TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



TT is unnecessary for me to say more than a very few 
words in introducing this work, by the late eminent 
German historian, Professor Hausser, to English readers. 
It contains not only a spirited sketch of the history of the 
Reformation in Germany, Switzerland, France, Denmark, 
Sweden and England, but also gives a comprehensive 
survey of its influence on the course of thought and action 
during the period of which it treats, and offers, in a compact 
form, information which has otherwise to be sought for over 
a wide field of literature. It is hoped, therefore, that it 
will be no less interesting to English than to German 
readers ; that it will be found not merely to traverse well- 
trodden ground, but that, from its comprehensiveness, and 
the learning, impartiality, and insight of the author, it will 
prove a valuable addition to the history of the Reformation 
period. It is translated with the sanction of the Editor. 

Sydenham, J'une, 1873. 



PREFACE. 



'X'HIS history of the period from 1517-1648 forms part 
of a course of lectures on the history of the three 
centuries, 15 17-1789, which Hausser used to deliver at 
Heidelberg in the winter, and which, during the winter 
half-year 1859-60, 1 took down in shorthand. 

They were preceded by an Introduction, which treated in 
broad outline the history of the period preceding the 
Reformation ; but, unfortunately, I did not take it down. 
This was followed by a brief review of the history of the 
European States from 1648-1789. Nothing has been decided 
as to the publication of this ; but among Hausser's remains 
there are ample materials for working it up. 

The text which I now give to the public has originated in 
essentially the same manner as that of the history of the 
French Revolution which appeared last year, and which has 
been received by the German press with unanimous ap- 
proval. But in this case my MS. has had to form still more 
exclusively the groundwork of the narrative ; for not a single 
MS. has come to hand in answer to a public appeal ; and 
in consequence of the scanty material left, I have been 
compelled to have independent recourse to the literature 
referred to, to a far greater extent than was necessary in 
the former case. There was full material for three sec- 
tions only, and these could not be adopted unaltered : for 



VI PREFACE. 

Philip of Hesse, Maurice of Saxony, and the Thirty Years' 
War, 1632-48, which had only been cursorily treated in the 
lectures. With these exceptions, for all the other sections 
that were wanting in completeness I was obliged to refer to 
the most important sources and materials. Such supple- 
mentary matter is introduced in many places in order to 
complete characteristic descriptions and narratives by adding 
specially distinctive features, serving to authenticate the 
statements in the text ; but it is only in the most important 
cases that they are indicated by notes. Besides frequent 
interpolations, which I could not specially indicate, most of 
the passages in quotation marks have been inserted by me. 
I need not say that my additions are not derived from the 
views or judgments of foreign historians, but always from 
original contemporary testimony. As a whole and in detail, 
all that has been aimed at is what Hausser would himself 
have done could he have prepared a text for publication. 

I lay claim to the predicate of a verbatim reproduction 
of these lectures, as in the case of the history of the French 
Revolution. I have proceeded precisely in the same way 
in preparing them for publication, and have received express 
and ample testimony from many former hearers of Hausser 
that I have succeeded in finding the right method. Neverthe- 
less, I must remind those who have never undertaken a 
similar task, of the great difference between words heard 
and read. For this difference, with which a speaker is 
perfectly familiar, and which is especially striking when 
there is a gift for improvisation, the shorthand writer must 
have a practised eye. In most cases it is indispensable 
to give a certain finish in the choice of words and con- 
struction of sentences in preparing for the press. If the 
speaker does not give it himself, the shorthand writer must 
take it in hand, and must be guided by tact. No rules 



PREFACE. 

Vl l 



ZT ,M C ' OT ™' bl " * " nM "*— «T 'o ca„ attention 

on^y s ho S ut USneSS ° f ' he Sreat ™V°™ b ^y which rested 
on my shoulders occasioned me to plead, in the preface .„ 
*e h, s , f , ch ^ ^ a ^a to 

ment I repeat the m g 

for I judge with pleasure from the an- „ ■ .• Me " Ce > 

the m™, .„• . appreciative notices of 

Z« ^ T ° rganS ° f ° Ur PreSS > that «<« which I 
proffered before was not made in vain 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY T^ 
THE TREATY OF NUREMBERG, 1532. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGB 

Martin Luther. November, 1483, to February, 1546. — Youth. — 

Eisleben. — Mansfeld. — Magdeburg.— Eisenach.— Life in the 
Monastery at Erfurt. — Theological Development. — Justifica- 
tion by Faith I 



CHAPTER II. 
1508— 1520. 

Call to Wittenberg, 1508. — Journey to Rome, 1510. — The Indul- 
gence of 1517. — Attempts of Leo. X. (elected Pope 1513) at 
Mediation. — Cajetan atthe Diet of Augsburg, October, 1518. — 
Miltitz's Discussion with Luther at Altenburg, 15 19. — Dispu- 
tation at Leipzig, 27th June — 13th July, 1519. — The Turning- 
point with Luther 1 j 

CHAPTER III. 

The Last Days of Maximilian I., January, 1519. — Election of a 
new Emperor. — Francis I. of France and Charles V. of Spain. 
— Political Position of the Emperor Charles V. — The Election 
in June. — The Election Bond, 3rd July, 1 519. . . • *9 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MM 

The Diet of Worms, Spring of 1521. — Agreement between the 
Emperor and the Pope. — Negotiations about Luther. — The 
Mandate of 8th — 26th May, 1521. — Growth of the Regal 
Power in France under Francis I., 1515-47. — His Domestic 
and Foreign Policy. — The First War, 1521-26 . . • 42 



CHAPTER V. 

The Situation of Germany during the absence of Charles V. — 
Luther in the Wartbur^. — The Translation of the Bible and 
its Significance. — Lulher and the Radicals at Wittenberg. — 
The Eight Sermons against Carlstadt, March, 1522. — Luther's 
cause before the Imperial Chamber and the Diet of Nurem- 
berg, 1522-23. — The Resolution of January 13th, 1523. — The 
One Hundred Gravamina. — The Decree about the Preaching 
oi the Gospel. 60 



CHAPTER VI. 

Reform and Revolution. — The Nobles of the Empire. — Ulrich 
von Huttcu, 1488-1523. — Franz von Sickingen, the Feud of 
1522, and the Catastrophe of 1523. — Reaction upon the 
Ref-- .nation. — Activity of the Curia. — Adrian VI., January, 
.322, to September, 1523. — Clement VII., September, 1534. 
The Convention of Ratisbon, July, 1524 . . . . 72 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Great Peasants' War, 1524-5. — The increasing Oppression of 
the Peasantry. — The Prelude to the Peasants' War in 1514. 
— Influence of the Reformation. — The Twelve Articles. — The 
Heilbronn Scheme. — Thomas Miinzer. — Luther's Attitude. — 
The Catastrophe, May and June, 1525 . . . . .91 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Reaction of the Revolution upon the Reformation. — Charles V. 
and the Peace of Madrid. — The Diet of Spire, August, 1526. — 
Spread of the Reformation. — Its share in the National Dis- 
ruption. — The New War in Italy. — The League of Cognac, 
May, 1526. — The Storming oi Rome by the Imperial Troops, 
1527.— Advance of the French to Naples, and Dissolution of 
their Army there, 1528. — Peace of Barcelona and Cambray, 
1529. — The League between the Pope, the Emperor, and the 
King against the Heretics ..,,., 106 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Reaction of Italian Affairs upon Germany. — Aggravation of the 
State oi Affairs by Otto von Pack. — Altered Relation of 
Parties. — The Diet of Spire and the Protest of the Lutheran 
Party, April, 1529. — The Turks before Vienna, 1529. — Diet 
of Augsburg and the Confession of Augsburg, June 25th, 
1530. — Threats against the Protestants ; their first Meeting 
and League at Schmalkald, December, 1530 — March, 1531. — 
Danger from the Turks, and the Religious Peace of Nurem- 
berg, July 23rd, 153a ........ 113 



PART II. 

THE REFORMATION IN THE OTHER GERMANIC 

STATES; IN SWITZERLAND, DENMARK, 

SWEDEN, AND ENGLAND. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

Early Life and Mental Development of Ulrich Zwingli, 1484- 
1519. — Study of the Classics. — Curate at Glarus, 1506-16. — 
Study of the New Testament. — Sermon against the Desertion 
of their Country by the Swiss. — Labours at Einsiedeln, 
1516-18. — Call to Zurich. — The Reformation at Zurich, 1519- 
25. — Zwingli's Sermons in the Great Cathedral. — Decree of 
the Council of 1520. — The Sixty-seven Articles of 1523. — 
Progress of Reform. — Reformed Zurich and Switzerland in 
1526-31 iaj 

CHAPTER XI. 



The Period between the Union of Calmar, 1397, and the Reforma- 
tion. — Position of the Danish Monarchy. — Policy and Cha- 
racter of Christian IL, 1513-23.— Complications with Sweden. 
— The Massacre of Stockholm, November, 1520. — Course of 
Reform in Denmark. — Revolt of the Nobles. — Election of 
Frederic I., April, 1523-33.— His Domestic and Foreign 
Policy.— The Diet at Odensee, 1527, and Toleration of the 
New Doctrines. — Complete Victory of the Reformation under 
Christian HI., 1534-59 14J 



Xli CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 

SWEDEN. 

Ml 

The Revolt under Gustavus Vasa, 1523-60 — His Character and 
Policy. — 1521 Regent, 1523 King of Sweden. — Internal and 
external Embarrassment of his Position. — Struggle with the 
Clergy. — Decree of the Diet of Westeras, 1527. — The Refor- 
mation. — Extension of the Royal Power. — Independence and 
internal Prosperity of the Country 153 

CHAPTER XIII. 

ENGLAND. 

England before the Tudors — Henry VIII., 1509-1547. — His Cha- 
racter and Attitude at first towards the Church. — Hi~ Oppo- 
sition to the Reformation which was demanded by the Mental 
Development of the Nation. — The Complications with Rome. 
-••Tbe Marriage Question, 1526-29. — Wolsey's Fall. — 
Breach with Rome. — The Royal Supremacy, 1534. — The 
Religious War against Catholics and Protestants. — The Secu- 
larisation of Monasteries. — The Six Articles of 1593 . . 163 



PART III. 

THE GERMAN REFORMATION FROM THE PEACE 

OF NUREMBERG TO THE PEACE OF 

AUGSBURG, I532—55- 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Favourable Circumstances for the Reformation from 1532-42. — 
The Restoration in Wiirtemberg, 1534. — Spread of the new 
Doctrines in spite of the Excesses at Miinster and the Revo- 
lution at Lubeck, 1533-35. — The Emperor's Attempts at 
Conciliation, 1537-41. — His View of the Question. — Instruc- 
tions and Proceedings of Vice-Chancellor Held. — The League 
of Nuremberg, June, 1538. — The Discussion of Religion, the 
Interim of Ratisbon, and the Decree of the Diet, July 29th, 
1541. — Decided Progress of Protestantism, 1538-42. — Adop- 
tion of it by Brandenburg and the Duchy of Saxony, 1539. — 
Interference of the League of Schmalkald and the Contro- 
versy at Cologne ...» 179 



CONTENTS. X1U 

CHAPTER XV. 

.MM 

The Schmalkald War, 1546-7. — The Emperor's Preparations for 
War after 1544.— Security, Dissensions, and Negligence of 
the Schmalkald Party, 1545-6. — Duke Maurice of Saxony, 
his Character and Policy. — League with the Emperor, June, 
1546. — The War, from the summer of 1546 to the spring of 
1547. — Pitiful Warfare of the Allies on the Danube. — Inva- 
sion of Electoral Saxony by Maurice. — Battle of Muhlberg, 
24th April, 1547 • • . 196 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Interim and Restoration, 1548. — The Council of Trent from 13th 
of December, 1545, and the Diet of Augsburg from Septem- 
ber. 1547 "S 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Maurice and the Conspiracy of the German Princes. — Isolation of 
the Elector among both Catholics and Protestants. — The 
Negotiations with France. — The Coalition against the Em- 
peror. — Treaty with France, and Surprise of the Emperor, 
1551-2. — Treaty of Chambord, January, 1552. — March of the 
Allies, March, 1552. — Security and Defiance of the Emperor. 
— Taking of the Ehrenberger Klause, May, 1552. — Charles's 
Flight. — The Treaty of Passau and the Peace of Augsburg, 
August, 1552 — September, 1555. — Charles's Retreat and Last 
Days. — General Results of the Reformation in Germany . ss6 



PART IV. 

CALVINISM AND THE BEGINNING OF CATHOLIC 
RESTORATION. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Calvin's Youth. — Characteristics of the Man and his System. — 
The " Institutio Religionis ChristiansB," 1536. — Calvin's 
Ecclesiastical State in Geneva. — The Attempt, 1536-8. — 
Success, 1541-64. — The Organization of January, 1542. — 
Ecclesiastical and Moral Discipline of Calvinism, and its 
Historical Importance ........ 241 



XTV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MM 

Reformation and Restoration in Italy. — Division of Opinion 
among the People.— Vacillation oi the Curia. — Opinion of the 
Cardinals on Reform in 1537. — Conciliatory Attitude till 
1541. — The Council of Trent and the Catholic Restoration. — 
First Meeting of the Council, December, 1545-7. — Rudeness 
of the Curia to the Emperor and Protestants. — Second Meet- 
ing, May, 1551. — Pope Paul IV. (Caraffa), 1555-9. Third 
Meeting, January, 1562, to the end of 1563. — Pope Pius IV., 
1559-65. — Progress and Results of the Negotiation. — In- 
creased Consolidation ot the Ecclesiastical Power. — Precau- 
tions against Sectarianism. — Reconstruction of the shattered 
Religious System. — Improvement in the Intellectual and 
Moral Training of the Clergy. •••••• 256 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE JESUITS AND THE INQUISITION. 

Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus. — Spanish Catholicism. 
— Loyola's Spiritual Knighthood, from 1521. — Organization 
of the Order, from the time of its Authorisation, 1540. — Its 
Constitution, Principles, Discipline, and Tactics. — The Inqui- 
sition. — The Instructions of Cardinal Caraffa. — Censorship of 
the Press • « 65 



PART V. 

PHILIP H. IN SPAIN, AND THE REVOLT IN THE 
NETHERLANDS. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

SPAIN UNDER CHARLES V. AND PHILIP II. 

The Ecclesiastical-political Plans of Philip, 1565-98.— The Abso- 
lute Monarchy in Spain under Charles V.— Philip's Inherit- 
ance.— His Character.— Amalgamation of Spiritual and 
Temporal Despotism in Spain a 7* 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE REVOLT IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

PAOI 

History, Government, Country, and People of the; Seventeen Pro- 
vinces before Philip II. — Philip's Policy in the Netherlands 
after November, 1555. — The Regency and the Aristocracy : 
Orange, Egmont, Margaret of Parma, Bishop Perrenot 
(Granvella). — The Spanish Troops. — The Increase of Bishop- 
rics. — The Inquisition in the Netherlands. — Tactics of Charles 
V. — The Renewal of the Edict of 1550. — Granvella's Re- 
moval, 1564. — Egmont's Journey and the Compromise, 
January, 1565. — Spring of 1566. — The Beggars' League. — 
The Field-preaching and Attack upon Images, April to 
August, 1566. — Defeat of the Volunteer Army of the Beggars 
at Anstruveel, March, 1567. — The Departure of William of 
Orange from the Netherlands, April, 1567 .... 285 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Duke of Alba in the Netherlands. — His Entry into the 
Country.— Alba 's Characteristics. — Disappointment of the 
Regent. — Guilelessness of Egmont and Horn. — Their Impri- 
sonment, 9th of September. — The Council of Disturbances.— 
Executions, and the First War of Independence, 1567-8. — 
Members, System, and Proceedings of the Council of Blood. 
Louis of Nassau in Friesland, April — July, 1568. — Success at 
Heiliger Lee in May. — Death of Egmont and Horn, 5th of 
June. — Alba's Victory, July. — Advance of Orange and Dis- 
solution of his Army, October. — Highest Point and Decline of 
Alba's System, 1569-73.-^6" 10th Penny" March, 1569. 
— The "Amnesty," 14th July, 1570.— The Sea-Beggars at 
Brill, 1st April, 1572. — Louis of Nassau at Mons, May. — The 
Rising in Holland and Zealand.- -Second Campaign of Wil- 
liam of Orange frustrated by the Massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew. — Alba's Retreat, December, 1573 313 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

ALBA'S SUCCESSORS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Character of the War which now began. — Requesens y Zuniga, 
1573—76. — Defeat and Death of Louis of Nassau on the 
Mooker Haide, 14th of April, 1574. — Siege and Succour of 
Leyden, 26th of May to 3rd of October, 1574. — Separation 
between the Northern and Southern Provinces. — The Inter- 
regnum. — The Great Mutiny of the Soldiers.— The Pacifica- 
tion of Ghent, 8th of November, 1576-78. — Alexander 
Farnese, Prince of Parma, 1587-89.— The Union of Utrecht, 
January, 1579, and Declaration of Independence of the Seven 
Northern Provinces, July, 1581.— Murder of William, July 

»o, l $H . '. 339 



XTi CONTENTS. 



PART VI. 



THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE, UNTIL THE 
RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOM BY HENRY TV. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

FAST 

The last War with Spain and England, 1557-9. — Defeat at St. 

Quentin, 1557, and Gravelingen, 1558. — Taking of Calais, 
Peace of Cateau Cambrasis, 3rd April, 1559. — Catharine de 
Medici and the Government of the Guises. — French Protes- 
tantism m Conflict with the State. — The Clergy, Humanism, 
the Sorbonne and Parliament. — First Agitation of the New 
Doctrines. — Persecution of the Heretics after 1552. — The 
Aristocracy and the Princes of the Blood attacked by Cal- 
vinism. — The Conspiracy of Amboise, March, 1 560. — Crisis 
and Change after the Death of King Francis II., 5th Decem- 
ber, 1560. — Successes of Protestantism, 1559. — La R6- 
naudie's Project. — Conde's Trial. — Catharine de Medici as 
Regent 345 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

CHARLES IX., I56O-74, AND THE HUGUENOTS, UNTIL 157a 

The First Compromise with the Reform Party. — The States of 
the Empire at Orleans, 1560-61. — The Discussion on Reli- 
gion at Poissy, Autumn of 156 1. — The Edict of 17th January, 
1562. — The Three First Religious Wars, 1562-70.— The 
Massacre at Vassy, March, 1562. — Character of the Civil 
War.— The First Religious War.— Battle of St. Dreux, De- 
cember, 1562. — Edict of Amboise, March, 1563. — The Second 
Religious War, 1567-8. — The Edict of Longjumeaux, March, 
1568.— The Third Religious War, 1569-70. — Victories of 
the Catholics at Jarnac and Moncontour. — Religious Peace 
of St. Germain-en-Laye, August, 1570. — Character of 
Charles IX 35', 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 



Coligny at Court, and the War with Spain, September, 1571 — 
July, 1572. — The Massacre, 24th Angust, 1572, and the 
Fourth Religious War, 1572-3.— End of Charier IX., 30th 
May. 1574 366 



CONTENTS. XVI i 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

HENRY III., I574-89, AND THE LEAGUE. 

pa«s 

Character of Henry. — The Edict of May, 1576, ani 3 . uie Holy 
League of the Guises. — Protracted Vacillation. — Death of 
Francis of Anjou, June, 1584, and Contest about the Suc- 
cession. — The War of the Three Henrys, 1588-9. — The 
Barricades of Paris, May, 1588. — The States at Blois, October, 
1588, and the Murder of the Two Guises, 23rd and 24th 
December, 1588. — Flight and Murder of Henry III., August 
2nd, 1589 375 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

HENRY IV., 1589-16IC 

Character of Henry IV. — His Struggle for the Crown, 1789-93. — 
Dissolution ol the Opposing Party. — Charles of Mayenne, the 
Parisian Demagogues, Plans of Philip II. — Henry's Conver- 
sion to Catholicism ; Motives for and Consequences of this 
Step. — Henry's Administration, 1594-1610. — Peace of Ver- 
vins, May, 1598. — Edict of Nantes, 1598. — Sully's Adminis- 
tration. — Plan of a Great Protestant Alliance against Spanish 
Hapsburg. — Henry's Murder, by Ravaillac, 14th May, 1610 . 382 



PART VII. 



THE GERMAN EMPIRE, FROM THE PEACE OF AUGS- 
BURG TO THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1555-1618. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

GENERAL SITUATION OF GERMANY AFTER 1 555. 

Impotence of the Empire. — Continuance of the Contest of the 

Creeds ........... 402 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

PROTESTANTISM IN AUSTRIA. 

Ferdinand I., 1558-64. — Maximilian II., 1564-76. — Rudolph II., 
1576-1612. — The Bohemian Royal Charter (Majestatsbrief), 
1609. — Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and the Imperial City of 
Donauworth, 1606-7. — The Protestant Union, 1608, and the 
Catholic League, 1609. — Matthias, 1612-19 .... 407 
b 



xviii CONTENTS. 



PART VIII. 

FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.— THE 
BOHEMIAN, PALATINATE, AND DANISH WARS, 
1620-29. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

MAI 

First Acts of Ferdinand II., from March, 1619. — His Character 
and Education. — Beginning of his Reign in Revolutionary 
Austria. — Election of Emperor, August, 1619. — The Winter 
Kingdom of Frederick V., and the War in Bohemia. — The 
Battle of Weissenberg, near Prague, 8th November, 1620. — 
The Catholic Reaction in Bohemia and the Palatinate, 1621 415 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE DANISH WAR, 1625-29, AND ALBRECHT OF WALLENSTEIN. 

Change of Sentiment. — The Protestant League : England, Hol- 
land, Denmark, 1625. — Christian IV. of Denmark. — Albrecht 
von Wallenstein. — His Character. — The War of 1626-8. — 
Defeat of Mansteld at Dessau, April, 1626. — Defeat of Chris- 
tian IV. at Lutter, on the Barenberg, August, 1626. — Wallen- 
stein and Tilly in North Germany, Mecklenburg, Stralsund, 
1628. — Peace of Lubeck, May, 1629. — The Edict of Restitu- 
tion, March, 1629, and its Significance. — Machinations of. the 
League against Wallenstein. — The Meeting of Princes at 
Ratisbon. — Dismissal of Wallenstein, June, 1630 . • • 428 



PART IX. 

SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.— 
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

SWEDEN AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 

Sweden before Gustavus Adolphus. — Eric XIV., 1560-68. — 
Johr III.. 1568-92, and Charles of Siideimanland. — Charles 
as Regent, 1 592-1604. — Charles IX. as King, 1604-11. — 
Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden, 161 1-30. — Position of Affairs 
at the beginning of his Reign. — Political, Military, and Do- 
mestic Reforms. — Wars with Denmark, Russia, and Poland. 
—The Contest for the Baltic .444 



CONTENTS. XIX 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, 1630-32. 

MM 

Origin and Significance of the Swedish War. — Motives, Political 
and Religious, of Gustavus Adolphus. — Characteristics of 
him and his Army. — Their .Landing and First Successes, 
June — December, 1030. — Gustavus Adolphus in Pomerania. 
— Siege of Stettin ; Treaty with Duke Bogeslav. — Tedious 
Advance into Pomerania. — Imperial troops dnven out of 
Pomerania, December, 1630. — Treaty of Barwald, January, 
1631. — Convention of Leipzig, and Fall of Magdeburg, May, 
1631. — Electoral Brandenburg and Electoral Hesse join Gus- 
tavus Adolphus, June — August. — Battle of Breitenfeld, Sep- 
tember 7, 1631. — Victorious March of Gustavus Adolphus 
towards South and West Germany, October — December, 1631. 
— Plans for Restoration. — Overthrow ot the Power of the 
League. — Return of Wallenstein, April, ib32. — Battle of 
Lutzen, 16th November, 1632. — Death of Gustavus Adol- 
phus and its Significance 45a 



PART X. 



THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.— 
RICHELIEU, OXENSTIERNA, AND BERNHARD 
VON WEIMAR. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

MLANCE AFTER THE DEATH OF HENRY IT. 

Louis XIII., 1610-43, and Mary of Medici. — The Parliament of 
1614. — Murder of the Marshal d'Ancre, April, 1617. — The 
Duke ot Luynes. — Cardinal Richelieu, 1624-42, and Louis 
XIII. — Characteristics of both. — Richelieu's political method. 
— His testament. — His rule at home and abroad. — Fall of La 
Rochelle, 1628. — The affair in the Valteline and the War 
about Mantua, 1630 483 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

GERMANY FROM THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS TO WALLEN- 
STEIN'S CATASTROPHE. NOVEMBER, 1632 — FEBRUARY, 1634. 

Dissensions in the Swedish Camp : Oxenstierna and Bernhard of 
Weimar. — Beginning of the French Negotiations : Marquis de 



XX CONTENTS. 

PKdi 
Feuquieres. — The Treaty of Heilbronn, April 23rd, 1633. — 
Wallenstein's ambiguous conduct of the war in 1633. — Nego- 
tiations with Saxony. The letter of December 26th, 1633.— * 
The Bond of Pilsen, January 12th, 1634. — The murder a 
Eger, February 25th, 1634 ...... . 501 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE . AB. FROM THE BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN, 1634, TO BERNHARDT 
DEATH, 1639. 

Defeat of the Swedish army at Nordlingen. — Oxenstierna's iiuitiess 
negotiations. — The peace of Prague, 1635. — Its significance 
and results. — Baner's victories and vicissitudes, 1636-7. — Vic- 
tories and death of Bei-nhard of Weimar, 1638-9 . . .514 



PART XI 

END OF THE WAR.— THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

1640-48. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

BANER'S END, MAY, 164I, AND TORSTENSON'S VICTORIES, I642-5. 

Battle of Leipzig, 2nd November, 1643.— Campaign against Den- 
mark, 1643-44. — Victory near Jankowitz, February, 1645. — 
Simultaneous warfare of the French. — The Peace Negotia- 
tions and end of the War. — The Diet of Ratisbon from Sep- 
tember, 1640. — Brandenburg's Proposition of Unconditional 
Amnesty, and Restoration to the Condition of 1618. — -The 
Himburg Preliminaries, December, 1641. — The Meeting of 
Deputies at Frankfort, 1642-45. — Beginning of the Peace 
Congress and end of the War, 1644-48 537 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE PEACE Of WESTPHALIA • « 4 S4 6 



CONTENTS. XXJ 

PART XII. 

COMPLETION OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 
CHAPTER XLI. 

THI REFORMATION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH UNDE* 
EDWARD VI., I547-53. 

The inheritance of Henry VIII. — Character of the young King. — 
The first Protector, Edward, Duke of Somerset, 1549. — The 
second Protector, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumber- 
land, 1553.— Character of the Church Reform, Bible, Cate- 
chism, Book of Common Prayer, Abolition of the Mass, 
Celibacy, &c. — The Catholic reaction under Mary, 1553-8. — 
Abolition of the Ecclesiastical Laws of Edward VI., and 
first acts of revenge. — Marriage with Philip II. of Spain, 
1554.— The Question of Church Property.— Parliament and 
the Laws concerning Heresy.- The Ordeal by fire of English 
Protestantism. — The untenable position of the Government 
after the loss of Calais and the Breach of the Constitution . 560 

CHAPTER XLII. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, I558-I0O3. 

Cautious beginnings.— The Parliament of 1559 and the Re-esta- 
blishment of the Anglican Church. — Beginning of the con- 
flict with Mary Stuart. — The Reformation in Scotland, John 
Knox. — Mary Stuart in Scotland, 156 1-8. — Darnley.— Rizzio. 
— Bothwell.— Mary Stuart in England.— Attitude of Rome 
and Spain against Elizabeth.— The Conspiracies.— Norfolk, 
I 5 6 9~ I 57 2 - — Elizabeth's forced enmity towards Rome and 
Spain, 1572-85.— Conspiracy of Savage and Babington.— 
Mary Stuart's Tiial and Execution, 1586-7.— The Spanish 
Armada and Elizabeth's last days, 1603 . . . .Hi 



PART XIII. 

THE REVOLUTION AND REPUBLIC IN ENGLAND. 
CHAPTER XLIII. 

JAMES I., 1603-25. 
Character of the Monarch and unfavourable beginning of his Reign 
— Ihe Gunpowder Plot, November, 1605.— The Contests of 



XXll CONTENTS. 



162 1. — Trial of Lord Bacon of Verulam. — The Question of 
taking part in the Bohemian-Palatinate War. — The Difficulties 
of Parliament. — Ad dress of November, 162 1, and Dissolution 
of Parliament. — The Spanish Marriage Scheme. Buckingham 
and the Prince of Wales. — Change in the Policy of England. 
— The Parliament of 1624. — Death of James, April, 1625 • 6°J 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

Charles I., 1625-49. — His Character. — The first two Parliaments, 
1625-26. — The War with Spain and France. — The third and 
last Parliament.— The Petition of Right, 1628-9.— Charles I - 
without a Parliament. — The Earl of Strafford. — Archbishop 
Laud. — The Star Chamber. — The High Commission. — Ship 
Money, 1634. — John Hampden's Trial, 1637 . . • • 616 



CHAPTER XLV. 

THE TURN OF EVENTS. 

The Complications in Scotland, 1637-39. — The Tumult at Edin- 
burgh. — The Covenant, 1638. — The General Assembly at 
Glasgow, November, 1638. — The Fourth Parliament, 1640. — 
The Long Parliament. — First Measures against the Policy 
and Representatives of Strafford's System. — Indictment, 
Trial, and Execution of Strafford, May, 1641 . . . 6}i 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

OPEN BREACH BETWEEN THE KING AND PARLIAMENT. 

The King in Scotland, August, 1641. — Massacre of the Protestants 
in Ireland. — Return of Parliament in October, and the Sepa- 
ration of Parties into Cavaliers and Roundheads. — The Great 
Remonstrance, November, and the unsuccessful Coup d'Etat, 
January 3rd and 4th, 1642. — Commotions in London. — The 
First Parliamentary Army. — Departure of the King. — Return 
of Parliament, January nth, 1642 . • • • .641 



CHAPTER XLVn. 

THE CIVIL WAR. 

Prospects of both Parties. — Victories of the Royalists, October, 
1642, to September, 1643. — Interposition of the Scots. — 
Presbyterians and Independents. — Defeat of the Royalists at 
Marston Moor, July, and at Newbury, October, 1644. — 
Oliver Cromwell. — The Self-denying Ordinance . • . 6^1 



CONTENTS. XX111 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE CATASTROPHE OF CHARLES AND OF THE PARLIAMENT. 

PA«I 
Defeat of Charles at Naseby, June, 1645. — He takes refuge with 
the Scots, who sell him to the Presbyterians. — Mutiny of the 
Army against Parliament. — Abduction of the King. — March 
to London. — First Purge of Parliament, August, 1647. — The 
King's Flight to the Isle of Wight.— His Trial and Execu- 
tion, 30th January, 1649 664 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE COMMONWEALTH, WITHOUT KING OR HOUSE OF LORDS. 

Cromwell's Position after the Death of Charles I. — Parties, Re- 
public and Monarchy. — Subjugation of Ireland and Scot- 
land, 1649-51. — War with Holland. — The Navigation Act, 
October, 1651, and the Peace of April, 1654. — The Consti- 
tutional Experiments. — Dismissal of the Long Parliament. — 
The Constitution of December, 1653. — The Parliament oi 
1654-5, and the Military Government. — The Parliament of 
1656-7. — Proposal of a Monarchy. — The Upper H >use of 
January, 1658. — Cromwell's Death, 3rd September, 1658. — 
Richard Cromwell and the end of the Republic . • . €7 j 



PART I. 

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY TO 
THE TREATY OF NUREMBERG, 1532.* 



CHAPTER I. 

Martin Luther. November, 1483, to February, 1546. — Youth. — 
Eisleben. — Mansfeld. — Magdeburg. — Eisenach. — Life in the Mo- 
nastery at Erfurt. — Theological Development. — Justification by 
Faith. 

IN the state of things which existed about the year 1517, 
a trifling incident might have been the spark which 
was to set the whole nation in a flame — an insignificant man 
might have given the impetus to that which was inevitable. 
But events did not take this course ; the exciting cause was 
indeed scarcely proportionate to the results, but the indi- 

* Literature : — For the reign of Maximilian, see Miiller, Reichstag- 
theatrum. Jena, 1719; and Reichstagstaat. Jena, 1709. Datt, De 
Pace Imperii Publica. Ulm, 1698. Chmel, Urkunden zur Geschichte 
Maximilian's. Stuttg., 1845. Monurn. Habsburgica. Ed. Lanz, 1853. 
I. Fontes rer. austr. Ed. Karajan, 1855. I. Monum. Habsburg. 
Ed. Chmel, 1854, ff. i. ii. Kliipfel, Urkunden zur Geschichte des 
Schwab. Bundes. Stuttg., 1846, i. L. Ranke, Geschichte der Roman- 
ischenund GermanischenVolker von 1494- 1535. Berlin, 1824. Hege- 
wisch, Geschichte Maximilian's. Hamburg, 1782. On the Reforma- 
tion and Karl V., besides the writings of the Reformers. Luther's Werke. 
Ed. Walch, and his Letters edited by De Wette. Luther's Werke. 
Erlangen, 1826-57, 67 Bde. Melancthon's Schriften im Corpus Re- 
formatorum. Ed. Bretschneider ; then Lorscher, complete Reforma- 
tions acta. Leipzig, 1720. Hortleder, Handlungen und Ausschreiben 
^von den Ursachen des Kriegs K. Karl V. wider die Schmalkald. 
Bundesverwandten. Frankfort, 161 7. Lehman, De Pace Religionis Acta 
Publica. Frankfort, 1707. Forstemann, Urkundenbuch. Hamburg, 
1841. Sleidanus, De Statu Religionis et Reipublicae, Carole V. Csesare 
Argent, 1555. Ed. Am Ende, Frankfort, 1785. Spalatinus, Annales 
Reformat. Leipzig, 1718. The same, Chronicon bei Menken, T. ii. 



2 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

vidual whose theses were to remodel trie world was a man 
of the first class — so great, so eminent, that he was not 
engulfed in the stream of events, but struggled with them, 
guided and ruled them until his death. 

Martin Luther was completely the child of those deeply 
agitated times, and a true son of the people whose leader 
he was destined to be. He had all the traits of the true 
German character, the downright sincerity, the steady 
endurance, the deep and earnest inwardness, united with 
a tendency to mysticism, to gloomy and ascetic views of 
life, which were then peculiar to the more earnest minds 
among our people. The agonizing spiritual conflicts, the 
fierce struggles, the sharply defined contrasts of that great 
transition period can scarcely be so distinctly traced in 
the career of any other historical personage. We see his 
cheerful Thuringian nature in perpetual conflict with the 
dark results of mediaeval monasticism ; we see a childlike 
and modest disposition united with a defiant and passionate 
spirit ; together with the deep contrition, the tears and groans 
of a soul struggling for redemption, he displayed the lion- 
hearted courage of a hero of the faith, and the lenient and 
reasonable judgments he passed upon human affairs are 
often in strange contrast with the unyielding, relentless 
rigour of the monk and the priest. 

Seckendorf, Commentarius de Lutheranismo. Frankfort, 1688. Joh. 
Cochlsei, Comment, de Actis et Scriptis M. Lutheri. Mogunt, 1549 
Charles V. in particular, — Sepulveda, De Rebus Gestis, Caroli, 1657. 
Sandoval, Historia de la Vida del Emp. Carlos, 1604 ff. 2 Bde. K. 
Lanz, Correspondenz Karl's V. In the Royal Archives, &c. Leipzig, 
1844, 3 Bde. The same, State Papers of the History of Charles V. 
Stuttg., 1845. Briefe Karl's V. an seinen Beichtvater. Edited by 
Heine. Berlin, 1848. Die Urkunden sammlung von Gachard und 
Le Glay. Monumenta Habsburgica, vol. ii. 1853. Relating to Luther : 
K. Jiirgens, Leben Luther's, 1846, i. ii. hi. This part in general — 
L. Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation. Berlin, 
1853, 2 Aufl. 6 Bande. K. A. Menzel, Neuere Geschichte der Deutschen 
seit der Reformation. Breslau, 1826, ff. 6 Aufl. Berlin, 1854, 6 Bande. 
K. Hagen, Deutschlands literar, und relig. Verbiiltnisse im Reforma- 
tionszeitalter. Erl. 1841, 3 Thle. Neudecker, Geschichte der Deutschen 
Reformation. Leipzig, 1842. His Urkunden aus der Reformations- 
zeit, 1836, und Merkwiirdige Aktenstiicke, 1838, 2 Thle. Forstemann, 
Urkundenbuch zur Reform. Geschichte, 1842. Spalatins Nachlass, 
Herausg. vonNeudecke, 185 1. Strauss, D.F. Leben Ulrichs von Hutten, 
1857, 2Thler Bischof, Seb. Frankfort, 1857. Rossmann, Betrachtungen 
Uber das Zeitalter der Reformation, 1858. Gust. Pfizer, Luther's 
Leben. Stuttgard, 1836. Burkhardt, Luther's Brieft (emendation o( 
De Wette's edition), 1866. 



MARTIN LUTHER. 3 

A creative master of our language, both in writing and 
speaking, a bold yet moderate reformer, an embodiment of 
our noblest characteristics, he became a blessing to the 
whole nation. 

He was born in very narrow circumstances, on the ioth 
of November, 1483. The home of his family was at Mohra, 
near Altenstein, in Thuringia, and the name of Luther still 
occurs there. His father, a slate-cutter by trade, had emi- 
grated to the rich mining district of Eisleben to find work, and 
there Luther came into the world. The characteristics of the 
Thuringian race are strongly marked, and are clearly distin- 
guishable in him. It may be known everywhere by its sturdy 
simplicity, and an unconstrained, fresh, and joyous tempera- 
ment. It forms, to a certain extent, the connecting link 
between what has been called North and South German 
individuality ; many of the characteristics of both are united 
with it : together with the North German repose, reserve, 
and sobriety, we find the keen enjoyment of life and cheer- 
fulness of the South German character, and the combina- 
tion may be traced in Luther. 

He was thoroughly the child of the Thuringian peasantry. 
Although he lived almost exclusively in towns, and now 
and then said bitter things of the peasant class, still he 
remained a peasant's son in the best sense of the word, and 
was proud of it. " I am a peasant's son," he says in his 
'* Table-Talk ; " " my father, grandfather, and ancestors were 
all peasants." The training in the parental home was strait, 
strict, and harsh, not well adapted to cherish the love of 
harmony, the profound and kindly serenity which never 
left him in his later years. 

Both parents worked very hard to support their children ; 
the mother, so her son tells us, herself carried the wood on 
her back ; the father spent his life as a poor miner. Hans 
Luther always comes before us as a sturdy, energetic man, 
with an air of great strictness, if not severity; he was 
devoted with his whole soul to the ancient faith, but was 
none the less a bitter foe of corrupt monasticism. 
•^ Luther's youth was not a happy one. We shall make the 
acquaintance of another reformer, also a peasant's son ; 
but his parents were well to do, he was treated like the child 
of rich people, grew up in a free state, and was early accus- 
tomed to think about and take part in public affairs. 
Luther's lot was very different. He knew what it was to 



4 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

raise himself out of the dust, and in 'after life he often 
spoke of what such as he have to bear. Having nothing 
whereof "to boast and brag," he learns to trust in God 
betimes, " to suffer and hold his peace." 

But notwithstanding his limited means, Luther's father 
had an ambition to make something better of him than a 
miner ; but, at all events, he treated him with the greatest 
severity, and in this his wife was entirely of one mind 
with him. He was harshly punished for trifles ; corporal 
chastisement was a very common thing ; he never forgot 
how he was cruelly flogged for childish faults; how even 
his mother whipped him about a nut till she drew blood. 
He said that it had an effect on his whole after life. 
. "My parents' severity made me timid; their sternness 
and the strict life they led me made me afterwards go into 
a monastery and become a monk. They heartily meant 
it well, but they did not understand the art of adjusting 
their punishments." 

He did not fare much better at the school at Mansfeld, 
where his parents lived from 1484 to 1497 ; the teachers 
behaved to the pupils " like gaolers to thieves." He was 
soundly thrashed fifteen times in one afternoon, and all his 
life spoke with horror of the " purgatory of schools, where 
we are martyred over the casualibus and temporalibus ; and 
yet learn nothing from all this flogging but terror, fear, and 
misery." 

But it was a lasting satisfaction to him that many who got 
on better than he did at school, and did not get so many 
stripes, did not afterwards " cackle and lay eggs." 

His religious training was strictly orthodox. If any one 
had a living faith in the mediasval Church it was he ; he 
often remarked, both in jest and in earnest, what a powerful 
effect the Romish Church had had on him. This was spe- 
cially the case when he went from Mansfeld to Magdeburg 
in 1497. 

Magdeburg, with its forty thousand inhabitants, was at 
that time the largest and most flourishing city in the north 
of Germany, and, as the seat of a bishopric, was the brilliant 
centre of the Catholic Church in the north. 

The boy, then fourteen, went to a Franciscan school. 
The teachers had a reputation for skill, but were disposed 
to live on the generosity of pious people. In this school 
he acquired what we should call the elements of gymnasial 



EISENACH. 5 

instruction, and in the city he received the first ineffaceable 
impressions of the majesty of the Catholic Church. Here, 
too, he witnessed a spectacle which affected him deeply ; 
he saw the son of a German prince, Wilhelm von Anhalt, 
whom his father, in an attack of melancholy, had forced to 
become a monk. Luther saw him " go about the streets 
in the cowl of a barefooted friar, with a beggar's wallet, 
begging for bread, and he had been scourged and made to 
fast and watch until he was the picture of death — nothing 
but skin and bone." But this sight had not then the repel- 
ling effect upon him which it would afterwards have had ; 
on the contrary, it stimulated him; he vowed to himself 
that he would follow in the steps of this Prince of Anhalt. 
" I was naturally disposed to fast, to watch, to pray, to do 
good works, that I might thereby expiate my sins." He 
had already vowed to himself to make a pilgrimage to Rome, 
and to be religious.* 

His subsequent opposition to the mediaeval Church, there- 
fore, did not arise, as with the Humanists, from a tendency 
to scepticism ; he had been devoted to it with his whole 
soul, and only forsook it when he had discovered the falseness 
of the Church system. 

He next went to Eisenach. Here he was dependent for 
support on alms from strangers. It is still the custom in 
Thuringia for the poorer scholars to go about the streets at 
certain hours and receive alms for singing hymns. Luther 
himself relates how he had been such a pariekenhengst ;\ 
had said "panem propter Deum " at the doors of strangers, 
and sung songs for bread ; how he and his comrades often 
met with a rough repulse, and at many wealthy houses did 
not even get the crumbs from the table. But at the house 
of Conrad Cotta, a prosperous citizen, it was very different ; 
there the mistress accorded him her sympathy. She made 
him generous presents, had him into the house, allowed him 
to come to her table and to have lessons with her children. 
Luther afterwards recurred with pleasure to this kindness, 
and it was a proud moment for him when the son of the 

• Jiirgens, i. 221. 

t I can find no equivalent for this word, probably coined on the 
spur of the moment. Parteken, crumbs, broken bread ; hmgst, a 
stallion, is used among the common people as an expression for an 
ardent lover, or for one who pursues an object passionately. Luther 
meant therefore that he was so poor as to be eager for broken food. — Tk. 



6 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

widow Cotta afterwards came to him at Wittenberg, and he 
was able to requite it. He never knew how to keep money 
or property together, and his house was always open to 
poor scholars if they were talented and eager to learn; 
when any one remonstrated, he would remind him of his 
own life at Eisenach. It was here that he first made ac- 
quaintance with family life, the mind of woman and parental 
love, for he had never known them in their gentle and 
genial aspect at home. He was treated like a favourite 
adopted child ; the classical languages were studied in the 
spirit of the Humanists, and music, that choice gift of God, 
which brightened so many hours for the poor timid student, 
was also lovingly cultivated. 

He was not to be a miner or a slate-cutter like his 
father. It was his wish to make his son a lawyer or a 
statesman. With all his deep and heartfelt faith, he 
despised theology and the Church system; monastic life 
seemed to him the very path to destruction. 

But it was on this very point that his son was, for the 
first time, disobedient. 

In 1 501 he went to the university. Among the univer- 
sities of that day Erfurt took the first rank as the seat of 
Humanistic studies. Lawyers, doctors of medicine, and 
theologians, all belonged to the new school. The excellent 
philological teaching, the schools for Greek and Latin, 
and the new grammatical method, were of great sendee to 
Luther ; but there is no evidence that he had any inclination 
to make these studies his profession. He regarded them as 
means to an end. Besides, his vocation was marked out for 
him ; he was to be a lawyer. For a time he studied jurispru- 
dence, but without any pleasure in it, and therefore without 
success ; the impulses of his soul strongly attracted him in 
another direction. Moreover, his mind was at that time out 
of tune ; a profound melancholy had taken possession of him, 
which left him neither time nor taste for this branch of study. 

He felt dissatisfied with all his pursuits. It is a phase 
which earnest minds often have to pass through, especially 
about the time of transition between youth and manhood ; 
a certain melancholy overpowers even healthy minds, an 
unknown -something is wanting to them, an enigmatical 
longing impels them to restlessness, they seek satisfaction 
everywhere and find it nowhere. Luther could not find it 
either in heathen antiquity or in jurisprudence. 



ERFURT. 7 

' The poverty and austerity of his youth, the stern parental 
training had early driven him within himself. The eager 
perusal, the diligent study during the night watches of 
works which suited his religious tendencies, had interested 
him in subjects which had no connection with jurisprudence. 
He had, as it were, been led to theology by himself; he had 
become more and more deeply engrossed in the study, 
which, as he says, " seeks for the kernel in the nut, the 
marrow in the bones." He had studied the fathers, parti- 
cularly Augustine, then the Pauline Epistles and the writings 
of the mystics — Tauler, Suso, and Eccard — whose views 
were strangely in contrast with the prevailing Church 
system, not however in a sceptical, but a mystical direction. 

While pursuing these studies, the thought ripened within 
him that it was not his vocation to follow his father's plans, 
but to devote himself to theology, and that in the strictest 
sense of the word. He would enter an order of monks, 
like the Prince of Anhalt, and renounce the world. 

There is an old and well-known tradition* that he was 
impelled to this resolution by the untimely death of a 
friend by his side. We have no thoroughly trustworthy 
authority for it ; it is possible that this may have increased 
his previous melancholy, and put an end to long hesitation. 
But the resolution was certainly not formed all in one night ; 
in real life things do not happen in this dramatic way ; it 
undoubtedly was preceded by a long process of develop- 
ment, to which such an event may have given the last 
decisive impulse. + 

It gave rise to severe conflicts with his father. He had 
been accustomed to implicit obedience from his son ; now, 
for the first time, he declared that he neither could nor 
would obey, for that his conscience, his salvation, his all 
were at stake. A separation took place, which Luther could 
never mention without emotion. The grey-headed old man 
went away in despair, feeling that his son was lost to him. 

Martin Luther joined the Austin Friars in 1505, and 

^ * Mathesius, quoted by Jurgens, i. 521. 

t It is certain that in the dedication to his father of his work on 
monastic vows, Luther refers to "a forced and extorted vow," taken 
when he was " encompassed with the fear and horror of death ; " and 
here and afterwards he states that he " never became a monk of his 
own free will ; " that " his vow was not worth a fig; " that it was not 
taken heartily and willingly." — Jurgens. 



8 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

earnestly desired, if any one ever did, to be a v true monk, and 
" with tonsure and cowl," by the service of God, to earn his 
soul's salvation. There was at that time a proverb current, 
" Despair makes a monk," and in Luther's case it was strictly 
true. He imposed all sorts of privations on himself, morti- 
fied the flesh, passed whole nights in prayer and fasting, 
and practised all those self-inflicted torments which the 
Middle Ages were so clever in inventing, as if he would 
take heaven by storm. The gloomy, intolerant monastic 
rigidity, the want of sympathy for any other conception of 
life, took firm hold of his character ; he compares himself to 
those who build up funeral piles, and we shall find moments 
in his life when this tendency, in its most exclusive form, 
got the upper hand of him. 

But in spite of this melancholy and mediaeval state of 
mind, a great development was taking place within him ; 
he scourged himself, but he no less zealously pursued his 
studies. The monks bore him a grudge for this, for they 
thought, " If this brother studies he will rule us." But he 
was not to be deterred by this, and even during these early 
years he impressed unprejudiced persons with an idea of 
superiority. Those who knew him at that time agree in 
assuring us that there was something remarkable in his 
appearance ; all who came into close contact with him were 
struck with, and many awed by him. Even so short a time 
afterwards as 1509, the learned Pollich of Wittenberg, who 
kept strictly to the ancient Church, said of him : " The monk 
with the deep-set eyes and the strange fancies will lead 
all the doctors astray, set up a new doctrine, and reform the 
whole Romish Church." In 15 18 Cajetan said of the pale, 
emaciate recluse with the awe-stricken look, " I could hardly 
look the man in the face, such a diabolical fire darted out 
of his eyes." 

The question that was agitated within him was a vital one 
for the whole Church, and is so in every age, but it was of 
special significance then. The feeling of universal human 
sinfulness, the impossibility of redemption from the curse of 
sin by the means which had hitherto been considered 
sufficient, burdened him with an almost crushing weight. 
He found "no solution in dogmatic teaching as then set 
forth, because, on the one hand, he felt repulsed by the Old 
Testament God of revenge and wrath ; and, on the other, 
the doctrine of remission of sins by outward acts was 



THEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. 9 

repugnant alike to his understanding and his heart. To 
purchase absolution from the burden of sin by pharisaical 
works, by fulfilling outward duties, by the punctual obser- 
vance of ecclesiastical requirements, appeared to him to be 
frivolous, and the angry God of the Old Testament terrified 
him. The severe penances which he inflicted on body and 
mind gave him no comfort, for the words were always present 
with him : " The justice of God is the wrath of God." " As 
often," he says, "as I read this passage, I wished that 
God had not revealed the Gospel ; for who could love the 
God who is thus angry with us, judges and condemns 
us?" 

The great minds of Christendom had always been exer- 
cised by such conflicts ; none more so than Augustine. 
After a wild, erring, and agitated life, he had found 
inward peace in a faith which he then formed into a 
rigid dogma. And this Augustinian dogma of justifica- 
tion by faith alone, and by the election of God, provided 
that this faith be sincere and complete, powerfully affected 
Luther. The very peculiar thinkers of the mystic school 
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had said the 
same thing ; they looked for nothing from outward works, 
but for everything from the inward sanctification of men, 
and these were the views of all the more superior minds 
of early times. Luther never speaks more frequently ol 
anything than of the change which took place within him 
as the result of this enlightenment ; he is for ever thanking 
his faithful patron, Staupitz, for helping him to find the right 
path, and for ever recurring to the mental torments from 
which these views delivered him. 

" When," he says in one of the many passages in which 
he refers to it, " I began to meditate more diligently on 
the words just, and the justice of God, which terrified me, 
and considered that the justice which avails with God is 
manifested without the deeds of the law, I began to be 
otherwise minded, and thought from that hour : If we are 
to be justified by faith, if the justice of God is to save all 
those that believe, such passages will not alarm poor sinners 
and terrified consciences, but rather comfort them." The 
saying of the prophet Habbakuk, " The just shall live by 
faith," came to him like redemption. " From this I have 
deduced that life must spring from faith. I connected the 
word justice with the word just; namely, that man becomes 



10 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

just before God by faith — the whole Scripture, heaven itself 
was opened to me." * 

This led to something more than an ordinary scholastic 
controversy ; it led to a great conflict between the Pauline 
and Augustinian doctrine and the prevailing one. The dif- 
ference was such that it of necessity made a wider schism 
in the Christian world as it then was, than it at first sight 
appeared likely to do. That which tormented Luther's con- 
science was a result of the worldliness and shallowness of 
the Church polity, and this was the cause of numerous other 
grievances, by no means religious only. Herder once said : 
" A religion begins to fall into decay when its interpreters 
have lost the key to it." The remark applies to the case 
before us. People had quite forgotten what the Church 
should be, and once had been, as is plainly shown by the 
fact that, among the higher grades of society, and even by 
the Church itself, religion was looked upon as something 
very good for the masses, but as a luxury with which those 
above them could dispense ; nobody cared for faith or moral 
worth, and the worship of God was held to consist in the 
strict performance of outward acts. 

This was not the ancient view of the Church; even 
Pelagius, who had not stated it so broadly, had been 
condemned. The Church was entirely secularised, and 
what was meant to look like religion was nothing but a 
hypocritical show of outward conformity to law without 
the least earnestness of mind, simply external performance 
of duty without any co-operation of the conscience and 
heart. 

* The authorised version has been purposely not followed in this 
passage, but a more literal translation of Luther's words " gerecht," 
" gerechtigkeit," — as the use of the words "just," "justify," and 
"righteousness," is confusing. The terms adopted by Dr. Young 
("Life and Light of Men," p. 161, &c), "right," "lightened," "light- 
ness or righteningness," would perhaps best convey the meaning to 
English readers. It is necessary to call attention to the sense in which 
Luther uses the word "justice." He says further : " And now as much 
as I had formerly hated that word, the justice of God, so much did I 
now love it and extol it as the sweetest of all words to me. . . . 
Afterwards I read Augustine, ' On the Spirit and the Letter,' where I 
found that* he too interpreted the justice of God in a similar way, as 
that with which God endues us when He justifies us. And although 
this was as yet but imperfectly expressed, it was nevertheless satisfac- 
tory that the justice of God was taught to be that by which we are 
justified."— Tr. 



INDULGENCES. 1 1 

He who laid bare the essential falseness of the existing 
Church system, and set himself with holy zeal to restore 
to religion her forgotten sincerity and defunct faith, was 
not merely opening a controversy, he was making a schism 
in the world. The " good old times " of the fifteenth 
century, as seen from this point of view, are the most odious 
of all times, not even the notorious eighteenth century 
excepted. The corruption of the Church makes one shudder. 
She displays the wild fruits of a conception of religion with- 
out earnestness, faith, or shame. He who was the centre 
of the ancient teaching of the Church, Christ the Redeemer, 
who had saved men from sin by his blood, and reconciled 
the avenging God of the old covenant, was entirely lost 
sight of, and a shameless abuse of holy things prevailed 
everywhere. 

In this state of things lay the great enigma which dis- 
tracted the times ; the faithful were filled with indignation, 
and the rest sent empty away. The issues of Luther's 
spiritual conflicts in his narrow cell were of world-wide 
import ; the sort of Christianity and Church polity which 
had hitherto prevailed was done away with. Even the 
Romish Church, when restored at the Council of Trent, 
quietly laid aside her old practices on these vital points, 
and adopted a conception of them which, while it steered 
clear of Lutheran one-sidedness, completely disowned the 
attitude she had maintained from the beginning of the 
fifteenth century. 

The doctrine of indulgences, according to which men 
could be absolved from any sin by the payment of money, 
the most outward of all outward acts, the mind having 
no part in the transaction, was the most glaring instance 
of the abuses which had arisen in the Church ; and when 
Luther afterwards opposed it, it was not only because, like 
many others, he was offended by the shameless extortions 
and characters of the dealers in indulgences, but because the 
practice had a close connection with the question on which 
he had passed through the severest struggles. Others 
Tvere vexed that Tetzel should extort so much money from 
Germany, or thought it a disgrace that Rome chose to levy 
such heavy contributions on the stupid Germans, while she 
did not dare to carry it so far in other countries. But this 
was but a superficial view, and Luther's " Theses " are some- 
thing very different from an angry protest against a growing 



12 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

abuse ; they bear the stamp of his whole religious system, 
based upon the Pauline doctrine of justifi cation by faith, and 
the Augustinian doctrine of the election of grace ; they set 
forth an entirely different view of life and of the relation of 
men to God and the Church, and had a far deeper signifi- 
cance than a mere attack upon the traffic in indulgences as 
an abuse. 

Luther's great mental development was completed in 
the monastery at Erfurt. If, now that he was at peace with 
himself, he should go forth into the world and be placed 
in a position favourable for the exercise of his talents, a 
tremendous commotion might be looked for. They could 
not be developed in a monastery ; they could but be stunted ; 
the power of his words which arose from the depth of his 
convictions, the force of his teachings and his writings, 
his mysterious influence upon men, could only be developed 
in the world without. Just at this time an opportunity was 
afforded him of testing his powers ; he was called to the 
newly founded university of Wittenberg, in order that he 
might, for a time, devote himself entirely to academic 
teaching and preaching beyond the walls of the monastery. 



f ' 



CHAPTER IL 

1508- i 520. 

Call to Wittenberg, 1 508. — Journey to Rome, 15 10. — The Indulgence 
of 1517. — Attempts of Leo X. (elected Pope 1513) at Mediation. 
— Cajetan at the Diet of Augsburg, October, 1518. — Miltitz's Dis- 
cussion with Luther at Altenburg, 15 19. — Disputation at Leipzig, 
27th June to 13th July, 1519. — The Turning-point with Luther. 

THE university of Wittenberg, the creation of Frederic 
the Wise, had been founded in 1502, entirely in the 
modern Humanistic spirit ; indeed, to found a university at 
that period, was to create an organ for the modern tend- 
encies. Luther was called to it through the mediation of 
Staupitz, and arrived there at the close of 1508. Up to 
this time he had shown a tendency to gloomy reserve, 
which was not natural to his character. At Erfurt he had 
been entirely the monk who renounces the world, and knows 
no other calling than the solitary and earnest conflict with 
God and his conscience. This was obvious from his 
appearance, and yet no one was better adapted to influence 
the world and men. His new position introduced him into 
an arena for which he possessed incomparable gifts. The 
fire of his character, his talents for writing and speaking, 
now first came into play. He was not then at all conscious 
of his powers. For the first few years it was agony to him 
to ascend the pulpit stairs ; when at length he yielded to 
the persuasions of his friend Staupitz, he said, " You will 
kill me ; I shall not go on with it for a quarter of a year ; " 
and even in 15 19 he declared that nothing sustained him 
in the office of a preacher but obedience to another will, 
the will of God. 

It was with great difficulty that he overcame the shyness 
which he took from the parental home into the monastery, 
and thence into the world, but he distinguished himself from 



!4 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

the very first. Literary celebrities did not grow up then so 
last as they do now, but Luther soon became known in 
his own circle. His preaching made a very unusual impres- 
sion, not only on account of his new doctrines, but because 
his teaching came from the very depths of his soul, and 
was the outcome of a deeply agitated spirit. It was very 
different from the customary drawl of empty and hackneyed 
phrases, or the reading of old manuscripts by other people ; 
for his preaching came from a fiery soul, every word was 
spoken m holy earnest, and therefore produced an immense 
effect upon young and old. Whenever he preached the 
church was crammed full up to the pulpit, and he was 
listened to with breathless attention. This period was also 
of importance to himself; he shook off much of the monastic 
reserve which clung to him, his monkish acerbity decreased, 
he was no longer a monk in the sense in which he had been 
one. 

The young teacher and preacher was not only honoured, 
he was almost spoiled by the Elector and the public. The 
convictions at which he had arrived at Erfurt became 
clearer and more mature. He now took a wider and more 
independent view of the central point of his theological 
ideas, the doctrine of justification by faith, and specially 
devoted himself to the study of that part of the New Testa- 
ment which most fully unfolds the subject, the Epistle to the 
Romans. He was now ready with his system ; it was not 
in contradiction to that of the Church — indeed, he was sup- 
ported by her great authorities, Paul and Augustine ; it 
was very far from being heretical, yet it was opposed to 
the Pelagian Church system, though the opposition as such 
had not yet appeared. 

In 1510 Luther set out for Rome, either because he was 
charged with some errand for his order,* or to fulfil the 
vow made while yet a boy, that he might "find peace and 
comfort for his conscience; " perhaps for both reasons. The 
journey was a marked event in his life ; the monk who had 
hitherto lived in a small territory now for the first time 
went forth into the wide world. 1 le passed through a great part 
of his own country, made acquaintance with South Germany, 
Bavaria, Austria, and Italy, and with this fulfilment of his 

* Turgens observes that Luther nowhere mentions any commission 
from his order. 



LUTHER AT ROME. 1 5 

boyish longings, a pilgrimage to Rome, closes the first 
period of his life. It is not correct to say that this pilgrim- 
age turned him into the bitterest enemy of the Papacy, 
after being its most devoted adherent. For years after 
this we find him strictly retaining the same relation to the 
supreme authority in Christendom which had always been 
characteristic of him; and even in 151 7 and 1518 he ex- 
pressly makes a distinction between the Papacy in its 
existing form and its original vocation as head of the 
Catholic Church. He cannot have been in 15 10 in the 
path which he had scarcely entered in 15 17. We by no 
means find that the sight of Rome produced so rapid a 
change in him ; his veneration for the majesty of the 
Church was too great. We learn from himself that, true 
pilgrim as he was, at the first sight of the eternal city he 
threw himself upon the ground, and exclaimed, with hands 
uplifted to heaven : " I greet thee, holy Rome, thrice holy, 
from the blood of the martyrs which has been shed in thee." 
And he adds : " I did not then know that I was to be the 
hermit about whom there was a prophecy that he would rise 
up against the Church." Keen observer as he was, he 
soon saw more than was good for his veneration, and then, 
of course, made the observations on the actual state of 
things at Rome which he afterwards wove into the fearful 
accusations contained in his writings against Rome, espe- 
cially in his work addressed to the German nobles ; but they 
did not then change his fundamental views, nor estrange 
him from the ancient Church, for it was not until long after- 
wards that he was convinced that she was incapable of 
reform. One thing is very evident, the aversion of the good 
German to the Italians. Italian cunning and knavery, the 
abundance of fine but meaningless words in the language, 
the external softness and polish, which barely conceal the 
hollowness within — all this produc eel an irritating effect on 
the nerves of the Thuringian peasant. In his bitterest 
writings the vices of the Italians play a conspicuous part. 

Until the beginning of 15 17 he lived at Wittenberg, 
Reaching and preaching. Now and then he was sent on 
a journey. With regard to the main point, he continued to 
cultivate his mind and to complete his theological studies. 
Between 1509 and 15 17 ihe new Indulgence was pro- 
claimed. 

There was nothing so very repulsive in the doctrine 



16 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

and practice of indulgence in the ancient Church. Moral 
repentance was held to be the main thing ; but the dan- 
gerous addition had been made that outward signs of 
repentance were pleasing to God. Afterwards release 
might be obtained from the performance of such signs — 
fasting, scourging, and going on pilgrimages — by the pay- 
ment of money, which, however, was not meant to absolve 
from sin, but was considered as a sign of the inward change 
of mind. But this old doctrine of the Church had been 
greatly altered, and in the fourteenth century, during the 
Babylonish exile, financial considerations had been allowed 
to prevail over moral ones. At Avignon the popes in some 
measure consoled themselves for the pain of exile by 
inventing all possible means of enriching the pontifical 
chair at Avignon, not at Rome. John XXII. came from 
Cahors, which in the Middle Ages was held to be the seat 
of the cleverest financiers. It was there that the practice 
arose which made such a disturbance in Germany that the 
unconditional abolition of it was demanded by the Germans 
at Constance and Basle. " It is most abominable," said the 
Germans at Constance who burnt Huss ; " the last popes 
have put a price upon sins like shopkeepers' wares, and 
have sold remission of sins by means of indulgences for 
jingling coin!" It ended, however, in a proposition for 
restrictions upon indulgences; but such a system cannot 
be restricted, it must be abolished. The abuse continued. 
An urgent appeal was again made to Pope Martin V., who 
was elected at Constance, to put an end to it : this he 
agreed to do, but did nothing. Indeed, a sacrilege was 
practised which would have deserved that name before 
any religious systems existed : general indulgences were pro- 
claimed and general Church taxes imposed ; a pardon was 
granted to merchants, bankers, and bill-brokers, for farming 
the tax, and they undertook the traffic in pardon for 
sins for whole countries. It seemed as if all the warnings 
of the councils were forgotten, and everything that had 
given most offence was carried to the greatest extent. 
Thus a tariff of taxes was formed for all manner of sins, 
like the taxa cancellarice. ecdesice Roi?iance, which appeared 
at Herzogenbusch in 15 17. In Tetzel's instructions sodomy 
was rated at twelve ducats, sacrilege at nine, murder at 
seven, witchcraft at six, murder of parents or brothers 
and sisters, at four. From the time of Innocent VIII. you 



PARDON TICKETS. 1 7 

could buy immunity from purgatory, and in 1507 and 
15 12 Julius II. extended indulgence even to heresy. 

Between 1500 and 15 17 five extraordinary indulgences 
were proclaimed, and that at a time when men's minds 
were beginning to be stirred up against them. It was 
quite incomprehensible. The Church was acting on the 
shameless principle of the chamberlain of Innocent VIII., 
who said, "God willeth not the death of a sinner, but 
that he should pay and live." 

We still have originals of the pardon tickets of that 
time.* There is one of 15 17 for example, on which there 
is a figure of a Dominican monk, with a cross, crown of 
thorns, and a burning heart. In the upper corners is a 
nailed hand of the Saviour, and in the lower ones a nailed 
foot. On the front are the words, " Pope Leo X. Prayer. 
This is the length and breadth of the wounds of Christ in 
his holy side. As often as any one kisses it he has a seven 
years' indulgence." On the reverse side : " The cross 
measured forty times makes the height of Christ in his 
humanity. He who kisses it is preserved for seven days 
from sudden death, falling sickness, and apoplexy." 

The dealers in indulgences put up such notices as this : 
" The red indulgence cross with the Pope's arms suspended 
on it has the same virtue as the cross of Christ." " The 
pardon makes those who accept it cleaner than baptism, 
purer even than Adam in a state of innocence in Paradise." 
" The dealer in pardons saves more people than Peter," &c. 

Thus the abuse went on, until it became madness, and 
it had been practised five times on the same generation. 
Some were disgusted that the sacred mysteries of the 
Church should be thus abused, others appealed to the 
former decrees of the Church, which had condemned the 
scandal. That Germany specially should be laid under con- 
tribution on account of her political disruption was felt to 
be degrading. Still the money that was required, nominally 
for a war with the Turks, flowed in streams to Rome ; the 
bishops complained that " hundredweights of German coin 
flew light as feathers over the Alps, and that no bearer of 
the heaviest burdens, not even Atlas himself, could drag 
such heaps of money." So said the spiritual princes whose 
material interests suffered from it ; and it was no wonder 

• Jurgens. 



1 8 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

that the temporal princes fully sympathized in their dis- 
pleasure at seeing money going out of the country on so 
large a scale for no useful purpose whatever. 

Luther was not influenced by these external reasons. A 
faith had grown up within him which was utterly at variance 
with the principle of this outrage. The grounds on which 
others opposed it lay on the surface ; his resistance to 
it came from the depths of his soul, and therefore he 
brought the struggle to an issue on other grounds, and 
raised the fundamental question, " Which then is the 
doctrine of the Church, that preached by Luther or by 
Tetzel ? " 

In 15 17, John Tetzel, with his assistant, Bartholomew 
Rauch, appeared in Central Germany as a dealer in 
indulgences under the protection of the Elector Albert 
of Mayence. He had been preceded by annoying mounte- 
bank-like notices. He found moderate support in the 
Albertine part of Saxony under Duke George, but in the 
Electorate, under Frederic the Wise, he found no favour. 
He set up his shop at Leipzig and in the surrounding 
places, and thus came into Luther's immediate neighbour- 
hood. When he arrived at Jiiterbogk, near Wittenberg, 
Luther was seized with indignation. He had already 
admonished some of the bishops to do their duty by taking 
measures against this abuse, he had publicly thundered 
against it in the pulpit, when on October 31st he affixed his 
ninety-five Theses against Tetzel's doctrine of indulgences 
to the church door at Wittenberg. In these he unfolded 
his views of true repentance, as they had become clear 
to him since his monastic life at Erfurt ; they did not 
express the least enmity to the Pope, but were so much 
the more bitter against " the Indulgence preacher's shame- 
less and wanton words," which he strictly distinguished 
from the doctrine of the Church. The Theses made a deep 
impression in Germany j the state of the public mind was 
such that an insignificant cause might have led to great 
results, and the cause was not insignificant. Many con- 
troversial writings appeared: some sided with Luther; there 
were those who defended Tetzel ; few had cour-age to defend 
the practice as it existed, but Luther's sharply defined doc- 
trine of the uselessness of good works gave rise to much dis- 
cussion. Wimpina at Frankfort on the Oder, Hogstraten 
at Cologne, Eck at Ingolstadt, exclaimed against the 



POPE LEO X. 19 

heretic ; for others, the matter was but one more jf those 
intestine paper wars, of which there were so many instances 
among learned theologians in the Middle Ages. The only 
difference was, that this time the question at issue was a 
vital and fundamental one for religion itself, not a mere 
scholastic difference, and the public mind was still deeply 
agitated by the contest between the Humanists and the 
Dominicans, out of which during the previous year the 
Epistu/tz Virorum Obscurorum had arisen. Meanwhile 
the first attack came from Rome. Silvester Prierias, the 
fanatical Dominican who had just prevented the Reuchlin 
trial from being decided in favour of the accused, issued 
a publication against Luther's heretical doctrine of repent- 
ance. It was not of much importance ; Eck's was much 
cleverer, but the significant fact was that a voice should 
proceed from Rome before it was perhaps wise for the Church 
to take part in the discussion. 

An accusation was brought against Luther at Rome, and 
Prierias was called as a theological authority in the court 
in which it was tried. Hot-headed people thought that 
sentence of excommunication must follow, but this Leo X. 
declined to pronounce. He was a great Maecenas to artists 
and learned men, and was too much of a Medici not 
to be entirely indifferent to theological quarrels. 

It was one of the tragical links in the chain of the 
history of the Church at this momentous period that a 
man was at her head who was personally entirely a stranger 
to the great questions which agitated her. In Reuchlin's 
case his idea had been not to injure a learned man, and at 
first he had much the same idea about Luther, not 
from clemency, but indifference. He looked down upon 
the squabbles of the people with the princely contempt of 
the Medicis, never suspecting that they might give rise to 
a conflagration which might reach his triple crown. His 
desire was to see them peaceably settled. 

A Diet was convened at Augsburg. The Papal Legate 
had a number of demands to make at it which concerned the 
German treasury, and they would perhaps be less readily 
granted if Rome took severe measures against a German 
monk, who was in favour with an influential prince like 
Frederic the Wise, who sided with those who were against 
the levy of Church taxes. The Cardinal Legate Cajetan was 
therefore commissioned to get the question settled with 



20 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

as little disturbance as possible. He was to send for the 
monk, talk it over with him, and try to persuade him not 
to make any further disturbance, and thus put an end to 
this controversy. , 

In answer to a justification of himself which Luther had 
sent to Rome in May, 1518, couched in the most modest 
tone, he had received an invitation to come there. He 
says : " When I was looking for a blessing, a storm broke 
over me." On all sides people were interesting them- 
selves about Luther, and the result was that the invitation 
was changed into a summons to defend himself before the 
Cardinal Legate at Augsburg. 

The Legate does not seem to have carried out the papal 
commission very strictly; he certainly did not act the 
part of a kindly diplomatist, but that of a proud spiritual 
prince, for whom it was a great condescension to enter 
into discussion with an insignificant monk at all. Be- 
sides this, he, as a rigid Thomist, could not abstain 
from opposing the nominalistic monk. At first Luther 
was constrained and embarrassed, but as the discussion 
gradually took the form of a theological disputation, he 
grew warm and bold, and Cajetan declared that he felt quite 
awe-stricken in his presence. In answer to the decrees 
of the Church and the tenets of the Dominicans, Luther 
brought forward Paul and Augustine, who indeed were 
strangers to the Church of that day ; he would hear nothing 
of recantation, and so they parted, each feeling that he was 
himself in the right, and that the other had not so con- 
ducted himself as to promote peace. 

Thus failed the first attempt to settle the business by 
diplomacy. This was in October, 15 18. Luther fled from 
Augsburg by night, fearing, and not without reason, for his 
personal safety; he rode hastily through by-ways back to 
Wittenberg, and the controversy continued. Leo was still 
of opinion that the time was not come for extreme measures, 
and a second attempt was therefore made. 

Carl von Miltitz, a native of Saxony, an adroit man of 
the world, was now selected to settle the difficulty. It 
was the Pope's custom on New Year's Day to present 
one of the most eminent princes with a consecrated golden 
rose. This year the Elector Frederic of Saxony was to 
have it, the man who had founded the modern Humanist 
university of Wittenberg, and undoubtedly favoured Luther. 



MILTTTZ. II 

The Nuncio, Miltitz, was to be the bearer of it, and to take 
the opportunity of seeing Luther, as if accidentally, and to 
repeat the attempt made by Cajetan. 

Miltitz was no theologian, nor a man of any system or 
school, and he was therefore specially adapted for his 
mission. He was clever, his manners were polished and 
agreeable, and, when desirable, he could display a winning 
cordiality. 

After the failure of the conference at Augsburg, Luther 
had issued the usual appellatio a papa male informato ad 
papam melius informandum, and as this produced no effect, 
he entered a second appeal, this time from the Pope to 
a General Council. It was unusual for a simple monk to 
make so determined an appeal to the highest court, but it 
was not prohibited or illegal. 

Miltitz arrived at the beginning of January, 1519, and 
on the 3rd he had a conversation with Luther. He had 
entered upon his task with great skill. On his way he had 
been rather communicative, had complained in large com- 
panies of the scandal occasioned to the Church by mis- 
chievous individuals, asserted that Tetzel's proceedings 
were not approved at Rome, and was so hard upon him 
that no one doubted his sincerity. He opened his heart to 
Luther in the most unreserved manner, said that he was 
astonished to find the celebrated doctor a young and 
vigorous man, instead of an old theologian, and that he 
would not undertake to conduct him to Rome with twenty- 
five thousand armed men, for he had observed everywhere 
that for every adherent of the Pope, Luther had three ; 
he himself was entirely of Luther's mind. Having thus, as 
he thought, gained his opponent's confidence, he proceeded 
with his plan. He told Luther that it did not become 
him, an isolated monk, to carry on a contest like this with 
the Pope single-handed. He had occasioned his Holiness 
much uneasiness, and it was his duty to make amends. 
Luther was still within the bounds of the mediaeval Church, 
and held a monk's opinions of the Pope's authority. 
This mode of approaching him was therefore safer than 
the imperious style adopted by Cajetan. Miltitz knew how 
to attack Luther on the ground on which he was still a 
monk — respect for the authority of the Church. 

A formal agreement was entered into ; and it is significant 
that the Romish Church already, to a certain extent, stipu- 



22 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

kites with the simple Augustine monk as one power with 
another. 

As Luther himself informed his protector the Elector, 
there were two clauses in the agreement. 

i. " Beth parties are forbidden to »preach or write on 
the subject, or to take any further action upon it. 

2. et Miltitz is to communicate the exact position of affairs 
to the Pope, and the Pope will commission a learned 
bishop to investigate the controverted questions." 

" And then," Luther adds, " if I am convicted of error, 
I shall willingly retract it, and not weaken the power and 
glory of the holy Roman Church." He also consented to 
write a second letter to the Pope, to apologize for having 
been so sharp and hasty, and to say that he had no desire 
to injure the Church as such. 

He went, therefore, to the verge of retracting, but on 
conditions. His silence was to be dependent on the 
silence of others, and he declared that he would retract 
when refuted — not before This attitude was not a 
mediaeval Catholic one. /Huss also had said at Constance, 
" Let them refute me," and instead of this he had been con- 
demned. This proposition was the germ of Protestantism. 
From the Church's stand-point, no such opposition, no 
such conditional subjection as this could be tolerated. 
When authority spoke the individual must give way. 
Luther had already taken one step beyond what may be 
called the boundary line of the mediaeval Church. 

One thing, however, was attained: there was an armistice; 
there was a cessation of the scandalous disputing and 
wrangling which so disturbed the Pope ; a curb was put on 
the bitterness of party spirit. But the over-zealous friends 
of the Church were very soon again to disturb her peace. 
The armistice was interrupted by a zealot of the Church 
herself. 

In March, 15 19, Eck proclaimed a great discussion at 
Leipzig. Some of the Theses were aimed at Carlstadt, 
who was invited as opponent. But when they were more 
narrowly examined, it was evident that they were really 
intended for Luther, not Carlstadt. This was a virtual 
though * not a formal breach of the armistice. Luther 
declared at once that he was released from his promise. 
" This wrong-headed fellow," he writes, " is fuming against 
me and my writings ; but he challenges some one else 



DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 23 

as his adversary and attacks him;" — "but this discus- 
sion will turn out badly for the Roman claims and 
usages, and these are the staff upon which the Church is 
leaning." 

The celebrated discussion at Leipzig began on June 27th, 
15 19.* Eck, Luther, Melancthon, and Carlstadt appeared 
with their friends. The discussion was opened with all the 
pomp with which these disputations used to be conducted. 
There seemed to be a feeling that it was not an ordinary 
scholastic tournament, but that questions of world-wide 
importance were at issue. The chief combatants were 
each in his way excellent disputants. Eck was known as 
a remarkably skilful debater, and was at least a match for 
Luther in the discussion, while in knowledge of philosophy 
and theology, ecclesiastical history and law, he was decidedly 
his superior. Luther had as yet scarcely approached the 
latter subjects, and now first learnt their importance. His 
strength was of another sort, in which Eck was not equal to 
him. 

Beyond the recent centuries Eck's knowledge was thread- 
bare, and where Luther was quite at home he was almost a 
stranger. Luther was better acquainted with Augustine 
than with any one else ; he had also diligently read the other 
fathers, both of the East and West, and the earnest study 
of fifteen years had made him perfectly familiar with the 
passages in the Bible relating to the subject. 

After Eck and Carlstadt had disputed for the first week 
on free will, the contest began with Luther. For two days 
they disputed on justification and good works without 
making any approach to agreement. On these subjects 
Pelagian and Augustinian Christendom were in absolute 
opposition ; there was a world-wide difference which it was 
impossible to reconcile. Eck then shifted the question to 
the subject of the papal authority. 

Luther maintained that proof was wanting that the power 
of the Pope of Rome was as old as the Church of Christ. 
This is no longer a question for us, but it was one in those 

• The reports of it are to be found in Loscher. First a report 
by Melancthon, then Eck's letter to Hogstiaten, Luther's own report, 
and several others ; then the protocol of the discussion between Eck 
and Luther, in which that held from July 4th to 8th on the Pope's 
supremacy is of interest. All the heresies are summed up by Eck in 
his letter to Hogstraten. 



24 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

days when people believed in a large number of pious 
frauds. Luther was of opinion that the papal authority 
was not more than four centuries old, but Eck refuted 
him at once, and gained an advantage ; but when he added 
that the Papacy dated from the beginning of the Latin 
Church, and that all who were not within the Church were 
damned, he exposed himself to attack, and Luther at once 
availed himself of it. He asked where in the Scriptures, 
where in the writings of the early fathers, was there any 
mention of the Papacy, and whether Eck believed that the 
whole Greek Church, and her great fathers, such as Gregory 
of Nazienzen and Basil the Great, were damned ? 

This embarrassed Eck, but he soon recovered himself, 
and referred to the councils. At Constance, for example, 
the papal supremacy had been acknowledged : did Luther 
no longer adhere to the authority of the councils? The 
council had condemned Huss and his theses : did he hold 
that the judgment was just or not? This was a qutzstio 
captiosa. The Hussites were in bad odour in Saxony. 
Luther considered for a moment, and then said he thought 
that the council had condemned propositions of Huss that 
were entirely Christ an and evangelical. This occasioned 
great excitement, a id Eck answered : " Then, worthy father, 
you are to me a heathen man and a publican." 

Luther had now overstepped the boundaries of the Church. 
When at Erfurt, some work by Huss had fallen into his 
hands, and, as he read, he discovered with astonishment 
that on many points he agreed with the burnt heretic. 
Seized with anguish, he closed the book, and rushed from 
it with " a wounded heart," for he thought that at the mere 
suspicion that the " cruelly condemned man " was right, 
"the walls must become black and the sun veil his light ;" 
yet now he had courageously confessed him and rejected 
the recent authoritative decision of the Church. He had 
been driven to take one step after another ; but one 
authority remained for him, that of the Scriptures, the New 
Testament, and that he never rejected. Thus this discus- 
sion led to his defection from the Church, whose highest 
authorities he no longer acknowledged as binding. The 
circumstance was of great importance to him, for it led to 
his seeing clearly how fundamentally he was at variance 
with the Church when he sincerely thought that he was 
strictly within her fold. 



THE TURNING-POINT. 25 

The two opposite modes of thought, the utter irrecon- 
cilability of which was first developed at Leipzig, had 
nothing in common with the party conflicts of the Middle 
Ages. The very principle of authority was attacked, 
the foundations of the rock of Peter were shaken, and 
its historical title distinctly denied. This had never been 
thus declared before the whole nation. From this time 
any attempt to hush the matter up was quite vain. Luther 
did not retreat even when he expected to share the fate of 
Huss. But circumstances were not the same as at the 
time of the Council of Constance. 

The favour of the nation increased in proportion as 
Luther's defection was decisive. He had never been weaker 
than when negotiating with Miltitz — never stronger than after 
the discussion. All the Humanist party, then the dominant 
party among the learned men of the day, and among them 
the best spirits of the nation, were on his side. The stormy 
and passionate youth, who had hitherto regarded the 
contest with quiet indifference or contempt, now began tc 
take an interest in it, and to show that they did so. Ulrich 
von Hutten, their boldest mouthpiece, and politically and 
nationally Luther's alter ego, openly joined his cause. 
Hutten was the most elegant, most polished member of 
the younger school of Humanists, who reverenced Reuchlin 
and Erasmus as their models. In July, 15 17, he had 
reached the highest summit of ambition — he had been 
crowned by the Emperor as the first German poet. He 
was an impersonation of the Humanistic spirit; yet a 
feeling began increasingly to creep over him that there was 
something unreal in his culture, that he was not true to 
himself while he spoke and wrote in a foreign tongue. It 
was entirely in a Humanistic spirit that he said to a monk, 
on hearing of the doings at Wittenberg, " Devour one 
another that you may be devoured by yourselves," and 
then wrote to Hermann von Neuenaar : " My special desire 
is that our enemies may live as much as possible in discord, 
and persist in destroying one another. Perish all those who 
hinder the dawning culture, that the glorious virtues they 
have so often trodden under foot may at length take root."* 

But he learnt to think otherwise. On closer observation 
he found that it was something more than an ordinary 

• Strauss, Hutten. 



26 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

monkish quarrel, and he had above all learnt from Luther 
the wonderful power of the German tongue ; he had seen 
how this man electrified the nation with the force of his 
words, and he turned completely round. He wrote to 
Luther : " I will renounce all my poetic fame, O monk, 
and follow thee like a shield-bearer." He gave up his 
elegant Latin, wrote German both in prose and rhyme, 
and became a political Luther. 

Before this Philip Melancthon had joined Luther, and 
was invaluable as a complement to him. In his case the 
Humanist preponderated over the theologian. Melancthon 
was of incomparable service in the exposition and transla- 
tion of the Scriptures, because, with all his immense learning, 
he put no preconceived theological views into the text. 

Then he was more cultivated than the Thuringian 
peasant's son, and his manners were more polished. 

The discussion was also a turning-point for Luther in 
his studies. It vexed him that he had not been able to 
say anything against the ecclesiastical laws to which Eck 
appealed. He now studied the history of the Church, more 
particularly in recent times. He made acquaintance, during 
the excitement in which the discussion had left him, with 
the stormy councils of the fifteenth century ; he saw how 
nearly the nation had seen her hopes of reform realised, and 
how shamefully she had been deceived. It made a deeper 
impression upon him than it could ever have done before, 
but still it cost him some pain to tear himself entirely away 
from the ancient Church. He still drew a distinction 
between the Curia and the Ecclesia Romana, which were 
then really scarcely distinguishable at all. 

As he pursued his studies he became more and more 
opposed to particular dogmas which he had not before 
specially examined. At Leipzig he had disputed the 
infallibility of the Pope and the councils ; he now disputed 
the right of the Pope to proclaim laws, to canonise, and 
to withhold the cup ; he protested against the doctrine of 
purgatory, and the number of the sacraments, though he 
had not yet attained to the doctrine of two only. It 
has been proved that Huss, at Constance, did not maintain 
doctrines much more heretical. His doctrines had often been 
confounded with those of his disciples, and a good deal 
ascribed to Huss that did not belong to him ; we know now 
that in principle his views did not go much further than 



THE PAPAL BULL. 2J 

the point at which Luther had now arrived. Luther was 
continually astonished anew at this unconscious agree- 
ment. In 1520 he wrote to Spalatin : "We are all 
Hussites without knowing it. Paul and Augustine are 
Hussites. I am so amazed I know not what to think."* 

In June, 1520, Luther's address " To the Christian Nobles 
of the German Nation" came out. Although but a few 
pages, it was the work of an agitator, and written in Luther's 
most masterly style. Its main proposition is that the 
Romish Curia must be resisted, and the walls which it had 
built around Germany thrown down, and that it would 
especially become the German nobility to take the lead in 
the conflict. The address produced great excitement ; it 
was useless now to think of silencing the bold monk ; but 
whether it was wise for the Pope to have recourse to the 
last resort, and excommunicate him, at the risk of its 
taking no effect, was the great question. 

Eck, Luther's literary opponent, was guilty of the indis- 
cretion of bringing to Germany the bull which the Pope 
had reluctantly issued. It was received with open repug- 
nance, or at least with indifference ; some governments were 
reluctant to proclaim it, others declared that in the existing 
state of things it was not necessary to obey it : they ap- 
pealed to their own judgments against the Church in true 
modern fashion. 

The Elector Frederic the Wise openly disclaimed 
obedience to the bull; the university of Wittenberg 
decidedly took the part of Luther and Carlstadt, which 
encouraged Luther to venture on the unheard-of step 
which he took on the 10th December, 1520. He was not 
the man to go to extremes for the purpose of arousing the 
passions of the populace ; he had no wish to have " Mr. 
Omnes, who has no sense," for his master, but he did not 
shrink from any step which might at a critical moment lay 
bare the weakness of the adversary. He resolved to take 
the monstrous step of publicly burning the papal bull in 
presence of the professors, the students, and the citizens of 
Wittenberg. 

On December 10th the solemn procession, to which Luther 
had invited the people by a notice on the church door, went 
through the Elstergate ; and the people looked ,on while the 

* Ranke. 



28 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

bull, whose predecessors had dethroned many a proud 
emperor, and condemned many a good reformer to the 
flames, was consumed in the fire, amidst the blank amaze- 
ment of the Romanists and the rejoicings of Luther's 
adherents. 

Luther had shown that, without .ncurring danger to him- 
self, he could hold up the Pope's last missile to derision. 
Rome had exhausted her weapons; admonition, warning, 
advice, ban,' — not one of them had produced the least 
effect. The greater the dismay at Rome, the greater had 
been the monk's audacity, the more numerous his fol- 
lowers. But one resource was left, — the temporal power. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Last Days of Maximilian I., January, 15 19. —Election of a new 
Emperor. — Francis I. of France and Charles V. ot Spain. — Poli- 
tical Position of the Emperor Charles V. — The Election in June. — 
The Election Bond, 3rd July, 15 19. 

Last Days of Maximilian I., January, 1519. 

BOTH parties, Luther and the Pope, had gone to ex- 
tremes. It was now in the hands of the temporal 
power of the empire to decide between them. The Church 
had to look about her for support, and she looked, in the 
first place, to the arm of the Emperor. The King of Rome 
had not only to keep political order, he was also the 
guardian of the Church. It was both his right and duty to 
uphold her authority, to administer her laws, to carry out 
her decrees. It was therefore not an unusual demand, but, 
in the existing state of things, quite a natural one. In 
141 5 the Emperor had carried out the decree of the Church 
in a similar case. That the imperial power had not inter- 
fered before was only caused by the interregnum then 
existing. From January to June, 1519, the throne was 
unoccupied, and after June it was only nominally occupied, 
for the new Emperor was not yet present in the empire. 

The position of affairs had not been so advantageous 
during the latter part of Maximilian's reign as had been 
hoped at the beginning. He was but little beloved, and 
that little because his happy temper and engaging dispo- 
, sition prevented actual disaffection and restrained open 
ill-will. But a great change was observable. Many 
things had conduced to it. It was not only that he had 
injured the domestic interests of this or that dynasty; there 
were real grounds for discontent. The reforms of 1495, to 
which he had reluctantly given his consent, were not only 



30 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

not carried out, he had even allowed those already esta- 
blished to fall into disuse. 

The Aulic Council, which was to be constituted without 
him, and to oppose him, had always been repugnant to him ; 
he had also only grudgingly tolerated the Imperial Chamber 
for a time; and both had at length been suffered to fall 
into disuse. Nothing remained but the Internal Treaty of 
Peace,* the administration of which mostly depended on 
himself, and the division of the empire into districts, 
which served him as a counterpoise to the sovereignty of 
the princes. This was all that remained of the great 
project of reform which was looked for throughout the 
empire, especially among the upper circles, at the beginning 
of his reign ; and some of the states which had promoted 
the changes in 1495 now reproached him with it. 

Another and equally well-founded reproach was that he 
had made the empire a means of aggrandising his here- 
ditary power as a Hapsburg ; had merely made a tool of 
it to carry out his purely Austrian plans in Italy and else- 
where. To enforce his claims upon Bohemia and Hungary, 
thereby to complete the Hapsburg dominions, to become 
master of Milan in Italy by the aid of the ancient imperial 
rights, to form the marriage treaty with Spain ; — these 
were the great aims of his policy, and they had nothing 
whatever to do with the interests of the empire, as they 
were conceived of by the states and the nation. 

His position, therefore, although he knew how to maintain 
it with skill and prudence, became more and more isolated, 
and he saw an opposition growing up among the most dis- 
tinguished princes of the empire who had formerly sided 
with him. 

His relations with the Church were by no means satisfac- 
tory in the eyes of the Curia. He knew very well that 
the empire could not exist unless the Church, in a general 
sense, ruled Western Europe ; but he did not at all approve 
of the administration of her policy, and by no means 
submitted unconditionally to the power of the Curia. 
The Popes had been so often opposed to him that he did 
not cherish any good-will towards them ; nor did he over- 
look the frightful abuses which were eating into the spiritual 

* Landfriede. The decree of the Diet of Worms, 1495, by which all 
independent warfare amongst members of the empire was forbidden, 
and the "law of the fist " abolished under pain of ban, &c. — Ti. 



MAXIMILIAN I. 31 

and temporal life of Christendom. It was, indeed, at his 
instigation that the accusation by the German nation against 
the Curia had been put forth ; and, with the approbation of 
the states, he had proclaimed the edict from Innsbruck 
" against the unspeakable greed of some ecclesiastics, who 
know no bounds in the acquisition of Church property 
and benefices." His audacious idea of himself seizing the 
reins of ecclesiastical power, as Charlemagne and Henry III. 
had done, indicates his relations with Rome. 

When the contest at Wittenberg began, he at first looked 
on with malicious pleasure. He had just then fallen out 
with Rome on political grounds, and it was a satisfaction to 
him that she should have the millstone of a monastic con- 
troversy hung about her neck. " Let the Wittenberg monk," 
he said to Frederic the Wise, " be taken good care of; we 
may want him some day." 

But during the latter part of his reign all this was 
changed ; his domestic policy induced him to seek an 
understanding with Rome. Although he did not anticipate 
his approaching death, he was anxious to secure to his 
family the succession to the empire. His son Philip had 
met with an early and tragic death, but he had left a son 
(Charles V.) who would certainly inherit Spain, and for 
whom Maximilian wished to secure the German crown. If 
he could succeed, the imperial glory and greatness would 
be restored in all its mediaeval splendour. 

The foreign powers, especially France, were against it, 
and in his isolation in Germany the Emperor had no other 
ally but Rome to aid him in his projects. Things were in 
this position when Cajetan was sent to the Diet at Augsburg. 
He brought large demands for men and money against the 
Turks, which the Emperor was willing to grant if the 
Church would support him. But the scheme entirely mis- 
carried. It was not only that public opinion, led by Ulrich 
von Hutten, declared loudly against the Papal Legate ; the 
Diet refused his demands, and refused them on the ground 
that the just grievances of the Germans must first be 
redressed. The annats,* the pall-money, interference with 
the rights of patronage, the numberless infringements of the 
concordat, all these were brought up afresh, and some of the 

* A year's in:ome of a spiritual living originally given to the Popt 
on the death of a bishop or abbot, and paid by his successor. — Tr. 



32 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

spiritual princes brought in petitions against special griev- 
ances. Thus the Bishop of Liege proved by a long statis- 
tical paper that the German benefices became a prey to 
Roman courtesans. If the spiritual princes spoke in this 
way, it may be imagined how the Legate's propositions were 
regarded by the temporal rulers. 

Among the circumstances which occasioned this failure, 
the passiveness of the imperial government respecting the 
affair of Luther was a principal one. When the controversy 
began, the government was at variance with Rome, and 
looked on with satisfaction ; but when it wished for recon- 
ciliation with Rome, and Rome wanted to employ it against 
Luther, both schemes were frustrated at the Diet. This 
plan, therefore, did not aid the Emperor in securing the 
succession for his house. Shortly after this, in January, 
1 519, the Emperor Maximilian died quite suddenly. He 
was no longer young, but was still so vigorous that his death 
was quite unexpected. 

Election of a new Emperor. — Francis I. of France 
and Charles V. of Spain. 

All these circumstances greatly helped forward the 
Reformation. The imperial power was for months in 
abeyance, the papal power at least lessened ; the regency 
which now existed did not in any way alter the aspect of 
affairs. The Count Palatine of the Rhine, with whose 
house the Emperor had lived in bitter discord, was regent 
in the south ; the Elector Frederic the Wise, in the north 
and east. It was plain that no steps would now be taken 
against Luther. The Elector Palatine was not in the least 
disposed to burden himself with this troublesome business ; 
the Elector Frederic was the avowed though prudent friend 
and protector of the monk of Wittenberg. 

The election of a new emperor was a grave question. 
Had the old Elector Frederic, who had vigorously aided 
the reforms in 1495, and at first maintained a close friend- 
ship with the Emperor, had any ambition to be emperor, 
he would probably have been chosen unanimously. But 
he was too old, too cool-headed and sober, to put this 
thorny crown into the scale against his secure position. 
After he had declined, there was not one among the 
German princes who would have hid any chance of being 



FRANCIS I. 33 

elected, nor was there one among the electors who coveted 
so burdensome an honour. Outside this circle candidates 
were not wanting. Two foreigners, Francis I. and Charles 
V., put forth their rival claims. 

We often confound the Empire with the Kingdom of 
Germany, because the latter had for centuries grown up 
together with the former. But the imperial crown was a 
universal dignity, and therefore, the actual state of things 
notwithstanding, it was quite possible that it might one day 
devolve upon other than a German house. It was on this 
ground that France now strove to attain it. France had 
become a more thoroughly compact and united state than 
any of its neighbours, and therefore Francis I., from the 
security of his domestic position, was the most powerful 
monarch in Europe. He had still various projects on hand. 
He already enjoyed a European reputation ; he had not 
long before begun his reign with the successful Italian 
campaign ; he had subdued the hitherto unvanquished 
Swiss at Marignano, and garrisoned the coveted city of 
Milan. These successes had attracted a vast deal of atten- 
tion; he was looked upon as a great general, though he 
was in fact, as afterwards appeared, only a brave cavalier, 
ever ready to risk his own life, but incapable of directing 
a campaign or even a battle. 

Charles of Spain had as yet nothing of the kind to show. 
He seemed to be indebted for the lustre of his name to his 
descent from so many great princes. He was not yet even 
King of Spain. Maximilian's son, the handsome but disso- 
lute Philip, had married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, and Spain and the New World fell to her lot. 
Joanna seems to have been early subject to melancholy. 
She is said to have given her husband a poisoned love- 
potion, from jealousy. When Philip soon afterwards died 
with all the symptoms of poisoning, her melancholy passed 
into madness, from which she never recovered. 

This Spanish melancholy had momentous results for the 
house of Hapsburg, for it was transmitted through this 
ancestress, and has never since disappeared. The earlier 
^Hapsburgs had nothing of it ; down to Maximilian they 
were of an energetic, enterprising temperament, more likely 
to incur blame for daring rashness than for any tendency to 
passive melancholy. 

Charles was the child of this unhappy marriage. He 



34 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

was nominally regent while his mother was still queen. 
From what was known of his character it was not supposed 
that he would be likely to vanquish Francis I. Both the 
fame and the powers of Francis were in their prime ; he was 
a brilliant, if not a weighty personage ; he was possessed of 
showy, thoroughly French talents ; he was eloquent, amiable, 
gallant, a type of the national character, including both its 
good and bad features. Francis was overrated, Charles 
underrated. Charles could not be compared with so bril- 
liant an individual ; he was a delicate youth of scarcely 
nineteen, had been reared with difficulty, and had inherited 
his mother's gloomy, phlegmatic temperament ; in spite of 
his youth, he seemed to have scarcely one youthful trait 
in his character ; he had done nothing for immortality ; in 
his heavy Spanish manners there was not a spark of French 
savoir-vivre ; he had no valiant deeds, and but few gallant 
adventures to boast of; in short, in every respect he was 
thrown into the shade by Francis. 

This insignificance was partly caused by the melancholy 
circumstances of his youth, and by the fact that he was 
always surrounded by powerful men who governed in his 
stead. He afterwards acquired all that was now wanting 
to him, and proved himself quite equal to great political 
projects ; indeed, it became evident that he possessed many 
great political virtues, untiring industry, steady perseverance 
and patience in a high degree, that he was the man to 
devote his life to a great enterprise ; and the more evident 
this became, the more did he acquire supremacy over 
Francis. But at the time when nothing of all this had 
been proved, the decision, of course, rested on other 
grounds. 

In expenditure and energetic measures to insure election 
both parties were equal. It cannot be reckoned to a florin 
how much each spent, but it is certain that neither failed 
in this respect. Heavy bags of gold came from France, and 
we now know that the same came from Austria. The well- 
known leaning of Francis towards absolutism was against 
him. It was known how he treated parliaments in France, 
how he commanded the levy of illegal taxes under pain of 
execution : this did not accord with " ancient German 
liberty." It was also taken into account that Francis was 
a foreigner, while Charles was at least half a German : he 
was descended from a German father and German ancestors. 



THE ELECTION BOND. 35 

Since Maximilian's death, his good qualities had been more 
thought of: his people would not insult his house by 
choosing his natural enemy as emperor. It was con- 
sidered, further, that the kingdom and the empire had been 
united for centuries ; that by reason of this union Germany 
took a foremost place among the nations, which she would 
no longer hold if the imperial crown were worn by a 
foreigner. It was by a true instinct that the nation shrank 
from the ambitious projects of the French king. 

By degrees, however, the West German courts were 
reproached with favouring the French too much, when 
Frederic the Wise turned the scale ; he summed up all 
the points in Charles's favour, his descent, his ties with 
the empire, his natural enmity to France, and he openly 
declared that he should vote for him. 

The French party vanished, no one knew how. Every 
one was ashamed to belong to it, and Charles was unani- 
mously elected, although subject to stipulations which 
showed that the people desired not to let the opportunity 
slip of obtaining from the new emperor all that had been 
withheld by the old one. They made an election contract, 
or, as it is called in the Northern States, an election 
bond. 

Political Position of Charles V. at the Beginning 
of his Reign. 

Charles was elected on June 28th, 15 19, and on July 
3rd the election contract was settled, which strictly de- 
fined the limits of his authority. Hereafter the Emperor 
was not to employ any foreign troops in the imperial wars 
without the consent of the empire ; not to convoke any Diet 
beyond the bounds of the empire ; he was to give the 
offices of the court and empire to natives of Germany 
only ; no language was to be employed in State transactions 
but German or Latin ; the states of the empire were not to 
be subject to any jurisdiction beyond the bounds of the 
empire. The Emperor was to be the protector of the Church, 
but was to abolish everything which the Court of Rome had 
introduced contrary to the concordat with Germany ; he 
was to confirm the sovereign rights of the princes, and to 
establish an Imperial Chamber. He was not to alienate any 
imperial possessions, not to issue any sentence of outlawry 



36 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, 

without a trial, to uaintain customs, duties, and privileges, 
and to abolish the covenants between the knights and their 
vassals. 

There are three points in this bond which are of special 
interest. The German empire endeavours to protect its 
individuality against the foreigner, the Spaniard, which 
afterwards proved to be of great importance. Then the 
Imperial Chamber, formed of the electors, which Maxi- 
milian so obstinately opposed, was really established, and 
at a most critical time ruled in the Emperor's stead. Finally, 
by the clause relating to the ancient concordats between the 
German empire and the Pope, the empire assumed a posi- 
tion towards him which was quite in accordance with the 
transactions of the last Diet, but which, in the matter of the 
existing ecclesiastical controversy, showed more favour to 
Luther than to his opponents. 

Thus the imperial throne was filled just at the time 
when Luther was separating himself from the Church. 
No one yet knew the intentions or tendencies of the new 
Emperor ; he was like a blank sheet of paper upon which 
every man inscribed his hopes and wishes. Some expected 
from him the rescue of the Roman power from pressing 
danger; others, like Hutten and Luther, the salvation of 
the nation and the Reformation. Charles took a course of 
his own, and probably disappointed them all. 

A most important accession of power had all at once 
accrued to the empire. Charles was not an emperor with- 
out territory, and, as so many had been before him, unable 
from lack of means to confer dignity on the crown ; he 
brought more to the throne than any emperor had ever 
done before. He was the hereditary Prince of Hapsburg, 
possessed the German-Austrian territories, had established 
his claims upon Bohemia and Hungary, which formed a 
territory in the east which even then defined the outlines of 
the present Austrian empire. Besides this, he was heir to 
Burgundy, which his grandmother brought to the Emperor 
Maximilian. It was hard to keep, indeed, but it was a jewel of 
a possession, rich in all that nature and industry can offer, 
covered with the most flourishing cities in the world, now 
that the "glory of the Italian cities was departed. Besides 
this, there was the crown of Spain with its Italian append- 
ages — Naples, Sicily, the islands of Majorca and Minorca, 
and the newly acquired and daily increasing possessions in 



POSITION OF CHARLES. 37 

the New World. No one had ever attained to such power 
before, and Charles was dowered with it while yet in his cradle. 

The mediaeval empire once more blazed up in splendour j 
never before had it had possessions of such magnitude at 
its disposal ; never had a man ruled over it who was so cool 
and sober a calculator, so little of an enthusiast as Charles V. 
In the last moments before its dissolution, medisevalism 
once more put forth all its strength to oppose the spirit of 
the coming times ; yet this colossal power, wielded by such 
a personage, was not able to turn the world aside from the 
course it was taking. 

Both parties viewed the election of Charles with extra- 
vagant hopes. Luther and Hutten, as well as the Curia, 
indulged in great expectations for their cause, and both 
parties forgot Charles's standing in relation to the empire. 
For Charles the imperial throne was only the crowning 
honour of a position which doubtless received an accession 
of glory from it, and yet was without it of great importance. 
His position in the empire, in spite of its splendour, was 
uncertain ; its real significance was dependent on the fluc- 
tuations of party feeling among the princes and the people ; 
his crowns, his inherited dominions, were his permanent 
possessions, without which the imperial crown was but an 
empty name. In one scale lay his imperial dignity, in 
the other his inheritance : should it become necessary to 
balance them, it could not be but that the latter would 
outweigh the former. It was in the nature of this empire, 
composed of various elements, that it must comprise a 
variety of political sentiments. It could not be said that 
these possessions in Italy, Germany, Spain, the Nether- 
lands, in the Mediterranean and beyond the sea, had any 
natural connection. A government based on any homo- 
geneous national policy was impossible. In Spain Charles 
was called a German, in Germany a Spaniard, and both 
were right and both wrong; he was not intimately and 
nationally connected with any one of his dominions ; he 
could not from policy devote himself to any one : the pre- 
scribed construction of the empire forbade it. The German 
princes, therefore, sought to secure themselves against 
Spanish influence, and at a later period complained of 
Spanish tyranny; on the other hand, the Spaniards tried 
to defend themselves from what they called German influ- 
ence and tyranny. That kindly relation of personal good- 



38 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

will which can only exist between a native prince and 
subjects who are also his countrymen was as impossible for 
Charles in Spain and Italy as it was in Germany. It existed, 
to a certain extent, between him and the Netherlands. The 
circumstance of his having been born at Ghent seems to 
have inspired him with some affection for it, but he was a 
foreigner in Spain, and in Germany he understood neither 
the language nor the spirit of the nation. 

All this was the result of circumstances which Charles 
could not alter. The fulfilment ol Fiutten's hopes, especi- 
ally that he would inaugurate his acceptance of the imperial 
crown by restoring the kingdom of Germany, that at the 
head of the nation he would institute reform, and thus win 
back for Germany her lost political, national, and ecclesias- 
tical rank, was rendered impossible by the conditions of 
his power. The moment was certainly a critical one, and 
it was by a rare combination of events that this nation, 
once the most powerful in Europe, distracted by a great 
religious movement, had re-entered into the old struggle 
with Rome in a way which might enable their leader, in 
case he rightly apprehended the tendencies of the people, 
with their aid to create a consolidated power such as 
had never existed in Germany before. It was this that 
occasioned Napoleon I. to say that Charles V. was a fool 
not to take advantage of such a moment to depose the 
ruling princes, upset the papal power, make Germany a 
united state, and thereby the greatest power in the world. 

Napoleon would have done it, but Charles V. was not 
the man ; the idea never entered his head, even had his 
position out of Germany allowed him to entertain it. 

He had no taste for such hazardous games which lead 
either to immortality or to sudden destruction. His strength 
lay in patient perseverance, in the energy with which he 
sought gradually to disentangle perplexing circumstances ; 
but he had nothing of the adventurous spirit which stakes 
everything on one throw. 

Charles V. had grown up in Spain, where Catholicism 
had preserved its life in the greatest freshness and vigour ; 
for up to recent times it had had to maintain its existence 
against Islamism, and by the perpetual crusade against the 
infidel the Church had been preserved from sinking into 
that indolence into which she had sunk elsewhere. A 
Spanish prince who had grown up in such an atmosphere 



CHARLES V. 39 

would bring with him decidedly Catholic sentiments ; he 
might not, perhaps, be confirmed in a rigid faith, but such 
general religious impressions as he had would unconsciously 
take this stamp. This was the case with Charles V. ; but 
other considerations came into play. He regarded the im- 
perial crown as an important lever of his power ; and, in the 
true medieval spirit, he considered it to be closely con- 
nected with the unity of the Church, which he must under 
all circumstances uphold, however she might be constituted 
in other respects. 

From this stand-point he might easily come into collision 
with both the Pope and the Protestants. He disgusted the 
latter when he let them feel his power as Mediseval 
Emperor for rebelling against the unity of the Church ; he 
would quarrel with Rome whenever her secular interests 
interfered with his political schemes. 

In spite of his pronounced Roman Catholic views, he was 
by no means unconditionally submissive to the policy of the 
Church. In the course of the last decades Rome had more 
than ever become a temporal power; Julius II. and Leo X. 
were far more of temporal than spiritual rulers. Rome now 
paid dearly for having been actuated in her policy solely by 
worldly motives, like any other state of Italy ; for, lamentable 
as this might be, it was the fact. It might easily happen 
that Charles V., once so good a son of the Church, might, 
from political reasons, become unfriendly to Rome. Indeed, 
such a case had just occurred, for Rome had exerted herself 
against Charles's election, because at that time very powerful 
princes were dreaded in Italy and in the rest of Europe. 

They had seen through this at the court of Madrid, and 
were at no loss for a counter-stroke. On May 12th, 
1520, Manuel, the Emperor's commissioner, wrote to him : 
" Your Majesty must go to Germany and show some favour 
to a certain Martin Luther, who is to be found at the 
court of Saxony, and is a cause of some anxiety to the 
court of Rome from the things which he preaches." 

Charles's mode of looking at things was exclusively 
political, and the aim of his education had been to make 
it so. He had had no real youth, and was wanting in the 
elasticity and spirits which are characteristic of that period 
of life. The pupil of the cold Burgundian-Spanish school 
was destitute of every youthful trait; but in diplomacy, 
which was his calling, he surpassed many of the maturest 



40 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

princes of Europe. In his circle religious matters were 
regarded with great indifference. People permitted them- 
selves to say very bad things about the Church and the 
Papacy, while they earnestly desired .that the people should 
retain their very useful superstitions, but did not imagine 
it possible that men's minds could ever be deeply affected 
by such things ; in fact, they were as completely strangers to 
the real nature of religion as were the proud and worldly 
dignitaries of the Church. It was in this that the funda- 
mental error of Charles's policy lay with regard to the great 
question of the age. He made his calculations in a won- 
derful manner ; in the long labour of a lifetime he cast up 
everything figure by figure ; but one thing he could not dis- 
cover, the logarithm for the religious commotions of his time. 
He could not comprehend them ; he thought a monk might 
be set up like a puppet, and then be suffered to fall down 
again; he once even imagined that the matter could be 
settled with a few thousand dollars. This narrowness of 
view, combined with his otherwise magnificent diplomatic 
virtuosoship, is exceedingly remarkable, and it occasioned 
his fall. It was this that occasioned the greatest power 
which the world had seen to suffer shipwreck in the tumults 
of the age stirred up by a single monk. It was with the 
feeling of his powerlessness against this unknown something 
that Charles abdicated and went into a monastery. 

A man may be an eminent personage and have powerful 
means at his disposal, but if he does not comprehend the 
ideas of his time, if he does not with his whole soul take 
one side or the other, he will be an alien in a world where 
a man must be either hammer or anvil, and he will not 
escape the fate of Charles V. The well-known story of 
the two clocks well illustrates his position ; at all events, 
he may have so spoken and acted, for it was in accordance 
with his character. 

The character and policy of Charles V. cannot be defined 
with a word. A multitude of contradictory ideas and 
qualities were jumbled together in his mind. His position 
as Prince of Burgundy, hereditary Prince of Hapsburg, as 
King of Spain, and Emperor of Germany, gave him a 
number of complicated problems to solve, and they were 
decided in favour of one interest or another, according to 
the number of the factors. He was never influenced by any 
but external motives in his decisions, and this was his ruin. 



CHARLES V. 41 

It was in the nature of things that it should be so. 
None of those who approached him with great hopes 
appreciated the necessities imposed upon him ; but for us 
this complication of circumstances had tragic results. An 
emperor had appeared once more with a dazzling position 
in Europe, but his heart was a stranger to the thoughts 
that were agitating Germany ; he did not even understand 
the language of the nation whose patriots were looking 
to him for the prosperity of their country; and thus the 
empire again became the sport of European complications, 
the fate of the nation was again enchained to aims and 
enterprises which had nothing to do with her future. 



CHArTER IV. 

The Diet of Worms, Spring of 152 1. — Agreement between the 
Emperor and the Pope. — Negotiations about Luther. — The Man- 
date of 8th — 26th May, 152 1. — Growth of the Regal Power in 
France under Francis I., 1515-47. — His Domestic and Foreign 
Policy. — The First War, 1521-26. 

The Diet of Worms, April and May, 1521. — Agree- 
ment BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR. — NE- 
GOTIATIONS about Luther.— The Mandate of May. 

ROME had exhausted her weapons against Luther ; the 
papal ban had fallen powerless to the ground ; unless 
the Emperor interfered, the cause of the Curia was lost. 

The young Emperor now came to Germany for the first 
time to arrange the details of the election contract at the 
Diet, and at the same time to speak the decisive word 
on the question of Church reform. This latter task was 
peculiarly difficult. On the one hand, the unity of the 
Catholic Church must be maintained, yet the abuses within 
her, of which even his own confessor Glapion thought 
seriously, must be remedied. On the other hand, the 
clamorous demands of the Germans must be satisfied. 
They had been asking for reform for centuries, and it 
could scarcely be any longer denied ; yet it must be so 
carried out that, if possible, the whole nation should share 
in the benefit of it : in short, Charles was to carry out 
reform in such a manner that neither the unity of the 
Church nor that of the nation should suffer. Everything 
else that devolved upon him at the Diet was thrown com- 
pletely into the shade by this task. 

But he was met at the outset by the unfortunate fact, 
that he had no clear comprehension of the situation, nor of 
the importance of the commotion in Germany; and a new 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 43 

combination of his worldly plans and the Romish policy 
had just arisen, which might determine his course on the 
German question. A war with France was threatened, 
about the old question of claims to Northern Italy: in such 
a war it would be of the greatest moment for the Emperor 
to have the Pope, the most distinguished ruler of Italy, on 
his side. The Church party saw plainly that nothing could 
be accomplished in Germany without the Emperor, and so 
they met each other half-way. 

They came to a preliminary agreement which amounted 
to this : the Pope is to support the Emperor in Italy 
against France, and in return the Emperor is to help to 
put an end to heresy in Germany.* 

This was not in accordance with the duty or the position 
of the German Emperor ; it was far, indeed, from acknow- 
ledging the nation's right to Church reform, while saving 
it from a religious schism. It was a case, at this first 
momentous crisis, in which the domestic interests of the 
Hapsburg-Spanish house were allowed to triumph over the 
most sacred interests of the nation. It was a course which 
bitterly revenged itself on Charles. What would he not 
have given, nine years later, could he but have bought this 
moment back ! Both parties were then looking to him ; 
both were ready to abide by his decision, if it were practi- 
cable and reasonable. Had he taken the right course, 
he would have had far more power at his disposal than 
he could ever acquire by the most dexterous intrigues 
with Rome. The evil consequences of the error of 1 5 2 1 
cannot be over-estimated. 

Charles had in the main arrived at a decision before 
the Diet assembled. The Diet, therefore, was a court whose 
sentence was ready before the parties had been heard ; the 
Emperor had made up his mind that, to please the Pope, 
he must put an end to heresy. 

Charles did not perceive that this was impossible, even 
at the cost of a civil war, for his thoughts were beyond 
the Alps ; he had turned his back upon the German business 
before he had publicly taken it in hand. The Edict of 
Worms was, therefore, not only an injustice, because it 
pronounced sentence upon a question which had never 
been honestly investigated ; it was also an error, for by it 

• There was no formal agreement till May 8th, 1521. See Ranke. 



44 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

a most valuable opportunity was lost, and the imperial 
authority was as much weakened by it as the papal authority 
had been by a bull that nobody heeded. 

From the immense popular interest excited by the citation 
of the Wittenberg monk, it was plain that the nation cared 
for nothing so much as for this question. Luther felt this, 
and determined to go to Worms before he knew whether 
safe-conduct would be granted him or not. He set aside 
every suggestion of recantation, and was ready joyfully to 
give his life for his convictions. He wrote to Spalatin, 
who was negotiating with him on behalf of the Emperor 
and the Elector : — " If it should ever be that I should be 
delivered up, not only to the high priests, but also to the 
heathen, the Lord's will be done. I hereby give you my 
advice and opinion : you may expect everything from me, 
only not that I shall flee or recant ; I shall not flee, far 
less recant, so surely as my Lord Jesus strengthens me, for 
I can do neither the one nor the other without danger to 
godliness and the salvation of many." And in another letter 
to the same he says : — " If his Majesty calls me to account 
so that I am ruined, and am looked upon on account of my 
answer as an enemy to the empire, still I am ready to 
come. For I have no intention of fleeing, nor of leaving 
the Word in danger, but I mean to confess it unto death 
so far as Christ's grace sustains me ! But I am certain 
that the bloodhounds will not rest till they have put me to 
death." 

Luther felt to the full the responsibility of the steps he 
had taken ; he thought it doubtful whether the Emperor's 
safe-conduct would protect him ; he knew the fate of Huss 
well ; but he knew also that to go back would be to con- 
demn himself and ruin the object he had in view, and he 
therefore acted with all that fearless courage with which his 
good conscience and trust in God inspired him. The juxta- 
position of affairs was this : on the one hand, political 
calculation, which thought it had taken everything into 
account, and yet failed ; on the other, manly faithfulness 
to conviction, which did not weigh or calculate, but acted 
with the feeling that the future depended upon it. The 
Edict of Worms was torn in pieces a few days after it was 
issued ; the simple man in a cowl, who went to Worms with 
the feeling that he would rather die than flee, belonged 
henceforth to the world's history. 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 45 

The court was conducted with great pomp, but all its 
solemn apparatus was an empty pageant ; for, however the 
accused might defend himself, the sentence had been already 
arranged with Rome. 

On the first day, the 17 th of April, the style of his defence 
was embarrassed. The sight of this great assemblage 
of dignitaries of the empire and Church abashed the 
monk, who, as we have seen, still found it difficult to sur- 
mount his timidity in the pulpit. He spoke low, often 
scarcely intelligibly ; and it was not till near the close of 
the second hearing that he regained facility of utterance 
and the full power of his voice. There was something 
rustic and unaffected in his mode of speaking ; he had 
nothing of the diplomatic polish which the strangers among 
the audience might have expected, but his bearing was 
thoroughly firm and unyielding. He maintained that no- 
thing but the plain words of Holy Scripture, no threat 
nor power should induce him to recant, and exclaimed, 
" Here I stand ; I can do no otherwise ; God help me ! 
Amen." 

The Spaniards present could not comprehend how so 
insignificant an individual, who displayed so little talent 
or learning, should have caused such a scandal in Germany, 
and Charles V. exclaimed, "The monk would not make 
a heretic of me." 

But the German princes, Frederic the Wise, Eric of 
Brunswick, and Philip of Hesse, were proud of their 
countryman, and agreed that he had stood out bravely for 
his convictions against all objections and threats. By 
their advice he took his departure immediately after the 
hearing at Worms ; they did not think it safe for him to 
linger; the Elector Frederic even thought it needful to 
place him in safety by a nocturnal surprise, and to with- 
draw him for a time from the eyes of the world. 

The rest of the Diet was occupied with transactions of 
a different kind, and it did not appear as if any steps would 
be taken about the h«resy, when, on the 25th of May, the 
Emperor had the princes who were still present suddenly 
summoned, to submit for their approval the decree which 
had been prepared concerning Luther. Many of the 
representatives were r.o longer present, particularly those 
from whom opposition might be expected ; but in order to 
make the world believe that the decision had been arrived 



46 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

at in the presence of all the princes, the prudent pre- 
caution was taken of dating the decree, of which nobody had 
heard till the 25th, back to the 8th. This artifice of the 
Papal Nuncio, Alexander, showed that his party were not 
sure of their ground, and were obliged to smuggle in a 
sentence which a fortnight before they could not have hoped 
to carry. The decree thus obtained was signed by the 
Emperor on the 26th of May, and pronounced upon Luther, 
his friends, followers, and patrons, a sentence of ban and 
double ban, and condemned his works to be burned. The 
sentence enumerates all Luther's heresies, and then says : — 

" Thus this individual, not a man, but one like the evil 
one in human form, under a monk's cowl, has gathered 
together in one stinking mass a number of heretics who 
have been long concealed, and hold most damnable heresies ; 
and he has even devised some fresh ones under pretence of 
preaching faith, which he has so assiduously made every 
one believe, in order that he may destroy the real true 
faith, and under the name and guise of evangelical doctrine, 
put an end to all evangelical peace, and love, and all good 
order." 

The proceedings at Worms are then related; how, in 
spite of all admonitions, " which might have moved and 
softened the most obdurate man, even had he been 
harder than stone," "he had refused to recant," and with 
u those unbecoming words and gestures which in no way 
beseem any thoughtful ecclesiastic of good repute, openly 
declared that he would not alter a word in his books." 

Safe-conduct was granted to Luther for twenty days after 
his departure : after this, that is, after the 14th of May, it 
was forbidden under severe penalties " to give the aforesaid 
Luther house or home, food, drink, or shelter, to afford 
him help or countenance, openly or secretly, by words 
or actions." He is rather to be secured and given up 
wherever he may be found. In conclusion, measures were 
taken against the printing and printers of his works. 

Thus, after a blow had been struck at heresy by the 
ecclesiastical ban, it was sentenced to death by the 
secular ban of the empire. The Lutheran heresy was to 
be exterminated by all the weapons of the temporal power, 
so it was stated in the edict of the 26th of May. But the 
edict shared the fate of the papal bull. Nobody heeded it. 
Two years later the Diet came to a precisely contrary resolu- 



GROWTH OF POWER IN FRANCE. 47 

tion ; and after nine years, the Emperor, on his return, 
found that the disturbance, instead of being quelled, had 
attained gigantic proportions. The opportunity of 1521 
did not occur again. It was a misfortune for the Emperor, 
but it was also a misfortune for our nation ; it suffers from 
it to this day. 

Growth of the Regal Power in France.* 

It was the impending war with France that mainly 
induced Charles to treat the German reform question in 
such a manner as to please the power on whose support he 
was relying in Italy. The struggle in Northern Italy now 
began which occupied the Emperor for almost a generation, 
and completed the estrangement between him and the 
Germans. These tedious complications were a great help 
to the Reformation ; but France was even then beginning 
to acquire that power and unity as a state which were so 
fatal to Germany and Europe in the seventeenth century. 

We linger for a time over the growth of the French 
power, in order that we may understand the causes of sub- 
sequent developments. 

The internal constitution of France was essentially dif- 
ferent from that of Germany. Both countries had originally 
belonged to the Carlovingian empire, but both had separated 
from it at an early period. The character of the nations 
differed too widely. 

While the tendency of public life in Germany during 
the course of centuries has increasingly been towards the 
manifold forms of individuality, and the old Germanic 
spirit of liberty has asserted itself, in France we may observe 
the tendency of the Romanic nations to submit with more 
facility to great organizations.! 

In France, or in the west of France, there was no thought 

* Ranke, " French History." 

t Thus broadly stated, I do not consider this distinction just, though 
it is frequently made. The consequences of our want of political unity 
are too often taken for the causes. That spirit of individuality which 
is inimical to the State was no less strongly developed among the great 
men of France in the Middle Ages than among the Germans, and I see 
no difference between the loyalty of the French citizen class and the 
loyalty of the German cities to the Emperor which is at all to the dis- 
advantage of the latter. But in France the highest powers in the 
State knew better who were their natural allies than they did in 
Germany. — Ed. 



48 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

of resistance to Charlemagne, for ever since the battle of 
Alesia the people were accustomed to renounce their 
individual liberties and to submit to a monarchical govern- 
ment. There was a centralizing tendency in the tastes of 
the people earlier than there was in Germany. There were, 
indeed, greater and lesser vassals, even independent princes, 
in comparison with whom the impotence of the sovereign 
was painfully obvious, but the national characteristics were 
different from ours, and prevented the divisions of territories 
and families from destroying unity, as has been the case 
with us. 

After the end of the tenth century came that manly 
though not highly gifted race of the Capets, who, favoured by 
fortune, went quietly to work, step by step, to found the 
monarchy. Germany was also distinguished from France 
by this, that in the former the principle of election was in 
favour, which is incompatible with a solid government, while 
in France a hereditary monarchy was early established 
without difficulty. 

France thus had a people disposed for, and for centuries 
trained to, monarchical unity, and a hereditary dynasty 
which therefore had not always, like the German kings, to 
make a fresh start ; then they had long reigns, from forty 
to fifty years, which were admirably adapted to accustom 
the people to transitions to new orders of things ; and 
France was much more favourably situated geographically. 

It was open on the eastern side ; none of the country to 
the east, from the Rhone to Flanders and Artois, belonged 
to France till a much later period; but the rest was 
admirably fitted by nature for one united state, bounded 
as it was by the Pyrenees on the south, and by the sea on 
the two other sides. 

But Germany, which might have had, although she never 
had, a southern boundary in the Alps, really had a good 
boundary on the north side only, in the North Sea and the 
Baltic ; on the east and west she always had to guard an 
insecure and ill-defined frontier. The Germany of to-day 
was only conquered late in the Middle Ages, and the Elbe, 
which now flows through its centre, was then its boundary. 

Then the position of France, though not a brilliant one, 
involved no European complications. The kingdom of 
Germany was united to the empire, whose glory had been 
dearly bought, and whose foreign policy was always interfered 



GROWTH OF POWER IN FRANCE. 49 

with and rendered uncertain by the slow processes of the 
internal administrative system. Germany had to thank her 
perpetual wars with Italy for this state of things, in which, 
for whole generations, the best blood of Germany had been 
shed for no good purpose ; and, finally, there was the 
great conflict with the Church, which the King of Germany 
had to fight out alone because he was also Emperor. 
While in the eleventh century Germany was subject to 
fearful convulsions, France was pursuing the even tenor 
of her way, and, unmolested by any foreign or especially 
Roman influence, she was in a far better position for setting 
her house in order. This is why the struggle between 
Church and State in France was never so vehement as 
in Germany ; on the contrary, they worked together against 
the system of secular vassalage. 

The first of the Capets was, like the rest, a duke, and 
not even one of the most powerful ; but the gradual 
extension of the dukedom by means of the confiscation of 
expired or forfeited fiefs was much easier than in Germany, 
where the principalities had a strong leaning to particular 
dynasties, while in France no one raised a finger against 
confiscation. The divisions of the empire which have been 
so fatal in Germany, the custom of granting principalities 
to faithful vassals or near relatives, was unknown in France : 
the French princes remained merely princes. Once only 
was a principality bestowed on a relative : by this the 
Duchy of Burgundy was created, but its rulers, Philip 
the Good and Charles the Bold, entirely forgot that they 
were vassals of France, which served to teach the kings 
not to depart from their ancient policy. 

Thus the period of the Crusades found France in a more 
settled state than any other country of the Continent, and 
the nation entered into the movement with real enthusiasm. 
The romantic and adventurous character of it fascinated 
the nation, and the kings headed these national enterprises, 
although they did not offer much prospect of gain to France ; 
but the kingdom derived this great advantage from them, 
that they provided an outlet for the superfluous energies 
of the high aristocracy, who more and more disappeared 
from the scene. Thus as early as in the thirteenth century, 
while the kingdom of Germany, in perpetual conflict with 
the Principalities and the Church, was making no progress, 
the French kingdom was advancing rapidly towards unity ; 



50 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

and St. Louis, who as a cavalier and good son of the 
Church was a genuine Frenchman, was diligently and suc- 
cessfully employed in founding a monarchy which should 
outlive the storms of time. 

Then came the severe test of the long war with Eng- 
land, in which two aristocracies tore each other to pieces 
for nothing. England repeatedly had her kings proclaimed 
at Paris, and no decisive result took place until the French 
people were roused and asserted their independence with 
the sword. 

This took place under Charles VII., from 1421 — 61. 
He was one of those far-sighted, cautious, agreeable people 
who accomplish a great deal by patience, perseverance, 
amiability, and good-nature, and often easily attain an 
object which much more talented men find it very difficult 
to reach by an attitude of defiance. 

After a foreign war which had lasted a century, and 
had developed into a civil war, a royal dictatorship was 
most necessary; it gave the State peace, legal protection, 
power, and unity ; and Charles VII. understood his mission : 
he was thoroughly a king, like Louis IX. He did not dis- 
grace his victory over the city of Paris by any acts of 
revenge : for the first time during this long struggle the 
supremacy of one resulted in reconciliation to the rest, 
instead of fresh subjection. The Pragmatic Sanction, which 
was solemnly confirmed by the French clergy at Bourges 
in 1438, secured the national Church of France against 
illegal gifts of benefices and extortions by the court of 
Rome, and the new parliament, removed from Poictiers to 
Paris, became the centre of the regal administration of 
justice, and preserved France from all encroachments of 
ecclesiastical power. At a meeting of the States at Orleans, 
in 1439, the lawless paid troops of the nobles were dis- 
banded, and the right of maintaining a paid army, and of 
levying a tax for the purpose, delegated to the king alone.* 

Thus were laid the foundations of the modern mo- 
narchical military system and political economy. And all 
this was amicably accomplished by one man with the aid of 
the country itself. What Charles VII. had thus slowly and 
cautiously established was carried on with far greater energy 
by his son. 

• Ranke. 



GROWTH OF POWER IN FRANCE. 5 1 

Louis XI. was a tyrannical character, after the pattern 
of the Italian statesmen of the fifteenth century, hardened 
in all the unscrupulousness and rudeness of the age, and 
when they served his purpose he did not shrink from the 
most frightful crimes. 

Louis XL (1461 — 83) had again to defend what his 
family had laboured so hard to acquire from a revolt of 
all the great vassals, under the greatest of them, Charles 
the Bold of Burgundy, in 1465. After suffering defeat at 
first, Louis triumphed finally over the dynasty: with the 
help of the Swiss he utterly vanquished Charles and his 
proud domain. This at once brought^Picardy and Burgundy 
under his sway, and no one ventured to oppose when 
he added Guienne and Provence to the crown. He was 
utterly unscrupulous as to the means he employed in his 
struggle with the great nobles ; but the citizens and peasantry 
sided with him, for he confirmed their ancient provincial 
rights and conferred new privileges on the cities. In one 
place he was ready to convoke the States; in another 
he allowed the citizens to meet and choose their own 
officials; and to the peaceable inhabitants of town and 
country he gave the benefits of an impartial administration 
of justice by the parliamentary judges, who could not be 
dismissed. In spite of his execrable private character 
and his utter want of moral greatness, France justly con- 
siders him one of the most meritorious founders of her unity 
as a state. 

Thus, at the close of the fifteenth century, a powerful 
monarchy existed in France, not as yet unlimited, but 
moderated by law and usage : still it was a royal dictator- 
ship of extraordinary power. 

Francis L, 1515-47. — Internal and Foreign Policy. 

Francis I. had succeeded to the monarchy in 1515. 
He had at once distinguished himself on his accession to 
power by asserting the claims of his predecessors in Italy, 
gained the victory at Marignano (September, 151 5) in a 
rapid campaign, and took Milan, by which he acquired a 
more brilliant reputation than he was able to maintain. 

In his internal policy, all the principles which afterwards 
actuated the kings and statesmen of France may already 
be recognised. He tries to free the monarchical power 



52 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

from all limits from within : a sole monarchy being esta- 
blished, his aim now was to make it absolute. One of his first 
acts was the Concordat with Rome in 151,6, which sacrificed 
a portion of the liberties of the Gallican Church to the 
Pope, but it gave the Kirfg in return boundless influence 
over the Church in France. 

At the great councils of the fifteenth century France 
had succeeded in preserving the peculiar rights of her 
national Church, which Germany had also ardently longed 
to do, but in which, thanks to her political disruption, she 
had not succeeded. The Council at Bourges, 1483, had 
proclaimed the freedom of the Gallican Church by the 
Pragmatic Sanction. The Church government of France, 
her episcopal system, her general position in relation to 
Rome, had become more independent than that of any 
other country, and the odious custom of the distribution of 
benefices according to the arbitrary will of the court of 
Rome was abolished. But Rome did not easily sub- 
mit to this : having defrauded Germany of her promised 
liberties, the hope was not given up of reinstating the old 
state of things in France. In the Concordat of 1516, the 
King, who was above all things desirous of a reconciliation 
with the Pope, succeeded in obtaining some important de- 
cisions of the Pragmatic Sanction relating to the superiority 
of councils to the Pope, the papal supremacy, and annats ; 
but the King did not yield these points for nothing ; the 
Church had to indemnify him abundantly, and grant him 
the right of presentation to an enormous extent. According 
to French accounts, France had then ten archbishoprics, 
eighty-three bishoprics, five hundred and twenty-seven 
abbacies ; and the King obtained the right, under merely 
nominal limits, of nominating the holders of all these 
offices, who had previously been elected. 

It was conceded to Rome that the Gallican Church 
should give up a portion of her liberties, and the King 
assumed the right of nomination at the expense of the 
elective right of the clergy — a privilege which gave him 
enormous resources for providing for followers, granting 
favours, and making the Church an institution entirely 
devoted to himself. Whether this was an advantage to 
the Church we shall see by-and-by. 

It is a fundamental principle of French rule to nominate 
to as many posts as possible from one centre, in order to 



FRANCIS I. 53 

provide for as many dependants as possible. This system 
has been pursued ever since the time of Francis L, under 
the old regime, the Republic, the Empire, the Restora- 
tion, the Government of July, and the second Empire. 

A second innovation was the plan of selling legal and 
administrative offices. 

Each of the ancient crown lands had a parliament, or 
superior court, and during the second half of the fifteenth 
century, in 1444 and 1501, parliaments were granted to 
the new provinces also. By introducing the custom of 
selling places in these parliaments, Francis I. attained two 
objects : he suppressed the provincial spirit which reigned 
in these courts, and superseded it by the submissive spirit 
of members who were dependent on the crown j and it 
created a great source of income, which, together with the 
increased military tax, raised his revenues to a sum far 
above that of any other prince. 

Besides the sale of the judicial places, there was the sale 
of offices of every sort, the number of which was im- 
mensely increased, to the great advantage of the royal 
coffers. The annual income from this source is estimated at 
four hundred thousand francs. But these novel practices 
gave rise to opposition, and the parliaments protested. This 
showed what the royal authority could venture to do even 
then. Francis I. behaved as imperiously as Louis XIV. 
afterwards did, when he entered the parliament whip in 
hand. Francis told the malcontents that he gave them 
twenty-four hours to consider, and if they would not then 
submit he would have them imprisoned; and so little 
independent spirit was there, that they actually submitted. 

As may be supposed, the relation of Francis to the 
religious questions of the day was a perfectly simple one : his 
sentiments on these subjects were as frivolous as those of all 
the dignitaries of both Church and State at that period, and 
his life and morals were a pasquinade upon all religion. 
He regarded the subject in a purely political light, and said 
to himself, " Protestantism, in the shape it takes in France, 
makes a division in the nation ; it destroys the unity of 
the monarchy. Calvinism, indeed, has a strong democratic 
element in it ; it is based upon the principle of self-govern- 
ment and individual independence ; it is therefore an enemy 
to be resisted to the utmost." Catholicism, in fact, signified 
national unity in France, which had developed into the 



54 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

essential characteristic of the monarchy, and every other 
consideration had to give way to it. 

But this did not prevent Francis from being a warm 
friend and ally of Protestantism in Germany, though he 
burnt and persecuted its adherents in France ; the policy 
which suffered no schism at "home found it very judicious 
to foment it with all its might abroad. Indeed Francis I. 
was so free from any mediaeval prejudices that he did 
things which no Christian of those times could think of 
without horror. On one point, in spite of its national and 
dogmatic schisms, all Christendom was agreed — that the 
Turk was the hereditary enemy of Christendom, and that 
it must prepare for a fresh crusade to repulse the roughest 
and most degenerate race of Turks that had settled not 
only in Asia, but also in Europe. In face of this common 
enemy religious differences disappeared, even in Germany. 
When the Turks approached and threatened Vienna, there 
was a general call to arms, which was eagerly obeyed both 
by Catholics and Protestants. 

But for Francis I. the Turk was only a political factor, 
like Protestantism in Germany and Calvinism in France. 
The Turkish difficulty was a millstone which might be hung 
round the neck of the Hapsburger to insure peace and quiet 
in the West. The King did indeed bear the title of Rex 
Christianissimus, but on this point he had no conscience. 
The French, who now first broke with the Middle Ages, 
have always kept to this policy of setting the Osman upon 
Germany, that they themselves might grasp at the Rhine. 

All the features of the domestic and foreign policy of 
modern France now begin to be discernible. The monarchy, 
absolute and strictly centralized, is bent upon foreign con- 
quest. 

The attempt of Francis I. to obtain the imperial crown 
introduced him at once into the vortex of foreign politics. 
He had no delusions on the subject of the real power 
conferred by the imperial crown. Still the name and glory 
of it excited his ambition. It never occurred to him to 
wish to rule in Germany as he did in France ; he did not 
covet any more intimate connection with the chaotic 
elements of the German constitution ; but it would have 
been quite enough for him, and would have justified his 
being a candidate, from the French point of view, to have 
exercised a little authority as Protector of the Confedera- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 52 I -26. 55 

tion of the Rhine, and thus to exert a legitimate French 
influence over the west of Germany, and avert the rise of 
a formidable rival power. 

This would have made Francis I. an opponent of any 
German emperor, especially of one with such a patrimony 
as Charles V. Two such powers could not have existed 
side by side, even had they been less directly brought into 
contact. France was always striving to obtain a natural 
boundary on the east and north-east as weil as on the 
south, but Charles V. was ever in his way: in one case 
as inheritor of the Duchy of Burgundy, the confiscation of 
which by Louis XI. he of course did not acknowledge ; in 
the other, as King of Spain, whose natural Pyrenean 
boundary was not then exactly the boundary of France. 
This alone rendered it certain that a collision would sooner 
or later take place. 

The outbreak occurred in Northern Italy. The houses of 
Valois and Hapsburg made equal claims upon the ancient 
imperial territories of Milan and Genoa, and this was 
their first battle-field. 

Thus arose the great war of 1521-26, which neither 
answered the King's expectations nor added to his fame. 

Campaign of 1521-26. 

The contest began at the end of 1520 in Navarra. This 
campaign is only interesting from the fact that it was at 
the defence of Pampeluna against the French that Ignatius 
Loyola received the wound which led to his renouncing 
this world's chivalry and devoting himself to spiritual 
warfare. 

At first, in 1521 and 1522, fortune favoured Charles V. 
In spite of the faithlessness of the Confederation, which at 
first placed all its infantry at the disposal of the Emperor 
and the Pope, and then suffered them to be diverted by 
French money, the allied armies were everywhere successful. 
On the 27th April, 1522, the Swabian vassals, under the 
^imperial Captain George Frundsberg, supported by Spanish 
and Italian auxiliaries, defeated the Swiss and French 
troops at Bicocca, and the whole of Milan again came into 
the hands of Francesco Sforza, who acknowledged the 
Emperor as feudal sovereign. As the Swiss returned home 
and the French gave up the campaign for lost, Genoa 



56 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

could no longer be held, and thus in a few months the 
Emperor became master of the whole of Northern Italy. 

Meanwhile the position of European affairs had become 
extremely favourable for Charles V. Francis stood quite 
alone, and was threatened with internal divisions. England 
sided with the Emperor, and the papal policy and his own 
were closely united. 

Leo X. died in December, 1521, and his ally the Emperor 
found no difficulty in exerting a strong influence over the 
election of his successor ; his former tutor, Cardinal von 
Utrecht, was made Pope. He was a strict and simple 
monk, brought monastic discipline, in its best sense, to 
the Holy See, and in this spirit he was ready to promote a 
reform in the Church. Dogmatically he maintained the 
old doctrines of the Church ; but upon the necessity for 
improvement in the lives and conduct of the ecclesiastics 
he was of the same opinion as the Reformers. The 
short reign of this pope is especially instructive as bearing 
on the question how far it was possible to carry out reform 
in and with Rome. We shall recur to this again. 

In politics the Pope was entirely submissive to his pupil. 
Francis I. could not hope for any advancement of his 
cause from this quarter any more than from his arms. A 
catastrophe then happened in France itself, which appeared 
to promise unexampled success to the Emperor. The system 
of vassalage, the great feudal power which seemed to have 
been for ever abolished by Louis XL, once more rose up 
against the King, and with a sufficiently threatening aspect, 
though it had but one formidable representative. 

A relation of the royal house on the paternal side, not 
only the most distinguished man in the kingdom, next to 
the King, but also the most wealthy, the Constable Charles 
of Bourbon, took the side of the enemies of Francis. 

In the thirteenth century St. Louis had married one of 
his sons to a wealthy heiress, who brought to her husband 
the territory of Bourbon. The last of the Bourbons, Duke 
Peter, had no male heir ; his daughter Susanna was his 
heiress, and Louis XII. gave her in marriage to the prince 
of the younger line, Count Charles of Montpensier. By 
this marriage he received no less than two principalities, 
two duchies, four earldoms, two viscounties, seven consider- 
able territories, and an almost regal income. As a relation 
of the reigning house he acquired the office of Constable, 



CAMPAIGN OF 1521-26. 57 

and might even one day aspire to the crown. This con- 
tingency, which then appeared somewhat distant, soon 
really happened to the other Bourbon line. It then 
appeared extremely improbable that of all Francis's sons 
only Henry II., whose children died early, would survive 
him. 

The character of Charles of Bourbon was entirely different 
from that of Francis I. Better acquainted with serious busi- 
ness, less devoted to the frivolous arts and pleasures of the 
court, not only a brave soldier but an experienced general, 
not a rash Hotspur upon the battle-field like the King, pos- 
sessing cool, calculating, far-sighted ambition, he was a man 
whose personal qualities made him greatly his superior. 

Favoured at first by the King, he was afterwards ne- 
glected, and after the death of his childless wife Susanna 
they were at open enmity. The Queen-mother, as niece of 
Duke Peter, wanted to deprive him of his possessions. It 
came to a trial and a rupture, and in August, 1522, Charles 
applied to the Emperor and to Henry VIII. of England to 
help him to become independent of Francis. 

There were great expectations from such revolts, which, 
when the system of vassalage was still in its vigour and was 
supported by a sentiment of historical clanship, were often 
successful; but this was not then the state of things in 
France, where the instinct of nationality and loyalty to the 
regal government already prevailed over every other con- 
sideration. At first the affair had a formidable aspect, for it 
appeared as if a long train of retainers would follow the 
most powerful noble in the kingdom. Bourbon had pro- 
mised ten thousand infantry if the allies would attack the 
country in three places simultaneously. But, in truth, all 
that resulted from it was that the Emperor acquired in 
Charles a brave general, who was condemned as a ruler in 
France from the moment when he called in the aid of foreign 
arms. The kingdom gained more than it lost by this cir- 
cumstance. The whole enterprise which was built upon 
the revolt failed. The scheme had been to carry the war 
iirto the heart of France, to excite all malcontents to take 
up arms against the King, and to divide the kingdom into 
two parts ; but the German, Dutch, and Spanish troops who 
invaded Champagne, Picardy, and Languedoc, found no 
support anywhere, and when, in the summer of 1524, 
Bourbon himself led an army, consisting of German, 



58 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

Spanish, and Italian troops, into Provence, it was only with 
difficulty that town after town was taken, and while the 
assailants were losing precious time over the fruitless siege 
of Marseilles, France was making immense sacrifices ior 
the very princes against whom the revolt had been made. 
Thus the failure of this ^campaign and the awakening of a 
national instinct in France changed the military aspect of 
affairs in favour of King Francis. 

In spite of his victories, the Emperor was not in a position 
to carry on the war long without a decisive result. He fully 
experienced the curse of hireling troops. The Swiss, who 
were dependent on the policy of their cantons, were twice 
recalled, desertion affected the rest on a large scale, and 
nothing availed to prevent it. The German vassals alone 
remained true to him, and these were commanded by brave 
and trusty generals, who did not fail the Emperor even 
when he was short of money. 

Under the impression of the recent turn of affairs, 
Francis I. had applied to the people for aid, and an ex- 
traordinary war-tax was granted him voluntarily by the 
towns and extorted from the clergy and nobles. With 
these means he had assembled a new and brilliant army, 
and in the winter of 1524-5 it had crossed the Alps and 
advanced into the plains of Lombardy. Francis drove 
the imperial troops before him, and everything appeared 
to be in his favour when, on the 24th of February, 1525, 
the imperialists resolved to give battle at Pavia, for their 
only chance was starvation or a decisive encounter. They 
relied upon the superior generalship of Pescara and Frunds- 
berg, the tough resistance of the German troops, and the 
fearful effect of their hooked arquebuses ; and they were 
right. The mail-clad French knighthood fought valiantly, 
Francis at their head, always in the thickest of the fight, 
and forgetting the part of commander in that of a cavalier. 
For an hour and a half the combat continued; first the 
German vassals, from Guelders and Lorraine, in the right 
wing of the French, were cut down by their imperial coun- 
trymen ; then the centre, composed of the knights in coats 
of mail and the Swiss, was broken, and the army thereby 
almost annihilated : the King himself was taken prisoner. 
Peace was now inevitable, and Charles V., as victor, was in 
a position to dictate the terms. 

Charles was then at Madrid, and was so little prepared 



RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 50. 

for victory that from every messenger he expected news 
of defeat. He is said to have received the news of the 
brilliant victory of Pavia with indescribable emotion ; the 
revulsion of feeling affected him deeply. 

Thus the result of Charles's campaign was entirely dif- 
ferent from what the world expected. At the beginning 
of the contest there was a general opinion that Francis 
would be the victor. The abilities of the chivalrous King 
as a commander were greatly overrated, and the means 
and talents of the youthful Emperor undervalued. The 
French had not one victorious day during the whole cam- 
paign, and the victor of Marignano was a prisoner in 
Charles's camp. 

The five years of war were very decisive for the position 
of Charles : they, to a certain extent, gave him a place in 
the world's opinion. It had before been said that he was 
nothing but the heir of his forefathers ; that opinion was 
now changed. He had certainly had more good fortune than 
he had shown personal prowess; but in the arrangement 
of the whole, and in the selection of those under him, he 
had shown talents for which he had not before been given 
credit. He was no longer the insignificant Burgundian 
prince to whom birth and destiny had assigned an un- 
merited importance ; he now really assumed the dignity of 
a world-wide empire with which he had previously only 
seemed to be invested by a strange caprice of fortune. 

This campaign made a pause, during which the Reforma- 
tion movement went on in peace, unmolested by any edict 
of the Church or exercise of imperial power. 



v 



CHAPTER V. 

The Situation of Germany during the absence of Charles V. — Luthei 

in the Wartburg. — The Translation of the Bible and its Signifi- 
cance. — Luther and the Radicals at Wittenberg. — The Eight 
Sermons against Carlstadt, March, 1522. — Luther's cause before 
the Imperial Chamber and the Diet of Nuremberg, 1522-23. 
— The Resolution of January 13th, 1523. — The One Hundred 
Gravamina. — The Decree about the Preaching of the Gospel. 

Germany during the absence of Charles V. — Luther 
in the Wartburg. — The Translation of the 
Bible and its Significance. 

WHEN Luther left Worms, before sentence was pro- 
nounced, he was seized by the vassals of Frederic 
the Wise and taken to the Wartburg. In taking this pre- 
cautionary measure, which Luther does not seem at first 
to have understood, the Elector was providing against the 
possibility of things coming to the worst. In the mood in 
which Germany then was, Luther had in reality little to 
fear ; no one had any inclination to employ the temporal 
power to enforce the Edict of Worms. If Luther could not 
set foot in the enemy's country, he could remain at home 
without danger. Nevertheless, it was prudent that he should 
be withdrawn for a time from the eyes of the world. 

"Junker George" set himself, in the Wartburg, to a task 
which was the most important of all his labours ; he began 
the translation of the Bible for the German people. 

The idea of a translation into the vernacular was not a 
new one.- A considerable number of German translations 
of the Bible might be mentioned ; they have all become 
bibliographical curiosities, and nothing is known of their 
influence upon the nation. Luther's translation, on the 
contrary, is a historical event, both for those who regarded 



LUTHER'S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 6 1 

the book as their rule of faith, and for those whom it pre- 
vented from longer withholding it from the world. 

The Lutheran translation has some special merits. Not 
that it is free from defects ; not that critics, theological 
and philosophical, have not pointed out a multitude of 
errors in it — it would be sad if no progress had been made 
beyond the point reached by Luther and his learned friends 
by the researches of three hundred years — and yet we have 
had no translation for three hundred years which can even 
dispute the palm with this one. 

This is the result of its masterly language. There are 
some translations which are as much masterpieces as the 
originals ; a certain congeniality of mind and soul is neces- 
sary to reproduce the true tone and spirit of the original. 
Such is Luther's translation of the Bible. 

In order faithfully to reproduce the patriarchal simplicity, 
the homely and childlike character of the Old and New 
Testaments, to imitate the poetic strains of the prophets 
and the Psalms, and again the popular straightforwardness 
of the Gospels, requires a vein of congeniality — the spiritual 
affinity of a mind which has preserved the simple and 
honest originality of an unsophisticated people. This cannot 
be acquired by all the learning in the world, though it may 
easily be unlearned in the world and among books. 

It was precisely these qualifications which Luther pos- 
sessed. A genuine son of his own people, gifted with all 
the wealth and depth of the German mind, he could enter 
into that age of simple national faith ; he made its spirit and 
language his own, and thus acquired the power of translating 
into German the religious-poetic and poetic-religious mode 
of expression. This is nowhere more striking than in the 
Psalms. Herder's translation is much more poetical, but 
he sacrificed theology to poetry. Luther had a perfect con- 
ception of this part of his task. " Now no fine courtly 
wcrds," he wrote to Spalatin; "this book can only be 
explained in a simple and popular style." 

But Luther took incredible pains. Few of his readers 
^now by what hard work the task was accomplished. 
We still have some of his translation in MS. He often 
struck out a passage as many as fifteen times, until he 
had found the right expression; and this when he was 
wrestling with his own tongue. But what difficulties he 
must have encountered in Greek and Hebrew, at a time 



02 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

when the necessary precursors in the study of both were 
wanting, and when Hebrew could mostly be learned only 
from Jews ! Then he was convinced that, as a monk and 
a bookworm, he was unacquainted with many things 
with which the ancient world was familiar; that he was 
ignorant of many of the .plues which he wanted, and which 
could not be found in books. He once wrote to Spalatin 
to ask for the names and descriptions of the precious stones 
in Revelation xxi. At another time, that he might be able 
to describe the slaughter of beasts for sacrifice, he had 
" some sheep killed for him " by a butcher, that he might 
learn " what every part of a sheep was called." 

The New Testament, which was finished in 1523, was 
comparatively easy; he found the Old far more difficult, and 
it was not completed till ten years afterwards. He was 
assisted by a whole consistory of learned men, who, as 
Mathesius relates, "just like a private Sanhedrim, met for 
several hours before supper every week in the doctor's 
monastery." They were Dr. Johann Bugenhagen, Dr. Justus 
Jonas, Dr. Cruziger, Philip Melancthon, Mattaus Auro- 
gallas, George Rorer, and several rabbis. Luther once 
wrote, when among this circle, " We are working very hard 
to bring out the Prophets in the mother tongue. Good 
God ! what a great and difficult work it is to make the 
Hebrew writers speak German ! they resist it so, and are 
not willing to give up their Hebrew existence and imitate 
German barbarism." 

The language used by Luther in both the Old and New 
Testaments did not exist before in so pure, powerful, and 
genuine a form. He was right when he once wrote, " I 
have not yet read any book or letter in which the German 
language is rightly used. Nobody takes the pains to write 
German correctly." The high German prose style had to 
be created, and it was created by Luther's labours. 

Up to this time Germany had a high and a low German 
dialect. Like the Thuringian race from which he sprang, 
Luther occupied the boundary-line between the two idioms; 
the language that he used was neither high nor low German, 
but a union of the two, forming a common third — the high 
German as a written language. In his controversial writings 
Luther had already written German in so masterly a style 
that it excited Hutten's lively admiration. Up to this time 
it had been the opinion of the Humanists that you could 



LUTHER'S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 63 

only thus express yourself in Greek and Latin. Luther 
taught them that German prose might be written which 
was not put to shame by the languages of antiquity. 

This new intellectual possession secured unity for us on 
one point at least, at a time when our religious and political 
unity came to an end, and we have preserved it through the 
most unhappy period of our history. 

It also involved a most important step in the progress of 
modern Christendom. The Scriptures were taken out of 
the hands of a privileged priesthood, and given to the people 
in a popular form intelligible to every man. The most 
unnatural of the barriers between the Church and the people 
was broken down, and the idea realised of the universal 
priesthood of all. It was an irreparable breach in the old 
order of things, and of this the opponents of the new tend- 
encies were deeply sensible ; but it was one of the most 
blessed revolutions which has ever taken place in the world. 
It was doubtless much more comfortable for the Church to 
invent dogmas to be received by the faithful without doubt 
or question ; it was much pleasanter that there should be no 
controversy or conflict of opinion, for thus a certain peace 
and harmony was maintained. 

But this state of things was come to an end. Amidst 
storm and tempest a voice began to make itself heard which 
was new to all, and by which many were awed. After the 
seven seals of Revelation were loosed, and every man claimed 
the right to interpret the Bible for himself, the masses began 
to take an interest in the disputes of the learned, and a reli- 
gious commotion stirred every rank of the people.* Not 
all were chosen, though many were called • but the fact that 
the exclusive interpretation of the Bible was taken out of 
the hands of the Church was a stupendous event on which 
too much stress cannot be laid, since even from the midst of 
Protestantism the complaint is sometimes heard that the 
golden age has passed away. It was hard for the scribes, 
for they were deprived of their monopoly, but it was quite 
hi accordance with the spirit of a religion not intended for 

• An enemy of Luther, Cocklaiis says : " Minim in modum multi- 
plicabatur per chalcographos novum testamentum Lutheri, ut etiam 
sutores et mulieres et quilibet idiotae qui teutonicas literas uticunque 
didicerant, novum illud testamentum tanquam fontem omnis veritatis 
avidissime legerent quicunque Lutherani erant illudque saepe legendo 
memoriae commendarent in sinu secqm portantes codicem," &c. 



64 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

the scribes and Pharisees, but for those who labour and are 
heavy-laden. 

Finally, this work was a blessing for the national and 
intellectual life of our people, whose greatness first became 
evident in the succeeding centuries. 

One is often tempted to ask how it is that our nation, 
which ever since the sixteenth century has been subjected 
to so many fearful commotions from within and from with- 
out, has still retained within it an indestructible germ of reli- 
gious and moral national culture. It has not always been 
found among the higher ranks of society, which have too 
readily succumbed to foreign influences; but among the 
lower classes it has been constantly kept alive ; and neither 
the devastations of the Thirty Years' War nor the flood of 
foreign affectation in the succeeding generations could in 
any way affect it. 

This arose from the fact that no hut was too small, no 
household too poor, to possess this book; that Luther's 
Bible was not only a prayer-book and manual of devotion, 
but a family reading-book ; it was the intellectual world in 
which the young people grew up, to which the old folks 
recurred ; a man inscribed in it his family history, the 
memorials of his children ; and the weary and heavy-laden 
found consolation in it in times of trouble. The wars which 
have made a huge burial-ground and a smoking ruin of our 
beautiful land have not been able to exterminate the Bible : 
it was the secure possession of the pith and marrow of the 
nation when our learned men were again writing Latin, and 
people of culture were speaking French. 

For the preservation of our healthy national spirit this 
book was more of a panacea than anything else, and it has 
prevented foreign cankers or fashionable follies from ever 
destroying it. It was from the simple homes of our country 
pastors, our citizens and peasants, to whom Luther's Bible 
was everything, that the reformers of our national life in 
the eighteenth century went forth, and when they began to 
purify our language from foreign additions, they recurred to 
the inexhaustible philological treasures of this book ; they 
agreed with Lessing, that compared with its riches our 
language is poor, and they found the keenest appreciation 
not among the learned theologians of the old stamp, but in 
circles where Luther's Bible had remained the Organon ever 
since the sixteenth century. It was here that the depth and 



LUTHER AND THE RADICALS. 65 

inwardness of the German character found satisfaction ; it 
also had an effect, though at second hand, upon our Roman 
Catholic fellow-countrymen ; and the other tendency of our 
nation to the adoption and incorporation of foreign elements 
found in this a perpetual and healthy counterpoise, which 
the Romanic nations did not possess. 

Luther and tee Radicals at Wittenberg. 

While Luther was busy upon the translation of the New 
Testament the Edict of Worms was waiting in vain to be 
enforced. He was even then aiming a bolt at the most 
sensitive part of the ruling Church : what " Junker George " 
was doing under the Elector's protection looked like utter 
defiance of the angry glances of Pope and Emperor. 

In the midst of his studies news arrived which summoned 
him once more into the arena, but this time to face dif- 
ferent foes from those with whom he had measured his 
strength before. 

Out of the commotion which he had stirred up, another 
school of reformers had arisen who went much further than 
he did, for whom his proceedings were not thorough, nor 
his programme decisive enough. Their opinion was that 
all tradition should at once be set aside, and everything 
not expressly enjoined in the Bible summarily abolished. 
Away then with images of saints and crucifixes ; away with 
the mass, priests' vestments, confession, and the host ; away 
with fasts and ceremonies, and the idolatry of church deco- 
rations ! 

At the head of these turbulent reformers stood Carlstadt, 
whose teaching had already betrayed a tendency to reckless 
innovation, and who now, instigated by the zealots of 
Zurich, and no longer kept within bounds by Luther, pro- 
claimed his doctrines more and more openly. 

A certain consistency cannot be denied to these radicals. 
In times of commotion it has always been difficult to draw 
the line where disavowal and destruction are to end, and 
toleration and reconstruction to begin. But Luther, not- 
withstanding the vehemence of his character, was not the 
man to go to aimless extremes, which arose from a legislative 
instinct, one of his peculiar gifts. He well knew how easy 
it apparently is to strike a decisive blow at a declining 
religion, but that a reaction is inevitable, which will extend 



66 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

much further than the short-sighted zealot imagines, and he 
never forgot how much there is that is great and eternal in 
the structure of the Roman Catholic Church, which ought 
to predispose a thoughtful man to caution. He fully recog- 
nised the value of adherence to the existing historical 
institution: the least, which he asked for tradition, even 
when it appeared to him to have but little meaning, was 
the same liberty that he craved for himself and his teaching. 
"There are many things," he said, "which an individual 
may do or leave undone. When they are imposed as laws 
from without I reject them, but I equally reject their pro- 
hibition. He who likes to confess is at liberty to do so. 
To me personally, auricular confession has often been a real 
relief to the conscience, but I do not wish that the Church 
should enjoin it." 

He mentions several other such points of indifference 
(d8ia0opa) : whether the Lord's Supper should be received in 
both forms, whether it is right to stay in a monastery, to have 
pictures in churches, to observe fasts, — all these appeared to 
him to be non-essentials of the faith ; he gives neither com- 
mand nor prohibition about them, and his views contain the 
germ of true liberty of conscience and mental freedom. 

From this stand point he could not but disapprove the 
doings of the Wittenberg iconoclasts. He wrote to them 
in December, 1521,* "Now this business has been under- 
taken in a harum-scarum fashion, with great rashness and 
violence. I do not like it at all, and that you may know it, 
when it comes to the point, I will not stand by you in this 
business. You have set about it without me, and so you 
may see how you can get out of it without me. Believe me, 
I know the devil well enough ; it is he alone that has set 
about it to bring disgrace on the Word." 

But such admonitions were vain. Luther could no longer 
stand it in the Wartburg ; in spite of the ban of the Church 
or imperial edict, he felt compelled to go forth, and when 
his Elector warned him of the neighbouring Duke George 
and begged him not to go beyond the boundaries of the 
electorate, Luther wrote back, " One thing I can say for 
myself, if things at Leipzig were as they are at Wittenberg, 
I would still go there, even if it rained Duke Georges for 
nine days, and every one of them were nine times as fierce 

• The whole letter is in the Erlangen edition. 



LUTHER AND THE RADICALS. 67 

as he. Therefore be it written to your Electoral Highness, 
though your Electoral Highness knows it very well, that I 
go to Wittenberg under much higher protection than that of 
the Elector. I therefore have no intention of asking pro- 
tection of your Electoral Highness ; no sword will or can 
afford this cause help or counsel ; God alone can prosper it 
without human aid or care. He therefore who has the 
most faith will be the most protected by it. Now as I per- 
ceive that your Electoral Highness is still very weak in 
faith, I cannot by any means regard your Electoral High- 
ness as the man who can protect or save me." 

On the 3rd of March, 1522, he escaped from his asylum, 
and with a sword by his side, and in Junker George's 
doublet, he arrived at Wittenberg, determined valiantly to 
oppose the disturbers of the peace. 

For eight consecutive days he preached against Carlstadt 
and the fanatics of Zwickau, and his eight sermons contain 
a most important memorial of the genuine spirit of Luther. 
He proceeded with wonderful tact ; he did not mention any 
of his opponents by name ; not an abusive word escaped 
him ; his language was most skilfully adapted to convert 
misguided followers and to restrain excess of zeal. 

These sermons contain golden words. Among other 
things he says, " We must have charity, and from charity 
do for one another what God has done for us by faith ; 
without charity faith is nothing. Now, dear friends, on 
this point you have failed almost entirely : I cannot trace a 
spark of charity in any one of you. I observe that you 
know very well how to talk about the doctrine that is 
preached to you, which is no marvel, — an ass may almost 
be taught to sing, — but the kingdom of God is not in ser- 
mons or in words, but in deeds and in power. Finally, we 
must have patience. In this life every one must not do 
what he has a right to do, but must forego his rights and 
consider what is useful and advantageous to his brother. 
Do not make a ' must be ' out of a ' may be,' as you have 
now been doing, that you may not have to answer for those 
whom you have misled by your uncharitable liberty." 

Against any compulsion in religious matters he speaks 
most decidedly : — 

" The Word created heaven and earth and all things -, 
the sam< Word must also create now, and not we poor 
sinners. Summa summarum, I will preach it, I will talk of 



68 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

it, I will write about it, but I will not use force ot com- 
pulsion with any one; for faith must be of free will, and 
unconstrained, and must be accepted without compulsion. 

To marry, to do away with images, to become monks or 
nuns, for monks ami nuns to leave their convents, to eat 
meat on Friday, or not to eat it, and other like things, — all 
these things are open questions, and should not be for- 
bidden by any man ; if they are forbidden it is wrong. If 
thou canst do these things without burdening thy con- 
science, continue to do them, but if not, forbear, lest a 
heavier burden come upon thee.'' " If we reject every- 
thing that is abused, we shall have to play a strange game. 
There ate people who worship the sun, moon, and stars : 
shall we therefore fall to and east the stars from heaven, 
and hurl the sun and moon from their places ? We may as 
well leave it alone. Wine and women bring many to grief, 
make fools and madmen of them : shall we therefore pour 
away all the wine, and put the women to death ? Ah, if we 
want to be rid of our worst enemy, who does us more harm 
than any one else, we must get rid of and slay ourselves, 
for we have no wotse enemy than our own hearts." 

And these sensible words were not spoken to the air ; 
the leaders, indeed, were not converted, but their followers 
fell off, and peace was restored. 

The Lutheran Cause before the Imperial Chamber 
and the dlkt of nuremberg, i52i-23. 

It would have been all the same for Germany if the Edict 
of Worms had not been pronounced, for nothing like the 
execution of it worth mentioning occurred anywhere. In 
some cases this arose from sympathy with the new doctrines ; 
in others, from impotence, and a feeling that more active 
interference would only increase the evil. 

Thus the Elector of Mayence, the Primate of Germany, 
would not allow the order of Minorites even to preach 
against Luther, because he was convinced that it would only 
teed the tiame oi heresy. 

Luther's books, as well as his followers, were to have 
been annjhihted with fire' or sword; but, instead of this. 
they were spread far and wide. All the literature of the 
period, with very little exception, takes the Lutheran side. 
Finally, the outlaw ventured out of his hiding-place into the 



"THE IMPERIAL CHAMBER. 6$ 

world again; and we do not find that it was ever suggested 
to the Elector to recapture and punish him. 

The secret cause of that suspicious manoeuvre which had 
been found necessary to obtain the Edict of Worms at all — 
a distrust of the sentiments of the influential classes — now 
received a striking confirmation. 

The new Imperial Chamber, in which the German States 
ruled in place of the absent Emperor, only represented the 
prevailing sentiments of the people, by not only not perse- 
cuting Luther, but by increasingly adopting his cause, and 
by in fact, though not in words, revoking the edict of 1521. 

The new pope, Adrian VI. (January, 1522 — September, 
1523), regarded the abuses in the Church with the eye of a 
strictly moral monk ; yet, as an orthodox Dominican, he 
abhorred Luther's proceedings, and sent a Nuncio to Ger- 
many to demand, as he certainly was entitled to do, the 
execution of the ban pronounced at Worms. But the Com- 
mittee of the Imperial Chamber declined to comply, because 
they did not wish it to appear " as if they would put down 
evangelical truth by tyranny, and maintain unchristian 
abuses, which would only result in resistance to the rulers, 
insurrection, and defection." They reminded the Pope of 
the ancient concordats with Germany, so often infringed, 
and demanded, within the course of a year, the convocation 
of an open council, in which laymen should have seats and 
a voice, and the creed should be an open question. The 
document drawn up on this subject is one of the most 
valuable of the period.* This proposal to the Nuncio 
shows what a luxurious harvest had sprung up from the 
papal policy since the Councils of Pisa, Costnitz, and Basle. 
It was the voice of the nation, not merely of a party. 

In the first answer of the Imperial Chamber it is stated 
in a decided tone why neither the ban of the Church nor 
the imperial edict had been executed, nor was likely to be 
so. The great majority of the people were convinced that 
the Roman Curia, by certain abuses, grievously injured the 
German nation ; and disturbances and civil war had been 
the result whenever the attempt had been made to defend 
these abuses by force. 

The rejoinder of the Papal Legate was followed by the 
hundred Gravamina. A hundred was a round number. It 

• Goldast. 



JO THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

is expressly stated at the end that more could have been 
adduced, and that it was only for the sake of conciseness 
that they had limited themselves to these, with the expecta- 
tion that when those specified were done away, some of the 
others would go with them. 

The subjects of complaint were the following : — Dispensa- 
tions, indulgences, and the sale of them ; legal abuses, 
delegates, and commissioners ; the administration of offices 
from Rome ; the reforms, commendams, incorporations, 
annats, abuse of bans and interdicts ; the excessive number 
of festivals, illegal acquisition of property, arbitrary grants 
of benefices, pilgrimages, unreasonable demands of money, 
new tithes ; the decision of secular questions, especially the 
disputes about marriage, by ecclesiastical courts ; " the 
toleration of illicit cohabitation, and usury for the sake of 
gain ; " unreasonable rates of interest and wages ; the with- 
holding of the sacraments, the unclerical conduct of the 
clergy, legacy hunting, the mendicant orders, &c. 

They conclude with a threat that in case no attention is 
paid to these complaints, they will take the matter into their 
own hands : " If these things are not speedily abolished, 
which, however, the temporal powers do not expect, they 
will not conceal from your Holiness that they can no longer 
submit to such intolerable and pernicious grievances, but 
will be under the necessity of themselves finding some other 
ways and means of putting an end to, and being relieved 
from, such impositions and oppressions from the clergy." 

In 152 1 the Hapsburg policy had come to an agreement 
with the Pope at Worms against Luther. Two years later, 
at Nuremberg, the nation declared for the unconditional 
accomplishment of reform of the faith and of the Church. 

The Papal Legate had to renounce all idea of accomplish- 
ing anything with this Diet by negotiation, although the 
Emperor's representative, Ferdinand, was on his side. The 
voices of the secular and ecclesiastical states, of the moderate 
and extreme parties, were not, indeed, unanimous upon par- 
ticular questions ; but, on the whole, the Diet presented a 
compact phalanx to withstand Rome ; and that it was so 
was rendered quite evident by the fact that the final reso- 
lution about preaching was only passed by way of com- 
promise. 

It was decided that nothing should be preached but 
verum purum, sincerutn et sanctum evangelium, and indeed 



THE DIET OF NUREMBERG. 7 1 

pie mansuete Christiane, in accordance with the teaching 
and interpretations of well-known works approved by the 
Church. The decree was sufficiently strong against Rome, 
and sufficiently liberal for the party of the new tendencies ; 
it was calculated to satisfy them, yet their opponents could 
not reject it. 

The Edict of Worms was thereby reversed; the con 
demnation of Luther and his followers retracted ; the sword 
of the secular power which had been hanging over him was 
withdrawn, and free scope given to his propaganda. This 
propaganda would have made much more rapid progress 
than it did make if obstacles had not presented themselves, 
which were so much the more dangerous because closely 
connected with the moving causes of the Reformation. 
Revolution attached itself to the wheels of the car of 
Reform, and effectually hindered its progress. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Reform and Revolution. — The Nobles of the Empire.— Ulrich von 
Hutten, I488-I523.* — Franz von Sickingen, the Feud of 1522, 
and the Catastrophe of 1523.— Reaction upon the Reformation. — 
Activity of the Curia. — Adrian VI., January, 1522, to September, 
1523. — Clement VII., September, 1534. — The Convention of 
Ratisbon, July, 1524. 

Ulrich von Hutten,* 1488-1523. 

WHAT Luther was for the religious, Hutten was for the 
Humanistic aspect of the opposition of the sixteenth 
century, — the man of action who took the initiative in con- 
trast to the many congenial spirits whose hearts were full of 
sympathy, but who were not men of independent enterprise. 
But while Luther was the advocate of reform, Hutten was 
the leader of political and social revolution ; while Luther 
gives the impression of ripe experience and maturity, Hut- 
ten represents the impetuosity and fire of passionate youth, 
of one who had not come out of solitary conflicts in a 
convent, but who had early taken part in the struggles of 
the age in the world's arena. 

Theirs are, indeed, two remarkable careers, for a long 
time running parallel without coming into contact : the son 
of the Thuringian miner, who, from the meanest circum- 
stances, rises to be the leader of the greater part of the 
deeply agitated nation, and has a voice amongst rulers on 
questions affecting their fate; and the scion of a most 
ancient race of nobles, who descends from his father's castle, 
exchanges the sword of chivalry for the citizen's pen, and 
after passing through strange vicissitudes, is engulfed in the 
stream of the German revolution. 

The German nobles hated the new order of things in all 
its aspects; not so much the Reformation as that which 

• Ulrich von Hutten, von D. Strauss. 



ULRICH VON HUTTEN. 73 

gave it so great an impetus — the increasing power of the 
reigning princes, the growing prosperity of the cities, the 
preponderating influence of money and trade. All this was 
utterly distasteful to the old free hereditary proprietors of 
the soil. The same need which made them waylay tra- 
vellers and commit highway robberies made them hate the 
modern system of administration with a deadly hatred, for 
it brought peace, and aimed at extinguishing feuds. Every- 
thing that was regarded as intolerable by this modern system 
involved something essential to the very existence of chivalry. 
It was a misfortune for Germany that there was no natural 
and healthy position for the nobles in the State, but the 
nobles were greatly mistaken in imagining that they could 
regain their supremacy by blindly struggling against the new 
order of things — it could but hasten their downfall. The 
modern system made its way in the world, and crushed 
whatever came in its way. 

Ulrich von Hutten did not belong to the nobles of this 
sort. It was his conviction that the order of the nobility, 
as then constituted, was no longer capable of achieving 
anything — that it must learn the use of modern weapons. 
He himself tried to gain a position in the world by his pen 
and his talents rather than by his sword ; and he wished 
for his order to secure a place at the head of the new ideas. 
In alliance with the citizens and the peasantry embracing 
the project of national and religious reform, it should lead 
the struggle which aimed to free the nation from the oppres- 
sion of temporal and ecclesiastical rulers, whether German 
or foreign. 

The embitterment which we find among the other imperial 
nobles had, in his case, cleared off into a certain far-seeing 
conception of the position of affairs in his country. Sorrow 
for the melancholy fate of his order did not induce in his 
mind a blind hatred of the new powers, but a deeper in- 
sight into its causes. 

His personal position almost led him to take these views. 
The glorious old race of the Huttens was dispersed, sepa- 
rated, and their property was fallen into confusion. They 
had become poor, and their traditions and claims to con- 
sideration were in curious contrast to their possessions and 
actual importance. 

Ulrich von Hutten was born on the 21st of April, 1488, 
at the Castle of Stackelburg. As the boy grew up, either 



74 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

some pious vow or an idea that he was wanting in stamina, 
occasioned by his delicate appearance, caused his father to 
destine him for the Church. This was often the vocation 
of younger sons, though not of the first-born. It was an in- 
tervention of fate in young Hutten's life, and was favourable 
to his early inclination to strike out a new career for him- 
self. He went as a pupil to the monastery of Fulda — not 
to become a monk, but only to have the benefit of the 
teaching of the brothers as a layman. He resolutely with- 
stood all attempts to induce him to enter the order. 

He learnt many things there to which he would otherwise 
have long remained a stranger, and laid the foundations of 
the solid classical culture in which he early distinguished 
himself. But this was all that attached him to the monastic 
walls of Fulda. 

When he gladly turned his back upon the profession of 
arms, the foundation was laid of an aspiring energy which 
could find no satisfaction amongst troopers and dogs, 
plunder and the chase. Desiring to pursue a course which 
he could not take in his father's castle, he renounced the 
traditions of his race ; but he had no intention of passing 
his life in a monastic cell. He wanted to go out into the 
world, to visit the universities where the modern Humanistic 
tendencies were most eagerly fostered ; but his father did 
not approve. He was a noble of the old school, and thought 
it a disgrace that a son of his house should set his heart 
upon such idle trifling, while he looked upon the ecclesias- 
tical vocation as a solid maintenance — nothing more nor 
less. 

The monks, discerning his talents, tried by intimidation 
to secure him for their order ; the friends he had made out- 
side the convent advised him against entering it. Of this 
his father knew nothing ; and so Hutten, then a youth of 
sixteen or seventeen, resolved on flight. 

About 1504 or 1505 he left Fulda, and went forth home- 
less and penniless into the wide world. About the same 
time Luther was quitting the world and entering a monas- 
tery in order to clear up his doubts. No doubts had ever 
assailed Hutten. What lie wanted was to be up and doing ; 
to have free scope for his energies; and nowhere could he 
find so little as in a monastery. 

But evil days were in store for the fugitive. 

