EFFECTS OF THE "BLACK DEATH"

The pestilence in England, as in other countries, caused a great scarcity of labor. For want of hands to bring in the harvest, crops rotted on the ground, while sheep and cattle, with no one to care for them, strayed through the deserted fields. The free peasants who survived demanded and received higher wages. Even the serfs, whose labor was now more valued, found themselves in a better position. The lord of a manor, in order to keep his laborers, would often allow them to substitute money payments for personal services. When the serfs got no concessions, they frequently took to flight and hired themselves to the highest bidder.

FIRST STATUTE OF LABORERS, 1351 A.D.

The governing classes of England, who at this time were mainly landowners, believed that the workers were taking an unfair advantage of the situation. So in 1351 A.D. Parliament passed a law fixing the maximum wage in different occupations and punishing with imprisonment those who refused to accept work when it was offered to them. The fact that Parliament had to reenact this law thirteen times within the next century shows that it did not succeed in preventing a general rise of wages. It only exasperated the working classes.

THE PEASANTS' REBELLION, 1381 A.D.

A few years after the first Statute of Laborers the restlessness and discontent among the masses led to a serious outbreak. It was one of the few attempts at violent revolution which the English working people have made. One of the inspirers of the rebellion was a wandering priest named John Ball. He went about preaching that all goods should be held in common and the distinction between lords and serfs wiped away. "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" asked John Ball. Uprisings occurred in nearly every part of England, but the one in Kent had most importance. The rioters marched on London and presented their demands to the youthful king, Richard II. He promised to abolish serfdom and to give them a free pardon. As soon, however, as Richard had gathered an army, he put down the revolt by force and hanged John Ball and about a hundred of his followers.

THE JACQUERIE, 1358 A.D.

The rebellion in England may be compared with the far more terrible Jacquerie [25] in France, a few years earlier. The French peasants, who suffered from feudal oppression and the effects of the Hundred Years' War, raged through the land, burning the castles and murdering their feudal lords. The movement had scarcely any reasonable purpose; it was an outburst of blind passion. The nobles avenged themselves by slaughtering the peasants in great numbers.



EXTINCTION OF SERFDOM

Though these first great struggles of labor against capital were failures, the emancipation of the peasantry went steadily on throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By 1500 A.D. serfdom had virtually disappeared in Italy, in most parts of France, and in England. Some less- favored countries retained serfdom much longer. Prussian, Austrian, and Russian serfs did not receive their freedom until the nineteenth century.

CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY

The extinction of serfdom was, of course, a forward step in human freedom, but the lot of the English and Continental peasantry long remained wretched. The poem of Piers Plowman, written in the time of Chaucer, shows the misery of the age and reveals a very different picture than that of the gay, holiday-making, merry England seen in the Canterbury Tales. One hundred and fifty years later, the English humanist, Sir Thomas More, a friend of Erasmus, published his Utopia as a protest against social abuses. Utopia, or "Nowhere," is an imaginary country whose inhabitants choose their own rulers, hold all property in common, and work only nine hours a day. In Utopia a public system of education prevails, cruel punishments are unknown, and every one enjoys complete freedom to worship God. This remarkable book, though it pictures an ideal commonwealth, really anticipates many social reforms of the present time.

STUDIES

1. Prepare a chronological chart showing the leading men of letters, artists, scientists, and educators mentioned in this chapter.

2. For what were the following persons noted: Chrysoloras; Vittorino da Feltre; Gutenberg; Boccaccio; Machiavelli; Harvey; and Galileo?

3. How did the words "machiavellism" and "utopian" get their present meanings?

4. Distinguish and define the three terms, "Renaissance," "Revival of Learning," and "Humanism."

5. "Next to the discovery of the New World, the recovery of the ancient world is the second landmark that divides us from the Middle Ages and marks the transition to modern life." Comment on this statement.

6. Why did the Renaissance begin as "an Italian event"?

7. "City-states have always proved favorable to culture." Illustrate this remark.

8. Why was the revival of Greek more important in the history of civilization than the revival of Latin?

9. Show that printing was an "emancipating force."

10. With what paintings by the "old masters" are you familiar?

11. How does the opera differ from the oratorio?

12. Why has Froissart been styled the "French Herodotus"?

13. How many of Shakespeare's plays can you name? How many have you read?

14. Can you mention any of Shakespeare's plays which are founded on Italian stories or whose scenes are laid in Italy?

15. Why did the classical scholar come to be regarded as the only educated man?

16. In what respects is the American system of education a realization of the ideals of Comenius?

17. Did the medieval interest in astrology retard or further astronomical research?

18. How did the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler confirm the Copernican theory?

19. What is meant by the "emancipation of the peasantry"?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xix, "A Scholar of the Renaissance"; chapter xx, "Renaissance Artists."

[2] See page 545.

[3] See page 413.

[4] See page 604.

[5] Latin humanitas, from homo, "man."

[6] See page 560.

[7] A Latin word meaning "cradle" or "birthplace," and so the beginning of anything.

[8] See page 574.

[9] See the plate facing page 591.

[10] See the illustration, page 202.

[11] For instance, the Invalides in Paris, St. Paul's in London, and the Capitol at Washington.

[12] In this chapel the election of a new pope takes place.

[13] See page 336.

[14] The so-called Complutensian Polyglott, issued at Alcala in Spain by Cardinal Jimenes, did even more for the advance of Biblical scholarship. This was the first printed text of the Greek New Testament, but it was not actually published till 1522 A.D., six years after the appearance of the edition by Erasmus.

[15] A list of the great European painters would include at least the following names: Durer (1471-1582 A.D.) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543 A.D.) in Germany; Rubens (1577-1640 A.D.) and Van Dyck (1599- 1641 A.D.) in Flanders; Rembrandt (1606-1669 A.D.) in Holland; Claude Lorraine (1600-1682 A.D.) in France; and Velasquez (1599-1660 A.D.) and Murillo (1617-1682 A.D.) in Spain.

[16] See the illustration, page 442.

