The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1560-61 | Page 2

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. So far as ink and sealing wax could defend a land
against sword and fire, the Netherlands were impregnable against the
edicts and the renewed episcopal inquisition. Unfortunately, all history
shows how feeble are barriers of paper or lambskin, even when
hallowed with a monarch's oath, against the torrent of regal and
ecclesiastical absolutism. It was on the reception in the provinces of the
new and confirmatory Bull concerning the bishoprics, issued in January,
1560, that the measure became known, and the dissatisfaction manifest.
The discontent was inevitable and universal. The ecclesiastical
establishment which was not to be enlarged or elevated but by consent
of the estates, was suddenly expanded into three archiepiscopates and
fifteen bishoprics. The administration of justice, which was only

allowed in free and local courts, distinct for each province, was to be
placed, so far as regarded the most important of human interests, in the,
hands of bishops and their creatures, many of them foreigners and most
of them monks. The lives and property of the whole population were to
be at the mercy of these utterly irresponsible conclaves. All classes
were outraged. The nobles were offended because ecclesiastics,
perhaps foreign ecclesiastics, were to be empowered to sit in the
provincial estates and to control their proceedings in place of easy,
indolent, ignorant abbots and friars, who had generally accepted the
influence of the great seignors. The priests were enraged because the
religious houses were thus taken out of their control and confiscated to
a bench of bishops, usurping the places of those superiors who had
formally been elected by and among themselves. The people were
alarmed because the monasteries, although not respected nor popular,
were at least charitable and without ambition to exercise ecclesiastical
cruelty; while, on the other hand, by the new episcopal arrangements, a
force of thirty new inquisitors was added to the apparatus for enforcing
orthodoxy already established. The odium of the measure was placed
upon the head of that churchman, already appointed Archbishop of
Mechlin, and soon to be known as Cardinal Granvelle. From this time
forth, this prelate began to be regarded with a daily increasing aversion.
He was looked upon as the incarnation of all the odious measures
which had been devised; as the source of that policy of absolutism
which revealed itself more and more rapidly after the King's departure
from the country. It was for this reason that so much stress was laid by
popular clamor upon the clause prohibiting foreigners from office.
Granvelle was a Burgundian; his father had passed most of his active
life in Spain, while both he and his more distinguished son were
identified in the general mind with Spanish politics. To this prelate,
then, were ascribed the edicts, the new bishoprics, and the continued
presence of the foreign troops. The people were right as regarded the
first accusation. They were mistaken as to the other charges.
The King had not consulted Anthony Perrenot with regard to the
creation of the new bishoprics. The measure, which had been
successively contemplated by Philip "the Good," by Charles the Bold,
and by the Emperor Charles, had now been carried out by Philip the
Second, without the knowledge of the new Archbishop of Mechlin. The

King had for once been able to deceive the astuteness of the prelate,
and had concealed from him the intended arrangement, until the arrival
of Sonnius with the Bulls. Granvelle gave the reasons for this mystery
with much simplicity. "His Majesty knew," he said, "that I should
oppose it, as it was more honorable and lucrative