cares, and the difficulties which surrounded him on every side, at length entirely overpowered him. The vigor of his mind was broken, his animal spirits were exhausted, and, in a state of despondency and melancholy dotage, he abdicated the empire, and renounced the world at the age of fifty-six.

This celebrated resignation, though prompted by dejection of spirit, was conducted with some policy, and with a regard to the interest of those who were to come after him. Charles wished that his son Philip should succeed, not only to his hereditary dominions, but to the empire. He had, however, unluckily, in the earlier part of his life, taken a step which defeated this last purpose. This was the procuring his brother Ferdinand to be elected king of the Romans, which is always regarded as the preparatory step to the empire. Before Charles resigned the imperial crown, he proposed to his brother Ferdinand to resign in his favor, provided he would consent that Philip should be elected king of the Romans. A third person, however, struck in, and disappointed this negotiation. This was the archduke Maximilian, son of Ferdinand, a youth of abilities and ambition, who frustrated all the emperor's schemes for that purpose, and secured the dignity of king of the Romans to himself. The defeat of this darling project entirely broke the spirit of Charles V. After a solemn resignation of his hereditary dominions to his son Philip, he transmitted his resignation of the empire to his brother Ferdinand; and retiring to Spain, he betook himself to the monastery of St. Justus, where he soon after died, bequeathing to mankind a striking lesson of the vanity of human greatness, the madness of ambition, and the total insufficiency of all earthly dignities or possessions to the attainment of substantial or lasting happiness.*

It may not be improper to conclude this brief sketch of the reign of Charles V., with a few observations on the constitution of the German empire.

Till the reign of Maximilian I., the empire of Germany was a prey to all the disorders of the feudal government. Of this theGollen Bull," published in 1356, affords sufficient evidence, as it proceeds on the supposition of great barbarism of manners. It is true that the Germans, like the Franks, preserved the ancient custom of holding general diets, or assem blies of the states; but these meetings were commonly of so short a continuance, and so extremely tumultuous, that they were of very little consequence in establishing wise political regulations. The emperor Wenceslaus had, indeed, in the year 1383, endeavored to give a better form to the empire.

He

• Charles V. had no taste for literature, or disposition to patronise the arts and sciences; even the great Erasmus, who had dedicated to him some of his works, complains that he received nothing but barren thanks for the compliment.-Jortin's Life of Erasmus, p 304.

proclaimed a general peace, but he found it impossible to take proper measures to secure it.

But

Sigismund made a similar attempt with no better success. Albert II. was more fortunate. He actually accomplished the conclusion of a general peace between all the branches of the empire; and, with the consent of the assembly of the states, he divided Germany into six circles, or provinces, which were each to have their own diet or assembly. But still the great object was not completely attained: a spirit of jealousy and disunion continued to pervade the Germanic body, and frequent differences of interest, which were followed by hostile conflicts, threw them back into their former anarchy and barbarism.

At length Maximilian I. procured that famous law of the Germanic body, which established a general and a perpetual peace, by prohibiting all hostilities between the different states, under pain of that state which was the aggressor being treated as a common enemy. The Imperial Chamber was established to judge and determine all differences. A new division was made of the empire into ten circles, and each of these provinces named a certain number of representatives, or assessors, to take their place in the imperial chamber, and undertook to carry its decrees or judgments into execution, through the whole extent of its territory. The diet held at Augsburg in the year 1500 established likewise an occasional regency, which was to subsist, without interruption, in the intervals of the meetings of the diets. The regency was invested with all the power of the national assembly. The council was composed of twenty ministers, named by the diet, over whom the emperor himself presided. One elector was always obliged to be personally present in the council; the other six sent their representatives.

Although these establishments gave a more regular form to the government, they would not have been adequate to the preservation of the peace of the empire, and the enforcement of the laws, had not the house of Austria acquired, of a sudden, so much power and influence as to establish itself on the imperial throne, and to render its authority more respectable than that of the former emperors. In fact, although the inferior princes, or electors, were accustomed to have recourse to the imperial chamber for a redress of grievances or encroachments, the more powerful chose rather to do themselves justice by force of arms; and, notwithstanding all the wise regulations, the ancient prejudices remained in full force, and the empire was still a prey to the same disorders.

The accession of Charles V. to the empire formed a remarkable era in its constitution. The princes wisely judged that his elevation was attended with danger; but they were short-sighted enough to imagine, that a capitulation would be sufficient to fix bounds to his authoriry. Charles had vast ambition, great resolution, and that versatility of character, which could accommodate

itself to any conduct most favorable to his political views. But amidst his ambitious projects, he seemed to have overlooked a very material circumstance: that new system of European politics, the motive of preserving a balance of power between the kingdoms of Christendoin, which made the princes of the empire find allies and protectors sufficient to resist and defeat all his schemes of absolute dominion. Charles wished to turn to his own advantage that spirit of religious enthusiasm, which was kindled in his time, but his extensive territories gave him too many objects of attention, and he could not prosecute any single enterprise with that constancy which was necessary to promote its success. He attained, however, a measure of authority very far superior to that of any of his predecessors, and virtually established his own family on a throne, which the constitution of the empire declared to be elective, and not hereditary.

The successors of Charles, without his talents, wished to pur sue the same system of policy, and might, perhaps, have enslaved Germany, had it not been for the aid she received from other European powers. After a series of wars, and a great deal of bloodshed, the peace of Westphalia, in the year 1648, became the foundation of the public law of the empire, and fixed the emperor's prerogatives and the privil ges of the states.