[17] The three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death was appropriately observed in 1916 A.D. throughout the world.

[18] See page 572.

[19] See page 133.

[20] See page 571.

[21] Not to be confused with his countryman, Roger Bacon, who lived in the thirteenth century. See page 573.

[22] See page 436.

[23] See page 541.

[24] A similar plague devastated the Roman world during the reign of Justinian.

[25] From Jacques, a common French name for a peasant.



CHAPTER XXVI

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION [1]

218. MEDIEVAL GEOGRAPHY

THE GEOGRAPHICAL RENAISSANCE

There was also a geographical Renaissance. The revival of the exploring spirit led to the discovery of ocean routes to the Far East and the Americas. In consequence, commerce was vastly stimulated, and two continents, hitherto unknown, were opened up to civilization. The geographical Renaissance, which gave man a New World, thus cooperated with the other movements of the age in bringing about the transition from medieval to modern times.

MEDIEVAL IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY

The Greeks and Romans had become familiar with a large part of Europe and Asia, but much of their learning was either forgotten or perverted during the early Middle Ages. Even the wonderful discoveries of the Northmen in the North Atlantic gradually faded from memory. The Arabs, whose conquests and commerce extended over so much of the Orient, far surpassed the Christian peoples of Europe in knowledge of the world.

GEOGRAPHICAL MYTHS

The alliance of medieval geography with theology led to curious results. Map makers, relying on a passage in the Old Testament, [2] usually placed Jerusalem in the center of the world. A Scriptural reference to the "four corners of the earth" [3] was sometimes thought to imply the existence of a rectangular world. From classical sources came stories of monstrous men, one-eyed, headless, or dog-headed, who were supposed to inhabit remote regions. Equally monstrous animals, such as the unicorn and dragon, [4] kept them company. Sailors' "yarns" must have been responsible for the belief that the ocean boiled at the equator and that in the Atlantic—the "Sea of Darkness"—lurked serpents huge enough to sink ships. To the real danger of travel by land and water people thus added imaginary terrors.

THE COSMAS MAP

Many maps prepared in the Middle Ages sum up the prevailing knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the world. One of the earliest specimens that has come down to us was made in the sixth century, by Cosmas, an Alexandrian monk. It exhibits the earth as a rectangle surrounded by an ocean with four deep gulfs. Beyond this ocean lies another world, the seat of Paradise and the place "where men dwelt before the Flood." The rivers which flow from the lakes of Paradise are also shown. Figures holding trumpets represent the four winds.



THE HEREFORD MAP

A map made about seven hundred years later, and now preserved in Hereford Cathedral, shows the earth as a circular disk with the ocean surrounding it. In the extreme east—that is, at the top—lies Paradise, Jerusalem occupies the center, and below it comes the Mediterranean, liberally supplied with islands. The Black Sea appears as a narrow body of water, and even the British Isles are strangely distorted to fit the circle. Such a map could have been of little use to travelers; it simply satisfied a natural curiosity about the wonders of the world.

OPENING UP OF ASIA

The crusades, more than anything else, first extended geographical knowledge. As a religious movement they led to pilgrimages and missions in Oriental lands. With the pilgrims and missionaries went hard-headed traders, who brought back to Europe the wealth of the East. The result, by 1300 A.D., was to open up countries beyond the Euphrates which had remained sealed to Europe for centuries. This discovery of the interior of Asia had only less importance than that of the New World two centuries later.

LEGEND OF PRESTER JOHN

What specially drew explorers eastward was the belief that somewhere in the center of Asia existed a great Christian kingdom which, if allied to European Christendom, might attack the Moslems from the rear. According to one form of the story the kingdom consisted of the Ten Tribes of Israel, [5] who had been converted to Christianity by Nestorian missionaries. [6] Over them reigned a priest-king named Prester (or Presbyter) John. The popes made several attempts to communicate with this mythical ruler. In the thirteenth century, however, Franciscan friars did penetrate to the heart of Asia. They returned to Europe with marvelous tales of the wealth and splendor of the East under the Mongol emperors.

THE POLOS IN THE EAST, 1271-1295 A.D.

The most famous of all medieval travelers were Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, and Nicolo's son, Marco. These Venetian merchants set out for Asia in 1271 A.D., and after an adventurous journey reached the court of Kublai Khan at Peking. [7] The Mongol ruler, who seems to have been anxious to introduce Christianity and European culture among his people, received them in a friendly manner, and they amassed much wealth by trade. Marco entered the khan's service and went on several expeditions to distant parts of the Mongol realm. Many years passed before Kublai would allow his useful guests to return to Europe. They sailed at length from Zaitun, a Chinese seaport, skirted the coast of southeastern Asia and India, and then made their way overland to the Mediterranean. When the travelers reached Venice after an absence of twenty-four years, their relatives were slow to recognize in them the long-lost Polos.



MARCO POLO'S BOOK

The story of the Polos, as written down at Marco's dictation, became one of the most popular works of the Middle Ages. In this book Europe read of far Cathay (China), with its wealth, its huge cities, and swarming population, of mysterious and secluded Tibet, of Burma, Siam, and Cochin- China, with their palaces and pagodas, of the East Indies, famed for spices, of Ceylon, abounding in pearls, and of India, little known since the days of Alexander the Great. Even Cipango (Japan) Marco described from hearsay as an island whose people were white, civilized, and so rich in gold that the royal palace was roofed and paved with that metal. The accounts of these countries naturally made Europeans more eager than ever to reach the East.

219. AIDS TO EXPLORATION

THE COMPASS

The new knowledge gained by European peoples about the land routes of Asia was accompanied by much progress in the art of ocean navigation. First in importance came the compass to guide explorers across the waters of the world. The Chinese appear to have discovered that a needle, when rubbed with a lodestone, has the mysterious power of pointing to the north. The Arabs may have introduced this rude form of the compass among Mediterranean sailors. The instrument, improved by being balanced on a pivot so that it would not be affected by choppy seas, seems to have been generally used by Europeans as early as the thirteenth century. It greatly aided sailors by enabling them to find their bearings in murky weather and on starless nights. The compass, though useful, was not indispensable; without its help the Northmen had made their distant expeditions in the Atlantic.

