This project was the more dreaded, as many Spaniards had fled from the Inquisition to Holland. These emigrations were most numerous after the year 1550, when several Bibles, which had been printed in the Spanish language in the Low Countries, were prohibited as containing the opinions of the new heretics. Notwithstanding the obstinacy with which the King of Spain pursued the establishment of the Inquisition in Flanders, he failed in his enterprise, and also in his attempt to force the Low Countries to receive the regular tribunal. The Flemings persisted in opposing everything resembling the Inquisition, and their resistance was the cause of the long and bloody wars which exhausted the treasures and armies of Spain during half a century. In the following year, 1563, Philip II. decreed the necessary measures to establish the Inquisition at Milan. He communicated his design to the Pope, who appeared to approve it, but was really displeased, because it tended to diminish the power of the holy see. The Milanese immediately protested against the introduction of a tribunal, of which they had formed the most unfavourable opinion. The bishops of Lombardy were not less averse to it, as they knew that in Spain the bishops were not only deprived of all power, but had fallen into contempt from the despotism of the inquisitors, who had taken possession of the episcopal privileges, and enjoyed them in peace under the protection of the sovereign, who had no adviser in these affairs but the inquisitor-general. The city of Milan sent deputies to the Pope (who was a native of that place), to entreat him to preserve his country from the danger which threatened it. They also sent deputies to Madrid to demand that things should remain in the same state, and applied at the same time to the Milanese bishops at the Council of Trent to support their cause before that celebrated assembly. Pius IV. told the deputies that he would never allow the Spanish Inquisition to be established in Milan, _as he knew its extreme severity_, and promised that their tribunal should be dependent on the Court of Rome, whose decrees were extremely mild, and gave the accused every facility in their defence. During the course of this negotiation, the Duke de Sesa, wishing to execute his master's private orders, established the tribunal of the Inquisition in the city of Milan, of which he was the governor, and published the names of the sub-delegated inquisitors. This declaration displeased the Milanese, who began to excite popular commotions, and cried _Long live the king! perish the Inquisition!_