NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.

The great religious controversy of the Christian world in the

fourth century, relating to the mystery of the Trinity, having

been settled by the triumph of the doctrine of Athanasius over

the doctrine of Arius, it was succeeded in the fifth century

by a still more violent disputation, which concerned the yet

profounder mystery of the Incarnation. To the dogmatists of

one party it was wickedness to distinguish the divine nature

and the human nature which they believed to be united in

Christ; to the dogmatists of the other side it was sin to

confound them. Cyril of Alexandria became the implacable

leader of the first party. Nestorius, Patriarch of

Constantinople, was forced to the front of the battle on the

other side and became its martyr. The opponents of Nestorius

gained advantages in the contest from the then rapidly growing

tendency in the Christian world to pay divine honors to the

Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. To Nestorius and those who

believed with him, this was abhorrent. "Like can but bear

like," said Nestorius in one of his sermons; "a human mother

can only bear a human being. God was not born—he dwelt in

that which was born." But the mob was too easily charmed with

Mariolatry to be moved by reasoning on the subject, and Cyril

led the mob, not only in Alexandria, where it murdered Hypatia

and massacred Jews at his bidding, but generally throughout

the Christian world. A Council called at Ephesus in 431 and

recognized as the third Œcumenical Council, condemned

Nestorius and degraded him from his episcopal throne; but a

minority disputed its procedure and organized a rival Council,

which retorted anathemas and excommunications against Cyril

and his friends. The emperor at last interfered and dissolved

both; but Nestorius, four years later, was exiled to the

Libyan desert and persecuted remorselessly until he died.

Meantime the doctrine of Cyril had been carried to another

stage of development by one of his most ardent supporters, the

Egyptian monk Eutyches, who maintained that the human nature

of Christ was absorbed in the divine nature. Both forms of the

doctrine of one nature in the Son of God seem to have acquired

somewhat confusedly the name of Monophysite, though the latter

tenet is more often called Eutychian, from the name of its

chief promulgator.

{2249}

It kindled new fires in the controversy. In 449, a second

Council at Ephesus, which is called the "Robber Synod" on

account of the peculiar violence and indecency of its

proceedings, sustained the Monophysites. But two years later,

in 451, the vanquished party, supported by Pope Leo the Great,

at Rome, succeeded in assembling a Council at Chalcedon which

laid down a definition of the Christian faith affirming the

existence of two natures in one person, and which nevertheless

condemned Nestorianism and Monophysitism, alike. Their success

only inflamed the passions of the worshippers of the Virgin as

the "Mother of God." "Everywhere monks were at the head of the

religious revolution which threw off the yoke of the Council

of Chalcedon." In Jerusalem "the very scenes of the Saviour's

mercies ran with blood shed in his name by his ferocious

self-called disciples." At Alexandria, a bishop was murdered

in the baptistery of his church. At Constantinople, for sixty

years, there went on a succession of bloody tumults and fierce

revolutionary conspiracies which continually shook the

imperial throne and disorganized every part of society, all

turning upon the theological question of one nature or two in

the incarnate Son of God. The Emperor Zeno "after a vain

attempt to obtain the opinions of the chief ecclesiastical

dignitaries, without assembling a new Council, a measure which

experience had shown to exasperate rather than appease the

strife, Zeno issued his famous Henoticon, or Edict of Union.

… It aimed not at the reconcilement of the conflicting

opinions, but hoped, by avoiding all expressions offensive to

either party, to allow them to meet together in Christian

amity." The Henoticon only multiplied the factions in number

and heated the strife between them. The successor of Zeno,

Anastasius, became a partisan in the fray, and through much of

his reign of twenty-seven years the conflict raged more

fiercely than ever. Constantinople was twice, at least, in

insurrection. "The blue and green factions of the Circus—such

is the language of the times—gave place to these more

maddening conflicts. The hymn of the Angels in Heaven [the

Trisagion] was the battle-cry on earth." At length the death

of Anastasius ended the strife. His successor Justin (A. D.

518), bowed to the authority of the Bishop of Rome—the Pope

Hormisdas—and invoked his aid. The Eastern world, exhausted,

followed generally the emperor's example in taking the

orthodoxy of Rome for the orthodoxy of Christianity.

Nestorianism and Monophysitism in their extreme forms were

driven from the open field in the Christian world, but both

survived and have transmitted their remains to the present day.

_H. H. Milman,

History of Latin Christianity,

book 2, chapters 3-4,

book 3, chapter 1, and 3._

ALSO IN:

_E. Gibbon,

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,

chapter 47._

_J. Alzog,

Universal Church History, 2d epoch,

chapter 2._

See, also,

NESTORIANS; JACOBITE CHURCH;

and MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY.

NESTORIANS, The.

"Within the limits of the Roman empire … this sect was

rapidly extirpated by persecution [see above, NESTORIAN AND

MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY]; and even in the patriarchate of

Antioch, where, as we have seen, the tenets of Nestorius at

first found greatest favour, it had disappeared as early as

the time of Justinian [A. D. 527-565]. But another field lay

open to it in the Persian kingdom of the Sassanidæ, and in

this it ultimately struck its roots deeply. The Chaldæan

church, which at the beginning of the fifth century was in a

flourishing condition, had been founded by missionaries from

Syria; its primate, or Catholicos, was dependent on the

patriarch of Antioch, and in respect of language and

discipline it was closely connected with the Syrian church. It

is not surprising, therefore, to find that some of its members

lent a ready ear to the Nestorian doctrines. This was

especially the case with the church-teachers of the famous

seminary at Edessa in Mesopotamia. … One of their number,

Barsumas, who was bishop of the city of Nisibis from 435 to

489, by his long and active labours contributed most of all to

the establishment of the Nestorian church in Persia. He

persuaded the king Pherozes (Firuz) that the antagonism of his

own sect to the doctrine of the established church of the

Roman empire would prove a safeguard for Persia. … From that

time Nestorianism became the only form of Christianity

tolerated in Persia. … The Catholicos of Chaldæa now threw

off his dependence on Antioch, and assumed the title of

Patriarch of Babylon. The school of Edessa, which in 489 was

again broken up by the Greek emperor, Zeno, was transferred to

Nisibis, and in that place continued for several centuries to

be an important centre of theological learning, and especially

of biblical studies. … In the sixth century the Nestorians

had established churches from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian

Sea, and had preached the Gospel to the Medes, the Bactrians,

the Huns, and the Indians, and as far as the coast of Malabar

and the island of Ceylon. At a later period, starting from

Balk and Samarcand, they spread Christianity among the nomad

Tartar tribes in the remote valleys of the Imaus; and the

inscription of Siganfu, which was discovered in China, and the

genuineness of which is considered to be above suspicion,

describes the fortunes of the Nestorian church in that country

from the first mission, A. D. 636, to the year in which that

monument was set up, A. D. 781. In the ninth century, during

the rule of the caliphs at Bagdad, the patriarch removed to

that city, and at this period twenty-five metropolitans were

subject to him. … From the eleventh century onwards the

prosperity of the Chaldæan church declined, owing to the

terrible persecutions to which its members were exposed.

Foremost among these was the attack of Timour the Tartar, who

almost exterminated them. Within the present century their

diminished numbers have been still further thinned by

frightful massacres inflicted by the Kurds. Their headquarters

now are a remote and rugged valley in the mountains of

Kurdistan, on the banks of the Greater Zab. … Beyond the

boundary which separates Turkey from Persia to the southward

of Mount Ararat, a similar community is settled on the shores

of Lake Urumia. A still larger colony is found at Mosul, and

others … elsewhere in the neighbourhood of the Tigris. …

Of their widely extended missions only one fragment now

remains, in the Christians of St. Thomas on the Malabar coast

of India."

_H. F. Tozer,

The Church and the Eastern Empire,

chapter 5._

ALSO IN:

_E. Gibbon,

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,

chapter 47._

NETAD, Battle of.

See HUNS: A. D. 453.

{2250}

----------NETHERLANDS: Start--------

NETHERLANDS.

The Land.

"The north-western corner of the vast plain which extends from

the German ocean to the Ural mountains is occupied by the

countries called the Netherlands [Low Countries]. This small

triangle, enclosed between France, Germany, and the sea, is

divided by the modern kingdoms of Belgium and Holland into two

nearly equal portions. … Geographically and

ethnographically, the Low Countries belong both to Gaul and to

Germany. It is even doubtful to which of the two the Batavian

island, which is the core of the whole country, was reckoned

by the Romans. It is, however, most probable that all the

land, with the exception of Friesland, was considered a part

of Gaul. Three great rivers—the Rhine, the Meuse, and the

Scheld—had deposited their slime for ages among the dunes

and sandbanks heaved up by the ocean around their mouths. A

delta was thus formed, habitable at last for man. It was by

nature a wide morass, in which oozy islands and savage forests

were interspersed among lagoons and shallows; a district lying

partly below the level of the ocean at its higher tides,

subject to constant overflow from the rivers, and to frequent

and terrible inundations by the sea. … Here, within a

half-submerged territory, a race of wretched icthyophagi dwelt

upon 'terpen,' or mounds, which they had raised, like beavers,

above the almost fluid soil. Here, at a later day, the same

race chained the tyrant Ocean and his mighty streams into

subserviency, forcing them to fertilize, to render commodious,

to cover with a beneficent network of veins and arteries, and

to bind by watery highways with the farthest ends of the

world, a country disinherited by nature of its rights. A

region, outcast of ocean and earth, wrested at last from both

domains their richest treasures. A race, engaged for

generations in stubborn conflict with the angry elements, was

unconsciously educating itself for its great struggle with the

still more savage despotism of man. The whole territory of the

Netherlands was girt with forests. An extensive belt of

woodland skirted the sea-coast, reaching beyond the mouths of

the Rhine. Along the outer edge of this barrier, the dunes

cast up by the sea were prevented by the close tangle of

thickets from drifting further inward, and thus formed a

breastwork which time and art were to strengthen. The groves

of Haarlem and the Hague are relics of this ancient forest.