We have no precise knowledge of the places he visited 



tJLRICH VON HUTTEN. 75 

he went through various countries as a wandering student. 
We find him at Cologne, Erfurt, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 
Greifswald, Wittenberg, Olmiitz, and Vienna ; and when 
we learn anything of his circumstances, they are of the most 
wretched kind. In many places he was entered as Clericus 
Fuldensis, perhaps because, in this character, he could live 
more simply, and more easily find bare subsistence, than if 
he gave himself out as a distinguished noble. Youth did 
not present itself to him under a very cheerful aspect. In- 
deed, to him, as well as to Luther, it was a hard and 
joyless period. Both the great spirits of the age had to be 
prepared by suffering for the warfare that awaited them. 
He met with every disaster that can befall a man — hunger, 
nakedness, sickness, and every kind of deprivation ; false 
friends who took him up, and then cast him off; capture by 
robbers, who compelled him to drag himself, ill and half 
naked, from one place to another. Thus, after his flight 
from Fulda, his fate was not unlike that of knights-errant 
of that age ; but with this difference — that while they were 
often left lying by the wayside to come to an ignominious 
end, he always rose up again with fresh spirit and courage. 

It was his astonishing zeal for learning that sustained him. 
Amidst all the depressing influences of his outward life, his 
intellectual powers never failed him ; and, with the in- 
destructible enthusiasm of his youthful spirit, he more 
nearly approached the Humanistic ideal than any other 
man of his time. 

The ancient classics incited him to independence and 
originality. He had a keen and superior mind, with abun- 
dant natural creative talent, and he was perfect master of 
the elegant grace of the classic style. That which cost 
others great labour to produce, flowed from his lips and pen 
with perfect ease. His was a poetic nature, and we can but 
regret that he hampered himself with a foreign tongue and 
foreign forms. But it was then the object of the highest 
ambition to be an accomplished Latin poet — the mother- 
tongue was not as yet held in honour. 

When he entered his twentieth year he knew Germany 
well. He had made the round of the universities at the 
great cities, and was attracted to Italy, impelled by the 
Humanist home-sickness of the pupil of antiquity, and en- 
thusiasm for the birthplace of the culture of the Renaissance. 
This was at the time of the Venetian war, when Italy was 



76 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANS 

less attractive than ever to such dilettante travellers. Hut- 
ten went into the tumult of war, entered the imperial army 
at Pavia, thus returning to his calling as a knight ; and 
he did his duty valiantly, though without any mental satis- 
faction. He wrote epigrams and satires in camp, in elegant 
Latin verse. What is noteworthy is, that he begins to break 
away from the rigid forms of ancient mythology ; to cast off 
the tinsel of a foreign garb, and to take a keen interest in the 
present. He treats of the course of the war and the Italian 
policy, and lashes the shameless traffic in indulgences and 
bulls by Pope Julius II. This constitutes an essential dif- 
ference between him and the rest of the Humanistic school, 
who kept their readers in the misty and colourless region of 
Mars, Ceres, and the Muses, as in a barren waste. He ac- 
quired fame even in Italy ; the charming elegance and ex- 
traordinary finish of his verses were much admired. No 
one would have given a heavy German barbarian credit 
for so much skill. 

This sort of light literature was much encouraged in Italy. 
Hutten made a name for himself — it was his first triumph 
after his dreary wanderings ; it was to his own pen and his 
own talent that he owed it, and he might well be proud of 
it. But this by no means satisfied him ; he was pursued by 
the feeling of an inward void, which could not be filled by 
poetic fame. He returned to Germany. At the paternal 
castle they would have nothing to do with him — to them he 
was a "nameless nobody;" but at the court of Mayence 
he found an honourable reception as a talented poet and 
Latin scholar. Hutten, like others of the Humanistic school, 
had an idea of making a career for himself at the courts of 
princely patrons of arts and in the abodes of wealth. Im- 
pelled by necessity, he did occasionally follow this course, 
but without any inward satisfaction. 

While seeking health at Ems, news reached him of a 
fearful event which had occurred in the family (15 15). 
Duke Ulrich of Wiirtemberg, already at variance with his 
subjects and neighbours, was also involved in a personal 
quarrel, which now caused a sad catastrophe. He murdered 
Hans von- Hutten like a bandit in a wood. The deed was 
quite in accordance with his wild and lawless character; 
and it was his own conduct which had brought the difficulties 
upon him which now hedged him in on every side. The 
Hutten family was powerful enough to unite the neighbouiing 



ULRICH VON HUTTEN. 77 

families to execute vengeance on the Duke, and to incite 
the Emperor and the empire to take up its cause. 

Ulrich von Hutten wrote a number of addresses on the 
occasion, which produced a great impression. These philip- 
pics against Duke Ulrich are entirely in the style of the 
Humanistic school. They are elegant compositions, evidently 
formed upon the models of Cicero and Demosthenes, and 
you feel that the author's main object is to show how suc- 
cessfully a German can write in this style. But, at the same 
time, beneath these artistic periods there is the glowing 
enthusiasm of a soul pining for freedom, a deep pathos and 
consuming passion. It was felt that the writer was no 
common man, that he took the Duke for his subject — because 
a subject he must have — that he was not merely a poet, a 
Humanist of the common stamp, but an orator and an 
agitator. 

These addresses greatly increased his fame ; they made 
the war against Duke Ulrich popular ; every class of per- 
sons had a grievance, and for a long time the Duke's cause 
was lost. Then this eloquence, this wonderful art of writing 
impressively on the topics of the day in antique forms and 
fine sonorous periods, — it was something quite novel. 

After this feud we again find Hutten in Italy. While his 
father was hoping that he would at length diligently study 
the law, he was completing his classical studies ; and, in- 
stead of bringing with him the degree of Doctor of Laws, on 
the 12th of July, 15 17, he received from the Emperor Max at 
Augsburg, in presence of the whole court, the laurel crown 
as the greatest poet of Germany. We have testimony from 
Italy, England, and France, with what envy and admiration 
the poet was regarded. 

Having reached this lofty height, one aspect of his life 
closes ; he was now to enter upon a new career. During 
his residence in Italy the contest between Reuchlin and the 
Dominicans had broken out, in which the German Humanists 
first appear in compact phalanx. He received the first series 
of the Epistula Obscurorum Virorum at Bologna in Septem- 
ber, 15 16. They pleased him greatly, for he found a con- 
genial spirit in them. He had not contributed to the first 
series, but the second is enriched by him.* He took a keen 

* If, as is supposed, the letters dated from Rome are his, they indi- 
cate that he was less skilled in the use of the light weapons of deri- 
sive satire than in wielding :he heavy guns of passionate invective. 



78 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

interest in all Humanist affairs, was in close intimacy with 
Reuehlin. and defended him against the (.'.rand Inquisitor 
and monastic seholastieism. But he was still a Stranger to 
all the other great movements ot" the age. When laither 
fust appeared on the Stage of the world, and affixed his 
ninety five Theses to the ehureh door at Wittenberg ; when 
an agitation was arising, compared with which the affair with 
the men of Cologne was a harmless jest. Hutten was simply 
conscious of being the crowned Latin poet ; and when 
Tet.-el and Eck attacked Luther, he wrote a letter full of 
malicious pleasure that the monks should be tearing each 
other's hair. He was still the distinguished knight, doubly 
ennobled by his talents and acquirements. One man in a 
crowd was to him the same as another, and their disputes 
were but a subject for his passing derision. He was alto- 
gether a stranger to Christianity : to the Humanists, classic 
culture was religion. 

When laither had the memorable dispute with Cajetan in 
. 5 18, Hutten was also at Augsburg under the care of a 
physician ; but he neither sought out Luther nor took any 
account ol the fact that he was there. 

But it was not in vain that Hutten had been in Italy ; 
not the Humanist only, but the patriot also had learnt 
lessons there. He had felt with burning shame the ignominy 
of the foreign Italian yoke, the decline of the German 
empire. The contempt of the foreigner for the nation that 
had once ruled the world cut him to the heart. Even in 
the Venetian war he had made a glowing appeal to the 
Emperor Max to place himself at the head of the nation, 
to inaugurate a regeneration of this great people, which would 
make it once more united and powerful. Max listened to 
appeals of this sort with a gracious smile, but he was too old, 
and his heart too cold to be kindled by them. Charles V., a 
young emperor, with splendid patrimonial power, seemed to 
be the man to remodel the world. The old imperial re- 
miniscences, the glory of the German name, urged Hutten 
to make a similar appeal to him ; but he was still less dis- 
posed than Max to be influenced by the enthusiastic dreams 
of youths Meanwhile, the power of the reform movement 
was inereaj-ing . the tide was rising higher and higher. 

- . men ..s CfeOtMS Rr.bi.vn.:> excelled him in the formei, but it did 
. : |Q 90 deep, .;s the subsequent tailing off ol" this great satiiist proves. 



ULRTCH VON HUTTEN. 79 

From Luther's writings Hutten derived a new idea of the 
man and his cause, and learned that a German could move 
men's hearts in his own tongue, that its sonorous tones 
produced an effect far greater than laboured imitations of 
the scholars of antiquity, and that a great mind would not 
degrade itself by following such an example. 

It was plain that this simple monk was beginning to move 
the masses, to set the nation in a novel ferment, and among 
the people the influence of the learned had been very 
moderate. A new spirit was stirring, which, though not at 
enmity with that of the Humanists, took quite another form. 
Upon no one did all this make a deeper impression than 
upon Hutten. With all his poetic fame, he bowed down before 
this despised monk, who had dared to do what no one else 
had done, and who could handle his own language so dex- 
terously. He had never been able to think without shame 
that a German emperor should humble himself before the 
Roman Curia, and here was a monk burning the papal bull. 
He was quite excited by the daring deed ; he saw that all 
his poetic fame, all his poems and fine speeches were 
nothing in comparison with what had been accomplished by 
the Wittenberg monk, and an entire change took place in 
him. He gave up the office of poet-laureate, renounced the 
pride of his Latin muse, and began to write German. His 
opposition to the Church of Rome had begun early. He 
had said cutting things of Rome in his verses written in 
Italy. 

The day before he set out on his return to Germany the 
second time, he made acquaintance with a rare work by 
Laurentius Valla, an enlightened Italian patriot, an eminent 
statesman, and the accomplished translator of many of the 
Greek classics. It was the work on the " Gift of Constan- 
tine " {De Donaiione Constantini). Valla wrote at a time 
when educated men were already alienated from the 
Church ; but few had the courage resolutely to make re- 
searches into her pious frauds ; and therefore a number of 
ecclesiastical archives, relating to the reputed gift of the 
States of the Church by Constantine, were held to be indis- 
putably genuine documents. It was a significant event when 
a distinguished author ventured for the first time to attack 
the Pope's temporal power. Hutten adapted this work for 
Germany, endeavoured to circulate it, and to give it fresh 
effect against Rome — a purpose the animosity of which was 



So THE REFORMATION EST GERMANY. 

not lessened by the fact that he dedicated the book to 
Leo X. 

He now attained to a comprehension of what Luther was, 
and what he was aiming at; and the change took place 
which converted Hutten to his own nation. He had hitherto 
only exercised himself in the field for which his tastes and 
talents especially "fitted him. He now no longer wrote 
satirical dialogues, but fierce invectives, in which he dis- 
charged whole quivers full of arrows. He no longer addressed 
himself in a foreign tongue to the cultivated classes, who 
had hitherto to a certain extent admitted and deplored the 
evils of the times among themselves ; he addressed the 
nation, the nobles, the knights, the cities, the peasantry, 
every one who grumbled at the old order of things, and was 
disposed at any cost to put an end to it. 

He prepared to join the new movement, which, however, 
he regarded only as a means to an end ; for he was a 
stranger to the theological ideas of the Reformation. It 
served as a lever for political and social aims which went 
far beyond those of Luther. Hutten advocates taking the 
law into their own hands, while Luther maintains that " re- 
bellion will do no good." But it was not only that Luther 
repudiated these means of obtaining political reform ; he 
was averse to the end, for he was convinced that the two 
objects are essentially distinct, and cannot be forcibly joined 
together. He often said to the hot-headed politicians, 
"You will not attain your own object, and you will ruin 
mine. Such things cannot be taken in hand at the same 
time. It is enough for me to accomplish the religious 
revolution. By such a rebellion as you want to excite, you 
may attain great results for the moment, but they will not 
be lasting/' 

It was on men's minds and consciences that Luther 
wished to work ; Hutten appealed to their passions. Luther 
was constantly repeating, " I will talk, write, and preach 
about it;" but anything that went beyond that appeared to 
him to be mischievous. 

After 1520 Hutten and Luther were seemingly pursuing 
the same course; but it was only seemingly, for there 
was a contrast between them which could not long be 
concealed. 

Thus it was that Hutten was led into an arena from which 
he had hitherto kept aloof, but in which he seemed born to 



FRANZ VON SICKINGEN. 8 1 

rule ; for he possessed rare gifts as a popular agitator, and, 
by his genuine eloquence, knew how to move men's minds 
to their very depths. He had also a peculiar vein of satire : 
his little dialogues are masterpieces, as well as his popular 
poems, such as the " Lamentation over, and Warning against, 
the Unchristian Power of the Pope, and the Unholy Men in 
Holy Orders," which appeared in December, 1520 ; and in 
which the abuses in the Church, the disgraceful rule of 
Italian courtesans, all that for more than a century had so 
deeply embittered the nation, was expressed in almost 
doggerel rhyme, bound up as it were as a quiver full of 
arrows, and flung at Rome. 

Then came the Diet of Worms. There it was manifest 
that even among his own class Hutten was not alone in his 
views. The nobles of the empire regarded Luther with 
interest and good-will. His bearing especially excited their 
sympathies. Sickingen offered him a safe retreat in one of 
his castles. This was just at that time a fact full of sig- 
nificance, for it was not then known that not a man would 
be found in Germany to carry out the imperial edict. 

Hutten was already intimate with Sickingen ; he had 
made him acquainted with Luther's mind and writings at 
the Ebernburg in the winter of 1520-21. 

Franz von Sickingen and the Feud of 1522-23. 

The character of Franz von Sickingen was entirely dif- 
ferent from that of his young friend ; but, like him, he was 
one of the most notable representatives of sharply defined 
tendencies. He did not belong to the literary school in 
which Hutten had early distinguished himself; he was pre- 
eminently a cavalier. He was not so much averse to study, 
as so many of his class were, as indifferent and unaccustomed 
to it. Neither had his religious views any very definite 
character. It was somewhat difficult to interest him in the 
pressing questions of the day. This was undertaken by 
Hutten. He, no doubt, approached him on the side of his 
national sensibilities, which was the best way of gaining 
him for the cause. He submitted in his old age to the new 
teaching of the purified gospel, took the communion in both 
kinds, and allowed the teachers of the Lutheran doctrines to 
preach and hold services in his domains. Not only the 
Ebernburg, but all the country belonging to it between the 



82 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

Rhine, the Nahe, and the Neckar, was a "refuge for 
righteousness." 

The mere possibility of so exceptional a position as that 
occupied by Sickingen in the German empire proves the 
unusual and contradictory nature of the elements existing at 
that time in Germany. He was undoubtedly the last of the 
German knights who held such a position. 

He had early devoted himself to the profession of arms, 
had become not only an expert and gallant swordsman, but 
possessed extraordinary talents for organization, which en- 
abled him to manage the rabble ; and it implied a good deal 
of talent to make anything harmonious out of this motley 
material. 

Out of German soldiers, wild young fellows of every sort 
and the scattered members of noble families, he formed the 
best armies of the day : there was a motley crew of infantry 
who had rifles and pieces of ordnance, and the mailed 
caValry whose mode of warfare was a relic of medievalism. 
Sickingen stood on the boundary-line between two periods, 
and belonged to both. He was a knight of the empire, and 
all the Rhenish nobles were closely bound to him : a call 
from him summoned them all to arms. Yet he was at the 
same time a modern soldier, the commander of a paid army 
with modern weapons, which he organized on modern 
principles and according to the system of modern tactics. 

What Wallenstein afterwards was on a large scale, 
Sickingen was on a smaller one. His call to arms at- 
tracted all whom taste or habit inclined for war to fight 
beneath his banners. 

In those times of scarcity of money, when there was no 
longer a national call to arms and the modern system of 
recruiting did not exist, a man who maintained and headed 
such an army was a valuable ally to any prince. When the 
Emperor had a war in prospect he dispatched a messenger 
to the Ebernburg to obtain Sickingen's aid, and to avail 
himself of his credit with the knights and their retainers. 
Maximilian I. well knew how to uphold him ; he acknow- 
ledged his services and distinguished him, so that in spite 
of the smallness of his territory he was an important political 
factor; and so widespread was his reputation, that France 
offered him tons of money to fight on her side. 

For the rest there were many points in Sickingen's 
character which belonged to the genuine knight of those 



FRANZ VON SICKINGEN. 83 

days. He hated the rule t>f the princes, justly feeling that 
the nobles would be gradually absorbed in their supremacy; 
neither could he endure the cities with the power conferred 
by their movable capital, their immense wealth, and the 
contempt with which they looked down on the pride of the 
poverty-stricken nobles. 

Still he had too much good sense not to come to terms, 
as circumstances required it, even with these factors. 
He also hated the freebooting exploits of the knights 
who infested the highways, and deliberately broke the 
newly made treaty of peace (Landfriede). Not that he 
had not often broken it himself, but then it was in open 
feuds between one power and another. 

Combined with his outward-bound and worldly tastes 
there was yet something about Sickingen which recalled 
Hutten to mind; a certain halo of romance which still 
encircled the brows of the best representatives of the 
nobility, and which was derived from the glory of the Holy 
Roman Empire. With this man Hutten allied himself, the 
highly cultivated idealist with the matter-of-fact realist. It 
was a singular alliance : one was the greatest popular author 
whom, next to Luther, Germany had produced ; the other, 
the greatest soldier of the age, a true German knight, who 
could assemble ten thousand men under his banners, for 
whose favour the great powers eagerly sued, and who boasted 
that he had turned away the French ambassadors who 
brought gold to the election of the Emperor, when his 
neighbours, spiritual and temporal, had received them with 
open arms. It was obvious that this alliance must have 
other objects than to promote the preaching of the pure 
gospel. Not that either of them was indifferent to this 
great question of the day. They advanced the cause 
zealously in their own fashion, but only as means to an 
end. We often find a parallel between the purposes of this 
alliance and the objects and doings of the Hussites : they 
threw off the yoke of the Church in spite of the Emperor 
(and empire, and why should not we? The following points 
formed the groundwork of their programme, in which 
national, moral, economical, and ecclesiastical elements 
were all mingled together : the restoration of order, that is, 
of the ancient liberties of the empire, with the Emperor at 
the head and the nobles by his side ; abolition of mercantile 
monopolies; abrogation of foreign laws and dismissal of 



84 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

foreign administrators of the law ; diminution of the numbei 
of ecclesiastics and monks ; the enaction of laws against 
foreign manners ; cessation of the drain of German money 
by the Fuggers and other bankers for indulgences and 
other Church taxes imposed upon Germany by Rome. 

The Emperor was" absent, and the many-headed Imperial 
Chamber reigned in his stead. It was a well-disposed 
government, but it wanted monarchical power and the means 
of keeping the peace, even in its own immediate neighbour- 
hood, and therefore the time seemed adapted for a great 
undertaking. 

In the spring of 1522, Sickingen, like a lord and master 
as he was of the nobles of the Upper Rhine, summoned 
them to Landau and conferred with them as to what was to 
be done. They formed themselves into a league of brother- 
hood, and bound themselves, with Sickingen at their head, 
to resist the encroachments of the reigning princes. There 
were branches of the league throughout the Palatinate, the 
provinces of the Upper and Middle Rhine, to the Taunus, 
and probably extending to Swabia. As leaders, besides 
Sickingen and Hutten, we find Hartmuth von Kronenberg ; 
and there is a letter of Sickingen's of this year which 
appeals to the free German cities to enter into the league 
with the nobles to rebel against the princes. 

Sickingen's first enterprise in this year was the occasion 
of a widespread commotion. One of his neighbours was 
the Archbishop of Treves, with whom Sickingen had had 
various transactions, and whose post just now was a diffi- 
cult one. He was strongly opposed to the Reformation, 
but there was an active religious movement going on in the 
city. From this place Caspar Olevian afterwards came, who 
was one of the originators of the new doctrines and of the 
Heidelberg Catechism. The reform movement here also 
was combined with discontent with the ecclesiastical 
government. 

Sickingen was aware of all this, and laid his plans so as 
to take advantage of the strife. His plan was to attack 
Treves, to take possession of it, to put his party at the 
helm, and establish the new doctrines. If he succeeded, 
he would with one blow make hin self master of an im- 
portant part of the imperial territory, and his position would 
be doubly strong from the triumph it would furnish to the 
great reform movement. 



FRANZ VON SICKINGEN. 85 

Sickingen thought it would be an easy task io conquer 
Richard Greiftenklau of Treves, and had no fear but that 
he could obtain succour. Richard's old patron in the 
Palatinate, Albrecht of Mayence, would, he thought, at any 
rate remain neutral ; he had always been a time-server, and 
would not risk much to aid his colleague. The fourth 
Rhenish Elector, Hermann von Wied, had always been 
indifferent to worldly affairs, and was not, like Richard von 
Greiffenklau, a mounted priest ; he cared nothing for politics, 
and was exclusively devoted to ecclesiastical pursuits. It 
was he who astonished the empire by suddenly accepting 
the new doctrines in the evening of life ; there was nothing, 
therefore, to fear from him. 

But there was an error in these calculations : whatever 
might be the sentiments of the princes of the empire on 
other subjects, there was so much esprit de corps among 
them that they at once recognised to the full the danger of 
a rising of their natural enemies, the nobles. " If we let 
one go we are all lost." This was the opinion even of 
Albrecht of Mayence; but it was a point entirely over- 
looked by Sickingen. 

Early in the summer of 1522 he collected together horses 
and horsemen, arms and stores, fortified his castles, and 
summoned the hired soldiers. It was easy to find a pretext 
for a quarrel with the Archbishop of Treves, and he advanced 
against him. On the 7th of September he suddenly appeared 
before the city, but the resolute archbishop was not taken 
by surprise. Sickingen could not take even the suburbs ; 
the city itself was crammed full of knights and soldiers ; the 
clergy and citizens stood armed at their posts ; and while 
his attack was warded off, the reinforcements on which he 
had relied were partly driven back and partly beaten. 

A failure at this juncture was roost disastrous. The 
world was to be astonished by a coup de main, the enemy to 
be startled by a sudden success ; but if the enemy had 
time to consider and make preparation, Sickingen would 
have to contend with a power that even he was not man 
' enough to resist. 

Things came to the worst for him. Forsaken by his allies, 
threatened with the advance of the Elector Palatine and 
the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, by the 14th of December 
Sickingen was compelled to retreat. Condemned to act 
fruitlessly on the defensive himself, he had to witness the 



$6 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

punishment of his allies, Hartmuth von Kronenberg and 
Frowen von Hutten, and the humiliation of the rest of his 
followers; and in the spring of 1523 he saw his two ill- 
defended castles of Ebernburg and Landstuhl threatened 
with an alliance which could not fail to crush him. 

In April the Elector Palatine and the Landgrave ad- 
vanced with their artillery. Sickingen looked down from 
Landstuhl for succour in vain. The nobles would not run 
any further risk, and the Reformers abjured any part in the 
revolution. Even the first guns which were fired against 
Landstuhl, on the 30th of April, showed that there was no 
chance for the old walls against this kind of warfare. 
Seriously wounded, Sickingen was obliged to capitulate. 
" This unfortunate firing," he said, " has ruined my castle ; " 
and he died in presence of his victors. 

The nobles were vanquished with him in their first at- 
tempt to resist princes and priests, and to regain the liberties 
which acknowledged no other rule than that of the Emperor. 
The victory of the princes was also a triumph of modern 
warfare, with which even the chivalry of a Sickingen could 
not compete. 

The nobles of the empire were now, one after another, 
attacked ; everywhere the opportunity was eagerly seized by 
the neighbouring prince to restrain the insolent knight, and 
to accustom him to the position of a subject freeholder. 
One thing is noteworthy in the events of this period — that 
the elements between which some affinity existed never 
united together. Sickingen perished in 1523 ; in 1524 the 
peasants rose ; in the spring of 1525 they set the south and 
west of Germany in flames, yet there was no connection 
between the two events, though the objects of both parties 
were so closely allied. Although here and there a noble 
headed the peasantry in the peasants' war. it is well known 
that it only took place from compulsion. Yet in the 
declarations of the peasants we often find the programme 
of the nobles repeated almost word for word. Each class 
went its own way and perished alone ; the nobles like an 
army of officers without soldiers, the peasants like soldiers 
without officers. Had they united their forces, they would 
have formed a lever which would have produced a tremen- 
dous commotion. These two elements afterwards combined 
to upset the ancient monarchy in France. 

Except Hutten, who by no means disdained a league 



REACTION. 87 

with the peasantry,* the nobles were too proud to have 
anything to do with them, and a victory gained at the price 
of the enfranchisement of that class would have seemed to 
them too dearly bought. They were themselves in part the 
oppressors of the people, and many of the people's bitterest 
complaints were against the nobles. Thus the gulf between 
them was impassable ; and it was not without cause that 
the hatred of the peasantry was afterwards directed not 
only against the priests and princes, but also against the 
nobles. 

Hutten took flight after the failure of Sickingen's enter- 
prise, for the ecclesiastical and temporal powers combined 
to persecute him. Weak and ill, at variance with his old 
friends and with himself, and not approving of many of the 
proceedings of the nobles, he fled to Switzerland, where he 
closed his life in great misery, in the island of Ufnau, a few 
weeks after Sickingen had perished in Germany. 

Thus ended the first revolutionary revolt which accom- 
panied the Reformation. It was soon to be followed by 
another, which was joined by much larger numbers, at first 
presented a threatening aspect, and then fell to the ground 
like the revolt of the nobles. 

The Reaction. — The Zeal of the Curia. — The 
Convention of Ratisbon. 

The course which events took in this rising among the 
nobles resulted in no good to the Reformation. However 
decidedly reform and revolution may be opposed to each 
other, the former always has to help to expiate the sins of 
the latter. So it was in this case. Sickingen's enterprise 
was ascribed to the Reformation. It was of no avail to 
say that Luther had taken no part in it, for the Reformers 
to declare that they had altogether declined to share the 
responsibility of Sickingen's projects, and that Sickingen 
had only wanted to make a tool of the Reformation, and 
would not take the right means to carry it out ; it was all 
in vain. To some it was a reason, and to others a pretext, 
for saying, " These are the consequences of the Reforma- 
tion." t 

We now first hear of decided measures being taken 

• See poem of 1522, " Neu Karsthaus." t Hagen. 



88 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

against the new preaching. Individuals were persecuted as 
abettors of it who were not so ; the Reformers were in- 
timidated, and their efficiency diminished. The Imperial 
Chamber also felt the effects of the reaction ; it was re- 
proached with having favoured the cause, and with having 
secretly aided Sickingen. This was absurd. The Imperial 
Chamber had not been able to protect its own members 
from highway robbery, to say nothing of defeating a martial 
leader like Sickingen, and the Chamber was the representa- 
tive of the very authority against which Sickingen took the 
field. 

At the Diet in 1524 most of the members of the Chamber 
resigned, and the Papal Legate, Campeggi, thought the time 
was come to make his previous demands with more chance 
of success. In 1523 a reminder of the Edict of Worms had 
been answered by the one hundred Gravamina. He now 
alluded to it again, but they were not yet ready for that. 
The Legate again mistook the signs of the times : although 
the Chamber was composed almost entirely of new members, 
the majority was still against the edict. It was certainly a 
question how long this was to go on ; whether a fresh dis- 
turbance would not lessen this majority; whether after this 
second unfortunate experience it would not be decided, if 
not to carry out the edict of 1521, at any rate to upset the 
decree of 1523. 

A schism among the German princes on the great re- 
ligious question now arose for the first time. Influenced by 
the Legate, a fraction of them would hear nothing more of 
reform. 

Up to this time a certain absolutism had prevailed at the 
Diets ; there were really no parties, no Lutherans, only 
German Christians who wished for reform — no Catholics 
who deprecated it. Men of all shades of opinion were 
united on the basis of their grievances and demands for 
their reform, and these had been repeated ever since the 
Councils of Costnitz and Basle. The formation of sects 
was looked upon as a dangerous hindrance to any improve- 
ment. The formula of the Diet of June, 1523, had united 
all Germany. 

But a change took place under the influence of the events 
0: the summer of 1523. A party of the German princes 
banded together and adopted as their watchword, " Let us 
have no more changes, let all remain as it is;" and the 



ZEAL OF THE CURIA. 89 

Curia came to terms with them and refused reform, though 
it made a partial concession. 

Pope Leo X. had died in December, 1521, just when 
Charles's successful campaign in Italy was filling him with 
anxiety, and his successor was Charles's old tutor, Adrian 
von Utrecht. He was by no means unworthy of the dignity 
which the Emperor's great influence had conferred upon 
him ; and his character was so strongly marked, that great 
anxiety was felt as to the part he might take in the move- 
ment in Germany. 

Adrian XL had grown up under the strictest monastic 
discipline ; he was thoroughly but sincerely the monk, and 
as such he took up his position with regard to the Reforma- 
tion. As a Dominican he hated the new doctrine, hated 
any rebellion against the authority of the Church ; but on 
the subject of the corruption of the clergy and the fearful 
decline of morality, even among the highest dignitaries of 
the Church, he was at one with the heretics. He acknow- 
ledged this openly as no pope had ever done before him. 
One of his first acts was to issue an instruction to Chiere- 
gati,* in which the following passage occurs : " We know 
that for a long time many abominations have been perpe- 
trated in the Holy See; abuses in ecclesiastical affairs, 
violation of rights ; everything has gone wrong. From the 
head the mischief has extended to the limbs, from the Pope 
to the cardinals ; we are all gone astray ; there is none 
that doeth good, no, not one." 

This was of the greatest importance. Never had the Curia 
so expressed itself before. And they were not empty 
words : Adrian was in earnest. He began with the head, 
that he might work upon the limbs. He began to esta- 
blish a simple apostolic household, to abolish the luxurious 
habits of the court, he lived as he had lived as a monk, 
slept at Rome on the same hard couch that had served him 
in a monastery, and continued his scourgings like any in- 
significant brother; but he demanded the same simplicity 
and self-denial from others, and the splendid papal esta- 
blishment was suddenly abolished. 

He encountered opposition everywhere, which was not 

unnatural, as the previous state of things had existed for 

centuries, and the superior clergy and the Roman people 

regarded all this state as indispensable to the Church ; be- 

* Ranke. 



$0 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

sides this, they looked upon the Pope with suspicion as a 
foreigner. When he died, after a short reign, rejoicings 
took place at Rome. 

Thus failed the attempt to reform the Church at the 
head : how could re'form ever reach the limbs ? His successor, 
Clement VII., 1523, to Sept., 1534, was a Medici, and, like 
the rest of that family, was a man of varied intellectual 
culture, a connoisseur of art and patron of learning, and a 
thorough man of the world. It was not one of the least 
misfortunes of the Catholic Church that in this century the 
papal chair was repeatedly occupied by Italian princes, who 
were more intent on advancing their worldly interests than 
on the duties of their spiritual office. In such times a 
simple but earnest monk of good principles was far better 
adapted to the post than a prince who saw in the dignity of 
his office nothing but a means for the aggrandisement of 
his house. This is what Leo X. attempted, and his suc- 
cessor succeeded in. Clement VII. brought it to this — that 
when the situation was such that he should have been ready 
to make any sacrifice to keep on good terms with the 
Emperor, that he might, with his aid, put a stop to heresy, 
a mortal enmity sprang up between them, and the Em- 
peror sent his hired troops to reduce the Eternal City to 
ruins. 

Nothing was to be expected from this pope for the cause 
of reform. He had not even the wish to promote it, to say 
nothing of the power. For him the secular interests of 
Italy were paramount; and there is nothing in his ad- 
ministration to remind us of the great crisis through which 
the Church was passing. 

The first act of the new papal government was, by dex- 
terously taking advantage of the revolutionary movements, 
to warn the princes who had hitherto been the most zealous 
adherents of the ancient Church to go no further, but to 
agree on a programme which should prevent any further 
concessions. 

This was in the summer of 1524. At the end of June 
the so-called convention took place at Ratisbon, at which 
Austria, Bavaria, and the ecclesiastical states of South 
Germany were represented. An agreement was come to 
on two points : — 

That there should be reform in the Church to a certain 
extent, and concessions to the terrporal powers; but that in 



THE CONVENTION OF RATISBON. 9 1 

that case any extension of the new doctrine shpuld be 
strictly prohibited. 

What I call reforms and concessions related to the most 
glaring abuses in the existing Church system. It was de- 
cided that the appointments to offices in the Church should 
be made with more regard to personal merit ; that a number 
of ecclesiastical extortions should cease ; that a stop should 
be put to the sale of indulgences ; that financial extortions 
should be restricted ; that a portion of ecclesiastical estates 
and incomes should be set apart for the secular princes of 
Bavaria and Austria. 

No further concessions were to be made to the new 
doctrine on any pretence whatever, and anything having 
even an appearance of favouring it was to be strictly pro- 
hibited. The redress of the one hundred Gravamina was 
no longer insisted on. 

The position of affairs was greatly changed, when we 
compare this convention with the Diet of 1523, when there 
was not a single prince to take the Legate's part. It was 
the first triumph of the new papal policy in the matter of 
reform. The only reforms ever promoted at Rome were in 
the spirit of these concessions made at Ratisbon : by partial 
concessions to particular princes and the abolition of minor 
abuses an attempt was made to save the whole ; and even 
these were often nothing more than empty promises, de- 
feated by the unconditional engagement to oppose all 
further innovations. 

This was the situation of affairs when, at the end of 1524 
and beginning of 1525, the clouds of a new and still greater 
revolution were gathering over Germany, which was but 
foreshadowed by the events of 1522-3. This was the 
Peasai ts' War. 



CHAPTER VIL 

The Great Peasants' War, 1524-5. — The increasing Oppression of the 
Peasantry. — The Prelude to the Peasants' War in 15 14. — Influ- 
ence of the Reformation. — The Twelve Articles. — The Heilbronn 
Scheme. — Thomas Miinzer. — Luther's Attitude. — The Catas- 
trophe, May and June, 1525. 

The Peasants' War of 1525.* 

'"THAT which occasioned so fearful an outbreak in the 
-*- winter of 1524-5 had long been fermenting in the 
blood of the people and the tendencies of the age. Ever 
since the Hussite wars the fermentation had been going on 
among the peasant class. The execution of some of the 
leaders had only given fresh courage to others — such as 
the " Kasebroder "f in the Netherlands, the " Bundschuh "J 
in Baden — but the position of the peasantry was in no way 
improved. Thus the discontent increased ; even in 1476, 
1 49 1, 1498, and 1503 there had been outbursts of a 
threatening character on the Maine, the Rhine, and in 
South Germany ; and the causes of discontent were increased 
rather than diminished. 

None of the abuses by means of which the rulers, the 

* Zimmermann, Geschichte des Bauernkrieges, 1854. Bensen, Ge- 
schichte des Bauernkrieges in Ostfranken. Erlangen, 1840. Jorg., 
Deutschland, 1521-26. Ratisbon, 1852. 

t Literally, Cheese-brothers, a name adopted by a league of rebel- 
lious peasants in the Netherlands, in 1491. 

% Bundschuh, a tied shoe, as worn by the peasants, in conbast to 
the buckled shoes of the upper classes ; and a shoe being an ancient 
symbol of.subjection, by adopting one of their own shoes fastened to a 
pole as their symbol, the peasants meant to denote that they were 
rising against the rule of the nobles, and meant henceforth to be their 
own masters. The word afterwards came to be used for any rebellious 
league, when the origin of it was forgotten, and the word Bund was 
supposed to mean a league or union. — Ta. 



OPPRESSION OF THE PEASANTRY. 93 

ecclesiastical proprietors and the nobles, oppressed the 
peasants, had been abolished. Some partial rebellions had 
met with the usual fate of such attempts ; they had no 
effect as warnings, or in inclining the rulers to clemency, 
but rather occasioned the reins to be drawn still tighter. 
Then with the increase of luxury, the demands on the 
peasantry, the beasts of burden of society, had greatly 
increased. 

Ever since intercourse with the New World had been 
opened, a great change had taken place in all classes of 
society. The new markets and sources of income created 
immense riches ; new pleasures and new wants gave rise to 
luxury such as had never been known before. The wealthy 
merchants of the cities could afford it, but it was emulated 
by those who could not. Knights and nobles had to find 
fresh sources of revenue, or illegally to increase those they 
had before ; and since the treaty of peace (Landfriede) they 
were in a great measure debarred from their profitable and 
favourite occupation of plundering the cities. Thus the 
peasants only were left them for a prey, and they screwed 
them more cruelly and systematically than ever before. 

Most of the taxes were imposed by ancient legal covenants, 
but even the opponents of the revolt could not deny that 
they had been illegally and unreasonably multiplied. 

In many districts the oppression of the peasants had 
occasioned violent outbreaks. One of these took place in 
15 14, in Wiirtemberg. A "Bundschuh," or peasants' league, 
had existed there in profound secrecy for years. No one was 
admitted to membership who possessed property, but neither 
were vagrants nor persons of evil repute: "poor Kunz" or 
" Conrad," the industrious artisan or honest labourer, was 
the privileged person. Their captain stalked about in a 
tattered cloak, and assumed the airs of an imperial general ; 
it was connived at as mere sport, but it was a dangerous 
sport, like that of the "Beggars" at a later period. The 
police, in their short-sightedness, often mistook symptoms 
/ for causes, and at other times did not perceive their danger- 
ous character. 

It was a godless government in Wiirtemberg, which might 
have driven the most patient people to desperation. The 
lawless Duke Ulrich was at length at enmity with all the 
world, and most of all with his cruelly used subjects. He 
was a despot of the modem fashion, of whose sports, 



94 THE REFORMATION IN GIRMANY. 

pleasures, and banquets fabulous stories are told ; but there 
seems to be too much foundation for most of them. 

When the new tax on property and articles of consump- 
tion became insupportable it was resisted, but at first by 
harmless methods. "When false weights were introduced, 
this thumb-screw to increase the tax on meat, bread, and 
wine, the league formed a procession with fifes and drums 
to the Rems, jestingly tested the weights over the river, and 
the Duke's weight was found wanting. 

From the valley of the Rems the disturbances spread to 
other districts ; the arrest of one of the leaders called up 
thousands of armed peasants like magic. They advanced 
to the cities, and took possession of some of them. Before 
it came to bloodshed a treaty was entered into with the 
leaders ; the Duke and the Diet promised that everything 
should be honestly investigated and reformed. This dis- 
persed the people, but the government then faithlessly 
seized upon the leaders, to whom safe-conduct had been 
promised ; the Duke sent his soldiers into the peaceful 
villages, took the conspirators captive, and innocent and 
guilty were alike barbarously plundered and ill treated. 
This was ten years before the events which agitated the 
country far beyond Wurtemberg. 

There was, in fact, no material legal redress in prospect 
for the peasants. However highly the Roman law might 
be valued, still it was a misfortune for this part of the popula- 
tion that a foreign system of laws, administered in a foreign 
language, should prevail. It was from this that the blind 
hatred of the peasants to the doctores juris arose. It was 
a well-grounded complaint in this case, if in any, that the 
national law had been superseded by a foreign one, which 
rendered the common people defenceless against legal 
chicanery. Nowhere had the poor man equal rights with 
the rich and great. This was one of the greatest grievances 
in the condition of Germany. The guardianship of the 
Emperor and the Church, which had lightened the burdens 
of the people in the Middle Ages, which everywhere repre- 
sented the milder forms of subjection, and whose yoke was 
an easy one, now no longer existed. This was the inflam- 
mable material into which the spark of the Reformation fell. 

The Reformation was not the exciting cause of the com- 
motions among the peasantry. There were revolts among 
them of an earlier date than these religious conflicts, and 



OPPRESSION OF THE PEASANTRY. 95 

they must be included among the symptoms which por- 
tended the convulsions of the sixteenth century. It is 
certain, however, that under the influence of the Reforma- 
tion the commotions assumed a different character. It 
always makes a great difference whether resistance arises 
from local and individual oppression, or whether it is aroused 
by a state of things contrary to the universal principles of 
morality and religion — whether the revolt of individuals 
against intolerable oppression receives a sort of sanction 
from a new constitution of society and the state. Now 
that a doctrine had come to the aid of the peasants, which 
promised deliverance to the human race from burdens and 
bondage of every sort, the case was quite other than it was 
when they were only complaining of tithes and compulsory 
service. 

It was quite intelligible that the Reformers should under- 
stand the gospel in a purely spiritual sense ; but it was also 
intelligible that the peasants, in their pitiful condition, 
should prefer to take it literally. When the Scriptures were 
in their hands, when they found in this simple and popular 
book a number of sayings which seemed favourable to their 
cause, it appeared as if they had found an organ, and their 
spokesmen could say, " We ask nothing but what is pro- 
mised by the founders of the Christian religion, and we 
are supported in our demands by the Scriptures." 

There was nothing in the Bible about the hierarchy, or 
the distinction between the clergy and laity, nothing about 
the caste-like distinctions which were universal in the 
mediaeval world, nothing about the duty of the poor and 
the weak to bear for ever the boundless oppression of lords 
spiritual and temporal ; no, the Founder of this faith 
addressed Himself to the poor, the weary, and the heavy- 
laden ; His teaching seemed to be aimed against pharisaic 
tyranny. It is undeniable that there is a large democratic 
element in Christianity, only an attempt was made to take 
it in too literal and material a sense. Before the Reforma- 
tion the peasants' wars were occasioned simply by natural 
hatred of unjust oppression ; after it a strong religious 
element was mingled with it, a faith that they were fighting 
for true Christianity, a fanaticism which joyfully encountered 
death for a great cause. 

From the end of 1524 there were symptoms in important 
isolated risings that a general insurrection was at hand, and 



96 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

it was a singular fact, which alone preserved the existing 
order of things in Germany, that the two most dangerous 
opponents of the power of the rulers, the nobles and the 
peasants, rose up, not together, but in turn, only in turn to 
be vanquished. 

The insurrection began in the summer of 1524, on the 
Upper Rhine, along the Swiss frontiers. On the other side 
of the river the peasantry were free, and the unhappy people, 
encouraged by their success, gradually set South, West, 
and Central Germany, Alsace, Mayence, and the borders 
of the Neckar, in flames. North Germany only was 
spared. 

In this revolution, as in every other, there were many 
shades of opinion — from the moderate party, whose desires 
were certainly reasonable and practicable, to the extreme 
set, who called the whole existing order of society in ques- 
tion. So it had been in the Hussite wars. When there is 
no longer any faith in the old order of things, and " Mr. 
Omnes" appears on the scene, such extremes are never 
wanting. They are not, as many nowadays maintain, an 
invention of modern times; they are as old as humanity 
itself. The only difference I see is, that among the masses 
a feeling of their own importance and self-confidence in the 
contest has greatly increased. 

The Twelve Articles which were circulated in Hegau and 
the borders of Lake Constance formed a comparatively 
moderate programme for a revolution, and its practicability 
cannot be disputed. 

But there was another party in Franconia, from Rothen- 
burg and Bensheim, as far as Wiirzburg and the Tauber, 
comprising not peasants alone, but some educated people, 
who thought that the time was come for reconstituting 
the whole empire. They were the advocates of a strong 
monarchical power, the opponents of subdivision into princi- 
palities, and of the oppressive feudal system ; they demanded 
uniformity in the coinage, measures, weights, customs, and 
the legal administration, and the abolition of a foreign system 
of laws. Their programme has a singular resemblance to 
that of j 789. These demands could not, of course, have 
originated with the peasantry a'one ; the plan was drawn up 
by learned men who had been in office, and they hoped by 
one stroke to put an end to all the misery in the German 
empire. This party was again surpassed by another, who 



THE PEASANTS' WAR. 97 

were to be found farther north, in Thuringia and Saxony — 
the followers of Thomas Miinzer, who projected a revolu- 
tion of the most radical sort, which could only have been 
carried out by subverting every existing institution. 

Thus popular, national, religious, political, and social 
elements were all in commotion together. This was un- 
fortunate for the healthy and justifiable part of the plan : 
had this been unanimously kept to, the world must have 
submitted to it without bloodshed. 

It was not at first the intention of the peasants to use 
violence : they rather meant to obtain concessions by resolu- 
tions at great meetings, and by popular demonstrations. 
Their opponents dexterously, but dishonourably, took ad- 
vantage of this, and promised redress : courts of arbitration 
should be established, in which it should be thoroughly 
investigated what was legal and what illegal, and improve- 
ments adopted accordingly ; but this was only a feint. We 
have proofs in writing that those who thus pacified and 
dispersed the malcontents made themselves merry because 
the peasants had fallen into the snare. The object was to 
gain time for preparation at any price. If the peasants 
broke out just then they would find their opponents unpre- 
pared, and inflammable material in plenty ; there was no 
disciplined army in all South Germany capable of opposing 
a front to them. 

In February and March, 1525, the revolt broke out 
everywhere simultaneously. The faith of the peasants in 
redress was betrayed, oppression by no means lessened, 
and a longer delay would only give their lords and masters 
time to arm to the teeth. 

The coincidence of the outbreak in various places was 
not so much the result of an understanding as of the fact 
that circumstances were everywhere the same. The flames 
burst out in the Schwarzwald, at Hegau on Lake Con- 
stance, at Kempten and Salzburg. The Franconian peasants 
soon joined the rebels, and there was a similar rising from 
Wurtemberg to Nuremberg. It soon spread to the provinces 
'of the Middle Rhine, to the Palatinate, Alsace, and the 
Taumis, throughout the dominions of the nobles of the 
Middle Rhine. 

It is beyond the province of a general history of the 
period to specify the individual conflicts. When the storm 
broke in the south-west corner of Germany, and, under the 



98 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

leadership of Hans Miiller of Bulgenbach, extended itself 
to the Lake of Constance, a programme was put forth and 
circulated throughout the empire, which was considered to 
be that of the German peasantry generally. There were 
Twelve Articles,* ^the majority of which have now been 
universally carried out. 

In the preamble the reader is reminded that the peasants 
were demanding nothing but what was justified by the 
principles of the gospel; it was not they, therefore, who 
were rebels, but those who refused their just rights in 
opposition to the teaching of Christ. They had no desire 
for revolt ; they knew that the gospel preached a religion 
of peace and love. If, nevertheless, things came to the 
worst, they would not be responsible for it. But they 
trusted in God. "Will God blame the peasants who 
anxiously strive to live according to His will ? Who will find 
fault with His will ? (Romans xi.) Who will interfere 
with His judgments ? (Isaiah xl.) Who can resist His 
majesty ? (Romans viii.) Did He not hear the children of 
Israel when they cried unto Him, and deliver them out of 
the hand of Pharaoh, and will He not deliver His people 
now ? Yes, He will avenge them speedily. (Exodus hi., xiv. ; 
Luke xviii. 8.) Therefore, Christian reader, read attentively 
the following articles, and then j udge. 

i. " The whole congregation shall elect and choose a 
minister, and shall have power to dismiss him, should he 
conduct himself improperly, (i Timothy hi. ; Titus i.)" (This 
was not demanded by Luther, though it was by Zwingli.) 
" The elected minister shall preach the pure gospel to us 
plainly, without human addition, human learning, or com- 
mands. (Acts xiv.)" 

2. Only the great tithe (the legal tithe of corn), as 
ordained in the Old Testament, shall be paid in future ; 
and, after the maintenance of the minister is provided for, 
the remainder shall be for the maintenance of the village 
poor, and a little laid by for times of war. But they will 
no longer pay the small tithes ; " they are unjust tithes of 
man's invention," for "the Lord God created beasts for 
man's free use." 

3. They will no longer be held as " bondsmen," " since 
Christ has bought us and redeemed us all by His precious 

* Given in detail in Zimmerraann. 



THE TWELVE ARTICLES. 99 

blood. The Scripture teaches us that we are free, and we 
desire to be free. Not that we want to be so free as to 
have no rulers; God does not teach that." They were 
willing to "obey in everything reasonable and Christian 
the elected rulers ordained by God." 

4. Game, fowl, and fish shall be free as God created 
them, and they will no longer endure " that what God has 
permitted to grow for man's use shall be wastefully de- 
voured by irrational creatures." 

5. The management of woods is unreasonable, for the 
upper classes have appropriated all the firewood to them- 
selves. " It is our opinion that whatever firewood they 
have not bought, if in possession of ecclesiastics or lay- 
men, should be restored to the commune, and every one 
in the commune shall be at liberty in reason to take 
what he wants for his house without payment, also to take 
it for carpenter's work, but with the knowledge of those 
persons appointed by the commune to the office (of in- 
spector), whereby the destruction of firewood will be pre- 
vented." 

6. The burden of compulsory service shall be restricted. 

7. The peasant especially shall not be compelled to do 
" more than he is bound to do by the contract between 
the master and peasant. Anything over and beyond this 
shall be done for reasonable pay." 

8. Rents are so high that they ruin the peasants. They 
shall be regulated afresh according to reason. 

9. Arbitrary punishments and perpetual fresh inflictions 
of them shall cease. 

10. The pastures and fields which have been taken 
from the communes shall be restored. 

11. The right of heriot, by which widows and orphans 
are deprived of their inheritance, shall be entirely abolished. 

12. All these propositions shall be tested by Scripture, 
and if they can be refuted, but in that case only, they 
shall not stand. 

The two main points in this programme are liberty in 
Church matters and for the preaching of the new doctrine, 
and the abolition of feudal oppression, which was an in- 
tolerable burden to the poor man. Ancient rights were 
expressly recognised, but ancient abuses of them assailed. 

It was a moderate programme — humane, practicable, and 
justified by Scripture. Had it been carried out in 1524, Ger« 



IOO THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

many would have been spared an immense calamity. Besides 
all individual suffering, the nation as a whole would have 
been spared the evil consequences of an unsuccessful 
revolution. The healthy interest in politics and public 
affairs which in those* stirring times began to be manifested 
would have been fostered, instead of being crushed. 

The Twelve Articles were at first the programme of the 
whole peasant class ; thousands upon thousands of the 
little handbills were circulated. It was an unhappy thing 
for the peasants that they did not keep to these demands, 
that they split up into parties, and weakened the force of 
their just requests by want of unanimity. It was quite 
intelligible that the ruling powers should oppose the 
fanaticism which prevailed in Saxony and Thuringia under 
the leadership of Thomas Miinzer, Carlstadt, and the men 
of Zwickau ; common prudence should have prevented 
claims so preposterous as theirs from being put forth. 

Besides the Twelve Articles another programme appeared, 
which originated with the more educated classes, and in 
their earnest desire for a thorough reform of the German 
State and Church. The desire of this party was to lay the 
foundations of a new constitution for Germany amidst the 
commotions occasioned by the Peasants' War, and their 
demands had considerable resemblance to those advanced 
in 1789. 

The scheme had been drawn up by Wendel Hipler, 
formerly chancellor to Prince Hohenlohe. Heilbronn, where 
it originated, was selected as the seat of a provisional 
government, as the central point of the Peasants' War. 

The demands, comprised in fourteen articles, were : — That 
all ecclesiastics, high or low, of whatever name and rank, 
be subjected to reform; their property confiscated and 
devoted to the common good, after enough has been 
assigned to them for the necessaries of life ; that all tem- 
poral rulers, counts, and lords be reformed, in order that 
the poor man may be no longer oppressed, but that the 
most humble may have equal rights with the most exalted; 
that all cities and communes be reformed in accordance 
with Christian liberty and natural and divine laws ; that 
all taxes upon the land be abolished ; that no doctor of 
the Roman law be admitted to any office ; that no eccle- 
siastic have a seat in the councils of the empire nor hold 
any temporal office; that sixty-four courts of justice be 



tHE HElLBRONN SCHEME. 10 1 

established in the empire composed of members of all 
classes of society, sixteen provincial courts, four superior 
courts, and over them all an imperial supreme court of 
judicature ; that all roads be open, the merchants safe in 
their journeys, but that the prices of their merchandise be 
regulated ; that there be no tax but the old imperial tax ; 
a uniform system of coinage, weights, and measures through- 
out the empire ; that the usury practised by the great 
bankers be limited; that the nobles be free from eccle- 
siastical feudal obligations ; that the dominion of the ruling 
princes be abolished ; that there be but one rule and one 
authority, that of the Emperor.* 

This Heilbronn scheme breathes a very different spirit 
from that of the twelve Swabian articles. While it demands 
a subversion of the German ecclesiastical constitution, there 
is nothing expressly said of the teaching of the gospel ; and 
the material demands, which in those occupy so large a 
space, are in this only cursorily touched on. This, on the 
contrary, presents the last bold sketch of a plan of imperial 
reform, in which the ancient idea of the empire is presented 
from the democratic, not the imperial point of view, or that 
of the ruling princes. This scheme projected its shadow far 
into the future, and was for a long time partly carried out 
and partly refused. Had the leaders united in proposing a 
plan of this sort, and had the masses adhered to it as one 
man, it would have afforded material for a tremendous 
revolution. And the first successes of the peasants were sur- 
prising : prelates, nobles, and cities submitted to them in 
continually increasing numbers. From the left bank of the 
Rhine far into Austria and the Tyrol, from the Lake of 
Constance to Franconia and Thuringia, the revolt had 
engulfed all cognate elements, and partly vanquished, and 
partly stunned, whatever was in opposition to it. The 
successor of the Elector Frederic of Saxony, who had just 
died, once exclaimed, in melancholy jest, "Who knows how 
long my power may last ? " and it was no wonder that the 
reigning princes thought things looked ominous for them. 

It was natural that it should be an enigma to Napoleon I. 
that Charles V. did not take advantage of the situation to 
make Germany a united empire. But it was not natural 
that a monarch should think of it who was always occupied 

• Bensen, Ranke. 



102 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

with other things than reforms in Germany, spiritual or 
temporal, who had just fought the battle of Pavia, and was 
meditating at Madrid on the fruits of his victory. 

Of much greater moment than the Emperor's attitude 
was the bearing of the citizen middle-class portion of the 
nation, among whom the Reformation had its seat, and who 
were accustomed to take command from Luther. If he 
joined the peasants in their revolt, if he echoed their de- 
mands, social, national, and ecclesiastical, the movement 
would be irresistible, and would carry the reigning princes 
along with it ; but if he held back or opposed the revolt, 
its wings would be clipped, and a reaction would set in. 

Before Luther had declared himself, the masses counted 
on him as their leader, or reckoned at least on his silent 
approval. The opinions entertained even among the govern- 
ing classes were very various, and many of the imperial 
cities were in favour of the peasants' demands, and thought 
that an effort should be made to carry out other needful 
reforms with their moderate help. 

But when Luther disclaimed all participation in the 
rebellion, and then expressed a downright condemnation 
of it, all the middle class, the great camp of his party, 
turned against it, and the fate of the movement was vir- 
tually decided. The error in this, as in so many other 
revolutionary movements, was want of moderation. 

Thomas Miinzer stands foremost among the travelling 
preachers of the Peasants' War who were against everything 
which the middle class held sacred. The opposite tend- 
encies of the age are curiously united in this remarkable 
man. He is at enmity with the entire existing order of 
things, yet quarrels with the leaders who are beginning to 
reconstitute it. He hates the constitution, service, and 
doctrine of the ancient Church ; but he hates Luther still 
more, because he has stopped half-way. As a rationalist he 
is opposed to Luther's doctrine of justification and election 
of grace; yet he is enough of a mystic to boast that he 
receives divine revelations, and to address the people as a 
prophet. He leads the onslaught against convents, images, 
priests, and - the professional garb ; but the revolt of the 
peasants against the arbitrary power of princes, nobles, and 
priests is not enough for him ; the treaties which abolish the 
oppression of the old order of things are preposterous j 
princes, nobles, and priests should no longer exist ; property 



LUTHER S ATTITUDE. 103 

itself is an evil ; the subversion of Church and State must 
be followed by that of the whole existing order of society. 
Between the Maine and the Rhine, between Upper 
Swabia and Thuringia, he inflamed the people with his 
fiery harangues, in the style of the Old Testament, against 
palaces and courts and the temporal and spiritual rulers. 
" Look not on the sorrow of the ungodly, let not your 
sword grow cold from blood, strike hard upon the anvil of 
Nimrod, cast his tower to the ground, because the day is 
yours." Thus does he incite them to murderous onslaughts, 
and from the security of Miihlhausen he prepared for a 
decisive stroke. 

We know well what was Luther's opinion of everything 
like attempts to redress grievances by violence, whether by 
high or low, in a good cause or a bad. It was his firm con- 
viction that rebellion is always an evil, that it is contrary to 
the divine order, and only increases the mischief. On no 
point is he more thoroughly consistent than on this. 

For the princes, who at a later period would have fought 
for his cause against the Emperor, he had the same answer 
as for the nobles when they rebelled against the princes. 
His attitude in relation to the Peasants' War was therefore 
settled beforehand ; it resulted from an essential feature in 
his character ; and the accusation is quite false which was 
made against him by the party spirit of the time, that he 
held back at first because he had not the courage to speak 
out, and that it was the triumphs of the reaction which 
again emboldened him. Before anything decisive had oc- 
curred he did the most courageous thing he could do — he 
broke with all parties. He was convinced that temporal 
and spiritual objects could not be pursued together ; that 
reform had no worse ally than revolution ; that teaching, 
preaching, schools, education — all would fall to the ground 
if this turbulent movement proved victorious. The ex- 
periences of 1793 justified this opinion. Amidst civil war, 
accustomed to violent and aimless revolution, the people 
/ would become uncivilised, the simple religious feeling of 
old times would be quenched, the gradual growth of a new 
spirit could not prosper amidst the storm and tumult of 
revolution. 

Luther at once replied to the Twelve Articles of the Swabian 
peasants with an exhortation to peace : he endeavoured to 
moderate the peasants, but at the same time reminded the 



104 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

princes and nobles of their old and manifold wrong- 
doings. "You must be changed, and submit to God's 
word," &c. But writing could do no good in this case ; the 
peasants thought him lukewarm, and the princes and nobles 
considered his representations too unfavourable to them. 
The storm now broke wildly over palaces, churches, and 
convents, caused by the incendiarism of the well-known 
" murderous prophets and factious spirits," as Luther used 
to call Miinzer and his followers. Luther was then stirred 
up, and wrote his second paper " against the rapacious and 
murderous peasants," the tone of which was as violent as 
the peasants themselves. He stormed against the shameful 
deeds of the rebels, and was so far carried away as to call 
upon the authorities to take severe measures against them ; 
they should " stab, kill, and strangle " them without mercy. 
This could but do harm : the authorities were already so 
exasperated that he should have urged moderation upon 
them. 

The part that Luther took against the movement had 
very decisive results : the great body of the middle class, 
which had been undecided before, now received their 
watchword. Those upon whose sympathies the peasants 
had counted took no part; the rest prepared for armed 
resistance. 

The Peasants' War failed for want of skilful leaders, through 
the indiscretion of the masses, from want of unanimity 
among their leaders and their plans, and from the attitude 
of the party who, though not at first unfavourable, after- 
wards either took no part in it or openly joined their 
adversaries. 

Munzer's peasant army, badly armed and worse led, was 
entirely defeated at Frankenhausen by the troops of the 
Landgrave of Hesse, the Elector John, and the Dukes 
George and Henry of Saxony, on the 15th of May, 1525. 
The captain of the Swabian league, Truchsess von Waldburg, 
and the Electors of the Palatinate and Treves, put an end 
to the rebellion in Wurtemberg, the bands of soldiers in 
Alsace and on the Tauber were cut down, the defenceless 
farms and villages burnt, and the remnant of the rebels 
treated with the greatest cruelty. 

The peasants experienced the usual consequences of an 
unsuccessful revolt in their worst form : the vanquished party 
were inhumanly punished, and the oppression against which 



RESULTS OF THE PEASANTS' WAR. 105 

they had rebelled became greater than ever. A very few 
masters had sufficient self-denial to loosen the reins a little, 
but most of the peasants suffered more than before. The 
effects of the reaction were very great, and caused all 
attempts at reform, to which so lively an impulse had been 
given, to be looked upon as suspicious and revolutionary. 
It is easy, when an alarming rebellion has been quelled, to 
condemn without discrimination all that appears to have 
any connection with it. The real grievances were not in the 
least degree remedied, only put aside, so that the mischief 
was still raging in secret. The Peasants' War not only did 
nothing for the class who originated it ; it occasioned a great 
schism in the nation, injured the great cause of reform, 
and quenched men's interest in politics for a long time to 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Reaction of the Revolution upon the Reformation. — Charles V, and 
the Peace of Madrid.— The Diet of Spire, August, 1526. — Spread 
of the Reformation. — Its share in the National Disruption. — The 
new War in Italy. — The League of Cognac, May, 1526. — The 
Storming of Rome by the Imperial Troops, 1527. — Advance of the 
French to Naples, and Dissolution of their Army there, 1528. — 
Peace of Barcelona and Cambray, 1529. — The League between the 
Pope, the Emperor, and the King against the Heretics. 

WHILE these events were transpiring in Germany, 
Charles V. was at Madrid, deliberating how he 
should compel his royal prisoner, Francis I., whose army 
was destroyed at Pavia, to conclude a peace in accordance 
with his brilliant victory. 

His exorbitant demands were clearly a mistake. Had he 
been reasonable a lasting peace might have been secured ; 
but he exacted conditions from the King which he could not 
adhere to, and which were simply impracticable for any 
king of France. 

By the peace of Madrid, of January, 1526, the following 
conditions were imposed upon Francis : — All French claims 
upon Milan, Naples, and Sicily were to cease ; Flanders and 
Artois to be restored to the Emperor ; the King to marry the 
Emperor's sister as a pledge of perpetual alliance with him ; 
and Burgundy was to be surrendered. 

The first two conditions were hard, the last two absurd. 
The Emperor and the King were natural enemies whom no 
marriage could make into allies. Such a cession as that 
of Burgundy could only properly be asked or granted if 
France ifself had been annihilated. Francis had been at war 
for twenty years, and, though continually unsuccessful, he 
had always made peace on better terms than these. The 
oath by which Francis confirmed the treaty was quite un- 
natural ; he took it with the criminal frivolity which charac 



THE PEACE OF MADRID. 107 

terized the morals of the sixteenth century, for he had even 
beforehand circulated a document among his friends, in 
which he declared the oath about to be extorted from him 
to be null and void. 

One point there was in the treaty on which the policy of 
the parties might coincide — in proceeding against the Turks 
on the one hand, and the heretics who had escaped from the 
bosom of the holy Church on the other. 

The course European politics were taking tended in the 
same direction as the reaction against the Reformation 
which resulted from the horrors of the Peasants' War. 

In fact, the Emperor's first proclamation after the peace of 
Madrid, dated March, 1526, and addressed to some of the 
princes of the empire, informed them that decided steps 
were to be immediately taken against heresy. A league of 
the orthodox would be desirable as a preliminary step, but 
the Emperor was himself about to take the question in hand 
at Rome. 

Charles was then counting upon his allies, King Francis 
and Pope Clement VII., but a few weeks later he could no 
longer do so. On the 22nd of May, Francis and Clement 
had formed a conspiracy against the Emperor at Cognac ; a 
European war was in prospect ; and when, at the Diet at 
Spire in June and July of the same year, the question of the 
Church in Germany was again brought up, the states were 
justified in assuming that the imperial instructions against 
reform and enforcing the Edict of Worms were superseded 
by other events, and that there could be no longer any 
serious intention of doing a service to the Pope, whose 
troops were already advancing against the Emperor. Never- 
theless no resolution was passed by vote of the majority. 
There was at first an attempt made on both sides to form 
parties, but there was as yet no sharp division into majority 
and minority ; and the final decree enacted, in accordance 
with the advice of the Committee, that in the matter of 
religion and the Edict of Worms " every state shall live, 
ruh?, and believe so that it shall be ready to answer for 
itself before God and his Imperial Majesty." 

This decree has had most important results. Many things 
occurred afterwards to modify it, but it was, in fact, the prin- 
ciple upon which the German national Church and the 
modern states of Germany were developed. It is evident 
that an imperial law which asserted the autonomy in matters 



Io8 1HE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

of religion, not only of every ruler, but of every imperial 
city and every imperial noble, would promote vast dissen- 
sions; and it is mainly this which has given rise to the dictum 
that the Reformation laid the foundations of the disruption 
of Germany, a dictum which is regarded as a truism to which 
some assent as to an undeniable though melancholy fact, 
and which others a*ssert in a tone of bitter reproach. 

The dictum is false ; it is contradicted by history. The 
disruption of the German empire existed long before the 
Reformation took place ; it was the result of processes which 
had been going on for centuries, and was by no means the 
effect of religious dissensions. If Germany had not been in 
a state of disruption, the history of the German Reformation 
from 1521-26 would have been quite other than it was. 
Had we had a compact German state at the time of the 
Diet of Worms, the atrocious edict would never have been 
smuggled in. No monarch of a really united Germany 
would have adopted a resolution which was openly opposed 
to the sentiments of the nation and to the opinion of the 
majority of its states, both temporal and spiritual, and which 
it was impossible to enforce. 

But it may be justly said that the Reformation might have 
given a powerful momentum to national unity. If in 1521 
we had had a monarch who would have settled accounts with 
Rome, put an end to old sins in relation to her, and at the 
same time had entered into the greatest movement of ideas 
which had ever agitated our nation, unity might have been 
inaugurated on a firmer basis and a grander scale than it 
had been for centuries. 

But the opportunity was lost, and never recurred. The 
affairs of Germany took such a course that destiny but once 
offered this enticing opportunity to the Emperor, and as it 
was not seized, it was lost for ever. Two years later we hear 
nothing more of the Emperor ; the states decided for them- 
selves, and in order to prevent dissensions, agreed that the 
pure doctrine of the gospel should be preached. Then came 
the Revolution ; the existence of the reigning princes was 
threatened, first by the nobles and then by the peasants, 
but in both contests the princes were victorious, and chose 
to take advantage of their victory. They had long been 
looking for a pretext for strengthening their power, and 
embraced the opportunity which the Emperor had let slip. 
The decree of Spire gave legal sanction to the attempt, but 



NATIONAL DISRUPTION. 109 

this was not the consequence of the new doctrine, but of 
ancient political developments which now had a decided 
influence on its fate. If this were not so, the Reformation 
must have occasioned disruption everywhere, whereas in 
other countries we find that it was precisely the contrary. 

From this time Germany has not deviated from this 
course. Every country decides the reform question in its 
own way. Not that free individual development is permitted ; 
every country takes vigorous and sometimes arbitrary mea- 
sures, while in other lands these are taken by a central 
power. The hopes of those who thought that the decree of 
August, 1526, would be a death-blow to the new doctrine 
were utterly disappointed ; it rather became the basis of a 
greater extension of it. Saxony, Hesse, Anhalt, Franconia, 
Liineburg, East Friesland, Schleswig-Holstein, Silesia, and 
Prussia adopted the Reformation, as did also the important 
imperial cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Strasburg, &c. 
The breach became irreparable. There was a Roman 
Catholic party in South Germany, who gave up all thought 
of reform, and another party for whom reform was an 
accomplished fact, and who would no longer have anything 
to do with the ancient Church : Austria, Bavaria, and the 
South German bishoprics as a compact territory on one side ; 
on the other, less compactly grouped, a great part of ancient 
Saxony, the ancient Frisian district, and the eastern colonies 
of Germany, on what was formerly Slavonic territory ; not 
to mention the inhabitants of the imperial cities of the 
North and South. The results of the decree of Spire began 
to appear ; it became more and more impossible for the 
ancient Church to regain her former supremacy, but it was 
also impossible for Protestantism to gain undisputed sway. 
That the actual decision still remained for some years in 
the balance is to be explained by another turn in the imperial 
papal policy. 

It is extremely curious to observe the attitude of the re- 
spective representatives of the papal and imperial dignity at 
this crisis. While in Germany the consciences of men from 
the highest to the lowest were stirred to their very depths, 
not only were the Pope and Emperor strangers to any such 
ideas, they acted against the simple and natural dictates of 
policy. The Emperor was always seeking an untenable 
alliance with the Pope, while repulsing his natural allies ; and 
the Pope continually overlooked the fact that his alliance 



IIO THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

with the Emperor against the heretics would only advance 
their cause. 

In the peace of Madrid Charles V. and Francis I. joined 
cause against the innovations in the empire, and futile as 
the treaty was in all other respects, the Pope should have 
tried to grasp it "by this handle at any price. 

If he could have succeeded in keeping the allies to this, 
it would have been fearfully perilous for the German Re- 
formation. Such a consideration, according to the views of 
mediaeval Catholicism, should have been supreme with the 
Pope. But Clement VII. was a Medici, and had been 
schooled in the vacillating policy of the family, which had 
always induced them to throw their weight into the scale 
which threatened to be found wanting. Their fine princi- 
pality, with its commanding position in the peninsula, must 
be oppressed neither by the Germans nor the French, and 
to this purely political consideration, which had nothing 
to do with the Church, the Pope sacrificed ecclesiastical 
unity. 

He was the first to provoke war, and it was a curse to the 
Church that her head had no insight into her real situation. 

On the 22nd of May, 1526, the treaty of Cognac was 
entered into between Clement VII. and Francis I. against 
the Emperor, whose supremacy ever since the battle of Pavia 
had begun to be alarming. They tried to exact conditions 
from the Emperor in favour of France and Italy to which it 
was impossible for him to accede, and then to extort them 
by force of arms. 

In this position of affairs the Emperor wrote a remarkable 
letter to the cardinals under date of October 6th, 1526, 
which is printed by Lanz. He had heard that the Pope had 
combined with the King of France to attack him. This was 
the last thing he should have expected. " For I believe 
there is no prince more devoted to the Romish Church than 
I; witness Parma and Piacenza." He had borne the bitter 
complaints of the German states and princes of the many 
abuses in the court of Rome into the bargain. " The Pope, 
therefore, does me a very great wrong, when I have done so 
much for his sake, and have thereby alienated the princes of 
the empire not a little." He reminds them of the necessity 
of peace at this critical moment for the Church, and of the 
long-promised council. " If the Christian republic suffers 
harm in consequence of a council not being convened 01 



ALLIANCE AGAINST THE EMPEROR. Ill 

longer delayed, I solemnly declare that I at least am not to 
blame for it." 

But these admonitions had no effect. Just when the 
Emperor was offering his aid to France and the Pope to put 
down the heretics, he received for answer a declaration of 
war from both. So, as a commentary on the provisions in 
the peace of Madrid against the enemies of the Pope, an 
imperial army advanced towards Rome to call the head of 
the Church to order with pikes and spears. 

Early in 1527 a numerous army, such as had not been 
seen within the memory of man, headed by Bourbon and 
George Frundsberg, whose German soldiers marched with 
real fanaticism against the Pope, appeared on the way to 
Rome. The famishing mercenaries, among whom a dan- 
gerous mutiny broke out on the way, were eager to pounce 
upon the treasures of Rome. On the 6th of May Bourbon led 
them on to storm the Eternal City. Rome was defenceless, 
and was taken by the Germans on the first assault. The 
Pope had taken refuge at Engelsburg, and refused all the 
enemy's demands, as he was in constant expectation of 
succour from the French. The Spanish and German sol- 
diers then betook themselves to plunder, and fell upon the 
treasures in the palaces and churches. The booty was 
immense, but was mostly soon frittered away. The Ger- 
mans mocked at the sacred relics of Rome, and proclaimed 
Luther as Pope. 

Charles V. was master of the greater part of St. Peter's 
patrimony, and intended to take permanent possession 
of the States of the Church, in order to render the Pope's 
temporal policy innocuous, when the Pope found an 
unexpected ally in Henry VIII., and a French army 
under Lautrec, subsidised by England, came to his aid. 

The French arrived at Naples at the beginning of 1528. 
Fortune now seemed to favour the allies. The Imperialists, 
driven to the sea, could not, in their perpetual want of money, 
venture to incur any further risk, and in the summer it 
appeared as if a great catastrophe must happen to the 
/imperial power, but at Naples fortune again turned the 
scale in the Emperor's favour. While, within the city, the 
Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, in spite of their great 
distress, were uniting to make a desperate resistance, a 
fearful pestilence attacked the French camp without the 
walls, and so much insubordination ensued, that it prepared 



112 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

the way for the utter annihilation of the army without a 
blow having been struck, and some successful sallies of the 
besieged gave it the finishing-stroke. Thus the kingdom of 
Naples was as quickly lost to the French as it had been 
won, and the allies never obtained a success which counter- 
balanced this defeat 

In the summer of 1529 a reconciliation took place be- 
tween the Emperor and the Pope. By the peace of Bar- 
celona, of the 29th of June, the States of the Church, and 
Florence, which had rebelled against him, were restored to 
the Pope ; he also received the assurance that the exter- 
mination of heresy should be now vigorously taken in hand. 
In July of the same year the negotiations took place which 
resulted in reconciliation with France at the peace of 
Cambray. 

Charles V. conceded more than might have been ex- 
pected from the success of his arms. He gave up his demand 
for Burgundy, and in consideration of a large ransom, re- 
leased the French princes who were detained as hostages, 
and no longer insisted on the impracticable conditions of 
Madrid, while Francis had to give up his claims upon Italy 
and his feudal sovereignty in Flanders and Artois. The 
articles of Madrid against the heretics were renewed. 

Peace was now restored to the Church and empire, but 
on condition that pestifero morbo hareticorum should at 
length be checked. Three years had indeed again passed 
away, during which the new doctrine had made great pro- 
gress, and churches had been organized in accordance with 
it all over the country. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Reaction of Italian Affairs upon Germany. — Aggravation of the State 
of Affairs by Otto von Pack. — Altered Relation of Parties. — The 
Diet of Spire and the Protest of the Lutheran Party, April, 1529. 
— The Turks before Vienna, 1529. — Diet of Augsburg and the 
Confession of Augsburg, June 25th, 1530. — Threats against the 
Protestants ; their first Meeting and League at Schmalkald, De- 
cember, 1530 — March, 153 1. — Danger from the Turks, and the 
Religious Peace of Nuremberg, July 23rd, 1532. 

IT cannot be denied that the position of the adherents of the 
new doctrine was by no means safe or enviable. They 
had taken advantage of the decree of 1526, which, how- 
ever, according to the traditions of the Diet, was no decree 
at all, and the question was whether the Emperor would not 
reverse it as soon as it was in his power to do so ; they 
would then at once lose all legal standing, and be con- 
fronted with an inimical power. 

The dreaded alliance between the Emperor, the Pope, 
and the King had just been concluded, and it was not easy 
to see how the Lutherans could stand against it. 

The adherents of the Reformation had followed the 
course of events in Italy with great anxiety. It is evident 
that they were in a state of excitement from the alarm occa- 
sioned by some communications from Otto von Pack. 
Even in 1528, when the war was near its close, outrages 
were feared, and the most extraordinary stories gained 
credit. 

Otto von Pack, a dismissed minister of Duke George of 
'Saxony, had come to the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, and 
told him that an infamous plot was brewing against him and 
the Elector of Saxony. He stated that the Catholic Elec- 
tors of Mayence and Brandenburg, the Dukes of Saxony 
and Bavaria, and the Bishops of Salzburg, Bamberg, and 
Wiirzburg, with King Ferdinand at their head, intended to 

9 



114 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

make a sudden attack upon them, to dispossess them of 
their lands, and draw over their subjects to the reactionary 
Catholic party. He brought forward written proofs of it, 
and both the Landgrave and the Elector gave credit to it. 
Yet Pack was an ^adventurer whom it was not difficult to 
suspect of the falsification of documents, and there was 
nothing in the character of the accused princes, obstinate 
adherents of the old faith as they were, to justify the opinion 
that they were likely to make a nocturnal attack upon their 
nearest kinsfolk, and drive them from their possessions and 
subjects. It was, however, the circumstances of the times 
which gave rise to fears of this sort. 

In the year 1529 one blow quickly followed another: 
first, a dispatch from the Emperor, in which he coolly re- 
ferred to the Edict of Worms of 1 521, as if nothing fresh 
had happened since ; then the altered attitude of the Diet ; 
the reconciliation between the Emperor and the Pope, 
which had been publicly confirmed ; and finally the return 
of the Emperor himself, who now came as a mighty ruler, 
who had been most successful in war, had twice humbled 
France, had conquered and then restored Italy, and who 
now, in the height of his power and flower of his age, was 
justified in imagining that he had but to command to attain 
all that he desired. 

The first signs of the change were the imperial warnings 
to the Protestant states that in the spring the Emperor 
would conclude peace, and put the penalties in force against 
Luther and his followers. This was accompanied by threats 
or flattery, according to circumstances ; the smaller states 
were threatened, and a tone of respect adopted towards the 
larger. 

On the 21st of February, 1529, the Diet assembled at 
Spire. 

The Emperor's plan was contained in an advice, the pur- 
port of which was as follows : — The edict of 1 5 2 1 is to be 
held as still in force ; the later ones, especially that of 1526, 
as null and void. Peace, which an attempt had been made 
to purchase by concessions, had not been secured, nor any 
restriction put upon the spread of the new doctrine; it 
was therefore best to return to the edict of 1521, which 
had been illegally departed from. This was the decided 
proposal of the imperial commissioner on the 15th of 
March. 



THE DIET OF SPIRE. 115 

It was now lor the first time probable that this resolution 
would be carried by a majority. There had been no pros- 
pect of it in 1523, and none in 1526, but the change was no 
longer dubious. The mediating princes who had before 
counselled both parties to peace, now went over to the 
Emperor's side. The final decree enacted, in accordance 
with the Emperor's advice, that " whoever has hitherto 
acted on the edict shall continue to do so. In those dis- 
tricts where it has not been observed no further innovations 
shall be made, and no one shall be prevented from cele- 
brating mass." 

This sounded milder and more tolerant than it was meant 
to be.* Those whom it concerned did not for a moment 
doubt its meaning. But during the Diet there was an evi- 
dent desire to proceed as peaceably as possible, and to 
avoid exasperating the people. The majority informed the 
minority, almost with regret, that the decision was unavoid- 
able ; the minority, with all due respect, regretted that they 
could not acknowledge it. 

On the 19th of April they entered a protest against the 
final decree of the Diet ; on the 22nd an appeal ; and in 
both cases they took their stand upon the modern principle 
that religious matters could not be decided by majority 
and minority, but only by the conscience. They desire 
that the decree of 1526 shall be held valid, for otherwise 
peace can scarcely be maintained. They cannot approve 
adherence to the Edict of Worms, because they would 
thereby condemn their own doctrines. They are ready to 
render obedience to the Emperor in all things wherein it is 
due, but these are things " which concern the glory of God 
and the salvation of the soul of every one of us, and in 
which, according to God's commands, and for the sake of 
our own consciences, it is our bounden duty, before all 
things, to have respect to the Lord our God ; " and they 
hope the Emperor " will kindly excuse this refusal." The 
decree of Spire of 1526 can only, "in accordance with 
propriety, reason, and law, be annulled by a unanimous 
resolution, and such this was not ; but apart from that, in 
matters relating to the glory of God and the salvation of 
our souli, every one of us must stand before and give 
account of himself to God." 

• See Ranke. 



Il6 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

This protest was signed by John of Saxony, George of 
Brandenburg, Ernest of Liineburg, Philip of Hesse, Wolf- 
gang of Anhalt ; and then by the representatives of fourteen 
cities — Strasburg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Costnitz, Lindau, 
Memmingen, Kempten, Nordlingen, Heilbronn, Reut- 
lingen, Isny, St. Gall, Weissenburg, and Windsheim. 

The position of affairs was materially aggravated by this 
step. If the dreaded alliance now took place between the 
great powers and the Pope, the gravest and most alarming 
complications must be looked for. The Emperor made 
himself ready to advance with an army to Germany. He 
had just assured himself at Barcelona and Cambray of the 
assistance of the Pope and the King of France, when the 
capital of his Austrian dominions was menaced by the most 
powerful army of Turks that had ever been seen on the 
Danube. 

Suleiman, the last great martial ruler of the Osmanli, 
with a just conception of the fundamental idea of a state 
like Turkey, well knew that it was only amidst active war- 
fare and conquest that such a people could be kept in a 
healthy condition, and he poured his immense army — it was 
computed at two hundred and fifty thousand men — like a 
national migration over the German possessions of Charles V. 
The old Osman spirit of warlike propaganda had revived. 
All Christendom was to be subdued by the sword of the 
Prophet, and the moment seemed favourable. The Church 
was torn by bitter dissensions, just then coming to a deci- 
sive issue, and the monarch through whose dominions their 
path lay was just making ready to strike a decisive blow at 
the apostates. 

It was an anxious moment, not only for the Emperor, but 
for all the West. However little credit might be given to 
the Turks for power to do much permanent mischief in the 
invaded countries, yet the danger of seeing the culture of 
the West even temporarily overrun by the Eastern bar- 
barians was quite enough to throw all that divided 
Christendom into the shade, and, menaced by a common 
enemy, to cause it to unite its forces for a vigorous 
resistance. 

The terrible danger was averted by the heroic defence of 
Vienna, and by the noble enthusiasm by which, in spite of 
eccl ?siastical schisms, Germany was animated. It was clear 
that on this question there were no parties in Germany. 



THE TURKS BEFORE VIENNA. I17 

How angry the Reform party had been over the abuse 
which the Curia had made of the threatened Turkish war ! 
But now that the danger was clothed in flesh and blood, 
they preached most zealously, Luther himself at their head, 
in favour of combined resistance to the enemy as subjects of 
the Emperor ; and among the princes who were foremost in 
making sacrifices for the cause were the leading adherents 
of the new doctrine, especially the Landgrave Philip of 
Hesse. 

Vienna held out until the Sultan perceived that it would 
be impossible to maintain his army in the exhausted 
country, and with the remnant which alone, if he lingered, 
famine and the winter season would leave him, to oppose 
the brave troops which were arriving from all sides. 

After an attack on the walls of Vienna which utterly 
failed, on the 14th of October, without being exactly 
beaten, he was compelled to retire, and this was, in fact, the 
most humiliating defeat which he could have suffered. He 
had advanced so far unhindered, but he was forced to with- 
draw without any decisive engagement. This was a severe 
reverse for the Turkish power. 

The Emperor was thus unexpectedly relieved from deep 
anxiety. In those anxious September days, when the 
Grand Turk had drawn up his forces in Charles's eastern 
dominions, and the fate, not of Vienna alone, was in the 
hands of the troops in his ill-fortified capital, he might well 
be in doubt whether he ought not to forget Pope and 
Chuich, heretics and all, and go to the aid of his threatened 
heritage ; but relief had come without his help, Vienna was 
saved, the onslaught of the Turks had collapsed at the most 
critical juncture, his star was once more in the ascendant, 
and higher than ever before. 

Everything had been propitious to him. By a successful 
campaign he had obtained peace with the Pope and the 
King of France. He had vanquished the greatest military 
power in Europe; the laurels of Francis I. had faded before 
the martial glory of the young Emperor; the Grand Turk, 
after some brilliant successes at first, had hastily retreated, 
and now he was only opposed by the handful of German 
princes and cities who had protested at Spire in 1529. 

They were, it was true, resolved to sacrifice everything to 
their convictions ; but how insignificant did their power 
appear compared with that of the Emperor ! And besides 



Il8 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

this, they were too divided and disunited to withstand a 
policy which r.ow for the first time seemed to have a 
definite object in view. 

Another attempt at conversion had been projected by the 
allies at Barcelona; if that did not succeed, "the insult 
offered to Christ " should be avenged by all possible means. 
The Protestants were proof against conversion by threats, 
intimidation, or flattery; but how would it be if the 
Emperor's threats were actually carried out? 

On this point they were not agreed. Some had con- 
scientious scruples against vigorous self-defence. There 
was at first a conflict of duties, of which at a later period 
we hear no more. While the worldly element in the party 
had no doubt that force must be met by force, the theolo- 
gical leader of the party, Martin Luther, adhered firmly to 
the opinion which he had always maintained, that spiritual 
results can only be effected by spiritual means, that the 
Word would only be established by the Word. "The 
authorities," he says on the 28th of November, 1529, 
"are not to be withstood by violence, but by confession of 
the truth ; if they are converted by it, well ; if not, thou art ex- 
cused and sufferest for God's sake. We had ten times better 
be dead than have it on our conscience that by our means 
our gospel had been the occasion of blood and violence." 

An armed resistance to the Emperor appeared to him, 
with his mediaeval views, to be a criminal rebellion. It was 
only with great reluctance and under pressure of necessity 
that he gave up his respect for the imperial power and his 
allegiance as a subject. It is not easy for us to form a just 
idea of his views on this point. The greatness of soul which 
they evince will be obvious to all, but it will also be obvious 
that the views of a theologian on politics — that is, on the 
subject of resistance to tangible forces — cannot be taken 
as a rule of action. 

To these differences between the men of action and the 
men of doctrine a theological controversy was added. It 
referred especially to the dogma of the Supper. 

As early as 1519 Luther had decidedly dissented from the 
Romish view of this sacrament.* He rejected first the 
withholding of the cup, and then the idea of sacrifice which 

• See his " Sermon vom Hochw. Sacrament des heil wahren 
Leichnams Christi," Erlangen Ausgabe. 



f RAN SUB STANTI ATION. 1 1 9 

was bound up with the Roman Catholic doctrine ; and, in 
order that the Supper might not be regarded as a good work, 
he rejected also the dogma of transubstantiation. 

Instead of a direct transformation, he adopted the idea of 
a sort of mystical presence of the Redeemer in the sacra- 
ment ; and this, according to his teaching, had the same effect 
as the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.* 

In Switzerland another view had developed itself. Zwingli 
could not believe in either of the two miracles ; with his 
unimpassioned way of looking at things, he could not un- 
derstand these mystical ideas ; he took the words, " This is 
my body," to mean, "This signifies my body;" and he ad- 
duced a number of passages in support of his view, such as 
" I am the vine," which must obviously be explained in this 
manner. These were the differences which played a part in 
the world's history, and divided the Protestant camp when 
absolute unity was more essential than ever. 

In 1529 warnings were not wanting from those who, with 
just political insight, perceived that it would be disastrous 
for the cause of reform if the free study of the Scriptures 
was begun with dogmatical disputes, and if on the most 
vital questions the party should divide. It was therefore 
advised that some accommodating formula be sought for. 
The Landgrave Philip took the greatest interest in it, for 
personally he was more inclined to the views of Zwingli than 
to those of his own theologians, and Melancthon, Bucer, and 
others did all they could to bring about a reconciliation 
with the Swiss, but in vain. 

At length, at Michaelmas, 1529, a theological conference 
was arranged at Marburg, where, at the instigation of Philip, 
the Swiss and Saxon theologians met in order to agree upon 
a formula. On some important points they came to an 
understanding, but on the mystery of the real presence, 
which was with Luther the main question, he prevented 
their coming to any agreement. He kept to the words 
which he wrote on the table before him, " This is my body." 
The passionate intolerant spirit of the monk, of unyielding 
ancient scholasticism which could brook no opposition, was 
aroused in him; the simple temperate character of the Swiss 
Reformer was repugnant to him, and he never overcame his 
distrust of him and his doctrines. Luther refused all inter- 

• Schenkel, Wesen des Protestantismus. 



120 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

course with him, and allowed himself to say many things 
which he could not maintain, and which he himself regretted 
on reflection. Zwingli and his followers preserved a far more 
gentle and conciliatory tone towards him. 

Upper Germany, Swabia, and Switzerland adopted Zwin- 
gli's view. Some of the imperial cities were inclined to 
it, arid Philip of Hesse did not conceal that he thought it 
more natural and tenable, though he was prudent enough 
not to press it. 

Protestantism was thus divided not only on the great 
question of resistance to the Catholic reaction, but divided 
amongst itself. There were two distinct camps, either of 
which might perhaps say, in the first moment of danger, 
" What are the others to us ? Let us wait and see what 
happens." 

In May, 1530, Charles came to Germany. He had just 
put the finishing-stroke at Bologna to the peace which was 
to reconstitute Italy, and had confirmed his reconciliation 
with the Pope by his solemn coronation. There also, doubt- 
less, the final conferences took place about the Church and 
the heretics. Judging from circumstances, we may conclude 
that Pope and Emperor were agreed that the obstinate 
apostates must be made to return to the bosom of the 
Church. But there their opinions diverged. Clement VII. 
and his successors thought that sufficient. The only reform 
of which they had any idea was the restoration of the lost 
unity under their rule, by whatever means it might be 
brought about. But Charles V. was of opinion that when 
the outward breaches were restored, internal security should 
be given by a general council which should accede to 
the justifiable demands for Church reform. If this was 
the alternative, the Pope would sooner submit to the 
continuance of heresy, to the defection from the Church 
of one hundred thousand souls, than consent to a repetition 
of the stormy Councils of Costnitz and Basle, which haunted 
the memory of the Curia like spectres. 

Then came the Diet of Augsburg. Germany had not 
witnessed so brilliant a one for centuries. The German 
empire shene once more in its mediaeval splendour. And 
how different was the Emperor's arrival now from that when 
he came up the Rhine to Worms ! He was then known 
only as Maximilian's grandson ; now the world was ringing 
with his exploits. Twice he had humbled the pride of the 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 121 

conqueror of Marignano, he had compelled both Francis and 
the Pope to enter into treaty with him, his generals and 
statesmen had been everywhere victorious, and the glory of 
their deeds was reflected upon him. It was perfectly natural 
that in the pride of these successes, and after France and 
Italy had submitted to him, he should imagine that he could 
adjust the affairs of Germany with a word. 

He made his entry into Augsburg with extraordinary 
pomp. He was not fond of show in general, but this time 
he wanted to dazzle men's eyes. He wished that both 
friend and foe should feel that he was Emperor; that, in the 
old sense of the word, he was ruler of the world and 
guardian of the Church ; and when he was solemnly brought 
in by the princes of the empire who had loyally gone forth 
to meet him, his first act was to summon to his presence 
the protesting princes of Saxony, Brandenburg, Luneburg, 
and Hesse. 

In a not unfriendly, but very decided tone, he informed 
them through his brother that the toleration of the Lutheran 
preaching and the observance of the modern forms of wor- 
ship must cease ; the rest would follow. He had no idea 
that it would not suffice to issue this command ; the princes 
would submit, as far greater powers had submitted. There 
was no fear then of political opposition ; it was different 
in the next generation, but this one was free from all suspicion 
of disloyalty to the imperial house. 

Frederic the Wise had been foremost among the pro- 
moters of the election of Charles as emperor ; his successor 
John, and Philip of Hesse, had distinguished themselves 
by their zealous and faithful services against the Turks ; 
and the old Margrave, George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, 
had grown grey in the Emperor's service, whom, with 
the dutiful spirit of a vassal, he always regarded as his 
supreme lord. Nothing but the gravest questions of con- 
science could induce such men to resist their imperial 
master. 

/ They unanimously declared, and as decidedly as he had 
demanded obedience, that they could not obey ; these were 
matters of conscience, and in matters of conscience the 
Emperor's mandate had no power. The Landgrave Philip 
began at once to prove the doctrine of justification by faith 
from St. Augustine and the New Testament, but that was 
an aspect of the business with which the Emperor was not 



122 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

at home, and he impatiently and angrily interrupted him by 
reiterating his command. The aged Margrave of Branden- 
burg then threw himself on his knees before him, and 
exclaimed, " I would sooner lose my head than God's 
Word." 

This moved the Emperor deeply. His well-known answer, 
" Dear Prince, no heads off" (Lieber Furst, nicht Kopfe ab),* 
implies that he shuddered at the precipices to which this 
path might lead him. 

Thus the first assault, which he had hoped would have 
been enough to intimidate the princes, was repulsed ; the 
Lutheran service was solemnly celebrated in the quarters, 
so called, of the princes and the lodgings of the wealthy 
patricians ; and when, on the following day, there was a 
procession of the festival of Corpus Christi, the protesting 
princes declined the invitation to attend it. So little had 
the Emperor been able to accomplish with the professors 
of the new doctrine, even with his personal presence and 
all the pomp of his retinue. 

The Emperor then desired that an abstract of the differ- 
ences between the two doctrines should be laid before him. 
They were prepared for this in the circle of the allied princes ; 
they had been preparing for it ever since the Diet had been 
convened ; and in a very short time a statement of the 
doctrinal differences was committed to paper, and handed 
to the Emperor on the 25th of June, 1530. This was after- 
wards called the Confession of Augsburg. 

The differences between the old doctrine and the new 
were unfolded in this document as mildly and dispas- 
sionately as possible, and the teaching of justification in 
the latter, as might be expected from Melancthon, was 
delicately and skilfully explained. 

This was answered by the Roman Catholic theologians 
of the other side who had accompanied their princes, as the 
Protestants had theirs. Luther was not present. As under 
sentence of excommunication he would not give the chal- 
lenge of appearing in person in the place where the validity 
of the ban was to be discussed ; but he was at Coburg, and 
carried on a brisk correspondence with his party. 

The negotiations set on foot by the Emperor did not 
lead to any reconciliation. Besides the wide differences 

* Ranke. 



THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD. 1 23 

between the parties, the Emperor was partly tc blame for 
this, for though he wished to mediate, he would not enter 
into any discussion of the question of conscience ; and 
though he was less violent in his opinions than his spiritual 
and temporal advisers, as guardian of the Church he ex- 
pected blind obedience; and the most favourable terms he 
could propose were that until he should arrange the pro- 
mised council with Rome, the Protestants should submit 
to the Pope ! 

The final decree of the Diet stated, with offensive severity, 
that the Protestants would have till the next spring to con- 
sider whether they would voluntarily return ; and the Emperor 
added that if they did not accept this decree, measures 
must be taken for the extermination of this sec* without 
delay. 

Under the impression of these threats, at Christmas, 
1530, the Protestant princes assembled for conference at 
Schmalkald. Their first object was to determine what posi- 
tion they should take towards the imperial court, should 
steps be taken to carry out the Augsburg decree, and it 
resulted in the formation of the armed League of Schmalkald 
in March of the following year. 

They had previously come to an agreement with Luther 
on the question of resistance, should it become necessary. 
It was not without a struggle that he consented that the 
Protestants should have the right of self-defence. 

The execution of the decree of the Diet, announced foi 
the spring of 153 1, did not take place. If, in spite of the 
advice of Loysa, who said of the heretics that " it was not 
a question of saving the souls of the dogs, but of compelling 
their bodies to obedience," they had hesitated to proceed 
against them in July and August, 1530, when they were not 
a united body, there was much more reason to hesitate now 
that they were so, especially as the situation of affairs was 
also changed. 

The peace with France showed itself to be more than 
insecure ; the Turks were preparing to avenge their disgrace 
in 1529; the Emperor's hereditary foes were busy both in 
the East and the West. Would the empire itself be entirely 
at his disposal if he proceeded to punish the Protestants ? 

His cherished scheme, that his brother Ferdinand should 
be elected King of Germany, met with opposition, even in 
the Catholic camp. The house of Bavaria especially, which 



lj>4 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

had secretly hoped to attain this dignity for itself, complained 
of the undue supremacy of the house of Hapsburg, and 
afterwards made proposals to come to an understanding 
with the League of Schmalkald. If Charles, therefore, 
entered into a conflict with the Protestants, he would have 
not only InV enemies from without to fear, but must look 
for opposition — or at all events could hope for no assistance 
— from the Catholic princes of his own camp. 

Thus everything concurred to incline him to peace. He 
had been seriously thinking of a peace since the summer of 
1 53 1 ; negotiations were opened, and all prospect having 
disappeared of coming to any peaceable settlement with the 
Turks, on the 23rd of July, 1532, the peace of Nuremberg 
was concluded, in which both parties made concessions in 
order to unite in vigorous resistance against the Turks. 

The finest army which the united forces of Christendom 
had ever assembled marched against the Turks, who did 
not venture on any decisive engagement. After several 
minor defeats they evacuated the field without a battle, as 
in is** 



PART II. 



THE REFORMATION IN THE OTHER GERMANIC 

STATES; IN SWITZERLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN, 

AND ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND.* 

Early Life and Mental Development of Ulrich Zwingli, 148 j. 15*9 — • 
Study of the Classics. — Curate at Glarus, 1506-16. — Study ot the 
New Testament. — Sermon against the Desertion of their Country 
by the Swiss. — Labours at Einsiedeln, 1516-18. — Call to Zurich. 
— The Reformation at Zurich, 1519-25. — Zwingli's Sermons in 
the Great Cathedral. — Decree of the Council of 1520. — The Sixty- 
seven Articles of 1523. — Progress of Reform. — Reformed Zurich 
and Switzerland in 1526-31. 

Early Life and Mental Development of 
Ulrich Zwingli. 

WE have already alluded to Ulrich Zwingli on the 
occasion of the religious conference at Marburg, 
and shall now make closer acquaintance with him. 

The suspicious dislike with which Luther regarded him, 
and which prevented any intimacy between them, was also 
mentioned. 

They were indeed as widely different in character, origin, 

/ * Bullinger, Reformations Geschichte Frauenf, 1838. Hottinger, 
Helvet. Kirchengeschichte, 1708. L. Wirz, Neuere Helvet. Kirchen- 
geschichte, Zurich, 1813. Joh. v. Miiller's und Glutz-Blotzheim's 
Geschichte Schweiz. Eidgenossenschaft, fortgesetz von Hottinger, 
Zurich, 1825. Ulr. Zwingli Opera, 1544, und Zwingli's Werke. 
Herausg. von Schuler und Schulthess, Zurich, 1828. Zwingli's Leben 
von Hess, Zurich, 181 1. Sigwart, Ulr. Zwingli, Hamburg, 1855. 
Roder, Ulrich Zwingli, St. Gallen, 1855. 



126 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

and education as two men between whom there was any 
mental relationship well could be. 

They were both the sons of peasants ; but the parents of 
one are so poor that, with all their laudable ambition to 
make something out of their talented son, they are not able 
to educate him without aid from strangers ; the parents of 
the other are well-to-do, respectable people, whose children 
have no need to sing for their bread. The childhood of the 
one is rich in bitter experiences — he was often obliged " to 
suffer and hold his peace ; " the other grew up as the child 
of the chief man of his native village, and early learnt to 
feel and act with the independence of a young republican of 
good standing. The monkish melancholy of the one leads 
him to adopt a monastic life, the other takes a keen and 
lively interest in the affairs of the world ; the one becomes a 
disciple of the mystics and the fathers of the Church, the other 
of the Humanists and the sages of antiquity. Both leave the 
Church, but the one amidst conflicts which the other never 
knew— Luther, because he was more true to the Church 
than she was to herself; Zwingli, because, almost like a 
Humanist critic, he compared the false Church with the true, 
and found their differences irreconcilable. 

Ulrich Zwingli was born on the ist of January, 1484, at 
Wildhaus, in the district of Toggenburg, and was the son of 
the magistrate (Amtmann) of the little community. Insig- 
nificant as the little commonwealth was, its inhabitants bore 
a sturdy, independent character. Under the dreaded Crosier 
of St. Gall, they had freed themselves from the burdens of the 
feudal system, and Zwingli's father had been their courageous 
spokesman. The straightforward simplicity, cool practical 
sense, and ready wit of a simple race of mountaineers per- 
vaded the house in which the future Reformer grew up, like 
a fresh Alpine breeze. He never knew anything of the 
tendency to mysticism which early weighed upon Luther's 
soul. He received his first instruction from his uncle, who 
was Dean at Wesen, and then went to Basle and Berne, in 
order to acquire the elements of classical learning. 

In free Switzerland, that connecting-link between Italy 
and North Germany, the Humanistic studies had early taken 
root, and had given rise to a decided ecclesiastical liberality. 
This had great influence on Zwingli's early culture. 

Heinrich Wolfin, or Lupulus, as he called himself, the 
talented founder of the classical schools in Switzerland, was 



ULRICH ZWINGLI. 1 27 

Zwingli's instructor at Berne, and his teacher ami model at 
Basle was the courageous theologian, Thomas Wittenbach, 
who ventured openly to preach " that the whole system of 
indulgences is a delusion ; Christ alone paid the ransom for 
the sins of mankind." The state of mind of the superior 
circles, both with regard to learning and religion, prepared 
them for independent attempts at reform, and Zwingli was 
right when he afterwards said to his accusers, " All deference 
to Martin Luther, but what we have in common with him 
was our conviction before we knew his name." 

In 1499, at the age of fifteen, Zwingli went to the univer- 
sity of Vienna, having positively declined the proposals of 
the Dominicans of Berne, who wanted to make a monk of 
him. Well schooled in all Humanist accomplishments, such 
as modern Latin prose and poetry, he returned to Basle, 
where Wittenbach exercised so powerful an influence over 
him that he resolved to devote himself entirely to theology. 
In 1506 he obtained the degree of M.A. in the liberal arts, 
and in the same year he was chosen curate of the congrega- 
tion at Glarus. 

At Glarus his labours were manifold and uninterrupted 
for ten years, and he continued to cultivate his mind. It was 
here that he first pursued those deeper studies which the 
importance of his subsequent vocation demanded, and 
amidst which he ripened into manhood. It was here also 
that he became conscious of the political and national 
grievances of his country, the redress of which he desired as 
ardently as he did the reform of the Church. The contrast 
between the course of his studies and those of Luther is 
remarkable. His early letters are the letters of a Humanist, 
whose vocation is the Church, but whose heart belonged to 
the great spirits of antiquity ; he orders editions of Cicero, 
Sallust, Seneca, Valerius Maximus, Horace, heartily rejoices 
at the blows which the enemies of the light (Dunkelmanner) 
at Vienna, Basle, and Paris have received from the human- 
istic free-thinkers, and instructs some of his young country- 
men in his house with so much success that even an Erasmus 
x does not refuse his admiring recognition of it. With the 
study of Greek, which he now first took up in earnest, a new 
world was opened to him; he studied the Greek grammar of 
Chrysoloras with eager zeal, and wrote to a friend : " Nothing 
but God shall prevent me from acquiring Greek, not for fame, 
but for the sake of the Holy Scriptures." 



128 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

He read Plato, Lucian, Homer, Pindar, with delight, and 
the New Testament, in order, as he says, that he might "study 
the doctrine of Christ from the original source." He copied 
the Pauline Epistles in the original, and made explanatory 
notes in the, margin, and learnt them word for word by heart. 
The copy is still extant. He thus arrived at the choked-up 
springs of revelation, in which Luther at length found con- 
solation at Erfurt, but not as he did by the circuitous paths 
of scholasticism, mysticism, and the fathers, but from the 
soul-purifying study of the Scriptures. By the true text he 
tested the doctrines of ancient and modern Christian 
thinkers, both of the celebrated fathers of the Church and 
the learned heretics, and thus he gradually formed a system 
of conviction independently, and firmly took his stand upon 
it as a Reformer. 

Such ecclesiastics were as scarce in Switzerland as any- 
where else. At a meeting of all the deans of the Confedera- 
tion, it was found, as Bullinger says, that not more than 
three were at home in the Bible ; all the rest confessed that 
they had never even read the New Testament through. 
Here as elsewhere the clergy were utterly sunk in luxury and 
hypocrisy ; the preaching of the ill-educated consisted of 
second-hand clerical twaddle, that of the more educated of 
dry scholasticism. 

Zwingli's mental alienation from the ancient Church is even 
at this time evident from the spirit and tendency of his ser- 
mons, but it was years before the breach took place. Mean- 
while he twice accompanied his warlike countrymen as army 
preacher to Italy : the first time, in 151 2, he witnessed the 
triumphal march of the Swiss through Lombardy ; the second 
time, in 151 5, he witnessed the ignominious end of the bril- 
liant army which the Swiss had raised for foreign pay ; he 
saw how some of them, bribed by the French, left their 
countrymen in the lurch before the enemy, and how the rest, 
dispirited and at variance among themselves, were beaten at 
Marignano. During the hopeless days before the battle, the 
young preacher appealed to the consciences of his country- 
men, spoke of the curse of their desertion of their country, 
the decline of ancient discipline, and Swiss military honour. 

He thus touched upon the most incurable disease of the 
Confederation ; the country had been the recruiting-ground 
for Emperor, King, and Pope, in their perpetual struggle for 
Lombardy. The inhabitants of towns and villages and 



ULRtCH ZWINGLI. 1 29 

whole cantons were in the pay of one foreign power or 
another, and for ready money they gave up their youth fit 
for military service to fight under foreign colours. The con- 
federates changed their colours according to the sums 
offered ; people were on one side one day, on the other 
the next; in short, it was a disgraceful traffic, ruinous to the 
honour and faith of the people, and every honest patriot was 
deeply ashamed of it. 

It was advantageous to the cause of Church reform that 
the papal policy could not dispense with the Swiss rene- 
gades. Rome looked on for years at the proceedings of the 
innovators, hoping to come to terms with them that they 
might not be deprived of this support. 

From 15 1 6-18 we find Zwingli as curate at Einsiedeln, 
an abbey which was then in the hands of a free-thinker, 
whilst the place itself, with its wonder-working image in St. 
Meinrad's cell, was a centre of gross superstition. It was 
here that Zwingli began to preach the gospel. The new 
curate ventured to tell the thousands of pilgrims, who were 
seeking healing for their bodies or pardon for their sins, of 
a forgiveness of sins which was to be obtained not by pil- 
grimages or empty vows, nor by holy altars and miraculous 
images, but by amendment of heart and life, by sincere 
repentance and moral reforms. " Do you think," he said, 
" that those elect of God to whose feet you are flocking 
attained the glory of heaven by the merits of others ? No ; 
it was by keeping to the paths of the law, by subjection to 
the will of the Highest, and by devotion to their Saviour 
unto death. Let the holiness of their lives be an example 
to you, walk in their footsteps, be not turned aside by 
danger or temptation ; you will thus prove yourselves 
worthy. In the day of trouble, put your whole trust in 
God — upon Him who created the heavens and the earth. 
In the hour of death, call upon Jesus Christ alone, who 
bought you with His blood, and is the only mediator be- 
tween God and man." * 

This sermon excited a vast deal of attention. The ortho- 
dox shook their heads ; the liberal already recognised 
Zwingli as their most talented spokesman ; they encouraged 
him by letters, and many great schemes were propounded 
.here. Attention was also aroused at Rome, and ui 1518 

• Bullinger. 



130 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

the legate Pucci sought to divert Zwingli to the interests of 
the Curia by smothering him with favours and flatteries. 
Zwingli was still within the folds of the Church, in whose 
house there were certainly many mansions, and with honest 
zeal he tried to awaken the spirit of reform within her, and 
to induce her herself to exercise her authority in putting an 
end to the most flagrant abuses. It was not till he had 
found all admonitions vain that, like Luther, he came to an 
open rupture with her. In a letter to a friend, in 1525, he 
gave an account of the many representations he had made 
in private to cardinals, bishops, and prelates, that they 
" must begin to reform abuses, or they would come to an 
end themselves with far greater commotion." But it had 
been all in vain, and he could say with a good conscience, 
" I have never done anything in holes and corners like a 
thief, but have always given timely warning, and have had 
an answer for all men." 

The Church was already on the threshold of that transi- 
tion period when it had become impracticable to distinguish 
between usage and abuse, faith and superstition, at least for 
those who had no wish to do so if they had the power. The 
grievance of indulgences existed also in Switzerland. No 
sensible man ventured to defend it, but it clung to the sys- 
tem like an incurable canker. 

The Reformation at Zurich, 1519-25. 

Zwingli was curate at Zurich when Tetzel's Swiss counter- 
part, Bernhardin Samson, proposed to bring his shameless 
indulgence shop thither from the Forest Cantons. Zwingli 
prevailed with the Diet then sitting to send the barefooted 
friar out of the country ; and Rome was still so intent on 
keeping on good terms with the Swiss Confederation, that 
the episcopal vicar praised him in a letter " for driving 
the strange wolf from the flock." 

From the beginning of 15 19 Zwingli had been giving a 
course of sermons, in the great cathedral of Zurich, on the 
interpretation of the gospel. He treated of Matthew, the 
Acts, the Pauline Epistles, " in simple Swiss language," 
and taught justification through faith in the Saviour, as he 
had learnt it from these sources. He also spoke against 
" superstition, bigotry, and hypocrisy," rebuked the vices of 
individuals as well as the general decline of moral disci- 



THE REFORMATION AT ZURICH. 131 

pline, spoke of the abuses in the Church, the degenerate 
spirit of the cantons, their injustice to the weak and obse- 
quiousness to the great, and mourned over the loss of the 
freedom and glory of the Confederation, through party 
dissensions, desertion of their country by the inhabitants, 
pensions, and bulls. Zwingli preached the word like a 
native orator ; his language was simple, but deeply impres- 
sive, for it glowed with profound conviction, and it there- 
fore powerfully affected even tbos^ who did not share his 
views. People who ftlc that his \vouis were applicable to 
themselves thought he was aiming specially at them, when 
he would say, " Good man, take it not to thyself." Those 
who had kept away from preaching and the church for 
years said, " This is a real preacher of the truth ; he will 
tell us how things really are;" and honest Thomas Plater, 
a travelling scholar, said that when listening to Zwingli's ser- 
mon on John x., " I am the good Shepherd," " he felt as 
if some one was pulling him by the hair." 

Just at this period a war was in prospect about the Duchy 
of Milan, and again came the French " sack of crown- 
pieces " to bribe Swiss soldiers. All the Confederation 
took the side of Francis I. ; Zurich alone declined all over- 
tures, so great had been the effect Of Zwingli's admonitions. 
This was in May, 1521. But when the ambassadors of 
the Pope and Emperor arrived, and the former demanded 
troops, by right of ancient treaties, to defend the States 
of the Church, Zwingli was vanquished. It was now that 
he first began to say bitter things against the Pope. His 
patriotism was touched, and he saw all the grievances of his 
country summed up in this pernicious desertion of it. " I 
wish," he said, among other things, " that they had bored 
a hole in the Pope's letter, and hung it to his messenger's 
back, that he might carry it home. If a wolf is seen in 
the country, you sound an alarm that it may be caught ; but 
you will not defend yourselves from the wolves that ruin the 
bodies and souls of men. How appropriate are their red 
^hats and cloaks ! If you shake them, out fall ducats ; if 
you wring them, out flows the blood of your sons, brothers, 
and friends ! " 

Zwingli's opponents now began to be more bitter ; both 
political and ecclesiastical er emies began to revile this other 
Luther, and to stir up the people and the congregations 
against him ; it went so far mat his life was hardly safe, so 



132 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

that the council placed a guard before his door, and when 
he went out in the evening a body of young men accom- 
panied him as a volunteer guard. In the same year the 
Papal Legate demanded that Luther's works in Switzerland 
should be burnt, and his followers exterminated. The 
Diet obeyed, and set house to house visitations on foot, 
especially at Lucerne, in search of the forbidden books. 
" All that is scribbled over," said the agent of the Council 
of Lucerne, " is Lutheran, and is to be burnt." With these 
words he seized Erasmus's Greek edition of the New Testa- 
ment to burn it. 

The Council of Zurich found out how to rob the Edict of 
its sting; the mandate which it put forth in 1520, in 
apparent accordance with the decree of the Diet, in reality 
gave free scope to the forbidden doctrine. It ordained that 
all curates, pastors, and preachers, as is also declared by 
the papal laws, u are to pi'each the holy Gospels and Epistles 
agreeably to the Spirit of God, and the Holy Scriptures of the 
Old and New Testament, to keep to what they receive from 
and is proved by the aforesaid Scriptures, and not to teach 
any adventitious innovations or dogmas."* 

In accordance with the principles of this decree, the 
cause of reform might progress unhindered. Since the 
heads of the Church had declined to abolish grievous abuses, 
the communities began to do it for themselves, and the 
spirit and tendency of the Swiss Reformation are indicated 
by the fact, that they began by abolishing outward forms 
which had become empty and meaningless, instead of, as 
Luther had done, pressing for a decision on the deepest 
principles of the Christian faith. 

Scarcely had Zwingli proved the absurdity of the rules 
about fasting than some of his followers treated the prohibi- 
tion of certain kinds of food in Lent as no longer binding, 
and used them without buying dispensations or indulgences, 
which was all they could be blamed for. The suffragan 
Bishop of Constance brought an accusation against them 
before the council. Zwingli was heard, and, to the confusion 
of his adversaries, appealed to the plain words of the Apostle 
Paul to Timothy, that " every creature of God is good, and 
nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving : for 
it is sanctified by the **ord of God and prayer." f He pub' 

• Roder, t J Timothy iv. 4, 5. 



DECREE OF THE COUNCIL OF ZURICH. 1 33 

lished the sermon which had given so much offence, and 
the contents of this, his first publication, may be thus 
summed up : " If thou art disposed to fast, do so ; if thou 
wishest to eat meat, eat it; but allow the Christian his 
liberty." 

The clamour which the monks everywhere raised against 
it, put an end to a decree which, still more clearly than that 
of 1520, favoured preaching according to the Scriptures, to 
the exclusion of the scholastic expositors. 

Zwingli continued to preach in the same spirit. The 
misfortunes of the Swiss renegades at Bicocca again incited 
him to warn the "dear honourable people of Switzerland 
against taking pay from foreign masters who will ruin us ; " 
and in August, 1522, he published a new and complete 
work, in sixty-nine articles, against the orthodox party. 

After the victory on the subject of fasting followed the 
storm about the celibacy of the clergy. The fearful immo- 
rality resulting from the prohibition of marriage is evident 
from two facts to which Zwingli refers in his address to the 
Bishop of Constance — first, that the bishops formally impose 
taxes on the concubines and illegitimate children of the 
clergy; and, secondly, that, according to an ancient usage, 
many Swiss congregations require, for the sake of peace 
and the honour of families, that a newly appointed priest 
shall " keep a concubine for himself in his house." It was 
necessary that for once the truth on this subject should be 
plainly and honestly spoken, and this Zwingli did in a peti- 
tion signed by many others, addressed to the Bishop of 
Constance, and in a second letter to the same. 

In spite of all this Pope Adrian VI. made another attempt 
to make a favourable impression on the brave Swiss, or, as 
the latter somewhat coarsely expressed it, to " uncouple " 
him. But Zwingli was now urgent for a decision. He pre- 
vailed upon the Council of Zurich to arrange a public 
discussion, in order that, Bible in hand, he might measure 
his strength with his opponents. The council consented, 
and appointed it for the 23rd of January, 1523. Zwingli had 
previously drawn up a full confession of faith in sixty-seven 
theses, which contain the outline of his views of life and 
religion. The fundamental principle of it shows the marked 
difference between him and Luther. Zwingli's endeavour 
was to exclude everything from the Church and the faith 
which could not be justified from Scripture, instead of, like 



134 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

Luther, to maintain all that was not expressly contradicted 
in Scripture. 

Thus he says, in reference to the gospel : " They are in 
error and blaspheme who ascribe no authority to the gospel, 
unless it is confirmed by the authority of the Church;" 
he speaks of Jesus as " the only guide and captain of salva- 
tion, he who seeks or points out any other door is a thief 
and a robber ; " of the Papacy, " Christ is the only and 
eternal high priest ; from this it follows that those who have 
given themselves out for high priests are rejecting the glory 
and authority of Christ ;" of the clerical garb, " Nothing is 
more displeasing to God than hypocrisy, it follows there- 
fore that everything which assumes sanctity in the sight of 
men is hypocrisy and folly ; this condemns cowls, symbols, 
and tonsures ; " of sects and orders, " All men are brothers 
in Christ and brothers one to another ; therefore they should 
not exalt any man to be their father upon earth ; this con- 
demns sects, orders, and factions ; " of celibacy, " When the 
clergy feel that God has denied them the gift of continence, 
and do not marry, they commit sin;" of government, 
" There is no ecclesiastical but only secular government, 
to which all Christians without exception owe allegiance, 
unless it enjoins what is contrary to God's will ; if it does 
this, it may be deposed with God's help ; " of purgatory, 
" The Holy Scriptures say nothing about purgatory after 
death;" of the abolition of abuses, "The ecclesiastical 
rulers must hasten to humble themselves before God, and 
they should set up the cross of Christ, not the box for 
offerings, or their end is drawing near ; the axe is laid to 
the root of the trees." In conclusion, he says, " Let no one 
undertake to discuss these subjects in a sophistical and 
trifling spirit, but bring the Scriptures as the test, that the 
truth may be discovered, or if, as I hope, it is already 
discovered, that it may be maintained. Amen. May God 
grant it ! "* 

The discussion took a disastrous course for Zwingli's 
opponents. Six hundred people had assembled to hear the 
debate on religion. Zwingli opened it with a short address, 
which closed with the words, " Now then, in God's name, 
here I am." The episcopal vicar, who spoke next, spoke oi 
everything except Zwingli's theses, promised a council and a 

* Roder, Gieseler. 



PROGRESS OF REFORM. 1 35 

decision by the bishops, prelates, &c. When asked to prove 
the charge of heresy from the Scriptures, he persisted in 
silence, and on the afternoon of the 29th of January the 
council was justified in stating, that as no one had appeared 
to convict Master Ulrich Zwingli of error, it earnestly desired 
that he should continue to proclaim and preach the holy 
doctrines of the gospel and the precepts of the Holy 
Scriptures in accordance with the Spirit of God, as he had 
hitherto done." The same was to apply to all other ministers 
of the divine word, and abuse and. slander were forbidden 
under heavy penalties. 

By this resolution Zurich separated itself from the bishopric 
of Constance ; the congregation of the faithful took pos- 
session of the rights which Zwingli's constitution of the 
Church assigned to it; the ecclesiastical authority, which he 
held to be an illegal assumption of power on the part of 
the heads of the Church, was practically abjured, and the 
foundation-stone was laid of his Church polity, the absolute 
power of the congregation. 

And now the innovations which were based upon this 
principle followed step by step; the mother tongue sup- 
planted Latin in prayers and the baptismal and marriage 
services ; the incomes of chapters and monasteries were 
applied to purposes of education both for the lower and 
higher classes, the cells of monks and nuns were set open, 
priests entered into holy matrimony, the abolition of the 
mass and image-worship, as part of the same system, followed. 
On the 26th of January, 1524, the Diet passed a resolution 
at Lucerne against the reforms ; in March messengers from 
the twelve districts appeared before the Council of Zurich 
and remonstrated, but Zurich and its communes remained 
firm, and after the spring of 1524 took a new and more 
decided course. Processions and the festival of Corpus 
Christi were abolished, the shrines were opened, the bones 
buried, the organs removed from the churches, tolling for 
the dead and ringing for mass, the benediction of palms, salt, 
, water, ashes and tapers, and the last unction were done 
away with, and the administration of the Holy Supper in 
both kinds was celebrated by a solemn communion of all 
the reformed congregations on Maundy Thursday, 1525. 



136 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 



Reformed Zurich and Switzerland. 

Amidst the repeated attempts of the orthodox party to 
incite the, whole Confederation to oppose the heretics at 
Zurich, the Confederation had separated into two camps, 
and the heresy which was to be exterminated had spread its 
roots far and wide beyond Zurich, and had allied itself with 
political and intellectual movements of all sorts. The 
educated citizens in the larger cities of Basle, Berne, and 
Schaffhausen, and the country-people in Appenzell, Glarus, 
and the Grisons, who had been prepared for the new 
doctrine by liberal preachers, resisted all attempts to put it 
down by force, and it was only in the five Forest Cantons of 
Lucerne, Zug, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, to which Frei- 
burg and the Valais joined themselves, that the orthodox 
party kept strictly together. It had its seat, generally 
speaking, in the patrician oligarchies, whose dominion and 
richest sources of income would be dried up if religious 
democracy prevailed, and if papal pensions and favours 
came to an end, while all persons of democratic tendencies 
in town and country naturally took the side of reform. 
The tendencies of the dependencies or common territories 
were mainly determined by the chief places in them ; in 
Thurgau, the Rhine Valley, Aargau, and the free corpora- 
tions, through the influence of Zurich, St. Gall, and Berne, 
the Reformation prevailed : while Sargans, Gaster, Uznach, 
Baden, the greater part of the Forest Cantons, the Italian 
dependencies (now the canton of Tessin), Beltlin, Bormio, 
and Chiavenna, after a little vacillation, adhered entirely to 
the ancient Church. 

Thus in this case the course of political and ecclesiastical 
affairs coincided, and Zwingli's position was from the first 
different from that of Luther. Luther kept strictly within 
the limits of pure Church reform. In the existing situation of 
affairs in Germany this was certainly the more modest as 
well as the more prudent course, but it was not possible in 
the little commonwealth of Switzerland. 

The way in which Zwingli apprehended the necessities of 
his position indicates his great superiority of mind. Having 
established the Church on the basis of the congregation, he 
entertained similar projects with regard to the State, not 
only in relation to the individual commonwealths of the 



ZURICH AND SWITZERLAND. 137 

cantons, but the great commonwealth of the Confedera- 
tion. 

It was he who first entertained the great idea of giving a 
general constitution to the Swiss cantons, similar to the 
representative democracy which has after three centuries 
been realised ; of putting an end to the unnatural supre 
macy of the small Forest Cantons, of depriving the prefects 
of their jurisdiction, and of giving to the larger cantons the 
position to which they were entitled by their extent, power, 
property, and culture. The system of equalisation, by which 
the five Forest Cantons had as many seats and votes in the 
Diet as the larger ones, was a political absurdity. It is 
only in our times that this has been altered. Zwingli was the 
greatest political as well as ecclesiastical reformer whom 
Switzerland has ever seen. His ideas may be said to have 
triumphed in the constitution adopted in Switzerland about 
ten years ago.* 

This formed one of the most powerful levers of his pro- 
paganda, but it was also the main cause of the animosity of 
his opponents. For the Forest Cantons it was a question of 
existence ; the erroneous doctrines were in their eyes revolu- 
tion and anarchy; opposition to the ancient Church was also 
opposition to the existing government, with which they must 
stand or fall. 

The victory which the democratic reform party gained at 
Berne over the oligarchy was a decisive event. The reli- 
gious controversies had roused the masses out of their 
passive traditional obedience; at the elections of 1527 the 
Reformers broke through the compact phalanx of the oli- 
garchy in the great council, and the masses demanded the 
rights of which they had been deprived for the last twenty 
years, and instituted a solemn religious discussion at the be- 
ginning of 1528. The doctrines of Zwingli again obtained a 
great victory ; it resulted not only in a general attack upon the 
pictures and images of saints in the churches, but in an entire 
revolution in the State; the two councils, instead of being 
filled up in a brotherly manner by each other, were formed 
upon the elective rights of the reformed communities, and 
the scandal of the pensions which had hitherto connected 
all the great families with France was finally put a stop to. 

A great reaction followed this stroke. Fresh impetus was 
given to the spread of the new doctrines, and the mountain 
* Written in 1859 or i860.— Tr. 



138 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

fortresses of the five Forest Cantons, strong though their 
internal position was, were now encompassed by a storm 
which made their situation day by day more untenable. 

The Forest Cantons had an existence beyond their moun- 
tains ; they had a share in the territories which were ruled 
by the^prefects of several districts (Orte) at once, or in rota- 
tion. There were districts governed by Zurich, Berne with 
Schwyz, Lucerne, and Zug all at once.* 

Some adopted the doctrines of Zwingli, others adhered to 
the old forms ; some persecuted what the others held sacred ; 
there was thus abundant occasion for strife. So complicated 
a political system as this of ancient Switzerland, with its 
governing districts (Orten) and its associated and subject 
districts, could not but get out of joint, unless one party or 
the other gained a decisive victory, or a boundary-line could 
be drawn between them. 

The party of the oppressed Forest Cantons adopted des- 
perate measures of self-defence. In 1526 a reformed 
preacher was publicly burnt, as a signal that the discussion 
of religion proclaimed a few days afterwards at Baden was to 
be only a great Inquisition. They inflicted fines, imprison- 
ment, whipping, mutilation, and death, so far as their power 
extended, upon the reformed preachers and their followers. 
The reformed cantons did not disgrace themselves with 
personal violence, but almost every victory of their enemies 
was followed by attacks upon images in the churches. 

It was amidst all this irritation that the decisive struggle 
drew near. It threatened to break out in 1529, and the 
Forest Cantons renewed their alliance with the house of 
Hapsburg, with the reasonable hope that the Emperor would 
succeed in Switzerland in what he was trying to carry out 
in the empire. The Reformers, on the contrary, relied on 
those who held opinions similar to theirs in the states of 
Upper Germany, Constance, at Ulm, Augsburg, Nuremberg, 
and on Philip of Hesse. 

In June, 1529, both parties were ready for battle. Zwingli 
had from the first come to a conclusion on this subject dif- 
ferent from that of Luther. " Thou dost not know these 
people,"- he said to his friend CEcolampadius in reply to his 

* Thus Thurgau in matters of government belonged to seven, in 
the administration of justice to ten districts (Orten). In the valley of 
the Rhine, Zurich, Glarus, and Appenzell had authority besMes the five 
districts (Orten). 



THE REFORMERS AND THE FIVE CANTONS. 1 39 

warnings. " I see the sword already drawn, and shall do the 
duty of a faithful watchman." He plainly saw that the 
peace which was necessary for the new doctrines could not 
be obtained without war; he therefore wished to see the 
combat decided by a well-aimed blow at a favourable moment, 
and, martial son of the Alps as he was, he advanced on 
horseback, halberdier in hand, to the frontier with his fol- 
lowers, to help to subdue the ill-equipped enemy. 

They did not come to an engagement. The governor, 
Aebli, of Glarus, intercepted the men of Zurich just as they 
were about to cross the frontier, and persuaded them to 
return. Zwingli said to him : " Gevatter Amman " (Father 
magistrate), " thou wilt have to answer for this before 
God. Our enemies have deceived thee with fair speeches. 
While they are unarmed and unprepared thou believest them 
and departest ; but hereafter when they are prepared they 
will not spare us, and then no one will depart." 

The military force of Zurich, in spite of the scanty aid of 
the allies and the disinclination of Berne for war, must have 
been at this time considerable, for the peace to which the 
five Forest Cantons agreed at Cappel, on the 25th of 
June, 1529, was a confession of the failure of their cause. 

It ran as follows : " As God's word and the faith are not 
things in which it is lawful to use compulsion, both parties 
shall be free to observe what they think right, and in the 
common territories the majo.ty in the congregations shall 
determine whether the mass and other usages be retained or 
abolished. The five cantons shall break off their alliance 
with Duke Ferdinand, pay the expenses of the war, and be 
advised to put a stop to the foreign annuities ; " and a threat 
was added that any infringement of this treaty would be 
followed by " a fresh embargo on produce and merchandise." 

Had it been possible to confine the controversy to the 
religious question, the Reformers would doubtless have 
obtained a lasting victory on the basis of this treaty ; but it 
was not so, and Zwingli himself was by no means disposed 
thus to separate political and ecclesiastical questions. Thus 
after the victory a political rupture took place among the 
elements which, on the religious question, were at one. 
Berne and Zurich were agreed on the subject of Church 
reform, but when the question arose of giving Switzerland 
another federal constitution, with a new metropolis, neither 
city would yield to the other. Three centuries passed before 



HO THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

this dispute was arranged, when Zurich, in our own days, but 
not without loud lamentation, agreed that Berne should be 
the seat of the federal government. Formerly, however, the 
struggle for supremacy was still more difficult to settle, as 
Zurich, where the doctrines of Zwingli were first adopted 
and where he lived, decidedly had the advantage over its 
rival in the cause of reform. 

The treaty of Cappel soon led to fresh disputes. Bot'i 
parties complained of the other, and neither without reason. 
The Forest Cantons complained that in the districts with 
mixed governments Zurich and Berne did all in their power 
to further the progress of the new doctrines ; that in doubt- 
ful cases everything was determined by the greater power ; 
that in every territorial dispute the religious question was 
made use of to their prejudice ; that the rights of the newly 
elected Prince Abbot of St. Gall, himself a fugitive in a 
foreign land, were shamefully disregarded. 

On the other hand, Zurich and Berne complained that 
the five cantons did not observe the main provisions of the 
peace; the new doctrines nowhere enjoyed the liberty pro- 
mised them by it ; wherever the Reformers appeared or 
essayed to preach, they were imprisoned, persecuted, even 
put to death ; their followers were treated as enemies of 
the country, and hatred was stirred up by lampoons and 
slanders of every kind. Both complaints were justified, and 
in the existing state of things it was quite explicable that 
they should be so. 

By 1530, the very time when an explosion seemed to be 
near at Augsburg, things began to look serious. An out- 
break was warded off, but things could not long remain as 
they were. In the spring of 1531 Zurich proposed to 
attack the Forest Cantons, but could not prevail upon its 
allies to join. At the Diet at Aarau, on the 15th of May of 
the same year, fatal half-measures were resolved upon. In 
spite of Zvvingli's wise warnings they resolved to prohibit the 
entrance of provisions into the Forest Cantons, thereby irri- 
tating them 10 the last degree, yet doing nothing to promote 
a settlement. 

Had Berne and Zurich been agreed, it would have required 
no great effort, with the aid of their reformed allies, to defeat 
the far weaker Forest Cantons ; but the spirit of discord was 
as rife here as in Germany, ard the Forest Cantons dexte- 
rously took advantage of it. Zwingli justly said: " If you 



D£ATH OF ZWINGLI. 141 

have the right to starve the five cantons, you have the right 
to attack them. It is weakness which prevents your doing 
so ; when you are irritated you will do it with the courage 
of despair." 

Early in October the five cantons secretly collected a 
little arm- ; brave soldiers were not wanting, nor the re- 
inforcements for a hasty sally, and their numbers were sufh 
cient to fall upon one of the allies before succour coul i 
arri /e. 

The people of Zurich were taken utterly by surprise when 
they saw the little banner of the five cantons advancing on 
the lake. They had scarcely time for any preparations ; slowl) 
and wearily their troops assembled on the heights of the 
Albis, while the vanguard was already fighting at Cappel 
below. Zwingli was present himself, encouraging his fol- 
lowers. They had but about two thousand men to oppose 
a far more numerous enemy. 

On the nth of October, after brave resistance and a 
contest that was long doubtful, the men of Zurich were 
defeated at Cappel. It was a result from which important 
consequences flowed for a long time afterwards. Zwingli 
himself fell in the tumult of battle. This formed another 
striking contrast between him and Luther, who would have 
nothing to do with warfare, and whose last words were, 
" Keep the peace. " 

They represent two widely differing views of the world, 
each of which is right in its place, but they cannot be 
reconciled. 

The second peace of Cappel, of the 20th of November, 
1 53 1, was unfavourable enough for the Reformers ; they were 
compelled to do as the five cantons had had to do by the 
terms of the first peace — pay the war expenses and give up 
their foreign alliances. 

On the other hand, each canton was to retain its distinc- 
tive creed as before, and in the common territories the 
majority in each congregation was to determine the creea 
and regulate the distribution of Church property. 

Thus in Switzerland as well as in Germany the question 
was left to the individual states. Protestantism was not 
coerced, the supremacy of Catholicism was prevented ; it 
was for both parties to conduct themselves peaceably in 
future. 

There was not in Switzerland any more than in Germany 



142 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 

any power to enforce a decision of the religious question, 
or to give unity either to reform or to the Church. Neither 
of the contending parties was strong enough to defeat the 
other, and the result in both cases was dualism of Church 
and creed. 

A general principle of Church government was evolved 
from Zwingli's labours : the supreme power of the congrega- 
tion. Zwingli detached himself more thoroughly than 
Luther from the external framework of the ancient Church; 
but in this doctrine he gave the world a principle of inex- 
haustible fertility, and which, as we shall yet see, has proved 
itself to be so, not only in ecclesiastical, but in political and 
social life. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DENMARK.* 

The Period between the Union of Calmar, 1397, and the Reformation. 
— Position of the Danish Monarchy. — Policy and Character of 
Christian II., 1513-23. — Complications with Sweden. — The Mas- 
sacre of Stockholm, November, 1520. — Course of Reform in Den- 
mark. — Revolt of the Nobles. — Election of Frederic I., April, 
1523-33. — His Domestic and Foreign Policy. — The Diet at 
Odensee, 1527, and Toleration of the New Doctrines. — Complete 
Victory of the Reformation under Christian III., 1534-59. 

THE spectacle presented by the course of the Reformation 
in the Scandinavian states is very different from that 
which we have witnessed in Germany and Switzerland. What 
was accomplished in those countries either without the aid 
of, or in opposition to, monarchical power, became in the 
North a weapon in the hands of royalty itself; it established 
its power by the aid of the Reformation ; and while with us 
the empire, which had long been declining, came to an end 
by means of Church reform, the same revolution was, for the 
Scandinavian North, the beginning of its historical existence. 

At the time of the dawn of the Reformation the affairs of 
Scandinavia were in singular and, as it appears, hopeless 
confusion. 

In 1397 the great idea had been carried out of treating 
the cognate Scandinavian nations as different branches of one 
people, and of uniting the three kingdoms into one. This 
was the celebrated Union of Calmar, which was effected 
under Queen Margaret. 

There are ideas which, though sound and natural in them- 

• S. Hvitfeld, Danmarkis Rigis Kronike, 1652, fol. Holberg, 
Danische Reichshistorie, 1757. Gebhardi, Geschichte Danemarks in 
der Allg. Welthistorie, Bd. 32, 33. Pontoppidan, Reformationshistorie, 
1734. Dahlmann, Geschichte von Danemark, 3 Bde., 1843. 



144 THE REFORMATION IN DENMARK. 

selves, are yet not feasible in practice, because propounded 
too early or too late. It is now beyond dispute that this 
idea of union was a good one. There is at this time a 
widely distributed party in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, 
which is steadily labouring to establish a united Scandina- 
vian state. By the loss of its eastern possessions, which 
Russia now holds, Sweden has been for ever deprived of its 
position as a great power, and naturally looks for support to 
the neighbouring kindred nations. Denmark is declining ; it 
cannot maintain its ancient colonial and maritime power ; a 
line of demarcation between its German and Danish elements 
has become inevitable ; and thus the proposition advanced 
by one party is very intelligible — " Leave the country to the 
Germans as far as the Eider, and let what remains be the 
Danish province of Scandinavia." 

But at that time the case was different. The Scandina- 
vian Union was entirely a dynastic affair ; it did not originate 
with the people, while now it is the people who wish it 
and the rulers who oppose. The differences between allied 
races were then much greater, and the need of mutual 
support much less, than now. Both Denmark and Sweden 
felt strong enough to stand alone or to rule the other. If 
the monarch of the Union were elected in Denmark, he 
would be practically powerless in Sweden ; if in Sweden, he 
would be powerless in Denmark. Thus after 1397 the 
federal king nominally ruled over the three kingdoms, but 
in two-thirds of his dominions his empire was in partibus 
infidelium. 

Besides the enmity of the nations to each other, the 
cause of Union had to contend with the impotence of the 
monarchical power, which was more counterbalanced by 
strong aristocratic influences than in any other country. It 
is only among the Romanic peoples that monarchical power 
has taken root; among the Germanic nations it was un- 
speakably difficult to establish even an elective monarchy ; 
and as the German Electors used to protect themselves by 
an election treaty, in the North a powerful Church and a 
more powerful nobility used to protect themselves by what 
was called a " bond " (Handfeste). 

The bond to which the early kings of the house of 
Oldenburg had to swear reduced them to absolute power- 
lessness. The King could do nothing without consulting the 
Council of State, which had every place in its gift, even the 



THE DANISH MONARCHY. 1 45 

offices in the royal household. He could not make war or 
peace, impose taxes or confiscate estates, without the 
council ; the nobles and the Church had their own courts of 
judicature, expired fiefs fell back to the nobles, the nobles 
were exempt from taxes and had feudal rights : there was, in 
short, more than German " liberty." 

Thus the King had to contend with the enmity of his 
subjects among each other (and the enmity between allied 
nations is more bitter than any other), a territorial nobility, 
and a proud and powerful Church, both possessed of immense 
wealth. 

From this doubly circumscribed position royalty sought 
to extricate itself by taking advantage of the Reformation ; 
with its aid it attacked and subdued one adversary, the 
Church, and was then strong enough to be a match for the 
nobles. 

Denmark was still the centre of the northern kingdom. 
Her king was king of the Union, and since the middle of the 
fifteenth century the throne had been filled by the Dukes of 
Oldenburg. Members of various German princely houses 
had previously been elected — Erich VII. of Pomerania in 
1412, Christopher III. of Bavaria in 1440. The Danes now 
formed the clever project of electing the distinguished Duke 
Adolf of Holstein and Schleswig, in order to bring the 
duchies into a sort of personal union with Denmark. Adolf 
declined for himself, but he was too much of the ruling 
prince not to seize the opportunity of seating his relative 
Christian I. of Oldenburg on the Danish throne, 1448-81. 

Thus at Adolf s death that fatal personal union took place 
between Denmark and the duchies which he wished to 
avoid. It is from this period that the incessant disputes 
originate about the rights of the duchies, which, although 
chartered by the clearest documents, have been so perpetu- 
ally questioned and infringed. 

Christian I. was succeeded by his son John I., 1481- 
15 13, on the Danish throne, and by Frederic in the 
duchies. The reign of the son of the former, Christian II., 
1513-23, falls precisely at the period of the Reformation, 
and it was he who made the attempt, supported by the inno- 
vations in the Church, to found a royal supremacy on the 
widest possible basis. That his p ] an miscarried is explained 
by the way in which he went to vork and the weakness of 
his character. 
10 



146 THE REFORMATION IN DENMARK. 

Christian II. inherited the elective crown of his father 
John, and the duchies were conferred on his uncle Fre- 
deric I., afterwards his successor on the Danish throne. 
Sweden had for a long time been governed by two distin- 
guished nobles, the Stures, who called themselves Stadt- 
holders, but who were really more powerful than the King, 
and his influence was no greater in Norway than it was in 
Sweden ; added to this there was the commercial depend- 
ence on the Hanseatic League which ruled the sea, and a 
bond which to this uncontrolled and passionate prince was 
peculiarly galling. He sought to relieve himself from this 
hampered and humiliating position ; he wanted to over- 
throw the power of the two aristocracies which imposed so 
many restrictions upon him, and to rule Sweden from Den- 
mark, while he kept each nation in check by means of the 
other. 

King Christian II. was one of those people who, though 
they may possess a certain knowledge of, and insight into, 
the position of affairs, are wanting in that maturity of cha- 
racter which is indispensable to great undertakings. He 
undoubtedly possessed talents of no common order, but he 
had not received an education calculated to develop and 
guide them, and his rash, fierce temper especially had been 
left without any wholesome counterpoise. He was adven- 
turous rather than courageous, brave in the onset, but not 
persevering. He would hazard the most dangerous enter- 
prises, but had no patient endurance in peril. Then he 
could not brook contradiction or even opposition, he had 
no moral fear or political conscience, and was so thoroughly 
frivolous and faithless that at length all parties forsook him. 
His life was anything but exemplary. He brought back a 
mistress from Holland who was personally pleasing, amiable, 
and harmless, who was called, half in jest and half in 
earnest, "the Little Dove" (Diiveke). But through her 
mother, who was absolutely hated, she brought a fresh influ- 
ence to bear upon the government. 

Madame Sigbritt, who was of Dutch descent, was pos- 
sessed of unbridled ambition, and delighted in exercising 
her influence over the young King. The hot democratic 
blood of the Frieslanders flowed in her veins, and she hated 
the aristocracy. She was continually telling the King that a 
nobility holding three-fourths of the land, keeping the citi- 
zens and peasants in shameful subjection, and even irn- 



CHF.ISTIAN II. 147 

posing disgraceful fetters on the King, was unknown in 
Holland. 

Thus Christian soon began to entertain the idea of a new 
order of things, which should confer such an amount ol 
liberty on the oppressed classes as had hitherto been im- 
possible, remove the restrictions on trade and commerce, 
and put an end to the exclusive supremacy of the nobles 
and the Church. In the midst of the first efforts in this 
direction, in 1517, the King's mistress died, with symptoms 
of violence. The King's mind became more and more 
gloomy ; he committed acts of wild passion and revenge 
against distinguished Danes whom he suspected, and 
although one party in the court contrived to make him 
believe that she had not been faithful to him, the event 
greatly increased his misanthropy. 

Just then the reform movement began, and Christian 
took it up, not at first from any special sympathy with it, 
but in order with its aid to change the aspect of Scandina- 
vian affairs. 

His first idea was to excite the different nationalities 
against each other, and to rule each by the other two. It 
was a method that had been repeatedly tried. He intended 
to avail himself of the Danish hatred of the Swedes to 
bring them into subjection, and, once victorious, to rid 
himself of the Danish aristocracy. 

The Union monarchy was utterly powerless in Sweden ; 
the most prominent nobles had gradually established a sort 
of regency there, which exercised regal power in all but 
name. The Stures filled this office of regent with honour 
and success, but as is generally the case when any aristo- 
cratic family exercises supreme power, it had all the other 
families against it ; the clergy especially were opposed to 
the Stures. Their government was inimical to the soli- 
darity of the two aristocratic corporations, and was especially 
directed to lessen the oppression of the common people by 
the Church. This laid the foundations of the bitter feud in 
which Christian was projecting an interference. 

The Archbishop of Upsala, Gustavus Trolle, was at open 
enmity with the Regent. His party wanted to dissolve the 
Union of Calmar, while the Bishop stood by Denmark. In 
November, 151 7, they had measured their strength in an 
assembly of the states at Stock lolm, and the Archbishop had 
been defeated and deposed. 



148 THE REFORMATION IN DENMARK. 

In January, 1518, Christian landed in Sweden, hoping 
that the feud between Trolle and Sture would furnish him 
with an occasion of stirring up the two aristocracies against 
each other. But in this he did not succeed. Although 
really King of Sweden, he did not once enter Stockholm. 
The attempt was an utter failure, and the hostages who 
were given him as a safe-conduct at his departure, and 
whom, instead of sending back, he illegally carried off as 
prisoners, were his only booty. Among them was the future 
king, Gustavus Vasa. 

His next scheme was more successful. He sought aid 
from his Burgundian relations, the house of Hapsburg, and 
even from its foe, Francis I. ; he represented to them that it 
was a matter in which all kings were interested, and col- 
lected a splendid army of German and French troops. 

In January, 1520, he marched into West Gothland, 
defeated the Swedes, subjugated the southern part of the 
kingdom, and made his entry into Stockholm. The Swedish 
nobles, having lost their leader by the death of Sten Sture, 
had capitulated at Upsala in March. 

The first condition which the King swore to observe was 
the immunity from punishment of all those who had fought 
against him. Stockholm was only opened to him on his 
giving this assurance. But now his utter want of good faith 
appeared ; the amnesty did not prevent him from making a 
sanguinary attack on the leaders of the Swedish nobles, and 
he had an abominable piece of sophistry ready to absolve 
him from his promise. In the feud between Sten Sture and 
Gustavus Trolle, the latter had obtained a papal ban against 
the party of the former, and the King of Denmark had been 
named as executor of the sentence ; this was now used as a 
handle for his perfidy. The King's adviser was an unscru- 
pulous adventurer, Dietrich Slaphok, whom Madame Sigbritt 
had raised from the very dregs of the people. He persuaded 
the King that he had taken the oath in favour of his foes as 
King of Denmark, but that as executor of the papal ban he 
was not bound to spare those against whom the sentence 
had been pronounced ; and amongst the various proposals 
made to the King this appeared to him to be the cleverest. 

On the 4th of November, 1520, he had himself solemnly 
crowned, and all kinds of festivities followed for two or three 
days. On the 7 th he began to show open hostility to the 
adherents and party of the Stures, and on the 8th began 



CHRISTIAN n. 149 

those savage executions of eminent ecclesiastics, nobles, 
and citizens known in history as the Massacre of Stockholm, 
and which sowed the seeds of an indescribable hatred of 
Denmark in Sweden, not yet extinguished. 

Christian thought that the masses would have rejoiced over 
the fate of their noble oppressors, but in this he was mistaken ; 
a feeling of the deepest indignation pervaded the whole 
of Sweden ; there was no thought of parties or of rights ; it 
was enough that they were Swedes, who, through an un- 
paralleled outrage, had bled on the scaffold. The echo of 
this deed resounded throughout Europe, and not least in 
Denmark itself. Although the Danes had gladly taken 
part in curbing Swedish arrogance, it was quite otherwise 
now they saw through the game the King was playing ; they 
thought that he might attempt in Copenhagen to-morrow 
what he had done in Stockholm to-day, and on his return 
he found the Danish nobles deeply embittered against him. 

He now tried a second experiment; he began to dally 
with Protestantism. Not that he was convinced of, or had 
any real interest in, the new doctrine ; he had just mas- 
sacred the Swedish nobility wholesale from pious regard to 
the papal ban, and now he all of a sudden conceived an 
enthusiasm for the heretics, the Pope's enemies, to whom 
the ban would have justly applied. The change was too 
transparent to deceive any one. 

Protestant movements had taken place among the masses 
at Copenhagen. There was sufficient intercourse with 
Germany to give rise to them, and the oppression of the 
aristocratic ecclesiastical government, with all its abuses, 
was felt here as elsewhere. All the North had been early 
infected with the opposition spirit of the new doctrine ; the 
duchies of Schleswig and Holstein first, thence it spread to 
Jutland, and it was not too far for it to leap over to the 
islands with which there was so much intercourse, and 
where the same grievances existed. 

But Christian II. was not the man to lead the movement, 
and the new doctrine could not have had a worse fate than 
to make its entry into Denmark soiled by such hands and 
weighted with such a burden. His interest in Protestantism 
did not extend beyond some futile manoeuvres, but he took 
more vigorous measures against the privileges of the nobles 
and the clergy. 

In 152a he instituted new commercial regulations which 



150 Tf-IE REFORMATION IN DENMARK. 

were intended to relieve the city merchants of the mono- 
polies of the clergy and the nobles, and from foreign 
competition ; then he limited the privileges of the nobles in 
exacting service, in the chase, and in the use of wood, for in 
all these respects they oppressed the heavily burdened 
» peasant ; he extended Copenhagen, formed a project for 
constructing a harbour; in short, he broke with all the 
traditions of the past in the country. 

But none of his schemes prospered. Even the good that 
he did only appeared like a fresh artifice to defend himself 
from the increasing number of his enemies. The citizen 
class felt that his only object was to entice them to oppose 
the Church and the nobles, and even those who secretly 
approved of his innovations shunned contact with the 
assassin of Stockholm. From that time no blessing rested 
on his labours ; his dalliance with Protestantism estranged 
the Catholics, yet did not gain the hearts of the Protestants. 
His reforms embittered the aristocracy, both spiritual and 
temporal, yet did not gain him favour with the masses. In 
Sweden a party had already gathered around the fugitive 
Gustavus Vasa, which threatened a dangerous revolt, when 
the universal discontent in his own country came to an 
outbreak. 

The nobles in Jutland had risen, and were soon joined by 
the prelates and barons of the islands; in January, 1523, 
they renounced their allegiance to the King, on account of 
his violation of the bond, his tyrannical conduct, his threats 
to the nobles, clergy, &c. The revolutionists offered the 
crown to the King's uncle, Duke Frederic, of Schleswig- 
Holstein ; he accepted it, which settled the matter, though 
Christian, forsaken by all, ignominiously craved pardon, and 
in pitiful accents promised amendment. 

In April, 1523, Christian fled without hazarding any 
attempts at self-defence, leaving the field open to his 
successor. During his exile he penitently returned to the 
Romish Church, and in 1531 landed in Norway with a fleet 
and army, and instigated a rising of the Roman Catholic 
peasants against the King of Denmark, but in the spring of 
1532 he was compelled to lay down his arms and return as 
a prisoner to Copenhagen. He remained in imprisonment 
till his death in 1559. 

With the accession of Frederic I. the relation between 
Denmark and the duchies was again introduced, from which 



FREDERIC I. 151 

they are suffering tj this day.* When Christian II. began 
to reign, in 1513, a separation happily took place; the 
duchies had their own duke, but now their duke was again 
king, and the unfortunate personal union was permanently 
established. 

The new King was an entirely different person from his 
nephew ; he was circumspect, prudent, considerate, and con- 
ciliatory ; not the man to undertake an enterprise lightly ; 
he was ready to make concessions, though sufficiently 
jealous of his own power never to endanger it. The great 
point was that he would probably bring Protestantism to 
the Danish throne. The duchies were already Lutheran ; 
the clergy had only reluctantly consented to the Duke's 
election, and now he was about to ascend the throne of 
Denmark it was scarcely likely that he would uphold the 
ancient Church. 

Frederic I. acted in his difficult post with unusual 
dexterity ; he renounced all foreign schemes ; he gave up 
the Union ; dominion in Norway and Sweden, the hostile 
intentions of his predecessor towards the Hanse Towns and 
the native nobles, were all allowed to drop, and all his 
attention was concentrated on the one point of ecclesiasti- 
cal reform. He concluded a treaty with Gustavus Vasa, by 
which Sweden was declared independent, and another with 
Norway, which gave it the right of election ; he also made 
concessions to Lubeck, as he did on every question of 
foreign policy, but on the reform question he would not 
yield. 

He had, indeed, been compelled to take an oath, among 
other things in the bond, that he would not introduce the 
Reformation nor attack Catholicism ; but the oath was not 
broken by his doing nothing to hinder its progress, and 
he could not be reproached because reform spread more 
and more widely in Schleswig, Holstein, and Jutland, or 
because he would not dam up the stream which, without his 
aid, was undermining the Church with which he was person- 
ally and politically at enmity. We can scarcely be mis- 
taken in supposing that he was influenced by two considera- 
tions. In the first place he was devoted to Lutheranism 
body and soul, and then he saw as clearly as Christian II. 
that it w<-uld be an immense advantage to his crown if he 

• Written in 1859 or i860.— Tr. 



152 THE REFORMATION IN DENMARK. 

could crush the great aristocratic Church system, put an 
end to its political power, and confiscate its lands to the 
crown, and thus so completely lame one arm of the aristo- 
cratic opposition, that the crown would finally be able to 
vanquish the other. By these circuitous paths he was 
more successful than his predecessor in accomplishing an 
object no less in accordance with his personal convictions 
than calculated to secure the audiority of a hitherto power- 
less crown. 

He did not attack Catholicism, but he did not prevent 
Lutheran preachers from coming over from the Continent to 
the islands to spread their doctrines. How could he dis- 
miss the professors of his own creed ? 

All the nobles in Jutland had already joined the Protest- 
ant cause, and in the islands the dioceses of the orthodox 
bishops were continually diminishing, when at the end of 
1527, a Diet was convened at Odensee for the final settle- 
ment of the question. 

At this diet Frederic demanded toleration for Lutheranism, 
which was granted by a formal edict.* This gave the signal 
for Catholicism to be swamped by the new doctrine. 

At the death of Frederic, in 1533, a crisis took place. 
The clergy took up the cause of the second son, John, who 
was a Catholic ; the Protestant party advocated that of the 
Protestant Prince Christian. Foreign influences decided 
between them. 

The difficulty with Lubeck induced the aristocracy to 
favour the election of Christian III., 1534-59, who, with 
Swedish help, and by a successful diversion to Lubeck, 
occasioned the fall of Wullenweber and gradually recon- 
quered the country. 

The Reformation was now completely introduced, not 
with violence, but its progress was irresistible. The 
Catholic Church was reduced to a ruin, and the supremacy 
which she had shared with the nobles overthrown. An 
independent Danish monarchy was established, supported, 
especially in Jutland and the Duchies, by a proud secular 
nobility ; one of the enemies of the throne was defeated, 
and its spoils served to endow the monarchy. 

* Gieseler. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SWEDEN.* 

The Revolt un>Ier Gustavus Vasa, 1523-60 — His Character and Policy. — 
1521 Regent, 1523 King of Sweden. — Internal and external Em- 
barrassment of his Position. — Struggle with the Clergy. — Decree of 
the Diet of Westeras, 1527. — The Reformation. — Extension of the 
Royal Power. — Independence and internal Prosperity of the 
Country. 

THE struggle for the Crown and the Reformation in 
Sweden was on a far larger scale than in Denmark, 
and of far more moment, on account of the great man who 
headed it, and the power which arose out of it. 

We left Sweden at the massacre of Stockholm. This 
fearfully inflamed the old hatred of Denmark, and above all 
party conflicts, which were not wanting, the idea of shaking 
off the yoke of this cruel government was predominant. 
But Christian held Stockholm, the southern parts of the 
country and the harbours were garrisoned, and in the north, 
though there were no Danes, there were but few towns, and 
but few centres where means of resistance could be gathered 
together; a sturdy race of men lived widely scattered in 
their solitary farms and villages, but so dispersed that the 
south could not look to them for aid. 

But at this juncture one man alone succeeded in deliver- 
ing the people from the most hateful foreign tyranny, 
in securing the independence of Sweden, and creating a 
splendid power, at a period when no one had ventured to 
lift a hand against the enemy. 

Among the hostages treacherously carried away by Chris- 

• Geschichte Konig Gustavs I., v. 01. Celsius, fibers, i. ii. Leipzig, 
1749. Fryxell, Gustav Wasa's Leben, 1831. Geijer, Geschichte Swe- 
dens, Deutch von Leffler. Hamburg, 1 832. 



154 THE REFORMATION IN SWEDEN. 

tian II. was a youth named Gustavus Erichson, born in 
1490. He belonged to one of the most distinguished 
noble families, connected with the Stures by party and 
family ties, and bore on his arms a sheaf or bundle of 
flax called " Wase," hence the surname of Vasa. 

He was taken as a prisoner to Copenhagen in 1518, 
and passed a dreary time in prison. His indignation at 
his country's disgrace gave him strength for the most daring 
enterprises, to flee alone over land and sea, to seek foreign 
aid for his fatherland, and afterwards to undertake to libe- 
rate it himself. In September, 15 19, he arrived at Lubeck in 
disguise. All opposition to the hated Christian was wel- 
come there, and they refused to deliver up the prisoner ; 
but more than this they would not do. A powerful king- 
dom in Sweden was as little desirable as a powerful king- 
dom in Denmark ; on this point the maritime merchants 
agreed in opinion with the jealous aristocracy of the 
northern empire. Besides, nothing was known as yet of 
the foreign fugitive ; he had still to show of what he was 
capable. 

When the news reached him of the massacre of Stock- 
holm, he returned unrecognised to his country. All his 
family had been destroyed in one day ; his father and 
brother-in-law were murdered ; his mother and sisters taken 
prisoners to Denmark ; all his friends were butchered, and 
a price set upon his own head. Pursued by the King's 
myrmidons, surrounded by treachery and treason, he wan- 
dered about for months as a day labourer and vagrant, 
suffering dangers and privations of every kind. 

At length he suddenly appeared in his own character at 
a great meeting at Dalecarlia, in the north of Sweden. 

He was singularly endowed by nature j even in early 
youth his imposing presence, and the charm of his appear- 
ance, had made a great impression upon all. He had not 
failed to make some impression even upon the inhabitants 
of Lubeck, who had regarded the views of the friendless 
youth with the cool, calculating spirit of shopkeepers. He 
was a specimen of a powerful Northman, with a singularly 
attractive presence, a rare gift of speech, and a natural 
tact in intercourse with all men, the most distinguished as 
well as the most humble, and by skilful negotiations he 
contrived to find a solution for every difficulty. 

He now appeared in his peasant's jerkin as the deli- 



GUSTAVUS VASA. t55 

Verer of his country, and stirred up the north of Sweden 
against the Danes. Similar stories are told of him during 
the time of preparation to those of King Alfred when in 
a like situation ; how he gave vent to his grief in old 
national songs, discovered people's opinions by cunning 
questions, tried to gain them by burning words, wandered 
from farm to farm, here and there making himself known, 
gaining adherents everywhere, but particularly in Dale- 
carlia. With these northern dalesmen, with rustic equip- 
ments, unused to military discipline, but possessing great 
physical strength, and implacably hating the Danes, he 
undertook a desperate campaign against a considerable 
army, which was in possession of the most important 
places in the country, and by virtue of tremendous exer- 
tions, and the perplexities in Denmark, the daring enter- 
prise was successful. 

He was elected regent in August, 15 21, and proclaimed 
king in June, 1523; soon afterwards, scarcely three years 
after his first promotion, he made his entry into Stockholm 
as ruler of the country amidst the rejoicings of the people. 

It was only with reluctance that the nobles had con- 
sented to his election, but the voice of the people was 
too powerful to be overruled, and for them a king of 
Sweden like Gustavus was the only pledge of national 
independence. 

But the throne was at first nothing but an empty title 
to which the wearer must give significance. Gustavus 
found a country in his hands which had long had a vacil- 
lating connection with Denmark, perpetually severed and 
renewed. It had been sometimes ruled by strangers, some- 
times by natives, so that at last nobody knew whose right 
it was to rule. Law and right had almost disappeared ; 
every one had forgotten how to govern or to be governed. 
Amidst the manifold changes of the Union kingdom, no 
government had attained to effective power or general 
respect ; every class of the people had become accus- 
tomed to take care of itself as it best could ; the nobles 
would submit to no one ; the Church had become a 
power partly independent of the country, and preyed upon 
the kingdom as if it had been but a province ; the people 
were as independent as the two ruling aristocracies per- 
mitted. 

And what means could Gustavus Vasa find for the 



I56 THE REFORMATION IN SWEDEN. 

construction of a new edifice in this country, in which 
anarchy had reigned unrestrained for a century and a half? 
Two-thirds of the land were in the possession of a proud 
and powerful clergy, and the greater part of the remainder 
in that of a wealthy and ambitious nobility. The regular 
expenditure of the Crown was 60,000 marks, its income 
24,000. The debt to Lubeck for aid during the war 
amounted to 1,000,000 marks. The south of Sweden 
was still in the hands of the Danes ; commerce, the coast- 
ing trade, and the harbours were monopolized by Lubeck. 

When, therefore, Gustavus Vasa was raised to the throne 
amidst the acclamations of the people, he found a crown 
without significance, a country unaccustomed to the re- 
straint of law, a throne , deeply in debt, liabilities which 
amounted to fifty times more than he could raise. 

His policy was simple. He purposed to overthrow the 
supremacy of the clergy in order to enrich himself with 
the spoils, and, if it could not be helped, to share them 
with the nobles ; but at all events to take care that the 
citizens and peasants should be gainers by the transaction, 
that they might not be estranged from him as they were 
from Christian II. If this object could be attained, 
something might be made of the Crown from its own 
resources. 

Gustavus Vasa was not a man with a keen sense of the 
distinctions between religious creeds. His character was 
simple, moral, and earnest. Even in his youth, with all his 
taste for lofty schemes, with all the fervid glow of his love 
of honour, his actions had been guided by a certain cool 
sagacity and sober determination. His was a character in 
which a strong tyrannical vein was united with wonderful 
tact and a habit of self-control, qualities which are seldom 
found together. He had never tormented himself with the 
religious controversies which were then agitating the world, 
but it did not escape his quick perception that the way to 
the proper development of the regal power was over the 
necks of the clergy, and that the universal animosity of 
the ancient Church was a mighty weapon in the hands of 
the secular power. 

He eagerly adopted this political view of Protestantism, 
and nowhere else was it so consistently acted upon ; but it 
contained a principle of universal application. The statesman 
might ask, Are states to be ruined that a time-honoured 



GUSTAVUS VASA. 1 57 

abuse may continue ; are the people to be consumed by the 
monopolies of the clergy, who not only have the con- 
sciences of the people in their keeping, but also usurp their 
means of living ? The ancient amalgamation of spiritual and 
temporal power was now avenged. If it was called robbery, 
the people looked upon it as a much greater robbeiy that, 
by surreptitious documents and artifices of all sorts, the 
clergy had obtained possession of nearly all the land. 

The combination of prudent foresight and relentless 
energy with which Gustavus Vasa went to work is ad- 
mirable. There was something magical in the sway he 
exercised ; he had the most seductive power of speech, 
which enchanted the masses, though some of his actions 
betrayed the claws of'the despot. 

But his plans were more easily conceived than carried 
out. The nobles probably shrank back when they found 
that the clerical power was to be undermined. Was not 
their own position based upon similar foundations, and 
might they not well say, " If the clergy are overthrown, who 
will protect us ? " 

The brave peasantry who had risen up against the 
Danes with Gustavus in Dalecarlia clung to their ancient 
faith ; they had not yet come in contact with the Reforma- 
tion. If the priests succeeded in influencing these simple, 
unsuspecting people, the hands which had once borne Gus- 
tavus Vasa aloft would probably be lifted up against him. 
And in isolated cases this did occur. What could he do? 
Turn to the citizen class ? There was none, for Sweden 
had no trade, no marts, no fleet ; all its commerce was in 
the hands of Lubeck. 

Thus it was necessary to proceed cautiously, and by 
indirect paths, to allow time for the state of opinion that he 
required to grow up gradually. Without expressing any 
opinion of his own, he secretly favoured the Lutherans 
while he ostensibly maintained the best understanding with 
the Pope. That eager desire for reform and excitement 
which we have seen in central and southern Germany did 
not exist among the masses in the north ; the people 
required to be inoculated, and Gustavus took care that it 
should be done with consummate prudence, tempered with 
zeal. He had been preparing the way for Lutheranism 
ever since 1523, without undue haste, with the patient 
persistence that suited the people. Sweden had a small 



158 THE REFORMATION IN SWEDEN. 

reform party even among the clergy; as, for instance, 
Lorenz Anderson and the brothers Peterson. 

Gustavus got men like these to preach against abuses 
and the sale of pardons, moderating their zeal by sensible 
admonitions ; and when the clergy complained, he said that 
if they were abuses that were attacked, let them be reformed, 
but if not, let it be proved from the Bible. He gave the 
greatest possible publicity to the strife between the old and 
new doctrines. While the subject was being agitated in 
discussions, sermons, and pamphlets, he concealed his own 
convictions, and it was only on one point that he spoke 
out — on the right of the State to the Church property. At 
two Diets in 1526 a very heavy tax was imposed upon the 
clergy. Prelates and monasteries were to pay eight-ninths 
of their income ; but this was the most unwise thing he 
could do, for it excited a revolt which was headed by two 
of the bishops. 

These leaders of the rebels treated the saviour of the 
country as a vagabond usurper; they thought that they 
themselves were safe, even should others lose their heads. 
But, like Napoleon, Gustavus Vasa could not see why 
bishops should not lose their heads as well as other people. 
He quelled the revolt in Dalecarlia, and had the leaders 
tried by a secular tribunal, by which they were condemned 
to death. In February, 1527, the sentence was executed; 
but the misguided multitude went unpunished. 

In June of the same year Gustavus convoked the Diet at 
Westerns, at which, besides the clergy and nobles, represen- 
tatives of the citizen and peasant class appeared for the 
first time. The citizens felt flattered by the honour ; the 
peasants regarded it more as a debt owing to them for their 
help ; but the interests of both were identified with those 
of the King, and in case of necessity they were disposed to 
impress upon the clergy by force the sacrifice that was 
required from them. It is with the decrees of this Diet 
that the historical greatness of Sweden begins, and it 
steadily increased up to the time of the misiortunes and 
blunders of Charles XII. 

At this Diet, purposely convened at a remote little town 
to guard against any compulsion from without, the King 
brought forward the demands which formed part of his 
programme, and which were necessary to give security to 
the Crown, to int ure a proportion between the income and 



GUSTAVUS VASA. 159 

expenditure of the State, to meet a daily increasing deficit, 
to discharge the colossal debt to Lubeck, and at length to 
put an end to its burdensome monopoly of trade ; and all 
this was to be done at the expense of the enormous wealth 
of the Church. The discord in the Church was also men- 
tioned in the King's communication, and he offered to 
prove that he was not a heretic, as had been slanderously 
reported, but believed the pure word of God. The existing 
discord, however, must be put a stop to. 

But his views found no favour. The nobles expressed 
their displeasure, the clergy were turbulent and excited, 
and declared that in the matter of Church property they 
would only yield to force. The King then began to address 
the Assembly. He possessed not merely courage such as 
few historical personages have exhibited, but that gift of 
eloquence and personal influence over men which is peculiar 
to those who are born to rule. The Swedes themselves 
have described to us how the masses were moved by his 
stately presence and eloquent words ; he had given proof of 
this when, as an outlaw and hunted fugitive, he had incited 
his down-trodden countrymen to fight against the Danes, 
and he gave proof of it now in contending with the eccle- 
siastical aristocracy. 

He stated that he had wished to make a final experi- 
ment, whether it were possible to reign there as king. He 
considered that the experiment had failed. Rain and sun- 
shine, famine and pestilence, all were laid to his charge, 
and every priest was allowed to sit in judgment on him ; 
yet it was not from ambitious motives that he had ascended 
the throne, but that he might save Sweden ; he had sacri- 
ficed his patrimony to the public good, and he was repaid 
with ingratitude. Sweden was not yet ripe for a king, and 
with a voice almost choked with tears, he said, " I must lay 
down this crown." 

With these words he left the astonished assembly, which 
immediately broke up in confusion. Subsequent scenes in 
the Diet when left to itself showed what would become of 
Sweden without a king. The four estates fell together by 
the ears. Amidst the stormy scenes that took place, not a 
single decree was formed, and the result was that the dis- 
sensions between parties became greater than ever; this 
anarchy would soon prevail over the whole of Sweden, if 
some powerful arm did not intervene. 



160 THE REFORMATION IN SWEDEN. 

The result that the King expected soon followed. A 
division took place among the nobles, and a large party of 
them were of opinion that the clergy must make sacrifices 
no State could exist with so sparse a population and s 
sterile soil if two-thirds of the land continued to be held 
in mortmain. Thus the nobles deserted the clergy, and 
it was quite intelligible that the citizens and peasants, who 
had everything to gain and nothing to lose, should be 
impatient, and proceed from threats to blows. 

Three stormy days after the King's abdication, he was 
urged again to appear before the Diet. A new oath of 
allegiance was taken, and his proposals now met with a 
different fate. Deserted by all parties, the clergy gave 
way, and were so abject as to be quite undignified. It 
generally happens that political parties, who have for a 
long time insolently rejected all reasonable terms, suddenly 
come round to ignominious submission. The clergy in this 
case submitted to conditions which entirely reversed their 
position in the State, and deprived them of everything 
for which they had been passionately contending. 

The Diet decreed precisely in accordance with the King's 
demands : — 

1. That it is the duty of all the estates in common to 
quell all rebellion, and to defend the Government from foes 
from within and from without. 

2. That monasteries and Church property are entirely at 
the disposal of the King. 

3. That the nobles are justified in taking possession 
of their estates, which have become Church property 
since 1454. 

4. That the preaching of the Lutheran doctrine be per- 
mitted. 

The bishops signed a special declaration, that "they 
were willing to be as rich or as poor as his grace the King 
willed ; but, with their diminished incomes, they wished to 
be released from the duty of attendance at the Diet." 

With this the ancient clerical estate of Sweden collapsed. 
The Church still existed in sufficient splendour, but it had 
no longer any political existence ; it was too poor and too 
entirely dependent on the King, who, as may be supposed, 
took abundant advantage of the concessions of the Diet of 
Westerns. The victory of the Crown was obtained at a 
price which might be afterwards regretted, but it was then 



GUSTAVUS VASA l6l 

an inevitable necessity ; the power of the nobles was in- 
creased by the defeat of the Church, for they shared its 
spoils with the Crown. They gave the succeeding Kings oi 
Sweden plenty of trouble, but it required a Charles XII., 
with his disregard of all the rights of the country, to make 
the Swedish nobles dangerous again. Stormy scenes still 
took place in the Diet, but Gustavus obtained the mastery. 
He was not crowned till 1528, and then the favourable 
aspect of his sway began to be apparent. The Diets of 
Oerebro, 1540, and Westeras, 1544, settled the succession of 
the Swedish crown on his house, and abolished the elective 
monarchy. Meanwhile the Reformation made astonishing 
progress ; though it had only begun as a small sect, it 
was now dominant in the nation. For the first time since 
there had been a kingdom of Sweden the country knew 
what it was to have a monarchical government of the 
modern stamp ; she enjoyed for the first time conscientious 
administration of the laws, legal equality and domestic peace 
and security. The King had a handsome income, a trust- 
worthy military force, and faithful and devoted officials. 
With these means the foundations were laid of a sovereign 
power, such as had never before existed. 

The debt to Lubeck was next discharged, and Sweden 
was relieved from the monopolies of the Hanse Towns ; 
commercial treaties were entered into with Denmark ; 
Russia, England, and the Netherlands ; a market was 
opened for iron, the chief product of the country, and the 
budding trade of Sweden put under the protection of a 
little fleet of its own. All foreign and commercial yokes 
were thrown off, domestic resources developed, and all that 
can conduce to the wealth and prosperity of a State wisely 
fostered and encouraged until the death of Gustavus in 
September, 1560. During the whole of the King's reign 
every one had some complaint against him ; the clergy did 
not forget their losses, the nobles were jealous ol the 
supreme power of the Crown, the citizens and peasants 
took the blessings of the new government as a matter of 
course, and grumbled at fresh taxes and burdens, every 
one rebelled against the novel administration of a strictly 
monarchical government ; but no sooner had the King closed 
his eyes, than the surpassing lustre of his name was ac- 
knowledged. The contemporary generation certainly had 
to pass through a painful transition period, but the founda- 

H 



1 62 THE REFORMATION IN SWEDEN. 

tions of the power were then laid which was established in 
the seventeenth century. The great north-eastern kingdom 
of the coming age was now founded, and it took many 
misfortunes and disasters to reduce it to ruins. This was 
the reason why the time of peaceful labour and construc- 
tion under Gustavus Vasa was afterwards so gratefully 
recurred to. 

This was the course events took in the Scandinavian 
empire, among a race of Germanic origin, and which, 
though politically distinct from Germany, had in many 
respects grown up on similar principles. It now received 
the germs of a new political existence from the Reforma- 
tion. In Denmark as in Sweden, a great political re- 
generation was connected with the religious revolution ; 
in neither country was Church reform the result of a great 
religious movement among the masses, as in Germany, but 
it was the lever of a political revolution, which brought a 
change in the religious sentiments of the people in its train ; 
but in both countries the crisis gave an impetus to national 
power and historical significance, which was far from being 
the case in Germany. 



CHAPTER X7.II. 

ENGLAND.* 

England before the Tudors — Henry VIII., 1509-1547. — His Charactei 
and Attitude at first towards the Church. — His Opposition to the 
Reformation which was demanded by the Mental Development 
of the Nation. — The Complications with Rome. — The Marriage 
Question, 1526-29. — Wolsey's Fall. — Breach with Rome. — The 
Royal Supremacy, 1534. — The Religious War against Catholics 
and Protestants. — The Secularisation of Monasteries. — The six 
Articles of 1593. 

England before the Tudors. 

IT is only the beginning of the demolition of the mediaeval 
Church in England, and not the Reformation, which 
falls within our period, and this prelude to the ecclesiastical 
revolution was performed by a monarch who personally 
regarded the Reformers and the Reformation with pas- 
sionate hatred. It was an exceptional case, and by no 
means a desirable one. The traditional Church might be 
pulled down, and the ground covered with the chaotic ruins 
of the old order of things ; but if it was not followed by 
the positive acquisition of a new ecclesiastical and religious 
life, the event was a very doubtful benefit to the generation 
then living. But the Government of Henry VIII. cannot 

* Hume, History of England. Lingard, History of England. Hal- 
lam, Constitutional History of England. Burnet, History of the Re- 
formation. Collier, Ecclesiastical History. Strype, Ecclesiastical 
Memorials. G. Weber, Geschichte der Kathol. Kirche von Gross- 
britannien, 1845. Ranke, Englische Geschichte, 1859. Froude, His- 
tory of England. Brewer, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, 
of the Reign of Henry VIII. Bergenroth, Calendar of Letters, Des- 
patches, and State-Papers relating to the Negociations between 
England and Spain, preserved in the Archives of Simancas and else- 
where. Maurenbrecher, England im Reformations Zeitalter. Dussel- 
dorf. 1866. 



1 64 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

boast of having done more than this. The real Reforma- 
tion in England began under Edward VI., passed through 
a fiery trial under Mary, and proved victorious under 
Elizabeth. 

The attitude of Henry VIII. undoubtedly had a signifi- 
cance in the great Church question which extended far 
beyond his personal aims and objects. He did nothing to 
benefit either life or doctrine ; or rather, he did all that he 
could by bad example and confusing men's consciences to 
make them worse. Still, from a variety of motives, he did 
bring about a great breach between England and the 
mediaeval Church system, and this remained as a great 
historical fact, however different the result may have been 
from what he intended. He wanted to establish a royal 
Papacy as absolute and persecuting as the purely ecclesi- 
astical one which he was rejecting; but he was in reality 
making loopholes for liberty. 

The Reformation in its widest sense formed an epoch in 
the development of the English constitution ; and, on the 
other hand, the peculiar development of the English consti- 
tution since the thirteenth century imposed essential condi- 
tions on the Reformation. 

There were no absolute monarchies, in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth century sense, anywhere in the West, but 
the relation between the privileges of the States and the 
royal authority varied exceedingly. They were compressed 
within narrow limits in France by Francis I. ; in Germany, 
grown up together as they had done with the ambitious 
principalities, they threatened to overwhelm the political 
and national unity of the Empire ; in Spain, Charles V. had 
to carry on a great contest with the liberties of the ancient 
kingdom ; in England the form of government was entirely 
monarchical, yet modified by certain acknowledged princi- 
ples of liberty such as nowhere else existed. 

The foundation of these principles was the Magna Charta 
of 12 1 5. It is true that it was a charter of liberty to the 
great nobles, temporal and spiritual, to defend them from a 
contemptible king, and it therefore formed the basis of the 
privileges of the hierarchy and aristocracy ; but it contains 
some very-important regulations, which we look for in vain 
in any other mediaeval charters. He who examines our 
German royal laws of the thirteenth century will find that 
the great lords not only claimed all the privileges of princely 



ENGLAND BEFORE THE TUDORS. 1 65 

rank, but made a too, of the king to limit the liberties 
of the other classes ; and it was just the same with the 
privileged class in anciei.t France. 

