THE RELIGIOUS WARS.
The long period of struggle which followed the reform movement of the sixteenth century seems of comparatively little importance beside the revolt itself; and yet it offers possibilities of treatment which the secondary teacher cannot well afford to neglect. The modern tendency in text-book writing has been to suppress the details of wars in order to allow for a fuller treatment of other phases of development. Assuming that the teachers of the past generation, and not a few of the present day, have been laying too much emphasis on details of this character, the pendulum has seemed at times to swing too far in the direction of elimination and condensation in the treatment of great epoch making wars. Many an opportunity has thereby been neglected of inculcating great truths which could more easily be exemplified by stories drawn from the battlefield than from less stirring episodes. Wars are often presented in so cursory a fashion as to convey little idea of their real character and significance. They become little less than dry summaries of causes and effects and are stripped altogether of that personal element which is so necessary to the attainment of the best results in history teaching. The possibility of utilizing these struggles as a correlating element has usually been farthest from the thought of the teacher, or at best been but imperfectly realized. The religious wars afford the teacher not only the possibility of vivid biographic treatment, but may serve to bind the closer certain common lines of development peculiar to the Europe of the latter part of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century.
There can be but very little choice of method in the presentation of the facts connected with the beginnings of the Protestant revolt. Luther’s life must be taken up in more or less detail and the attention directed to the various influences with which he came in contact. To secure a proper understanding of the effects of his teachings, the political as well as the religious background of his endeavors must be carefully sketched. Little difficulty will probably be experienced in showing how the Renaissance movement became intimately associated with church reform as it passed the barriers of the Alps and took hold of the more serious-minded Germans. This connection is much easier to establish from the fact that the attention of the class has already been drawn to the part taken by Erasmus in the Renaissance proper. The question will probably arise as to how far the teacher should delve into the more distant past to resurrect the various efforts at reform which marked the earlier centuries. Any opportunity for a résumé of this character should be heartily welcomed, as it serves better than any formal review to test the grasp by the student of the facts already covered. When the teacher is ready to take up the revolt itself, there is apparently but one logical method of securing results, and that is to present Luther’s life in as much detail as time will permit, showing how he felt himself driven by the force of his own logic into a position entirely antagonistic to the Church as it was then established. The parting of the ways is reached with the great scene at Worms. Contrary to his expectations, his protest within the Church had made him not only its avowed enemy, but the founder of a new sect.
It is a comparatively easy matter to dispose of the remaining events in this drama in which Luther, the Emperor and the Pope are the main actors; but in what connection, and in how much detail, shall the teacher present the beginnings of the reform movement in other countries, the counter movement in the Catholic Church, and the struggles which arose over questions of religion in every land where Protestantism secured a foothold? The fact that sooner or later the struggle between Catholics and Protestants resolved itself into a civil war of considerable proportions makes it possible to utilize these struggles as the principal unifying element in the treatment of the entire period from 1521 to 1648. This plan differs from the ordinary arrangement of material to be found in the text-book in that it places less stress upon the beginnings of the reform movement outside of Germany, subordinating these details to the wars as the central theme and directing the attention of the student only to such events as help to explain the character of these struggles. The teacher must, however, bear in mind throughout that “the story of no European country or group of countries in this troubled period admits of being told as detached from the contemporary history of its neighbors, allies, or adversaries.”[7] Beyond emphasizing the fact that the revolt spread to other lands, it is a question whether the time is wisely spent in treating in detail the Calvinistic movement emanating from Geneva, or the beginnings of Presbyterianism in Scotland, or the overthrow of Catholicism in England. The one central idea which the student should grasp as a result of his study of the period—an idea which is decidedly within the range of his comprehension and appreciation—is that religion, which had long been a dominant factor in European politics, now lost its power to sway the political destinies of thrones and empires. In fact a new era had dawned in which the Church found itself removed from politics and the world given over to interests of quite a different character. This change may be illustrated further along by the insignificant part taken by the representatives of the Pope in the deliberations concerning the Treaties of Westphalia.
The growth of toleration should also be noted as an important characteristic of this new period. Finally the student’s attention may with profit be directed to the general tendency in these struggles toward the subordination of the higher interests of religion to selfish and dynastic interests. Time and again religion serves merely as a cloak for the concealment of ambitions of the most secular character. The ideals of true religion were perhaps never more perverted from their true ends and made to serve the basest and lowest uses.
After calling attention briefly to the fact that this spirit of revolt manifested itself in other countries, a logical plan of presentation would be first to discuss the ineffectual efforts of the Emperor Charles V and Pope Leo X to check the movement as it spread through Germany, with an explanation of their failures; then to describe the more successful efforts in this direction taken within the church itself and known as the Counter Reformation; and finally to introduce Philip II as the great champion of orthodoxy, devoting his entire energies and the resources of a great empire to the superhuman task of restoring the church to its former position of power and influence. His career calls up Alva’s efforts to subdue the Netherlands, and that heroic figure, William the Silent; and the sailing of the Great Armada.
One semi-religious war, if not two, have already been under discussion in connection with these efforts to suppress the revolt, the Dutch War of Independence and the Spanish Armada. Here is apparently the proper place to introduce the other struggles, beginning with the Thirty Years’ War in Germany, then taking up in turn the Huguenot wars in France and the Puritan Revolution in England, and closing the period with the sequel to this last struggle, The Glorious Revolution of 1688.