The Badahuenna wood, horrid with Druidic sacrifices, extended

along the eastern line of the vanished lake of Flevo. The vast

Hercynian forest, nine days' journey in breadth, closed in the

country on the German side, stretching from the banks of the

Rhine to the remote regions of the Dacians, in such vague

immensity (says the conqueror of the whole country) that no

German, after traveling sixty days, had ever reached, or even

heard of, its commencement. On the south, the famous groves of

Ardennes, haunted by faun and satyr, embowered the country,

and separated it from Celtic Gaul. Thus inundated by mighty

rivers, quaking beneath the level of the ocean, belted about

by hirsute forests, this low land, nether land, hollow land,

or Holland, seemed hardly deserving the arms of the

all-accomplished Roman."

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

introduction, section 1._

NETHERLANDS:

The early inhabitants.

See BELGÆ; NERVII; BATAVIANS; and FRISIANS.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 69.

Revolt of the Batavians under Civilis.

See BATAVIANS.

NETHERLANDS: 4-9th Centuries.

Settlement and domination of the Franks.

See FRANKS; also, GAUL: A. D. 355-361.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 843-870.

Partly embraced in the kingdom of Lotharingia.

The partitioning.

See LORRAINE: A. D. 843-870.

NETHERLANDS: (Flanders): A. D. 863-1383.

The Flemish towns and counts.

See FLANDERS.

NETHERLANDS: (Holland): A. D. 922-1345.

The early Counts of Holland.

"It was in the year 922 that Charles the Simple [of France]

presented to Count Dirk the territory of Holland, by letters

patent. This narrow hook of land, destined, in future ages, to

be the cradle of a considerable empire, stretching through

both hemispheres, was, thenceforth, the inheritance of Dirk's

descendants. Historically, therefore, he is Dirk I., Count of

Holland. … From the time of the first Dirk to the close of

the 13th century there were nearly four hundred years of

unbroken male descent, a long line of Dirks and Florences.

This iron-handed, hot-headed, adventurous race, placed as

sovereign upon its little sandy hook, making ferocious

exertions to swell into large consequence, conquering a mile

or two of morass or barren furze, after harder blows and

bloodier encounters than might have established an empire

under more favorable circumstances, at last dies out. The

countship falls to the house of Avennes, Counts of Hainault.

Holland, together with Zeland, which it had annexed, is thus

joined to the province of Hainault. At the end of another half

century the Hainault line expires. William the Fourth died

childless in 1355 [1345?]."

_J. L. Motley,

Rise of the Dutch Republic,

introduction, sections 5-6._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 13-15th Centuries.

Relations with the Hanseatic League.

See HANSA TOWNS.

NETHERLANDS: (Holland): A. D. 1345-1354.

The Rise of the Hooks and the Kabeljauws, or Cods.

"On the death of William IV. [Count of Holland] without issue

in 1345, his sister, married to the Emperor Louis, became

Countess of Zealand, Holland, Friezland and Hainault. But her

husband dying soon afterwards, many of the noblesse, whom she

had offended by the attempt to restrain their excesses,

instigated her son to assume the sovereignty. In the

sanguinary struggle which ensued, the people generally adhered

to the cause of Margaret." They "looked forward to the

necessities of a female reign as likely to afford them

opportunities to win further immunities, as the condition of

their support against the turbulent nobles. Did not these

live, like the great fish, by devouring the smaller ones? And

how could they be checked but by the hooks which, though

insignificant in appearance, when aptly used would be too

strong for them. Such was the talk of the people; and from

these household words arose the memorable epithets, which in

after years were heard in every civic brawl, and above the din

and death-cry of many a battle-field. Certain of the nobles

adhered to the cause of the Hooks, while some of the cities,

among which were Delft, Haarlem, Dort, and Rotterdam,

supported the Kabeljauws [or Cods].

{2251}

The community was divided into parties rather than into

classes. … In the exasperation of mutual injury, the primary

cause of quarrel was soon forgotten. The Hooks were proud of

the accession of a lord to their ranks; and the Kabeljauws

were equally glad of the valuable aid which a wealthy and

populous town was able to afford. The majority of the

cities,—perhaps the majority of the inhabitants in all of

them,—favoured the Hook party, as the preponderance of the

landowners lay in the opposite scale. But no adherence to

antagonistic principles, or even a systematic profession of

them, is traceable throughout the varying struggle. … In

Friezland the two factions were designated by the

recriminative epithets of 'Vet-Koopers' and

'Schieringers,'—terms hardly translatable. In the conflict

which first marshalled the two parties in hostile array, the

Hooks were utterly defeated;—their leaders who survived were

banished, their property confiscated, and their dwellings

razed to the ground. Margaret was forced to take refuge in

England, where she remained until a short time previous to her

death in 1354, when the four provinces acknowledged William V.

as their undisputed lord. The succeeding reigns are chiefly

characterised by the incessant struggles of the embittered

factions. … Whatever progress was made during the latter

half of the 14th century was municipal and commercial. In a

national view the government was helpless and inefficient,

entangled by ambitious family alliances with France, England,

and Germany, and distracted by the rival powers and

pretensions of domestic factions. Under the administration of

the ill-fated Jacoba [or Jacqueline] these evils reached their

full maturity."

_W. T. McCullagh,

Industrial History of Free Nations,

chapter 9 (volume 2)._

NETHERLANDS: 14-15th Centuries.

Commercial and industrial superiority.

Advance in learning and art.

"What a scene as compared with the rest of Northern Europe,

and especially with England … must have been presented by

the Low Countries during the 14th century! In 1370, there are

3,200 woollen-factories at Malines and on its territory. One

of its merchants carries on an immense trade with Damascus and

Alexandria. Another, of Valenciennes, being at Paris during a

fair, buys up an the provisions exposed for sale in order to

display his wealth. Ghent, in 1340, contains 40,000 weavers.

In 1389, it has 189,000 men bearing arms; the drapers alone

furnish 18,000 in a revolt. In 1380, the goldsmiths of Bruges

are numerous enough to form in war time an entire division of

the army. At a repast given by one of the Counts of Flanders

to the Flemish magistrates, the seats provided for the guests

being unfurnished with cushions, they quietly folded up their

sumptuous cloaks, richly embroidered and trimmed with fur, and

placed them on the wooden benches. When leaving the table at

the conclusion of the feast, a courtier called their attention

to the fact that they were going without their cloaks. The

burgomaster of Bruges replied: 'We Flemings are not in the

habit of carrying away the cushions after dinner.' …

Commines, the French chronicler, writing in the 15th century,

says that the traveller, leaving France and crossing the

frontiers of Flanders, compared himself to the Israelites when

they had quitted the desert and entered the borders of the

Promised Land. Philip the Good kept up a court which surpassed

every other in Europe for luxury and magnificence. … In all

such matters of luxury and display, England of the 16th or

17th century had nothing to compare with the Netherlands a

hundred or even two hundred years before. After luxury, come

comfort, intelligence, morality, and learning, which develop

under very different conditions. In the course of time even

Italy was outstripped in the commercial race. The conquest of

Egypt by the Turks, and the discovery of a water passage to

the Indies, broke up the overland trade with the East, and

destroyed the Italian and German cities which had flourished

on it. … Passing from the dominion of the House of Burgundy

to that of the House of Austria, which also numbered Spain

among its vast possessions, proved to them in the end an event

fraught with momentous evil. Still for a time, and from a mere

material point of view it was an evil not unmixed with good.

The Netherlanders were better sailors and keener merchants

than the Spaniards, and, being under the same rulers, gained

substantial advantages from the close connection. The new

commerce of Portugal also filled their coffers; so that while

Italy and Germany were impoverished, they became wealthier and

more prosperous than ever. … With wealth pouring in from all

quarters, art naturally followed in the wake of commerce.

Architecture was first developed, and nowhere was its

cultivation more general than in the Netherlands."

_D. Campbell,

The Puritan in Holland, &c.,

volume 1, chapter 1._

NETHERLANDS: (Holland and Hainault): A. D. 1417-1430.

The despoiling of Countess Jaqueline.

In 1417, Count William VI. of Holland, Hainault and Friesland,

died, leaving no male heirs, but a daughter, Jacoba, or

Jaqueline, whom most of the nobles and towns of the several

states had already acknowledged as the heiress of her father's

sovereignty. Though barely seventeen years of age, the

countess Jake, as she was sometimes called, wore a widow's

weeds. She had been married two years before to John, the

second son of the king of France, who became presently

thereafter, by his brother's death, the dauphin of France.

John had died, a few months before Count William's death, and

the young countess, fair in person and well endowed in mind,

was left with no male support, to contend with the rapacity of

an unscrupulous bishop-uncle (John, called The Godless, Bishop

of Liege), who strove to rob her of her heritage. "Henry V.

[of England] had then stood her friend, brought about a

reconciliation, established her rights and proposed a marriage

between her and his brother John, Duke of Bedford, who was

then a fine young man of five or six and twenty. … But she

was a high-spirited, wilful damsel, and preferred her first

cousin, the Duke of Brabant, whose father was a brother of

Jean Sans Peur [Duke of Burgundy]. … The young Duke was only

sixteen, and was a weak-minded, passionate youth. Sharp

quarrels took place between the young pair; the Duchess was

violent and headstrong, and accused her husband of allowing

himself to be governed by favourites of low degree. The Duke

of Burgundy interfered in vain. … After three years of

quarrelling, in the July of 1421 Jaqueline rode out early one

morning, met a knight of Hainault called Escaillon, 'who had

long been an Englishman at heart,' and who brought her sixty

horsemen, and galloped off for Calais, whence she came to

England, where Henry received her with the courtesy due to a

distressed dame-errant, and she became a most intimate

companion of the Queen. …

{2252}

She loudly gave out that she intended to obtain a separation

from her husband on the plea of consanguinity, although a

dispensation had been granted by the Council of Constance, and

'that she would marry some one who would pay her the respect

due to her rank.' This person soon presented himself in the

shape of Humfrey, duke of Gloucester, the King's youngest

brother, handsome, graceful, accomplished, but far less

patient and conscientious than any of his three elders."

