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 EPOCHS OF HISTORY 
 
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 THE COMMERCE OF CHRISTENDOM 
 
 THE MAIN LI N ES OF TRADE: 
 
 THE DISTRICT OF THE HANSE 
 & FREE GERMAN TOWNS 
 
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 MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS 
 
 ^N^Oollen Blue ^^plied with Wool from E7>{/hi7ul, Spain 
 and IlenM. and Corn from France and the 
 ports on the Baltic — Eu'ijortiurj Woollen 
 goorln all over Phrisie.iidom. 
 
 Linen Green in clone cStfn0B*ion vAth the Woollen. 
 
 Silk Yellow ^''^ Italy., fyicily, Catalonia, Lyons. <£:o. 
 These DiMricts supplied with Woollen 
 goods from the north. lAf sea and by the 
 Overland. Comtnerce through Germany 
 to Venice.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 Epochs of History 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A. 
 
 THE ERA 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 
 
 F. SEEBOHM
 
 EPOCHS SELECTED. 
 
 THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. By F. Seebohm, 
 Author of ' The Oxford Reformers,' with an appendix by Prof Geo. 
 P. FiSHEK, of Yale College. — Now ready. 
 
 THE CRUSADES. By Rev. G. W. Cox, M.A., Author of the 
 ' History of Greece.' — Now ready. 
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 161S-1648. By Samuel Rawson Gar- 
 diner.— Now ready. 
 
 THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK; with the CONQUEST 
 and LOSS of FRANCE. By James Gairdnek of the Public Record 
 Office. — N0IV ready. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES; CHARLES theGREAT 
 and ALFRED; the HISTORY of ENGLAND in its connexion 
 with that of EUROPE in the NINTH CENTURY. By the Very 
 Rev. R. ^V. Church, M. A., Dean of St. Paul's. 
 
 THE NORMAN KINGS AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. By the Rev. 
 A. H. Johnson, M.A. 
 
 THE EARLY PLANTAGENETS and their relation to the HISTORY 
 of EUROPE ; the foundation and growth of CONSTITUTIONAL 
 GOVERNMENT. By the Rev. V/illiam Stubbs, M.A., &c. Regius 
 Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, 
 
 EDWARD III. By the Rev. W. Warburton, M.A. 
 
 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. By the Rev. M. Creighton, M.A. 
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE PURITAN REVOLUTION. By J. Langton 
 Sanford, Author of ' Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion.' 
 
 THE FALL OF THE STUARTS; and WESTERN EUROPE from 
 1678101697. By the Rev. Edward Hale, M.A., Assistant-Master 
 at Eton. 
 
 THE AGE OF ANNIE. By Edward E. Morris, M.A., Editorof the 
 
 Series. 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT and the SEVEN YEARS' WAR. By F. 
 
 \V. Longman, of Ealliol College, Oxford. 
 
 EACH I VOL. i6mO., CLOTH, UNIFORM. PRICE, $I.OO. 
 
 New York : SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO.
 
 THE ERA 
 
 PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 
 
 FREDERIC SEEBOHM 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 'THE OXFORD REFORMERS — COLET, ERASMUS, AND MORE' 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 With Notes on Books in English relating to the Reformation, 
 
 by Geo. P. Fisher, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical 
 
 History in Yale College, author of "History 
 
 of the Reformation," &c. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, AND CO. 
 
 1871.
 
 Jas. B. Rodgers Co., 
 
 Electrotype'rs and Printers, 
 
 52 & 54 N. Sixth St., 
 
 PHlLiDKLPHIA.
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 STATE OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 rh^ E. 
 
 (a) The Small Extent of Christendom. — Smaller than it once haa 
 been. The Mohammedan power checked in the West, biif oncr>.>ach- 
 ing from the East. Kinship between Christians, Mohammedsns, 
 and Jews, but they hate one another I 
 
 (J)) The Signs of New Life in Christendom. — Influence of the cru- 
 saders. Inventions. Fall of Constantinople. Revival of learning. 
 Printing. 3 
 
 (c) The Widening of Christetidoni. — Moors driven out of Spain. Dis- 
 covery of America. New way to East Indies. Men's minds prepared 
 for great events. 4 
 
 (</) The New Era one of Progress in Ci^'ilization. — What civiliza- 
 tion IS. The old Roman civilization. Its main vice Modern 
 civilization. Its strength. The crisis of the struggle between the 
 old and the new order of things. Plan of this book. ... 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE POWERS BELONGING TO THE OLD ORDER OP THINGS, 
 AND GOING our. 
 
 (a) The Ecclesiastical System. — The Ecclesiastical Empire. Rome 
 its capital. Independent of the civil power. The monks. Power 
 of the ecclesiastical system, by its influence over the people, by its 
 wealth, by the monopoly of learning and political influence, which 
 all centred in Rome. This Empire will be broken up in the Era 
 
 (b) The Scholastic Syston. The learned world talked and wrote in 
 Latin, and belonged to the clergy. This made learning scholastic, 
 shackled science, and religion also, and kept them from the com- 
 mon people. Necessity of mental freedom. The Universities. 
 Students pass ffom one to another. The result of this in the days 
 of Wiclif Will be repeated in the new Era. The work of the Er^
 
 vi Summary. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 (c) The Feudal System and the Forces -which were breaking it up. — 
 It divided countries into petty lordships. Decay of the feudal 
 system. Subjection of feudal lords to the Crown. Increasing 
 power of the Crown. The growth of commerce. Trade of the 
 Mediterranean. The manufacturing districts. The fisheries. The 
 commerce of the Hanse towns. Bruges and Antwerp the central 
 marts of commerce. Lines of maritime, inland, and overland trade. 
 The towns had niostly got free. Why the towns hated feudalism 
 and favored the Crown. The feudal peasantry once were more free 
 than afterwards under the feudal system. Where the central power 
 was weakest, feudal serfdom lingered longest. The towns and 
 commerce favoured freedom of the peasantry . . . .16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MODERN NATIONS WHICH WERE RISING INTO POWER. 
 
 (a) Italy. — Italy not a united nation. Rome, according to Machiavelli, 
 the cause of her disunity. Rome a centre of rottenness. Dante 
 and Petrarch described her vices. Recent Popes bad men. Alex- 
 ander VI. and Caesar Borgia. Their crimes. Effect of Papal 
 wickedness. Main divisions of Italy. Papal States. Venice. 
 Florence. Milan. Naples. Papal politics the ruin of Italy by 
 promoting invasion by France and Spain. 92 
 
 {b) Germany. — Germany had not yet attained national unity. The 
 emperor claimed to be Caesar and King of Rome. His claim to 
 universal empire very shadowy. How elected. The feudal cere- 
 mony. There were no imperial domains. Very little imperial 
 power. The Emperor Maximilian powerful as head of the Aus- 
 trian House of Hapsburg. Charles V. powerful because of his Aus- 
 trian and Spanish dominions. The Diets had no power to enforce 
 their decrees. The feudal system still prevailed. Subdivision of 
 lordships by law of inheritance. Constant petty feuds. Lawless- 
 ness of the knights. The towns of Germany. Their leagues for 
 mutal defence. Want of a central power to maintain the public 
 peace. The condition of the peasantry growing harder and harder 
 for want of a central power. History of the German " Bauer." 
 Rebellion his only remedy ......... 2J 
 
 (<:) Spain. — Spain was becoming the first power in Europe. Power of 
 the nobles. Driven into the north by the Moors. Reconquest of 
 Spain from the Moors, except Granada which held out. Kingdoms 
 of Castile and Arragon united under Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain 
 thenceforth tends to become an absolute monarchy. Conquest of 
 Granada. Ferdinand's policy to complete Spain on the map. Co- 
 lumbus. Foreign policy. Royal marriages. Success of these 
 alliances. Domestic policy. Subjugation of the nobles. The 
 Inquisition. Banishment of the Jews. Independent policy towards 
 Rome. Colonial policy. Christianity introduced into the New 
 World, but slavery with it 35 
 
 id) France. — How all France had grown into one nation. France 
 claimed Milan, and Naples also This union of .all France the re- 
 sult of the crown being hereditary, primogeniture, and intermarriage 
 with the royal family The towns. Final struggle of the Crown 
 with Burgundy. English conquests at an end. The English wars 
 had helped to unite the nation and increase the power of the Crown ; 
 but there were seeds of disunion within. The crown hid become
 
 Summary. vii 
 
 absolute. Royal taxes without consent of the people. Royal stand- 
 ing army. The noblesse a privileged untaxed caste. The peasantry 
 not serfs, but taxed, paying rents, and tithes, and taille. Their 
 grievances. The middle-class leave the country for the towns. Se- 
 paration of classes the main vice in French polity. Love of foreign 
 wars the chief vice in her policy. ...... 41 
 
 (t) England. — The English nation had for long been consolidated. The 
 nobility not a caste. Importance of the middle classes of citizens and 
 yeomen. The Crown and all classes subject to the laws. The 
 government a constitutional monarchy, i. e. the king could make no 
 new laws and levy no taxes without consent of parliament. The 
 ecclesiastics not altogether Englishmen, but held large possessions. 
 The Pope also drew revenues from England. The peasantry had got 
 free from feudal servitude and were becoming a wage-earning class. 
 Freedom did not necessarily make them materially better off. They 
 had no share in the government, but there was nothing in the laws 
 to prevent their getting it. Henry VII. was a Welshman, and 
 landed in Wales. His throne precarious. Other claimants. Lam- 
 bert Simnel. Perkin Warbeck. Henrj' VII.'s foreign policy was 
 alliance with Spain. Hence the marriage with Catherine of Arragon. 
 Henry VII.'s domestic policy. His position as regards Parliament. 
 His minister. Cardinal Morton. Order maintained. Middle class 
 favoured. The way paved for the union of England and Scotland. 
 The Welsh finally conciliated, and England's colonial empire begun. 
 The tomb of Henry VII 48 
 
 , CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NEED OF REFORM AND DANGER OF REVOLUTION. 
 
 (a) The Necessity for Reform. — Italy and Germany not yet united na- 
 tions. The lack of international peace and justice. The serfdom 
 of the German peasantry still continued. The ecclesiastical and 
 scholastic systems needed reform. The alternatives were reform or 
 revolution. ........... 
 
 (i) The Train laid/or Rciwlution. — Chiefly among the German peas- 
 antry. Their ecclesiastical as well as feudal grievances. Contem- 
 porary testimony. Successful rebellion of the Swiss in 1315, and the 
 peasants of the Graubund 1441 — 71. Unsuccessful rebellion of the 
 Lollards and Hussite wars 1415 — 1436. Threats of rebellion in Fran- 
 conia in 1476. The Bundschiih. Rebellion in Kempten 1492. In 
 Elsass 1493. Both again in 1501-2. In the Black Forest 1512-13, 
 under Joss Fritz. In 1514 in Wiirtemberg and the Austrian Alps. 
 The Swabian league of nobles against the peasants. Far and wide 
 the train was laid for future revolution. The train laid not where 
 serfdom was at its worst, but where freedom was nearest in sight.
 
 viii Summary. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND REFORM AT FLORENCE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (a) The Revivers of Learning at Florence. — The Republic of Flor- 
 ence. Power in the hands of the Medici. Cosmo de' Medici 1389 
 -1464. Lorenzo de' Medici 1448-1492. Florence the Modern Athens. 
 Michael Angelo. The Platonic Academy, Ficino, Politian, and 
 Pico della Mirandola. Semi pagan tendencies of the revival of 
 learning. ........... 68 
 
 (b) Tlie great Florentine Refortner, Girolamo Savonarola, 1452-1498. 
 — He becomes a religious reformer. Made Prior of St. Mark at 
 Florence. Stirs up in the people the spirit of reform and freedom 
 Death of Lorenzo and Innocent VHL The French Livasion of 
 Italy. The Medici expelled. The republic restored. Savonarola's 
 reforms. He becomes fanatical. Is martyred by order of Pope 
 Alexander VI. .......... 71 
 
 (c) Savonarola's Influence on the Revivers of Learning. — His in- 
 fluence over Pico, Politian, and Ficino. ...... 74 
 
 (d) Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527. — Secretary to the Republic at 
 Florence, and then serves the Medici. Wrifes ' The Prince,' in 
 which he codifies the vicious maxims of Italian policy since called 
 
 ' Machiavellian.' 75 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE OXFORD REFORMERS. 
 
 (a) The Spirit of Revival of Learning and Reform is carried frotn 
 Italy to Oxford. — Distinction and connection between the revival 
 of learning and Religious reform. Both against the Scholastic 
 system. The reform movement crushed at Florence. Revivers of 
 learning at Oxford. Grocyn and Linacre go to Italy, and return to 
 Oxford. John Colet does the same. Colet unites the spirit of the 
 new learning and religious reform. ...... 76 
 
 {J>) Colet, JMore and Erasmus join in fellow-ivork. — Lectures on St. 
 Paul's Epistles at Oxford. Attacks the schoolmen. He urges 
 also the need of ecclesiastical reform. Colet attracts disciples and 
 fellow workers. Thomas'More. Erasmus. Early life of Erasmus. 
 He comes to Oxford. Makes friends with Colet and Thomas More. 
 Comes under Colet's influence. ....... 78 
 
 (r) The Oxford students are scattered till the Accession of Henry 
 VIII. — Exactions of Empson and Dudley. More offends Henry 
 VII. The circle of Oxford students formed again in London. . 82 
 
 (d) On the accession of Henry VIII. they covunence their fellolu- 
 %vork. Hopes on the accession of Henry VIII. The Oxford stu- 
 dents in Court favour. Erasmus Greek professor at Cambridge. 84 
 
 [e) Erasmus ^urites his ' Praise of Folly.' — Satire on the scholastic 
 theologians, monks, and popes . 85
 
 Summary. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (/) Colet founds St. PauPs School. — It is a school of the new learning, 
 and excites the malice of men of the old school. His sermon on 
 Ecclesiastical Reform. Escapes from a charge of heresy. . . 86 
 
 {g) The Continental liars of Henry V^III., 1511-1512. — The Holy 
 Alliance against France. Henry \ IH.'s first campaign. Wolsey. 
 Julius II. succeeded by Leo X. Henry persists in invading France. 
 Gains the Battle of the Spurs. Scotch invasion of England. Battle 
 of Flodden. Henry VIII. now joins France against Spain. Louis 
 XII. succeeded by Francis I. Francis I invades Italy and re- 
 covers Milan. Again Spain and England combine against France. 
 These wars of kings against the interests of Europe, and tended to 
 make kings absolute. The e.xample of France. Narrow escape of 
 England. Colet preaches against the wars. Erasmus is against 
 them too, and also More. . • 88 
 
 (Ji) The kind of Refor7n aimed at by the Oxford Reformers. — Eras- 
 mus made a Councillor of Prince Charles. More drawn into Henry 
 VIIl.'s service. The 'Christian Prince ' of Erasmus. More's 
 ' Utopia.' They entered thoroughly into the spirit of modern 
 civilization. The character of their religious reform. The New 
 Testament of Erasmus. The kind of ecclesiastical reform urged by 
 the Oxford Reformers. They aimed at a broad and tolerant Church, 
 and were likely to oppose schism 93 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WITTENBERG REFORMERS. 
 
 (a) Martin Luther becomes, a Reformer. — Luther born 1483. Sent to 
 school and to the University of Erfurt. Becomes a monk. Adopts 
 the theology of St. Augustine, and in this differed from the O.xford 
 Reformers. He removes to Wittenberg. Visits Rome. Reads the 
 New Testament of Erasmus and finds out the difference in their 
 theology. . 97 
 
 (b) The Sale of Indulgences. — Leo X.'s scheme to get money by in- 
 dulgences. Offers princes a share in the spoil. Erasmus writes 
 bitterly against it, but pope and kings will not listen. . . 100 
 
 (c) Luther's Attack on Indulgences. — Tetzel comes near Wittenberg 
 selling Indulgences. Luther's theses against indulgences. He is 
 backed by the Elector of Saxony. Philip Melanchthon comes to 
 Wittenberg. loi 
 
 (d) The Election of Charles V. to the Empire {\^\r)). — Death of Maxi- 
 milian, Candidates for the Empire. Charles V. elected through 
 the influence of the Elector of Saxony. Extent of Charles V.'s 
 rule. ............ 103 
 
 (f) Luther' s Breach with Rome. — Luther finds himself a Hussite. 
 Rumoured Papal Bull against Luther. Luther's pamphlet to the 
 nobility of the German nation, and another on the ' Babylonish 
 Captivity of the Church.' The Bull arrives. .... 106 
 
 (J) The Elector of Saxony consults Erasvius, Dec 6, 1520. — Aleander, 
 the Pope's nuncio, tries to win over the Elector of Saxony. The 
 Elector asks advice of Erasmus. The advice of Erasmus. The 
 Elector follows it, and urges moderation on Luther. . . . 108 
 
 'ig) Luther burns the Pope' s Bull, Dec. 10, 1520, notwithstanding the 
 cautions of the Elector. Erasmus fears revolution. . . . iji
 
 X Summary. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CRISIS. — REFORM OR REVOLUTION. — REFORM REFUSED 
 BY THE RULING POWERS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (a) Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen. — The Robin Hoods 
 of Germany side with Luther. Ulrich von Hutten. His satire 
 upon Rome. His German popular rhymes against Rome. De- 
 mands freedom. Small chances of Reform. .... 113 
 
 {b) The Diet 0/ Worms meets zSth yanuary, 1521. — ' Agenda' at the 
 Diet of Worms : to stop private war, to settle disputes, to provide 
 central power in the Emperor's absence, and to take notice of the 
 books of Martin Luther. No hope for the peasantry. Brief from 
 Rome about Luther. The Electors hesitate to sanction the edict 
 against Luther. Hutten adjures the Emperor not to yield to Rome. 
 Luther summoned to Worms. . . ..... 115 
 
 (c) Luther s yourney to H'ortns (i $21). Luther's Antithesis of Christ 
 and Antichrist. Luther sets off for Worms. His journey. Popular 
 excitement. Luther's heroic firmness. He enters Worms. . 115 
 
 (</) Luther be/ore the Diet. — Luther's first appearance before the Diet. 
 He asks for time to consider his answer. They give him till the 
 next day. Excitement in Worms, Luther's second appearance 
 before the Diet. His speech. Repeats his speech in Latin. Re- 
 fuses to recant. 1 he Emperor decides against Luther. Threats of 
 Revolution. The Electors urge delay. Luther leaves Worms. 
 What Luther did at Worms for Germany and for Christendom. 127 
 
 (e) Edict Against Luther. — Fears of the papal party. Rumours of 
 Luther's capture. The Elector of Saxony leaves Worms. Treaty 
 between Charles V. and the Pope. The Edict issued against Lu- 
 ther. Letter from Valdez, the Emperor's secretary. . . . 129 
 
 (/) Political Reasons for the Decision at Worms. — Rivalship between 
 Spain and France. Intrigues of princes. France the common 
 enemy of the Pope, Spain, and England. Reform refused by the 
 ruling powers from political motives. 132 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 (a) The Prophets of Revolution. — Popular feeling against the Edict. 
 Luther in the Wartburg. In his absence wilder spirits take the lead. 
 The prophets of Zwickau. Luther comes back to Wittenberg and 
 confronts the prophets. His common sense prevails. The prophets 
 driven from Wittenberg. Mijnzer becomes the prophet of the peas- 
 antry. 13s 
 
 {b) The End of Sickingen and Hutten. — The Council of Regency 
 under the Elector of Saxony strives to avert the storm, but meets 
 with opposition. Franz von Sickingen takes to the sword, but is 
 defeated and killed. Hutten's death. The peasantry get nothing 
 from the knights 138 
 
 U) The Peasants' War. — Carlstadt and MUnzer stir up rebelli'^n. In- 
 surrection of the peasantry in Swabia. Their twelve articles. Not 
 likely to be granted by either Pope, nobles, rr Luther. Swabian 
 peasants crushed in April, 1525. Insurrection on the Neckar, 
 April, 1525. '1 he peasants' revenge for Swabian slaughters. 'I'he 
 retaliation of the nobles. May, 1525. Insurrection in Franc^nia. 
 Revolution in the towns of Franconia. Diary of a citizen of Roth?
 
 Summary. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 enburg. Insurrection in Elsass'and Lorraine put down, May, 1525. 
 Insurrection in Bavaria, the Tyrol, and Carinthia. MUnzer heads 
 an insurrection in Thuringia. His mad proclamation. Death of 
 Miinzer. The attitude of Luther during the Peasants' War. Who 
 was really to blame? Death of the Elector of Saxony, May, 1525. 140 
 (d) The Sack 0/ Rome, 1527.— Alliance of the Pope and the Emperor 
 against France. Henry VIII. joins it. Pope Leo X. dies, 1521. 
 Adrian VI. and Clement VII. Pope, 1523. Duke of Bourbon joins 
 the league against France. Francis I. crosses the Alps, but made 
 prisoner at the battle of Pavia. Rupture between Charles V. and 
 the Pope. Result of the Diet of Spires. March of a German 
 army on Rome. The Sack of Rome. Result of the Papal policy. 154 
 
 PART III. 
 
 RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 REVOLTS FROM ROME, 
 (l.) IN SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY. 
 
 (a) Meaning of Revolt from Rome. — Apolitical change. The Teutonic 
 nations revolted ; the Romanic nations remained under Rome. In 
 some nations there was a national revolt ; in some divided action 
 and civil wars. .......... 160 
 
 ((5) The Revolt in Szuitzerland. — Switzerland divided into cantons. 
 Civil power vested in the people. Ulrich Zwingle the Swiss re- 
 former, .settles at Zurich. Zurich assumes to itself ecclesiastical 
 powers. Berne does the same soon after. Civil war. Peace of 
 Cappel. Characte- of Zwingle. Luther quarrels with Zwingle. 163 
 
 (c) 'The Revolt in Germany. — The freedom of the German peasantry 
 postponed for ten generations. The Diet of Spires, 1526, left each 
 state to take its own course about Luther. Hence arose Protestant 
 states, with national churches free from Rome, while others re- 
 mained Catholic. The second Diet of Spires, 1529, reversed the 
 decision, notwithstanding the protest of the Protestant ^x\\\c<fs. 
 Civil war averted by the Turks' attack on Vienna. The Turks 
 driven back. Charles V. turned again upon German heretics. Diet 
 
 of Augsburg. The ' Augsburg Confession.' Protestant princes 
 
 form the league of Schmalkald ibr mutual defence. Civil war post- 
 poned during Luther's life, but it begins soon after his death. 
 Spanish conquest of Germany. Revolt of the Protestant princes. 
 Defeat of Charles V.; his abdication and death. The Peace of 
 Augsburg (1555) and its rule of mock toleration. Evils brought 
 upon Germany by Lharles V.'s policy 166
 
 Summary. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 REVOLT OF ENGLAND FROM ROME. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 {a) Its Political Character . — In England the revolt from Rome was 
 
 national and came at first from political causes. . . . .171 
 
 (b) Redsotis for Henry I'/IL's Loyalty to Koine. — Henry VIII. de- 
 fends the divine authority of the Pope, and writes a book against 
 Luther in 1521. He tells Sir Thomas More of a secret reason for 
 it. Henry VIII.'s marriage with Catherine of Arragon. Secret 
 doubts about its validity. Its unsatisfactory beginning. Its validity 
 rested on the divine authority of the Pope. Henry VIII.'s anxiety 
 about it and the succession. His anxiety to keep on good terms 
 with the Pope and Charles V. Execution of the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham for having his eye upon the succession to the throne. . 172 
 
 (c) Sir Thomas More dejends Henry VHI. against Luther. — Effect 
 of the knowledge of Henrj' VIII.'s secret reasons on Sir Thomas 
 More's mind. Reaction in the minds of Erasmus and More against 
 Luther. ........... 176 
 
 {d) Reasons /or Henry VIII.'s Change o_f Policy. — Wolsey the great 
 war minister of Henry VIIL More opposed to the wars with 
 France. Charles V.'s treachery, and the Pope's. Henry VIII.'s 
 foreign policy all at sea again. ...... 178 
 
 {e) The Crisis. — Henry VIII. deterjiiines upon the Divorce Jroni 
 Catherine 0/ Arragon. — Results of breach with Spain. Political 
 reasons for the divorce from Catherine. Wolsey tries to get the 
 Pope to grant a divorce, but fails. Henry VIII. takes the matter 
 into his own hands. ......... 180 
 
 {/) Fall 0/ Wolsey (i^zg-i^-^o.) 181 
 
 (g) The Parliament o_fi^2')-i^2f'. Rez'olt 0/ England/rom Rome. — 
 Sir Thomas More lord chancellor. Parliament of 1529 a crisis in 
 English history, like the Diet of Worms in German history. Com- 
 plaints against the clergy and ecclesiastical abuses. Wolsey's at- 
 tempts at ecclesiastical reform under papal authority. The king 
 and parliament now take up the matter. Petition of the Commons 
 against ecclesiastical grievances. Practical reforms. The divorce 
 onestion laid before the universities by Cranmer. Farther reforms. 
 "The king declared supreme head of the l.hurch of England instead 
 of the Pope. 'Ihe king marries Annie Boleyn. The revolt of Eng- 
 land from Rome is now completed. ...... 182 
 
 (A) Heresy still punished in England. — There had been no change of 
 religious creed. Heretics still persecuted, and among them Tindal, 
 tl>e translator of the New festament. Sir Thomas More's zeal 
 against heresy. 185 
 
 (/) .Execution of Sir Thomas More. — More himself has to suffer for 
 conscience' sake. More and Fisher sent to the Tower. Execution of 
 Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher. 186 
 
 {k) Death of Erasmus in 1536. — Review of the results produced by the 
 
 work of the Oxford Reformers. ...... 190 
 
 (/) Dissolution o/the Monasteries and Reform of the Universities. — 
 Ihe work set a-going by the Oxford Reformers goes on. Cromwell 
 now ecclesiastical minister of Henry VIII., inquires into the state 
 of the monasteries. Dissolution of the monasteries and destruction 
 of shrines. Reform of the Universities. Parliament of 1529-36 
 dissolved. Tindal's translation of the Bible sanctioned. Martyrdom 
 of Tindal 191 
 
 (w) Later Years of Henry VIII. — Execution of Anne Boleyn. Henry 
 VIII. marries Jane Seymour. A Catholic rebellion breaks out in 
 the North, fomented by the Pope and Keginald Pole, but is quelled.
 
 Summary. xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Birth of Edward VI. and death of the queen. Henrj- VIII. marries 
 Anne of Clcves, but does not like her. Cromwell sacrificed to get 
 rid of her. Reconciliation with Charles V. Henry VIII. 's last two 
 marriages. Alliance with Spain, and wars with France. Want of 
 money. Death of Henry VlII. in 1547. Reform goes on during 
 the reign of Edward VI. Catholic reaction under Queen Mary. 
 England becomes finally Protestant under Queen Elizabeth. . 193 
 (») Injluetire 0/ Henry I'lII.'s Reign on the English Constitution. — 
 How far the constitution was maintained. The revolt from Rome 
 accomplished by constitutional means. The power of Parliament 
 maintained. It preserved its control over taxation, and over the 
 making of new laws. On the whole, the Parliaments of Henrj' VIII. 
 deserve well of Englishmen. Unj\ist state trials the chief blot on 
 the reign of Henry VIII. England fared much better than France 
 and Spain. 196 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 REVOLT OF DENMARK AND SWEDEN AND (lATER) OF 
 THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 (a) Dentnark and Siveden. — Both Denmark and Sweden throw off the 
 yoke of Chris tian II. and then separate. The Swedes elect Gus- 
 tavus Vasa king. Sweden, under him, becomes a Protestant nation. 
 Denmark also, under her new king, becomes Protestant. . . 199 
 
 ((5) The Revolt oj the A'ethe?-lands.—Po\\cy of Philip II. to subject the 
 Netherlanders to Spain and to Rome. They revolt, and the ' United 
 Provinces ' become a Protestant nation. ..... 200 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE GENEVAN REFORMERS. 
 
 (a) Rise of a Nenv School of Reform. — A Protestant movement which 
 was not national, but which influenced the Protestants of France, 
 England, Scotland, and America more than Luther did. . . zoi 
 
 {b) John Calvin. — His 'Institutes ' gave logical form to the ' Calvinistic 
 doctrines. Calvin settles at Geneva. Becomes a kind of dictator 
 of the Genevan state. His severe discipline and intolerance. He 
 founds schools . 202 
 
 (c) fnfuence of the Gene^/an School on Western Protestantism. — The 
 French Huguenots, the Scotch Covenanters, the English Puritans, 
 the Pilgritn Fathers of New England, all of the Genevan school. 
 Their historical importance, and influence on national character. 204 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 REFORM WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 (a) The Italian Reformers. — Efforts at Reform within the Church. 
 Improvement in the character of Popes. The Mediating Reformers 
 of Italy. Valdez, Pole, Contarini. Paul III. makes some of them 
 Cardinals. Chances of a reconciliation with Protestants under 
 Paul III. Contarini and Melanchthon try to makepeace at the 
 Diet of Ratisbon.but the Pope draws back, and Luther also. 
 Everything left over till the Council of Trent 203
 
 xiv Su77imary. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (b) The 71011) Order of the Society of Jeszis. — Ignatius Loyola, a Span- 
 ish knight. He is wounded in 1521. Resolves to become a general 
 of an army of saints instead of soldieis. His austerities. Resolves 
 to found the ' Order of Jesus.' To prepare himself, studies at the 
 University of Paris. At Paris meets Francis Xavier. Xavier 
 becomes a disciple, and the great Jesuit missionary to the Indies, 
 China and Japan. Character of the Jesuits. Their success and 
 influence. Causes of their ultimate tmpopularity. . . . 208 
 
 (c) 1 he Council of Trent, — Council of Trent meets in 1545. The 
 Jesuits prevail over the mediating Reformers. The Inquisition 
 introduced into Rome by Caraffa, afterwards Pope Paul IV. The 
 Council adjourned till 1525, under Paul IV. The Roman Catholic 
 Church reformed in morals, but made more rigid than ever in creed. 212 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF SPAIN AND PRANCE. 
 
 (a) The Future of Spain. — Growth of absolute monarchy in Spain. 
 Philip II. in close league with the Papacy. Seeks to establish 
 Spanish and Papal supremacy together. Fatal results of his policy. 214 
 
 (b) The Future of France. — Everything sacrificed to gratily the am- 
 bition of the absolute monarchy under Francis I. The curse which 
 the absolute monarchy was to France. Struggle with the Hugue- 
 nots in France, Massacre ot St. Bartholomew in 1572. Toleration 
 for a time under the Edict of Nantes. Its revocation in 1685, and 
 the banishment of the Huguenots, who came to England. . 216 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GENERAL RESULTS OF THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 
 
 (a) On the Groiuth of National Life. — Influence of the Protestant 
 Revolution on national life — where it succeeded — where it failed — 
 where it partly failed and partly succeeded. .... 218 
 
 {b) On the Relations of Nations to each other. — Small improvement in 
 the dealings between Nations. The O.xford Reforniers not listened 
 to in this. Henry VIII. the last English king to dream of recover- 
 ing France. Hugo Grotius afterwards urges International reform. 219 
 
 (f) Infiience on the Growth of National Laneuages and Literature. 
 — Luther's Bible and Hymns fix the character of the German lan- 
 guage. Influence of Calvin's writings on the French language. 
 Influence of Tin^al's New Testament on the English version of the 
 Bible, and so upon the English language. ..... 220 
 
 (dj Effects in Stitnulating National Education.- — Schools founded by 
 Savonarola, Colet, Luther, Calvin, Kno.x, the Pilgrim Fathers, and 
 the Jesuits. ........... 222 
 
 ( e) Influence on Domestic Life — Political importance of domestic life. 
 Danger to it from the existence in a country of large celibate classes. 
 Dissolution of monasteries and permission to the clergy to marry, a 
 ^^~~Step gained for modern civilization. ...... 223 
 
 \\f) Influence on Popular Religion. — The Protestant movement popu- 
 larized religion, and strengthened individual conviction. . . 223
 
 Su?nmary. xv 
 
 {g) Watii of Process in Toleration. — Change from Catholic to Pro- 
 testant creeds was change from one rigid scholastic creed to others, 
 equally rigid. Small connection between claiming freedom of 
 thought and conceding it to others. Persecution did not make the 
 persecuted tolerant. Yet toleration was after all one of the ulti- 
 mate results of the Protestant revolution. ..... 225 
 
 (A) The Causes luhy the Success 0/ the Era ivas so partial. — Progress 
 must be gradual. Limited by the range of knowledge. Limited 
 view of the universe. The earth still thought to be in the centre. 
 The crystalline spheres. Heaven beyond. The motion of the 
 spheres regarded with awe, and in popular superstition referred to 
 angels. Astrology laughed at by some but believed in by others. 
 Belief in visions and inspirations, and in prodigies. Universal be- 
 lief in witchcraft. Witches as well as heretics burned. Barbar- 
 ism of ciiminallaw everywhere. The age not prepared for tolera- 
 tion. ....."..,... 227 
 
 (i) Beginning of Progress in Scientific Inquiry. — The range of geo- 
 graphical and astronomical knowledge widened. Nicolas Coperni- 
 cus argues that the sun is in the centre of the universe. His great 
 work not published till he was on his death-bed. He was followed 
 by Tycho Brahe, Kepler and Galileo before the century was closed. 231 
 
 CHAPTER VHL 
 
 ECONOMIC RESULTS OF THE ERA. 
 
 Results of the Era on what remained of the feudal system. In Ger- 
 many, personal services continued. In France, feudal rents and 
 payments chiefly in kind continued till 1798. In England, feudal 
 rents were chiefly in fixed money payments. Effect of the dis- 
 covery of the silver mines in the New World. The fall In the value 
 of money caused a great rise in prices. German peasants' services 
 not lessened by it ; nor the French peasants' rents in produce, but 
 it reduced the burden of the English peasants' rents in money to 
 one-sixth or one-eighth of the value of the land. This would have 
 made them peasant proprietors had they held on to their land, but 
 their tendency was to leave their land and become labourers for 
 wages. Change from peasant proprietorship of land and of looms 
 to labour for wages chiefly the result of the growth of commerce 
 and capital and the use of machinery. These changes had begun 
 in the sixteenth century, and they completed the silent downfall of 
 the feudal system in England 233 
 
 CONC LUSION. 
 
 The Protestant Revolution was the beginning of a great revolutionary 
 wave which broke in the French revolution of 1798. The move- 
 ment was inevitable, and might have been peacefully met and aided 
 by timely reforms ; but the refusal of reform at the time of the 
 cnsis involved ten generations in the tnrmoils of revolution. . 237
 
 MAPS. 
 
 Ai the beginning. 
 
 1. Christendom, &c. 
 
 2. The Commerce of Christendom. 
 
 At the end. 
 
 3. Serfdom, and Rebellions against it, 
 
 before 1 51 5. 
 
 4. The Peasants' War, 1525.
 
 ERA 
 
 PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 STATE OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 [a] The Small Extent of Christendom. 
 
 In the map at the beginning of this volume the light 
 
 portion marks the Old World as it was known at the 
 
 commencement of the era of which we have to speak. 
 
 A glance will show how small a portion of the known 
 
 world belonged to Christendom — that marked red and 
 
 striked red. And only the red part belonged ^^ 
 
 ■' "^ . . 1 hesmallness 
 
 to Western or Roman ChristendorA, with ofchristen- 
 which we have mostly to do. The part striped °^' 
 red had long ago severed itself from the Western and 
 belonged to the Eastern Church, which by the Roman 
 was regarded as heretical and alien. Thus the Christen- 
 dom of which Rome was the capital embraced only 
 the western half of the little peninsula of Europe. And 
 not even all that. For there was a little bit of Spain 
 (marked blue) which did not belong to Christendom. 
 B
 
 2 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 We may note next how much smaller Christendom 
 was than it had once been. It had once covered not only 
 ^ „ , the parts coloured red and striped red, but 
 
 Smaller than '■ '■ 
 
 it once had also those coloured dark blue, i. e. all Europe, 
 Asia Minor, and the African shores of the 
 Mediterranean Sea. But the dark blue portions had been 
 conquered from Christendom by her great rival Moham- 
 „, ,, , medan power, whose relijjion, thou!?!! only 
 
 The Moham- ^ . ■ i , 
 
 medan power, half as old as Christianity, was thought to 
 number many times as many adherents as 
 there were Christians, and covered a much larger area 
 than Christendom — all the countries marked blue. 
 
 More than 700 years — twenty generations — ago the 
 Mohammedan Moors, after conquering the African shores 
 ^, , , . of the Mediterranean, had pushed on into 
 
 Checked in . . ^ 
 
 the West. Spain and threatened Christendom from the 
 
 West. Defeated and checked at the great battle of Tours 
 in 732, after a struggle of 700 years they still held a foot- 
 hold in Spain — the rich southern province of Granada. 
 But whilst checked in the West, Mohammedan arms 
 had recently been encroaching more and more upon 
 Christendom from the East. Turkey and 
 
 But en- ^ 
 
 croaching from Hungary had fallen into their hands, and m 
 1453, /. e. in the lifetime of the fathers of the 
 men of the new era, Constantinople had been taken by 
 the Turks. The old capital of the Eastern Roman 
 Empire now became the capital of the great Ottom.an 
 Empire. We see then how near to Rome Turkish con- 
 quests had come. Only the Adriatic separated the Otto- 
 man Empire from Italy. Once the Turks had even got a 
 footing in the heel of Italy. It really seemed not unlikely 
 that the capital of Christendom might itself some day 
 fall into their hands.
 
 CH. I. Introductory. 3 
 
 No wonder the Turks were the terror of the Chris- 
 tians. And yet they had one thing in common, and it is 
 well that we should remember it. They were worshippers 
 of the same God. Both Christians and Mo- ^,. .. 
 
 Kinship 
 
 hammedans professed to trace back their between Chris- 
 
 ... , , , ,^, , _, . , tians, Moham- 
 
 faith to Abraham. Though Christendom was medans, and 
 small and dwindling, the area of the religion J^^^" 
 inherited from Abraham was large and in- „ 
 
 ° But they hate 
 
 creasing. But this was no consolation to men one another. 
 to whom their fellow Christians of the East- 
 ern Church were heretics, the 'unbelieving Jews' the ob- 
 jects of scorn, and the 'infidel' Turks of terror. 
 
 (1^) The Signs of New Life in Christendom. 
 
 Christendom had never felt herself so small or so be- 
 set with enemies. And yet there were signs of a new 
 life springing up. The new era was to be one of hope 
 and progress. 
 
 The Crusades of the Christian nations, intended to 
 dislodge the ' Infidel ' out of Jerusalem, though they had 
 failedinthatobjcct, had awakened Europe to ^„ 
 
 Influence of 
 
 new life. East and West were brought nearer the Cmsades. 
 together. Knights and soldiers and pilgrims 
 brought home from new lands new thoughts and wider 
 notions. Commerce with the East was extended. Mari- 
 time enterprise was stimulated. There was 
 
 , . , . „, . , Inventions. 
 
 improvement in ships. Ihe manner s com- 
 pass was discovered, and under its guidance longer voya- 
 ges could safely be made. The invention of ^ „ ^^ 
 
 Fall of Con- 
 gunpowder had changed the character of stantinopic. 
 
 war and enlarged the scale on which it was waged. The 
 recent conquests of the Turks were indirectly the cause 
 of new life to Christendom. The fall of Con- , , , 
 
 Rtvivul of 
 
 stantinople resulted in a great revival of learning.
 
 4 State of Christendom. pt. I. 
 
 learning in Europe. Driven from the East, learned 
 Greeks and Jews came to settle in Italy. Greek and 
 Hebrew were again studied in Europe. The literature, 
 the history, the poetry, the philosophy and arts of old 
 Greece and Rome were revived. And the result was 
 that a succession of poets, painters, sculptors, and histo- 
 rians sprang up in Christendom such as had not been 
 known for centuries. Above all the inven- 
 
 Printing. . . . ^ ... 
 
 tion 01 pnntmg had come just m time to 
 spread whatever new ideas were afloat with a rapidity 
 never known before. 
 
 (f) The Wide7ii}ig of Christendom. 
 So it is easy to see there were abundant signs of new 
 life in Christendom, however small, and hemmed in, and 
 threatened she might be. A new era was coming on, 
 and now observe how Christendom was widened, and 
 fresh room found for the civilization of the new era to 
 work in. 
 
 (i) In 1491 the Moors were at last and for ever driven 
 
 out of Spain by the conquest of Granada by 
 
 out of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella, and men felt that a 
 
 turn had com^e in the tide of victory in favour 
 
 of Christians. 
 
 (2) In 1492 came the discovery of the New World by 
 Columbus, followed up by the Spanish conquests of 
 
 Mexico and Peru, the Portuguese settle- 
 Discovery of . _, ., . . - ^ 
 America. mcnts m Brazil, and the gaining of a foot- 
 hold in the New World by Sebastian Cabot for England 
 — the embryo of those great colonies, the New England, 
 or extension of England across the Atlantic, in which 
 half the English people now dwell. 
 
 (3) In 1497 Vasco de Gama sailed for the first time 
 round the Cape of Good Hope, and a new way was
 
 CH. I. Introductojy. 5 
 
 opened to Asia and the East Indies, and 
 
 '■ ^ New way to 
 
 out of this in the far future came England's East Indies. 
 'Indian Empire and Australian colonies. 
 
 Looking again at the map, and adding to the Old 
 World the countries coloured in shadow which were 
 brought to light mostly during the childhood of the men 
 of the new era, we cannot wonder that they spoke of 
 them as belonging to a ' fiew world.' And bearing in 
 mind that having reached the West Indies, knowing of 
 no Pacific Ocean between, they thought they had 
 reached the East Indies from the west, and so had been, 
 as it were, round the world, we may realize how grand 
 the new discoveries must have seemed to them. Men of 
 that day did not of course realize what we know now, 
 how wide a field these new discoveries would open for 
 Christian civilization to extend itself into. But still they 
 gave an immediate feeling of relief to pent-up Christen- 
 dom, a spur to commerce and maritime en- ,, , 
 
 ' _ _ Men s minds 
 
 terprise, new light to science, new sources prepared for 
 of wealth, and new direction to the energies ^"^^^ '^^'^" ^" 
 of nations, and more or less to all men a sense that they 
 were living in an age of progress and change which pre- 
 pared them to look into the future with hope, and to ex- 
 pect great events to happen in their time. 
 
 {(f) The New Era one of Progress in Civilization. 
 In what Modern Civilization Consists. 
 
 The work of the new era was to gain for Christendom 
 a fresh step in the onward course of civilization. 
 
 And when we speak of advance in civilization, what 
 do we mean ? Not simply advance in popu- 
 lation, wealth, luxury, but far more, that tion is. 
 which is hid in the derivation of the word, 
 viz., advance in the art of living- together in civil society.
 
 State of Christendom. 
 
 PT. I. 
 
 And in order clearly to understand the work that was 
 to be done in this era of prpgress, we must understand 
 the difference between (i) the old form of civilization 
 which was to be left behind and (2) the new form of 
 civilization towards which fresh steps were to be gained. 
 
 (i) The old Roman civilization had come about by 
 the conquest of the uncivilized tribes of Western Europe 
 „, , , bv the Romans, by their makine the known 
 
 The old Ro- - ' -^ . ^ 
 
 man civiliza- world iuto oue great empire, bnngmg all its 
 ends together by making roads, encoura- 
 ging commerce, making the Latin language understood 
 by the educated all 
 over it, and Rome the 
 centre of it all. The 
 Roman Empire was in 
 fact a network of Ro- 
 man towns, with all the 
 threads of it drawn to- 
 wards Rome. These 
 towns were camps, 
 from which the con- 
 querors ruled the dis- 
 tricts round. Little 
 account was taken of 
 the country people. 
 
 They were looked upon as hopelessly rustic and barba- 
 rian. Under this system all the conquered countries 
 were made provinces of the Roman Empire, not for their 
 own but for the conquerors' good. The 
 masses of the people were governed by Ro- 
 man governors for the benefit, not of themselves, but of 
 a small number of Roman citizens. This vice — this blot 
 — in the Roman polity was no doubt the cause of its de- 
 cay. 
 
 Its main vice.
 
 cii. 1. Iiii)vditctory. 7 
 
 (2) The aim of modern civilization is obviously far 
 higher than this. It has not yet reached its 
 goal, but we see clearly that it has been civilization, 
 aiming, not at one vast universal empire, 
 but at the formation of several compact and separate 
 nations, living peaceably side by side, respecting one 
 another's rights and freedom ; and, looking within each 
 nation, at making all classes of the people, town and 
 country, rich and poor, alike citizens for whose common 
 weal the nation is to be governed, and who , 
 
 ° Its strength. 
 
 ultimately shall govern themselves. In this 
 
 aim of modern civilization to secure the covnnon weal of 
 
 the people lies its power and strength. 
 
 Now the passage from the old decaying form of civili- 
 zation to the new, better, and stronger one, involved a 
 change ; and this change must needs take „ 
 
 1 11 111 rr^i 1 1 1 The crisis of 
 
 place slowly and by degrees. The old order the struggle 
 of things had gradually for long been going ofd^nTthe^ 
 out ; the new order of things had gradually "^^^ order of 
 for long been coming in. But in this era 
 was to be the crisis of the change — the final decisive 
 struggle between the two forces ; and in this lies its 
 importance and its interest. 
 
 Before we begin the story of this struggle, we must 
 briefly consider what it was in the state of 
 
 „, . , 1 • 1 1 1 • 11- P'^" of this 
 
 Christendom which brought it on ; and this book. 
 will be done best by our examining — 
 
 (i) The powers which belonged to the old order of 
 things, and now dying out. 
 
 (2) The state of the modern nations which were 
 growing up in their place. 
 
 In doing so, we shall try to lay most stress on the 
 condition of the masses of the people ; and we shall not 
 fail to see clearly some of the main points in which, if
 
 8 State of ChristcnJoni. px. i. 
 
 modern civilization was to go on, there was a necessity for 
 reform, and the danger there was that, if the needful re- 
 forms were much longer withheld, there would be revo- 
 lution. 
 
 Then in Part II. will come the story of the struggle; 
 and in Part III. its results on the different nations. We 
 shall end with trying to take stock of the amount of pro- 
 gress gained during the era, and to look forward at the 
 prospects of the future that arise out of it. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE POWERS BELONGING TO THE OLD ORDER OF 
 THINGS, AND GOING OUT. 
 
 [a) The Ecclesiastical System. 
 
 Western Christendom was united under one Eccle- 
 siastical system — the Roman, or, as it called itself, the 
 ' Holy Catholic' Church. 
 
 It was, in fact, a great Ecclesiastical Empire, of which 
 Rome was the capital, and the Pope of Rome the head. 
 ^, ^ , In the last generation there had been a 
 
 The Eccle- ° , ., , 
 
 siasticai Em- scliism — I. <?. for a while there were two rival 
 'Rome'the Popes excommunicating each other — but 
 
 capital. after much trouble and scandal the schism 
 
 had been ended, and now all was one again. 
 
 Europe was mapped out into ecclesiastical provinces, 
 at the head of each of which was an archbishop. Each 
 province was divided into dioceses, with bishops at their 
 head, and each diocese into parishes, each with its parish 
 priest. Thus there was an ecclesiastical network all over 
 Europe, all the threads of which were drawn towards
 
 CH. II. The Ecclesiastical Systctn. g 
 
 Rome, and held in the hands of the Pope and his cardi- 
 nals. 
 
 This ecclesiastical empire kept itself as free as possi- 
 ble from the civil power in each nation. It considered 
 itself above kin^s and princes. It was morS ^ ^ 
 
 ° ^ . Independent 
 
 ancient than any of their thrones and king- of the civil 
 doms. Kings were not secure on their thrones ^ ^' 
 till they had the sanction of the Church. On the other 
 hand the clergy claimed to be free from prosecution 
 under the criminal laws of the lands they lived in. They 
 struggled to keep their own ecclesiastical laws and their 
 own ecclesiastical courts, receiving authority direct from 
 Rome, and with final appeal, not to the Crown, but to 
 the Pope. 
 
 In addition to the parochial clergy, there were orders 
 of monks. The two chief of them were the rival orders 
 of the Dominican and Augustinian monks: „, 
 
 ° Ihe monks. 
 
 and in most towns there were one, two, or 
 half-a-dozen monasteries and cloisters. So numerous 
 were the monks that they swarmed everywhere, and had 
 become, by the favour of the Popes, more important and 
 powerful in many ways than the parochial clergy. 
 
 It is essential to mark what a power this ecclesiastical 
 empire wielded over the nations. The „ 
 
 ^ _ . Fowerofthe 
 
 ecclesiastics held in their hands the keys, ecclesiastical 
 as it were, not only of heaven but of earth. ^^^ *"'"' 
 
 They alone baptized ; they alone married people 
 (though unmarried themselves) ; they alone could grant 
 a divorce. Thev had the charge of men on , . „ 
 
 ■' " by influence 
 
 their death-beds ; they alone buried, and over the 
 could refuse Christian burial in the church- 
 yards. They alone had the disposition of the goods of 
 deceased persons. When a man made a will, it had to 
 be proved in their ecclesiastical courts. If men disputed
 
 lo State of Oiristendom. PT. i. 
 
 their claims, doubted their teaching, or rebelled from 
 their doctrines, they virtually condemned them to the 
 stake, by handing them over to the civil power, which 
 acted in submission to their dictates. You will see at 
 once how gr^at a power all these things must have given 
 them over the minds, the fears, the happiness, and the 
 lives of the people. 
 
 The ordinary revenues of the clergy were large. They 
 , . , , had a right to ' tithes ; ' i. e. to a tenth part 
 
 by Its wealth ; ^ 
 
 of the produce of the whole land of Chris- 
 tendom. This had belonged to them for hundreds of 
 years. In addition to this they claimed fees for every- 
 thing they did. 
 
 The monks, according to the rules of their founders, 
 ought to have got their living by begging alms in return 
 for their preachings and their prayers for the living and 
 the dead. But their vow of poverty had not kept them 
 poor. People thought that by giving property to them 
 they could save their souls ; so rich men, sometimes in 
 their lifetime but oftener on their deathbeds, left them 
 large sums of money and estates in land. In spite of 
 laws passed by the civil powers to prevent it, it was said 
 that they had got about a third of the land of Europe 
 into their possession. Thus the revenue and riches of the 
 Church was far larger than that of the kings and princes 
 of Europe. 
 
 These were not the sole secrets of their power. From 
 the fact that the clergy were almost the only educated 
 
 people in Europe, they- became the lawvers 
 
 by the mono- ^ ' '- ' i j • 
 
 poly of learn- and diplomatists, envoys, ambassadors, mm- 
 '"^' isters, chancellors, and even prime minis- 
 
 ters of princes. They were mixed up with the politics 
 of Europe, and the reins of the State in most countries 
 were in the hands of ecclesiastics. They received pro-
 
 CH. II. 
 
 1 he Ecclesiastical System. 
 
 motion to bishoprics most often in return for , ,. . , 
 
 and political 
 
 such political services. influence. 
 
 We cannot fail to see how vast the political power of 
 such an ecclesiastical empire as this must have been. 
 The Pope, through his army of ecclesiastics all over 
 Christendoin, had the strings in his hand by which to 
 influence the politics of Europe. And one 
 
 . which all cen- 
 
 of the great complamts of the best men of tred in Rome, 
 the day was that this political influence was 
 used by Rome for her own ends instead of the good of 
 Europe, and that the immense ecclesiastical revenues 
 •tended to flow out of the provinces into the coffers of the 
 Popes and cardinals of Rome. 
 
 All this of course tended 
 to hinder the ^, . ^ . 
 
 . I his Kmpire 
 
 growth and m- will be 
 
 1 1 c troken up. 
 
 dependence of 
 the separate nations, and to 
 prevent all classes within 
 them from becoming united 
 into a compact nation. 
 
 It will be one great work 
 of the era, to break up this 
 ecclesiastical empire — to free 
 several nations (those mark- 
 ed white on the map) from its yoke. So that Rome will 
 cease to be the capital of Christendom. 
 
 {b) The Scholastic Systetn. 
 
 There was another power in Europe which was 
 Roman and not national ; which tended to keep classes 
 of people apart, and so stood in the way of the growth of 
 national life in the separate nations. 
 
 The learned world was a world of its own, severed
 
 State of Chn'stcndofn. 
 
 PT. I. 
 
 from the masses of the people by its scholastic system. 
 The learned ^^^ the learned men in Europe talked and 
 world talked wrotc letters and books in Latin — the lan- 
 
 and wrote 
 
 Latin, guagc of Rome. Some of them did not 
 
 even know the common language of the countries they 
 lived in. And as Latin was the language of learning, 
 so Rome was the capital of the learned world. Thus 
 the learned world was closely connected with the eccle- 
 siastical system. Learned people were looked upon 
 as belonging to the clergy ; and the Pope had long 
 and belonged claimed them as subjects of his ecclesiasti- 
 10 the clergy, c^l empire. So for centuries in England a 
 man convicted of a crime, by pleading that he could 
 read and write, could claim benefit of clergy, i. e. to be 
 tried in an ecclesiastical court, and this by long abuse 
 came to mean exemption from the punishments of the 
 criminal law of the land. 
 
 This tended to give to knowledge and learning itself a 
 
 clerical or scholastic character. Knowledge was tied 
 
 down by scholastic rules which had grown up 
 
 This made ... , ... , , 
 
 learning m tuTies whcn the ecclesiastics were the only 
 
 sc oastic, educated people. The old learned men — 
 • the schoolmen ' as they were called — looked at every- 
 thing with ecclesiastical eyes. All knowledge had thus 
 got to be looked upon almost as a part of theology. 
 Matters of science — e. g. whether the earth moved round 
 shackled ^^ ^"^ °'* ^^ ^"^ round the earth — ^were 
 
 science, settled bv texts from the Bible, instead of by 
 
 examining into the facts. So there was no freedom of 
 inquiry even in scientific matters. A man who made 
 discoveries in science might be stopped and punished 
 if he found out that the old schoolmen were wrong in 
 anything. 
 
 Under the scholastic system the Christian religion.
 
 CH. II. 
 
 The Scholastic System. 
 
 13 
 
 which in the days of Christ and the apostles was a thing of 
 the heart (love of God and one's neighbour), ^^d religion 
 had grown into a theology — a thing of the ^'^°' 
 head. The chief handybook of the theology of the school- 
 men was a great folio volume of more than 1,000 pages. 
 
 Thus the scholastic system necessarily kept both 
 science and religion the property of a clerical class, and 
 out of the hands of the common people, to whom 
 Latin was a dead language ; while at the ^„j ^^p^ 
 same time it kept the learning even of the ';^'="i from 
 
 '■ _ tne common 
 
 learned world shackled by scholastic rules, people. 
 
 It is important to see this clearly, because one great 
 part of the work of the new era was to throw the gates 
 of knowledge open to all men, and to set ^^ 
 
 " ' , . JNecessityoi 
 
 the minds of men free from this clerical or mental free- 
 scholastic thraldom — to set both science °'"' 
 and religion free, for freedom was as important to the 
 one as it was to the other. Without it there could be no 
 real progress in civilization.
 
 14 State of Christendom, pt. I. 
 
 ^, , The universities were the great centres of 
 
 The Universi- 
 
 ties. the learned world. 
 
 There were thirty or forty of them scattered over 
 Europe, and they were in more or less close connexion 
 with each other. They are marked on the map, and the 
 chief of them should be carefully remembered. The 
 oldest and most celebrated were Oxford and Cambridgs 
 in England, Paris and Orleans in France, Bologna and 
 Padua in Italy, and Salamanca in Spain, Prague in 
 Bohemia, and Cologne in Germany. These, at the begin- 
 ning of the era of the Reformation, were all more than a 
 hundred, and some two hundred years old. The young- 
 est university in Europe was that of Wittenberg, founded 
 in 1502 by the Elector of Saxony. 
 
 Students were in the habit of passing from one uni- 
 versity to another. Oxford students would pass on to 
 ^ , Paris, and from Paris to Bologna, to take 
 
 Students pass . 
 
 from one to their degrees. And wherever there hap- 
 pened to be a famous professor, thither stu- 
 dents from all other universities flocked. 
 
 Now the result of this was very important. 
 
 As one example, we may take the great movement in 
 the fourteenth century iii the direction of reform. 
 
 Wiclif wrote books in Latin at Oxford. They were 
 copied and read all over Europe. Oxford students went 
 to the newly-opened university at Prague. 
 this in the days Wiclif 's Writings made as much noise, and 
 were as well known in Bohemia as they were . 
 in England. Huss and Jerome of Prague became the 
 Bohemian successors of the English Wiclif, and thus 
 the movement in favour of reform was transplanted from 
 one country to another. "What was discussed among 
 the learned soon trickled down into the common talk of 
 the people. So there arose out of Wiclif 's movement
 
 CH. II. The Scholastic System. 15 
 
 the Lollard insurrection in England and the Hussite 
 wars in Bohemia. 
 
 What had thus happened before in the days when 
 books were multiplied only by the slow work of the pen 
 was still more likely to happen again in the days of the 
 printing press. 
 
 We shall see how in the new era these things were re- 
 peated — how the spirit of revival of learning and religious 
 reform spread, first among the learned from ,„ , , 
 
 . . Will be re- 
 
 university to university by students passing peated in the 
 from one to another, now in Italy, now into "^^ "'^' 
 England, now into Germany, and how at last it trickled 
 down into the minds of the common people all over Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 The fact that both the ecclesiastical system and the 
 learned world were coextensive with Christendom, and 
 so closely united together, gave to Christendom a unity 
 which alone made the work of the era possible. It was 
 as though, in spite of distance and the diffi- ^, , , 
 
 1 • r ,,• 1 , The work of 
 
 culties of travelling, learned men were the era. 
 nearer together than even now, in these 
 days of railroads and steamboats and telegraphs. The 
 work of the era was to rend Christendom asunder. 
 Rome was no longer to be her capital. The Pope was 
 no longer to be recognized everywhere as her spiritual 
 head. The Latin language was no longer to be the 
 common tongue of literature and books all over Europe. 
 Young nations were to divide Europe between them, to 
 have their own churches and clergy, their own lan- 
 guages, their own literature, their own learned men and 
 universities, and so to become more independent of each 
 other and of Rome. And this was one of the stages 
 through which Christian civilization was to pass in its 
 onward course.
 
 1 6 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 [c) The Feudal System and the forxes which were 
 breaking it up. 
 
 There was another system which was opposed to the 
 „, growth of modern nations — the feudal sys- 
 
 system. tem. It belonged to the old order of things, 
 
 and was fast decaying and going out. 
 Divided coun- The feudal system hindered the growth of 
 "eu "lord ^^^^ nations, not by tending too much to keep 
 
 ships. up the unity of Christendom, but by dividing 
 
 countries up into innumerable petty lordships. 
 
 Each feudal lord was a little sovereign both as regards 
 those below him — his vassals and serfs — and also as re- 
 gards his fellows, except so far as he and they were con- 
 trolled by higher feudal powers above them. He waged 
 what petty wars he chose with his neighbours, and lorded 
 it over his vassals and serfs, whilst himself very jealous- 
 ly resisting any unusual interference from powers above 
 him. 
 .^ ^ , The feudal system had already shown 
 
 Decay of the . . ^ . ^ 
 
 feudal system, signs of falling to pieccs, and in some coun- 
 tries had very much died out. 
 
 In some countries the petty lordships had fallen quite 
 under the power of the Crown. 
 
