II. THE REFORMATION IN TEUTONIC COUNTRIES: SWITZERLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN, ENGLAND…

II. THE REFORMATION IN TEUTONIC COUNTRIES: SWITZERLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN, ENGLAND

THE SWISS REFORMATION: ZWINGLI.--The founder of Protestantism in Switzerland was Ulrich Zwingli. He was born in 1484. His father was the leading man in a mountain village. The son, at Vienna and at Basel, became a proficient in the humanist studies. He read the Greek authors and the Bible in the original. A curate first at Glarus, and then at Einsiedeln, he became pastor at Zurich. As early as 1518 he preached against the sale of indulgences. He was a scholarly man, bluff and kindly in his ways, and an impressive orator. The Swiss were corrupted by their employment as mercenary soldiers, hired by France, by the Pope, or by the emperor. Of the demoralizing influence of this practice, Zwingli became deeply convinced; and his exertions as a Church reformer were mingled with a patriotic zeal for the moral and political regeneration of Switzerland. Mainly by his influence, Zurich separated from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Constance, and became Protestant in 1524. The example of Zurich was followed by Berne (1528) and by Basel (1529). Zwingli agreed with Luther on the two main points of the sole authority of the Scriptures, and the doctrine of salvation by faith alone; but on the sacrament of the Lord's Supper he went farther in his dissent from the Church of Rome. This made Luther and his followers stand aloof when cordial fellowship was proposed between the two parties.

CIVIL STRIFE: DEATH OF ZWINGLI.--The aim of Zwingli was to establish a republican constitution in the several cantons, and also in the confederation as a body, where the five Forest Cantons had an undue share of power. These adhered to the old Church. In Berne the oligarchic party was supplanted by the republican, reforming party,--an event of decisive importance. As the irritation increased between the Forest Cantons and the cities, the former entered into a league with Ferdinand of Austria, and the cities leaned for support on the German states in sympathy with their opinions. A treaty was made (1529), but each side accused the other of breaking it. At length war began: Berne failed to come to the help of Zurich. Each city wished to be the metropolis of the reformed confederation. The forces of Zurich were vanquished at Cappel, where Zwingli himself, who was on the field in the capacity of a chaplain, was slain (1531). By the peace of Cappel in 1531, Protestantism was not coerced, but a check was put upon its progress. Neither party was strong enough to subdue the other.

PROTESTANTISM IN SCANDINAVIA.--In the Scandinavian countries, monarchical power was built up by means of the Reformation. The union of Calmar (1397) under Queen Margaret, between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, had been a dynastic union. The several peoples were not united in feeling. The sovereign, moreover, had his power limited by a strong feudal nobility, and by a rich Church impatient of control. First the Church was overcome by means of Protestantism, and then the nobles.

THE REFORMATION IN DENMARK--On the accession of Christian I. of Oldenburg (1448-1481), the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig became connected with Denmark in a personal union. His grandson, Christian II. (1513-1523), did not rule the duchies, which were governed by Frederic I., who afterwards succeeded Christian II. as king of Denmark. Christian II. was bent on putting down the aristocracy, lay and clerical, but lacked the moral qualities necessary to success in so difficult a task. He at first favored Protestantism from political motives. He hoped to bring the Swedes into subjection by the aid of the Danes, and then to subdue the Danish nobility. In Sweden the nobles practically ruled; and the regency was in the hands of the Stures, who befriended the common people, and were opposed by the other nobles and the clergy. Christian made use of these divisions, and of the help of German and French troops, to get possession of Stockholm (1520). He took the Catholic side. But his perfidy, and the massacre of eminent Swedes,--known as the Massacre of Stockholm,--excited an inextinguishable hatred against Denmark. The Danish nobles feared the same sort of treatment. The king's attempts at reform offended them without pleasing the peasants, and a revolution took place which dethroned him. Duke Frederic of Schleswig was made king (1523): the duchies and Denmark were again together. Frederic swore not to introduce the Reformation, nor to attack Catholicism. But he was an ardent Lutheran. The new doctrine had come into the land, and was spreading. The nobles, who coveted the possessions of the Church, espoused it. At the Diet of Odensee, in 1527, toleration was granted to Lutheranism. On Frederic's death, in 1533, an effort of the bishops to restore the exclusive domination of the old system of religion was defeated. Christian III. was made king; and at a Diet at Copenhagen in 1536, the Reformation was legalized, and the Lutheran system, with bishops or superintendents, was established.

THE REFORMATION IN SWEDEN.--After the massacre of Stockholm, Denmark was detested by the Swedes. A great political revolution occurred, which involved also a religious revolution. The author of the change, and the real founder of the Swedish monarchy, was Gustavus Vasa, a young Swede of noble family, who had been held as a captive in Copenhagen, but had escaped and returned to his country. He was of imposing presence, prudent yet daring, and with a natural gift of eloquence. Amid great dangers and sufferings, such as tradition ascribed to King Alfred of England, he succeeded, at the head of a force gathered to him in the province of Dâlecarlia, in gaining the most important places in the country, and was proclaimed king in 1523. He was not deeply interested in the religious controversy, although he favored Lutheranism; but he made it his steady aim to break down the clerical aristocracy, to weaken the nobles, and to organize a strong and prosperous monarchy. He proceeded carefully: but the peasants, who had been his warmest supporters, were strongly attached to the old Church; and the opposition to his measures from all quarters was such that at the Diet of Westeräs, in 1527, he took the bold step of offering to lay down the crown. At this Diet he had assembled representatives of the citizens and peasants, as well as the clergy and nobles. He proposed to pay an enormous debt which was due to Lübeck, by using the colossal wealth of the Church for this purpose, and to shake off the monopoly of trade which the Hanse towns enjoyed. Finding himself withstood, he renounced the throne. The distraction and tumults which followed his act of relinquishing the crown were such that a great party of the nobles joined him. Three days after his abdication, he was recalled to the throne: the clergy submitted abjectly, and the Church was no longer a power in the state, or possessed of wealth. Trade was released from its bondage to Lübeck and the other towns; commerce was opened with foreign countries; and a market was provided for iron, the main product of the country. The nobles were held in subjection. The Lutheran doctrine made very rapid progress, and became dominant.

ENGLAND: HENRY VIII. AND LUTHER.--In England, as in France, there were earnest desires for church reform, partly aroused by such serious-minded humanists as Colet, More, and Erasmus. Even Cardinal Wolsey sympathized with this movement, and intended to endow colleges and bishoprics out of the confiscated wealth of the more useless monasteries. What might have been a slow development of religious thought was transformed by the requirements of the king's own policy. Of all the Tudor princes none had a more obstinate and tyrannical will than Henry VIII. The advantages derived from the effect of the civil wars, which had reduced the strength and numbers of the nobility, and the natural English jealousy, always shown, of foreign and papal supremacy, enabled Henry to break off the connection of England with Rome; while, at the same time, he resisted Protestantism and persecuted its adherents. Proud of his theological acquirements, he appeared, in 1522, as an author against Luther, in a book in defense of the Seven Sacraments, for which he received from the Pope the title of Defender of the Faith. The vituperative character of Luther's answer confirmed him in his hatred of the new doctrine. "When God," said the blunt Saxon reformer, "wants a fool, he turns a king into a theological writer."

THE DIVORCE QUESTION.--What made the breach between Henry VIII. and the papacy was the question of the king's divorce. He had been married in his twelfth year to Catherine of Aragon, the aunt of Charles V. and the widow of Henry's deceased brother Arthur (who had been married to her in 1501, when he was fifteen years old, and had died the next year). A dispensation permitting the marriage of Henry had been granted by Pope Julius II. How far Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn, whom he desired to wed, was at the root of his scruples respecting the validity of his marriage, it may not be easy to decide. His application to Clement VII. for a separation reached the Pope after the Peace of Madrid, when there was a desire to lessen the power of the emperor. Cardinal Wolsey, the favorite counselor of Henry, who himself aspired to the papal office, was obliged to help on the cause of his imperious master. But whatever disposition there was at Rome to gratify Henry, there was no inclination to hurry the proceedings. There were long delays in England, whither a papal legate, Campeggio, had been sent to investigate and determine the cause. In 1529 the legates decided that the case must be determined at Rome. This the queen had before demanded in vain. Aside from other objections to the divorce, Clement VII. was now at peace with Charles V., whom it was undesirable to offend. The incensed king took the matter into his own hands. Wolsey, having been one of the legates, was deprived of all his dignities: he was charged with treason, his strength melted away on his fall from the heights of power, and he died a broken-spirited man.

SEPARATION OF ENGLAND FROM ROME.--Henry now gave free rein to the spirit of opposition in Parliament to Rome. He took for his principal minister, who became vicegerent in ecclesiastical affairs, Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell, unlike Wolsey, was hostile to the temporal power of Rome. He made Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, who was inclined toward Protestant views, but, though sincere in his beliefs, was a man of pliant temper, indisposed to resist the king's will, preferring to bow to a storm, and to wait for it to pass by. By Cranmer the divorce was decreed, but this was after the marriage with Anne Boleyn had taken place. Henry was excommunicated by the Pope. Acts of Parliament abolished the Pope's, and established the king's, supremacy in the Church of England. In 1536 the cloisters were abolished. Their property was confiscated, and fell to a large extent into the hands of the nobles and the gentry. This measure bound them to the policy of the sovereign. The mitered abbots were expelled from the House of Lords, which left the preponderance of power with the lay nobles. The hierarchy bowed to the will of the king.

THE TWO PARTIES.--There were two parties in England among the upholders of the king's supremacy. There were the Protestants by conviction, who were for spreading the new doctrine. This had already taken root and spread in the universities, and in some other places in the country. The new literary culture had paved the way for it. In the North, there were still left many Lollards, disciples of Wickliffe. Cromwell, Cranmer, and one of the bishops, Latimer, were prominent leaders of this party. Against them were the adherents of the Catholic theology, such as Gardiner, Tunstal of Durham, and other bishops. At first the king inclined towards the first of these two parties. One of his most important acts was the ordering of a translation of the Bible into English, a copy of which was to be placed in every church. But a popular rebellion in 1536 was followed by a change of ecclesiastical policy. The Six Articles were passed, asserting the Roman Catholic doctrines, and punishing those who denied transubstantiation with death. The queen, Anne Boleyn, who was an adherent of the Protestant side, was executed on the charge of infidelity to her marriage vows (1536). A few years later Cromwell was sent to the scaffold because the king no longer approved of his policy and, seeing how unpopular he had become, used him as a scapegoat (1540). Lutheran bishops were thrown into the Tower: Cranmer alone was shielded by the king's personal favor, and by his own prudence. This system of a national church, of which the king, and not the Pope, was the head, where the doctrine was Roman Catholic, and the great ecclesiastical officers were appointed, like civil officers, by the monarch, was the creation of Henry VIII. His strong will was able to keep down the conflicting parties. Despite his sensuality and cruelty, he was a popular sovereign. One of his principal crimes was the execution of Sir Thomas More for refusing to take the oath of supremacy because this contained an affirmation of the invalidity of the king's marriage with Catherine. More was one of the noblest men in England, a man who combined vigor with gentleness. He was willing to swear that the children of Anne were lawful heirs to the throne, because Parliament, he believed, could regulate the succession; but this did not satisfy the tyrannical monarch. In the latter portion of his reign he grew more suspicious, willful, and cruel.

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III. THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, FROM THE PEACE OF NUREMBERG TO THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG (1532-1555)

THE PARTIES IN GERMANY, 1532-1542.--For ten years after the Peace of Nuremberg, the Protestants in Germany were left unmolested. The menacing attitude of the Turks, and the occupations of the emperor in Italy and in other lands, rendered it impossible to interfere with them. Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, a chivalrous Protestant prince, led the way in the armed restoration of Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg, who had been driven out of his dominion. Thus a Protestant prince was established in the heart of Southern Germany (1534). In Westphalia, a fanatical branch of the Anabaptist sect at Münster, with whom the Lutherans did not sympathize, was broken up by the neighboring Catholic princes. The overthrow of the power of Lübeck and of the Hanseatic League did not check the advance of Lutheranism. It continued to make great progress in different directions. The Smalcald League was extended. A league of the Catholic states was formed at Nuremberg in 1538. During three years (1538-1541) efforts were made by the emperor to secure peace and union. Of these the Conference and Diet of Ratisbon in 1541 is the most remarkable. The Protestants and Catholics could not agree upon statements of doctrine; but the necessity of getting Protestant help against the Turks compelled Charles to sanction the Peace of Nuremberg, and to make to the Lutherans other important concessions. This arrangement the emperor regarded as only a temporary truce. Among the conquests of Protestantism after the Peace of Nuremberg, and prior to 1544, were Brandenburg and Ducal Saxony, whose rulers adopted the new doctrine. It was spreading in Austria, in Bavaria, and in other states. Duke Henry of Brunswick fell into conflict with the Smalcaldic League, and was conquered, so that his principality became Protestant. Even the ecclesiastical elector of Cologne was taking steps towards joining the Protestant side. This would have given to the Lutherans a majority in the electoral college. The bishoprics with temporal power were numerous in Germany. If they were secularized, the old religious system would be deprived of a principal support.

THE SMALCALDIC WAR.--Charles V. was now secretly resolved to coerce the Protestants in Germany, and silently made his preparations for war. Before hostilities commenced, Luther died (1546). The emperor concluded the Peace of Crespy, after a fourth war with Francis I. It was a part of the agreement, that they should act jointly against the heretics. But as Francis in the last two wars against the emperor (1536-1538, 1542-1544) had taken for allies the Turks under Soliman, it could not be predicted how long he would abide by his engagements. For the present, Charles was safe in this quarter. He now took pains to shut the eyes of the Protestant princes to their danger. The Smalcaldic League was over-confident of its strength. Its members were discordant among themselves. Of the two chief leaders, the elector of Saxony, John Frederic, was a slow and unskillful general; and Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, a brave and capable soldier, could not take command over an elector. Above all, Maurice, the Duke of Saxony, was in the midst of a quarrel with his relative, the elector, and coveted a part of his territories. Maurice was an able and adroit man, a Protestant, but without the earnest religious convictions that belonged to the electors and to that generation of princes which was passing away. Maurice was won by the emperor, through promises of enrichment and favor, and pledges not to interfere with religion in his principality. Charles might have been prevented from bringing in foreign troops from the Netherlands and from Italy, but the military conduct of the elector was feeble and indecisive. He was defeated and captured in 1547 at Mühlberg, and the surrender of the Landgrave Philip soon followed. The Protestant cause was prostrate. The clever Maurice had his reward: the electoral office was transferred to him; he obtained a goodly portion of the elector's territory.

THE RESULT: THE INTERIM.--Charles was victorious, and apparently master of Germany. The country was occupied by his forces as far north as the Elbe. He was engaged in the work of pacification and of confirming his authority. In 1548 he issued the Interim of Augsburg, in which concessions were made to both parties, which proved satisfactory to neither. Skillful as the emperor was in diplomacy, he always showed weakness in dealing with the religious question. He proceeded to force the new measure on the refractory cities in the South. In the North it had little effect. Maurice modified it in his own dominion. When Charles seemed to himself to be on the eve of a complete triumph, he was deserted by the allies on whom he counted,--Rome, France, and the princes, especially Maurice.

BREACH OF CHARLES WITH ROME.--The emperor's assuming to regulate the affairs of religion was regarded with disfavor at Rome. There had been a constant call for a general council to adjust the religious controversies. Rome, from fear of imperial influence, and for other reasons, had opposed the measure. At length, in 1545, the famous Council of Trent assembled. The emperor wanted that body to begin with measures for the reformation of abuses. He looked for co-operation in his scheme for uniting the parties in Germany. But the council took another path: it began with anathemas against the heretical doctrines. Charles found himself at variance with the policy of Rome, at the moment when he was trying to bring Germany to submission.

DISAFFECTION OF MAURICE.--The emperor's course in Germany produced general alarm. He separated the Netherlands from the jurisdiction of the empire, but settled the succession in the government in the house of Hapsburg. He drove the Diet into other measures which looked towards the acquiring of military supremacy for himself in Germany. He violated his pledges respecting the two captive princes. Philip of Hesse, the father-in-law of Maurice, he treated with great severity and indignity. Threats were thrown out by the counselors of Charles against the other princes, and even against Maurice, who complained of the treatment of Philip, and was sore under the load of unpopularity that rested on him on account of his warfare against his co-religionists, by whom he was considered another Judas.

THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG.--Maurice laid his plans with secrecy and with masterly skill. He secured the coöperation of other German princes. He concluded an alliance with Henry II. of France. He arranged with Magdeburg, which he had been besieging, to make it a place of refuge if there should be need of an asylum. When all was ready, without having excited any suspicion on the part of Charles, he suddenly took the field, marched southward with an army that increased as he advanced, crossed the Alps, and forced the emperor, tormented with the gout, to fly hastily from Innsbruck (1552). The captive princes were released. It was decided that Germany was not to be ruled by Spanish soldiery. The dream of imperial domination vanished. The Protestants were promised by Ferdinand of Austria, in the name of his brother, toleration, and equality of rights. At the Diet of Augsburg in 1555, the Religious Peace was concluded. Every prince was to be allowed to choose between the Catholic religion and the Augsburg Confession, and the religion of the prince was to be that of the land over which he reigned: that is, each government was to choose the creed for its subjects. Ferdinand put in the "ecclesiastical reservation," which provided that if the head of an ecclesiastical state should become a Lutheran, he should resign his benefice. He also declared that the Lutheran subjects of ecclesiastical princes were not to be disturbed. The "reservation" was to please the Catholics: the additional provision was to meet the wishes of the Protestants. Neither stood on the same basis as the other part of the treaty.

From Maurice the electoral dignity descended in the Albertine line of Saxon princes. The Ernestine line retained Weimar, Gotha, etc.

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IV. CALVINISM IN GENEVA: BEGINNING OF THE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORMATION

CALVIN.--Second in reputation to Luther only, among the founders of Protestantism, is John Calvin. He was a Frenchman, born in 1509, and was consequently a child when the Saxon Reformation began. He was keen and logical in his mental habit, with a great organizing capacity, naturally of a retiring temper, yet fearless, and endued with extraordinary intensity and firmness of will. A more finished scholar than Luther, he lacked his geniality and tenderness, and his imaginative power. Calvin first studied for the priesthood at Paris; but when his father determined to make him a jurist, he studied law at Orleans and Bourges. Espousing the Protestant doctrines, he was obliged to fly from Paris, and, when still young, published his Institutes of the Christian Religion, in which he expounded the Protestant creed in a systematic although fervid way. In his type of theology, he laid much stress on the sovereignty of God, and predestination; and taught a view of the Lord's Supper not so far from that of the old Church as the doctrine of Zwingli, but farther removed from it than was the doctrine of Luther.

