avia. Besides these, many Bohemian
books were printed at Venice, Nuernberg, Wittenberg, and some in
Holland and Poland.

In 1617, the emperor Matthias succeeded in obtaining the crown of
Bohemia for his nephew Ferdinand, archduke of Austria. This was the
signal for the Romanists, in spite of the _Literae Imperatoriae_ of the
emperor Rudolph, to make new attempts for the suppression of the
Protestants. The Estates belonging to this denomination brought their
complaint before the emperor, who gave them no redress; and thus the
spark was kindled into flames, which for thirty years continued to
rage throughout all Germany. At the death of Matthias in 1619, the
Bohemians refused to receive Ferdinand II as their king; and elected
the Protestant palatine Frederic V, a generous prince, but incapable
of affording them support. The battle at the White Mountain, near
Prague, in 1620, decided the destiny of Bohemia. Twenty-seven of the
leaders of the insurrection were publicly executed; sixteen were
exiled or condemned to prison for life; their property, as also the
possessions of seven hundred and twenty-eight noblemen and knights,
who had voluntarily acknowledged themselves to have taken part in the
insurrection, and of twenty-nine others who had fled, was wholly
confiscated; and thus the amount of fifty-three millions of rix
dollars transferred from Protestant to Romish hands. The _Literce
Imperatorice_ were annulled; the Protestant religion in Bohemia
abolished; and that kingdom declared a purely catholic hereditary
monarchy. All non-catholic preachers were banished; thirty thousand
families, who preferred exile to a change of their religion,
emigrated. Among them 185 were noble families; the others artists,
mechanics, merchants, and labourers. Yet in the villages, among the
woods and mountains, where neither soldier nor Jesuit had penetrated,
and there alone, many Protestants remained, buried in a fortunate
obscurity. From the time of this catastrophe, the Bohemian language
has never again been used in public business. The thirty years' war
completed the devastation of this unfortunate country. In 1617,
Bohemia had 732 cities and 34,700 villages; when Ferdinand II died in
1637, there remained 130 cities and 6000 villages; and its three
millions of inhabitants were reduced to 780,000.

FOURTH PERIOD.

_From the battle at the White Mountain, A.D_. 1620, _to the Revival of
Literature in A.D_. 1774-80.

Of this melanchol