Chapter 1

Produced by David Widger

QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY

HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS

By John Lothrop Motley

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Motley's History of the Netherlands

Title Page

The Siege of Antwerp

Prince William of Orange-Nassau (William the Silent)

The Earl of Leichester

Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma

John of Barneveld

Bookcover

The Hague

1566, the last year of peace

A pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolences

A good lawyer is a bad Christian

A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman

A common hatred united them, for a time at least

A penal offence in the republic to talk of peace or of truce

A most fatal success

A country disinherited by nature of its rights

A free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity

A hard bargain when both parties are losers

A burnt cat fears the fire

A despot really keeps no accounts, nor need to do so

A sovereign remedy for the disease of liberty

A pusillanimous peace, always possible at any period

A man incapable of fatigue, of perplexity, or of fear

A truce he honestly considered a pitfall of destruction

A great historian is almost a statesman

Able men should be by design and of purpose suppressed

About equal to that of England at the same period

Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres

Abstinence from unproductive consumption

Abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour

Absurd affectation of candor

Accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed

Accustomed to the faded gallantries

Achieved the greatness to which they had not been born

Act of Uniformity required Papists to assist

Acts of violence which under pretext of religion

Admired or despised, as if he or she were our contemporary

Adulation for inferiors whom they despise

Advanced orthodox party-Puritans

Advancing age diminished his tendency to other carnal pleasures

Advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh

Affecting to discredit them

Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies

Age when toleration was a vice

Agreements were valid only until he should repent

Alas! the benighted victims of superstition hugged their chains

Alas! we must always have something to persecute

Alas! one never knows when one becomes a bore

Alexander's exuberant discretion

All Italy was in his hands

All fellow-worms together

All business has been transacted with open doors

All reading of the scriptures (forbidden)

All the majesty which decoration could impart

All denounced the image-breaking

All claimed the privilege of persecuting

All his disciples and converts are to be punished with death

All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive

All classes are conservative by necessity

All the ministers and great functionaries received presents

All offices were sold to the highest bidder

Allow her to seek a profit from his misfortune

Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body

Almost infinite power of the meanest of passions

Already looking forward to the revolt of the slave States

Altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination

Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events

American Unholy Inquisition

Amuse them with this peace negotiation

An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)

An hereditary papacy, a perpetual pope-emperor

An age when to think was a crime

An unjust God, himself the origin of sin

An order of things in which mediocrity is at a premium

Anarchy which was deemed inseparable from a non-regal form

Anatomical study of what has ceased to exist

And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift

And now the knife of another priest-led fanatic

And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight

Angle with their dissimulation as with a hook

Announced his approaching marriage with the Virgin Mary

Annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased

Anxiety to do nothing wrong, the senators did nothing at all

Are apt to discharge such obligations-- (by) ingratitude

Are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope

Argument in a circle

Argument is exhausted and either action or compromise begins

Aristocracy of God's elect

Arminianism

Arrested on suspicion, tortured till confession

Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them

Artillery

As logical as men in their cups are prone to be

As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian

As if they were free will not make them free

As lieve see the Spanish as the Calvinistic inquisition

As ready as papists, with age, fagot, and excommunication

As with his own people, keeping no back-door open

As neat a deception by telling the truth

At a blow decapitated France

At length the twig was becoming the tree

Atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy

Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion

Attacked by the poetic mania

Attacking the authority of the pope

Attempting to swim in two waters

Auction sales of judicial ermine

Baiting his hook a little to his appetite

Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon

Batavian legion was the imperial body guard

Beacons in the upward path of mankind

Beating the Netherlanders into Christianity

Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors

Because he had been successful (hated)

