first years of the sixteenth century, persecution was mostly directed against the United Brethren and their writings.  The latter were burned; the former banished; until, driven from place to place, they found an asylum in the territory of some high-minded nobleman, where they established themselves anew; and then after some years perhaps a new persecution began.  Of a more revolting and bloody description were the measures directed principally against the Lutherans in the years 1522-26; in which the most shocking tortures were employed, and several faithful Lutherans and Picardites were burned alive.  During all this time the Romanists and Calixtins exercised a severe censorship; and it was ordained, that every individual who brought a newly printed book into the city of Prague, must submit it to the revision of the consistory.  These laws, however, were no better observed than all similar ordinances, when directly in opposition to the spirit of the age.  Meanwhile the Calixtins and Romanists, although writing against all others, had their own mutual contests.  When, however, the former caused a new edition of the Bible to be printed in the year 1506,[28] it was unanimously adopted by the Roman Catholics also; who, as is amusing to observe, did not notice that a wood cut is appended to the sixth chapter of the Apocalypse, in which the pope is represented in the flames of hell.

In the year 1526 king Louis died in the battle of Mohaez.

According to a matrimonial treaty, he was succeeded by his brother-in-law Ferdinand, archduke of Austria and brother of the emperor Charles V. This prince was received by the Bohemians with reluctance as their king, and only on the condition, insisted on by the Estates, that he should subscribe the compact of Basle, by which their religious liberties were secured to them.  So long as Ferdinand was occupied in Hungary against the Turks, all went well in Bohemia; but when, in the war which followed the league of Smalkalde (1547), the Protestants of this country refused to fight against their brethren, a new and unremitted persecution began against all, who could in any way be comprised under the name of sectarians.  The compact of Basle was strictly only in favour of the Utraquists or Calixtins; the Lutherans and Taborites, or, as they were then called, United Brethren, as also the Picardites and Grubenheimer, were considered as sects, and did not belong to the indulged.[29] Their churches were shut up; their preachers arrested; and all who did not prefer to exchange their religion for the Roman Catholic, were compelled to emigrate.  The scene altered under Maximilian II, Ferdinand’s successor, a friend of the Reformation, and in every respect one of the most excellent princes who ever took upon himself the responsibility of directing the destinies of a nation; to use Schaffarik’s happy metaphor, the benefits of his administration fell on the field, which Ferdinand’s strength had ploughed, like a mild and fertilizing rain.