Europe for political as well as spiritual power the Thirty
Years' War was one of the most important conflicts of the
modern age. It was mainly carried on in the German states, but
during its later stages all the great European powers were
involved. The horrors of its battles and sieges have often been
painted.

Among the direct causes of the war--the great general cause
being the standing antagonism between Catholics and
Protestants--was a clause in the Peace of Augsburg (1555) which
remained a source of friction. It provided that any
ecclesiastical prince who became Protestant must surrender the
lands as well as the authority of his office. In many instances
this clause was disregarded by the Protestants, who from the
first felt it to be unjust. Until the accession of Rudolph II
(1576) as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, there was no
imperial intolerance, and Protestantism rapidly spread. But the
harsh dealings of Rudolph with the Protestants provoked
resentment. In 1607 Donauworth, a free Protestant city, was
seized by the Catholic Duke of Bavaria. Next year the German
Protestants formed the defensive Evangelical Union. Meanwhile
Rudolph's policy only reacted in favor of the Protestant
nobles. In 1611 his brother Matthias supplanted him as King of
Bohemia, and in 1612 Rudolph died and Matthias succeeded to the
imperial throne.

The outbreak of the Thirty Years' War followed upon a
revolution in Bohemia, which was precipitated by Rudolph's
attempt to evade the Royal Charter, extorted from him in 1609
by the estates. Its chief feature was a guarantee of freedom of
conscience to Bohemians so long as they adhered to certain
recognized creeds; but it also involved questions of authority
over lands with respect to their use for religious purposes.
The difficulties with the Royal Charter, which had led to
Rudolph's downfall in Bohemia, were left to confront Matthias.

SAMUEL R. GARDINER

Whether it would have been possible in those days for a Catholic king to
have kept a Protestant nation in working order we cannot say. At all
events Matthias did not give the experiment a fair trial. He did not,
indeed, attack the Royal Charter directly on the lands of the
aristocracy. But he did his best to undermine it on his own. The
Protestants of Braunau, on the lands of