THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
of France, daughter of Catharine de Medici, his main object being to bring his influence in favor of Roman Catholicism more powerfully to bear upon France for the destruction of the Huguenots and to prevent French interference with his measures against Evangelical Christianity in the Netherlands. As a preparation for the crusade against Protestantism, which he foresaw to be an undertaking of vast proportions, he began to gather rapidly into the treasury the wealth of his domain, ignoring completely the customary and legal rights of the people. The revolt of the Netherlands and his unsuccessful efforts to suppress it depleted the well-filled treasury and led to extortionate and destructive taxation in Spain, including ecclesiastical foundations. Portugal became his through failure of the direct male line of succession and through a successful military invasion (1580). The pope having bestowed England upon Philip, he undertook to take possession (1588) by sending the armada, a fleet of 131 vessels with 19,000 marines and 8,000 sailors, against a far inferior English fleet. Favoring winds and superior seamanship gave the victory to the English, and Spain was well-nigh swept off the sea. Philip promoted and rejoiced in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day in France (1572) and, when Henry of Navarre became heir apparent and was contending for the crown, Philip joined forces with the Guises. In the war that followed Philip was worsted and was obliged to sign the treaty of Vervins (May, 1598). By forty years of aggressive warfare, for the destruction of the political enemies of Spain and of the enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, he lost a large part of his hereditary possessions, impoverished and degraded what remained, and at his death (1598) left Spain a secondary power and its people far behind the age in free institutions and in civilization. The inquisition of heresy was with him a favorite occupation, and it was carried on with the utmost cruelty wherever his authority prevailed.
While he regarded Roman Catholicism as the only valid form of Christianity and was convinced that the toleration of any other form of religion
tended toward anarchy or at least
Attitude toward destruction of monarchy, he
toward was strenuous in resisting anything in
the Papacy, papal or conciliar action that could be
construed as infringement upon the prerogatives of the Spanish crown. His control of the Inquisition, his right to nominate bishops not only for Spain but also for the Netherlands, the regium exequatur (involving the right of the king to pass upon all papal bulls and briefs before their promulgation in his domains; see Placet), the right of the king to administer and control the affairs of the Hospitalers and other endowed ecclesiastical institutions, he persistently maintained. He exercised a controlling influence over the Council of Trent (1556 onward) and his representatives were keen to detect and mighty to defeat any ordinance that trenched upon the rights of the Spanish crown. The conciliar provision for episcopal visitation of the chapters of the monastic orders he resolutely and effectively opposed, as well as the council's proposed arrangement for provincial and
diocesan synods. He greatly promoted the progress of the monastic orders, especially the Dominicans, Franciscans, the order founded by St. Peter Nolasco (see Nolasco), and Jesuits, and encouraged the multiplication of their establishments in Spain and the colonies. He took the keenest interest in papal elections and virtually insisted upon his right to nominate to the papal office or at least to defeat all candidates whom he disapproved. He promoted the Jesuit school at Douai for the education of Roman Catholic missionaries for England.
.Apart from his single-minded devotion to the maintenance and extension of the authority of the Spanish crown and the universal prevalence of the Roman Catholic religion, Philip had few of the qualities that mark a great ruler or statesman. He was egoistic, unsympathetic, cruel (the loss of tens of thousands of troops seems to have affected him only as a diminution of the resources available for the accomplishment of his purposes, and he frequently was present in person at the burning of heretics), taciturn, morose, distrustful, and reserved.
A. H. Newman.
Bibliography: A rich list of literature is furnished in the British Museum Catalogue. For English readers the best works directly on the subject are: W. H. Prescott, Hist, of the Reign of Philip II., many editions, e.g., in his Complete Works, Boston, 1905 (a classic); M. A. S. Hume, Philip II. of Spain, London, 1897; idem, Spain, its Greatness and Decay, ib. 1898; idem, Two English Queens and Philip, ib. 1908. Further accounts of the life and reign of Philip are: C. Campana, 2 parts, Venice, 1605-09; G. Leti, 2 parts, Coligni, 1679; Robert Watson, 2 vols., London, 1808; A. Dumesnil, Hist, de Philippe II., Paris, 1822; E. San Miguel y Valledor, 4 vols., Madrid, 1844- 1847; F. A. M. Mignet, Antonio Perez and Philip II., London, 1846; C. Gayarre\ New York, 1866; R. Baumstark, Freiburg, 1875; V. Gomez, Madrid, 1879; H. Forneron, 4 vols., Paris, 1881-82; W. W. Norman, New York, 1898. Consult also more general works, such as: Cambridge Modern History, vol. iii., London and New York, 1905; S. A. Durham, Hist, of Spain and Portugal, 5 vols., London, 1832 (the best general history in English); M. W. Freer, Elizabeth de Valois, 2 vols., London, 1857; F. W. Schirrmacher, Geschichte von Spanien, 6 vols., Gotha, 1893; H. Watts, Spain, New York, 1893; C. A. Wilkens, Spanish Protestants in the 16th Century, New York, 1897; J. L. Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic, ed. Bell, London, 1904; H. C. Lea, Hist, of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols., New York, 1906-07; Robinson, European History, ii. 168 sqq. Illustrative original documents are cited in Reich, Documents, pp. 593 sqq., and in Gee and Hardy, Documents, pp. 384 sqq.
PHILIP IV. (LE BEL, "THE FAIR"): King of France (1285-1314), son of Philip III.; b. at Fontainebleau (37 m. s.s.e. of Paris) 1268; d. Nov. 29, 1314. A contemporary Flemish monkish chronicler, having in mind his persistent and unscrupulous efforts to subjugate Flanders, speaks of him as " a certain king of France eaten up by the
fever of avarice and cupidity." Guizot, quoting with approval this medieval characterization, adda:
" And that was not the only fever inherent in Philip IV.
. ; he was a prey also to that of ambition and, above all, to that of power. When he mounted the throne, at seventeen years of age, he was handsome, as his nickname tells us, cold, taciturn, harsh, and brave at need, but without fire or dash, able in the formation of his designs and obstinate in prosecuting them by craft or violence, bribery or cruelty, with wit to choose and support his servants, passionately vindictive against his enemies, and faithless and unsympathetic toward his subjects, but from time to time taking care to coaciliate them either by calling them to hi»