The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1578 part 1 | Page 3

There is no doubt that the
triumph thus achieved by the national party far counterbalanced the
Governor-General's victory at Gemblours.
Meantime, the Seigneur de Selles, brother of the deceased Noircarmes,
had arrived from Spain. He was the special bearer of a letter from the
King to the states-general, written in reply to their communications of
the 24th of August and 8th of September of the previous year. The tone
of the royal despatch was very affectionate, the substance such as
entirely to justify the whole policy of Orange. It was obvious that the
penetrating and steadfast statesman had been correct in refusing to be
moved to the right or the left by the specious language of Philip's
former letters, or by the apparent frankness of Don John. No doubt the
Governor had been sincere in his desire for peace, but the Prince knew
very well his incapacity to confer that blessing. The Prince knew--what
no man else appeared fully to comprehend at that epoch--that the
mortal combat between the Inquisition and the Reformation was
already fully engaged. The great battle between divine reason and right
divine, on which the interests of unborn generations were hanging, was
to be fought out, before the eyes of all Christendom, on the plain of the
Netherlands.
Orange was willing to lay down his arms if he could receive security
for the Reformed worship. He had no desire to exterminate the ancient
religion, but he meant also to protect the new against extermination.
Such security, he felt, would never be granted, and he had therefore
resolutely refused to hearken to Don John, for he was sure that peace
with him was impossible. The letters now produced by De Selles
confirmed his positions completely. The King said not a word
concerning the appointment of a new governor-general, but boldly
insisted upon the necessity of maintaining the two cardinal points--his
royal supremacy, and the Catholic religion upon the basis adopted by
his father, the Emperor Charles the Fifth.
This was the whole substance of his communication: the supremacy of
royalty and of papacy as in the time of Charles the Fifth. These
cabalistic words were repeated twice in the brief letter to the estates.
They were repeated five times in the instructions furnished by his
Majesty to De Selles. The letter and the instructions indeed contained
nothing else. Two simples were offered for the cure of the body politic,

racked by the fever and convulsion of ten horrible years--two simples
which the patient could hardly be so unreasonable as to
reject--unlimited despotism and religious persecution. The whole
matter lay in a nut- shell, but it was a nut-shell which enclosed the
flaming edicts of Charles the Fifth, with their scaffolds, gibbets, racks,
and funeral piles. The Prince and the states-general spurned such
pacific overtures, and preferred rather to gird themselves for the
combat.
That there might be no mistake about the matter, Don John,
immediately after receiving the letter, issued a proclamation to enforce
the King's command. He mentioned it as an acknowledged fact that the
states-general had long ago sworn the maintenance of the two points of
royal and Catholic supremacy, according to the practice under the
Emperor Charles. The states instantly published an indignant rejoinder,
affirming the indisputable truth, that they had sworn to the maintenance
of the Ghent Pacification, and proclaiming the assertion of Don John an
infamous falsehood. It was an outrage upon common sense, they said,
that the Ghent treaty could be tortured into sanctioning the placards and
the Inquisition, evils which that sacred instrument had been expressly
intended to crush.
A letter was then formally addressed to his Majesty, in the name of the
Archduke Matthias--and of the estates, demanding the recal of Don
John and the, maintenance of the Ghent Pacification. De Seller, in reply,
sent a brief, deprecatory paper, enclosing a note from Don John, which
the envoy acknowledged might seem somewhat harsh in its expressions.
The letter contained, indeed, a sufficiently fierce and peremptory
summons to the states to obey the King's commands with regard to the
system of Charles the Fifth, according to their previous agreement,
together with a violent declaration of the Governor's displeasure that
they had dared to solicit the aid of foreign princes. On the 18th of
February came a proposition from De Seller that the Prince, of Orange
should place himself in the hands of Don John, while the Prince of
Parma, alone and without arms, would come before the assembly, to
negotiate with them upon these matters. The reply returned by the
states-general to this absurd suggestion expressed their regret that the
son of the Duchess Margaret should have taken part with the enemy of
the Netherlanders, complained of the bull by which the Pope had

invited war against them as if they had