of the sovereign for
war expenses. The wild democratic disturbances of 1525 were with
Luther's entire approbation easily put down, but democratic tendencies
did not therefore cease, and together with them, anabaptist and
socialist views spread from city to city. Their teaching, which
scarcely forms a system, took a different colouring in different
individuals, from the harmless theorist who imagined a community of
good citizens without egotism, full of self-abnegation, as did the
talented Eberlin, to the reckless fanatic who tried to establish a new
Zion at Muenster, with an illusive community of goods and wives. These
excitements lost their power towards the end of the century, but still
continued to ferment among the people, especially in those provinces,
where the Protestant opposition of the estates excited the people
against the old faith of the rulers of the country. Thus it was in
Bohemia, Moravia, and Upper Austria. The more zealously the Hapsburgers
endeavoured, by means of the Jesuits, to restore the old faith, the
more it was kept in check, even in their own country, by the demands of
the opposition in the estates, and the commotions among the people. And
well did they perceive the threatening connection of this opposition to
their house. Two ways only were therefore open to them, either they
must themselves have become Protestants, which they found impossible,
or they must have resolutely destroyed the dangerous teaching and
pretensions which upset the souls of men everywhere, especially in
their own country. The Hapsburger appeared who attempted this.

Meanwhile the spirit of the old Church had been raised, by the great
victories which it had gained in other countries. The Protestant
princes combined against the threatened offensive movement of the Roman
Catholic party, as before at Smalkald, and the Roman Catholic party
answered by the formation of the League; but the object at heart, of
the League was attack, while that of the Protestants was only defence.

This was the political state of Germany before the Thirty years' war; a
most unsatisfactory state. Discontent was general, a mournful tendency,
a disposition to prophecy evil, were the significant signs of the
times. Every deed of violence which was announced to the people in the
flying-sheets, was accompanied by remarks on the bad times. And yet we
know for certain that immorality had not become strikingly greater in
the country. There was wealth in