“This accommodation was no less unavailing than former agreements; the

hatred and suspicion of the two brothers were too inveterate to be

eradicated, and the ambition of Albert too grasping to be satisfied. New

disputes arose relative to the fulfilment of the terms: Albert

endeavoured to appropriate Lower Austria, received the oath of

allegiance from the citizens of Vienna, and made preparations for the

renewal of hostilities; while Frederic procured the publication of the

ban of the empire, and the sentence of excommunication from the pope

against his brother. The pope, the princes of the empire, and the common

friends of the two brothers, interposed to terminate this unnatural

contest; but Albert rejected all offers of accommodation, and was with

difficulty persuaded to conclude even a temporary armistice. In this

interval, however, his arbitrary government and continual exactions had

alienated the citizens of Vienna, and a strong party, among whom was

even Hulzer himself, reconciled themselves with Frederic, and

endeavoured to effect his restoration. Their designs being discovered,

Albert sated his vengeance by condemning Hulzer to the scaffold, and by

confiscating the property of the disaffected. At length Frederic was

delivered from an active and turbulent rival, by the sudden death of

Albert, who expired on the 4th of December, 1463, at the moment when he

was preparing to renew hostilities.”

Frederic was engaged in other wars for personal objects with other

antagonists, as selfish in their aims as himself; although they

illustrate the family character, they do not especially illustrate our

particular subject. The most important act of his life, and most

fruitful of consequences, was his bringing about the marriage of his son

Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy.

“Before 1477, France and the house of Austria had no subject of rivalry

or jealousy, and their political interests were as distinct as their

respective dominions. But the marriage of Maximilian with the heiress of

Burgundy, entailed on the two powers an hereditary enmity, which deluged

Europe with blood for more than three centuries. This enmity arising

from jarring interests and contiguity of dominion, was rendered personal

by the rupture of the marriage of Maximilian with Anne of Brittany, and

the dismission of the archduchess Margaret; and though suspended by

treaties and temporary expedients, was continually breaking out on every

trifling occasion.

“From the time in which the house of Austria had been deprived of all

its territories in Helvetia, the Swiss confederacy had increased in

power and influence. Their union had been strengthened in 1481 by the

accession of Soleure and Friburgh. Except the Pays de Vaud, which

belonged to the house of Savoy, Neufchatel, subject to its own counts

and the Italian baillages, which were dependent on Milan, they or their

allies possessed almost the whole country which is now called

Switzerland. The Helvetic body thus becoming an important link in the

chain of European powers, their alliance was courted with much

solicitude and intrigue by the greatest potentates, and they were

induced to take an active part in the wars of the continent.

“The disputes between the house of Austria and France, for the

succession of Burgundy and the possession of Brittany, and the almost

constant hostilities to which these disputes gave rise, occasioned

earnest and repeated solicitations from the house of Austria and France

for an intimate union with the Swiss confederates. Louis XI. gained

considerable influence among the Cantons by his private largesses to the

leading men, his public subsidies, and the great privileges which he

granted to those who served in his armies and settled in France. During

the latter part of his reign, indeed, he forfeited the confidence of the

Cantons, by withholding his bounties and subsidies; but his son Charles

regained their friendship by discharging the arrears and renewing the

former connections. Maximilian, from the moment of his accession, was

likewise desirous to form an alliance with the Swiss, and to obtain a

renewal of the hereditary union; but the superior influence of France,

as well as their natural jealousy of the house of Austria, induced them

to reject all his offers.

“That part of Rhætia called the country of the Grisons, was originally a

dependency of the German empire, and subject to feudal lords, the bishop

of Coire, the abbot of Disentis, the counts of Werdenberg, Sax and

Masox, the barons of Retzuns, and the count of Tockenburgh. Towards the

middle of the fifteenth century the people emancipated themselves from

feudal jurisdiction; but their chiefs consenting to this emancipation

were suffered to retain considerable prerogatives; and thus the

government became a singular mixture of aristocracy and democracy. The

country was divided into a number of little communities under different

forms of government: a few aristocratical, others popular, and some more

democratical than even the rural cantons of Switzerland. These

communities composed three leagues, called the Grey League, the League

of God’s House, and the League of Ten Jurisdictions; and these by means

of a general diet formed one republic. The people, hardened amidst the

rugged rocks and perpetual snows of the Rhætian Alps, were a rude,

hardy, and warlike race, froward and licentious, impatient of control,

and no less distinguished from the rest of mankind by their singular

customs and manners, than by their situation and forms of government.

“The bishop of Coire, the principal member of the League of God’s House,

had been engaged in perpetual contests with the sovereigns of the Tyrol,

relative to the demarcation of the frontiers, the profits of mines and

territorial possessions; and those disputes were aggravated by rival

pretensions to the advocacy of the abbey of Munster, which had been

claimed by the sovereigns of the Tyrol. Another object of dispute was

the valley of Prettigau, which forming the intermediate link between the

Tyrol and the League of Ten Jurisdictions, was coveted by both parties.

Amidst these contrary pretensions and jarring interests, various feudal

privileges in the barony of Retzuns, a community of the League of God’s

House, and in the whole League of Ten Jurisdictions, purchased by

Sigismond, and transmitted to Maximilian, contributed to render him

obnoxious to the Grison republics. These contests with Maximilian had

overcome the jealousy which the Grisons had hitherto fostered against

the Swiss, and soon after his accession, the Rhætian leagues united with

the Swiss states in a formal confederacy, a union from which the house

of Austria experienced the most fatal effects.”

We close our mention of Frederic with an amusing anecdote, sufficiently

characteristic.

“Like his great uncle Rodolph, he was attached to the study of

antiquities and heraldry, and like him formed alphabets of mysterious

characters, and whimsical devices. A species of anagram, consisting of

the five vowels, he adopted as indicative of the future greatness of the

house of Austria, imprinted it on all his books, carved it on all his

buildings, and engraved it on all his plate. This riddle occupied the

grave heads of his learned contemporaries, and gave rise to many

ridiculous conjectures; till the _important_ secret was disclosed after

his death by an interpretation written in his own hand, in which the

vowels form the initials of a sentence in Latin and German, signifying

‘the house of Austria is to govern the whole world.’

(Austria Est Imperare Orbi Universo. )

(Alles Erdreich Ist Oesterreich Unterthan.)

Fugger, p. 1080.”

The age of Maximilian was remarkable as the period in which the

boundaries of the nations of Europe were strongly defined. It witnessed

the union of Brittany with France; of Castille with Aragon; of Burgundy

with Austria. It was also the epoch of the union of Norway, Sweden, and

Denmark, under Margaret at Calmar; of the rise of Russia, under Ivan

Vassilevitch; of the greatest glory of Portugal, under John; of the

prosperity of Poland, under Albert; of the union of Bohemia and Hungary,

under Ladislas; of a confederacy of the Grisons and Swiss, more

especially directed against Austria; of the revival of literature and

the arts in Italy, under the fostering care of the Medici and other

merchant princes, who brought the Italian republics to their highest

point of splendour; finally, it was the acme of the Turkish power in

Europe, signalised by their taking Constantinople on the one hand, and

the beginning of decline through the sudden death of Mahomet in 1431 on

the other. But more important than all political attitudes of nations,

were the consequences of the invention of powder, and of printing. For

these peaceful events were big with a revolution, which is not even yet,

in five hundred years, fully developed, but which will unquestionably

bear the ultimate fruits in America, which was also at that epoch just

discovered.

But Maximilian did not desert the hereditary character and line of

action, to enter into the new ideas of the time. He struggled for means

to drive both Spain and France from Italy, not in order to give Italy

independence and freedom, but to revive the imperial power there; a

project he was at length compelled to abandon. But this portion of his

action belongs to the history of Austrian influence in Italy, to which

our narrative will return bye and bye, and view it as a whole.

With respect to the Reformation, Coxe observes:

“This controversy had attracted the attention of Maximilian, who was

naturally fond of bold and novel opinions, and anxious to reform the

abuses and curb the encroachments of the church. Far from opposing the

first attacks of Luther against indulgences, he was pleased with his

spirit and acuteness, declared that he deserved protection, and treated

his adversaries with contempt and ridicule. In the progress of the

dispute he was, however, gradually drawn from this favourable opinion,

and from conviction, _from pique against Frederic of Saxony for opposing

the election of his grandson_, or from a desire of conciliating the

Pope, was induced to interfere in the controversy. In a letter to Leo

X., dated August 5, 1519, he stigmatised the principles of Luther as

heretical, and alluded to his numerous and powerful supporters. He urged

the necessity of terminating these rash disputes and captious arguments,

by which the Christian church was scandalised, and offered to support

and enforce the measures which the Pope should think necessary to adopt.

“In consequence of this letter, Leo was induced to pursue more vigorous

measures: he enjoined the cardinal of Gaeta, his legate at the diet of

Augsburgh, to summon the heretic Luther in person; if he refused to

recant, to detain him in custody; and, if he did not obey the summons,

to denounce the sentence of excommunication against him and all his

protectors or adherents. At the same time Leo wrote to the elector of

Saxony, requesting him to withdraw his protection from Luther, and

promising that if not found guilty, he should be liberated and absolved.

“But at this critical moment the emperor Maximilian died, before the

papal bull could be presented to him, and the government devolved on the

elector of Saxony, as vicar of the empire. The proceedings against the

great reformer were thus suspended, and he was enabled to improve his

knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in silence and safety, to propagate his

opinions, and, by study and meditation, to prepare himself for those

hostilities against the authority of the Pope, which he had proclaimed

by his recent appeal.

“Notwithstanding the exhortatory letter of Maximilian to the Pope, he

seemed so little interested in the Lutheran controversy, that he

dissolved the diet and quitted Augsburgh two days before the arrival of

the Saxon reformer; and so rapid was the progress of that disorder which

hurried him to the grave, that he had no opportunity, had he possessed

the inclination, to interfere in the subsequent discussion.

“Although Maximilian did not illustrate his name and reign by conquest,

or even considerable acquisitions by the sword, he may justly be

considered as the second founder of the house of Austria. By his own

marriage with the princess Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, he

secured the inheritance of the house of Burgundy; by the marriage of

Philip with Johanna he brought into his family the succession of the

Spanish monarchy, and by the intermarriage of his grandson, the archduke

Ferdinand, with Anne, daughter of Ladislaus, he entailed on his

posterity the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. These and other vast

acquisitions which the house of Austria obtained by marriage and not by

arms, gave birth to a sarcastic epigram which has been attributed,

though perhaps erroneously, to Matthias Corvinus, the celebrated king of

Hungary:—

Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria _nube_;

Nam quæ MARS aliis, dat tibi regna VENUS.

“Since the reign of Charlemagne, no sovereign united such extensive

territories and possessed such influence as Charles V., nor seemed more

likely to realise the phantom of universal monarchy, which has never

failed to fill the imagination of ambitious, or excite the apprehensions

of weak and timid princes.

