24.  The  treaty  of  Augsburg  was  to  Charles  V.  the  hand- writing
on  the  wall  which  showed  him  that  the  end  of  the  mighty  power
which  he  had  wielded  was  fast  approaching.     So  offended  was  the
pope  at  the  sanction  which  Charles  had  given  to  the  principles  of
religious  toleration,  that  he  became  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  house
of  Austria,  and  entered  into  a  close  alliance  with  the

young  king  of   France.     Charles  saw,  from  afar,  the  TIONAND&K-
storm  that  was  approaching,  and,  abandoned  as  he  was  TIREMENT  OK
by  fortune,  afflicted  by  disease,  and  opposed  in  his  de-
clining years  by  a  rival  in  the  full  vigor  of  life,  he  wisely  resolved
not  to  forfeit  his  fame  by  vainly  struggling  to  retain  a  power  which
he  was  no  longer  able  to  wield ;  and,  in  imitation  of  Diocletian,  to
the  surprise  of  the  world  he  abdicated  his  throne,  and  having  re-
signed his  German  empire  to  his  brother  Ferdinand,  and  his  king-
doms of  Spain,  the  Netherlands,  and  Italy,  to  his  son  Philip,  he  re-
tired to  end  his  days  in  the  solitude  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Just.1

1.  Passau  is  a  fortified  frontier  city  of  eastern  Bavaria,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Danube.
It  derives  its  chief  historical  importance  from  the  treaty  concluded  there  in  1552.    (Map  No.
