Untitled - 24grammata.com

GPOLITICAL CONSEQUENCESby the peace of Oliva, (1660,) it was declared a sovereignprincipality, and its feudal tenure was done away; in 1701it was raised to a kingdom, and stepped, or at least gradually advanced, into the first rank of European powers.Although the Reformation, however, was the means, aswe have shown, of laying the first stone of the Prussianto itsmonarchy, it cannot be said that it conduced greatlyfurther erection, unless we are preparedto consider the acquisitions, which it made at the peace of Westphalia, as resulting from that event.The Reformation has, in fact, exercised a much smallerinfluence on the double part which Prussia has played inforeign policy, both as one of the powers of Europe, andas one of the first states in the German empire, than is commonly supposed. The causes of thismay be sufficientlygathered from the short chronological sketch which we havejest given. During the whole period throughout which theinterests of religion continued to act as a mainspring in European politicsthat is, down to the peace of "Westphalia,aud the time of Lewis XIV., the house of Brandenburghwas still too weak to exercise any decisive influence upon theGerman body, to say nothing of Europe at large.As itgradually after this acquired strength under the great electorand its two first kings, the Reformation, as we shall hereafter have to observe, lost all political power, and a newinterest took its place.The second, and minor game, whichPrussia had to play in the empire, was to maintain the balanceagainst Austria. But Prussia did not fairly become the rivalof Austria till the conquest of Silesia by Frederic 11., andtheir relative position was wholly uninfluenced by religion.Besides, although Prussia or Brandenburgh was one of themost powerful, and finally the most powerful, of the Protestant states, it cannot be considered as the head of that party.This pre-eminence belonged, as is well known, from thefirst, to Saxony ;and when Prussia became the more powerful of the two, the matter was no longer of consequence }since this party, althoughit retained the forms of one, wasfast losing its essential character as such.FRANCE.IT was chiefly from Switzerland that France derived itsshare of the Reformation ;and althoughit was thus infiu-