NAUTICAL INSTRUMENTS

The astrolabe, which the Greeks had invented and used for astronomical purposes, also came into Europe through the Arabs. It was employed to calculate latitudes by observation of the height of the sun above the horizon. Other instruments that found a place on shipboard were the hour- glass, minute-glass, and sun-dial. A rude form of the log was used as a means of estimating the speed of a vessel, and so of finding roughly the longitude.



OTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN NAVIGATION

During the last centuries of the Middle Ages the charting of coasts became a science. A sailor might rely on the "handy maps" (portolani) which outlined with some approach to accuracy the bays, islands, and headlands of the Mediterranean and adjacent waters. Manuals were prepared telling the manner about the tides, currents, and other features of the route he intended to follow. The increase in size of ships made navigation safer and permitted the storage of bulky cargoes. For long voyages the sailing vessel replaced the medieval galley rowed by oars. As the result of all these improvements navigators no longer found it necessary to keep close to the shore, but could push out dauntlessly into the open sea.

MOTIVES FOR EXPLORATION

Many motives prompted exploration. Scientific curiosity, bred of the Renaissance spirit of free inquiry, led men to set forth on voyages of discovery. The crusading spirit, which had not died out in Europe, thrilled at the thought of spreading Christianity among heathen peoples. And in this age, as in all epochs of exploration, adventurers sought in distant lands opportunities to acquire wealth and fame and power.

THE COMMERCIAL MOTIVE

Commerce formed perhaps the most powerful motive for exploration. Eastern spices—cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger—were used more freely in medieval times than now, when people lived on salt meat during the winter and salt fish during Lent. Even wine, ale, and medicines had a seasoning of spices. When John Ball [8] wished to contrast the easy life of the lords with the peasants' hard lot, he said, "They have wines, spices, and fine bread, while we have only rye and the refuse of the straw." [9] Besides spices, all kinds of precious stones, drugs, perfumes, gums, dyes, and fragrant woods came from the East. Since the time of the crusades these luxuries, after having been brought overland by water to Mediterranean ports, had been distributed by Venetian and Genoese merchants throughout Europe. [10] But now in the fifteenth century two other European peoples—the Portuguese and Spaniards—appeared as competitors for this Oriental trade. Their efforts to break through the monopoly enjoyed by the Italian cities led to the discovery of the sea routes to the Indies. The Portuguese were first in the field.

220. TO THE INDIES EASTWARD: PRINCE HENRY AND DA GAMA

PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR, 1394-1460 A.D.

In the history of the fifteenth century few names rank higher than that of Prince Henry, commonly called the Navigator, because of his services to the cause of exploration. The son of a Portuguese king, he devoted himself during more than forty years to organizing scientific discovery. Under his direction better maps were made, the astrolabe was improved, the compass was placed on vessels, and seamen were instructed in all the nautical learning of the time. The problem which Prince Henry studied and which Portuguese sailors finally solved was the possibility of a maritime route around Africa to the Indies.

EXPLORATION OF THE AFRICAN COAST

The expeditions sent out by Prince Henry began by rediscovering the Madeira and Azores Islands, first visited by Europeans in the fourteenth century. Then the Portuguese turned southward along the unchartered African coast. In 1445 A.D. they got as far as Cape Verde, or "Green Cape," so called because of its luxuriant vegetation. The discovery was important, for it disposed of the idea that the Sahara desert extended indefinitely to the south. Sierra Leone, which the Carthaginian Hanno [11] had probably visited, was reached in 1462 A.D., two years after Prince Henry's death. Soon Portuguese sailors found the great bend of the African coast formed by the gulf of Guinea. In 1471 A.D. they crossed the equator, without the scorching that some had feared. In 1482 A.D. they were at the mouth of the Congo. Six years later Bartholomew Diaz rounded the southern extremity of Africa. The story goes that he named it the Cape of Storms, and that the king of Portugal, recognizing its importance as a stage on the route to the East, rechristened it the Cape of Good Hope.

DA GAMA'S VOYAGE, 1497-1499 A.D.

A daring mariner, Vasco da Gama, opened the sea-gates to the Indies. With four tiny ships he set sail from Lisbon in July, 1497 A.D., and after leaving the Cape Verde Islands made a wide sweep into the South Atlantic. Five months passed before Africa was seen again. Having doubled the Cape of Good Hope in safety, Da Gama skirted the eastern shores of Africa and at length secured the services of a Moslem pilot to guide him across the Indian Ocean. In May, 1498 A.D., he reached Calicut, [12] an important commercial city on the southwest coast of India. When Da Gama returned to Lisbon, after an absence of over two years, he brought back a cargo which repaid sixty times the cost of the expedition. The Portuguese king received him with high honor and created him Admiral of the Indies.



CAMOENS, 1524-1580 A.D., AND THE LUSIADS

The story of Da Gama's memorable voyage was sung by the Portuguese poet, Camoens, in the Lusiads. It is the most successful of all modern epics. The popularity of the Lusiads has done much to keep alive the sense of nationality among the Portuguese, and even to-day it forms a bond of union between Portugal and her daughter-nation across the Atlantic—Brazil.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MARITIME ROUTE

The discovery of an ocean passage to the East came at the right moment. Just at this time the Ottoman Turks were beginning to block up the old trade routes. [13] Their conquests in Asia Minor and southeastern Europe, during the fifteenth century, shut out the Italians from the northern route through the Aegean and the Black Sea. After Syria and Egypt were conquered, early in the sixteenth century, the central and southern routes also passed under Turkish control. The Ottoman advance struck a mortal blow at the prosperity of the Italian cities, which had so long monopolized Oriental trade. But the misfortune of Venice and Genoa was the opportunity of Portugal.

