ere they would, and to enter upon the married state. In 1530 the mass was
generally abolished: and the protestant religion was constantly exercised
in the cathedral.

The spirit both of Geyler and of Luther might have rejoiced to find, in
1550, the chapter of St. Thomas resolutely avowing its determination to
perform the protestant--and nothing but the protestant--religion within its
own extensive establishment. The flame of the new religion seemed now to
have reached all quarters, and warmed all hearts. But a temporary check to
its progress was given by the cautious policy of Charles V. That wary and
heartless monarch (who had even less religion than he had of the ordinary
feelings of humanity) interfered with the weight of his power, and the
denunciations of his vengeance. Yet he found it necessary neither wholly to
suppress, nor wholly to check, the progress of the protestant religion:
while, on the other hand, the Strasbourgeois dreaded too much the effects
of his power to dispute his will by any compact or alliance of opposition.
In 1550, therefore, the matter stood thus. The cathedral, and the
collegiate and parish churches of St. Peter the Elder and St. Peter the
Younger, as well as the Oratory of all Saints, adopted the _catholic_ form
of worship. The other parish churches adopted that of the _protestant_. Yet
in 1559 there happened such a serious affray in the cathedral church
itself--between the Catholics and Protestants--as taught the former the
obvious necessity of conceding as much as possible to the latter. It
followed, that, towards the end of the same century, there were, in the
cathedral chapter, _seventeen protestant_, and _eight catholic_ canons.
Among the _latter_, however, was the celebrated Cardinal de Lorraine:--one
of the most powerful, the most furious, and the most implacable of the
enemies of Protestantism. The part he took in the massacre of St.
Bartholomew's day, consigns his name to everlasting ignominy and
detestation.

In 1610 a league was formed for the adjustment of the differences between
the Catholics and Protestants: but the unfortunate thirty years war
breaking out in 1618, and desolating nearly the whole of Germany, prevented
the permanent consolidation of the interests of either party. All this time
Strasbourg was under the power, as it even now speaks the language, and
partakes of the customs and manners, of GERMANY: but its very situation
rendered it the prey of both the contend