THE REFORMATION AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS, 1517-1648 A.D. [1]
228. DECLINE OF THE PAPACY
THE PAPACY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
The Papacy, victorious in the long struggle with the Holy Roman Empire,
reached during the thirteenth century the height of its temporal power.
The popes at this time were the greatest sovereigns in Europe. They ruled
a large part of Italy, had great influence in the affairs of France,
England, Spain, and other countries, and in Germany named and deposed
emperors. From their capital at Rome they sent forth their legates to
every European court and issued the laws binding on western Christendom.
FRICTION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE
The universal dominion of the Church proved useful and even necessary in
feudal times, when kings were weak and nobles were strong. The Church of
the early Middle Ages served as the chief unifying force in Europe. When,
however, the kings had repressed feudalism, they took steps to extend
their authority over the Church as well. They tried, therefore, to
restrict the privileges of ecclesiastical courts, to impose taxes on the
clergy, as on their own subjects, and to dictate the appointment of
bishops and abbots to office. This policy naturally led to much friction
between popes and kings, between Church and State.
PONTIFICATE OF BONIFACE VIII, 1294-1303 A.D.
The Papacy put forth its most extensive claims under Boniface VIII. The
character of these claims is shown by two bulls which he issued. The first
forbade all laymen, under penalty of excommunication, to collect taxes on
Church lands, and all clergymen to pay them. The second announced in
unmistakable terms both the spiritual and the temporal supremacy of the
popes. "Submission to the Roman pontiff," declared Boniface, "is
altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature".
BONIFACE AND PHILIP THE FAIR
Boniface had employed the exalted language of Gregory VII in dealing with
Henry IV, but he found an opponent in a monarch more resolute and
resourceful than any Holy Roman Emperor. This was Philip the Fair, [2]
king of France. Philip answered the first bull by refusing to allow any
gold and silver to be exported from France to Italy. The pope, thus
deprived of valuable revenues, gave way and acknowledged that the French
ruler had a limited right to tax the clergy. Another dispute soon arose,
however, as the result of Philip's imprisonment and trial of an obnoxious
papal legate. Angered by this action, Boniface prepared to excommunicate
the king and depose him from the throne. Philip retaliated by calling
together the Estates-General and asking their support for the preservation
of the "ancient liberty of France." The nobles, the clergy, and the "third
estate" rallied around Philip, accused the pope of heresy and tyranny, and
declared that the French king was subject to God alone.
ANAGNI, 1303 A.D.
The last act of the drama was soon played. Philip sent his emissaries into
Italy to arrest the pope and bring him to trial before a general council
in France. At Anagni, near Rome, a band of hireling soldiers stormed the
papal palace and made Boniface a prisoner. The citizens of Anagni soon
freed him, but the shock of the humiliation broke the old man's spirit and
he died soon afterwards. The poet Dante, in the _Divine Comedy_, [3]
speaks with awe of the outrage: "Christ had been again crucified among
robbers; and the vinegar and gall had been again pressed to his lips". [4]
The historian sees in this event the end of the temporal power of the
Papacy.
THE "BABYLONION CAPTIVITY," 1309-1377 A.D.
Soon after the death of Boniface, Philip succeeded in having the
archbishop of Bordeaux chosen as head of the Church. The new pope removed
the papal court to Avignon, a town just outside the French frontier of
those days. The popes lived in Avignon for nearly seventy years. This
period is usually described as the "Babylonian Captivity" of the Church, a
name which recalls the exile of the Jews from their native land. [5] The
long absence of the popes from Rome lessened their power, and the
suspicion that they were the mere vassals of the French crown seriously
impaired the respect in which they had been held.
THE "GREAT SCHISM," 1378-1417 A.D.
Following the "Babylonian Captivity" came the "Great Schism." Shortly
after the return of the papal court to Rome, an Italian was elected pope
as Urban VI. The cardinals in the French interest refused to accept him,
declared his election void, and named Clement VII as pope. Clement
withdrew to Avignon, while Urban remained in Rome. Western Christendom
could not decide which one to obey. Some countries declared for Urban,
while other countries accepted Clement. The spectacle of two rival popes,
each holding himself out as the only true successor of St. Peter,
continued for about forty years and injured the Papacy more than anything
else that had happened to it.
COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE, 1414-1418 A.D.
The schism in western Christendom was finally healed at the Council of
Constance. There were three "phantom popes" at this time, but they were
all deposed in favor of a new pontiff, Martin V. The Catholic world now
had a single head, but it was not easy to revive the old, unquestioning
loyalty to him as God's vicar on earth.
THE RENAISSANCE POPES
From the time of Martin V the Papacy became more and more an Italian
power. The popes neglected European politics and gave their chief
attention to the States of the Church. A number of the popes took much
interest in the Renaissance movement and became its enthusiastic patrons.
[6] They kept up splendid courts, collected manuscripts, paintings, and
statues, and erected magnificent palaces and churches in Rome. Some
European peoples, especially in Germany, looked askance at such luxury and
begrudged the heavy taxes which were necessary to support it. This feeling
against the papacy also helped to provoke the Reformation.
[Illustration: Map, THE GREAT SCHISM, 1378-1417 A.D.]
COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE CLERGY
The worldliness of some of the popes was too often reflected in the lives
of the lesser clergy. Throughout the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
centuries the Church encountered much criticism from reformers. Thus, the
famous humanist, Erasmus, [7] wrote his _Praise of Folly_ to expose the
vices and temporal ambitions of bishops and monks, the foolish
speculations of theologians, and the excessive reliance which common
people had on pilgrimages, festivals, relics, and other aids to devotion.
So great was the demand for this work that it went through twenty-seven
large editions during the author's lifetime. Erasmus and others like him
were loyal sons of the Church, but they believed they could best serve her
interests by effecting her reform. Some men went further, however, and
demanded wholesale changes in Catholic belief and worship. These men were
the heretics.
229. HERESIES AND HERETICS
PERSECUTION OF HERETICS
During the first centuries of our era, when the Christians had formed a
forbidden sect, they claimed toleration on the ground that religious
belief is voluntary and not something which can be enforced by law. This
view changed after Christianity triumphed in the Roman Empire and enjoyed
the support, instead of the opposition, of the government. The Church,
backed by the State, no longer advocated freedom of conscience, but began
to persecute people who held heretical beliefs.
MEDIEVAL ATTITUDE TOWARD HERESY
It is difficult for those who live in an age of religious toleration to
understand the horror which heresy inspired in the Middle Ages. A heretic
was a traitor to the Church, for he denied the doctrines believed to be
essential to salvation. It seemed a Christian duty to compel the heretic
to recant, lest he imperil his eternal welfare. If he persisted in his
impious course, then the earth ought to be rid of one who was a source of
danger to the faithful and an enemy of the Almighty.
PUNISHMENT OF HERESY
Although executions for heresy had occurred as early as the fourth
century, [8] for a long time milder penalties were usually inflicted. The
heretic might be exiled, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property and
his rights as a citizen. The death penalty was seldom invoked by the
Church before the thirteenth century. Since ecclesiastical law forbade the
Church to shed blood, the State stepped in to seize the heretic and put
him to death, most often by fire. We must remember that in medieval times
cruel punishments were imposed for even slight offenses, and hence men saw
nothing wrong in inflicting the worst of punishments for what was believed
to be the worst of crimes.
THE ALBIGENSES
In spite of all measures of repression heretics were not uncommon during
the later Middle Ages. Some heretical movements spread over entire
communities. The most important was that of the Albigenses, so called from
the town of Albi in southern France, where many of them lived. Their
doctrines are not well known, but they seem to have believed in the
existence of two gods--one good (whose son was Christ), the other evil
(whose son was Satan). The Albigenses even set up a rival church, with its
priests, bishops, and councils.
CRUSADE AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES, 1209-1229 A.D.
The failure of attempts to convert the Albigenses by peaceful means led
the pope, Innocent III, [9] to preach a crusade against them. Those who
entered upon it were promised the usual privileges of crusaders. [10] A
series of bloody wars now followed, in the course of which thousands of
men, women, and children perished. But the Albigensian sect did not
entirely disappear for more than a century, and then only after numberless
trials and executions for heresy.
THE WALDENSES
The followers of Peter Waldo, who lived in the twelfth century, made no
effort to set up a new religion in Europe. They objected, however, to
certain practices of the Church, such as masses for the dead and the
adoration of saints. They also condemned the luxury of the clergy and
urged that Christians should live like the Apostles, charitable and poor.