221. THE PORTUGUESE COLONIAL EMPIRE

PORTUGUESE ASCENDANCY IN THE EAST

After Da Gama's voyage the Portuguese made haste to appropriate the wealth of the Indies. Fleet after fleet was sent out to establish trading stations upon the coasts of Africa and Asia. The great viceroy, Albuquerque, captured the city of Goa and made it the center of the Portuguese dominions in India. Goa still belongs to Portugal. Albuquerque also seized Malacca, at the end of the Malay Peninsula, and Ormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The possession of these strategic points enabled the Portuguese to control the commerce of the Indian Ocean. They also established trading relations with China, through the port of Macao, and with Japan, which was accidentally discovered in 1542 A.D. By the middle of the sixteenth century they had acquired almost complete ascendancy throughout southern Asia and the adjacent islands. [14]

PORTUGUESE TRADE MONOPOLY

The Portuguese came to the East as the successors of the Arabs, who for centuries had carried on an extensive trade in the Indian Ocean. Having dispossessed the Arabs, the Portuguese took care to shut out all European trade competitors. Only their own merchants were allowed to bring goods from the Indies to Europe by the Cape route. For a time this policy made Portugal very prosperous. Lisbon, the capital, formed the chief depot for spices and other eastern commodities. The French, English, and Dutch came there to buy them and took the place of Italian merchants in distributing them throughout Europe.

COLLAPSE OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE

But the triumph of Portugal was short-lived. This small country, with a population of not more than a million, lacked the strength to defend her claims to a monopoly of the Oriental trade. During the seventeenth century the French and English broke the power of the Portuguese in India, while the Dutch drove them from Ceylon and the East Indies. Though the Portuguese lost most of their possessions so soon, they deserve a tribute of admiration for the energy, enthusiasm, and real heroism with which they built up the first of modern colonial empires.

EUROPE IN ASIA

The new world in the East, thus entered by the Portuguese and later by other European peoples, was really an old world—rich, populous, and civilized. It held out alluring possibilities, not only for trade, but also as a field for missionary enterprise. Da Gama and Albuquerque began a movement, which still continues, to "westernize" Asia by opening it up to European influence. It remains to be seen, however, whether India, China, and Japan will allow their ancient culture to be extinguished by that of Europe.

222. TO THE INDIES WESTWARD: COLUMBUS AND MAGELLAN

THE GLOBULAR THEORY

Six years before Vasco da Gama cast anchor in the harbor of Calicut, another intrepid sailor, seeking the Indies by a western route, accidentally discovered America. It does not detract from the glory of Columbus to show that the way for his discovery had been long in preparation. In the first place, the theory that the earth was round had been familiar to the Greeks and Romans, and to some learned men even in the darkest period of the Middle Ages. By the opening of the thirteenth century it must have been commonly known, for Roger Bacon [15] refers to it, and Dante, in the Divine Comedy, [16] plans his Inferno on the supposition of a spherical world. The awakening of interest in Greek science, as a result of the Renaissance, naturally called renewed attention to the statements by ancient geographers. Eratosthenes, [17] for instance, had clearly recognized the possibility of reaching India by sailing westward on the same parallel of latitude. Especially after the revival of Ptolemy's [18] works in the fifteenth century, scholars accepted the globular theory; and they even went so far as to calculate the circumference of the earth.

MYTH OF ATLANTIS

In the second place, men had long believed that west of Europe, beyond the strait of Gibraltar, lay mysterious lands. This notion first appears in the writings of the Greek philosopher, Plato, [19] who repeats an old tradition concerning Atlantis. According to Plato, Atlantis had been an island continental in size, but more than nine thousand years before his time it had sunk beneath the sea. Medieval writers accepted this account as true and found support for it in traditions of other western islands, such as the Isles of the Blest, where Greek heroes went after death, and the Welsh Avalon, whither King Arthur, [20] after his last battle, was borne to heal his wounds. A widespread legend of the Middle Ages also described the visit made by St. Brandan, an Irish monk, to the "promised land of the Saints," an earthly paradise far out in the Atlantic. St. Brandan's Island was marked on early maps, and voyages in search of it were sometimes undertaken.

BEHAIM'S GLOBE

The ideas of European geographers in the period just preceding the discovery of America are represented on a map, or rather a globe, which dates from 1492 A.D. It was made by a German navigator, Martin Behaim, for his native city of Nuremberg, where it is still preserved. Behaim shows the mythical island of St. Brandan, lying in mid-ocean, and beyond it Japan (Cipango) and the East Indies. It is clear that he greatly underestimated the distance westward between Europe and Asia. The error was natural enough, for Ptolemy had reckoned the earth's circumference to be about one-sixth less than it is, and Marco Polo had given an exaggerated idea of the distance to which Asia extended on the east. When Columbus set out on his voyage, he firmly believed that a journey of four thousand miles would bring him to Cipango.



COLUMBUS, 1446(?)-1506 A.D.

Christopher Columbus was a native of Genoa, where his father followed the humble trade of a weaver. He seems to have obtained some knowledge of astronomy and geography as a student in the university of Pavia, but at an early age he became a sailor. Columbus knew the Mediterranean by heart; he once went to the Guinea coast; and he may have visited Iceland. He settled at Lisbon as a map-maker and married a daughter of one of Prince Henry's sea-captains. As Columbus pored over his maps and charts and talked with seamen about their voyages, the idea came to him that much of the world remained undiscovered and that the distant East could be reached by a shorter route than that which led around Africa.



RESEARCHES OF COLUMBUS

Columbus was a well-read man, and in Aristotle, Ptolemy, and other ancient authorities he found apparent confirmation of his grand idea. Columbus also owned a printed copy of Marco Polo's book, and from his comments, written on the margin, we know how interested he was in Polo's statements referring to Cathay and Cipango. Furthermore, Columbus brought together all the information he could get about the fabled islands of the Atlantic. If he ever went to Iceland, some vague traditions may have reached him there of Norse voyages to Greenland and Vinland. Such hints and rumors strengthened his purpose to sail toward the setting sun in quest of the Indies.



FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS, 1492 A.D.