THE GENEVAN GOVERNMENT.--In 1536, reluctantly yielding to the exhortations of Farel, a French preacher of the Protestant doctrine at Geneva, Calvin established himself in that city. Geneva was a fragment of the old kingdom of Burgundy. The dukes of Savoy claimed a temporal authority in the city, which was subject to its bishop. The authority of the dukes was overthrown by a revolution, and power passed from the bishop into the hands of the people (1533). The change was effected with the aid of Berne and Freiburg. There had been two parties in Geneva,--the party of the "Confederates," who were for striking hands with the Swiss, and the party of the "Mamelukes," adherents of the dukes. The civil was followed by an ecclesiastical revolution. Protestantism, with the aid of Berne, was legally established (1535). Geneva was a prosperous, gay, and dissolute city. Farel, a popular orator of striking power, unsparing in denunciation, found the people impatient of the restraints that the new religious system which they had adopted laid upon them. The regulations as to doctrine, worship, and discipline, which Calvin and his associates proceeded to introduce, were so distasteful, that the preachers were expelled by the Council and by the Assembly of Citizens from the place. After he had been absent three years, Calvin, in consequence of the increase of disorder and vice, and the distraction occasioned by contending factions, was recalled, and remained in Geneva until his death. He became the virtual lawgiver of the city. He framed a system of ecclesiastical and civil government. It was an ecclesiastical state, in which orthodoxy of belief, and purity of conduct, were not only inculcated by systematic teaching, but enforced by stringent enactments. Offenses comparatively trivial were punished by strict and severe penalties. To the system of church discipline, stretching over the life of every individual, and carried out by the civil magistrates in alliance with the pastors, there was much opposition, which led to outbreakings of violent resistance. But the supporters of Calvin were reinforced by numerous Protestant refugees from France. The improvement of the city in morals and in public order was signal. In the end, Calvin, who was as firm as a rock, triumphed over all opposition. Geneva became a place of resort for exiles and students from various countries. By his writings and correspondence, Calvin's influence spread far and wide. In the affairs of the French Protestants, in particular, his influence was predominant.

SERVETUS.--The Reformers were not, any more than their adversaries, advocates of liberty in religious beliefs and professions. A melancholy example of the prevailing idea, that it was the duty of the civil authority to inflict penalties upon heresy, is the case of Michael Servetus. A Spaniard by birth, with a remarkable aptitude for natural science and medicine, adventurous and fickle, he had published books in which doctrines received by both the great divisions of the Church, especially the doctrine of the Trinity, were assailed. He escaped out of the hands of the Catholics, and came to Geneva. There he was tried for heresy and blasphemy, and was burned at the stake (1553). This was at a time when Calvin was in the midst of his contest with the "Libertines," the party actuated by hostility to him. They appear to have stood behind Servetus in his defiant attitude towards the Genevan authorities.

INFLUENCE OF CALVINISM.--The personal influence of Calvin was directly exerted upon the more cultured and educated. His religious system has wielded a great power, not only on this class, but also over the common people in different countries. Calvinism was never awed by monarchical authority. Like the Church of Rome, it always refused to subordinate the Church and religion to the civil power. It numbered among its votaries many men of dauntless courage and of unbending fidelity to their principles.

THE CATHOLIC REACTION.--The first effectual resistance to the spread of Protestant opinions was made in Italy. In that country, there was opposition to the papacy from those who saw in it an instrument of political disunion, and also from some who were aggrieved by ecclesiastical abuses. The prevailing feeling, however, was that of pride in the papacy, which, in other countries, was attacked as an Italian institution. The humanist learning had done much to undermine belief in the old religious system. In the train of the new studies, came much indifference and infidelity. The books of the Protestant leaders, however, were widely circulated. There were not a few sincere converts to the new doctrine in the cities; but they were chiefly confined to the educated class, and to persons in high station. It took no root among the common people. After the time of the Medici popes, a new spirit of faith and devotion awoke in circles earnestly devoted to the papacy and to the Church. There was at Rome an "Oratory of Divine Love,"--a group of persons who met together for mutual edification. In this class were some, like Contarini, afterwards a cardinal, who were not wholly without sympathy with the Lutheran doctrine as to faith and justification; but out of the same class came others who led in the great Catholic Reaction, which, while it aimed at a rigid reform in morals, was inflexibly hostile to all innovations in doctrine, and was bent on regaining for the Church the ground that had been lost.

THE COUNCIL OF TRENT: CARAFFA.--The Council of Trent was governed in its conclusions by this Catholic reactionary and reforming party. It allowed no curtailing of the prerogatives of the Pope. On points of doctrine in dispute within the pale of the Church, it adopted formulas which the different schools might accept. Practical reforms, for example in respect to the education of the clergy, were adopted; but dogma and teaching were to remain unaltered. Cardinal Caraffa, the most energetic mover in the Catholic reform and restoration, became Pope, under the name of Paul IV. (1555-1559).

THE ORDER OF JESUS.--The Council of Trent, by providing a clear definition of doctrine, cemented unity, and was the first great bulwark raised against Protestantism. Another means of defense, and of attack as well, was provided in new orders, especially the order of Jesuits. This was founded by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier of noble birth, who mingled with the spirit of chivalry a strong devotional sentiment. It was the temper of mediæval knighthood, which still lingered in Spain. Wounded at the siege of Pampeluna, and disabled from war, he had visions of a spiritual knighthood; out of which grew the Society of Jesus, which was sanctioned by Pope Paul III. in 1540. Its members took the monastic vows. They went through a rigorous spiritual drill. They were bound to unquestioning obedience to the Pope. The organization was strict, like that of an army; each province having a provincial at its head, with a general over all. To him all the members were absolutely subject. All other ties were renounced: to serve the Church and the order, was the one supreme obligation.

INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS.--The influence of the Jesuit order was manifold. It was active in preaching, and in hearing confessions. It made the education of youth a great part of its business. Its members found their way into high stations in Church and State: they were in the cabinets of princes. From the beginning, they showed an ardent zeal in missionary labors among the heathen in distant lands, and for the reconquest of countries won by the Protestants.

THE INQUISITION.--Under the auspices of Cardinal Caraffa (Paul IV.), the Inquisition was introduced into Italy (1542), and exerted the utmost vigilance and severity in crushing out the new faith. One of its instruments was the censorship of the press. So thorough was this work, that of the little book on the Benefits of Christ's Death, which had an immense circulation, it has been possible in recent years to find but two or three copies. The "Index" of prohibited books was established. The result of these measures was, that Protestantism was suppressed in Italy, and the type of Catholicism that was partially sympathetic with certain doctrinal features of the Saxon Reform likewise vanished.

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V. PHILIP II., AND THE BEVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

CHARACTER OF PHILIP II.--In 1555 Charles V., enfeebled by his lifelong enemy, the gout, resigned his crowns, and devolved on his son, Philip II., the government of the Netherlands, together with the rest of his dominions in Spain, Italy, and America. The closing part of his life, the emperor passed in the secluded convent of Yuste, in Spain, where, notwithstanding the time spent by him in religious exercises, and in his favorite diversion of experimenting with clocks and watches, he remained an attentive observer of public affairs. Political and religious absolutism was the main article in Philip's creed. He was more thoroughly a Spaniard in his tone and temper than his father, who was born in the Netherlands, and always loved the people there, as he was loved by them. Philip was cold and forbidding in his manners. He was shy, as well as haughty, in his deportment to those who approached him. To re-establish everywhere the old religion by the unrelenting exercise of force, was his fixed purpose. Only one thing did he value more; and that was his own power, which he would not suffer Church or clergy to curb or invade. He had few ideas, but was an adept in concealment and treachery. A man of untiring industry, he was a plodder without insight. He lived to see the vast strength which fell to him as a legacy slip out of his hands, and to see Spain sink to a condition of comparative weakness. Charles V. had consolidated his dominion in that country by putting down democratic insurrections. This he had done by military force and the arm of the Inquisition. What Charles had left undone in this line, Philip completed. He quelled the resistance of the Aragonese, and reduced them to submission. Spain swarmed with civil and ecclesiastical officials. The new religious doctrine, which assumed the same type as in Italy, was stifled. The monarch displayed his zeal by personal attendance at the autos da fe, the great public ceremonials for the execution of heretics, where the victims of his intolerance perished. A system of brutal military administration was adopted in the colonies.

STATE OF THE LOW COUNTRIES.--Philip undertook to treat the Netherlands as a Spanish province, and to break down the spirit of local independence. The people of the Low Countries were industrious, intelligent, prosperous, spirited. Each of the seventeen provinces had its own constitution. In the North, it was more democratic; in Flanders and Brabant, there was a landed aristocracy. In all parts of the country, there were local privileges and cherished rights. The population numbered three millions. Antwerp, with its hundred thousand inhabitants, had more trade than any other European city. The Reformation, first in the Lutheran but later in the Calvinistic form, had numerous adherents in the Netherlands, whom severe edicts of Charles V., under which large numbers were put to death, did not extirpate.

TYRANNY OF PHILIP.--Philip did not select for his regent in the Netherlands one of the aristocracy of the country. Of this class was Count Egmont, a nobleman of brilliant courage and attractive manners. William, Prince of Orange, united with far more self-control the sagacity of a statesman. He was destined to be the formidable antagonist of Spanish tyranny, and the liberator of Holland. Philip passed by the nobles, whom he distrusted and disliked, and appointed as regent the illegitimate daughter of Charles V., Margaret of Parma (1559-1567); placing at her side, as her principal adviser, the astute Granvelle, the Bishop of Arras, one of his devoted servants, who was made cardinal in 1561. Three nobles, William of Orange, and the Counts Egmont and Horn, were in the council. The power was in Granvelle's hands. There was soon a breach between him and the nobles. Two measures of Philip created disaffection. He was slow in withdrawing the hated Spanish soldiers; he increased the number of bishops, a cherished scheme of Charles V. Moreover, he renewed and proceeded to enforce edicts, embracing minute provisions of a most rigorous character, against the property and lives of the Protestants, although the Inquisition had lost public favor. The terror and indignation of the people found expression through the nobles. They left the council. At length Granvelle had to be withdrawn from the country (1564). Egmont went to Spain to procure a mitigation of the king's policy, but found on his return that he had been duped by false promises. The young nobility formed an agreement called the Compromise, to withstand the king's system, at first by legal means (1566). They were contemptuously called "beggars" by the regent, and themselves adopted the name. The king professed a willingness to make some concessions: he was only gaining time for measures of a different sort. In the same year a storm of iconoclasm burst out: the Calvinists made reprisals for what they had suffered; they vented their zeal against what they called "idolatry," by sacking the churches, and by destroying paintings and images, and other symbols and implements of worship. Orange penetrated the designs of Philip, and retired to Nassau. Egmont, more credulous and confiding, remained.

ALVA'S RULE.--Philip now sent into the Netherlands the Duke of Alva, an officer of considerable military capacity, cold, arrogant, and merciless in his temper. His force consisted of ten thousand men. A tribunal was erected by him, called the "Council of Blood." Egmont and Horn were executed at Brussels (1568). Great numbers of executions of men and women, of all ranks, who were accused of some sort of insubordination, or some manifestation of heresy, followed. William of Orange was active in devising means of deliverance. The first marked success was the capture of Briel by the "sea-beggars," inhabitants of the coasts of Holland and Zealand, under their admiral, William de la Mark. The barbarities and extortion of Alva by degrees aroused universal and intense hatred. Holland and Zealand threw off Alva's rule, and made William their stadtholder. The nominal connection with Spain was still kept up. The massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572) cut off William from the help which he expected from the French. It was felt, however, that Alva had failed in his attempt to subjugate the people, and he was withdrawn from the country by Philip (1573).

THE UTRECHT UNION.--From the capture of Briel may be dated the beginning of the long and arduous struggle which resulted in the building-up of the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces, and the ultimate prostration of the power of Spain. The hero of the struggle was William of Orange. The successor of Alva, Requesens, was really more dangerous than Alva, because he was more magnanimous, and therefore excited less antagonism. In 1574 occurred the memorable siege of Leyden by the Spanish forces. That city, when reduced to the last extremity, was saved by letting in the sea and by inundating the neighboring plains, which compelled the Spaniards to flee in dismay. As a memorial of the heroic defense of the place, the University of Leyden was founded. A new Protestant state was growing up in the North, under the guidance of William. In the South, where Catholicism prevailed, Requesens was more successful. But when he died, in 1576, a frightful revolt of his soldiers, who were loosed from restraint, in the cities, moved all Netherlands to unite, in the Pacification of Ghent, against the Spanish dominion. Don John of Austria, a brilliant and manly soldier, who had defeated the Turks at Lepanto, was the next regent (1576-1578). He made large concessions: these were welcome in the South, and weakened the Union. Alexander of Parma (1578, 1579), his successor, was the ablest general of the time. The Catholic South was at variance with the Protestant North. In 1579, there was formed between the seven provinces in the North the Utrecht Union, the germ of the Dutch Republic. Philip proclaimed William an outlaw, and set a price on his head. After six ineffectual attempts at assassination, this heroic leader, the idol of his countrymen, was fatally shot, in his own house (1584). His work as a deliverer of his people was mainly accomplished. When the Utrecht Union was formed, the greater part of the Catholic provinces in the South entered into an arrangement with Parma. Brabant and Flanders were recovered to Spain. The attention of Philip had to be mainly given to the affairs of France and England during the remainder of his life.

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VI. THE CIVIL WARS IN FRANCE, TO THE DEATH OF HENRY IV. (1610)

FRANCIS I.: HENRY II.--In France, the old faith had strong support in the Sorbonne, the influential theological faculty of the University of Paris, and in the Parliament. The new culture, the influx of Italian scholars and Italian influences, produced a party averse to the former style of education, and, to some extent, unfriendly to the old opinions. The Lutheran doctrines were first introduced; but it was Calvinism which prevailed among the French converts to Protestantism, and acquired a strong hold in the middle and higher classes, although the preponderance of numbers in the country was always on the Catholic side. Francis I. was a friend of the new learning. His sister Margaret, Queen of Navarre, who was of a mystical turn, was favorably inclined to the new doctrines, and befriended preachers who were of the same spirit. The king did the same until after the battle of Pavia, when he helped on the persecution of them; for his conduct was governed by the interest of the hour, and by political motives. It was doubtful what course he would finally take amid the conflict of parties; but his motto was, "One king, one code, one creed." He would put down the new doctrine at home, and sustain it by force, if expedient, abroad. Henry II., who acceded to the throne in 1547, unlike his father had no personal sympathy with Protestantism. The Huguenots, as the Calvinists were called, were led to the stake, and their books burned. Yet in 1558 they had two thousand places of worship in France: they soon held a general synod at Paris, and organized themselves (1559). That same year, when, in the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis, Henry had given up all his conquests except the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, and Calais, he suddenly died from a wound in the eye, accidentally inflicted in a tilt.

CATHERINE DE MEDICI: THE TWO PARTIES.--The widow of Henry II. was Catherine de Medici, to whom he had been married from political considerations. She was a woman of talents, full of ambition which had hitherto found no field for its exercise, trained from infancy in an atmosphere of deceit, and void of moral principle. Her aim was to rule by keeping up an ascendency over her sons, and by holding in check whatever party threatened to be dominant. For this end she did not scruple to accustom her children to debauchery, and to resort to whatever other means, however false and however cruel, to effect her purposes. She proved to be the curse of the house of Valois, and the evil genius of France. Francis II. was a boy of sixteen, and legally of age; but his mother expected to manage the government. She was thwarted by the control over him exercised by the family of Guise, sons of Claude of Guise, a wealthy and prominent nobleman of Lorraine, who had distinguished himself at Marignano, and in later contests against Charles V. Francis, the Duke of Guise, had defended Metz, and had taken Calais. Charles, the Cardinal of Lorraine, was the king's confessor. Their sister had married James V. of Scotland. Her daughter, Mary Stuart, a charming young girl, was married to Francis II., who was infirm in mind and body, and easily managed by his wife and her uncles. The great nobles of France, especially the Bourbons, sprung in a collateral line from Louis IX., Montmorency, and his three nephews, among them a man of extraordinary ability and worth, the Admiral Coligny, looked on the Guises as upstarts. The Bourbons and the nobles allied to them were, some from sincere conviction and some from policy, adherents of Calvinism. Thus the Protestants in France became a political party, as well as a religious body, and a party with anti-monarchical tendencies. Anthony of Bourbon, a weak and vacillating person, had married Jeanne d'Albret, the heiress of Béarn and Navarre, a heroic woman and an earnest Protestant, the mother of Henry IV. His brother Louis, Prince of Condé, a brave, impetuous soldier, whose wife, the niece of the Grand Constable Montmorency, was a strict Protestant, joined that side.

CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE.--La Rénaudie, a Protestant nobleman who was determined to avenge the execution of a brother, contrived the Conspiracy of Amboise (1560) in order to dispossess the Guises of their power by force. The plan was discovered, and a savage revenge was taken upon the conspirators. A great number of innocent persons, who had no share in the plot, were put to death. The Estates were summoned to Orleans, and the occasion was to be seized for extirpating heresy throughout the kingdom. Condé was under arrest, and charged with high treason. Just then, on Dec. 5, 1560, the young king died.

CHARLES IX.: EDICT OF ST. GERMAIN.--The coveted opportunity of the queen-mother had come. Charles IX. (1560-1574) was only ten years old. She assumed the practical guardianship over him, and with it a virtual regency. The plan of the Guises had failed, and they had to give way. There were now two parties in the council. The States-general were called together in 1561, and a great religious colloquy was held before a brilliant concourse at Poissy, where Theodore Beza, an eloquent and polished scholar and a man of high birth, pleaded the cause of the Calvinists. In 1562 the Edict of January was issued, which gave up the policy that had been pursued for forty years, of extirpating religious dissent. A very restricted toleration was given to Protestants: they could hold their meetings outside of the walls of cities, unarmed, and in the daytime. Calvin and his followers expected the largest results from this measure of liberty. Catherine wished for peace, without a rupture with the Pope and Philip II.

CIVIL WAR.--It was impossible to prevent outbreakings of violence against the hated dissenters. The Guises and their associates were resolved not to allow toleration. The event that occasioned war was the massacre of Vassy. On the 1st of March, 1562, the soldiers of the Duke of Guise, who was passing through the town, attacked some Huguenots who were worshiping in a barn at the village of Vassy. A large number were slain, and some houses plundered, in spite of the Duke's efforts to check his troops. The civil wars, so begun, closed only with the accession of Henry IV. to the throne. France was a prey to religious and political fanaticism. Other nations mingled in the frightful contest, and the country was well-nigh robbed of its independence. At first, there was petty warfare at Paris, Sens, and other places. The Huguenots destroyed altars and censers, monuments of art and sepulchers, which, as they thought, ministered to idolatry. Rouen was captured by the Catholics and sacked. At Dreux (1562) the Protestants were defeated; but in 1563 Guise, the leader of their adversaries, was assassinated by a Huguenot nobleman. The charge that Coligny had a part in the deed was false; but he was considered responsible for it, and vengeance was kept in store by the family of the slain chief. The Edict of Amboise (1563) was favorable to the Protestant nobles, but less favorable to the smaller gentry and to the towns. Paris, from which Calvinist worship was excluded, became more and more a stronghold of the Catholic party. Another war ended in the Peace of Longjumeau (1568), which was essentially the same as the Edict of Amboise. Philip II. and the Duke of Alva spared no effort to induce France to set about the extermination of the heretics. In the third war, the Huguenots were beaten at Jarnac, where Condé fell, leaving his name to his son Henry, a youth of seventeen (1569). The same year they were defeated again at Moncontour. La Rochelle was a place of safety to the Protestants, who were strong in the wise leadership of Coligny. There the Queen of Navarre held her court. Thence the Huguenot cavalry with the young princes Condé, and Henry of Navarre, her son, sallied forth and traversed France.

