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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4896.txt b/4896.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e218d37 --- /dev/null +++ b/4896.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3540 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Life of John of Barneveld, 1618-19 +#96 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Life of John of Barneveld, 1618-19 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4896] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 24, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1618-19 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 96 + +Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v10, 1618-19 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Rancour between the Politico-Religious Parties--Spanish Intrigues + Inconsistency of James--Brewster and Robinson's Congregation at + Leyden--They decide to leave for America--Robinson's Farewell Sermon + and Prayer at Parting. + +During this dark and mournful winter the internal dissensions and, as a +matter of course, the foreign intrigues had become more dangerous than +ever. While the man who for a whole generation had guided the policy of +the Republic and had been its virtual chief magistrate lay hidden from +all men's sight, the troubles which he had sought to avert were not +diminished by his removal from the scene. The extreme or Gomarist party +which had taken a pride in secret conventicles where they were in a +minority, determined, as they said, to separate Christ from Belial and, +meditating the triumph which they had at last secured, now drove the +Arminians from the great churches. Very soon it was impossible for these +heretics to enjoy the rights of public worship anywhere. But they were +not dismayed. The canons of Dordtrecht had not yet been fulminated. +They avowed themselves ready to sacrifice worldly goods and life itself +in defence of the Five Points. In Rotterdam, notwithstanding a garrison +of fifteen companies, more than a thousand Remonstrants assembled on +Christmas-day in the Exchange for want of a more appropriate place of +meeting and sang the 112th Psalm in mighty chorus. A clergyman of their +persuasion accidentally passing through the street was forcibly laid +hands upon and obliged to preach to them, which he did with great +unction. The magistracy, where now the Contra-Remonstrants had the +control, forbade, under severe penalties, a repetition of such scenes. +It was impossible not to be reminded of the days half a century before, +when the early Reformers had met in the open fields or among the dunes, +armed to the teeth, and with outlying pickets to warn the congregation of +the approach of Red Rod and the functionaries of the Holy Inquisition. + +In Schoonhoven the authorities attempted one Sunday by main force to +induct a Contra-Remonstrant into the pulpit from which a Remonstrant had +just been expelled. The women of the place turned out with their +distaffs and beat them from the field. The garrison was called out, and +there was a pitched battle in the streets between soldiers, police +officers, and women, not much to the edification certainly of the +Sabbath-loving community on either side, the victory remaining with the +ladies. + +In short it would be impossible to exaggerate the rancour felt between +the different politico-religious parties. All heed for the great war now +raging in the outside world between the hostile elements of Catholicism +and Protestantism, embattled over an enormous space, was lost in the din +of conflict among the respective supporters of conditional and +unconditional damnation within the pale of the Reformed Church. The +earthquake shaking Europe rolled unheeded, as it was of old said to have +done at Cannae, amid the fierce shock of mortal foes in that narrow +field. + +The respect for authority which had so long been the distinguishing +characteristic of the Netherlanders seemed to have disappeared. It was +difficult--now that the time-honoured laws and privileges in defence of +which, and of liberty of worship included in them, the Provinces had made +war forty years long had been trampled upon by military force--for those +not warmed by the fire of Gomarus to feel their ancient respect for the +magistracy. The magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword. + +The Spanish government was inevitably encouraged by the spectacle thus +presented. We have seen the strong hopes entertained by the council at +Madrid, two years before the crisis now existing had occurred. We have +witnessed the eagerness with which the King indulged the dream of +recovering the sovereignty which his father had lost, and the vast +schemes which he nourished towards that purpose, founded on the internal +divisions which were reducing the Republic to impotence. Subsequent +events had naturally made him more sanguine than ever. There was now a +web of intrigue stretching through the Provinces to bring them all back +under the sceptre of Spain. The imprisonment of the great stipendiary, +the great conspirator, the man who had sold himself and was on the point +of selling his country, had not terminated those plots. Where was the +supposed centre of that intrigue? In the council of state of the +Netherlands, ever fiercely opposed to Barneveld and stuffed full of his +mortal enemies. Whose name was most familiar on the lips of the Spanish +partisans engaged in these secret schemes? That of Adrian Manmaker, +President of the Council, representative of Prince Maurice as first noble +of Zealand in the States-General, chairman of the committee sent by that +body to Utrecht to frustrate the designs of the Advocate, and one of the +twenty-four commissioners soon to be appointed to sit in judgment upon +him. + +The tale seems too monstrous for belief, nor is it to be admitted with +certainty, that Manmaker and the other councillors implicated had +actually given their adhesion to the plot, because the Spanish emissaries +in their correspondence with the King assured him of the fact. But if +such a foundation for suspicion could have been found against Barneveld +and his friends, the world would not have heard the last of it from that +hour to this. + +It is superfluous to say that the Prince was entirely foreign to these +plans. He had never been mentioned as privy to the little arrangements +of Councillor du Agean and others, although he was to benefit by them. +In the Spanish schemes he seems to have been considered as an impediment, +although indirectly they might tend to advance him. + +"We have managed now, I hope, that his Majesty will be recognized as +sovereign of the country," wrote the confidential agent of the King of +Spain in the Netherlands, Emmanuel Sueyro, to the government of Madrid. +"The English will oppose it with all their strength. But they can do +nothing except by making Count Maurice sovereign of Holland and duke of +Julich and Cleve. Maurice will also contrive to make himself master of +Wesel, so it is necessary for the Archduke to be beforehand with him and +make sure of the place. It is also needful that his Majesty should +induce the French government to talk with the Netherlanders and convince +them that it is time to prolong the Truce." + +This was soon afterwards accomplished. The French minister at Brussels +informed Archduke Albert that du Maurier had been instructed to propose +the prolongation, and that he had been conferring with the Prince of +Orange and the States-General on the subject. At first the Prince had +expressed disinclination, but at the last interview both he and the +States had shown a desire for it, and the French King had requested from +the Archduke a declaration whether the Spanish government would be +willing to treat for it. In such case Lewis would offer himself as +mediator and do his best to bring about a successful result. + +But it was not the intention of the conspirators in the Netherlands that +the Truce should be prolonged. On the contrary the negotiation for it +was merely to furnish the occasion for fully developing their plot. +"The States and especially those of Zealand will reply that they no +longer wish the Truce," continued Sueyro, "and that they would prefer war +to such a truce. They desire to put ships on the coast of Flanders, to +which the Hollanders are opposed because it would be disagreeable to the +French. So the Zealanders will be the first to say that the +Netherlanders must come back to his Majesty. This their President +Hanmaker has sworn. The States of Overyssel will likewise give their +hand to this because they say they will be the first to feel the shock of +the war. Thus we shall very easily carry out our design, and as we shall +concede to the Zealanders their demands in regard to the navigation they +at least will place themselves under the dominion of his Majesty as will +be the case with Friesland as well as Overyssel." + +It will be observed that in this secret arrangement for selling the +Republic to its ancient master it was precisely the Provinces and the +politicians most steadily opposed to Barneveld that took the lead. +Zealand, Friesland, Overyssel were in the plot, but not a word was said +of Utrecht. As for Holland itself, hopes were founded on the places +where hatred to the Advocate was fiercest. + +"Between ourselves," continued the agent, "we are ten here in the +government of Holland to support the plan, but we must not discover +ourselves for fear of suffering what has happened to Barneveld." + +He added that the time for action had not yet come, and that if movements +were made before the Synod had finished its labours, "The Gomarists would +say that they were all sold." He implored the government at Madrid to +keep the whole matter for the present profoundly secret because "Prince +Maurice and the Gomarists had the forces of the country at their +disposition." In case the plot was sprung too suddenly therefore, he +feared that with the assistance of England Maurice might, at the head of +the Gomarists and the army, make himself sovereign of Holland and Duke of +Cleve, while he and the rest of the Spanish partisans might be in prison +with Barneveld for trying to accomplish what Barneveld had been trying to +prevent. + +The opinions and utterances of such a man as James I. would be of little +worth to our history had he not happened to occupy the place he did. But +he was a leading actor in the mournful drama which filled up the whole +period of the Twelve Years' Truce. His words had a direct influence on +great events. He was a man of unquestionable erudition, of powers of +mind above the average, while the absolute deformity of his moral +constitution made him incapable of thinking, feeling, or acting rightly +on any vital subject, by any accident or on any occasion. If there were +one thing that he thoroughly hated in the world, it was the Reformed +religion. If in his thought there were one term of reproach more +loathsome than another to be applied to a human creature, it was the word +Puritan. In the word was subversion of all established authority in +Church and State--revolution, republicanism, anarchy. "There are degrees +in Heaven," he was wont to say, "there are degrees in Hell, there must be +degrees on earth." + +He forbade the Calvinist Churches of Scotland to hold their customary +Synod in 1610, passionately reviling them and their belief, and declaring +"their aim to be nothing else than to deprive kings and princes of their +sovereignty, and to reduce the whole world to a popular form of +government where everybody would be master." + +When the Prince of Neuburg embraced Catholicism, thus complicating +matters in the duchies and strengthening the hand of Spain and the +Emperor in the debateable land, he seized the occasion to assure the +agent of the Archduke in London, Councillor Boissetot, of his warm +Catholic sympathies. "They say that I am the greatest heretic in the +world!" he exclaimed; "but I will never deny that the true religion is +that of Rome even if corrupted." He expressed his belief in the real +presence, and his surprise that the Roman Catholics did not take the +chalice for the blood of Christ. The English bishops, he averred, +drew their consecration through the bishops in Mary Tudor's time +from the Pope. + +As Philip II., and Ferdinand II. echoing the sentiments of his +illustrious uncle, had both sworn they would rather reign in a wilderness +than tolerate a single heretic in their dominions, so James had said "he +would rather be a hermit in a forest than a king over such people as the +pack of Puritans were who overruled the lower house." + +For the Netherlanders he had an especial hatred, both as rebels and +Puritans. Soon after coming to the English throne he declared that their +revolt, which had been going on all his lifetime and of which he never +expected to see the end, had begun by petition for matters of religion. +"His mother and he from their cradles," he said, "had been haunted with a +Puritan devil, which he feared would not leave him to his grave. And he +would hazard his crown but he would suppress those malicious spirits." +It seemed a strange caprice of Destiny that assigned to this hater of +Netherlanders, of Puritans, and of the Reformed religion, the decision of +disputed points between Puritans and anti-Puritans in the Reformed Church +of the Netherlands. + +It seemed stranger that his opinions should be hotly on the side of the +Puritans. + +Barneveld, who often used the expression in later years, as we have seen +in his correspondence, was opposed to the Dutch Puritans because they had +more than once attempted subversion of the government on pretext of +religion, especially at the memorable epoch of Leicester's government. + +The business of stirring up these religious conspiracies against the +magistracy he was apt to call "Flanderizing," in allusion to those +disastrous days and to the origin of the ringleaders in those tumults. +But his main object, as we have seen, was to effect compromises and +restore good feeling between members of the one church, reserving the +right of disposing over religious matters to the government of the +respective provinces. + +But James had remedied his audacious inconsistency by discovering that +Puritanism in England and in the Netherlands resembled each other no more +than certain letters transposed into totally different words meant one +and the same thing. The anagrammatic argument had been neatly put by Sir +Dudley Carleton, convincing no man. Puritanism in England "denied the +right of human invention or imposition in religious matters." Puritanism +in the Netherlands denied the right of the legal government to impose its +authority in religious matters. This was the great matter of debate in +the Provinces. In England the argument had been settled very summarily +against the Puritans by sheriffs' officers, bishops' pursuivants, and +county jails. + +As the political tendencies, so too the religious creed and observances +of the English Puritans were identical with that of the Contra- +Remonstrants, whom King James had helped to their great triumph. This +was not very difficult to prove. It so happened that there were some +English Puritans living at that moment in Leyden. They formed an +independent society by themselves, which they called a Congregational +Church, and in which were some three hundred communicants. The length of +their residence there was almost exactly coeval with the Twelve Years' +Truce. They knew before leaving England that many relics of the Roman +ceremonial, with which they were dissatisfied, and for the discontinuance +of which they had in vain petitioned the crown--the ring, the sign of the +cross, white surplices, and the like--besides the whole hierarchical +system, had been disused in the Reformed Churches of France, Switzerland, +and the United Provinces, where the forms of worship in their view had +been brought more nearly to the early apostolic model. They admitted for +truth the doctrinal articles of the Dutch Reformed Churches. They had +not come to the Netherlands without cause. At an early period of King +James's reign this congregation of seceders from the establishment had +been wont to hold meetings at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, once a manor of +the Archbishop of York, but then the residence of one William Brewster. +This was a gentleman of some fortune, educated at Cambridge, a good +scholar, who in Queen Elizabeth's time had been in the service of William +Davison when Secretary of State. He seemed to have been a confidential +private secretary of that excellent and unlucky statesman, who found him +so discreet and faithful as to deserve employment before all others in +matters of trust and secrecy. He was esteemed by Davison "rather as a +son than a servant," and he repaid his confidence by doing him many +faithful offices in the time of his troubles. He had however long since +retired from connection with public affairs, living a retired life, +devoted to study, meditation, and practical exertion to promote the cause +of religion, and in acts of benevolence sometimes beyond his means. + +The pastor of the Scrooby Church, one John Robinson, a graduate of +Cambridge, who had been a benefited clergyman in Norfolk, was a man of +learning, eloquence, and lofty intellect. But what were such good gifts +in the possession of rebels, seceders, and Puritans? It is needless to +say that Brewster and Robinson were baited, persecuted, watched day and +night, some of the congregation often clapped into prison, others into +the stocks, deprived of the means of livelihood, outlawed, famished, +banned. Plainly their country was no place for them. After a few years +of such work they resolved to establish themselves in Holland, where at +least they hoped to find refuge and toleration. + +But it proved as difficult for them to quit the country as to remain in +it. Watched and hunted like gangs of coiners, forgers, or other felons +attempting to flee from justice, set upon by troopers armed with "bills +and guns and other weapons," seized when about to embark, pillaged and +stripped by catchpoles, exhibited as a show to grinning country folk, +the women and children dealt with like drunken tramps, led before +magistrates, committed to jail; Mr. Brewster and six other of the +principal ones being kept in prison and bound over to the assizes; they +were only able after attempts lasting through two years' time to effect +their escape to Amsterdam. After remaining there a year they had removed +to Leyden, which they thought "a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet +situation." + +They settled in Leyden in the very year in which Arminius was buried +beneath the pavement of St. Peter's Church in that town. It was the year +too in which the Truce was signed. They were a singularly tranquil and +brotherly community. Their pastor, who was endowed with remarkable +gentleness and tact in dealing with his congregation, settled amicably +all their occasional disputes. The authorities of the place held them +up as a model. To a Walloon congregation in which there were many +troublesome and litigious members they said: "These English have lived +among us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against +any of them, but your quarrels are continual." + +Although many of them were poor, finding it difficult to earn their +living in a foreign land among people speaking a strange tongue, and with +manners and habits differing from their own, and where they were obliged +to learn new trades, having most of them come out of an agricultural +population, yet they enjoyed a singular reputation for probity. Bakers +and butchers and the like willingly gave credit to the poorest of these +English, and sought their custom if known to be of the congregation. +Mr. Brewster, who had been reduced almost to poverty by his charities and +munificent aid to his struggling brethren, earned his living by giving +lessons in English, having first composed a grammar according to the +Latin model for the use of his pupils. He also set up a printing +establishment, publishing many controversial works prohibited in England, +a proceeding which roused the wrath of Carleton, impelling him to do his +best to have him thrown into prison. + +It was not the first time that this plain, mechanical, devout Englishman, +now past middle age, had visited the Netherlands. More than twenty-five +years before he had accompanied William Davison on his famous embassy to +the States, as private secretary. + +When the keys of Flushing, one of the cautionary towns, were committed to +the Ambassador, he confided them to the care of Brewster, who slept with +them under his pillow. The gold chain which Davison received as a +present from the provincial government on leaving the country was +likewise placed in his keeping, with orders to wear it around his neck +until they should appear before the Queen. To a youth of ease and +affluence, familiar with ambassadors and statesmen and not unknown at +courts, had succeeded a mature age of obscurity, deep study, and poverty. +No human creature would have heard of him had his career ended with his +official life. Two centuries and a half have passed away and the name of +the outlawed Puritan of Scrooby and Leyden is still familiar to millions +of the English race. + +All these Englishmen were not poor. Many of them occupied houses of fair +value, and were admitted to the freedom of the city. The pastor with +three of his congregation lived in a comfortable mansion, which they had +purchased for the considerable sum of 8000 florins, and on the garden of +which they subsequently erected twenty-one lesser tenements for the use +of the poorer brethren. + +Mr. Robinson was himself chosen a member of the famous university and +admitted to its privileges. During his long residence in Leyden, besides +the daily care of his congregation, spiritual and temporal, he wrote many +learned works. + +Thus the little community, which grew gradually larger by emigration from +England, passed many years of tranquillity. Their footsteps were not +dogged by constables and pursuivants, they were not dragged daily before +the magistrates, they were not thrown into the town jails, they were not +hunted from place to place with bows and bills and mounted musketeers. +They gave offence to none, and were respected by all. "Such was their +singleheartedness and sincere affection one towards another," says their +historian and magistrate, "that they came as near the primitive pattern +of the first churches as any other church of these later times has done, +according to their rank and quality." + +Here certainly were English Puritans more competent than any men else in +the world to judge if it were a slander upon the English government to +identify them with Dutch Puritans. Did they sympathize with the party in +Holland which the King, who had