CHAP. V. committed 18,000 human beings to the flames, and inflicted inferior punishments on 200,000 more. Some of these occurrences in Spain, and the numerous executions in the Netherlands, where, from the first edict of Charles V., to the treaty of Cateau Cambresis, in 1558, 50,000 men were hanged, beheaded, burnt, and buried alive for their religion, and as many more in the next thirty years, must have been well known in England about the end of Mary's reign, and could not fail to affect, very mightily, the state of public opinion.* 3. The Council of Trent. Another expedient proposed for quieting the disorders of Europe was that of assembling a general council. Had such an assembly been convened earlier, and adopted effective reforms in the constitution of the church; had it enforced amendment in the lives of the clergy, and seasonably granted the two concessions- the marriage of the ecclesiastics, and the use of the cup by the laity; a further reformation might have been evaded, or, at all events, it might have occurred without a shock. But the court of Rome, according to its established policy, eluded the meeting of a council successfully, for a quarter of a century after Luther had struck the first blow at the pontifical throne. At length a council assembled at Trent, in December, 1545. There were present only forty-three bishops, abbots, and other dignitaries, of whom Cardinal Pole was one. In 1547, the pope, becoming alarmed at the success of the imperial arms, transferred the council to Bologna, on pretence that an epidemic disorder had broken out at Trent. All the prelates of the emperor's party, however, remained at Trent, in obedience to the command of their master, who protested loudly against the assembly at Bologna. The latter was suspended for two years, when Julius III., successor of Paul III., revived it, and transferred the session once more to Trent (1551). Another interruption took place at the time when Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and the head of the Protestant princes, had made himself master of Augsburg, and was marching against the Emperor towards Innspruck. At length Pius IV. summoned the council for the third and last time to meet at Trent (1562). A detailed account of its proceedings would be beyond our purpose. It established a clear, definite, and consistent system of laws for the regulation of the Church; raised several dogmas of the schools, e.g., the Immaculate Conception to the rank of doctrines; and timidly and partially reformed a few abuses, as non-residence and Every student will remember here the well-known description of the horrors of the Inquisition, in the famous sermon in Sterne's Tristram Shandy, chapter xlii. 1558 pluralities. But it redressed no grievance with such hearty zeal and conspicuous energy as to silence opponents, or even to confirm the allegiance of those adherents whose fidelity was shaken. The Protestant princes entirely rejected its authority. In France, its decisions were never formally published, and such of its acts of discipline as were considered contrary to the laws of the kingdom, the authority of the sovereign, or the maxims of the church, were especially excluded. Life of Loyola. 4. Institution of the Order of the Jesuits. This was the most effective of those means which the Church of Rome brought to bear against the rebellious and heretical spirit of the Lutheran age. The founder of the order was Ignatius Loyola, who was born at the castle of Loyola, in Guipuscoa (1491). He was destined for the profession of arms, in which he soon became distinguished at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. But being wounded at the siege of Pampeluna, and shut out, by the lameness Ignatius which followed, from the struggles of worldly and soldierly ambition, he gave full way to the mystic exaltation of his southern disposition. Of an ardent and meditative temper, he had imbibed a more than usual portion of that hatred of the enemies of the Church which the Spaniards had, beyond other nations, learnt in the course of their fierce contests with the Moors. He was distinguished by imagination and feeling. To relieve the weariness of confinement, he called for some books of chivalry, but was supplied with the "Lives of the Saints," and other devotional works instead. He read them with extraordinary eagerness. He admired the zeal of these holy men; he sympathised in their sufferings; he envied their glory; and he aspired to their eternal recompense. His thoughts and feelings were thus turned into a new channel, and he entered on the path of spiritual warfare with the ardour of a soldier determined to defend his faith, and ready to spread it by the sword. Forsaking all worldly passions and natural ties, he consecrated himself, according to all the forms of chivalry, to the service of the Church, in the church of the Holy Virgin, at Montserrat (March 22, 1522), and then made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But finding that his literary acquirements were wholly insufficient for the great purpose to which he had now devoted his life, he pursued a course of study, first at one place and then at another, during which he escaped many dangers, till 1534, when he and seven other obscure men, but all superior to their fellows in enthusiasm and fortitude, and destined to produce mighty changes, and to exercise a lasting sway, met in the church The first CHAP. V. of Montmartre (August), and vowed to make pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre, and missions to unbelieving lands. Faure, Jai, and Coduri, of Geneva; Lainez, Salmeron, and Bobadilla, Jesuits. Spaniards; Roderic and Xavier, Portuguese; and Broet, from Dauphiny, were the names of these eight devotees; and Paul III. approved of their institution, under the name of "The Society of Jesus," on condition that