The extreme party, headed by Viglius, were in favor of carrying out the royal decisions.

They were overruled, and the Duchess was induced to attempt a modification, if her brother's permission could be obtained.

The President expressed the opinion that the decrees, even with the restrictions proposed, would "give no contentment to the people, who, moreover, had no right to meddle with theology." The excellent Viglius forgot, however, that theology had been meddling altogether too much with the people to make it possible that the public attention should be entirely averted from the subject.

Men and women who might be daily summoned to rack, stake, and scaffold, in the course of these ecclesiastical arrangements, and whose births, deaths, marriages, and position in the next world, were now to be formally decided upon, could hardly be taxed with extreme indiscretion, if they did meddle with the subject.
In the dilemma to which the Duchess was reduced, she again bethought herself of a special mission to Spain.

At the end of the year (1564), it was determined that Egmont should be the envoy.