To the Waldenses the Bible was a sufficient guide to the religious life,
and so they translated parts of the scriptures and allowed everyone to
preach, without distinction of age, or rank, or sex. The Waldenses spread
through many European countries, but being poor and lowly men they did not
exert much influence as reformers. The sect survived severe persecution
and now forms a branch of the Protestant Church in Italy.
JOHN WYCLIFFE, 1320-1384 A.D.
Beliefs very similar to those of the Waldenses were entertained by John
Wycliffe, (or Wyclif) master of an Oxford college and a popular preacher.
He, too, appealed from the authority of the Church to the authority of the
Bible. With the assistance of two friends Wycliffe produced the first
English translation of the Scriptures. Manuscript copies of the work had a
large circulation, until the government suppressed it. Wycliffe was not
molested in life, but the Council of Constance denounced his teaching and
ordered that his bones should be dug up, burned, and cast into a stream.
[Illustration: JOHN WYCLIFFE
After an old print.]
THE LOLLARDS
Wycliffe had organized bands of "poor priests" to spread the simple truths
of the Bible through all England. They went out, staff in hand and clad in
long, russet gowns, and preached to the common people in the English
language, wherever an audience could be found. The Lollards, as Wycliffe's
followers were known, not only attacked many beliefs and practices of the
Church, but also demanded social reforms. For instance, they declared that
all wars were sinful and were but plundering and murdering the poor to win
glory for kings. The Lollards had to endure much persecution for heresy.
Nevertheless their work lived on and sowed in England and Scotland the
seeds of the Reformation.
JOHN HUSS, 1373(?)-1415 A.D.
The doctrines of Wycliffe found favor with Anne of Bohemia, wife of King
Richard II, [11] and through her they reached that country. Here they
attracted the attention of John Huss, (or Hus) a distinguished scholar in
the university of Prague. Wycliffe's writings confirmed Huss in his
criticism of many doctrines of the Church. He attacked the clergy in
sermons and pamphlets and also objected to the supremacy of the pope. The
sentence of excommunication pronounced against him did not shake his
reforming zeal. Finally Huss was cited to appear before the Council of
Constance, then in session. Relying on the safe conduct given him by the
German emperor, Huss appeared before the council, only to be declared
guilty of teaching "many things evil, scandalous, seditious, and
dangerously heretical." The emperor then violated the safe conduct--no
promise made to a heretic was considered binding--and allowed Huss to be
burnt outside the walls of Constance. Thus perished the man who, more than
all others, is regarded as the forerunner of Luther and the Reformation.
THE HUSSITE WARS
The flames which burned Huss set all Bohemia afire. The Bohemians, a
Slavic people, regarded him as a national hero and made his martyrdom an
excuse for rebelling against the Holy Roman Empire. The Hussite wars,
which followed, thus formed a political rather than a religious struggle.
The Bohemians did not gain freedom, and their country still remains a
Hapsburg possession. But the sense of nationalism is not extinct there,
and Bohemia may some day become an independent state.
230. MARTIN LUTHER AND THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, 1517-
1522 A.D.
MARTIN LUTHER, 1483-1546 A.D.
Though there were many reformers before the Reformation, the beginning of
that movement is rightly associated with the name of Martin Luther. He was
the son of a German peasant, who, by industry and frugality, had won a
small competence. Thanks to his father's self-sacrifice, Luther enjoyed a
good education in scholastic philosophy at the university of Erfurt.
Having taken the degrees of bachelor and master of arts, Luther began to
study law, but an acute sense of his sinfulness and a desire to save his
soul soon drove him into a monastery. There he read the Bible and the
writings of the Church Fathers and found at last the peace of mind he
sought. A few years later Luther paid a visit to Rome, which opened his
eyes to the worldliness and general laxity of life in the capital of the
Papacy. He returned to Germany and became a professor of theology in the
university of Wittenberg, newly founded by Frederick the Wise, elector of
Saxony. Luther's sermons and lectures attracted large audiences, students
began to flock to Wittenberg; and the elector grew proud of the rising
young teacher who was making his university famous.
[Illustration: MARTIN LUTHER
After a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger.]
TETZEL AND INDULGENCES
But Luther was soon to emerge from his academic retirement and to become,
quite unintentionally, a reformer. In 1517 A.D. there came into the
neighborhood of Wittenberg a Dominican friar named Tetzel, granting
indulgences for the erection of the new St. Peter's at Rome. [12] An
indulgence, according to the teaching of the Church, formed a remission of
the temporal punishment, or penance [13] due to sin, if the sinner had
expressed his repentance and had promised to atone for his misdeeds. It
was also supposed to free the person who received it from some or all of
his punishment after death in Purgatory. [14] Indulgences were granted for
participation in crusades, pilgrimages, and other good works. Later on
they were granted for money, which was expected to be applied to some
pious purpose. Many of the German princes opposed this method of raising
funds for the Church, because it took so much money out of their
dominions. Their sale had also been condemned on religious grounds by Huss
and Erasmus.
POSTING OF THE NINETY-FIVE THESES, 1517 A.D.
Luther began his reforming career by an attack upon indulgences. He did
not deny their usefulness altogether, but pointed out that they lent
themselves to grave abuses. Common people, who could not understand the
Latin in which they were written, often thought that they wiped away the
penalties of sin, even without true repentance. These criticisms Luther
set forth in ninety-five theses or propositions, which he offered to
defend against all opponents. In accordance with the custom of medieval
scholars, Luther posted his theses on the door of the church at
Wittenberg, where all might see them. They were composed in Latin, but
were at once translated into German, printed, and spread broadcast over
Germany. Their effect was so great that before long the sale of
indulgences in that country almost ceased.
BURNING OF THE PAPAL BULL, 1520 A.D.
The scholarly critic of indulgences soon passed into an open foe of the
Papacy. Luther found that his theological views bore a close resemblance
to those of Wycliffe and John Huss, yet he refused to give them up as
heretical. Instead, he wrote three bold pamphlets, in one of which he
appealed to the "Christian nobility of the German nation" to rally
together against Rome. The pope, at first, had paid little attention to
the controversy about indulgences, declaring it "a mere squabble of
monks," but he now issued a bull against Luther, ordering him to recant
within sixty days or be excommunicated. The papal bull did not frighten
Luther or withdraw from him popular support. He burnt it in the market
square of Wittenberg, in the presence of a concourse of students and
townsfolk. This dramatic answer to the pope deeply stirred all Germany.
DIET OF WORMS, 1521 A.D.
The next scene of the Reformation was staged at Worms, at an important
assembly, or Diet, of the Holy Roman Empire. The Diet summoned Luther to
appear before it for examination, and the emperor, Charles V, gave him a
safe conduct. Luther's friends, remembering the treatment of Huss, advised
him not to accept the summons, but he declared that he would enter Worms
"in the face of the gates of Hell and the powers of the air." In the great
hall of the Diet Luther bravely faced the princes, nobles, and clergy of
Germany. He refused to retract anything he had written, unless his
statements could be shown to contradict the Bible. "It is neither right
nor safe to act against conscience," Luther said. "God help me. Amen."
LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG, 1521-1522 A.D.
Only one thing remained to do with Luther. He was ordered to return to
Wittenberg and there await the imperial edict declaring him a heretic and
outlaw. But the elector of Saxony, who feared for Luther's safety, had him
carried off secretly to the castle of Wartburg. Here Luther remained for
nearly a year, engaged in translating the New Testament into German. There
had been many earlier translations into German, but Luther's was the first
from the Greek original. His version, simple, forcible, and easy to
understand, enjoyed wide popularity and helped to fix for Germans the form
of their literary language. Luther afterwards completed a translation of
the entire Bible, which the printing press multiplied in thousands of
copies throughout Germany.
LUTHER'S LEADERSHIP
Though still under the ban of the empire, Luther left the Wartburg in 1522
A.D. and returned to Wittenberg. He lived here, unmolested, until his
death, twenty-four years later. During this time he flooded the country
with pamphlets, wrote innumerable letters, composed many fine hymns, [15]
and prepared a catechism, "a right Bible," said he, "for the laity." Thus
Luther became the guide and patron of the reformatory movement which he
had started.
231. CHARLES V AND THE SPREAD OF THE GERMAN REFORMATION, 1519-1556 A.D.
CHARLES V, EMPEROR, 1519-1556 A.D.
