Early European History Part 117

The Council of Trent made no essential changes in the Roman Catholic doctrines, which remained as St. Thomas Aquinas [23] and other theologians had set them forth in the Middle Ages. In opposition to the Protestant view, it declared that the tradition of the Church possessed equal authority with the Bible. It reaffirmed the supremacy of the pope over Christendom. The council also pa.s.sed important decrees forbidding the sale of ecclesiastical offices and requiring bishops and other prelates to attend strictly to their duties. Since the Council of Trent the Roman Church has been distinctly a religious organization, instead of both a secular and religious body, as was the Church in the Middle Ages. [24]

THE INDEX

The council, before adjourning, authorized the pope to draw up a list, or Index, of works which Roman Catholics might not read. This action did not form an innovation. The Church from an early day had condemned and destroyed heretical writings. However, the invention of printing, by giving greater currency to new and dangerous ideas, increased the necessity for the regulation of thought. The "Index of Prohibited Books"

still exists, and additions to the list are made from time to time. It was matched by the strict censorship of printing long maintained in Protestant countries.

THE INQUISITION

Still another agency of the Counter Reformation consisted of the Inquisition. This was a system of church courts for the discovery and punishment of heretics. Such courts had been set up in the Middle Ages, for instance, to suppress the Albigensian heresy. After the Council of Trent they redoubled their activity, especially in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

INFLUENCE OF THE INQUISITION

The Inquisition probably contributed to the disappearance of Protestantism in Italy. In the Netherlands, where it worked with great severity, it only aroused exasperation and hatred and helped to provoke a successful revolt of the Dutch people. The Spaniards, on the other hand, approved of the methods of the Inquisition and welcomed its extermination of Moors and Jews, as well as Protestant heretics. The Spanish Inquisition was not abolished till the nineteenth century.

236. SPAIN UNDER PHILIP II, 1556-1598 A.D.

ABDICATION OF CHARLES V, 1555-1556 A.D.

In 1555 A.D., the year of the Peace of Augsburg, [25] Charles V determined to abdicate his many crowns and seek the repose of a monastery. The plan was duly carried into effect. His brother Ferdinand I succeeded to the t.i.tle of Holy Roman Emperor and the Austrian territories, while his son, Philip II, [26] received the Spanish possessions in Italy, the Netherlands, and America. There were now two branches of the Hapsburg family--one in Austria and one in Spain.

PHILIP II

The new king of Spain was a man of unflagging energy, strong will, and deep attachment to the Roman Church. As a ruler he had two great ideals: to make Spain the foremost state in the world and to secure the triumph of the Roman Catholic faith over Protestantism. His efforts to realize these ideals largely determined European history during the second half of the sixteenth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHILIP II After the portrait by t.i.tian.]

BATTLE OF LEPANTO, 1571 A.D.

The Spanish monarch won renown by becoming the champion of Christendom against the Ottoman Turks. At this time the Turks had a strong navy, by means of which they captured Cyprus from the Venetians and ravaged Sicily and southern Italy. Grave danger existed that they would soon control all the Mediterranean. To stay their further progress one of the popes preached what was really the last crusade. The fleets of Genoa and Venice united with those of Spain and under Don John of Austria, Philip's half- brother, totally defeated the Turkish squadron in the gulf of Lepanto, off the western coast of Greece. The battle gave a blow to the sea-power of the Turks from which they never recovered and ended their aggressive warfare in the Mediterranean. Lepanto is one of the proud names in the history of Spain.

ANNEXATION OF PORTUGAL, 1581 A.D.

Philip had inherited an extensive realm. He further widened it by the annexation of Portugal, thus completing the unification of the Spanish peninsula. The Portuguese colonies in Africa, Asia, and America also pa.s.sed into Spanish hands. The union of Spain and Portugal under one crown never commanded any affection among the Portuguese, who were proud of their nationality and of their achievements as explorers and empire- builders. Portugal separated from Spain in 1640 A.D. and has since remained an independent state.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ESCORIAL This remarkable edifice, at once a convent, a church, a palace, and a royal mausoleum, is situated in a sterile and gloomy wilderness about twenty-seven miles from Madrid. It was begun by Philip II in 1563 A.D.

and was completed twenty-one years later. The Escorial is dedicated to St.

Lawrence, that saint's day (August 10, 1557) being the day when the Spanish king won a great victory over the French at the battle of St.

Quentin. The huge dimensions of the Escorial may be inferred from the fact that it includes eighty-six staircases, eighty-nine fountains, fifteen cloisters, 1,200 doors, 2,600 windows, and miles of corridors. The building material is a granite-like stone obtained in the neighborhood.

The Escorial contains a library of rare books and ma.n.u.scripts and a collection of valuable paintings. In the royal mausoleum under the altar of the church lie the remains of Charles V, Philip II, and many of their successors.]

PHILIP'S FAILURES

But the successes of Philip were more than offset by his failures. Though he had vast possessions, enormous revenues, mighty fleets, and armies reputed the best of the age, he could not dominate western Europe. His attempt to conquer England, a stronghold of Protestantism under Elizabeth, resulted in disaster. Not less disastrous was his life-long struggle with the Netherlands.

237. REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

THE NETHERLANDS

The seventeen provinces of the Netherlands occupied the flat, low country along the North Sea--the Holland, Belgium, and northern France of the present day. During the fifteenth century they became Hapsburg possessions and thus belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. As we have learned, Charles V received them as a part of his inheritance, and he, in turn, transmitted them to Philip II.

CONDITION OF THE NETHERLANDS

The inhabitants of the Netherlands were not racially united. In the southernmost provinces Celtic blood and Romance speech prevailed, while farther north dwelt peoples of Teutonic extraction, who spoke Flemish and Dutch. Each province likewise kept its own government and customs. The prosperity which had marked the Flemish cities during the Middle Ages [27]

extended in the sixteenth century to the Dutch cities also. Rotterdam, Leyden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam profited by the geographical discoveries and became centers of extensive commerce with Asia and America. The rise of the Dutch power, in a country so exposed to destructive inundations of both sea and rivers, is a striking instance of what can be accomplished by a frugal, industrious population.

PROTESTANTISM IN THE NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands were too near Germany not to be affected by the Reformation. Lutheranism soon appeared there, only to encounter the hostility of Charles V, who introduced the terrors of the Inquisition.

Many heretics were burned at the stake, or beheaded, or buried alive. But there is no seed like martyr's blood. The number of Protestants swelled, rather than lessened, especially after Calvinism entered the Netherlands.

As a Jesuit historian remarked, "Nor did the Rhine from Germany or the Meuse from France send more water into the Low Countries than by the one the contagion of Luther, and by the other that of Calvin, were imported into these provinces."

POLICY OF PHILIP II

In spite of the cruel treatment of heretics by Charles V, both Flemish and Dutch remained loyal to the emperor, because he had been born and reared among them and always considered their country as his own. But Philip II, a Spaniard by birth and sympathies, seemed to them only a foreign master.

The new ruler did nothing to conciliate the people. He never visited the Netherlands after 1559 A.D., but governed them despotically through Spanish officials supported by Spanish garrisons. Arbitrary taxes were levied, cities and n.o.bles were deprived of their cherished privileges, and the activity of the Inquisition was redoubled. Philip intended to exercise in the Netherlands the same absolute power which he enjoyed in Spain.

ALVA SENT TO THE NETHERLANDS, 1567 A.D.

The religious persecution which by Philip's orders raged through the Netherlands everywhere aroused intense indignation. The result was rioting by mobs of Protestants, who wrecked churches and monasteries and carried off the treasure they found in them. Philip replied to these acts by sending his best army, under the duke of Alva, his best general, to reduce the turbulent provinces into submission.

OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLT

Alva carried out with thoroughness the policy of his royal master. A tribunal, popularly known as the "Council of Blood," was set up for the punishment of treason and heresy. Hundreds, and probably thousands, perished; tens of thousands fled to Germany and England. Alva, as governor-general, also raised enormous taxes, which threatened to destroy the trade and manufactures of the Netherlands. Under these circ.u.mstances Roman Catholics and Protestants, n.o.bles and townsfolk, united against their Spanish oppressors. A revolt began which Spain could never quell.

WILLIAM THE SILENT, 1533-1584 A.D.

The Netherlands found a leader in William, Prince of Orange, later known as William the Silent, because of his customary discreetness. He was of German birth, a convert to Protestantism, and the owner of large estates in the Netherlands. William had fair ability as a general, a statesmanlike grasp of the situation, and above all a stout, courageous heart which never wavered in moments of danger and defeat. To rescue the Netherlands from Spain he sacrificed his high position, his wealth, and eventually his life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM THE SILENT]

SEPARATION OF THE NETHERLANDS

The ten southern provinces of the Netherlands, mainly Roman Catholic in population, soon effected a reconciliation with Philip and returned to their allegiance. They remained in Hapsburg hands for over two centuries.

Modern Belgium has grown out of them. The seven northern provinces, where Dutch was the language and Protestantism the religion, formed in 1579 A.D.

the Union of Utrecht. Two years later they declared their independence of Spain. Thus the republic of the United Netherlands, often known as Holland, the most important of the seven provinces, came into being.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY]

COURSE OF THE REVOLT

The struggle of the Dutch for freedom forms one of the most notable episodes in history. At first they were no match for the disciplined Spanish soldiery, but they fought bravely behind the walls of their cities and on more than one occasion repelled the enemy by cutting the dikes and letting in the sea. Though William the Silent perished in a dark hour by an a.s.sa.s.sin's bullet, the contest continued. England now came to the aid of the hard-pressed republic with money and a small army. Philip turned upon his new antagonist and sent against England the great fleet called the "Invincible Armada." Its destruction interfered with further attempts to subjugate the Dutch, but the Spanish monarch, stubborn to the last, refused to acknowledge their independence. His successor, in 1609 A.D., consented to a twelve years' truce with the revolted provinces. Their freedom was recognized officially by Spain at the close of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 A.D.

THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

The long struggle bound the Dutch together and made them one nation.

During the seventeenth century they took a prominent part in European affairs. The republic which they founded ought to be of special interest to Americans, for many features of our national government are Dutch in origin. To Holland we owe the idea of a declaration of independence, of a written const.i.tution, of religious toleration, and of a comprehensive school system supported by taxation. In these and other matters the Dutch were pioneers of modern democracy.