The second effort to put down Protestantism by arms began in 1618, and
led to that frightful outbreak of human virulence, the Thirty Years'
War, which made Germany a desert, but left religion as it found it. The
emperor, Ferdinand II., a rigid Catholic, bitterly opposed to the spread
of Protestantism, had ordered the demolition of two new churches built
by the Bohemian Protestants. His order led to instant hostilities. Count
Thurn, a fierce Bohemian nobleman, had the emperor's representatives,
Slawata and Martinitz by name, flung out of the window of the
council-chamber in Prague, a height of seventy or more feet, and their
secretary Fabricius flung after them. It was a terrible fall, but they
escaped, for a pile of litter and old papers lay below. Fabricius fell
on Martinitz, and, polite to the last, begged his pardon for coming down
upon him so rudely. This act of violence, which occurred on May 23,
1618, is looked upon as the true beginning of the dreadful war.
Matters moved rapidly. Bohemia was conquered by the imperial armies, its
nobles exiled or executed, its religion suppressed.
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