ange in the intentions of
either; Reformers or Royalists. Philip and his representatives still
contended for two points, and claimed the praise of moderation that their
demands were so few in number. They were willing to concede everything,
save the unlimited authority of the King and the exclusive maintenance of
the Catholic religion. The Prince of Orange, on his side, claimed two
points also--the ancient constitutions of the country and religious
freedom. It was obvious enough that the contest was, the same in reality,
as it had ever been. No approximation had been made towards reconciling
absolutism with national liberty, persecution with toleration. The
Pacification of Ghent had been a step in advance. That Treaty opened the
door to civil and religious liberty, but it was an agreement among the
provinces, not a compact between the people and the monarch. By the
casuists of Brussels and the licentiates of Louvain, it had, to be sure,
been dogmatically pronounced orthodox, and had been confirmed by royal
edict. To believe, however, that his Catholic Majesty had faith in the
dogmas propounded, was as absurd as to believe in the dogmas themselves.
If the Ghent Pacification really had made no breach in royal and Roman
infallibility, then the efforts of Orange and the exultation of the
Reformers had indeed been idle.

The envoys accordingly, in obedience to their instructions, made a formal
statement to the Prince of Orange and the states of Holland and Zealand,
on the part of Don John. They alluded to the departure of the Spaniards,
as if that alone had fulfilled every duty and authorized every claim.
They therefore demanded the immediate publication in Holland and Zealand
of the Perpetual Edict. They insisted on the immediate discontinuance of
all hostile attempts to reduce Amsterdam to the jurisdiction of Orange;
required the Prince to abandon his pretensions to Utrecht, and denounced
the efforts making by him and his partisans to diffuse their heretical
doctrines through the other provinces. They observed, in conclusion, that
the general question of religion was not to be handled, because reserved
for the consideration of the states-general, according to the treaty of
Ghent.

The reply, delivered on the following day by the Prince of Orange and the
deputies, maintained that the Perpetual Edict was widely different from
the Pacification of Ghent, which it affected to uphold; that the promises
to abstain from all viola