History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

Reformation, "to neither kings nor emperors in the
state and magnificence of their court; they
reckoned the greatest princes in the Low Countries
among their feudatories because they held some
land of the bishopric in fee, and because they owed
them homage. Accordingly, Baldwin, the second of
that name and twenty-ninth bishop of the see,
summoned several princes to Utrecht, to receive
investiture of the lands that were so holden by
them: the Duke of Brabant as first steward; the
Count of Flanders as second; the Count of Holland
as marshal."[1] The clergy regulated their rank by
the spiritual princedom established at Utrecht.
They were the grandees of the land. They
monopolised all the privileges but bore none of the
burdens of the State. They imposed taxes on others,
but they themselves paid taxes to no one.
Numberless dues and offerings had already swollen
their possessions to an enormous amount, while
new and ever-recurring exactions were continually
enlarging their territorial domains. Their
immoralities were restrained by no sense of shame
and by no fear of punishment, seeing that to the
opinion of their countrymen they paid no
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