All know the story. How Columbus first laid his plans before the king of Portugal, only to meet with rebuffs; how he then went to Spain and after many discouragements found a patron in Queen Isabella; how with three small ships he set out from Palos, August 3, 1492 A.D.; how after leaving the Canaries he sailed week after week over an unknown sea; and how at last, on the early morning of October 12, he sighted in the moonlight the glittering coral strand of one of the Bahama Islands. [21] It was the New World.



SUBSEQUENT VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS

Columbus made three other voyages to the New World, in the course of which he explored the Caribbean Sea, the mouth of the Orinoco River, and the eastern coast of Central America. He lived and died in the belief that he had actually reached the mainland of Asia and the realms of the Great Khan of Cathay. The name West Indies still remains as a testimony to this error.

NAMING OF AMERICA

The New World was named for a Florentine navigator, Amerigo Vespucci. [22] While in the Spanish service he made several western voyages and printed an account of his discovery of the mainland of America in 1497 A.D. Scholars now generally reject his statements, but they found acceptance at the time, and it was soon suggested that the new continent should be called America, "because Americus discovered it." The name applied at first only to South America. After it became certain that South America joined another continent to the north, the name spread over the whole New World.



THE DEMARCATION LINE, 1493 A.D.

Shortly after the return of Columbus from his first voyage, Pope Alexander VI, in response to a request by Ferdinand and Isabella, issued a bull granting these sovereigns exclusive rights over the newly discovered lands. In order that the Spanish possessions should be clearly marked off from the Portuguese, the pope laid down an imaginary line of demarcation in the Atlantic, three hundred miles west of the Azores. All new discoveries west of the line were to belong to Spain; all those east of it, to Portugal. [23] But this arrangement, which excluded France, England, and other European countries from the New World, could not be long maintained.



FERDINAND MAGELLAN, 1480(?)-1521 A.D.

The demarcation line had a good deal to do in bringing about the first voyage around the globe. So far no one had yet realized the dream of Columbus to reach the lands of spice and silk by sailing westward. Ferdinand Magellan, formerly one of Albuquerque's lieutenants but now in the service of Spain, believed that the Spice Islands lay within the Spanish sphere of influence and that an all-Spanish route, leading to them through some strait at the southern end of South America, could be discovered.

CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE, 1519-1522 A.D.

The Spanish ruler, Charles V, grandson of the Isabella who had supported Columbus, looked with favor upon Magellan's ideas and gave him a fleet of five vessels for the undertaking. After exploring the east coast of South America, Magellan came at length to the strait which bears his name. Through this channel he sailed boldly and found himself upon an ocean which he called the Pacific, because of its peaceful aspect. Magellan's sailors now begged him to return, for food was getting scarce, but the navigator replied that he would go on, "if he had to eat the leather off the rigging." He did go on, for ninety-eight days, until he reached the Ladrone Islands. [24] By a curious chance, in all this long trip across the Pacific, Magellan came upon only two islands, both of them uninhabited. He then proceeded to the Philippines, where he was killed in a fight with the natives. His men, however, managed to reach the Spice Islands, the goal of the journey. Afterwards a single ship, the Victoria, carried back to Spain the few sailors who had survived the hardships of a voyage lasting nearly three years.



MEANING OF THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION Magellan's voyage forms a landmark in the history of geography. It proved that America, at least on the south, had no connection with Asia; it showed the enormous extent of the Pacific Ocean; and it led to the discovery of many large islands in the East Indies. Henceforth men knew of a certainty that the earth was round and in the distance covered by Magellan they had a rough estimate of its size. The circumnavigation of the globe ranks with the discovery of America among the most significant events in history. In the company of great explorers Magellan stands beside Columbus.

223. THE INDIANS

PEOPLING OF AMERICA

The first inhabitants of America probably came from the Old World. At a remote epoch a land-bridge connected northwest Europe with Greenland, and Iceland still remains a witness to its former existence. Over this bridge animals and men may have found their way into the New World. Another prehistoric route may have led from Asia. Only a narrow strait now separates Alaska from Siberia, and the Aleutian Islands form an almost complete series of stepping-stones across the most northerly part of the Pacific.

THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES

The natives of America, whom Columbus called Indians, certainly resemble Asiatics in some physical features, such as the reddish-brown complexion, the hair, uniformly black and lank, the high cheek-bones, and short stature of many tribes. On the other hand, the large, aquiline nose, the straight eyes, never oblique, and the tall stature of some tribes are European traits. It seems safe to conclude that the American aborigines, whatever their origin, became thoroughly fused into a composite race during long centuries of isolation from the rest of mankind.

INDIAN CULTURE

Because of their isolation the Indians had to work out by themselves many arts, inventions, and discoveries. They spoke over a thousand languages and dialects; and not one has yet been traced outside of America. Their implements consisted of polished stone, occasionally of unsmelted copper, and in Mexico and Peru, of bronze. They cultivated Indian corn, or maize, but lacked the other great cereals. They domesticated the dog and the llama of the Andes. They lived in clans and tribes, ruled by headmen or chiefs. Their religion probably did not involve a belief in a "Great Spirit," as is so often said, but rather recognized in all nature the abode of spiritual powers, mysterious and wonderful, whom man ought to conciliate by prayers and sacrifices. In short, most of the American Indians were not savages, but barbarians well advanced in culture.

THE MAYAS

Indian culture attained its highest development in Mexico and Central America, especially among the Mayas of Yucatan, Guatemala, and Honduras. The remains of their cities—the Ninevehs and Babylons of the New World— lie buried in the tropical jungle, where Europeans first saw them, four hundred years ago. The temples, shrines, altars, and statues in these ancient cities show that the Mayas had made much progress in the fine arts. They knew enough astronomy to frame a solar calendar of three hundred and sixty-five days, and enough mathematics to employ numbers exceeding a million. The writing of the Mayas had reached the rebus [25] stage and promised to become alphabetic. When their hieroglyphics have been completely deciphered, we shall learn much more about this gifted people.