Benedict XIII., the anti-pope, was persuaded to pronounce the

marriage of Jaqueline and John of Brabant null and void; "but

Henry V. knew that this was a vain sentence, and intimated to

his brother that he would never consent to his espousing the

Duchess of Brabant; showing him that the wedlock could not be

legal, and that to claim the lady's inheritance would lead to

a certain rupture with the Duke of Burgundy, who could not but

uphold the cause of his cousin of Brabant." Notwithstanding

these remonstrances, the Duke Humfrey did marry the seductive

Jaqueline, early in 1424. "He then sent to demand from the

Duke of Brabant the possession of the lady's inheritance; and

on his refusal the Hainaulters espoused whichever party they

preferred and began a warfare among themselves." Soon

afterwards the godless bishop of Liege died and "bequeathed

the rights he pretended to have to Hainault, not to his niece,

but to the Duke of Burgundy. Gloucester in the meantime

invaded Hainault and carried on a 'bitter war there.' Burgundy

assembled men-at-arms for its protection; and letters passed

between the Dukes, ending in a challenge—not between

Jaqueline's two husbands, who would have seemed the fittest

persons to have fought out the quarrel, but between Gloucester

and Burgundy." It was arranged that the question of the

possession of Hainault should be decided by single combat.

Humfrey returned to England to make preparations, leaving

Jaqueline at Mons, with her mother. The latter proved false

and allowed the citizens of Mons to deliver up the unhappy

lady to Philip of Burgundy. Her English husband found himself

powerless to render her much aid, and was possibly indifferent

to her fate, since another woman had caught his fancy.

Jaqueline, after a time, escaped from her captivity, and

revived the war in Hainault, Gloucester sending her 500 men.

"The Duke of Brabant died, and reports reached her that

Gloucester had married Eleanor Cobham; but she continued to

battle for her county till 1428, when she finally came to

terms with Philippe [of Burgundy], let him garrison her

fortresses, appointed him her heir, and promised not to marry

without his consent. A year or two after, however, she married

a gentleman of Holland called Frank of Burslem, upon which he

was seized by the Burgundians. To purchase his liberty she

yielded all her dominions, and only received an annual pension

until 1436, when she died, having brought about as much strife

and dissension as any woman of her time."

_C. M. Yonge,

Cameos of English History,

series 2, chapter 33._

ALSO IN:

_E. de Monstrelet,

Chronicles

(translated by Johnes),

book 1, chapters 164, 181, 234>,

book 2, chapters 22-32, 48-49._

_C. M. Davies,

History of Holland,

part 1, chapters 5-6._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1428-1430.

The sovereignty of the House of Burgundy established.

"Upon the surrender of Holland, Zealand, Friezland, and

Hainault by Jacoba, Philip [the duke of Burgundy called Philip

the Good] became possessed of the most considerable states of

the Netherlands. John, duke of Burgundy, his father, had

succeeded to Flanders and Artois, in right of his mother

Margaret, sole heiress of Louis van der Male, count of

Flanders. In the year 1429, Philip entered into possession of

the county of Namur, by the death of Theodore, its last native

prince, without issue, of whom he had purchased it during his

lifetime for 132,000 crowns of gold. To Namur was added in the

next year the neighbouring duchy of Brabant, by the death [A.

D. 1430] of Philip (brother of John, who married Jacoba of

Holland), without issue; although Margaret, countess-dowager

of Holland, aunt of the late duke, stood the next in

succession, since the right extended to females, Philip

prevailed with the states of Brabant to confer on him, as the

true heir, that duchy and Limburg, to which the Margraviate of

Antwerp and the lordship of Mechlin were annexed. … The

accession of a powerful and ambitious prince to the government

of the county was anything but a source of advantage to the

Dutch, excepting, perhaps, in a commercial point of view."

_C. M. Davies,

History of Holland,

part 2, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1451-1453.

Revolt of Ghent.

See GHENT: A. D. 1451-1453.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1456.

The Burgundian hand laid on Utrecht.

See UTRECHT: A. D. 1456.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1473.

Guelderland taken into the Burgundian dominion.

See GUELDERLAND: A. D. 1079-1473.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1477.

The severance from Burgundy.

Accession of the Duchess Mary.

The grant of the "Great Privilege."

On the fifth of January, 1477, Charles the Bold of Burgundy

came to his end at Nancy, and Louis XI. of France laid prompt

and sure hands on the Burgundian duchy, which remained

thenceforth united to the French crown. It was the further

intention of Louis to secure more or less of the Netherland

domain of the late duke, and he began seizures to that end.

But the Netherland states much preferred to acknowledge the

sovereignty of the young duchess Mary, daughter and sole

heiress of Charles the Bold, provided she would make proper

terms with them. "Shortly after her accession, the nobles, to

whose guardianship she had been committed by Charles before

his departure, summoned a general assembly of the states of

the Netherlands at Ghent, to devise means for arresting the

enterprises of Louis, and for raising funds to support the war

with France, as well as to consider the state of affairs in

the provinces. … This is the first regular assembly of the

states-general of the Netherlands. … Charles, and his

father, Philip, had exercised in the Netherlands a species of

government far more arbitrary than the inhabitants had until

then been accustomed to. … It now appeared that a favourable

opportunity offered itself for rectifying these abuses; and

the assembly, therefore, made the consideration of them a

preliminary to the grant of any supplies for the war. … They

insisted so firmly on this resolution that Mary, finding they

were determined to refuse any subsidies till their grievances

were redressed, consented to grant charters of privileges to

all the states of the Netherlands. That of Holland and Zealand

[was] commonly called the Great Charter."

_C. M. Davies,

History of Holland,

part 2, chapter 2 (volume 1), with foot-note._

{2253}

"The result of the deliberations [of the assembly of the

states, in 1477] is the formal grant by Duchess Mary of the

'Groot Privilegie,' or Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of

Holland. Although this instrument was afterwards violated, and

indeed abolished, it became the foundation of the republic. It

was a recapitulation and recognition of ancient rights, not an

acquisition of new privileges. It was a restoration, not a

revolution. Its principal points deserve attention from those

interested in the political progress of mankind. 'The duchess

shall not marry without consent of the estates of her

provinces. All offices in her gift shall be conferred on

natives only. No man shall fill two offices. No office shall

be farmed. The Great Council and Supreme Court of Holland is

re-established. Causes shall be brought before it on appeal

from the ordinary courts. It shall have no original

jurisdiction of matters within the cognizance of the

provincial and municipal tribunals. The estates and cities are

guaranteed in their right not to be summoned to justice beyond

the limits of their territory. The cities, in common with all

the provinces of the Netherlands, may hold diets as often and

at such places as they choose. No new taxes shall be imposed

but by consent of the provincial estates. Neither the duchess

nor her descendants shall begin either an offensive or

defensive war without consent of the estates. In case a war be

illegally undertaken, the estates are not bound to contribute

to its maintenance. In all public and legal documents, the

Netherland language shall be employed. The commands of the

duchess shall be invalid, if conflicting with the privileges

of a city. The seat of the Supreme Council is transferred from

Mechlin to the Hague. No money shall be coined, nor its value

raised or lowered, but by consent of the estates. Cities are

not to be compelled to contribute to requests which they have

not voted. The Sovereign shall come in person before the

estates, to make his request for supplies.' … Certainly, for

the fifteenth century, the 'Great Privilege' was a reasonably

liberal constitution. Where else upon earth, at that day, was

there half so much liberty as was thus guaranteed?"

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

introduction, section 8._

ALSO IN:

_L. S. Costello,

Memoirs of Mary of Burgundy,

chapters 28-30._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1477.

The Austrian marriage of Mary of Burgundy.

"Several husbands were proposed to the Princess of Burgundy,

and every one was of opinion there was a necessity of her

marrying, to defend those territories that she had left to

her, or (by marrying the dauphin), to recover what she had

lost.

See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1477.

Several were entirely for this match, and she was as earnest

for it as anybody, before the letters she had sent by the Lord

of Humbercourt and the chancellor to the king [Louis XI.] were

betrayed to the ambassadors from Ghent. Some opposed the

match, and urged the disproportion of their age, the dauphin

being but nine years old, and besides engaged to the King of

England's daughter; and these suggested the son of the Duke of

Cleves. Others recommended Maximilian, the emperor's son, who

is at present King of the Romans." Duchess Mary made choice

presently of Maximilian, then Archduke of Austria, afterwards

King of the Romans and finally emperor. The husband-elect

"came to Cologne, where several of the princess's servants

went to meet him, and carry him money, with which, as I have

been told, he was but very slenderly furnished; for his father

was the stingiest and most covetous prince, or person, of his

time. The Duke of Austria was conducted to Ghent, with about

700 or 800 horse in his retinue, and this marriage was

consummated [August 18, 1477], which at first sight brought no

great advantage to the subjects of the young princess; for,

instead of his supporting her, she was forced to supply him

with money. His armies were neither strong enough nor in a

condition to face the king's; besides which, the humour of the

house of Austria was not pleasing to the subjects of the house

of Burgundy, who had been bred up under wealthy princes, that

had lucrative offices and employments to dispose of; whose

palaces were sumptuous, whose tables were nobly served, whose

dress was magnificent, and whose liveries were pompous and

splendid. But the Germans are of quite a contrary temper;

boorish in their manners and rude in their way of living."

_Philip de Commines,

Memoirs,

book 6, chapter 2 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:

_L. S. Costello,

Memoirs of Mary of Burgundy,

chapter 31._

See, also, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1477-1495.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1482-1493.

Maximilian and the Flemings.

The end of the Hook party in Holland.

