iard had been fighting at home the battles of the Church. Nearly
every inch of soil in his own country was won by arms from the infidel.
His wars, as I have more than once had occasion to remark, were all wars
of religion. He carried the same spirit across the waters. There he was
still fighting the infidel. His life was one long crusade. How could
this champion of the Church desert her in her utmost need?

With this predisposition, it was easy for Philip to enforce obedience in
a people naturally the most loyal to their princes, to whom, moreover,
since the fatal war of the _Comunidades_, they had been accustomed to
pay an almost Oriental submission. Intrenched behind the wall of the
Pyrenees, Spain, we must bear in mind, felt little of the great shock
which was convulsing France and the other states of Europe; and with the
aid of so formidable an engine as the Inquisition, it was easy to
exterminate, before they could take root, such seeds of heresy as had
been borne by the storm across the mountains.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, lay like a valley among the hills,
which drinks in all the waters of the surrounding country. They were a
common reservoir for the various opinions which agitated the nations on
their borders. On the south were the Lutherans of Germany. The French
Huguenots pressed them on the west; and by the ocean they held
communication with England and the nations of the Baltic. The soldier
quartered on their territory, the seaman who visited their shores, the
trader who trafficked in their towns, brought with them different forms
of the new religion. Books from France and from Germany circulated
widely among a people, nearly all of whom, as we have seen, were able to
read.

The new doctrines were discussed by men accustomed to think and act for
themselves. Freedom of speculation on religious topics soon extended to
political. It was the natural tendency of reform. The same spirit of
free inquiry which attacked the foundations of unity of faith, stood
ready next to assail those of unity of government; and men began boldly
to criticize the rights of kings and the duties of subjects.

The spirit of independence was fostered by the institutions of the
country. The provinces of the Netherlands, if not republican in form,
were filled with the spirit of republics. In many of their features they
call to mind the free states of Italy in the Middle Ages. Under the
petty princes who ruled over them in ea