Moreover, the intruders were heretics. They were attacked and massacred.
It was partly to keep further Frenchmen off the coast that St. Augustine
was founded.[12]

[12] See _Founding of St. Augustine_, page 70.

An even more important triumph came to Philip in 1571, when his ships,
united with those of Venice and other states, gained a great naval
victory over the Turks. This battle of Lepanto stands among the
turning-points of history. It marks the checking of the Turkish power
which for over two centuries had been rising steadily against Europe.
Lepanto crushed the naval supremacy which the followers of Mahomet had
more than once asserted over the Mediterranean. For another century and
more they remained formidable on land, but at sea they never recovered
their ascendency.[13]

[13] See _Lepanto: Destruction of the Turkish Naval Power_,
page 100.

At Lepanto as a common soldier, fought Miguel de Cervantes, a Spaniard,
who, toward the close of a roving life, settled down to literature in
his native land, and after Philip's death wrote what was in many ways a
satire upon that monarch's rule in Spain. Cervantes' _Don Quixote_
altered the taste of the whole literary world. Its influence spread from
Spain to France and over all Europe. It was the death-song of ancient
chivalry, the first book since the days of Dante to alter markedly the
literary thought of man.[14]

[14] See _Cervantes'_ Don Quixote _Reforms Literature_, page 325.

Of the world farther eastward during this period we need say little. The
fortunes of Germany, luckily for herself, had been separated from those
of Spain at the abdication of Charles V. The Hapsburg possessions in
Austria had been bequeathed to his brother Ferdinand; and both Ferdinand
and his next successor as emperor of Germany abided by the conditions of
that remarkable religious peace of Augsburg which had allowed every
prince to settle the religion of his own domains. Although themselves
Catholic, the Emperors were not strict in enforcing Catholicism even in
their own Austrian domains. They reserved all their effort for the
struggle against the Turks. Disputes between the leaders of the
differing faiths did of course occur, but none reached an active stage
until a later generation.

Sweden rose greatly in importance. Poland declined. Russia was almost
conquered by one or the other, a prey, like France, to civil wars. Yet
some Cossacks in her service, wande