Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/216

 178 Readings in European History infidel, heretic, and hypocrite, a new Judas and Cain, a disturber of the peace, a rebel, foreigner, enemy of the human race, a public pest of the Christian commonwealth, a traitor and scoundrel ; that I am exposed to be killed like a beast, with a reward for any assassin or poisoner who will undertake the job. It is for you to judge, gentlemen, whether, in order to purge myself from the calumnies heaped upon me, I may not be excused for departing from my usual habits in speaking of myself and others. . . . My enemies object that I have " established liberty of conscience." I confess that the glow of fires in which so many poor Christians have been tormented is not an agree- able sight to me, although it may rejoice the eyes of the duke of Alva and the Spaniards ; and that it has been my opinion that persecutions should cease in the Netherlands. I will confess, too, in order that my enemies may know that they have to do with one who speaks out roundly and with- out circumlocution, that when the king was leaving Zealand he commanded me to put to death several worthy persons suspected on account of their religion. I did not wish to- do this, and I could not with a clear conscience, so I warned them myself, since one must obey God rather than men. Let the Spaniards say what they please, I know several nations and peoples who are quite their equals who will approve and praise my conduct, for they have learned that nothing is to be accomplished by fire and sword. . . . They denounce me as a hypocrite, which is absurd enough, since I have never resorted to dissimulation. As their friend, I told them quite frankly that they were twist- ing a rope to hang themselves when they began the barbar- ous policy of persecution. If their unbounded passion and their contempt for me had not prevented their following my advice, they would never have come out where they did. When later I became their opponent and enemy in the inter- est of your freedom, I do not see what hypocrisy they could discover in me, unless they call it hypocrisy to wage open war, take cities, chase them out of the country, and inflict upon them, without disguise, all the harm that the law of