The Church of England had been established, and Elizabeth was enjoying her splendid reign. Sir Walter Raleigh, Drake, and other heroes of the sea were then young men. Florence was about to enjoy her highest distinction as the home of learning and art, under Cosmo de Medici, and Pius V was Pope; one of the greatest that ever occupied the Papal throne. Rodolph, of Hapsburg, had had his fierce struggle with the Turks, by land; but Austria then had no naval force. In France the weak and bloody Charles IX was upon the throne, and the massacre of Saint Bartholomew was close at hand. And now, to come to the great event of Lepanto, which decided the question of supremacy between Christianity and Islamism. The Turks had captured Cyprus; possessed almost irresistible power, and everything looked very dark for Christendom. But in spite of the connivance of Charles IX in their advance, who by this base conduct preluded the great crime of his reign; in spite of the calculated inaction of England; the timidity of Austria; the exhaustion of Poland, after a long war with still barbarous Muscovy, the genius of Christianity took a fresh flight, and the star of the west once more rose in the ascendant. The honor of being the head of the effort at resistance to the encroaching Turkish power, and of victorious reprisals, belongs especially to Pope Pius V, a simple monk who had been exalted to the Pontifical throne; a zealous and austere priest, of a disposition naturally violent, which had been subdued by experience, foresight, and real greatness of soul. This Pontiff, upon the first menace of the Turks against Cyprus, bestirred himself to form a league of several Christian States. A crusade was no longer possible, from the condition of Europe, which was divided by religious schism, and by the ambition of princes. But, if the Pope could no longer send the whole of Europe to a holy war, such as was condemned by Luther as unjust and inhuman, he could at least, as a temporal prince, take his part in active operations. Not even the coolness and calculated slowness of Philip of Spain--the Monarch from whom he had a right to expect the most assistance--could arrest the zeal of the ardent and generous Pontiff, who saw that the time had come for Christendom to conquer or submit. Philip II, who was without mercy for the Mahomedans still scattered throughout his dominions, nevertheless hesitated to enter upon a struggle with the Turks; and above all did he dislike to defend Venice against them--so much did he envy the latter her rich commerce.