Protestantism in Hungary and Transylvania - James Aitken Wylie

kingdom. This was now resolved on; but it was
judged wise to begin with a small number, and if
the government were successful with these, it
would next proceed to its ulterior and final
measure.
The Archbishop of Gran summoned (25th
September, 1673), before his vice-regal court in
Presburg, thirty-three of the Protestant pastors from
Lower Hungary. They obeyed the citation,
although they viewed themselves as in no way
bound, by the laws of the land, to submit to a
spiritual court, and especially one composed of
judges all of whom were their deadly enemies.
Besides a number of paltry and ridiculous charges,
the indictment laid at their door the whole guilt of
the late rebellion, which notoriously had been
contrived and carried out by the Popish magnates.
To be placed at such a bar was but the
inevitable prelude to being found guilty and
condemned. The awards of torture, beheading, and
banishment were distributed among the thirty-three
pastors. But their persecutors, instead of carrying
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