Protestantism in Hungary and Transylvania - James Aitken Wylie

From Ingolstadt, Ferdinand returned to his
patrimonial estates in Styria and Carinthia, with the
firm resolve, whatever it might cost himself or
others, that foot of Protestant should not defile the
territories that called him master. He would rather
that his estates should become the abode of wolves
and foxes than be the dwelling of heretics. Soon
thereafter he set out on a pilgrimage to Loretto, to
invoke the protection of the "Queen of Heaven,"
visiting Rome by the way to receive grace from the
"Holy Father," to enable him to fulfill his vow of
thoroughly purging his dominions. In his fortieth
year (1517) he made a pilgrimage to a similar
shrine; and as he lay prostrate before the image of
Mary, a violent storm came on, the lightening
flashed and the thunders rolled, but above the roar
of the elements Ferdinand heard, distinct and clear,
a voice saying to him, "Ferdinand, I will not leave
thee." Whose voice could it be but Mary's? He rose
from the earth with a double consecration upon
him. This, however, did not hinder his subscribing,
on the day of his coronation as King of Bohemia
(16th March, 1618), the article which promised full
protection to the Protestant Church, adding that "he
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