e the Claudians of Rome, in which the transmission of moral and
intellectual qualities is more thoroughly illustrated than in this
Burgundian race which for two centuries held the sceptre of Spain. The
son Philip and the grandmother Isabella are both needful in order to
comprehend the strange mixture of good and evil in Charles. But the
descendants of Philip--two generations of idiocy, and a third of
utter impotence--are a sufficient commentary upon the organization and
character of their progenitor.

Such was the man who for two generations had been considered the bulwark
of the Catholic Church; who, having been at the bottom of nearly all the
villany that had been wrought in Europe for half a century, was yet
able to declare upon his death-bed that "in all his life he had never
consciously done wrong to any one." At a ripe old age he died of a
fearful disease. Under the influence of a typhus fever, supervening upon
gout, he had begun to decompose while yet alive. "His sufferings," says
Mr. Motley, "were horrible, but no saint could have manifested in
them more gentle resignation or angelic patience. He moralized on the
condition to which the greatest princes might thus be brought at last by
the hand of God, and bade the Prince observe well his father's present
condition, in order that when he too should be laid thus low, he might
likewise be sustained by a conscience void of offence." What more is
needed to complete the disgusting picture? Philip was fanatical up to
the point where fanaticism borders upon hypocrisy. He was possessed with
a "great moral idea," the idea of making Catholicism the ruler of the
world, that he might be the ruler of Catholicism. Why, it may be said,
shall the charge of fanaticism be allowed to absolve Isabella and
extenuate the guilt of Charles, while it only strengthens the case
against Philip? Because Isabella persecuted heretics in order to save
their souls from a worse fate, while Philip burnt them in order to
get them out of his way. Isabella would perhaps have gone to the stake
herself, if thereby she might have put an end to heresy. Philip would
have seen every soul in Europe consigned to eternal perdition before he
would have yielded up an iota of his claims to universal dominion.
He could send Alva to browbeat the Pope, as well as to oppress the
Netherlanders. He could compass the destruction of the orthodox Egmont
and Farnese, as well as of the heretical William. His unctuous piety