"According to the terms of the marriage treaty between

Maximilian and Mary, their eldest son, Philip, succeeded to

the sovereignty of the Netherlands immediately upon the death

of his mother [March 26, 1482]. As he was at this time only

four years of age, Maximilian obtained the acknowledgment of

himself as guardian of the young count's person, and protector

of his states, by all the provinces except Flanders and

Guelderland. The Flemings having secured the person of Philip

at Ghent, appointed a regency." To reduce the Flemings to

obedience, Maximilian carried on two campaigns in their

country, during 1484 and 1485, as the result of which Ghent

and Bruges surrendered. "Maximilian was acknowledged protector

of Flanders during the minority of Philip, who was delivered

by the Ghenters into the hands of his father, and by him

entrusted to the care of Margaret of York, Duchess-dowager of

Burgundy, until he became of age." Three years later

(1488)—Maximilian having been, in the meantime, crowned "King

of the Romans," at Aix la Chapelle, and thus cadetted, so to

speak, for his subsequent coronation as emperor—the Flemings

rose again in revolt, Maximilian was at Bruges, and rumor

accused him of a design to occupy the city with German troops.

The men of Bruges forestalled the attempt by seizing him

personally and making him a prisoner. They kept him in durance

for nearly four months, until he had signed a treaty, agreeing

to surrender the government of the Netherlands to the young

Duke Philip, his son; to place the latter under the care of

the princes of the blood (his relatives on the Burgundian

side); to withdraw all foreign troops, and to use his

endeavors to preserve peace with France.

{2254}

On these terms Maximilian obtained his liberty; but, meantime,

his father, the Emperor Frederic, had marched an army to the

frontiers of Brabant for his deliverance, and the very

honorable King of the Romans, making haste to the shelter of

these forces, repudiated with alacrity all the engagements he

had sworn to. His imperial father led the army he had brought

into Flanders and laid siege to Ghent; but tired of the

undertaking after six weeks and returned to Germany, leaving

his forces to prosecute the siege and the war. The commotions

in Flanders now brought to life the popular party of the

"Hooks" in Holland, and war broke out in that province. In

neither part of the Netherlands were the insurgents

successful. The Flemings had been helped by France, and when

the French king abandoned them they were forced to buy a peace

on humiliating terms and for a heavy price in cash. In

Holland, the revolt languished for a time, but broke out with

fresh spirit in 1490, excited by an edict which summarily

altered the value of the coin. In the next year it took the

name of the "Casembrotspel," or Bread and Cheese War. This

insurrection was suppressed in 1492, with the help of German

troops, and proved only disastrous to the province. "It was

the last effort made for a considerable time by the Hollanders

against the increasing power and extortion of their counts.

… The miserable remnant of the Hook or popular party melted

so entirely away that we hear of them no more in Holland: the

county, formerly a power respected in itself, was now become a

small and despised portion of an overgrown state." In 1494,

Philip having reached the age of seventeen, and Maximilian

having become emperor by the death of his father, the latter

surrendered and the former was installed in the government of

the Netherlands.

_C. M. Davies,

History of Holland,

part 2, chapter 3 (volume 1)._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1494-1519.

Beginning of the Austro-Spanish tyranny.

Absorption in the vast dominion of Charles V.

The seventeen Provinces, their independent constitutions and

their States-General.

"In 1494, Philip, now 17 years of age, became sovereign of the

Netherlands. But he would only swear to maintain the

privileges granted by his grandfather and great-grandfather,

Charles and Philip, and refused to acquiesce in the Great

Privilege of his mother. The Estates acquiesced. For a time,

Friesland, the outlying province of Holland, was severed from

it. It was free, and it chose as its elective sovereign the

Duke of Saxony. After a time he sold his sovereignty to the

House of Hapsburg. The dissensions of the Estates had put them

at the mercy of an autocratic family. Philip of Burgundy, in

1496, married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. In

1500 his son Charles was born, who was afterwards Charles V.,

Duke of the Netherlands, but also King of Spain, Emperor of

Germany, King of Jerusalem, and, by the grant of Alexander

VI., alias Roderic Borgia and Pope, lord of the whole new

world. Joanna, his mother, through whom he had this vast

inheritance, went mad, and remained mad during her life and

his.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1496-1517.

Charles not only inherited his mother's and father's

sovereignties, but his grandfather's also.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1496-1526].

… The peril which the liberties of the Netherlands were now

running was greater than ever. They had been drawn into the

hands of that dynasty which, beginning with two little Spanish

kingdoms [Castile and Aragon], had in a generation developed

into the mightiest of monarchies. … Charles succeeded his

father Philip as Count of Flanders in 1506. His father, Philip

the Handsome, was at Burgos in Castile, where he was attacked

by fever, and died when only 28 years of age. Ten years

afterwards Charles became King of Spain (1516). When he was 19

years of age (1519) he was elected emperor.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1519.

The three nations over whom he was destined to rule hated each

other cordially. There was antipathy from the beginning

between Flemings and Spaniards. The Netherlands nobles were

detested in Spain, the Spaniards in the Low Countries were

equally abhorred. … Charles was born in Flanders, and during

his whole career was much more a Fleming than a Spaniard. This

did not, however, prevent him from considering his Flemish

subjects as mainly destined to supply his wants, and submit to

his exactions. He was always hard pressed for money. The

Germans were poor and turbulent. The conquest and subjection

of the Moorish population in Spain had seriously injured the

industrial wealth of that country. But the Flemings were

increasing in riches, particularly the inhabitants of Ghent.

They had to supply the funds which Charles required in order

to carry out the operations which his necessities or his

policy rendered urgent. He had been taught, and he readily

believed, that his subjects' money was his own. Now just as

Charles had come to the empire, two circumstances had occurred

which have had a lasting influence over the affairs of Western

Europe. The first of these was the conquest of Egypt by the

Turks under Selim I (1512-20). … Egypt had for nearly two

centuries been the only route by which Eastern produce, so

much valued by European nations, could reach the consumer. …

Now this trade, trifling to be sure to our present experience,

was of the highest importance to the trading towns of Italy,

the Rhine, and the Netherlands. … But the Netherlands had

two industries which saved them from the losses which affected

the Germans and Italians. They were still the weavers of the

world. They still had the most successful fisheries. … The

other cause was the revolt against the papacy" [the

Reformation—see PAPACY: A. D. 1516-1517, and after].

_J. E. T. Rogers,

The Story of Holland,

chapters 5-6._

The seventeen provinces comprehended under the name of the

Netherlands, as ruled by Charles V., were the four duchies of

Brabant, Limburg, Luxemburg, and Guelderland; the seven

counties of Artois, Hainault, Flanders, Namur, Zutphen,

Holland, and Zealand; the five seigniories or lordships of

Friesland, Mechlin, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen; and the

margraviate of Antwerp. "Of these provinces, the four which

adjoined the French border, and in which a French dialect was

spoken, were called Walloon [see WALLOONS]; in the other

provinces a dialect, more or less resembling German,

prevailed, that of the midland ones being Flemish, that of the

northern, Dutch. They differed still more in their laws and

customs than in language. Each province was an independent

state, having its own constitution, which secured more liberty

to those who lived under it than was then commonly enjoyed in

most other parts of Europe. …

{2255}

The only institutions which supplied any links of union among

the different provinces were the States-General, or assembly

of deputies sent from each, and the Supreme Tribunal

established at Mechlin, having an appellate jurisdiction over

them all. The States-General, however, had no legislative

authority, nor power to impose taxes, and were but rarely

convened. … The members of the States-General were not

representatives chosen by the people, but deputies, or

ambassadors, from certain provinces. The different provinces

had also their own States."

_T. H. Dyer,

History of Modern Europe,

volume 2, pages 221-222._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1512.

Burgundian provinces included in the Circle of Burgundy.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1493-1519.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1521-1555.

The Reformation in the Provinces.

The "Placards" and Persecutions of Charles V.

The Edict of 1550.

The Planting of the Inquisition.

"The people of the Netherlands were noted not less for their

ingenuity shown in the invention of machines and implements,

and for their proficiency in science and letters, than for

their opulence and enterprise. It was their boast that common

laborers, even the fishermen who dwelt in the huts of

Friesland, could read and write, and discuss the

interpretation of Scripture. … In such a population, among

the countrymen of Erasmus, where, too, in previous ages,

various forms of innovation and dissent had arisen, the

doctrines of Luther must inevitably find an entrance. They

were brought in by foreign merchants, 'together with whose

commodities,' writes the old Jesuit historian Strada, 'this

plague often sails.' They were introduced with the German and

Swiss soldiers, whom Charles V. had occasion to bring into the

country. Protestantism was also transplanted from England by

numerous exiles who fled from the persecution of Mary. The

contiguity of the country to Germany and France provided

abundant avenues for the incoming of the new opinions. 'Nor

did the Rhine from Germany, or the Meuse from France,' to

quote the regretful language of Strada, 'send more water into

the Low Countries, than by the one the contagion of Luther, by

the other of Calvin, was imported into the same Belgic

provinces.' The spirit and occupations of the people, the

whole atmosphere of the country, were singularly propitious

for the spread of the Protestant movement. The cities of

Flanders and Brabant, especially Antwerp, very early furnished

professors of the new faith. Charles V. issued, in 1521, from

Worms, an edict, the first of a series of barbarous enactments

or 'Placards,' for the extinguishing of heresy in the

Netherlands; and it did not remain a dead letter. In 1523, two

Augustinian monks were burned at the stake in Brussels. …

The edicts against heresy were imperfectly executed. The

Regent, Margaret of Savoy, was lukewarm in the business of

persecution; and her successor, Maria, the Emperor's sister,

the widowed Queen of Hungary, was still more leniently

disposed. The Protestants rapidly increased in number.