It is this which constitutes the great difference between 
Magna Charta and all the other charters of the Middle 
Ages. It grants the suffrage to ecclesiastics, and mitiga- 
tions of feudal bonds to the barons j but it concedes the 
same mitigations to vassals of a lower grade, and makes 
regulations for the benefit of the whole nation : uniformity 
of coinage, weights and measures, security for trade, prohi- 
bition of arbitrary taxes and impositions, a guarantee for 
the liberties of cities, power over the disposition of pro- 
perty, regular courts of justice, the regulation that no man 
can be tried but by the law of the land, and that his im- 
plements of husbandry may never be distrained from a 
peasant. 

This was enough at that time to afford free scope to the 
development of the powers of the citizen and peasant class, 
especially in an island empire which was particularly well 
situated for trade and commerce, was not affected by conti- 
nental wars, and was less exposed to hostile invasion than 
any other country. Thus in England, even among the 
citizen and peasant classes, there was a national prosperity 
which laid the foundations of political independence. The 
fundamental law of the country was an unimpeachable 
palladium of their liberties ; every Englishman knew what 
his rights were. After 1283, representatives of the citizen 
class begin to appear among those of the nobles and clergy 
in Parliament, full two hundred years earlier than in Ger- 
many. After 1297, taxes could only be levied with the 
consent of Parliament, and by degrees the inferior nobility 
made common cause with the citizens ; for though just as 
well protected as the great feudal lords, they found the 
citizens the only counterpoise to the power of the great 
nobles in Parliament. A more auspicious union than this 
between the lesser nobles and the citizen class could not 
well be imagined. 

Then came the fourteenth century, a time of disturbances 
within, and wars without. Wars are not generally favour- 
able to civil liberties ; but this case also was exceptional. 
Edward III., the most brilliant monarch of the fourteenth 
century, carried on great wars with France, and finally 
chimed the French crown. They were purely wars of coiv 



1 66 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

quest, and had nothing to do with the advancement of 
English national prosperity. But the King was continually 
obliged to ask Parliament for subsidies ; and thus, even 
under this monarch, that dependence of the Crown on Parlia- 
ment on all financial questions was established on which 
the whole Parliamentary system of England was to take 
root. 

Many a precious germ was crushed in the confusion of 
the civil wars which followed ; but the development of the 
Parliamentary system made progress rather than the con- 
trary. Three great constitutional principles were already 
acknowledged and acted upon : — That the King can make 
no law without consent of Parliament ; that he cannot 
impose any tax without consent of Parliament ; that he is 
bound to administer the Government according to the laws 
of the country; and if he break these laws, his ministers 
and agents are responsible for it.* 

Under the new Tudor dynasty, whose legitimacy depended 
upon the will of the nation, — for the other claims to the 
Crown of Henry VII., the victor of Bosworth, were of a 
very dubious nature, — that vigorous administration began 
which was to heal the wounds of civil war, and tide England 
happily over the dangers of a stormy transition period. 

Henry VIII., 1509-47. — His Character and Attitude 

at first towards the church. opposition to 

the Reformation, though demanded by the 
Mental Development of the Nation. 

Henry VIII. inherited from his father a kingdom more 
firmly established than any King of England had reigned 
over for generations, and he duly estimated the value of his 
Crown. His natural aristocratic tendencies were increased 
by a passionate and violent temper, which could brook no 
contradiction. It is difficult to portray a character like 
his correctly, and the English have not rendered the task 
less difficult ; for their party spirit has overpowered their 
historical judgment. Protestant authors have not forgotten 
the service he rendered to their cause by throwing off 
the yoke of the Romish hierarchy ; and, therefore, notwith- 
standing the many Protestants he burnt, there is a little too 

* Macaulay. 



HENRY Vm. 167 

much couleur de rose in their portraits. The Catholics, on 
the other hand, have not forgotten the breach with Rome, 
and the unworthy motives which induced it, and have 
painted him in very sombre hues. We must try to avoid 
both errors. 

Besides the strongly marked love of power which he 
shared with all his house, and which was fostered rather 
than checked by a subservient Parliament, he possessed 
an instinct which was common to all the rulers of that age, 
and which in his case was more than an unconscious 
tendency to free himself from all fetters, to be as much 
as possible an absolute monarch like his ideal Francis I., 
whom, although he had many a fray with him, he often 
absurdly imitated. 

England has not had any king who possessed in so great 
a degree the inclination and the power to be a tyrant. 
The Stuarts had inclination enough, but not the power; 
although they were constantly declaring that they would be 
powerful sovereigns, it was all in vain. Henry VIII. was 
just the man for it ; he had an active, diplomatic mind, and 
knew how to manage men ; he had a will which no difficulty 
could dismay, and great versatility of talent ; all this, how- 
ever, was obscured by his wild passions and his unbridled 
sensuality, which is all the more odious because a certain 
theological varnish was put upon it. 

Henry VIII. had enjoyed a tolerably learned education, 
and therefore considered himself an accomplished scholar ; 
he was fond of learned discussions and scholastic sophistry ; 
he even ventured dogmatically to defend his sensual 
excesses. 

In coming in contact with the great religious reformation 
of that period, a ruler of a character like his was sure to be 
depicted in an exceptional manner. 

The relation of England to Rome was sharply defined, in 
some respects more sharply than was the case with Germany. 
If any country had maintained a distant, even hostile atti- 
tude, towards Rome, it was England. Wicliffe is justly 
regarded as the chief forerunner of the Reformation, and 
except Huss, who was his disciple, there was no one who 
apprehended and discussed the Church question so indepen- 
dently as he did ; only that Huss was burnt for preaching 
what was allowed to be preached in England unhindered, 
and some decades earlier. 



1 68 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

Besides this the humanistic culture which was everywhere 
an ally of the ecclesiastical revolt was widely spread in 
England ; in few northern countries was the study of the 
ancient classics more diligently pursued than here, both in 
elementary instruction and learned researches. In short, 
both of the streams from which the Reformation everywhere 
derived its greatest strength, the spirit of religious opposi- 
tion, dating from the times of the councils, and enlighten- 
ment from classical study, flowed here more abundantly 
and purely than anywhere else, and partly before Luther, 
and partly quite independently of him, opinions similar to 
his had been widely agitated. 

But Henry VIII. was entirely opposed to them. No 
European monarch cherished the conservative Church system 
with more zeal and passion than he did. 

This was all of a piece with his semi-theological culture. 
There was in his singular character a peculiar doctrinal- 
scholastic element which was quite compatible with an utter 
want of religious feeling ; a bit of pedantry which now and 
then incited him to try to pluck laurels to which he had no 
claim, in this, to other princes, unwonted field. 

There was also another thing. All the Tudors, even 
Elizabeth, had a secret liking for Rome, which arose rather 
from an idea of political stability connected with it than 
from any religious reasons. The chief characteristic of this 
family was a strong dynastic feeling of the dignity ot 
monarchical power ; it was very perceptible in both Henry's 
daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, though they were otherwise 
so different. Rome is the type of unquestioned authority ; 
it may be dangerous to temporal thrones to shake this au- 
thority : this was the instinctive idea which ruled the house. 

From this point of view Henry VIII. was decidedly op- 
posed to the revolutionary attitude towards Rome, assumed 
by the German and Swiss Reformation. He attacked it 
with systematic and cruel severity ; he regarded the heretics 
as rebels and traitors ; trials for heresy were very numerous, 
and it was only in France that the number of victims 
exceeded those in England. 

Such was the position of England and "the King; the 
nation and* he were utterly at variance; germs of reform 
had been springing up abundantly amongst the people 
since the fifteenth century, but their natural growth and 
development were thwarted from the throne. 



THE MARJUAGE QUESTION. 1 69 

On Henry's first attempt to engage in the ecclesiastical 
controversy as something in which he was well versed, he 
met with a rebuff. He could not resist the temptation to 
give the Wittenberg Monk a severe lecture on the subject 
of good works, and, in 1522, he published a work against 
Luther. Frederic the Great says somewhere, that a king 
must always be a king and never try to be a priest, but 
Henry VIII. was unmindful of this wise maxim. His work 
betrayed the dilettante, whose nakedness the royal authority 
was meant to hide, and it attacked Luther entirely on the 
wrong side. He wrote a coarse and angry answer, next to 
his work against the Duke of Brunswick the coarsest of his 
writings, on purpose to show that he was not in the least 
awed by royalty ; sentences like the following were among 
the comparatively mild expressions in the reply of the 
Thuringian peasant's son : " When God wants a fool he 
turns a king into a theological writer." 

This incensed Henry personally against the Reformation, 
and, all things considered, nothing appeared less likely than 
that a breach with Rome would take place under him. 
Besides, his all-powerful favourite Cardinal Wolsey was at 
his side, who had no other idea than to attain to the papal 
dignity, and who already had one foot in the Curia. 

The Complications with Rome. — The Marriage Ques- 
tion, 1526-29. 

A peculiar question respecting marriage interposed about 
1526, which had nothing whatever to do with the Reforma- 
tion, but which from a purely personal and not very nice 
business became a matter oi world-wide importance. 

King Henry VIII. had been married in June, 1509,10 
the widow of his elder brother Arthur, who had died early ; 
he would have succeeded to the throne, and his sagacious 
father had secured for him the richest bride that could be 
found far and wide. This was Katharine of Aragon, the 
daughter of that powerful pair, Ferdinand of Aragon and 
Isabella of Castile, who by the junction of their inheritances 
founded the Spanish empire. The daughter of such parents 
was a most desirable match, for she brought as a dowry the 
alliance of the wealthy and powerful Spanish house. But 
the youthful prince died suddenly, and after so short an 
union that it was doubtful whether the marriage had been 



170 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

consummated. The natural course would have been to 
look upon the alliance between the two houses as dissolved 
by fate. But Henry VII. entered into negotiations to gain 
the widow for his second son, now heir to the throne. 
There were difficulties in the way. First there was the 
question whether marriage with a brother's widow was per- 
missible. Then Henry was younger and of a very different 
character from Katharine, whose quiet, sedate Spanish 
manners seemed little suited to his lawless, passionate tem- 
perament. But the shrewd Tudor who had succeeded in so 
many things succeeded in this also ; he united the young 
pair, but though the marriage contract was ready on the 
23rd of June, 1503, it was not until after six years of sus- 
pense and discord that it was formally and legally carried 
out by the voluntary advances of the prince himself, who 
had just ascended the throne. 

In the endeavour to paint the King in as bright colours as 
possible, the English do not forget to mention, that from 
the first Henry recorded in a sort of protest his scruples 
against a marriage forbidden by the decrees of the Church. 
It is a fact that he did so. It was a sort of theological 
scrupulosity and casuistry which led him to provide against 
all contingencies. Rome then came to his aid, and Pope 
Julius II. issued a bull by which all theological scruples 
were set aside and the marriage pronounced thoroughly 
legal. 

The course of the union did not appear to justify any of 
the fears that had been entertained about it. Though the 
pair were apparently so ill suited, their opposite characters 
seemed to do very well together. The fruit of the marriage 
was a daughter, Mary, who afterwards ascended the throne ; 
their sons did not live, and the English assure us that this 
was the first cause of estrangement. Nothing of this, how- 
ever, came to light. Katharine, who was of a contemplative 
and retiring nature, was pliant and indulgent enough, and 
allowed her frivolous pleasure-loving consort to do just as 
he pleased. 

The union had continued in peace for half a lifetime, 
when the old scruples, which were supposed to have been 
buried long ago, were revived. The Mosaic law against 
such marriages came with fresh force over the mind of the 
royal theologian and destroyed his peace. N.B. — There 
was at the court a young and blooming maid of honour, 



THE MARRIAGE QUESTION. 171 

with attractive French grace, a charming contrast to Katha- 
rine's dull monotony ; she had charmed the King, and this 
it was which decidedly favoured, if it did not entirely occa- 
sion, the revival of the forgotten scruples. The King was 
tired of his wife, who was getting old, and hankered for 
Anne Boleyn. It was only as his wife and not otherwise, 
that she promised to return his affection ; so the King was 
obliged to think of the dissolution of the old marriage and 
the contraction of a new one which would be more to his 
taste, and from which he might hope for an heir to the 
throne. Sensuality turned the scale. Such motives when 
naked and undisguised are not pleasing, but when covered 
with a theological mantle they are odious. All of a sudden 
the marriage which had lasted nearly twenty years, had, as 
his court theologians assured him, become invalid, and he 
was racked with sharp pangs of conscience ; but his con- 
science did not prevent him from zealously courting the 
beautiful girl, to whom, as he could not gain her for his mis- 
tress, he had promised marriage. 

Cardinal Wolsey, although still coveting the triple crown, 
was at length prepared, with a heavy heart, to undertake the 
negotiation which might cost him not only the papal tiara, 
but the results of the labours of his life. A bull was 
applied for from Rome, which should confirm the King's 
scruples and relieve his conscience, by dissolving the 
marriage which was contrary to the decrees of the Church. 
It was a delicate business. Had it not been that Rome 
had by a previous bull herself removed all obstacles out of 
the way, considering the spirit then reigning at the Curia, 
the matter would have been easy enough. But it was felt 
that it would be very undignified for Clement VII. to pro- 
nounce a decree precisely contradicting that pronounced by 
Pope Julius II. on the same quest'ou. 

But this was in 1526-7, just when the victory of Pavia 
and the peace of Madrid had led the Emperor Chatles V. 
to the summit of his fame, and when Rome was courting 
Francis I., in order to obtain his aid to crush the growing 
power ; and the papal policy was guided from a purely 
worldly point of view, not by a priest but a Medici. Just at 
this juncture, the embassy from England arrived, and the 
position of affairs could scarcely have been more favourable 
for its success. There was no objection to offering a cruel 
insult to the Emperor's aunt, Queen Katharine ; they were 



172 THE REFORMATION TN ENGLAND. 

endeavouring to compass his fall, so why should they 
scruple to offend him ? The Pope was not indisposed to 
please the King ; in his wrath at Charles V.'s successes, in 
the hope of gaining a new and powerful ally against him, 
Clement VII. resolved upon the incredible folly of sending 
an embassy to investigate the subject and to pronounce a 
divorce according to the result. This was the Legate's com- 
mission in his first instructions. 

So Cardinal Campeggio came to England. He at first 
tried to induce the Queen to renounce her rights, and as 
that failed, a painful and repulsive process was instituted 
which shocked all contemporaries, and sometimes moved 
for a moment even the hard-hearted judges of the unfortu- 
nate Queen. It was never forgotten how the innocent 
princess was brought before the court and examined, how 
simply and plainly but firmly she defended her good cause 
in her own way, how she called to remembrance her conjugal 
fidelity and the pledge of her love, and how pathetically she 
lamented that it had not been possible to her as a foreigner 
to be all to the country as Queen that she would fain have 
been. 

But this did not turn the judges from their course ; they 
continued the barbarous trial, but the business did not 
proceed very fast. The Papal Legate was by no means in 
so great a hurry as the King, who was writing one impa- 
tient letter after another to his Anne. It was still very 
uncertain what turn things might take ; the wind blew now 
from one quarter, now from another. The Legate was in 
no hurry, — he might have had secret instructions to that 
effect, — he wanted to see how matters were likely to stand 
between the Pope and the Emperor, and just then a change 
was taking place in the relations between them. At the 
end of 1528, Clement VII. was not in a position to keep 
the field against the Emperor; his allies had again been un- 
successful, Charles's troops had advanced to Rome, nearly 
all the Peninsula was in their hands ; everything concurred 
to induce the Pope to conclude peace with the Emperor, 
and for him the pending divorce was a great inducement to 
a reconciliation, for it might result not only in an irremedi- 
able breach with Rome, but in an irreparable insult to his 
dynasty. 

In July, 1529, Campeggio suddenly received a bull re- 
calling him to Rome ; the question was not ripe for a 



THE BREACH WITH ROME. 173 

decree in England, and was to be investigated at Rome. 
This looked like a response to the appeal which Henry 
VIII. had himself made to Rome. But viewed in the 
light of the change in the aspect of affairs occasioned by 
the reconciliation of the Emperor and the Pope, the mean- 
ing of it was obvious, and was from the first perfectly 
understood by Henry VIII. We have a number of inter- 
esting documents relating to this business ; the parties are 
well matched ; neither is cunning enough to deceive the 
other, and they try to maintain a good understanding by 
hypocritical fair speeches ; but each sees through the other 
entirely ; Henry especially saw at once that the Pope would 
elude him by a side door and never fulfil his promise. 
When the Legate's departure took place and Henry was 
informed of his recall, he regarded it as the first retreating 
step of the Curia; though he was not aware that just then 
the peace between the Pope and the Emperor was signed, 
and that it was an essential article of the agreement that the 
unhappy Katharine should not be disgraced. 

Henry now determined to take the matter into his own 
hands. The first visible effect of this resolve was the fall of 
Wolsey. Somebody must suffer for it ; he could not attack 
the Pope or the Emperor, and so Wolsey had to pay the 
penalty for his influence not having been sufficient to obtain 
the divorce from the Pope. The Cardinal was deprived of 
all his dignities and all his splendour, and reduced to great 
distress ; he was not the man to bear it with stoical forti- 
tude ; his fall broke his heart. 

This was a significant event ; for Wolsey was still a 
Cardinal of the Romish Church, and had never, even in the 
greatest extremities, entirely neglected her interests. This 
hindrance was now removed, and the consequences were 
soon to be developed to their fullest extent. 

The Preach with Rome. — The Royal Supremacy, 1534. 
— The War against Catholics and Protestants. 
— The Secularisation of Monasteries. — The Six 
Articles of 1539. 

For a time the King reigned without a favourite, without 
an all-powerful minister. Then he took Thomas Cromwell, a 
skilful diplomatist, and in his tendencies and bearing the 
very antipodes of Wolsey ; not a man from whose faithful- 



174 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

ness to conviction or independence any good influence over 
the King could be hoped for, but whose ambition and 
arrogance were more likely to have an influence for evil ; he 
was decidedly opposed to the temporal power of the 
Church of Rome, and an enemy to the interference of Rome 
in English affairs, and therefore an opponent of the princi- 
ples that had been represented by Wolsey. 

It was probably under the incitement of Cromwell that 
Parliament now began to stir. Up to this time the King 
had endeavoured to keep down the national opposition to 
Rome in Parliament by more or less intimidation, he now 
left it to take its own course. The old complaints, increased 
by Wolsey's extortions, were brought forward against the 
financial and judicial extortions of the clergy; all the pre- 
vious subjects of dispute with Rome were again agitated 
and, in the session of 1529, the wish was expressed that the 
King should be considered " the sole head and sovereign, 
arbiter and protector of the spiritual and temporal interests 
of the nation." The King and his ministers were manifestly 
gratified at this spirit of opposition, for it showed the Curia 
that they did not stand alone, but were supported in opposing 
it by the clear and publicly expressed opinion of the nation. 

But just then another influence came into play, the 
significance of which the King did not rightly estimate, 
though it was working against him before his eyes, and now 
in 1530-31, it began openly to manifest itself. 

Thomas Cranmer, a highly educated ecclesiastic, who had 
quietly pursued his studies under Luther's influence, a pru- 
dent, pliant man, not a sharply defined character, but a 
thorough Lutheran at heart, had as Archbishop of Canter- 
bury become, in 1532, primate of the English Church ; 
this promotion was the first defection of the King from the 
old ecclesiastical policy, but he certainly did not then know 
to what an extent Cranmer was a Lutheran. 

Both parties were still reluctant to push the matter to 
extremes. Rome was ready to carry on the negotiation, 
and the King tried to justify himself by theological authori- 
ties ; large sums were expended to procure documents from 
all the universities of Europe. But it was at the time when 
Rome was on good terms with the Emperor, and therefore 
no compliance was to be expected, and so the breach was 
visibly widening, though neither party was willing to utter 
the decisive word. 



THE ROYAL SUPREMACY. 175 

But now many things combined to hasten the crisis -. the 
appointment of Cranmer, the encouragement of Parliament, 
the declaration that the King was head of the Church at 
the instigation of the clergy, the abolition of Peter's Pence 
and of Annats, and finally the marriage with Anne Boleyn 
in January, 1533, first celebrated in private, and then 
solemnly proclaimed, and the divorce from Katharine by 
the sentence of the English courts; these were the chief 
elements of the open breach, and the sentence of excom- 
munication could no longer be withheld. 

Henry VIII. was not the man to burn the bull as Luther 
had done ; he was by no means indifferent to the penalties 
inflicted by the ancient Church, but he had sufficient aristo- 
cratic feeling to think himself deeply aggrieved, and treated 
with base ingratitude. Had he not done a great deal for 
the Pope, instituted trials for heresy and written against 
Luther ? and now he was excommunicated. His first relief 
from the terrors of the bull was the feeling of having re- 
ceived an unmerited insult. He then proceeded to make a 
decided counter-stroke. 

Parliament was called, and under the impression of the 
ban the following resolutions were carried unanimously : — 
That the papal supremacy be abolished and the royal supre- 
macy substituted. That the abolition of Peter's Pence 
and Annats be confirmed ; that the clergy hold only 
the position of a convocation under the King, and no 
longer of a Church under the authority of Rome. That all 
take the oath of allegiance to the royal supremacy. Therein 
was to be affirmed the invalidity of the first, and the legiti- 
macy of the second marriage of the King ; Mary's disinhe- 
ritance and Elizabeth's right of inheritance ; the acknow- 
ledgment of the King as head of the Church and " The 
clergy shall preach Christ and His gospel with a pure heart 
and in accordance with the words of Holy Scripture and the 
traditions of othodox and Catholic fathers ; they shall not 
misrepresent anything, and in their prayers the King shall 
be mentioned first as head of the English Church," &c. 

There was no question here of a change of faith, of an 
adoption of the newer and purer teaching. The hierarchy 
was silenced and made subservient to the King, but all 
else remained as before. The Romish dogmas were unal- 
tered. Woe to him who attacked the mass, transubstan- 
tiation, the worship of saints, the seven sacraments, 01 



176 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

the doctrine of good works ; he was sure to be seized and 
burned as a heretic. But woe to him also who refused to 
take the oath of supremacy, who would not acknowledge 
the new royal papacy; he was seized and hanged as a traitor. 
It was not a Reformation, not even a new ecclesiastical 
administration, it was only a transfer of the supreme 
authority from the Pope to the King ; the creed as well as 
the forms of the ancient Church remained the same as 
before ; it was only that an essential difference had taken 
place in the head of the constitution which would make 
a continuance of friendship with Rome difficult, if not im- 
possible. 

This state of things was tolerable only to pliant, submis- 
sive, and timid people ; it was death to men of character 
who openly confessed their convictions. Whoever, like 
Sir Thomas More, refused to take the oath, though he had 
formerly abetted the King in the execution of heretics, or 
Bishop John Fisher, was pursued and brought to the 
scaffold, and the same cruel measures were taken against 
Protestant innovators. Besides the gallows for those whom 
the King called traitors, there were the scaffold and the 
stake, the former for distinguished, the latter for common 
heretics. 

If this state of things was to last, no more ruthless sport 
with religious matters, no more fearful distraction of men's 
consciences, could well be imagined. The old state of 
things was put an end to, and nothing substituted for it, 
but the unbounded supremacy of the King and his personal 
passions. From the record of the thirteen fearful years 
which followed, leaving alone the King's marriages, I men- 
tion two points which were of great significance in the 
subsequent constitution of the English State and Church ; 
the secularisation of Church property, and the terrorism in 
matters of religious faith. 

As was the ca.se everywhere where the ecclesiastical 
controversy was taken up by the Crown, the immense 
riches of the Church and the monasteries were confiscated 
in order to enrich the Crown. We have seen in the case of 
Gustavus Vasa, what a powerful prince with the instincts of 
a ruler could accomplish with this booty. Had Henry VIII. 
possessed the ambition, energy, circumspection, and sagacity 
of Gustavus, this colossal accession of wealth to the throne 
might have been fatal to English liberties. Had Henry 



CONFISCATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 1 77 

been the thrifty, calculating statesman who would have hus- 
banded this immense treasure, and invested it to advantage, 
he would have left to the heirs of his Crown a capital which 
would have enabled the Stuarts to free the royal sovereignty 
from all embarrassment, and to have rendered it entirely 
independent. But instead of this, the Church property, 
confiscated with so much severity, was sold without any 
plan, at ridiculous prices, and the proceeds squandered in 
pomp and luxury; for a time the Court revelled in plenty, 
but the old pecuniary difficulties returned in an incredibly 
short time. 

The squandered riches had not, however, melted away 
altogether. The landed nobility obtained possession of the 
estates ; the great landowning class, which has to this hour 
ruled and sustained the edifice of the English state, dates its 
prosperity from this great sale of Church property instituted 
by the frivolous King, just at the time when, as he contem- 
plated his suddenly acquired wealth, he thought himself the 
greatest monarch in Christendom. 

Coincident with this domestic revolution was a reign of 
terror in religious matters, during which horrible cruelties 
were perpetrated, and which fearfully demoralised the 
nation. 

England became the scene of a fierce religious war, which 
year after, year demanded innumerable sacrifices, and the 
end of which no one could foresee, for no one could answer 
the question — What then is the right creed of this country, 
and what is to arise out of this sea ot ruins ? Parliament 
itself played a contemptible part — it was the sport of the 
royal humour. One day it drew up articles of faith, and the 
next sat as an inquisition upon Catholics and Protestants 
alike; one day it voted the ecclesiastical estates as the King's 
private property, and added the next that every one was to 
believe what the King and his commissioners might here- 
after dictate about religion and the ordinances of the 
Church. One party only profited by this hopeless confu- 
sion, the Roman Catholics in disguise in the King's Council, 
Gardiner and Pole, who, with their cunningly devised 
tactics, contrived to preserve as much as possible of the old 
leaven. If Cromwell and Cranmer persecuted the Roman 
Catholics, Bishop Gardiner and Cardinal Pole kept watch 
over the Piotestants, and, with the entirely arbitrary and 
very narrow line drawn between the forbidden and per 

12 



178 THE REFORMATION In ENGLAND. 

mitted creed, it was not difficult for either party to justify 
every act of violence. 

The King wavered perpetually between contradictory 
moods, and no one about him ventured to hold an inde- 
pendent opinion. He played as frivolous a game with the 
Church policy as he had done with the marriage question. 
Enraged at the angry documents which issued from the 
papal chair, he attacked the Catholics and permitted the 
circulation of the Bible. This was in 1538; in the following 
year Thomas Cromwell failed in a marriage project, and the 
Papists obtained his ear again. Parliament was ordered to 
settle six articles of faith, which could not but lead, and did 
lead, to fresh persecutions. 

1. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and 
Transubstantiation. 

2. The sufficiency of communion in one kind only. 

3. The unlawfulness of the marriage of priests. 

4. The obligation of vows of chastity. 

5. The propriety of retaining private masses. 

6. The expediency and necessity of auricular confession. 
Severe penalties were attached to every infraction of 

these laws. All marriages of priests, monks, and nuns were 
declared invalid, and were punishable with death ; the same 
fate was reserved for those who neglected confession or the 
supper, or had hitherto withdrawn from them. There was 
not a single moral idea in these wretched tiansactions. 
Henry VIII. left behind him a chaos from which the nation 
had to extricate itself by severe struggles. 



PART III. 

THE GERMAN REFORMATION FROM THE PEACE 

OF NUREMBERG TO THE PEACE OF 

AUGSBURG, 1532—55. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Favourable Circumstances for the Reformation from 1532-42. — The 
Restoration in Wurtemberg, 1534. — Spread of the New Doctrines 
in spite of the Excesses at Miinster and the Revolution at Lubeck, 
1533-35. — The Emperor's Attempts at Conciliation, 1537-41. — 
His View of the Question. — Instructions and Proceedings of 
Vice-Chancellor Held. — The League of Nuremberg, June, 1538. 
— The Discussion of Religion, the Interim of Ratisbon, and the 
Decree of the Diet, July 29th, 1541. — Decided Progress of Pro- 
testantism, 1538-42. — Adoption of it by Brandenburg and the 
Duchy of Saxony, 1539. — Interference of the League of Schmal- 
kald and the Controversy at Cologne. 

The Situation of Affairs from 1532-42, and their 
Favourable Aspect for the Reformation. 

NOTHING was decided by the Peace of Nuremburg, 
but that both parties should keep the peace until the 
final settlement of the question. The adherents of the 
Augsburg Confession were permitted to hold their doctrines, 
but those doctrines only, and the Emperor promised to stop 
proceedings against the apostates. The Protestants, taking 
into consideration the favourable aspect of things, took it 
for a permanent peace, and did not imagine that any serious 
attempt would be made to coerce them back into the 
Roman Catholic Church; but the Emperor regarded it 
merely as a truce. He had come in 1530 with the fixed 
intention of creating a reaction, but to his great disappoint- 
ment he found the spirit of opposition stronger and more 
universal than ever, and he was only withheld from active 



l8o THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

measures because in such a contest he could not entirely 
rely upon his allies, France, Rome, and the Catholic princes 
of Germany, and because he could not dispense with the 
help of the Protestants against the Osman power. But his 
programme remained the same as before ; the Protestants 
must in one way or another be made to submit to the 
Church j and this accomplished, Rome was to summon a 
council, which should decide what reforms were needful. 

It was thus that matters stood in 1532. At the last 
critical moment the Protestants had formed a political 
league at Schmalkald ; this league was the only federal 
power in the empire, and it appeared hazardous to the 
Emperor to enter upon a conflict with it, as he could not 
rely upon the princes who were friendly to him. Great 
events then again intervened, which prevented him from 
interfering in German affairs for another decade. Once 
more, therefore, Protestantism was protected from danger 
by the entanglement of the Emperor in European politics. 

During this period the Emperor was carrying on foreign 
wars with various results. It was not long before he was at 
war with France ; this was occasioned by the same question 
as before, and was not followed by more decisive result* 
The Emperor formed great projects ; he thought of con- 
quering the states of Barbary, and of thereby conferring an 
inestimable benefit on Christendom. His schemes were in 
part successful, but they withdrew him entirely from Ger- 
many. In the empire itself, the storm that had threatened 
Vienna in 1529, had only been averted for a time. The 
Turks never appeared with so great a force as the first time, 
but there was perpetual danger from this quarter ; Hungary 
was overrun again, the German territories threatened ; in 
short, a multitude of pressing difficulties entirely occupied 
his attention and energies in European politics, and the 
Protestants were allowed full play. 

Even if the Emperor had been disposed, he could not pro- 
ceed against them, while he was now in Spain, now in Italy, 
where the new Pope was adhering to the worldly policy of his 
predecessor against him, now involved in conflicts with the 
French, the Turks, or the people of Barbary ; moreover, 
excepting in religious matters, the Protestant princes were 
more devoted to him than the Catholic. The chivalrous 
Philip of Hesse especially entered into the Imperial schemes 
as great national enterprises, and offered his services as 



THE RESTORATION IN WURTEMBERG. l8l 

commander of the Austrian troops against the Turks in 
Hungary. The Imperial Court therefore spared him for 
the present, while its relation to the Catholic princes was 
sometimes cool and sometimes inimical. 

By a favourable combination of circumstances, therefore, 
the Protestants were able not only to avail themselves of 
the protection of the Peace, but to go beyond the strict 
limits of its provisions. Strictly speaking, it only granted 
toleration to the subscribers of the Confession ; no further 
spread of the doctrines was to be permitted. But who was to 
prevent it, if individuals here and there, or even whole 
districts, were converted ? In case of need, the League of 
Schmalkald could have rendered assistance had there been 
any opposition, but the Emperor was powerless to offer 
any. 

The Restoration in Wurtemberg, 1534. 

Duke Ulrich of Wurtemberg, against whom the peasantry 
had been so embittered in 15 13-14, had succumbed in the 
storm which broke over him in consequence of his feud 
with the Huttens, and had been driven from his country 
and subjects ; the duchy had been temporarily taken pos- 
session of by the Emperor, and was occupied by foreign 
troops. This had been accomplished by the sworn hatred 
of an extraordinary coalition ; the whole country was against 
the Duke ; his godless government had incensed nobles, 
citizens, and peasants; the Swabian League was against him, 
and his own relatives were ready to enrich themselves with 
his booty. The blow had been aimed at him successfully, 
but it did not bring succour to the country. 

It was discovered that the most frightful tyranny of a 
native prince may, under some circumstances, be more 
tolerable than the yoke of foreign soldiery. Ill as Ulrich 
had governed, still he was a hereditary ruler, and such an 
one does not forget that a country belongs to him and his 
house, and must be preserved for it. A bond of union 
exists between the ruler and his people, but any similar 
relation with a foreign garrison is inconceivable. Imperial 
troops and the troops of the Swabian League occupied the 
country, and who might next get possession of it nobody 
knew. Thus it was oppressed and drained on every side. 

The period from 1520 till after 1530 was one of arbitrary 



1 82 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

rule, during which the people were sighing for Duke Ulrich. 
Not that there was any security that he would return any 
better than before, but he had a son, now grown up, who 
was very promising. It was one of those rare cases in 
which nature gives an unworthy ruler a son and suc- 
cessor who causes his father's vices to be forgotten. 

Prince Christopher was exactly the opposite of his father ; 
he was as earnest and moral as his father was frivolous and 
licentious ; as severe to himself as Ulrich was to others ; as 
economical and conscientious in expenditure as his father 
was reckless and extravagant. And the country was his by 
right ; his legitimate rights were favoured by other rulers, 
his excellent qualities gained the hearts of the Swabian 
people, and besides all this there was another very im- 
portant consideration. 

Ulrich and his son Christopher had taken refuge at 
Mompelgard, on the confines of Alsace and Burgundy. 
The young prince had there adopted the new doctrines, and 
it soon became known that he was one of their most 
zealous adherents, and that his father was disposed to make 
concessions on this point if he were allowed to return to 
his country. 

Thus it came about, that in the circles of the League 
of Schmalkald the project ripened of restoring the dukedom 
of Wiirtemberg. The people were sullenly rebelling under 
the oppression of a foreign yoke, and Protestantism had 
spread its branches throughout the country.* The pro- 
posal to restore the legitimate house was of course made 
with the understanding that it would add to the Protestant 
ranks, and form another member of the League of 
Schmalkald. 

The Elector of Saxony and the Reformers, Luther and 
Melancthon, had scruples ; they called to mind the letter 
of the Peace, by which any such arbitrary extension of their 
creed was forbidden, and warned the league that it might 
unawares give rise to a sharp conflict with the Emperor. 
But Philip of Hesse overcame all scruples, and it was 
really accomplished by him, and not by the league. 

Philip, who was the grandson of a princess of Wiirtem- 
berg, had for ten years been espousing Ulrich's cause — 

• Rommel, Philip der Grossmiithige, 1830. Heyd. Ulrich von 
Wiirtemberg, 1 84 1. Kugler, Gerzog Ulrich von Wurtemberg. UV 
mann U. v. Wurtemberg. 



THE RESTORATION EST WURTEMBERG. 1 83 

had given him refuge, interceded with the Emperor for him, 
and had in vain appealed for aid to Brunswick, Bavaria, 
and Saxony. The negotiations he entered into at Bar-le- 
duc in 1534, with King Francis, were more successful, and 
led to a promise of subsidies without any more burdensome 
conditions than the mortgage of Ulrich's possessions on 
the left bank of the Rhine. Money was also demanded 
in other quarters, both from princes and cities, and an 
agreement entered into with Ulrich himself. 

Favourable as the circumstances might appear, the 
Emperor being in Spain, Ferdinand embarrassed by 
Turkey and Hungary, France won over, the Swabian 
League dissolved, and eminent princes in favour of the 
enterprise, still it is evident that Philip regarded it seriously 
enough, from the regulations he left behind him in case of 
life or death, and the splendid force he assembled ; of this 
the Hessian nobles formed the nucleus. 

The enemy was utterly unprepared for the attack. On 
the 23rd of April the Landgrave set out from Cassel ; crossed 
the Maine not far from Frankfort ; and as Frankfort and the 
Palatinate refused him a passage, he rapidly made his way 
by Erbach and Fiirstenau into Swabia. From Neckarsulm, 
Weinsberg, and Neuenstadt on the Neckar, he advanced 
towards the enemy, who, expecting that he would have 
come through the Palatinate, had stationed themselves on 
the Eng, near Vaihingen, and now first assembled at 
Heilbronn and Laufen. A decisive engagement took place 
on the 13th of May, in which the Landgrave was vic- 
torious. With great promptness and skill he followed up 
his victory. Within four weeks Wurtemberg was taken, the 
Landgrave's troops had advanced to Upper Swabia, and by 
the 29th of June the victory was confirmed by the Peace of 
Cadan. The Imperial troops took their departure, and 
Duke Ulrich made his entry amidst the rejoicings of the 
people ; he brought with him release from a foreign yoke, 
and liberty for the new doctrines. 

King Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother, renounced his 
claim to the duchy ; the House of Hapsburg reserved to 
itself certain rights, in consideration of which the Duke 
and his son were reinstated. So feeble had the Imperial 
sovereignty already become, that a single resolute prince 
was able by a coup-de-main, in time of peace, to rob it of a 
possession which it had much coveted. 



184 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

By this event, a Protestant wedge was driven into 
Southern Germany, an important accession gained for the 
Protestant cause, and the League of Schmalkald enriched 
by a valuable outpost. The events which took place about 
the same time, of an opposite tendency, were not sufficient 
to counterbalance it. 

In Westphalia, especially at Minister,* partly at the 
instigation of foreign fanatics, that hideous caricature of 
Christian liberty and heathen licentiousness had developed 
itself which resulted in the extreme form of Anabaptism, and 
a mad kingdom had been set up. This mixture of real enthu- 
siasm, misinterpretation of Scripture, unbridled sensuality, and 
mere coarse depravity, represented a frightful form of mental 
aberration, and had nothing whatever in common with Pro- 
testantism, or even with the original doctrine of Anabaptism. 

This "Tailor kingdom," t this theocracy with plurality of 
wives, communism, and bestial licentiousness, had nothing 
whatever of Christianity left in it. The professors of the 
original doctrine of Anabaptism entirely declined to bear any 
of the responsibility of it; and when the rebels were routed 
by the neighbouring Catholic princes, the Protestants could 
not complain that it was a victory gained over themselves. 

The Protestants, therefore, remained perfectly quiet. 
They felt, of course, that in this case, as in others, the 
extermination of fanaticism would involve the destruction 
of healthy germs of Protestantism : but that could not be 
helped ; it would have been a far greater evil to have made 
common cause with John of Leyden. 

It was but a wild reproduction of the revolution of 
1524-5, in which also the Protestants had taken no part. 
In Wurtemberg, on the contrary, genuine Protestantism 
obtained the victory over the established Catholic govern- 
ment, which was no less than the Imperial government 
itself. 

I need not say that other conversions took place peace- 
ably ; that in Northern and Central Germany whole districts 
went over to the cause — Anhalt and Pomerania, Augsburg, 
Frankfort, Hanover, Hamburg, and Kempten ; nobody 
hindered them, the League was the only power in Germany, 

* Cornelius, Berichte der Augenzeugen, 1853. Dessen Geschichte 
des Miinsterschen Aufruhrs, 1855. 

t John of Leyden, the leader of this sect, who was called " King of 
Zion," was a tailor. — Ta. 



ATTEMPTS AT RECONCILIATION. 1 85 

and it might be expected that this would rise in revolt as 
soon as ever danger threatened. 

The disgraceful end of the disturbances at Miinster could 
not be considered a misfortune for Protestantism, neither 
could the downfall of the rule of Wullenwever at Lubeck* 
in August, 1535. The widespread dominion of the Han- 
seatic League and its mighty capital came to an end ; the 
democracy of Lubeck lost its dominant position, but the 
Lutheran doctrines did not fall with it. As Lutheranism 
would from the first have nothing to do with worldly politics, 
it mostly escaped in Germany the vicissitudes which might 
have been fatal to it. The vast progress that it was making 
did not escape the Emperor, but neither did it escape him 
that he could not prevent it. He stood between two fires. 
He would have liked on the one hand to put down Protest- 
antism, which is proved by the countless processes in the 
vSupreme Court against the Protestants ; and, on the other, 
he would have liked to settle accounts with Rome. He 
still demanded a council to make reforms, but when the 
arrangements were at length made for it, and a council was 
convoked at Mantua, in May, 1537, he was not in reality 
any nearer than before to attaining his object. The Protest- 
ants acted as if everything had been settled by the Peace 
of Nuremberg, and Pope Paul III. preferred to put up with 
schism rather than to concede reforms. 



The Emperor's Attempts at Reconciliation, 1538-41. 

How the aspect of things was regarded by the Emperor, 
we learn from some confidential confessions in his de- 
spatches. About the time that the foregoing events occurred, 
and the preponderancy of the League of Schmalkald was on 
the increase, he gave, in October, 1536, an instruction to 
his Vice-Chancellor, Held, for his brother Frederic, the con- 
tents of which are very instructive as to his standpoints 

He lays great stress upon the fact that religious discord 
in Germany was waxing greater and greater — that if it were 
not prevented, the political position of the Emperor and his 
government in Germany would be at an end. But the 
Emperor required a strong reserve in Germany especially 

* Waitz. Wullenwever, 1855-6. 
f Lanz. Correspondenz. From the Archives at Brussels. 



I 86 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

against France, and therefore measures must be taken with- 
out further delay to redress the evil. 

He then complains that the Pope was so little disposed to 
help, that he persevered in his cold or hypocritical attitude, 
and would not seriously entertain the idea of the council. 
If there should be no change, he asked his brother, in pro- 
found confidence, whether there was not some method of dis- 
posing Germany to such a council, in case of need, without 
the Pope or King Francis I., who could not be persuaded 
into it? Should that fail, they must at once look out for 
some other means of once for all preventing any further 
declension from the faith, and of enforcing the terms of the 
Treaty of Nuremberg. Perhaps it might then be possible to 
convene, if not a council, a national assembly, at which the 
question might be satisfactorily adjusted. 

He then wrote to his sister Mary, the widowed Queen of 
Hungary, and counselled her to take every means of pre- 
venting further divisions. 

Meanwhile, Vice-Chancellor Held, by the way in which 
he understood and endeavoured to carry out the Imperial 
commission, only threw oil upon the flames. Instead of 
attempting to mediate and conciliate according to his in- 
structions, he proceeded bluntly and imperiously — demanded 
in an arrogant tone that the Protestants should, without 
delay, submit to the Papal Council and the decrees of the 
Supreme Court, and when they refused, remembering that, 
even in the terms of the convocation of the council, the 
extermination of the "pestilent Lutheran heresy" was 
spoken of, and that in the Supreme Court only sworn 
enemies of Protestantism had seats, Held rushed Irom one 
Catholic court to another, inciting and urging them on, till, 
on June ioth, 1538, the League of Nuremberg was formed, 
in which George of Saxony, the two Dukes of Brunswick, 
Albert of Brandenburg, Bavaria, King Ferdinand, and 
Salzburg united against the League of Schmalkald. 

This Catholic league was not what the Emperor wanted, 
and, even according to the views of the instigator of it, it 
was a great error ; an agreement like this, only entered into 
on paper, without arms, without money, only called the 
Protestants out, without any sufficient force to oppose them. 
The Emperor's sister saw this plainly, and her reply to his 
exhortations contained a faithful reproof for these doings. 
In the autumn of 1538 she wrote : " As things stand in 



VICE-CJiANCELLOR HELD. 1 87 

Germany, we must try to retain every friendship there that 
we can. Thus Philip of Hesse was one of the ablest 
princes in the empire, and he was loyal to the Emperor ; a 
permanent good understanding should have been sought 
with him, instead of which Vice-Chancellor Held had given 
him and his allies great offence, and excited their just sus- 
picions by the League of Nuremberg. Why was not the 
matter allowed to rest until a general council should be 
held? Every effort must be made to heal the religious 
differences peaceably, and to this end a good understanding 
must be maintained with the most able princes, and es- 
pecially with Philip of Hesse." 

To a certain extent the Emperor followed his sister's 
advice, but with the hesitation and reservation which 
mark his whole policy in this matter from first to last. 
Instead of proceeding according to Held's plan, with oppo- 
sition leagues and persecution, negotiation and religious 
discussions were tried for a time; these took place in 1540 
and 1541, at Hagenau, Worms, and Ratisbon. An attempt 
was made to come to a peaceful understanding on all points 
on which there had been the nearest approach to agreement 
since 1517, and now, for the first and last time, the question 
was seriously discussed at Rome, whether an attempt should 
not be made to restore the unity of the Church by honestly 
meeting the Protestants' justifiable demands for reforms. 

The cardinals with whom Pope Paul III. surrounded 
himself at the beginning of his government were cultivated, 
enlightened ecclesiastics, and several of them, such as the 
intellectual Contarini of Venice, Sadolet, Poole, Morone, 
and at that time even Caraffa, who was afterwards, as Paul 
IV., the Pope of the reaction, were avowedly in favour of 
reform. A remarkable project of reform had emanated from 
this circle, which, though it did not go far enough for the 
Protestants, was a significant indication of the then prevail- 
ing sentiments of the Curia. 

The princes being generally in favour of a peaceful settle- 
ment of the question, the attitude of the Curia secured that 
the discussions which were being held should be of a con- 
ciliatory character. If there was, however, any approxima- 
tion on questions of pure faith, on those relating to Church 
government and the Papal authority, the parties were as far 
apart at the end as at the beginning. But there was one 
advantage in this state of indecision, that the peace con- 



1 88 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

eluded in 1532 was not disturbed ; that, by a favourable 
interpretation of it, it even allowed Protestantism to make 
progress, and every fresh adherent of the Confession of Augs- 
burg enjoyed the same toleration as those who then sub- 
scribed to it. 

Thus the interim of Ratisbon arose, and the decree of 
the Diet of 29th July, 1541. In order to secure the aid of 
the Protestants against the Turks, the Emperor conceded 
as much as possible ; besides an exhortation to the Pope 
" to institute Christian regulations and reforms, which 
would conduce to good, seemly, and wholesome administra- 
tion of the churches ; " there followed a confirmation of 
the Treaty of Nuremberg, in which accusations to the 
Supreme Court and the clauses about new converts were 
omitted. The exclusion of Protestants from the Supreme 
Court ceased, the pending processes were discontinued 
until a general or national council was held, or a general 
Diet for the settlement of this question ; and in conclusion 
it was ordained " that if anybody else should wish to adopt 
their religion he was not to be prevented." 

This, however, was not sincere, for just at the same time 
the Emperor renewed the League of Nuremberg against the 
Protestants, and proclaimed that he had induced the Pope 
to join it. Moreover, he was just then giving up all idea of 
a real reconciliation for ever, and was only waiting for 
better times to take open measures against these incor- 
rigible people. 

Meanwhile, favoured by the temporary truce, important 
changes had taken place, which taught the Emperor that 
the progress of the new doctrine far surpassed his fears. 

Decided Progress of Protestantism, 1539-44. — 
Brandenburg. — Duchy of Saxony. — Brunswick. — 
Cologne. 

To the progress which Protestantism had made since the 
Treaty of Nuremberg in Wiirtemberg, Pomerania, Anhalt, 
Mecklenburg, and the Imperial cities, may be added the 
conversion of two whole countries whose rulers had hitherto 
been among the most faithful adherents of the ancient 
Church — Brandenburg and Albertine Saxony; the bishoprics 
of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Naumburg had also gone 
over. 



BRANDENBURG. \8q 

The Elector Joachim of Brandenburg was justly con- 
sidered to be one of the most decided opponents of the 
Lutheran doctrines ; he had all his life adhered strictly to 
the old faith, and made strenuous endeavours to prevent his 
country from falling into heresy after his death. But Bran- 
denburg was surrounded by Protestant influences — on the 
north by Pomerania and Mecklenburg, which had al- 
ready gone over; on the west by the bishoprics on the 
Elbe, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Naumburg ; and on the 
south by the Electorate of Saxony, which had been in- 
clined to the new doctrine from the beginning ; besides, in 
the multiplicity of states under the old empire, no country 
could be isolated as it can now — the states everywhere ran 
one into another. When the Elector Joachim I. died in 1539, 
it came to light that the Protestant doctrines numbered 
thousands of adherents, and that, in spite of all his strict 
measures, a Protestant community had been secretly formed, 
which was only waiting for a favourable moment to appear 
openly. His sons, whose adherence to the old faith he had 
taken every means to secure, did not continue his policy. 
The younger, the Margrave John, openly declared himself 
for Luther, and was the first to grant unlimited freedom to 
the new doctrines in his little inheritance. The elder, the 
Elector Joachim II., remained a Catholic himself for years, 
but he allowed the impulses of his people free course, 
renounced the fanatical party among the Catholic princes, 
abolished the mass, and began to reform the Church. 
It appeared that he dreaded open defection and a 
quarrel with the Emperor, but he was in fact already a 
convert. 

In this case, as in Albertine Saxony, it was not the rulers 
who gave the impuise to reform, but the people. In both 
countries the rulers would have abided by the old system, 
but when it would not work any longer they accommodated 
themselves to circumstances. In Albertine Saxony the old 
faith outwardly retained its dominion till 1539. Any one 
who publicly avowed Lutheran sentiments was threatened 
with vengeance and punished severely enough, but it was 
well known that there were thousands who did not hesitate 
to walk a few miles ani go over to the Lutheran Church in 
Ernestine Saxony. 

Duke George was a warm and sincere adherent of the 
old faith, and he was thoroughly a party man. But he 



I go THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

could not prevent his brother Henry from allowing free 
course to the new doctrines in the little territory of 
Freiberg-Wolkenstein, over which he ruled, still less could 
he prevent that his Ernestine relative should permit Luther- 
anism to spread in his splendid Electorate, or that his own 
subjects should cross the border; and thus, in spite of all his 
restrictions, heresy found its way into the city of Leipzig. 

The idea weighed heavily on the old gentleman's heart 
that the new doctrines would make their entry into his 
country over his newly-made grave. He projected many 
schemes which show his earnest desire to avert it at all 
hazards. Thus in his will he made the unheard-of pro- 
vision that in case of need his legitimate successor should 
be set aside ; that after his death a sort of provisional 
government should be established, composed of individuals 
devoted to him and the old doctrines, and in which King 
Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother, was to take part. This 
involved the entire exclusion of his own family in favour of 
the house of Hapsburg, and this desperate measure was 
adopted in order to bind his country to the old system. 

But still more rapidly than Duke George ever foreboded 
in his most gloomy moments did the old Church system fall 
to pieces in Albertine Saxony after his death. On the 
evening of his death, 17th April, 1539, Duke Henry 
appeared in Dresden, accompanied by the Wittenberg re- 
formers, and he was supported by the League of Schmalkald, 
which had twenty thousand infantry and four thousand 
cavalry at its disposal; the long-suppressed spirit of the 
new doctrines broke out everywhere, and a single visitation 
of the churches, on July 6th, sufficed to accomplish the 
reform, or rather to bring to light the conversion which had 
long ago taken place. 

It was under the impression produced by all these trans- 
formations that, about 1540, the Emperor's attempts at 
reconciliation were made. It was obvious that the Pro- 
testants and the League of Schmalkald were in a decided 
majority, and still greater successes might be feared. In the 
south, Protestantism had been already adopted by Wurtem- 
berg and the great imperial cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg, 
Ulm, Constance, and Strasburg, which weighed heavily in 
the scale; then by the whole of central Germany, Thurin- 
gia, Saxony, Hesse, part of Brunswick, and the territory of 
the Guelphs ; in the north, by the bishoprics of Magdeburg, 



PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM. 191 

Halberstadt, and Naumburg, and Hildesheim was at least 
inclined to join them ; by East Friesland, the Hanse Towns, 
Holstein and Schleswig, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Anhalt, 
Silesia, the Saxon states, Brandenburg, and Prussia. 

Of the larger states that were closed against it there 
remained only Austria, Bavaria, the Palatinate, and the 
Rhenish Electorates j how long Duke Henry of Brunswick 
might keep himself as an oasis in the midst of the desert of 
North German heresy was very doubtful. The states 
capable of resistance were only Austria, Bavaria, the Pala- 
tinate, and the ecclesiastical Rhenish provinces. But even 
these were beginning to vacillate, and it is probably correct 
to ascribe to the indications of this an important influence 
upon the Emperor's resolutions. 

The idea that the Lutheran propaganda would spread 
and increase in strength, that sooner or later it would be 
impossible to arrest it, that his own inheritance must 
finally be overrun by it, and that with the probable deser- 
tion of the ecclesiastical electorates the last support of the 
imperial authority would fall — all this had a decided in- 
fluence on the course of events which led to the Schmal- 
kald war. 

In Austria itself, in spite of the Convention of Ratisbon 
of 1524, that Protestant movement began which at the end 
of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century 
brought over by far the greater part of the country to Pro- 
testantism, and it was only the horrors of the Thirty Years' 
War that rooted it out. Among the landowning nobility, 
the peasantry, and in some of the cities, the spirit of 
innovation grew stronger and stronger ; and embarrassed as 
the country was by Turkey and Hungary, suspiciously 
watched by Bavaria, and the imperial authority weakened 
by entanglement with foreign affairs, it was impossible to 
meet the earnest demand of the States for reform by an 
absolute refusal. 

A similar state of things existed in Bavaria. A Church 
visitation by the Convention of Ratisbon had shown the 
state of the clergy. The investigation brought an abyss of 
abuses to light, and increased the desire for thorough 
reform. If the desire were granted, there was no saying 
where it would stop, and whether it would not end in the 
country's going over to Lutheranism. 

The new doctrines had gained the day in Palatine Neu 



I92 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

burg, and it was not likely that the old Palatinal electorates, 
surrounded as they were by. purely Protestant districts, 
would hold out much longer. Otto Henry had laboured 
zealously to keep them Catholic ; Louis V. had mediated as 
a shrewd diplomatist between Lutheranism and Catholicism ; 
but Frederic II. was by no means the man to withstand the 
universal tendency. 

In not one of these cases had any pressure been brought 
to bear from above ; it came irom beneath, and the 
authorities yielded to it. Of men like John of Saxony and 
Philip of Hesse, it may be said that they were Lutherans 
heart and soul, and laboured actively to spread it ; but in 
Austria, Bavaria, the Palatinate, and Brandenburg, the rulers 
would have kept to the old faith had it been possible. 

Among the North German princes there was but one on 
whose unconditional devotion the Emperor could rely ; this 
was Duke Henry of Brunswick, the same whom Luther 
handled more roughly in controversy than he did Henry 
VIII. He was a man who, though not exactly a dissolute 
buffoon, was utterly unworthy to wear a crown, and he was 
extremely active in fomenting quarrels for the Emperor and 
his brother. He fumed and stormed incessantly against the 
Protestants, more from his own uneasiness than because the 
danger was really so great. He was a restless, adventurous 
spirit, and was given to meddle with the neighbouring imperial 
cities. Goslar had pulled down a few monasteries, and was 
therefore laid under an interdict by the Supreme Court. 
This sentence, however, like all others of the kind, had 
been expressly declared void by the Declaration of Ratis- 
bon, but the Duke of Brunswick insisted upon its being 
carried out. Besides this, he had made all sorts of disturb- 
ances in the town of Brunswick. Although warned by 
King Ferdinand that he would have no help from the 
imperial side, he would not be quiet, and was at length 
attacked by the League of Schmalkald, which had long 
wished to come to an engagement with its unfriendly neigh- 
bour. Together with the forces of the two cities, the troops 
of the Landgrave and the Saxon Elector advanced twenty 
thousand strong; the Duke fled, his country was conquered, 
and Protestantism established. This was in the summer of 

1542. 

This event produced great uneasiness at the Imperial 
Court, but another case was a still greater blow. The eccle- 



DUKE HENRY OF BRUNSWICK. 1 93 

siastical electorate of Cologne was on the point of being lost 
to the Catholic Church. If this took place, it would make 
an irreparable breach in the constitution of the empire, and 
no one could tell how long the neighbouring ecclesiastical 
states might stand firm. 

It was no uncommon thing for the ecclesiastical founda- 
tions to be lost to the Romish Church by the conversion of 
their dignitaries. The first memorable instance of this was 
the case of the master of the German Order, Duke Albert 
of Brandenburg, who, in 1525, in despair proclaimed his 
country a secular state, left the Church with his Order, and 
made himself a temporal hereditary ruler. 

This was not at first regarded as of much importance, for 
the country was looked upon as lost before, and moreover it 
did not belong to the empire. But when the same thing 
occurred at Halberstadt, Magdeburg, and Naumburg, it 
began to look ominous, and would be still more so if the 
Rhenish electoral states were seized with the spirit of 
defection. 

It was only in Germany that ecclesiastical principalities, 
except the Papal States, existed. In France, England, and 
Spain the bishops had long been deprived of their temporal 
power. This amalgamation of temporal and spiritual power 
was one of the essential conditions of the old German 
empire, and it was only at the beginning of this century 
that the anomaly was abolished ; at the time of which we 
speak it was still in full force. Half a hundred bishops, 
wielding temporal power, scattered over the greater part of 
the country, gave the Catholic Church in Germany a very 
formidable and almost unassailable power. In the first rank 
stood the electoral states of Mayence, Cologne, Treves, and 
Salzburg ; then the Westphalian archbishoprics on the Elbe 
and the Weser, Wurzburg, Bamberg, Freising, Augsburg, 
and Ratisbon. It was a fine array of ecclesiastical states, 
and if they once began to be secularised, the Church would 
lose a powerful support. In our age only a portion of them 
remained, and when they were suppressed the previous 
German imperial constitution became impossible. 

The defection of a Roman Catholic archbishopric among 
the Rhenish electorates was therefore a great event ; it 
would, if it took place, change the essential character of the 
imperial constitution. The Electoral Board would then 
have a Protestant majority ; there were already Protestants 

13 



194 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

in it, Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate ; if they were 
joined by Electoral Cologne there would be four against 
three, and in every future election of an Emperor the Pro- 
testant creed would gain the day. It followed as a matter 
of course that the house of Hapsburg would be excluded 
from the empire. 

In the evening of his days the Archbishop of Cologne, 
Hermann von Wied, declared his conviction of the truth of 
the Protestant doctrines ; he began to invite Protestant 
theologians, and seemed resolved to carry out the Refor- 
mation in Cologne by virtue of the decree of 1526. This 
would make a breach in the German ecclesiastical states, 
and establish on the nether Rhine, between Westphalia and 
the Emperor's possessions in Holland, a fortress which 
would soon be impregnable. If the enterprise succeeded, 
others would be sure to follow. Hermann von Wied was a 
man devoid of self-interest or ambition, whose only desire 
was to act in accordance with his conscience ; but there were 
other ecclesiastics whose motives were less pure, and who 
were tempted to make use of Protestantism in order to 
become temporal hereditary rulers. 

The archbishop found sympathy with the inferior clergy, 
the secular states, and the country people, but not with the 
chapter or the population of Cologne. The decision was long 
in the balance ; the Emperor's nearest interests forbade his 
allowing it to take its course. The events at Brunswick 
and Cologne would forebode an entire revolution in German 
affairs if they passed unheeded. If the Emperor waited a 
few years longer, the conquests of Protestantism would 
acquire a legal standing ; the new doctrines, which already 
possessed so powerful a reserve in the nation, would then 
have overpowered the chief constituent parts of the empire, 
and a restoration such as the Emperor had always projected 
could no longer be thought of. There was another reason 
which induced the Emperor to take active measures. He 
had persisted in the idea that ecclesiastical affairs would be 
finally arranged by a council. There was a time when it 
would have been a not unwelcome expedient to the adhe- 
rents of the new doctrines who had .not yet " protested." 
Had they been offered a council in 1 518, 1519, and 1521, in- 
stead of being threatened with excommunication, the schism 
would have been avoided, and the innovators would not 
have been able to boast of a consolidated power. But all 



RECONCILIATION IMPOSSIBLE. 195 

this was changed after 1526; after the Protestants had their 
own churches and regulations for public worship, any return 
became every year more difficult, and the breach became 
wider and wider. The changes that took place between 
that time and 1532 were secured by the Peace of Nurem- 
berg ; and for the still greater changes that took place after- 
wards, formal recognition had been extorted at Ratisbon. 
It was no longer of any use to talk to the Protestants of a 
council ; for them the question of legality was settled, their 
own Church system was established, the Reformation in 
Germany had an undoubted preponderance both in extent 
and internal strength ; and this they would openly sacrifice 
if they did but theoretically submit to the papal authority. 
It was easy to say, " We will grant reforms, but then you 
must submit to the Pope;" no sincere Protestant could any 
longer accept these terms without renouncing the vital prin- 
ciples of his party. 

Increasing anxiety at the threatening aspect of the Refor- 
mation — the idea that the council and the unity of the 
Church must be secured at the eleventh hour, or would be 
lost for ever, turned the scale, and decided the Emperor to 
adopt the most serious measures* 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Schmalkald War, 1546-7. — The Emperor's Preparations foi 
War after 1544. — Security, Dissensions, and Negligence of the 
Schmalkald Party, 1545-6. — Duke Maurice of Saxony, his cha- 
racter and policy. — League with the Emperor, June, 1546. — The 
War, from ihe summer of 1546 to the spring of 1547. — Pitiful 
Warfare of the Allies on the Danube. — Invasion of Electoral 
Saxony by Maurice. — Battle of Miihlberg, 24th April, 1547.* 

The Emperor's Preparations for War after 1544. 
Security, Dissensions, and Negligence of the 
Schmalkald Party. 

r T'HE Emperor still maintained an appearance of conci- 
J- Ration, but his resolutions were taken. He opened 
and closed the Diet at Spire in 1544 with smooth words, 
and in the decree of June in the same year confirmed the 
previous concessions, and, with special emphasis on his own 
desire for reforms, he called upon every state of the empire 
to form plans for their unanimous accomplishment ; but 
none of this was sincere. Preparations for a struggle were 
already made, and his purpose was to lull the Schmalkald 
party into illusive security. He had just successfully con- 
cluded his fourth war with France. Early in September he 
had advanced victoriously into the vicinity of Paris, further 
than any German Emperor since Otto II., and had suddenly 
concluded a peace more moderate in its conditions than is 
often granted to a vanquished foe in such circumstances. 
The Emperor wanted a lasting peace, and a trustworthy 
ally against the heretics in Germany. By the Treaty of 
Crespy of the 14th of September a joint action against the 
apostates was agreed upon, which suffices to reveal the 
Emperor's tactics. 

* Maurenbrecher, Kail V. und die Deutschen Protestanten, 1545-55. 
Dusseldorf. 1865. 



THE EMPEROR'S TACTICS. 1 97 

In Germany he allayed the suspicions of the Protestants 
by a promise of reforms — if not by a council, certainly by a 
national assembly — and, in return, the Protestants were to 
be at his disposal against France and the Turks, though in 
France he was securing a companion in arms against them. 
All these events were only separated by a few months, and 
the great error of the Schmalkald party was that they put 
faith in the Emperor's sincerity. They forgot that he only 
reluctantly conceded the peace of Nuremberg in 1532, that 
ten years later he was only compelled by necessity to con- 
firm it, and that they ought to be continually on their guard 
against him. They were so elated by the progress of their 
cause, and the increase of their power, that they put aside 
every thought of fresh danger, aided the Emperor bravely 
against France and the Turks, and thus helped to forge the 
chains that were intended for themselves. 

By 1544 the Emperor had resolved upon war, and the 
outbreak of it was only a question of time. The following 
year passed away in fruitless efforts on both sides to come 
to terms, but animosity increased until a breach was inevi- 
table. Then the catastrophe happened to Henry of Bruns- 
wick. 

By the campaign of 1542 he had been deprived of his 
territory. With at least the apparent concurrence of 
the Emperor it had been sequestrated by the League of 
Schmalkald. Meanwhile the exile had procured money and 
troops in order to make an attack in the latter part of the 
year. But his defeat at Kahlfeld, near Nordheim, on 
October 21, 1545, put an end to all his hopes, and made 
him a prisoner in the hands of the victors. 

Besides many ominous signs and disquieting rumours, it 
was significant, that at the new Diet at Worms, May, 1545, 
there was no talk of carrying out the concessions of Spire, 
though the Council of Trent was urgently recommended. 
The Landgrave Philip said it seemed to him like tantalizing 
a child with an apple. A fresh discussion of religion was 
arranged for the next year ; meanwhile the position of 
affairs become day by day more critical. The meeting took 
place without any sincere desire to come to an understand- 
ing, and separated with noisy altercation. 

In the summer of 1546, a convention of the League ot 
Schmalkald took place at Frankfort, and it was found that 
its power had been ovf-rated. The Landgrave's worst 



198 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

fears were realised. As early as in 1539 he had said to 
Bucer, " In the campaign in Wiirtemberg all were led by 
him, but now several wanted to lead. Too many cooks 
spoil the broth. The Protestant League must not be made 
an idol of. The Christian ranks did not always hold 
Christian sentiments — a great deal that was worldly was 
mixed up with them. Many neglected the duty of con- 
tributing, and, when it came to the point, still more would 
draw back who were now complaining of the peace." 

All this was verified even before it came to an engage- 
ment. The cities disputed with the princes ; an important 
neighbour, Prince Maurice of Saxony, equivocated ; 
the Elector John Frederic, the extent of whose dominions 
entitled him to command, was troublesome ; and alarm at 
the imperial preparations prevented some of the allies from 
making any attempt at assembling their forces. The Land- 
grave's attempt to get an explanation of some ominous 
proceedings of the imperial party were answered by Gran- 
vella with smooth speeches; and at the last meeting at 
Spire, March, 1546, at which Charles and his ministers 
were present, although the discussions were carried on 
with an unmistakable object in a peaceable tone, they 
produced a disquieting effect upon the Landgrave. The 
negotiations mainly related to three points : whether there 
should be a Council of Trent or a National Council, to 
the affairs of Cologne, and the fulfilment of the conces- 
sions of Spire. On all three points, in spite of outward 
complaisance, the imperial party kept inexorably to its own 
policy. 

Meanwhile, on the 18th of February, 1546, Luther had 
died. We must suppose from his views that he would have 
counselled peace to the last, and with his death one obstacle 
to war was gone. 

At the Diet at Ratisbon, thinly attended, and with a 
majority for the Emperor, the breach was still more obvious ; 
the Emperor had formed his alliances, and no longer took 
any pains to conceal from the States that there would be 
war ; only, indeed, against the disturbers of the peace who 
had been guilty of high treason. The loreign alliances of 
the Protestants had been partly dissolved by the Emperor, 
as in France and England ; were partly worthless, as in 
Denmark; and in some cases any benefit had been pre- 
vented by discord among themselves, as in Switzerland. 



NEGLIGENCE OF THE LEAGUE. 1 99 

For a long time Philip reckoned upon the husband of his 
eldest daughter, Agnes, but even that illusion at length 
vanished. 

Thus as war became inevitable the prospects of the 
league grew darker. A league can never compare in 
fighting power with a single state, and particularly when, 
as in this case, it was composed of members of unequal 
strength. The most powerful was the Elector of Saxony, 
but he was not competent to command; the Landgrave, 
who was less powerful, would have been competent, but 
then a Landgrave must not command an Elector. In 1532 
Luther had said to Philip, who was dissatisfied with the 
imperfect peace, that an imperfect peace without bloodshed 
should always be thankfully accepted. " Do not deceive 
yourself; they are all ready enough with brave speeches 
when danger is distant, but when trouble comes it will be 
quite another thing." It was only too probable that in 
time of danger the chaff would separate from the wheat 
among the Protestant ranks. 

Still, the league might have accomplished much more 
than it did accomplish; it certainly could have prevented 
the assembling of an imperial army in Germany, and it 
entirely neglected to do so. 

The Emperor was under the restrictions of the election 
bond ; he could not bring any foreign troops into Germany 
without the consent of the States. There was, therefore, a 
legal pretext against him ; besides, the assembling of an 
imperial army could have been rendered practically im- 
possible. There were but two ways by which the Emperor 
could bring in his troops — one through the Netherlands, 
the other by way of Italy — and in both it would have been 
very easy to embarrass him. 

The entrance from Italy was the easiest to prevent; 
nature had taken care to make the passage into Germany 
difficult by lofty mountains and narrow passes. Had the 
Protestants occupied the Brenner and the valley of the 
Upper Inn betimes, the imperial troops could not have 
entered from Italy. If, for example, the states and cities of 
Upper Germany — perhaps even if only Augsburg and Ulm 
had held together, they would have been able to occupy 
the passes. They had money enough to hire soldiers, and 
their general, Schertlin, had repeatedly written to them : 
" Give me a little troop to occupy the passes in the 



200 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

Lechthal, and not one imperial soldier shall enter Ger- 
many." It was partly the honourable scruple against acting 
on the defensive which stood in the way, and partly a dread 
of the conflict. Schertlin stood for months at the entrance 
of the Lechthal ; it would have been easy to have occupied 
the Tyrol, and to have taken possession of the two moun- 
tain passes by which the imperial troops must advance. 
This done, all the rest of the troops of the league might 
have gone westwards towards the Netherlands, and by a rapid 
advance they might have closed the entrance into the empire 
at this point also, and have dispersed the assembling troops. 
But these splendid opportunities of preventing the advance 
of, or annihilating, the Imperial troops were utterly neglected. 

The Emperor, on the contrary, carried on his manoeuvres 
with great dexterity. His peaceful declarations still led the 
Protestants to believe that it would not come to a war. In 
1546 he first threw off the mask. With the same skill with 
which he had lulled the Protestants into security, he now 
set to work to divide them. He was never tired of repeat- 
ing that the enterprise was not directed against the Pro- 
testant religion — on the contrary, he was abiding by 
all his concessions — but against a political league which 
formed an empire within the empire, and which was re- 
belling against the imperial authority. This distinction, 
and the decided assurance that it was not a question of 
religion, gave the less decided a pretext for joining the 
Emperor's side, or at any rate for not opposing him. To 
the timid princes, like the Elector of the Palatinate and the 
Duke of Brandenburg, it was a welcome excuse for doing 
nothing, and it attached the shrewd and politic Maurice of 
Saxony entirely to the Emperor's side. 

With this personage an entirely new element enters 
into the affairs of Germany ; the fate of German Pro- 
testantism was in great measure dependent on his character 
and policy, and we are therefore justified in making closer 
acquaintance with him. 

Duke Maurice of Saxony.* His Character and 
Policy. The League with the Emperor, 1546. 

Albert the Courageous had been followed by George 
the Bearded in the government of Meissen, while Albert's 
* Langenu : Kurfurst Moritz von Sachsen. 1840. 



MAURICE OF SAXONY. 201 

younger son, Duke Henry, was to have the possessions in 
Friesland, but in case he could not defend them, the 
towns and castles of Freiberg and Wolkenstein, and a 
share of the revenues of the country. Various difficulties 
induced him to make Friesland over to his brother, and to 
content himself with the other possessions and the income 
assigned to him. While George was burying one after 
another of his children, Henry was living at Freiberg, 
taking little heed of public affairs and enjoying life, so far 
as his often empty exchequer permitted — enjoyed his glass, 
gave good dinners, and lived merrily enough ; while his 
wife, Catherine of Mecklenburg, was occupied with higher 
things, and was far superior to her husband in energy and 
firmness. 

Of this union Maurice was born on the 21st of March, 
1 52 1 ; only one, Augustus, of two younger sons grew up. 
But little is known of Maurice's youth and education ; he 
did not receive a very learned education, but his energetic 
mother may have exercised great influence upon him. As 
a boy and youth he spent a good deal of time with Albert 
of Mayence and his uncle, Duke George, who, as his own 
race had died out, might wish to secure an heir and suc- 
cessor. There was at first, until about 1538, a tolerable 
understanding between them, but then an estrangement 
took place. The Church question was doubtless the chief 
cause of it. George was a zealous adherent of the old 
Church, and the Lutheran tendencies of the court at 
Freiberg, which were mainly dependent on the Duchess, 
must have been hateful to him. Of course Maurice often 
exchanged the residence of his uncle for that of John 
Frederic. 

Thus the talented young prince was for years surrounded 
by contending influences. On the one hand, George, 
having seen all his sons die, fixed his eyes upon his clever 
and aspiring nephew. On the other, Maurice's parents 
and their advisers, among whom was Philip of Hesse, 
were desirous of keeping on friendly terms with George, 
but wished to keep Maurice a Lutheran. George, how- 
ever, was entertaining the idea of hazardous schemes, 
such as that of making Austria his successor, to which his 
advisers and states did not conceal their aversion. 

In the midst of these contradictory tendencies, on the 
17th of April, 1539, Duke George died. Duke Henry 



202 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

assumed the reins of government, George's ministers were 
dismissed, and Lutheranism introduced. It was worthy of 
remark that Maurice maintained some relations with the 
fallen ministers, thereby showing his independence. 

This was still more evident in another matter. Maurice 
married Agnes, daughter of the Landgrave Philip, against 
his parents' will ; this gave rise to bitter and open dissen- 
sions, increased by the fact of Philip's double marriage, and 
it was with difficulty that Maurice succeeded in reconciling 
his parents to it. But various causes of irritation remained, 
and there was growing discontent in the country at the 
weak Henry's misrule. He died a few days after a stormy 
scene between him and the chief men in the country, in 
August, 1541. 

Thus Maurice's youth had been a school of much ex- 
perience. The contests by which he was surrounded from 
the first, in and around his native country, had fostered his 
self-will and tendency to selfish and independent action. The 
insight which he had gained into the temporal and ecclesiasti- 
cal policy of the Protestant and Catholic courts had early 
deprived him of illusions, both favourable and unfavourable, 
about persons and things, and when he began to take an 
independent part in German politics his judgment and 
energy were far beyond his years. 

The first steps taken by the new government indicated 
an independent course. Maurice summoned new ministers 
to his councils, partly those by whom Duke George had 
been surrounded. The Landgrave Philip especially was 
consulted, and was very ready to give his advice. But it 
must be observed that he was not on the best terms with 
the Elector John Frederic, and that, therefore, an ap- 
proach to Hesse widened the distance from the Ernestine 
faction. It was regarded in that light by the Elector and 
his ministers, and petty sources of irritation were not want- 
ing. This state of things was not improved when Maurice 
gave up his father's very cool relations with the League of 
Schmalkald, and proclaimed in 1542 that he and his 
country would be faithful to the Protestant doctrines, and 
would render aid if the Protestants were in danger, but that 
he would not belong to the league. 

The discord with the Elector John Frederic increased so 
much, that it was with difficulty that Philip prevented open 
war. Melancthon afterwards said that it was now that 



MAURICE OF SAXONY. 203 

the seeds of the discord were sown which sprung up 
into the great tragedy the close of which we have not yet 
seen. 

In proportion as Maurice became estranged from the 
league, the imperial party endeavoured to enter into 
closer relations with him and his ministers, particularly 
with George, and Christopher von Carlowitz laboured in the 
same direction. He himself was brought over by his 
relations with the Ernestine party ; his affection for Pro- 
testantism and connection with Philip were at any rate no 
obstacle. 

During the negotiations which now took place at the 
Emperor's instigation, the character of his policy, which was 
a novel one among the Protestant princes, was brought to 
light. Maurice affected concern about John Frederic's 
projects respecting Magdeburg and Halberstadt ; he there- 
fore desired that the Emperor would place the bishoprics 
under his protection. " The bishops and canons should 
accept him as a guardian appointed by the Emperor." 
The expense was to be borne by the bishoprics, which 
were therefore to be mortgaged to him. He spoke still 
more plainly about Meissen and Merseburg ; Carlowitz 
was to endeavour " to induce the Emperor to assign 
both bishoprics to the Duke as a hereditary possession." 
He had introduced reform because the country wished 
it; even Duke George, with all his zeal, had not been 
able permanently to prevent it. It was just the same 
at Meissen and Merseburg ; the bishops could not 
restrain the people. He would have preferred it if the 
two bishops had carried out reforms according to the 
divine word, and rightly exercised their episcopal office ; 
but it had not been so, and therefore it was needful to 
avert that any disaster should happen which Maurice as 
their guardian might prevent. 

At Nuremberg lively intercourse was kept up between 
Christopher von Carlowitz and Granvella. Granvella spoke 
of the high opinion entertained of Maurice by the Emperor, 
and prophesied a brilliant future for him : " The Emperor 
entertained great hopes of Maurice, and was very graciously 
disposed towards him." His vanity was flattered ; the part 
he had taken in the Turkish war praised ; his aid was 
courted in t/ie war with France. 

Granvella, wrote Carlowitz, was particularly desirous to 



204 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

introduce the Duke to the Emperor's acquaintance, that the 
Protestants might see that the Emperor was as favourable 
to them as to the others. Overtures were also made to the 
Landgrave, but he did not like it. He wanted to see 
clearly. " It is our custom in these things to know for 
certain, not to imagine." He did not altogether trust them ; 
he thought they were going to ihtow him a bone in the 
shape of a bishopric for his brother, Duke Augustus, who 
spent his whole time at Ferdinand's court. 

It was only by means of theologians and not by 
counsellors that Maurice was represented at the convention 
which the League of Schmalkald held at Frankfort ; he was 
willing to share their creed, but not their policy, and there- 
fore declined to take any part. Late in the year 1543 he 
set out to join the Emperor's army, which indeed only 
undertook the fruitless siege of Landrecies. 

Meanwhile, in 1544 the diplomatic game of lulling the 
Protestants to sleep was successfully played, and their help 
secured for the war, so that the campaign could be carried 
on with greater activity. On this occasion Maurice had an 
opportunity at Vitry of displaying his prowess and his skill 
as a commander. The peace of Crespy only hastened the 
catastrophe. But amidst these complications Maurice 
found leisure to pursue his schemes about the bishoprics ; 
and as the bishopric of Merseburg fell vacant by death, to 
accomplish the election of his brother as administrator. 
Military precautions were also taken : Pirna, Dresden, and 
Leipzig were made more secure. 

His political attitude, which was independent, but some- 
what ambiguous, was clearly brought to light in the feud in 
Brunswick in 1545. He was bound by an inherited treaty to 
help his father-in-law, Philip, and he fulfilled the duty, 
though not over willingly ; but, at the same time, he main- 
tained an understanding with the Duke of Brunswick and 
his friends, was the medium of proposals of reconciliation, 
which he carried on without success until war broke out 
and the Duke was taken prisoner; It was characteristic 
that the league was not pleased with, and the Emperor was 
suspicious of him. 

Meanwhile, everything tended towards a decision : the 
Emperor was at liberty, he had concluded peace with 
France and a truce with the Turks, and come to an under- 
standing with the Pope; and the negotiations of 1545-6 



MAURICE OF SAXONY. 205 

show how great the difficulty was of coming to any peaceful 
agreement. It was necessary for Maurice also to come to 
a decision. Landgrave Philip proposed to support the 
Protestant cause by a closer understanding between Hesse 
and the two Saxonys. Maurice made counter-propositions, 
which referred to doctrines. The Elector John Frederic 
would have it that the saying, "Ein Meissner, ein Gleissner," 
— a Meissner, a double dealer — was applicable to Maurice and 
his minister Carlowitz, and Philip said that " he wanted 
peace and quiet, and was ready to give way in things in 
which a man could give way ; but really religion could not 
be treated as we treat our worldly affairs, our property, 
estates, fields, meadows, &c, about which, if any one say, 
' Let me have this,' we may say, ' Thou mayest have it.' " 

Maurice did not comprehend that sort of thing. If he 
was ever sincere, it was when he told the Emperor that the 
Reformation was no fault of his ; that it had been forced 
upon the rulers by the people, and they could not prevent 
it if they would. He had gone with the stream ; he had 
never experienced any deep religious convictions ; policy 
induced him to adhere to the new faith, for in the first place 
it could not be reversed, and in the next, it gave his new 
government a strong support against the Emperor. 

Hie latest biographer calls him a disciple of Erasmus : 
and he might have added, of the new Spanish Burgundian 
school of statesmen, of which the Emperor himself was 
master. Like the Emperor, he looked at the affairs of the 
Church solely from a political point of view, and regarded 
the great complications which were at hand as an excellent 
opportunity of making his fortune as an ambitious secular 
prince. His little duchy was too small for his lofty 
schemes, and at the Emperor's side there was a sure 
prorpect of richer booty. A somewhat frivolous exterior 
concealed far-seeing political views and great shrewd- 
ness; the light and chivalrous features of his character 
were calculated rather to conceal his earnestness than to 
give rise to the idea that he had none. Undoubtedly, the 
new generation of German princes and politicians, of whom 
he was the first, was headed by a by no means common- 
place individual. 

During the first few months of 1546, when everything way 
tending to an open conflict, Maurice's commissioner, 
Carlowitz, scarcely ever left the imperial ministers, and 



206 THE REFORMATION EV GERMANY. 

when he occasionally did so, always returned to them 
again, even when he could not do so without exciting atten- 
tion ; as, for instance, when he attended the conference of 
the League of Schmalkald at Frankfort, and after informing 
himself of the course things were taking, returned straight to 
the imperial court. 

In March, 1546, he was at Maestricht. During the nego- 
tiations there, Granvella observed that ever since he had 
recognised the Duke, the Emperor had been graciously 
pleased to place great confidence in him, and to entertain 
the hope that he would accomplish much good in the cause 
of religion and other things, and would serve as a good 
mediator or commissioner; the Emperor therefore would 
have the more pleasure in helping him in his position in 
the council of the empire. It was a question of votes, and, 
so far as it lay with the Emperor, Maurice should be placed 
higher up rather than lower down. Other friendly things 
were said, and Carlowitz took care to foster the good 
feeling, and to bring about a still closer understanding. 
He succeeded so well, that the Emperor wrote a gracious 
letter to Maurice, assuring him of his continued hearty 
good will, and giving him a pressing invitation to come to 
Ratisbon. 

From the end of April Carlowitz was at Ratisbon. His 
official commission related to the Saxon bishoprics, parti- 
cularly Magdeburg and Halberstadt ; but his real business 
was the negotiation of a league between the Emperor and 
the Duke. Of the three paths which were open to Maurice 
— to join the League of Schmalkald, to enter into a league 
with the Emperor, or to do neither — he could have had no 
doubt which to take. Ever since May, Carlowitz had been 
negotiating with Granvella about " a special agreement." 
Granvella assured him that " there was no prince towards 
whom the Emperor entertained so friendly a feeling, or in 
whom he placed so much confidence ; " he was quite ready 
to enter into a special agreement, only the Duke must 
come himself. 

It appears that the question of religion was soon settled, 
and Granvella set aside the difficulty about Electoral 
Saxony with the remark that "marked prosperity would 
result to the countries and people from the special league, 
and Maurice need not then be afraid of the Elector of 
Saxony, nor of any of his other neighbours." But he must 



MAURICE OF SAXONY. 207 

go ; he would find not only a gracious Emperor, but a father 
and friend, in Charles. 

Just at the same time the Landgrave Philip was trying, at 
a conference at Naumburg, to induce the Elector and the 
Duke to be reconciled to each other, and to make amends 
for their faults. 

Naumburg or Ratisbon, then ? — this was the question. 
Maurice did not entirely confide in the imperial diplo 
macy ; still, in June he went to Ratisbon, the negotiations 
were begun at once, and by the 19th they were concluded. 
The Duke's wishes concerning Magdeburg and Halberstadt 
were acceded to : the Emperor appointed him conservator, 
executor, and guardian of the bishoprics. The real objects 
in view were only vaguely stated in the treaty concluded on 
the same day ; but Maurice promised friendship and assist- 
ance, contributions to the exchequer, and submission to the 
council, so far as the other princes were subject to it. In 
religious matters no further innovations were to take place 
in his country, all further reforms were to be referred to a 
council, and in return the Emperor and Ferdinand pro- 
mised assistance to the Duke. 

On the 20th of June a conference took place between 
the three princes, in presence of their ministers. " The 
guilty," it was said, " would be punished ; the Emperor had 
not yet decided what he should do ; the price of corn 
would be learnt at market. If it should come to that, 
Maurice would not have far to go to the Emperor ; the 
mandates would give notice of the Emperor's intentions. 
If an interdict, or anything of the kind, should be pro- 
claimed, every man must look to himself; those who catch 
it will find it no joke." As to the religious question, it was 
once more repeated, that in case it was not entirely adjusted, 
and some points remained still unsettled, neither Maurice 
nor his subjects should be compromised, and they need be 
under no anxiety till a settlement took place. Further 
than this Maurice was not initiated. There was something 
purposely mysterious in the whole speech, and it was not 
calculated to inspire confidence. It revealed enough to 
make him stand by the Emperor, but not to set him at ease 
as to the consequences. 

Their relations to each other are obvious. If Maurice 
had no affection for Protestantism, neither had he any for 
the Emperor ; the new doctrine was to him a means to an 



208 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

end, and so was his relation to the Emperor. There is not 
a trace in him of that warm and chivalrous attachment 
which the older generation, and even the Protestant princes, 
felt towards the head of the German nation. The modern 
race of politicians who had outgrown all the mediaeval tra- 
ditions of the empire, whose last offshoots were some of 
the adventurers in the Thirty Years' War, begins with the 
striking figure of Maurice. 

Charles, with this mixture of confiding openness and 
mysterious reserve, behaved like the master of his hopeful 
pupil. One can imagine how he looked into the soul of 
the young prince with a certain fatherly pride. Here was a 
man after his own heart, who hated theological squabbles 
and the fanaticism of little minds — who, like himself, cared 
for nothing but the moving springs of substantial power and 
obvious political calculations. It was, however, a singular 
mistake to suppose that devotion and trust could grow up 
in such a soul. He knew nothing of these things himself, 
except where some advantage was to be derived from them, 
and he should not have expected in the pupil what was 
wanting in the master. The honourable race of German 
princes of the old school, like John, Philip, and John Frederic, 
who, when their consciences were not concerned, were 
heartily devoted to the Emperor, was dying out j the men 
who were in earnest about their faith, and who in the sharp 
struggle of conflicting duties only refused with heavy hearts 
the allegiance they had never refused against the Turks or 
the French, were indeed a different race from those who 
came after them ; for them, they themselves were the centre 
of the empire, and by German liberty they understood the 
aggrandisement of their own power, and the absolute des- 
potism of rulers both great and small. We must bring out 
this contrast, for party spirit in its blindness has confounded 
the former princes with those who made merely a policy of 
religion. 

The Emperor's tactics were very favourable to the plans 
of a character like Maurice. He did not himself consider 
that it would be possible for Maurice openly to take part 
against Lutheranism, and he afterwards had good reason to 
know the truth of this. But when he said that it was not a 
religious but a political question, it gave a different colour 
to it, and Maurice was inclined to take but little part, 
like men without character, who remain neutral and choose 



THE SCHMALKALD WAR. *O0 

their party after the issue of the struggle. He knew the 
weakness of and dissensions in the league ; he knew that 
if he decisively joined the Emperor's cause, he was secure 
of his spoils, and took up his position accordingly. 

The War* from the Summer of 1546 till the Spring 
of 1547. — Pitiful Warfare of the Allies on the 
Danube. — Maurice invades Electoral Saxonv.— 
Battle of Muhlberg, 24TH April, 1547. 

If we compare the firmness of purpose which was dis- 
played by the imperial party in preparing for the contest 
with the divisions in the Schmalkald camp, we cannot fail 
to fear for the cause which was attacked by so mighty a 
force and so inefficiently defended ; and yet the Emperor's 
position was by no means a secure one. His only ally in 
Germany was an ambitious prince, who was probably already 
calculating how he should settle accounts with the Emperor 
after the victory; then he was reckoning on France, whom he 
had laid under obligations by his magnanimity, but who was 
not any the more trustworthy on that account ; upon Rome, 
where the wind was always shifting, and upon his Spanish 
troops, who certainly were curious weapons wherewith to 
re-constitute the unity of the German empire and the German 
Church. He was declaring war against a nation about a 
cause which had stirred it to its very depths, as no universal 
impulse had ever stirred it before, and his allies were Spain, 
France, Rome, and Duke Maurice. However skilfully the 
beginning had been managed, the whole scheme was a game 
of chance — the first that the Emperor hazarded, and he was 
not successful in it. 

The war was preceded by a song of triumph at Rome, 
that heresy would soon be put down ; but that was a most 
unwelcome revelation of the Emperor's tactics. He and his 
friend Maurice were saying that it was not a religious war, 
and here was Rome, before a blow had been struck, re- 
joicing that the miscreants would be punished. 

On the 20th of July, the Emperor sent the ban against 
the Protestant princes of Germany as a declaration of war, 

• Avila y Zuniga, Geschichte des Schmalkald. Kr'ieges. Uebers. 
Berlin, 1853. Herberger, Schertlins Briefe. Augsb., 1852. Schon- 
huth, Schertlin von Burtenbach Leben und Thaten von ihm selbf.t 
beschrieben. Miinster, 1858. 

H 



2lO THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

while his troops were advancing from Italy and the Nether« 
lands. They found no obstacle either on the Rhine or on 
the Tyrol. 

The forces which the league assembled at Donauworth 
after the Saxon and Hessian troops had been joined by the 
South German contingents, were reckoned at 47,000 men ; 
but they neglected to attack the Emperor, who was then 
weak, were unable to come to any decisive resolution before 
Ingolstadt, allowed the Emperor time to assemble his 
troops, wasted their strength in fruitless skirmishes, and 
their time in camp near Giengen, till money ran short, the 
soldiers grew discontented, and some divisions began to 
move off. The Landgrave Philip exerted himself to ex- 
plain the situation and the project to the Elector John 
Frederic ; but in vain— he could not even effect the suppres- 
sion of the notorious challenge of Ingolstadt of 2nd 
September, " to Charles, King of Spain, who calls himself 
the fifth Roman Emperor." 

The passes in the Tyrol had been occupied in the latter 
part of the summer by Schertlin, but again by an unac- 
countable order vacated ; and, while the Schmalkald party 
were entrenching themselves at Giengen, Alba led the first 
onslaught on the imperial cities of Ulm and Augsburg, which 
were least in a position to resist. In their rear were 
Wurtemberg and the Palatinate, very doubtful allies. As 
the imperial cities were unprotected, the conquest of 
Wurtemberg and the Palatinate was decided on ; Southern 
Germany was at the feet of the Emperor and his Spaniards, 
The restoration began at Cologne and Strasburg. Mean- 
while, what between lack of money, desertion, and sickness, 
the camp at Giengen was melting away. When the news 
came that Duke Maurice had invaded the territory of the 
Elector John Frederic, all hope was at an end. By the end 
of November, the party of the league had evacuated the 
seat of war in South Germany ; not that they were van- 
quished on the battle-field, for the Emperor had not hazarded 
any decisive engagement, but politically they were entirely 
beaten. 

On the 1 st of August, Duke Maurice had been entrusted 
by Charles with the execution of the interdict on his 
Schmalkald neighbour, but the cautious prince was in no 
hurry, less because he hoped anything from negotiation with 
the princes of the league, than because, like his cousin the 



THE SCHMALKALD WAR. 211 

Duchess Elizabeth, he was of opinion that " the house ol 
Austria has sharp eyes and a large rnouth, and wants to de- 
vour whatever it sees." While the Emperor was continually 
urging him on, Carlowitz advised his master to take no steps 
until he saw to whom God would give the victory, or at any 
rate until King Ferdinand, who was also commissioned to 
carry out the sentence, should attack the interdicted coun- 
tries. The most that he could advise was, that he should 
take possession of the mountain cities and the fiefs of the 
crown of Bohemia, but in such a manner, that in case events 
should take a turn, the Duke might represent that he had done 
it to avert any hostile attack, and for the good of the Elector 
and his subjects. 

Still, it would not do to excite the suspicions of the 
Emperor and his brother, and the longer it remained unde- 
cided " to whom God would give the victory," the more 
difficult it became to temporise. In this embarrassment 
the Duke entered into direct negotiations with Ferdinand, 
while he was still carrying them on with the princes of the 
league. He was still telling the Duchess Elizabeth that 
when the temporal affairs were settled, if the Emperor per- 
sisted in his severity, "he would give an opportunity of 
conferring, and himself give notice of what it would become 
him to do." Even in his own country suspicion was ex- 
cited that religion would at last be endangered. Even from 
Bohemia it was reported that if John Frederic came, the 
cities would open their gates to him. It is certain that they 
were reluctant to march against Saxony. The Utraquists 
saw that they were involved in the dangers that threatened 
Lutheranism. These doubts explained the tentatives put 
forth on every side, the leaning on Brandenburg, the corre- 
spondence with Pomerania and Poland. They also make 
the discontinuance of negotiations with Ferdinand intelli- 
gible. In October they were resumed; Maurice himself 
went to Prague, took counsel with the States, which had 
been repeatedly convened, and on the nth of October 
once more assured the princes of the league that it was not 
a question ot religion : " he did not want the territories, he 
was only seeking their honour and prosperity ; he had not 
been sitting idle hitherto, but he could not permit Saxony 
to come into foreign hands." Three days afterwards he 
entered into an agreement with Ferdinand at Prague. 

Maurice had irustrated the design of the Hapsburgs at 



212 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

once to divide the territory of the interdicted prince. For 
the rest, Ferdinand was to take possession of the districts 
held by the Elector as fiefs of the crown of Bohemia ; 
Maurice was to occupy all that were fiefs of the Holy 
Roman Empire, or ecclesiastical fiefs. Six days after 
Ferdinand had reached the frontier, the Duke was to begin 
his attack. Ferdinand promised the subjects who came 
under his rule that they should not be compelled to re- 
nounce their religion. On the 27th of October the dignity 
of Elector was transferred to Maurice of Saxony from the 
imperial camp at Nordheim. 

It is difficult to say what Maurice could now expect from 
making proposals to the league ; that he considered it 
necessary to put forth a justification of his policy is more 
intelligible. Carlowitz was right in urging the vacillating 
prince to take one side or the other. Distrust of him did 
not vanish from the imperial camp, especially as he delayed 
to assume the title of Elector. Meanwhile, Saxony was 
quickly occupied. 

John Frederic's plain speaking contributed not a little to 
effect that this dubious state of things should assume a more 
decided character. He left the South German camp to de- 
fend his country against this disturber of the peace. His 
manifesto spoke of treacherous Judas money by which the 
invasion had been effected ; it was by these means that " the 
beastly, tyrannical, unchristian Turkish hussars " had been 
brought into the country ; he threatened vengeance, and 
that he would " pay him with his own coin." 

John Frederic proceeded from Eisenach to Halle and 
Leipzig, which, together with Dresden, was the centre of the 
Albertine territory. Maurice had taken precautionary 
measures, and encouraged the troops and inhabitants ; still 
he was not without anxiety when, on the 9th of June, 1547, 
the Elector arrived, less perhaps on account of his army, 
than because of the doubtful sentiments of the people. Of 
course many of them joined the Elector ; they saw in 
Maurice the enemy of the faith, in Carlowitz " the old 
Papist." This occasioned Maurice to appeal for help to 
Ferdinand, to Brandenburg, and to Albert of Culmbach. In 
the imperial, camp the danger was underrated, because the 
popular excitement was not taken into account. 

In the conduct of the war, Maurice as usual showed him- 
self superior to his adversary ; in spite of his difficulties, h« 



THE SCHMALKALD WAR. 213 

displayed great energy, insight, and coolness, while John 
Frederic proceeded without any plan, at the end of 
January had to raise the siege of Leipzig, and lost time 
until the enemy received his first reinforcements. Still, for 
some time it looked as if he was suffering the confusion in 
the country to increase until a general rising should compel 
Maurice to withdraw. The excitement was so great in 
Saxony and Bohemia that it foreboded evil, and if Maurice 
was not to be vanquished, it would not do for the Hapsburgs 
to delay much longer. 

The Emperor therefore appeared at Eger, and on the 
nth of April Maurice crossed the Saxon frontier with the 
Spaniards, the vanguard of the imperial army. John Fre- 
deric turned towards Dresden. The Emperor led a splendid 
army by way of Adorf, Plauen, and Reichenbach, to Weida 
and the neighbourhood. The united armies then proceeded 
by way of Jerisau, Geithain, Kolditz, Leisnig, and Lom- 
matzsch to the Elbe. John Frederic, who had retired from 
Dresden to Meissen, allowed the bridge over the Elbe to be 
broken down, and went to Miihlberg. 

On the 24th of April he was attending service, when 
cavalry appeared on the opposite side of the river. He had 
only ten companies of soldiers and seven squadrons of 
cavalry ; the favourable moment had been lost. When the 
Emperor learnt that the Elector was at Miihlberg, he ordered 
balls to be thrown into it, and the Elector resolved to 
retreat to Wittenberg. Maurice then offered to pursue the 
enemy by a ford over the Elbe. He did so, the imperial 
army followed, and thus gained an easy victory over the 
weak and surprised adversary. This was on the 24th of 
April, 1547. 

The Emperor received the prisoner with harshness and 
severity. " Am I the gracious Emperor now?" he said to 
him. And the request that his prison might be in accordance 
with his princely rank was answered with, "I will keep 
you as you deserve ; begone ! " 

On the 19th of May followed the capitulation at Witten- 
berg. By this John Frederic renounced all right to the 
electorate, engaged to give up the fortresses of Wittenberg 
and Gotha, to surrender himself to the Emperor, to acknow- 
ledge the Imperial Chamber, and the future decrees of the 
Emperor and the States. M lurice and Ferdinand received 
his " confiscated " property. Maurice engaged to allow his 



214 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

children fifty thousand florins a year, for which several places 
and offices were allotted to them. Of these the principal 
were Gotha, Weimar, and the territory of Saalfeld; Eisenach, 
also, and the Wartburg remained in possession of the Er- 
nestine family. John Frederic's brother, John Ernest, 
received Coburg. The fiefs of the crown of Bohemia were 
reserved for Ferdinand. John Frederic gave up Magdeburg 
and Halberstadt. 

Four weeks later, the blow was struck at Philip of Hesse. 
Being unable to stand against the Emperor alone, he resolved 
for the first time to try his fortune at diplomacy; and he 
met with very ill success. It is clear that we have not full 
information about the course of the negotiations. The well- 
known story that he was promised that he should not be 
imprisoned, which was afterwards said to have been that he 
should not be permanently imprisoned — "nicht einiges 
Gefangnis," or "nicht ewiges Gefangniss" — is not proven, 
but it is clear that he was grossly deceived. 

The first conditions imposed upon him by Ferdinand and 
Maurice were lenient enough. But it soon appeared that 
the Emperor required him to surrender at discretion, though 
assurances were given him which precluded any idea of 
lasting imprisonment ; as, for instance, the promise in 
writing, that " he should suffer neither in person nor pro- 
perty, nor be punished with imprisonment nor diminution 
of territory."* 

The Landgrave, therefore, prostrated himself before the 
Emperor ; and when he was about to retire, he was arrested 
and thrown into prison. Such things are done by subor- 
dinates, who can afterwards be disowned; and such wat 
the case in this instance. 

* Rommel, Gcschichte von Hescs, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Interim and B estoration, 1548. — The Council of Trent from 13th of 
December, 1545, and the Diet of Augsburg from September, 1547. 

Interim and Restoration, 1548. 

THUS the Emperor was speedily victorious in Germany. 
The league had suffered a humiliating defeat. The Pro- 
testant princes were divided : one eminent prince of this party 
had openly become his ally ; the Palatinate and Wurtemberg 
had come to terms ; only Philip and John Frederic re- 
mained, and they were both in his hands. He was master 
in Germany, as no imperial ruler had been for a long time. 
He had his weapons in his hands, and no others were lifted 
up against him. Germany was occupied to the Elbe, and 
in all the south and west seemed only to be awaiting his 
nod as to the decision of the Church question. The 
Emperor's schemes now began to be unveiled, and the 
illusion soon vanished that he had been merely fighting 
against political rebels, and to enforce his political 
authority. 

The Emperor had a confession of faith drawn up — the 
Interim of Augsburg, of 1548 — which was to be a combi- 
nation of the old and new faith, and to unite Protestants 
and Catholics. This attempt on the part of the victor of 
Miihlberg indicates the extraordinary ignorance of the 
great diplomatist, with all his knowledge of men, of the 
religious question of the age. 

Protestantism had been developed in Germany quite 
independently, without the aid — indeed, in opposition to 
the ruling powers. It was the act of the nation's conscience. 
The eminent theologians, thinkers, and learned men whom 
it had produced, arose from an inward impulse, and not in 
compliance with any command from above. Parties and 



2l6 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

differences of opinion had also arisen independently. How 
Luther had striven to solve some particular question, and 
how much labour was afterwards fruitlessly spent in trying 
to reconcile other phases of Protestant thought with his 
doctrines ! All this had been done without any external 
authority, and it could not therefore be overturned by any 
imperial decree. These are not questions which can be 
settled around the green table, or in the cabinets of diplo- 
matists ; they are vital problems of the gravest kind. And 
now came the Emperor, a stranger to all that was agitating 
Germany, who had never comprehended more than the out- 
ward aspects of the struggle — to whom the Catholic faith 
was only something that he had been taught, and the Pro- 
testant faith entirely unintelligible — and amalgamated por- 
tions of both to form a third, and ordained — "This is now 
to be your creed !" 

This shows how shrewd a man may be in political 
matters, and how astonishingly short-sighted on religious 
questions. The people, neither of one party nor the other, 
suffered what was proposed in his Interim to be forced upon 
them. Each had its own creed, and rejected his. Although 
concessions were made to the Protestants on the doctrine 
of justification, and some other points, differences about 
Church constitutions, the hierarchy, and episcopal authority, 
could no longer be settled by a stroke of the pen. 

When these difficulties appeared, recourse was had to 
force. At Augsburg, Ulm, Constance, Strasburg, Ratisbon, 
and all the cities of Upper Germany, the refractory inhabit- 
ants were treated with military executions ; the Emperor's 
Spanish soldiers disturbed the peace of towns and families, 
and hundreds of faithful preachers in Southern Germany 
wandered about homeless with their wives and families. 
The Emperor would gladly have been content with gentle 
compulsion, threats, and intimidation ; but these did not 
produce the desired effect. If the people had so readily 
adopted another creed, their former one must have been a 
lie. They had mostly to be driven to mass by soldiers, and 
all kinds of severity were practised. 

Except in the helpless cities of Upper Germany, the 
Interim simply fell to the ground. The Catholics were not 
required to adopt it, and the Protestant rulers either rejected 
or refused to enforce it, and in both cases the result was 
the same. 



THE INTERIM OF AUGSBURG. 21 7 

When it was proclaimed by some prudent princes, as in 
the Palatinate and Wiirtemberg, their subjects crossed them- 
selves, and simply kept to their old creed. Maurice pro- 
claimed it, and had it weakened a little to make it more 
palatable ; but he soon saw that it could not be seriously 
enforced, and contented himself with the appearance of 
good intentions. This displeased the Emperor, who had 
not expected such contumacy from his faithful ally. Fur- 
ther northward the Interim was met with open resistance. 
Magdeburg declared its intention of opposing it to the 
utmost, and it was the same in all the northern districts 
beyond the reach of the Emperor's arm. In short, the 
attempt to restore the unity of the German Church by the 
Interim, and by Spanish soldiers, was found to present great 
difficulties. A bitter feeling prevailed throughout Ger- 
many that all men had been grossly deceived, and that the 
rulers, who had said it was not a question of religion, had 
themselves been deluded. The fugitive press of those days 
teemed with bitter ill-will, and we still possess some prints 
in which it is said of Maurice, with true presentiment, that 
as he had, like Judas, betrayed his fellow-professors, so he 
would also betray the Emperor. 

The news of the events which had transpired in the 
cities of Upper Germany spread rapidly throughout the 
empire. The hateful scenes which had been enacted, the 
violence towards governments and individuals, the exile of 
eminent citizens and faithful ministers, excited loud indig- 
nation everywhere. Such things showed the real significance 
of the Emperor's victory ; and the greater the confidence 
before, the greater the exasperation now. The Emperor's 
Spanish policy was seen through, and it was known that the 
worst was to be expected from it. 

In any case, if the Emperor could rely on his agents, a 
serious conflict was at hand. If the subjection of a few 
imperial cities, and the fall of the Palatinate and Wiirtem- 
berg, had made such a noise, how would it be should the 
Emperor collect his forces to subjugate the North? 

But, just when he thought to enjoy the fruits of the labour 
of years, he experienced the bitterest disappointment, for 
all the supports failed him on which he had hitherto relied 
— Rome, France, the ruling princes, and, above all, Maurice. 
This favourite pupil of his policy played off his masterpiece 
upon his master by so contriving that, by the most motley 



2l8 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

of all coalitions, the Pope, the Turks, Rome and the 
German rulers, the Protestants and France, should com- 
bine to upset the Emperor's power. 

The Council of Trent from December, 1545, and 
the Diet of Augsburg from September, 1547. 

The Emperor's successes were regarded with mixed 
feelings at Rome. It was satisfactory that schism seemed 
to be put an end to ; but it was not exactly agreeable that 
the Emperor's arm should rule from Rome to the Alps. 
It created great uneasiness when he began to meddle in 
ecclesiastical affairs, in which he was neither versed nor 
disposed to pay exclusive regard to the interests of the 
Curia. Ever since 1529 it had been Charles's idea to 
settle the ecclesiastical differences at a council. The docu- 
ment in which this plan was first proposed has already been 
given.* He had inviolably maintained his intention of 
making the Protestants submit to a council ; they were to 
return to the old church r and when that had been effected, 
he would influence the council to bring about a reconcilia- 
tion which would satisfy all parties. If a basis of union 
were only attained, it was all one to him whether concessions 
were made on one side or the other, as tc the doctrine of 
the supper, justification, &c. 

Rome from the first only fell in with this plan reluc- 
tantly. She had no confidence in the imperial council, 
whether it was called, as at first, a general ecclesiastical, 
a free national council, or a national assembly, without the 
Pope. This was far too ambiguous for the views of the 
Curia. The convocation of the council was therefore con- 
tinually opposed, and it was not till 1537 that the idea 
arose of stopping the increasing defection by this means. 
If the rulers continued exclusively to cultivate the private 
interests of their own houses, it was clear that half the 
world would turn apostate. The programme for a council 
was then drawn up ; but years passed before it was called, 
and years more before it met, in 1545, at the time when 
Charles had nearly completed his preparations for a conflict 
with the heretics. The council depended on the proceed- 
ings of the Emperor against the heretics, and his proceedings 

* See pages no and 186. 



The council of trent. 2ig 

on the Pope's concessions in the matter of the council. 
The Protestants were now subjugated, and, so far as they 
had accepted the Interim, must also acknowledge the 
council. 

The Emperor would have preferred to have the council 
in Germany instead of, as the Pope demanded, in Italy. 
A place on the borders of Italy and Germany was finally 
fixed on — the bishopric of Trent, which still belonged to the 
German empire. 

The first proceedings in the council indicated that there 
was a great dread of a repetition of the scenes of Constance 
and Basle. There was an evident desire to avoid every- 
thing which might awaken the lust of power which then 
prevailed, and to confirm as decidedly as possible the 
inviolability of papal authority. The assembly consisted 
of Spanish and Italian monks in overwhelming majority, 
and this was decisive as to its character. 

When consulted as to the course of business, the Emperor 
had expressed a wish that those questions on which agree- 
ment between the parties was possible should first be dis- 
cussed. There were a number of questions on which they 
were agreed, as, for example, Greek Christianity. Even 
now there are a number of points on which Protestants 
and Catholics are agreed, and differ from the Eastern 
Church. 

If these questions were considered first, the attendance 
of the Protestants would be rendered very much easier ; it 
would open the door as widely as possible, they would pro- 
bably come in considerable numbers, and might in time 
take a part which at least might not be distasteful to the 
Emperor, and might influence his ideas on Church reform. 
The thought that they were heretics was half concealed. 
But Rome was determined to pursue the opposite course, 
and at once to agitate those questions on which there was 
the most essential disagreement, and to declare all who 
would not submit to be incorrigible heretics. It was con- 
sidered of less importance to gain a few hundred thousand 
souls, more or less, than to maintain the infallibility of the 
ancient church, and not to offer a dangerous example of 
weakness and compliance. 

The first subjects of discussion were, the authority of the 
Scriptures in the text of the Vulgate, ecclesiastical tradition, 
the right ot interpretation, the doctrine of justification. These 



*20 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

fc-ere the questions on which the old and new doctrines 
were irreconcilably at variance ; all other differences were 
insignificant in comparison. 

And these questions were decided in the old Roman 
Catholic sense; not precisely as they had been officially 
treated in 15 17 — for the stream of time had produced some 
little effect — but in the main the old statutes were adhered 
to, and everything rejected which departed from them. 
This conduct was decisive. The Emperor had intended to 
attract the Protestants by smooth word 1 ? of peace and re- 
conciliation, and to render their first steps towards a 
return to unity as easy as possible; if they were once pre- 
sent at the council they would perhaps be of use to him in 
counterbalancing the overweening claims of the Curia ; the 
idea of turning them to account to oppose the hierarchy itself 
was perhaps not far from his thoughts, but the attempt was 
not made. The Emperor had taken so much pains and 
made so many sacrifices to smooth the way for the council, 
had so often solemnly assured the Protestants that reforms 
should be made when once the council was secured, if they 
would not obstinately oppose it : but now the council was 
sitting, and the first word that sounded forth from Trent 
was anathema sit ! From this time the Emperor and the 
Pope were at variance, and it was plain from the correspond- 
ence which took place between them that they could no 
longer agree. 

The Pope thought proper to transfer the council to 
another place in order to lessen the Emperor's influence. 
He had already recalled the auxiliary troops from the 
imperial camp. On account of some deaths which had 
taken place at Trent, although they had diminished rather 
than increased, it was decided that a longer tarriance in the 
neighbourhood would endanger the health of the prelates, 
and in March, 1547, the greater part of the assembly 
migrated to Bologna. 

In January, 1548, a solemn embassy from the Emperor 
arrived at Bologna, made a decided protest on the threshold 
of the assembly, and declared that the Council of Trent 
having been forcibly interrupted, everything debated and 
decreed at Bologna was null and void. 

Thus, just as the Emperor was beginning to enforce his 
Interim in Germany, and to make his soldiers drive the 
Protestants to mass, he was met by the tremendous mis* 



THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 221 

fortune of an open breach with Rome, and was compelled 
to enter a solemn protest against her proceedings. In such 
a state of things it was impossible that a great ecclesiastical 
contest should be carried on. In the conflict with the 
greater part of the German nation and rulers, it would 
never do to be at enmity with Rome ; he must have one 
party or the other on his side. And just then, in opposi- 
tion to the usual caution and coolness of his character, the 
Emperor had extensive projects which it would have been 
difficult to carry out under any circumstances, and under 
the present they were doubly audacious. 

The Diet had assembled in 1547 under the impression of 
the Emperor's victories. He could there decree whatever 
he chose. The princes who had had the courage to oppose 
him were in prison, others stayed away ; these exceptional 
circumstances occasioned a great preponderance in his 
favour. 

He proclaimed the Pragmatic Sanction for the Nether- 
lands, whereby his old Burgundian inheritance was declared 
by his own law to be indivisible, the succession settled 
on the house of Hapsburg, it was attached to the German 
empire as a tenth district, had to pay certain contributions, 
but was not to be subject to the Imperial Chamber or the 
Imperial Court of Judicature. He thus secured the personal 
union of these territories with his house, and made it the 
duty of the empire to defend them, while at the same time 
he withdrew them from the jurisdiction of the empire ; it 
was a union by which the private interests of the house of 
Hapsburg had everything to gain, but which was of no 
advantage to the empire. 

The other decrees which the Emperor had passed 
amounted almost to a formal revolution in Germany. 

The seizure of ecclesiastical property, the spoliation of 
churches and monasteries and interference with ecclesias- 
tical jurisdiction, were for the first time declared to be 
breaches of the peace. The Imperial Court of Judicature, 
the comparative independence of which had long been a 
thorn in the Emperor's side, was reconstituted, and the 
appointment to seats in it was assigned to him. 

An imperial military treasury was established which 
would enable the Emperor, out of the resources of the 
empire, to maintain his Spanish troops in readiness, and to 
repress any insurrection. 



2 22 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

The opposition to this proposal Vas almost universal, but 
the Emperor prevailed, at least at the Diet. He was 
master in Germany as no Emperoi had been for centuries, 
but he was challenging the ruling aristocracy by a revolu- 
tion which, whether beneficial or not, could not be carried 
out if those by whose means he had obtained his last great 
victory refused to accept it. It would never do for him, 
when he was at war both with Rome and with Protest- 
antism, to challenge the high nobility of the German 
nation to a single combat. " One thing at a time," Luther 
used to say. Either of these three tasks would have been 
sufficient for the life work of one ruler, and to undertake 
them all at once was most presumptuous; but the 
Emperor's successes had got into his head, and he regarded 
nothing as impossible. Of course among the German 
princes the question, " Protestantism or Catholicism ? " 
began to retreat into the background, and instead of doing 
anything to stifle this growing opposition, Charles rather 
aggravated it. 

His treatment of the two imprisoned princes was quite 
unworthy of him. It was an absurd anachronism to act as 
no German Emperor had ever acted before, on account of. 
their feuds with him, to pass hasty judgment upon them as 
if they had been common criminals, to deprive them of their 
territories and dignities, then to sentence them to death, and 
have them dragged from one prison to another. 

It was all very well for Charlemagne, amidst immense 
successes, to depose the powerful Thassilo, who had twice 
betrayed him. Wiien Conrad II. displaced his stepson as an 
incorrigible rebel, there were some disapproving voices, but 
the majority approved for the sake of order in the empire. 
But it was five hundred years since an Emperor had passed 
sentence of death on a prince of the empire within its 
bounds. Even Frederic I., after citing Henry the Lion five 
times to appear before him, only dispossessed him of his 
lands, and part of these were afterwards restored to him. The 
cause of John Frederic was the cause of all the German 
rulers. The good-natured Elector, who, though not a 
great, was a truly honourable man, possessed the confidence 
of all parties,, and it was a shame to treat him like a 
common criminal. If the Emperor meant the sentence 
of death in earnest, it was a needless cruelty to keep it, 
Hke the sword of Damocles, hanging over his head ; and 



TREATMENT OF PHILIP OF HESSE. 223 

if not, it was making unpardonable sport with judicial 
murder. 

Philip of Hesse was the most beloved of all the ruling 
princes of his time, and deservedly so ; for, with all his 
weaknesses and passions, his faith and patriotism were 
matters of holy earnestness with him. The Emperor him- 
self had had many proofs of this, and his troops all knew 
him as a brave soldier. To drag him from prison to prison, 
and to allow him to languish in loathsome dungeons till he 
nearly lost his reason, was not only barbarity, it was mad- 
ness. 

The complaints of the wretched prince were heart-rending, 
but were of no avail ; and in vain did his eldest son offer to 
take his place in prison. Alba and Granvella neglected his 
petitions with coarse brutality, and the Emperor had no 
inclination to read them. The Landgrave reminded him of 
his word and promises so shamefully broken. He was kept 
in filthy holes, guarded by Spanish soldiers ; and the stench 
and their brutality nearly drove him to despair. He says 
that instead of the four who were appointed, ten or twelve 
always came into his room ; when he slept, they drew up 
the blinds to see that he did not escape through a mouse- 
hole, or a chink in the wall. From Augsburg he was re- 
moved to Nordlingen, to a public-house, where the landlord 
had lately died of the plague. On account of an uncivil 
answer, the Emperor deprived him of his physician, his secre- 
tary, and his other attendants, and writing materials were 
forbidden him. When he was taken down the shores of the 
Rhine in 1548, he was followed by a mob who called after 
him, "There goes the rebel and villain;" and it was plain 
that they were employed to do it. All the disputes that 
were pending between Hesse and its neighbours and 
vassals were decided meanwhile by the Emperor, and the 
country was oppressed in every way. The Landgrave was 
taken to a prison in Oudenarde, and made to enter into an 
ignominious treaty with the master of Germany. 

When for his health's sake he wished to have meat in 
Passion week, the Spanish captain flung it to him on the 
ground. The Landgravine, who had fallen at the Emperor's 
feet in vain, was lying dangerously ill. Not long before her 
death, she addressed a touching petition to the Emperor, 
pointing out that all the conditions of the treaty had been 
fulfilled, and imploring him, for the sake of her father's 



2 24 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

services, to restore her husband to her. In 1549 she died, 
without obtaining the least favour. The Landgrave was 
subjected to still stricter imprisonment at Malines, and 
placed under a brutal and bigoted Spanish gaoler. And 
after the failure of an attempt to escape in 1550, two of his 
faithful Hessians were hung before his eyes. He was de- 
prived of all his German servants, and fell into a gloomy 
stupor which made it appear that his reason was in danger. 

Men were learning every day in Germany what German 
liberty had to expect from the Spanish Emperor, whose 
Spanish soldiers were treating the princes as he treated the 
nation. The imperial troops were behaving everywhere as 
if they were in a conquered country ; and the complaints 
that were uttered in fugitive papers and pamphlets indicate 
a national exasperation like that which prevailed in the 
worst times of Napoleon's rule, occasioned by the ignominy 
of the Confederation of the Rhine. 

One paper said : " Germany shall not be subject to 
Spaniards and priests." In another : " It is come to this 
with the German nation ; it is mocked at. God help 
us." 

The feeling was this : " Are we the great nation on pur- 
pose that the Emperor may impose a brutal foreign yoke 
upon us ? " The Emperor had no one on his side but his 
soldiers and his cabinet — all the great factors of the age 
were against him ; Catholicism, Protestantism, the princes 
and people of Germany. We seek in vain for any voice 
which said, " Let us endure it all as a trial, so that we may 
but preserve the unity of the empire." We may make these 
reflections at our desks in the nineteenth century, but at 
that time they were impossible. 

One German prince must have felt these expressions of 
open ill-will as so many pricks of conscience ; for had it not 
been for the defection of Maurice of Saxony, the Protestant 
League would scarcely have been vanquished, and his 
honour was involved in the assurances given to Philip. It 
was long before he appeared to be amenable to these 
feelings, though his father-in-law, Philip, did not spare him 
admonitions, entreaties, and reproaches. He once wrote to 
him : " If he had been a poor vassal, and had given him 
such a verbal* promise, he would go to the Emperor and 
say, ' Sire, we gave him this promise, and if you will not set 
him free, let me go to prison in his place.' If you act in 



NATIONAL EXASPERATION. 225 

this way to avoid a little anger or displeasure, your reproach 
will never be extinguished, but will live in history." 

In July, 1547, Maurice addressed himself to King Ferdi- 
nand, and represented to him that this conduct was making 
a fatal impression in the empire ; but it was of no avail. A 
personal appeal to the Emperor met with the same fate. 
The Emperor was blinded and supercilious, and even told 
Maurice that he would grant nothing of the kind ; he would 
have the Landgrave's body cut in two, and send half to 
each of the two securities. The intoxication of supreme 
power had caused even this cool calculator to lose his head. 
He was now ready to become a sacrifice to a masterly 
intrigue. 

15 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Maurice and the Conspiracy of the German Princes.- -Isolation of the 
Elector among both Catholics and Protestants. — The Negotiations 
with France. — The Coalition against the Emperor. — Treaty with 
France, and Surprise of the Emperor, 1551-2. — Treaty of Cham- 
bord, January, 1552. — March of the Allies, March, 1552. — Secuiity 
and Defiance of the Emperor. — Taking of the Ehrenberger Klause, 
May, 1552. — Charles's Flight. — The Treaty of Passau and the Peace 
of Augsburg, August, 1552 — September, 1555. — Charles's Retreat 
and Last Days. — General Results of the Reformation in Germany. 

Maurice and the Conspiracy of the German 
Princes, 1550-51. 

MAURICE saw more and more plainly that his game 
could not be carried on very long. He was regarded 
with fearful hatred. All John Frederic's sufferings were 
ascribed to him, his faithless relative, and he was reproached 
with the ill-treatment of his father-in-law, the Landgrave, to 
whom he had given his word of honour. Nothing could be 
more hideous than the colours in which he was painted. 
In his own country, it was said that it was ruled by a two- 
fold and threefold traitor, and a literature of pamphlets 
arose around him, in which the subject of Judas Iscariot 
was treated in a hundred different ways. Hatred and dis- 
trust encompassed him on every side, and then there was 
the position of affairs in general; the increasing oppression 
of a foreign yoke, the growing agitation in the nation, the 
Emperor's conflict with Rome, and the latest results of his 
political supremacy. It was suspected that the clever and 
cautious diplomatist had not yet spoken his last word, nor 
played his last card ; still, if he did not make haste, the 
favourable moment would be frittered away. Otherwise, the 
captive Landgrave would be justified in saying, when told 
of the Elector's secret plan*. *' I can't understand how a 



CONSPIRACY OF THE GERMAN PRINCES. 227 

sparrow can conquer a vulture, when he drives away, and 
even disperses, the best birds." 

All this occasioned Maurice to think — " I must try to 
regain my position in my country, and with the Protestant 
party, which will counterbalance the threatened supremacy 
of the Emperor." 

His first idea was to incline the Emperor to clemency 
towards the Landgrave, and he made sure that his advice 
would be followed ; but in this he was mistaken. By his 
protraction of the siege of Magdeburg, and keeping back 
his troops, it was plain that he wanted to reserve his forces. 
His first open defection was his refusal to appear at the 
Diet of Augsburg in 1550. He said that he and the Duke 
of Brandenburg could not honourably attend, unless the 
Emperor would set the Landgrave free. Besides, he had 
given the Landgrave's sons an express promise that he 
would not accept the Emperor's invitation. 

He next turned a listening ear to France, to discover 
whether there were any intention in that quarter of pre- 
paring a diversion for her ancient foe, and France had 
already an inkling of the rising storm. 

So Maurice did not go to Augsburg. He instructed his 
ambassador in reference to the council ; again promised to 
urge that Protestants must be invited to it ; that it must be 
conducted in a godly and Christian manner, according to 
the Scriptures ; that false doctrines and abuses must be 
abolished : but these things must not be decided by discus- 
sions on the papal supremacy, but by reference to holy 
Scripture. To such a council he would send brave, learned, 
and peaceable men. But they were not to consent to the 
articles already decided on at Trent and Bologna. The 
Diet already showed the Emperor's isolation, and while the 
Elector once more received from it a mark of the Emperor's 
confidence, he was making advances to France behind 
his back, and this without any scruples of conscience. His 
conduct with regard to Magdeburg was remarkable. He 
delayed to execute the interdict which, immediately after 
the battle of Miihlberg, was pronounced against the city. 
He entered into negotiations with the subjects of it, but 
contrived to keep the management entirely in his own 
hands ; it would be enough to have nothing to do with the 
interdicted persons, to break off all intercourse with the 
city; he had great scruples against a general war. Thi« 



22 8 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

was in December, 1548. Meanwhile, Denmark and the sea- 
port towns were preparing for war, as was supposed for 
Magdeburg ; but this did not induce Maurice to take more 
decided measures, because it would only strengthen the 
cause of the city. The troops were slowly put in motion; 
the Diet of 1550 charged him with the execution of the 
interdict, but the position of affairs remained essentially the 
same. 

Meanwhile strange rumours came from the imperial camp. 
Expressions were reported from Brussels, to the effect that 
things would not go on well in Germany unless the Em- 
peror took the affairs of the German princes into his own 
hands ; that all would go well when Prince Philip was 
settled on the throne. It would be better for Germany to 
have one master than so many tyrants. 

And when Maurice did not appear at Augsburg, the 
Spaniards said that, as Maurice had shown himself so dis- 
obedient after the Emperor's victories, and as he and his 
subjects were all Lutherans, the Emperor was of opinion 
that he could not expect better things of him than of John 
Frederic. The ambassadors could not say enough of the 
arrogance of the Spaniards, their contempt of the Germans 
and wild fanaticism. 

Maurice now made a show of more zeal against Magde- 
burg; took the Neustadt, November, 1550, and marched 
against Verden ; all that he might have an excuse fcr 
not obeying the Emperor's summons to Augsburg, to 
help forward the Infante' Philip's election. The Austrian 
party among his ministers, and Carlowitz himself, com- 
plained that he did not do the town much harm. Never- 
theless, the march against Verden pacified the imperial 
court. Duca Mauritio was, in the eyes of the Spaniards, 
the best and most useful servant. Maurice could, therefore, 
the better work undisturbed against the claims of the 
Infante' Philip ; political interest and personal friendship 
with Maximilian, Ferdinand's son, concurred in inducing 
this. He went a step further, and looked earnestly about 
him for allies, as any prospect that the Emperor would yield 
grew less and less. 

In February, 1551, he conferred with the Margrave John 
of Brandenburg as to the best means of releasing John 
Frederic and Philip of Hesse from prison. The Princes of 
Weimar, the Landgraves of Hesse, and other powers were 



CONSPIRACY OF THE GERMAN PRINCES. 229 

to be asked to join. But Maurice was still cautious, re- 
minded the Margrave that he was the Emperor's servant, 
and asked if he knew what a difficult bird to hit they were 
aiming at. However, they at length agreed that the enter- 
prise should be begun in the cause of liberty and religion, 
and for the release of the captive princes. They reckoned 
upon aid from Prussia, Pomerania, and Mecklenburg, and 
upon subsidies from France ; an attack was afterwards to be 
made upon the Netherlands. England was even reckoned 
among the probable allies, and it was thought not impossible 
that the Turks might keep Ferdinand at home. With such 
a force, it was supposed that priests and monks might be 
driven out of Germany. 

Very opportunely, a threatening despatch arrived from the 
Emperor, expressing his displeasure at Maurice's absence ; 
he would show himself under another aspect in future, and 
the Landgrave's sons deserved severe punishment for their 
conduct. Added to this, Philip's complaints grew more 
grievous, for he feared that he was to be dragged away to 
Spain. 

The greatest difficulty was to overcome the excessive 
distrust of Maurice. No one would believe that he was in 
earnest. The Margrave of Brandenburg had therefore to 
undertake to gain over the family of the captive prince, and 
to persuade them that this time Maurice would not play the 
traitor ; but he had great difficulty in doing so. In May, 
1551, John of Brandenburg, Maurice, William of Hesse, and 
Albert of Mecklenburg, met at Torgau. But, as is shown 
by a despatch of July, Maurice still held back from counsels 
that would lead to war. William of Hesse was right in 
saying that negotiations would be as useless as heretofore. 

Once more Maurice and John of Brandenburg sent to 
Ferdinand, to represent to him more urgently than ever 
how ill their services had been requited. They referred to 
the negotiations at Halle, and to the fact that the treaty in 
all points presupposed a reigning, and not a captive Land- 
grave. All this was as unavailing as before, and Magdeburg 
became more and more a convenient pretext for warlike 
preparations. 



230 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

The Treaty with France, and Surprise of the 
Emperor, 155 1-2. 

All these preparations were carried on with the greatest 
secrecy — the Emperor was to be taken entirely by surprise. 
To make quite sure of success, a conspiracy of the German 
princes was not enough. Maurice never doubted that they 
must secure the help of France, and was not to be deterred 
by some hesitation on the subject. The others did not 
think it quite so easy or so safe, and it took some time to 
convince them, John of Brandenburg especially, that this 
help would be desirable. By the beginning of 1551 they 
had, however, at length come to an agreement ; and in 
May negotiations were set on foot by means of an embassy, 
sent by Maurice, John of Brandenburg, William of Hesse, 
and John Albert of Mecklenburg, to Henry II. He was 
to grant subsidies and make a diversion against the Emperor. 
In return, a prospect of the imperial crown was held out to 
him ; and in case the election should fall on any other 
house, they promised not to stand by the imperial chief 
without the King's consent. 

Henry's tactics were slow and cautious; still, a commis- 
sioner received his. instructions in July. In October, 
Maurice, his brother, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and 
John Albert of Mecklenburg, met at Lochau, and discussed 
the mode of attack when France should have made up hei 
mind. Hesse was to begin hostilities; Maurice was to come 
to an understanding with Magdeburg; at the same time the 
Treaty of Friedewald was concluded with France, and con- 
firmed by Henry II. at Chambord on January 15th, 1552. 

In consideration of a considerable sum of money granted 
to the allies, the King was to be empowered to occupy as 
Vicar of the Empire, reserving the imperial sovereignty, the 
imperial cities where German was not spoken, as Cambray, 
Metz, Toul, and Verdun. ' The allies also promised, when 
an Emperor was elected, to choose the King himself, or 
some prince agreeable to him. All the other States of the 
empire were to be asked to join, especially the sons of John 
Frederic. 

In December, 1551, Saxony and Brandenburg, in con- 
nection with* Denmark, the Palatinate, Zweibriicken, 
Bavaria, Baden, Wiirtemberg, and Mecklenburg, took the 
final step of sending an embassy to Innsbruck ; but it was 



TREATY WITH FRANCE. 23 1 

as fruitless as before. The Emperor wished that Maurice 
should come to him at Innsbruck, and Maurice pretended 
that he meant to comply, but he came in a very different 
way from what the Emperor expected. 

The siege of Magdeburg was now raised, and the city sur- 
rendered to Maurice. He promised to induce the Emperor 
to allow it to retain its pririleges and liberties. There was 
also in all probability some secret arrangement, for Magde- 
burg was to be a refuge for him in case the enterprise 
against the Emperor failed. 

Thus the storm gathered over the Emperor. He had 
warnings enough, but he no longer had any friends to do 
anything for him. A bitter feeling prevailed against him 
on all sides, and there was ill-humour and dissension even 
in his own camp and his own family. His brother Ferdinand 
was King of Germany, and had become so accustomed to 
the dignity that he had no other idea than that the imperial 
throne was destined for him and his son Maximilian. But 
at the Diet at Augsburg Charles made every effort to secure 
the crown for his son Philip, and his brother was deeply 
offended. 

The isolation and desertion of the Emperor was com- 
plete, yet it is striking to observe how blind and unsuspect- 
ing, notwithstanding all his knowledge of men, he was as to 
the danger. The repeated reports of what was going on 
did not disturb his peace ; " the upright and downright 
Germans," he said carelessly, " are not clever enough for 
such cunning intrigues." He attributed no hostile inten- 
tions to Maurice, and if the worst came to the worst, he 
thought he was in his power. Yet the difficulties of the 
enterprise were by no means overcome, and a timely effort 
might still have frustrated it. The increasing demands of 
France became burdensome to the allies. In Saxony the 
States shrank from war, theologians like Melancthon had 
scruples, zealous Lutherans circulated all sorts of reports 
against Maurice, which could not fail to expose him. In 
fact, suspicion was getting more and more confirmed, and 
Ferdinand secretly conveyed warning hints to Maurice ; but 
the Emperor remained quiet. Happen what might, he con- 
sidered that he had a chained bear in John Frederic, whom 
he had only to let loose to strangle Maurice. But he did 
not seriously suspect anything, and continued to give fair 
but empty promises. 



232 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

In March, 1552, tht revolt broke out, and the three 
Armies were united. 

Maurice marched by way of Weissenfels, Naumburg, 
Weimar, and Erfurt, collecting his forces by the way, and on 
the 23rd of March he joined William of Hesse at Bischofs- 
heim. Before setting out, he had sent a despatch to 
Ferdinand, indicating what was coming. The manifesto 
followed containing the grievances on the subject of religion, 
complaints of the Emperor's attempt to assert his own 
dominion, authority, and power, " the infamy and unreason- 
ableness " of Philip's imprisonment, the dominion of foreign 
troops, and the " beastly hereditary servitude " which it had 
been attempted to impose upon the Germans. 

By way of Schweinfurt and Kitzingen Maurice advanced 
to Rotenburg in Franconia, where he was joined by Albert 
of Brandenburg, and their united forces then marched to 
Augsburg, " the watch-tower of the imperial power," where 
the Protestant restoration began at once, after the imperial 
garrison had hastily evacuated the city. The princes and 
cities of Upper Germany now joined the electors ; the 
French also advanced ; the aspect of affairs in Italy was por- 
tentous. Then the Turks were again threatening an attack, 
which hampered Ferdinand. It was now too late to pro- 
pose negotiations ; it could only serve as a means to gain 
time. On the 6th of April the Emperor resolved to leave 
Innsbruck and go to Flanders. He only got as far as 
Leermoos, and received news on all sides of the advance of 
the enemy. 

At this juncture Ferdinand succeeded in obtaining a con- 
ference with Maurice at Linz. He thought that he could 
not refuse it, though the French did not conceal their dis- 
approval. The Saxon ministers and States, on the contrary, 
zealously promoted it, and perhaps Maurice was the more 
induced to go by the arrogant tone of the French allies. 
But Charles even then could not come to a decision, and 
wasted the precious time in empty talk. 

Maurice and Ferdinand met on the 18th of April. The 
latter was disposed for a peaceful settlement. He promised 
the release of the Landgrave ; that no one should suffer for 
his faith, but that the differences should be arranged at a 
Diet ; the grievances in the Government should be re- 
dressed, and peace negotiated with France. Ferdinand 
would recommend his brother to make these concessions, 



SURPRISE OF THE EMPEROR. 233 

»nd they should be definitively arranged at a second meeting, 
at Passau. Maurice declined an armistice until then, the 
26 th of May ; but he strongly represented to the French 
the advantages of a peaceful settlement. France, however, 
had other schemes in view, and the Emperor was still hesi- 
tating, which gave the French good reason to complain of 
the Elector's credulity. 

From the camp, and especially from William of Hesse, 
urgent advice came to settle the question speedily by an 
appeal to arms. If an armistice was to begin on the 26th 
of May, when the negotiations were to take place, they 
considered it all the more necessary to end the campaign 
by that time, and so take advantage of the situation. 
Maurice thought them hot-headed ; still it was to be con- 
sidered that the Emperor would strengthen the Tyrol. 
There were but a few marches up the Lech from Augsburg 
to the entrance of the Tyrol, to the pass which Schertlin 
had desired to close, to prevent the entrance of the imperial 
troops into Germany. During the second week in May, 
therefore, they advanced towards the Tyrol. 

The Emperor was now first undeceived, but he was help- 
less. When he roused himself up to offer some opposition 
to the enemy, he only reached North Tyrol to find his pass 
near Fiissen occupied. He was shut in in the pass called 
the " Ehrenberger Klause." 

The taking of the fortress of Ehrenberg by Maurice, by 
a single blow, was in those days considered an exploit of 
the first class, and by it he possessed himself of the key of 
the Tyrol. The Emperor was compelled to fly, and had it 
not been that some of the troops of the allies mutinied after 
the taking of the pass, they would probably have succeeded 
in overtaking and capturing the Emperor by a forced 
march. It has been supposed that it was not Maurice's 
wish to do this, but this is a mistake. He was no friend of 
half measures, and had a great desire to catch the " old 
fox " in his den. 

The Emperor escaped to Steiermark — a general without 
an army, a king without a country. His inheritance, and 
the mountain fortresses of which he had scornfully boasted, 
were in the hands of the enemy. John Frederic and Philip 
were released ; the edifice which he had reared after the 
battle of Muhlberg was in ruins; he was crushed by the 
blow. He had had the reputation of remaining firm and 



234 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

undaunted even after great reverses, and up to 1547 this 
had been so ; up to that time he had taken good and ill 
fortune with calmness. But the successes of that year had 
intoxicated him ; he had done what the most powerful can- 
not venture to do, and the sudden reverse which now 
occurred seemed all the more disastrous.* 

In explanation of how all this came about, a few words 
of Lazarus Schwendi's may be useful. He says : " The Em- 
peror gave the preference to strangers, and many grievous 
and suspicious things took place under the highest of the 
foreign ministers; the grievances in the empire were not 
redressed, and no settled peace was concluded on the 
subject of religion ; thus the Emperor could not regain the 
good-will of the Germans and attach them to himself, which 
is evident from the fact that, at the time of Maurice's 
advance, almost every one in the empire was on his side, 
and no one would offer the Emperor any help or succour. 
The complaints had been welcomed and approved by 
everybody." 



The Treaty of Passau, and the Religious Peace of 
Augsburg, 1552 — September, 1555. — Charles V.'s 
Last Days. — General Results of the German 
Reformation. 

The Emperor left the negotiations to his brother Ferdinand, 
who entered into a treaty at Passau, by which it was agreed 
that the imprisoned princes should be released, and the 
religious question settled on the basis of liberty of con- 
science. 

He felt the successes of the French on the other side of 
the Rhine even more keenly than these extorted conces- 
sions. He had been at war with them from 1521 to 1544; 
had always beaten them ; had repulsed their repeated 
attacks upon Milan and Naples ; he had acted with mag- 
nanimity towards them, and now, after the death of his able 
rival, Francis L, Henry II., a prince by no means his equal, 
and without personal merit, had succeeded, solely through 
fortuitous circumstances, the elastic conscience of Maurice, 
and to some extent by underhand dealings, in detaching 

• This representation does not altogether agree with his opposition 
to the Treaty of Passau. — Ed. 



ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. 235 

three territories from the empire, which were of more value 
than all which the Emperor had obtained by treaty from 
the French. 

The saying, " If Strasburg and Vienna are threatened at 
one time, I will go to Strasburg," would not perhaps have 
been carried out in practice, but it showed a true instinct. 
The Turks might be regarded as a waning, the French as a 
rising power, and, with their compactness as a nation, they 
obtained lasting and increasing strength from every success. 
Metz, an important fortress, was now in the hands of the 
French, and the fate of their latest acquisitions depended 
on their maintaining it. The Emperor's last enterprise was 
an attempt to regain this valuable possession, but the 
French had done everything to secure it ; it was so skilfully 
defended by Francis of Guise, external circumstances, 
weather and health were so decidedly unfavourable to the 
attacking party, that the Emperor's hurried campaign was a 
complete failure, and in January, 1553, the attempt was 
given up as hopeless. It was his last enterprise and last 
failure in the empire. 

He now began to entertain the idea of resigning the 
business of government. Originally weakly in constitution, 
and having pursued a course not likely to strengthen it, he 
was prematurely old and feeble, and had lost the courage 
to take up his work again. He had formerly formed various 
vast projects all at once, but now all inclination f )v them, 
and all his elasticity of will, had deserted him. Not 
that he wished to renounce politics altogether, for to do 
that would have been to him not to live at all ; but he 
resolved to share the business, to lay down the responsi- 
bility, to exchange the burden of the immediate conduct of 
k for the less thankless office of secret oversight, and above 
all to leave the scenes of his keenly felt defeats. The con- 
sideration might also have had some weight that, in order 
to ensure the continuance of his policy, it would be advis- 
able to introduce his young son into business, and to aid 
him with his paternal advice. This might have been his idea 
of the part he would take in politics when, in the autumn 
of 1555, he entrusted his son Philip with the government 
of the Netherlands, and soon after with that of the Spanish 
and Italian territories also. After 1556 he resigned the 
control of the affairs of the empire ; in the autumn of the 
same year the formal abdication took place, and the Em- 



236 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

peror withdrew to the monastery of St. Just.* Here he 
continued to take a share in politics, but selected what 
gave him pleasure and no trouble ; he even had a numerous 
retinue, was still styled Emperor, and more couriers and 
messengers came and went than at many courts. He was 
occasionally overcome by the tendency to melancholy, 
which he inherited from his mother, but he never had more 
than passing paroxysms of it. He received information of 
everything, and upon every important question issued in- 
structions to his son- he reigned jointly with him, but 
without exactly sharing the burdens of government. But even 
in the peaceful seclusion of the cloister, into which he had, 
as he thought, withdrawn from the turmoil of the world, the 
controversy was forced upon him which had shaped his 
life. Hitherto Catholicism had been more vigorous in 
Spain than anywhere else, and he probably consoled him- 
self with Ihe thought that here he would never be disturbed 
by the defection from the faith which had occasioned his 
retirement; but Protestantism began to spring up even 
here, and in some of the villages near the imperial retreat. 
It seemed as if he was never to have a respite from what 
had been pursuing him all his life, for it followed him with 
demon-like footsteps even here. 

Retreat of Charles V., and General Results of 
the Reformation in Germany. 

The acknowledged defeat of Charles V. before the great 
reform question of the sixteenth century, was a plain indi- 
cation of the course destiny was taking. The imperial 
power had entered into the contest with greater resources 
than had ever been possessed before ; it had had a splendid 
vision of regeneration, yet all had resulted in a great collapse. 
While imperialism outwardly adhered to the great traditions 
of the Middle Ages, it was in reality as much a stranger to 
them as to the modern movements which it aimed to 
suppress. Entirely destitute of the great moral levers of the 
Middle Ages, the devotion of vassals and religious en- 
thusiasm ; even at enmity with the most potent sources of 
mediaeval development, it entered into a conflict with the 

* Stirling's Cloister Life of Charles V., 1853. Gachard, Retraite 
et mort de Charles V., Brux., 1854. Pichot, Charles V., Paris, 1854. 
Mignet, Charles V., son abdication, &c., 1854. 



RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION. 237 

national idea, and the spirit of religious liberty which was 
then making way ; and its only weapon, the heartless 
modern policy of cabinets, which takes cognizance of out- 
ward factors only, showed in glaring colours its absolute 
impotence and absolute isolation. 

This being the inevitable fate of a policy which had 
enormous resources at its disposal, and which, when it 
undertook to restore mediaeval uniformity, secular and 
ecclesiastical, was not in unskilful hands, it was plain that 
the attempt was an absurdity, that the time for it was gone 
by for ever, that even the greatest personages were not 
equal to the task. 

Recent events, therefore, were a great victory for those 
opposition tendencies which were labouring to subdue the 
mediaeval spirit and institutions. The weapon of the Middle 
Ages, the imperial power, had once again obtained the 
ascendancy, but it had now sunk lower than ever. The 
unity of the faith, which an attempt had been made to en- 
force by external means, was broken up, and a dualism 
established in the Western Church, which it was henceforth 
impossible to prevent ; the nations were become indepen- 
dent, having burst the bonds of cabinet policy. With the 
help of the people, the reigning princes had just obtained a 
complete victory for the cause of religion. Thus, all that 
was opposed to mediaevalism was completely in the ascen- 
dant. It was this which gave a historical significance to 
recent events, and to the retreat of the Emperor. 

Late in the autumn of 1555, the peace which had been 
promised, and the preliminaries of which had been settled 
at Passau, was concluded at Augsburg. 

It was based upon all that had been considered as merely 
temporary concession ever since 1532. "A peace shall be 
established and concluded," it was said, " which shall be 
permanent, absolute, and unconditional, and which shall 
last for ever." 

In accordance with this, it was ordained by the decree of 
the Diet, on the 25th of September, 1555, that neither his 
imperial majesty, nor electors, nor princes, nor States, shall 
offer violence to any State on account of the Augsburg Con- 
fession, or of its religion or faith, nor in any way molest 
them on account of this confession, or ecclesiastical usages 
and ordinances, but leave them quietly alone in possession 
of their property, and religious differences shall only be 



238 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

adjusted by peaceful Christian methods. But the new 
doctrines which were not in accordance with the Augsburg 
Confession were not included in this settlement. This was 
specially aimed at the Reformed party, the followers of 
Zwingli and Calvin, whose doctrines were now agitating a 
great part of the world. 

Altogether, there was a good deal in the Peace which 
made it burdensome to both parties ; the right to retain 
their faith was granted to the electors, princes, and states of 
the empire, but it was to them only, not to their subjects. 
The principle of 1526, cuius regio, eius religio, was again 
adopted and permanently established. It was not liberty of 
conscience that was granted in our sense of the term, but 
liberty for the governments to choose their creed. This 
principle involved both parties in difficulty. The Protest- 
ants thought, if this is strictly carried out we shall have no 
security that Protestant subjects of Catholic ecclesiastical 
princes will not be molested and suffer violence. They 
therefore sought protection in a clause by which it was pro- 
vided that cities, nobles, and districts which were subject to 
ecclesiastics, but had long adhered to the Augsburg Con- 
fession, should not be compelled to renounce it, but should 
be left unmolested until a final settlement was arrived at. 

But there was also a difficulty for the Catholic princes. 
If the bishops took it into their heads to turn Protestants, 
and to secularise their bishoprics, the result would be the 
same as in the case of Cologne. To obviate this, Ferdinand 
put in the clause relating to " ecclesiastical reservation " 
(reservatio ecclesiastica), which provided that if an eccle- 
siastical State leaves the ancient Church, its dignity and 
honours remain undiminished {honore et fama illibatis), but 
it is to be deprived of its livings and bishoprics. 

The Peace of Augsburg conceded the legal right of the 
two Churches to exist side by side, and thus broke through 
the mediaeval Church system. 

A violent convulsion had taken place in this and all other 
countries, and there was a general impression that a new 
era was at hand. 

It is always difficult to trace the permanent results of a 
process of development. During such transition periods all 
things are in a state of growth, and they are anything but 
times of peaceful enjoyment of the advantages gained, or of 
objective contemplation of the changes taking place, 



RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION. 239 

Nevertheless, certain great outlines were traced at this 
time to which it took men a long time to become accus- 
tomed, but which undoubtedly indicated the essential and 
lasting form of a new order of things. 

Besides this, the temporal power had at length obtained 
its rights. Political life had freed itself from the unnatural 
bondage of ecclesiastical fetters, from the unconditional 
subjection of the laity to ecclesiastical authority, and its ex- 
clusive supremacy in matters of faith. Education and domestic 
life was at an end. The State regained its natural sovereignty, 
was in a position to pursue its moral objects undisturbed, 
and within its own sphere to reject all ecclesiastical inter- 
ference. The modern state, which is utterly different from 
that of the Middle Ages, and, in that it has aims of its own 
to pursue, and is not the tool of a power external to it, is 
more like the states of antiquity, was in embryo, and thus a 
mighty creation was preparing for future times. 

Further, learning and intellectual life altogether had out- 
grown the restrictions of ecclesiastical authority, and had 
begun to take a course of its own. It need not be said 
that a comparatively large intellectual development was 
possible even within the old limits. No one, with the 
imperishable monuments of mediaeval art and poetry before 
him, will assert that intellectual life was slumbering in the 
Middle Ages. But its development was one-sided, and 
those spheres which required a freedom unknown at that 
period received but little or no attention. Mediaeval 
philosophy was but the handmaid of theology, calculated 
to cultivate that formal way of thinking which was not 
only subject to the dogmatic teaching of the Church, but 
consented to verify it from its own immutable principles. 
Whoever passed these limits was a heretic. Speculative 
thought, which is subject to its own laws, and acknow- 
ledges no others, was incompatible with this ; the impulse 
to look a newly-discovered truth in the face, and to investi- 
gate it unrestrained by outward prohibitions, was now first 
allowed full play. And with this the first impulse to true 
learning was given. 

Free scope was now for the first time given to historical 
research into the life of nations, to the investigation of men 
*nd things as they really were, without having a programme 
prescribed beforehand ; and it was the same with the study 
of the natural world. It was quite in the mediaeval spirit 



240 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 

that the earth had been hitherto regarded, as in the Old 
Testament, as a disc, the heavens as a shade, so to speak, 
placed over it, and the sun and stars as the moving fire- 
balls of this stationary world; and it was quite in the modern 
spirit that these theories were no longer heeded, and con- 
clusions drawn from the discoveries of Columbus and 
Copernicus entirely irrespective of them. 

It is this research in accordance with the laws of ex- 
perience and observation, in the world of nature and the 
world of mind, that distinguishes the modern from the 
mediaeval spirit, and the first world-wide impulse to it begun 
with the Reformation, 



PART IV. 

CALVINISM, AND THE BEGINNING OF CATHOLIC 
RESTORATION.* 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Calvin's Youth. — Characteristics of the Man and his System. — The 
"Institutio Religionis Christianse," 1536. — Calvin's Ecclesiastical 
State in Geneva. — The Attempt, 1536-8. — Success, 1541-64. — 
The Organization of January, 1542. — Ecclesiastical and Moral 
Discipline of Calvinism, and its Historical Importance. 

Calvin's Youth. — Characteristics of his System. 

AS the German Reformation is connected with Martin 
Luther, and the Swiss with Ulrich Zwingli, that of the 
Romanic and Western European nations is connected with 
John Calvin, the most remarkable personage of the time. 
He was not equal either to Luther or Zwingli in general 
talent, mental vigour, or tranquillity of soul ; but in logical 
acuteness and talent for organization he was at least equal, 
if not superior, to either. He settled the basis for the 
development of many states and churches. 

He stamped the form of the Reformation in countries to 
which he was a stranger. The French date the beginnings 
of their literary development from him, and his influence 
was not restricted to the sphere of religion, but embraced 
their intellectual life in general; no one else has so per- 
manently influenced the spirit and form of their written 
language as he. 

* Joh. Calvini Opera. Amstelod, 1667. Johann Calvins Leben, von 
P. Henry. Hamburg, 1835. Weber, Geschichte des Calvinismus, 
1836. Bungener, Calvin, sa vie, son ceuvre et ses ecrits, 1862. Merle 
d'Aubigng, Histoire de la Reformation au temps de Calvin, L — II., 
1864-63. 

16 



242 CALVINISM. 

Calvin was younger than Luther and Zwingli by almost 
the term of human life, and was a child when the first 
reform movements began in Germany and Switzerland. 
He was not the originator of the idea of breaking away 
from the ancient Church, and of founding a new Christianity 
on the basis of the Scriptures. The German and Swiss 
Reformers had the priority in this respect. The revolutionary 
element especially, which was combined with the Reforma- 
tion, could not have originated with him ; he belongs almost 
to the second generation of its representatives. 

Calvin was a pupil of the German Reformation, which 
originated and pursued its course independently. But this 
is no reason for undervaluing his labours ; and we shall find 
such an individuality stamped upon his acts, that we shall 
recognise in them not only their distinguishing features, but 
a peculiar greatness and significance. 

John Calvin was born on the nth of July, 1509, at 
Noyon, in Picardy, a province which has produced several 
of those rugged and sharply-defined characters which we 
are not accustomed to look for in France, where we expect 
to find more pliant and flexible natures. 

The circumstances of his parental home could not be 
called unfavourable. His father was procurator fiscal at 
Noyon, and gave his son a good and learned education, 
and it was his wish that he should study secular jurispru- 
dence. He knew nothing of the suffering during childhood 
by which Luther was schooled and hardened, and was like- 
wise a stranger to the bitter spiritual conflicts through which 
he passed in his youth. Calvin made acquaintance with 
the modern classical culture at the best French schools, 
received excellent instruction in Greek and Latin, and was 
well prepared for the technical study of jurisprudence. He 
was in possession of a scholarship from his fourteenth year, 
had pursued a variety of studies at Paris and Bourges, and 
was to complete them at Orleans. But here, as with Luther 
at Erfurt, a change took place within him. 

At Orleans the lawyer became a theologian. Here he 
met with a few men — there was a German among them, 
and others came afterwards — who acquainted him with the 
Wittenberg doctrines, and incited him to investigate them. 
He began to study the Scriptures and the German reformers, 
and in a few years the transformation was complete, lor he 
never did anything by hrjves. 



CALVIN'S YOUTH. 243 

He never disowned this German influence. While he 
regarded Zwingli with a certain contempt, he always had 
the greatest esteem for Luther. His depth of character, 
his affection for the ancient Church, and reluctant defection 
from it, made a deep impression upon him. 

A brilliant future would have been before him in the 
ancient Church. Even in this youthful circle he was consi- 
dered to possess great talent. He was early distinguished 
for the precision of his ideas, the acuteness of his words, 
the true French art of terse and striking expression — in 
short, for his dialectic power — and it is not surprising that 
his friends should imagine that he would be a great lawyer 
or statesman. But with the cool determination which cha- 
racterized him all his life, he renounced all these prospects. 
When he devoted himself to theology an important living 
was conferred upon him, though he was only eighteen. But 
after embracing the new doctrines, he renounced all, and at 
once began to preach his heretical convictions. 

The case was very different in France from what it was 
in Germany. There, various influences were at work ; 
though the Emperor was opposed to the new doctrines, 
the nation was for the most part in favour of them, and 
their spread was increased by this schism. Heretical ten- 
dencies did exist in France, but the temporal power, in close 
alliance with Rome, did all in its power to stifle them in the 
bud. Calvin very soon had to fly from France, for even 
the protection afforded him by some influential people 
could not be permanent. He saw that those around him 
who professed the same doctrines were burnt. On the 
advice of his friends, therefore, he went abroad, visited 
Italy and Germany, and passed some time at Strasburg and 
Basle. Here he produced his first great work, and a most 
remarkable work it is, one of the ripest products of the age, 
though written at a time when the first foundations of the 
Reformation were already laid. It was the " Institutio 
Christianse Religionis," which appeared in 1536.* 

The book was afterwards translated into French. It was 
the first important archive in French prose in the sixteenth 
century, and it has had an immense influence upon the 
literature of the nation. Calvin's prose formed a real 
epoch in France. The fundamental idea of the work, 

• Antwerp edition, 9 vols. 



244 CALVINISM. 

which first appeared in Latin, may be discovered from the 
plan of it. 

The " Institutio " consists of four books, of which the 
first, " De Cognitione Dei Creatoris," treats of man's relation 
to God and of original sin ; the second, " De Cognitione Dei 
Redemptoris," of Christology and the doctrines of the New 
Testament ; the third, " De Modo Recipiendas Christi 
Gratise ; " the fourth, " De Externis Mediis," of the out- 
ward means of revelation, the Church, the sacraments, and 
the politico, administratio. 

This is the structure of this admirable work. It begins 
with a profound discussion of all the religious questions 
which had been cleared of the dogmatic and scholastic 
rubbish of the Middle Ages, and concludes with the consi- 
deration of outward means, the Christian congregation, and 
the worship of God. 

If we grant the great dialectician his premisses, we are 
compelled to accept his conclusions. It is generally the 
premisses which are called in question. The systematic 
construction of the doctrines of the faith in the first three 
books is perhaps less interesting than the contents of 
the fourth, in which he refers to the original form of the 
Church, demonstrates that the hierarchy has oppressed and 
overborne the true Church, that it must be restored on its 
original basis, that of the congregation, and therefore every- 
thing must be renounced which even savours of the later 
hierarchical superstructure. 

Not less remarkable is the way in which he handles the 
sacraments. 

As is well known, the doctrines of Calvin still take a very 
high place in theological research. He is far more logical 
than Luther, in whom the first fermenting processes of the 
Reformation may be traced ; and he is far removed from 
the moderate interpretations of Zwingli. His conception oi 
baptism and the supper is deeper than Zwingli's, whose 
symbolical makeshifts he could not accept, and more logical 
than Luther's, for he rejects transubstantiation. There was 
a touch of mystical speculation in it which places him on a 
level with the greatest theological thinkers. Zwingli's 
doctrine was too superficial and prcsaic for him, and on 
these points Calvin's views were more like those of the 
mediaeval mystics. 

His relation to the ancient Church was as peculiar as 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CALVINISM. 245 

that to the new faith. He was more bitterly oprosed to it 
than any one else. Passionate and cutting things had 
indeed been said of Rome, but nothing so crushing had 
been urged against the Curia in the whole range of polemics 
as the attempt to prove that the Church of Rome, in its 
origin and growth, was utterly opposed to the true Church 
of Christ Never had the hierarchical principle of the 
mediaeval Romish Church been the subject of a fiercer 
attack than by Calvin's unimpassioned and cold-blooded 
assertion, that it was utterly opposed to the original idea of 
the constitution of the Church, and he was therefore re- 
garded by Rome as a more dangerous and implacable enemy 
than Luther. But, on the other hand, he was adhering to 
the old Catholic principle in maintaining that Church and 
State should grow together into one, each permeated by the 
other. The hierarchical principle, which he rejected, never- 
theless exercised an immense influence over him, with this 
great difference, that his hierarchy, instead of growing out 
of the papal Church system, grew out of the congregation ; 
the tree, as it were, grew up from seed instead of being 
planted. The hierarchical tendency, love of dominion in 
the name of convictions which he held to be the only 
right ones, was very strongly marked in him ; his ecclesiasti- 
cal state was intended to interfere in all the relations of life, 
in the family and education ; it was to rule public morals 
with undisputed sway, though it was based upon the demo- 
cracy of the congregation. 

Calvin's historical significance lay in this, that to the com- 
pact system of ancient dogmatic doctrine he opposed a new 
system of religion, far more compact and logical than that 
of any other Reformer ; also, that in the matter of Church 
authority he more decidedly freed himself from Romish 
tradition tha»n any one else. It was his wish to see every 
sphere of life under the sway of an ecclesiastical State ; only 
the sovereignty was to be exercised by the congregation, 
instead of by the Pope. 

Calvin's Ecclesiastical State in Geneva, 1536-8 
and 1541-64. 

Humanly speaking, it was a mere accident which caused 
Calvin to yield to the entreaties of his friends to remain in the 
city where he was to begin his renowned efforts in the 



246 CALVINISM. 

cause of reform. Geneva had been from ancient times one 
of the most flourishing imperial cities of the Burgundian 
territory ; it was situated on the frontiers of several countries 
where the cross roads of various nationalities met. The 
city, which in itself was remarkable, belonged originally to 
the German empire ; the language of its inhabitants was 
Romanic ; it was bounded on one side by Burgundy, on 
the other by German Switzerland ; was the seat of a bishopric; 
and it had in its rear the secular power of the ambitious 
dukes of Savoy. 

Geneva was apparently in a state of political, ecclesiasti- 
cal, and moral decay. With the puritanical strictness of 
Geneva, as it afterwards became, before the mind's eye, it 
is difficult to picture the Geneva of that day. An unbridled 
love of pleasure, a reckless wantonness, a licentious frivolity 
had taken possession of Genevan life, while the State was 
the plaything of intestine and foreign feuds. The influence 
of the bishop generally predominated in the State, while the 
Duke of Savoy extended the arm of his temporal power 
over the city, and took pleasure in fomenting the quarrels 
between it and the bishop, in order that he might in the 
end exchange the part of a wily mediator for that of ruler 
over both. Geneva had well-nigh perished in its luxury, 
pleasure, and riches. In the language of strict moralists, it 
was a sort of " Sodom " — a commonwealth torn in pieces by 
party spirit, the independence of which was endangered. 

Reformers had already appeared in the city : Vinet, Farel, 
Theodore Beza ; they were Frenchmen, Farel a near neigh- 
bour of Geneva. These French Reformers are of quite a 
different stamp from our Germans, who, according as Luther 
or Melancthon is taken as their type, have either a plebeian 
popular, or learned theological character. They are either 
popular orators of great power and little polish, or they 
belong to the learned circles, and keep strictly to this 
character. 

In France they were mostly men belonging not to the 
lower, but to the middle and higher ranks of society, refined 
and cultivated ; and in this fact lay the weakness of 
Calvinism, which knew well how to rule the masses, but 
never to gam their affection. It was more obvious that the 
Bezas, the Farels, and Vinets were men of refined and 
polished culture than that they were learned theologians, 
and there was nothing whatever of the tribune about them ; 



V1NET, FAREL, BEZA. 247 

they belonged to aristocratic society, were elegant and 
polished speakers, and so masterly was their power of ex- 
pression that they were the greatest parliamentary orators of 
France. 

Calvin, though he despised ornament, possessed this 
power also, and he was the first writer of that keen, logical 
precision, that pleasing simplicity and unadorned terseness, 
which we justly admire in the masters of modern French 
prose. 

His greatness, however, was shown in the fanatical zeal 
with which he entered the city, ready to stake his life for 
his cause. He began to teach, to found a schocl, to labour 
on the structure which was the idea of his life, to introduce 
reforms in doctrine, worship, the constitution and discipline 
of the Church, and he preached with that powerful elo- 
quence only possessed by those in whom character and 
teaching are in unison. The purified worship was to take 
place within bare, unadorned walls ; no picture of Christ, 
nor pomp of any kind, was to disturb the aspirations of the 
soul. Life outside the temple was also to be a service of 
God; games, swearing, dancing, singing, worldly amuse- 
ments, and pleasure were regarded by him as sins, as much 
as real vice and crime. He began to form little congrega- 
tions, like those in the early ages of the Church, and it 
need scarcely be said that even in this worldly and pleasure- 
loving city the apparition of this man, in the full vigour of 
life, all conviction and determination, half prophet and 
half tribune, produced a powerful impression. 

The number of his outward followers increased, but they 
were outward followers only. Most of them thought it 
would be well to make use of the bold Reformer to oppose 
the bishop, and that he would find means of establishing a 
new and independent Church, but they seemed to regard 
freedom as libertinism. Calvin therefore regarded the 
course things were taking with profound dissatisfaction ; 
he was quite indifferent to the increasing number of his 
followers, if they continued as worldly as before, if his strict 
discipline did not take root, and if, in spite of well-filled 
churches, things went on as before, as though his teaching 
concerned only the outward man. 

So he delivered some extremely severe sermons, which 
half frightened and half estranged his hearers; and at Easter, 
1538, when the congregation came to partake of the Lord'* 



248 CALVINISM. 

Supper, he took the unheard-of step of sending them all 
back from the altar, saying, " You are not worthy to par- 
take of the Lord's body; you are just what you were before; 
your sentiments, your morals, and your conduct are un- 
changed." 

This was more than could be hazarded without peril to 
his life. The effect was indescribable ; his own friends dis- 
approved of the step. But that did not dismay him. He 
had barely time to flee for his life, and he had to leave 
Geneva in a state of transition --a chaos which justified a 
saying of his own, that defection from one Church is not 
renovation by another. 

He was now once more an exile. He wandered about 
on the frontiers of his country, in the German cities of 
Strasburg, Basle, &c, and we several times meet with him 
in the religious discussions between 1540 and 1550. Many 
important works date from this period (" De Coena," and 
the second edition of the " Institutio "). It is evident that 
he was carrying on the culture of his mind, but this second 
repulse perhaps left a bitterness in his spirit which he never 
overcame. Life did not present itself to him under a cheer- 
ful aspect ; the understanding and logic were to him all in 
all ; the idea that the great mission wherewith he was 
entrusted had been frustrated by the frivolity of the masses 
embittered his soul. 

But a time came when they wished him back at Geneva. 
With the beginnings of the Calvinistic transformation the 
foundations were laid of greater liberty in municipal life, 
but this was again endangered ; it seemed as if morality 
and liberty would perish together. There was for three 
years a tumult of party strife, and it was plain that Geneva 
would be lost if, having forsaken the old Church, she refused 
to belong to the new. These were years of bitter trial. 
Calvin compared them to the time when the Lord's people 
were in the wilderness. But a great triumph was in store 
for him, for the people were soon saying with one voice, 
" Let us recall the man who wished to renovate our faith, 
our morals, and our liberties." An urgent request was pre- 
ferred to him to return and to become lawgiver of the 
city. 

In September, 1 541, he returned, and began his celebrated 
labours. Endowed with supreme power, like Lycurgus at 
Sparta, he set to work to make Geneva a city of the Lord— 



CALVIN'S ECCLESIASTICAL STATE. 249 

to found an ecclesiastical state in which religion, public life, 
government, and the worship of God were to be all of a 
piece, and an extraordinary task it was. Calvinistic Geneva 
became the school of reform for western Europe, and 
scattered far and wide the germs of similar institutions. 
In times when Protestantism elsewhere had become cool, 
this school carried on the conflict with the mediaeval 
Church. 

Calvin was implacable in his determination to purify the 
worship of God of all needless adjuncts. All that was 
calculated to charm and affect the senses was abolished ; 
spiritual worship should be independent of all earthly 
things, and should consist of edification by the word, and 
simple spiritual songs. All the traditional externals that 
Luther had retained — altars, pictures, ceremonials, and 
decorations of every kind — were dispensed with. It was 
one of the characteristics of the Middle Ages that the 
Church thought as much of exciting the senses of the 
faithful as of promoting edification and religious feeling, 
and in course of time it might almost be said without 
injustice that the sensuous had gained the victory over the 
spiritual. Calvin laboured consistently in the contrary 
direction. When we look at average human nature, it is 
quite open to doubt whether this principle in all its strin- 
gency can be permanently carried out ; but it was a grand 
idea to restore the almost extinguished spiritual element in 
religion to its original supremacy. It may be objected that 
it expects too much of human nature, but not that it is 
opposed to the spirit of Christianity. 

Calvin next established a system of Church discipline 
which controlled the individual in every relation of life, and 
ruled him from the cradle to the grave. He retained all the 
means by which ecclesiastical authority enforced obedience 
on the faithful in the Middle Ages — baptism, education up to 
confirmation, penance, penal discipline, and excommunica- 
tion. There was, of course, no consecration of priests, and 
he reduced the number of sacraments to a minimum ; but 
no other reformer so far demanded the sacrifice of personal 
freedom ; and indeed on this point he far surpassed the 
ancient Church, for her theoretical strictness was modified 
by indulgences and other latitudinarian practices, whereas 
Calvin's theories were carried out with the utmost rigour. 
There w?s, however, one mitigation : they were not ira- 



250 CALVINISM. 

posed by the sovereignty of an individual, but by a minister 
and administrator chosen by a self-governing community. 
It was a great idea to enforce the strictest discipline and 
entire subjection, but to enforce it in the name of the com- 
munity instead of by sovereign power. 

There is no more interesting spectacle in history than 
Calvinism — this curious combination of the reformed and 
mediaeval Church system, of modern monarchical and 
ancient republican government. 

Calvin began his labours late in the autumn of 1 541, and he 
acquired and maintained more power than was ever exercised 
by the most powerful popes; He was indeed only the 
" preacher of the word," but through his great influence he 
was the lawgiver, the administrator, the dictator of the 
State of Geneva. There was nothing in the commonwealth 
that had not been ordained by him, and this indicates a 
remarkable aspect of his character. 

The organization of the State of Geneva began with the 
ordinances of the 2nd of January, 1542. There were four 
orders of officials — pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons. 
The Consistory was formed of the pastors and elders. The 
pastors were to preach, teach, and distribute the sacra- 
ments. Every candidate for the office underwent an 
examination as to whether he had a sound knowledge of 
Scripture, whether he had the capacity for instructing the 
people in it, whether he was a man of good conduct and 
had lived a blameless life. Only those who had passed this 
triple test were eligible by the community. The duties of 
pastors were precisely denned. They were to celebrate the 
Lord's Supper four times a year ; psalms were to be sung 
before and after the sermon. They were to conduct the 
education of youth, visit the families to see that no one 
came to the Lord's table ignorantly or unprepared, and they 
were regularly to visit prisoners and the sick. 

It was the special duty of the Consistory, which was com- 
posed of the clergy and twelve laymen, to see that the 
ordinances were duly observed, and it was the supreme 
tribunal of morals. The twelve laymen were elected for a 
year, by the council of two hundred, on the nomination by 
the clergy. The Consistory met every Thursday to see that 
everything in the church was in order. They had the 
power of excommunication, but this only consisted in ex- 
clusion from the community of the faithful, and the loss of 



CALVIN'S ECCLESIASTICAL STATE. 25 1 

tlie privilege of partaking of the Lord's Supper. It also 
decided questions relating to marriage. The deacons had 
the care of the poor and of almsgiving. 

Calvin himself was the soul of the whole organization. 
But he was a cold, stiff, almost gloomy being, and his 
character produces a very different impression from the 
genial warmth of Luther, who could be cheerful and merry 
with his family. Half Old Testament prophet, half repub- 
lican demagogue, Calvin could do anything in his State, but 
it was by means of his personal influence, the authority ot 
his words, " the majesty of his character," as was said by a 
magistrate of Geneva after his death. He was to the last 
the simple minister, whose frugal mode of life appeared to 
his enemies like niggardliness. After a reign of twenty- 
three years, he left behind him the possessions of a mendi- ' 
cant monk. His poverty was his pride. The poor could 
tell of his kindness and generosity, and the city became 
immensely rich, under his rule ; he lived and cared to live 
only for the good of all, and it was this that made him 
appear so majestic, so dignified, to his State. He was 
not only a dictator in his republic, but a power in Europe. 
His influence may be seen by his correspondence.* He 
wrote to Margaret of Valois ; wrote opinions in detail for 
the young King Edward VI. of England; corresponded 
with Bullinger, Melancthon, Knox; gave counsel to 
Coligny, Condd, Jeanne D'Albret, the Duchess of Ferrara. 
In Geneva he was like a Samuel, before whom all prostrated 
themselves; in his letters we observe the modest tone of 
the simple clergyman, and yet the conscious pride of the 
man who had been true to his convictions. His position 
was a regal and commanding one. 

Still he had something of the passion and excitability 
which characterize his countrymen. Though he possessed 
great self-control, and was generally calm and cold, yet 
when opposite opinions were broached to those which ruled 
his life, his rage vented itself in fearful storms; the hierarch, 
the reformed pope, the Old Testament prophet, in him 
broke out, crushing all that came in his way ; mostly, how- 
ever, he was temperate, and even conciliatory, to his 
opponents. 

His treatment of Servetus is a case in point. Servetus 

• Edited by Bonnet. Paris, 1854. 



2$2 CALVINISM. 

honestly held an opposite theological opinion, and defended 
it with the zeal of a martyr, and Calvin had him burnt as 
heretics were burnt in the Middle Ages. This is the darkest 
spot in his life, and nothing can efface it. 

To explain his power we must view his character as a 
whole. The republic which he governed had, before his 
time, been frivolous and dissolute ; it now became a pattern 
of gloomy puritanical strictness. He ruled by his irre- 
proachable life, by the majesty of his unselfishness, but also 
by the crushing weight of his irresistible will, and, in case of 
need, by the terrors of fanaticism. His Christian republic 
was a theocracy after the pattern of the Old Testament ; he 
did not want the Church to rule the State nor the State the 
Church ; the State was so entirely to comprehend the Church 
that the boundary line between them should disappear. It 
is plain that a system like this could only be carried out, 
even in a small State, by the moral power of an excep- 
tionally energetic individual will. Calvin solved this great 
problem in the period between 1541-61, and at the end 
of nearly three centuries the system remained in the same 
grooves — the stamp which he impressed upon the people 
was uneffaced, and more than a century after his death the 
features of the Geneva school were plainly distinguishable. 

No other reformer established so rigid a church disci- 
pline. He wished that it should effect a transformation in 
every sphere of life, and he was in no way influenced by 
the more liberal views which Luther and Zwingli took of 
these things. 

Even as early as 1536 he appeared as a reformer of 
morals, * with a novel view of crime, and enforcing exem- 
plary strictness in punishment. It has already been men- 
tioned that all noisy games, games .of chance, dancing, 
singing of profane songs, cursing and swearing, were 
forbidden, and that church-going and Sabbath-keeping were 
strictly enjoined. The moral police took account of every- 
thing. Every citizen had to be at home by nine o'clock, 
under heavy penalties. Adultery, which had previously 
been punished by a few days' imprisonment and a small 
fine, was now punished by death ; an adulteress was 
actually drowned in the Rhone, and two adulterers be- 
headed. It was forbidden to swear even at an'mals. A 

• Schenkel, Wesen des Protestantismus. 



HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CALVINISM. 253 

child that had abused its mother was put upon bread and 
water ; another that had thrown stones at its mother, pub- 
licly whipped and hung up to the gallows by its arms ; and 
one that had struck its parents was executed. Sensual sins 
were generally punished by drowning; singing profane 
songs, by banishment ; a woman was publicly whipped for 
singing a worldly song to a psalm tune, and an educated 
man who was caught reading Poggio's licentious tales, im- 
prisoned ; any one found playing cards was condemned to 
stand in the pillory with the cards round his neck. The 
ancient festivities at weddings were entirely done away 
with ; no drums or music were allowed in the processions, 
no dancing at the feast. The theatre was interdicted except 
when Biblical scenes were represented ; novel reading was 
entirely forbidden, and if any one wrote anything objec- 
tionable he was sent to prison. 

Thus the Reformed Church discipline was carried out with 
the same consistency and rigidity as in the old monastic 
life, and the consequences of so unnatural a state of things 
were not unknown in this case. 

Calvinistic Discipline and its Historical 

Significance. 

Man was not placed in the world to torment himself 
with penances and flagellations ; though not intended to be 
an abode of pleasure, pleasure ought not to be banished 
from it. Luther saw this plainly, and did not despise cheer- 
ful recreation, but considered it a part of Christian life. 
The world was not intended to be made a prayer-meeting, 
and he who tries to make it so is in danger of sowing the 
seeds of mere outward sanctity — in other words, of hypo- 
crisy. Extreme views of this sort — a certain Methodistical 
piety which takes a pride in renouncing every innocent 
enjoyment, and in gloomy views of life — have always been 
united with Calvinism. 

Still it is undeniable that it was of great importance, 
especially for that period. 

This mode of treating the world and men was not so 
much Christian, as Spartan or ancient Roman. No one will 
maintain that all mankind can be ruled and trained by these 
means ; but it cannot be denied that within certain limits it 
produced vigorous characters, men of self-denying devotion 



254 CALVINISM. 

and heroic courage, and in this fact lay the importance of 
Calvin's pattern State. 

A school of men was to be trained, who, temperate and 
vigorous, despising both the pleasures and temptations of 
life, should be prepared to make great sacrifices and to per- 
form great deeds for the sake of an idea of world-wide sig- 
nificance ; and the effect produced by this school, both at 
home and abroad, was really astounding. Life in Geneva 
was entirely transformed ; the previous bustling activity was 
replaced by solemn, priestly earnestness ; the old frivolity 
disappeared ; magnificence in attire was no longer thought 
of; nothing was heard of dances or masquerades ; the taverns 
and theatre were empty, the churches crowded : a tone of 
devout piety pervaded the city. 

And this school extended itself as a mighty propaganda ; 
we find its influence among the French and Dutch Cal- 
vinists, and especially among the Scotch Presbyterians and 
English Puritans, who are offshoots of the Genevan parental 
tree. 

At a time when Europe had no solid results of reform to 
show, this little State of Geneva stood up as a great power ; 
year by year it sent forth apostles into the world, who 
preached its doctrines everywhere, and it became the most 
dreaded counterpoise to Rome, when Rome no longer had 
any bulwark to defend her. 

The missionaries from this little community displayed the 
lofty and dauntless spirit which results from a stoical educa- 
tion and training ; they bore the stamp of a self-renouncing 
heroism which was elsewhere swallowed up in theological 
narrowness. They were a race with vigorous bones and 
sinews, for whom nothing was too daring, and who gave a 
new direction to Protestantism by causing it to separate 
itself from the old traditional monarchical authority, and to 
adopt the gospel of democracy as part of its creed. 

