252 The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan
Bible. Steadily and surely the darkness of ignorance and superstition was dispelled by the blessed light of the gospel. Freed from Romish oppression, the nation attained to a strength and greatness it had never before reached. Sweden became one of the bulwarks of Protestantism. A century later, at a time of sorest peril, this small and hitherto feeble nation— the only one in Europe that dared lend a helping hand— came to the deliverance of Germany in the terrible struggles of the Thirty Years ' War. All Northern Europe seemed about to be brought again under the tyranny of Rome. It was the armies of Sweden that enabled Germany to turn the tide of popish success, to win toleration for the Protestants,— Calvinists as well as Lutherans,— and to restore liberty of conscience to those countries that had accepted the Reformation.
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14. Later English Reformers.