 By a long process, some of the feudal lords had grown 
 ^ , . ^ in power, while the multitude of smaller ones 
 
 Subjection o' , . , . . . . . .- 
 
 feudal lords to had sunk mto ever-mcreasmg insignificance. 
 Especially in countries where by the rule 
 of inheritance lordships descended only to the eldest 
 male heir, there was a natural tendency for lordships to 
 unite by marriage and inheritance. The greater families 
 intermarried and grew richer, and the royal family was 
 in fact the one which had grown so much bigger than 
 the rest that it kept swallowing up more and more into
 
 CH. II. The Feudal System. • i-j 
 
 itself^ We shall sec that it was so notably in France. 
 TTie process went on more slowly in Germany, where the 
 rule of inheritance was division among the male heirs, 
 and so the tendency was towards more and more divi- 
 sion, and an ever-increasing host of petty lordships. In 
 Germany the feudal system was still in full force, and we 
 shall see by-and-by how it prevented her from growing 
 into a compact nation, and hov/ much she had to suffer for 
 want of the nobles being subjected to a central authori- 
 ty able to preserve the public peace and to , 
 
 •^ _ ^ ^ "^ Increasing 
 
 curb their lawlessness and tyranny. But power of the 
 speaking generally, things were more and 
 more working in the new era towards the complete sub- 
 jection of the feudal nobility in each nation to the cen- 
 tral power, z. e. towards the supremacy of the Crown. 
 
 But convnercc was breaking up the feudal system faster 
 than anything else, and commerce had its chief seat in 
 the towns. Trade, commerce, and manufactures were 
 the life of the towns. The little towns were the markets 
 of the country round, and their trade lay be- -pj^^ growth 
 tween the peasantry and the bigger towns. °^ commerce. 
 These, in their turn, lived upon the share they had in 
 that wider commerce of the world, of which, by the aid 
 of Map No. 2 (at the beginning of this volume), we must 
 now try to grasp the main features. 
 
 The Crusades had done much to open up a commerce 
 between Asia and Europe. This commerce 
 
 . , , „ , . , , , - Trade of the 
 
 With the East was mostly m the hands of the Mediterra- 
 great cities on the Mediterranean Sea. The 
 new way to the Indies was not yet open. The products 
 of the East, its spices and its silks, were carried overland 
 from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to the Levant, and 
 then shipped to the ports of Italy. Silk manufactures 
 were also carried on in Italv. in Catalonia in Spain, and 
 C
 
 1 8 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 at Lyons in France. These eastern products and silks 
 were the chief exports of the Mediterranean merchants. 
 
 The commerce of the North Sea was equally important. 
 
 The woollen manufactures of the north were its chief 
 feature. Spain exported wool and some parts of Germany, 
 but England was the great wool-growing country. The 
 wool was woven into cloth in the looms of the eastern 
 _, counties of England, and Flanders on the 
 
 Ine manu- ° 
 
 facturing Opposite shore of the North Sea, These 
 
 districts. , i • /• r • i- • 
 
 were the chief manufacturmg districts, 
 though other towns in England, up the Rhine, and in 
 Germany, had their weavers also. There were also con- 
 siderable linen manufactures in the north of France, 
 
 The North Sea was the great fishing ground, and 
 .^, dried fish was a great article of commerce 
 
 The ° 
 
 fisheries. when during Lent and on every Friday all 
 
 Christendom lived upon fish. 
 
 There was also a trade in furs and skins with North 
 Russia, Norway, and Sweden. 
 
 This commerce of the North was carried on by the 
 
 Hanse towns — reaching from the shores of the Baltic 
 
 westward to the Netherlands, and inland in 
 
 The com- i ^ i rr-i 
 
 merce of the Germany as far south as Cologne. There 
 were eighty towns belonging to this league, 
 and they had stations or factories at Novgorod, Bergen, 
 London, and Bruges. 
 
 Bruges in Flanders had been, and now Antwerp was 
 the great central mart of the commerce of the world. 
 Bruges and Here the merchants of the North exchanged 
 Antwerp the their goods with the merchants of the 
 
 central marts ... 
 
 of commerce. Mediterranean. Here their ships met and 
 divided the maritime commerce of the world be- 
 tween them. Here, too, the maritime met the inland 
 and overland trade— inland trade with the German
 
 CH. 11. The Feudal System. 19 
 
 Lines of 
 
 towns, overland trade down the Rhine, 
 through Germany, over the Alps, by the niaridme, 
 Brenner and Juher passes into Italy. There overland 
 was much trade between German and ''^^'^'=- 
 Venetian merchants, and the contemporary historian, 
 Machiavelli, states that all Italy was in a manner supplied 
 with the commodities and manufactures of Germany. 
 Since the Netherlands and Austria fell into the hands of 
 the House of Hapsburg, and Maximilian was Emperor 
 of Germany, there had also naturally sprung up a trade 
 between the Rhine and the Danube. 
 
 These were the great lines of trade, and in these lines 
 lay the chief commercial towns, living on their share in 
 the commerce of the world. 
 
 Under the feudal system the towns had once been 
 mostly subject to feudal lords, but they had ^, 
 
 , . . , . . T The towns 
 
 early shown their mdependent spirit, and re- had mostly 
 belled, or bargained for charters of freedom. 
 A free town was a little republic, organized for protection 
 from foes without and for peaceful trade within. The 
 members of each trade were banded together into guilds* 
 for mutual protection, and there was generally a sort of 
 representative government — an upper and lower council 
 of citizens, by whom the town was governed. 
 
 We can easily understand how likely the towns were 
 to hate the feudal lords, whose petty wars dis- 
 
 Why the 
 
 turbed the public peace and made commerce towns hated 
 hazardous. They had to fortify themselves '"■="'^^''''" 
 against these petty wars, and their cavalcades of mer- 
 chandize had to be protected by soldiers on the roads. 
 So there had grown up out of commerce an anti-feudal 
 power in Europe. In almost every country the 
 
 ' . and favored 
 
 towns banded themselves together against the Crown. 
 the feudal system, and when the power of the
 
 20 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 Crown began to rise, the towns were the stepping-stones 
 by which it rose to the top. Kings invited the towns to 
 send burgesses to the national Diets or Parhaments, 
 and they were a growing power in ahiiost every State. 
 
 There was yet another most numerous and most im- 
 portant class affected by feudalism — the peasantry. 
 ^ , . The peasants, under the feudal system, 
 peasantry. were more or less reduced to a condition of 
 vassalage or serfdom. 
 
 Let us understand what this was. The tribes who 
 conquered Northern and Western Europe were a land- 
 folk — people living by the land. They set- 
 Once more free , , . ^ .,f , 1, , 1 , , , . 
 than under the tied m Villages, and all the land belongmg 
 
 sys em. ^^ gg-ch village belonged to the community, 
 as it does now in Swiss valleys. The people were 
 tenants only of their little allotments, with common 
 rights over the unallotted pasture, woods, forests, and 
 rivers: i. e. they had a common or joint use of them. 
 
 Now the feudal system had put the feudal lords in the 
 place of the community. The peasantry became tenants 
 of these lords, paying rents sometimes in money, but 
 chiefly in services of labour on their lords' lands. The 
 lords, moreover, claimed more and more of the unal- 
 lotted portion of the common lands as their own. The 
 serfs were not allowed to leave their land, because it 
 would rob the lords of their services. So the lords held 
 their peasantry completely in their power. This was 
 feudal serfdom when in full force. In some countries it 
 was still in force, in others it had almost disappeared. 
 
 In those countries where the lords were most subjected 
 Where the ^o the Crown, as in France and England, the 
 central power gerfs Were likely to be best off and farthest 
 
 was weakest, "^ 
 
 feudal serfdom advanced on the road to freedom. In those 
 jngerc on„- .^ y.hich the feudal lords were least sub-
 
 CH. II. The Feudal System. 21 
 
 dued, and the central power least formed, as in Ger- 
 many, we should expect to find feudal serfdom linger- 
 ing on. And it was so. 
 
 As the towns were the enemies of the feudal nobility, 
 so they were the friends of the feudal peasantry. Com- 
 •merce introduced everywhere money pay- 
 ments instead of barter. Payment of rent in and commerce 
 
 ,,, iiri- ji-i favoured free- 
 
 services of labour was an old-iashioned kind dom of the 
 of barter. Commerce, therefore, helped to pi^asantry. 
 introduce money rents and money wages, and where 
 these were early introduced, as in France and England, 
 the condition of the peasant was much improved. But 
 more than this ; labour was often wanted in the towns : 
 the wages paid in the towns often tempted the peasant to 
 desert his land and feudal lord, and to flee to a town. The 
 towns favoured this immigration into them of runaway 
 serfs, and there grew up in some countries a settled rule 
 of law that after residence in a town a year and a day 
 they could not be reclaimed. 
 
 Thus we see clearly how the feudal system was break- 
 ing up under the influence of commerce and the com- 
 bined power of the towns and the Crown. 
 
 The petty lordships were becoming united into the 
 larger unit of the nation, but we see on the other hand 
 what a danger there was of the nation becoming divided 
 into hostile classes. How were classes so contrarient as 
 the feudal lords, the townspeople, and the peasantry, to 
 be blended in one national life ? This was the great 
 problem modern civilization had to solve, and some na- 
 tions succeeded much better than others in solving it.
 
 State of Christe7idom. pt. I. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MODERN NATIONS WHICH WERE RISING 
 INTO POWER. 
 
 (a) Italy. 
 No country had made less progress towards becoming, 
 . , a compact and united nation than Italy, the 
 
 Not a united . . ' 
 
 nation. Very country m which Rome, the capital of 
 
 Christendom, exercised most influence. 
 
 The contemporary historian, MacJiiavelli, shows how 
 , Rome was the cause of Italy's ruin and dis- 
 
 Kome, accord- 
 ing to Ma- unity. 
 
 cause ofher He says : ' Some are of opinion that the 
 
 disunity. welfare of Italy depends upon the Church 
 
 of Rome. I shall set down two unanswerable reasons to 
 
 the contrary : — 
 
 '(i) By the corrupt example of that court Italy has 
 lost its religion and become heathenish and irreligious. 
 
 ' (2) We owe to Rome also that we are become di- 
 vided and factious, which must of necessity be our ruin, 
 for no nation was ever happy or united unless under the 
 rule of one commonwealth or prince, as France and 
 Spain are at this time. And the reason is that the Pope, 
 though he claims temporal as well as spiritual jurisdic- 
 tion, is not strong enough to rule all Italy himself, and 
 whenever he sees any danger he calls in some foreign 
 potentate to help him against any other power growing 
 strong enough to be formidable. Therefore it is that, in- 
 stead of getting united under one rule, Italy is split up 
 into several principalities, and so disunited that it falls 
 easily a prey to the power not only of the barbarians, 
 but of any one who cares to invade it. This misfortune 
 we Italians owe only to the Church of Rome.'
 
 CM. III. Italy. 23 
 
 That these words of Machiavelli were too strictly true, 
 we shall judge from the facts. 
 
 We have seen what was the power of Rome. If ex- 
 erted in favour of Christian civilization how many bless- 
 ings might not the Church have earned ! „ 
 
 . . . Rome a centre 
 
 But it was notorious to every one living at of rottenness. 
 the time that Rome used her power so ill, 
 and that her own character and that of her Popes were 
 so evil, that she had become both politically and spirit- 
 ually the centre of wickedness and rottenness in Europe 
 and especially in Italy. 
 
 And this was no new thing. Men had been complain- 
 ing of it for generations. The greatest poets of Italy 
 had long before immortalized the guilt of 
 
 T^ „ . . ^ , , Dante on the 
 
 Rome. Two centuries before, Dante had Popes, 
 described the Popes of his day as men 
 
 whose avarice 
 O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot 
 Treading the good, and raising bad men up. 
 Of Shepherds like to you, the Evangelist 
 Was ware, when her who sits upon the waves 
 With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld ! 
 
 And soon after Dante, Petrarch had de- .„ 
 
 Petrarch on 
 
 scribed Rome thus : — Rome. 
 
 Once Rome ! now false and guilty Babylon ! 
 
 Hive of deceits ! Terrible prison, 
 
 Where the good doth die, the bad is fed and fattened ! 
 
 Hell of the living! .... 
 
 Sad world that dost endure it ! Cast her out ! 
 
 And in the days of these great poets men. Reformers 
 and Councils too, had tried to reform Rome, but without 
 avail. A few more generations had passed and Rome 
 was now not only unreformed but in respect to morals 
 worse than ever. How much worse we know not only
 
 24 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 from the censures of her poets, but from the facts of her 
 contemporary historians. 
 
 The Popes of Rome had for long not only wielded 
 both political and spiritual power, but used 
 
 Recent , ^ . , , . ^ ^ ^ ... , 
 
 Popes bad them to enrich their own families ; and as a 
 '"^"' rule they had recently been notoriously bad 
 
 men. 
 
 Alexander VI. was the reigning Pope, and the worst 
 
 Rome ever had. His wicked reign lasted from 1492 to 
 
 I i^c?. His great aim was to bring Rome, 
 
 Alexander J J b a > 
 
 VI. and Cffisar and if he could, all Italy, into the hands of 
 orgia. j^.^ ^^.^^ wickeder son Caesar Borgia. The 
 
 latter caused his own brother to be stabbed and thrown 
 into the Tiber. He had his brother-in-law assassinated 
 on his palace-steps. He stabbed one of his father's 
 favourites who had taken shelter under the pontifical 
 robes, so that the blood spirted into the Pope's face. 
 „^ . . Rich men were poisoned to get their wealth. 
 
 1 heir crimes. 
 
 The reign of these Borgias was a reign of 
 terror in Rome. At last, in 1503, the Pope fell, it is 
 said, into his own trap, and died of the poison he had 
 prepared for another. 
 
 Another great Italian historian of the time, Cui'c- 
 ciardini, records that the body of the Pope, black and 
 loathsome, was exposed to public view in St. Peter's. 
 And he goes on to say : — 
 
 "All Rome flocked to that sight, and could not suf- 
 ficiently satiate their eyes with gazing on the remains of 
 the extinct serpent, who by his immoderate ambition, 
 pestiferous perfidy, monstrous lust, and every sort of 
 horrible cruelty and unexampled avarice — selling with- 
 out distinction property sacred and profane — had com- 
 passed the destruction of so many by poison, and was 
 now become its victim ! '
 
 CH. III. 
 
 Italy. 
 
 25 
 
 wickedness. 
 
 Machiavelli was right then, that the example of Rome 
 in Italy was an evil one. That it made the Italians hate 
 the Church, and drove thinking men, while ^ 
 
 . . . ° Effects of the 
 
 they remamed superstitious, to doubt Chris- Pope's 
 tianity, and to welcome even Pagan reli- 
 gions, because they seemed so much purer than that 
 which Rome offered them, we shall see by-and-by. This 
 is what he meant when he spoke of the Italians becom- 
 ing 'heathenish' — it was exactly the fact. 
 
 And now as to this other statement, that Rome was 
 
 the cause of the divisions, 
 
 and therefore of the ruin 
 of Italy; this also, the 
 facts of the recent history 
 of Italy will make clear. 
 The map shows how 
 Italy was in the main 
 divided — Venice, Milan, 
 and Flor- ^_ ^. . 
 
 Main divi- 
 
 ence to the sions of 
 north; Na- "^'^- 
 pies to the south; the 
 States of the Church between. 
 
 (i) The States of the Church. Over these the Popes 
 had a shadowy kind of rule, but they v/ere made up of 
 petty lordships and cities, claiming independence, and 
 even Rome was ruled by its Barons rather ^ 
 
 Papal States. 
 
 than by the Popes; or to speak more cor- 
 rectly the Barons and the Pope were always quarrelling 
 which of the two should rule. The Pope lived in his 
 strong castle of St. Angelo, close by the city. 
 
 (2) Venice was a commercial city, 1,000 years old, 
 ruled by its nobles and possessing territory like ancient
 
 26 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 „ . Rome, ruled for the benefit of its citizens 
 
 Venice. 
 
 rather than its subjects. 
 
 (3) /%;r«<:i? was also a commercial republic, but not 
 governed by its nobles. It was a democratic republic, 
 
 but one family of citizens — the Medici — had 
 
 Florence. 
 
 grown by trade richer than the rest, and 
 usurped almost despotic power. It also possessed con- 
 siderable territory. 
 
 (4) Milan was a State to which there were many rival 
 claims. The King of France, as Duke of Orleans, claimed 
 
 it by inheritance from the last Duke of Mi- 
 
 Milan. ' 
 
 Ian. The King of Naples (and Spain through 
 him) also had a claim, and the Emperor of Germany 
 claimed it as having reverted to the Empire. Meanwhile 
 the Sforza family had possession, and kept it off and on 
 till 1 5 12. 
 
 (5) Naples was also a State to which there were rival 
 claims. Its nobles had usurped almost uncontrolled 
 power. The right to feudal sovereignty over it was dis- 
 puted between the Counts of Anion (France) 
 
 Naples. J \ I 
 
 and the King of Arragon (Spain). The lat- 
 ter had long had possession, and it had descended to a 
 bastard branch of that house. 
 
 That the Popes were continually fomenting quarrels 
 between these Italian States and bringing 'barbarian' 
 princes to fight their battles on Italian soil, a few facts 
 will show, 
 
 Alexander VI. and Ceesar Borgia first stirred up 
 Venice and Milan against Naples. Then they invited 
 Charles VIII. of Franee, who in 1494 crossed the Alps, 
 overturned the Medici at Florence, and entered Naples 
 in 1495. Then in 1495 the Pope, JVniee, and Milan 
 joined with Ferdinand of Spain in turning the French 
 out of Naples again.
 
 CH. III. Germany. 27 
 
 In 1500 Louis XII. of France took Milan, and then 
 he and Ferdinand of Spain jointly invaded Naples. But 
 they quarrelled, and Spam, under Gonsalvo „ , ,. . 
 
 •^ '■ Fapal politics 
 
 de Cordova, defeated the French, and so the ruin of 
 Ferdinand became King of Naples, and ^' 
 (having Sardinia and Sicily before) of the two Sicilies 
 in 1505. 
 
 In 1503 Julius II. became Pope, and devoted his ten 
 years' reign to constant war. In 1509 he, France, Spain, 
 and Germany formed the League of Cambray against 
 Venice. But the robbers quarrelled on the eve of victory, 
 and so Venice was not ruined. 
 
 In 151 1 Louis XII. of Fra?tce tried to get Henry VIII. 
 oi England to join him in deposing Julius II. But Julius 
 succeeded in getting Ejigland and Spain and Germany 
 to join his 'Holy League' against France. 
 
 After driving Louis XII. of France out of Italy, 
 Julius II. died in 1513, and was succeeded by Leo X. 
 
 [b] Germany. 
 
 Next to Italy, Germany was furthest of all modern 
 nations from having attained national unity. The Ger- 
 man, or, as it called itself, ' the Holy Roman ' ^^ , 
 
 Had not yet 
 
 Empire, was a power which belonged to the attained 
 
 old order of things. Like the Pope of Rome, unity""^ 
 
 the Emperor considered himself as the head 
 
 of Christendom. He called himself ' Caesar,' 
 
 and ' King of Rome ; ' and, as successor to ci^'";'^^ to 
 
 , , be Ca;sar 
 
 the Roman Empire, which the Germans had and King of 
 conquered, claimed not only a feudal chief- 
 tainship over nations of German origin, but also a sort 
 of vague sovereignty over all lands. As the Pope of 
 Rome was the spiritual head, so the Emperor considered 
 himself the 'temporal head of all Christian people.' 
 
 The Em- 
 peror
 
 23 
 
 State of Christendom. 
 
 Switzerland had indeed severed herself from the Ger- 
 man Empire. England, Spain, and France had never 
 properly belonged to it. But the French king had 
 neverthe less sometimes sworn fealty to the Empire ; 
 and even Henry VIII. of England, when it suited his 
 purpose (z. e. when he wanted to be Emperor !) took 
 care to point out to the Electors that while his rival, 
 -T. , . Francis I. of France, was a foreigner, in 
 
 His claim to . . o > 
 
 universal em- electing an English Emperor, they would 
 shadowy. not be departing from the German tongue. 
 
 On other occasions he took care to insist 
 that England, however Saxon in her speech, had never 
 been subject to the Empire. So the claim to universal 
 sovereignty was very shadowy indeed. 
 
 When a vacancy occurred, the new Emperor was 
 elected under the ' Golden 
 Bull' of 1356, 
 by seven Prince 
 Electors, viz. : [On the 
 Rhine]. The three Arch- 
 bishops of Maye7ice, Treves, 
 and Cologne, and the Count 
 Palatine of the Rhine, [On 
 the Elbe]. The king of 
 Bohemia, the Elector of 
 Saxony, the Margrave of 
 Bra7idenbiirg. 
 
 The ceremony of coronation showed the feudal nature 
 ot the Empire. When elected, the Emperor attended 
 high mass. Then the Archbishop of Mayence, as- 
 Th f d 1 sisted by Cologne and Treves, demanded 
 ceremony. of him, ' Will you maintain the Catholic 
 
 faith ? ' ' I will.' Then he demanded of his 
 brother electors, ' Will you recognize the elected as 
 
 How elected. 
 
 THE SEVEN PRINCE ELECTORS
 
 CH. III. Germain 
 
 29 
 
 Emperor ? ' ' So be it." Then he was robed in the robes, 
 girt with the sword, and crowned with the crown of 
 Charlemagne. Then came the banquet. The King of 
 Bohemia, in true feudal fashion, was the imperial cup- 
 bearer ; the Count Palatine carved the first slice from 
 the roasted ox ; the Duke of Saxony rode up to his stir- 
 rups into a heap of oats, and filled a measure with grain 
 for his lord ; and lastly, the Margrave of Brandenburg 
 rode to a fountain and filled the imperial ewer with water. 
 
 When elected, the Emperor had little real power in 
 Germany ; and, indeed, as time went on he seemed to 
 have less and less. 
 
 Once large domains had belonged to the Emperor : 
 some in Italy, some on the Rhine. But former emperors 
 had lost or ceded the Italian estates to ^ 
 
 T ,• 1 , , . . , . , No imperial do- 
 
 Itaiian nobles and cities dunng struggles mains, 
 with the Popes ; while those on the Rhine 
 had been handed over to the Archbishops of Mayence, 
 Treves, and Cologne, who were Electors, to secure votes 
 and pohtical support. For some generations there had 
 been no imperial domains at all ; not an inch of territory 
 in Germany or Italy came to the Emperor with his impe- 
 rial crown. The Emperor was therefore reduced to a 
 mere feudal headship. 
 
 Nor had the Emperor, as feudal head, much power in 
 Germany. He found it very hard to get troops or 
 money from the German people. Maximi- 
 
 . . Small imperial 
 
 hail, the reigning Emperor, was notoriously power, 
 poor, and declared that the Pope drew a 
 hundred times larger revenue out of Germany than he 
 did. He was a powerful sovereign in Europe because 
 he was head of the Austrian house of Hapsburg, which 
 u'as rising into great power in Europe by its alliances. 
 Already possessed of Austria and Bohemia, Maxi-
 
 30 State of Christendom. PT. I. 
 
 milian had married Mary of Burgundy, and the Nether- 
 ^, ^ lands. His son Philip thus was heir-appa- 
 
 1 he Emperor . '■ '■ 
 
 Maximilian, rent to tliosc provinccs as well as Austria. 
 House oi "^'^ Philip married Joanna, daughter of Isabella 
 Hapsburg. q|- Spain ; and so their son Charles became 
 heir to Spain also. Thus was the House of Hapsburg 
 pushing itself into power and influence. The German 
 Empire was the crowning symbol of their power rather 
 than the reason of it. In the case of Maximilian, it was 
 the power of Austria that made the German Emperor 
 great. By-and-by, as we shall see, when Charles V. of 
 „, , ,, Austria, Spain, and the Netherlands rises to 
 
 Charles V. . 
 
 the Empire and becomes the most powerful 
 prince in Europe, it is by Spain, not Germany, that he 
 wields his still greater influence. 
 
 The power of the Emperor was far less in Germany 
 than in his own domains, for in Germany his power was 
 checked by the Diet or feudal parliament of the Empire. 
 ^^ ^. The Diet was a feudal, not a representative 
 
 The Diets. * 
 
 parliament; /. e. only the Emperor's feudal 
 vassals had a claim to attend and vote in it. 
 
 The Diet met and voted in three separate houses: 
 
 1. The Electors (except the King of Bohemia, who 
 
 had no voice except in the election of an Em- 
 peror). 
 
 2. The Princes, lay and ecclesiastical. 
 
 3. The Free Imperial Cities (/. e. those cities which 
 
 held direct of the Emperor). 
 The Electors and Princes had most power. Only what 
 was agreed upon by them was last of all submitted to the 
 House of Cities. To secure the carrying out 
 
 No power to jo 
 
 enforce their of the decrees of the Diets, there had also 
 
 decrees. , . 
 
 recently been some attempts at an organiza- 
 tion of the Empire. It was divided in circles for the
 
 CH. III. Germany. 31 
 
 maintenance of order; but this, though plausible on pa- 
 per, had little effect in reality, because the Diets had no 
 real power to enforce their decrees. 
 
 Germany was, in fact, still under the feudal system — 
 still divided up into petty lordships — more ^- r ^ , 
 so then perhaps any other country ; certainly tem still pre- 
 more so than England, Spain, or France. 
 
 One reason for this was, as we have seen, that the 
 German law of inheritance divided the lordships between 
 the sons of a feudal lord on his death; so „ .... . , 
 
 bubdivision oi 
 
 there was constant subdivision, and in con- lordships by 
 
 , ^ law of inherit- 
 
 sequence an ever-mcreasing host of petty ance. 
 sovereignties. 
 
 The mass of the feudal lords were petty and poor, and 
 yet proud and independent, resisting any attempts of the 
 powers above them, whether Emperor, or 
 Diets, .or Princes, to control them. They ^"ds'.""' ^^'"^ 
 claimed the right of waging war; and, by 
 their petty feuds, the public peace was always being 
 broken. 
 
 They lived a wild barbarian life in times of peace 
 (/, e. when not at feud with some neighbouring lord), de- 
 voted to the chase, trampling over their tenants' crops, 
 scouring the woods with their retainers and their dogs. 
 In times of war and feuds, with helmets, breastplates, and 
 cross-bows they lay in ambush in the forests watching an 
 enemy, or fell upon a train of merchants on the roads 
 from some town or city with which they had a quarrel. 
 They became as wild and lawless as the wolves. 
 
 Glitz von Berlichingen (popularlv known as 'Giitz with 
 the Iron Hand'), and Franz von Sickingcn were types of 
 this wild knighthood. They were champions 
 of fist-law (faust-recht). They called it pri- of the 
 vate war, but it was often plunder and pillage ■'"'S"'^-
 
 3- State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 by which they lived. Gotz was indeed more hke the head 
 of a band of robbers than anything else. He one day 
 saw a pack of wolves fall upon a flock of sheep. ' Good 
 luck, dear comrades,' said Gotz, 'good luck to us all and 
 everywhere!' These lawless knights were indeed like 
 wolves, and, just as much as the wild animals they 
 hunted, belonged to the old order of things, which must 
 go out to make way for advancing civilization. 
 
 The free towns of Germany were her real strength. 
 The citizens were thrifty, earned much by their com- 
 The towns of rnerce, spent little, and so saved much. 
 Germany. Each city was a little free state (for they had 
 
 mostly thrown off their feudal lords), self-governed, like 
 a little republic, fortified, well stored with money in its 
 treasury, a year's provisions and firing often stored up 
 against a siege. The little towns were of course de- 
 pendent in part on the peasantry round, buying their 
 corn, and in return supplying them with manufactured 
 goods. But the bigger towns lived by a wider commerce, 
 and held their heads above the peasantry. Above all, 
 they hated the feudal lords, whose feuds and petty wars 
 and lawless deeds put their commerce in 
 
 Their leacjiies , , 
 
 for mutual peril. Two hundred years ago, sixty towns 
 ^^""" on the Rhine had leagued themselves to- 
 
 gether to protect their commerce. After that had coftie 
 the league^ of the Hanse Towns, chiefly in the North of 
 Germany, but including Cologne and twenty-nine adja- 
 cent towns, and aiming at defending commerce from 
 robberies by land as well as piracy by sea. 
 
 They had to form these leagues because Germany 
 was divided and without a real head — not yet a nation — 
 
 1 See the Map of Commerce.
 
 CH. III. Germany. 7^2> 
 
 though all that was ?ood and great in it was ,„ 
 
 ^ . -r r Want of a 
 
 sighing for more national life, for a central central power 
 
 ^ ^. . 1 ^ • to maintain 
 
 representative power strong enough to main- the public 
 
 tain the public peace, but hitherto sighing P^*"- 
 
 in vain, finding in her Emperor little more help than 
 
 Italy found in her Pope. 
 
 No class in Germany had suffered more from want of 
 
 a central power than the peasantry. They still were in 
 
 feudal serfdom. While in other countries, _, 
 
 The con- 
 where there was a well-established central ditionofthe 
 
 1 -1 <- 1 -L J peasantry 
 
 government, the lot of the peasantry had growing 
 improved and serfdom almost been got rid {Jarjer for'^ 
 of, here in Germany their lot had grown want of a 
 
 central power. 
 
 harder and harder for want of it. 
 
 The German peasant, or ' Bauer ^ was still a feudal 
 tenant. In many ways he was no doubt better off than 
 a labourer for wages. His house was no mere labourer's 
 cottage — it was a little farm. He had about him his 
 land and his live stock, his barn and his stack. Under 
 the same roof with his family his cows and pigs lay upon 
 their straw and he upon his bed. On the raised cooking 
 hearth the wood crackled under the great iron pot hung 
 on its rack from the chimney-hood above, while sauce- 
 pans and gridirons, pewter dishes and pitchers with their 
 pewter lids were hung upon the walls ; the oak table and 
 coffee were heirlooms with his house and his land. In 
 mere outward comforts many a free peasant, working 
 for wages and having no land to till for himself, would 
 gladly have changed places with him ; but behind all 
 was his thraldom to his feudal lord. 
 
 He had traditions of old and better days, when he was 
 far more free, when his services were not so hard and the 
 exactions of his lord not so great. But in History of 
 the fourteenth century the Black Death had 'Bauer.' 
 D
 
 34 State of Christendom. pt. I. 
 
 thinned the population of Germany and made labour 
 scarce. In other countries, where the law of the land 
 had fixed the amount of the services, and where 
 the influence of commerce had substituted money- 
 payments for services, this scarcity of labour strengthened 
 the peasant in his struggle for freedom. But in Germany, 
 where there was no law to step in, and where services 
 continued, the scarcity of labour was only likely to make 
 the lords insist all the more upon their performance ; and 
 so they had encroached more and more on the peasants' 
 rights, enacted more and more labour from them, in- 
 creased their burdens, robbed them more and more of 
 their common rights over the pastures, the wild game, 
 and the fish in the rivers, grown more and more inso- 
 lent, till the peasants in some places had sunk almost 
 into slavery. It was galling to them to have to work for 
 their lords in fine weather, and to have to steal in their 
 own little crops on rainy days. Small a thing as it 
 might be, perhaps it was still more galling to receive 
 orders on holidays to turn out and gather wild straw- 
 berries for the folks at the Castle. Hard, too, it seemed 
 to them when, on the death of a peasant, the lord's 
 agent came and carried off from the widow's home the 
 hcriot or 'best chattel,' according to the feudal custom — 
 perhaps the horse or the cow on which the family was 
 dependent. 
 
 But however bad a pass things might come to, there 
 was no remedy — no law of the land to appeal to against 
 „ , „. the encroachments of their lords. The Ro- 
 
 Rebellion , • i i , i • 
 
 his only man civil law had mdeed been brought m 
 
 reme y. ^^ ^^ ecclcsiastics, and the lords favoured 
 
 it because it tended to regard serfs as slaves. The serfs 
 naturally hated it because it hardened their lot. There 
 was no good in appealing to it. It was one of their
 
 CH. III. 
 
 Spain. 
 
 35 
 
 grievances. So the peasants of each place must fight it 
 out with their own lords. They must rebel or submit, 
 waiting for better days, if ever these should come ! 
 
 (r) Spain. 
 Spain was destined to become the first power in 
 Europe. She rapidly grew into a united nation, and 
 during the era attained the highest point of Becoming 
 power and prosperity she ever reached ; but '^e first 
 
 ' L 1. J ^ • ^ power m 
 
 she fell soon after from the pinnacle on which Europe. 
 she then stood, and has never since risen again so high. 
 Ever since the conquest of Spain by the Goths and 
 Vandals, in the eighth century, it had been a feudal 
 nation; and, as in most other feudal coun- powerofthe 
 tries, the power had got into the hands of "°b'<^^- 
 the feudal lords or nobles. But Spain was singular in 
 this, that it had passed under a long period of Moham- 
 medan rule. 
 
 By the invasions of the Moors the feudal chiefs of 
 Spain had been driven up into the mountains of the 
 north, while probably the peasantry mostly j^^-^^^^ .^^^ 
 remained in the conquered country, subject the north by 
 
 1 1 r 1 1 'he Moors. 
 
 to the Moors. By slow degrees the feudal 
 
 chiefs reconquered the northern provinces, till the Moors
 
 3^ State of Christendom. pt. I. 
 
 retained only the rich southern provinces ; and as bit af- 
 ter bit was reconquered by the nobles, it became a little 
 independent state under the feudal chief who recon- 
 quered it. 
 
 Already, however, there had grown up in Spain the 
 three kingdoms of Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, fa- 
 „ . voured by the influence of the towns. 
 
 Reconquest of _ ^ 
 
 Spain from the Owing to the constant struggles going on 
 
 floors, except ,, i t i ,-1 r 
 
 Granada. there had been for long no safety except 
 
 in the towns. These had further grown in 
 power and importance by trade and manufactures, and 
 had become little states — like little Venices — each with 
 its independent government. 
 
 Both in Castile and Arragon the monarch was scarce- 
 ly more powerful than the Emperor in Germany. His 
 
 power was controlled by the Cortes or par- 
 Kingdoms of J. 1,1. 
 
 Castile and liamcnt, at which met the nobles, deputies 
 rragon from the towns, and clergy. And to the 
 
 Cortes belonged the power of levying taxes and enacting 
 laws. 
 
 Such was the state of things when, by the marriage of 
 
 Ferdinand of Castile to Isabella of Arragon (in 1481), all 
 
 Spain, except Navarre and Granada, was 
 
 united under 
 
 Ferdinand and united under One monarchy, and from this 
 
 time the tendency was for the throne to be- 
 
 Spain becomes (-Qj^g more and more absolute. It was one 
 
 more and more 
 
 absolute. of the first objects of Ferdinand and Isabella 
 
 to extend the power of the monarchy. 
 
 Spain had found, as the Germans had found, that 
 without some central power it was hard to keep the 
 peace, to protect trade and commerce, and to put down 
 robbery and crime. The cities had united in a ' Holy 
 Brotherhood ' for this purpose, and Ferdinand sided with 
 them in this object. But what more than anything else
 
 CH. III. Spain. 37 
 
 counteracted the feudal tendency to separate into little 
 petty states, and to strengthen the national feeling and 
 make it rally round the common centre of 
 the throne, was the war long waged by Fer- Granada. 
 dinand, and at length successful, against the 
 last stronghold of the Moors in Granada. In 1492 Gra- 
 nada was taken, the 700 years' struggle ended, and the 
 Moors driven forever out of Spain, Thus was all Spain 
 (except the little state of Navarre, under shelter of the 
 Pyrenees) united in one nation. The modern kingdom 
 of Spain, thus formed, rose up at once to be one of the 
 first powers of Europe. 
 
 We have already seen how Charles VIII. of France 
 had been invited by Pope Alexander VI. to conquer 
 Naples. As a bribe to keep Ferdinand (who 
 
 ,,.,,. , Ferdinand's 
 
 had a rival claim on Naples) quiet while he policy to com- 
 went on this raid on Naples, he had ceded ^' ^ ^'""' 
 to Ferdinand the little state of Perpignan, on the Span- 
 ish side of the Pyrenees. Ferdinand was intent on the 
 completion of the kingdom of Spain, and took the bribe. 
 We shall soon find him (in 1512) obtaining possession 
 of Navarre. In the meantime the result of the Italian 
 wars was that he got hold of Naples ; and having the 
 islands of Sardinia and Sicily already, he became King 
 of the ' Two Sicilies,' as well as of Spain. 
 
 Another fact added to the power of Spain. It was 
 under Spanish auspices that Columbus discovered Ame- 
 rica. This not only threw the gold of the mines of Peru 
 into the treasuries of Spain ; it added ^ , , 
 
 ' I 1 1 1 r T Columbus. 
 
 another great laurel to her fame. It was 
 Spain that had driven the Moors out of Western Europe; 
 it was Spain that enlarged Christendom by the discovery 
 of the New World.
 
 38 State of Ch?-istendom. pt. i. 
 
 „ The foreiq:n policy of princes in those 
 
 Foreign po- . 
 
 licy. Mar- days was very much influenced by the mar- 
 ri-iges. riages they planned and effected for their 
 
 children. 
 
 Ferdinand's first aim was to get all the Spanish Pe- 
 ninsula under the power of the Spanish Crown. So he 
 married his eldest daughter to the King of Portugal, in 
 hopes of some day uniting the two Crowns. This came 
 to pass in the person of Philip II., the husband of the 
 English Queen Mary. 
 
 His next policy was to ally himself with such foreign 
 powers as would best help him to secure his ends. 
 There were two reasons why he did not ally himself with 
 France. France was his rival in Italy. He had fought 
 with France ^or Naples, and meant to keep it. He also 
 wanted Navarre to complete the Spanish kingdom. 
 France claimed it also. The aim of Spanish foreign 
 policy was, therefore, to work against France. 
 
 By the marriage of his daughter Cathcrme to the King 
 of England, and yoanna to the heir of the rising Aus- 
 trian House of Hapsburg, who held the Netherlands, 
 and whose head, Maximilian I., was Emperor of Ger- 
 many, he connected himself with the two powers who, 
 like himself, were jealous of France — Engtajid, because 
 part of France had so long been claimed as belonging to 
 the English Crown — the House of Hapsburg, because 
 France had got hold of part of Burgundy (which former- 
 ly belonged to the same Burgundian kingdom as the 
 Netherlands). 
 
 And on the whole, though his schemes 
 
 Success of ... . ' 
 
 these alliances, did not prosper in his lifetime, they did suc- 
 ceed in making Spain the first power in Eu- 
 rope during the next reign. 
 
 When Queen Isabella died, Joanna became Queen of
 
 CH. III. Spain. 39 
 
 Castile. She, however, was insane, and her husband 
 
 Phihp dying soon after, Ferdinand held the reins of 
 
 Castile in her name as Regent. On his death, in 15 16, 
 
 Castile and Arragon were again united, under Charles 
 
 v., and Spain became greater than ever. 
 
 The domestic policy of Ferdinand and Isabella had 
 
 also for its object the consolidation of Spain ^ 
 
 ■' Domestic po- 
 
 under their throne. Their great minister licy. 
 
 was Cardinal Ximenes, whose policy was to 
 strengthen the central power of the Crown by engaging 
 all Spain in a natio7ial war against the Moors, and by 
 strengthening the towns (or loyal element) at the ex- 
 pense of the feudal nobles (the disloyal clement, in Spain 
 as elsewhere). The subjugation of the no- „ _ ^ 
 
 / -' ° Subjugation oi 
 
 bles to the Crown was in a great measure the nobles. 
 effected, and the Crown became more and more abso- 
 lute. 
 
 Not content with driving out of Spain the last rem- 
 nant of the Mohammedan Moors, the Catho- -phe inquisi- 
 lic zeal of the king and queen and Ximenes "°"- 
 turned itself against the Jews and heretics. They founded 
 the 'Inquisition' in Spain, which in a genera- Banishment 
 tion burned thousands of heretics. They °^ ^^'^ J'^^^^- 
 expelled, it is said, more than 100,000 Jews from thetr 
 Spanish homes. These first took refuge in Portugal, and 
 soon after, driven from thence, were scattered over 
 Europe. 
 
 But notwithstanding this zeal for the Catholic faith, 
 by which Ferdinand and Isabella earned the title of 'the 
 Catholic,' there was no notion in the minds of Ximenes or 
 his royal master and mistress to sacrifice Spain to Rome. 
 They were as zealous in reforming the morals of the 
 clergy and monks as in rooting out heresy. They de- 
 manded from the Pope bulls enabling them to visit and
 
 40 
 
 State of Christendom. 
 
 PT. I. 
 
 ■S.S § 
 
 ug 
 
 a I 
 
 Vi 
 
 W R 
 
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 M « 
 
 O 
 
 
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 o a 
 
 z 
 
 tjj„ 
 
 2^ 
 
 
 S W ^ « 5 
 
 
 
 .5 ^' 
 
 s: - ^ § S 8^.<^, ^ 
 
 '•^-^ 
 
 ii"« 
 
 2^ 
 
 » V, s 't- ;j >v v^ 'S si 
 j! a^-S 5-=i vj !^ S '^ 
 
 '' 5 S -» !> * 5> 
 
 i<. 
 
 
 b S « 
 
 
 
 
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 ~ ^ « 5 
 
 ^ s k 2 
 — ■ ? »''' 5 
 
 75 5---'^' 
 tc ? 
 
 ;to- 
 
 W 
 
 -2 'n'I il I* 
 
 
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 O Jv ^ ^ K R 
 
 ^ ^ « »- -^ 
 
 Pi "^ ^ " - 
 
 y 
 
 5 »-5 
 
 
 •o G 
 
 us 

 
 CH. III. Spain. 41 
 
 reform the monasteries. They claimed the , , 
 
 \ . Independent 
 
 right in many cases of appointing their own policy to- 
 bishops. And when the scandals of Alexan- 
 der VI. 's wicked reign came to their knowledge, they 
 threatened to combine with other sovereigns in his 
 ' correctiott.' 
 
 One other thing we must notice. The discoveries of 
 Columbus, followed up by the conquest of Mexico and 
 Peru, gave to Spain suddenly a colonial em- colonial po- 
 pire to govern. Her colonies in the New '"^v- 
 World were in one sense the gem in her Crown. Her 
 dreams of wealth in gold and silver were more than 
 realized. To have extended C/ir!stendo?n into a new 
 world seemed in itself a worthy exploit to the Catholic 
 zeal of Queen Isabella. Her royal anxiety to convert 
 the heathen inhabitants of the new-found lands to the 
 Catholic faith was no doubt as genuine as her anxiety 
 to root heresy out of Spain. 
 
 She sent out Catholic missionaries, but the selfishness 
 of her Spanish colonists introduced slavery instead of 
 Christianity. In these first Spanish colonies 
 was begun that cruel policy by which the 
 native races were exterminated — worked to death — and 
 then African negroes introduced to supply their place. 
 The introduction of slavery, and its necessary feeder — 
 the slave trade — was a blot upon the colonial policy, not 
 only of Spain but of Christendom. It was essentially 
 contrary to the genius of modern civilization, and we 
 know how great a struggle has been needful in our own 
 times to prevent its ruining the greatest of the colonies 
 of the New World, 
 
 (d) France. 
 Machiavelli says, 'The kings of France are at this
 
 42 
 
 State of Christendom. 
 
 PT. I. 
 
 How all 
 France had 
 grown into 
 one nation. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF FRANCE 
 
 time more rich and powerful than ever.' So they were. 
 
 The dynasty of the Capets, 
 which began before the time 
 of the Norman 
 conquest of Eng- 
 land and lasted 
 down to the 'Louis Capet' 
 (Louis XVI.) who was put 
 to death during the French 
 Revolution, had now ruled 
 France for about five hun- 
 dred years. But the France 
 ruled by the first Capet 
 was only the portion marked dark on the map. It was 
 as though the King of England had ruled- only York- 
 shire. The rest of France was divided among the 
 great Barons. 
 
 These Baronies, or ' DucJiies,' had gradually been ab- 
 sorbed into the kingdom. The dates when they thus fell 
 in are marked on the map. 
 Now if we look at France 
 at the begin- 
 ning of the 
 new era, we 
 shall see, from 
 comparing the two maps, 
 how she had grown, and 
 hov,' she claimed now not 
 only all France, but Milan 
 and Naples also. She had, 
 in fact, become the second 
 great power in Europe, and 
 by aiming to become the 
 first, made herself the great rival of Spain. 
 
 France 
 
 claimed Milan 
 and Naples 
 also. 
 
 FRANCE 
 IN THE ERA
 
 CH. III. France. 43 
 
 What were the secrets of her growing power? As we 
 have seen, Machiavelh said that Italy was weaker than 
 either Spain or France, because the latter were each of 
 them united under one Croivn. 
 
 We have now to mark the reasons given ^, . 
 
 1 his union of 
 
 by him why the Duchies of France had be- ail France the 
 come united under the Crown. 
 
 (i) The Crown was not elective, as in Ger- „ , ,. 
 
 ^ ' _ _ . Crown heredi- 
 
 many, but hereditary in the royal family. tary ; 
 
 (2). The rule of mkeritance in France was 
 not division among all the sons, but descent g"n7ture- 
 to the eldest son only. 
 
 (3) Intermarriages with the royal family inter- 
 
 1 11 n 111 marriage with 
 
 not only made the great iiarons loyal to the tlie royal 
 throne, but sometimes united their Duchies f^°"'y- 
 to the Crown under one heir; e.g. the kings 
 of France, as heirs of the Duchies of Anjou and Orleans, 
 claimed both those Duchies and also their rights to Na- 
 ples and Milan. 
 
 (4) The towns, as in Spain and elsewhere, had fa- 
 voured the growth of the central power as the best 
 means of freeing themselves from their old 
 
 feudal lords. Most of them had long ago 
 
 obtained charters of freedom, and now held only of the 
 
 Crown. 
 
 The final struggle of the Crown with the great feudal 
 Barons had been concluded just before the era com- 
 menced. It had been a hard struggle be- ^. , 
 
 "° Final struggle 
 
 tween Louis XI. and the Duke of Burgundy, of the Crown 
 The king had prevailed, and from that time gundy. 
 the unity of France was settled. She had 
 become powerful enough to hold her own against both 
 internal and foreign foes. 
 
 England had once claimed a great part of France, but
 
 44 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 ^ ,. , there was henceforth no real chance of 
 
 English con- 
 quests at her getting it back again. She could no 
 
 longer find allies on French soil against 
 France. 
 
 It is true that we shall find Henry VIll. still dream- 
 ing soinetimes of reversing the decision of the 'hundred 
 years' war' which had ended in the withdrawal of Eng- 
 land from all France except the town of Calais ; and we 
 shall find Spain and England combining during the era 
 more than once to crush France. But in reality the 
 object lof these wars we shall find to be not so much the 
 dismemberment of France as opposition to the aggressive 
 policy of Louis XII. and Francis I,, and their invasions 
 of Italy. 
 
 The hundred years' war with England had also 
 tended to consolidate the French nation. It was a 
 national and even popular struggle to turn out a foreign 
 
 foe. It necessitated the levying of national 
 
 The English . ^ t r ■ i 
 
 wars had armies and the payment of national taxes. 
 
 Ka^lio^nyrnd It did for Fraucc, to some extent, what the 
 increase the ^,^^^ ^\^ ^^ Moors did for Spain: it 
 
 power ot the * 
 
 Crown: strengthened the central power of the 
 
 Crown, and gave it a recognized place as 
 
 natural head and leader of the nation, in peace as well 
 
 as in war. 
 
 But the misfortune of France was that in outwardly 
 
 becoming a great nation by uniting all the Duchies 
 under the Crown, and so enlarging the size 
 
 but there were , „ , i • ^ i 
 
 seeds of dis- of France on the map, sad mistakes were 
 union within. ^^^^^ v^\az\i prevented her growth in mter- 
 nal toiiiy, which sowed the seeds of bitter feeling between 
 classes, and ended in producing her Great Revolution. 
 
 We cannot note too carefully these fatal mistakes. 
 
 (i) The king got the power of levying taxes — the
 
 CH. III. Fraiicc. 45 
 
 ' taille' — without the consent of the people. „ 
 
 Royal taxes 
 
 The ' Estates General, or French Parlia- without con- 
 ment, which had hitherto had a voice in people, 
 matters of taxation, hereafter had none ; the 
 Crown became absolute. 
 
 (2) The king, successful in his war „ 
 
 \ ' ^ Royal stand- 
 
 against England, henceforth out of these ing army. 
 taxes kept a large standing army. 
 
 These things, said Philip de Commines, the con- 
 temporary French historian of Louis XL, 'gave a wound 
 to his kingdom which will not soon be closed.' 
 
 He was right, for these two things kept classes apart 
 and broke up the internal unity of France. To see how 
 they did this, let us look at each class separately. 
 
 The nobility or noblesse of France were made into 
 a permanently separate caste. In old times they paid 
 no taille, because they gave their military services to the 
 king in his wars. Now there was a standing army they 
 were less and less needed as soldiers, yet their freedom 
 from taxation remained. They were a privi- ^, 
 
 . , . , The noblesse 
 
 leged class, and mtermarned with one an- a privileged 
 other. Their estates went down to their "" ^^^ '^^ ^' 
 eldest sons, but the younger sons, too, belonged to the 
 noblesse. So they became a very numerous class, 
 poor, but proud of their blood and freedom from 
 taxes. 
 
 The. peasantry , on the other hand, were the burdened 
 class. In some respects they were much q^j^^ peasantry 
 better off than the German peasantry, notserfc. 
 Very early in their history feudal serfdom had been 
 abolished in the north of France, especially in Normandy ; 
 while in most parts their services in labour had been 
 long ago changed into fixed rents, paid most often in 
 corn, wine, or fruits. But their young crops still suf-
 
 46 Slale of Christendotn. pt. I. 
 
 but paying fcrcd from the lord's game. They still had 
 "■^"'^ tolls and fees and heriots to pay, and forced 
 
 labour to give on the roads. They still looked up to the 
 feudal lord as to a master, and the lord down upon them 
 as born for service. There was an impassable barrier 
 of blood between the two classes. The Church added 
 ^ , her claims — her tithes, as in other countries, 
 
 and tithes 
 
 and the endless fees and money payments, 
 which made her so obnoxious. Bishops and abbots, 
 in France as in Germany, had large estates as well as 
 tithes, and so were landlords and princes as well as 
 priests, drawing, Machiavelli says, two-fifths of the 
 annual revenues of the kingdom into their ecclesiastical 
 coffers. Lastly came the extra burden of the taille, 
 growing with the military needs of kings who, having an 
 , .„ army, and not content with turning out the 
 
 and taiUe. ■'. . ° 
 
 English and conquering refractory barons, 
 must needs lay claim to Milan and Naples, and invade 
 Italy. 
 
 Here is a picture drawn by the peasants themselves of 
 their hard lot, as they complained to the States General 
 on the accession of Charles VUL, and laid their grie- 
 vances before the new monarch, hoping for a remedy 
 which never came. 
 
 ' During the past thirty-four years troops have been 
 ' ever passing through France and living on the poor 
 Their grie- ' People. When the poor man has managed 
 vances. ' ^y ^j^g g^ig Qf ^-j^g zozX on his back, after 
 
 'hard toil, to pay his taille, and hopes he may live out 
 ' the year on the little he has left, then come fresh troops 
 'to his cottage, eating him up. In Normandy multi- 
 ' tudes have died of hunger. From want of beasts men 
 ' and women have to yoke themselves to the carts, and 
 ' others, fearing that if seen in the daytime they will be
 
 CH. III. France. 47 
 
 • seized for not having paid their taille, are compelled to 
 'work at night. The king should have pity on his poor 
 'people, and relieve them from the said tailles and 
 'charges.* 
 
 Alas ! Charles VIII., instead of listening to their com- 
 plaints, took to invading Italy ! increasing their taille 
 and spilling more of their blood. 
 
 When to all this we add the consciousness that while 
 they, the much-enduring peasantry, were bearing their 
 increasing burdens, the noblesse were free from them, 
 can we wonder if the peasantry should learn to hate as 
 well as envy the nobles ? 
 
 The middle class in order to escape the incidents of 
 the rural taxation more and more left the rural districts to 
 live in the towns. Not sharing the blood or „, 
 
 ° The middle 
 
 the freedom from taille of the nobles, there class leave 
 
 . . -..u *-u t'^'^ country 
 
 was no mixmg or mtermarrjang with them, for the 
 They were of different castes. Neither did '°'^'"- 
 the men of the towns sympathize with the peasantry. 
 They had their taille to pay like the peasantry, but under 
 their charters they enjoyed privileges which the peasant 
 did not. They were merchants rather than manufactu- 
 rers. Some linen manufactures were carried on in 
 Brittany and Normandy, but mostly France was supplied 
 with goods from the looms of Flanders in exchange for 
 corn and wine. The towns were the markets in which 
 the products of the peasant were exchanged, and the 
 townsmen thus had the chance of throwing a part of 
 their burdens on their rural customers in the shape of 
 tolls and dues. While thus the noblesse grew prouder 
 and poorer, and the peasantry were more and more bur- 
 dened, the middle classes in the towns grew richer and 
 more and more powerful. 
 
 Hence the gulf between different classes in France was
 
 48 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 ever widening. The Crown was absolute and uncon- 
 trolled by any parliament, the noblesse a privileged caste, 
 the middle class settling in the towns, while the poor 
 peasantry were left to bear their burdens alone in the 
 country. France had grown a big united 
 
 Separation ^ o o 
 
 of classes the country on the map, but looking within the 
 French nation, a state of things had begun which, if 
 
 P^ ^'^" unreformed, was sure in the end to produce 
 
 revolution, though it might not come yet. 
 
 In the meantime the first false steps of the absolute 
 kings of France were those attempts at aggrandizement 
 Love of which led them to invade I^aly and prove 
 
 foreign wars their Strength in a long rivalship with Spain. 
 
 the chief vice ° ° r- r 
 
 in her policy. To gratify a royal lust for empire and mili- 
 tary glory they were ready to sacrifice the welfare of the 
 French people. 
 
 (<?) England. 
 England had advanced further on the path of modern 
 civilization than any other country. 
 ^^ ^ ,. , The English people had long ago become 
 
 The English . o o 
 
 nation a compact nation, with a strong central 
 
 formed government, and with one law for all classes 
 
 within it. 
 England had passed under the feudal system, and, like 
 other countries, had her separate feudal elements, need- 
 ing to be blended into one compact whole. But happily 
 in England this work had in good measure been done. 
 
 Her feudal nobles, especially since the wars of the 
 
 Roses, had been thoroughly subdued under the central 
 
 power. Early in her history the petty feudal 
 
 not'a"c°as'te.'' lords had sunk into commoners. Unlike the 
 
 noblesse of France, the nobility of England 
 
 was not a separate caste. The younger sons of nobles
 
 CH. III. England. 49 
 
 became commoners, while their title to nobility, as well 
 as their estates, went to the eldest sons only. 
 
 England possessed a numerous and powerful middle 
 class, and it was not, as in France, con- 
 fined to the towns. Landowners and yeo-' ^^iddle 
 
 ^ classes. 
 
 men in the country belonged to it, as well as 
 the citizens and merchants. 
 
 And whilst all classes, including the nobility, had been 
 subjected to the central government, they had none of 
 them been crushed and humbled. The 
 
 r- 1 J . 1 11 • "T^^ Crown 
 
 Crown had not become absolute, as m also subject to 
 France. It, too, was subject to the laws of * ^^^' 
 the land. 
 
 The central power, or government, consisted of — 
 (i) the King, (2) the House of Lords, in which the 
 nobility had seats ; and (3) the House of Commons, where 
 the representatives of the free landholders, and of the 
 free citizens or burgesses, sat side by side. ^, 
 
 The govern- 
 No law could be passed without the concur- ment a consti- 
 
 rence of the Crown and both Houses of Par- monarchy. 
 liament. And the laws so passed were bind- 
 ing alike on king, nobility, and commoners, i. c, on the 
 whole nation. Nor could the Crown levy taxes without 
 the consent of Parliament. The government of Eng- 
 land was a constitutional monarchy, and had long 
 been so. 
 
 There was, however, still one class of people who were 
 not altogether blended into the nation — the ecclesiastics 
 or clergy. Bishops and abbots, because they were great 
 landholders and peers of the realm, had scats 
 in the House of Lords, just as in Germany ^^^^ ecc esias- 
 the ecclesiastical princes were Electors as 
 well as the lay princes. In this sense they were Eng- 
 lishmen. But tlic clergy in the main owcd^illcgiance to 
 E
 
 50 State of Christendotn. PT. I. 
 
 Rome, and in spite of the Constitutions of 
 
 Ecclesiastics -n i i i i • • i 
 
 not altogether Clarendon, were Still ruled by ecclesiastical 
 ngisimen. j^^ ^^^ ecclesiastical courts, and resented 
 civil interference. So they were subjects of the great 
 Roman ecclesiastical empire rather than of England. 
 Their allegiance was at least divided between the Pope 
 and the king, and often they were really foreigners. The 
 Pope at the same time drew large revenues 
 revenues . fronT from England as well as the king. The ec- 
 "^ ^" ■ clesiastical power was more under control, 
 
 and had been for long more restrained by law in Eng- 
 land than anywhere else ; but still the fact was that Rome 
 had ecclesiastical sway over England. And in England, 
 as elsewhere, the clergy and monks had got a large part 
 of the land into their hands — probably about one-third 
 of the land of England belonged to them, as well as 
 tithes from the whole. 
 
 The fact that there was one law of the land made by- 
 King and Parliament, and ruling all classes in the realm 
 (except the clergy), had, more than anything 
 hadgoTfree"^ clse, helped the peasantry to rise out of 
 from feudal feudal servitude. There was no peasantrv 
 
 servitude. i^ 
 
 in Europe (except the Swiss) which had al- 
 ready so completely got out of it as the English. 
 
 It early became the law of the land in England that 
 the services of the peasant could not be increased by the 
 lord. What they had been by long custom they must 
 not exceed. Then, by the influence of commerce, mo- 
 ney payments were early substituted for labor service. 
 .So that people became used to money rents for land and 
 money wages for labour. The population of England had 
 increased very rapidly up to the fourteenth century. It 
 was then nearly twice what it was afterwards, because 
 the Black Death in 1349 swept away half of it in a few
 
 CH. III. Englatid. 51 
 
 months. This of course made labour scarce. In spite 
 of all that the lords could do, and in spite even of Acts 
 of Parliament passed to prevent it, there was a great rise 
 in wages. 
 
 Under the feudal law the feudal tenants might not 
 leave their land. But now more and more they went to 
 the towns, where they could earn higher wages than by 
 tilling the land. There was of course a struggle to pre- 
 vent it, but aided by the towns, the process went on. 
 The feudal lords tried to enforce the old services, which 
 had become so much more valuable since the Black 
 Death. The more they did, the more their tenants 
 deserted the land and went to the towns. The peasantry 
 kept up a kind of strike, which came to a climax in the 
 rebellion under Wat Tyler in 1381. They were so far 
 successful that fixed money payments became general 
 instead of services, and by the time of Henry VH. feudal 
 servitude or villenage was at an end in England. 
 
