Men high in authority sympathized with the general indignation.  The Marquis Berghen, the younger Mansfeld, the Baron Montigny, openly refused to enforce the edicts within their governments.  Men of eminence inveighed boldly and bitterly against the tyranny of the government, and counselled disobedience.  The Netherlanders, it was stoutly maintained, were not such senseless brutes as to be ignorant of the mutual relation of prince and people.  They knew that the obligation of a king to his vassals was as sacred as the duties of the subjects to the sovereign.

The four principal cities of Brabant first came forward in formal denunciation of the outrage.  An elaborate and conclusive document was drawn up in their name, and presented to the Regent.  It set forth that the recent proclamation violated many articles in the “joyous entry.”  That ancient constitution had circumscribed the power of the clergy, and the jealousy had been felt in old times as much by the sovereign as the people.  No ecclesiastical tribunal had therefore been allowed, excepting that of the Bishop of Cambray, whose jurisdiction was expressly confined to three classes of cases—­those growing out of marriages, testaments, and mortmains.

It would be superfluous to discuss the point at the present day, whether the directions to the inquisitors and the publication of the edicts conflicted with the “joyous entrance.”  To take a man from his house and burn him, after a brief preliminary examination, was clearly not to follow the, letter and spirit of the Brabantine habeas corpus, by which inviolability of domicile and regular trials were secured and sworn to by the monarch; yet such had been the uniform practice of inquisitors throughout the country.  The petition of the four cities was referred by the Regent to the council of Brabant.  The chancellor, or president judge of that tribunal was notoriously corrupt—­a creature of the Spanish.  His efforts to sustain the policy of the administration however vain.  The Duchess ordered the archives of the province to be searched for precedents, and the council to report upon the petition.  The case was too plain for argument or dogmatism, but the attempt was made to take refuge in obscurity.  The answer of the council was hesitating and equivocal.  The Duchess insisted upon a distinct and categorical answer to the four cities.  Thus pressed, the council of Brabant declared roundly that no inquisition of any kind had ever existed, in the provinces.  It was impossible that any other answer could be given, but Viglius, with his associates in the privy council, were extremely angry at the conclusion.  The concession was, however, made, notwithstanding the bad example which, according to some persons, the victory thus obtained by so important a province would afford to the people in the other parts of the country.  Brabant was declared free of the inquisition.  Meanwhile the pamphlets, handbills, pasquils, and other popular productions were multiplied.  To