SUPPRESSION OF HERESY IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 234, 26 October 1877, Page 13

SUPPRESSION OF HERESY IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

By Edmond Poullet, Professor at the Catholic University OB 1 LOTJVAIX. (Translated jfor the New York Freeman's Journal, from the Revue Generale of Bruxelles.)

Charles V. and Philip 11., both heads of a Catholic State, in showing" themselves to be defenders of orthodoxy, in labouring to maintain religious unity in the Netherlands, incontestably possessed the pure principles of Christian law and of the most rigid constitutional law. They were. simply faithful to the solemn oath they took on the day of . their Joyense entree. They were in accord -with the public opinion of the great majority of their subjects — of nearly all, except the sectaries — who, with rare foresight and with a developed practical sense, appreciated, to its full value, the blessing of religious unity which society possessed. I desire in this connection to quote the words of a political man of the times, a soldier, who played a conspicuous part in the events of the sixteenth century, and who, by his exalted utterances made himself the organ of public opinion in 1574, a short time before the negotiations at Breda. "As to the principal point of our religion" — said Max. Vilain, Baron de Rassenghien, Governor of Gallican Flanders — " of our holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion, as it is the only true one that came from our Lord Jesus Christ, successively through the Apostles and Bishups, lawfully ordained, down to us, and that as outside of our Catholic Church, the Spouse of Jesus Christ and governed by the Holy Spirit, there is no salvation, nothing in it can be changed nor held in doubt, because it is founded upon the rock that cannot vacillate at every wind, as do the many and so varied doctrines of the heretics, for it is said — Qiwd portee infevi (sic) non pr&valebunt adventus earn. And, moreover, to speak politically also, inasmuch as religion, such as it is, has in all times been held and esteemed as the first element and chief pillar in the foundation of every republic and political government, it must be maintained, in a country, uniform and not divided ; for, as there is nothing that contributes more to the union and friendship of persons, even though they be from different countries, than a conformity of religion and kindred knowledge of God and of Divine things, hence it follows that a State can no more govern itself with two religions, than the world can with two suns, and wherever a diversity of religions is permitted in a place, chaos and confusion must necessarily follow. The idea entertained by Max de Rassenghien were so thoroughly those of the country, that they again appear as the basis of the negotiations for the moderation des p acaris, entered into with the governments of the Provinces in the middle of the crisis of 1566 ; and again in the spirit of Articles V. and VI. of the Treat]/ of Ghent and in all the documents emanating, on the occasion of the Treaty, from the provincial governments not under the dominion of the armed Calvinistic faction ; so also, in Article XI. of the perpetual Edict, in Articles VII. and XII. of the Treaty of Arras, and even in the enactments of the Edict of December 31, 1609, on the relations between the Hollanders and Belgians during the truce of twelve years. Without being always and absolutely in harmony with the government on the means of effecting and maintaining unity, the nation never dreamed, under any circumstances, of attacking the principle of unity itself. Moreover, by the very force of circumstances, considering the close relations and the bond uniting Catholic and secular institutions, every heretic was a revolutionist in embryo, every active heretic pursuing a work of propaganda was a declared revolutionist, striking, whether he would or not, against the existing political order. Those soverigns who turned the authority of the government against heretics, defended, therefore, the State as well as orthodoxy. Moreover, in its first and formidable outburst, Protestantism giving full vent to all the caprices of the individual taste, as it were, captivated the mind. The spirit of the times was such that the most marvellous speculative doctrines, provided they were presented as the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, carried away and misled the masses, and were not slow in being realised by acts. Nearly everywhere the new 'doctrines introduced themselves in a violent and seditious manner. The frightful excesses of the Iconoclasts of Saxony, of the fanatical peasantry of Swahia and Thuringia, of the Anabaptists in Westphalia and in northern Netherlands, mark the first steps of the Reformation with blood ; and besides the sects already named, the Netherlands in particular, were not long in seeing the formation of nameless sects, whose foundations were none other than murder, lust, and pillage. {To be Continued.")