It formed a weighty counterpoise to the desperate efforts 
which the ancient Church and monarchical power were 
making to crush the spirit of the Reformation. 

It was impossible to oppose Caraffa, Philip II., and the 
Stuarts, with Luther's passive resistance ; men were wanted 
who were ready to wage war to the knife, and such was the 
Calvinistic school. It everywhere accepted the challenge ; 
throughout all the conflicts for political and religious liberty, 
up to the time of the first emigration to America, in France, 



HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CALVINISM. 255 

the Netherlands, England, and Scotland, we recognise the 
Genevan school. A little bit of the world's history was 
enacted in Geneva, which forms the proudest portion of the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A number of the 
most distinguished men in France, the Netherlands, and 
Great Britain professed her creed ; they are sturdy, gloomy 
souls, iron characters cast in one mould, in which there was 
an interfusion of Romanic, Germanic, mediaeval, and modern 
elements ; and the national and political consequences of 
the new faith were carried out bv them with the utmost 
rigour and consistency. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Reformation and Restoration in Italy. — Division of Opinion amon,g 
the People. — Vacillation of the Curia. — Opinion of the Cardinals 
on Reform in 1537. — Conciliatory Attitude till 1541. — The Council 
of Trent and the Catholic Restoration. — First Meeting of the 
Council, December, 1545-7. — Rudeness of the Curia to the Em- 
peror and Protestants. — Second Meeting, May, 1551. — Pope 
Paul IV. (Caraffa), 1555-9. Third Meeting, January, 1562, to the 
end of 1563. — Pope Pius IV., 1559-65. — Progress and Results of 
the Negotiation. — Increased Consolidation of the Ecclesiastical 
Power. — Precautions against Sectarianism. — Reconstruction of 
the Shattered Religious System. — Improvement in the Intellectual 
and Moral Training of the Clergy. 

Italy and the Reformation.* 

THE conflict with the hierarchy did not take the same form 
in Italy as elsewhere ; there were two opposite opinions 
on the subject. According to one, the national and historical 
existence of Italy was closely bound up with the hierarchy ; 
according to the other, which was held by Machiavelli, the 
hierarchy was fatal to Italian liberties. The former opinion 
was far the most widely prevalent. It was nothing to the 
Italians that foreign nations complained of the oppression 
of the hierarchy. There is no doubt that the masses saw 
no cause for discontent under it We have proof that the 
hierarchy was popular — that among the people, down to the 
lowest grades, the undiminished splendour of the Papacy 
was looked upon as a pledge of the power of Italy. 

But this did not prevent reform movements from taking 
place. The Humanistic school had its home here ; its op- 
position tendencies had not spared the Church any more 
than Scholasticism ; it had everywhere been the precursor 
and ally of the intellectual revolt, and not the least in Italy.. 
There were from the first eminent individuals at Venice, 

• Ranke, Fiirsten und Volker. 3 Aunage. 1854. 



THE CARDINALS ON REFORM. 257 

Modena, Ferrara, Florence, even in the States of the Church 
themselves, who were more or less followers of Luther. 

The cardinals Contarini and Morone, Bembo and Sadolet, 
distinguished preachers like Peter Martyr, Johann Valdez, 
and Bernardino Occhino, and from among the princely 
families an intellectual lady, Renata of Ferrara, were inclined 
to the new doctrines. But they were leaders without fol- 
lowers ; the number of their adherents among the masses 
was surprisingly small.* 

The Roman Curia, under the Pontificate of Paul III., 
1534-49, vacillated in its policy for a time; between 
1537-41, the prevailing sentiments were friendly and con- 
ciliatory towards Reform. It was at this time that the famous 
book appeared, " Del Beneficio di Giesu Cristo Crocifisso " 
(The Benefit of Christ's Death), which acquainted the 
Italians with the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, 
and obtained an unexampled success among the reading 
world, i540.t 

They were, in fact, gravely entertaining the question at 
Rome, whether it would not be better to come to terms with 
Reform, to adopt the practicable part of its programme, and 
so put an end to the schism which was spreading so fast in 
the Church. It was at this time that the short episode in 
the papal policy occurred to which the opinion pronounced 
by the cardinals of 1537 affords lasting testimony. 

As a confession by the Church of its need of reform, this 
document must engage a moment's attention. 

It was openly acknowledged that the Popes had often 
selected servants, not that they might learn from the Popes 
the duties required of them, but that the Popes might have 
things which they lusted after proclaimed as allowable. Out 
of the adulation which followed upon the heels of every 
princely appointment, the doctrine had been established 
that the Pope was lord of all things in the Church, and that 
the reproach of simony could not be applied to him. A 
vast number of abuses had arisen from this source. 

The cardinals acknowledged in general terms that the 

* "Reform without schism" may be called the ideal of the Italian 
Reformers of that age ; it is shewn by A. Bonnet, in the life of Aonio 
Paleario, that they had more followers among the people than is gene- 
rally supposed. — Ed. 

t It is perfectly clear to me that Paleario could not be the author of 
this work, from comparing the ttyle with his mode of expression in hi? 
Discourses. 

17 



258 ITALY AND THE REFORMATION. 

causes of schism did not lie so much in any opp jsition to 
the Church, as in the state of the Church itself, from the 
disastrous abuses connected with the doctrine of the papal 
supremacy. This was indeed a striking confirmation of 
what the great Reform party beyond Italy had been saying 
and writing for years about the disease and cure of the 
Church. 

And they really desired reform. The mode of granting 
benefices, plurality of spiritual offices, simony, reversions and 
commendams, the system of dispensations, the demoralisa- 
tion in monasteries, the financial system of the Curia, the 
degraded lives of the clergy ; — all these were enumerated as 
spots which required cleansing, and it amounted to veiy 
much the same as what had been demanded in the early 
days of the Reformation. The effect of this document may 
be traced for some years, especially in the conciliatory tone 
which was adopted by the Curia at the religious discussions 
in Germany, in 1540-41. An honest desire then still pre- 
vailed to effect a reconciliation. Contarini was in favour of 
it with his whole soul. But it proceeded no farther than the 
attempt ; for once the differences seemed likely to be 
adjusted, so far as this was possible; but in 1542, the re- 
vulsion took place, which was never again reversed. 

Only one result remained. The Pope could no longer 
refuse to summon a council. The Emperor had been 
urging it year after year; the Pope had acceded to it 
further than any of his predecessors had done ; and, con- 
sidering the retreat which now took place, this concession 
was the least that could be demanded. 

At length, therefore, three years after it was convened, in 
May, 1542, the council assembled at Trent in December, 
1545- 

The Council of Trent* and the Catholic 
Restoration. 

It was the Emperor's great desire that a council should 
be held in Germany, that thus the confidence of the Ger- 
mans in the supreme tribunal in the great controversy might 

* Historia del Concilio Tridentino di Pietro Soave Polano (Paolo 
Sarpi), 1619 — often translated into Latin, French, and German. On the 
other side : Storia del Concilio di Trento, scritta dal Padre Sfo'rza 
Pallavicini, 1656. J. H. von Wesseuberg, Die grossen Kirchen. 
versammlungen des 15 und 16 Centurie 184a 



THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 259 

be gained; but the selection of Trent, which nominally 
belonged to Germany, was the utmost concession that could 
be obtained. 

The intentions of the Emperor and the Pope with regard 
to the council were entirely opposed to each other. The 
Pope was determined to stifle all opposition in the bud, 
while the Emperor was very desirous of having a counter- 
poise to the Pope's supremacy in council, provided always 
that it concurred in the imperial programme. 

The very commencement of the proceedings of the 
council was indicative of the position taken by the Papal 
Chair. The council was opened on 13th of December, 
1545, by Marcellus Cervinus, Johann del Monte, and 
Reginald Pole, as Papal legates. Their first step was an 
attempt to set aside the declaration, Quod concilium potesta- 
tem immediate a Christo habeat, &c, in which they were in 
the main successful. To the astonishment of the assembly, 
it was then stated that the legates could not decide on any 
resolution without the consent of the Pope. The plan of 
voting according to nations was also set aside, and it was 
expressly stated that they were not at Constance or Basle, 
and that the Pope, as represented by his legates, had the 
pre-eminence. 

All the proceedings were so arranged that the entire 
conduct of them was in the hands of the Curia. As before 
stated,* the Emperor's wish that those questions might be 
first considered on which Catholics and Protestants were 
agreed, was entirely set aside, and Rome insisted that the 
very questions on which they most differed should be first 
brought forward, and they were handled in a spirit which 
made any understanding as difficult as possible. 

It was only on one point that the assembly could be said 
to be in any way influenced by the new doctrines, namely, 
on the subject of justification. The doctrine was not again 
put forth in accordance with the principle of Tetzel's bare- 
faced sal a of indulgences ; it was quietly essentially altered. 
Not that Luther's doctrine was adopted, but an intelligible 
compromise was sought between Pelagianism and Augus- 
tinian one-sidedness, and a middle course was adopted 
which gave some scope for justification by faith, but in 
which the doctrine of good works was also retained in a 
way which Luther would never have approved, 
• Page 219, 



260 ITALY AND THE REFORMATION. 

This occupied a considerable time. The Emperor had 
hoped that reforms would have been introduced calculated 
to put an end to schism, instead of which modern errors were 
met by the dogmatic assertion of the absolute correctness 
of the old doctrines. " Ours is the true teaching," it was 
said; " your pretended interpretations are nothing to us." 

Nevertheless some reforms were carried out. Between 
the time of meeting and adjournment, December, 1545, to 
the spring of 1547, the following were the main points 
decided on : — 

1. The bishops were to provide better teachers and 
better schools. 

2. The bishops should themselves expound the word of 
God. 

3. Penalties were to be enforced for the neglect of their 
duties, and various rules were laid down as to the necessary 
qualifications for the office of a bishop. Dispensations, 
licenses, and privileges were abolished. 

The Church was therefore to be subjected to a reform 
which abolished sundry abuses, without conceding any 
change in her teaching. 

The course the council was taking excited the Emperor's 
extreme displeasure. He considered that this agitation of 
disputed points was a challenge to him and his plans, and 
that there was not much sincerity in the plans for reform. 
They were too much bent on condemning the heretics, and 
too little on improving the Church. 

The consequence was that the Emperor began to make 
his influence felt in the council. He organized a sort of 
opposition to Rome ; his commissaries kept up a good 
understanding with the Protestants, and it was evident that 
he meant to make use of them for an attack on the Pope. 
This made Rome eager to withdraw the assembly from the 
influence of German bishops and imperial agents as soon as 
possible. A fever which had broken out at Trent, but had 
soon disappeared, was made a pretext for transferring the 
council to Bologna in the spring of 1547. The imperial 
commissioners protested that the decrees of such a hole- 
and-corner council would be null and void. 

The contest remained undecided for years. Paul III. 
died in the midst of it, in November, 1549, and was suc- 
ceeded by Cardinal del Monte, one of the papal egates at 
the council, as Pope Julius III. The Emperor at length 



THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 26l 

came to an understanding with him, and in May, 1551, the 
council was again opened at Trent. The Emperor's position 
in Germany made it necessary for him to be at peace with 
the Pope, and peace was restored just as the heaviest storm 
of all broke over him in Germany, by the ecclesiastical and 
political rebellion organized against him by Prince Maurice ; 
and but little help in withstanding this could be looked for 
from the assembly at Trent. The assembly remained 
Catholic; the Protestant elements, which were represented 
at first, all disappeared after the turn of affairs in 1552. 
After that there was no further thought of an understanding 
with the heretics. The results for reform were very small 
indeed. The proceedings were dragging wearily on when 
a fresh adjournment was announced in 1552. Pope 
Julius III. died in March, 1555. His successor, the noble 
Cardinal Cervin, elected as Marcellus II., died after only 
twenty-two days, and was succeeded by Cardinal Caraffa as 
Paul IV., 1555-9. 

Just when all hope was given up in Germany of bringing 
the heretics peaceably back, this new Pope was elected from 
the house of Caraffa. The idea now was to reorganize the 
ancient Church, to establish it on a firmer foundation, and 
to surround it by a more secure fence, even if within nar- 
rower limits, before any fresh attempt was made to convert 
the heretics. Paul IV. was the impersonation of this idea. 
He was the Pope of the restoration. The warm Neapolitan 
blood flowed in his veins, and he was a fiery, energetic 
character. He was not in favour of any concessions or 
abatement, but for a complete breach with the new doc- 
trines, and a thorough exclusiveness for the ancient Church. 

He was one of the ablest men of the time. As early as 
in 1542 he had advised that no further concessions should 
be made, but that the Inquisition, of which indeed he was 
the creator, should be restored. It was he who decidedly 
initiated the great Catholic reaction. He established the 
Spanish Inquisition in Italy, instituted the first Index, and 
gave the Jesuits his powerful support in the interests of the 
restoration. 

This turn of affairs was the answer to the German 
religious Peace. Since the Protestants no longer con- 
cerned themselves about Rome, Rome was about to set her 
house in order without them, and as a matter of course the 
council stood still. 



262 ITALY AND THE REFORMATION. 

Paul IV. openly said that the reforms which he had 
promised could be made without a council, and, if possible, 
it was his intention to ward them off altogether. But there 
were difficulties in the way of this. The temporal Catholic 
princes themselves, whose orthodoxy was beyond question, 
the kings of France and Spain, King Ferdinand, and the 
Duke of Bavaria, had made definite demands for reform, 
respecting the rights of the national Churches, the election 
of bishops, protection against the fiscal arts of Rome, and 
even on such points as the celibacy of the clergy. These 
demands gave rise to all sorts of contests, and the result 
was that the council was convened afresh by the next Pope, 
Pius IV. (1559-65), in November, 1560, and so the Council 
of Trent was opened for the third time in January, 1562. 

Then began the important period of the council, during 
which the legislation to which it has given a name was en- 
acted. When it first met it might have been thought that the 
Protestants might have been won over by one concession or 
another, but there was no thought of this now ; the sole idea 
was to endow the ancient Church with fresh power, to sur- 
round her with more impenetrable and permanent bulwarks. 
No counteracting influence, such as had once been exer- 
cised by Charles V., could be looked for from any temporal 
prince. The Curia reigned supreme, and, in spite of the 
remonstrances of the Emperor and of France, decided that 
the council should be considered a continuation of the pre- 
vious ones, which meant — " All the decrees aimed against 
the Protestants are in full force ; we have no further idea of 
coming to terms with them." The next proceeding was to 
interdict books and arrange an Index. 

Distinguished and gifted ecclesiastics contended with 
great energy for the divine origin and consequent inviola- 
bility of ecclesiastical authority as opposed to the demands 
of the temporal rulers, which at first gave rise to stormy 
scenes. The most eminent among them was Jacob Lainez, 
the second general and special organizer of the order of 
the Jesuits. 

He was the leader of the ultra- Romanising party, and 
the most earnest representative of the view that it was of 
the first moment to strengthen anew the foundations of the 
rock of St. Peter, the unity of the authority of the Church 
as instituted by God. The Church, he said, is eternal ; she 
is based upon divine, not human laws, while States are the 



THE CuJNCIL OF TRENT. 263 

creations of man, transitory and variable according to his 
fancy. "The Church did not make herself, neither did 
she institute her own government ; but Christ, her ruler and 
monarch, first gave her laws. States, on the contrary, 
founded their governments on liberty ; all power was ori- 
ginally in the hands of the commonalties, who entrusted it 
to their rulers, without, however, depriving themselves of 
power." * In their zeal to establish the essential differences 
between Church and State, these Romanists adopt the 
doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. Bellarmini is in 
agreement with Lainez when he says, " It is obvious that 
it depends upon the multitude whether they have a king, 
consuls, or other officials as rulers, and if they have a legiti- 
mate reason they can change a monarchical for an aristo- 
cratic government, as was the case in the history of ancient 
Rome." 

And the views of the Romanists prevailed. The restora- 
tion of the indisputable authority of the Pope was the ruling 
principle of all the decrees ; what was done for the cause of 
Reform was as nothing compared with what was required, 
and was overruled by the reservation in favour of the papal 
authority, to which all decisions as to the abolition of 
abuses were referred. Paul IV. was right when he said 
that " the fathers in the council had been so moderate in 
the matter of reform, and so considerate of him, that reform 
would have been carried much further if he had undertaken 
it himself." 

The great achievement of the council for the unity of 
the Catholic Church was this : it formed into a code of 
laws, on one consistent principle, that which in ancient 
times had been variable and uncertain, and which had been 
almost lost sight of in the last great revolution. Con- 
troverted questions were replaced by dogmas, doubtful 
traditions by definite doctrines; a uniformity was established 
in matters of faith and discipline which had never existed 
before, and an impregnable bulwark was thus erected against 
the sectarian spirit and the tendency to innovation. t 

Still when this unity was established upon a solid basis, 
the universal Church of former times was torn asunder, 
for a portion of the West had escaped from the fold, 
including some of those who had been formerly some 
of the most faithful sons of the Catholic Church. It was 
* Ranke, Zeitschrift. f Wessenberg. Ranke. 



?64 ITALY AND THE REFORMATION. 

only the Spanish and Italian peninsulas which were still 
unconditionally subject to her, for even France was only 
partially so, but within this circumscribed area the piapal 
dominion was more firmly established than ever : its in- 
dependence of councils was more unequivocally declared 
than it had ever been in the Middle Ages. It was settled 
for ever that demands like those made at Constance and 
Basle, attempts at national reform, like the mighty efforts 
lately made, were illegal. 

What the Church gained by these means in solidity 
and compactness was almost enough to indemnify her for 
her losses. Her foundations were now laid in a rigid 
organization, to depart from which would be to alter her 
essential character. The variety, the manifold forms of 
culture, the free development of differences to which the 
new doctrines afforded free scope, were incompatible with 
the vital principles of this Church. A clear, indisputable 
legal foundation was thus for the first time created for the 
Catholic Church, her authority, her laws, and their adminis- 
tration. Canon law had hitherto developed itself histori- 
cally, and there could not fail to be contradictions arising 
out of the various periods at which its statutes had ori- 
ginated, and obscurities which gave rise to doubts. It 
was these weaknesses which had furnished the innovators 
with so many points of attack ; want of coherence xnd 
consistency was the weakest point of a Church which ex- 
pressly boasted of possessing these advantages. At Trent 
she received a consistent and elaborate code of laws, which 
when possible, put an end to the contradictions or skilfully 
concealed them, and thus the number of exposed points 
was not only lessened, but a secure armour created to 
defend them. 

Neither were the reforms quite an empty name ; it was 
no small gain for Catholic countries that the advantages 
gained by the Protestants were in some degree secured to 
them also ; seminaries were to be provided for the better 
education of priests, and there was to be strict supervision to 
ensure their better conduct ; divine service was to be better 
regulated, the sacraments administered, and edification pro- 
vided for by means of preaching ; but the chief point was, 
and continued to be, the establishment of the unimpeach- 
able legitimacy of the Papal Chair as the main pillar of t\e 
newly-won uniformity. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE JESUITS AND THE INQUISITION. 

Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus. — Spanish Catholicism. — 
Loyola's Spiritual Knighthood, from 152 1. — Organization of the 
Order, from the time of its Authorisation, 1540. — Its Constitution, 
Principles, Discipline, and Tactics. — The Inquisition. — The In- 
structions of Cardinal Caraffa. — Censorship of the Press. 

Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus.* 

EXPERIENCE had shown that the old monastic orders 
were no longer sufficient. Catholics and Protestants 
united in lamenting their decline. Some orders — the Augus- 
tinians, for example — had become a source of apostasy ; 
others were no longer so efficient as before, at a time when 
humanistic culture was required in the representatives of 
the Church's cause ; the Dominican order, part of whose 
vocation it had been to enforce the Inquisition, had become 
powerless ; in the trial of Reuchlin they had done more 
harm than good, and succeeding times had shown that they 
were totally unable to prevent the spread of heresy. 

About 1540, therefore, an idea began to be entertained 
at Rome that a new order was needed ; the plan was not to 
abolish the old ones, but to found new ones which should 
better answer the required ends. The most important of 
them was the Society of Jesus. But in this case the moving 
cause did not proceed from Rome. 

Among the wars of Charles V. we must recur to the first 
contest at Navarra, in 152 1. It was on this occasion, in 

* Historia Societatis Jesu, by Orlandini and other Members ot 
the Order, 1615-1715. Maffeji de Vita et Moribus Ign. Loyola;, 
1685. Corpus Institutorum Soc. Jesu. Antwerp, 1702. Institutum 
Soc. Jesus. Prag, 1752. Kortum, Lntstehungsgeschichte des Jesuit- 
enordens. 1843. 



266 THE JESUITS AND THE INQUISITION. 

defending Pamplona against the French, that Loyola re 
ceived the wound which was to cause the monkish tendency 
to prevail over the chivalrous element in his nature. 

A kind of Catholicism still prevailed in Spain which no 
longer existed anywhere else. Its vigour may be traced to 
the fact that during the whole of the Middle Ages it was 
always in hostile contact with Islam, with the Mohammedan 
infidels. The crusades here had never come to an end ; 
the perpetual contest with the Moors and Moriscos was a 
national as well as religious enthusiasm ; the ecclesia militans 
had never laid down her arms, and thus she had retained 
all those manly and chivalrous qualities which she had 
elsewhere lost during the protracted peace. Abuses were 
not wanting in the Church here ; but they were partly 
overlooked, and they were really less important. Face to 
face with a common enemy, Christianity had not time to 
fall into the outward formalism which disfigured it elsewhere. 
The enthusiastic spirit of mediaeval Catholicism still existed 
here ; the whole nation was filled with zeal to convert the 
heretics. Our previous retrospect has shown us how little 
there was of it in the rest of the world. 

As yet untainted by heresy, and suffering from no decline, 
in Spain, Catholicism was as eager for conquest as it had 
been in all the West in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 
It was from the nation possessing this temperament that the 
founder of the order of the Jesuits sprang. 

Ignatius Loyola (born 1491) was a Spanish knight, pos- 
sessing the twofold tendencies which distinguish the knight- 
hood of the Middle Ages. He was a gallant swordsman, 
delighting in martial feats and romantic love adventures ; 
but he was at the same time animated by a glowing enthu- 
siasm for the Church and her supremacy, even during the 
early period of his life. These two tendencies were striving 
together in his character, until the event took place which 
threw him upon a bed of suffering. No sooner was he 
compelled to renounce his worldly knighthood, than he was 
sure that he was called upon to found a new order of 
spiritual knighthood, like that of which he had read in the 
chivalrous romance, " Amadis." Entirely unaffected by the 
Reformation, what he understood by this was a spiritual 
brotherhood in the true mediaeval sense, which should 
convert the heathen in the newly-discovered countries of 
the world. 



IGNATIUS LOYDLA. 267 

With all the zeal of a Spaniard he decided to live to the 
Catholic Church alone; he chastised his body with penances 
and all kinds of privations, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 
and, in order to complete his defective education, he visited 
the university of Paris ; it was among his comrades there 
that he formed the first associations out of which the order 
was afterwards formed. Among these was Jacob Lainez ; 
he was Loyola's fellow-countryman, the organizing head 
who was to stamp his impress upon the order. What 
Loyola would have founded himself would have been of a 
different character ; it would have been an enthusiastic fra 
ternity in the faith, ascetically cut off from all worldly affairs, 
who would have spread the gospel in the New World. An 
impulse to Christian conquest was Loyola's ruling idea. 

He formed a little company of congenial spirits, whom 
he had thoroughly examined and conscientiously selected ; 
but their efforts might have been called somewhat aimless, 
and, however earnest, might, from their entire independence, 
not have been wholly free from suspicion of heresy. 

Then came the spread of the new doctrines, the mighty 
progress of Protestantism. No one who was heartily 
attached to the old Church could doubt that there was 
work for such an association, for the object now in hand 
was not to make Christians of the aboriginal inhabitants of 
Central America, but to reconquer the apostate members of 
the Romish Church. 

About 1539, Loyola came with his fraternity to Rome. 
He did not find favour in all circles ; the old orders 
regarded the new one with jealousy and mistrust ; but 
Pope Paul III. (1534-49) did not allow himself to be 
misled, and in 1540 gave the fraternity his confirmation, 
thus constituting Loyola's followers an order, which, on its 
part, engaged " to obey in all things the reigning Pope — to 
go into any country, to Turks, heathen, or heretics, or to 
whomsoever he might send them, at once, unconditionally, 
without question or reward." 

It is from this time that the special history of the order 
begins. During the next year Loyola was chosen the first 
general of the order, an office which he held until his death 
(1541-56). He was succeeded by Lainez. He was less 
enthusiastic than his predecessor, had a cooler head, and 
was more reasonable ; he was the man for diplomatic pro- 
jects and complete and systematic organization. 



268 THE JESUITS AND THE INQUISITION. 

Organization of the Oreer. 

The new order differed in several respects from any pre- 
viously existing one, but it entirely corresponded to the new 
era which had begun for the Romish Church. It has been 
well said that every period of Catholic Christianity had a 
special order which represented the prevailing spirit of the 
age. To the age of chivalry, its poetry and art, the con- 
temporary order of Benedictines corresponded, with its 
soaring nights in the same realm, its intellectual culture, its 
mighty influence over the aristocracy of the age, and its 
ardour for all great ideas. 

When heresy was budding in the thirteenth century, the 
Papacy created the standing army of Mendicant Friars, who 
were intended to influence the masses, and they succeeded 
wonderfully in their object. The Jesuits, at the time of 
absolute papal supremacy, furnished a chivalrous order, 
prepared to render unconditional obedience to the com- 
mands of the Church, and with their strict organization 
they completely distanced all predecessors and rivals. 

The construction of the new order was based and carried 
out on a monarchical-military system. The territories of 
the Church were divided into provinces; at the head of 
each of these was a provincial ; over the provincials, and 
chosen by them, the general, who commanded the soldiers 
of Christ, and was entrusted with dictatorial power, limited 
only by the opinions of three judges, assistants or admoni- 
tors. The general has no superior but the Pope, with 
whom he communicates directly ; he appoints and dis- 
misses all officials, issues orders as to the administration of 
the order, and rules with undisputed sway. The abso- 
lute monarchy which was assigned to the Pope by the 
Council of Trent, was conferred by him on the general of 
the Jesuits. 

Among the four vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, 
and subjection to the Pope, obedience was the soul of all. 
To learn and practise this physically and mentally, up to the 
point where, according to the Jesuit expression, a man 
becomes " tanquam lignum et cadaver," was the ruling prin- 
ciple of the institution. 

The recruits -or novices were at once daily and hourly 
subjected to this discipline of body and soul "As," so 
they teach, " among the heave dy bodies the inner circJe 



ORGANIZATION OF THE ORDER. 269 

follows the course of the outer circle by an eternal law, so 
must the serving members be dependent on the wink of 
their superior :"— " baculus, qui ubicunque et quacunque 
in re velit eo uti, qui eum manu tenet, ei inserviat." Entire 
renunciation of the will and judgment in relation to every- 
thing commanded by the superior, blind obedience, uncon- 
ditional subjection, constitute their ideal. 

There was but one exception, but even in this there was 
a reservation. It was expressly stated that there can be 
no obligation " ad peccatum mortale vel veniale," to sinful 
acts of greater or less importance, " except when enjoined 
by the superior, in the name of Jesus Christ," " vel in virtute 
obedientiae," — an elastic doctrine which may well be summed 
up in the dictum that " the end justifies the means." 

Of course, all the members of this order had to renounce 
all ties of family, home, and country, and it was expressly 
enjoined. Loyola himself threw letters from his family, 
after long absence, into the fire unread, to show that he no 
longer had any family, and his disciples were expected to 
efface from their hearts the memory of parents, brothers, 
and sisters, and whatever else they might have on earth ; 
dead to the world and to all personal affection, they 
were to live to their Lord and Saviour alone, and to consi- 
der Him as the substitute for parents, brethren, and all 
earthly things. 

Of the vow of poverty it is said, in the " Summarium" of 
the constitution of the order, that it must be maintained as 
a " murus religionis." No one shall have any property ; 
every one must be content with the meanest furniture and 
fare, and, if necessity or command require it, he must be 
ready to beg his bread from door to door (" ostiatim mendi- 
care "). The external aspect of members of the order, their 
speech and silence, gestures, gait, garb, and bearing shall 
indicate the prescribed purity of soul. 

In accordance with the " rules of modesty," the disciple 
of Jesus was to bend his head slightly forward, to cast 
down his eyes, to maintain a calm and kindly mien, to walk 
deliberately and with dignity, to exhibit modesty and edify- 
ing unction in looks, words, and movements ; in short, in all 
respects to maintain a priestly sanctity. 

On all these and many other points, the new orde- only 
laid greater stress on the precepts which were to be .bund 
among the rules of other orders, though in the universal 



270 THE JESUITS AND THE INQUISITION. 

demoralisation of the monastic life they had fallen into 
disuse. But it decidedly differed from all the others in the 
manner in which it aimed at obtaining sway in every sphere 
and every aspect of life. 

Himself without home or country, and not holding the 
doctrines of any political party, the disciple of Jesus re- 
nounced everything which might alienate him among vary- 
ing nationalities, pursuing various political aims. Then he 
did not confine his labours to the pulpit and the confes- 
sional ; he gained an influence over the rising generation by 
a systematic attention to education, which had been shame- 
fully neglected by the other orders. He devoted himself to 
education from the national schools up to the academic 
chair, and by no means confined himself to the sphere of 
theology. 
This was a principle of immense importance. 
The coarseness, ignorance, idleness, and low vices of the 
old orders had brought them into disrepute. The members 
of the new were moral and polished ; they cultivated science 
and learning; and as the Church was just then being reno- 
vated from above, and required to be more firmly rooted 
among the people, they were specially adapted for instruc- 
tors and educators within her borders. 

It is a true saying, that " he who gains the youth, pos- 
sesses the future;" and by devoting themselves to the 
education of youth, the Jesuits secured a future to the 
Church more surely than by any other scheme that could 
have been devised. What the schoolmasters were for the 
youth, the confessors were for those of riper years ; what the 
clerical teachers were for the common people, the spiritual 
directors and confidants were for great lords and rulers — for 
the Jesuits aspired to a place at the side of the great, and 
at gaining the confidence of kings. It was not long before 
they could boast of astonishing success. " How manifold," 
says the history of the society, " are the traces of our educa- 
tional labours ! Our former pupils, when grown up, 
accustom their children to the fear of God, and they often 
rise into the highest offices and circles of society. The 
priests educated by us often attain to the highest honours in 
the Church ; directors, bishops, counsellors, and popes are 
found among them. Many are robed in the purple of the 
cardinals, or hold places of command as senators, who no! 
long before were sitting on the benches in our schools," 



RULES OF THE ORDER. 27 1 

In the interests of these various labours in the Church and 
the world, the Jesuit was permitted to throw off the clerical 
garb, and to take part in political and diplomatic affairs, and 
in business of a purely secular character. 

The gifts and qualifications of all those who entered the 
order were minutely studied, and they were subjected to 
training calculated to make them adepts in the use of their 
special powers. In this respect, Loyola was the founder of 
the order in the truest sense of the word ; for, from the 
moment when he founded his little society, he determined 
to search the hearts and reins of men, and to trust no one 
whom he had not, as he thought, thoroughly seen through. 
This continued to be the principle of the order, and by his 
successors it was carried out still more systematically and 
imperiously than by himself. The words, acts, talents, and 
performances of every member of the order were closely 
watched. The provincial received reports of the students 
from the superintendents of the colleges, and he communi- 
cated them to the general. The superintendents, again, had 
their confidential novices, charged with the observation and 
espionage of their colleagues. An inimitable system of 
espionage was established, in the fine meshes of which 
everything worth knowing was caught, and the conduct and 
progress of every individual, from the lowest upward, was 
carefully noted down. 

In the culture of science and learning, special regard was 
had to the objects prescribed to the order at home and 
abroad. 

Profane learning was cultivated only as a weapon against 
the heresy of modern culture, and the selection of subjects, 
and the extent to which they were pursued, was therefore 
determined on polemical grounds. Philological and mathe- 
matical studies, dialectics and rhetoric, were diligently pur- 
sued ; but everything that would not serve the order was 
neglected. Greek was strikingly neglected compared with 
Latin, because it was not of much use in polemics, and the 
spirit of the ancient Hellenes was not congenial to the spirit 
of the order. The main point aimed at in all their studies 
was dexterity in argument. Disputation and dialectic fencing 
were therefore much practised, and they were early schooled 
in the methods of these arts. 

History was written from their own point of view, philo- 
sophy cultivated in the spirit of ancient scholasticism ; thus, 



2-J2 THE JESUITS AND TIL INQUISITION. 

no true representation of history, nor independent research 
into the nature of things, was possible. In both fields, 
therefore, the order has been quite unproductive. It has 
produced good Latin scholars, skilful translators and gram- 
marians, great dialecticians and eminent orators ; but beyond 
this it has not attained distinction. 

At a period when all the other orders were idle or asleep, 
the services of such an one as this, which pressed talent, 
learning, and fanaticism into its service, to the greatest pos- 
sible extent, and under a thousand forms, were an in- 
calculable assistance to the papal policy. It may well be 
said that it was by means of this order that the labours of 
the Council of Trent first acquired any historical importance. 
But for everything beyond the sphere of this policy, the 
order was a tremendous danger. To oppose to the Jesuit 
doctrine of the right of the masses arbitrarily to choose this 
or that form of government, one to-day, another to-morrow, 
there was, speaking generally, no law in the secular state of 
unconditional validity ; that is, a secular state no longer 
had any existence. And this doctrine was jealously de- 
fended by an order whose members were independent of 
civic associations, were not permitted to have either family 
or country, and whose one article of morality was blind 
obedience to their superiors. In every State of Europe they 
attacked now this form of government, and now that. In 
Holland and France they incited the people against the 
existing order of things just as it suited their purpose; and 
the manifold forms under which they presented themselves, 
rendered them incomprehensible to their adversaries. 

There was a contradiction in this to the Roman Catholic 
world itself. The doctrine of the Council of Trent, of the 
absolute authority of the Pope, of which the Jesuits were 
the most zealous representatives, imposed upon Catholicism 
itself a law of immobility, which had never before been 
practically acted upon. Thus the Jesuits were the mortal 
enemies of whatever tendencies to freedom and progress 
still existed in the Roman Catholic Church. There was 
therefore early a party of very faithful Roman Catholics, 
not like the illuminati of the eighteenth century, which was 
opposed to them. 

Besides, the position taken up by the Jesuits with regard to 
the secular power threatened the existence not only of the 
Protestant States, but of the Catholic States also. The hf re- 



THE INQUISITION. 273 

tical doctrine that the State was something accidental, and its 
form variable, that the Church as the supreme power alone 
was eternal, called forth opposition from the most zealous 
Catholic governments; and when, in the eighteenth century, 
this idea began to make way, and its roots were met with 
everywhere among the order of Jesuits, the order fell a sacri- 
fice, not to the Church, but to the modern idea of the State. 

The Inquisition, from 1542. 

During the same year in which the order of Jesuits re- 
ceived the Pope's confirmation, the Spanish Inquisition was 
introduced into Italy, and Cardinal Caraffa was commis- 
sioned with the establishment of the institution. In the in- 
structions of 1542, we have an authentic document relating 
to the principles on which the Inquisition was to proceed 
to extirpate heresy, first in Italy, and then in the world in 
general. 1. The Inquisition was not to delay, but to act 
with the greatest rigour on the least suspicion. 2. To have 
no respect either to princes or prelates, however high their 
rank may be. 3. Rather to be especially strict with those 
who screen themselves under the protection of a ruler. 
4. In dealing with heretics, and especially Calvinists, it is 
not to degrade itself by any kind of false toleration.* 
The new Inquisition acted on these principles with fearful 
severity. By dint of dungeons and stakes, persecution and 
exile, in the course of a few years there was no more 
heresy in Italy, and then this pattern institution was to be 
established in the other States. But everywhere it met with 
the greatest opposition, and they could not succeed in intro- 
ducing it even into purely Catholic countries. 

But wherever Caraffa's idea was carried out, and a union 
formed between the temporal and ecclesiastical powers, by 
which the former lent all its aid to carry out the mandates 
of the Church, and in return the Church branded as heresy 
and exterminated everything that was displeasing to the 
State, the State itself received a wound which was not 
healed for centuries. 

Spain, above all other countries, has had experience of 
this, for there the Inquisition has destroyed the very roots 
of political liberty, and the State has sacrificed everything 

• Ranke. 
18 



274 THE JESUITS AIO> THE INQUISITION. 

for the sake of maintaining the unity of the faith in its most 
rigid form ; the fraternal bond between temporal and spiritual 
despotism pursued its ends with great success : but it was not 
heresy only which disappeared — the life of the nation, the 
spirit of the people was fatally crushed, and this fact, which no 
one denies, is chiefly insisted on by Spaniards themselves.* 

This explains the prompt resistance to it in countries 
where the national spirit was strong, as in France and 
Germany ; it explains the fact that the attempt to intro- 
duce the Inquisition into the Netherlands was one of the 
sparks that ignited the Revolt. 

One part of the apparatus of the Inquisition was the 
censorship of the press and book-police. 

Before the invention of printing it was not, of course, 
very difficult to keep a watch on dangerous works ; it is 
equally obvious that now, when there came to be a widely- 
extended literature, the comfortable old orders would be 
totally unable to keep up the previous book-police. Now- 
adays any such censorship would appear totally imprac- 
ticable. The attempt was made by one of the greatest men 
of the age when he had reached the summit of his power, 
and ruled from the Ebro to the Niemen ; and how absurd it 
proved to be ! 

But at that time, when intellectual activity was not to be 
compared with that of our days, when the power of the See 
of Rome had been reorganized, when its influence was 
completely dominant in the southern monarchies, and ex- 
tended northwards to a considerable distance, and when 
defection from Rome was far less general, the case was 
different. We have some striking examples of the power of 
the book-police. Hundreds of thousands of copies of the 
little work called " Of the Benefit of Christ's Death," had 
been circulated, which was an attempt to popularise the 
Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith in Italy, and it 
had been translated into many languages ; but at the time 
of which we speak it was so utterly expunged from literature 
by the modern censorship that when Ranke wrote his History 
of the Popes, in 1834, he could say that no trace of the 
work existed. During the course of the last few years a 
copy was found ; and, not long after *his was made known, 
two more came to light, and not only have thousands o.' 

• Written about 1859.— f». 



CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS. 275 

copies been published again, but the English Bible Society 
is taking steps to circulate it in Italy again.* 

The influence of the Inquisition on the sale of books was 
therefore not without importance. This is proved by 
another example Paolo Sarpi, a Venetian monk, who, 
although a zealous Catholic, held the views of Reform pn* 
forth at Constance and 1 lasle — namely, a Papacy limited by 
bishops and councils, and a thorough reform of the Church, 
both head and members — undertook a history of the Council 
of Trent, in order to show how the original objects for 
which it had been convened, the abolition of abuses, puri- 
fication of doctrine, and improvement of the constitution of 
the Church, had been frustrated, and the supremacy of the 
Po] e over Church and State only confirmed. 

The work appeared in the deepest secrecy, and under a 
feigned name, but its authorship was at once surmised ; and 
it was not thought enough to bring out an answer, which 
Pallavicini was ordered to write — the book was inserted in 
the Index, and the author persecuted ; and from the dangers 
Sarpi passed through, we may learn the fate that awaited 
an eminent author who, from within the Church, ventured to 
oppose the restoration of the papal supremacy. 

An Index in my possession shows how systematically the 
heretical literature of that day was attacked. The literary 
productions of fifteen years are comprised within five sheets, 
and everything of importance that had appeared in theo- 
logy, philosophy, history, antiquarian researches, and natural 
history, is condemned. Thus almost all literature was for- 
bidden, with the exception of that which had arisen in the 
Roman Catholic Church or among her orders. 

Since Rome now had the power to carry out this censor- 
ship of the press with the help of Philip II. and the 
German Hapsburgs, a large portion of Europe was as good 
as closed against all literary progress. 

• Qy. Tract SctSety.— T«. 



PART V. 

PHIIIP H. IN SPAIN, AND THE REVOLT IN THE 
NETHERLANDS. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

SPAIN UNDER CHARLES V. AND PHILIP H. 

The Ecclesiastical-political Plans of Philip, 1565-98. —The Abso* 
lute Monarchy in Spain under Charles V. — Philip's Inheritance. 
— His Character. — Amalgamation of Spiritual and Temporal 
Despotism in Spain.* 

Spain under Charles V. and Philip II. 

THE heir of Charles V. in Spain, Burgundy, Italy, and 
the New World was also the inheritor of his policy. 
In the second half of the sixteenth century, Philip II. once 
more undertook to accomplish what had failed in the first 
half, and on still more rigid principles and with less divided 
forces than his father had either attempted or had had in 
his power. 

He undertook to enforce, without limit and uncondition- 
ally, the temporal and spiritual despotism at which the 
restored papal power was aiming with all its might. It was 

• See, besides the works already cited in reference to Charles V., 
Colleccion de Documentos Ineditos. Madrid, 1842. Maldonado, 
Hist, de las Comunidades de Castilla. Madrid, 1840. Sepulvedae, 
Hist. Philippi II., 1556-64. Herrera, Hist, del Rey Philippe II., 1613. 
3 vols. Ranke, Fiirsten und volker Von Sud. Europa. Vol. I. Have- 
mann, Darstellungen aus der Span. Geschichte. 1850. Prescott, The 
Reign of Philip II. 2 vols. London, 1858. Salvador Bermudes de 
Castro, Antonio Perez, 1842. Relations des Ambassadeurs de 
Venise. Paris, 1838. 2 vols. Alberi Relazioni degli Ambasciatori 
Veueti. Vols. I.— IX. 1855. 



THE SPANISH MONARCHY. 277 

♦he most daring project of the age, to enforce in every part 
of the empire the absolute monarchy which existed in Spain. 
in spite of national and religious insurrections, and, so far 
as the empire of this prince and his spiritual allies extended, 
in alliance with them to raise the Church in its restored 
unity to supreme power. No other European prince per- 
sonally devoted himself to this cause and expended his every 
effort upon it as Philip did; and the question whether or 
not he would succeed, kept nearly half a century — for nearly 
over this period did his reign extend — in anxious sus- 
pense. 

It was not only over his own immediate territories — 
Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands — that his policy extended, 
but over the whole of western Europe. The boldest 
attempt to restore the supremacy of the ancient Church in 
England was supported by him, and it was just the same 
in France, where, after the extinction of the line of Valois, 
the idea arose of founding another legitimate monarchy, 
and then the still bolder one of making the kingdom an 
appanage of Spain. 

But the result brought disgrace upon this magnificent 
scheme. Philip suffered defeat after defeat. In Spain the 
flower of the country perished by the Inquisition, and under 
the rule of the priests ; in the Netherlands there was a 
great revolt, which ended in the defection and dismem- 
berment of the provinces; in England, after a colossal 
expenditure of strength, he could not succeed in subduing 
the power of Queen Elizabeth ; his attempt to make France 
a Spanish province was utterly frustrated by Henry IV. ; and 
the last act of his life was that Peace of Vervins, in which 
he was compelled to acknowledge the superiority of the 
French power. 

It may be supposed that these defeats could not take 
place without fearful throes. A State staked on such a ven- 
ture could not, if it failed, but be involved in the general 
ruin. This most comprehensive attempt to enforce at once 
the form of the Spanish Government and the restoration of 
the Roman Church failed everywhere with one exception, 
and it has made the only country where it succeeded pen 
petually wretched. 

When King Charles V. began to reign in Spain, the 
country was by no means the compactly united territory 
that it afterwards, politically, though not nationally, be- 



278 SPAIN UNDER CHARLES V. AND PHILIP Tt. 

came ; for the last half century has shown that the ancient 
differences of race are not entirely obliterated. At that 
time it was still fresh in recollection that there had been a 
kingdom of Aragon and a kingdom of Castile, and that they 
had maintained an independent existence side by side. 
Then there was the countless multitude of provincial rights 
and privileges, in which no country speaking a Romanic 
language was so rich as Spain : the old national opposition 
in the south, where the Moors had long held sway, and 
which had given to the inhabitants an oriental hue, while in 
the north they were unmixed ancient Basque and Iberian. 

Charles's idea was here especially to establish a certain 
uniformity ; and if he expected anywhere to found a well- 
consolidated domestic power for his family, it was in Spain, 
where only he looked to the establishment of a lasting 
monarchical power, while to Germany and the Netherlands 
he left their own form of government. 

There was no lack of opposition. Among all the Spanish 
territories, none possessed so many valuable privileges as 
the kingdom of Aragon. It had the most liberal mediaeval 
constitution, in which the idea of a contract between the 
governors and the governed, of the right of resistance to 
arbitrary power, was more sharply defined than in any 
other. Freedom there was not a mere antiquated feudal 
privilege, which had still a phantom-like existence in the 
brains of a few noble families. No ; it still lived in the 
nation, and was a blessing still prized above everything in 
communities and flourishing cities. Valencia, Saragossa, 
and Barcelona had not forgotten their proud, peculiar pri- 
vileges, and their chivalrous inhabitants knew how to 
maintain them. 

This gave rise to the conflict in 1520 and 1521, in which 
Charles proved victorious. 

Charles had from the first assumed absolute power. 
When he was involved in the struggle with France, the 
opportunity seemed to be come to rise up in arms against 
him. Democratic insurrections broke out ; but Charles was 
in a position to defend himself successfully on both sides : 
opposition was put down, and the provinces humbled. Con- 
flicting local interests began to clash, and thus increased 
their helplessness, as opposed to the compact power of 
Ihe Crown. 

Ancient privileges and liberties were compressed within 



Philip's inheritance. 279 

the narrowest limits — the royal supremacy enforced Id the 
utmost. The decrees of the conqueror of Villalar were to 
be accepted as the legal foundation of a new administra- 
tion ; and in the Inquisition Charles had already discovered 
a weapon for quelling political opposition. 

In the autumn of 1555 Charles gave over this thoroughly 
consolidated power to his son Philip, into whose hands 
the most splendid empire in the world now came — Spain 
and the American colonies, Milan and both the Sicilies, the 
Netherlands and Burgundy, and, besides all this, the here- 
ditary family alliance of the German and Spanish Haps- 
burg interests. On the whole, the empire was given over to 
Philip in a flourishing condition. 

Spain was still a rising power, and if it had lost some- 
thing of the splendour of the time of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, compared with what it is at present, it was a truly 
imposing State. 

We have a brilliant picture of the state of the Nether- 
lands from both Philip's foes and friends. It was only 
Italy that showed signs of approaching decay. It had 
begun to suffe under an administration which rather preyed 
upon the country than ruled it ; it was a government which 
it is no exag£ iration to say strongly resembled the oriental 
pashalics. 

The colonies were also suffering under this system. On 
its entry into the New World, Spain settled the principles 
of its colonisation ; conquest and military rule, provision 
for distinguished families, and reckless conversion of the 
aborigines — these were the leading ideas. The fact that a 
colony in order to be profitable must prosper, and that in 
order to prosper it must have a rational and conscientious 
government, that in a foreign country a political and social 
life best suited to it must be fostered, was utterly ignored in 
this policy. Brutal military government, grasping at the 
country's riches, absence of all law and justice for the 
inhabitants, and of any training of them to self-dependence, 
division of power between priests and soldiers — all these 
abuses clung to this colonisation for centuries. The profit 
of them was therefore for a long time not in proportion to 
their wealth, for a great part of the proceeds was squandered 
in bad government. The industries of the Netherlands 
alone brought into the treasury four times as much as the 
gold and silver mines of Mexico and Peru. 



280 SPAIN UNDER CHARLES V. aND PHILIF I. 

Besides, all these countries possessed unusually rich 
resources for a great policy. 

Spain had the best army and the most skilful generals of 
the age. Her military school was proverbial in the six- 
teenth century. The chivalrous Spaniard was especially 
adapted to a military life, not only because he was endowed 
with the natural gifts of courage and taste for aggressive 
warfare, but in the wars which had been waged for centuries 
he had been inured to danger, deprivation, and difficulty. 

The most prominent names among the generals of the 
sixteenth century, Alba, Don Juan. Requesens, Spinola, all 
belong to Spanish tradition. Spain had also a fleet such as 
no other nation possessed ; she had the finest harbours and 
seaports, vast colonial possessions of inexhaustible wealth, 
while all the States which were soon to be her rivals and 
afterwards her adversaries were still only in the infancy of 
their power ; in short, Spain could throw a weight into the 
scale for the policy of her ruler which was without example 
in that age. 

It is one of the most instructive spectacles of history to 
watch how this immense power was reduced to beggary in 
the course of one long life ; to see how the monarch who 
had begun life on a more magnificent scale than any other, 
was in his latter days destitute even of the means for his 
personal support, and was compelled to have a collection 
made from house to house in the impoverished country to 
keep him from starvation. This government in the colonies 
and at home, the enormous wars which ceased only with 
his life, and which were all unsuccessful — desperate under- 
takings, which involved the country in ruin — gave the final 
blow, but the foundations of this power were undermined 
when all this took place. 

Philip II. was a singular character. He possessed the 
same phlegmatic repose and caution, the fatalistic passivity 
as his father, but he was wanting in the counterpoise which 
Charles had in the restless mental activity and great energy 
of will that were peculiar to his rather uncommon character. 

Philip had more than his father of the dull heavy Spanish 
blood which tended to melancholy or extraordinary lethargy 
and apathy. 

In talent Philip was by no means equal to his father. 
He had no grasp of mind, but was one of those characters 
who grow up with one idea, to which they adhere as an 



PHILIP n. 2$! 

article of faith with extraordinary constancy, and are proof 
against everything which might shake them in it ; neither 
are they capable of learning anything from the most fearful 
chastisements or the most striking lessons of destiny. 

It was this that gave rise to his despotic tendencies, his 
obstinate intolerance of any contradiction, to say nothing 
of opposition ; this was also fostered by the consciousness 
of his great power, and still more so by a character un- 
nerved by sensual excesses. His will had lost its equilibrium; 
he obstinately held fast to his one idea, but was languid 
and undecided in action ; often when it was necessary to 
act, he remained passive, and when he should have given 
way, exhibited an unhappy obstinacy. 

Still he was not idle, but his energies were spent in the 
busy meddling of a common-place character who has but a 
very imperfect idea of the human organism. Philip II. 
wrote, administered, gave orders, day by day, and from one 
year's end to another ; if the regularity with which he spent 
a great part of his life at the desk can be called industry, he 
must be considered one of the most industrious and con- 
scientious of rulers. 

But the cabinet government conducted by all this writing 
was almost an entire stranger to the springs of real life. 
Everything was entered and arranged under separate heads; 
almost every person of any importance among his subjects 
had a division to himself in the enormous lists ; the King 
boasted of an immense personal acquaintance, which was 
kept up by a well-organized system of espionage. Philip's 
government went on like clockwork with untiring regularity 
for forty years. 

And the entire administration of the Spanish Government 
threatened to become ?.s monotonous, spiritless, and sus- 
piciously one-sided as the personal doings of the ruler, 
absolute monarchy was exalted to be the religion of the 
State, and no amelioration in practice was to be looked for. 
The impression that this prince always produced was as 
little favourable as possible. We have concurrent testimony 
to this from the time when his father, who had already 
conceived the idea of abdicating in his favour, introduced 
him to the Northern provinces during his first journey in 
1548; it is stated in a diplomatic report that "he had 
found but little favour with the Italians, was quite repulsive 
to the Flemings, and hateful to the Germans." 



282 SPAIN UNDER CHARLES V. AND PHILIP IL 

His behaviour then and afterwards was a mixture 01 shy- 
ness and haughtiness which repelled every one ; he was so 
timid and embarrassed that he hardly dared to raise his 
eyes, but at the same time he exhibited the Spanish pride, 
and treated every one with a repulsive coldness and offensive 
severity which his father, in spite of all his diplomatic cold- 
ness, had never shown. Charles was to the last beloved in 
Flanders, so lively was the impression of his popularity in 
his best days ; but Philip never won the hearts of the 
people, and was at last regarded with hatred and disgust. 
In conversation he was generally blunt, gloomy, and concise ; 
he seldom granted any requests, and his refusals were harsh 
and arrogant ; in short, there was not a single amiable or 
winning trait in his character. 

Such a personage as absolute monarch of a great empire, 
not supported by great statesmen, nor guided by wise and 
experienced advisers, suspicious of every one, relying upon 
himself alone, and yet from his limited abilities quite in- 
competent to his task, could not fail to give rise to great 
anxiety. 

Philip II. began his government with two simple ideas, 
with which his whole soul was filled ; one was to enforce 
the absolutism which he had inherited in Spain throughout 
the whole empire, and then unconditionally to restore the 
undivided sway of the Catholic Church. 

He was not deterred from this project by his father's ill 
success ; on the contrary, it rather incited him to attempt it 
anew, with operations on a wider scale, and with more utter 
disregard of circumstances. His father was fond of pro- 
claiming himself a native of Flanders, and spared the sensi- 
tiveness of the inhabitants with respect to liberty, as he did 
that of the Germans ; but it was Philip's intention to weld 
everything into Spanish form, and to crush mercilessly all 
that would not yield. He felt and gave himself out to be 
exclusively a Spaniard, and especially a Castilian ; Aragon 
he looked upon almost as a conquered country, and all the 
other provinces as bound to render silent obedience. In 
Spain itself his father had achieved a good deal before him ; 
the power of the Cortes was gone, the liberties of the cities 
since the last unsuccessful insurrection greatly lessened ; 
some of the nobles were so impoverished as to be in the 
service of the Crown ; there was a numerous aristocracy, but 
few of its members were wealthy enough to be independent 



PHILIP II. 283 

of the Crown ; for those who disdained this position there 
was, according to Alba's view, no resource but emigration. 

In no other empire in the world was the alliance be- 
tween spiritual and temporal despotism so consistently 
carried out as it was in Spain, and nowhere else was tne 
Inquisition so vigorously used as a fearful weapon in the 
hands of both. 

Things had gone so far in Spain that whenever the 
Crown was alarmed by any opposition, the spiritual tribunal 
was used as an unfailing lever. The last privileges of the 
States that were opposed to the despotism of the Crown 
were encumbered and destroyed by the Inquisition. Antonio 
Perez, formerly a favourite of the King, afterwards the 
victim of all sorts of intrigues at court, had taken refuge in 
Aragon, which with its great privileges and powerful Cortes 
was a sort of free State in the absolute monarchy, and he 
had there appealed to the protection of the law, according 
to which he could only be tried by his equals. The Inqui- 
sition was then called in and lent its aid, not only against 
Perez, but against the inconvenient liberties of the Arago- 
nians, which were put an end to by the king's priests and 
soldiers. 

In return for this, the Church in Spain was more favoured 
than in any other country in the world. It was not that 
the spiritual power held sway over the Government — that is, 
over the will of the ruler; for Philip II. was the despot 
still more than the bigoted Catholic. When Paul IV. 
sided with his enemies, he did not disdain to send his 
Spaniards into the States of the Church, and to contend 
earnestly for his rights at the Council of Trent. But the 
Church had enormous dotations, a multitude of ecclesias- 
tical institutions, and a power over men's consciences, their 
lives and persons, such as was equalled nowhere else. 

The country possessed 58 archbishoprics, 684 bishoprics, 
11,400 monasteries, 23,000 brotherhoods, 46,000 monks, 
13,800 nuns, 312,000 secular priests, and more than 
400,000 ecclesiastics, while there were 80,000 civil servants, 
and 367,000 other officials. 

These figures describe a State composed of spiritual and 
temporal officials, in which society appears to exist for them, 
not they for society. They also indicate an enormous 
amount of property held in mortmain, and fatal conse- 
quences to the nation from clerical idleness. Even in 



284 SPAIN UNDER CHARLES V. AND PHILIP II. 

clerical circles the danger of this unnatural state of things 
was not altogether ignored. In the time of Philip III. the 
primate of the Spanish Church advised the Crown not to 
go on founding monasteries. There was a fear that they 
would be smothered in their own riches. 

The result of this disproportion was that prosperity among 
the people, to say nothing of intellectual life, was checked. 
The accumulation of landed property in mortmain made 
the existence of a prosperous race of agriculturists impos- 
sible. This was the fatal result of this ecclesiastical 
government in a domestic point of view. The Inquisition 
produced the same effect upon foreign relations. Spain, 
where trade and commerce formerly flourished, was as 
much shut up from all foreign intercourse as an inhospitable 
desert island. It went so far, that Spain was compelled to 
export one of her most important products to be manufac- 
tured abroad, because all spirit of • enterprise was wanting 
at home. Commerce languished so completely under 
Philip II. that most of the harbours were empty, the mar- 
kets unfrequented, there was no commercial enterprise, 
and beggary frightfully increased. That this was the con- 
sequence of making the Government the instrument of 
ecclesiastical despotism, the Spaniards themselves have 
placed beyond doubt by the publication during the las: 
fifty years of irrefragable evidence and convincing dates. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS.* 

History, Government, Country, and People of the Seventeen Provinces 
before Philip II. — Philip's Policy in the Netherlands after No- 
vember, 1555. — The Regency and the Aristocracy: Orange, 
Egmont, Margaret of Parma, Bishop Perrenot (Granvella). — The 
Spanish Troops. — The Increase of Bishoprics. — The Inquisition 
in the Netherlands. — Tactics of Charles V. — The Renewal of the 
Edict of 1550.— Granvella's Removal, 1564. — Egmont's Journey 
and the Compromise, January, 1565. — Spring of 1566. — The 
Beggars' League. — The Field-preaching and Attack upon Images, 
April to August, 1566. — Defeat of the Volunteer Army of the 
Beggars at Anstruveel, March, 1567. — The Departure of William 
of Orange from the Netherlands, April, 1567. 

History, Government, Country, and People of the 
Seventeen Provinces before the Time of Philip II. 

'"PHE first revolt against this system was not to occur in 
-*- Spain, but in the Netherlands, or Burgundy. 

There were seventeen provinces which Charles V. had 
left to his son, and which had become united in the follow- 
ing manner : — 

The French Crown departed from its principle of not 
conferring large duchies on princes of the royal family, 

* Wagenaar, Vaderlandsche Historic C. Meteeren, Niederland 
Historien, 1612. Strada de Bello Belgico, 1640. Hoofts, Neder- 
landsche Historien, 1703. Van der Vynct, Hist, des Troubles des 
Pays-Bas. Brux., 1824. Van Kampen, Geschichte der Niederlanden, 
1831. J. L. Motley, Revolt of the Netherlands. Papiers d'etat du 
Card. Granvella. Paris, 1842. Groen van Prinsterer, Correspond. 
Inedite, 1835. Gachard, Corresp. de Philippe II. The same, Corresp. 
du Due d'Albe, sur l'lnvasion de Louis de Nassau, 1850. The same, 
Corresp. de Phil. II. et de Marguerite d'Autriche. The same, Corresp. 
de Guillaume le Taciturne, 1850. Klose, Wilhelm von Oranien, 
Herausgegeben von Wuttke. Holzwarth, der Abfall der Niederlande, 
1867. Roch, Untersuchungen iiber den Abfall der Niederlande, i860. 



286 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

when King John gave Burgundy to his son, Philip the 
Bold, and thus himself renewed the contest between the 
high aristocracy and the Crown. King John's posterity * 
soon forgot that the blood of the Capets flowed in their 
veins, and felt themselves to be rather Dukes of Burgundy 
than vassals of the King of France ; and this was coincident 
with the time when the kingdom was weak and with the 
wars with England. 

Out of this Duchy of Burgundy there gradually grew, by 
dint of purchase, conquest; inheritance, and not seldom 
legacy-hunting, combined with force, a territory which, in 
comparison with its original nucleus, might be pronounced 
splendid. Philip the Bold acquired Flanders, Artois, and 
the free Earldom by marriage ; Phiiip the Good, Nassau 
by exchange (1428), by inheritance, Brabant and Limburg 
(1430), by a sort of compulsory exchange with Jacoba of 
Bavaria, Remagen, Holland, Seeland, and West Friesland 
(1433), an d Luxemburg by exchange (1443). Charles V. 
acquired Friesland, Ober-yssel, Utrecht, Gelders, and 
Zutphen. It was thus that this remarkable empire was 
formed. It had begun with a portion of the old principality 
of Burgundy, and extended itself by means of Luxemburg 
to the frontier of Lorraine. The whole of the present 
Belgium belonged to it, part of the Flanders and Artois of 
our times, and the present kingdom of Holland. 

It was Charles V. who first possessed this territory in its 
entirety, and at the Diet of Augsburg, in 1548, he carried 
the Pragmatic Sanction, whereby it was declared to be a 
compact imperial territory, was to have its own list and 
special privileges in the Diet, but was to be free from the 
obligations of membership of the empire. It was the duty 
of the empire to protect it from attack ; but it had no right 
of jurisdiction, nor right to hold conventions, nor to de- 
mand obedience on things usually obligatory on imperial 
territories. 

On the whole, Charles's government in these seventeen 
provinces was skilful and moderate ; but on one point he 
was inexorable ; this was the question of the ancient faith. 
He took every means in hi? power to avert the spread of 

* Genealogy <jf the House of' Burgundy : John, King of France ; 
his son, Philip the Bold, 1363- 1404; his son, John the Good, 
1419 ; his son, Philip the Good, 1467 ; his son, Charles the Bold, 
H77- 



THE SEVENTEEN PROVINCES. 287 

the new doctrines, and did not shrink from the most cruel 
and sanguinary measures if he could but maintain the 
ancient Church intact. Otherwise he m£ aaged tolerably 
well with the complicated laws of the country. Of course 
the republican atmosphere did not suit the Spanish auto- 
crat, and, so far as he could do so without exciting too much 
notice, he was fond of interfering with the multitudinous 
local, civic, corporative, and provincial privileges ; but he 
showed his political tact in generally trying to obtain his 
ends by circuitous means. Thus, though not without a 
struggle, he succeeded in obtaining more influence over the 
appointment of Government officials, the legal administra- 
tion and taxation of the wealthy provinces, than any prince 
of Burgundy had exercised before. That he did act in 
his difficult position with tact and success is proved by the 
affection with which he was regarded. On the last day of 
his government, the 25th of October, 1555, when, as a 
gouty old man leaning upon his crutches, he announced 
his abdication at Brussels, and presented his son as his 
successor, the universal emotion bore witness to his 
popularity. 

The Netherlanders were proud to call him their country- 
man, and it pleased him to hear it. He really had a certain 
personal preference for this part of his dominions, and had 
made himself so much at home there that he was looked 
upon as the hereditary ruler. 

The country was unusually rich in resources. It con- 
tained within itself abundant sources of prosperity, and the 
products and modes of life of the different parts were very 
various. Flanders, Hennegau, Artois, and Namur were 
rich corn-bearing districts, whose harvests could support 
the whole empire; at Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels, 
and other cities, trade flourished as it did nowhere else in 
Europe ; the arts of weaving, cloth-making, dyeing, and 
other branches of industry, were carried to great perfection. 
Antwerp was a cosmopolitan city, rivalled by no other in 
the world ; at the same time a great portion of the country 
was washed by the sea, which was the great highway between 
north and south, and, as Guicciardini says, it was " the 
great harbour and emporium for the trade of the European 
world." 

All the northern part of the country wa? a maritime 
district, partly gained from the sea by artificial neans ; part 



288 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

of it had more sea-coast than habitable land, and it was 
inhabited by a hardy and enduring race of old Frisian 
blood, who, with admirable perseverance, had made a 
home for themselves, in spite of perpetual conflict with wind 
and wave. These characteristics remain to the present 
day. The Dutch have still been draining lakes and turning 
them into fruitful soil ; it is the ancient Frisian patience, 
the Germanic toughness, which has never belied itself even 
under the most difficult circumstances. From Rotterdam 
to the most northerly part of the coast of Friesland, there 
was a number of places, larger and smaller, which had 
acquired importance as natural harbours. The habit of 
living on the sea, of familiarity with its perils, the taste for 
a seafaring life and for making voyages of discovery, and 
for emigration — all this existed in embryo before the fishing 
villages had become great harbours and centres of com- 
merce. 

The mental condition of the people was not behind their 
outward prosperity. It is expressly stated in histories of 
the country that, notwithstanding its prosaic devotion to 
trade and commerce, learning, the arts, and earnest en- 
deavours after improvement, were equally cherished ; that, 
besides the universities, there were everywhere excellent 
schools, which had more thoroughly imbibed the modern 
humanistic spirit than any others, and that culture extended 
even among the people. " There was no country," says a 
contemporary historian, " where learning and culture pre- 
vailed so widely as among us ; even in the Frisian fisher- 
men's huts you might find people who could not only read 
and write, but discussed scriptural interpretations as if they 
were scholars." Even if this is an exaggeration, it is well 
known that amidst their material prosperity a real desire for 
mental culture had spread among the lowest classes of the 
people. Friends and foes bear witness that in these 
countries the conditions of material and mental prosperity 
were combined to a rare extent. 

The seventeen provinces differed from each other both in 
their constitutions and mode of life. 

In Flanders, Brabant, and Hennegau there was a landed 
nobility, whose estates were measured by the square mile, 
and many of them were like German princes. In the cities, 
there was a proud and independent class of citizens, who, 
like the inhabitants of Ghent not only pursued their 



THE SEVENTEEN PROVINCES. 289 

peaceful crafts, but when necessary could also wage war ; 
the citizens of Ghent had especially signalised themselves 
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and had carried 
on a successful contest with the nobility. The ancient 
Frisian district was in the north. The Frisians are the only 
German race which has developed a democracy in which 
nobles and royalty found no place ; the mode of life of this 
fishing and seafaring people was not adapted to the develop- 
ment of an aristocracy of any kind. 

Thus there were wide differences, social and political, 
throughout the country. The seaport towns of the north 
were more powerful than the German Hanse Towns ; there 
were neither great lords nor a powerful Church, and both 
in town and country the pride of democratic independence 
and self-government prevailed ; there were no elements 
likely to develope into a monarchical form of government. 

Each of the seventeen provinces had its own constitu- 
tion; the character of each was determined by the preponde- 
rance of classes among the people: in Flanders and Brabant 
it was more aristocratic, in the north democratic, but in no 
case monarchical ; it was a motley confusion of forms of 
every kind with provincial, civic, and local privileges, and 
every gradation between feudalism and democracy, but the 
prevailing character was a motley conglomerate of small 
republics, not unlike that of ancient Switzerland, merely 
bound together by a monarchy. In some parts of the 
north that constitution of the civic aristocracies had begun 
to develope itself which afterwards became the prevailing 
one in Holland. 

The government of a world so constituted was both easy 
and difficult; easy, because the variety of rights and 
interests rendered any united resistance very difficult. Un- 
less these distinct elements united under some one banner, 
great commotions would be sure to take place which would 
be fatal to all particular interests; the most convenient 
policy was to rule all by means of their divisions. It was 
difficult, because it was necessary, for a policy which aimed 
not only at ruling, but at reaping advantage from the 
country, to keep the people in good humour by allowing 
them their privileges, and consulting their feelings and 
prejudices ; for this motley community was entirely one in 
deeply-rooted devotion to the ancient rights which were the 
palladium of their liberties, and to which they regarded aM 

19 



290 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

attempts at levelling and reducing them to uniformity as 
fatal. 

They would not have sold them to a prince of their own 
lineage, far less for the sake of a unity which the will of a 
despotic foreigner would have imposed upon them. 

On the whole, Charles V. formed a just estimate of these 
forces ; he contrived never to excite any general opposition; 
he now and then ventured on a little despotic interference, 
but he renounced from the first the idea of establishing any 
uniform system of administration. 

Policy of Philip II. in the Netherlands, from 
November, 1555. — The Regency and the Aristo- 
cracy. 

It was under these circumstances that Philip entered on 
his Burgundian inheiitance. His first appearance in 
the country had not made a favourable impression. When 
he was introduced, in October, 1555, his stiff and gloomy 
aspect, his awkward and ungenial Spanish manners, had 
produced an unpleasant eftect, and it was very unpromising 
that when the States freely laid their grievances before 
him, he rose from the throne with unconcealed displeasure 
and angrily left the hall. In proportion as Charles had 
been beloved for his affability, his son was disliked for his 
repelling coldness. But these were only impressions or 
gloomy presentiments which might pass away ; they did not 
as yet contain any germ of revolt. 

Misunderstandings indeed could not be prevented from 
the first, but they were caused by the young monarch's 
practical measures rather than by the impression he pro- 
duced. 

The King could not govern the country himself, and had 
therefore to choose a Stadtholder, who should govern in 
his name. 

Had the opinion of the country been consulted, especially 
that of the spokesmen of the numerous aristocracy, the 
answer would have been unanimous that one from among 
themselves should be chosen, whose name, wealth, and 
influence rendered him suitable for the office of regent. 

There was no lack of candidates ; ' there were Count 
Egmont, and William of Orange, and a number of eminent 
and influential men, who considered themselves princes of 



THE REGENCY. 291 

the Gentian empire, and to whom it did not appear 
audacious to aspire to the office. 

Philip had well considered the question, for this wish had 
been so plainly expressed to him that he could not fail to 
understand it, but he was determined not to accede to it. 
He distrusted this aristocracy and feared its power. He 
had already had reports sent him concerning the leaders 
among the nobles, and observations of this sort are found 
about Egmont : " Nutat in religione : whatever he may say 
to-day, he will act contrary to it to-morrow : this is the 
gentleman of whom we hear the most at present, and whom 
the others put forward to say things that they have not 
courage to say themselves." Of William : " He goes to 
work with more finesse, and is altogether in better credit 
than the other ; if he could be gained over, the others might 
be got into our power." 

Both these men were therefore early marked in the black 
book as suspicious, yet their previous conduct had given no 
cause for it. On the contrary, the position of both had been 
such that they might be regarded as the King's most zealous 
servants, and as executants of the royal will. Egmont had 
just led a part of the Spanish army against the French, and 
had brought the war to a successful issue by his victories at 
St. Quentin and Gravelingen. It was not easy to see why 
he excited the King's suspicion ; he was not a character 
likely to excite it ; he was a distinguished soldier, the pride 
of his master, Charles V., who had taken him with him to 
Tunis at the age of seventeen, as soon as he was capable 
of bearing arms. Then he was one of the greatest lords in 
Flanders and Brabant, nearly related to some of the princely 
houses of Germany, himself something of a German prince, 
but sincerely devoted to the royal house. 

It cannot be denied that he was vain, and liable to arro- 
gant and violent outbursts of passion; but he had the 
noble ambition to earn his sovereign's favour by substantial 
services, and every one knew him to be guileless and unsus- 
pecting. He now and then betrayed the wounded pride of 
the great noble, was fond of receiving homage, and was 
displeased when it was refused him. But these failings were 
on the surface ; his words were worse than his thoughts. 
He had no talent for machinations or intrigues ; he was 
open-hearted and unsuspicious ; utterly destitute of qualities 
likely to make him dangerous, 



292 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

Prince William of Orange (born 1533) had already 
entered into the imperial service in the Netherlands with 
his father. He had grown up as a page at the Emperor's 
court, and as his avowed favourite had been entrusted with 
important missions, even in his twentieth year. The world 
then knew nothing of the great qualifications which he 
afterwards displayed under the pressure of a mighty task ; 
he appeared merely as a clever, luxurious, pomp-loving 
cavalier, in whom there was not the slightest trace of the 
ambition of his later days. 

His ancestors of Nassau had filled military and political 
posts of importance in the Netherlands ; his cousin Renatus 
had bequeathed to him the important heritage of Orange ; 
and it was in this that the power of the Duke of Nassau, 
which he also was, lay. His character as a statesman will 
evolve itself in the course of the history to which he belongs. 
When Charles laid aside the imperial crown, William was 
employed to convey it to his brother Ferdinand ; and when 
he came to the Netherlands to abdicate, and introduce his 
son, he appeared with one arm leaning on his crutch, the 
other on William's shoulder. 

There was nothing in such precedents to indicate hostility 
to the Crown — at any rate, not more than belonged to every 
privileged position in the State. Both men had performed 
willing service for the Emperor ; they were equally devoted 
to him. Both were born and brought up as Catholics — 
Egmont rigidly so ; Orange as a man of the world, by whom 
religion was regarded as something incidental, which must 
conform to circumstances. There could be no idea of 
religious fanaticism in his case, or even of hearty sympathy 
with any creed ; and in this he was uncommonly like his 
patron, Charles V. 

Egmont and Orange considered themselves equally 
adapted for the office of regent. Whether the expectations 
of the nobles should be justified or not was a question on 
both sides of which there was something to be said. It was 
true that it would attach them to the Crown, if they were in 
the service of the Government ; but it was also true that there 
was some danger in giving them so much power ; for they 
were almost all deeply in debt, and would therefore be pre- 
disposed to. innovation ; and with the suspicious Philip this 
consideration prevailed. 

The aristocracy had reckoned that if no one from among 



Margaret of parma. 293 

themselves were chosen, it would be some person agreeable 
to them, whom they would be able to influence. They had 
in view a relative of the Emperor ; the Duchess Christina of 
Lorraine was the candidate favoured by Orange. But 
Philip again disappointed them ; for instead of this popular 
princess, Margaret of Parma was chosen. Charles's eldest 
child was an illegitimate daughter, whom it was easy for 
him in his imperial position to pronounce legitimate, and by 
means of a princely marriage to introduce to the dynastic 
circles. She was brought up by the Emperor's sister, Mary 
of Hungary, and married, when twelve years old, to a 
miserable debauchee, Alexander of Medici, and after his 
death to Octavio Farnese, afterwards Duke of Parma and 
Piacenza. Alexander Farnese, one of the most distin- 
guished men of the age, was the issue of this marriage. 

Margaret of Parma had many masculine qualities. She 
was of commanding appearance, an enthusiastic Catholic, 
and deeply versed in the arts of Spanish dissimulation. 

This appointment did not make a very favourable impres- 
sion. The lady's character was not known, as we now 
know it from authentic documents ; but although her 
mother was a native of the Netherlands, she had become a 
stranger to the country, and it was surmised that she would 
govern in the Spanish spirit, and that was enough. 

We have in her correspondence, edited by Reiffenberg 
in 1842 (not published), the most complete disclosures as to 
her position, and the spirit in which she entered upon her 
office. Philip selected her because she was entirely de- 
pendent upon him. He could at any moment dismiss her 
into her previous obscurity, for she had no property of her 
own, and this he afterwards did. It appears plainly from 
her letters that she justly estimated this fact, and in her 
delicate position she was as subservient to every suggestion 
of her brother as circumstances rendered desirable. 

She systematically encouraged Philip's distrust of the 
aristocracy of the country. From the first she brought 
accusations against Egmont and Orange, and was continu- 
ally casting oil upon the flames. Instead of conciliating the 
already aggrieved nobles, she rudely repulsed them. 

With all its complicated conditions, the country was in 
itself difficult to govern, and she was certainly not equal to 
the task. Under any circumstances, it would have sur- 
passed a woman's powers, especially one possessed of so 



294 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

little loyalty of character as the Regent ; for her official 
reports, compared with her letters, appear like one great lie. 
She was a stranger to the country ; she did not even under- 
stand its language. Even if she had not been so disposed, 
she would have been obliged, therefore, to submit to the 
influence of others ; and her advisers were chosen in 
accordance with her brother's will. 

Among these there was one in particular at whom the 
arrows of party spirit were soon aimed. This was Cardinal 
Granvella, as he had been called since 1561. The family 
had come into notice under Charles V. who was skilled in 
discovering talent. Nicolas Perrenot was an obscure advo- 
cate in Burgundy, when the Emperor advanced him, and 
made him his most confidential minister. One of his chil- 
dren, Antony (born 1517), early displayed great talents and 
energy, rapidly rose step by step in ecclesiastical rank, and 
was soon distinguished by the Emperor's favour. 

About 1540 we already find him as Bishop of Arras, in 
the Emperor's train ; and being a prelate of an energetic and 
not very pastoral turn of mind, he took part in all the 
Emperor's journeys and battles like a general, and as on 
other occasions he took a pleasure in not playing the part 
of a demure priest. 

Very different opinions were formerly entertained of his 
position. We have now the means of forming a precise 
estimate of it. 

He was an adroit, clever, well-informed man, undoubt- 
edly the most capable person whom the Regent had about 
her, a native of the country, well acquainted with its circum- 
stances, an energetic worker, of colossal endurance, and his 
talent is proved by the number of well-written documents 
that we possess by his hand. The whole weight of the 
Government rested on his shoulders, and he carried it on in 
blind devotion to the dictates and interests of Philip. He 
might well say, " I am not a Fleming : I belong to 
Philip II." 

Now that we are in possession of these letters, many 
reproaches that have been cast upon him may be con- 
tradicted, but many of his less known weaknesses are 
brought to light. All are agreed as to the extent and cha- 
racter of his ambition. These letters also show that he 
obsequiously entered into every humour and idea of his 
master, whose character he had well studied ; and besides 



CARDINAL GRANVELLA. 295 

being a clever statesman, he was well skilled in flattery. 
But it is proved by these documents that he perhaps actu- 
ally opposed the increase of bishoprics, the introduction of 
the Inquisition, and the execution of Egmont, which have 
been ascribed to him. He was far from being an indepen- 
dent character, who would undertake anything on his 
own responsibility. He was rather slippery, as a parvenu 
whose patent of nobility is his master's favour — ready to 
do anything, or leave it undone, according to order. He 
was essentially an accommodating character, not in the least 
like such men as Alba. 

As is usual in such cases, he was abundantly hated. He 
was the first man in the Government ; everything passed 
through his hands ; and he was, in fact, the responsible 
agent of the Government, even if he was more or less inno- 
cent of many things of which he was accused. 

He was not likely to disarm prejudice; he had all the 
characteristics of a parvenu ; he was obsequious to those 
above him, arrogant and assuming to those beneath him ; 
he boasted of his ecclesiastical honours, first as bishop, 
then as archbishop, finally as cardinal, and he made all 
who entered his presence — even the first men in the land- — 
offensively feel that he was master. There were reasons for 
which much might be said for not making either Egmont 
or Orange, Stadtholder ; but to place over men of princely 
rank a coarse plebeian, the son of an advocate, was not 
wise ; it was to avoid one evil by committing another, and 
it was one of Philip's most serious mistakes. 

Granvella did not understand how to treat these great 
lords ; every one of them brought the same complaints 
against him — not only the impetuous Egmont, but Horn 
and Orange also, who at first tried to maintain a friendly 
understanding with him. They considered him responsible 
for every bad measure, and they were right; he was the 
soul of a Government which had sworn death to the liberties 
of the Netherlands, and he let the princes feel that they were 
under his feet. 

The form of the Government was as follows. Besides the 
Regent, there were three councillors who nominally shared 
the business of the country between them, but who really 
were only tools of a cabinet from which the Regent had 
secret orders to receive all instructions. This consisted of 
Granvella; the learned Viglius Van Aytta, a vacillating. 



296 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

untrustworthy character, of whom even his own party said 
that he was to be had for money, and that his credit was 
doubtful ; and Barlaymont, who was one of the nobility, but 
who was therefore regarded as all the more inexcusable 
for holding his head in his pride of office above the great 
nobles. 

First Differences. — The Spanish Soldiery. — The 
Increase of Bishoprics, 1560-61. 

This was the position of the new Government in 1559. 
It was an administration by strangers and upstarts, whose 
creed, political and religious, was directly at enmity with 
the sentiments of the nation, and who, however able they 
might otherwise be, could but increase the variance which 
was beginning to appear. 

The aristocracy were as yet far from any thought of 
revolt, but they thought themselves entitled to certain 
privileges and favours. Under Charles V. they had been 
employed in all important posts ; it had perhaps been 
Charles's intention thereby to connect their interests with 
his own, but perhaps also to ruin them financially ; at all 
events, he effected that they should spend extravagantly in 
his service. 

Historians all agree that the nobles of the Netherlands 
took service under Charles's pompous government at enor- 
mous expense to themselves ; that they rivalled each other 
in a magnificence which ruined families of great wealth, and 
involved nearly all in debt. The Emperor's commissions 
and the places he bestowed were very honourable and 
splendid ; but they brought nothing in, and involved the 
expenditure of private property. The debts of William of 
Orange were said to amount to 900,000 florins, of which 
a considerable part was incurred by the cost of imperial 
embassies. The great lords could not forget this. Then 
they had hoped to effect a successful issue of the war with 
France, and for this also they had made sacrifices. Besides 
this, there had been a famine in the Netherlands, and the 
largest demands had been made on the largest landowners. 
For these services the aristocracy claimed the gift of offices 
and dignities ; but their claims were partly unwisely refused, 
and partly met by insignificant requital. 

Still, this would not have been enough to excite the 



FIRST DIFFERENCES. 29 *> 

Netherlands to revolt ; it would have taken a long time, for 
the fact that the Government had not conciliated even so 
influential a portion of the population, to have acquired so 
much importance. It was only to a partial extent that the 
people made the cause of the disappointed nobles their 
own, though they would rather have seen an Egmont or 
Orange at their head, instead of a Spanish Camarilla. But 
of the national aversion of the Netherlands to the Spaniards 
there was no doubt ; they hated each other as two distinct 
nations under the same sceptre always have done ; and the 
new Government was assiduous in exaggerating rather than 
in lessening these relations. 

Philip II. began by garrisoning the country with his 
troops. After the conclusion of the war with France, there 
was no reason for delaying to disband the army. But a 
portion of the Spanish troops were quartered in the Nether- 
lands, perhaps at first with the idea that they should be 
supported at the expense of the country, but with an 
obvious afterthought that they might be required against an 
enemy who, after the peace, could only be found within it. 
The quartering of foreign troops was opposed to the spirit 
of the privileges of all the provinces ; besides which, after 
the famine, from which, during the previous year, every 
class had suffered, it was an intolerable burden. No one 
could see why they should support a few thousand brutal, 
famishing Spanish soldiers, for whose perpetual presence no 
good reason could be given. The burden affected all, and 
the grievance was therefore general and popular ; the bitter 
feeling excited by it in some places was so great that in 
Zealand they declared that they would all rather, men, 
women, and children, be drowned in the waves than put up 
with the shameful treatment of the Spanish soldiery any 
longer. 

The impossibility of retaining these soldiers, whom 
Philip required for his Inquisition, became so obvious, that 
even Granvella and the Regent doubted whether it would 
do to exasperate the people any longer. They represented 
to the King that if the troops were not removed, not a 
penny more would come into the treasury from these rich 
provinces ; and Granvella wrote : " It cuts me to the heart 
to see the Spanish troops depart, but if the imminent danger 
of a revolt in the provinces is to be avoided, it must be." 
They almost dismissed them on their own responsibility ai 



298 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

the beginning of 1561, and just then a sufficient pretext 
occurred for employing them abroad. 

But the King, who wrote very angry despatches about it, 
was certain that nothing was to be done in this case by 
concessions ; whenever it was possible, sharp and decisive 
measures must be taken, and if it did cost a few heads, that 
was of no moment. He himself defended Granvella from 
the reproach of having advised him to cut off half-a-dozen 
heads ; he had done no such thing, though if he had " it 
would not have been so much amiss." And this at a time 
when as yet not a finger was raised in revolt ! 

To this exasperation about the soldiers another was added. 
A plan was conceived of increasing the number of bishop- 
rics, and of making the new ones organs of the Inquisition. 

In this wealthy country, with a population of three 
million souls, there were only four bishoprics — Arras, Cam- 
bray, Tournay in the southern, and Utrecht in the northern 
provinces. This appeared to Philip very disproportionate 
when he compared it with Spain, so thickly sown with spiri- 
tual shepherds. He proposed to multiply the number four- 
fold. Pope Paul IV. zealously entered into the project ; in 
the bull confirmed by his successor, Pius II., January, 1560, 
it was stated that it was urgently necessary to plant new 
bishoprics in these blessed pastures. " The enemy of man- 
kind was working in such manifold forms, the Netherlands 
were so encompassed by heretical and schismatical nations, 
that everything was to be feared for its spiritual safety. The 
harvest was plenteous, but the labourers were few," &c. 
But the clergy of the Netherlands thought otherwise ; they 
were not only strongly leavened with the philosophy of 
Erasmus, but they feared that this multiplication of bishop- 
rics would diminish their incomes — a reason which at first 
caused Granvella, as Bishop of Arras, to be against it. The 
people would not hear of it. If the object were only to 
increase the pomp and luxury of the Catholic Church, it 
would only furnish this sober, commercial people with an 
expensive luxury. They had been good Catholics for cen- 
turies with only four bishoprics; what did they want with 
more? But if, as was to be feared, the object were to 
multiply the tribunals for heretics, tremendous danger was 
bound up with it. Besides, the charters of Holland and 
Brabant, especially the " Joyeuse Entree" of the latter, 
expressly required the consent of the States to every increase 



THE EDICTS. 2gq 

of the clergy. It was one of the conditions which the ruler 
had sworn to abide by, and must keep to, unless the sub- 
jects were to be released from the obligations imposed by 
treaty upon them. At the same time, it was everywhere 
reported that there was an intention to introduce the Spanish 
Inquisition.* At all events, it was expressly stated in the 
bull that each of the new bishops was to nominate a number 
of prebendaries, to support him in the Inquisition ; and Gran- 
vella himself received the title of Grand Inquisitor. 

The Inquisition in the Netherlands. 

Even Charles V. had been nearly as severe against the 
new doctrines in the Netherlands as in Spain, and this had 
given great dissatisfaction. But between 1520 and 1530, 
the spread of heresy had not been very great. The first 
measure which had been taken against the Reformation was 
the promulgation of the Edict of Worms, and the placing 
of all books, teaching, teachers, and confessors of the new 
gospel under an interdict, and this law was carried out with 
sanguinary severity. In 1522 some Reform movements had 
taken place among the Augustine Order at Brussels, and 
the culprits were at once seized and burnt. For years the 
most cruel sentences had been pronounced upon apostates, 
and at the close of Charles's reign the number of those 
who, often on frivolous charges, had been strangled, burnt, 
beheaded, or buried alive, was by some, among them 
Hugo Grotius, set down as one hundred thousand ; and by 
none at less than fifty thousand. The spirit of the imperial sen- 
tences, the notorious " edicts," is best seen from that of the 
25th of November, 1550, which Charles proclaimed in the 
elation of his triumph at Augsburg, and in which all the 
previous ones were summed up. 

The next step was to repeat an edict of 24th October. 
1529, in which it was forbidden to print, copy, multiply, 
keep, conceal, buy, sell, or give away any work of Martin 
Luther, CEcolampadius, Zwingli, Bucer, Calvin, or any other 
heretic. It was forbidden to destroy, or in any way injure, 
any image of the Virgin Mary or any canonised saint; to 

• Whether the introduction of the " Spanish " Inquisition, or the 
increase of the severity of the Inquisition of the Netherlands was 
intended, it is all one. The latter was undoubtedly Philip's intention, 
according to his open declaration even before he returned to Spa ; n. 



300 THE REVOLT OE THE NETHERLANDS. 

hold or attend any heretical conventicle ; and the laity were 
admonished that they were neither to read the Scriptures 
nor to take part in any discussions or controversies respect- 
ing them, under pain of a variety of barbarous punishments. 
Such miscreants were to be put to death as disturbers of the 
public peace and order by the following methods : the 
men by the sword, the women to be buried alive — if they 
recanted ; but if they are obstinate, they are all to be burnt : 
in either case, all their property was to be confiscated. He 
who omitted to accuse persons suspected of heresy, gave 
them shelter, food, fuel, or clothing, was to be regarded as 
a heretic himself. People who had not been convicted of 
heresy, but were suspected of it, and required by the eccle- 
siastical judges to abjure such heresy, if they rendered 
themselves suspicious again, were to be treated without 
mercy, and punished with loss of life and property. An 
informer, in case of conviction of the accused, was to re- 
ceive the half of his property when it did not exceed one 
hundred Flemish florins ; when more, ten per cent, of the 
excess. He who attended at a conventicle, and afterwards 
informed against the others, was exempted from punishment. 

And all these ordinances were meant in fearful serious- 
ness, for at the end it says, " In order that the judges and 
officials may not suppose, under pretext that these penalties 
are too heavy, and are only meant to intimidate, that the 
culprits may be treated with less severity, it is ordained that 
the guilty shall be punished without fail ; and the judges are 
forbidden to change or modify the sentences in any way." 
No one might intercede for a heretic, or give in any petition 
for one, under pain of forfeiting his rights as a citizen, and 
other arbitrary punishments. 

Queen Mary of Hungary, the Emperor's sister, was so 
shocked at the edict that she went herself to Augsburg to 
petition that it might be mitigated ; but all that the Emperor 
conceded was the substitution of the words " ecclesiastical 
judges " for " inquisitors." Philip II. was right when he 
once said, " What do we want with a new Inquisition there ? 
the present one is bad enough." 

As early as 1521, Charles V. appointed a general inquisi- 
tor, with adjutants, to carry out his decrees. In 1525, these 
were replaced by three superior inquisitors, and thus the 
institution from time to time made progress, and it was not 
merely independent of the clergy of the Netherlands — they 



THE EDICTS. 30 1 

were entirely subjected to it ; so that every ecclesiastic, even 
up to the bishops, was as devoid of rights before the Inqui- 
sition as any layman; and in April, 1550, all provisions in 
the charters, which were opposed to these edicts concerning 
heresy, were declared null and void. 

In accordance with his father's solemn and repeated 
instructions, Philip had fully confirmed and renewed all 
this in the first month of his government, November, 1555, 
but meanwhile the aspect of religion in the Netherlands 
had entirely altered. 

Charles V.'s Inquisition had effected almost nothing for 
the maintenance of the old faith. Every year a number of 
cruel executions had taken place, and a certain Titelmans * 
had administered the dreadful laws with all the fana- 
ticism of an unscrupulous renegade. But in this case, 
as in others, the blood of the martyrs was the seed of 
the Church. The most sanguinary strictness did not in 
the least prevent the spread of the new doctrines, which at 
the time of the first measures against them numbered very 
few followers, but by the time of the Edict of 1550 they 
had increased tenfold. Ten thousand fugitives were already 
living abroad on account of their faith ; but as only the 
wealthy could afford this, these figures imply a very consi- 
derable number of converts who were not intimidated by 
the barbarous Inquisition. 

The complaints against Philip, who was only carrying 
out his father's laws, and who during the war with France 
had somewhat relaxed the persecution of the heretics, were 
therefore only so far justified, in that it was believed from 
some of his expressions that he would outdo his father, and 
that since heresy had spread so widely he would double or 
treble the old severity. Complaint after complaint reached 
the Regent, and through her the King, from Egmont and 
Orange, of Granvella and the Spanish policy. This con- 
vinced Philip that Granvella was just the man for the 
Netherlands, and that these two lords must be regarded as 
the most dangerous enemies of the country. He conceived 
a violent hatred of Egmont, although he found it prudent 
to conceal it for a time, and forgot all the services that he 
had rendered to the kingdom. 

The years 1562-3-4 passed away amidst irritation and 

• See Motley, 



302 THE REVOLT Of THE NETHERLANDS. 

excitement. The Inquisition pursued its fearful course; 
bitter hatred raged in the country ; the aristocracy warned 
and protested, and adopted the not unskilful plan of sparing 
the Regent and attacking Granvella, accusing him of being 
her guilty and responsible adviser. 

The Regent at first watched the storm with displeasure, 
and then with malicious satisfaction. The wily Italian said 
to herself that if any one must fall it had better be Granvella 
than herself; she therefore suddenly changed her tactics. 
Having first defended Granvella, she now accused him of 
being the cause of all the discontent; but Granvella did not 
alter his course. 

Philip II. seemed soon disposed to make a concession. 
He told his sister that he saw that it would be difficult to 
retain Granvella, and that his dismissal was perhaps inevi- 
table. At the same time he wrote a confidential letter to 
Granvella, in which he proposed to him to withdraw into 
his native Burgundy for a time, until the ill-will against him 
had blown over : it should not be any disadvantage to him, 
and he had nothing to fear for his person or position : " for 
I regard your interest and honour as my own." 

Thus we find duplicity on every side. This is the most 
repulsive feature in all these complications, and it is there- 
fore unreasonable to ascribe all the blame to any one person. 
The great nobles were not sincere, for they mixed up their 
private affairs with the complaints as to the public grievances ; 
the Regent was not sincere, for she sacrificed the man whose 
system she had long regarded as her own, and which was 
unchanged ; but the most insincere of all was Philip, for 
he removed his tool in apparent displeasure, and yet was 
resolved to carry out his system to the utmost. 

So in 1564 Granvella was removed, with the ostensible 
object of reconciling his opponents to the Crown, but really 
to withdraw him from the universal hatred. The institution 
of the new bishoprics proceeded at a rapid pace; the 
Inquisition was reorganized with fresh energy and severity, 
though on the basis of the old Edicts. Tribunals were 
established in every province, the express purpose of which 
was to enforce to the utmost the imperial Edicts. One 
execution followed quickly upon another, judicial murders 
with most revolting details ; every preacher of the new 
doctrines, every one even suspected of heresy, was con- 
demned and executed. A former Carmelite monk, Eabricius, 



EXECUTIONS. 303 

who was much followed as a preacher at Antwerp, was 
seized, placed upon the rack, and executed. A great 
popular outbreak had followed, which plainly showed the 
feeling of the masses. But no warning was taken, the 
religious terrorism increased, and if any proof was needed 
that Granvella's recall was no sign of a return to better 
paths it was furnished by this. 

Before Granvella was recalled the nobles had refused to 
attend the Council of State any longer. They had effected 
his fall and had returned, but now they were made respon- 
sible for things that they abhorred. They felt that they had 
been ill used, and that the man whom they hated had only 
been sacrificed in order ruthlessly to carry on his still more 
hateful system. When the King was about to have the 
decrees of the Council of Trent proclaimed they were roused 
to resistance; Orange made a powerful speech in the 
Council, which occasioned the President Viglius an attack 
of apoplexy which nearly proved fatal, and it was deter- 
mined to send Egmont to Madrid, in order to open the 
eyes of the ill-informed King, to represent to him that the 
hour of the Government, as it had been, was come, and that 
the system of bishops and executioners, Edicts and Inquisi- 
tions, was no longer tenable. Count Egmont seemed to be 
specially adapted for the mission; he was a zealous Catholic, 
a distinguished general, and as loyal a subject as any 
Spaniard. Orange did not anticipate much good from this 
step, for he was convinced that the King was playing a 
double game, but it appeared at the moment to be the only 
thing to be done. 

Egmont's Journey and the Compromise, 1565-6. 

Egmont set out for Spain in 1565. The King looked 
forward to his arrival with deep dissatisfaction, but his 
reception was all that could be desired. He was feted as 
the victor of St. Quentin and Gravelingen, and treated with 
the greatest distinction ; the design was to intoxicate the 
vain man with flattery and honour, and it succeeded per- 
fectly. He had interviews with the King, who appeared to 
the guileless count utterly different from the system in the 
Netherlands ; he was good-will and cordiality itself. He 
seemed willing to put an end to some of the grievances, 
and even in matters of faith to yield as far as his conscience 



304 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

would permit. Egmont himself did not want any favour 
shown to the new doctrines ; he only wished that the 
perpetual executions should be put an end to, for they 
promoted heresy more than anything else. The King did 
not seem disinclined to meet his wishes. The count was not 
disturbed by the snares and reservations in his answers; he 
thought everything had been attained when the King 
declared his willingness to submit the matter to another 
trial, and departed, as he himself wrote, "the happiest man 
in the world." 

Overjoyed at having accomplished so much, Egmont 
returned home, and reported that the King was the best 
man in the world ; it was only his counsellors who were 
executioners ; he had gone into everything in the most 
friendly manner, had graciously promised that all the 
evils should be mitigated, that the nuisance of the execu- 
tions should cease, yet that the unity of the Church should 
not suffer. 

Very different were the instructions received by the 
Regent soon after Egmont's return ; they enjoined that the 
old edicts should be strictly enforced ; there was nothing 
about reforms, nothing about concessions, and this was soon 
publicly known. 

Orange saw that his friend had been utterly deceived ; 
the people shook their heads at the discrepancy, and 
Egmont was beside himself with rage and scorn. 

The King had played the part of a cowardly despot, who 
had not the courage to declare his sentiments to the count ; 
while he was so friendly to his face, he was taking care that 
not the least concession should be made. 

Some fruitless negotiations took place with the bishops 
and doctors of theology, and then, at the King's express 
command, it was decreed in the council that the decrees 
of the Council of Trent, the Edicts, and the Inquisition, 
should be promulgated in every city and village every six 
months. 

As this decree was being passed, Orange whispered to 
his neighbour that before long the most extraordinary 
tragedy would begin that had ever been played on earth, 
and during the next few days the worst forebodings were 
rife. The effect of the new proclamations was indescribable ; 
they were received with the horror that forebodes a national 
catastrophe; it was as if the blood had been suddenly 



THE KING'S DISSIMULATION. 305 

congealed in the nation's veins. Trade was at an end, 
foreign merchants fled, the manufactories were idle, the 
stillness of death fell over Antwerp, the capital of this 
flourishing mercantile State, and the universal exasperation 
burst forth in a flood of passionate pamphlets and appeals 
which no Inquisition could stem. 

In a public letter to the King, the independent and 
manly spirit of those who were threatened with loss of 
liberty of conscience was strikingly expressed : "We are 
ready to die for the Gospel, but we read therein, ' Render 
unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the 
things that are God's.' We thank God that even our 
enemies are constrained to bear witness to our piety and 
innocence, for it is a common saying, ' He does not swear, 
for he is a Protestant' ' He is not an immoral man or a 
drunkard, for he belongs to the new sect ; ' and yet we are 
subjected to every kind of punishment that can be invented 
to torment us." 

The position of the aristocracy, in relation to the King's 
policy, gradually became clearer. Their undecided bearing 
had often laid them open to the charge of selfishness, but 
this was the case no longer ; the time had come when they 
had to choose between being hammer or anvil. They were 
justified in complaining of grievances so bitter, and would 
have lost all the people's confidence if they had not now 
taken an independent part. 

The idea began to prevail among the party of the young 
and passionate nobles, not altogether consisting of pure 
elements, that they must put an end to half measures, and 
boldly take the initiative. 

Count Louis of Nassau, more fiery than his brother 
William, and more inclined to radical views, took great 
pains to bring about an understanding among the nobles ; 
he was a distinguished soldier, and a man of the greatest 
moral courage. He was supported as adviser and diplo- 
matic ally by the learned St. Aldegonde, surpassed by lew 
as a theologian, soldier, author, and orator, and a thorough 
patriot. There were others of less blameless character, 
such as Count Brederode, a man of adventurous courage, 
but strongly tainted with the libertinism of the nobles. He 
was deeply involved in pecuniary difficulties, and therefore 
not above suspicion that he was speculating on a revolution 
which might place him personally in a better position. 

20 



306 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

It was a mixed company of sincere enthusiasts, secret 
Protestants, discontented nobles, and selfish schemers, who 
during the first half of 1566 united in a Compromise, in 
order energetically to oppose the King's system, at first by 
legal methods. 

About five hundred nobles, who were afterwards joined 
by many of the burgher class, bound themselves by this 
Compromise to unite in opposing Spanish tyranny and the 
Inquisition, which were ruining the country, and any 
violence which should be offered to any of them. They 
had no thought of revolt or insurrection ; they wished rather 
to defend the rights of the monarch and to put down dis- 
turbances. 

The former leaders of the aristocracy, Egmont, Orange, 
and Horn, took no part in it ; they saw that most serious 
consequences must result from such measures, and that the 
strength of the League was altogether insufficient to avert 
them. Orange especially stood aloof, although by repeated 
remonstrances he had removed all doubt as to his opinion 
on the main question, the Inquisition. He knew the mixed 
character of the League, and what must come of a con- 
spiracy the members of which gave vent to their zeal in 
wild speeches, amidst the clashing of glasses at banquets ; 
but he could do nothing to prevent it ; they had begun to 
play their part, and the passions of the young nobles would 
have play. 

A great demonstration was decided on for the spring 01 
1566; the cavaliers of the League were to go in solemn 
procession to the Regent, and hand in a petition, praying 
for mitigation of the Edicts and the abolition of the In- 
quisition. 

The Beggars, the Field Preachers, and the 
Destruction of Images. 

The procession took place on the 5th April, 1566. The 
flower of the young nobility appeared, two or three hundred 
strong, in splendid attire, before the Regent's palace at 
Brussels, and Brederode read the address in a solemn 
assembly of the Council. The petitioners therein renewed 
their assurances of loyalty, and protested against th? 
calumnies of those who accused them of planning revolt ; 
but, although in a tolerably respectful tone, they depicted 



THE BEGGARS. 307 

the distress of the provinces in lively colours, and requested 
that until a special ambassador should have procured the 
abolition of the Edicts from the King, the Regent should 
at least suspend them. 

When the Duchess, who during this scene had hardly- 
been able to master her excitement, summoned the Council 
at once to consider the subject, Barlaymont endeavoured to 
pacify her, representing that she need not fear " this troop 
of beggars;" if the answer depended upon him alone, it 
should be given in blows, and they should go down the 
palace stairs faster than they had come up. 

Barlaymont's words have become immortal ; as soon as 
it went round that these noble cavaliers had been insulted 
by an upstart, the nickname became a title of honour. 

The Duchess gave a well-meaning but evasive answer. 
The three hundred petitioners met at a banquet on the 8th 
of April. Barlaymont's words were discussed, and when 
they were consulting as to a suitable name for the League, 
Brederode rose and said, "They call us Beggars; let us 
adopt the name. We will resist the Inquisition, but we 
will remain true to the King and to the Beggars' wallet." 
Then he called for a leathern pouch, such as was worn by 
vagrant beggars, drank off a wooden bowl of wine at one 
draught, and set it down with the words : " Vivent les 
gueux." Amidst cheers and laughter the pouch and bowl 
went round the table : the League had been christened. 

The party had a symbol, and a token was given for the 
masses. Up to this time the contest had been confined to 
the upper grades of society, the secrecy of cabinets, and 
diplomatic transactions. Now that the great lords had to a 
certain extent formed a league of brotherhood with the 
common people, the exasperated populace said among 
themselves, "These shall be our leaders," and more 
resulted from it than the carousers at the banquet, or the 
great ' Beggar,' Brederode, expected or wished. The Beg- 
gars' symbol spread throughout the country; noblemen 
were seen in the grey garb of mendicant monks. A new 
coin, the 'Beggars' Penny,' with the image of the King on one 
side, and two hands holding a beggar's wallet on the other, 
served as a medal. And now the masses began to move. 

While the Privy Council was endeavouring to obtain a 
11 Moderation " of the Edicts, and, with the aid of the 
iharp-sighted Viglius, effected that the heretics should be 



308 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

no longer burnt but hung, and that the Inquisition should 
proceed " prudently, and with circumspection," a move- 
ment broke out among the people which mocked at all the 
Edicts. The open country was suddenly covered with 
thousands of armed noblemen, citizens, and peasants, who 
assembled in large crowds in the open air to listen to some 
heretical preacher, Lutheran, Calvinist, or even an Ana- 
baptist, and to hold forbidden services, with prayers and 
hymns, in the mother tongue. They sallied forth with 
pistols, arquebuses, flails, and pitchforks ; the place of 
meeting was marked out like a camp, and surrounded by 
guards; from ten to twenty thousand assembled, the armed 
men outside, the women and children within. After the 
immense choir had sung a psalm, one of the excom- 
municated preachers appeared between two pikes (accord- 
ing to the " Moderation," a price was set upon the head of 
every one of them), and expounded the new doctrine from 
the Scriptures; the assembly listened in devout silence, 
and when the service was ended separated quietly, but 
defiantly. This was repeated day after day throughout the 
country, and nobody dared to attack the armed field 
preachers. 

The Regent was in a painful situation ; she was always 
having it proclaimed that the Edicts were in force, but 
nobody cared ; and when she demanded of the authorities 
of Antwerp that the city militia should be called out, she 
was told it was impossible, and so it was. It was all in 
vain unless foreign troops came to enforce obedience, and 
these she had neither power nor funds to procure. The 
King hesitated in his usual fashion, and left the Regent to 
the torments of powerlessness and uncertainty. 

Meanwhile the universal excitement bore fatal fruit. 
Instead of the dignified preachings and peaceful assemblies 
of May, in June and July there were wild excesses and 
furious mobs. 

Orange had just persuaded the Regent to permit the 
field preaching in the open country, if they avoided the 
towns, when the first great outbreak occurred in Antwerp. 

Two days after a great procession, on the 18th of August, 
1566, at which the Catholic clergy of Antwerp had made a 
pompous -display to the annoyance of the numerous Pro- 
testants, the beautiful cathedral was invaded by a furious 
mob, who destroyed without mercy all the images, pictures, 



THE IMAGE BREAKERS. 30<) 

and objects of art that it contained. This demolition of 
images, the stripping of churches, desecration of chapels, 
and destruction of all symbols of the ancient faith, spread 
from Antwerp to other places, Tournay, Valenciennes, &c. 
It was done with a certain moderation, for neither personal 
violence nor theft took place anywhere, though innumerable 
costly articles were lying about. Still, these fanatical scenes 
not only excited the ire of Catholics, but of every religious 
man ; in Antwerp, especially, the seafaring mob had rushed 
upon everything that had been held sacred for centuries. 

In her distress the Regent wished to flee from Brussels, 
but Orange, Egmont, and Horn compelled her to remain, 
and induced her to proclaim the Act of the 25th of August, 
by which an armistice was decided on between Spain and 
the Beggars. In this the Government conceded the abolition 
of the Inquisition and the toleration of the new doctrines, 
and the Beggars declared that for so long as this promise 
was kept their league was dissolved. 

In consideration of this, the first men in the country 
agreed to quell the disturbances in Flanders, Antwerp, 
Tournay, and Malines, and to restore peace. Orange 
effected this in Antwerp like a true statesman, who knew 
how to keep himself above party spirit ; but in Flanders, 
Egmont, on the contrary, went to work like a brutal soldier ; 
he stormed against the heretics like Philip's Spanish execu- 
tioners, and the scales fell from the eyes of" the bitterly 
disappointed people. 

Meanwhile a decision had been come to at Madrid. At 
the time of the crisis in the early summer, Philip had not 
been able to arrive at any. The Regent was waiting in 
vain for an answer to her pressing questions about the 
events of April, while the armed assemblies were spreading 
over the country ; and when at length the irresolute King 
had determined to proclaim an amnesty, though it was 
really rather a proscription, and to promise indulgence, 
while he was assuring the Pope by protocol before notaries 
that he never would grant any, the news came of the image 
riots of August, and a report from the Duchess in which she 
humbly begged the King's pardon for having allowed a 
kind of religious peace to be extorted from her, but she was 
entirely innocent ; they had forced it from her as a prisoner 
in her palace, and there was one comfort, that the King 
was not bound by a promise made only in her name. 



310 1HE REVOLT OF 1 THE NETHERLANDS. 

Philip's rage was boundless, and yet it was a sort of 
satisfaction to him that he had been right. He could say, 
" This is what we are come to with the false system of indul- 
gence ; do not talk any more to me of forbearance and 
conciliation." He was resolved upon fearful revenge, even 
when he was writing that he should know how to restore 
order in his provinces by means of grace and mercy. His 
instructions to the Regent were not dubious, while she, 
in her letters to Orange, Egmont, and Horn, first hinted, 
and then more and more plainly indicated a return to the 
old policy. Well-informed as Orange was, he understood 
the whole situation perfectly; he knew that while the 
Regent was heaping flattery upon him, she and Philip 
were compassing his destruction ; that her only object could 
be to keep the peace until the Spanish preparations were 
complete, and meanwhile, if possible, to compromise him 
with the people. 

He wrote to Egmont, and laid the dangers of their 
situation before him, and communicated his resolve either 
to escape Philip's revenge by flight, or to join with his 
friends in armed resistance to the expected attack of the 
Spanish army. But Egmont in his unhappy blindness had 
resolved to side with the Government which was more than 
ever determined on his destruction, and the meeting at 
Dendermonde, October, 1566, when Orange consulted him, 
Louis of Nassau, and Hogstraaten, as to a plan of united 
action, was entirely fruitless. 

Egmont felt secure in the consciousness of his innocence, 
and the recent proofs he had given of his loyalty, and he 
was resolved to give new proofs of it in proceeding against 
the heretics. Admiral Horn, who had staked large property 
in the service of the Emperor and King, and had never 
received the least return in answer to his just demands, 
gave up his office, and, like a weary philosopher, retired 
into solitude. Left entirely alone, Orange thought of 
emigrating ; in short, the upper circle of the previous 
party of opposition no longer existed. 

But it was not so with the mad leaders of the Beggars. 

While the zealous inhabitants of Valenciennes, incited by 
two of the most dauntless Calvinistic preachers, undertook 
to defend'themselves against the royal troops with desperate 
bravery, Count Brederode went about the country with a 
clang of sabres, exciting disturbances in order to give the 



DEFEAT OF THE BEGGARS AT ANSTRUAVEEL. 3 l 1 

heretics at Valenciennes breathing-time by a happy diver- 
sion. An attempt upon the island of Walcheren, part of 
the Stadtholdership of Orange, failed, but at the village of 
Anstruweel, near Antwerp, large numbers of armed men 
assembled, and they were continually reinforced by mal- 
contents from all the surrounding country. Egmont lost 
no time in proceeding against them. On the 12th of May, 
1567, an army of his old troops fell upon the insurgents and 
completely subdued them. 

The fatal struggles of the volunteers of the Beggars' 
League could be seen from the walls of Antwerp. The 
thousands of Calvinists within the walls longed to go to the 
help of their brethren. As there was no longer any hope, 
at the peril of his life William of Orange intercepted them, 
and, with a circumspection and wisdom which betrayed the 
truly great man, he calmed the passions which threatened to 
break out into a fearful civil war. 

All that Philip wanted to enable him to gain the day was 
an unsuccessful attempt at revolt. The attack upon images 
and the Beggars' volunteer march did more for the Govern- 
ment than all Granvella's system ; the blind passions of the 
iconoclasts, and the appearance of the nobles in the late 
revolt, drove every one who favoured the Catholics and loved 
peace into the arms of the Government. 

The reaction set in with the sanguinary defeat of the 
rebels at Valenciennes, who never again even made an 
attempt at resistance. 

Orange gave up the liberties of his country for lost. It 
was his conviction that the King could now do whatever he 
pleased ; and he feared the worst, for he had long had no 
doubt as to the sentiments of the wily monarch. Stating 
that he could never take the new oath of fealty which was 
required, because it would oblige him to become the 
executioner of his Protestant countrymen, he renounced 
his offices and dignities, and made a last attempt to save his 
friend Egmont, to whom he was heartily attached. At a 
meeting they had at Willebrock, Orange represented to him 
that judgment had already been passed upon them at the 
Escurial, and that Philip's revenge was implacable ; he 
advised him therefore to save himself for better times, and 
like him to leave the country. 

Egmont was not to be convinced ; he was magnanimous 
and loyal to infatuation ; he is said at last to have said 



312 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

almost in a tone of mockery that his friend showed more 
fear than became a knight, and to have exclaimed at part- 
ing, " Adieu, mon prince sans cceur ! " to which Orange 
answered,* " Adieu, mon comte sans tete ! " 

The friends were not to meet again. Before his depar- 
ture, Orange wrote parting letters to Egmont and Horn, 
and retired to Dillenburg, the ancient property of the 
family. 

He wished to be spared for better times ; he saw the 
storm coming, and was too cool-headed to offer himself as 
the first sacrifice. In fact, just when he was travelling to- 
wards Germany, Duke Alba, the hangman of the Nether- 
lands, was on his way to his destination. 

* Against this tradition see the remarks in Motley. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Duke of Alba in the Netherlands. — His Entry into the Country.— 
Alba's Characteristics. — Disappointment of the Regent. — Guile- 
lessness of Egmont and Horn. — Their imprisonment, 9th of Sep- 
tember. — The Council of Disturbances. — Executions, and the First 
War of Independence, 1567-8. — Members, System, and Proceed- 
ings of the Council of Blood. — Louis of Nassau in Friesland, 
April— July, 1568. — Success at Heiliger Lee in May.— Death of 
Egmont and Horn, 5th of June.— Alba's Victory, July. — Advance 
of Orange and Dissolution of his Army, October. — Highest Point 
and Decline of Alba's System, 1569-73. — The " 10th Penny," 
March, 1569. — The "Amnesty," 14th July, 1570. — The Sea- 
Beggars at Brill, 1st April, 1572. — Louis of Nassau at Mons, May. 
— The Rising in Holland and Zealand. — Second Campaign of 
William of Orange frustrated by the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
—Alba's Retreat, December, 1573. 

Alba's Appearance in the Netherlands. 

r "PHE Regent had latterly been writing calming letters to 
-»- Madrid, and had, on the whole, correctly described 
the situation. Now that the outrage of the image breakers, 
and the revolutionary madness had been put down, the real 
leaders captured, fallen, or fled, it was desirable to proceed 
energetically indeed, but with moderation, in order that the 
people might be pacified, and the sending of a man like Alba 
must at all events be prevented, for the people would regard 
him with horror as their executioner. This opinion was 
not without advocates at Madrid; the King's most eminent 
councillors, men like Ruy Gomez and Perez, were of opinion 
that this favourable moment should be seized, by a wise 
combination of moderation and energy, of permanently 
attaching these valuable provinces, after bitter estrange- 
ment, to Spain ; the privy council was quite divided, the King 
would hear nothing of moderation, held his sister's govern- 



3 14 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS*. 

ment responsible for the revolt, and adhered to his intention 
of sending Alba into the provinces with an army. 

According to Margaret's views, and those of several of 
the King's advisers, this was to re-ignite a spark which was 
nearly extinct — to renew a fermentation which was nearly at 
an end. In short, it was the fatal turning-point for the fate 
of the Spanish rule. 

Up to the spring of 1567, the King's best support had 
been the errors of his enemies ; now that he resolved to 
give up all moderation, and to send Alba to conquer a 
nation that was almost pacified already, it must bend or 
break, and the seeds of a desperate revolution were sown. 
But from the first, Philip II. had no other idea than that 
of cruel revenge and conversion at the point of the sword, 
and this Orange had correctly foreseen. 

In accordance with the King's arbitrary will, Alba came. 
The Regent declined to have anything to do with him, and 
retired into the background before she was recalled, as she 
foresaw that she must sooner or later do. The army 
which suddenly appeared in the Netherlands was the 
finest which had for a long time been led by a Spanish 
commander. 

Alba was considered to be a most distinguished general, 
and in the judgment of friends and foes he was the greatest 
military genius that Spain had produced in that age. This 
opinion was afterwards modified, for it proved that he was 
more capable of leading a small force than of conducting a 
great operation. Great importance was attached to the 
opinion of Charles V. Alba had grown up and earned his 
laurels under him, the chief of which he gained during the 
campaign of 1546-7 in Germany, and especially at the 
victory at Miihlberg. But that was the acme of his general- 
ship, and it was afterwards remembered how easy these 
successes were made for him. He was contending with 
unskilful generals, troops hastily summoned, and an un- 
prepared and surprised army. At the siege of Metz he had 
failed utterly, which seems to have brought him into dis- 
favour with Charles, and, as Charles foretold, he was not 
successful in Italy. 

These failures had latterly considerably tarnished his 
fame, while that of Egmont, after the victories of St. Quentin 
and Gravelingen, was in its prime. Still, in proportion as 
Charles's opinion of Alba was lessening, he increased in 



THE DUKE OE ALBA. 315 

favour with Philip. The reasons of this, however, were 
rather political than military. 

His character was congenial to Philip, partly from simi- 
larity, partly as complement to his own. 

Like Philip, he was harsh and severe to an extreme ; he 
was a fanatical Castilian, who looked down with supreme 
contempt upon everything not Castilian. Like Philip, he 
was filled with a passionate zeal for conversion, and fully 
agreed with him in the opinion that " it was better to have 
a kingdom ruined by war, if it remained true to God and 
the King, than to keep it unspoiled by war for the benefit 
of Satan and his followers, the heretics." Then he was 
blindly subservient to the will of his monarch, and possessed 
the shrewd cunning, the talent for wily intrigues, and 
relentless energy, which combined to form Philip's idea of 
a useful servant. These were the qualities which attached 
him to the King ; there was nothing else to place him so far 
above others who had claims to be employed in this mission 
to the Netherlands. Margaret and Don John of Austria 
were both more eminent than he was, and all the generals 
who succeeded him in the Netherlands have cast him, 
both in a military and political point of view, into the 
shade. 

In a political aspect he was the most insignificant person 
that could be found ; narrow, limited in the whole scope of 
his ideas, he never comprehended how a State should be 
governed ; all his administration was like pouring water into 
the bowl of the Danaides. When we observe the subsequent 
conduct of Requesens and Alexander of Parma, that of 
Alba appears not only like the greatest cruelty and tyranny, 
but like pitiful incompetence and stupidity. Just at the 
last he began to see it, when he demanded his dismissal ; he 
was anxious to retire at once before the storm broke over 
his head. He was as narrow-minded and empty-headed as 
Philip himself; in fact, he was his counterpart. 

This judgment is mainly derived from documents only 
lately made public. It is usual to describe him as more 
able, but that estimate does not agree with these witnesses, 
according to whom neither his political nor military mea- 
sures gave evidence of any talent. He was bom to ruin 
everything — army, property, and country — in rigid obedience 
to the will of his King, in the interests of sincere fanaticism, 
and he was quite incapable of projecting or effecting any 



316 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

salutary measures. This was the man who, in the spring of 
1567, received orders to set out with an army which was 
to embark at Carthagena, land at Genoa, and proceed 
through Savoy, Burgundy, and Lorraine, to the Netherlands. 
They embarked on the 10th of May, and, after a long and 
weary march, reached Luxemburg in August. 

The habit of wily double-facedness had become a second 
nature to Philip; it was the characteristic also of his 
enemies as well as of his tools, but they none of them 
equalled him. In order to mask his displeasure with 
Margaret, he deceived her with a story which seemed to 
have had no other object ; he told her that he intended 
coming himself, in order to quell opposition, and by his 
personal influence, to effect what could never be done by 
the most faithful servant of any monarch. 

This was quite in accordance with Margaret's wishes ; she 
thought, indeed, that she was mistress of the situation, but 
it was perfectly agreeable to her that the King should come 
and smooth down the final difficulties if it would only 
prevent Alba's coming. She was still putting faith in the 
King's visit when Alba arrived in Luxemburg. 

Alba came. One of his first speeches was — " I, who 
have tamed people of iron, shall soon manage these people 
of butter." A confidential letter given him by the King, 
with the contents of which no one else was acquainted, 
contained his instructions.* He was, above all things, to 
secure the most eminent men who had made themselves 
suspicious during the disturbances, and to render them inca- 
pable of mischief; then to imprison and punish the guilty 
among the people, and extort the wealth of the country for 
the treasury and the support of the troops. Alba used to 
talk of a " stream fathoms deep " of wealth which he would 
conduct from the Netherlands to Madrid. Finally, he was 
to carry out the Edicts against heresy with unswerving 
severity, to finish the organization of the new bishoprics, 
and to chastise the rebellious cities, partly by means of the 
Inquisition, and partly by draining the wealth into the 
treasury. This, therefore, amounted to — Execution of high 
and low, annihilation of all old constitutions, privileges, and 
liberties, especially abolition of the right of consent to the 
levy of taxes, and sanguinary execution of the measures 

♦ Juste. 



EGMONT AND HORN. 317 

which had for years been giving rise to all this discon- 
tent. 

It was necessary to secure the most powerful leaders of 
the aristocracy before a word of this became known. When 
the dreaded man appeared, they were partly alarmed, partly 
embittered, but as loyal subjects they thought he must not 
be slighted, and came with numerous retinues to meet him, 
Egmont at their head, and later Horn also. It was just for 
these two that Alba was watching. He was deeply grieved 
to find that Orange was gone, for if he were not taken it 
would be thought that nothing had been done. A most 
unworthy game now began to be played. These two men 
might have made mistakes, but they had done nothing 
illegal. Their many complaints, and Egmont's journey to 
Spain — when he had been so graciously received at Madrid 
— were the worst accusations against them. What was now 
done showed that Egmont was, in fact, known to be 
innocent. 

In order to disarm all suspicion he was received in the 
most friendly manner, and, although he was assailed by 
warnings of every sort, it perfectly succeeded. Horn was 
less eager than Egmont ; he was still sulking in retirement, 
and Alba took all manner of pains to entice him to Brussels. 
One flattering letter after another informed Horn that his 
Majesty entertained the highest opinion of him and his 
services, that he would doubtless be amply indemnified for 
the pecuniary losses he had sustained in the service of the 
State, and that the Duke was desirous of entrusting him 
with the most flattering commissions on the part of the 
King. Horn excused himself; could not come immediately; 
must at least first go and see his brother-in-law, who was 
dangerously ill. He went, and hastened from his death-bed 
to Brussels in order not to be too late. The lies by which 
both these men were entrapped show plainly that it was 
known that they were not guilty. 

It was on the 22nd of August that Alba made his entry 
into Brussels. If anybody was alarmed at the visitor, it was 
the Regent. On the one hand, as a cautious Italian, she 
shuddered at the idea of cruel and sanguinary measures, 
and on the other she was proud of having been so far suc- 
cessful that force was no longer necessary ; finally, she knew 
that if Alba were there he would in reality be over her, and 
her pride would not suffer her to serve under him. She had 



3 I 8 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

done all she could to keep him away; she had represented 
to the King that his coming was enough of itself to excite 
rebellion ; he was so hated that she sent an embassy to him 
herself to entreat him not to come, and she would be answer- 
able that peace should not be disturbed. But Alba appealed 
to the King's orders. She had latterly displayed the tri- 
umphant security of one who had gained a complete victory ; 
she was conciliating and magnanimous ; and now the very 
man was sent to her who would undo all her work. In 
the belief that the King was coming himself she had been 
making preparations to give him a festive reception, and now 
it was not the King but his executioner who was coming. 

Unpleasant scenes immediately took place, but Alba had 
been ordered to detain her ; it was not desired that she 
should go at once ; of course everything went on quite 
independently of her. After Alba's arrival she no longer 
considered herself Regent. 

Alba's first act of importance was the imprisonment of 
Egmont and Horn on the 9th of September. 

The Duke called a Council of War, as he called it, to 
decide upon a plan of fortifying Antwerp. He ordered 
plans and sketches to be made, and invited a distinguished 
company. Before the Council, the Grand Prior, Ferdinand 
of Toledo, Alba's natural son, gave a great banquet at which 
Egmont, Horn, and many of the nobility were present. 
Egmont was once more warned, even by the host himself, 
who had conceived a chivalrous affection for him, to flee 
on the swiftest horse before the banquet was ended. This 
alarmed even Egmont, and he consulted his countryman 
Noircarmes, who allayed his fears, and he went with Horn 
and the rest into the Duke's house. Both busied them- 
selves in studying the plans, while their dwellings were 
searched, their papers sealed, their secretaries and confi- 
dential servants secured. When they were about to return 
home in the evening they were seized and imprisoned. 
This came unexpectedly to every one, and most of all to 
Egmont and Horn themselves. Up to this time they had 
been treated with marked attention. On that very morning 
Alba had been riding one of the horses presented to him by 
Egmont, and thus lulled into false security they became the 
victims of unparalleled treachery. 

This was the beginning of a long course of horrors : the 
great tragedy in the Netherlands had bee;un. 



THE COUNCIL OF BLOOD. 319 

The Council of Blood, the Executions, and the 
First War of Independence. 

Immediately after the imprisonment of the two noblemen, 
the organization of terrorism began, the Council of State 
was set aside, and a Council of Disturbances, or " Council 
of Blood," as the inhabitants called it, was instituted with 
full powers. Viglius continued to be the servile president 
of the now insignificant Council, and was not a member of 
the Council of Blood, but conscientiously performed the 
office of executioner. He selected, chiefly from among his 
countrymen, those best adapted for the new court. Noir- 
carmes and Barlaymont were the most noteworthy, but the 
soul of the crew was the lowest Spaniard who could be 
found, a creature named Vargas, who, as his enemies said, 
had been obliged to leave Spain because he had violated a 
girl whose guardian he was, and the story is probable ; for 
Alba once wrote to the King that he had better suspend 
the criminal process against Vargas until the affairs of the 
Netherlands were settled. This shameless subject, who 
dared not show his face in Spain, was the prominent person 
in a tribunal which had power over the lives and properties 
of the flower of the nation — a man who well knew how to 
play the part of a judicial murderer with incredible cynicism. 
He used to say, in his notorious Latin, " Haretici fraxerunt 
templa, boni nihil faxerunt contra, ergo debent omnes pati- 
bulare," and, in answer to protests, " Non curamus vestros 
privilegios." 

The Council of Blood began its sittings on the 20th of 
September. Alba devoted nearly all his time to it. For 
days together he was not to be seen either with the troops 
or in the Council of State. He sat in the Council of Blood 
for seven, eight, nine hours at a time. He never was more 
diligent than when at his favourite work. Every sentence 
passed through his hands, for he could not trust the 
lawyers always to pass sentence of death. " The lawyers," 
he wrote to the King, " were only accustomed to pass sen- 
tence on crime being proved, but that would never do here." 

All the ordinary administration of justice was suspended ; 
all charters, all the existing laws, all provincial and civic 
privileges, were repealed by a stroke of the pen ; the 
public weal was subjected altogether to a revolutionary 
tribunal. 



320 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

Alba's mission was to exterminate treason ; and who was 
the arch-traitor ? 

Whoever had taken part in the petitions from the States 
and cities against the new bishoprics and the Inquisition, 
or in favour of the relaxation of the edicts, was accused of 
conspiring against God and the Church. Every nobleman 
who had given in such a petition, or had approved of it, 
was guilty of high treason. All the nobles and officials 
who, under pretext of the pressure of circumstances, had 
tolerated the field preaching ; all nobles, judges, and officials 
who had not opposed the first petition ; every one who had 
attended the field preaching, and had not opposed the 
image breaking ; finally, all who had expressed the opinion 
that the King had no right to deprive the provinces of their 
liberties, or that the present tribunal was bound by any 
laws or privileges whatever, were also declared guilty of high 
treason. 

The last idea was also once put forth during the French 
revolution. 

According to the sixteen Articles, the crime of high treason 
had a thousand forms. The processes and punishment were 
all the more simple and summary — death and forfeiture of 
property. This explains the fact that in the course of three 
months the Council of Blood sent eighteen hundred people 
to the scaffold. 

There were prosecutions of people for singing one of the 
" Beggars' " songs, or for having years before attended a 
Calvinistic funeral, or for saying that the new doctrines 
would spread to Spain, or for having uttered the traitorous 
sentiment that we ought to obey God rather than man. 
Whoever was rich was sure to be executed ; for Alba had 
promised his needy master an income of half a million 
ducats from the confiscations. But neither did heretical 
cobblers find any more mercy ; and when bread was dear, 
because of the depression of agriculture and trade, the 
bakers were told that if they did not make cheaper bread 
they should be hung up before their shops ; and such 
threats were meant in bitter earnest. 

It soon took too much time to take individuals : a great 
catch was therefore projected. On Shrove Tuesday, 1568, 
a great net was thrown, which enclosed the trifling number 
of five hundred innocent people. It often happened that 
people were executed without being tried, the machine did 



THE FIRST WAR. 32 1 

its work in such feverish haste. It Avas really only an 
empty form when, on the 16th February, 1568, all the inha- 
bitants of the Netherlands were sentenced to death as 
heretics, with a very few exceptions mentioned by name ; 
for in fact the whole nation stood upon the proscription list. 

This kind of government went on for years. The feelings 
it gave rise to need not be described. The hatred and 
despair were boundless. But there is a long step from 
embitterment and exasperation to the heroic resolve to 
stake everything ; these are two different things, which 
must not be confounded. A comrade of Bonaparte's said 
that there was no knowing what a nation would endure ; 
and there is a profound truth in the brutal speech. It was 
illustrated in this case. But when the long-pent-up fire did 
burst forth, it was certain that it would take generations to 
extinguish it. 

When this old Frisian blood was once up for the sake of 
liberty, when this Low German phlegm was once roused, and 
the resolution taken, " better a drowned country than a lost 
country," a struggle might be expected which no other 
nation can parallel. But the country was not yet come to 
this ; and William of Orange was mistaken in thinking that 
the time had come for revolting against Alba's yoke. 

The " Wild Beggars," who roamed the country in troops 
as highwaymen, robbing churches and convents, and muti- 
lating Catholic priests, were a fearful symptom of the state 
of things occasioned by the universal misery ; but they 
were not to be relied upon in a resolute defensive struggle. 
They only furnished a fresh pretext for the system of the 
Council of Blood. 

Prince William of Orange had been at once invited to 
Brussels, and as he did not appear, was publicly summoned 
to surrender himself. In several proclamations from Dil- 
lenburg he had energetically defended himself; but in all he 
still made a distinction between the King and his servants 
and their measures. He had then no idea that he, the 
little lord of Dillenburg, would one day wrest from the 
haughty Spaniard his fairest possession. He did not yet 
think that there was sufficient pretext for a lawful revolt. 
The words " Pro lege, rege, grege," were still upon his 
banner. 

Egmont and Horn were still in prison, and the game of 
their trial was not played out when William made the first 
21 



$22 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

attempt at revolt. His brother, Louis of Nassau, entered 
Friesland with an army from Emden in the latter half of April, 
1568, and turned swamps and marshes to account against 
the Spaniards with the same skill as the Germanic tribes 
had once done against the Romans, and near the convent 
of Heileger Lee, near Groningen, they suffered an entire 
defeat. 

Alba now set out. In order to secure the capital in his 
rear, he had the nobles beheaded, who, if he were not suc- 
cessful, would place themselves at the head of a general 
insurrection, and join cause with the victorious party in the 
east. The executions began early in June. First eighteen 
or twenty nobles fell whose trials were in progress, and on 
the 5th, Egmont and Horn. Alba then advanced against 
Louis's army in Friesland, defeated it twice, till it was 
entirely routed, returned to fresh executions at Brussels, 
and late in the autumn marched against Orange's army. 
He was advancing at the head of thirty thousand German 
soldiers, and opened the campaign on the 5th October by 
successfully crossing the Meuse. Alba had ten thousand 
men less than Orange ; a lost battle in Brabant would have 
been a misfortune for which nothing could compensate. 
Alba did not venture on the perilous attempt, and resolved 
to end the war without a battle, which was the safest thing 
he could do. The resources of the country were at his dis- 
posal ; he had money to feed and pay his troops, and there- 
fore he could wait. Orange had German and other soldiers, 
who would be likely to mutiny if their pay were in arrears. 
Besides, his troops were in a foreign country, were in want 
of the means of living, and there was no one to support 
them. The sympathies of the people were with them ; 
but they were paralyzed by the terror that preceded Alba. 
William's troops longed for a decisive engagement; but Alba 
always avoided it. His own troops became impatient at the 
fatiguing marches they had to undergo without meeting the 
enemy ; but with his iron discipline he kept them together. 

Thus William was manoeuvred out of the country. His 
soldiers mutinied. In a single engagement which one of 
Alba's generals undertook on the 20th October, without the 
aid of the main army, the rebels suffered a sad defeat ; and 
when a troop of French Huguenots arrived, the German 
soldiers, who had only been hired against Alba, refused to 
follow their leader to France. So Orange was compelled 



DFXLINE OF AtBA'S SYSTEM. 323 

to retire ; and after selling his plate to appease the muti- 
neers, he had to disband his army near Strasburg. 

Thus the first campaign failed. Alba's rule was more 
firmly established than ever, and the only positive result of 
the attempt was the death of the two nobles whom it was 
intended to rescue. 

Summit and Decline of Alba's System. 

The very worst times for the Netherlands now began. 
The executions by fire, water, and sword, and the confisca- 
tion of property, were recklessly continued. The victims 
numbered many thousands. The number of emigrants 
increased in the same proportion, and the product of con- 
fiscations reached by degrees the sum of thirty million 
dollars. 

The ancient privileges of the country were already 
annihilated; the population was fearfully diminished ; agri- 
cultural prosperity was threatened with ruin; commerce was 
at an end ; the harbours were empty ; the shops and ware- 
houses lying waste; numberless industrious hands were idle ; 
the great businesses were at a standstill; the wealthy trading 
cities impoverished ; in short, everything that had contributed 
to commercial and industrial prosperity began to decay. 

Alba had no eye for this fearful retrogression ; he was 
merely his masters soldier, inaccessible to any idea of 
political economy. The treasury at Madrid must have its 
millions ; the soldier must live ; it was nothing to him that 
the country at length would be so impoverished that there 
would be nothing left for the treasury or the soldier. 

It appeared to him that the mine of wealth in the rich 
provinces had not yet been fully worked, and he projected 
a general bleeding, which would cause millions to flow at 
one blow, and for ever put an end to the perpetual pecu- 
niary embarrassment. He had early thought of introducing 
a tax which existed in Spain, and which has conduced to 
that country's ruin ; it commended itself by its simplicity, 
and promised a rich result. 

He was dissuaded from this project on all sides; his 
absurd financial experiments were laughed at at Madrid; 
even Viglius found the courage to oppose him, for he knew 
that Philip II. was beginning to doubt his great general's 
abilities. But Alba persisted ; the alcabala yielded him, in 



324 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

his own city of Alba, a yearly income of 50,000 ducats , 
what might not be expected from it in the wealthy 
Netherlands ? 

According to the investigations of a commission ap- 
pointed for that purpose, the provinces derived an income 
from their manufactures of forty-five million gulden ; * they 
therefore could well bear a heavy tax. 

The new tax was proposed to the States at Brussels on 
the 2istof March, 1569. 

It provided that one per cent, should be levied on all 
property, movable and immovable, as an extraordinary 
tax ; this was called the hundredth penny. That a per- 
manent tax of a twentieth penny, or five per cent., should 
be levied on every sale of landed property, and ten per cent., 
or the tenth penny, on all sales of goods. Thus it was a pro- 
gressive tax of three different rates, and all three exorbitant. 

This decree excited universal alarm. The folly of the 
scheme, economically speaking, was only equalled by its 
barbarity. To subject a commercial country, which was in 
great distress, to a tax of ten per cent, on all its industrial 
products, was in fact a fatal blow to commerce. It excited 
a storm of bitter exasperation in all the provincial assem- 
blies, such as had not been produced by the edicts and 
executions. The province of Utrecht gave the signal for 
general resistance ; in spite of threats and coercive mea- 
sures, it proved impracticable to collect the tax, and Alba 
had to consent to the compromise that it should be post- 
poned for two years. 

In the summer of the following year, a so-called 
" amnesty " was proclaimed, which was really a mockery of 
the name, but it betrayed a slight vacillation in the Govern- 
ment, and the beginning of dissatisfaction with Alba. 

The King's confidence in him was beginning to fail. The 
Duke's enemies, Gomez, Perez, and Granvella at their head, 
were striving to effect his recall. Viglius, who knew all 
about it, importuned the King for an act of clemency, and 
on the 14th of July, 1570, a solemn amnesty was pro- 
claimed at Antwerp ; it retained all the old punitive Edicts, 
and granted no other favour than that those who were not 
accused of anything should ?iot be punished, in case, within an 
appointed time, they penitently prayed for mercy, and obtained 
the absolution of the Church. 

* Motley. 



THE "AMNESTY.** 325 

These were the last drops in the already overflowing cup ; 
nothing remained for the Netherlands but to grasp the 
sword, if this absolute lawlessness was not to be per- 
petuated. 

There were armed revolts during the whole period of 
Alba's government ; it was chiefly by the emigrants that 
these attempts were made ; there were many thousands of 
them on the frontier, and, as is generally the case with politi- 
cal refugees, they formed their judgments on events as they 
appeared from a distance, and thought it far easier to over- 
throw such a power than it really was. 

The last acts had excited a state of feeling among the 
people which disposed them to a desperate resistance. 
They were not easily inflamed ; neither the Catholic Fle- 
mings and Brabanters, nor the Protestant Frieslanders of the 
north, were of sanguinary temperament, and a policy which 
wished to discover how much a nation will bear had a com- 
paratively favourable field for the experiment. It might be 
long before a commercial people would resolve upon a 
desperate resistance. It was on this point that the emigrants 
were continually deceived, and Orange failed in his pre- 
mature rising in 1568 chiefly because not a single city 
opened its gates to him. 

But now, under the impression of the continued ter- 
rorism, of the mockery of the amnesty, of the prospect of a 
fatal system of taxation which threatened ruin to every 
household, of the obvious symptoms of incompetence in 
the Government, a spirit of desperate resolve had spread 
among the people, and they preferred to hasten the end by 
terrorism to seeing terrorism without end. 

Alba himself had begun to entertain doubts, if not of his 
system, of his power to carry it out. His want of money 
was becoming hopeless. The tenth penny was postponed 
for two years; when the sums were wanted he brought 
forward his scheme again, but he was met in the Council 
by open defiance, and by an animosity among the people 
that made an impression even upon him. He had scarcely 
given orders definitively to levy the tenth and twentieth 
pennies on the 31st of July, 157 1, than all shops were 
closed, and the bearing of the people in all the provinces 
was so threatening, that the Duke, who had never yielded 
before, took a step in retreat, and exempted the necessaries 
of life, corn, meat, wine, and beer, from the senseless tax. 



326 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

But this alleviation did not avail. Industry and trade were 
at a standstill. A contemporary writer says, "The brewers 
would not brew, the bakers would not bake, the tavern- 
keepers would not tap their beer." Alba was enraged, and 
would have gone on hanging and strangling, when his atten- 
tion was drawn oft" by the news that the dreaded Sea-Beggars 
had taken Brill on the ist of April, 1572. 

All that was done by William and his chivalrous brothers, 
Louis, John, and Henry, against Alba by land, was but 
little in comparison with what was effected by the Sea- 
Beggars on the sea and the sea-coast. By land, hun- 
dreds and thousands had to be spent in collecting the 
headless rabble together ; when they entered any place, the 
mercenary hordes plundered friends and foes alike ; and if 
it came to a battle, or to what was worse, to tedious ma- 
noeuvres without a battle, the unpaid hirelings mutinied and 
spoiled everything. It was different with the naval warfare 
which was carried on by the filibusters of Holland and 
Seeland against the " viceroy " Alba. They were no hire- 
lings seeking to make a gain of war, but fugitives from 
all the States, who had been driven from house and home 
by Alba's executions, and who wanted to re-conquer their 
country from the sea; they were real Beggars, men who 
had lost all, who had to battle with distress and privation 
of every sort, but who gladly braved danger and death to 
satiate their revenge. They were formerly a peaceful, sea- 
faring people, dwelling on the coasts, but were now trans- 
formed into the fiercest warriors. William had furnished 
them with a well-meant organization, but distress and rage 
had turned them into cruel corsairs. They watched for 
Spanish ships; made daring attacks upon harbours and 
coasting towns. When victorious, they plundered, robbed, 
and murdered, and were soon as much dreaded by their 
countrymen as the Spaniards. Eminent men, who had 
gained renown in naval affairs, were at their head ; their 
admiral was the wild William von der Mark. 

Under his leadership twenty-four of their ships had taken 
Brill, by a successful stratagem, on the ist of April, and 
thereby secured a point on the coast from which all the 
North, Holland, and Zealand might be wrested from the 
Spaniards. . 

From that day the Spaniards were never really masters 
of the Netherlands ; the ablest of their generals, Alexander 



WILLIAM'S SECOND CAMPAIGN. 327 

of Parma, did not succeed in permanently subjugating the 
northern provinces ; even the southern part wavered, and 
at one time it appeared as if the whole of Burgundy would 
be lost to the Spanish Crown. While all the more im- 
portant cities of the Island of Walcheren, Holland and 
Zealand, Vlissingen Haarlem, Leyden, Alkmaar, had de- 
clared for the Stadtholder, William of Orange, his brother, 
Count Louis, had in May succeeded in capturing the 
important town of Mons, in Hennegau. William had at 
the same time formed another army, with which he at once 
advanced to the heart of the Netherlands. 

Before all hope had been lost of a diversion against 
Alba in the west, by the defeat of Coligny at Moncontour 
on the 3rd October, 1569, the prince, disguised as a pea- 
sant, had hastened through the enemy's ranks to Germany, 
to seek aid for the liberation of the Netherlands. More 
helpless than ever — Granvella mocked at the vana sine 
viribus ira — destitute of means, forsaken by his allies, sup- 
posed by many to be dead, entreated by well-meaning 
friends at last " to sit still," burdened with a great debt 
for arrears of pay, with unshaken confidence he entered 
upon the unequal contest. He had lost his lands, his 
retainers, and his property, but not his faith in the good 
cause. He addressed a circular letter to the princes and 
people of the German empire, put a heart-stirring appeal 
to his countrymen in circulation,* entreated them to stake 
a last venture for the holy cause of freedom, as he had done 
himself. And it was not quite in vain; for Alba's terrorism, 
and his mad persistence in the tenth penny, had done 
their best to gain entrance for William's words. 

A new levy of troops was proceeding successfully, when 
Holland and Zealand threw off Alba's yoke, and gave them- 
selves a new constitution under William's instructions. The 
States of Holland met at Dortrecht on the 15th of July, 
and, fired by a spirited address from St. Aldegonde, they 
voted to the prince, " as the King's legal Stadtholder in 
Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht," the necessary 
sums for a fresh campaign, to be raised by taxes, loans, 
voluntary contributions, and the alienation of needless 
church ornaments. He shortly afterwards appeared with 
an army in the field, on the 23rd July took the fortress of 

• Motley. 



328 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

Roermonde, crossed the Meuse, found ready entrance into 
many towns and villages, and, full of hope, advanced to 
Brussels; his brother was in possession of Mons ; he had 
received solemn assurances from the King of France that, 
as Coligny had also written to him, he would come to the 
aid of himself and his brother with 12,000 infantry and 
3,000 cavalry. " The Netherlander are free ; Alba is in 
my hands ! " he triumphantly exclaimed. Then, like a 
flash of lightning out of a clear sky, came the news of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, and all was over. 

Mons had to be sacrificed ; a retreat must be made, and 
the army disbanded. 

But Alba had no longer any pleasure in the Netherlands; 
the triumph over the night of St. Bartholomew, scenes of 
fearful bloodshed at Mons, Malines, Tergoes, Naarden, and 
Haarlem, were his last satisfaction. He was weary of his 
fruitless labours as executioner, and asked for his dismissal. 
He had prided himself on the icy coldness with which he 
braved men's opinions ; still, what he now experienced was 
enough to dismay even him. He was no longer greeted in 
the streets; his former accomplices bade him defiance ; he was 
met by looks of detestation wherever he went ; and when 
Philip's ambassador in France came to visit the Nether- 
lands, it seemed to him that he heard but one cry among 
the people : " Away with Alba ! Away with Alba ! " He 
himself wrote to the King : " The hatred of the people 
towards me, on account of the chastisements which, though 
with all possible forbearance, I have been compelled to 
inflict on them, makes all my efforts of no avail. A 
successor will find more sympathy than I, and will be able 
to do more good." 

Thus he demanded and received his dismissal; not 
changed, for he advised his successor to burn all the towns 
except those in which he could put a Spanish garrison, but 
with the feeling that he was spent — that his part was played 
out. On the i8tk December, 1573, he left the Netherlands 
for ever. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ALBA'S SUCCESSORS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Character of the War which now began. — Requesens y Zuniga, 1573- 
76. — Defeat and Death of Louis of Nassau on the Mooker Haide, 
14th of April, 1574.— Siege and Succour of Leyden, 26th of May 
to 3rd of October, 1574. — Separation between the Northern and 
Southern Provinces — The Interregnum. — The Great Mutiny of 
the Soldiers. — The Pacification of Ghent, 8th of November, 1576- 
78. — Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, 1587-89. — The Union 
of Utrecht, January, 1579, and Declaration of Independence of the 
Seven Northern Provinces, July, 1581. — Murder of William, July 
10, 1584. 

Character of the War which now began. 

THE success of the Sea-Beggars at the Brill, although 
unimportant in itself, gave the impetus not only to one 
of the most fearful wars, but also to one of the most important 
revolutions known in history; and in that little fleet of 
daring pirates who lived on the plunder of Spanish mer- 
chant vessels, and treated their enemies with barbarity for 
barbarity, the germ lay concealed of that great maritime 
colonial State which, up to the time of the Navigation Act, 
was the most powerful in the world ; and though it now only 
possesses a shadow of its former greatness, it still belongs 
to the naval powers. With this development of a free 
political life in a country wrested from the sea, and which 
was soon to conquer the finest part of the New World, the 
decay of the greatest power of the sixteenth century goes 
hand in hand. The revolt of the Netherlands was the open 
wound of Spain, which bled and festered to the end of the 
century ; this was the abyss into which Spain gradually cast 
her armies, her wealth, and her fleets, and, in the end, the 
despised rebel became free rich, and powerful, and mighty 
Spain was ruined. 



330 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

This fact confirms the idea that, had it not been for Alba, 
the provinces might with but moderate prudence have been 
preserved" to the Spanish Crown. It was reserved for Alba 
to exasperate a peaceful people to the utmost, to call forth 
heroes from a nation of fishermen and shopkeepers, and 
to take care that after five years of fearful work as 
executioner, no people in the world should be less in a 
condition to fight for freedom. 

Thus, in 1572, a conflict began to which modern history 
offers no parallel. A little nation averse to war entered into 
an unequal contest with the well-organized, if diminished, 
forces of the greatest military power of the age, and pursued 
it with unexampled bitterness and determination. From the 
first, the struggle was entered into on both sides as a 
struggle for life or death ; each party looked to celebrating 
its victory with the death of its opponent. The character 
of the war cannot be better described than in the words 
of the letter which William of Orange circulated through- 
out Christendom, in order to justify the revolt of his people 
to the King and to Europe.* He says of Alba, " The 
tyrant will dye every river and stream with our blood, and 
hang the corpse of a Dutchman on every tree in the country, 
before he ceases to slake his revenge and to gloat over our 
miseries. We have, therefore, taken up arms against him to 
snatch our wives and children from his hands. If he is too 
strong for us, we are ready rather to die an honourable death 
and leave a glorious name behind us, than to bow our 
necks to the yoke, and to give up our beloved country 
to slavery. It is for this that our cities have given their 
word to stand any siege — to do their very utmost, to bear 
what it is possible for men to bear — even, if need be, to set 
fire to their own houses and to perish in the flames, rather 
than ever submit to the mandates of this bloodthirsty 
hangman." 

The contest which followed, in 1572-3, bore completely 
the stamp of the whole war. There was boundless fanaticism 
and devotion on both sides, and a self-sacrificing and despe- 
rate resolve, combined with a fierce hatred, for which this 
phlegmatic people had not before been given credit. Cities 
and provinces were sacrificed, fruitful plains were submerged, 
if only the enemy perished with them. The people to whom 

• Motley. 



NATIONAL ENTHUSIASM. 33: 

William, in the former helpless days, had so often exclaimed, 
" Where is your spirit of liberty ? Where is your former 
bravery?" could now say with pride, "We have shown 
that we are worthy of our fathers, and that the old Friesland 
blood still flows in our veins." Such traditions as these 
keep a nation upright for centuries. This nation has passed 
through times of trouble from within and from without, but 
it has held up its head through all the storms and vicissi- 
tudes of time ; and this is the result of the great traditions 
which have continually kept in view the price at which 
independence has been purchased. 

It was amidst this state of things that Alba retired. The 
Spaniards and the Netherlanders had never been fond of 
each other, and now, it was the harvest of the seed which 
Alba had sown that the people were enraged with every- 
thing Spanish. The thousands whom since 1568 he had sent 
to the scaffold could not rise up again, but another nation 
had arisen over their graves. Alba's cruelty and insane 
administration had called forth a spirit which ruined him 
and his successors, and with them the kingdom of Spain. 
Events in France, and the destruction of the Armada, con- 
duced to it, but it was the war with the Netherlands, which 
lasted till the beginning of the sevententh century, which 
drained the life-blood of this splendid empire. 

Requesens y Zuniga.— End of 1573 till March, 1576. 
— The Battle of Mooker Haide. — The Siege of 
Leyden. 

Alba's successor was a distinguished general from among 
the higher Spanish nobility — at least equal to Alba in mili- 
tary prowess, but, what was more, he viewed things in an 
entirely different light, and, so far as it was possible in such 
a war, was a magnanimous soldier, who could act with the 
needful energy without forgetting clemency, and he was 
likely to gain far more victories with his conciliatory 
measures than Alba with all his slaughter. So far as a 
Spaniard could do so, he perceived that arms and money 
were not all that were needed in this war. He wrote to the 
King, " Before my arrival, I could not comprehend how 
the rebels contrived to maintain fleets so considerable, 
while your Majesty could not maintain one j now I see 
that nen who are fighting for their lives, their families, their 



332 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

property, and their false religion, in short for their own 
cause, are content if they only receive rations, without pay." 
Even, however, by reason of these views and qualities, 
Requesens and Alexander of Parma were the most dangerous 
enemies of the revolt. As Requesens discontinued the system 
of blind terror, and acted with a wise moderation which 
still did not look like weakness, he was likely enough to 
detach the advocates of a half peace and delusive recon- 
ciliation from the common cause, and thus to make 
breaches in the ranks of the rebels. It was this that gave 
rise to the great anxiety of William of Orange as to the 
lulling effect of an amnesty, of which there were now 
rumours. 

Meanwhile the war with all its horrors continued, by land 
and sea, in the open country and before besieged town, 
and the new commander began to apprehend the immense 
difficulties of his task. 

In the early spring of 1574, William and Louis again 
appeared at the head of an army of German hirelings, 
whose numbers were diminished by desertion at every step. 
General Avila advanced to meet them, also mostly with 
German troops,* and on the 14th of April a murderous 
battle took place on the Mooker Haide, on the Meuse, in 
which the army of the patriots was utterly routed. All 
was already lost when Count Louis, his brother Henry, and 
the Count Palatine, Christopher, rushed into the fray and 
met their death in the chivalrous combat. Encouraged by 
the fact that the Spaniards had evacuated Walcheren- — that 
the Beggars were masters of the island, the coast, and the 
sea, William had entertained great hopes of this third 
expedition. He had thought to overthrow the power of the 
new Stadtholder by one blow, and now he had lost his army 
and his gallant brothers in one day. 

The Spaniards had hitherto always been victorious in the 
open country, ind now they had gained a victory more 
brilliant than any since the revolt began. But it was 
different with the fortified places ; the incredible obstinacy 
with which they were defended, frustrated all the skill of 
the generals and quenched the ardour of the soldiers ; and 
yet they were by no means imposing fortresses, and the 

* The army of the Spaniards in the Netherlands numbered 62,000 
men, who, with the exception of 8,000 Spaniards, were partly Germans 
and partly Walloons. 



SIEGE OF LEYDEN. 333 

Spaniards, ever since the times of the Romans, had been 
masters of the a. t of taking and defending cities. 

There is notl ing more glorious than the attitude of the 
city of Leyden, under the severest trial to which a city was 
ever subjected. It had been relieved from the first siege 
by a diversion of Louis of Nassau ; but after his death it was 
besieged for the second time by the Spaniards on the 26th 
May, 1574. 

Orange, whose head-quarters were at Delft and Rotter- 
dam, could not, with his troops, encounter the Spaniards 
under Valdez in the open country, and he could see no 
other hope of holding the faithful city than by inundating 
the plain, which must infallibly drive the besiegers away. 
Leyden lay in the midst of fruitful gardens, villages, and 
country-houses ; the harvest was standing in the fields ; to 
open the dams which protected all this wealth from the 
ocean was a tremendous sacrifice, but it was the only possi- 
ble means of relief. Orange proposed it, and the heroic 
inhabitants at once consented. The Spaniards attempted 
to gain them by an amnesty. On the 6th June, Valdez 
proclaimed, in the name of the King and the Pope, a 
pardon for all heretics who would return in penitence to 
the Roman Catholic Church. The inhabitants of Leyden, 
together with those of all the northern provinces, rejected 
the proposal with disdain. The citizens declared, " We 
will fight for God and our liberties to the last man." The 
inundations began, the city was ill-provisioned, but with 
rigid economy and strict distribution of rations, it would 
be possible to hold out till relief was brought from the 
advancing sea. 

The city had held out three months, and succour had 
not come. From a sick bed the prince directed the work 
of inundation, and the movements of the Beggars' fleet, 
which was to advance to the city with the sea, but contrary 
winds and a host of unforeseen obstacles retarded the 
advance of the flood. From the towers of Leyden, the 
waves were seen slowly coming in — too slowly for the 
starving citizens ; the provisions were all but exhausted ; 
dogs, cats, and rats were delicacies-; famine and pestilence 
raged among the unhappy people; thousands died, but 
their courage did not fail ; as long as a man was left upon 
his legs, they would not surrender. At length, on the 
morning of the 3rd of October, after more than four months 



334 THE REV0L1 OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

of indescribable suffering, the sea reached the city walls, the 
Spaniards fled in terror, and the martial forms of the Sea- 
Beggars, with the device, " Sooner Turkish than Popish," 
made their entry amidst indescribable rejoicings into the 
half-famished city. They went with the rescued people to 
the Cathedral to offer their joint prayers and praises to 
God ; but the singing suddenly came to an end — the vast 
congregation had burst into tears. 

At the suggestion of William of Orange, the University of 
Leyden was founded as a memorial of the heroic courage 
and constancy of the citizens. 

Requesens could not prevent that, meanwhile, the outline 
of a new Protestant State, with Orange for Stadtholder, was 
beginning to assume shape. It was connected by a very 
slight bond with the Crown of Spain, to which, however, alle- 
giance was still outwardly owned. Military onslaughts 
failed, and negotiations proved fruitless. Orange and his 
States insisted on liberty of conscience, and the most Spain 
would grant to the heretics was liberty to emigrate; the 
patriots demanded the removal of the Spanish troops, and 
Spain replied, " Then first disband yours ;" the rebels de- 
manded that the States-General should be convoked and 
their ancient rights acknowledged, and Spain persisted in 
absolutism. Finally, it was impossible to come to any 
understanding with an opponent of such well-known 
cunning and faithlessness ; they had experienced and could 
but expect the most shameful breaches of promise. " We 
have not forgotten the words ' Agreed,' and ' Eternal,' " 
Orange once wrote ; and at another time he said, " If I have 
your word for it, who will answer for it that the King will 
not deny it, and be absolved for his breach of faith by the 
Pope ? " 

No reconciliation was therefore to be hoped for in the 
north, but in the south the Stadtholder succeeded in in- 
spiring confidence and gaining adherents, which Alba never 
could do. The population there was more inclined to 
Spain, politically'and religiously, and would have been still 
more decidedly so had it not been for Alba. In Holland, 
Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht, Protestantism reigned 
supreme, and since the revolt, the last traces of Catholicism 
nad disappeared. But in the south, heresy had existed only 
in isolated cases, and, as it were as an episode, it had taken • 
no root among the people. The adherents of the old and 



DEATH OF REQUESENS. 335 

new creeds were here, as everywhere, intoleiant and im- 
patient of each other, and in nothing is the greatness of 
Orange as a statesman more evident than in the decision 
with which from the first he opposed this intolerant spirit 
on both sides. 

The Walloons, too, were nationally less opposed to the 
Spaniards than the Frisians, in whom the Germanic element 
predominated, and the southern provinces had been longer 
connected with Burgundy and the house of Hapsburg, while 
the northern States had been mostly acquired by Charles V. 
To them the connection with Spain was something new. 
There had not been time for any attachment to the Govern- 
ment to grow up ; the Spaniard was hated as an ambitious 
alien, since the Reformation as a bigoted Catholic, and 
since the accession of Philip II. as a revolutionist, who 
wanted to overturn their ancient constitutions and laws. 
It was not the Spanish rule that was ancient, but the privi- 
leges of the country, and the only connection they would 
acknowledge was that with the German empire. 

This explains the fact that Requesens, who was not only 
a soldier, but enough of a statesman to take account of 
these factors, contrived to gain a certain number of adher- 
ents in the south. Since he had abolished the " Council- 
of Blood," and the Government had become more tolerable, 
a marked change had taken place in the sentiments of this 
deeply depressed people. 

But this rendered it only still more difficult to see what 
would be the result of the struggle for the future of the 
Netherlands. 

The position of a skilful general in the prime of life, with 
a most efficient force, and the resources of the friendly 
provinces at his disposal, supported by the as yet unex- 
hausted means of the Spanish monarchy, was certainly by 
no means a hopeless one, confronted by two rebel provinces 
which were masters of the sea and the coast, the fortresses 
and brave inhabitants of their cities, but which had no 
army at their comiaand and not a single foreign ally. But 
at this juncture Requesens died quite suddenly on the 5th 
March, 1576, and this unexpected circumstance gave events 
a new turn. 

The Spanish military tactics and policy were deprived 
of the man who had given a consistent aim to their 
undertaking ; it was months before a successor was 



336 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

found, and during this interregnum everything was out of 
joint. 

The Interregnum. — Mutiny of the Troops. — The 
• Pacification of Ghent. 

Requesens' greatest difficulty — and even in the provinces 
that were true to him he had never entirely overcome it — 
was the burden of the Spanish, Walloon, and German 
troops; if not kept in good humour, they were a real 
scourge to the peaceable inhabitants. In perpetual pecu- 
niary embarrassment, Requesens had great difficulty in 
keeping the troops together. Long absence from home had 
made them disorderly ; their task as hangmen in Alba's 
service had made them brutal, and accustomed to commit 
every kind of barbarity unpunished. The army had latterly 
shown most portentous symptoms. Since the sudden death of 
the Commander-in-Chief, the executive power was in the 
greatest confusion ; means were wanting either to feed the 
troops or to pay them off. It would have been difficult for a 
man of the greatest ability to manage them under such cir- 
cumstances, but there was no one to do it, and a fearful 
commotion took place among them. " Ready money or a 
city ! " the soldiers cried out to the officers who tried to 
appease them. Neither could be granted, and so the dis- 
banded hosts rushed upon cities in Flanders and Brabant, 
took them by storm, cut down the armed men, ill-treated the 
defenceless, and robbed and plundered wherever they could. 

The mischief began at Aalst, in Flanders. All the gar- 
risons of the numerous citadels which Charles and Philip 
had built, joined in it ; disgraceful scenes of rapine, murder, 
and plunder occurred everywhere, and worst of all at 
Antwerp, which, with its immense wealth, fell into the hands 
of German, Walloon, and Spanish mutineers, and was plun- 
dered by them during three terrible November days, amidst 
scenes of brutality enough to make one's hair stand on end. 

This mutiny was a stupendous event ; it showed the 
southern provinces what the Spanish dominion was, and 
what was the value of the peace which had been lulling 
them into false security. In the cities in which, following 
the exampleof Brussels, the citizens, with energetic presence 
of mind, had taken up arms to defend the domestic hearth,, 
those same Spaniards were outlawed who had been sum- 



THE PACIFICATION OF GHENT. 337 

moned to guard the unity of the faith against the rebels. 
The north enjoyed some precious months of peace and 
time for reflection. The south, which had considered 
itself happy in being spared the devastation which the 
north had suffered, now experienced all the horrors of a 
wild banditti warfare, and envied the adherents of the new 
States in Holland and Zealand, with whom it had again 
at least one hatred in common. 

Thus it came to pass that the nobles of Flanders and 
Brabant met together and sought help, not at Madrid, but 
in the northern provinces ; they begged William to help 
them to save the country from the outrages of their own 
protectors. On the 8th November the pacification of Ghent 
was concluded, which first united the Netherlands in a 
common bond against the Spanish dominion. 

The treaty was signed on the one side by the Prince of 
Orange, in the name of the States of Holland and Zealand ; 
on the other by the representatives of Brabant, Flanders, 
Artois, Hennegau, Valenciennes, Lille, Douay, Orchies, 
Namur, Tournay, Utrecht, and Mechlin. It was agreed — 

1. That there be an amnesty for the past, and a close 
alliance for the future. 

2. That the Spaniards should be sent out of the Nether- 
lands. 

3. That the States-General, as they existed at the time of 
the Emperor's abdication, be convoked, to regulate the 
religious affairs of Holland and Zealand, and the surrender 
of the fortified places. 

4. That complete freedom of trade and commerce shall 
exist between the two parties. 

5. That the placards and edicts against the heretics be 
suspended until the decision of the States-General. 

6. That the Roman Catholic religion shall not be mo- 
lested where it exists. 

7. That the Prince of Orange remain Stadtholder of 
Holland and Zealand until the States-General decide other- 
wise, after the expulsion of the Spaniards. 

From this treaty, so soon as they were in earnest in ex- 
pelling the Spaniards, there was but a step to complete in- 
dependence. The whole of Burgundy, the growth of which 
Charles V. had regarded with so much affection, seemed to 
be on the point of being lost to Spain. An unheard-of 
event was taking place : two territories, whose faith, man 

?2 



338 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

ners, nationality, and political antecedents were entirely 
different, had joined together in a common programme, 
and the Prince of Orange was ruling, not the north only, but 
the south also. 

The danger appeared greater to Spain than it really was 
The differences between the two districts were not to dis- 
appear all at once. During the calamity of the mutiny in 
the summer and autumn of 1576, they might be forgotten, 
and the help of William of Orange was readily accepted in 
distress ; but the Catholics of the south still regarded the 
Calvinists and Lutherans of the north as heretics and image- 
breakers, and the numerous and proud aristocrats of 
Flanders and Brabant were not pleased to see the little 
Prince of Orange, who had openly seceded from the 
ancient faith, in the place they would fain have occupied 
themselves. In short, the Pacification of Ghent was not 
a lasting achievement, nor yet a complete solution of the 
questions at issue. Just about the time when the treaty 
was concluded, the new Stadtholder appeared in the Nether- 
lands. 

Don John of Austria, 1576-8. 

The victor of Lepanto, Don John of Austria, Philip's 
half-brother, a brilliant warrior, in the zenith of his fame 
and flower of his strength, was possessed of far more ability 
than the little-minded monarch ; he alone of all the mem- 
bers of the imperial family inherited the vigour of mind and 
chivalrous energy which had made Charles V. in his best 
days so popular in the Netherlands, and which the melan- 
choly Philip was so entirely without. 

With his heroic form, his manly beauty and attractive 
grace, and a heart full of bold and enthusiastic dreams, he 
was well adapted to eclipse his jealous master, though less 
so than if he had brought with him any other means of 
solving the complicated problem before him. He did not 
approve of Alba's system. He intended to try his fortune 
with clemency and conciliation, but it was evident that he 
was not magnanimous by nature, but from calculation ; there 
was a trace of duplicity in his character, of a tendency to 
play a double part, which was portentous. He was soon 
condemned *in the provinces as a doubtful, untrustworthy 
character, and in Spain his half measures suggested the idea 



DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA. 339 

that he might be thinking of establishing an independent 
kingdom for himself. It is well known that his sudden and 
tragic end was attributed to suspicions against him at the 
Escurial. 

He was somewhat to blame himself. He took a pleasure 
in playing with fire ; for a time it answered tolerably well, 
and then both parties made it impossible. His conduct in 
the Netherlands was circumspect, but by no means calcu- 
lated to awaken confidence. 

Before the States acknowledged him as Stadtholder, they 
demanded the expulsion of the Spaniards and the accept- 
ance of the Treaty of Ghent, which, according to their 
representations, interfered neither with the authority of the 
King nor that of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Don John gave an evasive answer, and so the States 
made an imposing demonstration ; they confirmed the Paci- 
fication of Ghent by the Union of Brussels, January, 15 17, 
and this document was accepted with acclamation by the 
people of all the provinces, Luxemburg excepted, by the 
nobles, clergy, and citizens ; it received thousands of signa- 
tures ; there could no longer be any doubt as to the senti- 
ments of the people. 

This produced the desired effect. In February the 
Stadtholder published the celebrated edictum perpetuum, 
which granted all the demands of the States, the expulsion 
of the troops, the toleration of the heretics, the convocation 
of the States-General. 

There was great rejoicing in the southern provinces ; but 
in the north they were suspicious, and Orange refused to 
join in it. He was convinced that it was a trap for causing 
division and snaring the unwary. Tedious negotiations 
supervened, during which the nobles of Flanders and 
Brabant played a most equivocal part, summoned the 
Archduke Matthias of Austria into the country as a coun- 
terpoise to Orange, now adhered to and now forsook him, 
and the negotiations resulted in a fresh war. The battle of 
Gemblours (January, 1578) showed the superiority ot the 
Spaniards in the open country; but Don John despaired of 
further success. Broken down in body and mind, distressed 
at the evident displeasure of the King, in want of funds, 
and forsaken by his troops and allies, on 1st October, 1578, 
he died. 

Suspicions were afloat that he did not die a natural 



340 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

death. It was said that he had himself devised suspicious 
schemes against the King, in which Philip's favourite and 
adviser, Antonio Perez, was implicated. Perez was given 
over to the Inquisition, escaped to Aragon, appealed in 
vain to the privileges of the country, and fled to France and 
England, where in his memoirs he gave vent to his fierce 
hatred of the King. His life has recently been compiled 
from these materials, and various things brought to light 
which must be laid to the King's charge. 

Alexander of Parma, 1578-9. 

Don John's successor, Alexander Farnese, Prince of 
Parma, the son of the former Stadtholder, Margaret of 
Parma, was superior as a general to all his predecessors, 
and was at least equal to Requesens in political skill, cool 
determination, and self-possessed tact in the management of 
men. He was the last great general whom Spain possessed 
in the sixteenth century ; indeed, he was the last great man 
whom Spain produced for a long period. He might fairly 
be called a Spaniard, although Italian blood flowed in his 
veins ; for he had grown up in Spain as the playfellow of 
Don Carlos and Don John, who was about the same age ; 
his education and training were entirely Spanish ; and the 
only qualities he had inherited from Italy were the mental 
vigour, the combination of the supple activity and resolute 
will by which the house of Farnese were distinguished. 

When Alexander Farnese stepped into the place which 
had been filled by the friend of his childhood, the position 
of affairs was not very brilliant in Spain, and in the pro- 
vinces still less so. The Treaty of Ghent was everywhere 
disregarded, parties were broken up, the Catholic south was 
again at open variance with the Protestant north, and 
misery and distress everywhere prevailed. 

A phase of the contest began with him which made all 
that had previously taken place appear fruitless, and all the 
successes of the rebels doubtful. A great general with a 
new army, a man sure to awaken all the sympathies of the 
south, who kept the troops in order, and who, up to the 
point of the unity of the faith, was ready to make certain 
reasonable concessions, without Alba's severity or Dor. 
John's duplicity, was likely to increase the difficulties 
of the northern provinces, which alone were animated by 
the genuine love of liberty in this war. 



THE UNION OF UTRECHT. 34 1 

It had become clear that no reliance was to be placed 
upon their southern allies, for the nobles in Flanders and 
Brabant now followed one leader and now another, and a re- 
solution had therefore been taken that, if it were not possible 
to unite the whole of the Netherlands, the best and most 
trustworthy parts should be joined in a close alliance. 

Accordingly, in 1579, Holland and Zealand, Guelders, 
Zutphen, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen laid together 
in the so-called Union of Utrecht, the foundations of the first 
federal constitution which existed in this part of the world, 
and which, in spite of its imperfections, lasted a surprisingly 
long time. 

The seven provinces bound themselves by a perpetual 
alliance to mutual protection against the enemy, and 
therefore to contribute to a common military treasury, to 
levy and support an army by general taxation, to establish 
a common Diet, and to renounce the right of making sepa- 
rate treaties, as if they were really but one State ; but the 
internal affairs of every province, city, and corporation, their 
ancient rights and privileges, customs and laws, and espe- 
cially religious matters, were to be left under the control of 
each separate State. 

These were the simple provisions rather of an offensive 
and defensive alliance than of a constitution; and yet it 
was out of this union that the constitution of the subsequent 
Dutch republic grew. 

With a true instinct, the distinction is made between 
special and internal and external or general interests, which 
has been from this time the great characteristic of every 
federal constitution. 

The Union of Utrecht was the final step, which could but 
be followed by finally throwing off the Spanish yoke. But 
this was not yet done. On the contrary, in accordance 
with the fiction which had been adopted, this union was 
entered into " in the name of the King." But two years 
later the bridge was broken down behind them. 

In June, 1580, Philip had proclaimed William of Orange 
to be an outlaw and rebel, and had given him up to any 
assassin as " an enemy of the human race f had forbidden 
all his subjects to give him food, drink, or fire ; and pro- 
mised twenty-five thousand crowns, immunity from punish- 
ment for any crime, and a patent of nobility, to any one who 
would deliver him up alive or dead. In July, 1581, fol- 



342 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

lowed the revolt of the provinces of Holland and Zealand 
from Spain, and after long resistance Orange accepted the 
election to the sovereignty of the country. 

The brave Frisians were the first to avail themselves of 
the right of nations to choose their own form of govern- 
ment, proclaimed by the Jesuits at the Council of Trent. 
In the records of it it says, among other things, " Every 
one knows that a ruler is ordained by God to protect his 
subjects, as a shepherd protects his flock. If, therefore, the 
ruler do not do his duty, if he oppress his subjects, destroy 
their ancient liberties, and treat them like slaves, he is no 
longer to be considered as a ruler, but as a tyrant. As such 
the country may justly and reasonably depose him, and 
elect another in his place." 

The Treaty of Utrecht was the result of urgent distress ; 
it bore the stamp of an exceptional period ; its originators 
had no idea of providing for two hundred years, but for 
relief from present tyranny ; and this explains the imperfec- 
tions of the scheme. It also explains the monarchical form 
which this confederation of republics assumed, and which 
was theoretically in contradiction to the constitution. It 
was necessary to have a man at the head of the Government 
who did not merely share the power of every burgomaster, 
but who had the army and fleet and everything else at his 
command. No one had any doubt about it, and no one 
knew anything of theories about distribution of power. 
They were involved in a gigantic struggle with the greatest 
monarchy in the world, and with the south probably against 
them. In this situation, if every little State acted for itself, 
the ruin of all was inevitable. 

But the relations of the sovereign to his federal republic 
were curious and contradictory in the extreme. So long as 
William of Orange lived there was no irritation, because 
with his composure, cool sagacity, and moderation he dis- 
armed all opposition ; and this I consider to be his great- 
est glory. He is not, according to my view, the demi-god 
that the Dutch historians make of him. I consider him to 
be thoroughly human — possessed of great talents, but also 
of great ambition and love of power. His greatest merit is 
that he knew how to control these passions, and during the 
whole of his administration to appear only as the defendei 
of his country, without aiming to be the ruler. To a man 
of moderate abilities it would be easier to Dlay such a part ; 



ASSASSINATION OF WILLIAM. 343 

but a man of rank, talent, and love of power is easily 
tempted to overstep the narrow boundary line. If he does 
not do so because he exercises self-control, he withstands 
the strongest temptation. 

The contradiction could but become more glaring after- 
wards. There were two constitutions in the country — a 
hereditary monarchical dignity on the one hand, and a com- 
mercial democracy on the other. There, a military dictator, 
who had the command of the army and fleet, appointed all 
the officers, carried on wars, and guided the most important 
parts of foreign policy ; here, a parliamentary sovereignty, 
which was always clashing with the military one. This 
could not fail to be a perpetual source of difficulty, and it 
gave rise to many a scene of bloodshed in the country. 
The contest continued on and off during the seventeenth 
century, and lasted till the overthrow of the republic out of 
which the Orange monarchy arose. 

The Union of Utrecht was the signal for the greater part 
of the south to come to an understanding with Parma. 
This increased the difficulty of the struggle, especially against 
such a general. It went on without any decisive result, 
until a Roman Catholic fanatic named Gerard, who had 
been aspiring to the honour for seven years, contrived, on 
ioth July, 1584, to murder William. 

Six persons had made the attempt before him, in order to 
obtain the reward : only one of them had succeeded in 
wounding him. The last obtained access to him under 
pretence of being a Calvinistic fugitive, lurked about Wil- 
liam's apartments at Delft, and seized a favourable moment 
to shoot him. We are assured from Dutch sources that the 
Prince's last words were, " O God ! have mercy upon my 
poor people." 

The Dutch writers delight in bringing out every great 
feature of William's character, and his actions latterly had 
certainly shown more devotion to the cause of the pro- 
vinces than regard for his own supremacy. It did not 
yet appear how a crown was to be established in his family. 

In Gachard, the record of tedious negotiations is to be 
found between Gerard and Madrid about the Prince's 
assassination. Negotiations with the assassin's heirs, who 
claimed the reward, form the appropriate conclusion. It 
was at first refused to them, and then the amount of if 
diminished. 



344 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

William did not die too soon, either for his country or 
his fame. The most difficult part of his task was over, and 
in his son he had trained a skilful general, who could fill 
his father's military office as skilfully as possible. In Spain 
the effect of his death was counteracted by the fact that just 
at that juncture a change took place in the position of 
affairs in Europe. A sort of coalition was formed against 
Spain, which gave the Netherlands more scope J»nd breath- 
ing time. Philip was occupied principally with the affairs 
of France and England until his death. We new return to 
France. 



PART VI. 

THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE, UNTIL THE 
RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOM BY HENRY IV.» 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The last War with Spain and England, 1557-9. — Defeat at St. Quentin, 
1557, and Gravelingen, 1558. — Taking of Calais, Peace ot Cateau 
Cambrasis, 3rd April, 1559. — Catharine de Medici and the Go- 
vernment of the Guises. — French Protestantism in Conflict with 
the State. — The Clergy, Humanism, the Sorbonne and Parliament. 
— First Agitation of the New Doctrines. — Persecution of the 
Heretics after 1552.— The Aristocracy and the Princes of the Blood 
attacked by Calvinism. — The Conspiracy of Amboise, March, 1560. 
— Crisis and Change after the Death of King Francis II., 5th Decem- 
ber, 1560. — Successes of Protestantism, 1559. — La Renaudie's 
Project. — Conde's Trial. — Catharine de Medici as Regent. 

