On the 18th of May, the states’ envoys at Cologne presented fourteen articles, demanding freedom of religion and the ancient political charters.  Religion, they said, was to be referred; not to man, but to God.  To him the King was subject as well as the people.  Both King and people—­“and by people was meant every individual in the land”—­were bound to serve God according to their conscience.

The imperial envoys found such language extremely reprehensible, and promptly refused, as umpires, to entertain the fourteen articles.  Others drawn up by Terranova and colleagues, embodying the claims of the royal and Roman party, were then solemnly presented, and as promptly rejected.  Then the imperial umpires came forward with two bundles of proposisitions—­approved beforehand by the Spanish plenipotentiaries.  In the political bundle; obedience due to the King was insisted upon, “as in the time of the Emperor Charles.”  The religious category declared that “the Roman religion—­all others excluded—­should thenceforth be exercised in all the provinces.”  Both these categories were considered more objectionable by the states’ envoys than the terms of Terranova, and astonishment was expressed that “mention should again be made of the edicts—­as if blood enough had not been shed already in the cause of religion.”

The Netherland envoys likewise gave the imperial commissioners distinctly to understand that—­in case peace were not soon made—­“the states would forthwith declare the King fallen from his sovereignty;” would for ever dispense the people from their oaths of allegiance to him, and would probably accept the Duke of Anjou in his place.  The states-general, to which body the imperial propositions had been sent, also rejected the articles in a logical and historical argument of unmerciful length.

An appeal secretly made by the imperial and Spanish commissioners, from the states’ envoys to the states themselves, and even to the people of the various provinces, had excited the anger of the plenipotentiaries.  They complained loudly of this violation of all diplomatic etiquette, and the answer of the states-general, fully confirming the views of their ambassadors, did not diminish their wrath.

On the 13th of November, 1579, the states’ envoys were invited into the council chamber of the imperial commissioners, to hear the last solemn commonplaces of those departing, functionaries.  Seven months long they had been waiting in vain, they said, for the states’ envoys to accede to moderate demands.  Patience was now exhausted.  Moreover, their mediatory views had been the subject of bitter lampooning throughout the country, while the authorities of many cities had publicly declared that all the inhabitants would rather, die the death than accept such terms.  The peace-makers, accordingly, with endless protestations as to, their own purity, wisdom, and benevolence, left the whole “in the hands of God and the parties concerned.”