st empire, with its magnificent resources, was placed at the
disposal of a single man. Philip ruled over it with an authority more
absolute than that possessed by any European prince since the days of
the Caesars. The Netherlands, indeed, maintained a show of independence
under the shadow of their ancient institutions. But they consented to
supply the necessities of the crown by a tax larger than the revenues of
America. Naples and Milan were ruled by Spanish viceroys. Viceroys, with
delegated powers scarcely less than those of their sovereign, presided
over the American colonies, which received their laws from the parent
country. In Spain itself, the authority of the nobles was gone. First
assailed under Ferdinand and Isabella, it was completely broken down
under Charles the Fifth. The liberties of the commons were crushed at
the fatal battle of Villalar, in the beginning of that monarch's reign.
Without nobles, without commons, the ancient cortes had faded into a
mere legislative pageant, with hardly any other right than that of
presenting petitions, and of occasionally raising an ineffectual note of
remonstrance against abuses. It had lost the power to redress them. Thus
all authority vested in the sovereign. His will was the law of the land.
From his palace at Madrid he sent forth the edicts which became the law
of Spain and of her remotest colonies. It may well be believed that
foreign nations watched with interest the first movements of a prince
who seemed to hold in his hands the destinies of Europe; and that they
regarded with no little apprehension the growth of that colossal power
which had already risen to a height that cast a shadow over every other
monarchy.

From his position, Philip stood at the head of the Roman Catholic
princes. He was in temporal matters what the pope was in spiritual. In
the existing state of Christendom, he had the same interest as the pope
in putting down that spirit of religious reform which had begun to show
itself, in public or in private, in every corner of Europe. He was the
natural ally of the pope. He understood this well, and would have acted
on it. Yet, strange to say, his very first war, after his accession, was
with the pope himself. It was a war not of Philip's seeking.

[Sidenote: PAUL THE FOURTH.]

The papal throne was at that time filled by Paul the Fourth, one of
those remarkable men, who, amidst the shadowy personages that have
reigned in the Vatican, and been for