he official language of the country, and was
bent on forcing it upon the people.

Henceforth every reform coming from Joseph became hateful to the people.
The oppressed classes themselves spurned relief which involved the
sacrifice of their sweet mother-tongue. By proclaiming equal rights and
equal subjection to the burdens of the state, he arrayed the privileged
classes against his person. The Protestants and the peasantry, who had
hailed him in the beginning as their new messiah, and fondly saw in his
innovations the dawn of brighter days, also turned from him as soon as
he attacked them in what they prized even more than liberty and justice.
It was not long before the whole country, without distinction of class,
social standing, or creed, combined to set at naught the Germanizing
efforts of Joseph. The hard-fought struggle roused the people, hitherto
divided by antagonisms of class and creed, to a sense of national
solidarity. It was during the critical days of these constitutional
conflicts that the foundations of the modern homogeneousness of the
Hungarian nation and society were laid down.

The privileged classes looked upon Joseph, on his advent to the throne,
with distrust. They foresaw that he would not allow himself to be
crowned, in order to avoid taking the oath of fidelity to the
Constitution of Hungary. The first measures of his reign concerned the
organization of the various churches of the country. He extended the
religious freedom of the Protestant Church. By virtue of the apostolic
rights of the Hungarian kings, he introduced signal reforms into the
Catholic Church, especially regarding the education of the clergy, which
proved, in part, exceedingly salutary.

He abolished numerous religious orders, especially those which were not
engaged either in teaching or in nursing the sick. One hundred forty
monasteries and nunneries were closed by him in Hungary. The ample
property of these convents he employed for ecclesiastical and public
purposes and for the advancement of instruction. He exerted himself
strenuously and successfully in the establishment of public schools and
in the interest of popular education. He removed the only university of
which the country could then boast from Buda to Pesth, a city which was
rapidly increasing, and added a theological department to that seat of
learning. All these innovations met with the approval of the enlightened
elements of the nation, while the privileged clas