ENGLAND OR SPAIN.--The ambition of Philip alarmed the French. His complex schemes, if carried out, would involve the reduction of their country under Spanish control. He wanted to liberate Mary, Queen of Scots, then a prisoner of Elizabeth, to marry her to his half-brother, Don John, and to marry his sister to Charles IX. The court, in 1570, agreed to the Peace of St. Germain, which, for the security of the Huguenots, placed four fortified towns in their possession. Thus France became a kingdom divided against itself. England, as well as France, looked with alarm upon the ambitious projects of Philip II., who was now in union with Venice and with the Pope, and had beaten the Turks at Lepanto. It was proposed to marry the brother of Charles IX., the Duke of Anjou, to Queen Elizabeth; and when this negotiation was broken off, it was proposed that the Duke of Alençon, a younger brother, should marry her. Catherine de Medici fell in with this anti-Spanish policy. It was agreed that her youngest daughter, Margaret of Valois, should become the wife of Henry of Navarre. The policy favored by the Huguenots was in the ascendant. Their leaders were invited to Paris to be present at the nuptials. Coligny came, with Henry of Navarre, Condé, and a large number of their adherents. There was no place where the animosity against them was so rancorous.

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.--The massacre of St. Bartholomew was devised by Catherine de Medici, who brought to her aid the Duchess of Nemours, widow of Francis of Guise and mother of Henry of Guise, Anjou (afterwards Henry III.), and Italian counselors who were no strangers to plots of assassination. The motive of the queen-mother was her dread of the ascendency which she saw that Coligny was gaining over the morbid mind of the king, in whom the Huguenot veteran had inspired esteem, and had stirred up a desire to enter into the proposed war against Philip II. in the Netherlands. On the 22d of August (1572), a shot was fired at Coligny, from a window of a house, by an adherent of the Guises. He was wounded, but not killed. Charles was incensed. At a visit made to the wounded chief, the king was warned by him, as Catherine quickly learned, against her pernicious influence in the government. Thereupon she arranged with her confederates for a general slaughter of the Huguenots, and almost coerced the half-frantic and irresolute king to acquiesce in the plan. Perhaps, in gathering them into the city, she had foreseen the possible expediency of a change of policy, and that such a crime as she now undertook to perpetrate might be found desirable. In the night of the 24th of August, at a concerted signal, the fanatical enemies of the Huguenots were let loose, and fell upon their victims. Several thousands, including Coligny, were murdered. Couriers were sent through the country, and like bloody scenes were enacted in many other cities and towns. Navarre and Condé, to save their lives, professed conformity to the Catholic Church. If these atrocious events excited joy in the mind of Philip II., and of the numerous intolerant party of which he was the head, they were regarded with horror and execration elsewhere, among the Catholic as well as the Protestant nations.

THE POLITIQUES: THE LEAGUE: HENRY III.--The queen-mother did not even now forsake her general policy. She stood aloof from the combinations of Philip. A new party, the Politiques, or liberal Catholics, in favor of toleration, arose. Henry III. (1574-1589) was incompetent to govern a country torn by factions, with an exhausted treasury, and a people groaning under the burdens of taxation. By his double dealing he lost the confidence of both the religious parties. In May, 1576, he agreed to allow the religious freedom which the Huguenots and Politiques demanded. But he had to reckon with the Catholic League which was organized under Henry of Guise. In 1584 Henry of Navarre was left the next heir to the throne. The League, with Spain and Rome, resolved that he should not reign. Together with Condé, he was excommunicated. In the war of he "three Henrys," he was supported by England, and by troops from Germany and Switzerland. Henry III., finding that Henry of Guise was virtual master, and that the States-general at Blois (1588) reduced the royal power to the lowest point, caused Guise and his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, to be assassinated. Excommunicated, and detested by the adherents of the League, the king took refuge in the camp of Henry of Navarre, where he was killed by a fanatical priest (1589).

ABJURATION AND ACCESSION OF HENRY IV.--The Duke of Mayenne, brother of the slain Guises, was at the head of the government provisionally established by the League. Philip II. was intriguing to bring the Catholic nations under his sway. There was discord in the League, from the jealousy of Philip on the part of Mayenne. Henry, a dashing soldier, gained a brilliant victory at Ivry in 1590. The grand obstacle in his way to the throne was his adhesion to Protestantism. A Calvinist by birth and education, but without profound religious convictions, a gallant and sagacious man, but loose in his morals, he yielded, for the sake of giving peace to France, to the persuasions addressed to him, and, from motives of expediency, conformed to the Catholic Church. The nation was now easily won to his cause.

REIGN OF HENRY IV.--When Henry IV. gained his throne, the country was in a most wretched condition. In the desolating wars, population had fallen off. Everywhere there were poverty and lawlessness. Yet war with Spain was inevitable. In this war, Henry was the victor; and the Peace of Vervins restored the Spanish conquests, and the conquests made by Savoy, to France (1598). The idea of Henry's foreign policy, which was that of weakening the power of Spain and of the house of Hapsburg, was afterwards taken up by a powerful statesman, Richelieu, and fully realized. In the Edict of Nantes (1598), the king secured to the Huguenots the measure of religious liberty for which they had contended. Fortified cities were still left in their hands. Security was obtained by the Calvinists, but they became a defensive party with no prospect of further progress. Order and prosperity were restored to the kingdom. In all his measures, the king was largely guided by a most competent minister, Sully. But the useful reign of Henry IV. was cut short by the dagger of an assassin, Ravaillac (1610). For fifteen years confusion prevailed in France, and a contest of factions, until Richelieu took up the threads of policy which had fallen from Henry's hand.

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VII. THE THIRTY-YEARS' WAR, TO THE PEACE OP WESTPHALIA (1618-1648)

ORIGIN OF THE WAR.--In Germany, more than in any other country, the Reformation had sprung from the hearts of the people. Its progress would have been far greater had it not been retarded by political obstacles, and by divisions among Protestants themselves. Germany, to be sure, was not disunited by the Reformation: it was disunited before. But now strong states existed on its borders,--France, even Denmark and Sweden,--which might profit by its internal conflicts. The Peace of Augsburg, unsatisfactory as it was to both parties, availed to prevent open strife as long as Ferdinand I. (1556-1564) and Maximilian II. (1564-1576) held the imperial office. The latter, especially, favored toleration, and did not sympathize with the fanaticism of the Spanish branch of his family. He condemned the cruelties of Alva and the massacre of St. Bartholomew. With the accession of Rudolph II., a change took place. He had been brought up in Spain. The Catholic counter-reformation was now making its advance. The order of the _Jesuits _was putting forth great and successful exertions to win back lost ground. There were out-breakings of violence between the two religious parties. A Catholic procession was insulted in Donauwörth, a free city of the empire. The city was put under the ban by the emperor; the Bavarian Duke marched against it, and incorporated it in his own territory (1607). On both sides, complaints were made of the infraction of the Peace of Augsburg. The Donauwörth affair led to the formation of the Evangelical Union, a league into which, however, all the Protestant states did not enter. The Catholic League, under the Leadership of Maximilian of Bavaria, was firmly knit together and full of energy.

FIRST STAGE IN THE WAR (to 1629).

THE BOHEMIAN STRUGGLE.--The Bohemians revolted against Ferdinand II. in 1618, when their religious liberties were violated, and shortly after (1619) refused to acknowledge him as their king. He was a narrow and fanatical, though not by nature a cruel, ruler. He gave himself up to the control of the Catholic League. The two branches of the Hapsburg family--the Austrian and Spanish--were now in full accord with each other. The Bohemians gave their crown to Frederick V., the Elector Palatine, the son-in-law of James I. of England. Bohemia was invaded by Ferdinand, aided by the League, and abandoned to fire and sword. The terrible scenes of the Hussite struggle were re-enacted. In the protracted wars that ensued, it was estimated that the Bohemian population was reduced from about four millions to between seven and eight hundred thousand! The Palatinate was conquered and devastated. The electoral dignity was transferred to the Duke of Bavaria. At last, in 1625, England, Holland, and Denmark intervened in behalf of the fugitive Elector Palatine. Christian IV. of Denmark was defeated, and the intervention failed. The power gained by Maximilian, the Bavarian Duke, made his interests separate, in important particulars, from those of Ferdinand. Ferdinand was able to release himself from the virtual control of Maximilian and the League, through Wallenstein, a general of extraordinary ability. He was a Bohemian noble, proud, ambitious, and wealthy. He raised an army, and made it support itself by pillage. The unspeakable miseries of Germany, in this prolonged struggle, were due largely to the composition of the armies, which were made up of hirelings of different nations, whose trade was war, and who were let loose on an unprotected population. Captured cities were given up to the unbridled passions of a fierce and greedy soldiery. Germany, traversed for a whole generation by these organized bands of marauders, was in many places reduced almost to a desert.

EDICT OF RESTITUTION.--Victory attended the arms of Wallenstein, and of Tilly, a brutal commander, the general of the League. The territory of the Dukes of Mecklenburg was given to Wallenstein as a reward (1629). He was anxious to conquer the German towns on the Baltic. Stralsund offered a stubborn resistance, which he could not overcome. The League moved Ferdinand to the adoption of the Edict of Restitution (1629), which put far off the hope of peace. This edict enforced the parts of the Peace of Augsburg which were odious to the Protestants, especially the Ecclesiastical Reservation (p. 410), and abrogated the provisions of an opposite tenor. It was evident that the real aim was the entire extinction of Protestantism. The League, moreover, induced the emperor to remove Wallenstein, of whom they were jealous. The effect of these measures was to rouse the most lukewarm of the Protestant princes, including the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, to a sense of the common danger. It was plain that Wallenstein was a sacrifice to the League, and to the ambition of Maximilian of Bavaria.

SECOND STAGE IN THE WAR (1629-1632).

In the second act of this long drama, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden is the hero. His reign is marked by the rise of his country to the height of its power.

EVENTS IN SWEDEN: CAREER OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.--Gustavus Vasa made the mistake of undertaking to divide power among his four sons. There was a vein of eccentricity, amounting sometimes to insanity, in the family. Eric XIV. was hasty and jealous, imprisoned his brother John, and committed reckless crimes. In 1569 he was himself confined, and nine years after was secretly put to death. John and another brother, Charles of Südermanland, now reigned together. John was favorable to the Roman-Catholic Church, and offended his Protestant subjects by efforts at union and compromise. Moreover, he unwisely made concessions to the nobles, and increased the burdens of the peasants. Finally, he wanted to make his son Sigismund king of Poland, a country which, from its anarchical constitution, was on the road to ruin. Poland was a Catholic land; and, in order to get the crown, Sigismund avowed himself a Catholic. Charles, a strict Lutheran, drew to his side all who were hostile to John's spirit and policy. On the death of the latter (1592), Duke Charles came into collision with Sigismund and with the nobles, whose power depended on his concessions; and he gained the victory over them (1598). In 1604 the Diet gave him the crown, which he wore for seven years. He had to contend against faction, and to withstand the attacks of Denmark and of Russia. In the midst of these troubles he died, and was succeeded by his son Gustavus Adolphus, then less than eighteen years of age (1611-1632). He was a well-educated prince, early familiar with war, a devoted patriot, and, although tolerant in his temper, was a sincere Protestant, after the type of the old Saxon electors. For eighteen years after his accession, it had been his aim to control the Baltic. This had brought him into conflict with Denmark, Poland, and Russia. His interposition in the German war, a step which was full of peril to himself, was regarded by Brandenburg and Saxony with jealousy and repugnance. But when the savage troops of Tilly (1631) sacked and burned Magdeburg, the neutral party was driven to side with Sweden. Gustavus defeated Tilly, and the advance of his army in the South of Germany prostrated the power of the League. The princes regarded the Swedish king with suspicion: the cities regarded him with cordiality. Whether along with his sagacious and just intentions he connected his own elevation to the rank of King of Rome, and emperor, must be left uncertain. Ferdinand was obliged to call back Wallenstein. The battle of Lützen, in 1632, was a great defeat of Wallenstein, and a grand victory for the Swedes; but it cost them the life of their king.

FRANCE.--THE BOURBON KINGS.

HENRY IV, 1589-1610, (2), m. Mary, daughter of Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany | +--LOUIS XIII, 1610-1643, m. | Anne, daughter of Philip III of Spain. | | | +--LOUIS XIV, 1643-1715, m. Maria Theresa, | | daughter of Philip IV of Spain. | | | | | +--Louis, Dauphin, d. 1711, m. Maria Anna, | | | daughter of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria. | | | | | | | +--Louis, Duke of Burgundy, d. 1712, m. | | | Mary Adelaide, daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. | | | | | | | +--LOUIS XV, 1715-1774, m. | | | Mary, daughter of Stanislas Leczinsky, King of Poland. | | | | | | | +--Louis, Dauphin, d. 1765, m | | | Maria Josepha, daughter of Frederick Augustus II | | | of Poland and Saxony. | | | | | | | +--LOUIS XVI, 1774-1792 (deposed, executed 1793), | | | | m. Marie Antoinette, daughter of | | | | Emperor Francis I. | | | | | | | +--Louis, Count of Provence (LOUIS XVIII), | | | | 1814-1824. | | | | | | | +--Charles, Count of Artois (CHARLES X), 1824-1830 | | | (deposed),m Maria Theresa, daughter | | | of Victor Amadeus III of Savoy. | | | | | +--Francoise (Mademoiselle de Blois), | | m. | | +--Philip, regent, _d._1723. | | | | | | | +--Louis, d. 1752. | | | | | | | +--Louis Philippe, d. 1785. | | | | | | | +--Louis Philippe (Egalite), executed 1793. | | | | | | | +--LOUIS PHILIPPE, 1830-1848 (deposed), m. | | | Maria Amelia, daughter of | | | Ferdinand I of Two Sicilies. | | | | | (2), Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Lewis, Elector Palatine. | | (1), Henrietta Maria. | +--Philip, m. | +--Henrietta Maria m. Charles I of England.

THIRD STAGE IN THE WAR (1632-1648).

FRANCE AFTER HENRY IV.--After the death of Gustavus, in the new phase of the war, the influence of Richelieu, the great minister of France, becomes more and more dominant. Germany was in the end doomed to eat the bitter fruits of civil war, such as spring from foreign interference, even when it comes in the form of help. Henry IV. had died when he was on the point of directing the power of France, as of old, against the house of Hapsburg. The country now fell back for a series of years to a state akin to that under the kings who preceded him, although it was saved from a long civil war. Louis XIII. (1610-1643) was a child; and the queen, Mary de Medici, who was the regent, an Italian woman, with no earnest principles, deprived of the counsels of Sully, lavished the resources of the crown upon nobles, who were greedy of place and pelf. At the assembly of the States-general in 1614, nobles, clergy, and the third estate were loud in reciprocal accusations. The queen fell under the influence of the Concinis, an Italian waiting-maid and her husband, the latter of whom she made a marquis and a marshal of France. She leagued herself in various ways with Spain. As the king grew older, a party rallied about him, and the marshal was assassinated (1617). From that time Louis was under the influence of a favorite, the Duke de Luynes, a native Frenchman, with whom the nobles were in sympathy. The duke died in 1621. Then Richelieu, Bishop of Lucon (made a cardinal in 1622), a statesman of extraordinary genius, began his active career in politics, and after 1624 guided the policy of France, as a sort of Mayor of the Palace. Louis XIII. was not personally fond of him, but felt the need of him. Richelieu's aim, as regards the government of France, was to consolidate the monarchy by bringing the aristocracy into subjection to the king. Under him began the process of centralization, the system of officers appointed and paid by the government, which was fully developed after the great revolution. He accomplished the overthrow of the Huguenots as a political organization, a state within the state. In 1628 Rochelle, the last of their towns, fell into his hands. He was determined to make the civil authority supreme. He resisted interference with its rights on the part of the Church. The nobles were reduced to obedience by the infliction of severe punishments. The common people were kept under. But the domestic government of Richelieu made it possible for the selfish and ruinous policy of Louis XIV. to arise. The key of his foreign policy was hostility to Austria and Spain, to both branches of the Hapsburgs. Before he took active measures against them, he had to procure quiet in France, and to provide himself with money and troops.

INTERVENTION OF RICHELIEU.--The pretext of Richelieu for taking part in the German war was the alleged ambitious aim of the Hapsburgs to destroy the independence of other nations. He helped Gustavus with money; but the Swedish king would neither allow him to take territory, nor to dictate the method of prosecuting the contest. It was agreed that the Catholic religion as such should not be attacked. Oxenstiern, the Swedish chancelor, in the Heilbronn Treaty (1633) adhered to the same policy.

DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN.--Wallenstein had now become dangerous to the emperor. He negotiated with the Protestants, the Swedes, and the French, possibly to confront the emperor with the accomplished fact of peace and to claim as a reward the Palatinate or the Kingdom of Bohemia. Deprived of his command and declared a traitor, he was assassinated by some of his officers (1634).

END OF THE WAR.--The imperial victory of Nordlingen (1634) made the active assistance of France necessary. But it was not until the death of Bernard of Weimar, the foremost general of the Germans (1639), that Richelieu found himself at the goal of his efforts. The armies opposed to the emperor were now under the control of the French. The character of the war had changed. Protestant states were fighting on the imperial side: the old theological issues were largely forgotten. Yet the Court of Vienna still clung to the Edict of Restitution (p. 424) for eight long years, during which the confused, frightful warfare was kept up. At last the military reverses of the emperor, Ferdinand III. (1637-1657), who, unlike his father, was not indisposed to peace, wrung from him a consent to the necessary conditions.

EFFECTS OF THE WAR.--The barbarities of this long war are indescribable. The unarmed people were treated with brutal ferocity. The population of Germany is said to have diminished in thirty years from twenty to fifty per cent. The population of one city, Augsburg, fell from eighty to eighteen thousand. There were four hundred thousand people in Würtemberg: in 1641 only forty-eight thousand were left. In fertile districts, the destruction of the crops had caused great numbers to perish by famine. It is only in recent years that the number of horned cattle in Germany has come to equal what it was in 1618. Cities, villages, castles, and dwellings innumerable, had been burned to the ground.

THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA.--The Peace of Westphalia, concluded in 1648, was a great European settlement. It was agreed, that in Germany, whatever might be the faith of the prince, the religion of each state was to be Catholic or Protestant, according to its position in 1624, which was fixed upon as the "normal year." In the imperial administration, the two religions were to be substantially equal. Religious freedom and civil equality were extended to the Calvinists. The empire was reduced to a shadow by giving to the Diet the power to decide in all important matters, and by the permission given to its members to make alliances with one another and with foreign powers, with the futile proviso that no prejudice should come thereby to the empire or the emperor. The independence of Holland and Switzerland was acknowledged. Sweden obtained the territory about the Baltic, in addition to other important places, and became a member of the German Diet. Among the acquisitions of France were the three bishoprics, Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and the landgraviate of Upper and Lower Alsace. Thus France gained access to the Rhine. Sweden and France, by becoming guarantors of the peace, obtained the right to interfere in the internal affairs of Germany.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY.--By this treaty, what was left of central authority in Germany was destroyed: the empire existed only in name; the mediæval union of empire and papacy was at an end. Valuable German territories were given up to ambitious neighbors. France had extended her bounds, and disciplined her troops. Sweden had gained what Gustavus had coveted, and, for the time, was a power of the first class. Spain and Austria were both disabled, and reduced in rank.

