stendom; the other was borne
onward on the crest of a wave not less overwhelming, the state that
admits no division of power. Therefore, when the spirit of foreign
Protestantism caught the English people they moved on lines distinct
from those fixed by the Tudors; and the reply of the seventeenth
century to the sixteenth was not a development, but a reaction.
Whereas Henry could exclude, or impose, or change religion at will
with various aid from the gibbet, the block, or the stake, there were
some among the Puritans who enforced, though they did not discover,
the contrary principle, that a man's conscience is his castle, with
kings and parliaments at a respectful distance.

VII

PHILIP II, MARY STUART, AND ELIZABETH

THE MONARCHY of Philip II was held by no binding idea, but religious
unity. The dynasty was new, and the king was not personally imposing or
attractive. The people of Palermo, Milan, Antwerp, had no motive to
make sacrifices, except the fact that their king was the one upholder
of religion in Europe. Catholics in every country were his natural
allies.

Charles V, who accepted inevitable divisions in Germany, had
established the Inquisition in the Netherlands. Under Philip that
policy was consistent, and promised, in the flood of the
Counter-Reformation, to be a source of power. He would not fall behind
his father. He drove the Netherlands into rebellion; but his
intention was intelligible. In the sixteenth century the pride of
state does as much for oppression and intolerance as religious
passion. If he succeeded in repressing heresy, he would have a very
real political advantage over other powers. In October 1565 he wrote:
"As to the Inquisition, my will is that it be enforced by the
Inquisitors as of old, and as is required by all law, human and
divine. This lies very near my heart, and I require you to carry out
my orders. Let all prisoners be put to death, and suffer them no
longer to escape through the neglect, weakness, and bad faith of the
judges. If any are too timid to execute the edicts, I will replace
them by men who have more heart and zeal."

By this scheme of violence Philip II turned the Reformation into
revolution. He saw that generally nothing was more striking than the
ease with which people changed religious profession; and he believed
that what was done with success in Germany and Austria and England,
could be done in the seven provinces of the Burgundian crown.