The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1566 part 1 | Page 2

in Bourges, was the pastor
of the secret French congregation of Huguenots at Antwerp. He was
very young, having arrived from Geneva, where he had been educated,
to take charge of the secret church, when but just turned of twenty
years. He was, however, already celebrated for his learning, his
eloquence, and his courage. Towards the end of 1565, it had already
become known that Junius was in secret understanding with Louis of
Nassau, to prepare an address to government on the subject of the
inquisition and edicts. Orders were given for his arrest.
A certain painter of Brussels affected conversion to the new religion,
that he might gain admission to the congregation, and afterwards earn
the reward of the informer. He played his part so well that he was
permitted to attend many meetings, in the course of which he sketched
the portrait of the preacher, and delivered it to the Duchess Regent,
together with minute statements as to his residence and daily habits.
Nevertheless, with all this assistance, the government could not
succeed in laying hands on him. He escaped to Breda, and continued
his labors in spite of persecution. The man's courage may be estimated
from the fact that he preached on one occasion a sermon, advocating
the doctrines of the reformed Church with his usual eloquence, in a
room overlooking the market-place, where, at the very, instant, the
execution by fire of several heretics was taking place, while the light
from the flames in which the brethren of their Faith were burning, was
flickering through the glass windows of the conventicle. Such was the
man who preached a sermon in Culemburg Palace on Parma's
wedding-day. The nobles who listened to him were occupied with
grave discourse after conclusion of the religious exercises. Junius took
no part in their conversation, but in his presence it was resolved that a
league against the "barbarous and violent inquisition" should be formed,

and, that the confederates should mutually bind themselves both within
and without the Netherlands to this great purpose. Junius, in giving this
explicit statement; has not mentioned the names of the nobles before
whom he preached. It may be inferred that some of them were the more
ardent and the more respectable among the somewhat miscellaneous
band by whom the Compromise was afterwards signed.
At about the same epoch, Louis of Nassau, Nicolas de Hammes, and
certain other gentlemen met at the baths of Spa. At this secret assembly,
the foundations of the Compromise were definitely laid. A document
was afterwards drawn up, which was circulated for signatures in the
early part of 1566. It is, therefore, a mistake to suppose that this
memorable paper was simultaneously signed and sworn to at any
solemn scene like that of the declaration of American Independence, or
like some of the subsequent transactions in the Netherland revolt,
arranged purposely for dramatic effect. Several copies of the
Compromise were passed secretly from hand to hand, and in the course
of two months some two thousand signatures had been obtained. The
original copy bore but three names, those of Brederode, Charles de
Mansfeld, and Louis of Nassau. The composition of the paper is
usually ascribed to Sainte Aldegonde, although the fact is not
indisputable. At any rate, it is very certain that he was one of the
originators and main supporters of the famous league. Sainte
Aldegonde was one of the most accomplished men of his age. He was
of ancient nobility, as he proved by an abundance of historical and
heraldic evidence, in answer to a scurrilous pamphlet in which he had
been accused, among other delinquencies, of having sprung from
plebeian blood. Having established his "extraction from true and
ancient gentlemen of Savoy, paternally and maternally," he rebuked his
assailants in manly strain. "Even had it been that I was without nobility
of birth," said he, "I should be none the less or more a virtuous or
honest man; nor can any one reproach me with having failed in the
point of honor or duty. What greater folly than to boast of the virtue or
gallantry of others, as do many nobles who, having neither a grain of
virtue in their souls nor a drop of wisdom in their brains, are entirely
useless to their country! Yet there are such men, who, because their
ancestors have done some valorous deed, think themselves fit to direct
the machinery of a whole country, having from their youth learned

nothing but to dance and to spin like weathercocks with their heads as
well as their heels." Certainly Sainte Aldegonde had learned other
lessons than these. He was one of the many-sided men who recalled the
symmetry of antique patriots. He was a poet of much vigor and
imagination; a prose writer whose style was surpassed by