Moreover, it had never been introduced into Luxemburg or Groningen.

In Gelderland it had been prohibited by the treaty through which that province had been annexed to the emperor's dominions, and it had been uniformly and successfully resisted in Brabant.

Therefore, although Philip, taking the artful advice of Granvelle, had sheltered himself under the Emperor's name by re-enacting, word for word, his decrees, and re-issuing his instructions, he can not be allowed any such protection at the bar of history.

Such a defence for crimes so enormous is worse than futile.

In truth, both father and son recognized instinctively the intimate connexion between ideas of religious and of civil freedom.