Sometimes the meetings were peaceful, and
again tumultuous with the clashing of arms.
In Bohemia the conflict between the Catholics and the reformers had
raged with peculiar acrimony, and the reformers in that kingdom had
become a very numerous and influential body. Ferdinand was anxious to
check the progress of the Reformation, and he exerted all the power he
could command to defend and maintain Catholic supremacy. For ten years
Ferdinand was absent from Bohemia, all his energies being absorbed by
the Hungarian war. He was anxious to weaken the power of the nobles in
Bohemia. There was ever, in those days, either an open or a smothered
conflict between the king and the nobles, the monarch striving to grasp
more power, the nobles striving to keep him in subjection to them.
Ferdinand attempted to disarm the nobles by sending for all the
artillery of the kingdom, professing that he needed it to carry on his
war with the Turks. But the wary nobles held on to their artillery. He
then was guilty of the folly of hunting up some old exploded compacts,
in virtue of which he declared that Bohemia was not an elective but a
hereditary monarchy, and that he, as hereditary sovereign, held the
throne for himself and his heirs.
Pages:
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242