Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

abandonment of the Protestant faith. The ministers
replied unanimously that "they would do nothing
against their consciences." The decree of
banishment was not long deferred. To pave the way
for it, an edict was issued, which threw the whole
blame of the war upon the ministers. They were
stigmatized as "turbulent, rash, and seditious men,"
who had "made a new king," and who even now
"were plotting pernicious confederacies," and
preparing new insurrections against the emperor.
They must therefore, said the edict, be driven from
a kingdom which could know neither quiet nor
safety so long as they were in it. Accordingly on
the 13th of December, 1621, [1] the decree of
banishment was given forth, ordering all the
ministers in Prague within three days, and all
others throughout Bohemia and the United
Provinces within eight days, to remove themselves
beyond the bounds of the kingdom, "and that for
ever." If any of the proscribed should presume to
remain in the country, or should return to it, they
were to suffer death, and the same fate was
adjudged to all who should dare to harbor them, or
who should in the least favor or help them.[2]
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