so scourged and trampled upon themselves +in England, was so anxious to crush, the hated Arminians? Did they abhor +the Contra-Remonstrants whom James and his ambassador Carleton doted upon +and whom Barneveld called "Double Puritans" and "Flanderizers?" + +Their pastor may answer for himself and his brethren. + +"We profess before God and men," said Robinson in his Apologia, "that we +agree so entirely with the Reformed Dutch Churches in the matter of +religion as to be ready to subscribe to all and each of their articles +exactly as they are set forth in the Netherland Confession. We +acknowledge those Reformed Churches as true and genuine, we profess and +cultivate communion with them as much as in us lies. Those of us who +understand the Dutch language attend public worship under their pastors. +We administer the Holy Supper to such of their members as, known to us, +appear at our meetings." This was the position of the Puritans. +Absolute, unqualified accordance with the Contra-Remonstrants. + +As the controversy grew hot in the university between the Arminians and +their adversaries, Mr. Robinson, in the language of his friend Bradford, +became "terrible to the Arminians . . . . who so greatly molested the +whole state and that city in particular." + +When Episcopius, the Arminian professor of theology, set forth sundry +theses, challenging all the world to the onset, it was thought that "none +was fitter to buckle with them" than Robinson. The orthodox professor +Polyander so importuned the English Puritan to enter the lists on behalf +of the Contra-Remonstrants that at last he consented and overthrew the +challenger, horse and man, in three successive encounters. Such at least +was the account given by his friend and admirer the historian. "The Lord +did so help him to defend the truth and foil this adversary as he put him +to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. And the like +he did a second or third time upon such like occasions," said Bradford, +adding that, if it had not been for fear of offending the English +government, the university would have bestowed preferments and honours +upon the champion. + +We are concerned with this ancient and exhausted controversy only for the +intense light it threw, when burning, on the history which occupies us. + +Of the extinct volcano itself which once caused such devastation, and in +which a great commonwealth was well-nigh swallowed up, little is left but +slag and cinders. The past was made black and barren with them. Let us +disturb them as little as possible. + +The little English congregation remained at Leyden till toward the end of +the Truce, thriving, orderly, respected, happy. They were witnesses to +the tumultuous, disastrous, and tragical events which darkened the +Republic in those later years, themselves unobserved and unmolested. Not +a syllable seems to remain on record of the views or emotions which may +have been excited by those scenes in their minds, nor is there a trace +left on the national records of the Netherlands of their protracted +residence on the soil. + +They got their living as best they might by weaving, printing, spinning, +and other humble trades; they borrowed money on mortgages, they built +houses, they made wills, and such births, deaths, and marriages as +occurred among them were registered by the town-clerk. + +And at last for a variety of reasons they resolved to leave the +Netherlands. Perhaps the solution of the problem between Church and +State in that country by the temporary subjection of State to Church may +have encouraged them to realize a more complete theocracy, if a sphere of +action could be found where the experiment might be tried without a +severe battle against time-hallowed institutions and vested rights. +Perhaps they were appalled by the excesses into which men of their own +religious sentiments had been carried by theological and political +passion. At any rate depart they would; the larger half of the +congregation remaining behind however till the pioneers should have +broken the way, and in their own language "laid the stepping-stones." + +They had thought of the lands beneath the Equator, Raleigh having +recently excited enthusiasm by his poetical descriptions of Guiana. +But the tropical scheme was soon abandoned. They had opened negotiations +with the Stadholder and the States-General through Amsterdam merchants in +regard to settling in New Amsterdam, and offered to colonize that country +if assured of the protection of the United Provinces. Their petition had +been rejected. They had then turned their faces to their old master and +their own country, applying to the Virginia Company for a land-patent, +which they were only too happy to promise, and to the King for liberty +of religion in the wilderness confirmed under his broad seal, which his +Majesty of course refused. It was hinted however that James would +connive at them and not molest them if they carried themselves peaceably. +So they resolved to go without the seal, for, said their magistrate very +wisely, "if there should be a purpose or desire to wrong them, a seal +would not serve their turn though it were as broad as the house-floor." + +Before they left Leyden, their pastor preached to them a farewell sermon, +which for loftiness of spirit and breadth of vision has hardly a parallel +in that age of intolerance. He laid down the principle that criticism of +the Scriptures had not been exhausted merely because it had been begun; +that the human conscience was of too subtle a nature to be imprisoned +for ever in formulas however ingeniously devised; that the religious +reformation begun a century ago was not completed; and that the Creator +had not necessarily concluded all His revelations to mankind. + +The words have long been familiar to students of history, but they can +hardly be too often laid to heart. + +Noble words, worthy to have been inscribed over the altar of the first +church to be erected by the departing brethren, words to bear fruit after +centuries should go by. Had not the deeply injured and misunderstood +Grotius already said, "If the trees we plant do not shade us, they will +yet serve for our descendants?" + +Yet it is passing strange that the preacher of that sermon should be the +recent champion of the Contra-Remonstrants in the great controversy; the +man who had made himself so terrible to the pupils of the gentle and +tolerant Arminius. + +And thus half of that English congregation went down to Delftshaven, +attended by the other half who were to follow at a later period with +their beloved pastor. There was a pathetic leave-taking. Even many of +the Hollanders, mere casual spectators, were in tears. + +Robinson, kneeling on the deck of the little vessel, offered a prayer and +a farewell. Who could dream that this departure of an almost nameless +band of emigrants to the wilderness was an epoch in the world's history? +Yet these were the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, the founders of what +was to be the mightiest republic of modern history, mighty and stable +because it had been founded upon an idea. + +They were not in search of material comfort and the chances of elevating +their condition, by removing from an overpeopled country to an organized +Commonwealth, offering a wide field for pauper labourers. Some of them +were of good social rank and highest education, most of them in decent +circumstances, none of them in absolute poverty. And a few years later +they were to be joined by a far larger company with leaders and many +brethren of ancient birth and landed possessions, men of "education, +figure; and estate," all ready to convert property into cash and to place +it in joint-stock, not as the basis of promising speculation, but as the +foundation of a church. + +It signifies not how much or how little one may sympathize with their +dogma or their discipline now. To the fact that the early settlement +of that wilderness was by self-sacrificing men of earnestness and faith, +who were bent on "advancing the Gospel of Christ in remote parts of the +world," in the midst of savage beasts, more savage men, and unimaginable +difficulties and dangers, there can be little doubt that the highest +forms of Western civilization are due. Through their provisional +theocracy, the result of the independent church system was to establish +the true purport of the Reformation, absolute religious equality. Civil +and political equality followed as a matter of course. + +Two centuries and a half have passed away. + +There are now some seventy or eighty millions of the English-speaking +race on both sides the Atlantic, almost equally divided between the +United Kingdom and the United Republic, and the departure of those +outcasts of James has interest and significance for them all. + +Most fitly then, as a distinguished American statesman has remarked, does +that scene on board the little English vessel, with the English pastor +uttering his farewell blessing to a handful of English exiles for +conscience sake; depicted on canvas by eminent artists, now adorn the +halls of the American Congress and of the British Parliament. Sympathy +with one of the many imperishable bonds of union between the two great +and scarcely divided peoples. + +We return to Barneveld in his solitary prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Barneveld's Imprisonment--Ledenberg's Examination and Death-- + Remonstrance of De Boississe--Aerssens admitted to the order of + Knights--Trial of the Advocate--Barneveld's Defence--The States + proclaim a Public Fast--Du Maurier's Speech before the Assembly-- + Barneveld's Sentence--Barneveld prepares for Death--Goes to + Execution. + +The Advocate had been removed within a few days after the arrest from the +chamber in Maurice's apartments, where he had originally been confined, +and was now in another building. + +It was not a dungeon nor a jail. Indeed the commonplace and domestic +character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has +in it something pathetic. There was and still remains a two-storied +structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of +the old Counts within the Binnenhof. On the first floor was a courtroom +of considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice +The story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow corridor +on each side. The first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was +appropriated for the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. +In the next Hugo Grotius was imprisoned. In the third was Barneveld. +There was a tower at the north-east angle of the building, within which +a winding and narrow staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to +the prisoners' apartments. Rombout Hoogerbeets was confined in another +building. + +As the Advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on +his staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the +steep staircase, he observed-- + +"This is the Admiral of Arragon's apartment." + +It was true. Eighteen years before, the conqueror of Nieuwpoort had +assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable +victory over the Spaniards, and now Maurice's faithful and trusted +counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the +less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved. + +It was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square, with +a high vaulted roof and decently furnished. Below and around him in the +courtyard were the scenes of the Advocate's life-long and triumphant +public services. There in the opposite building were the windows of the +beautiful "Hall of Truce," with its sumptuous carvings and gildings, its +sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with the +representatives of all the great powers of Christendom the famous Treaty +which had suspended the war of forty years, and where he was wont almost +daily to give audience to the envoys of the greatest sovereigns or the +least significant states of Europe and Asia, all of whom had been ever +solicitous of his approbation and support. + +Farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the States- +General, where some of the most important affairs of the Republic and +of Europe had for years been conducted, and where he had been so +indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who loved him not, +"absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence, all great affairs +going through him alone." + +There were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over an +irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks, while +within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own elegant +mansion on the Voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and shady pleasure +grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children all plunged in deep +affliction. + +He was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, Jan Franken by name, +and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. His papers had been +taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials. + +He had small connection with the outward world. The news of the +municipal revolution which had been effected by the Stadholder had not +penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit +from their garden. One day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to +him. On slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside +it. Within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest +handwriting in Latin. It was to this effect. + +"Don't rely upon the States of Holland, for the Prince of Orange has +changed the magistracies in many cities. Dudley Carleton is not your +friend." + +A sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put +a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. The letter, +copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, +was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for +the future. + +Secretary Ledenberg, who had been brought to the Hague in the early days +of September, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination. +He was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have +exclaimed with many sighs, "Oh Barneveld, Barneveld, what have you +brought us to!" + +He confessed that the Waartgelders at Utrecht had been enlisted on +notification by the Utrecht deputies in the Hague with knowledge of +Barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the States in order to +prevent internal tumults. He said that the Advocate had advised in the +previous month of March a request to the Prince not to come to Utrecht; +that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the +Waartgelders, to his Excellency had been postponed after the deputies of +the States of Holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that +those deputies had come to Utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that +they had judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in Utrecht +if the garrison in the city paid by Holland were kept quiet, and if the +States of Utrecht gave similar orders to the Waartgelders; for they did +not believe that his Excellency would bring in troops from the outside. +He said that he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the +garrison. He stated that the Advocate, when at Utrecht, had exhorted +the States, according to his wont, to maintain their liberties and +privileges, representing to them that the right to decide on the Synod +and the Waartgelders belonged to them. Lastly, he denied knowing who +was the author of The Balance, except by common report. + +Now these statements hardly amounted to a confession of abominable and +unpardonable crimes by Ledenberg, nor did they establish a charge of +high-treason and corrupt correspondence with the enemy against Barneveld. +It is certain that the extent of the revelations seemed far from +satisfactory to the accusers, and that some pressure would be necessary +in order to extract anything more conclusive. Lieutenant Nythof told +Grotius that Ledenberg had accordingly been threatened with torture, and +that the executioner had even handled him for that purpose. This was +however denied by the judges of instruction who had been charged with the +preliminary examination. + +That examination took place on the 27th September. After it had been +concluded, Ledenberg prayed long and earnestly on returning to prison. +He then entrusted a paper written in French to his son Joost, a boy of +eighteen, who did not understand that language. The youth had been +allowed to keep his father company in his confinement, and slept in the +same room. + +The next night but one, at two o'clock, Joost heard his father utter a +deep groan. He was startled, groped in the darkness towards his bed and +felt his arm, which was stone cold. He spoke to him and received no +answer. He gave the alarm, the watch came in with lights, and it was +found that Ledenberg had given himself two mortal wounds in the abdomen +with a penknife and then cut his throat with a table-knife which he had +secreted, some days before, among some papers. + +The paper in French given to his son was found to be to this effect. + +"I know that there is an inclination to set an example in my person, +to confront me with my best friends, to torture me, afterwards to convict +me of contradictions and falsehoods as they say, and then to found an +ignominious sentence upon points and trifles, for this it will be +necessary to do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. To +escape all this I am going to God by the shortest road. Against a dead +man there can be pronounced no sentence of confiscation of property. +Done 17th September (o. s.) 1618." + +The family of the unhappy gentleman begged his body for decent burial. +The request was refused. It was determined to keep the dead secretary +above ground and in custody until he could be tried, and, if possible, +convicted and punished. It was to be seen whether it were so easy to +baffle the power of the States-General, the Synod, and the Stadholder, +and whether "going to God by the shortest road" was to save a culprit's +carcass from ignominy, and his property from confiscation. + +The French ambassadors, who had been unwearied in their endeavour to +restore harmony to the distracted Commonwealth before the arrest of the +prisoners, now exerted themselves to throw the shield of their +sovereign's friendship around the illustrious statesman and his fellow- +sufferers. + +"It is with deepest sorrow," said de Boississe, "that I have witnessed +the late hateful commotions. Especially from my heart I grieve for the +arrest of the Seignior Barneveld, who with his discretion and wise +administration for the past thirty years has so drawn the hearts of all +neighbouring princes to himself, especially that of the King my master, +that on taking up my pen to apprize him of these events I am gravely +embarrassed, fearing to infringe on the great respect due to your +Mightinesses or against the honour and merits of the Seignior Barneveld. +. . . My Lords, take heed to your situation, for a great discontent is +smouldering among your citizens. Until now, the Union has been the chief +source of your strength. And I now fear that the King my master, the +adviser of your renowned Commonwealth, maybe offended that you have taken +this resolution after consulting with others, and without communicating +your intention to his ambassador . . . . It is but a few days that an +open edict was issued testifying to the fidelity of Barneveld, and can it +be possible that within so short a time you have discovered that you have +been deceived? I summon you once more in the name of the King to lay +aside all passion, to judge these affairs without partiality, and to +inform me what I am to say to the King. Such very conflicting accounts +are given of these transactions that I must beg you to confide to me the +secret of the affair. The wisest in the land speak so strongly of these +proceedings that it will be no wonder if the King my master should give +me orders to take the Seignior Barneveld under his protection. Should +this prove to be the case, your Lordships will excuse my course . . . +I beg you earnestly in your wisdom not to give cause of offence to +neighbouring princes, especially to my sovereign, who wishes from his +heart to maintain your dignity and interests and to assure you of his +friendship." + +The language was vigorous and sincere, but the Ambassador forgot that the +France of to-day was not the France of yesterday; that Louis XIII. was +not Henry IV.; that it was but a cheerful fiction to call the present +King the guide and counsellor of the Republic, and that, distraught as +she was by the present commotions, her condition was strength and +tranquillity compared with the apparently decomposing and helpless state +of the once great kingdom of France. De Boississe took little by his +demonstration. + +On the 12th December both de Boississe and du Maurier came before the +States-General once more, and urged a speedy and impartial trial for the +illustrious prisoners. If they had committed acts of treason and +rebellion, they deserved exemplary punishment, but the ambassadors warned +the States-General with great earnestness against the dangerous doctrine +of constructive treason, and of confounding acts dictated by violence of +party spirit at an excited period with the crime of high-treason against +the sovereignty of the State. + +"Barneveld so honourable," they said, "for his immense and long continued +services has both this Republic and all princes and commonwealths for his +witnesses. It is most difficult to believe that he has attempted the +destruction of his fatherland, for which you know that he has toiled so +faithfully." + +They admitted that so grave charges ought now to be investigated. "To +this end," said the ambassadors, "you ought to give him judges who are +neither suspected nor impassioned, and who will decide according to the +laws of the land, and on clear and undeniable evidence . . . . So +doing you will show to the whole world that you are worthy to possess and +to administer this Commonwealth to whose government God has called you." + +Should they pursue another and a sterner course, the envoys warned the +Assembly that the King would be deeply offended, deeming it thus proved +how little value they set upon his advice and his friendship. + +The States-General replied on the 19th December, assuring the ambassadors +that the delay in the trial was in order to make the evidence of the +great conspiracy complete, and would not tend to the prejudice of the +prisoners "if they had a good consciousness of their innocence." They +promised that the sentence upon them when pronounced would give entire +satisfaction to all their allies and to the King of France in particular, +of whom they spoke throughout the document in terms of profound