At length the persistent courage of the Protestant Estates prevailed, and the Emperor issued the celebrated Majestätsbrief, a document so called because it was not the revocable decree of a monarch, but intended as an integral part of the constitution of the kingdom, like the English Magna Charta. On the evening of the 9th of July, 1609, it was signed by the Emperor alone, the Chancellor and Secretary refusing to attach their names through "scruples of conscience." Their consciences would not allow them to grant liberty to the consciences of others! "Thus," says Gindely, "the name of the Emperor stands alone on the most important document which, since the Golden Bull, a Bohemian king has ever signed." After two days, however, the name of the Oberst-Burggraf, with that of his clerk was added to it.

The document is given in full by Bishop Cröger, but is too long to be transferred to these pages. Suffice it to say that in express terms it granted the fullest religious freedom which the diet had demanded. The Evangelicals were permitted to establish churches and schools everywhere, to have a Consistorium of their own, while the University of Prag was given up to them. And to protect their religious rights they were allowed to choose Defensors with high official rank. This concession was to be binding on the rulers of Bohemia, so long as the kingdom should endure. A similar concession was granted to the Evangelicals in Silesia, and it was followed by an act of the Estates, in which religious peace and harmony was enjoined between. all who received the Communion sub una aut sub utraque specie. To this also Martinitz and Slawata refused their signatures, and thus increased their unpopularity. The people were almost frantic with joy when Budowa on the 12th of July, announced that the Emperor had signed the decree which granted them (what the Jews of Prag already possessed), liberty of worship. On the 15th they held a thanksgiving, when the old Bethlehemskirche, where Huss had preached and which for so many years had been closed, was

again opened and given into the hands of the clergy of the Unitas. The decree was read in the church amid the pealing of bells, and then a Te Deum was sung. The sacred edifice was adorned with inscriptions and mottoes, amid which appeared the Lion rampant of Bohemia, with the lines:

Open ye gates, rejoice, O Lion; for Rudolf is keeping

Faith with the word which Max gave to Bohemia's land.

All Bohemia, wherever Protestants inhabited it, was full of triumph; and even neighboring Saxony kept a day of thanksgiving. But GoD alone could foresee how brief was to be the day of triumph and rejoicing, although the shadow of the Thirty Years' War loomed darkly above the the peaceful horizon. At this time more than half the population of Bohemia belonged to one of the evangelical confessions, while many of the Catholics rejoiced with them in the triumph of toleration and religious peace. There was, however, a party of fierce Romanists, bitterly offended and grieved by the amnesty and determined at the first convenient opportunity to attempt its overthrow.

In the Autumn of 1609 the Evangelicals began to carry out their ecclesiastical arrangements. The first was the union of the Utraquists among themselves on the 29th of September. At this time it was decreed, that the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, the members of the Unitas Fratrum, and the remnant of the old Calixtine Church should henceforth be known by the common naine of Utraquists, since they all received communion in both kinds. Their common Consistorium was to consist of an Administrator and five others, with a Bishop and two clergymen of the Brethren, and three Professors of the University. The Bishop ranked next to the Administrator. Matthias Cyrus (Bishop, 1611), Johann Cyrillus (1618), and Johann Corvinus represented the clergy of the Unity.

In the following year (1610) the diet chose Defensors to guard the Consistorium and the University (Carolinum), and to uphold the rights of the Utraquists. The diet chose,

and the Emperor, after a long delay, confirmed twenty-four Defensors, viz.: eight noblemen, eight knights and eight citizens. But the course of the diet plainly showed that there could be no lasting peace, and that the Roman Church would either crush its enemies, or be crushed by them. Eight of the Defensors belonged to the Unity, of whom the most prominent were Budowa, Loss and Kochan of Prag. Since the Brethren had not sufficient room in the Bethlehem Church, they were allowed to build others in the city. But this temporary and external union with the Lutherans was of great injury to the spiritual condition of the Brethren, as their own historians admit. That the movement for freedom was patriotic as well as religious, is shown by the fact, that the diet proscribed the German language, and commanded that only Bohemian should henceforth be spoken.

