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with Gustavus, he might have secured Hungarian liberty by something more effectual than written treaties. True, that by his attempting to secure for himself, in addition to Transylvania, large possessions in Hungary and Silesia, Bethlen betrayed both his ambition and his desire for self-aggrandizement. But it is, on the other hand, evident that Transylvania, ruled by a powerful liberal prince, would in itself have been a guarantee for the liberties of Hungary Proper. Though a zealous Protestant, Bethlen was free from any tinge of the spirit of persecution. He employed the short days of his reign in promoting art and science, by inviting many eminent men to his country, and by sending out to the universities of Holland and Germany many promising youths. One of the most lasting monuments of his reign was the establishment of the Reformed College in Enyed, a college provided with a costly library, and which survived to the year 1848.

Pazman lost no time in seizing the favourable opportunity now offered for the suppression of the Protestants. In the synods which he convoked, all the recent enactments in favour of the Protestants were declared null, while the primate, in proof of his omnipotence, claimed for himself the first official rank in the kingdom, next to the sovereign; proving, from some ancient statutes, his superiority to the palatine. This assumption created discord between him and the palatine, the bigoted Esterhazy. As mighty feudal lords, the bishops had under their sway vast numbers of the peasantry, being, as may be imagined, not very scrupulous about the means adopted for the conversion of their serfs. In the diet the Protestant cause was likewise dependent on the will of a lay Catholic ma

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His

jority, and, in a short time, more than three hundred churches were wrested from their Protestant owners. The cry of the oppressed, however, soon aroused a protector in George Rakoczy I., successor of Bethlen in Transylvania. Ferdinand II., meanwhile, died (1637), as the German historian Menzal says, "Like an aged hyena, amid mouldering bones and ruins." successor was his son Ferdinand III., during whose reign the Catholic party, recently increased by many powerful families, got the full command of the diet, which hastened the renewal of the war. Rakoczy having been promised the assistance of Sweden, which, however, proved abortive, broke into Hungary, and after a short campaign against the Austrian generals, Bucheim and Götz, signed a treaty (1645), which, as usual, guaranteed the civil and religious liberties of Hungary. The readiness of Ferdinand III. in consenting to this agreement may in part be explained from the circumstance of his wishing to obtain without opposition the coronation of his son Ferdinand IV., who was designated king in the year 1647. The plenipotentiaries of the European powers, meanwhile, commenced their sittings at Osnabrück, drawing up the conditions of peace, leaving the Hungarians to fight their battle alone in the face of the rest of Europe. In the same year Rakoczy died. The reign of Ferdinand IV. was too short to exhibit the character and policy of that prince, who was succeeded by his brother Leopold.

1 See Leonard's Receuil des Traitez de paix par les Rois de France avec tous les princes et potentats de L'Europe, tome v. (Traitez avec la Transylvanie); where are given two treaties of Rakoczy, one with Sweden, the other with France. The purport of these treaties for the most part referring to Rakoczy's own interests, are not calculated to convey a high idea of his character.

CHAPTER IV.

LEOPOLD I. AND TÖKÖLI.1 (1655-1699.)

PREVIOUS to his coronation at Presburg, in the year 1655, Leopold signed the following articles:-1st, That he would observe the franchises, immunities, statutes, rights, and customs of the country; 2d, That all grievances should be redressed in the diets which should be convoked at least once in every three years; 3d, That the affairs of Hungary should be transacted only by Hungarians, and that the Hungarians should never be cited before foreign tribunals; 4th, That according to the 1st article of the year 1608, the government of the frontiers and other charges should be confided only to Hungarians; 5th, That, in order to establish peace, the religious affairs should remain on the footing established by the pacification of Vienna, and that no one should be disturbed either by his majesty or others on account of religion; 6th, That his majesty should maintain all the conditions in regard to the election of the palatine; 7th, That the free towns and mountain districts (civitates liberas et montanas) should be preserved in all their rights and liberties; 8th, That his majesty should not be permitted, under any pretext whatever, to remove the crown out of the coun

1 This name is in foreign books frequently written Tekeli, the word being so pronounced.

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try; 9th, That no pretext should justify the separation of any dependency of the crown of Hungary from the mother country; 10th, That the alliances made with Bohemia, the other provinces, and Transylvania, should be maintained in full force according to the pacification of Vienna; 11th, That his majesty should preserve inviolate the 2d article of the diet of 1608, and should neither proclaim war nor introduce foreign troops into Hungary without the consent of the diet (nec sine praescitu et consensu regni in Hungaria et partibus sibi annexis, ullum vel bellum moveat, vel militem extraneum inducat).

It was after these precautions taken by the Hungarian States that Leopold commenced his reign, in 1657. "Leopold," says the German historian of Hungary, "was a young, learned and prudent prince, fond of business, who, from his piety, good-heartedness, and liberality, delighted in the happiness of his subjects, and the administration of justice. But the fault committed in his education placed him in a position by which he was led into quite a contrary path. Being designed for the church, his education was entrusted to the Jesuits, who impressed the young prince with such a veneration for their order, that he took their insinuations and requests as binding commands, always obeying what they said, notwithstanding his perceiving that they were frequently led by avarice and ambition. He gave ear, it is true, to some of his lay officials; but they were soon obliged to give way to the Jesuitical confessors. Leopold's spiritual advisers agreed with the Hungarian bishops, that the temporal power must entirely be submitted to that of the pope, that every papal order was to be implicitly executed, and that no treaties of peace or coronation

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oaths were of any validity if they tended to the disadvantage of the Roman See. They farther agreed that a Catholic regent or subject should never omit an opportunity of persecuting the heretics and extending the power of the Catholic church. The Jesuits fettered so much the conscience of the emperor, that in his confessions he divulged to them all his secrets, and they tried to convince him that the true church is only to be found in the society of the Jesuits. As regards Hungary, the aim of the Jesuits was, to establish in that country absolute power, a scheme which could not but flatter the ambitious designs of the emperor." This policy soon made itself manifest by the introduction of fresh foreign troops, whose ostensible object was to march to Transylvania, but who, as will be seen, had another part to perform. The Austrian general Montecuculi, not very desirous to fight the Turks in Transylvania, soon retreated to Upper Hungary. Finding the population shut their gates before him, he marched to Lower Hungary, where he assisted the bishops in their persecutions of the Protestants. Leopold, being in want of new subsidies, convoked the diet in the year 1661. The Protestant party inveighed loudly against the systematic oppression of their co-religionists, who, besides being robbed of their churches and schools, were exposed to systematic insult and cruelty. Their voice, however, was powerless in the diet, from which they accordingly withdrew. The grand vizier, meanwhile, marched on to Gran, crossed the Danube, and, after a siege of a month, re

1 Gebhardi Gesch. des Reichs Hungarn, Buch 34, p. 528. 2 In this principality two candidates for the supreme rule rose in arms against each other; the one, named Abafi, was supported by the Porte; the other Kemeny, by Leopold.