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Ferdinand II THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG Soo Ferguson worship, while entire towns wereled back to the an cient faith, thus paving the way as far as possible for the party of Catholic restoration. The situation in Lower Austria stopped short of any formally compacted procedure on the side of the Protestant estates; but in Upper Austria the opposition against all these measures maintained itself till 1597, at. last flaming up into the peasants' insurrection of 1595-97, which had its origin in economic distress and the straits of the Church. With this insurrec tion the Protestant opposition was at the same time decisively suppressed by superior force of arms. A " reformation committee " thereupon began its relentless activity; the nobility, indeed, were still allowed the exercise of Protestant worship in their castles, but the citizens and peasants were so hard pressed in the course of a few years that by the beginning of the seventeenth century the dominion of the Roman Church in Upper Austria was out wardly restored. However, a large portion of the population remained Protestant at heart. From about 1600, Rudolph II. was diseased in mind. The consequences of his condition were so disastrous, at last, for the govern 3. Protes- ment of his dominions that in 1604 tant Gains it seemed as though a collapse of his after i6oo. rule, and, with it, of the Hapsburg power, were imminent. The emperor's nearest kinsmen sought to obviate the danger by leaguing themselves against Rudolph and preparing to supplant him through his younger brother Matthias. Rudolph not being tractable, Matthias resorted to open conflict, and to strengthen his power he had to entreat the aid of the estates of Hungary and the crown lands and to fortify him self by concessions. In 1606 he promised the Hungarian Protestants free exercise of religion, and guaranteed the Moravian estates against all manner of religious persecution. It proved more difficult for him to make terms with the Austrian estates; these demanded, before the act of homage, complete religious freedom and new statutory rights for themselves. Nevertheless Matthias re luctantly yielded in the essential points, while the estates employed this time of independence in reorganizing the church on Protestant lines and in instituting public worship and schools on all sides accordingly. The same conditions favored the estates in Bohemia; as a condition of supporting the emperor against Matthias they first obtained provisional religious freedom, and then, on July 9, 1609, the imperial brief in solemn acknowledgment of religious freedom and the ecclesiastical organi zation of the Protestants. Similar results were achieved for themselves by the Silesian estates. On succeeding to the crown lands and the empire in 1612, Matthias confirmed the grants by his brother. The conflict between Rudolph and Matthias had much strengthened the position of the Austrian Protestants; apart from Tyrol and Inner Austria, the situation was now as favorable as at the close of the reign of Maximilian II. But there were some weighty differences. Zealous and closely com pacted Roman mincrities stood side by side with the Protestant estates of the realm; the Roman
Church had gained internal strength; the Jesuits had founded settlements and schools in all the important centers, exerting an influence
¢: Forces over the coming generation; the uni-Working versity at Graz belonged to them outfor the right, and Vienna was transferred to Roman them in 1617; the Capuchins likewise
Catholics. exerted a fruitful activity. And still tenser than formerly had grown the op position between the government and the Protestant estates; ecclesiastical and political points of conten tion had become inseparably interwoven, and Prot estantism and " estatism " belonged together like Catholicism and imperialism. The more the power of the estates increased, and the more distinctly the nobility strove for a federation of all the Bohe mian and Austrian estates, just so much the more hostile became the attitude of the monarchy toward all rights and strivings of the estates. Matthias at first allowed things to take their course; but when he contrived, in 1617, to induce the estates to " accept " Ferdinand of Styria as prospective successor to the royal dignity, his courage rose in the direction of Counterreformation measures. The consequence was the Bohemian uprising, and Bohemia's assertion of independence of the Haps burg dynasty; a Protestant prince, Frederick V. of the Palatinate, was elected king. But with the suppression of the Bohemian insurrection, came likewise the final, decisive defeat of Austrian Prot estantism. Ferdinand II., the successor of Matthias, became the restorer of Roman Catholicism for all Austria, just as Matthias had been for Inner Austria two decades previously (see INNER AUSTRIA, THE REFORMATION 1N).Ferdinand (b. at Graz July 9, 1578; d. in Vienna Feb. 15, 1637) had received a strictly ecclesiastical education, first at Graz, then at the University of Ingolstadt; his favorite reading, thanks to the influence of the Jesuits, was edifying tracts and legends of the saints. He succeeded his father, the Archduke Charles, in 1590 and began to reign actively in 1595, with the firm resolve to
5. Ferdi- help forward the Roman Church once nand II. His again to victory. At the end of June,
Measures 1598, he began to institute summary in Inner measures throughout Inner Austria. Austria. Protestant preachers and teachers were expelled, the Protestant churches were closed, Protestant subjects were directed to choose between return to Romanism and emigration; even the nobility were forbidden the exercise of Prot estant worship, their confession of faith being alone left free. Later, when at the height of his success in 1628, Ferdinand enjoined the nobility to return to the Roman Church within a year at the latest. So-called " reformation committees " were active throughout the country; the Jesuits now extended their labors more widely than ever; while the pro hibition of foreign schools restricted all aspirants for education to the schools of the Society of Jesus. Ferdinand allowed nothing to disturb him in carry ing out his policy; neither the remonstrances of his counselors, of the emperor, nor of the Protestant estates of the realm, caused him to halt. The opposition of his nobility, the vigorous resistance