The power of electing an emperor was, by the golden bull of Charles IV., (published in 1356,) vested in seven electors, who were likewise appointed to fill the great offices of the empire. These eltors were the archbishop of Mentz, great chancellor of the German empire; the elector of Cologne, great chancellor of the empire in Italy; the elector of Treves, great chancellor of the empire in Gaul; the king of Bohemia; the count Palatine; the dite of Saxony; and the margrave of Brandenburg. An eighth electorate was afterwards created-viz., that of Bavaria; and to these, in 1692, was added a ninth, that of Brunswick-Lunenburg, or Hanover.

All the princes of the empire acknowledged a legislative power to reside in the diet for the enactment of general laws, which regard the whole body of the state. The diet, or general assen.bly of the empire, was divided into three colleges, the electors, the princes, and the free cities. After the emperor's com missioner communicated his prop sit as to the diet, they became the subject of the screte deliberation of the electoral college, and that of the princes. When th ir cpiaions were uniform, the resolution was carried to the leg of the free cities, and if acceded to by them, it bea as a placitum of the empire. If the e.nperor give it his approbation, te plicitum became a conclusion, and formed a late, which was o'lkatory upon the whole of the states. If the emps,or and the diet were of different opin' »ns, there could be no general law. Thu it was in the power of the emperor to prevent the enactment of any law, however salutary,

which may be contrary to his own interest: a power which was not checked, as in the British government, by the sovereign's dependence on the people for his revenue. Agreeably to the same bad policy, the emperor was the sole proposer of all new laws, a further security for his proposing none but what were favorable to his own interests. It was, likewise, in the power of the director of the diet to prevent the execution of the established laws of the empire. Nothing could be communicated to the diet but by the consent of the elector-archbishop of Mentz. All complaints of grievances, or requisitions made by any of the princes to the Germanic body, must receive his approbatory sanction, and he might refuse thein at his pleasure.

These great constitutional defects were the more destructive, when it is considered that the Germanic government had for its object to regulate the contending interests of princes who had a'l the rights of sovereignty-who had their armies, their revenue, and their fortified cities, and a power of contracting defensive alliances with foreign nations, and were sometimes possessed themselves of foreign dominions greatly more considerable than their Germanic territory. The greater that are the sources of division between the parts of an empire, the greater certainly ought to be the prudence and stability of its laws and policy.

CHAPTER XX.

Of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland, and the Revolution in Denmark and Sweden-Reformation in England under Henry VIII. and his successors-Immediate causes- Sale of Indulgences - Luther attacks the abuses of the Romish Church-Zuinglius-Reformed Religion acknowledged by Decrees of the Senate in Zurich, Berne, and Basle-the Revolution in Denmark and Sweden-Gustavus Vasa-Anabaptists-Origin of the Name of Protestant-Calvin-Origin of the Reformation in England-Henry declares himself Head of the Church-Persecution under Mary-firmly established under Elizabeth.

THE age of Charles V. is the era of great events and important revolutions in the history of Europe. It is the era of the Refor mation in religion in Germany, in the northern kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, and in Britain. It is the era of the discovery of America; and, lastly, it is the period of the highest splendor of the fine arts in Italy and in the south of Europe. Of each of these subjects we shall treat in order, and shall consider first the Reformation, as undoubtedly the most important, both in a moral and in a political point of view.

The splendid court, and the voluptuous taste of pope Leo X., demanded a greater supply of money than what the patrimonial territories of the pepedom could easily afford. A project had Ikewise been set on foot by his predecessor, Julius II., which Leo keenly adopted, and which required a prodigious sum of money to carry it into execution. This was the building of St. Peter's church at Rome; a fabric which it was intended should surpass all the magnificent structures that had ever been reared by the art of man.

For the construction of this noble edifice, and to supply the luxuries of his court, Leo X. had recourse (to use an expression of Voltaire) to one of the keys of St. Peter, to open the coffers of Christians. Under the pretence of a crusade against the Turks, he instituted through all Christendom a sale of indulgences, or releases from the pains of purgatory, which a pious man might purchase for a small sum of money either for himself or for his friends. Public offices were appointed for the sale of them in every town, and they were farmed or leased out to the keepers of taverns and bagnics. Their efficacy was proclaimed by all the preachers, who maintained that the most atrocious offences against religion might be expiated and forgiven by the purchase of a remission. A Dominican friar of the name of Tetzel, a principal agent in this extraordinary and most abominable merchandise, was won' to repeat in his public orations this blasphemous assertion, "That he himself had saved more souls from hell by these indulgences, than St. Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching." This flerant example of impiety and absurdity, could not fail to shock the understandings of the wiser and more rational even of the clergy; and among the rest Martin Luther, an Augustine moak, unable to repress his indignation, ventured, in a serraon which he publicly preached at Wittemberg the 30th of September, 1517, to conderan, in strong terms, this infamous traffic, and plainly to accuse the pope himself as partaker of the guilt of his agents.f

The form of the absolution issued by Tetzel was as follows:—

"I absolve thee from all ccclesiastical censures, and from all thy sins, how enormous soever, and by tha plenary indulgence I remit thee all manner of punishment which theu ou htest to suffer in purritory: And I restore thee to the sacraments of the church, and to that innocence and purity which thou hadst at thy baptism; so as, at death, the gates of hell shall be shut against thee, and the gites of paradise shall be laid open to receive thee. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."-Keith's Hist. of Seotland, Introd., p. 4.

↑ Mr. Hume, in his history of the reign of Henry VIII, has chosen to derive the opposition of Luther to the doctrine of indulgences, from seifish and interested motives alone. He asserts that the Augustine friars, who had formerly in their hands the exclusive sale of these indulgences, were incensed at being deprived of that lucrative traffic, by the pope's bestowing it upon the Dominicans; and that in revenge for this affront they cominissioned Luther, one of their order, to decry the efficacy of these remissions, and thus put a stop to the gain of the Dominicana. But this calumny has been completely refuted it has been