Part 55 (2/2)
The effects upon the fine arts, upon science, learning, and morals were even more lamentable. Painting, sculpture, and architecture were driven out of the land. The cities which had been the home of all these arts lay in ruins. Education was entirely neglected. For the lifetime of a generation, men had been engaged in the business of war, and had allowed their children to grow up in absolute ignorance. Moral law was forgotten.
Vice, nourished by the licentious atmosphere of the camp, reigned supreme.
”In character, in intelligence, and in morality, the German people were set back two hundred years.”
To all these evils were added those of political disunion and weakness.
The t.i.tle of emperor still continued to be borne by a member of the House of Austria, but it was only an empty name. By the Peace of Westphalia, the Germanic body lost even that little cohesion which had begun to manifest itself between its different parts, and became simply a loose a.s.semblage of virtually independent states, of which there were now over two hundred.
Thus weakened, Germany lost her independence as a nation, while the subjects of the numerous petty states became the slaves of their ambitious and tyrannical rulers. Worse than all, the overwhelming calamities that for the lifetime of a generation had been poured out upon the unfortunate land, had extinguished the last spark of German patriotism. Every sentiment of pride and hope in race and country seemed to have become extinct.
CONCLUSION.--The treaty of Westphalia is a prominent landmark in universal history. It stands at the dividing line of two great epochs. It marks the end of the Reformation Era and the beginning of that of the Political Revolution. Henceforth men will fight for const.i.tutions, not creeds. We shall not often see one nation attacking another, or one party in a nation a.s.saulting another party, on account of a difference in religious opinion.
[Footnote: The Puritan Revolution in England may look like a religious war, but we shall learn that it was primarily a political contest,--a struggle against despotism in the state.]
But in setting the Peace of Westphalia to mark the end of the religious wars occasioned by the Reformation, we do not mean to convey the idea that men had come to embrace the beneficent doctrine of religious toleration.
As a matter of fact, no real toleration had yet been reached--nothing save the semblance of toleration. The long conflict of a century and more, and the vicissitudes of fortune, which to-day gave one party the power of the persecutor and to-morrow made the same sect the victims of persecution, had simply forced all to the practical conclusion that they must tolerate one another,--that one sect must not attempt to put another down by force.
But it required the broadening and liberalizing lessons of another full century to bring men to see that the thing they _must_ do is the very thing they _ought_ to do,--to make men tolerant not only in outward conduct, but in spirit.
With this single word of caution, we now pa.s.s to the study of the Era of the Political Revolution, the period marked by the struggle between despotic and liberal principles of government. And first, we shall give a sketch of absolute monarchy as it exhibited itself in France under the autocrat Louis XIV.
SECOND PERIOD.--THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
(FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA IN 1648 TO THE PRESENT TIME.)
CHAPTER LIV.
THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE UNDER THE ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV.
(1643-1715.)
THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS.--Louis XIV. stands as the representative of absolute monarchy. This indeed was no new thing in the world, but Louis was such an ideal autocrat that somehow he made autocratic government strangely attractive. Other kings imitated him, and it became the prevailing theory of government that kings have a ”divine right” to rule, and that the people should have no part at all in government.
According to this theory, the nation is a great family with the king as its divinely appointed head. The duty of the king is to govern like a father; the duty of the people is to obey their king even as children obey their parents. If the king does wrong, is harsh, cruel, unjust, this is simply the misfortune of his people: under no circ.u.mstances is it right for them to rebel against his authority, any more than for children to rise against their father. The king is responsible to G.o.d alone, and to G.o.d the people, quietly submissive, must leave the avenging of all their wrongs.
Before the close of the period upon which we here enter, we shall see how this theory of the divine right of kings worked out in practice,--how dear it cost both kings and people, and how the people by the strong logic of revolution demonstrated that they are not children but mature men, and have a divine and inalienable right to govern themselves.
THE BASIS OF LOUIS XIV.'s POWER.--The basis of the absolute power of Louis XIV. was laid by Cardinal Richelieu during the reign of Louis XIII. (see p. 580). Besides crus.h.i.+ng the political power of the Huguenots, and thereby vastly augmenting the security and strength of the royal authority, the Cardinal succeeded, by various means,--by annulling their privileges, by banishment, confiscations, and executions,--in almost extinguis.h.i.+ng the expiring independence of the old feudal aristocracy, and in forcing the once haughty and refractory n.o.bles to yield humble obedience to the crown.
In 1643, barely six months after the death of his great minister, Louis XIII. died, leaving the vast power which the Cardinal had done so much to consolidate, as an inheritance to his little son, a child of five years.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN.--During the minority of Louis the government was in the hands of his mother, Anne of Austria, as regent. She chose as her prime minister an Italian ecclesiastic, Cardinal Mazarin, who, in his administration of affairs, followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Richelieu, carrying out with great ability the comprehensive policy of that minister. France was encouraged to maintain her part--and a very glorious part it was, as war goes--in the Thirty Years' War, until Austria was completely exhausted, and all Germany indeed almost ruined.
Even after the Peace of Westphalia, which simply concluded the war in Germany, France carried on the war with Spain for ten years longer, until 1659, when the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which gave the French the two provinces of Artois and Roussillon, a.s.serted the triumph of France over Spain. Richelieu's plan had at last, though at terrible cost to France [Footnote: The heavy taxes laid to meet the expenses of the wars created great discontent, which during the struggle with Spain led to a series of conspiracies or revolts against the government, known as the _Wars of the Fronde_ (1648-1652). ”Notwithstanding its peculiar character of levity and burlesque, the Fronde must be regarded as a memorable struggle of the aristocracy, supported by the judicial and munic.i.p.al bodies, to control the despotism of the crown.... It failed;... nor was any farther effort made to resuscitate the dormant liberties of the nation until the dawning of the great Revolution.”] and all Europe, been crowned with success. The House of Austria in both its branches had been humiliated and crippled, and the House of Bourbon was ready to a.s.sume the lead in European affairs.
LOUIS XIV. a.s.sUMES THE GOVERNMENT.--Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661. Upon this event, Louis, who was now twenty-three years of age, became his own prime minister, and for more than half a century thereafter ruled France as an absolute and irresponsible monarch. He regarded France as his private estate, and seemed to be fully convinced that he had a divine commission to govern the French people. It is said that he declared, _L'etat, c'est moi_, ”I am the State,” meaning that he alone was the rightful legislator, judge, and executive of the French nation. The States-General was not once convened during his long reign. Richelieu made Louis XIII. ”the first man in Europe, but the second in his own kingdom.”
Louis XIV. was the first man at home as well as abroad. He had able men about him; but they served instead of ruling him.
COLBERT.--Mazarin when dying said to Louis, ”Sire, I owe everything to you; but I pay my debt to your majesty by giving you Colbert.” During the first ten or twelve years of Louis's personal reign, this extraordinary man inspired and directed everything; but he carefully avoided the appearance of doing so. His maxim seemed to be, Mine the labor, thine the praise. He did for the domestic affairs of France what Richelieu had done for the foreign. So long as Louis followed the policy of Colbert, he gave France a truly glorious reign; but unfortunately he soon turned aside from the great minister's policy of peace, to seek glory for himself and greatness for France through new and unjust encroachments upon neighboring nations.
<script>