THE AZTECS

Several centuries before the arrival of Europeans in America, the so- called Aztecs came down from the north and established themselves on the Mexican plateau. Here they formed a confederacy of many tribes, ruled over by a sort of king, whose capital was Tenochtitlan, on the site of the present city of Mexico.



AZTEC CULTURE

The Aztecs appear to have borrowed much of their art, science, and knowledge of writing from their Maya neighbors. They built houses and temples of stone or sundried brick, constructed aqueducts, roads, and bridges, excelled in the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of cotton, and made most beautiful ornaments of silver and gold. They worshiped many gods, to which the priests offered prisoners of war as human sacrifices. In spite of these bloody rites, the Aztecs were a kind-hearted, honest people, respectful of the rights of property, brave in battle, and obedient to their native rulers. Aztec culture in some ways was scarcely inferior to that of the ancient Egyptians.

THE INCAS

The lofty table-lands of the Andes were also the seat of an advanced Indian culture. At the time of the Spanish conquest the greater part of what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile had come under the sway of the Incas, the "people of the sun". The Inca power centered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco and on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which lies twelve thousand feet above sea-level. In this region of magnificent scenery the traveler views with astonishment the ruins of vast edifices, apparently never completed, which were raised either by the Incas or the Indians whom they conquered and displaced. Though the culture of the Incas resembled in many ways that of the Aztecs, the two peoples probably never had any intercourse and hence remained totally unaware of each other's existence.



224. SPANISH EXPLORATIONS AND CONQUESTS IN AMERICA

OBJECTS OF THE SPANIARDS

The discoverers of the New World were naturally the pioneers in its exploration. The first object of the Spaniards had been trade with the Indies, and for a number of years, until Magellan's voyage, they sought vainly for a passage through the mainland to the Spice Islands. When, however, the Spaniards learned that America was rich in deposits of gold and silver, these metals formed the principal objects of their expeditions.

PONCE DE LEON AND BALBOA, 1513 A.D.

The Spaniards at first had confined their settlements to the Greater Antilles in the West Indies, [26] but after the gold of these islands was exhausted, they began to penetrate the mainland. In 1513 A.D. Ponce de Leon, who had been with Columbus on his second voyage, discovered the country which he named Florida. It became the first Spanish possession in North America. In the same year Vasco Nunez de Balboa, from the isthmus of Panama, sighted the Pacific. He entered its waters, sword in hand, and took formal possession in the name of the king of Spain.



CONQUEST OF MEXICO 1519-1521 A.D. AND PERU 1531-1537 A.D.

The overthrow of the Aztec power was accomplished by Hernando Cortes, with the aid of Indian allies. Many large towns and half a thousand villages, together with immense quantities of treasure, fell into the hands of the conquerors. Henceforth Mexico, or "New Spain," became the most important Spanish possession in America. Francisco Pizarro, who invaded Peru with a handful of soldiers, succeeded in overthrowing the Incas. Pizarro founded in Peru the city of Lima. It replaced Cuzco as the capital of the country and formed the seat of the Spanish government in South America.

EL DORADO

The Spaniards, during the earlier part of the sixteenth century, heard much of a fabled king whom they called El Dorado. [27] This king, it was said, used to smear himself with gold dust at an annual religious ceremony. In time the idea arose that somewhere in South America existed a fabled country marvelously rich in precious metals and gems. These stories stirred the imagination of the Spaniards, who fitted out many expeditions to find the gilded man and his gilded realm. The quest for El Dorado opened up the valleys of the Amazon and Orinoco and the extensive forest region east of the Andes. Spanish explorers also tried to find El Dorado in North America. De Soto's expedition led to the discovery of the Mississippi in 1541 A.D., and Coronado's search for the "Seven Cities of Cibola" not only added greatly to geographical knowledge of the Southwest, but also resulted in the extension of Spanish dominion over this part of the American continent. About 1605 A.D. the Spaniards founded Santa Fe and made it the capital of their government in New Mexico.

* * * * *

225. THE SPANISH COLONIAL EMPIRE

SPAIN IN THE NEW WORLD

The wonderful exploits of the conquistadores (conquerors) laid the foundations of the Spanish colonial empire. It included Florida, New Mexico, California, Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and all South America except Brazil. [28] The rule of Spain over these dominions lasted nearly three hundred years. During this time she gave her language, her government, and her religion to half the New World.

INTERMARRIAGE OF SPANIARDS AND INDIANS

The Spaniards brought few women with them and hence had to find their wives among the Indians. Intermarriage of the two peoples early became common. The result was the mixed race which one still finds throughout the greater part of Spanish America. In this race the Indian strain predominates, because almost everywhere the aborigines were far more numerous than the white settlers.

TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS

The Spaniards treated the Indians of the West Indies most harshly and forced them to work in gold mines and on sugar plantations. The hard labor, to which the Indians were unaccustomed, broke down their health, and almost the entire native population disappeared within a few years after the coming of the whites. This terrible tragedy was not repeated on the mainland, for the Spanish government stepped in to preserve the aborigines from destruction. It prohibited their enslavement and gave them the protection of humane laws. Though these laws were not always well enforced, the Indians of Mexico and Peru increased in numbers under Spanish rule and often became prosperous traders, farmers, and artisans.

CONVERSION OF THE INDIANS

The Spaniards succeeded in winning many of the Indians to Christianity. Devoted monks penetrated deep into the wilderness and brought to the aborigines, not only the Christian religion, but also European civilization. In many places the natives were gathered into permanent villages, or "missions," each one with its church and school. Converts who learned to read and write often became priests or entered the monastic orders. The monks also took much interest in the material welfare of the Indians and taught them how to farm, how to build houses, and how to spin and weave and cook by better methods than their own.

THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS

The most familiar examples of the Spanish missions are those in the state of California. During the last quarter of the eighteenth century Franciscan friars missions erected no less than eighteen mission stations along the Pacific coast from San Diego to San Francisco. The stations were connected by the "King's Road" [29] which still remains the principal highway of the state. Some of the mission buildings now lie in ruins and others have entirely disappeared. But such a well-preserved structure as the mission of Santa Barbara recalls a Benedictine monastery, [30] with its shady cloisters, secluded courtyard, and timbered roof covered with red tiles. It is a bit of the Old World transplanted to the New.

