among the various Protestant sects, but found them far more intolerant of each other than he had expected. As his father had gained a great deal by allowing the cup to be used at communion in the Catholic churches, so Maximilian thought that much might be gained if the Catholic priests were allowed to marry. But here he found Rome so obstinate that he was obliged to abandon the design.
The Protestants, greatly encouraged, now asked for the revocation of the Compactata, and that henceforth the Word of God should be the sole guide in matters of faith. This being granted, they now begged that the Consistory be chosen anew by themselves. As this doubtless would have given the majority to the more advanced Protestants, the king refused it, not wishing to infringe upon the rights of the Calixtines. The new sects, however, did not allow themselves to be baffled in their purpose. For a while they were silent, waiting to bring forward their claims when a more favorable moment should arrive.
In 1575 a Diet was convened at Prague, at which the king asked two favors; he needed a much larger subsidy than usual to defray the expenses of the government, and he wanted his son Rudolph to be declared his successor. The Diet, in which the majority of the members were Protestants, refused to take these questions into consideration until the king should allow them to elect their own Consistory, and grant them permission to be governed by the Confession of Faith drawn up by the Evangelicals and the Moravian Brethren. Maximilian was quite willing to make these concessions, knowing that by so doing he would secure from
