Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/433

 method of conversion that proved very effective. Small bands of dragoons were sent out and quartered in the houses of the heretics. They tormented them in all the ways that their brutality could devise, until the wretched people either joined the Catholic Church, or ran away from their homes. This method of conversion so filled the land with terror, that often, when the news was brought that the dragoons were coming, the people picked up what they could carry, set fire to their houses, and fled into the forests or into exile. In some villages the peasants, driven to despair, rose in rebellion against their lords, burned their castles, and committed other acts of violence. But they gained nothing by this, for they were always overpowed by the troops sent against them. Those that survived were then subjected to fearful punishments. Some were hanged, some beheaded, some broken on the wheel, and some horribly mutilated.

Thus far the violent measures were mostly directed against the lower classes; but in 1627 the emperor gave out a decree announcing that he would tolerate no one in the kingdom that did not agree with him in matters of faith. Those that refused to become Catholics were given six months time to sell their estates and leave the country. By this ruthless step the climax of suffering was reached; for, as there were no buyers, the people were given the alternative either to give up their religion, or choose exile and beggary in a strange land. Thirty-six thousand families, to whom their religion was dearer than all else, left their native land, seeking refuge in other countries. Among these were many of the old nobility, many professors, and other learned men. In fact,