Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/887

* REFORMATION. 783 REFORMATION. France. The new doctrines took a strong hold among some oi the upper and middle classes in France as early as 1523, among their supjKirters being Margaret, Queen of Navarre, the sister of Francis I. ilost active in the propaganda at this stage were Leffevre and Farel, the latter formerly a priest. But France had always been the strong- hold of Catholicism, and the fact that the Pro- testant movement took on a class form was against it in a country where class lines were sharply drawn and sympathy between the orders was lacking. The peasantry opposed an immova- ble front to the new creed, and the vacillating policy of Francis I. and the fierce factional spirit engendered by the struggle prevented the Reformation from obtaining in that country the national standing that it gained in Germany and elsewhere. The most important contribution of France to the movement was in the person of .Tohn Calvin. Both Farel and Calvin were driven into Switzerland. The latter settled for a time at Basel, where he published the first edition of the Institutes, the preface of which, dated Au- gust 1, 153.=!, was addressed to Francis I. In the following year Calvin was drawn to Geneva through the influence of Farrel, and there entered upon his great career. A succession of civil wars, known as the Wars of Religion, convulsed France and threatened its ruin, but in the end the old Church triumphed and France retained its historic place as a chief pillar of the Roman Catholic Church. See Huguexots. SouTHEBX Europe. In Italy and Spain, as in France, the idea of the Reformation gained ground at first quite rapidly with the upper and intellectual classes, but did not appeal to the masses of the people. Many leading Catholics, such men as Caraffa and Contarini in the Col- lege of Cardinals, were desirous of the reform of existing ecclesiastical abuses, but had no sympathy with revolt against the Papacy. Prot- estantisrii obtained no footing in either Italy or Spain, and after the Council of Trent it practi- cally disappeared. The Inquisition and the Index (qq'v.) were used as instruments in the sup- pression of heresy. The Inquisition had become active in Spain in the fifteenth 'century, but it was utilized to its fullest ex-tent under Philip II. The Netheri..xds. The Xetherlands were Spanish provinces at the beginning of the Ref- ormation period, but. as in other Germanic countries, the Reform doctrine found ready ac- ceptance, and Charles, and after him Philip, at- tempted the same policy that was so effective in Spain. But the long and desiierate struggle resulted in the erection of an independent Prot- estant State out of the northern Dutch prov- inces. See Alv J. ; EoiioXT ; HooEX ; Wiliiam I. (THE Silent). ', , , East-Cextbal Ei-ROPE. As has already been said, .John Huss had made Bohemia practically a Protestant eountrv, and its inhabitants adopted the Reformation with great readiness and entire sinceritv. They were severely punished for re- fusing to act against their Protestant brethren of the Leaoaie of Schmalkald, but in IbO'J they were able to extort from the Emperor Rudolph II the so-called ilajesUtshrief. an edict of toler- ation Alanv followers of Huss, however, did not accept Lutheranism. The rising of the Bohemian Protestants in 1618 was the opening episode of its Thirtv Years' War. They were crushed m 1G20 and' Protestantism was rooted out. In I o- land, although it remained a strongly Cath- olic country, there were many Lutherans and Calvinists. In Hungary Bohemians, Germans, and Waldenses aided in spreading the Reformed doctrines, but the rivalries between Lutherans and Calvinists, intensified by the fact that the former were principally Germans and the latter ilagjars, weakened the Protestant cau.se and enabled Catholicism to maintain the upper hand. ExGLAXD AXD SCOTLAND. It has long been asserted that there was a strong popular sup- port among the common people of these countries for the Reformation ideas, traceable mainly to the work set on foot by John Wielif, and that as early as the beginning of Luther's activity there were indications of a revival of evangeli- cal religious life among the tradesmen of Lon- don, and the peasantry in different parts of the country, particularly in Lincolnshire. The resi- dence of Erasmus in England in the begin- ning of the reign of Henry VIII. stimulated a spirit among the educated classes which, while it remained for the most part faithful to the Roman Catholic Church, as in the ease of ilore and others, yet helped to advance a dissenting movement. In 1529, a year before the meeting of the Diet of Augsburg in Germany, the iLsurpations of the clergy and the manifold ecclesiastical abuses prevailing in the country were the sub- ject of Parliamentary legislation. But the most recent historical research has tended to show that the survival of Lollard ideas and the popu- lar support of such a movement have been much overestimated. In both England and Scotland, the Reformation was closely bound up with po- litical conditions. In Scotland the nobility made use of it as a trenchant instrument against royal authority; and in England Henry VIII. espoused its cause in furtherance of liis own policies. The negotiations as to Henry's divorce from Catharine had been proceeding for some time, and the coun- try was greatly excited by the coiurse of events. In 1533 Henry was married to Anne BolcjTi and his former marriage with Cathariiiewas declared void. . appeals to Rome were forbidden. Henry found it helpful to his own plans to be free from ecclesiastical interference, and in the two follow- ing years the sovereign was declared to be the supreme head of the Church of England, with authority to redress all errors, heresies, and abuses in the Church: the monasteries were dis- solved: and Parliament petitioned that a new translation of the Scriptures might be authorized and set up in churches. (See Exgla.xt); Hexbt VIII.) In all this course of reformation, how- ever, there was hut little religious impulse on Henry's part, for we find him again in 1539 pass- ing tile statute known as the Six Articles, which rendered it penal to deny the doctrine of tran~ub- stantiation, or to aflirm that priests might marry. The King's move, however, fell in with the vigorous growing spirit of English nation- ality and hence received support. With the ac- cession of Edward VL in 1547 the Reformation greatly advanced. The statute of the Six Articles was repealed with other measures of the close of Henry's reign. The Parliament of 154S estab- lished the use of the Book of Common Prayer; the clergy were permitted to marry: the cup was allowed to the laity: and in 1.551 the 42 articles of reliirious belief, afterwards reduced to 39. were promulgated. The temporary resto- ration of Catholicism by Mary and the final es-