To the zeal of the Utraquists stood opposed the fiery zeal of the Roman Church and the Spanish-Austrian party at the court. In this unhappy conflict the weak-minded Emperor became more and more involved. In order to become independent of both parties, and to escape from his dangerous brother Matthias, he threw himself into the arms of the Bishop of Passau, Leopold, who advanced with an armed force to the walls of Prag, intending to put to death all heretics. Here they were defeated by the troops of Matthias and the Estates. Count Thurn secured the person of Rudolf, and Matthias entered Prag in triumph. Rudolf was compelled to abdicate in favor of his brother, which he did with the exclamation: "Ungrateful Prag! to me dost thou owe thy wondrous beauty, and thus hast thou repaid my benefits. May the vengence of heaven strike thee, and my curse light upon thee and the whole of Bohemia!" Matthias was crowned King of Bohemia, swearing to preserve its liberties, and Rudolf soon after (Jan. 20, 1612), died of grief and chagrin.

1 Vide Cröger, ii, 223.

Matthias was now master of Bohemia, and was soon after chosen Emperor of Germany. But all the high hopes which had been placed in him were disappointed, and utterly vanished when in the year 1616, being without children himself he chose his cousin, the bloody Ferdinand of Steiermark, as his heir. The diet was surprised, when but few members were present, into a sudden vote of election, and after he had sworn to preserve the national liberties, they suffered Ferdinand to be crowned.

Jacob Narcissus, consecrated in 1594, was Primus of the Unitas from the time of Turnau's death in 1608, until his own decease (1611) at Brandeis. Among his colleagues have been named Zacharias Ariston and Johann Nemezinsky. The former died in 1606, the latter in 1598, both in Moravia. The successor of Narcissus as Archbishop was John Lanek, consecrated in 1601, who, having held the office for fifteen years, died at Kroliz in 1626, aged seventytwo, after he had witnessed the melancholy overthrow of his church and nation. In 1606 Johann Cruciger, in 1608 for Poland, Martin Gratian Gertich and Matthias Kybinski and in 1609 for Bohemia, Matthias Koneczny were consecrated Bishops. The last was a very learned man. In the year 1611, John Lanek consecrated Matthias Cyrus (or Gyrus), who died 1618, at Prag, and was buried in the Bethlehemskirche. In the same year Johann Cyrillus was consecrated. Six years before (1612), Johann Turnow (a nephew of Theophilus) and Gregor Erastus had been ordained Bishops; the former for Poland and the latter for Bohemia.

The Unitas in Poland was governed by the Bishops, Matthias Pybinius (Pybinski) and after him Martin Gratian Gertich. The former, by birth a Bohemian, was consecrated in 1608 at Leipnik, and died in 1612, at Posen, aged forty-five. He was an accomplished man and translated the Psalms into Polish verse to be sung to the French tunes, which were then extensively used. One of these melodies we still sing in our churches-the famous Old

Hundred. Gertich, the son of German parents, died at Lissa, March 7, 1629. He lived to see the melancholy days of the Thirty Years' War, and the overthrow of his church in Bohemia and Poland. Twice (in 1612 and 13) was an effort made to renew the union of the Brethren, Lutherans and Reformed in Poland, and in each instance the effort failed.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

THE CUSTODY OF CHURCH PROPERTY.

There is an evident uneasiness manifested throughout the whole Church in regard to the present manner in which our Church property is held. The recent final decision of the case of Christ Church, Chicago, on the ground that the trust for the Protestant Episcopal Church was not with sufficient distinctness declared in its title, has caused the question to be asked, what the courts consider a sufficiently clear title? Is any of our property safe from the danger of being alienated from the uses for which the original donors intended it? There have also been lately, in various parts of the country, some glaring instances of misappropriation of Church funds. Several valuable properties have been lost to the Church, and others saved only by the most strenuous exertions. The community has been startled by the discovery of the enormous debts with which some of our largest and most important churches have been allowed to become encumbered, debts which for a long time have been a terrible burden to carry, and in these hard times have very seriously jeopardized many valuable properties. These facts have aroused the mind of the Church to consider the question whether the habit into which we have fallen, of intrusting our property to a multiplicity of small, independent corporations, is wise or safe? Some of our Bishops have had themselves constituted as corporation sole, and are endeav