Part 7
“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.’