Chapter XXVII: The Reformation and the Religious Wars, 1517-1648 A.d. 1 (2)

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

ELIZABETH AND PHILIP II

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

THE "INVINCIBLE ARMADA," 1588 A.D.

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

ENGLISH SEA-POWER

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

239. THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE

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

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

THE HUGUENOTS

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

CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE

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

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

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

HENRY IV

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

EDICT OF NANTES, 1598 A.D.

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

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

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

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

RELIGIOUS ANTAGONISMS

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

POLITICAL FRICTION

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

THE BOHEMIAN REVOLT

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

DANISH INTERVENTION

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

EDICT OF RESTITUTION, 1692 A.D.

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

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND THE INTERVENTION OF SWEDEN

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

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

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

RICHELIEU AND THE INTERVENTION OF FRANCE

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

PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, 1648 A.D.

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

TERRITORIAL READJUSTMENTS

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

DISRUPTION OF GERMANY

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

EXHAUSTION OF GERMANY

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

RISE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

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

THE EUROPEAN STATE SYSTEM

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

STUDIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Explain the difference between heresy and schism.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOOTNOTES

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

[2] See page 514.

[3] See page 591.

[4] _Purgatorio_, xx, 88-90.

[5] See pages 36-37.

[6] See page 594.

[7] See page 600.

[8] See page 344.

[9] See page 641.

[10] See page 468.

[11] See page 611.

[12] See page 455.

[13] See page 441.

[14] See page 443.

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

[16] See page 527.

[17] See page 518.

[18] See page 453.

[19] See page 613.

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

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

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

[23] See page 572.

[24] See page 440.

[25] See page 656.

[26] See page 677.

[27] See pages 550-552.

[28] See page 511, note 1.

[29] See page 639.

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

[31] See page 519.

[32] See page 634.

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

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

[35] See page 235.

[36] See page 656.

[37] See page 650.

[38] See page 524, note 1.

[39] See page 674.