 Quite a new state of things had grown up. Owing to 
 the growth of the woollen manufactures, and the demand 
 for wool, sheep-farmintr had very much in- „, 
 
 ^ ° , •' 1 he present 
 
 creased. Instead of a lot of little peasants' condition of the 
 holdings, the large farms of the wealthy P''^'^" ""^^ 
 sheep-owners often covered the country side. The 
 masses of the people in England were more and more 
 becoming a free people working for wages, while such 
 tenants as remained on the land paid fixed money rents 
 instead of services, and instead of being tied to the land 
 were ejected from their holdings if they could not pay 
 their rents. No doubt the masses of the people in Eng- 
 land had their hardships to endure. They had suffered 
 during the civil war of the Roses from anarchy and law- 
 lessness and the ravages of armies. Soldiers disbanded 
 after foreign wars disturbed the country. Small tenants
 
 52 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 found it hard to compete with larger ones, and on failure 
 to pay their rents lost their farms very often. The num- 
 ber of ejections from the land added of course to the idle 
 vagrant population. Robbery was thereby increased, 
 , , and as both thieves and vagabonds were 
 
 Freedom did . . 
 
 not neces- hung. Sometimes twenty might be seen 
 
 them'better hanging from a single gibbet. All this 
 °'^- showed that there were evils at work — 
 
 many things needing reform — but the English pea- 
 santry had earned by their past struggles 
 
 They had no , . -^ , ' . ^ . . ^^. 
 
 share in the this great advantage : instead of being 
 butXre*""' servile tenants of feudal lords, they were 
 was nothing fj-gg subjects, protected by the law of the 
 
 to prevent j • i. j 
 
 their getting land, though freedom did not necessarily 
 malce them better off, but often the con- 
 trary. They had indeed as yet no share in making the 
 laws, but there was nothing in their blood or in the law 
 of England to prevent their rising by industry and thrift 
 into owners of land, and as such claiming a voice in the 
 government of their country. 
 
 Such was England when, after the wars of the Roses, 
 Henry VH. conquered at the Battle of Bosworth, and 
 ascended the throne in 1485. 
 
 Henry VII. was born an orphan, a few months after 
 
 the death of his father, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Rich- 
 
 ,„, mond. He was an exile in Brittany while 
 
 Henry VII. , . ., . . , 
 
 the civil wars were raging in England. He 
 was twenty-six when the young princes were murdered, 
 and Richard III. usurped the throne. At once, under- 
 the advice of Morton, Bishop of Ely, an attempt was 
 . „, , , made to dethrone in his favour the tyrant 
 
 A Welshman, . 
 
 and landed Richard III. He was only twenty-eight 
 
 when, after landing at Milford Haven, and 
 
 winning at the Battle of Bosworth, he was proclaimed
 
 CH. III. Englajid. 53 
 
 king. His family (the Tudors) were Welsh, and so he 
 had wisely landed in Wales. Belonging himself to the 
 Lancastrian house, and in order to conciliate the York- 
 ists, he had taken an oath to marry, and afterwards 
 married, Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., 
 thereby in a way uniting the blood of the xhe throne 
 two rival factions. He was received with precarious, 
 acclamation in London, and ascended a precarious 
 throne. It is well to note how precarious it was. The 
 four previous kings had all been violently dethroned — 
 Henry VI. imprisoned and murdered, Edward IV. de- 
 posed and exiled, Edward V. murdered, Richard III. 
 slain in the Battle of Bosworth. 
 
 Henry VII. himself was a usurper, and, though he 
 was king by Act of Parliament, there were • other 
 other claimants to the throne. Two of them, claimants. 
 generally thought to be impostors, invaded England, and 
 tried to seize upon his throne. 
 
 The first of these, Lambert Siinnel, called L,.in,bert 
 himself Edward, Earl of Warwick, and was !='"'"'^'- 
 supported by the Yorkist nobility, but defeated at the 
 battle of Stoke in 1487. 
 
 The other, Perkin Warhcck, professed to be the Duke 
 of York, who with his brother, Edward V., was supposed 
 to have been murdered by Richard III. He Perkin War- 
 was supported by Edward IV. 's sister, the ^'='='^- 
 Duchess of Burgundy, by the kings of France and 
 Scotland, who were continually plotting against Hcniy 
 VII., and every now and then, when it suited his pur- 
 pose, by Ferdinand of Spain. Perkin Warbcck was 
 taken prisoner in 1497, and beheaded in 1499. 
 
 Henry VII. 's foreign policy was peace ^nd -^cxw vil 's 
 alliance with Spain. We have seen that the fnitign 
 foreign policy of Spain was alliance with
 
 54 Sfafe of Christendom. PT. i. 
 
 England against France. Henry VII. wanted peace. 
 This alone could give him a chance of establishing him- 
 self firmly on his precarious throne. To get peace he 
 allied himself with Spain. While both were infants the 
 Prince of Wales was betrothed to the Princess of Spain, 
 Catherine of Arragon. Ferdinand was a treacherous 
 ally. He dragged Henry VII. into the war with France 
 which ended in the annexation of Brittany to France. 
 And when it suited his purpose he threat- 
 witii'^Carher- cncd to dethrone Henry, and even offered 
 me of Catherine of Arragon to the King of Scot- 
 
 Arragon. o ^^ 
 
 land. At length, as years passed, the mar- 
 riage of Prince Arthur to Catherine took place ; but 
 Prince Arthur soon after died. Then came negotiations 
 for Catherine's marriage with Prince Henry (Henry 
 VIII.), and on the death of his queen Henry VII. of- 
 fered to marry his late son's widow himself! At length, 
 in 1 503, the contract for the inarriage with the Prince 
 Henry was signed, but as Henry was not yet of age it 
 could be set aside if any other alliance suited him better. 
 
 It is well to mark how these royal marriages were 
 merely a part of the foreign policy of princes, and that 
 from the first there had been great lack of good faith as 
 regards this marriage, on which so much of England's 
 future history was to turn. 
 
 Henry VII. 's domestic policy was in the main wise. 
 King and usurper as he was, he yet took 
 
 Henry VII. 's '^ . ^ , r 1 
 
 domestic great pains to conform to the law of the 
 
 '^° "^^" land. Instead of trying to make the crown 
 
 absolute, he remembered he was a constitutional mon- 
 arch, and could levy no taxes without consent of Par- 
 liament. 
 
 Still, though a constitutional monarchy, the govern- 
 ment of England in Tudor times was not conducted just
 
 CH. III. England. 55 
 
 as it is now. Parliament did not sit every 
 
 His position 
 
 year as it does now. Nor were there as as regards 
 now a prime minister and a cabinet of min- ^r lament, 
 isters representing tlie majority in Parliament, responsi- 
 ble to Parliament, remaining in office only so long as 
 they can command a majority in Parliament, and giving 
 place to another prime minister and cabinet as soon as 
 they find themselves in a minority. The king had the 
 reins of government much more in his own hands than 
 the Crown has now. He chose his own ministers who 
 were responsible to him alone. And as the regular annual 
 revenues of the Crown were sufficient to pay for the 
 ordinary expenses of government, and did not need 
 voting by Parliament every year as they do now, it was 
 only when he had a war on hand, or something extra- 
 ordinary happened needing fresh taxes or laws, that it 
 was needful for a Tudor king to call a Parliament. 
 
 The chief minister of Henry VII, was Cardinal Mor- 
 ton, a true Englishman, though an ecclesiastic. He was 
 a man of large experience. He was in „. . . 
 
 ° ' His minister, 
 
 middle life when Henry was born. He was Cardinal Mor- 
 a privy councillor, and faithful adherent of 
 Henry VI. Edward IV. had made him his Lord Chan- 
 cellor, and his executor. Richard III. had thrown him 
 into prison, but he had escaped in time to plan the enter- 
 prise which proved successful at Bosworth Field, and to 
 him Henry VII. owed his throne. 
 
 Under the influence of Morton Henry VII. on the 
 whole did what the weal of England required. 
 
 With a strong hand he kept all classes subject to tJ e 
 laws of the land, quelled rebellion, and maintained in- 
 ternal peace and order. He was avari- ^ , 
 
 ^ _ , Order main- 
 
 cious, but even in his most hard and unjust tained, 
 exactions he kept within the letter of the law.
 
 56 State of CJuHstcndom. pt. i. 
 
 In order to keep the nobility in check he favoured the 
 Middle classes gfowth and powcr of the middle classes — 
 favoured. notably of the ' yeomen,' /. e. small landr 
 
 holders, and tenant farmers. 
 
 Thus he did much to conciliate the English nation 
 after the long civil wars. He also paved the way for 
 _ , , the union of England and Scotland by the 
 
 Paved the _ ^ ■' 
 
 way for the marriage of his daughter Mary to the king 
 land and Scot- of Scots. Being himself a Welshman, he 
 ^" ■ reconciled the Welsh to English rule. After 
 
 a struggle of 1,000 years they at length were satisfied 
 with union with England. Under the Tudor dynasty 
 ^. „ they ceased to feel themselves a conquered 
 
 Finally con- ' . . 
 
 ciliated the people, and though retammg their separate 
 language, ceased to rebel from what they 
 no longer considered a foreign yoke. 
 
 To these claims of Henry VII. to English respect we 
 must add that, though not sagacious enough to patronize 
 . , , Columbus, he did the next best thing in 
 
 And began '^ 
 
 England's sending out afterwards Sebastian Cabot to 
 
 pire. discover and claim for England a foothold 
 
 across the ocean which proved the begin- 
 ning of those extensions of England in America in 
 which half the English people now dwell. Thus he was 
 the founder of England's colonial empire. 
 
 Of his later years we shall have to speak again. In 
 the meantime it may help to fix some of these facts on 
 our minds if we dwell a moment on his tomb. 
 
 ' His corpse ' (says the chronicler) ' was conveyed .with 
 ' funeral pomp to Westminster, and there buried by the 
 
 ' good queen, his wife, in a sumptuous and 
 
 The tomb of , "^ , ^ , ' , . , , , J 
 
 Henry VII. solemn chapel, which he had not long 
 
 ' before caused to be builded.' He was 
 
 buried in a vault just big enough for himself and his
 
 CH. IV. The Necessity for Reform. 57 
 
 queen, under the pavement in the centre of that beauti- 
 ful chapel which still bears his name, and in which, 
 round this central tomb, so many Tudor and Stuart 
 princes were afterwards laid. When Henry VII. 's vault 
 was opened in 1689 there were found to be three coffins 
 instead of two ! The third was discovered to be that of 
 James I. To make room for it the wood had been 
 stripped off the other two, leaving the inner lead coffins 
 bare. The workmen engaged in this strange work were 
 found to have quaintly scratched their names on the 
 lead, with the date 1625. 
 
 In that tomb of Henry VII. lie, therefore, not only 
 the heirs of the two English contending factions of York 
 and Lancaster, and of the traditions of Wales, but also 
 the Scotch monarch who, thanks to the policy of his 
 great-grandfather, Henry VII. , ascended the English 
 throne and became the first king of Great Britain. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NEED OF REFORM AND DANGER OF REVOLUTION. 
 
 (a) The Necessity for Reform. 
 
 Now, after this review of the state of Christendom, it 
 will be easy to see in what points it fell short of the 
 demands of modern civilization and wherein therefore 
 reform was needful. 
 
 We said that the first point towards which modern 
 civilization specially tended was this, viz., the formation 
 of compact nations living peaceably side by side, respect- 
 ing one another's rights and freedom.
 
 58 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 We have seen that the modern nations were fast 
 , , J forming themselves — that England, France, 
 
 Italy and ° - 
 
 Germany and Spain were already formed, but that Ita- 
 
 united ly and Germany were lagging far behind in 
 
 "^"°""- this matter. 
 
 But none of the nations were living peaceably side by 
 side, and respecting one another's rights. They were at 
 The lack of Constant war, sometimes under the leader- 
 p" ace anT^' ship of the Popc, like a band of robbers, set- 
 justice. ting upon Venice, or Naples, or Milan ; then 
 
 quarrelling amongst themselves, and forming fresh 
 leagues to drive one another out. Their foreign policy 
 was aggressive and wofuUy wanting in good faith. This 
 want of public peace and international morality was a 
 crying evil. It disturbed commerce, and its worst re- 
 sult was that it inflicted terrible hardships on the mass- 
 es of the people. The voice of the French peasantry 
 was clear upon this point. Here then was need for 
 reform. 
 
 The second great point aimed at by modern civiliza- 
 tion was, that (looking Ttv///^/;; each nation) all classes of 
 the people were to be alike citizens, for whose common 
 weal the nation was to be governed, and who were ulti- 
 mately to govern themselves. 
 
 Not only as yet had the masses of the people no share 
 in the government of the nations of which they formed so 
 large a part, but also they were very far from being re- 
 garded as free citizens, except in England, where in 
 theory they were so, though perhaps not much so in prac- 
 ^, ,, tice. In Germany especiallv, the peasantry 
 
 The serfdom ' . 
 
 of the Ger- Were Still m feudal serfdom, and feehng their 
 santryTtill thraldom more keenly than ever. Here, 
 continued. again, was a necessity for reform. 
 
 We have alreadv seen that there was a necessitv for
 
 C'li. IV. TJie Necessity for Reform. 59 
 
 reform in that ecclesiastical system of Rome _, , 
 
 The eccle- 
 
 which opposed the free growth of the modern siastical and 
 
 , . , ... scholastic 
 
 nations, and m the scholastic system so systems 
 intimately connected with it, which was op- "gfo*^^ 
 posed to free thought, science, and true 
 religion, and prevented the diffusion of the benefits of 
 knowledge and education among the masses of the people. 
 
 Now the question for the new era was, whether the 
 onward course of modern civilization was to 
 be by a gradual timely reform in these things, tive^s .Reform or 
 or whether, reform being refused or thwarted, '■'=^'°'""°"- 
 it was to be by revolution. 
 
 Recognizing the necessity there was for reform, we 
 have now to see the danger there was of revolution ; how 
 far and wide, in fact, the train was already laid, waiting 
 only for the match to explode it. 
 
 [b) The Train laid for Revolution. 
 It will not seem strange, (i), that it was among the 
 oppressed peasantry of Germany that the .^, 
 
 ' . ' ^ . "^ The train was 
 
 train was most effectually laid for rcvolu- laid among the 
 tion; or, (2), that when attempts had been santr'y" ^^^" 
 made at revolution, they were aimed at the 
 redress of both religious and political grievances. 
 
 The ecclesiastical grievances of the peasantry were as 
 practical and real as those involved in feudal serfdom. 
 The peasant's bondage to the priests and 
 
 / ^ * ^ Their ecclesi- 
 
 monkswas often even harder than the bond- astical as well 
 
 age to his feudal lords. It was not only that grievances. 
 
 he had tithes to pay, but after paying tithes, 
 
 he still had to pay for everything he got from priests and 
 
 'church. That religion which should have been his help 
 
 and comfort was become a system of extortion and 
 
 fraud.
 
 6o State of Christendom. pt. r. 
 
 These are the words of a contemporary writer (Juan 
 de Valdez, the brother of the secretary of the Emperor 
 Charles V.), himself a Catholic, and well ac- 
 rarytesti-" quainted with the condition of things in 
 "^""^'^ Germany : ' I see that we can scarcely get 
 
 ' anything from Christ's ministers but for money ; at bap- 
 'tism money, at bishoping money, at marriage money, 
 ' for confession money — no, not extreme unction without 
 'money! They will ring no bells without money, no 
 'burial in the church without money; so that it seemeth 
 'that Paradise is shut up from them that have no money. 
 ' The rich is buried in the church, the poor in the church- 
 'yard. The rich man may marry with his nearest kin, 
 'but the poor not so, albeit he be ready to die for love of 
 ' her. The rich may eat flesh in Lent, but the poor may 
 ' not, albeit fish perhaps be much dearer. The rich man 
 ' may readily get large indulgences, but the poor none, be- 
 ' cause he wanteth money to pay for them.' 
 
 We must remember, too, how galling to the peasant 
 was the payment of the large and small tithes. These 
 words were written in England, but they will serve for 
 all Europe : 
 
 'They have their tenth part of all the corn, meadows, 
 
 'pasture, grass, wood, colts, calves, lambs, pigs, geese, 
 
 'and chickens. Over and beside the tenth 
 
 Another testi- , ... 
 
 mony. 'part of cvcry servant s wages, wool, milk, 
 
 'honey, wax, cheese, and butter; yea, and 
 ' they look so narrowly after their profits that the poor 
 'wife must be countable to them for every tenth egg, or 
 ' else she getteth not her rights at Easter, and shall be 
 'taken as a heretic' 
 
 Can we wonder that the peasants should rebel against 
 this ? and that in Germany, where both feudal and eccle- 
 siastical oppression was so galling, they should rebel
 
 CH. IV, TJie train laid for Revolution. 6l 
 
 against both, and mix the two together in their minds, 
 demanding in one breath both rehgious and pohtical 
 freedom ? Surely there was reason in it. 
 
 As early as the fourteenth century the Swiss peasants 
 in the Forest Cantons had rebelled and thrown off the 
 yoke of their Austrian feudal lords, and when 
 the latter joined in a common cause against bellionof the 
 them, the Swiss were victorious in the battle ^^'^^' ^315. 
 of Morgarten, 131 5. The Swiss had formerly belonged 
 to the German Empire, and had the Empire done justice 
 between them and their lords, they would have been 
 glad enough to remain free peasants of the Empire ; but 
 as the Empire helped their lords instead of them, they 
 threw off the yoke of the Empire. They were soon 
 joined by other neighboring cantons, and their flag, with 
 its white cross on a red ground, became the flag of a new 
 nation, the Swiss confederacy, with its motto, ' Each for 
 all, and all for each ' — a nation of free peasants, letting 
 out their sons as soldiers to fight for pay, and, alas, not 
 always on the side of freedom ! 
 
 Between 1424 and 147 1 the peasants of the Rhajtian 
 Alps did the same thing. Oppressed and insulted by 
 their lords they burned their castles and ^^^ jj^^ _ 
 threw off their yoke, and thus was formed sants of the 
 
 / Oraubund, 
 
 the Graubund, in imitation of the Swiss con- 1441-71. 
 federacy, but separate from it. 
 
 Referring to the map 'Serfdom and Rebellions against 
 it,' we mark these two Swiss republics on it as the region 
 where rebellion had met with success. It was no doubt 
 their mountains which helped the Swiss peasants to suc- 
 cess and independence. Their battles were little Mara- 
 thons. At Morgarten 1,300 Swiss won the day against 
 10,000 Austrian troops. Their Alps were their protection. 
 
 We mark next the region where the rebellion against
 
 62 Siatc of Christendom. px. i. 
 
 Rome and the Empire, which followed in Bohemia upon 
 the preaching of Wiclif and martyrdom of 
 
 UnSUCCCSS- TT111 r t • r 
 
 ful rebellion Huss, had been, alter a long reign of terror, 
 iards\nd' '^'"'^ the Hussitewars (141 5-1436), quelled in 
 Hussite blood. Hussite doctrines were indeed still 
 
 wars, 141 5- 
 
 1436. held by the people, and by the treaty of 
 
 Basle in some sense tolerated ; but this, nev- 
 ertheless, was the region where rebellion, springing out 
 of the last era of light and progress, had been crushed 
 to rise no more. 
 
 Now we have got to mark where, in connexion with 
 the new era, there were signs, as we have said, that a 
 train was laid for a coming revolution. 
 
 The John the Baptist of the movement was Hans Bo- 
 hcim, a drummer, who had appeared in 1476 in Franco- 
 Threats of "'''■' o'^ the Tauber, a branch of the Maine. 
 Rebellion in jj[g professed to be a prophet, to have had 
 
 r ranconia in ^ . . 
 
 1476- visions of the Virgin Mary, and to be sent by 
 
 her to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand, 
 that the yoke of bondage to lords spiritual and temporal 
 was coming to an end, that under the new kingdom there 
 were to be no taxes, tithes, or dues ; all were to be 
 brethren, and woods, and waters, and pastures were to be 
 free to all men. A crowd of 40,000 pilgrims flocked to 
 hear the prophet of the Tauber till the Bishops of Wurz- 
 burg and Maintz interfered, dispersed the crowd and 
 burned the prophet. He was but a sign of the times — a 
 voice crying in the wilderness ! But his cry was one 
 which found a response in the hearts of the peasantry — • 
 freedom from the yoke of their feudal and spiritual lords, 
 and the restoration of those rights which in ancient days 
 had belonged to the community. This was the cry of 
 the peasantry for many generations to come. 
 
 The next was a much more formidable movement, viz..
 
 cii. IV. Tlic train laid for Revolution. d^^ 
 
 that named from the banner borne by the The 'Bund- 
 peasantry, the Bundschuh, or peasant's clog, ^chuh' 
 
 While the peasants in the Rhsetian Alps were gradu- 
 ally throwing off the yoke of the nobles and forming the 
 Granbund, a struggle was going on between ;„ Kempten, 
 the neighbouring peasantry of Kempten (to '492- 
 the east of Lake Constance) and their feudal lord, the 
 Abbot of Kempten. It began in 1423, and came to an 
 open rebellion in 1492. It was a rebellion against new 
 demands not sanctioned by ancient custom, and though 
 it was crushed, and ended in little good to the peasantry 
 (many of whom fled into Switzerland), yet it is worthy 
 of note because in it for the first time appears the banner 
 of the Bundschuh. 
 
 The next rising was in Elsass (Alsace), in 1493, the 
 peasants finding allies in the burghers of the towns 
 along the Rhine, who had their own grie- j^ Elsass 
 vances. The Biindscluth was again their '"tga- 
 banner, and it was to Switzerland that their anxious eyes 
 were turned for help. This movement also \vfcs prema- 
 turely discovered and put down. 
 
 Then, in 1501, other peasants, close neighbours to 
 those of Kempten, caught the infection, and in 1502, 
 again in Elsass, but this time further north, g^j^ 3^^;^ ;„ 
 in the region about Speyer and the Neckar, 1501-2- 
 lower down the Rhine, nearer Franconia, the Bund- 
 schuh was raised again. It numbered on its recruit 
 rolls many thousands of peasants from the country 
 round, along the Neckar and the Rhine. The wild 
 notion was to rise in arms, to make themselves free, 
 like the Swiss, by the sword, to acknowledge no supe- 
 rior but the Emperor, and all Germany was to join the 
 League. They were to pay no taxes or dues, and com- 
 mons, forests, and rivers were to be free to all. Here
 
 64 State of Christendom. pt. i. 
 
 again they mixed up religion with their demands, and 
 'Only what is just before God' was the motto on the 
 banner of the Bundschtih. They, too, were betrayed, 
 and in savage triumph the Emperor Maximilian ordered 
 their property to be confiscated, their wives and children 
 to be banished, and themselves to be quartered alive. 
 It would have been suicide on the part of the nobles to 
 fulfil orders so cruel on their own tenants. They would 
 have emptied their estates of peasants, and so have lost 
 their services, for the conspiracy was widely spread. 
 Few, therefore, really fell victims to this cruel order of 
 the Emperor. The ringleaders dispersed, fleeing some 
 into Switzerland and some into the Black Forest. For 
 ten years now there was silence. The Biindschuh ban- 
 ner was furled, but only for a while. 
 
 In 1 512 and 1513, on the east side of the Rhine, in 
 the Black Forest and the neighbouring districts of Wiir- 
 temberg, the movement was again on foot 
 Black Forest on a Still larger scale. It had found a leader 
 under Joss •' i^i yoss Fntz. A soldier, with command- 
 ^"'^- ing presence, and great natural eloquence, 
 
 used to battle, hardship, and above all, patience, he 
 bided his time. He was one of the fugitives who had 
 escaped being 'quartered.' He hid himself for years 
 in places where he was unknown, but never despaired. 
 At length, in 1512 he returned to his own land, settled 
 near Freiburg, and began to draw together again the 
 broken threads of the Peasants' league. He got him- 
 self appointed forester under a neighbouring lord, talked 
 to the peasants in the fields, or at inns and fairs, and 
 held secret meetings at a lonely place among the forests 
 in the dusk of evening. There he talked of the pea- 
 sants' burdens, of the wealth of their ecclesiastical op- 
 pressors, of the injustice of their blood being spilled in
 
 CH. IV. The (rain laid for Revolution. 65 
 
 the quarrels of lords and princes, how they were robbed 
 of the wild game of the forest, and the fish in the rivers, 
 which in the sight of God were free, like the air and the 
 sun, to all men, how they ought to have no masters but 
 God, the Pope, and the Emperor. Lastly, he talked to 
 them of the Bjindsc/iu/i. They went to consult their 
 priest, but Joss had talked over the priest to his side, 
 and he encouraged the movement. Then they framed 
 their articles, and Joss defended them out of the Bible. 
 They were first to seek the sanction and aid of the Em- 
 peror, and if he refused to help them then they would 
 turn to the Swiss. 
 
 There was a company of licensed beggars who 
 tramped about the country with their wallets, begging 
 alms wherever they went — a sort of guild, with elected 
 captains. This guild Joss took into his confidence. 
 They were his spies, and through them he knew what 
 watches were kept at city gates, and through them he 
 kept the various ends of the conspiracy going. His plans 
 were now all laid. He wanted nothing but the Biindschuh 
 banner. He got some silk and made a banner — ^blue, 
 with a white cross upon it. The white cross was the 
 Swiss emblem. Some of his followers would have pre- 
 ferred the eagle of the Empire. But how was the Bund- 
 schuh to be added ? What painter could be found who 
 would keep the secret ? Twice he tried and was disap- 
 pointed, and all but betrayed. At length, far away on 
 the banks of the Neckar, he found a painter, who 
 painted upon it the Virgin Mary and St. John, the Pope 
 and the Emperor, a peasant kneeling before the cross, a 
 Btmdschtth, and under it the motto ' O Lord, help the 
 righteous.' He returned with it imder his clothes, but 
 ere he reached home the secret was out. Again the 
 League was betrayed. A few days more and the ban- 
 F
 
 66 State of Christendom. rx. i. 
 
 ner would have been unfurled. Thousands of peasants 
 were ready to march, but now all was over, the whole 
 thing was out, and Joss Fritz, with the banner under his 
 clothes, had to fly for his life to Switzerland. Every- 
 thing was lost but his own resolution. Those conspira- 
 tors who were seized were put to torture, hung, be- 
 headed, and some of them quartered alive. 
 
 But Joss Fritz was not disheartened. He returned 
 after a while to the Black Forest, went about his secret 
 errands, and again bided his time. 
 
 In 1 5 14 the peasantry of the Duke Ulrich of Wurtem- 
 
 berg rose to resist the tyranny of their lord, who had 
 
 ground them down with taxes to pay for 
 
 Wdrtem'berg ^is rcckless luxury and expensive court. 
 
 and the "j-j^g same year, in the valleys of the Aus- 
 
 Austrian •' ^ 
 
 Alps. trian Alps, in Carinthia, Styria, and Grain, 
 
 similar risings of the peasantry took place, all of them 
 ending in the triumph of the nobles. 
 
 To defend themselves against such risings a league 
 had been formed among the nobles of the whole district 
 The Swabian to the north of Switzerland, called the Swa- 
 against the • biaii League, and a proclamation was issued 
 peasants. \}a.'s.\. ' Since in the land of Swabia, and all 
 
 ' over the Empire, among the vassals and poor people 
 ' disturbances and insurrections are taking place, with 
 ' setting up of the standard of the Bundschuh and other 
 ' ensigns against the authority of their natural lords and 
 ' rulers, with a view to the destruction of the nobles and 
 ' all honourable persons, the noble and knightly orders 
 'have therefore agreed, whatever shall happen, to sup- 
 ' port each other against every such attempt on the part 
 ' of the common man.* 
 
 This brings forcibly into view again the fatal vice in 
 the policy of feudal Germany — want of the consolidation
 
 CH. IV. * The train laid for Revolution. 67 
 
 of the German people into a compact nation. 
 For here were the peasantry of Germany ap- wide^he 
 j)eahng helplessly to some higher power to f^Xfo^^ 
 protect them from the oppression of their ["'!^''^ '■^vo- 
 feudal lords, conspiring for a general rebel- 
 lion for lack of it, and debating whether on the flag of the 
 Bundschuh they should paint the eagle of the Empire or 
 the white cross of the Swiss republic. Here on the 
 other hand were the nobles and knightly orders con- 
 spiring by the sheer force of their combined swords to 
 crush these ' attempts on the part of the common man.' 
 The crying need of both was for a German nation — a 
 commonwealth — with a strong central power or govern- 
 ment to hold the sword of justice between them, settling 
 their disputes by the law of the land for their common 
 weal. For lack of this there was rebellion and bloodshed. 
 These risings of the peasantry were crushed for a while, 
 but Joss Fritz was only biding his time, and meanwhile 
 let us bear in mind where, how far and wide over Cen- 
 tral Europe, the train was laid, waiting only for the 
 match to ignite it. 
 
 It is well to look once more on the map of serfdom, to 
 fix these revolutionary localities in our mind, and before 
 we pass away from them to mark how they lie, not in 
 the region of darkest shadow, where serfdom was most 
 complete — where a conquered Slavonian peasantry were 
 in bondage too complete for rebellion — nor in the region 
 of the crushed Hussite rebellions; but in those regions 
 next to the countries where serfdom had obtained least 
 hold, and had passed av/ay ; above all, in ^, . , , 
 
 ' . i . •' ' The trail? laid 
 
 those mountain regions where the traditions out where s^rf- 
 
 of ancient freedom had lived the longest. w'orst7bu? 
 
 where the spirit of the people was least sub- ^ns ncan."t"in 
 
 -dued, and where the close neighbourhood of s'g^t.
 
 68 The Protestant Revolution. pt. il. 
 
 their fellow mountaineers of Switzerland kept an exam- 
 ple of successful rebellion ever before their eyes. We 
 may see in this way most clearly how these peasants' 
 rebellions were not isolated phenomena, but parts of a 
 great onward movement beginning centuries back, 
 which had already swept over England and France, and 
 freed the peasants there, and now, in this era, had Ger- 
 many to grapple with. Whether it was destined to be 
 at once successful or not we shall see in this history, but 
 we may be sure it was destined to conquer some day, 
 because we cannot fail to recognize in it one Gi'"thc waves 
 of the advancing tide of modern civilization. 
 
 PART II. 
 THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND REFORM AT FLORENCE. 
 
 [a) The Revivers of Learning at Florenee. 
 The story we have now to tell begins at Florence. 
 Florence, as we have already noted, was a republic, but 
 The Republic differing from other Italian republics in this : 
 of Florence. ^^i^^ while in Others the nobles held power, 
 here in Florence, for some generations, the nobles had 
 been dethroned. The people had got the rule into their 
 own hands ; and so far had they carried their distrust 
 of the nobles, that no noble could hold office in the city 
 unless he first enrolled himself as a simple citizen. Flor- 
 ence had long been a great commercial city, and the pub- 
 lic spirit of her citizens had helped to make her prosper-
 
 CH. I. Revival and Reform at Florence. 6g 
 
 oiis. Never had she been more prosperous than in the 
 early days of her democracy. But every now and then 
 there were troubled times ; and in such times, more than 
 once or twice, a dictator had been chosen. Sometimes 
 even a foreign prince had been made dicta- „ . , 
 
 ° ^ A 1 1 Power in the 
 
 tor for a stated number of years. At length hands of the 
 power had fallen into the hands of the 
 wealthier families of citizens, and the chief of these was 
 the family of the Medici. 
 
 Cosmo de' Medici was for many years dictator. His 
 great wealth, gained by commerce, placed him in the 
 position of a merchant prince. His virtues, cosmo, 
 and patronage of learned men and the arts, 1389-1464- 
 made him popular ; and his popularity paved the way 
 for the proud position held by his grandson, ' Lorenzo 
 the Magnificent.' 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici (of whose times we are to speak) 
 had followed in Cosmo's footsteps, and had got into his 
 single hand the reins of the state. He had ^ , , 
 
 ° . . Lorenzo de 
 
 set aside the double council of elected citi- Medici, 
 zens, and now ruled through a council of ^'** '"* 
 seventy men chosen by himself. His court was the 
 most brilliant and polished of his time, but in the back- 
 ground of his magnificence there was always this dark 
 shadow — he held his high place at the expense of the 
 liberties of the people of Florence. 
 
 There was, however, much in his rule to flatter the 
 pride of the Florentines. 
 
 Under the Medici, Florence had become the ' Modern 
 Athens.' Their genius and wealth had filled it with 
 pictures and statues, and made it the home pig^^.^ce the 
 of artists and sculptors. At this very mo- Mudcm 
 
 , , . Alheas. 
 
 ment, in Lorenzo s palace and under his 
 patronage, was young Michael Angela, ere long to be the
 
 70 The Protcstatit Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 greatest sculptor and one of the greatest painters of Italy, 
 Michael Learning also, as well as art, had found a 
 
 Angelo. home at Florence. The taking of Constan- 
 
 tinople by the Turks having driven learned men into 
 Italy, here at Florence, and elsewhere in Italy, the 
 philosophy of Plato was taught by men whose native 
 The Platonic tongue was Greek. Cosmo de' Medici 
 Academy. founded the ' Platonic Academy; and Fi- 
 Ficino. ciiio, who was now at the head of it, had 
 
 been trained up under his patronage. 
 
 Politiaii (Poliziano), the most brilliant and polished 
 Latin poet of the day, was always at the palace, directing 
 ^ , the studies of Lorenzo's children, and ex- 
 
 Pohtian, . . . , , J 1 J • 
 
 1454-1494 ; changmg Greek epigrams with learned ladies 
 deiia M?ran- of the court. To this galaxy of distinguished 
 
 "^°1^' men had recently been added the beautiful 
 
 1403-1494. ^ •' 
 
 young prince, Pico delta Mirandola, regarded 
 as the greatest linguist and most precocious genius of 
 the age. At twenty-three he had challenged all the 
 learned men of Europe to dispute with him at Rome ; 
 and some of the opinions he advanced being charged 
 with heresy, he had taken refuge at the court of Lorenzo, 
 who gave him a villa near his own and Politian's, on the 
 slope of the mountain overlooking the rich valley of the 
 Arno and the domes and tovrers of Florence. What 
 these three friends — Ficino the Platonist, Politian the 
 poet, and Pico, their young and brilliant companion — 
 were to each other, let this little letter picture to us. 
 Politian writes to Ficino, and asks him to come. 
 
 ' My little villa is very secluded, it being embosomed among 
 woods, but in some directions it may be said to overlook all 
 Florence. Here Pico often steals in upon me unexpectedly from 
 his grove of oaks, and draws me away with him from my hiding- 
 place to partake of one of his pleasant suppers — temperate, as you
 
 CH. I. Revival and Reform at Florence. 71 
 
 know well, and brief, but always seasoned with delightful talk and 
 wit. You will, perhaps, like better to come to me, where your fare 
 will not be worse, and your wine better — for in that I may venture 
 to vie even with Pico." 
 
 Add to this picture the briUiance of Lorenzo's court, 
 and what a fascinating picture it is ! 
 
 This little knot of men at Florence, and others in Italy, 
 were at work at what is called the ' Revival of Learning.' 
 These revivers of learning are often spoken ^j^^ Revival 
 of as ' the Humanists i' They were dig- °^ Learning, 
 ging up again, and publishing, by means of the print- 
 ing-press, the works of the old Greek and Latin writers, 
 and they found in them something to their taste much 
 more true and pure than the literature of the middle 
 ages. After reading the pure Latin of the classical 
 writers they were disgusted with the bad Latin of the 
 monks ; after studying Plato they were disgusted with 
 scholastic philosophy. Such was the rottenness of Rome 
 that they found in the high aspirations of Plato after 
 spiritual truth and immortality a religion which seemed 
 to them purer than the grotesque form of „ . 
 
 ' . 0-1 Semi-pagan 
 
 Christianity which Rome held out to them, tendencies 
 They could flatter the profligate Pope as all revival of 
 but divine in such words as ' Sing unto Six- ''=^''"'"8- 
 tus a new song,' but in their hearts some of them scofied, 
 and doubted whether Christianity be true and whether 
 there is a life after death for mankind. 
 
 (b) The great Florentine Refortner, Girolamo 
 Savonarola. 
 These were the revivers of learning. But suddenly 
 there arose amongst them quite another kind of man — -a 
 religious Reformer. He came like a shell ^. , 
 
 , . Girolamo Sa- 
 
 m the midst of tinder, and it burst m the vonarola, 145a 
 midst of the Platonic Academy. The name '''^ '
 
 72 The Protestant Revolution. PT. ll. 
 
 of this Florentine Reformer was Girolamo Savonarola. 
 He too was a learned man, meant by his father to be a 
 doctor, but being of a religious turn of mind he had 
 chosen to become a monk. Finding from study of the 
 Scriptures how much both the Church and 
 
 Becomes a re- ^ 
 
 ligious re- the world needed reform, he became a Re- 
 
 former. In i486 he commenced preaching 
 against the vices of popes, cardinals, priests and monks, 
 the tyranny of princes, and the bad morals of the peo- 
 ple, calling loudly for repentance and reformation. In 
 1487 he preached at Reggio. There young Pico heard 
 him, and, taken by his eloquence, invited him to Flor- 
 ence. In 1490 he came to the convent of St. Mark, 
 which was under the patronage of the Medici. Crowds 
 came to hear him ; shopkeepers shut up their shops 
 -, , . . while he was preaching. He became the 
 
 Made prior of _ r o 
 
 St. Mark at idol of the people. In 1491 he was made 
 Prior of San Marco, and when asked to do 
 customary homage to the patron for this high appoint- 
 ment he refused, saying ' he owed it to God, and not to 
 Lorenzo de' Medici ! ' 
 
 Innocent VIII. had now succeed Sixtus IV. as Pope, 
 and his natural son had married Lorenzo's daughter. 
 The Pope in return had made Lorenzo's son John (after- 
 wards Leo X.), a boy of thirteen, a cardinal! When 
 Savonarola thundered against ecclesiastical scandals and 
 the vices of the Pope, Lorenzo naturally did not like it. 
 He sent messages to the preacher, exhorting him to use 
 discretion. ' Entreat him,* replied the Reformer, ' in my 
 name, to repent of his errors, for calamities from on high 
 impend over him and his family.' The bold Reformer 
 Stirs up in the Went on with his preaching, denouncing judg- 
 spmt'^of reform JTicnts upou Italy and Rome. A marked im- 
 and freedom, pression was soon visible in the morals of the
 
 CH. I. Revival and Reform at Florence. 73 
 
 people of Florence. More and more he became their 
 natural leader. Lorenzo tried to keep himself popular by 
 fetes and magnificent festivals. But gradually influen- 
 tial citizens, who still longed for the old republic and 
 ancient liberty, attached themselves to Savonarola. In 
 
 1492 Lorenzo de' Medici died. The Re- Death of 
 former had been sent for, and was with him Lorenzo and 
 at his death. It was rumoured that he demanded of the 
 dying man, as a condition of absolution, that he should 
 restore to Florence her ancient liberties. ^ ,„^, 
 
 Innocent VIII. 
 
 This year Innocent VIII. too died; and m 
 
 1493 the wicked reign of Alexander VI. and his son 
 Caesar Borgia began. While they were plotting to bring 
 over Charles VIII. of France to scourge Italy, Savona- 
 rola mixed up with his denunciations against the evils 
 of the times prophecies of impending woes upon Flor- 
 ence. Then came the armies of France ; The French 
 
 ..-,,. , I T- T_ J invasion. 
 
 friendly relations between the v rencn and The iMedici 
 the Florentines ; the expulsion of the Medici, ^c^P.^bHcVe^''^ 
 by their aid, from Florence ; the formation stored, 
 of a republic, under the advice of Savonarola. He de- 
 dined to hold any office, but his spirit ruled supreme. 
 Convents were reformed, and the study of the Bible in 
 the original language made a part of the Savonarola's 
 duty of the monks. Schools for the cduca- ^'^'■''""=^- 
 tion of the children of the people were founded ; and 
 Savonarola went on with his preaching, denouncing the 
 wickedness of the Church and demanding reform. 
 
 In 1495 Pope Alexander VI. thought it was time to 
 stop so dangerous a preacher. He cited him to Rome, 
 but the people would not let him go. He offered to make 
 him a cardinal as the price of his loyalty to Rome, 
 but he publicly replied that the only red hat to whicli h j 
 aspired was one red in the blood of his own martyrdom.
 
 74 The Protestant Revolution. pt. il. 
 
 Had Savonarola died in 1495, his name would have 
 
 gone down to posterity as that of a reformer singularly 
 
 zealous, noble, patriotic, judicious, and practical in his 
 
 aims and conduct. But men are not perfect. 
 
 He becomes , , . . y r i 
 
 ianatical. The zealous bram is apt to take nre, and en- 
 
 thusiasm is apt to become fanatical. So it 
 was with Savonarola. Both he and the people gave way 
 to excitement. When the time of Carnival came, they 
 dragged their trinkets, pictures, immoral books, vanities 
 of all kinds, into the public square, and made a great 
 bonfire of them. The excitement of the people reacted 
 on the prophet who had raised it. In his later years (he 
 lived only to the age of forty-seven), he prophesied more 
 wildly than ever, thought he saw visions, and did fanati- 
 cal things which marked a brain fevered and unbalanced. 
 Be it so ; we are not therefore to forget to pay homage to 
 the man who, even in these later years, was bold enough 
 to put the Borgian Pope to well-merited shame, and to 
 denounce his vices, regardless alike of his bribes or his 
 threats. That the Pope was powerful enough at length 
 to put him to silence by imprisonment, to make him con- 
 fess his heresies by torture, and on his return to them 
 when the torture was removed, to silence him for ever by 
 a cruel death, did but cast the halo of martyrdom around 
 his heroism and make his name immortal. 
 
 Is martyred by ,11, 1 t^, 
 
 order of the He was Strangled and burned at Florence 
 Alexander vi. ^Y Order of the Pope in 1498 — by order of that 
 Pope who had himself committed murder 
 and sacrilege and unheard-of-crimes, and who five years 
 after died of the poison prepared, as was said, for another ! 
 
 [c] Savonarola s hifliumce oji the Revivers of Learning. 
 
 Lorenzo had died in 1492, and Savonarola, as we have 
 said, was present at his death-bed. Pico, who had in-
 
 CH. I. Revival a?zd Reform at Florence. 75 
 
 vited him to Florence, became a devout dis- „. . „ 
 
 His innuence 
 
 ciple of Savonarola, and after three years of over Pico. 
 pure and childlike piety, remarkably free Ficino. ' 
 from fanaticism, died in 1495. Just as Charles 
 VIII. was entering Florence, Pico was buried in the 
 robes of Savonarola's order and in the church of St. 
 Mark. Politian died in the same year; he, too, desired 
 to be buried in the robes of Savonarola's order, Ficino 
 was carried away by the preaching of the Reformer for a 
 while, but was disgusted with the fanaticism of his later 
 years. He died a Platonist, hardly sure whether Chris- 
 tianity be true or not, and this characteristic story is told 
 about his death. He and a friend made a solemn bar- 
 gain with each other that whichever died first should, if 
 possible, appear to the other and tell him whether indeed 
 there be a life after death. Ficino died first, and is said 
 toiiave appeared to his friend, exclaiming, ' Oh ! Michael ! 
 Michael ! it is all true !' Whether the story be true or 
 not, it shows exactly the state of mind the Neo-Platonist 
 philosophers were in. 
 
 (^) Nlccolo Machiavelli. 
 For some time after Savonarola's death Florence was 
 governed by a Council of Ten, by whom was chosen as 
 Secretary of State one of the most remark- ^^ 
 
 able men of the time, Nlccolo Machiavelli, chiavelli 
 the historian from whose writings we have ' '^^^' 
 several times quoted. He was, perhaps, the keenest 
 diplomatist that ever lived. Schooled in the lying poli- 
 tics of Italy, while C^sar Borgia and Alexander VI. 
 were plotting and counter-plotting with all the States of 
 Italy and Europe, he conducted the foreign diplomacy 
 of the Republic of Florence till 1512, when under Julius 
 II. the French were driven out of Italy and the sons of
 
 76 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici re-established in power. The Flo- 
 rentines then lost their freedom of self-government for 
 ever, and Machiavelli found himself an exile. In the 
 retirement of a hidden country life he wrote his great 
 rTT. T> • . work, 'The Prince.' Its object was to win 
 
 ihe Frince. ■' 
 
 a way back for its author to political life by 
 convincing the Medici that though he had served under 
 their enemies, he could do them service if they em- 
 ployed him. It answered its purpose. Written in a 
 wicked, lying age, ' The Prince ' reflected its vices. Its 
 author made no pretence of a higher virtue than Borgias 
 and Medici would appreciate. He did not scruple to 
 advocate lying whenever it would pay ; force and fraud 
 whenever it would succeed; tyranny, if needful to keep 
 a tyrant on his throne ; murder and bloodshed as a 
 means of obtaining an end. This was what professedly 
 Christian popes had been doing of late. Machiavelli by 
 putting these maxims into a scientific form in ' The 
 Prince ' did but give them a sort of personality. He be- 
 came, as it were, the demon of politics, and the unchris- 
 tian policy of the times became known to after ages as 
 ' Machiavellian.' 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE OXFORD REFORMERS. 
 
 (a) The Spirit of Revival of Lcarnitig and Reform is 
 carried fro7n Italy to Oxford. 
 There were, as we have seen, two distinct movements 
 at Florence in favour (i"^ of the Revival of Learning; 
 and (2) of Religiotis Reform. The distinction and also 
 the connexion between these movements must be marked 
 with care.
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 77 
 
 The revival of the old classical Latin and Distinction 
 
 and con- 
 Greek authors, by making men prefer Plato nexion be- 
 to the schoolmen dealt a blow at the scho- vTv^al"of ^' 
 lastic system, and even tended towards a Rg^i^us^""^ 
 rejection of Christianity. reform. 
 
 The spirit of religious reform was, on the other hand, 
 a revival of earnest Christian feeling against the scandals 
 of the Church and the irreligion of the age. It was in 
 some sense caused by the revival of learning, for 
 am'ongst the ancient literature whicli was revived were 
 the Scriptures and the works of the early Church fathers ; 
 and the study of these in their original Ian- „ , 
 
 •' ^ Both against 
 
 guages opened men's minds to the need of the Schoias- 
 reform. It also set them against the scho- "^^>^*^ 
 lastic theology, and so it came to pass that the spirit of 
 religious reform in its turn dealt a blow against the 
 scholastic system. 
 
 When the spirit which sought the revival of learning 
 joined itself with that of religious reform, it produced 
 reformers who aimed at freeing men's minds from the 
 bonds of the scholastic system, at setting up Christ and 
 his apostles instead of the schoolmen as the exponents 
 of what Christianity really is, and lastly at making real 
 Christianity and its golden rule the guide for men and 
 nations, and so the basis of the civilization of the 
 future. 
 
 So to some extent it had been in Italy. The revival 
 of learning had produced, not only the Platonic Academy, 
 but also the great Florentine Reformer; and Savonarola, 
 with his fiery religious zeal, had been more than a match 
 for the pagan tendencies of the Platonic Academy. Pico 
 especially, and in part Ficino, had united religious feel- 
 ings with a love of the Platonic philosophy. Savonarola 
 hi.nsclf had united a love of letters and zeal for cduration
 
 78 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 The move- 'v^'\'(^ his Spirit of religious reform. But the 
 ment crushed rnovemcnt at Florence was now thoroughly 
 
 at Florence. r • 
 
 crushed. We must look elsewhere for its 
 further development till it becomes a power all over 
 Europe. 
 
 As in the fourteenth century the movement begun by 
 Wiclif in England was carried into Bohemia by the inter- 
 Revivers at change of students between the Universities 
 Oxford. Q^ Oxford and Prague, so this movement, 
 
 begun in Italy, was soon carried by students from Flo- 
 rence to Oxford, and from thence it took a fresh start. 
 
 During the lifetime of Lorenzo de' Medici several 
 
 Oxford students, amongst whom were Grocyn and 
 
 Linacre, went to complete their studies in 
 
 Grocyn and . ^ 
 
 Linacre go Italy. Linacre was made tutor or fellow- 
 return'to^" Student of Lorenzo's own children (one of 
 Oxford. whom was afterwards Pope Leo X.). They 
 
 returned to Oxford to revive there the study of the Greek 
 language and literature. Linacre afterwards became tu- 
 tor to Arthur Prince of Wales, and physician to Henry VII. 
 Another Oxford student — Jolin Colet — went to Italy 
 after Lorenzo's death and the French invasion of Italy, 
 ^ , ^, , and while Savonarola was virtually head of 
 
 John Colet _ -^ 
 
 does the the Republic at Florence, also while the 
 
 Colet unites scandals of Rome's worst Pope, Alexander 
 
 the new" ° VI., and Caesar Borgia, were in everyone's 
 
 learning and mouth. He caught the spirit, not only of 
 
 religious re- . 
 
 form. the revival of learning, but also of religious 
 
 reform, and, combining the two, became on 
 his return to Oxford the beginner of a movement at Ox- 
 ford which was to influence Europe. 
 
 [b) yohfi Colet, Erasmus, and TJtonias More. 
 John Colet was son of a lord mayor of London, and
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 79 
 
 likely to succeed to his father's fortune. His earnest 
 religious spirit made him wish to enter the Church. In 
 Italy he studied the writings of Pico and Ficino and 
 Plato, and above all the Bible, and returned to Oxford 
 full of zeal for the new learning and for reform. 
 
 He at once began to lecture at Oxford on St. Paul's 
 Epistles, trying to find out Avhat they meant in the same 
 common sense way that men would use to understand 
 letters written by a living man to his friends ; Lectures on 
 not asking what the learned schoolmen had ^'-.Pf"''^ 
 
 ° tpistles at 
 
 decided that they meant, but giving the Oxford. 
 schoolmen the go by (quoting Plato and Pico and Ficino 
 more often than them), and so giving the Epistles a life- 
 like power, interest, and freshness quite new to his 
 hearers. By so doing he hoped to set men's minds free 
 from the scholastic system, to make them inquire into 
 facts for themselves, and drink in at first hand the teach- 
 ings of the Apostle. 
 
 For generations men had become monks and clergy- 
 men without even reading the New Testament. Colct 
 found theological students poring over the books of the 
 schoolmen. His lectures were the beginning of a work 
 which went on till it quite revolutionized the Attacks the 
 theological teaching of the University. For- schoolmen. 
 ty years after, people found the books of the schoolmen 
 set aside as useless, and their torn leaves strung up by 
 the corner as waste paper. 
 
 Colet had seen in Italy how much the ecclesiastical as 
 well as the scholastic system needed reform ; and so in 
 his lectures at Oxford he zealously urged the He urges 
 necessity of a reform in the morals of the ^^f° ''!'= ?'=^'^ 
 
 ^ of ccclcsi- 
 
 clergy. He urged that it was ecclesiastical a-stical re- 
 scandals and the wicked worldly living of 
 the clergy, the way they mixed themselves up with poli-
 
 8o Tlic Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 tics, and strove after power and money and pleasure, 
 which set men against the Church, 'Whereas,' he said, 
 ' if the clergy lived in the love of God and their neigh- 
 ' hours, how soon would then true piety, religion, charity, 
 'goodness towards men, simplicity, patience, tolerance 
 ' of evil, conquer evil with good ! How would it stir up 
 'the minds of men everywhere to think well of the 
 ' Church of Christ.' 
 
 He had seen how wicked the Popes and cardinals of 
 Rome were ; and so now, at Oxford, he burst out into 
 hot words, written, as he said, 'with grief and tears,' 
 against ecclesiastical wickedness in high places. He 
 spoke of the Popes as 'wickedly distilling poison, to the 
 ' destruction of the Church.' Unless there could be a 
 reform of the clergy, from the Pope at the head down to 
 the monks and the clergymen, he saw no chance of 
 saving the Church. ' Oh, Jesu Christ, wash for us not 
 'our feet only, but also our hands and our head/ Other- 
 'wise our disordered Church cannot be far from death." 
 
 A man so earnest was sure to make disciples. Stu- 
 dents burdened by scholastic arguments came to him, 
 He attracts ^"d gladly accepted his advice to 'keep to 
 disciples ^Y\Q Bible and the Apostles' Creed, letting 
 
 divines, if they like, dispute about the rest.' They fol- 
 lowed him from his lectures to his chambers, and im- 
 bibed his love for St. Paul ; and along with the new 
 learning, he stirred up in them that real religion which 
 consists in the love of God and one's neighbour, and 
 gives men a new power and ruling motive in life. 
 
 Two men especially so came within his influence as to 
 join themselves with him in fellow-work ; and it was by 
 and fellow- their means that it became, in a way in 
 workers. which Colct alone never could have made 
 
 it, a power all over Europe.
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Rcfonut'rs. 8i 
 
 One of them was Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas, 
 and Lord Chancellor) More, a young man, ten years 
 Colct's junior, but so earnest, so full of wit ^, 
 
 Thomas More. 
 
 and genius, and withal so good-natured 
 and fascinating, that those who knew him fell in love 
 with him. He had caught at Oxford the love of the new 
 learning which Grocyn and Linacre had brought from 
 Italy ; and, as we shall see by-and-by, became a hearty 
 fellow-worker with Colet. Rising by his talents to posts 
 of high influence in the state, he became one of the most 
 prominent figures in English history during this era. 
 
 The other fellow-worker was the afterwards famous 
 Erasmus. He was an orphan, and poor. Thrust, when a 
 youth, into a monastery by dishonest guar- 
 dians, who had tried to force him to become 
 a monk in order to get his little stock of money, he 
 rebelled when he came of age, left the monastery, and, 
 in spite of poverty, earning his living by Early life of 
 giving lessons to private pupils, worked his Erasmus. 
 way up to such learning as the University of Paris could 
 give. Wanting to master Greek, and too poor to go to 
 Italy, he came, at the invitation of an English nobleman, 
 to learn it at Oxford. He was just turned thirty (the same 
 age as Colet), but already hard study, bad lodging, and 
 the harassing life of a poor student, driven about and ill- 
 used as he had been, had ruined his health. His mental 
 energy rose, however, above bodily weak- jjg comes to 
 ness, and he came to Oxford, eager for work, Oxford, 
 and perhaps for fame. He found the little Makes friends 
 circle of Oxford students zealous for the new and Thomas 
 learning and those Greek studies on which his ^'^'''"^' 
 own mind was bent. He became known at once to Colet, 
 Grocyn, and Linacre, and fell in love with More. His 
 own words will best describe what he thought of them. 
 
 G
 
 82 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 'When' (he wrote in a letter) 'I listen to my friend 
 'Colet, it seems to me like listening to Plato himself. In 
 ' Grocyn, who does not admire the wide range of his know- 
 ' ledge ? What could be more searching, deep, and re- 
 ' fined than the judgment of Zzwa^rr^".? Whenever did 
 'nature mould a character more gentle, endearing, and 
 'happy than Tlionias Marcs? 
 
 During the time he spent at Oxford, he had many 
 talks and discussions with Colet. He had come to Ox- 
 ford full of the spirit of the revival of learning, but not 
 yet hating the scholastic system as Colet did, 
 
 Comes under jo j 
 
 Coiet's influ- nor ready at once to take to Colet's views on 
 the need of reform. He had not yet got the 
 religious earnestness which made Colet what he was. 
 But Colet's fervour was infectious; and before Erasmus 
 left Oxford, he saw clearly what a great work Colet had 
 begun. 
 
 Colet urged him to stay at Oxford, and at once to join 
 him in his work; but Erasmus said he was not ready — 
 he must first go to Italy to study Greek, as others had 
 done. But, he said, ' When I feel that I have the need- 
 ful firmness and strength, I will join you.' How effec- 
 tually he did aid him afterwards we shall presently see. 
 
 (r) 7"//!? Oxford students are scattered till the accession 
 of Henry VIII. (i 500-1 509). 
 During the remainder of the reign of Henry VII. 
 ^, , (nine years or thereabouts), the little band 
 
 The three \. ^ ^ , , , 
 
 friends scat- of Oxford students was scattered. 
 
 Erasmus left England in 1500 for France, 
 
 on his way for Italy ; but being robbed of his money by 
 
 the custom-house officers at Dover, he was obliged by 
 
 poverty to stay in France instead of going to Italy. 
 
 Colet went on with his work at Oxford as earnestlv as
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 83 
 
 ever, till lie was made Dean of St. Paul's, and removed 
 to London. 
 
 More worked his way up to the bar in London, be- 
 came popular in the City, and very early in life went 
 into Parliament. 
 
 The last years of Henry VIL were marked by the 
 discontent occasioned by the king's avarice. ^ 
 
 Exactions of 
 
 His two mmisters, Empson and Dudley Empson and 
 tried all kinds of schemes to exact money " ^^' 
 from the people withoi|t breaking the laws. 
 
 ' These two ravening wolves ' (wrote Hall the chroni- 
 cler, who lived near enough to the time to feel some of 
 the exasperation he described) 'had such a guard of false 
 'perjured persons appertaining to them, which were by 
 ' their commandment empanelled on every quest, that the 
 ' king was sure to win, whoever lost. Learned men in the 
 ' law, when they were required of their advice, would say, 
 ' " To agree is the best counsel I can give you." By this 
 'undue means these covetous persons filled the king's 
 ' coffers and enriched themselves. At this unreasonable 
 ' and extortionate doing noblemen grudged, mean men 
 ' kicked, poor men lamented ; preachers openly, at Paul's 
 'Cross and other places, exclaimed, rebuked, and de- 
 ' tested; but yet they would never amend.' 
 
 The robbing of Erasmus at the Dover custom-house 
 was an instance of one of these legal robberies. Thomas 
 More also suffered from the royal avarice. ., 
 
 11 • More 
 
 He was bold enough to speak and vote m offends 
 Parliament against a subsidy which he ^'^"'^ 
 thought was more than the king ought to claim. Where- 
 upon his father was fined on some legal but unjust ex- 
 cuse, and he himself had to flee into retirement. He 
 thought of going into a cloister, and becoming a monk ; 
 but, under the influence of Colet, who about that time
 
 S4 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 was made Dean of St. Paul's, and came to live in Lon- 
 . , don, he married, and waited for better days. 
 
 1 he circle . ■' _ 
 
 ofOxford When Erasmus came to England again in 
 
 formed again 1505, he found Colet, More, Grocyn, Lin- 
 in London. ^^^^^ ^^^ LjUy (another Oxford student who 
 had been to Italy), all living in London. They found 
 him the necessary means for his journey to Italy, and 
 again he left them, promising to return, and hoping then 
 to join them in fellow -work. 
 
 In 1509, while Erasmus was in Italy, Henry VII. died. 
 
 (irf ) On the accession of Henry VIII. tJiey commence 
 
 their felloiv-'wo7-Jz (1509). 
 The accession of Henry VIII. seemed to the Oxford 
 students like the beginning of an Augustan age. The 
 other sovereigns of Europe, Maximilian of 
 
 Hopes on the . 
 
 accession of Germany, Louis XII. of France, and Ferdi- 
 ^""^^ ■ nand of Spain, were old men, and, owing to 
 their constant wars, poor. Henry VIII. was young and, 
 thanks to his father's peaceful foreign policy and unjust 
 exactions, rich. He was, as most young princes are, 
 popular; every one hoped good things from him. The 
 imprisonment and execution of Empson and Dudley re- 
 lieved the people from fear of further exactions. He was 
 handsome, fond of athletic sports, and, in the early 
 years of his reign, it must be admitted, generous and 
 open-handed. A musician, a scholar, and (however fond 
 of pleasure) neglecting neither study nor business, of 
 great energy having his eye everywhere and keeping the 
 reins of government well in his hands, he seemed likely 
 to make a great and popular king. 
 
 By the little band of Oxford students his accession 
 was hailed with the highest hopes. He was personally 
 known to some of them, and known to be a friend of the
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 85 
 
 'new learninjr.' Colet (already Dean of 
 
 „^ „ ,, , "^ \ •' , The Oxford 
 
 bt. Jr'aul s) was soon made court preacher, studentsin 
 Thomas More, to the delight of the citizens *^°"" ^^''°"''- 
 of London, was made under-sheriff, and a few years 
 afterwards, such was the fondness of the king for him, 
 that, much against his will, he was drawn into the court. 
 Even the foreign scholar Erasmus was at once recalled 
 from Rome and settled at Cambridge as Greek profes- 
 sor.- There seemed now to be an open door for Revival 
 and Reform, and all in the sunshine of the young king's 
 favour. 
 
