Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/285

 sectarian feeling, common at that period to all religious creeds, rendered a policy of tolerance an impossibility. On the advice of Schulze, his court chaplain, Frederick soon after his coronation caused all the altars and pictures to be removed from the church of St. Vitus at Prague, the time-honoured sanctuary of the Bohemian nation. This caused a general outcry in the whole country. The Bohemian Brethren, whom Frederick favoured, and whose doctrine was very similar to that of the Calvinists, were alone in their approbation of this measure. The Catholic and Lutheran clergy vied in their denunciations of the sacrilegious king. Hoe, the Lutheran court chaplain of the Elector of Saxony, was particularly active in inciting public opinion in Germany, as well as in Bohemia, against Frederick.

Warfare had meanwhile continued during the months that immediately preceded and followed the coronation of Frederick. As stated before, the army of Bouquoi had retreated from Bohemia in September (1619). During Count Thurn's presence in the neighbourhood of Vienna in June a Hungarian embassy had appeared in his camp, and the foundation was then laid of an alliance between the Bohemian and the Hungarian Protestants, the leader of these latter being then Gabriel Bethlen, prince of Transylvania. Following the retreating forces of Bouquoi, Thurn's army again entered Austria and joined the forces of Bethlen. An indecisive engagement took place at Ulrichskirchen in Lower Austria, after which Bouquoi retreated across the Danube, burning the bridges behind him. A formal alliance had meanwhile been concluded at Presburg between Bohemia, Hungary, and Transylvania, and it was decided that a joint embassy from the three countries should repair to Constantinople, to request the Sultanas aid against the Emperor Ferdinand. It was at the same time decided that, late as the season was, an attempt on Vienna should still be made. Want of heavy artillery, the mutinous state of the troops, whose pay was heavily in arrear, and the severity of the weather would probably have prevented the success of the enterprise; but early in December Bethlen, whose army, together with that of Thurn, had arrived before Vienna a few days previously, received news that the Hungarian Catholics, aided by Polish troops, had risen in arms against him; he therefore (December 5) hastily left the neighbourhood of Vienna and returned to Hungary.