Hudson's Straits only to see regions visited by Cabot seventy years before.

[Sir Francis Drake, an English navigator, who had acquired great notoriety and immense treasures, as a freebooter in the Spanish harbours on the Pacific, sailed in 1579 northward along the coast of California as far as the 43d degree of latitude, or about one degree north of the southern boundary of the Oregon territory. This whole coast however had been previously explored by an expedition of Spaniards in 1542, who traced the continent as far as the 44th degree of latitude, or within about two and a half degrees of the mouth of the Columbia river.

[In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a member of the English parliament, and step-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, under a liberal charter from queen Elizabeth, made a vigorous but unsuccessful attempt to establish a colony on the coast of the United States. Gilbert himself and a large part of the colonists perished on the voyage.

[Nothing daunted by the melancholy fate of his step-brother, Raleigh in 1584 obtained a new patent from Elizabeth, and sent out another expedition, consisting of two ships well laden with men and provisions. The colonists visited the islands in Ocracock inlet, explored Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, and trafficked with the natives; but wanting the courage to make a settlement, they returned to England, where they gave a glowing account of the regions, which in honour of the Virgin Queen were named Virginia.

[Raleigh, however, pursued his plan for colonizing the New World, and in 1585 set on foot a second expedition, composed of seven vessels, and carrying out 108 colonists. Among these were Lane, Grenville, Cavendish and Hariot, all men of distinction. Lane, the governor of the colony, proved to be not equal to his station. After remaining on the island of Roanoke little more than a year, and making a few inconsiderable excursions into the interior, he returned with his whole colony to England in the fleet of Sir Francis Drake, which had stopped to visit the colonists on a homeward voyage from the West Indies.

[Raleigh was not dismayed by ill success. In 1587 he sent out at his own expense a third company of emigrants, with their wives and children, 108 in all. The poor colonists of Roanoke were however forgotten in the panic of the Invincible Armada; and when, after its signal discomfiture, vessels were sent to inquire after and supply their wants, no traces of them could be found. Whether they perished of hunger, or were massacred by the savages, is a matter of conjecture.

[Thus ended for the present all attempts to settle this country. North America, at the end of the sixteenth century, had many English graves but no English towns. Raleigh himself, the illustrious author of colo nization in the United States, after expending more than fifty thousand pounds upon his favourite project, lived to see it apparently entirely abandoned; and he was himself reduced to beggary by the English government, and finally beheaded by order of James I.]

COLONIAL SYSTEM.-The conquered kingdoms of America became colonies of Spain, under a constitution framed by Charles V., 1542. All the external apparatus of Christianity was carried across the Atlantic; there were arch. bishops, bishops, vicars, and monks, dependent entirely on the king; nor was the Inquisition forgotten, 1570. The political affairs were managed by the Council of the Indies in Spain, and in America by two viceroys, aided by boards and

municipalities. By this imitation of European forms, the national spirit of the natives was extinguished. The trade was rendered a complete monopoly. Vera Cruz, Portobello, and Carthagena, in America; Seville, and afterwards Cadiz, in Europe, were the only ports which were allowed to be used by colonial ships. Little advantage was derived from these extensive acquisitions beyond the supply of precious metals, the mining operation connected with which gave rise to the African slave-trade, the aboriginal population being found unable to undergo the exhausting labour demanded by their taskmasters. During the sixteenth century, the Portuguese dominion, strengthened by the genius of its governors, Almeida and Albuquerque, extended in the East from the African coast to the peninsula of Malacca and the Spice Islands. Everywhere they established factories or marts; but although their commerce was not restricted to a company, as in England and Holland, it could not be carried on without permission of the government. A connexion was formed with China, 1517; and Xavier, the apostle of the Indians, was the means of establishing a regular communication with Japan. In Brazil also, the Portuguese possessions were widely extended; and the sugar-cane, transplanted from Madeira, was largely cultivated. A dispute between this nation and Spain about the possession of the Moluccas, was the cause of the voyage of Magellan, whose fleet first circumnavigated the globe, 1520.

The ruin of the Portuguese dominion in the East was accelerated by the decline of morality among the higher class of colonists, and more especially by their avarice. The tyranny of the Inquisition at Goa has never been equalled. Spain, between 1560 and 1620, considerably augmented her commerce and maritime power by acquiring the East Indian colonies of Portugal and the possession of the Philippines. England and Holland entered into rivalry with her; and the latter, while combating for the liberty of Europe, became mistress of the commerce of the world. The first charter of the Dutch East India Company was granted in 1602, making it a political as well as a mercantile body, governed by a board of directors at home and a governor-general in India. Establishments were made at Amboyna, Ternate, and other places, 1607; an intercourse was opened with Japan, 1611; and Batavia was founded in 1619.

England in the reign of Elizabeth_extended_her views to all parts of the world. After having penetrated into Persia and even to India by the Caspian Sea, she founded her great agricultural colonies in North America. The prin cipal branches of foreign commerce were conferred on chartered companies; that of the East Indies was organized in 1600, but its traffic was long very inconsiderable.*

THE CHURCH.