The young man who as Holy Roman Emperor presided at the Diet of Worms had
assumed the imperial crown only two years previously. A namesake of
Charlemagne, Charles V held sway over dominions even more extensive than
those which had belonged to the Frankish king. Through his mother, a
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, [16] he inherited Spain, Naples,
Sicily, and the Spanish possessions in the New World. Through his father,
a son of the emperor Maximilian I, he became ruler of Burgundy and the
Netherlands and also succeeded to the Austrian territories of the
Hapsburgs. Charles was thus the most powerful monarch in Europe.
CHARLES V AND THE LUTHERANS
Charles, as a devout Roman Catholic, had no sympathy for the Reformation.
At Worms, on the day following Luther's refusal to recant, the emperor had
expressed his determination to stake "all his dominions, his friends, his
body and blood, his life and soul" upon the extinction of the Lutheran
heresy. This might have been an easy task, had Charles undertaken it at
once. But a revolt in Spain, wars with the French king, Francis I, and
conflicts with the Ottoman Turks led to his long absence from Germany and
kept him from proceeding effectively against the Lutherans, until it was
too late.
[Illustration: Map, EUROPE at the Beginning of the Reformation, 1519 A.D.]
THE "REFORMED RELIGION"
The Reformation in Germany appealed to many classes. To patriotic Germans
it seemed a revolt against a foreign power--the Italian Papacy. To men of
pious mind it offered the attractions of a simple faith which took the
Bible as the rule of life. Worldly-minded princes saw in it an opportunity
to despoil the Church of lands and revenues. For these reasons Luther's
teachings found ready acceptance. Priests married, Luther himself setting
the example, monks left their monasteries, and the "Reformed Religion"
took the place of Roman Catholicism in most parts of northern and central
Germany. South Germany, however, did not fall away from the pope and has
remained Roman Catholic to the present time.
[Illustration: CHARLES V
A portrait of the emperor at the age of 48, by the Venetian painter
Titian.]
THE PROTESTANTS, 1529 A.D.
Though Germany had now divided into two religious parties, the legal
position of Lutheranism remained for a long time in doubt. A Diet held in
1526 A.D. tried to shelve the question by allowing each German state to
conduct its religious affairs as it saw fit. But at the next Diet, three
years later, a majority of the assembled princes decided that the Edict of
Worms against Luther and his followers should be enforced. The Lutheran
princes at once issued a vigorous protest against such action. Because of
this protest those who separated from the Roman Church came to be called
Protestants.
PEACE OF AUGSBURG, 1555 A.D.
It was not till 1546 A.D., the year of Luther's death, that Charles V felt
his hands free to suppress the rising tide of Protestantism. By this time
the Lutheran princes had formed a league for mutual protection. Charles
brought Spanish troops into Germany and tried to break up the league by
force. Civil war raged till 1555 A.D., when both sides agreed to the Peace
of Augsburg. It was a compromise. The ruler of each state--Germany then
contained over three hundred states--was to decide whether his subjects
should be Lutherans or Catholics. Thus the peace by no means established
religious toleration, since all Germans had to believe as their prince
believed. However, it recognized Lutheranism as a legal religion and ended
the attempts to crush the German Reformation.
LUTHERANISM IN SCANDINAVIA
Meanwhile Luther's doctrines spread into Scandinavian lands. The rulers of
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden closed the monasteries and compelled the Roman
Catholic bishops to surrender ecclesiastical property to the crown.
Lutheranism became henceforth the official religion of these three
countries.
232. THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND; ZWINGLI AND CALVIN
HULDREICH ZWINGLI, 1484-1531 A.D.
The Reformation in Switzerland began with the work of Zwingli. He was the
contemporary but not the disciple of Luther. From his pulpit in the
cathedral of Zurich, Zwingli proclaimed the Scriptures as the sole guide
of faith and denied the supremacy of the pope. Many of the Swiss cantons
accepted his teaching and broke away from obedience to Rome. Civil war
soon followed between Protestants and Roman Catholics, and Zwingli fell in
the struggle. After his death the two parties made a peace which allowed
each canton to determine its own religion. Switzerland has continued to
this day to be part Roman Catholic and part Protestant.
JOHN CALVIN 1509-1564 A.D.
The Protestants in Switzerland did not remain long without a leader. To
Geneva came in 1536 A.D. a young Frenchman named Calvin. He had just
published his _Institutes of the Christian Religion_, a work which set
forth in an orderly, logical manner the main principles of Protestant
theology. Calvin also translated the Bible into French and wrote valuable
commentaries on nearly all the Scriptural books.
CALVIN AT GENEVA
Calvin at Geneva was sometimes called the Protestant pope. During his long
residence there he governed the people with a rod of iron. There were no
more festivals, no more theaters, no more dancing, music, and masquerades.
All the citizens had to attend two sermons on Sunday and to yield at least
a lip-assent to the reformer's doctrines. On a few occasions Calvin
proceeded to terrible extremities, as when he caused the Spanish
physician, Michael Servetus, to be burned to death, because of heretical
views concerning the Trinity. Nevertheless, Geneva prospered under
Calvin's rule and became a Christian commonwealth, sober and industrious.
The city still reveres the memory of the man who founded her university
and made her, as it were, the sanctuary of the Reformation.
[Illustration: JOHN CALVIN, after an old print.]
DIFFUSION OF CALVINISM
Calvin's influence was not confined to Geneva or even to Switzerland. The
men whom he trained and on whom he set the stamp of his stern, earnest,
God-fearing character spread Calvinism over a great part of Europe. In
Holland and Scotland it became the prevailing type of Protestantism, and
in France and England it deeply affected the national life. During the
seventeenth century the Puritans carried Calvinism across the sea to New
England, where it formed the dominant faith in colonial times.
233. THE ENGLISH REFORMATION, 1533-1658 A.D.
HENRY VIII, KING, 1509-1547 A.D.
The Reformation in Germany and Switzerland started as a national and
popular movement; in England it began as the act of a despotic sovereign,
Henry VIII. This second Tudor [17] was handsome, athletic, finely
educated, and very able, but he was also selfish, sensual, and cruel. His
father had created a strong monarchy in England by humbling both
Parliament and the nobles. When Henry VIII came to the throne, the only
serious obstacle in the way of royal absolutism was the Roman Church.
[Illustration: HENRY VIII
After a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger.]
HENRY'S EARLY LOYALTY TO THE PAPACY
Henry showed himself at first a devoted Catholic. He took an amateur's
interest in theology and wrote with his own royal pen a book attacking
Luther. The pope rewarded him with the title of "Defender of the Faith," a
title which English sovereigns still bear. Henry at this time did not
question the authority of the Papacy. He even made his chief adviser
Cardinal Wolsey, the most conspicuous churchman in the kingdom.
PREPARATION FOR THE ENGLISH REFORMATION
At the beginning of Henry's reign the Church was still strong in England.
Probably most of the people were sincerely attached to it. Still, the
labors of Wycliffe and the Lollards had weakened the hold of the Church
upon the masses, while Erasmus and the Oxford scholars who worked with
him, by their criticism of ecclesiastical abuses, had done much to
undermine its influence with the intellectual classes. In England, as on
the Continent, the worldliness of the Church prepared the way for the
Reformation.
HENRY AND CATHERINE OF ARAGON
The actual separation from Rome arose out of Henry's matrimonial
difficulties. He had married a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, the
aunt of the emperor Charles V and widow of Henry's older brother. The
marriage required a dispensation [18] from the pope, because canon law
forbade a man to wed his brother's widow. After living happily with
Catherine for eighteen years, Henry suddenly announced his conviction that
the union was sinful. This, of course, formed simply a pretext for the
divorce which Henry desired. Of his children by Catherine only a daughter
survived, but Henry wished to have a son succeed him on the throne.
Moreover, he had grown tired of Catherine and had fallen in love with Anne
Boleyn, a pretty maid-in-waiting at the court.
THE DIVORCE, 1533 A.D.
At first Henry tried to secure the pope's consent to the divorce. The pope
did not like to set aside the dispensation granted by his predecessor, nor
did he wish to offend the mighty emperor Charles V. Failing to get the
papal sanction, Henry obtained his divorce from an English court presided
over by Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury. Anne Boleyn was then
proclaimed queen, in defiance of the papal bull of excommunication.
ACT OF SUPREMACY, 1534 A.D.
Henry's next step was to procure from his subservient Parliament a series
of laws which abolished the pope's authority in England. Of these, the
most important was the Act of Supremacy. It declared the English king to
be "the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England." At the same
time a new treason act imposed the death penalty on anyone who called the
king a "heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper." The great
majority of the English people seem to have accepted this new legislation
without much objection; those who refused to do so perished on the
scaffold. The most eminent victim was Sir Thomas More, [19] formerly
Henry's Lord Chancellor and distinguished for eloquence and profound
learning. His execution sent a thrill of horror through Christendom.