SPANISH AMERICAN CIVILIZATION

The civilizing work of Spain in the New World is sometimes forgotten. Here were the earliest American hospitals and asylums, for the use of Indians and negroes as well as of Spaniards. Here were the earliest American schools and colleges. Twelve institutions of higher learning, all modeled upon the university of Salamanca, arose in Spanish America during the colonial period. Eight of these came into existence before the creation in 1636 A.D. of Harvard University, the oldest in the United States. The pioneer printing press in the Western Hemisphere was set up at Mexico City in 1535 A.D.; no printing press reached the English colonies till more than one hundred years later. To the valuable books by Spanish scholars we owe much of our knowledge of the Mayas, Aztecs, and other Indian tribes. The first American newspaper was published at Mexico City in 1693 A.D. The fine arts also flourished in the Spanish colonies, and architects of the United States have now begun to copy the beautiful churches and public buildings of Mexico and Peru.

SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY

The government of Spain administered its colonial dominions in the spirit of monopoly. As far as possible it excluded French, English, and other foreigners from trading with Spanish America. It also discouraged ship- building, manufacturing, and even the cultivation of the vine and the olive, lest the colonists should compete with home industries. The colonies were regarded only as a workshop for the production of the precious metals and raw materials. This unwise policy very largely accounts for the economic backwardness of Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish- American countries at the present day. Their rich natural resources have as yet scarcely begun to be utilized.

226. ENGLISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS IN AMERICA

THE CABOT VOYAGES, 1497-1498 A.D.

The English based their claim to the right to colonize North America on the discoveries of John Cabot, an Italian mariner in the service of the Tudor king, Henry VII. [31] In 1497 A.D. Cabot sailed from Bristol across the northern Atlantic and made land somewhere between Labrador and Nova Scotia. The following year he seems to have undertaken a second voyage and to have explored the coast of North America nearly as far as Florida. Cabot, like Columbus, believed he had reached Cathay and the dominions of the Great Khan. Because Cabot found neither gold nor opportunities for profitable trade, his expeditions were considered a failure, and for a long time the English took no further interest in exploring the New World.



CARTIER'S VOYAGES, 1534-1542 A.D.

The discovery by Magellan of a strait leading into the Pacific aroused hope that a similar passage, beyond the regions controlled by Spain, might exist in North America. In 1534 A.D. the French king, Francis I, sent Jacques Cartier to look for it. Cartier found the gulf and river which he named after St. Lawrence, and also tried to establish a settlement near where Quebec now stands. The venture was not successful, and the French did not undertake the colonization of Canada till the first decade of the seventeenth century.

THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

English sailors also sought a road to India by the so-called Northwest Passage. It was soon found to be an impossible route, for during half the year the seas were frozen and during the other half they were filled with icebergs. However, the search for the Northwest Passage added much to geographical knowledge. The names Frobisher Bay, Davis Strait, and Baffin Land still preserve the memory of the navigators who first explored the channels leading into the Arctic Ocean.

THE ENGLISH "SEA DOGS"

When the English realized how little profit was to be gained by voyages to the cold and desolate north, they turned southward to warmer waters. Here, of course, they came upon the Spaniards, who had no disposition to share with foreigners the profitable trade of the New World. Though England and Spain were not at war, the English "sea dogs," as they called themselves, did not scruple to ravage the Spanish colonies and to capture the huge, clumsy treasure-ships carrying gold and silver to Spain. The most famous of the "sea dogs," Sir Francis Drake, was the first Englishman to sail round the world (1577-1580 A.D.).

THE RALEIGH COLONIES, 1584-1590 A.D.

Four years after Drake had completed his voyage, another English seaman, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent out an expedition to find a good site for a settlement in North America. The explorers reached the coast of North Carolina and returned with glowing accounts of the country, which was named Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen." But Raleigh's colonies in Virginia failed miserably, and the English made no further attempt to settle there till the reign of James I, early in the seventeenth century.

227. THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW

EXPANSION OF EUROPE

The New World contained two virgin continents, full of natural resources and capable in a high degree of colonization. The native peoples, comparatively few in number and barbarian in culture, could not offer much resistance to the explorers, missionaries, traders, and colonists from the Old World. The Spanish and Portuguese in the sixteenth century, followed by the French, English, and Dutch in the seventeenth century, repeopled America and brought to it European civilization. Europe expanded into a Greater Europe beyond the ocean.

SHIFTING OF TRADE ROUTES

In the Middle Ages the Mediterranean and the Baltic had been the principal highways of commerce. The discovery of America, followed immediately by the opening of the Cape route to the Indies, shifted commercial activity from these enclosed seas to the Atlantic Ocean. Venice, Genoa, Hamburg, Luebeck, and Bruges gradually gave way, as trading centers, to Lisbon and Cadiz, Bordeaux and Cherbourg, Antwerp and Amsterdam, London and Liverpool. One may say, therefore, that the year 1492 A.D. inaugurated the Atlantic period of European history. The time may come, perhaps even now it is dawning, when the center of gravity of the commercial world will shift still farther westward to the Pacific.

INCREASED PRODUCTION OF THE PRECIOUS METALS

The discovery of America revealed to Europeans a new source of the precious metals. The Spaniards soon secured large quantities of gold by plundering the Indians of Mexico and Peru of their stored-up wealth. After the discovery in 1545 A.D. of the wonderfully rich silver mines of Potosi in Bolivia, the output of silver much exceeded that of gold. It is estimated that by the end of the sixteenth century the American mines had produced at least three times as much gold and silver as had been current in Europe at the beginning of the century.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE ENLARGED MONEY SUPPLY

The Spaniards could not keep this new treasure. Having few industries themselves, they were obliged to send it out, as fast as they received it, in payment for their imports of European goods. Spain acted as a huge sieve through which the gold and silver of America entered all the countries of Europe. Money, now more plentiful, purchased far less than in former times; in other words, the prices of all commodities rose, wages advanced, and manufacturers and traders had additional capital to use in their undertakings. The Middle Ages had suffered from the lack of sufficient money with which to do business; [32] from the beginning of modern times the world has been better supplied with the indispensable medium of exchange.