 {e) Erasmus writes his ' Praise of Folly ' ( 1 5 n ). 
 
 Erasmus, having been to Italy, was now ready to join 
 Colet heartily in fellow-work. On his way from Italy on 
 horseback, he planned in his mind, and on his arrival 
 in London, before going to Cambridge, he wrote in 
 More's house, his ' Praise of Folly,' a satire in Latin on 
 the follies of the age, which made his name famous 
 among the scholars of Europe. 
 
 He dressed up Folly in her cap and bells, and made 
 her deliver an oration to her fellow-fools. 
 
 Prominent amongst the fellow-fools were the scholastic 
 theologians whom Colet had taught him to dislike. 
 ' Folly ' described them as men who were so ^ . 
 
 ' Satire on the 
 
 proud that they could define everything, who scholastic 
 knew all about things of which St. Paul was ^^" '^s'ji!'- 
 ignorant, could talk of science as though they had been 
 consulted when the world was made, could give you the 
 dimensions of heaven as though they had been there and 
 measured it with plumb and line — men who professed 
 universal knowledge, and yet had not time to read the 
 Gospels or Epistles of St. Paul. 
 
 Mo7tks were described as shut out of the kingdom of
 
 86 The Protestant Reiwlution. pt. ii. 
 
 heaven in spite of their cowls and their ha- 
 bits, while wagoners and husbandmen were 
 admitted. 
 ' Folly ' claimed also among her votaries Popes who 
 (as Julius II. was then doing), instead of 'leaving all,' 
 like St. Peter, try to add to St. Peter's patri- 
 mony, as they called it, fresh possessions 
 by war, and turn law, religion, peace, and all human af- 
 fairs upside down. 
 
 This bold satire did much to open the eyes of men all 
 over Europe to the need of reform, turned the ridicule 
 of the world upon the scholastic theologians and monks, 
 and as a natural consequence, raised against Erasmus 
 the hatred of those whose follies he had so keenly sa- 
 tirized. 
 
 This little book written, he went to Cambridge to labour 
 as Greek professor, and also at another great work of 
 which we shall have to say more by-and-by — his edition 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 {/) Colet fomids St. PauVs School. 
 
 Colet, meanwhile, went on preaching from his pulpit 
 at St. Paul's. On his father's death he came into posses- 
 Coiet found- ^^°" °'^ ^^'^ fortune, and nobly devoted it to 
 school of the the foundation of a public school by the 
 
 new learning. i , , • i • i i • i r -i ■ 
 
 cathedral — in which boys, mstead of being 
 crammed in the scholastic learning, were to be trained 
 in the new learning, and instead of being taught the bad 
 Latin of the monks, were to be taught the pure Latin and 
 Greek which the Oxford students had imported from 
 Italy; and lastly, instead of being flogged and driven, 
 were to be attracted and gently led into the paths of 
 learninsf.
 
 LU. 11. The Oxford Ref.rmcrs. 87 
 
 Lilly was appointed schoolmaster. Erasmus and Lin- 
 acre were set to work to write school-books, and finding 
 that no one else seemed able to write a Latin Grammar 
 simple and easy enough for beginners, Colet wrote one 
 himself. In his preface he said he had aimed, for the 
 love and zeal he had for his new school, at making his 
 little book on the eight parts of speech as easy as he 
 could, 'judging that nothing may be too soft nor too fa- 
 miliar for little children, specially learning a tongue unto 
 them all strange,' and asking them to 'lift up their little 
 white hands' for him, in return for his prayers for them. 
 Compare with these gentle words the practice of the 
 common run of schoolmasters described by Erasmus, 
 who, too ignorant to teach their scholars properly, had 
 to make up for it by flogging and scolding, defending 
 their cruelty by the theory that it was the schoolmaster's 
 business to subdue the spirits of his boys! 
 
 When it was noised abroad that in this new school of 
 the Dean's, classical Latin and Greek were to be taught 
 instead of the bad Latin of the monks, and that under the 
 shadow of St. Paul's cathedral there was thus to be a 
 school of the new learning, men of the old school of 
 thought began to take alarm. More had 
 jokingly told Colet that it would be so, for niaiic"of meq 
 he said the school was like the wooden "•"'heoid 
 
 school. 
 
 horse filled with armed Greeks for the de- 
 struction of barbarian Troy; and so the men of the old 
 school regarded it. In spite of the inscription on the 
 building — 
 
 Schola Catechizationis Pueronim in Christi 
 
 Opt. Max. fide et bonis literis, 
 
 — one bishop denounced it openly as a 'temple of ido- 
 latry,' and the Bishop of London began to contrive how
 
 88 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 to get Colet convicted of heresy, and so a stop put to his 
 work. 
 
 About this time there was a convocation, and the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury gave Colet the duty of preach- 
 ing to the assembled bishops and clergy the 
 
 Colet's sermon ■ tt , i 
 
 on ecciesiasti- openmg sermon. He took the opportunity 
 cal reform. q£ Urging, in the strongest and most earnest 
 manner, the necessity of a radical reform in the morals 
 of the clergy. He told them to their face boldly that 
 the wicked worldly life of some of the bishops and clergy 
 was far worse heresy than that of poor Lollards, twenty- 
 three of whom the Bishop of London had just been com- 
 pelling to abjure, and two of whom he had burned in 
 Smithfield a few months before. 
 
 No wonder the Bishop's anger was kindled still more 
 
 against Colet. He and two other bishops of the old 
 
 school joined in laying a charge of heresy 
 
 cha^e"o/°™* against him before the Archbishop, but the 
 
 heresy. latter wisely would not listen to the charge. 
 
 So the cause of the new learning prospered during the 
 early years of Henry VIII. 
 
 [g) The Continental Wars of Henry VIII. 1511-1312. 
 
 If we look back to the section on Italy, and the sum- 
 mary there given of Papal and Continental politics, we 
 shall see that it was in 151 1 and 1512 that Pope Julius 
 II. was bent upon uniting Spain, England, 
 
 The Holy Al- } ^ ' ' % . 
 
 liance against and Germany m a War agamst f rance. Louis 
 France. -j^jj^ -j^^^ ^^^ posscssion of Milan, and was 
 
 becoming dangerous. The Pope's object was to drive 
 Louis out of Italy. Ferdinand of Spain wanted not only 
 to get rid of the rivalship of France in Italy, but also to 
 annex the province of Navarre to Spain. Henry VIII.
 
 CH. II. 
 
 The Oxford Reformers. 
 
 89 
 
 FRENCH PROVINCES CLAIMED 
 BY HENRY VIII. 
 
 was tempted to revive 
 
 the claims of England 
 
 on the Duchy of Gui- 
 
 enne, which since the 
 
 close of the Hundred 
 
 Years' War had been 
 
 annexed to the French 
 
 Crown. The Emperor 
 
 Maximilian was always 
 
 anxious to enlarge his 
 
 borders at the expense 
 
 of France. So these 
 
 princes formed what 
 
 was called ' the Holy 
 
 Alliance,' with the 
 
 Pope at their head, against France, and in 1511 the holy 
 
 war began. The campaign of that year ,, ,,,,, 
 
 *=■ . . Henry VIII. 's 
 
 ended in the crafty Ferdinand getting and first campaign, 
 keeping Navarre, while Henry the Eighth's 
 invasion of Guicnne miserably failed. His troops mu- 
 tinied, and returned to England in utter disorder. 
 
 In the spring of 1513 preparations were being made 
 for another campaign on a greater scale. It was in these 
 preparations that his great minister Wol- 
 sey's great talents came into play. Henry 
 VIII. had set his heart on a brilliant invasion of France 
 in order to wipe out the dishonour of the last campaign. 
 He watched the equipment of his fleet, and ordered Ad- 
 miral Howard to tell him ' how every ship did sail.' 
 
 Just as everything was ready Julius II. died, and the 
 Cardinal de' Medici, Linacre's fcUow-studcnt, whose ac- 
 quaintance Erasmus had made in Italy, was ^ ,. „ 
 
 ^ . •' Julius II, siic- 
 
 elected Pope under the title of Leo X. The cccdod by Leo 
 new Pope cared for literature and art and 
 
 Wolsey.
 
 90 'The Protestant Revolution. pr. ii, 
 
 building St. Peter's at Rome more than for war, and ex- 
 pressed his anxiety to bring about a peace. But Henry 
 „ ,, VIII. had set his heart upon a glorious war. 
 
 But Henry . . l" fa > 
 
 persists in in- and in spite of the death of the head of the 
 ing ranee, j^^j^ Alliance, and in spite also of his 
 father-in-law Ferdinand's hanging back at the last mo- 
 ment, he was determined to go on. Admiral Howard in 
 his first engagement with the French, lost his life in a 
 brilliant exploit, and his crew, disheartened, returned to 
 Plymouth. But still Henry VIII. set sail with the rest 
 of the ships for Calais, with ' such a fleet as Neptune 
 , „ never saw before,' and from Calais he 
 
 Gains the Bat- 
 tle of the marched his army a few leagues beyond the 
 
 ^""^ French frontier, took some towns of small 
 
 importance, and turned the French army to flight at the 
 
 Battle of the Spurs. 
 
 He did little harm to France or good to England, but 
 
 got some sort of a victory, and so gratified his vanity. 
 
 There were of course great rejoicings, tourna- 
 
 Scotch inva- ° . , 
 
 sionofEng- ments, and pageants, but just m the midst 
 of them came the news that the Scotch, 
 always troublesome neighbours in those days, before the 
 union of the two kingdoms, had, incited by France, taken 
 the opportunity of Henry VIII. 's absence in France to 
 invade England, but that through the zeal and energy 
 of Queen Catherine they had been defeated, and the 
 Battle of King of Scots himself slain, with a host of 
 
 the Scotch nobility, at the Battle of Flodden. 
 Whereupon Henry VIII., finding nothing better to do, 
 amid great show of rejoicing returned to England, bent 
 upon preparing for another invasion by-and-by. 
 
 But his father-in-law, Ferdinand, had served him so 
 badly in these two campaigns — leaving him to bear the 
 brunt of them, while he contented himself with taking
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 91 
 
 and keeping Navarre — that the end of it was a strange 
 shuffling of the cards. Henry VIII. made Henry viii. 
 peace with Louis XII., and England and FVaVc^e'against 
 France combined to wrest back again from Spam. 
 Spain that very province of Navarre which Henry VIII. 
 had helped Ferdinand to wrest from France only a few 
 years before. 
 
 In January 151 5 this unholy alliance was broken by 
 Louis XII.'s death. He was succeeded by Francis I.., 
 who, eager, like his young rival, Henry 
 VIII., to win his spurs in a European war, succeeded by 
 at once declared his intention that the ' mon- ^"'^"'^'^ • 
 archv of Christendom should rest under the Francis I. 
 
 ^ _ invades Italy, 
 
 banner of France, as it was wont to do ! ' A and recovers 
 few months after, he started on the Italian 
 campaign, in which, after defeating the Swiss soldiers at 
 the battle of Marignano, he recovered the Duchy of Milan. 
 
 Again both Ferdinand and Henry VIII. 
 were made friends by their common jeal- andSpairfcom- 
 ousy of France. It would never do to let p"*^ against 
 France become the first power in Europe. 
 
 So during these years, instead of an Augustan age of 
 peace, reform, and progress in the new learning and 
 civihzation, through the jealousy and lust of 
 military glory of her kings, stirred up by the kings against 
 late warlike Pope and his Holy Alliance, E^rLpe."'"'^ 
 Europe was harried with these barbarous 
 wars ! 
 
 We have seen, in the chapter on France, how her 
 national wars tended to increase the power of the Crown, 
 and how the fact that the Crown was abso- 
 lute and backed by its standing army, while tended to 
 it tended to keep France a united kingdom !"ij'^'^f^^e"^ 
 on the map, injured the nation. So it was
 
 92 The Protcstaftt Revolution. pt. i. 
 
 The ex- also in measure — happily only in measure — • 
 
 ample of l i j ■/ 
 
 France. in England. These wars tended to make 
 
 the king absolute. To carry them on, not only were all 
 the hoarded treasures of Henry VII. dispersed, but fresh 
 taxes were needed ; and when all the taxes were spent 
 that could be got legally out of votes of Parliament, 
 Wolsey was driven to get more money by illegal means. 
 Narrow Had the war-fever gone on a little longer — 
 
 ^cape of jyg)- gQ long as to establish the precedent of 
 
 the king's levying taxes without consent of 
 Parliament — then England might well have lost her 
 free constitution, just as France had already done. But, 
 happily, this was not so to be. 
 
 In the meantime, let us see how the Oxford Reformers 
 acted in this crisis of European affairs, how they used all 
 their influence to set the public opinion of the educated 
 world against this evil policy of European princes. 
 Coiet Colet preached against the wars to the 
 
 preaches people from his pulpit at St. Paul's, and to 
 
 against the ^ ^ r r 
 
 wars. the king from the pulpit of the royal chapel ; 
 
 and his enemies tried to get him into trouble with the king 
 for doing so. But Henry VIII. , wild as he was for military 
 glory, was generous enough to respect the sincerity and 
 boldness of the dean ; and though not wise enough to follow 
 his advice, refused to stop his preaching. Erasmus made 
 known to his learned friends all over Europe this bold con- 
 duct of Colet and his hatred of war. He also, in his 
 letters to the Pope, princes, cardinals, bish- 
 
 trasmus r > jt 
 
 against ops, and influential men everywhere, protest- 
 
 ed against the false international policy which 
 
 sacrificed the good of the people to the ambition of kings, 
 and also Morc also made no secret to the king that 
 
 More. i^g ^yjig opposed to his conquering France, 
 
 and that he hated the wars.
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 93 
 
 (Ji) The kind of Reform ninicd at by the Oxford 
 Reformers. 
 
 It so happened that just at this time Erasmus was 
 invited to the court of Prince Charles of the Netherlands 
 (afterwards the Emperor Charles V.), and Erasmus 
 that More was also beingr drawn by Henry made a 
 
 ° ^ ■' councillor 
 
 VIII. into his royal service. They both at of Prince 
 length yielded. Erasmus became a privy 
 
 councillor of Prince Charles, on condition fnto^n^n^" 
 
 that it should not interfere with his literary viil.'s 
 
 service. 
 
 work. More became a courtier of Henry 
 VIII. when peace was made with France, on condition 
 that in all things he should ' first look to God, and after 
 Him to the king.' 
 
 Both Erasmus and More, in thus entering royal ser- 
 vice, published pamphlets or books containing a state- 
 ment of their views on politics. Erasmus called his 
 'The Christian Prince;' More called his a 'Description 
 of the Commonwealth of Utopia.' 
 
 Erasmus, in his 'Christian Prince,' urged that the 
 Golden Rule ought to guide the actions of -pjjg 
 princes — that they should never enter upon Lp.'""'^','^" 
 a war that could possibly be avoided, that Erasmus. 
 the good of their people should be their sole object, that 
 it was the people's choice which gave a king his title to 
 his throne, that a constitutional monarchy is much better 
 than an absolute one, that kings should aim at taxing 
 their people as little as possible ; that the necessaries of 
 life, things in common use among the lowest classes, 
 ought not to be taxed, but luxuries of the rich, and so 
 on: the key-note of the whole being that the object of 
 nations and governments is the common weal of the 
 whole people.
 
 94 '^^^^ Protestant Revolution. pt. n. 
 
 In the meanwhile, More, in his 'Utopia,' or descrip- 
 tion of the manners and customs of an ideal common- 
 More's wealth (' Utopia 'meaning 'nowhere'), urged 
 
 'Utopia.' just tiie same points. The Utopians 
 
 elected their own king, as well as his council or parlia- 
 ment. They would not let him rule over anothei. 
 country as well : they said he had enough to do to 
 govern their own island. The Utopians hated war as 
 the worst of evils ; the Utopians aimed not at making 
 the king and a few nobles rich, but the whole people. 
 All property belonged to the nation, and so all the peo- 
 ple were well off. Nor was education confined to one 
 class ; in Utopia everyone was taught to read and write. 
 All magistrates and priests were elected by the people. 
 Every family had a vote, and the votes were taken by 
 ballot. Thus the key-note of More's 'Utopia' was, like 
 the ' Christian Prince' of Erasmus, that governments and 
 nations exist for the common weal of the whole people. 
 
 If we turn back to the description already given of 
 the two points which mark the spirit of modern civiliza- 
 tion, and judge these sentiments of Eras- 
 
 They , ,. r •, ■ r ■ 
 
 entered mus and More from that pomt of view, we 
 
 imo'th? ^ cannot fail to see how thoroughly they en- 
 spirit of tered into the spirit of the new era, and how 
 
 modern ^ 
 
 civilization. corrcct and far-reaching were the reforms 
 which they urged upon the public opinion of Europe. 
 
 We must not leave the Oxford Reformers without 
 trying to get a clear idea of the kind of religious reform 
 which they urged. 
 
 We have seen that Colet's object was to set the minds 
 
 of men free from the bonds of the scholastic 
 
 of their system, by leading men back from the 
 
 refom"^ schoolmcn to the teaching of Christ and 
 
 His Apostles in the New Testament.
 
 CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 95 
 
 Erasmus had been all this while labouring hard in 
 fellow-work with him. He had for years been working 
 at, and now, in 1 516, published at the printing-press at 
 Basle, a book which did more to prepare the way for the 
 religious reformation than any other book 
 published during this era. This was his Testament 
 edition of the New Testament, containing, 
 in two columns side by side, the original Greek and a 
 new Latin translation of his own. He thus realized a 
 great object, "which Colet had long had in view, viz., not 
 only to draw men away from scholastic theology, but to 
 place before them, in all the freshness of the original 
 language and a new translation, the 'living picture' of 
 Christ and His Apostles contained in the New Testa- 
 ment. By so doing he laid a firm foundation for another 
 great religious reform, viz., the translation of the New 
 Testament into what was called ' the vulgar tongue ' of 
 each country, thus bringing it within reach of the 
 people as well as of the clergy. 
 
 'I wish' (Erasmus said in his preface to his New 
 Testament) ' that even the weakest woman should read 
 'the Gospels — should read the Epistles of Paul; and I 
 'wish that they were translated into all languages, so 
 'that they might be read and understood not only 
 'by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and Sara- 
 'cens. I long that the husbandman should sing por- 
 'tions of them to himself as he follows the plough, 
 'that the weaver should hum them to the tunc of his 
 'shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their 
 'stories the tedium of his journey.' 
 
 Of course this great work of Erasmus excited the oppo- 
 sition and hatred of the men of the old school, and espe- 
 cially of the monks and scholastic divines, to whom the 
 old Vulgate version was sacred, and Greek a heretical
 
 96 The Protesta7it Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 tongue. But the New Testament went through several 
 large editions, and when, a few years after, the learned 
 men of the Sorbonne at Paris complained of what they 
 called its heresies, Erasmus was able to reply trium- 
 phantly, ' You are too late in your objections. You 
 should have spoken sooner. It is now scattered over 
 Europe by thousands of copies ! ' 
 
 One other point we have to fix in our minds — the 
 attitude of the Oxford Reformers to the ecclesiastical 
 ^, , . , , system. We have seen that their notion of 
 
 Ihe kind of . . 
 
 ecciesiasti- religion was that it was a thing of the heart 
 urged by the — the love of God and man. They believed 
 former ^^'^'^ it was intended to bind men together 
 
 in a common brotherhood, not to divide them 
 into sects. They complained how rival orders of monks 
 and schools of theology hated one another. Christians 
 might differ about doctrines, but they ought to agree in 
 They aimed the worship of God and in their love of one 
 and toferant another. Hence More in his Utopia had 
 Church. described the Utopians as giving full tolera- 
 
 tion to all varieties of doctrines and differences of creeds; 
 and pictured all worshipping together in one united and 
 simple mode of worship, expressly so arranged as to hurt 
 the feelings of no sect among them, so that they all might 
 join in it as an expression of their common brotherhood 
 in the sight of God. 
 
 It is clear that, holding these views, they were likely 
 to urge, as they did earnestly urge, the reform of the 
 ecclesiastical system, but that if at any time a great 
 dissension were to arise in the Church, they would urge 
 that the Church should be reformed and widened so as 
 to give offence to neither party, and include 
 likely to op- both within it, and would oppose with all 
 pose schism. ^j^^jj. j^^jgj^^ anything which should break up
 
 CH. III. TJie Wittenberg Reformers. 97 
 
 its unity and cause a schism. Wlicther right or wrong, 
 this would be the course which their own deep convic- 
 tions would be likely to lead them to take, and this, we 
 shall see, was the line the survivors of them did take 
 when the Protestant struggle came on. We say ' the 
 survivors,' because Colet did not live to work much 
 longer. Even now, driven into retirement by the perse- 
 cution of the old Bishop of London, he could do little 
 but work at his school. And he died in 1519. 
 
 To the beginning of the Protestant movement we 
 must now turn our attention. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WITTENBERG REFORMERS. 
 
 (a) Martin Luther becomes a Reformer. 
 
 Martin Luther was born in 1483, and so was 15 years 
 youneer than Erasmus and Colet, and three „ 
 
 ■' *' Born 1483. 
 
 years younger even than their young friend 
 More. 
 
 His great-grandfather and grandfather were Saxon 
 peasants, but his father being a younger son had left 
 home and become a miner or slate-cutter at 
 Mansfield in Thuringia, Both his parents school" 
 were rough and hot-tempered, but true and 
 honest at heart. Though working hard for 
 a living, they sent their sons to school, and wishing Mar- 
 tin to become a lawyer, they found means to send him to 
 the university of Erfurt. There he took his degree of 
 M. A. 
 
 In 1505, in fulfilment some say of a vow made in a 
 dreadful thunderstorm, when he thought his end was 
 ir 
 
 versity.
 
 pS The Protestant Revolution. pr. ii. 
 
 near, Luther, contrary to his father's wishes, 
 
 Becomes a 
 
 monk. left his law studies and entered the Augus- 
 
 tine monastery at Erfurt. He inherited the superstitious 
 nature of the German peasantry. He traced every harm 
 that came to him through passion and temptation all 
 alike to the Devil. His conscience was often troubled. 
 His fasts and penances did not give him peace. He 
 passed through great mental struggles, sometimes shut 
 himself up in his cell for days, and once was found sense- 
 less on the floor. At lerigth he found peace of mind in 
 the doctrine of 'justification by faith,' /. e., that forgtveP 
 ness of sins, instead of being got by fasts and penances 
 and ceremonies, is given freely to those who have faith 
 in Christ. This doctrine he learned partly from the pious 
 vicar-general of the monastery, partly from the works of 
 St. Augustine, and under their guidance from a study of 
 , , , the Bible. From this time he accepted also 
 
 Adopts the '^ 
 
 theology of St. other parts of the theology of St. Augustine, 
 and especially those which, because they 
 were afterwards adopted by Calvin, are now called ' Cal- 
 vinistic,' such as that all things are fated to happeji ac- 
 cording to the divine will, that man has therefore no free 
 will, and that only an elect humber, predestinated to 
 receive the gift of faith, are saved. 
 
 It is well to mark here that these Augustinian doctrines 
 
 were, in fact, a part of that scholastic theology from 
 
 which the Oxford Reformers were trying to 
 
 And in this dif- . r t . ^- lx. i.u 
 
 fered from the Set men free. In not acceptmg them they 
 o X f o r d Re- differed from Luther. But they and Luther 
 
 formers. ^ 
 
 had one thing in common. They alike held 
 that religion did not consist in ceremonies, but was a 
 thing of the heart; that true worship must be in spirit 
 and in truth. 
 
 In 1 508 Luther was removed from Erfurt to the Augus-
 
 CH. III. The Wittenberg Reformers. 99 
 
 tinian monastery at Wittenberg, and soon 
 
 after made preacher there at the University moves to Wit- 
 
 recently founded by the Elector of Saxony. '"^" ^' 
 
 In i5iohewas sent on an errand for his monastery 
 to Rome. There he found wicked priests ,, 
 
 V isits Rome. 
 
 performing masses in the churches, ignorant 
 worshippers buying forgiveness of sins from the priests, 
 and doing at their bidding all kinds of penances ; and 
 he came back zealous, like Colet, for reform, and with 
 the words 'the just shall live by faith' more than ever 
 ringing in his ears. 
 
 He had been preaching and teaching the theology of 
 St. Augustine at Wittenberg several years with great ear- 
 nestness, when in 1516 he read the new edi- ^ , , ^T 
 
 •' Reads the New 
 
 tion of the New Testament by Erasmus. Testament of 
 The works of Erasmus had an honourable 
 place on the shelves of the Elector of Saxony's library, 
 and his New Testament was the common talk of learned 
 men at the universities, even at this youngest of them all 
 — Wittenberg. Luther eagerly turned over its pages, re- 
 joicing in the new light it shed on old familiar passages ; 
 but what a disappointment it was to him as by degrees 
 he discovered that there was a great difference between 
 Erasmus and himself — that Erasmus did not accept those 
 Augustinian doctrines on which his own faith was built ! 
 He knew that Erasmus was doing a great work towards 
 the needed reform, and this made it all the more painful 
 to find that in these points they differed. He was 'moved' 
 by it, but, he wrote to a friend, ' I keep it to ^. , 
 
 ^ '■ I'lnds out the 
 
 myself, lest I should play into the hands of difference in 
 
 •u- • -Mt 1^ y ■ -u- A their theology. 
 
 his enemies. May God give him under- 
 standing in his own good time ! ' 
 
 This is a fact that in justice to both should never be 
 forgotten. Luther was conscious of it from the first, and
 
 loo The Protestant Revolution. pt. II. 
 
 it had this future significance, that if Protestantism (as it 
 afterwards did) sliould follow Luther and adopt the 
 Augustinian theology, Erasmus and the Oxford Re- 
 formers never could become Protestants. Luther might 
 wisely try to keep it secret, but if matters of doctrine 
 should ever come to the front, the breach between them 
 was sure to come out. 
 
 (U) The Sa'e of Indulgences ( 1 5 1 7 ) . 
 
 While Luther was preaching Augustinian doctrines at 
 Wittenberg, and Erasmus was hard at work at a second 
 edition of his New Testament, pressing More's 'Utopia' 
 and his own ' Christian Prince ' on the notice of princes 
 and their courtiers, expressing to his friends at Rome 
 his hopes that under Leo X. Rome might become the 
 centre of peace and religion, Europe was all at once 
 brought by the scandalous conduct of Princes and the 
 Pope to the brink of revolution. 
 
 Leo X. wanted money to help his nephew in a little 
 war he had on hand. To get this money he offered to 
 Leo X.'s grant indulgences or pardons at a certam 
 
 get?^nly°by price, to thosc who would contribute money 
 indulgence. ^-q ^\^q building of St. Pctcr's at Rome. The 
 people were still ignorant enough to believe in the 
 Pope's power to grant pardons for sins, and there was 
 no doubt they would buy them, and so gold would flow 
 into the coffers of Rome. There was one obstacle. 
 Princes were growing jealous of their subjects' money 
 being drawn towards Rome. But Leo X. 
 
 Offers princes , . , , , . . , 
 
 a share in the got ovcr this obstacle by givmg them a 
 *^°''' share in the spoil. He offered Henry VIIL 
 
 one-fourth of what came from England, but Henry VHL 
 haggled and bargained to get a third ! Kings had made 
 themselves poor by their wars, and a share in the papal
 
 CH. ni. The Wittenberg Reformeis. loi 
 
 spoils on their own subjects was a greater temptation 
 than they could resist. 
 
 Erasmus in his ' Praise of Folly ' had described indul- 
 eences as ' the crime of false pardons,' and ^ 
 
 ° _ Erasmus 
 
 now in every letter and book he wrote he writes bitterly 
 bitterly complained of the Pope and Princes ^^^'"^ 
 for resorting to them again. 
 He wrote to Colet : — ■ 
 
 ' I have made up my mind to spend the remainder of my life 
 with you in retirement from a world which is everywhere rotten. 
 Ecclesiastical hypocrites rule in the courts of princes. The Court 
 ol' riome clearly has lost all sense of shame ; for what could be 
 more shameless than these continued indulgences 1 ' 
 
 And in a letter to another friend, he said : — 
 
 ' All sense of shame has vanished from human affairs. I see that 
 the very height of tyranny has been reached. The Pope and 
 Kings count the people not as men, but as cattle in the market ! ' 
 
 But though Erasmus numbered among his friends Leo 
 X., Henry VIII., Francis I., and Prince Charles, he 
 found them deaf to his satire, and unwilling 
 to reform abuses which filled their treasuries, ^ingrwilf not 
 
 They would not listen to Erasmus, It re- I'st^^"- 
 mained to be proved whether they would listen to Lu- 
 ther! 
 
 [c) Luther's Attack on Indulgences {/j//.) 
 Wittenberg was an old-fashioned town in Saxony, on 
 the Elbe. Its main street was parallel with the broad 
 river, and within its walls, at one end of it, „,. , 
 
 ' Wittenberg. 
 
 near the Elster gate, lay the University, 
 founded by the good Elector — Frederic of Saxony — of 
 which Luther was a professor ; while at the other end of 
 it was the palace of the Elector and the palace church of 
 All Saints. The great parish church lifted its two towers
 
 I02 " The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii, 
 
 from the centre of the town, a little back from the main 
 
 street. This was the town in which Luther had been 
 
 preaching for years, and towards which Tct- 
 
 Tetzel comes ,,,.., 
 
 near, selling zel, the Seller of mdul^ences, now came, lust 
 
 if, o > 'J 
 
 u genets. ^g 1^^ ^j^ ^^ other towns, vending his ' false 
 pardons ' — granting indulgences for sins to those who 
 could pay for them, and offering to release from purga- 
 tory the souls of the dead, if any of their friends would 
 pay for their release. As soon as the money chinked in 
 his money-box, the souls of their dead friends would be 
 let out of purgatory. This was the gospel of Tetzel. It 
 made Luther's blood boil. He knew that what the Pope 
 wanted was people's money, and that the whole thing 
 was a cheat. This his Augustinian theology had taught 
 him ; and he was not a man to hold back when he saw 
 what ought to be done. He did see it. On the day be- 
 fore the festival of All Saints, on which the relics of the 
 Church were displayed to the crowds of country people 
 who flocked into the town, Luther passed down the long 
 street with a copy of ninety-five theses or statements 
 Luther's against indulgences in his hand, and nailed 
 
 against in- them upon the door of the palace church 
 duigences. ready for the festival on the morrow. Also 
 on All Saints' day he read them to the people in the 
 great parish church. 
 
 It would not have mattered much to Tetzel or the Pope 
 that the monk of Wittenberg had nailed up his papers on 
 He is backed the palace church, had it not been that he 
 Ekctor of '^^s backed by the Elector of Saxony. The 
 Saxony. Elcctor was an honest man, and had the 
 
 good of the German people at heart. Luther's theses 
 laid hold of his mind, and a few days after it is said that 
 he dreamed that he saw the monk writing on the door of 
 his church in letters so large that he could read them 
 
 *
 
 CH. III. The Wittenberg Reformers. 103 
 
 eighteen miles off at his palace where he was, and that 
 the pen grew longer and longer, till at last it reached to 
 Rome, touched the Pope's triple crown and made it tot- 
 ter. He was stretching out his arm to catch it when he 
 awoke ! The Elector of Saxony, whether he dreamed 
 this dream awake or asleep, was at least wide awake 
 enough to refuse permission for Tetzel to enter his do- 
 minions. 
 
 Then came a year or two of controversy and angry 
 disputes ; and just at the right time came Philip Melanch- 
 thon, from the University of Tubingen, to ^, .,. 
 
 Philip 
 
 strengthen the staff of the Elector's new Meianch- 
 University at Wittenberg — a man deep in to wuten^^ 
 Hebrew and Greek, a half-disciple of Eras- ^*^''^- 
 mus — already pointed out as likely to turn out ' Erasmus 
 II.,' of gentle, sensitive, and affectionate nature, the very 
 opposite of Luther, but yet just what was wanted in 
 another Wittenberg Reformer — to help in argument and 
 width of learning ; to be in fact to Luther, partly what 
 Erasmus had been to Colet. In the weary and hot dis- 
 putes which now came upon Luther, Mclanchthon was 
 always at his elbow, and helped him in his arguments ; 
 while the fame of Luther's manly conduct and Melanch- 
 thon's learning all helped to draw students to the Uni- 
 versity from far and near, and so to spread the views of 
 the Wittenberg Reformers more and more widely. 
 
 [d) The Election of Charles V. to the Empire [ijig). 
 
 Suddenly, in 15 19, the noise of religious disputes was 
 drowned in the still greater noise of political excitement. 
 Maximilian died, and anew Emperor had to ^ , . 
 
 ' Death of 
 
 be elected. Prince Charles, who was now Maximilian. 
 King of Spain also, wanted to be Emperor; foV the 
 so did Francis I., though a Frenchman ; so ^^"h^"''^-
 
 I04 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 did Henry VIII., claiming that, though England was not 
 a subject of the Empire, the English language was a 
 German tongue, while French was not. The princes 
 of the Empire wanted the Elector of Saxony to be Em- 
 peror, but he was the one man who cared most for the 
 interests of Germany, and had least selfish ambition. 
 
 It was a question which of the three princes could 
 
 bribe a majority of the seven Electors. Henry VIII. did 
 
 not risk enough to give himself a chance. It was not 
 
 really likely that, however much they might 
 
 elected be bribed, the Electors, who were all Ger- 
 
 through the . i i i t- i 
 
 influence of man prmccs, would choose a Frenchman. 
 of^sfionT '^^'^ Elector of Saxony practically decided 
 the election in favour of Prince Charles. 
 The following letter of Erasmus, who was a councillor of 
 Prince Charles, will show what manner of man the good 
 Elector was. 
 
 ' The Duke Frederic of Saxony has written twice to me in reply 
 to my letter. Luther is supported solely by his protection. He 
 says that he has acted thus for the sake rather of the cause than of 
 the person (of Luther). He adds, that he will not lend himself to 
 the oppression of innocence in his dominions by the malice of those 
 who seek their own, and not the things of Christ.' . . . ' When the 
 imperial crown was offered to Frederic of Saxony by all (the Elec- 
 tors), with great magnanimity he refused it, the very day before 
 Charles was elected. And Charles never would have worn the im- 
 perial title had it not been declined by Frederic, whose glory in re- 
 fusing the honour was greater than if he had accepted it. When he 
 was asked who he thought should be elected, he said that no one 
 seemed to him able to bear the weight of so great a name but 
 Charles. In the same noble spirit he firmly refused the 30,000 flo- 
 rins offered him by our people (i. e. the agents of Charles). When 
 he was urged that at least he would allow 10,000 florins to be given 
 to his servants, " They may take them" (he said) "if they like, but 
 no one shall remain my servant another day who accepts a single
 
 CH. III. 
 
 The Wittenberg Reformers. 
 
 piece of gold." The next day he took horse and departed, lest 
 they should continue to bother him. This was related to me as 
 entirely credible by the Bishop of Liege, who was present at the 
 Imperial Diet.' 
 
 Would that Charles V. had followed throughout his 
 reign the counsels of the good Elector to whom he owed 
 his crown! Charles's grandfather, Ferdinand, had died 
 only a few months before, and he was himself in Spain, 
 
 settling the affairs of his new kingdom, when he was 
 elected. We have now to mark what power had fallen 
 into the hands of this prince of the House of Hapsburg. 
 On the map are distinguished the Austrian, Extent of 
 Burgundian, and Spanish provinces which Sharks V.'s 
 c^mc under his rule. We must remember, 
 too, how the ambition of Spain was to increase its Ital-
 
 io6 The Protestant Revolution. PT. li. 
 
 ian possessions, and that, as head of the 'Holy Roman 
 Empire,' he was also nominally King of Italy! 
 
 {e) Liithcrs Breach with Rome (1520). 
 
 While these political events had been absorbing atten- 
 tion, the religious disputes between Luther and the papal 
 party had been going on, 
 ^ , , , They had this sincrular effect upon Luther : 
 
 Luther finds •' ^ ^ . . 
 
 himself a they drovc him to see that his Augustinian 
 
 views were identical with those of Wiclif and 
 Huss. He was astonished, as he described it, to find 
 that 'he was a Hussite without knowing it ; that St. Paul 
 and Augustine were Hussites I ' 
 
 The fact was that Wiclif and Huss, like Luther, had 
 in a great degree got their views from the works of St. 
 Augustine: they had so adopted many of the doctrines 
 which belonged to what we have said is now called the 
 Calvinistic theology. 
 
 This discovery hastened on his quarrel with the Pope. 
 The Pope and Councils had denounced Wiclif and Huss 
 as heretics ; therefore Popes and Councils were not in- 
 fallible. This was the conclusion to which 
 
 Rumoured Pa- i i i i ■^ ■, • 
 
 pal Bull against Luther camc. Luther had declared himself 
 a Hussite, therefore the papal party con- 
 tended he must, like Huss, be a heretic ; and the long 
 continuance of the Hussite wars being taken into account 
 he must be a dangerous heretic. So the Pope made up 
 his mind to issue a Papal Bull against Luther. 
 
 When rumours of this reached Luther, so far from be- 
 ing fearful, he became defiant. He at once wrote two 
 pamphlets. 
 
 The first was addressed ' To the Nobility of the German 
 nation.' It was published, in both Latin and German, in
 
 CH. III. The Wittenberg Reformers. 107 
 
 1520, and 4,000 copies were at once sold. 
 
 If we bear in mind what has already been phietTo^the'"" 
 
 said in the section 'On the Ecclesiastical G°^jian .iL'on. 
 
 System,' the chief points of the pamphlet 
 
 will be easily understood. 
 
 The gist of it was as follows : — 
 
 ' To his Imperial Majesty and the Christian Nobility of the Ger- 
 man nation, Martin Luther wishes grace, &c. The Romanists have 
 raised round themselves walls to protect themselves from reform. 
 One is their doctrine, that there are two separate estates; the one 
 spiritual, \iz. pope, bishops, priests, and monks; the other secw^ar, 
 viz. princes, nobles, artisans, and peasants. And they lay it down 
 that the secular power has no power over the spiritual, but that the 
 spiritual is above the secular; whereas, in truth, all Christians are 
 spiritual, and there is no difference between them. The secular 
 power is of God, to punish the wicked and protect the good, and so 
 has rule over the whole body of Christians, without exception, pope, 
 bishops, monks, nuns and all. For St. Paul says, ' Let every soul 
 (and I reckon the Pope one) be subject to the higher powers.' 
 [Luther was writing this to the secular princes, and they were likely 
 to listen to this setting up of their authority above that of the clergy. 
 He was writing also to the German nation, and he knew well how 
 to catch their ear too.] ' Why should 300,000 florins be sent every 
 year from Germany to Rome ? Why do the Germans let themselves 
 be fleeced by cardinals who get hold of the best preferments and 
 spend the revenues at Rome ? Let us not give another farthing to the 
 Pope as subsidies against the Turks ; the whole thing is a snare to 
 drain us of more money. Let the secular authorities send no more 
 annates to Rome. Let the power of the Pope be reduced within 
 clear limits. Let there be fewer cardinals, and let them not keep 
 the best things to themselves. Let the national churches be more 
 independent of Rome. Let there be fewer pilgrimages to Italy. 
 Let there be fewer convents. Let priests marry. Let begging be 
 stopped by making each parish take charge of its own poor. Let 
 us inquire into the position of the Bohemians, and if Husswas in 
 the right, let us join with him in resisting Rome.'
 
 io8 TJie Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 And then, at the end, he threw these few words of defi- 
 ance at the Pope : — 
 
 ' Enough for this time ! I know right well that I have sung in a 
 high strain. Well, 1 know another little song about Rome and her 
 people ! Do their ears itch ? I will sing it also, and in the highest 
 notes ! Dost thou know well, my dear Rome, what I mean?' 
 
 His other pamphlet — his ' other httle song about Rome ' 
 
 — was an attack upon her doctrines. It was entitled 
 
 ' On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church,' 
 
 Another pam- ii-i 
 
 phiet on the and in it he repeated his condemnation of 
 Captivity'of indulgences, denied that the supremacy of 
 the Church.' ^^^^ Pope was of divine right, declared the 
 Pope a usurper, and the Papacy the kingdom of Baby- 
 lon ; and then, turning to matters of doctrine, boldly re- 
 duced the sacraments of the Church, by an appeal to 
 Scripture, from seven to three — Baptism, Penance, and 
 the Lord's Supper. He ended this pamphlet in as defiant 
 a tone as the other. 'He heard' (he said) 'that Bulls 
 ' and other terrible Papistical things were being prepared, 
 'by which he was to be urged to recant or be declared a 
 'heretic. Let this little book be taken as a part of his 
 'recantation, and as an earnest of what was to come ! ' 
 
 While the printing-press was scattering thousands of 
 copies of these pamphlets all over Germany, in Latin for 
 The Bull the learned, and in German for the com- 
 
 arrives. mou pcoplc, the BuU arrived, and the 
 
 Elector of Saxony was ordered by the Pope to deliver 
 up the heretic Luther. The question now was, What 
 would Luther do with the Bull, and the Elector with 
 Luther? 
 
 (_/) The Elector of Saxony co7isults Erasmtts, 
 December 6, 1520. 
 
 Much at this moment depended on what the good 
 Elector of Saxony would do. Well was it that the fate
 
 CH. III. The Wlttetiberg Reformers. 109 
 
 of Luther lay in the hands of so conscientious a prince. 
 He and his secretary Spalatin were at Cologne, where 
 Charles V., after his recent coronation, was holding his 
 court. Melanchthon and Luther were in constant corres- 
 pondence with Spalatin. Melanchthon wrote that all 
 their hopes rested with the prince, and urged Spalatin to 
 do his best to prevent Luther being crushed, — ' a man,' 
 he said, ' who seemed to him almost inspired, and 
 whom he dared to put not only above any other man 
 of the age, but even above all the Augustines and 
 Jeromes of any age ! ' So enthusiastic a disciple of the 
 bold Luther had the gentle Melanchthon become! 
 Spalatin did his best. 
 
 Aleander, the Pope's nuncio, and supposed author of 
 the ' Bull,' was at Cologne, wild against Luther and 
 doing all he could to get the Emperor to make common 
 cause with the Pope. He knew that the Elector of 
 Saxony stood in the wav, and did his best ., 
 
 ' . Aleander, 
 
 to win him over, Erasmus, bemg one of the Pope's 
 the Emperor's council, also was there, and "" win 'over 
 Aleander knew that he, too, was against ofl^xony"^ 
 the crushing of the poor monk, and if he 
 could have bribed him over with a bishopric, or secretly 
 poisoned him, there is evidence that it would most likely 
 have been done. The Elector was bent upon doing what 
 was right and best for Germany and for Christendom, 
 and anxious to have the advice of the best and the 
 wisest men upon the course he should take. Erasmus 
 had written to the Wittenberg Reformers, praising their 
 zeal, but advising more gentleness. Melanchthon had 
 sent the letter from Erasmus to the good Elector, 
 who now wanted to consult Erasmus confidentially him- 
 self. Spalatin managed the interview. It was in the 
 Elector's rooms at the inn of ' The Three Kings ' that
 
 no The Protestant Revolution. PT. ii. 
 
 they met, the Elector, Erasmus and Spalatin. The 
 
 Elector asked of Erasmus through Spalatin, in Latin, as 
 
 they stood over the fire, 'What he really thought of 
 
 Luther?' and fixed his eyes eagerly upon 
 
 The Elector , , . , ^ ^ J' ^ 
 
 asks advice him as he waited for an answer. Erasmus 
 said, with a smile, ' Luther has committed 
 two crimes! He has hit the Pope on the crown and 
 the monks on the belly.' 
 
 This was exactly the truth. The Elector's dream had 
 come true. Luther's great pen had reached to Rome 
 and touched the Pope's triple crown. Leo X. was a sort 
 of patron of Erasmus, but that did not hinder Erasmus 
 from condemning the Bull. The monks were his old 
 enemies, bitter against the new learning, haters of him- 
 self and Colet as well as Luther, because they saw their 
 craft was in danger as men's eyes became more and 
 more opened. Therefore Erasmus could afford to smile 
 a bitter sarcastic smile at the expense of both Pope and 
 monks. Before he left he wrote down on paper a short 
 The advice Statement of his opinion that the monks' 
 of Erasmus. hatred of the new learning was at the bot- 
 tom of their zeal against Luther, whilst only two uni- 
 versities had condemned him; that Luther's demand to 
 be properly heard was a fair one ; and that being a man 
 void of ambition, he was less likely to be a heretic. At 
 all events the views of Luther's opponents were worse 
 than his ; all honest men disapproved of the Bull ; and 
 clemency was what ought to be expected of the new 
 Emperor. 
 
 While thus he spoke in favour of fair dealing with 
 Luther, he at the same time found much fault with Lu- 
 „, „, ther's violent way of going to work and his 
 
 The Elector . J b a 
 
 follows it. abusive language. The result of the inter- 
 
 view was reported to Luther. Melanchthon and he were
 
 CH. III. The Wittenberg Reformers. in 
 
 well satisfied with the advice given by Erasmus. They 
 considered that it had great weight in strengthening the 
 Elector in favour of Luther. At all events the Elector 
 followed it in two points — he remained firm in defence 
 of Luther, and at the same time he wrote and recom- 
 mended to Luther more of that gentleness the want of 
 which had displeased Erasmus. 
 
 {g) Luther burns the Pope's Bull, December lo, 1520. 
 
 Perhaps the advice of the Elector to Luther came just 
 too late ! The meeting with Erasmus at the inn of the 
 ' Three Kings ' at Cologne was on December 5. In the 
 meantime Luther had been making up his mind what to 
 do, and on the loth he did it, we may suppose before the 
 posts from Cologne had reached him. 
 
 Excited, and as Melanchthon said, seeming almost 
 inspired, conscious of right and also of power, Luther 
 wished all Europe to see that a German monk could dare 
 to defy the Pope. Had there been a mountain at Wit- 
 tenberg he would have lit his bonfire on the top, and let 
 the world, far and near, see the Pope's Bull blaze in its 
 flames. Butthere wasnoteven a hill in that , , 
 
 . Luther 
 
 flat country. So m solemn procession, at bums the 
 the head of his fellow-doctors and the stu- 
 dents of the university, he marched through the Elster 
 gate, and there, outside the city walls, in presence of the 
 great German river Elbe, he burned the Bull, and as 
 many Roman law books as he could find. His burning 
 the Bull against himself was a personal act of defiance. 
 His burning the Roman law books was a public decla- 
 ration that the German nation ought not to be subject to 
 the jurisdiction of Rome. Amid the cheers of the crowd, 
 Luther returned to his rooms. That a man of hot tem- 
 per, fastening by his daring act the eyes of all Europe
 
 112 The Protestant Revolution. PT. il. 
 
 upon himself, assuming as it were the leadership of a na- 
 tional crusade against the Pope of Rome, should be for 
 the moment carried away by excitement into extrava- 
 gance was only natural. Luther was in fact greatly 
 excited, and on the next day, in his crowded lecture- 
 room, let himself utter wild words, declaring that those 
 who did not join in contending against the Pope could 
 not be saved, and that those who took delight in the 
 Pope's religion must be lost for ever. He then wrote an 
 abusive reply to the Bull, hurling all sorts of bad names 
 against the Pope, and pushing his Augustinian doctrines 
 to so extreme a point as to amount to fatalism. 
 
 Grand as is the figure of Luther on the page of history, 
 as, in December 1520, he dared to make himself the 
 mouth-piece of Germany, demanding reform, threatening 
 revolution if reform could not be had, it must be admitted 
 Erasmus that he was playing with fire. Was not the 
 
 fears revolu- ^rain already laid for revolution ? Will not 
 
 tion. ^ 
 
 such wild words lead to still wilder acts of 
 the ignorant peasantry ? Sober-minded lookers on, like 
 Erasm.us, feared this. He had feared from the first that 
 Luther's want of discretion might bring on a ' universal 
 revolution,' and had therefore urged moderation. Instead 
 of moderation had come still wilder defiance. ' Now,' 
 he wrote, ' I see no end of it but the turning upside down 
 ' of the whole world. . . . When I was at Cologne I 
 ' made every effort that Luther might have the glory of 
 'obedience and the Pope of clemency, and some of the 
 ' sovereigns approved this advice. But lo and behold, 
 'the burning of the Decretals, the " Babylonish captivi- 
 'ty; " those propositions of Luther, so much stronger 
 'than they need be, have made the evil apparently 
 'incurable.'
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 113 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CRISIS. — REFORM OR REVOLUTION. — REFORM 
 REFUSED BY THE RULING POWERS. 
 
 [a] Ulrich von Hiittcn and Fra7t3 von Sickingen. 
 The fears of Erasmus were well founded. There were 
 wilder spirits in Germany than Luther. 
 
 Not far north of Worms, where the first Diet of the 
 Emperor Charles V. was going to meet, was the castle 
 of Ebernburg, where the bold knight Franz vofi Sickitigen 
 had gathered round him the chiefs of these wild spirits. 
 Franz himself was a wild lawless knight, liv- _ ^ ^. 
 
 . , The Robin 
 
 ing upon private war, hiring out himself and Hoods of 
 his soldiers to fight out private quarrels, and, side with 
 like his relative Goctz von Berlichingcn, Luther, 
 popular because of his bravery and rough justice. 
 Goetz and Franz might be said to be in many respects, 
 the Robin Hoods of Germany. 
 
 Such a man as Franz was sure to side with Luther 
 though he had already engaged himself and his soldiers 
 for hire to the Emperor Charles V. One of his guests at 
 the castle was Ulrich von Huttcn, a knight uirich von 
 like himself, but there was this difference ^utten. 
 between them. Hutten's pen was his lance. Placed 
 like Erasmus in his youth in a cloister, he too had torn 
 himself from it and taken to a literary life. Not so 
 learned, but with even keener wit than Erasmus, neglect, 
 poverty, and suffering had embittered more his wild war- 
 like spirit. His pen was ever ready to be dipped in gall, 
 and following the example set by Erasmus in his ' Praise 
 of Folly, 'he tried to mend the world by satire. h!s satire 
 He had been to Rome, and in Latin rhyming "p°" R°me. 
 verses he hold up her vices to scorn, He pointed out 
 1
 
 114 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 in these rhymes how German gold flowed into the coffers 
 of the ' Simon of Rome.' He sneered at the bUndness 
 and weakness of the German nation in letting them- 
 selves be the dupes of Rome. When Luther came upon 
 the scene, Hutten's heart was stirred. He made his re- 
 solve to rush into the fight against Rome The fears and 
 tears of his family could not stop him. He was disin- 
 herited for doing it, but do it he must. Hitherto his 
 rhymes had been in Latin, and thus only read by the 
 learned. Henceforth he would write in German for the 
 Fatherland. 
 
 In Latin hitherto I've written, 
 popular ^ tongue all did not understand : — 
 
 rhymes Js'ow call I on the Fatherland, 
 
 against n,-, ^ ... , 
 
 E^ome. The German nation, in her mother tongue. 
 
 To avenge these things. 
 ' Germany must abandon Rome. Liberty for ever ! 
 The die is cast.' This was the cry of his popular Ger- 
 man rhymes. 
 
 To Luther he held out the hand of devoted friend- 
 ship : — 
 
 Servant of God, despair not ! 
 Could I but give a helping hand, 
 Or in these matters counsel thee. 
 So would I spare nor goods 
 Nor my own blood ! 
 
 And on the eve of the Diet of Worms he issued his 
 ' Complaint and exhortatiofi against the extravagant and 
 7tnchristian powet of the Pope^ in rhyme, in which he 
 exposed the tyranny, wealth, worldliness, and cost to 
 Germany of Rome, and tried to lash up the German peo- 
 ple into rebellion against it. Now was the time to free 
 Germany from the Roman yoke. He ap- 
 freedom from pealed to the Emperor as the natural leader 
 Rome. ^j- ^i^g German nation. It would redound
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 115 
 
 to his honour. He alone should be the captain. 
 All free Germans would serve with gladness the sa- 
 viour of their country. ' Help, worthy king, unfurl the 
 ' standard of the eagle, and we will lift it high. If warn- 
 ' ings will not do, there are steeds and armour, halberts 
 ' and swords, and we will use them ! ' 
 
 There was something pathetic in this cry of the Ger- 
 mans to their Emperor. The very peasants of the 
 ' BiiJidschiih ' we saw would have made him their leader, 
 had he listened to their appeal against their feudal op- 
 pressors, and now the German nation was beseeching 
 him to head their rebellion against Rome ! These were 
 but outbursts of a general yearning for unity among the 
 German people. They felt the necessity of central 
 power as the only cure for the evils under which they 
 suffered, and now when the quarrel of Luther and the 
 Pope had brought ecclesiastical grievances to the top, 
 the question was whether Charles V., in his first Diet, 
 would side with the German nation, or sell the German 
 nation for his own selfish objects to the Pope ! 
 
 Meanwhile appearances were ugly. Luther wrote to 
 Spalatin : ' I expect you will return with the stale news 
 that there is no hope in the court of Charles.' gn^^ji chances 
 Erasmus wrote: 'There is no hope in of reform- 
 Charles; he is surrounded by Sophists and Papists.' 
 But Hutten hoped against hope. Such men are san- 
 guine. If Charles would do his duty to Germany in the 
 Diet of Worms, all might be well. If not, Hutten was 
 ready for revolution. Sickingen had soldiers ; with the 
 pen and the sword they would rise in rebellion. 
 
 {i>) The Diet of IVorms meets 28th fanuary, 1^21. 
 Let us, for a moment, leave these wilder spirits and 
 try to understand what it was that the more sober-
 
 1 1 6 The Protestant Revolution. PT. ll. 
 
 minded of the German people expected from the Diet of 
 Worms. 
 Happily there is among English State papers a copy 
 of 'Agenda,' or as it is headed, ' A memory 
 
 Agenda at . •' 
 
 the Diet of of divers matters to be provided in the pre- 
 
 V/orms. -^. r TIT > 
 
 sent Diet of Worms. 
 
 The following are the chief heads, and in these we 
 cannot fail to recognize what in former chapters we have 
 found to be the real grievances of the German nation. 
 
 (i) To make some ordinance that no man without 
 consent of the Emperor and Electors shall for any per- 
 Tostoppri- sonal cause presume to declare war as in 
 vate war. times past. On this the cities and towns are 
 
 determined to stick fast. 
 
 (2) To settle certain disputes between various parties. 
 To settl d' (There be above thirty bishops at variance 
 P"tes. with their temporal lords for their jurisdic- 
 
 To provide tion.) 
 
 fnThe'Em^^"^ ^3^ "^^^ Emperor to provide a vicar and 
 peror's ab- council in his absence. If the Duke of 
 Saxony will not take the charge, there will 
 be great difficulty in finding one who will please the 
 generality, for enmities are so numerous. 
 
 (4) To take notice of the books and descriptions made 
 by Friar Martin Luther against the Court of Rome. The 
 Martin which Friar Martin, of the Elector of 
 
 Luther. Saxony and other princes is much favoured. 
 
 We have here a list of the chief grievances befoie 
 noticed, (i) The evil of the constant private wars rf 
 the nobles, especially to the commerce of the towns. 
 (2) The constant quarrels between the civil and eccle- 
 siastical powers. (3) The want of a central govern- 
 ment. {4) The Lutheran complaints against Rome. 
 Only the grievances of the poor peasants find no voice I
 
 cii. IV. Tlie Crisis — Reform or Revoiution. 117 
 
 Perhaps it was not likely they should. They had no 
 friends at court. They had tried to make their voice 
 heard sword in hand, and had not their re- ^, , 
 
 JNonope 
 
 bellions been quelled and their standard of for the 
 the Bundschuh trodden in the dust ? Had 
 not even Joss Fritz been lost sight of for years ? It was 
 not their silent grievances, but the more noisy ones 
 which were to be heard at the Diet, 
 
 The Diet was opened by Charles V. on the 28th 
 January, 1521. 
 
 The first business was the appointment of a Council 
 of Regency to manage the affairs of the Empire during 
 the Emperor's projected absence in Spain. Then came 
 the establishment of an imperial chamber, and the 
 granting of an impost or tax to defray the expenses of 
 the government. 
 
 These political matters were proceeding, when one 
 day in February on which a tournament was to be held 
 and the Emperor's banner was hoisted „ . ^^. 
 
 ' Brief fr*om 
 
 ready for the lists, the princes were called Rome about 
 together to hear read a brief just arrived 
 from Rome. This brief exhorted the Emperor to add 
 the force of law to the Pope's Bull against Luther by an 
 imperial edict. The Emperor had now an opportunity 
 of showing that tlie unity of the Church was as dear to 
 him as to the Emperors of old. He wore the sword in 
 vain if he did not' use it against heretics, who were far 
 worse than infidels. So urged the Pope. The Emperor 
 had already had Luther's books burned in the Nether- 
 lands, and he now produced to the princes an edict 
 commanding the rigorous execution of the Bull in 
 Germany. He was evidently ready to yield to the 
 wishes of the Pope, but it was needful to consult the 
 Electors. Some of the Electors were of course not pre-
 
 ii8 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 ,„ ^, pared to accept the proposal of the Empe- 
 
 1 he Electors ^ '^ ' 
 
 hesitate to ror. In Order to persuade them, Aleander, 
 ed?ct against the papal nuncio, delivered at another ses- 
 Luther. gj^j^ ^f ^^ X^'itt a speech nine hours in 
 
 length, in which he inveighed against the heresies of 
 Luther, urged that he should be condemned unheard, 
 and declared that 'unless the heresy were stopped, 
 Germany would be reduced to that frightful state of 
 barbarism and desolation which the superstition of 
 Mahomet had brought upon Asia.' The Electors 
 seemed to be swayed by his eloquence. They cared 
 little for Luther's doctrinal heresies, nay, they were 
 willing to sacrifice the heretic if the grievances of the Ger- 
 man nation against Rome could but be remedied. But 
 these grievances were too real to be passed over so easily. 
 The Diet, after further delay, appointed a committee 
 to draw up a list of these grievances. Meanwhile the 
 speech of Aleander had been reported to Hutten, who 
 was staying, as we said, at the castle of Franz von 
 Sickingen, a few miles from Worms. It 
 
 Hutten ad- o > 
 
 jures the Stirred his wrath to think of Luther's being 
 
 Emperor not , , , i «, .1 
 
 to yield to condemned unheard. At once, on the spur 
 
 Rome. qJ- jj^g moment, he dipped his pen in gall, 
 
 and wrote letters of violent invective against the papal 
 nuncio and the bishops assembled at Worms. One of 
 them was addressed to the Emperor, declaring that the 
 hope of Germany had been that he would free her from 
 the Romish yoke and put an end to the papal tyranny, 
 and contrasting with these high hopes ' so great an Em- 
 peror, the king of so many peoples, cringing willingly 
 to slavery, without waiting even till he is forced.* 
 
 ' What ! ' he exclaimed, ' has Germany so ill deserved of thee that 
 with thee, not fighting for thee, it must go to the ground ; lead us 
 into danger! Lead us into battle and fire I Let all nations unite
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 119 
 
 against us, all peoples rush upon us, so that at least we may prove 
 cur courage in danger ! Don't let us, cringing and unmanly, with- 
 out battle, lie down like women and become slaves ! ' 
 
 Such was the shrill cr>' of scorn which the course 
 things were taking at Worms called forth from Hutten. 
 
