ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA, 1491-1556 A.D.

The founder of the new society was a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius Loyola. He had seen a good deal of service in the wars of Charles V against the French. While in a hospital recovering from a wound Loyola read devotional books, and these produced a profound change within him. He now decided to abandon the career of arms and to become, instead, the knight of Christ. So Loyola donned a beggar's robe, practiced all the kinds of asceticism which his books described, and went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The turning-point of his career came with his visit to Paris to study theology. Here Loyola met the six devout and talented men who became the first members of his society. They intended to work as missionaries among the Moslems, but, when this plan fell through, they visited Rome and placed their energy and enthusiasm at the disposal of the pope.



THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

Loyola's military training deeply affected the character of the new order. The Jesuits, as their Protestant opponents styled them, were to be an army of spiritual soldiers, living under the strictest obedience to their head, or general. Like soldiers, again, they were to remain in the world, and there fight manfully for the Church and against heretics. The society grew rapidly; before Loyola's death it included over a thousand members; and in the seventeenth century it became the most influential of all the religious orders. [21] The activity of the Jesuits as preachers, confessors, teachers, and missionaries did much to roll back the rising tide of Protestantism in Europe.

JESUIT SCHOOLS

The Jesuits gave special attention to education, for they realized the importance of winning over the young people to the Church. Their schools were so good that even Protestant children often attended them. The popularity of Jesuit teachers arose partly from the fact that they always tried to lead, not drive their pupils. Light punishments, short lessons, many holidays, and a liberal use of prizes and other distinctions formed some of the attractive features of their system of training. It is not surprising that the Jesuits became the instructors of the Roman Catholic world. They called their colleges the "fortresses of the faith."

JESUIT MISSIONS

The missions of the Jesuits were not less important than their schools. The Jesuits worked in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and other countries where Protestantism threatened to become dominant. Then they invaded all the lands which the great maritime discoveries of the preceding age had laid open to European enterprise. In India, China, the East Indies, Japan, the Philippines, Africa, and the two Americas their converts from heathenism were numbered by hundreds of thousands.

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, 1506-1552 A.D.

The most eminent of all Jesuit missionaries, St. Francis Xavier, had belonged to Loyola's original band. He was a little, blue-eyed man, an engaging preacher, an excellent organizer, and possessed of so attractive a personality that even the ruffians and pirates with whom he had to associate on his voyages became his friends. Xavier labored with such devotion and success in the Portuguese colonies of the Far East as to gain the title of "Apostle to the Indies." He also introduced Christianity in Japan, where it flourished until a persecuting emperor extinguished it with fire and sword.

COUNCIL OF TRENT, 1545-1563 A.D.

Another agency in the Counter Reformation was the great Church Council summoned by Pope Paul III. The council met at Trent, on the borders of Germany and Italy. It continued, with intermissions, for nearly twenty years. The Protestants, though invited to participate, did not attend, and hence nothing could be done to bring them back within the Roman Catholic fold. This was the last general council of the Church for over three hundred years. [22]

WORK OF THE COUNCIL

The Council of Trent made no essential changes in the Roman Catholic doctrines, which remained as St. Thomas Aquinas [23] and other theologians had set them forth in the Middle Ages. In opposition to the Protestant view, it declared that the tradition of the Church possessed equal authority with the Bible. It reaffirmed the supremacy of the pope over Christendom. The council also passed important decrees forbidding the sale of ecclesiastical offices and requiring bishops and other prelates to attend strictly to their duties. Since the Council of Trent the Roman Church has been distinctly a religious organization, instead of both a secular and religious body, as was the Church in the Middle Ages. [24]

THE INDEX

The council, before adjourning, authorized the pope to draw up a list, or Index, of works which Roman Catholics might not read. This action did not form an innovation. The Church from an early day had condemned and destroyed heretical writings. However, the invention of printing, by giving greater currency to new and dangerous ideas, increased the necessity for the regulation of thought. The "Index of Prohibited Books" still exists, and additions to the list are made from time to time. It was matched by the strict censorship of printing long maintained in Protestant countries.

THE INQUISITION

Still another agency of the Counter Reformation consisted of the Inquisition. This was a system of church courts for the discovery and punishment of heretics. Such courts had been set up in the Middle Ages, for instance, to suppress the Albigensian heresy. After the Council of Trent they redoubled their activity, especially in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

INFLUENCE OF THE INQUISITION

The Inquisition probably contributed to the disappearance of Protestantism in Italy. In the Netherlands, where it worked with great severity, it only aroused exasperation and hatred and helped to provoke a successful revolt of the Dutch people. The Spaniards, on the other hand, approved of the methods of the Inquisition and welcomed its extermination of Moors and Jews, as well as Protestant heretics. The Spanish Inquisition was not abolished till the nineteenth century.

236. SPAIN UNDER PHILIP II, 1556-1598 A.D.

ABDICATION OF CHARLES V, 1555-1556 A.D.

In 1555 A.D., the year of the Peace of Augsburg, [25] Charles V determined to abdicate his many crowns and seek the repose of a monastery. The plan was duly carried into effect. His brother Ferdinand I succeeded to the title of Holy Roman Emperor and the Austrian territories, while his son, Philip II, [26] received the Spanish possessions in Italy, the Netherlands, and America. There were now two branches of the Hapsburg family—one in Austria and one in Spain.

PHILIP II

The new king of Spain was a man of unflagging energy, strong will, and deep attachment to the Roman Church. As a ruler he had two great ideals: to make Spain the foremost state in the world and to secure the triumph of the Roman Catholic faith over Protestantism. His efforts to realize these ideals largely determined European history during the second half of the sixteenth century.



BATTLE OF LEPANTO, 1571 A.D.

The Spanish monarch won renown by becoming the champion of Christendom against the Ottoman Turks. At this time the Turks had a strong navy, by means of which they captured Cyprus from the Venetians and ravaged Sicily and southern Italy. Grave danger existed that they would soon control all the Mediterranean. To stay their further progress one of the popes preached what was really the last crusade. The fleets of Genoa and Venice united with those of Spain and under Don John of Austria, Philip's half- brother, totally defeated the Turkish squadron in the gulf of Lepanto, off the western coast of Greece. The battle gave a blow to the sea-power of the Turks from which they never recovered and ended their aggressive warfare in the Mediterranean. Lepanto is one of the proud names in the history of Spain.

ANNEXATION OF PORTUGAL, 1581 A.D.

Philip had inherited an extensive realm. He further widened it by the annexation of Portugal, thus completing the unification of the Spanish peninsula. The Portuguese colonies in Africa, Asia, and America also passed into Spanish hands. The union of Spain and Portugal under one crown never commanded any affection among the Portuguese, who were proud of their nationality and of their achievements as explorers and empire- builders. Portugal separated from Spain in 1640 A.D. and has since remained an independent state.

[Illustration: THE ESCORIAL This remarkable edifice, at once a convent, a church, a palace, and a royal mausoleum, is situated in a sterile and gloomy wilderness about twenty-seven miles from Madrid. It was begun by Philip II in 1563 A.D. and was completed twenty-one years later. The Escorial is dedicated to St. Lawrence, that saint's day (August 10, 1557) being the day when the Spanish king won a great victory over the French at the battle of St. Quentin. The huge dimensions of the Escorial may be inferred from the fact that it includes eighty-six staircases, eighty-nine fountains, fifteen cloisters, 1,200 doors, 2,600 windows, and miles of corridors. The building material is a granite-like stone obtained in the neighborhood. The Escorial contains a library of rare books and manuscripts and a collection of valuable paintings. In the royal mausoleum under the altar of the church lie the remains of Charles V, Philip II, and many of their successors.]

PHILIP'S FAILURES

But the successes of Philip were more than offset by his failures. Though he had vast possessions, enormous revenues, mighty fleets, and armies reputed the best of the age, he could not dominate western Europe. His attempt to conquer England, a stronghold of Protestantism under Elizabeth, resulted in disaster. Not less disastrous was his life-long struggle with the Netherlands.

237. REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

THE NETHERLANDS

The seventeen provinces of the Netherlands occupied the flat, low country along the North Sea—the Holland, Belgium, and northern France of the present day. During the fifteenth century they became Hapsburg possessions and thus belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. As we have learned, Charles V received them as a part of his inheritance, and he, in turn, transmitted them to Philip II.

CONDITION OF THE NETHERLANDS

The inhabitants of the Netherlands were not racially united. In the southernmost provinces Celtic blood and Romance speech prevailed, while farther north dwelt peoples of Teutonic extraction, who spoke Flemish and Dutch. Each province likewise kept its own government and customs. The prosperity which had marked the Flemish cities during the Middle Ages [27] extended in the sixteenth century to the Dutch cities also. Rotterdam, Leyden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam profited by the geographical discoveries and became centers of extensive commerce with Asia and America. The rise of the Dutch power, in a country so exposed to destructive inundations of both sea and rivers, is a striking instance of what can be accomplished by a frugal, industrious population.