respect. +But they expressed their confidence that "his Majesty would not place the +importunate and unfounded solicitations of a few particular criminals or +their supporters before the general interests of the dignity and security +of the Republic." + +On the same day the States-General addressed a letter filled with very +elaborate and courteous commonplaces to the King, in which they expressed +a certainty that his Majesty would be entirely satisfied with their +actions. + +The official answer of the States-General to the ambassadors, just cited, +gave but little comfort to the friends of the imprisoned statesman and +his companions. Such expressions as "ambitious and factious spirits," +--"authors and patrons of the faction,"--"attempts at novelty through +changes in religion, in justice and in the fundamental laws of all orders +of polity," and the frequent mention of the word "conspiracy" boded +little good. + +Information of this condition of affairs was conveyed to Hoogerbeets and +Grotius by means of an ingenious device of the distinguished scholar, who +was then editing the Latin works of the Hague poet, Janus Secundus. + +While the sheets were going through the press, some of the verses were +left out, and their place supplied by others conveying the intelligence +which it was desired to send to the prisoners. The pages which contained +the secret were stitched together in such wise that in cutting the book +open they were not touched but remained closed. The verses were to this +effect. "The examination of the Advocate proceeds slowly, but there is +good hope from the serious indignation of the French king, whose envoys +are devoted to the cause of the prisoners, and have been informed that +justice will be soon rendered. The States of Holland are to assemble on +the 15th January, at which a decision will certainly be taken for +appointing judges. The preachers here at Leyden are despised, and men +are speaking strongly of war. The tumult which lately occurred at +Rotterdam may bring forth some good." + +The quick-wited Grotius instantly discovered the device, read the +intelligence thus communicated in the proofsheets of Secundus, and made +use of the system to obtain further intelligence. + +Hoogerbeets laid the book aside, not taking much interest at that time +in the works of the Hague poet. Constant efforts made to attract his +attention to those poems however excited suspicion among his keepers, +and the scheme was discovered before the Leyden pensionary had found +the means to profit by it.' + +The allusions to the trial of the Advocate referred to the preliminary +examination which took place, like the first interrogatories of Grotius +and Hoogerbeets, in the months of November and December. + +The thorough manner in which Maurice had reformed the States of Holland +has been described. There was one department of that body however which +still required attention. The Order of Knights, small in number but +potential in influence, which always voted first on great occasions, was +still through a majority of its members inclined to Barneveld. Both his +sons-in-law had seats in that college. The Stadholder had long believed +in a spirit of hostility on the part of those nobles towards himself. +He knew that a short time before this epoch there had been a scheme for +introducing his young brother, Frederic Henry, into the Chamber of +Knights. The Count had become proprietor of the barony of Naaldwyk, a +property which he had purchased of the Counts of Arenberg, and which +carried with it the hereditary dignity of Great Equerry of the Counts of +Holland. As the Counts of Holland had ceased to exist, although their +sovereignty had nearly been revived and conferred upon William the +Silent, the office of their chief of the stables might be deemed a +sinecure. But the jealousy of Maurice was easily awakened, especially by +any movement made or favoured by the Advocate. He believed that in the +election of Frederic Henry as a member of the College of Knights a plan +lay concealed to thrust him into power and to push this elder brother +from his place. The scheme, if scheme it were, was never accomplished, +but the Prince's rancour remained. + +He now informed the nobles that they must receive into their body Francis +Aerssens, who had lately purchased the barony of Sommelsdyk, and Daniel +de Hartaing, Seignior of Marquette. With the presence of this deadly +enemy of Barneveld and another gentleman equally devoted to the +Stadholder's interest it seemed probable that the refractory majority of +the board of nobles would be overcome. But there were grave objections +to the admission of these new candidates. They were not eligible. The +constitution of the States and of the college of nobles prescribed that +Hollanders only of ancient and noble race and possessing estates in the +province could sit in that body. Neither Aerssens nor Hartaing was born +in Holland or possessed of the other needful qualifications. +Nevertheless, the Prince, who had just remodelled all the municipalities +throughout the Union which offered resistance to his authority, was not +to be checked by so trifling an impediment as the statutes of the House +of Nobles. He employed very much the same arguments which he had used to +"good papa" Hooft. "This time it must be so." Another time it might not +be necessary. So after a controversy which ended as controversies are +apt to do when one party has a sword in his hand and the other is seated +at a green-baize-covered table, Sommelsdyk and Marquette took their seats +among the knights. Of course there was a spirited protest. Nothing was +easier for the Stadholder than to concede the principle while trampling +it with his boot-heels in practice. + +"Whereas it is not competent for the said two gentlemen to be admitted to +our board," said the nobles in brief, "as not being constitutionally +eligible, nevertheless, considering the strong desire of his Excellency +the Prince of Orange, we, the nobles and knights of Holland, admit them +with the firm promise to each other by noble and knightly faith ever in +future for ourselves and descendants to maintain the privileges of our +order now violated and never again to let them be directly or indirectly +infringed." + +And so Aerssens, the unscrupulous plotter, and dire foe of the Advocate +and all his house, burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had +received from him during many years, and the author of the venomous +pamphlets and diatribes which had done so much of late to blacken the +character of the great statesman before the public, now associated +himself officially with his other enemies, while the preliminary +proceedings for the state trials went forward. + +Meantime the Synod had met at Dordtrecht. The great John Bogerman, with +fierce, handsome face, beak and eye of a bird of prey, and a deluge of +curly brown beard reaching to his waist, took his seat as president. +Short work was made with the Armenians. They and their five Points were +soon thrust out into outer darkness. + +It was established beyond all gainsaying that two forms of Divine worship +in one country were forbidden by God's Word, and that thenceforth by +Netherland law there could be but one religion, namely, the Reformed or +Calvinistic creed. + +It was settled that one portion of the Netherlanders and of the rest of +the human race had been expressly created by the Deity to be for ever +damned, and another portion to be eternally blessed. But this history +has little to do with that infallible council save in the political +effect of its decrees on the fate of Barneveld. It was said that the +canons of Dordtrecht were likely to shoot off the head of the Advocate. +Their sessions and the trial of the Advocate were simultaneous, but not +technically related to each other. + +The conclusions of both courts were preordained, for the issue of the +great duel between Priesthood and State had been decided when the +military chieftain threw his sword into the scale of the Church. + +There had been purposely a delay, before coming to a decision as to the +fate of the state prisoners, until the work of the Synod should have +approached completion. + +It was thought good that the condemnation of the opinions of the +Arminians and the chastisement of their leaders should go hand-in-hand. + +On the 23rd April 1619, the canons were signed by all the members of the +Synod. Arminians were pronounced heretics, schismatics, teachers of +false doctrines. They were declared incapable of filling any clerical or +academical post. No man thenceforth was to teach children, lecture to +adolescents, or preach to the mature, unless a subscriber to the +doctrines of the unchanged, unchangeable, orthodox church. On the 30th +April and 1st May the Netherland Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism +were declared to be infallible. No change was to be possible in either +formulary. + +Schools and pulpits were inexorably bound to the only true religion. + +On the 6th May there was a great festival at Dordtrecht in honour of the +conclusion of the Synod. The canons, the sentence, and long prayers and +orations in Latin by President Bogerman gladdened the souls of an immense +multitude, which were further enlivened by the decree that both Creed and +Catechism had stood the test of several criticisms and come out unchanged +by a single hair. Nor did the orator of the occasion forget to render +thanks "to the most magnanimous King James of Great Britain, through +whose godly zeal, fiery sympathy, and truly royal labour God had so often +refreshed the weary Synod in the midst of their toil." + +The Synod held one hundred and eighty sessions between the 13th November +1618 and 29th May 1619, all the doings of which have been recorded in +chronicles innumerable. There need be no further mention of them here. + +Barneveld and the companions of his fate remained in prison. + +On the 7th March the trial of the great Advocate began. He had sat in +prison since the 18th of the preceding August. For nearly seven months +he had been deprived of all communication with the outward world save +such atoms of intelligence as could be secretly conveyed to him in the +inside of a quill concealed in a pear and by other devices. The man who +had governed one of the most important commonwealths of the world for +nearly a generation long--during the same period almost controlling the +politics of Europe--had now been kept in ignorance of the most +insignificant everyday events. During the long summer-heat of the dog- +days immediately succeeding his arrest, and the long, foggy, snowy, icy +winter of Holland which ensued, he had been confined in that dreary +garret-room to which he had been brought when he left his temporary +imprisonment in the apartments of Prince Maurice. + +There was nothing squalid in the chamber, nothing specially cruel or +repulsive in the arrangements of his captivity. He was not in fetters, +nor fed upon bread and water. He was not put upon the rack, nor even +threatened with it as Ledenberg had been. He was kept in a mean, +commonplace, meagerly furnished, tolerably spacious room, and he was +allowed the services of his faithful domestic servant John Franken. A +sentinel paced day and night up the narrow corridor before his door. As +spring advanced, the notes of the nightingale came through the prison- +window from the neighbouring thicket. One day John Franken, opening the +window that his master might the better enjoy its song, exchanged +greeting with a fellow-servant in the Barneveld mansion who happened to +be crossing the courtyard. Instantly workmen were sent to close and +barricade the windows, and it was only after earnest remonstrances and +pledges that this resolve to consign the Advocate to darkness was +abandoned. + +He was not permitted the help of lawyer, clerk, or man of business. +Alone and from his chamber of bondage, suffering from bodily infirmities +and from the weakness of advancing age, he was compelled to prepare his +defence against a vague, heterogeneous collection of charges, to meet +which required constant reference, not only to the statutes, privileges, +and customs of the country and to the Roman law, but to a thousand minute +incidents out of which the history of the Provinces during the past dozen +years or more had been compounded. + +It is true that no man could be more familiar with the science and +practice of the law than he was, while of contemporary history he was +himself the central figure. His biography was the chronicle of his +country. Nevertheless it was a fearful disadvantage for him day by day +to confront two dozen hostile judges comfortably seated at a great table +piled with papers, surrounded by clerks with bags full of documents and +with a library of authorities and precedents duly marked and dog's-eared +and ready to their hands, while his only library and chronicle lay in his +brain. From day to day, with frequent intermissions, he was led down +through the narrow turret-stairs to a wide chamber on the floor +immediately below his prison, where a temporary tribunal had been +arranged for the special commission. + +There had been an inclination at first on the part of his judges to +treat him as a criminal, and to require him to answer, standing, to the +interrogatories propounded to him. But as the terrible old man advanced +into the room, leaning on his staff, and surveying them with the air of +haughty command habitual to him, they shrank before his glance; several +involuntarily, rising uncovered, to salute him and making way for him to +the fireplace about which many were standing that wintry morning. + +He was thenceforth always accommodated with a seat while he listened to +and answered 'ex tempore' the elaborate series of interrogatories which +had been prepared to convict him. + +Nearly seven months he had sat with no charges brought against him. This +was in itself a gross violation of the laws of the land, for according to +all the ancient charters of Holland it was provided that accusation +should follow within six weeks of arrest, or that the prisoner should go +free. But the arrest itself was so gross a violation of law that respect +for it was hardly to be expected in the subsequent proceedings. He was a +great officer of the States of Holland. He had been taken under their +especial protection. He was on his way to the High Council. He was in +no sense a subject of the States-General. He was in the discharge of his +official duty. He was doubly and trebly sacred from arrest. The place +where he stood was on the territory of Holland and in the very sanctuary +of her courts and House of Assembly. The States-General were only as +guests on her soil, and had no domain or jurisdiction there whatever. +He was not apprehended by any warrant or form of law. It was in time of +peace, and there was no pretence of martial law. The highest civil +functionary of Holland was invited in the name of its first military +officer to a conference, and thus entrapped was forcibly imprisoned. + +At last a board of twenty-four commissioners was created, twelve from +Holland and two from each of the other six provinces. This affectation +of concession to Holland was ridiculous. Either the law 'de non +evocando'--according to which no citizen of Holland could be taken out +of the province for trial--was to be respected or it was to be trampled +upon. If it was to be trampled upon, it signified little whether more +commissioners were to be taken from Holland than from each of the other +provinces, or fewer, or none at all. Moreover it was pretended that a +majority of the whole board was to be assigned to that province. But +twelve is not a majority of twenty-four. There were three fascals or +prosecuting officers, Leeuwen of Utrecht, Sylla of Gelderland, and Antony +Duyck of Holland. Duyck was notoriously the deadly enemy of Barneveld, +and was destined to succeed to his offices. It would have been as well +to select Francis Aerssens himself. + +It was necessary to appoint a commission because there was no tribunal +appertaining to the States-General. The general government of the +confederacy had no power to deal with an individual. It could only +negotiate with the sovereign province to which the individual was +responsible, and demand his punishment if proved guilty of an offence. +There was no supreme court of appeal. Machinery was provided for +settling or attempting to settle disputes among the members of the +confederacy, and if there was a culprit in this great process it was +Holland itself. Neither the Advocate nor any one of his associates had +done any act except by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign +State. Supposing them unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against +the Generality, the dilemma was there which must always exist by the very +nature of things in a confederacy. No sovereign can try a fellow +sovereign. The subject can be tried at home by no sovereign but his own. + +The accused in this case were amenable to the laws of Holland only. + +It was a packed tribunal. Several of the commissioners, like Pauw and +Muis for example, were personal enemies of Barneveld. Many of them were +totally ignorant of law. Some of them knew not a word of any language +but their mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to +administer was written in Latin. + +Before such a court the foremost citizen of the Netherlands, the first +living statesman of Europe, was brought day by day during a period of +nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room +where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been +fitted up for the commission. + +There was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. There were +no witnesses and no arguments. The court-room contained, as it were, +only a prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact +without a judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and +contend for or against the prisoner's guilt. The process, for it could +not be called a trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled +interrogatories reaching over a space of forty years without apparent +connection or relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to +another, back and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the +prisoner, throw him off his balance, and lead him into self- +contradiction. + +The spectacle was not a refreshing one. It was the attempt of a +multitude of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant. + +Barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. He asked for a +list in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his +answer. The demand was refused. He was forbidden the use of pen and ink +or any writing materials. His papers and books were all taken from him. + +He was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single +friend. Alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his +defence. Out of his memory and brain, and from these alone, he was to +supply himself with the array of historical facts stretching over a +longer period than the lifetime of many of his judges, and with the +proper legal and historical arguments upon those facts for the +justification of his course. That memory and brain were capacious and +powerful enough for the task. It was well for the judges that they had +bound themselves, at the outset, by an oath never to make known what +passed in the courtroom, but to bury all the proceedings in profound +secrecy forever. Had it been otherwise, had that been known to the +contemporary public which has only been revealed more than two centuries +later, had a portion only of the calm and austere eloquence been heard in +which the Advocate set forth his defence, had the frivolous and ignoble +nature of the attack been comprehended, it might have moved the very +stones in the streets to mutiny. Hateful as the statesman had been made +by an organized system of calumny, which was continued with unabated +vigour and increased venom sine he had been imprisoned, there was enough +of justice and of gratitude left in the hearts of Netherlanders to resent +the tyranny practised against their greatest man, and the obloquy thus +brought against a nation always devoted to their liberties and laws. + +That the political system of the country was miserably defective was no +fault of Barneveld. He was bound by oath and duty to administer, not +make the laws. A handful of petty feudal sovereignties such as had once +covered the soil of Europe, a multitude of thriving cities which had +wrested or purchased a mass of liberties, customs, and laws from their +little tyrants, all subjected afterwards, without being blended together, +to a single foreign family, had at last one by one, or two by two, +shaken off that supremacy, and, resuming their ancient and as it were +decapitated individualities, had bound themselves by treaty in the midst +of a war to stand by each other, as if they were but one province, for +purposes of common defence against the common foe. + +There had been no pretence of laying down a constitution, of enacting an +organic law. The day had not come for even the conception of a popular +constitution. The people had not been invented. It was not provinces +only, but cities, that had contracted with each other, according to the +very first words of the first Article of Union. Some of these cities, +like Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, were Catholic by overwhelming majority, and +had subsequently either fallen away from the confederacy or been +conquered. + +And as if to make assurance doubly sure, the Articles of Union not only +reserved to each province all powers not absolutely essential for +carrying on the war in common, but by an express article (the 13th), +declared that Holland and Zealand should regulate the matter of religion +according to their own discretion, while the other provinces might +conform to the provisions of the "Religious Peace" which included mutual +protection for Catholics and Protestants--or take such other order as +seemed most conducive to the religious and secular rights of the +inhabitants. It was stipulated that no province should interfere with +another in such matters, and that every individual in them all should +remain free in his religion, no man being molested or examined on account +of his creed. A farther declaration in regard to this famous article was +made to the effect that no provinces or cities which held to the Roman +Catholic religion were to be excluded from the League of Union if they +were ready to conform to its conditions and comport themselves +patriotically. Language could not be devised to declare more plainly +than was done by this treaty that the central government of the League +had neither wish nor right to concern itself with the religious affairs +of the separate cities or provinces. If it permitted both Papists and +Protestants to associate