called “Moravians,” had very numerous adherents in that part of Bohemia. Kunwald, the cradle of community of the Bohemian Brethren, and Brandeis and Reichenau (or Rychnov), two of its principal centres, are situated in this district. It was here that the Jesuits displayed their greatest energy and their greatest cruelty. Almost immediately after the battle of the White Mountain, a large Jesuit monastery, as a centre for the missionary work, was founded at Königgrätz; and when, about the year 1630, the estate of Zampach, by the will of its last owner, became the property of the order, a smaller monastery was built there also, which is now our home, but which has been considerably enlarged by us. Jesuits were sent to Zampach from Königgrätz, and a Jesuit from Glaz arrived to be the head of the new community. The district of Glaz, which then belonged to Bohemia, though it is now part of the Prussian kingdom, was largely inhabited by Protestants, and the Superior of the new foundation had there displayed restless energy and terrible cruelty. In absence of any evidence, we may hope that the popular tale that the first head of the Jesuit community, the “Missionarius Glacensis,” as he was called, had caused four thousand Protestants in the district of Glaz to be burnt, is an exaggeration. He certainly bore the reputation of exceptional severity, even in a cruel age; and his features, as depicted in a portrait which still exists in the chapel at Zampach, have distinctive notes of bigotry and ferocity.
THE CASTLE OF ZAMPACH.
The re-conversion of the inhabitants of Zampach to the Church of Rome does not appear to have proceeded rapidly, in spite of the energy of the redoubtable “missionary of Glaz.” It was the custom of the Jesuits to ereçt a large wooden crucifix in Bohemian villages, in commemoration of the date when the village had entirely returned to the Catholic rule that is to say, when every Protestant had been either killed or driven from his home. The still existent commemorative crucifix at Zampach dates only from about the year 1660. The system of conversion pursued at Zampach was, no doubt, the same as in other parts of the country. The wealthier Protestant inhabitants were driven into exile, and their property was confiscated. The peasants, on the other hand, who were then serfs, and therefore attached to the soil, to the cultivation of which they were necessary, were obliged to adopt the ritual and ceremonies of the Roman Church. Most of them did so under compulsion, but many of them continued to attend secret religious services according to the rites of the “Bohemian Brethren,” which were held in secluded spots in the forests. The Jesuits, therefore, in Zampach as elsewhere, were not satisfied with the mere acceptation of the Roman creed on the part of the Bohemian peasants. Simultaneously with their new monastery, the Jesuits had built a large chapel close to it, which, under the present ownership, has been joined to the house. Weekly attendance at the services held in this chapel was obligatory for the Bohemian peasants. Absence from the Sunday mass involved the ignominious penalty