 When the list of grievances was brought in at a future 
 sitting of the Diet, the debate was resumed. The com- 
 plaints against Rome were so strongly put that they 
 made a deep impression on the Diet. The Electors re- 
 covered from the effects of the nuncio's speech. The 
 Prince Electors who sided with Luther urged that ' it 
 ' would be iniquitous to condemn a man without hearing 
 ' him, and that the Emperor's dignity and piety were 
 ' engaged that, should Luther retract his errors, those 
 ' other matters should be recognized on which he had 
 ' written so learnedly and Christianly, and that Germany 
 ' should, by the authority of the Emperor, be freed from 
 ' the burdens and tyrannies of Rome.' They urged also 
 the necessity of granting Luther a safe-conduct, and sum- 
 moning him to appear before the Diet to defend himself. 
 
 The Emperor gave way, and on March 6 the sum- 
 mons and safe-conduct were issued, and an , , 
 
 Luther 
 
 imperial herald sent to bring Luther to summoned to 
 
 , , r Worms . 
 
 W orms. 
 
 (c) Liithcr s journey to Worms {1^21). 
 
 The herald arrived at Wittenberg, and on April 2 
 Luther set out for Worms. 
 
 That he went with his mind fully made up not to give 
 way or patch up his quarrel witli the Pope was shown by 
 this. He left in the hands of Lucas Cranach, 
 
 1 • r tTT- 1 • ,- I-uthcr's 
 
 the great pamtcr of W ittenberg, a series of Antithesis 
 wood-cuts prepared by Cranach, with cxpla- and Ami- 
 nations in German at the foot, added by '^^"-'^'-
 
 I20 The Protestant Revolution. vv. ii. 
 
 himself, depicting the Antithesis, or Contrast between 
 Christ and the Pope. It was, in his own words, ' a good 
 book for the laity.' 
 
 He and Hutten, to widen the circle of their readers, 
 and make their appeals to the Fatherland heard by all 
 classes, had scattered their pamphlets in German all 
 over Germany. Luther now called in the aid of these 
 wood-cuts to make his appeal still more popular and 
 telling on the multitude. 
 
 Luther had found himself, to his own surprise, following 
 in the track of the Hussites of Bohemia. He had openly 
 avowed it. Indeed, he seems to have been fond of 
 copying some of their acts, perhaps to mark the identity 
 of his object with theirs. They had commenced with 
 burning the Papal Bull, and so had Luther. It was re- 
 corded in the Hussite chronicles that one of the things 
 which roused the people in Bohemia against the Pope 
 was the painting by tow Englishmen on the walls of an 
 inn at Prague of two pictures, one representing Christ 
 entering Jerusalem meek and lowly, on an ass ; the 
 other the Pope proudly mounted on horseback, glitter- 
 ing in purple and gold. Luther and Cranach had im^ 
 proved upon this example, and produced a series of 
 wood-cuts with a precisely similar intention. 
 
 Christ refusing a crown was contrasted with the Pope 
 in his tiara. Christ in the crown of thorns, being beaten 
 and mocked, was contrasted with the Pope on his throne, 
 in all his magnificence. Christ washing the disciples' 
 feet was contrasted with the Pope holding out his sacred 
 toe to be reverently kissed by his courtiers. Christ heal- 
 ing the sick was contrasted with the Pope watching a 
 tournament. Christ bending under the burden of his 
 Cross was contrasted with the Pope borne in state on 
 men's shoulders. Christ driving the money-changers out
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Refo7-?n or Revolution. 121 
 
 of the temple was contrasted with the Pope selling his 
 dispensations, and with piles of money before him. 
 Christ's humble entry into Jerusalem was contrasted with 
 the Pope and his retinue in all their glory, but the road 
 they are travelling is shown in the background of the 
 picture to lead to hell. Finally, the Ascension of Christ 
 is contrasted with the descent of the Pope, in his triple 
 crown and papal robes, headlong under an escort of de- 
 mons and hobgoblins, into the flames of the bottomless pit. 
 
 That he left behind him this ' good book for the laity,' 
 to be published in his absence, was a mark of the defiant 
 spirit in which he went to Worms. But underneath this 
 spirit of defiance, it must never be forgotten, was a deep 
 feeling that he was fighting in the cause of God. ' My 
 dear brother,' he said to Melanchthon, in parting, ' if I 
 do not come back, if my enemies put me to death, you 
 will go on teaching and standing fast in the truth ; if 
 yote live, my death will matter little.' 
 
 Amidst the tears of his friends, he stepped into the 
 covered wagon and commenced his journey. Others, 
 too, thought he was eoingr out to his death. , ^ 
 
 ' ° . Luther sets 
 
 At one place which he passed there was a off for 
 priest who kept, hanging up in his study, a 
 portrait of Savonarola. He took down the picture from 
 the wall and held it up in silence before Luther. Luther 
 was moved. 'Stand firm,' said the priest, 'in the truth 
 thou hast proclaimed, and God will as firmly stand by 
 thee.' The journey took him twelve days. , 
 
 Till 1 IT-/- 1 '/- "'^ journey. 
 
 He had to pass through Erfurt, the scene of 
 his mental struggles. He spent a night at the old con- 
 vent, and the next day, contrary to the terms of his safe- 
 conduct, fearlessly preached in the little church of the 
 convent to crowds of people. Earnest tender words 
 were his that day, setting forth that true religion is a
 
 122 The Pf-otestant Reiwlution. pt. ii, 
 
 thing of the heart, and not of ceremonies or penances, 
 moving multitudes to tears, and making converts. In 
 the midst of it a portion of the crowded building gave 
 way, and people were terrified by the crash. In his wild 
 imagination he set it down to Satan trying to hinder him. 
 All through his journey he seemed to meet with the 
 Devil at every step. If he was fatigued and ill, it was 
 Satan who brought him low ; but, he wrote from Frank- 
 fort to Spalatin, 'Christ lives, and we will enter Worms 
 in spite of all the gates of Hell and the powers of the 
 air !' 
 
 These things did but prove his sense of the importance 
 of the work in which he was engaged. His wild enthu- 
 siasm grew out of what was true heroism. The noise, 
 the worship of the crowd, the danger and excitement, 
 would have turned the head of any mere enthusiast. 
 When men are excited they must needs do strange 
 things ; and of course on this journey to Worms strange 
 things were done. At one place a parody on the Litany 
 was produced, like the parodies made by modern revo- 
 lutionary agents: — 'Have mercy upon the Germans. 
 ' From the tyranny of the Roman Pontiff deliver the Ger- 
 ' mans. From the insatiable avarice of the Romans 
 ' deliver the Germans. That Martin Luther, that upright 
 ' pillar of the Christian faith, may soon arrive at Worms, 
 'we beseech Thee to hear us. That the zealous German 
 ' Knight, Ulrich Hutten, the defender of Martin Luther, 
 ' may persevere in upholding Luther, we beseech Thee to 
 ' hear us,' and so on. Of course, wherever the procession 
 stopped at night the inns were full ; there were crowds, 
 Popular vulgar merry-making, and music. Luther 
 
 excitement. himself played upon his flute, and doubtless, 
 as his enemies reported, there was no lack of jollity over 
 the beer. All this was in the very nature of things. The
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 123 
 
 point to mark is this — it did not turn the head of 
 Luther, 
 
 When news of the enthusiasm occasioned by Luther's 
 progress to Worms arrived at the city, the papal party 
 became alarmed. Charles V. sent his private confessor 
 with messages of compromise, but Luther refused to lis- 
 ten till he reached Worms. It was well he did, for the 
 safe-conduct was nearly expired, and there was danger 
 of treachery. Luther's friends, too, became alarmed. 
 Even Spalatin was afraid of his life if he entered Worms, 
 and reininded him of the fate of Huss, whose safe-con- 
 duct availed him little. Luther's noble reply was, ' Huss 
 was burned, but not the truth with him.' He afterwards 
 told the Elector of Saxony, when recalling Luther's he- 
 to mind his own marvellous courage, ' The """"^ firmness. 
 ' Devil saw in my heart that even had I known that 
 ' there would be as many devils at Worms as tiles upon 
 'the house-roofs, still I should joyfully have plunged in 
 ' among them ! ' 
 
 As he drew near the city, six knights and a troop of 
 horsemen of the princes' retinues went out to meet him ; 
 and under their escort, the Emperor's herald He enters 
 leading the way, and a great crowd drag- °'^"'^' 
 gling through the streets beside him, in his covered wag- 
 on and monk's gown, Luther entered Worms. 
 
 (d) Luther before the Diet. 
 
 The next day, towards evening, he was brought before 
 the Diet. The Emperor presided. Six Electors were 
 present, and a large number of archbishops, Luther's first 
 bishops, and nobility — about two hundred beforeTh" 
 in all. There was a pile of Luther's books ^'*'- 
 on the table. 
 
 The official then formally put to Luther two questions:
 
 124 The Protestant Revolution. PT. ii. 
 
 ' Do you acknowledge these books to be yours?' ' Do 
 you retract the heretical doctrines they contain ? ' 
 
 Luther replied, ' I think the books are mine ; ' and, 
 He asks for after the titles had been read over, ' Yes 
 
 time to consi- .i i i • • a .1 1 
 
 der his an- the books are mine. As to the second 
 ^^^'■- question, he said it would be rash for him to 
 
 reply before he had had time for reflection. 
 
 The papal party, who had expected to find Luther 
 raging like a lion, began to think he was going to give 
 way. His deportment had been meek and modest. The 
 ^, . young Emperor turned to one of his cour- 
 
 They give . . 
 
 him till the ticrs and said, ' This man will never make 
 ay. ^ heretic of me.' Luther's request for time 
 
 was allowed till the next day, and on condition that he 
 gave his reply viva voce. 
 
 He was taken back to his inn. People did not know 
 what to make of it. Some thought he would retract. 
 But, in the din and bustle around him, Luther wrote a 
 letter to one of his friends. ' I write to you from the 
 ' midst of the tumult. ... I confessed myself the author 
 ' of my books, and said I would reply to-morrow touching 
 'my recantation. With Chris fs help, I shall never re- 
 ' tract one tittle I ' 
 
 That night there was excitement and noise in the 
 Excitement Streets; quarrels between opposing parties in 
 ill Worms. ^^ crowd, and soldiers rushing about. 
 
 The next day Luther prepared himself. He was heard 
 to pray earnestly, and had his Bible open before him. 
 At four o'clock the herald came to bring him before the 
 Diet. The streets were full of people, and spectators 
 looked down from the tops of the houses as the herald 
 led him through passages and private ways to escape 
 the crowd. It was dark before they reached the hall, 
 and torches were lit. As Luther walked up the hall
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 1 25 
 
 several noblemen met him with encouraging words, 
 amongst whom was the old General Frundsberg, of 
 whom we shall hear more hereafter. 
 
 The hall was crowded, and some time was lost before 
 the Princes and Electors were settled in their places. 
 
 The official at length — two hours after 
 
 , , ,. Luther's 
 
 time — opened the prOCeedmgS. second ap- 
 
 pearance 
 ' Martin Luther, yesterday you acknowledged the t^.'oi'e the 
 books pubhshed in your name. Do you retract 
 those books or not? . , . Will you defend all your writings or dis- 
 avow some of them ? ' 
 
 Luther replied, in a speech which seemed to his ene- 
 mies long and rambling ; but according to his own and 
 Spalatin's version of it, the pith of what he said was 
 this : — 
 
 ' Most serene Emperor! Illustrious Princes, &c., — At the time 
 
 fixed for me yesterday evening I am here, as in duty bound, and I 
 
 pray God that your Imperial Majesty will be pleased 
 
 r . ,1 r Luther's 
 
 to listen, as I hope graciously, to these matters of speech. 
 
 justice and truth. And should I from inexperience 
 
 omit to give to any one his proper titles, or offend against the 
 
 etiquette of courts, I trust you will pardon me, as one not used to 
 
 them. 
 
 ' I beseech you to consider that my books are not all of the same 
 kind. 
 
 ' (i) There are some in which I have so treated of faith and 
 morals that even my opponents admit that they are worthy to be 
 read by Christian people. If I were to retract these, what should I 
 do but — I alone, among all men — condemn what friends and foes 
 alike hold to be truth ! 
 
 ' (2) Others of my books are against the papacy and popish 
 proceedings — against those whose doctrine and example have wasted 
 and ruined Christendom, body and soul. This no one can gainsay, 
 for the experience of all men, and the complaints of all, bear 
 witness that through the laws of the Pope and the teaching of men 
 the consciences of the faithful have been vexed and wronged, and
 
 126 The Protestant Revolution. PT. ll. 
 
 the goods and possessions of this great German nation by faithless 
 tyranny devoured and drained — yes, and will without end be 
 devoured again ! . . . . Now if 1 were to retract these, I should 
 do nothing but strengthen this tyranny. To its vast unchristian 
 influence I should not only open the windows but the door also, 
 so that it would rage and spoil more widely and freely than it has 
 ever yet dared to do. Under cover of this my recantation, the 
 yoke of its shameless wickedness would become utterly unbearable 
 to the poor miserable people, and it would be thereby established 
 and confirmed all the more if men could say that this had come 
 about by the power and direction of your Imperial Majesty, and of 
 the whole Roman Empire. Good heavens ! what a great cloak of 
 wickedness and tyranny should I be ! 
 
 ' (3) The third kind are those books which I have written against 
 some private persons, as, for instance, against those who have 
 undertaken to defend the Roman tyranny, and to oppose what I 
 thought to be the service of God, against whom I know I have been 
 more vehement than is consistent with the character and position of 
 a Christian. For I do not set myself up as holy. I do not, however, 
 dispute for my own life, but the doctrine of Christ. I cannot 
 retract even these books, but I am ready to listen to anyone who, 
 can show me wherein in these books I have erred.' 
 
 Here Luther paused. He had spoken in German 
 with, as he thought, modesty, but with great fervour and 
 determination. The perspiration stood on his brow, he 
 was exhausted with the effort of speaking : but when 
 the Emperor, who hardly understood German, ordered 
 him to repeat what he had said in Latin, after whisper- 
 ing to a privy counsellor of the Elector of 
 
 Repeats his ° ^ -^ 
 
 speech in Saxony, who stood by him, he obeyed, and 
 
 repeated his words in the language which 
 not only Charles but the papal nuncio could understand. 
 And now, as they understood more fully what he said, 
 the anger of the papal party was naturally more kindled. 
 When he had done, the orator of the Court, betraying 
 his hostility by his manner, declared that Luther's an-
 
 CH. IV. The Ci'isis — Reform or Rcvoliitioti. 127 
 
 swer was not a fair one. They were not there to dispute 
 about things that had long ago been settled by Councils. 
 He demanded a plain, ungarnished answer. Would he 
 recant or not? 
 Luther replied : — 
 
 ' Well, then, if your Imperial Majesty requires a plain answer, 
 I will give one without horns or teeth ! It is this ; that I must be 
 convinced either by the testimony of the Scriptures 
 or clear arguments. For I believe things contrary recant 
 to the Pope and Councils, because it is as clear as 
 day that they have often erred and said things inconsistent with 
 themselves. I am bound by the Scriptures which I have quoted ; 
 my conscience is submissive to the word of God : therefore I may 
 not, and will not, recant, because to act against conscience is unholy 
 and unsafe. So help me God! Amen.' 
 
 One other attempt was made to get him to yield, but 
 in vain, and night coming on, the Diet was adjourned 
 to the following morning, to hear the decision of the 
 Emperor. The princes retired through the dark streets 
 to their several inns; Luther to his. Frederic of Saxony 
 sent for Spalatin and expressed his approval of Luther's 
 conduct, except that perhaps he had spoken too boldly. 
 
 Next morning, the 19th April, the Emperor sent to the 
 princes a message written by his own hand, in French, 
 declaring his intention to proceed against „„ 
 
 ^ . The Emperor 
 
 Luther as an avowed heretic, and calling decides against 
 
 .1 • . 1 .1 A . Luther. 
 
 upon the pnnces to do the same. An at- 
 tempt was then made by the papal party to induce the 
 Emperor to rescind the safe-conduct of Luther. The 
 precedent of Huss was cited. 'Why should not Luther, 
 with Huss, be burned, and the Rhine receive the ashes 
 of the one as it had those of the other? This proposal 
 met with strong opposition from the princes, and was 
 negatived.
 
 128 The Protestant Rfvolution. pt. ii. 
 
 But while these discussions Avere going on in the Diet, 
 murmurs were heard out of doors. The proposal to 
 withdraw the safe-conduct roused the righteous indigna- 
 ^, , tion of men like Hutten to the point almost 
 
 Threats of 
 
 revolution. of frenzy. A placard was found posted on 
 the walls of the Town Hall, stating that 400 
 knights and 8,000 foot were ready to defend Luther 
 against the Romanists. It had no signature, but under- 
 neath were written the ominous words, ' Bundschuh, 
 Bundschuh, Bundschuh.' Rumours came of murmurs 
 and movements of the people in distant parts of Ger- 
 many. Franz von Sickingen, a few miles off the city, 
 was said to be prepared to take to the sword, and the 
 rumours of this inspired terror in the minds of the papal 
 party, as it gave some colour of likelihood to the threats 
 of Hutten and the placard. 
 
 Under the influence of the fears thus excited, the 
 Electors prevailed upon the Emperor to srive 
 
 The Electors ^ ^ ^ , ' * 
 
 urge delay. a few days more for a further attempt to 
 
 shake Luther's firmness. 
 All was done that could be done to shake it, but with- 
 out avail. Luther's mind was made up. Let the Pope 
 and the Emperor do their worst, he would stand by his 
 conscience and the Scriptures. At last, on the 26th of 
 
 April, he received orders from the Emperor 
 
 Luther leaves '^ , ^ ,, . , ,^ 
 
 Worms. to depart on the following day. Twenty-one 
 
 days were given -him for his return to Wit- 
 tenberg, and on the morrow, escorted as before by the 
 imperial herald, Luther left the crowded streets of Worms 
 and comnienced his journey homewards. 
 
 He left Worms the hero of the German 
 
 had done at nation. He single-handed had fought the 
 
 Gerrany,' battle of Germany against the Pope. He 
 
 had hazarded his life for the sake of the
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 1 29 
 
 Fatherland. It was this which made Luther's name a 
 household word with the Germans for ages to come. 
 There is no name in the roll of German historic heroes 
 so German, national, and typical as Luther's. 
 
 But Luther fought a battle at Worms not only for 
 Germany but Christendom — not only against the Pope, 
 but against all powers, religious or secular, 
 
 *= ^ . and for 
 
 who seek to lay chams upon the human Christen- 
 mind and to enthrall the free belief of the °™" 
 people. Against the Emperor as well as the Pope, 
 against all powers that be, he asserted the right of free- 
 dom of conscience. 
 
 (<r) Edict against Luther. 
 
 No sooner had Luther left Worms than the papal 
 nuncio set himself to work to perfect his triumph. Lu- 
 ther had not recanted, therefore the Emperor must issue 
 an edict against him. 
 
 The threatenings of Hutten had at first made the 
 papal party nervous. They thought that he and Sick- 
 ingen had really ready a force of soldiers to Fears of the 
 make good their threats. Everywhere the p^'P^' p^"^- 
 feeling of the German nation in favour of Luther and 
 against the Pope was apparent, and nowhere more so than 
 at Worms. They felt themselves on dangerous ground. 
 
 Luther, a few days before leaving the city, wrote an 
 address to the German princes, containing an account of 
 the proceedings at the Diet. This was soon scattered 
 over Germany by the printers, and, just as the minds of 
 the Germans were thus excited in favour of Luther, the 
 rumour spread from city to city, that in spite of his safe- 
 conduct, Luther was captured and had been „ , 
 
 " Rumours ot 
 
 cruelly treated. Popular indignation was Luther's 
 
 ^11 -IT- capture, 
 
 thus roused ; murmurs rose against the Lm- 
 
 K
 
 130 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 peror among the princes as well as the common people. 
 Again the papal party feared nothing less than a' general 
 riot against the emperor and his ecclesiastical advisers, 
 headed by Hutten and his friends. 
 
 But at length news came that Luther was safe in 
 friendly hands, having been secretly carried off to the 
 castle of the Wartburg, in Thuringia, and kept there in 
 safety by his own friends. As the days went by, the 
 papal party gathering courage, began to laugh at Hutten's 
 threats as bluster, and strained every nerve to hasten on 
 the issue of the imperial edict against Luther. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony saw the turn things were tak- 
 ing. He saw that Charles was won over by the Pope. 
 The Elector He wrote to his brother that it was not only 
 leaves""^ ' Annas and Caiaphas, but Pilate and Herod 
 
 Worms. also,' that had combined against Luther, 
 
 and not caring to remain where he could do no good, he 
 left Worms. 
 
 In fact Aleander, the papal nuncio, had triumphed. 
 On May 8 a treaty was signed between Charles V. and 
 the Pope, in which they mutually promised 
 tween to have the same friends and the same 
 
 andthe enemies, the Pope agreeing to side with the 
 
 ^°P^- Emperor, and to exert all his powers to 
 
 drive the French out of Milan and Genoa, and the Em- 
 peror, as the price of the Pope's alliance, promising to 
 employ all his powers against Luther and his party. 
 , Aleander had triumphed, and accordingly prepared an 
 edict against Luther. It required some cleverness to get 
 The edict the Sanction of the Electors. The edict was 
 
 ag."inst Lu- produced and read unexpectedly in the Em- 
 '^^'■- ' peror's own apartments to such of the Elec- 
 
 tors as remained in Worms, and received their hasty 
 approval without discussion. The next Sunday, as
 
 CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 131 
 
 Charles V. was in church, Aleander brought the official 
 copies, and then and there obtained the imperial signa- 
 ture. He took care to date the edict on May 8, 1521, i. 
 e., on the day when the treaty with the Pope was signed, 
 though it was not really signed till some days after, and 
 in the meantime the Elector of Saxony had left. 
 
 The secretary of Charles V., Valdez, a friend of Eras- 
 mus, writing from Worms on May 13, 1521, to a Spanish 
 correspondent, concludes his letter with these remarka- 
 ble words : 
 
 ' Here you have, as some imagine, the end of this tragedy, but I 
 am persuaded it is not the end but the beginning of it. For I 
 perceive the minds of the Germans are greatly exas- 
 perated against the Romish See, and they do not Valdez the 
 seem to attach much importance to the Emperor's Emperor's 
 edicts ; for since their publication, Luther's books 
 are sold with impunity at every step and comer of the streets and 
 market-places. From this you vi^ill easily guess what will happen 
 when the Emperor leaves. 
 
 ' This evil might have been cured with the greatest advantage to 
 the Christian Republic, had not the Pontiff refused a general 
 council, had he preferred the public weal to his own private inter- 
 ests. But while he insists that Luther shall be condemned and 
 burned, I see the whole Christian Republic hurried to destruction 
 unless God himself help us. Farewell.' 
 
 The secretary of Charles V. naturally laid all the 
 blame on the Pope. He little knew how much his mas- 
 ter also was to blame. The Elector of Saxony was not 
 far wrong when he hinted that if the Pope and his nun- 
 cios were acting the part of Annas and Caiaphas, 
 Charles V. was acting the part of Pilate and Herod. 
 
 Let us try to unravel the entangled skein of political 
 motives which influenced his conduct and his treaty 
 with the Pope.
 
 132 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 [f] Political reasons for the decision at Worms. 
 
 We have seen how the great continental struggle had 
 long been between France and Spain, and how Italy- 
 was the battle-field ; how both claimed Naples and 
 Milan ; how France had been the first to invade Italy ; 
 how France and Spain at one time agreed 
 
 Rivalshipbe- , ^r 1 1 , 1 x- 
 
 tween Spain to share Naples between them ; how France 
 got Milan, and then, after the two had quar- 
 relled over the prey, Spain got Naples ; how then they 
 had joined again with the Pope and Germany in the 
 league of Cambray against Venice ; and how, lastly, the 
 robbers quarrelling again over the spoil, the Pope united 
 Spain, Germany, and England with himself in a holy 
 league to drive France out of Italy, and so France again 
 lost Milan. Then came the succession of young Francis 
 I. to the throne of France, his boast thit he would make 
 France the master of Europe, as she was wont to be, his 
 brilliant campaign of 151 5 in which he gained the battle 
 of Marignano against the Swiss, and soon after recovered 
 Milan. Then came the struggle for the Empire, and 
 the beginning of the ascendancy of Spain in Europe by 
 Charles V.'s accession to the German throne. 
 
 In the political combinations which followed, it was 
 the fate of Francis to be left out in the cold. Leo X. 
 , . , was anxious to league himself in close alli- 
 
 Intrigues of . 
 
 princes. ance with Charles V., and by his aid to 
 
 France the drive the French out of Italy. Henry VIII. 
 common ^^, jg^ exceedingly anxious to form a 
 
 enemy or the o j 
 
 Pope Spain closc alliance with Charles V. His mar- 
 
 and England. , i • r a 
 
 riage with Charles aunt, Cathenne of Arra- 
 gon, was already a link between England and Spain. 
 Henry wanted to bring about another by a contract of 
 marriage between Charles V. and the young Princess
 
 CH. IV. Tlie Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 133 
 
 (afterwards queen) Mary, although she was already en- 
 gaged to the Dauphin of France. Charles V., in his 
 turn was equally anxious to form such alliances as would 
 strengthen his position against France. He was jealous 
 of the conquests of Francis I. in Italy, and as Emperor 
 of Germany considered himself entitled to Milan, which 
 Francis had conquered. An alliance, therefore, with 
 the Pope and England against France was most to his 
 purpose, but it did not suit his purpose that Henry VIII. 
 should know it. 
 
 All the princes were playing a double game and trying 
 to outwit one another. Henry coquetted with Francis in 
 order to make Charles fall in with his wishes out of jea- 
 lousy. Charles was coquetting both with France and 
 England, proposing marriage with a French princess 
 while he was negotiating with Henry respecting the Prin- 
 cess Mary, and worst of all, while he really intended to 
 marry the Infanta of Portugal. He cared far more for 
 Spain than he did for Germany, and by this match he 
 hoped to unite some day Portugal and Spain. Henry 
 VIII. devised an interview with Francis. Charles was 
 jealous and came over to England. After this meeting 
 with Charles, Henry embarked for France, and met Fran- 
 cis on what, from the grandeur of the preparations, was 
 called the ' Field of the Cloth of Gold.' Immediately 
 afterwards he again met Charles at Gravelines, and did 
 his best to secure his object with Charles while he kept 
 f>ancis in the dark. But Charles chose a little longer to 
 play fast and loose. 
 
 In the meantime the Pope also was playing a double 
 game. Whether to ally himself with Francis, who was 
 preparing his army for another descent upon Italy, or 
 with Charles V. and Henry VIII. against Francis, he 
 kept an open question, though his preference was for the
 
 134 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ll. 
 
 latter plan, if only he could bring Charles V. to his 
 terms ; the chief of them being that Charles should help 
 him to put down the heretic Luther. 
 
 The course which things took at the Diet of Worms 
 was ruled by these political intrigues. 
 
 The papal party triumphed. The Emperor, as we 
 have seen, concluded an alliance on May 8 with the Pope 
 against France and against Luther. 
 
 The consequence was that Europe was to be given 
 over once more to the ambitions and wars of its rival 
 „ , princes. All chances of reform, for the pre- 
 
 Reform re- ^ 
 
 fused by Sent, were gone. The Diet of \\ orms came 
 
 powers"roin to an end without having accomplished the 
 motiv^ef work which Germany expected from it. 
 
 Worst of all, the Emperor, instead of siding 
 with Germany against the Pope, had chosen for his pri- 
 vate purposes to side with the Pope against Germany. 
 
 It is true a council of regency had been established, 
 with the Elector of Saxony at its head, to manage the 
 affairs of the Empire while the Emperor was busied with 
 quelling a rebellion in Spain, and with his wars in Italy. 
 But no decisive steps had been taken to stop those private 
 wars which were the curse of Germany, and of wh'ich the 
 cities so bitterly complained. No decisive steps had been 
 taken to remedy the ecclesiastical grievances of which 
 the princes complained. The grievances of the much 
 enduring peasantry had not even been talked of. And 
 as the worst sign of the times, Luther had been con- 
 demned by both Pope and Emperor. 
 
 The fears of Erasmus were fulfilled, and his bitter 
 words justified by the result. 'Ecclesiastical hypocrites 
 reign in the courts of princes . . . The Pope and Prin- 
 ces treat the people as cattle in the market.' 
 
 The reform, both of the Oxford and of the Wittenberg
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 135 
 
 Reformers, had been refused by the ruUng powers. 
 There was nothing left but revolution. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 {a) The Prophets of Revolution {1522). 
 
 The edict of the Emperor issued at the Diet of Worms 
 was published all over Germany. But the papal party 
 were astonished to find how very little peo- ^ , . , 
 
 Popular teel- 
 
 ple thought of it. The Germans thought a ing against the 
 great deal more of the bold conduct of Lu- 
 ther. So that the end of it was that the edict was treated 
 with very much the same neglect as the Pope's Bull. 
 Luther's books were burned in some places under the 
 eye of the Emperor, Everywhere else they were read all 
 the more. 
 
 And another thing happened which the papal party 
 had not foreseen. They had for the moment silenced 
 Luther. He was safe in the castle of the Luther in the 
 Wartburg, and silent, too, albeit he was Wanburg. 
 hard at work at what would do more to spread the spirit 
 of reform than anything else, viz. translating the Bible 
 into the mother tongue of the Fatherland. 
 
 Meanwhile the absence of Luther from his wonted 
 place at Wittenberg did not take away the firebrand as 
 they thought it would, but put it in the hands , , . ^ 
 
 . ' ° - -'- J. - In his absence 
 
 of the mob. In Luther's absence wilder wilder spirits 
 spirits came to the top. Monks left the con- 
 vents and went to trades. Under the leadership of 
 Carlstadt, the form of public worship was changed. Ex- 
 cited and half-crazy men, carried away by their zeal, set
 
 136 The Protestant Revolution, pt. 11, 
 
 themselves up as prophets and preached strange doc- 
 trines. 
 
 At Zwickau, under the range of the Erzgebirge, south 
 of Wittenberg, near Bohemia, hved a weaver of the 
 name of Claus Starch. He and some of his comrades 
 fancied they were inspired. They mistook their own ex- 
 cited imaginations for messages from 
 of Zwickau^'^ heaven. They wanted no priests, for they 
 were themselves prophets, no Bible, for they 
 were themselves inspired, and they went about preach- 
 ing violent changes, and exciting the crowds who lis- 
 tened to them to violent deeds. 
 
 Driven away from Zwickau by the authorities, some of 
 them came to Wittenberg, where the people were already 
 making great changes under the leadership of Carlstadt. 
 Carlstadt was carried away by their zeal, and so were the 
 people. Riots were raised. People went about smash- 
 ing the images in the churches, and even Melanchthon, 
 in Luther's absence, was half inclined to believe in the 
 prophets, though they preached the uselessness of learn- 
 ing and universities. 
 
 These things came to the ear of Luther in his retreat 
 at the Wartburg. He at once saw how all this delusion 
 T , and madness would injure the cause of the 
 
 Luther comes ■' 
 
 back to Wit- Reformation. At the risk of his Hfe he left 
 his place of concealment. He suddenly ap- 
 peared at Wittenberg in his old pulpit. He entreated 
 his old flock to calm their excitement ; and not without 
 avail. After ten months' absence, the familiar sound of 
 his voice soothed their passions. They recognized him 
 once more as their leader. 
 
 The prophets came to visit him — and this is a proof 
 of their sincerity — expecting him at once to admit their 
 claims. Luther did not doubt that they were inspired,
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 137 
 
 but warned them lest their inspiration should ^^^ confronts 
 come from Spirits of Evil. One of them, the prophets. 
 with the voice and tones of an enthusiast, stamping 
 his feet, and striking his hands on the table, gave vent 
 to his horror at the suggestion ; and then, gathering 
 up his dignity, in a tone which almost shook the com- 
 mon sense of Luther, said solemnly, ' That thou mayst 
 know, O Luther, that I am inspired by the Spirit of God, 
 I will tell thee what is passing in thy mind.' And then as 
 Luther, really for the moment half carried away by his 
 impressive manner, was beginning to waver, ' It is' (he 
 added), 'That thou art ready to think that my doctrine 
 is true.' To which Luther, suddenly re- His common 
 covering himself replied, ' The Lord rebuke ^'^"^^ prevails. 
 thee, Satan ! The God whom I worship will soon put a 
 stop to your spirits.' And with these parting words he 
 dismissed the prophets of Zwickau. 
 
 Order was restored at Wittenberg. The Scriptures 
 were again acknowledged as the rule of faith, and be- 
 fore the end of the year the New Testa- ^, 
 
 ■' The prophets 
 
 ment was published in the German tongue, driven from 
 The Lutheran Reformation was severed for ' ''" "^' 
 ever from the wilder reforms of Carlstadt and the 
 prophets of Zwickau ; and the latter were soon driven 
 from Wittenberg, to spread their doctrines in other 
 places where there was no Luther to withstand them. 
 
 One of the disciples of Storch at Zwickau was Munzer, 
 but instead of going to Wittenberg, he went 
 first into Bohemia, and then all over that becomes the 
 part of Germany where Joss Fritz had been. of°{Je 
 He became very soon the prophet of the P<=^s=^"tO'- 
 peasantry. 
 
 We must look even upon Miinzer as honest and 
 sincere, though wild. He thought himself inspired, and
 
 138 The Protcsfa77f Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 preached like a prophet. Along with many reforms 
 which Luther also urged, he claimed for the people the 
 right of having divine worship performed in their own 
 language instead of in the Latin of the priests. He 
 preached a crusade against all who opposed the gospel, 
 and urged a resort to the sword if preaching would not 
 do. Driven from city to city, he went more and more 
 among the peasants; and who shall blame him if he 
 took up their grievances ? Was it not natural ? His 
 own father, it is said, had fallen a victim to a quarrel 
 with his feudal lord. He began to think himself the 
 chosen messenger of heaven to avenge their wrongs ; 
 and as he preached from place to place amongst the 
 peasantry, and others like him followed in his track, it 
 was not strange if it stirred up again in the minds of the 
 disciples of Joss Fritz recollections of the days of the 
 Btindschuh. 
 
 {b) The end of Sickingeti and Hutteti , (1523). 
 The council of regency appointed at the Diet of 
 Worms to represent the Empire during the Emperor's 
 absence in Spain (whither he had gone to quell a rebel- 
 lion of his subjects) was made up of princes who had 
 more or less sympathy with Luther. 
 
 Frederic of Saxony was at the head of it. It was the 
 
 nearest approach to a central government which had 
 
 been formed. It was thoroughly German 
 
 The Council ... . . , , , 
 
 of Regency and national m spirit, and aimed at tho- 
 Electorcf roughly national objects. It aimed not at 
 
 Saxony carrvine out the edict against Luther, but at 
 
 strives to -' o ° 
 
 avert the obtaining from future diets those reforms 
 
 which had been refused at Worms. It 
 aimed at putting down private wars and the establish- 
 ment of public peace.
 
 cii. V. Revolution. 139 
 
 But it had no power at its back to carry out its inten- 
 tions. Its efforts to obtain something hke union among 
 the powers of Germany in the work of reform were 
 fruitless ; and so were its efforts to put down private 
 wars. 
 
 Knights hke Franz von Sickingen saw in it an attempt 
 of the princes to put down the influence of their order. 
 Its attempt to obtain the means to pay for national ob- 
 jects by a system of customs — duties on luxuries im- 
 ported into Germany from abroad — was , 
 
 "■ but meets 
 
 taken by the merchants of the towns to be with oppo- 
 an invasion of their rights. So it was un- 
 popular and powerless, though its intentions were 
 good. 
 
 Its powerlessness to preserve the public peace was 
 soon shown in a great private war which was waged by 
 Franz von Sickingen in i ^22-^ against the J"""^"^ '^°" 
 
 *= -^ . , Sickingen 
 
 Archbishop of Treves. The knight besieged takes to the 
 Treves with his army of 5,000 foot-soldiers ' 
 
 and 1,500 knights, and declared that he came to bring 
 the people freedom from the Pope and priests, and to 
 punish the archbishop for his sins against God and the 
 Emperor. 
 
 What could be a stronger example to the peasantry 
 to take to the sword than such an act of the popular 
 knight ! 
 
 He counted upon the people of the town aiding him 
 from within the walls, but was disappointed. The city 
 held out till some neighbouring princes came to its rescue 
 with an army of 30,000 men. On their approach, Franz 
 retired to his castle of Landshut, there not being time to 
 reach that of Ebernburg. There he was himself be- 
 sieged. The cannon of the princes were powerful enough 
 to batter down the solid walls, which before the use of
 
 J40 Tiie Protestant Revolution. PT. ii. 
 
 , artillery would have been impregnable. He 
 
 but IS defeated , , , "^ , , .,, , ,., 
 
 and killed. held out for months, till at last a solid tower 
 fell into a heap of ruins, and a breach was 
 made in the walls. Franz himself was wounded and 
 dying when his conquerors entered the castle. They 
 upbraided him for disturbing the peace of the Empire. 
 ' I am going,' he said, as he lay upon the floor, dying, 
 , , , ' to render an account to a greater than the 
 
 Huttens death. , • j tt- 
 
 Emperor;' and soon after he expired. His 
 friend Hutten died in the same year, while trying to urge 
 other knights to aid Sickingen, and this was the end of 
 the knights of Ebernburg Castle. 
 
 They had threatened to reform the Empire by the 
 sword. The peasantry had looked to them as their best 
 knightly friends. They had done much by their pens 
 and swords, their voice and example, to stir up warlike 
 „, feeling among the peasantry, but their end 
 
 The peasantry ° or j • 
 
 got nothing came before the peasants had got any help 
 knights. from them. In the meantime it was also 
 
 clear that the council of regency was unable 
 to preserve the public peace, as well as to bring about 
 the needed reform. 
 
 If help was to come neither from the Emperor and the 
 council of regency, nor from the knights, where were the 
 peasantry to turn next? Was not the time ripe for 
 rebellion ? 
 
 [c] The Peasa?its' J Far (1525). 
 We must turn again to the map on which are marked 
 the districts where lay the smouldering embers of the 
 Btmdschuh, waiting only for the match to light them up 
 again. On the opposite map are marked the districts in 
 which, one after another, the explosions came. The 
 connexion between the two maps will be seen at a
 
 CH. V. Revolutio7i. 141 
 
 glance. Joss Fritz had kept the embers ahve by his se- 
 cret work in Swabia. The expulsion of Carlstadt from 
 Wittenberg had sent him into the towns on the Rhine 
 and in Franconia to stir up discontent and a spirit of re- 
 bellion, not only against Rome, the priests and monks, 
 but also against Luther, through whose in- ^ , , 
 
 1,1, , , ■ , Carlstadt and 
 
 riuence he had been expelled. Miinzer had Miinzerstirup 
 been driven from city to city, and thence 
 into Southern Germany, to carry on the 
 work of stirring up rebeUion. 
 
 The train was indeed laid, and in November, 1524, 
 the match was put to it in the very places where it 
 was laid the deepest. The match was a little thing. 
 The much-enduring peasantry of Swabia, and most of 
 all, those about the Boden See (Lake Constance) needed 
 but thelast straw to break the back of their endurance. 
 It was a holiday, and the peasants on the estates of the 
 Count von Liipfen were resting at home or taking the 
 day for work on their own land. Orders came from the 
 Count that they should turn out and gather 
 snail-shells for the folk at the Castle. It was ofthe peasant- 
 the very littleness of the- thing which made "^ '" S^^^'^- 
 it so unbearable. They rose up in arms, and so did 
 their neighbours in the valleys round. Soon all Swabia 
 was in insurrection. 
 
 The council of regency sent ambassadors to mediate 
 between the peasants and their lords of the Swabian 
 League. But it was of no use. They had not power to 
 keep the public peace. Neither party listened to them. 
 The peasants put forth twelve articles in which they 
 stated their demands. Here, in brief, is a list of 
 them. A mere glance will show that they were the old 
 demands of the days of the BuiidschuJi, with a few 
 additions.
 
 142 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 vi> The right to choose their own pastors. 
 
 '5i They would pay tithe of corn, out of which the pastors 
 
 should be paid, the rest going to the use of the 
 Their twelve parish. — But small tithes, i.e., of the pro- 
 articles, duce of animals, every tenth calf, or pig, or 
 
 &%%, and so on, they would not pay. 
 
 3. They would be free, and no longer serfs and bondmen. 
 
 4. Wild game and fish to be free to all. 
 
 5. Woods and forests to belong to all for fuel. 
 
 6. No services of labour to be more than were required 
 
 of their forefathers. 
 
 7. If more service required, wages must be paid for it. 
 
 8. Rent, when above the value of the land, to be prop- 
 
 erly valued and lowered. 
 9. Punishments for crimes to be fixed. 
 
 10. Common land to be again given up to common use. 
 
 11. Death gifts (/. c, the right of the lord to take the best 
 
 chattel of the deceased tenant) to be done away 
 with. 
 
 12. Any of these articles proved to be contrary to the 
 
 Scriptures or God's justice, to be null and void. 
 From this list of most substantial grievances we may 
 well gather what the peasants were aiming at. We see 
 Not likely to ^ow they aimed, like simple men, at the re- 
 be granted by moval of the practical grievances and hard- 
 
 eitner rope, "^ '^ 
 
 nobles, or ships of their life. But their demands were 
 
 not at all likely to be granted. For instance, 
 if they had the choice of pastors they would choose men 
 like Miinzer, and Carlstadt, and Storch, and perhaps 
 even wilder spirits than these, so that neither the Pope 
 nor Luther would be likely to concede that demand. 
 Nor, of course, would the proud feudal lords like to lose 
 their game and the forced labour of their serfs, and to 
 meet their peasants on equal terms as free men, any more
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 143 
 
 than the slave-holders of America liked to have slavery- 
 abolished. We may guess, too, how the ecclesiastics 
 would tremble to hear of their small tithes being taken 
 away, and other pastors being chosen instead of 
 themselves. 
 
 Had the feudal lords granted proper and fair reforms 
 long ago, they would never have heard of these twelve 
 articles. But they had refused reform, and they now had 
 to meet revolution. And they knew of but one way of 
 meeting it, namely, by the sword. 
 
 The lords of the Swabian League sent their army of 
 foot and horsemen under their captain, swabian 
 George Truchsess. The poor peasants could peasants 
 not hold out against trained soldiers and cav- April 1525. 
 airy. Two battles on the Danube, in which thousands 
 of peasants were slain, or drowned in the river, and a 
 third equally bloody one in Algau, near the Boden See, 
 crushed this rebellion in Swabia, as former rebellions 
 had so often been crushed before. This was early in 
 April 1525. 
 
 But in the meantime the revolution had spread further 
 north. In the valley of the Neckar a body of 6,000 
 peasants had come together, enraged by the news of the 
 slaughter of thei^ fello\y peasants in the south of Swabia. 
 The young Count von Helfenstein, a friend of the Arch- 
 duke Ferdinand, who had married a natural daughter of 
 the late Emperor Maximilian, lived at the castle in the 
 town of Weinsberg, in this district. He seems to have so 
 far lost his head in these days of terror as to have cut the 
 throats of some peasants who met him on 
 the road. This enraged them the more. The on the 
 town and castle were stormed and taken by April"' 
 the peasants, under their leaders, Florian "525- 
 Geyer, Wendel Hipler, and Little Jack Rohrbach. The
 
 144 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 Count offered a large sum of money for a ransom, but 
 the stern reply of the peasants was, ' he must die though 
 he were made of gold.' 
 
 While the peasants were plundering the castle, the 
 monastery, and the houses of the priests, the leaders 
 held a council. Hipler advised moderation. He hoped 
 that the smaller lords would, after all, side with the pea- 
 sants. But Little Jack was a man of another kind. In 
 the dead of night he held a council of his own, and 
 doomed every knight and noble in Weinsberg to imme- 
 diate death. As day was breaking the Count and other 
 noble prisoners were led forth, surrounded by a circle 
 of pikes with their steel points inward. The tears and 
 pleadings of the Countess, with her babe in her arms, 
 availed nothing. The peasants stood in two opposite 
 ranks, with a passage between the points of their pikes. 
 A piper of the Count mockingly led the way, inviting 
 his late master to follow on a dance of death. The 
 Count and nobles were compelled to follow. The ranks 
 closed upon them, and they were soon pierced to death. 
 A wild peasant woman stuck her knife into the Count's 
 body, and smeared herself with blood. And so, un- 
 ^, , known to the other leaders and to the mas- 
 
 The peasants • i i » i 
 
 revenge for scs of the peasantry, ' Little Jack, on that 
 slaughter. terrible morning, had revenged the thou- 
 
 sands of his comrades slain by the Swabian 
 lords, blood for blood. 
 
 A yell of horror was raised through Germany at the 
 news of the peasants' revenge. No yell had risen when 
 the Count cut peasants' throats, or the Swabian lords 
 slew thousands of peasant rebels. Europe had not yet 
 learned to mete out the same measure of justice to noble 
 and common blood. But the eye of history cannot so be 
 blinded. It records that about a month after, Truch-
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 145 
 
 sess, the captain of the Swabian League, „, ,. . 
 
 ^ r o ■pjjg retaliation 
 
 came northwards, and fell upon this band of the nobles, 
 of peasants with his more disciplined sol- ^^ ^^^^' 
 diers and horsemen. One night, after a bloody battle, 
 * in which several thousand peasants were slain, the piper 
 of Weinsberg was recognized amongst the prisoners — he 
 who had piped to the dance of death at the murder of the 
 Count von Helfenstein. Truchsess and the new Count 
 von Helfenstein, who was with him, had him fastened 
 with an iron chain about two feet long to an apple tree. 
 With their own hands they and other nobles helped to 
 build up a circular pile of wood round their victim, and 
 then they set fire to the pile. It was night ; and amid 
 the groans of wounded and dying peasants on the battle- 
 field around them, and the drunken revelry of the camp, 
 was heard the laughter of these nobles as they watched 
 their victim springing shrieking from point to point of the 
 fiery circle within which he was slowly roasted to death. 
 Such was the revenge of nobles upon peasants. 
 
 But the revolution spread, and the reign of teiTor 
 spread with it. North and east of the valley of the 
 Neckar, among the little towns of Franconia, 
 
 1-1 1, /- 1 -VT • 1 , 1 Insurrection in 
 
 and m the valleys 01 the Mame, other bands Franconia. 
 of peasants, mustering by thousands, de- 
 stroyed alike cloisters and castles. Two hundred of 
 these lighted the night with their flames during the few 
 weeks of their temporary triumph. And here another 
 feature of the revolution became prominent. The little 
 towns were already, under the preaching of Carlstadt 
 and such as he, passing through an internal „ , . . 
 
 . Revolution in 
 
 revolution. The artisans were rising against the towns of 
 the wealthier burghers, overturning the town 
 councils, and electing committees of artisans in their 
 place, making sudden changes in religion, putting down 
 
 L
 
 146 The FrotesiaMt Revolution. pt. 11. 
 
 the Mass, unfrocking priests and monks, and in fact, in 
 the interests of what they thought to be the gospel, turn- 
 ing all things upside down. 
 
 A few extracts from the diary of a citizen of the free 
 imperial fortified town of Rothenburg, on the Tauber,* 
 may serve to fix on the mind a clear impression of the 
 Peasants' War, as it seemed to a citizen of a Franconian 
 town during the course of the events which he noted in 
 his log-book in this terrible year 1525. 
 
 March 19. — The Carlstadt sect being favoured by 
 citizen of ^'^^ magistrates, Carlstadt himself came to Rothen- 
 
 Rothenburg. burg, preached here, and wanted to become a citizen. 
 
 March 21. — Thirty or forty peasants bought a kettle-drum and 
 went about proudly, insolently, and mischievously, up and down 
 the city. 
 
 March 23. — About 400 peasants assembled. 
 
 March 24. — All citizens were called to the Rathhaus and enjoined 
 to stand by the honourable council. Only twenty-six do so ! The 
 rest elect a committee of thirty-six. Messengers are sent to the 
 peasants to inquire their plans. The peasants replied that they were 
 not all collected yet. Letters come from Markgraf Casimir, and 
 are read to the people, offering help, and to come in person to make 
 peace. Some of the people treated the message with scorn and 
 laughter. 
 
 This evening, between five and six, the head of the image of 
 Christ on the Cross is struck off, the arms broken and the pieces 
 knocked about the churchyard. 
 
 March 25. — The committee of thirty-six frighten the council 
 into submission. 
 
 March 26, Sunday. — The priest driven from the altar and his 
 mass book thrown down. The peasants deploy themselves before 
 the Galgen-thor. 
 
 March 27. — The priest insulted, and his book thrown down 
 whilst performing mass. 
 
 March 28. — 700 peasants assembled, and force other peasants to 
 join them.
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 147 
 
 2Iarch 31. — The peasants have increased to 2,000. Lorenz 
 Knobloch having promised to be a captain, has gone out to them. 
 Messengers from the Imperial Council came to make peace, but 
 without result. 
 
 April 4. — The oil lamps thrown down during the sermon. The 
 peasants go about plundering cupboards and cellars. 
 
 April 8, Good Friday. — The service done away. No one sang 
 or read. But Dr. Drechsel preached against emperor, king, princes 
 and lords, spiritual and temporal, for hindering the word of 
 God. 
 
 April 10, Easter Day. — Hans Rothfuchs called the sacrament 
 idolatr)'. No service. 
 
 April 11. — Dr Carlstadt preached against the sacrament. At 
 night the Kupferzell (cloister) sacked by some millers, and tables 
 and pictures thrown into the Tauber. 
 
 April 12. — Declarations made that priests may marry. 
 
 April 13. — Dr. Carlstadt preached again against the sacraments 
 and ceremonies. 
 
 April 14. — Some women run up and down the streets with forks, 
 pikes, and sticks, making a row and declaring that they will plunder 
 all priests' houses. 
 
 April 15. — Priests are obliged to become citizens for safely. 
 Ever)' citizen to give a gulden towards the watch, also take his turn 
 at working at the fortifications. 
 
 April 18. — The peasants demand 200 men and 100 long spears, 
 a culverin, heavy field-pieces, and two tents. They are refused. 
 The peasants reply that some citizens had promised help ; therefore 
 they now demand it. 
 
 April 23. — The peasants are told they shall have a reply in 
 writing. 
 
 April 28. — Com given out, but only some take it. Knobloch 
 torn to pieces by the peasants, and they pelted one another with the 
 pieces. The peasants have been heard to say that they would soon 
 see what the Rothenburgers were going to do ! , 
 
 3Iay 1. — In the night they burned the cloister of E., plundered 
 another, and burned the castle of C. 
 
 May 8. — The people called together by the great bell in the 
 parish church to hear a proposal of the Markgraf Casiniir to come
 
 148 The Protestant Revolution. pt. 11. 
 
 with his lady and jewels to Rothenburg; and on the other hand to 
 consider whether to send to the peasantry or not. 
 
 May 10. — Three neighbouring cities have gone over to the pea- 
 sants. They want Rothenburg to join them, too. At 6 o'clock 
 people are called together again, and the majority decide to send 
 artillery and spears to the peasants. 
 
 May 12. — More monasteries are sacked. Twelve kilderkins of 
 wine plundered by the people and dnmk. 
 
 May 15. — Florian Geyer. (one of the peasants' leaders) in the 
 parish church proposes articles of alliance with the peasants for loi 
 years. Demanded that the committee and people should by oath 
 and vow league themselves with the peasants. Which was done, 
 although against the grain to some. Thus to-day Rothenburg has 
 gone over from the Empire to the peasants ! A gallows was erected 
 in the market-place in token of this brotherhood, and as a terror to 
 evil-doers. About 5 o'clock tents, wagons, powder are got ready 
 and taken to the camp of the peasants, with intent to storm the 
 castle of Wurtzburg. 
 
 300 peasants who went up on May 9 to storm the castle of 
 Wurtzburg were all killed, part by the stones, part shot, part slain 
 — taken like birds ! (So the castle still held out.) 
 
 Casimir of Brandenburg is marching with forces to chastise the 
 peasants. 
 
 3Iay 19. — He bums four towns. Four peasants at L. are 
 beheaded and seven have their fingers cut off. At N. eighteen 
 citizens beheaded. 
 
 May 27. — 4,000 peasants are .slain in the valley of the Tauber by 
 the allied powers. (The combined forces of the nobles were now 
 joined by Truchsess, who had been victorious over the Swabian 
 peasants.) 
 
 May 29. — 8,000 more peasants slain by the allies. Three mes- 
 sengers are sent from Rothenburg to Markgraf Casimir, carrying a 
 red cross and fervently begging for mercy. No surrender would 
 be accepted but on ' mercy or no mercy.' All citizens, clergy and 
 laity, to pay seven florins for Blood and Fire Money, or to be 
 banished thirty miles out of the city. The city to provide some tons 
 of powder. 
 
 June 2. — Wurtzburg retaken by the Bund.
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 149 
 
 June 24. — Mass said again, after thirteen weeks' interruption. 
 
 June 29. — Markgraf Casimir came to Rothenburg with 800 
 horse, 1,000 foot, 200 wagons well equipped with the best artillery, 
 which are placed in the market-place. 
 
 June 30. — All citizens called by herald and ordered to assemble 
 in the market-place, and form a circle under guard of soldiers with 
 spears. It was announced that the Rothenburgers had revolted 
 from the Empire and joined the peasants, and had forfeited life, 
 honour, and goods. The Markgraf and many nobles were present. 
 Twelve citizens were called out by name, and beheaded on the spot. 
 Their bodies were left all day in the market-place. Several had 
 fled who otherwise would have been beheaded, 
 
 July 1. — Eight more beheaded. 
 
 It was during the Franconian rebellion that the pea- 
 sants chose the robber knight Goetz von Berlichingen as 
 their leader. It did them no good. More than a robber 
 chief was needed to cope with soldiers used to war. The 
 failure of the Franconian rebel peasants was inevitable, 
 and the wild vigour with which they acted in the mo- 
 ments of their brief power did but add to the cruelty 
 with which they were crushed and punished when the 
 tide of victory turned against them. 
 
 While all this was going on in the vallevs 
 
 - , -. . , .... , ,' Insurrection 
 
 of the Mame, the revolution had crossed the in Eisas.s and 
 
 Rhine into Elsass and Lothringen, and the down'"May) 
 
 Palatinate about Spires and Worms, and in ^525, 
 
 the month of May had been crushed in blood, as in 
 
 Swabia and Franconia. South and east, in 
 
 Bavaria, m the Tyrol, and m Carmthia na, the I'yrol, 
 
 also, castles and monasteries went up in 
 
 flames, and then, when the tide of victory turned, the 
 
 burning houses and farms of the peasants lit up the 
 
 night and their blood flowed freely. 
 
 Meanwhile MQnzer, who had done so much to stir up
 
 150 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 
 
 the peasantry in the south to rebel, had gone north into 
 Thurintria, and headed a revolution in the 
 
 Miinzer heads ° _,_,, . , ^ 
 
 an insurrection town 01 Mulhausen, and became a sort or 
 inThuringia. g^^onarola of a madder kind, believing 
 himself inspired, talking of his visions, uttering prophe- 
 cies, denouncing vengeance on all who opposed what he 
 believed to be the gospel. He exercised over the citi- 
 zens something of the influence that Savonarola had 
 done in Florence. His intense earnestness carried them 
 away. They could not help believing in him and re- 
 garding him with awe. For a while the rich fed the 
 poor, and under his eye there was almost a community 
 of goods. But Miinzer, not content with visions and his 
 prophetic office, madly appealed to the sword. When 
 he heard of the revolution in Swabia, he seemed to 
 sniff the breeze like a war-horse. He issued a proclama- 
 tion to the peasantry round about : 
 
 Arise ! fight the battle of the Lord ! On ! on ! on ! Now is the 
 time ; the wicked tremble when they hear of you. Be pitiless ! 
 Heed not the groans of the impious! Rouse up the 
 proclama- towns and villages ; above all, rouse up the miners 
 
 tion. of the mountains ! On ! on ! on ! while the fire is 
 
 burning ; on while the hot sword is yet reeking with the slaughter ! 
 Give the fire no time to go out, the sword no time to cool ! Kill 
 all the proud ones : while one of them lives you will not be free from 
 the fear of man ! While they reign over you it is no use to talk of 
 God! . . . Amen. 
 
 Given at Muhlhausen, 1525. Thomas Miinzer, ser\ant of God 
 against the wicked. 
 
 These were some of the words which Avere meant to 
 wake up echoes in the hearts of the neighbouring miners 
 of Mansfeld, among whom the kindred of Luther 
 dwelt ! 
 
 This was what had come of the prophets of Zwickau
 
 CH. VI. Revolution. 151 
 
 giving up their common sense and following visions and 
 inspirations ! 
 
 But the end was coming. The princes, with their dis- 
 ciplined troops, came nearer and nearer. What could 
 Miinzer do with his 8,000 peasants ? He pointed to a 
 rainbow and expected a miracle, but no miracle came. 
 The battle, of course, was lost. 5,000 peasants lay dead 
 upon the field near the little town of Frankenhausen, 
 where it was fought. 
 
 Miinzer fled and concealed himself in a bed, but was 
 found and taken before the princes, thrust peath of 
 into a dungeon, and afterwards beheaded. Muuzer. 
 
 So ended the wild career of this misguided, fanatical, 
 self-deceived, but yet, as we must think, earnest and in 
 many Avays heroic spirit. We may well believe that he 
 was maddened by the wrongs of the peasantry into what 
 Luther called a 'spirit of confusion.' 
 
 The prince and nobles now everywhere prevailed over 
 the insurgent peasants. 
 
 Luther, writing on June 21, 1525, says: — 
 
 ' It is a certain fact, that in Franconia 11,000 peasants have been 
 slain. Markgraf Casimir is cruelly severe upon his peasants, who 
 have twice broken faith with him. In the Duchy of Wurtemberg, 
 6,000 have been killed ; in different places in Swabia, 10,000. Jt is 
 said that in Alsace the Duke of Lorraine has slain 20,000. Thus 
 everywhere the wretched peasants are cut down.' 
 
 The struggle extended into Styria and Carinthia, 
 w'nere there had been risings before, and lingered on 
 longest in the Tyrol. It was not till Truchsess was aided 
 by the General George Frundsberg, the old general who 
 had shaken hands with Luther in the Diet of Worms, 
 that victory was secured to the higher powers. 
 
 Before the Peasants' War was ended at least 100,000
 
 152 The Protestant Revohttio7i. pt, 11. 
 
 perished, or twenty times as many as were put to death 
 in Paris during the Reign of Terror in 1793. 
 
 So ended the peasants' revolution. For two hundred 
 and fifty years more the poor German peasantry must 
 bear the yoke of feudal serfdom. They must wait till, 
 in the beginning of the nineteenth century, German 
 statesmen, awakened by the French Revolution, saw 
 the necessity of preventing another Peasants' War by 
 granting a timely reform. 
 
 Luther, throughout the Peasants' War, sided with the 
 
 ruling powers. He was firm as a rock in opposing the 
 
 . , use of the sword against the civil power. 
 
 The attitude ° ^ 
 
 of Luther The reform he sought was by means of the 
 
 Peaslfnts'' civil power ; and in order to cle^r himself 
 
 ■"• and his cause from all participation in the 
 
 wild doings of the peasantry, he publicly exhorted the 
 princes to crush their rebellion. The peasants thought 
 that in Luther (himself a peasant) they should have 
 found a friend, but they were bitterly disappointed. He 
 hounded on the princes in their work of blood. 
 
