History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 76 (2/2)

Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 576.

[1003] ”Novum igitur consessum judic.u.m inst.i.tuit, exteris in eum plerisque adscitis; quem Turbarum ille; plebes, Sanguinis appellabat Senatum.” Reidani Annales, (Lugdunum Batavorum, 1633,) p. 5.

[1004] ”Les plus savants et les plus integres du pays, et de la meilleure vie.” Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 576.

[1005] Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 300.

[1006] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.

[1007] Viglius, who had not yet seen the man, thus mentions him in a letter to his friend Hopper: ”Imperium ac rigorem metuunt cujusdam Vergasi, qui apud eum multum posse, et nescio quid aliud, dicitur.”

Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 451.

[1008] ”Une activite toute juvenile.” Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 583.

[1009] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1010] Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p.

58.

[1011] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 242. Hessels was married to a niece of Viglius. According to the old councillor, she was on bad terms with her husband, because he had not kept his promise of resigning the office of attorney-general, in which he made himself so unpopular in Flanders. (Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 495.) In the last chapter of this Book the reader will find some mention of the tragic fate of Hessels.

[1012] ”Letrados no sentencian sino en casos probados; y como V. M.

sabe, los negocios de Estado son muy diferentes de las leyes que ellos tienen.” Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii.

p. 52, note.

[1013] ”En siendo el aviso de condemnar a muerte, se decia que estaba muy bien y no habia mas que ver; empero, si el aviso era de menor pena, no se estaba a lo que ellos decian, sino tornabase a ver el proceso, y decianles sobre ello malas palabras, y hacianles ruin tratamiento.”

Gachard cites the words of the official doc.u.ment. Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p. 67.

[1014] Ibid., p. 68 et seq.

[1015] ”Qu'ils seraient et demeureraient a jamais bons catholiques, selon que commandait l'Eglise catholique romaine; que, par haine, amour, pitie ou crainte de personne, ils ne laisseraient de dire franchement et sincerement leur avis, selon qu'en bonne justice ils trouvaient convenir et appartenir; qu'ils tiendraient secret tout ce qui se traiterait au conseil, et qu'ils accuseraient ceux qui feraient le contraire.”

Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p. 56.

[1016] Ibid., p. 57.

[1017] Belin, in a letter to his patron, Cardinal Granvelle, gives full vent to his discontent with ”three or four Spaniards in the duke's train, who would govern all in his name. They make but one head under the same hat.” He mentions Vargas and Del Rio in particular. Granvelle's reply is very characteristic. Far from sympathizing with his querulous follower, he predicts the ruin of his fortunes by this mode of proceeding. ”A man who would rise in courts must do as he is bidden, without question. Far from taking umbrage, he must bear in mind that injuries, like pills, should he swallowed without chewing, that one may not taste the bitterness of them;”--a n.o.ble maxim, if the motive had been n.o.ble. See Levesque, Memoires de Granvelle, tom. II. pp. 91-94.

[1018] The historians of the time are all more or less diffuse on the doings of the Council of Troubles, written as they are in characters of blood. But we look in vain for any account of the interior organization of that tribunal, or of its mode of judicial procedure. This may be owing to the natural reluctance which the actors themselves felt, in later times, to being mixed up with the proceedings of a court so universally detested. For the same reason, as Gachard intimates, they may not improbably have even destroyed some of the records of its proceedings. Fortunately that zealous and patriotic scholar has discovered in the Archives of Simancas sundry letters of Alva and his successor, as well as some of the official records of the tribunal, which in a great degree supply the defect. The result he has embodied in a luminous paper prepared for the Royal Academy of Belgium, which has supplied me with the materials for the preceding pages. See Bulletins de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. pp. 50-78.

[1019] ”Hasta que vean en que para este juego que se comienca.”

Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 598.

[1020] ”Car l'incert.i.tude ou celles-ci se trouvent du sort qu'on leur reserve, les fera plus ais.e.m.e.nt a consentir aux moyens de finances justes et honnetes qui seront etablis par le Roi.” Ibid., p. 590.

[1021] ”Porque creo yo que, con la voluntad de los Estados, no se hallaran estas, que es menester ponerlos de manera que no sea menester su voluntad y consentimiento para ello.... Esto ira en cifra, y aun creo que seria bien que fuese en una cartilla a parte que descifrase el mas confidente.” Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 590.

[1022] Ibid., p. 610.

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