THE MONASTERIES SUPPRESSED
The suppression of the monasteries soon followed the separation from Rome.
Henry declared to Parliament that they deserved to be abolished, because
of the "slothful and ungodly lives" led by the inmates. In some instances
this accusation may have been true, but the real reason for Henry's action
was his desire to crush the monastic orders, which supported the pope, and
to seize their extensive possessions. The beautiful monasteries were torn
down and the lands attached to them were sold for the benefit of the crown
or granted to Henry's favorites. The nobles who accepted this monastic
wealth naturally became zealous advocates of Henry's anti-papal policy.
[Illustration: RUINS OF MELROSE ABBEY
The little town of Melrose in Scotland contains the ruins of a very
beautiful monastery church built about the middle of the fifteenth
century. The principal part of the present remains is the choir, with
slender shafts, richly-carved capitals, and windows of exquisite stone-
tracery. The beautiful sculptures throughout the church were defaced at
the time of the Reformation. The heart of Robert Bruce is interred near
the site of the high altar.]
PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION UNDER EDWARD VI, 1547-1553 A.D.
Though Henry VIII had broken with the Papacy, he remained Roman Catholic
in doctrine to the day of his death. Under his successor, Edward VI, the
Reformation made rapid progress in England. The young king's guardian
allowed reformers from the Continent to come to England, and the doctrines
of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were freely preached there. At this time
all paintings, statuary, wood carvings, and stained glass were removed
from church edifices. The use of tapers, incense, and holy water was also
discontinued. In order that religious services might be conducted in the
language of the people, Archbishop Cranmer and his co-workers prepared the
_Book of Common Prayer_. It consisted of translations into noble English
of various parts of the old Latin service books. With some changes, it is
still used in the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church of
the United States.
THE CATHOLIC REACTION UNDER MARY TUDOR, 1553-1558 A.D.
The short reign of Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was marked
by a temporary setback to the Protestant cause. The queen prevailed on
Parliament to secure a reconciliation with Rome. She also married her
Roman Catholic cousin, Philip of Spain, the son of Charles V. Mary now
began a severe persecution of the Protestants. It gained for her the
epithet of "Bloody," but it did not succeed in stamping out heresy. Many
eminent reformers perished, among them Cranmer, the former archbishop.
Mary died childless, after ruling about five years, and the crown passed
to Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth. Under Elizabeth Anglicanism again
replaced Roman Catholicism as the religion of England.
234. THE PROTESTANT SECTS
EXTENT OF PROTESTANTISM
The Reformation was practically completed before the close of the
sixteenth century. In 1500 A.D. the Roman Church embraced all Europe west
of Russia and the Balkan peninsula. By 1575 A.D. nearly half of its former
subjects had renounced their allegiance. The greater part of Germany and
Switzerland and all of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, England, and
Scotland became independent of the Papacy. The unity of western
Christendom, which had been preserved throughout the Middle Ages, thus
disappeared and has not since been revived.
[Illustration: Map, EXTENT OF THE REFORMATION, 1524-1572 A.D.]
COMMON FEATURES OF PROTESTANTISM
The reformers agreed in substituting for the authority of popes and church
councils the authority of the Bible. They went back fifteen hundred years
to the time of the Apostles and tried to restore what they believed to be
Apostolic Christianity. Hence they rejected such doctrines and practices
as were supposed to have developed during the Middle Ages. The Reformation
also abolished the monastic system and priestly celibacy. The sharp
distinction between clergy and laity disappeared, for priests married,
lived among the people, and no longer formed a separate class. In general,
Protestantism affirmed the ability of every man to find salvation without
the aid of ecclesiastics. The Church was no longer the only "gate of
heaven."
[Illustration: CHAINED BIBLE
In the church of St. Crux, York.]
DIVISIONS AMONG PROTESTANTS
But the Protestant idea of authority led inevitably to differences of
opinion among the reformers. There were various ways of interpreting that
Bible to which they appealed as the rule of faith and conduct.
Consequently, Protestantism split up into many sects or denominations, and
these have gone on multiplying to the present day. Nearly all, however,
are offshoots from the three main varieties of Protestantism which
appeared in the sixteenth century.
LUTHERANISM AND ANGLICANISM
Lutheranism and Anglicanism presented some features in common. Both were
state churches, supported by the government; both had a book of common
prayer; and both recognized the sacraments of baptism, the eucharist, and
confirmation. The Church of England also kept the sacrament of ordination.
The Lutheran churches in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, as well as the
Church of England, likewise retained the episcopate.
CALVINISM
Calvinism departed much more widely from Roman Catholicism. It did away
with the episcopate and had only one order of clergy--the presbyters. [20]
It provided for a very simple form of worship. In a Calvinistic church the
service consisted of Bible reading, a sermon, extemporaneous prayers, and
hymns sung by the congregation. The Calvinists kept only two sacraments,
baptism and the eucharist. They regarded the first, however, as a simple
undertaking to bring up the child in a Christian manner, and the second as
merely a commemoration of the Last Supper.
THE REFORMATION AND FREEDOM
The break with Rome did not introduce religious liberty into Europe.
Nothing was further from the minds of Luther, Calvin, and other reformers
than the toleration of Reformation beliefs unlike their own. The early
Protestant sects punished dissenters as zealously as the Roman Church
punished heretics. Lutherans burned the followers of Zwingli in Germany,
Calvin put Servetus to death, and the English government, in the time of
Henry VIII and Elizabeth, executed many Roman Catholics. Complete freedom
of conscience and the right of private judgment in religion have been
secured in most European countries only within the last hundred years.
THE REFORMATION AND MORALS
The Reformation, however, did deepen the moral life of European peoples.
The faithful Protestant or Roman Catholic vied with his neighbor in trying
to show that his particular belief made for better living than any other.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in consequence, were more earnest
and serious, if also more bigoted, than the centuries of the Renaissance.
235. THE CATHOLIC COUNTER REFORMATION
THE REFORMING POPES
The rapid spread of Protestantism soon brought about a Catholic Counter
Reformation in those parts of Europe which remained faithful to Rome. The
popes now turned from the cultivation of Renaissance art and literature to
the defense of their threatened faith. They made needed changes in the
papal court and appointed to ecclesiastical offices men distinguished for
virtue and learning. This reform of the Papacy dates from the time of Paul
III, who became pope in 1534 A.D. He opened the college of cardinals to
Roman Catholic reformers, even offering a seat in it to Erasmus. Still
more important was his support of the famous Society of Jesus, which had
been established in the year of his accession to the papal throne.
ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA, 1491-1556 A.D.
The founder of the new society was a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius Loyola. He
had seen a good deal of service in the wars of Charles V against the
French. While in a hospital recovering from a wound Loyola read devotional
books, and these produced a profound change within him. He now decided to
abandon the career of arms and to become, instead, the knight of Christ.
So Loyola donned a beggar's robe, practiced all the kinds of asceticism
which his books described, and went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The
turning-point of his career came with his visit to Paris to study
theology. Here Loyola met the six devout and talented men who became the
first members of his society. They intended to work as missionaries among
the Moslems, but, when this plan fell through, they visited Rome and
placed their energy and enthusiasm at the disposal of the pope.
[Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA]
THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
Loyola's military training deeply affected the character of the new order.
The Jesuits, as their Protestant opponents styled them, were to be an army
of spiritual soldiers, living under the strictest obedience to their head,
or general. Like soldiers, again, they were to remain in the world, and
there fight manfully for the Church and against heretics. The society grew
rapidly; before Loyola's death it included over a thousand members; and in
the seventeenth century it became the most influential of all the
religious orders. [21] The activity of the Jesuits as preachers,
confessors, teachers, and missionaries did much to roll back the rising
tide of Protestantism in Europe.
JESUIT SCHOOLS
The Jesuits gave special attention to education, for they realized the
importance of winning over the young people to the Church. Their schools
were so good that even Protestant children often attended them. The
popularity of Jesuit teachers arose partly from the fact that they always
tried to lead, not drive their pupils. Light punishments, short lessons,
many holidays, and a liberal use of prizes and other distinctions formed
some of the attractive features of their system of training. It is not
surprising that the Jesuits became the instructors of the Roman Catholic
world. They called their colleges the "fortresses of the faith."
JESUIT MISSIONS
The missions of the Jesuits were not less important than their schools.