Situation of France under Henry II., 1547-59, 
and Francis II., 1559-60. 

FRANCE now first experienced the throes occasioned 
by the Reformation and Revolution which all other 
States, far or near, had already passed through. A period 
of forty years of great internal disorder followed, which in 
many of its features resembled the Thirty Years' War in Ger- 
many, and chiefly differs from it in its final result. 

Francis I. was succeeded by his son, Henry II., 1547- 
59, whose twelve years' reign was filled by the heritage of 

* S. Thuani, Hist, sui Temporis. London, 1 733. Davila, Storia 
delle Guerre Civiii di Francia. 1644. Die Memoiren von Vieilleville, 
Castelnau, Brantome, Tavannes, Nevers, Villeroi, Mornay, La Tour 
d'Auvergne Sully. Michelet, Hist, de France au i6ieme Siecle. 1855. 
Schmidt, Gesch. von Frankreich. Hamburg, 1839. Ranke, Franzo- 
sische Geschichte, 1852. G. Weber, Geschichtliche Darstellung des 
Calvinismus. 1836. Soldan, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Frank- 
reich. 1855. Von Polenz, Geschichte des Franz. Calvinismus. 1859. 



346 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

his father's foreign policy. First, there were the last wars 
against Charles V., in which, for the first time, thanks to the 
disorders in Germany, France was successful. In 1552 
France succeeded in obtaining possession of the three 
bishoprics, and Charles did not regain them in the following 
campaign ; then the less successful wars with Spain and 
England, 1557-9. But even in these, France did not go 
empty away. The battles of St. Quentin and Gravelingen 
were lost, but Calais, the last English possession on French 
soil, was conquered, and the Peace of Cateau Cambrasis, 
April, 1559, did not demand any essential sacrifices from 
France. 

In the internal policy the tendency to strengthen the 
royal supremacy continued. There was the same repression 
of all representative and corporate elements ; the same 
system of partly absorbing, partly lulling to sleep, all other 
seats of power ; the same endeavour, which fortune favoured, 
to invest the King with supreme authority as under Francis I. 
Henry did not equal his father in talent, but, although much 
under female influence, he was an active and competent 
ruler. As fate would have it, he received a wound at a 
tournament which cost him his life, and then followed the 
crisis from which it took France forty years in some mea- 
sure to recover. 

Henry left four sons — a sufficient number, as it appeared, 
to secure the succession to the house of Valois for a long 
time to come — though they were all children. Nobody 
then knew how frail and weakly they all were, that disease 
would prey upon them, nor foresaw that what was not 
effected by natural means would be early completed by 
mental and moral degradation. There was a singular 
fatality in the family history of this last king of the house of 
Valois. He had been married from political motives to the 
niece of Clement VII., Catharine de Medici. This ambitious 
woman came to France conscious that the marriage was a 
political one, mentally a stranger to her husband ; and such 
she always remained. This placed her from the first in a false 
position. The King was influenced by any one rather than 
by his wife ; and a by no means charming mistress, Diana of 
Poitiers, played her part by the side of and above the Queen. 

An ambitious, talented Italian, fond of power, who 
brought to the throne all the pride of the Medicis, and had 
something of the universal political ambition of her relatives 



CATHARINE DE MEDlCt. 347 

Leo X. and Clement VII., and who, as a true daughter of 
this house, was not only richly endowed with Italian 
cunning, but considered any means allowable if they con- 
duced to the end, deeply imbued with the unscrupulousness 
of this Italian school, she saw herself kept for years in the 
background, and deprived of all legitimate influence in 
public affairs. She could never hope to make conquests by 
her feminine charms ; her forte was craft and cunning. Such 
a character was sure to be dangerous, especially in a country 
where she was looked upon as a stranger. She played an 
ignominious part at her husband's side, and did not even 
obtain the position in her own house which, as the mother 
of the princes, was her due. 

This explains her restless, feverish ambition. Having 
been for many years restrained and irritated by contumely, 
she now broke out with all the more vehemence ; it also 
explains her feeling of strangeness, and the utter absence of 
a consciousness of responsibility for her actions. She had 
things on her conscience which it would have been madness 
in a native princess to commit. The Massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew was the crime of a woman who forgot that she was 
thereby condemning the whole house of Valois. Her success- 
ful attempt to suffer her children to be ruined in debauchery, 
trifling, and childishness, in order to make them subservient 
to her, and her neglect to educate them to rule, were the 
acts of a princess who was a stranger upon the throne and 
in the country. 

She was the curse of the house of Valois. She gave the 
reins to her demoniacal ambition at the most critical period 
for the family, and satiated her Italian revenge upon the 
noblest of the nation. Forgetting her duty as mother of 
the kings of France, she suffered the last scions of the 
house to wither away, and she and her race came to a 
miserable end. 

Immediately after the death ot her husband, in 1559, she 
greedily grasped at power. The young King, Francis II., 
was of age when he entered his fourteenth year. There 
could therefore be no legal regency, though there might be 
an actual one, for a weakly monarch of sixteen was still 
incompetent to govern. But she was thwarted in her first 
grasp at power. 

Under Francis I., a family previously unknown in French 
history had begun to play a prominent part. A successful, 



34B THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

rich, distinguished nobleman had appeared in Lorraine, 
which was still looked upon by the French as a German 
territory — Claude de Guise, the son of Re'ne of Lorraine, a 
man who had distinguished himself at Marignano, and later 
against Charles V. The great men of France looked down 
with contempt upon the upstart house, which had no large 
estates, and was not thought much of even in Lorraine. 
The Bourbons and Montmorencys especially looked upon 
the Guises as a race of insolent upstarts, who had come 
from a foreign country to seek at court a position which 
they did not find elsewhere, and to thrust aside the bearers 
of ancient and meritorious names. 

Whatever, however, might be thought of the Guises, it 
was certain that they were not wanting in ability. Their 
nobility was very ancient, and when they aspired to the 
French crown there was no more ancient legitimate race 
than theirs. After Francis I. had carried on four unsuc- 
cessful wars, Francis of Guise, son of the above-men- 
tioned Claude, had succeeded in occupying Lorraine, won the 
three bishoprics, and afterwards defended Metz against 
Charles V. with distinguished ability ; and the only success- 
ful feat in the last campaign against Spain and England, the 
taking of Calais, was performed by him. He could proudly 
say to the great lords, " Tell me what you, with your ancient 
nobility, have done for France. I have done more for her 
than all of you put together." One of his brothers, Charles 
of Guise, was distinguished for his spirit and boundless am- 
bition. He had entered the ecclesiastical order, and Rome 
had early recognised in him a convenient tool. The young 
Archbishop of Rheims became Cardinal of Lorraine, played 
a leading part at Trent, and was the spokesman and most 
able member of the papal party. 

The brothers succeeded in bringing about a political 
marriage which promised to throw the King, who was men- 
tally a child, entirely into their hands. 

Their sister Mary had been married to James V. of 
Scotland, whose crown was then rather an insignificant one, 
but was now beginning to gain importance. The issue of 
this marriage was a charming girl, who was destined for the 
King's wife. She was betrothed to him without his consent 
when still a child. The young Queen was Mary Stuart. 
Her misfortunes, her beauty, ?.nd her connection with 
European history have made her a historical personage^ 



THE CHURCH IN FRANCE. 349 

more conspicuous indeed for what she suffered than foi 
what she did ; her real importance is not commensurate 
with the position she occupies. 

This, then, was the position of the brothers Guise at 
court. The King was the husband of their niece ; both 
were children in age and mind, and therefore doubly re- 
quired guidance. The brothers, Francis and Charles, had 
the government entirely in their hands ; the Duke managed 
the army, the Cardinal the finances and foreign affairs. 
Two such leaders were the mayors of the palace. The 
whole constitution of the court reminds us of the rois 
faineants and the office of major-domo under the Carlo- 
vingians. 

Thus, just when Catharine was about to take advantage 
of a favourable moment, she saw herself once more eclipsed 
and thrust aside, and that by insolent upstarts of whom 
one thing only was certain, that they possessed unusual 
talents, and that their consciences were elastic in the choice 
of means. 

It was not only from Catharine that the supremacy of 
the Guises met with violent opposition, but also from Pro- 
testantism, the importance of which was greatly increasing 
in France. 

French Protestantism in Conflict with the State. 

France had not been unaffected by the violent storm 
which Luther's appearance had called forth, but the way in 
which the new teaching had to fight its way here was very 
different from the reception it had met with in Germany. 
The fact that the Franciscan monk, Michael Menot, who, 
in the same year and for the same reason as Luther, opposed 
the sale of indulgences, died almost unnoticed, proves that 
we are in a different world. 

The ancient Church of France was not in less need of 
reform than the Church elsewhere. Impartial witnesses 
agree in stating that the clergy were fearfully demoralised. 

At the time when, in accordance with the Pragmatic 
Sanction, the ecclesiastics elected the prelates, there were 
bitter complaints of the unscrupulousness of their choice, 
and the incredible dissoluteness of the bishops elected ; and 
when, after the Concordat of 15 16, the King made the 
appointments to the hundred and six bishoprics, fourteen 
archbishoprics, and the abbacies and priories, outside ob- 



350 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

servers were struck with the shameless traffic which the 
Crown made with these places, just as if they had been 
bargains about " pepper and cinnamon," with the gifts ol 
benefices to diplomatists, learned men, deserving and un- 
deserving, courtiers and soldiers, with all the inevitable 
demoralising consequences of such a distribution of the 
office of spiritual shepherd. 

It was, as is well known, the Humanists who first pointed 
out the decline of the clergy. The Humanists were no 
strangers to France. It became almost a second home to them ; 
and it is a singular fact that the same King, Francis I., who 
in his own country pitilessly burnt heretics in slow fires, gave 
his hand to the German heretics to oppose Charles V., and 
might be justly styled by his learned proteges " The father 
of learning." 

From the beginning of his reign Francis I. had attracted 
learned men, both native and foreign, who inclined to the 
new tendencies, to his court, and attached them to his 
service by conferring on them temporal offices and spiritual 
benefices ; a great " College des Trois Langues," with double 
professorships for Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was to make 
Paris a centre of Humanistic learning as it had once been 
of mediaeval scholasticism ; and if the scheme was not carried 
out in its original magnificence, the school of heretical lan- 
guages which was founded, and from which such men as 
Tumebus, Lambin, Du Chesne, and Petrus Ramus were to 
go forth, indicated a breach with the past, and kept up a per- 
petual irritation with the followers of the old system. 

This old system was a unity; scholasticism and the 
mediaeval Church hung together. The Sorbonne felt this, 
and looked askance at the brilliance of its Humanistic rival, 
as did also the Parliament, to the orthodox jurists of which 
the heretics appeared as political criminals. 

These two old organs of France were more consistent 
than the King in jealously guarding the rights of ancient 
usage. The learned gentlemen of the Sorbonne spoke 
of Greek and Hebrew like the German monks, who 
talked of the newly-invented language of a so-called New 
Testament, and roundly asserted that whoever learnt Hebrew 
must become a Jew. The most zealous fanatics among 
them, therefore, such as Natalis Beda, summoned the pro- 
fessors before -Parliament, and demanded that they should 
not be permitted to expound the Vulgate without passing a 



FRANCIS I. AND THE HERETICS. 35 I 

theological examination, in order that no more might be 
heard of that heretical mode of speaking, " So says the 
Hebrew or Greek text ; " and the faculty acted in this spirit 
when, their opinion being asked about the Lutheran contro- 
versy, they decided that Luther's teaching must be utterly 
exterminated, his writings publicly given to the flames, and 
the author be compelled by every lawful means solemnly tr 
recant his heresies. 

The Sorbonne repeatedly and urgently demanded a strict 
and relentless conscience police for all France, but Francis I. 
was at first quite indifferent about it. The appearance of a 
few isolated heretical preachers and authors, such as Lefevre, 
Berguin, Farel, Mazurier, Briccnnet, the establishment of a 
reformed congregation at Meaux under the leadership of an 
eloquent wool-comber, Leclerc (afterwards burnt with cruel 
torments at Metz), were not circumstances which seemed to 
him to justify exceptional measures. 

But it was different after his return from the Spanish 
imprisonment which the lost battle of Pavia, in 1525, had 
inflicted on him. 

Pope Clement VII. had taken care to explain to the humbled 
monarch that the heretics were political criminals who abo- 
lished all class distinctions, incited the lowest classes to rebel- 
lion, and would overturn royal authority itself. Parliament 
attributed his misfortunes to his lukewarmness against the 
heretics. Now, therefore, many executions followed, and in 
1535 there was a bloody persecution; in 1543 he issued, 
in two edicts from Fontainebleau, the most stringent mea- 
sures against the heretics as " disturbers of the public 
peace, rebels against the King and justice, conspirators 
against the prosperity of the State, which was specially 
dependent on the maintenance of the purity of the Catholic 
faith." This was followed by the proclamation of twenty- 
five articles of faith, drawn up by the Sorbonne, in order 
that every one of his Majesty's subjects might know what 
he was to believe and hold as true, unless he desired to 
come into contact with the avenging arm of Parliament. 

The policy which rendered an occasional flirtation with 
the German Protestants, and active interference in the 
German troubles, desirable, did not, of course, alter this 
attitude. Henry II. proceeded exactly like Francis I., and 
the Guises kept him firmly to this course. 

Henry went farther with the German Protestants than 



352 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Francis, but the persecutions and executions of the native 
heretics increased; and now under Francis II., when the 
brothers Francis and Charles of Guise were all-powerful, 
France was under a system in religious matters which was 
really identical with that of Philip II. and Alba. But 
meanwhile French Protestantism, thanks to the folly of its 
persecutors, gained in the number and importance of its 
followers. '1 he system of persecution had been submitted 
to as to inevitable destiny under Francis I. and Henry II., 
but it could not be so easily forgiven from foreign ministers, 
and the all-powerful favourites who had usurped the govern- 
ment ; from them it was felt to be a gross injustice, and the 
more so as the heresy was no longer confined to poor 
artisans at Meaux or Metz, or isolated learned sects, but 
was become a power which began to influence the best and 
most independent grades of society. 

Since Calvin had builj: up the citadel of French Protest- 
antism in the neighbouring Geneva, and year by year 
received his fugitive brethren in the faith, to send them 
back as well-instructed apostles, the Propaganda of the new 
teaching was organized. The strictly systematic character 
of Calvinism was well adapted to find acceptance with this 
nation. The democratic and republican tendencies also of 
this ecclesiastical commonwealth was attractive as a counter- 
poise to the all-devouring monarchical absolutism. 

Thus Protestantism had become a party which did not, 
like Lutheranism in Germany, spring up from the depths, 
had its seat and main support among the masses, and then 
rose higher ; but it numbered its chief adherents among 
the middle and upper grades of society, spread its roots 
rather among the nobles than the citizens, and among 
learned men and families of distinction rather than among 
the people. A Calvinistic school had been developed of 
strict, serious, almost gloomy personages, in whom the light 
French character seemed to be almost extinguished, whose 
conduct was irreproachable, whose views of life were full 
of priestly exclusiveness, and who formed a moral opposition 
to the licentiousness of the luxurious court life which 
Francis I. had encouraged. Men like Coligny, D'Aubigne', 
and Sully, were distinguished characters, cut as it were from 
one block — men of unimpeachable morals, great earnestness, 
and unyielding energy. 

Then there was another thing : some of the highest 



THE CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE. 353 

aristocracy, who were discontented, and submitted un- 
willingly to the supremacy of the Guises, had joined the 
Calvinistic opposition — some undoubtedly from policy, others 
from conviction. The Turennes, the Rohans, and Soubises, 
pure nobles, who addressed the King as " mon cousin," 
especially the Bourbons, the agnates of the royal house, 
had adopted the new faith. 

A son of St. Louis had married Beatrice, the heiress of 
the earldom of Bourbon, and the Bourbon territory had 
devolved upon him. This branch had divided into two 
smaller branches, one of which had died out with the con- 
stable, the other was represented by Antoine and Louis. 
The elder brother had married the heiress of Beam and 
Navarre, -Jeanne d'Albret, an earnest, powerful, heroic 
woman, and from this marriage sprang Henry IV. The 
younger brother was of light French blood, a true French 
cavalier, with none too much of religious fervour. Jeanne 
was a zealous Calvinist, her husband from policy agreed with 
her, and Louis of Conde joined the same party, for it lent 
him a powerful weapon against the Guises. 

After France had long been ruled by kings who really 
reigned and interfered personally with effect, she now had over 
her a weakly prince, influenced by powerful families, over 
the unhappy royal house a mother like Catharine de Medici, 
and for the first time for a long period there were powerful 
religious and political parties closely intermingled in oppo- 
sition to the Throne. Protestantism united with the dis- 
contented elements among the highest nobles ; the might 
and majesty of the kingdom were greatly decreased ; vast 
debts had accumulated under the late governments ; with- 
out the States, recovery was impossible. These elements in 
some degree explain the great convulsions which followed. 

The Conspiracy of Amboise, March, 1560. — Crisis 
and Change after the Death of the King. 

In the time of Henry IL, in spite of all the edicts and 
executions, Protestantism had made great progress. The 
Parisian Parliament was no longer the Inquisition of former 
days; the chambers were divided; the great chamber passed 
sentences of death, in accordance with the royal edicts, 
while the Tournelle, as it was called, first warned, and 
then, amidst heretical discussions, only passed sentence 0/ 
banishment at the worst. One of the ministers, Anne dy 

23 



354 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Bourg, who afterwards paid for it with his life, zealously 
took the part of the heretics in the King's presence. He 
asked for proofs of the accusation that the heretics, in 
whose mouths the name of the King was never heard except 
to pray for and bless him, were traitors who wished to 
dethrone him, while all their guilt consisted in the courage 
with which they demanded the abolition of the crying 
abuses in the ancient Church. " Surely," he said in 
conclusion, " it is no light thing to condemn to death 
people who call upon Jesus in the midst of the flames." 

About the same period, in the spring of 1559, interdicted 
Protestantism had secretly reviewed its congregations, and 
at the first national synod drawn up a confession of faith 
and a constitution for the new Church. Preachers and 
elders had appeared from every part of France, and their 
eighty articles of 28th May, 1559, have become the code of 
laws of French Protestantism. The Calvinistic principle of 
the Congregational Church, with choice of its own minister, 
deacons, and elders ; a consistory which maintained strict 
discipline in matters of faith and morals, and in extreme 
cases inflicted excommunication — that is, exclusion from the 
sacraments — was established upon French soil, and was 
afterwards publicly accepted by the whole party. 

The more adherents this party gained in the upper circles, 
the bolder was its attitude; there was, indeed, no end to the 
executions, or to the edicts against heresy, but a spirit of 
opposition, previously unknown, had gradually gained 
ground. Prisoners were set free, the condemned were 
rescued from the hands of the executioners on the way to 
the scaffold, and a plan was devised among the numerous 
fugitives in foreign lands for producing a turn in the course 
of events by violent means. 

La Renaudie, a reformed nobleman from Perigord, who 
had sworn vengeance on the Guises for the execution of his 
brother, had, with a number of other persons of his own 
way of thinking, formed a plan for attacking the Guises, 
carrying off the King, and placing him under the guardian- 
ship of the Bourbon agnates. If the King required a regent, 
the princes of the blood alone had a right to the office ; 
with them there would be a native Government ; the nobles 
and the new religion would obtain redress. 

The project was betrayed ; the Guises succeeded in 
placing the King in security in the Castle of Amboise ', 



DEATH OF FRANCIS II. 355 

21 number of the conspirators were seized, another troop 
overpowered and dispersed on their attack upon the castle 
on the 17th of March, 1560; some were killed, some taken 
prisoners and at once executed. 

It was then discovered, or pretended, that the youngest 
of the Bourbon princes, Louis of Conde, was implicated in 
the conspiracy. It is not known to this day how far this 
was true, but it is certain that had the project succeeded it 
would have been very agreeable to him, and that he was 
thoughtless enough to make it not improbable. The 
Guises now ventured, in contempt of French historical tra- 
ditions, to imprison this prince of the blood, this agnate of 
the reigning house ; to summon him before an arbitrary 
tribunal of partisans, and to condemn him to death, 
November, 1560. If the King had done this, if his guilt 
had been proved, it would not have been an unusual, nor, 
according to the notions of justice of that age, an illegal 
proceeding. But this was quite another thing] his guilt was 
not proved, and the trial itself, instituted by two foreigners 
against one of the princes of the blood, was in the highest 
degree informal. 

This affair kept all France in suspense. All the nobles, 
although strongly infected with Huguenot ideas, were on 
Conde's side ; even those who condemned his religious 
opinions made his cause their own. They justly thought 
that if he fell, none of them would be safe. 

In the midst of this ferment, destiny interposed. 

On the 5th of December, 1560, Francis II. died sud- 
denly, and a complete change took place. His death put an 
end to a network of intrigues, which aimed at knocking the 
rebellion, political and religious, on the head. The States 
had been convoked at Orleans, in order to relieve the 
pecuniary embarrassments of the Crown. It was intended, 
also, with the aid of a numerous military force, to extirpate 
heresy, or at least to render harmless the most influential of 
its adherents. Every member was to swear allegiance to 
the articles drawn up by the Sorbonne in 1542, and 
whoever refused was to forfeit life and property. All 
this was in progress ; the most suspicious representatives 
were secured when the King died. 

During this confusion one individual had been watching 
the course of events with the eagerness of a beast ready 
to seize on its prey. Catharine of Medici was convinced 



356 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

that the time of her dominion had at length arrived. Her 
life had been ruled by one idea — that of ruling herself; 
whatever stood in her way was hateful to her, and she was 
enough of an Italian to shrink from no means to give vent 
to her hatred. She hated the Guises because they had 
taken the government out of her hands j the CondeV party 
was compromised by the proceedings of Amboise and the 
trial, and between the contending parties she hoped to step 
in as the guiding power. She was thoroughly adapted to 
play the part which required an intriguing spirit, Italian 
cunning and cold blood, in the choice of means. But she 
was not equal to great political actions. 

Francis II. was scarcely dead when she seized upon the 
person and the power of Charles IX. He was a boy of ten 
years old, not more promising than his eldest brother, 
sickly and weakly like all the sons of Henry II., more 
attached to his mother than the others, and he had been 
neglected *by the Guises. 

Immediately on the death of her eldest son, the mother 
stepped forward as the guardian and regent of her second, 
though both titles were carefully avoided. The sudden 
death of Francis had overthrown the dominion of the 
Guises. 

But she would not have been able to possess herself of 
power without assistance from various quarters ; she needed 
especially the support of the high aristocracy, of the princes 
of the blood, who hated the Guises, but still demanded 
that they should have a share in the government ; she 
therefore came to an understanding with them, particularly 
with Antoine of Navarre, and she could not do this 
without making concessions. 

One of her first acts was to liberate Conde'; this was 
a decided step towards reconciliation with the Bourbons 
and the Protestants. The whole situation was all at once 
changed. The court was ruled by Catharine ; her feverish 
thirst for power was satisfied. The Guises and their ad- 
herents were, indeed, permitted to remain in their offices 
and posts of honour, in order not fatally to offend them ; 
but their supremacy was destroyed, and the new power was 
based upon the Queen's understanding with the heads 0/ 
the Huguenot party. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

CHARLIE IX., 1560-74, AND THE HUGUENOTS, 
UNTIL 1570. 

The First Compromise with the Reform Party. — The States of the 
Empire at Orleans, 1560-61. — The Discussion on Religion at 
Poissy, Autumn, 1561. — The Edict of 17th January, 1562. — The 
Three First Religious Wars, 1562-70.— The Massacre at Vassy, 
March, 1562. — Character of the Civil "War. — The First Religious 
War.— Battle of St. Dreux, December, 1562. — Edict of Amboise, 
March, 1563.— The Second Religious War, 1567-8.— The Edict 
of Longjumeaux, March, 1568. — The Third Religious War, 
1569-70. — Victories of the Catholics at Jarnac and Moncontour. — 
Religious Peace of St. Germain-en-Laye, August, 1570. — Cha- 
racter of Charles IX. 

The. First Compromise with the Reform Party. — 
The States of the Empire at Orleans, 1560-61. 
■ — The Discussion on Religion at Poissy, Autumn, 
1561. — The Edict of January, 1562. 

WHILE this change was taking place, the States as- 
sembled at Orleans were discussing two important 
questions which had been left unsolved for the young King 
by his predecessors : the relief of the financial necessities 
of" the Crown, which were so great that the Chancellor 
l'Hopital, as he said publicly, could not speak of them 
without tears ; and the deliverance of the Church from ruin 
and schism. 

The clergy, the nobles, and the third estate were agreed 
that on this latter point something decisive must be done ; 
but on the question, what ? their views diverged. The clergy 
demanded the liberties of which the concordat had deprived 
them, and the extermination of heresy; the nobles were 
divided into the strictly orthodox party and the moderate 
reformers ; while the third estate was just as decided ic 



358 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

demanding amelioration of the feudal laws, legal protection 
for and care of the common people, abolition of the per- 
secutions for heresy, and the convocation of a General 
Council. In complaints about the decline of morality and 
education among the clergy, the third estate and the nobles 
were entirely agreed. 

It was clear that the Government must adopt some 
attitude with regard to the great question, and that it could 
not return to the policy of the Guises at pleasure. 

Protestantism had become a power which demanded the 
gravest consideration ; it no longer numbered only a hand- 
ful of obscure sectaries, but a large part of the nation, and 
some of the most highly educated and wealthy personages 
were among its ranks. 

The number of the Huguenot congregations was already 
reckoned at two thousand. Protestantism prevailed in whole 
districts — in Normandy, the whole south-west of France, 
ancient Aquitaine, Guienne, the Cevennes, some parts on 
the Spanish frontier, Languedoc, Dauphine; in large cities 
such as Orleans, Bordeaux, Lyons ; in Paris itself it was 
producing a great ferment; and in Navarre, Jeanne D'Albret, 
the most zealous friend of Calvinism, was reigning. Many 
thousands among the nobles, of the citizens and the 
peasantry, had adopted the new faith. 

A representation which was made to the Pope by the 
moderate party among the prelates, in the autumn of 156 1, 
states that a fourth (the Reformers said half) of the 
whole population of the empire was estranged from the 
Church, and that this fourth consisted of nobles, learned 
men, wealthy citizens, and those among. the lower classes 
who had seen the world and could bear arms. With so 
many noblemen, and old, well-disciplined troops, there was 
no lack of strength, judgment, or education — for three- 
fourths of the men of learning belonged to them ; there was 
no lack of money among the nobles and merchants ; and 
there was, besides, so much unity and determination, that 
there could be no hope of converting them by force, without 
inflicting a wound on the nation from which it would take 
it half a century to recover. Nothing, in fact, was accom- 
plished against a party who possessed this moral and ma- 
terial power by burning books and men. Either a tremen- 
dous conflict must be encountered, which would perhaps 
turn to t'le advantage of some foreign power, or concessions 



THE EDICT OF ST. GERMAIN. 35Q 

must be made. These they were now almost disposed to 
grant. 

Catharine was certainly not influenced in this by religious 
opinions. There was never the least evidence that she 
leaned to one side or the other. She was a Catholic out- 
wardly ; as a Medici, a relation of two popes, she had never 
learned to be anything else. Protestantism, with its Calvin- 
istic strictness, could be as little congenial to her frivolous 
views of life as its democratic tendencies to her ambition. 
But she knew how to wear the colours that were in vogue, 
and to change them when occasion arose. The same 
person who instigated the Massacre of St. Bartholomew 
could issue edicts of toleration, and soon after the massacre 
tolerate the Protestants again. 

The first complaints of the Reformers were answered by 
an edict, by which all the imprisoned heretics were released, 
but warned to mend their ways. An attempt was then 
to be made to settle the controversy by a discussion on 
religion at Poissy. This took place in the autumn of 1561. 
Calvin's most talented pupil, Theodore Beza, measured his 
strength with the Cardinal of Lorraine, Charles of Guise, 
as the representative of the French prelates. 

The brilliant eloquence of Beza, who, like most of the 
Calvinistic preachers, was not only a theologian but a 
polished man of the world, distinguished him greatly from 
the average theologians of the day. There was nothing of 
the ordinary sectary about him ; he behaved with perfect 
courtesy ; he made some impression on the court. It was 
seen that these were people with whom intercourse might 
be held, though no closer approach was to be thought of. 

An edict had bsen issued in July, which pleased neither 
party, and gave so much dissatisfaction that it was not pro- 
claimed in a single French town except Paris, while the 
services were openly continued and the communion cele- 
brated. A moderate edict of toleration was then tried. 

On the 17th of January, 1562, the Edict of St. Germain 
was issued, by which the policy which had been pursued for 
forty years, of supporting the Protestants abroad and perse- 
cuting them at home, was given up. 

The Protestants were forbidden to possess any churches 
of their own; they were to give up those they had, and 
neither to buy nor build others. On the other hand, they 
were permitted, until further notice, to hold their services 



360 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

outside the towns, unarmed, by day, and the police were to 
protect them. They were to observe the laws of the State 
and the festivals of the Romish Church ; were not to hold 
any consistories or synods without consent of the higher 
powers ; to make no statutes, to organize no troops either 
for offensive or defensive warfare, and to raise no taxes 
among themselves. All the Reformers were to take an 
oath to teach only in accordance with the Scriptures, and 
not to neglect the mass and similar institutions, &c 

It was but a very limited amount of toleration ; still it 
was a great change when it was considered that in practice 
the edicts had not been carried out to the letter, and in very 
important respects all legal ground for persecution was 
removed. If Calvinism had made astonishing progress 
when it was proscribed, what might not be expected when 
it was permitted ? " If," wrote Calvin, " the liberty pro- 
mised us in the edicts lasts, the Papacy will fall to the 
ground of itself." 

One thing was certain, that if the Reformers did not wish 
to lose everything, they must submit to the edict, even if it 
was in some respects harsh. Beza justly felt this, for he 
enjoined strict obedience on all the communities. But the 
disturbance of the peace came from the other side. 

Catharine's wish to come to some terms with the heretics, 
without breaking with the Pope and Philip II., was not 
enough to put an end to the spirit of persecution which had 
been fostered by the traditions of forty years. The posts of 
authority in most of the cities, and especially in the Parisian 
Parliament, were occupied by Catholics j the people could 
not all at once accustom themselves to acknowledge as 
iegal the services which they had hitherto • scoffed at and 
molested, especially since it was said that the Queen was 
not in earnest, and had only made a sacrifice to policy. 

Causes of irritation and disputes arose, and the Queen 
showed little disposition to interfere. 

The Three First Religious Wars. — The Massacre at 
Vassy, March, 1562, to the Religious Peace of 
St. Germain, August, 1570. 

Meanwhile. an unheard-of violation of the January Edict 
took place. On Sunday morning, 1st of March, 1562, the 
brothers Guise, with a suite of two hundred armed nobles and 



THE FIRST WAR. 361 

soldiers, entered the little town of Vassy as the Protestants 
were assembling for worship in a barn. The preaching had 
begun, when some of the Duke's followers rushed in, dis- 
turbed the worship, and made an uproar. Of course the 
congregation tried to defend themselves. The armed men 
then attacked them in a mass, and the defenceless people 
were shot or cut down with sabres, the rest dispersed, and 
their houses plundered. 

The news of the massacre of Vassy flew through 
France. It was universally believed that it was a pre- 
meditated and most mischievous breach of the treaty, and 
there is nothing in history to refute it. The Duke said, in 
self-justification, that he sent two of his people into the 
barn to reprove the heretics for their disobedience ; but this 
constituted a breach of the peace. The Guises wished for 
a conflict as a means of regaining their power, and they 
had their wish, for the massacre was the signal for the first 
civil war. 

Thus began those fearful wars which lasted from this time 
to the reign of Henry IV., and they comprised everything that 
can make war horrible — religious and political fanaticism, 
interference from abroad, wild passions of every sort, and 
that fearful hatred by which two contending parties who 
are related are generally animated. In their horrors, in the 
European sympathy they elicited, in their course, these wars 
remind us of the great German war ; only that in this case a 
man appeared who, supported by the monarchical inclina- 
tions of the nation, in a few years restored its ancient glory 
to the kingdom, its lost unity to the nation. But the conflict 
was terrible ; the desolation of whole neighbourhoods, the 
massacre of whole populations, has given it a horrible im- 
mortality. It seems to me that there is a certain ferocity in 
the French nation, which, when the external polish is once 
rubbed off, breaks out with a boundless recklessness which 
is not found among other civilised nations. This was the 
case now, as well as in the great political Revolution of 
1789. Other nations have experienced the horrors of reli- 
gious and political wars, but history presents no other 
instance of the refinements of cruelty which were practised 
in France in 1793. 

Hostilities began with the petty warfare of parties in 
cities and districts ; at Paris, Sens, Toulouse, Rouen, and 
other places, the Catholics tell upon their Protestant fellow- 



362 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

citizens, destroyed their houses of prayer, and murdered 
those who fell into their power. The Huguenots then threw 
themselves upon the Catholic churches, destroyed images, 
altars, and censers — in short, everything that belonged to 
Catholic worship. Thus image -breaking and bloodshed 
raged for weeks in the fairest districts of France before the 
hostile armies faced each other. When these at length — one 
under Guise, the other under Coligny — were set in motion, 
nothing but skirmishes and devastation of the enemy's com. 
try took place at first ; no decisive action. But it became 
clearer and clearer that the Huguenots, who lost one town 
after another, and whose lack of money was ever increasing, 
were decidedly at a disadvantage in conflict with the grow- 
ing power of the Guises. They lost the battle of St. Dreux, 
December, 1562 ; but, on the other hand, their adversary's 
most able general, the Duke of Guise, was assassinated by 
a Huguenot nobleman, 18th of February, 1563, and with 
him the greatest obstacle to the attempts at mediation 
which Catharine had been making was removed. 

They had been tearing each other to pieces for months; 
the Protestant minority had not been able to vanquish the 
majority, which had foreign aid, but neither had the majority 
been able to exterminate the heretics. If the fanaticism of 
the Catholics demanded the sacrifice of thousands one day, 
it was balanced by the thousands that fell a sacrifice to the re- 
venge of their adversaries the next. At length they desisted 
from this murderous work, not because they were reconciled, 
but exhausted, and saw that a truce was necessary. Precisely 
a year after the massacre of Vassy a new edict was issued 
at Amboise, which went a step farther than that of 1562. 

The Reformers were granted liberty of conscience, an 
amnesty for the past, and were promised undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of their property, honours, and offices. The celebra- 
tion of divine service was regulated as follows : to the barons 
and all the lords invested with superior jurisdiction, was 
granted the right to hold services at their chateaux for 
themselves and their retainers ; to the inferior nobles, only for 
themselves ; in every official district a town was appointed, 
in the suburbs of which Reformed service might be held ; 
Paris always excepted. 

The edict, greatly favoured the superior nobility, but 
was very disadvantageous to the cities ; for them, through 
the limitation of permission to hold service to one town in 



THE SECOND AND THIRD WARS. 363 

a district, as Coligny said, more churches were annihilated 
by a stroke of the pen than had been destroyed by all the 
inimical powers at work for ten years before. 

It was not long before this edict was infringed, for 
neither party was disposed to abide by it ; the Catholic 
majority saw in it only a false peace concluded insincerely 
by the Crown, and the Calvinists would not give up the 
hope of some day attaining power in France. The number 
of their adherents was continually increasing, and their 
propaganda pursued its course. 

It came to a second religious war, which ended, like the 
first, without any decision in 1567-8; and, as they again 
left off fighting from exhaustion, the Edict of Longjumeaux 
was issued, 23rd of March, 1568, which in essentials con- 
firmed the previous one. 

In 1569 the war began again. I will not relate the history 
of it in detail, but will confine myself to the decisive actions. 
Other things remained as they were ; the Catholics main- 
tained their supremacy, but the Protestants could not be 
exterminated. 

It was one of Coligny's merits that though often beaten 
he never quitted the field, and always managed to secure an 
honourable position for the Protestants. 

The third war, which was principally caused by the 
reaction of events in the Netherlands, and by the report 
that Alba had decided with the Queen Mother upon striking 
a blow at the Protestants in France, similar to the one he 
was aiming at the heretics in the Netherlands, was decided 
by the defeat of the Huguenots at Jarnac, where Conde' and 
Moncontour fell, and ended by the Peace of St. Germain- 
en-Laye, August, 1570, which irrevocably confirmed the 
previous concessions, and added that in every district two 
places should be granted for the celebration of Protestant 
worship ; but they were mostly small towns, and it was only 
in the suburbs of them ; and that in all towns the Reformed 
service should remain as it had been up to the 1st of 
August. The Huguenots of every age were acknowledged 
as faithful subjects and servants, with a complete amnesty ; 
their rights were acknowledged as equal to those of the 
Catholics, and a law of recusance was granted them, to 
defend them from the Catholic Parliament. 

The four cities of La Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, La 
Charite\ were granted to the Reformers as places of refuge, 



364 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

under an oath that after two years they should be restored 
to the King. 

Eight years had passed in fearful conflicts, every one of 
which increased the need of toleration, and the stability of 
the nation had been greatly shaken by it. The court, the 
nobles, the people, were split up into parties ; there was, as 
it were, a yawning chasm between the different parts of the 
nation ; in some parts of the country it had become im- 
possible for people of the two creeds to live together, so 
sharp had been the controversy, and so irreconcilably were 
men's minds divided. As may be imagined, France suffered 
severely from this; the great monarchy which had interposed 
with so much effect in European affairs, under Henry II., 
was sadly lamed. The kingdom was rent wide as the poles 
asunder. Edicts of toleration were issued in its name and 
violated, peace proclaimed and broken, cruelty practised 
and revenged. 

All this could not fail to have a fearfully demoralising 
effect upon the mind of the nation ; and, above all, on the 
character of a prince who had grown up from boyhood to 
youth amid such scenes, not gifted with talent or self- 
control, and but a plaything between his mother, the 
Guises, and the Huguenot leaders. 

Charles IX., loaded with the curse of the Massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, was afterwards regarded in France as the 
type of a degenerate king ; and in the ninth decade of the 
last century, when the storm raged against monarchy, this 
inhuman prince was often alluded to, who himself fired at 
his fugitive subjects. Yet this picture is not precisely true. 

This youth, now twenty years of age, was more to be 
pitied than blamed. It was a most tragic bit of human life 
which was played out within narrow limits, but he cannot 
be made alone or even chiefly responsible for it. Weakly 
from childhood, so brought up by his mother that he could 
never be independent, his mental growth was stunted — he 
grew up more coarse, uncultivated, and ignorant than any 
nobleman's son of his time. At this most critical period he 
received not the slightest training for his calling. He was 
addicted to childish sports, sat in the workshop and made 
locks, and these trivial tastes were purposely fostered by 
his mother, for a youth whose time was thus spent was not 
likely to be dangerous to her. 

He had never had any more lofty aspirations. The 



CHARACTER OF CHARLES IX. 365 

healthy influence of a happy family life was wanting to him; 
there was not a single being about him who could raise him 
morally ; the merry games of real childhood or the pleasures 
of learning in advancing youth were unknown to him ; he 
had not even the salutary influence of knowledge of some 
one subject, which would at any rate have occupied his 
mind. 

With all this, combined with a sickly body totally desti- 
tute of youthful vigour, he was not likely to feel any im- 
pulse to break these contemptible fetters and begin an 
independent life. He readily allowed himself to be seduced 
into excesses purposely placed in his way, in order that his 
remaining energies might be quenched ; he allowed himself 
to be persuaded into one act to-day, another to-morrow; 
there was no one about him calculated to give him confi- 
dence in himself or others. 

And it was upon this individual that enormous respon- 
sibility was thrown, in a situation of which a superior 
character would have found it difficult to solve the compli- 
cations. He who takes all this into account will not be 
surprised at the result, and will be disposed to agree in my 
lenient estimate of his guilt. 

The view which stamps him as a hardened wretch, and 
makes it appear that he himself instigated the horrid deed, 
is psychologically exaggerated. So weak a creature could 
not have been so early and so deeply debased. It is im- 
possible to imagine him harbouring a consuming hatred for 
years, or possessing the unfathomable cunning and hypo- 
crisy which circumvented the enemy till the day of reckon- 
ing came. This presupposes a degree of mental power 
which he did not possess ; we know him only as a vacil- 
lating weakling. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 

Coligny at Court, and the War with Spain, September, 1571 — Juiv 
1572. — The Massacre, 24th August, 1572, and the Fourth Reli 
gious War, 1572-3. — End of Charles IX., 30th May, 1574. 

Coligny at Court, and the War with Spain. 

AFTER the Peace of 1570, it appeared as if a complete 
change of policy was about to take place. The 
Queen pretended to be friendly with the Protestants ; her 
relations with the ambitious Guises were distant and cold, 
and the project of uniting the houses of Bourbon and 
Valois by marriage really looked as if she was in earnest. 

The most distinguished leader of the Huguenot party 
was the Admiral Caspar de Coligny. It is quite refreshing 
at this doleful period to meet with such a character. He 
was a nobleman of the old French school and of the best 
stamp ; lived upon his estates with his family, his little 
court, his retainers and subjects, in ancient patriarchal style, 
and on the best terms, and regularly went with them to 
the Protestant worship and the communion ; a man of 
unblemished morality and strict Calvinistic views of life. 
Whatever this man said or did was the result of his inmost 
convictions ; his life was the impersonation of his views and 
thoughts. In the late turbulent times he had become an 
important person as leader and organizer of the Protestant 
armies. At his call, thousands of noblemen and soldiers 
took up arms, and they submitted under his command to 
very strict discipline. He could not boast of having won 
many battles, but he was famous for having kept his re- 
sources together after repeated defeats, and for rising up 
stronger than "before after every lost engagement. 

At the same time, he was not too much of a Huguenot 



COLIGNY. 367 

to regard as supreme the welfare of the whole country, as a 
Frenchman and a nobleman. When, at the beginning of 
the war, his party looked round for foreign aid, and pro- 
posed to apply to the German Protestant princes for 
succour, he replied, " Let us regard them as mediators, but 
not take any troops from them. Let us rather die than 
merit the reproach that the Huguenots were the first to 
bring foreign troops on to French soil." He always kept in 
view that both parties, when they had attained their rights, 
should submit to an honourable peace and feel themselves 
to be Frenchmen. Now that peace was made, " why," he 
asked, " excite further dissensions for the benefit of our 
common enemies? Let us direct our undivided forces 
against the real enemy of France — against Spain, who stirs 
up intrigues in our civil wars. Let us crush this power, which 
condemns us to ignominious dependence." 

The war against Spain was Coligny's project. It was 
the idea of a good Huguenot, for it was directed against the 
most blindly fanatical and dangerous foe of the new 
doctrines ; but it was also that of a good Frenchman, for a 
victory over Spain would increase the power of France in 
the direction of Burgundy, and would round it off in the 
most advantageous manner on the eastern side from 
Besancon to Ostend. This was the germ of the subse- 
quent policy of Louis XIV. 

From September, 1571, Coligny was at court. On his 
first arrival he was heartily welcomed by the King, em- 
braced by Catharine, and loaded with honours and favours 
by both. I am not of opinion that this was a deeply laid 
scheme to entrap the guileless hero, the more easily to ruin 
him. Catharine's ideas did not extend so far. Still less do 
I believe that the young King was trained to play the part 
of a hypocrite, and regarded Coligny as a victim to be 
cherished until the fete day. I think, rather, that Catharine, 
in her changeableness and hatred of the Guises, was now 
really disposed to make peace with the Protestants, and that 
the young King was (or the time impressed by this superior 
personage. 

No youthful mind is so degraded as to be entirely inac- 
cessible to such influence. A man commanding the respect 
due to age, but still in the vigour of life, with great moral 
dignity, yet true French bonhomie, could not fail to make 
an irresistible impression upon youth. 



368 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

I am of opinion that Charles IX. was under this impres- 
sion. I believe that the first and only happy day in the 
life of this unfortunate monarch was when he met Coligny, 
who raised him above the degradation of vulgar life ; and I 
believe further, that this relation was the main cause of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew. A new influence was 
threatening to surround the King and to take deep root, 
which Catharine, her son Henry of Anjou, and the strict 
Catholic party, must do their utmost to avert ; and it was 
quite in accordance with the King's weak character to allow 
the man to be murdered whom he had just called " Father." * 

Although we have but little light on the details of this 
catastrophe, we have sufficient information to form an 
opinion of the causes which led to it. 

Since peace had been made, Coligny thought no more of 
a war of extermination between Catholics and Protestants, 
but — and in this he was considering the natural interests of 
the policy of France — of a national war, in which both 
parties should unite their forces against Spain. 

This did not exclude, but rather made necessary, the 
support of foreign Protestants, of the Netherlands, the 
alliance with England, and the Protestant powers of Ger- 
many. In this he betrayed the Huguenot ; still, it was not 
the only reason for his policy. In a struggle with Spain, it 
was not only liberty of conscience in and out of France 
that was at stake, the object also was to throw off an 
oppressive foreign yoke, and to get possession of the fine 
border country, which was afterwards the most valuable 
conquest of Louis XIV. The possession of the chain of 
fortresses from Luxemburg to Dunkirk was afterwards the 
chief aim of the foreign policy of France. It did not arise 
alone from blind hatred of the house of Hapsburg, it was 
a continuance of the path which Francis I. had opened up, 
and Henry II. had followed farther, and the moment had 
never been so favourable as now. Richelieu himself after- 
wards only imitated Coligny, but coldly and selfishly, — he 
was destitute of his enthusiasm. 

Was it incredible that Charles IX. should be inspired 
with it? 

* These and the following views of these events entirely agree with 
the confessions.of Henry of Anjou himself. See Soldan, II., and corn- 
pare the essay on " Frankreich und die Bartholomausnacht," is 
Raumer's Hist. Taschenbuch. 1854. 



WAR WITH SPAIN. 369 

What was uttered by Coligny in tones of the deepest 
conviction, reminded the prince, for the first time, of the 
treatment he had received, and of the unworthy position he 
had held with respect to the Spanish policy and its agents, 
his mother and the Guises. He was just at the age when 
the royal blood could not fail to stir in him, and we know 
that just about this time, to the horror of his mother and 
brother, he repeatedly broke out into rash expressions. 

During the first half of 1572 this turn of affairs was 
taking place. 

Alba's system was on the decline; he had just adopted 
his final desperate measures, the stupid tax of the one 
hundredth, twentieth, and tenth pennies ; an indescribable 
fury raged in the country, which might at any moment 
come to an outbreak, and the troops of Louis of Nassau 
and William of Orange had begun their operations. The 
situation, therefore, was favourable. If the Spanish power 
were to be lamed, no better opportunity could be expected. 

It appears that about the middle of the year, the matter 
was as good as decided. The King willingly acceded to 
Coligny's plan. While the doubtful attitude of England, 
and the divided opinion of the Council, prevented any 
open interference, the King privately gave considerable 
sums for the support of the Flemish patriots, for the equip- 
ment of an army of four thousand men, composed of 
Catholics and Protestants, who marched towards Mons, to 
succour Louis of Nassau. When in July this army was 
beaten, and the majority of the Huguenots were in despair, 
Coligny succeeded in persuading the King to equip a fresh 
and still larger army; but the opposition then bestirred 
itself. 

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, August 24TH, 
1572. 

The strict Catholic party had watched this turn of affairs 
with growing ill-will ; they dreaded enmity with Spain, as 
the best ally of the unity of the faith, and rejected all idea 
of peace and reconciliation with the heretics, the fatal foes 
of the good cause. The Guises found every government 
which thrust them on one side unsupportable. 

The Queen was by no means enthusiastically in favour 
of Spain, whose commanding influence she often found 
oppressive; but to venture on a war with her was quite. 

24 



370 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

another thing, and in questions which concerned her 
dominion over the King, everything else was disregarded. 

She had been absent with her married daughter in Lor- 
raine, and on her return she found everything changed; the 
Guises without influence, herself thrust on one side. 

Under the impression of the latest events in Flanders, 
which made it likely that the war with Spain would be 
ruinous, she hastened to the King, told him with floods of 
tears that it would be his ruin ; that the Huguenots, through 
Coligny, had stolen the King's confidence, unfortunately 
for himself and the country. She made some impression 
upon him, but it did not last long, and thoughts of war 
gained the upper hand again. 

The idea now (August, 1572) must have been matured in 
Catharine's mind of venturing on a desperate step, in order 
to save her supremacy and influence, for this consideration 
was always uppermost with her. 

She had trifled with the friendship of the Huguenots, and 
now they had outwitted her ; her power over the King, the 
fruit of the toil of a life-time, had slipped through her 
fingers, and through the Huguenots, whom she had dreaded 
least of all. She had never liked them, had never forgotten 
that they had formerly been inimical to her ; all her fierce 
old hatred was stirred up when she saw her position 
threatened by these heretics. 

She was a Medici; had passed a melancholy, joyless 
youth ; had been brought as a stranger to the Court ; had 
been neglected by her husband, and thrust on one side 
under her eldest son. After a long course of humiliation, 
she had at length attained the authority she desired, as the 
adviser of her second son, and now it appeared that she 
had only brought him up for the Calvinists, and had really 
been working for them. This was too much for a Medici. 

As to ways and means in such a situation, she shared 
the views of her nation. The passionate Italians are dis- 
posed to choose the shortest and most sanguinary methods. 
Political assassination has always been judged more le- 
niently by them than by other nations ; unhappily, political 
complications, combined with the hasty temperament of the 
people, have often caused them to resort to poison or the 
dagger, while "the northerners are still debating. In the six- 
teenth century this sort of political morality was in full bloom, 
had been theoretically developed by Machiavelli with artless; 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 37 I 

objectivity, and, as a passionate woman, Catharine was 
doubly disposed to resort to such means. 

The idea ripened in her mind of getting rid of Coligny 
by assassination; she was convinced that it would serve her 
purpose, and all other considerations were disregarded. 

Entirely of one mind with her son Henry, she turned to 
the Guises, with whom she was at enmity when they were 
in power, but friendly when they were of no more con- 
sequence than herself. They breathed vengeance against 
the Calvinists, and were ready at once to avenge the murder 
of Francis of Guise by a murderous attack upon Coligny. 

An assassin was hired, and established in a house belong- 
ing to the Guises, near Coligny's dwelling, and as he came 
out of the palace, on the 22nd of August, a shot was fired 
at him, which wounded but did not kill him. 

Had Coligny died of this wound, Catharine would have 
been content; her power would have been restored, the 
Huguenots intimidated and deprived of their leader, the 
game which she played with both parties, to render each 
harmless by means of the other, could have begun again. 
But Coligny did not die; the Huguenots defiantly de- 
manded vengeance on the well-known instigator of the 
deed ; their threats reached the Queen and Prince Henry 
of Anjou, and the personal fascination which Coligny had 
exercised over King Charles appeared rather to increase 
than to diminish. 

Thus doubtless arose, during the anxious hours after the 
failure of the assassination, the idea of an act of violence on 
a large scale, which should strike a blow at Coligny and 
his friends before they had time for revenge. It certainly 
had not been in preparation for months, not even since the 
time that Coligny had been at Court ; it was conceived in 
the agony of these hours. Not that so diabolical a scheme 
was impossible in such a circle, but Catharine's character 
was not equal to it. In the heat of passion she could 
venture on the most fearful deeds, but she had not sufficient 
elasticity to plan such a scheme and to allow it gradually to 
ripen. 

The new faith had been proscribed in Paris from the 
first — all the Edicts of toleration expressly excepted it and 
the neighbourhood — and the inhabitants cherished a growing 
hatred of the Huguenots, which it was hard to restrain 
and very easy to let loose. If the King could be persuaded 



372 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

to give the signal for an attack, a horrible massacre migh* 
be expected. 

But the King was again in Coligny's hands, had seriously 
entered into the investigation of the attempt upon his life, 
dismissed the Guises with hard words from Court, sent a 
guard of fifty men to Coligny's house, and had had it pro- 
claimed in Paris and the provinces that every part of the 
religious Peace should be conscientiously observed. On the 
afternoon of the 23rd of August the Queen made a final 
attempt with the King. She told him of a vast Huguenot 
conspiracy against throne and altar, which, with thousands 
of well-armed troops, was only awaiting the right moment, 
under Coligny's command, to attack him and all his house ; 
the Catholics were asleep ; unless the King roused himself, 
and under a leader chosen by himself resisted the Huguenots, 
he would stand alone, and all would be lost.* This down- 
right lie took effect ; orders were given for the massacre, 
and it was organized on a large scale for the following night. 
A vast number of the Huguenots had come to Paris for the 
celebration of the marriage of Henry of Navarre with the 
King's sister ; thousands had been attracted by this peaceful 
and conciliatory festival ; the plan was, at a given signal, 
to fall upon the sleeping guests. The Guises sent for the 
Prevots des Marchands and the superintendents of the 
various quarters, explained the plan to them, and gave them 
their commissions. To make sure that none of the more 
important persons should escape, individuals were com- 
missioned to murder particular persons, and the Duke of 
Guise took care to undertake the murder of Coligny. These 
doings have a horrible similarity to those of 1792, when the 
superintendents of the sections were sent for to have the plan 
of the prison murders explained to them. The murderous 
orders had to be despatched to the provinces by couriers. 

The horrors of the night of the 24th of August took place 
in this way. At a given signal the leaders left their posts, 
collected their comrades, fell upon the Huguenot quarter, 
and murdered the defenceless people. About 2,000 were 

• According to the confessions of Henry of Anjou, the Queen only 
wished for the head of Coligny and those of some of his friends, but 
Charles IX. said in a tremendous rage that, if the Admiral must die, 
not a single .Huguenot should remain alive to reproach him with the 
deed. This, then, was the cause of the massacre, which was not at 
first intended by Catharine and Henry. — Soldan. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 373 

met with, very few of whom escaped. Similar signals were 
despatched to all the larger places, and very few of the 
superintendents had the courage to answer that they were 
not assassins. There were but isolated instances of 
mercy and conscience ; in general the command was 
carried out as it was given, and it throws a ghastly light on 
the nation and its rulers. The King, dragged along like a 
powerless instrument, took part in these horrors, and was 
seized with the horrid ambition to assist in the project which 
was not his own invention. 

Blind revenge and passion are bad counsellors. Not a 
single project of the house of Valois, which thought it was 
contending for its Crown, or of the mother of its last King, 
whose whole soul was engrossed in ambition, was accom- 
plished by the deed. Their dynasty was ruined, but the 
Huguenots were not exterminated. 

20,000, 25,000, even 100,000 victims are spoken of — the 
smallest number is the most probable ! It was a tremendous 
blow for the party. Most of its leaders were cut off; the grey- 
headed Coligny was cut to pieces ; but, though weaker by 
20,000 men, it was strong enough to begin the war of 
revenge again. A fierce hatred had been excited in the 
remnants of the party, which perhaps was of greater value 
than the loss they had sustained. Charles IX. wrote on 
26th of August to his ambassador in the Netherlands : — 
" This fire will extend to every city of my empire, and all 
the followers of the new religion will be made harmless." 
This opinion also prevailed at Rome and Madrid. The 
Pope had a solemn Te Deum celebrated, and Philip II. 
broke out into a coarse triumphal laugh at the news. 

But in almost every other country of Europe, even in the 
zealous Catholic States, there was but one voice of horror 
and condemnation. 

The Emperor Maximilian II. expressed the feeling of the 
world when he said that it pained him to reckon such a mur- 
derous crew among his relations, and he was father-in-law to 
Charles IX. The Pope and Philip II., however, lauded it as 
an act well pleasing to God, and one that did honour to the 
title of the " Most Christian King." Was it probable that, 
even among these fanatical assassins, such a monarchy should 
continue to exist ? Was it possible that when passion had 
cooled, and the calm voice of the nation was heard again, 
a monarchy would be forgiven whose name was stained by 



374 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

the most bloody deed that ever disgraced a royal house ? 
In the eyes of the nation, no blessing could ever again rest 
on it. Just as Catharine thought she had attained dominion 
for ever, she was giving the most fatal blow to her authority. 

Thus a fresh religious war arose. All that were not 
murdered of the Huguenot party took up arms. It was 
absolutely necessary for them to defend their rights, and it 
became evident how many remained. None of the wars 
were so feebly carried on by the royal party as this one ; it 
seemed as if an evil conscience lamed their powers. 

Among the Catholic population itself, a party split off 
from the fanatics, who were called, first in jest and then in 
earnest, " The Politicians." They condemned the war of 
extermination against religious creeds, and demanded imme- 
diate abolition of the misgovernment of the Court party, 
which was becoming more and more intolerable. Political 
opposition now assailed the helpless throne ; and if we are 
ever justified in thinking we see the Nemesis following 
close upon a guilty act, we are so in this case. The murder 
scheme had failed ; the Huguenots were not exterminated ; 
the Catholic party was split into two camps ; Catharine 
had to share her power with the Guises, and was helpless 
between the two parties ; the King felt the burden of the 
night of the 24th of August press upon him more heavily 
than any one else. 

The ghosts of those who had been slain by his orders 
were ever before his eyes ; he often rose in the night, and 
rushed in despair through the dreary apartments of his 
palace, followed by bleeding forms and confused voices. He 
was not enough of a villain to get over it as others would 
have done ; he was a weak child, who had been persuaded 
to vile deeds, and was racked to death by the stings of 
conscience. 

Two years after the night of St. Bartholomew his feeble 
life came to an end ; he pined away without any particular 
disease, consumed by a dissolute life, and the remembrance 
of an act which he was weak enough to permit, and not 
strong enough to overcome. 

This was a heavy blow to Catharine ; her tool was dead, 
the throne again vacant, and that at a moment when the 
Netherlands had risen, the Huguenots were in arms, and 
the Catholic party filled with discontent and in process of 
dissolution. 



CHAPTER XXVTII. 

HENRY III., 1574-89, AND THE LEAGUE. 

Character of Henry. — The Edict of May, 1576, and the Holy League 
of the Guises. — Protracted Vacillation. — Death of Francis <>l 
Anjou, June, 1584, and Contest about the Succession. — The War 
of the Three Henrys, 1588-9. — The Barricades of Paris, May, 
1588.— The States at Blois, October, 1588, and the Murder of the 
Two Guises, 23rd and 24th December, 1588. — Flight and Murder 
of Henry III., August 2nd, 1589. 

/CATHARINE'S third son, Henry III., now began to 
v^ reign. It was said that he was the one most deeply 
imbued with her ideas, and that he yielded the most willingly 
to her advice. He had spent his youth among the Guises, 
adhered jealously to the strict Catholic party — not from 
religious sentiments, but from purely external motives. He 
had dutifully aided his mother in the arrangement of the 
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and he himself relates after 
what vicissitudes she finally attained her end in her attacks 
upon the King's relations with Coligny, and with what 
anxious suspense she listened for the murderous signal of 
the alarm bell on the night of the 24th of August. 

At this juncture a prospect had opened of providing for 
Henry, whom it was not easy to keep in France, by means 
of his election to the throne of Poland. By dint of great 
pecuniary sacrifices he had been elected King, and Poland 
thought the French kingdom would aid Polish weakness. 
Just as he ascended the throne, news came of his brother's 
death, and Henry laid aside the crown — did not even abdi- 
cate, but simply deserted the Polish throne in order to ascend 
the French one. In spite of his slender build and love of 
sensual pleasures, he was more vigorous than either of his 
brothers, produced more the impression of a French noble 



37& THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

than his predecessor, and was believed to have more mental 
power. He was certainly more deeply initiated into his 
mother's political morality. What in Charles IX. was con- 
temptible weakness, was in him voluntary co-operation ; 
what in the one case was extorted by lies and intimidation, 
from a demoralised nature, was in the other the acquiescence 
of detestable frivolity which agreed to anything and shrunk 
from nothing. Still, there was nothing manly in this person- 
age ; though more gifted than his brothers, and not so easily 
treated as a minor, there was nothing of the King about him, 
and he was even more repulsive than they were. 

The horrible corruption of Charles's Court, its foolery and 
frivolity, had no better representative than Henry of Anjou. 
He had gone through frightful excesses; his youth had no- 
thing to show but dissolute feats, or even crimes. It is 
related of him that he went through the streets as a Merry- 
Andrew, or with wild beasts like a bear-leader, attired in 
such a fashion that his sex was indistinguishable ; or broke 
into the houses of the peaceful citizens by night with a crew 
of dissolute companions. Neither was he wanting in the 
bigotry of which this Court could boast. One day he might 
be seen with the notorious " mignons," or seizing the wives 
and daughters of Parisian husbands and citizens ; the next he 
went to church, joined in masses and processions to atone 
for the horrors of the previous night. As to honour, faith, 
honesty, and loyalty, he was truly worthy of his mother. 

This was the Valois upon whose shoulders the burden 
was laid of healing the woes of a distracted country. 

The religious contest was not adjusted ; the Huguenots 
were deeply embittered ; new leaders were at the head ; the 
land groaned under misgovernment, which was worse than 
ever ; the treasury was empty ; there was no money to pay 
the officials, the troops, or the household ; discontent was 
increasing among all classes; and there was a party of 
eminent men who were clamouring for political reforms. 

And now the dangers of the situation were incorporated 
in an ominous League between the Huguenots and the 
Catholic politicians. Both renounced the idea of a unity 
of faith for all France ; gave up the endless civil wars, and 
wished for peace on the principle of reciprocal toleration, 
and directed their forces against the Crown with a united 
demand for reforms, abolition of the great abuses, and con- 
vocation of the States of the empire. 



HENRY lit. 377 

in the presence of these complications, Henry III. had 
not the power, was too insignificant to go to work like a 
King, to put an end to factions by reigning supreme above 
them. He chose the dishonourable path of fostering intrigues, 
and for years played a deceitful game; but so clumsily, 
that the commonest understanding could see through it. 

In May, 1576, he made peace with the politicians and 
Huguenots, revoked the policy of the massacre, put an end 
to the legal disabilities of its victims, granted the heretics, 
with the exception of Paris, unlimited religious liberty, 
equality in filling offices and dignities in every Parliament ; 
a chamber composed of an equal number of Catholics and 
Protestants, and eight fortresses, as a pledge that the treat) 
should be observed. 

The Catholics did not fail to strike a counter-blow to this 
edict. With the help of Spain, Henry of Guise collected 
together all those who held to the preservation of the unity 
of the faith, at any price and by any means, in an alliance 
called the Holy League ; it was formed in 1576, and found 
considerable support in the meeting of the States at Blois, 
in December of that year. Resistance to the utmost to the 
Huguenots, and to all who should join themselves to them, 
was the programme of this League. 

At Blois, the King showed that he was not in earnest with 
his concessions to the Huguenots. The Holy League had 
not long been formed when the King joined it, and recalled 
all that he had previously granted. It came to a religious 
war. Royalty and the opposing parties once more met upon 
the battle-field, the former to play the forlorn part of being 
watched by the Catholics as partly, and by the Protestants 
as altogether a traitor. This war confirmed what had been 
granted to the Huguenots in 1576; but the seventh war, 
which quickly followed, deprived them of it again until the 
Edict of toleration was renewed at the Peace of Fleix. 
Things could not go on as they were ; royalty sunk deeper 
every day in the estimation of all parties ; alarming political 
projects were stirring, when in June, 1584, another death 
took place which hastened the crisis. 

This was the death of the fourth son of Henry II. and 
Catharine, Francis of Alencon, who, after the accession of 
Henry III., had received the title of Duke of Anjou, and 
had been looked upon as Henry's successor. He had 
allowed himself to be made a tool of by all parties ; had ai 



378 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

length appeared as a Pretender in the south of the Nether- 
lands ; had tried all sorts of schemes in order to cut a 
figure, but he had not talent enough for it. On the ioth of 
June, 1584, he died, and it was in fact the most important 
thing he had ever done. 

He was the last of the Valois, and the Bourbons were 
now thought of as successors. The representative of the 
claims of this house was Henry, King of Navarre, who, 
compelled on the night of St. Bartholomew to abjure his 
faith, had afterwards escaped and placed himself at the 
head of his old party. 

Spain and Rome laboured against his right of succession, 
against the elevation of the heretical Bourbons ; and just 
as they were beginning to look round for a Catholic 
dynasty in France, the well-known work, " Stemmata," ap- 
peared in Lorraine, in which it was shown that the Guises 
were descended from the Carlovingians, and were thus 
the legitimate house ; while the French kings were all 
usurpers. They forgot in their zeal that the Carlovingians 
themselves were arrant usurpers, and that they should 
have gone back to the Merovingians. An eighth religious 
war then began about the throne, which has been called 
the War of the Three Henrys. From the end of 1585 there 
was a melancholy campaign, the issue of which neither 
party could foresee, and in which the King and his mother 
played a most pitiful part. The King at first sought to 
maintain a position in the camp of the League, but vanished 
before Henry of Guise. He then tried to take an indepen- 
dent course ; but every attempt led to more painful and 
ignominious defeats, until nothing availed but assassination, 
which overthrew the kingdom of the last of the Valois. 

There could be no doubt with the masses who was the 
lawful King, the wretched Henry III. or the powerful Duke 
of Guise. It required a persistent idea of legitimacy to 
remain loyal to one about whom everything was despicable 
except his legal right to the throne. Henry of Guise could 
not be looked upon as other than a usurper, but he 
displayed unquestionable superiority in playing his part. 
He was not the great general which his father was con- 
sidered to be, but in chivalrous personal bravery he equalled 
if he did not excel him. Then he was handsome, eloquent, 
winning, exercised quite a fascination over the masses, was 
without the weakness for women of Henry III., was distin- 



WARS OF THE THREE HENRYS. 379 

guished in all manly exercises, was the best rider, fencer, 
swimmer in France, and was blameless in faithfulness 
to his convictions. The party which he led was in great 
measure the creation of his family ; it was a party which 
knew no capitulation ; he stood or fell with it. However 
worthless its programme may be considered, it must be 
granted that the Guises stood by it firmly, while the King 
and his mother, broken reeds as they were, inclined now to 
this side and now to the other. 

At Rome and Madrid they were already designating the 
hero of the League as the legal Catholic King, and the 
book called the " Stemmata " was intended to mislead the 
legitimist conscience of the people. The pitiful bearing of 
the King towards the Duke of Guise was as if designed to 
make the Pretender popular, and to complete the bank- 
ruptcy of the lawful crown. The French sources relate 
with a certain humour the King's attempt in 1588 to rid 
himself of his inconvenient Mayor of the Palace, and how 
it ended in preparing a complete triumph for the latter. 

Guise had entered Paris with several hundred knights, in 
order, as he said, to justify himself to the King against 
false accusations, but in truth to wring from him entire 
submission to the commands of the League. The people 
had received the Pretender with immense rejoicings, and 
the King was so enraged, that for a moment he thought of 
having him assassinated. To defend himself, he caused a 
troop of 6,000 men to enter the city, who would, properly 
made use of, have been quite sufficient to put down the 
Duke and all his followers ; but the organization was so bad, 
that Guise succeeded, under the eyes of the King's soldiers, 
who stood like " iron pillars," in inciting the masses to rise 
and construct barricades, which put all Paris into his power, 
and compelled the King to fly. The Duke took possession 
of the city, the people did homage to him as their Lord, 
the wretched King entered into negotiations, and in July 
signed a programme which really made the Duke regent 
and supreme ruler, and reduced the King to a mere puppet. 

Henry could not forget this, and resolved to get rid of 
the Duke by a secure method. 

In October, 1588, the States were convoked at Blois, and 
it had to be shown who was master, the King or the Duke. 
Henry III. experienced one disappointment after another. 
Even in the opening speech, he had to listen to a coarse 



380 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

attack on the ambition of the great, and then to confirm by 
oath the programme of the League. 

But the spirit by which a large portion of the assembly 
was animated, indicated a new and tremendous danger, of 
which the King had no idea. Ideas of reform in the empire 
were expressed, as bold and radical as those of 1789 ; even 
more so, for they did not adhere to the one point to which 
all parties adhered then — the entire unity of the State— but 
suggested projects of decentralisation, with privileges for the 
nobles, the States and the provinces, which did not at all 
comport with the great work of the house of Valois. A 
monarchy limited by a standing committee of the States 
was proposed, and the doctrine of the sovereignty of the 
people preached, which, in spite of its ecclesiastical dress, 
was as revolutionary as possible. All the King's legal 
power is granted him by the States ; if he surpasses it, it 
reverts to the States ; questions of war, peace, taxes, &c, 
cannot be decided without them, &c. If we consider also 
the revolutionary organization of the city of Paris, divided 
into districts exactly as in 1792, governed by secret leaders 
which had already, on the day of the barricades, the 12th of 
May, made itself a fearful lever of democratic agitation, the 
similarity between this state of things and that of the great 
Revolution becomes very striking, and the distinction dis- 
appears that on the one occasion these things were 
demanded in the name of the Catholic Church, on the other 
were based upon the rights of man. This was the alarming 
situation in which Henry III, found himself when, as he 
saw no other mode of escape, he formed the desperate reso- 
lution of murdering the captains of the League, after he had 
tried in vain to conquer them. 

The King had already discussed the plan of the murder 
with the most confidential members of his body guard, when 
Henry of Guise still felt quite secure, although he had been 
repeatedly warned. " He will not venture on it," he said, 
like Danton in a similar situation. He did not give the 
prince, whose insignificance no one knew better than himself, 
credit for power to carry out so heroic a plan. When, on 
the morning of the 23rd of December, 1588, he was going 
to the King, he was struck down in the same apartments 
where, sixteen years before, he had initiated the massacre. 
His brother Charles shared the same fate, and many of 
the most influential leaders of the party were imprisoned. 



MURDER OF HENRY III. 381 

The King thought that with the leaders he had destroyed 
the party itself: this was a mistake. Civil war raged almost 
all over France, and in Paris there was complete anarchy. 
The Ligue des Seize— so the chief lodge of a number of clubs 
spread over France was called— seized the reins of govern- 
ment, put its creatures into every post, turned out all who 
opposed them, and tried the King by Parliament. 

Helpless and forsaken, the King now fled to the camp of 
the Huguenots, sought protection from those whom he had 
been most consistent in opposing, and among whom there 
were many who hated him as the murderer of their nearest 

relations. Henry of Navarre suppressed all these feelings 

a great proof of his power over the army. The King was 
greeted as a King. At the same time it was a perpetual 
embarrassment to the Huguenots to have this empty-headed, 
weak-minded creature in their camp. The fanaticism of the 
party of the Guises delivered them from it. One of the 
priests, who had daily heard it preached at Paris that it was 
meritorious to murder a tyrant— a Dominican, Jacob 
Clement— entered the camp and gave the King a fatal stab. 
A few hours after, Henry III. was a corpse, 2nd of August, 
1589. The murder of the King, which had long been 
preached, was now put in practice. The new political 
doctrine of the Jesuits and the Council of Trent had passed 
through every stage, from producing mere demagogues and 
rebellion up to regicide ; people knew now what mi-ht be 
expected from it, 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

HENRY IV., 1589-161O. 

Character of Henry IV. — His Struggle for the Crown, 1789-93.— 
Dissolution of the Opposing Party. — Charles of Mayenne, the 
Parisian Demagogues, Plans of Philip II. — Henry's Conversion to 
Catholicism ; Motives for and Consequences of this Step. — 
Henry's Administration, 1594-1610. — Peace of Vervins, May, 
1598.— Edi ct of Nantes. 1508 . — Sully's Administration. — Plan of 
a GreafProtestant Alliance against Spanish Hapsburg. — Henry's 
Murder, by Ravaillac, May 14th, 1610. 

Character of Henry IV. 

ANEW era now begins for France. According to law 
and usage, Henry of Navarre was undoubtedly king. 
The Bourbons were descended from the younger, the last of 
the Capets and the Valois from the elder sons of St. Louis ; 
but the step from legal to acknowledged and actual 
possession was a long and difficult one. 

Henry found confusion, dissolution, and civil war every- 
where. At first he only possessed the smaller portion of his 
kingdom. His inheritance, Protestant Beam, stood by him, 
as did also the Huguenot naval fortress of La Rochelle, the 
Cevennes, the faithful nobles in Dauphine, Poitou, Saintonge, 
and the scattered Protestant communities in the south of 
France, and subsidies were granted him by the German 
Protestant princes. The country whose lawful ruler he was 
had to a great extent to be conquered, and when conquered 
would have to submit to an entirely new order of things, 
which would control disorder and license, and restore law 
and order. 

Henry IV. was the child of this wild period of civil wai, 
had grown up to manhood in camp, and amidst dangers 
and disputes. 



HENRY IV. 383 

His marriage had furnished the occasion for the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew. While his fellow-religionists were 
succumbing to the murderous accomplices of the Guises, he 
was compelled to abjure his faith in order to save his life. 
His heroic mother, Jeanne d'Albret, had died under 
suspicious circumstances ; he had taken part in numerous 
conflicts, had been hardened by many reverses. At first he 
had only been tested as a brave soldier, and more than 
this he did not appear to be. 

And yet he was the means of changing the aspect of 
France. The loyal sentiments of the nation were fixed 
upon him ; a healthy patriotism, which had perished in the 
horrors of civil war and religious animosity, warmed up at 
the sight of him ; and he was the man to bring about the 
needful change, and to give it the right direction. He was 
not one of those superior men who can call forth mighty 
creations out of chaos, and point out the course which shall 
be taken for a long time to come, and yet he was not far 
behind them. 

He possessed to the full that happy talent of attracting 
all cognate elements to himself — of nullifying all that was 
inimical, of retaining the mastery in all the situations of 
life. This was a proof of unusual personal greatness, even 
if it cannot be said that he launched new and bold ideas 
into the world. 

He was, above all things, a thorough soldier, as after his 
past history he could not fail to be. After the close of the 
great war two hundred actions were counted, besides the great 
battles in which he had been engaged, and almost always 
without receiving any injury. He had that happy and care- 
less disregard of danger which is bred of the popular heroic 
spirit — which feels, and makes others feel, that he is under 
a propitious star. This always excites enthusiasm among 
a people so impressible as the French for military 
glory. 

Still he was not only a soldier. Even while pursuing the 
bloody trade of war, he had retained a nobility of nature ; 
the softer traits of a royal character had not been effaced 
by camp life. He not only knew how to plunge into the 
tumult of battle with his comrades and soldiers, or as a 
general to measure the distances over a wide expanse : he 
was also a simple, open-hearted, chivalrous man, who 
heartily enjoyed life, and had plenty of natural dexterity in 



384 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

adapting himself to men — in detecting at a glance theii 
strong and weak points. 

The stories of the amiable private life of his youth are 
well known, so different from the coarse, selfish sensuality 
and bigotry of the last of the Valois. It was told how he 
caroused, joked, and laughed with his friends ; one day gave 
himself up to love-making, the next kept up free, unrestrained 
intercourse with the people ; greeted every one with royal 
and winning grace, sympathizingly inquired after the welfare 
of the humblest, gained men's favour more rapidly by a 
well-timed word and his ready wit than by the greatest 
victories on the battle-field. 

Besides all this, he possessed a wonderful elasticity, could 
endure privations and fast with any one. Notwithstanding 
his sensuous temperament, he could rest upon the bare 
ground, share frost, heat, hunger, and thirst with the most 
insignificant of his soldiers, and yet be the first to face the 
enemy, the last to leave the field. He carried on the most 
various pursuits simultaneously and with equal zeal, and his 
perpetual love affairs and boundless excesses, which usually 
enfeeble the strongest, never crippled his energies. When 
he died, it was felt that a youthful, vigorous, richly-gifted 
life, teeming with health, was cut off in its midst. He knew 
nothing of weakness, illness, or those hypochondriacal fancies 
which were the curses of the last of the Valois. The only 
bitterness of which he was capable, now and then showed 
itself in transient humours, and a soldier-like contempt for 
human life. It may well be said that Henry IV. was a 
Frenchman par excellence; he exhibited the bright and 
dark sides of the national character completely ; the frivolity 
and tendency to excess, the taste for martial glory, the in- 
destructible light-mindedness and social virtuosity, the 
chivalry of sensuous life. It is obvious that such a person- 
age was well adapted to revive the extinct loyalty of the 
nation. 

Henry IV. also possessed grand royal traits of character. 
He may be called frivolous for being so entirely destitute 
of revenge, for forgiving and forgetting so easily, but it was 
an immense advantage to the people after a thirty years' 
civil war. How often it was suggested to him to revenge 
himself on a conquered foe, and how nobly he always 
rejected the proposal! The zealots of his own party, who. 
could not forget the butchery of St. Bartholomew, and many 



HENRY IV. 385 

other things, might think it frivolous, but it was an unspeak- 
able advantage lor the restorer of the national kingdom. 
He came as the king of an ill-treated, betrayed, and fear- 
fully irritated party ; but, during his reign of twenty years 
he always appears as the king of the whole people, never 
as the successful leader of a party. The Bourbons of our 
days would have been on the throne still had they displayed 
these royal qualities. 

He was a man of strong sensuality, but his mistresses 
never had any political influence over him, and amidst his 
countless love affairs he never forgot the duties imposed 
upon him by his proud and onerous calling ; he was 
sufficiently well schooled in the grave business of life to 
give a higher place to men of merit than to women 
and their favour. The harsh and obstinate Sully often 
reproached him bitterly with his frivolity, and strenu- 
ously opposed him in great measures ; the contest some- 
times becomes so sharp that it would be no surprise if he 
dismissed his unamiable minister and devoted himself to 
women. But we know that no such purpose ever crossed 
his mind. 

The Elevation of Henry IV. to the Throne. 

The King's position was a very difficult one. His rela- 
tions to the two parties who had been fighting for life or 
death were not yet clear. He was not a fanatic, like those 
about him. As the son of a zealous Calvinistic mother, he 
had been brought up as one of the Reformed party from child- 
hood, but he had had to go through sundry metamorphoses. 
During the night of St. Bartholomew he was compelled to 
become a Catholic, and when free became again a Pro- 
testant. Thus he was able to look at things with a cooler 
head than the partisans around him. His interests were 
indeed connected with the Reformed party, but he was able 
to put its religious creed on and off like something external, 
which was afterwards of some importance to him. 

Even before the helpless Henry III. had taken refuge 
in his camp, the leader of the Huguenots had put in a 
conciliatory word amidst the war of Catholic and Protestant 
Frenchmen. 

Under date of 4th of March, 1589, he had issued an 
eloquent address to the States and all his countrymen, pro- 
25 



386 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

testing against the impatient spirit of the States at Blois, 
and he indicates peace between the creeds as the only 
method of healing the sick State. " Have pity, Frenchmen, 
on your fair country!" he had exclaimed ; " cease to stain 
it with the blood of your own sons, to the scorn and malicious 
satisfaction of your enemies ; desist from civil war and 
return to concord. I myself will give an example of con- 
ciliation. I will take under my protection all the party and 
persons of the Catholics, even their priests ; for I know it is 
only by means of clemency, peace, and good example, 
that true piety can flourish, and distracted States can re- 
cover." 

These views did honour to the patriot and the politician ; 
but to cause them to take effect amidst fierce party spirit 
was a difficult and arduous task, as Henry experienced to 
the full. His first declaration, after the death of Henry 
III., was calculated to make both parties beholden to him. 
He declined to accept the suggestion that he should become 
a Catholic. A creed for which thousands of the lower 
classes had joyfully surrendered their lives, could not be 
lightly rejected by him who would be worthy of the crown 
of France. It might be done by a scoffer, one who had no 
religion at all, but such an one they did not wish for a 
king. On the other hand, he did not think that the creed 
in which he had been born and bred was free from errors ; 
he would not close his ears against instruction on the subject, 
when the peers and office-bearers of the realm assembled 
around him, should they find an opportunity of discussing 
the question. 

A compromise was then agreed on, according to which 
the King was to receive instruction in the Catholic religion, 
and was to protect the Catholics in their rights and dignities. 

In thus giving the Catholics hopes that he was not in- 
accessible to capitulation, and showing the Protestants that 
he was not going lightly to abjure his faith, he wished to 
prevent the open outbreak of schism in his camp. Had he 
not clone the first, the Catholic nobles would have at once 
forsaken him, and have probably strengthened the forces of 
the League. Nevertheless, his position was in the highest 
degree difficult. The strict Catholics did not conceal their 
mistrust ; and the strict Huguenots, who regarded any 
approach to the Catholics as defection or treason, were 
deeply displeased. The fascination which he exercised 



HENRY IV. 387 

over them, the recollection of long companionship in arms, 
induced them to overlook it ; but he could not prevent 
their uttering reproaches in his presence. 

Thus there was a party for him whom he did not dare to 
offend, and had to treat with the greatest consideration ; 
and another, more than half against him, who were only to 
be bought by concessions. There was at first no talk of 
royal authority, or of taxes, revenue, &c. He carried on 
the war with foreign heretical money, and strengthened his 
army with Swiss and German hirelings ; in short, in spite ot 
his undoubted legal claims to the throne, he was really only 
a pretender, who had, amidst a thousand dangers, to con- 
quer his country and crown. 

The great Powers of Europe, with the exception of Eng- 
land, only now becoming great, were against him ; the 
Spanish Hapsburgs were against him; Philip II. declared 
at once that he did not acknowledge his rights ; Rome, in 
a bull of September, 1585, declared him incompetent to 
reign ; and the German Hapsburgs mostly went with their 
Spanish relations. 

Not to despair in such a situation demanded the courage 
and elasticity of a man like Henry IV. His army was 
small, his means scanty; a great Power like Spain was 
opposed to him, whose most talented general, Alexander of 
Parma, was now entering France from the Netherlands; the 
League was in possession of Paris ; only a very small part 
of the Catholic population was on his side; the adhesion of 
the Huguenots was but doubtful. It was a situation which 
no ordinary man could face without dismay. 

But during these bitter days we never hear a word of 
despair or discouragement from Henry IV. On the con- 
trary, he seems secure in the consciousness that he must 
conquer, and, in fact, so long as he reigned, his cause was 
not lost. 

It was fortunate for him that his opponents were by no 
means united. Had Spain, the Guises, and the whole 
Catholic population united against him, a struggle must 
have ensued in which Henry IV. could not have been 
victorious. 

In the first place, among the party of the Guises there 
was not a man to put in Henry's stead who would have 
ventured to aspire to the crown, and thereby to give the 
Revolution — tor a revolution it was — a distinct programme. 



388 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

The surviving brother of the Guises, Charles of Mayenne, 
was a brave soldier, but he wanted Henry's talents 
and adventurous ambition. He stood rather for the 
security of his brother's will, in order that the banner of 
the party of the League, whose born leader he was, should 
be upheld, than had courage to carry it out to its legitimate 
consequences; he did not venture to have himself pro- 
claimed king, as his friends advised, so that king should 
stand face to face with king, but only took half measures, 
which turned to his adversary's advantage. 

The legitimate right of Henry IV. was rejected ; but as 
they wished to have an opposition king, if only a nominal one, 
they seized upon the only Catholic Bourbon, Henry's uncle, 
a man of sixty-seven years of age, who had never troubled 
himself about the government, and, as a cardinal, was 
quite unfit to play this part. He was proclaimed king as 
Charles X. The legitimacy which they wished to main- 
tain was only apparent, and the hereditary right of the 
house whose next heirs were passed over was only con- 
firmed. 

The nephew took possession of the person of his uncle, 
and kept him in honourable imprisonment, but so that his 
adversaries could not get at him. The newly-proclaimed 
King was in the hands of his most dangerous rival. Then, 
within the party which had hitherto been united, divisions 
began to take place. 

The frightful conspiracy of the Sixteen, who had now 
become all-powerful at Paris, had at first nothing in com- 
mon with the League except its enemies j composed from 
the first of an undisciplined mob, and tending to general 
anarchy, the mobocracy, the terrorism of the demagogues, 
now prevailed to so unexampled an extent at Paris that it 
was no longer compatible with any tactics directed, to great 
general ends. The Duke of Mayenne was a soldier, and 
felt the natural aversion of the camp to the wild doings of 
lawless crowds. He hated the barricading plan and the 
terrorism of the masses, and was soon of opinion, at the 
risk of incurring the deepest displeasure of the dema- 
gogues, that there was nothing for it but to hang up a few 
of the loudest of them to secure peace. Having subdued 
the mutineers in November, 1591, he put it in practice. 

Thus in the midst of the party itself an opposition had 
arisen between the Legitimists of the camp and the Mo* 



SCHEMES OF PHILIP II. IN FRANCE. 389 

narchists of the capital, and a variance had arisen among 
the heads of the coalition, which continually increased. 
Spain, Rome, and the Guises had hitherto held together ; 
all three had expressed themselves strongly against Henry's 
right of succession ; and since the book had appeared about 
the legitimacy of the Guises, it was supposed that the 
vacated throne was meant for them ; but this appeared to 
be a mistake, so far as Philip II., the most powerful of the 
allies, was concerned. 

Had it been the murdered Henry of Guise, perhaps 
Spain would, have been accommodating, though she would 
not acknowledge Charles of Mayenne as king ; but it was 
becoming continually more evident that she had an inten- 
tion of reigning in France herself. Under the last of the 
Valois, Philip II. had exerted a powerful influence in French 
affairs. Spanish money and Spanish intrigues had con- 
stantly torn and kept open the wounds of the civil war. 
If France becomes Protestant, so said his spokesmen, the 
Netherlands and Spain itself will fall victims to heresy. 
Thus, after the death of Henry III., they justified increased 
interference in the internal affairs of France. Charles of 
Mayenne was advised with threats not to grasp at the 
crown. When Charles X. was proclaimed, it was said, the 
old cardinal cannot be king — let there be a regency ; and 
the most natural regent would be Philip II. At length, in 
*593> ^ was proposed to make Philip's daughter, the Infanta 
Clara Eugenia, regent. She was to marry an Austrian arch- 
duke, and France would be made an appanage of the house 
of Hapsburg. 

This was with Philip the ambition of despair. He had 
failed in subduing the Netherlands ; his attack upon Eng- 
land was defeated; his last shift was the crazy idea of 
gaining a firm footing in France— perhaps thence he could 
take up the other great schemes again. 

With an almost bankrupt State, a shipwrecked fleet, and 
a decimated army, it was a desperate undertaking to try to 
make a Spanish province of a country whose people glowed 
with national feeling. Among all the forces which played 
a part in these complications, nothing helped Henry IV. so 
much as this Spanish attempt upon the independent exist- 
ence of France. The simple consciousness that they were 
Frenchmen began to stir in the hearts of thousands, and 
overcame the dissensions of religious parties. Many an 



390 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FR/>lNCE. 

honest man began to suspect the League, and perceived 
that their country was standing on the edge of a precipice. 
Among these was Villeroi, who began to vacillate, and 
whom Henry afterwards chose as his minister out of the 
very camp of the League. Even Charles of Mayenne 
began to listen to these considerations. 

At Arques, 1589, and Ivry, 1590, Henry had obtained 
his first military successes over superior powers. But they 
had not helped him forward. On the 30th of August, 1590, 
he was obliged to raise the siege of Paris. The capital 
remained under the dominion of a mob, excited to madness 
by fanatical priests and unscrupulous demagogues ; the 
greater part of his army, which he had with difficulty sup- 
ported, escaped from him ; the most important cities were in 
the hands of the enemy ; the country was exhausted ; and 
while the adversary received large sums from Spain, the 
small subsidies which he had received from England, 
Holland, and the little princes of Germany, were scarcely 
sufficient for the most necessary expenditure. 

The dissensions which raged in the enemy's camp gave 
him time to breathe. 

The attitude of the raging sect of the Sixteen in Paris 
soon amounted to open treason against the country. They 
already subscribed themselves to King Philip as " his 
Majesty's obedient servants;" but their terrorism became 
so fearful, that Mayenne himself had, at the end of 1591, to 
interfere with his military authority. 

The King now received the first message from Mayenne, 
offering to come to terms on certain conditions. These 
could not be acceded to ; but the attempt showed that the 
last of the Guises had had enough of the reign of madness 
in Paris, and the superciliousness of Spain had begun to 
make him anxious. The more wildly the terrorists behaved, 
the bolder was Philip with his projects. Individual defec- 
tions followed; after 1 591-2 one and another nobleman 
joined the King's cause ; but with these isolated conquests 
it ended. All assured him that it had cost them great sacri- 
fices, and the rest were not strong enough to make them so 
long as the King remained a heretic. The Diet, which met 
at Paris in January, 1593, and which the national Catholic 
party under Mayenne, and the Spanish party, hoped to turn 
to good account, led to nothing ; or rather, the supercilious 
attitude of Feria, the Spanish ambassador, hastened the 



HENRY'S CONVERSION TO CATHOLICISM. 391 

breach between Mayenne and Philip, and confirmed the 
idea of entering into fresh negotiations. 

These negotiations, which took place in April and May 
between the royalist and national Catholic party, convinced 
Henry that without becoming a Catholic he could not be 
King of France. He therefore gave the first definite pro- 
mise on the subject. 

Meanwhile, the negotiations between the Spanish com- 
missioners and the Diet were openly carried on. Mayenne 
tried in vain to intrigue for himself; the Spaniards went 
abruptly to work at their purposes, tried to bring about the 
speedy election of a sovereign at any price, whether it were 
Philip, his daughter, or a prince of the house of Hapsburg. 
But the bolder they were, the stronger was the national 
disinclination to the Spaniards. 

In July, 1593, Henry went over to Catholicism, and this 
upset all the machinations of the enemy. 

The priests and the Papal Legate in vain declared that 
his conversion was a lie. Henry's adherents increased from 
day to day ; the defection even reached the ranks of the 
zealous Leaguists ; and when, in March, 1594, Henry sur- 
prised Paris, the power of the League was broken. In the 
course of the year, one city after another opened its gates 
to him; the Catholic nobility did homage to him in a 
mass, and among them even Mayenne, Henry of Guise, 
Nevers, &c. 

It was under these circumstances that the son of Jeanne 
d'Albret took a step which she would never have forgiven 
him. 

It is not easy to excuse a man who changes his religion 
for external reasons ; he can never be regarded as a model 
of strength of character who, for the sake of a crown, 
changes his creed like a garment. But it is certain that the 
crown was not to be had at any other price, that Henry had 
not the spirit of a martyr, and that his change of religion 
saved France from falling into an abyss. 

It was not a time when a monarch whose creed was that 
of a minority could rule the land. Who can say how it 
would be to-day if a Calvinist tried to govern France ! 
Few will say that it would be practicable even in our en- 
lightened days, and no one that it was so in the sixteenth 
century. A frightful fratricidal war had been raging for 
thirty years, in which difference of creed caused men not to 



392 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

shrink from the most cruel murders. In such a state ol 
things there is no standpoint for a ruler so elevated that he 
can afford to overlook the creed of the majority, and ascend 
the throne as the representative of the minority. As a 
Huguenot, Henry could neither rule France then, nor ever. 
As a Catholic, three attempts to assassinate him had failed 
— the fourth succeeded, because the Catholic fanatics, the 
Jesuits, always regarded him as a secret heretic and an out- 
law. What could he expect if he remained an avowed 
heretic ? 

There can be no doubt how a man whose convictions 
were all in all to him, ought to and would have acted ; 
but such an one must not hanker after earthly crowns : 
he must remain within his sanctuary until his last breath. 
But Henry was not made for a martyr to his religious con- 
victions j the lightness with which he regarded such things 
was connected with some noble qualities in which most 
of the uncompromising Huguenots were wanting. The 
magnanimous toleration which a monarch in such circum- 
stances must consider as one of his most sacred duties, 
and which Henry IV. really did practise, belonged to them 
as little as to their adversaries. Even though it may be 
looked upon as frivolity, it will not be disputed that it was an 
unspeakable benefit to France, and saved her from an igno- 
minious foreign rule and endless sanguinary convulsions. 

There was no other means of securing to France the 
peace which she so urgently needed, if she was not to be 
torn in pieces ; and this Henry clearly saw. It was not 
mere idle ambition — not the idea that, clothed in the purple, 
he could dispense with religion — but the consciousness of 
his mission to give the peace to France which all his pre- 
decessors had denied her. This appeared to him as his 
vocation. Before fortune had smiled upon him, he declared 
it to be his best title ; and the reasonable critic must take 
this into account. 

Thus, in the summer of 1593, as the Catholic party were 
unyielding, he resolved to take the step which he had 
hitherto declined. 

His motives were certainly entirely political ; and those 
who attempted his life were not altogether wrong in saying 
that he was secretly a heretic. Only priestly absurdity 
could expect him to give up affection for his old party, and 
devotion to their cause. But if steps like these are judged 



HENRI'S CONVERSION TO CATHOLICISM. 393 

by their results, no greater triumph than this can be 
imagined. 

When he went over to Catholicism, the opposing party 
was broken up— France was conquered. It was now not 
only isolated renegade Catholic noblemen who came to 
him, not concealing how difficult the step was, but the 
whole nation : the cities, the leaders of the native aristo- 
cracy came also, and in a frame of mind which showed how 
joyfully they submitted to a king who was not the mortal 
enemy of their Church. During the following spring the 
capital was occupied almost in sport; Paris submitted to 
him almost without a blow. 

How was it now with the Huguenots ? They were his 
army and his party. Now that he had forsaken them, did 
they not also forsake him ? 

It is a striking testimony to the commanding character of 
the man, and his power of attracting men to himself, that 
this was not the case. There was indeed some vacillation ; 
the party was discontented, and complained openly and 
secretly that the cause for which so much blood had been 
shed was lost. But none of them deserted him ; he was 
still their Henry of Navarre, who had fought with them for 
twenty years ; it was among them that he had grown up 
into a knight without fear and without reproach; he had 
shared with them distress, privation, danger, and victory ; 
they could trust him as they could trust themselves when 
he said that he would be a King for Catholics and Protest- 
ants alike. 

Government of Henry IV., 1 594-1 610. 

The kingdom which Henry IV. now entered upon was in 
a state which it is difficult to describe ; the task of closing 
the chasm which had been yawning in this country tor a 
generation demanded unusual powers. 

The diminution of population was reckoned, even in 
1580, at 700,000 men, and since that time at double that 
number ; the loss was of those in the prime of life, and was 
only equalled in the Napoleon wars. There was no longer 
anything like order, morality, or security ; there was poverty 
and devastation everywhere, and most of all in the country; 
there was no longer any trace of taxation, law, order, or 
government ; a wild banditti life, the scourge of such times, 



J94 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

flourished for years upon every highway ; and what sort oi 
seed had been sown in the minds of the educated classes, 
by the civil war, was shown by the attempts to assassinate 
the King, which were avowedly the result of Jesuitical 
intrigues. The efficiency of the new government was 
shown by a variety of rapid results ; if the civil war was 
calculated to dissolve all the elements of political life, its 
bleeding wounds were now healed in an incredibly short 
time. 

The first thing was to restore peace with foreign powers, 
and to settle accounts with Spain. 

War was declared with her in January, 1595. It was 
inevitable, partly for honour's sake, partly because Spain 
still occupied large portions of the country, and the contu- 
macious nobles were supported by the Spanish troops. 
When the superiority of Spain as a military power is con- 
sidered, and the exhaustion of France, it must be allowed 
that Henry, who depended upon aid from England and the 
Netherlands, carried on the war pretty successfully. It was 
Philip's last war, and the result was the same as in all the 
others — he had to renounce all of which he thought himself 
secure, and, after enormous sacrifices, to acknowledge that 
his enemy was victor. The Peace, after he had been beaten 
at all points, put the seal upon Philip's reign ; he had lived 
in vain. 

The Peace of Vervins, 2nd of May, 1598, confirmed that 
of Cateau Cambrasis : both parties gave up their conquests, 
and France regained those made by the Duke of Savoy. 
Peace was also made with the Pope. 

Rome had, not without some shame, to retrace all the 
disgraceful steps which she had publicly taken. Any further 
explanation than that the King had returned to the Catholic 
Church was refused ; he could not even be prevented from 
promising to acknowledge both religions. 

No French king had ever yet settled matters with Rome 
like the converted heretic whom Rome had repeatedly 
declared to be for ever disqualified from reigning. 

France was at length freed from the foreign troops and 
foreign intrigues by which she had been tormented ever 
since 1562 ; the foundations were laid of an orderly internal 
administration. 

The most important step in this direction was the Edict 
of Nantes, by which Henry made peace with the Hugue- 



THE EDICT OP NANTES. 395 

nots. This law granted greater toleration than any other 
in the sixteenth century. It conceded too much rather than 
too little, not of religious liberty, but of political privilege. 
Not that the Huguenots abused it, but it was a reproach to 
them ; it gave a handle to the assertion that they formed a 
State within the State, were an obstacle to complete national 
unity ; and it was this point in the Edict which was after- 
wards attacked. 

During the last few years, the Reformers, who could not 
forget the King's defection, and thought that all their 
sacrifices were repaid with ingratitude, had been perpetually 
plying him with their grievances ; various negotiations were 
entered into, until at last, on 13th of April, 1598, the cele- 
brated Edict was signed at Nantes, in the secret articles of 
which, as well as in the Brevets, their religious and civil 
position was defined.* 

In religion, liberty of conscience was granted them. All 
nobles possessing superior jurisdiction were allowed to 
teach Calvinism, and every one might share their teaching. 
Nobles without this jurisdiction were granted the same 
privilege, and might admit a number of persons to their 
services, unless they lived in places where the jurisdiction 
belonged to Catholic nobles. In all towns and villages 
where Calvinistic service had been held up to August, 1797, 
it was permitted to be continued or restored. For all those 
whose dwellings were scattered, a place was appointed in 
a suburb or village where service might be held. Paris 
and a number of other cities were excepted ; no Re- 
formed service was allowed in them. In other places they 
were permitted to possess church bells, schools, &c, but 
the Catholic religion was supreme ; the Reformers had to 
observe the fete days, and pay tithes to the Catholic clergy. 
But they might levy a church tax upon themselves to defray 
their own expenses, and receive an annual stipend of 45,000 
dollars. 

As to civil rights, the obligations and privileges of the 
Protestants were the same as those of the Catholics, and 
they had equal claims to imperial offices and dignities. 
There was a Court of Justice in Paris (Chambre de l'Edit), 
for Normandy and Brittany ; at Castres, for the district of 
Toulouse ; at Bordeaux and Grenoble, Chambres mi-parties, 
before which Protestants from Provence and Burgundy 
• Weber, Geschichte des Calvinismus. 



396 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANoE. 

ivere summoned. There was also an inferior tribunal for 
recusancy; the previous unjust sentences were reversed, the 
exiles recalled. They were to retain for eight years all the 
fortresses which had belonged to them before 1597, with all 
their military stores. They either had their own governors 
and administration like La Rochelle, Montauban, and 
Nismes, or were garrisoned, and the governors appointed by 
the Reformers. 

This was a well-meant provision ; for eight years at least 
the Huguenots were secure against reverses. If the King 
was murdered, there was a pledge that they would still be 
tolerated. But this state of things continued beyond the 
appointed time ; it was, in fact, recognised as a perpetual 
right, and whatever may be thought of the principle, it was 
in the highest degree inimical to the tendency of the French 
nation to absolute unity and uniformity. 

Richelieu afterwards reaped the consequences of this 
danger. With all this, a wise and energetic administration 
went hand in hand, the soul of which was Sully, Maximi- 
lian de Bethune, Marquis de Rosny. 

A Huguenot nobleman, knocked about and hardened 
from his youth upwards in the wars of religion ; a genuine 
Calvinist, harsh, unapproachable, incorruptible, stiff and 
obstinate ; like Henry himself, a brave cavalier, but unlike 
him in his conscientiousness, and the puritanical strictness 
of his character, he was a type of the Genevan school, as it 
was found among the best of the French nobility. 

His relations with the State and the King were those of 
a proud landed noble, who regarded himself as the ruler of 
his own domain. According to his ideas he conferred an 
honour on the State by serving it, and he did not serve it 
for gain. When he was once guilty of a breach of dis- 
cipline, he defiantly addressed the King with the words, 
" I am neither your subject nor your vassal ;" and he wrote 
to Mary of Medici, that he did not court office ; France 
might be proud to have him for minister. 

Distinguished as a soldier, statesman, and financier, he 
knew how to rule the State as well as his own house. He 
undertook the office of Minister of the Interior, of Justice, 
War, and Finance. 

France has had administrations which were as able as that 
of Sully, but none so independent and irreproachable. 

It was necessary to undertake a reorganization on a la rge 



SULLY'S ADMINISTRATION. 397 

scale ; a new administration, from the lowest step upwards. 
It was for this reason that he kept a number of ministerial 
offices in his own hands ; with the exception of foreign 
affairs, he was chief of all the departments. From the laying 
out of new roads, and establishing security of intercourse in 
town and country, to the highest questions of administra- 
tion and finance, the State had to be reconstructed and 
reformed, and Sully accomplished it all with the strict 
conscientiousness and untiring energy which were peculiar 
to him. 

There were really no revenues. Enormous taxes, which 
were an oppressive burden almost up to the time of the re- 
volution, were already the scourge of France ; they were 
ruinous, yet brought no money to the State, for it was all 
swallowed up in bad administration. All that the State 
had power over, had gone to ruin ; the crown lands were 
recklessly given away, or sold for ridiculous prices ; patents 
of nobility were already sold, immunity from taxes and 
other important privileges were connected with them, 
though they were sold so cheap. By this means the 
number of taxpayers was so decreased as to bring France 
to the verge of bankruptcy. 

The finances were in indescribable confusion. The debt 
of France was enormous ; Sully reckoned it at 345,000,000 
livres, which, taking into account the relative value of money 
and the revenues of the State, was more than it has ever been 
since. It did not appear how even the interest of this sum 
was to be obtained. The administration was as reckless as 
it was possible for it to be. The names of those to whom 
no crown lands could be given were inscribed in the great 
debtors' book of France ; they became the creditors of the 
State, the State their debtors. 

It was impossible to help France but by severe measures, 
which were inimical to many personal interests. These 
could only be adopted by a man, the purity of whose 
character disarmed calumny, who had never been suspected 
of enriching himself at the expense of the State and its 
usufructuaries. 

Sully could venture to plunge into the chaos of these 
finances, to lessen the burden of debt by searching into the 
legal claims of the creditors and mercilessly setting aside 
all that were illegal. He put a stop to the squandering of 
crown lands, demanded the restoration of those that hac 1 



398 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

been illegally appropriated, revised the patents of nobility 
and partially abolished them, and reformed the worst abuses 
of the system of tax-farming. 

Many individuals suffered severely, but, on the whole, 
what was necessary was also just. Nine possessors of crown 
lands out of ten had no right to them ; nine out of ten had 
long ago been compensated for the price paid for their 
patents of nobility, and were now in the comfortable 
enjoyment of rich, undeserved revenues. 

In this manner Sully again created a treasury by regain- 
ing the crown lands; he diminished the debts and privileges 
to a surprising extent, and restored things to the state 
in which they were before the time of the last of the 
Valois. 

A frightful abuse had crept into the Government itself. 
Francis I. had foolishly increased the evil which prevailed 
during the ancient monarchy, of causing a rapid accession 
of income by the sale of public offices ; the evil was great 
enough of itself, and, as it was now carried on, it made a 
reasonable and just administration simply impossible. 
Offices became private property, the tenure of them a bene- 
fice, the officials themselves a caste with whom no one could 
interfere, and over whom there was no control. New places 
were always being created, because money was raised by it, 
so that a superfluity of offices arose which became a per- 
manent burden on the people, and diminished the pros- 
perity of the nation to two or three times the extent of the 
advantage. 

Sully abolished a number of these places ; it was a severe 
blow to many, but, on the whole, nothing was lost by it but 
the enjoyment of a great abuse. 

All this occupied but a decade. It would only have 
been possible to a man like Sully, who could daily remind 
the King and country, in his proud, harsh manner, that it 
was he who was making the greatest sacrifices for the State, 
and that if he laid down his office that very day, the State 
would have more to complain of than he. When he after- 
wards found difficulties under the regency, he really did 
throw his portfolio at the feet of the Queen. 

An administration like this is rare anywhere, but espe- 
cially in France, where the idea »arly arose of looking 
upon the State as a provision fox the nobles, clergy, and 
pfficials. 



SULLY'S ADMINISTRATION. 399 

Henry's relation with Sully is one of the great traits of 
his character. He quite agreed in the leading ideas of 
Sully's policy ; even adopted the rigid economy urged by 
his minister, which was so little in accordance with his 
taste, and he must often have heard himself blamed as 
miserly. Differences, however, were often apparent enough 
in the carrying out of his projects. Henry would not 
always yield to the rigid moralist, and we now and then see 
an attempt by the court to thwart his purposes, but when it 
came to a contest, Sully always prevailed. 

France now began to flourish greatly. 

Sully was not only the " Minister of Agriculture," 
whose only idea was the cultivation of the soil, he con- 
sidered this branch of industry in its connection with the 
State, and was the first who expressed the idea that if 
agriculture was to have its rights, of which it was deprived 
till the revolution, and only obtained by its means, the 
notorious land tax must be abolished. The first rational 
encouragement of trade also dates from his labours, and 
of those branches of industry, such as silk culture, which 
afterwards flourished for centuries in France. When the 
time for the great progress of commerce and navigation 
came, the man also appeared who built upon the founda- 
tions so successfully laid by Sully. 

The State now again possessed the elements necessary to 
internal and external prosperity : funds, a regular income, 
crown lands, law and justice, trade, commerce, work, and 
intercourse. The condition of the masses was better than it 
had been since the times of Francis I. Civil war had ceased ; 
lasting peace was secured between the creeds; peace 
was made with Spain and Rome on honourable terms ; 
every branch of peaceful industry flourished with an energy 
proportionate to the time during which it had been de- 
prived of protection and security. 

Such a government, continued from ten to twenty years, 
would have created a power for France such as she after- 
wards attained under Louis XIV., for even now no other 
ancient monarchy of the Continent, not even Spain nor 
Austria, could compete with her. But fate had decreed 
otherwise. Henry IV. and Sully were called away before 
their time ; the former in the prime of manhood, the 
latter not long after him. Instead of a vigorous pursuance 
of the paths that had been entered upon came all the 



400 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

weaknesses of a feminine regency; still, the previous 
government was not without result. 

The threads of it were taken up by Richelieu, and he 
carried the formation of the absolute monarchy, begun by 
Sully, to the acme of its greatness. 

As a Calvinist, Sully was not an adherent of this form of 
government, but circumstances made such a dictatorship 
inevitable. At first, notables and commissions were as- 
sembled, but such a chaos arose that it was a decided 
advantage when the dictatorship prevailed without taking 
account of individual opinion. Under Henry IV., States 
and notables gradually disappear. 

The tendency of Henry's foreign policy was sharply 
defined. Various elements and opinions were found among 
his ministry. Besides Sully, there was Villeroi, who 
struggled for the party of the League to the last, and, with 
the rest of his party, maintained the opinion that Fiance 
must enter into a Catholic alliance with Spain and Rome to 
ward off innovations. Henry and Sully, on the contrary, 
were decidedly for a great Protestant League, not because, 
as the Jesuits said, he was still a Huguenot at heart, but 
because he felt himself so completely the King of France. 

Shortly before his fall, Coligny had advised Charles IX. 
to reconcile parties, and, with the united power of both, to 
inaugurate a national policy against Spain and the Haps- 
burgs. It was with this idea that the Huguenot had 
entered upon the inheritance of Francis I. It certainly 
was a national policy, and was followed up by Richelieu 
and Louis XIV., the Revolution and Napoleon I. The 
realisation of the " Christian European Republic " of 
Henry IV. would have made France, consolidated within 
her natural boundaries, the centre of European politics. 

Richelieu did afterwards realise this, and he was not a 
converted Huguenot, but a cardinal of the Romish Church. 
He used the Protestant alliance as a lever to extend the 
boundaries of France, and this was precisely what was 
intended by Henry IV. when he entered into alliance with 
England and the Netherlands, the sworn enemies of 
Spain. These were allies who would not oppose him if he 
seized upon the duchy of Lorraine, and other valuable 
border lands. It appears to me that this was as truly a 
French policy" as any other, and yet nothing excited so 
much enmity against him as this. 



ASSASSINATION OF HENKY IV. 401 

The negotiations and good understanding witn the Re- 
formers in the Palatinate, Hesse, England, and the 
Netherlands, the obvious scheme of isolating and then 
destroying the house of Hapsburg, the stronghold of the 
ancient faith, appeared to the Catholic zealots to be a con- 
vincing proof that Henry was still secretly a heretic ; 
although he went to mass, and performed other external 
acts, still he must be at heart the enemy of their laith, for 
he was the enemy of both its bulwarks, Spain and Austria. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, things had 
taken such a course in Germany that a most favourable 
opportunity presented itself for an energetic policy, with 
command of men and money, for making conquests on the 
eastern frontier of France. 

The intestine quarrels which were raging there were very 
favourable to foreign interference. The dispute about the 
succession in Juliers-Cleves furnished an excellent pretext 
for it, and Henry intended to take advantage of it to pro- 
tect the right in Germany and to oppose the supremacy of 
the Hapsburgs. As things were, in 1609-10 the great con- 
flagration seemed to be smouldering which afterwards broke 
out. Henry was preparing to crush the power of Spain and 
the Hapsburgs, when, just as he was about to join the 
army, he was struck by Ravaillac's fatal blow, on the 14th 
of May, 1 610. 

So far as we know, the assassin was an isolated fanatic, 
who, like many others, believed that Henry was still a 
heretic. 

Much has been brought forward to prove that a deeply- 
laid plot existed ; and it is remarkable that a report had 
been spread abroad in the world that Henry would die a 
violent death. 

That they triumphed over the heretic's death at Rome 
and Madrid, only proves how low the political conscience 
there had sunk, not that they were in league with the 
assassin. The immediate consequences of the murder 
were most disastrous. It threw France back into con- 
fusion and convulsions for fifteen years, and lamed the arm 
of her foreign policy for half a lifetime, and until Richelieu 
gained a firm footing. But when this was over, the begin- 
ning made by Henry IV. was continued and completed. 
The murder etiected nothing but delay. 

26 



PART VII. 

THE GERMAN EMPIRE, FROM THE PEACE OF AUGS 
BURG TO THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1555- 1618. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

GENERAL SITUATION OF GERMANY* AFTER 1555- 
Impotence of the Empire. — Continuance of the Contest of the Creeds. 

GERMANY, of all the nations of the Continent, had 
passed through, most thoroughly, from its very begin- 
ning, that great mental, moral, vital process which we call 
the Reformation. 

The breach with the ancient Church, in other lands the 
work of monarchical ambition and political calculation, was 
in Germany the act of the nation itself, and an act so 
decisive that even some of its adversaries were carried 
along with it, and Charles V. had to strike sail before it. 
The great political calculator learnt what he did not know 
before — the power in history of the moral idea, which is 
shown by the fact that even the greatest minds cannot set it 
at defiance. A far greater than he made the experiment 
once again, and was crushed in the attempt. The weakest 
man in the ranks of a party, for whose cause he is ready to 
die, has more weight than all these realistic great ones, who 
accomplish nothing, because they believe in nothing. 

* Besides the before-mentioned literature : Londorp, Continuatio 
Sleidani. Francof. 1619. Schard, Epitome rer-gest. in dessen op. 
hist. Buchholz, Geschichte Ferdinands I. Vienna, 1835. Anton, 
Geschichte der Concordienformel. 1779. Hurter, Ferd. II., 1854-59. 
Hammer v. KlesePs Leben. 1851. Kluckhon, Briefwechsel des KuifurS' 
ten Friedrichs III. des Frommen, von der Pfal*. I. 1559-66-67. 



EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION. 403 

The Reformation did not deprive Germany of its unity. 
We had, even then, none to lose ; but that an opportunity 
was lost, never to recur, of securing national unity with the 
reform of the Church, was the fault of those who perhaps 
might have secured it, but did not comprehend the situa- 
tion, and wearied themselves in fruitless struggles against 
the spirit of the age. 

With the deep rent which took place in the nation, in 
consequence of the imperial attitude, a time of increasing 
national misery begins ; but it was also a time of quiet pre- 
paration for those soaring mental flights upon which the 
pride of our modern culture rests, and which could not be 
attained at a lower price. 

The nations which have not passed through this process 
of inward renovation, or which have been brought through 
it by force, have to lament it to this day ; it almost seems 
as if some were for ever lamed by it. 

The religious Peace of 1555 had at length given German 
Lutheranism a legal existence, but it had not created a 
lasting peace ; indeed, it gave rise to almost as many new 
feuds as it healed old ones. The victory of the princi- 
palities over the imperial power was far more decisive, for, 
after Charles's last unsuccessful onslaught, it was completely 
subdued. The empire was more than ever destitute of an 
uniting centre, which was all the more unfortunate because, 
though it could not be said that things were much changed 
in Germany, they were all the more changed abroad. 

The constitution of the German empire, or rather the 
union of States in Germany, whose relations it controlled, 
had long before, in fact, lost its monarchical unity, and yet 
the imperial territory had not experienced great or im- 
portant losses in the course of the last century, for the 
neighbouring States were not in a position to extend them- 
selves at its expense. It was this circumstance which saved 
Germany from great losses during the dismal period of the 
interregnum, and from Rudolph I. to Maximilian I., other- 
wise I know not what there was under Wenceslaus or 
Frederic III. to prevent the neighbours from plundering 
Germany. 

But now all this was changed. If up to the time of the 
Reformation Germany had been surrounded by weak nations, 
now several powerful States were on her frontiers. A strong 
monarchical power had arisen in the Scandinavian Stages ; 



404 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

the same had begun to arise in France under Francis I., and, 
after thirty years of confusion, was completed under Henry 
IV. On the north and west the situation of Germany was 
different from what it had been for centuries. No one had 
before imagined that Denmark or Sweden could be dan- 
gerous to the German countries on the Baltic, or that 
France might possess herself of the Western provinces. 
But all these dangers were now at hand, and the neighbours' 
temptation was great in proportion as Germany's power of 
resistance was small. 

It was now that the first great losses of German territory 
occurred. Much of the kingdom of Arelate had been lost 
before ; but these were possessions which it was difficult to 
maintain. Now, however, important territories, Curland, 
Livonia, and Esthonia, were first lost, and the Burgundian 
provinces estranged. When Spain began the war against 
the religious and political liberties of the Netherlands, the 
empire was not in a position to enforce its old claims. 
How often did the Netherlands pray that the ancient 
imperial power might be asserted ! how earnestly did the 
Orange party pray for protection against Spain ! But the 
German Hapsburgs approved the policy of their Spanish 
relatives, and the German empire was thinking of nothing 
but the conversion of the heretics. All great political 
questions were obscured by those relating to religious 
creeds ; the loss of the countries on the Baltic, of the 
Netherlands, even of the three bishoprics of Lorraine, 
occupied very little of the attention of the Diet. The dis- 
putes about the interpretation of the Peace of Augsburg, 
and the ecclesiastical reserves, took up nearly the whole of 
its time. 

To these symptoms of increasing external weakness 
were added numerous" causes of endless internal disputes 
which immediately conduced to tne catastrophe. 

The Peace of 1555 was incomplete. It contained dubious 
and obscure clauses enough ; and had there been fewer, 
that peaceable, conciliatory spirit was wanting on both sides 
without which no union could be effectual. The Peace 
granted toleration to the adherents of the Augsburg Confes- 
sion only, not to the other Reformers ; and yet the number 
of them was considerable. It gave rulers, but not subjects, 
a claim to toleration, which was the occasion of great diffi- 
culties, and the great question about benefices ind dignities, 



THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG. 405 

and the subjects of converted ecclesiastics, was treated in a 
clause of secondary legal authority. 

During the time when both parties should have been 
accommodating themselves to this imperfect Peace, occurred 
the restoration of the Catholic Church, the Council of 
Trent, the establishment of the order of Jesuits, the restora- 
tion of the Inquisition, and the censorship of the press. 
The party which was defeated at Passau and Augsburg saw 
a powerful support growing up for it on the other side of the 
Alps, and thus that which might have made the situation 
tolerable, the honest desire to agree as well as might be, 
was wanting. Neither party had given up the idea of 
upsetting the peace : the Protestants, of throwing overboard 
the ecclesiastical restrictions and the principle of exclusion ; 
the Catholics, of tearing up the whole treaty, in order to 
bring about a complete restoration. 

During the third and fourth decades there had been no 
idea of any such schemes ; but now courage for them was 
restored. Popes like Paul IV., kings like Philip II., openly 
said that heresy must be extirpated from the face of the 
earth, and the unity of the Church in the old mediaeval 
sense restored. Very little more is required to stir up a reli- 
gious war than the fact that both parties chafe against union ; 
all that is wanted is a spark to ignite the flame. This idea 
gave rise to the singular proposition of 1648, that both 
parties were bound not to regard the peace with disfavour, 
lest they should experience another fearful civil war. It 
was the fault of both parties that the peace did not last. 

An undisturbed peace was hardly to be looked for ; the 
odious conflict was still too fresh in the remembrance of 
both parties ; the idea of toleration, of the peaceful exist- 
ence of differing creeds side by side, was essentially foreign 
to the age; it did not even exist among the new sects for 
each other ; the passions evoked by the long strife were too 
fierce ; each side was too firmly convinced that it was its 
mission to convert the other ; the Catholics were too much 
engrossed with the idea of the supremacy of their Church, 
the adherents of the new doctrines too much possessed 
with that zeal for conversion which belongs to young creeds, 
for any opinion to gain ground that it was better to have an 
imperfect peace than open war. 

Thus both parties vied with each other in preventing 
men's minds from settling down, partly because the irritation 



406 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

of the barely reconciled dissensions was still too great, 
partly because actual interests suffered in this perpetual state 
of warfare, and the provisions of the treaty were not suffi- 
cient to solve complicated questions. The Protestants, 
split up into different churches and sects, could not pro- 
claim this with so much emphasis as Roman Catholicism, 
as it was restored at Trent, whose apostles, the Jesuits, 
openly preached a crusade against the heretics ; but the 
Protestants had as little conciliatory resignation as their 
adversaries. 

Wars of religion were blazing up around Germany, and 
sparks flew over and ignited the smouldering flame. In 
France the conflict was raging between the Guises and the 
Huguenots ; in the Netherlands the Protestants were strug- 
gling with Alba and his successors. German princes were 
in connection with both camps. Similar events afterwards 
took place in England ; a reaction on the position of both 
parties in Germany was inevitable. 

To add to this, it happened that during the sixth and 
seventh decades of the century the conflict of the two great 
floods, Reformation and Restoration, the Confession of 
Augsburg and the dogmas of Trent, found a theatre upon 
German soil. Until then Protestantism was in the ascen- 
dant, inasmuch as it had done what the Catholic Church 
had so long neglected to do : it had, with surprising success, 
possessed itself of the whole of intellectual life, of litera- 
ture, of the modern Humanistic culture, and of education. 
The most distinguished names in every branch of learning 
and authorship were Protestant in greatly preponderating 
numbers, and their public was almost the whole intellectual 
aristocracy of the nation. 

After the sixth and seventh decades a sort of reaction 
took place. Jesuitism, in accordance with its principles, 
began to employ modern weapons in a manner totally 
different from the monastic orders, who at last were ignorant 
of the world and of learning. 

Jesuitism was not wanting in talent, learning, or skilful 
dialectics, and, thus equipped, it appeared upon the arena 
to defeat the adversary with its own weapons. 

This contest was the prelude to the Thirty Years' War. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

PROTESTANTISM IN AUSTRIA. 

Ferdinand I., 1558-64. —Maximilian II., 1564-76. — Rudolph II., 
1576-1612. — The Bohemian Royal Charter ( Majcstatsbrief ), 
1609. — Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and the Imperial City of 
Donauworth, 1606-7. — The Protestant Union, 16085 and the 
Catholic League, 1609. — Matthias, 1612-19. 

Ferdinand I., 1558-64. — Maximilian II., 1564-76. — 
Rudolph II., 1576-1612. 

MEANWHILE a country had been attacked by Pro- 
testantism which had hitherto been free from it — the 
hereditary Austrian dominions — and within a short period 
it was embraced by a great majority of the inhabitants. 

It came to pass in this way : — Since the time of Ferdi- 
nand I., the determined and energetic opposition to Prot- 
estantism had been discontinued. Deeply affected, as 
may be imagined, by the fate of his brother, Ferdinand 
began to entertain doubts of the wisdom of the attitude 
he had hitherto assumed. Formerly one of the hotspurs 
in persecuting the heretics, he had now almost broken 
with Rome, and expressed himself more emphatically 
than any of the German princes against the introduction 
of the decrees of the Council of Trent. The misunder- 
standing with Rome made him more lenient towards the 
heretics, the decided exclusion of the new doctrines from 
the country ceased, and so Protestantism began to make 
its way into Austria, and to unite itself with all the ele- 
ments, national and political, of this diversified empire. 

He was succeeded in 1564 by Maximilian II., elected 
King of Rome in 1562, who, in fact, was above party spirit, 
disapproved of the abuses of the ancient church, and con- 
sidered the divisions of the Protestants about trifles highly 
absurd. He equally disapproved of the intolerance of both 



408 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO i6t8. 

parties, and was therefore looked upon by the Protestants 
as a Jesuit, by the Catholics as a secret heretic. 

It was unfortunate for him that he lived at a time when 
there was no appreciation of his tolerant spirit and lofty 
views. His proceedings in Austria showed that he earnestly 
desired toleration ] he allowed the landowning nobility to 
permit the preaching of both the new and old doctrines on 
their estates. 

This was the first breach with the old system in Austria, 
a toleration of both forms. The Emperor's idea seemed to 
be, Fight out your quarrel with each other ; both shall 
have light and space. For the planting of Protestantism it 
was really a great step. Between 1564 and 1576 the new 
doctrines spread over nearly the whole of Austria, not only 
in the great cities, but also in the country. Catholicism 
was renounced by the peasantry, and the German nobles, 
almost without exception, had embraced Protestantism. 
We know, from his own expressions, that in Styria Ferdinand 
II. celebrated the communion according to Catholic usage 
with but few others, and that in Gratz and the neighbour- 
hood Protestantism was quite in the majority. In Bohemia 
it was based on old Hussite memories. Bohemian his- 
torians have told us how all forms of non-Catholicism were 
spread in Bohemia and Moravia. The Tyrol alone re- 
mained the unassailed fortress of Catholicism ; the small 
number of towns, the want of contact with the outer world, 
the predominating peasant character of the population, with 
but few nobles or superior clergy, its being surrounded with 
ecclesiastical principalities, caused the Tyrol to remain 
almost exclusively true to the old faith. 

Rudolph II.* was entirely unlike the previous Hapsburgs. 
Brought up in Spain, and endowed with a strong tendency 
to the Spanish melancholy, which from this time ran in the 
blood of a part of the house of Hapsburg, and in his case, 
after 1600, led to attacks of real mental disease, he became 
the tool of women and Jesuits. His character was an 
unhappy mixture of self-will, passion, weakness, sensuality, 
and, when his rage was spent, abject subjection to others. 
He was incapable of doing any lasting good, and was just 
the man to occasion unspeakable confusion. 

Under him, the Jesuits, who had hitherto been only 

* Gindely, Rudolph II. Also his Geschichte des Bohmischen Majes- 
tatsbriefes." 1858. 



RUDOLPH tt. 409 

tolerated, came into power. They got possession of his ear 
and conscience, were his confessors, directors, and ministers. 

During the greater part of his life Rudolph lived in retire- 
ment at Prague, mostly occupied with learned fancies. Now 
and then breaking out into unbridled excesses, then repent- 
ing like a child, and submitting to his Jesuit confessors ; 
one day interfering with tyrannical temper, the next broken- 
spirited, dejected, and apathetic ; his was a character well 
adapted to set a ferment going which should shake the 
empire to its depths. At first Protestantism made all the 
more progress during these contradictory tactics. 

The Emperor's incompetence to rule soon led to real 
difficulties, which the States could only get over by formally 
entrusting the guidance of business to Matthias, Rudolph's 
brother, in April, 1606. To secure some support against the 
Emperor's revenge, the Regent felt himself obliged to make 
great concessions to the Austrian Protestants, and especially 
to grant liberty of religious worship to the burgher class. 

This example spread. Even under the clement Maxi- 
milian the Bohemians had only enjoyed limited religious 
liberty. They now extorted from the weak Emperor the most 
liberal, religious edict issued in the seventeenth century. 
This was the Bohemian Royal Charter (Majestatsbrief) of 
nth July, 1609, which contained the following regula- 
tions : — 

All adherents, without exception, 01" the Confession de- 
livered to the Emperor Maximilian in 1575, the associated 
States, lords, nobles, the city c Praeue, the mining and 
other towns, are granted complete liberty in the exercise of 
their religion in every place ; they will not be interfered 
with in their faith, religion, priesthood, or Church order, 
until there is an entirely uniform religion in the Holy 
Empire. The government 01 the Protestant churches is to 
be in the hands of a special consistory at Prague ; they are 
to be protected by their own advocates, to be nominated by 
the Protestants, as are also the officers in the universities ; 
the appointments are merely to be confirmed by the Em- 
peror, but no instructions are to be received from him. The 
erection of new churches and schools is freely permitted to 
every Protestant community in town and country, as well as 
to every one in the States. No one, not even the Emperor, 
has any right to interfere with these liberties ; any proceed- 
ings against them are null and void. Disputes are to b« 



410 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

adjusted by a court of umpires, composed of parties from 
both sides, not of imperial officials. 

In the following month a similar charter was granted to 
the Silesians, only that it was still more expressly stated 
that all and every inhabitant of the country, whether the 
subjects of temporal or spiritual rulers, should have free 
permission to enjoy their own religious worship. 

The effect produced by the religious strife in a diversified 
imperial body was different from what it would have been 
in the simple relations of a national State. There was very 
little feeling of a united Austrian existence in the separate 
dependencies ; the misgovernment of Rudolph II. was not 
calculated to produce it, and the religious discord re- 
awakened the slumbering national and political differences. 
In Bohemia the idea was never far distant of again electing 
a sovereign for itself; in Moravia and Silesia tendencies 
to separation were becoming evident. Hungary also was 
uneasy ; even in the German hereditary dominions the 
Hapsburg dynasty never enjoyed so little popularity as 
during the last quarter of a century ; the monarchy was 
altogether out of joint, and was threatened with dissolution. 

Meanwhile parties had become more sharply opposed to 
each other. The race of the more clement German princes 
had died out ; the sectarian spirit in both camps had greatly 
increased and had inflamed men's passions. The Jesuits 
had made two great conquests in Ferdinand of Styria and 
Maximilian of Bavaria, and this hastened the crisis. 

But little more than the existing hatred and discontent 
was required to bring about a sanguinary conflict, and 
during the early years of the seventeenth century the cause 
was to arise in Germany as well as in the Austrian here- 
ditary States. 

Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and the Imperial City 

OF DONAUWORTH,* 1606-7. — TheUnION, 1608, AND THE 

League, 1609.— Death of Rudolph II.— Matthias, 
1612-19. 

Among the numerous infringements of the Peace of 
Augsburg, the most dangerous and malicious was that which 
occurred in the imperial city of Donauworth in 1606-7. 

* Lossen, Die Reichstadt Donauworth und Herzog Maximilian. 
Munich, 1866. "Cornelius, Zur Geschichte der Grundung der Liga. 
Historisches Jahrbuch, 1865. Ritter, Geschichte der Union, 1868. 



TAKING OF DONAU WORTH. 411 

Donauworth was a Lutheran imperial city, in which, after 
the end of the sixteenth century, no Roman Catholic was 
admitted as a citizen. It had a Catholic monastery, which 
was tolerated on the express condition that no procession 
with banners should be allowed within the city. 

The abbot and his monks found this inconvenient, and 
disobeyed the order several times. The council warned 
them in vain, and when, in April, 1606, a solemn procession 
with banners again proceeded through the city, the rabble 
fell upon them with clubs and drove them back into the 
monastery. 

Many scenes of this sort had happened in the empire, 
and some more glaring than this, but they resulted in 
nothing but a vast amount of scribbling, quarrelling, and 
complaining. But this time it was otherwise. 

Duke Maximilian of Bavaria interfered in the matter, 
first on his own account, and then armed with an imperial 
execution. He was a fanatical pupil of the Jesuits, who at 
the beginning of his reign had taken vigorous proceedings 
against the heretics, and the Lutheran city had long been a 
thorn in his side. As his first interference produced no 
effect, he turned to the imperial court of Prague, where, 
according to credible testimony, everything was to be done 
with money ; even the tardy imperial justice overcome. 

With astonishing rapidity, in August, 1607, an imperial 
mandate of execution appeared, which Duke Maximilian 
was empowered to enforce. 

With an army outnumbering the population of the city by 
two thousand, he feared intervention from the Protestant 
States, especially from the Elector Palatine — he advanced 
to the city, took it without a blow, and began, with those 
means so dear to religious reaction, to convert it to Catho- 
licism. At first all that they desired was a place where the 
Catholic officials and soldiers might attend service ; then to 
possess half the churches, then all of them, and when that 
was refused they quartered soldiers on the faithful inhabit- 
ants until they should be convinced of the truth of the 
Romish faith. 

The blow struck by the Duke against the imperial 
Swabian city in the midst of peace, made an immense 
sensation. It was illegal to proceed with the execution of 
the imperial ban, for the electors had not been consulted ; 
and it was an open offence to the Protestant States to com- 



412 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

mit it to a prince who did not belong to Swabia, to say 
nothing of the military importance of the city as a pass. of 
the Danube and a frontier town between Swabia, Bavaria, 
and Franconia. 

The Protestant States of South Germany, the Electoral 
Palatinate, Wiirtemburg and Neuburg at their head, agreed 
to maintain a united attitude at the next Diet. There it 
came to a violent dispute and complete division. Duke 
Maximilian revealed continually more openly that he cared 
less about the affair at Donauworth as a victory of the good 
cause, than as a conquest of the country and people. The 
violent acts of Ferdinand against the Protestants in Styria 
did all they could to increase the excitement ; so on May 
4th, 1608, a union of a number of Protestant princes took 
place for mutual protection against further infringements of 
the constitution. 

The first to sign it were Frederic, Elector of the Palati- 
nate ; Philip Louis, Count Palatine of Neuburg ; the Mar- 
graves Christian of Culmbach, Joachim of Anspach, John 
Frederic of Baden-Durlach, and John Frederic, Duke of 
Wiirtemburg. Only a part of the Protestant princes joined 
in it, and therein lay a foolish and fatal error. Not that 
grounds of complaint or incitements to opposition measures 
were wanting; but they should have thought twice whether 
it would not further the breach of the peace if their camp 
were openly divided into two parties, and ihey should not 
have formed a league which was, as it were, still-born — for so 
it was, since all Protestants did not join in it. Because the 
Electoral Palatinate was at the head, Saxony held aloof 
and stirred up enmity against it; even those who did join 
in it were not all agreed. 

The answer to this was the Catholic League of July 10, 
1609, formed by Duke Max, the Archduke Leopold of 
Austria, the Bishops of Wiirzburg, Ratisbon, Augsburg, 
Constance, Strasburg, Passau, and several abbots, for 
the protection of the imperial laws, but also — there was no 
mention of religion in the documents of the Union — for 
the protection of the Catholic religion and its adherents. 

The League was a union only in name ; it was in reality 
the creation and tool of an energetic and resolute prince, 
who knew how to make the ecclesiastical princes of South 
Germany understand that the question for them was to be 
or not to be, ard that therefore they must put their hands 



THE UNION AND THE LEAGUE. 413 

in their pockets. Duke Max created an excellent army out 
of the means of the League, of Bavarians commanded by 
Bavarian leaders. He had some tolerably extensive projects 
in view ; we have memoirs from which it appears that he 
tried to obtain the co-operation of Spain and the Pope. It 
is noteworthy, on the contrary, that he systematically aimed 
to form the League without the help of Austria. He pro- 
jected, as has been remarked even on the Catholic side, a 
little Catholic Germany under Bavarian hegemony, as a 
closer league in alliance with Austria.^ 

The League had some significance. It had a head, and 
an army which could take up arms at the first moment of 
alarm. The Union had neither, and would probably fall to 
the ground from internal weakness. 

Any accident might furnish the pretext for a tremendous 
war. This was the opportunity sagaciously chosen by 
Henry IV. to interfere in German affairs. His death post- 
poned the struggle. 

Meanwhile disorder was increasing in the hereditary 
Hapsburg dominions. Opposition to attempts at forcible 
conversions grew to open revolts. Rudolph was quite in- 
competent to allay the storm. His relatives met together, 
and in consequence of his " weakness of mind " — so it was 
said in a treaty with Hungary — appointed his brother 
Matthias his guardian. He was a man without character, 
pushed forward by vain ambition, who always succeeded in 
fomenting discontent, never in allaying it. 

He played with fire, incited the people against his 
brother, entered into conspiracy with the malcontents in 
Hungary, Moravia, and German Austria against the 
Emperor, deprived him of his lands and crown, and yet 
was too weak to quell the revolt of the States. 

Thus it was that the events took place which seemed to 
make the dissolution of the Imperial States probable. In 
the hereditary dominions Rudolph was deposed in Hungary. 
He had to delegate the administration to Matthias. He 
tried to keep a hold on the Bohemians by means of the 
Royal Charter, but even they revolted, and threw themselves 
into the arms of the leaders of the opposition, who pro- 
mised them still more. On the 20th January, 1612, he 
died, a landless prince, worn out by madness and disease, 
deprived of all his crowns. 

The seven years' reign of the Emperor Matthias (161 a 19) 



414 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

was the bitterest chastisement for himself. He had to leavr. 
that it is an easier task to ruin a weak ruler, amidst general 
revolt, than to master the spirits that he has called up. 
Rudolph just escaped from the crisis without bloodshed, 
but the flames of civil war were to close round the head of 
his successor. He also shared Rudolph's fate. The Arch- 
dukes appointed a guardian for him in the person of Ferdi- 
nand of Styria, and when he died Bohemia and Austria 
were in open rebellion. 

Ferdinand began his government in Bohemia with a 
crying infringement of Lr.e Charter, by closing the churches 
at Braunau, and destroying those at Klostergrab. In May, 
1 618, the insurrection broke out at Prague. The hated 
imperial ministers, Martinitz and Slavata, were thrown out 
of window, "according to good old Bohemian custom," as 
was said by one of the nobles present ; a sort of provisional 
government was established, and an army taken into pay. 

This was the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, and on 
the same heights where an end was put to the winter 
kingdom, the contending parties afterwards exchanged 
their last shots. 



PART VIII. 

FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.— THE 
BOHEMIAN, PALATINATE, AND DANISH WARS, 
1620-29. 



CHAPTER XXXII. * 

First Acts of Ferdinand II., from March, 1619.— His Character and 
Education. — Beginning of his Reign in Revolutionary Austria. — 
Election of Emperor, August, 1619. — The Winter Kingdom of 
Frederick V., and the War in Bohemia.— The Battle of Weissen- 
berg, near Prague, 8th November, 1620.— The Catholic Reaction 
in Bohemia and the Palatinate, 162 1. 

First Acts of Ferdinand II. — Character and Edu- 
cation. — Beginning of his Reign in Revolutionary 
Austria. — Election of Emperor, August, 1619. 

EVER since the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
all those differences— national, political, and religious 
— had been stirred up in Austria on the suppression of 
which the ingenious construction of the empire depended. 

• General literature. Besides that before mentioned, Khevenhiller's 
Annales Ferdinandei. Leipzig, 1716. Theatrum Europaeum. Frank- 
fort, 1632. Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato, Historia di Ferdinando III. T. I. 
Londorp, Acta publica. Menzel. Leon. Pappus ep. rer. germ, ed 
Arndts. 1856. Senkenberg's Fortsetzung von Haberlin's Reichs- 
geschichte. Mailath, Geschichte des Osterreich. Kaiserstaats, 1837. 
Mebold, der dreisigjahrige Krieg. 1840. Soltl, der Religionskrieg 
in Deutschland. Hamburg, 1839. — Up to 1830, Wolf, Geschichte der 
Kurfiirsten Maximilian Heraus^. von Breyer, 1807. Von Aretin, 
Geschichte Maximilians, Passau. 1842. The same: Baiern's Aus- 
wartige Verbaltnisse, Passau. 1839. Von Rommel, Geschichte von 
Hessen. Hausser, Geschichte der Pfalz. Miiller, K. A. fiinf Biicher 
vom Bohmischen Kriege. Leipzig, 1841. Peschek, Geschichte der 
Gegen Reformation in Bohmen. Leipzig, 1844. V. d. Decken Geo. v. 
Braunschweig und Liineburg. Villermont, Comte de Tilly, 1859. 
Erdmannsdorfer, C. E. v. Savoy en. 186 1. 



41 6 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

This unusual situation required unusual measures. In order 
to render Rudolph's weakness innocuous, the family council 
of the Archdukes met together and appointed Matthias 
regent ; and as he also proved incompetent, similar measures 
were adopted in his case 

In going through Ave ranks of the Archdukes, Ferdinand 
of Styria was the most distinguished. He was the son of 
Duke Charles of Styria, and cousin to Matthias. He cer- 
tainly had not the first claim ; but of those who stood before 
him several were ecclesiastics, others childless, so that the 
family agreed to depute him as the most suitable to take 
upon himself the cares of empire. 

Ferdinand was one of the first pupils of the Jesuits 
among the German princes, and grew up a thorough disciple 
of the society in his ideas and aims, was adapted rather for 
the pulpit or the confessional than the throne, and early 
bound by fanatical vows the fulfilment of which probably gave 
him more trouble than he anticipated. He had early vowed to 
use all possible means to exterminate heresy, and was resolved 
rather to reign over a desert than over a heretical country. 

This was fearfully fulfilled, for he did indeed leave a 
desert behind him, in which, nevertheless, heresy was not 
quite extirpated. 

He was one of those characters who in the hands of the 
priests are capable of terrible things ; he was destitute of 
bold and original ideas, but was one of those quiet souls 
who hold to the creed of their adoption at the peril of their 
lives, and are ready to sacrifice for it all that has hitherto 
been dear to them. He was more fit for the pupil of a 
college of priests, than for the task of ruling this great crisis 
in a conciliatory spirit, and of closing the abyss of civil war. 

Almost the whole of the empire was a prey to heresy 
and revolt. When in 1596 he began to reign in Styria, 
Carinthia, and Carniola, it was with the determination to 
subjugate all enemies of the true faith and absolutism, and 
his country was the only monarchy where this plan suc- 
ceeded. He declared that he would rather beg, or be cut 
in pieces, than submit to heresy any longer. Catholic 
priests were sent to the Protestant peasantry, and when 
they rebelled they were brought to submission by force. 
He who was not converted within a certain time was 
obliged to emigrate ; schools and churches were razed to 
the ground; many thousands of Bibles and books of sermons 



FERDINAND II. 417 

were burnt ; the rebellious people were treated with banish- 
ment, dragoonades, and the gallows; and when the unhappy 
creatures appealed to the ordinances of Maximilian II., they 
were told that rulers were not bound by pernicious charters. 

In his private life Ferdinand appears to have led a 
simple, strictly moral life. His character, though narrow 
and rigid, was not cruel — at least not from brutal lust of 
power.* As to what is adduced by his defenders, that he 
shed tears at the execution of the cruelties he ordained, I 
believe that he considered these victims to be demanded by 
his faith — that he was a genuine fanatic, who would have given 
his life could he have reclaimed all heretics with one blow. 

The broad views of a ruler who is above all parties, and 
gives every one his due in his own sphere, were in those 
days the privilege of a few superior men, like William of 
Orange and Henry IV. Ferdinand was utterly destitute of 
them, and his education had taught him to look upon all 
toleration of this sort as an attack upon religion. 

The previous policy, therefore, first of toleration, and 
afterwards of weakness, was regarded by him as the greatest 
evil ; and the close connection which then existed in 
Austria between heresy and all tendencies to political 
liberty and national disintegration conduced to confirm the 
view that, as guardian of the unity of the empire, he must 
place himself in an attitude of defence against a dangerous 
revolt, t 

The first person, therefore, to be deprived of all influence 
was Cardinal Klesel, in whom Ferdinand saw weakness and 
half measures personified. 

* From a manuscript of 800 pages, in the Bibl. Royale (Mss. fr. N. 
964, St. Victor), containing notes by the Papal Nuncio of an eight years' 
sojourn in Germany, Hausser quotes the following passage about Fer- 
dinand : — "Ferdinand II., en age de cinquante et un an, de mediocre 
stature, de forte complexion, de poil tirant sur le roux, d'agreable pre- 
sence, affable et civil envers tout le monde. II boit peu, ne dort encore 
moins, ayant accoustume de se coucher a dix heures et de se lever a 
quatre et quelqnefois devanr. Quant a sa piele envers notre religion 
on n'en saurait rien dire qui ne soit au dessous de la vei ite. Toutes les 
fetes solenntlles et principalement celle des douze apotres, il frequente 
dans sa chapelle les ceremonies de confession et de communion. Le 
jeudi saint il recoitla communion avec l'lmperatrice sonepouse et avec 
les princes ses his, de la main du nonce de St. Siege, pour apprendre & 
ses sujets par son exemple a satisfaire a ce commandement de 1'Eglise," 
&c— Ed. 

f See the declaration made to the Court of Spain in Khcvenhiller 
and the letter to Philip III., 7th September, 1609- Raumer, Vol, IH, 

27 



41 8 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Klesel was a parvenu of the lowest kind, with all the 
worst characteristics of such persons. He was a fawning 
courtier, yet had a strong inclination for absolute power; 
possessed more pliant talent than strongly marked character, 
and was therefore well adapted to serve a man like Matthias 
as adviser and tool. He maintained a policy of studied 
clemency and conciliation ; advised every country to yield 
as much as possible, as this was in accordance with the 
views of Matthias, and appeared to be the only practicable 
plan. Then came the revolution in the palace ; Klesel was 
carried off one morning as a state criminal and thrown into 
prison, because he had pursued a policy at his Emperor's 
side which was abhorrent to the archdukes. 

After Klesel's disgrace, Ferdinand became the leading 
man, and on the death of Matthias, 20th of March, 1619, 
he was indisputably the next heir to the throne. 

He came to Vienna and found things just as they had 
once been in Styria ; the whole country filled with Protest- 
antism ; the citizens, the nobles, and peasants in the 
country, almost all openly addicted to heresy. Not far 
from Vienna was Count Thurn with his Bohemian soldiers. 
Bethlen Gabor was advancing from Hungary, and a large 
party in the capital were resolved to make common cause 
with them. The Emperor's life was scarcely secure ; com- 
motions took place like those at Prague ; armed citizens 
forced an entry into the palace to demand religious liberty. 
The leaders shook him by the doublet, exclaiming : " Nandel, 
give in ; thou must sign." It nearly came to establishing a 
provisional government over him, and had the rebels been 
daring enough they might have seized his person. 

In these times of distress, Ferdinand comported himself 
like a man ; a storm had to be braved before which many 
would have quailed. He did brave it, and, like many other 
people in history, he found it easier to bear misfortune than 
success. 

A happy chance — the timely arrival of a regiment of 
cuirassiers — saved the Emperor from his rebellious people. 

Now there was a great question to solve, on which de- 
pended the immediate future of the house of Hapsburg — the 
election of Emperor. 

The imperial dignity no longer conferred absolute power ; 
it brought neither an army nor a treasury. If, therefore,. 
Ferdinand reckoned upon defeating the rebels in Prague 



FERDINAND II. 419 

and Vienna with the power of the German imperial crown, 
he was mistaken. 

It did nevertheless possess some significance. There are 
many things in life which seem worthless when we have 
them, but which it is an immense disadvantage to lose. 
This was the case with the imperial dignity. The loss of it 
at this juncture would have been a verdict pronounced upon 
the house of Hapsburg by the German empire. The Czecks, 
Magyars, Moravians, Silesians, the inhabitants of Vienna 
themselves, were shaking the tottering house, especially 
Ferdinand's authority. Germany was the last straw, the 
plank to which the sinking hopes of the Hapsburgs were 
clinging. Vienna was doubtful, Bohemia in open revolt, 
Moravia, Silesia, and Hungary not far from it. The Tyrol 
and Styria were not sufficient to support the throne; if 
Germany forsook it, it was lost. 

If the Electors chose the Archduke, he would have 
something to hold by ; the German empire at any rate would 
have shown that it did not renounce the Hapsburgs. 
Never, therefore, were they more desirous that the election 
should fall on their house. If it did not, the house must 
sink into the abyss of revolution. 

For the German empire the situation was different 
The interests of the two sides were at variance. If Ferdi- 
nand were elected, the empire must be engulfed in the 
whirlpool of revolution in South and East Germany. It 
would inherit a civil war which would suffice to ignite all 
the inflammable materials in Germany. The state of 
parties in the empire was just such as to give rise to fears 
of a dangerous outbreak ; how would it be if the uncom- 
promising fanatic of the extreme restoration were called to 
the head of affairs ? 

Undoubtedly had there been at that time a prince in 
Germany worthy of the dignity, and sufficiently unbiassed 
in religious matters to give both parties their due, his elec- 
tion would have been most desirable, and might perhaps 
have spared Germany the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. 
But there was not, and Germany was engulfed in a most 
fearful struggle. 

Ferdinand's election was disputed from the first, for the 
Bohemians no longer acknowledged him j but this was ot 
little use if they had no other candidate. The impotence 
pf the Union came to light ; the Protestants were divided 



420 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

within and without : they abhorred the idea of a Jesuit 
Emperor, but had only empty ranks and impracticable 
proposals to oppose to him. In the meddling Palatinate, the 
candidateship to the imperial dignity was, as it were, hawked 
about the streets, and yet there were no bidders. 

Scarcely escaped from the attack of the Bohemians, 
Ferdinand came to Frankfort through the enemy's country, 
to the election. 

After six months of angry negotiation and correspond- 
ence, they had not even agreed in the Protestant camp 
upon a protest against Ferdinand as a candidate, though he 
had been declared to be disqualified by the Bohemians, so 
that when the day of election came, his victory was as good 
as decided. It was the first step out of the crisis by which 
Austria had so long been convulsed. 

Had it been previously known that just when the elec- 
tors were announcing Ferdinand's election, the Bohemians 
had gone a step further, had deposed King Ferdinand and 
proclaimed a new election, they would perhaps have recon- 
sidered the subject, or at any rate have put off the election. 
But it was now too late ; the electors had to submit to the 
logic of facts which they had themselves helped to bring to 
pass. 

The Winter Kingdom and the War in Bohemia, 
1619-22. — Battle of Prague, 8th November, 1620. 

The choice of the Bohemians during the same days of 
August fell upon the head of the Union, the Elector Pala- 
tine Frederic V., because, so it was stated, " he is a very 
discreet gentleman, possessing great qualities, and is ac- 
quainted with divers languages," because " he has a power- 
ful and well-trained people, and is in alliance with great 
foreign powers, England, Holland, and Switzerland." In 
Bohemia, they knew neither the internal weakness of the 
Union nor the untrustworthiness of its foreign allies ; they 
believed in it, and looked for help from it which it could 
never afford. 

Frederic V. was married to Elizabeth Stuart, a daughter 
of James V. The marriage had been hailed with joy in 
England, as a family alliance between the still suspicious 
English king and the leader of German Protestantism, and. 
Parliament was afterwards always ready to send subsidies to 



THE WINTER KINGDOM. 421 

the Elector. This connection with England had great 
weight with the Bohemians. 

The Elector vacillated a long time ; and when he did 
arrive at a decision, it was not, as has been long supposed, 
the result of his wife's influence, but of other things. He 
was personally a very insignificant ruler — amiable in pri- 
vate life, a patron of artists and learned men, but wholly 
incompetent for grave political business, to say nothing of 
undertaking a great venture ; he was always dependent on 
the advice of others, and was not a man who, in critical 
moments, would resolve to stake everything, as was neces- 
sary in such a situation. He was influenced by ambition 
not to give up the leadership which had been for a genera- 
tion in his family, by the hope of aid from England, and in 
great part by the help of a number of people who then 
ruled the policy of the Palatinate — landless princes, younger 
sons of younger brothers. Such an one among oi'.iers who 
eagerly advised him to accept the crown was Christian of 
Anhalt ; then came the suggestions of the clever but mis- 
guided Ludwig Camerarius, and the Calvinist confessor 
Scultetus.* 

Thus it came to pass that at the end of October, 161 9, 
" the Palatinate went to Bohemia." 

Frederic V. hoped to find strength in Bohemia, and the 
Bohemians hoped for strength from him. But he found 
only a Sclavonian revolution, uncontrollable nobles, and a 
state in process of dissolution, over which the aristocracy 
wanted to rule themselves. Everybody was relying upon 
somebody else, and everybody was deserted. 

Bohemia was chiefly ruled by the Sclavonic party, at the 
head of which were a number of ambitious nobles, and the 
majority of the people revelled with them in the recollection 
of the national monarchy of the fifteenth century. The new 
King at once ruined his cause with both parties : with the 
nobles, because he would not listen to their claims to take 
part in the government, and only followed the advice of 
Anhalt and Camerarius ; with the people, by his singular 
way of life and Calvinistic narrowness. An antiquated and 
somewhat pedantic mode of life prevailed in Bohemia, and 
there were deeply-rooted prejudices against the licentious 
courts of those days; but the young Elector Palatine and 
his whole court were infected with French frivolity to a 
* Upon this section see Hausser, Geschijhte der Pfalz. — Ed. 



4*2 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

degree which could not but offend the strict views of the 
Bohemians. Frederic's demure Calvinism was a curious 
contrast to the gallantry of the men and women of the court ; 
he belonged to the Reformed party, while the Bohemians 
were Lutherans. He had, indeed, acknowledged uncon- 
ditional religious liberty in Bohemia ; but the zealots about 
him, Scultetus at their head, would not rest until, in the 
principal church at Prague, all images, pictures, and relics 
were cleared away, and the beautiful church converted into 
a Calvinistic meeting-house. The irritation produced by 
differences of creed increased, and contributed more than 
anything else to estrange the people from their king. They 
were at variance in language, nationality, manners, and creed. 
It would have been a miracle had prosperity ensued. 

Ferdinand had not the power to subject Bohemia by force 
of arms. He had acquired moral importance as Emperor, 
but the dignity did not provide him with money or troops. 
He was therefore compelled to throw himself into the arms 
of the League. The League was something different from 
the Union ; it was not an alliance in which every member 
laid claim to many rights, and owned but few duties, but a 
united organization in the hands of an energetic martial 
prince, whose allies, so called, had only to provide funds. 

The League now became, and remained for several years, 
the leading power in Germany. 

On the 8th of October, 1619, Ferdinand concluded a 
treaty with his relative and the friend of his youth, Max of 
Bavaria, in which the latter took good care of himself. 

It provided that the Duke should undertake the uncon- 
ditional and exclusive command of the whole proceedings 
against the rebellious heretics in Austria, Bohemia, and 
Upper Austria ; this last, indeed, had first to be taken as 
security for indemnification for the expenses of the war. In 
return, Max collected all his forces to assist the deserted 
Emperor. 

In 1620 the war began.* 

* In March of the new year the " Winter King " had addressed a 
letter to Louis XIII. of France, asking for help, which Hausser found 
and made extracts from, among the MSS. of the Bibliotheque Royale, 
entitled "Memoires pour l'Histoire d'Allemagne depuis 1619 jusqu'a 
1638." It is dated 24th March, 1620, and tries to prove that the 
threatened war. was entirely political and by no means religious in its 
character; see, for example, the following passage: — "Mes actions 
aussy bien que mes declarations monsti ent assez que je n'ay eu la pen?6e, 



THE WAR IN BOHEMIA. 423 

The war might not be lost if c nly it were rationally carried 
on in Bohemia. Money, indeed, was wanting, and so were 
efficient troops ; but neither had Max any superfluity of 
means, and would be lost unless he speedily gained a de- 
cisive battle. In the Bohemian camp, therefore, it was 
necessary to keep strictly to the defensive. In those days, 
if a general had not the means to pay his troops, there was 
nothing else to keep them together — neither oath nor devo- 
tion to any person nor cause. This was one cause of the 
weakness of the army of the League, and it suffered also 
from sickness, in consequence of the bad weather. The 
army must have been dissolved if, on the Bohemian side, 
they had known how to avoid a battle and to starve the 
enemy by a tedious defensive war. 

But just the contrary course was taken. With a corps of 
officers who caroused in camp instead of doing their duty, 
and ill-disciplined troops, they faced a well-trained army one- 
third greater in numbers. On the 5th of-Octok#r, Christian ^OvQjri^pjv 
of Anhalt took up his position on the Weissenberg, near 
Prague, and three days afterwards, notwithstanding his 
personal bravery, sustained an ignominious defeat, which 
decided the fate of the Winter Kingdom in an hour. 

The rebels in Bohemia and Moravia immediately sub- 
mitted ; Mansfeld only carried on a hopeless banditti warfare 
for months on his own account. Frederic fled to Silesia ; at 
Breslau appealed to the Union for help, and tried to incite 
the Protestant States of the country to oppose the reaction 
which, as he truly foretold, would take place against the 
whole of Protestantism. But it was in vain ; here also they 
submitted to the victorious Duke ; that one battle had 
ruined the cause. Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia 
again belonged to the prince whom they had deposed a 
year before. The Protestant princes watched with malicious 
satisfaction the flight of the helpless Winter King, who, even 

moins encore la volonte de faire ou permettre estre fait aucun desplaisir 
a mes subjects de la religion catholique romaine a cause de la dite 
religion, qu'au contraire j'ay et auray toujours en soin, particulier de 
les proteger 6galement avec les autres sans distinction." Should the 
war really break out, he calls to mind the ancient alliance between the 
Palatinate and Louis's father, and begs respectfully " qu'il vous plaise 
me tendre la main de vostre bonne assistance fondee" sur la conriance 
que j'ay de vostre dicte bienveillance, et sur les voeux que j'ay fait de 
conserver inviolablement l'affection hereditaire que je porte au bien dt 
vostre couronne." — Ed. 



4*4 Fli^ST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

among his own relations, scarcely found even the refuge he 
needed, to say nothing of succour. 

The revolution in Bohemia had not been quelled by 
Ferdinand, but by the League; yet the victorious cause was 
common to both, — it was the cause of ecclesiastical restora- 
tion, of conversion by means of Jesuits and soldiers. 

No foreign intervention" was to be feared ; the hopes of 
the Winter King, of help from abroad, melted like spray before 
the wind ; his own inheritance soon became a prey to the 
enemy ; the distribution of the spoils of victory could begin. 
Upon the way in which this was done, it depended whether 
the war, which had hitherto scarcely been a German, far less 
a European one, should develope into one of world-wide 
importance. 

The Ecclesiastical Reaction in Bohemia and the 
Palatinate. 

The dreaded crisis which had been hanging over Ger- 
many for decades had taken place. The supremacy of the 
Emperor was decisively pronounced. One of the leaders 
of German Protestantism was pitifully defeated ; it was a 
blow which could not but be severely felt by all German 
princes ; still, it was far yet from being a religious war. 

If Ferdinand now zealously carried out the Restoration 
in Bohemia, and declared that the charter was forfeited 
because it had been infringed by the country itself, it was 
no more than could be expected. It was but revenge for 
the imprudent policy of 1619-20, which was seen through 
at once by every one except Frederic V. — that of taking the 
course they did without the necessary means. 

But it was another thing to show Bohemia who was 
master by openly proclaiming the system of forced con- 
version, and carrying it out with sanguinary strictness. This 
was the way to let loose the religious war, and to give occa- 
sion for foreign intervention. 

With but a little moderation, Ferdinand and the League 
might have obtained an easy victory in his own country, 
and yet have disarmed suspicion at home and abroad. But 
this they could not do. Whether the fault was in the 
times or in their personal passions, they went to work 
rashly and inconsiderately, and the war ceased to be a 
Bohemian or German, and became a European one. 



ECCLESIASTICAL REACTION. 425 

The Protestant Union was already entirely out of joint. 
When, in the summer of 1620, Spinola advanced up the 
Rhine with Spanish soldiers, the Union had nothing to 
oppose to them but an absurd reference to the imperial law 
which forbade the presence of foreign troops in Germany. 
This was before the catastrophe to their brother in the faith. 
When afterwards Ferdinand appeared with the defiance of a 
victor, the Union was dissolved, submitted ignominiously, 
and the empire again resounded with jeers and malicious joy. 

On the 29th of January, 1621, Ferdinand had pronounced 
the unhappy Frederic under the ban of the empire, and 
appointed the Duke of Bavaria to execute the sentence. 
Of all the forms prescribed by the constitution, even in 
cases of proved guilt, not one was observed ; the aggrieved 
person, accuser and judge, was one and the same individual. 
After this beginning, little clemency could be looked for 
from the Emperor. 

In June, 1621, a fearful reign of terror began in Bohemia,* 
with the execution of twenty-seven of the most distinguished 
heretics. For years the unhappy people bled under it ; 
thousands were banished, and yet Protestantism was not 
fully exterminated. The charter was cut into shreds by the 
Emperor himself; there could be no forbearance towards 
" such acknowledged rebels." As a matter of course, the 
Lutheran preaching was forbidden under the heaviest 
penalties ; heretical works, Bibles especially, were taken 
away in heaps. Jesuit colleges, churches, and schools came 
into power ; but this was not all. 

A large number of distinguished Protestant families were 
deprived of their property, and, as if that were not enough, 
it was decreed that no non-Catholic could be a citizen, nor 
carry on a trade, enter into marriage, nor make a will ; any 
one who harboured a Protestant preacher forfeited his pro- 
perty ; whoever permitted Protestant instruction to be given 
was to be fined, and whipped out of the town ; the Protestant 
poor who were not converted were to be driven out of the 
hospitals, and to be replaced by Catholic poor; he who 
gave free expression to his opinions about religion was to 
be executed. In 1624 an order was issued to all preachers 
and teachers to leave the country within eight days, under 
pain of death ; and finally, it was ordained that whoever 

* See Reuss, La Destruction du Protestantisme en Boheme. Stras- 
burg, 1867. 



426 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

had not become Catholic by Easter, 1626, must emigrate. 
Light and air, the simplest rights of man in a state, were 
denied to the Protestants. But the real conversions were 
few ; thousands quietly remained true to their faith ; other 
thousands wandered as beggars into foreign lands ; more 
than thirty thousand Bohemian families, and among them 
five hundred belonging to the aristocracy, went into banish- 
ment. Exiled Bohemians were to be found in every 
country of Europe, and were not wanting in any of the 
armies that fought against Austria. 

Those who could not or would not emigrate, held to their 
faith in secret. Against them dragoonades were employed. 
Detachments of soldiers were sent into the various districts 
to torment the heretics till they were converted. The 
" Converters " (Seligmacher) went thus throughout all Bo- 
hemia, plundering and murdering. There were sanguinary 
revolts ; in some places they fortified and defended them- 
selves to the uttermost. No succour reached the unfortu- 
nate people ; but neither did the victors attain their end. 
Protestantism and the Hussite memories could not be slain, 
and only outward submission was extorted. Striking proof 
of this appeared when Joseph II. published his Edict of 
Toleration ; and a respectable Protestant party exists to 
this day in Bohemia and Moravia. But a desert was 
created ; the land was crushed for a generation. Before 
the war Bohemia had 4,000,000 inhabitants, and in 1648 
there were but 700,000 or 800,000. 

These figures appear preposterous, but they are certified 
by Bohemian historians. In some parts of the country the 
population has not attained the standard of 1620 to this day. 

As early as the summer of 1622, the imperial policy 
made way for itself into the inheritance of the "Winter 
King " by an unparalleled piece of villainy. 

A certain degree of unity and spirit had been introduced 
into the planless banditti warfare which the adventurer 
Mansfeld and the chivalrous Colonel Obertraut had been 
carrying on in the Upper and Lower Palatinate against 
Spain and Bavaria since the summer of 1621, when in April, 
1622, the outlawed Elector Frederic suddenly appeared 
among his faithful subjects in the Palatinate. 

The brave Margrave, George Frederic of Baden, joined 
Mansfeld with a splendid troop, and obtained a brilliant 
victory over the Bavarians under Tilly at Wiesloch. In 
spite of the defeat of the Margrave at Wimpfen in May, and 



CATHOLIC REACTION IN BOHEMIA. 427 

of the wild Christian of Brunswick, near Hochst, in June, 
Frederic V. had in Alsace a strong and valiant army, when, 
from his love of peace and confidence in his father-in-law, 
James I., who was himself deceived, the unwary youth 
allowed himself to be ensnared by perfidious negotiations — 
first, to suspend hostilities, and then to dismiss his army, 
in order, as the diplomatic deceiver said, that peace might 
be made. 

Now that the Palatinate was laid open, and the Elector 
disarmed, Tilly, who, at the first news of Frederic's arrival, 
had given up the siege of the Dilsberg, could complete the 
subjugation of the Palatinate in peace. Nevertheless, it 
was only with great difficulty that Heidelberg was taken in 
September, and Mannheim in November, while the garrison 
of Frankenthal defended themselves successfully against 
him. With the Bavarian soldiers, who here, as everywhere, 
behaved with great barbarity, came the Jesuits to destroy 
this nest of Calvinism. The Reformed ministers were 
driven away, and were replaced by priests and monks ; the 
flourishing university was closed, and the treasures of its 
world-renowned library dragged in fifty waggons to Rome. 
The conversion of this out-and-out Protestant people was 
begun with a certain moderation, but afterwards carried on 
with more vigour. The Lutherans, who were at first spared, 
had an opportunity here, as in Bohemia, of watching the ill- 
treatment of the Reformed party with malicious satisfaction. 
But their turn came next. 

At the meeting of princes summoned by Ferdinand in 
November, instead of a Diet, at Ratisbon, the dignity of 
Elector Palatine was solemnly conferred on the victorious 
Duke of Bavaria. The new Government at once distin- 
guished itself by a passionate zeal for conversion. While 
the dissolute conduct of the " Converters " (Seligmacher) in 
Upper Austria was driving the obscure peasants to a des- 
perate revolt, the Bavarians began to make the good old 
Protestant country Catholic. It was more easily accom- 
plished than in Bohemia and Upper Austria. The Papal 
Nuncio, Caraffa, who was met there by almost unconquer- 
able defiance, considered that the inhabitants of the Pala- 
tinate had passed through their second birth far more 
painlessly than their brethren in the faith in Austria and 
Bohemia. The witnesses of it were the many thousands of 
the inhabitants who left their fair country, and became 
proverbial in Europe as refugees from South Germany. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE DANISH WAR, 1 62 5— 29, AND ALBRECHT OH 
WALLENSTEIN. 

Change of Sentiment. — The Protestant League : England, Holland, 
Denmark, 1625. — Christian IV. of Denmark. — Albrecht von Wal- 
lenstein. — His Character. — The War of 1626-8. — Defeat of Mans- 
feld at Dessau, April, 1626. — Defeat of Christian IV. at Lutter, 
on the Barenberg, August, 1626. — Wallenstein and Tilly in North 
Germany, Mecklenburg, Stralsund, 1628. — Peace of Lubeck, May, 
1629. — The Edict of Restitution, March, 1629, and its Signifi- 
cance. — Machinations of the League against Wallenstein. — The 
Meeting of Princes at Ratisbon. — Dismissal of Wallenstein, June, 
1630. 

Change of Sentiment. — The Protestant League be- 
tween England, Holland, and Denmark, 1625. — 
Christian IV. of Denmark. 

THE affairs of 1622-3 in Bohemia, Upper Austria, and 
the Palatinate had a terribly irritating effect in and 
beyond Germany. 

When the Winter King hastened through Germany, fugi- 
tive and defenceless, after the lost battle, denied by his own 
relations as a criminal, and avoided like a leper, not a 
single voice was heard in his favour ; and when he warned 
them in a public appeal that his cause was the cause of 
Protestantism, that his defeat would result in the esta- 
blishment of Spanish absolutism in Germany, he was met 
with jeers by the Lutherans ; and Saxony advised the 
Silesian States not to be seduced by the rebels, or just that 
which they wished to avert would happen. Frederic's 
father-in law, James I. of England, did not find it advisable, 
from reasons affecting the legitimacy of rulers, to give a bad 
example, by supporting a revolution ; and, besides this, he 



FEAR OF CATHOLIC REACTION. 429 

had promised Spain not to take any part but that of a 
neutral mediator. 

But these sentiments were changed when the conse- 
quences of such an attitude appeared. 

The beginning of the brutal Catholic reaction, first in 
Bohemia, then in Austria, showed what was meant by the 
victory of the League. Then came the perfidious abuse of 
James's mediation against his son-in-law, the deposition of 
the Elector, and the forced conversion of the Protestant 
Palatinate. All this, in spite of the fair speeches, for which 
popular wit invented the name of " Spanish sleeping-cup," 
pointed to a Catholic reaction, in face of which no one was 
secure against a system of compulsion which would overthrow 
all law and usage. 

At the meeting at Ratisbon, which was intended to give 
an appearance of legality to the proceedings against the 
Elector, there were warnings of opposition. Pliant 
Saxony spoke against his deposition, and even withdrew 
her previous recognition of the ban ; Brandenburg warmly 
took the part of the Elector, whom she had hitherto con- 
temptuously neglected. 

In Lower Saxony ideas of armed resistance were already 
rife, for the foreign soldiery was almost ruining the country, 
when a change took place in England which opened up a 
prospect of a great European coalition against Spain and 
Hapsburg. 

James I. and Buckingham, embittered by Spain's Jesuiti- 
cal intrigues, proposed it to Parliament in February, 1624. 
Parliament received it with joy, and with the assurance that 
it was ready to defend the true religion and the rights of 
the royal children with body and soul. When Manafeld 
arrived in London he was greeted with acclamation by the 
whole population, up to the aristocracy, as the hero of 
religious liberty. 

From the well-known vacillation of the Government of 
James I. and Buckingham, no persistent military interposi- 
tion could be reckoned on ; more energy was thrown into it 
under his successor, Charles L, after March, 1625, and the 
Protestant League was at length an accomplished fact. A 
treaty was entered into on 9th December, 1625, at the Hague, 
between England, Holland, and Denmark, the object of 
which was a great expedition to the Continent, to oppose 
the Hapsburgs and reinstate the Elector. 



130 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Negotiations had previously been entered into with 
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but they had not been able 
to agree on the conditions, and the cautious Swedish policy 
had rejected the project as rash and too extensive. 

England was not in a position to carry on the war in 
Germany on her own account ; Holland was in the same 
situation; they were both obliged to depend on subsidies 
from the warlike rulers of the Continent, and the help of 
their fleets on the coasts. 

King Christian of Denmark declared himself ready for 
intervention. As Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, he was a 
prince of the German Empire, and had been appointed 
chief of the district by the district of Lower Saxony ; be- 
sides the hope of enriching himself in North Germany, it 
was greatly to his interest that Catholic restoration should 
be checked. The kingdom of Denmark had become what 
it was solely through the Reformation and its results, poli- 
tical and ecclesiastical. Frederic I. and Christian III. had 
caused the Reformation to be brought to their kingdom 
proper from Schleswig, Holstein, and Jutland ; their crown 
first attained power and dignity through the destruction of 
the temporal and ecclesiastical feudal system ; so that for 
this kingdom a religious restoration meant a return to the 
ancient yoke under which it, in common with the burgher 
and peasant class, had so long suffered. 

Frederic II., 1559-88, and Christian IV. had diligently 
aided in building up the new State and in giving it a healthy 
domestic foundation. 

The downfall of the mighty ecclesiastical system had 
indeed only been effected by means of an alliance of the 
crown with the nobles, in which the latter had contrived 
to secure the lion's share for themselves ; they took care to 
have their privileges, their power in the senate, their legal 
jurisdiction and immunity from taxes, secured to them by 
the bond as clearly as possible. Still, there was scope 
enough left for the government to take quietly in hand the 
emancipation of the middle classes, by means of a con- 
scientious, economical government ; by the lenient adminis- 
tration of laws in themselves severe; by having regard at 
the same time to the finances of the State and the prosperity 
of the people, by increasing their earnings, by rational 
encouragement* of trade and manufactures, by turning to 
account the natural inclinations of this insular people for 



CHRISTIAN IV. OF DENMARK. 431 

navigation and colonial enterprise — thus making the cause 
of the monarchy the cause of the working population, who 
now first began to lead a life worthy of men. Frederic II. 
and Christian IV. accomplished this with skill and assiduity. 

Up to the time of the war in Germany, Christian was a 
beloved and successful monarch. A man possessing rare 
gifts, a great variety of knowledge, and broad views, he laid 
during his long reign the foundations of the material 
prosperity which Denmark enjoyed until the last century. 

He was at once the first military organizer of Denmark, 
and the founder of its domestic and commercial policy, thus 
exhibiting qualifications not often combined. The founda- 
tion of the commercial cities of Christiania and Gliickstadt, 
the exchange in Copenhagen, the introduction of uniform 
weights and measures, the colonies in Iceland and Green- 
land, regular postal intercourse, the attempt to check 
the commercial supremacy of the Hansa, and the forma- 
tion of a standing army not composed of foreign hirelings, 
but of native peasants led by Danish officers, all date from 
his time. 

At the head of an efficient army, this monarch was a 
power not to be despised, especially if the aid of England 
and Holland were as trustworthy as it was readily promised. 

As wearer of a crown to which the success of the Catholic 
restoration would be a fatal danger — as a prince of the 
German Empire, enjoying great influence in North Germany, 
Christian IV. could not look on with apathy at the war in 
Germany, besides which he might have an idea of rounding 
off the possession of Holstein in Lower Saxony. So he 
accepted the offer of England and Holland, and began the 
war in North Germany, supported by some of the North 
German princes who were influenced by similar considera- 
tions. 

The war was not successful ; at the very beginning of it 
the army of the League occupied North Germany, and when 
it came to a battle Christian was driven from the field, and the 
Danish army pursued by Wallenstein back to its own country. 
But the significance of this war lies elsewhere. About this 
time Ferdinand II. succeeded in detaching himself from the 
guardianship of the League, and in carrying on the war 
with his own resources. The formation and triumphs ol 
this new army are connected with Albrecht von Wallen 
stein. 



432 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Albrecht von Waldstein, or Wallenstein. 

Wallenstein belonged to the nobility, but not to the high 
Bohemian aristocracy. His parents *and grandparents, and 
his family, with few exceptions, were Protestants, but by a 
singular dispensation, the young Albrecht, born 15th Sep- 
tember, 1583, and early left an orphan, was adopted by an 
uncle, one of the few of the family who had remained faith- 
ful to Catholicism, and he brought him back to the old 
faith. He grew up as a pupil of the Jesuits. A Catholic 
nobleman was a rarity in Bohemia. He was introduced by 
his uncle into the service of the Hapsburgs, and early dis- 
tinguished himself. He performed a great service to the 
Archduke Ferdinand, in Styria, in his war against the 
Venetians, in 161 7 ; when the fortress of Gradiska was 
besieged by the Venetians and closely pressed, he contrived 
to convey rich stores of provisions to it through the ranks 
of the besiegers ; and, still more important than this, he 
equipped a regiment from his own resources, whose officers 
and troops adored him, and whose appearance was the 
pride of the whole army. A talented young soldier, who 
was at once a Catholic and an adherent of the house of 
Hapsburg, was a real treasure in those days of general 
defection. When the revolt broke out in Bohemia, and all 
his relations were on the Protestant side, he distinguished 
himself by his strongly marked imperialism ; he helped with 
his cuirassiers to decide the engagement against Count 
Mansfeld at Teyn, and he covered Bouguoy's retreat with 
great dexterity against the hosts of Bethlen Gabor. 

Wallenstein had early rendered himself independent by 
a rich marriage. He shunned no sacrifice to secure the 
favour of the Hapsburgs at the time of their great diffi- 
culties, and he had the knack of keeping up an appearance 
of great expenditure, while he was a good manager; he 
never lost a favourable opportunity, and even when he gave 
liberally was only casting the net for greater gain. 

As nearly all the aristocracy were upon the rebel side in 
the Bohemian revolution, his faithfulness was doubly valu- 
able, and, when the great confiscation of property took 
place, the time came for him to reap his harvest. 

By the year 1622, Ferdinand had confiscated no less than 
642 lordships* and estates of Bohemian noblemen ; and, as 
he was in great want of money, the spoil was sold at ridi- 



WALLENSTEIN. 433 

culous prices. The market was flooded with estates; he 
who had ready money to spend could quickly acquire im- 
mense wealth. Wallenstein was a millionaire, and spent 
seven millions and one-third of florins in buying some of 
these estates, mostly at absurd prices ; and, in addition to 
the sixty properties thus acquired, he received from the 
Emperor, for the advances made in his service, the im- 
portant territory of Friedland, with the little town of Rei- 
chenberg, for the price of 150,000 florins.* 

Besides having this good fortune, Wallenstein was an 
unusually talented man, not so much as a general, as in his 
great skill in organizing, exercising, disciplining, and pro- 
viding for an army. 

The military system of Europe was then in a transition 
state from old forms to new, or rather the old forms had 
disappeared and the new ones had not been discovered. 
The last relics of feudal service had vanished, and the 
modern system of a levy of the inhabitants for a standing 
army had not become general ; the armies were neither the 
one thing nor the other ; the men were neither bound to 
their leaders as faithful vassals, nor bound together as belong- 
ing to the same nation. War was a trade which motives of 
gain were the only inducement to engage in ; a moral bond 
of common sentiments and higher duties was unknown. The 
troops were hired from all countries. Wherever circum- 
stances were unhappy or oppressive, thousands were ready 
to seek their fortunes in war; whoever, for less honourable 
reasons, was expelled from society, followed the drum, and 
gained his livelihood under any colours he pleased. The 
Bohemian exiles were found in thousands in all the armies 
which fought against Austria. The Irish were as numerous in 
those of their opponents; it was the same with the Walloons, 
&c. The Germans were pretty equally distributed on both 
sides. 

It was Wallenstein's forte to form an army out of such 
elements ; and, when every other bond of union failed, to 
make himself their centre. 

