looked upon the use of images in worship, and upon the mass, as forms of idolatry, of a sin explicitly forbidden in the decalogue. Similar uprisings of the populace took place in France and in Scotland, and from the same causes. The Protestant ministers and the Prince of Orange, with other chiefs of the liberal party, generally denounced the image-breaking. The effect of it was disastrous. What the iconoclasts considered the destruction of the implements of an impious idolatry, the Catholics abhorred as sacrilege. The patriotic party was divided, and besides this advantage gained by the government, a plausible pretext was afforded for the most sanguinary retaliation. The Regent was obliged, however, to make a truce with the Confederacy of nobles, in which it was agreed that the Inquisition should be given up and liberty allowed to the new doctrine, while the confederates in return, as long as the promises to them should be kept, were to abandon their association. Orange undertook to quell the disturbances in Antwerp, and Egmont in Flanders; the latter manifesting his loyalty to Catholicism and his anger at the iconoclasts, by brutal severities. The Regent exhibited the utmost energy in repressing disorder, and in punishing the offenders. Valenciennes, which endeavored to stand a siege, was taken and heavily punished. Order was everywhere restored. Orange foresaw what course Philip would pursue. He would not take the oath of unlimited obedience to what the King might choose to command, and separating regretfully from Egmont and Horne, who had more confidence in Philip, he retired to Dillenburg, in Nassau, the ancient seat of his family. From the moment when Philip heard the news

1 Motley, i. 570. Whether the popular leaders encouraged the image-breaking or not, is one of the disputed points. That they did is maintained by Koch, Untersuchungen über die Empörung u. den Abfall d. Niederlande von Spanien (1861) p. 115 seq. Juste (ii. 184) holds the contrary opinion. Koch writes in a polemical, partisan spirit, but some of his criticisms upon Motley are worthy of attention.

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of the iconoclastic disturbances, he had no thought but that of armed coercion and vengeance. While he was preparing a military force so strong that he expected to cut off all hope of resistance, he veiled his designs by assurances to the Regent and to the Council that his policy was to be one of mildness, clemency, and grace, with the avoidance of all harshness.1 It was fortunate that there was one man whom he could not deceive.

What the Regent most deprecated was the sending of the Duke of Alva to the Netherlands, to whom she had a strong personal antipathy, and whose coming, as she knew, would undo at once the work of pacification, which she considered herself, through her resolute proceedings, to have nearly accomplished. But in accordance with Alva's advice, Philip had resolved on a scheme of savage repression and punishment, and Alva was the person selected to carry it out. His reputation was very high as a military man, although his talents seem not to have fitted him for the management of large armies; he had a contracted, but clear and crafty intellect, immeasurable arrogance, inflexible obstinacy, and a heart of stone. Conciliation and mercy were terms not found in his vocabulary. His theory, like that of Philip, was that the great lords were at the bottom of the disaffection of the inferior nobility, and that these in turn were the movers of sedition among the people. Neither the King nor his General could comprehend a spontaneous, common sentiment, pervading a nation. Alva conceived that the great mistake of Charles V. had been in sparing the captive leaders in the Smalcaldic war. From the Emperor's experience he derived a conclusive argument against every policy but that of unrelenting severity in dealing with rebels and heretics. Such was the man who was chosen to settle the disturbances in the Netherlands. He conducted a body of ten thousand Spanish troops from Italy

1 Gachard, I. xlviii. 487, 488.

to that country. As his course lay near to Geneva, Pope Pius V. desired him to turn aside and exterminate this "nest of devils and apostates." But he declined to deviate from his chosen route, maintained perfect discipline among his soldiers during the long and perilous march, and even gave a sort of organization to the hundreds of courtesans who followed his army. On his arrival, he endeavored to disarm suspicion, and gradually made known the extent of the authority committed to him, which was equivalent to that of a dictator. The Regent found herself wholly divested of real power. Egmont and Horn were decoyed to Brussels by gracious and flattering words, and then treacherously arrested and cast into prison. The terrible tribunal was erected, which was appropriately named by the people," the Council of Blood," and the work of death began. Soon the prisons were crowded with inmates, not a few of whom were dragged from their beds at midnight. The executioners were Among the victims, the

