Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/517

Var aade on he Pro- estants. Defeat of Charles. GROWTH or PROTESTANTISM.] and this confederation ultimately took in, besides many cities of South Germany, most of the North—German cities and principalities. The Reformation in Germany was above all things a popular movement. It sprang directly from the heart of the nation, and, the conditions favourable to it being widely spread, it passed with extraordinary speed from one part of the country to another. Thus many princes, who would not of their own accord have deserted the church, were compelled to do so from political motives. They had been strong enough to undermine imperial authority; they were not strong enough to resist the pressure of the majority of their subjects. His hands being full elsewhere, Charles was obliged to temporize during his second absence from Germany, and to send counsels of moderation to his brother Ferdinand, who had been elected king of the Romans. He never, however, gave up his original purpose. His plan was, when he should have leisure to devote himself to the task, to secure the meeting of a general council which should make all necessary reforms, and to insist, at whatever cost, on the Lutherans abiding by its decisions. The peace of Crespy, signed in 1544, gave him free scope; and he began by inducing Pope Paul III. to summon the council which ulti- matelv met at Trent. At the same time he made vigorous preparations for war. He affected that he had no intention of fighting for religious objects, but merely wished to bring to subjection certain states which had set him at defiance. By these means he was able to detach from the League of Smalkald the reforming states which were without real enthusiasm, or which were too timid to enter upon a great struggle. Those which took up arms were so disunited that the troops sent to Charles from Italy and the Low Countries had no difficulty in joining him 3 and in 1546 he not only made himself master of the South- German Lutheran cities, b11t in the battle of Miililberg completely routed the Saxons and took their elector, John Frederick, prisoner. Shortly afterwards the landgrave Philip of Hesse, who with the Saxon elector had been the main political support of Lutheranism, fell into his hands, and both were treated with great harshness. Charles took a:lvantage of his triumph to issue What was called the “ Interim,” a confession which was to be obligatory on the Lutheran states until the council then sitting should con- clude its labours. It was everywhere resisted, but most of the states had at least outwardly to submit. All Germany thus seemed to be at the emperor’s feet. The Reformation had enabled him to deal both with the princes and the imperial cities as no sovereign had dealt with them for live centuries. But his triumph was too great to be enduring. The Catholic princes themselves were alarmed at his predomi- nance; King Ferdinand was alienated by his attempts to secure the crown for his son Philip; and the Lutheran princes chafed angrily under his severe rule. The general discontent found a representative in Maurice, a subtle and ambitious Saxon prince, who, caring little about doctrinal disputes but a great deal about the increase of his own im- portance, had sided with Charles against the Lutherans, and had been rewarded by being made John Frederick’s successor. He now turned, under the influence of what motives it is hard to determine, and plotted against the emperor, forming an alliance with the chief Lutheran princes ind with Henry II. of France, who eagerly caught the opportunity to profit by the dissensions in the empire. Charles heard vague rumours of what was going on; but he had been thrown off his guard by the ease with which he had hitherto attained his will, and carelessly trusted to chance. Suddenly, in 1552, Henry II. invaded Germany as protector of her liberties, and Charles learned that Maurice was marching rapidly to Innsbruck with the inten- GERMANY 499 tion of making him prisoner. lost. Within six months he had to sign the treaty of Passau, agreeing that a diet should be summoned for the purpose of arriving at a new settlement, and that in the meantime Lutherans and Catholics should have like privi- leges. In 1555 the religious peace of Augsburg was con- cluded by the diet thus promised. Henry II. had seized the bishoprics of Metz, Verdun, and To11l3 and Charles endeavoured at the earliest possible opportunity to win them back. But his efforts failed; and thus in his last years the power he fancied he had thoroughly humbled began a series of depredations which were thence- forth to be continued at frequent intervals. Disgusted with his ill fortune, he handed over the government of Germany to his brother Ferdinand in 1555, having in the previous year entrusted Spain, the Two Sicilies, and the Low Coun- tries to his son Philip. The peace of Augsburg, instead of bringing tranquillity, Peace of The toleration it conceded A“83~ was the cause of fresh discord. did not include the Calvinist or Reformed faith 3 only the Lutherans received liberty of worship. And even aLutheran was not tolerated unless his prince chose to let him alone 3 for each secular state had the right to eject from its territory all who did not accept the doctrine it established. Thus Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist were exposed to irritating despotism 3 and each came to regard the other with hearty detestation. Another source of trouble was a clause in the treaty called the ecclesiastical reservation. It required that if a spiritual prince accepted the Augsburg Confession he should-forthwith resign his lands. The Lutherans denied the validity of this clause 3 and notwithstanding the protests of the Catholics several prclates became Lutherans and kept their territories as secular possessions. Ferdinand I. (1556-64), who, like all German sovereigns Ferdi- after him, was recognized as emperor without being crowned Band I- by the pope, had at one time been distinguished for his zeal for the church. But the experience of his brother had taught him the necessity of prudence 3 and he was also kept quiet by troubles in Bohemia and Hungary, both of which countries he had acquired by marriage, and to both of which the house of Hapsburg soon began to lay hereditary claim. He tried to moderate the excesses of each party, and was anxious that the council of Trent should follow a concili- atory policy. enlightened princes of his time, adopted the same line. would have had the state withdraw altogether from religious disputes, and so sincerely did he carry out his principles that, although he was himself a Catholic, Protestant doctrines spread during his reign throughout the Austrian hereditary lands, from which they had hitherto been ex- cluded. immediate predecessors. The Jesuits, who had been hard at work, although without much success, during his father’s reign, gained complete ascendency over him ; and acting on their advice he continually warred against the Protestants. But he was too weak to do much good to his friends or injury to his enemies. Trained in the gloomy court of Spain, he had co1ne to be of a moody, variable temperament 3 and he was given to outbursts of violent passion, followed by abject submission to his advisers. So much confusion sprang from his incompetence that the archdukes of Austria, with the sanction of the Spanish branch of the house of Hapsburg, met in 1606, and placed the govermnent of the hereditary lands in the hands of his brother Matthias. He took refuge among his Bohemian subjects, who, in 1609, wrung from him a royal charter, granting religious freedom to the nobles, knights, and cities, with the right to build churches on their own and the royal lands. succeeded him as emperor (1612—19), was almost as unfit I-Ie tied, and all the advan- 1532- tages he had gained by the battle of Miihlberg were at once 1612- urg. Maximilian II. (1564-76), one of the most Maximi. IIc lian II. Rudolf II. (1576-1612) reversed the policy of his Rudolfl

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