Matthias and the States consulted their own honor rather than Rhodolph’s merits, in treating him with great magnanimity.  Though Rhodolph had lost, one by one, all his own hereditary or acquired territories, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, he still retained the imperial crown of Germany.  This gave him rank and certain official honors, with but little real power.  The emperor, who was also a powerful sovereign in his own right, could marshal his own forces to establish his decrees.  But the emperor, who had no treasury or army of his own, was powerless indeed.

The emperor was permitted to occupy one of the palaces at Prague.  He received an annual pension of nearly a million of dollars; and the territories and revenues of four lordships were conferred upon him.  Matthias having consolidated his government, and appointed the great officers of his kingdom, left Prague without having any interview with his brother, and returned to his central capital at Vienna, where he married Anne, daughter of his uncle Ferdinand of Tyrol.

The Protestants all over the German empire hailed these events with public rejoicing.  Rhodolph had been their implacable foe.  He was now disarmed and incapable of doing them any serious injury.  Matthias was professedly their friend, had been placed in power mainly as their sovereign, and was now invested with such power, as sovereign of the collected realms of Austria, that he could effectually protect them from persecution.  This success emboldened them to unite in a strong, wide-spread confederacy for the protection of their rights.  The Protestant nobles and princes, with the most distinguished of their clergy from all parts of the German empire, held a congress at Rothenburg.  This great assembly, in the number, splendor and dignity of its attendants, vied with regal diets.  Many of the most illustrious princes of the empire were there in person, with imposing retinues.  The emperor and Matthias both deemed it expedient to send ambassadors to the meeting.  The congress at Rothenburg was one of the most memorable movements of the Protestant party.  They drew up minute regulations for the government of their confederacy, established a system of taxation among themselves, made efficient arrangements for the levying of troops, established arsenals and magazines, and strongly garrisoned a fortress, to be the nucleus of their gathering should they at any time be compelled to appeal to arms.

Rhodolph, through his ambassadors, appeared before this resplendent assembly the mean and miserable sycophant he ever was in days of disaster.  He was so silly as to try to win them again to his cause.  He coaxed and made the most liberal promises, but all in vain.  Their reply was indignant and decisive, yet dignified.

“We have too long,” they replied, “been duped by specious and deceitful promises.  We now demand actions, not words.  Let the emperor show us by the acts of his administration that his spirit is changed, and then, and then only, can we confide in him.”