 That Luther should be bitter against Miinzer and the 
 wild prophets of revolution was but natural. He had 
 seen the end from the beginning ; he had left his retreat 
 in the Wartburg four years before to quell the tumults 
 at Wittenberg. Driven out of Wittenberg the prophets 
 had become madder still. No doubt Eurqjje owed 
 much to the right-mindedness of Luther in setting his 
 face against a resort to the sword in the cause of reli- 
 gious reform. Yet one cannot sympathize with Luther's 
 harsh treatment of the peasantry and their misguided 
 leaders^ It cannot be denied that to some extent this 
 revolution had grown up from the dragon's teeth that he 
 himself had sown. There was a time when he himself 
 had used wild language and done wild deeds. Eras-
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 153 
 
 mus had predicted that all Europe would be turned 
 upside down in a universal revolution ; and had it not 
 come to pass2 . .The monks blamed Erasmus and the 
 new learning ; Erasmus blamed the wildness of Luther ; 
 Luther blamed the wilder prophets. Who „„ 
 
 ^ '^ who was 
 
 was to blame ? History will not lay blame really to 
 on Erasmus or Luther, or on the wilder ^'"^ 
 prophets, or on the misguided peasantry, but on the 
 higher powers whose place it was to have averted revo- 
 lution by timely reforms. It^was their refusal of reform 
 which was the real cause of revolution. __ It was the con- 
 spiracy of the higher powers at the Diet of Worms to 
 sacrifice the common weal to their own ambitious ob- 
 jects on which history will lay the blame of the Pea- 
 sants' War. 
 
 In the meantime let us not forget that there was one 
 at least of the higher powers who had no share in the 
 blame — one of them who had shown himself able to 
 sacrifice his own ambition to the common weal, who 
 had worked silently and hard for reform — Death of the 
 the good Elector Frederic of Saxony. As Elector of 
 
 " ^ haxony, 
 
 the peasant rebellion under Mi^inzer was May 1525. 
 going on in Thuringia, on the threshold of Saxony, he 
 lay dying. He had no revengeful feelings. He did 
 not urge on the slaughter of peasantry like Luther. He 
 wrote to his brother, Duke John, who succeeded him as 
 Elector, and who was gone with the army, to act pru- 
 dently and leniently. If the peasants' turn had really 
 come to rule, God's will be done ! Only his servants 
 were with him. 'Dear children,' he said to them, 'if I 
 have offended any of you, 'forgive me, for the love of 
 God ; we princes do many things to the poor people 
 that we ought not to do ! ' 
 
 Soon after he received the sacrament, and died.
 
 154 The Protestant RevoIutio7i. PT. ii. 
 
 {d) The Sack of Rome {1327). 
 
 Now let us see what was the result to the higher 
 Alliance of powers themselves of the secret treaty of 
 theEm%ror Worms, May 8, 1 52 1, by which the Pope 
 against France, and Emperor were to join their forces 
 against France, and to secure which the interests of the 
 German people were deliberately sacrificed. 
 
 Henry VIII. of England soon joined the alliance 
 against France. He had secret reasons to be mentioned 
 Henry VIII. hereafter for keeping on good terms with 
 joins it. Charles V. and the Pope, and so had his 
 
 minister Cardinal Wolsey. Henry was tempted also 
 with the prospect of winning back the English provinces 
 in France, while Wolsey was flattered by the promises 
 of Charles V. to do all he could to get him elected Pope 
 on the next vacancy. 
 
 The first skirmishes took place between Charles V. 
 and Francis I. in the north, but with no decisive results. 
 Meanwhile the allied army in Italy was strengthened and 
 that of France weakened by the Swiss soldiers under the 
 pay of France being withdrawn, and Swiss recruits ac- 
 cepting imperial pay. The armies were soon in motion, 
 and on Nov. 25, 1521, Leo X. received tidings that the 
 Pope Leo X allied army had triumphantly entered the 
 dies, 1521. city of Milan, but while the rejoicmgs at 
 Rome in celebration of their triumph were still going on, 
 the Pope suddenly died, on December i, not without 
 suspicion of poison. 
 
 To the surprise of everyone the Emperor's old tutor 
 
 was now elected Pope under the title of 
 
 Adrian VI. Charles V. had not used his 
 
 influence to promote the success of Wolsey. Adrian was 
 
 a Spaniard — a nominal governor in Spain while Ximenes 
 
 really governed — and was more likely to serve Spanish
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 155 
 
 interests than the wily Enghsh minister. Adrian was a 
 sternly virtuous, well-meaning pope. He would have 
 made peace if he could. He would have reconciled the 
 German nation by reforms if he could, but with the wish 
 he had not the power. Everything was against him ; he 
 was old ; his reign was short, and he died clement vil. 
 in 1523, to make way, not for Wolsey, for i^op^* ^523- 
 again Charles V. played his own game, but for another 
 of the Medici, Clement Vll. He was not a Spaniard, 
 but the most powerful ally of Spain that Italy could pro- 
 duce among her cardinals. 
 
 In the meantime the Duke of Bourbon (one of the 
 Duchies which had become subject to the French crown) 
 rebelled from Francis I. and joined the im- DukedeBour- 
 perial league against France. Henry VIII. j^g^" i"' ^^ alnst 
 also was once more tempted by a vague France, 
 prospect of again annexing French provinces to the 
 English crown, to help in the invasion of France. 
 
 The result of this invasion was to rouse the national 
 feeling, and therefore the power of France. It was un- 
 successful, and ended in Francis I. assum- „ . , 
 
 Francis I. 
 
 ing the offensive and crossing the Alps, crosses the 
 Then came the battle of Pavia in 1524, in ^^' 
 which the imperial armies under the Duke at the battle of 
 of Bourbon and the old German general ^^^'^• 
 Frundsberg gained the victory, and Francis I. was taken 
 prisoner. 
 
 Henry VIII. began now to dream not only of getting 
 back the lost English provinces, but even of being king 
 of France. But Charles V. had little confidence in him 
 and Wolsey. He was playing his own game, not that 
 of Henry VIII. 
 
 Pope Clement VII. meanwhile had expected Francis 
 I. to win at the battle of Pavia", and, to make himself
 
 156 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ll. 
 
 safe, had come to secret terms of alliance with him. 
 Before the battle of Pavia he had gone so far as almost 
 to break with the Emperor. After the bat- 
 tNveen"^Charles tie, all Italy began to be afraid that Spanish 
 Pope"^ ^^^ influence would become omnipotent ; so a 
 rupture between the Pope and Spain was 
 imminent. In the meantime the Emperor removed his 
 royal prisoner to Spain, so taking him out of the hands 
 of his allies. Then came the breach between Charles V. 
 and Henry VIII., the marriage of Charles — so long in- 
 tended but kept secret — to the Infanta of Portugal, in- 
 stead of to the English Princess Mary ; the secret peace 
 of Henry with France. In 1526, followed the release of 
 Francis on his oath to observe conditions from which the 
 Pope at once formally absolved him. This produced a 
 final breach between the Emperor and the Pope, and an 
 alliance between the Pope and Francis against the Em- 
 peror. 
 
 It was at this moment that the Diet of Spires was 
 sitting. The Emperor had ordered that stringent mea- 
 sures should be taken against the Lutheran 
 
 Result at 
 
 the Diet of heresy, and that the Edict of Worms should 
 ^"^"' be carried out. This was impossible. The 
 
 new Elector of Saxony, and those who sided with him, 
 were too strongly backed for such a course to be taken. 
 Now the breach between the Pope and the Emperor came 
 to their aid. The Emperor no longer cared to back up 
 the interests of a Pope who had quarrelled with him, and 
 the result of the Diet was a decree signed by Ferdinand, 
 the brother of Charles V., in the Emperor's stead, con- 
 taining the memorable clause, that ' Each state should, 
 as regards the Edict of Worms, so live, rule, and bear 
 itself as it thought it could answer it to God and the 
 Enneror.'
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 157 
 
 This left the Cathohc princes to do as they liked on 
 the one hand, and the princes who favoured Luther to do 
 as they liked on the other. From this decree of the Diet 
 of Spires came the division of Germany into Catholic 
 and Protestant states. 
 
 This came out of the quarrel between the Pope and 
 Emperor. The next thing was the gathering of a Ger- 
 man army under George Frundsberg, an ar- March of a 
 my composed almost entirely of Lutherans, German 
 
 ■' "^ ■' army on 
 
 under a Lutheran general, a host of discon- Rome. 
 tented, wild, reckless men, who had survived the horrors 
 of the Peasants' War, were inspired by hope of plunder, 
 and inflamed by the zeal of Frundsberg, who declared, 
 'When I make my way to Rome, I will hang the Pope !' 
 
 They crossed the Alps by a dangerous unguarded pass, 
 descended into the plains of Lombardy, and then joined 
 the Spanish army under the Duke of Bourbon. This was 
 in January 1527. A few weeks more, and the combined 
 army, 20,000 strong, was marching on Rome. Then came 
 delays, rumours of a truce, and the mutiny of the Span- 
 ish soldiers for their long-withheld pay. Lastly, the 
 German soldiers also mutinied, in vexation at which the 
 old veteran general Frundsberg fell powerless under a 
 shock of paralysis. The army advanced under Bourbon, 
 and then followed the commencement of the siege of 
 Rome ; the death of Bourbon, shot as he was mounting 
 a ladder ; and — the rest shall be told in the graphic words, 
 which the brother of the Emperor's secretary Valdez put 
 into the mouth of an eye-witness in his ' Dialogue on the 
 Sack of Rome.' 
 
 ' The Emperor's army was so desirous to enter Rome, 
 some to rob and spoil, others for the extreme ^1,^ 53^^ 
 hatred they bore to the Court of Rome, and °*^ Rome, 
 some both for the one and the other cause, that the Span-
 
 158 The Protestant Revolution. pt. li. 
 
 iards and the Italians on the one side by scale, and the 
 Germans on the other side by pickaxes breaking down 
 the wall, entered by the Borgo, on which side stands the 
 Church of St. Peter and the Holy Palace. Though those 
 within had artillery and those without none, yet they en- 
 tered without the slaughter of a hundred of themselves. 
 Of those within were slain, some say 6,000, but in truth 
 there died not upon the entry above 4,000, for they im- 
 mediately retired into the city. The Pope in his own 
 palace was so careless that it was a wonder he was not 
 taken, but seeing how matters stood, he retired himself 
 into the castle of St. Angelo, with thirteen cardinals and 
 other bishops and principal persons who stayed with him. 
 And presently the enemies entered, and spoiled and 
 sacked all that was in the palace, and the like did they to 
 the cardinals' houses and all other houses within the 
 Borgo, not sparing any, no not the Church of the Prince 
 of the Apostles ! This day they had enough to do without 
 entering Rome, whither our people, hoisting up the draw- 
 bridge, had retired and fortified themselves. The poor 
 Roman people, seeing their manifest destruction, would 
 have sent ambassadors to the army of the Emperor to 
 have agreed with him, and to have avoided the sack ; 
 but the Pope would by no means consent to it. 
 
 ' The captains of the Emperor presently determined to 
 assault the city, and the very same night, fighting with 
 their enemies, they entered, and the sack continued more 
 than eight days, in which time they had no regard of 
 nation, quality, or kind of men. The captains did what 
 they could to stop it, but the soldiers, being so fleshed in 
 their robberies as they were, you should behold troops 
 of soldiers passing the streets with cries; one carried 
 prisoners, another plate, another household stuff. The 
 sighs, groans, and outcries of women and children in all
 
 CH. V. Revolution. 159 
 
 places were so piteous that my bones yet shake to make 
 report of them. They carried no respect to bishops or 
 cardinals, churches or monasteries; all was fish that 
 came into their net; there was never seen more cruelty, 
 less humanity, nor fear of God. 
 
 'They had no respect even to Spaniards and Ger- 
 mans, and other nations that were vassals and servants 
 to the Emperor. They left neither house, nor church, nor 
 man that was in Rome unsacked or ransomed, not even 
 the secretary Perez himself, who was resident at Rome 
 on behalf of the Emperor. Those cardinals who could 
 not escape with the Pope into the castle of St. Angelo 
 were taken and ransomed, and their persons full ill- 
 favouredly handled, being drawn through the streets of 
 Rome bare-legged. To make mocking of them, a Ger- 
 man, clothing himself like a cardinal, went riding about 
 Rome in his "pontificalibus," and a bottle of wine on the 
 pommel of his saddle, and then a Spaniard in the same 
 manner, with a courtezan behind him. The Germans led 
 a bishop of their own nation (who stood upon election to 
 have been a cardinal) to the market-place to be sold, with 
 a bough in his forehead, as they do when they sell beasts. 
 
 ' It is said that the sack of Rome amounted unto, by 
 ransoms and compositions, above 15 millions of ducats. 
 Churches were turned into stables. The Church of St. 
 Peter, both on the one side and the other, was all full of 
 horses! Soldiers carried along the streets nuns from 
 monasteries and virgins from their fathers' houses, and 
 from the time that the Emperor's army entered Rome 
 till the time that I departed — the 12th June — there was 
 not a mass said in Rome, nor all that time heard we a 
 bell ring nor a clock. Not a priest or friar dared walk 
 in the streets except in garments of a soldier, else 
 the Germans would cry out, "A pope ! a pope ! kill I kill!' "
 
 i6o The Protestant Revolution. pt. hi. 
 
 This was what had come to the Pope from the con- 
 spiracy of his predecessor with the Emperor at Worms, — 
 an imperial edict at the Diet of Spires, in 1526, leaving 
 the states of Germany virtually free to adhere to or sever 
 themselves from the ecclesiastical empire of Rome as 
 they severally pleased ; — Rome sacked By a German 
 army in the Emperor's name, and more pitilessly pillaged 
 than it had been 1000 years before by the Vandals ; — 
 the Pope a prisoner of the Emperor in the castle of St. 
 Angelo, and henceforth destined to act as the tool of his 
 imperial master, and to yield an enforced submission to 
 the supremacy of Spain ! 
 „ , , , We may take this result as marking an 
 
 Result of the , "^ , , . ^ ^ 
 
 Papal policy, epoch. Rome had for ever ceased to be the 
 capital of Christendom. The old Roman 
 form of civilization radiating from Rome had finally given 
 place to a new form of civilization, which would go on its 
 way independently of Rome, and which Rome was no 
 longer able cither to inspire or to control. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 revolts from rome. 
 
 In Switzerland and Germany. 
 
 [a) Meaning of Revolt from Ro77ie. 
 
 We have now to trace how the Protestant Revolution re- 
 sulted in several national revolts from the ecclesiastical 
 empire of Rome.
 
 CH. I. 
 
 Revolts from Rome. 
 
 i6i
 
 1 62 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 But first, what did a national revolt from Rome mean ? 
 
 It was the claiming by the civil power in each nation of 
 
 those rights which the Pope had hitherto 
 
 Meaning of re- .... 
 
 volt from claimed within it as head of the great eccle- 
 
 siastical empire. The clergy and monks had 
 hitherto been regarded more or less as foreigners — /. e. as 
 subjects of the Pope's ecclesiastical empire. Where 
 there was revolt from Rome the allegiance of these per- 
 sons to the Pope was annulled, and the civil power 
 claimed as full a sovereignty over them as it had over its 
 lay subjects. Matters relating to marriages and wills still 
 for the most part remained under ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion as before, but then, as the ecclesiastical courts them- 
 selves became national courts and ceased to be Roman 
 or Papal, all these matters came under the control of the 
 civil power. Even in matters of religious doctrine and 
 practice and public worship, the civil power often claimed 
 the final authority hitherto exercised by the Pope. 
 
 Such being the meaning of revolt from Rome, it will 
 
 be clear at once that it was sl political (\\jL\ie as much as 
 
 ,. . , and sometimes more than a relif^ious matter 
 
 A political ., . 
 
 change. — an assertion by the civil power in each 
 
 nation of that free independent national life 
 which we noticed as characteristic of the new order of 
 things. 
 
 A study of the map showing ' the extent of the revolt 
 from Rome ' will illustrate this by another fact — viz. that 
 ^^ ^ .it was those nations which in the main are of 
 
 1 he leutonic . . c • 
 
 nations revolt- Teutonic or German origin — Germany, Swit- 
 The Romanic zerland, Denmark, Sweden, England, Scot- 
 maine"r^' l^nd, and the Netherlands— which finally 
 under Rome, made good their revolt from Rome. As the 
 Germans under their great leader ' Hermann* had, 1500 
 years before, been the first to make good their indepen-
 
 CH. I. Revolts from Rome — Switzerland. 163 
 
 dence from the old Roman Empire, so it was in the na- 
 tions which were of Germanic speech and origin that 
 revolt was made from papal Rome. On the other hand 
 those nations — Spain, France, and Italy — which had 
 long formed a part of the old Roman Empire, and were 
 Romanic in their languages and instincts, remained in 
 allegiance to the Pope. 
 
 There were no doubt many people in Spain, France, 
 and Italy who sympathized with the doctrines of the 
 Reformers, but there was no revolt, because these na- 
 tions, or the civil powers representing them, chose to re- 
 main politically connected with Rome. 
 
 It is well to observe also how the turn the revolt took 
 in the revolting nations was in a great degree the result 
 of their political condition. 
 
 Thus in England, Denmark, Sweden, in whi-ch the 
 central power was strong enough to act for the nation 
 and to carry the nation with it, there was a 
 
 ... ■ 1 1 r T-. I" some na- 
 
 decisive national revolt from Rome; while tions there was 
 in Switzerland and Germany, where practi- ^^t^^°in slmtt 
 cally there was no central power capable of divided action 
 
 / r r and civil wars. 
 
 acting for the nation as a whole, there were 
 divisions and civil wars within the nation, some of its 
 petty states at length revolting from Rome, and others 
 remaining under the ecclesiastical empire. 
 
 We will first take the case of these divided nations — • 
 Switzerland and Germany, and then pass on to the others. 
 
 {b) The Revolt in Switzerland. 
 No nation was so absolutely without a central authori- 
 ty as the Swiss. Each canton was as independent of 
 the others for most purposes as the petty 
 
 r J 1 r /- -.TTi •. , ... Switzerland 
 
 feudal states of Germany. When Machia- divided into 
 velli complained of the divisions of Italy *^'='"'°"^-
 
 164 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 preventing its becoming a nation, he warned the Italians 
 of the danger of a country being ' cantonized ' hke Swit- 
 zerland. But there was this difference between a Swiss 
 canton and a petty feudal state. In the Swiss canton 
 there was no feudal lord ; the people governed them- 
 selves. It was not a feudal lordship, but a little republic 
 of communes or villages of the primitive Teutonic type, 
 in which the civil power was vested in the community. 
 
 If therefore in a Swiss canton the civil power took to 
 ^. ., itself the ecclesiastical power hitherto held 
 
 Civil power , , T-. 1 -1 1 • 
 
 vested in the by the rope, that power became vested m 
 peope. ih.Q people, not, as in other countries, in the 
 
 prince or king. 
 
 Bearing this in mind, the history of the revolt from 
 Rome in Switzerland will be easily comprehended. 
 ,„ . , ^ . The Swiss reformer, Ulrich Ziving^le, was 
 
 Ulrich Zwin- . . 
 
 gie, the Swiss born m 1484, and was the son of the chief 
 man of his village. Well educated at Basle
 
 CH. I. Revolts from Rome — Switzerland. 165 
 
 and Berne, and after having taken this degree at the 
 university at Vienna, he became a curate in Canton 
 Clarus. The new learning had spread into Switzerland, 
 and Zwingle was one of its disciples. He studied Plato 
 and the new Testament in Greek, like Colet and Eras- 
 mus. Being sent into Italy twice as army preacher, he 
 saw the Swiss troops conquered at Marignano, and re- 
 turned home full of patriotic hatred of the system of 
 hiring out troops to fight other nations' battles. Then he 
 settled in Zurich and became a reformer ; settles ^t Zu- 
 preaching against indulgences, celibacy in "'^l^- 
 the clergy, and whatever else he thought could not be 
 justified by the New Testament. 
 
 His own canton, Zurich, under his influ- Zurich as- 
 ence, threw off the episcopal yoke of the ecdesilsticll'^ 
 Bishop of Constance and assumed the eccle- po^^^rs. 
 siastical authority to itself. The Zurich government au- 
 thorized the use of their mother tongue instead of Latin 
 in public worship, burned the relics from the shrines 
 and altered the mode of admistering the sa- 
 
 Berne did the 
 
 craments. So Zurich revolted from Rome same soon 
 
 in 1 524. Berne followed soon after ; while 
 
 the Forest Catttons — Lucerne, Zug, Schwitz, Uri, and Un- 
 
 terwalden — followed by Fribourg and the Valais, which 
 
 was not yet a Swiss canton, held to the old order of 
 
 things. 
 
 Some cantons going one way and some another, the 
 result was division and civil war, the Catholic cantons 
 calling in the aid of their old feudal enemies, ^. ., 
 
 Civil war. 
 
 the House of Hapsburg. The civil war 
 lasted, off and on, for two or three years till, in 1531, 
 after Zwingle himself had fallen in battle, it was ended 
 by the peace of Cappel, at which it was -p^^f.^^^ 
 decided that each canton should do as it Capptl, 1531.
 
 1 66 Resiclts of the Protestant Revolutio7i. pt. iii. 
 
 liked, while in the districts which were dependent on the 
 Swiss Confederation, and not to any particular canton, 
 the majority in each congregation should manage its 
 own ecclesiastical affairs. The map will show which 
 cantons revolted from Rome, and how the districts were 
 divided in their action. 
 
 Zwingle was a true patriot. He wished to see the 
 Swiss a united nation ; and with that object he proposed 
 Character of political as Well as religious reforms which 
 Zwingle. g^j-g j^Q^ being carried out. He was rather 
 
 a disciple of Erasmus than of Luther. He did not adopt 
 the strong Augustinian views of Luther. He also took 
 freer views respecting the sacraments, Luther, a slave 
 in this respect to the mere letter of Scripture, held by the 
 words 'This is my body' so strongly as to 
 
 Luther quar- -^ ^ , 
 
 rels with Uphold the doctrme of ' the real presence 
 
 winge. almost as fully as the Catholic party. 
 
 Zwingle took wider views, treating the sacrament as a 
 symbol. The violent dogmatic intolerant spirit of 
 Luther was never more painfully shown than in the dis- 
 pute with Zwingle on this subject. The bitter hatred he 
 showed to Zwingle and Erasmus was all of a piece with 
 his violent feelings against the poor peasants of 
 Germany. Whilst doing justice to the noble and heroic 
 character of the great German reformer, these things re- 
 mind us that there lingered in his mind much of the 
 dogmatism and intolerance of the scholastic theologian. 
 
 [c] The Revolt in Germany (1526-1555). 
 We have seen how the German people suffered at the 
 commencement of the era because they had not yet be- 
 come a united nation ; and also how deep and widely 
 spread were their yearnings after national life and unity 
 — peasants crying out to the higher powers for protec-
 
 CH. I. Revolt from Rome — Germany. 167 
 
 tion from feudal oppression — Luther and Hutten ap- 
 pealing to them to free the German nation from the 
 tyranny of the great ecclesiastical empire of Rome. Had 
 Charles V. cared more for Germany than his own selfish 
 ambitions, and put himself at the head of the strong 
 national feeling, as Frederick of Saxony wanted him to 
 do at Worms, there was at least a good chance of 
 uniting Germany into a powerful and prosperous nation. 
 But he threw away the chance. We have seen how the 
 course taken by Charles V. and the higher powers in the 
 Diet of Worms produced a revolution which cost a 
 hundred thousand lives. We have now to ,^^ ^ 
 
 1 • T • 1 1 ^ • -1 The freedom 
 
 see how it divided Germany into two hostile oftheGer- 
 camps, hurried her into the horrors of the try'post'^'^^" 
 Thirty Years' War, postponed for eight or p°"^'^ 'P'" '<=" 
 
 ■' ' r r o generations. 
 
 ten generations the freedom of her peasan- 
 
 j 1 f • , ,• • The Diet of 
 
 try, and left to our own times the realization Spires, 1526, 
 of the yearnings of the German people after sL'te^to take 
 national unity. '"^^ °^^" , 
 
 ^ _ _ course about 
 
 The decision of the Diet of Spires in 1526 Luther. 
 had already settled that each state of the Empire should 
 do as it thought best in the matter of the edict against 
 Luther. 
 
 As might be expected, those princes who sided with 
 Luther, and followed the lead of Saxony, at once took 
 reform into their own hands. Monasteries ,, 
 
 . Hence arose 
 
 were reformed or suppressed, and their rev- Protestant 
 
 enues turned to good account, either for nation'ar " ' 
 
 educational purposes, for supporting the f ^JJ^^u " *^^*^* 
 
 preaching of the gospel, or for the poor, while others 
 
 remained 
 
 Monks and nuns were allowed to marry. Catholic. 
 Luther himself setting the example of mar- 
 rying a nun. Divine service was in part carried on in 
 German, thoutrh Latin was not cntirclv excluded. The
 
 1 68 Results of the Protestant Revoltition. pt. iii. 
 
 youth were taught to read in common schools and in 
 the language of the Fatherland. Luther's German Bible 
 and German hymns came into popular use. In a word, 
 in what were called the ' Evangelical States ' a sever- 
 ance was made from the Church of Rome ; and national 
 churches sprang up, resting on the civil power of each 
 state for their authority and adopting Lutheran doctrines. 
 This was the result of the decree of the first Diet of 
 Spires and the Emperor's quarrel with the Pope. 
 
 Meanwhile the Emperor, having settled his quarrel 
 _, , with the Pope, returned to his loyalty to 
 
 The second i , 
 
 Diet of Rome, and, taking advantage of this, the 
 
 re'versed^tfe Catholic party succeeded, in the second 
 
 wltht'tan'drn.^' ^^^^ ^^ Spircs, in I $29, in passing a decree 
 
 the protest of re-enacting the Edict of Worms, and for- 
 
 the Protestant , . 
 
 princes. Diddmg all future reform till a regular coun- 
 
 cil was summoned. The Lutheran princes 
 protested against the decree, and so earned the name of 
 ' Protestants.' 
 
 Civil war would very likely have at once resulted from 
 this had not the Turks very opportunely made an attempt 
 to extend their empire westward by besieging Vienna. 
 The old dread which filled the minds of Christians at the 
 beginning of the era came upon them again. Melanch- 
 thon, who, with all his wisdom, still believed in astrology, 
 watched the movements of the stars, and 
 averted by the augured disastrous results from the approach 
 on'vienna^'^'' ^^ ^ comct. Lutlicr showed how thorough a 
 German he was by counselling unity in the 
 moment of common danger. For a time Germany was 
 united again, but only till the Turks had retreated from 
 Vienna. 
 
 Charles V. had now reached the summit of his power. 
 He had conquered France, he had conquered the Pope,
 
 CH. I. Revolt from Ronie — Germany. 169 
 
 he had been crowned kinpr of Italy at Bo- ^, ^ , 
 
 ° . . The Turks 
 
 losna. He was now asiain reconciled with driven back. 
 
 r"h 1 V 
 the Pope, and lastly, he had driven back the turns again 
 
 Turks, He had only to conquer the he- hPrTtics*"^"^" 
 retics of Germany to complete the list of 
 his triumphs. So he came in person to the Diet of 
 Augsburg in 1530 to ensure by his presence the enforce- 
 ment of the Edict of Worms. Every effort was made to 
 induce the Protestant princes to submit; ^. 
 
 ^ . . Diet of Augs- 
 
 but, headed by John of Saxony and Philip burg. The 
 
 /• TT 1 ■ • 1 1 • 1 'Augsburg 
 
 of Hesse, they mamtamed their ground. Coniession.' 
 Luther and Melanchthon were at Coburg, 
 near at hand, and drew up a statement of Lutheran doc- 
 trines which was known henceforth as the 'Augsburg 
 Confession.' 
 
 The Emperor at length gave them a few months to 
 consider whether they would submit; if not, the decree 
 of the Diet was, that the Lutheran heresy .„ 
 
 Protestant 
 
 should be crushed by the imperial power, princes form 
 
 „,, „ • r J ii the league of 
 
 Ihe Protestant princes at once formed the Schmaikaid 
 'league of Schmalkalden ' for mutual de- defence"^ 
 fence. And this, in spite of Luther's protest 
 against opposition to the civil power, would have at once 
 led to civil war, had not another Turkish invasion in 
 1532 again diverted the attention of Charles V. and of 
 Germany from religious disputes. 
 
 During the life of Luther, the inevitable civil war was 
 postponed. Melanchthon used the delay for an attempt, 
 by argument and persuasion, to bring about a reconcili- 
 ation between Catholic and Protestant theologians. At 
 the council of Ratisbon, as we shall see ^. ., 
 
 . Civil war 
 
 by-and-by, a theological peace was almost postponed 
 concluded ; but the schism was too wide and Luthir's 
 deep to be healed so easily. Meanwhile, state '''^''
 
 I "JO Results of the Protestant Rcvohitioru pt. in. 
 
 after state went over to the Protestant side, and civil war 
 became more and more imminent. The death of Luther 
 in 1 546 was the signal for its commencement. The Em- 
 peror and Catholic princes, by means of Spanish soldiers, 
 , . . . now tried to reduce to obedience the princes 
 
 but It begins 
 
 soon after of the Schmalkald league. They conquered 
 
 the Elector John Frederic of Saxony and 
 Duke Philip of Hesse, the leaders of the Lutheran party, 
 and proceeded to enforce by the sword a return to Cath- 
 olic faith and practice all over Germany. 
 
 Charles V. now appeared in his true light as the Span- 
 ish conqueror of Germany. John Frederick of Saxony 
 and Philip of Hesse, the most beloved and 
 
 Spanish con- 
 quest of Ger- truly German of German prmces, were sen- 
 
 ■^"^' tenced to death, kept in prison, and brutally 
 
 treated. Germany, which Charles V. had sacrificed at 
 
 the Diet of Worms to secure his Spanish policy, was now 
 
 kept down by Spanish soldiers, and practically made 
 
 into a Spanish province. 
 
 This was not the national unity which the German peo- 
 ple yearned after; it was subjugation to a foreign yoke. 
 
 A few years of Spanish rule produced its natural 
 
 effect — revolt of the German princes, alliance even with 
 
 France ! and then came, with strange suddenness, the 
 
 defeat and flight of Charles V. He made an attempt to 
 
 regain part of the ground which the French had taken, 
 
 and then abdicated, leaving the empire to his brother 
 
 Ferdinand, Spain and the Netherlands to his son Philip 
 
 ^ , , II. Then followed his cloister life, his 
 
 Revolt of . . •■ • , 1 , , 
 
 the Protes- Strange remorse in consideration that he had 
 
 Defea['or^' not averted all these evils by the timely de- 
 Charles V. ; struction of the heretic Luther at the Diet 
 
 nis abdica- 
 
 tion and of Worms \ and then at last the end of his 
 
 death. 
 
 Strange, brilliant, but misguided life in 1558.
 
 CH. II. Reviylt of England f}-om Rome. 171 
 
 The struggle of Charles V. with Germany ended in the 
 Peace of Augsburg (1555), with its legal recognition of 
 the Protestant states and its wretched rule ^^ „ 
 
 1 he Peace 
 
 of mock toleration — cujiis regio, ejus religio of Augsburg 
 — toleration to princes, with power to compel Us^ruie o" 
 their subjects to be of the same religion as [^0^'"°'^'^^' 
 themselves ! It was a peace so rotten in its 
 foundation that out of it came by inevitable necessity 
 that most terrible chapter of German history, and perhaps 
 of any history — the Tlmiy Years' War — which cost Ger- 
 many, some say, half her population, robbed her citizens 
 of the last vestige of their political freedom, confirmed 
 the serfdom of her peasantry for two centuries more, and 
 left upon some of her provinces scars which may be 
 traced to-day. 
 
 Such terrible paths had the German people to tread 
 towards national freedom and unity. Ten generations 
 
 of Germans had to bear the curse brought ^ ., 
 
 ° Evils 
 upon them, not by the Reformation, but by brought 
 
 those who opposed it — not by Luther, nor many b"" 
 
 even by Miinzer and his wild associates, but ^^^"^'^^ ^• 
 
 by the Emperor Charles V. and others of the higher 
 
 powers who sided with him when he sold the interests of 
 
 Germany and signed the treaty with the Pope on that 
 
 fatal 8th of May, 1521, at the Diet of Worms. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 REVOLT OF ENGLAND FROM ROME. 
 
 [a] Its Political Character. 
 
 There were two points in which the revolt of England 
 
 from Rome differed from the revolt in Switzerland and 
 
 Germany.
 
 173 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 
 
 (i) England was a compact nation with a strong 
 central government; and so, instead of splitting into 
 In England parties and ending in civil war, revolted 
 fromTome altogether, the king and parliament acting 
 was national, together, and transferring to the crown the 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction hitherto exercised by the Pope 
 in England. 
 
 (2) In the Protestant states of Germany and cantons 
 of Switzerland, a religious movement had preceded and 
 and came at caused a political change ; but in England 
 poUtfcT the political change came first and the 
 
 causes. change in doctrine and mode of worship long 
 
 afterwards. The severance of England from Rome was 
 not the result of a religious movement, but of political 
 causes, which we must now trace. 
 
 [b) Reasons for Henry VIII' s Loyalty to Rome. 
 Up to a certain point in his reign Henry VIII. held by 
 Henry VIII. ^^ Pope and opposed Luther. At the time of 
 defends the j-^g j^jgt of Worms he joined the league of the 
 
 divine autho- ■' . 
 
 rity of the Pope and Emperor, not only against France, 
 
 wrfte'sa" but also against Luther. Whilst the Diet of 
 
 Lmher^n"^' Worms was sitting, he wrote his celebrated 
 1521. book against Luther and in defence of the 
 
 divine authority of the Pope — for doing which the Pope 
 rewarded him with the title of " Defender of the Faith." 
 His zeal in this matter was so eager as to surprise Sir 
 Thomas More, who was now in Henry VIII. 's service. 
 When the king showed him the book, and he saw the 
 passages in defence of the divine authority of the Pope, 
 He tells Sir More (who himself doubted it, and had 
 Thomas hinted his doubts in his Utopia by making 
 
 More of a ... 
 
 secret reason the Utopians talk of electing a Pope of their 
 own) questioned with the king whether it
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England ffom Rome. 173 
 
 was wise to write so strongly on that point. "Where- 
 unto (More says) his Highness answered me that he 
 would in no wise anything minish of that matter ; of 
 which thing his Highness showed me a secret cause 
 whereof I never had anything heard before." 
 
 Thereupon More studied the matter afresh, altered his 
 opinion, came to the conclusion that the Papacy was of 
 divine authority, and held that view so strongly ever 
 after, that at last he died rather than deny it. The 
 reasons which made Henry VHI. uphold the divine au- 
 thority of the Pope, are the clue to the history of the 
 severance of England from Rome afterwards. 
 
 What were they ? 
 
 We saw how the ruling idea of Henry VH. was to 
 establish himself and his heirs firmly on the throne. 
 Kings had hitherto had such precarious thrones that they 
 lived in constant fear of rebellions and pretenders. We 
 saw how Henry VII. relied greatly on his foreign policy 
 and alliances to make his throne secure, and that the 
 chief way of making these alliances firm, in 
 an age of bad faith and Machiavellian ma^rmge with 
 policy, was by royal marriages. Henry VII. Arra'^o"^ ^^ 
 knew Ferdinand of Spain would tell lies or 
 break his oath without remorse, but he also knew that 
 if he could marry his son and probable successor to 
 Ferdinand's daughter, Ferdinand would stick by him in 
 close alliance in order to secure that his daughter might 
 some day be queen of England. So Henry VII. had 
 married his eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Cathe- 
 rine of Arragon, and when Arthur died, had strained 
 a point to get Catherine betrothed to his next son, 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 Now there was a difficulty about this marriage. If the 
 marriage with Arthur was merely a formal marriage, then
 
 174 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 it was only an ecclesiastical matter, and the Pope's con- 
 sent to Catherine's marriage with Henry might make all 
 right. But if it was a real marriage, then 
 
 Secret doubts , , . . , -, , , , 
 
 about its the second marriage with Henry would be 
 
 vaidity. clearly contrary to the divine law, as con- 
 
 tained in the Book of Leviticus, where marriage with a 
 brother's wife was forbidden : and so, in that case, the 
 question would be whether the Pope could set aside the 
 divine law, and make lawful what it forbad. To do this 
 must certainly be a great stretch of the papal power, and 
 it only could be justified on the very high ground of the 
 divine authority of the Pope. 
 
 The betrothal of Henry to Catherine was from the 
 
 beginning a miserable affair. Its object was political. 
 
 It was. his father Henry VII. 's doing while 
 
 Its unsatisfac- ^ " 
 
 torj' beginning, he was a boy ; and so doubtful, to say the 
 least, was its validity to those who knew all 
 about it, that to Henry VII. 's superstitious mind the death 
 of his queen seemed a divine judgment upon it. He 
 even then, as we have seen, proposed to marry Catherine 
 himself, but Ferdinand of Spain would not hear of it. A 
 bull was obtained from Pope Julius II., treating the ques- 
 tion of the reality of the former marriage as doubtful, but, 
 notwithstanding the doubts, sanctioning Catherine's mar- 
 riage with Henry. The betrothal was completed, but 
 the wary monarch made his son sign a secret protest 
 against it as soon as he was of age, so that he might at 
 any time set it aside if the turn of political events made 
 it expedient to do so. We must remember, however, 
 that some of these matters were court secrets, and would 
 never have been publicly known had not future events 
 brought them to light. 
 
 Upon the accession of Henry VIII. it was needful for 
 him to make up his mind about his marriage. The
 
 CH. II. Revolt of E}tglaiid fro)ii Rome. 175 
 
 doubts and difficulties remained the same as ever to those 
 who knew all about it, and it was not possible to dispel 
 them. But the alliance with Spain was still considered 
 important. And so the marriage with Catherine was 
 concluded. The public were told that the former mar- 
 riage had never been consummated, and that Henry 
 VIII. was acting under the sanction of a Papal bull. 
 This silenced talk out of doors, and the king smothered 
 any secret doubts of his own, relying on the divine au- 
 thority of the Pope. So the matter was concluded, and 
 now for years had not been questioned again; When, 
 therefore, Luther's attack upon the divine authority of 
 the Pope was attracUng attention every- 
 where, we see that Henry VIII. had serious rested on the 
 
 r , . r 1 r ^• • tt Divine autho- 
 
 reasons of his own lor defendmg it. He rity of the 
 knew in fact that the validity of his mar- ^°P^" 
 riage, and the legitimacy of his children's rights to suc- 
 ceed to the throne, depended upon it. 
 
 He had naturally been very anxious for an heir, so 
 that his throne might be secure. Unless he had an heir, 
 people must be thinking who will be king 
 next, and plotting to succeed to the throne, .^^nxilty about^ 
 Henry and Catherine had had several, chil- I.u(.^efsion 
 dren, but all had died except one — the 
 Princess Mary — who, at the time of the Diet And anxiety tt. 
 of Worms, was a child of four years old. te'rms°wi?h°the 
 On her alone the succession depended, and charles"v 
 Henry was anxious to secure it, as we have 
 seen, by a close alliance with the Pope and Spain, ce- 
 mented by the marriage of the Princess Mary to Charles 
 V. Henry VIII. knew that the succession to the throne 
 might at any time Vje made very precarious indeed if he 
 should ever quarrel with the Papal and Spanish Courts. 
 
 An event which happened about this time showed how
 
 176 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 
 
 keenly alive Henry VIII. was to these anxieties about 
 ^ . , the successsion of the Princess Mary. He 
 
 Execution of 
 
 the Duke of Startled the world all at once by the execu- 
 forhavfng^ tion of the Duke of Buckingham for trea- 
 his eye upon ^^^ ^qj. Slaving his eye on the succession 
 
 the succes- ' ° •' 
 
 siontothe to the throne. The Duke, it was said, 
 amongst other things, had been heard to 
 speak of the death of the royal children as judgments on 
 Henry and Catherine for their marriage. This was 
 enough to rouse Henry's suspicions, and so, after a 
 formal trial, he was found guilty of treason and be- 
 headed as a warning to others. 
 
 (<:) Sir Thomas More defends Henry VIII. against 
 Luther, 
 
 Probably the secret which Henry VIII. confided to 
 
 Sir Thomas More had something to do with the doubts 
 
 ^^ , about the validity of the marriage, and 
 
 Effect of . ' ° ' 
 
 knowledge of Opened his eyes to the fact how the succes- 
 
 viTl/s se- sion to the throne and the safety of the 
 
 Th'm" ^"^ kingdom was involved in the divine au- 
 
 More's tliority of the Pope. It set him, as we have 
 
 said, studying the fathers until he came to 
 
 the conclusion that an authority which had long been 
 
 recognized, and on which so much depended, must have 
 
 divine sanction. Having come to this conclusion, he 
 
 was not likely to be made more favourable to Luther than 
 
 he otherwise would have been. We have seen that the 
 
 Oxford Reformers had from the first taken high ground 
 
 on the necessity of unity in the Christian Church. They 
 
 had also always been opposed to the Augustinian views 
 
 which Luther had adopted. They had agreed with 
 
 Luther in little but in the demand for "a religious and 
 
 ecclesiastical reform.
 
 CH. 11. Revolt of England from Rome. 177 
 
 Erasmus had refused to identify himself with Luther, 
 and while defending him up to a certain point against 
 the Papal party had urged upon him moderation. This 
 advice Luther had not followed, and now Erasmus held 
 aloof from the Protestant struggle, urging moderation on 
 both sides, preaching unity, and going on quietly with 
 his own works, amongst which were fresh editions of his 
 New Testament. 
 
 It is not surprising, then, that when Luther wrote his 
 violent reply to Henry VIII. 's book, More should be 
 ready to defend it. He did so, and as time went on his 
 zeal against Luther grew by degrees almost into hatred. 
 As news of the wild doings of the prophets of Zwickau 
 and the horrors of the Peasants' War were reported in 
 England, More laid the blame on Luther. He regarded 
 him as a dangerous fanatic, scattering everywhere the 
 seeds of rebellion against the powers that be, whether 
 civil or religious. 
 
 He also urged his friend Erasmus to write against 
 Luther. In 1524, on the eve of the Peasants' War, 
 Erasmus did write a book against Luther's „ 
 
 ° . Keaction in 
 
 strong Augustinian views, in which he urged the minds of 
 
 , , 1 1 , 11 J r Erasmus and 
 
 that they were sure to lead to all sorts 01 More against 
 abuses in wilder hands. In the year of the Luther. 
 Peasants' War Sir Thomas More wrote an earnest letter 
 to one of Luther's supporters in Wittenberg, charging 
 the Lutheran movement with having lit the flame of se- 
 dition and set Germany on fire. 
 
 It is sad to see good and noble men like More hurried 
 into reaction, and unable to see the good and noble 
 points in a man like Luther, as well as his violence and 
 errors. But it was not unnatural. He dreaded lest the 
 heresies which had led in Germany to the Peasants' 
 War, might spread into England, and lest heresy and 
 N
 
 178 Results of ilic Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 
 
 treason should again be joined as in the days of the 
 Lollards. His judgment was no doubt to some extent 
 carried away by his fears. But we must recognize the 
 sincerity and mental reactions such as these in the lives 
 of good men. Each class of Reformers we have seen 
 to be suspicious of those who went further and faster 
 than they did themselves. Honest men of the old school 
 blamed Erasmus for all that happened. Erasmus, they 
 said, had laid the ^ZZ' ^^^ Luther had hatched it. Eras- 
 mus, in his turn, blamed Luther's violent conduct and 
 language. Luther again denounced Miinzer and the wild 
 prophets of revolution, as well as the poor deluded pea- 
 sants. If this was natural, so was the reaction in the 
 mind of Sir Thomas More. We need not, however, re- 
 gret it any the less on that account. 
 
 {(T) Reasons for Henry VIII.' s ehange of Policy. 
 
 Having thus seen that Henry VIII. from policy, and 
 More from conviction, were at this time strongly in fa- 
 vour of the Pope and his divine authority, the next thing 
 is to mark how long Henry VIII. continued of this 
 mind. The answer is, Just so long as his alliance with 
 Spain continued. 
 
 During the wars of the Emperor, the Pope, and Henry 
 
 VIII. with France, Wolsey (now cardinal and legate, 
 
 and Archbishop of York, and soon after lord chancellor 
 
 also) was the war minister. It was he who 
 
 Wolsey, the 
 
 great war kuew all the mind of Henry VIII. and car- 
 
 H't"nry^vni. ricd on his secret negotiations with Charles 
 V. and the Pope. It was he who managed 
 the treachery with Francis I., and made what prepara- 
 tion was needful for royal meetings, embassies, and 
 wars. It was Wolsey, too, who had to manage parlia- 
 ments, and urge them to grant subsidies to pay for the
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. \irj 
 
 wars, and when he could get no more money from 
 Parhament it was Wolsey who managed to get it by le- 
 gal means, such as forced contributions from private 
 persons called ' benevolences.' 
 
 More was a novice on the privy council, ,, 
 
 More opposed 
 
 and holding Utopian views, often in a mi- to the wars 
 nority against Wolsey's measures. Once he 
 was alone in disapproval of the great minister's plans. 
 Wolsey hinted that he must be a fool. ' God be thanked,' 
 replied More, ' that the king has but one fool in his 
 council ! ' 
 
 It mattered little to the king or Wolsey what he 
 thought, but More took care to let the king know that 
 England's joining in the wars with France was against 
 his judgment. 
 
 Wolsey's and Henry's confidence in Charles V. was 
 shattered by degrees. First came the treachery of 
 Charles V. in not helping to secure the dec- ^, , „ 
 
 Charles V. s 
 
 tion of Wolsey as Pope on the death of treachery, 
 
 Leo X. and afterwards of Adrian VI. Then 
 
 came the continuance of the war against France, under 
 
 the Duke of Bourbon, who flattered Henry with hopes 
 
 of regaining in case of victory the lost English provinces 
 
 in France. Next came Pope Clement VII. 's 
 
 fast and loose game with the allied sove- Pope's '^ 
 
 reigns ; and lastly, the battle of Pavia. Of 
 
 these events we have spoken in a previous chapter. 
 
 On hearing the news of the capture of Francis I. at 
 the battle of Pavia, Henry VIII. proposed that he himself 
 should be king of France and Charles V. marry the 
 Princess Mary, so that in her right Charles V. might 
 some day become lord of all Christendom. Up to this 
 moment he had clearly not changed his mind. He still 
 wished to continue the Spanish alliance, and was true to
 
 i8o RcsicUs of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 
 
 Catherine and the Princess Mary. But just as his hopes 
 were at their highest point they vanished for ever. 
 Charles V. let Francis I. resume his throne on conditions 
 which the Pope declared to be null and void. Charles 
 v., instead of marrying the Princess Mary, married the 
 Infanta of Portugal, and Henry found him- 
 VIII. 's self betrayed. Charles V. and the Pope, on 
 
 poitcy"all at whose alliance so much depended, had now 
 sea again. \,o'Cn escaped from his control. When, by 
 
 the conquest of Rome, the Pope himself soon after be- 
 came Charles V.'s prisoner and tool, Henry VIII. 's for- 
 eign politics were indeed all at sea. 
 
 {e) The Crisis — Henry VIII. determines upon the 
 
 Divorce from Catherine of Arragon. 
 
 Now look at Henry VIII.'s position. Mary was still 
 
 his only child. There had never yet been a queen on 
 
 „ , , the throne of England. He could no longer 
 Results of * " 
 
 breach with rely on Charlcs V. and the Pope. They at 
 
 any time, and for political purposes, and in 
 spite of Henry, could dispute the legitimacy of his only 
 daughter. Once more the succession to the throne was 
 uncertain, and in its nature the uncertainty could not be 
 cured. What was he to do ? 
 
 He resolved to take the bull by the horns, to divorce 
 himself from Catherine of Arragon, to disinherit Mary, to 
 Political rea- marry a young maid of honour, named 
 vorce from ' Anne Boleyn, and to hope for other heirs to 
 Catherine. ^^iQ crown. It was a bold pohcy, for mar- 
 riage was a matter which belonged to the ecclesiastical 
 empire, and so the divorce required the Pope's consent. 
 Wolsey set his wits to work to secure the Pope's sanc- 
 tion to the divorce. He got his own ecclesiastical power 
 as legate increased by the Pope, and Cardinal Campeg-
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. i8i 
 
 gio over from Rome to join him in deciding on the 
 validity of the marriage. He tried every means to se- 
 cure the divorce required by Henry. He ,„ , 
 
 ^ _ •' ^ Wolsey tries 
 
 had no notion of destroying in Henry's to get the Pope 
 
 11 1 1 ■ 1-1 1 i to grant a di- 
 
 mmd the papal authority which as legate vorce, but 
 he wielded in part, and as pope still hoped ^^''^• 
 some day to wield entirely. Had he succeeded in obtain- 
 ing the papal sanction, there would have been no breach 
 with Rome. But he failed. The Pope, at the bidding 
 of his Spanish conqueror, made endless de- Henry viil. 
 
 , J/- • . j-iUi-u takes the mat- 
 
 lays ; and Campeggio returned without hav- ter into his 
 ing settled anything. At last, in spite of all °*" *^ands. 
 that Wolsey could do, Henry VIII. determined to mar- 
 ry Anne Boleyn, and took the matter into his own hands. 
 This involved a deliberate breach with Rome and the 
 fall of Wolsey. Henry VIII. made up his mind to face both. 
 
 (/) Fall of Wolsey {ij2p-isjo). 
 
 Cardinal Wolsey had been the very type of an over- 
 grown ecclesiastical potentate. Second to none but the 
 king, he had assumed to himself a viceregal „„ ^,„ , 
 
 ° ° Fall of Wolsey. 
 
 magnificence and state. And now that ec- 
 clesiastical grievances had come to the top, and, above 
 all, the king kimself was quarelling with the Pope, Wol- 
 sey became a sort of scapegoat for both ecclesiastical 
 and papal sins. He was condemned formally for having 
 used his legatine and ecclesiastical authority contrary to 
 the royal prerogative. But the king had so far connived 
 at and sanctioned the very things for which he was now 
 condemned, and used them for his own purposes, that 
 he could hardly deal very harshly with his old minister. 
 He left him his archbishopric of York, to which he re- 
 turned in 1 530. There he resumed some of his old state, 
 but by his intrigues to obtain popularity amongst the
 
 1 82 Results ijf t]ie Protestant Revolution. pt. ill. 
 
 Northern nobles again excited the fears of the court. 
 Messengers were sent down to arrest him of high treason, 
 and he was on his journey to London to answer the 
 charge, when, seized by a fever, he died at Leicester 
 Abbey, having given utterance to the famous words, 'Had 
 I served my God as I have served my king, he would 
 not have given me over in my gray hairs ! ' Henry 
 VHL was not conspicuous for gratitude to his ministers. 
 
 {g) The Parlia7neftt of \i,2g-i ^2)^. Revolt of England 
 
 from Rotne. 
 
 Wolsey was dismissed in 1529. Hitherto the chief 
 
 ministers and lord chancellors of kings of England had 
 
 „. ~, been ecclesiastics. This rule was now 
 
 sir Thomas 
 
 More lord broken through. The Dukes of Norfolk and 
 
 Suffolk were made chief ministers and Sir 
 Thomas More lord chancellor. Lastly, a parliament was 
 called, 
 
 A crisis had come in English history. The parliament , 
 of 1529 was to England what the Diet of Worms might 
 „ ,. have been to Germany. The English Com- 
 
 Parhament r i • i- 
 
 of 1529. A mons made use of this parliament, as the 
 
 English his- Germans did of the Diet of Worms, to make 
 
 oletof^ *^ complaints against the clergy and the eccle- 
 
 Worms in siastical courts. For a long time the people 
 
 German , ,., i ^ i i • i 
 
 history. of England, like the Germans, had resisted 
 
 the power of the ecclesiastical empire. The freedom of 
 
 the clergy from the jurisdiction of the secular courts on 
 
 the one hand, the jurisdiction of the ecclesi- 
 
 Complaints 
 
 against the astical courts on the other hand over laymen 
 
 clergy and . * , . i_ .. r 
 
 ecclesiastical m such matters as marriages, probates 01 
 abuses. wills, and the distribution of property 
 
 amongst the next of kin on the death of the owner, were 
 real and long-standing grievances. The clergy, by their
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 1S3 
 
 ecclesiastical courts, harassed and taxed the people be- 
 yond endurance. The character of the clergy and monks 
 was also grievously complained of. Wolsey 
 had sought, as Cardinal Morton had done attempts at 
 
 , c 1 . ^ c ii 1 TT- ecclesiastical 
 
 before him, to reform these abuses. Him- reform under 
 
 self a cardinal and legate, he had sought Pj^p^' ^""^°- 
 powers from the Pope to repress the evils ; 
 
 to visit and even suppress some of the worst and pariia- 
 
 ^ , . . , , ment now 
 
 of the monasteries and correct the clergy ; take up the 
 and his scheme, partly carried out, was to '"=^"'^'^- 
 found colleges at the universities out of the proceeds. 
 This was all very well as far as it went, but it never went 
 far enough to be of much use, and now the time of re- 
 formation under papal authority was passed. Both king 
 and parliament were in a mind to undertake themselves 
 the needed ecclesiastical reforms. 
 
 A petition, describing at length the ecclesiastical 
 grievances, was laid by the Commons before the king. 
 The king submitted it to the bishops, at the ^ . . 
 
 . . . r 1 1 Petition of 
 
 same time requiring henceforth that no new the Com- 
 law should be passed by the clergy in con- "c"es?fs^-'"^' 
 vocation, any more than in parliament, "'^^' g"ev- 
 
 ' ■' f ' ances. 
 
 without his royal consent. The bishops tried 
 to explain away the complaints, but before parliament 
 was prorogued acts were passed fixing at reasonable sums 
 the amounts to be demanded for probate of wills and 
 funeral fees, prohibiting the clergy from engaging in 
 secular business, or holding too many benefices, and 
 obliging them to reside in their parishes. 
 
 These were matters of practical reform, such as Colet 
 had urged in his sermon to convocation in 1511. He 
 had urged that the clergy in convocation „ . , 
 
 J °-' Practical 
 
 should take up these reforms, and reform reforms. 
 themselves. They had let eighteen years slip by without
 
 184 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 doing it, and now the bolder power of Parliament was 
 over-ruling their feeble opposition. 
 
 Meanwhile the divorce question went into another 
 phase. Cranmer now came on to the scene. He was 
 The divorce soon to be the chief ecclesiastical adviser of 
 beforlThi''''^ Henry VIII. He consulted the chief univer- 
 Universities sities of Europc on the power of Pope Julius 
 
 by Cranmer. ,. .,,,.., 
 
 to dispense with the divine law, and so upon 
 the validity of the marriage with Catherine. The Uni- 
 versities gave their opinions very much according to the 
 influence brought upon them. The English and French 
 were most in favour of Henry VIII. 's views. The 
 opinions were laid before parliament in 1531, but nothing 
 further was clone that year. 
 
 In its next two sessions this celebrated parliament 
 
 proceeded step by step with ecclesiastical 
 reforms. reforms. The greatest of all legislative 
 
 scandals, benefit of clergy, was curtailed. Payment of 
 
 annates to Rome was forbidden. Appeals 
 
 The king 
 
 declared to Rome were abolished. Heretics were still 
 
 head^oFthe to be bumed, but speaking against the Pope 
 En"land°^ was declared no longer to be heresy. The 
 
 instead of king's asscnt was made necessary to eccle- 
 
 siastical ordinances. The Pope's jurisdiction 
 in England was abolished and transferred to the king. 
 Lastly he assumed the title of supreme head of the 
 Church of England, which was finally confirmed by 
 Parliament in 1 534. 
 
 The king meanwhile determined to deal 
 
 The king - . , , . . ^ , , ^ , 
 
 marries Anne With his own marriage. In dehance 01 the 
 revok"of ^ Pope, he married Anne Boleyn in January 
 England 1 532-3. The marriage with Catherine was 
 
 from Kome jj ~j a 
 
 is now com- declared null and void by Cranmer, now 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and by act of
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 1S5 
 
 parliament. Thus the breach with Rome was complete. 
 England had, in fact, revolted from the ecclesiastical em- 
 pire, by the joint action of king and parhament, and with 
 the assent, however reluctant, even of the clergy. 
 
 {h) Heresy still pxinished in England. 
 Now it will be observed that all this came to pass 
 without any change of religious creed, without England 
 becoming Lutheran or Protestant. All the while heresy 
 was a crime against which king and parhament and 
 clergy were equally severe. The breach with .^.^^^^ j^^^ 
 Rome made no difference on this point, ex- been no 
 
 change oi 
 
 cept that speaking against the Pope was no religious 
 longer heresy. There was as stern a deter- 
 
 . .1 J r Heretics still 
 
 mination as ever to prevent the spread 01 persecuted, 
 heresy in England. Wolsey's dying advice ^^"eVS/, 
 to Henry VIII. in November 1 530 was not to t^^e transla- 
 
 .' ■'-^ tor of the 
 
 let the new pernicious sect of the Lutherans New Testa- 
 spread in England. Tindal, the noble single- '"^" ' 
 minded Englishman to whom we owe the first translation 
 of the New Testament into English, was all this while 
 watched and tracked and persecuted from place to place 
 as a dangerous foe. Fired with zeal by reading the New 
 Testament of Erasmus, to give the English people access 
 to its truths in the " vulgar tongue," he pursued his ob- 
 ject with a heroism and patriotism which should make his 
 name dear to Englishmen. Strange was it that one of his 
 persecutors was Sir Thomas More, who, in his "Utopia," 
 had expressed views in favour of religious toleration. 
 
 It was just after the sack of Rome that More pub- 
 lished his opinion that heresy, being dangerous to the 
 state, ought to be punished in England, lest Sir Thomas 
 it should lead to similar results to those it had against ^ 
 led to on the Continent. It was only a few ^'-'''-''^y-
 
 1 86 Results of tlid Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 months after, that when, on the fall of Wolsey in 1529, he 
 was made lord chancellor, he had to swear by his oath of 
 office, amongst other things, to carry out the laws against 
 heresy. He became now, by virtue of his office, the 
 public prosecutor of heretics. The bishops were his most 
 active police, and ever and anon poor men were handed 
 over to him for examination and legal punishment. The 
 times were barbarous. Torture was used in the examina- 
 tion of criminals and of heretics also, and, it can hardly 
 be doubted, even in the presence of Sir Thomas More. 
 Yet, in a certain way, More's gentleness showed itself 
 even in persecution. By the law of the land, heretics 
 must abjure or be burned. More tried hard to save both 
 their bodies 'and souls. He used every ineans in his 
 power to induce them to abjure. During the first two 
 years of his chancellorship he staved off the evil day. 
 Every single heretic abjured ; no single fire had yet 
 been lit in Smithfield during his rule ; but, in the last six 
 months of it, three abjured heretics relapsing into heresy 
 were burned under his authority, the dying martyrs' 
 prayers rising from the stake, " May the Lord forgive Sir 
 Thomas More !" " May the Lord open the eyes of Sir 
 Thomas More !" 
 
 Strange was it that during these sad months, while 
 More was persecuting others for conscience' sake, he 
 himself had to choose between his own conscience and 
 death. 
 
 (/) Execution of Sir Thomas Afore (1535). 
 We have seen that he had come to the conviction that 
 the Pope was head of the Church by divine authority. 
 ,, ^. ,, He had held his post of Lord Chancellor so 
 
 More himself »^ • i j 
 
 has to suffer _ long as the action of Parliament mvolved 
 ^or^conscience ^^^^ ^^^ much needed reform of ecclesias- 
 tical abuses— till 1532. But so soon as, in
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England fro7n Rome. 187 
 
 1532, he saw the breach with Rome was inevitable, and 
 that Henry VIII. would delay no longer, he resigned the 
 seals and retired into the bosom of his home at Chelsea 
 — that home which Erasmus had made known all over 
 Europe as a pattern in respect of domestic virtue, cul- 
 ture, and happiness. 
 
