rs, under the plea that they
assailed the Catholic church with too much virulence; and he also
forbade any one thenceforward to officiate as a Protestant clergyman
without a license from him. These were very decisive acts, and yet very
adroit ones, as they did not directly interfere with any of the
immunities of the nobles.

The Protestants were, however, much alarmed by these measures, as
indicative of the intolerant policy of the new king. The preachers met
together to consult. They corresponded with foreign universities
respecting the proper course to pursue; and the Protestant nobles met to
confer upon the posture of affairs. As the result of their conferences,
they issued a remonstrance, declaring that they could not yield to such
an infringement of the rights of conscience, and that "they were bound
to obey God rather than man."

Rhodolph was pleased with this resistance, as it afforded him some
excuse for striking a still heavier blow. He declared the remonstrants
guilty of rebellion. As a punishment, he banished several Protestant
ministers, and utterly forbade the exercise of any Protestant worship
whatever, in any of the royal towns, including Vienna itself. He
communicated with the leading Catholics in the Church and in the State,
urging them to act with energy, concert and unanimity. He removed the
Protestants from office, and supplied their places with Catholics. He
forbade any license to preach or academical degree, or professorship in
the universities from being conferred upon any one who did not sign the
formulary of the Catholic faith. He ordered a new catechism to be drawn
up for universal use in the schools, that there should be no more
Protestant education of children; he allowed no town to choose any
officer without his approbation, and he refused to ratify any choice
which did not fall upon a Catholic. No person was to be admitted to the
rights of burghership, until he had taken an oath of submission to the
Catholic priesthood. These high-handed measures led to the outbreak of a
few insurrections, which the emperor crushed with iron rigor. In the
course of a few years, by the vigorous and unrelenting prosecution of
these measures, Rhodolph gave the Catholics the ascendency in all his
realms.

While the Catholics were all united, the Protestants were shamefully
divided upon the most trivial points of discipline, or upon abstruse
questions in philosophy above the reach of mortal minds. It was as t