THE SPECTRUM. Published by the Students of the North Dakota Agricultural College
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I THE SPECTRUM. Published by the Students of the North Dakota Agricultural College. Vol.,. VIII. MAY .15, 1904. No. 8. Gustavus Adolphus. ORATION WINNING FIRST PRIZE IN THE LOCAL CONTEST. During the last 2,300 years of the night Sun,"—from those same shores world's history, a great struggle has whence, centuries before, the sea kings been going on; a struggle as momentous had sallied forth to plunder the sunny as it has been extensive; as compre- shores of France and Italy—came a new hensive as the teachings of Christianity. Viking, not to rob and destroy, but to It had begun when, 2,201 years ago, in proclaim by his deeds the "brotherhood old Athens, Socrates drained the hemlock of man." He was as great a soldier as cup rather than retract his teachings. Napoleon; but Napoleon was spurred on It had grown broader and more fierce wholly by ambition, while this man when 463 years later Christian martyrs gained his victories for God and for his were burned as torches to illuminate fellow men. He was as great a states- Roman amphitheaters; and it reached its man as his contemporary, Richelieu; but climax, perhaps, in the first half of the Richelieu would not stop at deceit or seventeenth century. This struggle is crime to gain his ends, while this man the struggle for religious toleration. would risk his life and kingdom rather The human race, as a whole, is a con- than break his word. This man, soldier, servative body. It looks with suspicion statesman, Christian, was Gustavus upon any innovation, and the greater the Adolphus, the "Lion of the North." deviation from the broad beaten road In order fully to understand the char- of custom and tradition the greater the acter of this man, and to realize the opposition. ,moo it was with this idea stupendous task he accomplished, it is of religious toleration. Graves and necessary to consider the conditions which smouldering ruins marked its course; the existed in Europe at this time. Chris- stake, the guillotine, torture, and the tianity, coming into Central Europe from dark dank walls of the medieval prison, Italy, was closely followed by the exten- were the rewards of its champions. sion of the Holy Roman Empire, which And yet, like some grasses, that grow attained •a nominal control over a large more luxuriant the more they are portion of the newly converted country. trampled upon, the new doctrine seemed I say a nominal control, for this region to gain strength from the very opposition was divided up into numerous small states which it encountered. Calvin, Zwingli, each with a native prince at its head. L - ither—from France, Switzerland and The government was a union of church Germany they came, heralds of enlight- and state. It was not a very strong enment and civilization. And from out government and the best hold the emperor the frozen North, the "Land of the Mid- had upon his subjects was through the 104 THE SPECTRUM. church. The people, as a whole, were sovereign of a million and a half of sub- rather ignorant, and as long as the gov- jects, a weak nation, surrounded on all ernment could, through the priests, di- sides by avaricious neighbors; a people rect the thoughts of the populace—or new to the boons of civilization, but , rather, keep them from having any three generations removed from savagery. thoughts—it could retain its sovereignty He shall do it," said the dying mon- ever them. The state, 'therefore, for po- arch pointing to his son, as his courtiers litical as well as ecclesiastical reasons, stood about his bedside lamenting the took great pains to suppress any attempt fate of the nation. A stripling, but half at free speech or independent thought. grown to manhood, was left to recon- Men like John Huss and John Calvin struct a commonwealth depleted by the were persecuted as heretics. But in spite ravages of war, threatened on one side of all that was done to discourage the by Russia, on the other by Denmark; a reformers, they still gained many adher- Polish emperor pretender to its throne; ents. A large portion of Germany and its peasantry—ever the backbone and turned Protestant. Consequently, when, sinews of a country's greatness—grum- at the Diet of Spire in 1529, religious bling against heavy levies and taxes. toleration was forbidden, a revolution be- Even as a youth, Gustavus showed evi- came imminent. Just then, however, the dence of those remarkable traits of char- Turks invaded Europe. This invasion acter which were, in later years, to turn threatened both parties alike, and so, in the attention of