themselves against the common foe, it could +hardly have been imagined, when the Articles were drawn, that it would +have claimed the exclusive right to define the minutest points in a +single Protestant creed. + +And if the exclusively secular parts of the polity prevailing in the +country were clumsy, irregular, and even monstrous, and if its defects +had been flagrantly demonstrated by recent events, a more reasonable +method of reforming the laws might have been found than the imprisonment +of a man who had faithfully administered them forty years long. + +A great commonwealth had grown out of a petty feudal organism, like an +oak from an acorn in a crevice, gnarled and distorted, though wide- +spreading and vigorous. It seemed perilous to deal radically with such a +polity, and an almost timid conservatism on the part of its guardians in +such an age of tempests might be pardonable. + +Moreover, as before remarked, the apparent imbecility resulting from +confederacy and municipalism combined was for a season remedied by the +actual preponderance of Holland. Two-thirds of the total wealth and +strength of the seven republics being concentrated in one province, the +desired union seemed almost gained by the practical solution of all in +that single republic. But this was one great cause of the general +disaster. + +It would be a thankless and tedious task to wander through the wilderness +of interrogatories and answers extending over three months of time, which +stood in the place of a trial. The defence of Barneveld was his own +history, and that I have attempted to give in the preceding pages. A +great part of the accusation was deduced from his private and official +correspondence, and it is for this reason that I have laid such copious +extracts from it before the reader. No man except the judges and the +States-General had access to those letters, and it was easy therefore, if +needful, to give them a false colouring. It is only very recently that +they have been seen at all, and they have never been published from that +day to this. + +Out of the confused mass of documents appertaining to the trial, a few +generalizations can be made which show the nature of the attack upon him. +He was accused of having permitted Arminius to infuse new opinions into +the University of Leyden, and of having subsequently defended the +appointment of Vorstius to the same place. He had opposed the National +Synod. He had made drafts of letters for the King of Great Britain to +sign, recommending mutual toleration on the five disputed points +regarding predestination. He was the author of the famous Sharp +Resolution. He had recommended the enlistment by the provinces and towns +of Waartgelders or mercenaries. He had maintained that those mercenaries +as well as the regular troops were bound in time of peace to be obedient +and faithful, not only to the Generality and the stadholders, but to the +magistrates of the cities and provinces where they were employed, and to +the states by whom they were paid. He had sent to Leyden, warning the +authorities of the approach of the Prince. He had encouraged all the +proceedings at Utrecht, writing a letter to the secretary of that +province advising a watch to be kept at the city gates as well as in the +river, and ordering his letter when read to be burned. He had received +presents from foreign potentates. He had attempted to damage the +character of his Excellency the Prince by declaring on various occasions +that he aspired to the sovereignty of the country. He had held a +ciphered correspondence on the subject with foreign ministers of the +Republic. He had given great offence to the King of Great Britain by +soliciting from him other letters in the sense of those which his Majesty +had written in 1613, advising moderation and mutual toleration. He had +not brought to condign punishment the author of 'The Balance', a pamphlet +in which an oration of the English ambassador had been criticised, and +aspersions made on the Order of the Garter. He had opposed the formation +of the West India Company. He had said many years before to Nicolas van +Berk that the Provinces had better return to the dominion of Spain. And +in general, all his proceedings had tended to put the Provinces into a +"blood bath." + +There was however no accusation that he had received bribes from the +enemy or held traitorous communication with him, or that he had committed +any act of high-treason. + +His private letters to Caron and to the ambassadors in Paris, with which +the reader has been made familiar, had thus been ransacked to find +treasonable matter, but the result was meagre in spite of the minute and +microscopic analysis instituted to detect traces of poison in them. + +But the most subtle and far-reaching research into past transactions was +due to the Greffier Cornelis Aerssens, father of the Ambassador Francis, +and to a certain Nicolas van Berk, Burgomaster of Utrecht. + +The process of tale-bearing, hearsay evidence, gossip, and invention went +back a dozen years, even to the preliminary and secret conferences in +regard to the Treaty of Truce. + +Readers familiar with the history of those memorable negotiations are +aware that Cornelis van Aerssens had compromised himself by accepting a +valuable diamond and a bill of exchange drawn by Marquis Spinola on a +merchant in Amsterdam, Henry Beekman by name, for 80,000 ducats. These +were handed by Father Neyen, the secret agent of the Spanish government, +to the Greffier as a prospective reward for his services in furthering +the Truce. He did not reject them, but he informed Prince Maurice and +the Advocate of the transaction. Both diamond and bill of exchange were +subsequently deposited in the hands of the treasurer of the States- +General, Joris de Bie, the Assembly being made officially acquainted with +the whole course of the affair. + +It is passing strange that this somewhat tortuous business, which +certainly cast a shade upon the fair fame of the elder Aerssens, and +required him to publish as good a defence as he could against the +consequent scandal, should have furnished a weapon wherewith to strike +at the Advocate of Holland some dozen years later. + +But so it was. Krauwels, a relative of Aerssens, through whom Father +Neyen had first obtained access to the Greffier, had stated, so it +seemed, that the monk had, in addition to the bill, handed to him another +draft of Spinola's for 100,000 ducats, to be given to a person of more +consideration than Aerssens. Krauwels did not know who the person was, +nor whether he took the money. He expressed his surprise however that +leading persons in the government "even old and authentic beggars"-- +should allow themselves to be so seduced as to accept presents from the +enemy. He mentioned two such persons, namely, a burgomaster at Delft and +a burgomaster at Haarlem. Aerssens now deposed that he had informed the +Advocate of this story, who had said, "Be quiet about it, I will have it +investigated," and some days afterwards on being questioned stated that +he had made enquiry and found there was something in it. + +So the fact that Cornelis Aerssens had taken bribes, and that two +burgomasters were strongly suspected by Aerssens of having taken bribes, +seems to have been considered as evidence that Barneveld had taken a +bribe. It is true that Aerssens by advice of Maurice and Barneveld had +made a clean breast of it to the States-General and had given them over +the presents. But the States-General could neither wear the diamond nor +cash the bill of exchange, and it would have been better for the Greffier +not to contaminate his fingers with them, but to leave the gifts in the +monk's palm. His revenge against the Advocate for helping him out of his +dilemma, and for subsequently advancing his son Francis in a brilliant +diplomatic career, seems to have been--when the clouds were thickening +and every man's hand was against the fallen statesman--to insinuate that +he was the anonymous personage who had accepted the apocryphal draft for +100,000 ducats. + +The case is a pregnant example of the proceedings employed to destroy the +Advocate. + +The testimony of Nicolas van Berk was at any rate more direct. + +On the 21st December 1618 the burgomaster testified that the Advocate had +once declared to him that the differences in regard to Divine Worship +were not so great but that they might be easily composed; asking him at +the same time "whether it would not be better that we should submit +ourselves again to the King of Spain." Barneveld had also referred, so +said van Berk, to the conduct of the Spanish king towards those who had +helped him to the kingdom of Portugal. The Burgomaster was unable +however to specify the date, year, or month in which the Advocate had +held this language. He remembered only that the conversation occurred +when Barneveld was living on the Spui at the Hague, and that having been +let into the house through the hall on the side of the vestibule, he had +been conducted by the Advocate down a small staircase into the office. + +The only fact proved by the details seems to be that the story had lodged +in the tenacious memory of the Burgomaster for eight years, as Barneveld +had removed from the Spui to Arenberg House in the Voorhout in the year +1611. + +No other offers from the King of Spain or the Archdukes had ever been +made to him, said van Berk, than those indicated in this deposition +against the Advocate as coming from that statesman. Nor had Barneveld +ever spoken to him upon such subjects except on that one occasion. + +It is not necessary and would be wearisome to follow the unfortunate +statesman through the long line of defence which he was obliged to make, +in fragmentary and irregular form, against these discursive and confused +assaults upon him. A continuous argument might be built up with the +isolated parts which should be altogether impregnable. It is +superfluous. + +Always instructive to his judges as he swept at will through the record +of nearly half a century of momentous European history, in which he was +himself a conspicuous figure, or expounding the ancient laws and customs +of the country with a wealth and accuracy of illustration which testified +to the strength of his memory, he seemed rather like a sage expounding +law and history to a class of pupils than a criminal defending himself +before a bench of commissioners. Moved occasionally from his austere +simplicity, the majestic old man rose to a strain of indignant eloquence +which might have shaken the hall of a vast assembly and found echo in the +hearts of a thousand hearers as he denounced their petty insults or +ignoble insinuations; glaring like a caged lion at his tormentors, who +had often shrunk before him when free, and now attempted to drown his +voice by contradictions, interruptions, threats, and unmeaning howls. + +He protested, from the outset and throughout the proceedings, against the +jurisdiction of the tribunal. The Treaty of Union on which the Assembly +and States-General were founded gave that assembly no power over him. +They could take no legal cognizance of his person or his acts. He had +been deprived of writing materials, or he would have already drawn up his +solemn protest and argument against the existence of the commission. He +demanded that they should be provided for him, together with a clerk to +engross his defence. It is needless to say that the demand was refused. + +It was notorious to all men, he said, that on the day when violent +hands were laid upon him he was not bound to the States-General by oath, +allegiance, or commission. He was a well-known inhabitant of the Hague, +a householder there, a vassal of the Commonwealth of Holland, enfeoffed +of many notable estates in that country, serving many honourable offices +by commission from its government. By birth, promotion, and conferred +dignities he was subject to the supreme authority of Holland, which for +forty years had been a free state possessed of all the attributes of +sovereignty, political, religious, judicial, and recognizing no superior +save God Almighty alone. + +He was amenable to no tribunal save that of their Mightinesses the States +of Holland and their ordinary judges. Not only those States but the +Prince of Orange as their governor and vassal, the nobles of Holland, +the colleges of justice, the regents of cities, and all other vassals, +magistrates, and officers were by their respective oaths bound to +maintain and protect him in these his rights. + +After fortifying this position by legal argument and by an array of +historical facts within his own experience, and alluding to the repeated +instances in which, sorely against his will, he had been solicited and +almost compelled to remain in offices of which he was weary, he referred +with dignity to the record of his past life. From the youthful days when +he had served as a volunteer at his own expense in the perilous sieges of +Haarlem and Leyden down to the time of his arrest, through an unbroken +course of honourable and most arduous political services, embassies, and +great negotiations, he had ever maintained the laws and liberties of the +Fatherland and his own honour unstained. + +That he should now in his seventy-second year be dragged, in violation of +every privilege and statute of the country, by extraordinary means, +before unknown judges, was a grave matter not for himself alone but for +their Mightinesses the States of Holland and for the other provinces. +The precious right 'de non evocando' had ever been dear to all the +provinces, cities, and inhabitants of the Netherlands. It was the most +vital privilege in their possession as well in civil as criminal, in +secular as in ecclesiastical affairs. + +When the King of Spain in 1567, and afterwards, set up an extraordinary +tribunal and a course of extraordinary trials, it was an undeniable fact, +he said, that on the solemn complaint of the States all princes, nobles, +and citizens not only in the Netherlands but in foreign countries, and +all foreign kings and sovereigns, held those outrages to be the foremost +and fundamental reason for taking up arms against that king, and +declaring him to have forfeited his right of sovereignty. + +Yet that monarch was unquestionably the born and accepted sovereign +of each one of the provinces, while the General Assembly was but a +gathering of confederates and allies, in no sense sovereign. It was an +unimaginable thing, he said, that the States of each province should +allow their whole authority and right of sovereignty to be transferred to +a board of commissioners like this before which he stood. If, for +example, a general union of France, England, and the States of the United +Netherlands should be formed (and the very words of the Act of Union +contemplated such possibility), what greater absurdity could there be +than to suppose that a college of administration created for the specific +purposes of such union would be competent to perform acts of sovereignty +within each of those countries in matters of justice, polity, and +religion? + +It was known to mankind, he said, that when negotiations were entered +into for bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on France and on +England, special and full powers were required from, and furnished by, +the States of each individual province. + +Had the sovereignty been in the assembly of the States-General, they +might have transferred it of their own motion or kept it for themselves. + +Even in the ordinary course of affairs the commissioners from each +province to the General Assembly always required a special power from +their constituents before deciding any matter of great importance. + +In regard to the defence of the respective provinces and cities, he had +never heard it doubted, he said, that the states or the magistrates of +cities had full right to provide for it by arming a portion of their own +inhabitants or by enlisting paid troops. The sovereign counts of Holland +and bishops of Utrecht certainly possessed and exercised that right for +many hundred years, and by necessary tradition it passed to the states +succeeding to their ancient sovereignty. He then gave from the stores of +his memory innumerable instances in which soldiers had been enlisted by +provinces and cities all over the Netherlands from the time of the +abjuration of Spain down to that moment. Through the whole period of +independence in the time of Anjou, Matthias, Leicester, as well as under +the actual government, it had been the invariable custom thus to provide +both by land and sea and on the rivers against robbers, rebels, pirates, +mischief-makers, assailing thieves, domestic or foreign. It had been +done by the immortal William the Silent on many memorable occasions, and +in fact the custom was so notorious that soldiers so enlisted were known +by different and peculiar nicknames in the different provinces and towns. + +That the central government had no right to meddle with religious +matters was almost too self-evident an axiom to prove. Indeed the +chief difficulty under which the Advocate laboured throughout this whole +process was the monstrous assumption by his judges of a political and +judicial system which never had any existence even in imagination. The +profound secrecy which enwrapped the proceedings from that day almost to +our own and an ignorant acquiescence of a considerable portion of the +public in accomplished facts offer the only explanation of a mystery +which must ever excite our wonder. If there were any impeachment at all, +it was an impeachment of the form of government itself. If language +could mean anything whatever, a mere perusal of the Articles of Union +proved that the prisoner had never violated that fundamental pact. How +could the general government prescribe an especial formulary for the +Reformed Church, and declare opposition to its decrees treasonable, when +it did not prohibit, but absolutely admitted and invited, provinces and +cities exclusively Catholic to enter the Union, guaranteeing to them +entire liberty of religion? + +Barneveld recalled the fact that when the stadholdership of Utrecht +thirty years before had been conferred on Prince Maurice the States of +that province had solemnly reserved for themselves the disposition over +religious matters in conformity with the Union, and that Maurice had +sworn to support that resolution. + +Five years later the Prince had himself assured a deputation from Brabant +that the States of each province were supreme in religious matters, no +interference the one with the other being justifiable or possible. In +1602 the States General in letters addressed to the States of the +obedient provinces under dominion of the Archdukes had invited them to +take up arms to help drive the Spaniards from the Provinces and to join +the Confederacy, assuring them that they should regulate the matter of +religion at their good pleasure, and that no one else should be allowed +to interfere therewith. + +The Advocate then went into an historical and critical disquisition, into +which we certainly have no need to follow him, rapidly examining the +whole subject of predestination and conditional and unconditional +damnation from the days of St. Augustine downward, showing a thorough +familiarity with a subject of theology which then made up so much of the +daily business of life, political and private, and lay at the bottom of +the terrible convulsion then existing in the Netherlands. We turn from +it with a shudder, reminding the reader only how persistently the +statesman then on his trial had advocated conciliation, moderation, and +kindness between brethren of the Reformed Church who were not able to +think alike on one of the subtlest and most mysterious problems that +casuistry has ever propounded. + +For fifty years, he said, he had been an enemy of all compulsion of the +human conscience. He had always opposed rigorous ecclesiastical decrees. +He had done his best to further, and did not deny having inspired, the +advice given in the famous letters from the King of Great Britain to the +States in 1613, that there should be mutual toleration and abstinence +from discussion of disputed doctrines, neither of them essential to +salvation. He thought that neither Calvin nor Beza would have opposed +freedom of opinion on those points. For himself he believed that the +salvation of mankind would be through God's unmerited grace and the +redemption of sins though the Saviour, and that the man who so held and +persevered to the end was predestined to eternal happiness, and that his +children dying before the age of reason were destined not to Hell but to +Heaven. He had thought fifty years long that the passion and sacrifice +of Christ the Saviour were more potent to salvation than God's wrath and +the sin of Adam and Eve to damnation. He had done his best practically +to avert personal bickerings among the clergy. He had been, so far as +lay in his power, as friendly to Remonstrants as to Contra-Remonstrants, +to Polyander and Festus Hommius as to Uytenbogaert and Episcopius. He +had almost finished a negotiation with Councillor Kromhout for the +peaceable delivery of the Cloister Church on the Thursday preceding the +Sunday on which it had been forcibly seized by the Contra-Remonstrants. + +When asked by one of his judges how he presumed to hope for toleration +between two parties, each of which abhorred the other's opinions, and +likened each other to Turks and devil-worshippers, he replied that he had +always detested and rebuked those mutual revilings by every means in his +power, and would have wished to put down such calumniators of either +persuasion by the civil authority, but the iniquity of the times and the +exasperation of men's humours had prevented him. + +Being perpetually goaded by one judge after another as to his +disrespectful conduct towards the King of Great Britain, and asked why +his Majesty had not as good right to give the advice of 1617 as the +recommendation of tolerance in 1613, he scrupulously abstained, as he had +done in all his letters, from saying a disrespectful word as to the +glaring inconsistency between the two communications, or to the hostility +manifested towards himself personally by the British ambassador. He had +always expressed the hope, he said, that the King would adhere to his +original position, but did not dispute his right to change his mind, nor +the good faith which had inspired his later letters. It had been his +object, if possible, to reconcile the two different systems recommended +by his Majesty into one harmonious whole. + +His whole aim had been to preserve the public peace as it was the duty of +every magistrate, especially in times of such excitement, to do. He +could never comprehend why the toleration of the Five Points should be a +danger to the Reformed religion. Rather, he thought, it would strengthen +the Church and attract many Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, and other +good patriots into its pale. He had always opposed the compulsory +acceptance by the people of the special opinions of scribes and doctors. +He did not consider, he said, the difference in doctrine on this disputed +point between the Contra-Remonstrants and Remonstrants as one-tenth the +value of the civil authority and its right to make laws and ordinances +regulating ecclesiastical affairs. + +He believed the great bulwark of the independence of the country to be +the Reformed Church, and his efforts had ever been to strengthen that +bulwark by preventing the unnecessary schism which might prove its ruin. +Many questions of property, too, were involved in the question--the +church buildings, lands and pastures belonging to the Counts of Holland +and their successors--the States having always exercised the right of +church patronage--'jus patronatus'--a privilege which, as well as +inherited or purchased advowsons, had been of late flagrantly interfered +with. + +He was asked if he had not said that it had never been the intention of +the States-General to carry on the war for this or that religion. + +He replied that he had told certain clergymen expressing to him their +opinion that the war had been waged solely for the furtherance of their +especial shade of belief, that in his view the war had been undertaken +for the conservation of the liberties and laws of the land, and of its +good people. Of that freedom the first and foremost point was the true +Christian religion and liberty of conscience and opinion. There must be +religion in the Republic, he had said, but that the war was carried on to +sustain the opinion of one doctor of divinity or another on--differential +points was something he had never heard of and could never believe. The +good citizens of the country had as much right to hold by Melancthon as +by Calvin or Beza. He knew that the first proclamations in regard to the +war declared it to be undertaken for freedom of conscience, and so to +his, own knowledge it had been always carried on. + +He was asked if he had not promised during the Truce negotiations so to +direct matters that the Catholics with time might obtain public exercise +of their religion. + +He replied that this was a notorious falsehood and calumny, adding that +it ill accorded with the proclamation against the Jesuits drawn up by +himself some years after the Truce. He furthermore stated that it was +chiefly by his direction that the discourse of President Jeannin--urging +on part of the French king that liberty of worship might be granted to +the Papists--was kept secret, copies of it not having been furnished even +to the commissioners of the Provinces. + +His indignant denial of this charge, especially taken in connection with +his repeated assertions during the trial, that among the most patriotic +Netherlanders during and since the war were many adherents of the ancient +church, seems marvellously in contradiction with his frequent and most +earnest pleas for liberty of conscience. But it did not appear +contradictory even to his judges nor to any contemporary. His position +had always been that the civil authority of each province was supreme in +all matters political or ecclesiastical. The States-General, all the +provinces uniting in the vote, had invited the Catholic provinces on more +than one occasion to join the Union, promising that there should be no +interference on the part of any states or individuals with the internal +affairs religious or otherwise of the provinces accepting the invitation. +But it would have been a gross contradiction of his own principle if he +had promised so to direct matters that the Catholics should have public +right of worship in Holland where he knew that the civil authority was +sure to refuse it, or in any of the other six provinces in whose internal +affairs he had no voice whatever. He was opposed to all tyranny over +conscience, he would have done his utmost to prevent inquisition into +opinion, violation of domicile, interference with private worship, +compulsory attendance in Protestant churches of those professing the +Roman creed. This was not attempted. No Catholic was persecuted on +account of his religion. Compared with the practice in other countries +this was a great step in advance. Religious tolerance lay on the road to +religious equality, a condition which had hardly been imagined then and +scarcely exists in Europe even to this day. But among the men in history +whose life and death contributed to the advancement of that blessing, it +would be vain to deny that Barneveld occupies a foremost place. + +Moreover, it should be remembered that religious equality then would have +been a most hazardous experiment. So long as Church and State were +blended, it was absolutely essential at that epoch for the preservation +of Protestantism to assign the predominance to the State. Should the +Catholics have obtained religious equality, the probable result would +before long have been religious inequality, supremacy of the Catholics +in the Church, and supremacy of the Church over the State. The fruits of +the forty years' war would have become dust and ashes. It would be mere +weak sentimentalism to doubt--after the bloody history which had just +closed and the awful tragedy, then reopening--that every spark of +religious liberty would have soon been trodden out in the Netherlands. +The general onslaught of the League with Ferdinand, Maximilian of +Bavaria, and Philip of Spain at its head against the distracted, +irresolute, and wavering line of Protestantism across the whole of Europe +was just preparing. Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single +heretic, was the war-cry of the Emperor. The King of Spain, as we have +just been reading in his most secret, ciphered despatches to the Archduke +at Brussels, was nursing sanguine hopes and weaving elaborate schemes for +recovering his dominion over the United Netherlands, and proposing to +send an army of Jesuits thither to break the way to the reconquest. +To play into his hands then, by granting public right of worship to the +Papists, would have been in Barneveld's opinion like giving up Julich and +other citadels in the debatable land to Spain just as the great war +between Catholicism and Protestantism was breaking out. There had been +enough of burning and burying alive in the Netherlands during the century +which had closed. It was not desirable to give a chance for their +renewal now. + +In regard to the Synod, Barneveld justified his course by a simple +reference to the 13th Article of the Union. Words could not more plainly +prohibit the interference by the States-General with the religious +affairs of any one of the Provinces than had been done by that celebrated +clause. In 1583 there had been an attempt made to amend that article by +insertion of a pledge to maintain the Evangelical, Reformed, religion +solely, but it was never carried out. He disdained to argue so self- +evident a truth, that a confederacy which had admitted and constantly +invited Catholic states to membership, under solemn pledge of +noninterference with their religious affairs, had no right to lay down +formulas for the Reformed Church throughout all the Netherlands. The +oath of stadholder and magistrates in Holland to maintain the Reformed +religion was framed before this unhappy controversy on predestination had +begun, and it was mere arrogant assumption on the part of the Contra- +Remonstrants to claim a monopoly of that religion, and to exclude the +Remonstrants from its folds. + +He had steadily done his utmost to assuage those dissensions while +maintaining the laws which he was sworn to support. He had advocated a +provincial synod to be amicably assisted by divines from neighbouring +countries. He had opposed a National Synod unless unanimously voted by +the Seven Provinces, because it would have been an open violation of the +fundamental law of the confederacy, of its whole spirit, and of liberty +of conscience. He admitted that he had himself drawn up a protest on the +part of three provinces (Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel) against the +decree for the National Synod as a breach of the Union, declaring it to +be therefore null and void and binding upon no man. He had dictated the +protest as oldest member present, while Grotius as the youngest had acted +as scribe. He would have supported the Synod if legally voted, but would +have preferred the convocation, under the authority of all the provinces, +of a general, not a national, synod, in which, besides clergy and laymen +from the Netherlands, deputations from all Protestant states and churches +should take part; a kind of Protestant oecumenical council. + +As to the enlistment, by the States of a province, of soldiers to keep +the peace and suppress tumults in its cities during times of political +and religious excitement, it was the most ordinary of occurrences. In +his experience of more than forty years he had never heard the right even +questioned. It was pure ignorance of law and history to find it a +novelty. + +To hire temporarily a sufficient number of professional soldiers, he +considered a more wholesome means of keeping the peace than to enlist one +portion of the citizens of a town against another portion, when party and +religious spirit was running high. His experience had taught him that +the mutual hatred of the inhabitants, thus inflamed, became more lasting +and mischievous than the resentment caused through suppression of +disorder by an armed and paid police of strangers. + +It was not only the right but the most solemn duty of the civil authority +to preserve the tranquillity, property, and lives of citizens committed +to their care. "I have said these fifty years," said Barneveld, "that it +is better to be governed by magistrates than mobs. I have always +maintained and still maintain that the most disastrous, shameful, and +ruinous condition into which this land can fall is that in which the +magistrates are overcome by the rabble of the towns and receive laws +from them. Nothing but perdition can follow from that." + +There had been good reason to believe that the French garrisons as +well as some of the train bands could not be thoroughly relied upon +in emergencies like those constantly breaking out, and there had been +advices of invasion by sympathizers from neighbouring countries. In many +great cities the civil authority had been trampled upon and mob rule had +prevailed. Certainly the recent example in the great commercial capital +of the country--where the house of a foremost citizen had been besieged, +stormed, and sacked, and a virtuous matron of the higher class hunted +like a wild beast through the streets by a rabble grossly ignorant of the +very nature of the religious quibble which had driven them mad, pelted +with stones, branded with vilest names, and only saved by accident from +assassination, while a church-going multitude looked calmly on--with +constantly recurring instances in other important cities were sufficient +reasons for the authorities to be watchful. + +He denied that he had initiated the proceedings at Utrecht in +conversation with Ledenberg or any one else, but he had not refused, he +said, his approval of the perfectly legal measures adopted for keeping +the peace there when submitted to him. He was himself a born citizen of +that province, and therefore especially interested in its welfare, and +there was an old and intimate friendship between Utrecht and Holland. It +would have been painful to him to see that splendid city in the control +of an ignorant mob, making use of religious problems, which they did not +comprehend, to plunder the property and take the lives of peaceful +citizens more comfortably housed than themselves. + +He had neither suggested nor controlled the proceedings at Utrecht. On +the contrary, at an interview with the Prince and Count William on the +13th July, and in the presence of nearly thirty members of the general +assembly, he had submitted a plan for cashiering the enlisted soldiery +and substituting for them other troops, native-born, who should be sworn +in the usual form to obey the laws of the Union. The deputation from +Holland to Utrecht, according to his personal knowledge, had received no +instructions personal or oral to authorize active steps by the troops of +the Holland quota, but to abstain from them and to request the Prince +that they should not be used against the will and commands of the States +of Utrecht, whom they were bound by oath to obey so long as they were in +garrison there. + +No man knew better than he whether the military oath which was called +new-fangled were a novelty or not, for he had himself, he said, drawn it +up thirty years before at command of the States-General by whom it was +then ordained. From that day to this he had never heard a pretence that +it justified anything not expressly sanctioned by the Articles of Union, +and neither the States of Holland nor those of Utrecht had made any +change in the oath. The States of Utrecht were sovereign within their +own territory, and in the time of peace neither the Prince of Orange +without their order nor the States-General had the right to command the +troops in their territory. The governor of a province was sworn to obey +the laws of the province and conform to the Articles of the General +Union. + +He was asked why he wrote the warning letter to Ledenberg, and why he was +so anxious that the letter should be burned; as if that were a deadly +offence. + +He said that he could not comprehend why it should be imputed to him +as a crime that he wished in such turbulent times to warn so important +a city as Utrecht, the capital of his native province, against tumults, +disorders, and sudden assaults such as had often happened to her in times +past. As for the postscript requesting that the letter might be put in +the fire, he said that not being a member of, the government of that +province he was simply unwilling to leave a record that "he had been too +curious in aliens republics, although that could hardly be considered a +grave offence." + +In regard to the charge that he had accused Prince Maurice of aspiring to +the sovereignty of the country, he had much to say. He had never brought +such accusation in public or private. He had reason to believe however-- +he had indeed convincing proofs--that many people, especially those +belonging to the Contra-Remonstrant party, cherished such schemes. He +had never sought to cast suspicion on the Prince himself on account of +those schemes. On the contrary, he had not even formally opposed them. +What he wished had always been that such projects should be discussed +formally, legally, and above board. After the lamentable murder of the +late Prince he had himself recommended to the authorities of some of the +cities that the transaction for bestowing the sovereignty of Holland upon +William, interrupted by his death, "should be completed in favour of +Prince Maurice in despite of the Spaniard." Recently he had requested +Grotius to look up the documents deposited in Rotterdam belonging to this +affair, in order that they might be consulted. + +He was asked whether according to Buzenval, the former French ambassador, +Prince Maurice had not declared he would rather fling himself from the +top of the Hague tower than accept the sovereignty. Barneveld replied +that the Prince according to the same authority had added "under the +conditions which had been imposed upon his father;" a clause which +considerably modified the self-denying statement. It was desirable +therefore to search the acts for the limitations annexed to the +sovereignty. + +Three years long there had been indications from various sources that a +party wished to change the form of government. He had not heard nor ever +intimated that the Prince suggested such intrigues. In anonymous +pamphlets and common street and tavern conversations the Contra- +Remonstrants were described by those of their own persuasion as +"Prince's Beggars" and the like. He had received from foreign countries +information worthy of attention, that it was the design of the Contra- +Remonstrants to raise the Prince to the sovereignty. He had therefore in +1616 brought the matter before the nobles and cities in a communication +setting forth to the best of his recollection that under these religious +disputes something else was intended. He had desired ripe conclusions on +the matter, such as should most conduce to the service of the country. +This had been in good faith both to the Prince and the Provinces, in +order that, should a change in the government be thought desirable, +proper and peaceful means might be employed to bring it about. He had +never had any other intention than to sound the inclinations of those +with whom he spoke, and he had many times since that period, by word of +mouth and in writing, so lately as the month of April last assured the +Prince that he had ever been his sincere and faithful servant and meant +to remain so to the end of his life, desiring therefore that he would +explain to him his wishes and intentions. + +Subsequently he had publicly proposed in full Assembly of Holland that +the States should ripely deliberate and roundly declare if they were +discontented with the form of government, and if so, what change they +would desire. He had assured their Mightinesses that they might rely +upon him to assist in carrying out their intentions whatever they might +be. He had inferred however from the Prince's intimations, when he had +broached the subject to him in 1617, that he was not inclined towards +these supposed projects, and had heard that opinion distinctly expressed +from the mouth of Count William. + +That the Contra-Remonstrants secretly entertained these schemes, +he had been advised from many quarters, at home and abroad. In the year +1618 he had received information to that effect from France. Certain +confidential counsellors of the Prince had been with him recently to +confer on the subject. He had told them that, if his Excellency chose +to speak to him in regard to it, would listen to his reasoning about it, +both as regarded the interests of the country and the Prince himself, +and then should desire him to propose and advocate it before the +Assembly, he would do so with earnestness, zeal, and affection. He had +desired however that, in case the attempt failed, the Prince would allow +him to be relieved from service and to leave the country. What he wished +from the bottom of his heart was that his Excellency would plainly +discover to him the exact nature of his sentiments in regard to the +business. + +He fully admitted receiving a secret letter from Ambassador Langerac, +apprising him that a man of quality in France had information of the +intention of the Contra-Remonstrants throughout the Provinces, should +they come into power, to raise Prince Maurice to the sovereignty. He +had communicated on the subject with Grotius and other deputies in order +that, if this should prove to be the general inclination, the affair +might be handled according to law, without confusion or disorder. This, +he said, would be serving both the country and the Prince most +judiciously. + +He was asked why he had not communicated directly with Maurice. He +replied that he had already seen how unwillingly the Prince heard him +allude to the subject, and that moreover there was another clause in +the letter of different meaning, and in his view worthy of grave +consideration by the States. + +No question was asked him as to this clause, but we have seen that it +referred to the communication by du Agean to Langerac of a scheme for +bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on the King of France. The +reader will also recollect that Barneveld had advised the Ambassador to +communicate the whole intelligence to the Prince himself. + +Barneveld proceeded to inform the judges that he had never said a word to +cast suspicion upon the Prince, but had been actuated solely by the +desire to find out the inclination of the States. The communications +which he had made on the subject were neither for discrediting the Prince +nor for counteracting the schemes for his advancement. On the contrary, +he had conferred with deputies from great cities like Dordtrecht, +Enkhuyzen, and Amsterdam, most devoted to the Contra-Remonstrant party, +and had told them that, if they chose to propose the subject themselves, +he would conduct himself to the best of his abilities in accordance with +the wishes of the Prince. + +It would seem almost impossible for a statesman placed in Barneveld's +position to bear himself with more perfect loyalty both to the country +and to the Stadholder. His duty was to maintain the constitution and +laws so long as they remained unchanged. Should it appear that the +States, which legally represented the country, found the constitution +defective, he was ready to aid in its amendment by fair public and legal +methods. + +If Maurice wished to propose himself openly as a candidate for the +sovereignty, which had a generation before been conferred upon his +father, Barneveld would not only acquiesce in the scheme, but propose it. + +Should it fail, he claimed the light to lay down all his offices and go +into exile. + +He had never said that the Prince was intriguing for, or even desired, +the sovereignty. That the project existed among the party most opposed +to himself, he had sufficient proof. To the leaders of that party +therefore he suggested that the subject should be publicly discussed, +guaranteeing freedom of debate and his loyal support so far as lay within +his power. + +This was his answer to the accusation that he had meanly, secretly, and +falsely circulated statements that the Prince was aspiring to the +sovereignty. + + [Great pains were taken, in the course of the interrogatories, to + elicit proof that the Advocate had concealed important diplomatic + information from the Prince. He was asked why, in his secret + instructions to Ambassador Langerac, he ordered him by an express + article to be very cautious about making communications to the + Prince. Searching questions were put in regard to these secret + instructions, which I have read in the Archives, and a copy of which + now lies before me. They are in the form of questions, some of them + almost puerile ones, addressed to Barneveld by the Ambassador then + just departing on his mission to France in 1614, with the answers + written in the margin by the Advocate. The following is all that + has reference to the Prince: + "Of what matters may I ordinarily write to his Excellency?" + Answer--"Of all great and important matters." + It was difficult to find much that was treasonable in that.] + +Among the heterogeneous articles of accusation he was asked why he had +given no attention to those who had so, frequently proposed the formation +of the West India Company. + +He replied that it had from old time been the opinion of the States of +Holland, and always his own, that special and private licenses for +traffic, navigation, and foreign commerce, were prejudicial to the +welfare of the land. He had always been most earnestly opposed to them, +detesting monopolies which interfered with that free trade and navigation +which should be common to all mankind. He had taken great pains however +in the years 1596 and 1597 to study the nature of the navigation and +trade to the East Indies in regard to the nations to be dealt with in +those regions, the nature of the wares bought and sold there, the +opposition to be encountered from the Spaniards and Portuguese against +the commerce of the Netherlanders, and the necessity of equipping vessels +both for traffic and defence, and had come to the conclusion that these +matters could best be directed by a general company. He explained in +detail the manner in which he had procured the blending of all the +isolated chambers into one great East India Corporation, the enormous +pains which it had cost him to bring it about, and the great commercial +and national success which had been the result. The Admiral of Aragon, +when a prisoner after the battle of Nieuwpoort, had told him, he said, +that the union of these petty corporations into one great whole had been +as disastrous a blow to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal as the Union +of the Provinces at Utrecht had been. In regard to the West India +Company, its sole object, so far as he could comprehend it, had been to +equip armed vessels, not for trade but to capture and plunder Spanish +merchantmen and silver fleets in the West Indies and South America. This +was an advantageous war measure which he had favoured while the war +lasted. It was in no sense a commercial scheme however, and when the +Truce had been made--the company not having come into existence--he +failed to comprehend how its formation could be profitable for the +Netherlanders. On the contrary it would expressly invite or irritate the +Spaniards into a resumption of the war, an object which in his humble +opinion was not at all desirable. + +Certainly these ideas were not especially reprehensible, but had they +been as shallow and despicable as they seem to us enlightened, it is +passing strange that they should have furnished matter for a criminal +prosecution. + +It was doubtless a disappointment for the promoters of the company, the +chief of whom was a bankrupt, to fail in obtaining their charter, but it +was scarcely high-treason to oppose it. There is no doubt however that +the disapprobation with which Barneveld regarded the West India Company, +the seat of which was at Amsterdam, was a leading cause of the deadly +hostility entertained for him by the great commercial metropolis. + +It was bad enough for the Advocate to oppose unconditional predestination +and the damnation of infants, but to frustrate a magnificent system of +privateering on the Spaniards in time of truce was an unpardonable crime. + +The patience with which the venerable statesman submitted to the taunts, +ignorant and insolent cross-questionings, and noisy interruptions of his +judges, was not less remarkable than the tenacity of memory which enabled +him thus day after day, alone, unaided by books, manuscripts, or friendly +counsel, to reconstruct the record of forty years, and to expound the +laws of the land by an array of authorities, instances, and illustrations +in a manner that would be deemed masterly by one who had all the +resources of libraries, documents, witnesses, and secretaries at command. + +Only when insidious questions were put tending to impute to him +corruption, venality, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy--for +they never once dared formally to accuse him of treason--did that almost +superhuman patience desert him. + +He was questioned as to certain payments made by him to a certain van der +Vecken in Spanish coin. He replied briefly at first that his money +transactions with that man of business extended over a period of twenty +or thirty years, and amounted to many hundred thousands of florins, +growing out of purchases and sales of lands, agricultural enterprises on +his estates, moneys derived from his professional or official business +and the like. It was impossible for him to remember the details of every +especial money payment that might have occurred between them. + +Then suddenly breaking forth into a storm of indignation; he could mark +from these questions, he said, that his enemies, not satisfied with +having wounded his heart with their falsehoods, vile forgeries, and +honour-robbing libels, were determined to break it. This he prayed that +God Almighty might avert and righteously judge between him and them. + +It was plain that among other things they were alluding to the stale and +senseless story of the sledge filled with baskets of coin sent by the +Spanish envoys on their departure from the Hague, on conclusion of the +Truce, to defray expenses incurred by them for board and lodging of +servants, forage of horses, and the like-which had accidentally stopped +at Barneveld's door and was forthwith sent on to John Spronssen, +superintendent of such affairs. Passing over this wanton bit of calumny +with disgust, he solemnly asserted that he had never at any period of his +life received one penny nor the value of one penny from the King of +Spain, the Archdukes, Spinola, or any other person connected with the +enemy, saving only the presents publicly and mutually conferred according +to invariable custom by the high contracting parties, upon the respective +negotiators at conclusion of the Treaty of Truce. Even these gifts +Barneveld had moved his colleagues not to accept, but proposed that they +should all be paid into the public treasury. He had been overruled, he +said, but that any dispassionate man of tolerable intelligence could +imagine him, whose whole life had been a perpetual offence to Spain, +to be in suspicious relations with that power seemed to him impossible. +The most intense party spirit, yea, envy itself, must confess that he had +been among the foremost to take up arms for his country's liberties, and +had through life never faltered in their defence. And once more in that +mean chamber, and before a row of personal enemies calling themselves +judges, he burst into an eloquent and most justifiable sketch of the +career of one whom there was none else to justify and so many to assail. + +From his youth, he said, he had made himself by his honourable and +patriotic deeds hopelessly irreconcilable with the Spaniards. He was one +of the advocates practising in the Supreme Court of Holland, who in the +very teeth of the Duke of Alva had proclaimed him a tyrant and had sworn +obedience to the Prince of Orange as the lawful governor of the land. He +was one of those who in the same year had promoted and attended private +gatherings for the advancement of the Reformed religion. He had helped +to levy, and had contributed to, funds for the national defence in the +early days of the revolt. These were things which led directly to the +Council of Blood and the gibbet. He had borne arms himself on various +bloody fields and had been perpetually a deputy to the rebel camps. He +had been the original mover of the Treaty of Union which was concluded +between the Provinces at Utrecht. He had been the first to propose and +to draw up the declaration of Netherland independence and the abjuration +of the King of Spain. He had been one of those who had drawn and passed +the Act establishing the late Prince of Orange as stadholder. Of the +sixty signers of these memorable declarations none were now living save +himself and two others. When the Prince had been assassinated, he had +done his best to secure for his son Maurice the sovereign position of +which murder had so suddenly deprived the father. He had been member of +the memorable embassies to France and England by which invaluable support +for the struggling Provinces had been obtained. + +And thus he rapidly sketched the history of the great war of independence +in which he had ever been conspicuously employed on the patriotic side. +When the late King of France at the close of the century had made peace +with Spain, he had been sent as special ambassador to that monarch, and +had prevailed on him, notwithstanding his treaty with the enemy, to +continue his secret alliance with the States and to promise them a large +subsidy, pledges which had been sacredly fulfilled. It was on that +occasion that Henry, who was his debtor for past services, professional, +official, and perfectly legitimate, had agreed, when his finances should +be in better condition, to discharge his obligations; over and above the +customary diplomatic present which he received publicly in common with +his colleague Admiral Nassau. This promise, fulfilled a dozen years +later, had been one of the senseless charges of corruption brought +against him. He had been one of the negotiators of the Truce in which +Spain had been compelled to treat with her revolted provinces as with +free states and her equals. He had promoted the union of the Protestant +princes and their alliance with France and the United States in +opposition to the designs of Spain and the League. He had organized and +directed the policy by which the forces of England, France, and +Protestant Germany had possessed themselves of the debateable land. He +had resisted every scheme by which it was hoped to force the States from +their hold of those important citadels. He had been one of the foremost +promoters of the East India Company, an organization which the Spaniards +confessed had been as damaging to them as the Union of the Provinces +itself had been. + +The idiotic and circumstantial statements, that he had conducted +Burgomaster van Berk through a secret staircase of his house into his +private study for the purpose of informing him that the only way for the +States to get out of the war was to submit themselves once more to their +old masters, so often forced upon him by the judges, he contradicted with +disdain and disgust. He had ever abhorred and dreaded, he said, the +House of Spain, Austria, and Burgundy. His life had passed in open +hostility to that house, as was known to all mankind. His mere personal +interests, apart from higher considerations, would make an approach to +the former sovereign impossible, for besides the deeds he had already +alluded to, he had committed at least twelve distinct and separate acts, +each one of which would be held high-treason by the House of Austria, and +he had learned from childhood that these are things which monarchs never +forget. The tales of van Berk were those of a personal enemy, falsehoods +scarcely worth contradicting. + +He was grossly and enormously aggrieved by the illegal constitution of +the commission. He had protested and continued to protest against it. +If that protest were unheeded, he claimed at least that those men should +be excluded from the board and the right to sit in judgment upon his +person and his deeds who had proved themselves by words and works to be +his capital enemies, of which fact he could produce irrefragable +evidence. He claimed that the Supreme Court of Holland, or the High +Council, or both together, should decide upon that point. He held as his +personal enemies, he said, all those who had declared that he, before or +since the Truce down to the day of his arrest, had held correspondence +with the Spaniards, the Archdukes, the Marquis Spinola, or any one on +that side, had received money, money value, or promises of money from +them, and in consequence had done or omitted to do anything whatever. +He denounced such tales as notorious, shameful, and villainous +falsehoods, the utterers and circulators of them as wilful liars, and +this he was ready to maintain in every appropriate way for the +vindication of the truth and his own honour. He declared solemnly before +God Almighty to the States-General and to the States of Holland that his +course in the religious matter had been solely directed to the +strengthening of the Reformed religion and to the political security of +the provinces and cities. He had simply desired that, in the awful and +mysterious matter of predestination, the consciences of many preachers +and many thousands of good citizens might be placed in tranquillity, with +moderate and Christian limitations against all excesses. + +From all these reasons, he said, the commissioners, the States-General, +the Prince, and every man in the land could clearly see, and were bound +to see, that he was the same man now that he was at the beginning of the +war, had ever been, and with God's help should ever remain. + +The proceedings were kept secret from the public and, as a matter of +course, there had been conflicting rumours from day to day as to the +probable result of these great state trials. In general however it was +thought that the prisoner would be acquitted of the graver charges, or +that at most he would be permanently displaced from all office and +declared incapable thenceforth to serve the State. The triumph of the +Contra-Remonstrants since the Stadholder had placed himself at the head +of them, and the complete metamorphosis of the city governments even in +the strongholds of the Arminian party seemed to render the permanent +political disgrace of the Advocate almost a matter of certainty. + +The first step that gave rise to a belief that he might be perhaps more +severely dealt with than had been anticipated was the proclamation by the +States-General of a public fast and humiliation for the 17th April. + +In this document it was announced that "Church and State--during several +years past having been brought into great danger of utter destruction +through certain persons in furtherance of their ambitious designs--had +been saved by the convocation of a National Synod; that a lawful sentence +was soon to be expected upon those who had been disturbing the +Commonwealth; that through this sentence general tranquillity would +probably be restored; and that men were now to thank God for this result, +and pray to Him that He would bring the wicked counsels and stratagems of +the enemy against these Provinces to naught." + +All the prisoners were asked if they too would like in their chambers +of bondage to participate in the solemnity, although the motive for the +fasting and prayer was not mentioned to them. Each of them in his +separate prison room, of course without communication together, selected +the 7th Psalm and sang it with his servant and door-keeper. + +From the date of this fast-day Barneveld looked upon the result of his +trial as likely to be serious. + +Many clergymen refused or objected to comply with the terms of this +declaration. Others conformed with it greedily, and preached lengthy +thanksgiving sermons, giving praise to God that, He had confounded the +devices of the ambitious and saved the country from the "blood bath" +which they had been preparing for it. + +The friends of Barneveld became alarmed at the sinister language of this +proclamation, in which for the first time allusions had been made to a +forthcoming sentence against the accused. + +Especially the staunch and indefatigable du Maurier at once addressed +himself again to the States-General. De Boississe had returned to +France, having found that the government of a country torn, weakened, and +rendered almost impotent by its own internecine factions, was not likely +to exert any very potent influence on the fate of the illustrious +prisoner. + +The States had given him to understand that they were wearied with his +perpetual appeals, intercessions, and sermons in behalf of mercy. They +made him feel in short that Lewis XIII. and Henry IV. were two entirely +different personages. + +Du Maurier however obtained a hearing before the Assembly on the 1st May, +where he made a powerful and manly speech in presence of the Prince, +urging that the prisoners ought to be discharged unless they could be +convicted of treason, and that the States ought to show as much deference +to his sovereign as they had always done to Elizabeth of England. He +made a personal appeal to Prince Maurice, urging upon him how much it +would redound to his glory if he should now in generous and princely +fashion step forward in behalf of those by whom he deemed himself to have +been personally offended. + +His speech fell upon ears hardened against such eloquence and produced no +effect. + +Meantime the family of Barneveld, not yet reduced to despair, chose to +take a less gloomy view of the proclamation. Relying on the innocence of +the great statesman, whose aims, in their firm belief, had ever been for +the welfare and glory of his fatherland, and in whose heart there had +never been kindled one spark of treason, they bravely expected his +triumphant release from his long and, as they deemed it, his iniquitous +imprisonment. + +On this very 1st of May, in accordance with ancient custom, a may-pole +was erected on the Voorhout before the mansion of the captive statesman, +and wreaths of spring flowers and garlands of evergreen decorated the +walls within which were such braised and bleeding hearts. These +demonstrations of a noble hypocrisy, if such it were, excited the wrath, +not the compassion, of the Stadholder, who thought that the aged matron +and her sons and daughters, who dwelt in that house of mourning, should +rather have sat in sackcloth with ashes on their heads than indulge in +these insolent marks of hope and joyful expectation. + +It is certain however that Count William Lewis, who, although most +staunch on the Contra-Remonstrant side, had a veneration for the Advocate +and desired warmly to save him, made a last and strenuous effort for that +purpose. + +It was believed then, and it seems almost certain, that, if the friends +of the Advocate had been willing to implore pardon for him, the sentence +would have been remitted or commuted. Their application would have been +successful, for through it his guilt would seem to be acknowledged. + +Count William sent for the Fiscal Duyck. He asked him if there were no +means of saving the life of a man who was so old and had done the country +so much service. After long deliberation, it was decided that Prince +Maurice should be approached on the subject. Duyck wished that the Count +himself would speak with his cousin, but was convinced by his reasoning +that it would be better that the Fiscal should do it. Duyck had a long +interview accordingly with Maurice, which was followed by a very secret +one between them both and Count William. The three were locked up +together, three hours long, in the Prince's private cabinet. It was +then decided that Count William should go, as if of his own accord, +to the Princess-Dowager Louise, and induce her to send for some one of +Barneveld's children and urge that the family should ask pardon for him. +She asked if this was done with the knowledge of the Prince of Orange, or +whether he would not take it amiss. The Count eluded the question, but +implored her to follow his advice. + +The result was an interview between the Princess and Madame de +Groeneveld, wife of the eldest son. That lady was besought to apply, +with the rest of the Advocate's children, for pardon to the Lords States, +but to act as if it were done of her own impulse, and to keep their +interview profoundly secret. + +Madame de Groeneveld took time to consult the other members of the family +and some friends. Soon afterwards she came again to the Princess, and +informed her that she had spoken with the other children, and that they +could not agree to the suggestion. "They would not move one step in it-- +no, not if it should cost him his head." + +The Princess reported the result of this interview to Count William, at +which both were so distressed that they determined to leave the Hague. + +There is something almost superhuman in the sternness of this +stoicism. Yet it lay in the proud and highly tempered character of +the Netherlanders. There can be no doubt that the Advocate would have +expressly dictated this proceeding if he had been consulted. It was +precisely the course adopted by himself. Death rather than life with a +false acknowledgment of guilt and therefore with disgrace. The loss of +his honour would have been an infinitely greater triumph to his enemies +than the loss of his head. + +There was no delay in drawing up the sentence. Previously to this +interview with the widow of William the Silent, the family of the +Advocate had presented to the judges three separate documents, rather in +the way of arguments than petitions, undertaking to prove by elaborate +reasoning and citations of precedents and texts of the civil law that the +proceedings against him were wholly illegal, and that he was innocent of +every crime. + +No notice had been taken of those appeals. + +Upon the questions and answers as already set forth the sentence soon +followed, and it may be as well that the reader should be aware, at this +point in the narrative, of the substance of that sentence so soon to be +pronounced. There had been no indictment, no specification of crime. +There had been no testimony or evidence. There had been no argument for +the prosecution or the defence. There had been no trial whatever. The +prisoner was convicted on a set of questions to which he had put in +satisfactory replies. He was sentenced on a preamble. The sentence was +a string of vague generalities, intolerably long, and as tangled as the +interrogatories. His proceedings during a long career had on the whole +tended to something called a "blood bath"--but the blood bath had never +occurred. + +With an effrontery which did not lack ingenuity, Barneveld's defence was +called by the commissioners his confession, and was formally registered +as such in the process and the sentence; while the fact that he had not +been stretched upon the rack during his trial, nor kept in chains for the +eight months of his imprisonment, were complacently mentioned as proofs +of exceptionable indulgence. + +"Whereas the prisoner John of Barneveld," said the sentence, "without +being put to the torture and without fetters of iron, has confessed . . +. . to having perturbed religion, greatly afflicted the Church of God, +and carried into practice exorbitant and pernicious maxims of State . . +. . inculcating by himself and accomplices that each province had the +right to regulate religious affairs within its own territory, and that +other provinces were not to concern themselves therewith"--therefore and +for many other reasons he merited punishment. + +He had instigated a protest by vote of three provinces against the +National Synod. He had despised the salutary advice of many princes and +notable personages. He had obtained from the King of Great Britain +certain