THE REFORMATION IN THE NETHERLANDS 165 Four years later, Charles V., claiming the right to regulate the religion of his subjects in the Netherlands, issued an edict which shows that heresy was gaining ground. "As it appears," says he, "that the aforesaid Martin is not a man, but a devil under the form of a man, and clothed in the dress of a priest, the better to bring the human race to hell and damnation, therefore all his disciples and converts are to be punished with death and forfeiture of all their goods." The next year the pope, at the request of the emperor, sent him an inquisitorgeneral, and the Inquisition was formally established in the Netherlands. Work began at once. In 1523, two monks were burned at Brussels for heresy, and it was noticed that the city now began strenuously to favor Lutheranism.* Later on, another edict forbade all reading of the Scriptures, all private assemblies for devotion, and all religious discussions under penalty of death. The flames and the scaffold were called on to enforce these edicts, and yet, strangely enough as it then appeared, the schism spread. In 1533, Mary, the regent, wrote to her brother that "in her opinion all heretics, whether repentant or not, should be prosecuted with such severity as that error might be at once extinguished, care being only taken that the provinces were not entirely depopulated." In 1535, an imperial edict issued at Brussels condemned all heretics to death; repentant males to be executed with the sword, repentant females to be buried alive; the obstinate of both sexes to be burned. Finally, in 1550, a new edict re-enacted all former provisions, and, adding novel offences, made even the entertaining of heretical opinions or the concealment of heretics punishable with * Motley, i. 77. death, while directing all judicial officers to render assistance to the Inquisition, any privileges or charters to the contrary notwithstanding.* How rigorously these laws were enforced is shown by the appalling records of the executioners. History calls Mary of England "Bloody Mary,” because in her reign two hundred and seventy-seven persons suffered death for their religion. These, with a few victims put to death by her father, and some isolated cases in preceding reigns, make up the sum of all the religious martyrs of England until Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558. Now let us look across the Channel. Grotius, who was well informed upon such subjects, says that a hundred thousand heretics were put to death in the Netherlands under the edicts of Charles V.‡ According to Motley, the number has never been placed at a lower mark than fifty thousand. If even this latter computation is correct, the victims of the Inquisition in the Netherlands, before the days of Philip II., probably exceeded in number all those who have suffered death under its judg ments in all the other countries of Europe combined, from the days of the Reformation until the present time. *Motley, i. 77, 80, 261, 331. + Neal's "History of the Puritans," i. 64. "Annals," lib. i. 17 (Amsterdam, 1658). § Motley, i. 114; Davies's "Holland," i. 498. Prescott, however, questions these figures, "Philip II." i. 380, but only on the theory of probabilities. Prior to the appointment of Torquemada, in 1483, as Inquisitorgeneral of Spain, the victims there had been very few. From 1483 to 1808, the whole number who suffered death in Spain is placed at about 32,000 by Llorente, who was Secretary of the Madrid Inquisition from 1789 to 1791, and claimed to have access to the records. See his "Critical History of the Spanish Inquisition." Catholic writ THE LUTHERANS, THE CALVINISTS, AND THE ANABAPTISTS 167 Such was the religious record of this people when, in 1555, the dominion over the seventeen provinces passed to Philip II. of Spain. Already some fifty thousand men and women had laid down their lives for the doctrines of the Reformation, and yet converts were on the increase. In the early days, under the influence of Germany, the theological system of Luther was in the ascendant; but later on the Huguenots from France brought in the doctrines of Calvin, who went to Geneva in 1536, and Calvinism became the faith of the majority of the reformers. This it was that bound them so closely to the Puritans of England, who all accepted substantially the same system of Calvinistic theology. Still, the Lutherans were not insignificant in numbers, and, being found mostly among the upper classes, their influence was considerable. A third sect, larger than the Lutherans, but without political or social influence, was the Anabaptists, or Mennonites, who were found mainly among the poor of Holland.* These people, of whom we shall see much more hereafter, were in some respects the most interesting and picturesque of all, exerting the greatest influence on the independent sects of England and America. Before closing this chapter, and with it our general view of the progress and condition of the Netherlands. ers assert that he has placed the figures too high. Those who were put to death in other countries outside of Spain were too few to run the aggregate up to 50,000. It may not be without interest to notice here that the total number of the victims of the St. Bartholomew Massacre in France, those in Paris and elsewhere, is estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000. Baird's "Rise of the Huguenots in France," ii. 530. * Prescott's "Philip II.,” ii. 22. at the time of the outbreak with Spain, we may well glance at the state of their private and public morals. We have seen the intellectual advance, the general education, and the wide dissemination of the Bible, which prepared this people to receive religious teachings. All this, however, would have been of little avail as a preparation for the permanent reception of the doctrines of the Reformation, had there not been something beyond a mere intellectual cultivation, or even a religious fervor. We must remember-and no one can understand the history of Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, or even the seventeenth century who loses sight of the fact that in many countries, and with many persons, there was little connection between morality and religion, and still less between either of these subjects and theological dogmas. To a large class religion was a mere affair of the mind, a question of intellectual belief, having no beneficial influence upon the outer life. Men like Benvenuto Cellini lie, steal, and murder, but are devout Catholics; not hypocritical, but honestly believing that they are watched over by the angelic hosts and visited by spirits from heaven.* Philip II. commits almost every form of sin, violates every rule of morals, and yet dies in the odor of sanctity, suffering the most excruciating agonies with all the fortitude of the early martyrs. He seems never to have doubted the fact of his direct translation to the abodes of bliss, since they were reserved for those who trusted in Mother Church. Perhaps the most remarkable illustration of all is found in the life and writings of * See his Autobiography, which is as fascinating as any romance and as instructive as any treatise on psychology. It gives the portrait of a real man, an Italian of the early part of the sixteenth century. RELIGION AND MORALITY NOT ALWAYS CONNECTED 169 Margaret of Angoulême, sister of Francis I., and Queen of Navarre. Here was a woman of a deeply religious nature, mystical-even inclined, it was thought, to Protestantism-herself of a pure life, who writes a series of stories, not only grossly impure, but showing an entire absence of the moral sense. Honor, chivalry, and religion all bloom in the "Heptameron," but morality of any kind has no place.* Nor was this severance of morality from religion confined to those who belonged to the Church of Rome. Among many of the Protestant sects there was to be found wild religious enthusiasm mingled with a disregard of all the obligations of a moral code. Cromwell, when in power, leads an unchaste life, keeps his mistresses, and is said to have had several illegitimate children; but he is always devout, and dies in the faith, assured of his salvation; not because he repents, but from an intellectual belief that, having once been one of the elect, he must be saved. The men who built up the English Church, and those who afterwards founded the Commonwealth, were earnest in their theological convictions, and it shows little knowedge of human nature to think of them as hypocrites. Many of them were austere of life and pure of morals, but many others, because they believed in certain theological dogmas, thought themselves absolved from ordinary moral obligations. In all this they were but exhibiting a phase of human nature common to all men at a peculiar stage of their development. * See "Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre," by Robinson, "Famous Women Series;" also Baird's "Rise of the Huguenots," i. 119, etc. † Guizot's "Life of Cromwell." |