Calvinism, from the influence of France, and of Geneva, where

young men were sent to be educated, came to prevail among

them. Anabaptists and other licentious or fanatical sectaries,

such as appeared elsewhere in the wake of the Reformation,

were numerous; and their excesses afforded a plausible pretext

for violent measures of repression against all who departed

from the old faith. In 1550, Charles V. issued a new Placard,

in which the former persecuting edicts were confirmed, and in

which a reference was made to Inquisitors of the faith, as

well as to the ordinary judges of the bishops. This excited

great alarm, since the Inquisition was an object of extreme

aversion and dread. The foreign merchants prepared to leave

Antwerp, prices fell, trade was to a great extent suspended;

and such was the disaffection excited, that the Regent Maria

interceded for some modification of the obnoxious decree.

Verbal changes were made, but the fears of the people were not

quieted; and it was published at Antwerp in connection with a

protest of the magistrates in behalf of the liberties which

were put in peril by a tribunal of the character threatened.

'And,' says the learned Arminian historian, 'as this affair of

the Inquisition and the oppression from Spain prevailed more

and more, all men began to be convinced that they were

destined to perpetual slavery.' Although there was much

persecution in the Netherlands during the long reign of

Charles, yet the number of martyrs could not have been so

great as 50,000, the number mentioned by one writer, much less

100,000, the number given by Grotius."

_G. P. Fisher,

The Reformation,

chapter 9._

"His hand [that of Charles V.] planted the inquisition in the

Netherlands. Before his day it is idle to say that the

diabolical institution ever had a place there. The isolated

cases in which inquisitors had exercised functions proved the

absence and not the presence of the system. … Charles

introduced and organized a papal inquisition, side by side

with those terrible 'placards' of his invention, which

constituted a masked inquisition even more cruel than that of

Spain. … The number of Netherlanders who were burned,

strangled, beheaded, or buried alive, in obedience to his

edicts … has been placed as high as 100,000 by distinguished

authorities, and have never been put at a lower mark than

50,000. The Venetian envoy Navigero placed the number of

victims in the provinces of Holland and Friesland alone at

30,000, and this in 1546, ten years before the abdication, and

five before the promulgation of the hideous edict of 1550. …

'No one,' said the edict [of 1550], 'shall print, write, copy,

keep, conceal, sell, buy, or give in churches, streets, or

other places, any book or writing made by Martin Luther, John

Ecolampadius, Ulrich Zwinglius, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, or

other heretics reprobated by the Holy Church; … nor break,

or otherwise injure the images of the holy virgin or canonized

saints; … nor in his house hold conventicles, or illegal

gatherings, or be present at any such in which the adherents

of the above-mentioned heretics teach, baptize, and form

conspiracies against the Holy Church and the general welfare.

… Moreover, we forbid … all lay persons to converse or

dispute concerning the Holy Scriptures, openly or secretly,

especially on any doubtful or difficult matters, or to read,

teach, or expound the Scriptures, unless they have duly

studied theology and been approved by some renowned

university; … or to preach secretly, or openly, or to

entertain any of the opinions of the above-mentioned heretics.

… Such perturbators of the general quiet are to be executed,

to wit: the men with the sword and the women to be buried alive,

if they do not persist in their errors; if they do persist in

them they are to be executed with fire; all their property in

both cases being confiscated to the crown.'"

The horrible edict further bribed informers, by promising to

them half the goods of a convicted heretic, while, at the same

time, it forbade, under sharp penalties, any petitioning for

pardon in favor of such heretics.

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

part 1, chapter 1,

and part 2, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:

_J. H. Merle d'Aubigne,

History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin,

book 13, chapters 9-11 (volume 7)._

{2265}

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1539-1540.

The revolt and enslavement of Ghent.

See GHENT: A. D. 1539-1540.

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1547.

Pragmatic Sanction of Charles V. changing the Relations of

his Burgundian inheritance to the Empire.

In the Germanic diet assembled at Augsburg in 1547, after the

Emperor's defeat of the Protestant princes at Muhlberg (see

GERMANY: A. D. 1546-1552), he was able to exercise his will

almost without opposition and decree arbitrarily whatever he

chose. He there "proclaimed the Pragmatic Sanction for the

Netherlands, whereby his old Burgundian inheritance was

declared by his own law to be indivisible, the succession

settled on the house of Hapsburg, it was attached to the

German empire as a tenth district, had to pay certain

contributions, but was not to be subject to the Imperial

Chamber or the Imperial Court of Judicature. He thus secured

the personal union of these territories with his house, and

made it the duty of the empire to defend them, while at the

same time he withdrew them from the jurisdiction of the

empire; it was a union by which the private interests of the

house of Hapsburg had everything to gain, but which was of no

advantage to the empire."

_L. Häusser,

The Period of the Reformation,

chapter 16._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1555.

The Abdication of Charles V.

Accession of Philip II.

His sworn promises.

"In the autumn of this year [1555] the world was astonished by

the declaration of the emperor's intention to resign all his

vast dominions, and spend the remainder of his days in a

cloister. … On the 25th of October, the day appointed for

the ceremony [of the surrender of the sovereignty of the

Netherlands], the knights of the Golden Fleece, and the

deputies of all the states of the Netherlands assembled at

Brussels. … On the day after the emperor's resignation the

mutual oaths were taken by Philip and the states of Holland;

the former swore to maintain all the privileges which they now

enjoyed, including those granted or confirmed at his

installation as heir in 1549. He afterwards renewed the

promise made by Charles in the month of May preceding, that no

office in Holland, except that of stadtholder, should be given

to foreigners or to Netherlanders of those provinces in which

Hollanders were excluded from offices. In the January of the

next year [1556] the emperor resigned the crown of Spain to

his son, reserving only an annuity of 100,000 crowns, and on

the 7th of September following, having proceeded to Zealand to

join the fleet destined to carry him to Spain, he surrendered

the imperial dignity to his brother Ferdinand." He then

proceeded to the cloister of St. Just, near Piacenza, where he

lived in retirement until his death, which occurred August 21,

1558.

_C. M. Davies,

History of Holland,

part 2, chapter 6 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:

_W. Stirling,

Cloister Life of Charles V._

_O. Delepierre,

Historical Difficulties,

chapter 10._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1555-1559.

Opening of the dark and bloody reign of Philip II. of Spain.

His malignity.

His perfidy.

His evil and plotting industry.

"Philip, bred in this [Spanish] school of slavish

superstition, taught that he was the despot for whom it was

formed, familiar with the degrading tactics of eastern

tyranny, was at once the most contemptible and unfortunate of

men. … He was perpetually filled with one idea—that of his

greatness; he had but one ambition—that of command; but one

enjoyment—that of exciting fear. … Deceit and blood were

his greatest, if not his only, delights. The religious zeal

which he affected, or felt, showed itself but in acts of

cruelty; and the fanatic bigotry which inspired him formed the

strongest contrast to the divine spirit of Christianity. …

Although ignorant, he had a prodigious instinct of cunning. He

wanted courage, but its place was supplied by the harsh

obstinacy of wounded pride. All the corruptions of intrigue

were familiar to him; yet he often failed in his most

deep-laid designs, at the very moment of their apparent

success, by the recoil of the bad faith and treachery with

which his plans were overcharged. Such was the man who now

began that terrible reign which menaced utter ruin to the

national prosperity of the Netherlands. … Philip had only

once visited the Netherlands before his accession to sovereign

power. … Every thing that he observed on this visit was

calculated to revolt both [his opinions and his prejudices].

The frank cordiality of the people appeared too familiar. The

expression of popular rights sounded like the voice of

rebellion. Even the magnificence displayed in his honour

offended his jealous vanity. From that moment he seems to have

conceived an implacable aversion to the country, in which

alone, of all his vast possessions, he could not display the

power or inspire the terror of despotism. The sovereign's

dislike was fully equalled by the disgust of his subjects. …

Yet Philip did not at first act in a way to make himself more

particularly hated. He rather, by an apparent consideration

for a few points of political interest and individual

privilege, and particularly by the revocation of some of the

edicts against heretics, removed the suspicions his earlier

conduct had excited; and his intended victims did not perceive

that the despot sought to lull them to sleep, in the hopes of

making them an easier prey. Philip knew well that force alone

was insufficient to reduce such a people to slavery. He

succeeded in persuading the states to grant him considerable

subsidies, some of which were to be paid by instalments during

a period of nine years. That was gaining a great step towards

his designs. … At the same time he sent secret agents to

Rome, to obtain the approbation of the pope to his insidious

but most effective plan for placing the whole of the clergy in

dependence upon the crown. He also kept up the army of

Spaniards and Germans which his father had formed on the

frontiers of France; and although he did not remove from their

employments the functionaries already in place, he took care

to make no new appointments to office among the natives of the

Netherlands. … To lead his already, deceived subjects the

more surely into the snare, he announced his intended

departure on a short visit to Spain; and created for the

period of his absence a provisional government, chiefly

composed of the leading men among the Belgian nobility.

{2257}

He flattered himself that the states, dazzled by the

illustrious illusion thus prepared, would cheerfully grant to

this provisional government the right of levying taxes during

the temporary absence of the sovereign. He also reckoned on

the influence of the clergy in the national assembly, to

procure the revival of the edicts against heresy, which he had

gained the merit of suspending. … As soon as the states had

consented to place the whole powers of government in the hands

of the new administration for the period of the king's

absence, the royal hypocrite believed his scheme secure, and

flattered himself he had established an instrument of durable

despotism. … The edicts against heresy, soon adopted

[including a re-enactment of the terrible edict of 1550—see

above], gave to the clergy an almost unlimited power over the

lives and fortunes of the people. But almost all the

dignitaries of the church being men of great respectability

and moderation, chosen by the body of the inferior clergy,

these extraordinary powers excited little alarm. Philip's

project was suddenly to replace these virtuous ecclesiastics

by others of his own choice [through a creation of new

bishoprics], as soon as the states broke up from their annual

meeting; and for this intention he had procured the secret

consent and authority of the court of Rome. In support of

these combinations, the Belgian troops were completely broken

up and scattered in small bodies over the country. … To

complete the execution of this system of perfidy, Philip

convened an assembly of all the states at Ghent, in the month

of July, 1559. … Anthony Perrenotte de Granvelle, bishop of

Arras [afterwards cardinal], who was considered as Philip's

favorite counsellor, but who was in reality no more than his

docile agent, was commissioned to address the assembly in the

name of his master, who spoke only Spanish. His oration was

one of cautious deception." It announced the appointment of

Margaret, duchess of Parma, a natural daughter of Charles V.,

and therefore half-sister of Philip, to preside as regent over

the government of the Netherlands during the absence of the

sovereign. It also urged with skilful plausibility certain

requests for money on the part of the latter. "But

notwithstanding all the talent, the caution, and the mystery

of Philip and his minister, there was among the nobles one man

[William of Nassau, prince of Orange and stadtholder, or

governor, of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht] who saw through

all. Without making himself suspiciously prominent, he

privately warned some members of the states of the coming

danger. Those in whom he confided did not betray the trust.

