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 allowed to all; Catholics were to be allowed to adopt the Protestant, and Protestants the Catholic, creed; all members of the Diet were to have the right of building churches and schools without any distinction of creed; the supervision and direction of the Consistory and of the University were to remain in the hands of the king.

These terms, if immediately accepted by the king, would perhaps have satisfied the Estates. Rudolph, however, declared that he would only sanction Gerstenberger's proposals if it were agreed that the liturgy of the old-utraquists should be retained by the Protestants. This objection naturally caused a fatal delay. The Protestants disliked to confide the direction of their Church to a sovereign who professed a creed different from their own, and the less conciliatory party among the Estates at last got the upper hand. When the burgrave announced to the Diet the king's decision, as mentioned above, the Protestants declared that the negotiations were fruitless, and must be broken off; many even left Prague and returned to their castles to complete their armaments. The "Directors," who established themselves in the town-hall of the Staré Město (old town of Prague) acted as a provisional government, and directed the general arming of the country. Rudolph was again entirely helpless, and—probably again on the advice of Hannewald—decided to abandon his undignified and hopeless resistance. By his order the supreme burgrave invited the Diet to resume its sittings, and the king on July 9, 1609, signed the Letter of Majesty. The Estates had previously consented to the substitution of the word "utraquist" for that of "evangelical," which had been used in the draft submitted to the king.

By the Letter of Majesty the Protestant Estates obtained the recognition of the "Confessio Bohemica," and the right of supervision over the University, and were authorized henceforth to elect the members of the Consistory. They were further empowered to appoint "Defenders," who were to be chosen in equal number from among the Protestant nobles, the knights, and town representatives. The ill-defined office of the "Defenders" implied in reality the duty of acting as the guardian of the rights of the Protestants. On the same day, another equally important but far less celebrated document was signed. This was an Agreement between the Protestants and Romanists, or, to use the official designation, the Estates "sub utrâque" and those "sub unâ." By