ded Granvelle to transfer his
residence to Rome. The cardinal would not move. "Anywhere," he wrote to
his master, "but to Rome. That is a place of ceremonies and empty show,
for which I am nowise qualified. Besides, it would look too much like a
submission on your part. My diocese of Mechlin has need of me; now, if I
should go to Spain, it would look as if I went to procure the aid which
it so much requires."[670] But the cabinet of Madrid were far from
desiring the presence of so cunning a statesman to direct the royal
counsels. The orders were reiterated, to go to Rome. To Rome,
accordingly, the reluctant minister went; and we have a letter from him
to the king, dated from that capital, the first of February, 1566, in
which he counsels his master by no means to think of introducing the
Spanish Inquisition into the Netherlands.[671] It might seem as if,
contrary to the proverb, change of climate had wrought some change in
the disposition of the cardinal.--From this period, Granvelle, so long
the terror of the Low Countries, disappears from the management of their
affairs. He does not, however, disappear from the political theatre. We
shall again meet with the able and ambitious prelate, first as viceroy
of Naples, and afterwards at Madrid occupying the highest station in the
councils of his sovereign.

Early in July, 1565, the commission of reform appointed by Philip
transmitted its report to Spain. It recommended no change in the present
laws, except so far as to authorize the judges to take into
consideration the age and sex of the accused, and in case of penitence
to commute the capital punishment of the convicted heretic for
banishment. Philip approved of the report in all particulars,--except
the only particular that involved a change, that of mercy to the
penitent heretic.[672]

At length, the king resolved on such an absolute declaration of his will
as should put all doubts on the matter at rest, and relieve him from
further importunity. On the seventeenth of October, 1565, he addressed
that memorable letter to his sister, from the Wood of Segovia, which may
be said to have determined the fate of the Netherlands. Philip, in this,
intimates his surprise that his letters should appear to Egmont
inconsistent with what he had heard from his lips at Madrid. His desire
was not for novelty in anything. He would have the Inquisition conducted
by the inquisitors, as it had hitherto been, and as by right, divine and
hum