 More had firmly told the king that he disapproved of 
 the divorce, both before and after he was lord chancel- 
 lor. He declined to be present at Anne Boleyn's coro- 
 nation ; and when warned and threatened by order of 
 the king, his brave reply was that threats were argu- 
 ments for cJiildrcn, not for him. When the oath ac- 
 knowledging Anne Boleyn as the lawful wife of Henry 
 VIII. was administered to him, he refused to take it. 
 Bishop Fisher alone among the whole bench ,, 
 
 ^ ° More and 
 
 of bishops did the same. More and Fisher Fisher sent 
 were therefore sent to the Tower.' 
 
 Himself in prison for conscience' sake, More's thoughts 
 turned to the heretics against whom he had been so zea- 
 lous ; and he left a paper for his friends warning them 
 if ever, by reason of their office, they had to punish 
 others, not to let their zeal outrun their charity. It was, 
 perhaps, a confession that it had been so with him. He 
 pondered also on the divisions in the Church, and ex- 
 pressed his hopes that after all there might be a recon- 
 ciliation between Catholics and Protestants. 
 
 His wife visited him in prison, and reminded him of 
 his home and his peril in not taking the oath. ' Good 
 Mistress Alice,' he replied to her, 'tell me one thing: Is 
 not this house as nigh heaven as mine own ?' 
 
 His beloved daughter Margaret Roper visited him of- 
 ten, and the story of his love for her and her daughterly 
 affection for him, has become a favourite theme of his- 
 torians, painters, and poets.
 
 1 88 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill. 
 
 His trial, like that of the Duke of Buckingham, was 
 a typical Tudor trial. It was not a question of guilt or 
 innocence, but of state necessity. Anne Boleyn's star 
 being in the ascendant. Sir Thomas More and Bishop 
 Fisher must die. 
 
 This is Mr. Froude's account of More's death : 
 ' The four days which remained to him he spent in 
 ' prayer, and in severe bodily discipline. On the night 
 . . ' of the 5th of July, although he did not 
 
 Execution of "^ j j • o 
 
 Sir Thomas ' know the time which had been fixed for 
 ' his execution, yet, with an instinctive feel- 
 ' ing that it was near, he sent his daughter Margaret his 
 ' hair-shirt and whip, as having no more need of them, 
 ' with a parting blessing of affection. 
 
 ' He then lay down and slept quietly. At daybreak 
 ' he was awoke by the entrance of Sir Thomas Pope, who 
 ' had come to confirm his anticipations, and to tell him 
 ' that it was the king's pleasure that he should suffer at 
 ' 9 o'clock that morning. He received the news with 
 ' utter composure. " I am much bounden to the king," 
 ' he said, " for the benefits and honours he has bestowed 
 ' " upon me ; and, so help me God, most of all am I 
 ' " bounden to him that it pleaseth his Majesty to rid me 
 ' " shortly out of the miseries of this present world." 
 
 ' Pope told him the king desired he would not use 
 ' many words on the scaffold. " Mr. Pope," he answered, 
 ' " you do well to give me warning ; for, otherwise, I had 
 ' " purposed somewhat to have spoken, but no matter 
 ' " therewith his grace should have cause to be offended. 
 ' " Howbeit, whatever I intended, I shall obey his High- 
 ' " ness' command." 
 
 ' He afterwards discussed the arrangements for his 
 ' funeral, at which he begged that his family might be 
 ' present ; and when all was settled, Pope rose to leave
 
 CH. 11. Revolt of England from Rome. 189 
 
 him. He was an old friend. He took More's hand 
 and wrung it, and, quite overcome, burst into tears. 
 
 ' " Quiet yourself, Mr. Pope," More said, " and be not 
 " discomfited, for I trust we shall once see each other 
 " full merrily, when we shall live and love together in 
 " eternal bliss." 
 
 ' So about 9 of the clock he was brought by the lieu- 
 tenant out of the Tower, his beard being long, which 
 fashion he had never before used — his face pale and 
 lean, carrying in his hands a red cross, casting his eyes 
 often toward heaven. He had been unpopular as a 
 judge, and one or two persons in the crowd were inso- 
 lent to him ; but the distance was short, and soon over, 
 as all else was nearly over now. 
 
 ' The scaffold had been awkwardly erected, and shook 
 as he placed his foot upon the ladder. "See me safe 
 " up," he said to Kingston; "for my coming down I 
 " can shift for myself." He began to speak to the peo- 
 ple, but the sheriff begged him not to proceed ; and 
 he contented himself with asking for their prayers, and 
 desiring them to bear witness for him that he died in 
 the faith of the holy Catholic Church, and a faithful 
 servant of God and the king. He then repeated the 
 Miserere Psalm on his knees ; and when he had ended 
 and had arisen, the executioner, with an emotion which 
 promised ill for the manner in which his part would be 
 accomplished, begged his forgiveness. More kissed 
 him, " Thou art to do me the greatest benefit that I 
 " can receive," he said ; " pluck up thy spirit, man, and 
 " be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very 
 " short ; take heed, therefore, that thou strike not awry 
 " for saving of thine honesty." The executioner offered 
 to tie his eyes. " I will cover them myself," he said ; 
 and, binding them in a cloth which he had brought
 
 IQO Results of the Protestant Rcvohition. pt. iii. 
 
 ' with him, he knelt and laid his head upon the block. 
 ' The fatal stroke was about to fall, when he signed for a 
 'moment's delay, while he moved aside his beard. 
 
 ' " Pity that should be cut," he murmured, " that has 
 ' " not committed treason." With which strange words — 
 ' the strangest, perhaps, ever uttered at such a time — the 
 ' lips famous through Europe for eloquence and wisdom 
 ' closed for ever.' 
 
 {k)Death of Erasmus. (1536). 
 The news of the Death of Sir Thomas More in 1535 
 reached Erasmus in old age and suffering from illness, 
 ^ but labouring still with his pen to the last. 
 
 Erasmus . . 
 
 dies soon He was Writing a book on the ' Purity of the 
 
 Church,' and in the preface he described 
 his friend as ' a soul purer than snow.' He lived only a 
 few months longer, died in 1536, and was buried in the 
 cathedral at Basle with every token of respect. 
 
 Not forty years had passed since Erasmus had first 
 met Coletat Oxford, and since the three Oxford students 
 ^, , ^ whom for the sake of distinction we have 
 
 The work of 
 
 the Oxford Called the Oxford Reformers, jomed heart 
 had pro- 'ind soul in that fellow-work which had 
 
 resuTts^"^^^' caught its inspiration from Florence. How 
 much had come out of their fellow work ! 
 Colet, the one who brought the inspiration from Flo- 
 rence, had died in 15 19, before the crisis came. But 
 even then the work of the Oxford Reformers was already 
 in one sense done. They had sown their seed. The 
 New Testament of Erasmus was already given to the 
 world, and nothing had so paved the way for the Protes- 
 tant Reformation as that great work had done. Since 
 Colet's death, Erasmus and More had never met. Each 
 had taken his own line. More was driven far further
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 191 
 
 into reaction than Erasmus. After the Peasants' War 
 and the sack of Rome, Erasmus still preached tolerance 
 on the one hand, and satirized the monks and school- 
 men on the other hand. And his satire Avas just as 
 bitter in these later writings as it had been in the 
 ' Praise of Folly.' But he too, like More, held on to 
 their old hatred of schism, preached concord in the 
 Church, and longed for a reconciliation between the 
 contending parties. 
 
 (/) Dissolution of the Monasteries, and Reform of the 
 Universities 1536. 
 
 The bitter satire of Erasmus upon the monks bore 
 fruit sooner than he himself expected, and especially in 
 England. The necessity of a thorough re- ^, 
 
 . ^ . . .^ * The work set 
 
 form m the monasteries was now every, a going by 
 where acknowledged, and there was no Reformers 
 longer any reason to wait for bulls from ^"" °"' 
 Rome before beginning the work. The king was in a 
 mood to humble the monks. The bishops and secular 
 clergy had bowed their heads to the royal supremacy. 
 The time now for the monks and abbots had come. 
 
 Within a few months of More's death, a commission 
 was issued by Thomas Cromwell (the minis- 
 
 , . ^ , Cromwell, 
 
 ter who was now vicegerent of the new now ecciesi- 
 
 royal ecclesiastical authority), for a general fer of Henry" 
 
 visitation of the monasteries. viii., in- 
 
 quires into 
 The popular complaints against them were the state of 
 
 not found to be baseless. Scandal had long teries. 
 
 been busy about the morals of the monks. 
 
 The commissioners found them on inquiry worse even 
 
 than scandal had whispered, and reported to Parliament 
 
 that two-thirds of the monks were leading vicious lives 
 
 under cover of their cowls and hoods.
 
 192 Results of the Protestant Revolutio7i. pt. iii. 
 
 Erasmus, in his ' Colloquies,' had spread all over 
 Europe his suspicions that the relics by which the monks 
 attracted so many pilgrims, and so much wealth in offer- 
 ings to their shrines, were false and their miracles pre- 
 . , tended. He had visited and described both 
 
 And into ,. , , 
 
 shrines and the two great English shrines of ' St. 
 Thomas ^ Becket ' and ' Our Lady of 
 Walsingham,' and had dared to hint that the congealed 
 milk of the Virgin exhibited at the one was a mixture of 
 chalk and white of ^gg, and that the immense wealth 
 of the other would be of more use if given to the poor. 
 The result of the royal inquiry convinced Henry VIII. 
 that the 'milk of our Lady' was 'chalk or white lead,' 
 and that Thomas ^ Becket was no saint at all, but a 
 rebel against the royal prerogative of Henry II. 
 
 The result of the visitation was the dissolution at once 
 ^. , . , of the smaller, and a few years afterwards 
 
 Dissolution of 
 
 the monaste- of the larger monasteries, the monks being 
 struction of pensioned off, and the remainder of their 
 shrines. \2l?X cstatcs being vested in the king. 
 
 The universities as well as the monasteries were visited 
 by the Commissioners, and that reform was carried out 
 „ , , , at the universities which Colet, forty years 
 
 Reform of the ^ r 1 <• 
 
 Universities. before, had begun at Oxford ; a reform 
 which converted them from schools of the 
 old into schools of the new learning. ' The learning of 
 the wholesome doctrines of Almighty God and the three 
 tongues, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, which be requisite 
 for the understanding of Scripture,' were specially en- 
 joined, while the old scholastic text-books became waste 
 paper and were treated as such. 
 
 These were the final labors of the memorable Parlia- 
 , ment which begun in 1 520, accomplished the 
 
 Parliament of , ^ ^'^ •', -^ i- i i 
 
 1529-36 revolt from Rome, and was now dissolved 
 
 dissolved. . ^ 
 
 in 1530.
 
 CH. II. Revolt of Englaiid from Rome. 193 
 
 One step further the Reformation went under Cran- 
 mer and Cromwell. In 1536 the Scriptures ^ 
 
 . , „ ,. , . . Tindal s trans- 
 
 themselves, m the English translation of lationofthe 
 Tindal, revised and completed by Cover- sanctioned, 
 dale, were ordered to be placed in every 
 church, and the clergy were instructed to exhort all men 
 to read them. Thus England owes the basis of her no- 
 ble translation of the Bible to William Tindal. He lived 
 to see it thus published by royal authority, ,, 
 
 ,. ^ ,, . . . . Martyrdom of 
 
 but soon after fell a victim to persecution in Tindal. 
 Flanders, and ended his heroic life in a 
 martyr's death. 
 
 (;;/) Later Years of Henry VIII. (i 536-1 547). 
 
 In 1536 Queen Catherine died, and in the same year 
 the still more miserable Anne Boleyn was 
 divorced, and, with the partners of her al- Anne"Bol"yn. 
 leged guilt, beheaded. 
 
 The sole offspring of this ill-fated marriage was the 
 Princess Elizabeth, and she now, like the Princess Mary, 
 was declared illegitimate, and thus the succession was 
 again uncertain. 
 
 To meet this difficulty the king married his third 
 queen, yatte Seymour, and parliament set- ,, 
 
 , 1 , • -i rr ■ , Henry VIII. 
 
 tied the succession upon her offspring, and marries Jane 
 in default of a direct heir, upon such person ^y"""""- 
 as Henry VIII. should name in his will. 
 
 Meanwhile, this time of renewed unsettlcmcnt was 
 chosen by the papal party for a general rebellion, known 
 as ' The Pilcrpnaee of Grace.' Reforms had 
 
 ^ -* -^ , , A Catholic re- 
 
 gone too fast for many. It was not to be bdiion breaks 
 
 expected that so great a change should meet Nor't"/ ^ 
 
 with no opposition. It would have been 
 
 strange if Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher had 
 
 o
 
 194 Results of the Protestant Revolution, ft. hi. 
 
 been the only martyrs on the papal side. The rebellion 
 was chiefly in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. It was headed 
 by some of the old aristocracy, and no doubt was fo- 
 mented by the issue just before of a papal 
 
 fomented by '■ '■ 
 
 the Pope and buU of excommunication against Henry 
 
 Reginald Pole. ,rTTT ii • re- -i 
 
 Vlll., and by expectations of foreign aid. 
 Reginald Pole, a relation of the king's, and afterwards 
 legate and Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury under 
 Queen Mary, did his best, under papal encouragement, 
 to bring about a holy war against England, and thereby 
 
 enforce obedience to the papal power. But 
 
 It IS quelled. . 
 
 these schemes of war from without came to 
 nought, and the insurrection within was promptly met 
 and quelled. The royal supremacy was vindicated by 
 the execution of the chief rebels, and the Catholic reac- 
 tion thus postponed till the days of Queen Mary. 
 
 Probably the birth at this moment of a long-desired 
 prince (afterwards Edtuard VI.), did as much as the 
 Birth of execution of the rebels to assure the stability 
 
 Edward VI. ^f Henry's throne. But it cost the hfe of the 
 
 and death ol ■' 
 
 the Queen. queen-mother, and niade another marriage 
 a state necessity. While Cromwell was pursuing his 
 Henry VIII. policy, dissolving the remaining monasteries, 
 marries demolishincT the shrines of Walsingham and 
 
 Anne of " ° 
 
 Cleves, Canterbury, and transferring their wealth to 
 
 the royal exchequer, he had once more to arrange a 
 match for Henry. His choice fell upon Anne of Cleves, a 
 connexion of the Elector of Saxony. It fell in with Crom- 
 well's policy to use the opportunity to bring about a Prot- 
 estant alliance, and Henry married in 1 539 Anne of Cleves. 
 But how was it likely that he should fall in love with 
 a fourth wife who was plain-looking and spoke not a word 
 , , of English ? He soon was weary of his new 
 
 but does not ° •' ^ 
 
 like her. match, and as Wolsey was sacrificed to se-
 
 CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 195 
 
 cure the divorce of Catherine, so Cromwell was now 
 sacrificed to secure a divorce frorn Anne of Cromwell 
 Cleves. Another Tudor trial, with less show sacrificed to 
 
 get nd of her. 
 
 of justice even than those of the Duke of 
 Buckingham and Sir Thomas More, paved the way for 
 the state necessity. Cromwell, like Cranmer, had been 
 all along half a Protestant at heart. Unless he had been, 
 he could hardly have carried through as he did for the 
 king, the successful revolt of England from the ecclesi- 
 astical empire of Rome. The king had profited by that, 
 but he now meant to profit by Cromwell's fall. So Crom- 
 well died upon the scaffold as a traitor. 
 
 Henry was soon rid of Anne of Cleves. The Pro- 
 testant alliance fell through. A sort of reconciliation was 
 made with Charles V., who naturally hated Cromwell 
 more even than he had distrusted Wolsey. And a sort 
 of colour of religion was given to the whole Reconcilia- 
 proceeding by the more stringent repression Ji°" '\^'^\ 
 of those heresies towards which the fallen 
 minister was said to have been unduly lenient. This 
 was in 1 540. 
 
 The king now married the guilty and unfortunate 
 Catherine Howard, whose turn to die on the scaffold 
 came (so soon!) in 1542; and then at last Henry 
 came the final marriage with Catherine Parr, viii.'s last 
 
 ° two mar- 
 
 a virtuous widow, who proved an honoura- riages. 
 ble and efficient royal nurse during the king's few re- 
 maining years. 
 
 These years of his decaying health were marked by 
 the renewal of the alliance with Charles V. and breaches 
 of peace with Francis I. Henry's foreign Alliance 
 policy ended as it had begun under the ^''|' Spain, 
 
 * ^ _ ° and wars 
 
 shadow of Spanish ascendancy, threatened with France. 
 English invasion of France, French retaliative invasions
 
 196 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 of England, and financial difficulties which always fol- 
 lowed in the wake of war. The treasures of Henry VII. 
 sufficed not to supply the means for Henry VIII. 's 
 
 early wars with France. So again, in spite 
 Want of ■' , ^ 
 
 money. of the Wealth which came to the Crown from 
 
 the dissolution of monasteries and the destruction of the 
 
 shrines, the king in his last years found himself with an 
 
 empty exchequer, and obliged to debase the coinage to 
 
 ^ , , obtain the supplies he wanted. He died in 
 
 Death of ^^ 
 
 Henry VIII. Jan. 1 547 — the year after the death of Luther, 
 >n 1547- jygj. ^g Q\^J\[ war broke out in Germany, and 
 
 Charles V. set about conquering Germany with his 
 Spanish soldiers. 
 
 While Germany was passing through this struggle, 
 England was becoming more and more Protestant, under 
 Reform goes *-^^ guidance of Cranmer, who managed the 
 on during ecclesiastical affairs of England in the short 
 
 the reign 01 
 
 Edward VI. reign of Edward VI. 
 
 But a reaction was to follow. On Edward VI. 's death 
 in 1553 the Princess Mary became queen, 
 reaction under A Catholic herself, and the wife of Philip II. 
 yueen ary. ^^ Spain, she restored the Catholic faith in 
 England, and tried to quench the English Protestant 
 spirit in blood. But she died in 1558 — the same year as 
 ^ , J ^ Charles V. — and under her successor, the 
 
 tngland be- 
 comes finally Protestant Queen Elizabeth, the revolt of 
 
 unde^/Queen England from Rome became once for all an 
 Elizabeth. established fact. Thenceforth, both in po- 
 
 litics and in doctrine, England was a Protestant state. 
 
 {n) Influence of Henry VIII.' s reign on the English 
 Constitiitiott. 
 
 It has been sometimes said that Henry VIII. 's reign 
 was the reign of a tyrant, and that during his reign the
 
 CH. II. Reiwlt of Engla7idfro77i Rome. 197 
 
 English parliament was subservient and 
 
 How far the 
 
 cringing to the monarch. constitution 
 
 To judge of this matter rightly we must ^tned'.^'"' 
 remember that England was passing through 
 a great crisis in her history which we have likened to 
 that which was marked by the Diet of Worms in Ger- 
 man history. How different the English from the Ger- 
 man result ! At the Diet of Worms the Em- _ 
 
 Ine revolt 
 
 peror and princes acted in opposition to the from Rome 
 
 ,- 1 ,1 r accomplished 
 
 German people ; the necessary reforms were by constitu- 
 not made, and so there came revolution. In ''°"''' '"'^^"^• 
 the parliament of 1529-36 the king and House of Com- 
 mons acted together, and made the necessary reforms ; 
 the clergy submitted to them when they saw they must, 
 the dissolution of the monasteries removed the abbots 
 from the House of Lords and placed the lay lords in a 
 majority, and so in the end England was forced from 
 the yoke of the ecclesiastical empire of Rome by con- 
 stitutional means, without the revolutions and civil wars 
 which followed in Germany. 
 
 That such a revolution was peaceably wrought by 
 parliament under the guidance of the king's 
 ministers, Cromwell and Cranmer, sustained partirment ° 
 by most important precedents the power of ""^'n'^'ned. 
 parliament in the constitution. 
 
 During his wars, Henry VHT.'s ministers, especially 
 Wolsey, resorted to benevolences and forced loans to 
 obtain supplies. But the fall of Wolsey, 
 
 , , . , . - It preserved its 
 
 and on later occasions the sanction of par- control over 
 liament obtained afterwards by way of in- '^*^'*"""- 
 demnity for acts admitted to be illegal, kept up the con- 
 stitutional principle that the king could levy no taxes 
 without the consent of parliament. The real struggle 
 on this matter came in the days of the Stuarts.
 
 1^3 Results of the Protestant Rci'olution. pt. iii. 
 
 The new ecclesiastical powers of the king as supreme 
 head of the Church gave rise to new branches of juris- 
 . , , diction, some of which were of a dangerous 
 
 And over the _ , ° 
 
 making of kind. Parliament also, by statute, gave to 
 the king's proclamation, within a very re- 
 stricted range, the force of statutes, but this was repealed 
 in the next reign. And on the whole, the second great 
 constitutional principle on which English freedom is 
 based was well maintained ; viz., that the king could 
 make no new laws without consent of parliament, 
 
 Bearing these things in mind it would be hard to deny 
 ^ , , , that the parliaments of Henry VIII. deserve 
 
 On the whole ^ ■' 
 
 the parliaments tolerably wcll of Englishmen, considering 
 deserve'^well of the grcatncss of the crisis through which 
 Englishmen. ^^ \)Zx\l of the State had to be steered in 
 their time. 
 
 The greatest blots upon the reign of Henry VIII. were 
 
 the unjust trials for treason by which the most faithful 
 
 of ministers were sacrificed to clear away 
 
 Unjust State , ,• " i , , 
 
 trials the chief obstaclcs to royal policy, and the way that 
 reign of Henry Sometimes justice was sacrificed to the per- 
 ^^^^- sonal wishes or even passions of the king in 
 
 connexion with his unhappy matrimonial caprices. 
 
 These things will always stain the memory of Henry 
 VIII., but regarding his reign as a whole it would be 
 England fared Unfair to forget that in it a great crisis was 
 [hanVrance passcd through without civil war, which left 
 and Spain. England freed from the ecclesiastical em- 
 pire of Rome, and under a constitutional monarchy, 
 while France and Spain were left to struggle for cen- 
 turies more under the double tyranny of the ecclesiasti- 
 cal empire and their own absolute kings.
 
 CH. III. Denmai'k and Sioeden. 199 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 REVOLT OF DENMARK AND SWEDEN AND (lATER) OF 
 THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 [a] Denmark and Swede7i [j^2j-lj6o). 
 Denmark and Sweden both revolted from Rome, but 
 under peculiar circumstances. From 1520 to 1525 they 
 had both been governed by one kin^ — a „ , ^ 
 
 b 3 a g(^(j, Denmark 
 
 wretched tyrant — Christian II., who legally and Sweden 
 had little power, but following the royal yoke of Chris- 
 fashion of the day, tried to make himself an 'If" ^^- ^"'^^ 
 
 ' ' then separate. 
 
 absolute monarch. Denmark and Sweden 
 
 both rebelled, dethroned Christian II., and then went 
 
 their several ways. 
 
 In Sweden the people, /. e. the citizens and then the 
 peasantry, were sick of the tyranny of their nobles and 
 clergy, as well as their king, and sighed for The Swedes 
 a good king strong enough to curb them, vasa thd^^"^ 
 It was the old story, what the citizens and '^'"S 
 peasantry of Germany had long sighed for in vain. But 
 in Sweden they got what they wanted. They elected as 
 king Gustavus Vasa, a noble who had taken the popular 
 side against their former tyrant ; and having elected him, 
 they backed him in carrying out in Sweden very much 
 the same sort of reforms as Henry VIII. had Sweden, under 
 carried out in England. The clergy were a'pr'otMtam" 
 humbled, their property seized by the crown, nation, 
 and Sweden, roused to a sense of national life under 
 Gustavus Vasa, took its place among modern nations. It 
 was soon to play a prominent part in the great struggle 
 between Catholic and Protestant powers. The Swedish 
 king, Gustavus Adolphus, was the greatest of the Pro- 
 testant leaders in the Thirty Years' War.
 
 200 Results of tJie Protestant Reiwlution. pt. hi. 
 
 In Denmark also (and Norway was under the same 
 crown) a new monarchy succeeded to that of the ex- 
 Denmark al?o, pelled tyrant. The nobles joined the crown 
 Wntberom:: in crushing the power of the clergy. The 
 Protestant. Danish monarchy became established on the 
 ruins of the Church. Lutheranism was encouraged. 
 Denmark became a Protestant state, and took part, like 
 Sweden, on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 {b) The Revolt of the Netherla^ids [ij8i). 
 
 The last of the revolts from Rome was that of the 
 Netherlands. It was a revolt not only from Rome but 
 also from Spain. It does not fall altogether within the 
 limits of the era, and so requires only brief notice here. 
 
 Philip II., king of Spain and husband of the English 
 queen Mary, tried to enforce the double yoke of Spain 
 and Rome upon the Netherlanders. The Netherlands, 
 it will be remembered, belonged to the Burgundian pro- 
 „ ,. ^ vinces which came to the Spanish crown by 
 
 Policy of \. 
 
 Philip II to the marriage alliance of the mother of 
 Nether- ^ Charlcs V. He was a Netherlander, and as 
 Spalnlnd to such popular ; but his son, Philip II., was a 
 Rome. Spaniard, and felt to be a foreign tyrant. 
 
 He had entered into close alliance with Rome. If he 
 could, he would have conquered all countries which had 
 revolted from Rome ; and in restoring them to Rome, 
 he would have liked to have made them into Spanish 
 provinces. It was in pursuance of these ideas that he 
 encouraged Queen Mary's restoration of the Catholic 
 faith in England, and sent his 'Spanish Armada' to 
 conquer the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. In the same 
 spirit he sent his cruel minister, the Duke of Alva, to 
 force into submission his rebellious subjects in the 
 Netherlands, and to fasten on their necks the double
 
 CH. IV. The Genevan Reformers. 201 
 
 yoke of Spain and Rome. The result was -j.,^ ^^^jj 
 the revolt of the Netherlands under the and the 
 
 , _ A r -11 ' United 
 
 Prince of Orange. After a terrible strug- Provinces' 
 gle, it was at last successful, and ended in Prototann 
 the complete escape of the northern pro- nation. 
 vinces from both the Spanish and Papal yoke. This 
 was in 1581. From that date the 'United Provinces' 
 took their place, like Sweden and Denmark, among the 
 Protestant nations of Europe. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE GENEVAN REFORMERS. 
 
 [a] Rise of a new School of Refonn. 
 
 The force of the Protestant Revolution was not. wholly 
 spent in these national revolts from Rome. 
 
 Although apart from them there was a Protestant 
 movement going on in the minds of the peo- ^ Protestant 
 pie, both in those nations which revolted "novement 
 
 '^ which was 
 
 from Rome and in those which did not. not national. 
 
 We must now turn our attention to the rise of a new 
 school of reform, which led to remarkable results. 
 Luther was too national — too German — a reformer, to 
 admit of his becoming the universal prophet 
 
 /- T-> ■ ii , 1 1 -A '^"' which 
 
 of Protestantism all over the world. Den- influenced 
 mark, Sweden, and Norway, coming under fertantsof 
 German influence, did indeed become E''^'?"', 
 
 ' hngland, 
 
 Lutheran; but the Protestants of France, Scotland, 
 England, Scotland, and America are not more than 
 and never have been Lutherans. They "' " ' " 
 came more under the influence of the Genevan re- 
 formers, of whom we must now speak.
 
 202 Rcstills of the Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 [b) yohn Calvin, 
 
 The chief of these was John Calvin. He was a 
 Frenchman, born in 1509, and so was twenty-five years 
 Tohn Calvin, younger than Luther. He was educated at 
 born 1509. ^.j^g universities of Paris and Orleans, 
 
 adopted the Augustinian theology, as Wiclif, Huss, and 
 Luther had done before him, and became a Protestant. 
 In France heretics were burned, so he left his home to 
 travel in Italy and Germany. In 1536, just as Erasmus 
 was passing to his rest, he came to Basle, and began his 
 „. < T public work as a Protestant reformer by 
 
 His ' In- "^ . . . ■' 
 
 stitutes,' publishing his ' Institutes of the Christian 
 
 which gave _ ,. . . t. i , t • . r --- i 
 
 logical form Religion. It was these Institutes of Cal- 
 • Ca^vinistic ' ^^^ which gave rigid logical scholastic form 
 doctrines. to thosc Augustinian doctrines which, as we 
 
 have said, were held in common by most Protestant 
 reformers from Wiclif to Luther, but which have been 
 since called 'Calvinistic' He differed from Luther both 
 in theory and practice, on those points about which 
 Zwingle and Luther had quarrelled. He rejected tran- 
 substantiation, which Luther did not altogether ; and he 
 founded his Church, like Zwingle, on the republican 
 basis of the congregation rather than, as Luther did, on 
 the civil power of the prince. He thus was in a sense 
 more Protestant than Luther, though at that time only 
 the Lutherans were called Protestants. 
 
 Geneva soon became the sphere of his actions. It was 
 in a state of anarchy, having rebelled from its bishop, 
 ^ , , who had been practically both ecclesiastical 
 
 Calvin settles 
 
 at Geneva. and civil ruler in one. Other French re- 
 formers had settled at Geneva before Calvin, 
 and these shared his stern Protestant doctrines. But 
 Calvin soon proved the most powerful preacher. Like
 
 CH. IV. The Genevan Reformers. 203 
 
 Savonarola, he rebuked the vices of the people from the 
 pulpit. At first this made him unpopular, „ 
 
 * ^ . . ^ ^ Becomes a 
 
 and he was driven away; but in 1541 he was kind of dictator 
 
 ,,,,,, , 1 1 ,. of the Genevan 
 
 recalled by the people, and made practi- state. 
 cally both civil and religious dictator of the 
 little state. 
 
 He was in a sense Protestant Pope of Geneva, but de- 
 riving his power from the congregation. He and his 
 consistory held it their duty to force men to lead moral 
 lives, go to church, give up dice, dancing, ^^. 
 
 1 "'^ severe dis- 
 
 swearing, and so forth; and the council of cipiine andin- 
 the city supported this severe exercise of ec- 
 clesiastical power by their civil authority. Thus for 
 twenty years Geneva was under the rule of Calvin and 
 his fellow ' saints ;' and an intolerant despotic rule it was. 
 Men were excommunicated for insulting Calvin, and sent 
 to prison for> mocking at- his sermons. To impugn his 
 doctrine was death or banishment. Hired spies watched 
 people's conduct, and every unseemly word dropped in 
 the street came to the ear of the elders. Children were 
 liable to public punishment for insulting their parents, 
 and men and women were drowned in the Rhone for 
 sensual sins. Witchcraft and heresy were capital 
 crimes; and one heretic, Servetus, was burned, with his 
 books hung to his girdle, for honest difference of opinion 
 from Calvin on an abstruse point of divinity. 
 
 The same view of the functions of the Church which 
 led him to exercise this severe discipline, led him also to 
 control education. He founded academies ,, ^ 
 
 .He founds 
 
 and schools; and when his system was ap- schools. 
 plied to Scotland, as it afterwards was under 
 John Knox, a school as well as a church was planted in 
 every parish.
 
 204 Results of the P}-otestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 (<:) Influence of the Gettevan School 07i Western 
 Protestantism. 
 
 Whatever Calvin did at Geneva would have mattered 
 little to the world if it had stopped there ; but it did 
 TT- . a riot. The historical importance of Calvin 
 
 xlis influence '■ 
 
 on Western lies in the fact that he impressed upon West- 
 
 Protestantism. . 
 
 ern Protestantism his rigid scholastic creed 
 and his views of ecclesiastical discipline. 
 
 The Protestants of France, called Huguenots, were 
 
 and are mainly the offspring of Calvinism, 
 
 liiu^iTnJu, Jo^^" Knox, the reformer of Scotland, and 
 
 the Scotch (-j^^g Scotch Covenanters, were also disciples 
 
 Covenanters, ^ 
 
 the English of Calvin ; and so Scotch Protestantism re- 
 
 Purituns, .... ^ . 
 
 the 'Pilgrim ceived its impress irom Geneva. The Puri- 
 of^New^Eng- tans of England were also Calvinists. Crom- 
 land, all of the y;Q\\ -was a Calvinist, and the rule of his 
 
 Oenevan • 
 
 school. ' saints ' was on the Genevan model. The 
 
 Pilgrim Fathers took with them from Eng- 
 land to the New England across the Atlantic the Calvin- 
 istic creed, and, alas ! its intolerance too. So engrained 
 was it in their theological mind that, even though them- 
 selves fleeing from persecution, they themselves perse- 
 cuted in the land of their refuge. Under the rule of the 
 Boston saints there was as little religious liberty as under 
 the rule of Calvin at Geneva. 
 
 Nevertheless, the offspring of the Genevan school of 
 reform deserve well of history. However narrow and 
 ^, . , . hard in their creed and Puritanic in their 
 
 Their his- 
 torical im- manners, they were men of a sturdy Spartan 
 
 andtn^^' type, ready to bear any amount of persecu- 
 
 nationaf" ^ion and to push through any difficulties, 
 
 character. democratic in their spirit and aggressive in 
 
 their zeal. The banishment of the Huguenots from
 
 CH. V. Reform within the Catholic Church. 205 
 
 France took away the backbone of her reUgious hfe. 
 Scotland would not be what she is but for Knox and his 
 parish schools. England could not afford to lose the 
 Puritan blood which mixes in her veins. New England 
 owes a rich inheritance of stern virtues to her ' Pilgrim 
 Fathers.' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 REFORM WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 (a) The Ifalimt Reformers {to 1541). 
 One of the results of the Protestant revolution was the 
 reform of the Catholic Church itself. 
 
 We ought never to forget that the Roman Catholic 
 Church of our own times is, in fact, a reformed Church 
 as well as the Protestant Churches. And we must now 
 have patience enough to trace how and by whom its re- 
 form was effected. 
 
 Good men of all parties had for long seen the neces- 
 sity of a practical reform in the morals of the pope, clergy, 
 and monks. And we have seen that the necessity was 
 recognized in high quarters. Ferdinand and Isabella's 
 great minister. Cardinal Ximenes, and the English min- 
 isters. Cardinal Morton and Cardinal Wol- Efforts at 
 sey — three cardinals all of great power and ^^'°l'" ^^^^' 
 undoubted loyalty to Rome — even went so Church, 
 far as to get bulls from the Pope, authorizing them to visit 
 and reform the monasteries. All good men cried out 
 against the crimes of such a pope as Alexander VI. And 
 it is not right to charge the Catholic Church wholesale 
 with these crimes any more than it would be to charge the 
 English nation with the matrimonial sins of Henry VIII. 
 
 There was so strong a feeling all through the Church
 
 2o6 Results of the Pr-otestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 against these scandals that, after what had happened, 
 Improve- "^^1 werc not likely to occur again. The 
 
 character^of popes who Came after Alexander VI. were 
 popes. not angels, but they were outwardly more 
 
 decent than he, at all events. Julius II., as we have 
 seen, was the fighting pope. The scandal in his case 
 was his lust of war and the extension of the Papal terri- 
 tory. Leo X. cared more for art and literature than for 
 war, but he, too, had his faults, and the scandal in his 
 case was a doutjt whether, after all, he really believed in 
 Christianity. Adrian VI. was an earnest and stern mor- 
 al reformer — too stern for the times — and his reign was 
 too short to produce much result. Clement VII. was a 
 better man than many, though of blundering politics, 
 letting down the Papal power, and becoming at last 
 the prisoner and the tool of his Spanish conqueror 
 Charles V. 
 
 All this while there were men in Italy of earnest 
 Christian feeling who, like the Oxford reformers, were 
 men of the new school on the one hand, and opposed to 
 the semi-pagan skepticism of the mere ' humanists ' of 
 Italy on the other hand. These men longed for reform, 
 not only in morals but also in doctrine. They wanted 
 ^, ,. religion to be made a thing of the heart, that 
 
 The media- . . ° 
 
 ting reformers the gross Superstition connected with indul- 
 ^^' gences and other abuses should be set aside, 
 
 and some of them held the Augustinian doctrine of jus- 
 tification by faith. This gave them a sort of sympathy 
 even with Luther, and they wanted such a reform of 
 the Church as they hoped would win back the Protes- 
 Vaidez Pole tants into her fold. Juan de Valdez, brother 
 Contarini. of Charles V.'s secretary (from whose 
 
 writings we have more than once quoted), was one 
 of them. Reginald Pole (who opposed Henry VIII. 's
 
 CH. V. Reform within the Catholic Church. 207 
 
 revolt from Rome so strongly) and Caspar Contari7ii (a 
 Venetian nobleman of the highest character and influ- 
 ence in court circles) were of their number. They had 
 among them eloquent preachers and ladies of rank, for- 
 tune, and beauty. They held together and exerted 
 much influence, and there was a time when they seemed 
 to be not without chance of success as mediators between 
 the extreme Catholic and Protestant parties. 
 
 Paul III. became pope in 1534, and the hopes of the 
 reform party were raised by his making Pole and Con- 
 tarini and some others of their friends cardi- Paul ill. 
 
 1 rr"! .1 . r • 11 makes some 
 
 nais. 1 hese men were on the most friendly ^f ^\^^^ 
 terms with Erasmus, who in his old age was cardinals, 
 urging concord on religious parties and purity on the 
 Church. It was rumoured that Erasmus himself was to 
 be made a cardinal, and it was said that a red hat was 
 on the way to Bishop Fisher when he was executed by 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 It was some of these and other signs of the times 
 which cheered Sir Thomas More in his prison with the 
 beUef that better days were coming, that there was at 
 least some chance of a reconciliation with the Protestants, 
 and a healing of the schism by which the Church was 
 rent. The prospect was for the moment promising. 
 Paul III. wrote to Erasmus, telling him that he intended 
 to call a council (as Erasmus had urged his „, , 
 
 ^ ° _ Chances of a 
 
 predecessors to do) and asking for his in- recondiia- 
 
 ,11111/- 1-1 'i"" W''^ 
 
 fluence and help both before and m the Protestams 
 council. But things moved slowly. Cardinal 'j'Pj^" P^"' 
 Contarini was more zealous for a council 
 than the Pope, who was only half-inclined to it, fearing 
 lest it might abridge his power. At length in 1541 — five 
 years after the death of Erasmus — the Pope deputed
 
 2o8 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 „ . . Contarini to meet the Protestants at the Diet 
 
 Contarmi 
 
 and Melanch- of Ratisbon, and to try whether a reconciha- 
 make peace tion could be arranged with them. He was 
 of RatEbon. "^^'^ ^X ^^^ gentle Melanchthon (Luther dis- 
 trusting the whole thing and keeping away), 
 and they agreed upon the doctrine of justification by 
 faith as the basis of reunion. For a moment a peace 
 seemed within reach. But alas ! other motives came in 
 But the Pope o^i the Pope's side. Francis I. urged upon 
 draws back. j^jj^ ^^^ concord and unity in Germany 
 would make the Emperor — their common enemy — dan- 
 gerously strong ; and so Paul III. drew back. 
 
 On the other side, Luther scented mischief in any 
 And Luther peace with Rome. It was too good to be 
 ^^°' true ; and he even hinted that the devil was 
 
 somewhere and somehow at work in it. 
 _ , . So everything was left over for settlement 
 
 Everything ^ ° 
 
 left over till at the council which now at length the Pope 
 of Trent. was to convene — the famous Council of Trent. 
 
 But meanwhile another power came upon the stage, 
 which was destined to take the reins out of the hands 
 of the Italian mediating reformers, to close the door for 
 reconciliation forever, and to reform what was left of the 
 Catholic Church on the narrow basis of reaction. 
 
 {b) The Neiu Order of the Society of Jesus ( 1 540). 
 
 Ignatius Loyola, a young Spanish knight of noble fa- 
 mily, was born in 149I, and so was eight years younger 
 than Luther. He was a soldier in the army 
 
 Ignatius Ley- , . , , 
 
 oia, a Spanish of Spain — that land in which the national 
 
 °'^ '■ wars against the Moors had kept up chivalry 
 
 and the spirit of the old crusaders, in which knights still 
 
 fought for the Cross against the ' Infidel,' and whose citi-
 
 CH. V. Reform within the Catholic Chtrch. 209 
 
 zens more than any others felt the romance of the con- 
 nexion with the New World. 
 
 Loyola was thirty years old, fighting in the Spanish 
 army against an insurrection in Navarre, secretly aided 
 bv the French, just after the Diet of Worms, ,^ . 
 
 -^ •' Heiswoundea 
 
 when his leg was shattered by a cannon in 1521. 
 ball. The one hope of the young knight 
 was such a recovery as would let him return to his sol- 
 dier's life and pursue his knightly career. He submitted 
 to two cruel operations in this hope, but alas, in vain. 
 After racking torture and fever, which brought him near 
 to the grave, he survived to find his contracted limb still 
 a bar to his hopes. As he lay upon his couch in pain 
 and fever, he changed the scheme of his „ , 
 
 ' ° . Kesolves tobe- 
 
 life. He resolved to become a soldier — a come a general 
 
 , . . J , . , of an army of 
 
 general — m another army, under a higher saints instead 
 king, fighting for the cross. Legends of the °^ '°'<^'"^- 
 saints inspired his imagination with dreams still more 
 romantic than the tales of knight-errantry. In his deli- 
 rium his fevered eye saw visions of the Virgin, and thus 
 he thought he received divine commission to pursue his 
 plan. He would be a true son of the Church, the sworn 
 enemy of her enemies, be they heretics, Jews, or infidels. 
 His creed should be the soldier's creed — obedience to 
 superiors, hard endurance, and dauntless courage. The 
 holy saints of the legends were his patterns. He prepared 
 himself for his work, as they did, by fastings and the se- 
 verest austerities. His food was bread and water and 
 herbs, his girdle sometimes an iron chain, ,,. 
 
 , His 
 
 sometimes prickly briars, his work humble austerities. 
 service of the lowest kind, such as dressing 
 the foulest wounds in the hospitals. Then he dwelt for 
 a while in a cavern in solitude, and fasted till he saw vi- 
 sions again, and fancied he had communications with 
 P
 
 2IO Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 
 
 heaven. And now he had perfected his plan — a soldier's 
 plan — to found a religious army, perfect in discipline, in 
 
 every soldier of v^hich should be absolute 
 found ihe devotion to one end, absolute obedience to 
 
 lesus""*^ his superior, with no human ties to hinder 
 
 and no objects to divert him from the service 
 required. It was in fact to be a new monastic order, and 
 to be called the Society of Jesus. 
 
 He must first prepare himself for his generalship by 
 
 years of study. He began at a common 
 
 To prepare i i i i , t t • • / 
 
 himself studies school, and then went to the University of 
 
 at the Univer- p 
 sity of Paris. -c ariS. 
 
 The next thing was to get round him a few 
 others like himself, and so to form the nucleus of his 
 army. They must be men of power and metal, and all 
 the better if of noble blood and high position. 
 
 There was a young Spanish noble at the university of 
 Paris named Francis Xavier. While Loyola 
 
 At Paris meets , . , ... 
 
 Francis was Studying at the university he came in 
 
 Xavier. contact with him. He watched him, read 
 
 his mind and character, and then set himself to work to 
 make his own. Xavier sought fame and applause, and 
 just as he got it, Loyola would come in his way with 
 the solemn question, 'What shall it profit if a man 
 gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?' Loyola 
 would help him to new triumphs, but as often as they 
 came would come to him again from Loyola the solemn 
 question, 'What shall it profit?' At last the proud spirit 
 of the Spanish rioble yielded to the spell. Xavier be- 
 came a disciple of Loyola; rivalled him in 
 
 Xavier be- . . . 
 
 comes a austenties, and ere long became the mis^ 
 
 '^"^'^ '^' sionary of the Society, carrying his cross, his 
 
 Bible, breviary and wallet to India and the Indian Isles, 
 
 and even to Japan and China, till at last he laid down
 
 CH. V. Reform within the Catholic Church. 211 
 
 his life after eleven long years of heroic la- Andthegrcnt 
 hour, stretched on the sand of the sea-shore J""" mission- 
 
 ' _ ary to the lii- 
 
 of a lonely island in the Chinese seas, with dies, China, 
 his cross in his hand, tears of holy joy in 
 his eyes, and uttering the words, ' In Thee have I put 
 my trust, let me never be confounded.' 
 
 Of such stuff were the first Jesuits made — a type of 
 human nature which, rising up as it did just then, was 
 of immense import to the future of the Catholic Church. 
 It was in truth a reaction from the looseness both of 
 morals and creed which had marked the recent condi- 
 tion of the Church. These men were pious, „, 
 
 ^ Character of 
 
 earnest, and devoted to the Church, be- the Jesuits, 
 cause their minds were cast in a mould 
 which allowed them still to believe in her pretensions. 
 They had all the piety, fervour, energy, and boldness of 
 the Protestant Reformers, but their reform took another 
 direction. Instead of going back to St. Augustine as 
 their e.xponent of the Bible, they took St. Francis and 
 the mediaeval saints as their models, and rested with ab- 
 solute faith on the authority of the medieval Church. 
 To reform *the Catholic Church to mediaeval standards 
 by the formation of a new monastic order, having for its 
 corner-stone the absolute surrender of free inquiry and 
 free thought, and absolute obedience to supreme eccle- 
 siastical authority — this was the project of ^, . 
 
 '■ ■^ _ Uheir suc- 
 
 Loyola. It was not abortive. Before its cess and 
 founder died he had succeeded in founding 
 more than a hundred Jesuit colleges or houses for train- 
 ing Jesuits, and an immense number of educational es- 
 tablishments under their influence. He had many thou- 
 sands of Jesuits in the rank and file of his order. He 
 had divided Europe, India, Africa, and Brazil into twelve 
 Jesuit provinces, in each of which he had his Jesuit offi-
 
 212 Resiclts of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 
 
 cer, whilst he, their general, residing at Rome, wielded 
 an influence over the world rivaling, if it did not exceed 
 in power, that of popes and kings. Its very success was 
 the cause of its ultimate doom. The nations of Europe, 
 ^ , . after the experience of some generations. 
 
 Causes of its . ^ . 
 
 ultimate found it to interfere with their national free- 
 
 dom, as they had done the old ecclesiastical 
 empire of Rome. They ultimately banished the Jesuits 
 because of their power and because their presence and 
 their plots endangered the safety of the state. But as 
 yet the Society of Jesus was young, and had its work 
 before it. The Order received Papal sanction in 1 540. 
 
 {c) The Council of Tre?it {134s — 1555)' 
 The Council of Trent was opened in 1545. Cardinal 
 Contarini, who had been the Pope's confidant in matters 
 ^ ., , relating to the Council, died before it assem- 
 
 Councu of , , , T 1 
 
 Trent meets bled. But Cardmal Pole, Contarini the 
 '" ^545- younger, and others of the mediating party, 
 
 were members of the Council. They took the same line 
 as at Ratisbon, and urged the doctrine of justification by 
 faith as common Christian ground. But tlfe Jesuits in 
 „, ^ . the Council, under the instruction of Loyola, 
 
 1 he Jesuits . . "^ 
 
 prevail over opposed it with all their might. The dispute 
 ing Refor-' was long and hot, and even led to personal 
 '"^'^" violence. One holy Father was so angry 
 
 that he seized another by the beard. The Jesuits pre- 
 vailed, and carried the decision of the Council their own 
 way. Pole, on the plea of ill health, had left the Council, 
 and the younger Contarini followed his example. It was 
 clear there was to be no reconciliation. The party of 
 reaction had gained the day. 
 
 No sooner had the party of reaction taken the lead 
 than Cardinal Caraffa (afterwards Pope Paul IV). ob-
 
 CH. V. Reform within the Catholic Chirch. 213 
 
 tained powers to introduce into Rome the , 
 
 '^ Inquisition 
 
 Inquisition — that terrible tribunal of perse- introduced 
 cution which in Spain had slain and ban- CardinaT'ca-^ 
 ished so many Moors, Jews, and heretics "^ds^pop'e 
 under the sanction of the zeal of Queen Isa- Pa"' IV. 
 bella. Persecution began, and some of the members of 
 the mediating party were among its first victims. 
 
 This was the work of the Council of Trent at its early 
 sessions. Then owing to a disagreement between the 
 Pope and Charles V., it was adjourned for Council ad- 
 some years. Paul III. died, and two sue- ^i°5"5"under 
 ceeding popes, before it really got to work ^^"^ ^^• 
 again to any purpose under Paul IV. This was in 1555, 
 the year in which, after the long struggle between 
 Charles V. and Germany, the peace of Augsburg was 
 come to, by which the revolt of the Protestant princes 
 from Rome was first legally recognized as a thing which 
 must be. 
 
 The Council of Trent had now in its later sessions to 
 reorganize what was left of the Catholic Church. It 
 could not, and did not try to undo the re- ^, ^ 
 
 "^ 1 he Roman 
 
 volts. The Jesuits were the ruling power. Catholic 
 
 Reaction was the order of the day. Cleri- formed in 
 
 cal abuses were corrected, and some sort of much more 
 
 decency enforced. Provisions were made r'g'd than 
 
 . ever in creed. 
 
 for the education of priests and for their de- 
 votion in future to active duties. But in points of doc- 
 trine there was reaction instead of concession. The di- 
 vine autkority of ihe Pape was confirmed. The creed 
 of the Church was laid down once for all in rigid state- 
 ments, which henceforth must be swallowed by the faith- 
 ful. Finally, the Inciuisition, imported from Spain, was 
 extended to other countries, and charged with the sup- 
 pression of heretical doctrines. In a word, the rule of
 
 214 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 
 
 the ecclesiastical empire was strengthened, and the 
 bonds of the scholastic system tightened ; but not for 
 Christendom — only for those nations who still acknow- 
 ledged the ecclesiastical supremacy of Rome. 
 
 The Church was thus both reformed and narrowed by 
 the decrees of the Council of Trent. Henceforth it tole- 
 rated within its fold neither the old diversity of doctrine 
 on the one hand, nor the old laxity of morals on the 
 other hand, and henceforth it was by no means coexten- 
 sive with Western Christendom, as it once had been. 
 It is now generally called the 'Roman Catholic Church,' 
 to distinguish it from the ' Catholic Church ' of the Mid- 
 dle Ages, from which it and so many other churches 
 have sprung. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF SPAIN AND FRANCE, 
 (a) The Future of Spain. 
 Charles V. had inherited the absolute monarchy pre- 
 pared for him by Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 
 The strengthening of the central power was needful to 
 create a modern nation. But the history of England 
 has taught us that the central power may be strong with- 
 out being an absolute monarchy. 
 
 The vice in the Spanish system was the 
 
 Growth of , . , -^ , , . 
 
 absolute mon- attempt to Seek national power by subject- 
 arc yin pain, j^^^ ^ classes within the nation to the ab- 
 solute will of the monarch. 
 
 This vice was the worm at the root of the greatness of 
 Spain, and silently wrought the ruin in which she finds 
 herself to-day. 
 
 Philip II., the son and successor of Charles, 
 
 Philip II. Ti 1 • J 1 1 1 • 
 
 was, like his predecessor, an absolute king.
 
 CH. VI. The future of Spaiji. 215 
 
 It was during the period of Spanish supremacy in 
 Europe that the Council of Trent decreed j„ ^jg^g 
 the absolute ecclesiastical supremacy of the league with 
 
 ^ . ^ the Papacy. 
 
 Pope. It was the Spanish Jesuits who had 
 brought this about. It was by adopting the Spanish In- 
 quisition that the ecclesiastical triumph was to be enforced 
 upon the people. And now Philip II. 's aim, ^ , 
 
 ^ •■ I- i Seeks to 
 
 as we have seen, was to establish both the establish 
 absolute power of the Spanish throne and pa'pai supre- 
 the papal supremacy, wherever his rule ex- ^ether'°' 
 tended, by the sword and the Inquisition. 
 
 England felt this influence in the days of Queen Mary, 
 but happily Philip II. 's Spanish Armada failed to con- 
 quer England under Elizabeth. He tried ^ , 
 
 ^ ° Fatal results 
 
 his fatal policy in the Netherlands, and, as of his policy. 
 we have seen, they revolted, made good their revolt 
 from both Spain and Rome, and became a free Protest- 
 ant nation. He tried the same fatal policy in Spain, and 
 with what result ? The Spaniard of to-day points to the 
 civil and ecclesiastical despotism of the reign of Philip II. 
 (from which, unhappily, Spain could not shake herself 
 free, as the Netherlands did) as the point in her history 
 when her national life was strangled, her literature began 
 to lose its power, her commerce to languish. To fatten 
 an absolute monarchy, and armies of officials, soldiers, 
 and priests, in course of generations the nation was 
 ruined. Spain for a while was big on the map. For a 
 while she maintained her supremacy in Europe, but her 
 greatness was not the result of her advance on the path 
 of modern civilization. It was not the result of true 
 national life — the welding together of all classes into a 
 compact nation. It rather belonged to the old order of 
 things, and so was doomed to decay.
 
 2i6 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill. 
 
 [b] The future of France. 
 Absolute monarchy answered no better for France 
 than for Spain. 
 
 France was a prey during the era to the evils caused 
 by the constant ware of Francis I. While the two abso- 
 lute monarchs strove for supremacy in Italy, 
 sacrificed to their subjects alike Suffered. The reckless- 
 fmbitlonof ness of the ambition of Francis I. showed 
 the absolute itself in the way in which, while persecuting 
 
 monarchy ^ . 
 
 under heresy in France, he was ready to ally him- 
 
 self with the Protestants of Germany, or even 
 the Turks, if need be, to gain his military ends. He 
 bequeathed his ambition for military glory and supre- 
 macy to his successors. 
 
 France, though a Catholic power, fought on the Pro- 
 testant side in the Thirty Years' War, and one result of 
 it was that the supremacy of Spain ended and that of 
 France began. But French, no less than Spanish su- 
 premacy, was the growth of absolute monarchy, contrary 
 to the true interests of the French nation. It was gradu- 
 ally ripening the seeds which were already sown, and 
 which bore fruit in the great Revolution of 1789, and in 
 the alternate republics and despotisms under 
 
 1 he curse , . , _ 
 
 which her which France has smce suffered so much. 
 
 monarchy The want of common feeling and interest 
 
 France between the citizens of the towns and pea- 
 
 sants of the rural districts which began so 
 early in French history still continues to perplex her ru- 
 lers, and so does the lust for military glory and supre- 
 macy in Europe which also is an old inheritance of the 
 French people. 
 
 The way in which the Protestant revolution was met 
 in France also left scars upon the nation which may be 
 traced to-day. Under Francis I., Calvinism spread in
 
 CH. VI. The future of France. 217 
 
 France among the nobility, whose order had been 
 humbled to make way for the absolute mon- Struggle 
 archy. This gave rise in the next era to re- Huguenots 
 ligious wars, in which some of the Protes- '" France. 
 tant nobility headed a rebellion against the Catholic 
 throne. These civil wars lasted forty years, and cost 
 the lives, it is said, of more than a million Frenchmen. 
 
 In France the persecution of heresy was political as 
 well as religious. Political ambition and intrigue, as 
 well as religious bigotry, prompted it, and stained the 
 pages of French history with crimes unique in their 
 blackness. 
 
 The massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572 was the 
 diabolical work of the queen, Catherine de' Massacre of 
 Medici, to maintain her political power. iomew7n°' 
 She had coquetted with the Huguenots ^572- 
 when it served her purpose. She tried to exterminate 
 them by the massacre of 20,000 — some say 100,000 — in 
 one fatal night. The Edict of Nantes in „ , 
 
 ° Toleration 
 
 1598 ended the civil wars and granted a for a time 
 
 . . , . . under the 
 
 respite from persecution, but its revocation Edict of 
 in 1685 resulted in the banishment of the Mantes. 
 Huguenots from France. Some of them Its revoca- 
 
 ° tion in 1685, 
 
 came to Protestant England, and brought and the ba- 
 
 • 1 1 ■, • ^^,^ 1 1 • 1 T-1- nishment of 
 
 With them their silk and their looms. 1 hus the Hu- 
 France by her intolerance lost one arm of ^^^^Tto ^^"^ 
 her national industry and an important cle- England. 
 ment from her national character. The want of cohe- 
 sion and unity of interest between various classes in 
 France was increased by the banishment of the Hugue- 
 nots. There is even now a middle term wanting — a 
 missing link — between her religious and her republican 
 elements. The Puritans — the religious republicans- 
 were that middle term in England.
 
 2i8 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GENERAL RESULTS OF THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 (a) 071 the Growth of Natio7ial Life. 
 We have now traced the course of the Protestant revo- 
 , „ , lution, and marked both its direct results 
 
 Innuence of 
 
 the Protest- upon those nations which revolted from 
 
 ant revolu- _ ,,..,. , 
 
 tion on na- Komc, and also its indirect results upon 
 tiona 1 e. Rome herself and those nations which re- 
 
 mained in allegiance to her ecclesiastical empire. 
 
 The revolution was obviously only partially success- 
 Where it sue- ^'^- Where it succeeded it produced re- 
 ceeded. form — the Protestant nations had gained 
 
 one substantial step towards independent national life 
 and towards the blending of all classes within them 
 into one community. 
 
 Where it failed, it produced, as every unsuccessful 
 Where it revolution does, reaction. The Catholic na- 
 
 f^i'sd. tions seemed to gain in the outward signs 
 
 of strength by the alliance which resulted between the 
 civil and ecclesiastical powers within them. But it was 
 an alliance intended to strengthen the absolute power 
 of the Crown and of the ecclesiastical empire, and there- 
 by all the more to enthrall the people. Henceforth, 
 both in France and in Spain, the nation was more than 
 ever enthralled under the double despotism of Crown 
 and Church. The Inquisition may be taken as the sym- 
 bol of the one kind of despotism, and the French Bas- 
 tille of the other. The two despotisms acting together 
 tended, as we have seen, to destroy national life, to in- 
 crease the separation of classes and prevent their being 
 welded together by common interests into one commu-
 
 CH. VII. Results of the Era. 219 
 
 nity. It postponed their progress on the path of modern 
 civilization and ended in a series of alternate revolu- 
 tions and reactions, out of which it is hard to see a final 
 escape. So hard is it for nations to cast off the fruit, 
 however bitter, of seeds sown even centuries ago ! 
 
 Where it partially failed and partially succeeded, as in 
 Switzerland and Germany, we have seen that it resulted 
 in civil wars and in the postponement of the- where it 
 growth of their national life almost to our P'"^!;''^' ^^^}^^ 
 
 ^ and partly 
 
 own times. In Switzerland the people were succeeded. 
 already free, but in Germany, where serfdom still pre- 
 vailed, the emancipation of the peasantiy was postponed 
 till the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
 
 {d) On the Relatiojis of Nations to each other. 
 The Protestant struggle apparently did little or nothing 
 to secure progress in civilization in the dealings between 
 nations. The events of the era show that the small im- 
 notion of universal empire which had provcment m 
 
 ^ the dealings 
 
 marked the old order of things was not yet between na- 
 
 /■ 11 • -T^i • r • r tioris. 
 
 fully given up. The aim after extension of 
 empire which went along with it we have noticed 
 throughout. The struggle between the two absolute 
 monarchies of Spain and France for supremacy in Chris- 
 tendom, the efforts of the princes of the House of Haps- 
 burg to unite as many countries as they could under 
 their rule, the designs that both France and Spain had 
 upon Italy, the revived claims of Henry VIII. to the 0I4 
 English possessions in France — in all this there was little 
 sign of progress from the old to the ne^v order of things. 
 Although the Oxford reformers were faithful in enjoining 
 upon princes an international policy based The Oxford 
 upon the golden rule, and having for its ob- JTot'^iiTtencd 
 ject not the aggrandizement of the prince '° '" '*'"'■
 
 220 Results of fhc Protestant Revobition. pt. hi, 
 
 but the weal of the nation, the popes and princes still 
 preferred to follow the maxims of "the Prince" of 
 Machiavelli, rather than those of the " Christian Prince" 
 of Erasmus. They still, as Erasmus said, treated the 
 people too much as " cattle in the market." 
 
