naturally caused grave apprehensions in Bohemia; and the alarm was intensified by numerous Protestant refugees from Ferdinand's territory who had sought refuge in Bohemia, and who vividly described the persecution which they had endured.
The growing alarm and resentment of the Protestants increased when it became known that Count Thurn, who was a strong Protestant, had, probably in consequence of his vote on the question of the succession, been dismissed from his high office of Burgrave of the Karlstein. Though another less lucrative office was conferred on the count, his dismissal caused great indignation. The archives, and with them the documents confirming the privileges of the kingdom, were preserved at Karlstein: it was believed that the Government wished to place the custody of these valuable documents in the hands of some more pliant official.
Archduke Ferdinand and his councillors, in fact, determined to establish the "Catholic Reformation" in Bohemia as soon as circumstances permitted. King Matthew, who was more moderate in his views, was in failing health, so that the accession of Ferdinand might be shortly anticipated. On the other hand, the number and influence of the Bohemian Protestants rendered it certain that they would not submit to coercion as peacefully as their co-religionists in Styria had done. Civil war in Bohemia was therefore inevitable, and the smallest spark would suffice to produce an explosion.
Immediately after the publication of the Letter of Majesty, the Protestant citizens of the towns of Broumov and Hrob had began to build churches; the last-named town formed part of the domains of the Roman Archbishop of Prague, while the former was subject to the Abbot of Březnov. Encouraged by the Protestant Estates, the citizens proceeded with the building of these churches, disregarding the remonstrances of the two ecclesiastics. The question as to their right to do so has been already alluded to, and from recently-adduced evidence it now appears certain that the citizens had right on their side.[1] The archbishop and the abbot had from the first protested against the erection of these churches, but it was only after Ferdinand's coronation that they resorted to more energetic measures. In December (1617) the Archbishop of Prague caused the Protestant
- ↑ See note 3, p. 235.