“He inherited the vast domains of the Spanish monarchy, including Naples

and Sicily, and the recently discovered territories in the new world,

and the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries, with Franche Comté and

Artois, at that time the richest, most populous, and most flourishing

country in Europe. In conjunction with his brother Ferdinand, he also

succeeded to the whole possessions of the house of Austria. To these he

united the highest dignity in Europe, and although the crown of the

empire had proved a burden to weak sovereigns, in his powerful hands it

became a formidable engine for territorial acquisitions, in consequence

of numerous claims on all the surrounding districts, its extensive

jurisdiction, and the force which the influence of so powerful a prince

could still draw from the vast and heterogeneous mass of the Germanic

body.

“Sovereign of such extensive territories, endowed with the most eminent

talents, civil and military, and possessing almost universal influence

by his connections and alliances, Charles seemed born to domineer over

Europe; nor could the union of the princes and states of Germany have

secured their liberties, had not his power been weakened by the

separation of the Austrian and Spanish dominions, by his wars with

France and the Turks, and still more circumscribed by the reformation in

religion, which was commenced and perfected by the efforts and

perseverance of Luther.

“After the death of Maximilian the Austrian territories were possessed

in common by Charles and Ferdinand; but in 1521 a partition was made.

Charles ceded to his brother Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola,

with their dependencies, and in the ensuing year, the Tyrol, and the

exterior provinces in Suabia and Alsace, reserving to himself only the

reversion of Brisgau and the Alsatian territories, which he afterwards

relinquished. By this cession the house of Austria was divided into two

separate and independent branches; the Spanish branch under Charles, and

the German under Ferdinand.

“As Ferdinand, soon after the partition, became king of the Romans, as

he finally succeeded to the imperial crown, it becomes necessary, for

the elucidation of the subject, not to omit the affairs of Germany under

Charles, and particularly to dwell on the rise and progress of the

Reformation, which produced such important effects to the house of

Austria and to Europe.”

Charles immediately convoked the diet of the empire, and “among the

causes enumerated by Charles for the convocation of a diet, one of the

most important was, ‘to concert with the princes of the empire effectual

measures for _checking the progress of those new and dangerous opinions,

which threatened to disturb the peace of Germany, and to overturn the

religion of their ancestors_.’

“Charles had already given evident proofs of an hostile disposition

towards the Lutheran doctrines, as well from conviction, as from a

desire of obliging the pope, and an apprehension of alienating his

subjects in Spain and the Low Countries, who were zealously attached to

the religion of their ancestors. Before his departure from Spain he had

declared his intention to suppress the new opinions, and on his arrival

in the Low Countries had permitted the universities of Louvaine and

Antwerp to burn the writings of Luther, and even supported the instances

of the pope in urging the elector of Saxony to banish him from his

territories. With these sentiments he opened the diet of Worms,

permitted the papal legates to inveigh against Luther, and proposed that

the German states should also condemn his doctrines, and commit his

writings to the flames.

“Charles, however, was astonished to find that the proscribed opinions

had taken a deep root, and spread over a great part of the empire. The

diet itself displayed an evident disposition to favour an attack on the

pretensions and exactions of the pope; and the states presented a long

list of grievances against the Roman see, of which they required the

emperor, in virtue of his capitulation, to obtain redress. In opposition

to all the remonstrances of the legates, the members of the diet, at the

instigation of the elector of Saxony, refused to proscribe Luther before

he had acknowledged himself as the author of the propositions condemned

by the papal bull, and had refused to recant, as a measure no less

contrary to the principles of justice than to the laws of the empire;

and they declared, that if he was convicted of error, and refused to

retract, they would then assist the emperor in punishing his contumacy.

The legates, who probably expected the same implicit obedience which had

so long been paid to the dictates of the church, in vain contended that

an affair, already decided by the pope, could never be again brought

into deliberation, and that a dispute with Luther would be endless,

because he refused to acknowledge the authority of the church. They had

the mortification to find that all their remonstrances were ineffectual,

and that their assertions of papal infallibility were heard by the

majority with indifference or contempt.

“Charles, perceiving the sentiments of the diet, and unwilling to offend

the elector of Saxony, to whom he owed the imperial crown, affected

great candour and moderation, and, on the 6th of March, despatched a

respectful summons and safe conduct to Luther; though, to appease the

legate, he promised that Luther should not be suffered to defend, but

simply to acknowledge or recant his doctrines. The undaunted reformer

obeyed the summons with alacrity. His journey to Worms was like a

triumphal procession, and his reception, from all orders of men, evinced

the highest respect and admiration. Greater crowds assembled to behold

him than had been drawn together by the public entry of the emperor; and

his apartments were crowded daily and hourly with persons of the highest

rank and consequence. On his appearance before the diet he behaved with

great propriety, and acted with equal prudence and firmness. He

acknowledged without hesitation, the works published under his name, but

divided them into three classes. The first, he adroitly observed,

relating to faith and good works, contained doctrines which were not

disapproved even by his adversaries; the second, relating to the power

and decrees of the pope, he could not retract without injuring his

conscience, and contributing to the support of papal tyranny; and, in

the third, consisting of his writings against his opponents, he

acknowledged, with regret, that the provocation of his adversaries had

urged him beyond the bounds of moderation. He concluded, as usual, with

declining to retract the condemned propositions, until convinced by

arguments from reason and Scripture, not by the fallible authority of

popes and councils, which experience had proved to be frequently

erroneous and contradictory. When again required to recant, he persisted

in his resolution, and concluded with exclaiming. ‘Here I stand, I can

do no more. God be my help. Amen.’

“The papal legate, and some of the members of the diet, provoked at his

contumacy, exhorted the emperor to imitate the example of his

predecessor, Sigismond, by withdrawing his protection from an heretic;

but Charles rejected their advice with becoming disdain. He was,

however, no less exasperated at the refusal of Luther to recant; and,

after the second examination, retired in the evening to his cabinet, and

drew up, with his own hand, a declaration of his attachment to the

church, and of his resolution to proscribe the condemned doctrines.

‘Descended as I am,’ he said, ‘from the Christian emperors of Germany,

the Catholic kings of Spain, and from the archdukes of Austria and the

dukes of Burgundy, all of whom have preserved, to the last moment of

their lives, their fidelity to the church, and have always been the

defenders and protectors of the Catholic faith, its decrees, ceremonies,

and usages, I have been, am still, and will ever be devoted to those

Christian doctrines, and the constitution of the church, which they have

left to me as a sacred inheritance. And as it is evident that a single

monk has advanced opinions contrary to the sentiments of all Christians,

past and present, I am firmly determined to wipe away the reproach which

a toleration of such errors would cast on Germany, and to employ all my

power and resources, my body, my blood, my life, and even my soul, in

checking the progress of this sacrilegious doctrine. I will not,

therefore, permit Luther to enter into any further explanation, and will

instantly dismiss, and afterwards treat him as an heretic; but I will

not violate my safe conduct, and will cause him to be reconducted to

Wittemberg in safety.’

“The edict of Worms was passed on the 28th of May, but, to give it the

appearance of unanimity, was antedated the 8th. It declared Luther a

heretic and schismatic, confirmed the sentence of the pope, and

denounced the ban of the empire against all who should defend, maintain,

or protect him. To prevent also the dissemination of his opinions, it

prohibited the impression of any book on matters of faith, without the

approbation of the ordinary, and of some neighbouring university.

“Fortunately for the Reformation, the emperor was prevented from

executing the edict of Worms by his absence from Germany, by the civil

commotions in Spain, and still more by the war with Francis I., which

extended into Spain, the Low Countries, and Italy, and for above eight

years involved him in a continued series of contests and negotiations at

a distance from Germany.

“Even in the hereditary countries of the house of Austria the

Reformation found numerous advocates. Notwithstanding Ferdinand had

endeavoured to enforce the edict of Worms, the evangelical principles

were not only received by the people, but were adopted by many of the

higher orders, and by the professors of the university of Vienna. The

same spirit pervaded Bohemia; and that country, so feebly connected with

the church and the empire, seemed again likely to become the scene of

those religious troubles by which it had been desolated during the

Hussite wars.

“The Reformation, thus successful in Germany, spread with equal rapidity

in the neighbouring countries. Zuingle, the illustrious head of the

reformed church in Switzerland, who had preceded Luther in his attacks

against the Roman see, who equalled him in zeal and intrepidity, and

surpassed him in learning and candor, had advanced with more daring

steps; and free from the restraints which subjection to the will of a

sovereign had imposed on the German divine, had overturned the whole

fabric of the established worship. So early as 1524, the canton of

Zurich renounced the supremacy of the pope; and, in 1528, Bern, Basle,

and Schaffhausen, and part of the Grisons, Glarus, and Appenzel,

followed the example.

“The reformed doctrines spread likewise over the kingdoms of the north:

Christian II., the brother-in-law of Charles, had been driven from the

throne of Sweden by Gustavus Vasa, and from that of Denmark by Frederic

of Oldenburgh; and in both countries the jurisdiction of the pope was

abolished, and the Lutheran declared the established religion. In

England, also, the influence and authority of the church experienced a

similar decline; the Reformation was received by the people with an

eagerness which all the despotism of the sovereign could not repress,

and even Henry VIII. himself, who, by writing against Luther, had

acquired the title of Defender of the Faith, was preparing to undermine

the authority of the pope, and was suing for that divorce from his

queen, Catherine of Arragon, which soon afterwards occasioned the

separation of England from the see of Rome. In France a similar schism

took place, notwithstanding the efforts of Francis I., who, while he

encouraged the reformers of Germany, persecuted them in his own

dominions: a considerable party which had seceded from the church, had

been already formed under the auspices of Farell, and afterwards

increased by the labours of Calvin, from whom they received the

denomination of Calvinists.

“The progress of the reformed doctrines, and the conduct of the reformed

princes, was not likely to allay the animosity which subsisted between

the two religious parties. The Catholics presented urgent and continual

representations to the emperor; and, on the other hand, the Lutherans

exerted every effort to maintain and extend their cause, by entering

into associations, and making preparations to resist aggression. Above

all, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, a prince perhaps sincere in his

attachment to the new religion, but violent, ambitious, and interested,

collected troops, and after alarming all Germany by dubious threats,

commenced aggression by invading the territories of the bishops of

Wurtzburg and Bamberg. The Catholic princes, being ill-prepared to

retaliate, the civil war which now threatened Germany, and which

afterwards burst forth with such fury, was suspended by their moderate

language and pacific assurances; and Philip disbanded his troops, after

receiving considerable sums of money in disbursement of his expenses.

The reformed party were thus encouraged by the timidity and irresolution

of their adversaries, and the animosity of the Catholics was augmented

by their own humiliation.

