Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-01-23
THE BLOoDY CONFLICT.

read history the record Of the past the mir
rorsof the future. FEN therefore know how
terribly and herJicaIly men and women, nay
whole nation, have suffered for Conscience sake,
and how nobly and devotedly they have sto ID
by their religion while facing death in ,syery
possible horrific and terrible form.
Some Protestants, and we fear but few only,
are aware that the Netherlands. once under
the rule Of Phillip II, of Spaisl, the most big
otted Catholic and cold hooded monster that
ever disgraced the human form, was baptized
in blood into Professionalism. That Philip at
tempted to establish the Spanish Inquisition
in that country, and literally to crush out every
spark Of religious liberty, and drown in th.ir
own blood the accursed heretics, = who you'd
not believe in the infallibility Of the Pope, nor
in the doctrine Of confession, p,lreatory. and
characterization. Philip could not under
stand what right any pan had to think for
himself upon religious matters and differing
with the Protestants of the Netherlands as
widely on this subject as they did from him
upon others, he undertook to compel them to
believe, or to exterminate them. But though
their laid was drenched in the blood Of their
lest citizens, although the most revolving cru
cities were practised upon the unhappy vic
Tins, and although this religious war lasted for
nearly half century, yet the ltyrant and big
got was foiled in the end, and out Of this me-
morable and bloody contest arose the Dutch
RePublic-now the Kingdom Of Holland
Ifany Of our readers have any desire to read
the history Of this contest between Catholicism
and Professionalism, and to see how nobly free
people, or people scorning to be made slaves,
can deport themselves, bear and suffer under
the most trying circumstances how they can
suffer the most excruciating fortunes day after
day, and face death with heroic constancy and,
firmness rather than surrender their liberties,
or deny their faith, let them, If they can afford
it, go and purchase Matley's Rise Of the Dutch
Republic" in three volumes, published by Har-
per & Brothers, 1866.
There are many heart-moving chapters which
we should be glad to publish, but we have not
time to copy them, and wemust, therefore con-
tent ourselves with presenting our readers with
but one or two extracts:
The whole country became charnel house;
the death-bell tolled hourly in every village
not a family but was called to mourn for its
dearest relatives, while the survivors staIked
istlessly about the ghosts oftheir former selves,
among the wrecks of their former homes The
spirit of the nation, within few months after
the arrival of Alva, seemed hopelessly broken
The blood of its best and its brayest had al
ready stained the scaffold; the men to whom
1t had been accustomed to look for guidance
and protection, were dead, in prison, or in ex-
ile The mourners went daily about the streets,
for there was hardly house which had not
been made desolate. The scaffold, the gallows,
the funeral piles which had been sufficient in
ordinary times, furnished now an entirely in
adequate machinery for the incessant execu-
tons. Columns and stakes in every street,
the door posts ofprivate houses, the fences in
the fields were laden with human carcases.
strangled burned, beheaded The orchards in
the country bore on many tree the hideous
fruit of human bodies
Thus the Netherlands were crushed. and but
for the stringency of the tyranny which had
closed their gates, would have been depopu-
lated. The grass began to grow in the streets
of those cities which had recently nourished SO
many artisans In all those great manufac-
turing and industrial marts, where the tide of
human life had throbbed so vigorously, there
now reigned the silence and the darkness Of
the midnight 1t was at this time that the
learned viglius [atool of Philip and Alva] wrote
to his friend Hopper, that all venerated the
prudence and gentlehess z of the Duke of Alva-
Such were among the first fruits Of that pru-
dence and that gentleness"
49, *
Petitions now poured into the Council of
Blood from all quarters, abject recantations
from terror-stricken municipalities, humble in
tcrcessioDs in behalf of doomed and imprisoned
victims To deputation Of the magistracy of
Antwerp, who came with prayer for mercy
in behalf of some Of their most distinguished
fellow-citizens, then in prison, the Duke gave
a most passionate and ferocious reply. He ex-
pressed his wonder that the citizens of that hot
bed of treason, should dare to approach him in
behalf Of traitors and heretics. Let them look
TO it in future, he continued, or he would hang
every man in the whole city, to set an exam
pie to the rest of the country; for his Majesty
would rather the whole land should become an
uninhabited wilderness than that single dis
senter should exist within its territory.
Events now marched with rapidly The
monarch seemed disposed literally to execute
the threat Of his viceroy. Early In the year,
the most sublime sentence Of death was pro-
mulgated which has ever been pronounced
since the creation Of the world. The Roman
tyrant wished that his enemies heads were all
upon single neck, that he might strike them
Of at a blow the inqusition assisted Philip to
place the heads Of all his Netherland subjects
upon single neck for the same fell purpose.
Upon the 10th of January, 1868 sentence of
the holy Office condemned all the inhabitants
Of the Netherlands to death MS heretics From
his universal doom, only a fen persons, espe-
rally named were excepted. A proclamation