In this respect no army was equal to his ; no one suc- 
ceeded as he did in casting the whole in one mould, in 
inspiring the native soldiers with an esprit de corps, and in 
making himself the centre of the hirelings, and of the army as 
a whole. For the rest, he was one of those characters who 
• i 61 ster, Wallenstein als Feldherr und Landesftirst. 1834. 
28 



434 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

rise up in times like these — an upstart, who, from a modest 
position, had become a magnate, with principalities under 
him ; yet he was coarse by nature, never knew any other mo- 
tive than thirst for power. Even people who are on the conser- 
vative side share the revolutionary characteristics of the age. 

He had no more respect for tradition, usage, or legal 
. ights, than a successful soldier is likely to have ; he had 
seen so many of the great fall, he had taken so many suc- 
cessful steps over other people's heads, that he entertained the 
idea that his own iron fist might attain for him what the 
mere accidents of birth had cast into the laps of others. 
He therefore thoroughly despised the ancient German 
character, and had a profound contempt for the motives 
which actuate little men. He was a man like Napoleon's 
marshals, and held the opinion that it was not too rash to 
aspire to higher things than he possessed, and which in the 
opinions of other mortals might possess. 

He was disposed to follow the phantasies of an extrava- 
gant ambition, and to form all sorts of hazardous projects 
beyond his means. He liked to play at hazard, to stake all 
on one card, and to follow dark paths with a certain super- 
stition. He was fond of reservations and equivocations; 
called it lofty wisdom ; and what others called cunning 
only appeared to him as diplomatic skill. No con- 
siderations, either religious, national, or personal, interfered 
with his ambition. He served the house of Hapsburg 
because it was with them that his star had risen, but it 
cost him nothing to engage in projects which had nothing 
in common with the duties of a loyal imperialist. He 
fought for the Catholic cause, but without the fanaticism of 
his master or Tilly's zeal for conversion. He was praised 
for his toleration, but it arose from indifference. 

This personage, with immense resources, princely wealth, 
unusual political and military virtuosoship, aspiring ambi- 
tion, and a thorough contempt for tradition, appeared at 
the Emperor's side, and almost eclipsed him. 

The Emperor was oppressed with the idea that a foreign 
army, that of the League, should obtain his victories and 
re-conquer his territories. Wallenstein created an army 
for him which rendered him independent of Bavaria, and 
was large enough to maintain itself and conquer whole 
countries. He said that he would provide, not 20,000, but 
50,000 men, and he knew that such a force would, like an 



DEFEAT OF MAXSFELD. 435 

emigrant nation, be able to live from war itself and put any 
enemy to flight. 

The War of 1626-8. 

Wallenstein took the field openly, with the purpose of 
carrying on the war on his own responsibility, and for his 
own fame, and therefore of altogether ignoring, or, if possible, 
of eclipsing the army of the League under Tilly, which, to 
the great terror of the inhabitants, had been encamping for 
months in 7/Ower Saxony. 

From the autumn of 1625 Wallenstein encamped with 
his hosts between Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Dessau, 
well provided with money, provisions, and every necessary. 
and for months worked at the erection of a secure tete du 
pont and gigantic fortifications ; while Tilly, in already 
exhausted districts, pressed by Christian IV., wandered 
about in despair, his army near dissolution from sickness, 
want, and desertion, and he looked in vain for help either 
from home or from Wallenstein. 

To Wallenstein belonged the fame of the first military 
achievement of the year. In April, Ernest of Mansfeld 
arrived at the Elbe with the most splendid army he had 
ever commanded — 20,000 men, with thirty pieces of heavy 
artillery — and began to storm the tete du pont at Dessau. A 
fearful conflict lasted for several days; the imperial general, 
Aldringen, held out with heroic perseverance, and enabled 
Wallenstein, by a final attack with the cavalry in the rear, 
to decide the engagement. On April 25th, 1626, Mansfeld 
was signally defeated, and pursued through Frankfort into 
Silesia. It was his last campaign. On his journey through 
Bosnia he fell ill, and died as he had lived. When he felt 
death approaching he put on his best uniform, and awaited 
the end standing upright, supported by two of his com- 
panions in arms.* 

A few months after him died that other fierce general and 
sharer of his views, Christian of Brunswick. 

These two losses almost decided the fate of the Danish 
campaign. As long as tl ese two heroes were active, and 
Tilly's army was scarcely in a situation to stand a united 
attack, Christian IV. had hesitated ; but now Tilly began 

* A warm apology for Mansfeld lias lately appeared : Ernest Grafzu 
Mansfeld, 1580 — 1626, vom Grafen Uetteroclt zu Scharfte/iberg. Goth:, 
1867. 



436 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

to revive, Munden and Gottingen were taken with horrible 
slaughter. There were still favourable moments, in which, 
had they been taken advantage of, much might have been 
recovered ; but Christian neglected them, and on 27 th 
August suffered a complete defeat at Lutter and Barenberg, 
and was compelled to retreat to Holstein. The army of 
the League was now master in Brunswick and Hanover. 

Wallenstein and Tilly found no further opposition in North 
Germany. All Silesia with its fortresses fell into the Duke's 
hands, and the Emperor granted him the Duchy of Sagan and 
the lordship of Priebus as hereditary possessions. Thence he 
made preparations on a large scale for a campaign against 
Christian of Denmark on his own territory; in Wallenstein's 
Duchy of Friedland, forges, powder mills, and manufactories 
of arms, were at work day and night for the equipment of 
his army, and his own mint coined the ready money for the 
payment of the troops. 

When, in the autumn of 1627, he advanced by rapid 
marches towards the north, the two Dukes of Mecklenburg 
at once submitted to him, all the fortresses were garrisoned 
by Wallenstein, and, in conjunction with Tilly, he began 
operations against Holstein and Schleswig. 

His schemes now, as appears from his correspondence, 
were gigantic to a fantastic degree. 

At the end of the year he took leave of absence for 
three months. His representative, Colonel Arnim, was 
commissioned to occupy and fortify all the harbours of 
Pomerania, to take all the ships he could, and to arm those 
fit for it ; " for, you see, we shall now betake ourselves to 
the sea." He was to watch Sweden carefully, "for Gus- 
tavus Adolphus is a dangerous visitor, of whom one must 
beware ; " he was to burn his ships when it was possible ; 
meanwhile he was to negotiate with the Danish States, to 
induce them to depose their Christian, and to elect the 
Emperor Ferdinand king. If they consented, he promised 
that all their privileges, even the Reformation, should be 
held sacred ; but if not, they should become his vassals. 
Meanwhile he was trying to induce the Emperor to secure 
Mecklenburg to him, and seeking a pretext for suspending 
an imperial ban over the dukes. 

Now, however, the long-concealed rancour of the Duke 
of Bavaria and his party broke out. Wallenstein cared 
nothing for priests; and instead of joining with Tilly in making 



■Wallenstein's projects. 437 

North Germany Catholic, his sole concern was to found a 
powerful principality for himself, which delayed the schemes 
this party had in view. He had also let fall some ominous 
expressions, from which it appeared that it was his inten- 
tion, if possible, that all the German princes, with their 
" German liberty," should share the fate of the Mecklen- 
burgers. Let the palaces of the princes, he had said, be 
pulled down ; they would no longer be wanted ; there was 
but one king in France and Spain, and there should be but 
one Emperor in Germany. The Electors, in particular, 
he must teach morals, and show them that the Emperor 
was not dependent on them, but they on the Emperor, &c. 
Such counsels did not prevail, though it was thought that 
there were signs that the Emperor himself was of opinion 
" that the power of the Electors must be somewhat re- 
stricted," for he felt the burden of a personal dependence 
on the Elector Max, who still kept possession of Upper 
Austria as a pledge. 

Wallenstein obtained the promise of Mecklenburg, first 
as a pledge and then as a principality, and the Dukes were 
declared to have forfeited their country. At the same time 
the Emperor Ferdinand released himself from the guardian- 
ship of the League. In March, 1628, the Elector Max 
received the Upper Palatinate instead of Upper Austria, 
and the Lower Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine, 
as indemnity for the expenses and sacrifices of the Bo- 
hemian war. Ferdinand was thus again in possession of 
his inheritance ; Max had deprived his own relation of his 
country, and the war, which could only be put an end to 
by bringing back the banished Count Palatine, seemed 
likely to go on for ever. 

In the spring, Wallenstein, "the Admiral of the North and 
Baltic Seas," as he was now called, began to take possession 
of the shores of the Baltic. He had cast his eyes especially 
on two points — Riigen and Stralsund. The first was taken; 
the second resisted, being assisted by Denmark and Sweden 
with money, munitions, provisions, and troops. Wallen- 
stein was determined to have the city, " even if it were 
attached by chains to heaven." But it was all in vain : all 
his attacks were repulsed, his proposals rejected; his troops 
suffered enormous losses from the enemy's fire, want, sick- 
ness, and bad weather, and after a six months' assault they 
were obliged, in August, 1628, to beat an ignominious retreat. 



43$ FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Wallenstein's military successes, and his splendid dream 
of dominion over the seas, were put an end to by the 
ramparts of Stralsund, and the heroic endurance of its 
Protestant population. He was now the first to counsel 
peace ; the ground burnt under his feet. Tired of a hope- 
less contest with maritime powers, against which he was 
defenceless, he was eager speedily to come to terms with 
Denmark. The Treaty of Lubeck was entered into in 
May, 1629 ; both parties renounced compensation, and all 
his cities and provinces were restored to the vanquished 
King Christian, as if he had been the victor. 

Meanwhile the party of the League had obtained a great 
success. They had extorted an edict from the Emperor, 
to issue which he could only have been advised by his 
bitterest enemy; this was the Edict of Restitution of 6th 
March, 1629. 

The Edict of Restitution, 1629, and Dismissal of 
Wallenstein, 1630. 

Among the conditions imposed by the Elector Max of 
Bavaria, when he gave up the territory north of the Ens to 
the Emperor, there were two secret ones — the banishment 
of the Calvinists and the restitution of Catholic Church 
property. After long delay and consultation with ecclesias- 
tics and laymen, the Emperor decided to accede to these 
demands. This was effected by the Edict of Restitution, 
by which it was ordained that "all bishoprics, monas- 
teries, and other Church property not held directly under 
the Crown (mittelbar), confiscated since the Treaty of 
Passau, shall be restored to the Catholics ; all the bishoprics 
held directly under the Crown (unmittelbar), which, con- 
trary to the ecclesiastic reservation, had come into the 
hands of the Protestants, shall again be occupied by 
Catholic prelates. The Catholic States are empowered to 
compel their subjects to adopt their religion, and in case of 
refusal, they are to leave the country on receiving an ade- 
quate sum of money ; further, the religious peace only con- 
cerned the Catholics and the adherents of the unaltered 
Confession of Augsburg. No other sects, Calvinists or 
Zwinglians, were to be tolerated in the empire." 

This edict had, in part, strict legality on its side ; but put 
in practice it involved a great revolution, which would be 



THE EDICT OF RESTITUTION. 439 

absolute annihilation to the property and churches of the 
Protestant States, and indeed to German Protestantism 
itself. The bishoprics not held directly under the Crown, 
but under some local ruler, had been confiscated in great 
numbers by Protestant and Catholic princes. In 1552-5, 
when the Protestants were in the ascendancy, and had 
nothing to fear from the Emperor, the number of seculari- 
sations by Protestants had greatly increased ; and when, in 
1555, the question was discussed, no clause could be 
carried which enjoined restitution. The status quo was 
quietly recognised ; but this was now more than seventy 
years ago, and was all to be changed by a stroke of 
the pen. 

The ecclesiastical reservation proviso, if King Ferdi- 
nand's clause, so called, was still to be considered in force, 
had certainly been infringed. 

Several Protestant princes had taken advantage of the 
occasion, and contrived that their sons or brothers should 
be made bishops, and afterwards, on their conversion, had 
changed the bishoprics into secular Protestant territories. 

In now demanding that things should be restored as 
they were before the infringement of the reservation, they 
were formally right. But then they ought not in the next 
article to have granted to the Catholic States the right of 
converting or banishing their Protestant subjects, for that 
was contrary to another proviso still in force, by which 
religious liberty was expressly granted to the Protestant 
subjects of ecclesiastical rulers. 

If one was law, so was the other. 

Then, after the religious peace, large territories belonged 
to the adherents of the Reformed faith : the Electoral Pala- 
tinate, Hesse Cassel, Zweibriicken, Cleve, Berg, and the 
electoral line of the house of Hohenzollern. These terri- 
tories were deprived of their legal existence by the last 
article, and sacrificed to the unlimited power of the Catholic 
reaction. 

Besides, in standing upon formal legal rights, they were 
taking a step, the consequences of which might be incalcu- 
lable, and which could only be considered practicable by a 
blind camarilla elate with victory. There could no longer 
be any peace under such a system. 

Even Saxony and Brandenburg, who were surprisingly 
passive so long as religion only was in danger, became \ecy 



440 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

uneasy as soon as Church property was at stake ; it drove 
them into the enemy's camp. The bishoprics held directly 
under the Crown, which were to be restored, formed together 
a little kingdom. They were the archbishoprics of Magde- 
burg and Bremen, the bishoprics of Minden, Verden, Hal- 
berstadt, Lubeck, Ratzeburg, Meissen, Merseburg, Naum- 
burg, Brandenburg, Havelberg, Lebus, Camin. The Resti- 
tution also affected numberless abbeys. 

If such an edict were enforced, it would be to challenge 
the dynasties and people to a struggle for life and death. 
But this was not taken into consideration, although there 
was a nine years' war about trifles to look back upon. 

The Protestants were often afterwards reproached with 
having forgotten country, honour, and everything in their 
hatred of the Hapsburgs, and with having served under 
foreign colours, Danish, Swedish, and even French, and this 
cannot be gainsaid, nor the fearful confusion which resulted 
from it amongst our people. 

But the guilt of the originators of this mischief must not 
be forgotten. What could they do but accept any help that 
was offered them, when hundreds of thousands of them 
were deprived of their rights, religion, and property, and 
driven from their country by a stroke of the pen ? The 
German Protestants were brought to the same point as the 
Irish Catholics, who in blind revenge opposed everything 
Protestant. 

The result proved the impracticability of the edict. After 
six years of bloodshed, the Emperor was compelled to grant 
the abolition of it to Saxony and Brandenburg, and, after 
thirteen years more of fearful warfare, to all the other 
Protestants and Reformers ; so that all that was effected 
by a nine years' contest was that the edict was torn to 
shreds. 

And if the restoration of Church property had been 
honestly intended — that is, if it meant the restoration of it 
to its previous owners — this was by no means what was 
generally understood by it. If its confiscation was called 
robbery, it could not be made good by fresh plunder. 

Most of the bishoprics belonged to religious orders in 
whose days the Jesuits did not exist, especially the nume- 
rous Benedictine abbeys. When these demanded the resti- 
tution of their property, it was already occupied by the 
Jesuits. 



THE EDICT OF RESTITUTION. 44 1 

And it was just the same with the appointments to the 
archbishoprics and bishoprics. Instead of allowing the 
prelates to be elected as was prescribed by ancient regu- 
lations, archdukes and magnates of the house of Austria 
were always ready to take the places of the old owners. 

The Emperoi J s blunder was soon punished, and in a way 
he did not anticipate. 

The least that he expected to attain when he yielded to 
the entreaties of the Jesuits and the League, was the satis- 
faction of their increasingly inconvenient demands. But 
in this he was mistaken. When he now requested the 
League to withdraw or dismiss its armies for the relief 
of Franconia and Swabia, the Elector Max summoned a 
meeting of the League at Heidelberg ; and, after dismiss- 
ing a few troops in its name for the sake of appearance, 
demanded that the Emperor himself should disarm — that is, 
dismiss Wallenstein and dissolve his army, or at least sum- 
mon a meeting of Electors to establish a speedy and secure 
peace. 

The Edict of Restitution had induced the tamest members 
of the Protestant aristocracy to take up arms against the 
Emperor; all that was now wanting was to deprive him of the 
man who had set him upon his legs, to hurl him from 
the giddy heights to which he had climbed. And this was 
now to be accomplished. 

There were numerous complaints against Wallenstein. 
His whole military system, his plan of making the countries 
in which his armies were encamped provide for them, was 
a fearful one. When they came into a district, not only 
the interest of capital, but capital itself Was devoured. 
If his troops did not behave worse than others, the horrors 
occasioned by the dissolute bands of fierce soldiers were 
bad enough. The fire and destruction, the outrages upon 
women, the relentless cruelty towards every living thing, 
were not more horrible among his soldiers than among others, 
but generals looked with envy upon a camp which never 
lacked necessaries, because a regular system of plunder and 
torture prevailed, while they who would have been ready 
enough to follow his example could never succeed in pro- 
viding comforta I.ly for the soldier. 

The rulers had great reason to complain of him. He 
had offended them all by his scornful tone ; some of them 
he had driven from their countries, had made himself 



4-}2 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

their ruler, and openly pursued a policy intended to exter- 
minate all ruling princes, and to set up an aristocracy of 
successful soldiers under an imperial military dictatorship.* 
All classes were agreed in their hatred of Wallenstein ; the 
priests could not forgive him because he cared nothing for 
their conversions, and he sometimes exclaimed, " The devil 
and hell-fire take the priests." There was scarcely one of 
the Protestant party whose country he had not ruined, who 
had not had to famish while his head-quarters were rolling 
in luxury, and the League desired to avenge his treatment 
of Tilly, his open intention of thrusting it on one side, 
and, if possible, of utterly destroying it. 

Thus a great storm was gathering around the " Dictator 
of Germany," as Max of Bavaria called the Duke of Fried- 
land. 

In June, 1630, the meeting of princes took place at 
Ratisbon — there were no Diets until 1640 — and a long 
accusation was laid before it against Wallenstein, who was 
the cause of " all the trouble, disgrace, and scandal, of all the 
horrible and unheard-of military oppression." It demanded 
the dismissal of the imperial infantry and its leader. Among 
the most zealous of this party were the French embassy, who 
were present in consequence of an Italian business. 

While the Emperor was considering whether he would 
enter into a contest with the ruling aristocracy and their 
allies, France, England, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, 
or give up his only support, Wallenstein had coolly taken 
measures for giving the law upon the battle-field in the first 
case. 

Ke had divided his men, between 50,000 and 60,000, into 
two parts, and caused them to occupy highly suspicious 
posts in Alsace and Swabia, in order that at a given sign 
one division might attack Bavaria, the other France. 

But it was not to come to this. Ferdinand, as the patron 
of a man like Wallenstein, did not venture on an enterprise 
which he might perhaps have undertaken as the commander 
of his own army. He granted his dismissal, and Wallen- 
stein submitted without question. 

It was a most critical decision. Just when the Edict of 
Restitution had ignited a fearful conflagration, when Gus- 

* For his plans with Tilly and Pappenheim, see Gfrorer's Gustai 
Adolf. 



wallensteIn's DISMISSAL. 44i 

tavus Adolphus had already landed in Germany, die Emperoi 
allowed himself to be compelled by his States to dismiss 
his general ; and in this case it meant much more than the 
ordinary dismissal of a general — it deprived all his military 
force of their head. The army was the creation of Wallen- 
stein. No longer kept together and paid by him, it would 
be dispersed, and this was abundantly proved in the suc- 
ceeding period ; in this case the Emperor would, as before, 
be dependent on the League, when he had been obliged to 
pledge his heritage to the Elector. 

Seldom have great historical events followed in such 
close connection as in this case. During the same days of 
June when the Emperor was guilty of the imprudence of 
sacrificing Wallenstein to the League, Gustavus Adolphus 
landed on the shores of the Baltic, in order to summon the 
threatened Protestant elements under his banner. 

Khevenhiller attributes these events to an intrigue of 
Richelieu, who, in order to bring to nought the growing 
power of the Hapsburgs, zealously advocated two measures 
— an edict for the restitution of all church property confis- 
cated after the Treaty of Passau, and the dismissal of Wallen- 
stein. The one was fatally to estrange from Ferdinand all the 
Protestant states, and thereby to cause perpetual schism in 
the empire ; the other, to deprive him of his most powerful 
weapon, and to render him defenceless against both foreign 
and domestic foes. 

One thing is certain, that these results did take place, 
and the warning of the Elector of Saxony in 1629, that the 
Edict of Restitution would please no one but adverse 
foreign powers, was strikingly fulfilled. 



PART IX. 

SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

SWEDEN AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.* 

Sweden before Gustavus Adolphus. — Erich XIV., 1560-68. — John III., 
I5f 8-92, and Charles of Sudermanland. — Charles as Regent, 
1592-1604. — Charles IX. as King, 1604-n. — Gustavus Adolphus 
in Sweden, 161 1-30. — Position of Affairs at the beginning of his 
Reign. — Political, Military, and Domestic Reforms. — Wars with 
Denmark, Russia, and Poland. — The Contest for the Baltic. 

Sweden before Gustavus Adolphus, 1560-1611. 

GUSTAVUS VASA had risen from being a rebel and 
conspirator to be regent and king, and with wonder- 
ful ability had succeeded in two things — in founding a here- 
ditary monarchy, and in providing the means for its stability 
by taking possession of the mediaeval church property and 
incorporating it with the crown lands. 

The poorest of countries became by these means one of 
the most wealthy; its trade, navigation, harbours, army, 
and fleet began to prosper ; and the Swedes are right in re- 
garding Gustavus Vasa as the founder of their greatness, 

• Besides the literature mentioned in Chap. xii. : Pufendorf, De rebus 
suec. 1686. Geijer, Geschichte Schwedens. III. Bd. Gfrorer, Gustav 
Adolf. 1845. Helbig, Gustav Adolf und der Kurfurst v. Sachsen, 
1854. 2 aufl. Bensen, Das Verhangniss Magdeburgs. Also Droysen's 
Aufsatze : I. Ueber Magdeburgs Zerstorung. 163 1. 2. Die Schlacht 
von Liitzen in Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte III. and V M 
and O. v. Guericke, Belagerung Magdeburgs, i860. 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 445 

though in his lifetime he never had the satisfaction of living 
on peaceful and happy terms with his people. 

He left four sons, Eric, John, Magnus, and Charles — the 
last a child, the others youths — and so deeply rooted were 
the ancient Germanic views of inheritance in the mind of 
this mighty ruler, that, though he had spent a long life in 
the arduous task of founding a sole monarchy, at the close 
of his life he proceeded to the division of his work. 

The eldest son, Eric, for whom he expressly intended the 
crown, did not appear to him adapted for the arduous task 
of governing ; he therefore ordained that his brothers should 
assist him, and conferred power on them which, while it 
would not make them independent, would, he thought, 
impose a wholesome restraint on the power of their 
brother. 

The result was as unsuccessful as possible. Gustavus 
Adolphus afterwards said, " My grandfather made a mis- 
take : the King's brothers were too great for subjects — they 
were sure to strive to be masters." 

A melancholy reign of eight years now began. 

Eric XIV., though he possessed mind, talent, and acquire- 
ment, had something of that wild and stormy passion, break- 
ing out into unaccountable actions, which was peculiar to 
some branches of this family, and which in some cases re- 
sulted in insanity ; not only Eric, but Magnus also, died 
insane, and personages like Gustavus IV. and Charles XII. 
show how long such traits may remain in a family. 

This did not at first appear plainly in Eric, but it was 
indicated by an impulsive feverish activity. Scarcely any 
other monarch wrote and administered so much as he did. 
But his hasty, ill-considered acts appear like those of a 
morbidly excitable man, who throws himself into business 
to escape from his own humours. 

Then a tendency appeared to a dangerous sort of extra- 
vagance, and after a few years of wretched government all 
the mischievous traits of his character gradually unfolded 
themselves. He surrounded himself with all sorts of un- 
scrupulous persons, who assisted him in his passionate 
deeds. 

Next, he took one and another for a conspirator; his 
suspicions especially rested upon his brother John, who was 
an agreeable, popular man ; he imprisoned him, treated him 
l : \e a criminal, but suddenly drew back from proceeding to 



446 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

extremities. Fear of conspiracy tormented him like an 
evil conscience, and theii were only too many people 
ready to make sport of thi.? unhappy tendency. His favourite, 
Pehrson, made quite a trade of it, and the King so far forgot 
himself as to commit reckless crimes. 

He stabbed one of the Stures in prison, and had his 
distinguished fellow-prisoners slaughtered. Then anguish 
of mind drove him into the open air ; he wandered through 
the fields and woods in the garb of a peasant, knocked 
down his old tutor who accosted him, and then did penance 
by giving up his favourite to justice. 

In a country which had only lately seen the establish- 
ment of royal authority, such a government could not be 
tolerated. In 1567 a ferment began to take place ; a con- 
spiracy, which had been haunting men's minds, was actually 
formed ; the brothers, backed by the nobles, raised a 
revolt; the burgher class, too, were weary of the King's 
mad acts. 

In September, 1568, Eric was seized, and for nine years 
was dragged from prison to prison — the best method, of 
course, of producing complete insanity ; still, he was never 
looked upon as harmless. This murder by the State, of a 
man who was clearly not responsible, is unexampled in 
history. Seven years after his dethronement, the bishops 
and ministers declared that if the King did not cease to 
threaten the Government, and to furnish a pretext for revolt 
and disturbances, it would be the duty of his keepers 
to put him out of the way. In February, 1577, he died 
under circumstances which left no doubt that this hint was 
taken. 

John then began to reign, together with his brother, Duke 
Charles of Sudermanland. 

John was, on the whole, lenient and well-meaning, but 
had very superficial views of his position and vocation. 
Charles, on the contrary, was cold, firm, severe, and re- 
served ; quite destitute of the winning characteristics of his 
father, which were, to a certain extent, inherited by John ; 
though in mind and political principles Charles most resem- 
bled him. As a youth of eighteen he came forward to help 
to dethrone his brother, and his whole character was 
stamped with determined ambition. 

In 1688 this singular joint reign began, of two rulers 
who were constantly opposed to each other : and through 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 447 

their contradictions the inheritance of Gustavus Vasa seemed 
likely to be ruined. 

By this division of the empire the most essential condi- 
tion of a strong monarchical power was impaired ; it only 
remained for the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs, with 
which Gustavus Vasa had taken so much pains, to be called 
in question, and this was done by King John. 

He was but little acquainted with this question, so vital 
for the young Swedish kingdom, and vacillated between 
Catholic and Protestant opinions. He had, however, read 
a good deal on the subject superficially, and conceived an 
ambition similar to that of Henry VIII. He had a project 
for combining the two parties, then a particularly difficult 
task. 

He felt the hierarchical system of the Catholic Church, and 
the majesty of her worship, to be imposing, and those about 
him favoured these sentiments. He had early married, 
against the will of his brother Eric, a Polish princess, who 
was a strict Catholic, had great influence over him, and 
did all she could to bring him over to her faith. Jesuits in 
disguise, who appeared to be good Lutherans, were daily 
about him, and at Rome his speedy conversion was confi- 
dently looked for. We have the instructions which were 
sent to the Jesuits to advance the work ; they were always to 
talk of faith, not of works, and to show that the Catholic 
Church really enjoined nothing different from the Protestant. 

But Protestantism in Sweden was not merely a matter of 
opinion, which might be adjusted one way or the other 
according to individual needs ; it was a political fact of the 
greatest significance. The empire itself was based upon 
it j and, even if the King was sincere in his schemes of media- 
tion, he could not but get into a false position in being cool 
to a party with which the existence of the country was bound 
up; and in coquetting with the other, which had no ad- 
herents in the country except his wife. 

He made all sorts of futile efforts to effect a recon- 
ciliation which did not satisfy either party. He had 
Catholic changes introduced into public worship ; and in 
1576 a new Liturgy appeared, which was based upon the 
new Mass book of the Council of Trent. Great opposition 
was made to this " Red book," as it was called by the 
people. He had hoped by its means to effect a recon- 
ciliation between the churches, but all the Swedish clergy 



448 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY /EARS' WAR. 

declared against it, and yet it did not go half far enough to 
please the strict Catholics. 

This retrograde tendency appeared more and more openly, 
and it made the King's position in the country all the 
more difficult. The people said, " The King is secretly a 
Jesuit, and wants to make us all Catholics ; " and the grow- 
ing boldness of the Jesuit preachers, the abolition of the 
Lutheran Catechism, and the ostentation with which the 
Queen adhered to their faith, seemed to confirm the sus- 
picion. 

When the Queen died, in 1583, the Protestant bishop, 
with a courage which would do honour to any Court 
theologian of to-day, showed so little tact as to laud her 
as a staunch Catholic. Though the King now suddenly 
turned round, and expelled the Jesuits from the country, 
yet he obstinately held fast to the " Red book." 

In another important point John was untrue to the tradi- 
tions of his father. In the struggle with the Church, 
Gustavus Vasa had not been able to dispense with the 
aid of the secular nobles, and had therefore been obliged 
to give them a share of the spoil of the Church property. 
But it was to be a final concession, and no further inter- 
ference from them with the rights of the Crown or the 
country were to be tolerated. But on this point John's 
conduct was at least ambiguous. He favoured the privileges 
of the nobles, allowed them to divert public justice to the 
advantage of their class, lightened their obligations to the 
Crown, and the service of their vassals, thereby increasing the 
burdens of the burgher class and free peasants, who dreaded a 
new government by the aristocracy; and, though this made 
the sentiments of all more in favour of a monarchy, it 
none the less estranged them from the monarch himself. 

From these two mistakes in the internal administration 
arose a still more serious complication in the foreign 
policy. 

King John, who had once been himself attracted by the 
worthless crown of Poland, conceived the idea, after it had 
escaped his hands, of making his son, Sigismund, King of 
Poland — that is, of transplanting him into a country where 
Catholicism and government by the nobles prevailed un- 
hindered, and where the state of things was quite different 
from that oT Sweden. 

The republic of Poland was already on the road to ruin \ 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 449 

the crown was not worth having. The first principles of a 
real political administration would have to be settled ; the 
arbitrariness of the nobles and disruption of parties was 
beyond all bounds, and a foreign king would be betrayed 
and sold. 

It was inconceivable that a man in his senses should 
entertain the idea of combining with the difficult position 
in Sweden the still more difficult one in Poland. The result 
would certainly be that the Swedish crown would be lost, 
and the Polish one not gained. 

Poland was then a decidedly Catholic State — at any rate 
its ruling elements were Catholic ; the King must, there- 
fore, be so too ; and so the heir of a thoroughly Protestant 
country, who could scarcely tolerate the lukewarm Pro- 
testantism of its king, took, in 1587, the ominous step 
of going over to Catholicism in order to be King of Poland. 

There was one man who knew how to take advantage 
of these embarrassments which the King created for him- 
self; but it was also for the advantage of Sweden and the 
work of Gustavus Vasa ; this was Charles of Sudermanland, 
the youngest son of Gustavus, a cool, clever, moderate 
statesman, who opposed every one of his brother's mistakes. 

John introduced the " Red book : " Charles forbade its use. 
John tried to unite the two churches : Charles adhered 
strictly to Lutheranism, and granted hospitality to all victims 
of persecution. John favoured the nobles : Charles checked 
them. In short, Charles was the decided and persevering 
representative of the traditions of Gustavus Vasa, which 
were ignored by John ; and was, therefore, the spokesman 
of all those who were displeased with John's behaviour, 
especially of the peasant and burgher class — of all the 
patriots to whose hearts modern Sweden was dear, and 
whose existence or non-existence was in fact at stake. 

When Sigismund was made King of Poland, or rather 
protector oi the Polish aristocracy and their so-called con- 
stitution, the Swedish nobles held up their heads. It was 
well known what would be granted by the Polish King to 
those who elected him, and they tried to obtain the same in 
Sweden. Just as the King of Poland was about to embark, 
a plan was handed to him, the object of which was nothing 
less than the establishment of a Polish-Swedish constitution, 
which simply set aside the monarchy of Gustavus Vasa 
They intended to gain over King John by accepting his 
29 



45° SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

favourite Liturgy; and to secure the joint government of the 
nobles, they proposed the establishment of a Parliament in 
which seven of the chief of them should take it in turn, for 
from two to five years, partly to exercise some of the most 
important prerogatives of the Crown, partly to guard them. 
John and Sigismund were weak enough to approve the 
scheme. It was justly characterized by Gustavus Adolphus 
when he said that " they wanted to stab King John and 
Duke Charles with one spear, and thus to get rid of them 
both." 

John left behind him, in 1592, a distracted kingdom* 
His son was away ; the people and the nobles split up into 
factions ; everything insecure. 

In this time of perplexity, Charles's activity began ; ambi- 
tion persuaded him that his path to the throne was open, 
and that he alone was walking in the steps of his father. 
He thrust aside the clamorous nobles, with their proposed 
Senate. Parliament might advise according to Swedish law, 
but the duty of ruling belonged to the sovereign, and in his 
absence it became his own duty to fill the post. When the 
King was for a short time in the country, he made him take 
an oath to protect its religion and laws, and, in accordance 
with the wishes of the States, the laws against the Catholics 
were made more stringent. From 1592-1604, one diffi- 
culty follows closely on another. The King could not carry 
on the government of two countries; he was compelled 
to appoint a regent, but his resolute and ambitious uncle 
was made governor of the land, not the Senate of seven 
nobles. 

With the aid of the peasantry, he systematically opposed 
the nobles ; and with the aid of Protestantism, the King and 
Court. At a solemn assembly of the Diet, at Upsala, 
February, 1593, attended by a great number of ecclesiastics, 
the irrevocable determination of the people was expressed 
to abide by pure Lutheran teaching, and everything was 
abolished which had tended to question the supremacy of 
the Reformation during the reign of King John. Anger- 
mann, the vehement opponent of the " Red book," was 
made archbishop ; all Catholic innovations were abolished, 
and the Lutheran Catechism reinstated. 

This was clearly a manifesto against the Catholic Sigis- 
mund, but a* still plainer one was to be issued. The King 
in Poland did all he could to embarrass his uncle, and a 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 45 1 

party of defiant noblemen who lusted for Polish freedom 
held to him, while Duke Charles openly joined the great 
party of his father, that of the burghers and peasants. In 
the Senate he addressed them, not the nobles; and with 
their countenance he upset the obnoxious project. 

All the instigations of the Catholic camarilla and of the 
ambitious nobles were met by the Swedish peasants with 
the simple answer, One was master in the country, and he 
was ruling in the spirit of Gustavus Vasa ! Once more the 
courageous Dalecarlians were the chief support of the 
monarchy. It came at last to a sanguinary collision. 

The battle of Stangebro, September, 1598, went entirely 
against Sigismund, and his flight left his followers to the 
Regent's revenge. The Diet of 1604 conferred on him the 
crown of Sweden. Charles IX. reigned after this for seven 
stormy years. 

Since 1560, Sweden had had no real king who could 
keep down faction and foster the interests of the country. 
All that had been accomplished by Gustavus Vasa — the 
establishment of regal power, careful administration of the 
laws, and a military force — had had a severe shock ; even the 
religious revolution had been endangered. Charles had all 
this to restore, while he was kept in suspense by three wars. 
The perpetual difficulties with Sigismund took him to 
Livonia, where he was compelled to break off the contest, in 
which he was at first successful, by attacks from Russia and 
Denmark. He was a broken-down old man, who had 
almost lost the power of speech, when Christian IV. in- 
vaded the country with a great force ; and when Charles 
died, in October, 161 1, not one of the recent difficulties was 
adjusted. 

Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden, 161 1-30. 

He was succeeded by his son Gustavus Adolphus, who 
was called upon in his seventeenth year to undertake a 
most difficult task. It was not his lot to be greeted by the 
unanimous acclamations of a happy and contented people ; 
he was the heir of irreconcilable hatred and numerous com- 
plications. His father had had many enemies, and had 
increased their number by his conflicts with Sigismund and 
the aristocracy ; all the Catholic party hated him and his 
house ; the resources of the country were low ; his right to 



452 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the throne disputed ; the kingdom involved in wars with 
Poland, Russia, and Denmark. Yet, in the course of 
twenty years, Gustavus Adolphus had triumphed over all 
his foes, and established a sovereign power which was in 
a position to take a decisive part in the great contest of the 
age, and which it required much misfortune and stupidity 
to overthrow. 

He was born on the 19th of December, 1594, in the 
midst of his father's struggle for the crown, and he took 
pains to accustom his son to these rough and stormy times. 
When he was eleven years old, he took him with him to 
the sittings of the Senate, and allowed him to attend and 
even speak at his audiences. An interest in military life 
was early awakened in him. There was ample opportunity 
to cultivate this taste at his father's Court, which was visited 
by officers from almost all the European Courts, and the 
campaigns in which he took part completed the course of 
instruction. At the same time, his father took care that his 
successor should receive a careful mental training and 
learned education, such as, in the variety of subjects it 
embraced, no other northern monarch had yet enjoyed. 
While still quite young, he spoke Latin, German, Dutch, 
French, and Italian fluently, amused himself with Xeno- 
phon, and diligently studied Hugo Grotius. With all this 
early familiarity with politics, war, and learning, physical 
training was not neglected. 

In short, the old king* might regard his successor with 
pride; he was leaving behind him a second Gustavus Vasa. 

The young king's first task was to heal the disorders of 
fifty years, which existed in every department of the State. 

The most difficult task was the restoration of healthy 
relations with the nobles. His father had sent many a 
seditious nobleman to the scaffold, which had sown the 
seeds of fearful hatred, and was not the path to successful 
reorganization. 

Gustavus Adolphus took the kingdom upon himself 
"with two empty hands," as it was said in his funeral 
sermon. With three wars on hand, he had neither money 
nor trustworthy troops. Both had to be raised, and it could 
only be done by a reorganization of his relations with the 

* From the admonitions, written and spoken, which he addressed to 
his son, it appears what a high-minded spirit this rough, harsh ruler 
possessed. 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN SWEDEN. 45^ 

nobles. With their large landed property, their vassals, 
and legal and administrative privileges, they were practi- 
cally exempt from taxation, and, though thoroughly warlike, 
they were entirely unaccustomed to military service as 
followers of the King. It was necessary that this state of 
things should cease, and that it should be accomplished, 
not by violence, but by agreement and treaty, if the 
citizens and peasants were not to succumb to the burden of 
taxation, and the State itself to be divided up into a number 
of aristocratic courts under "provincial kings." 

The war with Denmark, which came to an end in 16 13, 
was so unsuccessful mainly because the nobles furnished 
the King neither with men nor money. The King re- 
minded them, in an address which he made to them clad in 
armour, that they only received their privileges in return for 
" equestrian service," and that he, who, instead of doing his 
duty in the field, had preferred to stay by the stuff, had, 
according to Swedish law, forfeited his privileges. 

After various negotiations, often interrupted, he at length 
succeeded in establishing permanent, well-regulated rela- 
tions, which both parties found to be to their advantage. 

The King, in the main, permitted the nobles to retain 
their traditional privileges, and even granted them a new 
one, by the establishment of an Upper House ; but he was 
in earnest in compelling them to join the army, and effected 
that they should not be behind the other classes in money 
contributions. 

The Swedish nobles had always been a warlike race; 
every nobleman was a soldier, and the greatest lords always 
came to attend the meetings of Parliament with hundreds 
of horses. But the sovereign had hitherto only experienced 
the dark side of this feature of Swedish chivalry — defiant 
demands, and unpatriotic self-sufficiency. Under Gustavus 
Adolphus all this was changed within certain limits. The 
nobles found themselves an acknowledged power, and on 
good terms with the Crown ; their warlike ambition was no 
longer in contradiction to their class feelings and privileges ; 
they soon considered it an honour to serve this chivalrous 
King, as leader of the nation's forces ; and the King, as the 
representative of the army as well as of the people, ap- 
peared even in the Senate in armour. In 1627 the relations 
between them had become so cordial that the nobles, 
who already took a share of most of the taxes, took upon 



4$4 SfcCOND PllASfi OF THfe THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

themselves to furnish recruits for the general levy from their 
estates. 

This was the result of the prudent and personally winning 
manner in which Gustavus Adolphus went to work. It had 
never been thus in Sweden before, and has never been so 
since. All his successors have split upon this rock. 

With these weapons Gustavus Adolphus fought his way 
through two great wars, by the end of which Sweden was 
the first great power in the north, and was competent to 
take her place as arbiter in Europe. 

While these things were being slowly matured, Gustavus 
had undertaken energetic creative reforms in other spheres. 
The administration and the whole legal system had under- 
gone a thorough revolution \ the former was committed to 
carefully chosen officials, under proper control ; for the 
latter, new rules and new municipal laws were introduced, 
as a completion of the common law of Charles IX. Two 
courts of appeal were also established against the sentences 
of the district courts and the patrimonial judges. In legal 
matters the sentiments of Gustavus Adolphus were those of 
a really great ruler. In a dispute which was tried between 
him and a nobleman, he said to the judges, " Forget that I 
am King ; but do not forget that you are the highest judges 
in the land, and let your consciences pass sentence." And 
as they decided against him, he asked for the documents, 
convinced himself that he had been in the wrong, and com- 
mended the judges for their conscientiousness. In a pro- 
tocol of the Supreme Court of 5th November, 161 8, are the 
words : " His Majesty admonishes the royal courts of 
justice not to take the side of any party. If any one of 
the judges should turn aside the law in favour of the King 
or of any one else, let him know that it is his Majesty's in- 
tention to have him scalped, his head nailed to the seat 
of judgment, and his ears to the pillory." 

The administration of public justice also underwent a 
change little in accordance with modern liberalism, but all 
the more in unison with the strictly military monarchy of 
the Sweden of that day. 

By a new regulation of the Diet, which was accepted by 
the States assembled at Oerobro in January, 161 7, the right 
of initiative was conferred exclusively on the Crown. The 
Crown only -could bring forward motions, and no othei 
subjects were discussed. Each estate deliberated by itself, 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN SWEDEN. 455 

and the King pronounced the decision. The Diet was 
no longer the scene of the intrigues which had occasioned 
so many difficulties to Charles IX. ; its power had, in fact, 
vanished, and this, as well as the new legal system, formed a 
counterpoise to the privileges of the nobles. 

Together with this organization, untiring efforts were 
made to advance the prosperity of the oppressed people. 

Ruined cities, such as Gothenburg, were rebuilt ; sixteen 
new ones founded, and their prosperity secured by good 
constitutions and mercantile privileges ; navigation, com- 
merce, and the export of the products of the country — 
timber, copper, iron, pitch, and tar— were encouraged ; 
restrictions imposed on the introduction of foreign manu- 
factures ; Swedish products were introduced into the great 
markets by means of commercial treaties; so that in 16 14 
Sweden maintained active intercourse with Holland, and 
after 1624 Swedish merchants conveyed pitch, iron, planks, 
and rye in their own ships as far as Spain. Skilful foreigners 
were attracted to the country ; one of these found means to 
raise the mines of Sweden to a high state of prosperity ; and 
the King established a manufactory of arms and military 
requisites on a large scale. All this brought the fact to 
light that a people who had hitherto been supposed to be 
exclusively adapted for war, agriculture, and fishing, under 
judicious guidance could develope a capacity for industrial 
pursuits of every kind. 

The dark background of this active creative life is formed 
by the three sanguinary wars which Gustavus Adolphus 
inherited from his father, in which he, his state, and army, 
had to stand a fiery ordeal. 

These wars, as well as the war in Germany, were espe- 
cially aimed at the acquisition of dominion over the Baltic ; 
it was Gustavus Adolphus who projected this as a leading 
idea of Swedish policy, and he pursued it with remarkable 
success. 

When he entered upon this project all the south of Sweden 
was still in the hands of the Danes, together with the keys 
of the Baltic and the North Sea, Calmar and Elfsborg. 
Sweden was quite shut out from the sea. In this situation 
every attack of the Danes threatened the existence of the 
whole country, and this explains the obstinate war into 
which the young King was compelled to enter at the very 
beginning of his reign, in which neither party was victo- 



456 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

rious, though it caused unspeakable desolation in Sweden. 
By the Treaty of Knarod, January, 1613, both parties had 
to give up what they had taken from the other. Sweden 
received, under the form of a purchase, for one million 
dollars, the highly important points of Calmar, Oeland, 
Elfsborg, and the surrounding country. This was the first 
step towards the creation of the Swedish naval power. 

The war with Russia was more successful. 

With the revolt of Michael Romanow, in 1613, Russia 
began to free herself from the troubles occasioned by pre- 
tenders to the throne, foreign interference, and the immigra- 
tion of foreign nations. Still it was but the beginning of 
a normal political life ; no power existed sufficient to 
oppose Gustavus Adolphus. The Swedes were everywhere 
victorious, and peace was bought at a very high price. 
By the Treaty of Stolbowa, February, 161 7, Sweden received 
Carelia, Ingermanland, and Livonia ; that is, Russia lost 
the Baltic. 

This was an immense success. With just pride Gustavus 
Adolphus could say to his Parliament, in the spring of 
1617, "Not the least of the benefits which God has 
granted Sweden is that Russia must for ever give up the 
robbers' den from which she has so often molested us. 
She is a dangerous neighbour; her frontiers extend along 
the North and the Caspian Sea and approach the Black 
Sea ; she has a powerful aristocracy, a superfluity of pea- 
sants, populous cities, and can send large armies into the 
field. But she cannot send any vessel into the Baltic Sea 
without our leave. We are separated from her by the great 
Lakes of Ladoga and Peipus, thirty miles of marsh and 
strong fortresses. Russia is shut out from the Baltic, and I 
hope to God that the Muscovite will henceforth find it 
difficult to leap over this brook." 

Sweden then possessed all those points to which the 
Russian Empire afterwards extended itself, the main part 
of the territory which Peter the Great acquired for Russia 
for ever. Sweden made good her claims upon Livonia, 
seized parts of Courland and Esthonia, conquered one 
Polish and Prussian harbour after another, and finally 
received, at the Peace of Westphalia, the mouths of the 
Oder, the Weser, and the Elbe, Pomerania, Bremen, and 
Verden — in short, " the whole bastion of the Crown of 
Sweden," as Axel Oxenstierna expressed it. It was an im- 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN SWEDEN. 457 

mense district on the Baltic coasts, in the power of a State 
hitherto the poorest of all in coast territory. 

The third and last war with Poland lasted till 1629. The 
enmity between Poland and Sweden was vastly increased by 
the contest about the right to the throne of the two lines of 
Vasa. In Poland the King of Sweden was called a 
usurper. Sigismund's Catholic followers joined cause with 
all the foes of Gustavus Adolphus, and the Polish coast of 
the Baltic was quite enough to become an apple of discord. 
The last war was also the most successful for Sweden. 

By the truce which ended it in 1629, Sweden received 
Elbing, Braunsberg, Pillau, Memel, and her claims were 
recognised to the Baltic territory. 

During this warlike period of eighteen years, not only 
had a vast empire been conquered, a school of generals 
and warriors had been trained such as had not been seen 
in Europe since the decline of the Spanish school. Yet, 
singularly enough, when the news came to Vienna of the 
landing of Gustavus Adolphus, they looked in the State 
Almanack to see where the country of the little Gothic king 
was situated. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, 1630-32. 

Oiigin and Significance of the Swedish War. — Motives, Pol tical and 
Religious, of Gustavus Adolphus. — Characteristics of him and his 
Army. — Their Landing and First Successes, June — December, 
1630. — Gustavus Adolphus in Pomerania. — Siege of Stettin; 
Treaty with Duke Bogeslav. — Tedious Advance into Pomerania. — 
Imperial troops driven out of Pomerania, December, 1630. — 
Treaty of Barwalde, January, 163 1. — Convention of Leipzig, and 
Fall of Magdeburg, May, 1631. — Electoral Brandenburg and 
Electoral Hesse join Gustavus Adolphus, June — August. — Battle 
of Breitenfeld, September 7, 1631. — Victorious March of Gustavus 
Adolphus towards South and West Germany, October — December, 
1 63 1. — Plans for Restoration. — Overthrow of the Power of the 
League. — Return of Wallenstein, April, 1632. — Battle of Liitzen, 
1 6th November, 1632. — Death of Gustavus Adolphus and its 
Significance. 

Origin and Significance of the War. 

THE invasion of Germany by Gustavus Adolphus was a 
result of the protection he had afforded to Stralsund 
against Wallenstein, and this protection was a result of his 
relations with the Baltic and with the Reformation. He could 
never hope to rule the Baltic so long as Mecklenburg and 
Pomerania were in the hands of the imperial party, and the 
opposition Polish king had a support in the Hapsburgs — in- 
deed his own kingdom would be endangered if the Catholic 
Restoration were not energetically opposed. 

The same controversy about which the world-wide war 
in Germany had broken out, was raging in Sweden ; it was 
only the iron grasp of Charles IX. which had kept the 
monarchy of Gustavus Vasa above water ; and the country 
on the other side of the Baltic was the seat of perpetual 
intrigues to undo his work. If this were allowed to go on, 



CHARACTER O* GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 459 

a time would come when his own kingdom would be in 
the same danger as the little states of North Germany. 

And this was no idle dream. Since Wallenstein's suc- 
cesses, the wings of the reaction had almost overshadowed 
the Scandinavian States. 

The Emperor Ferdinand and his brother-in-law, Sigis- 
rnund, had been eagerly discussing how Sweden could be 
made Catholic ; at what point the attempt at conversion 
which King John had been compelled to give up, had best 
be taken up again ; and they had great hopes of attaining 
their end. The truce which had cost Poland so many losses 
on the Baltic, lasted purposely until Sigismund, with the 
aid of the Emperor, had recruited his strength, and for years 
the latter had openly taken part in Poland against Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

There were also pressing Swedish interests which impelled 
Gustavus to join in the contest, and to overlook these would 
be to misunderstand the position of affairs. But these were 
not his only points of view. 

In one respect Gustavus Adolphus was a unique person- 
age in this century ; he was animated by the fresh, unbroken 
youthful spirit of the early days of the Reformation, like 
that which characterized such men as Frederic of Saxony 
and Philip of Hesse. If it can be said of any ruler in the 
first half of the seventeenth century, that he was filled with 
Protestant zeal and sincere enthusiasm for the greatness of 
his cause, it may be said of him, and of him alone. To a 
world full of mean artifices, miserable intrigues, and narrow- 
minded men, he exhibited once more the qualities and 
characteristics of a true hero. 

This explains why he called forth enthusiasm where it had 
been for many decades unknown — why he succeeded in 
kindling men's minds for ideas which had been engulfed in 
the miseries of the times. Sacred things were no idle sport 
with him. Because he was himself in earnest with his 
prayers and religion, the divine worship which was held, the 
spiritual songs and psalms that were sung in his camp, had 
power to restrain the terrible brute strength of his army ; 
but it was he alone who succeeded in it, not one of his 
successors could do so. 

His mind was also large enough in a fearfully demoralised 
age to go back to the origin of the peaceful relations which 
had existed between the adherents of the different creeds 



460 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

for more than half a century. He alone proclaimed the 
principle that the object was not mutual destruction, but the 
restoration of the law as it existed before the war ; he alone 
restored their rights to the Protestants without encroaching 
on those of the Catholics. This was something in a con- 
test in which both parties had become so fearfully embittered. 
He could justly say to the princes and nobles at Nurem- 
berg, " For shame, that I, the foreigner, must teach you 
your natural duty ! " 

It was this that gave importance to the following war. 
During the whole period Gustavus was the only person to 
whom men could look up, who could inspire them with 
enthusiasm. The Catholic party did not produce any indi- 
vidual of equal greatness to confront him. This gave to 
Protestantism, in the days of its deepest dejection, an 
unaccustomed impetus, and the part played by this one 
man is shown by the retrogression which took place only 
too quickly after his death. 

There is another point on which this episode is of impor- 
tance. It was not only that the weight of a great and 
powerful personage was thrown into the scale, that of a king 
and a general to whom no one, and least of all Ferdinand II., 
could be compared ; Gustavus Adolphus commanded the 
only army in this war which either did not soon get beyond 
discipline and control, or at any rate throw off its distinc- 
tive creed. Who could call the armies around him, or after 
him, either Catholic or Protestant ? In the imperial armies 
there were masses of Protestant hirelings, especially in 
those of Wallenstein, and as many Catholics among the 
troops of their opponents. The most deplorable thing in 
this war was, that, especially after the fourth decade, those 
who were carrying it on had entirely forgotten its origin— 
that everything had been engulfed in passion and tumult, 
and that religion had only become a blasphemous pretext 
for horrible devastation and plunder. 

All this was quite otherwise in the army of Gustavus 
Adolphus. Even after his death it continued to be brave 
and well commanded, though there was no one capable of 
keeping up its spirit, its inner life, as he had done. 

The armies of his adversaries consisted of collections of 
rabble without country or conscience. His army was a 
national Swedish one ; his soldiers were Sweden's brave 
peasants, led by their chivalrous nobles. All the national 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND HIS ARMY. 461 

enthusiasm of the people and the aristocracy lived in these 
hosts, and this was a most important factor against the 
hireling troops, who looked for nothing in war but plunder, 
debauchery, and excess. 

The Swedish army was also religious. It was Lutheran, 
like its King, and every feature indicated that it was so. The 
neglected levers of the sixteenth century were still in use. 
" Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott," " A mighty castle is our God," 
was sung, understood, and sympathized with. What a fear- 
ful contrast were the lawless bands who, in the name of the 
one true faith, tore our unhappy country to pieces ! 

This gave a consecration to this war. Gustavus Adolphus 
managed to control the wild lawless masses by higher 
motives ; sentiments of nationality and religion had some 
weight with them. All this was changed by his death. 
After this, when a battle was lost, some of the Swedes took 
service under the Emperor, and they were in no way behind 
the other soldiers in barbarity towards defenceless citizens 
and peasants. 

It was this which conferred on the war of 1630 a peculiar 
greatness, notwithstanding its short duration, and caused it 
soon to lose the character of a mere invasion. Gustavus 
Adolphus became a leading personage, Sweden a command- 
ing power in Europe. This arose from his personal charac 
ter, the character of his army, and the moral power of both 
over Catholics and Protestants. Even the Pope did homage 
to the hero, and said, on hearing of his death, " A hero, a 
perfect man, who wanted nothing for perfection but the true 
faith." 

There was nothing of this spirit to be found anywhere 
else. Who would venture to call a Wallenstein, a Tilly, or 
a Pappenheim, a Catholic hero ? 

Landing and First Successes, June — December, 1630. 

The situation cf affairs in which Gustavus Adolphus now 
began to take part has been characterized by our previous 
remarks. 

The power of the League had been for two years on the 
decline, and the Emperor had done all that was in his 
power to weaken it. He had created for himself the 
embarrassment occasioned by the Edict of Restitution, 
and thereby driven the Protestant states into the enemy'g 



462 SECOND PHASE OF 1HE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

camp, and now he had dismissed Wallenstein into die 
bargain. 

In so far, then, the situation was more favourable than 
ever. Had Gustavus come three years earlier, when Wal- 
lenstein was victorious on the Baltic, the Edict not yet 
issued, and the League still strong in the field, the struggle 
would have been a desperate one. 

It was by no means a slight one as it was, and there was 
something so adventurous in the commencement of the 
undertaking, that any less courageous person must have 
shrunk from it. In Sweden, except the King and his im- 
patient officers, there was not a man for the war. The 
country was recovering itself, after the sacrifices and suf- 
ferings of eighteen years of warfare, and was now to be 
involved in another great war, the end of which no one 
could foresee. Parliament would not be convinced that 
instead of adhering to a watchful defensive policy towards 
the Emperor, it was necessary to adopt an offensive attitude 
exposed to a thousand dangers. The States declared that 
there was no money, and tormented the King with their 
blunt refusals until immediately before his departure. 

After the hated King's back was turned, Denmark seemed 
disposed to attack the country j and, until there was some 
result to show, nothing but smooth words came from 
France, England, and Holland; and nothing whatever was 
to be expected from the German princes whom it was in- 
tended to aid. 

The Duke of Pomerania, to whom Gustavus Adolphus 
hoped to appear in the light of a liberator, sent an embassy 
to him just as he was about to embark, urgently to entreat 
him to stay at home, or, at all events, not to land in 
Pomerania, for the country was already nearly ruined, and 
could not stand the passage of troops again. 

On 24th June, 1630, exactly one hundred years after the 
presentation of the Confession of Augsburg, Gustavus 
Adolphus appeared before the island of Usedom, and at 
once began to disembark his troops and artillery. 

He was preceded by a manifesto, which set forth all his 
causes of complaint against the Emperor Ferdinand, and 
explained that the King came to protect liberty in general, 
which was threatened by Hapsburg, and in particular that 
of the German Electors, who had just presented their ulti- 
matum to the Emperor at Ratisbon, 



FIRST LANDING IN GERMANY. 463 

The project was certainly well enough conceived, but 
still it produced no immediate result. 

Germany was invaded by a splendid force of 20,000 or 
30,000 men, but the German empire remained to be conquered. 
Suppose the feeling should be, Away with the foreigner, who 
could find fault with it ? Suppose the Germans, who had 
been tearing each other's eyes out, should now make peace 
to avoid the disgrace of foreign intervention, who could 
regard it as anything but an act of reasonable self-defence ? 
Such sentiments did here and there arise. It was asked, 
" What will become of us if strangers insinuate themselves 
amongst us and meddle in our affairs?" But these feelings 
were not strong enough to unite parties, or to oppose a 
compact front to the foreigner. 

Still, he was regarded with suspicion and distrust ; only if 
it came to the worst would the Protestants side with him. 
The attitude of Saxony and Brandenburg towards the 
Emperor, or rather their want of a decided attitude, was 
the result of mere weakness, and fear withheld them from 
risking anything for Sweden. The other Protestant elements 
were isolated. The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel was a long 
way off, and could not render any help, for he wanted help 
himself. The imperial cities of South Germany looked 
eagerly towards Gustavus Adolphus, but could do nothing 
at so great a distance : their adherence would only be 
possible if great victories brought him to South Germany. 

The King was therefore in utter isolation on German 
soil ; and not only so, his line of retreat was quite insecure. 
His great distance from home, the watchful enmity of Den- 
mark and Poland, who were only awaiting a favourable 
moment for attack, could but lead to a fatal catastrophe 
if he met with a decided repulse half way. 

Under such circumstances, it required a bold, adventurous 
spirit to undertake the invasion, and much prudence and 
foresight not to make shipwreck at the very outset. 

Gustavus Adolphus was quite equal to the task. He 
proceeded like a man who accurately weighs every consi- 
deration and the means at his disposal, and, knowing that he 
cannot retrace his path, advances only step by step, and 
sometimes by circuitous paths. 

The imperial army under Conti, which opposed him in 
Pomerania and Mecklenburg, might be equal, if not superior, 
to his in numbers. It was in possession of all the places 



464 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

which it had won during the successful warfare of several 
years, but it was deprived of the great leader who had 
created and kept it together. It suffered from hunger, 
desertion, and discouragement, was widely scattered, in part 
given up by its leaders, and therefore it melted away day 
by day, and was ill adapted to repulse a resolute, well- 
conducted attack, though it made any advance into the 
country very difficult. 

The first success of Gustavus worth naming, after taking 
the islands of Rugen and Wollin by surprise, was the occu- 
pation of Stettin in July. 

It took place under circumstances which were striking 
enough. The Protestant population trembled at the horrors 
which had been connected with every occupation by foreign 
troops, whether Catholic or Protestant. Bogeslav feared 
the Emperor's reprisals if a change should take place, and 
threatened hostilities if the Swedes did not keep themselves 
at a respectful distance. But Gustavus would not be re- 
pulsed, rejected every proposal of neutrality, and so pressed 
the anxious Duke that with a heavy heart he at length 
granted them entrance. The Swedes behaved admirably ; 
they were not, like other troops, quartered on the citizens, 
but lived in tents, went peacefully with the inhabitants to 
church, and, with great energy, in four days constructed a 
system of fortifications round the town which might have 
served for a model, not for that period only. 

At the same time a treaty was concluded between Swe- 
den and Pomerania, which not only established a perpetual 
alliance, but dexterously provided that in the event of Duke 
Bogeslav's death Pomerania should fall to Sweden, which 
afterwards took place. 

This was the beginning of the tedious warfare by means 
of which Gustavus Adolphus spread his forces over Pome- 
rania, Mecklenburg, and Brandenburg. Napoleon consi- 
dered him to be the greatest general of all times, chiefly be- 
cause, during a dangerous and tedious campaign, from June, 
1630, to the autumn of 1631, he advanced slowly, but surely, 
towards the centre of Germany without suffering any repulse 
worth mentioning. It was upon these tactics that the whole 
fate of his undertaking depended ; not a single false step must 
be made. And this solves the much-disputed question why 
he did not -relieve Magdeburg while it was still possible to 
do so. 



RICHELIEU AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 465 

Magdeburg was certainly an important place as the capital 
of North Germany, and the most prosperous seat of Pro- 
testantism. But important as he must have considered its 
fate, he could not sacrifice his existence, the results of three 
great wars, the army which it had taken him nineteen years 
to create, by placing himself between two fires, and involving 
himself in a catastrophe which the authorities of the city 
had brought upon themselves by culpable imprudence. 

Nothing occurred during the summer of 1630 but an 
advance step by step into North Germany. It took months 
to get the whole of Pomerania into his hands, and to 
conquer every town, and months more before he had gained 
a firm footing in Brandenburg. 

So difficult was the situation that his own brother-in-law, 
in Brandenburg, afterwards only allowed a few fortresses to 
be taken from him by force. 

On 24th December a decisive blow was struck at the 
flower of the imperial troops, who, tortured by cold and 
hunger, were lying between Greifenhagen and Garz. The 
whole of Pomerania, with the exception of Colberg and 
Greifswald, and part of Neumark, was now in his power ; 
but his only allies were Francis of Saxe Lauenburg, the 
exiled Dukes of Mecklenburg, the Administrator Christian 
William of Magdeburg, and Bogeslav of Pomerania; with the 
exception of the latter, princes without land. 

The most laborious part of the campaign was now over, 
and it had become obvious to every one that the Swedish 
war was no repetition of the unhappy Danish one, which 
had been conducted without the least skill or success. In 
the present instance resolute determination and prudent 
foresight were singularly combined. 

Treaty of Barwalde, January, 1631. — Convention of 
Leipzig and Fall of Magdeburg, May, 1631. — Vic- 
tory of Breitenfeld, September, 1631. 

With the beginning of the new year a new ally appeared, 
who was not without value — Cardinal Richelieu. He could 
do pretty much what he pleased in France, and was in a 
position to entertain the idea of renewing the foreign policy 
of Henry IV., Henry II., and Francis I. France had 
neither finances nor army for independent intervention. If 
she desired, therefore, to take a part in European affairs, 

3° 



466 SECOND PHASE OF THE xHIRTY YEARS' WAR 

she must ally herself with some foreign military ruler, and 
Gustavus Adolphus appeared to be the man. 

He was in want of money, for his resources were still 
very limited, and as a foreigner he seemed adapted to sup- 
port the acquisitive schemes in which France indulged in 
the name of " German liberty." He might perhaps be 
employed as a battering ram for the French policy. Riche- 
lieu gave Gustavus credit for being what Bernhard of 
Weimar was afterwards to be, and what the Swedes at last 
actually became ; and there did not now seem to be much 
cause to anticipate failure on his part. 

But Richelieu found his master in Gustavus Adolphus. 
France had hitherto known nothing of a " King " of Sweden, 
for the rulers of that country did not wear their crowns by 
the grace of God, only by the election of the States and 
people. Gustavus declared at once that only as King would 
he negotiate, and Richelieu was obliged to yield. 

And, what was of more importance, he was also obliged 
to make important concessions. His endeavour to obtain 
an influence over the conduct of affairs was futile. All that 
he could obtain was a promise from Gustavus that he 
would nowhere attack the Catholic Church as such, and 
would otherwise restore everything to its previous con- 
dition of peace. Even the cession of a slice of Germany on 
the French frontier, which Richelieu desired to have for the 
protection of German liberty, was refused. " Not a village 
shall the French have," said Gustavus Adolphus. 

Thus he had fully accomplished his object. France 
granted him subsidies in the name of their common inte- 
rests ; but the political and military leadership belonged 
solely to Sweden. The Treaty of Barwalde (January, 1631 ) 
was therefore a great diplomatic victory for Gustavus 
Adolphus. It provided him with the means of carrying on 
the war, while he fully maintained his independence. 

Meanwhile the contest about the fortresses continued. 
By the spring the King had made two important conquests 
— that of Colberg in March, and of Frankfort-on-the-Oder 
in April. 

Consciousness began to dawn upon the Protestant States 
which had not yet joined either side, that the time was 
come for them to take an independent course. The 
Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, as the chief repre- 
sentatives of German Protestantism, and yet not favourable 



THE CONVENTION AT LEIPZIG. 467 

to Sweden, both severely menaced by the Edict of Restitu- 
tion, were now compelled to adopt a decisive policy. The 
Protestant States of South Germany were in the same .posi- 
tion ; they had everything to fear from Catholic restoration, 
and little to hope for from Sweden. For both these groups 
there was a common programme prescribed by the nature 
of the case — armed neutrality, for the protection of Pro 
testantism against the Emperor, of the German nation 
against the foreigner. Since the dismissal of Wallenstein 
the imperial arms had been everywhere at a disadvantage. 
The League, or rather the Elector of Bavaria, maintained a 
policy of delay which displayed little zeal for the Emperor. 
If the King of Sweden had to halt before Saxony and 
Brandenburg, he would be left in the lurch. If these 
adversaries united to form a compact mass, and said to the 
Emperor, " We will keep to the religious peace, and have 
nothing to do with the foreigner," there would be a pro- 
spect of a peace which would satisfy both the religious and 
national demands of Germany. Armed mediation is cer- 
tainly often the most thankless policy ; but under some cir- 
cumstances it alone can turn the scale. The means of 
those upon whom it depended were quite sufficient ; but then 
there must be no delay in collecting and using them ; and, 
above all things, it must not be imagined that the end 
would be attained by boastful speeches and endless scrib- 
bling. This simple and obvious policy was pursued with 
great firmness by a man who has been much censured and 
misunderstood, Count Arnim von Boytzenburg.* 

In February a convention took place at Leipzig, at which 
there was a brilliant assemblage of Protestant States, and 
they discussed the subject of a common programme till May. 

Neither of the military parties took part in it — neither 
the League nor Gustavus Adolphus. The Jesuits jeered, 
and published mocking fugitive pieces, f because they per- 

* Until 1629 he was in Wallenstein's army, after 163 1 an Electoral 
Field-Marshal. Upon his continued relations with Wallenstein, see 
Gfiorer, who seems to overlook the lact that in the existing position 
of affairs, it was quite a different thing to be in connection with Wal- 
lenstein and with the Court of Vienna. 

t For instance : — 

" The poor little Lutheran princes 
Are holding a little convention at Leipzig. 
Who is there ? A princeling and a half. 
What are they going 1 do ? Make a little war. [Who"» 



468 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

ceived the danger of success, and Gustavus Adolphus set 
his Chemnitz to negotiate, because he foresaw that if their 
end were obtained, all that he had attained would be lost. 

But the helpless indecision of the princes and their 
ministers took good care that the one thing should not 
happen which could have given Germany peace by German 
means. After discussions which lasted for months, great 
festivities and carousals, the assembly broke up without the 
smallest result. The decision with which they finally con- 
soled themselves was simply ridiculous. They had intended 
to form a league, but instead of that they reckoned up what 
number of troops each party could bring in case they 
should form a league some other time. 

A religious discussion also took place. Of course no 
agreement was come to; but a praiseworthy promise was 
given to treat each other better in future than they had 
hitherto done. The Convention of Leipzig is best described 
by one who took part in it : " For four weeks we feasted 
and caroused like excellent Christians, and can say, like 
the bishop who cut his finger, ' Quantum patimur pro Jesu 
Christo.' " 

Meanwhile the League had roused itself up. Tilly had 
joined Pappenheim, who was besieging Magdeburg, and 
before Gustavus Adolphus arrived the city was taken, 
devastated, burnt, and the inhabitants butchered with 
unparalleled barbarity.* 

This stirred up the hatred of the Protestants afresh 

Who's going to lead it ? The little King of Sweden. 
Who'll find the money ? Tipsy George of Saxony. 
Whom will it please ? Little Palatine Fritz. 
What's it all about ? His little nest at Heidelberg." 

— Raumer, Vol. III. 
" Die armen lutherischen Ffirstelein 
Halten zu Leipzig ein Conventelein. 
Wer ist dabei ? Anderthalb Fiirstelein. 
Was sollen sie anfahen ? Ein klein Kriegelein. 
Wer soil's fuhren ? Das schwedisch Koniglein. 
Wer wird's geld geben ? Das sachsisch Biei gorglein. 
Wer wird sich dessen freuen ? Das pfalzisch Fritzlein. 
Warum ist's zu thun ? Um sein heidelbergisch Nestelein." 

• Droysen considers it probable, though not certain, that the storm- 
ing from May io-20th was begun on receiving a treacherous sign from 
the city itself. By whom given cannot now be ascertained. The 
city was set fire to by Pappenheim 's orders, but whether he intended- 
its entire destruction it is impossible to say. 



FALL OF MAGDEBURG. 469 

against the Emperor, and brought the behaviour of the 
Swedes during the war into a favourable light. They were 
everywhere in an enemy's country, yet they could not be 
reproached with anything like the outrages of the imperial 
troops in the empire itself. In March, Gustavus Adolphus 
had issued strict regulations to protect those who had sol- 
diers quartered upon them from exorbitant demands from 
the officers and troops ;* and this gave him more adherents 
among the people than victorious battles would have 
done. 

Meanwhile the intermediate party was quite broken up. 
There was no neutrality ; on one side was Tilly, on the 
other Gustavus. Both coveted accessions, and sought 
to gain them, now by persuasions, now by threats. The 
Elector of Brandenburg had only consented with great 
reluctance, and under all sorts of conditions, to surrender 
Spandau and Kiistrin to the Swedes. After the fall of 
Magdeburg he demanded Spandau back again, and as he 
would not listen to the King's friendly remonstrances, the 
latter advanced with his artillery to Berlin, and while it 
was directed against the castle, he compelled the Elector 
to sign the treaty with Sweden. The neutrality of electoral 
Saxony was soon also at an end. 

The indecision of this court was so great, that until both 
parties were in the country and demanded its adherence, 
nobody knew who was its friend or foe. The country was 
purely Protestant ; the imperial troops behaved as they did 
everywhere, while the Protestant Swedes spared both 
people and country. This decided the question. 

At the end of August, Saxony went over to Gustavus 
Adolphus, and this gave an impetus to other accessions in 
central and southern Germany. In the beginning of 
September, the Saxon and Swedish armies met at Diiben, 
and advanced into the plains of Leipzig, to give the Im- 
perialists battle. Tilly had united all the imperial forces 
that were at hand, but did not intend to give battle. 
Pappenheim, on the contrary, and the officers, who were 
weary of perpetually moving hither and thither, were eager 
for it, and when the Swedes came in sight rushed away 
with their cavalry from the main army to begin the contest. 
The attack was a failure, and now Tilly himself was obliged 
to give battle. 

• Gfrorer. 



470 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

They fought from the 7th to the 17th of September, on 
the Breitenfeld. The Swedes fought mainly by themselves, 
for the Saxons only kept their posts for a short time, and 
lhe Elector, who a few days before had declared, that if 
Gustavus Adolphus did not at once advance to battle he 
would attack Tilly alone, fled miles away from the battle- 
field. The Swedes fought against 34,000 imperial troops, 
with 13,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry. The material of 
the former was not bad, and their leader was a hitherto 
unvanquished general. 

Tilly's plan was to outflank the enemy's line of battle by 
means of his superior number of cavalry, and then to sur- 
round them. But the plan was frustrated by the skilful 
tactics of the Swedish infantry and cavalry together. 
After the conflict had begun by a fierce cannonade, the 
masses of cavalry rushed at each other, and after each 
attack, the Swedish cavalry parted to the right and left, 
thus leaving space for the fearful firing of the musketeers, * 
and the light cannons behind them. Thus the divisions 
of infantry and cavalry continually relieved each other ; 
the excellent discipline of the Swedes, the regular inter- 
change of weapons, the skill of their leaders, and the 
unusual agility of the separate divisions, finally gained the 
day. The valour of the imperial troops was worthy of their 
ancient fame. They stood the enemy's fire like walls, but 
could not match his tactics. The approach of night put an 
end to the contest, which had lasted for five hours. Tilly's 
army was almost annihilated, and he narrowly escaped 
death himself. 

Victorious March of Gustavus Adolphus towards 
South Germany, October, 161 i. — His Plans of 
Restoration. 

Immense results followed this victory. All that had been 
accomplished by the imperial arms since 1620, in North 
Germany, was undone. The fruits of the victories of 
Wallenstein and Tilly, by which North German Pro- 
testantism was lamed, were destroyed, and from the manner 
of the retreat of Tilly's army, it was doubtful whether it 
would confront the enemy again. The greater part of 
Germany would probably now be open to the Swede ; 
perhaps he would head a triumphal march to the Rhine 



VICTORIOUS MARCH TO SOUTH GERMANY. 47 1 

and the Maine. The King at first advanced cautiously 
towards the south, as yet unconscious of the great results of 
his victory ; he reached the Maine and Wurzburg without 
striking a blow, and when Tilly opposed him, he was 
victorious over him again. 

It has often been asked, why, after the victory of Breiten- 
feld, Gustavus Adolphus did not at once advance to 
Bohemia, march to Vienna, and before the Emperor could 
assemble an army, decide the contest before the walls of 
the capital. Why, instead of doing this, he left the attack 
on the Austrian hereditary dominions, to the Elector of 
Saxony, and himself advanced to the Rhine and the Maine, 
where there was no hostile army of any importance. 
Eminent men about the King regretted afterwards that he 
took this course, and eighteen years after his death, Oxen- 
stierna was of opinion that the King made a great blunder, 
contrary to the advice of his best friends. 

Many reasons may be imagined which determined the 
King not to take the former otherwise obvious course. 

In the first place, he had not then that idea of the import- 
ance of his victory, in the plains of Leipzig, which he after- 
wards derived from its actual results, and it was on these 
results that the opinions of the generals were mainly based. 
It could not then be precisely known how completely the 
power of the League was destroyed. 

Then the very loose alliance with the Elector required 
peculiar caution. The Elector maintained that he was still 
the independent leader of his troops. If this were con- 
ceded to him, his command must be of a kind that, how- 
ever exercised, could hurt no one but himself. Gustavus 
Adolphus sent him to Bohemia, because he thought it more 
prudent to set his doubtful ally to harry the Austrian 
territory than to send him to the Maine and the Rhine, 
where, as the succourer of the Protestants, he would have 
appropriated to himself all the results of the Swedish 
victories ; would have taken up his old alliances more 
injuriously than ever, and have been changed from a luke- 
warm ally into an open enemy. 

By going himself to the south, he made the Elector 
innocuous, and created a permanent power for himself by 
the adherence of the Protestant princes and imperial cities 
of the west and south. He was not mistaken in the value 
of these allies. The South Germans remained the longest 



472 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

faithful to the Swedes, and allied themselves so closely with 
them that there was no fear of their defection. 

It was here that Gustavus Adolphus had his most gracious 
task to perform, and he really seemed like a saviour to 
the oppressed Protestant States. In Bohemia and Upper 
Austria, Protestantism had been completely crushed, and 
could not be revived simply by the entrance of Protestant 
troops ; but in the favoured provinces of the Maine and the 
Rhine there were millions of Protestants who, since 1622, 
had been groaning under the oppression of their fanatical 
" converters," and were anxiously awaiting their liberation. 
This was expressed in the invitation to Gustavus Adolphus 
to lend them a hand against Hapsburg, which was addressed 
to him by a number of states assembled at Frankfort. He 
came to assert the rights of Protestantism ; if he did not 
redeem his word, he would lose not only his prestige, but 
the substantial support of his whole policy. 

Hesse Cassel, Darmstadt, the Palatinate, and its col- 
lateral lines, Wurtemberg, and all the imperial cities from 
Frankfort to Ulm and Augsburg, formed together a great 
power in Germany. The time was come for wresting them 
from the Hapsburg power, and restoring the ascendancy of 
the Protestants. 

After taking Erfurt with one blow, in the beginning of 
October, he passed through Thuringia to Franconia without 
meeting with any resistance ; and now began the period of 
his triumphs, and a time of prosperity for his troops such 
as they had never known. Konigshofen, Wurzburg, Hanau, 
Frankfort, and Hochst fell quickly one after another into 
his hands. The States of the Franconian district did 
homage to him as the Duke of Franconia, and his famished 
troops revelled in the luxuriance of the great "priests' row" 
(pfaftengasse), as the line of ecclesiastical states from the 
Maine to the Rhine was then called. 

At Wurzburg there was again a sanguinary passage of 
arms with Tilly, which ended in his retreat. Alter this, 
Gustavus could peacefully take possession of the country 
from Franconia to the Rhine. His position was as brilliant 
as that of any one who had taken part in this war. From 
the coast of Pomerania he had advanced to the line of the 
Maine ; there he appeared only as an adventurous general. 
Here, in the heart of the empire, he received the Protestant 
States like a German Emperor of the olden time. 



PROBABLE PROJECTS OF GUST AVUS ADOLPHUS. 47 ? 

Still, his position was not without difficulties. His 
alliance with the German princes was always insecure ; the 
faithfulness of the imperial cities was no security against 
their defection ; a single failure would drive Saxony and 
Brandenburg into the enemy's camp. Those only were 
true to him who had much to receive and little to give. 
The exiled princes who expected him to re-instate them — 
those who were landless, who looked for a rich booty, the 
distressed South German princes — such as the Prince of 
Hesse Cassel — who hoped for protection against the foreign 
rule of the Spaniards and Jesuits. But none of these con- 
ferred any power; they were only proteges whom it was often 
hard to please. That Saxony and Brandenburg regarded 
the King with distrust and aversion, was not merely a 
suspicion ; it was a fact. Both had only been frightened 
into alliance with him by threats. If now or later, they 
found any loophole which would enable them to come to 
terms with the Emperor, they would avail themselves of it. 
Gustavus was not in the least deceived by them. 

Among the princes of Central Germany there was a fear 
lest all this should end in merely exchanging a Hapsburg 
master for a Swedish one, and this could but be strength- 
ened as the King's plans were developed by the growing 
success of his arms. 

At any rate, the victorious march towards the south and 
west had essentially changed his plans. 

The Swedes had hitherto found a scanty subsistence in 
the most sterile and exhausted parts of Germany ; but now 
they were in countries which rejoiced their hearts. They 
have themselves given us naive descriptions of their sur- 
prise. They seem to say, It is good to be here ; let us 
make tabernacles — whereas this had never entered their 
heads in the camp at Werben or on the sandy plains of 
Brandenburg. That Gustavus Adolphus also may have 
now entertained ideas of permanent conquest and settle- 
ment, which did not occur to him on the Pomeranian coast 
and in the Mark, is quite intelligible. Was he not revered 
as if he had been Emperor? Were not his meetings of 
princes held with all the old imperial pomp? Was he not 
regarded with enthusiastic affection by the people ? 

Nuremberg, the most German of the imperial cities, and 
the proudest of the republics, told him expressly that if there 
were an election of a new head of the empire, " they knew 



474 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

of no one whose choice would be more suitable and happy 
than that of his Majesty himself." 

When Gustavus Adolphus was advancing from Pome- 
rania to Brandenburg, the Elector sent an embassy to him, 
to ask what recompense he should demand as a material 
indemnity in Germany. The King replied that if the 
exiles were restored, religious liberty granted to the States, 
and he were assured that he need not fear any attack from 
the Hapsburgs in his own country, he should be satisfied. 
But by this assurance he meant a pledge which should at 
once indemnify him, and protect him against attack. He 
intended probably some slip of the Baltic coast, like that 
which afterwards fell to Sweden on the mouth of the Oder 
in Pomerania. 

But now that he was at Mayence the case was different 
He was now ju tified in demanding what would then have 
been premature. When the Catholic party made overtures 
of peace, he made the following stipulations : — 

i. The Edict of Restitution shall be null and void. 

2. Both the Catholic and Protestant religion shall be 
tolerated in town and country. 

3. Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia shall be restored to 
their previous condition ; all the exiles shall return to their 
estates. 

4. The Elector Palatine Frederic V. shall be restored to 
his country. 

5. The Bavarian Electorate shall cease ; the electoral 
vote shall be restored to the Palatinate. 

6. The practice of the evangelical religion and all civic 
privileges shall be restored to Augsburg. 

7. All Jesuits, as disturbers of the public peace and authors 
of the present difficulties, shall be banished from the empire. 

8. Protestants, as well as Catholics, shall be admitted 
into every institution. 

9. The monasteries in the Duchy of Wurtemberg which 
have been illegally taken possession of by the Catholics 
shall be restored. 

10. Out of gratitude for the salvation of the German 
empire, your Majesty the King of Sweden shall be elected 
King of Rome. 

11. All expenses incurred in the imperial cities and in 
the Duchy of Wurtemberg by the Edict of Restitution shall 
be repaid. 



CONDITIONS Of PEACE. 4? 5 

iz. Theie shall be as many Lutheran as Catholic canons 
appointed to the cathedrals. 

We have two accounts of these conditions, one by Khe 
venhiller (vol. xii.), the other in Richelieu's memoirs 
(vol. vii.). They agree, except on one point ; the clause 
about the election of Gustavus Adolphus as King of Rome 
is wanting in Richelieu. This important point is not well 
authenticated. There is very important testimony of 
another kind against that of Khevenhiller.* 

About the same time Gustavus Adolphus told the people 
of Nuremberg t that "from his friends he required nothing 
but gratitude. What he had taken from his foes he intended 
to keep. The Protestant League must separate itself from 
the Catholics, and provide itself with a suitable leader, 
especially for the war. He could not be satisfied with pay 
for a few months, like a military adventurer. He might 
demand territory ' ex iure gentium] according to Grotius, 
although he had enough of his own. He could not give up 
Pomerania, on account of the sea ; and if he gave anything 
back, he might at the same time demand the rights of 
supremacy which the Emperor had hitherto enjoyed. The 
old imperial constitution was good for nothing ; it was like 
an ancient ruin, good enough for rats and mice, but not 
habitable for men." 

A resolution of the Swedish Parliament now proposed 
religious liberty, abolition of the Inquisition for ever, and 
restitution to the Protestants ; compensation for Sweden's 
war expenses, and security for the payment of them ; a 
league between the Protestants and the King of Sweden, 
with the diredorium belli, which was his due, in all the wars 
with the Emperor and other potentates ; the cession of 
Pomerania and Wismar to Sweden, in compensation for 
which Brandenburg was to have Silesia ; Saxony, Lusatia, 
and the Landgrave of Hesse, the Dukes of Weimar, and 
others, were to be endowed at the expense of Austria. 

This programme was quite in accordance with the wishes 
of the Protestant imperial cities ; but the rulers did not 
approve of it, and were all the more suspicious of it 
because the details of it were unknown, and because it was 
clear that its ultimate objects were purposely left obscure. 

• Would the difference between being acknowledged Protector of i 
Protestant league and king of Rome be really so great ? — Ed. 
f Geijer. 



17 6 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Tn the circles where politics were enshrouded in the mists 
of petty sovereignty, they foreboded the worst. They 
already beheld the Swede as Emperor, and German liberty 
destroyed by Sweden instead of by Spain. Saxony espe- 
cially was filled with alarm, and even among those who 
were dependent on the King's favour great discontent was 
spreading, since it had appeared that he would not hear of 
the reinstatement of the exiled princes in the now partly 
vanquished countries before the end of the war. 

In short his relations with the princes, with lands and 
without, became less friendly week by week, while with the 
people and the inhabitants of the imperial cities they 
became closer and closer. He reproached the princes with 
the un German attitude of their armies and policy, while he 
gained the hearts of the people by amiable words. Like 
his grandfather, he was a great orator, and was wonderfully 
skilful in adopting the popular confidential tone which works 
upon the masses, and every speech of his to such audiences 
was a triumph. 

Overthrow of the Power of the League. — Return 
of Wallenstein.* — Battle of Lutzen, November 
i 6th, 1632. 

Thus passed the winter of 1 631-2. Tn the middle of Fe- 
bruary the King advanced into the parts of South Germany 
which he had not before entered, in order to attack the 
League in Bavaria, the chief seat of its power. On the 
Lech, Tilly encountered him once more ; and in a hot and 
final conflict, thanks to the execution done by the Swedish 
artillery, the remains of the forces of the League were 
defeated, and the Lech was crossed in April. Tilly died of 
his wounds a few days afterwards, and Gustavus Adolphus 
made his entry into Munich, which was quite unprotected. 
The whole of Bavaria up to the last fortress fell into the 
hands of the Swedes. The conquest of Germany up to the 
Austrian hereditary dominions was accomplished. 

This had been foreseen at Vienna, and since the winter of 
1 631, vast efforts had been made to insure the defence of 
the country against the Swedes, in case the power of the 
League should be shattered. But the coffers were empty, 

• Hurter, Wallenstein's vier letzte Lebensjahre. Vienna, 1862, 



OVERTHROW OF THE LEAGUE. 477 

and men were wanting for the re-organization of the degene- 
rate army. 

The extremity to which they were reduced at Vienna is 
proved by the assiduity with which Wallenstein was again 
approached. He had been living meanwhile like a prince 
on his estates in Bohemia, and endeavouring to throw even 
the Emperor into the shade by his unparalleled magnifi- 
cence. No monarch of those days kept such a court as he 
did. He had taken his dismissal with affected coolness, yet 
those who knew him were convinced that no mortal could 
feel being degraded from the highest position more keenly. 

His whole life had been passed in war and military 
command, and his mind had been engrossed by passionate 
and boundless ambition. It was a great mistake to sup- 
pose that he had forgotten his disgrace, and was medi- 
tating upon anything but revenge. There was not a single 
trait of magnanimity or of self-forgetfulness in his coarse 
nature. All his plans, even when he was acting in concert 
with the Emperor, revolved round self. He had sprung up, 
as the favoured child of fortune, out of the revolution \ he 
had seen too much greatness laid low to regard loyalty or 
devotion to any party or person as anything more than a 
prejudice. He never forgot that the Emperor had once 
betrayed weakness towards his foes. 

After the battle of Breitenfekl the Emperor had no peace ; 
those about him became louder and louder in demanding 
the recall of Wallenstein, for he alone could help them in 
their distress. The Emperor had only dismissed him with 
reluctance, as the least of two evils ; he now sought to enter 
into negotiations with him in the tone of a repentant peti- 
tioner, but Wallenstein took no notice of any overtures for 
months. He persistently behaved as if the idea of under- 
taking the command of the army again had never crossed 
his mind, and played out the comedy of obstinately refusing 
what he most anxiously desired. At length, after many 
fruitless entreaties, he was persuaded to equip an army 
wiihin three months, on the express condition that as soon 
as it was under arms he should give up the command to 
another ; the State should not be without an army in its 
great distress, so far as it was in his power to help it, but 
he would not lead it at any price. January, 1632. 

The name of Wallenstein worked, as of old, like a charm. 
With his accustomed skill, and with all the pecuniary aid 



478 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the imperial government could afford, within three months he 
collected an army of 50,000 men. All the colonels had 
received their brevets from him, and the troops would doubt- 
less soon be dispersed, if he was not at their head to take 
all those means to keep *.hem together, which no one else 
understood. 

At the end of March he declared that his task was done. 
The army was on its legs ; it was for the Emperor to name 
the man to whom he had promised the command, and then 
he should withdraw. 

The Emperor sent a first, and then a second messenger 
to implore him, but the Duke was inexorable ; the third 
succeeded in inducing him to take the command, but on the 
most extraordinary conditions. The articles of Znaym, of 
April, 1632, established between the Emperor and his 
general a relation elsewhere unknown in history. 

It provided that the Duke of Friedland is, and shall remain, 
the commander-in-chief not only of the Emperor and all 
the archdukes, but also of the Spanish crown. Wallenstein 
wished to secure himself against a second dismissal. 

Further : this office confers unlimited supremacy on him. 
Neither the Emperor nor the King of Hungary shall ever be 
with the army, still less take the command. The sole dis- 
position of the army in the field shall be entrusted to him ; 
neither advice, nor any personal influence from Vienna 
shall interfere with him. Still more incredible were the 
stipulations made by the Duke as to the results and rewards 
of his victories. 

As ordinary reward, an Austrian hereditary territory was 
to be made over to him ; as extraordinary reward he was 
to have sovereign jurisdiction over all the conquered coun- 
tries. It must be remembered that nearly all Germany was 
to be conquered. 

He was to have the sole right of confiscating estates in 
the Empire ; neither the Aulic Council, nor the Imperial 
Chamber at Spires, were to interfere in it. 

Pardons also were to be granted only in accordance with 
his will. If the Emperor granted safe conduct to any one, 
or any other favour, it was only to affect his person and 
honour, not his property. Unconditional pardon or repeal 
of confiscation could be granted only by the Duke of Fried- 
land, ''• For," he added to this extraordinary condition, 
" the Emperor is far too lenient, and grants pardons to 



RECALL OF WALLENSTEIN. 479 

every one at Court. This diminishes the necessary means 
for rewarding the superior and inferior officers, and for 
keeping the soldiers in good humour." 

This treaty was Wallenstein's first sin against the Emperor, 
and it was an immense mistake ; it was impracticable and 
contradictory. Either Wallenstein must be practically 
Emperor, and Ferdinand must abdicate, or the house of 
Hapsburg must keep its power and Wallenstein must perish; 
in either case a catastrophe must ensue. As he could not 
be deposed, the only probable course would be to murder 
him. All that followed therefore, first dalliance with treason, 
then actual treason, and Wallenstein's murder lay hidden in 
the bud in this treaty. 

But he had preserved the skill with which he could create 
an army out of homeless soldiers of every nation, rabble, 
and vagabonds of all sorts, and handle it like a tool. 

He had quietly looked on at the misfortunes of his old 
friend Max, of Bavaria, and had withstood all his entreaties 
for help with revengeful satisfaction. His plan was at first to 
carry on a defensive warfare, which he could sustain better 
than the foreigner, and his troops had to be accustomed to 
war. 

Wallenstein's first operations were successful. Early in 
May he fell upon Prague unawares, and compelled the 
troops of Electoral Saxony to make a hasty retreat. By 
the end of June the Elector of Bavaria joined him with the 
remnant of his troops, and their united forces advanced to 
Franconia. Near Nuremberg, Gustavus Adolphus had 
erected a fortified camp ; Wallenstein established himself 
in like manner opposite to him. He did not obtain a 
victory, but the assaults of the Swedes on his redoubts were 
fruitless. 

In the middle of September, Gustavus Adolphus divided 
his army, and returned with one division to Bavaria, when 
news came that Wallenstein had invaded Saxony. He had 
in fact just begun to act on the defensive, and had attacked 
the weakest part of the Swedish line of communication. 
An invasion of Saxony was doubtless the best means of 
compelling Gustavus Adolphus to return northwards ; and, 
besides this, owing to the untrustworthiness of the Elector, 
the greatest political consequence might ensue from it. 

Gustavus Adolphus advanced by forced marches to 
Saxony, in order to arrive before the Elector should have 



480 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

gone over to Wallenstein. When he appeared in Thuringia 
and Saxony, where Wallenstein's troops had behaved atro- 
ciously, the people received him with acclamations. From 
November 6-16 he encountered Wallenstein in the same 
plains where he had fought his first battle, near Liitzen. 

The battle which took place here was one of the most 
severe and sanguinary of the whole war. Command was at 
first difficult, for a thick fog lay upon the plain, which did 
not clear off till ten o'clock. The morning passed without 
a decision. The Swedes sprang over the trenches and broke 
one of the imperial squares, but were forced to retreat 
again. Both sides fought with the greatest valour, but the 
combat still remained undecided. The King had for a long 
time disused armour, on account of his corpulence, and wore 
a light leather jerkin. His idea was, God is with us, and 
if it is His will to protect us He can do so without 
armour. He was near-sighted, and, as ever in the thickest 
of the fray, he rode forward with but few companions, and 
got among a host of hostile cuirassiers. A shot struck his 
horse as he was dismounting ; a second shot struck his 
arm. His companions were quickly dispersed ; his two 
pages found it difficult to help him from his horse,- when 
a third shot struck him, which seems to have been fatal. 
The page who was last at his side, related that while he 
was helping the King to dismount, hostile cuirassiers came 
up and asked who the wounded man was ; that he would 
not say ; but that the King made himself known, and then 
some one shot him through the head. The page himself 
was fatally wounded, and died a few hours afterwards. 

It was not until his horse sprang riderless over the plain 
that the news spread among the Swedes, "The King is 
dead." His body was afterwards found stripped. With 
fearful rage the Swedes now threw themselves upon the 
enemy, and during the evening hours the imperial army 
was totally defeated. The victory was won, but at what a 
price ! 

But the cause for which Gustavus Adolphus fought did 
not die with him. The course of events preserved the 
stamp which he had impressed upon them. The effects 
of what he accomplished in two years were felt during 
the whole war j and when peace was concluded, sixteen 
years aftervyards, the essential features of his plan were 
realised. It was not therefore as affecting this that the im- 



RESULTS OF THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS. 461 

portance of his death lay. At the time of his death, too. 
he had attained that height of personal dignity which could 
scarcely have been surpassed, but from which he might 
have had to descend. For the splendour of his name he 
died at the right time. In proportion as the hitherto ideal 
forms of his political plans became more clearly defined, 
his relations with those around him in Germany would 
have been clouded, and this had already taken place to an 
extent which foreboded no good. Gustavus Adolphus died 
in the very height of his iame, and therefore the moral 
influence of his character was undiminished. 

But for the immediate conduct of the war, and for his 
policy, it was an irreparable loss. 

There was no one at hand so competent to command on 
the field of battle as he had been. Wrangel, Baner, 
Torstenson, Bernhard von Weimar, were the most distin- 
guished generals of the age, and all were trained solely in 
his school ; but in the main points, the organization and 
the discipline of the army, none of them were equal to 
him. The Swedish army was broken up into wild bands, 
'which were in no way superior to those of the enemy, and 
Swedish bestiality was soon as notorious as that of the 
imperial Croats. 

Politically also it made a vast difference, whether a king 
such as he was, was at the head of affairs, or generals and 
diplomatists. He alone had been at the head of everything ; 
neither France nor the German princes had been allowed 
to interfere, and this was a great blessing to Germany itself, 
for their only idea was to share the rags and tatters of the 
country between them. It was his mental superiority, the 
loftiness of his aims, his whole character in short, which 
enabled him to do this. Even his ambition was of a noble 
stamp. 

He was fighting for himself, his family, his monarchy, and 
for Protestantism, and this was something totally different 
from the struggles of his successors for rich booty or a 
German principality. The objects of the ambition of these 
men were narrower and therefore coarser. He might have 
entertained the idea of setting up a Swedish empire in Pro- 
testant Germany ; but an Oxenstierna was not capable of it, 
nor any of the others. They behaved in Germany like 
robbers and incendiaries ; and the trophies from our churches 
*nd castles, which are preserved to this day by their pos- 

31 



482 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

terity in their palaces, are but the memorials of a lawless 
adventurous war. 

The death of Gustavus therefore was a great misfortune 
for Germany. It was an exchange of one great and eminent 
man for a number of military generals, who tore Germany 
to pieces and drenched her with tears and blood ; it was 
nothing to them if the French scuffled with them on this 
vast theatre of war, and they had no other idea than to drag 
on the war for ever without object or aim. Gustavus 
Adolphus had a distinct and definite aim in view ; not so 
his generals. When they returned to Sweden, they would 
be nothing but Swedish subjects; in Germany they were 
playing the part of generals ; the war was to them a lucrative 
trade — their living. 

When, therefore, the war was dragged on for sixteen 
years longer, and for ten of them without any good reason, 
it was because there was no longer any power to give it a 
political aim or end, and because there were many who 
were interested in perpetuating the conflict and in bringing 
the unhappy empire to utter ruin. 



PART X. 

THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
RICHELIEU, OXENSTIERNA, AND BERNHARD 
VON WEIMAR. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

FRANCE AFTER THE DEATH OF HENRY IV.* 

Louis XIIL, 1610-43 an ^ Mary of Medici. — The Parliament of 1614.- 
Murder of the Marshal d'Ancre, April, 161 7. — The Duke o, 
Luynes. — Cardinal Richelieu, 1624-42, and Louis XIIL — 
Characteristics of both. — Richelieu's political method. — His testa- 
ment. — His rule at home and abroad. — Fall of La Rochelle, 1628. 
— The affair in the Valteline and the War about Mantua, 1630. 

Louis XIIL, 1610-1643, and Mary of Medici. — The 
Parliament of 1614. — Death of the Marshal 
D'Ancre. 

IT has already been expressly mentioned that by the treaty 
of Barwalde, Gustavus Adolphus provided that he 
should receive French subsidies, but would not agree to 
any cession of German territory nor to any interference with 
the conduct of the war nor his policy, thus forming a striking 
contrast to Maurice of Saxony, who by the treaty of Cham- 
bord ceded the three bishoprics to France. 

This lasted so long as Gustavus lived. His death was 

• Besides the literature before mentioned — Le Vassor, Histoire de 
Louis XIIL 18 bde. Michelet, Hist, de France au I7eme Siecle. 
'^57, Vols, xi., xii. (the memoirs of this period). Memoires de 
Richelieu in the Mem. relatifs a 1'histoire de France, 1823, vii., viii. 
Testament politique du Cardinal de Richelieu, 1764, 2 bde. Journal du 
Cardinal Richelieu, 1664, 2 bde. Aubery, Mem. pour l'hist. du 
Cardinal, 1660. Leclerc, Vie du Card, de Richelieu. 1753. Lettres, 
instructions, &c, du Cardinal de Richelieu, par Avenel; Paris, 1853. 



484 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

a most desirable turn of affairs for France. He had been 
ostensibly the ally of Richelieu's policy, but had in fact 
curbed it, and when he was out of the way it had freer 
scope than it ever otherwise would have had. 

Henry IV. had died just as he was about to interfere in 
German difficulties, and to re-assert the old French policy of 
opposition to Hapsburg and the extension of France towards 
the east. His death was a crisis for France, which lamed 
her for ten years ; but this will surprise no one who con- 
siders the condition in which he found the country, and 
that a reign of twenty years was not sufficient to overcome 
the effects of the religious civil wars. It is not in the least 
to be wondered at that all the elements which he had set at 
rest were in a ferment again. The surprise rather is to what 
an extent he had controlled them. 

A repetition now occurred of the period of the Valois, 
only with this great difference, that the transition was not 
marked by a long civil war, and the genius of a priestly 
statesman sufficed to establish the monarchy of Henry IV. 
on a firmer basis than he had found it. 

Louis XIII. was still a child, and a regency was therefore 
inevitable. Under any circumstances this is an anxious 
thing, and it was doubly so in this case, because great diffi- 
culties had but just been overcome, and the Regent was a 
foreigner who had not the smallest vocation for government. 
Mary of Medici was not in the least like Catharine. She 
was neither so intriguing, so malicious, nor so filled with 
passionate ambition ; she was rather a pleasure-loving Italian, 
neither deep nor dangerous, but entirely without the serious- 
ness required for her task. 

The traditions of Henry IV. were incompatible with such 
a government. Sully, who had hitherto had the chief con- 
duct of affairs, could not control the unhealthy influences 
which now came into play, and as he was not the man to 
belie his convictions for the sake of keeping his portfolio, 
he resigned; he did not choose to be responsible for a 
system which he did not approve. Under these circum- 
stances it was the only dignified course for a statesman to 
pursue, but it was a rare example, and especially so in 
France. 

The most reckless extravagance ensued ; offices, dignities, 
favours and pensions were lavishly squandered, just what 
might be expected from a woman's government, confronted 



MARY OF MEDICI. 485 

by an ambitious and exacting aristocracy. When the great 
lords asked for important places they were given to them, 
to insure their allegiance, but, instead of having this effect, 
it only gave rise to new demands which robbed the crown 
of its resources. 

The finances, which had only just been extricated from 
the difficulties of twenty years, were soon so exhausted and 
the Crown so impoverished that it was compelled to have 
recourse to those means which Sully had studiously avoided, 
and which had been quietly allowed to fall into disuse under 
Henry IV., the States-General and assemblies of notables. 

Forms were thus reinstated which had been laid aside 
for twenty years. In October, 16 14, the States met at 
Paris. It was the last meeting of the Slates-General of 
old France, for those of 1789 were no longer the same. 
Had these States adhered to the historical traditions of 
certain defined liberties, had they wisely co-operated in the 
administration and in the enaction of laws, this assembly of 
1614 might have been a most important historical event. 

But these conditions were entirely wanting. The States- 
General seemed to be already defunct j all their acts related 
to separate class interests ; the nobles and the clergy treated 
the third estate with sovereign contempt. Whatever was 
desired by one party was sure to be frustrated by another, 
and no common legal ground was recognised. How dif- 
ferent in England ! Ten years later, the Stuarts were in a 
situation similar to that of the regency in France. There 
we see the nation, supported by the traditions of the past 
and a never obsolete constitutional law, skilfully availing 
itself of new situations, and guided by courageous and 
talented men, it enters upon a new order of things. Where 
was the third estate in France which could aspire to take a 
part in the government, where the lower house that could 
say, " We are three times as rich as your house of Lords," 
where the independent men who could lead the attack upon 
the monarchy ! 

This meeting of the States-General sufficed to bury their 
rights for ever. 

It will be interesting to devote a little attention to this 
last assembly of the States of old France, for its transactions 
are characteristic of the period, and of the relations between 
them and the crown ; it is also not without importance for 
a comprehension of the situation of the people. The 



486 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

mission of the Assembly, as it was defined by the King, in 
a short opening speech, was to bring the grievances of the 
different States before the crown. Each estate held sepa- 
rate sittings to draw up statements of such grievances, and 
each informed the others by message, of what it considered 
of sufficient importance to be brought forward. 

A great diversity of demands and interests at once came 
to light. 

The nobles and clergy, desired the abolition of the sale 
of places, which involved exclusion of the burgher class 
from official posts, but the representatives of the third 
estate, who almost all held such offices, were against it, 
until the annuities and gratuities granted to the great nobles 
should also be abolished. The discussion of this gave rise 
to bitter accusations of one class against another. The 
third estate stated, in the king's presence, that the nobles 
plundered the State, and that by the enormous expenses to 
which they had compelled the government, things were 
brought to such a pass that the people were obliged to go 
into the fields and eat grass like oxen. The nobles then 
defended themselves ; some thought these expressions slan- 
derous, others considered the citizen class so far beneath 
the nobles that the accusations were beneath contempt. 
But no agreement was come to on the main question. 

It was just the same with the second point. The clergy 
demanded the proclamation of the decrees of the Council 
of Trent ; though with a reservation of all the liberties of 
the Gallican Church, but the third estate was decidedly 
opposed to it, fearing the condemnation of the heretics and 
the introduction of the Jesuits. 

There was another sharp discussion about the Jesuits in 
the assembly. The third estate legally opposed the here- 
tical political doctrine of the Jesuits as to the insecurity of 
all temporal political power, and the right of the masses to 
revolt. It demanded that it should be declared by an in- 
violable and fundamental law, that as the King was acknow- 
ledged as sovereign ruler in his own country and derived 
his crown from God, no power on earth, temporal or 
spiritual, had any right to his kingdom, neither to deprive 
his sacred person of it, nor to release his subjects from their 
fealty under any pretext whatsoever. 

Behind these differences lurked the religious controversy ; 
it would have been a hard task to settle it, even to a strong 



THE PARLIAMENT OF 1 614. 487 

government, and a weak one could in no wise adjust the 
differences. While Conde - , Bouillon, Rohan, Soubise, and 
Sully, seemed ready to take up arms against the govern- 
ment, allied as it was with Spain, attention was excited by 
the determination with which Armand du Plessis de Riche- 
lieu, Bishop of Lucon, asserted the right of the Catholic 
clergy to a share in the government, and demanded the 
proclamation of the decrees of Trent. Clearly and firmly 
he developed his ideas of church and state, and the 
emphasis with which he spoke, bore witness to the self- 
reliance of this dignitary of the Church. 

The government became more pitiful and helpless every 
day ; it was obliged to make all sorts of concessions ; all 
parties, and each with louder threats than the last, made 
demands upon the crown, and the government was so inti- 
midated that it consented to contradictory things. 

The chief influence at Court had fallen into hands which 
no party could tolerate, and which reminded the nation that 
France was governed by a foreign regency. 

The Queen, Mary of Medici, had brought with her from 
Florence, a waiting maid, Eleonora Galigai, a cautious, 
reserved Italian ; she dressed the Queen's hair, and at the 
same time gained possession of her ear. She was married 
to a certain Concino Concini, a Florentine of obscure birth 
and in decayed circumstances, who had made her acquaint- 
ance on the voyage from France. The attitude of this 
couple was a model of that Italian virtuosoship which can 
accommodate itself to all circumstances ; can be at first con- 
tent with a little, and when it has gained a footing assumes 
the policy of the parvenu. 

The Concinis made themselves indispensable to the 
Queen, had a finger in all the court intrigues, were now in 
league with this coterie, now with that, and preyed upon 
them all. She collected treasures, he acquired offices and 
dignities, rose step by step, was adorned with all sorts of 
titles, and finally created Marquis d'Ancre, and Marshal of 
France. 

This favouritism was a thorn in the sides of all, and of 
course all the faults of the government were ascribed to it. 

The Queen adopted a policy more and more opposed to 
that recurrence to ancient traditional policy, which was 
inaugurated by Henry IV. ; she leagued herself with Spain, 
by treaties and marriage contracts, and the lukewarmness 



488 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

that she evinced in all government transactions deprived 
her of the confidence of all parties. 

The discontent which was most loudly expressed by the 
princes and the eminent Huguenots, fermented for a long 
time and became deeper and deeper. 

In 1614-15, a blow could be foreseen, which would put 
an end to this misgovernment. Meanwhile, the King had 
reached the age of sixteen ; he also had his advisers and 
courtiers, and thus a remarkable schism took place. The 
Court of the Queen did just what it pleased, and another 
party assembled around the King and devised the fall of 
the favourite. 

The recollection of a fearful time was still fresh in men's 
minds, when assassination was quite in vogue, and the idea 
presented itself to some of Concini's foes that he must be 
murdered. The Marshal was summoned to the King, and, 
as he was crossing the bridge to the Louvre, in April, 161 7, 
he was struck by a fatal shot. 

It was a singular coincidence that the beginning of the 
King's independent reign should be marked by a political 
murder. 

When he heard that Concini had fallen, he exclaimed, 
" Now I am king." But he was mistaken ; it soon appeared 
that he had only exchanged his Mayor of the Palace. 

Among his playfellows was the Duke de Luynes, a man 
with a large family connection, clever and adroit, quite a 
match for Concini ; he now became the all-powerful 
favourite, and the only difference between the new govern- 
ment and the old was that the duke was a native and had 
the nobles on his side instead of an Italian adventurer. 

Cardinal Richelieu, 1624-42, and Louis XIII. 

The real change, however, took place with the Duke's 
death in 1621, when the King was again obliged to choose 
a Mayor of the Palace. 

Since the murder of the Marquis d'Ancre, the King and 
his mother had not been on good terms. The Queen had 
to lament the loss of all political influence, together with 
that of her favourite, and on the death of the Duke de 
Luynes, she thought of the clever bishop Richelieu, who 
had attracted the attention of all at the meeting of the 
States-General in 1614. He first appears as a mediator 



LOUIS XIII. 489 

between the King and Queen, begins to take a part in 
politics in 162 1, and, after 1624, guides the policy of 
France. 

This office of Mayor of the Palace, which Richelieu held 
for twenty years, placed him in a singular position, for the 
King never liked him, never reposed confidence in him ; he 
always had the painful feeling of dependence on a superior 
will, and yet, conscious of his own inability, he allowed him 
to govern France. For twenty years, all sorts of attempts 
were made to deprive the Cardinal of his power ; mother, 
wife, brother, favourite, parties, and factions all tried to 
persude the King to dismiss him, and he was often on the 
verge of a precipice ; a hint from the King would have con- 
signed him to the obscurity of a prison, still it was always 
the King himself who prevented it, and would not part 
with him, perhaps because he secretly feared him, and 
had an idea that the man represented the greatness and 
power of France. 

Louis XIII. was now twenty-three years of age ; he had 
always been a weakly boy, and had nothing of his father's 
talents. He was grave, monosyllabic, and insignifiant look- 
ing, his whole appearance gave the impression of a common- 
place person. But he was also free from his father's bad 
qualities, he was free from his soldier-like licentiousness and 
sensuality; he was more respectable and less given to 
excess than any king before Louis XVI. He was so 
prosaic and taciturn that it was quite an event if a friendly 
word to one of the ladies of the Court escaped him, but 
during the whole of his life he was addicted to anything 
rather than the cares of royalty. He tried to harden his 
weakly body by the chase and physical exercises, his mili- 
tary tastes were expended in playing at soldiers with some 
Swiss youths, whom he exercised in making a collection of 
curious arms, in erecting little fortresses, &c. ; instead of 
governing men, he trained hawks and falcons ; but with 
all these innocent fancies, one virtue was united, he was 
free from the ambition which had filled the minds of the 
last of the Valois, without in the least better fitting them for 
their calling ; although placed by destiny in the first place, 
he was modest enough to condemn himself to the second, 
and to allow those who were more competent to rule 
Singularly enough, he died immediately after Richelieu. 
His self-denying subjection to a minister whom he did not 



490 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

like is unique in history. It arose from an idea that 
Richelieu was the man to establish the greatest monarchy 
in the world. 

Richelieu began to take part in the government about 
1620; first in the anxious position of a mediator between 
two contending parties at Court, then as the leading man 
who ruled everything. 

He had been trained in a remarkable political school. 

When the States-General met in 16 14 he was under thirty 
years of age, but had excited general surprise by his gift of 
eloquence. He early betrayed the qualifications of a bora 
statesman, whom chance only had clothed in the ecclesias- 
tical garb ; indeed he afterwards displayed more skill in 
everything than in the affairs of the Church. The Roman 
purple was to him but an outward garment, though a wel- 
come aid on account of the authority it conferred. 

In the seventeenth century the ecclesiastical power had 
still weight enough to accomplish more than the secular 
arm, and it is certain that Richelieu could not have ven- 
tured on many of the things which he did without the 
palladium of the clerical garb. His most intimate confidant 
in his foreign policy was a Capuchin monk, a man belong- 
ing to the old French nobility, and inspired with the cor- 
responding ambition. He and his alter-ego, Pater Joseph, 
established a state which more than any other assumed a 
development opposed to the Romish ecclesiastical power, 
and sought to make the hierarchy of the Church a hierarchy 
of the State. 

The family from which Richelieu sprang belonged to the 
old French nobility. Men of the race of Du Plessis, who 
had distinguished themselves, could be mentioned even in 
early times. He had nothing, therefore, of the unequal 
birth of the parvenu who has laboured hard to attain his 
position, and then displays audacity on the one hand and 
cowardice on the other. Richelieu had the stately gait of 
a well-born man, who rules the nobles, not as a plebeian, 
but as the representative of a political idea, who can 
venture to oppose his equals. His path brings him into 
contact with the highest personages in the State, and he 
pursues it without faltering. 

He found circumstances, as they were sure to be after 
thirteen years of misgovernment, without principles or 
power. The State was in the utmost confusion ; there wa* 



CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 49 1 

neither orderly administration nor regular income, nor a 
healthy financial condition. No obedience was rendered 
to the Government : the officials either did what they 
pleased, or were under the command of the great nobles or 
powerful governors, whose favour was of more importance 
than that of the King and his ministers. All the popular 
advantages of a good government were also sacrificed ; uni- 
formity of the law, security of person and property in town 
and country. The advantages of Sully's administration 
were sorely missed, and France no longer maintained the 
distinguished position in foreign affairs to which she had 
been raised by Henry IV. This great monarchy exercised 
scarcely any influence upon the fate of Europe. If Spain 
took her in tow, she might, with the help of her Hapsburg 
relations, help France to regain her lost possessions. 

All this had to be changed ; internally the use of its 
natural powers must be restored to the State ; it must 
regain the influence abroad which was its due. 

Richelieu was resolved to recur to the home and foreign 
policy of Henry IV., and especially to sever the bond with 
Spain. His plan was to take part in the great war which was 
just begun, and to round off France at the expense of the 
German empire. 

But before this could be seriously thought of, the internal 
administration must be readjusted ; before he could send 
his armies to take part in the German war, France must 
have a government which could secure the service of her 
subjects and the use of the country's wealth ; the monarchy 
must regain popularity, factions must be humbled, and the 
trustworthiness of officials restored. 

The first ten years of Richelieu's reign were devoted to 
this task of renovating the French state, and it was the part 
of his labours most worthy of admiration. 

Richelieu never could tell in the morning whether he 
should be at the helm in the evening. Countermines were 
continually at work against him, instigated by the King's 
mother and brother, the nobles, the clergy, and the Pro- 
testants ; he had to be perpetually on the watch to frustrate 
these intrigues, yet never to interrupt the course of business. 
He succeeded perfectly. He pursues undaunted the path 
he had marked out for himself, and his daily struggle to 
maintain his power is never apparent, neither does the 
admirable and persevering energy come to light with which 



402 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

he overcomes all sorts of hindrances, the dexterity which 
enables him to anticipate all the devices of the enemy, or 
the boldness with which he makes all around him feel the 
power of a great master. He has identified himself with 
the State ; whoever opposes him opposes the State ; in the 
name of the common weal he banishes the King's mother 
and brother, sends many of his opponents to the scaffold, 
and does not spare the highest. 

It may be imagined that it was not an amiable rule. 
Authoritative measures, espionage, interception of corre- 
spondence, executions and imprisonments, were indis- 
pensable to it. But in all this his personal interests always 
coincided with the demands of the common weal ; he was 
the State ; his ambition was the greatness of France ; all 
that was French was his interest ; all that was opposed to 
him was opposed to Fiance. He did not pursue his per- 
sonal enemies as such — he mostly despised them — but woe 
to those who brought family interests or factions to bear 
against him; on these he inflicted the most severe chas- 
tisement* 

A nation does not easily submit to such a rule ; but the 
French do so more readily than any other. They willingly 
sacrifice peace and comfort for splendour, surrender liberty 
to a strong government which secures fame and martial 
glory. Richelieu conferred outward splendour on France, 
and created internal order ; but religious and political 
liberty had to be confined within the narrowest limits. His 
rule was violent and unrelenting; but even his enemies did 
not deny that it was able, and therefore it was a turning- 
point in history, not only for France but for Europe. 

Richelieu's Political Method. 

All Europe took to imitating his system, and Louis XIV. 
was not the originator, but only the inheritor, of those ideas 
of political power and sagacity which, under him, made the 
round of European governments. 

The principles of, and precepts for, his method of govern- 
ment are laid down in the observations comprised in the 
political testament, so called, of Cardinal Richelieu,f and 
which were written either by himself or from his dictation. 

• For Richelieu's characteristics see Ranke, II. 531. 
t Schmidt, III. 464. 



CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 493 

The following are some of the most important points. 
The most necessary thing for a government to secure is the 
unconditional obedience of all — " the most secure founda- 
tion of the submissiveness which is indispensable to the 
existence of states." In order to this it is necessary for the 
government itself to possess a resolute will to accomplish 
what, after due consideration, it considers to be right, that 
it should never falter in its course, and severely punish the 
contumacious. The government of the country demands 
manly vigour and unswerving firmness, the opposite of that 
yielding weakness which exposes the country to danger and 
infuses courage into the enemy. Most of the great schemes 
of France have failed, because she has been deterred by the 
first difficulty from prosecuting them. Unswerving con- 
sistency, secrecy, and despatch are the best methods of 
insuring success. Further, political objects must always, and 
in every case, be supreme over every other consideration. 

Public interests must be the sole object of the ruler and 
his ministers ; it is a great evil for the State when private 
are preferred to public interests. The majority of the 
misfortunes that have happened to France have been 
caused by the devotion of many organs in the administra- 
tion to their own interests, to the detriment of those of the 
State, and by the fact that compassion and favour have 
prevented the carrying out of good resolutions. 

Punishments and rewards must be adjusted, so as to 
keep their end in view. The latter are not to be despised ; 
but the former are more often necessary, for they are less 
easily forgotten. Not to punish an important error, which 
might open wide the doors to license, is criminal neglect, 
and there is no greater injury to the public good than to be 
indulgent towards those who endanger it. 

This indulgence has produced an anarchy in France 
which has only served the cause of the numerous parties, 
and has greatly injured the royal authority. In the case 
of political crimes pity must be set aside, and the com- 
plaints of the accused, as well as the babble of the ignorant 
masses, disregarded ; for they often find fault with what is 
most salutary for them, and absolutely necessary. It is a 
Christian duty to forget personal offences ; but to forget 
offences against the State, to let them go unpunished, is 
not to forgive them, it is to commit them anew. In ordinary 
matters justice requires full proof of guilt ; but not so in 



494 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the case of political crimes ; then conjecture, derived from 
strong probability, must often suffice, because the formation 
of parties against the public good is generally conducted 
with so much cunning and secrecy that proof is only possible 
when it is too late to punish. 

The motto, therefore, is, All for, but nothing by the 
people. 

The Cardinal asserts the rights of the State in relation 
to the Church. 

It is the duty of rulers in spiritual matters to be subject to 
the Popes as the successors of St. Peter and the vicegerents 
of Christ ; but they are not to suffer any interference from 
them in temporal affairs. In making appointments to 
bishoprics, abbacies, and smaller benefices, the king should 
consider merit, an exemplary life, and uprightness of cha- 
racter. Persons of loose morals should be excluded, and 
those who offend must be punished, so as to make examples 
of them. 

The position of the nobility, one of the main sinews of 
the State, requires reform. The nobles must be protected 
against the large number of officials who have been raised 
up to their disadvantage; but they must be restrained in 
their acts of violence towards the people. They must be 
protected in the possession of their estates, and the acquisi- 
tion of new ones must be made easy, that they may regain 
their former dignity, and not be incapacitated for serving 
the State in war. This last is the main thing ; a nobility 
which is not ready to render military service to the State is 
a luxury, even a burden, to it, and does not deserve the privi- 
leges and dignities which distinguish it from the burgher class. 

The judges in the parliaments shall pronounce sentence 
on the subjects, for that is the purpose for which they are 
appointed ; but they shall not assume to do more. They 
are not to be permitted to interfere in the jurisdiction of the 
Church, nor in the enaction of laws. It would be the ruin 
of the royal authority if the officials were allowed to have 
a voice in political questions, for which they have neither 
the necessary knowledge nor power of comprehension. 

The people must be kept in a state of subjection. The 
taxgs serve to hinder them from becoming too prosperous, 
and from surpassing the limits of their duty. 

The burdens which remind the people of their subjection 
should not be too heavy; they should be in proportion 



RICHELIEU'S POLITICAL TESTAMENT. 495 

to their ability to pay, and it is the duty of rulers not to 
exact more than is absolutely necessary. In extraordinary 
cases they should lay claim to the superfluity of the rich 
before bleeding the poor to an extraordinary degree. - 

In the matter of instruction and learning great caution is 
needful. A knowledge of the sciences is indeed a great 
ornament to the State, and cannot be dispensed with ; but 
it is equally certain that it cannot be imparted to every one 
without distinction. As a body having eyes in every part 
would be a monster, so would a State possessing only 
learned subjects, who would exhibit pride and assumption, 
but would not render obedience. 

Learning would ruin trade, which enriches the State, and 
agriculture, which is the true nourisher of the people ; it 
would in a short time depopulate the nursery-ground of 
soldiers, who flourish far better in ignorance than amidst 
the refinements of learning. Learning itself would be 
desecrated by being communicated to all alike ; there 
would soon be more people to raise doubts than to solve 
them, to oppose truth than to defend it. Too large a 
number of colleges and classes is an evil 

It will be sufficient in towns which are not capital 
cities if the colleges are limited to two or three classes, 
which are enough to raise the youth out of too great 
ignorance ; those who are capable of more must be sent 
to the large cities. 

It will be seen that this is not so much a new system as 
a new method, which aims to effect the absolutism of the 
power of the State, while it never loses sight of the interests 
of the populace. There is as yet nothing of the Sultanism 
to which it degenerated under Louis XIV. ; nothing of that 
boundless increase of the burdens of the State, the absorption 
of the State in the Court, nothing of the blind despotism 
which is destructive of the roots of its own existence. 

This centralisation of the political power in one hand, 
the limitation of the mediaeval corporations, estates, and 
privileges; this simplification of the machinery of State, 
this provision for equal rights and rational administration, 
for sparing and furthering the material prosperity of the 
people ; this is the absolutism of the seventeenth century, 
which we now see exhibited by its first able representative, 
and it was a policy which was to be nobly pursued b) 
Frederic William, the great Elector. 



496 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

A new sort of administration was now introduced by 
means of paid officials, who gradually displaced the rule of 
the nobles and the power of provincial governors ; that sort 
of centralisation, in short, which, since De Tocqueville's time, 
has not been looked upon as a product of 1789, but as a 
creation of the ancient regime. People of the burgher 
class, without family interests, and entirely dependent on 
the Government, became the organs of the State. The 
masses felt this to be a great advantage, having learnt that 
under the rule of the nobles there was no security of life 
or property. For the same reason Richelieu was able to 
put an end to the great corporations, or to let them decay 
and die out. He was backed by the people, who rejoiced 
to see him restrain and punish the arrogance of the great. 
What was it to them if now and then one of the highest 
nobles was thrown over night into the Bastille or was brought 
to the scaffold? 

Richelieu's Administration at Home and Abroad. 

His relations with Rome and the Huguenots were peculiar 
and thoroughly statesmanlike. He made both parties feel 
equally the power of the law and the national interests of 
France. 

As to his relations with Rome, he was in fact a secular 
politician rather than a spiritual ruler, and outwardly he 
allied himself with the heretics and took the field against 
the Catholics. This was painfully felt at Rome ; but ihe 
man was too powerful for them to venture to do anything 
against the minister of the most Christian king, though a 
half-suppressed sigh might escape them. 

Henry IV. had given the Huguenots too much, not 
religious, but political liberty, fortresses garrisoned by them- 
selves and great civic privileges. In the recent revolts it 
had repeatedly happened that discontented nobles had 
appeared at the head of the Protestants, and had turned 
the possession of fortresses, like La Rochelle, to good 
advantage against the Crown. This was an abuse which 
could only be dangerous to Protestantism. Then this re- 
public of a self-governing religious party within a monarchy, 
this State within the State, was not to be put up with. 
Richelieu, did not attempt to abolish the toleration of 
different creeds, though it could not fail to sutler if the 



RICHELIEU'S POLICY. 497 

surest pledges of it were done away; but this political 
isolation which so easily led to open rebellion must cease. 

Fanatical zeal for conversion was not his forte, but it was 
quite in accordance with his principles to deprive the Pro- 
testants of their fortresses, garrisons, and self-government ; 
and the skill with which he prevailed over them is peculiar 
to him. At first he weakened the position of the Huguenots 
in alliance with England, the natural ally of Protestantism, 
and employed English ships against La Rochelle ; but when 
England saw her mistake, and came with a great fleet to 
the help of the Protestants, he was strong enough in spite 
of this, late in the autumn of 1628, to overthrow La 
Rochelle. The fall of this great fortress was a catastrophe 
for the privileged position of the Reform party, but it did 
not result in any powerful reaction against their creed. 

There was now neither man nor party in a position to set 
Richelieu at defiance. The King was completely under his 
influence; the aristocracy were partly intimidated, partly 
made harmless ; the clergy obeyed him ; the Huguenots, 
who a few years before shared the King's power, were now 
only a sect, no longer a political party. 

For an effective foreign policy two things were wanting ; 
well-ordered finances — always his weak point — and an 
efficient army. Neither could be obtained quickly, especially 
the latter, with limited means. He therefore proceeded at 
first with caution, contented himself with moderate results ; 
but he was continually negotiating, and ever alert to let 
no favourable opportunity slip, and to keep everything in 
his power. The chess moves of his foreign policy may be 
counted on the fingers. No alliance with Spain, but oppo- 
sition to the whole house of Hapsburg, for where France 
abutted on its Spanish and German possessions, France had 
an ancient hankering for the acquisition of territory. In 
league with Spain she would have the approval of the 
papal party, but that would be all ; in conflict with her 
there was a prospect of rich booty. The Pyrenees were not 
then the real boundary of France; Spain still possessed 
Burgundy, and some parts of the South of France, and the 
chain of fortresses from the Ardennes to Ostende, by the 
possession of which France first became what she now is. 

After the course the great German war had taken during 
the second decade, the danger did not seem so distant that 
Ferdinand and the Spanish Hapsburgs might regain their 

32 



498 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

position. Since the victories of the League, the decline of 
the Union, the progress of Tilly, the subjugation of the 
revolution in Bohemia and Upper Austria, and the restora- 
tion in Central and North Germany, Ferdinand had acquired 
a position in and beyond his hereditary dominions, such as 
had never been attained by Charles V., and in the ancient 
Hapsburg territory between France and Germany, an effec- 
tive Spanish army had appeared under Spinola, which was 
renewing the war in the Netherlands, and advancing up the 
German Rhine; in short fresh courage and ambition seemed 
to have been infused into the power which, at the close of 
the sixteenth century, had appeared to be approaching 
dissolution, and its increasing success could not be in- 
different to a watchful French statesman. 

If the genuine French idea were once conceived of keep- 
ing down the old Hapsburgian rival, alliances would follow as 
a matter of course. England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, 
the German Protestants, all the heretics in the world were 
desirable allies to help to oppose Spain. 

It had cost Henry IV. his life that he had been a Hugue- 
not, and as a Catholic king pursued a heretical foreign 
policy. It was thought that this betrayed the fact that at 
heart he was a heretic still. This was a reproach which 
could not be cast on a cardinal of the Romish Church, who 
kept outwardly within her bounds and had destroyed the 
power of the Protestants at home. People did not regard 
his religious but only his political motives, and these were 
forgiven when there was no help for it. 

Richelieu began to make the voice of France heard in 
smaller questions, such as in the Valteline and Mantua. 

The Valteline was the key between the old Duchy of 
Milan, now Lombardy, and the Tyrol, the mountain fortress 
of the German Hapsburg territory. The country was of 
the greatest strategical importance, and rich in all the 
products of a fruitful soil \ it was then dependent neither 
on Spain nor Hapsburg. During the time of the fierce 
persecution of the Protestants in Italy, after the middle of 
the sixteenth century, the Grisons had become a refuge for 
the exiled Italians, and on this Roman soil a very strict 
form of Calvinism had been established. The Engadine 
is still more rigidly Calvin istic than any other country in 
the world; The country was depend eift on Rhaetia, hut 
was protected in its creed. In July, i6?o, at the instiga- 



RICHELIEU AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 499 

tion of various persons, something like the Sicilian vespers 
took place among the Protestants. Horrible deeds were per- 
petrated ; on the northern slopes of the Lake of Como the 
castles may still be seen from which the Spaniards attempted 
the invasion, and Bibles may still be found in the villages 
in which the grandfather inscribed the names of some of the 
murdered. After this the Spaniards occupied all the for- 
tresses, and the German Hapsburgs were well content to 
have their Spanish cousins for neighbours. 

It was under Richelieu that French policy assumed an 
attitude in this question, at first purely a local one, that 
gave it importance. Richelieu interfered, sent an army into 
the Valteline, drove out the foreign troops, and thus pre- 
vented the Hapsburg power from possessing itself of this 
important Alpine pass. 

A similar case occurred in Mantua. There the Spanish 
claims were contested by those of a French noble, the Duke 
of Nevers. This gave Richelieu the desired pretext for 
securing a footing in the neighbourhood of Lombardy. 
Himself in armour, he came at the head of an army, drove 
the Spaniards before him, and conquered Pignerol and 
Chambery — indeed almost the whole of Saxony. By the 
treaty of Chierasco, April, 1631, the French pretender 
received Mantua. 

These were small matters. He had still to forego great 
enterprises, because he had neither fleet nor army. Then 
Gustavus Adolphus appeared as an ally ; he hoped to find 
a client in him who would allow him to pursue his French 
policy in Germany. But in this he was altogether mis- 
taken, for he was, in fact, only permitted to share expenses, 
not to advise with him, nor to act conjointly. But with the 
death of the Swedish king, this embarrassment was at an 
end. The traditions of the past might still have some 
influence with the Swedish generals and statesmen ; but 
this was an obstacle which could scarcely exist very long 
or be insurmountable.* 

* For the history of the beginning of French interference in the 
German war, the unpublished reports of the embassy supply some 
particulars which Hausser extracted in Paris (B. R. MSS. Francais, 
No. 2249, suppl.). At the conclusion of a paper on the progress of 
the German and Spanish Hapsburgs in 1620 this passage occurs : "It 
seems to be more than enjoined upon us ' de se reveiller d'une si 
profonde et fatalle lethargie en laquelle la France est tombge par la 
disastreuse mort de notre grand roi Henry.' If now Spain were (9 



500 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

take it into her head to seek a quarrel with us, and to attack us in the 
rear, as at the time of the League, all paths would be closed to us, and 
we should have neither troops nor money from Germany, Switzerland, 
or Italy, such as the late king could procure in his necessity, — internal 
peace and unity among all Frenchmen, and dutiful obedience to our 
just and good king, and the skilful conduct of affairs by a minister who 
would ' reprendre les sages lemons et magnanimes du feu roi et les erres 
d'une bonne intelligence avec les plus sinceres amys et anciens allies 
de cette couronne ' would be the only means of averting the evil." A 
dispatch of 1620 severely blames the rapacity of Austria, advises an 
alliance with the Protestants, and says it is a calumny to call the war a 
religious war, the object of which on the Protestant side was to crush 
the Catholics. It is said in a report of 1626 that the war will not come 
to an end until Holland, France, and England are conquered by Spain 
and Hapsburg. On December 24th, 1619, Bouillon (fol. 183) advises 
the king at least to mediate. A letter from the Emperor to Gustavus 
Adolphus, ' traduit de l'allemand en francais,' dated from Ratisbon, 
August 1 8th, 1630, is also there, in which the Emperor expresses surprise 
at the hostile attitude of Sweden, and demands either a formal declara- 
tion of war or a peaceful understanding. Gustavus Adolphus answers 
from Sfnlsund, October 30th, 1630, and expressly reminds rim oi 
his former conduct and his many hostUe act*. — KlX 



CHAPTER XXXVTI. 

GERMANY FROM THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS TO 
WALLENSTEIN'S CATASTROPHE. NOVEMBER, 1 632 — 
FEBRUARY, 1 634.* 

Dissensions in the Swedish Camp : Oxenstiema and Bernhard of 
Weimar. — Beginning of the French Negotiations : Marquis de 
Feuquieres. — The Treaty of Heilbronn, April 23rd, 1633. — 
Wallenstein's ambiguous conduct of the war in 1633. — Negotiations 
with Saxony. The letter of December 26th, 1633.— The Bond of 
Pilsen, January 1 2th, 1634, — The murder at Eger, February 25th, 

1634- 

oxenstierna, bernhard of weimar, feuquieres, and 
the Treaty of Heilbronn. April, 1633. 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS was general and diplomatist 
in one person. In this the greatness of his character 
consisted j and it gave a unity and emphasis to his far- 
seeing and thoughtful policy, of which his opponents, with 
their far simpler tasks, could not boast. 

On his death this unity between warfare and policy was 
at an end. There were two parties in the Swedish camp, 
one represented by the Chancellor Oxel Oxenstierna, the 
other comprised the greater number of the superior officers 

* Forster, F., Wallenstein's Briefe ; Berlin, 1628. The same, 
Wallenstein als Feldherr u. Staatsman. The same, Wallenstein's 
Prozess ; Leipzig, 1844. Von Aretin, Wallenstein; Regensburg, 
1848. Dudik, Forschungen, 1853. The same, Wallenstein von 
seiner Enthebung bis zur Uebernahme des Commando's, 1858. Helbig, 
Wallenstein und Arnim, 1850. The same, Kaiser Ferdinand u der 
Herzog von Friedland, 1852. The same, Gustav Adolf und dei 
Kurfiirst von Sachsen, 1854. Hurter, zur Geschichte WalLensteins, 
1855. The same, Wallenstein's vier letzte Lebensjahre, 1862. Rose, 
Herzog Bernhard ; Weimar, 1828. Barthold, F. W., Geschichte des 
grossen deutschen Krieges ; Stuttgart, 1802. Droysen, Preuss. Politik, 



502 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

and a host of adventurers, more or less distinguished, 
who had attached themselves to the victorious head- 
quarters. 

Oxenstierna was the statesman who, always keeping in 
view the political objects of the war, urged as speedy a 
decision as possible ; then an acceptable peace might be 
concluded, and he had no interest in advancing the 
supremacy of the generals by an aimless continuance of the 
war. 

They, on the contrary, wished to continue it precisely on 
the grounds which made Oxenstierna wish for peace. They 
had no wish to lay down their arms, until every one of 
them had secured a splendid booty ; they were the mag- 
nates of the camp, and thought it a singular piece of 
assumption to dictate their course to them with the pen. 
Among the generals there was but one on Oxenstierna's side ; 
this was Gustavus Horn, who was related to him, and 
was one of the most distinguished pupils of Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

Besides these, there were in the camp a multitude of 
German princes and rulers whom the war had driven from 
their countries and subjects, and who hoped to make their 
fortunes in soldier fashion, so long as there was a chance 
of it. Many of them had been so ill-used by the house of 
Hapsburg that they longed to revenge themselves with the 
sword. These younger sons of younger brothers, as Shak- 
speare says, were continually fomenting war ; they had 
everything to gain and nothing to lose ; for them the war 
would still have an aim, until every one of them had 
found a peaceful home again beneath the shadow of some 
principality. 

Bernhard of Weimar, who was far superior to the others 
in abilities, and might be called the leader of the German 
war party, was one of these emigrants. The youngest of 
seven brothers all living, born August, 1604, he was left an 
orphan at thirteen, and brought up by his eldest brother, John, 
to the profession of arms, he had grown up as a thorough 
soldier of this martial age. Temperate, free from the 
vices of the age, not highly cultivated, but a sincere Pro- 
testant, and an amiable, excellent man, he was indisputably 
one of the best elements in this circle. He had early 
shown talent and aspiring ambition ; was the impersonation 
of hatred of the House of Hapsburg and the Albertines, 



OXENSTIERNA. $0$ 

and, when the war broke out, he and several of his brothers 
took up arms as a matter of course. With his brother 
William he entered the service of the chivalrous Margrave 
of Baden, in the spring of 1622, and took part in the 
campaign in the Palatinate and the unfortunate battle of 
Wimpfen. After various vicissitudes he made the acquaint- 
ance of Gustavus Adolphus, the great leading spirit of the 
war, joined him in the campaign in Franconia, on the Rhine 
and in the south, in which he greatly distinguished himself, 
and to him especially belonged the fame of following up the 
victory to the upper Lech and the Tyrolean passes. By 
the time of the unhappy day of Liitzen he was already a 
well-known and distinguished general. 

He possessed the art of attaching the soldiers to his 
person, and had occasionally ventured to oppose Gustavus 
Adolphus. The discontent in the German element in the 
camp often found a spokesman in him, and this had given 
rise to his playing a certain independent part. 

After his troops — 4,000 cavalry and 8,000 infantry — had 
unanimously chosen him as leader, he openly demanded a 
German principality — such as a duchy in Franconia, con- 
sisting of the bishoprics of Wiirzburg, Bamberg, &c. ; he 
also thought that he should be able to provide for himself 
in Alsace and on the Upper Rhine ; at all events, he had 
very concrete aims in view in his warfare and policy, and 
made no secret of them. 

This discord explains the fact, that after the victory of 
Liitzen, which was decisive in a military point of view, 
and perceptibly weakened the Emperor for a long time, 
nothing of importance was done by the victors. The strife 
between the generals and Oxenstierna was to blame for it. 

No agreement of any importance had been arrived at 
when France began her negotiations. Richelieu sent his 
commissioner, Feuquieres to Germany to see what was to 
be done now that the little Gothic King was out of the way. 
According to his instructions he was to offer the chief com- 
mand to Saxony, so as to induce it to unite itself with the 
Catholic States against the Emperor, to consult with Oxen- 
stierna, not to conclude any peace without France, and to 
maintain the conditions of the Treaty of Barwalde as re- 
garded the Catholics. Brandenburg and other states of 
the empire were to be treated with, the Swedes were to be 
won over, the Chancellor especially was to be enticed by 



504 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the prospect of the marriage of his son with the young 
Queen Christina, and, above all, his consent was to be 
obtained to the cession of the most important fortresses on 
the left shore of the Rhine to France. Various other agents 
were at the same time paving the way for French interests 
in Germany. 

But Oxenstierna was not idle either. Even before autho- 
lity came from Sweden, nominating him legate of the Crown 
in the Roman empire, and with all the armies, he had pro- 
ceeded to Central and North Germany to promote his 
objects — the alliance of the Protestant States with Sweden, 
and indemnification for the latter. At Dresden and Berlin 
he found the old hesitation and want of decision; he 
hoped to find more readiness among the little states .of 
Upper Germany, whom he summoned to Heilbronn at the 
beginning of the year. 

Feuquieres came also, after convincing himself that 
nothing would come of giving the command to Saxony. 
The object now was to prevent Sweden from taking every- 
thing in hand alone. He had already received a repulse 
from Oxenstierna about the Rhenish fortresses ; perhaps he 
might be more successful now at Heilbronn, especially as 
Saxony and Brandenburg would be opposed to the Swedish 
supremacy. In fact, the Protestant States of Upper Ger- 
many were not disposed to enter into the close alliance 
under Lhe leadership of Sweden which Oxenstierna desired, 
and this offered an opportunity for the French commissioner 
to step in as a mediator. 

So, on the 23rd April, 1633, the alliance of the Crown 
of Sweden with the four upper circles of the empire was 
formed by the Treaty of Heilbronn. It was not precisely 
in accordance with Richelieu's wishes, for more weight was 
conceded to Sweden than he liked ; but neither did it 
altogether satisfy the Chancellor, for a consilium formatum 
was placed at his side, in which ten representatives of the 
States of the empire were to watch the Swedish corduct of 
the war. Before this a treaty with France had been re- 
newed, essentially on the basis of the Treaty of Barwalde. 
By this the French subsidies were secured, while Sweden 
still maintained the leadership, and it was only with him, 
not with France direct, that the Upper German States had 
entered into alliance. 

Meanwhile, Bemhard of Weimar, who had taken the com- 



feERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 5O5 

fnand of the army of Gustavus Adolphus, had, by the end 
of January, advanced into Franconia from Thuringia, oc- 
cupied the bishopric of Bamberg, and proceeded south- 
wards to join Horn in Upper Swabia. In spite of the 
marauding expeditions of John of Werth, the meeting was 
effected at Donauworth in April. But here all advance 
was at an end, for a mutiny broke out in the army, which 
was with difficulty quelled. 

Meanwhile, Bernhard caused the princes of the confede- 
ration assembled at Heidelberg to grant the Duchy of 
Franconia to him, and a month later he received the oath 
of allegiance. The chief command of the federal armies 
was, however, refused him by Oxenstierna, although, as the 
event proved, his nomination would have been the most 
suitable. Horn, whose superior he felt himself to be, was 
placed over him as field-marshal, and the army was only 
pacified by granting its most urgent demands and the 
promise of better days. 

The military events during this crisis were not of great 
importance, and the war only lost its dilatory character at 
the end of the year. 

Part of the conquests on the Danube had been lost again 
by the rash acts of John of Werth. Bernhard now ad- 
vanced, crossed the Danube near Neuburg, and suddenly 
appeared at Ratisbon, which capitulated in November. 
After several months of inactivity, Wallenstein had eva- 
cuated Silesia, threatened Brandenburg, and turned again 
towards Bohemia, when Bernhard advanced towards the 
Austrian territory without opposition from any considerable 
foe. 

Wallenstein's Catastrophe ; the Ambiguous Campaign 
of 1633; Negotiations and Treachery; the Bond 
of Pilsen ; the Assassination, February, 1634. 

As things had been for months in the Swedish camp, it 
would have required but little skill and energy on the 
Imperial side sorely to punish the enemy for its unprotected 
state. But things were no better in the Imperial army ; if 
the Swedes did little, Wallenstein did nothing. If the 
relations between Bernhard and Oxenstierna were cool, 
those between the Imperial generals and the Court of 
Vienna were still cooler. And this was mainly the reason 



506 THIRD £HASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

that the war did not take an unfortunate turn for Sweden 
in 1633. 

After the battle of Liitzen, Wallenstein had returned to 
Bohemia, and had lain quiet the whole winter. It was 
obvious that his army must have suffered severely, and 
therefore that the first thing to be done was to re-constitute 
it. He also considered that he had reason to be dissatisfied 
with his generals, as is proved by the severe sentences of 
the court-martials. As to the necessity of a still longer 
period of rest for the re-organization of the army, Wallen- 
stein must have been a better judge than they were at 
Vienna, who knew nothing of war. Besides this tarriance 
in Bohemia, this " natural bastion," although it might occa- 
sion some losses in other places, was easily to be justified 
on strategic grounds.* But that spring should pass over and 
nothing be done, after the winter had been passed in idle- 
ness, might well occasion anxiety. 

While the population of the hereditary dominions was 
almost ruined by the taxes required for the support of Wal- 
lenstein's army, — every official, from the judge to the town- 
clerk, had to pay ten per cent., there was a tax of 100 
florins on every doctor's degree, every patent of nobility, 
every carriage, sledge, or handsomely harnessed horse — the 
Swedes advanced southwards to Ratisbon, and northwards to 
Hameln ; still nothing was heard of Wallenstein but com* 
plaints of arrears of pay, nothing of his army but complaints 
of their treatment of the peaceful inhabitants. The general 
had shut himself up in unapproachable seclusion at Prague, 
and admitted no one but his own confidants to his presence 
for weeks. 

At length, with the beginning of June, he advanced 
against Arnim, who was in Silesia, with a Saxon army at 
least equal to his ; but instead of a battle taking place, for 
which both were prepared, an armistice was concluded. 
When this had expired, Arnim drove Wallenstein back 
from Schweidnitz, when he again relapsed into inactivity 
for weeks. Meanwhile, in July, the imperial troops and 
those of the League under Gronsfeld were together defeated 
in the north, near Oldendorp, in Hesse ; Hameln was taken, 
and in August in the south-west a faithful partizan of the 
Emperor, the Duke of Lorraine, was overpowered by the 
Swedes at Pfaffenhofen and taken prisoner. 
• Droysen. 



Wallenstein's tactics. 507 

Great uneasiness now began o be felt at Vienna ; at 
Munich they had been uneasy for a long time. At the 
former the disastrous results of the treaty of Znaym were 
recognised, at the latter they felt the revenge of mortal 
enmity. It is clear that Wallenstein was glad of any pre- 
text for sacrificing the Elector to the enemy. When Wal- 
lenstein's only crime was that he had raised an army for 
the Emperor which thrust aside the League, and restored 
Austria to him, Max of Bavaria had incited the Emperor 
against him till he was deposed. This the Duke never 
forgave him. Then there were political differences. Wal- 
lenstein represented the Emperor's military power, Max the 
principalities j Wallenstein hated the priests and their 
restoration to power, Max saw no other object in the war 
than their victory. Wallenstein beheld the Elector's diffi- 
culties with malicious satisfaction, and when through the 
Emperor he earnestly begged Wallenstein for help, instead 
of giving it he concluded a fresh armistice with Arnim, by 
which it was expressly forbidden to give any support on the 
Danube, and on every remonstrance he appealed to his 
right to make war, conclude truces, and negotiate peace 
according to his pleasure. 

When the end of the year came, Wallenstein's only 
military achievement was that with 20,000 men he had 
compelled 5,000 Swedes, who had ensconced themselves at 
Thurn, in Steinau, to capitulate, thereby freeing Silesia from 
the enemy. 

But this enigmatical mode of warfare was no longer 
Wallenstein's only fault. During the course of the spring 
and summer of 1633 he had caused negotiations to be 
entered into, second and third hand, the object of which 
could scarcely have only been to divide and deceive the 
enemy. Discontented Bohemian noblemen, such as Counts 
Terzky and Kinsky, crafty commissioners like Resina, had, 
though disclaiming Wallenstein's responsibility, undertaken 
various correspondence, in which he must have had 
some participation, for the acts and omissions of his inex- 
plicable plan of warfare are entirely in accordance with 
it; and in spite of Forster's attempt (in three volumes) 
to clear the Duke of suspicion, few persons will conclude 
that he was not implicated in these things. 

The negotiations themselves certainly admit of a harm- 
less explanation. Wallenstein was aware of the discontent 



508 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

between Saxony and Sweden. If, therefore, he first put 
himself into communication with Saxony, there was nothing 
treacherous in that ; his object might be to divide the 
enemy. Besides, the right of negotiating had undoubtedly 
been granted him. 

The policy of the Edict of Restitution was not his affair ; 
he wished for an acceptable peace based on a reconciliation 
between the creeds, as did Saxony also, and therefore he 
might well enter into an agreement with Arnim. It was 
also as much the interest of the Imperialists as of Saxony, to 
expel the Swedes by one means or another from German soil.* 

Thus these things may be looked at without prejudice to 
him on the principle, Quilibet prsesumitur bonus. 

But Wallenstein was not the man to establish an honour- 
able peace which would have served the good cause. 

He was not given to truth and openness ; he was fond of 
mysterious intrigues for their own sake, apart from their 
purpose, and he always had the lofty schemes of personal 
ambition in view which his astrological researches pointed 
out to him as ends to be easily attained. Even had the 
peace which he was projecting been an honourable one, 
which would better have served the great German cause, for 
Max of Bavaria and the Jesuits of the Court of Vienna it 
was treason to everything that they held sacred. 

These transactions did not long remain secret. The 
universal dissatisfaction with his mode of carrying on the 
war, or rather not carrying it on, gave reason enough for 
putting the worst construction upon the rumours that were 
flying about, and foes were not wanting at Vienna and 
Munich who zealously fomented discontent with him, and 
late in the summer of 1633 an outbreak could be foreseen. 
Wallenstein, therefore, began to consider his plan of retreat 
before it should take place. But the negotiations were 
dragging slowly on ; Sweden and France had been sounded , 
no agreement had been come to with Saxony, for the 
unfathomable cunning of the Friedlander excited distrust. 

By the end of 1 633 the situation of affairs was such that 
it was no longer possible to think of honourable negotia- 
tions or the danger of probable complications ; the compli- 
cations were at hand, the danger was present, and the 
breach could be calculated on beforehand. 

• Compare the expressions attributed to him by Chemnitz, II. 135, 
and Khevenhiller, XII. 578, en the occasion of the armistice of July. 



NEGOTIATIONS. 509 

When the idea of real treason or open revolt began to 
take possession of Wallenstein's mind, it is impossible to 
decide, in spite of all the materials collected and published 
by Forster, Aretin, Dudik, and Helbig. That he did not to 
the last entertain any such idea, as Forster thinks, is con- 
sistent only with a very ingenious interpretation of the 
documents. 

It is probable, however, that after November and Decem- 
ber, 1633, Wallenstein was more and more convinced that 
his position was untenable, saw that his influence at Vienna 
was coming to an end, and that his enemies there would 
again succeed in compassing his fall. He did not choose 
to be surprised by it ; it could but cast him down lower than 
before, for he stood higher than even the Emperor himself, 
and he would probably not be in a position to retire as a 
misunderstood magnate to his estates. 

He therefore preferred to come to some agreement with 
Sweden, Saxony, and France, which should compel the 
Emperor, on the basis of the religious peace and the 
amnesty, to lay down his arms, and to acknowledge him 
as King of Bohemia, and which should at the same time 
enable him to slake his revenge on the Elector of Bavaria. 
It was in this spirit that Terzky and Kinsky negotiated, 
and during the last few weeks of the year in such a manner 
as to frustrate any attempts at justification. 

The Elector of Saxony felt the approach of the crisis, 
and began to treat more seriously than before, but was 
desirous of discovering whether he could trust Wallenstein. 

Various negotiations went on in December, which were 
intended to clear the ground. There is a letter of Count 
Terzky to Kinsky, under date of December 26th, in which 
he says, " that he is to send passes to the Duke Francis 
Albert of Saxe-Lauenburg — who was going to and fro 
between the camps — to enable him to go to Bohemia, that 
they may make terms with him — he was treating in the 
name of Saxony — ' for the Duke is resolved to enter into an 
agreement not only with the Electors of Saxony and Bran- 
denburg, but also with Sweden and France. We shall not 
need the French army, but we shall need their money. 
The master will therefore soon come. We are preparing 
to unite our armies in fourteen days, and to lay aside the 
mask.' " 

About this time also the Elector of Saxony sent over his 



510 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

personal friend, Colonel Schlieffen, that the above-men- 
tioned agreement might be discussed. The despatches 
among the Dresden archives have been made known. The 
contents bear the most obvious marks of internal proba- 
bility. Wallenstein says, among other things, " Spain is 
trying to establish a world-wide dominion : that he would 
not permit. Neither was the King of France to be per- 
mitted to cross the Rhine. The Palatinate must be 
restored, and France settled with somehow. He would 
himself drive the Spaniards from Flanders and Artois. 
There would be no great difficulty with Sweden, if she were 
indemnified on the North Sea. The Electors and bishops 
must have their bishoprics again. To the Duke of Weimar 
something in Alsace may be given, or in Bavaria, the 
' Elector of which,' remarks the ambassador, ' the Duke 
intends entirely to annihilate.'" 

A few days afterwards the Elector sent another ambassa- 
dor, and Wallenstein declared that he had nothing to add 
to what had been stated to Colonel Schlieffen. 

Wallenstein wished, in possession of all the forces of the 
defenceless Emperor, to extort a peace which would em- 
power him to settle with France and Sweden, to annihilate 
Bavaria, and to effect a reconcilation with the Protestants. 
There is nothing in the despatch as to what he proposed 
for himself. Bohemia is not mentioned, but it is highly 
probable that he had no intention of " leaving this country 
to the empire," like the Tyrol, but that he had selected it 
as his own price for the peace. But, of course, he would 
not say so to the Saxon ambassador. 

The object, therefore, was, in defiance of the League and 
the Edict of Restitution, to conclude a peace with the 
Emperor, which, to a certain extent, coincided with Riche- 
lieu's plans, and which might reckon on popularity in 
Germany itself. 

The distracted nation was thoroughly tired of the war, 
which had nearly lost all significance, and this peace would 
have a reasonable basis in the restoration of the exiles and 
the toleration of Protestantism, which would give Wallen- 
stein the support of hundreds of thousands of Germans. 
He certainly would have all the Protestants on his side, 
and probably all the Catholics, who were convinced of the 
impossibility of carrying out the Edict of Restitution. 

But it was decidedly not an imperial policy, and it was 



THE BOND OF PILSEN. 51I 

obvious that the Court of Vienna would endeavour to wrest 
the army which should protect Austria from such hands. 

But this was no easy matter. The army was so com- 
pletely in Wallenstein's power that it was doubtful whether 
he could be got rid of without inciting it to rebellion. Still, 
he had offended many of the generals, and made irrecon- 
cilable enemies of them. He was fond of boasting that he 
had thrust aside the Spaniards, Italians, and Walloons in 
favour of the Germans, so they would soonest fall away. A 
number of duels afterwards took place between them and 
the Germans, and the Germans have never been persuaded 
that the Italians were not his assassins.* 

It is some mitigation of the guilt of the horrible deed, 
that at Vienna, — itself in the greatest peril, — there was 
really no power after the Treaty of Znaym to separate 
the man from his army. The only thing that could be 
done was to divide the army, and then employ some sub- 
ordinate instrument. 

About the middle of January, 1634, Wallenstein took a 
step at Pilsen which proved to the Emperor that the 
moment for action was come. The Emperor had desired 
him to set apart 6,000 men for the support of the Cardinal 
Infanto of Spain, who was coming to the aid of Hapsburg, 
and to set out to re-conquer Ratisbon. Wallenstein would 
do neither the one nor the other, and secured the like dis- 
obedience from the officers. On the nth of January they 
were summoned to Pilsen. Wallenstein communicated to 
them through his confidants, that under such circum- 
stances he should be compelled to lay down the command, 
and asked what they, who were enlisted on his credit, 
thought of it. The officers begged him to retain it as a 
personal favour to them. Twice he declined, but finally 
informed them through Illo, that on one condition he would 
alter his resolution, namely, that they should swear to hold 
by him, and not swerve from their allegiance. To this they 
all consented, and then Illo produced the well-known Bond, 
in which the following was the chief clause : \ — " Seeing 
what distress, misery, and ruin would result to them and 

* Hurter in Wallenstein's letzen Lebensjahre, p. 377, calls attention 
to the fact that his bitterest enemies, Aldringen, Maradas, Suys, 
Hatzfeld, Colloredo, Wangler, were not Italians, and that the most 
distinguished among the Italians, Gallas and Piccolomini, remained 
faithful to him the longest. 

t Authenticated by Aretin. Urkunde, 31. 



512 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

their poor soldiers from the Duke's retirement, they earnestly 
entreated his highness not to allow any weight to the mo- 
tives for it; not to forsake the army without their know- 
ledge and consent, in consideration of which they take an 
oath to stand faithfully by your highness; not to forsake 
you, to do all that tends to the preservation of yourself and 
the army ; to shed our last drop of blood for this cause ; 
to regard every one who acts inimically to it as a faithless 
and perjured person, on whose possessions, person, and 
life we are bound to take revenge." Whether the limitation 
clause, " without prejudice to allegiance to the Emperor," 
was used in reading it, we do not know ; it is certain that 
it was not inserted in the document presented for signature. 
It was signed by forty-two persons, and the new oath was 
celebrated by a great banquet on the 12th of January. 

Wallenstein continued to write the most affectionate 
letters to the Emperor, and received the most affectionate 
letters from Vienna. Each tries to deceive the other, for 
each feels that the time was come for decisive action. 
Information now came from Vienna to the foreign elements 
of the army that well-founded suspicions were entertained 
against Wallenstein ; it was their duty to keep the army for 
the Emperor. Gallas came with an imperial patent, which 
released "all honourable officers, cavaliers, and soldiers 
from obedience to Wallenstein and his creatures Illo and 
Terzky, and placed them under the command of Gallas. 
The document was first of all circulated confidentially, and, 
when most of the regiments were secured, publicly pro- 
claimed on the 22nd of February with beating of drums at 
Prague. 

Wallenstein had been losing precious time in astrology 
and scribbling. When the mysterious messages became 
more and more urgent and more and more gloomy, he 
issued his commands, but they were little or not at all 
obeyed, and on the 23rd of February he left Pilsen. On 
the evening of the 24th he met the remnant of his faithful 
followers, from five to six thousand men, at Eger. In the 
evening there was a noisy banquet; when the wine had had 
its effect, Butler's dragoons fell upon Kin sky and Terzky, 
and cut them down amidst cries of " Long live Ferdinand ! " 
Soon afterwards, Wallenstein himself, who had just been 
again reading the stars with his astrologer, was struck down 
in his bedchamber. 



ASSASSINATION OF WALLENSTEIN. 513 

No definite orders had been given at Vienna ; the 
instructions had only been to secure the Duke, dead or 
alive. It appears that the accomplishment of the rightly 
interpreted command was intrusted to subordinates, foreign 
adventurers, such as Butler and Deveroux. It will never be 
known whose hand struck the blow.* 

The horrible manner in which Wallenstein was slaugh- 
tered makes the impression of an execution of the victim 
of an abominable intrigue. This was the opinion of 
the contemporary world, who compared the tragic end of 
the man with his former greatness, and the Court of Vienna 
did all it could to support this view, for the murderers 
afterwards became inconvenient to it at Vienna. They 
were rewarded, and then a justification of the murder was 
drawn up, as the most convenient mode of getting rid of 
the traitor. The Duke was murdered " because the dead 
cannot bite," and the Emperor allowed it all to be put down 
to his account. He even afterwards had a sort of official 
justification published, entitled, " Perduellionis chaos," in 
which the proofs adduced are so insufficient and so badly 
put together that it is impossible to help thinking that the 
Court really had no conclusive reasons for it. 

That they had nO documentary proof against Wallenstein 
at Vienna does not prove his innocence ; and time has 
brought evidence of his guilt to light, and proved that the 
Court of Vienna was justified if it was morally convinced 
that Wallenstein was in its sense a traitor. 

• In one of the archives of the war at Vienna, in a petition to the 
King of Hungary, Deveroux is said to have confessed to having been 
the man who conducted the halberdiers to Wallenstein's chamber. — 
Hurter, p. 437. 



33 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE WAR FROM THE BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN, 1 634, TO 
BERNHARD'S DEATH, 1 639. 

Defeat of the Swedish army at Nordlingen. — Oxenstiema's fruitless 
negotiations. — The peace of Prague, 1635. — Its significance and 
results. — Baner's victories and vicissitudes, 1636-7. — Victories and 
death of Bernhard of Weimar, 1638-9. 

The Battle of Nordlingen ; Defeat of the Swedish 
Army. 

^rHESE events explain the inactivity with which the war 
J- dragged on in 1633 and the first half of 1634. The 
Swedes were lamed by want of unity amongst their leaders, 
the Imperialists by Wallenstein's treachery and catastrophe. 
But the second half of 1634 brought a change. The 
Imperial leaders, chiefly by the help of the divisions in the 
Swedish camp, gained a decisive victory in September, which 
caused the mislortunes of 1631 and 1632 to be forgotten ; 
and now Richelieu secured the command which for four 
years had been persistently refused him. The affairs of 
Sweden and Germany are henceforth indissolubly connected 
with French policy. 

The first half of the new year brought with it no decisive 
military events ; a certain confusion, which is quite intelli- 
gible, had crept into the imperial camp, and that the enemy 
did not take better advantage of this was caused by their 
own want of unity, particularly by dissensions between 
Bernhard and Horn, Oxenstiema's son-in-law. The Impe- 
rialists gained some isolated victories in Bavaria, but in 
lower Germany they lost Hildesheim ; in the south, Philipps- 
burg was. obliged to capitulate, and the army of Lorraine 
suffered a fresh defeat, which resulted in the expulsion of 
the house. The French had not only gained a firm footing 



WALLENSTBIN'S ARMY. 515 

here, but also on the Rhine, and had taken possession of 
some fortresses in Alsace which Andre had conquered. The 
French had obviously gained in territory. 

Oxenstierna had meanwhile been extremely active. Full 
of anxiety on account of Bernhard's efforts to assert his 
independence, the growing assumption of the French, and 
the ambiguous conduct of the Saxons, on the 6th of February 
he convened a meeting of the representatives of the districts 
of lower and central Germany, and sought to gain acces- 
sions for the League of Heilbronn. His endeavours were 
fruitless, and at Frankfort, where the representatives of 
Upper and Lower Germany met in April, it was no better. 
Feuquieres had gained adherents in the south partly by 
means of money. The votes were not in favour of the 
Swedish command. Brandenburg, though not against the 
League in itself, became excited when there was a talk of 
indemnifying Sweden by Pomerania, which was quite intel- 
ligible ; and Saxony openly opposed the League of Heil- 
bronn. So there was no prospect of success for the Swedish 
proposition ; but neither did France attain her wishes. 
She demanded that Philippsburg should be given up under 
a solemn promise to restore it without any other " reward 
or indemnity," " que l'honneur de vous avoir assiste avec la 
sincerite et ge'ne'reuse conduite qui accompagnent toutes 
les actions royales." The states of Upper Germany were 
disposed to accede, but Saxony put a veto on it, and there 
it ended. Thus the meeting was fruitless, and presented 
the unedifying spectacle of selfish action without unity, or 
any more lofty views. It was unmistakable that the 
interests of Swedish and French command were in almost 
open hostility. Meanwhile the imperial army, 25,000 
strong, had reached the upper Palatinate. 

It is a proof of the excellence of the organization of 
Wallenstein's army, that although intended for totally dif- 
ferent political objects, it now permitted itself to be employed 
in accordance with the Emperor's views, and that it was so 
efficient under far inferior leaders. Those who replaced 
Wallenstem were not likely to cause his loss to be forgotten. 
Neither Gallas nor Ferdinand's son, the King of Rome, an 
inexperienced youth, were likely to do so ; yet by the end 
of six months the army was not only in an efficient state, 
but for the first time since 1630 gained a decisive victory, 
which not only completely changed the aspect of the 



516 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

military situation, but produced perceptible political results 
during the rest of the war. 

After the end of May the imperial army directed its 
steps from the Upper Palatinate towards Ratisbon. The 
Swedish troops, diminished as they were, were divided into 
two armies. Horn was on the Lake of Constance, to pre- 
vent the advance of the Cardinal Infanto, who was coming 
by tedious marches from Lombardy, and Bernhard was try- 
ing to protect Ratisbon. They were on very bad terms ; 
each cast reproaches on the other, and they did not unite 
their troops till the 12th of July. By this time they had 
22,000 men assembled near Augsburg ; it was too late. They 
did indeed take Landshut by storm on the 2 2nd of July, but 
when they slowly advanced thence, Ratisbon had already 
fallen, after a brave resistance, on the 26th, and they had to 
retreat to Augsburg. At the same time Baner and the 
Saxons in Bohemia were advancing successfully, Hildes- 
heim in nether Saxony had fallen, but the great danger was 
that the Cardinal Infanto would join the Imperial army, and 
then all South Germany would be lost. 

Bernhard and Horn had at first separated, then united 
again near Giinzberg ; but their armies, consisting of 
scarcely 10,000 efficient men, exhausted and famished, 
were in a pitiful condition. Bernhard wrote to Oxenstierna 
that " as the enemy gave him no rest to recover himself, 
the chancellor must find another army to meet the enemy." 

Meanwhile the imperial army, before the arrival of the 
Spaniards, after taking Donauworth, had turned towards 
Nordlingen. In order to save Wiirtemberg, Bernhard and 
Horn crossed the Danube near Leipheim and Giinzberg, 
encamped themselves securely near Bopfingen, and sent 
reinforcements to Nordlingen ; but they could not prevent 
the enemy's cavalry from devastating Franconia and Swabia. 
The situation of the Swedes appeared so hopeless that, on 
the 26th of August, Oxenstierna signed a treaty with Feu- 
quieres by which Philippsburg was given over to the French, 
to be garrisoned by French and German troops as a pledge 
to be restored in time of peace. Even with the promise J 
French help, there was but small prospect of success, for 
the Cardinal Infanto had brought from twelve to fifteen 
thousand men to his cousin, and the imperial army, con- 
sisting of Spaniards, Italians, Germans, &c, was standing 
thirty thousand strong before Nordlingen. 



BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN. 517 

The troops of Bernhard and Horn did not amount to 
more than 24,000 men. Bernhard advised to give battle, 
Horn to wait for the reinforcements. On the 5 th of Sep- 
tember they approached the town, and by a successful 
surprise of the enemy obtained a good position; but all 
attempts on the 6th to drive the enemy from theirs were in 
vain. The loss was so great and the prospect of tuccess so 
small, that about noon Bernhard advised to discontinue the 
battle ; but the enemy divined their purpose, and pursued 
them so hotly that the retreat became a desperate flight. 
Bernhard escaped with difficulty in the tumult, and Horn 
was taken prisoner. The loss was reckoned at 12,000 
dead and 6,000 prisoners. The might of the army of 
Gustavus Adolphus was destroyed. Swabia was now 
defenceless ; the Duke of Wurtemberg and his troops fled j 
Bernhard attempted to dam the stream, but it was no longer 
possible. By the middle of September the wild hordes of 
cavalry rushed on, took Goppingen and Heilbronn, and 
made sad havoc in Waiblingen, the vale of Weinsberg, and 
all unprotected places. Thus the supremacy of the Imperial 
arms was established for three years and a half, and an 
ardent desire of Richelieu fulfilled. 

Sweden's political position experienced the same fate as 
her military force. The meeting at Frankfort broke up 
abruptly. Oxenstierna tried in vain to infuse some courage 
into the leaders, and to induce them to collect their scattered 
forces and to unite with the troops from Bohemia. 

The troops sent from the north to join the remnant of 
Bernhard's army at Frankfort were an undisciplined set, a 
scourge to the population, a torment to the officers, and 
little adapted to promote success. Baner, however, in 
Bohemia, did not go southwards but northwards, in order 
at all events to maintain that part of Germany. Even 
Oxenstierna now urgently solicited French help. In Oc- 
tober, two commissioners, Loftier and Streiff, were sent 
to Paris, in order to settle with France, even, as their in- 
structions expressly stated, at the price of the cession of 
Alsace. 

Meanwhile, before the end of the year, nearly all Fran- 
conia was occupied by the Imperialists, and all the country as 
far as Swabia and the Upper Rhine was the scene of horrible 
barbarities. Calw, in Wurtemberg, was almost annihilated. 
On the 7th of October Philippsburg was given up to the 



51 8 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

French, and a few days later the dying Count Otto Ludwig 
ceded to them the fortresses in Upper Alsace. 

Meanwhile, Loftier and Streiff arrived at Paris. Richelieu 
was well pleased to make considerable conquests without 
sacrifice or war, and was not disposed to leave this pleasant 
path without occasion. The offers of the German ambas- 
sadors had meanwhile been forestalled by the course of 
events, and this they were disdainfully made to feel at 
Paris. There was no inclination to give either pecuniary or 
military aid; so on the rst of November they were com- 
pelled to agree to an ignominious treaty which only gave 
conditional promise of French help, but definitely ceded 
important pledges to France. In return for a place in the 
sittings of the Confederation, participation in the conduct 
of the war, the fortresses and Alsace, nothing was granted 
but an engagement to support 12,000 men, either Germans 
or troops of some other nation, to be commanded by a 
prince belonging to the German Confederation, and a 
payment once for all of 500,000 livres. 

At Worms, where a number of the States of the Empire 
had assembled around Oxenstierna, they were willing to 
agree to it, being utterly powerless, and having nothing more 
to lose. But Oxenstierna would not sign, and sent Hugo 
Grotius to Paris to negotiate on some other basis. Mean- 
while Heidelberg, which had been so repeatedly threatened, 
was relieved with the aid of the French troops who were 
summoned across the Rhine, and thus for the first time 
French arms were openly employed against the Emperor. 
Up to this time a secret game had been played; France had 
been carrying on war without declaring it 

The Peace of Prague, 30TH of Mav, 1635. 

The defeat at Nordlingen had thrust down the Swedish 
army and policy from the commanding position which 
Gustavus Adolphus had acquired for them ; the army, not 
only because it had for the first time lost a great battle after 
being considered, and having really been for four years 
invincible, but still more because the original character of 
the army, already greatly changed, was now entirely lost. 
Some gaps had been made in the old Swedish army with 
its national- and religious stamp, even under Gustavus 
A.dolphus, but they were well filled up with material which. 



THE PEACE OF PRAGUE. 519 

though serviceable in a military point of view, had con- 
siderably changed the character of the army. After this 
great defeat they could not afford to be nice in the choice 
of material, and had to put up with a homeless rabble of 
fugitives and deserters, whose lawlessness soon made the 
Swedish army equal to, if not worse than, others in wicked- 
ness. Even the first corps which Oxenstierna collected at 
Frankfort in order, in case of need, to oppose the advancing 
Imperialists, showed what miserable creatures they were 
getting together. To keep them from open mutiny he had 
to extort 100,000 florins from the free city, and, to rid it of 
their wild doings, Bernhard was obliged to lead them across 
the Rhine, their track being everywhere marked by bound- 
less excesses. 

The Swedish policy in the German war did not recover 
from the defeat at Nordlingen. Sweden immediately lost 
her most important allies in the camp of the German 
princes. At a time of great distress, when both enemies 
were already in the country, Saxony had been pressed into 
alliance with Sweden ; but the Saxon court, full of mistrust 
of Gustavus Adolphus, had constantly chafed against the 
alliance, and only joined in the war by halves for the sake of 
appearances. When his military successes were at their 
height, Gustavus Adolphus had left the march through 
Bohemia to Vienna to the Saxons, because he wished to 
compel them to open enmity with the Emperor, and feared, 
in case of non-success on his part, to see them immediately 
rejoin the Hapsburg party. If this was the position of 
affairs when the Swedish arms were at the height of their 
fame and under the impression of the victory of Breiten- 
feld, it was clear that now, after the defeat of Nordlingen, 
nothing would outweigh the imperial influence in Saxony. 
The 6th of September was the signal for a treaty between 
the Saxon Court and the Emperor. It also involved a 
change in the relations between Sweden and France. 

Richelieu had laboured unceasingly to gain an influence 
in the German difficulties ; Gustavus Adolphus had accepted 
his subsidies, but absolutely forbidden any interference with 
his plans. After the King's death, Oxenstierna had hoped 
to keep the French co-operation within the same limits, and 
to a certain extent he succeeded. But after the defeat of 
Nordlingen all this was changed. Richelieu was no longer 
a burdensome interloper to be outwitted, but a desired ally 



520 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

for a little help from whom, great sacrifices must be 
made. 

In short, the battle destroyed the Swedish army, ripened 
the long-cherished ideas of the two North German Electors 
of entering into separate treaties with the Emperor, and 
brought about a closer approach between Sweden and 
France, in that they now assumed the conduct of the 
German war on terms of equality. 

Meanwhile, the military events of the first part of 1635 
showed the superiority of the imperial and the inefficiency 
of the Swedish-French arms. In January the Imperialists 
took Philippsburg from the French by a successful surprise; 
John of Werth also succeeded in surprising Spire ; and in 
March the Spaniards took Treves, and carried off the Elector 
as a prisoner. 

These misfortunes, however, only disturbed Richelieu's 
diplomacy on the surface ; he quietly pursued his way. It 
was his perpetual aim to deprive the Swedes of the com- 
mand, to form a French party among the German princes, 
and by means of subsidies to attach the Duke of Weimar to 
his interests. The progress of Spain finally led in this case 
also, to a breach in this unnatural alliance. 

On the 8th of February, Richelieu had concluded a 
treaty with Holland against Spain, and in May followed the 
declaration of war. 

A few days after, the Peace of Prague * between Saxony 
and the Emperor was signed ; the conditions had been 
previously discussed on the 24th of November at Pirna. 

The affair did not do much honour to the diplomacy of 
Electoral Saxony. At first the Elector made large demands, 
and then allowed himself to be miserably intimidated at 
Pirna. He then held fast to the Pirna preliminaries in a 
lump, and disregarded all the remonstrances of the Pro- 
testants ; but when the Imperialists proposed a number of 
alterations he immediately agreed to them. 

From the narrow-minded Lutheranism which prevailed 
at this court, no religious peace could be expected which 
would include the Reformed party. The opinions held 
here were those of the court theologian, Hohenegg, who 
said, " For it is as plain as that the sun shines at mid- 
day, that the Calvinistic doctrine is full of frightful bias 

* Helbig, der Prager Friede. Compare with Rommel, Gesch. ▼. 
Hessen, viii. 366. Droysen, iii. 132, with Barthold. 



THE PEACE OF PRAGUE. 52 1 

phemy, horrible error and mischief, and is diametrically 
opposed to God's holy revealed word. To take up arms 
for the Calvinists is nothing else than to serve under the 
originator of Calvinism — the devil. We ought, indeed, to 
give our lives for our brethren ; but the Calvinists are not 
our brethren in Christ ; to support them would be to offer 
ourselves and our children to Moloch. We ought to love 
our enemies, but the Calvinists are not our enemies, but 
God's." 

The Treaty of Passau and the religious peace of Augs- 
burg were, in a general way, confirmed ; but all who did 
not accept the treaty were excluded, and the subjects of 
Austria, the inhabitants of the Palatinate, and the members 
of the council of the confederation, were excepted from 
the amnesty. The amnesty itself, like everything that 
concerned ecclesiastical affairs and the fate of the bishop- 
rics, was full of side-doors and purposely designed loop- 
holes, so that a Jesuit of Cologne could write to a fellow of 
his order who was uneasy about it, " The Elector will 
lose his reputation by the treaty, and the allies will be 
divided by taking the bait ; everything will be well guarded 
by clauses, and the concessions will only be apparent. 
(' Latet ubique anguis in herba, nihil concessum, nihil con- 
clusum, quod a nostris non fuerit ponderatum et in recessu 
aliquid habeat.') " 

A subversion of the imperial constitution, also, was in- 
volved in the Treaty of Prague. All unions and alliances 
were by it declared to be at an end, except the electoral 
union, the hereditary unions of the house of Austria and 
the hereditary fraternity between Saxony, Hesse, and Bran- 
denburg ; the ancient right, therefore, of the princes to 
conclude treaties was abolished. To this was added the 
regulation, that for the future there should be only one 
army in the empire, to be headed by the Emperor, not only 
as the chief, but sole commander. Finally, it was decreed 
that the Duke of Lorraine should be re-instated, which 
meant that Saxony, who desired peace at the sacrifice of all 
her allies, should be involved in a war with France, and 
that in the interests of Austria. 

Brandenburg, which, after long vacillation, finally sub- 
mitted to the Emperor, soon experienced what was meant 
by the imperial military supremacy. The Elector was no 
longer master of his own country \ his own officers, under 



52 2 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

oath to the Emperor as well as to himself, established an 
anarchical military rule of the worst kind. 

One thing, however, was noteworthy in this peace. The 
Emperor, Ferdinand II., in all essential points, with 
very little exception, gave up the Edict of Restitution for 
Saxony and Brandenburg. Not that this was brought 
about by the treaty, but it was the first evidence that the 
Emperor no longer expected to carry out this ordinance. 
It required thirteen years more of fearful warfare to prove 
that it must be given up for the other German states also. 

