position one of the many causes of the decline of the national
prosperity.[489]

A full experience of the inconveniences of the site of the capital led
Charles the Third to contemplate its removal to Seville. But it was too
late. Madrid had been too long, in the Castilian boast, "the only court
in the world,"[490]--the focus to which converged talent, fashion, and
wealth from all quarters of the country. Too many patriotic associations
had gathered round it to warrant its desertion; and, in spite of its
local disadvantages, the capital planted by Philip the Second continued
to remain, as it will probably ever remain, the capital of the Spanish
monarchy.

CHAPTER V.

DISCONTENT IN THE NETHERLANDS.

The Reformation.--Its Progress in the Netherlands.--General
Discontent.--William of Orange.

The middle of the sixteenth century presented one of those crises which
have occurred at long intervals in the history of Europe, when the
course of events has had a permanent influence on the destiny of
nations. Scarcely forty years had elapsed since Luther had thrown down
the gauntlet to the Vatican, by publicly burning the papal bull at
Wittenberg. Since that time, his doctrines had been received in Denmark
and Sweden. In England, after a state of vacillation for three reigns,
Protestantism, in the peculiar form which it still wears, was become the
established religion of the state. The fiery cross had gone round over
the hills and valleys of Scotland, and thousands and tens of thousands
had gathered to hear the word of life from the lips of Knox. The
doctrines of Luther were spread over the northern parts of Germany, and
freedom of worship was finally guarantied there, by the treaty of
Passau. The Low Countries were the "debatable land," on which the
various sects of Reformers, the Lutheran, the Calvinist, the English
Protestant, contended for mastery with the established church. Calvinism
was embraced by some of the cantons of Switzerland, and at Geneva its
great apostle had fixed his head-quarters. His doctrines were widely
circulated through France, till the divided nation was preparing to
plunge into that worst of all wars, in which the hand of brother is
raised against brother. The cry of reform had even passed the Alps, and
was heard under the walls of the Vatican. It had crossed the Pyrenees.
The king of Navarre declared himself a Protestant; and the spirit of the
Reformation had secretly insinuated itself into