Page 376 - Stati inu obstati, revija za vprašanja protestantizma, letnik VII (2011), številka 13-14, ISSN 1408-8363
P. 376
SYNOPSES, ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN
litically important representatives of reformed churches; 3) the expulsion of
the intellectual and spiritual core of the reformed churches (preachers, teach-
ers); changes in the political-administrative structure of towns and the prov-
ince (town councils, law-courts); 5) pressure on the middle class to convert to
Roman Catholicism (under the threat of expulsion); 6) the activity of Counter-
Reformation and Recatholicization committees in the provincial prince’s towns
and the province (voluntary or enforced conversion of town inhabitants and
the third estate); 7) the order to the aristocracy to convert to Roman Catholi-
cism or emigrate and thus 8) the legally formally correct but final establish-
ment of the principle of cuius regio, eius religio from the Peace of Augsburg (1555),
which represents the basic idea of Stobaeus’ plan as articulated in the form of
a special memorandum. The typology already tested in Inner Austria during
1596-1602 thus appears to have been somewhat modified in the Bohemian
kingdom. As provincial lord Ferdinand II could directly punish the rebels on
account of the estates’ uprising (after the Defenestration of Prague in 1618)
and thus swiftly deprive them of the historical privileges, primarily those
granted in the Letter of Majesty of Rudolf II, which concerned freedom of reli-
gion in the Bohemian kingdom, and then of political power – due to the pay-
ment for war damage, buying property under price and the confiscation of
property – and of material power, which together with political power had been
the chief support of the reformed churches in the Bohemian kingdom. The
goal of all these measures was soon achieved: c. 1626 the Counter-Reformation
in Bohemia was officially completed. This was true at least to the extent that
there were no longer any non-Catholic church services anywhere in the Bohe-
mian provinces. Non-Catholic Bohemians either emigrated or converted to
Roman Catholicism or at least promised that they would be taught in “the true
faith”. The f low of religious emigration carried the best sons of the homeland
across the borders: a contemporary source declares that 185 entire non-Catho-
lic aristocratic families together with their branches emigrated, while the total
number of emigrants is reckoned at 30,000 families (modern evaluations are
closer to the number 70,000). The historical Bohemian nation ceased to exist
with the establishment of the Counter-Reformation, while the social re-
stratification and societal change which followed it can be compared in Euro-
pean history only with England, when William the Conqueror of Normandy
dispossessed the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy after the Battle of Hastings in 1066,
with Germany, where the Jews of Central Europe experienced a similar fate
during the Nazi regime, and partly also with the countries which in the 20th
century accepted either through force or voluntarily any of the variants of So-
viet Bolshevik communism. In these countries deliberate and systematic dis-
possession befell the historical bourgeoisie – the class which somehow did not
fit the historical reductionist model of the communist (pseudo)materialist in-
terpretation of the historical development of society.
374
litically important representatives of reformed churches; 3) the expulsion of
the intellectual and spiritual core of the reformed churches (preachers, teach-
ers); changes in the political-administrative structure of towns and the prov-
ince (town councils, law-courts); 5) pressure on the middle class to convert to
Roman Catholicism (under the threat of expulsion); 6) the activity of Counter-
Reformation and Recatholicization committees in the provincial prince’s towns
and the province (voluntary or enforced conversion of town inhabitants and
the third estate); 7) the order to the aristocracy to convert to Roman Catholi-
cism or emigrate and thus 8) the legally formally correct but final establish-
ment of the principle of cuius regio, eius religio from the Peace of Augsburg (1555),
which represents the basic idea of Stobaeus’ plan as articulated in the form of
a special memorandum. The typology already tested in Inner Austria during
1596-1602 thus appears to have been somewhat modified in the Bohemian
kingdom. As provincial lord Ferdinand II could directly punish the rebels on
account of the estates’ uprising (after the Defenestration of Prague in 1618)
and thus swiftly deprive them of the historical privileges, primarily those
granted in the Letter of Majesty of Rudolf II, which concerned freedom of reli-
gion in the Bohemian kingdom, and then of political power – due to the pay-
ment for war damage, buying property under price and the confiscation of
property – and of material power, which together with political power had been
the chief support of the reformed churches in the Bohemian kingdom. The
goal of all these measures was soon achieved: c. 1626 the Counter-Reformation
in Bohemia was officially completed. This was true at least to the extent that
there were no longer any non-Catholic church services anywhere in the Bohe-
mian provinces. Non-Catholic Bohemians either emigrated or converted to
Roman Catholicism or at least promised that they would be taught in “the true
faith”. The f low of religious emigration carried the best sons of the homeland
across the borders: a contemporary source declares that 185 entire non-Catho-
lic aristocratic families together with their branches emigrated, while the total
number of emigrants is reckoned at 30,000 families (modern evaluations are
closer to the number 70,000). The historical Bohemian nation ceased to exist
with the establishment of the Counter-Reformation, while the social re-
stratification and societal change which followed it can be compared in Euro-
pean history only with England, when William the Conqueror of Normandy
dispossessed the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy after the Battle of Hastings in 1066,
with Germany, where the Jews of Central Europe experienced a similar fate
during the Nazi regime, and partly also with the countries which in the 20th
century accepted either through force or voluntarily any of the variants of So-
viet Bolshevik communism. In these countries deliberate and systematic dis-
possession befell the historical bourgeoisie – the class which somehow did not
fit the historical reductionist model of the communist (pseudo)materialist in-
terpretation of the historical development of society.
374
