Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

manifold woes that befell the unhappy country.
Even before the victory of the Weissenberg, the
ministers in various parts of Bohemia suffered
dreadfully from the license of the troops. No
sooner had the Austrian army crossed the frontier,
than the soldiers began to plunder and kill as they
had a mind. Pastors found preaching to their flocks
were murdered in the pulpit; the sick were shot in
their beds; some were hanged on trees, others were
tied to posts, and their extremities scorched with
fire, while others were tortured in various cruel
ways to compel them to disclose facts which they
did not know, and give up treasure which they did
not possess. To the barbarous murder of the father
or the husband was sometimes added the brutal
outrage of his family.
But when the victory of the Weissenberg gave
Bohemia and its capital into the power of
Ferdinand, the persecution was taken out of the
hands of the soldiers, and committed to those who
knew how to conduct it, if not more humanely, yet
more systematically. It was the settled purpose of
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