The Jesuits worked in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and other countries where
Protestantism threatened to become dominant. Then they invaded all the
lands which the great maritime discoveries of the preceding age had laid
open to European enterprise. In India, China, the East Indies, Japan, the
Philippines, Africa, and the two Americas their converts from heathenism
were numbered by hundreds of thousands.
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, 1506-1552 A.D.
The most eminent of all Jesuit missionaries, St. Francis Xavier, had
belonged to Loyola's original band. He was a little, blue-eyed man, an
engaging preacher, an excellent organizer, and possessed of so attractive
a personality that even the ruffians and pirates with whom he had to
associate on his voyages became his friends. Xavier labored with such
devotion and success in the Portuguese colonies of the Far East as to gain
the title of "Apostle to the Indies." He also introduced Christianity in
Japan, where it flourished until a persecuting emperor extinguished it
with fire and sword.
COUNCIL OF TRENT, 1545-1563 A.D.
Another agency in the Counter Reformation was the great Church Council
summoned by Pope Paul III. The council met at Trent, on the borders of
Germany and Italy. It continued, with intermissions, for nearly twenty
years. The Protestants, though invited to participate, did not attend, and
hence nothing could be done to bring them back within the Roman Catholic
fold. This was the last general council of the Church for over three
hundred years. [22]
WORK OF THE COUNCIL
The Council of Trent made no essential changes in the Roman Catholic
doctrines, which remained as St. Thomas Aquinas [23] and other theologians
had set them forth in the Middle Ages. In opposition to the Protestant
view, it declared that the tradition of the Church possessed equal
authority with the Bible. It reaffirmed the supremacy of the pope over
Christendom. The council also passed important decrees forbidding the sale
of ecclesiastical offices and requiring bishops and other prelates to
attend strictly to their duties. Since the Council of Trent the Roman
Church has been distinctly a religious organization, instead of both a
secular and religious body, as was the Church in the Middle Ages. [24]
THE INDEX
The council, before adjourning, authorized the pope to draw up a list, or
Index, of works which Roman Catholics might not read. This action did not
form an innovation. The Church from an early day had condemned and
destroyed heretical writings. However, the invention of printing, by
giving greater currency to new and dangerous ideas, increased the
necessity for the regulation of thought. The "Index of Prohibited Books"
still exists, and additions to the list are made from time to time. It was
matched by the strict censorship of printing long maintained in Protestant
countries.
THE INQUISITION
Still another agency of the Counter Reformation consisted of the
Inquisition. This was a system of church courts for the discovery and
punishment of heretics. Such courts had been set up in the Middle Ages,
for instance, to suppress the Albigensian heresy. After the Council of
Trent they redoubled their activity, especially in Italy, the Netherlands,
and Spain.
INFLUENCE OF THE INQUISITION
The Inquisition probably contributed to the disappearance of Protestantism
in Italy. In the Netherlands, where it worked with great severity, it only
aroused exasperation and hatred and helped to provoke a successful revolt
of the Dutch people. The Spaniards, on the other hand, approved of the
methods of the Inquisition and welcomed its extermination of Moors and
Jews, as well as Protestant heretics. The Spanish Inquisition was not
abolished till the nineteenth century.
236. SPAIN UNDER PHILIP II, 1556-1598 A.D.
ABDICATION OF CHARLES V, 1555-1556 A.D.
In 1555 A.D., the year of the Peace of Augsburg, [25] Charles V determined
to abdicate his many crowns and seek the repose of a monastery. The plan
was duly carried into effect. His brother Ferdinand I succeeded to the
title of Holy Roman Emperor and the Austrian territories, while his son,
Philip II, [26] received the Spanish possessions in Italy, the
Netherlands, and America. There were now two branches of the Hapsburg
family--one in Austria and one in Spain.
PHILIP II
The new king of Spain was a man of unflagging energy, strong will, and
deep attachment to the Roman Church. As a ruler he had two great ideals:
to make Spain the foremost state in the world and to secure the triumph of
the Roman Catholic faith over Protestantism. His efforts to realize these
ideals largely determined European history during the second half of the
sixteenth century.
[Illustration: PHILIP II
After the portrait by Titian.]
BATTLE OF LEPANTO, 1571 A.D.
The Spanish monarch won renown by becoming the champion of Christendom
against the Ottoman Turks. At this time the Turks had a strong navy, by
means of which they captured Cyprus from the Venetians and ravaged Sicily
and southern Italy. Grave danger existed that they would soon control all
the Mediterranean. To stay their further progress one of the popes
preached what was really the last crusade. The fleets of Genoa and Venice
united with those of Spain and under Don John of Austria, Philip's half-
brother, totally defeated the Turkish squadron in the gulf of Lepanto, off
the western coast of Greece. The battle gave a blow to the sea-power of
the Turks from which they never recovered and ended their aggressive
warfare in the Mediterranean. Lepanto is one of the proud names in the
history of Spain.
ANNEXATION OF PORTUGAL, 1581 A.D.
Philip had inherited an extensive realm. He further widened it by the
annexation of Portugal, thus completing the unification of the Spanish
peninsula. The Portuguese colonies in Africa, Asia, and America also
passed into Spanish hands. The union of Spain and Portugal under one crown
never commanded any affection among the Portuguese, who were proud of
their nationality and of their achievements as explorers and empire-
builders. Portugal separated from Spain in 1640 A.D. and has since
remained an independent state.
[Illustration: THE ESCORIAL
This remarkable edifice, at once a convent, a church, a palace, and a
royal mausoleum, is situated in a sterile and gloomy wilderness about
twenty-seven miles from Madrid. It was begun by Philip II in 1563 A.D.
and was completed twenty-one years later. The Escorial is dedicated to St.
Lawrence, that saint's day (August 10, 1557) being the day when the
Spanish king won a great victory over the French at the battle of St.
Quentin. The huge dimensions of the Escorial may be inferred from the fact
that it includes eighty-six staircases, eighty-nine fountains, fifteen
cloisters, 1,200 doors, 2,600 windows, and miles of corridors. The
building material is a granite-like stone obtained in the neighborhood.
The Escorial contains a library of rare books and manuscripts and a
collection of valuable paintings. In the royal mausoleum under the altar
of the church lie the remains of Charles V, Philip II, and many of their
successors.]
PHILIP'S FAILURES
But the successes of Philip were more than offset by his failures. Though
he had vast possessions, enormous revenues, mighty fleets, and armies
reputed the best of the age, he could not dominate western Europe. His
attempt to conquer England, a stronghold of Protestantism under Elizabeth,
resulted in disaster. Not less disastrous was his life-long struggle with
the Netherlands.
237. REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS
THE NETHERLANDS
The seventeen provinces of the Netherlands occupied the flat, low country
along the North Sea--the Holland, Belgium, and northern France of the
present day. During the fifteenth century they became Hapsburg possessions
and thus belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. As we have learned, Charles V
received them as a part of his inheritance, and he, in turn, transmitted
them to Philip II.
CONDITION OF THE NETHERLANDS
The inhabitants of the Netherlands were not racially united. In the
southernmost provinces Celtic blood and Romance speech prevailed, while
farther north dwelt peoples of Teutonic extraction, who spoke Flemish and
Dutch. Each province likewise kept its own government and customs. The
prosperity which had marked the Flemish cities during the Middle Ages [27]
extended in the sixteenth century to the Dutch cities also. Rotterdam,
Leyden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam profited by the geographical discoveries
and became centers of extensive commerce with Asia and America. The rise
of the Dutch power, in a country so exposed to destructive inundations of
both sea and rivers, is a striking instance of what can be accomplished by
a frugal, industrious population.
PROTESTANTISM IN THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands were too near Germany not to be affected by the
Reformation. Lutheranism soon appeared there, only to encounter the
hostility of Charles V, who introduced the terrors of the Inquisition.
Many heretics were burned at the stake, or beheaded, or buried alive. But
there is no seed like martyr's blood. The number of Protestants swelled,
rather than lessened, especially after Calvinism entered the Netherlands.
As a Jesuit historian remarked, "Nor did the Rhine from Germany or the
Meuse from France send more water into the Low Countries than by the one
the contagion of Luther, and by the other that of Calvin, were imported
into these provinces."
POLICY OF PHILIP II
In spite of the cruel treatment of heretics by Charles V, both Flemish and
Dutch remained loyal to the emperor, because he had been born and reared
among them and always considered their country as his own. But Philip II,
a Spaniard by birth and sympathies, seemed to them only a foreign master.
