"The authority of God and the supremacy of his Majesty" was the formula used with perpetual iteration to sanction the constant recourse to scaffold and funeral pile.

Philip, bigoted in religion, and fanatical in his creed of the absolute power of kings, identified himself willingly with the Deity, that he might more easily punish crimes against his own sacred person.

Granvelle carefully sustained him in these convictions, and fed his suspicions as to the motives of those who opposed his measures.

The minister constantly represented the great seigniors as influenced by ambition and pride.

They had only disapproved of the new bishoprics, he insinuated, because they were angry that his Majesty should dare to do anything without their concurrence, and because their own influence in the states would be diminished.