The Reformation in Germany had been adjourned for half a century by the Augsburg religious peace, just concluded.

It was held in suspense in France through the Macchiavellian policy which Catharine de Medici had just adopted, and was for several years to prosecute, of balancing one party against the other, so as to neutralize all power but her own.

The great contest was accordingly transferred to the Netherlands, to be fought out for the rest of the century, while the whole of Christendom were to look anxiously for the result.

From the East and from the West the clouds rolled away, leaving a comparatively bright and peaceful atmosphere, only that they might concentrate themselves with portentous blackness over the devoted soil of the Netherlands.

In Germany, the princes, not the people, had conquered Rome, and to the princes, not the people, were secured the benefits of the victory--the spoils of churches, and the right to worship according to conscience.