14.03.2019 Views

Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

terrify<strong>in</strong>g, tortur<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>and</strong> murder<strong>in</strong>g the pious<br />

peasants. They drove them like cattle to church<br />

with the saber. When billeted on Protestant<br />

families, they conducted themselves like <strong>in</strong>carnate<br />

demons; the members of the household had either<br />

to declare themselves Romanists, or flee to the<br />

woods, to be out of the reach of their violence <strong>and</strong><br />

the hear<strong>in</strong>g of their oaths. As the Jesuits were<br />

boast<strong>in</strong>g at Rome <strong>in</strong> presence of the Pope of hav<strong>in</strong>g<br />

converted <strong>Bohemia</strong>, the famous Capuch<strong>in</strong>,<br />

Valerianus Magnus, who was present, said, "Holy<br />

Father, give me soldiers as they were given to the<br />

Jesuits, <strong>and</strong> I will convert the whole world to the<br />

Catholic faith."[8]<br />

We have already narrated the executions of the<br />

most illustrious of the <strong>Bohemia</strong>n nobles. Those<br />

whose lives were spared were overwhelmed by<br />

burdensome taxes, <strong>and</strong> reiterated dem<strong>and</strong>s for stuns<br />

of money, on various pretexts. After they had been<br />

tolerably fleeced, it was resolved to banish them<br />

from the k<strong>in</strong>gdom. On Ignatius Loyola's day, the<br />

31st of July, <strong>in</strong> the year 1627, an edict appeared, <strong>in</strong><br />

which the emperor declared that, hav<strong>in</strong>g "a fatherly<br />

222

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!