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VIII. SECOND STAGE OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND: TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH (1547-1603)

REIGN OF EDWARD VI. (1547-1553).--Henry VIII., with Parliament, had determined the order of succession, giving precedence to Edward, his son by Jane Seymour, over the two princesses, Mary, the daughter of Catherine, and Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn. Edward VI., who was but ten years old at his accession, was weak in body, but was a most remarkable instance of intellectual precocity. The government now espoused the Protestant side. Somerset, the king's uncle, was at the head of the regency. The Six Articles (p. 407) were repealed. Protestant theologians from the Continent were taken into the counsels of the English prelates, Cranmer and Ridley. Under the leadership of Cranmer, the Book of Common Prayer was framed, and the Articles, or creed, composed. The clergy were allowed to marry. The Anglican Protestant Church was fully organized, but the progress in the Protestant direction was rather too rapid for the sense of the nation. Somerset, who was fertile in schemes and a good soldier, invaded Scotland in order to enforce the fulfilling of the treaty which had promised the young Princess Mary of Scotland to Edward in marriage. He defeated the Scots at Pinkie, near Edinburgh; but the project as to the marriage failed. Mary was sent by the Scots to France, there to become the wife of Francis II. Land belonging to the Church was seized by Somerset to make room for Somerset House. A Catholic rebellion in Cornwall and Devonshire, provoked by the Protector's course, was suppressed with difficulty. The opposition to him on various grounds, which was led by the Duke of Northumberland, finally brought the Protector to the scaffold. But Northumberland proved to be less worthy to hold the protectorate than he, and labored to aggrandize his relatives. He was one of the nobles who made use of Protestantism as a means of enriching themselves. He persuaded the young king, when he was near his end, to settle the crown, contrary to what Parliament had determined, on Lady Jane Grey, Northumberland's daughter-in-law, a descendant of Henry's sister.

THE REIGN OF MARY.--Notwithstanding the Protector's selfish scheme, Mary succeeded to the throne without serious difficulty. Northumberland was beheaded as a traitor. An insurrection under Wyat was put down, and led to the execution of the unfortunate and innocent Lady Jane Grey. From her birth and all the circumstances of her life, Mary was in cordial sympathy with the Church of Rome and with Spain. She proceeded as rapidly as her more prudent advisers, including her kinsman Philip II., would allow, to restore the Catholic system. The married clergy were excluded from their places, and the Prayer-Book was abolished. The point where Parliament showed most hesitation was in reference to the royal supremacy. The nobles were afraid of losing their fields and houses, which had belonged to the Church. It was stipulated that the abbey lands, which were now held by the nobles and gentry as well as by the crown, should not be given up. Personally, Mary was inclined to any measure which obligation to the Catholic religion might dictate. Contrary to the general wish of her subjects, she married Philip II. Rigorous measures of repression were adopted against the Protestants. A large number of persons, eminent for talents and learning, were put to death on the charge of heresy. Among them were the three bishops, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, who were burned at the stake at Oxford (1556). Gardiner, Bonner, and the rigid advocates of persecution, had full sway. These severe measures were not popular; and, although the queen was not in her natural temper cruel, they have given her the name of the "Bloody Mary." Each party used coercion when it had the upper hand. A great number of the Protestant clergy fled to the Continent. Mary sided with Spain against France, and, greatly to the disgust of the English, lost Calais (1558). Pope Paul IV. was disposed to press upon England the extreme demands of the Catholic Reaction. He was, moreover, hostile to the Spanish-Austrian house. There was great fear respecting the confiscated Church property: her own share in it, the queen persuaded Parliament to allow her to surrender. Cardinal Pole, a moderate man, no longer guided her policy. He was deprived of the office of papal legate. General discontent prevailed in the kingdom. The queen herself was dispirited, and her life ended in anxiety and sorrow.

CHARACTER OF ELIZABETH (1558-1603).--The nation welcomed Elizabeth to the throne. Her will was as imperious as that of her father. Her character was not without marked faults and foibles. She was vain, unwisely parsimonious, petulant, and overbearing, and evinced that want of truthfulness which was too common among rulers and statesmen at that period. But she had regal virtues,--high courage, devotion to the public good, for which she had the strength to sacrifice personal inclinations, together with the wisdom to choose astute counselors and to adhere to them. Her title to the throne was disputed. She had to contend against powerful and subtle adversaries. Her defense lay in the mutual jealousy of France and Spain, and in the determination of Englishmen not to be ruled by foreigners. Her reign was long and glorious.

HER RELIGIOUS POSITION.--In her doctrine, Elizabeth was a moderate Lutheran, not bitterly averse to the Church of Rome, but, in accordance with the prevalent English feeling which Henry VIII. represented, clinging to the royal supremacy. The Protestant system, with the Prayer-Book, and the hierarchy dependent on the sovereign, was now restored.

PROTESTANTISM IN SCOTLAND.--In case Elizabeth's claim to the crown were overthrown, the next heir would be Mary, Queen of Scots. Her grandmother was the eldest sister of Henry VIII. Her claim to the English crown was a standing menace to Elizabeth. When Mary's father, James V., died (1542), she was only a few days old. Her mother, Mary of Guise, became regent. The Reformation had then begun to gain adherents in Scotland. On the accession of Elizabeth, at a time when the religious wars in France were about to begin, the Scottish regent undertook repressive measures of increased rigor. The principal agent in turning Scotland to the Protestant side was John Knox, an intrepid preacher, honest, and rough in his ways, deeply imbued with the spirit of Calvinism, and free from every vestige of superstitious deference for human potentates. He returned from the Continent in 1555. Many of the turbulent nobles, partly from conviction and partly from covetousness, adopted the new opinions. More and more, however, Knox gained a hold upon the common people. His preaching was effective: one of its natural consequences was an outburst of iconoclasm. Even Philip II. was willing to have the nobles helped in the contest with the regent, Scotland being the ally of France. The queen-regent died in 1560. The Presbyterians now had full control, and Calvinistic Protestantism was legally established as the religion of the country.

THE QUEEN OF SCOTS.--Such was the situation when Mary, the young widow of Francis II., came back to Scotland to assume her crown. A zealous Catholic, she undertook to rule a turbulent people among whom the most austere type of Protestantism was the legal and cherished faith. She had personal charms which Elizabeth lacked, but as a sovereign she was wanting in the public virtue which belonged to her rival. Mary was quick-witted and full of energy; but she had been brought up in the court of Catherine de Medici, in an atmosphere of duplicity and lax morals. She had the vices of the Stuarts,--an extravagant idea of the sacred prerogatives of kings, a disregard of popular rights, a willingness to break engagements. Her levity, even if it had been kept within bounds, would have been offensive to her Calvinistic subjects. She had at heart the restoration of the Catholic system. In Knox she found a vigilant and fearless antagonist, with so much support among the nobles and the common people that her attempts at coercion, like her blandishments, proved powerless. Contrary to the wishes and plans of Elizabeth, she married Darnley, a Scottish nobleman (1565), whom, not without reason, she soon learned to despise. Her half-brother Murray, a very able man, and the other Protestant nobles, had been opposed to the match. She allowed herself an innocent, but unseemly, intimacy with an Italian musician, Rizzio. With the connivance of her husband, he was dragged out of her supper-room at Holyrood, and brutally murdered by Ruthven and other conspirators. In 1567, the house in which Darnley was sleeping, close by Edinburgh, was blown up with gunpowder, and he was killed. Whether Mary was privy to the murder, or not, is a point still in dispute. Certain it is that she gave her hand in marriage to Bothwell, the prime author of the crime. A revolt of her subjects followed. She was compelled to abdicate: Murray was made regent, and her infant son, James VI., was crowned at Stirling (1567). Escaping from confinement at Lochleven, she was defeated at Langside, and obliged to fly to England for protection.

EXECUTION OF MARY.--Elizabeth had no liking for the new religious system in Scotland. She hated the necessity of aiding rebels against their sovereign. But there was no alternative. In 1569 the defeat of the Huguenots in France was followed by a Catholic rebellion in the North of England. Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope Pius V. There was a determination to dethrone her, and to hand over her crown to Mary. The drift of events was towards a conflict of England with Spain. The Duke of Norfolk, a leader in conspiracy and rebellion, who acted in concert with Philip and with Mary, was brought to the scaffold (1572). Elizabeth secretly aided the revolted subjects of Philip in the Netherlands, as Philip encouraged the malcontents in England and Ireland. The Queen of Scots was the center of the hopes of the enemies of England and of Elizabeth. When her complicity in the conspiracy of Babington, which involved a Spanish invasion and the dethronement and death of Elizabeth, was proved, Mary, after having been a captive for nineteen years, was condemned to death, and executed (1587) at Fotheringay Castle.

THE SPANISH ARMADA.--In 1585 Elizabeth openly sent troops to the Netherlands under the command of her favorite, Leicester. The contest with Spain was kept up on the sea by bold English mariners, who captured the Spanish treasure-ships, and harassed the Spanish colonies. It was a period of maritime adventure, when men like Frobisher, Hawkins, and Raleigh made themselves famous, and when Sir Francis Drake sailed around the world. In the course of this voyage, Drake had seized from the Spanish vessels, and from the settlements on the coast of Peru and Chili, a vast amount of silver and gold. When it was known that Philip was preparing to invade England, Drake sailed into the harbor of Cadiz, and destroyed the ships and stores there (1587). He burned every Spanish vessel that he could find. He boasted on his return that he had "singed the king of Spain's beard." Philip made ready a mighty naval expedition, the "Invincible Armada," for the conquest of England. The fame of it resounded through Europe. A Spanish force in the Netherlands, under Parma, was to coöperate with it. In England, there were preparations to meet the attack. Catholics and Protestants were united for the defense of the kingdom. At Tilbury, Queen Elizabeth reviewed her troops on horseback, saying to them in a spirited speech, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too." The tempest, aiding the valor of the English seamen, dispersed the great fleet. No landing was effected, and the grand enterprise proved a complete failure. Only fifty-four out of the one hundred and fifty vessels succeeded in making their way back to Spain.

MONOPOLIES.--The queen knew how to yield to the people when she saw that they were determined upon a measure. This she did near the close of her reign, when the Commons called upon her to put an end to the monopolies which she had been in the habit of granting to individuals whom she specially liked.

THE EARL OF ESSEX.--The queen had her personal favorites. Among them, Robert Dudley, whom she made the Earl of Leicester, was the one of whom she was most fond. She esteemed him much above his merits. Another of her favorites was the young Earl of Essex, who was vain and ambitious. He went in 1596 with Lord Howard in an expedition which took and plundered Cadiz. Then he was sent to Ireland in command of an army. He failed, and came back to England without leave. He made a foolish attempt at insurrection, was tried for treason, and convicted; and Elizabeth reluctantly signed the warrant for his execution (1601).

CONQUEST OF IRELAND.--After the return of Essex from Ireland, where he had done nothing well, Lord Mountjoy was sent to conquer Tyrone, the Desmonds, and other Irish chiefs. It was a long and fierce contest. He succeeded in subduing the country; but the effect of his conquest was a terrible famine in the North, where the food had been destroyed. At the end of Elizabeth's reign, all Ireland was subject to England.

THE PURITANS.--Uniformity in the forms of religious worship was ordained by law in England, and the queen was bent on enforcing it. A Court of High Commission was established to punish heresy and nonconformity. This policy early brought on a conflict, not only with the Roman Catholics, but also with the large and growing class of Protestants who were called "Puritans." These wished to carry the Reformation farther than it had been carried by the Tudors in England, and to make the English Church more like the Calvinistic churches in Scotland and on the Continent. They disliked surplices and other vestments worn by the clergy, which they pronounced "badges of popery," the sign of the cross used in baptism, and like customs retained in the Church as established by law. Many of them became opposed to the whole prelatical organization. They did not admit the supremacy of the sovereign, as Elizabeth claimed it, in things having to do with the Church and religion. Many of the Puritans conformed to the existing system of Church government and worship, but under a protest and with the hope of seeing it changed. Others were nonconformists; that is, they did not formally break off from the English Church, but avoided taking part in the forms of worship of which they disapproved. This class was numerous. A third and smaller class, the "Independents," separated from the Established Church, and disbelieved in national churches, or a national organization of religion, altogether. They formed religious societies of their own. Thus English Protestants were divided among themselves. Upon both Puritans and Roman Catholics--upon the latter, partly on political grounds--severe penalties were inflicted. Churchman and Puritan, while they agreed substantially in theology, stood at variance in regard to Church government and modes of worship.

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IX. THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE COMMONWEALTH (1603-1658)

JAMES I.--James VI. of Scotland, and I. of England, was the son of Mary Stuart and Darnley. Scotland and England were now united under one king. He was not wanting in acquirements, and plumed himself on his knowledge of theology. A conceited pedant, he was impatient of dissent from his opinions. In Scotland, among insubordinate nobles and the ministers of the Kirk,--who on one occasion went so far as to pull his sleeve when they addressed to him their rebukes,--he had hardly tasted the sweets of regal power. The deference with which the English clergy treated him deepened his attachment to their Church. He had high notions of the divine right of kings. "No bishop, no king," was his favorite maxim. Early, in the Hampton Court Conference between the bishops and the Puritans, over which James presided, he showed his antipathy to the Puritans. It may be here stated, that a suggestion there made led to the making of the Authorized Version of the Bible, for which previous translations, especially the translation of Tyndale, furnished the basis. The king's severity to the Catholics was the occasion of the "Gunpowder Plot," a project that failed, for blowing up the Parliament House by means of powder placed under it, to which one Guy Fawkes was to apply the match (1605).

IRELAND.--The Earl of Tyrone, an Irish chief, fell into a dispute with the English authorities, and, with another Irish earl, fled to Spain. The best of their lands in Ulster were given to English and Scotch colonists. Only what was left of the land was granted to the Irish, many of whom were dispossessed of their homes. The Ulster colonies were industrious and prosperous; but among the natives, seeds of lasting enmity were sown by this injustice.

JAMES'S FOREIGN POLICY.--The nation became imbittered against the king. One grievance was the sale not only of patents of nobility, but also of monopolies to companies or individuals. This was a continuance of an old abuse. The trial and conviction of Lord Bacon, the Lord Chancelor, who was impeached on the charge of receiving presents which were intended to influence his decisions as a judge, was one evidence of the corruption of the times, and of the displeasure occasioned by it. Instead of aiding his son-in-law, Frederick V., the Elector Palatine, whose dominions had been seized by a Spanish army sent to aid his enemies, James busied himself with schemes for marrying his son Charles to the Infanta, or Princess, Maria of Spain, the sister of Philip IV. As a part of his truckling to Spain, he caused Sir Walter Raleigh to be executed. Raleigh, who had no love for Spain, had long been kept in the Tower on the charge of treason; but the king, who wanted gold, had permitted him to go on a voyage to South America to seek for it. There, without his fault, some of his men had a collision with the Spaniards, up the Orinoco. Not having procured any treasure, he was disposed to attack Spanish ships; but the captains with him would not consent. On his return to England, he was again thrown into prison, and brought to the block. At length the marriage treaty with Spain, to the joy of the nation, was broken off. Charles, it was agreed, should marry Henrietta Maria, the sister of Louis XIII., the king of France. The king came to a better understanding with Parliament, which had constantly opposed his policy and withstood his arrogant assumption of absolute authority.

CHARLES I. (1625-1649).--Charles I. in dignity of person far excelled his father. He had more skill and more courage; but he had the same theory of arbitrary government, and acted as if insincerity and the breaking of promises were excusable in defense of it. His strife with Parliament began at once. They would not grant supplies of money without a redress of grievances and the removal of Buckingham, the king's favorite. War had begun with Spain before the close of the last reign. An expedition was now sent to Cadiz, but it accomplished nothing. Buckingham was impeached; but before the trial ended, the king dissolved Parliament. A year later he went to war with France. He was then obliged (1628) to grant to his third Parliament their Petition of Right, which condemned his recent illegal doings,--arbitrary taxes and imprisonment, the billeting of soldiers on householders, proceedings of martial law. A few months later Buckingham was assassinated by one John Felton at Portsmouth. Certain taxes called tonnage and poundage, Charles continued to levy by his own authority. A patriotic leader and a prominent speaker in the House of Commons was Sir John Eliot. The king dissolved Parliament (1629), and sent Eliot and two other members of the House to prison. No other Parliament was summoned for eleven years. The king aimed to establish an absolute system of rule such as Richelieu had built up in France. Two ministers were employed by him in furthering this policy. One was a layman, Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, who exercised almost unlimited power in the northern counties. The other was William Laud, Bishop of London and then Archbishop of Canterbury (1633), who undertook to force the Puritans to conform to all the observances of the Church. Two courts--the High Commission, before which the clergy were brought; and the Star Chamber, which was made up from the king's council--were the instruments for carrying out this tyranny. Grievous and shameful punishments were inflicted on the victims of it.

JOHN HAMPDEN.--There was need of a fleet. Charles, without asking any grant from Parliament, undertook to levy a tax called "ship-money" in every shire. John Hampden, a country gentleman, refused to pay it. The judges gave a verdict against him, but he won great applause from patriotic Englishmen.

BEGINNING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.--In 1637 Charles embarked in the foolish enterprise of endeavoring to force the English liturgy upon Scotland. This called out the Solemn League and Covenant of the Scots for the defense of Presbyterianism. For eleven years the king had governed without a Parliament, but he needed money. The "Short Parliament" was assembled; but, as it refused to obey the king, it was quickly dissolved. The invasion of the Scots in 1640 made it necessary for Charles to assemble that body known as the Long Parliament, one of the most memorable of all legislative assemblies. Strafford and Laud were impeached. Strafford, by a bill of attainder passed by both Houses, was condemned and executed (1641). It was enacted that the present Parliament should not be dissolved or prorogued without its own consent,--an act which Charles reluctantly sanctioned. The Star Chamber and High Commission Courts were abolished. A great Irish insurrection broke out in Ulster. It has already been related how Henry VIII. established in Ireland his ecclesiastical system; how, during Elizabeth's reign, there was fierce and incessant war with the Desmonds, and other Anglo-Irish families, who resisted Protestantism; and how James I., robbing many Irish of their lands, planted in Ulster numerous English and Scotch Protestant settlers. These were now massacred in great numbers by the Irish, who almost succeeded in seizing Dublin. Parliament would not trust Charles with an army to use in Ireland, fearing that the troops would be used by him to defend his arbitrary government at home. The king came to the House of Commons with a body of armed men, and made an abortive attempt to seize five members on the charge of resisting his authority, among whom were John Hampden, and John Pym, who was one of the most influential orators on the popular side. A bill was passed excluding the bishops from the House of Lords, where a majority were for the king. To this Charles consented, but he refused to allow Parliament to control the militia.

