festival given by Councillor d'Assonleville, on the marriage of
Councillor Hopper's daughter, one of the principal parts being enacted by
a son of the President-judge of Artois. It may be supposed that if such
eminent personages, in close connexion with the government, took part in
such proceedings, the riot must have been considered of a very pardonable
nature. The truth was, that the Bishop was a cardinalist, and therefore
entirely out of favor with the administration. He was also a man of
treacherous, sanguinary character, and consequently detested by the
people. He had done his best to destroy heresy in Valenciennes by fire
and sword. "I will say one thing," said he in a letter to Granvelle,
which had been intercepted, "since the pot is uncovered, and the whole
cookery known, we had best push forward and make an end of all the
principal heretics, whether rich or poor, without regarding whether the
city will be entirely ruined by such a course. Such an opinion I should
declare openly were it not that we of the ecclesiastical profession are
accused of always crying out for blood." Such was the prelate's theory.
His practice may be inferred from a specimen of his proceedings which
occurred at a little later day. A citizen of Cambray, having been
converted to the Lutheran Confession, went to the Archbishop, and
requested permission to move out of the country, taking his property
with him. The petitioner having made his appearance in the forenoon,
was requested to call again after dinner, to receive his answer.
The burgher did so, and was received, not by the prelate, but by the
executioner, who immediately carried the Lutheran to the market-place,
and cut off his head. It is sufficiently evident that a minister of
Christ, with such propensities, could not excite any great sympathy,
however deeply affronted he might have been at a drinking party, so long
as any Christians remained in the land.
Egmont departed from Cambray upon the 30th January, his friends taking a
most affectionate farewell of him; and Brederode assuring him, with a
thousand oaths, that he would forsake God for his service. His reception
at Madrid was most brilliant. When he made his first appearance at the
palace, Philip rushed from his cabinet into the grand hall of reception,
and fell upon his neck, embracing him heartily before the Count had time
to drop upon his knee and kiss the royal hand. During the whole period
of his visit he dined frequently at the King's private table, an honor
rarely accorded by Philip, and was feasted and flattered by all the great
dignitaries of the court as never a subject of the Spanish crown had been
before. All vied with each other in heaping honors upon the man whom the
King was determined to honor.
Philip took him out to drive daily in his own coach, sent him to see the
wonders of the new Escorial, which he was building to commemorate the
battle of St. Quentin, and, although it was still winter, insisted upon
showing him the beauties of his retreat in the Segovian forest.
Granvelle's counsels as to the method by which the "friend of smoke" was
so easily to be gained, had not fallen unheeded in his royal pupil's
ears. The Count was lodged in the house of Ruy Gomez, who soon felt
himself able, according to previous assurances to that effect, contained
in a private letter of Armenteros, to persuade the envoy to any course
which Philip might command. Flattery without stint was administered.
More solid arguments to convince the Count that Philip was the most
generous and clement of princes were also employed with great effect.
The royal dues upon the estate of Gaasbecque, lately purchased by Egmont,
were remitted. A mortgage upon his Seigneurie of Ninove was discharged,
and a considerable sum of money presented to him in addition.
Altogether, the gifts which the ambassador received from the royal
bounty amounted to one hundred thousand crowns. Thus feasted, flattered,
and laden with presents, it must be admitted that the Count more than
justified the opinions expressed in the letter of Armenteros, that he was
a man easily governed by those who had credit with him. Egmont hardly
broached the public matters which had brought him to Madrid. Upon the
subject of the edicts, Philip certainly did not dissemble, however loudly
the envoy may have afterwards complained at Brussels. In truth, Egmont,
intoxicated by the incense offered to him at the Spanish court, was a
different man from Egmont in the Netherlands, subject to the calm but
piercing glance and the irresistible control of Orange. Philip gave him
no reason to suppose that he intended any change in the religious system
of the provinces, at least in any sense contemplated by the liberal
party. On the contrary, a council of doctors and ecclesiastics was
summoned, at whose deliberations the Count was invited to assist;
on which occasion the King excited general admiration by the fervor of
his piety and the vehemence of his ejaculations. Falling upon his knees
before a crucifix, in the midst of the assembly, he prayed that God would
keep him perpetually in the same mind, and protested that he would never
call himself master of those who denied the Lord God. Such an exhibition
could leave but little doubt in the minds of those who witnessed it as to
the royal sentiments, nor did Egmont make any effort to obtain any
relaxation of those religious edicts, which he had himself declared
worthy of approbation, and fit to be maintained. As to the question of
enlarging the state-council, Philip dismissed the subject with a few
vague observations, which Egmont, not very zealous on the subject at the
moment, perhaps misunderstood. The punishment of heretics by some new
method, so as to secure the pains but to take away the glories of
martyrdom, was also slightly discussed, and here again Egmont was so
unfortunate as to misconceive the royal meaning, and to interpret an
additional refinement of cruelty into an expression of clemency. On the