“Hence the emperor summoned, in 1529, a second diet at Spire, for the

usual purpose of opposing the Turks, who had overrun Hungary, and even

threatened the Austrian territories; but principally for terminating the

contests relating to religion. It was opened on the 15th of March, and

in the absence of the emperor, presided over by Ferdinand, who had

recently succeeded to the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. Every other

consideration yielded to the affairs of religion; and the Catholics,

sensible of the fatal consequences derived from the vote passed at the

preceding diet of Spire, united the influence of their whole body to

procure its repeal or modification. By a majority of voices a decree was

passed, under the pretence of explaining, but virtually repealing the

former edict of toleration, which was declared to have been

misunderstood, and to have given rise to a variety of new doctrines. It

was enacted, that in all places where the edict of Worms had been

executed, it should be still observed, till the meeting of a council;

that those who had adopted the new opinions should desist from all

further innovations; that the mass should be re-established in all

places where it had been abolished, and the Catholic subjects of

reformed princes be suffered to enjoy unlimited toleration. The

ministers of the Gospel were to preach the word of God, according to the

interpretation of the church, and to abstain from promulgating new

doctrines. No hostilities were to be committed under pretence of

religion, and no prince was to protect the subjects of another. The

severest penalties were denounced against the Anabaptists; and

regulations were established against the reformed sect called

Sacramentarians, who, in the doctrine of the real presence in the

sacrament, differed both from the Catholics and Lutherans.

“The Lutherans could not avoid perceiving the intent of this decree, and

were justly alarmed with its probable consequences. After in vain

endeavouring to prevent it from receiving the approbation of the diet,

they published their dissent by a regular protest. They declared that

what had been decided unanimously in one diet, ought not to be revoked

in another by a majority: and as the mass had been proved by their

ministers to be contrary to the institution of Christ, they could not

conscientiously permit its use among their subjects, or allow the absurd

practice of administering the communion according to two different forms

in the same place. They reprobated the clause which enacted the

preaching of the Gospel according to the interpretations of the church,

because it did not determine which was the true church. They argued that

the Scripture, as the only certain and infallible rule of life, ought to

be explained by itself alone, and not by human traditions, which are

doubtful and uncertain; and they, therefore, declared their resolution

to suffer nothing to be taught except the Old and New Testament in their

pristine purity. They readily acceded to the proscription of the

Anabaptists; but with a liberality of sentiment, which they afterwards

belied, they refused to join in proscribing the Sacramentarians, on the

same principle which they had claimed for themselves, that no doctrines

ought to be condemned until they had been heard and refuted. They

concluded with professing their earnest desire to maintain tranquillity,

and their acquiescence in the prosecution of those who were said to have

violated the peace, before equitable judges.

“This protest was signed by John, elector of Saxony, George, margrave of

Brandenburgh Anspach, Ernest and Francis, dukes of Brunswick Lunenberg,

Philip, landgrave of Hesse Cassel, Wolfgang, prince of Anhalt, and

fourteen imperial cities, who thus appealed to the emperor and to a

future council. From this _protest_ the Lutherans acquired the name of

Protestants, which has been since applied to all who separated from the

church of Rome.

“Notwithstanding the remonstrance of the Protestants, the decree of the

diet of Spire was but the prelude to still severer measures, which the

emperor was determined to enforce by his presence, when relieved from

the war in which he was then engaged. He had, therefore, no sooner

concluded the treaty of Barcelona with the pope, and that of Cambray

with Francis, than he quitted Spain with a resolution to restore the

unity of the church. At Placentia, being met by a deputation with the

protest of the Lutherans, he arrested the deputies, and arrogantly

required its revocation. He continued his route to Bologna, where he was

met on the 21st of February, 1520, by Clement VII., and received the

crowns of Lombardy and of the empire with more than usual solemnity.

“During his stay at Bologna he was induced, by the advice of his

chancellor Gattinara, to assume at least the appearance of more mildness

and moderation than he had before displayed, and to fulfil his repeated

promises of endeavouring to procure the convocation of a general

council. With this view he held frequent and private conferences with

Clement; but he was unable to overcome his repugnance, and was persuaded

by the pontiff to resume his intention of employing force, if he failed

in effecting the re-union of the church by mild and moderate measures.

In consequence of this determination, he summoned a diet to meet at

Augsburgh in April, in a circular letter, dated January 1, which

breathes the spirit of conciliation and Christianity. ‘I have convened,’

he observed, ‘this assembly, to consider the difference of opinions on

the subject of religion; and it is my intention to hear both parties

with candour and charity, to examine their respective arguments, to

correct and reform what requires to be corrected and reformed, that the

truth being known, and harmony re-established, there may, in future, be

only one pure and simple faith, and, as all are disciples of the same

Jesus, all may form one and the same church.’

“A subsequent letter, in which he prorogued the meeting till the 15th of

May, was couched in expressions equally temperate and equitable. Yet,

notwithstanding these specious declarations of impartiality and

moderation, the Protestant princes had just reason to doubt his

sincerity. They recollected his earnest endeavours to enforce the edict

of Worms, and the exertion of all his influence and authority in the

empire to obtain the edict of the second diet of Spire. The preamble of

the treaty of Madrid, in which he had unequivocally announced his

hostility to their doctrines, and the arrest of the deputies who carried

their protest, were the most public proofs of his intentions. They were

also alarmed at his long residence at Bologna, and his frequent

conferences and good understanding with the pope; and they had already

learned to dread and suspect his dissimulation. In fact, the Protestant

princes were so convinced that the emperor covered, under fair words,

the most intolerant and despotic designs, that they deliberated whether

they should not instantly assemble their forces, conclude an alliance

with Zurich and Berne, and attack him before he was in a situation to

subjugate them. But this resolution, of which subsequent events proved

the expediency, was counteracted by the divines of Wittemberg, and by

none more than Luther, who, though fierce in debate, and overbearing in

controversy, was averse to war, and exhorted the elector to leave to God

the defence of his own cause.”

Coxe goes on to tell all the action of Charles against the Protestants,

first under the mask of moderation and then in open violence, until he

was compelled to the religious truce of 1532 by an eruption of the Turks

into Hungary, threatening Austria also with invasion, an event requiring

the union of the Protestant and Catholic States against a common enemy.

Meanwhile the Catholics had obtained from Charles the appointment of a

king of the Romans, who being attached “to the Church, might by his

presence give force to the government, and support to the Catholic

cause. With a natural partiality he proposed his brother Ferdinand, who,

in addition to the hereditary countries of the house of Austria, had

recently obtained the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. He positively

refused to accept any other coadjutor; and his powerful influence

concurring with the wishes of the Catholic electors, Ferdinand was

regularly chosen by the whole college, except the elector of Saxony, on

the 5th of January, 1531.

“The religious feuds being thus suspended, the German states were

enabled to turn their whole force against the enemy of Christendom. The

Protestants, eager to prove that their recent opposition had been merely

derived from motives of conscience, exerted themselves with unusual

alacrity, doubled and even trebled their contingents; and by their

assistance Charles was principally enabled to lead an army in person

against the infidels, and expel them from the Austrian dominions. He

displayed, however, but little gratitude for this assistance; for he was

no sooner relieved from his apprehensions of the Turks, than he

encouraged the imperial chamber to recommence its proceedings against

the Protestants, under the plea that the agreement of Nuremberg regarded

the toleration of religious opinions, and not the possession of

ecclesiastical property. The Protestants, roused by these proceedings,

again renewed the confederacy of Smalkalde, and their engagements with

foreign states; while their active and enterprising chief, the landgrave

of Hesse, entered, with a considerable army, into the territories of

Wirtemberg, defeated the Austrian troops at Lauffen, and restored the

duchy to duke Ulric, who had embraced the Protestant doctrines.

“At this juncture the more timid or moderate of the Catholics

interfered, and, through their interposition, and the mediation of the

elector of Mentz and George duke of Saxony, with the chiefs of the

Protestant party, a convention was concluded, on the 29th of July, 1534,

at Cadan, in Bohemia. The convention of Nuremberg was renewed and

confirmed, and the Protestants acknowledged Ferdinand as king of the

Romans. To save the honour of the emperor, the duke of Wirtemberg and

the landgrave of Hesse were to demand pardon on their knees; but the

duke was allowed to retain possession of his territories on the

condition that the duchy should become a mesne fief of the house of

Austria, and that he should tolerate all religious opinions. John

Frederic, the new elector of Saxony, who had recently succeeded his

father, John the Constant, and was, like him, attached to the Protestant

doctrines, was to receive the investiture of his dominions; and all

processes in the imperial chamber, against the Protestants, were to be

again suspended. Both parties agreed to exclude from the benefit of this

treaty the Sacramentarians, and all other sects who maintained tenets

contrary to the confession of Augsburgh and the Roman Catholic church.

“Charles was anxious to support the Catholics from attachment to the

religion of his ancestors, from his interests as king of Spain and

sovereign of the Netherlands, and from his desire to recover his

authority as emperor; and for these reasons he was determined to exert

his whole force in effecting the restoration of the Catholic cause. But

duly appreciating the delicacy and difficulty of his situation, he

prepared for the contest with his usual foresight, art, and sagacity.

Sensible that violent measures would only unite the Protestants and

alienate the most moderate of the Catholics, he endeavoured to adopt

such a line of conduct, that to the Protestants he should appear only to

prosecute a civil contest, and to the Catholics, to vindicate the honour

of the church and of the empire, and compel refractory schismatics to

submit their objections to the impartial decisions of a general council.

He pursued this plan with unabated perseverance, notwithstanding all the

clamours of the zealous Catholics, and all the remonstrances,

reproaches, and intrigues of the new pontiff, Paul III., who reprobated

the slightest degree of toleration, and was averse to the interference

of a lay prince in ecclesiastical affairs.

“From the edict of Worms to the private act of toleration at the diet at

Ratisbon, Charles had either granted or withheld liberty of conscience,

as he was in friendship or at enmity with the pope and the Turks; yet he

never abandoned his design of compelling the Lutherans to return to the

church, and considered his occasional concessions only as temporary

expedients which he was justified in resuming. With these views he

concluded the peace of Crespy with Francis, on the 18th of September,

1544; and introduced into the treaty a secret article, binding the

French monarch to assist in crushing the Lutheran heresy, and in

enforcing the decree of the council which was about to be summoned; and

he was, in 1506, relieved from all other foreign embarrassments, by the

conclusion of a truce for five years, between his brother, as king of

Hungary, and Solyman the Magnificent, sultan of the Turks.”

It is not necessary to state here the events of this well known war,

every turn of which shows that the worst qualities of the house of

Hapsburgh were concentrated in Charles and made effective by his

military and diplomatic talents. In 1555 the war was concluded by “the

religious peace of Passau,” presided over by Ferdinand, who was

interested to conciliate the Protestant powers, that he might obtain

assistance against the Turks. From all this portion of history we may

see that if the house of Austria did not suppress the Reformation, it

was through no scruples of respect for the rights of conscience.

Before speaking of the destruction of Italy, for it was nothing less, by

Charles VI., and his destruction of the constitution of Spain, we will

turn to consider that of Ferdinand in the East of Europe.

After having obtained from Charles the cession of Austria, and

suppressed a rebellion there by the execution of its leaders, his

marriage with Anne, princess of Bohemia and Hungary, paved the way for

his final triumphs over those countries. The marriage of Louis of

Hungary with his sister also gave colour to claims on that country which

in the course of time he made good. For he claimed the crowns of Hungary

and Bohemia on the death of Louis, who fell in a war with Solyman the

Magnificent, when, having in vain appealed to the pope, the emperor and

the German states for aid, that unfortunate monarch undertook to meet at

Mohatz an army of 200,000 with 30,000 men. Ferdinand presumed on “a

double title: the one derived from family compacts, which secured the

reversion to the house of Austria, in failure of male issue to the

reigning family; and the other in right of his wife Anna, the only

sister of the deceased monarch. But the natives of Hungary and Bohemia

were too much attached to their rights of election to respect these

compacts, or even to acknowledge his claims as husband of the princess;

and Ferdinand, prudently waiving his pretensions, offered himself as a

candidate according to the usual mode of election. Being only opposed in

Bohemia by Albert, duke of Bavaria, he was, on the 26th of October,

1526, elected by a committee of twenty persons, who were appointed by

the states to choose a king.

