The Portland daily press., 1880-12-06
The Age OF Phillp II.

| The fourth lecture in Mr.. Dalton's historical
course was delivered Saturday afternoon at ST.
| Stephens church. There was good attend
| ance
| The subject of the lecture was the "Age of
| Philip Ii" and the period had been selected
| the lecturer said, because the Spanish power
was then at its highest ont. and Philip III was
| Spanish through and through, and he repre-
| sented his age and nation as no other king of
| Spain before or since could be said to do. The
| Spanish people had become trained and hard
ened by the 800 years of war that they had
been obliged to wage against the Moorish foe.
Driven to the least attractive and most noun
famous part OF Spain, they had never ever
| thonght of yielding but inch by inch. Such a
| conquest would have been possible only to a
| people impressed with the idea that they had
| been divinely commissioned to do that work,
ana VINO were devoted to their religion and to
their native princes. Yet by their conquests,
the, people became possessed of considerable
mower. ana that power had been cut down by
Ferdinand and Charles " but it remained for
Philip III to concentrate all power in his own
hands.
The lecturer described the dramatic retire.
ment of Charles Y, and his life after leaving
the throne, and traced the career of Philip III
from his sixteenth year, that of his first mar
riage, to his seventy-irst, that of his death.
Philip Ii, as compared with the kings of his
line tina Immediately preceded him, was not
great king, but he stands we'll with contempo-
rary princes. The power of Spain declined with
each King that succeeded him. Philip III was
not SO O. great man as his father. Philip "
was still weaker, while in Charles vi the line
OF kings descended as low as it was possible to
go. and Spain was ruined.
Outside. of Spain, Philip II was never pop
niar, but in Spain he was loved to the last.
Charles V passed half his life in the saddle.
while Philip moved only from room to room,
yet he was hard working man. The pen was
seldom out of his hand II he wanted to COM
munlcate with u secretary in another room he
would write him note rather than call him.
He wrote. out everything and never gave an
opinion or decided matter hastily.
The purpose of Philip II was fourfold. He
wished hrst TO lessen the power of his people,
and to increase his own, to increase the power
OF the church, power that was already great,
knawing that he could trust the church to sup
port the throne, and to crush out the Moors
and the Protestants; in short all infidels and
heretcs. and he never faltered in his purpose
he knew no pleasure IS the word is under
STOOD. When worried with the business of
State an duto-de.fe was ordered, and the burn
ing was celebrated very much as wa celebrate
tne Fourth of July. and this, the lecturer said.
was not meant to revive the religious disputes
OF the past. The Inquisition was part Of the
age aud the spirit of the age is now of the
past We may indeed thank God for great de-
liverance.
Philip was gloomy in all his tastes. To
celebrate, a victory over the French he built the
palace OF tne Escurlal on the plan of q grid
iron In honor of st. Lawrence who suffered
marty rdom on that instrument. The plan of
the Maine General Hospital is that of the Es-
curial in its outline, only two wings of the
hospital as yet having been built In the pal
ace that Philip Ii built, fountains and. walks
form the bars of the gridron. There, in a Sc
cuded spot, amid rugged mountains, the king
erected the vastseries Of buildings at once a
palace, monastery and tomb The building
itself is q type of the age.
The efforts of Philip to extinguish the Prot
estant religion, led to the establishing of the
republic OF Holand-the real model on which
all subsequent republics have been formed.
The lecturer here traced the struggle of Philip
with his Protestant subjects, and described the
death of the son of the XIII g, Don Carlos, and
he events leading to the death of Don John of
Austria.
The society of the age, and the hold the
church had on the people, the lecturer de-
scribed by showing the effects of the interdict.
that terrible weapon Of the Bishop of Rome,
and wound up by describing the three greatest
battles OF Philips reign, and paid glowing
tribute to the genius of Cervantes, whose
fame, he believed, will be bright when men
shall ask who this Don John was in whose
army he fought as private soldier. Cervantes
is destined TO hold his place as the greatest
man of his nation.
The next lecture in the course will be on the
age of Louis XIV.