The Revolt of The Netherlands, Friedrich Schiller [best feel good books txt] 📗

will now meet. In the meantime the inquisitors must be enjoined to use their power with moderation, and to abstain from severity." But if these words of the aged president surprised the whole assembly, still greater was the astonishment when the Prince of Orange stood up and opposed his advice. "The royal will," he said, "is too clearly and too precisely stated; it is the result of too long and too mature deliberation for us to venture to delay its execution without bringing on ourselves the reproach of the most culpable obstinacy." "That I take on myself," interrupted Viglius; "I oppose myself to, his displeasure. If by this delay we purchase for him the peace of the Netherlands our opposition will eventually secure for us the lasting gratitude of the king." The regent already began to incline to the advice of Viglius, when the prince vehemently interposing, "What," he demanded, "what have the many representations which we have already made effected? of what avail was the embassy we so lately despatched? Nothing! And what then do we wait for more? Shall we, his state counsellors, bring upon ourselves the whole weight of his displeasure by determining, at our own peril, to render him a service for which he will never thank us?" Undecided and uncertain the whole assembly remained silent; but no one had courage enough to assent to or reply to him. But the prince had appealed to the fears of the regent, and these left her no choice. The consequences of her unfortunate obedience to the king's command will soon appear. But, on the other hand, if by a wise disobedience she had avoided these fatal consequences, is it clear that the result would not have been the same? However she had adopted the most fatal of the two counsels: happen what would the royal ordinance was to be promulgated. This time, therefore, faction prevailed, and the advice of the only true friend of the government, who, to serve his monarch, was ready to incur his displeasure, was disregarded. With this session terminated the peace of the regent: from this day the Netherlands dated all the trouble which uninterruptedly visited their country. As the counsellors separated the Prince of Orange said to one who stood nearest to him, "Now will soon be acted a great tragedy."

[The conduct of the Prince of Orange in this meeting of the council
has been appealed to by historians of the Spanish party as a proof
of his dishonesty, and they have availed themselves over and over
again to blacken his character. "He," say they, "who had,
invariably up to this period, both by word and deed, opposed the
measures of the court so long as he had any ground to fear that the
king's measures could be successfully carried out, supported them
now for the first time when he was convinced that a scrupulous
obedience to the royal orders would inevitably prejudice him. In
order to convince the king of his folly in disregarding his
warnings; in order to be able to boast, 'this I foresaw,' and 'I
foretold that,' he was willing to risk the welfare of his nation,
for which alone he had hitherto professed to struggle. The whole
tenor of his previous conduct proved that he held the enforcement
of the edicts to be an evil; nevertheless, he at once becomes false
to his own convictions and follows an opposite course; although, so
far as the nation was concerned, the same grounds existed as had
dictated his former measures; and he changed his conduct simply
that the result might be different to the king." "It is clear,
therefore," continue his adversaries, "that the welfare of the
nation had less weight with him than his animosity to his
sovereign. In order to gratify his hatred to the latter he does
not hesitate to sacrifice the former." But is it then true that by
calling for the promulgation of these edicts he sacrificed the
nation? or, to speak more correctly, did he carry the edicts into
effect by insisting on their promulgation? Can it not, on the
contrary, be shown with far more probability that this was really
the only way effectually to frustrate them? The nation was in a
ferment, and the indignant people would (there was reason to
expect, and as Viglius himself seems to have apprehended) show so
decided a spirit of opposition as must compel the king to yield.
"Now," says Orange, "my country feels all the impulse necessary for
it to contend successfully with tyranny! If I neglect the present
moment the tyrant will, by secret negotiation and intrigue, find
means to obtain by stealth what by open force he could not. The
some object will be steadily pursued, only with greater caution and
forbearance; but extremity alone can combine the people to unity of
purpose, and move them to bold measures." It is clear, therefore,
that with regard to the king the prince did but change his language
only; but that as far as the people was concerned his conduct was
perfectly consistent. And what duties did he owe the king apart
from those he owed the republic? Was he to oppose an arbitrary act
in the very moment when it was about to entail a just retribution
on its author? Would he have done his duty to his country if he
had deterred its oppressor from a precipitate step which alone
could save it from its otherwise unavoidable misery?]

