rlands.

In 1584 Anjou died, and nobody remained between the king and Henry of
Navarre, the head of the Bourbons. Therefore, if the king died, the
next heir would be the chief of the Protestants, a relapsed heretic,
whom the Pope had excommunicated. It would be the ruin of the
Catholics as a political party, and the renunciation of Catholicism as
a system of law and authority, for a relapsed heretic was a culprit to
whom the Church could show no mercy. To make him king was to defy the
ecclesiastical code, and to abandon the practice of Rome and Spain for
that of Germany under the Peace of Religion. The example of Denmark,
of Sweden, and of England showed that a Protestant king would impose
his religion on the people. They preferred to fight for the principle
that a people should impose its religion on the king. This
consideration was the origin of the League, as a great confederation
distinct from earlier and less important associations. It was
constituted out of three distinct elements: first, Guise and his
partisans, who had carried on the civil wars, and were the Catholic
portion of the aristocracy; then the Parisian democracy, who had acted
with the others against Coligny and the Huguenots, who cherished a
strong municipal spirit, and eventually created a supreme commune,
such as had existed in the fourteenth century, and was seen again in
1792 and in 1871; lastly, Philip II of Spain, who gave a million
crowns.

Gregory XIII bestowed a qualified sanction, which was not enough to
allay the scruples of some men. Beyond the suppression of
Protestantism and the restored ascendency of the Church, on which all
were agreed, there was a design to develop local self-government and
provincial institutions. All the liberties, they said, that had come
down from Clovis, and more if possible. The League was a movement
directed against the crown, even if it surrendered to them. There was
an idea, vague at first, afterwards more distinct, that Guise
descended from Charlemagne, and had a valid claim to the throne; and
this was a rift in his alliance with the King of Spain. For Philip
hoped to secure the crown of France for his own daughter Isabella, who
became the ruler, and the successful ruler, of Belgium. At the time
when the League was formed, in January 1585, Philip had reached the
highest point in his career. He had annexed Portugal and its immense
dominion. William of Orange was dead, and Farnese had already