PROTESTANTISM IN THE NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands were too near Germany not to be affected by the Reformation. Lutheranism soon appeared there, only to encounter the hostility of Charles V, who introduced the terrors of the Inquisition. Many heretics were burned at the stake, or beheaded, or buried alive. But there is no seed like martyr's blood. The number of Protestants swelled, rather than lessened, especially after Calvinism entered the Netherlands. As a Jesuit historian remarked, "Nor did the Rhine from Germany or the Meuse from France send more water into the Low Countries than by the one the contagion of Luther, and by the other that of Calvin, were imported into these provinces."

POLICY OF PHILIP II

In spite of the cruel treatment of heretics by Charles V, both Flemish and Dutch remained loyal to the emperor, because he had been born and reared among them and always considered their country as his own. But Philip II, a Spaniard by birth and sympathies, seemed to them only a foreign master. The new ruler did nothing to conciliate the people. He never visited the Netherlands after 1559 A.D., but governed them despotically through Spanish officials supported by Spanish garrisons. Arbitrary taxes were levied, cities and nobles were deprived of their cherished privileges, and the activity of the Inquisition was redoubled. Philip intended to exercise in the Netherlands the same absolute power which he enjoyed in Spain.

ALVA SENT TO THE NETHERLANDS, 1567 A.D.

The religious persecution which by Philip's orders raged through the Netherlands everywhere aroused intense indignation. The result was rioting by mobs of Protestants, who wrecked churches and monasteries and carried off the treasure they found in them. Philip replied to these acts by sending his best army, under the duke of Alva, his best general, to reduce the turbulent provinces into submission.

OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLT

Alva carried out with thoroughness the policy of his royal master. A tribunal, popularly known as the "Council of Blood," was set up for the punishment of treason and heresy. Hundreds, and probably thousands, perished; tens of thousands fled to Germany and England. Alva, as governor-general, also raised enormous taxes, which threatened to destroy the trade and manufactures of the Netherlands. Under these circumstances Roman Catholics and Protestants, nobles and townsfolk, united against their Spanish oppressors. A revolt began which Spain could never quell.

WILLIAM THE SILENT, 1533-1584 A.D.

The Netherlands found a leader in William, Prince of Orange, later known as William the Silent, because of his customary discreetness. He was of German birth, a convert to Protestantism, and the owner of large estates in the Netherlands. William had fair ability as a general, a statesmanlike grasp of the situation, and above all a stout, courageous heart which never wavered in moments of danger and defeat. To rescue the Netherlands from Spain he sacrificed his high position, his wealth, and eventually his life.



SEPARATION OF THE NETHERLANDS

The ten southern provinces of the Netherlands, mainly Roman Catholic in population, soon effected a reconciliation with Philip and returned to their allegiance. They remained in Hapsburg hands for over two centuries. Modern Belgium has grown out of them. The seven northern provinces, where Dutch was the language and Protestantism the religion, formed in 1579 A.D. the Union of Utrecht. Two years later they declared their independence of Spain. Thus the republic of the United Netherlands, often known as Holland, the most important of the seven provinces, came into being.



COURSE OF THE REVOLT

The struggle of the Dutch for freedom forms one of the most notable episodes in history. At first they were no match for the disciplined Spanish soldiery, but they fought bravely behind the walls of their cities and on more than one occasion repelled the enemy by cutting the dikes and letting in the sea. Though William the Silent perished in a dark hour by an assassin's bullet, the contest continued. England now came to the aid of the hard-pressed republic with money and a small army. Philip turned upon his new antagonist and sent against England the great fleet called the "Invincible Armada." Its destruction interfered with further attempts to subjugate the Dutch, but the Spanish monarch, stubborn to the last, refused to acknowledge their independence. His successor, in 1609 A.D., consented to a twelve years' truce with the revolted provinces. Their freedom was recognized officially by Spain at the close of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 A.D.

THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

The long struggle bound the Dutch together and made them one nation. During the seventeenth century they took a prominent part in European affairs. The republic which they founded ought to be of special interest to Americans, for many features of our national government are Dutch in origin. To Holland we owe the idea of a declaration of independence, of a written constitution, of religious toleration, and of a comprehensive school system supported by taxation. In these and other matters the Dutch were pioneers of modern democracy.

238. ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH, 1558-1603 A.D.

ELIZABETH

Queen Elizabeth, who reigned over England during the period of the Dutch revolt, came to the throne when about twenty-five years old. She was tall and commanding in presence and endowed with great physical vigor and endurance. After hunting all day or dancing all night she could still attend unremittingly to public business. Elizabeth had received an excellent education; she spoke Latin and several modern languages; knew a little Greek; and displayed some skill in music. To her father, Henry VIII, she doubtless owed her tactfulness and charm of manner, as well as her imperious will; she resembled her mother, Anne Boleyn, in her vanity and love of display. As a ruler Elizabeth was shrewd, far-sighted, a good judge of character, and willing to be guided by the able counselors who surrounded her. Above all, Elizabeth was an ardent patriot. She understood and loved her people, and they, in turn, felt a chivalrous devotion to the "Virgin Queen," to "Good Queen Bess".

PROTESTANTISM IN ENGLAND

The daughter of Anne Boleyn had been born under the ban of the pope, so that opposition to Rome was the natural course for her to pursue. Two acts of Parliament now separated England once more from the Papacy and gave the English Church practically the form and doctrines which it retains to-day. The church was intended to include everyone in England, and hence all persons were required to attend religious exercises on Sundays and holy days. Refusal to do so exposed the offender to a fine.



TREATMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLICS

The great body of the people soon conformed to the state church, but Roman Catholics could not conscientiously attend its services. The laws against them do not seem to have been strictly enforced at first, but in the later years of Elizabeth's reign real or suspected plots by Roman Catholics against her throne led to a policy of repression. Those who said or heard mass were heavily fined and imprisoned; those who brought papal bulls into England or converted Protestants to Roman Catholicism were executed as traitors. Several hundred priests, mostly Jesuits, suffered death, and many more languished in jail. This persecution, however necessary it may have seemed to Elizabeth and her advisers, is a blot on her reign.

PROTESTANTISM IN IRELAND

The Reformation made little progress in Ireland. Henry VIII, who had extended English sway over most of the island, suppressed the monasteries, demolished shrines, relics, and images, and placed English-speaking priests in charge of the churches. The Irish people, who remained loyal to Rome, regarded these measures as the tyrannical acts of a foreign government. During Elizabeth's reign there were several dangerous revolts, which her generals suppressed with great cruelty. The result was to widen the breach between England and Ireland. Henceforth to most Irishmen patriotism became identified with Roman Catholicism.



ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

Many of the plots against Elizabeth centered about Mary Stuart, the ill- starred Queen of Scots. She was a granddaughter of Henry VII, and extreme Roman Catholics claimed that she had a better right to the English throne than Elizabeth, because the pope had declared the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn null and void. Mary, a fervent Roman Catholic, did not please her Scotch subjects, who had adopted Calvinistic doctrines. She also discredited herself by marrying the man who had murdered her former husband. An uprising of the Scottish nobles compelled Mary to abdicate the throne in favor of her infant son [28] and to take refuge in England. Elizabeth kept her rival in captivity for nearly twenty years. In 1586 A.D., the former queen was found guilty of conspiring against Elizabeth's life and was beheaded.



ELIZABETH AND PHILIP II

Philip II, the king of Spain, also threatened Elizabeth's security. At the outset of her reign Philip had made her an offer of marriage, but she refused to give herself, or England, a Spanish master. As time went on, Philip turned into an open enemy of the Protestant queen and did his best to stir up sedition among her Roman Catholic subjects. It must be admitted that Philip could plead strong justification for his attitude. Elizabeth allowed the English "sea dogs" [29] to plunder Spanish colonies and seize Spanish vessels laden with the treasure of the New World. Moreover, she aided the rebellious Dutch, at first secretly and at length openly, in their struggle against Spain. Philip put up with these aggressions for many years, but finally came to the conclusion that he could never subdue the Netherlands or end the piracy and smuggling in Spanish America without first conquering England. The execution of Mary Stuart removed his last doubts, for Mary had left him her claims to the English throne. He at once made ready to invade England. Philip seems to have believed that as soon as a Spanish army landed in the island, the Roman Catholics would rally to his cause. But the Spanish king never had a chance to verify his belief; the decisive battle took place on the sea.

THE "INVINCIBLE ARMADA," 1588 A.D.

Philip had not completed his preparations before Sir Francis Drake sailed into Cadiz harbor and destroyed a vast amount of naval stores and shipping. This exploit, which Drake called "singeing the king of Spain's beard," delayed the expedition for a year. The "Invincible Armada" [30] set out at last in 1588 A.D. The Spanish vessels, though somewhat larger than those of the English, were inferior in number, speed, and gunnery to their adversaries, while the Spanish officers, mostly unused to the sea, were no match for men like Drake, Frobisher, and Raleigh, the best mariners of the age. The Armada suffered severely in a nine-days fight in the Channel, and many vessels which escaped the English guns met shipwreck off the Scotch and Irish coasts. Less than half of the Armada returned in safety to Spain.



ENGLISH SEA-POWER

England in the later Middle Ages had been an important naval power, as her ability to carry on the Hundred Years' War in France amply proved. But in the sixteenth century she was greatly over-matched by Spain, especially after the annexation of Portugal added the naval forces of that country to the Spanish fleets. The defeat of the Armada not only did great harm to the navy and commerce of Spain; it also showed that a new people had arisen to claim the supremacy of the ocean. Henceforth the English began to build up what was to be a sea-power greater than any other known to history.

239. THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE

FRANCE UNDER FRANCIS I, 1515-1547 A.D.

By 1500 A.D. France had become a centralized state under a strong monarchy. [31] Francis I, who reigned in the first half of the sixteenth century, still further exalted the royal power. He had many wars with Charles V, whose extensive dominions nearly surrounded the French kingdom. These wars prevented the emperor from making France a mere dependency of Spain. As we have learned, [32] they also interfered with the efforts of Charles V to crush the Protestants in Germany.

THE HUGUENOTS

Protestantism in France dates from the time of Francis I. The Huguenots, [33] as the French Protestants were called, naturally accepted the doctrines of Calvin, who was himself a Frenchman and whose books were written in the French language. Though bitterly persecuted by Francis I and by his son Henry II (1547-1559 A.D.), the Huguenots gained a large following, especially among the prosperous middle class of the towns—the bourgeoisie. Many nobles also became Huguenots, sometimes because of religious conviction, but often because the new movement offered them an opportunity to recover their feudal independence and to plunder the estates of the Church. In France, as well as in Germany, the Reformation had its worldly side.

CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE

During most of the second half of the sixteenth century fierce conflicts raged in France between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots. Philip II aided the former and Queen Elizabeth gave some assistance to the latter. France suffered terribly in the struggle, not only from the constant fighting, which cost the lives, it is said, of more than a million people, but also from the pillage, burnings, and other barbarities in which both sides indulged. The wealth and prosperity of the country visibly declined, and all patriotic feeling disappeared in the hatreds engendered by a civil war.

MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, 1572 A.D.

The episode known as the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day illustrates the extremes to which political ambition and religious bigotry could lead. The massacre was an attempt to extirpate the Huguenots, root and branch, at a time when peace prevailed between them and their opponents. The person primarily responsible for it was Catherine de' Medici, mother of Charles IX (1560-1574 A.D.), the youthful king of France. Charles had begun to cast off the sway of his mother and to come under the influence of Admiral de Coligny, the most eminent of the Huguenots. To regain her power Catherine first tried to have Coligny murdered. When the plot failed, she invented the story of a great Huguenot uprising and induced her weak- minded son to authorize a wholesale butchery of Huguenots. It began in Paris in the early morning of August 24, 1572 A.D. (St. Bartholomew's Day), and extended to the provinces, where it continued for several weeks. Probably ten thousand Huguenots were slain, including Coligny himself. But the deed was a blunder as well as a crime. The Huguenots took up arms to defend themselves, and France again experienced all the horrors of internecine strife.

HENRY IV

The death of Coligny transferred the leadership of the Huguenots to Henry Bourbon, king of Navarre. [34] Seventeen years after the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, he inherited the French crown as Henry IV. The Roman Catholics would not accept a Protestant ruler and continued the conflict. Henry soon realized that only his conversion to the faith of the majority of his subjects would bring a lasting peace. Religious opinions had always sat lightly upon him, and he found no great difficulty in becoming a Roman Catholic. "Paris," said Henry, "was well worth a mass." Opposition to the king soon collapsed, and the Huguenot wars came to an end.

EDICT OF NANTES, 1598 A.D.

Though now a Roman Catholic, Henry did not break with the Huguenots. In 1598 A.D. he issued in their interest the celebrated Edict of Nantes. By its terms the Huguenots were to enjoy freedom of private worship everywhere in France, and freedom to worship publicly in a large number of villages and towns. Only Roman Catholic services, however, might be held in Paris and at the royal court. Though the edict did not grant complete religious liberty, it marked an important step in that direction. A great European state now for the first time recognized the principle that two rival faiths might exist side by side within its borders. The edict was thus the most important act of toleration since the age of Constantine. [35]

FRANCE UNDER HENRY IV, 1588-1610 A.D.

Having settled the religious difficulties, Henry could take up the work of restoring prosperity to distracted France. His interest in the welfare of his subjects gained for him the name of "Good King Henry." With the help of Sully, his chief minister, the king reformed the finances and extinguished the public debt. He opened roads, built bridges, and dug canals, thus aiding the restoration of agriculture. He also encouraged commerce by means of royal bounties for shipbuilding. The French at this time began to have a navy and to compete with the Dutch and English for trade on the high seas. Henry's work of renovation was cut short in 1610 A.D. by an assassin's dagger. Under his son Louis XIII (1610-1643 A.D.), a long period of disorder followed, until an able minister, Cardinal Richelieu, assumed the guidance of public affairs. Richelieu for many years was the real ruler of France. His foreign policy led to the intervention of that country in the international conflict known as the Thirty Years' War.



240. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1618-1648 A.D.

RELIGIOUS ANTAGONISMS

The Peace of Augsburg [36] gave repose to Germany for more than sixty years, but it did not form a complete settlement of the religious question in that country. There was still room for bitter disputes, especially over the ownership of Church property which had been secularized in the course of the Reformation. Furthermore, the peace recognized only Roman Catholics and Lutherans and gave no rights whatever to the large body of Calvinists. The failure of Lutherans and Calvinists to cooperate weakened German Protestantism just at the period when the Counter Reformation inspired Roman Catholicism with fresh energy and enthusiasm.

POLITICAL FRICTION

Politics, as well as religion, also helped to bring about the great conflagration. The Roman Catholic party relied for support on the Hapsburg emperors, who wished to unite the German states under their control, thus restoring the Holy Roman Empire to its former proud position in the affairs of Europe. The Protestant princes, on the other hand, wanted to become independent sovereigns. Hence they resented all efforts to extend the imperial authority over them.

THE BOHEMIAN REVOLT

The Thirty Years' War was not so much a single conflict as a series of conflicts, which ultimately involved nearly all western Europe. It began in Bohemia, where Protestantism had not been extinguished by the Hussite wars. [37] The Bohemian nobles, many of whom were Calvinists, revolted against Hapsburg rule and proclaimed the independence of Bohemia. The German Lutherans gave them no aid, however, and the emperor, Ferdinand II, easily put down the insurrection. Many thousands of Protestants were now driven into exile. Those who remained in Bohemia were obliged to accept Roman Catholicism. Thus one more country was lost to Protestantism.

DANISH INTERVENTION

The failure of the Bohemian revolt aroused the greatest alarm in Germany. Ferdinand threatened to follow in the footsteps of Charles V and to crush Protestantism in the land of its birth. When, therefore, the king of Denmark, who as duke of Holstein had great interest in German affairs, decided to intervene, both Lutherans and Calvinists supported him. But Wallenstein, the emperor's able general, proved more than a match for the Danish king, who at length withdrew from the contest.

EDICT OF RESTITUTION, 1692 A.D.

So far the Roman Catholic and imperial party had triumphed. Ferdinand's success led him to issue the Edict of Restitution, which compelled the Protestants to restore all the Church property which they had taken since the Peace of Augsburg. The enforcement of the edict brought about renewed resistance on the part of the Protestants.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND THE INTERVENTION OF SWEDEN

There now appeared the single heroic figure on the stage of the Thirty Years' War. This was Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, and a man of military genius. He had the deepest sympathy for his fellow-Protestants in Germany and regarded himself as their divinely appointed deliverer. By taking part in the war Gustavus also hoped to conquer the coast of northern Germany. The Baltic would then become a Swedish lake, for Sweden already possessed Finland and what are now the Russian provinces on the Baltic.



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, 1630-1632 A.D.

Gustavus entered Germany with a strong force of disciplined soldiers and tried to form alliances with the Protestant princes. They received him coolly at first, for the Swedish king seemed to them only a foreign invader. Just at this time the imperialists captured Magdeburg, the largest and most prosperous city in northern Germany. At least twenty thousand of the inhabitants perished miserably amid the smoking ruins of their homes. This massacre turned Protestant sentiment toward Gustavus as the "Lion of the North" who had come to preserve Germany from destruction. With the help of his allies Gustavus reconquered most of Germany for the Protestants, but he fell at the battle of Luetzen in the moment of victory. His work, however, was done. The Swedish king had saved the cause of Protestantism in Germany.

RICHELIEU AND THE INTERVENTION OF FRANCE

After the death of Gustavus the war assumed more and more a political character. The German Protestants found an ally, strangely enough, in Cardinal Richelieu, the all-powerful minister of the French king. Richelieu entered the struggle in order to humble the Austrian Hapsburgs and extend the boundaries of France toward the Rhine, at the expense of the Holy Roman Empire. Since the Spanish Hapsburgs were aiding their Austrian kinsmen, Richelieu naturally fought against Spain also. The war thus became a great international conflict in which religion played only a minor part. The Holy Roman Emperor had to yield at last and consented to the treaties of peace signed at two cities in the province of Westphalia.



PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, 1648 A.D.

The Peace of Westphalia ended the long series of wars which followed the Reformation. It practically settled the religious question, for it allowed Calvinists in Germany to enjoy the same privileges as Lutherans and also withdrew the Edict of Restitution. Nothing was said in the treaties about liberty of conscience, but from this time the idea that religious differences should be settled by force gradually passed away from the minds of men.

