REFORMATION 



4060 



REFORMATION 



perately in need of money, and the only im- 

 mediate way to obtain it was to confiscate the 

 properties of the Church. In order to do this 

 with some show of justification, the king 

 adopted Protestantism. He won the support of 

 his nobles by pi 'ore to tl 



of the property and land which had passed into 

 the hands of the Church >ince 14.">4. The 

 Augsburg Coni\ i'ted. and serv- 



: the Swedish language -titutcd 



for those in Latin. In Denmark the pupils of 

 Luther who came into the country were en- 

 y an ambitious king, Christian II. 

 and the movement wa.x also furthered by his 

 -or, Frederick I. On Frederick's death. 

 ;. when the question of succession again 

 the Protestants supported one heir, the 

 clergy and Catholic nobles another, and civil 

 war resulted. The Protestant prince, Christian 

 III. was seated on the throne, and the new 

 Church was permanently established as tin- 

 state Church, both of Denmark and of Norway. 



The Netherlands. It was natural that a 

 country so close to Germany as was the Neth- 

 erlands should adopt the new faith, and equally 

 natural that a people so bitterly oppressed by 

 foreign powers should stand together for po- 

 litical and religious freedom; but neither was 

 won without torture and hate and persecu- 

 tions, and weary years of war. The best gen- 

 rals that Spain could furnish were sent into 

 that little country to put down the rebellion, 

 and they failed. The nobles fought side by 

 side with the common people, and, when they 

 could fight no longer, they cut the dikes and 

 let in the sea on the enemy. In the end the 

 northern half of the country, Holland, under 

 the leadership of William of Orange, won com- 

 plete independence of Spain and of Rome. But 

 Belgium, the southern half, remained Catholic. 



England. The Reformation in England was 

 unique, because it began simply with a change 

 in the constitution of the Church. The English 

 king, Henry VIII, wished to divorce his wife, 

 Catharine of Aragon, and marry again. The 

 Pope refused to sanction this cruel wrong (see 

 CATIIAIJINK OF ARAGON). The king forced Pro- 

 testantism upon England through certain meas- 

 ures which established a new official Church, 

 one entirely separate from the Church of Rome, 

 and one whose laws permitted divorce. But 

 real Protestantism did not gain much ground 

 in England until the death of Henry VIII. 



During Edward Ill's reign Protestantism 

 was encouraged by his nobles and advisors, 

 who were greedy for the wealth of the Church. 



Under Queen Mary, a Catholic sovereign, a 

 violent reaction followed. The Protestants 

 were terribly persecuted, and many of their 

 leaders were burned to death. Everything was 

 undone that had been gained for Protestantism 

 during the two reigns preceding. Elizabeth. 

 Mary's successor, repudiated the Church of 

 Rome; at the same time she had no fondness 

 for Protestantism, and the followers of both 

 faiths sulYered under her tyranny. The reli- 

 gious differences arising between the two parties 

 were a source of controversy and hatred for 

 more than one hundred years, and no satis- 

 factory settlement was reached until 1689, when 

 a Toleration Act granted a limited amount of 

 religious freedom. The Anglican Church, the 

 one founded by King Hemy, remained the 

 state Church of England, and is known as the 

 Church of England. 



Scotland. Scotland had a great leader named 

 John Knox, a friend and pupil of John Calvin, 

 who held much the position there that Luther 

 held in Germany. Although the adherents of 

 the new religion were cruelly persecuted and 

 many of their leaders died at the stake, Knox 

 succeeded in establishing a Calvinist Church. 

 Mary Stuart, during her short reign, tried to 

 reestablish the old faith, but Knox's leadership 

 was strong, and Protestantism prevailed. 



Ireland. Without much resistance, Ireland 

 adopted the new Church established by Henry 

 VIII. Queen Mary promptly forced the Irish 

 to repudiate it upon her accession to the throne, 

 and Elizabeth as promptly forced them to ac- 

 cept it again. But the great mass of the peo- 

 ple were entirely unaffected by these changes. 

 In spite of them, Ireland continued then, and 

 is to-day, a Catholic country, except that the 

 northern counties are strongly Protestant. 



Results of the Reformation. In Spain and 

 Italy all rebellion against the Catholic religion 

 was promptly and effectively checked. So, 

 roughly, Protestantism was adopted by the 

 countries of Northwestern Europe, while Cathol- 

 icism remained the faith of the peoples of the 

 South, even the southern parts of Germany 

 continuing loyal to the Church of Rome. 

 Catholicism had then and has to-day more ad- 

 herents than has Protestantism. This condi- 

 tion was due in part to a Counter-Reforma- 

 tion within the Church itself, which was one of 

 the important results of the great protesting re- 

 ligious movement. Through the Counter-Ref- 

 ormation the Church of Rome grew in vigor 

 and influence. Abuses were swept away by 

 reforming Popes and high officials, and every- 



