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The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

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Chapter 4<br />

Conquest of North Germany<br />

by Ferdinand II and the<br />

"Catholic League"<br />

FROM this general picture of the war, which<br />

shows us fanaticism and ruffianism holding<br />

saturnalia inside the camp, and terror and<br />

devastation extending their gloomy area from day<br />

to day outside of it, we turn to follow the progress<br />

of its campaigns and battles, and the slow and<br />

gradual evolution of its moral results, till they issue<br />

in the Peace of Westphalia, which gave a larger<br />

measure of toleration to the Protestants than they<br />

had ever hitherto enjoyed.<br />

<strong>The</strong> iron hand of military violence, moved by<br />

the Jesuits, was at this hour crushing out<br />

Protestantism in Bohemia, in Hungary, in<br />

Transylvania, in Styria, and in Carinthia.<br />

Dragonnades, confiscations, and executions were<br />

there the order of the day. <strong>The</strong> nobles were dying<br />

57

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