as now, among the
citizens, gradually produced their results. The Jesuits were first
tolerated, and by-and-by respected in Prague. Moreover the college was
raised to the rank of a university, in which theology and philosophy
might be taught; and they received from day to day an accession to
their numbers. Still the fame of the Carolinum, or Protestant seminary,
surpassed that of the modern university, as far as the Jesuits
individually surpassed the Protestant teachers in urbanity of manner;
and hence, though personally tolerated, the latter continued as a party
to be objects of extreme suspicion. And so things remained, till the
issue of the Thirty Years' War threw all power into the hands of the
Catholics, and religious freedom, and civil liberty, became words
without meaning in Bohemia.

I have spoken of the house of Austria as indicating from the outset of
its connexion with Bohemia, a spirit of decided hostility to the
institutions of the country. From this general censure, two, and for a
brief space at least, three princes of the line must, indeed, be
excepted. Maximilian had no sooner mounted the throne, in 1564, than he
proclaimed the most ample religious toleration. The Compacta
Basilicana, which had heretofore protected the Utraquists alone, were
set aside, and all sects were permitted to worship God, according to
the dictates of their own consciences. The consequence was, that a
large portion of the people became, with the university, avowedly
Protestant, and adopted, some the Augsburg Confession as their standard
of belief,--others, the opinions of Calvin. In like manner, Rodolph
II., and after his deposition, Matthias, stood forth as the champions
of absolute freedom of opinion. They looked to matters of more
importance than the squabbles of sophists; they laboured to advance the
prosperity of their people, and they succeeded. The interval between
1564 and 1610, may, indeed, be described as the golden age of Bohemian
history. Then did the diet exercise a sound and constitutional control
over the supplies and general policy of the government. Then was the
condition of the peasant improved, his proverbial industry encouraged,
and himself permitted to share largely in its fruits. There were, in
fact, as many elements of civil and religious liberty in Bohemia then
as in England;--how wide is the contrast which the one nation offers to
the other now!

It would have been strange, indeed, had princes who were wi