Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE COUNTER-REFORMATION AND RELIGIOUS TROUBLES IN GERMANY Causes of the Counter-Reformation — The weakness of Protestantism—The revival in the Church — The influence of the Jesuits—Beginning of the Counter-Reformation in Poland, in Germany, in the Austrian dominions — Questions still unsettled in Germany, the position of the Calvinists, the secularised lands, the ecclesiastical reservation — Dangerous position of the Calvinists of the Rhineland—The troubles of Donauworth— Formation of the Calvinist Union and the Catholic League — Constitutional difficulties between the limperor and the Bohemians — Revolt of ihu Bohemian Protestants — The throwing from Ihe windows. The reaction against Protestantism in Europe began to make itself felt in the concluding years of the sixteenth century. Like all great movements in the religious, as in Causesofth the political, sphere, it owed its existence to many Counter- complex causes. To some extent racial distinc- Refo"natioIi- tions asserted themselves. The Romance-speaking nations and the Sclavonic peoples, roughly speaking, after a moment of hesitation declared plainly against Protestantism. To a larger extent political reasons dictated the attitude of governments, and governments were able to do much towards defining the religion of their subjects. The determined stand made by Spain in defence of Catholicism was greatly affected by the ambition of Philip n. to make himself master of Europe. The effective opposition to the domination of Spain offered by Elizabeth was far more due to zeal for the independence and commercial prosperity of England than to differences of faith. The final resolve of France to remaindistinctly Catholic was, as we have seen, due to the fact that she prized her unity before everything, and the ...