“The new sovereign, in his letters of thanks to the states, promised to

ratify all their rights and privileges, to observe the religious

compacts, to raise no foreigners to any office of state, to coin good

money, to govern the kingdom according to ancient customs and laws, and

to reside at Prague. He also acknowledged, by public act, his election

to the monarchy, as the free choice of the barons, nobles, and states of

Bohemia, and disowned all other rights and pretensions. He soon

afterwards repaired to Iglau, where he took the usual oaths; and,

continuing his journey to the capital, was crowned with his wife Anne in

the cathedral, on the 4th of February, 1527.

“After taking possession of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, at that time

dependencies on Bohemia, he proceeded to Hungary, where the succession

to the crown was contested by a more powerful rival than the duke of

Bavaria.

“John of Zapoli, count of Zips, and waivode of Transylvania, being at

the head of 40,000 men, whom he had led into the field to join his

sovereign before the battle of Mohatz, offered himself as a candidate

for the crown; and having convened the states at Tokay, was chosen by a

large party of the nobles, who were averse to the rule of a foreigner.

In November, 1526, he was crowned at Alba Regia with the sacred diadem

of St. Stephen, by the Archbishop of Gran, and took up his residence at

Buda, the capital of the kingdom, which had been recently evacuated by

the Turks.

“On the other hand, Mary, the widow of the deceased monarch, and sister

of Ferdinand, summoned, in conjunction with the palatine, a diet at

Presburgh; and a party of the nobles, after declaring the election of

John illegal, because the assembly at Tokay was not regularly convoked

by the palatine, raised Ferdinand to the throne. The new sovereign

supported his election by marching to Presburgh with a powerful army of

Germans and Bohemians, was joyfully received by his party, took an oath

to confirm the rights and privileges of the nation, and proceeded,

without delay, towards Buda. Raab, Commorn, Gran, and Alba Regia

surrendered without opposition; John retired from the capital, and

Ferdinand made his triumphant entry. A numerous meeting of the states,

assembled in a new diet, confirmed the proceedings at Presburgh,

declared Ferdinand king, and proclaimed John and his adherents enemies

of their country if they did not, within twenty-six days, desist from

their contumacy. Ferdinand gained many of the nobles by favours and

promises; his troops defeated those of his rival in various encounters;

and John himself was compelled to take refuge in Poland, under the

protection of Sigismond I., who had married his sister.

“Ferdinand was accordingly crowned by the archbishop of Gran, whom he

had detached from the party of John; and after obtaining the ban of the

diet against his rival, and appointing a council of regency during his

absence, quitted Hungary in full possession of the whole kingdom.”

But before going on with Ferdinand’s transactions in Hungary, which we

defer to the end of the book, we shall hear Coxe relate his destruction

of the constitutional rights of Bohemia, in the XXXIVth chapter of his

history.

“We have already seen that Bohemia was an elective monarchy.

“On his accession to the throne, the king was always constrained to

acknowledge the right of election, and all the privileges of his

subjects, and promise to govern according to the ancient constitution

and statutes, particularly those of the Emperor Charles IV. The power of

the crown was extremely limited, as well by the privileges of the

different orders, as by the authority of the diet, without which he

could not impose taxes, raise troops, make war or peace, coin money, or

institute and abrogate laws.

“The diet, which shared with the king the executive and legislative

authorities, consisted of the three estates of the realm; the barons,

the knights or equestrian order, and deputies from certain privileged

cities. By the laws the king alone possessed the right of convocation,

but in turbulent times the states frequently assembled at the

instigation of the principal barons, or by a common impulse in which the

capital bore a considerable share. The number of members, instead of

being uniform, depended on the exigency of the moment, or the importance

of affairs, sometimes consisting only of a few, and at others forming a

turbulent and heterogeneous assemblage of several hundred.

“Besides all these restrictions which had more or less controlled the

preceding sovereigns, there were others arising from religious affairs,

which particularly shocked the prejudices and thwarted the views of

Ferdinand.

“From the accession of George Podiebrad, the equipoise established

between the Catholics and Calixtins produced continual struggles and

confusion, until his successor Ladislaus, in a diet holden at

Kuttenberg, in 1485, procured the conclusion of a religious peace for

thirty-three years, by which the Catholics and Calixtins agreed to

abstain from mutual persecution; the priests were allowed to preach

freely the word of God; and the compacts approved by the council of

Basle, which had been revoked by the popes, were to be restored and

maintained. These wise regulations suppressed the public dissensions;

but the new opinions of Luther spreading from the contiguous parts of

Saxony, found a ready reception among a people habituated to religious

discussions, and divided into almost as many different sects as there

were priests and preachers. The introduction of the reformed opinions

exciting a new ferment induced the government, which administered the

affairs of Bohemia during the reign of Louis, to prevent their diffusion

by persecution and banishment. Many of the most remarkable Lutherans

were driven from the kingdom; but the majority taking refuge under the

name of Calixtins, carried their own principles into that body, while

their numbers increased its weight and influence. So great, indeed, was

the preponderance of Lutheranism in that sect, that in a committee

selected for the purpose of establishing among themselves uniformity of

opinion, they chose, as their chief or administrator, Howel Czahera,

pastor of one of the churches of Prague, who had been educated at

Wittemberg, and had distinguished himself in the propagation of the

Lutheran doctrines.

“By this similarity of religious sentiments, a more powerful bond than

the frail connections of policy or interest was formed between the

Bohemians and Saxons. The reformers of Germany courted the sectaries of

Bohemia as a body who, by weight and numbers, gave an essential support

to their cause; while the sectaries of Bohemia favoured every new

opinion and approved every innovation, which tended to depress the

hierarchy and diminish the influence of the Roman see.

“Such was the civil and religious state of Bohemia when Ferdinand

ascended the throne. He did not attempt to infringe the privileges

secured by the constitution to the Calixtins; but, as in his other

dominions, he laboured to check the progress of the Reformation, and

exercised the utmost rigour against those who disseminated religious

opinions not tolerated by law; in particular, he obtained from the diet

of Budeweiss a decree of proscription against all sects, not tolerated

by the compacts, and a sentence of banishment against the Calixtine

administrator Czahera, who had distinguished himself for his zeal and

turbulence. As the means of diminishing the influence of the capital, he

removed several magistrates, and again separated the magistracy of the

old and new towns, which had been united since the time of Ladislaus,

and forbade all attempts for effecting their re-union under the penalty

of high treason.

“Notwithstanding these innovations, he obtained considerable support

from the Bohemians during the Turkish war; and a long absence for ten

years, during which no remarkable event occurred, seems to have weakened

the impression occasioned by such acts of authority. During this time he

made a fruitless attempt to disarm the nobles by requiring their

artillery, under the pretext of employing it against the Turks; but

having concluded the peace with Solyman, he ventured on more decisive

innovations. He re-established the archiepiscopal see of Prague, and

empowered the archbishop to consecrate the Calixtine as well as Catholic

priests; and he excited the jealousy of the whole kingdom by formally

revoking the reversal, by which he had acknowledged the right of

election in the states, and declaring himself hereditary sovereign, in

virtue of his marriage with Anne, and of the exploded compacts between

the Bohemian and Austrian princes.

“This unpopular and glaring breach of faith could not fail to excite the

highest indignation among a people so jealous of their privileges; and

the religious war in Germany brought on a crisis, which was equally

dangerous to the sovereign and the subject, and occasioned the loss of

that darling liberty for which the Bohemians had so long sacrificed the

blessings of peace and tranquillity.

“When Charles had determined to reduce by force the league of Smalkalde,

and to subdue the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse Cassel,

Ferdinand raised a considerable number of troops in the Austrian

dominions, and prepared to collect an army in Bohemia, to co-operate

with his brother. But as he was well aware of the tendency of his

Bohemian subjects to the Lutheran opinions, and knew that a compact of

hereditary friendship and amity with the elector of Saxony, concluded at

Egra in 1459, was still in force, he endeavoured to elude the privileges

of the states, by entangling them with opposite engagements, and

involving them in the war before they could suspect or thwart his

designs. He accordingly summoned a diet at Prague, on the 27th of July,

1546, and obtained their consent to raise a certain number of troops for

the purpose of defending the country, or, if necessary, of marching

against the Turks, or _other enemies of the kingdom_, according to the

direction of the king, his governor, or the burgrave of Prague. As

Maurice of Saxony was then at Prague, he also persuaded the states to

renew with him the ancient compact between Bohemia and the house of

Saxony, in order to counteract their engagements with the electoral

branch.

“During these transactions, he published, in the Bohemian tongue, the

ban which the emperor had issued against the elector of Saxony and the

landgrave of Hesse; declared that, in consequence of this ban, all

alliances with those princes were dissolved; and forbade, under pain of

death, all his Bohemian subjects from supplying them with succours or

provisions.

“The troops, however, who had been voted by the diet, and assembled at

Kathen, rose into mutiny on receiving orders from their general,

Wertmuhle, to make an irruption into the Voigtland, a part of the

electoral dominions. They clamorously urged, that by the vote of the

diet, they were collected to defend the country, not to pass the

frontiers; they therefore refused to march against their ally, the

elector of Saxony; declared the war to be unjust, and expressed their

reluctance to commit hostilities against their fellow Christians, who,

as well as themselves, received the holy communion under both kinds. The

greater part, however, being at length prevailed upon by emissaries from

Ferdinand to obey their orders, they marched into the Voigtland, laid

waste the country, defeated the electoral troops in two engagements, and

after remaining in the field till the beginning of December, returned

into Bohemia. At the close of the campaign, Ferdinand punished the

disobedience of those troops who had refused to pass the frontiers; he

arrested the ringleaders, condemned them to death, and after executing

the most factious, pardoned the rest at the intercession of his queen.

“At the commencement of the next year, he hastened to mature his plan,

and to liberate himself from the shackles imposed by the constitution,

by an extraordinary act of authority, which none of his predecessors had

ventured to exercise without the consent of the states.

“In a mandate bearing date the 12th day of January, 1547, he declared,

‘John Frederic, late elector of Saxony, is preparing to invade Bohemia,

and the territory of Maurice, duke of Saxony, and margrave of Misnia,

and has with this view occupied the convent of Dobroluc, and two

villages. The states of Lower Lusatia, as members of the crown of

Bohemia, and prince Maurice, in virtue of the hereditary compact

recently concluded at the diet of Prague, require succours. We, as king

of Hungary, will bring into the field 14,000 men; our brother, the

emperor, has sent troops to our assistance, and the Lusatians,

Silesians, and Moravians are in motion. The Bohemians must also send an

army into the field.’ It then ordered certain levies of men to be raised

according to the feudal tenures; and to appear at Leutmeritz, with a

month’s provisions and pay. It concluded, ‘Either we the king, or our

son the archduke, will lead the army in person; and all who do not obey

these our commands, shall, according to the laws of the land, be

deprived of their honours, lives, and property.’

