to the
Spanish cause and the Catholic faith: he was hanged in 1572 by the
citizens of Haarlem, where he was a burgomaster. The other, Charles
Utenhove, was sedulous on the side of the revolt and the Reformed
religion. At Ghent, in concert with the Prince of Orange, he turned
against the narrow-minded Protestant terrorism of the zealots.

A Dutch historian recently tried to trace back the opposition of the
Dutch against the king of Spain to the influence of Erasmus's political
thought in his arraignment of bad princes--wrongly as I think. Erasmus's
political diatribes were far too academic and too general for that. The
desire of resistance and revolt arose from quite other causes. The
'Gueux' were not Erasmus's progeny. But there is much that is Erasmian
in the spirit of their great leader, William of Orange, whose vision
ranged so widely beyond the limitations of religious hatred. Thoroughly
permeated by the Erasmian spirit, too, was that class of municipal
magistrates who were soon to take the lead and to set the fashion in the
established Republic. History is wont, as always with an aristocracy, to
take their faults very seriously. After all, perhaps no other
aristocracy, unless it be that of Venice, has ruled a state so long, so
well and with so little violence. If in the seventeenth century the
institutions of Holland, in the eyes of foreigners, were the admired
models of prosperity, charity and social discipline, and patterns of
gentleness and wisdom, however defective they may seem to us--then the
honour of all this is due to the municipal aristocracy. If in the Dutch
patriciate of that time those aspirations lived and were translated into
action, it was Erasmus's spirit of social responsibility which inspired
them. The history of Holland is far less bloody and cruel than that of
any of the surrounding countries. Not for naught did Erasmus praise as
truly Dutch those qualities which we might also call truly Erasmian:
gentleness, kindliness, moderation, a generally diffused moderate
erudition. Not romantic virtues, if you like; but are they the less
salutary?

One more instance. In the Republic of the Seven Provinces the atrocious
executions of witches and wizards ceased more than a century before they
did in all other countries. This was not owing to the merit of the
Reformed pastors. They shared the popular belief which demanded
persecution. It was the magistrates whose enlightenment even as early as
the beginn