whole, however, there was not much negotiation between the monarch and
the ambassador. When the Count spoke of business, the King would speak
to him of his daughters, and of his desire to see them provided with
brilliant marriages. As Egmont had eight girls, besides two sons, it was
natural that he should be pleased to find Philip taking so much interest
in looking out husbands for them. The King spoke to him, as hardly could
be avoided, of the famous fool's-cap livery. The Count laughed the
matter off as a jest, protesting that it was a mere foolish freak,
originating at the wine-table, and asseverating, with warmth, that
nothing disrespectful or disloyal to his Majesty had been contemplated
upon that or upon any other occasion. Had a single gentleman uttered an
undutiful word against the King, Egmont vowed he would have stabbed him
through and through upon the spot, had he been his own brother. These
warm protestations were answered by a gentle reprimand as to the past
by Philip, and with a firm caution as to the future. "Let it be
discontinued entirely, Count," said the King, as the two were driving
together in the royal carriage. Egmont expressed himself in handsome
terms concerning the Cardinal, in return for the wholesale approbation
quoted to him in regard to his own character, from the private letters
of that sagacious personage to his Majesty. Certainly, after all this,
the Count might suppose the affair of the livery forgiven. Thus amicably
passed the hours of that mission, the preliminaries for which had called
forth so much eloquence from the Prince of Orange and so nearly carried
off with apoplexy the President Viglius. On his departure Egmont
received a letter of instructions from Philip as to the report which
he was to make upon his arrival in Brussels, to the Duchess. After many
things personally flattering to himself, the envoy was directed to
represent the King as overwhelmed with incredible grief at hearing the
progress made by the heretics, but as immutably determined to permit no
change of religion within his dominions, even were he to die a thousand
deaths in consequence. The King, he was to state, requested the Duchess
forthwith to assemble an extraordinary session of the council, at which
certain bishops, theological doctors, and very orthodox lawyers, were to
assist, in which, under pretence of discussing the Council of Trent
matter, it was to be considered whether there could not be some new way
devised for executing heretics; not indeed one by which any deduction
should be made from their sufferings (which certainly was not the royal
wish, nor likely to be grateful to God or salutary to religion), but by
which all hopes of glory--that powerful incentive to their impiety--might
be precluded. With regard to any suggested alterations in the council
of state, or in the other two councils, the King was to be represented as
unwilling to form any decision until he should hear, at length, from the
Duchess Regent upon the subject.
Certainly here was a sufficient amount of plain speaking upon one great
subject, and very little encouragement with regard to the other. Yet
Egmont, who immediately after receiving these instructions set forth upon
his return to the Netherlands, manifested nothing but satisfaction.
Philip presented to him, as his travelling companion, the young Prince
Alexander of Parma, then about to make a visit to his mother in Brussels,
and recommended the youth, afterwards destined to play so prominent a
part in Flemish history, to his peculiar caret Egmont addressed a letter
to the King from Valladolid, in which he indulged in ecstasies concerning
the Escorial and the wood of Segovia, and declared that he was returning
to the Netherlands "the most contented man in the world."
He reached Brussels at the end of April. Upon the fifth of May he
appeared before the council, and proceeded to give an account of his
interview with the King, together with a statement of the royal
intentions and opinions. These were already sufficiently well known.
Letters, written after the envoy's departure, had arrived before him,
in which, while in the main presenting the same views as those contained
in the instructions to Egmont, Philip had expressed his decided
prohibition of the project to enlarge the state council and to suppress
the authority of the other two. Nevertheless, the Count made his report
according to the brief received at Madrid, and assured his hearers that
the King was all benignity, having nothing so much at heart as the
temporal and eternal welfare of the provinces. The siege of Malta, he
stated, would prevent the royal visit to the Netherlands for the moment,
but it was deferred only for a brief period. To remedy the deficiency in
the provincial exchequer, large remittances would be made immediately
from Spain. To provide for the increasing difficulties of the religious
question, a convocation of nine learned and saintly personages was
recommended, who should devise some new scheme by which the objections to
the present system of chastising heretics might be obviated.
It is hardly necessary to state that so meagre a result to the mission of
Egmont was not likely to inspire the hearts of Orange and his adherents
with much confidence. No immediate explosion of resentment, however,
occurred. The general aspect for a few days was peaceful. Egmont
manifested much contentment with the reception which he met with in
Spain, and described the King's friendly dispositions towards the leading
nobles in lively colors. He went to his government immediately after his
return, assembled the states of Artois, in the city of Arras, and
delivered the letters sent to that body by the King. He made a speech on
this occasion, informing the estates that his Majesty had given orders
that the edicts of the Emperor were to be enforced to the letter; adding
that he had told the King, freely, his own opinion upon the subject;
in order to dissuade him from that which others were warmly urging.
