The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

thunder, lightning, and rain, along the difficult
Alpine passes from Innspruck into Carinthia.” Sad
end indeed was this to all his greatness. Sick and
tired of life, on the 25th of October, 1555, he
abdicated the throne, and went to spend the rest of
his life within the walls of a monastery. “This was
a fitting end for a monarch who all his life had
been false as water, who never possessed a lofty
thought, or entertained a noble or generous
sentiment.”
He was succeeded in Spain and the Netherlands
by Philip II, who married Bloody Mary of England.
The tastes of these two certainly ran in the same
direction. “To maintain the supremacy of the
Church seemed to both of them the main object of
existence; to execute unbelievers, the most sacred
duty imposed by the Deity upon anointed princes;
to convert their kingdom into a hell, the surest
means of winning heaven for themselves.” Philip
hated the Christian heretic with a more venemous
hatred than any of his ancestors had ever
manifested toward Jew or Moor. Yet in spite of all
this pretended piety, he was so grossly licentious
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