The idea of putting an end, in one way or another, to 
this unholy war must certainly have been attractive at this 
doleful period. But the Treaty of Prague held out no 
prospect of it either to the empire or for the states, who 
thought they had at least taken good care of themselves. 
A time of fearful suffering now began for Saxony and 
Brandenburg ; both countries were the victims of a re- 
fined brutality; the Imperialists treated them like hostile 
countries, and the Swedes with the malicious vengeance 
which is the portion of renegades. The condition into 
which the countries of North Germany were brought by the 
peace was a fearful satire upon it. 

Weimar in French Pay. — Baner's Victories and 

Vicissitudes. 1636-7. 

Before the end of 1635 a favourable turn took place for 
the Swedish arms. 

In the western seat of war Duke Bernhard was fighting 
with decided ill success. The Imperialists were making 
unhindered progress on the Rhine and in Alsace, when at 
length the French appeared in the field with a second 
army. It consisted of 15,000 men, commanded by the 
Cardinal de la Valette, youngest son of the Duke of Eper- 
non, and it comprised the flower of the French nobility. 
That military training now began for them which afterwards 
produced heroes. Turenne, Guiche, Guebriant, were in 
this army. But Bernhard had sufficiently painful expe- 
rience that this corps had not got beyond the very elements 
of military training. La Valette's delays sent him nearly 
out of his mind, and, before he came, Kaiserslautern was 
lost, and the Imperialists gained a firm footing on the left 
shore of the Bhinc. They met at last, and again advanced 



WEIMAR AND FRANCE. 523 

through the Palatinate, and occupied Kreuznach. While 
the Cardinal besieged Bingen, Mayence was relieved, but 
in August, Frankfort was lost. Bernhard now urged La 
Valette to cross to the right bank of the Rhine, and he was 
willing to do so, but the Swiss and the French cavaliers 
in the army opposed it. They were only silenced by 
threats that the mutineers would be cut down, and by the 
assurance that William of Hesse was on the other side. So 
they crossed ; but the Landgrave did not come, and both 
armies were in a very critical situation. The French, who 
lay before Hochstein, suffered from want and sickness, and 
mutiny was rife in Bernhard's German regiments. Hard 
pressed by the enemy, amidst some feats of arms, but on 
the whole with great losses, Bernhard made the brilliant 
retreat to the Saar which won admiration even from the 
enemy. The Cardinal would not cross the Rhine again, 
but extolled the excellent military discipline they had 
passed through, and the warlike merits of the Germans. 
His soldiers sang a satirical song about him, with the 
refrain — 

• Oil est le due de Vimar ? ' 

which the Cardinal had always been exclaiming when in 
difficulties. 

In the north, Oxenstierna, who had not been able to 
accomplish anything at Paris, tried to gather the scattered 
elements together, but could not succeed in keeping the 
Duke of Liineburg on his side, nor in coming to any terms 
with Saxony. Bauer's army consisted of 26,000 men, and 
was in good condition ; but as they were almost all Ger- 
mans, the Swedes did not altogether rely upon them. The 
Elector of Saxony was continually trying to induce the 
colonels to make peace with the Emperor, and rudely 
broke off the negotiations with Oxenstierna, by saying he 
would send his decision to him at Stralsund. 

Half in despair, Oxenstierna retreated to Wismar, and 
left it to Baner, who was in perpetual difficulties, from the 
defections of the German princes and of his own troops, to 
hold the middle and lower Elbe until he should succeed in 
bringing reinforcements to the seat of war, and in forming a 
new army on the sea-coast. 

Meanwhile the Saxons set out to divide the Swedish 
troops on the Elbe. They proceeded down the river ; and 



524 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

the vanguard of the Swedes, which was weak, yielded ; but 
on the ist of November an engagement took place at Domitz, 
in which the Saxons were beaten. This was the beginning 
of returning success to the Swedes ; it infused courage into 
their depressed allies ; the hard-pressed Landgrave of Hesse, 
especially, gained breathing time, since the imperial army 
was compelled by this defeat to move towards the north. 

Before this an important diplomatic event had taken 
place, which had a decisive influence on the course of 
events — the peace negotiations with Poland. It was per- 
fectly clear that war could not be carried on in Germany 
and in Poland at the same time. But which was to be 
given up ? There was a strong feeling in Sweden for the 
war with Poland, while Richelieu made every effort to put 
an end to it, that the Swedes might be at liberty for the 
war in Germany. With this object, Count d'Avaux was 
sent to Poland. On the other hand, it was the policy of 
the Pope and of the Hapsburgs to keep on the war in 
Poland. At the end of May the negotiations began at 
Ruhmsdorf, near Marienburg. After much vicissitude and 
vacillation, and having been more than once threatened by 
fresh conflicts, they were successfully terminated on the 
1 2th of September, chiefly through D'Avaux's diplomatic 
energy and virtuosoship. The treaty was honourable and 
advantageous to the Swedes, and set their armies under 
Wrangel and Torstenson at liberty for Germany. 

The results soon appeared. Baner, united with Tors- 
tenson in Mecklenburg, gained several decided advantages. 
From the 7th to the 17th of September Torstenson de- 
feated the Saxons near Kiritz, and after having boasted 
that they would drive the Swedes across the sea, they sued 
ignominiously for a truce. This produced a reaction in the 
south-west ; William of Hesse again stood firmly by the 
Swedes. 

Towards the end of November, Gallas had to commence 
a disastrous retreat from Lorraine, and to confine himself 
to petty warfare. Nevertheless, in November, Mayence, 
after having been held for four years by the Swedes, was 
ceded again by capitulation. The Rhine district was then 
invaded by wild foreign visitors, the Cossacks and Hussars, 
and the distress in the whole western part of the empire 
fearfully increased. 

Richelieu, who had gained an important diplomatic 



RICHELIEU AND BERNHARD OF WEIMAA. 525 

victory by means of D'Avaux, was not satisfied with the 
way in which the war was carried, on. This is shown by the 
severe punishments which he ordained, and still more plainly 
by the decided connection into which he now entered with 
Bernhard of Weimar. In the summer, on discussing the 
subject with La Valette and other French generals, he had 
convinced himself that nothing was to be done without the 
Duke. In July he had conjured La Valette to neglect 
nothing which was calculated to secure the Duke for the 
interests of France. If Alsace failed, he should be pro- 
vided for in Lorraine ; should that fail too, France would 
take care of him. 

On the 27th of October a formal treaty was entered 
into at St. Germain between France and Weimar.* He 
was to maintain an army of 1 8,000 Germans for an 
annual grant of 4,000,000 livres, of which 200,000 were 
to be allotted for the Duke's income. Besides this, 
the Landgraviate of Alsace and the prefecture of Hagenau, 
with all the rights of the House of Austria, were to be 
made over to him, with one condition only, that the 
Catholic religion should be upheld. For this territory com- 
pensation was to be made in time of peace. The Duke 
was to place his army under the King of France, and to 
promise to lead it wherever he should desire. 

The Duke did not conceal from himself the importance 
of this treaty, and took special care not to disturb the 
opinion of his troops that he was in the field only as an 
independent ally of France ; but he wanted the French, and 
trusted that he should be able to abide by the treaty without 
forfeiting his independence. He went through various pain- 
ful experiences on his way to Paris, but maintained a 
princely bearing at the Court, where they tried to allure him 
by banquets and beautiful women. In the subsequent con- 
duct of the war he successfully imitated his model, Gusta- 
vus Adolphus, and was in fact much more independent than 
might have been expected from the conditions of the treaty. 
He was his own master, but carried on the war with French 
money. 

The time had now arrived when the remnant of the 
Swedish army regained its importance. Saxony and Bran- 
denburg were once more drawn into the war, and were fear- 
fully chastised for the separate treaties they had made. 
• Rose, ii. 467-469, 479. 



526 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The most able man whom Sweden now possessed was 
Baner. He was a thorough soldier, steeled and hardened 
in all weathers, and exhibited a certain blustering indifference 
to death and danger. He was an active and skilful general, 
and was the first of the successors of Gustavus under whom 
the Swedish arms achieved victory again ; but he was also 
a complete representative of this later period of the war, 
for he carried it on without any lofty aims, solely as a 
business which brought with it gain, enjoyment, and revelry. 
He gave himself up to pleasure and excess like the soldiers 
under his command, was a wild, lawless fellow, a creature of 
the army and the age ; but he possessed the military ability 
of a generation who knew peace only by name, and who 
had grown up amidst the rough gales of fearful conflicts. 

But the war had assumed a character at which even 
Baner sometimes shuddered. He once said of his own 
soldiers that it would be no marvel if the earth opened and 
swallowed up such shameless wantons. 

It was he who brought the scourge of this war into un- 
fortunate electoral Saxony. He had first invaded the 
country in January and February, 1636, but not being strong 
enough to advance further, he had retreated to a post of 
observation in a camp near Werben. While he was lying 
still here, and, as far as it was possible in his painful pecu- 
niary embarrassments, obtaining reinforcements with French 
money, the imperial troops under Peter Gotz were devas- 
tating Lower Hesse and part of Westphalia. Eighteen 
towns and three hundred villages were ruined, forty-seven 
castles burnt, and one-third of the population disappeared, 
and John of Werth, with his hordes of cavalry, was terrify- 
ing the neighbourhood of Paris. " Jean de Werth " threw 
the capital of France into a panic of fear, and the people 
were preparing for the horrors of a visit from these dreaded 
horsemen. Richelieu alone, on whose head imprecations 
were called down, maintained a manly attitude, and with 
imposing calmness faced the furious mob. It was shown 
once more what the French were as a nation ; they readily 
furnished money and troops when necessity required. When 
a large army was equipped the panic subsided, and the 
enemy would not have been able long to remain on French 
soil if want of skill in the command, dissensions, and 
political intrigues hid not lamed the defensive efforts of th* 
people 



JOHN OF WERTH. 527 

They were, however, at length relieved by the first great 
victory which Baner meanwhile had gained in the north. 

At the end of September he had again advanced against 
the Saxons, and overtaken the Elector and Hatzfeld near 
Wittstock. On the 4th of October a sanguinary and long- 
doubtful struggle took place, which, however, ended in the 
retreat of the Saxons and Imperialists. Six thousand dead 
and the baggage and artillery of the Elector were left on the 
field of battle. The results, if not to be compared with 
those of the victory of Nordlingen, were sufficiently im- 
portant. They inspired fresh hopes into Austria's enemies ; 
Saxony's defection recoiled with a heavy weight upon the 
instigators of it ; France was relieved ; Denmark remained 
quiet ; and those who had lately gone over, such as George 
of Luneburg, were placed in a most painful situation. 

In November, Baner proceeded southwards towards 
Saxony and Thuringia, and made inroads as far as Hesse. 
These unfortunate countries suffered fearful devastation 
from both friends and foes. In December, he again turned 
towards electoral Saxony, subdued Erfurt, and then advanced 
by way of Naumburg to Meissen, in order to intercept the 
meeting of John George of Saxony with the troops of 
Brandenburg. 

At this time, the 22nd of December, 1636, the son of the 
Emperor Ferdinand II. was elected King of Rome. It 
had been attempted unsuccessfully before, and was not 
now accomplished without opposition — the Elector of 
Treves was in prison, of the Palatinate in exile, the Elector 
of Bavaria not generally acknowledged — but just then it was 
an important success for the imperial cause. On the 15th 
of February of the following year Ferdinand II. died. 

The year 1637 brought increasing success to the Impe- 
rialists, so that they were able to project the expulsion 
of the Swedes from German soil. But then they should 
not have displaced competent leaders like John of Werth, 
and have put a man like Gallas at their head, who often 
forgot his duty in the pleasures of a luxurious camp-life. 

Electoral Brandenburg now zealously took part in the 
war. George William entered into a treaty with the 
Emperor at Prague, in which he agreed to raise an army 
of 7,000 men in Brandenburg and Pomerania, which was to 
Bwear fealty both to the Elector and the Emperor. 

Meanwhile, Baner had been shut in at Torgau by a iorce 



528 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

at least double his own, and he was obliged to be on the 
alert lest he and his troops should be lost. He resolved to 
retire to the coast and maintain his position in Pomerania. 
There was a dexterous rumour that he would appear before 
Erfurt, and a detachment of the imperial army was thereiore 
kept on the left shore. Baner then crossed the Elster near 
Herzberg, and, proceeding by way of Luckau and Liibben, 
reached the Oder near Fiirstenberg, and crossed it in shallow 
places. But as he was proceeding to Landsberg on the 
Warthe, he was pursued by the Imperialists by way of 
Jiiterbogk, Baruth, and Kiistrin, and on the 4th of July 
they were before Landsberg, while Wrangel, who was to 
advance from Pomerania to meet Baner, had only reached 
Schwedt. Once again Baner deceived the enemy. Pretend- 
ing that he was going through Poland, he returned to the 
Oder, waded through the shallow stream opposite Goritz, 
and on the 13th of July joined Wrangel's vanguard. The 
forces of both then retreated to Stettin. 

Victories and Death of Bernhard of Weimar. 
1638-9. 

Neither the armies nor the generals who had been carry- 
ing on the war in Germany for the last four years showed a 
trace of its original object, either in their character or pro- 
ceedings ; on all sides there was the same degeneracy, the 
same lawless doings of homeless soldiers, who only cared 
to live through a few merry years amidst the universal 
misery. Among the common soldiers this was indicated by 
incredible bestiality ; by their leaders in the same manner, 
though in a less degree. Every sentiment of patriotism, 
faith, justice, and morality had utterly perished in this 
vortex of unbridled passions. Richelieu's tenacious diplo- 
macy and Austria's blind zeal for conversion are almost 
the only remaining symptoms of a conscious purpose. 

Under such circumstances Bernhard of Weimar attained 
a renown which would not otherwise have been his portion. 

He was the most gifted of all the princely adventurers 
who were hoping to gain a principality in this game of 
chance — tha only one among the generals who had not 
degenerate/ 1 into a homeless hireling. In Germany they 
forgot that* he was a French field-marshal, for he not only, 
in spite of the Treaty of St. Germain, had maintained u 



BERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 529 

certain independence towards the French, but raised a 
German army to make himself independent both of the 
French and the Swedes. He took advantage of the rivalry 
between the Germans, the Swedes, and the French, and 
appeared everywhere as the champion of Protestant Ger- 
many. To add to this now, there were his brilliant military 
achievements, which put even those of Baner into the 
shade, and seemed to bring back the days of Gustavus 
Adolphus. Up to this time the jealousy of the Swedes 
had not allowed him to develop his talents to the full ; he 
had always been placed in the second rank, but now he 
acted independently, and with a skill like that of Wallen- 
stein, he created an army of his own, and it could not be 
denied that it bore that decided stamp which German troops, 
German officers, and German military skill conferred on an 
army. In a surprisingly short time he had a splendid force 
in the field, and after the beginning of 1638 accomplished 
feats which placed him among the ranks of the first generals 
of his time. 

The Treaty of St. Germain had not been fully carried out 
by the French. Months had passed in vexatious negotia- 
tions about the bare performance of their engagements. At 
length, in April, 1637, an agreement had been come to. 
Bernhard only received two million and a half of livres, 
and only 10,000 men, instead of the 20,000 he had hoped 
for. Then, to please Richelieu, he was obliged to agree 
to defend Lorraine, and several weeks passed before 
pressing pecuniary difficulties permitted the expedition to 
begin. Nothing decisive could take place in that year, 
and it was with difficulty that Bernhard obtained leave, 
after some progress had been made, to cross the Rhine, and 
come to Baner's relief. 

The Rhine was crossed at the end of July ; the first 
attacks of John of Werth were successfully repulsed, but it 
was not possible to maintain the right bank without rein- 
forcements, in face of the increasing forces of the enemy. 
In October, Bernhard commenced a retreat, and spent the 
winter months in the bishopric of Basle, continually nego- 
tiating with the Court at Paris, who at length agreed, in 
February, to pay the arrears of 2,400,000 livres for the new 
year; but instead of the 8,000 men whom Bernhard de- 
manded, he only received an indefinite promise of a con 
siderable force on the left shore of the Rhine. 

34 



530 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

But before Bernhard received this intelligence he had 
taken decisive action on his own account. Relying upon 
the Imperialists being dispersed in their winter quarters, 
and the discord among the generals, on the 27 th of January 
he set out in profound secrecy from near Delsberg ; on the 
29th suddenly invaded the Frickthal ; on the 30th crossed 
the Rhine in fishing-boats, surprised Sackingen and Laufen- 
burg, destroyed a hostile regiment ; on the 1st of February 
took Beuggen and Waldshut, and the next day appeared 
before Rheinfelden, and besieged it with great vigour. 

The Imperialists, in their scattered cantonments, now 
began to bestir themselves ; the peasants of Schwarzwald 
were called upon, and, just when Rheinfelden was reduced 
to extremity, Savelli and Werth came to the relief of the 
country round Beuggen. An engagement took place near 
Rheinfelden, where the Imperialists, after a hot and disas- 
trous combat on both sides, succeeded in getting help and 
provisions into the town, and compelled Bernhard to raise 
the siege. 

But owing to the want of system in the imperial army and 
the dissensions and confusion at head-quarters, this success 
was not turned to advantage, and Bernhard formed the bold 
resolution of at once attacking the careless enemy. In the 
early morning of the 3rd of March he again appeared before 
Beuggen. The Imperialists now suffered a complete defeat ; 
the army was dispersed in wild disorder, and the surviving 
generals, among them John of Werth, were taken prisoners. 

A few days afterwards a treaty was signed between France 
and Sweden at Hamburg, by which they made common 
cause; subsidies from France were stipulated for, for the past 
and the future, and it was agreed that peace negotiations 
should only be undertaken in common. 

As a result of the victory of Rheinfelden, the town, the 
neighbouring fortresses, and soon Freiburg, also fell into 
Bernhardt hands, and his troops extended themselves over 
Swabia ; only Breifach offered an obstacle on the Upper 
Rhine. 

Meanwhile the Imperialists sent reinforcements to the 
new commander, Gotz ; but their warfare was wanting in 
unity and spirit. After sundry skirmishes, Bernhard attacked 
them at the beginning of August in the Ortenau. He ad- 
vanced by way of Kenzingen, Mahlberg, and Lahr, towards 
Schuttern, and secured the bridges near Dinglingen and 



BERNHARL/ OF WEIMAR. 53 1 

Friesenhcim. Gotz took up a good position neai . When, 
on the morning of the 9th of August, the vanguard set out 
for Breifach, Bernhard began his attack. Although taken 
by surprise, the Imperialists and Bavarians, near Witten- 
weyer, fought with great obstinacy, and were only beaten 
after a long and changeful contest. Three thousand men, 
artillery, trophies, and the provisions intended for Breifach, 
as well as camp and baggage, fell into the hands of the 
victors. By the middle of August Bernhard again stood 
before Breifach. 

This change in the south reacted upon the northern 
theatre of war, for the imperial forces there were diminished. 
Baner once more gained ground in Pomerania, and the 
change was felt in Hesse. But Bernhard's victory would 
have been followed by greater results if the French had 
given him substantial help, instead of fair speeches only. 
He complained bitterly of the non-fulfilment of their 
promises, and predicted the loss of the advantages gained, 
and his own defeat. Nevertheless, the repeated attempts of 
the imperial party to gain him over were entirely unheeded. 

The siege of Breifach was now begun in earnest ; but the 
promised help from France either did not come at all or 
was ineffective when it did. 

From a sick-bed at Colmar, Bernhard did all that it was 
possible for man to do to frustrate all attempts to make 
peace until he should receive succour and supplies. On 
the 15th of October the Duke of Lorraine was beaten at 
Tann. On the 24th there was a long and doubtful contest 
in the lines about Breifach ; but Bernhard, who was still ill, 
was carried out of his tent, and was this time powerlully aided 
by Guebriant and Turenne, finally carried the day, alter his 
assaults had been seven times repulsed. 

On the 1 st of November, Lorraine was a second time 
defeated, and the last outworks of the fortress were lost, 
though everything was done on the imperial side to save 
them. Gotz was recalled, doubts having arisen about his 
loyalty, and he was subjected to a tedious trial ; but his 
successor was not able to do more than lead his exhausted 
troops back through the Schwarzwald ; and how different 
even then might have been the result if Bernhard had been 
efficiently supported by the French, instead of having to 
spend weeks and months in begging for every two or three 
thousand men. 



532 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Reduced to extremities, and without hope of succour, 
on the 17th of December, Breifach capitulated. The Duke 
at once established himself comfortably in this fresh acqui- 
sition, and filled his French allies with alarm about the 
formation of this new principality. A glance at the French 
mode of warfare, as compared with the annihilating blows 
dealt by Weimar, must have relieved as well as shamed 
them. Richelieu was right in exclaiming, on receiving the 
latest news of victory, " We have no Duke of Weimar ! " 

In the north and east, also, the Imperialists had lost 
their favourable position ; Baner was again master in Pome- 
rania and Mecklenburg, and could entertain the idea of 
joining Bernhard's operations. 

Bernhard's feats had a wonderfully inspiriting effect in 
Protestant Germany. In the course of a few months he 
had been victorious in a number of engagements, taken 
fortresses thought to be impregnable, sometimes on the first 
assault, and within one half year he had restored the supre- 
macy of the Protestant arms in South-west Germany — even 
in districts which, since 1634, had been sacrificed to jealous 
reaction. He now restored to the oppressed Protestants an 
independent existence, drove the Imperialists back to 
Bavaria, and achieved moral successes which had been 
granted to no one since Gustavus Adolphus. 

It was this that gave the Duke of Weimar so peculiar a 
position at this period. The archives do not exhibit him 
in the most favourable light, but his deeds were dazzling ; 
Richelieu was practically nobody in comparison with him. 
The army recognised no one but him, and his victories were 
the greatest exploits of the last six or eight years. 

But those short episodes were brilliant meteors, speedily 
to be extinguished; and it indicates the hopeless state of 
German affairs, that the day came when the death of Bern- 
hard, the French field-marshal, was a sort of national mis- 
fortune. He was the last who, as it were, in French garb 
and with French money, fought for other than French 
interests. When he was out of the way the inexhaustible 
patience of French diplomacy had overcome all obstacles, 
and Richelieu's endeavours were crowned with success. 

Early in the summer of 1639 this change took place. In 
the spring, Baner had set out for Central Germany ; had 
invaded Saxony, and, encouraged by a victory at Chemnitz, 
attempted to invade Bohemia. But this turned out most 



BERNHARD OF WETMAR. 533 

unfortunately. His hopes of a rising among the people were 
not fulfilled ; he was too weak to take Prague, and in June, 
amidst fearful devastation, he commenced a retreat. 

In Paris they .vacillated between satisfaction over Bern- 
hard's latest victories and anxiety as to his designs. It had 
become clear, when he sounded them on the subject in 
1638, that they were not disposed to leave him in possession 
of Breifach. But the affair dragged on. Richelieu reckoned 
that Bernhard would yield, and had already selected 
Guebriant as governor. Bernhard remained quiet, and his 
commissioner referred the subject to communications which 
he would make personally. 

Meanwhile, in January, 1639, without consulting any 
one, Bernhard suddenly set out from Breifach, took the 
castle of Landskron, and advanced towards Lorraine. The 
Spaniards and the Duke of Lorraine were surprised. Port- 
arlier and Joux fell, and nearly all this rich country lay open 
to him. 

Even this, satisfactory as it seemed in itself, was a source 
of iresh anxieties at Paris, and the Duke was still silent 
about Breifach. AH that could be learnt about it was that 
he would arrange the matter personally at Paris. But 
warned by the other side, he gave up the journey to Paris, 
in spite of the most flattering invitations, and tried to 
subdue the Cardinal's ill-humour by friendly letters. 

But it was plain that he was scheming to form a powerful 
principality out of Alsace, parts of Lorraine, the free earl- 
dom, and other Upper Rhenish districts, while the utmost 
intentions of France were to grant them to him for his life- 
time. It was the interest of both to avoid a breach. Bern- 
hard therefore tried to find a solution of the difficulty, and 
in April sent his commissioner to Paris. He was to repre- 
sent that the surrender of Breifach would give rise to a 
suspicion that the empire was overpowered by France, 
which would displease both the German princes and the 
Swedes. The Cardinal was ready to pay the promised sub- 
sidies, and even some extra supplies; but then the Duke 
must engage to hold Breifach and the conquered fortresses 
under his Majesty the King, not to surrender them to any 
other person, and to give up the disposition of his conquests. 

Whether Bernhard would agree to this was very doubt- 
ful ; but his commissioner accepted an annuity of 20,000 
livres, and engaged to guard Breifach for Richelieu, now, 



534 THTRt) PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

and in the event of Bemhard's death, and to furnish Riche- 
lieu with private information respecting the Duke. 

Meanwhile, Bernhard exercised sovereign rule in the 
conquered territories, averted the interference of French 
officials, fostered agriculture, and did what he could to 
render his rule acceptable to the people. His relations 
with France were on the verge of an open breach. In 
July he had discussions with Guebriant at Pontarlier, which 
nearly led to it. He demanded Alsace and the most 
important fortresses as a possession, declined to make any 
concessions of his former or future conquests to France, 
and demanded larger subsidies. 

He left Pontarlier, and arrived on the 14th of July at 
Hiiningen ; there he fell ill, and on the 18th sank under his 
sufferings. 

There were suspicions of poison, for there were spots on 
his body after his death, for which the medical art of that 
day could not account ; but this proves nothing, for nothing 
can be more absurd than the medical reports of those days 
of the facts and symptoms of an illness. On this and 
other occasions the impression conveyed is that the fatal 
result of the malady must be mainly ascribed to the 
doctor's art. 

Still, it is worthy of note that the idea of violence was 
spread far and wide— allusions were even made to it in the 
preacher's funeral discourse at the grave — and all agreed 
in pointing to Richelieu, his ally, in whose service he was 
fighting, as the author of it. There was an instinct which 
prompted this improbable notion, for the people had 
thought : — they are at variance ; the Cardinal takes no 
pleasure in the Duke's victories ; he wants to get rid of 
him, that he may put a real French field-marshal in the 
place of the ostensible one.* 

In fact, if ever a man's death was welcome to any one, 
Bernhard's was to Richelieu. Twice had his purposes 
been thrust into the background, and he had to play the 
part of a discontented ally, who had to find the money, but 
was not permitted to have any voice in the management ; 
now he would be able to get the best army in the world 
into his own hands, and to pursue his policy with a prospect of 
success. The French command could no longer be set aside. 

* Rose, ii. 328, shows how entirely unexpected Bernhard's death 
was to the French. 



DEATH OF BERNHARE OF WEIMAR. 535 

As we have seen, Richelieu found it very difficult to 
create an army commensurate with his aims, and equal to 
that of the enemy. The French military system was then 
unusually bad. The feats of the French army were spoken 
of in that warlike age with the greatest contempt, and the 
performances of La Valette's army were not calculated to 
dispel it. The French had fallen into the background, 
though no one will deny the military efficiency of the nation 
in itself. 

The Duke left a will, in which he bequeathed the com- 
mand to one of his brothers, and ordained, besides, "As 
to the conquered countries, and they are very considerable 
countries and fortresses, we wish them to be preserved to 
the German empire, and we therefore bequeath and devise 
them to whichever of our dear brothers shall desire to 
accept them, and can and will best serve your Majesty and 
the crown of Sweden, that your Majesties (Ihre Liebden)* 
may be the better supported in the aforesaid countries." 

If neither of the brothers would take them, France was 
to have the preference ; but when peace was made she was 
to restore them to the empire. 

This did not suffice to protect the interest of Germany in 
the great commotion that arose about the inheritance. 
Sweden still looked upon the army as a branch of her own ; 
Bernhard's brothers took steps to gain it for themselves; 
even the Emperor had a scheme for gaining possession of 
it ; but Richelieu was more on the alert than any of them. 
On the 28th of July, D'Oissonville appeared at Breifach 
with a handsome sum of money, to bribe the leaders and 
gain over the fortresses. Longueville was selected as the 
Duke's successor. Erlach and Guebriant were naturally 
zealous in the interests of France; the masses were helpless, 
the leaders cheap. 

It was, of course, but a small matter for Richelieu to 
put aside this inconvenient will ; still, it was not until 
October that the business was concluded. Under pretence 
of maintaining previous agreements intact, new ones were 
entered into. The army was kept together as a whole ; in 
return for some considerable rewards, and other immediate 
advantages, for the engagement to supply provisions and 
the necessaries of war, and to carry out gifts of land by the 
deceased, the commanders and officers ot the whole army 
* A title given by sovereign princes to each other. — Tr. 



53 6 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

promised allegiance to the King, engaged to serve against 
any one, to be ready for any enterprise on behalf of the 
restoration of public liberties and the oppressed classes, as 
the King might see fit, should it be in France, Burgundy, 
Lorraine, or the Netherlands. The conquered fortresses 
should at once, "in accordance with the Duke's will "(!) be 
made over to the King, Breifach and Freiburg should be 
garrisoned with half French and half German troops, and 
commanded according to the King's pleasure. 

This was immediately carried out, and the negotiators 
were handsomely rewarded. The Count Palatine Louis, 
who too late appeared as a candidate, was detained in 
France ; Bernhardt brothers were duped, and even de- 
prived of their personal legacies. 

The army was now French ; a Frenchman was at its head. 
Some French regiments were placed by the side of the 
German ones, that they might take lessons from them. 
The army was but moderately commanded for a long time, 
and suffered a number of defeats ; but it was the school in 
which Turenne and other great generals were trained, who 
were to raise France to the position of the greatest military 
power in Europe. 

It was a great thing for Richelieu, who had hitherto only 
exercised a secondary influence by means of money, and 
had only attained to a partial co-operation with great diffi- 
culty, that he was now all at once relieved from these 
restraints, and had an army pledged to his service, and 
entirely supported by him. 

These events were the turning-point in the Thirty Years' 
War, towards which things had been tending ever since the 
death of Gustavus Adolphus. The twofold interference of 
France and Sweden determined the last act of the war, and 
the supremacy of France in Europe is connected with the 
enlargement of the country by the Peace of Westphalia. 



PART XI. 



END OF THE WAR. THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

1640-48. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

BANEIt's END, MAY, 1641, AND TORSTENSON's VICTORIES,* 
1642-5. 

Battle of Leipzig, 2nd November, 1643.— Campaign against Denmark, 
1643-44. — Victory near Jankowitz, February, 1645. — Simultaneous 
warfare of the French. — The Peace Negotiations and end of the 
War. — The Diet of Ratisbon from September, 1640. — Branden- 
burg's Proposition of Unconditional Amnesty, and Restoration to 
the Condition of 16 18. — The Hamburg Preliminaries, December, 
1641. — The Meeting of Deputies at Frankfort, 1642-45. — Begin- 
ning of the Peace Congress and end of the War, 1644-48. 

Baner's End, and Torstenson's Victories. 

THE war still went on for eight years, but the only 
influence that it exerted upon the subsequent Peace was 
that it overcame the last doubts of the Imperial court as to 
the indispensable principles of the Peace. The indemnifi- 
cation schemes of the governments which had interfered in 
the conflict were not altered, but until the fourth decade 
they could not accustom themselves at Vienna to the idea 
of the amnesty and the restoration of the old treaties of 
peace. The last few years of the war decidedly conduced 
to this end. 

The first event of importance on the theatre of war after 

• Besides the before-mentioned literature, Chemnitz, Geschichte des 
Schw. Krieges, new ed., Stockholm, 1857. Keller, Drangsale des 
Nass. Volks im dreissigjahrigen Krieg. Gotha, 1854. Der Abentheuer- 
liche Simplicissimus. Neue Ausgabe, Stuttgard, 1854, 2 Bde. Bou- 
geant, hist, du Traite de Westphalie, 2 Bde. Meiern, Acta pacis West- 
phalicae, 1734, 6 Bde. Riitter, Geist des Westphal. Friedens, 1795. — 
Hippolithus Lapide, de ratioae status in Imperio R Germanico, 1647. 



538 END OF THE WAR. 

Bernhard's deati. was Baner's attempt to join the army of 
Weimar in central Germany. Not in a condition to pass 
the winter in Bohemia, and threatened in Saxony and 
Silesia, he did the only thing which rendered the longer 
tarriance of a Swedish army possible — he resolved to cross 
the Erzegebirge into Thuringia, to compel the vacillating 
Hessians and Liineburgers to help, and to join the French- 
Weimar army. In March, 1640, he commenced a retreat 
amidst fearful devastations, crossed the Elbe at Leitmeritz, 
and arrived April 3rd at Zwickau. He succeeded in join- 
ing with the mercenaries of Weimar and the troops of 
Liineburg and Hesse at Saalfeld, but want of unity in the 
command, discord among the princes, the privations that 
had to be endured in these exhausted countries, and 
mutiny among the Weimar troops, prevented any joint 
action. They had to commence a retreat, and to confine 
themselves to a watchful defensive action. Until December, 
the war on both sides consisted of marches hither and 
thither, accompanied with horrible devastation ; but nothing 
decisive occurred. 

In September the Diet met at Ratisbon. While weari- 
some attempts were being made to bend the obstinacy of 
Austria, Baner resolved to compel her to yield by a bold 
stroke, to invade the Upper Palatinate, to surprise Ratisbon, 
and to put an end to the Diet and Emperor together. At 
the beginning of September he set out. Not without diffi- 
culty Guebriant was induced to follow, and to join Baner 
at Erfurt. At the beginning of January they advanced 
together towards Baireuth and Bamberg. It was only on 
January 2nd, when the fugitive country people began to 
arrive, that the Imperial troops were aware of their advance. 
But the surprise of Ratisbon was a failure. The Emperor 
declared that he should remain, and thereby restored the 
composure of the Diet. Troops were summoned from all 
sides. Baner and Guebriant did indeed advance as far as 
Hof, and threw some balls into the town ; but the enter- 
prise was a failure, and a longer tarriance was undesirable. 

The armies now separated again. Baner exhausted his 
powers of persuasion in vain to induce Guebriant to go with 
him. The French went westward. Hard pressed himself, 
Baner proceeded by forced marches towards Bohemia, and 
by the end of March reached Zwickau, where he met Gue- 
briant again, and they had a sharp conflict with the Imp©. 



CAMPAIGN AGAINST DENMARK. 539 

rialists on the Saal. There Baner died, on the 21st of 
May, 1 64 1, leaving his army in a most critical condition. 

The warfare of the Swedish-French arms was come to a 
standstill. Both armies were near dissolution, when, in 
November, Torstenson, the last of the Gustavus Adolphus 
school of generals, and the one who most nearly equalled 
the master, appeared with the Swedish army, and by a few 
vigorous strokes, which followed each other with unexam- 
pled rapidity, restored the supremacy of its arms. These 
teats were the more remarkable, as Torstenson was so ill 
with the gout that he could not mount a horse, and had to 
be carried everywhere in a litter. 

After three months of rest, which he mainly devoted to 
the reorganization and payment of his army, by the middle 
of January he had advanced towards the Elbe and the 
Altmark ; and as the Imperial forces were weakened by 
sending troops to the Rhine, he formed the great project of 
proceeding through Silesia to the Austrian hereditary domi- 
nions. On April 3rd he crossed the Elbe at Werben, be- 
tween the Imperial troops, increased his army to 20,000 
men, stormed Glogau on May 4th, stood before Schweid- 
nitz on the 30th, and defeated Francis Albert of Lauenburg ; 
Schweidnitz, Neisse, and Oppeln fell into his hands. 

Meanwhile Guebriant, after subduing the defiant and 
mutinous spirit of his troops by means of money and pro- 
mises, had, on January 17th, defeated the Imperialists near 
Kempen, not far from Crefeld, for which he was honoured 
with the dignity of marshal. 

But this was a shortlived gleam of light, and was soon 
followed by dark days, occasioned by want of money and 
discontent in the camp. An attempt to recruit the army 
with the country people of Brittany was a failure," and, 
more from necessity than from any hope of success, he had 
turned eastward from the Rhine to seek quarters for his 
murmuring troops in nether Germany, when Torstenson 
effected a decision in Saxony. 

After relieving Glogau, and having in vain tried to enter 
Bohemia, he had joined the detachments of Konigsmark 
and Wrangel, and on October 30th he appeared before 
Leipzig. 

On November 2nd there was a battle near Breitenfeld, 
which ended in a disastrous defeat of the Imperialists. In 
• Barthold. 



540 END OF THE WAR. 

spite of all the advantages which Torstenson gained foi 
himself, it never came to a united action with the French ; 
and the first victory won by the French in the Netherlands, 
in May, 1643, did not alter this state of things. 

Torstenson was in the way to obtain successes like those 
of Gustavus Adolphus eleven years before, when he was 
suddenly called to a remote scene of war in the north. 
King Christian IV. of Denmark had been persuaded, by 
means of the old Danish jealousy of Sweden, to take up 
arms for the Emperor. He declared war just as Torstenson 
was proceeding to Austria. Vienna was now saved ; but 
so much the worse for Denmark. In forced marches, which 
were justly admired, Torstenson set out from Silesia towards 
Denmark at the end of October, conducted a masterly 
campaign against the Danes, beat them wherever he met 
with them, conquered Holstein and Schleswig, pushed on 
to Jutland, then, while Wrangel and Horn carried on the 
war (till the peace of Bromsebro, August, 1645) he returned, 
and again took up the war against the Imperialists, every- 
where an unvanquished general. 

The Imperialists under the incompetent Gallas intended 
to give Denmark breathing-time by creating a diversion; 
but it did not save Denmark, and brought another defeat 
upon themselves. Gallas did not bring back more than 
two thousand men from Magdeburg to Bohemia, and they 
were in a very disorganized state. He was pursued by 
Torstenson, while Ragoczy threatened Hungary. The 
Emperor hastily collected what forces he could command, 
and resolved to give battle. 

Torstenson had advanced as far as Glattau in February, 
and on March 6th, 1645, a battle was fought near Janko- 
witz, three miles from Tabor. It was the most brilliant 
victory ever gained by the Swedes. The Imperial army 
was cut to pieces ; several of its leaders imprisoned or 
killed. In a few weeks Torstenson conquered Moravia 
and Austria as far as the Danube. Not far from the capital 
itself he took possession of the Wolfsbriicke. As in 16 18, 
Vienna was in great danger. 

Things might have taken a turn as disastrous for the 
Emperor as they were in the days of Gustavus Adolphus, 
had the*French been able to keep pace with this mode of 
warfare. But their ill success always counterbalanced the 
Swedes' advantages. Either they were beaten just as the 



RETIREMENT OF TORSTENSON. 54 1 

Swedes were victorious, or could not turn a victory to 
account. So it was during this year. 

The west frontier of the empire was guarded on the im- 
perial side by Mercy, together with John of Werth, after he 
was liberated from prison. On 26th March, Turenne crossed 
the Rhine, and advanced towards Franconia. There he 
encamped near Mergentheim and Rosenberg. On 5th May 
a battle near Mergentheim ended with the entire defeat of 
the French, and Turenne escaped with the greatest difficulty 
by way of Hammelburg, towards Fulda. The victors pushed 
on to the Rhine. 

To avenge this defeat, Enghien was sent from Paris, and, 
at the beginning of July, arrived at Spires, with 12,000 men. 
His forces, together with Konigsmark's, the remnant of 
Turenne's and the Hessians, amounted to 30,000 men. At 
first Mercy dexterously avoided a battle under unfavourable 
circumstances, but on August 3rd the contest was inevitable. 
A bloody battle was fought between Ndrdlingen and 
Donauworth near Allerheim, which was long doubtful, but, 
after tremendous losses, resulted in the victory of the 
French. Mercy's fall, Werth's imprudent advance, and a 
final brave assault of the Hessians, decided the day. But 
the victors were so weakened, that they could not fully take 
advantage of it Conde' was ill ; and in the autumn Turenne 
was compelled, not without perceptible damage to the 
cause, to retreat with his army to the Neckar and the 
Rhine. 

Neither had Torstenson been able to maintain his posi- 
tion in Austria. He had been obliged to raise the siege of 
Brunn, and learnt at the same time that Ragoczy had just 
made peace with the Emperor. Obliged to retire to 
Bohemia, he found his forces considerably diminished. 

Meanwhile, Konigsmark had won an important advantage. 
While Torstenson was in Austria he gained a firm footing 
in Saxony. Then came the news of Allerheim, and of the 
peace of Bromsebro. Except Dresden and Konigstein, all 
the important points were in the hands of the Swedes ; so, 
on the 6th of September, the Elector John George concluded 
a treaty of neutrality for six months. Besides money and 
supplies, the Swedes received Leipzig, Torgau, and the 
right of passage through the country. 

Meanwhile, Torstenson had retreated into the north-east 
of Bohemia, and severe physical sufferings compelled him 



542 END OF THE WAR. 

to give up the command. He was succeeded by Charles 
Gustavus Wrangel. 

Beginning of Negotiations, and end of the War. 

It is singular that during the whole time, from 1640 to 
the last exchange of shots at Prague, peace negotiations 
were going on. 

They were set on foot just as Richelieu began to possess 
himself of the Weimar army. Singularly enough, it was 
Denmark, then neutral, a foreign power among the imperial 
states, that first made the proposal. At a meeting of the 
Electors at Nuremberg an amnesty was proposed, and the 
convocation of a Diet, which had not met since 161 9. 

The Diet was opened in September at Ratisbon. The Em- 
peror consented to grant safe conducts to the foreign ambas- 
sadors, and to admit Hesse Cassel and Brunswick- Liineberg 
among the Protestant States. Brandenburg openly and 
decidedly advocated the only just programme, and that 
which, after eight bloody years, was carried out, release 
from the peace of Prague, and proclamation of a general 
unconditional amnesty. " If," says a Brandenburg report 
of January, 1641,* " the amnesty universaliter pure et absque 
ulla conditio ne \% not conceded, and their rights not plenarie 
restored to the States, and the Treaty of Prague and the 
Imperial Religious Edict fully set aside — if everything is not 
restored to the state of things that existed in 1618 before the 
war, all treaties of peace will be in vain, confidence will 
never exist between the head and the members, or between 
the members themselves, but distrust and dissensions will be 
increased, and everything will be in confusion, dissolution 
and dismemberment, totins Imperii, which, however, may 
the good God graciously avert." 

In fact, the mischievous results of the Treaty of Prague 
could not have been more strikingly pointed out than they 
were by the Brandenburg commissioners ; instead of union, 
discord had been produced ; instead of peace, a war of in- 
calculable length ; instead of keeping foreigners away, it 
had brought them into the heart of the empire. But Bran- 
denburg did not succeed with its proposals of a general, 
unconditional amnesty. Electoral Saxony not only shame- 

* TJrkunden und Aktenstiicke zur Geschichte Frjedrich Wilhelms. 



BEGINNING OF NEGOTIATIONS. 543 

fully left it in the lurch, after characterizing the Treaty of 
Prague as lapidem offensionis, but, with Bavaria and Cologne, 
went over openly to the Emperor's side. 

The Emperor only consented to an empty amnesty, speci- 
ally excepting his own dominions. It was also decreed 
that the Peace Congress should take place at Munster and 
Osnabriick, that the mutual grievances of the States should 
be heard at a meeting of deputies at Frankfort, and that 
afterwards the former actions against the Protestants should 
be again introduced. 

The second act of these preparations was played at Ham- 
burg, where, in December, 1641, the Emperor's ambassa- 
dors, and those of France and Sweden, met to settle the 
preliminaries : the place of the Congress, its neutrality, and 
separate negotiations with Sweden and France. It was not 
until September, 1642, that the Emperor ratified the pro- 
ceedings. He had been keeping his eyes on the seat of 
war ; every success of his arms, every disadvantage ex- 
perienced by the enemy, was a welcome pretext for refusing 
concessions, and delaying those promised, while the enemy 
boasted none the less of every victory of the Swedes, in 
order to hasten a conclusion. Thus the victory of the 
Swedes at Leipzig was required, to bring about the meeting 
of deputies at Frankfort which the Emperor had been in no 
hurry to set about. It was not under the Emperor's thumb, 
like the Diet at Ratisbon. There was vehement expression 
of dislike to this " endless Spanish war. ,; Even Electoral 
Mayence and Wurzburg were very bitter against Spain and 
Bavaria ; the former advocated the restoration of the Pala- 
tinate, that Spain might at length be compelled to give up 
her posts on the Rhine ; the latter declared in private that 
the " religious war " which the Emperor and the Elector of 
Bavaria were always talking about had turned out to be a 
war for their " sole private interests, in which they had been 
obliged to take part and be ruined," and demanded a general 
amnesty, " because they had practical experience that 
nothing was to be done with the Protestants by force." 

In the face of these proposals, the recall of Torstenson 
to Holstein was very welcome to the Emperor. Saxony 
said again that the time was come " for getting rid of the 
Swedes." Nobody had any longer any faith in treaties ; 
Mayence was of opinion that it would have been well if the 
useless meeting of deputies had not been called, " and 



544 END OF THE WAR. 

money not thrown away.'* Amidst tedious discussions as to 
whether it should be dissolved, or adjourned to another 
place, it dragged on till the spring of 1645, and then broke 
up, scarcely any result having been obtained. 

Meanwhile, the Congress had begun to assemble (1643- 
44). The French insisted that ambassadors from the Ger- 
man States should attend. The Emperor tried to prevent 
it, and wished to represent the Empire as a whole, so that 
he alone might treat with foreign powers, and the princes 
only through him. Sweden joined in the demand of France, 
and both finally demanded that the transactions should not 
begin until all the States were assembled. The Emperor was 
obliged to give way, and the States accepted the invitation. 

The Emperor's sentiments were mainly dependent on the 
position of his arms. In June, 1645, Sweden and France 
enunciated the principles of their demand. These were : 
Unlimited amnesty even in the Austrian dominions, in the 
Palatinate, Baden, and Wurtemberg, according to the 
normal conditions of 1618; settlement of the Imperial 
constitution, abolition of the election of a king of Rome ; 
acknowledgment of the right of the States to form foreign 
alliances ; indemnification for France and Sweden. Hesse 
and Ragoczy were to give up intervention in the quarrel 
between France and Spain. The Emperor declined to 
accede ; for meanwhile, after the battle of Allerheim, the 
French had disappeared from Bavaria, Torstenson had gone 
northwards, and, as the war in 1646 was carried on feebly, 
and without any decisive result — though Bavaria did, in its 
distress, come to terms with France and Sweden — the 
Emperor would give no binding promises. After the death 
of Gallas, the imperial army was commanded by Holzapfel, 
the Protestant Hessian. So far had the religious war 
deviated from its purpose. 

In the year 1648 the imperial arms were so persistently 
pursued by misfortune, that delay was no longer possible. 

In the spring of the year, Bavaria and Bohemia were 
overrun by the enemy. In May, Holzapfel was beaten, and 
fatally wounded, near Zussmarshausen ; every attempt to 
hold the Lech for the Bavarians and Imperialists had been 
fruitless ; Konigsmark had entered the country, and in July 
had taken possession of part of Prague ; then came the 
victory of Conde over the Imperialists, in the Netherlands, 
near Lens, in August, 



END OF THE WAR. 545 

With great difficulty, John of Werth had just arrived, to 
endeavour to regain some ground in Bavaria, and especially 
to liberate Munich, when the news of peace came. 

The Emperor had at length conceded, as the basis of the 
religious peace, the amnesty, and the restoration of the 
exiles, reserving the exceptions in favour of his hereditary 
dominions. His father, Ferdinand II., would scarcely have 
agreed to it even then. In order to extirpate heresy, he 
had made Germany and the Hapsburg countries a desert : 
yet heresy was not extirpated. He had died in February, 
1637, just before Bernhard of Weimar began his triumphant 
course, and, following in his footsteps, French co-operation 
thrust itself upon Germany in full view of the general con- 
flagration which Ferdinand's fanaticism had ignited. Now, 
even as in 1637, he would have opposed every attempt at 
reconciliation, but, happily for Germany, he was dead. 
His son had grown up during the troublous times of war, 
was personally less rigid in his ideas than his father, and 
now, when the course of the Thirty Years' War was nearly 
run out, he consented to that which, had it been honestb 
conceded thirty years before, would have kept the peace. 



35 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

THE general course of the transactions and the alterna- 
J- tions of the parties, are best seen in the provisions of 
the treaty itself. 

On all purely political questions, Sweden and France 
kept faithfully together. Whenever the object was to limit 
the power of the Hapsburgs, to strengthen that of the 
principalities, to represent the rights of the exiled princes, 
but also to treat the empire as an indemnification for them- 
selves, they were like hand and glove. Until the seventh 
decade of the seventeenth century, Sweden and France 
were closely allied in these endeavours, greatly to the dis- 
advantage of Germany. 

But in religious matters it was otherwise. Sweden and 
France were the leaders of opposite parties. Sweden was 
the mouthpiece of the Protestants and of every Protestant 
interest. There is no doubt that we owe many beneficial 
regulations to the attitude taken by Sweden. France was, 
of course, on the other side. It was for her interest that the 
Protestant princes of Germany should not be annihilated, for 
they were the natural enemies of Spain and the Hapsburgs; 
but it was by no means her interest to allow Protestantism so 
to increase that it might become dangerous to the creed of 
France. Though she did not, therefore, ally herself with 
the Emperor, she did with Bavaria, and it was now that 
those relations were first entered into with this state which 
have repeatedly earned for it the honourable title in France 
of " our oldest ally in Germany." Maximilian of Bavaria 
was the first German prince who proposed the cession of 
Alsace te France. 

This was the curiously disjointed way in which the most 



THE PEACE CONGRESS. 547 

important parties at the congress were grouped. Sweden 
secured the adhesion of all Protestant, France of all 
Catholic elements ; but the Emperor, both on religious 
and political questions, had all parties against him, or, at any 
rate, none for him. His plenipotentiary, therefore, could 
not assume the position which was strictly his master's due, 
and all the foreign powers with whom he had mediately or 
immediately to transact business met him as the representa- 
tive of a foreign power, and by reason of their adherents 
in Germany, they were greatly his superiors. His con- 
duct, therefore, betrays the insecure position of an isolated 
party. 

The peace congress at Miinster and Osnabriick gradu- 
ally became a European one. The powers which had not 
taken part in the war were either present or represented, 
and thus no European matter was left undiscussed, though 
the archives of the Peace do not contain decisions about 
them all. 

The Netherlands tried to obtain the recognition of their 
independence by the German empire, as did Switzerland 
also. The representatives of the policy of the restoration 
of ancient Catholicism, from which even the Emperor 
gradually withdrew, came to the congress to prevent and 
alter the treaty as much as they could. Neither Spain nor 
Rome was in a position to hinder it ; but they protested 
against its validity, which gave rise to the express declara- 
tion in the documents of the Peace, that no protest or 
interference was valid, let it come whence it would. 

The negotiations continued till the autumn of 1648. 
The last shots were being exchanged at Prague when a 
messenger brought news of the conclusion 01 peace, on the 
24th of October, 1648. France had treated with the 
Emperor at Munster ; Sweden at Osnabriick, and come to 
terms. On all essential points the treaties were in unison, 
except on those questions on which the territorial interests 
of France and Sweden diverged. 

How the Peace changed the face of Europe, how the 
fundamental principle of these peace transactions, in which 
all the European powers took part, completed the emanci- 
pation of the western world from the traditions of the 
Middle Ages, and introduced the new era of European 
balance of power, we shall afterwards see. We will first 
consider the contents of the treaty. 



548 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

The points of divergence and agreement in both treaties 
may be thus grouped : — Part of the provisions of both 
relates to temporal affairs, cessions, indemnities, restorations. 

A second part, and, in extent, the most important, re- 
lates to religious and ecclesiastical questions, especially for 
Germany, to the gist therefore of the whole war. 

A third part relates to the imperial constitution of Ger- 
many, to the settlement of regulations which were intended 
to determine, and did determine, the political life of the 
German empire for more than a century. A constitution 
was formed for Germany which issued in the Confederation 
of the Rhine, and the dissolution of the " Holy Roman 
Empire of the German nation." 

Territorial Questions. 

By the Treaty of Osnabriick, Sweden received the whole 
of Upper Pomerania with the island of Riigen, of Lower 
Pomerania, Stettin, Gartz, Damm, Golnau, Wollin, the 
mouth of the Oder and the Frische Haff, as a hereditary 
fief, with all the rights of a State of the German empire ; 
also Camin and Wismar, and the whole of the arch- 
bishopric of Bremen and the bishopric of Verden, with 
the exception of the city of Bremen, which was to remain 
free. 

As Duke of Bremen, Verden, and Pomerania, governor 
of Riigen, and lord of Wismar, the King of Sweden had a 
vote among the temporal princes in the Diet, a legal posi- 
tion in the district directory and the meetings of deputies, 
and the " privilegium de non appellando et supremum tribunal 
constiiuendi " belonging to princes of the empire. 

This was pretty much what Gustavus Adolphus had in 
view at the beginning of the war in Germany, only that 
now a piece of the North Sea was added to indemnity on 
the Baltic, and dominion over the Elbe and the Weser to 
that over the mouth of the Oder. 

The national character which, in spite of its loose consti- 
tution, the German empire had up to this time tolerably 
well mantained, was now lost, and replaced by a European 
one. Until the end of the eighteenth century no less than 
six European princes were members of the empire ; at last 
all the Ewropean powers were represented in it, except 
France, Russia, and Turkey, and it was. not the fault of the 



TERRITDRIAL QUESTIONS. 549 

empire that these were not in it also. The merit of having 
proposed the reception of the Sultan belongs to a German 
politician. Peter the Great once had a project of becoming 
a member of it, and it was suggested to France at the 
congress ; but she did not desire it. Louis XIV. did after- 
wards wish it at one time, that he might hold his reunions 
still more conveniently, but consoled himself with the idea 
that it was better as it was. If he were in the empire the 
incorporation of Alsace would only be more difficult ; it 
was not easy to detach it from its fealty to the empire ; 
being outside it, he could simply ignore the decrees of the 
Diet, and do as he pleased. 

When the question arose about admitting France, the 
Protestants, for the first and last time, were at one with the 
Emperor; they joined in opposing it. 

The European character of the empire caused the rotten 
body to hold together longer than might have been ex- 
pected from its constitution. In the wars with Louis XIV. 
England especially, repeatedly stood up for the old German 
empire ; and the fact that a revolution of this wonderful 
structure, within and without, was a European question, 
caused its vegetative existence to be spared by all conserva- 
tive powers as much as possible. But it could not be a 
healthy existence that required to be so ingeniously kept 
together. 

The following were the terms agreed upon at Minister 
with France : — 

The district of Burgundy shall be, as before, a country 
of the German empire, after the settlement of the disputes 
between France and Spain. But should disputes arise in 
future between these two powers, they shall not affect the 
treaty between the King of France and the German empire 
as such ; but the individual states shall be free to help one 
side or the other, "extra imperii li?nites" though only in 
accordance with the imperial constitution ^secundum im- 
perii constitutionem "). 

The empire therefore lost the right of interfering for 
Burgundy as a member of the empire ; but the individual 
States were, in a given case, to be permitted to unite with 
the enemies of the empire, "beyond the boundaries, but 
within the constitution of the empire." The anarchy esta- 
blished by treaty, of die new constitution cannot be more 
strikingly portrayed than in these words. A time came 



550 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

when all Western Germany was on the side of France, and 
helped to protect her in her conquests. This was a com- 
mentary on this article. 

The supreme authority " supremum dominium iura 
superioritatis aliaque omnia? over the bishoprics of Metz, 
Toul, and Verdun, was to be conferred on the French 
Crown, and they were to be incorporated with it for ever — 
" eique incorporari debeant in perpetuum.'* Up to this 
time the possessions of these bishoprics had been only an 
actual one, not legally acknowledged ; the Peace of West- 
phalia made the robbery legal. Pignerol was ceded. 
Emperor and empire renounced all their rights and those of 
the House of Austria over Breifach, the Landgraviate of 
Upper and Lower Alsace, the Sundgau, the prefectures of 
the ten imperial cities (Hagenau, Colrnar, Schlettstadt, 
Weissenburg, Landau, &c.) in favour of France, but with a 
reservation of all the rights and privileges which these 
places had previously received from Austria. France was 
to have the right of garrisoning Philippsburg j the rest of 
the imperial cities were to retain the immediate connection 
with the Holy Roman empire which they have hitherto 
enjoyed, "in ea libertate et possessione immedietatis erga 
imperium rotnanum, qua hademts gavisi sunt" the German 
fortresses on the right and left of the Rhine to be demo- 
lished. 

The boundaries of France, therefore, were advanced to 
the Rhine, the defence of the German frontier as far as 
Philippsburg, which served the French as a iete du pont, 
destroyed. 

The mode of cession was purposely full of contradic- 
tions. 

The constituent parts of the empire ceded to France, 
— that is, the ecclesiastical rulers, who still partly resided 
here, the imperial nobles, and ten imperial cities, were not 
to suffer any diminution of their rights and privileges under 
French rule, were to retain their direct connection with the 
empire, were to be subject to the imperial courts ; in short, 
they were still to be members of the empire, but with the 
reservation that it s/iou/d be without prejudice to the rights oj 
France (" it a tamen ut prczsenti hac dec/a ratione nihil de- 
tractum intej/igatur de ei supremi Dominii, hire, quod supra 
ioncessum est "). 

In the very nature of things, such ambiguous regulations 



TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS. 551 

were sure to give rise to all sorts of disputes. The German 
empire appealed to its expressly reserved rights, France to 
tie clauses by which her sovereignty was secured. The power 
of France finally decided the matter. Actual incorporation 
with France was, -doubtless, intended to be averted by these 
articles; but their meaning was not defined sharply enough, 
and it required more power to enforce its claims than the 
German empire possessed. 

Louis XIV. preferred not to be a member of the empire, 
because had he been so he must have submitted to its 
decrees, and would have been hampered in his schemes. 
He had only to put his own construction on the articles as a 
foreign power, and practically to complete the incorporation. 
During the following wars and treaties of peace these ques- 
tions were always coming under discussion, and it was in 
the very nature of things that they were always decided to 
the disadvantage of the empire. 

The many-headed empire, with its tedious transactions, 
was confronted by a power that never for one moment lost 
sight of its aims, never let a favourable opportunity slip, 
and was always the stronger party. 

The internal conformation of Germany was settled on 
the basis of the general amnesty, to which Hapsburg, after 
long resistance, had agreed. 

" All hostilities," says the document, " that have taken 
place from the beginning of the late disturbances, in 
any place, of whatever kind, by one side or the other, shall 
be forgotten and forgiven ; so that neither party shall cherish 
enmity or hatred against, nor molest nor injure the other for 
any cause whatsoever," &c 

From this followed the unconditional re-instatement in 
their previous position of all who had been driven from 
their country and subjects, or deprived of offices or digni- 
ties, house or home, during the war. 

Bavaria retained the Electorate and the Upper Palatinate, 
but had to renounce its claim of thirteen millions. The 
Palatinate received an eighth Electorate and the Rhenish 
Palatinate back again The official posts in the Bergstrasse 
were - restored to Electoral Mayence. The line of Simmern 
was re-instated. Wiirtemberg, with Mompelgard, Baden- 
Durlach, Nassau, Solms, Isenburg Sayn, Waldeck, Hohen- 
lohe, Erbach, and many others, were restored. 

The restitution extended also to all persons in civil and 



552 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

military service : u a summo ad infimum, ab infimo ad 
summum" as it is stated in the documents. This was one 
of the disputed points, and the Emperor took care that it 
should not be carried out without exception. It might do 
in Germany ; but in the Austrian hereditary dominions the 
case was different. 

Bohemia was almost depopulated, as a result of the re- 
action. Instead of four million inhabitants, there was now 
scarcely one million, and some of the best subjects of 
Catholic Hapsburg had taken possession of the estates of 
the banished Protestants. 

To have ordained unconditional restoration to the pre- 
vious state of things in this case would have been to make 
the existing government of Austria, the dynasty itself, im- 
possible. To have restored to its property and rights the 
party which had been doomed to destruction, and which for 
thirty years past had been fighting under various colours 
against Austria, wou" J have been fatal to the House of 
Austria and its newly-founded dominion. 

In the German empire the restitution simply meant the 
restoration of Protestant lands to Protestant masters ; but 
in Austria the whole state of things introduced by the 
Restoration, which had lasted for nearly thirty years, would 
be upset, and all the hostile elements would be in the 
ascendant again. 

The " amnestia perpetna" therefore, was construed in a 
very limited sense in the Austrian dominions. As Austrian 
subjects, the Protestants were permitted to return, without 
damage to "person, life, reputation, or honour;" but they 
forfeited the ancient privileges of which they had boasted 
as a party. Estates which they had lost before going over 
to the hostile party were to remain in the hands of their 
present owners : but those that were lost later, through the 
act of joining the Swedes or French, were to be restored. 

In every country of Germany there are traces of the 
exile of the Bohemian aristocracy in the Thirty Years' War. 
In going through the names of the noble families, Bohemian 
names may be found even in the furthest north. Those of 
Boyen and Gneisenau are among them. 



RELIGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS. 553 

Religious and Ecclesiastical Questions. 

The basis of the religious peace, and the principle of 
equality between the creeds, were more unconditionally and 
distinctly denned than in 1552-5. The treaties of that period 
were confirmed, and an interpretation put upon them which 
was to be of unquestionable validity, against which neither 
protest from nor interference by the imperial or ecclesiastical 
power was to avail anything — " non attenta cuiusvis seu 
Ecdesiastici seu Politici, intra vel extra Imperium qnocunque 
tempore interposita cotitradictione vel protcstatione quce otnnes 
manes dedarantur" This was aimed at the protests to 
be expected from Spain and Rome, accustomed as they 
were to protest against everything connected with religious 
toleration. 

In all religious questions complete equality was to exist 
between electors, princes, states, and individuals (" cequal- 
itas exacta mutuaque"), each is to allow what seems right 
to the other (" ut quod uni parti iustum est, altei-i quoque sit 
iustum "), and every kind of violence is for ever forbidden 
between the parties. 

This principle, honestly carried out, was worth making 
great sacrifices for, and it was more comprehensive than 
before ; for it included not only Catholics and Lutherans 
but also the Reformed party, to whom liberty and equality 
was now expressly granted. Toleration was also expressly 
promised to those who should hereafter change their 
religion. 

It was more difficult to calculate on the results of this 
principle as applied to ecclesiastical restitution. The con- 
sistent thing would have been, and it was demanded by all 
the Protestants, to recur to the state of things before the 
war; bu'. that would affect the Austrian dominions as 
deeply as the amnesty; it would involve restoring Bohemia, 
Moravia, Upper and Lower Austria, to the condition oi 
1618. The Emperor, therefore, was as determined against 
restitution in this sense as against the amnesty, and all that 
was attained was that Silesia should remain as it was. 

The question, therefore, was to find a normal year for the 
restitution which should satisfy both parties. The Pro- 
testants demanded 1618; but the Catholics rejected it 
For them it would have been to put all the results of the 
religious war in doubt again, and they demanded 1630, 



554 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

which was the year most favourable to them, as It was after 
the Edict of Restitution, and before Gustavus Adolphus had 
gained any victory of importance. But this was strongly 
opposed by the Swedes and Protestants, and after a long 
dispute they came to a medius terminus, for which there 
was nothing to be said, either on logical or historical 
grounds ; they divided the twelve years, thus arriving at 
1624. The Protestants could content themselves with 
this, if it obliged the Austrian hereditary dominions to be 
given up. 

So it was decided that for ecclesiastical possessions and 
rights, as a whole and in detail, the 1st of January, 1624, 
should be the criterion. What was at that time a Protestant 
or Catholic institution should remain such in future. Eccle- 
siastics who change their religion shall give up their offices, 
but " honor e famaqtie iilibatis." 

The ecclesiastical right of election shall remain unlimited, 
and the preces primaries of the Emperor, annats and pall 
money in Protestant bishoprics shall be abolished. The 
archbishops, bishops, and prelates elected by the adherents 
of the Confession of Augsburg shall be immediately installed 
by the Emperor. 

The mediate ecclesiastical possessions, without exception, 
shall remain to the Protestants, as on the 1st of January, 
1624. 

Knights of the empire and imperial cities shall have the 
same privileges as the superior states of the empire, and 
for them, also, the 1st of January, 1624, shall be the criterion 
of restitution. 

The mediate states of the empire shall be protected in 
their creed, and the intolerant principle, "cuius regio eius re- 
tigi°" given up ; but at the same time the sovereign rights of 
the immediate states in religious matters were granted with 
a regulation calculated to occasion some anxiety (" nulli 
statui immediate ius quod ipsi ratione territorii et super ioritatis 
in negotiis religionis competit, impediri oporfere"). Still, it 
was expressly stated that the Protestant subjects of Catholic 
states, who, in 1624, "whether by treaty, privilege, long 
usage, or only by observance," shall have been in the habit 
of using the Confession of Augsburg, shall retain it, together 
with its "appurtenances;" that is, the institution of con- 
sistories, ministers, schoolmasters, right of patronage, &c. 

Those who have been molested shall be reinstated — of 



RELIGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL Ql ESTIONS. 555 

course reciprocally. The Catholic subjects of Protestant 
States shall receive the same privileges. 

During the war, as the armies moved hither and thither, 
new congregations had been formed in various places of 
adherents of one creed or the other, with whom the year 
1624 had as little to do as with those who should hereafter 
change their creed. It was settled that " their rulers of a 
different creed shall tolerate them patiently, that they shall 
be at liberty to have domestic worship without molestation, 
to attend the public services of their persuasion in the 
neighbourhood whenever they like, and to send their 
children to foreign schools of their profession." Had this 
article been honestly kept to, we should have had little 
more persecution to complain of on account of differences 
of religion. 

The treaty goes on to say, " No one of any party shall 
look askance at any one on account of his creed ; nor shall 
any one be excluded from the communes, guilds, corpora- 
tions, inheritance, legacies, hospitals, or the distribution of 
alms, nor be deprived of honourable burial." 

But this was more easily said than done. If any one wishes 
to emigrate, or is induced to do so by his ruler, he may 
do so without molestation, and without prejudice to his 
property ; he may either alienate it, retain it, or have it 
managed by another. This was specially intended for the 
Austrian and Silesian Protestants. The Emperor's subjects 
in Silesia, and the counts, barons, and nobles in Lower 
Austria were not to be compelled to emigrate. They had 
not been able to agree, it was added, upon further con- 
cessions, "on account of the opposition of the imperial 
plenipotentiaries." Sweden and the Protestant States re- 
served to themselves the right of interceding with the 
Emperor on the subject at the next Diet. 

No one shall in any wise dispute the treaty (" concionando 
docendo, dispuiando, scribendo, coiisulendo "), nor meddle with 
the treaties of 1552 and 1555. Disputes 5hall be referred 
to the Diet. 

At the ordinary meetings of the deputies of the empire 
the number of deputies of each religion shall be equal. In 
extraordinary commissions for the settlement of disputes, 
Catholics or Protestants, or both, shall be represented 
according to the religion of the disputants. Religious 
questions shall not be decided by majority of votes. 



556 THE PEACE OJ WESTPHALIA. 

An early Diet shall regulate the affairs of the Court of 
Judicature; besides the judges and four presidents, two of 
whom were to be Protestants, the assessors were to be 
increased to fifty, of whom the Catholics were to appoint 
twenty-six, the Protestants twenty-lour. 

To the article which declares the equality of the Reformed 
party is added, " But except the above-mentioned religions, 
no other shall be admitted or tolerated in the holy Roman 
empire." 

In the eighteenth century this clause was enforced against 
the Pietists. 

Political Regulations. 

The important political changes which resulted, first from 
the European and then from the religious character of the 
empire, have already been partially noticed. The aristo- 
cracy of the rulers and cities, which forms the essential 
feature of the future constitution of Germany, is already 
stamped upon it. 

Article 8 contains the transfer of the sovereignty of the 
empire to the States and their sovereign pleasure. They enjoy, 
so it runs, the right of voting in all transactions relating to 
the affairs of the empire, especially the enactment of laws, 
questions of war, peace, treaties, taxation, levies of soldiers, 
&c. ; and without their consent no important business can 
be decided. To every, even the smallest regulation the 
consent of the three Courts is required. The right of form- 
ing alliances with foreign powers, for its own support and 
safety, is expressly granted to every individual state, so 
long as they are not entered into against the Emperor, the 
empire, and the public peace, but consistently with the 
oath which every one has taken to the Emperor and the 
empire ('' ita tamen ne eiusmodi fxdera sint contra Impera- 
torem et Imperium, pacemque eins publicum vel hanc imprimis 
transactionem, Jiantque salvo per omnia iuramento quo quisque 
hnpcratori et Imperio obstr ictus est "). 

The last vestige of sovereignty which had been preserved 
in the rickety German constitution was destroyed, and all 
that appertains to the essential character of a State dis- 
tributed.among the members of the republic of the States. 

This completely deprived the empire, as such, of its 
power. It was almost impossible with this constitution to 



POLITICAL REGULATIONS. 557 

decide great and urgent questions. The empire might be 
ruined while the three Courts of the Diet were coming to an 
agreement on a complicated question. The article by 
which the right of forming alliances was conferred on every 
State contained within itself the dissolution of the empire. 
All subsequent separate alliances were entered into " for 
the sake of German liberties," and with a reservation of 
loyalty to the Emperor and empire ; even the confederation 
of the Rhine maintained that it was formed from great 
regard for, and boundless loyalty to the German empire. 

And this hampering organization was inflicted on a cor- 
porate empire which had suffered considerable losses both 
in the north and south — besides Alsace, Pomerania, &c, 
Poland was sacrificed, Belgium loosened, Switzerland with- 
drawn from the imperial jurisdiction — and it was sur- 
rounded on two sides by powerful neighbours. 

This was the end of the great revolution which had been 
raging in Germany during the Thirty Years' War. That it 
put the finishing-stroke to the already rotten constitution 
was the least of the evil ; a blow was struck by it at the 
nation itself, its prosperity, and the foundations of its 
existence, from which it took generations to recover. The 
descriptions of the misery inflicted by this war everywhere 
in Germany are heartrending. The conduct of the soldiers 
towards the defenceless citizens and peasants, their wives 
and children, was so horribly barbarous that it seemed to 
be their object literally to destroy the whole population. 
The power of the armed over the unarmed was exercised 
with bestial ferocity. It is said of the Imperialists that 
they baked the poor people in ovens, roasted them before 
the fires, put out their eyes, cut strips from their backs, cut 
off arms, legs, ears, noses, breasts, and set pitch on fire on 
their living bodies. Just the same things are reported of 
the Swedes after their degeneracy after the battle of Nord- 
lingen. The " Swedish drink," manure-water, poured down 
the throats of the poor wretches, was their invention. 

The depopulation and devastation of the country was 
fearful. Especially in the south and west, Germany was a 
wilderness of ruins ; places that were formerly the seats of 
prosperity were the haunts of wolves and robbers for many 
a long year. It is estimated that the population was 
diminished by twenty, by some even by fifty per cent. The 
population of Augsburg was reduced from 80,000 t& 



558 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

18,000; of Frankenthal, from 18,000 to 324 inhabitants. 
In Wiirtemberg, in 1 641, of 400,000 inhabitants 48,000 
remained; in the Palatinate, in 1636, there were but 201 
peasant-farmers; and in 1648, but a fiftieth part of the 
population remained. In Hesse, 17 towns, .47 castles, and 
400 villages were burnt; in Bavaria alone, in 1646, more 
than 100 villages were ruined; and in Wiirtemberg 8 cities, 
45 villages, and 36,000 houses. 

The measures which were necessary to bring the wilder- 
ness into cultivation again are indicated by the decrees of 
the Palatinate of that period.* Whoever repaired old houses, 
was exempt from taxes for two years ; whoever built new 
ones, for three; whoever brought waste lands, devastated 
places and vineyards into cultivation again, for one, three, 
six years. 

Here, as everywhere, the most extraordinary exertions 
were necessary to restore order and civilisation after the 
devastations of the war. But it was not the mission of the 
empire ; that was condemned to inaction ; but of the in- 
dividual states who now entirely freed themselves from 
their loose connection with it, and whose independent 
efficiency was now severely tested. 

In reviewing the situation of Germany as a whole, the 
best criticism of the new circumstances is contained in a 
pamphlet published in Brandenburg in 1658.! " Our noble 
country has been fearfully spoiled in the name of religion 
and liberty ; we have sacrificed our blood, our honour, and 
our names ; and all that we have attained for it is, that we 
have made ourselves the servants of foreign nations, and 
made masters of those whose names were almost unknown 
to us. What are the Rhine, the Weser, the Elbe, and the 
Oder, but the captives of foreign nations ? What are our 
liberties and our religion but things for others to play 
with?" 

The part of the German Empire, both at home and 
abroad, was played out. At home it was superseded by 
the acknowledged sovereignty of the ruling princes, the 
nobles, and the cities ; abroad it was thrust aside by the 
new position of two ambitious powers who had begun to 
lay the foundations of their greatness at its expense. The 
Swedish power was established, as projected by Gustavui 

• Hiusser, Geschichte dor rhein, Pi'alz, ii. 58$. f Droysen, iii, 



POLITIC AI REGULATIONS. 559 

Adolphus, as an empire surrounding the Baltic and even 
ruling a portion of the North Sea. It was a power which 
it needed much hostile talent, and still more stupidity on 
its own part to ruin. 

France had acquired a similar position in the west : dur- 
ing the war, by the skill and rigid consistency of her 
diplomacy, she had made her way out of great internal 
difficulties, and with but little sacrifice she had secured a 
rich booty, which offered a prospect of still greater gain ; 
her army also had experienced a discipline which was not 
lost in ensuing times. 

But the power which the German and Spanish Haps- 
burgs had wielded since the times of Charles V. and 
Philip II., and for which they contended for the last time 
during this war, was now thrown entirely into the back- 
ground by their two more fortunate rivals. Spain was 
thoroughly disabled, and the authority of the Emperor in 
the empire reduced to a shadow. The essence of that 
which had been desired by Chemnitz* a year before the 
peace — that Austria might be constitutionally thrust out of 
the empire — was accomplished. 

The mediaeval order of the European world was over ; 
the union which once more took place between Imperialism 
and the Papacy to oppose church reform was for ever at an 
end. An era begins of national consolidated governments,, 
with a new policy both foreign and domestic. For both 
these tendencies France became the standard in the spirit 
inaugurated by Richelieu. 

* HippolUhus a Lapide, tie ratioue status iu Impeiio Geimanico. 
164J. 



PART XII. 

COMPLETION OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

IHE REFORMATION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH UNDER 
EDWARD VI., I547-53- 

The inheritance of Henry VIIL— Character cf .he young King — Ths 
first Protector, Edward, Duke of Somerset, 1549. — The second 
Protector, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland, 1553. — 
Character of the Church Reform, Bible, Catechism, Book of Com- 
mon Prayer, Abolition of the Mass, Celibacy, &c. — The Catholic 
reaction under Mary, 1553-8. — Abolition of the Ecclesiastical 
Laws of Edward VI., and first acts of revenge. — Marriage with 
Philip II. of Spain, 1554. — The question of Church Property. — 
Parliament and the Laws concerning Heresy. — The Ordeal by fire 
of English Protestantism. — The untenable position of the Govern- 
ment after the loss of Calais and the breach of the Constitution.* 

The Reformation under Edward VI. 

WHAT was attempted by Henry VHI.was not in any- 
wise a Reformation, but a wanton experiment of 
autocratic* absolutism. 

• Camden, Annates rer. Angl. regn. Elisabetha, 1675, fol. Collec- 
tion of State Papers, left by Cecil Lord Burleigh, 1740. Letters of 
negoc. of F. Walsingham, 1655, fol. Forbes, Public Transactions. 
Townshend, Proceedings of the four last Parliaments of Elizabeth, 
1680. Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1754. Lucy 
Aikin, Memoirs of the Court of Elizabeth, 1818. Turner, History of 
the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, 1829. Neal, History 
of the Puritans, 1723. M'Crie, Life of John Knox, 1839; Whitaker. 
Mary Stuart Vindicated, 1787. Benger, Memoirs of Mary, 1823. 
Raumer, Elisabeth und Maria Stuart, 1836. Mignet, Histoire de 
Marie Stuait, 1850. Ranke, Englische Geschichte, vol. i.-vii., 1859-68, 
Weber, Geschichte der akatholischen Kirchen Englands. 



CONFUSION BEQUEATHED BY HENRY VIII. 56 1 

From motives of a very various character he had reduced 
the ancient Church to ruins, united the monarchy and the 
Papacy in one person, but retained the worship, the 
doctrines, and the hierarchy of the Romish Church. Al- 
though the most determined opponent of the Curia, he was 
no less, from first to last, the declared enemy of Luther ; 
but what his subjects were to be, if they wished to escape 
being hanged as rebels or burnt as heretics, it was not easy 
to say. If a man was a Catholic, he was sent to the 
scaffold because he refused to take the oath of supremacy ; 
if a good Lutheran, he was burnt because he would have 
nothing to do with the mass, celibacy of the clergy, &c. 

The untenableness of the new position lay in the fact 
that it was not based on any fixed principles, but depended 
on the will of a relentless despot; it could not therefore be 
permanent. It was easy to foresee that at his death the 
structure of Church order raised by this monarch would 
fall, for the arm would be wanting that held it together. 

It was long doubtful whether England would be Pro- 
testant or Catholic ; but that the present state of things 
would not last, and did not deserve to last, was obvious to 
every one. It was also evident that this distraction of men's 
consciences must at length become insupportable. People 
were called Catholic, and then again heretical Protestants ; 
and were in fact neither the one nor the other. 

To add to all the other confusion bequeathed by Henry 
VIII., the succession to the throne was entirely doubtful. 

At the time of the King's death there was no doubt that 
his only son was his lawful successor ; but if he should die 
early, as soon afterwards happened, the question was not so 
simple. 

By his first wife, the unfortunate Catharine of Aragon, 
Henry had one daughter, Mary ; and in the opinion of all 
unprejudiced persons she was the King's legitimate child. 
But her mother's marriage with the King had been officially 
declared illegal. 

The second marriage with Anne Boleyn did not last long, 
and the only issue was another daughter, Elizabeth. On 
doubtful testimony her mother was accused of all sorts 0/ 
unchastity, and condemned by the same corrupt votes 
which served the King in all these odious transactions. 
She died upon the scaffold ; her offspring therefore could 
not be considered legitimate. 

36 



562 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

The third marriage was with Jane Seymour, the onl/ wife 
who was not made wretched by her union with Henry, for 
she died in childbed, and had not to drink the cup of his 
humours to the dregs. 

The fourth marriage with Anne of Cleves scarcely deserves 
the name, so short-lived and fugitive was the connection. 
The fifth wife, Catharine Howard, seems really to have 
been guilty of adultery. The sixth, Catharine Parr, the 
widow of a nobleman, maintained a tolerable understand- 
ing with the King ; but as she had suspicious leanings 
towards Protestantism, it is probable that she would have 
been got rid of on account of theological scruples had the 
King lived much longer. 

Out of this family history arose most of the convulsions 
by which England was torn during the second half of the 
century, especially the conflict between the two queens 
— Mary Stuart and Elizabeth, the Catholic and the Pro- 
testant. 

The Seymour family, from whom on the maternal side 
the young King Edward VI. was descended, gathered 
round him in order to reign in his name, for he was only 
ten years old. From all that we know of the King it 
appears that he displayed a good-natured character, without 
any of the Tudor haughtiness or despotic tendencies ; but 
he early showed great weakness and delicacy of constitu- 
tion. Thus there came to be a government of guardians, 
not by princes of the royal family, but by nobles, who there- 
fore had all the other nobles who were excluded from 
power against them. At first, the King's maternal uncle, 
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was Protector, a vain 
ambitious man, but not without good qualities, which 
endeared him to the people. His own brother, Thomas, 
conspired against him, was subdued, and executed (1549) ; 
then another party was formed against him under Dudley 
Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland, who succeeded 
in compassing the Protector's fall, and in sending him to the 
scaffold (1552). 

Taken altogether, the first Protectorate was the best. It 
was not over-efficient, its projects were often much more 
daring than its performances ; but it was lenient, well- 
meaning,, and popular. The Duke of Somerset had the 
prosperity of the state, and the good of the lower classes 
sincerely at heart; he neither enriched himself nor mis' 



EDWARD VI. AND THE PROTECTORATE. 563 

used his power by aggrandising his relatives at the 
expense of the country. 

With the second Protectorate came all the evils which 
cannot be laid to the charge of the first — barefaced nepotism ; 
the public money was shamefully squandered on favourites, 
and there was an attempt to secure the crown itself to the 
family of the Protector. 

The most important question, however, was what the 
attitude of the government would be towards the Reforma- 
tion, and the untenable policy of Henry VIII. And on 
this point the new government was stamped with a sharply- 
defined character. 

The young King had been won over to Protestantism by 
Cranmer, and notwithstanding his youth showed a warm 
enthusiasm for and premature comprehension of the new 
doctrines. He had the noble ambition to make his country 
the vanguard of the Reformation, and to offer a refuge to 
the fugitive professors of the new creed in his free island. 

The Seymours also favoured a thorough reformation from 
conviction. The leading powers in England therefore 
were Protestant, and Cranmer was allowed to give the 
supremacy to those doctrines to which he had long been 
devoted in secret ; he could now openly express in dogma 
that approach to Lutheranism which he had been obliged 
to conceal within his own breast. A great number of the 
nobles were with him, the King and Protector eagerly took 
his part, Parliament was easily gained over, and thus, with 
comparatively little opposition, the traditions of Henry VIII. 
were set aside, the Church system adapted to the conti- 
nental Reformation, the Anglican Church made Protestant 
by authority. 

The English Reformation could not be productive and 
original. In the constitution of the Church the royal 
supremacy could not be set aside ; in the doctrines there 
was nothing original to oppose to Lutheranism. It was 
still a monarchical-aristocratic structure, an episcopal hier- 
archy which, except that it had a temporal head, was 
Catholic ; in the forms of divine worship Catholic and 
Protestant elements were mingled with a preponderance of 
the former ; but the doctrines of the Church were thoroughly 
Protestant. 

These changes were made with prudence and tact ; 
and, first ; the policy of compulsion as it existed under 



504 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

Henry VIII. was discontinued. While the government 
appeared to be walking in the steps of the late King, they 
entirely renounced the essential features of his attitude ; 
while they seemed religiously to be abiding by usage, on 
the most important points it was entirely changed. 

The Six Articles were withdrawn by act of Parliament ; 
as to practices, to the omission of which heavy penalties 
had been attached, such as oral confession, full liberty was 
introduced. Regular teaching of the congregation from 
the English Bible, and of the youth from a purified cate- 
chism, a new liturgy by the Book of Common Prayer, the 
administration of the communion in both kinds, abolition of 
the mass and of the celibacy of the clergy, restrictions upon 
processions, abolition of the worship of images, and invoca- 
tion of saints — with strict injunctions against image-break- 
ing — were the most important of the religious innovations. 
The ruling powers were as firm in their Church policy as 
they were weak in the secular government. 

These changes did not arise, as in Germany and Switzer- 
land, from pressure from the people, but were ordained by 
authority. Although there was but little opposition, the 
consent of the masses was by no means certain ; they un- 
doubtedly liked the reforms much better than the terrorism 
of Henry VIII., still it was not clear that they would not 
some day doff the new garments as easily as they had put 
them on, whether a future sovereign might not succeed in 
undoing the work of Edward VI. 

No reformation which had been effected in this official 
way had hitherto been strong enough to set a reaction at 
defiance. 

To add to these anxieties which lay in the nature of 
the case, the second Protector had jealously to guard the 
influence of his family. Since the King's health awakened 
fears of an early death, he busied himself, in opposition to 
the mandates of Henry VIII., in planning a succession to 
the crown, which should on the one hand prevent a 
Catholic reaction under Mary, and on the other secure the 
crown for his family. 

The daughters of Henry VIII. were, he considered, both 
incapable of succeeding, the marriages of their mothers 
having been pronounced invalid. Recourse must therefore 
be had to the legitimate posterity of Henry VII., of which 
there was one princess whose claims bore precedence, Lady 



LADY JANE GREY. 565 

Jane Grey, the great grandchild of the first Tudor, and 
daughter-in-law of the Protector. She was to be proclaimed 
Queen, with the declaration that her accession would be a 
guarantee of the modern Church reform, while the Catholic 
reign of Mary would upset it. 

The King consented to this, excluded his sisters from 
the throne and disregarded his father's injunctions, for the 
safety of the Protestant doctrines outweighed everything 
with him ; and he gave their adherents credit for power 
to maintain the good cause in any struggle that might 
ensue. 

On the 6th of July, 1553, Edward died suddenly, and 
it now remained to be seen which party had the stronger 
sympathies among the nobles and the people. 

The Catholics, of course, were for Mary, and would have 
been so had her rights been much more doubtful than they 
were. All the powerful enemies whom Warwick had made 
by his supercilious rule were against Lady Jane Grey, and 
the majority of the Protestants were at least doubtful 
whether, for the state of their creed and at the risk of civil 
war, they should help to upset a legitimate succession. 

The coup d'etat must have been very skilfully planned to 
succeed against such sentiments, and it was not so ; the 
attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, a learned 
young lady, who was never more surprised than at the news 
that she was Queen, was from the first miserably frustrated. 
Mary had only to show herself, some courageous adherents 
had only to proclaim her Queen, and the opposing party 
fell to pieces ; Warwick himself was eclipsed by the herald 
who proclaimed her. 

Catholic Mary, 1553-58; born 1516. 

This was a most important turn in the course of events. 
The question whether the Reformation ordained by autho- 
rity would stand, was still awaiting solution. A princess 
now succeeded to the throne who undoubtedly had decided 
opinions on religious matters. Whatever her sentiments 
might be on other subjects, in religion she was a strict 
Catholic. 

A government ensued which, perhaps without or even 
against her consent, began to tread the path of Catholic 
reaction, which first tested the vital power of Protestantism. 



5f)6 THE REFORMATION TN ENGLANt). 

Mary's portrait, as drawn by English historians, those 
only excepted who favour strict Roman Catholic views, is 
not a very flattering one. The greater number of them 
speak of her only as " Bloody Mary." It is perfectly intelli- 
gible that the feelings of the nation, outraged by the Spanish 
terrorism under this Queen, should revenge themselves by 
such a title ; and Mary cannot be absolved from enor- 
mous blood-guiltiness. Still it is not fair to yield altogether 
10 this impression. On unprejudiced psychological obser- 
vation of her, we find the weakness of a woman which 
deserves rather to be pitied than condemned, instead of the 
wild fanaticism of a bloodthirsty character. 

Mary Tudor was now no longer young, and had an un- 
happy childhood and youth to look back upon. She had 
seen her innocent mother separated from her father by a 
party tribunal, banished like an intruder from the court, 
supplanted on the throne by a more fortunate rival ; she 
herself had been thrust into the background, threatened, 
neglected, ill-used. Such things might have left fainter 
traces on a sprightly and vigorous character, but they were 
inflicted on a person who had an early bias to melancholy 
and bigotry. 

The remembrance of her lot was still further embittered 
by the idea that her mother had been persecuted for her 
faith, and that she herself had been condemned to obscurity 
for the same reason. Her mother's misfortunes and her 
own had begun with the day when the king broke faith 
with the ancient church ; and the victory of the rival was 
at the same time, in her eyes, a victory of modern unbelief. 
It was not so, but so it appeared to her. All the bitterest 
experiences of her life were connected with the position of 
affairs on religious questions. Protestantism was not only 
a new doctrine which was opposed to her faith, but a hostile 
principle which had brought wretchedness to her and her 
mother. 

She therefore hated the new creed, and felt herself a 
stranger among the people. She was more Spanish than 
English, regarded the English as accomplices in the out- 
rages against her mother and her faith, and worshipped 
everything Spanish. This was another cause of estrange- 
ment. 

Then she was weakly and sickly, and had something of 
the sour misanthropy of an old maid. This all conspired 



QUEEN MARY. 567 

to drive her to fearful deeds, for which an explanation must 
be sought in all the circumstances of her life before they are 
roundly condemned. 

It was not that she came to the throne with her head full 
of evil intentions. Many things were rather brought about 
by the course of events than ordained by her despotic 
will. 

On her accession she made a declaration that the Pro- 
testants should not be molested in the profession and prac- 
tice of their religion, nor should compulsion be used in 
matters of faith ; but she forbade the use of the offensive 
names, " Papist " and " heretic." 

Perhaps this was only done to allay the fears of the 
Protestants, and to deprive the enemy of its latest adher- 
ents, for she was no doubt resolved at heart to restore 
Catholicism. The first acts of the new government were 
acts of revenge. Northumberland, whose behaviour now 
was as cowardly and craven as it had before been insolent 
and ambitious, was sent with five accomplices to the scaf- 
fold ; and Lady Jane Grey and her husband were closely 
imprisoned. 

Then followed the measures for Catholic restoration, and 
the supremacy which Henry VIII. had connected with the 
regal power came to her aid, and still more so the subser- 
vience to which he had trained Parliament and the judges. 
She filled all offices in accordance with her views ; those 
who had suffered for their Catholic opinions under Edward 
VI. were re-instated in their posts ; Bishop Gardiner 
stepped out of prison into the office of chancellor, and a 
number of eminent bishops, who were the pillars of Pro- 
testantism, were dismissed. The ministry was formed in a 
Catholic spirit, and in a few months the state of official 
England was thoroughly reversed. 

Edward VI. had only just made Protestantism the basis 
of the government, and now pure Catholicism was lifting 
up its head again. This arose from the nature of the Refor- 
mation ; Henry VIII. had systematically deprived it of the 
people's sympathy, and during the short reign of Edward 
VI. it had not been able to take deep root. 

The counter reformation was taking its course when the 
elections for the new Parliament took place. If any defence 
could be looked for in England against the arbitrary govern- 
ment, it could only be from Parliament. It had hitherto 



568 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

been fickle, and had had no will of its own. Still it held a 
weapon in its hand which might some day be effectually 
used. The retrograde step made itself felt in the elections, 
for the restoration of Catholicism was represented in them ; 
and it can scarcely be supposed that the new Parliament 
was such as it was solely from government influence. 

The first duty of Parliament was to abolish the edict 
which had pronounced the marriage of Mary's mother in- 
valid. After the Queen's succession was an accomplished 
fact, the edict had lost its significance, and it was passed 
without opposition. 

But it was different with the next proposal, to abolish the 
religious innovations of Edward VI. and the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. This, however, was also carried, though not 
without a sharp contest. Public worship again became 
Catholic. The doctrines of the Church were placed upon 
their old footing, and a wide breach made in the work of 
the Reformation. 

To go further than this did not seem practicable to the 
Queen's prudent advisers, among whom was the Emperor 
Charles V. So the mass was introduced once more, the 
Catholic liturgy restored ; but the temporal headship of the 
hierarchy, the royal supremacy, remained, though the Queen 
would have preferred at once to restore the supremacy to 
the Pope. 

After a long alienation from Rome, a sort of reconcilia- 
tion took place, but it is remarkable that while grateful f or 
the restoration, they thought it best at Rome to moderate 
the Queen's zeal. They did not venture to appoint a Papal 
legate immediately. Among the chief of those who had 
strenuously opposed Henry's innovations was Cardinal Pole, 
who had escaped death by flight. He was looked upon as 
the representative of exiled Catholic England, and was 
treated at Rome with great favour and distinction. Pope 
Julius III. appointed him his plenipotentiary in England, 
but it was long before the people were supposed to be ready 
for his reception, and when he returned, after thirty years of 
exile, he belonged to the moderate party (a rare case with 
a refugee), and was soon in despair at Mary's want of 
moderation. 

The consequences of turning into the paths of Catholic 
reaction soon developed themselves. The first Parliament 
might have laid claim to some indulgence for its compliant 



MARY'S MARRIAGE WITH PHILIP II. 569 

spirit, but the Queen thought it presumptuous for proposing 
her marriage with an Englishman, so she dissolved it, and 
interfered arbitrarily with its decrees. The performance of 
divine service in the English language was forbidden ; 
many thousand married clergymen were driven with their 
wives and children from their offices, and reduced to beg- 
gary. Soon afterwards a marriage scheme was formed in 
the background of which a fearful ecclesiastical counter 
revolution was justly foreseen. 

That at her age the Queen should still entertain the 
thought of marriage appeared natural to every one. It was 
wished in England that she should marry an Englishman, 
and in the highest circles and in Parliament the young Earl 
of Devonshire was thought of as a candidate for her hand. 
But the daughter of a princess of Aragon would not hear 
of an Englishman. She had never had any personal 
attachment ; it was not difficult to believe her when she 
told the imperial ambassador that she did not know what 
love was, but that it had always been the secret wiih of her 
heart to form a marriage with the best Catholic house, that 
of Spain. The hand of Philip II. was just then set free 
by the death of his second wife, and Mary had turned her 
eyes towards him. They were already diplomatically cast- 
ing about for a wife for him, and had been negotiating with 
Portugal, when it was learnt that he would meet with the 
most cordial reception in England. 

The Emperor was most agreeably surprised by Mary's 
communication. Father and son had just suffered a great 
defeat in Germany ; the connection with England seemed 
to offer compensation. The marriage treaty was concluded ; 
Mary secretly consented to it in October, 1553 ; but the 
mere report of it sufficed to set all England in a commo- 
tion. Spanish absolutism and the Spanish inquisition were 
already beheld transplanted to England. 

For the first time all parties were united in their fears. 
Parliament spoke against the marriage, and was dissolved. 
It then came to open rebellion. The nobles, who saw their 
possession of Church property rather than their faith en- 
dangered, were in a mutinous frame of mind ; outbreaks 
took place in Kent and Cornwall. It was difficult to say 
whether the voices of the Protestants or of the English 
nation itself prevailed. 

The revolts of Wyatt and Carew failed ignominiously, 



570 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

and the results followed which almost always ensue from 
unsuccessful revolts. The Queen went still more recklessly 
forwards. She was not cruel by nature, but after being 
threatened with insurrection in her own capital, she was 
resolved upon the worst. 

In February, 1554, fifty people were hung, and the un- 
fortunate Lady Jane Grey, an amiable, inoffensive person, 
entirely innocent of any share in recent events, was brought 
to the scaffold as a possible accomplice, together with her 
husband and the Duke of Suffolk. Elizabeth was also 
imprisoned in the Tower, but as nothing could be proved 
against her, she was soon set at liberty. 

The marriage of Mary with Philip of Spain took place in 
July, 1554. The new Parliament, worked upon and intimi- 
dated, had approved the marriage treaty, but it did not 
seem at all disposed to set its seal to the completion of the 
Catholic restoration, and was therefore immediately dis- 
missed. King Philip was as amiable and affable as his 
Spanish haughtiness permitted, and acquired numerous 
friends among the aristocracy by showering pensions and 
favours around him. 

The Queen, meanwhile, impatiently urged a complete 
return under the authority of the Pope. Her ecclesiastical 
title, the leniency towards the heretics, to which she had 
been compelled, the spoil of Church property which had 
been begun, lay heavily upon her conscience as sins for 
which she was personally responsible. However impolitic 
this might be as far as the English crown was concerned, it 
so much the more proved the sincerity of her fanaticism. 
The Church property had been unmercifully cut up ; a large 
portion of it had been seized by the Crown itself, and, 
fortunately for England, sold again at prices so moderate 
that the well-to-do middle class gained immense wealth by 
it. The question, how to right this wrong without commit- 
ting another, was a very complicated one. As it is not 
seldom the case that men find it harder to surrender a 
portion of their worldly goods than to abjure their faith, it 
might be expected that the great majority would sooner put 
up with a return to the mass, the papal supremacy, and 
even to the laws against heresy than to a demand for the 
restoration of Church property. 

It does honour to the Queen's faithfulness to her con- 
victions, if not to her political insight, that this was not her 



Persecutions under marY. 57 k 

feeling — that she would have liked to restore her own 
estates which had fallen to the Crown, together with the 
others ; but in this view she was entirely alone. 

No decisive progress could be made in England without 
a dispensation to secure the forty thousand heads of families 
in the possession of the Church property they had purchased, 
but with it everything might be attained. 

In fact, the new Parliament declared itself ready to abjure 
its Protestantism, and to regulate the Church and her 
doctrine in accordance with the Pope's pleasure if no one 
would interfere with the distribution of Church property, 
and when a pledge to this effect was given, it consented to 
render obedience to the Pope and to renew the edicts against 
heretics.* 

Thus the counter revolution was legalised, and the trials 
for heresy could begin. All the more eminent foes of 
Catholicism, among them the first names in the nation, and 
the stars of English learning, were summoned before the 
inquisition, condemned, and executed, not for any guilty 
deeds, attempts at insurrection, or for disturbing Catholic 
worship, but solely for theoretical views on religious ques- 
tions which differed from those of Gardiner, Bonner, and 
the rest of the strict Catholics. The intellectual aristocracy 
of the land was brought to the scaffold, and most of the 
victims met their fate in a manner worthy of their moral 
rank. During the three years before Mary's death it was 
reckoned that two hundred and seventy heretics were burnt, 
among whom were fifty-five women and four children. One 
of the first victims was old Archbishop Cranmer, who had 
hitherto managed to pass muster, but was now thrown into 
prison by his mortal enemy, Gardiner. By a disgraceful 
transaction he was induced to try to save his little span of 
life by a recantation, and yet he was burnt. An odious 
game was played with the old man, which outrages every 
feeling of humanity. 

For Protestant England these days of persecution, in 
which the best blood of the nation was spilt, was a time of 
awakening and revival. Up to this time it had been the 
custom to adhere in the main to traditional views of religion, 
but to change their outward garb with the changes of the 
government. 

• Rankc, E. G., i. 267. 



572 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

Mary no longer allowed any freedom of choice. She did 
her best to separate the chaff from the wheat. To set 
against the thousands who bowed down before each succes- 
sive government, there were hundreds who preferred death 
to giving up an iota of their faith. Indeed, under the 
impression of the sublime contempt of death with which 
most of them mounted the scaffold, all the Protestant part 
of the nation gradually became inspired with sentiments of 
emulative self-sacrifice ; death lost his sting, the leaders 
drew the multitudes along with them, and faithfulness unto 
death, which had hitherto been wanting to English Protest- 
antism, was given to it by its bitterest enemy. 

If Protestantism stood this fiery trial, it could not fail to 
become more than it had hitherto been. No longer some- 
thing officially commanded or tolerated, it would be strong 
enough to stand alone. 

All that was now wanting was that the government in its 
foreign policy should take an anti-national course, and thus 
make the sufferings of a party coincident with the shame 
and enthralment of a whole nation. 

This was effected by the foolish part which Mary in her 
infatuation was induced to take in the Spanish-French war. 
The defender of Metz, Francis of Guise, took Calais from 
England, January, 1558 — the last proud reminiscence of the 
time when England ruled as far as the Loire was lost, 
because the Queen sided with Spain, and a dangerous mis- 
understanding had arisen at home. 

Pope Paul IV., the Pope of the most rigid and relentless 
restoration, had reversed the decision of his predecessor on 
the subject of Church property, and demanded at least the 
devolution of the Church property in possession of the 
Crown. Mary, with whom this was a matter of conscience, 
appeared herself in Parliament to urge this act of justice, 
and succeeded in carrying it by a very small majority, 
December, 1555 ; but the suspicions of the aristocracy who 
had Church property in their private possession could no 
longer be subdued. To add to this was the unhappy war. 
Parliament would not grant any further supplies ; the Govern- 
ment imposed arbitrary taxes, and proceeded with violence 
against the courts which sided with those who refused to pay 
the taxes. The Government, which persecuted the Pro- 
testants as if they had been criminals, with fire and sword, 
trod also the laws of the land underfoot, and sacrificed the 



MARY'S DEATH. 573 

national honour. Thus the idea arose that Protestantism 
and English nationality were identical, and the Government 
had reached that point which Charles V. and Cardinal Pole 
warned them to avoid if they did not wish that the country 
should be made Protestant by force. 

General and increasing discontent prevailed. If a revo- 
lution broke out, no legitimacy could protect the Queen ; it 
would be sure to succeed. Just when suspense had reached 
its height, on the 17th of November, 1558, Mary died. 

She was quite forsaken in her latter days ; even Cardinal 
Pole no longer possessed her confidence ; she had only the 
fanatical Bonner now, as ever, on her side. She died just 
in time to escape being the victim of a revolution. 

There was no doubt in the minds of the people as to her 
successor. Mary had never regarded her sister Elizabeth 
with affection, and it was not to be expected of her ; but 
the Protestant Elizabeth had, with great prudence and no 
small success, avoided everything which would have 
rendered her suspicious in the eyes of her sister. Had she 
not done so, it would have been easy for Mary to have had 
her executed as a heretic, and thereby to have smoothed the 
path of Mary Stuart to the throne. But Elizabeth had 
happily outlived the time of persecution, and was now led 
forth from the Tower to be seated on the throne. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, 1558-1603. 

Cautious beginnings. — The Parliament of 1559 and the Re-establish- 
ment of the Anglican Church. — Beginning of the conflict with 
Maiy Stuart.— The Reformation in Scotland, John Knox. — Mary 
Stuait in Scotland, 1561-8. — Darnley. — Rizzio. — Bothwell. — Afary 
Stuart in England. — Attitude of Rome and Spain against Eliza- 
beth. — The Conspiracies. — Norfolk, 1569-1572. — Elizabeth's 
forced enmity towards Rome and Spain, 1572-85. — Conspiracy ol 
Savage and Babington. — Mary Stuart's Trial and Execution, 
1586-7. — The Spanish Armada and Elizabeth's last days, 1603. 

Cautious beginnings. The Parliament of 1559, and 
the Re-establishment of Anglicanism. 

OUEEN ELIZABETH had preserved a sound mind 
, during years of suffering and oppression. During the 
five years of Mary's reign she was watched by spies belong- 
ing to the ruling party, whose whole endeavours were 
directed to surprising her in some false step, so that she 
might be put to death as a conspirator. She avoided all 
their snares with great dexterity, and so escaped the fate of 
Lady Jane Grey.* Her lot had been pretty much the 
same as that in which Mary imbibed her gloomy misan- 
thropy, but her character was totally different ; she had 
the youthful sprightliness, the light French blood of her 
mother, just the qualities which had captivated Henry VIII., 
though she had not her mother's beauty. Her sufferings 
had not crushed her spirit, nor disturbed her love of and 
'confidence in the world. As triumphant as if she had had 
a happy life to look back upon, she stepped from her prison 
to the throne, resolved to remember no longer that her life 

* For the part taken in this matter by Philip II. see Ranke, i. 293. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 575 

had been schemed against, to reign as if she had always 
been treated as the future Queen. She could associate 
without constraint, and as if nothing had happened between 
them, with men who had conspired against her life. It 
was not everybody who could have done this, and after a 
period of bitter and bloody party conflicts, had it been for 
this reason only, this reign would have been a blessing to 
(he country. 

Although mortally hated by the Catholics, Elizabeth did 
not hate them. On the contrary, it often appeared as if 
she was too lenient towards them. With all her weak- 
nesses and bitternesses, hers was a character which people 
could not help liking in spite of all her calumniators. She 
was just what she appeared to be ; with her feminine 
sensitiveness, her often ludicrous vanity, and her love of 
homage and flattery, great and regal qualities were united ; 
her whole life was a manly struggle to uphold the power ol 
the State and the national idea, and when she had to choose 
between her personal tastes and fancies, and the great re- 
quirements of the State, she never failed to choose the 
latter. The Englishman is right in holding his " Queen 
Bess" in grateful remembrance. She gave her country fifty 
years of domestic peace, security, and order, and laid the 
foundation of England's greatness ; not that she did it all 
herself, but nothing was done in which she did not take a 
decided part. 

She did not, when she began to reign in 1558, seem 
likely to become the Elizabeth she afterwards proved her- 
self to be — the pillar of Protestantism, the opponent of 
Spain and Ronvj. 

At first she had neither inclination nor occasion to take 
this part. Though not romantic, she was easily interested 
in such ideas; she was cool, quiet, and reasonable, not 
without a trace of cunning which often became falseness ; 
it was her intention to keep peace with all parties, and 
Europe was chiefly to blame for the fact that she afterwards 
diverged from this path. She had at first no other idea 
than to leave Catholicism alone, though she intended to 
grant the legal protection to Protestantism, which it had 
to dispense with under Mary. Her first act therefore was 
to put a stop to the bloody edicts against heresy, and to 
abolish the courts for trying it ; but there was nothing else 
that bore any special Protestant stamp, no declaration was 



<57<> THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

made that Catholicism was no longer the dominant religion 
in the State, and at this the Protestants who had been per- 
secuted and oppressed took offence. 

This did not arise altogether from the feminine tendency 
to mediate, where men had quarrelled ; there was another 
reason for it. Elizabeth did not hate Catholicism ; she was 
a Tudor, and every one who bore that name placed a high 
value upon authority, and in the eyes of many the Catholic 
hierarchy was authority personified ; then the outward 
pomp and consecrated splendour of the Romish worship 
was imposing to her womanish character. 

Thus her first ecclesiastical acts might be called syncre- 
tistic. She went to mass because she thought she owed it 
to her Catholic subjects ; she even forbade the preaching 
because of the disputes about the pulpits that began to 
arise, but in the rest of the service she permitted the use of 
the English language which had been forbidden by Mary ; 
she took care, however, not arbitrarily to undo what Mary 
had done. She did not wish that it should appear that 
she was giving things a one-sided Protestant colouring. It 
was her desire to be at peace with Spain, Rome, and 
France, with all the world, in fact, as well as with her own 
country. 

Her first proceedings in religious matters are connected 
with the dissolution of the old Parliament and the election 
of a new one. 

It was quite intelligible that, in 1553, the popular voice, 
excited and irritated as the nation was, should be sincerely 
in favour of the Catholic party, and that it should therefore 
have the majority at the elections ; but it was equally in- 
telligible that, after five years of bloody persecution, an 
entire change should have taken place, and that not a 
single Catholic candidate was even nominated. There was 
no need for Elizabeth to speak, the people spoke for 
themselves. 

All that Mary's government had achieved for Catholicism 
was the defection of the nation. Government and Parlia- 
ment now went hand in hand, to restore the most important 
things which had been abolished under Mary, and they 
succeeded with comparatively little resistance. 

The completion of the national Church of England, of 
which the foundations had been laid under Edward VI., 
was now taken in hand ; and in all essential points it re- 



RE ESTABLISHMENT OF ANGLICANISM. 577 

mains to this day as it was then built up, The mass was 
abolished, the liturgy of Edward VI., and the royal supre- 
macy in ecclesiastical matters restored. The new organiza- 
tion overcame all opposition, and excluded every element 
which, tending either to Catholicism or Calvinism, held 
opinions differing from its own. The new Church un- 
doubtedly comprised the greater part of the nation ; but on 
the one hand there were the Catholics who were excluded 
from the government, on the other the strict Reformers of 
the Genevan school, who accepted the breach with Rome 
and the Papacy as a matter of course, but did not like the 
English hierarchy. Perhaps, if votes were taken now, the 
majority of the nation would belong to the opponents of 
the Anglican Church, but the structure raised by Queen 
Elizabeth is still practically of great importance ; it is 
based upon a well organized and internally coherent ecclesi- 
astical hierarchy ; it possesses very considerable power 
through its Church property, which though then diminished 
has since greatly increased, a number of seats in the Lower 
House are at its disposal.* Through the bishops it occu- 
pies a number of seats in the Upper House, and is there- 
by an essential support of the aristocratic constitution of 
England. 

It is possible to have a great aversion to a State Church 
and yet to be compelled to admit that at that time, after 
the confusion and transitions of the last thirty years, it was 
necessary to establish an organization which should brave 
all future storms. This the English Church has done ; 
she has survived two revolutions and remains to this day, 
no longer, indeed, exercising the same spiritual authority, 
but holding the same political position as she did then. 

Elizabeth did not bring this project with her ready made 
to the throne ; but when with a true instinct she perceived 
the need of it, she allowed the voice of the people to be 
heard, and gave her sanction to what was for their interest. 

On these points she allowed herself to be borne on by 
the voices and movements of the people, and her relations 
with the different parties were by no means so sharply 
defined as we commonly suppose. We think of her as the 
mortal foe of King Philip and the Papal Curia, as the 
protector of the Netherlands and the Huguenots ; we shall 

• On this point Professor Hausser has evidently been misinformed,— TR. 

37 



578 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

see her afterwards playing these parts, but she did not 
begin to play them at once. She still wrote to Madrid and 
Rome in a tone of affection, and it was only when she 
ceased to do so, that it was remarked that she was not a 
legitimate daughter of Henry VIII., that she had no right 
to the throne, and that the voice of Parliament, which was 
more decidedly on her side than it had been on Mary's, 
was null and void. 

The opposition to her right to the throne by all the foes 
of English Protestantism and English liberties, gradually 
compelled her to take up a position of decided partisanship, 
which was rendered doubly bitter by the fact that it was 
coloured by personal intrigues and interests. The person- 
age who was opposed to her as the Pretender to the throne 
by the Catholic powers, who disputed her honourable birth 
and her claim to the throne, was her neighbour in Scot- 
land, Mary Stuart, who entered into the contest with all a 
woman's passion. 

These two women quarrelled after the fashion of then- 
sex ; the one was a frivolous coquet who knew nothing of 
self-control, the other did exercise it, though also a sensu- 
ous woman ; the one possessed all the virtues and vices 
belonging to such a character, the other, though not free 
from affected prudery, was sustained by a certain masculine 
ambition and political greatness wholly wanting in the 
other. They were complete contrasts in most of their 
characteristics, and they could not live together in peace 
when politics brought them in contact. Elizabeth must 
either subject herself to the Queen of Scotland — that is, 
renounce her throne and honour, or carry on a struggle 
with her for life and death ; there was no third course. 

When Elizabeth first came to the throne no opposition 
was offered by the powers which afterwards opposed her j* 
it was only after the ecclesiastical proceedings that the 
legitimacy was called in question ; at first in whispers, and 
then openly declared against. The same confusion of 
ideas prevailed which had been employed against Mary on 
the other side. 

Those who considered her mother's adultery as proved, 
might pronounce Elizabeth illegitimate. Her sister Mary 
had always treated her as her father's legitimate daughter. 

* Hausser appears not to regard the Pope's protest (Ranke, i. 301), 
as it had no immediate consequences, — Ep> 



RIVALRY WITH MARY STUART. 579 

Mary Stuart's right was indisputable, but it would only 
come into force after the death of Elizabeth and her 
heirs. 

Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII., first of the 
Tudors, made a Scotch uamage, and as wife of James IV. 
(1513), became the mother of James V. He married Mary 
of Guise, a sister of tha Victor of Calais and the spokes- 
man of Trent. Of this, union was born Mary Stuart, as 
she was called, to distinguish her from the other Marys 
who played a part in her history. When very young she 
was married in France to Francis II., who began to reign 
in 1559 and died in 1560. It may have been partly this 
circumstance which prevented the Catholic opponents of 
Elizabeth from earlier thinking of setting up Mary Stuart 
as a pretender to the throne. It was only really as Queen 
that success for the scheme could be looked for ; before 
she was Queen, and when she was so shortly Queen no 
longer, there was no prospect of it. 

Mary Stuart was a widow at eighteen. There was no 
lack of proposals of a second marriage, for her youth and 
beauty and the possession of the crown of Scotland made 
her a desirable match. Philip II. knocked at her door as 
he did at Elizabeth's. She did not, however, then form any 
second marriage, but followed the advice of her uncle, to 
cross over to Scotland and take possession of her throne. 
Up to this time the government had been carried on by her 
mother, Mary of Guise. 

With Mary's reign in Scotland the contest between the 
two Queens began. 

Mary assumed the rights of a crown which were of them- 
selves difficult to defend, and they had just met with a 
strong counterpoise in the Reformation. 

The Reformation in Scotland. 

The monarchy in Scotland had always been a limited one, 
partly from the power of the landed nobles, partly from 
the defiant and independent spirit of the people. Revolt 
against the royal authority was an everyday affair. The re- 
solve to rush into the king's presence with pikes and guns 
was accompanied by no more hesitation or pricks of con- 
science than it was anywhere else in the Middle Ages. 

Jf any of the nobles were dissatisfied with the Crown, 



580 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

they stirred up a quarrel, and followers were seldom want 
ing among their vassals and the people. To reign 
amidst difficulties so great required a tact which the Stuarts 
by no means possessed. Their arrogance, their exaggerated 
idea of the sacredness of their authority, their severity, 
capricious obstinacy and unyielding defiance, their pro- 
verbial vacillation between despondency and presumption, 
totally unfitted them to be rulers of Scotland. 

King James V. died on the 14th of September, 1542, and 
Mary was born only a few days before his death. There 
was therefore no king in Scotland ; the heiress to the throne 
was a new-born babe, and her guardian was a Guise. This 
happened, too, at a time when that great crisis was taking 
place in the North of Europe, in which everybody was either 
engulphed in the reform movement or resolutely opposed it 

Scotland was also affected by it, but differently from 
England. The Reformation there took a course of its own. 
In this case it was not the conflict of theological opinions 
or national aversion to interference from Rome, but the 
degenerate lives of the clergy which gave the impulse to it. 
It was not the whim of the sovereign, or the shrewd calcu- 
lations and political ambition of a ruler which gave rise to 
the breach, but the moral exasperation and love of liberty 
of the best spirits in the nation. 

Calvinistic Geneva was the school of Scotch Protestant- 
ism ; and inasmuch as Calvinism was one of the most 
remarkable figures of the age, Scotland, its favourite 
daughter, claims a special interest. 

John Knox (born 1505) takes the foremost place in this 
movement. With the fiery zeal, the rigid strictness, the 
gloomy theocratic sentiments of Calvin, he united the 
unyielding love of liberty, the stormy spirit of opposition, 
which belong to his nation. A Calvinist than whom, 
Calvin himself excepted, there never was a more rigid one ; 
a man of blameless purity of life, a preacher like his master, 
and filled with the theocratic zeal of an Old Testament 
prophet, he possessed the unconciliatory radicalism of these 
revolutionary tendencies. In his ideal of Church and 
State there was neither royal nor priestly supremacy. The 
priesthood and the clergy were to be abolished, the Romish 
worship expunged from the earth, the ruler or nobleman 
who made an ill use of his rank should be outlawed, uncon- 
ditional church reform was the sacred duty of the commu* 



JOHN KNOX. 581 

nity, if the rulers neglected it, and no pains must be spared 
in the execution of this duty. 

Under the regency of Mary of Guise he had been com- 
pelled to leave Scotland. At first he was a convict in the 
galleys in France ; then he went to Geneva, and sat at the 
feet of Calvin. 

On his return, at the end of 1555, he began to preach 
Calvinism with all its exclusiveness, but also with all its 
energy and greatness of character. He began by quietly 
forming congregations, to whom he administered the Lord's 
Supper according to Protestant forms. The common bond 
was — no communion with Romish " idolatry," and adher- 
ence to the word of God unto death. In this propaganda 
the example of the mother Church at Geneva was first car- 
ried out on a larger scale ; the principle of self-government 
by self-elected elders and ministers was introduced, and the 
rigid simplicity and plainness of the Calvinistic worship 
carried to a fanatical point. Knox went further than Calvin, 
because he was surrounded by a Catholic State Church 
which violently opposed every innovation ; and amidst the 
irritation occasioned by this Scotch Calvinism assumed an 
exaggerated degree of rigidity and austerity. 

It was the peculiarity of Calvinism that it was more than 
any other phase of Protestantism the implacable enemy of 
the Roman Catholic Church and worship, and that it was re- 
presented by characters who personified it, from its greatest 
features to the minutest detail, with inimitable onesidedness. 

John Knox was one of these men; half prophet, half 
tribune, dictator to the Church, pulpit orator, and popular 
agitator, he carried his countrymen along with him as no 
one else could. Contrast this gloomy personage, full of 
pith and marrow, with the bright Mary Stuart, who was 
just opening to the pleasures of life, brought up in the 
elegant, immoral atmosphere of the French court, and you 
will have some idea of the incongruous elements which 
were soon to produce an explosion. 

There was a powerful nobility in Scotland, who had 
always looked upon the Stuarts merely as their equals, and 
in the violence of the government and clergy against the 
heretical doctrines they saw a menacing assertion of the 
royal authority. A great many of the nobles adopted the 
new doctrines, which were a pledge alike of religious and 
political liberty. One of their most zealous partisans was 



582 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

one of the Stuarts themselves. James V. had seduced a 
noble lad}', and a son was born who bore his father's name, 
and whom Mary herself afterwards created Earl of Moray. 
The father's sin was to be revenged on him. He was a 
gifted and passionate man, attached by conviction to the 
new doctrines, and he was in the foremost ranks of its 
adherents. 

In March, 1559, the Protestant nobles demanded of the 
Regent that the bishops should be chosen by the nobles of 
the diocese, the ministers by the congregation, and that 
divine service should be performed in the native tongue. 
Instead of granting it, the clergy persuaded the Regent to 
let the courts take proceedings against the heretics. In 
May, therefore, stormy scenes took place. 

John Knox, who had just returned to Scotland, preached 
fiery sermons against the idolatry of the mass and the 
worship of saints, and but a slight impulse was wanting to 
incite the masses to violence. In Perth an attack began 
upon images, altars, monasteries, and abbeys, which in a 
few days spread over a great part of the land, and was fol- 
lowed by a tumultuous victory for the Protestant worship. 
A number of churches were dismantled, about two hundred 
monasteries destroyed, the mass abolished, and the liturgy 
of Edward VI. introduced. 

By means of promises, intended to be broken on the first 
opportunity, the Regent tried to quell these disturbances ; 
but when French troops arrived in the country it came to 
open revolt. In October, 1559, the Presbyterian party 
met as the " nobles and commonalty of the Scotch Church," 
and declared that the Regent had forfeited her office by her 
infringement of the constitution. 

The unity of religious and political revolution had 
become a fact, and the preachers justified these proceedings 
from the Bible. 

It was therefore political as well as religious considera- 
tions which helped to procure victory for the revolution. 

Elizabeth was not enough of a heroine of the faith, 
and too much of a Tudor, to lend a hand to the rebels 
against a legal government.* Philip II. must have re- 
garded the proceedings of the Scotch Presbyterians as an 
unpardonable crime against all that he held sacred as a 

* Compare the characteristic letter to Mary Tudor of 1550.-^ 
Raumer. 



MARY STUART. 583 

ruler and a Catholic, and yet even he advised that the 
Scotch should be supported against the Regent; for an 
union of the crowns of France and Scotland appeared more 
dangerous to him than even the Calvinistic heresy, and this 
consideration at length prevailed with Elizabeth. 

Through the aid of England a treaty was concluded at 
Edinburgh in 1560, according to which the French troops 
were to withdraw. With this, the last obstacle to the com- 
plete victory of the Presbyterians disappeared, and Parlia- 
ment could' make the Protestant faith, the abolition of 
episcopacy and the mass the law of the land without 
opposition. 

This was the position of affairs in Scotland when, in the 
summer of 1561, Queen Mary, who had been a widow since 
December, 1560, arrived in Scotland. 

Mary Stuart in Scotland. — 1561-68. 

The Stuarts are one of the most unfortunate royal fami- 
lies in history. James I. and III. were murdered, James II. 
was killed by the bursting of a gun, James IV. fell in battle, 
and James V. had to submit to the aristocracy. He died 
with the most gloomy forebodings. When, on his deathbed, 
the birth of his daughter, Mary Stuart, was announced to 
him, he said, "The kingdom cam' wi' a lass " (the daughter 
of Robert Bruce), " an' it wull gae wi' a lass." From the 
circumstances under which Mary came to the throne, it 
could scarcely be hoped that this family misfortune would 
yield to a better fate. 

The country was ruled by an austere fanatical Protestant- 
ism ; the Queen was a zealous Catholic ; a tone of gloomy 
severity of morals reigned in the new Church. Mary was a 
young, pleasure-loving woman, in the heyday of life, and 
came from a luxurious and frivolous court, which was 
regarded by the Calvinists with horror ; the country had 
ridden itself of the French by force, and Mary was ac- 
companied by French courtiers, jesters, and confessors, who 
daily reminded the people that their Queen was a foreigner. 

The days of her reception were the happiest that Mary 
spent in Scotland. The Scotch have themselves described 
how the beautiful young Queen was greeted by the rejoic- 
ings of the people. She was a real ruler, after there had 
been a regency for nearly twenty years ; but in the solemn 
processions which went forth to meet her there were many 



584 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

things in the devices and songs which breathed the Calvin- 
istic hatred of Papal idolatry. 

Mary was soon to feel this more keenly. Zealous 
Catholic as she was, she would have liked to make her 
creed once more that of the whole country ; but as it was 
impossible even to attempt this, she desired at least to be 
unmolested in her Catholic domestic worship and the private 
service in her chapel. But the fanaticism of the all-powerful 
John Knox would not permit it. He and his party preached 
openly against the heresies of the unconverted Queen. 
Knox allowed himself to say in his prayers in the church — 
" Purify, O Lord, the heart of the Queen from the poison 
of idolatry, release her from the bondage of Satan in which 
she was brought up, and in which, from want of true 
teaching, she still remains." And when mass was read in 
all privacy before the Queen, tumults took place in which 
several priests and persons about her had their heads 
broken and their ears cut off.* 

Queen Elizabeth watched these events with the interest 
of a person whom they concerned more nearly than any 
one else. From the time when Mary first set her foot upon 
Scotch soil, she found herself in opposition to Elizabeth. 
Elizabeth demanded the recognition of the Treaty ot 
Edinburgh, which Mary absolutely refused. It may easily 
be imagined, therefore, with what feelings she watched the 
fate of the Queen of Scotland. 

She took pleasure in her rival's self-made difficulties, for 
they lamed her, and while her possession of the Scotch 
crown was in the balance, she could scarcely think ot 
grasping at the English one. She supported the Scotch 
nobles in their opposition, and the Calvinists in their 
defiance, while in England she kept both these parties 
within very circumscribed limits. Mary had not given up 
any of her projects against Elizabeth and Protestant fanati- 
cism ; but she took care not to increase her isolation by 
giving any challenge to England. 

For a time the two Queens thought it well to write the 
most amicable and peaceable letters to each other ; but, 
politically, they were entirely at variance. 

Meanwhile, Scotland was in a state bordering on anarchy, 
in which Mary could with difficulty maintain her position. 

* Even as early as September 8th, 1561, a few days after her arrival, 
— Raumer. 



MARY'S MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY. 585 

The barons and the Calvinists attempted to overthrow her 
Government with one blow ; but this revolt was quelled in 

r 5 6 3- 

This convinced Mary that if she took advantage of her 
enemies' mistakes she should be able to maintain her 
power, but that in the present excitable state of the people 
she must not expose herself to attack. 

The life she led was certainly not adapted to inspire the 
Scots with respect for a crown, the value of which depended 
on the personal excellence of the wearer. 

In her intercourse with men, she was frivolous to a degree 
which it did not require Puritanical strictness to think 
repulsive. In the case of such characters, report often 
exceeds anything that admits of proof; and if more is laid 
to Mary Stuart's charge than holds good under strict inves- 
tigation, there is so much that is historical that there is no 
need to add to it. 

To avoid scandal, and to have a support in some man 
against the nobles, she resolved upon a second marriage. 

There were many distinguished Scotchmen — for a Scotch- 
man it was to be — who might be proposed to her as hus- 
bands, and among them were some worthy and excellent 
men. But she selected amongst her suitors the handsomest 
and most empty headed, her cousin, the Earl of Darnley, 
who, as Dahlmann says, " was nothing but that repulsive 
object called a beautiful man." Like her, he was vain, 
superficial, frivolous, and a flirt, and as cowardly and 
devoid of character as a man could be. He had previously 
conspired against her, and now joined her in proceeding 
against the conspirators. She was not guided in her choice 
by any idea of duty or political interest, but by a fugitive 
sensual fancy. 

Elizabeth was not inaccessible to such feelings. She had 
her preferences, and many a man was pleasing to her j but 
when she seriously entertained the idea of sharing her 
throne with any foreign prince, she began to consider 
whether it would comport with her national policy ; and 
when an English nobleman was in question, she did not 
forget what was implied in raising a subject to the throne. 
She flirted and coquetted with Leicester and others; but 
would not permit any one of them to become her master. 

Mary celebrated her marriage with Darnley in July, 1565 
It may be imagined how it turned out. 



586 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

After the first fleeting pleasure was over, they went their 
separate ways. The King, who took no pleasure in any- 
thing but coarse excesses, soon joined a set of lawless 
comrades, and they played all sorts of pranks, which would 
have been unpardonable in any one, and were totally 
unworthy of a King. The Queen did not conceal her 
contempt for her husband, and they soon ceased to meet. 
The only result of this marriage was the birth of a suc- 
cessor to the throne; but, before the future King was born, 
the relations of the conjugal pair were disclosed to all the 
world by a frightful catastrophe. 

Mary's favourite at that time was an Italian, David Rizzio, 
who beguiled her lonely hours with his musical talents ; the 
King, probably quite unjustly, called him her paramour — 
not that Mary was incapable of unfaithfulness ; but there is 
no proof whatever except her husband's accusations, and 
the relation admits of an innocent explanation : she found 
a companion and confidant in the skilful Italian, and in 
many respects he compensated for what she lacked in her 
husband. 

He sang well, and she was fond of music ; he was a skil- 
ful correspondent, and she wanted one ; otherwise, he was 
not particularly likely to have been the lover of the Queen. 
It appears to me that he was nothing more to Mary than 
the secretary who carried on her private correspondence 
with Rome and Madrid, and this was why John Knox and 
his party were so furious against him. To them he was not 
the Queen's paramour ; but the Papist in the service of the 
Catholic with her plans of restoration. 

This relation — unwise, imprudent, but not culpable — in- 
flamed the King's wrath and the thirst for revenge of his 
wild companions. A horrible project was formed of mur- 
dering the Italian, who during the evening was generally to 
be found with the Queen in the ladies' apartments. One 
evening, in March, 1566, the conspirators entered the 
Queen's apartment, some Scotch lords, and among them the 
King, not courageous enough to strike the blow himself, but 
base enough to cause it to be done by others.* Rizzio 
threw himself at the Queen's feet, weeping like a child. 
He was dragged into an adjoining room, and dispatched 
with fifty-six blows. 

* According to the French ambassador's /eport (Raumer) be, 
Darnley, struck the first blow. — Ed. 



MARY A\ T D BOTHWELL. 5S7 

It would have required more than human sell-control 
in the Queen to forget that it was the man whom she had 
raised to the throne who had committed this shameful deed, 
unexampled in history, before her eyes. 

It was intended to appear to the world as a punishment 
for adultery ; thus, while Rizzio was pierced by one 
dagger, another was aimed at the Queen. She was then 
pregnant with the prince, who was born three months after- 
wards ; and it is worthy of remark, that this weakly creature 
came into the world at this tragical time. It was ascribed 
to his mother's excitement at the time of the murder that 
James I. could not see a naked sword without shud- 
dering. 

The Queen naturally entertained only thoughts of revenge 
towards her unworthy husband ; but there is a long step 
from these feelings of hatred to that which really took place. 
In public opinion, Darnley had nothing more to lose, but 
the Queen had not gained anything. The public feeling 
was less favourable to her than before this catastrophe, and 
the Calvinistic preachers raved against her as an adulteress. 

Among the men distinguished by the Queen's favour, 
there was one remarkable for his rash daring, and, as it 
appears, for his seductive talents, the Earl of Bothwell, a 
man who stood on the boundary line between a hero and a 
captain of banditti, and it was in the latter capacity that he 
ended his career. It was his belief that no woman could 
withstand him, and his conquest of the Queen seems to 
justify the idea; he also held that the end justifies the 
means. He was a person whom no one liked, but neither, 
before the Queen favoured him, did any one hate him. 
His past life and the history of his marriage gave rise to 
great calumny, and he was held to be capable of the 
darkest crimes. 

With this creature the Queen entered into friendly rela- 
tions ; and, in spite of all the efforts of her defenders, it is still 
unproved that the love letters to him are not genuine, that 
the scented French verses to Bothwell were not by her 
hand.* So far could the sensuality of this woman lead her 
astray, that, in order to get rid of Darnley, she fled into 
the arms of his murderer. 

The year 1556 was coming to an end. Darnley and the 
Queen had not met for months. Darnley then fell dan. 
• Even Ranke considers them genuine in the main. 



588 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

gerously ill, and there were all sorts of scandals as to the 
cause and nature of his malady, when it was reported that 
Mary was reconciled to Rizzio's murderer, had visited him 
at Glasgow, had him brought near to her palace at Edin- 
burgh in a litter, and nursed him devotedly night and day. 
All this was true. But on the 9th of February, 1567, Mary 
was at a court ball, and two hours after midnight Edinburgh 
was awakened out of sleep by a terrible explosion. The 
house in which the sick Darnley was lying was blown up 
while he was in it; his body was found in a neighbouring 
garden. * 

In all Scotland there was but one opinion : that this deed 
was done by Bothwell. Some suspected the Queen of being 
directly or indirectly an accomplice, and her conduct before 
and after showed that, at any rate, she approved of the act, 
though perhaps she did not help to originate it. 

A storm of exasperation burst over the country. Both- 
well was openly accused of the murder by handbills in the 
streets, and punishment was demanded for him and his 
accomplices. The Queen gave a reward to one of the ser- 
vants who was openly accused of being one ; and, instead 
of bringing Bothwell to trial, she made him commandant of 
Edinburgh. In possession of this dignity, and still a mem- 
ber of the privy council, he conducted his own trial, appeared 
before the court with his accomplices armed, and persuaded 
the judges, who were all his followers, to acquit him. The 
judges, so called, dared to say, among other things, that the 
indictment was null, for it described the murder on the 
9th of February, whereas it took place at two in the morn- 
ing of the 10th. A number of members of Parliament, at 
a jovial supper given by Bothwell, even went so far as to 
recommend him, a married man, as a husband for the 
Queen. 

Scotland had scarcely recovered from the excitement of 
the murder and this disgraceful trial, when it was surprised 
by some news which surpassed everything. 

It was reported that Bothwell had, with her consent, car- 
ried off the Queen to his castle, and a tew days afterwards 
that she had married the murderer of her husband, scarcely 
cold in his grave. 

Nothing can be more disgusting than the lying part which 
the Queen played in this affair ; she allowed herself to be 
• And strangled, so that he had survived the explosion. — Raumer. 



ELIZABETH'S TREATMENT OF MARY. 589 

abducted, acted the part of a prisoner, and then declared 
that she had been carried off by force, but that Both well had 
behaved so well to her, that she had resolved to marry him. 
For a woman of five-and-twenty to be ready to give her 
hand to her husband's murderer, however guilty he might 
be, was to be sunk low indeed. 

The revolt now broke out which overturned Mary's 
throne, and drove her, as a helpless fugitive, into the arms 
of her rival. Elizabeth possessed neither magnanimity nor 
insight enough to let her alone, now that she was no longer 
dangerous. She did what was neither noble nor prudent : 
gave her a friendly invitation, and then let her languish in 
prison, which only made her dangerous ; for it caused her 
crimes to be forgotten. 

Mary Stuart in England. — Rome and Spain turn 
against Elizabeth. — The Conspiracies — Norfolk, 
1569-72. 

It was a strange resolve of Mary's to fly to England. 
Elizabeth had been pronounced illegitimate by the Pope, 
and therefore incapable of reigning ; the negotiations be- 
tween her and Mary as to the succession in England had 
not led to any result ; the Queen looked upon Mary as an 
inconvenient rival, the nation as its bitterest enemy. Her 
history and reputation made it unlikely that a rebellion of 
the Catholics would be excited in her favour against Eliza- 
beth. Mary's resolution, therefore, could only have been 
formed in a moment of excitement, and was not based upon 
any sound political considerations. 

She was soon bitterly punished for it. She had stormed 
Elizabeth with letters ; she had sent her complaints against 
the Scotch nobles, urgent entreaties for help, assurances of 
devotion, and descriptions of her pitiful condition, as if she 
thought that Elizabeth could have no other idea than to 
relieve her in her distress, to defeat her enemies, and replace 
her on the throne with English arms. 

Elizabeth was too much of a Tudor not to disapprove the 
revolt of the barons under Moray; her opinions on the 
sovereignty of rulers were almost as strict as those of the 
Stuarts ; but there was a long way from these sentiments to 
undertaking the restoration of Mary. 

The fugitive Queen was not received in an unfriendh 



590 THE REF.ORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

manner. Elizabeth allowed her to be greeted or the 
frontier with the honours pertaining to her rank, and accom- 
panied to Carlisle ; but there she was imprisoned, and the 
series of Elizabeth's errors begins. 

Mary was kept in a state of mild, but well-watched im- 
prisonment, which she felt all the more keenly, because it 
was pretended that she was only watched. Elizabeth had 
chosen a course which was half legal, but which could 
neither conciliate Mary, nor make her harmless ; indeed, it 
was just this mode of imprisonment which made her dan- 
gerous, for, for eighteen years, she was the soul of a series of 
conspiracies which only increased the painfulness of her lot. 
It was a spot on Elizabeth's character that she betrayed the 
confidence of an unhappy woman who sought her help, and 
placed her enemy in an attitude of self-defence. Either 
that which it was afterwards thought necessary to do 
should have been done at once, or the world's reproach 
should have been averted by conciliation and magnanimity, 
which would at the same time have rendered Mary 
harmless. 

Womanlike, Elizabeth chose a middle course, which, 
instead of having the advantages she desired, had precisely 
the disadvantages she wished to avoid. 

Mary was enough under restraint to learn to hate Elizabeth 
as her mortal enemy, but enough at liberty to set conspira- 
cies on foot against her. 

Elizabeth had no intention of re-instating Mary upon 
the throne of Scotland, but declared herself ready to do 
so if the conflicting parties would submit to her arbitration, 
and Mary should be pronounced innocent of Darnley's 
murder; but she absolutely refused her the desired per- 
mission to go free to France or Scotland. 

After this Mary knew where she was. She wrote a proud 
and queenly letter to Elizabeth, reminding her that she came 
to find a helper in her, not a judge. Then she turned to 
the kings of Spain and France for help against the Queen 
of England ; but this step brought no succour. Philip II. 
was prevented by the Moriscoes, Charles IX. by the 
Huguenots, and the only effect of it was to cause Elizabeth 
to remove the prisoner further from the frontier to Bolton 
Castle for greater security. 

A fruitless attempt at arbitration was followed by the long 
series of plots and projects, the last and greatest of which led 



NORFOLK'S CONSPIRACY. 591 

to Mary's execution, This contest of eighteen years with her 
rival and her adherents, and the necessity at last of getting 
rid of her, was the consequence of Elizabeth's first false 
step. 

The first conspiracy proceeded from the House of Nor- 
folk and others of the highest English nobles. The House 
of Norfolk had distinguished itself, partly at the head of 
affairs, and partly in the opposition, ever since the time of 
Henry VIII., and one of the members of it had played 
such a part as no other English magnate has done. A 
project was now formed by his grandson which would 
have united all the elements hostile to Elizabeth under one 
banner. 

The Duke of Norfolk had numerous adherents among 
the Catholics of England, although himself, as he declared 
upon the scaffold, a Protestant ; there were advocates of his 
cause in the Queen's council, Spain and France were in his 
favour, and he had a project for securing the crown of 
Scotland for his family, and, after Elizabeth's death, that of 
England also, by gaining the hand of Mary Stuart. He 
was possessed of brilliant talents, was skilful in gaining 
adherents to his cause, and the past history of his house, as 
well as the number of his supporters among the highest 
aristocracy, justified him in aspiring to these projects. In 
reality, indeed, all this was but a web of self-deception. The 
Scotch scornfully rejected his advances at the first men- 
tion of them ; it was as great a folly to reckon upon Eliza- 
beth's consent as upon help from France and Spain ; all 
that was certain v/as, that Mary wrote him the tenderest 
letters, and that some of the English aristocracy were ready 
to take up arms in his favour. 

This was Mary's first plan of rescue. It coincided with 
a crisis in England's foreign policy. Elizabeth had detained 
Spanish ships which had taken refuge in English harbours 
from the Sea-Beggars, and seized the money which the Duke 
of Alba was eagerly expecting. In revenge, Spain had 
made reprisals, both countries had declared war, and a 
Spanish invasion was expected. If it came to an irrepar- 
able breach, Mary and all her adherents would stand 
between two fires. In order to avert this, the conspirators, 
especially the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Arundel, 
laboured to compass the faJl of Cecil, who was the soul of 
all measures in favour of Protestantism, and against, the 



5Q2 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

Catholic powers. They succeeded not only in this, but in 
inducing the Queen to enter into negotiations for a recon- 
ciliation with Spain and Mary ; but during these negotia- 
tions the conspiracy was betrayed. 

Elizabeth was beside herself when she learnt what had 
happened, and was intended to happen among her most 
intimate advisers. So long as anything was hanging in the 
balance, she vacillated, and tried to find resources in half 
measures, not without a certain duplicity ; but at critical 
moments her masculine and resolute presence of mind 
never failed her, and did not fail her now. 

Mary was immediately placed in stricter confinement at 
Coventry, and in order to be prepared against any attack by 
sea, the coast was guarded by seven of the largest ships of 
war, the land forces were summoned, and everything placed 
in readiness. 

The Duke of Norfolk, seized with sudden faint-hearted- 
ness, came to London on a summons from the Queen, and 
was thrown into the Tower. Meanwhile the Duke of 
Northumberland and the Earl of Westmoreland effected a 
rising in the north of England ; the Catholics among the 
nobility and people of England joined them, and, preceded 
by a figure of Christ crucified, they swarmed over the 
country, rushed into the churches, burnt the Bibles and 
Prayer-Books, and again introduced the mass. The 
Catholic arms had just been victorious over the Huguenots 
in France : it seemed as if there was to be a similar reac- 
tion in the north of England, which might perhaps turn to 
the advantage of Alba in the Netherlands. But the Queen's 
general, Thomas Ratcliffe, confronted the rebels and routed 
them without difficulty. The revolt was entirely quelled 
and the leaders had fled, when Pius V. hurled his ban at 
the heretical Queen and absolved her subjects from their 
oaths and fealty. 

Queen Elizabeth answered this assault by a unanimous 
vote of Parliament, which declared every attack upon the 
legitimacy of the sovereign to be high treason, every assault 
on the Anglican Church a crime against the State. 

Meanwhile, Norfolk, on a solemn promise to renounce all 
thoughts of marriage with Mary, was placed in less strict 
imprisonment ; but the conspiracy went on and assumed 
a very serious character. Besides the correspondence with 
Mary, there were negotiations with Spain and Rome 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SPAIN AND ROME. 593 

carried on by a Florentine banker, Ridolfi, which were 
countenanced by a large number of the nobles. Norfolk 
promised to go over to Catholicism ; to place himself at the 
head of a Catholic conspiracy to liberate Mary and dethrone 
Elizabeth ; Spain promised a considerable number of troops. 
Alba was of opinion, that unless Elizabeth's person were 
secured, the revolt would share the fate of the last, and 
that it was not advisable for Spain to interfere until that 
was done. 

In Spain it was greatly feared that the scheme for Eliza- 
beth's marriage with the Duke of Anjou might succeed, and 
thus both empires would be united against Spain. It was 
therefore necessary before all things to capture or murder 
Elizabeth, and in July, 157 1, Philip II. was discussing the 
subject with his council, when in England the whole plot 
was discovered ; Norfolk was again in the Tower, and this 
time to leave it only for the scaffold, in June, 1572. 

This was a death-blow to the aristocratic party ; similar 
attempts were made during the following years, Rome and 
Spain did not relax their efforts, but they did not find suffi- 
cient followers in England ; by degrees Elizabeth was forced 
into the camp of the irreconcilable enemies of Catholicism. 

Elizabeth's forced Enmity towards Spain and Rome. 
1572-85. 

The next few years passed in perpetual irritation with the 
Catholic powers, conspiracies and attempts in favour of 
Mary, and vigorous measures of self-defence on the part of 
Elizabeth. 

The contest between the two Queens assumed more and 
more a character of personal hostility, and Elizabeth became 
more and more convinced that she and Mary represented 
two great principles entirely opposed to each other. The 
designs of Spain and Rome allowed her to entertain no 
doubt of it, and the continuance of the plots compelled her 
to defend herself from foes where she had hitherto sought 
friends, and to look for support in quarters where she had 
hitherto met with refusals or an attitude of indifference. 

Shortly after the Spanish-Roman scheme of getting rid of 
Elizabeth, and English Protestantism was frustrated by the 
execution of Norfolk, came the news of the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew. France had been suing for the friendship of 

38 



594 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

England, a marriage scheme had been zealously advocated, 
and now came the news of this terrible massacre. A cry of 
rage and horror was raised throughout England and Scot- 
land ; the aged Knox, who had one foot in the grave, again 
ascended the pulpit to testify against the horrid deed. 
Elizabeth and her council received the French Ambassador 
in mourning ; she told him that France had betrayed her, 
and that she could but fear that those who had made the 
King of France the assassin of his own subjects, would 
make no difficulty of sacrificing her — a foreign Queen.* 

After this experience, it seemed to be a necessary policy 
of self-defence for Elizabeth to assist the Beggars in the 
Netherlands, and the Huguenots in France to the utmost 
of her power; their enemies were hers also, and reconcilia- 
tion was no longer possible. 

All this re-acted on Mary's fate. Soon after the discovery 
of the Norfolk plot, it had been openly said, that the axe 
must be laid to the root of the tree, that she who was the 
plotter of all this mischief must be put out of the way. 
Protestant theologians proved from the Bible that Mary 
had forfeited her life; the lawyers referred to the laws 
against treason and revolt, and both Houses of Parliament 
desired that a bill of attainder should be brought in against 
the prisoner. Elizabeth rejected all these demands, but it 
was doubtful how long she would be able to do so. 

Mary's situation had already become so hopeless that her 
imprisonment appeared like a sort of protection against the 
passionate revenge of the English people, while her over- 
zealous friends were always adding to her misfortunes. 
The year 1576, again brought to light a great plan for a 
rescue. The hero of Lepanto, the chivalrous Don John of 
Austria, had early conceived an enthusiastic desire to 
liberate the martyr of the Catholic faith from the hands of 
the heretics. Rome gave him her blessing on a project so 
pleasing to God. Catholic Ireland hoped for a Spanish 
King. Mary offered him her hand, and was ready to de- 
prive her son of his right to the throne, if he were not a 
strict Catholic. Things were more favourable to Mary in 
Scotland than ever, since her most dangerous enemies, 
Moray and Lennox, were out of the way ; in short, if the 
new Stadtholder of the Netherlands could reckon upon his 

• Mignet, ii. 85, according to the correspondence of the French 
ambassador, La Mothe. — Fenelon, v. 122. 



BREACH WITH SPAIN. 595 

brother Philip II., if he threw all his power into the scale in 
favour of the plan, there would be a prospect of an immense 
change throughout the north. But Philip II. hesitated, and 
the favourable moment passed by. 

This state of secret warfare continued for years. There 
was no end to the conspiracies and schemes of invasion ; 
the Spanish Ambassador, Mendoza, in London, held the 
threads of them all ; there was increasing prospect of their 
success from the increasing excitement in Scotland, the 
successes of the Guises in France, the conquests of 
Alexander Farnese, won partly by the sword and partly by 
diplomacy ; everything pointed to an open breach with 
Spain, which at length took place. Elizabeth dismissed the 
Spanish ambassador, concluded a treaty with the Nether- 
lands, and dispatched Leicester with English troops to 
Vliessingen, and Francis Drake to the West Indies, 1585-6. 
England's part in the great conflict of the age was irrevoc- 
ably decided on, and sentence passed upon Mary Stuart. 

Trial and Execution of Mary Stuart, 1586-7. 

These acts of Elizabeth gave tardy expression to the 
prevailing feeling of the whole of Protestant England. 
Amidst continued threats of the disturbance of the public 
peace, the fanaticism of the age, the desire for religious 
persecution was again awakened ; the people trembled for 
the Queen's life, for it was the security of all Protestants 
against Spanish tyranny, rejoiced at the execution of the 
traitors, and were always urging more decisive measures. 
Parliament was the organ of these sentiments, and required 
rather the curb than the spur ; Elizabeth had much trouble 
in restraining its zeal. 

But the situation, especially after the beginning of the 
eighth decade, had become so gloomy that it would have 
been intolerable for long. 

The threads of some conspiracy were discovered almost 
every year, always originating with the same parties and 
having the same end in view — the liberation of Mary, 
the assassination of Elizabeth, and the restoration of Catho- 
licism in England. 

No end to all this could be foreseen, for since 1570 
there had been seminaries in Rheims and Rome established 
by emigrant English Catholics in the interests of the con- 



596 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

spiracies against the Protestant Queen ; they bound them- 
selves by oath against her, and every year sent a number of 
fanatical apostles over to the country. Parliament issued 
stringent decrees, the courts passed sentences without 
mercy, but they could not uproot the evil. In 1585, Parlia- 
ment threatened that if another conspiracy were formed, 
the nation would be justified in striking a blow at the chief 
author of the mischief, when the last plot was discovered, 
which made Mary's catastrophe inevitable. 

Philip II. and the Duke of Guise were of opinion that 
the time was come for gravely entertaining the long-pro- 
jected, but oft-delayed, scheme of invading England and 
effecting a revolution in Scotland ; but they agreed that 
there was no hope of success while Elizabeth was living. 
The murder of the heretical Queen must precede every 
invasion of the country. 

In the circles of the rejected priests and the Catholic 
nobility, they had long been familiar with the idea, and 
relied on the support from abroad which Spain and Rome 
seemed likely to offer. 

John Savage, formerly an officer who had fought under 
Parma in the Netherlands, and had afterwards been per- 
suaded in the seminary at Rheims that the murder of 
Elizabeth would be a work more pleasing to God and man 
than any other, and Anthony Babington, an influential 
gentleman, undertook the conduct of the plot. The latter 
took a considerable number of persons of the same way of 
thinking into his confidence, and Mary Stuart, now under 
the care of a harsh Puritan named Paulet, was initiated into 
the scheme. It has been proved that she was not only 
acquainted with the details of the project for her own 
rescue, but with the scheme for Elizabeth's assassination, 
and that she had no more objection to the one than the 
other. It is singular that the conspirators, who must have 
known how much they were risking, were deceived as to 
the trustworthiness of their confidential agents. Those 
who were intrusted with the most secret commissions were 
in the pay of Walsingham, the most shrewd and wily of 
Elizabeth's ministers ; not a despatch was written by Babing- 
ton or Mary, which was not at once handed over to him 
and deciphered by one of his agents. Walsingham was 
earlier and better instructed in all the details than "the 
conspirators themselves, and it would have been easy for 



PLOT OF SAVAGE AND BABINGTON. 597 

him to stifle the plot in the bud ; but his plan was to let it 
go on until there were written proofs of unpardonable com- 
plicity against all, and especially against Mary, and then to 
step in.* It may be said that under his fostering care the 
conspiracy assumed larger proportions, the audacity of the 
authors of it increased, and all was so arranged that 
nothing was wanting but the attack and the thrust of a 
dagger, to put an end to Elizabeth's life, when Walsingham 
appeared before her with irrefragable proofs, and urged 
those in power to take extreme measures to avert the 
catastrophe. 

The heads of the conspiracy fell unsuspectingly into the 
hands of his myrmidons, and, overpowered by the proofs of 
their guilt, they confessed, and in September, 1586, were 
one and all executed. 

On the 14th of October the trial of Mary Stuart began. 
The act of Parliament of 1585 was taken as the basis of 
the proceedings whereby persons in whose favour a rebel- 
lion was attempted, by whom any attempt was made on 
the life of the Queen should be deprived of their rights, 
and if they had personally taken part in it should forfeit 
their lives. This already pronounced sentence of death on 
Mary; and if it had depended on the nation alone, it would 
have been confirmed by an overwhelming majority. 

The popular conception of the case was simply this : 
England had enjoyed years of peace and quiet under a 
happy and prosperous reign ; then a band of assassins and 
conspirators, equal to any wickedness, had invaded the 
country, seeking to overthrow the government, to place a 
guilty woman on the throne, and to give England up to the 
Spaniards and Jesuits. For eighteen years war had been 
waged with these rebels ; proofs of their guilt were now in 
hand and the leaders secured ; the heads of the instru- 
ments had been struck off, as a matter of course the 
instigator must share the same fate. 

When the catastrophe was inevitable, Mary behaved 
with more coolness and composure than she had ever done 
before ; and this explains the fact that so many dark spots 
have been overlooked in the life of this unhappy woman. 
She rejected a trial, did not at first defend herself at all, 
insisted upon her rank as Queen, with the emphasis of a 
Stuart, and played with great dignity the part of an inno- 
• Mignet, ii. 157. 



598 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

cent person dying for her faith and her right to the crown. 
The proceedings were informal, and showed that it was less 
a case of a legal sentence than an act of political necessity. 

It was, in fact, as Robespierre said of the trial of 
Louis XVI., " une mesure de salut public a prendre." 

Elizabeth was not indifferent as to what the world would 
say of her conduct; and would have fain appeared as 
the magnanimous person who would have given anything 
to save Mary, but was compelled by the nation to let the 
law take its course. But she could not keep up this appear- 
ance, if she gave her consent to the execution of the 
sentence. It would have been a great relief to her if Mary 
had been secretly put out of the v/ay ; it would have de- 
livered her from her rival without loading her with the 
world's hatred. There is no doubt that she expressed her- 
self cautiously and in a double-tongued way about the 
execution of the sentence, thereby betraying how gladly 
she would have shifted the responsibility to another. The 
secretary, Davison, was selected for this part, and he was 
not a virtuous hero. Elizabeth signed the warrant, but he 
had to affix the great seal. This done, on the 8th of 
February, 15S7, the Council had the sentence executed. 
Because Elizabeth had not been again consulted about it 
just at the last, as was customary, she thought herself 
justified in punishing the obedient Davison as the guilty 
person. He was thrown into prison, and paid the penalty 
for the double-tonguedness of his Queen by years of 
captivity. 

The Spanish Armada, 1588, and Elizabeth's Last 
Days. 

The violent agitation of the Queen on receiving intelli- 
gence of the execution of the sentence may be taken for 
genuine, consistently with the supposition that after this 
transient emotion there would be a permanent feeling of 
relief that the mountain of anxiety which had weighed upon 
herself and her country for twenty years was removed. 

After February, 1587, no conspiracy was formed worth 
mentioning; the instigator of the plots was gone, and if 
ever an act was justified by its results, it was so in this 
instance. The people of England, with the exception of a 
few Catholic noblemen, were in favour of Queen Mary's 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 599 

death ; the news of it was received with general rejoicings, 
and whatever of bitter feeling there might be, was soon 
swallowed up in the terrors of the period which immedi- 
ately followed. It was a piece of rare good fortune for 
Elizabeth that an event which had long been threatened 
now took place, and justified the extreme measures which 
had caused her so much anguish ; a great attack upon the 
island was preparing by Spain, which would have cut a 
different figure had Mary been still living. 

Spain was equipping an immense fleet which was to 
repeat the feat of William the Conqueror, to extinguish the 
independence of England and its Protestantism, and at the 
same time carry out Mary's will. Elizabeth appeared so great, 
so superior, so equal to the people's expectations in this con- 
test, that, in their eyes, all that was connected with Mary 
fell into the shade, and Elizabeth's character appeared in 
the brightest colours ; the time of her historical greatness 
begins in this conflict with Philip II., "the shield of the 
Christian republic," as the Jesuits called him. 

In a masterly manner Elizabeth took advantage of those 
national sentiments, before which even religious differences 
vanished. The English nation, with all that it held dear, 
was threatened with a fearful irruption of foreign barbarism , 
Elizabeth felt herself to be one with the people, and could 
therefore reckon upon its best powers and most noble 
passions. 

Pope Sixtus V. had excommunicated her, and commis- 
sioned Philip II. to execute the sentence : a hundred and 
fifty great ships of war, with 2,620 guns, 8,000 seamen, and 
20,000 troops were embarking from Lisbon, and Alexander 
of Parma was preparing for a diversion in the Netherlands, 
The Pope had contributed half a million, and a number of 
priests and monks who were at once to begin the task of 
converting the heretics. 

Elizabeth was never greater than at the time of this 
terrible danger, and in the eyes of the world it relieved her 
from the obloquy of the deed of 1587. She was now the 
Queen whom England wanted, and for whom she had hoped. 
She showed that she had, as she told the Spanish ambassador, 
the body of a woman, but the heart of a man. 

In the circles of the Protestant zealots, a scheme had 
been formed of replying to the declaration of war of the 
foreign Catholic Powers, by a bloody execution of the native 



000 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

Catholics ; but Elizabeth refused to listen to it. She appealed 
to the patriotism of the whole nation, irrespective of difference 
of creed, and she was not disappointed. The expectation 
of the allies of the co-operation of Scotland proved false. 
The young King James had, indeed, bitterly felt the death 
of his unfortunate mother, but he regarded Elizabeth as a 
protection against Spain, and therefore joined her cause. 

France remained inactive, and Alexander of Parma was 
not ready, so that the prospects of the great enterprise were 
less favourable from the first than had been anticipated. 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth called her people to arms. It was 
the first attempt by a government to rely on the defensive 
powers of its own people and to await the attack of a 
great military power without trained soldiers. It succeeded 
beyond all expectation. The country people rivalled the 
great towns, with London at their head. 

In a short time two hundred ships were manned by 15,700 
sailors, and in the counties, the nobles, both Protestant and 
Catholic, with their tenants and vassals, took up arms in 
accordance with ancient usage ; 76,000 infantry, and 3,000 
horsemen were soon ready for the conflict. The coasts were 
fortified, voluntary contributions flowed in from all sides. 
The people did all they could for the national cause, with 
the Queen at their head. 

It was a proud moment, one which a nation only lives 
through once in its history, when Elizabeth, an Amazon in 
armour, appeared, in the camp at Tilbury, and thus addressed 
the soldiers as they stood in rank and file : — " Let tyrants 
fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, 

1 have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the 
loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects, and therefore I 
am come amongst you, as you see by this time, not for my 
own recreation or disport, but being resolved in the midst 
and heat of the battle to live or die amongst you all ; to lay 
down for my God and for my kingdoms, and for my people, 
my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I 
have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have 
the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England 
too ; and think foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince 
of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm, 
to which, rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I 
myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, 
judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field." 



?HE SPANISH ARMADA. 601 

The dreaded conflict on English soil did not take place. 
Destiny interposed, but the events and impressions of this 
time formed an epoch for England. The enthusiasm called 
forth by them was not easily forgotten. 

The Spanish ships we,re colossal and unwieldy. They had 
not the lightness of the little English vessels, nor the sailors 
the naval training of those of England. The fleet which 
embarked from Lisbon on May 30th, 1588, encountered 
storms on the way, and was involved in a number of minor 
engagements in the Channel, which, though not equal to a 
single real naval battle, sorely pressed the already damaged 
fleet, so that a retreat had to be contemplated instead of 
a landing. Storms did the rest, and before Parma could 
set out, the Armada was in such a condition that the remnant 
of it could scarcely reach the Spanish harbours. 

The fate of this invincible Armada was an event of world- 
wide interest. The remains of Spanish power and pros- 
perity sank with it in the waves, and in England, now 
the victorious bulwark of religious liberty, a new develop- 
ment began. England had found her element, soon to rule 
in it as a great power. 

Now began the great maritime development of this 
country. The time of voyages of conquest and discovery, 
when Drake, Raleigh, Howard, and Frobisher gave impor- 
tance to the English naval power, and colonial possessions 
were acquired in the East Indies and America. The 
foundations were laid of the greatness which was to de- 
velop itself during the next two centuries. Commercial 
enterprise, protected by a powerful fleet and fostered by 
wealthy colonies in the east and west, was greatly extended. 
It is, therefore, perfectly intelligible that Elizabeth's reign, 
and especially the latter part of it, should be regarded by 
Englishmen as the most prosperous period of their history. 
Fruitless laurels, and severe internal crises had been the 
results of the French conquests of Edward III., while the 
naval wars of Elizabeth introduced England into her own 
element, and opened up the natural sources of her power, 
so that her internal prosperity and external importance were 
developed simultaneously. 

For this reason the English are accustomed to associate 
the rise of their greatness with this victory of Protestantism, 
and it explains the Protestant hue which the English nation 
has assumed since the sixteenth century. 



6oi THE REFORMATION IN ENGLANb. 

Seldom has a reign closed so peacefully after long storms 
as that of Elizabeth (April, 1603), and when we compare 
the succeeding period, we cannot fail to be struck with the 
skill with which she adjusted those differences between 
regal and popular rights by which the country was so con- 
vulsed in the following decades. 

This was partly the result of the gravity of a situation 
before which all minor differences vanished. Still, Elizabeth 
had a large share in it. Her government was very econo- 
mical and well administered. Seldom had a ruler under 
difficult circumstances contrived so skilfully to avoid impos- 
ing unusual burdens on the people. Then she was prudent 
and dexterous in her way of going to work. 

She held those sentiments of absolutism and regal power 
which belonged to all the Tudors, but she never challenged 
opposition to them by boasting, and took good care never 
to agitate the momentous question of the limits of mo- 
narchical and parliamentary rights. She well knew that 
their relations were ill-defined, and thought it prudent 
never to let them become matter of dispute. 

But all this was changed immediately after her death. 
During the next reign there was not a trace of greatness in 
the government. Blunders, mishaps, and violent disputes 
about the rights of Parliament and the crown were the ordei 
of the day. 



PART XIII. 

THE REVOLUTION AND REPUBLIC IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XLTII. 

JAMES I., 1603-25.* 

Character of the Monarch and unfavourable beginning of his reign.— 
The Gunpowder Plot, November, 1605. — The Contests of 1621. — 
Trial of Lord Bacon of Verulam. — The Question of taking part in 
the Bohemian-Palatinate "War. — The Difficulties of Parliament. — 
Address of November, 1621, and Dissolution of Parliament. — The 
Spanish Marriage Scheme. Buckingham and the Prince of 
Wales. — Change in the Policy of England. — The Parliament of 
1624. — Death of James, April, 1625. 

Character of James I., and unfavourable Beginning 
of his Reign. 

IT was universally admitted that Mary's son would be 
Elizabeth's successor before her death. Mary's right was 
indisputably established through him. 

James VI. of Scotland and 1. of England was the issue 
of the stormy marriage of Mary and Darnley, and he was 

• Besides the before-mentioned literature : — Annals of King James I. 
and Charles I., 1681. "Wilson's History of Great Britain, 1653. Sidney, 
Letters and Memorials, 1746. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, 
1702. Memorials of Whitelock, 1732. Clarendon State Papers. 
Rushworth, London, 1682; Thurloe, 1742, and the Parliamentary 
Debates. Compare Guizot, Collection des Memoires relatives a l'His- 
toire de la Revolution d'Angleterre, Paris, 1823, 28 vols.; Guizot, 
Histoire de Charles I., 6th ed. 1856; On Cromwell; besides the bio- 
graphies of Leti, 1692 ; Villemain, 1819 ; and Merle d'Aubigng. 
Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 1845-57. Guizot, 
Histoire de la Republique d'Angleterre, 1854. The same, Histoire du 
Protectorat de Richard Cromwell, 1855. For a critique on the sources 
see Ranke's Engl. Geschichte, vol. vii. 



604 THE REVOLUTION LN ENGLAND. 

born not long after the murder of Rizzio. He was two 
years old when his mother escaped to England, and then 
had for years been tossed hither and thither between the 
leaders of the Scotch nobility. He had not given any 
evidence of ability as ruler of Scotland. Awkward and 
unkingly in person, manners, and tastes, he had with diffi- 
culty maintained his position among the parties which were 
tearing Scotland in pieces, and the main inheritance of this 
period of perpetual warfare was an irritability about his 
royal rights, occasioned by the systematic attacks of the 
rigid Presbyterians. He had not attempted any interference 
abroad ; he had even allowed his mother to die without 
any vigorous effort to avert her fate. It was mainly owing 
to his inaction and indifference that her hopes that Scotland 
would take up her cause were not fulfilled. The succession 
to the English crown was nearer to his heart than his 
mother's execution.* 

When, in July, 1603, he proceeded amidst the rejoicings 
of the people from Edinburgh to London, he entered upon 
an inheritance greater in extent than had been possessed by 
any king before him. England, Ireland, and Scotland 
were, for the first time, united under one sceptre ; and 
though it was not an amalgamation of the three empires, 
their union considerably increased the power of their 
common ruler. 

In this respect, the power which Elizabeth had inherited 
was thrown into the shade ; but his character made it by no 
means likely that he would eclipse the brilliance of her 
reign. While Elizabeth frequently displayed masculine 
powers, it is often difficult to remember in James's case that 
we are in the presence of a man, the impression he made 
was so thoroughly effeminate. 

He was not wanting in acquirements and cultivation; 
indeed, he might almost be called learned. He had taken 
part in the theological controversies then agitated in Scot- 
land, and had now and then appeared as an author. He 
brought to the throne the petty literary vanity of a pedant ; 
and this, as we have seen in the case of Henry VIII., is 
always a misfortune. 

There was nothing in his character to inspire confidence 
or respect. His want of manliness, timorousness, and 
supineness in great things and small, his awkward shiftless' 
* Mignet. 



JAMES I. 605 

ness, the plebeian vulgarity of his manners and mode of 
life, his occupation with trifles and childish whims, all con- 
tributed to give the impression of a person whom no one 
could esteem or had any cause to fear. 

And with all this obvious weakness of mind and body 
were united prejudices about regal sovereignty which almost 
amounted to insanity. From these unkingly lips were heard 
sayings about absolute power and the unlimited rights of 
the crown which would scarcely have beseemed personages 
like Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and in his case they were 
simply ridiculous. 

James I. was a fanatical doctrinaire of absolute mon- 
archy ; he had adopted as an article of faith the doctrine 
that the king was a second Providence upon earth, that all 
popular privileges were only favours granted by the throne, 
a doctrine which may have the most mischievous results to 
a weak head. His political wisdom consisted in boasting of 
these ideas. 

In spite of their Magna Charta and their Parliament, 
the English were not accustomed to overmuch liberty : the 
Tudors had taught them to obey in a way which showed 
what a strong will might accomplish even with constitu- 
tional forms. Even Elizabeth had governed exactly as she 
pleased, though her manner of doing so was less severe ; 
but she had never established as a doctrine, what the nation 
had submitted to in fact, nor attempted to settle the contro- 
versy as to their respective powers. 

The rejoicings with which the beginning of James's reign 
was greeted soon gave place to general discontent. Under 
Elizabeth the people had been used to an economical, con- 
scientious government ; but now a careless and easy 
method of management was introduced, which was very 
expensive, and soon brought the finances into confusion. 
The people were exasperated by a swarm of Scotch place- 
hunters and assuming royal favourites. Elizabeth had had 
her favourites also, but they had not been expensive to the 
State ; while those who helped King James to while away 
his time, consumed large sums of money, and were a dis- 
grace to the crown. 

The complaints about the rapacity of the Scotch, who 
" eat up the country like canker worms," were soon so 
loud, that the worst results might be anticipated. 

Then his position with respect to the ecclesiastical ques 



606 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

tion was doubtful, though this was less his fault than the 
result of the whole situation. 

He was the son of a zealous Catholic, whose death had 
been regarded as a courageous martyrdom for her faith ; he 
hated the Presbyterians, who wanted to set up an indepen- 
dent ecclesiastical community in opposition to him. The 
English Catholics therefore hoped that he would honour his 
mother's memory, and grant them more liberty. He had 
even given them secret promises to this effect ; but his sub- 
sequent actions were not in accordance with them. He- 
had a certain liking for the Roman Catholic Church, and 
was awed by episcopal authority ; but then it must be for 
his benefit, not that of his subjects. He had not the least 
idea of making greater concessions to the Catholics ; on the 
contrary, he made their position more painful, for which 
they recompensed him with mortal hatred. 

The remnants of the party of the old conspirators, united 
with other persons, irritated by real or imaginary neglect, in 
forming a plan of horrible revenge. 

They resolved to fill the cellars under the Houses of Par- 
liament with gunpowder, and on the day of the opening of 
Parliament to blow up the whole of official England by one 
stroke, the royal family, the ministers, and the Upper and 
Lower House. It was an evidence of what deeds the party 
which had lost its leader in Mary was capable. 

The scheme was ready for execution, when a Catholic 
lord, who had a brother-in-law among the accomplices, 
received a warning letter, in which it was said, among other 
things, " Though there be no appearance of any stir, yet 
I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament, and 
yet they shall not see who hurts them." 

The letter was communicated to the King, who was in 
perpetual fear of attempts on his life, and always appeared 
in a panoply of thick clothes, and he at once suspected 
gunpowder. The day before the opening of Parliament the 
cellars were searched, and one of the conspirators was 
found amongst the barrels employed in making the final 
preparations, and with a cheerful countenance he avowed 
his Christian project. 

It need not be said that this affair made an immense sen- 
sation, and stirred up all the ecclesiastical hatred which had 
been raging in the country for more than half a century, 
Parliament, composed of members elected more freely than 



THE POWER OF PARLIAMENT. 607 

formerly, gave expression to it in severe laws against the 
Catholics. King James, on the whole, maintained a posi- 
tion between the two parties. He was more severe to the 
Puritans than Elizabeth, and the Dissenters called him a 
secret Catholic ; for in all cases of dispute he betrayed far 
more liking for the Catholic hierarchy than for the indepen- 
dent and rebellious spirit of the Protestants in and out of 
England. Still, he would have liked to get rid of the Pope 
and his connection with the Catholic powers. 

James was not the man to talk of the divine right of 
kings ; a monarch who was afraid of his Parliament should 
not have defied and threatened it, for he was always wanting 
money, and could not dispense with its aid. Yet what 
language did he not venture to use ! 

In the King's speech from the throne, in 1609, were the 
memorable words, " God hath power to create or destroy, 
to make or unmake at his pleasure, to give life or to send 
death ; and to God both body and soul are due. And the 
like power have kings : they make and unmake their sub- 
jects ; they have power of raising and casting down, of life 
and of death — judges over all their subjects, and in all 
causes, and yet accountable to none but God only. They 
have power to exalt low things, and abase high things, and 
make their subjects like men of chess : a pawn to take a 
bishop or a knight, and to cry up or down any of their sub 
jects as they do their money." 

Even to doubt the correctness of this doctrine he con- 
sidered to be blasphemy and revolution ; and all this from 
a man who could not see a sword without shuddering. 

There could not have been a better method of bringing 
the delicate question of the relations between the King and 
people to an issue, and of compelling the people's represen- 
tatives to settle what was in their power, and what in the 
King's, than by these blasphemous speeches. 

And nowhere was this question more eagerly discussed 
than on English soil. If there were chartered, and what is 
more, exercised popular rights, it was in England. The 
mode in which they were exercised had undoubtedly always 
taken the colour of the age, and there was a certain oscilla- 
tion according as the character of the sovereign or the force 
of circumstances turned the scale. What had not Henry 
VIII. and Elizabeth succeeded in accomplishing without 
Parliament, and on the other hand how the kings had to 



608 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

submit to it during the civil wars .' Nevertheless under the 
Tudors, three principles were acknowledged to be in force — ■ 
that new laws could not be enacted, nor new taxes imposed 
without the consent of Parliament, and that the responsible 
advisers of the crown might be called to account by Par- 
liament. These rules were thoroughly established in 
the sixteenth century. Henry VIII. had promulgated all 
ecclesiastical laws through Parliament, and Edward VI. and 
Elizabeth had done the same. The Crown had often 
thrown the responsibility of its acts upon the ministers, in 
order to get rid of the odium attaching to them, and so 
culpable ministers and corrupt counsellors were continually 
summoned before Parliament. Even the principle of the 
consent of Parliament to taxation had never been a subject 
of dispute. 

In short, to a certain extent royal and popular rights had 
comported well together, but this good understanding had 
mainly depended on the dexterity of the leading personages. 
But that an extravagant government like James's, which 
wounded the susceptibilities of the great parties, and with a 
most corrupt financial system, proclaimed its intention of 
upsetting the usages of public law, would soon put an end 
to the loyalty of Parliament was as clear as could be, 
especially as it was irritated by the perpetual demands of 
the Crown for money. 

A circumstance not in itself important, but momentous 
in its results, gave rise to the conflict. 

The Conflict of 1621. 

In order to raise money the Crown resorted to all sorts 
of devices, not exactly illegal, but sordid and corrupt. 
Besides a shameless trade in patents of nobility, which were 
a disgrace both to the government and the aristocracy, an 
abuse respecting monopolies had sprung up which was 
a decided injury to the prosperity of the nation. The 
Crown — even Elizabeth did not disdain to do it — sold the 
sole right to trade in certain articles to companies or indivi- 
duals. As is well known, this system is condemned both 
by reason and experience ; but it was never carried on more 
recklessly than under James I., who in money matters, 
openly avowed himself to be a sick man urgently needing 
medical aid. This abuse had frequently been discussed in 



'***- TRIAL OF LORD BACON. OOg 

Parliament, but complaints against it had always been in 
vain ; now, however, a new and worse abuse suddenly came 
to light. 

The Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Bacon, one of 
the foremost thinkers of all times, sold not only monopolies 
but judicial sentences, thus making a prostitute of justice. 
The evidence against him was so conclusive, that he gave 
up all attempt at defence and confessed his guilt in abject 
terms. It cuts one to the heart to read the letter addressed 
to Parliament in April, 1620, by a man of sixty years of 
age, the first minister of the Crown and a European cele- 
brity. It begins with the words : — 

" Upon advised consideration of the charge, descending 
into my own conscience, and calling my memory to account 
as far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess 
that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all de- 
fence and put myself on the grace and mercy of your 
lordships." 

He then reckons up twenty-three cases in which, contrary 
to his oath and duty, he had received from parties for mono- 
polies, sums of .£50, .£100, ^200, ^400, &c* 

This business was of the greatest importance to England. 
The disgraceful acts of the Lord Chancellor were only 
symptomatic of a whole system of corruption. This trial of 
the first minister of the Crown, which was gone into with 
great minuteness in Parliament, affected the crown as well 
as the accused, the sentence against him was a condemna- 
tion of the government ; the people began to suspect that 
the whole administration was corrupt. It was a great 
success for Parliament to have deprived the arrogant King 
of his minister. 

Another event now took place, which put the finishing 
stroke to the embitterment of the nation. 

On the 24th of March, 1613, James's daughter, Elizabeth, 
had married the Elector Frederick of the Palatinate, amidst 
the rejoicings of the people. Frederick was greeted as the 
head of the German Union, and the marriage as the con- 
nection of England with German Protestantism. Then 
came his election as King of Poland, the defeat of Prague, 
the downfall of the winter-kingdom ; and James I. left his 
son-in-law, now wandering homeless about Germany, in the 
lurch, and made no appeal to Parliament for money, wlvl? 
• Cobbett, Parliamentary History. 



6lO THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

there was yet time. Instead of helping the unhappy Count 
Palatine and his daughter, he scolded the rebels and the 
Usurper, and formed the project of marrying the Prince of 
Wales to the Spanish Infanta. 

A commercial nation is never disposed to go to war for 
remote considerations, but this war lay near the hearts of 
the English; it was a struggle against the restoration of 
Catholicism which was achieving great successes, it was a 
question of the support of the cause for which England 
herself had sustained severe trials ; this temperate peace- 
ful nation was more eager for war than ever before. But 
James held back, not from weakness alone, but partly from 
legitimist scruples. His son-in-law was rebelling against 
the divine authority of the Emperor Ferdinand, with whose 
Spanish relations he was just negotiating a marriage, and 
not with much success. 

For the usurped Crown of Bohemia, therefore, James 
would on no account do anything ; but for the Palatinate, on 
the contrary, he declared with great emphasis that he would 
do all in his power. 

When in January, 1621, he asked Parliament for money 
to protect the rights of his grandchildren in the Palatinate, 
and to help the good cause of liberty of conscience, he 
found a readiness which he had never met with before, but 
complaints of the great domestic grievances were now first 
seriously urged. Parliament was still sitting, and Bacon's 
impeachment keeping every one in suspense, when news 
came of the progress of Catholic restoration in Bohemia 
and Austria ; the new dangers of the Huguenots in France, 
and the Protestants in the Netherlands, but notwithstanding 
the supplies granted by Parliament, James did nothing but 
make feeble declarations and diplomatic protests. 

To the discontent with the failings of the administration, 
was now added irritation, occasioned by the weakness of 
the foreign policy of the government. The Lower House 
took upon itself for the first time to discuss foreign affairs : 
the war on the Continent and the errors of the government 
on a great European question. It was as yet a long way 
from revolution, but it was the first step towards it. 

The King accused Parliament of going beyond its privi- 
leges, and prorogued it. Previous usage certainly justified 
this course, but the nation could not be blamed for making 
itself heard on so vital a question. For forty years and 



THE CONFLICT OF 1 62 1. 6ll 

more it had had a bitter feud with Spain, Hapsburg, and 
Rome. All the plots against Elizabeth — the war during 
the eighth decade; the invincible Armada; the gun- 
powder plot — had a common source ; the nation's eagerness 
for war arose from a justifiable anxiety as to the effect 
which a victory of their mortal enemy on the Continent 
might have upon the liberties, political and religious, of their 
island empire. 

When Parliament re-assembled in November, 1621, these 
sentiments were still more strongly expressed. The impor- 
tant question whether Parliament had a right to arraign the 
foreign policy of the government, pressed for a decision. 
The King again asked for money, not really to make war, 
but to continue the demonstrations which had made him the 
laughing-stock of Europe. Parliament would only grant it 
on condition that the King would give up the Spanish mar- 
riage ; break up his alliances irrevocably with the Catholic 
powers ; proceed with severity against the Catholics, and 
finally draw the sword in the Protestant cause. 

These proposals were made to the King in an address, 
at that time of an unprecedented kind. A special com- 
plaint was added about the arrest of members of Parliament. 

