All parties abhorred the Inquisition, and hatred to that institution is ever prominent among the causes assigned for the deposition of the monarch.

"Under pretence of maintaining the Roman religion," said the estates, "the King has sought by evil means to bring into operation the whole strength of the placards and of the Inquisition--the first and true cause of all our miseries." Without making any assault upon the Roman Catholic faith, the authors of the great act by which Philip was for ever expelled from the Netherlands showed plainly enough that religious persecution had driven them at last to extremity.

At the same time, they were willing--for the sake of conciliating all classes of their countrymen--to bring the political causes of discontent into the foreground, and to use discreet language upon the religious question.
Such, then, being the spirit which prompted the provinces upon this great occasion, it may be asked who were the men who signed a document of such importance?
In whose-name and by what authority did they act against the sovereign?
The signers of the declaration of independence acted in the name and by the authority of the Netherlands people.

The estates were the constitutional representatives of that people.

The statesmen of that day discovering, upon cold analysis of facts, that Philip's sovereignty was, legally forfeited; formally proclaimed that forfeiture.