alarmed, were it to any other than himself that his minister owed
this distinction. But the king gave the proceeding his cordial sanction,
declaring to Granvelle that the reward was no higher than his desert.

Thus clothed with the Roman purple, primate of the Netherlands, and
first minister of state, Granvelle might now look down on the proudest
noble in the land. He stood at the head of both the civil and the
ecclesiastical administration of the country. All authority centred in
his person. Indeed, such had been the organization of the council of
state, that the minister might be said to be not so much the head of the
government as the government itself.

The affairs of the council were conducted in the manner prescribed by
Philip. Ordinary business passed through the hands of the whole body;
but affairs of moment were reserved for the cardinal and his two
coadjutors to settle with the regent. On such occasions the other
ministers were not even summoned, or, if summoned, such only of the
despatches from Spain as the minister chose to communicate were read,
and the remainder reserved for the _consulta_. When, as did sometimes
happen, the nobles carried a measure in opposition to Granvelle, he
would refer the whole question to the court at Madrid.[529] By this
expedient he gained time for the present, and probably obtained a
decision in his favor at last. The regent conformed entirely to the
cardinal's views. The best possible understanding seems to have
subsisted between them, to judge from the tone of their correspondence
with Philip, in which each of the parties bestows the most unqualified
panegyric on the other. Yet there was a strange reserve in their
official intercourse. Even when occupying the same palace, they are said
to have communicated with each other by writing.[530] The reason
suggested for this singular proceeding is, that it might not appear,
from their being much together, that the regent was acting so entirely
under the direction of the minister. It is certain that both Margaret
and Granvelle had an uncommon passion for letter-writing, as is shown by
the length and number of their epistles, particularly to the king. The
cardinal especially went into a gossiping minuteness of detail, to which
few men in his station would have condescended. But his master, to whom
his letters at this period were chiefly addressed, had the virtue of
patience in an extraordinary degree, as is evinced by the faithful
man