His character must be judged as a whole, and by its general results, with a careful allowance for contradictions and equivocations.

Truth is clear and single, but the lights are parti-colored and refracted in the prism of hypocrisy.

The great feature of his administration was a prolonged conflict between himself and the leading seigniors of the Netherlands.

The ground of the combat was the religious question.

Let the quarrel be turned or tortured in any manner that human ingenuity can devise, it still remains unquestionable that Granvelle's main object was to strengthen and to extend the inquisition, that of his adversaries to overthrow the institution.