This eBook was produced by David Widger widgercecometnet                            BOOK II                      CARDINAL GRANVELLAANTHONY PERENOT Bishop of Arras subsequently Archbishop of Malinesand Metropolitan of all the Netherlands who under the name of CardinalGranvella has been immortalized by the hatred of his contemporarieswas born in the year 1516 at Besancon in Burgundy  His fatherNicolaus Perenot the son of a blacksmith had risen by his own meritsto be the private secretary of Margaret Duchess of Savoy at that timeregent of the Netherlands  In this post he was noticed for his habitsof business by Charles V who took him into his own service andemployed him in several important negotiations  For twenty years he wasa member of the Emperors cabinet and filled the offices of privycounsellor and keeper of the kings seal and shared in all the statesecrets of that monarch  He acquired a large fortune  His honorshis influence and his political knowledge were inherited by his sonAnthony Perenot who in his early years gave proofs of the greatcapacity which subsequently opened to him so distinguished a careerAnthony had cultivated at several colleges the talents with which naturehad so lavishly endowed him and in some respects had an advantage overhis father  He soon showed that his own abilities were sufficient tomaintain the advantageous position which the merits of another hadprocured him  He was twentyfour years old when the Emperor sent him ashis plenipotentiary to the ecclesiastical council of Trent where hedelivered the first specimen of that eloquence which in the sequel gavehim so complete an ascendancy over two kings  Charles employed him inseveral difficult embassies the duties of which he fulfilled to thesatisfaction of his sovereign and when finally that Emperor resignedthe sceptre to his son he made that costly present complete by givinghim a minister who could help him to wield itGranvella opened his new career at once with the greatest masterpiece ofpolitical genius in passing so easily from the favor of such a fatherinto equal consideration with such a son  And he soon proved himselfdeserving of it  At the secret negotiations of which the Duchess ofLorraine had in 1558 been the medium between the French and Spanishministers at Peronne he planned conjointly with the Cardinal ofLorraine that conspiracy against the Protestants which was afterwardsmatured but also betrayed at ChateauCambray where Perenot likewiseassisted in effecting the socalled peaceA deeply penetrating comprehensive intellect an unusual facility inconducting great and intricate affairs and the most extensive learningwere wonderfully united in this man with persevering industry and neverwearying patience while his enterprising genius was associated withthoughtful mechanical regularity  Day and night the state found himvigilant and collected the most important and the most insignificantthings were alike weighed by him with scrupulous attention  Notunfrequently he employed five secretaries at one time dictating to themin different languages of which he is said to have spoken seven  Whathis penetrating mind had slowly matured acquired in his lips both forceand grace and truth set forth by his persuasive eloquenceirresistibly carried away all hearers  He was tempted by noneof the passions which make slaves of most men  His integrity wasincorruptible  With shrewd penetration he saw through the dispositionof his master and could read in his features his whole train ofthought and as it were the approaching form in the shadow whichoutran it  With an artifice rich in resources he came to the aid ofPhilips more inactive mind formed into perfect thought his masterscrude ideas while they yet hung on his lips and liberally allowed himthe glory of the invention  Granvella understood the difficult anduseful art of depreciating his own talents of making his own genius theseeming slave of another thus he ruled while he concealed his sway  Inthis manner only could Philip II be governed  Content with a silentbut real power Granvella did not grasp insatiably at new and outwardmarks of it which with lesser minds are ever the most coveted objectsbut every new distinction seemed to sit upon him as easily as theoldest  No wonder if such extraordinary endowments had alone gained himthe favor of his master but a large and valuable treasure of politicalsecrets and experiences which the active life of Charles V hadaccumulated and had deposited in the mind of this man made himindispensable to his successor  Selfsufficient as the latter was andaccustomeded to confide in his own understanding his timid andcrouching policy was fain to lean on a superior mind and to aid its ownirresolution not only by precedent but also by the influence and exampleof another  No political matter which concerned the royal interesteven when Philip himself was in the Netherlands was decided without theintervention of Granvella and when the king embarked for Spain he madethe new regent the same valuable present of the minister which hehimself had received from the Emperor his fatherCommon as it is for despotic princes to bestow unlimited confidence onthe creatures whom they have raised from the dust and of whosegreatness they themselves are in a measure the creators the presentis no ordinary instance preeminent must have been the qualities whichcould so far conquer the selfish reserve of such a character as Philipsas to gain his confidence nay even to win him into familiarity  Theslightest ebullition of the most allowable selfrespect which mighthave tempted him to assert however slightly his claim to any ideawhich the king had once ennobled as his own would have cost him hiswhole influence  He might gratify without restraint the lowest passionsof voluptuousness of rapacity and of revenge but the only one inwhich he really took delight the sweet consciousness of his ownsuperiority and power he was constrained carefully to conceal from thesuspicious glance of the