Part 9

“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.