They spread among the other deputies the alarm, and pointed

out the danger to which they had been so judiciously awakened.

The consequence was, a reply to Philip's demand, in vague and

general terms, without binding the nation by any pledge; and

an unanimous entreaty that he would diminish the taxes,

withdraw the foreign troops, and entrust no official

employments to any but natives of the country. The object of

this last request was the removal of Granvelle, who was born

in Franche-Comte. Philip was utterly astounded at all this. In

the first moment of his vexation he imprudently cried out,

'Would ye, then, also bereave me of my place; I, who am a

Spaniard?' But he soon recovered his self-command, and resumed

his usual mask; expressed his regret at not having sooner

learned the wishes of the state; promised to remove the

foreign troops within three months; and set off for Zealand,

with assumed composure, but filled with the fury of a

discovered traitor and a humiliated despot." In August, 1559,

he sailed for Spain.

_T. C. Grattan,

History of the Netherlands,

chapter 7._

"Crafty, saturnine, atrabilious, always dissembling and

suspecting, sombre, and silent like night when brooding over

the hatching storm, he lived shrunk within himself, with only

the fellowship of his gloomy thoughts and cruel resolves. …

There is something terrific in the secrecy, dissimulation and

dogged perseverance with which Philip would, during a series

of years, meditate and prepare the destruction of one man, or

of a whole population, and something still more awful in the

icy indifference, the superhuman insensibility, the

accumulated cold-blooded energy of hoarded-up vengeance with

which, at the opportune moment, he would issue a dry sentence

of extermination. … He seemed to take pleasure in

distilling, slowly and chemically, the poison which,

Python-like, he darted at every object which he detested or

feared, or which he considered an obstacle in his path."

_C. Gayarre,

Philip II. of Spain,

chapter 1._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1559-1562.

The Spanish troops, the new bishoprics,

and the shadow of the Inquisition.

The appeal of Brabant to its ancient "Joyeuse Entrée."

"The first cause of trouble, after Philip's departure from the

Netherlands, arose from the detention of the Spanish troops

there. The king had pledged his word … that they should

leave the country by the end of four months, at farthest. Yet

that period had long since passed, and no preparations were

made for their departure. The indignation of the people rose

higher and higher at the insult thus offered by the presence

of these detested foreigners. It was a season of peace. No

invasion was threatened from abroad; no insurrection existed

at home. … Granvelle himself, who would willingly have

pleased his master by retaining a force in the country on

which he could rely, admitted that the project was

impracticable. 'The troops must be withdrawn,' he wrote, 'and

that speedily, or the consequence will be an insurrection.'

… The Prince of Orange and Count Egmont threw up the

commands intrusted to them by the king. They dared no longer

hold them, as the minister added, it was so unpopular. … Yet

Philip was slow in returning an answer to the importunate

letters of the regent and the minister; and when he did reply,

it was to evade their request. … The regent, however, saw

that, with or without instructions, it was necessary to act.

… The troops were ordered to Zealand, in order to embark for

Spain. But the winds proved unfavorable. Two months longer

they were detained, on shore or on board the transports. They

soon got into brawls with the workmen employed on the dikes;

and the inhabitants, still apprehensive of orders from the

king countermanding the departure of the Spaniards, resolved,

in such an event, to abandon the dikes, and lay the country

under water! Fortunately, they were not driven to this

extremity.

{2258}

In January, 1561, more than a year after the date assigned by

Philip, the nation was relieved of the presence of the

intruders. … This difficulty was no sooner settled than it

was followed by another scarcely less serious." Arrangements

had been made for "adding 13 new bishoprics to the four

already existing in the Netherlands. … The whole affair had

been kept profoundly secret by the government. It was not till

1561 that Philip disclosed his views, in a letter to some of

the principal nobles in the council of state. But, long before

that time, the project had taken wind, and created a general

sensation through the country. The people looked on it as an

attempt to subject them to the same ecclesiastical system

which existed in Spain. The bishops, by virtue of their

office, were possessed of certain inquisitorial powers, and

these were still further enlarged by the provisions of the

royal edicts. … The present changes were regarded as part of

a great scheme for introducing the Spanish Inquisition into

the Netherlands. … The nobles had other reasons for opposing

the measure. The bishops would occupy in the legislature the

place formerly held by the abbots, who were indebted for their

election to the religious houses over which they presided. The

new prelates, on the contrary, would receive their nomination

from the crown; and the nobles saw with alarm their own

independence menaced by the accession of an order of men who

would naturally be subservient to the interests of the

monarch. … But the greatest opposition arose from the manner

in which the new dignitaries were to be maintained. This was

to be done by suppressing the offices of the abbots, and by

appropriating the revenues of their houses to the maintenance

of the bishops. … Just before Philip's departure from the

Netherlands, a bull arrived from Rome authorizing the erection

of the new bishoprics. This was but the initiatory step. Many

other proceedings were necessary before the consummation of

the affair. Owing to impediments thrown in the way by the

provinces, and the habitual tardiness of the court of Rome,

nearly three years elapsed before the final briefs were

expedited by Pius IV."

_W. H. Prescott,

History of the Reign of Philip II.,

book 2, chapter 6 (volume 1)._

"Against the arbitrary policy embodied in the edicts, the new

bishoprics and the foreign soldiery, the Netherlanders

appealed to their ancient constitutions. These charters were

called 'handvests', in the vernacular Dutch and Flemish,

because the sovereign made them fast with his hand. As already

stated, Philip had made them faster than any of the princes of

his house had ever done, so far as oath and signature could

accomplish that purpose, both as hereditary prince in 1549,

and as monarch in 1555. … Of these constitutions, that of

Brabant, known by the title of the 'joyeuse entrée' 'blyde

inkomst,' or blythe entrance, furnished the most decisive

barrier against the present wholesale tyranny. First and

foremost, the 'joyous entry' provided, 'that the prince of the

land should not elevate the clerical state higher than of old

has been customary and by former princes settled; unless by

consent of the other two estates, the nobility and the

cities.' Again, 'the prince can prosecute no one of his

subjects, nor any foreign resident, civilly or criminally,

except in the ordinary and open courts of justice in the

province, where the accused may answer and defend himself with

the help of advocates.' Further, 'the prince shall appoint no

foreigners to office in Brabant.' Lastly 'should the prince,

by force or otherwise, violate any of these privileges, the

inhabitants of Brabant, after regular protest entered, are

discharged of their oaths of allegiance, and, as free,

independent, and unbound people, may conduct themselves

exactly as seems to them best.' Such were the leading

features, so far as they regarded the points now at issue, of

that famous constitution which was so highly esteemed in the

Netherlands, that mothers came to the province in order to

give birth to their children, who might thus enjoy, as a

birthright, the privileges of Brabant. Yet the charters of the

other provinces ought to have been as effective against the

arbitrary course of the government. 'No foreigner,' said the

constitution of Holland, 'is eligible as councillor,

financier, magistrate, or member of a court. Justice can be

administered only by the ordinary tribunals and magistrates.

The ancient laws and customs shall remain inviolable. Should

the prince infringe any of these provisions, no one is bound

to obey him.' These provisions from the Brabant and Holland

charters are only cited as illustrative of the general spirit

of the provincial constitutions. Nearly all the provinces

possessed privileges equally ample, duly signed and sealed."

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

part 2, chapter 2 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:

_E. E. Crowe,

Cardinal Granvelle

(Eminent Foreign Statesmen, volume 1)._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1562-1566.

Beginning of organized resistance to the tyranny

and persecution of Philip.

The signing of the Compromise.

The League of the Gueux.

William of Orange now "claimed, in the name of the whole

country, the convocation of the states-general. This assembly

alone was competent to decide what was just, legal, and

obligatory for each province and every town. … The ministers

endeavored to evade a demand which they were at first

unwilling openly to refuse. But the firm demeanor and

persuasive eloquence of the prince of Orange carried before

them all who were not actually bought by the crown; and

Granvelle found himself at length forced to avow that an

express order from the king forbade the convocation of the

states, on any pretext, during his absence. The veil was thus

rent asunder, which had in some measure concealed the

deformity of Philip's despotism. The result was a powerful

confederacy among all who held it odious, for the overthrow of

Granvelle, to whom they chose to attribute the king's conduct.

… Those who composed this confederacy against the minister

were actuated by a great variety of motives. … It is

doubtful if any of the confederates except the prince of

Orange clearly saw that they were putting themselves in direct

and personal opposition to the king himself. William alone,

clear-sighted in politics and profound in his views, knew, in

thus devoting himself to the public cause, the adversary with

whom he entered the lists. This great man, for whom the

national traditions still preserve the sacred title of

'father' (Vader-Willem), and who was in truth not merely the

parent but the political creator of the country, was at this

period in his 30th year. … Philip, … driven before the

popular voice, found himself forced to the choice of throwing

off the mask at once, or of sacrificing Granvelle.

{2259}

An invincible inclination for manœuvring and deceit decided

him on the latter measure; and the cardinal, recalled but not

disgraced, quitted the Netherlands on the 10th of March, 1564.

