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Rh of those religious wars which were to determine whether the sway of the Roman religion should extend to the Baltic, or if the northern nations and princes would be allowed to profess a manlier creed. The greatest ruler of the times, Charles V. was bitterly against the Protestants, but the nobler principle triumphed, and Charles V. was compelled to grant toleration to the Lutherans in the peace of Augsburg in 1555, before he abdicated his throne.

His successor Philip II. of Spain renewed the war with increased fury and cruelty, and exhausted the vast resources of his empire in the two worlds to stamp out religious freedom. Holland and England made a noble stand for liberty. The Spanish Armada was sent in vain against the gallant islanders, and the Dutch under the immortal William of Orange maintained a long and arduous and unequal struggle, and triumphed in the end. The Protestant cause was safe in England and in Holland when Philip II. died in 1598.

But the bitter controversy was not yet set at rest. Twenty years after the death of Philip II., broke out what is known as the Thirty Years' War, a war which caused more slaughter, devastation and depopulation than any other European war of modern times. Germany and Austria, France and Spain, Denmark and Sweden, took share in this disastrous war, and Adolphus,