He described Philip as the most liberal and debonair of princes; his
council in Spain as cruel and sanguinary. Time was to show whether the
epithets thus applied to the advisers were not more applicable to the
monarch than the eulogies thus lavished by the blind and predestined
victim. It will also be perceived that this language, used before the
estates of Artois, varied materially from his observation to the Dowager
Duchess of Aerschot, denouncing as enemies the men who accused him of
having requested a moderation of the edicts. In truth, this most
vacillating, confused, and unfortunate of men perhaps scarcely
comprehended the purport of his recent negotiations in Spain, nor
perceived the drift of his daily remarks at home. He was, however,
somewhat vainglorious immediately after his return, and excessively
attentive to business. "He talks like a King," said Morillon,
spitefully, "negotiates night and day, and makes all bow before him."
His house was more thronged with petitioners, courtiers, and men of
affairs, than even the palace of the Duchess. He avowed frequently that
he would devote his life and his fortune to the accomplishment of the
King's commands, and declared his uncompromising hostility to all who
should venture to oppose that loyal determination.
It was but a very short time, however, before a total change was
distinctly perceptible in his demeanor. These halcyon days were soon
fled. The arrival of fresh letters from Spain gave a most unequivocal
evidence of the royal determination, if, indeed, any doubt could be
rationally entertained before. The most stringent instructions to keep
the whole machinery of persecution constantly at work were transmitted
to the Duchess, and aroused the indignation of Orange and his followers.
They avowed that they could no longer trust the royal word, since, so
soon after Egmont's departure, the King had written despatches so much at
variance with his language, as reported by the envoy. There was nothing,
they said, clement and debonair in these injunctions upon gentlemen of
their position and sentiments to devote their time to the encouragement
of hangmen and inquisitors. The Duchess was unable to pacify the nobles.
Egmont was beside himself with rage. With his usual recklessness and
wrath, he expressed himself at more than one session of the state
council in most unmeasured terms. His anger had been more inflamed by
information which he had received from the second son of Berlaymont, a
young and indiscreet lad, who had most unfortunately communicated many
secrets which he had learned from his father, but which were never
intended for Egmont's ear.
Philip's habitual dissimulation had thus produced much unnecessary
perplexity. It was his custom to carry on correspondence through the aid
of various secretaries, and it was his invariable practice to deceive
them all. Those who were upon the most confidential terms with the
monarch, were most sure to be duped upon all important occasions. It has
been seen that even the astute Granvelle could not escape this common lot
of all who believed their breasts the depositories of the royal secrets.
Upon this occasion, Gonzalo Perez and Ruy Gomez complained bitterly that
they had known nothing of the letters which had recently been despatched
from Valladolid, while Tisnacq and Courterville had been ignorant of the
communications forwarded by the hands of Egmont. They avowed that the
King created infinite trouble by thus treating his affairs in one way
with one set of councillors and in an opposite sense with the others,
thus dissembling with all, and added that Philip was now much astonished
at the dissatisfaction created in the provinces by the discrepancy
between the French letters brought by Egmont, and the Spanish letters
since despatched to the Duchess. As this was his regular manner of
transacting business, not only for the Netherlands, but for all his
dominions, they were of opinion that such confusion and dissatisfaction
might well be expected.
After all, however, notwithstanding the indignation of Egmont, it must be
confessed that he had been an easy dupe. He had been dazzled by royal
smiles, intoxicated by court incense, contaminated by yet baser bribes.
He had been turned from the path of honor and the companionship of the
wise and noble to do the work of those who were to compass his
destruction. The Prince of Orange reproached him to his face with
having forgotten, when in Spain, to represent the views of his associates
and the best interests of the country, while he had well remembered his
own private objects, and accepted the lavish bounty of the King. Egmont,
stung to the heart by the reproof, from one whom he honored and who
wished him well, became sad and sombre for a long time, abstained from
the court and from society, and expressed frequently the intention of
retiring to his estates. He was, however, much governed by his
secretary, the Seigneur de Bakerzeel, a man of restless, intriguing, and
deceitful character, who at this period exercised as great influence over
the Count as Armenteros continued to maintain over the Duchess, whose
unpopularity from that and other circumstances was daily increasing.
In obedience to the commands of the King, the canons of Trent had been
published. They were nominally enforced at Cambray, but a fierce
opposition was made by the clergy themselves to the innovation in
Mechlin, Utrecht, and many other places.
