1522 - The Inquisition
In 1522 Charles established the Inquisition within the seventeen provinces. It was a distinctively civil institution, and this was perhaps due to the fact that there was little correspondence between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions in the Netherlands; but it must not be forgotten that the Kings of Spain had used the Holy Office for the purpose of stamping out political and local opposition, and also that the civil courts were usually more energetic and more severe than the ecclesiastical.
The man appointed was unworthy of any place of important trust. Francis van de Hulst, although he had been the Prince's counsellor in Brabant, was a man accused both of bigamy and murder, and was hopelessly devoid of tact. He quarrelled violently with the High Court of Holland; and the Regent, Margaret of Austria, who had resumed her functions, found herself constantly compromised by his continual defiance of local privileges. He was a “wonderful enemy to learning,” says Erasmus. His colleague, Nicolas van Egmont, a Carmelite monk, is described by the same scholar as “a madman with a sword put into his hand who hates me worse than he does Luther.” The two men discredited the Inquisition from its beginning. Erasmus affected to believe that the Emperor could not know what they were doing.
The Netherlands furnished the first martyrs of the Reformation in the persons of Henry Voes and John Esch, Augustinian monks, who were burnt at Antwerp (July 31st, 1523). “As they were led to the stake they cried with a loud voice that they were Christians; and when they were fastened to it, and the fire was kindled, they rehearsed the twelve articles of the Creed, and after that the hymn Te Deum laudamus, which each of them sang verse by verse alternately until the flames deprived them both of voice and life.”
After appointing Margaret of Parma, a natural daughter of Charles V, to be regent in the Netherlands, in 1559 Philip set sail for Spain, leaving, in spite of the remonstrances of the estates, 4,000 foreign troops, nominally to protect the frontiers, really to check the independence of the people, and to support the policy of religious persecution which bad been resolved on. The real direction of all affairs was in the hands of the Burgundian churchman Antony Perrenot, bishop of Arras (afterwards so well known as Cardinal Granvella), who was chief of the "consulta" or secret council of three.
A sharp attack on the Reformers now began. The first step, the proposal (which had originated with Charles) to reorganize the bishoprics of the Netherlands, was announced at once. Hitherto ecclesiastical affairs had been in the charge of four bishops — Arras, Cambray, Tournay, Utrecht — the last under the archbishop of Cologne, the others under Rheims.
It was proposed now to establish a new and national hierarchy, independent of Germany and France, with three archbishops and fifteen bishops: Mechlin, the chief archbishopric, having under it Antwerp, Herzogenbusch, Roermond, Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres; Cam"bray, with Tournay, Arras, St Omer, and Namur; Utrecht, with Haarlem, Middelburg, Lecuwarden, Groningen, and Deventer. Each bishop was to appoint nine new prebendaries to help him in his diocese; of the nine two should be inquisitors, specially told off to sniff out and hunt down heresy.
Nor was this all; it was believed that not merely would these new bishoprics strengthen the old episcopal inquisition, but that a more stringent form of inquisition was to be introduced, organized after the Spanish system, which had been long known for its efficient severity. The Netherlanders regarded the change, in fact, as part of a general plan for the subjection of the province from abroad, by means of foreign troops and ecclesiastics, with contempt of their feelings, rights, and liberties.
All classes — nobles, clergy, burghers, peasants — disliked the new ecclesiastical system, and regarded Granvella, who became first archbishop of Mechlin, with detestation. Though the Spanish troops were withdrawn in 1560, the ferment was not quieted; the nobles were uneasy, and, finding their position uncertain between the court and the populace, began to form confederacies and to head the resistance.
Even such leading men as William I of Orange, who tried to mediate between Government and the provinces, were driven into opposition; in 1561 Granvella's overbearing acts alienated them still more, and Orange and Horn withdrew from the council. Even Margaret felt she could no longer rule with Granvella at her side ; and he at last, seeing that a crisis was coming on, withdrew into Burgundy in 1563. Now things were easier; party badges were dropped, and men felt cooler.