An edict, therefore, was issued to all the governors of provinces, commanding them rigorously to enforce the mandates of the Emperor against heretics, as well as those which had been passed under the present government, the decrees of the council of Trent, and those of the episcopal commission, which had lately sat to give all the aid of the civil force to the Inquisition, and also to enjoin a similar line of conduct on the officers of government under them. More effectually to secure their object, every governor was to select from his own council an efficient officer who should frequently make the circuit of the province and institute strict inquiries into the obedience shown by the inferior officers to these commands, and then transmit quarterly, to the capital an exact report of their visitation. A copy of the Tridentine decrees, according to the Spanish original, was also sent to the archbishops and bishops, with an intimation that in case of their needing the assistance of the secular power, the governors of their diocese, with their troops, were placed at their disposal. Against these decrees no privilege was to avail; however, the king willed and commanded that the particular territorial rights of the provinces and towns should in no case be infringed.

These commands, which were publicly read in every town by a herald, produced an effect on the people which in the fullest manner verified the fears of the President Viglius and the hopes of the Prince of Orange.

Nearly all the governors of provinces refused compliance with them, and threatened to throw up their appointments if the attempt should be made to compel their obedience. "The ordinance," they wrote back, "was based on a statement of the numbers of the sectaries, which was altogether false."

[The number of the heretics was very unequally computed by the two
parties according as the interests and passions of either made its
increase or diminution desirable, and the same party often
contradicted itself when its interest changed. If the question
related to new measures of oppression, to the introduction of the
inquisitional tribunals, etc., the numbers of the Protestants were
countless and interminable. If, on the other hand, the question
was of lenity towards them, of ordinances to their advantage, they
were now reduced to such an insignificant number that it would not
repay the trouble of making an innovation for this small body of
ill-minded people.]

"Justice was appalled at the prodigious crowd of victims which daily accumulated under its hands; to destroy by the flames fifty thousand or sixty thousand persons from their districts was no commission for them." The inferior clergy too, in particular, were loud in their outcries against the decrees of Trent, which cruelly assailed their ignorance and corruption, and which moreover threatened them with a reform they so much detested. Sacrificing, therefore, the highest interests of their church to their own private advantage, they bitterly reviled the decrees and the whole council, and with liberal hand scattered the seeds of revolt in the minds of the people. The same outcry was now revived which the monks had formerly raised against the new bishops. The Archbishop of Cambray succeeded at last, but not without great opposition, in causing the decrees to be proclaimed. It cost more labor to effect this in Malines and Utrect, where the archbishops were at strife with their clergy, who, as they were accused, preferred to involve the whole church in ruin rather than submit to a reformation of morals.

Of all the provinces Brabant raised its voice the loudest. The states of this province appealed to their great privilege, which protected their members from being brought before a foreign court of justice. They spoke loudly of the oath by which the king had bound himself to observe all their statutes, and of the conditions under which they alone had sworn allegiance to him. Louvain, Antwerp, Brussels, and Herzogenbusch solemnly protested against the decrees, and transmitted their protests in distinct memorials to the regent. The latter, always hesitating and wavering, too timid to obey the king, and far more afraid to disobey him, again summoned her council, again listened to the arguments for and against the question, and at last again gave her assent to the opinion which of all others was the most perilous for her to adopt. A new reference to the king in Spain was proposed; the next moment it was asserted that so urgent a crisis did not admit of so dilatory a remedy; it was necessary for the regent to act on her own responsibility, and either defy the threatening aspect of despair, or to yield to it by modifying or retracting the royal ordinance. She finally caused the annals of Brabant to be examined in order to discover if possible a precedent for the present case in the instructions of the first inquisitor whom Charles V. had appointed to the province. These instructions indeed did not exactly correspond with those now given; but had not the king declared that he introduced no innovation? This was precedent enough, and it was declared that the new edicts must also be interpreted in accordance with the old and existing statutes of the province. This explanation gave indeed no satisfaction to the states of Brabant, who had loudly demanded the entire abolition of the inquisition, but it was an encouragement to the other provinces to make similar