erlands. Gradually the Papacy came to join hands with Spain in the grand effort to overcome Protestantism. Sixtus V. excommunicated Henry IV. of France (1585). He lent his most earnest coöperation to the effort to conquer England by the Armada. He was heart and soul with Guise and the League, and upon the assassination of Guise, excommunicated Henry III. If he listened favorably to the efforts made to induce him to absolve and recognize Henry of Navarre, his inclinations in this direction were overcome by the energetic remonstrances of Philip.1 It was the hostile attitude of the Papacy that strongly affected the Catholic adherents of Navarre, and confirmed them in the disposition to require of him a profession of the Catholic faith.

Nothing can be more striking than the change in the intellectual spirit of Italy, as we approach the end of the sixteenth century.2 The old ardor in the study and imitation of the ancients has passed away. Even the reverence that spared the architectural remains of antiquity is supplanted, in the mind of Sixtus V., for example, by the desire to rear edifices that may rival them. A zeal for independent investigation, especially in natural science, takes the place of antiquarian scholarship; but this new scientific spirit, which often took a speculative turn, was checked and repressed by the ecclesiastical rulers. Loyalty to the Church, and a religious temper, in the strict form which the Catholic restoration engendered, penetrated society. Poetry, painting, and music were at once renovated and moulded by the religious influence. Tasso, who chose a pious crusader for the hero of his poem, the school of Caracci, Domenichino, and Guido Reni, Palestrina, the great composer, suggest the revolution in public feeling and taste in this age, in contrast with the age of

1 Ranke, History of the Popes, i. 387 seq., ii. 128 seq., iii. 115 seq. Hübner, Life of Sixtus V. (1872).

2 Ranke, Hist. of the Popes, i. 493.

new movement.

INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS.

413

the Renaissance. The papal court, in its restored strictness and sobriety, manifested its entire subjection to the In a character like Carlo Borromeo, the counter-reformation appears in a characteristic but peculiarly attractive light. Of noble birth, and with temptations to sensual indulgence thrown in his path, he devoted himself to a religious life with unwavering fidelity. The nephew of Pius V., offices of the highest responsibility were forced upon him, which he discharged with so exemplary diligence and faithfulness, that such as were inclined to envy or to censure were compelled to applaud. But he welcomed the day when he could lay them down, and give himself wholly to his diocese of Milan, where he was archbishop. His untiring perseverance in works of charity and reform, his visitations to remote, mountainous villages, in the care of his flock, his zeal for education, his devoutness, caused him to be styled, in the bull that canonized him, an angel in human form. His exertions in making proselytes, and his willingness to persecute heresy, are less agreeable to contemplate; but they were essential features of the Catholic reaction.

The Jesuits first established themselves in force in Italy, and in Portugal, Spain, and their colonies. "Out of the visionary schemes of Ignatius," says Ranke, " arose an institution of singularly practical tendency; out of the conversions wrought by his asceticism, an institution framed with all the just and accurate calculation of worldly prudence." The education of youth, especially those of higher rank, quickly fell, to a large extent, into their hands. Their system of intellectual training was according to a strict method; but their schools were pervaded by their peculiar religious spirit. It was largely through their influence that the profane or secular tone of culture, that had prevailed in the cities of Italy, was superseded by a culture in which reverence for religion and the Church was a vital element. From the two peninsulas

