the great seignors. The priests were enraged because the religious
houses were thus taken out of their control and confiscated to a bench of
bishops, usurping the places of those superiors who had formally been
elected by and among themselves. The people were alarmed because the
monasteries, although not respected nor popular, were at least charitable
and without ambition to exercise ecclesiastical cruelty; while, on the
other hand, by the new episcopal arrangements, a force of thirty new
inquisitors was added to the apparatus for enforcing orthodoxy already
established. The odium of the measure was placed upon the head of that
churchman, already appointed Archbishop of Mechlin, and soon to be known
as Cardinal Granvelle. From this time forth, this prelate began to be
regarded with a daily increasing aversion. He was looked upon as the
incarnation of all the odious measures which had been devised; as the
source of that policy of absolutism which revealed itself more and more
rapidly after the King's departure from the country. It was for this
reason that so much stress was laid by popular clamor upon the clause
prohibiting foreigners from office. Granvelle was a Burgundian; his
father had passed most of his active life in Spain, while both he and his
more distinguished son were identified in the general mind with Spanish
politics. To this prelate, then, were ascribed the edicts, the new
bishoprics, and the continued presence of the foreign troops. The people
were right as regarded the first accusation. They were mistaken as to
the other charges.

The King had not consulted Anthony Perrenot with regard to the creation
of the new bishoprics. The measure, which had been successively
contemplated by Philip "the Good," by Charles the Bold, and by the
Emperor Charles, had now been carried out by Philip the Second, without
the knowledge of the new Archbishop of Mechlin. The King had for once
been able to deceive the astuteness of the prelate, and had concealed