BATTLE.

N every country the priests tried by persecution to put down the Reformation as soon as it began; and if they did not destroy it so, then a war against it followed. For the kings and great people found out that the Gospel was not on their side as the priests were; and they, of course,

wished to keep it from spreading. And other princes and great folks hoped, by taking the side of the Reformers, to become greater than they were, or to be revenged on their enemies; and in this way it has happened that there have been religious wars in every country in which the Re

H

formation outlived what the priests did against it at the outset. Our Lord truly said, "I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword!”

After the Bohemian Reformation "Hussite Wars," as they are called.

happened the

After Luther's

and Calvin's Reformation in Germany and Switzerland came the "Thirty Years' War." In England and Scotland we had the civil wars between the Parliament and the two Charleses. And in the same manner, in France, when the Reformers increased in numbers, in spite of all the priests could do, and some of the nobles joined them, there was more than one war about religion. I shall now tell you how the Reformation grew so strong, that instead of opposing it by prisons and executions, the followers of the Pope had to send armies out against it. You will easily see how different its course in France was from what I showed you it was in England, and why it was so different; and thence you may learn something of the good I promised that my story should teach you.

Henry the Second was now king. He was married to an Italian lady named Catherine de Medicis ; but he did not love her nor treat her as he ought. One of the ladies of the court had all the honour which belonged to the queen; her name was Diana of Poitiers; she was very beautiful and very clever, but she hated “the religion”—as the Gospel which the Reformers preached was called. Catherine, too, hated the Reformation; and though she could not do much against it whilst her husband was king, when