The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1560-61 | Page 4

upon the minister's

back, and to retain the consolatory formula, that Philip was a prince,
"clement, benign, and debonair."
The Bishop, true to his habitual conviction, that words, with the people,
are much more important than things, was disposed to have the word
"inquisitor" taken out of the text of the new decree. He was anxious at
this juncture to make things pleasant, and he saw no reason why men
should be unnecessarily startled. If the inquisition could be practised,
and the heretics burned, he was in favor of its being done comfortably.
The word "inquisitor" was unpopular, almost indecent. It was better to
suppress the term and retain the thing. "People are afraid to speak of the
new bishoprics," he wrote to Perez, "on account of the clause providing
that of nine canons one shall be inquisitor. Hence people fear the
Spanish inquisition."--He, therefore, had written to the King to suggest
instead, that the canons or graduates should be obliged to assist the
Bishop, according as he might command. Those terms would suffice,
because, although not expressly stated, it was clear that the Bishop was
an ordinary inquisitor; but it was necessary to expunge words that gave
offence.
It was difficult, however, with all the Bishop's eloquence and dexterity,
to construct an agreeable inquisition. The people did not like it, in any
shape, and there were indications, not to be mistaken, that one day there
would be a storm which it would be beyond human power to assuage.
At present the people directed their indignation only upon a part of the
machinery devised for their oppression. The Spanish troops were
considered as a portion of the apparatus by which the new bishoprics
and the edicts were to be forced into execution. Moreover, men were,
weary of the insolence and the pillage which these mercenaries had so
long exercised in the land. When the King had been first requested to
withdraw them, we have seen that he had burst into a violent passion.
He had afterward dissembled. Promising, at last, that they should all be
sent from the country within three or four months after his departure, he
had determined to use every artifice to detain them in the provinces. He
had succeeded, by various subterfuges, in keeping them there fourteen
months; but it was at last evident that their presence would no longer be
tolerated. Towards the close of 1560 they were quartered in Walcheren
and Brill. The Zelanders, however, had become so exasperated by their
presence that they resolutely refused to lay a single hand upon the

dykes, which, as usual at that season, required great repairs. Rather than
see their native soil profaned any longer by these hated foreign
mercenaries, they would see it sunk forever in the ocean. They swore to
perish-men, women, and children together-in the waves, rather than
endure longer the outrages which the soldiery daily inflicted. Such was
the temper of the Zelanders that it was not thought wise to trifle with
their irritation. The Bishop felt that it was no longer practicable to
detain the troops, and that all the pretext devised by Philip and his
government had become ineffectual. In a session of the State Council,
held on the 25th October, 1560, he represented in the strongest terms to
the Regent the necessity for the final departure of the troops. Viglius,
who knew the character of his countrymen, strenuously seconded the
proposal. Orange briefly but firmly expressed the same opinion,
declining any longer to serve as commander of the legion, an office
which, in conjunction with Egmont, he had accepted provisionally,
with the best of motives, and on the pledge of Philip that the soldiers
should be withdrawn. The Duchess urged that the order should at least
be deferred until the arrival of Count Egmont, then in Spain, but the
proposition was unanimously negatived.
Letters were accordingly written, in the name of the Regent, to the
King. It was stated that the measure could no longer be delayed, that
the provinces all agreed in this point, that so long as the foreigners
remained not a stiver should be paid into the treasury; that if they had
once set sail, the necessary amount for their arrears would be furnished
to the government; but that if they should return it was probable that
they would be resisted by the inhabitants with main force, and that they
would only be allowed to enter the cities through a breach in their wall.
It was urged, moreover, that three or four thousand Spaniards would
not be sufficient to coerce all the provinces, and that there was not
money enough in the royal exchequer to pay the wages of a single
company of the troops. "It cuts me to the heart," wrote the Bishop to
Philip, "to see the