The secret instructions to the government remained unrevoked;

the president Viglius succeeded to the post which Granvelle

had occupied; and it was clear that the projects of the king

had suffered no change. Nevertheless some good resulted from

the departure of the unpopular minister. The public

fermentation subsided; the patriot lords reappeared at court;

and the prince of Orange acquired an increasing influence in

the council and over the government. … It was resolved to

dispatch a special envoy to Spain, to explain to Philip the

views of the council. … The count of Egmont, chosen by the

council for this important mission, set out for Madrid in the

month of February, 1565. Philip received him with profound

hypocrisy; loaded him with the most flattering promises; sent

him back in the utmost elation: and when the credulous count

returned to Brussels, he found that the written orders, of

which he was the bearer, were in direct variance with every

word which the king had uttered. These orders were chiefly

concerning the reiterated subject of the persecution to be

inflexibly pursued against the religious reformers. Not

satisfied with the hitherto established forms of punishment,

Philip now expressly commanded that the more revolting means

decreed by his father in the rigor of his early zeal, such as

burning, living burial, and the like, should be adopted. …

Even Viglius was terrified by the nature of Philip's commands;

and the patriot lords once more withdrew from all share in the

government, leaving to the duchess of Parma and her ministers

the whole responsibility of the new measures. They were at

length put into actual and vigorous execution in the beginning

of the year 1566. The inquisitors of the faith, with their

familiars, stalked abroad boldly in the devoted provinces,

carrying persecution and death in their train. Numerous but

partial insurrections opposed these odious intruders. Every

district and town became the scene of frightful executions or

tumultuous resistance."

_T. C. Grattan,

History of the Netherlands,

chapter 7._

In November, 1565, a meeting of Flemish nobles was held at

Culenborg House, Brussels, where they formed a league, in

which Philip de Marnix, Lord of Ste. Aldegonde, Count Louis of

Nassau, a younger brother of the Prince of Orange, and

Viscount Brederode, were the foremost leaders. "In a meeting

held at Breda, in January 1566, the league promulgated their

views in a paper called the Compromise, attributed to the hand

of Ste. Aldegonde. The document contained a severe

denunciation of the inquisition as an illegal, pernicious and

iniquitous tribunal; the subscribers swore to defend one

another against any attack that might be made upon them; and

declared, at the same time, that they did not mean to throw

off their allegiance to the King. … In the course of two

months the Compromise was signed by about 2,000 persons,

including many Catholics; but only a few of the great nobles

could be prevailed on to subscribe it. … The Prince of

Orange at first kept aloof from the league, and at this period

Egmont, who was of a more impulsive temper, seemed to act the

leading part; but the nation relied solely upon William. The

latter gave at least a tacit sanction to the league in the

spring of 1566, by joining the members of it in a petition to

the Regent which he had himself revised."

_T. H. Dyer,

History of Modern Europe,

book 3, chapter 7 (volume 2)._

"The league had its origin in banquets, and a banquet gave it

form and perfection. … Brederode entertained the

confederates in Kuilemberg House; about 300 guests assembled;

intoxication gave them courage, and their audacity rose with

their numbers. During the conversation, one of their number

happened to remark that he had overheard the Count of

Barlaimont whisper in French to the regent, who was seen to

turn pale on the delivery of the petitions, that 'she need not

be afraid of a band of beggars (gueux).' … Now, as the very

name for their fraternity was the very thing which had most

perplexed them, an expression was eagerly caught up, which,

while it cloaked the presumption of their enterprise in

humility, was at the same time appropriate to them as

petitioners. Immediately they drank to one another under this

name, and the cry 'Long live the gueux!' was accompanied with

a general shout of applause. … What they had resolved on in

the moment of intoxication they attempted, when sober, to

carry into execution. … In a few days, the town of Brussels,

swarmed with ash-gray garments, such as were usually worn by

mendicant friars and penitents. Every confederate put his

whole family and domestics in this dress. Some carried wooden

bowls thinly overlaid with plates of silver, cups of the same

kind, and wooden knives; in short, the whole paraphernalia of

the beggar tribe, which they either fixed round their hats or

suspended from their girdles. … Hence the origin of the name

'Gueux,' which was subsequently borne in the Netherlands by

all who seceded from popery, and took up arms against the

king."

_F. Schiller,

History of the Revolt of the Netherlands,

book 3._

ALSO IN:

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

part 2, chapters 3-6 (volume 1)._

_F. von Raumer,

History of the 16th and 17th Centuries

illustrated by original documents,

letter 16 (volume 1)._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1566-1568.

Field preaching under arms.

The riots of the Image-breakers.

Philip's schemes of revenge.

Discouragement and retirement of Orange.

Blindness of Egmont and Horn, and their fate.

"While the Privy Council was endeavouring to obtain a

'Moderation' of the Edicts, and … effected that the heretics

should be no longer burnt but hung, and that the Inquisition

should proceed 'prudently, and with circumspection,' a

movement broke out among the people which mocked at all

Edicts. The open country was suddenly covered with thousands

of armed noblemen, citizens, and peasants, who assembled in

large crowds in the open air to listen to some heretical

preacher, Lutheran, Calvinist, or even an Anabaptist, and to

hold forbidden services, with prayers and hymns, in the mother

tongue. They sallied forth with pistols, arquebuses, flails,

and pitchforks; the place of meeting was marked out like a

camp, and surrounded by guards; from 10,000 to 20,000

assembled, the armed men outside, the women and children

within.

{2260}

After the immense choir had sung a psalm, one of the

excommunicated preachers appeared between two pikes (according

to the 'Moderation' a price was set upon the head of everyone of

them), and expounded the new doctrine from the Scriptures; the

assembly listened in devout silence, and when the service was

ended separated quietly, but defiantly. This was repeated day

after day throughout the country, and nobody dared to attack

the armed field preachers. The Regent was in a painful

situation; she was always having it proclaimed that the Edicts

were in force, but nobody cared. … It was all in vain unless

foreign troops came to enforce obedience, and these she had

neither power nor funds to procure. The King hesitated in his

usual fashion, and left the Regent to the torments of

powerlessness and uncertainty. Meanwhile the universal

excitement bore fatal fruit. Instead of the dignified

preachings and peaceful assemblies of May, in June and July

there were wild excesses and furious mobs. Orange had just

persuaded the Regent to permit the field preaching in the open

country, if they avoided the towns, when the first great

outbreak occurred in Antwerp. Two days after a great

procession, on the 18th of August, 1566, at which the Catholic

clergy of Antwerp had made a pompous display to the annoyance

of the numerous Protestants, the beautiful cathedral was

invaded by a furious mob, who destroyed without mercy all the

images, pictures, and objects of art that it contained. This

demolition of images, the stripping of churches, desecration

of chapels, and destruction of all symbols of the ancient

faith, spread from Antwerp to other places, Tournay,

Valenciennes, &c. It was done with a certain moderation, for

neither personal violence nor theft took place anywhere,

though innumerable costly articles were lying about. Still,

these fanatical scenes not only excited the ire of Catholics,

but of every religious man; in Antwerp, especially, the

seafaring mob had rushed upon everything that had been held

sacred for centuries. In her distress the Regent wished to

flee from Brussels, but Orange, Egmont, and Horn compelled her

to remain, and induced her to proclaim the Act of the 25th of

August, by which an armistice was decided on between Spain and

the Beggars. In this the Government conceded the abolition of

the Inquisition and the toleration of the new doctrines, and

the Beggars declared that for so long as this promise was kept

their league was dissolved. In consideration of this, the

first men in the country agreed to quell the disturbances in

Flanders, Antwerp, Tournay; and Malines, and to restore peace.

Orange effected this in Antwerp like a true statesman, who

knew how to keep himself above party spirit; but in Flanders,

Egmont, on the contrary, went to work like a brutal soldier;

he stormed against the heretics like Philip's Spanish

executioners, and the scales fell from the eyes of the

bitterly disappointed people. Meanwhile a decision had been

come to at Madrid. … When at length the irresolute King had

determined to proclaim an amnesty, though it was really rather

a proscription, and to promise indulgence, while he was

assuring the Pope by protocol before notaries that he never

would grant any, the news came of the image riots of August,

and a report from the Duchess in which she humbly begged the

King's pardon for having allowed a kind of religious peace to

be extorted from her, but she was entirely innocent; they had

forced it from her as a prisoner in her palace, and there was

one comfort, that the King was not bound by a promise made

only in her name. Philip's rage was boundless. … He was

resolved upon fearful revenge, even when he was writing that

he should know how to restore order in his provinces by means

of grace and mercy. … Well-informed as Orange was, he

understood the whole situation perfectly; he knew that while

the Regent was heaping flattery upon him, she and Philip were

compassing his destruction; that her only object could be to

keep the peace until the Spanish preparations were complete,

and meanwhile, if possible, to compromise him with the people.

He wrote to Egmont, and laid the dangers of their situation

before him, and communicated his resolve either to escape

Philip's revenge by flight, or to join with his friends in

armed resistance to the expected attack of the Spanish army.

