and punishment of the ringleaders.[546]

"Rigorous and severe measures," wrote Philip, "are the only ones to be
employed in matters of religion. It is by fear only that the
rabble"--meaning by this the Reformers--"can be made to do their duty,
and not always then."[547] This liberal sentiment found less favor in
the Low Countries than in Spain. "One must ponder well," writes the
cardinal to Perez, the royal secretary, "before issuing those absolute
decrees, which are by no means as implicitly received here as they are
in Italy."[548] The Fleming appealed to his laws, and, with all the
minister's zeal, it was found impossible to move forward at the fiery
pace of the Spanish Inquisition.

"It would raise a tumult at once," he writes, "should we venture to
arrest a man without the clearest evidence. No man can be proceeded
against without legal proof."[549] But an insurmountable obstacle in the
way of enforcing the cruel edicts lay in the feelings of the nation. No
law repugnant to such feelings can long be executed. "I accuse none of
the nobles of being heretics," writes the regent to her brother; "but
they show little zeal in the cause of religion, while the magistrates
shrink from their duty from fear of the people."[550] "How absurd is
it," exclaims Granvelle, "for depositions to be taken before the
Inquisition in Spain, in order to search out heretics in Antwerp, where
thousands are every day walking about whom no one meddles with!"[551]
"It is more than a year," he says, "since a single arrest on a charge of
heresy has taken place in that city."[552] Yet whatever may have been
the state of persecution at the present time, the vague dread of the
future must have taken strong hold of people's minds, if, as a
contemporary writes, there were no less than eighteen or twenty thousand
refugees then in England, who had fled from Flanders for the sake of
their religion.[553]

The odium of this persecution all fell on the head of Granvelle. He was
the tool of Spain. Spain was under the yoke of the Inquisition.
Therefore it was clearly the minister's design to establish the Spanish
Inquisition over the Netherlands. Such was the concise logic by which
people connected the name of Granvelle with that of the most dreaded of
tribunals.[554] He was held responsible for the contrivance of the most
unpopular measures of government, as well as for their execution. A
thousand extravagant stories were circulated both of his private and