tion with the papal and Venetian galleys, had gained at Lepanto
over the Turks, had deservedly exalted the fame of the Spanish marine
throughout Christendom; and when Philip had reigned thirty-five years,
the vigor of his empire seemed unbroken, and the glory of the Spanish
arms had increased, and was increasing throughout the world.

One nation only had been his active, his persevering, and his successful
foe. England had encouraged his revolted subjects in Flanders against
him, and given them the aid, in men and money, without which they must
soon have been humbled in the dust. English ships had plundered his
colonies; had defied his supremacy in the New World as well as the Old;
they had inflicted ignominious defeats on his squadrons; they had
captured his cities and burned his arsenals on the very coasts of Spain.
The English had made Philip himself the object of personal insult. He
was held up to ridicule in their stage plays and masks, and these scoffs
at the man had--as is not unusual in such cases--excited the anger of
the absolute King even more vehemently than the injuries inflicted on
his power. Personal as well as political revenge urged him to attack
England. Were she once subdued, the Dutch must submit; France could not
cope with him; the empire would not oppose him; and universal dominion
seemed sure to be the result of the conquest of that malignant island.

There was yet another and a stronger feeling which armed King Philip
against England. He was one of the sincerest and one of the sternest
bigots of his age. He looked on himself, and was looked on by others, as
the appointed champion to extirpate heresy and reestablish the papal
power throughout Europe.

A powerful reaction against Protestantism had taken place since the
commencement of the second half of the sixteenth century, and he looked
on himself as destined to complete it. The Reformed doctrines had been
thoroughly rooted out from Italy and Spain. Belgium, which had
previously been half Protestant, had been reconquered both in allegiance
and creed by Philip, and had become one of the most Catholic countries
in the world. Half Germany had been won back to the old faith. In Savoy,
in Switzerland, and many other countries the progress of the
Counter-reformation had been rapid and decisive. The Catholic league
seemed victorious in France. The papal court itself had shaken off the
supineness of recent centuries, and, at the head of the Jesuits and