The CIVIL WAR: SUCCESS OF CROMWELL.--In July, 1642, Parliament appointed a Committee of Public Safety, and called out the militia. Soon Charles raised the royal standard at Nottingham. In the civil war, on one side were the Royalists, who were familiarly styled cavaliers (that is, horsemen, or gentlemen), and on the other were the Parliamentarians, who were nicknamed Roundheads, for the reason that the Puritans did not follow the fashion of allowing their hair to fall in tresses on the shoulders.

The Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary general, fought an indecisive battle with the king at Edgehill. Charles then made Oxford his headquarters. Early in the war, two men of spotless character fell,--Hampden, on the popular side (1643), and Lord Falkland (1643), who, not without hesitation, had joined the Royalists. The cavalry of Charles, under a gallant but rash leader, Prince Rupert, son of the Electress Palatine, and grandson of James I., was specially effective. Charles made peace with the Irish insurgents in order to get their help in fighting Parliament. Parliament united with the Scots in the Solemn League and Covenant, by which there was to be uniformity in religion in England, Ireland, and Scotland.

PRESBYTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS.--Presbyterianism was now made the legal system; and about two thousand beneficed clergymen in England, who refused to subscribe to the Covenant, were deprived of their livings. The Westminster Assembly met in 1643, and organized a church system without bishops and without the liturgy. But Parliament did not give up its own supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs. There was no "General Assembly" to rule the Church, as in Scotland. Another party, the Independents, were gaining strength, and by degrees getting control in the army. Of their number was Oliver Cromwell, a gentleman of Huntingdonshire, who had been a member of the House of Commons, where he spoke for the first time in 1629.

CROMWELL: NASEBY.--By many of his adversaries, and by numerous writers since that day, Cromwell has been considered a hypocrite in religion, actuated by personal ambition. The Puritan poet, John Milton, who became his secretary after he acquired supreme power, gives to him the warmest praise for integrity and piety, as well as for genius and valor. Of his religious earnestness after the Puritan type, and of his sincere patriotism, there is at present much less doubt. As to the transcendent ability and sagacity that lay beneath a rugged exterior, there has never been any question. He raised and trained a regiment of Puritan troops, called the "Ironsides," who were well-nigh invincible in battle, but whose camp was a "conventicle" for prayer and praise. With their help, the Royalists were defeated at Marston Moor (1644). The army was now modeled anew by the Independents. The Self-denying Ordinance excluded members of Parliament from military command. Cromwell was made an exception. He came to the front, with no other general except Fairfax, who had replaced Essex, above him. Laud was condemned for high treason by an ordinance of Parliament, and beheaded (1645). The Royalist army experienced a crushing defeat at Naseby in June of the same year.

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CHARLES.--Charles surrendered to the army of the Scots before Newark (1646); and by them he was delivered for a ransom, in the form of an indemnity for war expenses, to their English allies. The king hoped much from the growing discord between the Presbyterians, who favored an accommodation with him if they could preserve their ecclesiastical system; and the Independents, who controlled the army, and were in favor of toleration, and of obtaining more guaranties of liberty against regal usurpation. In June, 1647, the army took the king out of the hands of Parliament, into their own custody. He negotiated with all parties, and was trusted by none. In 1648 he agreed, in a secret treaty with the Scots, to restore Presbyterianism. There were Royalist risings in different parts of England, which Cromwell suppressed. He defeated at Preston Pans a Scotch army, led into England by the Duke of Hamilton to help Charles. Cromwell's army were now determined to baffle the plans of the Parliamentary majority. Col. Pride, with a regiment of foot, excluded from the House of Commons about a hundred members. This measure, dictated by a council of officers, was called Pride's Purge. The Commons closed the House of Lords, and constituted a High Court of Justice for the trial of the king. He refused to acknowledge the tribunal, and behaved with calmness and dignity to the end. He was condemned, and beheaded on a scaffold before his own palace at Whitehall, Jan. 30, 1649. By one party he was execrated as a tyrant, whose life was a constant danger to freedom. By the other party he was revered as a martyr. His two eldest sons were Charles, born in 1630, and James, born in 1633.

THE COMMONWEALTH.--The monarchy was now abolished; and England was a free commonwealth, governed by the House of Commons. A council of state, under the presidency of Bradshaw, who had presided at the trial of the king, was appointed to carry on the government. In Ireland, a rebellion in behalf of young Charles, son of the late king, was organized by Butler, Marquis of Ormond (1649). In nine months Cromwell subdued it, treating the insurgents with unsparing severity. There was a savage massacre of the garrisons at Drogheda and Wexford. The massacre at Drogheda was by his orders. Soldiers of Parliament were settled in Munster, Leinster, and Ulster. The country was reduced to complete subjection. In 1650 Charles landed in Scotland, subscribed to the Covenant, and was proclaimed king. Cromwell fought the Scots at Dunbar, and totally routed them. Returning to England, he overtook Charles and his army at Worcester, and defeated them (1651). Cromwell called this victory "a crowning mercy." Charles escaped in disguise, and, after strange perils and adventures, landed in Normandy.

WAR WITH HOLLAND.--England, under its new government, engaged in a contest for dominion on the sea. The new order of things, contrary to the expectation of Cromwell, was regarded with hostility in Holland, where the Orange family were in power. In 1651 the English Navigation Act, requiring all goods from abroad to be brought in, either in English ships, or in ships of the countries on the Continent in which the imported wares were produced, struck a heavy blow at Dutch commerce. War followed, in which the great Dutch admirals, Van Tromp, De Ruyter, De Witt, found more than a match in the English commander, Blake. The terms of peace were dictated by Cromwell, and Holland had to attach itself to his policy (1654).

THE LORD PROTECTOR.--There was a growing discord between the unworthy remnant of the Parliament--now called the "Rump Parliament"--and the army. In 1653 Cromwell used his military force to dissolve the assembly. By the "Little Parliament" which he called together, he was constituted Lord Protector, with a Council of State composed of twenty-five members. Later he declined the title of king, out of respect to the feelings and prejudices of his party. But he reigned in state, and exercised regal functions. His attempts to restore the old forms of parliamentary government, in an orderly form, with two houses, were baffled by difficulties beyond control. He insisted on a large degree of toleration, so long as "religion was not made a pretense for arms and blood."

CROMWELL'S GOVERNMENT.--Under the Protector, England once more took the proud and commanding place in Europe which she had not held since the death of Elizabeth. Cromwell made his power to be everywhere respected. Blake chastised the pirates of the Barbary States, and punished the Duke of Tuscany for attacks on English commerce. In 1655 Jamaica was wrested from Spain; and, two years after, Blake burned the Spanish treasure-ships in the harbor of Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe. Cromwell efficiently protected the adherents of the Protestant faith in Piedmont, and wherever they were subjected to persecution. In the last year of his life, in conjunction with the French, he took Dunkirk from the Spaniards.

POWER OF CROMWELL.--Cromwell's power was not diminished in his closing years. Macaulay, who pronounces him the greatest prince that ever ruled England, says of him, "It is certain that he was to the last honored by his soldiers, obeyed by the whole population of the British Isles, and dreaded by all foreign powers; that he was laid among the ancient sovereigns of England with funeral pomp such as England had never before seen; and that he was succeeded by his son, Richard as quietly as any king had ever been succeeded by any Prince of Wales." (1658).

The talents of Cromwell, and the vigor of his administration, deeply impressed those who heartily disliked him. A strong illustration of this fact is presented in the character of the Protector as depicted by Lord Clarendon, in the History of the Great Rebellion; and by the poet Cowley in his essay or Discourse.

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X. COLONIZATION IN AMERICA: ASIATIC NATIONS; CULTURE AND LITERATURE (1517-1648)

COLONIZATION IN AMERICA.

The European nations kept up their religious and political rivalship in exploring and colonizing the New World.

FRENCH EXPLORERS.--The French and English sent their fishermen to the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. French fishermen from Breton gave its name to Cape Breton. Francis I. sent out Verrazano, an Italian sailor, who is thought to have cruised along the coast of North America from Cape Fear northward (1524). Later, Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence as far as the site of Montreal (1535); other expeditions followed, and thus was founded the claim of the French to that region.

SPANISH EXPLORERS.--The Spaniards brought negroes from the coast of Africa to the West Indies, to take the place of the Indians; and thus the slave-trade and negro slavery were established. They gave the name of Florida to a vast region stretching from the Atlantic to Mexico, and from the Gulf of Mexico to an undefined limit in the North. From Tampa Bay, in what we now call Florida, they sent into this unexplored region an expedition under Narvaez (1528); and afterwards, on the same track, another party led by Hernando de Soto (1539), which made its way to the Mississippi near the present site of Vicksburg. Tempted by tales of rich cities, Coronado led an army to the conquest of the pueblos of the south-west. He penetrated as far as the boundary of the present Nebraska.

CONTEST IN FLORIDA.--The great Huguenot leader, Coligny, made three attempts to found Huguenot settlements in America. He wanted to provide for them an asylum, and to extend the power of France. One company went to Brazil, and failed; a second perished at Port Royal in Florida; a third (1564) built Fort Caroline on the shores of the St. John. This last company was mercilessly slaughtered by Menendez, the leader of a Spanish expedition which founded St. Augustine (1565), the oldest town in the United States. The act was avenged by the massacre of the Spanish settlers at Fort Caroline, by Dominique de Gourgues and the French company that came over with him.

ENGLISH VOYAGES.--The English, full of zeal for maritime discovery, tried to find a north-west passage to Asia. This was attempted by Martin Frobisher, a sea-captain, from whom Frobisher's Strait takes its name. After him followed John Davis, who gave his name also to a strait. As the English grew stronger and bolder on the water, they ceased to avoid a contest with Spain. In 1577 Sir Francis Drake set out from the harbor of Plymouth on his voyage around the globe. The defeat of the Spanish Armada occurred in 1588; and after that the English felt themselves to be stronger than their old adversary.

GILBERT AND RALEIGH.--Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in 1583, took possession of Newfoundland in the name of the queen of England. Walter Raleigh, his half-brother, on his voyage in 1584, visited Roanoke Island, and named the whole country between the French and the Spanish possessions, Virginia, in honor of "the Virgin Queen," Elizabeth. A colony which he sent out to Roanoke (1585) failed, and a second settlement had no better result. Bartholomew Gosnold landed on Cape Cod, and cruised along the neighboring coast (1602).

THE FRENCH IN CANADA.--In 1603 Champlain, a French gentleman, sailed to Canada, whither the fur-trade enticed explorers. A few years later he founded Quebec (1608), and explored the country as far as Lake Huron. The Jesuit missionaries commenced their efforts to convert the Indian tribes, in which they evinced an almost unparalleled fortitude and perseverance. The Huron and Algonquin Indians helped Champlain gain a victory over the hostile and warlike Iroquois, who afterwards hated the French. The French occupants of the country of the St. Lawrence devoted themselves too exclusively to trading, and too little to the tilling of the ground and to the forming of a community.

THE DUTCH SETTLEMENTS.--The Dutch were as eager as the other maritime powers to find a passage to India. In 1609 an English captain in their service, Henry Hudson, balked in this endeavor, sailed up the river now called by his name. The next year, being in the service of an English company, he discovered Hudson's Bay. Amsterdam traders established themselves on the island of Manhattan (an Indian name); which led to the formation of the New Netherlands Company, by whom a fort (Orange) was built at the place afterwards called Albany (1615). The West India Company followed (1621), with authority over New Netherlands, as the country was called. The powerful land-owners were styled patroons. Their territory reached to Delaware Bay; and they had a trading-post on the Connecticut, on the site of the present city of Hartford.

In 1637 the Swedes made a settlement at the mouth of the Delaware River, but in 1655 they were subdued by the Dutch.

SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA.--The Virginia Company, divided into two branches,--the London Company, having control in the South, and the Plymouth Company, having control in the North,--received its patent of privileges from James I. (1606). A settlement by the Plymouth Company on the Kennebec River (1607)--the Popham Colony--was given up. In 1607 Jamestown in Virginia, as the name Virginia is now applied, was settled. A majority of the first colonists were gentlemen not wonted to labor. The military leader was Capt. John Smith, whose life, according to his own account, was spared by Powhatan, an Indian chief. Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas married Rolfe, an Englishman. The Jamestown colony seemed likely to become extinct, when, in 1610, Lord Delaware arrived with fresh supplies and colonists. He was the first of a series of governors who ruled with almost unlimited authority. But the colony grew to be more independent, and in sympathy with the popular party in England. In 1619 the House of Burgesses first met, which brought in government by the people. At this time negroes began to be imported from Africa, and sold as slaves.

THE PILGRIM SETTLEMENT.--The first permanent settlement in New England was made at Plymouth in 1620, by a company of English Christians, who landed from the "Mayflower." They were Puritans of that class called "Independents," who had separated from the English Church, and did not believe in any national church organization. The emigrants left Leyden, in Holland, where they had lived for some time in exile, and where the remainder of their congregation remained under the guidance of a learned and able pastor, John Robinson. In the harbor of Provincetown, they agreed to a compact of government. Their civil polity was republican; their church polity was Congregational. They endured with heroic and pious fortitude the severities of the first winter, when half of their number died. Their military leader was Capt. Miles Standish. In their dealings with the Indians, they were equally just and brave.

SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS.--Somewhat different in its origin and character from the "Pilgrim" settlement at Plymouth, was the other Puritan settlement of Massachusetts. The emigrants to Massachusetts were not separatists from the Church of England, but more conservative Puritans who desired, however, many ecclesiastical changes which they could not obtain at home. Both classes of settlers, transferred to New England, found no difficulty in agreeing in religious matters; for when left free, they desired about the same things. But at Plymouth there was more toleration for religious dissent than in the later colony. In 1629 certain London merchants formed a corporation called "the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," and received a charter directly from Charles I. They sent out John Endicott to be governor of a settlement already formed at Salem. Charles had dissolved Parliament, and was beginning the experiment of absolutism. The new company was strengthened by the accession of a large number of Puritan gentlemen who were anxious to emigrate. They resolved to transfer the company and its government to the shores of America. John Winthrop was chosen governor, and in 1630 landed at Charlestown with a large body of settlers. Winthrop and his associates soon removed to the peninsula of Boston. The new colony was well provided with artisans. Soon ships began to be built. In 1636 a college, named in 1639, in honor of a benefactor, Harvard, was founded at Cambridge. At first all the voters met together to choose their rulers and frame their laws. As the towns increased in number, a General Court, or legislative assembly, was established by the colony, in which each town was represented. Each town had its church, and only church-members voted. The General Court superintended the affairs of both town and church. The political troubles in England stimulated emigration. Within ten years, about twenty thousand Englishmen, mainly Puritans, crossed the Atlantic, and took up their abode in New England. In the ecclesiastical system each church was self-governing, except as the General Court was over all. There were no bishops, and the liturgy was dispensed with in worship.

SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT.--After the Dutch had built a trading-post on the site of Hartford, people from Plymouth formed a settlement at Windsor, on the Connecticut, six miles above. From Boston and its neighborhood, there was a migration which settled Hartford. In 1637 the three towns of Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford became the distinct colony of Connecticut. A colony led by the younger John Winthrop, under a patent given to Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brook, drove away the Dutch from the mouth of the Connecticut, and settled Saybrook (1635). This colony was afterwards united with the Connecticut colony. A third colony was established at New Haven (1638), which had an independent existence until 1662.

SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND, OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND OF MAINE.--Roger Williams, a minister who was not allowed to live in Massachusetts, on account of his differences with the magistrates, was the founder of Rhode Island (1636). He held that the State should leave matters of religious opinion and worship to the conscience of the individual, and confine government to secular concerns. This was not the view of the Puritans generally; and the incoming of dissenters from their religious and political system made them afraid that the colony would be broken up, or fall into disorder. Williams, in most of his qualities a noble man, obtained a patent for his government, which was framed in accordance with his liberal ideas. On lands granted by the Plymouth Company to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, settlements were made in New Hampshire and in Maine (1623). A line between the two was drawn in 1631; Gorges taking the territory on the east of the Piscataqua River, and Capt. John Mason taking the remainder.

VIRGINIA.--After 1624 the king appointed the governor in Virginia, which, however, had its own assembly. The colony grew rapidly, its chief export being tobacco. The people lived on their estates or plantations, employing indented servants and negro slaves.

MARYLAND.--Maryland was founded by George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, to whom Charles I. granted a charter (1632). The first settlement was made by Calvert's sons, after his death. They planted a colony near the mouth of the Potomac. The Calverts sent out both Puritans and Roman Catholics, and secured the safety of the adherents of their own faith by the grant of toleration to the Protestants. Under Cromwell, a Puritan governor was appointed by Lord Baltimore (1649). There were boundary disputes with Virginia; and Clayborne, a Puritan and a Virginian, at one time got control of the government, which the Calverts regained under Charles II. (1660).

NEW ENGLAND: NEW YORK.--During the war between king and Parliament in England, the Puritan colonies were in sympathy with the popular party, but were cautious in their avowals. They took great pains to prevent the king, and later the Parliament under the Commonwealth, from taking away their self-government. The English navigation acts, which forbade them to use foreign ships for their trade and forced them to send nearly all their products to English ports, were a grievance to them. The rivalries of the English and the Dutch gave the colonists a chance to expel the Dutch from Connecticut. Charles II. at length conquered New Netherland, and ceded this territory to his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II. New Amsterdam became New York, and Fort Orange became Albany. In 1674 the country was formally ceded to England by Holland.

THE INDIANS.--When America was discovered, Mexico, Central America, and Peru were empires, to a considerable degree civilized. Relics taken from the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys indicate, also, that races somewhat advanced in culture had once dwelt in those regions. The most of both continents was inhabited by very numerous tribes of Indians, who were savages, with the ordinary virtues and vices of savage life. They were brave and patient, but indolent, treacherous, and implacable. There was an immense variety of dialects among them, yet there are traces of a common original unity of language. The tribes had no fixed boundaries, but roamed over extensive hunting-grounds. The Iroquois, or the Six Nations, occupied central New York from the Hudson to the Genesee. The Algonquins were spread over nearly all the rest of the country on the east of the Mississippi River, and north of North Carolina. The Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws were in the South.

THE WHITES AND THE RED MEN.--It was fortunate for the settlers of New England, that, before their arrival, the Indians had been much reduced in numbers by pestilence. Sometimes they were treated wisely and humanely, and efforts were made by noble men like John Eliot (1604-1690), who has been called "the Apostle to the Indians," to teach and civilize them. But this spirit was not always shown by the whites, and wrongs done by an individual are avenged by savages upon his race. The first important conflict between the English and the Indians was the Pequot War (1636), when the English, helped by the Narragansetts, who were under the influence of Roger Williams, crushed the Pequots, who were a dangerous tribe. A league between the New-England colonies, for mutual counsel and aid, followed (1643). Into this league, Massachusetts would not allow Rhode Island, whose constitution was disliked, to be admitted. There were to be two commissioners to represent each colony in common meetings.

SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, LITERATURE.

