of his brothers and nephews, and the massacre of 40,000 Sheeahs, or dissenters from the orthodox faith, and he engaged in war with and defeated, at Chaldiran near Tebreez, shah Ismail, the founder of the Suffavee dynasty in Persia. By force and negotiation he made himself master of Koordistan and Mesopotamia. As Kansoo Ghawree, the Mameluke sultan of Egypt, was the ally of Ismail, war against him was resolved on by Selim. The Mameluke advanced at the head of his army to the frontiers A. D. of Syria, and on the mead of Dabeek, not far from 1516. Aleppo, the hostile sultans engaged. The quantity of the Turkish artillery, and the inactivity of the Jelban (the second order of Egyptian troops), gave an easy victory to Selim. Ghawree, an old man of eighty years, died at a pool in the flight, and all Syria submitted. Peace was offered to and rejected by the new sultan, Toomawn Beg. Selim crossed the desert, and entered Egypt. The treachery of Ghazalee, one of Toomawn's generals, and the superiority of his artillery, gave Selim another victory at Ridania, near Cairo, which city was taken, after a gallant resistance, and 50,000 of its inhabitants barbarously massacred. After bravely but vainly fighting for his empire, the "valiant, chivalrous, humane, upright" Toomawn Beg was taken, and, at the suggestions of the traitors Ghazalee and Khair Beg, 1517. hanged at one of the gates of Cairo; and Egypt was reduced to a province. The last khalif of the house of Abbas was sent to Constantinople, but he died on the way. The Ottoman sultans have ever since taken that 1520. sacred title. Selim died, after a reign of eight years.

Persia.

During this period Persia witnessed a not unfrequent occurrence in the Mohammedan world-the erection of empire on the basis of religion. A family of sheikhs had long dwelt at Erdebil in that country. They passed their lives in the practice of that mystic contemplation called Sooffeeism, and derived their name of Suffavee from Suffee-ed-deen, one of the most distinguished of their

ancestors, who died in the beginning of the 14th century. At the close of the 15th century, Jooneid, one of them, began to meddle in politics, and he was driven from Erdebil by Jehan Shah, the descendant of Chingis, and then prince of the Black Wether. He took refuge with Uzun Hassan, the powerful chief of the White Wether, who gave him his sister in marriage. Under pretext of leading his followers against the infidel Georgians, he ravaged the country of the prince of Shirwan, against whom he fell in battle. His son Haider trod in his steps. He organised his followers, and made them wear for distinction red caps, whence they, and afterwards all the Persians, were called by the Turks, in derision, Kuzzil Bashes (Red-heads). He also attacked the prince of Shirwan and besieged him in his castle of Gulistan ; but he fell in a conflict with the troops of Yacoob, prince of the Black Wether, who came to the relief of A. D. the besieged. His two sons were taken and confined ; 1488. but Yacoob's successor gave them liberty. The eldest, rebelling, was slain; the younger, Ismail, then but seven years old, was saved by the prince of Ghilan.

In the 15th year of his age Ismail, at the head of 7000 of his adherents, made war on the prince of Shirwan, defeated him, and fixed his throne at Tebreez, the capital of Aderbijan. He next ravaged a part of the 1501. dominions of the peaceful Bayezeed II. The princes of the Black and the White Wether, and the shah of Mazenderan, were all vanquished by him. All the land from the Caspian to the Persian gulf obeyed him: he extended his conquests beyond the Oxus, and defeated the great khan of the Usbegs. His power was now at its zenith: he engaged in war with Selim I., under pretext of supporting the claims of Selim's nephews, and avenging the massacre of 40,000 Sheahs, slaughtered by order of the sultan. The Ottomans entered the Persian dominions on the plains of Chaldiran, on the road to Tebreez, the armies of Ismail and Selim, each 120,000 in 1514. number, encountered: victory declared in favour of the Turkish artillery, and Tebreez was taken and plundered.

Y

Want of supplies forced Selim to retreat, and Ismail A. D. subdued Georgia. He died shortly afterwards, and was 1523. succeeded by his son, Tamasp.

CHAP. II.

TIMES OF CHARLES V.

Accession of Charles V.

