314 DEFECTION OF THE NETHERLANDS 



he was executed by the fword, if a woman, fhe was 

 buried alive. Relapfed heretics were burnt at the flake. 

 Even the recantation of the culprit could not reverfe 

 thefe dreadful decrees. He that abjured his errors, 

 gained nothing thereby but at moffc a milder death. 

 * The hereditaments of the convict fell to the fifcal, 

 contrary to all the privileges of the country, by which 

 the heir was allowed to redeem them at a moderate ran- 

 lorn. Agalnfr. an exprefs and invaluable prerogative of 

 a citizen of Holland, not to be tried out of his 

 province, the accufed were forcibly conveyed beyond 

 the limits of their native jurifdiclion, and fentenced by 

 a foreign tribunal. Thus the hand of religion was 

 forced into the fervice of defpotifm, for feizing, with 

 a holy grafp, without danger or refinance, upon privi- 

 leges and immunities which were inviolable to the 

 temporal arm. 



Charles the fifth, encouraged by the fortunate progrefs 

 of his arms in Germany, now thought that nothing was 

 too much for him to attempt, and formed a ferious defign 

 of planting in the Netherlands the mquilition of Spain, 

 The dread of this name alone fuddenly put a Hop to 

 all commerce at Antwerp. The principal merchants 

 had ccme to the refolution to abandon the city. None 

 any longer bought or fold. The value of houfes im- 

 mediately fell. All the works of the artificer were at a 

 ftand. The citizens were reduced to the neceiiity of 

 living on their capital, and thus their property was 

 every day Aiding from their hands. Inevitable had 

 been the downfall of this iiouriihing commercial city, 

 if Charles the fifth, induced by the remonltrances of 

 his vice-gerent, had not abandoned this dangerous 



project. 