This matter, together with other more vitally important questions, came
before the assembly of bishops and doctors, which, according to Philip's
instructions, had been convoked by the Duchess. The opinion of the
learned theologians was, on the whole, that the views of the Trent
Council, with regard to reformation of ecclesiastical morals and popular
education, was sound. There was some discordancy between the clerical
and lay doctors upon other points. The seigniors, lawyers, and deputies
from the estates were all in favor of repealing the penalty of death for
heretical offences of any kind. President Viglius, with all the bishops
and doctors of divinity, including the prelates of St. Omer, Namur and
Ypres, and four theological professors from Louvain, stoutly maintained
the contrary opinion. The President especially, declared himself
vehemently in favor of the death punishment, and expressed much anger
against those who were in favor of its abolition. The Duchess, upon the
second day of the assembly, propounded formally the question, whether any
change was to be made in the chastisement of heretics. The Prince of
Orange, with Counts Horn and Egmont, had, however, declined to take part
in the discussions, on the ground that it was not his Majesty's intention
that state councillors should deliver their opinions before strangers,
but that persons from outside had been summoned to communicate their
advice to the Council. The seigniors having thus washed their hands of
the matter, the doctors came to a conclusion with great alacrity. It was
their unanimous opinion that it comported neither with the service of God
nor the common weal, to make any change in the punishment, except,
perhaps, in the case of extreme youth; but that, on the contrary,
heretics were only to be dealt with by retaining the edicts in their
rigor, and by courageously chastising the criminals. After sitting for
the greater part of six days, the bishops and doctors of divinity reduced
their sentiments to writing, and affixed their signatures to the
document. Upon the great point of the change suggested in the penalties
of heresy, it was declared that no alteration was advisable in the
edicts, which had been working so well for thirty-five years. At the
same time it was suggested that "some persons, in respect to their age
and quality, might be executed or punished more or less rigorously than
others; some by death, some by galley slavery, some by perpetual
banishment and entire confiscation of property." The possibility was
also admitted, of mitigating the punishment of those who, without being
heretics or sectaries, might bring themselves within the provisions of
the edicts, "through curiosity, nonchalance, or otherwise." Such
offenders, it was hinted, might be "whipped with rods, fined, banished,
or subjected to similar penalties of a lighter nature." It will be
perceived by this slight sketch of the advice thus offered to the Duchess
that these theologians were disposed very carefully to strain the mercy,
which they imagined possible in some cases, but which was to drop only
upon the heads of the just. Heretics were still to be dealt with, so far
as the bishops and presidents could affect their doom, with unmitigated
rigor.
When the assembly was over, the Duchess, thus put in possession of the
recorded wisdom of these special councillors, asked her constitutional
advisers what she was to do with it. Orange, Egmont, Horn, Mansfeld
replied, however, that it was not their affair, and that their opinion
had not been demanded by his Majesty in the premises. The Duchess
accordingly transmitted to Philip the conclusions of the assembly,
together with the reasons of the seigniors for refusing to take part in
its deliberations. The sentiments of Orange could hardly be doubtful,
however, nor his silence fail to give offense to the higher powers.
He contented himself for the time with keeping his eyes and ears open to
the course of events, but he watched well. He had "little leisure for
amusing himself," as Brederode suggested. That free-spoken individual
looked upon the proceedings of the theological assembly with profound
disgust. "Your letter," he wrote to Count Louis, "is full of those
blackguards of bishops and presidents. I would the race were extinct,
like that of green dogs. They will always combat with the arms which
they have ever used, remaining to the end avaricious, brutal, obstinate,
ambitious, et cetera. I leave you to supply the rest."
Thus, then, it was settled beyond peradventure that there was to be no
compromise with heresy. The King had willed it. The theologians had
advised it. The Duchess had proclaimed it. It was supposed that
without the axe, the fire, and the rack, the Catholic religion would
be extinguished, and that the whole population of the Netherlands would
embrace the Reformed Faith. This was the distinct declaration of
Viglius, in a private letter to Granvelle. "Many seek to abolish the
chastisement of heresy," said he; "if they gain this point, actum est
de religione Catholica; for as most of the people are ignorant fools,
the heretics will soon be the great majority, if by fear of punishment
they are not kept in the true path."
The uneasiness, the terror, the wrath of the people seemed rapidly
culminating to a crisis. Nothing was talked of but the edicts and the
inquisition. Nothing else entered into the minds of men. In the
streets, in the shops, in the taverns, in the fields; at market, at
church, at funerals, at weddings; in the noble's castle, at the farmer's
fireside, in the mechanic's garret, upon the merchants' exchange, there
was but one perpetual subject of shuddering conversation. It was better,
men began to whisper to each other, to die at once than to live in
perpetual slavery. It was better to fall with arms in hand than to be
tortured and butchered by the inquisition. Who could expect to contend
with such a foe in the dark?