communion. He was excommunicated by the Pope, and in return himself denounced the Pope as Antichrist. Various German Princes became converted to the Protestant faith, and so the new movement took on a political as well as a religious aspect. All Europe was divided between the rival faiths, and an era of religious wars and persecutions began, marked with the utmost bitterness and cruelty on both sides. At last, in 1555 the Religious Peace of Augsburg was concluded, and the next year the great Emperor, Charles V., took the extraordinary step of resigning his crown and retiring to a monastery, where he spent the remainder of his life.

French Disasters.

Francis I. of France was the bitter foe of Charles V., and made war against him, but was disastrously beaten. Then he invaded Italy, only to be routed. At Pavia, Francis was taken prisoner by the Imperial troops, and sent word home to his mother, "All is lost, save honor." He was released, and resumed the war, and continued it until the end of his life, almost steadily losing and bringing his kingdom near to ruin. In his reign, however, the great religious reformer John Calvin arose and established Protestantism in France. He was persecuted by Francis and compelled to seek refuge in Switzerland, where most of his work was thereafter done. In this reign also the satirist Rabelais did his work.

Francis's son and successor, Henry II., was not more fortunate. He took from the English their last remaining possession in France, but was elsewhere beaten by Spain. He married Catherine de Medici, and thus introduced her baleful influence into French politics. He began persecuting the Protestants and started an era of religious wars in France. In his time arose the Duke of Guise and Admiral Coligny, the leaders of the Catholic and Protestant parties respectively.

Italy.

The history of Italy at this time was a troubled one. The country was made a mere fighting ground for others. Spain finally won, and the enslavement of Italy was completed. The Medici family was at this time one of the most powerful in Italy. Doria, the great Genoese admiral, flourished. Ignatius Loyola founded the famous Order of Jesus, commonly known as Jesuits, and the Inquisition, founded in Spain, was introduced into Italy. Correggio and Titian enriched Italian art, and Ariosto in literature and Machiavelli in statecraft and philosophy added lustre to the Italian name.

The English Reformation.

Henry VIII. of England was a proud and masterful prince, and was restless under the Papal authority to which his predecessors had submitted. Finally, disagreeing with the Roman church on the matter of divorcing his first wife, Katharine of Aragon, he renounced all allegiance to the Pope and espoused the cause of the Lutheran Reformation. The English church was declared independent of Rome, an English translation of the Bible was authorized for popular use, and an era of religious strife thus begun. During the short reign of his son and successor, Edward VI., the Reformation was continued, but under Queen Mary, a Catholic

reaction set in, and Protestants were savagely persecuted. Mary married Philip of Spain, who aspired to unite the two kingdoms, but she died without issue and that plan came to naught. She was succeeded by her sister, Elizabeth, a Protestant, under whom the Reformation was fully restored.

Scandinavia.

At about this time the modern history of the Scandinavian kingdoms began. In the reign of the savage monster, Christian II., the union of the three was broken. Sweden revolted and made Gustavus Vasa its king. All three of the kingdoms accepted the Protestant faith.

Meanwhile Ivan IV., the Terrible, greatly extended the Russian empire, making it reach from the Caspian to the Baltic, and gave it its first real code of laws and judicial system.

Solyman the Magnificent.

In this era flourished Solyman the Magnificent, the greatest of all Turkish rulers and one of the greatest of that time in all the world. He took the island of Rhodes after a memorable struggle; captured Belgrade in 1521; and five years later invaded Hungary, won a great victory and killed the King of Hungary at Mohacz, and occupied Budapest. Next he laid siege to Vienna, but after losing 120,000 men was compelled to retire. He made conquests in other directions and was sought as an ally by Christian sovereigns. He was a great legislator, a fine poet, an eminent warrior, a patron of arts and letters, a great road-maker, and a builder of many splendid edifices.

The first half of the sixteenth century the great Mogul Empire was founded in India by Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane.

The New World.

Meantime the development of the New World proceeded apace. Fernando Cortez, a Spanish adventurer conquered Cuba, and then, in 1519 and 1520 achieved the conquest of Mexico with almost unparalleled bloodthirstiness. In 1531 Francisco Pizarro did the same in Peru. Others extended the work of conquest elsewhere, until practically the whole of Central and South America, and the southern part of North America, with inestimable riches in gold and silver, belonged to Spain.

In the latter half of the sixteenth century interest was chiefly centered upon France and the Netherlands. Germany led a peaceful existence under the mild and tolerant Emperors Ferdinand and Maximilian. Rudolph II., who came next, was a bigoted Romanist who attempted to suppress Protestantism and started the Anti-Reformation, but no serious conflict arose in his reign.

Religious Wars in France.

In France civil war soon broke out between the Catholics and the Protestants, or Huguenots. The Duke of Guise was the leader of the former and the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny of the latter. After much open fighting the Duke of

Guise was murdered, and then a truce was concluded.

But a second and then a third war followed, the Prince of Conde being slain in the latter. In the next peace the Huguenots were so favored at court that the Guises determined upon extreme measures against them. The weak minded King was prevailed upon by his mother, Catherine de Medici, to sign an order for the destruction of the Huguenots. The mob and soldiery of Paris then rose under the lead of the Guises and massacred them to the number of 20,000, Coligny among them. This occurred on St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572. Another war followed, in which the Huguenot city of Rochelle withstood a memorable siege.

The wretched King, Charles IX., soon died, and was succeeded by his brother, Henry III. The Guises at once attempted to take Paris by force and depose the King, in order to establish a new dynasty and prevent the next heir, the Protestant Henry of Navarre, from succeeding the childless Henry III. Strong resistance was made by Henry of Navarre, but the Guises entered Paris and expelled the King, and Henry of Guise was proclaimed King in his stead. Henry III. fled to the camp of Henry of Navarre, but was murdered by a young monk, an emissary of the Guises. A few hours earlier his famous mother also died.

The First Bourbon.

Henry of Navarre then succeeded to the French throne as Henry IV., and founded the famous Bourbon dynasty. He had to fight for his throne, however, but was successful in so doing. He crushed the Catholic League in the famous Battle of Ivry, in 1590, and then, deeming it politic thus to please the majority of his subjects, became a Catholic. He was thereupon loyally accepted as King by all, and the religious wars came to an end. In the Edict of Nantes he decreed perfect civil equality between members of both faiths, and kept his word to both.

Italy and the Turks.

Italy at this time was in a bad way. The power of Venice was declining, and the Turks were seizing outlying possessions and threatening the conquest of the peninsula itself. The Turks would have succeeded had not a combined Italian and Austrian fleet, under Don John of Austria defeated them utterly in the great seafight of Lepanto, in 1571. This was truly one of the decisive battles of the world. In this period Sixtus V. was Pope, one of the greatest men that ever filled that exalted place. Another great Pope was Clement VIII. The printer Aldus at Venice, the poet Tasso, the painters Titian and Paul Veronese, and St. Charles Borromeo and St. Francis of Sales made this era in Italian history noteworthy.

Spain's Cruelty and Woe.

At this time Spain was under Philip II., a monster of cruelty. He at first set out to extirpate Protestantism. To that end he established the Inquisition in all its severity in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. In the last named country he was stubbornly resisted by William of Orange, best known as William the Silent. This great prince fought against overwhelming odds with valer that has seldom