Becoming more learned, and therefore more ignorant

Been already crimination and recrimination more than enough

Before morning they had sacked thirty churches

Began to scatter golden arguments with a lavish hand

Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves

Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics

Being the true religion, proved by so many testimonies

Believed in the blessed advent of peace

Beneficent and charitable purposes (War)

best defence in this case is little better than an impeachment

Bestowing upon others what was not his property

Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs

Better is the restlessness of a noble ambition

Beware of a truce even more than of a peace

Bigotry which was the prevailing characteristic of the age

Bishop is a consecrated pirate

Blessed freedom from speech-making

Blessing of God upon the Devil's work

Bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones

Bomb-shells were not often used although known for a century

Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained

Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common

Bribed the Deity

Bungling diplomatists and credulous dotards

Burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive (100,000)

Burned alive if they objected to transubstantiation

Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received

Burning of Servetus at Geneva

Business of an officer to fight, of a general to conquer

But the habit of dissimulation was inveterate

But after all this isn't a war It is a revolution

But not thoughtlessly indulgent to the boy

Butchery in the name of Christ was suspended

By turns, we all govern and are governed

Calling a peace perpetual can never make it so

Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain

Can never be repaired and never sufficiently regretted

Canker of a long peace

Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter

Cargo of imaginary gold dust was exported from the James River

Casting up the matter "as pinchingly as possibly might be"

Casual outbursts of eternal friendship

Certain number of powers, almost exactly equal to each other

Certainly it was worth an eighty years' war

Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day

Character of brave men to act, not to expect

Charles the Fifth autocrat of half the world

Chief seafaring nations of the world were already protestant

Chieftains are dwarfed in the estimation of followers

Children who had never set foot on the shore

Christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient

Chronicle of events must not be anticipated

Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few

Cold water of conventional and commonplace encouragement

College of "peace-makers," who wrangled more than all

Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"

Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats

Conceding it subsequently, after much contestation

Conceit, and procrastination which marked the royal character

Conciliation when war of extermination was intended

Conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined

Conde and Coligny

Condemned first and inquired upon after

Condemning all heretics to death

Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience

Conformity of Governments to the principles of justice

Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere

Considerable reason, even if there were but little justice

Considerations of state have never yet failed the axe

Considerations of state as a reason

Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate

Consign to the flames all prisoners whatever (Papal letter)

Constant vigilance is the price of liberty

Constitute themselves at once universal legatees

Constitutional governments, move in the daylight

Consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all

Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty

Contempt for treaties however solemnly ratified

Continuing to believe himself invincible and infallible

Converting beneficent commerce into baleful gambling

Could handle an argument as well as a sword

Could paint a character with the ruddy life-blood coloring

Could not be both judge and party in the suit

Could do a little more than what was possible

Country would bear his loss with fortitude

Courage of despair inflamed the French

Courage and semblance of cheerfulness, with despair in his heart

Court fatigue, to scorn pleasure

Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries

Craft meaning, simply, strength

Created one child for damnation and another for salvation

Crescents in their caps: Rather Turkish than Popish

Crimes and cruelties such as Christians only could imagine

Criminal whose guilt had been established by the hot iron

Criminals buying Paradise for money

Cruelties exercised upon monks and papists

Crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs

Culpable audacity and exaggerated prudence

Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness

Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists

Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience

Deadly hatred of Puritans in England and Holland

Deal with his enemy as if sure to become his friend

Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt

Decline a bribe or interfere with the private sale of places

Decrees for burning, strangling, and burying alive

Deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious parties

Defeated garrison ever deserved more respect from friend or foe

Defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station

Delay often fights better than an army against a foreign invader

Demanding peace and bread at any price

Democratic instincts of the ancient German savages

Denies the utility of prayers for the dead

Denounced as an obstacle to peace

Depths theological party spirit could descend

Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink

Despised those who were grateful

Despot by birth and inclination (Charles V.)

Determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt

Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife

Difference between liberties and liberty

Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters

Diplomacy of Spain and Rome--meant simply dissimulation

Diplomatic adroitness consists mainly in the power to deceive

Disciple of Simon Stevinus

Dismay of our friends and the gratification of our enemies

Disordered, and unknit state needs no shaking, but propping

Disposed to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel

Dispute between Luther and Zwingli concerning the real presence

Disputing the eternal damnation of young children

Dissenters were as bigoted as the orthodox

Dissimulation and delay

Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence

Divine right of kings

Divine right

Do you want peace or war? I am ready for either

Doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense

Don John of Austria

Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland

Done nothing so long as aught remained to do

Drank of the water in which, he had washed

Draw a profit out of the necessities of this state

During this, whole war, we have never seen the like

Dying at so very inconvenient a moment

Each in its turn becoming orthodox, and therefore persecuting

Eat their own children than to forego one high mass

Eight thousand human beings were murdered

Elizabeth, though convicted, could always confute

Elizabeth (had not) the faintest idea of religious freedom

Eloquence of the biggest guns

Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother monarch

Emulation is not capability

Endure every hardship but hunger

Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience

England hated the Netherlands

English Puritans

Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other's throats

Enmity between Lutherans and Calvinists

Enormous wealth (of the Church) which engendered the hatred

Enriched generation after generation by wealthy penitence

Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience

Envying those whose sufferings had already been terminated

Epernon, the true murderer of Henry

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Erasmus encourages the bold friar

Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience

Estimating his character and judging his judges

Even the virtues of James were his worst enemies

Even to grant it slowly is to deny it utterly

Even for the rape of God's mother, if that were possible

Ever met disaster with so cheerful a smile

Ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary warriors

Every one sees what you seem, few perceive what you are

Everybody should mind his own business

Everything else may happen This alone must happen

Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured

Evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better

Evil has the advantage of rapidly assuming many shapes

Excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy

Excused by their admirers for their shortcomings

Excuses to disarm the criticism he had some reason to fear

Executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague

Exorcising the devil by murdering his supposed victims

Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence

Fable of divine right is invented to sanction the system

Faction has rarely worn a more mischievous aspect

Famous fowl in every pot

Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man

Fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge

Father Cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets

Fear of the laugh of the world at its sincerity

Fed on bear's liver, were nearly poisoned to death

Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is drowned at Zurich

Fellow worms had been writhing for half a century in the dust

Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed

Few, even prelates were very dutiful to the pope

Fiction of apostolic authority to bind and loose

Fifty thousand persons in the provinces (put to death)

Financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous

Find our destruction in our immoderate desire for peace

Fishermen and river raftsmen become ocean adventurers

Fitted "To warn, to comfort, and command"

Fitter to obey than to command

Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils

Flattery is a sweet and intoxicating potion

Fled from the land of oppression to the land of liberty

Fool who useth not wit because he hath it not

For myself I am unworthy of the honor (of martyrdom)

For faithful service, evil recompense

For women to lament, for men to remember

For us, looking back upon the Past, which was then the Future

For his humanity towards the conquered garrisons (censured)

