Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

could give neither elevation of soul, nor dignity of
character, nor grace of manners. The free cities
were placed under a reign of terrorism. New
governors and imperial judges were appointed to
rule them; but from what class of the population
were these officials drawn? The first were selected
from the new nobility; the second, says Comenius -
- and his statement was not denied by his
contemporaries -- were taken from "banished
Italians or Germans, or apostate Bohemians,
gluttons who had squandered their fortunes,
notorious murderers, bastards, cheats, fiddlers,
stage-players, mutineers, even men who were
unable to read, without property, without home,
without conscience."[10] Such were the judges to
whom the goods, the liberties, and the lives of the
citizens were committed. The less infamous of the
new officials, the governors namely, were soon
removed, and the "gluttons, murderers, fiddlers,
and stage-players" were left to tyrannize at
pleasure. No complaint was listened to;
extortionate demands were enforced by the
military; marriage was forbidden except to Roman
Catholics; funeral rites were prohibited at
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