ASTRONOMY.--In this period wonderful progress was made in astronomy. Copernicus, a German or Polish priest (1473-1543), detected the error of the Ptolemaic system, which made not the sun, but the earth, the center of the solar system. Thus a revolution was made in that science. Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer (1546-1601), was a most accurate and indefatigable observer, although he did not adopt the Copernican theory. His pupil Kepler (1571-1630) discovered those great principles respecting the orbits and motions of the planets, which are called the "Laws of Kepler." Galileo (1564-1642), the Italian scientist, in addition to important discoveries in mechanics, with the telescopes, which his ingenuity had constructed, discerned the moons of Jupiter, and made other striking discoveries in the heavens. In promulgating the Copernican doctrine, he incurred the displeasure of ecclesiastics, and was driven by the Inquisition to renounce his opinion. It was reserved for Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) to discover the law of gravitation.

JURISPRUDENCE.--In jurisprudence, the Roman law was more and more studied in universities. In political science, Bodin, a learned Frenchman (1530-1596), wrote a work on the State, advocating a strong monarchy. In the Netherlands, Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), a great jurist and scholar, was one of the principal founders of the science of International Law. An eminent expounder of natural and international law in Germany was Pufendorf (1632-1694).

HISTORICAL WRITINGS.--In history, Sleidan, a German (1506-1556), and later a learned statesman, Seckendorf (1626-1692), wrote histories of the Reformation. De Thou, a Frenchman (1553-1617), wrote a valuable history of his own times. Grotius described the war for independence in the Netherlands. Church history, on the Protestant side, was written by a company of authors called the Magdeburg Centuriators; and on the Catholic side, in the Annals of Baronius (who died in 1607). In the Tower of London, Sir Walter Raleigh employed himself in writing a History of the World, remarkable, if not for its researches, for passages of noble eloquence. In Italy, historians followed in the path opened by Machiavelli, through his Discourses on Livy and his Florentine History. Davila (1576-1631) composed a narrative of the Civil Wars in France, and the Cardinal Bentivoglio wrote the history of the Civil War in the Netherlands. Sarpi, a keen Venetian, of much independence of thought, related the history of the Council of Trent, which was followed by a history of the same Council by the more orthodox Pallavicini. In Spain, there was at least one historian of superior value, Mariana, who composed a history of his own country.

MEDICINE.--Medicine felt the benefit of the revival of learning. Hippocrates and Galen were studied, and were translated into Latin. Paracelsus, a German physician (1493-1541), besides broaching various theories more or less visionary, advanced the science on the chemical side, introducing certain mineral remedies. Vesalius, a native of Brussels (1514-1564), who became chief physician of Charles V. and Philip II., dissected the human body, and produced the first comprehensive and systematic view of anatomy. In the sixteenth century clinical instruction was introduced into hospitals. Harvey, an English physician (1578-1657), discovered the circulation of the blood. In the seventeenth century activity in medical study was shown by the rise of various discordant systems.

PHILOSOPHY.--In philosophy, Aristotle continued to be the master in the most conservative schools, where the old ways of thinking were cherished. His ethical doctrines were especially attacked by Luther. Giordano Bruno, an Italian, not without genius, promulgated a theory of pantheism, which identified the Deity with the world. He wandered from land to land, was a vehement assailant of received religious views, and was burned at the stake at Rome (1600). In some gifted minds, the conflict of doctrinal systems, and the influence of the Renaissance, engendered skepticism. Montaigne (1533-1592), the genial essayist on men and manners, the Plutarch of France, is an example of this class. The opposition to Aristotle and to the schoolmen found a great leader in the English philosopher, Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The influence of Lord Bacon was more in stimulating to the use of the inductive method, the method of observation, than in any special value belonging to the rules laid down for it. He pointed out the path of fruitful investigation. Hobbes (1588-1679), an English writer, propounded, in his Leviathan (1651) and in other writings, his theory of the absolute authority of the king, and the related doctrine that right is founded on the necessity of "a common power," if the desires are to be gratified, and if endless destructive contention is to be avoided. From the epoch of Bacon, the natural and physical sciences acquire a new importance. In metaphysical science, the modern epoch dates from Descartes (1596-1650), born in France, who insisted that philosophy must assume nothing, but must start with the proposition, "I think, therefore I am." Before, philosophy had been "the handmaid of theology." It had taken for granted a body of beliefs respecting God, man, and the world. Descartes was a theist. Spinoza (1632-1677), of Jewish extraction, born in Holland, is the founder of modern pantheism. He taught that there is but one substance; that God and the world--the totality of things--are the manifestation of one impersonal being.

LITERATURE IN ITALY.--In Italy, among many authors in different departments of poetry, Tasso (1544-1595), the author of the epic Jerusalem Delivered, is the most eminent. In it, the classic and the romantic styles are combined; the spirit of the Middle Ages blends with the unity and harmony of Homer and Virgil. In the seventeenth century, under the hard Spanish rule, the literary spirit in Italy was chilled.

LITERATURE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.--In Spain, it was poetry and the drama that chiefly flourished. Other sorts of literary activity were stifled with the extinction of liberty. Lope de Vega (1562-1635), one of the most facile and marvelous of all poets, the author of twenty-two hundred dramas,--was the precursor of a school. After him came Calderon (1600-1681), who carried the Spanish drama to its perfection. Early in the seventeenth century Cervantes published the classic tale of Don Quixote, "to render abhorred of men the false and absurd stories contained in books of chivalry," an end which he accomplished. Mariana's (1536-1623) vivid and interesting History of Spain was continued in a less attractive style by Sandoval. Herrera (1549-1625) composed a General History of the Indies. Other works relating to the New World and the Spanish conquests were written. In the production of proverbs, the Spanish mind is without a rival. Not the least of the bad effects of the despotic system of Philip II. was the decay of literature.

The most celebrated writer of Portugal is the poet Camoens (1524-1579), who, in his epic the Lusiad, has treated of the glorious events in the history of his country, giving special prominence to the discovery by Vasco da Gama of the passage to India.

LITERATURE IN FRANCE.--In France, with the exception of Montaigne, it was Rabelais (1495-1553), a physician, philosopher, and humorist, who, notwithstanding his profanity and obscenity, was the most popular author of his day, and who well represents the tone of the Renaissance in that country. Ronsard (1524-1585), an imitator of the Latins and Greeks, was the favorite poet of Mary, Queen of Scots. In the first half of the seventeenth century the light literature of the French is ruled by fashion, and is void of serious feeling. In this time the literary societies of France take their rise. Madame de Rambouillet (1588-1665), a lady of Italian birth, set the example in establishing such reunions. She made her hotel a resort for writers and politicians. Being an invalid, she kept her bed, which was placed in an alcove of the salon where she received her visitors.

LITERATURE IN ENGLAND.--In England, in the age of Elizabeth, there is a galaxy of great authors in prose and verse. The events and debates of the Reformation, the voyages and geographical discoveries of the period, gave a powerful quickening to thought and imagination. The Renaissance culture, which made familiar the stories of Greek and Roman mythology, and the romantic tales and poetry of Italy and Spain, was potent in its effect. Some of the numerous theological writers, as Bishop Hall (1574-1656), Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), and Richard Hooker (1553-1600), have gained a high place in general literature. Bacon, apart from his philosophical writings, towers above almost all his contemporaries in the field of letters. The chivalrous Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) wrote the pastoral romance of Arcadia. Burton (1576-1640), the author of The Anatomy of Melancholy, and Sir Thomas Brown, who published (1642) the Religio Medici (the religion of a physician) and, at a later date, the Urn Burial, are quaint and original authors. The merit of Shakspeare (1564-1616) is so exalted and unique that he almost eclipses even the greatest names. The English drama did not heed what are called the classic unities of time and place, which limit the action of a play to a brief duration and a contracted area. Other celebrated dramatic writers are Beaumont (1586-1615) and Fletcher (1579-1625), who wrote many plays jointly; Ben Jonson (1574-1637), and Massinger (1584-1640). The imaginative poetry which is not dramatic, in this period, begins with Spenser (1553-1599), whose Faërie Queene is a poem of chivalry; and it ends with Milton (1608-1674), the Puritan poet, imbued with the culture of the Renaissance, whose majesty and beauty place him almost on a level, at least in the esteem of readers of the English race, with Dante. Among the religious poets is George Herbert (1593-1635). One of the most famous of the lyric authors was the last of them, Cowley (1618-1667).

LITERATURE IN GERMANY.--In Germany, the great literary product of this period was Luther's translation of the Bible. The immediate effect of the controversy in religion was not favorable to the cause of letters. Attention was engrossed by theological inquiries and discussion. But in most of the countries, in the department of theology, preachers and writers of much ability and learning appeared on both sides of the controversy. Biblical study and historical researches were of necessity fostered by the exigencies of religious debate.

ASIATIC NATIONS.

I. CHINA.

THE JESUIT MISSIONS.--The Ming dynasty continued in power in China until 1644. About the middle of the sixteenth century the Portuguese came to the island of Macao, and commercial relations began between China and Europe. They brought opium into China, which had previously been imported overland from India. In 1583 Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary, began his labors in China. He and his associates had great success. His knowledge of the book language was most remarkable. The concessions of the Jesuit fathers to the Chinese in matters of ritual excited much opposition in the Church. But for this dissension among the different Catholic orders, the Roman Catholic faith, which had gained very numerous converts, would have spread far more widely.

THE MANCHU CONQUEST.--There were notable literary achievements in this period, one of which was an encyclopedia in more than twenty-two thousand books. Four copies were made: only one, a damaged copy, now remains. The great political event of the time was the seizure of the throne by the Manchu Tartars (1644), who came in as auxiliaries against a rebellion, but have worn the crown until now. The shaved head and the long cue are customs introduced by the Tartar conquerors. Certain privileges, and certain habits to which the natives clung, as the mode of dress for women, and the compression of their feet, were retained by express stipulation.

II. JAPAN.

FEUDAL SYSTEM.--In 1603 Iyéyasu, an eminent general, founded the Tokugawa dynasty, which continued until the resignation of the last Shôgun (or Tycoon) in 1867. The rulers of that line held their court at Yedo, which grew into a flourishing city. The long period of anarchy and bloodshed that had preceded, was brought to an end. Iyéyasu laid the foundation of a feudal system which his grandson Iyémitsu (1623-1650) completed. Japan was divided into fiefs, each under a daimiô for its chief, who enjoyed a large degree of independence. The people consisted of four classes: (1) the military families, who had the right to wear two swords, the clansmen of the great nobles; (2) the farming class; (3) the artisans; (4) the tradesmen.

CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN.--Christianity was preached in Japan by Xavier, a successful Jesuit missionary, in 1583. Other Jesuit preachers followed. A multitude of converts were made. But on account of immoralities of Europeans, and the dread of foreign political domination, the government engaged in a series of severe persecutions. In 1614 an edict proscribed Christianity. A portion of the peasants who were converts were so oppressed, that they revolted (1637). The result was an act of terrible cruelty,--the massacre of all Christians; so that none remained openly to profess the Christian faith.

III. INDIA.

THE MUGHAL EMPIRE.--In the latter half of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth centuries, the most of India was ruled by distinct Mohammedan dynasties. The dominion of the Afghan dynasty at Delhi was thus greatly reduced. In 1525 the Mughal (Mogul) Empire was founded by Babar, a descendant of Tamerlane. Babar invaded India, and defeated the Sultan of Delhi in the battle of Paniput. The new empire was not permanently established until his grandson Akbar (1556-1605), in a series of conquests, spread his dominion over all India north of the Vindhyar mountains. Not until the reign of Aurungzeb (1658-1707), was the Deccan subdued. After 1600 the Portuguese no longer had the monopoly of the foreign trade: the Dutch and English became their rivals.

LITERATURE.--See lists of works on general history, p. 16; on modern history, p. 395; on the history of particular countries, p. 359.

General Works on the Period. De Thou's History of his own Times; ROBERTSON'S History of Charles V. (Prescott's ed.); Von Raumer's Gesch. Europas seit d. Ende d, 15 tu Jahrk, (8 vols).; Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries; RANKE'S series of works on this period,--the History of the Popes, and the Histories of Germany, France, and England; Histories of the Reformation by D'Aubigné, Döllinger (Roman Catholic), Spalding (Roman Catholic), Fisher, HAUSSER, Hardwick, Stebbing; Laurent, La Reforme; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Genérale (iv. and v.); Seebohm's Era of Protestant Revolution; Works of Janssen, Pastor, Creighton.

On the German and Swiss Reformation: Waddington's History, etc.; Hagenhach, Vorlesungen, etc.; Lives of Luther, by Meurer, Michelet, Beard, KÖSTLIN; Lives of Zwingh, by CHRISTOFFEL, MORIKOFER; Lives of Calvin, by HENRY, Dyer, Kampschulte (Roman Catholic).

Reformation in France. Works by Soldan, Von Polenz, Smiles, Browning; BAIRD'S works on Huguenots; Perkins, France under Richelieu and Mazarin (2 vols.); Hanotaux, Richelieu (2 vols.).

The Revolt of the Netherlands. Blok's _History of the Netherlands _(3 vols.), etc.; MOTLEY'S Rise of the Dutch Republic, and History of the United Netherlands; PRESCOTT'S _History of Philip II._; TH. JUSTE, Hist, de la Rèvol. des Pays-Bas, etc. (2 vols).

The Reformation in England. The Histories of Macaulay. Lingard, Froude, Burnet's _History of the Reformation in England_. S. R. Gardiner's History of England (1603 to 1656); Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion; a series of works on this period by GUIZOT; Neal's _History of the Puritans_; Gairdner, _History of the English Church from Henry VIII. to Mary_; selections of documents by Prothero and by Gardiner; Lives of Cromwell, by CARLYLE, by Forster, Gardiner, Harrison, Firth; Strype's Lives of the Leading Reformers--Cranmer, etc.

On the Reformation in Scotland. BURTON'S History of Scotland; Robertson's History of Scotland; McCrie's _Life of John Knox_; W. M. TAYLOR, Life of John Knox.

On the Thirty Years' War. GINDELY'S History, etc.; Gardiner, The Thirty Years' War; Life of Gustavus Adolphus.

For more extended lists, see Adams's Manual, etc.; and Fisher's The Reformation (Appendix). For list of works on colonization in America, see the list at the end of Period III.

PERIOD III. FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. (1648-1789)

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Introduction

CHARACTER OF THE PERIOD.--One feature of this period is the efforts made by the nations to improve their condition, especially to increase the thrift and to raise the standing of the middle class. An illustration is what is called the "mercantile system" in France. Along with this change, there is progress in the direction of greater breadth in education and culture. In both of these movements, rulers and peoples cooperate. Monarchical power, upheld by standing armies, reaches its climax. The result is internal order, coupled with tyranny. Great wars were carried on, mostly contests for succession to thrones. The outcome was an equilibrium in the European state system, dependent on the relations of five great powers.

FIRST SECTION OF THE PERIOD.--In the first half of the period, the East and the West of Europe are slightly connected. In the West, France gains the preponderance over Austria, until, by the Spanish war of succession, England restores the balance. In the East, Sweden is in the van, until, in the great Northern war (1700-1721), Russia becomes predominant.

SECOND SECTION OF THE PERIOD.--In the second half of the period, the East and the West of Europe are brought together in one state system, in particular by the rise of the power of Prussia.

CHIEF EVENTS.--The fall of Sweden and the rise of Russia and Prussia are political events of capital importance. The maritime supremacy of England, with the loss by England of the American colonies, is another leading fact. In the closing part of the period appear the intellectual and political signs of the great Revolution which broke out in France near the end of the eighteenth century.

CHAPTER I. THE PREPONDERANCE OF FRANCE: FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. (TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK, 1697): THE RESTORATION OF THE STUARTS: THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1688.

LOUIS XIV.: MAZARIN.--The great minister Richelieu died in 1642. "Abroad, though a cardinal of the Church, he arrested the Catholic reaction, freed Northern from Southern Europe, and made toleration possible; at home, out of the broken fragments of her liberties and her national prosperity, he paved the way for the glory of France." He paved the way, also, for the despotism of her kings. He had been feared and hated by king and people, but had been obeyed by both. A few months later Louis XIII., a sovereign without either marked virtues or vices, followed him (1643). Louis XIV. (1643-1715) was then only five years old; and Mazarin, the heir of Richelieu's power, stood at the helm until his death (1661). To this Italian statesman, ambitious of power and wealth, but astute, and, like Richelieu, devoted to France, the queen, Anne of Austria, willingly left the management of the government. The rebellion of the Fronde (1648-1653) was a rising of the nobles to throw off the yoke laid on them by Richelieu. They were helped by the discontent of parliament and people with the oppressive taxation. In Paris, there was a rising of the populace, who built barricades; but the revolt was quelled. Its leaders, Conti, the Cardinal de Retz, and the great Condé, a famous soldier, were compelled to fly from the country. Mazarin, who had been obliged to fly to Cologne, returned in triumph. After that, resistance to the absolute monarch ceased,--the monarch whose theory of government was expressed in the assertion, "I am the State" (l'etat c'est moi). In the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), Spain gave in marriage to Louis, the Infanta Maria Theresa, the daughter of Philip IV., and ceded to France important places in the Netherlands. Maria renounced all claims on her inheritance, for herself and her issue, in consideration of a dowry of five hundred thousand crowns to be paid by Spain. Shortly after, Mazarin, who had negotiated the treaty, in full possession of his exalted authority and the incalculable treasures which he had amassed, died.

LOUIS XIV. AND HIS OFFICERS.--Louis XIV. was now his own master. His appetite for power was united with a relish for pomp and splendor, which led him to make Versailles, the seat of his court, as splendid as architectural skill and lavish expenditure could render it, and to make France the model in art, literature, manners, and modes of life, for all Europe. With sensual propensities he mingled a religious or superstitious vein, so that from time to time he sought to compound for his vices by the persecution of the Huguenots. He was the central figure in the European life of his time. Taking care that his own personal authority should not be in the least impaired, he made Colbert controller-general, to whom was given charge of the finances of the kingdom. Louvois was made the minister of war. Colbert not only provided the money for the costly wars, the luxurious palaces, and the gorgeous festivities of his master, but constructed canals, fostered manufactures, and built up the French marine. Louvois, with equal success, organized the military forces in a way that was copied by other European states. Able generals--Turenne, Condé, and Luxemburg--were in command. The nobles who held the offices, military as well as civil, vied with one another in their obsequious devotion to the "great king." Vauban, the most skillful engineer of the age, erected impregnable fortifications in the border towns that were seized by conquest. In the arts of diplomacy, the French ambassadors were equally superior. The monarch was sustained by the national pride of the people, and by their ambition to dominate in Europe.

ATTACK ON THE NETHERLANDS.--Louis had already purchased of the English Dunkirk,--which was shamefully sold to him by Charles II.,--when Philip IV. of Spain died (1665). He now claimed parts of the Netherlands as being an inheritance of his queen, according to an old law of those provinces. He conquered the county of Burgundy, or Franche Comté, and various places in that country. Holland, afraid that he might push his conquests farther, formed the Triple Alliance with England and Sweden. In the Treaty of Aachen (Aix), Louis gave up to the Spaniards Franche Comté, but retained the captured cities in the Netherlands (1668), which Vauban proceeded to fortify.