Forbidding the wearing of mourning at all

Forbids all private assemblies for devotion

Force clerical--the power of clerks

Foremost to shake off the fetters of superstition

Forget those who have done them good service

Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor

Fortune's buffets and rewards can take with equal thanks

Four weeks' holiday--the first in eleven years

France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu

French seem madmen, and are wise

Friendly advice still more intolerable

Full of precedents and declamatory commonplaces

Furious fanaticism

Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop

Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes

Future world as laid down by rival priesthoods

Gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont

Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies

German-Lutheran sixteenth-century idea of religious freedom

German finds himself sober--he believes himself ill

German Highland and the German Netherland

Gigantic vices are proudly pointed to as the noblest

Give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required

Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach

God has given absolute power to no mortal man

God, whose cause it was, would be pleased to give good weather

God alone can protect us against those whom we trust

God of wrath who had decreed the extermination of all unbeliever

God of vengeance, of jealousy, and of injustice

God Save the King! It was the last time

Gold was the only passkey to justice

Gomarites accused the Arminians of being more lax than Papists

Govern under the appearance of obeying

Great transactions of a reign are sometimes paltry things

Great science of political equilibrium

Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of Holland

Great error of despising their enemy

Great war of religion and politics was postponed

Great battles often leave the world where they found it

Guarantees of forgiveness for every imaginable sin

Guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith

Habeas corpus

Had industry been honoured instead of being despised

Haereticis non servanda fides

Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom

Halcyon days of ban, book and candle

Hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday

Hanging of Mary Dyer at Boston

Hangman is not the most appropriate teacher of religion

Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror

Hard at work, pouring sand through their sieves

Hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning

Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland

Hardly an inch of French soil that had not two possessors

Having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously

He had omitted to execute heretics

He did his best to be friends with all the world

He was a sincere bigot

He that stands let him see that he does not fall

He was not always careful in the construction of his sentences

He would have no persecution of the opposite creed

He came as a conqueror not as a mediator

He who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself

He who would have all may easily lose all

He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses

He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals

He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place

He who confessed well was absolved well

He did his work, but he had not his reward

He sat a great while at a time. He had a genius for sitting

He was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin

He often spoke of popular rights with contempt

He spent more time at table than the Bearnese in sleep

Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible

Henry the Huguenot as the champion of the Council of Trent

Her teeth black, her bosom white and liberally exposed (Eliz.)

Heresy was a plant of early growth in the Netherlands

Heretics to the English Church were persecuted

Hibernian mode of expressing himself

High officers were doing the work of private, soldiers

Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation

Highest were not necessarily the least slimy

His inordinate arrogance

His own past triumphs seemed now his greatest enemies

His imagination may have assisted his memory in the task

His insolence intolerable

His learning was a reproach to the ignorant

His invectives were, however, much stronger than his arguments

His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues

His dogged, continuous capacity for work

Historical scepticism may shut its eyes to evidence

History is a continuous whole of which we see only fragments

History is but made up of a few scattered fragments

History never forgets and never forgives

History has not too many really important and emblematic men

History shows how feeble are barriers of paper

Holland was afraid to give a part, although offering the whole

Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain

Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands

Holy institution called the Inquisition

Honor good patriots, and to support them in venial errors

Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation

Hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair

How many more injured by becoming bad copies of a bad ideal

Hugo Grotius

Human nature in its meanness and shame

Human ingenuity to inflict human misery

Human fat esteemed the sovereignst remedy (for wounds)

Humanizing effect of science upon the barbarism of war

Humble ignorance as the safest creed

Humility which was but the cloak to his pride

Hundred thousand men had laid down their lives by her decree

I did never see any man behave himself as he did

I know how to console myself

I am a king that will be ever known not to fear any but God

I hope and I fear

I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal

I regard my country's profit, not my own

I will never live, to see the end of my poverty

Idea of freedom in commerce has dawned upon nations

Idiotic principle of sumptuary legislation

Idle, listless, dice-playing, begging, filching vagabonds

If he had little, he could live upon little

If to do be as grand as to imagine what it were good to do

If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head

Ignoble facts which strew the highways of political life

Ignorance is the real enslaver of mankind

Imagined, and did the work of truth

Imagining that they held the world's destiny in their hands

Impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants

Implication there was much, of assertion very little

Imposed upon the multitudes, with whom words were things

Impossible it is to practise arithmetic with disturbed brains

Impossible it was to invent terms of adulation too gross

In revolutions the men who win are those who are in earnest

In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity

In times of civil war, to be neutral is to be nothing

In Holland, the clergy had neither influence nor seats

In this he was much behind his age or before it

Incur the risk of being charged with forwardness than neglect

Indecision did the work of indolence

Indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang

Individuals walking in advance of their age

Indoor home life imprisons them in the domestic circle

Indulging them frequently with oracular advice

Inevitable fate of talking castles and listening ladies

Infamy of diplomacy, when diplomacy is unaccompanied by honesty

Infinite capacity for pecuniary absorption

Informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half

Inhabited by the savage tribes called Samoyedes

Innocent generation, to atone for the sins of their forefathers

Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless

Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise

Inquisitors enough; but there were no light vessels in The Armada

Insane cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right

Insensible to contumely, and incapable of accepting a rebuff

Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood