But the Protestants had now
resolved that Ferdinand should never be King of Bohemia. It had become
an established tenet of the Catholic church that it is not necessary to
keep faith with heretics. Whatever solemn promises Ferdinand might make,
the pope would absolve him from all sin in violating them.
Count Thurn, with sixteen thousand men, marched into Moravia. The people
rose simultaneously to greet him. He entered Brunn, the capital, in
triumph. The revolution was immediate and entire. They abolished the
Austrian government, established the Protestant worship, and organized a
new government similar to that which they had instituted in Bohemia.
Crossing the frontier, Count Thurn boldly entered Austria and, meeting
no foe capable of retarding his steps, he pushed vigorously on even to
the very gates of Vienna. As he had no heavy artillery capable of
battering down the walls, and as he knew that he had many partisans
within the walls of the city, he took possession of the suburbs,
blockaded the town, and waited for the slow operation of a siege, hoping
thus to be able to take the capital and the person of the sovereign
without bloodshed.
Ferdinand had brought such trouble upon the country, that he was now
almost as unpopular with the Catholics as with the Protestants, and all
his appeals to them for aid were of but little avail.
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