CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
FALL OF THE OLD ORDER

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways.

—TENNYSON

The " Divine Right" on which the Grand Monarchy was
based had become so debased that it proved to be a right
(claim) to exploit the people for the selfish autocracy and
luxuries of the kings. But this daim could not be sustained
for long in the wake of the progress that mankind was-
making. Just as the autocracy and corruption of the Church
had given rise to the Reformation in religious matters, so
also in the political field there was soon to be a re-forma-
tion. The divine right of kings was to give place to the
' Divine Right of Peoples': vox populi vox Dei,' the voice of
the people is the voice of God* was to* be the new slogan.
We shall give in this chapter a few outstanding examples*
of how the Old Order changed, yielding place to New, and
see how God fulfilled Himself in many ways in the Nether-
lands, in England, in France, and in India.

The Netherlands (Holland) had formed part of the Em-
pire of Charles V, as we have noted before. In the religious-
struggles of the Reformation period the people of that
country enacted some of the most heroic episodes in all
human history. Their resistance to Charles V and his suc-
cessor Philips II of Spain was due both to religious and
national feelings. " No two peoples could have been more'