It was chiefly, however, in Friesland that the people embraced
the opinions of Luther, which were quite conformable to many of
the local customs of which we have already spoken. The celebrated
Edzard, count of eastern Friesland, openly adopted the Reformation.
While Erasmus of Rotterdam, without actually pronouncing himself
a disciple of Lutheranism, effected more than all its advocates
to throw the abuses of Catholicism into discredit.

We may here remark that, during the government of the House of
Burgundy, the clergy of the Netherlands had fallen into considerable
disrepute. Intrigue and court favor alone had the disposal of
the benefices; while the career of commerce was open to the
enterprise of every spirited and independent competitor. The
Reformation, therefore, in the first instance found but a slight
obstacle in the opposition of a slavish and ignorant clergy,
and its progress was all at once prodigious. The refusal of the
dignity of emperor by Frederick "the Wise," duke of Saxony, to
whom it was offered by the electors, was also an event highly
favorable to the new opinions; for Francis I. of France, and
Charles, already king of Spain and sovereign of the Netherlands,
both claiming the succession to the empire, a sort of interregnum
deprived the disputed dominions of a chief who might lay the heavy
hand of power on the new-springing doctrines of Protestantism. At
length the intrigues of Charles, and his pretensions as grandson
of Maximilian, having caused him to be chosen emperor, a desperate
rivalry resulted between him and the French king, which for a
while absorbed his whole attention and occupied all his power.

From the earliest appearance of the Reformation, the young sovereign
of so many states, having to establish his authority at the two