TERRITORIAL READJUSTMENTS

The political clauses of the peace were numerous. France received nearly all of Alsace along the Rhine. Sweden gained possessions in North Germany. Brandenburg—the future kingdom of Prussia—secured additional territory on the Baltic Sea. The independence of Switzerland [38] and of the United Netherlands [39] was also recognized.

DISRUPTION OF GERMANY

The Peace of Westphalia left Germany more divided than ever. Each one of the larger states was free to coin money, raise armies, make war, and negotiate treaties without consulting the emperor. In fact, the Holy Roman Empire had become a mere phantom. The Hapsburgs from now on devoted themselves to their Austrian dominions, which included more Magyars and Slavs than Germans. The failure of the Hapsburgs in the Thirty Years' War long postponed the unification of Germany.

EXHAUSTION OF GERMANY

During the Thirty Years' War Germany had seen most of the fighting. She suffered from it to the point of exhaustion. The population dwindled from about sixteen million to one-half, or, as some believe, to one-third that number. The loss of life was partly due to the fearful epidemics, such as typhus fever and the bubonic plague, which spread over the land in the wake of the invading armies. Hundreds of villages were destroyed or were abandoned by their inhabitants. Much of the soil went out of cultivation, while trade and manufacturing nearly disappeared. Added to all this was the decline of education, literature, and art, and the brutalizing of the people in mind and morals. It took Germany at least one hundred years to recover from the injury inflicted by the Thirty Years' War; complete recovery, indeed, came only in the nineteenth century.

RISE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

The savagery displayed by all participants in the Thirty Years' War could not but impress thinking men with the necessity of formulating rules to protect noncombatants, to care for prisoners, and to do away with pillage and massacre. The worst horrors of the war had not taken place, before a Dutch jurist, named Hugo Grotius, published at Paris in 1625 A.D. a work On the Laws of War and Peace. It may be said to have founded international law. The success of the book was remarkable. Gustavus Adolphus carried a copy about with him during his campaigns, and its leading doctrines were recognized and acted upon in the Peace of Westphalia.

THE EUROPEAN STATE SYSTEM

The great principle on which Grotius based his recommendations was the independence of sovereign states. He gave up the medieval conception of a temporal and spiritual head of Christendom. The nations now recognized no common superior, whether emperor or pope, but all were equal in the sight of international law. The book of Grotius thus marked the profound change which had come over Europe since the Middle Ages.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate the European countries ruled by Charles V.

2. On an outline map indicate the principal territorial changes made by the Peace of Westphalia.

3. Identify the following dates: 1648 A.D.; 1519 A.D.; 1517 A.D.; 1588 A.D.; 1598 A.D.; and 1555 A.D.

4. Locate the following places: Avignon; Constance; Augsburg; Zurich; Worms; Magdeburg; and Utrecht.

5. For what were the following persons noted: Cardinal Wolsey; Admiral de Coligny; Duke of Alva; Richelieu; St. Ignatius Loyola; Boniface VIII; Frederick the Wise; Gustavus Adolphus; and Mary Queen of Scots?

6. Compare the scene at Anagni with the scene at Canossa.

7. On the map, page 646, trace the geographical extent of the "Great Schism."

8. Name three important reasons for the lessened influence of the Roman Church at the opening of the sixteenth century.

9. Explain the difference between heresy and schism.

10. Why has Wycliffe been called the "morning star of the Reformation"?

11. Compare Luther's work in fixing the form of the German language with Dante's service to Italian through the Divine Comedy.

12. What is the origin of the name "Protestant"?

13. Why was Mary naturally a Catholic and Elizabeth naturally a Protestant?

14. On the map, page 663, trace the geographical extent of the Reformation in the sixteenth century.

15. Why did the reformers in each country take special pains to translate the Bible into the vernacular?

16. What is the chief difference in mode of government between Presbyterian and Congregational churches?

17. "The heroes of the Reformation, judged by modern standards, were reactionaries." What does this statement mean?

18. Why is the Council of Trent generally considered the most important church council since that of Nicaea?

19. Mention some differences between the Society of Jesus and earlier monastic orders.

20. Compare the Edict of Nantes with the Peace of Augsburg.

21. Show how political, as well as religious, motives affected the revolt of the Netherlands, the Huguenot wars, and the Thirty Years' War.

22. Compare the effects of the Thirty Years' War on Germany with the effects of the Hundred Years' War on France.

23. What would you say of Holbein's success as a portrait painter (illustrations pages 651, 658)?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxiii, "Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation"; chapter xxiv, "England in the Age of Elizabeth."

[2] See page 514.

[3] See page 591.

[4] Purgatorio, xx, 88-90.

[5] See pages 36-37.

[6] See page 594.

[7] See page 600.

[8] See page 344.

[9] See page 641.

[10] See page 468.

[11] See page 611.

[12] See page 455.

[13] See page 441.

[14] See page 443.

[15] His hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott ("A mighty fortress is our God") has been called "the Marseillaise of the Reformation."

[16] See page 527.

[17] See page 518.

[18] See page 453.

[19] See page 613.

[20] Churches governed by assemblies of presbyters were called Presbyterian; those which allowed each congregation to rule itself were called Congregational.

[21] In 1773 A.D. the pope suppressed the society, on the ground that it had outgrown its usefulness. It was revived in many European countries during the nineteenth century.

[22] Until the Vatican Council, held at Rome in 1869-1870 A D.

[23] See page 572.

[24] See page 440.

[25] See page 656.

[26] See page 677.

[27] See pages 550-552.

[28] See page 511, note 1.

[29] See page 639.

[30] Armada was a Spanish name for any armed fleet.

[31] See page 519.

[32] See page 634.

[33] The origin of the name is not known with certainty.

[34] Navarre originally formed a small kingdom on both sides of the Pyrenees. The part south of these mountains was acquired by Spain in 1513 A.D. See the map on page 521.

[35] See page 235.

[36] See page 656.

[37] See page 650.

[38] See page 524, note 1.

[39] See page 674.



CHAPTER XXVIII

ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 1603-1715 A.D. [1]

241. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

ABSOLUTISM

Most European nations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries accepted the principle of absolutism in government. Absolutism was as popular then as democracy is to-day. The rulers of France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Scandinavia, and other countries, having triumphed over the feudal nobles, proceeded to revive the autocratic traditions of imperial Rome. Like Diocletian, Constantine, and later emperors, they posed as absolute sovereigns, who held their power, not from the choice or consent of their subjects, but from God.

DIVINITY OF KINGS

Royal absolutism formed a natural development of the old belief in the divinity of kings. Many primitive peoples regard their headmen and chiefs as holy and give to them the control of peace and war, of life and death. Oriental rulers in antiquity bore a sacred character. Even in the lifetime of an Egyptian Pharaoh temples were erected to him and offerings were made to his sacred majesty. The Hebrew monarch was the Lord's anointed, and his person was holy. The Hellenistic kings of the East and the Roman emperors received divine honors from their adoring subjects. An element of sanctity also attached to medieval sovereigns, who, at their coronation, were anointed with a magic oil, girt with a sacred sword, and given a supernatural banner. Even Shakespeare could speak of the divinity which "doth hedge a king." [2]

"Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord." [3]

DIVINE RIGHT AFTER THE REFORMATION

The Reformation tended to emphasize the sacred character of kingship. The reformers set up the authority of the State against the authority of the Church, which they rejected and condemned. Providence, they argued, had never sanctioned the Papacy, but Providence had really ordained the State and had placed over it a king whom it was a religious duty to obey. Even those who were not reformers distorted the Christian idea that government has a divine basis to represent kings as God's vicegerents upon earth, as in fact earthly deities.

BOSSUET ON DIVINE RIGHT

The theory of divine right received its fullest expression in a famous book [4] written by Bossuet, a learned French bishop of the seventeenth century. A hereditary monarchy, declared Bossuet, is the most ancient and natural, the strongest and most efficient, of all forms of government. Royal power emanates from God; hence the person of the king is sacred and it is sacrilege to conspire against him. His authority is absolute and autocratic. No man may rightfully resist the king's commands; his subjects owe him obedience in all matters. To the violence of a king the people can oppose only respectful remonstrances and prayers for his conversion. A king, to be sure, ought not to be a tyrant, but he can be one in perfect security. "As in God are united all perfection and every virtue, so all the power of all the individuals in a community is united in the person of the king."

242. THE ABSOLUTISM OF LOUIS XIV, 1661-1715 A.D.

CARDINAL RICHELIEU

France in the seventeenth century furnished the best example of an absolute monarchy supported by pretensions to divine right. French absolutism owed most of all to Cardinal Richelieu, [5] the chief minister of Louis XIII. Though a man of poor physique and in weak health, he possessed such strength of will, together with such thorough understanding of politics, that he was able to dominate the king and through the king to govern France for eighteen years (1624-1642 A.D.).

POLICIES OF RICHELIEU

Richelieu's foreign policy led to his intervention on the side of the Protestants at a decisive moment in the Thirty Years' War. The great cardinal, however, did not live to see the triumph of his measures in the Peace of Westphalia, which humiliated the Hapsburgs and raised France to the first place among the states of western Europe. Richelieu's domestic policy—to make the French king supreme—was equally successful. Though the nobles were still rich and influential, Richelieu beat down their opposition by forbidding the practice of duelling, that last remnant of private warfare, by ordering many castles to be blown up with gunpowder, and by bringing rebellious dukes and counts to the scaffold. Henceforth the nobles were no longer feudal lords but only courtiers.

