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rily involve the imposition of Protestant creeds differ-
ing among themselves, for it was within the power
ascribed to the princes that they should agree together
as to what they would enforce, and no doubt to a
certain extent this was what happened, and by
happening caused Lutheranism to be the prevailing
form of religion in Protestant Germany. Still the
system did involve that the prince had the power,
if he judged fit, to introduce a creed differing from
that of the neighbouring dominions, and eventually
this was what occurred when the Lutheran and
Reformed parties settled down within the hmits of
the Empire into formal opposition among themselves.
Some principalities — and it was the same w'ith the
free cities which went over to Protestantism — enforced
one of the forms of Lutheran confession, others one
of the forms of Reformed confession, and there were
even oscillations in the same principaUty as one
sovereign succeeded another on the throne. The
signal instance of (his was in the Palatinate, the
inhabitants of which were required to change back-
wards and forwards between Lutheranism and Cal-
vinism four times within the years j.563 and 1623.
This pretension of the German princes to dictate a
rehgion to their subjects came to be known as the jus
reformandi, and gave rise to the maxim, Cujus regio
ejus religio. By the Peace of Augsburg, 1555, this
pretension was reluctantly conceded as a temporary
expedient to the Protestant princes, and by the
Treaty of Westphalia (164S) it received a more formal
kind of imperial sanction, against which an ineffectual
protest was made on behalf of Pope Innocent X by
his nuncio, Chigi.
In Switzerland there were no princes to put them- selves at the head of the new national Churches, but their place was taken by the cantonal governments, wherever these had been captured by the Protestant faction. Thus Zwingli, who began his fiery preach- ings against the Catholic Church in 1518, and in a few years' time had gathered round himself a band of fanatical followers, with their aid and by holding out the confiscation of the church property as an induce- ment, was able by 1525 to draw over to his side the majority of the members of the State Council of Zurich. By this majority the Cathohc members of the council were overpowered and extruded, which done, at the instigation of Zwingh, the Catholic rehg- ion, though it had been the religion of their ancestors for many centuries and was still the rehgion of the quiet people in the land, was summarily proscribed, even the celebration of the Mass being forbidden under the severest penalties; while, to make its restora- tion forever impossible, fierce crowds led by Zwingli in person were sent to visit the various churches and strip them of their statues and ornaments on the plea that the Bible commanded them to put down idola- try. The ground being thus cleared, the state Coun- cil by its own authority set up a national Church conformed to the German tj-pe. Berne, Ba.s!e, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, and Appenzell followed quickly in the footsteps of Zurich, the .same methods of vio- lence being employed in each case. The desires of the people themselves coimted for nothing. The opinions of yesterday adopted by the fanatical leaders were at once exalted into dogmas for which was claimed an authority over the consciences of all far exceeding that which had been exercised by the vener- able Church of the ages.
Nor were these Protestant cantons satisfied with imposing their new doctrines on their own subjects. Having combined with certain cities of the Empire to form a "Christian League", in its name they summoned the Catholic cantons, Schwytz, L'ri, Unterwalden, Zug, and Lucerne, to follow their example in .supplanting the old Faith by the new. The latter, however, were resolute in their refusal and, although their military strength was inferior to that
of their antagonists, the>' <'ventually inflicted on them
a severe defeat at Kappell (31 Oct., 1531), a defeat in
which Zwingli himself and several other preachers
were slain on the field. It was a crushing blow to
Zwinghanism, which, as such, never recovered, and it
saved the Cathohc cantons from the danger of per-
version, while opening the way for the Cathohc
restoration that was to ensue. But, if Zwinghanism
in Switzerland was now practically dead, this meant
not that Protestantism had become extinct there,
but that it was about to pass throughout Switzerland
into Calvinism. John Calvin, a native of Picardy,
after imbibing in Paris the Lutheran views which
later on he recast, in his "Institutes", into the form
ever since associated with his name, settled down at
Geneva in 1536. The desire of the citizens to cast
off the yoke of Savoy by allying themselves with the
Swiss Confederation gave him the opportunity of
acquiring a power over them through the exercise of
which he was enabled to force upon the city that all-
penetrating theocratic despotism which stands out in
history as the supreme example of spiritual tjTanny.
From Germany and Switzerland, the sources rcsjicc-
tively of Lutheranism and Calvinism, Protestantism
was propagated into other lands, but in this respect
Calvinism showed itself more successful than Luther-
anism. Lutheranism spread into Denmark and the
Scandinavian Peninsula, in each ca.se owing its begin-
nings and consolidation to the compulsion and perse-
cution practised on an unwilling people by unworthy
sovereigns; but, except that in Poland also it made
some headway, this was the extent of its conquests.
Calvinism, on the other hand, in Germany itself
supplanted Lutheranism and became the dominant
religion in some parts, especially in the Palatinate,
besides gaining over a suflScient number of adherents
in the predominantly Lutheran districts to make it
an enduring rival to Lutheranism on German soil.
Moreover, in Transylvania and Hungarj', and still
more in the Netherlands, where its domination was
destined to be lasting, it superseded the Lutheran
apostolate which had been first in the field. In
France, though from the time of the Revocation of
the Edict of Xantes (1687) its adherents became a
steadily decreasing number, for a whole century and
a half it was so powerful that at times it seemed
destined to absorb the country; yet there also it
owed its progress chiefly to the militarj- violence of
its leaders. In Scotland it was tyrannically forced
on the people by a corrupt and lawless nobihty which,
covetous of the church property, lent its support
to the fiery energ>- of John Knox, a pupil of Calvin
and a fervent admirer of his theocratic system.
England was a case apart. Henrj' VIII coquetted with Lutheranism, which was of service to him in his campaign against the pope, but he disliked Protes- tantism, whether in its Lutheran or its Calvinist form, and devised his Six Articles to aid him in .suppressing it. Under Edward VI Calvinism wa.s favoured by the two regents and the more influential bishops, and their legislation was directed towards the establish- ment of this system in the country, with the sole difference that episcopacy, in name at least, was to he retained. The short-lived reaction under Mary left Elizabeth a free soil on which to build, and -she pre- ferred an episcopal sj'stem with a consider.able toning down of the a.sperities of Continental Protestantism, as more in harmony with a monarchical and aristo- cratic regime and better ad.apted to gain over a population which was at heart Cathohc. Still .she had to employ the personnvl at her disposal, a section of which was of the same mind as herself, while another section had strong Calvinistic leanings. The result was that a double tendency developed in her newly-formed Church, one which, though hating Catholicism as a system, clung to some of the char- acteristic features of Catholic worship and organiza-