letters furthering his own opinions, the drafts of which he had +himself suggested, and corrected and sent over to the States' ambassador +in London, and when written out, signed, and addressed by the King to the +States-General, had delivered them without stating how they had been +procured. + +Afterwards he had attempted to get other letters of a similar nature from +the King, and not succeeding had defamed his Majesty as being a cause of +the troubles in the Provinces. He had permitted unsound theologians to +be appointed to church offices, and had employed such functionaries in +political affairs as were most likely to be the instruments of his own +purposes. He had not prevented vigorous decrees from being enforced in +several places against those of the true religion. He had made them +odious by calling them Puritans, foreigners, and "Flanderizers," although +the United Provinces had solemnly pledged to each other their lives, +fortunes, and blood by various conventions, to some of which the prisoner +was himself a party, to maintain the Reformed, Evangelical, religion +only, and to, suffer no change in it to be made for evermore. + +In order to carry out his design and perturb the political state of the +Provinces he had drawn up and caused to be enacted the Sharp Resolution +of 4th August 1617. He had thus nullified the ordinary course of +justice. He had stimulated the magistrates to disobedience, and advised +them to strengthen themselves with freshly enlisted military companies. +He had suggested new-fangled oaths for the soldiers, authorizing them to +refuse obedience to the States-General and his Excellency. He had +especially stimulated the proceedings at Utrecht. When it was understood +that the Prince was to pass through Utrecht, the States of that province +not without the prisoner's knowledge had addressed a letter to his +Excellency, requesting him not to pass through their city. He had +written a letter to Ledenberg suggesting that good watch should be held +at the town gates and up and down the river Lek. He had desired that +Ledenberg having read that letter should burn it. He had interfered with +the cashiering of the mercenaries at Utrecht. He had said that such +cashiering without the consent of the States of that province was an act +of force which would justify resistance by force. + +Although those States had sent commissioners to concert measures +with the Prince for that purpose, he had advised them to conceal their +instructions until his own plan for the disbandment could be carried out. +At a secret meeting in the house of Tresel, clerk of the States-General, +between Grotius, Hoogerbeets, and other accomplices, it was decided that +this advice should be taken. Report accordingly was made to the +prisoner. He had advised them to continue in their opposition to the +National Synod. + +He had sought to calumniate and blacken his Excellency by saying +that he aspired to the sovereignty of the Provinces. He had received +intelligence on that subject from abroad in ciphered letters. + +He had of his own accord rejected a certain proposed, notable alliance +of the utmost importance to this Republic. + + [This refers, I think without doubt, to the conversation between + King James and Caron at the end of the year 1815.] + + +He had received from foreign potentates various large sums of money and +other presents. + +All "these proceedings tended to put the city of Utrecht into a blood- +bath, and likewise to bring the whole country, and the person of his +Excellency into the uttermost danger." + +This is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and +exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages. + +It will have been perceived by our analysis of Barneveld's answers to the +commissioners that all the graver charges which he was now said to have +confessed had been indignantly denied by him or triumphantly justified. + +It will also be observed that he was condemned for no categorical crime-- +lese-majesty, treason, or rebellion. The commissioners never ventured to +assert that the States-General were sovereign, or that the central +government had a right to prescribe a religious formulary for all the +United Provinces. They never dared to say that the prisoner had been +in communication with the enemy or had received bribes from him. + +Of insinuation and implication there was much, of assertion very little, +of demonstration nothing whatever. + +But supposing that all the charges had been admitted or proved, what +course would naturally be taken in consequence? How was a statesman who +adhered to the political, constitutional, and religious opinions on which +he had acted, with the general acquiescence, during a career of more than +forty years, but which were said to be no longer in accordance with +public opinion, to be dealt with? Would the commissioners request him +to retire honourably from the high functions which he had over and over +again offered to resign? Would they consider that, having fairly +impeached and found him guilty of disturbing the public peace by +continuing to act on his well-known legal theories, they might deprive +him summarily of power and declare him incapable of holding office again? + +The conclusion of the commissioners was somewhat more severe than either +of these measures. Their long rambling preamble ended with these +decisive words: + +"Therefore the judges, in name of the Lords States-General, condemn the +prisoner to be taken to the Binnenhof, there to be executed with the +sword that death may follow, and they declare all his property +confiscated." + +The execution was to take place so soon as the sentence had been read to +the prisoner. + +After the 1st of May Barneveld had not appeared before his judges. He +had been examined in all about sixty times. + +In the beginning of May his servant became impatient. "You must not be +impatient," said his master. "The time seems much longer because we get +no news now from the outside. But the end will soon come. This delay +cannot last for ever." + +Intimation reached him on Saturday the 11th May that the sentence was +ready and would soon be pronounced. + +"It is a bitter folk," said Barneveld as he went to bed. "I have +nothing good to expect of them." Next day was occupied in sewing up and +concealing his papers, including a long account of his examination, with +the questions and answers, in his Spanish arm-chair. Next day van der +Meulen said to the servant, "I will bet you a hundred florins that you'll +not be here next Thursday." + +The faithful John was delighted, not dreaming of the impending result. + +It was Sunday afternoon, 12th May, and about half past five o'clock. +Barneveld sat in his prison chamber, occupied as usual in writing, +reviewing the history of the past, and doing his best to reduce into +something like order the rambling and miscellaneous interrogatories, out +of which his trial had been concocted, while the points dwelt in his +memory, and to draw up a concluding argument in his own defence. Work +which according to any equitable, reasonable, or even decent procedure +should have been entrusted to the first lawyers of the country--preparing +the case upon the law and the facts with the documents before them, with +the power of cross-questioning witnesses and sifting evidence, and +enlightened by constant conferences with the illustrious prisoner +himself--came entirely upon his own shoulders, enfeebled as he was +by age, physical illness, and by the exhaustion of along imprisonment. +Without books, notes of evidence, or even copies of the charges of which +he stood accused, he was obliged to draw up his counter-arguments against +the impeachment and then by aid of a faithful valet to conceal his +manuscript behind the tapestry of the chamber, or cause them to be sewed +up in the lining of his easy-chair, lest they should be taken from him by +order of the judges who sat in the chamber below. + +While he was thus occupied in preparations for his next encounter with +the tribunal, the door opened, and three gentlemen entered. Two were the +prosecuting officers of the government, Fiscal Sylla and Fiscal van +Leeuwen. The other was the provost-marshal, Carel de Nijs. The servant +was directed to leave the room. + +Barneveld had stepped into his dressing-room on hearing footsteps, but +came out again with his long furred gown about him as the three entered. +He greeted them courteously and remained standing, with his hands placed +on the back of his chair and with one knee resting carelessly against the +arm of it. Van Leeuwen asked him if he would not rather be seated, as +they brought a communication from the judges. He answered in the +negative. Von Leeuwen then informed him that he was summoned to appear +before the judges the next morning to hear his sentence of death. + +"The sentence of death!" he exclaimed, without in the least changing his +position; "the sentence of death! the sentence of death!" saying the +words over thrice, with an air of astonishment rather than of horror. +"I never expected that! I thought they were going to hear my defence +again. I had intended to make some change in my previous statements, +having set some things down when beside myself with choler." + +He then made reference to his long services. Van Leeuwen expressed +himself as well acquainted with them. "He was sorry," he said, "that his +lordship took this message ill of him." + +"I do not take it ill of you," said Barneveld, "but let them," meaning +the judges, "see how they will answer it before God. Are they thus to +deal with a true patriot? Let me have pen, ink, and paper, that for the +last time I may write farewell to my wife." + +"I will go ask permission of the judges," said van Leenwen, "and I cannot +think that my lord's request will be refused." + +While van Leeuwen was absent, the Advocate exclaimed, looking at the +other legal officer: + +"Oh, Sylla, Sylla, if your father could only have seen to what uses they +would put you!" + +Sylla was silent. + +Permission to write the letter was soon received from de Voogt, president +of the commission. Pen, ink, and paper were brought, and the prisoner +calmly sat down to write, without the slightest trace of discomposure +upon his countenance or in any of his movements. + +While he was writing, Sylla said with some authority, "Beware, my lord, +what you write, lest you put down something which may furnish cause for +not delivering the letter." + +Barneveld paused in his writing, took the glasses from his eyes, and +looked Sylla in the face. + +"Well, Sylla," he said very calmly, "will you in these my last moments +lay down the law to me as to what I shall write to my wife?" + +He then added with a half-smile, "Well, what is expected of me?" + +"We have no commission whatever to lay down the law," said van Leeuwen. +"Your worship will write whatever you like." + +While he was writing, Anthony Walaeus came in, a preacher and professor +of Middelburg, a deputy to the Synod of Dordtrecht, a learned and amiable +man, sent by the States-General to minister to the prisoner on this +supreme occasion; and not unworthy to be thus selected. + +The Advocate, not knowing him, asked him why he came. + +"I am not here without commission," said the clergyman. "I come to +console my lord in his tribulation." + +"I am a man," said Barneveld; "have come to my present age, and I know +how to console myself. I must write, and have now other things to do." + +The preacher said that he would withdraw and return when his worship was +at leisure. + +"Do as you like," said the Advocate, calmly going on with his writing. + +When the letter was finished, it was sent to the judges for their +inspection, by whom it was at once forwarded to the family mansion in the +Voorhout, hardly a stone's throw from the prison chamber. + +Thus it ran: + +"Very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, +I greet you altogether most affectionately. I receive at this moment the +very heavy and sorrowful tidings that I, an old man, for all my services +done well and faithfully to the Fatherland for so many years (after +having performed all respectful and friendly offices to his Excellency +the Prince with upright affection so far as my official duty and vocation +would permit, shown friendship to many people of all sorts, and wittingly +injured no man), must prepare myself to die to-morrow. + +"I console myself in God the Lord, who knows all hearts, and who will +judge all men. I beg you all together to do the same. I have steadily +and faithfully served My Lords the States of Holland and their nobles and +cities. To the States of Utrecht as sovereigns of my own Fatherland I +have imparted at their request upright and faithful counsel, in order to +save them from tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed with which +they had so long been threatened. I had the same views for the cities of +Holland in order that every one might be protected and no one injured. + +"Live together in love and peace. Pray for me to Almighty God, who will +graciously hold us all in His holy keeping. + +"From my chamber of sorrow, the 12th May 1619. + +"Your very dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, + + "JOHN OF BARNEVELD." + +It was thought strange that the judges should permit so simple and clear +a statement, an argument in itself, to be forwarded. The theory of his +condemnation was to rest before the public on his confessions of guilt, +and here in the instant of learning the nature of the sentence in a few +hours to be pronounced upon him he had in a few telling periods declared +his entire innocence. Nevertheless the letter had been sent at once to +its address. + +So soon as this sad business had been disposed of, Anthony Walaeus +returned. The Advocate apologized to the preacher for his somewhat +abrupt greeting on his first appearance. He was much occupied and did +not know him, he said, although he had often heard of him. He begged +him, as well as the provost-marshal, to join him at supper, which was +soon brought. + +Barneveld ate with his usual appetite, conversed cheerfully on various +topics, and pledged the health of each of his guests in a glass of beer. +Contrary to his wont he drank at that repast no wine. After supper he +went out into the little ante-chamber and called his servant, asking him +how he had been faring. Now John Franken had just heard with grief +unspeakable the melancholy news of his master's condemnation from two +soldiers of the guard, who had been sent by the judges to keep additional +watch over the prisoner. He was however as great a stoic as his master, +and with no outward and superfluous manifestations of woe had simply +implored the captain-at-arms, van der Meulen, to intercede with the +judges that he might be allowed to stay with his lord to the last. +Meantime he had been expressly informed that he was to say nothing to the +Advocate in secret, and that his master was not to speak to him in a low +tone nor whisper in his ear. + +When the Advocate came out into the ante-chamber and looking over his +shoulder saw the two soldiers he at once lowered his voice. + +"Hush-speak low," he whispered; "this is too cruel." John then informed +him of van der Meulen's orders, and that the soldiers had also been +instructed to look to it sharply that no word was exchanged between +master and man except in a loud voice. + +"Is it possible," said the Advocate, "that so close an inspection is held +over me in these last hours? Can I not speak a word or two in freedom? +This is a needless mark of disrespect." + +The soldiers begged him not to take their conduct amiss as they were +obliged strictly to obey orders. + +He returned to his chamber, sat down in his chair, and begged Walaeus to +go on his behalf to Prince Maurice. + +"Tell his Excellency," said he, "that I have always served him with +upright affection so far as my office, duties, and principles permitted. +If I, in the discharge of my oath and official functions, have ever done +anything contrary to his views, I hope that he will forgive it, and that +he will hold my children in his gracious favour." + +It was then ten o'clock. The preacher went downstairs and crossed the +courtyard to the Stadholder's apartments, where he at once gained +admittance. + +Maurice heard the message with tears in his eyes, assuring Walaeus that +he felt deeply for the Advocate's misfortunes. He had always had much +affection for him, he said, and had often warned him against his mistaken +courses. Two things, however, had always excited his indignation. One +was that Barneveld had accused him of aspiring to sovereignty. The other +that he had placed him in such danger at Utrecht. Yet he forgave him +all. As regarded his sons, so long as they behaved themselves well they +might rely on his favour. + +As Walaeus was about to leave the apartment, the Prince called him back. + +"Did he say anything of a pardon?" he asked, with some eagerness. + +"My Lord," answered the clergyman, "I cannot with truth say that I +understood him to make any allusion to it." + +Walaeus returned immediately to the prison chamber and made his report of +the interview. He was unwilling however to state the particulars of the +offence which Maurice declared himself to have taken at the acts of the +Advocate. + +But as the prisoner insisted upon knowing, the clergyman repeated the +whole conversation. + +"His Excellency has been deceived in regard to the Utrecht business," +said Barneveld, "especially as to one point. But it is true that I had +fear and apprehension that he aspired to the sovereignty or to more +authority in the country. Ever since the year 1600 I have felt this fear +and have tried that these apprehensions might be rightly understood." + +While Walaeus had been absent, the Reverend Jean la Motte (or Lamotius) +and another clergyman of the Hague had come to the prisoner's apartment. +La Motte could not look upon the Advocate's face without weeping, but the +others were more collected. Conversation now ensued among the four; the +preachers wishing to turn the doomed statesman's thought to the +consolations of religion. + +But it was characteristic of the old lawyer's frame of mind that even now +he looked at the tragical position in which he found himself from a +constitutional and controversial point of view. He was perfectly calm +and undaunted at the awful fate so suddenly and unexpectedly opened +before his eyes, but he was indignant at what he esteemed the ignorance, +injustice, and stupidity of the sentence to be pronounced against him. + +"I am ready enough to die," he said to the three clergymen, "but I cannot +comprehend why I am to die. I have done nothing except in obedience to +the laws and privileges of the land and according to my oath, honour, and +conscience." + +"These judges," he continued, "come in a time when other maxims prevail +in the State than those of my day. They have no right therefore to sit +in judgment upon me." + +The clergymen replied that the twenty-four judges who had tried the case +were no children and were conscientious men; that it was no small thing +to condemn a man, and that they would have to answer it before the +Supreme Judge of all. + +"I console myself," he answered, "in the Lord my God, who knows all +hearts and shall judge all men. God is just. + +"They have not dealt with me," he continued, "as according to law and +justice they were bound to deal. They have taken away from me my own +sovereign lords and masters and deposed them. To them alone I was +responsible. In their place they have put many of my enemies who were +never before in the government, and almost all of whom are young men who +have not seen much or read much. I have seen and read much, and know +that from such examples no good can follow. After my death they will +learn for the first time what governing means." + +"The twenty-four judges are nearly all of them my enemies. What they +have reproached me with, I have been obliged to hear. I have appealed +against these judges, but it has been of no avail. They have examined me +in piecemeal, not in statesmanlike fashion. The proceedings against +me have been much too hard. I have frequently requested to see the notes +of my examination as it proceeded, and to confer upon it with aid and +counsel of friends, as would be the case in all lands governed by law. +The request was refused. During this long and wearisome affliction and +misery I have not once been allowed to speak to my wife and children. +These are indecent proceedings against a man seventy-two years of age, +who has served his country faithfully for three-and-forty years. I bore +arms with the volunteers at my own charges at the siege of Haarlem and +barely escaped with life." + +It was not unnatural that the aged statesman's thoughts should revert in +this supreme moment to the heroic scenes in which he had been an actor +almost a half-century before. He could not but think with bitterness of +those long past but never forgotten days when he, with other patriotic +youths, had faced the terrible legions of Alva in defence of the +Fatherland, at a time when the men who were now dooming him to a +traitor's death were unborn, and who, but for his labours, courage, +wisdom, and sacrifices, might have never had a Fatherland to serve, +or a judgment-seat on which to pronounce his condemnation. + +Not in a spirit of fretfulness, but with disdainful calm, he criticised +and censured the proceedings against himself as a violation of the laws +of the land and of the first principles of justice, discussing them as +lucidly and steadily as if they had been against a third person. + +The preachers listened, but had nothing to say. They knew not of such +matters, they said, and had no instructions to speak of them. They had +been sent to call him to repentance for his open and hidden sins and to +offer the consolations of religion. + +"I know that very well," he said, "but I too have something to say +notwithstanding." The conversation then turned upon religious topics, +and the preachers spoke of predestination. + +"I have never been able to believe in the matter of high predestination," +said the Advocate. "I have left it in the hands of God the Lord. I hold +that a good Christian man must believe that he through God's grace and by +the expiation of his sin through our Redeemer Jesus Christ is predestined +to be saved, and that this belief in his salvation, founded alone on +God's grace and the merits of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, comes to him +through the same grace of God. And if he falls into great sins, his firm +hope and confidence must be that the Lord God will not allow him to +continue in them, but that, through prayer for grace and repentance, he +will be converted from evil and remain in the faith to the end of his +life." + +These feelings, he said, he had expressed fifty-two years before to three +eminent professors of theology in whom he confided, and they had assured +him that he might tranquilly continue in such belief without examining +further. "And this has always been my creed," he said. + +The preachers replied that faith is a gift of God and not given to all +men, that it must be given out of heaven to a man before he could be +saved. Hereupon they began to dispute, and the Advocate spoke so +earnestly and well that the clergymen were astonished and sat for +a time listening to him in silence. + +He asked afterwards about the Synod, and was informed that its decrees +had not yet been promulgated, but that the Remonstrants had been +condemned. + +"It is a pity," said he. "One is trying to act on the old Papal system, +but it will never do. Things have gone too far. As to the Synod, if My +Lords the States of Holland had been heeded there would have been first a +provincial synod and then a national one."