hesi, Aldobrandini,
Ludovisi, Giustiniani, Chigi, and the Barberini. All these families,
from which popes had sprung, had splendid palaces, villas, pictures,
libraries, and statues; and they contributed to make Rome the centre
of attraction for the elegant and the literary throughout Europe. It
was still the moral and social centre of Christendom. It was a place
to which all strangers resorted, and from which all intrigues sprung.
It was the scene of pleasure, gayety, and grandeur. And the splendid
fabric, which was erected in the "ages of faith," in spite of all the
calamities and ravages of time, remained still beautiful and
attractive. Since the first secession, in the sixteenth century, Rome
has lost none of her adherents, and those, who remained faithful, have
become the more enthusiastic in their idolatry.

* * * * *

REFERENCES.--Ranke's History of the Popes. Father Bouhour's
Life of Ignatius Loyola. A Life of Xavier, by the same
author. Stephens's Essay on Loyola. Charlevoix's History of
Paraguay. Pascal's Provincial Letters. Macaulay's Review of
Ranke's History of the Popes. Bancroft's chapter, in the
History of the United States, on the colonization of Canada.
"Secreta Monita." Histoire des Jesuites. "Spiritual
Exercises." Dr. Williams's Essay. History of Jesuit
Missions. The works on the Jesuits are very numerous; but
those which are most accessible are of a violent partisan
character. Eugene Sue, in his "Wandering Jew," has given
false, but strong, impressions. Infidel writers have
generally been the most bitter, with the exception of
English and Scotch authors, in the seventeenth century. The
great work of Ranke is the most impartial with which the
author is acquainted. Ranke's histories should never be
neglected, of which admirable translations have been made.

CHAPTER X.

THIRTY YEARS WAR.

[Sidenote: Political Troubles after the Death of Luther.]

The contests which arose from the discussion of religious ideas did
not close with the sixteenth century. They were, on the other hand,
continued with still greater acrimony. Protestantism had been
suppressed in France, but not in Holland or Germany. In England, the
struggle was to continue, not between the Catholics and Protestants,
but between different parties among the Protestants themselves. In
Germany, a long and devastating