The Thirty Years War | Page 5

the
Reformers. The principles which had actuated the long and active
reigns of Charles V. and Philip the Second, remained a law for their
successors; and the more the breach in the church widened, the firmer
became the attachment of the Spaniards to Roman Catholicism.
The German line of the House of Austria was apparently more
unfettered; but, in reality, though free from many of these restraints, it
was yet confined by others. The possession of the imperial throne--a
dignity it was impossible for a Protestant to hold, (for with what
consistency could an apostate from the Romish Church wear the crown
of a Roman emperor?) bound the successors of Ferdinand I. to the See
of Rome. Ferdinand himself was, from conscientious motives, heartily
attached to it. Besides, the German princes of the House of Austria
were not powerful enough to dispense with the support of Spain, which,
however, they would have forfeited by the least show of leaning
towards the new doctrines. The imperial dignity, also, required them to

preserve the existing political system of Germany, with which the
maintenance of their own authority was closely bound up, but which it
was the aim of the Protestant League to destroy. If to these grounds we
add the indifference of the Protestants to the Emperor's necessities and
to the common dangers of the empire, their encroachments on the
temporalities of the church, and their aggressive violence when they
became conscious of their own power, we can easily conceive how so
many concurring motives must have determined the emperors to the
side of popery, and how their own interests came to be intimately
interwoven with those of the Roman Church. As its fate seemed to
depend altogether on the part taken by Austria, the princes of this house
came to be regarded by all Europe as the pillars of popery. The hatred,
therefore, which the Protestants bore against the latter, was turned
exclusively upon Austria; and the cause became gradually confounded
with its protector.
But this irreconcileable enemy of the Reformation--the House of
Austria --by its ambitious projects and the overwhelming force which it
could bring to their support, endangered, in no small degree, the
freedom of Europe, and more especially of the German States. This
circumstance could not fail to rouse the latter from their security, and to
render them vigilant in self-defence. Their ordinary resources were
quite insufficient to resist so formidable a power. Extraordinary
exertions were required from their subjects; and when even these
proved far from adequate, they had recourse to foreign assistance; and,
by means of a common league, they endeavoured to oppose a power
which, singly, they were unable to withstand.
But the strong political inducements which the German princes had to
resist the pretensions of the House of Austria, naturally did not extend
to their subjects. It is only immediate advantages or immediate evils
that set the people in action, and for these a sound policy cannot wait.
Ill then would it have fared with these princes, if by good fortune
another effectual motive had not offered itself, which roused the
passions of the people, and kindled in them an enthusiasm which might
be directed against the political danger, as having with it a common
cause of alarm.

This motive was their avowed hatred of the religion which Austria
protected, and their enthusiastic attachment to a doctrine which that
House was endeavouring to extirpate by fire and sword. Their
attachment was ardent, their hatred invincible. Religious fanaticism
anticipates even the remotest dangers. Enthusiasm never calculates its
sacrifices. What the most pressing danger of the state could not gain
from the citizens, was effected by religious zeal. For the state, or for the
prince, few would have drawn the sword; but for religion, the merchant,
the artist, the peasant, all cheerfully flew to arms. For the state, or for
the prince, even the smallest additional impost would have been
avoided; but for religion the people readily staked at once life, fortune,
and all earthly hopes. It trebled the contributions which flowed into the
exchequer of the princes, and the armies which marched to the field;
and, in the ardent excitement produced in all minds by the peril to
which their faith was exposed, the subject felt not the pressure of those
burdens and privations under which, in cooler moments, he would have
sunk exhausted. The terrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and the
massacre of St. Bartholomew's, procured for the Prince of Orange, the
Admiral Coligny, the British Queen Elizabeth, and the Protestant
princes of Germany, supplies of men and money from their subjects, to
a degree which at present is inconceivable.
But, with all their exertions, they would have effected little against a
power which was an overmatch for any single adversary, however
powerful. At this period