This leads to autocracy in politics, fatalism in religion and conservatism in both.
He encased himself in fatalism, with the result that in two years the mightiest empire reared by man broke under the twofold strain.
In the first edition of the Loci (1521) he held, to the length of fatalism, the Augustinian doctrine of irresistible grace, working according to God's immutable decrees, and denied freedom of will in matters civil and religious alike.
Without entirel y break ing with the pseudo-classic method he had adopted in Don Carlos - the two lovers, Max Piccolomini and Thekla, are an obvious concession to the tradition of the French theatre - Wallenstein shows how much Schiller's art had benefited by his study of Greek tragedy; the fatalism of his hero is a masterly application of an antique motive to a modern theme.
It is remarkable that even for a time fatalism should have been predominant in his reasoning, for in character he was opposed to such a view, and, as he has said, "according to the man, so is the system of philosophy he adopts."