“This unprecedented act of authority excited general indignation, and

the three towns of Prague were the foremost to resist its execution.

When the deputies presented their remonstrance, Ferdinand indignantly

replied, ‘What we have commanded is for your advantage, and ye are

culpable in acting contrary to our orders. We declare that you are

guilty of all the former and present misfortunes in this war. God will

punish your disobedience.’ The deputies excusing themselves, by replying

that they could not control the inclinations of the people, the king

rejoined, ‘We have told you our opinion, and we will give you no other

answer, since we have commanded nothing that is unjust. This is not the

first time that you have been disobedient.’ When the deputies presented

a memorial, stating that the levy of troops ought to be approved by a

general diet, he endeavoured to stimulate their pride by reproaches of

disobedience and pusillanimity, and by recalling to their recollection

the heroic courage of their ancestors. He concluded by saying, ‘We are

determined to prosecute this warfare, whether you will go with us or

not. If you accompany us, you do us a favour, and we shall be inclined

to treat you with kindness; but, if you persist in your disobedience,

you are alone accountable for all the misfortunes which may overwhelm

you.’ These reproaches, being attended with no effect, Ferdinand quitted

the city, full of indignation, and repaired to Leutmeritz. Here he found

a numerous assembly of nobles, knights, and deputies of the towns who

formed the states of that province which he had convoked. But from them

he was assailed with the same remonstrances as had been made by the

burghers of Prague. When the proposal for raising troops was laid before

the meeting, they requested him to convoke a general diet, which could

alone authorise the levy, and promised to support the proposition, if

made according to custom and law; and they declared that the mandate of

the 12th of January was contrary to their privileges and liberties. This

remonstrance, conveyed in mild but firm expressions, convinced the king

that it was necessary to have recourse to soothing measures. Having

summoned the principal deputies into his presence, he condescended to

inform them that the danger was too pressing to admit of delay, or to

allow time for the convocation of a diet. He had promised assistance, he

said, to Maurice of Saxony, who was encamped within only four miles of

the enemy; he had already begun his march, and could not retreat without

forfeiting his honour. He therefore entreated them not to forsake him,

or compel him to disgrace himself by a breach of his promise. He engaged

to recall the mandate of the 12th of January, and offered to give full

security that no violation of their privileges should in future result

from this step, and to declare that they took the field not from

obligation, but from compliance with the request of their sovereign. The

assembly, overcome by these professions, fulfilled his wishes as far as

was consistent with the laws of their country. They gave to every baron,

knight, and burgher, liberty to follow, or not to follow the king to the

field, freely and uncompelled, not for the purpose of succouring prince

Maurice, not in obedience to the mandate of the 12th of January, nor in

virtue of the recent compact with Maurice, but solely to defend the

person of the king, and to protect him from danger. They also promised

to persuade the other states of the kingdom to follow their example; and

Ferdinand, after tendering his acknowledgments for these resolutions,

continued his march to Dresden.

“During these transactions, the capital was the scene of tumult and

alarm. The Calixtine members of nine circles, as well nobles and knights

as deputies from the towns, flocking to Prague, united themselves with

the citizens in a solemn confederacy, to defend those rights and

privileges, ancient laws and customs, which had been granted by their

sovereigns, and recently confirmed by Ferdinand. They also signed a

memorial to the king, in which they earnestly requested him to convoke a

diet at Prague, for the purpose of laying before all the states the

affair of the levies; and they concluded by observing, that if he did

not himself summon the diet, the states would of their own authority

assemble on that day, and deliberate on the business.

“To their memorial the king made the same reply as to the states

assembled at Leutmeritz; he promised to hold a diet in person at Prague,

eight days after Easter; forbade them in the interim to assemble, and at

the same time issued his summons to all the circles and towns.

“This measure might have pacified the states, had not the elector of

Saxony gained a considerable advantage over the margrave of

Brandenburgh, who was marching to the assistance of prince Maurice. The

victory encouraged the Bohemians to persist in their opposition, while

it filled Ferdinand with new apprehensions. He instantly despatched

general Wertmuhle to Commotau, and ordered all the states of the kingdom

to send troops under his command, and to supply with provisions the army

of the emperor, who was advancing to Egra to protect Bohemia, and

succour prince Maurice. But this mandate was not obeyed; the states,

which had assembled at Prague, declared the summons of the king and

Wertmuhle illegal, and expressed their resolution to maintain the

hereditary compact with the elector of Saxony; they dispersed a printed

letter through all the circles, exhorting the nobles, knights, and

towns, to join in their confederacy, and declared that those who did not

present themselves before Easter should not be admitted. ‘As numerous

bodies of men were collecting in the neighbouring countries,’ they gave

directions for assembling an army to defend Bohemia, their native land,

from all foreign attacks; to protect their wives and children, property

and vassals, from the hand of violence, and to support each other

against all aggressors. They even imposed a tax on all property for the

maintenance of the national army, appointed a commander-in-chief, and

made arrangements according to ancient custom. In case of extreme

necessity, they summoned all who were capable of bearing arms into the

field, and denounced confiscation of property and banishment against all

who should refuse to serve. They moreover named a committee consisting

of four nobles, four knights, and the magistrates of Prague, to act as

delegates, with full powers, in the name of the three estates.

“Notice being brought that prince Maurice and his brother Augustus of

Saxony had marched with more than 7000 troops to Brix, they issued

instant orders throughout all the circles, to assemble levies for the

purpose of resisting this invasion. They sent a remonstrance to the

king, in which they expressed their surprise that foreign troops had

entered Bohemia without the knowledge and approbation of the states, and

with an implied threat of resistance, they exhorted him to induce the

two dukes of Saxony to return. They also despatched messengers to the

states of Moravia and Lusatia, announcing their common danger, and

requesting succours.

“Ferdinand, in reply to these remonstrances, informed them that he was

arrived at Brix, and in company with the two dukes of Saxony, was

marching through Bohemia, to join the army of the emperor. His object,

he declared, was to protect the kingdom against the elector of Saxony,

who had been put under the ban of the empire, and who had not only

occupied Joachimsthal and Presnitz, but had extorted an oath from the

inhabitants to arm in his defence. The irruption of the emperor, with

20,000 Spanish veterans, into the province of Egra, excited general

indignation and alarm; and the committee circulated their mandates,

ordering all persons to repair to Prague for the purpose of marching

against the enemy, while the burghers of the capital flocked in crowds

to offer their personal services.

“Ferdinand, informed of these movements, testified his surprise and

dissatisfaction that troops should be levied when no enemy was at hand,

and when he himself was marching to join the emperor at Egra. He

promised to prevail on the emperor not to pass through the kingdom,

assured the states that he had no inclination to infringe their

liberties, and again exhorted them to lay down their arms, and to wait

in tranquillity his arrival at Prague. These representations from a

sovereign who had excited the jealousy of his subjects by his

innovations, were attended with no effect; the delegates justified their

proceedings, and declared that they had taken up arms because the states

had certain information of a design to overturn the constitution,

destroy the kingdom, and extirpate the language of Bohemia. And, as the

king and the chief burgrave to whom the defence of the crown belonged,

were absent, they were compelled for their own security to levy an army,

and appoint a commander, not to act against the king, but for the

purpose of protecting his daughter, the archduchess, who was consigned

to their care, and to secure their country from the invasion of foreign

troops. They could not, they observed, revoke the summons, and prevent

the levies; they therefore entreated his majesty to divert the emperor

from the effusion of Christian blood, and to return to the capital

without delay. At the same time the delegates assured the elector of

Saxony of their fixed resolution to maintain and renew the ancient

compact, summoned the states to come forward in defence of the crown, of

their liberties, and native tongue; and earnestly exhorted them to

remain true to the electoral house of Saxony, since the hereditary

compact was a principal prerogative of the crown, and a rock of defence

to the subjects. To the emperor, who remonstrated against their taking

up arms, they replied they did not rise against him or their king, but

in defence of their privileges, and in support of their ancient

alliances. They exhorted him, as the head of Christendom, to spare the

effusion of Christian blood, to be reconciled to the elector, and lead

his own forces, with those of the Christian world, against the Turks,

the inveterate enemies of the Christian faith.

“In the midst of these transactions the diet assembled at Prague, and

the importance of the occasion drew such numbers of deputies, that they

overflowed the place of assembly, and crowded in the square before the

palace. The hereditary compact between George Podiebrad and the elector

of Saxony was read, and the public discontents were inflamed by the

complaints of several officers, that the king had threatened to punish

them with death if they refused to pass the frontiers.

“Two days afterwards, the royal commissaries being introduced, required

the states in the king’s name to dismiss their troops, and dissolve

their confederacy. These commands were enforced by an embassy from the

emperor, who exhorted the states to lay down their arms, and pay due

obedience to their lawful sovereign.

“Instead, however, of paying attention to these representations, the

states drew up an apology for their conduct, and appointed ambassadors

to the king and the emperor, who were commissioned to represent that the

state of Bohemia had been, from time immemorial, accustomed for the sake

of peace and unanimity, to contract confederacies with each other, of

which the documents had been recently destroyed by fire. In regard to

the levy of forces, their forefathers, they said, had always raised

troops whenever a foreign army approached the frontiers, and they

themselves had only acted in conformity with this ancient custom without

the least intention of injuring the emperor or the king, their

sovereign. They concluded by observing, that as the states had prorogued

their meeting till the ensuing Whitsuntide, they hoped the ambassadors

would, in the interim, obtain the king’s approbation, and induce him to

mediate a peace between the emperor and the elector of Saxony, and then

to lead an army against the Turks.

“Before the departure of the ambassadors, a messenger from Ferdinand

announced the total defeat and capture of the elector of Saxony at

Muhlberg; and, to discourage the states, the intelligence was publicly

read before the diet. On this occasion, this numerous assembly evinced

all the versatility of a popular body, easily roused, and as suddenly

depressed. Those very men, who, with the hope of foreign assistance, had

displayed such resolution to assert their liberties, the descendants of

those who under Ziska had singly resisted or deposed their sovereigns,

and spread terror throughout Germany, no sooner saw themselves deprived

of foreign support, than they sank into a servility and despondency as

degrading as their former presumption and petulance were imprudent. Many

of the members hastened from Prague, others who had unwillingly united

in the confederacy, rejoiced, and all affected to join the royalists in

their eager demonstrations of loyalty. The states congratulated the king

on the victory, and represented, that as the war was now concluded, and

as they fully confided in his gracious promise not to introduce foreign

troops into Bohemia, they were willing to dismiss their levies, and

permit the free transport of provisions to the imperial army. On the

following day orders were issued to their commander-in-chief to disband

their forces.

