the great moving force in European politics and in the advancement of civil liberty. — MAY. We have seen that the Protestant revolution was but one wave of the advancing tide of modern civilization. It was a great revolutionary wave, the onward swell of which, beginning with the refusal of reform at the Diet of Worms, produced the Peasants' War and the Sack of Rome, swept on through the revolt of the Netherlands, the Thirty Years' War, the Puritan Revolution in England, under Oliver Cromwell, the formation of the great independent American republic, until it came to a head and broke in all the terrors of the French Revolution.-SEEBOHM. The Reformation, when considered, as it ought to be, in all these points of view, may be reasonably represented as one of the greatest events, or rather as the greatest event, in modern history. To the Reformation we owe not only the destruction of the temporal and spiritual thraldom of the Papacy, the great evil with which Europe had to struggle, but to the Reformation we may be said to owe all the improvements which afterwards took place, not only in religion, but in legislation, in science, and in our knowledge of the faculties and operations of the human mind, — in other words, all that can distinguish the most enlightened from the darkest periods of human society. W. SMYTH. THE rise of the power of Spain began in the last century, under Ferdinand and Isabella (see SPAIN, page 334), this century Spain became the dominant European 1516, on the death of Ferdinand, the Spanish Of truthich then included the whole peninsula (except Portugal), and Sardinia, the island of Sicily, Naples, and an immense territory in America - passed to Charles, the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Charles also inherited from his paternal grandmother the Netherlands and the county of Burgundy. On the death of his paternal grandfather (the Emperor Maximilian), in 1519, he was elected Emperor of Germany, and is known in history as Charles the Fifth. The various dominions which he thus inherited rendered him master of a larger empire than any monarch had ruled since Charlemagne. The extent of the Spanish conquests in America during the sixteenth century forms a remarkable part of her achievements, and her mastery and retention of Mexico and Central America for three centuries are evidence of her enterprise and power. During the age of Charles V. occurred the Reformation (which see). Ich heisse Der reichste Mann in der getaufen Welt; The richest monarch in the Christian world; SCHILLER, Don Carlos. Both the East and West Indies being met in the crown of Spain, it is come to pass that, as one saith in a brave kind of expression, the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but ever shines upon one part or other of them: which, to say truly, is a beam of glory, though I cannot say it is so solid a body of glory, wherein the crown of Spain surpasseth all the former monarchies. - LORD BACON. - Spain figured little in Europe till the latter part of the fifteenth century, till Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, till the total expulsion of the Moors, and till the discovery of the West Indies. After this, not only Spain took a new form, and grew into immense power, but the heir of Ferdinand and Isabella being heir likewise of the houses of Burgundy and Austria, such an extent of dominion accrued to him by all these successions, and such an addition of rank and authority by his election to the empire, as no prince had been master of in Europe from the days of Charles the Great. - LORD BOLINGBROKE. As Charles was the first prince of the age in rank and dignity, the part which he acted, whether we consider the greatness, the variety, or the success of his undertakings, was the most conspicuous. ROBERTSON. It was during his administration that the powers of Europe were formed into one great political system, in which each took a station, wherein it has since remained with less variation than could have been expected after the shocks occasioned by so many internal revolutions and so many foreign wars. The great events which happened then have not hitherto spent their force. The political principles and maxims, then established, still continue to operate. The ideas concerning the balance of power, then introduced or rendered general, still influence the councils of nations. The age of Charles V. may therefore be considered as the period at which the political state of Europe began to assume a new form. - ROBERTSON. Such was the state of Europe during the reign of Charles V. No prince was so much superior to the rest in power as to render his efforts irresistible and his conquests easy. No nation had made progress in improvement so far beyond its neighbors as to have acquired a very manifest pre-eminence. Each state derived some advantage, or was subject to some inconvenience from its situation or its climate; each was distinguished by something peculiar in the genius of its people or the constitution of its government. But the advantages possessed by one state were counterbalanced by circumstances favorable to others; and this prevented any from attaining such superiority as might have been fatal to all. The nations of Europe in that age, as in the present, were like one great family.— ROBERTSON. But though the near resemblance and equality in improvement among the different nations of Europe prevented the reign of Charles V. from being distinguished by such sudden and extensive conquests as occur in some other periods of history, yet, during the course of his administration, all the considerable states in Europe suffered a remarkable change in their political situation, and felt the influence of events, which had not hitherto spent their force, but still continue to operate in a greater or in a less degree. It was during his reign, and in consequence of the perpetual efforts to which his enterprising ambition roused him, that the different kingdoms of Europe acquired internal vigor; that they discerned the resources of which they were possessed; that they came both to feel their own strength, and to know how to make it formidable to others. It was during his reign, too, that the different kingdoms of Europe, which in former times seemed frequently to act as if they had been single and disjoined, became so thoroughly acquainted and so intimately connected with each other, as to form one great political system, in which each took a station, wherein it has remained since that time with less variation than could have been expected after the events of two active centuries. - ROBERTSON. The splendid empire of Charles V. was erected upon the grave of liberty. The ancient streams of national freedom and human progress, through many of the fairest regions in the world, were emptied and lost in that enormous gulf. MOTLEY. In 1555 Charles resigned his crowns and retired for the rest of his life to the monastery of Yuste, near Plasencia, in Spain. So Charles the emperor, whose mighty reign A lowly home and quiet haven found. LUIS CAPATA. Trans. The Spaniard, when the lust of sway Had lost its quickening spell, An empire for a cell; A strict accountant of his beads, He died at Yuste in 1558. BYRON. In Saint Just the silent bowers For the monk who died to-day. GRAF VON AUERSPERG. Trans. The imperial (German) crown Charles gave to his brother Ferdinand, while the Spanish possessions, the great power of the century, passed to his son Philip II., who reigned till 1598. He added Portugal in 1580. He carried on systematic efforts to repress religious liberty by the torments of the Inquisition, and during his reign occurred the Revolt of the Netherlands (which see, page 364). He also equipped for the invasion of England the famous Armada (which see, page 360). After his death the Spanish power greatly declined. The Spaniards of the sixteenth century were indisputably the noblest nation of Europe; yet they had the Inquisition and Philip II. - CARLYLE. The empire of Philip II. was undoubtedly one of the most powerful and splendid that ever existed in the world. In Europe, he ruled Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands on both sides of the Rhine, Franche Comté, Roussillon, the Milanese, and the Two Sicilies. Tuscany, Parma, and the other small states of Italy, were as completely dependent on him as the Nizam and the Rajah of Berar now are on the East India Company. In Asia, the King of Spain was master of the Philippines, and of all those rich settlements which the Portuguese had made on the coast of Malabar and Coromandel, in the Peninsula of Malacca, in the Spice Islands of the Eastern Archipelago. In America, his dominions extended on each side of the equator into the temperate zone. There is reason to believe that his annual income amounted, in the season of his greatest power, to a sum near ten times as large as that which England yielded to Elizabeth. He had a standing army of fifty thousand excellent troops, at a time when England had not a single battalion in constant pay. His ordinary naval force consisted of a hundred and forty galleys. He held, what no other prince in modern times has held, the dominion both of the land and of the sea. During the greater part of his reign he was supreme on both elements. His soldiers marched up to the capital of France ; his ships menaced the shores of England. It is no exaggeration to say that, during several years, his power over Europe was greater than even that of Napoleon. . . . In the sixteenth century, Italy was |