In 1592, or soon after that date, Champlain was appointed quarter-master in the royal army in Brittany, discharging the office several years, until, by the peace of Vervins, in 1598, the authority of Henry IV. was firmly established throughout the kingdom. This war in Brittany constituted the closing scene of that mighty struggle which had been agitating the nation, wasting its resources and its best blood for more than half a century. It began in its incipient stages as far back as a decade following 1530, when the preaching of Calvin in the Kingdom of Navarre began to make known his transcendent power. The new faith, which was making rapid strides in other countries, easily awakened the warm heart and active temperament of the French. The principle of private judgment which lies at the foundation of Protestant teaching, its spontaneity as opposed to a faith imposed by authority, commended it especially to the learned and thoughtful, while the same principle awakened the quick and impulsive nature of the masses. The effort to put down the movement by the extermination of those engaged in it, proved not only unsuccessful, but recoiled, as usual in such cases, upon the hand that struck the blow. Confiscations, imprisonments, and the stake daily increased the number of those which these severe measures were intended to diminish. It was impossible to mark its progress. When at intervals all was calm and placid on the surface, at the same time, down beneath, where the eye of the detective could not penetrate, in the closet of the scholar and at the fireside of the artisan and the peasant, the new gospel, silently and without observation, was spreading like an all-pervading leaven. [11] In 1562, the repressed forces of the Huguenots could no longer be restrained, and, bursting forth, assumed the form of organized civil war. With the exception of temporary lulls, originating in policy or exhaustion, there was no cessation of arms until 1598. Although it is usually and perhaps best described as a religious war, the struggle was not altogether between the Catholic and the Huguenot or Protestant. There were many other elements that came in to give their coloring to the contest, and especially to determine the course and policy of individuals. The ultra-Catholic desired to maintain the old faith with all its ancient prestige and power, and to crush out and exclude every other. With this party were found the court, certain ambitious and powerful families, and nearly all the officials of the church. In close alliance with it were the Roman Pontiff, the King of Spain, and the Catholic princes of Germany. The Huguenots desired what is commonly known as liberty of conscience; or, in other words, freedom to worship God according to their own views of the truth, without interference or restriction. And in close alliance with them were the Queen of England and the Protestant princes of Germany.