Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/79

 When the building was done, the abbot laid a complaint before Rudolph’s successor, Matthias, and obtained a decision in his favor. Matthias was not therefore inclined to hold strictly to the law of 1609, or would not, in case of indistinctness or ambiguity, trouble himself to avoid strifes by an understanding with the Estates. Nor did he content himself with this decision, but transferred the oversight of all the pastors on the royal domains to the Archbishop of Prague, and thus prepared the way of bringing them over to the Catholic faith, since the Archbishop supplied all vacant churches with priests consecrated according to the Catholic ritual. In case of the Utraquists he made no other distinction than to allow them to receive the communion in both forms. In the year 1614 the Archbishop acted even more stringently than had the abbot of Braunau. The Protestant inhabitants of the small city of Klostergrab, which belonged to him, had also built a church, of which he not only prohibited the use, but shut it up, while the abbot confined himself to complaints.

In the religious laws of 1609 the Protestants were given the authority to choose from each Estate a certain number of persons who should manage their ecclesiastical affairs. These persons, who were called Defensors, had, since the year 1611, been dissatisfied with the course of the Emperor and the Catholics. They had allowed this long period to elapse without presenting a single complaint, but thought that they ought not longer remain silent, and so in the general Diet, held in Prague in 1615, brought in complaints, not only in regard to the churches of Klostergrab and Braunau, but also in regard to the settlement of pastors on the royal domains. Matthias for a long time did not condescend to make any reply, and only