renewing the enactments published in 1508 against the Bohemian Brethren by King Vladislav. This declaration, issued under totally different circumstances, menaced with death all who professed religious views other than those of the Catholics, and of the so-called old-utraquists, who differed from the Catholics only in maintaining the Compacts. This decree of Rudolph, which indirectly attacked the whole Lutheran community as well as the Bohemian Brethren, was publicly proclaimed in the streets of Prague with great solemnity; it caused, however, more surprise than fear. "It was noticed that no preparations had been made to enforce on nine-tenths of the population a decree to which it was certain that the force of arms alone would induce it to submit.[1]
This ill-advised proclamation appears to have been suggested to Rudolph by the papal nuncio, then resident at Prague. Though for the present it remained ineffective, it greatly irritated the Protestants.[2] When the Diet met at Prague (Jan. 9, 1603), the king's policy was sharply attacked by the leader of the Protestants, Venceslas Budovec, Lord of Budova, a noble belonging to the Unity of the Bohemian Brethren. The Estates strongly protested against Rudolph's decree. They declared it contrary to the promise of religious freedom which the late King Maximilian had made. They at first refused to vote the grants of money to obtain which the Diet had been summoned; but on the advice of Budova, finally consented to do so. The Estates had previously drawn up a "Remonstrance," which they intended to present to their king. Rudolph, however, immediately after he had obtained the wished-for supplies, declared the Diet closed (January 15, 1603). This step, as was natural, still further estranged the Bohemians from their king, at a moment when he was more than ever dependent on their support.
- ↑ Dr. Gindely, Rudolph I und seine Zeit, vol. i. p. 68. In the same work (vol. i. p. 179), Gindely says that during the first years of the seventeenth century certainly not a tenth part of the nobility of Bohemia, and a still smaller portion of the other classes, were Catholics. Catholicism must at this period have decreased rapidly, if we compare these figures with those Gindely gives for the sixteenth century. See note 1, p. 206.
- ↑ Following Gindely's example, I give this joint designation to the Lutherans and Bohemian Brethren when they acted in accord. From this period to the suppression of religious liberty in Bohemia this union was generally effective and real.
