1529. A. D. Still Luther, shortly after, wrote against Zwingle, and pronounced him a heretic, upon which the adherents of Zwingle separated from the Lutherans and took the name of Reformers. 1555. CHAP. LVII. THE TIMES OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. A. D. IMMEDIATELY after the death of Luther, war broke out between the Protestants and Roman Catholics. At first, the Protestants were extremely unfortunate; but they were eventually successful, and obtained religious toleration by the treaty of Augsburg, in 1555 A. D. Still the hostile feelings of the two parties were not yet appeased; and these animosities were encouraged by the Jesuits, who, since the year 1540 A. D., had materially assisted the cause of the Roman Catholic religion, by a life of great self-devotion, though too often by the sacrifice of sincerity and truth. This Society of Jesus (for such was the name they assumed) employed all its influence to resist the adoption and diffusion of the doctrines of Luther. This mutual hostility at length broke out in the Thirty Years' War, which commenced at Prague and was also brought to a conclusion at Prague. The Emperor ordered that one Protestant church in Bohemia should be pulled down, and another closed. Of this the Bohemians complained at the court, but received only threats in reply. Incited by this harsh treatment, on the 23d May, 1618, 1629. they told the imperial counsellors at Prague they A. D. would dispense with their services, and then, driving the Jesuits out of the town, they took up arms in their own defence. In 1619 A. D., the Emperor Matthias died, and was succeeded by Ferdinand the Second, who was much hated in consequence of his hostility to the Protestants. The Bohemians therefore elected Frederick, prince of the Palatinate of Pfalz, for their king; but he proved a vain and ungovernable character, and in 1620 he was defeated by the imperial troops, and obliged to fly. Next year he was outlawed, and his lands declared forfeited; the whole of Bohemia was reduced to the Austrian yoke, and the Roman Catholic religion was by force reestablished. Although now no enemy remained in the field, the imperial troops still lingered in a threatening attitude on the boundaries of Lower Saxony. The Saxons were, therefore, compelled to arm, and Christian the Fourth undertook the command, but was defeated by Tilly at Lutter near Bahrenberg. Wallenstein's bands, who lived by plunder, fell upon Holstein, and the King was obliged to fly to his islands. Wallenstein now devastated the country on the shores of the Baltic, drove away the Duke of Mecklenburgh, and persuaded the Emperor to give him the duchy. In 1629, a peace was arranged with Denmark, and the Emperor, now victorious over the Protestants, passed the Edict of Restitution, which demanded from the Protestants, that all the churches and monas A. D. teries which had been taken from the Roman 1630. Catholics since 1555 A. D., should be restored. CHAP. LVIII. THIRTY YEARS' WAR - WALLENSTEIN GUSTA A. D. VUS ADOLPHUS. On the 24th of June, 1630 A. D., Gustavus Adol1630. phus landed in Pomerania. Gustavus was the greatest general of his age, and a truly religious sovereign. Though the Protestants had invited him over, they had not as yet full confidence; and Brandenburg and Saxony were hostile to him. Gustavus soon drove the imperial troops out of Pomerania; and Saxony, which had been attacked by Tilly for opposing the Edict of Restitution, was obliged to call in to its aid the 1632. King of Sweden, though the Saxons at first treated A. D. him with contempt. Brandenburg he compelled to join him. Meanwhile Magdeburg, one of the most important of the Protestant cities, had been captured by Tilly, on the 10th of May, 1631 A. D., and sacked under circumstances of revolting cruelty; for Gustavus Adolphus had not been able to come to its assistance, in consequence of being detained by the affairs of Brandenburg and Saxony. He hastened to Saxony, and there, on the plains of Leipsic, he defeated the imperial general, Tilly, the victor of six-and-thirty fights, on the 7th Sept., 1631 A. D. After this victory he penetrated further into the country, and delivered the Protestants of Franconia from the tyranny of the Emperor, conquering Mayence, winning the Pfalz, and making his way into Bavaria. At the same time the Elector of Saxony had made an incursion in Bohemia and taken Prague. The thoughts that Vienna should have to sustain a siege was indeed alarming to the Emperor, as he had no standing army, and, since Tilly had fallen, no general in Bavaria. It was now that his attention was directed to Wallenstein. But the proud spirit of this general rejoiced to see his Emperor so humbled, and he refused at first to take the command; and at last, when strongly pressed to do so, he proposed the most unreasonable conditions. These, however, the Emperor was obliged to grant, and thus Wallenstein became commanderin-chief of all the imperial forces, and that so en A. D. tirely without control, that the Emperor reserved 1634. to himself neither the right to dictate to Wallen stein, nor even to decide on the movements of his own army. Wallenstein had also the privilege of arbitrating concerning conquered territories entirely on his own judgment. He soon was at the head of an army. The Saxons were driven out of Bohemia, and Gustavus Adolphus was compelled to retire from Bavaria, into which country he had already advanced as far as Munich. On the 6th of November, 1632 A. D., the hostile armies met at Lutzen: the Swedes were victorious, but their victory was dearly purchased, for it cost them their king, Gustavus. After this defeat General Wallenstein had marched his army back into Bohemia; and here, by an unseasonable cessation of hostilities and secret treaties with the Swedes, he awakened the suspicions of the Emperor, who readily was persuaded to believe that Wallenstein had a design on the crown of Bohemia. Wallenstein was afterwards assassinated at Egra, on the 25th of February, 1634 A.D. For a short time after the death of Gustavus, the Swedes, under Bernhard, Duke of Saxe Weimar, still continued victorious; but on the 7th of September, 1634 A.D. they sustained their first defeat on German ground, near Nordlingen, and were obliged to fall back on Pomerania. In 1635 A.D. several Protestant princes, especially the Elector of Saxony, determined on making peace with the Emperor. At that moment the French declared war against the Emperor, and Bernhard, supported |