It is natural to turn to Germany first in presenting the religious wars because of the greater familiarity of the student with conditions there. The order becomes thereby strictly chronological, as the Schmalkaldic War broke out in 1546; or, in other words, earlier by several years than either of the other struggles. This war gave rise to the Peace of Augsburg, which was a source of so much discontent that it has been counted as one of the great factors in bringing on the main struggle. Among the points which seem to call for special emphasis are the mixture of religious and political causes underlying the struggle, and the general participation of many of the great powers of Western Europe. This fact served to prolong the war and to give it a more European character and a wider significance. It was not merely a question of cujus regio, ejus religio, but of important dynastic and territorial interests. The efforts directed toward the overthrow of the power of the Hapsburgs and the peculiar interests of Denmark, Sweden and England in the contest call for special emphasis. The power of the Hapsburgs in the time of Charles V and later can be shown to good advantage by the use of outline maps. At least three great personalities dominate the scene, Wallenstein, Richelieu and Gustavus Adolphus, all of whom furnish rich material for biographical study. Although it is possible to follow the campaigns with an atlas like Putzger, this study is comparatively barren of results except as it throws light upon the military genius of a Wallenstein or on the prowess of “The Lion of the North.” The effects of the war were to be seen in Germany in the weakness of the central government and in the wretchedness and misery consequent upon thirty years of marching and countermarching on the part of hostile armies. The picture sketched by Gardiner in his Thirty Years’ War is well nigh incredible. The territorial changes which followed the war can best be shown by the preparation of a map. They are much more readily appreciated if they appear by themselves. (See, for example, the map in Harding, “Essentials,” p. 339, or Wakeman “Ascendancy of France, 1598-1715,” p. 124.)
The treatment of the religious wars in France will differ slightly from that of the Thirty Years’ War, as it becomes necessary in this connection to introduce a few facts about Calvinism. This need not involve much more than the briefest possible statement of what Calvin taught, pointing out how his teachings appealed to the intellect and the understanding rather than to the emotions, as did those of Luther. As a result the Huguenots counted among their numbers some of the best families of France. The personal element can be made very prominent in these struggles, as it was largely the intrigues of two families, the Guises and the Bourbons, aided and abetted by the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, which kept France embroiled for all these years. Here, too, is to be noted the same situation which prevailed in Germany, namely, the apparent powerlessness of the French people to solve their own religious and dynastic troubles alone without the interference of outside nations, notably England and Spain. Selfish and dynastic interests seem to have decidedly the upper hand here as contrasted with Germany. Much can be made of such dramatic episodes as the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the conversion of the Huguenot leader, Henry of Navarre. The edict of Nantes and its effect upon France should be contrasted with the religious clauses in the Treaties of Westphalia. The great problem which this settlement raised of a state within a state, made necessary the work of Richelieu, whose career can now be rounded out by showing how he was laboring for one and the same end in his treatment of the Huguenots at home and his support of the Protestants abroad. French history is thus brought down to the age of Louis XIV.
The English struggle can be discussed along much the same lines as the wars in France and Germany. More time should perhaps be given to pointing out the effects of the Renaissance on England and the great intellectual, economic, social, and religious changes which had come to pass in the time of the Tudors. Their reigns mark the great period in English history. The dominant characteristic of English development, the growth of liberty, which had often placed England in sharp contrast with the continent was never more prominently displayed than during the period under consideration. The Great Civil War partakes of the twofold character of the continental wars. It marks on the one hand a struggle between two religious sects; on the other a contest between the king and the representatives of the people. The prominence of this second phase, the fact that it was a struggle between two Protestant sects instead of between Catholics and Protestants, and that it took place so long after the general upheaval following the break with Rome, have served to isolate it more or less from the struggles on the continent. The gains for freedom, which were the final outcome of this struggle, differentiate it from those in France and Germany. Henry IV and Richelieu prepared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV. In Germany the disorganization and demoralization of the central government placed the destinies of the German people in the hands of rival princes, whose political creed may be summed up in the words of Frederick William I of Prussia, “Salvation belongs to the Lord; everything else is my business.” The rulers of England, on the contrary, were forced to recognize the power of parliament to control their ministers, and more important still, to acknowledge the sovereign people as the ultimate source of their power and authority. The admission of this principle of government was not entirely the work of the Puritan Revolution, but needed the additional lesson of the tyranny and overthrow of James II. Not the least important among the benefits which the movement of 1688 conferred upon England was the general recognition of the principle of toleration.
The opportunity which this method affords the teacher of contrasting English conditions with those on the continent should lead to a better understanding and appreciation of England’s relation to and part in general European progress. Her internal history furnishes another illustration of the great characteristic of this period, the passing of religious questions from the sphere of politics and the appearance of issues of an entirely different character.
The text-book will probably be found to furnish all the material needed for the presentation of this period, with the possible exception of details of a biographical character. “The Heroes of the Nations” series contains good biographies of Gustavus Adolphus, by C. R. L. Fletcher; of Henry IV, by P. F. Willert, and of Cromwell, by Charles Firth. These may be supplemented by the volumes in the “Foreign Statesmen Series,” on Richelieu, by R. Lodge; on William the Silent, by Frederic Harrison, and on Philip II, by Martin Hume. The volumes in the “Epochs of Modern History Series,” which cover this period, The Thirty Years’ War and the Puritan Revolution, by S. R. Gardiner, furnish considerable supplementary information in a convenient and compact form. The best atlases are probably Putzger, and Gardiner (“Atlas of English History”).