--"But," he added, looking the +preachers in the face, "had you been more gentle with each other, matters +would not have taken so high a turn. But you have been too fierce one +against the other, too full of bitter party spirit." + +They replied that it was impossible for them to act against their +conscience and the supreme authority. And then they asked him if there +was nothing that troubled him in, his conscience in the matters for which +he must die; nothing for which he repented and sorrowed, and for which he +would call upon God for mercy. + +"This I know well," he said, "that I have never willingly done wrong to +any man. People have been ransacking my letters to Caron--confidential +ones written several years ago to an old friend when I was troubled and +seeking for counsel and consolation. It is hard that matter of +impeachment against me to-day should be sought for thus." + +And then he fell into political discourse again on the subject of the +Waartgelders and the State rights, and the villainous pasquils and libels +that had circulated so long through the country. + +"I have sometimes spoken hastily, I confess," he said; "but that was +when I was stung by the daily swarm of infamous and loathsome pamphlets, +especially those directed against my sovereign masters the States of +Holland. That I could not bear. Old men cannot well brush such things +aside. All that was directly aimed at me in particular I endeavoured to +overcome with such patience as I could muster. The disunion and mutual +enmity in the country have wounded me to the heart. I have made use +of all means in my power to accommodate matters, to effect with all +gentleness a mutual reconciliation. I have always felt a fear lest +the enemy should make use of our internal dissensions to strike a blow +against us. I can say with perfect truth that ever since the year '77 +I have been as resolutely and unchangeably opposed to the Spaniards and +their adherents, and their pretensions over these Provinces, as any man +in the world, no one excepted, and as ready to sacrifice property and +shed my blood in defence of the Fatherland. I have been so devoted to +the service of the country that I have not been able to take the +necessary care of my own private affairs." + +So spoke the great statesman in the seclusion of his prison, in the +presence of those clergymen whom he respected, at a supreme moment, when, +if ever, a man might be expected to tell the truth. And his whole life +which belonged to history, and had been passed on the world's stage +before the eyes of two generations of spectators, was a demonstration of +the truth of his words. + +But Burgomaster van Berk knew better. Had he not informed the twenty- +four commissioners that, twelve years before, the Advocate wished to +subject the country to Spain, and that Spinola had drawn a bill of +exchange for 100,000 ducats as a compensation for his efforts? + +It was eleven o'clock. Barneveld requested one of the brethren to say an +evening prayer. This was done by La Motte, and they were then requested +to return by three or four o'clock next morning. They had been directed, +they said, to remain with him all night. "That is unnecessary," said the +Advocate, and they retired. + +His servant then helped his master to undress, and he went to bed as +usual. Taking off his signet-ring, he gave it to John Franken. + +"For my eldest son," he said. + +The valet sat down at the head of his bed in order that his master might +speak to him before he slept. But the soldiers ordered him away and +compelled him to sit in a distant part of the room. + +An hour after midnight, the Advocate having been unable to lose himself, +his servant observed that Isaac, one of the soldiers, was fast asleep. +He begged the other, Tilman Schenk by name, to permit him some private +words with his master. He had probably last messages, he thought, to +send to his wife and children, and the eldest son, M. de Groeneveld, +would no doubt reward him well for it. But the soldier was obstinate in +obedience to the orders of the judges. + +Barneveld, finding it impossible to sleep, asked his servant to read to +him from the Prayer-book. The soldier called in a clergyman however, +another one named Hugo Bayerus, who had been sent to the prison, and who +now read to him the Consolations of the Sick. As he read, he made +exhortations and expositions, which led to animated discussion, in which +the Advocate expressed himself with so much fervour and eloquence that +all present were astonished, and the preacher sat mute a half-hour long +at the bed-side. + +"Had there been ten clergymen," said the simple-hearted sentry to the +valet, "your master would have enough to say to all of them." + +Barneveld asked where the place had been prepared in which he was to die. + +"In front of the great hall, as I understand," said Bayerus, "but I don't +know the localities well, having lived here but little." + +"Have you heard whether my Grotius is to die, and Hoogerbeets also?" he +asked? + +I have heard nothing to that effect," replied the clergyman. + +"I should most deeply grieve for those two gentlemen," said Barneveld, +"were that the case. They may yet live to do the land great service. +That great rising light, de Groot, is still young, but a very wise and +learned gentleman, devoted to his Fatherland with all zeal, heart, and +soul, and ready to stand up for her privileges, laws, and rights. As for +me, I am an old and worn-out man. I can do no more. I have already done +more than I was really able to do. I have worked so zealously in public +matters that I have neglected my private business. I had expressly +ordered my house at Loosduinen" [a villa by the seaside] "to be got +ready, that I might establish myself there and put my affairs in order. +I have repeatedly asked the States of Holland for my discharge, but could +never obtain it. It seems that the Almighty had otherwise disposed of +me." + +He then said he would try once more if he could sleep. The clergyman and +the servant withdrew for an hour, but his attempt was unsuccessful. +After an hour he called for his French Psalm Book and read in it for +some time. Sometime after two o'clock the clergymen came in again and +conversed with him. They asked him if he had slept, if he hoped to meet +Christ, and if there was anything that troubled his conscience. + +"I have not slept, but am perfectly tranquil," he replied. "I am ready +to die, but cannot comprehend why I must die. I wish from my heart that, +through my death and my blood, all disunion and discord in this land may +cease." + +He bade them carry his last greetings to his fellow prisoners. "Say +farewell for me to my good Grotius," said he, "and tell him that I must +die." + +The clergymen then left him, intending to return between five and six +o'clock. + +He remained quiet for a little while and then ordered his valet to cut +open the front of his shirt. When this was done, he said, "John, are you +to stay by me to the last?" + +"Yes," he replied, "if the judges permit it." + +"Remind me to send one of the clergymen to the judges with the request," +said his master. + +The faithful John, than whom no servant or friend could be more devoted, +seized the occasion, with the thrift and stoicism of a true Hollander, to +suggest that his lord might at the same time make some testamentary +disposition in his favour. + +"Tell my wife and children," said the Advocate, "that they must console +each other in mutual love and union. Say that through God's grace I am +perfectly at ease, and hope that they will be equally tranquil. Tell my +children that I trust they will be loving and friendly to their mother +during the short time she has yet to live. Say that I wish to recommend +you to them that they may help you to a good situation either with +themselves or with others. Tell them that this was my last request." + +He bade him further to communicate to the family the messages sent that +night through Walaeus by the Stadholder. + +The valet begged his master to repeat these instructions in presence of +the clergyman, or to request one of them to convey them himself to the +family. He promised to do so. + +"As long as I live," said the grateful servant, "I shall remember your +lordship in my prayers." + +"No, John," said the Advocate, "that is Popish. When I am dead, it is +all over with prayers. Pray for me while I still live. Now is the time +to pray. When one is dead, one should no longer be prayed for." + +La Motte came in. Barneveld repeated his last wishes exactly as he +desired them to be communicated to his wife and children. The preacher +made no response. "Will you take the message?" asked the prisoner. La +Motte nodded, but did not speak, nor did he subsequently fulfil the +request. + +Before five o'clock the servant heard the bell ring in the apartment of +the judges directly below the prison chamber, and told his master he had +understood that they were to assemble at five o'clock. + +"I may as well get up then," said the Advocate; "they mean to begin +early, I suppose. Give me my doublet and but one pair of stockings." + +He was accustomed to wear two or three pair at a time. + +He took off his underwaistcoat, saying that the silver bog which was in +one of the pockets was to be taken to his wife, and that the servant +should keep the loose money there for himself. Then he found an +opportunity to whisper to him, "Take good care of the papers which are in +the apartment." He meant the elaborate writings which he had prepared +during his imprisonment and concealed in the tapestry and within the +linings of the chair. + +As his valet handed him the combs and brushes, he said with a smile, +"John, this is for the last time." + +When he was dressed, he tried, in rehearsal of the approaching scene, to +pull over his eyes the silk skull-cap which he usually wore under his +hat. Finding it too tight he told the valet to put the nightcap in his +pocket and give it him when he should call for it. He then swallowed a +half-glass of wine with a strengthening cordial in it, which he was wont +to take. + +The clergymen then re-entered, and asked if he had been able to sleep. +He answered no, but that he had been much consoled by many noble things +which he had been reading in the French Psalm Book. The clergymen said +that they had been thinking much of the beautiful confession of faith +which he had made to them that evening. They rejoiced at it, they said, +on his account, and had never thought it of him. He said that such had +always been his creed. + +At his request Walaeus now offered a morning prayer Barneveld fell on his +knees and prayed inwardly without uttering a sound. La Motte asked when +he had concluded, "Did my Lord say Amen?"--"Yes, Lamotius," he replied; +"Amen."--"Has either of the brethren," he added, "prepared a prayer to be +offered outside there?" + +La Motte informed him that this duty had been confided to him. Some +passages from Isaiah were now read aloud, and soon afterwards Walaeus +was sent for to speak with the judges. He came back and said to the +prisoner, "Has my Lord any desire to speak with his wife or children, or +any of his friends?" It was then six o'clock, and Barneveld replied: + +"No, the time is drawing near. It would excite a new emotion." Walaeus +went back to the judges with this answer, who thereupon made this +official report: + +"The husband and father of the petitioners, being asked if he desired +that any of the petitioners should come to him, declared that he did not +approve of it, saying that it would cause too great an emotion for +himself as well as for them. This is to serve as an answer to the +petitioners." + +Now the Advocate knew nothing of the petition. Up to the last moment his +family had been sanguine as to his ultimate acquittal and release. They +relied on a promise which they had received or imagined that they had +received from the Stadholder that no harm should come to the prisoner in +consequence of the arrest made of his person in the Prince's apartments +on the 8th of August. They had opened this tragical month of May with +flagstaffs and flower garlands, and were making daily preparations to +receive back the revered statesman in triumph. + +The letter written by him from his "chamber of sorrow," late in the +evening of 12th May, had at last dispelled every illusion. It would be +idle to attempt to paint the grief and consternation into which the +household in the Voorhout was plunged, from the venerable dame at its +head, surrounded by her sons and daughters and children's children, down +to the humblest servant in their employment. For all revered and loved +the austere statesman, but simple and benignant father and master. + +No heed had been taken of the three elaborate and argumentative petitions +which, prepared by learned counsel in name of the relatives, had been +addressed to the judges. They had not been answered because they were +difficult to answer, and because it was not intended that the accused +should have the benefit of counsel. + +An urgent and last appeal was now written late at night, and signed by +each member of the family, to his Excellency the Prince and the judge +commissioners, to this effect: + +"The afflicted wife and children of M. van Barneveld humbly show that +having heard the sorrowful tidings of his coming execution, they humbly +beg that it may be granted them to see and speak to him for the last +time." + +The two sons delivered this petition at four o'clock in the morning into +the hands of de Voogd, one of the judges. It was duly laid before the +commission, but the prisoner was never informed, when declining a last +interview with his family, how urgently they had themselves solicited the +boon. + +Louise de Coligny, on hearing late at night the awful news, had been +struck with grief and horror. She endeavoured, late as it was, to do +something to avert the doom of one she so much revered, the man on whom +her illustrious husband had leaned his life long as on a staff of iron. +She besought an interview of the Stadholder, but it was refused. The +wife of William the Silent had no influence at that dire moment with her +stepson. She was informed at first that Maurice was asleep, and at four +in the morning that all intervention was useless. + +The faithful and energetic du Maurier, who had already exhausted himself +in efforts to save the life of the great prisoner, now made a last +appeal. He, too, heard at four o'clock in the morning of the 13th that +sentence of death was to be pronounced. Before five o'clock he made +urgent application to be heard before the Assembly of the States-General +as ambassador of a friendly sovereign who took the deepest interest in +the welfare of the Republic and the fate of its illustrious statesman. +The appeal was refused. As a last resource he drew up an earnest and +eloquent letter to the States-General, urging clemency in the name of his +king. It was of no avail. The letter may still be seen in the Royal +Archives at the Hague, drawn up entirely in du Maurier's clear and +beautiful handwriting. Although possibly a, first draft, written as it +was under such a mortal pressure for time, its pages have not one erasure +or correction. + +It was seven o'clock. Barneveld having observed by the preacher (La +Motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which +he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges +to be allowed to write one more letter. Captain van der Meulen came back +with the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for +their revision. + +The letter has been often published. + +"Must they see this too? Why, it is only a line in favour of John," said +the prisoner, sitting quietly down to write this letter: + +"Very dear wife and children, it is going to an end with me. I am, +through the grace of God, very tranquil. I hope that you are equally so, +and that you may by mutual love, union, and peace help each other to +overcome all things, which I pray to the Omnipotent as my last request. +John Franken has served me faithfully for many years and throughout all +these my afflictions, and is to remain with me to the end. He deserves +to be recommended to you and to be furthered to good employments with you +or with others. I request you herewith to see to this. + +"I have requested his Princely Excellency to hold my sons and children in +his favour, to which he has answered that so long as you conduct +yourselves well this shall be the case. I recommend this to you in the +best form and give you all into God's holy keeping. Kiss each other and +all my grandchildren, for the last time in my name, and fare you well. +Out of the chamber of sorrow, 13th May 1619. Your dear husband and +father, + JOHN OF BARNEVELD. + +"P.S. You will make John Franken a present in memory of me." + +Certainly it would be difficult to find a more truly calm, courageous, +or religious spirit than that manifested by this aged statesman at an +hour when, if ever, a human soul is tried and is apt to reveal its +innermost depths or shallows. Whatever Gomarus or Bogerman, or the whole +Council of Dordtrecht, may have thought of his theology, it had at least +taught him forgiveness of his enemies, kindness to his friends, and +submission to the will of the Omnipotent. Every moment of his last days +on earth had been watched and jealously scrutinized, and his bitterest +enemies had failed to discover one trace of frailty, one manifestation of +any vacillating, ignoble, or malignant sentiment. + +The drums had been sounding through the quiet but anxiously expectant +town since four o'clock that morning, and the tramp of soldiers marching +to the Inner Court had long been audible in the prison chamber. + +Walaeus now came back with a message from the judges. "The high +commissioners," he said, "think it is beginning. Will my Lord please to +prepare himself?" + +"Very well, very well," said the prisoner. "Shall we go at once?" + +But Walaeus suggested a prayer. Upon its conclusion, Barneveld gave his +hand to the provost-marshal and to the two soldiers, bidding them adieu, +and walked downstairs, attended by them, to the chamber of the judges. +As soon as he appeared at the door, he was informed that there had been a +misunderstanding, and he was requested to wait a little. He accordingly +went upstairs again with perfect calmness, sat down in his chamber again, +and read in his French Psalm Book. Half an hour later he was once more +summoned, the provost-marshal and Captain van der Meulen reappearing to +escort him. "Mr. Provost," said the prisoner, as they went down the +narrow staircase, "I have always been a good friend to you."--"It is +true," replied that officer, "and most deeply do I grieve to see you in +this affliction." + +He was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual, but was informed +that the sentence would be read in the great hall of judicature. They +descended accordingly to the basement story, and passed down the narrow +flight of steps which then as now connected the more modern structure, +where the Advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained of +the ancient palace of the Counts of Holland. In the centre of the vast +hall--once the banqueting chamber of those petty sovereigns; with its +high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in ancient days rung with +the sounds of mirth and revelry--was a great table at which the twenty- +four judges and the three prosecuting officers were seated, in their +black caps and gowns of office. The room was lined with soldiers and +crowded with a dark, surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting +there all night. + +A chair was placed for the prisoner. He sat down, and the clerk of the +commission, Pots by name, proceeded at once to read the sentence. +A summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome paper has been already +laid before the reader. If ever a man could have found it tedious to +listen to his own death sentence, the great statesman might have been in +that condition as he listened to Secretary Pots. + +During the reading of the sentence the Advocate moved uneasily on his +seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk at several passages which +seemed to him especially preposterous. But he controlled himself by a +strong effort, and the clerk went steadily on to the conclusion. + +Then Barneveld said: + +"The judges have put down many things which they have no right to draw +from my confession. Let this protest be added." + +"I thought too," he continued, "that My Lords the States-General would +have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might +keep what belongs to them. Is this my recompense for forty-three years' +service to these Provinces?" + +President de Voogd rose: + +"Your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "Away! away! "So saying +he pointed to the door into which one of the great windows at the south- +eastern front of the hall had been converted. + +Without another word the old man rose from his chair and strode, leaning +on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his faithful valet and the +provost and escorted by a file of soldiers. The mob of spectators flowed +out after him at every door into the inner courtyard in front of the +ancient palace. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs +Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received +Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt +Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience +Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible +I know how to console myself +Implication there was much, of assertion very little +John Robinson +Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword +Only true religion +Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic +William Brewster + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1618-19 *** + +************This file should be named 4896.txt or 4896.zip ************ + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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