the entire civilized world 1532, the peace of Nuremberg was con- to him. Possessed of a mind far above cluded, at which it was agreed to leave the ordinary, and a desire to broaden it, religious affairs as they were, and unite he acquired all the culture that the most forces against the common enemy. learned philosophers of Europe could im- But as soon as the danger from the part to him, while warfare—the chief Turks was over, the old religious quarrel vocation of a monarch of the seventeenth was again renewed. Two parties were century—was taught him by just as able formed: The Evangelical Union, a con- masters. This education, creditable to a federation of the small Protestant states; statesman of 200 years later, coupled and the Catholic League, under the lead- with the natural sagacity and bravery ership of Maximilian of Bavaria; one inherited from generations, of warlike striving for enlightenment and progress, ancestors and his daily existence in an the new path leading toward the broad atmosphere of turmoil and strife, had elevation of our modern civilization; the made him a man, if not in years, in mind other following blindly the beaten high- and character. way of the dark ages. Obviously, the first object to be ac- Here, then, is the field of action: An complished by the young monarch, was empire reaching from the slopes of the the safeguarding of the throne and in- Alps on the south, to the shores of the tegrity of the Swedish nation. Denmark, Baltic on the north; from the waveworn the nearest, and so most formidable sands of the Atlantic on the west, to enemy, must first be vanquished before the valley of the Danube on the east; a he could turn his attention to the broader people torn with internal dissensions and though, perhaps, less praiseworthy object 'rivalries, hard pressed by the yoke of of making Sweden a world power. It was the law, and vacillating between desire not easy to oust a power that had already and necessity. Truly, it was a condition gained a foothold in Sweden and con- to make the stoutest man quail. trolled the seas, yet, within six years, "And how," someone might ask, "was he was able to conclude peace with King our hero equipped for this task?" King Christian. The terms were hard, to be Charles IX died in 1611 and left him sure, but it left him free to act against T THE SPECTRUM. 105 Sigismund of Poland, who was a constant Baltic, but not the crown of the Holy cause for alarm. Roman Empire." From the Polish war we may date the Let us consider our hero as he stands, -1 advent of Gustavus into European af- near the end of the year 1631 in the cen- fairs. From the intercourse it brought ter of Germany; on one side Vienna, the him into with the politicians of other throne of the Holy Roman Empire, al- nations, he gained an insight into the most defenseless; on the other Nurem- plans and ambitions of the emperor. berg, a small town threatened by the wild Looking far beyond the scope of vision plundering hordes of Tilly; on the one of all his contemporaries save, perhaps, side honor, power, glory—all that is dear Richelieu, he saw that it would only be a to a soldier's heart,—on the other, his question of time when the feeble Protest- plighted word, hands stretched out to him ant opposition in Germany would be in mute appeal, the memory of Magde- beaten down and the armies of Maximilian burg. He did not waver. Suppressing be standing on the shores of the Baltic, any ambitious thoughts that may have making that monarch the ruler over the arisen within him, he hastened to the greater portion of Central Europe. Even aid of the beleaguered city. Honor be to more than this: Wallenstein openly him forever that he chose the path of avowed his intention of building a navy duty, not glory. on the coast of Pomerania to harass the Despite opposing forces, hunger and northern kingdoms. Gustavus saw that, sickness, the constant wranglings of half- not only to save the Protestant religion, hearted allies, and the disappointments but to protect his own throne and gov- caused by trusted friends, Gustavus, ernment, he must take a hand in the through the force of his own wonderful great struggle. The man who, in 1624, personality, held his little army together refused to take part in the war unless and continued his triumphant march support was guaranteed him by France through Germany to the fatal' field of and England, even though his old enemy, Lutzen.' There the Protestant cause, Christian, would • assist him, was, six though victorious in arms, lost its most years later, willing to attack single- ardent champion; the world, a great war- handed a foe whom even England and rior, a greater man.