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1600, an Ordinary Year
The year 1600 in Europe was quite an ordinary one. There was a shortage of grain, but not a major famine; there were moderate local outbreaks of plague; in the west there were isolated rebellions while in Russia the new tsar was in danger of losing his throne. In Rome Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake. He was described as an impatient heretic, an upholder of Arian opinions on the Trinity, a magician. He was also - though the Inquisition was less interested in this - well disposed towards the ideas of Copernicus. Behind the elaborate accusations his unpardonable offence was to show too publicly his disbelief in the Church's ability to satisfy his quest for an understanding of mankind and the universe. Most of the other people who met the same fate as Bruno were guilty merely of witchcraft.In Sweden four members of the royal council were executed for supporting King Sigismund III, the Catholic monarch who had just been deposed in favour of the Protestant Charles IX. In Madrid Philip III was, optimistically, organizing a new army to restore the rebellious Protestants of the northern Netherlands to their allegiance, though they were winning new victories in Flanders. Negotiations had begun for ending the state of war between Spain and England. Henri IV of France, now almost safe on his throne after the decades of religious civil war, settled a minor terretorial argument with the Duke of Savoy by invading his country. At home Hernri was proving that it was possible for Catholics and Protestants to live in the same state with much the same civil rights and protection. But this was achieved by separation, not by mutual acceptance. Nearly everywhere it was assumed that religious minorities were a threat to internal security, and religion a major reason for international alliances, rivalries and wars. The Emperor Rudolf II was facing irreconcilable conflict between the Catholic and Protestant states under his ineffective suzerainty. Meanwhile El Greco was completing some of his last paintings; Shakespeare was writing 'Twelfth Night' and 'Julius Caesar'; the building of St Peter's in Rome continued...
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