CARDINAL MAZARIN

Richelieu died in 1642 A.D., and the next year Louis XIII, the master whom he had served so faithfully, also passed away. The new ruler, Louis XIV, was only a child, and the management of affairs for a second period of eighteen years passed into the hands of Cardinal Mazarin. Though an Italian by birth, he became a naturalized Frenchman and carried out Richelieu's policies. Against the Hapsburgs Mazarin continued the great war which Richelieu had begun and brought it to a satisfactory conclusion. The Peace of Westphalia was Mazarin's greatest triumph. He also crushed a formidable uprising against the crown, on the part of discontented nobles. Having achieved all this, the cardinal could truly say that "if his language was not French, his heart was," His death in 1661 A.D. found the royal authority more firmly established than ever before.



LOUIS XIV, THE MAN

Louis XIV, who now in his twenty-third year took up the reins of government, ranks among the ablest of French monarchs. He was a man of handsome presence, slightly below the middle height, with a prominent nose and abundant hair, which he allowed to fall over his shoulders. In manner he was dignified, reserved, courteous, and as majestic, it is said, in his dressing-gown as in his robes of state. A contemporary wrote that he would have been every inch a king, "even if he had been born under the roof of a beggar." Louis possessed much natural intelligence, a retentive memory, and great capacity for work. It must be added, however, that his general education had been much neglected, and that throughout his life he remained ignorant and superstitious. Vanity formed a striking trait in the character of Louis. He accepted the most fulsome compliments and delighted to be known as the "Grand Monarch" and the "Sun-king."



COURT OF LOUIS XIV AT VERSAILLES

Louis gathered around him a magnificent court, which he located at Versailles, near Paris. Here a whole royal city, with palaces, parks, groves, and fountains, sprang into being at his fiat. Here the "Grand Monarch" lived surrounded by crowds of fawning courtiers. The French nobles now spent little time on their country estates; they preferred to remain at Versailles in attendance on the king, to whose favor they owed offices, pensions, and honors. The king's countenance, it was said, is the courtier's supreme felicity; "he passes his life looking on it and within sight of it."



LOUIS XIV, THE KING

Louis taught and put into practice the doctrine of divine right. In his memoirs he declares that the king is God's representative and for his actions is answerable to God alone. The famous saying, "I am the State," [6] though not uttered by Louis, accurately expressed his conviction that in him was embodied the power and greatness of France. Few monarchs have tried harder to justify their despotic rule. He was fond of gaiety and sport, but he never permitted himself to be turned away from the punctual discharge of his royal duties. Until the close of his reign—the longest in the annals of Europe—Louis devoted from five to nine hours a day to what he called the "trade of a king."

ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE

Conditions in France made possible the despotism of Louis. Richelieu and Mazarin had labored with great success to strengthen the crown at the expense of the nobles and the commons. The nation had no Parliament to represent it and voice its demands, for the Estates-General [7] had not been summoned since 1614 A.D. It did not meet again till 1789 A.D., just before the outbreak of the French Revolution. In France there was no Magna Carta to protect the liberties of the people by limiting the right of a ruler to impose taxes at will. The French, furthermore, lacked independent law courts which could interfere with the king's power of exiling, imprisoning, or executing his subjects. Thus absolute monarchy became so firmly rooted in France that a revolution was necessary to overthrow it.

243. FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV

COLBERT

No absolute ruler, however conscientious and painstaking, can shoulder the entire burden of government. Louis XIV necessarily had to rely very much on his ministers, of whom Colbert was the most eminent. Colbert, until his death in 1683 A.D., gave France the best administration it had ever known. His reforming hand was especially felt in the finances. He made many improvements in the methods of tax-collection and turned the annual deficit in the revenues into a surplus. One of Colbert's innovations, now adopted by all European states, was the budget system. Before his time expenditures had been made at random, without consulting the treasury receipts. Colbert drew up careful estimates, one year in advance, of the probable revenues and expenditures, so that outlay would never exceed income.

COLBERT'S ECONOMIC MEASURES

Although the science of economics or political economy was little developed in the seventeenth century, Colbert realized that the chief object of a minister of finance should be the increase of the national wealth. Hence he tried in every way to foster manufactures and commerce. Among other measures Colbert placed heavy duties on the importation of foreign products, as a means of protecting the "infant industries" of France. This was the inauguration of the protective system, since followed by many European countries and from Europe introduced into America. Colbert regarded protectionism as only a temporary device, however, and spoke of tariffs as crutches by the help of which manufacturers might learn to walk and then throw them away.



COLBERT AND COLONIAL EXPANSION

Colbert shared the erroneous views of most economists of his age in supposing that the wealth of a country is measured by the amount of gold and silver which it possesses. He wished, therefore, to provide the French with colonies, where they could obtain the products which they had previously been obliged to purchase from the Spaniards, Dutch, and English. At this time many islands in the West Indies were acquired, Canada was developed, and Louisiana, the vast territory drained by the Mississippi, was opened up to settlement. France, under Colbert, became one of the leading colonial powers of Europe.

REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES, 1685 A.D.

As long as Colbert lived, he kept on good terms with the Huguenots, who formed such useful and industrious subjects. But Louis hated them as heretics and suspected them of little love for absolute monarchy. To Louis religious unity in the state seemed as necessary as political unity. Accordingly, he revoked in 1685 A.D. the Edict of Nantes, [8] after the French for almost a century had enjoyed religious toleration. The Huguenots were allowed to keep their Protestant faith, but their freedom of worship was taken away and was not restored till the time of the French Revolution. The Protestants in France to-day are about as numerous, in proportion to the Roman Catholic population, as they were under Louis XIV.

EMIGRATION OF THE HUGUENOTS

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes resulted in a considerable emigration of Huguenots from France. What was a loss to that country was a gain to England and Holland, where the Huguenots settled and where they introduced their arts and trades. Prussia, also, profited by the emigration of the Huguenots. Many of them went to Berlin, and that capital owed the beginning of its importance to its Huguenot population. Louis by his bigotry thus strengthened the chief Protestant foes of France.

ART UNDER LOUIS XIV

Louis was a generous patron of art. French painters and sculptors led the world at this time. One of his architects, Mansard, invented the mansard roof, which has been largely used in France and other European countries. This architectural device makes it possible to provide extra rooms at a small expense, without adding an additional story to the building. Among the monuments of Louis's reign are the Hotel des Invalides, [9] now the tomb of Napoleon, additions to the Louvre, [10] perhaps the masterpiece of all modern architecture, and the huge palace of Versailles. Louis also founded the Gobelins manufactory, so celebrated for fine carpets, furniture, and metal work.

LITERATURE UNDER LOUIS XIV

The long list of French authors who flourished during the reign of Louis includes Moliere, the greatest of French dramatists, La Fontaine, whose fables are still popular, Perrault, now remembered for his fairy tales, and Madame de Sevigne, whose letters are regarded as models of French prose. Probably the most famous work composed at this time is the Memoirs of Saint-Simon. It presents an intimate and not very flattering picture of the "Grand Monarch" and his court.

LEARNING UNDER LOUIS XIV

Louis and his ministers believed that the government should encourage research and the diffusion of knowledge. Richelieu founded and Colbert fostered the French Academy. Its forty members, sometimes called the "Immortals," are chosen for their eminent contributions to language and literature. The great dictionary of the French language, on which they have labored for more than two centuries, is still unfinished. The academy now forms a section of the Institute of France. The patronage of Colbert also did much to enrich the National Library at Paris. It contains the largest collection of books in the world.

THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV

The brilliant reign of the French king cast its spell upon the rest of Europe. Kings and princes looked to Louis as the model of what a king should be and set themselves to imitate the splendor of his court. During this period the French language, manners, dress, art, literature, and science became the accepted standards of good society in all civilized lands. France still retains in large measure the preeminent position which she secured under the "Grand Monarch."

244. THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV

AMBITIOUS DESIGNS OF LOUIS XIV

How unwise it may be to concentrate all authority in the hands of one man is shown by the melancholy record of the wars of Louis XIV. To aggrandize France and gain fame for himself, Louis plunged his country into a series of struggles from which it emerged completely exhausted. Like Philip II, Louis dreamed of dominating all western Europe, but, as in Philip's case, his aggressions provoked against him a constantly increasing body of allies, who in the end proved too strong even for the king's able generals and fine armies.

THE BALANCE OF POWER

The union of the smaller and weaker countries of Europe against France illustrates the principle of the balance of power. According to this principle no state ought to become so strong as to overshadow the rest. In such a case all the others must combine against it and treat it as a common enemy. The maintenance of the balance of power has been a leading object of European diplomacy from the time of the Thirty Years' War to the present day.

FRENCH MILITARISM

Louis himself lacked military talent and did not take a prominent part in any campaign. He was served, however, by very able commanders, including Conde and Turenne. Vauban, an eminent engineer, especially developed the art of siege craft. It was said of Vauban that he never besieged a fortress without taking it and never lost one which he defended. Louvois, the war minister of the king, recruited, equipped, and provisioned larger bodies of troops than ever before had appeared on European battlefields. It was Louvois who introduced the use of distinctive uniforms for soldiers and the custom of marching in step. He also established field hospitals and ambulances and placed camp life on a sanitary basis. The labors of these men gave Louis the best standing army of the age.

