Page:Glimpses of Bohemia by MacDonald (1882).pdf/20

 Taborites (1) The determination not to resort to arms; and (2) the disapproval of any connection between Church and State.

Notwithstanding persecutions, the Church of the Brethren increased. The influence of Luther in Germany gave them a great impetus; and when the persecution was stayed for a time, in 1562, by the death of Ferdinand I., a period of prosperity dawned on the Protestant Churches, which, although slightly interrupted by the occasional successful efforts of the Jesuits to obtain renewed permission to persecute from such mild emperors as Maximilian and Rudolf, continued down to the fatal battle of the White Mountain in 1620. The Unitas, the Lutherans, and the Calvinists, who had formed their own presbyteries, united in 1609 in one Church, Evangelical Church of Bohemia, protected by the Letters of Majesty granted by Rudolf. During this period of sixty years Protestantism was in the ascendancy, and was professed by the great majority of the Bohemian people. But peace did not last long.

In the sixteenth century, Austrian sovereigns and politicians had their most urgent difficulties in Hungary in the wars with the Turks; but early in the seventeenth century the centre of interest was again transferred to Bohemia. The emperor, Rudolf II., generally resided in Prague. His character is one of which it is at present very difficult for an English student to judge, as the accounts given by different historians are directly at variance, while many of the most important documents which may throw light on his life are still locked up in the Czech language. Whether Rudolf was, as some say, an incapable puppet, or whether he was too liberal for the Romish party, then backed by the whole power of Spain, and was misrepresented and set aside by Jesuitical influence, there can be no doubt that he treated the Protestants with consideration, and if left to himself would have conceded great liberty to them. By the usurpation of his brother Matthias, however, he was deprived of crown after crown, until at last he was a mere pensionary, kept in seclusion from the world. He died in 1612. In 1617 the Emperor Matthias, after inflicting various petty annoyances, at last roused the Bohemian nobles by announcing his intention of adopting his cousin, Ferdinand of Styria, as his heir, and commanding them to