But Egmont in his unhappy blindness had resolved to side with

the Government which was more than ever determined on his

destruction, and the meeting at Dendermonde, October, 1566,

when Orange consulted him, Louis of Nassau, and Hogstraaten,

as to u plan of united action, was entirely fruitless. …

Admiral Horn, who had staked large property in the service of

the Emperor and King, and had never received the least return

in answer to his just demands, gave up his office, and, like a

weary philosopher, retired into solitude. Left entirely alone,

Orange thought of emigrating; in short, the upper circle of

the previous party of opposition no longer existed. But it was

not so with the mad leaders of the Beggars. While the zealous

inhabitants of Valenciennes, incited by two of the most

dauntless Calvinistic preachers, undertook to defend

themselves against the royal troops with desperate bravery,

Count Brederode went about the country with a clang of sabres,

exciting disturbances in order to give the heretics at

Valenciennes breathing-time by a happy diversion. … All that

Philip wanted to enable him to gain the day was an

unsuccessful attempt at revolt. The attack upon images and the

Beggars' volunteer march did more for the Government than all

Granvella's system; … drove every one who favoured the

Catholics and loved peace into the arms of the Government.,

The reaction set in with the sanguinary defeat of the rebels

at Valenciennes, who never again even made an attempt at

resistance. Orange gave up the liberties of his country for

lost. … Stating that he could never take the new oath of

fealty which was required, because it would oblige him to

become the executioner of his Protestant countrymen, he

renounced his offices and dignities, … made a last attempt

to save his friend Egmont, … and retired to Dillenburg, the

ancient property of the family. He wished to be spared for

better times; he saw the storm coming, and was too cool-headed

to offer himself as the first sacrifice. In fact, just when he

was travelling towards Germany, Duke Alba [more commonly

called Alva], the hangman of the Netherlands, was on his way

to his destination." Alva arrived in August, 1567, with an

army of 10,000 carefully picked veterans, fully empowered to

make the Netherlands a conquered territory and deal with it as

such. His first important act was the treacherous seizure and

imprisonment of Egmont and Horn. Then the organization of

terror began. The imprisonment and the mockery of a trial of

the two most distinguished victims was protracted until the

5th of June, 1568, when they were beheaded in the great square

at Brussels.

_L. Häusser,

The Period of the Reformation,

chapters 22-23._

ALSO IN:

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

part 2, chapters 6-10,

and part 3, chapters 1-2._

_F. Schiller,

History of the Revolt of the Netherlands,

books 3-4._

{2261}

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1567.

The Council of Blood.

"In the same despatch of the 9th September [1567], in which

the Duke communicated to Philip the capture of Egmont and

Horn, he announced to him his determination to establish a new

court for the trial of crimes committed during the recent

period of troubles. This wonderful tribunal was accordingly

created with the least possible delay. It was called the

Council of Troubles, but it soon acquired the terrible name,

by which it will be forever known in history, of the

Blood-Council. It superseded all other institutions. Every

court, from those of the municipal magistracies up to the

supreme councils of the provinces, were forbidden to take

cognisance in future of any cause growing out of the late

troubles. The Council of State, although it was not formally

disbanded, fell into complete desuetude, its members being

occasionally summoned into Alva's private chambers in an

irregular manner, while its principal functions were usurped

by the Blood-Council. Not only citizens of every province, but

the municipal bodies, and even the sovereign provincial

Estates themselves, were compelled to plead, like humble

individuals, before this new and extraordinary tribunal. It is

unnecessary to allude to the absolute violation which was thus

committed of all charters, laws, and privileges, because the

very creation of the Council was a bold and brutal

proclamation that those laws and privileges were at an end.

… So well … did this new and terrible engine perform its

work, that in less than three months from the time of its

erection, 1,800 human beings had suffered death by its summary

proceedings; some of the highest, the noblest, and the most

virtuous in the land among the number; nor had it then

manifested the slightest indication of faltering in its dread

career. Yet, strange to say, this tremendous court, thus

established upon the ruins of all the ancient institutions of

the country, had not been provided with even a nominal

authority from any source whatever. The King had granted it no

letters patent or charter, nor had even the Duke of Alva

thought it worth while to grant any commissions, either in his

own name or as Captain-General, to any of the members

composing the board. The Blood-Council was merely an informal

club, of which the Duke was perpetual president, while the

other members were all appointed by himself. Of these

subordinate councillors, two had the right of voting, subject,

however, in all cases, to his final decision, while the rest

of the number did not vote at all. It had not, therefore, in

any sense, the character of a judicial, legislative, or

executive tribunal, but was purely a board of advice by which

the bloody labours of the Duke were occasionally lightened as

to detail, while not a feather's weight of power or of

responsibility was removed from his shoulders. He reserved for

himself the final decision upon all causes which should come

before the Council, and stated his motives for so doing with

grim simplicity. 'Two reasons,' he wrote to the King, 'have

determined me thus to limit the power of the tribunal; the

first that, not knowing its members, I might be easily

deceived by them; the second, that the men of law only condemn

for crimes which are proved; whereas your Majesty knows that

affairs of state are governed by very different rules from the

laws which they have here.' It being, therefore, the object of

the Duke to compose a body of men who would be of assistance

to him in condemning for crimes which could not be proved, and

in slipping over statutes which were not to be recognised, it

must be confessed that he was not unfortunate in the

appointments which he made to the office of councillors. …

No one who was offered the office refused it. Noircarmes and

Berlaymont accepted with very great eagerness. Several

presidents and councillors of the different provincial

tribunals were appointed, but all the Netherlanders were men

of straw. Two Spaniards, Del Rio and Vargas, were the only

members who could vote, while their decisions, as already

stated, were subject to reversal by Alva. Del Rio was a man

without character or talent, a mere tool in the hands of his

superiors, but Juan de Vargas was a terrible reality. No

better man could have been found in Europe, for the post to

which he was thus elevated. To shed human blood was, in his

opinion, the only important business and the only exhilarating

pastime of life. … It was the duty of the different

subalterns, who, as already stated, had no right of voting, to

prepare reports upon the cases. Nothing could be more summary.

Information was lodged against a man, or against a hundred

men, in one document. The Duke sent the papers to the Council,

and the inferior councillors reported at once to Vargas. If

the report concluded with a recommendation of death to the man

or the hundred men in question, Vargas instantly approved it,

and execution was done upon the man, or the hundred men,

within 48 hours. If the report had any other conclusion, it

was immediately sent back for revision, and the reporters were

overwhelmed with reproaches by the President. Such being the

method of operation, it may be supposed that the councillors

were not allowed to slacken in their terrible industry. The

register of every city, village, and hamlet throughout the

Netherlands showed the daily lists of men, women, and children

thus sacrificed at the shrine of the demon who had obtained

the mastery over this unhappy land. It was not often that an

individual was of sufficient importance to be tried—if trial

it could be called—by himself. It was found more expeditious

to send them in batches to the furnace. Thus, for example, on

the 4th of January, 84 inhabitants of Valenciennes were

condemned; on another day, 95 miscellaneous individuals from

different places in Flanders; on another, 46 inhabitants of

Malines; on another, 35 persons from different localities, and

so on. … Thus the whole country became a charnel-house; the

death-bell tolled hourly in every village; not a family but

was called to mourn for its dearest relatives, while the

survivors stalked listlessly about, the ghosts of their former

selves, among the wrecks of their former homes. The spirit of

the nation, within a few months after the arrival of Alva,

seemed hopelessly broken. The blood of its best and bravest

had already stained the scaffold; men to whom it had been

accustomed to look for guidance and protection, were dead, in

prison, or in exile. Submission had ceased to be of any avail,

flight was impossible, and the spirit of vengeance had

alighted at every fireside.

{2262}

The mourners went daily about the streets, for there was

hardly a house which had not been made desolate. The

scaffolds, the gallows, the funeral piles which had been

sufficient in ordinary times, furnished now an entirely

inadequate machinery for the incessant executions. Columns and

stakes in every street, the door-posts of private houses, the

fences in the fields, were laden with human carcases,

strangled, burned, beheaded. The orchards in the country bore

on many a tree the hideous fruit of human bodies. Thus the

Netherlands were crushed, and, but for the stringency of the

tyranny which had now closed their gates, would have been

depopulated."

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

part 3, chapter 1 (volume 2)._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1568.

Stupendous death-sentence of the Inquisition.

The whole population condemned.

"Early in the year, the most sublime sentence of death was

promulgated which has ever been pronounced since the creation

of the world. The Roman tyrant wished that his enemies' heads

were all upon a single neck, that he might strike them off at

a blow; the Inquisition assisted Philip to place the heads of

all his Netherland subjects upon a single neck, for the same

fell purpose. Upon the 16th February, 1568, a sentence of the

Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands

to death as heretics. From this universal doom only a few

persons, especially named, were excepted. A proclamation of

the King, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree of the

Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant

execution without regard to age, sex, or condition. This is

probably the most concise death-warrant that was ever framed.

Three millions of people, men, women, and children, were

sentenced to the scaffold in three lines; and as it was well

known that these were not harmless thunders, like some bulls

of the Vatican, but serious and practical measures which it

was intended should be enforced, the horror which they

produced may be easily imagined. It was hardly the purpose of

Government to compel the absolute completion of the wholesale

plan in all its length and breadth, yet in the horrible times

upon which they had fallen, the Netherlanders might be excused

for believing that no measure was too monstrous to be

fulfilled. At any rate, it was certain that when all were

condemned, any might at a moment's warning be carried to the

scaffold, and this was precisely the course adopted by the

authorities. … Under this new decree, the executions

certainly did not slacken. Men in the highest and the humblest

positions were daily and hourly dragged to the stake. Alva, in

a single letter to Philip, coolly estimated the number of

executions which were to take place immediately after the

expiration of Holy Week, 'at 800 heads.' Many a citizen,

convicted of a hundred thousand florins, and of no other

crime, saw himself suddenly tied to a horse's tail, with his

hands fastened behind him, and so dragged to the gallows. But

although wealth was an unpardonable sin, poverty proved rarely

a protection. Reasons sufficient could always be found for

dooming the starveling laborer as well as the opulent burgher.

To avoid the disturbances created in the streets by the

frequent harangues or exhortations addressed to the bystanders

by the victims on their way to the scaffold, a new gag was

invented. The tongue of each prisoner was screwed into an iron

ring, and then seared with a hot iron. The swelling and

inflammation, which were the immediate result, prevented the

tongue from slipping through the ring, and of course

effectually precluded all possibility of speech."

_J. L. Motley,

The Rise of the Dutch Republic,

part 3, chapter 2 (volume 2)._

NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1568-1572.

The arming of Revolt and beginning of War

by the Prince of Orange.

Alva's successes, brutalities, and senseless taxation.

Quarrels with England and destruction of Flemish trade.