The King replied in a defiant letter to the Speaker, re- 
proaching the House for meddling with things above their 
reach and capacity, forbade them to interfere with his 
government or in deep matters of state, and especially in 
the marriage of his son with the Infanta of Spain ; and he 
finally declared that in cases of impropriety of conduct of 
members of Parliament, either in the House or out of it, he 
must reserve the right of punishing them.* 

This letter was intended to intimidate the Commons, but 
it rather acted as a challenge. One of the members ex- 
pressed the feeling of the House when he said, " Our 
liberties are our freehold, and the fairest flower that groweth 
in the garden of the Commons, and if they be once nipped 
they will never grow again." f 

The House insisted on liberty of speech as an ancient 
and inviolable right, and the King sent them another letter 
on the 1 6th of December, in which he said that he would 
not hear of rights and inherited claims, the House enjoyed 

• Cobbett. Immunity from arrest was granted, " eundo, sedendo, 
redeundo." 
f Qobbett, 



6l2 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

certain privileges by the grace and favour of the King and 
his predecessors, not by inheritance but toleration. 

It is never the true interest of a government to agitate 
the question of existing and recognised rights. It is always 
a delicate one and was particularly so in England. Four 
hundred years had elapsed since Magna Chartawas granted, 
and it did not contain everything that was now English law ; 
but the Englishman was accustomed to connect his rights 
with this treaty, and to talk to him of favours and conces- 
sions that might be withdrawn, was to put the people's 
notions of right to a severe test. To maintain that no 
rights exist except such as are conferred by the favour of 
the Crown is never conducive to the true dignity of royalty. 
It is not willingly borne from a powerful ruler ; Louis XIV. 
and greater men than he, were never forgiven for saying 
that the ruler was the state and vice versa, and a feeble 
and effeminate King should never have adopted such 
language. 

Parliament did not long keep him waiting for an answer. 
On the 1 8th of December, the royal declaration was followed 
by a declaration of Parliament, which stated that " the 
liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of Parlia- 
ment are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inherit- 
ance of the subjects of England, and the making and 
maintenance of laws, and redress of mischiefs and griev- 
ances, which daily happen within this realm, are proper 
subjects and matter of counsel and debate in Parliament, 
and that in the handling and proceeding of those businesses, 
every member of the House hath, and of right ought to 
have, freedom of speech to propound, treat, reason, and 
bring to conclusion the same : that the Commons in Parli- 
ment have like liberty and freedom to propound, treat, 
reason, and bring to conclusion the same : that the 
Commons in Parliament have like liberty and freedom to 
treat of these matters in such order as in their judgments 
shall seem fittest, and that every such member of the said 
House hath like freedom from all impeachment, imprison- 
ment, and molestation (other than by the censure of the 
House itself), for or concerning any bill, speaking, reasoning, 
or declaring of any matter or matters touching the Parlia- 
ment or Parliament business ; and that if any of the said 
members be complained of, and questioned for anything 
said or done in Parliament, the same is to be showed to 



THE CONFLICT OF 1 62 I. 613 

the King, by the advice and assent of all the Commons 
assembled in Parliament, before the King give credence to 
any private information." * 

The first collision between absolute and constitutional 
monarchy had taken place at a time when the first only 
seemed to have any prospect of existence. Unlimited 
royal power had everywhere gained the ascendancy, partly 
in connection with, partly in opposition to the Reformation. 
In Spain, Italy, and Austria, the Inquisition had helped to 
establish ecclesiastical and temporal absolutism, in the 
Protestant German states, and the Scandinavian countries, 
on the contrary, the fall of a powerful state Church had 
raised a powerless monarchy to dignity and importance ; in 
France, the first strong government which extricated the 
country from the confusion of the religious wars, allowed the 
ancient States-General to fall quietly into oblivion; nowhere 
were voices raised like those in England. 

The conflict which arose in England in 1621, was in 
itself an anomaly in the universal tendencies of the age ; 
but the protest of Parliament was the announcement of a 
spirit diametrically opposed to traditionary usage. 

King James was furious. He immediately went to London, 
went down to the House with his privy councillor, summoned 
the secretary with the journal book, with his own hand tore 
out the protest, and had his own motion inserted in its place. 
The House was then dissolved, the chief leaders of the oppo- 
sition committed to prison ; others, like John Savill, taken 
into the King's service. 

This mode of action laid bare the weakness of a King who 
imagined he could annihilate with a leaf out of the journal 
book what could not be erased from history, nor from the 
hearts of the people. 

A contest had begun which was not to end till the throne 
of the Stuarts was in ruins. 

The Spanish Marriage. — Buckingham and the Prince 
of Wales. — Change of English Policy. — Death 
of James, 1625. 

Meanwhile, the King was overwhelmed with complica- 
tions on the Continent. He had asked Parliament for 
money to save at least the Count-Palatine's hereditary 
possessions, but by failing to fulfil his promises he had 
• Cobbett, i. 1362. 



6l4 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

caused the unfortunate Elector to lose even them. The 
Emperor had dethroned him and made over the vacant dignity 
to Bavaria. The English nation was deeply affected by 
this blow. The King had acted throughout the whole trans- 
action with incredible weakness and want of character, and 
as we now see by the despatches, had also been disgracefully 
deceived, together with the English nation, who regarded 
the cause of the Palatinate as their own. 

James's weakness in this business was connected with a 
favourite scheme, which he did not give up till he had 
drunk the cup of ignominy to the dregs. His reverence 
for the family politics of the Hapsburgs, their method of 
governing, and their conception of sovereign dignity, led to 
an eager desire to unite his dynasty with theirs by a marriage, 
and in the success of this project, which after the events of 
1587-8 was quite unlikely to be fulfilled, he saw, curiously 
enough, a solution of all the difficulties which encompassed 
him. He hoped for weighty support in Spain against his 
obstreperous Parliament. Spain was to spare him from draw- 
ing the sword by helping him in the Palatinate, and the 
price, without which it appeared as if the alliance was not 
to be had, toleration of the Catholics ; and abolition of the 
strict parliamentary laws would have furnished him with a 
check upon the Puritans. 

The negotiations dragged on for years. James would 
not bind himself without distinct promises from Spain, and 
Spain, with a clearer conception of the divergence between 
the two states, wished, at all events, to assure herself 
of the one advantage that England should not take an 
active part in the war. So the business came to a stand- 
still. 

The King and his favourite, Buckingham, then devised 
what they thought a most ingenious plan of breaking through 
the meshes of diplomacy. The King had himself, in his 
youthful days, carried off his bride under difficulties, why 
should not his son do the same, in true chivalrous fashion ? 

In the deepest secrecy the Prince of Wales and the Duke 
of Buckingham set sail for Spain, and appeared at Madrid 
on 7th March, 1623. 

During this singular wooing, which, according to the strict 
forms of Spanish etiquette could only be carried on at a dis- 
tance, the negotiations as to the conditions of an agreemenr 
assumed a more serious character. In order to gain Spain 



DEATH OF JAMES I. 6 1. 5 

over, King James allowed a liberty to the Catholics in Eng- 
land which filled the Protestants with alarm ; but Spain was 
anything but complaisant, and would not agree to the 
restoration of the Elector Palatine, which with James was 
the main point. Besides this, Buckingham had a personal 
quarrel with the representative of this policy, Count 
Olivarez, and so he persuaded the Prince to a sudden 
departure. 

Buckingham had conducted the whole business with the 
frivolity of a vain courtier : the report which he now gave 
of it was made up of lies which found no credence, and 
truths which proved nothing. It was not then known in 
London hjw far Spain had decided to go with the German 
Hapsburgs, and the future attitude of England towards 
Spain was very doubtful. It depended on the decision of 
the King, or the effects of the report of the irritated Buck- 
ingham. 

But the Parliament of 1624 consented with undisguised 
pleasure to the communications, which showed that the 
government was at length giving up this unnatural plan. 
It agreed to all that Buckingham proposed against Spain ; 
and as the King gave way on several old subjects of dispute, 
an understanding now took place between the Crown and 
Parliament which three years before would have seemed 
impossible. 

The King's policy underwent an entire revolution. Instead 
of a Spanish Infanta, he now desired a French Princess as 
a daughter-in-law. Instead of an alliance with the Haps- 
burgs, he now sought to ally himself with their opponents ; 
instead of repulsing Parliament with Stuart haughtiness, he 
now made advances to it, and agreed with it on all questions, 
foreign and domestic. 

In December, 1624, the marriage treaty was agreed upon 
between his son and the Princess Henrietta Maria of France. 
James now entered into the war for the restoration of the 
Elector Palatine with an unlooked-for zeal, and was pre- 
paring for decisive action, when, on the 27th of March, 1625, 
he died. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

Charles I., 1625-49. — His Character. — The first two Parliament*, 
1625-26. — The War with Spain and France. — The third and last 
Parliament. — The Petition of Right, 1628-9. — Charles I. with- 
out a Parliament. — The Earl of Sti afford. — Archbishop Laud. — 
The Star Chamber. — The High Commission. — Ship Money, 1634. 
— John Hampden's Trial, 1637. 

Character of Charles I. — The First Two Parlia- 
ments. — The War with Spain and France. 

JAMES I. was succeeded by his son Charles I., born 
1600. His entrance into public life had not been very 
promising. He had allowed himself to be made a tool 
of in the Spanish marriage affair, and had covered the un- 
truths of Buckingham's report with the shield of his name. 
He was, however, a different man from his father. He pos- 
sessed considerable ability, was well educated, had a talent 
for shrewd observation, and indisputable adroitness in ma- 
naging men and things. His characteristics were of that 
distinguished, winning, yet dignified kind which we con- 
sider to belong to a born prince. His appearance was 
kingly and commanding, and he had nothing of the studied 
haughtiness of his father, which contrasted so strangely with 
his slovenly exterior and plebeian habits. Even his enemies 
allowed that Charles was no common man in the days of 
his greatest misfortunes. 

Without his father's bravado, he was much more daring 
in action. What to the one was but a flattering theory, was 
to the other the principle of his life. He was capable of 
staking his throne and his life on his principles. His father, 
with all his fine speeches, generally beat a retreat when 
things began to look serious. Not so his son ; he staked 
everything till his crown and life were lost. 



CHARLES I. 617 

But he was less sincere and honest than his father, whose 
heart was on his tongue, and when his words and actions 
did not agree it was rather from weakness than insincerity. 
Charles knew how to control himself, weighed every word, 
concealed his thoughts, and was fond of tortuous paths. 
When he was most flattering and amiable it was necessary 
to be most on your guard against him. He held insincerity 
and faithlessness to be allowable in politics, but his home 
life was exemplary and amiable. A man with this courage 
and talent, these commanding, and at the same time seductive 
qualities, was a very different opponent from King James. 

The King's first step was to summon a new Parliament, 
as was customary at the beginning of a reign. The 
themes of the congratulatory speeches were naturally the 
inheritance of the late King, the energetic prosecution of the 
Palatinate war, and the voting of the necessary subsidies. 
With this exception nothing can be more peaceable than 
these addresses and replies. Charles speaks with a winning 
openness and warmth which are quite inspiring. He ex- 
presses full confidence that Parliament will support the 
honour of its sovereign and his subjects, and assures them 
in writing that the maintenance of the faith of his fathers 
always has been, and always will be, sacred to him. Parlia- 
ment replied in the same spirit. On June 22nd a motion 
was made for a good understanding between King and 
Parliament, when Rudyard said that " the late distastes 
between the late King and Parliament were the chief cause 
of all the miseries of the kingdom, the first turn of which 
towards a reconciliation was given by the now King, then 
prince ; by which accrued more benefit to the subject than 
in any Parliament these many hundred years. What may we 
then expect from him being King, and having power in his 
own hands ? His good natural disposition, his freedom 
from vice ; his travels abroad ; his being bred in Parlia- 
ments, promised greatly. Therefore he moved to take such 
course now to sweeten all things between King and people 
that they may never afterwards disagree." * 

But this frame of mind did not last long. When these 
ceremonials were over, it was plain to every one that there 
were questions on which the views of the two parties were 
by no means agreed, that the King wanted money, and 
when it was voted would dismiss Parliament in as friendly 
* Cobbett. 



6l8 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

a manner as he had greeted it, and Parliament would by 
no means consent to be used simply for this purpose. 

The Commons frustrated the King's tactics, which in 
themselves were unskilful. It was a more brilliant assembly 
than any that England had ever seen. The eminent men who 
afterwards appeared on one side or the other were all in 
this Parliament. It was one of unusual power, for it had 
been formed in the period of prosperity and independence, 
which was the result of Elizabeth's happy reign. The 
members were mostly wealthy landowners of independent 
position, and they had very little moral counterpoise in 
the House of Lords, because James and Charles had 
committed the great error of making it compliant, but 
despicable, by making peers of a whole batch of courtiers. 

The Commons demanded, before proceeding to vote sub- 
sidies, that certain grievances should be put an end to, par- 
ticularly that a pledge should be given that the strict laws 
against the Catholics, who were supported by the Queen, 
should be enforced. A certain royal chaplain, Dr. Montague, 
had distinguished himself by attacks upon the Puritans, who 
were numerously represented in Parliament, and the Catho- 
lics were the zealous advocates of the Stuart doctrines of 
absolute royal power and the grace of God, which were 
abhorrent to the Puritans. It was on this subject that the 
first differences arose. 

The religious fanaticism of the Puritans drove Charles, 
who was burning with impatience to begin the war, almost 
to despair. Instead of voting the needful subsidies, the 
Commons passed a law about the strict observance of the 
Sabbath, thundered against, the Papacy, and petitioned 
for suspended Puritan preachers. Yet Parliament had con- 
sented to the war, and the King was loaded with the debts 
which his father had been compelled to incur on account 
of it. The doubtful manner in which Buckingham had 
employed the English ships had brought the enterprise 
into disrepute, and greatly increased the number of his 
personal enemies. The subsidies which Parliament at 
length granted were so small that the motion was looked 
upon as a vote of want of confidence, as was also the 
resolution to vote tonnage and poundage, the most lucra- 
tive source,of the income of the Crown — it almost amounted 
to half— for one year only, instead of as formerly for the 
whole reign. 



THE FIRST AND SECOND PARLIAMENTS. 619 

Parliament was prorogued, ostensibly because the plague 
rendered residence in London impossible, and convened 
again at Oxford, a loyal city ; but the sentiments of the 
Lower House did not improve, although the King had 
several times urgently begged for speedy grants, in the 
name of honour, security, and necessity. On the 25th ol 
August, Parliament was dissolved, after a motion had with 
difficulty been passed in the Upper House voting tonnage 
and poundage for the whole reign. 

In February, 1626, another Parliament was summoned. 
It met under the impression of an unfortunate expedition 
to Cadiz, which once more showed that, although the 
government was eager for war, it had no efficient soldiers. 
Former scenes were repeated, only increased bitterness was 
manifested on both sides. The keeper of the great seal, in 
his opening speech, spoke of the immeasurable distance 
between the sublime dignity and majesty of a mighty 
monarch, and the subjection and humility of loyal sub- 
jects, called the throne the source of all rights, and the laws 
the streams and rivulets by which they were conducted to 
subjects, &c. It seemed to the House as if they were 
listening to James I. again, only it was more serious, for the 
son was in earnest with what was mere nonsense with his 
father. Parliament was ready to grant higher, but still not 
sufficient subsidies, and not before the abolition of a long 
list of grievances which were a severe criticism on the 
whole administration. The Duke of Buckingham was even 
formally impeached ; but with obvious defiance the King 
contrived that he should be appointed to the office of 
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, just vacated. 
Parliament was ordered to give up the impeachment, and 
to grant the money at once on pain of being dissolved. 
He even threatened them with "new counsels." The 
threat was soon followed by execution, for Digges and 
Elliot, the chief accusers of the Duke, were thrown into 
prison ; but Parliament interfered, and nothing being proved 
against them, the King was obliged to release them. In- 
stead of intimidating the Commons, he had only produced 
irritation and bitter feeling. In June, Parliament was dis- 
solved, like the first, afte,r it had solemnly protested against 
the illegal exaction of tonnage and poundage, and de- 
manded the removal of the hated Buckingham. 

The system of force now appeared openly from unr'er 



620 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

the veil of half-friendly demands and threats, not so plainly 
as would doubtless have been the case had the King had 
an army to rely on, but still plainly enough. 

Money it was necessary for the King to have at any 
price ; so, as Parliament refused it, he had recourse to a 
forced loan. 

A Commission was instituted with full powers to raise 
it ; the Catholic party advised obedience from their pulpits 
and in printed sermons ; but the Puritans, who were the 
great majority of the nation, ftagerly opposed it; and in 
many places the loan was openly refused, with an appeal to 
ancient national laws. Those who refused were arrested, 
and the judges who would not pass sentence on them dis- 
missed. The troops who had returned from the unfortunate 
expedition to Cadiz, were quartered on the contumacious to 
make them submit ; the support of the lawless soldiery was 
a new and heavy burden to the whole country. The war, 
too, which was to justify all these acts of violence, just now 
took an unfortunate turn. 

On the occasion of suing for the hand of the Princess 
Henrietta Maria for his master, the frivolous Buckingham 
had dared to enter into an intrigue with the young Queen of 
France. This excited the anxiety of Richelieu, and when, 
through Louis XIII., he informed Buckingham that he 
must not show himself in France again, Buckingham vowed 
revenge, and persuaded his master to declare war against 
France, though they were still at war with Spain. With 
one hundred ships and seven thousand men, Buckingham 
went to the help of the Huguenots, in La Rochelle, but 
conducted the enterprise with so absurd a want of skill, 
that after the loss of two-thirds of his troops he had to 
return without accomplishing his purpose, covered with 
shame and disgrace. October, X627, La Rochelle was lost; 
English commerce suffered severely in the war ; British 
ships were seized; the foolish enterprise was cursed in 
every home ; and deep and general discontent prevailed 
throughout the country. 

The Third and the Last Parliament, 1628-29. — The 
Petition of Right. 

Since "the dissolution of the last Parliament, the Crown 
had been getting on as badly as possible. The war, which 
the King repeatedly, and from conviction, declared to be a 



THIRD AND LAST PARLIAMENT. 62 1 

matter of honour for himself and his people, had brought 
nothing but loss and disgrace ; and the forced loan had 
sown deep hatred amongst the people, without removing 
his embarrassments. The scanty results of the forced loan 
were drained to the dregs, and it was needful once more to 
look about for a Parliament. Parliament had not been 
very complaisant even at the beginning of Charles's reign, 
before he had done anything illegal ; what could be ex- 
pected from it now after all that had taken place? 

The representatives who assembled in March, 1528, had 
some of them been themselves imprisoned, almost all had 
suffered from the loan and the quartering of the troops, 
and their constituents were deeply embittered by the doings 
of the government at home and abroad. 

The tone in which the King addressed the assembly fore- 
boded no good. As usual, he contented himself with few 
words,and desired the Commons to do the same, "for tedious 
consultations at this time are as hurtful as ill resolutions. 
.... Every man must now do according to his con- 
science; wherefore, if you (which God forbid) should not 
do your duties in contributing what the State at this time 
needs, I must, in discharge of my conscience, use those 
other means which God hath put into my hands to save 
that which the follies of some particular men may otherwise 
hazard to lose. Take not this as a threatening, for I scorn 
to threaten any but my equals." 

The keeper of the great seal then added that the King 
had had recourse to Parliament not from necessity, but as 
a favour. 

The bitterest complaints of the first two Parliaments had 
related to the King's lukewarmness about the Papists ; but 
these were now thrown into the shade by grievances of 
another kind : taxation without consent of Parliament, the 
forced loan, arrest of members and private persons for 
refusal to pay unconstitutional imposts, and the quartering 
of foreign soldiery. There was now an almost revolutionary 
tone in the speeches. The same Rudyard who three years 
before, in a speech before the King, had spoken of his dis- 
tinguished qualities as auguring good for the country, now 
broke out with the words, " This is the crisis of Parlia- 
ments ; by this we shall know whether Parliaments shall 
live or die ; besides, the eyes of Christendom are upon us 
—the King and the kingdom will be valued and disvalued 



622 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

both by enemies and friends, according to the success of 
this Parliament. The cause why we are called hither is to 
save ourselves. We are not now upon bene esse, we are upon 
the very esse of it, ' whether we shall be a kingdom or no.' " 

A very sharp speech was also made by Thomas Went- 
worth, afterwards Earl Strafford, who had himself been im- 
prisoned for refusing a loan ; but — and this points to his 
secret designs — he makes a great distinction between the 
King and the guilty advisers by whom he has been misled. 
Of these he spoke with the greatest bitterness. 

In accordance with these sentiments, the first resolution 
of Parliament was a unanimous protest against arbitrary 
punishments and forced loans. Then, to conciliate the 
King, five subsidies were granted him, to his great . satisfac- 
tion ; but before this vote was formally passed, a solemn 
petition was granted against all grievances with an appeal 
to the ancient laws of the land. The King did all in his 
power to frustrate the discussion of this Petition of Right ; 
he threatened to dissolve the House if it was not ready with 
the grants of money within a certain time. He then gave 
a solemn promise not to infringe any of the ancient statutes; 
it was therefore needless to insist on the petition. But it 
was all in vain. The bill was brought in, and passed both 
Houses. 

The petition professes to be a corroboration and explana- 
tion of the ancient constitution of the kingdom ; and after 
reciting various statutes recognising the rights contended 
for, prays "that no man be compelled to make or yield 
any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without 
common consent by Act of Parliament ; that none be called 
upon to make answer for refusal to do so ; that freemen be 
imprisoned or detained only by the law of the land, or by 
due process of law, and not by the King's special com- 
mand, without any charge ; that persons be not compelled 
to receive soldiers and mariners into their houses against the 
laws and customs of the realm ; that commissions for pro- 
ceeding by martial law be revoked." 

The petition left the King the choice either of breaking 
with Parliament, or of declaring, by accepting it, that he 
had broken the laws of the country, and now consented to 
their re-instatement. 

After many attempts to escape, he took the latter course. 
By the royal sanction, the Petition of Right became an 



THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 623 

authorised interpretation of Magna Charta. In the long 
contest as to what was the law, the nation had gained the 
victory. 

Nevertheless, there was much discord in this Parliament. 
The Commons did not desist from making violent attacks 
on Buckingham, and the contest was continued about ton- 
nage and poundage, since the King would not give it up, 
and Parliament would not give up control over it. In June, 
therefore, Parliament was prorogued till January, 1629. 

Before it re-assembled an assassination took place, which 
was regarded by the nation with the same satisfaction as 
the execution of Mary Stuart. The Duke of Buckingham 
was murdered by a certain Felton as he was about to em- 
bark on another expedition to La Rochelle. 

When Parliament met, in 1629, both parties were resolved, 
unless an agreement could become to, to declare open war. 

In the Commons a protest was at once made against 
Popery and tonnage and poundage. When the Speaker, in 
compliance with the royal command, was about to conclude 
the sitting, in order to prevent the motion from being put 
to the vote, he was held fast in his seat by some of the 
zealous Puritans, while other members in vain attempted to 
liberate him. 

Amidst great confusion the protest was carried. A royal 
official, who was sent down to Parliament on receipt of the 
news of those proceedings, found the door closed ; and 
when the furious King sent his guard there was nothing to 
be done, for the sitting was at an end. Charles immediately 
dissolved Parliament, and in the House of Lords spoke in 
a very ungracious tone " of some vipers who had deluded 
many in the Lower House, but had not yet poisoned them." 
The guilty should not escape punishment. 

A royal manifesto declared that all forbearance having 
been frustrated by the obstinacy of some evil-disposed per- 
sons who wanted to set the nation in flames, the King 
would now be compelled, until it should please him to do 
otherwise, to reign without a Parliament. 

Immediately afterwards ten members of the Lower House 
were arrested, and condemned to pay fines varying from 
^500 to ^2,000, and to be imprisoned during the King's 
pleasure. Some of them died in prison, among them 
Eliot, whose petition for some relaxation of his imprison- 
ment was refused because it was not sufficiently humble. 



624 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Thus began the eleven years' reign without a Parliament, 
and the foundations were laid of the great convulsion in 
which the throne of the Stuarts was overturned. 

CHARLES I. WITHOUT A PARLIAMENT. — THE EaRL OP 

Strafford and Archbishop Laud. 

It was Charles's scheme to transplant to England the 
system which was at that time bearing such brilliant fruits 
in France ; to set aside, as had been done there, the 
interests of the States, represented by Parliament, and bur- 
densome legal usages, and by an energetic exercise of the 
royal authority in unison with the sentiments of the masses, 
to make himself as popular as Richelieu was in France. 

The place vacated by Buckingham's death was now filled 
by a greater man. 

Among the members of Parliament in the second decade, 
together with Pym, Hampden, and Eliot, one of the most 
gifted speakers was Thomas Wentworth. He represented 
the extreme opposition, and seemed ready to stake his life 
for the cause. He entered the Parliament of 1628 as one 
of those who had been imprisoned for refusing a loan. The 
vehemence of his demeanour in this assembly was what 
might be expected from such an experience ; but, behold ! 
Charles now gained this man for his minister. 

Wentworth was a reckless and energetic party man, but 
did not possess the faithfulness to conviction which he was 
given credit for. His pathos was the studied warmth of an 
advocate, who well knew how to bring out the telling points 
of his case ; but it did not come from his heart. His mind 
was engrossed with ideas of power and dignity ; he had 
sought them in the paths of opposition ; he found them as 
a minister. The opposition could not have had a more for- 
midable adversary. 

He was thoroughly versed in the weaknesses of Parliament- 
ary parties and the arts of debate; he was in every respect well 
matched with his adversaries, and hated them with the im- 
placability which the renegade feels for his former partizans. 

Then, besides his oratorical powers, he possessed the 
talents of a really great statesman. He was born to com- 
mand ; in whatever he undertook his talents for organi- 
zation were displayed, and he possessed more courage than 
most men. 

He entirely broke with his past history, and as undaunted 



THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. 625 

as if no ideas were connected with his name, he appeared 
as the minister of a system which he had himself con- 
demned, resolved to look all the consequences in the face, 
and if need were, to stake his life. His system must be 
condemned, but it must be admitted that he represented it 
in an imposing style. 

His plan was to invest the British monarchy with the same 
absolute power which the crown possessed in France. A well- 
organized administration, composed of dependent officials, 
protected by dependent judges and an efficient standing 
army, was to supersede the joint government of the States, 
put down all resistance, but also render needless the inter- 
ference of Parliament by judicious care for the welfare of 
the people. An able, well-meaning absolutism was what he 
aimed at, such as Richelieu had established ; but there was 
this difference : in France the States-General had been 
overthrown in the confusion of a forty years' civil war, 
while the parliamentary power in England had not only 
always been closely in unison with the views of the people, 
but had acquired fresh strength during recent reigns. 

By the side of the Earl of Strafford, stood another man 
who guided the ecclesiastical re-action of the next ten 
years. Archbishop Laud was a learned ecclesiastic of strict 
morals and personally honourable character; he had not 
the severity and consuming ambition which distinguished 
Strafford, but he was filled with a peculiar ecclesiastical fana- 
ticism, which was as completely hostile to the sentiments of 
the strongest religious party in the country as was the un- 
parliamentary government to old English law. 

The element of ancient Catholicism which the Anglican 
Church had retained, and which the Puritans wished to 
efface, had obtained the ascendant in his weak head. He 
was possessed with ceremonial whims and theological 
absurdities, and tried to smuggle a number of hierarchical 
fancies into Anglicanism. 

In Laud's narrow mind an episcopal ambition was con- 
cealed, which, not content with the consecration of new 
ceremonies and such comparatively innocent whims, was 
continually reminding the people that in the Church as well 
as the State, they had to obey an absolute will which plainly 
leaned towards a gradual Catholic restoration. The best 
hopes were entertained at Rome ; the Jesuits held up their 
heads ; and the court lady who went over to Catholicism at 
40 



626 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

once, because she did not wish to disappear " in the great 
crowd " of those who would follow, Laud at their head, 
hit, with all her frivolity, upon just the right expression for 
the sentiments of the great majority of the nation, if not 
exactly for the actual state of things, for Laud could scarcely 
be called a Papist. , 

This twofold re-action was too much for England. It 
is possible that Strafford's system might have achieved a 
certain success, but the people would not bear this perpe- 
tual challenge to their national sentiments by religious and 
ecclesiastical chicanery. The favoured clergy were playing 
a hazardous game. They had completely adopted the part 
of trainbearers to the novel absolutism ; they advocated 
this breach of the constitutional law in sermons and pam- 
phlets, they had a justification ready for every arbitrary act, 
and openly proclaimed that an episcopal canon was of more 
weight than all parliamentary laws, and that any ecclesiasti- 
cal decree was sufficient to overthrow them. 

This ecclesiastical and secular re-action had in its power, 
two tribunals, the Star Chamber and the High Commission, 
and fearful weapons they were. 

The first was an extraordinary tribunal, which had existed 
from ancient times, and had been set up in periods of dis- 
tress occasioned by internal party struggles. Under Henry 
VII. it had been recognised by Act of Parliament, but it 
was opposed to the spirit of Magna Charta, because govern- 
ment officials, not judges, had seats in it. 

The Star Chamber was the powerful organ of an adminis- 
trative justice, which was only to be called into use in 
exceptional cases, but it had power to decide questions 
relating to the property, liberty, and life of any Englishman 
without responsibility or right of appeal. It could be 
proved that this court had constantly exercised its func- 
tions, especially under Elizabeth, but it now assumed a 
state of activity such as had never been known before. It 
was not defined by any law what was or was not under the 
jurisdiction of this court, and English legal historians are 
not themselves agreed about it. It was generally under- 
stood that forgery, perjury, riot, maintenance, fraud, libel, 
and conspiracy* were amenable to it. These were just the 
crimes connected with politics. 

The Stair Chamber had been borne with, because it had 
* Hallam, ii. 105. 



STAR CHAMBER AND HIGH COMMISSION. 627 

been employed, especially by Elizabeth, with moderation, 
and in times when revolt and conspiracies of the most 
dangerous kind were common ; a Government which had 
the great majority of the nation on its side, did not 
lose popularity by summary proceedings against a common 
foe. 

The difference between the practice of Elizabeth and 
Charles I. was this, that under Charles the jurisdiction of 
this court was increased to such an extent, that the 
Englishman's chartered right not to be deprived of his 
natural judges became almost illusory, and that the people 
saw innocent persecuted patriots, and not criminals in the 
opponents of this government. 

The proceedings of the Star Chamber were all the more 
detested as their obvious design was to enrich the King's 
treasury in a discreditable manner. For trifling offences, 
besides imprisonment, and the loss of both ears, a fine of 
several thousand pounds was inflicted, half of which fell to 
the King, even when he was in no way personally con- 
cerned. Those especially who opposed the many arbitrary 
imposts were brought before the Star Chamber. Thus, in 
1632, a wine tax was in favour, and when the wine mer- 
chants refused it, the sale of the necessaries of life to them 
was forbidden by the Star Chamber until they agreed 
to lend the King _^6,ooo, and there were many similar 
cases. 

What the Star Chamber was for Strafford, the High 
Commission was for Laud ; neither was this a new thing, 
but had existed under Elizabeth, as an ecclesiastical court 
for the punishment of those who were considered heretics 
by the State Church. 

Under Elizabeth, Papists and Independents, the heretics 
to the right and left of Anglicanism had been cited before 
it, and the latter especially, on account of their political con- 
tumacy, had received severe punishments. This was now 
carried further and further. The enigmatical position o\ 
Laud between Catholicism and Protestantism occasioned 
the same uncertainty as to what was the true and the false 
faith as had existed under Henry VIII. ; trivial expressions 
by persons in private life sufficed to incur severe punish- 
ment. This part of the system also had a hateful fiscal 
character; fines were heavy and frequent, and the court 
even allowed its severity to be bought off. While indepen- 



628 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

dents and even lukewarm Anglicans were laid under con- 
tribution with the greatest severity, the Catholics bought 
their greater freedom by heavy payments. 

Apart from Laud's whimsical perversities, there was a 
strict unity of purpose in Strafford's unparliamentary govern- 
ment. The government was better administered than it 
had been for a long time, the court was a pattern of citizen- 
like simplicity, and only hated by the Puritans because it 
had not renounced all gaiety ; on the whole, intelligent care 
was exercised for the interests of the country and the pros- 
perity of the masses ; the taxes imposed had not received 
the consent of Parliament, but the Puritans who ruled Par- 
liament had enemies enough, and the Catholics, of whom 
there were not a few, fared better than in previous reigns. 
The resistance of the courts became more feeble ; individuals 
did indeed protest, but they paid in the end, and among 
the officials and ecclesiastics a school had arisen who wil- 
lingly consented to the royal absolutism. In short, Strafford's 
determined but consistent energy had effected that things 
were borne which a few years before would scarcely have 
been thought credible. 

To crown this edifice one thing was wanting, a standing 
army. The ship money was to serve to create this. 

Ship money was a tax imposed for the equipment of 
ships which in ancient times were required to protect the 
coasts. It had always been an extraordinary war tax, 
mainly devoted to the maintenance of the fleet, and had 
been chiefly raised from the inhabitants of the maritime 
towns. But it was now to be changed into a general stand- 
ing tax, not only to maintain the fleet, but also a standing 
army, and all this without consent of Parliament. 

In spite of the submissive spirit which had been shown, 
it was feared that a time might come when the people's 
patience might suddenly come to an end, and in this 
case the Government would be quite defenceless without a 
standing army. Even the Continental states, which had 
never known anything like the English Parliament or Magna 
Charta, could not dispense with this safeguard of abso- 
lutism, how much less the English imitation of it, which 
had had but so short-lived an existence! The standing 
army was Xo be the key-stone of the new monarchy. Even 
under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth no one had ventured to 
deny that such a tax could not be imposed .without consent 



JOHN HAMPDEN. 629 

of Parliament. That it was ventured upon now shows how 
far things had already gone. 

The ship money was raised, and borne, though not with- 
out murmurs. Strafford thought he had conquered ; only a 
few years of peace, he wrote from Ireland, and the nation 
would become accustomed to the Government, and the 
King would be a more powerful ruler than any of his fore- 
fathers. He thought the people would forget what they 
had once called their rights, and become accustomed to be 
ruled like the other nations of Europe. There certainly 
was a danger of this ; and that it might not become over- 
whelming, a courageous man determined to give an example. 

The English revere the memory of John Hampden, who, 
at a time of discouragement and hoplessness, ventured to 
stand up for the infringed laws of Parliament. 

To forestall all opposition, the King had procured a sort 
of formal confirmation of his rights. He had laid before 
the judges whether he was not justified in imposing this 
tax in case of necessity, for the protection of the empire, 
and whether it was not for him alone to decide the question 
of necessity, and the judges, like faithful echoes, had answered 
him as he wished. It was high time, in this state of 
universal subjection, that the voice of an independent man 
should interpose. 

John Hampden was not a man of brilliant talent like 
Strafford. He had but seldom spoken during the many 
years that he had sat in the House of Commons ; but he 
was known there as a man of inviolable faithfulness to his 
convictions. They might be erroneous ; but he was ready 
to seal them with his death. But he was by no means a 
revolutionary agitator, nor yet a Puritan zealot. He refused 
to pay the pittance of 2 or. for ship money that was allotted 
to him, and appealed to the ancirU laws of the country. 
He was put on his trial, which was just what he wished. If 
he lost his cause for himself, it would not be lost for 
his country ; the public conscience would at last be roused, 
and this would be a great gain. 

Hampden's trial (1637) excited great attention. The 
judges of the Star Chamber were uneasy — even their con- 
sciences pricked them ; the majority by which he was 
finally convicted was very small, and it was not doubtful 
which side was the gainer in public opinion. Men began to 
talk once more, and with fresh excitement, of the forgotten 



630 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

rights of old England, called to mind all their conflicts with 
the arrogance of the Stuarts; morally, the Government had 
already forfeited all the results of its exertions. 

This was all, however, that was attained. The Govern- 
ment continued to raise the tax and to make military pre- 
parations. With many, the conviction of Hampden was a 
reason for renouncing all idea of resistance, seeing that in 
his case it had failed. 

Even Hampden is said at this time to have given up all 
hope that things would mend. In fact, if he thought that 
his trial would be a signal for general resistance, he was en- 
tirely mistaken. It is said that he had resolved to seek a 
home beyond the sea with his then unknown relative, 
Thomas Cromwell, but that the Government was guilty of 
the unwise cruelty of refusing them permission. If such 
men were thinking of turning their backs upon their 
country in despair, their cause must have seemed hope- 
less indeed. 

A year afterwards an important change had taken place 
in the situation. Complications arose which rendered the 
realisation of hopes which had seemed totally improbable 
more likely, and once more it was the unfortunate en- 
deavour to bring about a reaction in minor ecclesiastical 
matters which occasioned the storm* 



CHAPTER XLV.. 

THE TURN OF EVENTS. 

1he Complications in Scotland, 1637-39. — The Tumult at Edinburgh. 
— The Covenant, 1638.— The General Assembly at Glasgow, 
November, 1638. — The Fourth Parliament, 1640.— The Long 
Parliament. — First Measures against the Policy and Repre- 
sentatives of Strafford's System. — Indictment, Trial, and Execu- 
tion of Strafford, May, 1641. 

Complications in Scotland. — Tumult at Edinburgh. 
— The Covenant, the General Assembly, the Re- 
treat of Charles, and the Fourth Parliament. 
April, 1640. 

BEFORE Charles I. learnt to make Scotland a counter- 
poise to England, and to keep one nation in check by 
means of the other, he had regarded Scotland as an English 
province which would submit to regulations common to the 
two countries with a better grace than England. This arose 
from a great misunderstanding of their relations with each 
other. 

The Scotch nobles, with their extensive possessions, and 
great power over submissive vassals, could much more 
easily than the English resolve upon armed resistance to 
the crown ; and during the minority of James they had be- 
come very unruly. Together with this overbearing aris- 
tocracy there was a clergy, who since the time of Knox had 
been filled with almost republican ideas of self-government. 
The two foes, therefore, of the king's autocracy in England 
were even more powerful and more dangerous in Scotland. 

What course did Charles take in order to control them ? 
He attempted to put the country into the power of a highly 
privileged state church, to intrust the highest offices in the 
state to a number of prelates, who were to keep the nobles 
and the Presbyterians in check by the same means and on 



632 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAIttX 

the same principles as those employed by Laud and his 
party in England. One archbishop was made Chancellor, 
nine bishops composed the privy council, prelates were in the 
treasury and in' the highest courts. This gave great offence 
to the ambitious nobles, and occasioned great excitement 
among the inferior clergy who ruled the masses. 

Instead of liberty of preaching, which was the usage, 
strict episcopal jurisdiction was introduced ; instead of 
synods, presbyteries, and all sorts of other civic and eccle- 
siastical liberties, prelatical despotism was to be the order 
of the day ; the existing state of things had prevailed for 
thirty years ; the system which was now to replace it, and 
had partially replaced it under James I., implied a complete 
revolution, the worst of which was still unknown, and all 
this was the work of " Popery," the very sound of which 
made the Presbyterian blood boil. 

Ever since 1635, when the canons respecting the judicial 
authority of the bishops were proclaimed, an ominous un- 
easiness was observable ; but when the catholicising liturgy 
was introduced, which had given so much offence in Eng- 
land, the outbreak took place. 

When divine service was performed for the first time in 
July, 1637, in the Cathedral of Edinburgh, according to the 
hated method, a noisy mob rushed in, exclaiming, " A pope, 
a pope ! Antichrist, stone him ! " they threw chairs at the 
bishop, insulted the clergy, and, after being with difficulty 
turned out, they filled the whole city with scenes of tumult, and 
the bishops scarcely escaped being stoned on their way home. 

There was no European country where the masses were 
so ruled by Calvinism as in Scotland, but the indignation 
which showed itself in these stormy scenes surprised both 
friends and foes. The whole nation made the cause of the 
mob its own. Balaam's ass, as it was said in every pulpit, 
was otherwise a stupid beast, but, to the astonishment of 
everybody, the Lord loosed his tongue. 

Charles remained firm to his purpose in spite of all repre- 
sentation ; he proclaimed an amnesty, but declared at the 
same time that he hoped for ready submission to the liturgy, 
and so that took place which was now inevitable. Representa- 
tives of the greater and lesser nobles, the clergy, and the 
towns, met_ together and formed a provisional government, 
which found willing obedience throughout the country, and 
signed a covenant against any religious innovations, " To the 



THE COVENANT. 633 

greater glory of God and the salvation of their King and 
country." The whole nation joined in it without distinction 
of age, rank, or sex ; even the highest nobles did not hold 
back, for they feared that they should be left in complete 
isolation if they did not follow the stream. This was the 
famous Covenant of the 1st of March, 1638. 

The King was compelled to give way, for he stood without 
an army, between two nations — one of which was in a state 
of discontent, the other in open rebellion. The way in 
which he retreated, step by step, from the growing demands 
of the Scotch, showed that he was only succumbing to 
necessity and betrayed his real weakness. Of all the modes 
of settlement proposed by Charles, the only one accepted 
was a General Assembly, which he hoped to be able to turn 
to his own purposes, but at its first meeting it almost openly 
proclaimed revolution. 

Amidst a vast concourse, the General Assembly was opened 
at Glasgow, on November 21st, 1638. After the previous 
experience of the Royal Commissioner, Hamilton, the spirit 
of the proceedings might easily have been foreseen. The 
first act of the assembly was to bring an accusation against 
all the bishops, of heresy, simony, bribery, perjury, deceit, 
bloodshed, adultery, fornication, drunkenness, gaming, sab- 
bath-breaking, &c. When the bishops protested, the Royal 
Commissioner dissolved the assembly for going beyond its 
province ; it met again, and declared the episcopal power, 
the high commissioners, the canons, the liturgy, everything, 
in short, which the last two Stuarts had re-introduced into 
the Scotch Church, null and void. 

The King now seemed to intend to resort to arms. A fine 
army of 20,000 foot, 6,000 horse, supported by a fleet 
manned by },ooo men, was raised, and was to summon the 
rebels into the field again, when Charles suddenly changed 
his mind. The fear of a revolt in his rear, the conviction that 
he was not strong enough to subdue two nations, one only of 
which was at least a match for his troops, caused him to 
turn round. He yielded to the Scots, conceded all that the 
General Assembly had demanded, and was disposed again 
to try an English Parliament, which should grant him the 
means for a war with Scotland, a fatal step, for if it failed it 
was sure to result in just what he wished to avoid. It was 
certain that the Scots would remain under arms, and pro 
bable that the English would begin to defend themselves, 

?8* 



634 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

For ten years the laws of the land had been set at def ance, 
It was only the difficulty with Scotland which had caused 
them to be respected again. The cause of Scotland was 
also the cause of the English opposition. What could be 
expected from a Parliament assembled under such circum- 
stances ? 

The fourth Parliament of the reign of Charles I. was opened 
on the 13th of April. 

The King had generally been in a great hurry to ask for 
money, and this time he could not brook the least delay. 
" Never," he said " has a king had more serious and urgent 
need to appeal to his people than I at this moment." On 
account of a letter having been intercepted from some Scotch 
lords to the King of France, the Lord Keeper, Finch, de- 
manded the means for a campaign against the Scotch traitors, 
which was to take place during the summer of the same year, 
but the urgency of these appeals contrasted strangely with 
the inevitable assurance that the Parliament owed the honour 
of being called together solely to the paternal favour of the 
most just, most religious, and most gracious of princes. 
With this exception, the speech was as gracious as the 
former ones, and contained besides, the assurance that the 
grievances should be redressed — if the subsidies were first 
granted. 

Parliament was not taken in by this. It now comprised 
members who especially condemned the system of Strafford 
and Laud. Even those who, compared with the Puritans, 
might be called Royalists, were now in the opposition. 
They afterwards separated, but at that time there was but 
one party in the assembly, and it abhorred the existing 
regime. 

It is highly interesting to watch the proceedings of this 
short Parliament, to observe how indignation at the abuses 
of the last eleven years now found expression. Even had 
the House been disposed to suppress these sentiments, the 
petitions that poured in from the counties would not have 
permitted them to be silent. 

The first words uttered in the House were an evidence 
of the state of feeling. A Mr. Grimstone declared that the 
Scotch business was an evil without, while there was another 
within their own House which deeply affected them all. 
The commonweal was shamefully trodden underfoot, their 
property and liberties attacked, the Church divided, the 



Charles's fourth parliament. 635 

Gospel and its followers persecuted, and the country 
swarmed with greedy caterpillars, the worst of all Egyptian 
plagues, &c 

Pym then rose : he was one of the most eminent speakers 
of the opposition ; a Puritan in his religious opinions, and 
now beginning to adopt their political principles. In a 
speech of three hours he described the distressed state of 
the nation. He divided the sins of the Government into 
three groups. In the first, he included the infringements of 
the liberties and privileges of Parliament during the last 
eleven years ; in the second, the religious innovations ; in 
the third, the charges on property. But in all three it was 
his wish to maintain the great prerogative of the Crown, that 
" the King can do no wrong." In a pregnant and compre- 
hensive speech, everything that had occurred was reviewed, 
from the treatment of the last Parliament to the latest acts 
of violence. It formed a complete bill of indictment 
against the system of the past eleven years ; nothing was 
omitted. 

The House next moved for a report of the proceedings 
against certain members of Parliament, and appointed a 
committee upon the infringement of the privileges of Par- 
liament, and all other grievances collectively. 

The King urged that the subsidies should be granted 
first, and the grievances discussed afterwards. Flattering 
assurances were given about the ship-money, tonnage and 
poundage, &c, but it was resolved that the grievances 
should have the precedence. Pym's classification was 
adopted, and they were communicated to the Lords. They 
were for granting the subsidies first, but the Commons 
adhered to their resolution, and after being repeatedly urged 
in vain to depart from it by the King, both Houses were 
dissolved. 

It was the fourth Parliament which Charles had dissolved, 
and it was the last. The next was to put an end to his 
reign. 

Parliament had revealed the helpless isolation of the King. 
By that speech of Pym's the whole character of the system 
was laid bare to the country. Every individual had, in- 
deed, had complaints to make, but with the then scanty 
press they had been individual grievances. It was Pym who 
had first given an exhaustive description of the state of 
things from these abundant materials, and a fearful bill ot 



636 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

indictment it was which was now circulated through the 
country in newspapers, pamphlets, and speeches. 

Compelled by events in Scotland once more to summon 
a Parliament, the King had now committed the gravest 
error. He had inspired the hopeless with courage, fatally 
embittered the irritated, and given them by his own acts a 
handle for a fearful agitation. 

The Long Parliament. — First Measures against the 
Policy and Representatives of Strafford's System. 
— November, 1640, to September, 1641. 

The King's resources were now on the decline. By a 
final effort the courtiers and Catholic priests whom the King 
had enriched at the expense of the country were compelled 
to submit to a loan, and the campaign against the Scots 
was begun. They were already on the frontier when the 
Royalists advanced. Amidst perpetual assurances of loyalty 
— they only came to lay their wishes personally at the King's 
leet — their splendid army crossed the Tweed, and routed 
the vanguard of the Royalists on the first attack, so that the 
whole army fell into a panic. The money was soon ex- 
hausted, the soldiers mutinied, and the King lost courage. 
Strafford tried in vain to inspirit him and to persuade him 
to a rapid advance which should decide everything. He 
was already thinking of negotiating, and a last attempt to 
help himself by a House of submissive peers having faiied, 
he again summoned Parliament. 

This was the remarkable assembly called the Long Par- 
liament. It survived the kingdom of the Stuarts, resisted 
another powerful government, was several times condemned 
to death and called together again ; its history is insepa- 
rable from the general course of English politics to the 
Restoration. It was incontestably the most important 
representation that the people had ever had. Not that 
there were no weak elements in it — vacillation and indeci- 
sion were not wanting in its attitude ; but it carried on the 
contest with absolutism with great energy at a time when 
it was triumphing in the whole of Europe, without excep- 
tion, and it afterwards gave Cromwell plenty to do. It was 
now in its prime ; it ruled England for several years, was 
dispersed by Charles, but rose up again over his grave. 
In its debates we do not find a single voice raised for his 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 637 

system ; all the men were in it who led the subsequent 
movement. 

At the time of its assembling the whole situation already 
bore a revolutionary character, not of the wild and noisy 
sort that prevailed in France — it never came to a mobo- 
cracy — partly because the middle class enjoyed more confi- 
dence, and had retained more independence, partly because 
the Revolution was early under military control, and a 
Cromwell, statesman and soldier in one person, was utterly 
wanting in France ; but excited passions, stormy meetings, 
stirring sermons were not wanting in England any more 
than in France, there was even a spice of terrorism. Woe 
would have been to him who ventured openly to oppose Par- 
liament and its adherents. The press worked upon the 
masses by means of sermons, pamphlets, and speeches, and 
London, now a powerful city, headed the movement. 

The Long Parliament was ready with a decisive and 
systematic attack, not only on the system and its abuses, 
but also on the representatives of the policy of the last 
eleven years. It was . stormed with petitions and com- 
plaints against the numberless abuses of the administration, 
and again Pym passed them systematically under review ; 
but it was clearly seen that nothing could be accomplished 
without the severest measures against the originators of all 
this evil. Laud, Secretary Windebank, Finch, keeper of 
the great seal, and inventor of the ship money, were 
accused of high treason, and were ordered to be arrested, 
as well as the judges who had been subservient to them, 
and the lords were powerless to prevent it. Finch and 
Windebank escaped, Strafford was in Ireland, Laud could 
do nothing; the King found himself already forsaken by 
his advisers. In this helpless situation, he was obliged to 
give his sanction to a bill which limited his power of arbi- 
trarily summoning and dismissing Parliament. This was 
the Triennial Act. Up to this time there had been no defi- 
nite regulation on the subject. It was now settled that a 
new Parliament must be called every three years, and that 
no Parliament could be dissolved without its own consent 
before the fiftieth day. 

As a matter of course, this put an end to the old con- 
tests about tonnage and poundage, forest-right, &c. The 
abolition of the Star Chamber and the High Commission 
was also the natural result of the general tendencies of 



638 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Parliament. They even went further, and proposed to 
decimate the representation of bishops in the Upper House, 
and to reconstitute it altogether, and thus to rob the King 
of his last support. 

Trial of Strafford, May, 1641. 

Amidst these agitated debates occurred the trial of Straf- 
ford. While the storm was brewing in Parliament against 
Laud, Finch, and Windebank, the most dangerous and 
guilty of all the King's advisers was lord-deputy of Ireland, 
where he was trying to save what might yet be saved. His 
idea was to hold his position in Ireland as long as possible, 
and thence, aided by the national hatred of the Catholic 
Irish against the Anglicans, to prepare a favourable and 
perhaps decisive diversion for the monarchy. He therefore 
advised the King not to recall him, and, at all events, not 
to summon him to London. I am not of opinion that it 
was care for his personal safety which induced him to give 
this advice, but rather that, if there was still any way of 
escape, these were the right tactics for the King, hedged in 
as he was by two rebellious kingdoms to endeavour to secure 
the support of the third, and to make it the seat of a 
counter movement. It was soon to be shown that to 
summon Strafford to London was the very worst thing he 
could do. 

Very early during the session an indictment against him 
was carried by a committee of both Houses, and the King 
commanded his presence in London. In Ireland, with the 
army, he might still have served the King ; but before Par- 
liament the cause of both would be lost. But the King 
insisted. He promised that not a hair of Strafford's head 
should be hurt, though he could no longer insure his own 
safety. It was a fatal mistake to expose his faithful minister 
to the fury of Parliament, and Strafford's last words 
expressed the suspicion that the King intended to sacrifice 
him. I do not say this ; but it was in the highest degree 
imprudent to sacrifice the only friend he had in the three 
kingdoms. 

Strafford had scarcely arrived in London when the storm 
broke over him. Pym made a long speech, to show that in 
the abuses of the previous eleven years there had been a 
systematic" attempt to destroy the ancient rights of tbe 
country, and to exchange its chartered liberties for a 



TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. 639 

modern despotism. And who was the originator of the 
scheme? The King? By no means. With a certain 
irony he still held to the dogma, that the King can do no 
wrong. He then went on to say that though, doubtless, 
many evil counsellors had worked together, one could be 
mentioned who took the foremost place in guilt among the 
betrayers of the country. This was the Earl of Strafford. 

Then follows a long list of sins, in which, according to 
the fashions of the time, the blemishes of private life by no 
means occupy the lowest place. 

Strafford arrived too late to occupy his seat in the House 
of Lords, and to prevent the passing of the Bill. When he 
appeared it had already passed, and he had to listen to the 
indictment on his knees, and then to go as a State prisoner 
to the Tower. Not a voice was raised in his favour. Falk- 
land only, his personal enemy, gave a warning against hasty 
and irregular proceedings. 

The trial before the House of Lords did not begin till 
March, 1641. The accusation of high treason was more 
easily made than proved. There was no doubt as to what 
constituted high treason according to English law ; but the 
ordinary conception of it did not agree with the accusa- 
tions against Strafford. According to a statute of Edward 
III., high treason was an injury to the King, his person, 
family, or authority ; but there was nothing about an attempt 
to upset the fundamental laws of the country. The other 
accusations against him were of a number of separate 
crimes which could not be construed into high treason 
against the country. 

It was upon this weakness of the indictment that his mas- 
terly defence was based. 

He spoke not only with the power of an orator of the 
first rank, he exhibited the repose and confidence of a clear 
conscience : he conducted his case as if not he, but his 
accusers, were guilty of distorting and wishing to overthrow 
the laws of the land, and he also struck those chords which 
touch the feelings. It was only for the sake of his chil- 
dren whom he held by the hand, he said in conclusion, 
that he had so long claimed their lordships' attention. He 
awaited a just sentence, and commended his soul to heaven. 

The effect of this speech was so powerful, as is testified 
even by his opponents, that the Commons doubted whether 
the Lords would find him guilty. They immediately 



640 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

resolved upon an exceptional measure. If there was a gap 
in the laws, Parliament had power to fill it up. This was 
done by bringing in a Bill of Attainder, which was carried 
by a large majority. A Bill of Attainder declared him 
who was affected by it to be beyond the law. It had often 
been adopted under Henry VIII., but only as a weapon of 
despotism and lawless power. By such a law Strafford was 
condemned, and suffered death on the nth of May. 

He met death with the composure and resolution of a 
martyr in a holy cause. Without bitterness he requested 
the King to ratify the sentence, and only when it was done 
he exclaimed, " Put not your trust in princes, nor in the 
sons of men, for in them there is no salvation," 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

OPEN BREACH BETWEEN THE KING AND 
PARLIAMENT.* 

The King in Scotland, August, 1641. — Massacre of the Protestants ia 
Ireland. — Return of Parliament in October, and the Separation of 
Parties into Cavaliers and Roundheads. — The Great Remonstrance, 
November, and the unsuccessful Coup d'Etat, January 3 and 4, 1642. 
— Commotions in London. — The First Parliamentary Army. — De- 
parture of the King. — Return of Parliament, January II, 1642. 

The King in Scotland ; the Massacre in Ireland. — 
Return of Parliament. — Cavaliers and Round- 
heads. 

ROBBED of his last weapons of defence, the King 
hoped to break the force of the storm by prudent 
temporising, to subjugate his adversaries by causing divi- 
sions among them, and, having secured breathing time in 
one place, to make himself master of another. 

While the Commons, elated by their late success, were 
proceeding to effect radical changes in Church and State, to 
overthrow the episcopal constitution in the one, and to 
limit the royal power in the other, so as to render it com- 
pletely impotent, Charles had a grand scheme for ridding 
himself of all his oppressors. 

He informed Parliament that he should go in person to 
Scotland, to bring about a reconciliation between the two 
countries. His idea was to effect a separation between the 
causes of the two countries, to re-establish in the north the 

• Forster, Debates of the Great Remonstrance, November and 
December, 1641 ; London, i860. The sime, Arrest of the Five 
Members by Charles I. History of the Rebellion, by Werth, from 
authentic materials, chiefly from Clarendon. Review of it by Forques 
" Revue des deux Mondes ;" April, 1861, and February, 1862, (The 
following representation is mainly based upon this.) 

41 



642 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

royal authority, of which he was so destitute in the south, 
to gain a strong party among the discontented, and espe- 
cially the royalist nobles of the army just dismissed, and to 
collect proofs of high treason against his enemies. 

At his desire, Parliament prorogued itself till his return, 
but amidst circumstances which plainly indicated great dis- 
content. Before separating, both Houses formed a com- 
mittee, of which Pym was president. Another committee 
was to accompany the King to Scotland. 

In the middle of August, Charles appeared in Scotland. 
Men's minds were taken by storm. No native king had 
ever been so popular as was this same Charles, against 
whom they had just taken the field. 

Peace was soon made ; but, at what a price ! Charles 
relinquished nearly all the crown rights that he had yet to 
lose. It was not surprising that the Scots should demand 
the Triennial Bill, since it had received the King's sanction 
in England, but the right was also granted to the Scotch 
Parliament at the end of every session to determine when 
and where the next should be held. It was also to nomi- 
nate all the King's ministers, judges, and officers of State, 
and he had at once to submit to see his adherents super- 
seded in the public offices by his opponents. He even 
loaded with honours and pensions the Presbyterian ministers 
whom he could never hope to gain for his cause, and felt 
himself rewarded when the leaders promised never to inter- 
fere in the ecclesiastical affairs of England. 

While this reconciliation was going on a fearful revolt 
broke out in Ireland, which showed what Strafford had been 
doing there. 

One of the most serious accusations against Strafford had 
been his despotism as governor of Ireland. It was sup- 
posed, therefore, that as a matter of course, with his fall 
the harsh government by which he had coerced the country, 
and made its resources and troops available to England, 
would cease. Ireland claimed the same rights that had 
been granted to England and Scotland, but, as things were, 
this would have produced absolute anarchy, and this was 
taken advantage of by the old Catholic party for waging a 
cruel war of revenge against the English Protestants in 
Ireland. 

The Catholic Irish formed five-sixths of the population, 
the other sixth being English colonists, and under Strafford'8 



MASSACRE OF PROTESTANTS IN IRELAND. 643 

iron rule, the former had enjoyed a certain toleration of their 
faith, and might have expected the same from Charles and his 
Catholicising system. But they could not look for it from 
the nearly all-powerful Puritans ; from them they could but 
expect the oft-threatened extermination of " Popery." To 
add to this, there was the ancient national hatred, ard the 
memory of the revenge on the Ulster rebels, whose enor- 
mous possessions had, under James I., been conferred on 
thousands of English and Scotch immigrants. A horrible 
massacre of the Protestants now took place by the fanatical 
Catholics. The project had been formed in the deepest 
secrecy, and many thousands of the unsuspecting English 
were murdered almost in their sleep. The barbarous cruelties 
by which this massacre was accompanied, and which were 
inflicted by men, women, and even children, are enough to 
make one's hair stand on end. The lowest figure at which 
the number of victims is reckoned is forty thousand. 

The Irish rebels declared that they were fighting for throne 
and altar, Pope and King. Even apart from these declara- 
tions, Charles's enemies gave him credit for having instigated 
the revolt. It was known that he wished to have employed 
the Scots against Parliament ; it was known that he made 
all manner of attempts to draw the Royalists in Parliament 
over to his cause, to destroy the leaders of the opposition — 
why should he disdain to bring the Irish into the field 
against them also ? 

We can say almost to a certainty that this supposition 
was false. For a conspiracy of this sort projected by the 
King himself, a more favourable moment would certainly 
have been chosen; and if support from this quarter had 
been looked for, the conduct of the conspiracy would have 
been committed to such a man as Strafford, not to such 
persons as Phelim O'Neale or Roger More, whose loyalty 
could by no means be relied on. 

Pym, the watchful president of the committee, had taken 
care to guard Parliament against Royalist intrigues. In 
spite of Charles's great caution, Pym was informed by 
Hampden of all his proceedings, and the report which he 
made to Parliament when it reassembled, on October 20th, 
was so serious, that it was resolved at once to place London 
in a state of siege, and to guard both Houses by train-bands 
night and day. This was an obvious interference with the 
prerogative of the crown; but this was dexterously dis- 



644 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

guised, by devolving the command on the popular Earl of 
Essex, who had been intrusted by the King with this office 
during his absence. A member, then unknown, but who 
excited attention by his vehemence, Oliver Cromwell, pro- 
posed to call out all the militia of the kingdom for the de- 
fence of the country — the germ of the Parliamentary army, 
which he was afterwards to lead. 

A further step was taken. The King was petitioned to 
dismiss his evil counsellors ; otherwise Parliament, in spite 
of its loyalty, would be compelled to take measures for its 
own security and that of Ireland. By his evil counsellors 
were meant Hyde, Colepepper, Falkland, and others, who 
had formerly led the attack against Strafford's system, but 
were now on the King's side. 

This throws a strong light upon the party divisions which 
during the six weeks' prorogation had taken place in the 
previously compact mass. Against the Star Chamber, the 
High Commission, tonnage and poundage, Parliament had 
stood together like one man. There had also been an 
overwhelming majority in favour of the security and increase 
of the privileges of Parliament ; and even amongst the mem- 
bers, about sixty, who had voted against the Bill of 
Attainder against Strafford, those who were now to show 
that the race of Strafford was by no means extinct, were not 
found. 

But now two hostile parties confronted each other, and on 
all decisive questions there was but a small majority and a 
very strong minority ; these were the Cavaliers and Round- 
heads. 

The one party consisted mainly of all the Catholics in the 
country, who sought in the regal power a support against 
the radicalism of the Puritans — the superior clergy, and 
the royalist majority of the aristocracy; the other consisted 
of the rigid Protestants in town and country, to whom 
religious and political liberty was one and the same thing. 
The one party wished to quell the agitation, so soon as the 
most necessary concessions were obtained ; the other would 
not be satisfied so long as the King and popery retained the 
least power to infringe the laws of the land, or to restrict 
religious liberty. 

There was as yet no Cromwell at the head of the latter 
party, but moderate men such as Hampden, Holies, and 
Pym. Pym's standpoint on the Church question is shown 



THE GREAT REMONSTRANCE. 645 

by his confession of faith in the short Parliament in April, 
1640. He said, " I desire not to have any new laws made 
against them (the Catholics), nor a strict execution of the 
old ones, but only so far forth as tends to the safety of his 
Majesty. There can be no security from Papists but in their 
disability. Laws will not restrain them, oaths will not ; the 
Pope dispenseth with both, and his command acts them 
against the realm, in spirituals and in temporals, ad spiri- 
tualia." 

His opinions about the royal authority were precisely the 
same. After all their bitter experience it was needful to 
erect strong defences against the abuse of it, in spite of 
Magna Charta and the Petition of Right. 

The Great Remonstrance and the Unsuccessful 
Coup d'Etat; November, i 641, to January, 1642. 

These parties were most strongly opposed to each other, 
when it was proposed by Pym and his adherents that a 
great remonstrance should be addressed to the King, but it 
was in reality intended to be an appeal from Pym to the 
people. 

In a lengthy and systematic document, of not less than 
206 paragraphs, Pym drew up a list of all the grievances 
under the rule of Charles I. ; and on the other hand detailed 
the exertions of Parliament on behalf of English liberties, 
so that the country should be in the possession of docu- 
ments which should enable it to judge between the King 
and the people's representatives. It is noteworthy that 
Pym now seems to have renounced the principle that 
the King can do no wrong, and had adopted the idea 
of his personal responsibility. The tactics of the Royalists, 
and especially of their recent accessions, were to make this 
question the battle-ground of debate, and to measure the 
strength of parties ; every inch of ground was sharply con- 
tested, single propositions, single words even, were warmly 
debated for hours, every pretext for delay of the motion was 
eagerly seized upon, as if it were possible to starve the enemy 
by endless debates. This struggle lasted from the 9th to the 
20th of November. Men's passions were naturally heated red 
hot. When the arrest of members of Parliament came to be 
discussed, Pym exclaimed, " Eliot's blood still cries for re- 
venge," and the Commons rose and repeated, " His blood 
cries for revenge." 



646 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

As the Remonstrance could neither be suppressed nor 
weakened, the royalists tried to effect that the King only 
should receive it, and not the public, and therefore de- 
manded that it should not be printed : but Pym replied that 
the very object was that England might understand the 
situation of affairs, and take the side of those who defended 
her cause. On November 22nd, after a last passionate 
debate, the bill was passed by 159 votes against 148. The 
publication of the address was also voted after being vehe- 
mently opposed by Hyde and Falkland. After it was passed, 
Cromwell remarked to Falkland, " Had the remonstrance 
been rejected, I would to-morrow have sold everything I 
possess, and never have seen England more, and I know 
many other honest men of the same resolution." A bold 
attempt by one of the minority to divide the House by a pro- 
test by his party failed. Palmer who had moved it was sent 
to the Tower. 

Charles just then returned from Scotland, and met with a 
brilliant reception by the citizens of London; he enter- 
tained great hopes, and assumed a tone of confidence in 
all that he said and did. The royalist heroes of the recent 
debates, Falkland, Hyde, and Colepepper, became his con- 
fidential advisers, and soon afterwards officially entered his 
service; theguardof the Houses of Parliament were dismissed; 
and the party of the Remonstrance, when they called attention 
to the insecurity of the Palace of Westminster, were told that 
so long as it required no guard Parliament did not require 
one either. 

After the Remonstrance, both parties felt that a crisis was 
approaching. Each reproached the other with entertaining 
treacherous projects, and by degrees the populace of 
London was in a commotion. About the end of December 
there were several bloody skirmishes between the royal 
troops, joined by the students of the Inns of Court, and the 
apprentices and Thames watermen on the other side. The 
year ended amidst the most gloomy indications, and on 
January 3rd, 1642, the storm burst. The Commons were 
just discussing a scornful message from the King, who, to 
their repeated requests for a guard, replied that he himself 
was their protector against every danger — when in the 
Upper House, another royal message was delivered, accus- 
ing Lord Kimbolton and five of the Commons of high 
treason on seven counts. While the discussion was going 



ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 647 

on in the Commons, Pym and Hollis were called out. 
They shortly returned, and Pym reported that his own, 
Hollis's, and Hampden's dwellings had been entered and 
their desks and chests sealed. The House declared this 
proceeding to be a crying abuse of their privileges, and 
asserted that violence against any member of the House must 
be met by violence. Just then the Royal Sergeant appeared, 
and demanded in the name of the King that the five members, 
Hollis, Haslerig, Pym, Hampden, and Strode, should be 
given up on a charge of high treason. The House received 
the message in gloomy silence ; no one laid hands on the five 
members ; and it was resolved to inform the King, by a depu- 
tation, that the House would take the King's demand into 
serious consideration, and that the members would be ready 
to answer any legal accusation. This first attack was there- 
fore warded off, but the second followed the next morning. 
After a violent scene with the Queen, who is reported to 
have said, " Go, coward, and pull these rogues out by the 
ears, or never see me more," the King set out to accomplish 
what his sergeant had failed to do. At the beginning of 
the sitting, after the accused had vehemently protested 
against the " scandalous document," as they called the indict- 
ment, and had received permission to withdraw, the King 
appeared at the head of one hundred armed men before the 
doors of the House. Accompanied by his nephew, Charles 
of the Palatinate, brother of Rupert, he entered the House, 
advanced with a friendly greeting to the Speaker, and begged 
him to relinquish his place to him for a short time. Em- 
barrassed and hesitating, he delivered a short speech, which 
has been preserved to us verbatim. Amidst assurances 
that the privileges of the House had not lain nearer to the 
heart of any monarch than to his, he declared with strong 
emphasis that in cases of high treason there could be no 
question of privilege ; he had, therefore, expected obedience, 
and not a message in reply to his yesterday's summons. 
He then looked round for the well-known faces of his worst 
foes, and not seeing them, asked where they were. No one 
answered. Then he turned with the same question to the 
Speaker, who, being a timid man, fell on his knees, and said 
that in that place he had neither eyes to see nor ears to hear 
otherwise than as the House directed. " Well," said Charles, 
" since the birds are flown, I do expect that you will send 
them to me as soon as they return hither," otherwise he must 



648 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

resort to other means to find them. " Their treason is horrible, 
and is of that kind that you will all thank me for discovering." 
Amidst loud murmurs, he left the House. 

The King had proceeded to extremities, and had failed. 
He had not secured the leaders, and had exposed himself 
in an unexampled manner. Up to this time, he had kept 
up an appearance of wishing to keep the peace with his 
Parliament ; but the scene of the 4th of January tore aside the 
mask. He was the old Charles of Strafford's time, the policy 
of the last eleven years was still uppermost. 

The Commotion in the Capital. — The First Parlia- 
mentary Army. — Departure of the King. 

The fate of the five members depended mainly on the 
attitude which might be taken by the City of London in the 
difference between King and Parliament. Both parties 
hoped for its sympathies. The excitement about the events 
of the 4th of January was indescribable. At the first news 
of it the shops were closed, business was at a stand-still, and 
the idle populace poured into the streets. 

The King did not believe that this excitement was unfavour- 
able to him. Had he not met with a warm reception in his 
capital only a few weeks before ? On the morning of the 
5th of January, he proceeded, without any military escort, 
to the Guildhall, to encourage his friends and intimidate his 
adversaries ; but he was assailed with curses and threats, 
rebellious voices were heard in the Guildhall itself, and on 
his return the people shouted after him " Privilege, privi- 
lege ! " 

While he was making this excursion, the Commons were 
declaring his proceedings against the five members, and 
his armed visit to Parliament to be an attack on the rights 
of the House, and adjourned for several days, appointing a 
committee to transact the current business. This committee 
placed itself in communication with the five members, who 
were concealed in the neighbourhood of Westminster, and 
now came the time when " king " Pym guided from his 
hiding-place the very movement which was to have been 
stopped by his arrest. 

Meanwhile the London militia took up arms. A dis- 
turbance during the night of the 6th-7th of January, a re- 
port that the King had sent out armed men to take the five 
members, brought 40,000 armed citizens to their feet in the 



THE FIRST PARLIAMENTARY ARMY. 649 

course of an hour. To the 100,000 of the proletariat, who, 
since the Christmas of the preceding year, had occasionally 
dealt blows to the cavaliers with their halberds and sabres, 
were now joined the well-to-do citizens. The attitude of 
the metropolis in the strife was decided on. 

The committee of Parliament now instituted a formal 
indictment against the King. Witnesses were called about 
the proceedings of the 4th of January, the warrant for the 
arrest of the five members which had been issued by the 
King alone was demanded from the two sheriffs of London, 
and finally, in open defiance of the King, it was resolved 
that the five members had the right to join the sittings of 
the committee ; this they did, though a royal mandate had 
gone forth that no citizen of London was to receive them, 
nor furnish them with a ship to emigrate, and a fresh man- 
date had been issued to all officials to seize them wherever 
found. 

The committee went further and further. The measures 
taken by the city for the protection of Parliament were 
pronounced to be meritorious, and every one who opposed 
them was denounced as the enemy of his country ; a com- 
mander was appointed to guard the fortress and city, and 
for the nth of January, the day of the re-assembling of Par- 
liament, all the citizens who could bear arms were called 
out. The trained bands of the city received their orders ; 
they were joined by 4,000 farmers from Buckinghamshire, 
countrymen of Hampden, who declared that they would 
die at the feet of Parliament if need were. The proletariats 
of the workshops, the Thames watermen, the militia of 
Southwark, offered themselves as a guard to Parliament, 
and the committee was in a position to organize an impos- 
ing Parliamentary army for the ceremony of the nth of 
January. The resolution to do this already amounted to 
revolution. 

Parliament appointed a leader for the troops raised in 
the city. All the officers and men had to sign the Parlia- 
mentary protest against the royal attempt. It was declared 
to be their duty to obey the House in spite of any other 
orders or counter orders, and their mission to repel any 
attack, come whence it might. And all this was for the 
protection of the "King, the kingdom, and Parliament." 

The King had received regular intelligence of all this ; 
with impotent rage he had seen one piece of his prerogative 

29 



650 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

go after the other. But this was too much. He could not 
and would not witness the entry of Parliament, the solemn 
return of the " traitors," whose death he had sworn. On 
the evening of the 10th of January he set out with his wife 
and children for Hampton Court. 

The next morning, amidst indescribable rejoicings, the 
five members made their entry into the city, which was 
festively adorned. The banks of the Thames were occupied 
by companies of the militia, with copies of the protest on 
their pikes. The river was covered wilh boats and ships, 
from which salutes quickly followed each other. The per- 
secuted members were received on the threshold of the 
palace by the whole House. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 



THE CIVIL WAR. 



Prospects of both Parties. — Victories of the Royalists, October, 104s, 
to September, 1643. — Interposition of the Scots.— Presbyterians 
and Independents. — Defeat of the Royalists at Marston Moor, 
July, and at Newbury, October, 1644. — Oliver Cromwell. — The 
Self-denying Ordinance. 

The Civil War ; Prospects of both Parties. — Vic- 
tories of the Royalists, October, 1642; September, 
1643. 

CHARLES did not anticipate when he left London that 
he would enter it again as a prisoner of state. It was 
his hope rather, and many things justified him in it, to 
make his entry into the capital at no very distant period as 
victor over all his enemies. The tide of revolution which 
had risen so high in the metropolis had not extended much 
beyond, and not at all to the Northern counties. The loyal 
members of the aristocracy, whose voices were drowned in 
London by the fury of the populace and the passions of the 
majority in Parliament, had more scope elsewhere ; and if 
they had a legitimate centre, they might, with their in- 
fluence upon the rural population, become a powerful instru- 
ment of royalist reaction. 

At York, where the King fixed his temporary residence, 
he found himself in the midst of a daily increasing retinue 
from the highest circles of the aristocracy. Almost the 
whole Upper House, and a strong minority in the Com- 
mons, joined his cause. Since Parliament had deprived 
the bishops of their votes, and seemed disposed to over- 
throw the whole episcopal constitution, the temporal nobles 
saw that their own position in the State was threatened, as 
well as the monarchy ; the Hotspurs among the Royalists, 



652 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

who, in London, had been condemned to silence by the 
terrorism of parties, now regained speech and courage ; the 
moderate party, also, who had formerly opposed the absolut- 
ism of the ministers and the crown, saw, in the now harm- 
less King, the last defence against the ascendancy of a 
party whose aims appeared to extend beyond the monarchy 
itself. Parliament was undeniably in the path of complete 
usurpation. It might be excused as only the exercise of 
the right and duty of defence; but it was nevertheless a 
fact, though all that was decreed and done against the King, 
was, in accordance with the constitutional fiction, done in 
his name. In the name of the King, Parliament had 
nominated governors of all the counties, with the command 
of all the forces, the garrisons, and fortresses of the king- 
dom, though the King had naturally rejected the bill with 
indignation, for it gave all the defences of the country into 
the hands of Parliament to use against him. The further 
this was carried, the more decided would be the variance 
between elements whose relations had hitherto been un- 
defined, so much the larger would be the number of the 
King's followers. 

Both sides made preparations and carried on negotia- 
tions for months. At length, in 1642, Parliament stated 
its ultimatum in nineteen demands. Nothing less was 
demanded than the supremacy of Parliament over the whole 
State, the King included. The King was to choose his 
advisers according to the pleasure of the House, and with- 
out their consent no act of his was to be valid. All officials 
and the superior judges were to be appointed with the con- 
currence of Parliament, and were to be irremovable. No 
member of the royal family could contract marriage with- 
out the consent of Parliament. The laws against the 
Catholics were to be enforced, and divine worship and 
Church government reformed in accordance with the resolu- 
tions of Parliament. The militia laws were to be under 
Parliament ; its jurisdiction was to extend to all sorts of 
crimes ; a general amnesty was to be granted, with excep- 
tions which Parliament was to determine ; fortresses and 
castles could only be disposed of in accordance with its 
will; and no peer could be created without consent of 
both Houses. 

These demands could not be accepted by Charles. 

" These being passed," he replied, " we may be waited on 



ROYALIST SUCCESSES. 653 

bareheaded, we may have our hand kissed, the style of 
Majesty continued to us, and the King's authority declared 
by both Houses of Parliament, may be still the style of 
your commands ; we may have swords and maces carried 
before us, and please ourselves with the sight of a crown 
and sceptre (yet even these twigs would not long flourish 
when the stock upon which they grew was dead) ; but as 
to true and real power, we should remain but the outside, 
but the picture, but the sign of a King." * 

This was the last peaceful exchange of opinions between 
the contending parties ; from this time it was a question of 
arms. In reviewing the forces of both, there was a mani- 
fest disproportion between them. 

Deprived of his prerogative, without the fortresses, ships, 
troops, arms, or money of the kingdom at his disposal, 
when the King raised his standard at York he was like an 
adventurous pretender aiming to overthrow the legitimate 
government, with a retinue of noble retainers and a rushing 
stream of excited public opinion against him. Parliament 
had all that the King lacked, all the munitions of war in 
abundance, and as the money in hand was not sufficient to 
support the army, a loan was issued ; within ten days the 
treasury was filled with plate contributed by the families of 
the favourable party, to be coined into money. 

The levy of troops amidst the general enthusiasm was 
most successful. 

Under the impression of these things, the opinion might 
well be entertained in Parliament that, if the King did not 
prefer to submit without drawing the sword, the war would 
be ended by a single blow. But the event was very 
different. 

The first engagement, on October 23rd, at Edge Hill, 
did not yield a decisive victory to either party; but it 
showed that the Parliamentary army had nothing equal to 
the well-drilled cavalry of the brave cavaliers. Prince 
Rupert put the enemy's left wing to flight on the first 
assault, the right wing was repulsed, and, had it not been 
for the too vehement pursuit of the royal reserve, by which 
the infantry was subjected to a fierce attack by the Parlia- 
mentary army, the day would have been lost to the latter. 
After the confidence with which the army of the Earl of 
Essex had set out from London, it made the impression, 
• Rushworth. 



654 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

and produced the results, of an actual defeat. The King 
pushed on towards London ; Parliament anxiously began 
to negotiate, and was not pacified till the Earl of Essex 
was on the spot, and, strengthened by 24,000 of the 
London militia, arrested the King's progress. 

The King established his winter quarters at Oxford, the 
only city really true to him, and made vigorous preparations 
for the spring campaign. 

The year 1643 brought one success after another to the 
Royalist arms. The Earl of Newcastle succeeded in sub- 
jecting all the northern counties to the King, a political 
progress against which some military failures did not weigh 
heavily in the scale. The result was the same in the west. 
In Cornwall the Royalist nobles rose against the rebellion, 
offered their vassals to the King, drove two Parliamentary 
armies, at Stratton and Lansdown, from the field, and after 
Prince Maurice had beaten Waller, the best of the Parlia- 
mentary generals, at Roundway Down, they joined the 
royal army at Oxford. Prince Rupert had previously fallen 
upon and routed part of Essex's army, on which occasion 
Hampden received a fatal wound ; and soon after Rupert 
stormed Bristol, the second city in the kingdom. 

On September 20th, a battle took place at Newbury, in 
which Falkland fell, and which ended for the Earl of Essex 
with an honourable retreat to London. In the main, the 
advantage was on the Royalist side, and the partial successes 
won by Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell in the north did 
not effect a decision, as, soon after the victory of Wakefield,. 
Fairfax's army was completely routed at Atherton Moor. 

All the energy of the Parliamentary committee, of which 
Pym was one, was required to keep down the discontent 
which never fails to take possession of a party obstinately 
pursued by misfortune. 

The most rigid measures were therefore taken against 
every tendency to cry for peace, or to give but a lukewarm 
support to the war. Compulsory taxes were levied, multi- 
tudes of Royalists imprisoned and robbed of their property, 
and when a conspiracy was traced, the leaders were hung 
before their own doors. 



INTERFERENCE OF THE SCOTCH. 655 

Interference of the Scotch. — Presbyterians and 
Independents. — The Campaign of 1644-5. — Defeat 
of the Royalists at Marston Moor and Newbury. 

The situation of the Parliamentary party had taken a 
most unfavourable turn. The war which they had hoped to 
decide by a few powerful strokes had brought them nothing 
but misfortune. Their ill-disciplined recruits were almost 
everywhere beaten, and were deeply discouraged ; the 
generals were at variance, and had lost confidence in their 
party ; the means for the support of the army were only to 
be obtained by the greatest exertions ; unpopular financial 
measures, such as the excise devised by Pym, had become 
necessary, and mutinous voices were heard among the 
party. 

In these difficulties, Pym, who was never at a loss for 
resources, entered into an understanding with the Scotch 
that they should make an unexpected diversion in the King's 
rear, just where he had been most successful during the past 
year. 

On the other side of the Tweed the Royalist victories had 
been watched with almost as great anxiety as in London, 
where an attack might at any moment be looked for. 

The concessions which Charles had made in his distress, 
in order to separate the interests of the two kingdoms, were 
so entirely opposed to his personal inclinations and past 
policy, that no one could suppose that, once victorious over 
the English Parliament, he would be willing to be merely 
the shadow of a King in Scotland. 

Out of the common danger rose the alliance, offensive 
and defensive, between the Scotch and English Parliament, 
formally entered into on the 17th of September, 1643. 

According to the words of this treaty, the object of the 
alliance was not only to maintain the rights of both Parlia- 
ments against the Royalists, but to extirpate Popery, episco- 
pacy, and the episcopal form of church government, and to 
substitute a new and reformed one in the three kingdoms. 
By this the Scots intended the Presbyterian form ; but the 
English had been cautious enough to express their inten- 
tions in terms so general, that the question may be con- 
sidered an open one : " Reform of the Church in England 
and Ireland according to the Word of God and the example 
of the purest churches." 



656 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

In fact, on this point Parliament by no means agreed 
with the Scots. By the sid? of a minority of Anglicans, 
who secretly held to the episcopal constitution and the 
semi-Catholic form of worship, was the Presbyterian party, 
who favoured moderate Calvinistic views, mortally hated 
Popery, but would have been well content with the con- 
tinuance of episcopal authority if deprived of its political 
privileges, and on this subject, as on politics, wished to avert 
radical innovations. Then there were the Independents, 
whose influence was increasing. They were the extreme 
left of the Puritan party, and wished for a formal revolution 
in Church and State. 

The Independents had constructed a religious, ecclesias- 
tical, and political creed of their own, based on the princi- 
ples of extreme Calvinism. It was a curious mixture of 
Old Testament reminiscences, Calvinistic dogmas, and 
political radicalism. They had become a sect of strong 
mystical hue ; the preaching of the millennial kingdom, then 
speaking with tongues and religious ecstasies, distinguished 
their worship from all previous services ; their taste for Old 
Testament names, a special garb, their gloomy strictness 
and boast of monastic contempt for the world, made them 
outwardly peculiar. They hated not only the Romish 
Church, and all that the Anglican Church had retained of 
its usages : they wished to have no priests, and held that 
every believer was a priest. No congregation of the 
" Godly," as they styled themselves, would tolerate any man 
above it ; the strictest democratic equality was demanded for 
it as a whole, though it might be composed of the dregs of 
the people, as well as for every individual ; — was not the 
Redeemer a carpenter's son ? was not his teaching addressed 
to the weary and heavy laden ? 

They were a singular race of mortals. He who thinks 
to dispose of them as hypocrites, spares himself the trouble 
of characterizing them ; but he does not account for their 
great significance. Hypocrisy is not capable of ruling the 
masses as they ruled them, nor of dying for their cause as 
they died. They were undoubtedly fanatics of the wildest 
sort, and some of their sayings almost bear the stamp of 
religious insanity ; but many of them are deeply thought 
out, and produced a most powerful effect, Cromwell's 
speeches, * with all the Puritanical flourishes which belong 
to the fashion of the age, display an earnestness and 



THE INDEPENDENTS. 657 

depth, an eloquence and striking delineations of the 
situation, which rise far above any other memorials of this 
period. 

This sect was profoundly in earnest with its creed ; to 
others it might appear like madness, but its members were 
resolved to die for it. They had imbibed with their 
mothers' milk the rigid relentless energy of a struggling 
church, and had maintained it in many a conflict. It was 
thus that they achieved extraordinary success. A party, 
which numbered scarcely one-tenth of the nation among 
its followers, ruled the three kingdoms with more effect 
than ever an absolute government or an assembly has ruled 
France; and Cromwell, though he knew that almost the 
whole kingdom was against him, not only ruled the country 
for ten years, but dictated laws to Europe. 

The consequences of the civil war between Charles I. 
and Parliament, after it had been waged with decided ill 
success by the latter, inspired no party with such cool deter- 
mination as the Independents. 

The fiction of a war in " the name" of him against whom 
it was waged, was at once thrown overboard. The idea of 
the restoration of a constitution, which, just because it was 
impossible with this monarch had led to war, was now simply 
laid aside — the possibility of a reconciliation with Charles I. 
was no longer thought of. The result was that this party 
alone waged war with thorough energy and determination ; 
while the Presbyterians, the Earl of Essex at their head, 
could not but be accused of a certain half-heartedness. They 
wished for the restoration of ancient rights, forgetting how 
far they had already got beyond them. 

In the following campaign this contrast was to be fully 
brought out, and the participation of the Scotch, however 
much their help might be desired, could but help the pro- 
cess, for their Presbyterian Church government was almost 
as hateful to the Independents as the Anglican itself. 

The first decisive conflict of 1644 related to the possession 
of the northern counties, and their centre, York. 

Reinforced by the Scotch, who had been advancing since 
February, and by the army of the Earl of Manchester, in 
which Cromwell served, Fairfax had in the summer collected 
a force strong enough to undertake the assault of York with 
a prospect of success. The siege had begun when Prince 
Rupert arrived with 20,000 men, and contrived by a dex- 
42 



658 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

terous operation to throw his whole force into the city. 
Contrary to the advice of the Earl of Newcastle, he gave 
battle on the open field. The greatest passage of arms 
which the war had hitherto seen took place on July 2nd at 
Marston Moor. A bloody contest went on for hours, but 
Cromwell's distinguished generalship at length decided the 
day, and the Royalists suffered a fearful defeat. York, the 
King's most trustworthy support in the northern counties, 
was lost. 

Meanwhile, two armies, under Essex and Waller, had 
undertaken a combined attack upon the Royal camp at 
Oxford, but with these generals' usual want of success. On 
June 29th, Waller was signally defeated at Copraby bridge; 
and on September 1st, Essex's army was involved in a great 
defeat, and he himself only escaped in a boat. 

But now Parliament put considerable reinforcements at 
their disposal, and commanded Manchester and Cromwell 
to join them. With these forces, the King was again 
attacked, on October 27th, at Newbury, and, after an 
obstinate defence, driven back to Oxford. Cromwell urged 
taking speedy advantage of the victory, so that the war might 
be ended by a great stroke ; but this was opposed by 
Manchester, which gave rise to fatal dissensions between 
these generals. Charles owed it to these quarrels alone that 
he occupied his winter quarters without molestation. Dur- 
ing this winter the dispute between the Presbyterians and 
Independents ended in an open breach, and the man who 
was henceforth to influence so largely the fate of England 
and of Europe, come into the foreground. 

Oliver Cromwell.* 

Oliver Cromwell was born amidst limited circumstances, 
on April 25th, 1599, at Huntingdon. On his mother's side 
he was related to the Stuarts, on his father's to that Crom- 
well who was for a time minister to Henry VIII., and re- 
ceived the name of Malleus Monachorum. 

Pie grew up in a moderately prosperous household, in 
which Puritan piety and strictness of morals were old tradi- 
tions. The stories of his having passed through a wild and 
passionate youth have been contradicted. However bitterly 
his enemies might hate him, they were compelled to allow 

• Oliver Cromwell (after Carlyle's description) in Raumers Ta* 
chenbuch. 



OLIVER CROMWELL. t>59 

that his private and domestic life was exemplary. Piety, dis- 
cipline, and purity in family life never celebrated a more 
beautiful triumph than in his family. 

Though not unversed in learning, Cromwell was designed 
for a farmer. At the time when the conflict between the 
Crown and the Parliament began, he was still a quiet, mono- 
syllabic countryman, simply and honestly pursuing his rural 
occupations. He formed a respectable middle-class marriage, 
founded a domestic hearth, and all his ways and doings 
were those of a contented English farmer. Decided, charac- 
teristic religious tendencies began, however, to show them- 
selves. He diligently attended the prayer-meetings of his 
fellow-professors, devoted his savings to the Puritan travel- 
ling preachers, zealously took part in their missions, and 
occasionally undertook a proselytizing journey himself. No 
less significant was his connection with the eminent patriots 
of those times. John Hampden was his cousin, and he may 
have received his first political interests from him. 

He first appeared as a politician in the memorable Parlia- 
ment of 1628. His maiden speech consisted of but a few 
words, but they were on a subject which was, with him, a 
matter of conscience. He spoke of Popish intrigues which 
a preacher in his neighbourhood had been carrying on, and 
for which he had been-rewarded by his bishop with a bene- 
fice. Such occurrences were then frequent. " If these," said 
Cromwell, " are the means of rising in the Church, what can 
we expect ? " Then came the eleven years of absolutism. 
Cromwell was now simply the farmer again, and a patriarch 
in his little congregation. He occupied himself with prayer- 
meetings and preaching journeys, went about among the 
" quiet in the land," who might be relied on in case of need, 
and he became one of the most influential persons in his 
community. 

In the Parliament of 1640, he was in his place again. 
Once he spoke for the ill-used secretary of the fanatical 
Prynne, at another time for the rights of poor peasants and 
for the Scotch. He was an offence to the Cavaliers, with 
his large frame, harsh voice, plain coat, and fervid eloquence. 
When Hampden was asked "who that sloven was," he said, 
" That sloven whom you see before you hath no ornament 
in his speech ; that sloven, I say, if we should ever come to 
a breach with the King (which God forbid), in such a case, 
I say, that sloven will be the greatest man in England." 



660 TIIE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

' Then came the breach ; and among the first who made 
sacrifices for the Parliamentary cause, was Cromwell. 

Now forty-three years of age, and the father of six children, 
he contributed first three and then five hundred pounds of his 
property. With his eldest son, a hopeful youth, he joined the 
Parliamentary volunteers, thus staking his family, his happi- 
ness, and his property. He kept up communication with 
Cambridge, and contrived that two companies of volunteers 
should be established there, and the treasures of the Univer- 
sity saved for Parliament. No one could then say whether 
the path in which he was boldly leading the way might not 
lead to the scaffold, and he was like a voluntary victim 
breaking down the bridge behind him. Unlike the Presby- 
terians, then the great majority in the nation and in Parlia- 
ment, who thought it possible to fight against the King in 
the King's name, Cromwell took up the war from the first 
in terrrible earnestness. " He who draws the sword 
against the King," he used to say, " must throw the sheath 
into the fire ; " and he told his company that his commission 
was indeed to fight for King and Parliament, but he hated 
ambiguity; let each man ask himself if he, like himself, 
could make up his mind, in case he came upon the King 
in a fray, to shoot him down like any other man ; let not 
him who could not do so serve under him. 

When the first victories of the Royalists took place, he 
told Hampden that it did not surprise him ; they could not 
hope with hirelings, serving men, and day labourers, to 
make head against noblemen with honour, courage, and 
resolution in their hearts. They must get men of spirit, who 
would be as ready to go into the fire as the nobles, or they 
would always be beaten ; and he acted in accordance with 
his advice. He had a wonderful talent for military organi- 
zation ; though not brought up to it, he had the true instinct. 

Instead of the mob of discharged soldiers and deserters 
of which the Parliamentary army was composed, he tried 
to attract the best of the middle classes into it, and to create 
a genuine citizen army. This ideal army was to be a political 
body, filled with the same spirit, and modelled after the 
fashion of the company he had formed of his countrymen. 
He therefore created a few squadrons of Puritans, soon 
amounting to fourteen, which should serve as a pattern 
for the new army. 

In these, as it was said, half in jest, half in earnest, his 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 66 1 

" saints" were represented ; the quiet companions of his 
prayer-meetings, the singular fanatics of the conventicles, 
square-shouldered citizens and peasants, with gloomy looks 
and coarse attire. It was like a fraternity of psalm-singers 
and devotees in arms. Cursing, swearing, feasting, was 
not found here as in other camps ; prayer was offered and 
services were held ; laymen appeared as preachers, just 
as the illumination came to them, as was customary in 
their peaceful services at home. The Puritan congregation 
was transferred to the camp, with all their singularities, but 
also with their religious enthusiasm, their discipline, fear 
of God, and devotion to their cause. It was totally dif- 
ferent in the other army, in which the lawless behaviour of 
the troops, and the discontent of their distinguished leaders 
spoiled everything. 

It was of stuff like this that the squadrons were composed 
who first opposed the onslaught of the dreaded Cavaliers, 
and were soon to drive them out of the field. 

At Marston Moor, Cromwell and his Puritan horsemen 
first gained a decisive victory. The hitherto unvanquished 
Cavaliers of Prince Rupert had, as Cromwell said, been cut 
down like stubble by their swords ; he had projected a 
similar blow for the main part of the royal army after the 
victory of Newbury, but he had met with unlooked-for oppo- 
sition, not of a personal character, but based on a difference 
of principle. His general, the Earl of Manchester, was a 
skilful soldier, but on the subject of the aims and merits of 
the war, his opinions were those of all the Parliamentary 
leaders, especially the Earl of Essex, who, belonging to the 
highest nobility, and having only torn himself away from his 
equals after severe mental struggles, had no idea of anni- 
hilating the King, or even of introducing a new consti- 
tution. 

For this party the war was only a means — a heroic means, 
indeed — of compelling the King to constitutionalism, to 
which he would not be brought by friendly measures. A 
complete victory, therefore, over him, which would at the 
same time annihilate the monarchy, was considered by 
them to be a misuse of their arms, and a great evil. 

At Newbury this had come plainly to light. Cromwell 
asked leave to attack the royal army in the rear with his 
cavalry brigade, proposing that the Earl, if he preferred it, 
should remain with the rest of the troops in inaction ; but 



662 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

the Earl absolutely refused, giving no other reasons than 
that if beaten there would be an end of their demands, 
and that they would be at once executed as rebels and 
traitors. 

Even if this answer expressed the whole truth, there was 
an idea of reconciliation and return at the bottom of it 
which Cromwell had long ago given up. Cromwell was 
resolved to put an end to these half measures. While 
amongst his enemies, the remote possibility of an indict- 
ment against him as a .radical incendiary was under con- 
sideration; he was acting with so much skill, that his 
adversaries first learnt what his intentions were from the 
result. 

On December 9th, 1644, the situation was discussed in 
Parliament. Cromwell rose, to give expression to the 
general discontent. The war had now been going on for 
two years; they had suffered many defeats, and gained but 
few victories ; enormous sacrifices had been demanded in 
money, men, and property, yet as good as nothing was 
attained, for what was gained one day was lost the next ; in 
winter they began to think how much blood had been shed 
in vain, how much money spent, and how much land 
devastated. The suffering people ascribed the blame to 
Parliament ; and if it did not find a remedy all confidence 
in it would be lost. The people thought the great gentle- 
men in Parliament had no interest in bringing the war to a 
close ; for so long as it lasted they were in power, and held 
important posts, but when it was over their glory would be 
at an end. 

This talk, with which he did not agree, must be met. 
The war must be carried on in a different manner ; the army 
must be put on a fresh footing ; and, to render this possible, 
an act of self-denial was necessary for all those who were 
taking the lead, and, as true patriots, this would not appear 
to them as too great a sacrifice. 

Before this, one of the " Saints," Henry Vane, had in- 
formed the House that all the preachers at the late festival 
had, by a wonderful concurrence, spoken from their pulpits 
against the members of Parliament remaining in their lucra- 
tive offices. This was the finger of God ; this was the 
work of the Holy Spirit ; Parliament should give an 
example of self renunciation ; besides, by the removal of 
so many members, the numbers in the House were im« 



THE SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE. 663 

paired. Before the war he had himself held a lucrative 
office in the Treasury ; but he voluntarily resigned it, and 
he wished that others would do the same. 

These were the preliminaries to the Self-denying Ordi- 
nance, which was passed after a vehement contest. It 
excluded all the members of both Houses from all civil and 
military offices. Before it was passed, Cromwell had attained 
his object. The Presbyterian generals, Essex, Warwick. 
Manchester, Denbigh, Waller, and others, had resigned. 
A stratagem was required to except Cromwell, who was 
both an officer and member of the Commons. During the 
discussions, Fairfax had him sent for to the army, and before 
long no one said any more on the subject 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

1HE CATASTROPHE OF CHARLES AND OF THE PARLIAMENT. 

Defeat of Charles at Naseby, June, 1645. — He takes refuge with the 
Scots, who sell him to the Presbyterians. — Mutiny of the Army 
against Parliament. — Abduction of the King. — March to London. 
— First Purge of Parliament, August, 1647. — The King's Flight to 
the Isle of Wight. — His Trial and Execution, January 30th, 1649. 

Defeat at Naseby. — The King's Refuge with the 
Scotch. — Sold to the Presbyterians. — Mutiny of 
the Army against Parliament. — Abduction of the 
King, and entry into London. 

FROM this time the war and the military system of Par- 
liament bear a totally different aspect. What had 
been begun by Cromwell on a small scale was carried on 
on a larger one. The whole army was inspired by the 
spirit of the Saints ; the officers were intrusted with the 
duties of priests ; preaching and psalm-singing were intro- 
duced into the camp, the wild doings of which a great part 
of the Parliamentary army had been guilty, in common 
with the Royalists, ceased ; and, since Cromwell and 
Fairfax had held the command, it had been free from its 
previous lukewarmness. 

With this strictly-disciplined army, in which a trust in 
God prevailed bordering on Mohammedan fatalism, Crom- 
well, to whom Fairfax was in fact subordinate, defeated the 
Royalists at Naseby, on June 14th, 1645. After this day 
good fortune entirely forsook the King; one city and 
county was lost after another. Cromwell not only knew 
how to conquer, but to take advantage of his victories. He 
was always at -the heels of the Royalists, and did not rest 
till the party was annihilated. 

One prospect still opened before the unhappy King. 



THE KING SOLD BY THE SCOTCH. 665 

The Scotch had become uneasy at the victories of the 
Independents. The fanatical Presbyterians feaied the 
supremacy of the radical enthusiasts, and would have 
nothing to do either with their creed or their church consti- 
tution. The King was not in a position to retract any of 
his concessions to them ; from the Independents, on the 
contrary, they had nothing to hope. Out of these elements 
the French ambassador combined a tempting picture, 
which the King was the less able to withstand, as since 
the spring of 1646, at Oxford, he had been daily expecting 
a blow from the hands of the enemy. Thus arose his reso- 
lution to take refuge with the remnant of his faithful followers 
in the Scotch camp. 

On May 5th he appeared before Newark, followed by a 
Parliamentary decree, threatening any one with death who 
should harbour the fugitive King. 

Agreeably surprised by this unexpected proof of royal 
confidence, the Scotch persuaded the King to give up his 
last weapons ; they made him order all the royal garrisons 
which had hitherto held out against Fairfax and Cromwell 
to surrender to Parliament. This done, they negotiated 
with Parliament about a ransom for their royal captive. 
The cunning and worldly wisdom of the Scotch is prover- 
bial ; this act was even more than Scotch. 

The war which they had undertaken, in order to make 
England Presbyterian, and to place the covenant on firm 
ground, had, according to their reckoning, cost two millions, 
and the possession of the King furnished them with a 
means of indemnifying themselves. After long chaffering, 
they agreed to liberate the King for ^400,000, half to be 
paid immediately, the rest in two instalments. 

At first, even the Scotch Parliament felt the business to 
be so disgraceful that a resolution was passed that the King 
should be protected and his liberation insisted on ; but it 
was informed by the General Assembly that as the King 
had opposed the Covenant, his fate no longer concerned 
the " Saints," and so the transaction was completed. 

Upon his journey from Scotch to English imprisonment, 
the King once more experienced the royalist sympathies of 
the masses. Sympathetic tears and exclamations accom- 
panied him to Holdenby, where rough treatment awaited 
him, which only gave place to better, when English parties 
began to disagree about his fate. 



666 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

It is difficult to say exactly what the Presbyterians in- 
tended to do with the King when he was in their power. 
The commissioners who had taken possession of him at 
Newark reverently kissed his hand ; but at Holdenby he 
was treated like an arrested criminal. His suite was dis- 
missed, all intercourse with the outer world was cut off; he 
was even deprived of his chaplains because they had not 
signed the covenant. One thing alone was certain amidst 
all these contradictions, that the Presbyterians who had the 
majority, both in and out of Parliament, did not desire a 
republic or abolition of monarchy, and therefore regarded 
the spirit of the Independent army as its worst foe. 

They intended, therefore, before any further steps should 
be taken, in some way or other to get rid of this army. 

In Parliament it was now said, " The war is over ; there is 
no longer a hostile army ; the treasury is exhausted ; why 
keep a large army in the field for nothing, when there are 
no means to support it ? " It was proposed to send some of 
the troops to Ireland, to dismiss others, and to keep only 
a small reserve in case of need. Once rid of the hosts of 
the Saints, the rest would arrange itself, and Parliament 
could discuss at ease what to do with the King and country. 

But they were mistaken in thinking that they could so 
easily get rid of those who had won the victory, and had in 
the long struggle lost reverence, not for the King only. 

Scarcely had the news of the plans of the majority reached 
the camp, through the Independents in Parliament, than the 
army began to move. Besides their large arrears of pay, 
the troops demanded not to be treated as Janissaries or hire- 
lings, to be disposed of at pleasure without being consulted. 
The demands of the Saints were put together in a definite 
form in a petition to Fairfax, and as Parliament only met 
it with threats, open mutiny broke out. The camp became 
an opposition Parliament ; the officers met as the Upper, 
the men as the Lower House, and passed independent 
resolutions in defence of their rights against the interference 
of the London Parliament. And when Parliament com- 
manded that the troops who would not go to Ireland should 
be forthwith dismissed, the army not only refused obedience, 
but despatched a division of five hundred horse to Hol- 
denby, seized the King in presence of the astonished 
parliamentary commissioner, and soon after Cromwell re 
moved the whole army to St. Alban's. 



MUTINY OF THE ARMY AGAINST PARLIAMENT. 667 

With his hand on his sword, Cromwell demanded the 
dismissal and arrest of eleven members of Parliament who 
had been guilty of high treason — Hollis, Waller, and other 
leaders of the Presbyterian party were among them. Parlia- 
ment demurred ; but the eleven thought it best to with- 
draw, and the army was so far pacified as to remain at 
St. Alban's. 

It was, indeed, only a short delay of the catastrophe. 
Cromwell wished to avoid open violence, and proposed a 
circuitous path which, while making less commotion, would 
as surely lead to the goal. 

During the panic of the last few days, when the news of 
the King's abduction had been quickly followed by that of 
the approach of the- enraged Saints, and the Londoners 
expected to be given up to the fury of the soldiery, Parlia- 
ment had one support — the city militia, who, from the 
first, had been true to the Presbyterians. It was to be 
deprived of this last weapon before the army set its foot 
upon its neck. 

The army demanded that a change should be made with 
the militia, and especially that the Presbyterian commander 
should be dismissed. Parliament conceded this unheard- 
of demand; but the masses rose up, the apprentices and 
watermen of 1642 opposed these measures, and insisted 
that the resolution should be rescinded. It was now plain 
to the army, who were only waiting for such a pretext, that 
Parliament was not its own master, and that their advance 
must be eagerly desired ; and when the speakers of both 
Houses, accompanied by eight peers and sixty of the Com- 
mons came and begged for help, there was no longer any 
delay. 

Twenty thousand gloomy-looking Independents marched 
into the city and came to the rescue of Parliament on the 
6th of August, 1647. There was no want of discipline in 
their conduct, but there was an end to the liberty of Parlia- 
ment. All its recent acts were declared null and void ; the 
militia were given over to the Independents, and some 
opponents who were specially compromised were arrested 
and imprisoned. This was the first mutilation of this re- 
markable assembly. Professedly it was but a blow struck 
against the previous majority, but in reality parliamentaryism 
itself had received a fatal stroke. What was left of it 
existed only by favour of the army and its leaders. 



668 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

The King also felt the effects of this event. Up to this 
time his imprisonment in camp had been less severe and 
more honourable than with the Presbyterians. Up to within 
a short time before his abduction he had been negotiating 
with them, and terms appeared likely to be made. He had 
been so well treated in the Independent camp that he 
thought himself courted by both parties, derived courage 
from the idea that they could not settle matters without him, 
and imagined that he should again be able to employ one 
against the other. He was shrewd enough to perceive that 
Cromwell belonged to the future, and tried to make advances 
to him ; offered him the command of the army, to make 
him a peer, a duke, &c. What Cromwell thought of all 
this we do not know. He probably did what he had great 
dexterity in doing — escaped these snares under the plea of 
rustic awkwardness, for he knew the King's cunning. One 
thing is certain, that continued intimacy with the King 
would have deprived him of his influence with the army, 
and that an intercepted despatch from the King to the 
Queen would have undeceived a man less shrewd than he 
was. In this the King said that it was his wish to unite not 
with the English army, but with the Scotch, the mortal 
enemies of the Independents. He should know how to 
rise against these fellows when the right time came. Instead 
of the garter — which he had promised to Cromwell, — there 
would be a hempen cord for them. 

Flight of the King to the Isle of Wight. — The Second 
Civil War (July — September, 1648). — The Second 
Purge of Parliament, December, 1648. — Trial and 
Execution of the King, 30TH of January, 1649. 

After Cromwell withdrew from the King, the Indepen- 
dent preachers raised an alarm against him ; a threatening 
agitation arose, which increased daily. Forsaken by all, 
and in fear for his personal safety, during the night of 
the nth of November the King escaped to the Isle of 
Wight. 

This was highly imprudent. He did not thereby escape 
from his gaolers ; for the governor of the island was Hamp- 
den's son-in-law, and Cromwell's most trusted ally, and he 
cut himself off from communication with his friends, thus 
proving anew that there was no reliance to be placed on 



FLIGHV OF THE KING. 669 

his promises, that negotiation with him was vain. He 
might be recaptured at any moment, and would then be in 
the hands of doubly embittered enemies. 

It had now become impossible for Charles to remain 
King of England. It would be to frustrate the whole sig- 
nificance and aim of the civil war to replace him upon the 
throne. But the great question was what should replace 
him, and the answer had not become any clearer. 

There had, indeed, been a project for establishing a sort 
of interregnum — for persuading the King to abdicate, and 
of setting up a parliamentary regency in the name of the 
Prince of Wales. This plan also put the restoration of 
Charles out of the question, but it had long fallen into the 
background with the Independents as not going far enough. 
For them there no longer was a King. 

On the 3rd of January, the motion was carried that no 
further message from the King need be received, and that he 
no longer had any voice in the reorganization of the State. 
On this occasion Cromwell said that while the King was 
solemnly talking to them of peace, he was negotiating with 
the Scots in order to involve them in a fresh war. 

It was not long before this fresh war really broke out. 
Fourteen thousand Scots attacked the country to fight for 
the King. The native Royalists held up their heads ; dis- 
turbances broke out in the navy, and there were inflam- 
mable materials enough in the country to occasion a general 
conflagration. Even against the resolution in Parliament 
declaring the Scots to be enemies, there were ninety 
courageous votes. 

In London all was quiet, but scarcely had the Indepen- 
dents advanced to meet the Royalists, when Parliament 
threw off the terrorism which had held it in check. The 
Presbyterians assumed the leadership again, recalled the 
eleven dismissed members, reversed the resolution of the 
3rd of January, and renewed negotiations with the King in 
the Isle of Wight. With great difficulty, after long negotia 
tions, a project of a treaty was formed, but by the time it 
was submitted to Parliament the situation of parties without 
was entirely changed. 

All the revolts had in turn been quelled, and with 
8,000 men Cromwell had attacked and cut in pieces the 
30,000 Scots and Royalists. 

The result was a peace, which put an end to the alliance 



67O THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

for the King, and confirmed anew the union of the two 
kingdoms, 26th of September, 1648. The camp parlia- 
ment of the Independents now resolved on their own 
account that the King should make amends for the blood 
that had been spilt, and that the Parliament had forfeited 
its right to existence by its treaty with Charles. But in 
spite of this, Parliament voted for the treaty with the King 
by a hundred and twenty-nine against eighty-three, so 
there was a fresh " purge." 

Early in the morning of the 6th of December, 1648, 
Westminster was surrounded by two regiments under the 
command of Colonel Pride, formerly a drayman, and they 
carried off forty-one Presbyterians. One hundred and sixty 
members more were excluded, and in the Parliament thus 
purged there were now but from fifty to sixty fanatics of the 
Independent sect. 

It was now necessary to come to some decision about the 
King. Immediately after the resolution of the military 
Parliament, he had been brought from Newport and placed 
in more secure imprisonment. The question was what to 
do with him. To liberate him, especially after recent events. 
appeared to the Independents impossible. The King had 
made himself a terror to them by everything that makes 
a monarch dangerous. His unfathomable cunning, his oft- 
proved treachery, his talent for recovering himself after every 
defeat and setting one party against another ; his impur- 
turbable obstinacy on all questions connected with the royal 
authority, and the episcopal constitution ; and finally the 
sympathies of the most powerful classes make it perfectly 
intelligible that the party which had won all the victories 
of the civil war, and could but look for fearful retribution 
on a restoration of the monarchy, had adopted the resolu- 
tion, " Either he or we ! " 

The fate of England was in the hands of an army not 
composed of hirelings but of glowing patriots. They looked 
upon the King as the enemy of the country imprisoned 
with his weapon in his hand, and they asked themselves, 
"Which shall win?" 

What Cromwell thought of this question we learn from a 
letter which he wrote at this time to his friend Governor 
Hammond, in the lsLe of Wight, under date of the 25th of 
November, 1648, in which he says among other things: — 

" You say, ' God hath appointed authorities among the 



TRIAL OF THE KING. 671 

nations, to whom active or passive obedience is to be 
yielded. This resides in England in the Parliament. There- 
fore active or passive resistance,' &c. 

" Authorities and powers are the ordinances of God ; but 
I do not, therefore, think the authorities may do anything, 
and yet such obedience be due. All agree that there are 
cases in which it is lawful to resist. The query is, whether 
ours be such a case. 

" To this I shall say nothing, but only desire thee to see 
that thou findest in thy own heart to two or three plain 
considerations. First, whether Salus Pofiuli be a sound 
position, or if (secondly) the whole fruit of the war is not like 
to be frustrated, and all most like to turn to what it was, 
and worse ? and this contrary to engagements, explicit cove- 
nants, with those who ventured their lives upon those 
covenants and engagements. Thirdly, whether this army 
be not a lawful power called by God to oppose and 
fight against the King upon some stated grounds. Let us 
look into providences ; surely they mean somewhat. They 
hang so together, have been so constant, so clear, unclouded. 
Malice, swoln malice against God's people, now called 
"Saints," to root out their name; and yet they — 'these 
poor Saints' — getting arms, and therein blessed with defence, 
and more ! If the Lord have in any measure persuaded his 
people, as generally he hath, of the lawfulness, nay of the 
duty — this persuasion prevailing upon the heart is faith, and 
the acting thereupon is acting in faith ; and the more the 
difficulties are the more the faith."* 

Cromwell had, as we know without this testimony, accus- 
tomed himself, without any self-deception, to the idea that 
it was not a case for a judicial sentence, but of measures of 
defence, and for the public good. It was in this light that 
it was looked at by him and his army, and he laid no claim 
to any other law. This dangerous man must be rendered 
harmless, and that he would not be so long as he lived. 

It was not a trial that was begun during the last few days 
of the old year and the beginning of the new, but a court 
martial held by the army on a traitor imprisoned sword in hand. 

The attempt to carry on the proceedings in a constitu- 
tional manner failed. The accusations made by the Rump 
Parliament, January 1st, 1649 — high treason, by overthrow- 
ing the laws of the land and instigation of civil war — was 
* Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches. 



6? 2 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

indignantly rejected by the Lords. The Speaker, who was 
to have been one of the judges, declared that he would 
rather be torn in pieces than take part in so reckless a pro- 
ceeding. 

There was, therefore, nothing left for the Commons but to 
proclaim a new revolutionary law, which was done January 
4th. It declared that under God, the people are the 
source of legitimate power, that the power of the Commons 
in Parliament assembled is supreme, that the people are 
bound to obey whatever is declared to be law by them, even 
without the consent of the King or the Peers. 

On January 20th, Charles Stuart, as he was now called, 
appeared before the tribunal, under the accusation of being 
a tyrant, a murderer, a traitor, and the enemy of his country. 
Since he had been brought to London, he had vacillated 
between fear of assassination and the hope of being set free 
at the last moment' through the disputes of parties among 
themselves, but for what now happened he was not pre- 
pared. He had thought that it would not go so far as a 
legal trial, were it but the shadow of it, before all the world. 
But he soon controlled himself, and adopted the only right 
course. He behaved like a King who is in the right, who 
can be put to death, but not humbled. " I die as a martyr," 
he used to say, and to the last he behaved like a witness to 
monarchical constitutional law, as opposed to the victorious 
revolution. 

He did not defend himself, for he was not before judges. 
Every word that he uttered was a protest against the pro- 
ceedings to which he was subjected. He interrupted the 
secretary who read the words that the legal power was in- 
trusted to him, by saying that he was King by hereditary 
right, and asked him what right had he before whom he 
was brought, to try him. This was on the first day of the 
trial. On the second day, when he was about to answer in 
the same style, he was not allowed to speak, and nothing 
was left for him but to write down in prison what he wished 
to say. In these observations he distinctly said that he 
could easily have refuted every word of the accusation, 
but that that would have been to acknowledge the tribunal, 
and to deny the ancient principle of constitutional law, 
according to which " the King can do no wrong." 

Sentence" of death was passed on the 25th of January, and 
the execution followed on the 30th, 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE COMMONWEALTH, WITHOUT KING OR HOUSE OF 
LORDS. 

Cromwell's Position after the Death of Charles I. — Parties, Republic 
and Monarchy. — Subjugation of Ireland and Scotland, 1649-51. — 
War with Holland. — The Navigation Act, October. 1651, and the 
Peace of April, 1654. —The Constitutional Experiments. — Dis- 
missal of the Long Parliament. — The Constitution of December, 
1653. — The Parliament of 1654-5 and the Military Government. — 
The Parliament of 1656-7. — Proposal of a Monarchy. — The 
Upper House of January, 1658. — Cromwell's Death, September 
3rd, 1658. — Richard Cromwell and the end of the Republic. 

Cromwell's Position after the Death of Charles I. 
— State of Parties, Republic and Monarchy. 

THE whole history of Cromwell's reign shows how little 
the King's death was adapted to free the new Govern- 
ment from embarrassment. The difficulties which it was 
supposed were got rid of, were not got rid of ; and the King's 
death advanced the cause of his adherents more than that 
of the Independents. 

It is not, however, a parallel case with the murder of 
Louis XVI. In the one case, the King wanted to annihilate 
the ancient constitutions of the country, in the other, the 
King had voluntarily resigned his formerly absolute power; 
in the one case a man was put to death who deserved pity 
rather than fear or hatred, whilst Charles I. was a foe almost 
more dangerous from his virtues than his faults. Louis was 
a helpless prisoner, slaughtered like a victim; Charles might 
be considered to have challenged his foes to fight against him. 
The differences of the times must also be taken into account. 
The seventeenth century was far less sensitive, even about 

43 



674 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

the lives of princely personages than the philosophical age 
of humanity. 

But murder was still murder. Even Cromwell did not 
deceive himself as to the fact that he had no right to judge 
the King. It was an exceptional measure, which did not 
annihilate the monarchy. On the contrary, the murder of 
1649 awoke it to new life. England was, far more than 
the France of 1790, a monarchical country. Even after the 
removal of the King, a great deal remained which made 
the monarchy indestructible. Its existence for centuries, the 
growth of the country with it, its many pillars in the Up- 
per House, and in the hierarchy, and among the land-owning 
nobility. The head of it might be abolished, and tailors 
and shoemakers made into peers, but the old preponderance 
of the large estates was not thereby got rid of. The State 
Church might be deprived of its temporal and ecclesiastical 
privileges, yet it would still be one of the mightiest factors 
in the country, which could only be done away with by a 
massacre, and for all these elements the King's death was 
a day of excitement and encouragement. The great majority 
of the English nobles now formed a passive opposition, 
which would not lightly endanger themselves by violent 
measures, but bided their time, and gradually left Cromwell 
in isolation. It was the same with the English State Church, 
a power that might be repressed, but not crushed. The 
masses were never gained over to oppose her. I am, there- 
fore, of opinion that if by the death of the King, Cromwell 
thought to give a fatal blow to the monarchy, he utterly 
failed of his purpose ; he only conferred on it the glory of 
martyrdom, which caused its sins and mistakes to be for- 
gotten, and prepared for it a glorious restoration in the future. 
I do not imagine that the return of the Stuarts would have 
been greeted with such feverish enthusiasm had not the 
nation been burdened with the consciousness that there 
was a fearful deed between them, that they had to atone 
for the murder of a King. Just so I think that had it not 
been for the death of Louis XVI. the Bourbons would 
never have been restored in France. 

A republican constitution was introduced, but it had no 
foundation in the condition and sentiments of the people. 
Cromwell had to rule with the minority of the nation, as 
represented" by the fifty thousand Saints. It was the result 
of this false position that he projected schemes the impos- 



CROMWELL'S POSITION. 675 

sibility of which he best knew himself. It is noteworthy 
that he gradually withdrew from his own party as he more 
and more plainly saw its untenable position. 

But just then he was the only man who knew how to 
govern England. No other party had a more competent 
man, and no opponent had a party which could be com- 
pared to his. And the remarkable thing is how rapidly he 
adapted himself to his high position — how firmly the 
Huntingdonshire farmer maintained himself at the head 
of three kingdoms amidst perpetual struggles for existence. 

Above all, he restrained the excrescences which had 
appeared in this, as in every revolution. Even among this 
calm and sober people there were fanatics, and they were 
dangerous to Cromwell because they had in some measure 
infected the army. The stragglers in every great revolution 
— people who preached the abolition of marriage, property, 
and all social distinctions — appeared here also, but with 
this difference, that the crimes which generally go hand-in- 
hand with this nonsense did not prevail. The teaching of 
the Levellers* was nothing more than programme and 
attempt when Cromwell interfered. He had himself risen 
out of the revolution, held his authority as a fief from it, 
and yet he restrained it. This was the first test of his 
genius as a ruler, and in his situation it was more difficult 
than in the France of 1793. 

This symptom of beginning dissolution of his own party 
demanded all the more speedy interference, as the Royalist 
party was essentially strengthened since the death of Charles. 
Since the 30th of January, 1649, it had withdrawn in deep 
embitterment, but there were many indications that it was 
quietly gathering up its strength, and that when a favour- 
able opportunity occurred, it would not shun an open 
breach with Cromwell. It had been joined more and more 
by the Presbyterian party. It was the Presbyterians who 
had begun the contest with absolute monarchy, and carried 
it on for years ; but they had no more idea of putting an 
end to monarchy itself than of putting the King to death, 
and openly expressed their abhorrence of the act. Crom- 
well had never had much support in the provinces ; not a 
single county could be named in which the Independents 
ruled supreme. That independent spirit which had often 

* See Ranke, iii. 328. 



676 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

made itself heard against the King, without intending to 
impugn the monarchy itself, was sure now to be directed 
against Cromwell, and the more so as the new form of 
government was opposed to all the traditions of the country. 

Thus Cromwell could only rely for support upon the 
army of 50,000 men, and this was a two-edged weapon. 
With all its military discipline, this army was but an 
armed body of men who had their own views upon 
questions of Church and State, had maintained them in 
many a fearful trial, and probably intended to stand up for 
them in the future with equal fanaticism. Cromwell might 
dictate laws to Europe, but still he was bound to his 
50,000 Saints ; and he knew perfectly well that they 
were no cheaply-bought soldiery, who would have been just 
as ready to have obeyed their successful leader as king, but 
a republican party under arms, full of the wildest fanaticism. 
A time came when it was expected abroad, by the Stuarts, 
and even by the Royalists, that Cromwell would have 
accepted the Crown offered him by Parliament, but the 
50,000 Saints would not suffer it. They stood in the fore- 
ground, confronted him with the spectre of the beheaded 
King, and the old democratic banner — he declined the crown. 
More prudent than many others in a similar situation, he 
calculated his means, and took care not to go beyond 
them. 

He wished to establish a permanent civil administration, 
but his only support was a military force which did not 
comport with it j he wished, in fact, to form an English 
constitution which should reconcile the old aristocratic 
structure with the new democratic doctrines; but all his 
attempts were irustrated by his antecedents. He was him- 
self the man to shake off the narrow limits of his party, 
but they could not be persuaded to any compromise. The 
elements for a republic were wanting in the nation, and he 
was not the man for the monarchy. 

But amidst these vast difficulties he went his way with 
astonishing firmness, as if no care or cloud hung over him ; 
and we must continually recur to his modest origin to esti- 
mate rightly his extraordinary talents. To add to the 
internal difficulties of his position, Ireland was unsubdued, 
Scotland in open rebellion. The three kingdoms, therefore, 
were thoroughly at variance. In Scotland, the King's death 
had been the signal for the revolt of the Royalist party, and 



SUBJUGATION OF IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 677 

Cromwell had to wage two fearful wars before he could 
think of establishing a civil administration. He succeeded 
in doing what the Stuarts had never done ; he subjugated 
all three kingdoms, and ruled them as no King had done 
before him. 

Subjugation of Ireland and Scotland. — War with 
Holland. 

During the last four years, Ireland had been the scene of 
various widely-differing projects. In 1645, a Papal nuncio, 
Rinuccini, had arrived, who laboured with much success to 
promote a Catholic restoration and separation from Eng- 
land ; but after the death of the King, a Presbyterian, Lord- 
Lieutenant Ormond, had succeeded in bringing about a 
Royalist coalition between Catholics and Protestants, Eng- 
lish and Irish, to revenge themselves on the Independents 
for the death of Charles I. This coalition ruled the whole 
island, and was in possession of all the fortresses. 

In 1649, Cromwell set out to oppose them with a select 
troop of his veterans — as usual, after spiritual preparation 
for the enterprise. In this case, as against the Scots, his 
virtuosoship consisted in inflaming the religious enthusiasm 
of his Saints, and their hatred of royal tyranny to such a 
degree, that their feelings may be compared to the fatalistic 
valour of the Islam armies in their prime. 

The campaign against the Green Isle, which was begun 
in the middle of August, was a brilliant one. Three of the 
most important fortresses were taken on the first assault, 
and merciless sentence passed upon the vanquished enemy. 
Cromwell reports with pride how thousands of Irish were 
cut down for the greater glory of God. It seemed as if it 
was intended, not only to annihilate the enemy, but the 
whole population. Cromwell was summoned to Scotland 
before he could complete the subjection of the island ; it 
was left to his successor, Ireton. 

This much was immediately attained, Ormond's coalition 
was destroyed. The English went over in masses to the 
camp of the Independents, while the Irish alone were sub- 
jected to this war of extermination. Ireton behaved if 
possible more relentlessly than Cromwell ; and out of the 
victories of these two men arose the new administration of 
Ireland, that military dictatorship which distributed its 



678 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

fruitful lands among the Saints of the English army, and 
left nothing to the inhabitants but emigration or beggary. 

The ruling party of the Presbyterians in Scotland had 
replied to the news of the beheading of Charles I. by the 
proclamation of Charles II. as King of Great Britain, and 
at once entered into negotiations with him at the court of 
his brother-in-law, William II., in Holland. He responded 
to the appeal, but with mixed feelings, for the proffered 
crown was not to be had for nothing. He was to sign the 
Covenant, and renounce all those prerogatives for which his 
father had contended up to the time when he laid his head 
on the scaffold. In temporal matters he was to be subject 
to Parliament; in ecclesiastical ones to the General As- 
sembly. The one was as much opposed to his convictions 
as the other; but the Scots spared him no humiliations 
when he sought evasions. He had to sign a declaration, 
in which he condemned his parents for the idolatry which 
had called down the wrath of God upon their family. If 
he refused, he would be given up to the Independents, as 
his father had been. 

The Scotch now created an army, which was as purely 
Presbyterian as that of their enemies was Independent ; and 
in the summer of 1650 the war began. 

On his invasion of Scotland, Cromwell found himself at 
first in a situation similar to that of the army of the 
League in Bohemia, in 1620. He longed for a speedy de- 
cision; his army was suffering from sickness and famine, and 
the enemy was encamped behind fortified walls, without, at 
first, allowing himself to be seen in the open field. 

At the beginning of September, after a fruitless march to 
Edinburgh, he arrived with his famished, demoralised troops 
near Dunbar. On the heights near, lay the Scots, far superior 
in numbers. Their leader, Leslie, was justly of opinion that 
victory might be gained without a battle by gradually 
manoeuvring the Independents, who were not in possession 
of a single secure position, out of the country. But the 
General Assembly, in its short-sighted zeal, was of a dif 
ferent opinion. It had made the discovery around the green 
table that the enemy was caught in the trap, and that to let 
him escape would be to deprive God's cause of its laurels. 

So they gave Cromwell the satisfaction of offering battle. 
As they advanced, he exclaimed, " They are coming down ; 
Heaven has given them into our hands ! " 



VICTORY AT WORCESTER. 679 

The conflict began early in the morning of the 3rd of 
September. Before sunrise, Cromwell threw himselt with 
an irresistible bound upon the right wing of the enemy, 
while the left wing was held fast by a cannonade, and he 
gained a complete victory early in the day. 

The Scotch army was almost annihilated, and several 
towns — Edinburgh among them — fell into the hands of the 
victors. Cromwell was in the way to conquer the whole 
country ; he was already at Perth, in the heart of Scotland, 
when Charles II. formed the bold project of advancing with 
his army, which he had with difficulty re-assembled, to Eng- 
land, to threaten the enemy in the very seat of his power. 

On the 1st of August, 1651, he appeared with about 
1 1,000 men on the other side of the English boundary, 
expecting a general revolt of the discontented counties and 
their royalist aristocracy. But he was mistaken. Some 
isolated revolts did, indeed, take place, and he reached 
Worcester without meeting with any opposition; the city 
even welcomed him ; but the masses did not stir, and 
whenever there were any symptoms of it they were imme- 
diately put down by the Independents. 

Charles's cause was lost before Cromwell arrived. Crom- 
well again defeated him at Worcester, and the Royalist 
revolt was at an end. Scotland was quiet for a long time, 
though not really pacified. 

It is an honourable testimony to the steadfast character 
of the English people, that opposition did not cease to a 
system whose representative they admired, but the prin- 
ciples of which they condemned, in spite of all the suc- 
cesses of the Independents. Perhaps Cromwell's manifest 
inclination to elate the people by brilliant foreign enter- 
prises arose partly from this fact, for that had been the 
weak point with the Stuarts. His idea might be to divert 
the nation from its unsatisfactory domestic politics. 

This did not prevent his being daily threatened with 
attempts at assassination, so that he had to carry loaded 
pistols about him. But his foreign policy was of that 
nature, that even the sworn enemies of his system, if they 
had a spark of national pride, could not fail to be carried 
away with it, and to acknowledge that the great Puritan 
had accomplished what no legitimate monarch had done 
before him. After his arms had subjugated the three king- 
doms, he began to contend for the dominion of the seas, 



680 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

His brother in the faith, Robert Blake,* transferred the 
spirit of Puritan warfare to the navy, drove the royalist 
corsairs, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, before him, 
humbled Portugal, and, after a long struggle, conquered 
Holland — the great maritime state of the age. England 
entered into the northern coalition, joined France in an 
alliance against Spain, and soon there was no complica- 
tion in Europe, great or small, in which Cromwell did not 
take part. He made himself the guardian of definite in- 
terests on the Continent. Protestantism had a strong sup- 
port in him. He even interposed at Turin, to gain more 
liberty for some Waldensian communities in Savoy. Even 
Louis XIV. did not refuse his homage. It went against him 
to address the murderer of his uncle as " Mon cousin;" 
but he said to his minister, " And even if you had to call 
him ' Mon pere,' you would be obliged to do it, for he is 
the most powerful man in Europe.'' 

The diplomatic representatives of the young republic had 
not met with a friendly reception anywhere abroad ; but at 
the Hague and Madrid they had been received with open 
enmity. Scotch emigrants at the former had assassinated 
the English ambassador, Doreslaus, in May, 1649 ; and in 
the following year, at Madrid, an agent of Parliament had 
also been murdered by Englishmen as he sat with loaded 
pistols at table, and in both places public opinion had sided 
with the murderers. From the connection between the 
house of Orange and the Stuarts it was not to be expected, 
if the former retained any influence, that it would fall into 
the scale of the republic. While the Spanish Government 
interposed with some severity about the murder of the 
ambassador, the court of Orange became the centre of all 
sorts of intrigues against the republic, and permitted the 
new ambassador, St. John, to be publicly ill used. Although 
they had themselves risen out of revolution, the Orange 
family behaved as if they had been the oldest legitimate 
power in Europe. Cromwell had least of all expected this 
from Holland. He had projected an alliance, offensive 
and defensive, between the two republics, a common policy 
of their Protestant and republican interests against the 
encroaching system of absolute Catholic monarchy. 

* Robert Blake, Admiral and General -at- Sea : based on family and 
State papers. By Hepworth Dixon, 1858. 



THE NAVIGATION ACT. 68 1 

But there was no inclination for this in Holland ; they 
only beheld in Cromwell the dangerous rival on the seas, 
whose supremacy would only have been strengthened by 
such a league. 

The little naval war with Holland was already going on, 
when a step was taken by England of the utmost funda- 
mental and practical importance. 

The Navigation Act of 165 1, without mentioning Hol- 
land by name, struck a mortal blow at her commerce. It 
consisted, with very little exception, of the exchange of 
wares produced not at home but in foreign countries. The 
Navigation Act now ruled that all wares from abroad could 
only be carried in English ships, under pain of confiscation 
of the ship and cargo ; all goods from the Continent only in 
English ships, or in those of the country producing them. 

The Dutch colonial and transit trade was by this measure 
entirely cut off by the English market. This was the occa- 
sion of the following war; and so useful a measure was it 
for England, that it was only a few years ago that she dis- 
pensed with this crutch. There was no better means of 
establishing England's supremacy — maritime and com- 
mercial — and it did, in fact, lay the foundation of England's 
greatness. The Dutch still had the first fleet in the world, 
the best ships of war, the greatest naval heroes of the age ; 
and yet fate would have it that the admired admirals — Van 
Tromp, De Ruyter, De Witt — had to strike their sails before 
a hitherto unknown sailor, Robert Blake. 

The war began with the seizure of Dutch merchant 
ships, soon reaching the number of a thousand, and was 
decided by a number of naval engagements, greater or less, 
in the course of which the Dutch Armada was nearly an- 
nihilated. The three days' engagement between Portland 
and La Hogue, February, 1653, and that of two days near 
Dunkirk, June, 1653, showed that the supremacy of the 
young English fleet was indisputable. The Peace of April, 
1654, was dictated by Cromwell. Holland had to submit 
to the Navigation Act, to renounce the favour of the Stuarts, 
and attach itself to Cromwell's policy. 

These were feats which not only won transitory fame, 
they were lasting achievements ; from this naval war dates 
the position of the English fleet ; from this Peace the un- 
disputed sovereignty of England over the seas. 

Crowwell had formed a just estimate of the importance 

30* 



682 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

of this policy to his domestic system. He had no need to 
enter into many considerations by which legitimate powers 
were hampered, but he must not expose himself to discredit : 
his reputation was his sole title-deed ; it must be kept clear 
as the day. 

In all these difficult complications, by a singular com- 
bination of skill and good fortune, he was successful, with 
one exception, in the establishment of a permanent civil 
domestic administration. 

Cromwell's Constitutional Experiments. — Dismissal 
of the Long Parliament. — The Constitution of 
December, 1653. 

The " Commonwealth without King or Lords," as the 
Republic was officially styled, was at first governed by a 
Council of State composed of forty-one members, the 
majority of whom were in Parliament, and this ruled in 
accordance with the regulations of the Rump, the remnant 
of the Long Parliament. The Council of State was entirely 
in Cromwell's hands ; but the Rump Parliament chose to 
have a will of its own, and was a source of perpetual 
embarrassment to him. As long as the war had lasted 
against the Royalists in Scotland and Ireland, no great dis- 
cord had come to light. In February, 1652, both parties 
had joined in an amnesty, but soon decided differences 
arose out of various small discontents ; war broke out 
more and more between the army and Parliament. Parlia- 
ment wished to get rid of the inconvenient and now 
superfluous Saints, the army was tired of the everlasting 
speech-makers, and was disposed to disperse them by force, 
as they had done twice before. 

Parliament no longer enjoyed any credit either with the 
army or the nation. Even at the time when the Purge 
took place by means of the army, the doings of the 
assembly were universally hated, and the army's coup d'etat 
had been very popular. 

There were still fifty or sixty members of the old Parlia- 
ment left, and their harsh and self-seeking administration 
remained just as it was. A number of petitions poured in, 
general discontent made itself heard about the way in which 
members of Parliament managed the confiscated estates for 
their own benefit or that of their relations, the number of 



COMPLAINTS AGAINST PARLIAMENT. 683 

unworthy officials sent by Parliament into the provinces to 
look after the interests of their own relations, the injustice 
of the Presbyterians, &c. 

The army took up all these grievances, and, in stormy ad- 
dresses, demanded the dismissal of these wrong-headed repre- 
sentatives of the country. Cromwell permitted these senti- 
ments to increase till the question was ripe for interference. 

At first he tried in Parliament itself, with the help of the 
votes in his favour, to carry motions adapted to get rid of 
this inconvenient Assembly. On the 13th of November, 1652, 
he succeeded in this by a motion which set a definite limit 
to the existence of this everlasting Parliament. But they 
could not come to any agreement as to the laws by which 
the future House was to be constituted. 

The Assembly wished to insure the re-election of its 
members into the new Parliament, the army and Cromwell 
wished for an entirely new House. They were involved 
in a dispute ostensibly upon this point or that ; but really 
about the executive power and their own existence. 

The discussion of the election laws took a course which 
the army could but consider very unfavourable ; it began to 
consider that it was itself the only true Parliament, and 
had more than once decidedly interfered as such. 

In April, 1653, the breach took place. 

On receiving intelligence that the decisive question was to 
be discussed on the morning of the 20th of April, Cromwell 
entered Parliament, and had the approaches to the House 
occupied by the military. During the debate, he rose and 
gave the assembly a catalogue of its sins, and finally in- 
formed them that they were no longer a Parliament ; that 
they had proved themselves unworthy of the name, and 
must immediately leave the room. The doors then opened, 
the musketeers entered and dispersed the assembly. 

Cromwell now summoned an assembly of notables, as it 
would have been called in France, from amongst his own 
party. This was the Short, or Bare-bone Parliament, so called, 
which met at Whitehall, 144 in number, in July, 1653. 

The flower of the Independent sect had seats in it, and 
their doings were in unison with the spirit of this party. 
The Short Parliament does not deserve the sport which is 
made of it by nearly all parties in England.* Its attempts 

• For a just estimate of it, see Ranke, iii. 417. 



684 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

at reform were radical and thorough, and, though only 
partially successful, they were meant in earnest, and struck 
at all the real existing grievances in England. The attacks 
upon the chaos of English law and criminal proceedings, 
regulations about debtors, the establishment of the principle 
of civil marriage, the attack upon ecclesiastical tithes — all 
this proves a praiseworthy zeal to advance the interests of 
the nation. 

But these projects occasioned fearful embitterment 
amongst all classes of the people, and Cromwell saw that 
by changes so radical he would lose his last support in the 
nation ; but a programme was put forth for future times which 
was not in vain. 

Discord broke out in the assembly, and Cromwell's 
musketeers were again of service. A project for a consti- 
tution was put forth by a minority of the notables, who, 
however, had the army on its side, by which the assembly 
placed the supreme power in the hands of a Lord Pro- 
tector of the Republic, and conferred this dignity on 
Cromwell. 

The constitution of December, 1653, bears less the 
stamp of a revolutionary period than might have been 
expected. Circumstances like those which then existed are 
not generally adapted for the formation of good constitu- 
tions, but this one, considering the way in which it arose, 
was a very commendable work, and contains much that the 
Whigs to this day look upon as progress. 

The Lord Protectorate was a constitutional office, limited 
by the army and Parliament, and was specially distinguished 
from the monarchical dignity by the fact that it was not 
hereditary. 

Law and justice were to be administered in the name 
of the Lord Protector. He distributed offices and dignities, 
had the right of pardon, except for murder and high treason, 
and all confiscated property fell to him. In all other cases 
he was bound to the Council and Parliament. 

The Council of State consisted of twenty-five members, 
and was chiefly composed of military men. The Protector 
could neither nominate nor dismiss any member of it at his 
own pleasure. When vacancies occurred he had to choose 
in accordance with the proposals of the Council. It was 
only in unison with the Council that he could decide on 
questions of war and peace, or form alliances, dispose 0/ 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1 653. 685 

the army, or proclaim regulations as provisional laws. They 
also nominated the Lord Protector's successor. 

The power of making laws belonged exclusively to Par- 
liament, against the statutes of which the Protector's veto 
only had a delaying power; all bills were to receive his 
sanction, but if it was not given within twenty days, they 
became law without it. 

The standing army was to consist of 20,000 foot and 
10,000 horse. The Protector had an absolute veto upon 
the diminution of the means once voted for their support. 

Parliament was to meet regularly every three years. 
Should the Protector not keep to this rule, the Council was 
to summon it, and, in case they also neglected to do 
so, the sheriffs of the counties, under pain of high treason. 
During the first five months of its meeting an ordinary Par- 
liament could only be prorogued or dissolved with its own 
consent ; an extraordinary one, after three months. 

Parliament was to number four hundred members for 
England, thirty for Scotland, thirty for Ireland. The 
election laws secured, as far as possible, an equal repre- 
sentation of the classes possessing property ; every one had 
a vote, and was eligible for election who possessed ^200 
of movable or immovable property, except Catholics and 
rebels, who had fought against Parliament. 

Rotten boroughs were disfranchised. The counties had 
261 seats in Parliament, and were more uniformly repre- 
sented than has been the case before or since. The fault 
of this constitution was not that it was too liberal. The 
Whigs have often said, in relation to it, that their ideal also 
was a State without a House of Lords, or a State Church, 
based upon universal suffrage. No; the mistake was 
that, according to this constitution, Cromwell governed only 
with a democratic minority, while the powerful aristocratic 
factors of the previous Upper House and the offended State 
Church remained in the background. It was a question 
whether these elements were not strong enough, without 
taking part in Parliament, to render the whole system 
untenable by passive resistance. 

It was evidently a relief to Cromwell when the Constitu- 
tion was solemnly inaugurated. On the 16th of December, 
as holder of the new dignity, he received the homage of the 
heads of the State amidst great pomp, took the oath to the 
Constitution, and had the sword and great seal delivered to 



686 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

him. The ceremony was much like an enthronement : he 
was lord of the three kingdoms, as no king had been before 
him ; the title onl) was wanting to make him the equal of 
sovereigns. 

Then followed the glorious year 1654 : the brilliant peace 
with Holland, the humiliation of Portugal, the treaties with 
Sweden and Denmark, by which a projected coalition 
against England was frustrated ; in short, the beginning of 
a commanding position on the Continent. 

Cromwell now summoned his first constitutional Parlia- 
ment for the 3rd of September, the anniversary of the victories 
at Dunbar and Worcester. 

The elections were perfectly free ; there was no limitation 
imposed, or even allowable influence used by the Govern- 
ment; and as the Royalists, either from shyness or timidity, 
kept in the background, the votes were given to purely 
democratic elements. 

The Parliament of 1654-5 and the Military 
Government. 

On September 3rd, 1654, Parliament met. Cromwell 
delivered a proud speech. None of his utterances of this 
kind are of the stiff and formal character of modern times ; 
they were the effusions of a man, not of the schools, but 
of deeds, who, as he himself once said, considered it to be 
his mission to " speak things." He often lost himself in 
misty reflections, or in edifying exposition of passages of 
Scripture ; but on all decisive questions, the sound sense of 
this wonderfully-gifted man was conspicuous. It was espe- 
cially the case with this speech. 

Cromwell spoke of the errors of the last Parliament, of 
the desires of the Levellers, who wanted to turn things 
upside down, and who therefore could not be allowed to 
continue in power. 

He said : — " As to the authority in the nation — to the 
ranks and orders of men, whereby England hath been 
known for hundreds of years — the ' natural ' magistracy 
of the nation, was it not almost trampled underfoot by 
men of levelling principles ? I beseech you, did not that 
levelling principle tend to the reducing of all to an equality? 
which I think, if obtained, would not have lasted long' 
And that the thing did and might well extend far is mani- 



THE PARLIAMENT OF 1 654-5. 687 

fest, because it was a pleasing voice to all poor men, and 
truly not unwelcome to all bad men Such consider- 
ations and pretensions to ' liberty of conscience,' what are 
they leading us toward ? Liberty of conscience and liberty 
of the subject, — two as glorious things to be contended for 
as any that God hath given us ; yet both these abused for 
the patronising of villanies ! Insomuch, that it hath been 
an ordinary thing to affirm, ' that the restraining of 
such pernicious notions was not in the magistrate's power.' 
.... So, likewise, the axe was laid to the root of the 
ministry. ' It was Antichristian ; it was Babylonish,' said 
they. . . . The former extremity we suffered under was, 
that no man, though he had never so good a testimony, 
though he had received gifts from Christ, might preach 
unless ordained. So now, I think, we are at the other 
extremity, when many affirm that he who is ordained hath 
a nullity, so that he ought not to preach, or not be 
heard." * 

Against these and other ruinous excrescences a remedy 
had been found in the Constitution which might speak for 
itself, but which must not be interfered with. 

He then glanced at the foreign relations of the Republic, 
mentioned the honourable treaties which had been con- 
cluded with Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Portugal, 
while a similar one with France was in prospect. " And," 
he said, " 1 daresay there is not a nation in Europe but is 
very willing to ask a good understanding with you." He 
concluded, among other things, with the words, " As I said 
before, a door of hope is open. And I may say this to 
you : If the Lord's blessing and his presence go along with 
the management of affairs at this meeting, you will be 
enabled to put the top-stone to the work, and make this 
nation happy." t 

At first Cromwell's hearers were affected by his lofty 
modesty ; but then the democratic spirit of the majority 
felt repulsed by the advice to abide by what had been 
accomplished, and to build upon the foundation already 
laid. 

His opinion was that the Constitution, without reference 
to its origin, should now be expressly acknowledged as 

* Cromwell's Letters awl Speeches, vol. iii. p. 21, &c. (abridged.) 
t Ibid., p. 35. 



088 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

legal, and that the previous fruitless strife should not begin 
again. But the democrats were of a different opinion. 
They had not made the Constitution ; consequently, it was 
not binding on them, and they rode their principles to 
death in a way that is never more dangerous than at such 
times. 

Cromwell had hoped, with their help, to put an end to 
the revolution; instead of that, they renewed the strife 
which had given rise to it. He now delivered a second 
warning speech. He reminded them that he had not 
called himself to the office of Protector, but that he had 
been called to it by the will of God and of the nation ; 
that the constitution was not his work, but the work of the 
army. He says, " The soldiery were a very considerable 
part of these nations, especially all government being dis- 
solved, and nothing to keep things in order but the sword ! 
And yet they — which many histories will not parallel — even 
they were desirous that things might come to a consistency; 
and arbitrariness be taken away, and the government be 
put into the hands of a person limited and bounded, as in 
the Act of Settlement, whom they distrusted the least, and 
loved not the worst." 

" I have to say : — The wilful throwing away of this 
government, such as it is, so owned by God, so approved 
by men, were a thing which, — and in reference not to my 
good, but to the good of these nations and of posterity, — I 
can sooner be willing to be rolled into my grave and buried 
with infamy than I can give my consent unto. You have 
been called hither to save a nation. Through the blessing 
of God, our enemies were hopeless and scattered. We had 
peace at home. These things we had a few days ago when 
you came hither. And now ? And now to have our peace 
and interest thus shaken, and ourselves rendered hereby 
almost the scorn and contempt of those strangers who are 
amongst us to negotiate their masters' affairs. To give 
them opportunity to see our nakedness as they do, a people 
that have been unhinged this twelve-years day, and are un- 
hinged still ? — as if scattering, division, and confusion came 
upon us like things we desired. 

" Who can answer for these things to God or to men — to 
the people who sent you hither, who looked for nothing but 
peace and quietness, and rest and settlement? When we- 
come to give an account to them, we shall have it to say. 



CROMWELL AND PARLIAMENT. 689 

' Oh, we quarrelled for the liberty of England? The liberty 
of England, the liberty of the people, is made so safe by 
this Act of Settlement, that it will speak for itself." * 

In conclusion, he demanded from all the members a writ- 
ten declaration that they acknowledged the Constitution as 
legal, a proviso that was specially made in the writ? for 
future representatives. The majority signed, but the pro- 
ceedings did not take a more favourable course. The 
assembly persisted in not considering itself a legislative 
assembly, but as one whose object it was to form a con- 
stitution in placing the sovereignty of the people above 
every other consideration, thus again rendering the existing 
state of things entirely uncertain. 

On the 22nd of January, 1655, he made a third speech, 
and represented to them the fruitlessness of their contention 
about trifles. " Instead of peace and settlement — weeds, 
nettles, briers, and thorns have thriven under your shadow ! 
I say, the enemies of the peace of these nations abroad and 
at home, the discontented humours throughout these 
nations, by which products I think no man will grudge to 
call by that name, of briers and thorns, — they have nourished 
themselves under your shadow! They have taken their 
opportunities from your sitting to conclude that there would 
be no settlement ? " t 

After a long and severe lecture in this tone he dissolved 
the Parliament. 

The Royalists looked on with no little satisfaction. To 
see the great Independent at variance with his own party, 
the new order of things overturned at the very outset, was 
more than they had hoped for. They thought that the 
harvest was ripe. Conspiracies were set on foot, a great 
revolt was prepared, when Cromwell interposed with his 
usual energy and usual success. The democrats also began 
to stir ; an adventurer preached in the streets of London 
that the traitor should be got rid of, and a pamphlet came 
out called " Killing no Murder."* 

But Cromwell was a match for his enemies, and it is 
interesting to observe how he proceeds. The Royalist 
leaders were treated with all the severity of the law ; they 
were executed, and their misguided accomplices were 

* Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, extract from Speech IIL, p. 40 
+ Letters nnd Speeches, p. 76. 

44 



690 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

treated with comparative leniency ; precisely the way in 
which a ruler in such circumstances should act. Against 
his old democratic foes he could not restrain a certain 
amount of irritation ; they were tried, imprisoned, and after- 
wards privately released. 

A more strict domestic administration was introduced. 
The country was divided into thirteen districts, each under 
the command of a Major-general, who was intrusted with 
extensive authority. 

In each of these thirteen districts a militia was levied 
under command of the Major-general, and supported by an 
income-tax of a tenth imposed upon the Royalists. This 
militia maintained order and security in town and country, 
and put a strict moral discipline in force after the fashion of 
Calvinistic Geneva. Themselves subjected to a relentless 
discipline, they saw that the laws against drunkenness, 
cursing, and swearing were strictly carried out. All public- 
houses not absolutely indispensable were suppressed, horse- 
racing, cock-fighting, and plays forbidden. 

Each district thus had its own independent militia, and a 
trustworthy general as governor ; such a government could 
not be surprised by any coup d'etat from the right or the left. 

To Cromwell's honour it must be said that, under the 
form of military despotism, he ruled as liberally as possible, 
and that the warfare which he was obliged to wage to the 
end did not make him hardened or gloomy. 

Above all things, under him the nation enjoyed a liberty 
of conscience which was before unknown ; this raises him 
high above all parties. 

In 1656, he could say to Parliament, " Our practice since 
the last Parliament hath been to let all this nation see that 
whatever pretensions to religion would continue quiet, 
peaceable, they should enjoy conscience and liberty to 
themselves ; and not to make religion a pretence for arms 
and blood. If men will profess,— be they those under 
Baptism, be they those of the Independent judgment 
simply, or of the Presbyterian judgment, — in the name of 
God encourage them, countenance them ; so long as they 
do plainly continue to be thankful to God, and to make use 
of the liberty given them to enjoy their own consciences 1 
Men who believe in Jesus Christ, and walking in a profes- 
sion answerable to that faith, who live upon the grace of 
God — they are the members of Jesus Christ, and are to Him 



EFFECT OF SUCCESS ON CROMWELL. 69 1 

the apple of his eye. Whoever hath this Faith, let his form 
be what it will, he walking peaceably, without prejudice to 
others under other forms ; it is a debt due to God and 
Christ. If a man of one form will be trampling upon the 
heels of another form ; if an Independent, for example, will 
despise him who is under Baptism, I will not suffer it in 
him. If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist judgment 
shall be censuring the Godly ministers of the nation who 
profess under that of Independency, or if those that profess 
under Presbytery shall be reproaching, traducing, and cen- 
suring of them as I would not be willing to see the day 
when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery, to 
impose upon the consciences of others — so I will not 
endure any reproach to them. But God give us hearts and 
spirits to keep things equal. I have had some boxes on 
the ear and rebukes — on the one hand and the other ; some 
censuring me for Presbytery; others as an inletter to all 
the sects and heresies of the nation. I have borne my 
reproach; but I have, through God's mercy, not been un- 
happy in hindering any one religion to impose upon 
another." * 

Cromwell did not abolish the strict laws against the 
Catholics, because as a party backed by the Jesuits they 
could but be always the enemies of his system ; but he 
administered them leniently, or did not enforce them when 
the Catholics fulfilled the duties of good citizens. Jews, 
also, and Quakers, enjoyed his clemency, which was quite 
in contrast to the general practice of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. 

It also appeared to be his wish to show, by the liberty of 
the press and the election laws, that in spite of his usurped 
power, and the severe forms under which it was often 
exercised, England enjoyed more liberty under him than 
under many a government before him and around him. 
He often used to say to the Democrats, " Patience ; when 
I am no more you will see what sort of liberty the Stuarts 
will give you." 

Characters like his, amidst such bitter experience, often 
become harsh, defiant, and misanthropic; but Cromwell 
seemed to be softened rather than embittered by it ; and v. 
is one of the great features in the character of the man, 

* Letters and Speeches, vol. in. p. 181. 



692 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

that, rising to European greatness from a modest position, he 
proved himself no less able to bear success than misfortune 
and trial. 

All that is great and glorious in a gifted nation found in 
him a zealous protector ; learning flourished under him, and 
the great poet and thinker, John Milton, was among his 
most intimate friends. 

Parliament of 1656-7. — Proposal of a Monarchy. — 
Cromwell's Death, September 3RD, 1658. 

A new Parliament became necessary to provide means 
for the war which Cromwell had undertaken, in conjunction 
with France, against Spain. He had caused Penn to set sail 
for America, and Blake to the Spanish waters, with despotic 
powers. The Spaniards had laid an embargo on the Eng- 
lish ships, and thereby inflicted great injury on the com- 
merce of England before any compensating advantage 
had accrued ; for the immense sacrifices demanded by the 
war, neither the ordinary resources, nor the tax upon the 
Royalists, sufficed. He therefore resolved to summon a 
new Parliament. 

He hoped that having taken a lesson from the fate of its 
predecessor, it would take a view of things more favourable 
to him. The elections did in fact turn out better, and even 
the Royalists began to be more reconciled both to him and 
his system. 

Parliament was opened on the 17th of September, 1656. 
It was of importance for the money question that just then 
Blake and Montague had the good fortune to capture a 
fleet of Spanish ships in Portuguese waters, laden with 
silver, which yielded a booty of a million sterling. 

The house was divided into two very decided parties — a 
republican-military and a constitutional one ; which last, in 
order to put an end to uncertainty, perpetual conspiracies and 
outrages, projected the establishment of a new monarchy. 

At the beginning of the year 1657, the proposal was 
made that the Lord Protector should conform to the an- 
cient monarchical constitution, and exchange the title of a 
republican official for that of King. The proposal came 
from Cromwell's friends ; and in spite of the loud murmurs 
of the majors-general, the motion was carried for a change 
in the constitution towards a mon archical form. 



PROPOSAL OF A MONARCHY. 693 

A monarchy could not be created on the basis of the 
democratic constitution of 1653. It was necessary to go 
further — to restore the Upper House, to try to attract once 
more the aristocratic elements in the country ; and when 
the great landowning interest was again represented in the 
government, it might be hoped that the monarchy itself 
would take root. This was also Cromwell's idea. He had 
succeeded in much in which previous governments had 
failed. If he could now succeed also in giving fresh sup- 
port to his work by restoring their rights to the old conser- 
vative elements — the nobles and the State Church, thereby 
reconciling them to himself and his system, he might hope 
that it was founded for future times. 

Let it not be supposed that this attempt arose from the 
petty human vanity of the parvenu. Among all his mo- 
tives, this had less weight than any. A remarkable change 
had taken place within him. He had learnt much from 
recent experience ; he had learnt that it was impossible to 
govern this country in peace with a purely democratic 
representation and a purely military administration, if the 
great landowning interest, which ruled the counties socially,, 
maintained a hostile or passive attitude. He therefore 
wished to come to terms with these sulky foes, and the 
contemporary sources of information assure us that had he 
succeeded in this, the restoration of the Stuarts would have 
been impossible. The new monarchy would have been 
reconciled with the ancient conditions of law and power. 

Cromwell had never been in a more delicate position. 
On the one hand, he saw before him the highest aim of 
political ambition ; on the other, a step which might rob 
him of the fruits of the labours of his life. 

The obscurity of his first utterances on the subject of 
this proposal are perfectly intelligible. It is plain that 
he wishes to gain time, to take counsel with himself; and 
what he said in confidence, proved the real indecision of 
his state of mind. When the mover came and told him 
that the matter looked well, Cromwell laughed, and said, 
" Thou foolish fellow ! " 

He cared but little for Parliament, but a great deal for 
the army, and there was no doubt whatever as to the 
opinion of that. When he sounded his generals, he heard 
but one voice. His old comrades would not hear of a king. 
" A king," they said, " is a tyrant ; we will not have one." 



694 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

The aversion of the army, therefore, upon whose 
shoulders he had risen, was indubitable. He did not 
thwart it ; it might be contrary to his own wishes, but he 
knew what the decision must be. Many a great man in a 
similar position has not been able to withstand the tempta- 
tion of sacrificing the firm foundation of his power to a 
more brilliant position. Cromwell was great enough to 
withstand it, to resolve not to break with those who had 
raised him up. He knew how little the transitory friend- 
ship of the Royalists would avail him,* whom the first 
breeze would probably blow from his side ; and rightly 
estimated that the defection of his Saints would be of far 
greater importance. He therefore declined the crown, and 
said in his answer that he would be content to remain the 
first constable of the nation. On the other hand, he pre- 
vailed upon Parliament to permit the establishment of an 
Upper House, and only accepted as his prerogative the 
favour of naming his successor. 

Thus a monarchy was averted, but an important step 
towards it was taken by the creation of a House of Lords in 
order to reconcile the Conservatives to the revolution. 

It was difficult to fill the House in a satisfactory manner ; 
the great families kept aloof, and in their place relations 
and complaisant partisans had to be chosen from among 
the lawyers and officers ; and many of the latter had been 
draymen, tailors, or other artisans. Worse than this was 
the conflict which broke out between the two Houses im- 
mediately after they assembled, on the 20th of January, 1658, 
by which the very foundations of the Cromwellian constitu- 
tion were again endangered. The Commons vehemently 
declared that there was no House of Lords, it had been 
legally abolished, and every one of them had taken the 
oath to the " Commonwealth without King or House of 
Lords." In vain Cromwell endeavoured to mediate; the 
discord could not be healed, and on the 4th of February, 
1658, he was compelled to dissolve this Parliament also. 
He did it with the words, " And let God judge between 
you and me." 

More successful than this attempt to close the revolution 
by the construction of a peaceful constitution, was the Pro< 
tector's foreign policy. 

* For their opinion see the report of Giavarina. — Ranke, iii. 538. 



CROMWELL* S DEATH. 695 

The defensive alliance with France had, in March, 1657, 
assumed an offensive character. Mardyke and Dunkirk 
were conquered by the English, Jamaica maintained against 
the Spaniards. The star of the English arms, the European 
position of the Protector were in their zenith, when, on 
September 3rd, an eventful day for his destiny, he died. 

His death softened many a bitter feeling, people now 
knew what they had lost. England had never been more 
powerful than under him, she had become the first empire 
in Europe; even Louis XIV. and Mazarin bowed down 
before him ; all the great powers of the Continent felt his 
influence, which was not only the result of English com- 
merce, but of the great modern ideas of liberty of con- 
science and the Reformation. 

Apart from Oliver's past history, no man ever occupied a 
throne more worthily than he did ; and never did a revo- 
lutionary usurper so spare the germs of civil liberty. 
This was the salvation of England : she would have bled 
to death under the Stuarts, if the traces of his labours 
could have been so speedily lost ; and it was his memory 
which finally ruined them. 

Calmly and with undisputed right, like a legitimate suc- 
cessor to a throne, Cromwell's son, Richard, assumed the 
office of Protector ; but his government was weak and 
incompetent in every respect. Having early lost his energy 
through a dissolute youth, he preferred the pleasures of life 
to the difficult calling of a ruler. As things would not go 
on as he wished of themselves, in May, 1659, he resigned. 
The generals who governed the districts of the country 
divided the inheritance ; and a state of things ensued, in 
which the oppression of usurpation was felt tenfold, and 
which yet did not bring with it the greatness and security 
for the sake of which so much had been forgiven to Crom- 
well. This anarchical despotism of the generals, the con- 
flicts between the republican and royalist parties, was the 
best preparation for a state of mind to which the restora- 
tion of the Stuarts seemed like redemption. Amidst the 
acclamations of the people, and the gloomy silence of the 
Independents, Charles II. was recalled, the defunct Rump 
Parliament brought to life again ; and the same Parliament 
which had once decreed the fall of the Stuarts now sealed 
their restoration. 



INDEX. 



Adrian XI., 89. 

Alba, Duke of, in the Nether- 
lands, 316, 317. 

, Retreat of, 328. 

Alexander of Parma, 340. 
Anhalt, Wilhelm von, 5. 
Anjou, Duke of, 377. 
Augsburg, Confession of, 122. 

, Diet of, 120. 

, Interim of, 215. 

, Peace of, 403-405. 

Austria, Don John of, 338-340. 

Bacon, Lord, Trial of, 609. 
Baner, 526-528, 538. 
Barcelona, Peace of, 112. 
Barebone Parliament, 683. 
Barlaymont, 296, 307. 
Barwald, Treaty 01, 466. 
Battle of Breitenfeld, 470. 

r of Copraby Bridge, 658. 

of Dunbar, 678. 

of Edge Hill, 653. 

of Liitzen, 480. 

of Marston Moor, 658. 

of Mooker Haide, 332. 

of Miihlberg, 213. 

of Naseby, 664. 

of Newbury, 654. 

of Nordlingen, 516, 517. 

of Pavia, 58. 

of Prague, 423. 

of Worcester, 679. 

Bavaria, Duke Maximilian of, 410- 

412. 
Beggars, 306. 
Beggars' League, 311. 
Bernhard of Weimar, 502-505, 

5 2 2-525. 528-536. 



Beza, 246, 359. 

Blake, Robert, 680, 681, 

Bohemia, Persecution in, 425, 

426. 

, War in, 609, 610. 

Bothwell, Earl of, 587-589. 
Breitenfield, Battle of, 470. 
Brunswick, Duke Henry of, 192. 
Buckingham, Duke of, 614, 619, 

620, 623. 
Bull against Luther, 27. 

Cajetan, 8, 19. 

at Augsburg, 31. 

Calais, Loss of, 572. 
Calmar, Union of, 143, 
Calvin, 241. 

, his Youth, 241. 

, his Institutio Christianas 

Religionis, 243. 

, Exile and Recall, 248. 

, his Ecclesiastical State of 

Geneva, 248-251. 
Calvinism, Significance of, 253- 

255- 
Campaign of 1521-26, 55. 
Carlstadt, 22. 
Catherine de Medici, 346, 347, 

349. 355- 359- 374- 
Charles V., 32-39. 

, Eleciion of, 35. 

, Election Bond, 36. 

, Character and Policy, 

40, 41. 

, Defeat of, 233. 

, Abdication of, 235. 

, Cloister Life of, 236. 

Charles IX., 356, 364, 368. 
, Death of, 374. 



6 9 8 



INDEX, 



Charles IX. of Sweden, 450, 45 1. 
Charles I., 616-672. 
, Breach with Parlia- 
ment, 641. 

, in Scotland, 641. 

, sold to the Scotch, 665. 

-, Escape to the Isle of 



Wight, 668. 

, Trial of, 671. 

, Execution of, 672. 

-, Results of his Death, 



673- 



and Louis XVI., Paral- 
lel between, 673. 

Christian II. of Denmark, 146- 
150. 

Christian III. of Denmark, 152. 

Christian IV. of Denmark, 430, 

431- 
Church of England, 576, 577. 

, The French, 349. 

Civil War, The, 651-672. 

Clement VII., no. 

Cognac, Treaty of, 1 10. 

Coligny, 366-369. 

College des Trois Langues, 350. 

Commonwealth, The, 673-695. 

Conference of German and Swiss 

Reformers at Marburg, 119. 
Confession of Augsburg, 122. 
Congress of Minister and Osna- 

bruck, 547. 
, Territorial 

Questions at, 549, 550. 
■ , Religious 

Questions at, 553-556. 

— , Political 



Regulations at, 556-559. 
Conspiracy of Amboise, 353, 354. 
Constitution of 1653, 685. 

Ratisbon, 91. 

Convention of Leipzig, 467, 468. 
Copraby Bridge, Battle of, 658. 
Cotta, Conrad, 5. 
Council of Blood, 319, 320. 
of Trent, 218-220, 258- 

264. 
Covenant, The, 633. 
Cranmer, 563. 

, Death of, 571. 

Cromwell, 658-695. 

, Overtures of Charles 

I. to, 668. 



Cromwell, his " Saints," 662, 
665, 666, 674, 676, 682. 

, Letter to Hammond, 
670. 

and Louis XIV., 680. 

,as Protector, 684, 695. 

Speeches of, 686, 

Proposal to make 
King, 692, 694. 

-, his Foreign Policy, 



688, 690. 



694. 



Religious Liberty 



under, 691. 

-, Death of, 695. 



Cromwell, Richard, 695. 

D'Albret, Jeanne, 353, 358. 
D'Ancre, Marshal, 478. 
Davison, Secretary, 598. 
De Donatione Constantini, 79. 
Del Beneficio di Giesu Cristo, 257, 

274. 
Diet of Augsburg, 1 20. 

of Nuremberg, 70. 

of Ratisbon, 542. 

of Worms, 42-47. 

Donauworth, 410-412. 
Dunbar, Battle of, 678. 

Edge Hill, Battle of, 653. 
Edict of Amboise, 362. 

— of Longjumeaux, 363. 

of Nantes, 394, 395. 

- of Restitution, 438-441. 

of St. Germain, 359. 

Edinburgh, Riots at, 632. 
Edward VI., 562-565. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 574-602. 

■ , Estimate of, 574 

, her Attitude to- 
wards Catholicism, 575, 576. 
, her Treatment 



of Mary Stuart, 590. 

-, Plots against, 



594-596. 



Tilbury, 600. 



-, her Speech at 
-, Death of, 602. 



Eric XTV. of Sweden, 445, 446. 

Fairfax, 654, 657, 663, 665. 
Farel, 246. 



INDEX. 



699 



Ferdinand II., 416-420, 545. 
Five Members, arrest of the, 

647. 
France, growth of power in, 47-51. 
Francis I., 32-35, 51-55. 
Francis II., 352, 355. 
Franz von Sickingen, 81-85. 
his Attack 



on Treves, 85. 
86. 



», his Death, 



Frederic V. of the Palatinate, 

420-423, 609, 610. 
Frederick the Wise, 27, 32, 45. 
French Protestantism, 352, 353. 

General Assembly, The, 633. 
German Empire, Decay of the, 

556-559. 
Ghent, Pacification of, 337, 338. 
Granvella, Cardinal, 294-295, 302, 

3<>3- 
Great Remonstrance, The, 645, 

646. 
Grey, Lady Jane, 564, 565. 
Guise, Mary of, 348. 
Guises, The, 348. 
Gunpowder Plot, 606. 
Gustavus Adolphus, 450-482. 

, in Germany, 



458-461. 



473-476. 



-, Projects of, 
-, Death of, 



480-482. 
Gustavus Vasa, 153-162. 

Hampden, John, 629, 630. 
Heilbronn Scheme, 100. 
Henry II. of France, 345. 
Henry IH. of France, 375-377, 

379, 38o- 

, Murder of, 381. 

Henry IV. of France, 382-395. 

, his Conversion to Ca- 
tholicism, 391-393. 

-, Assassination of, 401. 



Henry VIII., 166-168. 

and Luther, 169. 

■ and the Marriage 

Question, 169-173. 

-Confiscationof Church 



Property under, 176. 



Henry VIII., Confusion left by, 

561. 

, his Marriages, 561. 

Herrman von Wied, 194. 
High Commission, The, 627. 
Holland, War with, 680, 681. 
Horn, Admiral, 306, 310. 
Huguenots, The, 358. 
Humanism in France, 350. 
Humanists, the German, 25, 77. 
Huss, 24, 26. 

Imperial Chamber, 68-70. 
Independents, The, 656, 657. 
Indulgences, 16, 17. 
Inquisition, 273-275. 

in the Netherlands, 299, 

300. 
Interim of Augsburg, 215. 
Italy and the Reformation, 256. 

James I., 603-615. 

, his Character, 604. 

, Death of, 615. 

Jesuitism, 265. 

Jesuits, Order of, 268-273. 

John Frederick, of Saxony, 212, 

213' 

, Treatment of, by 

Charles V., 222. 
John HI. of Sweden, 446, 449. 
John of Leyden, 184. 
John of Werth, 526, 527. 
Justification by Faith, 8-10. 

Killing no Murder, 689. 
Klesel, Cardinal, 417, 418. 
Knox, John, 580-582. 

La Rochelle, 620. 

Laud, Archbishop, 625-627. 

Laurentius Valla, 79. 

Leipzig, Convention of, 467, 468. 

Leo X., 19, 89. 

Leyden, Siege of, 333. 

Long Parliament, 636-638. 

— — , Dismissal of 

the, 683. 
Louis of Nassau, 305. 

Death of, 332. 

Louis XIII., 487-489. 

Louis XTV., 549. 

1 oyola, Ignatius, 266, 267. 



700 



INDEX 



Luther, 2. 

, his Youth, 3-5. 

, at Sisenach, 5. 

, at Erfurt, 6, 7. 

, at "Wittenberg, 13. 

, his Preaching, 14. 

, his Journey to Rome, 14. 

, his Theses, 18. 

, Discussion with Cajetan, 

20. 
, his Appeal to the Pope, 



, Discussion with Eck, at 

Leipzig, 23. 

, his Address to the Ger- 
man Nobles, 27. 

, at Worms, 4.3, 44. 

, at the Wartburg, 60. 

, his Translation of the 

Bible, 60-65. 

, and the Radicals, 65-68. 

, his Attitude in the Pea- 
sants' War, 102. 

, his Death, 198. 

Liitzen, Battle of, 480. 

Madrid, Peace of, 106. 
Magdeburg, Siege of, 469. 
Magna Charta, 164. 
Mansfeld, General, 435. 
Margaret of Parma, 293, 307-309, 

3*3> 3 r 4- 
Marston Moor, Battle of, 658. 
Mary of Medici, 484. 
Mary, Queen, 565-573. 

, Estimate of, 565. 

, Catholic Reaction 

under, 567-569. 

-, Marriage with Philip 



II., 570. 



-, Death of, 573. 
Mary Stuart, 348, 578, 579. 
, in Scotland, 583- 

her Marriage with 



Darnley, 585. 



Imprisonment in 

England, 589, 590. 

, Trial of, 597. 

v Execution of, 598. 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 

366, 369-374. 593- 
< in the Valteline, 498. 



Massacre of Vassy, 360. 

of Protestants in Ire- 
land, 643. 

Matthias, Emperor, 413. 

Maurice of Saxony, 200-209. 

, Distrust of, 212, 

217. 

, his Treachery to 

the Emperor, 226-231. 

Maximilian I., 29-32. 

Maximilian II., 407. 

Melancthon, 26. 

Miltitz, 20-22. 

Monopolies, 608. 

Mooker Haide, Battle of, 332. 

Miihlberg, Battle of, 213. 

Munzer, Thomas, 102. 

Mutiny of the Army against Par- 
liament, 667. 

Naseby, Battle of, 664. 
Navigation Act, 681. 
Netherlands, Revolt of the, 288. 
Newbury, Battle of, 654. 
Nordlingen, Battle of, 516, 517. 
Norfolk, Duke of, his Conspiracy, 

59i, 592. 
Northumberland, Duke of, 562. 
Nuremberg, Peace of, 124. 

Orange, William of, 290-292, 304, 
306, 310-312, 321, 322, 330. 

, as Stadtholder, 342. 

, Estimate of, 342. 

. Assassination, 343. 

Otto von Pack, 113. 
Oxenstierna, 481, 501, 504, 505. 

Pardon Tickets, 17. 
Parliamentary Army, The, 649. 
Paul IV., Pope, 572. 
Pavia, Battle of, 58. 
Peace of Augsburg, 403-405. 

Barcelona, 112. 

Madrid, 106. 

Nuremberg, 124. 

Prague, 520-522. 

St Germain en Laye 

3 6 3- 

Westphalia, 546-559. 

Peasantry, Oppression of, 93. 

Peasants' War, 92. 

, Twelve Articles, 96. 



INDEX. 



701 



Peasants, Defeat of the, 104. 
Petition of Right, 622. 
Philip of Hesse, 121, 187. 

, Arrest of, 214. 

, his Base Treat- 
ment of two princes, 222-225. 
Philip II., 276, 279-281. 

- , his Policy, 282. 

Pilsen, Bond of, 511, 512. 

Plot of Savage and Babington, 

596- 
Pole, Cardinal, 568. 
Pragmatic Sanction, 221. 
Prague, Peace of, 520-522. 
Presbyterians, 655. 
Pride's Purge, 670. 
Protectorate, The, 562. 
Protest of Parliament, 162 1, 612. 
Protestantism in Austria, 407. 

Pym, 635. 



Ratisbon, Convention of, 91. 
Reformation in England, comple- 
tion of, 560. 
under Edward VI., 



563-565. 

580. 



in Scotland, 579, 

- in Switzerland, 125. 
-, Results of up to 



1555, 236-240. 
Reformed Zurich, 136. 
Religious Wars in France, 345- 

401. 
Republic, End of the, 695. 
Requesens y Zuniga, 331. 
, his Death, 

335- 
Restoration in Wiii temberg, 182, 

183. 
Reuchlin, 19, 77. 
Revolt of the Netherlands, 285. 
Richelieu, Cardinal, 465,466, 488- 

492. 
, his policy, 

492-498. 
Riots at Edinburgh, 632. 
Rizzio, David, 586, 587. 
Royal Charter of Bohemia, 409, 

410. 
Rudolph II., 408-410, 413. 
Rudy aid, Speeches of, 617, 621. 



St. Germain en Laye, Peace of, 

363- „ , o 

Saxony, Duke George of, 189. 

Schmalkald League, 123, 180, 182. 

War, 196. 

Sea Beggars, 326, 329, 333. 

Seventeen Provinces of the Nether- 
lands, 285-290. 

Seymour, Duke of Somerset, 562. 

Ship Money, 628. 

Siege of Leyden, 333. 

Magdeburg, 469. 

Six Articles of 1539 in England, 
178. 

Sorbonne, The, 350, 351. 

Spain under Charles V. and 
Philip II., 280-282. 

Spanish Armada, 598-601. 

Marriage Scheme, 613, 

614. 

Star Chamber, The, 6a6, 627. 

Stemmata, 378, 379. 

Stettin, Occupation of, 464. 

Strafford, Earl of, 625. 

, Trial and Execution of, 

638-640. 

Stuarts, The, 583. 

Subjugation of Ireland and Scot- 
land, 677, 678. 

Sully, 396-400. 

Tax of 10th Penny, 324. 
Tetzel, II. 

Thirty Years' War, First Phase 
of, 4I5-443- 

-, Second Phase 



of, 444-482. 



of, 483-536. 
545- 



during, 557. 



-, Third Phase 
-, End of, 537- 

-, Barbarities 
Devastation 



caused by, 557. 
Tonnage and Poundage, 618, 619, 

623. 
Torstenson, 539, 540. 
Transubstantiation, J 19. 
Treaty of Barwald, 466. 

Cappel, 140. 

Cognac, no. 

Turks before Vienna, 1 i-6t 



'J02 



INDEX. 



Ulrich von Hutten, 25, 72-75. 
, his Writings, 

7b. 
, his Philippics 

against Ulrich of Wurtemberg, 

76. 

, as a Reformer, 



79- 



80. 



and Luther, 
-, his Death, 87. 



Ulrich of Wurtemberg, Duke, 181. 
Ultimatum of Parliament, 562. 
Utretch, Union of, 341, 342. 

Valois, House of, 346, 347. 
Viglius, 295, 303. 
Vioct, 246. 



Wallenstein, 431-438, 441-443, 

505-SI3. 

, Dismissal of, 442. 

, Recall of, 477, 

478. 
, Assassination of, 

512, 513. 
War of the three Henrys, 378. 
Westphalia, Peace of, 262-279. 
Winter Kingdom, The, 420-423. 
Worcester, Battle of, 679. 
Wrangel, General, 542. 

Znaym, Treaty of, 478, 479. 
Zurich and the Forest Cantons, 

138. 
Zwingli, 125-130. 
, Death of, 14 1. 



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