[The Rise of the Dutch Republic Volume I.(of III) 1555-66 by John Lothrop Motley]@TWC D-Link bookThe Rise of the Dutch Republic Volume I.(of III) 1555-66 CHAPTER I 12/81
This vague, fireside liberty should be by every possible means extirpated; therefore did Christ institute shepherds to drive his wandering sheep back into the fold of the true Church; thus only can we guard the lambs against the ravening wolves, and prevent their being carried away from the flock of Christ to the flock of Belial.
Liberty of religion, or of conscience, as they call it, ought never to be tolerated." This was the cant with which Viglius was ever ready to feed not only his faithful Hopper, but all the world beside.
The president was naturally anxious that the fold of Christ should be entrusted to none but regular shepherds, for he looked forward to taking one of the most lucrative crooks into his own hand, when he should retire from his secular career. It is now necessary to say a few introductory words concerning the man who, from this time forth, begins to rise upon the history of his country with daily increasing grandeur and influence.
William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, although still young in years, is already the central personage about whom the events and the characters of the epoch most naturally group themselves; destined as he is to become more and more with each succeeding year the vivifying source of light, strength, and national life to a whole people. The Nassau family first emerges into distinct existence in the middle of the eleventh century.
It divides itself almost as soon as known into two great branches.
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