ty, but the
Imperial government was still in Catholic hands.

In the hereditary dominions of the House of Habsburg the situation was
different. Under Maximilian II Austria had been the least intolerant
of European governments. Equal toleration prevailed at that time in
Poland, and led to the growth and prosperity of the Socinians; but the
Austrian policy aimed at a compromise between the churches, and at a
system of concessions which made them much alike.

Under Maximilian's inefficient son, the country went asunder. One
branch of the family carried out the Counter-Reformation in Styria;
while, north of the Danube, the majority of the inhabitants was
either Lutheran or Utraquist, that is, attached to Communion under
both kinds, which had been the germ of Hussitism, and was the residue
that remained after the fervour of the Hussite movement had burnt
itself out. In 1609 Bohemia and Silesia obtained entire freedom of
religious belief; while in the several provinces of Alpine Austria
unity was as vigorously enforced as the law permitted--that is, by the
use of patronage, expulsion of ministers, suppression of schools;
confiscation of books, and, generally, by administrative repression,
short of violence.

It was not stipulated in the Majestatsbrief, as the instrument of 1609
was called, which was the charter of toleration under the Bohemian
crown, that Protestants might build churches on the domains of the
Catholic clergy; but this they claimed to do, inasmuch as the right
was conceded to them on the crown lands, and in Bohemia these were
technically considered to include Church lands. Accordingly, one was
built at Braunau, and was stopped by authority; another at
Klostergrab, and was pulled down. At the same time, the intention to
reverse legislation and repress Protestant religion on both sides of
the tube alike was openly confessed.

The Styrian archduke, the head of the clerical party, became King of
Bohemia and Emperor-elect, the kinsmen who were nearer the succession
withdrawing in his favour. The Habsburgs felt strong enough to carry
forward the Counter-Reformation even in Bohemia and the dependent
lands, where nine-tenths of the people were Protestants, with rights
assured by a recent and solemn instrument. They had in their favour
the letter of the Peace of Religion, by which no prince could be
required to rule over subjects differing from him in religion, and the
more probable reading of the rule as