NEW COMMODITIES IMPORTED

But America was much more than a treasury of the precious metals. Many commodities, hitherto unknown, soon found their way from the New World to the Old. Among these were maize, the potato, which, when cultivated in Europe, became the "bread of the poor," chocolate and cocoa made from the seeds of the cacao tree, Peruvian bark, or quinine, so useful in malarial fevers, cochineal, the dye-woods of Brazil, and the mahogany of the West Indies. America also sent large supplies of cane-sugar, molasses, fish, whale-oil, and furs. The use of tobacco, which Columbus first observed among the Indians, spread rapidly over Europe and thence extended to the rest of the world. All these new American products became common articles of consumption and so raised the standard of living in European countries.

POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES

To the economic effects of the discoveries must be added their effects on politics. The Atlantic Ocean now formed, not only the commercial, but also the political center of the world. The Atlantic-facing countries, first Portugal and Spain, then Holland, France, and England, became the great powers of Europe. Their trade rivalries and contests for colonial possessions have been potent causes of European wars for the last four hundred years.

EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES ON THOUGHT

The sudden disclosure of oceans, islands, and continents, covering one- third of the globe, worked a revolution in geographical ideas. The earth was found to be far larger than men had supposed it to be, and the imagination was stirred by the thought of other amazing discoveries which might be made. From the sixteenth century to the twentieth the work of exploration has continued, till now few regions of the world yet remain unmapped. At the same time came acquaintance with many strange plants, animals, and peoples, and so scientific knowledge replaced the quaint fancies of the Middle Ages.

EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES UPON RELIGION

The sixteenth century in Europe was the age of that revolt against the Roman Church called the Protestant Reformation. During this period, however, the Church won her victories over the American aborigines. What she lost of territory, wealth, and influence in Europe was more than offset by what she gained in America. Furthermore, the region now occupied by the United States furnished in the seventeenth century an asylum from religious persecution, as was proved when Puritans settled in New England, Roman Catholics in Maryland, and Quakers in Pennsylvania. The vacant spaces of America offered plenty of room for all who would worship God in their own way. Thus the New World became a refuge from the intolerance of the Old.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate those parts of the world known in the time of Columbus (before 1492 A.D.).

2. On an outline map indicate the voyages of discovery of Vasco da Gama, Columbus (first voyage), John Cabot, and Magellan.

3. What particular discoveries were made by Cartier, Drake, Balboa, De Soto, Ponce de Leon, and Coronado?

4. Compare the Cosmas map (page 617) with the map of the world according to Homer (page 76).

5. Compare the Hereford map (page 617) with the map of the world according to Ptolemy (page 132).

6. Why has Marco Polo been called the "Columbus of the East Indies"?

7. "Cape Verde not only juts out into the Atlantic, but stands forth as a promontory in human history." Comment on this statement.

8. How did Vasco da Gama complete the work of Prince Henry the Navigator?

9. Show that Lisbon in the sixteenth century was the commercial successor of Venice.

10. "Had Columbus perished in mid-ocean, it is doubtful whether America would have remained long undiscovered." Comment on this statement.

11. Why did no one suggest that the New World be called after Columbus?

12. Show that Magellan achieved what Columbus planned.

13. Why did Balboa call the Pacific the "South Sea"?

14. Why is Roman law followed in all Spanish-American countries?

15. In what parts of the world is Spanish still the common language?

16. Why did the Germans fail to take part in the work of discovery and colonization?

17. Show that the three words "gospel, glory, and gold" sum up the principal motives of European colonization in the sixteenth century.

18. Compare the motives which led to the colonization of the New World with those which led to Greek colonization.

19. "The opening of the Atlantic to continuous exploration is the most momentous step in the history of man's occupation of the earth." Does this statement seem to be justified?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxi, "The Travels of Marco Polo"; chapter xxii, "The Aborigines of the New World."

[2] Ezekiel, v, 5.

[3] Isaiah, x, 12.

[4] See pages 574-575.

[5] See page 35.

[6] See page 347.

[7] See page 488.

[8] See page 611.

[9] Froissart, Chronicles, ii, 73.

[10] See page 540.

[11] See page 49.

[12] Not Calcutta.

[13] See page 540.

[14] The Portuguese colonial empire included Ormuz, the west coast of India, Ceylon, Malacca, and various possessions in the Malay Archipelago (Sumatra, Java, Celebes, the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and New Guinea). The Portuguese also had many trading posts on the African coast, besides Brazil, which one of their mariners discovered in 1500 A.D. See the map Between pages 628-629.

[15] See page 573.

[16] See page 591.

[17] See page 133.

[18] A Latin translation of Ptolemy's Geography, accompanied by maps, was printed for the first time probably in 1462 A.D.

[19] See page 275.

[20] See page 560.

[21] Named San Salvador by Columbus and usually identified with Watling Island.

[22] In Latin, Americus Vespucius.

[23] In 1494 A.D., the demarcation line was shifted about eight hundred miles farther to the west. Six years later, when the Portuguese discovered Brazil, the country was found to lie within their sphere of influence.

[24] Also known as the Mariannes. Magellan called them the Ladrones (Spanish ladron, a robber), because of the thievish habits of the natives.

[25] See page 9.

[26] Cuba, Hispaniola (now divided between the republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo), Porto Rico, and Jamaica.

[27] Spanish for the "gilded one."

[28] See the map between pages 628-629. The Philippines, discovered by Magellan in 1521 A.D., also belonged to Spain, though by the demarcation line these islands lay within the Portuguese sphere of influence.

[29] In Spanish El Camino Real.

[30] See page 355.

[31] See page 518.

[32] See page 541.



CHAPTER XXVII

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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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."



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.