A History of Bohemian LiteratureLützow, Francis, hrabe
History
A History of Bohemian Literature
Lützow, Francis, hrabe
Czech literature -- History and criticism
In his account of the defenestration Skála writes: "... Then Joaquin,
Count Schlick, ardently and with tears in his eyes, for he was a true
and zealous follower of the religion, addressed the assembly and
violently attacked Martinic and Slavata.[135] He reminded them of the
wrongs which they had inflicted both on Utraquists individually and
on the whole Evangelical Church, and of how they had dealt with them
according to the suggestions of those malicious teachers of theirs, the
members of the sect of the Jesuits. He said that they had unlawfully
attempted to deprive the Protestants of their offices, and that they
had given proof of this when they deprived that noble Bohemian hero,
Count Thurn, of his office as burgrave of the Karlstein, which office
the Lord of Smečno (Martinic) had usurped; he had done this contrary to
the constitution of the land. For who had ever heard that in Bohemia
officials could be dismissed and offices redistributed without the
consent of the Diet and a vote of the three Estates? 'But you,' he
said, 'worthless disciples of the Jesuits, you with your followers and
little secretaries,[136] you have dared to take it on yourselves to do
this, not knowing how otherwise to harm us and to disparage our party.
But you shall learn that we are not old women'--and here he snapped his
fingers at them--'and that we shall not allow you to deceive us. For we
consider you as of rank equal to our own, but we recognise his Majesty
as our most gracious lord, and being now well satisfied with him,
we shall undertake nothing against his Majesty. As long as old men,
honest and wise, governed this kingdom, everything went well in it; but
since you, disciples of the Jesuits, have pushed yourselves forward,
the contrary has been the case. You will not be able to take from us
the privileges which God has given us and our gracious sovereign has
confirmed; we will not till we are conquered consent to this.'"
The indignation of Count Schlick and his intense excitement, which
render his speech at times incoherent, appear very clearly from Skála's
account. The various opinions of the nobles assembled in council are
very clearly and minutely set forth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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