Reformation

3951

Reformation

coalesced for its defence in the League uf
Schmalkalden (1531). A new war began
in 1551, in which the Protestants had as-
sistance from France; and by the 'Peace of
Religion1 signed at Augsburg, in 1555, the
principle was established that each prince
should determine the religion of his own
subjects. In Switzerland an independent
movement, nearly contemporary with that
of Luther, was headed by Ulrich Zwingli,
who brought to the study of the Scriptures
the independent critical spirit of the trained
scholar. By 1525 Zwingli had gained a com-
plete ascendancy in Zurich, and the munici-
pal council repudiated the spiritual authority
of the bishop of Constance. From Zurich the

and distinct church organizations—the Luth-
eran and the Calvinist or 'Reformed1; and
these still remain the two main branches
from which numerous later offshoots have
sprung. The Reformation in England is
unique in that it began with a revolution in
the constitution of the church without any
change of doctrine, and ended in a compro-
mise which was neither Lutheran nor Cal-
vinist, and in many respects retained more
continuous connection with the old church
than would have been admitted by either
of the great Continental reformers. In 1593
the Confession of Augsburg was definitely
adopted by a synod at Upsala as the creed
of the Swedish Church, and under Gustavus

€) Ewmg Galloway, N. Y.

Warrenville Reformatory, Cleveland, Ohio.

Zwinglian reformation spread to Bern, Basel,
and other Swiss cantons, and even threatened
to supplant Lutheranism in several towns of
Southern Germany. The importance of the
Swiss reformation was soon overshadowed
by the rise of a new leader, John Calvin,
whose teaching was not unlike that of
Zwingli, and whose work was carried on in
Geneva. Of the Protestant Church in Geneva,
Calvin, in spite of opposition which drove
him into exile at Strassburg for three years,
became the guide and ultimately the dic-
tator. Calvin ruled the city of Geneva be-
cause he was supreme in the church. Church
and state were identical, and therefore in-
tolerant,

Thus by the middle of the i6th century
Protestantism had produced two well-defined

Adolphus, Sweden became the vigorous
champion of the Protestant cause in the
Thirty Years* War. In Denmark the Refor-
mation, though equally the work of the
monarchy, was accompanied by more strife
and disorder than in Sweden. The complete
victory of Christian in 1536 brought with it
the success of the Reformation. For thirty
years France was distracted by a series of
religious wars, divided by brief intervals of
uneasy peace. The most famous incident of
the struggle was the massacre of St. Bar-
tholomew in 1572. At last peace was made
by Henry iv. (1589-1610), the son of An-
thony of Bourbon. He obtained national
recognition of his title by abjuring the Prot-
estant faith, while he gave toleration to the
Huguenots by the Edict of Nantes (1598).