wielded unrestricted power. In 1627 only Ferdinand published a new fundamental law known as the "renewed ordinance of the land."[1] Its principal points may here be briefly noted.[2] It had for centuries been a moot point whether the Bohemian crown was an elective or an hereditary one. This point was now settled for ever. The Bohemian crown was declared to be hereditary in the house of Habsburg, both in the male and in the female line. Only in the case of the complete extinction of that dynasty was the right of electing a sovereign to be reassumed by the Estates. The ancient ceremony of the "reception" of the new king, which had continued during the rule of the first Habsburg princes, and which preserved a semblance of a sanction to the presence of the new ruler on the part of the Estates, was abolished. The ceremony of the coronation of the kings was, however, retained. The representative institutions of the land were also remodelled. To the three Estates—the nobles, knights and townsmen—a fourth, the ecclesiastical one was added, and this one was to take precedence over all the others. In Moravia the ecclesiastical Estate had already existed previously. It now obtained there also precedence over the other Estates. It was further decreed that all privileges and rights granted to "acatholics "—as all who did not belong to the Church of Rome now began to be officially called—were revoked. With the exception of the Jews, no one not belonging to the Roman Church was henceforth to reside in Bohemia. A further very important enactment declared that the sovereign henceforth reserved to himself the entire legislative power in the Bohemian lands. Most of the ancient State offices continued to exist, but the most important of them, that of burgrave of the Karlstein, was suppressed. A great change took place with regard to the appointment to the offices of State. The king had hitherto been obliged to be guided in his choice by the opinion of the Estates. He now obtained the power of appointing practically whomever he wished. A further enactment greatly restricted the powers of the Bohemian law courts, and reserved to the sovereign the right of
