The Netherlands were too near Germany not to be affected
by the Reformation. Lutheranism soon appeared there, only to encounter the
hostility of Charles V, who introduced the terrors of the Inquisition. Many
heretics were burned at the stake, or beheaded, or buried alive. But there is
no seed like martyr's blood. The number of Protestants swelled, rather than
lessened, especially after Calvinism entered the Netherlands. As a Jesuit
historian remarked, "Nor did the Rhine from Germany or the Meuse from
France send more water into the Low Countries than by the one the contagion of
Luther, and by the other that of Calvin, were imported into these
provinces."
POLICY OF PHILIP II
In spite of the cruel treatment of heretics by Charles V,
both Flemish and Dutch remained loyal to the emperor, because he had been born
and reared among them and always considered their country as his own. But
Philip II, a Spaniard by birth and sympathies, seemed to them only a foreign
master. The new ruler did nothing to conciliate the people. He never visited
the Netherlands after 1559 A.D., but governed them despotically through Spanish
officials supported by Spanish garrisons. Arbitrary taxes were levied, cities
and nobles were deprived of their cherished privileges, and the activity of the
Inquisition was redoubled. Philip intended to exercise in the Netherlands the
same absolute power which he enjoyed in Spain.
