pathetic and solemn warning against it.1 We cannot conceive of a man like Coligny consenting to abjure his religious profession from any consideration of expediency. Men of the highest type of character do right and leave consequences to Providence. But Henry had been reared in the camp; he had neither the strength of religious convictions nor the purity of life which answered to the standard of the earnest Huguenots. Thus his faults palliate the guilt of an act which, if done by a man of a higher moral tone, would have been attended by an utter ruin of character. The nation was now easily won to his cause. It is gratifying to find the most eminent of the recent writers on French history dissenting from the popular view which assumes that it was demonstrably impossible for Henry to attain to the throne without abandoning his faith. The same writer agrees with distinguished individuals in the Catholic Church, who even at that day preferred that the King should remain an honest Protestant than become a pretended Catholic. It is unquestionable, however, that the immediate effect was to open his way to the throne and to put an end to the horrors of civil war. He rode into Paris, wearing the white plume which had often waved in the thick of the fight.

The abjuration of Henry might be approved by a Protestant like Sully, in whom religion was subordinate to politics; but it brought consternation and grief to the great body of his faithful Huguenot adherents who had stood by him in the darkest hours, and who now saw the foundations on which they stood as a party, struck from under their feet. It is remarkable that he retained, to so great an extent, the affection of those who most deplored his change of religion. His captivating qualities gave him an almost irresistible ascendency over the hearts of The abjuration of Henry was not the only evil

men:

1 For the remonstrances of other Protestants, see the thorough work of Stühelin, Der Übertritt König Heinrichs des Vierten (Basel, 1862), p. 640.

2 Martin, x. 329.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF HENRY IV.

283 which the Huguenots were destined to experience as a consequence of being a political party. Others, especially nobles, sought and found personal advancement by following the example of their chief. The leadership of the Huguenot party was coveted by persons more eminent for their rank than for their devotion to religion. The continued persecution, of which the Huguenots were the victims, enabled them to rally and preserve their political organization; and the strength which they still manifested, indirectly aided the King in carrying into effect the policy of peace and toleration. He aimed to moderate the polemical ardor of the Huguenot champions, and did not conceal his satisfaction when his old friend, Du Plessis Mornay, was convicted, in a disputation with Du Perron, at Fontainebleau, of having unwittingly used inaccurate citations from the ecclesiastical writers.1

The administration of Henry, though cut short by the dagger of Ravaillac, was of incalculable advantage to France. With the assistance of the astute Sully, he reorganized the industry, and restored the prosperity of the country. He made war upon Spain, and in the treaty of Vervins, in 1598, he recovered the places which had been conquered from France, both by Philip, and by the Duke of Savoy. The Pope was compelled to conclude peace, and to annul his various fulminations against Henry, while the latter refused to make any declaration except that he had returned to the Catholic Church; and he adhered to his promise to protect both religions. The idea of his foreign policy, which was that of weakening the power of Spain, and of Hapsburg, and of extending the boundaries of France, was afterwards taken up by Richelieu, and fully realized. In the Edict of Nantes, in 1598, Henry secured to the Huguenots that measure of religious liberty, and the guarantees of it, for which they had con

A favorable view of the King's policy in dealing with the Huguenots is given by Ranke, ii. 74 seq.: a less favorable view by Stähelin, p. 627 seq.

tended. It left fortified cities in their hands, thus perpetuating the existence of an organized power within the State; but this was a necessity of the times. With this exception, his domestic policy involved the concentration of power in the monarch; and in this respect, Richelieu followed in his footsteps. But if the accession of Henry IV. brought a comparative security to the Calvinists of France, this was the limit of its advantage to them. From a religious body, animated with the purpose to bring the whole country to the adoption of their principles, they were reduced to the condition of a defensive party, confined by metes and bounds, which it could not overpass; a party more and more separated from the Catholic population, and exposed, besides, to the evils consequent on keeping up a political and military organization. From this moment, Protestantism in France ceased to grow.

CHAPTER IX.

THE REFORMATION IN THE NETHERLANDS.

THE Netherlands formed a most valuable portion of the inherited dominions of Charles V. The Dukes of Burgundy, the descendants of King John of France, taking advantage of the weakness of the French crown and of the wars between France and England, had built up by marriage, purchase, and conquest, or by more culpable means, a rich and powerful dominion. The Duchy of Burgundy gradually extended its confines, until, in the reign of Charles V., it comprised seventeen provinces, and was nearly coextensive with the territory included in the present kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. All of the old writers describe in glowing language the unequaled prosperity and thrift of the Low Countries, and the skill and intelligence of the people.1 Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, were equally flourishing and lucrative. There were three hundred and fifty cities, some of them the largest and busiest in Europe. Antwerp, with a population of one hundred thousand inhabitants, at a time when London had only one hundred and fifty thousand, was the resort of merchants from every quarter, and had a trade surpassing that of any other European city. The people of the Netherlands were noted not less for their

1 Strada, De Bello-Belgico, tom. i. For a description of the state of the Low Countries, see Häusser, Gsch. d. Zeitalt. d. Ref., p. 328 seq. Prescott, Hist. of the Reign of Philip II., b. ii. ch. 1; Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, i. 81 seq. Th. Juste, Hist. de la Révol. des Pays-Bas, tom. 1. 1. v. Holzwarth, Der Abfall d. Niederländer (3 vols., 1866-72). The facts are drawn from Guicciardini, Belgica Descriptio (1652), Strada, Basnage, Annales des Provinces-Unis (1719), and other sources.

ingenuity shown in the invention of machines and implements, and for their proficiency in science and letters, than for their opulence and enterprise. It was their boast that common laborers, even the fishermen who dwelt in the huts of Friesland, could read and write, and discuss the interpretation of Scripture. Local self-government existed to a remarkable extent throughout the seventeen provinces. Each had its own chartered rights, privileges, and immunities, and its immemorial customs, which the sovereign was bound to keep inviolate. The people loved their freedom. Charles V., with all the advantages derived from his vast power, could not amalgamate the provinces, or fuse them under a common system, and was obliged to satisfy himself with being the head of a confederacy of little republics. But at the Diet of Augsburg, in 1518, he succeeded in legalizing the separation of the Netherlands into a distinct, united portion of the Empire, paying its own tax, in a gross amount, into the treasury; having certain special rights in the Diet; entitled to protection, but exempt from the jurisdiction of the imperial judiciary, to which other parts of the Empire were subject.

In such a population, among the countrymen of Erasmus, where, too, in previous ages, various forms of innovation and dissent had arisen, the doctrines of Luther must inevitably find an entrance. They were brought in by foreign merchants, "together with whose commodities," writes the old Jesuit historian Strada, "this plague often sails." They were introduced with the German and Swiss soldiers, whom Charles V. had occasion to bring into the country. Protestantism was also transplanted from England by numerous exiles who fled from the persecution of Mary. The contiguity of the country to Germany and France provided abundant avenues for the incoming of the new opinions. "Nor did the Rhine from Germany, or the Meuse from France," to quote the regretful