“Ferdinand made no other reply to these tardy offers of submission than

threats and reproaches; and without a moment’s delay prepared to avail

himself of the advantages which he possessed over his humiliated

subjects. He took his departure from Wittemberg with a considerable body

of troops and heavy artillery, and on the 3rd of June reached

Leutmeritz, where he received the submission of the inhabitants. Here he

issued a circular letter to the towns of Prague and the provincial

states, in which he reproached them for their recent misconduct,

commanded them to renounce their confederacy, summoned those who were

well affected to repair to Leutmeritz, under the promise of pardon, and

threatened those with punishment who persisted in their contumacy.

“In consequence of these letters, nobles, knights, and deputies flocked

in great numbers to Leutmeritz. The citizens of Prague alone gave

symptoms of their former resolution; they proposed to occupy the castle,

and fortify the White Mountain; and were not, without much difficulty,

prevailed upon to renounce their fruitless opposition, and to dispatch

their deputies. The states assembled at Leutmeritz, presented to the

king a memorial, in which they declared that their only object in

joining the confederacy was to promote the advantage of their country,

and protect the prerogatives of the crown; and they promised that they

would the next day erase their signatures, tear off their seals, and

defend their king against all his enemies with their lives and fortunes.

The king thanked them for this proof of returning loyalty, and granted

them his pardon, but reserved his severest vengeance against the

contumacious citizens of Prague. He refused to admit their deputies into

his presence; he announced his intention to give an answer in person, on

the Sunday following, in the palace; he commanded the magistrates to

prepare quarters for his troops, and, before the departure of the

deputies, despatched a corps of Germans, who, entering Prague by night,

anticipated the design of the citizens by occupying the castle.

“On the 2d of July, Ferdinand himself made his public entry, at the head

of a numerous army. His troops occupied the gates and the bridge,

quartered themselves in different parts of the city, and encamped on the

banks of the Moldau. But even his own presence, and the awe inspired by

so great a force, could not repress the indignation of the citizens. A

wanton insult of the Germans, who fired on the burghers of the old town,

and the sacking of a neighbouring village by the hussars, provoked the

populace into a tumult, which nearly occasioned the renewal of the civil

war. The burghers dislodged the royal troops from the bridge, and drew

cannon to the banks of the Moldau to batter the castle where the king

resided; they even prepared to renew the national confederacy, and sent

letters to their adherents in the different circles, exhorting them to

furnish speedy and effectual succours. But the revival of a contest

which would have deluged the kingdom in blood, was prevented by the

intervention of those leaders who were inclined to more moderate

measures, and by the policy and affected mildness of the king, who

disavowed the perpetrators of the outrages, and promised redress.

“The whole conduct of Ferdinand was calculated to increase the terror of

the inhabitants; he prohibited the usual demonstrations of joy paid to

the sovereign on his arrival, and forbade the magistrates to approach

his person. On the 3rd, he summoned to the palace, the mayor,

burgomasters, magistrates, councillors, jurors, elders, and two hundred

and forty of the most distinguished citizens of the three towns. On the

day appointed, these persons, amounting to more than six hundred,

repaired to the palace, and had no sooner entered than the gates were

closed and guarded. The king being thus master of the principal members

of the three towns, and those who by their talents or influence might

have roused the people to a desperate resistance, was enabled to impose

his own terms. To impress them with additional terror, he appeared in

all the parade of majesty, and with all the pomp of justice. He was

habited in his royal robes, and seated on a lofty throne; beneath him

was his second son the archduke Ferdinand; and he was surrounded by the

magnates of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, who bore the highest offices

of state, the duke of Teschen, the bishops of Olmutz and Troppau; the

count of Lobcowitz stood before him with a drawn sword. Silence being

proclaimed, numerous charges against the prisoners were read, after

which the king expatiated on their rebellious proceedings, and commanded

them to give an answer to each article of accusation.

“Unable to justify themselves against the abrupt and heavy charge,

Sixtus of Ottersdorf, secretary of the old town, humbly replied, in the

name of all, that they would not presume to enter into any defence of

their conduct with their king and master; but submitted themselves to

his royal mercy, beseeching the intercession of the nobles, bishops, and

counsellors, who were present; and the whole body falling on their

knees, entreated pardon for their disobedience. They were suffered to

continue for some time in this posture, and at length commanded by one

of the officers of state to retire into the hall of justice, and therein

remain imprisoned until the king had taken the advice of his judges.

They retired, and, after several hours of suspense and agitation, the

same officer of state informed them that the king, at the intercession

of the archduke, princes, and lords, and of his own natural clemency,

graciously pardoned their offences under certain conditions. They were

to renounce their confederacy with the other states, and at the next

diet to break their seals, erase their signatures, and to deliver up

their letters and writings relating to their confederacy; to surrender

without exception all the acts of their privileges and immunities, and

to be satisfied with whatever the king should ordain or graciously

restore; to bring all their artillery and ammunition to the palace, and

the burghers their muskets, and all other arms except swords to the town

house; to resign all their vassals and property to the king, and to his

heirs the sovereigns of Bohemia; to cede all the tolls of the three

towns, and to bind themselves to pay his majesty and his successors for

ever a certain tax on beer and malt. They were informed, that if they

would agree to these conditions, the king would pardon the whole people,

and would punish none except a few persons who had behaved

disrespectfully, and whom he had determined to chastise for the sake of

justice and the welfare of the kingdom.

“On the recital of these hard terms, the prisoners required a short

interval to obtain the consent of their fellow burghers. But it was too

dangerous and too critical a moment for Ferdinand to permit the terror

which he had impressed on their minds to subside, or allow men driven to

despair, an opportunity of rousing the people by a public discussion of

these rigorous articles. He therefore sternly rejected their request,

and extorted from them an immediate ratification. Several of the least

dangerous were then deputed to conciliate the burghers, and the

remainder closely guarded in the apartments and vaults of the palace.

“On the following morning some of the prisoners were restored to

liberty, on the condition of not retiring from Prague, and others

released in the ensuing days. At length the remainder were all

liberated, except forty of the most tumultuous and most dangerous, who

were reserved as objects of public punishment.

“During this period, Ferdinand had sent a similar summons to all the

towns of the kingdom, except the loyal towns of Pilsen, Budweiss, and

Aussig. The chief burgomasters, counsellors, and elders were compelled

to repair to the palace, and, like those of Prague, were imprisoned

until they had surrendered all their estates, tolls, revenues, and

privileges, and paid considerable penalties. But so rigorous was the

confinement experienced by these unfortunate victims, and so deeply were

their minds affected by the terrors of their situation, that many died,

and others became frantic. Many of the nobles were also summoned before

a court of justice to be tried for the crimes of which they were

accused. Some flying from the terrors of such a tribunal, their goods

were confiscated, and they were condemned to death; others appearing and

surrendering themselves, twenty-six were selected and imprisoned; of

these some were deprived of their possessions, others were compelled to

pay heavy fines and to hold their estates as fiefs from the king; and

two only were sentenced to public execution.

“As a close to these proceedings, a diet was summoned by the king, to

meet at the palace of Prague on the 22d of August, 1547, and was

attended by a numerous assembly, as all were now eager to give proofs of

their loyalty. With a view to strike additional terror, Ferdinand opened

the diet with the execution of four of his principal prisoners, two of

whom were knights, and the others of the third estate, of whom one Jacob

Fikar, high judge of the kingdom, and burgrave of the old town, was in

the seventieth year of his age.

“At the close of this tragedy, the assembly, which, from these

executions, was stigmatised with the name of the _Bloody Diet_, was

opened, and the king experienced the fullest submission to his decrees.

The burgrave, or president, declared in the name of the lords and

knights, that they had entered into the confederacy with no other view

than to maintain peace and union in the kingdom; and as it was the

pleasure of their sovereign that the confederacy should be dissolved,

they were ready to obey his commands. Instantly a committee of nobles

tore the seals from the acts of the confederacy, which contained the

signatures of one thousand seven hundred and thirty-six lords and

knights, besides those of the towns. The high chancellor then declared,

in the king’s name, to the deputies of the towns, that on account of

their disobedience they deserved to be deprived of their seat at the

diet, but, as a particular mark of favour, they were allowed to retain

that right. All their privileges were to be examined, and those only

restored which the king thought proper to confirm. The artillery, arms,

and ammunition, which had been delivered up, were sent in thirty wagons

to Vienna, and an additional fine was laid on the corporation of Prague.

“The forty prisoners who still remained in confinement were now brought

from their dungeons. Eight were publicly whipped in each of the three

towns; and, before each flagellation, the executioner proclaimed, ‘These

men are punished because they were traitors, and because they excited

the people against their _hereditary_ master,’ a title which Ferdinand

now thought proper to assume. These eight, with a similar number, were

banished, and the remaining four-and-twenty, after paying heavy fines,

were restored to liberty.

“Having thus restored tranquillity and suppressed almost all seeds of

future insurrections, Ferdinand introduced various regulations, which

were calculated to strengthen his authority. He appointed in each town a

court judge, who was to assist in all public meetings, and to take care

that the royal authority received no detriment; and, as he attributed

the opposition made to his designs to the influence of the Lutheran

doctrines, he used every means to prevent their diffusion. He

accordingly, in 1556, established in Bohemia the order of Jesuits, which

he had introduced into his Austrian territories, and encouraged them to

undertake the care of public education, which was the great instrument

of their power. He appointed a committee for the revision and censure of

all publications, and forbade the importation of all foreign works

without their consent.

“Finally, he changed Bohemia from an elective to an hereditary monarchy;

he obtained the consent of the diet that his son Maximilian should be

declared his successor, and in 1562 the prince was crowned as eldest son

and heir to his father. By these measures, Ferdinand greatly extended

the regal prerogative, and abolished the evils arising from elective

monarchy; he also restored tranquillity, and suppressed the factions of

a volatile and turbulent people; yet he, at the same time, depressed

that energy of mind and military ardour which are inseparable from a

free government and are fostered by civil contests, and checked that

active commercial spirit which flourishes in the consciousness of

independence. From this cause the towns, which had hitherto been

remarkable for their commerce, wealth, and population, exhibited under

his reign the first symptoms of decline, and the Bohemians began to lose

that military fame which had rendered them the example and the terror of

Europe.”

Thus was Bohemia subdued in 1547. But in the reign of Ferdinand II.,

seventy-two years after, at the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War,

there was a second conquest of this unhappy country, by the Austrian

power, which seems still more atrocious, inasmuch as then the Bohemians

did not fail in heart, but were overpowered when exerting themselves to

the utmost. It seems to have been wholly owing, in fact, to the want of

skill and energy of their elected king, Frederic, Count Palatine, that

they sustained a defeat at White Mountain, two years after the

commencement of their movement, which was both for religious and

political freedom. We cannot here enter into the whole history of the

rise of the Thirty Years’ War, but must refer our readers to Coxe,

Schiller, and others. It arose directly from the character of Ferdinand

II., whose intolerance and inveteracy were its occasion, if not its

cause. Educated by Jesuits, “from their instructions he derived that

inflexible bigotry and intolerance, and that hostility to the

Protestants, which, at this period, formed the great characteristics of

their order. He frequently expressed a resolution to live with his

family in banishment, to beg his bread from door to door, to submit to

every insult and calamity, to lose even his life, rather than suffer the

true church to be injured. When he assumed the reins of government, he

proved that these declarations were not the effusions of idle

enthusiasm. He refused to confirm the privileges which his father

Charles had granted to his Protestant subjects, and sent his

commissaries to eject their preachers from the archducal domains; these

commissaries being expelled, he collected troops to enforce the

execution of his orders. In the interim he made a pilgrimage to Loretto,

and bound himself by the most solemn vows, before the miraculous image,

not to rest till he had extirpated all heresy in his dominions; at Rome

he was consecrated by the hands of Clement VIII, and his resolutions

were strengthened by the exhortations of the pontiff.

