of the Pope. Men insisted on judging for themselves in
spiritual matters. Only after three centuries of strife was the
privilege granted them. Only within the past century has thought been
made everywhere free--at least from direct physical coercion. The last
execution by the Spanish Inquisition was in 1826, and the institution
was formally abolished in 1835.

The era of open warfare and actual bodily torture between various sects
all calling themselves Christian, thus extended over three centuries.
These may be divided into four periods. The first is one of fierce
dispute but little actual warfare, during which the revolt spread over
Europe with Germany as its centre. An agreement between the contestants
was still hoped for; the break was not recognized as final until 1555,
when, by the Peace of Augsburg, the two German factions definitely
agreed to separate and to refrain from interference with each other. Or
perhaps it would be better to end the first period with 1556, when the
mighty Emperor, Charles V, resigned all his authority, giving Germany to
his brother, Ferdinand, who maintained peace there, while Spain passed
to Charles' son, Philip II, most resolute and fanatic of Catholics.

The second period began in 1558, when the Protestant queen, Elizabeth,
ascended the throne of England. She and Philip of Spain became the
champions of their respective faiths; the strife extended over Europe,
and soon developed into bitter war. This spread from land to land, and
finally returned to Germany as the awful Thirty Years' War.

Then came the third period, during which the religious question was less
prominent; but Catholic sovereigns like Louis XIV of France and James II
of England still hoped by persecutions to force their subjects to
reaccept the ancient faith. These aims were only abandoned with the
downfall of Louis' military power before the armies of Marlborough and
Eugene, early in the eighteenth century.

During the final hundred years the stubborn contest was confined to the
lands still Catholic, in which intellect, under such leaders as
Voltaire, struggled with the superstition and prejudice of the masses,
and demanded everywhere the freedom it at last attained.

For the present we need look only to the first of these periods, that in
which Germany holds the centre of the view.[1] It is an odd coincidence
that at the outbreak of the Reformation all the chief states of Europe
were ruled by sovereigns of unusua