Bohemia did, and sink
into sluttish "fanatical torpor, and big Crucifixes of japanned Tin by
the wayside," though in the course of subsequent years, named of Peace,
it was near doing so. Here are the steps, or unavailing counter-steps,
in that latter direction:--

A.D. 1537. Occurred, as we know, the ERBVERBRUDERUNG; Duke of Liegnitz,
and of other extensive heritages, making Deed of Brotherhood with
Kur-Brandenburg;--Deed forbidden, and so far as might be, rubbed out and
annihilated by the then King of Bohemia, subsequently Kaiser Ferdinand
I., Karl V.'s Brother. Duke of Liegnitz had to give up his parchments,
and become zero in that matter: Kur-Brandenburg entirely refused to do
so; kept his parchments, to see if they would not turn to something.

A.D. 1624. Schlesien, especially the then Duke of Liegnitz
(great-grandson of the ERBVERBRUDERUNG one), and poor Johann George,
Duke of Jagerndorf, cadet of the then Kur-Brandenburg, went warmly
ahead into the Winter-King project, first fire of the Thirty-Years
War; sufferings from Papal encroachment, in high quarters, being really
extreme. Warmly ahead; and had to smart sharply for it;--poor Johann
George with forfeiture of Jagerndorf, with REICHES-ACHT (Ban of the
Empire), and total ruin; fighting against which he soon died. Act of Ban
and Forfeiture was done tyrannously, said most men; and it was persisted
in equally so, till men ceased speaking of it;--Jagerndorf Duchy, fruit
of the Act, was held by Austria, ever after, in defiance of the Laws
of the Reich. Religious Oppression lay heavy on Protestant Schlesien
thenceforth; and many lukewarm individualities were brought back to
Orthodoxy by that method, successful in the diligent skilled hands of
Jesuit Reverend Fathers, with fiscals and soldiers in the rear of them.

A.D. 1648. Treaty of Westphalia mended much of this, and set fair limits
to Papist encroachment;--had said Treaty been kept: but how could it? By
Orthodox Authority, anxious to recover lost souls, or at least to have
loyal subjects, it was publicly kept in name; and tacitly, in
substance, it was violated more and more. Of the "Blossoming of Silesian
Literature," spoken of in Books; of the Poet Opitz, Poets Logan,
Hoffmannswaldau, who burst into a kind of Song better or worse at this
Period, we will remember nothing; but request the reader to remember it,
if he is tunefully given, or thinks it a good symptom of Schlesien.

A.D. 1707. Treaty of Altranstadt