the new order extended its influence into the other countries of Europe. They formed a great standing army, in the service of the Pope, for the propagation of Catholicism. The University of Vienna was placed under their direction; they established themselves at Cologne and Ingolstadt and Prague, and from these centres operated with great success in the Austrian dominions, the Rhenish provinces, and other parts of Germany. The Duke of Bavaria, partly from worldly and partly from religious motives, enlisted warmly in the cause of the Catholic reaction, and made himself its champion. In the ecclesiastical states of Germany, the spirit of Catholicism was reawakened, and the toleration promised to Protestants by the Peace of Augsburg, was frequently violated. The Popes, in this period, were liberal in their concessions to the Catholic princes, who found their profit in helping forward the reactionary movement. In the last quarter of the sixteenth century, mainly by the labors of the Jesuits, and by the violent measures which they instigated, the tide was turned against Protestantism in Southern Germany, in Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, and Hungary. In these countries, Protestantism had, on the whole, gained the ascendency. Together with Belgium and France, they constituted "the great debatable land," where the two confessions struggled for the mastery. In all of them, Catholicism, with its new forces, was triumphant. The Jesuits did much to promote that increased excitement of Catholic feeling in France, which showed itself in the slaughter of St. Bartholomew and the wars of the League. From Douay, the establishment founded by Cardinal William Allen, they sent out their emissaries into England. The order was active in Sweden, and, for a time, had some prospect of winning that kingdom back to the Catholic fold. Wherever they did not prevail, they sharpened the mutual antagonism of the rival confes

ARREST OF THE PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM.

415

sions. The progress of the Catholic restoration was aided, especially in Germany, by the quarrels of Protestant theologians. The mutual hostility of Lutheran and Calvinist appeared, in some cases, to outweigh their common opposition to Rome.

The question has often been asked, why, after so rapid an advance of Protestantism for a half century, a limit should then have been set to its progress? Why was it unable to overstep the bounds which it reached in the first age of its existence? Macaulay has handled this question in a spirited essay, in which, with certain reasons, which are pertinent and valuable, is coupled a singular denial that the knowledge of religion is progressive, or at all dependent upon the general enlightenment of the human mind. Apart from his paradoxical speculation on this last point, his statement of the grounds of the arrest of the progress of Protestantism, though eloquent and valuable, is quite incomplete. The principal causes of this event we deem to be the following:

1. The ferment that attended the rise of Protestantism must eventually lead to a crystallizing of parties; and this must raise up a barrier in the way of the further spread of the new doctrine. Protestantism was a movement of reform, arising within the Church. At the outset, multitudes stood, in relation to it, in the attitude of inquirers. They were more or less favorably inclined to it. What course they would take, might depend on the influences to which they would happen to be exposed. They were not immovably attached to the old system; they were open to persuasion. But as the conflict became warm, men were more and more prompted to take sides, and to range themselves under one or the other banner. This period of fluctuation and conversion would naturally come to an end. As soon as the spirit of party was thus awakened, it formed an obstacle to the further progress of

the new opinions; for this spirit communicated itself from father to son.

2. The political arrangements which were adopted in different countries, in consequence of the religious division, all tended to confine Protestantism within the limits which it had early attained. This is a point of great importance, and is not noticed by Macaulay. In Germany, the negotiations and disputes produced by the religious contest, issued in the adoption of the principle, " cujus regio, ejus religio;" the religion of the State shall conform to that of the prince. This principle, however, would not have availed to arrest Protestantism. But the "ecclesiastical reservation" did thus avail, since the conversion of an ecclesiastical ruler to the new faith was attended with no important gain to the Protestant cause: he must vacate his office. The whole tendency of political arrangements in Germany was to build up a wall of separation between the two confessions, and to protect the territory of each from the encroachments of the other. It must be remembered that the spirit of propagandism did not, generally speaking, characterize Protestantism. The Protestants, especially in Germany, were satisfied if they could be left to develop, without interference, their own system. The - utmost limit of their demand was room for its natural expansion.1 In the Netherlands, the separation of the Walloon provinces from the other states, and the adherence of the former to Spain, could have no other result than to perpetuate their connection with the Catholic Church. In France, the civil wars and the political settlement to which they led, resulted in the formation of the Huguenots into a compact body, formidable for defense, but powerless for the propagation of their faith.

1 "Wie wir öfter bemerkt, der Protestantismus ist nicht bekehrender Natur. Es wird sich jedes Beitritts, der aus Ueberzeugung entspringt, als eines Fortganges seiner guten Sache freuen: sonst aber schon zufrieden sein, wenn nur selber verstattet ist, sich ungeirrt von fremder Einwirkung zu entwickeln. Dies war es, wonach die evangelischen Fürsten vom ersten Augenblick an strebten." —Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte, v. 278.