Thus, Holland consisted of two members, or branches--the nobles and the six chief cities; Flanders of four branches--the cities, namely, of Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, and the "freedom of Bruges;" Brabant of Louvain, Brussels, Bois le Due, and Antwerp, four great cities, without representation of nobility or clergy; Zeland, of one clerical person, the abbot of Middelburg, one noble, the Marquis of Veer and Vliessingen, and six chief cities; Utrecht, of three branches--the nobility, the clergy, and five cities.

These, and other provinces, constituted in similar manner, were supposed to be actually present at the diet when assembled.

The chief business of the states-general was financial; the sovereign, or his stadholder, only obtaining supplies by making a request in person, while any single city, as branch of a province, had a right to refuse the grant.
Education had felt the onward movement of the country and the times.

The whole system was, however, pervaded by the monastic spirit, which had originally preserved all learning from annihilation, but which now kept it wrapped in the ancient cerecloths, and stiffening in the stony sarcophagus of a bygone age.

The university of Louvain was the chief literary institution in the provinces.