Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/88

 tions he surmised, to his house, and succeeded in persuading some of these to address a memorial to the Emperor praying for the restoration of Utraquism. With this the Catholic Church would stand in close relations, and the Archbishop would be acknowledged as the ecclesiastical head also of the Utraquists. Before anything in regard to this memorial and the plans connected with it was known, the pastor of St. Nicholas, in the old city, evidently one of those won over, ventured publicly upon a decided step. On Saturday of Passion Week he celebrated the festival of the resurrection after the manner of the Catholics, by bearing the host in procession. The amazement and rage of the Protestants were not greater than was the joy of the Catholics over this breach which the latter had made in the enemy’s fortress.

When the Regents reported at Vienna that the Defensors declined to revoke the order for the Protestant Diet, they were directed to repeat the demand that the appointed meeting be not held. This imperial paper, as compared with that of March 21st, was noticeably toned down; it avoided all threats, and made a milder impression also by holding out the prospect of the Emperor’s return to Prague. As directed, the Regents summoned the Defensors, then present in Prague, to the castle, but again failed to obtain the desired promise.

The decisive day of the dreaded meeting drew near. Some days before the time fixed, the authors of the movement arrived in Prague, that they might complete a plan of action. They came together on the 18th of May, and resolved first to prepare an address to the people; in this they explained the present contest, and maintained that their course had been in accordance with law. The address was sent, on the following day, to all the pastors