Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

of the church in Prague which had been occupied
by the United Brethren, they first strewed
gunpowder over its flora-, and then set fire to it, to
disinfect the building by flame and smoke from the
poison of heresy. The "cup," the well-known
Bohemian symbol, erected over church portals and
city gates, was pulled down, and a statue of the
Virgin put up fit its stead. If a church was not to be
used, because it was not needed, or because it was
inconveniently situated, it was either razed or shut
up. If only shut up it was left unconsecrated, and in
that dreadful condition the Romanists were afraid
to enter it. The churchyards shared the fate of the
churches. The monumental tablets of the Protestant
(lead were broken in pieces, the inscriptions were
effaced, and the bones of the dead in many
instances were dug up and burned.[6]
After the pastors, the iron hand of persecution
fell upon the schoolmasters. All teachers who
refused to conform to the Church of Rome, and
teach the new catechism of the Jesuit Canisius,
were banished. The destruction of the Protestant
University of Prague followed. The non-Catholic
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