Terror filled the minds of the people on learning the character of this edict, and the most gloomy apprehensions excited many to prepare to emigrate from Antwerp. The magistrates, therefore, assembled the chief merchants and traders, to ascertain from them what losses had been sustained by the city, and what further damage was expected from the establishment of the Inquisition. They declared their minds; and a memorial was prepared and laid before Queen Mary, sister of Charles V., and at that time governess of the Netherlands, showing largely, from the edict of the emperor, from the instructions of the inquisitors, and from the privileges of Brabant, how many evils appeared to threaten the city and the whole country. They besought her to intercede with the emperor, that so rich and flourish a city might not be ruined by the operations of the Inquisition. The several orders of Brabant united with those of Antwerp; and the queen was prevailed on to undertake their cause. She at once proceeded to Augsburg, where she obtained another edict, allowing the ecclesiastical judges to demand some persons from the imperial courts to join with them in proceeding against any one accused of heresy. This did by no means meet the case; it was, therefore, received at Antwerp under protestation, that this edict should not derogate anything from the statutes and privileges of the citizens. Still they were ill at ease, such was the dread of the cruelty which had been known of the inquisitors; especially as they saw that those who were privately commissioned by the pope and the emperor to the office of inquisitors, acted as such by themselves, and by their commissaries. For several were shortly condemned as heretics, in many cities; of whom some were beheaded, others hanged, or burned, and some tied up in sacks and drowned! King Philip succeeding his father, was appealed to against these enormities, and petitioned to grant religious toleration in the Netherlands. But superstition held the mind of the royal fanatic; and he prostrated himself before a crucifix, solemnly imploring--“I beseech the Divine Majesty, that I may never suffer myself to be, or to be called, the lord of those who deny Thee, the Lord!”