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 jurisdiction in judicial questions, and were the direct spies of the government.

At the “Bloody Diet” an edict was issued against the Bohemian Brethren, who, by their firm adherence to the union, had brought upon themselves the displeasure of the king. Their churches were closed, and they were ordered either to join one of the State Churches, or to leave the country. Many of them found refuge in Poland and Prussia. John Augusta, their bishop, was seized and cast into prison, where he was confined for sixteen years.

The Diet being closed, the king, leaving his second son as regent, repaired to Augsburg where an Imperial Diet was held. In this Diet, the Emperor Charles, together with the princes of the empire, asked that Bohemia contribute her quota of taxation for the government of the empire; but Ferdinand opposed this with much energy, proving that his kingdom was entirely independent of the German States, and hence under no obligation to bear any of their burdens.

In the Diet held in Prague in 1549, Ferdinand induced the States to declare his first-born son, Maximilian, heir of the Bohemian crown. One of the clauses in the agreement shows the decline of the liberties of the kingdom. When Ferdinand was elected, he agreed to make Prague his capital; but now this clause was so modified, that Prague was to be the home of the sovereign, as far as it was convenient, and when important business made it necessary for him to dwell outside the kingdom, to live as near as possible, thus pointing to Vienna as the future capital of the Austrian rulers.

Being successful in his political plans, Ferdinand