Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/84

 days—11th to 13th of December, 1617. If he thought that resistance would end there, he was in error. This deed of violence found an echo throughout Bohemia, and so spread the feeling of hostility to the imperial government as to open an abyss between the Emperor and his subjects which could never be bridged.

The Defensors had made complaint to the Emperor, when they were first only distressed on the ecclesiastical and royal domains ; they had now a thousand times more cause to complain when the press-law and the instruction to the judges were issued involving threats still more decided and further aggravated by the demolition of the church at Klostergrab. They would not, however, turn to the Emperor with a new petition, for they had no hope of success in such an application, unless others also should unite with them in it. They resolved, therefore, to resort to a concession made to them in the year 1609, in accordance with which they might, in important crises, summon the Protestant Estates to a consultation. If such a call ever appeared imperative, that moment had now arrived. The Defensors called therefore a Protestant Diet for the 5th of March, 1618, which, however, was attended chiefly by the nobility, since the royal cities were dissuaded by the chamberlains and other high functionaries from sending delegates, and but few of them had the courage to appoint such. In the first session, which took place on the 6th of March, Count Thurn thanked those present for their prompt attendance in a long paper which he read, in which he discussed the