THE RHINE BOUNDARY

Of the four great wars which filled a large part of Louis's reign, all but the last were designed to extend the dominions of France on the east and northeast to the Rhine. That river in ancient times had separated Gaul and Germany, and Louis, as well as Richelieu and Mazarin before him, regarded it as a natural boundary of France. A beginning in this direction had already been made at the close of the Thirty Years' War, when France gained nearly all of Alsace and secured the recognition of her old claims to the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun in Lorraine. A treaty which Mazarin negotiated with Spain in 1659 A.D. also gave France most of Artois, as well as part of Flanders. Louis thus had a good basis of further advance through Lorraine and the Netherlands to the Rhine.

TWO WARS FOR THE RHINE, 1667-1678 A.D.

The French king began his aggressions by an effort to annex the Belgian or Spanish Netherlands, which then belonged to Spain. [11] A triple alliance of Holland, England, and Sweden forced him to relinquish all his conquests, except a few frontier towns (1668 A.D.). Louis blamed the Dutch for his setback, and determined to punish them. Moreover, the Dutch represented everything to which he was opposed, for Holland was a republic, the keen rival of France in trade, and Protestant in religion. By skillful diplomacy he persuaded England and Sweden to stand aloof, while his armies entered Holland and drew near to Amsterdam At this critical moment William, Prince of Orange, became the Dutch leader. He was a descendant of that William the Silent, who, a century before, had saved the Dutch out of the hands of Spain. When urged to submit, seeing that his country was surely lost, William replied, "I know one way of never seeing it, and that way is to die on the last dike." By William's orders the Dutch cut the dikes and interposed a watery barrier to further advance by the French. Then he formed another Continental coalition, which carried on the war till Louis signified his desire for peace. The Dutch did not lose a foot of territory, but Spain was obliged to cede to France the important province of Franche Comte (1678 A.D.).



A THIRD WAR, 1689-1697 A.D.

Ten years later Louis again sought to gain additional territory along the Rhine, but again an alliance of Spain, Holland, England, and the Holy Roman Empire compelled 1689-1697 him to sue for peace (1697 A.D.). [12] During the course of the war the French inflicted a frightful devastation on the Rhenish Palatinate, so that it might not support armies for the invasion of France. Twelve hundred towns and villages were destroyed, and the countryside was laid waste. The responsibility for this barbarous act rests upon Louvois who advised it and Louis who allowed it.

THE SPANISH SUCCESSION

Thus far the European balance of power had been preserved, but it was now threatened in another direction. Charles II, the king of Spain, lay dying, and as he was without children or brothers to succeed him, all Europe wondered what would be the fate of his vast possessions in Europe and America. Louis had married one of his sisters, and the Holy Roman Emperor another, so both the Bourbons and the Austrian Hapsburgs could put forth claims to the Spanish throne. When Charles died, it was found that he had left his entire dominions to Philip of Anjou, one of Louis's grandsons, in the hope that the power of France might be great enough to keep them undivided. Though Louis knew that acceptance of the inheritance would involve a war with Austria and probably with England, whose king was now Louis's old foe, William of Orange, [13] ambition triumphed over fear and the desire for glory over consideration for the welfare of France. At Versailles Louis proudly presented his grandson to the court, saying, "Gentlemen, behold the king of Spain."

WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION, 1702-1713 A.D.

In the War of the Spanish Succession France and Spain faced the Grand Alliance, which included England, Holland, Austria, several of the German states, and Portugal. Europe had never known a war that concerned so many countries and peoples. The English ruler, William III, died shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, leaving the continuance of the contest as a legacy to his sister-in-law, Queen Anne. [14] England supplied the coalition with funds, a fleet, and also with the ablest commander of the age, the duke of Marlborough. In Eugene, prince of Savoy, the allies had another skillful and daring general. The great victory gained by them at Blenheim in 1704 A.D. was the first of a series of successes which finally drove the French out of Germany and Italy and opened the road to Paris. But dissensions among the allies and the heroic resistance of France and Spain enabled Louis to hold the enemy at bay, until the exhaustion of both sides led to the conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht.

PEACE OF UTRECHT, 1713 A.D.

This peace ranks with that of Westphalia among the most important diplomatic arrangements of modern times. First, Louis's grandson, Philip V, was recognized as king of Spain and her colonies, on condition that the Spanish and French crowns should never be united. Since this time Bourbon sovereigns have continued to rule in Spain. Next, the Austrian Hapsburgs gained most of the Spanish dominions in Italy, as well as the Belgian or Spanish Netherlands (henceforth for a century called the Austrian Netherlands). Finally, England obtained from France possessions in North America, and from Spain the island of Minorca and the rock of Gibraltar, commanding the narrow entrance to the Mediterranean. England has never since relaxed her hold upon Gibraltar.

BRANDENBURG AND PRUSSIA

Two of the smaller members of the Grand Alliance likewise profited by the Peace of Utrecht. The right of the elector of Brandenburg to enjoy the title of king of Prussia was acknowledged. This formed an important step in the fortunes of the Hohenzollern [15] dynasty, which to-day rules over Germany. The duchy of Savoy also became a kingdom and received the island of Sicily (shortly afterwards exchanged for Sardinia). The house of Savoy in the nineteenth century provided Italy with its present reigning family.

POSITION OF FRANCE

France lost far less by the war than at one time seemed probable. Louis gave up his dream of dominating Europe, but he kept all the Continental acquisitions made earlier in his reign. And yet the price of the king's warlike policy had been a heavy one. France paid it in the shape of famine and pestilence, excessive taxes, heavy debts, and the impoverishment of the people. Louis, now a very old man, survived the Peace of Utrecht only two years. As he lay on his deathbed, the king turned to his little heir [16] and said, "Try to keep peace with your neighbors. I have been too fond of war; do not imitate me in that, nor in my too great expenditure." These words of the dying king showed an appreciation of the errors which robbed his long reign of much of its glory.



.

245. THE ABSOLUTISM OF THE STUARTS, 1603-1642 A.D.

TUDOR ABSOLUTISM

During the same century which saw the triumph of absolutism and divine right in France, a successful struggle took place in England against the unlimited power of kings. Absolutism in England dated from the time of the Tudors. Henry VII humbled the nobles, while Henry VIII and Elizabeth brought the Church into dependence on the crown. [17] These three sovereigns were strong and forceful, but they were also excellent rulers and popular with the influential middle class in town and country. The Tudors gave England order and prosperity, if not political liberty.

PARLIAMENT UNDER THE TUDORS

The English Parliament in the thirteenth century had become a body representative of all classes of the people, and in the fourteenth century it had separated into the two houses of Lords and Commons. [18] Parliament enjoyed considerable authority at this time. The kings, who were in continual need of money, summoned it frequently, sought its advice upon important questions, and readily listened to its requests. The despotic Tudors, on the other hand, made Parliament their servant. Henry VII called it together on only five occasions during his reign; Henry VIII persuaded or frightened it into doing anything he pleased; and Elizabeth seldom consulted it. Parliament under the Tudors did not abandon its old claims to a share in the government, but it had little chance to exercise them.

JAMES I, KING, 1603-1625 A.D.

The death of Elizabeth in 1603 A.D. ended the Tudor dynasty and placed the Stuarts on the English throne in the person of James I. [19] England and Scotland were now joined in a personal union, though each country retained its own Parliament, laws, and state Church. The new king was well described by a contemporary as the "wisest fool in Christendom." He had a good mind and abundant learning, but throughout his reign he showed an utter inability to win either the esteem or the affection of his subjects. This was a misfortune, for the English had now grown weary of despotism and wanted more freedom. They were not prepared to tolerate in James, an alien, many things which they had overlooked in "Good Queen Bess."

JAMES I ON DIVINE RIGHT

One of the most fruitful sources of discord between James and the English people was his exalted conception of monarchy. The Tudors, indeed, claimed to rule by divine right, but James went further than they in arguing for divine hereditary right. Providence, James declared, had chosen the principle of heredity in order to fix the succession to the throne. This principle, being divine, lay beyond the power of man to alter. Whether the king was fit or unfit to rule, Parliament might not change the succession, depose a sovereign, or limit his authority in any way. James rather neatly summarized his views in a Latin epigram, a deo rex, a rege lex—"the king is from God and law is from the king."



JAMES I AND PARLIAMENT

Naturally enough, the extreme pretensions of James encountered much opposition from Parliament. That body felt little sympathy for a ruler who proclaimed himself the source of all law. When James, always extravagant and a poor financier, came before it for money, Parliament insisted on its right to withhold supplies until grievances were redressed. James would not yield, and got along as best he could by levying customs duties, selling titles of nobility, and imposing excessive fines, in spite of the protests of Parliament. This situation continued to the end of the king's reign.

