Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/355

Rh than the supremacy of Austria, or that process of desola tion and disunion which actually took place. In any case his premature death at the age of thirty-eight was an irre parable loss for German Protestantism. The Thirty Years War, which for two years had been rendered heroic by his presence, degenerated again into a scene of the wildest barbarism, by which Germany was reduced to a wilderness, and flung back at least a century in tbe march of civilization.

1em  GUSTAVUS III. (1740–1792), king of Sweden, succeeded his father Adolphus Frederick at the age of twenty- five. He was in Paris when his father died, and was an enthusiastic admirer of everything French. His manners were popular ; he was brave, resolute, and eloquent. At the beginning of his reign he found the royal power completely overshadowed by the nobles, who in the council virtually dictated the government of the country, and had involved it in frequent disturbance and disgrace. A revolt, contrived for the purpose by one of his adherents, gave Gustavus a pretext for marshalling his guards, whom he won over and employed to make a complete change in the consti tution. A.3 the nobles were disliked by the people, they were obliged to submit. Surrounded by soldiers, the diet accepted the new form of government, by which the entire administrative power including taxation was entrusted to the king. In many respects Gustavus made an excellent use of his great power ; he improved the army and navy, reformed the administration of justice, abolished torture, and built hospitals. But his foolish aping of French fashions, and his dream of reviving the knightly exercises and accomplishments, led him into great extravagance. His arbitrary attempt to introduce a national dress, as well as the conversion of brandy, the national drink of Sweden, iiito a royal monopoly, lost him his popularity. In 1788 iu his campaign against Russia, several nobles, officers of his army in Finland, refused to carry on the war because it had not been sanctioned by the estates. Angry at this Gustavus summoned the hardy Dalecarlians to his aid, de prived the nobles of their exclusive privileges, and made his power absolute. He continued the Russian war with great bravery and even success till the peace of 1790, which made no change on the Finnish frontier. Gustavus s next project, which he prosecuted with his usual energy and dis regard of consequences, was a war to save King Louis XVI. from the Revolution. This war the estates, already weary of his expensive undertakings, refused to support. To avert a new coup d etat some nobles formed a conspiracy against him ; and Ankarstrom, formerly an officer in the guard, shot him at a masked ball at Stockholm (1792).  GUSTAVUS IV. (1778–1837), king of Sweden, was son of the preceding. He was only fourteen years of age when his father was cut off, and his uncle Duke Charles acted as regent during the minority. Gustavus early gave proof of an obstinate strength of will and of a highly- wrought tem perament bordering on insanity. Thus he went to St Petersburg, according to agreement, to marry a grand daughter of the empress Catherine, and the whole court was assembled for the ceremony. The bridegroom how ever did not appear, and the company dispersed after waiting several hours. Gustavus had drawn back at the eleventh hour, refusing to sign the marriage treaty because it bound him to grant his future queen the free exercise of her religion. He spent his whole reign under the mastery of a fixed idea, that Napoleon was the Great Beast spoken of iu the Apocalypse ; and he joined the great coalition of 1805 against the conqueror. Iu this war Swedish Pomerania was occupied by the French. Even after Tilsit, Gustavus prosecuted the war with unbroken resolution. Sweden suffered fearfully by this obstinacy of the king ; the Russians conquered Finland ; the Danes invaded the youthern provinces ; his English allies, wearied of his ir rational obstinacy, left him to his fate. Sweden also grew sick of his wrong-headed policy. The officers of the army conspired against him. He was dethroned and detained in captivity, while his uncle Duke Charles was elected to the crown (1809). After the new arrangements had been made, he was banished with the assurance of a considerable income. Under the name of Colonel Gustavson he passed a wandering life abroad, dying at St Gall in 1837.  GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS UNION, a society formed of members of the Evangelical Protestant churches of Germany, which has for its object the aid of feeble sister churches, especially in Roman Catholic countries. The project of forming such a society was first broached, in connexion with the bicentennial celebration of the battle of Liitzen, on the 6th of November 1832 ; a proposal to collect funds fora monu ment to Gustavus Adolphus having been agreed to, it was suggested by Superintendent Grossmann that the best memorial to the great champion of Protestantism voulcl be the formation of a union for propagating his ideas. For some years the society was somewhat limited in its area and operations, being practically confined to Leip sic and Dresden, but at the Reformation festival in 1841 it received a new impulse through the energy and elo quence of the Hofprediger Zimmermann of Darmstadt, and in 1843 a general meeting was held at Frankfort-on- the-Main where no fewer than twenty-nine branch associ ations, belonging to all parts of Germany except Bavaria and Austria, were represented. The want of a positive creed on the part of the Union tended from the first, however, to make many of the stricter Protestant churchmen doubtful of its probable usefulness; though on the other hand its purely negative attitude in relation to Roman Catholicism secured for it the sympathy of the masses. At a general con vention held in Berlin in September 1846 a keen dispute arose about the admission of the Konigsberg delegate Rupp, the founder of the &quot; Free Congregations &quot; ; his exclusion, which was carried by a majority, called forth many energetic protests, and at one time it seemed likely that the society would be completely broken up. A peace ful solution of the difficulty, however, was reached at Darmstadt in 1847. Amid the complications of the Revolution of 1848 the whole movement fell into stagna tion; but iu 1849 another general convention (the seventh), held at Breslau, showed that, although the society had lost both in membership and income, it still was possessed of considerable vitality. From that date the Gustav-Adolf- Verein has been more definitely &quot; evangelical &quot; in its tone than formerly ; and under the direction of Zimmermann of Darmstadt it has greatly increased both in numbers and in wealth. In 1853 the income was 13,500 ; in 1858 it had risen to 21,000; while in 1876 there was divided among 1406 congregations a sum of nearly 35,000. The total number of congregations assisted up to that date was 2558, and the sums distributed amounted to an aggregate of nearly 637,000. Apart from any influence it may have had in advancing the cause of Protestantism in places where it was struggling or weak, there can be no doubt that the Union has had a very great effect in helping the various separate Evangelical churches of Germany to 