The new ruler did nothing to conciliate the people. He never visited the
Netherlands after 1559 A.D., but governed them despotically through
Spanish officials supported by Spanish garrisons. Arbitrary taxes were
levied, cities and nobles were deprived of their cherished privileges, and
the activity of the Inquisition was redoubled. Philip intended to exercise
in the Netherlands the same absolute power which he enjoyed in Spain.
ALVA SENT TO THE NETHERLANDS, 1567 A.D.
The religious persecution which by Philip's orders raged through the
Netherlands everywhere aroused intense indignation. The result was rioting
by mobs of Protestants, who wrecked churches and monasteries and carried
off the treasure they found in them. Philip replied to these acts by
sending his best army, under the duke of Alva, his best general, to reduce
the turbulent provinces into submission.
OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLT
Alva carried out with thoroughness the policy of his royal master. A
tribunal, popularly known as the "Council of Blood," was set up for the
punishment of treason and heresy. Hundreds, and probably thousands,
perished; tens of thousands fled to Germany and England. Alva, as
governor-general, also raised enormous taxes, which threatened to destroy
the trade and manufactures of the Netherlands. Under these circumstances
Roman Catholics and Protestants, nobles and townsfolk, united against
their Spanish oppressors. A revolt began which Spain could never quell.
WILLIAM THE SILENT, 1533-1584 A.D.
The Netherlands found a leader in William, Prince of Orange, later known
as William the Silent, because of his customary discreetness. He was of
German birth, a convert to Protestantism, and the owner of large estates
in the Netherlands. William had fair ability as a general, a statesmanlike
grasp of the situation, and above all a stout, courageous heart which
never wavered in moments of danger and defeat. To rescue the Netherlands
from Spain he sacrificed his high position, his wealth, and eventually his
life.
[Illustration: WILLIAM THE SILENT]
SEPARATION OF THE NETHERLANDS
The ten southern provinces of the Netherlands, mainly Roman Catholic in
population, soon effected a reconciliation with Philip and returned to
their allegiance. They remained in Hapsburg hands for over two centuries.
Modern Belgium has grown out of them. The seven northern provinces, where
Dutch was the language and Protestantism the religion, formed in 1579 A.D.
the Union of Utrecht. Two years later they declared their independence of
Spain. Thus the republic of the United Netherlands, often known as
Holland, the most important of the seven provinces, came into being.
[Illustration: Map, THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY]
COURSE OF THE REVOLT
The struggle of the Dutch for freedom forms one of the most notable
episodes in history. At first they were no match for the disciplined
Spanish soldiery, but they fought bravely behind the walls of their cities
and on more than one occasion repelled the enemy by cutting the dikes and
letting in the sea. Though William the Silent perished in a dark hour by
an assassin's bullet, the contest continued. England now came to the aid
of the hard-pressed republic with money and a small army. Philip turned
upon his new antagonist and sent against England the great fleet called
the "Invincible Armada." Its destruction interfered with further attempts
to subjugate the Dutch, but the Spanish monarch, stubborn to the last,
refused to acknowledge their independence. His successor, in 1609 A.D.,
consented to a twelve years' truce with the revolted provinces. Their
freedom was recognized officially by Spain at the close of the Thirty
Years' War in 1648 A.D.
THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
The long struggle bound the Dutch together and made them one nation.
During the seventeenth century they took a prominent part in European
affairs. The republic which they founded ought to be of special interest
to Americans, for many features of our national government are Dutch in
origin. To Holland we owe the idea of a declaration of independence, of a
written constitution, of religious toleration, and of a comprehensive
school system supported by taxation. In these and other matters the Dutch
were pioneers of modern democracy.
238. ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH, 1558-1603 A.D.
ELIZABETH
Queen Elizabeth, who reigned over England during the period of the Dutch
revolt, came to the throne when about twenty-five years old. She was tall
and commanding in presence and endowed with great physical vigor and
endurance. After hunting all day or dancing all night she could still
attend unremittingly to public business. Elizabeth had received an
excellent education; she spoke Latin and several modern languages; knew a
little Greek; and displayed some skill in music. To her father, Henry
VIII, she doubtless owed her tactfulness and charm of manner, as well as
her imperious will; she resembled her mother, Anne Boleyn, in her vanity
and love of display. As a ruler Elizabeth was shrewd, far-sighted, a good
judge of character, and willing to be guided by the able counselors who
surrounded her. Above all, Elizabeth was an ardent patriot. She understood
and loved her people, and they, in turn, felt a chivalrous devotion to the
"Virgin Queen," to "Good Queen Bess".
PROTESTANTISM IN ENGLAND
The daughter of Anne Boleyn had been born under the ban of the pope, so
that opposition to Rome was the natural course for her to pursue. Two acts
of Parliament now separated England once more from the Papacy and gave the
English Church practically the form and doctrines which it retains to-day.
The church was intended to include everyone in England, and hence all
persons were required to attend religious exercises on Sundays and holy
days. Refusal to do so exposed the offender to a fine.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH]
TREATMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLICS
The great body of the people soon conformed to the state church, but Roman
Catholics could not conscientiously attend its services. The laws against
them do not seem to have been strictly enforced at first, but in the later
years of Elizabeth's reign real or suspected plots by Roman Catholics
against her throne led to a policy of repression. Those who said or heard
mass were heavily fined and imprisoned; those who brought papal bulls into
England or converted Protestants to Roman Catholicism were executed as
traitors. Several hundred priests, mostly Jesuits, suffered death, and
many more languished in jail. This persecution, however necessary it may
have seemed to Elizabeth and her advisers, is a blot on her reign.
PROTESTANTISM IN IRELAND
The Reformation made little progress in Ireland. Henry VIII, who had
extended English sway over most of the island, suppressed the monasteries,
demolished shrines, relics, and images, and placed English-speaking
priests in charge of the churches. The Irish people, who remained loyal to
Rome, regarded these measures as the tyrannical acts of a foreign
government. During Elizabeth's reign there were several dangerous revolts,
which her generals suppressed with great cruelty. The result was to widen
the breach between England and Ireland. Henceforth to most Irishmen
patriotism became identified with Roman Catholicism.
[Illustration: SILVER CROWN OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN]
ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
Many of the plots against Elizabeth centered about Mary Stuart, the ill-
starred Queen of Scots. She was a granddaughter of Henry VII, and extreme
Roman Catholics claimed that she had a better right to the English throne
than Elizabeth, because the pope had declared the marriage of Henry VIII
and Anne Boleyn null and void. Mary, a fervent Roman Catholic, did not
please her Scotch subjects, who had adopted Calvinistic doctrines. She
also discredited herself by marrying the man who had murdered her former
husband. An uprising of the Scottish nobles compelled Mary to abdicate the
throne in favor of her infant son [28] and to take refuge in England.
Elizabeth kept her rival in captivity for nearly twenty years. In 1586
A.D., the former queen was found guilty of conspiring against Elizabeth's
life and was beheaded.
[Illustration: Map, WESTERN EUROPE IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH]
[Illustration: LONDON BRIDGE IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH
The old structure was completed early in the thirteenth century. It
measured 924 feet in length and had 20 narrow arches. Note the rows of
houses and shops on the bridge, the chapel in the center and the gate
above which the heads of traitors were exhibited on pikes. The present
London Bridge was completed in 1831 A.D.]
ELIZABETH AND PHILIP II
Philip II, the king of Spain, also threatened Elizabeth's security. At the
outset of her reign Philip had made her an offer of marriage, but she
refused to give herself, or England, a Spanish master. As time went on,
Philip turned into an open enemy of the Protestant queen and did his best
to stir up sedition among her Roman Catholic subjects. It must be admitted
that Philip could plead strong justification for his attitude. Elizabeth
allowed the English "sea dogs" [29] to plunder Spanish colonies and seize
Spanish vessels laden with the treasure of the New World. Moreover, she
aided the rebellious Dutch, at first secretly and at length openly, in
their struggle against Spain. Philip put up with these aggressions for
many years, but finally came to the conclusion that he could never subdue
the Netherlands or end the piracy and smuggling in Spanish America without
first conquering England. The execution of Mary Stuart removed his last
doubts, for Mary had left him her claims to the English throne. He at once
made ready to invade England. Philip seems to have believed that as soon
as a Spanish army landed in the island, the Roman Catholics would rally to
his cause. But the Spanish king never had a chance to verify his belief;
the decisive battle took place on the sea.
THE "INVINCIBLE ARMADA," 1588 A.D.
