EDWARD VI.; ELIZABETH of England ; GARDINER ; HENRY VIII.; MARY I. of England ; and POLE, REGINALD, in BIOG. Dry. For the Reformation in Scotland, see KNox and MARY STUART, in 1310a. Drv.
In France, as early as 1530, the doctrines of the Reformation had found their way from Germany and Switzerland. Some of those doctrines had lingered in the south for ages before, especially in the mountains of Dauphin6 bordering on the Valdenses. Pierre Robert d'Olivet, Michel Cop, rector of the University of Paris, Beza, and others, adopted and spread them ; and Margaret, sister of Francis I., and Ren6e, daughter of Louis XII., gave them their countenance. But Francis I., who through policy secretly encouraged the Protestant states of Germany against the emperor, persecuted his own subjects who had embraced the new doctrines. The stake and the faggot were employed at the same time in France and in England, by Francis and Henry VIII., against the Reformers. In 1535, Francis, attended by his family, the clergy, the magistrates, and other officers of state, was present at the burning by a slow fire of six citizens of Paris, who had been condemned by the parliament as heretics. The execution lasted two hours. This was the forerunner of many scenes of a similar character which disgraced France for more than half a century. The persecutions, the civil and religious wars, the truces and other vicissi tudes of the French Calvinists, during the reigns of Francis I., Henri II., Francis II., Charles IX., and Henri III., are part of the history of France. De Thou, in his ` Histories sui Temp oris,' Beza, History of the Reformed Churches of France,' and the `316moires et Correspondence de Duplessia Mornay pour servir Is 17fistoire de In Refor mation et des Guerres civilca et religieuses en France depuia l'an 1571 jusqu'en 1623; Paris, 1824-34, are the best contemporary authorities for that period. At last, Henri VI., by his ' Edit de Nantes,' 1598, acknowledged the Reformed communion as the lawful creed of a part of the French population.
The doctrines of the Reformation had made many converts in the Netherlands in Luther's lifetime, and a fresh influx of Calvinists from France and Switzerland increased the number of dissidents from the Roman Church. The wild outbreak of the Anabaptists at Leyden,
Miinster, and other places, threw discredit for a time on the cause of the Reformation ; but these disturbances were soon put down. During the reign of Charles V., the friends of the new doctrines in the Nether lands were persecuted as heretics, and many suffered death by sentence ' of the regular courts of the country ; but after Charles abdicated, at Brussels in 1555, in favour of his sun Philip, the latter, in order to extirpate heresy more effectually, sent inquisitors from Spain to establish the tribunal of the Holy Office in the Netherlands. This gave rise to a strong opposition both from the nobles and the people, which. being mixed up with political grievances, led to an open insur rection against Philip. During the long war which followed between the rebels and the Spanish forces, some of the provinces separated from the rest, and the seven northern provinces of Holland, Zealand, Guelderland, Friesland, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen formed a confederacy by the name of the " Seven United Provinces," and pro claimed liberty of conscience. The great majority, however, of the population of the seven provinces followed the doctrines of Calvinism, and have remained attached to them ever since. The confession of faith for the provinces of the Netherlands was published in 1562, and was afterwards approved by the members of the synod of Emden in 1571. The disputes that broke out afterwards between the Arminians and Gomarista are related in the article AranNius, in Bina. Drv. The synod of Dort, in 1618, revised and republished the Netherlandish confession.
About the year 1556 the Lutheran or Protestant creed was adopted as the state religion in the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, under King Christian III. Denmark, however, as well as Sweden, has retained episcopacy.