busy from morning till evening. rich were specially numerous, since one end which Alva kept in view, was the providing of a revenue for his master. Every one who had taken part in the petitions against the new bishoprics or the Inquisition, or in favor of softening the edicts of persecution, was declared guilty of high treason. Every nobleman who had been concerned in presenting the petitions, or had approved of them; all nobles and officers who, under the plea of a pressure of circumstances, had permitted the sermons; every one who had taken part, in any way, in the heretical mass meetings, and had not hindered the destruction of the images; all who had expressed the opinion that the King had no right to take from the provinces their liberty, or that the present tribunal was restricted by any laws or privileges, were likewise made guilty of treason. Death and loss of property, were the invariable penalty. In three months eighteen hundred men were sent to the scaf

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fold. Persons were condemned for singing the songs of the Gueux, or for attending a Calvinistic burial years before; one for saying that in Spain, also, the new doctrine would spread; and another for saying that one must obey God rather than man. Finally, on the 16th of February, 1568, all the inhabitants of the Netherlands, with a few exceptions that were named, were actually condemned to death as heretics!

Orange was active in devising means of deliverance. His brother, Louis of Nassau, entered Friesland, in April, 1568, at the head of an army, and gained a victory over the forces commanded by Count Aremberg. In order to strike terror and to secure himself in the rear, Alva hurried through the process against Egmont and Horn, and they were beheaded in the great square at Brussels. Alva then marched against the army of Louis, which he defeated and dispersed. He succeeded, also, by avoiding a combat, in baffling William, whose army was composed of materials that could not long be kept together. The rule of Alva was the more firmly established by the unsuccessful attempts to overthrow it, and he pursued for several years longer his murderous work. The entire number of judicial homicides under his administration, he reckoned himself at eighteen thousand. Multitudes emigrated from the country; manufactories were deserted, and business was paralyzed. In 1569, he determined to put in operation a system of taxation that should fill the coffers of the King. He ordained that an extraordinary tax should be levied, of one per cent. on property of all kinds; and that a permanent tax should be paid, of five per cent. on every sale of real estate, and ten per cent. on every sale of merchandise. This scheme, as ill calculated for its end as it was barbarous in its oppressiveness, raised such a storm of opposition, that Alva himself was moved to make a compromise, which consisted in postponing the execution of it for two years. His enemies, Granvelle and others, were

continually laboring to undermine the King's confidence in him, and not wholly without success. In 1570, an act

of amnesty was solemnly proclaimed at Antwerp, which, however, left the old edicts in full force, and only ordained that those against whom nothing was to be charged, should go unpunished, provided within a definite time they should penitently sue for grace and obtain absolution from the Church! The spirit of resistance had been slowly awakening, and it gathered strength from these senseless proceedings. When, on the 31st of July, 1571, Alva commanded that the taxes should be levied according to his scheme, the shops were closed, and the people of all the provinces assumed so menacing an attitude that he deemed it best to except four articles-corn, wine, flesh, and beer - from the operation of his decree. But this did not produce the desired effect: labor and traffic were suspended. Alva was deeply incensed and ready to set the hangman at work again, when he heard of the capture of Briel by the "sea-beggars" as they were called; the hardy inhabitants of the coasts of Holland and Zealand, who had organized themselves into predatory bands, under their admiral, William de la Mark. The Prince of Orange was unremitting in his exertions to raise forces capable of effecting the deliverance of his country. Holland and Zealand threw off the yoke of Alva, and, in accordance with William's suggestions, adopted a free constitution. By the estates of Holland, William was recognized as the King's Stadtholder, the show of a connection with Spain being not yet abandoned. He was at the head of an army with every hope of success, when the news of the slaughter of St. Bartholomew and of the death of Coligny, which cut off the expectation of aid from France, disappointed this hope. Mons, where his brother was, had to be given up, and the army melted away. But Alva was weary of his office and began to be sensible of his failure to effect the result which he had been so confident