38            THE DUTCH AND  QUAKER COLONIES
Commercial intercourse with such a society and the receiving of immigrants from it could not fail to stimulate progressive thought in England. It is evident, too, that such a society could not well pass through the crisis of the Reformation without a paroxysm of persecution and torment.
This was made practically certain by the exposed situation of the Netherlands. I showed in the preceding chapter that, as long as cities like Antwerp or Rotterdam could protect themselves against military coercion at the hands of . some feudal superior, it was possible for them to the Neth- develop a great amount of practical freedom. The "            position of the patchwork Middle Kingdom, be-
tween France and Germany, and without any general head of its own, was wonderfully favourable to such development. But when the powerful feudal superior came, in the shape of the House of Burgundy, the danger soon became apparent. When a proud city like Dinant could be levelled with the ground and 8000 of its people massacred, at the behest of a feudal prince, it was a day of ill omen for human liberty. Far worse was it when the Netherlands came to have for their lord the most powerful monarch on earth. The little finger of Charles of Spain was thicker than the loin of his great-grandfather, Charles of Burgundy. The conflict, moreover, was irrepressible. The revolt of Martin Luther made it necessary for those who would maintain the old order of things to attack the liberties of the Netherlands. Since the suppression of the Albigenses persecution had been spasmodic until the founding of the modern or Spanish Inquisition in 1480; but with the advent of Protestantism it became systematic and persistent. The reign of the Emperor Charles was largely occupied with the attempt to exterminate heresy in the Low Countries. If the statement of Grotius can be accepted, that more than 50,000 heretics were put to death, it was a persecution almost beyond precedent. It was a fit preparation for the most desperate and tragic revolt against tyranny of which we have any record.    Americans must always remember with pride that it