Philip had not completed his preparations before Sir Francis Drake sailed
into Cadiz harbor and destroyed a vast amount of naval stores and
shipping. This exploit, which Drake called "singeing the king of Spain's
beard," delayed the expedition for a year. The "Invincible Armada" [30]
set out at last in 1588 A.D. The Spanish vessels, though somewhat larger
than those of the English, were inferior in number, speed, and gunnery to
their adversaries, while the Spanish officers, mostly unused to the sea,
were no match for men like Drake, Frobisher, and Raleigh, the best
mariners of the age. The Armada suffered severely in a nine-days fight in
the Channel, and many vessels which escaped the English guns met shipwreck
off the Scotch and Irish coasts. Less than half of the Armada returned in
safety to Spain.
[Illustration: THE SPANISH ARMADA IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.
After an engraving by the Society of Antiquarians following a tapestry in
the House of Lords.]
ENGLISH SEA-POWER
England in the later Middle Ages had been an important naval power, as her
ability to carry on the Hundred Years' War in France amply proved. But in
the sixteenth century she was greatly over-matched by Spain, especially
after the annexation of Portugal added the naval forces of that country to
the Spanish fleets. The defeat of the Armada not only did great harm to
the navy and commerce of Spain; it also showed that a new people had
arisen to claim the supremacy of the ocean. Henceforth the English began
to build up what was to be a sea-power greater than any other known to
history.
239. THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE
FRANCE UNDER FRANCIS I, 1515-1547 A.D.
By 1500 A.D. France had become a centralized state under a strong
monarchy. [31] Francis I, who reigned in the first half of the sixteenth
century, still further exalted the royal power. He had many wars with
Charles V, whose extensive dominions nearly surrounded the French kingdom.
These wars prevented the emperor from making France a mere dependency of
Spain. As we have learned, [32] they also interfered with the efforts of
Charles V to crush the Protestants in Germany.
THE HUGUENOTS
Protestantism in France dates from the time of Francis I. The Huguenots,
[33] as the French Protestants were called, naturally accepted the
doctrines of Calvin, who was himself a Frenchman and whose books were
written in the French language. Though bitterly persecuted by Francis I
and by his son Henry II (1547-1559 A.D.), the Huguenots gained a large
following, especially among the prosperous middle class of the towns--the
_bourgeoisie_. Many nobles also became Huguenots, sometimes because of
religious conviction, but often because the new movement offered them an
opportunity to recover their feudal independence and to plunder the
estates of the Church. In France, as well as in Germany, the Reformation
had its worldly side.
CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE
During most of the second half of the sixteenth century fierce conflicts
raged in France between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots. Philip II
aided the former and Queen Elizabeth gave some assistance to the latter.
France suffered terribly in the struggle, not only from the constant
fighting, which cost the lives, it is said, of more than a million people,
but also from the pillage, burnings, and other barbarities in which both
sides indulged. The wealth and prosperity of the country visibly declined,
and all patriotic feeling disappeared in the hatreds engendered by a civil
war.
MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, 1572 A.D.
The episode known as the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day illustrates the
extremes to which political ambition and religious bigotry could lead. The
massacre was an attempt to extirpate the Huguenots, root and branch, at a
time when peace prevailed between them and their opponents. The person
primarily responsible for it was Catherine de' Medici, mother of Charles
IX (1560-1574 A.D.), the youthful king of France. Charles had begun to
cast off the sway of his mother and to come under the influence of Admiral
de Coligny, the most eminent of the Huguenots. To regain her power
Catherine first tried to have Coligny murdered. When the plot failed, she
invented the story of a great Huguenot uprising and induced her weak-
minded son to authorize a wholesale butchery of Huguenots. It began in
Paris in the early morning of August 24, 1572 A.D. (St. Bartholomew's
Day), and extended to the provinces, where it continued for several weeks.
Probably ten thousand Huguenots were slain, including Coligny himself. But
the deed was a blunder as well as a crime. The Huguenots took up arms to
defend themselves, and France again experienced all the horrors of
internecine strife.
HENRY IV
The death of Coligny transferred the leadership of the Huguenots to Henry
Bourbon, king of Navarre. [34] Seventeen years after the massacre of St.
Bartholomew's Day, he inherited the French crown as Henry IV. The Roman
Catholics would not accept a Protestant ruler and continued the conflict.
Henry soon realized that only his conversion to the faith of the majority
of his subjects would bring a lasting peace. Religious opinions had always
sat lightly upon him, and he found no great difficulty in becoming a Roman
Catholic. "Paris," said Henry, "was well worth a mass." Opposition to the
king soon collapsed, and the Huguenot wars came to an end.
EDICT OF NANTES, 1598 A.D.
Though now a Roman Catholic, Henry did not break with the Huguenots. In
1598 A.D. he issued in their interest the celebrated Edict of Nantes. By
its terms the Huguenots were to enjoy freedom of private worship
everywhere in France, and freedom to worship publicly in a large number of
villages and towns. Only Roman Catholic services, however, might be held
in Paris and at the royal court. Though the edict did not grant complete
religious liberty, it marked an important step in that direction. A great
European state now for the first time recognized the principle that two
rival faiths might exist side by side within its borders. The edict was
thus the most important act of toleration since the age of Constantine.
[35]
FRANCE UNDER HENRY IV, 1588-1610 A.D.
Having settled the religious difficulties, Henry could take up the work of
restoring prosperity to distracted France. His interest in the welfare of
his subjects gained for him the name of "Good King Henry." With the help
of Sully, his chief minister, the king reformed the finances and
extinguished the public debt. He opened roads, built bridges, and dug
canals, thus aiding the restoration of agriculture. He also encouraged
commerce by means of royal bounties for shipbuilding. The French at this
time began to have a navy and to compete with the Dutch and English for
trade on the high seas. Henry's work of renovation was cut short in 1610
A.D. by an assassin's dagger. Under his son Louis XIII (1610-1643 A.D.), a
long period of disorder followed, until an able minister, Cardinal
Richelieu, assumed the guidance of public affairs. Richelieu for many
years was the real ruler of France. His foreign policy led to the
intervention of that country in the international conflict known as the
Thirty Years' War.
[Illustration: CARDINAL RICHELIEU (Louvre, Paris.)
After the portrait by the Belgian artist, Philippe de Champaigne.]
240. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1618-1648 A.D.
RELIGIOUS ANTAGONISMS
The Peace of Augsburg [36] gave repose to Germany for more than sixty
years, but it did not form a complete settlement of the religious question
in that country. There was still room for bitter disputes, especially over
the ownership of Church property which had been secularized in the course
of the Reformation. Furthermore, the peace recognized only Roman Catholics
and Lutherans and gave no rights whatever to the large body of Calvinists.
The failure of Lutherans and Calvinists to cooperate weakened German
Protestantism just at the period when the Counter Reformation inspired
Roman Catholicism with fresh energy and enthusiasm.
POLITICAL FRICTION
Politics, as well as religion, also helped to bring about the great
conflagration. The Roman Catholic party relied for support on the Hapsburg
emperors, who wished to unite the German states under their control, thus
restoring the Holy Roman Empire to its former proud position in the
affairs of Europe. The Protestant princes, on the other hand, wanted to
become independent sovereigns. Hence they resented all efforts to extend
the imperial authority over them.
THE BOHEMIAN REVOLT
The Thirty Years' War was not so much a single conflict as a series of
conflicts, which ultimately involved nearly all western Europe. It began
in Bohemia, where Protestantism had not been extinguished by the Hussite
wars. [37] The Bohemian nobles, many of whom were Calvinists, revolted
against Hapsburg rule and proclaimed the independence of Bohemia. The
German Lutherans gave them no aid, however, and the emperor, Ferdinand II,
easily put down the insurrection. Many thousands of Protestants were now
driven into exile. Those who remained in Bohemia were obliged to accept
Roman Catholicism. Thus one more country was lost to Protestantism.
DANISH INTERVENTION
The failure of the Bohemian revolt aroused the greatest alarm in Germany.
Ferdinand threatened to follow in the footsteps of Charles V and to crush
Protestantism in the land of its birth. When, therefore, the king of
Denmark, who as duke of Holstein had great interest in German affairs,
decided to intervene, both Lutherans and Calvinists supported him. But
Wallenstein, the emperor's able general, proved more than a match for the
Danish king, who at length withdrew from the contest.
EDICT OF RESTITUTION, 1692 A.D.