In the commencement of the sixteenth century the largest empire that Europe has seen since the time of Charlemagne was ruled over by Charles, son of Philip, archduke of Austria, and Joanna, heiress of Ferdinand and Isabel of Spain. From his grandmother he inherited the rich dominions of the house of Burgundy in the Low Countries; the death of Ferdinand gave him Spain, Naples, Sicily, and the New World. On the 1519. death of his grandfather, Maximilian, he got the possessions of the house of Austria, and he and Francis, king of France, becoming candidates for the imperial dignity, the majority of the electors declared for Charles.

The Turks, under the warlike Selim I., were now the enemy dreaded by Europe; and the chief question with the electors had been, which of the rival monarchs would be best calculated to defend the empire against them the circumstance of Charles's Austrian dominions had turned the beam in his favour. The only other power of consequence in Europe was England, now governed by the vain, capricious, haughty Henry VIII., but whose size and situation prevented her having any idea of extensive conquest. Charles, in the views of universal empire which he early conceived, had, therefore, apparently only Francis to impede him; but his own character, and the strength and resources of his kingdom, gave the latter such advantages, that only

ambition could have blinded the emperor to the plain fact, that France was then, as ever, unconquerable. But there was just at this period a moral power arising, more effectual to check the ambition of the emperor than even the chivalry of France. The great reformation of religion had now commenced.

The Reformation.

The eyes of men had been gradually opened to the frauds and corruptions of the Romish church, and the rapacity of the court of Rome had alienated the minds of princes and people. The awakened love of knowledge led men to aspire after freedom of thought, and to feel heavy the yoke which the church of Rome, though never less intolerant or arbitrary, imposed in all matters relating to religious doctrine. Mental emancipation was panted after. A proper occasion and a bold leader were all that were wanting to excite the flames of spiritual rebellion. The occasion was soon presented, and the leader appeared.

Leo X., of the family of the Medici, now filled the papal chair. Like his family, he was devoted to literature and pleasure, and tasteful and magnificent in his ideas and actions. It is not improbable that, as he is charged, he regarded the religion of which he was the head as merely a gainful fable; and as he was now engaged in rearing that splendid temple, the glory of modern Rome, he found it needful to put in practice every mode of raising money of which the papal chancery could furnish a precedent. The sale of indulgences appearing most likely to bring in a large supply, A. D. they were issued in great quantities, and the disposal of 1518. them committed to the most active agents. The Dominicans sold in Germany. The scandalous language and conduct of some of these men aroused the indignation of Dr. Martin Luther, an Augustinian, and professor of theology in the university of Wittenburg, in Saxony. He wrote and preached against indulgences; he was listened to with admiration opposition excited

him; he had, though not profoundly learned, a strong sense of truth, and a vigorous imagination; his eloquence was popular, his command of his native tongue great; his soul was full of love to his country and mankind, and his courage in maintaining what he held to be true invincible. He read, he meditated, he entered into the spirit of the Scripture, and he felt how contrary to it were the practices and the claims of the church of Rome. He fearlessly expressed what he honestly thought; he was supported by his university and his prince, the elector of Saxony; he was summoned to Rome; but, at the request of the elector, cardinal Cajetan was sent to Germany, and Luther appeared and defended his opinions before the diet at Augsburg. When Charles obtained the empire, he was again summoned, and ap1521, peared before the diet at Worms. He was dismissed;

A. D.

1516.

1515.

and, under the protection of the elector of Saxony, he still continued to propagate his opinions through the north of Germany.

In Switzerland, Ulric Zuinglius, a priest at Zurich, had, even earlier than Luther, opposed the sale of indulgences by the Franciscans in that country. Not confining themselves to religious abuses, Zuinglius and his friends sought to unite religion with civil polity, and to preserve and exalt the tone of republican virtue and freedom. The opinions of the reformers rapidly spread into France, the Low Countries, and England, already prepared for them by Wickliffe and his disciples.

Wars of Charles V. and Francis I.

Francis, count of Angoulême, on succeeding his father-in-law, the late king Louis XII., was eager to signalise himself in the eyes of the world. He turned his views towards Italy, and resolved to recover Milan. The Swiss guarded the passes of the Alps against him : on hearing of his having entered boldly into Piedmont, they descended, and encountered the arms of France in the plain; and modern times have witnessed few such obstinate conflicts as that which ensued on the field of