Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/59

 addition to other things, he demanded the cession of Alsace. The Archduke, however, at this point suggested difficulties, and the harmonizing of the claimants was adjourned to the future. In this issue no one rejoiced more than Bishop Khlesl, who hoped that no agreement would be arrived at during the life of the Emperor, that he might not be forced from his influential position by any successor to the throne.

Khlesl did not, in this respect, labor in the interests of the Hapsburgs. He was a baker’s son, who, from a low position, had, by diligence and ability, won respect, and finally risen to be bishop of the new city, Vienna. His spiritual functions did not prevent his taking an important part in the political affairs of the day, by which he gained the confidence of the Archduke Matthias, with a gradually increasing influence over him. When the Archduke rose against Rudolph, Khlesl was in fact, if not indeed in name, his first minister, and the weightiest matters of both home and foreign policy turned upon his decisions. His power to labor and his knowledge of affairs fitted him perfectly for the place; and if his action did not leave decided traces, it was because circumstances forbade. What fruit, indeed, could the activity of a bishop, though ever so gifted, yield in a land whose Estates were mostly Protestant, and would not recognize a government which should interfere with the independence of the several lands, or require the subjection of these under a single princely house? His plans of reform in the Austrian state affairs, though they never came into application, prove him to have been a statesman. Among other things, he intended a reorganization of the Austrian army, which involved also a plan of finance; but his reformatory endeavors miscarried in the outset. Thence-