ATTACK ON HOLLAND.--The next attack of Louis was upon Holland. Holland and the Spanish Netherlands were at variance in religion, as well as in their political systems, and rivals in trade and industry. The first minister of the emperor, Leopold., was in the pay of Louis. Sweden, in the minority of Charles XI., was in the hands of the Swedish nobles. England had now joined Louis, who, in return for help in the Netherlands, was to furnish subsidies to assist Charles II. in establishing Catholicism in his realm. In Holland, there was a division between the republicans, of whom the grand pensionary, John de Witt, was the chief, and the adherents of the house of Orange.

THE WAR: THE PEACE OF NIMWEGEN.--Louis, having first seized Lorraine,--whose duke had allied himself to the United Provinces,--accompanied by his famous generals, Condé, Turenne, and Vauban, put himself at the head of an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, which crossed the Rhine, and advanced to the neighborhood of the capital of Holland. The Orange party charged the blame of the failure to defend the land on their adversaries, whom they accused of treachery. De Witt and his brother, Cornelius, were killed in the streets of Hague. William III., the Prince of Orange (1672-1702), assumed power. Gröningen held out against the French troops. Storms on the sea and on the land aided the patriotic defenders of their country. The "Great Elector" of Brandenburg, Frederic William, lent them help. At length the German emperor was driven by the French aggressions to join actively in the war, on the side of the Dutch. The English Parliament (1674) forced Charles II. to conclude peace with them. In the battle of Sasbach, Turenne fell (1675). Sweden took the side of France, and invaded the elector's territory; but the elector's victory at Fehrbellin (1675) laid the foundation of the greatness of Prussia. William III. kept the field against the great generals of France, and married the daughter of James, the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II. In bringing the war to an end, Louis, by shrewd diplomacy, settled with the United Provinces first. By the Peace of Nimwegen (1678 and 1679), Holland received back its whole territory; France kept most of her new conquests in the Netherlands, with the county of Burgundy, the city of Besançon, and some imperial towns in Alsace not ceded in the Peace of Westphalia; the emperor lost to France Freiburg in the Breisgau. The elector, left to shift for himself, was forced to give back his profitable conquests to Sweden (1679).

EFFECT OF THE WAR.--In the war with Holland, Louis had shown his military strength, and his skill in making and breaking alliances. He had made progress towards the goal of his ambition, which was to act as dictator in the European family of states. To the end of the century, France stood on the pinnacle of power and apparent prosperity.

CONDITION OF FRANCE.--Manufactures flourished to an astonishing degree. France became a naval power with a large fleet and with all its services better organized than those of the contemporary English marine. Colbert finished the canal between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Colonies were founded in St. Domingo, Cayenne, Madagascar. Canada was increasing in strength. A uniform, strict judicial system was established. Restless nobles were cowed, and the common people thus drawn to the monarch.

THE FRENCH COURT.--In his court, the king established elaborate forms of etiquette, and made himself almost an object of worship. The nobility swarmed about him, and sought advancement from his favor. Festivals and shows of all sorts--plays, ballets, banquets, dazzling fireworks--were the costly diversion of the gay throngs of courtiers, male and female, in that court, where sensuality was thinly veiled by ceremonious politeness and punctilious religious observances. Poets, artists, and scholars were liberally patronized, and joined in the common adulation offered to the sovereign. Stately edifices were built, great libraries gathered; academies of art and of science, an astronomical observatory, and the botanic garden for the promotion of the study of natural history, were founded. The palace at Versailles, with its statues, fountains, and gardens, furnished a pattern which all the rest of Europe aspired to copy. Every thing there wore an artificial stamp, from the trimming of the trees to the etiquette of the ballroom. But there was a splendor and a fascination which caused the French fashions, the French language and literature, with the levity and immorality which traveled in their company, to spread in the higher circles of the other European countries.

THE GALLICAN CHURCH.--Louis XIV. desired, without any rupture with Rome, to take to himself a power in ecclesiastical affairs like that assumed in England by Henry VIII. Under the pontificate of Innocent XI., the assembly of the French clergy passed four propositions asserting the rights of the national Gallican Church, and limiting the Pope's prerogative (1682). The king had for his ecclesiastical champion the able and eloquent Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux. Subsequently, under Innocent XII., Louis, afraid of a schism and anxious to procure other advantages, yielded up the four obnoxious propositions.

JANSENISM.--The controversy raised by the Jansenists was an important event in the history of France. They took their name from Jansenius, who had been Bishop of Ypres, an ardent disciple of St. Augustine's theology. They strenuously opposed the theology and moral maxims of the powerful Jesuit order. Their leaders, St. Cyran, Pascal, Arnauld, Nicole, and others, were called Port Royalists, from their relation to a cloister at Port Royal, where some of them resided. They were men of literary and philosophical genius, as well as theologians and devotees. Blaise Pascal wrote the "Provincial Letters," a satirical and polemical work against the Jesuit doctrines. This has always been deemed in style a masterpiece of French prose. His posthumous Thoughts is a profound and suggestive fragment on the evidences of religion. In the heated controversy that arose, the Jansenist leaders were for a more limited definition of the Pope's authority in deciding questions of doctrine. The French court at length took the side of the Jesuits. In 1713 the Pope's bull against the Moral Reflections of Quesnel, a Jansenist author, was a heavy blow at his party. Finally, the Jansenists were proscribed by the king, and the cloister at Port Royal leveled to the ground. The Jansenist influence made a part of the tendencies to liberalism that led to the Revolution at the close of the century.

THE HUGUENOTS.--After Mazarin's death, the king fell under the influence of a party hostile to the Huguenots. Louvois fostered this feeling in him, as did Madame de Maintenon, whom he had secretly married, and by whom he was influenced through life. As he grew older, he sought to appease a guilty conscience by inflicting tortures on religious dissenters. He issued edicts of the most cruel character. He adopted the atrocious scheme of the dragonade, or the billeting of soldiers, over whom there was no restraint, in Huguenot families. In the course of three years, fifty thousand families, industrious and virtuous people, had fled the country. In 1685 the Edict of Nantes, the charter of Protestant rights, was revoked. Emigration was forbidden; yet not far from a quarter of a million of refugees escaped, to enrich by their skill and labor the Protestant countries where they found an asylum. Many of the refugees were received by the Elector Frederick, and helped to build up Berlin, then a small city of twelve thousand inhabitants. France was not only in a degree impoverished by those who fled, but, also, by the much larger number who remained to be harassed and ruined by the foolish and brutal bigotry of their ruler.

The loss to France by the exile of the Huguenots was incalculable. "Here were the thriftiest, the bravest, the most intelligent of Frenchmen, the very flower of the race; some of their best and purest blood, some of their fairest and most virtuous women, all their picked artisans. In war, in diplomacy, in literature, in production of wealth, these refugees gave what they took from France to her enemies; for they carried with them that bitter sense of wrong which made them henceforth foremost among those enemies, the forlorn hope of every attack on their ancient fatherland. Large numbers of officers, and those among the ablest, emigrated; among them pre-eminent Marshal Schomberg, 'the best general in Europe.' The fleet especially suffered: the best of the sailors emigrated; the ships were almost unmanned. The seamen carried tidings of their country's madness to the ends of the earth: as Voltaire says, 'the French were as widely dispersed as the Jews.' Not only in industry, but in thought and mental activity, there was a terrible loss. From this time literature in France loses all spring and power."

In England, the Huguenot exiles quickened manufactures; in Holland, commerce; in Brandenburg, they made a new era in agriculture. Moreover, from this time the policy of Brandenburg was changed: the hostility to the emperor and the house of Austria gave way. An antagonism to France arose: "a process begun by the Great Elector, carried on by Frederick the Great, and brought to a triumphant close in our own days, dates from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes."

THE COST OF NATIONAL UNITY IN FRANCE.--From the beginning of the Reformation, the problem for the nations to solve was, how to combine religious freedom with national unity. The intolerance of the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs deprived them of Holland, and broke down their power. This effort to secure uniformity of belief was shattered. A like effort in Germany resulted in the Thirty Years' War, and the utter loss of the national unity which it aimed to restore. The civil wars in France, aiming at the same result, uniformity of belief, ended in an accommodation between the parties, secured by Henry IV. in the Edict of Nantes. There was a partial sacrifice of national unity. This was reestablished by the policy of Richelieu and the acts of Louis XIV., but at a fearful cost. The loss of the Huguenot emigrants; the loss of character, with the loss of the spirit of independence, in the nobles of France; the full sway of a monarchical despotism,--this was the price paid for national unity.

AGGRESSIONS OF LOUIS.--The readiness of the European states to accept the provisions of the Nimwegen Treaty emboldened Louis to further outrages and aggressions. Germany, split into a multitude of sovereignties, and for the most part inactive as if a paralysis lay upon her, was a tempting prey to the spoiler. He claimed that all the places which had stood in a feudal relation to the places acquired by France in the Westphalian and Nimwegen treaties, should become dependencies of France. He constituted Reunions, or courts of his own, to decide what these places were, and enforced their decrees with his troops (1679). He went so far, in a time of peace, as to seize and wrest from the German Empire the city of Strasburg, to establish his domination there, and to introduce the Catholic worship, in the room of the Protestant, in the minster (1681). Instead of heeding the warning of the Prince of Orange, the empire concluded with Louis the truce of Regensburg, by which he was suffered to retain these conquests. He evinced his arrogance in making a quarrel with Genoa, in bombarding the city, and in forcing the doge to come to Versailles and beg for peace (1684).

HUNGARY AND AUSTRIA.--The Emperor Leopold was busy in the eastern part of his dominions. The success of the Turks, who gained possession of Lower Hungary, called out a more energetic resistance; but a victory gained by the imperial general, Montecuculi, at St. Gothard, on the Raab (1664), only resulted in a truce. The Austrian government, guided by the minister, Lobkowitz, used the opportunity to rob the Hungarians of their liberties and rights. Political tyranny and religious persecution went hand in hand. Protestant preachers were sold as galley-slaves. Tököly, an Hungarian nobleman, led in a revolt, and invoked the help of the Turks. In 1683 the Turks laid siege to Vienna, which was saved by a great victory gained under its walls by a united German and Polish army; the hero in the conflict being John Sobieski, king of Poland. The German princes and Venice now united in the prosecution of the war. The conquest of Hungary from the Turks enabled Leopold to destroy Hungarian independence. After their defeat by Charles of Lorraine at Mohacs (1687), the Diet of Pressburg conferred on the male Austrian line the crown of Hungary, and abandoned its old privilege of resisting unconstitutional ordinances (1687). A great victory gained over the Turks by Prince Eugene at Zenta was followed by the Peace of Carlowitz, which gave Hungary and Transylvania to Austria, Morea to Venice, and Azof to Russia. Tököly died in exile.

THE RESTORATION IN ENGLAND (1660).--Richard Cromwell quietly succeeded to the Protectorate. But the officers of the army recalled the "Rump" Parliament, the survivors of the Long Parliament. After eight months Richard gave up his office. The "Rump" was soon in a quarrel again with the army, and was expelled by its chief, Lambert. Monk, the commander of the English troops in Scotland, refused to recognize the government set up by the officers in London. The fleet declared itself on the side of Parliament. Lambert was forsaken, and Monk entered London (1660). A new Parliament or Convention was convoked, which included the Upper House. The restoration of Charles II. was now effected by means of the combined influence of the Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and through the agency of Monk. Charles, in his Declaration from Breda, prior to his return, promised "liberty to tender consciences." This and subsequent pledges were falsified: he had the Stuart infirmity of breaking his engagements. With an easy good-nature and complaisant manners, he was void of moral principle, and in his conduct an open profligate. At heart he was a Roman Catholic, and simply from motives of expediency deferred the avowal of his belief to his death-bed. The army was disbanded. Vengeance was taken on such of the "regicides," the judges of Charles I., as could be caught, and on the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw. The Cavalier party had now every thing their own way. The Episcopal system was reestablished, and a stringent Act of Uniformity was passed. Two thousand Presbyterian ministers were turned out of their parishes. If there was at any time indulgence to the nonconformists, it was only for the sake of the Roman Catholics. John Bunyan, the author of "Pilgrim's Progress," was kept in prison for more than twelve years. The sale of Dunkirk to France (1662) awakened general indignation.

THE "YEAR OF WONDERS:" THE CONDUCT OF CHARLES.--The year 1665 was marked as the year of the Great Plague in London, where the narrow and dirty streets admitted little fresh air. It was estimated that not less than one hundred thousand people perished. In less than a year after the plague ceased, there occurred the Great Fire in London (Sept., 1666), which burned for three days, and laid London in ashes from the Tower to the Temple, and from the Thames to Smithfield. St. Paul's, the largest cathedral in England, was consumed, and was replaced by the present church of the same name, planned by Sir Christopher Wren. The king showed an unexpected energy in trying to stay the progress of the flames. But neither public calamities, nor the sorrow and indignation of all good men, including his most loyal and attached adherents, could check the shameless profligacy of his palace-life. The diaries of Evelyn and of Pepys, both of whom were familiar with the court, picture the disgraceful depravation of morals, which was stimulated by the king's example. But the nation was even more aggrieved by his conduct in respect to foreign nations. In a war with Holland, arising out of commercial rivalry, the English had the mortification of seeing the Thames blockaded by the Dutch fleet (1667). Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Charles's principal adviser, whose daughter married the Duke of York, was driven from office, and went into exile to escape a trial. The Triple Alliance against Louis (p. 453) was gratifying to the people; but in the Treaty of Dover (1670), Charles engaged to declare himself a Roman Catholic as soon as he could do so with prudence, and promised to join his cousin, Louis XIV., against Holland, and to aid him in his schemes; in return for which he was to receive a large subsidy from Louis, a pension during the war, and armed help in case of an insurrection in England.

THE "CABAL" MINISTRY.--A cabinet, as we now term it,--a small number of persons,--had, before this reign, begun to exercise the functions which belonged of old to the King's Council. At this time, the cabal ministry--so called from the first letters of the names, which together made the word--was in power. In 1672 war with Holland was declared, and was kept up for two years.

DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE.--When Charles began this second Dutch war, he issued orders for the suspension of the laws against the Catholics and Dissenters. His design was to weaken the Church of England. The anger of Parliament and of the people at this usurpation obliged him to recall the declaration.

THE TEST ACT.--Parliament, in 1673, passed an act which shut out all Dissenters from office. This act the king did not venture to reject; although the effect of it was to oblige his brother James, the Duke of York, to resign his office of lord high admiral.

DANBY'S MINISTRY.--The cabal ministry was gradually broken up; and Shaftesbury, an able minister, went over to the other side. The Earl of Danby became the chief minister. He was in agreement with the House of Commons. He favored the marriage which united Mary, the daughter of the Duke of York, to William, Prince of Orange.

THE "POPISH PLOT" (1678).--The already exasperated nation was infuriated by an alleged "Popish Plot" for the subverting of the government, and for the murder of the king and of all Protestants. Titus Oates, a perjurer, was the main witness. Many innocent Roman Catholics were put to death. This pretended plot led to stringent measures shutting out papists from office. Halifax, an able man who called himself "a trimmer," because he did not always stay on one side or with one party, opposed a bill that would have excluded the king's brother from the succession, and it failed.

HABEAS CORPUS ACT.--In 1679 the Habeas Corpus Act was passed, providing effectually against the arbitrary imprisonment of subjects. Persons arrested must be brought to trial, or proved in open court to be legally confined.

PARTIES: RUSSELL AND SIDNEY.--At this time the party names of Whig and Tory came into vogue. Insurgent Presbyterians in Scotland had been called "Whigs," a Scotch word meaning whey, or sour milk. The nickname was now applied to Shaftesbury's adherents, opponents of the court, who wished to exclude the Duke of York from the throne on account of his being a Catholic. Tories, also a nickname, the designation of the supporters of the court, meant originally Romanist outlaws, or robbers, in the bogs of Ireland. Many of the Whigs began to devise plans of insurrection, from hatred of Charles's arbitrary system of government. Some of them were disposed to put forward Monmouth, the eldest of Charles's illegitimate sons, and a favorite of the common people. The "Rye-House Plot" for the assassination of the king and his brother was the occasion of the trial and execution of two eminent patriots,--William, Lord Russell, and Algernon Sidney, a warm advocate of republican government. Both, it is believed, were unjustly condemned. The Duke of York assumed once more the office of admiral. Charles, before his death, received the sacrament from a priest of the Church of Rome (1685).

JAMES II. (1685-1688): MONMOUTH'S REBELLION.--A few months after James's accession, the Duke of Monmouth landed in England; but his effort to get the crown failed. His forces, mostly made up of peasants, were defeated at Sedgemoor; and he perished on the scaffold. Vengeance was taken upon all concerned in the revolt; and Chief Justice Jeffreys, for his brutal conduct in the "Bloody Assizes," in which, savage as he was, he nevertheless became rich by the sale of pardons, was rewarded with the office of lord chancelor.

JAMES'S ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT.--James paid no heed to his promise to defend the Church of England. Of a slow and obstinate mind, he could not yield to the advice of moderate Roman Catholics, and of the Pope, Innocent XI.; but set out, by such means as dispensing with the laws, to restore the old religion, and at the same time to extinguish civil liberty. He turned out the judges who did not please him. He created a new Ecclesiastical Commission, for the coercion of the clergy, with the notorious Jeffreys at its head. After having treated with great cruelty the Protestant dissenters, he unlawfully issued a Declaration of Indulgence (1687) in their favor, in order to get their support for his schemes in behalf of his own religion. He turned out the fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, for refusing to appoint a Catholic for their president. He sent seven bishops to the Tower in 1688, who had signed a petition against the order requiring a second Declaration of Indulgence to be read in the churches. Popular sympathy was strongly with the accused, and the news of their acquittal was received in the streets of London with shouts of joy.

REVOLUTION OF 1688: WILLIAM AND MARY (1689-1694).--The birth of a Prince of Wales by his second wife, Mary of Modena, increased the disaffection of the English people. His two daughters by his first wife--Mary and Anne--were married to Protestants; Mary, to William, Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, and Anne to George, Prince of Denmark. By a combination of parties hostile to the king, William was invited to take the English throne. James was blind to the signs of the approaching danger, and to the warnings of Louis XIV. of France. When it was too late, he attempted in vain to disarm the conspiracy by concessions. William landed in safety at Torbay. He was joined by persons of rank. Lord Churchill, afterwards the celebrated Duke of Marlborough, left the royal force of which he had the command, and went over to him. The king's daughter, Anne, fled to the insurgents in the North. William was quite willing that James should leave the kingdom, and purposely caused him to be negligently guarded by Dutch soldiers. He fled to France, never to return. Parliament declared the throne to be, on divers grounds, vacant, and promulgated a Declaration of Right affirming the ancient rights and liberties of England. It offered the crown to William and Mary, who accepted it (1689). A few months later, the estates of Scotland bestowed upon them the crown of that country. Presbyterianism was made the established form of religion there. The union of the kingdoms was consummated under their successor, Anne, when Scotland began to be represented in the English Parliament.

THE MASSACRE OF GLENCOE.--A Highland chief, MacIan of Glencoe, with many of his followers, was treacherously slaughtered by order of Dalrymple, the Master of Stair, who governed Scotland, and had obtained by misrepresentation from William leave to extirpate that "set of thieves," as he had called them.

