take great pains to find out all you can there as to the designs of the

King of Spain, the Archdukes, and the Emperor, in the affair of Julich.

You are also to let it be known that the change of religion on the part

of the Prince-Palatine of Neuburg will not change our good will and

affection for him, so far as his legal claims are concerned."

So long as it was possible for the States to retain their hold on both

the claimants, the Advocate, pursuant to his uniform policy of

moderation, was not disposed to help throw the Palatine into the hands of

the Spanish party. He was well aware, however, that Neuburg by his

marriage and his conversion was inevitably to become the instrument of

the League and to be made use of in the duchies at its pleasure, and that

he especially would be the first to submit with docility to the decree of

the Emperor. The right to issue such decree the States under guidance of

Barneveld were resolved to resist at all hazards.

"Work diligently, nevertheless," said he, "that they permit nothing there

directly or indirectly that may tend to the furtherance of the League, as

too prejudicial to us and to all our fellow religionists. Tell them too

that the late king, the King of Great Britain, the united electors and

princes of Germany, and ourselves, have always been resolutely opposed to

making the dispute about the succession in the duchies depend on the will

of the Emperor and his court. All our movements in the year 1610 against

the attempted sequestration under Leopold were to carry out that purpose.

Hold it for certain that our present proceedings for strengthening and

maintaining the city and fortress of Julich are considered serviceable

and indispensable by the British king and the German electors and

princes. Use your best efforts to induce the French government to pursue

the same policy--if it be not possible openly, then at least secretly. My

conviction is that, unless the Prince-Palatine is supported by, and his

whole designs founded upon, the general league against all our brethren

of the religion, affairs may be appeased."

The Envoy was likewise instructed to do his best to further the

matrimonial alliance which had begun to be discussed between the Prince

of Wales and the second daughter of France. Had it been possible at that

moment to bring the insane dream of James for a Spanish alliance to

naught, the States would have breathed more freely. He was also to urge

payment of the money for the French regiments, always in arrears since

Henry's death and Sully's dismissal, and always supplied by the exchequer

of Holland. He was informed that the Republic had been sending some war

ships to the Levant, to watch the armada recently sent thither by Spain,

and other armed vessels into the Baltic, to pursue the corsairs with whom

every sea was infested. In one year alone he estimated the loss to Dutch

merchants by these pirates at 800,000 florins. "We have just captured two

of the rovers, but the rascally scum is increasing," he said.

Again alluding to the resistance to be made by the States to the Imperial

pretensions, he observed, "The Emperor is about sending us a herald in

the Julich matter, but we know how to stand up to him."

And notwithstanding the bare possibility which he had admitted, that the

Prince of Neuburg might not yet have wholly sold himself, body and soul,

to the Papists, he gave warning a day or two afterwards in France that

all should be prepared for the worst.

"The Archdukes and the Prince of Neuburg appear to be taking the war

earnestly in hand," he said. "We believe that the Papistical League is

about to make a great effort against all the co-religionists. We are

watching closely their movements. Aachen is first threatened, and the

Elector-Palatine likewise. France surely, for reasons of state, cannot

permit that they should be attacked. She did, and helped us to do, too

much in the Julich campaign to suffer the Spaniards to make themselves

masters there now."

It has been seen that the part played by France in the memorable campaign

of 1610 was that of admiring auxiliary to the States' forces; Marshal de

la Chatre having in all things admitted the superiority of their army and

the magnificent generalship of Prince Maurice. But the government of the

Dowager had been committed by that enterprise to carry out the life-long

policy of Henry, and to maintain his firm alliance with the Republic.

Whether any of the great king's acuteness and vigour in countermining and

shattering the plans of the House of Austria was left in the French

court, time was to show. Meantime Barneveld was crying himself hoarse

with warnings into the dull ears of England and France.

A few weeks later the Prince of Neuburg had thrown off the mask. Twelve

thousand foot and 1500 horse had been raised in great haste, so the

Advocate informed the French court, by Spain and the Archdukes, for the

use of that pretender. Five or six thousand Spaniards were coming by sea

to Flanders, and as many Italians were crossing the mountains, besides a

great number mustering for the same purpose in Germany and Lorraine.

Barneveld was constantly receiving most important intelligence of

military plans and movements from Prague, which he placed daily before

the eyes of governments wilfully blind.

"I ponder well at this crisis," he said to his friend Caron, "the

intelligence I received some months back from Ratisbon, out of the

cabinet of the Jesuits, that the design of the Catholic or Roman League

is to bring this year a great army into the field, in order to make

Neuburg, who was even then said to be of the Roman profession and League,

master of Julich and the duchies; to execute the Imperial decree against

Aachen and Mulheim, preventing any aid from being sent into Germany by

these Provinces, or by Great Britain, and placing the Archduke and

Marquis Spinola in command of the forces; to put another army on the

frontiers of Austria, in order to prevent any succour coming from

Hungary, Bohemia, Austria, Moravia, and Silesia into Germany; to keep all

these disputed territories in subjection and devotion to the Emperor, and

to place the general conduct of all these affairs in the hands of

Archduke Leopold and other princes of the House of Austria. A third army

is to be brought into the Upper Palatinate, under command of the Duke of

Bavaria and others of the League, destined to thoroughly carry out its

designs against the Elector-Palatine, and the other electors, princes,

and estates belonging to the religion."

This intelligence, plucked by Barneveld out of the cabinet of the

Jesuits, had been duly communicated by him months before to those whom it

most concerned, and as usual it seemed to deepen the lethargy of the

destined victims and their friends. Not only the whole Spanish campaign

of the present year had thus been duly mapped out by the Advocate, long

before it occurred, but this long buried and forgotten correspondence of

the statesman seems rather like a chronicle of transactions already past,

so closely did the actual record, which posterity came to know too well,

resemble that which he saw, and was destined only to see, in prophetic

vision.

Could this political seer have cast his horoscope of the Thirty Years'

War at this hour of its nativity for the instruction of such men as

Walsingham or Burleigh, Henry of Navarre or Sully, Richelieu or Gustavus

Adolphus, would the course of events have been modified? These very

idlest of questions are precisely those which inevitably occur as one

ponders the seeming barrenness of an epoch in reality so pregnant.