Excerpt from The History of the Popes, Vol. 20: From the Close of the Middle Ages, Drawn From the Secret Archives of the Vatican and Other Original Sources, From the German of Ludwig, Freiherr Von Pastor William of Orange the soul of the opposition to Spain Principal Object of the Calvinists - brutal ferocity of their persecution of Catholics I 573 Orange formally becomes a Calvinist - but is denounced by the pastors as an atheist and that he wor shipped his own advantage as his God Utter failure of Alba's regime, band he leaves the Low Countries (december 18th) The Pope wishes for a peaceful settlement with the rebels Requesens succeeds Alba - Orange does his best to make the task of Requesens difficult Increase of discontent even in the loyal Provinces I 576 Death of Requesens (march) The States General convoked - their demands The Pacification of Ghent John of Austria appointed Governor he has authority to make great concessions, but does not win sympathy I 577 The Perpetual Edict (february 12th) confirms the Pacification and Is approved by Philip II The Pope sends Sega to the Low Countries to support the peace proposals and promote the Catholic restoration Orange takes the citadel of Naniur (july 24th) The new Governor the Archduke Matthias of Austria is won over by Orange Renewed outrages upon Catholics - a storm of icono clasm begun In churches and convents Ever growing anxiety in Rome I 578 The Pope once more attempts a peaceful intervention The charge of this given to Castagna The wild excesses of the Calvinists are distasteful to Orange 1578 The Walloons act with energy and form a Catholic League I 579 The Catholic Union of Arras (january 6th) The Calvinist Union of Utrecht (january 23rd) About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.