Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/85

 oppression of the Protestants on the ecclesiastical and royal domains, and showed the uselessness of the attempts as yet made to obtain relief. The audience with the Emperor in Brandeis, the demolition of the Klostergrab church, and the oppressions at Braunau, were the themes of his strong passages.

At the close of the reading the Defensors asked in what manner an end might be put to their sufferings. The Diet, however, declined to answer the question, and demanded first to hear the opinion of the Defensors themselves. After several days spent over this subject, it was resolved to address a memorial to the Regency, and, in case this should be without effect, a similar one to the Emperor. The Regents returned an immediate answer adverse to the demand, and the Diet determined not only to apply to the Emperor, but at the same time to dispatch a request to the Estates of the other lands united under the crown of Bohemia, and implore their intercession with their common King. If they should succeed in arousing the sympathy of their neighbors and drawing them from their state of inaction, then the Emperor would have to contend for his entire crown. They hastened to forward all the addresses. The purpose for which the Defensors had summoned the Diet was now gained, and they declared it dissolved. Not till answers from the Emperor and the neighboring lands should arrive, would they come together again, and, as they supposed that this would require at the most not more than two months, they fixed their next meeting for the 21st of May.

The next step of the government was awaited with intense solicitude. The Chancellor made a journey to Vienna to inform the Emperor in detail of what had oc-