The Revolt of The Netherlands, book 2 | Page 4

claims and wrongs which
had been long supplanted by new passions were now drawn from
oblivion. By his late appointments the king had satisfied no party; for
those even who obtained offices were not much more content than
those who were entirely passed over, because they had calculated on
something better than they got. William of Orange had received four
governments (not to reckon some smaller dependencies which, taken
together, were equivalent to a fifth), but William had nourished hopes
of Flanders and Brabant. He and Count Egmont forgot what had really
fallen to their share, and only remembered that they had lost the
regency. The majority of the nobles were either plunged into debt by
their own extravagance, or had willingly enough been drawn into it by
the government. Now that they were excluded from the prospect of
lucrative appointments, they at once saw themselves exposed to
poverty, which pained them the more sensibly when they contrasted the
splendor of the affluent citizens with their own necessities. In the
extremities to which they were reduced many would have readily
assisted in the commission even of crimes; how then could they resist
the seductive offers of the Calvinists, who liberally repaid them for
their intercession and protection? Lastly, many whose estates were past
redemption placed their last hope in a general devastation, and stood

prepared at the first favorable moment to cast the torch of discord into
the republic.
This threatening aspect of the public mind was rendered still more
alarming by the unfortunate vicinity of France. What Philip dreaded for
the provinces was there already accomplished. The fate of that kingdom
prefigured to him the destiny of his Netherlands, and the spirit of
rebellion found there a seductive example. A similar state of things had
under Francis I. and Henry II. scattered the seeds of innovation in that
kingdom; a similar fury of persecution and a like spirit of faction had
encouraged its growth. Now Huguenots and Catholics were struggling
in a dubious contest; furious parties disorganized the whole monarchy,
and were violently hurrying this once-powerful state to the brink of
destruction. Here, as there, private interest, ambition, and party feeling
might veil themselves under the names of religion and patriotism, and
the passions of a few citizens drive the entire nation to take up arms.
The frontiers of both countries merged in Walloon Flanders; the
rebellion might, like an agitated sea, cast its waves as far as this: would
a country be closed against it whose language, manners, and character
wavered between those of France and Belgium? As yet the government
had taken no census of its Protestant subjects in these countries, but the
new sect, it was aware, was a vast, compact republic, which extended
its roots through all the monarchies of Christendom, and the slighest
disturbance in any of its most distant members vibrated to its centre. It
was, as it were, a chain of threatening volcanoes, which, united by
subterraneous passages, ignite at the same moment with alarming
sympathy. The Netherlands were, necessarily, open to all nations,
because they derived their support from all. Was it possible for Philip
to close a commercial state as easily as he could Spain? If he wished to
purify these provinces from heresy it was necessary for him to
commence by extirpating it in France.
It was in this state that Granvella found the Netherlands at the
beginning of his administration (1560).
To restore to these countries the uniformity of papistry, to break the
co-ordinate power of the nobility and the states, and to exalt the royal
authority on the ruins of republican freedom, was the great object of
Spanish policy and the express commission of the new minister. But
obstacles stood in the way of its accomplishment; to conquer these

demanded the invention of new resources, the application of new
machinery. The Inquisition, indeed, and the religious edicts appeared
sufficient to check the contagion of heresy; but the latter required
superintendence, and the former able instruments for its now extended
jurisdiction. The church constitution continued the same as it had been
in earlier times, when the provinces were less populous, when the
church still enjoyed universal repose, and could be more easily
overlooked and controlled. A succession of several centuries, which
changed the whole interior form of the provinces, had left the form of
the hierarchy unaltered, which, moreover, was protected from the
arbitrary will of its ruler by the particular privileges of the provinces.
All the seventeen provinces were parcelled out under four bishops, who
had their seats at Arras, Tournay, Cambray, and Utrecht, and were
subject to the primates of Rheims and Cologne. Philip the Good, Duke
of Burgundy, had, indeed, meditated an increase in the number of
bishops to meet the wants of the increasing population; but,