At first, the emperor was
victorious; but a new league was formed. France then took a more active
part in favour of the confederates, and the contest ended in the peace
of Passau, in 1552, there the two parties, for the first time, treated
as equals, and the free exercise of the Lutheran religion was allowed.
Things remained quiet during the reigns of Ferdinand the First and
Maximilian the Second; but, in consequence of the disputes, which arose
on the succession to the dutchies of Cleves and Juliers, the religious
differences broke out with fresh animosity:--the Protestant princes
formed a confederacy called the _Evangelical Union_, and placed, at its
head, the Elector Palatine; the Catholics formed a confederacy called
the _Catholic League_, and placed, at its head, the Duke of Bavaria. In
the year 1618, they burst into open war; every state in Europe, and even
the Ottoman princes, at one time or other, took a part in it. France was
the soul of the Protestant cause; she assisted it with her armies, and
her subsidies:--it may be truly said, that, if there be a Protestant
state from the Vistula to the Rhine, or a Mahometan, state between the
Danube and the Mediterranean, its existence is owing to the Bourbon
monarchs.
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