“Animated with a new spirit of intolerance, he returned in 1598 to his

dominions. The first act of his government was a new order for the

banishment of all the Protestant preachers and schoolmasters, and, in

opposition to the remonstrances of the states, he carried this rigorous

measure into execution by force. He supplied the place of the Protestant

seminaries, by founding two convents of Capuchins at Gratz and Bruck,

and colleges of Jesuits at Gratz, Laybach and Clagenfurth. Although two

thirds of his subjects were Protestants, he ordered all who would not

embrace the Catholic faith, to quit his dominions; and supplied the

places of those who preferred banishment to the desertion of their

faith, by introducing numbers of Catholics from Wallachia and the

neighbouring provinces. To complete the expulsion of heresy, his

commissaries, accompanied by an escort, passed from town to town, and

from village to village, restoring the ancient temples to the Catholics,

and demolishing the new churches and schoolhouses, which had been

erected by the Protestants.

“The first symptoms of those troubles, which commenced in the Austrian

territories and afterwards overspread all Europe, appeared in Bohemia.

Ferdinand had not long received the crown before the Protestants

perceived that the alarms derived from his principles and former conduct

were not without foundation; for, from that moment, a new spirit seemed

to animate the counsels of the sovereign, and various acts of hostility

to their doctrines evinced his baneful influence. Slavata and Martinetz,

the two nobles who had proved their zeal for the Catholic faith by

refusing to sign the peace of religion, were introduced into the council

of regency, honoured with an unusual degree of confidence, and displayed

their attachment to their future sovereign by persecuting their

Protestant vassals. The zealous Catholics followed the example, and

exulted in the prospect of a change of government which was likely to

restore their ascendency; the Jesuits presumptuously proclaimed the new

influence and favour which they had attained; and one of the

confidential ministers of Ferdinand himself did not scruple to point out

the future objects of their vengeance, and to declare, that the

restoration of tranquillity could only be effected by executions and

confiscations, and by the revocation of the royal edict which had been

extorted by force. These threats and rumours were aggravated by fear and

religious antipathy; and the Protestants looked forward to the

commencement of the new reign as an era no less pregnant with horrors

than the abominable massacre of St. Bartholomew. In the midst of this

ferment the disclosure of the treaty with Spain contributed to add civil

to religious grievances; the illegal engagement for the eventual

transfer of the crown to the Spanish branch, without even the knowledge

of the states, alarmed a great part of the Catholics, who were no less

tenacious of their elective rights than the Protestants of their

religious privileges. In this situation it was impossible to restrain so

turbulent a people as the Bohemians, animated with all the fury of

political and religious animosity, and in count Thurn appeared another

Ziska, who was capable of rousing, directing, and organising an

insurrection.

“The impolicy and intolerance of the court soon furnished him with an

opportunity to inflame a trivial discussion into open hostilities. It is

a misfortune attending religious disputes in a peculiar degree, in which

all parties act and reason on such discordant principles, that no public

instrument can be worded in terms sufficiently clear and explicit to

prevent all occasions of cavil. This was the case of the royal edict,

[of Ferdinand’s predecessor] which seems by the spirit to grant liberty

of worship with the privilege of constructing churches and schools only

to the Calixtine or Protestant members of the states, whether nobles,

knights, or towns. But an explanatory clause in general terms, instead

of rendering the meaning more specific, only made it more doubtful, and

furnished the towns and vassals of ecclesiastics and lay Catholics with

a pretext for claiming the same privilege. In consequence of this

interpretation, the Protestant inhabitants of the town of Brunau and of

Clostergraben, a village in the vicinity of Prague, began to erect

churches and to perform divine service according to the Protestant

ritual. The archbishop of Prague and the abbot of Brunau, to whom the

respective places belonged, considering these acts as an infringement of

their feudal rights, obtained a prohibition from the government. The

Protestants, however, instead of obeying the order, were encouraged by

the defenders of their religion to persevere; and these and other

prohibitions of the sovereign induced the Protestant states of Bohemia

and its dependencies to enter into a formal confederacy for the security

and defence of their rights and privileges. They followed this

engagement by a petition for redress in the affair of Brunau and

Clostergraben; and at the same time renewed their compacts and treaties

with some of the Protestant princes of Germany.

“Encouraged by this confederacy, the Protestants proceeded with new

vigour, and the churches were completed, notwithstanding Matthias

himself expressed his disapprobation to count Thurn, and declared their

conduct an infraction of the royal edict. But though he was disposed to

connive at this disobedience, Ferdinand was not inclined to the same

acquiescence, and soon after his coronation, an order, obtained by his

influence, was issued by the court, commanding the surrender or

demolition of the newly constructed churches. The archbishop instantly

executed the order at Clostergraben; but at Brunau the people opposed

their abbot, and sent deputies to Matthias, requesting the revocation of

his mandate. Instead, however, of obtaining redress, their deputies were

arrested, and an imperial commission despatched to shut up the church,

and suppress the Protestant worship in Brunau.

“These acts, of which numerous precedents had been given in Germany and

in the Austrian territories, might at any other time have produced a

trifling dispute, which would have soon sunk into oblivion; but amidst

the general ferment, and in the powerful hands of count Thurn, they

became the instrument which excited an insurrection, and occasioned the

Thirty Years’ War.”

We omit the account of the ensuing hostilities, and of the process by

which the Bohemians came to the point of making an effort to eject

Ferdinand from the throne of their kingdom, just at the moment that he

attained the imperial dignity.

“A general diet of the states of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia

assembled at Prague, soon after the departure of Ferdinand from Vienna.

Having formed a confederacy for the maintenance of their civil and

religious privileges, they were joined by the Protestants of Upper and

Lower Austria, as well as by many of the discontented magnates of

Hungary, and were encouraged by assurances of immediate support from

Bethlehem Gabor. They then proceeded to draw up a list of their

grievances, in which they urged that the election of Ferdinand had been

informal, that he had broken his coronation oath, by interfering in the

government during the life of Matthias, had commenced the war by his own

authority, and sent foreign troops to devastate their country; finally,

that he had infringed their right of election, by entering into

engagements, without the consent of the states, to transfer the eventual

succession of the crown to the Spanish princes, and thus to reduce them

under a foreign, hateful, and despotic yoke. On these grounds they

declared that Ferdinand had forfeited his dignity, and, in virtue of

their supposed right of election, proceeded to nominate a new sovereign.

“On this important article, they were, however, less unanimous than on

the point of exclusion. The Catholics being too weak and inconsiderable

to take any essential share in the election, the remainder of the states

were divided between the choice of a Lutheran or Calvinist sovereign.

The Lutherans were the most numerous, the Calvinists the most active and

artful, and supported by the Picards, or Bohemian brethren, a remnant of

the ancient Hussites. The Calvinists suffered the Lutherans to offer the

crown to the elector of Saxony, who, they were aware, would refuse the

proffered dignity; and he had no sooner declined it than they turned the

choice of the states in favour of the elector Palatine, who was

nominated with only six dissenting voices, two days before Ferdinand was

raised to the imperial throne. To give an appearance of greater weight

to the new election, the states of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia were

allowed to participate in the choice, a right before often claimed, but

never admitted.

“Although Frederic had anxiously laboured to secure this dignity, and

had previously resolved to accept it, yet he had no sooner gained his

object, than he hesitated to encounter the dangers with which the crown

was surrounded. He sought advice and encouragement from those with whom

he was connected by blood or interest. He was earnestly dissuaded by his

mother, by the electors of Saxony and Brandenburgh, by the duke of

Bavaria, and, above all, by his father-in-law, the king of England, who

declared, that he would not patronise revolted subjects against their

lawful sovereign, and would neither acknowledge his title nor afford him

support. On the other hand, the wavering resolutions of Frederic were

strengthened by his uncles, Maurice, prince of Orange, and the duke of

Bouillon, by his favourite counseller, Christian of Anhalt, by the

majority of the Protestant league, and by Bethlehem Gabor, with whom he

had entered into the closest connection.”

The closing catastrophe of the hostilities that immediately followed the

election of Frederic, is all we have room to insert.

“They took post on the White Mountain, as the last resource for the

defence of the capital, and behind its ravines and declivities began to

construct intrenchments, in order to defy the assaults of the enemy. The

duke of Bavaria, however, did not allow them time to prepare for

defence; he resolved to drive them from their last refuge before they

had recovered from the confusion of a retreat, and while his own troops

were warm in the pursuit. He reached the vicinity of Prague on the

morning of the 8th of November, 1620, and ere noon had reconnoitred

their position and commenced his attack. His troops overcame all

obstacles; the Hungarian cavalry was instantly defeated and dispersed:

and although the Moravians, under the prince of Anhalt and the young

count Thurn, balanced the fortune of the day by their heroic resistance,

the victory was decided in favour of the imperialists within the short

space of an hour. With the loss of only three hundred men, they took all

the artillery, a hundred standards, left 4000 of the enemy dead on the

field, and drove 1000 into the Moldau; and thus, at one blow, dissipated

the short-lived hopes of Frederic, and decided the fate of Bohemia.

“The citizens of Prague, deserted by their elected sovereign, had no

other alternative than to submit themselves to the mercy of the emperor,

and on the following day opened their gates to the conqueror. All the

indulgence they could obtain was an exemption from plunder; the states

who were immediately convened, took an unconditional oath of allegiance,

dissolved their confederacy, and surrendered their arms. These

arrangements being completed, the duke of Bavaria delivered the reins of

government to prince Charles of Lichtenstein, in obedience to the

appointment of the emperor; and after leaving a garrison in the town

under the command of Tilly, returned triumphantly to Munich, laden with

the spoils of the unfortunate kingdom.

“Three months elapsed without the slightest act of severity against the

insurgents of Bohemia. Many, lulled into security by this doubtful calm,

emerged from their hiding places, and the greater part remained quiet at

Prague, though secretly warned of their danger even by Tilly himself,

who was no pattern of lenity or forbearance. But in an evil hour all the

fury of the tempest burst upon their heads. Forty of the principal

insurgents were arrested in the night of the 21st of January, 1621, and

after being imprisoned four months, and tried before an imperial

committee of inquiry, twenty-three were publicly executed, their

property confiscated, and the remainder either banished or condemned to

perpetual imprisonment. A sentence of proscription and confiscation of

goods was published against count Thurn, and twenty-seven of the other

chiefs, who had fled from the country. Nor were these examples confined

only to those who had been openly concerned in the rebellion; for a

mandate of more than inquisitorial severity was issued, commanding all

landholders who had participated in the insurrection to confess their

delinquencies, and threatening the severest vengeance if they were

afterwards convicted. This dreadful order spread general consternation:

not only those who had shared in the insurrection acknowledged their

guilt, but even the innocent were driven by terror to self-accusation;

and above seven hundred nobles and knights, almost the whole body of

landholders, placed their names on this list of proscription. By a

mockery of the very name of mercy, the emperor granted to these

unfortunate victims their lives and honours, which they were declared to

have forfeited by their own confession; but gratified his vengeance and

rapacity by confiscating the whole or part of their property, and thus

reduced many of the most loyal and ancient families to ruin, or drove

them to seek a refuge from their misfortunes in exile or death.”[4]

We might naturally suppose that this was the end of Bohemia; but “in the

lowest deep a lower deep, still threatening to devour them, opened

wide.”