So far the Roman Catholic and imperial party had triumphed. Ferdinand's
success led him to issue the Edict of Restitution, which compelled the
Protestants to restore all the Church property which they had taken since
the Peace of Augsburg. The enforcement of the edict brought about renewed
resistance on the part of the Protestants.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND THE INTERVENTION OF SWEDEN
There now appeared the single heroic figure on the stage of the Thirty
Years' War. This was Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, and a man of
military genius. He had the deepest sympathy for his fellow-Protestants in
Germany and regarded himself as their divinely appointed deliverer. By
taking part in the war Gustavus also hoped to conquer the coast of
northern Germany. The Baltic would then become a Swedish lake, for Sweden
already possessed Finland and what are now the Russian provinces on the
Baltic.
[Illustration: GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS
After the portrait by the Flemish artist, Sir Anthony Van Dyck.]
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, 1630-1632 A.D.
Gustavus entered Germany with a strong force of disciplined soldiers and
tried to form alliances with the Protestant princes. They received him
coolly at first, for the Swedish king seemed to them only a foreign
invader. Just at this time the imperialists captured Magdeburg, the
largest and most prosperous city in northern Germany. At least twenty
thousand of the inhabitants perished miserably amid the smoking ruins of
their homes. This massacre turned Protestant sentiment toward Gustavus as
the "Lion of the North" who had come to preserve Germany from destruction.
With the help of his allies Gustavus reconquered most of Germany for the
Protestants, but he fell at the battle of Lützen in the moment of victory.
His work, however, was done. The Swedish king had saved the cause of
Protestantism in Germany.
RICHELIEU AND THE INTERVENTION OF FRANCE
After the death of Gustavus the war assumed more and more a political
character. The German Protestants found an ally, strangely enough, in
Cardinal Richelieu, the all-powerful minister of the French king.
Richelieu entered the struggle in order to humble the Austrian Hapsburgs
and extend the boundaries of France toward the Rhine, at the expense of
the Holy Roman Empire. Since the Spanish Hapsburgs were aiding their
Austrian kinsmen, Richelieu naturally fought against Spain also. The war
thus became a great international conflict in which religion played only a
minor part. The Holy Roman Emperor had to yield at last and consented to
the treaties of peace signed at two cities in the province of Westphalia.
[Illustration: Map, EUROPE at the End of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 A.D.]
PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, 1648 A.D.
The Peace of Westphalia ended the long series of wars which followed the
Reformation. It practically settled the religious question, for it allowed
Calvinists in Germany to enjoy the same privileges as Lutherans and also
withdrew the Edict of Restitution. Nothing was said in the treaties about
liberty of conscience, but from this time the idea that religious
differences should be settled by force gradually passed away from the
minds of men.
TERRITORIAL READJUSTMENTS
The political clauses of the peace were numerous. France received nearly
all of Alsace along the Rhine. Sweden gained possessions in North Germany.
Brandenburg--the future kingdom of Prussia--secured additional territory
on the Baltic Sea. The independence of Switzerland [38] and of the United
Netherlands [39] was also recognized.
DISRUPTION OF GERMANY
The Peace of Westphalia left Germany more divided than ever. Each one of
the larger states was free to coin money, raise armies, make war, and
negotiate treaties without consulting the emperor. In fact, the Holy Roman
Empire had become a mere phantom. The Hapsburgs from now on devoted
themselves to their Austrian dominions, which included more Magyars and
Slavs than Germans. The failure of the Hapsburgs in the Thirty Years' War
long postponed the unification of Germany.
EXHAUSTION OF GERMANY
During the Thirty Years' War Germany had seen most of the fighting. She
suffered from it to the point of exhaustion. The population dwindled from
about sixteen million to one-half, or, as some believe, to one-third that
number. The loss of life was partly due to the fearful epidemics, such as
typhus fever and the bubonic plague, which spread over the land in the
wake of the invading armies. Hundreds of villages were destroyed or were
abandoned by their inhabitants. Much of the soil went out of cultivation,
while trade and manufacturing nearly disappeared. Added to all this was
the decline of education, literature, and art, and the brutalizing of the
people in mind and morals. It took Germany at least one hundred years to
recover from the injury inflicted by the Thirty Years' War; complete
recovery, indeed, came only in the nineteenth century.
RISE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
The savagery displayed by all participants in the Thirty Years' War could
not but impress thinking men with the necessity of formulating rules to
protect noncombatants, to care for prisoners, and to do away with pillage
and massacre. The worst horrors of the war had not taken place, before a
Dutch jurist, named Hugo Grotius, published at Paris in 1625 A.D. a work
_On the Laws of War and Peace_. It may be said to have founded
international law. The success of the book was remarkable. Gustavus
Adolphus carried a copy about with him during his campaigns, and its
leading doctrines were recognized and acted upon in the Peace of
Westphalia.
THE EUROPEAN STATE SYSTEM
The great principle on which Grotius based his recommendations was the
independence of sovereign states. He gave up the medieval conception of a
temporal and spiritual head of Christendom. The nations now recognized no
common superior, whether emperor or pope, but all were equal in the sight
of international law. The book of Grotius thus marked the profound change
which had come over Europe since the Middle Ages.
STUDIES
1. On an outline map indicate the European countries ruled by Charles V.
2. On an outline map indicate the principal territorial changes made by
the Peace of Westphalia.
3. Identify the following dates: 1648 A.D.; 1519 A.D.; 1517 A.D.; 1588
A.D.; 1598 A.D.; and 1555 A.D.
4. Locate the following places: Avignon; Constance; Augsburg; Zurich;
Worms; Magdeburg; and Utrecht.
5. For what were the following persons noted: Cardinal Wolsey; Admiral de
Coligny; Duke of Alva; Richelieu; St. Ignatius Loyola; Boniface VIII;
Frederick the Wise; Gustavus Adolphus; and Mary Queen of Scots?
6. Compare the scene at Anagni with the scene at Canossa.
7. On the map, page 646, trace the geographical extent of the "Great
Schism."
8. Name three important reasons for the lessened influence of the Roman
Church at the opening of the sixteenth century.
9. Explain the difference between heresy and schism.
10. Why has Wycliffe been called the "morning star of the Reformation"?
11. Compare Luther's work in fixing the form of the German language with
Dante's service to Italian through the _Divine Comedy_.
12. What is the origin of the name "Protestant"?
13. Why was Mary naturally a Catholic and Elizabeth naturally a
Protestant?
14. On the map, page 663, trace the geographical extent of the Reformation
in the sixteenth century.
15. Why did the reformers in each country take special pains to translate
the Bible into the vernacular?
16. What is the chief difference in mode of government between
Presbyterian and Congregational churches?
17. "The heroes of the Reformation, judged by modern standards, were
reactionaries." What does this statement mean?
18. Why is the Council of Trent generally considered the most important
church council since that of Nicaea?
19. Mention some differences between the Society of Jesus and earlier
monastic orders.
20. Compare the Edict of Nantes with the Peace of Augsburg.
21. Show how political, as well as religious, motives affected the revolt
of the Netherlands, the Huguenot wars, and the Thirty Years' War.
22. Compare the effects of the Thirty Years' War on Germany with the
effects of the Hundred Years' War on France.
23. What would you say of Holbein's success as a portrait painter
(illustrations pages 651, 658)?
FOOTNOTES
[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xxiii,
"Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation"; chapter xxiv,
"England in the Age of Elizabeth."
[2] See page 514.
[3] See page 591.
[4] _Purgatorio_, xx, 88-90.
[5] See pages 36-37.
[6] See page 594.
[7] See page 600.
[8] See page 344.
[9] See page 641.
[10] See page 468.
[11] See page 611.
[12] See page 455.
[13] See page 441.
[14] See page 443.
[15] His hymn _Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott_ ("A mighty fortress is our
God") has been called "the Marseillaise of the Reformation."
[16] See page 527.
[17] See page 518.
[18] See page 453.
[19] See page 613.
[20] Churches governed by assemblies of presbyters were called
Presbyterian; those which allowed each congregation to rule itself were
called Congregational.
[21] In 1773 A.D. the pope suppressed the society, on the ground that it
had outgrown its usefulness. It was revived in many European countries
during the nineteenth century.
[22] Until the Vatican Council, held at Rome in 1869-1870 A D.
[23] See page 572.
[24] See page 440.
[25] See page 656.
[26] See page 677.
[27] See pages 550-552.
[28] See page 511, note 1.
[29] See page 639.
[30] Armada was a Spanish name for any armed fleet.
[31] See page 519.
[32] See page 634.
[33] The origin of the name is not known with certainty.
[34] Navarre originally formed a small kingdom on both sides of the
Pyrenees. The part south of these mountains was acquired by Spain in 1513
A.D. See the map on page 521.
[35] See page 235.
[36] See page 656.
[37] See page 650.
[38] See page 524, note 1.
[39] See page 674.