THE REFORMATION.-Many circumstances, widely separated in respect of time, seem to have contributed to the great ecclesiastical revolution which distinguished this century. The introduction of image worship had been strenuously resisted; and many of the principles of Protestantism can be recognised so far back as the end of the eleventh century. The Waldenses or Vaudois had ever maintained a strong opposition to the grosser corruptions of Rome; but the isolated position which long ensured them an immunity from persecution was ill suited for the birthplace of wide religious changes. In 990, Gerbert declared the Pope to be antichrist; and Berenger of Tours, in the next age, attacked the great doctrine of transubstantiation. In the Greek church, the liturgy was read in the vernacular tongue of each country which received its tenets, and the communion dispensed to the laity in both kinds. Wickliffe, in 1360, had preached against the corruptions of Rome; and his opinions, spreading over the Continent, were eagerly embraced by Huss and Jerome of Prague. Interior causes of decay were also undermining the colossal fabric of popery. The tiara had been contested by two or three pontiffs at a time; and the attachment of the secular clergy to the court of Rome was weakened by its partiality for the mendicant orders, its usurpation of the rights of ecclesias

*For the substance of this and the subsequent sketches of colonial history, the reader is referred to Heeren's work on that subject.

tical patronage, and its oppressive pecuniary exactions. The temporalities of the papacy brought forward base and unworthy men, eager to gratify an intriguing ambition; and in the latter part of the fifteenth century, the triple crown was dishonoured by the extreme profligacy of the popes, especially of the notorious Alexander VI. The necessity of a reformation, in discipline at least, was generally felt even by those best disposed to the church of Rome; while the spirit of inquiry awakened by the invention of printing was ominous of more important doctrinal changes.

LUTHER. The immediate cause of the Reformation was the gross abuse of indulgences. Mitigations of the penalties of the church had been introduced as early as the third century, but they were not employed as an engine of power until the time of the Crusades. The indulgences then granted to the opposers of the infidels were afterwards extended to those who aided in the suppression of heresy: they were also transformed into remissions of the pains of purgatory. Leo X., who had been elected in 1513, discovered that his finances were inadequate to his great expenditure, and to complete the magnificent church of St. Peter. Accordingly, in 1517, a sale of indulgences was proclaimed, as the most effec tual means of replenishing his exhausted treasury, their disposal being intrusted to the monks of the order of St. Dominic. By these, absolution was given for future sins, as well as for the past; and they were converted into licenses for violating the most sacred moral obligations. This daring infringement of the law of God roused the indignation of Luther, and he resolutely determined to oppose it. As confessor, he had enjoined penance for some atrocious crimes, and refused to accord absolution until his directions were complied with, although the party had pleaded a remission in the form of a plenary indulgence. His firmness was threatened with the terrors of the Inquisition and the stake; but he determined to appeal to the reason of his countrymen, and, on the 31st October 1517, he began the Reformation by submitting ninety-five propositions to be discussed before the university of Wittenberg, in which he was professor of divinity. Adopting the opinions of St. Augustine on predestination and grace, and denying the efficacy of indulgences and the intercession of the saints, he proceeded to contest the doctrines of auricular confession, purgatory, celibacy of the priesthood, transubstantiation, and, finally, the supreme authority of the pope. Erasmus, who ridiculed the monastic orders, and even the court of Rome itself, by his writings materially assisted the efforts of Luther. His translation of the New Testament appeared in 1516; but he was too timid to enter into the views of his great contemporary, hoping that the advancing reform in literature would gradually effect a corresponding change in religion.

Leo X. was little qualified to combat the energy of Luther; and he did not proceed to condemn the new tenets until the year 1520, yielding at length to the importunity of his ministers. Charles V., having need of the Pope's services, declared against the reformer, who, with his followers, was proscribed by the edict of Worms, 1521. He was not, however, dismayed: in the castle of Wartenburg, to which he had been conveyed, he continued to write in defence of his principles; and, in 1522, executed a German translation of the New Testament. The new doctrines spread rapidly through all parts of the empire, particularly Hesse and Saxony. A diet was held at Spires in 1529, where, as the Lutherans protested against the decree that would have crushed the new opinions, they acquired their name of PROTESTANTS. The diet of Augs« *

burg, in 1530, which elicited a confession of their faith, proved that all hope of reconciling the two parties was futile. In 1532, the emperor for the first time agreed to conclude a religious peace at Nuremberg; but, not long after, his opponents were so much reduced, as to submit to accept a re-establishment of nearly all the abuses they had renounced, 1548. This was the crisis of the German reformation. A peculiar combination of circumstances induced Maurice of Saxony to declare for the Protestant cause; and, in 1555, Charles was compelled to grant, in the diet of Augsburg, a complete toleration of the Lutheran doctrines. The Helvetic reformation, commenced by Zuingle in 1518, was completed by Calvin in 1541. A separation from those who adopted the articles of Augsburg grew out of a difference of opinion respecting the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The tenets of the reformers began to make way in France in 1519. They were condemned by the Sorbonne in 1521, but still found advocates in every class of society, particularly among the members of the learned professions. The views of Calvin, as proclaimed by his celebrated Institutes, 1536, were generally adopted. The progress of ecclesiastical reform in England and Scotland has been described elsewhere. In Poland, the freedom of the government allowed the adversaries of the Trinitarian doctrine to form a church, which has received its name from Socinus. In Spain and Italy the Reformation was crushed with the most unrelenting severity.

THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.-The Protestants, on their condemnation by the bull of Pope Leo X., had appealed to a general council, which was prevented from assembling by the troubled state of Europe. At length Paul III. convoked the long-wished-for assembly, which met at Trent in 1545, and did not close till 1563, in the pontificate of Pius IV. As might have been anticipated, the decisions of this convocation were far from allaying the religious differences. Doctrines depending on the credit of tradition alone were there sanctioned and defined; and ceremonies, venerable only from their antiquity, were pronounced essential parts of worship. Among the articles decreed by this council to be implicitly believed, are:-The celibacy of the clergy; the equal authority of Scripture and tradition, including the apocryphal and canonical books; confession and absolution; communion in one kind only; the continuance of miracles; the worship of images and relics; the intercession of saints; the adoration and immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary; purgatory, or the intermediate state of punishment between death and judgment, from which the souls of men can be delivered by the prayers, alms, or penance of the faithful; and transubstantiation, or a belief that the consecrated wafer (or host) is absolutely changed, in the Lord's Supper, into the real and substantial body and blood of Christ.

THE JESUITS. The rapid dissemination of Protestantism throughout Europe gave rise to a great increase of zeal among the adherents of the ancient worship. Several monastic orders were established at this period, solely to combat the spirit of innovation; and of these the most celebrated arose in Spain. By the chivalrous enthusiasm of Ignatius Loyola, a Biscayan gentleman, the society of Jesuits was founded in 1534, and sanctioned by Rome in 1540. At his death in 1556, the order had diffused itself over most of the Catholic countries of Western

Europe, and its missionaries were scattered throughout India, Ethiopia, and Brazil. The object of this association was the control of public opinion, by which power they hoped to oppose the new doctrines and the freedom of the intellect, supporting at the same time the highest assumptions of the papacy. Their principles were diffused by means of missions, confessionals, and the instruction of youth in seminaries under the control of the order. The good done by them in the propaga tion of religion, and in various branches of science, is not to be depreciated; but the political historian has not much to say in their favour. The order was suppressed in 1773 by a papal bull, and revived by another in 1814.

LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES.

The invention of printing, in the preceding century was followed almost as a consequence by the Protestant Reformation in the present; and these two great events communicated an incalculable impulse to the cause of literature and science. The study of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue by the mass of the people, and by scholars in the original Hebrew and Greek, was the initiatory step to various other departments of knowledge, and led to investigations in history, laws, geography, and antiquities, not less than in theology. Amid the intellectual excitement thus occasioned, principles were evolved destined to change the face of society, to lead science forward to the great discoveries of modern times, and to impart to literature a degree of vigour and originality rivalling the models of classic genius, as well as an influence on the progress of society hitherto unexampled.

ENGLAND. During the first half of the sixteenth century, England could only boast of two distinguished poets,-Thomas Wyatt (d. 1541),* who composed sonnets in the style of Petrarch; and the unfortunate Surrey, 1547, the first English writer who made use of blank verse. Under Elizabeth flourished that accomplished soldier and patron of letters, Sir Philip Sydney, 1586, the author of the Arcadia; Raleigh, 1618, at once historian and statesman, poet and navigator; Dorset, whose political cares did not render him averse to the Muses, and who, in 1561, caused Gordubuc to be played, the first piece in verse that had been represented in London; Daniel, 1619, an historian and the poet of the Wars of the Roses; Southwell, 1595, whose verses are quoted for their elegance and noble sentiment; Davies, 1626, whose poem on the Immortality of the Soul was the type of the Essay on Man; Drayton, 1631, whose elegiac, historical, and religious essays have been a great storehouse for succeeding writers; Spenser, 1599, whose Faëry Queen has placed him in the foremost rank of English literature; and a greater genius still, the " honeytongued" Shakspeare, 1616; with Gascoigne and Marlow, 1577 and 1593, his predecessors; Beaumont and Fletcher, 1616 and 1625, Massinger, 1640, and Ben Jonson, 1637, his contemporaries, rivals, and sometimes his equals. The Ecclesiastical Polity of Hooker, 1600, has been justly famed; and the cele brated Institutes of Coke, 1634, are still the standard authority on English law. The first document in the form of a newspaper is believed to have been published by Elizabeth's order, 23d July 1588.

FRANCE.-The age of Francis I. is the first of the three literary eras of his country. The Italian expeditions had increased his taste for the fine arts, and he invited to his court Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, and Rosso. Lascaris, a learned Greek, was employed to form the king's library at Fontainebleau, and to introduce professors of his language into the university of Paris. At the solicitation of the learned Budæus, 1540, the king established the College of France for the study of the sciences and of those recently cultivated languages which had no professor in the university. Literature was also

*The year of decease will be always given, as serving to mark more exactly the period at which the individual may be supposed to have flourished.