Thereupon the nine people mentioned were again thrown into confusion, especially Lord Count von Thurn and Lord Wilhelm Popel and all the others present were incited against the two lords Slawata and Martinicz with these words: “See, you dear lords, these two are the greatest foe of us and our religion, who wish to deny us the [the rights outlined in the] Letter of Majesty, the compromise, and other religious liberties. You can be certain, all you lords, that as long as they remain in our country, our Letter of Majesty—indeed our own lives with those of our dear wives and children—are not safe, and if we spare their lives, then the Letter of Majesty and our religion are doomed, and our bodies, honor, and property will be spoiled and lost, for thereby and in their proximity justice will not be obtained. For this reason they desire to now declare and punish quickly those who are here, and when we get [our hands on] Paul Michna, who has snuck away because of his bad conscience, we will know how to behave towards him.”
During this speech, Lord Slawata sighed and spoke deliberately into Lord von Martinicz’s ear: “My Lord, Brother, if only we had gone away from them as I wanted, but you advised me against this, and see, now it is spoiled completely.” To which Lord von Martinicz answered: “Oh, my dear Lord Brother, it has come about much better than if you—an officer of the land and Imperial advisor and councilor-- had abandoned the country in this [hour of] greatest need and danger, contrary to your oath. Then you would have been considered a dishonest and disloyal man, but now you suffer and die with me as an honest and true servant, a martyr of the Lord and of the emperor, our king and lord. Let us commend ourselves to the Lord our God.” Lord Slawata spoke to everyone: "O lords, we beg you for the sake of God not to rush into this and proceed against us—especially as the most noble among your are our friends--without prior charge and hearing, to intervene with such hostility contrary to all equity and fairness, but rather because we both are resident of the kingdom and, God be praised, of considerable wealth, and should one of them, be he who he may, have reason to lodge a complaint against one or both of us, this person should do so as is proper with His Imperial Majesty, our most gracious monarch, or summon us as required by the proper tradition of the local, honorable laws, in which case we would be pleased to appear opposite our accusers and respond to them, to accept the final legal sentence or proclamation and to obediently comply [ . . . ]."
Soon after this – I think – Lord Wenzl Wilhelm von Ruppa – surrounded by the others, read in their midst with a clear voice a text that went approximately like this: “Wilhelm Slawata and Jaroslav von Martinicz do not sign the Letter of Majesty which Your Imperial Majesty Emperor Rudolph issued in the year 1609 at the territorial parliament to all three Utraquist estates for the free exercise of our religion, as well as the compromise established by both the Catholic and Utraquist parties, in addition to the amnesties with other authorities, local officers, and members of the territorial court, neither in this nor in other matters of religion, the articles of the territorial parliament, [and] the record in the Landtafel. (9) As we have already declared loudly against them, in as far as they infringe upon the right outlined in the Letter of Majesty, the compromise, and our other religious freedoms which they do not allow us, although it was the minimum which should be taken up or happen, we in this case must be suspicious of them and cannot perceive or think other than that we must consider them our enemies. Since we now sufficiently recognize and are certain that the upsetting Imperial letter which was discovered resulted from their advice, and was composed here in Prague, and that they thus sought to negate the aforementioned Letter of Majesty and our freedom of religion, indeed to destroy completely the compromise and other agreements reached in the territorial parliament [ . . . ], we must publically declare them to be both personal enemies and enemies of our land, destroyers of our rights and the general peace. And we will thus inflict a serious punishment upon them."
(9) The traditional record of legal precedence and land ownership in Bohemia. – trans.
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