THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
country into new bloodshed. Then Henry, from political and patriotic motives, in 1593 abjured the Protestant faith in which he had been brought up, saying that " to reign is well worth a mass." At the same time he secured, in 1598, to his former associates, then numbering about 760 congregations throughout the kingdom, a legal existence and the right of the free exercise of religion, by the celebrated Edict of Nantes (see Nantes, Edict of) . But the Reformed Church in France, after flourishing for a time, was overwhelmed with new disasters under the despotism of Richelieu, and finally the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 reduced it to a " church of the desert " (see C amisards; Court, Antoine; Rabaut, Paul). This survived the most cruel persecutions at home, and enriched by thousands of exiles the population of every Protestant country in Europe and America. See France; Huguenots.
4. The Netherlands : Here the movement was inspired in part by Luther's works, but mostly by Reformed and Calvinistic influences from Switzerland and France. Its first martyrs, Esch and Voes, were burned at Antwerp in 1523, and celebrated by Luther in a poem. The despotic arm of Charles V and his son Philip II. resorted to the severest measures for crushing the rising spirit of religious and political liberty. The duke of Alva surpassed the persecuting heathen emperors of Rome in cruelty, and, according to Grotius, destroyed the lives of a hundred thousand Dutch Protestants during the six years of his regency ( 1 567-73) . Finally the seven northern provinces formed a federal republic, first under the leadership of William of Orange, and, after his assassination (1584), under his son Maurice, and after a long and heroic struggle accomplished their severance from the Church of Rome and the Spanish crown. The southern provinces remained Roman Catholic, and subject to Spain. The first Dutch Reformed synod was held at Dort in 1574, and in the next year the University of Leyden was founded. The Reformed Church of Holland adopted the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession (qq.v.), and the canons of the Synod of Dort of 1618-19 (see Dort, Synod of). In the Netherlands the system of Arminianism was constructed by pupils of Beza, and involved the Dutch church in long and bitter controversies (see Aeminius, Jacobus, and Arminianism). Arminianism infiltrated into England in the latter part of the reign of James I. and under Laud, and was adopted by John Wesley. [Laud's anti-Augustinianism was not Arminianism but Semipelagianism of the Roman Catholic type. Wesley's was the latter blended with the old evangelical anti-Augustinianism perpetuated by the Bohemian Brethren and the Unity of the Brethren (qq.v.). a. h. n.]
5. Bohemia: Preparation was made for the Reformation here by the labors and martyrdoms of John Huss and Jerome of Prague (qq.v.). Their followers, the Hussites, would have prevailed in the wars which followed if they had not been broken up by internal dissensions between the Calixtines, the Utraquists, and Taborites. From their remnants arose the Unitas Fratrum or Bohemian Brethren (q.v.). In spite of violent persecution, they
perpetuated themselves in Bohemia and Moravia. When the Reformation broke out, they sent several deputations to Luther; and many of them embraced the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, but the majority passed to the Reformed or Calvinistic communion. During the reign of Maximilian II., there was a fair prospect of the conversion of the whole Bohemian nation; but the Thirty Years' War (q.v.) and the Counter-Reformation crushed Protestantism, and turned Bohemia into a scene of desolation. A Jesuit named Anton Koniasch (1637) boasted that he had burned over 60,000 Bohemian books, mostly Bibles. The Bohemian Brethren who had fled to Moravia became, under Count Zinzendorf 's care, the nucleus of the Moravian Church (see Unity op the Brethren). But even in Bohemia Protestantism could not be utterly annihilated, and began to raise its head when the Emperor Joseph II. issued the Edict of Toleration, Oct. 29, 1781. The revival of Czech patriotism and literature came to its aid. The fifth centenary of Huss was celebrated in Prague, 1869, marked by the publication of Documenta Magistri Johannis Hus, ed. F. Palacky (Prague, 1869). See Austria; Bohemian Brethren; Hungary; Huss, John, Hussites.
6. Hungary: This country was first brought into contact with the Reformation by disciples of Luther and Melanchthon, who had studied at Wittenberg, after 1524. Ferdinand I. granted to some magnates and cities liberty of worship, and Maximilian II. (1564-76) enlarged the scope. Matyas Biro Devay (q.v.), the first parson and leader, was at first a Lutheran, but in his later years adopted the views of the Swiss Reformer. The Synod of Erdod, in 1545, organized the Lutheran, and the Synod of Czenger, in 1557, the Reformed Church. Rudolph II. having suppressed religious liberty, Prince Stephen Bocskag of Transylvania, strengthened by his alliance with the Turks, reconquered by force of arms (1606) full toleration for the Lutherans and Calvinists in Hungary and Transylvania, which under his successors, Bethlen Gabor and George Rakoczy I., was confirmed by the treaties of Nikolsburg (1622) and Linz (1645). In Transylvania, Socinianism also found a refuge, and has maintained itself to this day. See Hungary.
7. Poland: Fugitive Bohemian Brethren, or Hussites, and the writings of the German Reformers, originated the movement in Poland. King Sigismund Augustus (1548-72) favored it, and corresponded with Calvin. The most distinguished Protestant of that country was Johannes a Lasco (q.v.), a Calvinist. A compromise between the Lutheran and Reformed parties was effected by the general synod of Sendomir (Consensus Sendomiriensis), in 1570; but subsequently internal dissensions, the increase of Socinianism, and the efforts of the Jesuits blighted Protestantism in that country. The German provinces now belonging to Russia Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia — opened the door to the Reformation, and adopted the Augsburg Confession. See Poland.
8. Scandinavia: The Reformers of Sweden were two brothers, Olav and Lars Petri (see Swedf.v), disciples of Luther, who, after 1519, preached against