Not ten years had elapsed before in a temporary truce of the Thirty

Years’ War, Ferdinand II. commenced a persecution of his Protestant

subjects everywhere.

“But it was in Bohemia, so long exposed to his antipathy as the seat of

religious liberty, and where three-fourths of the natives were

Protestants, that he acted with a rigour and cruelty which surpassed all

the horrors of the inquisition itself. He commenced his persecutions by

ejecting the preachers, schoolmasters, and professors, and delivering

the churches to monks, whom he collected indiscriminately from all

quarters of Europe. He then prohibited all persons who were not

Catholics from exercising any trade or handicraft, laid the severest

fines on those who preserved even in secret the slightest remnant of

their former worship, declared Protestant marriages and baptisms null,

wills made by Protestants invalid, and even drove the poor, the sick,

and the distressed from the almshouses and hospitals. Then began a

series of persecutions, from the recollection of which the mind recoils

with horror. In the capital the Protestant burghers were expelled with

their wives and children, and the poorer orders compelled to become

Catholics. The other towns, and even the remotest villages, were visited

by missionary deputations of Jesuits and Capuchin friars, accompanied by

a military force, and were abandoned to every species of monkish

barbarity and military licentiousness. Those who were enabled to seek a

refuge in exile were comparatively fortunate. The slightest degree of

persecution inflicted on those who remained was, to imprison the men,

give up their houses to pillage, and expose their wives and children to

all the outrages of the soldiery. Some were massacred without mercy;

some hunted and driven like wild beasts to the woods and mountains, some

dragged to processions and masses with every species of insult and

cruelty, and those who ventured to oppose these enormities were racked

and mutilated, or put to death with tortures too shocking for humanity

to describe.

“In the midst of these horrors Ferdinand himself repaired to Prague to

nominate and crown his son as his successor. After affecting to display

his clemency, by confirming to the states their power of taxation and

other civil privileges, he abolished their right to elect a king,

forbade the use of the Bohemian tongue in all public transactions, and

set the seal to all the enormities which had been perpetrated under his

authority, by abrogating the royal edict of toleration. He formally

restored the order of the clergy to their rank in the states, from which

they had been expelled during the Hussite wars; finally, he consummated

his vengeance against the Protestants, by declaring that he would

tolerate no religion except the Catholic; and he banished all those who

within a specified time refused to return to the bosom of the church. By

this act of persecution he drove 30,000 families, with all their

servants and retainers, from the kingdom, including the most learned,

the richest, and most industrious portion of the community, and thus

inflicted on Bohemia a wound from which it has never recovered.

“It is a tribute of justice to sound policy, as well as to humanity, to

finish this picture by introducing the reflections of the native

historian, who, being a Catholic and a subject of the house of Austria,

cannot be suspected of exaggeration or partiality. The records of

history scarcely furnish a similar example of such a change as Bohemia

underwent during the reign of Ferdinand II. In 1620, the monks, and a

few of the nobility only excepted, the whole country was entirely

Protestant; at the death of Ferdinand it was, in appearance at least,

Catholic. Till the battle of the White Mountain the states enjoyed more

exclusive privileges than the parliament of England; they enacted laws,

imposed taxes, contracted alliances, declared war and peace, and chose

or confirmed their kings; but all these they now lost. Previous to that

period the Bohemians were considered as a warlike nation, and had often

won military fame; the annals of history recorded, ‘The Bohemians took

the field; the Bohemians stormed the fortifications; the Bohemians

gained the victory;’ but they are now blended with other people, they

are no longer distinguished as a nation in the field of battle, and no

historian has consigned their posterity to glory. Till this fatal period

the Bohemians were daring, undaunted, enterprising, emulous of fame; now

they have lost all their courage, their national pride, their

enterprising spirit. They fled before the Swedes like sheep, or suffered

themselves to be trampled under foot. Their courage lay buried on the

White Mountain. Individuals still possessed personal valour, military

ardour, and a thirst of glory, but, blended with other nations, they

resembled the waters of the Moldau which join those of the Elbe. These

united streams bear ships, overflow lands, and overturn rocks; yet the

Elbe only is mentioned, and the Moldau forgotten. The Bohemian language,

which was used in all the courts of justice, and was in high estimation

among the nobles, fell into contempt; the German was introduced, became

the general language among the nobles and citizens, and was used by the

monks in their sermons; the inhabitants of the towns began to be ashamed

of their native tongue, which was confined to the villages, and called

the language of peasants. The arts and sciences, so highly cultivated

and esteemed under Rodolph, sank beyond recovery. During the period

which immediately followed the banishment of the Protestants, Bohemia

scarcely produced one man who became eminent in any branch of learning.

The Caroline university was under the direction of the Jesuits, or

suppressed; by order of the pope all promotions were stopped, and no

academical honours conferred. A few patriots, both among the clergy and

laity, murmured openly, though ineffectually; others sighed in secret

over the downfall of literature. The greater part of the schools were

conducted by Jesuits and other monkish orders, and nothing taught

therein but bad Latin. It cannot be denied, that several of the Jesuits

were men of great learning and science; but their system was, to keep

the people in ignorance; agreeably to this principle, they gave their

scholars only the rind, and kept to themselves the pulp of literature.

With this view they travelled from town to town as missionaries, and

went from house to house, examining all books, which the landlord was

compelled, under pain of eternal damnation, to produce. The greater part

they confiscated and burnt, so that a Bohemian and a rare book are

synonymous terms. They thus endeavoured to extinguish the ancient

literature of the country, laboured to persuade the students that,

before the introduction of their order into Bohemia, nothing but

ignorance prevailed, and carefully concealed the learned labours, and

even the names of our ancestors. Such was their despotism, that the

collections and writings of the patriotic Balbinus, on the literature of

the ancient Bohemians, could not be published till after the extinction

of their order. In a word, from this period the history of Bohemia

ceases, and the history of every nation in Bohemia begins.”

We must content ourselves with giving only so much of the atrocities of

the Thirty Years’ War. Nothing less than a detail of all its events

would truly fill out the programme suggested by the title of our little

book. It was in this war that was first invented the terrible system of

provisioning an army at the expense of the country invaded or defended,

which was acted out so terrifically by Tilly and Wallenstein, and served

to increase a hundredfold all the former horrors of war.

The picturesque pages of Schiller can be consulted for these details. We

extract only his account of the sack of Magdeburg.

“Two gates were now opened by the storming party for the main body, and

Tilly marched in with part of his infantry. Immediately occupying the

principal streets, he drove the citizens with pointed cannon into their

dwellings, there to await their destiny. They were not long held in

suspense; a word from Tilly decided the fate of Magdeburg.

“Even a more humane general would in vain have recommended mercy to such

soldiers; but Tilly never made the attempt. Left by their general’s

silence masters of the lives of all the citizens, the soldiery broke

into the houses to satiate their most brutal appetites. The prayers of

innocence excited some compassion in the hearts of the Germans, but none

in the rude breasts of Pappenheim’s Walloons. Scarcely had the savage

cruelty commenced, when the other gates were thrown open, and the

cavalry, with the fearful hordes of the Croats, poured in upon the

devoted inhabitants.

“Here commenced a scene of horrors for which history has no

language—poetry no pencil; neither innocent childhood nor helpless old

age, neither youth, sex, rank, nor beauty, could disarm the fury of the

conquerors. Wives were abused in the arms of their husbands, daughters

at the feet of their parents, and the defenceless sex exposed to the

double sacrifice of virtue and life. No situation, however obscure, or

however sacred, escaped the rapacity of the enemy. In a single church

fifty-three women were found beheaded. The Croats amused themselves with

throwing the children into the flames; Pappenheim’s Walloons with

stabbing infants at the mother’s breast. Some officers of the league,

horror-struck at the dreadful scene, ventured to remind Tilly that he

had it in his power to stop the carnage. “Return in an hour,” was his

answer; “I will see what I can do; the soldier must have some reward for

his danger and toils.” These horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at

last the smoke and flames proved a check to the plunderers. To augment

the confusion and to divert the resistance of the inhabitants, the

imperialists had, in the commencement of the assault, fired the town in

several places. The wind rising rapidly, spread the flames, till the

blaze became universal. Fearful indeed was the tumult amid clouds of

smoke, heaps of dead bodies, the clash of swords, the crash of falling

ruins, and streams of blood. The atmosphere glowed; and the intolerable

heat forced at last even the murderers to take refuge in their camp. In

less than twelve hours that strong, populous, and flourishing city, one

of the finest in Germany, was reduced to ashes, with the exception of

two churches and a few houses. The Administrator, Christian William,

after receiving several wounds, was taken prisoner with three of the

burgomasters. Most of the officers and magistrates had already met an

enviable death. The avarice of the officers had saved four hundred of

the richest citizens, in the hope of extorting from them an exorbitant

ransom. But this humanity was confined to the officers of the league,

whom the ruthless barbarity of the imperialists caused to be regarded as

guardian angels.

“Scarcely had the fury of the flames abated, when the Imperialists

returned to renew the pillage amid the ruins and ashes of the town. Many

were suffocated by the smoke; many found rich booty in the cellars,

where the citizens had concealed their more valuable effects. On the

13th of May Tilly himself appeared in the town, after the streets had

been cleared of ashes and dead bodies. Horrible and revolting to

humanity, was the scene that presented itself. The living crawling from

under the dead, children wandering about with heart-rending cries,

calling for their parents; and infants still suckling the breasts of

their lifeless mothers. More than six thousand bodies were thrown into

the Elbe to clean the streets; a much greater number had been consumed

by the flames. The whole number of the slain was reckoned at not less

than thirty thousand.

“The entrance of the general, which took place on the 14th, put a stop

to the plunder, and saved the few who had hitherto contrived to escape.

About a thousand people were taken out of the cathedral, where they had

remained three days and two nights, without food, and in momentary fear

of death. Tilly promised them quarter, and commanded bread to be

distributed among them. The next day a solemn mass was performed in the

cathedral, and a Te Deum sung amidst the discharge of artillery. The

imperial general rode through the streets, that he might be able, as an

eyewitness, to inform his master that no such conquest had been made

since the destruction of Troy and Jerusalem. Nor was this an

exaggeration, whether we consider the greatness, importance, and

prosperity of the city razed, or the fury of its ravagers.”[5]

We have been led somewhat out of chronological order, in order to give a

unity of impression with respect to the wrongs of Bohemia.