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 so not without personal risk, as he had at the meeting of the Estates at Brno, which decided to join the Bohemians, been threatened by nationalists with the "fate of Martinic and Slavata." Zerotin now advised unconditional surrender, and hoped that some gratitude would be shown to those Protestants who had risked their lives and estates for the House of Habsburg. The Estates decided to send a deputation to implore the Emperor's mercy. The deputies were indeed received by Ferdinand, but he did not deign to answer their address. The Moravians some days later received a letter from the Imperial chancellory stating that it was only the inexhaustible graciousness of the Emperor which had induced him to condescend to receive the envoys. They were also told that the Emperor had appointed Cardinal Dietrichstein governor of Moravia, and that he had been instructed to punish mercilessly all enemies of Rome and of the house of Habsburg. In Silesia, also, the re-establishment of Austrian rule was carried out almost without bloodshed. The Emperor's ally, John George, Elector of Saxony, entered the country from Lusatia, and in consequence of his conciliatory attitude, occupied it almost without resistance. He promised a full amnesty to all concerned in the recent disturbances, and guaranteed to the Protestants freedom of religious worship. The Elector thus incurred the grave displeasure of Ferdinand, for it had already been decided in the Imperial councils that in future no heretic should be allowed to dwell in the Habsburg dominions. The Emperor also strongly disapproved of the granting of a general amnesty, and he by a special decree excluded from it the Margrave of Jägerndorf. The lands of the margrave, a prince of the House of Hohenzollern, who had been the leader of the Protestants of Lusatia and Silesia, were confiscated and given to one of the Emperor's courtiers. This fact is not without importance, as the wrongs inflicted on his ancestor were one of the reasons—or, as some have called them, pretexts—alleged by Frederick the Great, when he invaded Silesia.

The complete reorganization of Bohemia in accordance to the views of Ferdinand and of the Church of Rome involved so many new laws and enactments, referring to almost all matters connected with the country, that it is not easy to give a brief outline of the "Catholic Reformation,"—to use the official designation. The re-establishment of the Roman Church was the matter that Ferdinand had K 2