WILLIAM IN IRELAND.--The sovereignty of Ireland passed, with that of England, to William and Mary. There James II., supported by France, made a stout resistance. It was a conflict of the Irish Catholics, together with the descendants of the Norman-English settlers, comprising together about a million of people, against the English and Scottish colonists, not far from two hundred thousand in number. The latter, with steadfast courage, sustained a siege in Londonderry until the city was relieved by ships from England. Many of the inhabitants had perished from hunger. The victory of William at Boyne (1690), where Schomberg, his brave general, a Huguenot French marshal, fell, decided the contest. William led his troops in person through the Boyne River, with his sword in his left hand, since his right arm was disabled by a wound. James was a spectator of the fight at a safe distance.

ENGLISH LIBERTY.--In William's reign, liberty in England was fortified by the Bill of Rights, containing a series of safeguards against regal usurpation. Papists were made ineligible to the throne. The Toleration Act afforded to Protestant dissenters a large measure of protection and freedom. The press was made free from censorship (1695), and newspapers began to be published. Provision was made for the fair trial of persons indicted for treason. The Act of Settlement (1701) settled the crown, if there should be no heirs of Anne or of William, upon the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the daughter of Elizabeth of Bohemia, and granddaughter of James I., and on her heirs, being Protestants.

THE GRAND ALLIANCE: TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK.--The next war which Louis XIV. began was that of the succession in the territory of the Palatinate, which he claimed, on the extinction of the male line of electors, for Elizabeth Charlotte, the gifted and excellent sister of the deceased Elector Charles, and the wife of the Duke of Orleans, the king's brother.

The table which follows will show the nature of this claim:--

FREDERIC, V, 1610-1632, Elector and King of Bohemia, m. Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England. | +--CHARLES LEWIS, 1649-1680. | | | +--CHARLES, 1680-1685. | | | +--Elizabeth, m. Philip, Duke of Orleans, d. 1701. | +--Sophia, m. Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover. | +--George I of England.

Philip, Duke of Orleans, was the only brother of Louis XIV. From him descended King Louis Philippe (1830-1848).

Another reason that Louis had for war was his determination to secure the archbishopric of Cologne for the bishop of Strasburg, a candidate of his own. In 1686 the League of Augsburg had been formed by the emperor with Sweden, Spain, Bavaria, Saxony, and the Palatinate, for defense against France. The Grand Alliance, in which England and Holland were included, was now made (1689). In the year before, by the advice of Louvois, the French had deliberately devastated the Palatinate, demolishing buildings, and burning cities and villages without mercy. The ruins of the Castle of Heidelberg are a monument of this worse than vandal incursion, the pretext for which was a desire to prevent the invasion of France. In the war the English and Dutch fleets, under Admiral Russell, defeated the French, and burned their ships, at the battle of La Hogue (1692). This battle was a turning-point in naval history: "as at Lepanto," says Ranke, where the Turks were defeated (1571), "so at La Hogue, the mastery of the sea passed from one side to the other." But in the Netherlands, where William III., the soul of the League, steadfastly kept the field, after being defeated by Luxemburg; in Italy, where the Duke of Savoy was opposed by the Marshal Catinat; and in a naval battle between the English and French at Lagos Bay,--the French commanders were successful. In 1695 William's troops besieged and captured the town of Namur. At length Louis was moved by the exhaustion of his treasury, and the stagnation of industry in France, to conclude the Peace of Ryswick with England, Spain, and Holland (1697). The Duke of Savoy had been detached from the alliance. Most of the conquests on both sides were restored. William III. was acknowledged to be king of England. In the treaty with the emperor, France retained Strasburg. William was a man of sterling worth, but he was a Dutchman, and was cold in his manners. The plots of the Jacobites, as the adherents of James were called, did more than any thing else to make him popular with his subjects.

CHAPTER II. WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT, 1713); DECLINE OF THE POWER OF FRANCE: POWER AND MARITIME SUPREMACY OF ENGLAND.

OCCASION OF THE WAR.--The death of Charles II. of Spain (1700) was followed by the War of the Spanish Succession. The desire of Louis to have his hands free in the event of Charles's death had influenced him in making the Treaty of Rysivick. Charles had no children. It had been agreed in treaties, to which France was a party, that the Spanish monarchy should not be united either to Austria or to France; and that Archduke Charles, second son of the Emperor Leopold I., should have Spain and the Indies. But Charles II. of Spain left a will making Louis's second grandson, Philip Duke of Anjou, the heir of all his dominions, with the condition annexed that the crowns of France and Spain should not be united. Instigated by dynastic ambition, Louis made up his mind to break the previous agreements, and seize the inheritance for Philip. Philip V. thus became king of Spain. On the death of James II. (1701), Louis recognized his son James, called "the Pretender," as king of Great Britain. This act, as a violation of the Treaty of Ryswick, and as an arrogant intermeddling on the part of a foreign ruler, excited the wrath of the English people, and inclined them to war. The Grand Alliance against France (1701) included the Empire, England, Holland, Brandenburg (or Prussia), and afterwards Portugal and Savoy (1703). France was supported by the electors of Bavaria and Cologne, and at first by Savoy. William III. died in 1702, and was succeeded by Anne, the sister of his deceased wife, and the second daughter of James II.

The following table will help to make clear the several claims to the Spanish succession:--

Philip III, King of Spain, 1598-1621. | +--Maria Anna, m. Emperor Ferdinand III. | | | +--Leopold I, m. (3) Eleanor, daughter of Elector Palatine. | | | | | +--Joseph I, d. 1711. | | | | | +--Charles VI.[2] | | | +--Anna Maria | m. +--PHILIP IV (1621-1665) | | | +--CHARLES II, 1665-1700. | | | +--Margaret Theresa m. Leopold I | | | | | +--Maria Antonia m. Maximilian of Bavaria | | | | | +--Joseph Ferdinand, [1] Electoral Prince of Bavaria. | | | +--(1) Maria Theresa. | m. | +--Louis XIV | | | | | +--Louis, the Dauphin. | | | | | +--Philip of Anjou [2] (PHILIP V of Spain), d. 1746. | | +--Anne. m. Louis XIII of France

1 Recognized as heir of Charles II of Spain until his death.

2 Rival claimants for the Spanish crown after Charles II, the elder brother of each having resigned his pretensions.

EVENTS OF THE WAR.--In this war, there were displayed the military talents of two great generals,--the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. Marlborough had two glaring faults, He was avaricious, and, like other prominent public men in England at that day, was double-faced. After deserting the service of James for that of William, he still kept up at times a correspondence with the exiled house. He was a man of stately and winning presence, a careful commander, in battle cool and self-possessed. At the council board, he had the art of quietly composing differences by winning all to an adhesion to his own views. It is said of him, that he "never committed a rash act, and never missed an opportunity for striking an effective blow." Eugene, on his father's side, sprang from the house of Savoy. His mother was a niece of Mazarin. He was brought up at the court of Louis XIV.; but when the king repeatedly refused him a commission in the army, he entered the service of Austria, was employed in campaigns against the Turks, and rose to the highest distinction. Flattering offers from Louis XIV. he indignantly rejected. His career as a soldier was long and brilliant. The personal sympathy of Eugene and Marlborough with each other was one important cause of their success. Eugene was first sent to Italy. There he drove Catinat, the French general, back on Milan, and captured his successor in command, Villeroi (1702). After a drawn battle between Eugene and Vendome (1702), a commander of much more skill than his predecessor, the French had the advantage in Italy. In 1703, Eugene came to Germany, and Marlborough invaded the Spanish Netherlands. In 1704 Marlborough carried out the plan of a grand campaign which he had devised. He crossed the Rhine at Cologne, moved southward, captured Donauwörth, and drove the Bavarians across the Danube. The united forces of Marlborough and Eugene defeated the French and Bavarian armies at Blenheim (or Hochstädt), on the left bank of the river, with great slaughter. There were captured fifteen thousand French soldiers, with their general Tallard. This victory raised Marlborough's reputation, already great on account of his masterly conduct of his army, to the highest point. He was made a duke by Queen Anne, and a prince of the Empire by Leopold. In Spain, the English captured Gibraltar. Charles of Austria (who had assumed the title of Charles III. of Spain) conquered Madrid (1706), but held it for only a short time. The country generally favored Philip; the arms of Vendome were triumphant; and Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia had to submit to Castilian laws as the penalty of their adhesion to the Austrian cause. In 1706 Marlborough vanquished Villeroi at Ramillies, a village in the Netherlands, in a great battle in which the French army was routed, and their banners and war material captured. The Netherlands submitted to Austria. At Turin, Eugene gained a victory over an army of eighty thousand men; and the fame of this modest and unpretending, but brave and skillful leader was now on a level with that of the English general. Lombardy submitted to Charles III., and the French were excluded from Italy. Another victory of the two commanders at Oudenarde (1708) over Vendome and the Duke of Burgundy, broke down the hopes of Louis, and moved him to offer the largest concessions, which embraced the giving up of Strasburg and of Spain. But the allies, flushed with success, went so far as to demand that he should aid in driving his grandson out of Spain. This roused France, as well as Louis himself, to another grand effort. At Malplaquet, in a bloody conflict, the French were again defeated by Marlborough and Eugene.

TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT.--Circumstances now favored the vanquished and humbled king of France. The Whig ministry in England, which the victories of Marlborough had kept in office, fell from power (1710); and its enemies, and the enemies of Marlborough, were anxious to weaken him. Anne dismissed from her service the Duchess of Marlborough, a haughty woman of a violent temper. Harley, Earl of Oxford, and St. John, afterwards Viscount Bolingbroke, became the queen's principal ministers. They wished to end the war. The Emperor Joseph (1705-1711), who had succeeded Leopold I., died; so that Charles, if he had acquired Spain, would have restored the vast monarchy of Charles V., and brought in a new source of jealousy and alarm. Negotiations for peace began. Marlborough, who had been guilty of traitorous conduct, was removed from his command, and deprived of all his offices (1712). In 1713 the Peace of Utrecht was concluded between England and France, in which Holland, Prussia, Savoy, and Portugal soon joined. It was followed by the Peace of Rastadt and Baden with the emperor (1714). Spain and Spanish America were left to Philip V., the Bourbon king, with the proviso that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united. France ceded to England Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson Bay Territory. Spain ceded to England Gibraltar and Minorca. The Elector of Brandenburg was recognized as King of Prussia. Savoy received the island of Sicily, which was exchanged seven years later for Sardinia, and for the title of king for the duke. Holland gained certain "barrier" fortresses on its border. Austria received the appanages of the Spanish monarchy,--the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Sardinia, and Milan, but not Sicily. The emperor did not recognize the Bourbons in Spain.

LAST DAYS OF LOUIS XIV.--In the next year after the peace, Louis XIV. died. Within two years (1710-1712) he had lost his son, his grandson the Duke of Burgundy (whom the pious Fenélon had trained), his wife, and his eldest great-grandson, and, two years later (1714), his third grandson, the Duke of Berry. He left France overwhelmed with debt, its resources exhausted, its credit gone, its maritime power prostrate; a land covered with poverty and wretchedness. This was the reward of lawless pride and ambition in a monarch who owed his strength, however, to the sympathy and subservience of the nation.

LAW'S BANK.--During the minority of Louis XV. (1715-1774) Philip, Duke of Orleans, was regent, a man of extraordinary talents, but addicted to shameful debauchery. The opportunity for effective reform was neglected. The most influential minister was Cardinal Dubois, likewise a man of unprincipled character. The state was really bankrupt, when a Scottish adventurer and gambler, John Law, possessed of unusual financial talents, but infected with the economical errors of the time, offered to rescue the national finances by means of a bank, which he was allowed to found, the notes of which were to serve as currency. Almost all the coined money flowed into its coffers; its notes went everywhere in the kingdom, and were taken for government dues; it combined with its business "the Mississippi scheme," or the control of the trade, and almost the sovereignty, in the Mississippi region; it absorbed the privileges of the different companies for trading with the East; finally it took charge of the national mint and the issue of coin, and of the taxation of the kingdom, and it assumed the national debt. The temporary success of the gigantic financial scheme turned the heads of the people, and a fever of speculation ran through all ranks. The crash came, the shares in the bank sunk in value, the notes depreciated; and, in the wrath which ensued upon the general bankruptcy, Law, who had been honored and courted by the high and the low, fled from the kingdom. He died in poverty at Venice. The state alone was a gainer by having escaped from a great part of its indebtedness.

ITALY.--Before the middle of the eighteenth century, the Spanish Bourbons again had possession of Naples and Sicily, besides other smaller Italian states. Austria, besides holding Milan, was the virtual ruler of Tuscany.

SPAIN IN ITALY.--Philip V. was afflicted with a mental derangement peculiar to his family. The government was managed by the ambitious queen, Elizabeth of Parma, and the intriguing Italian, Alberoni, the minister in whom she confided. He sought to get back the Italian states lost by the Peace of Utrecht. But Sardinia and Sicily were restored when he was overthrown, through the fear excited by the Quadruple Alliance of France, England, Austria, and Holland (1718). Later, the queen succeeded in obtaining the kingdom of Naples and Sicily for her oldest son, Don Carlos, under the name of Charles III. Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, she gained for her second son, Philip (1735). When Charles succeeded to the Spanish throne (1759-1788), he left Naples and Sicily to his third son, Ferdinand.

AUSTRIA IN ITALY.--The house of Savoy steadily advanced in power. By the Peace of Ryswick, Victor Amadeus II. (1675-1730), secured important places previously gained. He became "King of Sardinia" (1720). By him the University of Turin was founded, and the administration of justice much improved. His next two successors carried forward this good work. Venice lost Morea to the Turks, but retained Corfu and her conquests in Dalmatia (1718). Liberty was gone, and there was decay and conscious weakness in the once powerful republic. Genoa was coveted by Savoy, Austria, and France. The consequent struggles are the material of Genoese history for a long period. Corsica was oppressed, and Genoa called on France to lend help in suppressing its revolt (1736). The Corsicans especially, under Paoli, defended themselves with such energy that France found its work of subjugation hard and slow (1755). The island was ceded to France by Genoa(1768). Milan, with Mantua, was Austrian, after the Peace of Utrecht (1713). Tuscany under Ferdinand II. (1628-1670) bestowed its treasure on Austria and Spain, and fell under the sway of ecclesiastics. Under Cosmo III. (1670-1723), the process of decline went on. After the death of the last of the Medici, John Gasto (1737), Tuscany was practically under the power of Austria, notwithstanding the stipulation that both states should not have the same ruler. It was governed by Francis Stephen (1738-1765), Duke of Lorraine, husband of the Empress Maria Theresa; and, when he became emperor (Francis I.), by his second son, Leopold (1765-1790). At Rome, Pope Innocent XI. (1676-1689) had many conflicts with Louis XVI. which came to an end under the well-meaning Innocent XII. (1691-1700). Contests arose on the part of Rome against the Bourbon courts respecting the Jesuit order, and with the forces adverse to the Church and the Papacy, in the closing part of the eighteenth century. In 1735, the Emperor Charles VI. allowed that Naples and Sicily should be handed over, as a kingdom, to Don Carlos, the son of the Spanish Bourbon king, under the name of Charles III., by whom it was granted to his son Ferdinand IV. (1759).

CLOSE OF ANNE'S REIGN.--Anne's husband, Prince George of Denmark, had no influence, and deserved none. One of the important events of her reign was the Union of England and Scotland in 1707 (p. 461). After the Tories came into power, the two leaders, Oxford and Bolingbroke, were rivals. An angry dispute between them hastened the queen's death (1714). One of the Tory measures, prompted by hostility to Dissenters, was a law forbidding any one to keep a school without a license from a bishop.

GEORGE I, 1714-1727, m. Sophia Dorothea of Zell. | +--GEORGE II, 1727-1760, m. Caroline, daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Anspach. | +--Frederick, Prince of Wales, d. 1751, m. Augusta of Saxe Gotha. | +--Augusta m. | Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick. | | | +--Caroline | m. | +--GEORGE IV, 1820-1830. | | +--GEORGE III, 1760-1820, m. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. | +--WILLIAM IV, 1830-1837. | +--Edward, Duke of Kent, d. 1820, m. Victoria of Saxe Coburg. | +--VICTORIA, succeeded 1837, m. Albert of Saxe Coburg.

REIGN OF GEORGE I.--George I., the first king of the house of Hanover, could not speak English. His private life was immoral. His first ministers were Whigs. Bolingbroke and Oxford were impeached, and fled the country. The "Pretender," James Edward (son of James II.), with the aid of Tory partisans, endeavored to recover the English crown. His standard was raised in the Highlands and in North England (1715), but this Jacobite rebellion was crushed. After the rebellion of 1715, a law was passed, which is still in force, allowing a Parliament to continue for the term of seven years. A second conspiracy in 1717 had the same fate. England had an experience analogous to that of France with Law, with the South Sea Company, which had a monopoly of trade with the Spanish coasts of South America. A rage for speculation was followed by a panic. The estates of the directors of the company were confiscated by Parliament for the benefit of the losers. Robert Walpole was made first minister, a place which he held under George I. and George II. for twenty-one years. William and Anne had attended the meetings of the Cabinet. George I., who could not speak English, staid away. From this time, one of the ministers was called the "prime minister."

THE REIGN OF GEORGE II.--George II. was systematic in his ways, frugal, willful, and fond of war. In his private life, he followed the evil ways of his father. Walpole's influence was predominant. The clever Queen Caroline lent him her support. Walpole reluctantly entered into war with Spain (1739), on account of the measures adopted by that power to prevent English ships from carrying goods, in violation of the treaty of Utrecht, to her South American colonies. The principal success of England was the taking of Porto Bello by Admiral Vernon.

When the war was declared, the people expressed their joy by the ringing of bells. "They are ringing the bells now," said Walpole: "they will be wringing their hands soon." The blame for the want of better success in the war was laid on the prime minister, and he was driven to resign. Then followed the ministry of the Pelhams, Henry Pelham and the Duke of Newcastle, who, like Walpole, managed Parliament by bribing the members through the gift of offices.

In the war of the Austrian succession (1740), England took part with Austria, and the king in person fought in Germany. In 1745 Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the young Pretender (whose father, the old Pretender, styled himself James III.), landed in the Highlands. The Highlanders defeated the English at Preston Pans, near Edinburgh. The Pretender marched into England as far as Derby, at the head of the Jacobite force, but had to turn back and retreat to Scotland. The contest was decided by the victory of the English under the Duke of Cumberland, at Culloden (1746), which was attended by an atrocious slaughter of the wounded. Culloden was the last battle fought in behalf of the Stuarts. Nearly eighty Jacobite conspirators, one of whom was an octogenarian, Lord Lovat, were executed as traitors. These Jacobites were the last persons who were beheaded in England. The Pretender wandered in the Highlands and Western Islands for five months, under different disguises. He was concealed and aided by a Scottish lady, Flora Macdonald. Then he escaped to the Continent, where he led a miserable and dissipated life, and died in 1788. His brother Henry, Cardinal York, the last of the Stuarts in the male line, died in 1807.

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