JAMES I AND PURITANISM

A religious controversy helped to embitter the dispute between James and Parliament. The king, who was Puritanism a devout Anglican, made himself very unpopular with the Puritans, as the reformers within the Church of England were called. The Puritans had no intention of separating from the national or established Church, but they wished to "purify" it of certain customs which they described as "Romish" or "papist." Among these were the use of the surplice, of the ring in the marriage service, and of the sign of the cross in baptism. Some Puritans wanted to get rid of the Book of Common Prayer altogether. The Puritans were distinguished by their austere lives. They looked with disfavor on May Day and Christmas festivities, observed the Jewish Sabbath in all its rigor, and condemned the Anglicans who played games and danced upon the village green on Sundays. As the Puritans had a large majority in the House of Commons, it was inevitable that the parliamentary struggle against Stuart absolutism would assume in part a religious character.



CHARLES I, KING, 1625-1649 A.D.

The political and religious difficulties which marked the reign of James I did not disappear when his son, Charles I, came to the throne. Charles was a true Stuart in his devotion to absolutism and divine right. Almost immediately he began to quarrel with Parliament. When that body withheld supplies, Charles resorted to forced loans from the wealthy and even imprisoned a number of persons who refused to contribute. Such arbitrary acts showed plainly that Charles would play the tyrant if he could.

PETITION OF RIGHT, 1628 A.D.

The king's attitude at last led Parliament to a bold assertion of its authority. It now presented to Charles the celebrated Petition of Right. One of the most important clauses provided that forced loans without parliamentary sanction should be considered illegal. Another clause declared that no one should be arrested or imprisoned except according to the law of the land. The Petition thus repeated and reinforced two of the leading principles of Magna Carta. [20] The people of England, speaking this time through their elected representatives, asserted once more their right to limit the power of kings.

PERSONAL RULE OF CHARLES I, 1629-1640 A.D.

Charles signed the Petition, as the only means of securing parliamentary consent to taxation; but he had no intention of observing it. For the next eleven years he managed to govern without calling Parliament in session. The conduct of affairs during this period lay largely in the hands of Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards earl of Strafford, and William Laud, who later became archbishop of Canterbury. The king made these two men his principal advisers and through them carried on his despotic rule. Arbitrary courts, which tried cases without a jury, punished those who resisted the royal will. A rigid censorship of the press prevented any expression of popular discontent. Public meetings were suppressed as seditious riots. Even private gatherings were dangerous, for the king had swarms of spies to report any disloyal acts or utterances.

JOHN HAMPDEN AND "SHIP-MONEY"

Since Charles ruled without a Parliament, he had to adopt all sorts of devices to fill his treasury. One of these was the levying of "ship- money." According to an old custom, seaboard towns and counties had been required to provide ships or money for the royal navy. Charles revived this custom and extended it to towns and counties lying inland. It seemed clear that the king meant to impose a permanent tax on all England without the assent of Parliament. The demand for "ship-money" aroused much opposition, and John Hampden, a wealthy squire of Buckinghamshire, refused to pay the twenty shillings levied on his estate. Hampden was tried before a court of the royal judges and was convicted by a bare majority. He became, however, the hero of the hour. The England people recognized in him one who had dared, for the sake of principle, to protest against the king's despotic rule.



LAUD'S ECCLESIASTICAL POLICY

Archbishop Laud, the king's chief agent in ecclesiastical matters, detested Puritanism and aimed to root it out from the Church of England. He put no Puritans to death, but he sanctioned cruel punishments of those who would not conform to the established Church. All that the dungeon and the pillory, mutilation and loss of position, could do to break their will was done. While the restrictions on Puritans were increased, those affecting Roman Catholics were relaxed. Many people thought that Charles, through Laud and the bishops, was preparing to lead the Church of England back to Rome. They therefore opposed the king on religious grounds, as well as for political reasons.



THE LONG PARLIAMENT, 1640 A.D.

But the personal rule of Charles was now drawing to an end. In 1637 A.D. the king, supported by Archbishop Laud, tried The Long to introduce a modified form of the English prayer book into Scotland. The Scotch, Presbyterian [21] to the core, drew up a national oath, or Covenant, by which they bound themselves to resist any attempt to change their religion. Rebellion quickly passed into open war, and the Covenanters invaded northern England. Charles, helpless, with a seditious army and an empty treasury, had to summon Parliament in session. It met in 1640 A.D. and did not formally dissolve till twenty years later. Hence it has received the name of the Long Parliament.



REFORMS OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT

The Long Parliament no sooner assembled than it assumed the conduct of government. The leaders, including John Hampden, John Pym, and Oliver Cromwell, openly declared that the House of Commons, and not the king, possessed supreme authority in the state. Parliament began by executing Strafford and subsequently Laud, thus emphasizing the responsibility of ministers to Parliament. Next, it abolished Star Chamber and other special courts, which had become engines of royal oppression. It forbade the levying of "ship-money" and other irregular taxes. It took away the king's right of dissolving Parliament at his pleasure and ordered that at least one parliamentary session should be held every three years. These measures stripped the crown of the despotic powers acquired by the Tudors and the Stuarts.

246. OLIVER CROMWELL AND THE CIVIL WAR, 1642-1649 A.D.

OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT REBELLION, 1642 A.D.

Thus far, the Long Parliament had acted along the line of reformation rather than revolution. Had Charles been content to accept the new arrangements, there would have been little more trouble. But the proud and imperious king was only watching his chance to strike a blow at Parliament. Taking advantage of some differences in opinion among its members, Charles summoned his soldiers, marched to Westminister, and demanded the surrender of five leaders, including Pym and Hampden. Warned in time, they made their escape, and Charles did not find them in the chamber of the Commons. "Well, I see all the birds are flown," he exclaimed, and walked out baffled. The king's attempt to intimidate the Commons was a great blunder. It showed beyond doubt that he would resort to force, rather than bend his neck to Parliament. Both Charles and Parliament now began to gather troops and prepare for the inevitable conflict.

"CAVALIERS" AND "ROUND-HEADS"

The opposing parties seemed to be very evenly matched. Around the king rallied nearly all of the nobles, the Anglican clergy, the Roman Catholics, a majority of the "squires," or country gentry, and the members of the universities. The royalists received the name of "Cavaliers." The parliamentarians, or "Roundheads," [22] were mostly recruited from the trading classes in the towns and the small landowners in the country. The working people remained as a rule indifferent and took little part in the struggle.



OLIVER CROMWELL, 1599-1658 A.D.

Both Pym and Hampden died in the second year of the war, and henceforth the leadership of the parliamentary party fell to Oliver Cromwell. He was a country gentleman from the east of England, and Hampden's cousin. Cromwell represented the university of Cambridge in the Long Parliament and displayed there great audacity in opposing the government. An unfriendly critic at this time describes "his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp and untuneable, and his eloquence full of fervor." Though a zealous Puritan, who believed himself in all sincerity to be the chosen agent of the Lord, Cromwell was not an ascetic. He hunted, hawked, played bowls, and other games, had an ear for music, and valued art and learning. In public life he showed himself a statesman of much insight and a military genius.

THE "IRONSIDES" AND THE "NEW MODEL"

At the outset of the war fortune favored the royalists, until Cromwell took the field. To him was due the formation of a cavalry regiment of "honest, sober Christians," whose watchwords were texts from Scripture and who charged in battle while singing psalms. These "Ironsides," as Cromwell said, "had the fear of God before them and made some conscience of what they did." They were so successful that Parliament permitted Cromwell to reorganize a large part of the army into the "New Model," a body of professional, highly disciplined soldiers. The "New Model" defeated Charles decisively at the battle of Naseby, near the center of England (1645 A.D.). Charles then surrendered to the Scotch, who soon turned him over to Parliament.

PRESYBTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS

The surrender of the king ended the Great Rebellion, but left the political situation in doubt. By this time the Puritans had divided into two rival parties. The Presbyterians wished to make the Church of England, like that of Scotland, Presbyterian in faith and worship. Through their control of Parliament, they were able to pass acts doing away with bishops, forbidding the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and requiring every one to accept Presbyterian doctrines. The other Puritan party, known as the Independents, [23] felt that religious beliefs should not be a matter of compulsion. They rejected both Anglicanism and Presbyterianism and desired to set up churches of their own, where they might worship as seemed to them right. The Independents had the powerful backing of Cromwell and the "New Model," so that the stage was set for a quarrel between Parliament and the army.

"PRIDE'S PURGE," 1648 A.D.

King Charles, though a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, hoped to find profit in their divisions. The Presbyterian majority in the House of Commons was willing to restore the king, provided he would give his assent to the establishment of Presbyterianism in England. But the army wanted no reconciliation with the captive monarch and at length took matters into its own hand. A party of soldiers, under the command of a Colonel Pride, excluded the Presbyterian members from the floor of the House, leaving the Independents alone to conduct the government. This action is known as "Pride's Purge." Cromwell approved of it, and from this time he became the real ruler of England.



EXECUTION OF CHARLES I, 1649 A.D.

The "Rump Parliament," as the remnant of the House of Commons was called, immediately brought the king before a High Court of Justice composed of his bitterest enemies. He refused to acknowledge the right of the court to try him and made no defense whatever. Charles was speedily convicted and sentenced to be beheaded, "as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good of the people." He met death with quiet dignity and courage on a scaffold erected in front of Whitehall Palace in London. The king's execution went far beyond the wishes of most Englishmen; "cruel necessity" formed its only justification; but it established once for all in England the principle that rulers are responsible to their subjects.

247. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE, 1649-1660 A.D.

ENGLAND A REPUBLIC

Shortly after the execution of Charles I the "Rump Parliament" abolished the House of Lords and the office of king. It named a Council of State, most of whose members were chosen from the House of Commons, to carry on the government. England now became a commonwealth, or national republic, the first in the history of the world. It is clear that this republic was the creation of a minority. The Anglicans, the Presbyterians, and the Roman Catholics were willing to restore the monarchy, but as long as the power lay with the army, the small sect of Independents could impose its will on the great majority of the English people.

SUBJECTION OF IRELAND

Besides confusion and discontent at home, many dangers confronted the Commonwealth abroad. In both Ireland and Scotland Prince Charles, the oldest son of the dead sovereign, had been proclaimed king. But Cromwell rose to the emergency. Invading Ireland with his trained soldiers, he captured town after town, slaughtered many royalists, and shipped many more to the West Indies as slaves. This time Ireland was completely subdued, at a cost, from fighting, famine, and pestilence, of the lives of a third of its population. Cromwell confiscated the land of those who had supported the royalist cause and planted colonies of English Protestants in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster. The Roman Catholic gentry were compelled to remove beyond the Shannon River to unfruitful Connaught. Even there the public exercise of their religion was forbidden them. Cromwell's harsh measures brought peace to Ireland, but only intensified the hatred felt by Irish Roman Catholics for Protestant England. [24]

SCOTLAND SUBDUED

While Cromwell was still in Ireland, Prince Charles, who had been living as an exile at the French court, came to Scotland. On his promise to be a Presbyterian king the whole nation agreed to support him. Cromwell, in two pitched battles, broke up the Scotch armies and compelled Prince Charles to seek safety in flight. After thrilling adventures the prince managed to reach his asylum in France. Cromwell treated the Scotch with leniency, but took away their Parliament and united their country with England in a single state.



DISSOLUTION OF THE "RUMP PARLIAMENT," 1653 A.D.

Meanwhile, the "Rump Parliament" had become more and more unpopular. The army, which had saved England from Stuart despotism, did not relish the spectacle of a small group of men, many of them selfish and corrupt, presuming to govern the country Cromwell found them "horridly arbitrary" and at last resolved to have done with them. He entered the House of Commons with a band of musketeers and ordered the members home. "Come, come," he cried, "I will put an end to your prating. You are no Parliament, I say you are no Parliament. I will put an end to your sitting." Another Parliament, chosen by Cromwell and the army, proved equally incapable. After a few months' rule it resigned its authority into the hands of Cromwell.



THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT

By force of circumstances Cromwell had become a virtual dictator, but he had no love of absolute power. He therefore accepted a so-called Instrument of Government, drawn up by some of his officers. It provided that Cromwell should be Lord Protector for life, with the assistance of a council and a Parliament. The Instrument is notable as the first written constitution of a modern nation. It is the only one which England has ever had.

CROMWELL AS LORD PROTECTOR, 1653-1658 A.D.

As Lord Protector in name, though a king in fact, Cromwell ruled England for five years. He got along with Parliament no better than the Stuarts had done, but his successful conduct of foreign affairs gave England an importance in the councils of Europe which it had not enjoyed since the time of Elizabeth. Cromwell died in 1658 A.D. Two years later the nation, weary of military rule, restored Charles II to the throne of his ancestors.

THE PURITAN REVOLUTION

It seemed, indeed, as if the Puritan Revolution had been a complete failure. But this was hardly true. The revolution arrested the growth of absolutism in England. It created among Englishmen a lasting hostility to absolute power, whether exercised by King, Parliament, Protector, or army. And, furthermore, it sent forth into the world ideas of political liberty, which, during the eighteenth century, helped to produce the American and French revolutions.

248. THE RESTORATION AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION," 1660-1689 A.D.

REIGN OF CHARLES II, 1660-1685 A.D.

Charles II, on mounting the throne, pledged himself to maintain Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and other statutes limiting the royal power. The people of England wished to be governed by the king, but they also wished that the king should govern by the advice of Parliament. Charles, less obstinate and more astute than his father, recognized this fact, and, when a conflict threatened with his ministers or Parliament, always avoided it by timely concessions. Whatever happened, he used to say, he was resolved "never to set on his travels again." Charles's charm of manner, wit, and genial humor made him a popular monarch, in spite of his grave faults of character. One of his own courtiers well described him as a king who "never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one."

REACTION AGAINST PURITANISM

The period of the Restoration was characterized by a reaction against the austere scheme of life which the Puritans had imposed on society. Puritanism not only deprived the people of evil pleasures, such as bear- baiting, Cock-fighting, and tippling, but it also prohibited the Sunday dances and games, the village festivals, and the popular drama. When Puritanism disappeared, the people went to the opposite extreme and cast off all restraint. In this the king, who had lived long at the gay court of Louis XIV, set the example. England was nevermore merry and never less moral than under its "Merry Monarch."



THE DISSENTERS

The Restoration brought back the Church of England, together with the Stuarts. Parliament, more intolerant than the king, passed an Act of Uniformity, which made the use of the Book of Common Prayer compulsory and required all ministers to express their consent to everything contained in it. Nearly two thousand clergymen resigned their positions rather than obey the act. Among them were found Presbyterians, Independents (or Congregationalists), Baptists, and Quakers. These Puritans, since they did not accept the national Church, were henceforth classed as Dissenters. [25] They might not hold meetings for worship, or teach in schools, or accept any public office. For many years the Dissenters had to endure harsh persecution.

HABEAS CORPUS ACT, 1679 A.D.

One of the most important events belonging to the reign of Charles II was the passage by Parliament of the Habeas Corpus Act. The writ of habeas corpus [26] is an order, issued by a judge, requiring a person held in custody to be brought before the court. If upon examination there appears to be good reason for keeping the prisoner, he is to be remanded for trial; otherwise he is to be freed or released on bail. This writ had been long used in England, and one of the clauses of Magna Carta expressly provided against arbitrary imprisonment. It had always been possible, however, for the king or his ministers to order the arrest of a person considered dangerous to the state, without making any formal charge against him. The Habeas Corpus Act established the principle that every man, not charged with or convicted of a known crime, is entitled to personal freedom. Most of the British possessions where the Common law prevails have accepted the act, and it has been adopted by the federal and state legislatures of the United States.



WHIGS AND TORIES

The reign of Charles II also saw the beginning of the modern party system in Parliament. Two opposing parties took shape, very largely out of a religious controversy. The king, from his long life in France, had become partial to Roman Catholicism, though he did not formally embrace that faith until at the moment of death. His brother James, the heir to the throne, became an open Roman Catholic, however, much to the disgust of many members of Parliament. A bill was now brought forward to exclude Prince James from the succession, because of his conversion. Its supporters received the nickname of Whigs, while those who opposed it were called Tories. [27] The bill did not pass the House of Lords, but the two parties in Parliament continued to divide on other questions. They survive to-day as the Liberals and the Conservatives, and still dispute the government of England between them.

REIGN OF JAMES II, 1685-1688 A.D.

James II was without the attractive personality which had made his brother a popular ruler; moreover, he was an avowed Roman Catholic and a staunch believer in the divine right of kings. During his three years' reign, James managed to make enemies of most of his Protestant subjects. He "suspended" the laws against Roman Catholics and appointed them to positions of authority and influence. James also dismissed Parliament and supported himself with subsidies from Louis XIV. At last a number of Whig and Tory leaders, representing both parties in Parliament, invited that sturdy Protestant, William of Orange, [28] to rescue England from Stuart absolutism.

ACCESSION OF WILLIAM AND MARY, 1689 A.D.

William landed in England with a small army and marched unopposed to London. The wretched king, deserted by his courtiers and his soldiers, soon found himself Harness alone. He fled to France, where he lived the remainder of his days as a pensioner at the court of Louis XIV. Parliament granted the throne conjointly to William and Mary, William to rule during his lifetime and Mary to have the succession, should she survive him.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS

In settling the crown on William and Mary, Parliament took care to safeguard its own authority and the of Protestant religion. It enacted the Bill of Rights, which has a place by the side of Magna Carta and the Petition of Right among the great documents of English constitutional history. This act decreed that the sovereign must henceforth be a member of the Anglican Church. It forbade the sovereign to "suspend" the operation of the laws, or to levy money or maintain a standing army except by consent of Parliament. It also declared that election of members of Parliament ought to be free; that they ought to enjoy freedom of speech and action within the two Houses; and that excessive bail ought not to be required, or excessive fines imposed, or cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Finally, it affirmed the right of subjects to petition the sovereign and ordered the holding of frequent Parliaments. These were not new principles of political liberty, but now the English people were strong enough not only to assert, but also to uphold them. They reappear in the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

THE TOLERATION ACT

At this time, also, England took an important step in the direction of religious liberty. Parliament passed a Toleration Act, conceding to the Dissenters the right of worship, though not the right of holding any civil or military office. The Dissenters might now serve their God as they pleased, without fear of persecution. Unitarians and Roman Catholics, as well as Jews, were expressly excluded from the benefits of the act. The passage of this measure did much to remove religion from English politics as a vital issue.