their number should not exceed sixty. But they were increased to eighty in 1543; and in the course of fifty years were estimated at 10,000 at the least. Of the original eight, Francis Xavier became the apostle of the Indies, and was a man worthy of lasting honour, for devoting himself to a life of suffering for what he believed to be the supreme good of mankind; and Lainez was the second general of the society whose legislative genius formed the plan and laid the foundation of that system which rendered the order memorable. The members were neither confined nor apparelled like monks, Their duties. but were allowed to live in the world, dressed like the secular clergy. They were appointed to preach, to teach, to confute heretics, to convert unbelievers, to confess dying penitents, or to act in any manner required by the holy see for the interests of religion. That they might have more leisure for their special and momentous destination, they were dispensed from the obligation of offering daily prayers in public. Their government was founded on a principle of the most absolute despotism; they rendered blind and patient obedience to their general, who resided in Rome, and was dependent on no one but the Pope; and under him were assistants, provincials, and rectors, who were all bound to unlimited obedience, and had no local or independent power. Having arisen in the age of reformation, they became the chosen champions of the Church against her new enemies. Instead of following the unlettered monks, who decried knowledge as the parent of heresy, they joined in the general movement of mankind towards polite literature, which they cultivated with splendid success. They were the earliest reformers of European education, and their schools and colleges were the best seminaries of the age.* While the nations of the Spanish peninsula, with barbaric chivalry, carried religion at the point of the sword to the uttermost world-wide extremes of the East and the West, the Jesuits reclaimed the American cannibals from savage customs, and taught them the arts and duties of civilised life. In India, they suffered martyrdom with heroic constancy. They penetrated the barrier Their influence. * See Bacon's De Augment, 1b. VI., cap. 4. 1558 which shut out strangers from China; and, by the obvious usefulness of their acquirements, they obtained toleration, patronage, and honours from the most jealous of governments. They became the confessors of kings; and thus, while some of their order guided the conscience of a royal penitent at Versailles or Vienna, others were teaching the use of the spade and the shuttle in California, and a third body were braving a death of torture from the mountain chiefs of southern India. Their missionaries were the most vigorous of controversialists, the most polite of scholars, the most refined courtiers, and the most flexible casuists of the age. But they soon became hated by the secular clergy, and envied by the regulars; they were watched with jealousy by statesmen and magistrates, on account of their boundless obedience to Rome; and the mischievous doctrines which they preached, utterly subversive of morality and justice, led to their downfall. Their fall. The shocking principles which many of their doctors held were exposed by the celebrated Pascal, in his "Provincial Letters." In 1764, their order was suppressed in France and Portugal, and many of them were banished to America and the Indies. Nine years afterwards, the order was abolished by the pope. The establishment of the Inquisition, the decrees of the Council of Trent, and the institution of the order of Jesuits, were the principal preparations for those wars of religious opinion, in which the most conspicuous leaders, on the side of the ancient establishment, were Philip II. and the Duke of Alva; while the party which contended for the Reformation was conducted by William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, and Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England. CHAP. VI. CHAPTER VI. THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ELIZABETH. Reigned forty-four years and four months, from November SECTION I. FROM THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF MARY STUART'S CAPTIVITY. 1558-1569. I. THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 1. Expectations of the two religious parties. The accession of Elizabeth was hailed with joy and gratitude by the whole nation, for so deep had been the indignation at the Smithfield cruelties, and so intense the national humiliation at the loss of Calais, that Catholics and Protestants alike forgot their animosities in the The courtiers cling to the Spanish Alliance. prospect of change. The courtiers and great nobles, who still clung to the old religion, and inherited the national traditions, supported the new sovereign, because Philip had declared in her favour, and she was, therefore, the best security for the maintenance of the Spanish alliance, and the protection of the country against foreign invasion. For although Philip had left behind him no single personal friend, his faithful attachment to the church gave him an authority almost absolute among the Roman Catholics, whose feelings had been strongly embittered against France, by the encouragement which had been given to Wyatt's insurrection, and the cause of Lady Jane Grey.* The middle classes desire the restoration of the reformed worship. With the middle and lower classes, the restoration of the reformed faith and worship was the most important object; and though Elizabeth's conformity to Romish rites during the late reign gave room for doubts and suspicions, neither Catholics nor Protestants believed that the daughter of Anne Boleyn, whose illegitimacy the Roman church had so pertinaciously maintained, could be in her heart a Romanist. Had * Froude, VII., 2, 3, |