 Nor was the immediate result of the Protestant revo- 
 lution any cessation from international strife. For the 
 next hundred years there was almost incessant strife 
 between Catholic and Protestant powers. 
 
 Though, however, Henry Vlll. himself hankered 
 But Henrv again and again after the realization of the 
 W' ^^ empty title of King of France ; yet practically 
 English king we may say that Henry VIII. 's dreams were 
 recovering the last in which English monarchs have 
 France. indulged on that subject. 
 
 And though the attempts to urge sounder views on 
 international matters did not succeed in this era, yet they 
 And Hup-o were not made wholly in vain. Before the 
 Ciatiusv/as century was out was born Hus[o Grotius, the 
 
 born beiore ■" . 
 
 the century father of the present system of international 
 law, who was well acquainted with the works 
 of Erasmus, and like him rejected Machiavellian prin- 
 ciples and sought to base the law of nations upon the 
 golden rule. 
 
 {c) Influence on the Grozvth of National Languages a7id 
 
 Literature. 
 " In no point was the effect of the Protestant^ struggle 
 more clearly marked than in the stride it gave, as it were 
 all at once, to the growth of national languages and 
 literature. 
 
 In Germany we noticed how Luther and Hutten ap- 
 pealed to the people as well as to the learned ; how, first 
 writing in Latin for scholars, they soon found it needful
 
 CH. VII. Results of the Eia. 221 
 
 to write in German for the people ; how Luther intro- 
 duced wood-cuts to make his appeals to the populareaji. 
 still more vivid and telling. ^^All this promoted the 
 -g£owth of a national popular literature. "This turning 
 from LatHr^EcrGerman was in fact throwing Luther's 
 off in one point the yoke of the scholastic ^'mnf fit 
 system, and was in itself a great step in ad- the character 
 
 r , ■ , , ^, oftheGer- 
 
 vance for the nation to have taken. The man Ian- 
 crowning gift of Luther to the German peo- ^"^^^^ 
 pie was in fact his German Bible and his German hymns. 
 The earnest vigorous German in which they are written 
 fixed the future style of the language. The German 
 spoken to-day is the German of Luther's Bible and 
 hymns. They have been better known by the German 
 people than any other literature, and so have done more 
 than perhaps anything else to form the German lan- 
 guage, and with it in no small degree the national 
 character. 
 
 It was so in some measure in France. Calvin did not 
 gain so great a hold on the French nation 
 as Luther did on the German, but still his l"fl"?",ce °f 
 
 ' Calvin s 
 
 French Writings did very much the same writings on the 
 
 1 • r -I T- 1 , 1 T 1 . French lan- 
 
 thing for the r rench language that Luther s guage. 
 Bible did for the German. 
 
 In England, too, the same thing is to be marked. The 
 fact that the religious controversies of the times were 
 carried on by books and pamphlets, not in 
 
 T . , . -^ ,. , . , Influence of 
 
 Latin but in English, gave a stmiulus to TinUai's New 
 English literature, and prepared the way for ,^h"EngM"h"" 
 the succeeding generations which were to y^f^'"" "\ 'h*= 
 
 ° Bible, and so 
 
 give England her Shakespeare and her Mil- upon the Eng- 
 
 ■KT • t r ■\ 1 11 hsh language. 
 
 ton. Nor can it be forgotten that the noble 
 
 English version of the Bible has done as much as other 
 
 versions in other countries to fix the character of mo-
 
 222 Results of the Prott'xiant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 dern English. The simpUcity, terseness, and power of 
 the Enghsh version, to which the taste of England, after 
 frequent wanderings, again and again returns as to its 
 best classical model, we owe, and this should not be 
 forgotten, to the poor, persecuted, but noble-minded 
 English reformer, William Tindal, who, in his English 
 New Testament, set a type which others in completing 
 the translation of the whole Bible loyally followed. 
 
 (</) Effect in Stimulating Natioiial Education. 
 
 The same movement which promoted so much the 
 growth of national language and literature, also did much 
 to throw open the gates of knowledge to the people by 
 fostering education and schools. 
 
 Savonarola founded schools in Florence. Colet set a 
 noble example in England, and the next generation fol- 
 lowed it by establishing the grammar-schools 
 fd^by sivont which SO often bear the name of King Ed- 
 rola, Colet. and ^^rd VI. Luther and the Protestant Ger- 
 
 others, Luther, 
 
 Calvin, Knox, man States established common schools. 
 FaWrs,"and Calvin did the same thing in Geneva, and 
 Jesuits. Calvin's disciple, John Knox, in Scodand. 
 
 Finally, the Pilgrim Fathers carried the same 
 zeal for education to their colonies in New England. 
 Even the Jesuits made a great point of education, and 
 became noted wherever they went for their educational 
 establishments. So that both in Catholic and Protestant 
 countries a great stimulus was given to popular education 
 during the era, while the fact that at least some of the 
 property of the dissolved monasteries was diverted to 
 educational purposes in connexion with the Universities 
 and otherwise, gave a somewhat similar stimulus also to 
 higher education.
 
 CH. VII. Resit If s of the Era. 223 
 
 {e) Influence 07i Domestic Life. 
 
 There are few things, if any, more important to the 
 steady growth of a free nation than the maintenance of 
 domestic virtues and the sanctities of family hfe. 
 
 The domestic instincts, more than any others, were the 
 first germs of national life. In Teutonic nations espe- 
 cially the powerful ties of family life, widen- political im- 
 ing in their sphere extended from the family 5°J^g"f""' 
 to the tribe, from the tribe to the nation, in- life, 
 troducing law and order and peaceful relations within 
 the sphere embraced by them. 
 
 Now the domestic virtues of nations had _ 
 
 Danger to it 
 
 been in great danger of decay, and no from the ex- 
 doubt had suffered enormously through the country of 
 influence of so large a body of clergy, monks, ^^^ closes. 
 and nuns in a forced state of celibacy. 
 
 This system sapped the foundations of domestic life 
 by holding up the married state as lower in virtue than 
 that of celibacy, by cutting off so large a number of 
 people from the natural influences of home-life, and still 
 further by promoting in a terrible degree immorality and 
 crime. 
 
 The dissolution of the monasteries and _. , . 
 
 Dissolution 
 
 permission of the marriage of the parochial of monaste- 
 
 1 • ii 1 i • J • '"ies and per- 
 
 clergy were m themselves steps gamed m mission to 
 civilization of great importance in a moral ^^.-ry^aL-p 
 and political, as well as in a religious point 'n civilization. 
 of view. 
 
 (/) Tftfluence on Popular Religion. 
 
 In yet another way did the Protestant revolution suc- 
 ceed in promoting national life and the aims of Christian 
 civilization.
 
 224 Results of the Protestant Rcvolutioti. pt. ill. 
 
 It made religion less a thing of the clergy and more a 
 thing' oT the people. It gave the peopre reBgious ser- 
 „, vices in their own languages instead of in 
 
 The Protes- to & 
 
 tant move- an unknown tongue. By placing within 
 larized re"' their reach the Christian Scriptures in their 
 ''S'°"' own language it led them to think for them- 
 
 selves, and to be directly influenced by Christianity as 
 taught by its founder and apostles. It tended to 
 strengthen individual conviction and conscience, and so 
 ultimately it led, though with many drawbacks, to fur- 
 ther steps being gained towards freedom of thought. 
 
 It is well to mark also that this bringing of religion 
 
 nearer home to the individual conscience of the masses 
 
 of the people, and cultivation of individual 
 
 and brought '■ ^ 
 
 it into har- responsibility rather than reliance on a 
 
 mony with -11 i 1 i i 1 • • 
 
 true Chris- pricstliood or a church, tended to bring it 
 m^dern^"'* iTiore into harmony, not only with the ten- 
 
 civiUzation. deiicics of modern civilization but also with 
 the essential character of Christianity itself, as conceived 
 by its founder and his apostles, and so to make it once 
 more the great civilizing influence which from the rirst 
 it was intended to be. 
 
 Christianity was without doubt the power which more 
 than anything else produced the great movement of the 
 ,, , era, and turned the civilization of the future 
 
 Modern . , ., , , 
 
 civilization into the course we have described. The 
 chief charac- mere humanists had not succeeded in im- 
 Chrlst'ia'ni' pressing the semi-pagan stamp of their phi- 
 losophy upon it. Had they done so the 
 principle of the old Roman civilization — the good of the 
 few at the expense of the many — might have marked 
 the civilization of the future as it had done that of the 
 past. But we have seen it was the men of deepest 
 Christian convictions — the religious reformers — who sue-
 
 CH. VII. Results of the Era. 225 
 
 ceeded in giving their impress to the era. It is thus to 
 Christianity more than to anything else that we owe the 
 direction given in the era to modern civiUzation, its char- 
 acteristic aim to attain the highest good for the whole 
 community. 
 
 [g) Wajit of Progress in Toleration. 
 
 There was one thing especially in which there seemed 
 to be reaction rather than progress during the era, viz. in 
 toleration. 
 
 We said that one great work of the era was to set 
 men's minds free from ecclesiastical and scholastic thral- 
 dom — to set both science and religion free, for without 
 this freedom there could be no real progress in civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 In fact, an immense number of minds had got free 
 from that particular ecclesiastical and scholastic thral- 
 dom against which they had rebelled in be- ^, 
 
 • x-> A 1 1 • • • 1 /- Change from 
 
 commg Protestant. And this m itself was Catholic to 
 no small result. But what has already been cre°dswas 
 said must have made it clear that the Pro- c^^ange |rom 
 
 one rigid 
 
 testant reformers, in adopting the theology scholastic 
 
 • 1 • • • 1 • creed to 
 
 of St. Augustine, and msistmg upon their another 
 followers adopting the new Protestant ^'^"^ ^ "^' ' 
 creeds, did but appeal from the scholastic standards of 
 their day to others just as rigid. 
 
 The Oxford Reformers had aimed at leaving people 
 open to form their own honest judgment on various 
 points of theology and practice, according ^ „ 
 
 ^ . . , Small connex- 
 
 to their own consciences, and urged that ion between 
 people with different opinions and practice domoVThougiit 
 might be members of the same Christian f "f^ o"i""^'"^ 
 Church, have charity one towards another, 
 and agree to differ without quarrelling. But how hard a
 
 226 Results of the Protestant Revolution, px. in. 
 
 thing it was to get people to do this we see from the case 
 of Sir Thomas More himself, who, though he had advo- 
 cated toleration in his 'Utopia,' yet afterwards, seeing 
 the anarchy Protestantism had led to on the Continent, 
 and fearing its spreading to England, became himself a 
 persecutor. We must not be surprised after this that the 
 Protestant Reformers failed also in the same respect. It 
 is strange to see how little connexion there seems to be 
 between claiming freedom of thought and conceding it 
 to others. 
 
 Lutherans persecuted Catholics as well as Catholics 
 Protestants ; and, worse still, they persecuted their fel- 
 low-Protestants who followed Zwingle and Calvin rather 
 than Luther. So Calvin put Servetus to death, and ex- 
 So persecution ercised a thoroughly intolerant rule in 
 the perseiLted Geneva. So the English Government, after 
 tolerant. ^j^g rcvolt from Rome, persecuted Protes- 
 
 tants, and soon after ordered by statute practices which 
 a few years before they had condemned. So the Catho- 
 lic Government of Queen Mary shed the blood of Pro- 
 testants again. So the English Protestant Church of 
 after generations persecuted the Puritans. So finally, 
 the Puritans, fleeing from persecution to New England, 
 put people to death for no other crime than that they 
 honestly preached doctrines differing from their own ! 
 Looking at these facts, one would certainly say that the 
 Protestant struggle had not made men more tolerant ! 
 
 And yet, in spite of this temporary failure, toleration 
 
 was a distant fruit of the great movement we have 
 
 traced. In this era its first seeds were 
 
 Yet toleration . ^ 
 
 was after all sown. Sir Thonias More's ' Utopia was 
 m'ate resuUs of perhaps the first clear statement of the doc- 
 the Protestant t:rine of tolcration. The works of Erasmus 
 
 revolution. 
 
 did something, probably mere than is
 
 CH. VII. Results of tlte Era. 227 
 
 known, to prepare the minds of men for its ultimate 
 adoption. The strength of conscientious conviction 
 which Protestantism created made men claim freedom 
 as a right, and after all, the men who were fighting the 
 battle of toleration with most effect, were the men whose 
 strength of conscientious conviction made them endure 
 persecution rather than surrender their freedom of con- 
 science, even though they themselves, under other cir- 
 cumstances, might have been persecutors. 
 
 (/^) The Causes why the Success of the Era was so partial. 
 
 We might, in view simply of its immediate results — 
 the wars and bloodshed, and anarchy, persecutions, and 
 heartburnings which came out of it — be inclined to re- 
 gard the failures of the era of the Protestant revolution 
 as greater than the good we owe to it. 
 
 This would be false. It would be to forget that pro- 
 gress in civilization is of necessity like that „ 
 of the advancing tide, made up of ebbs and must be 
 flows. It is well also to note clearly the ^™ 
 cause of the failures, and especially of those of which we 
 have just been speaking. 
 
 Let us ask ourselves why did not the human mind in 
 this era free itself from its trammels, claim its true 
 freedom, and concede it to everyone ? Limited by 
 
 rr., • x^i_ ^ -i • -11 T'l the range of 
 
 The answer IS, that it was impossible. Ine men's know- 
 range of knowledge was too narrow. Men's '•^'^s^- 
 minds could not take a broader view of things than the 
 horizon of their knowledge let them. 
 
 Let us try to realize what were the bounds of their 
 knowledge in some directions. 
 
 They knew that the earth is a globe, and in their own 
 time Magellan, for tlie first time, had sailed round it.
 
 2 28 Residts of tlie Protestant Revolution, pt. iii. 
 But they thoueht the earth was in the centre 
 
 Limited view ^ , . , , ,, , i , 
 
 oftheuni- 01 the univ^crse, and that all the heavenly 
 
 ^^"^^^ bodies move round it every twenty-four 
 
 hours. The notion that it was the earth that moved they 
 The earth thought to be absurd. We should see the 
 
 tobi'irthe' motion, they said. At the rate it would 
 centre. have to move, it would leave the clouds be- 
 
 hind it as it went, and towers and church steeples 
 would be thrown down by the violence of so rapid a 
 motion ! 
 
 So the earth stands still, they maintained in the centre 
 of the universe. The heavenly bodies were supposed 
 The crystal- ^° rotate on what were called crystalline 
 line spheres. spheres. The first was the sphere of the 
 moon — all things confined within it were called .j«<^/z^«arj/ 
 things. They were supposed by some to be under such 
 pressure as made the heaviest things all tend towards 
 the centre, while the lightest things tended upwards. It 
 was sometimes said that it was in the nature of fire and 
 air to rise, while it was the nature of water and earth to 
 fall towards the centre. In rough ways like these they 
 tried to account for the facts which are now attributed to 
 the force of gravitation. The spheres beyond the moon 
 were called celestial spheres. First, they thought, came 
 those of Mercury, Venus, and the Sun, then in order 
 those of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ; then that of the fixed 
 stars, and, outside all, a ninth sphere, called primtwi 
 mobile, which gave motion to all the others. They be- 
 Heaven lieved further, in a vague way, that heaven 
 
 beyond. came beyond. Theologians speculated 
 
 upon what sort of a sphere that of heaven must be, and 
 Erasmus, in his ' Praise of Folly,' laughed at their 
 ' creating new spheres at pleasure, this the largest and 
 most beautiful being added that, forsooth, happy spirits
 
 CH. VII. Results of the Era, 229 
 
 might have room enough to take a walk, to spread their 
 feasts, or play at ball.' 
 
 Such was the universe of spheres, one within the 
 other, which they thought all moved round the earth in 
 the centre every twenty-four hours. It was The motions 
 a small thing altogether, compared with the regarded "" 
 vastly wider and grander universe, a little with awe, 
 bit of which modern science has revealed to us, but it 
 was a marvellous universe still, and its mysteries filled 
 them with awe when they thought of it. 
 
 When asked questions about it, some wise men like 
 Erasmus answered, ' God only knows.' But more super- 
 stitious minds gave far different answers, ^^^ ;„ popy. 
 
 Luther, who saw the action of the Devil in 't''' supersti- 
 tion referred 
 
 every accident which befell him, stood to angels. 
 aghast at the magic motions of the celestial spheres, as 
 ' no doubt done by some angel.' Many wise . 
 
 / ° ^ Astrology. 
 
 men still believed in astrology. They could 
 not bring themselves to believe that the stars and planets, 
 looking down upon our world, had not some magic 
 meaning. When comets came, they saw in them omi- 
 nous presages of coming events. Pico and Ficino, 
 Colct, Erasmus, and More had all tried to x.auehed at 
 laugh people out of belief in astrology, by some but 
 
 >^ r r ^ bj beheved m 
 
 Luther, too, laughed at it, but Melanchthon by others, 
 still held on to the old belief in spite of Luther's argu- 
 ments and jests. How can there be anything in astro- 
 logy, Luther used to say to him, since Jacob and Esau 
 were born under the same star ! 
 
 The same kind of superstition which attributed the 
 motions of the planets to angels, and magic influence on 
 the affairs of men to the stars, made men „ ,. ,. 
 
 1 Ti 1 T ... , . Behef in 
 
 the more readily believe in visions and in- visions and 
 
 .■ 1 , ... inspirations. 
 
 spirations, such as we have seen in the case
 
 230 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 
 
 of the wilder reformers from Savonarola down to Miin- 
 zer and Loyola. Luther himself was remarkably free 
 from these things — he never claimed either visions or in- 
 spirations, as the wilder prophets did ; but, as an in- 
 stance of how superstitious even he was, it may be men- 
 tioned that he and Melanchthon devoutly believed that 
 a monster had been found in the Tiber, with 
 
 and in prodi- , , , r 1 1 i r j 
 
 gies. the head ot an ass, the body oi a man, and. 
 
 the claws of a bird. After searching their Bibles to find 
 out what the prodigy meant, they concluded that it was 
 one of the signs and wonders which were to precede 
 the fall of the papacy, and published a pamphlet about 
 it. 
 
 Luther again, and probably everybody else, believed 
 in witchcraft. Hundreds and thousands of poor wretches 
 ^, . , were burned for the supposed crime of hav- 
 
 Universal . 
 
 belief in mg sold thcmselvcs to the powers of evil, 
 
 and having held communion with evil 
 
 spirits. And stranger still is it that the number of witches 
 
 ,,,. , burned was rapidly on the increase. There 
 
 Witches as ^ "^ 
 
 well as here- Were more witches burned in the i6th cen- 
 
 tics burned. , . . , 
 
 tury than in any previous one, and more 
 still in the next. 
 
 Heresy and witchcraft were looked upon as nearly 
 allied, and probably the zeal against botVi grew together. 
 Nor was the cruel death allotted to these supposed crimes 
 out of proportion to that of others. Thousands and 
 thousands of people were hung in England for no other 
 crime but that of vagrancy and ' sturdy begging.' The 
 
 system of criminal law was everywhere 
 criminal law brutal. Soon after the Peasants' War, the 
 
 Prince Bishop of Bamberg published a 
 popular criminal law book for the benefit of his subjects 
 — his poor crushed peasantry among others — in which
 
 CH. VII. Results of the Era. 231 
 
 were inserted wood-cuts of thumb-screws, the rack, the 
 gallows, the stake, pincers for pulling out the tongue, 
 men with their eyes put out or their heads cut off, or 
 mangled on the wheel, or suspended by the arms with 
 weights hung on their feet, and so on, and then, to add 
 the terrors of another world (as if these humanly in- 
 flicted tortures were not enough), there was a blasphe- 
 mous picture representing the day of judgment, and the 
 hobgoblins carrying off their victims to hell. The Prince 
 Bishop, we may suppose, had learned a lesson from 
 Luther, and produced, as he thought, a good book for 
 the laity, meant, not like Luther's, to dispel men's fears 
 of the Pope, but to frighten his poor subjects into sub- 
 mission to his episcopal and princely authority. This 
 may be taken as an example both of the way in which 
 civil and ecclesiastical power were sometimes blended 
 together, and of the brutality of the times. 
 
 Such an age was not ready for wider views. Further 
 knowledge of the laws of nature must come ^, 
 
 . . Ill T"^ ^Se not 
 
 before popular superstitions could be re- prepared for 
 moved, and until this was done it would be 
 in vain to look for much progress in toleration and free- 
 dom of thought. 
 
 (z) Begi7ining of Progress in Scientific Inquiry. 
 
 Nevertheless the era of which we have spoken was 
 the beginning of the era of freedom. From it dated a 
 great awaking of human thought. Its great ^ 
 
 U- 1 J- u J J Beginning of 
 
 geographical discoverers had opened new scientific in- 
 fields for scientific inquiry. N^t only had '^""^^' 
 navigators been round the world, but they had seen as 
 it were the rest of the sky. They had seen the south 
 polestar and the Southern Cross in their voyages round 
 the Cape of Good Hope. Thus was not only their
 
 232 Results of the Protesia7it Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 geographical but also their astronomical knowledge 
 widened. 
 
 A beginning of truer and wider views of the universe 
 was almost a natural consequence, but to attain to it 
 scholastic and even ecclesiastical bonds had to be 
 loosened. A scientific Luther was wanted to burst 
 through them, but the age did not produce such a man. 
 Nevertheless it did produce one who silently lived and 
 worked timidly to demonstrate that the motions of the 
 planets and the moon can only be fully accounted for on 
 the hypothesis that the sun and not the earth is the cen- 
 tre of the solar system, that the moon is a satellite of 
 the earth, and that the sphere of the fixed stars is at an 
 immense distance from the farthest of the planetary 
 spheres. Our present theory of the solar system is still 
 sometimes called after his name, Copernican, though it 
 is far more truly called after Newton. 
 
 Nicolas Copernicus died two years before Luther. 
 His story is that of a brave life, and one which may 
 ^^ , ^ well be set by the side of that of other 
 
 Nicolas Co- / 
 
 pernicus. great men of the era. Educated at the 
 
 University of Cracow, in Poland, he after- 
 wards proceeded to Rome, and studied under the best 
 astronomer of the day. Then he spent a long life in 
 working out his grand scientific problem from careful 
 observations and according to the best lights he could 
 get. He was loyal to the Church. He did not want to 
 be a heretic, and yet the great truth he had to tell was 
 contrary to the teaching of the Church. For thirty-six 
 years — all the time the Protestant struggle was raging — 
 he was working at the immortal book in which his ob- 
 servations and discoveries were embodied, but he did 
 not venture to publish it till under Paul III. there was a 
 lull in the ecclesiastical storm. He was then an eld man.
 
 CH. VIII. Economic Results of the Era. 233 
 
 in broken health ; his book was in the 
 printer's hands when he was on his death- no't^ ^pubu^shed 
 bed. All he cared for now was to see it [,'" ^je Jh-beT 
 safe in print before he died. He waited at 
 death's door day after day. At last the printer's mes- 
 senger came with the printed book. He received it with 
 tears in his eyes, composed himself and died. This 
 was in 1543, and he was seventy years old. He was fol- 
 lowed by other scientific discoverers — Tycho Brahe, 
 Kepler, and Galileo. Thus the brave life of Copernicus 
 may be taken as marking the epoch when scientific 
 thought and inquiry began to free itself from theologi- 
 cal trammels and to seek to discover the laws of nature 
 by a simple, childlike, and careful observation of facts. 
 But necessarily many generations must pass away before 
 men became used to scientific modes of research and of 
 thouffht. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ECONOMIC RESULTS OF THE ERA. 
 
 Amongst the powers which belonged to the old order 
 of things, and which were going out, the feudal system 
 was mentioned as silently giving way under „ , 
 
 ^ ° 1 r Results of the 
 
 the combined influence of the growth of the era on what re- 
 
 ^ , . ,, 1 ■ 1 r mained of the 
 
 central power m the modern nations and of feudal system. 
 commerce. 
 
 The results of the era in hastening the dissolution of 
 the feudal system require a few words of further expla- 
 nation. 
 
 In Germany, we have seen, serfdom — the essential of 
 which, it will be remembered, was services of forced
 
 234 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 
 , ^ personal labor in return for occupation of 
 
 In Oermany ^ 
 
 personal ser- land — remained unchanged, except for the 
 tinued. worse, after the Peasants' War, and lasted 
 
 on till the beginning of the present cen- 
 tury. 
 In France serfdom was a thing of the past, but there 
 In France remained numberless feudal rents and pay- 
 
 feudal rents ments made chiefly hi kind (i. e. in produce 
 
 and payments -' -' ^ ^ 
 
 chiefly in kind of the land) which the peasantry went on 
 
 continued till . .,, , „ , _, , . ^ _ 
 
 1798. paymg till the French Revolution of 1798, 
 
 In England serfdom was gone, but had left behind it 
 fixed rents in money instead of the old feudal payments 
 , ^ , , in services or in kind. These rents were 
 
 In England 
 
 feudal rents Originally nearly equal to the annual value 
 hi^fixedmoney of the land. But an economic cause came 
 payments. jj^^.^ pj^y during the era which, while it did 
 not help the German peasant nor the French peasant who 
 paid his rent in kind, lessened the burden of 
 
 Effect of the ^ 
 
 discovery of the English peasant's rent so much as to 
 mi'nes^rthe change his position gradually into that of an 
 New World. absolute owner. 
 
 This economic cause was the discovery of the silver 
 and gold mines in the New World. 
 
 It made silver more plentiful, and therefore cheaper in 
 proportion to other things, such as corn and land. In 
 other words, it increased the price in pence and shillings 
 ^, , „ . , of almost everything. A penny or a shilling 
 
 The fall in the ■' ° * 
 
 value of money would not buy SO much com after as before 
 
 caused a great , . , . i j • 
 
 rise in prices, the new mines were discovered ; and as in 
 England Tudor monarchs at the same time 
 for their own purposes, lessened the weight of silver in 
 the penny and shilling by about one-third, the effect of 
 the increased plenty of silver was made all the greater; 
 6s. would buy a quarter of wheat at the beginning of the
 
 CH. VIII. Economic Residts of the Era. 235 
 
 centur)'', it took 38^. 6d. to buy a quarter of wheat at the 
 end of it. The annual value of land was about \d. per 
 acre at the beginning of the century„3o^. at the end of it. 
 The German peasant was not helped by this, for he 
 had to work just as many hours a day for his feudal 
 landlord at the end as at the beginning of ^, . ,. , 
 
 ° ° This did not 
 
 the century. lessen the Ger- 
 
 The French peasant, so far as he paid in ^^icesf^^" 
 produce, was not helped by it, because the ~^^^ ^^^ 
 price of his produce had increased as fast as French pea- 
 
 , fill 11- -J sant's rents in 
 
 the value of the land, and his rent remamed produce. 
 the same burden as before. 
 
 But the English peasant, who in the year 1500 
 paid \d. an acre fixed rent for his land, which was then 
 worth about JLd. an acre in the market, r^ . , . 
 
 , . . But It reduced 
 
 found himself in 1600, if he still held on to the burden of 
 
 his land, still paying only \d. an acre, while peasants' rents 
 
 his land was worth in the market six, seven, l/thor'iVh of 
 
 or eight times as much as that. His burden the value of 
 
 ° their land. 
 
 of rent was reduced to ^th or ^th of what it This would 
 
 J , have made 
 
 used to be. them peasant 
 
 Had the English peasantry held on to ^X'hey held 
 their land as the German and French pea- ?" '° „*='"■, . 
 
 . land. But their 
 
 sants did, they would thus have grown into tendency was 
 
 ,, . to leave their 
 
 peasant proprietors, paying very small nomi- land and be- 
 nal rents for their land. But other economic fo°"'J^g^°"'''" 
 causes were at work, tending to loosen them 
 from their little holdings and make them labourers for 
 wages. The growth of commerce and manufactures at- 
 tracted them to the towns, the large farms of men with 
 capital more and more took the place of the little peasant 
 holdings, and thus began the present state of things in 
 which England differs so much from other countries. 
 There were perhaps, in the year 1500, about half a
 
 236 Results of the Protestmit Revolution, pt. iii. 
 
 Change from 
 peasant pro- 
 prietorship 
 of land or 
 of looms to 
 labour tor 
 wages. 
 
 million families in England living by the land, and most 
 were, or had been, farming some little bit of 
 land for themselves. Perhaps there were not 
 so many as a quarter of a million families 
 earning their living by trade or manufactures 
 in the towns, and most of them owning their 
 own workshops or looms. 
 The half million agricultural families have now grown 
 into about a million. These no longer are occupiers of 
 land, but are mostly working for wages for a few hun- 
 dred thousand farmers. But in the meantime the two 
 or three hundred thousand families living by trade and 
 manufactures have increased to 3,000,000, and these 
 again, as a general rule, like their agricultural brethren, 
 have become workers for wages, and no longer are 
 owners of their own workshops and looms. 
 
 We probably owe this to the growth of capital and 
 commercial enterprise, stimulated by the increased profit 
 which comes from division of labour, and 
 doing things on a large scale by machinery 
 rather than on a small scale as of old by 
 hand labour. But what we have to mark 
 here is that the beginnings of these great 
 changes were already at work in the era of 
 which we have been speaking, and that in their course 
 the last remains of the old feudal system have been demo- 
 lished in England. We only see in England now traces 
 of a sort of mock-feudalism in the deer 
 forests and game preserves, and antiquated 
 forms and customs still clinging to the laws 
 of land tenure. These things are survivals 
 of a system which once had life, but which 
 belonged to the old order of things. In the 
 l6th century it was already fast dying out 
 
 chiefly the 
 result of the 
 growth of 
 commerce 
 and capital, 
 and the use 
 of machinery. 
 
 These changes 
 had begun 
 in the i6th 
 century, and 
 they com- 
 pleted the- 
 silent down- 
 fall of the 
 feudal system 
 in England.
 
 CH. VIII. Conclusion. 237 
 
 to make way for commercial enterprise and all that 
 belongs to the new order of things — an order of things 
 which has muldplied by six or seven the population of 
 England, and peopled with about an equal additional 
 number of Englishmen those great colonies for which 
 the maritime enterprise of the i6th century first opened 
 the way. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In the introductory chapter we said that the passage 
 from the old decaying form of civilization to the new, 
 better, and stronger one, involved a change which must 
 needs take place slowly and by degrees ; but that in the 
 era under review was to be the aisis of the change — the 
 final struggle between the two forces. 
 
 We have now traced the main lines of the history of 
 this crisis, and tried to point out its connexion with the 
 future as well as with the past. We have seen that 
 the Protestant revolution was but one wave 
 
 ^ , , . . , ^ , ..... The Protes- 
 
 of the advancmg tide of modern civilization, tant revoiu- 
 It was a great revolutionary wave, the on- begi^itngof 
 ward swell of which, beginning with the agreatrevo- 
 
 ° ^ lutionary 
 
 refusal of reform at the Diet of Worms, pro- wave which 
 duced the Peasants' War and the Sack of ire„ch 
 Rome, swept on through the revolt of the of'iTgs."'"' 
 Netherlands, the Thirty Years' War, the 
 Puritan Revolution in England under Oliver Cromwell, 
 the formation of the great independent American re- 
 public, until it came to a head and broke in all the 
 terrors of the French Revolution. 
 
 It is impossible not to see in the course of the events 
 of this remarkable period an onward movement as
 
 238 Results of the Protestant Reiwlution. pt. hi. 
 
 irresistible and certain in its ultimate pro- 
 gress as that of the geological changes which 
 have passed over the physical world. 
 
 It is in vain to speculate upon what might 
 have been the result of the concession of 
 broad measures of reform everywhere (as in 
 England) whilst yet there was time ; but in 
 view of the bloodshed and misery which, humanly 
 speaking, might have been spared, who can fail to be 
 impressed with the terrible responsibility, in 
 the eye of history, resting upon those by 
 whom in the i6th century, at the time of the 
 crisis, the reform was refused ? They were 
 utterly powerless, indeed, to stop the ultimate 
 flow of the tide, but they had the terrible 
 power to turn, what might otherwise have 
 been a steady and peaceful stream, into a turbulent and 
 devastating flood. They had the terrible power, and 
 they used it, to involve their own and ten succeeding 
 generations in the turmoils of revolution. 
 
 The move- 
 ment was 
 inevitable, 
 and might 
 have been 
 peacefully 
 met and 
 aided by 
 timely re- 
 forms. 
 
 But the 
 refusal of 
 reform at the 
 time of the 
 crisis in- 
 volved ten 
 generations 
 in the 
 turmoils of 
 revolution.
 
 NOTES ON BOOKS IN ENGLISH RELATING 
 TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The term " Reformation" is used by historical writers 
 in two meanings. It quite frequently denotes the reli- 
 gious movement, which began under the auspices of 
 Luther, Calvin, Cranmer and other leaders, and in- 
 volved an emancipation from the rule of the Papacy, 
 and an important change in the interpretation of the 
 Gospel, as well as in the rites of Christian worship. 
 The Reformation, as thus regarded, is an exclusively 
 religious and ecclesiastical revolution. As such, it 
 forms a portion of the history of Christianity and the 
 Church. At the same time, Protestantism, as a religious 
 system, was partly dependent for its origin on circum- 
 stances which properly fall within the province of secu- 
 lar history ; and the progress of Protestantism, and of 
 the conflict with the Papacy, is inextricably connected 
 with the general course of European affairs. Hence, 
 the general condition of society at the opening of the 
 sixteenth century, the causes other than religious which 
 prepared for the outbreaking of the great Protest against 
 Rome, and the events of political history which link 
 themselves to the religious Reform, must fall under the 
 notice of a historian who takes a comprehensive view 
 of his subject. 
 
 But the term " Reformation " is frequently used with 
 more latitude as a convenient designation for the open- 
 ing era of modern history, — the history of the post- 
 mediasval times. While the religious reform was one 
 
 239
 
 240 Notes on Books in English 
 
 leading and defining characteristic of the new era, it 
 Avas not the sole peculiarity that distinguished it. On 
 the contrary, various and complex elements, appear in 
 the modern as distinguished from the mediaeval period. 
 Events like the growth of monarchy, the spread of Com- 
 merce, the new birth of Art, the Revival of Learning, are 
 essential features in that form of society which gradually 
 arose, and followed upon the Middle Ages. The histo- 
 rian who undertakes to describe the era as a whole must 
 give its proper place to each of these new elements. 
 He must trace each to its sources, and form an estimate 
 of the reciprocal influence and collective effect of each 
 of these features of society as it emerged from the 
 mediaeval condition. But he will, under such a plan, 
 still be obliged to give a central place to the religious 
 movement, both in the centuries which preceded Luther, 
 and in the age contemporaneous with him. The Pro- 
 testant religion cannot be considered as an incident; 
 it must be treated as a vital, as the most commanding, 
 fact in the new epoch. So that whether the Reforma- 
 tion is taken in the more special sense to which we first 
 adverted, or in the more comprehensive meaning, the 
 same facts come under the survey of the historian. The 
 difference is chiefly in the point of view from which 
 these facts are regarded, which will of course determine 
 their grouping. As regards the mediaeval period, secu- 
 lar history and ecclesiastical history are inseparable. 
 Neither can be studied apart from the other. If a divi- 
 sion is more possible as relates to the modern era, still 
 even here, one class of phenomena are so closely asso- 
 ciated with another, that ecclesiastical history cannot be 
 understood apart from secular, nor can secular history 
 be adequately studied apart from ecclesiastical. The 
 life of nations, as of men, is one.
 
 Relating to the Reformation. 241 
 
 In the following list of some of the most useful works 
 to be found in English on the Reformation, general 
 literary works, as well as distinctively ecclesiastical wri- 
 ters, are included. 
 
 I. The Period before Luther. On Wickliffe, the Re- 
 forming Councils, and the beginnings of the Revival of 
 Learning, the last two (viith and viiith) volumes of Mil- 
 man's Lafifi Christianity are valuable. The fifth vol- 
 ume of the same work describes the Waldenses and 
 other sects, of an earlier date. Ullmann's Refonners 
 before the Reformation (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1855) gives 
 an excellent account of the theological and religious 
 forerunners of Luther, especially in Germany. Gillett's 
 Life and Times of John Huss (2 vols., 187 1) is a reada- 
 ble narrative of the career of the Bohemian Reformer. 
 Villari's Life of Savotiarota is a thorough biography (2 
 vols., 1873). With it may be read George Eliot's (Mrs. 
 Lewes's) Romola. The most recent Life of Erasmus is 
 by Drummond (2 vols., 1873). Milman's Article on 
 Erasmus {Quart. Rev., No. ccxi., and in his collected 
 Essays') is an elaborate and instructive discussion. Jor- 
 tin's Life of Erasmus is a learned, but at the same time, 
 an interesting biography, abounding in extracts from 
 the writings of Erasmus. Upon Erasmus and his asso- 
 ciates, the friends of the New Learning, in England, we 
 have Seebohm's The Oxford Reformers of I4g% (Lon- 
 don, 1869). The literature of the age prior to Luther is 
 described in the work of Hallam, Introduction to the Lit. 
 of Europe in tlie 13th, 16th, and jyth centuries (3 vols., 
 1855-56). 
 
 II. General' IVorks t<pon the Reformation. Robert- 
 son's History of Charles V. Edited by W. H. Prescott, 
 with supplement on the Cloister Life of the Emperor (3 
 vols., 1856). Robertson prefixes to his work an Essay 
 
 Q
 
 242 Notes on Books in English 
 
 on the state of Europe at the accession of Charles. 
 Prescott's History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella, exhibits the causes which gave its pecuhar tone to 
 Spanish Cathohcism, prior to the sixteenth century. 
 Ranke, History of the Popes of Rome during the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries. Translated by Sarah 
 Austin, (3 vols., 1867). This is a work of the highest 
 value. Hausser, The Period of the Reformation, 1517- 
 1648. Translated from the German by Mrs. G. Sturges 
 (New York, 1874) is a very able series of historical lec- 
 tures, and is especially valuable for the political side of 
 the history of this period. Guizot's Lectures on the His- 
 tory of Civilisation contain two chapters on the Re- 
 formation and its consequences. D'Aubigne's History 
 of the Reformation is a full, detailed narrative, in a viva- 
 cious style, by a warm advocate of Protestantism. On 
 the Catholic side is Spaulding's History of the Reforma- 
 tion (Baltimore, 1866). Balmes, Protestatttism and Cath- 
 olicity compared in their effects on Civilization : trans- 
 lated from the Spanish (i 851), is a voluminous polemi- 
 cal book, by a Spanish Priest, in reply to Guizot's 
 Lectures on Civilization. The Reformation, by G. P. 
 Fisher, is designed "to present to intelligent and edu- 
 cated readers the means of acquainting themselves " 
 with the Reformation, in its various aspects (i vol., 
 
 1873)- 
 The ivth vol. of Gieseler's Church History (in the 
 
 , American Edition) is an extremely learned and satisfac- 
 tory account of the Reformation ; but it is adapted to 
 scholars, and not to the general reader. Hardvvick's 
 History of the Reformation is likewisS intended for 
 scholars and theologiarts, and is written by a decided 
 adherent of the Church of England. The chapters on 
 Ihe Reformation in Hase's Church History are less
 
 Relating to the Reformation. 243 
 
 scholastic, but are still specially adapted to the theologi- 
 cal scholar. Waddington's History of the Reformation, 
 is a carefully written, impartial narrative, of a more 
 popular character ; but it extends only to the death of 
 Luther. 
 
 III. Works upon the Reforniatioji in the several coun- 
 tries, {a) Germany. At the head of the list belongs 
 Ranke's History of Germany in the Period of the Re- 
 formation : translated in part, by Sarah Austin, (3 vols., 
 1845-47). Michelet's Life of Luther (i vol.), and Table- 
 Talk of Luther, are both translated in Bohn's Library. 
 The Life of Luther by Barnas Sears (8 vo., 1850), is 
 brief, but founded on an extensive knowledge of the 
 sources. 
 
 {b) Switzerland. Christoffel's Zwingli, or the Rise of 
 the Reformation in Switzerland, is one of the latest 
 biographies of the Zurich Reformer. The Life of Cal- 
 vin, by Beza, translated from the Latin by Gibson 
 (Philad., 1836), is one of the original documents relating 
 to the subject. The Life of Calvin by Dyer (1849) i^ 
 accurate and impartial. The most copious and com- 
 plete of the biographies of Calvin is by Henry, trans- 
 lated from thC' German by Stebbing (3 vols., 1844). 
 The Letters oj Calvin, edited by Bonnet, translated in 
 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1856-57), are important. There is 
 an English translation of all of Calvin's Writings, in 
 52 vols. (Edinburgh, 1856-57). 
 
 (c) Denmark, Norway, atid Sweden. Dunham, His- 
 /<?ry of these countries (in Lardner's Cab. Cycl., 1840). 
 Gt\]er, History of Sweden, X.rzins\aX&A. by Turner (1845). 
 
 {d) Bohemia and Moravia. The Reformation and 
 Anti-Refotmation in Bohemia (2 vols., London, 1845.) 
 
 (^/) Poland. Krasinski, History of the Reformation in 
 Poland (2 vols., London, 1840). By the same Author,
 
 244 Notes on Books in English 
 
 Sketch of the Religions History of the Slavonic Nations 
 (Edinburgh, 1851). 
 
 (d') France. The chapters, on the Reformation, in 
 Michelet's General History of France, are correct and 
 animated. The Stiidenfs History of France (i vol., 
 8vo., 1862) gives a brief narrative of the Reformation 
 and the Civil Wars. Ranke's History of France, espe- 
 cially in the i6fh and lyth cetituries, is translated in part 
 under the title, History of Civil Wars and Monarchy in 
 Fratice, Lofidon, 1852. The whole work, like the rest 
 of the series by Ranke on this era, is masterly. Among 
 the other valuable works on the French Reformation, 
 are De Felice, History of Frettch Protestants, translated 
 by Lobdell (1851). W. S. Browning, History of the 
 Hugitenots in the i6th century (3 vols., 1829-39). [Mrs. 
 Marsh], History of the Huguenots (2 vols., 1847). Due 
 D'Aumale, Lives of the Princes of Conde (vol. i. and ii., 
 London, 1872). H. White, The Massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, preceded by a narrative of the religious wars 
 (London, 1868). This one of the best of the histories 
 of this period ; it gives interesting details. 
 
 [f) Netherlands. Brandt, History of the Reforitiation 
 in the Netherlands (4 vols., 4to.). Engl, translation 
 (London, 1720). Brandt is the learned Arminian histo- 
 rian. His voluminous work is highly prized by scholars. 
 Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, 3 vols. (New York, 
 1856). Prescott, History of Philip H. (3 vols,, 1855.) 
 
 [g] England. The works of the English Reformers 
 have been published by the Parker Society, in 54 vols., 
 with a general index. The general histories of England 
 treat of the Reformation ; as Macaulay (in his Introduc- 
 tory Chapter) — also, in his reviews of Ranke, and Hal- 
 lam ; Hume, Lingard, from the Roman Catholic point 
 of view ; Froude, etc. Hallam's Constitutional History
 
 Relating to the Reformation. 245 
 
 is an authority of the first rank on all legal and constitu- 
 tional questions connected with the rise and progress of 
 Protestantism in England, and is instructive on collat- 
 eral points. Burnet's History of the Reforination, is the 
 work of an honest writer, with extraordinary means of 
 knowledge, but sometimes swayed by prejudice. The 
 biographical and historical writings of Strype are of 
 great value to the student who wishes to make a thor- 
 ough study of the English Reformation. Massingberd's 
 History of the English Reformation has passed through 
 many editions. It is concise, J. H. Blunt, in his His- 
 tory of the Reformation to the death of Wolsey, 1514-47 
 (London, 1872) represents the conservative, or High 
 Church opinions. He bestows much praise upon Wol- 
 sey and his ideas of Reform. Neal's History of the 
 Puritans from the Reformation to the death of Queen 
 Elizabeth, is a learned account of the Reformation from 
 the Puritan standing-point. Bacon's Genesis of the New 
 Engtand Churches is a narrative of the rise of Indepen- 
 dency, and of the migration of the Pilgrims to Ply- 
 mouth. 
 
 {h) Scotland. The History of the Reformation, by John 
 Knox himself, is one of the principal sources of informa- 
 tion. Robertson, History of Scotland during the reigns 
 of Mary and James VI. , etc. McCrie's Ltfe of John Knox 
 is highly instructive. Burton, History of Scotland to 1688. 
 This is the most recent, and probably the best of the 
 histories of Scotland. It is full upon the Reformation. 
 
 (z) Italy. McCrie's History of the Reformation in 
 Italy, is a standard work. M. Young's Life of Paleario 
 (2 vols., i860) throws light upon the history of Italian 
 Protestantism. 
 
 (7) Spain. McCrie's History of the Reformation in 
 Spain is the best work on the subject. Prescott's His-
 
 246 Notes on Books Relati?ig to the Reformation. 
 
 tory of Philip II. Ticknor's Bisiory of Spanish Litera- 
 ture, and Llorente's History of the Inquisition in Spai?t, 
 may be consulted with profit. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing titles, may be mentioned 
 Sarpi's History of the Council of Trettt, Ranke's History 
 of the Popes, Hubner's Life of Pope Sixtus V., Stein- 
 metz's History of the fesuits, Isaac Taylor, Loyola and 
 Jesuitism iu its Rudiments. These works bear on the 
 rise and progress of the Catholic Reaction. 
 
 publisher's note. 
 A full list of " Works in general history relating to the Period of 
 the Reformation," giving the titles in full, will be found in the 
 History of the Reformation by Prof. Fisher. Those who may 
 desire to pursue the study of this Era in any particular direction 
 beyond the limits indicated above, will find all necessary aid in the 
 list named.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CAM 
 
 ADRIAN VI., 154, 155, 179,206 
 Aleander, Papal nuncio, 105, 
 
 109, 118, 130 
 Alexander VI., 24, 26, 37, 73, 78,205 
 Alsace, see Elsass 
 Alva, Duke of, ioo 
 America, discovery of, 4 
 Anne of Cleves, 194 
 Armadd, the Spanish, 200, 215 
 Arthur, Prince of Wales, 54, 173 
 Astrology, 229 
 Augsburg confession, 169 
 .Augsburg, peace of, 171 
 Augustine, bt., theology of, 98, 99, 
 
 106 
 
 BAMBERG, bishop of, 230 
 Bavaria, rising of peasants in, 
 
 149 
 BcrMchingen, see Gotz v 
 Berne revolts from Rome, 165 
 Binle, English version of, 185, 192, 
 
 221 ; German, 135, 221 ; French, 
 
 221 
 lioheim, Hans, 62 
 Boleyn, Anne, i8o,.i84 ; marriage of, 
 
 184 ; beheaded, 193 
 Borgia, Caesar, 24, 26, 73, 75 
 Bosworth, battle of, 52 
 Bouibon, Duke of, 155, 157, 179 
 Buckingham, execution of, 176 
 B ndschuh, the, 63, 115, 117, 128, 138, 
 
 144 
 
 CABOT, Sebastian, 4, 56 
 Calvin, John, 202, 205 ; influ- 
 ence of writings of, 221 
 Cambray, league of, 131 
 
 DEN 
 
 Campeggio, 180 
 
 Capets, dynasty of the, 42 
 
 Cappel, peace of, i6s 
 
 Cariffa, cardinal, 212 
 
 Carinthia, rising of the peasantry in, 
 
 149. 151 
 Carlstadt, 136, 137, 141, 142, 145, 146 
 Casimir, Markgraf, 146, 148 
 Catherine of Arragon, 54, 90, 132, 173 
 
 174, 175, 176, 180; death of, 193. 
 Catherine de Medici, 217 
 Celibacy of the clergy, influence of, 
 
 223 
 Charles V., 30, 39, 103, 113-135, 154, 
 
 155, 166-171, 17s, 179,180, 195, 196, 
 
 200, 213 
 Charles VIII. of France, 26, 37, 46, 
 
 73 
 Christian II., 199 
 
 Christian Prince, of Erasmus, 93, 100 
 Civilization, character of modern, 5 
 Clement VII., 155, 160, 179, 206 
 Colet, John, 78-97, loi, 183, 190, 222 
 
 229 
 Columbus, 4, 37, 41, 56 
 Commerce, 3, 18, 21; 233-237 
 Contarini, Gasper, 207, 208 
 Contarini, the younger, 212 
 Copernicus, Nicolas, 232 
 Cranach, Lucas, 119, 120 
 Crammer, 184, 193, 197 
 Criminal law, cruelty of, 230 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 204 
 Cromwell, Thomas, 191-193 
 Crusades, the influence of^ 3, 17 
 
 DANTE, 23 
 Denmark, revolt of, from Rome, 
 199-2*0 
 
 247
 
 248 
 
 Index. 
 
 GRO 
 Diets, Cjerman, 30 {see Worms, 
 
 Spires, Ratisbon) 
 Dudley (minister of Henry VII.) 82- 
 
 84 
 
 EDWARD VI., 194 
 Elizabeth, princess (afterwards 
 
 queen), 193 
 Elsass, rising of peasants in, 63, 149 
 Empson (minister of Henry VII.), 83, 
 
 84 
 England under Henry VII., 48-57 
 
 76-84; under Henrj' VIII., 84-92 
 
 132-133, 155-156, 171-198 
 Erasmus, 81-85, 93, 100, loi, 103, 104, 
 
 no, 113, 134, 153, 177-178, i9°» 207, 
 
 226, 229 
 
 FERDINAND and Isabella, 4, 27, 
 36,37,88-51, 104, 174 
 Feudinand I. of Austria, 170 
 Feudal system, 16, 20, 29, 31, 233-237 
 
 {see Serfdom) 
 Ficino, 70, 75, 77, 229 
 Field of the cloth of gold, 133 
 Fisher, Bishop, sent to the Tower, 
 
 187, 207 
 Flodden, battle of, 90 
 Florence, 26, 68-76 
 Forest cantons of Switzerland, 165 
 France, 41-48, 8S-92, 132-135, 154- 
 
 157, 169-196, 216-217 ^ 
 Francis I., 28,91, loi, 103, 132, 133, 
 
 154-157, 208, 216 
 Franconia, rebellion of peasants in, 
 
 62, 145 „ 
 
 Franz von Sickingen, 31, 113-115, 118, 
 
 128, 129, 138-140 
 Frederic of Saxony, loi, 102-135, 138 
 Frundsberg, General, 125, 151, 155, 157 
 
 GALILEO, 233 
 Genevan reformers, the, 201- 
 
 214 
 Germany 27-35, 59-68, 97-154, 166- 
 
 171, 220 
 Geyer, Florian, 143, 148 
 Gold mines of new world, effect of 
 
 discovery of, 234 
 Gonsalve de Cordova, 27 
 GiJtz von Bcrlichingen, 31, 113, 149 
 Granada, conquest of, 4, 36 
 Graubund, the, 63 
 Grocyn, 81 
 
 LUT 
 
 Grotius, Hugo, 220 
 Guicciardini, 24 
 Gustavus Adolphus, 199 
 Gustavus Vasa, 199 
 
 H 
 
 ANSE Towns, 18, 33 
 
 Helfenstein, Count Ton, 143, 
 
 143 
 Henry VII., 52-57, 83-84, 173-1/4 
 Henry VIII., 27, 28, 44, 82-92, 100- 
 
 104, 132-133, 154, 172-199, 220 
 Heresy, 185-186, 225 
 Hermann, 162 
 Hesse, Philip of, 170 
 Hipler, Wendel, 143 
 Holy Alliance, the, 88 
 Howard, Admiral, 90 
 Howard, Catherine, 195 
 Huguenots, the, 204-205, 217 
 Humanists. 71, 77, 206 
 Huss, John, 14, 62, 106, 119, 123, 127 
 Hutten, Ulrich von, 113-115, 118-123, 
 
 128-130, 138-140 
 
 TNDULGENCES,sale of, 100-103 
 
 J. Infanta of Portugal, 133, 156, 180 
 
 Innocent VIII., 73 
 
 ' Inquisition,' the, 39, 213, 215 
 
 Italian reformers, 201-208 
 
 Itaiy, 12-27 {see Rome and Popes) 
 
 JEROME of Prague, 14 
 Jesuits, order of, 208—212, 222 
 Johanna of Castile, 38 
 Joss Fritz, 64-65, 117, 137-138 
 Julius II., 27,88-89, 174 
 
 KEMPTEN, peasants' rebellion 
 in, 63 
 Kepler, 233 
 Knox, John, 204-205, 222 
 
 LAMBERT SIMNEL, 53 
 Leo X., 27, 89, 100-154, 170 
 
 206 
 Lilly, 84, 87 
 Linacre, 8x 
 Lollards. 15, 88, 178 
 Louis XI. of France, 43 
 Louis XII., 27, 88, 91 
 Loyola. Igratius, 208-212 
 Luther, Martin, 97-135, 152. ^^6, '^7" 
 
 170, 177, 208, 221, 229, 2_jO
 
 Lidex. 
 
 249 
 
 POL 
 
 MACHIAVELLI, 19,22, 25, 43, 
 46, 75, 163 
 Magellan, 227 
 
 Marignano, battle of, 91, 132 
 Mary, princess, afrerwards queen, 
 
 133, 156, 175, 176, 179, 196, 200 
 Maximilian, emperor, 19, 29, 38, 64, 
 
 89. 103 
 Medici, Cosmo de', 69, 70 
 Medici, Lorenzo de', 69, 70, 72, 135 
 Medici, Catherine de', 217 
 Melanchthon, Philip, 103, 109-111, 
 
 121, 136, 168-169,208, 230 
 Michael Angelo, 69 
 Milan. 26, 42, 132, 154 
 Mohammedan power, the, 2, 4, 35, 
 
 168, 169 
 Monasteries, dissolution of, 191-192 
 Moors, in Spain, 2, 4, 35 
 More, Sir "Thomas, 82-97, 172, 176- 
 
 178, 186-190, 226, 229 
 Morgarten, battle of, 61 
 Morton, Cardinal, 55, 183, 205 
 Miinzer, 136, 141, 142, 150 
 
 NANTES, edict of, 217 
 Naples, 26, 42, 132 
 Netherlands, revolt of from Rome, 
 
 200, 201 
 New Testament of Erasmus, 94, 185, 
 190 ; of Tindal, see Tindal 
 
 OXFORD Reformers, 76-97, 176 
 177, iqo, 225, {see Colet, Eras- 
 mus, More) 
 
 PARR, Queen Catherine, 195 
 Pavia, battle of, 155, 179 
 
 Paul III., 207, 208, 213 
 
 Paul IV., 213 
 
 Peasants' war, 140, 152, 177 
 
 Peasantry, condition of in England, 
 50, 233-237 ; in France, 45 and 235, 
 237 ; in Germany, see Serfdom 
 
 Pcrkin Warbeck, 53 
 
 Petrarch, 23 
 
 Philip de Commines, 45 
 
 Philip II. of Spain, 38, 170, 196,201 
 214 
 
 Pico dclla Mirando'a, 70, 9. 72, 229 
 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, 193 
 
 Pilgrim fathers, 222, 204-205 
 
 Poie, Reginald, 194, 206, 212 
 
 Politian, 70 
 
 SWl 
 Popes of Rome, 24-27, 206, and see 
 
 Innocent VIII., Alexander VI., 
 
 luhus II., Leo X., Adrian VI., 
 
 Paul III., Paul IV. 
 ' Praise of Folly ' of Erasmus, 85, loi, 
 
 113. 191 
 ' Prince, The,' of Machiavelli, 76 
 Printing, invention of, 4 
 Protestants, origin of name of, 168 
 Puritans, the, 204, 217, 226 
 
 RATISBON, Diet of, 169, 208 
 Revival of learning, 3, 68, 78 
 Revolts from Rome — in England, 
 
 171-198 
 — in Germany, 166-170 
 — in Switzerland. 163-166 
 — in Denmark and Sweden, 199 
 — in the Netherlands, 200 
 Richard III., 52-53 
 Rohrbach, little Jack, 144 
 Roman Catholic Church, 8 
 Roman civilizaiion, 6 
 Rome, 8, 22-27 '• sack of, 154-156 
 Roper, Margaret, 187 
 Kothenburg, peasants' war at, 146- 
 
 149 
 
 SICKINGEN, see Franz 
 St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 
 
 217 
 St. Paul's school, founded by Colet, 86 
 Savonarola Girolamo, T2--Ti, 78, 121, 
 
 222 
 Saxony, John of, 167, 169 
 Schmalkalden, league of, 169, 170 
 Scientific inquiry, beginnings of, 231 
 Scientific knowledge. 227 
 Scholastic system, the, 12-16, 77 
 Serfdom in Germany, ao, 33-4, 58-66 
 
 i40-'53, 231 
 Serfdom in France, 20, 45-47, 234 
 Serfdom in England, 20, 234-236 
 Servetus, 203, 226 
 Slavery and slave trade, 41 
 Spain, 35-41, 214-215, and see Charles 
 
 V. 
 Spalatin, 109, no, 115, 122, 123 
 Spires, I'ictsof, 156, 157, 167-168 
 Spurs, battle of the, 90 
 Storch, Cl.tus, 136, 137, 142 
 Swabia, insurrection of peasants in, 
 
 141-143 
 Swabian league, the, 66, 141-143 
 Sweden, revolt from Rome of, 199-201 
 Switzerland, 61, 163
 
 250 
 
 Index. 
 
 VAL 
 
 TETZEL, 102 
 Thirty Years' War, r67, 171, 
 
 200, 216 
 Thuiingia, insurrection of peasants 
 
 in, 150 
 Tindall, William, 185, 193, 222 
 T ent, Council of, 208, 212-214 
 Truchses-i, George, 143, 145, 151 
 Tycho Brahe, 233 
 Tyrol, rising of peasants in the, 151- 
 
 152 
 
 ULRICH VON HUTTEN, see 
 Hutten 
 Ulrich, D., of WUrtemberg, 66 
 United Provinces, th-, 201 
 Universe, ideas of the, 228 
 Universities, 14 
 Universities of England visited and 
 
 reformed, 192 
 U'opia, More's, 94, 96, 100, 172, 185 
 
 226 
 
 VAT.DEZ, JUAN DE, 60. 157, 206 
 Valdez. Alphonse de, secreta y 
 of Charles V., 131 
 
 ZWI 
 
 Vasco de Gama, 4 
 
 Venice, 25 
 
 Vienna besieged by the Turks, 168 
 
 "VITARTBURG, castle of the, 130, 
 
 Weinsburg, the piper of, 143-146 
 
 Wiclif, 14, 62, 106 
 
 Witchcraft, belief in, 2-;o 
 
 Wi tenbeig Reformers (see Luther 
 
 and MelanchthonJ 
 Wolsey, 89, 92, 154, 155,178-184, 197, 
 
 205 
 Worms, Diet of, 115-135, 156,167,169, 
 
 170, 172 
 
 XAVIER, FRANCIS, 210 
 Ximenes, cardinal, 39, 154, 
 205 
 
 ZURICH revolts from Rome, 165 
 Zwickau, prophets of, 136- 
 
 Zwingle, Uirich, 164-165, 202
 
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