Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/80

 after repeated urging called three of the Defensors to Brandeis—a place near Prague, on the Elbe—where appeared before him, in the name of the nobility, Count Thurn; for the knighthood, Ulrich von Gersdorf; and for the cities, Simon Kohout, of Lichtenfels. The Emperor received them in the presence of the Chancellor, and gave them through the latter an answer which was distinguished by its directness, its brevity, and its severity: “What ye have brought before me,” said the Chancellor, in the Emperor’s name, “in relation to Klostergrab and Braunau, I have understood; I am not disposed to admit that the tenants on the domains of the Church may be allowed to build churches. As to the placing of pastors upon my domains, I will not rank myself below one of you, who are permitted to receive priests from the Archbishop.” In order to render this latter remark intelligible, we add, that in the “Adjustment” the holders of manorial lands were allowed to place in their Utraquistic parishes priests consecrated by the Archbishop, provided they bound themselves to dispense the communion in both forms. It is simply inconceivable that the Protestants could consent to this arrangement; in this way indeed their parishes might become Catholic, for since the Council of Trent the bishops might permit pastors to dispense the Supper under both forms. It depended only upon the proprietor of a manor what he should decide to do. In this point, so peculiarly worded, the Protestants of the time showed their complete incapacity for the framing of important and comprehensive laws. The Emperor now desired to avail himself of the same right which in the Adjustment had been conceded to the Estates, but not to himself ; to this relates the remark that he “could not rank himself below the noblemen.”