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 as the partial historian represents. His successors were less given to the policy of "Thorough," and the Anabaptist chronicles contain proofs in plenty that these repressive measures were only partially effective. No longer could the brethren be said to flourish in Moravia, but they still endured. The seventeenth century, however, was to witness their all but complete destruction. The Jesuits had obtained the ear of the Austrian Court, and had established their emissaries in important ecclesiastical posts throughout Moravia. The motive power for steady persecution was thus supplied; against their persistent malignity and sleepless vigilance no heretics might long stand.

In 1623 a new royal decree for the persecution of Anabaptists was issued through Cardinal Dietrichstein, and from this time forward there was little intermission of severity. Prince Liechtenstein, now a Roman Catholic and Marshal of Moravia, was active in the work, which was part of the reactionary policy of the Thirty Years' War wherever the Austrian and Imperial power extended. In this terrific persecution many thousands perished—there is no adequate and trustworthy record of the