able encouragement from Savoy and Holland, which countries were waging war against the Spanish branch of the house of Hapsburg.
The war with the Turks having again broken out, Matthias convoked a Diet of all the Austrian States to meet at Linz in 1614. The Diet of 1615.This Diet failed of its object; for the king, refusing to allow the members to discuss any other question than the Turkish war, was obliged to adjourn it without having received any subsidy.
The following year a General Diet was held in Prague, which in some respects was quite noteworthy. Here also the question of subsidies came up, and the advisability of forming a union between the States for the protection of common interests; but neither question was settled, owing to the jealousy between the crown and the States. Several measures, however, were passed that are worthy of notice, since they were the beginning of the struggle in the country between the Slavonic and Teutonic elements. A law was passed prohibiting any one from becoming a citizen who was not able to speak the Bohemian language—by citizen meaning any one who enjoyed all the privileges of the land, especially the right of holding real estate. A foreigner learning the language and obtaining citizenship was still debarred from holding office until in the third generation. Germans were forbidden from becoming teachers and pastors in Bohemian parishes. Any one knowing the language of the country and being ashamed to use it in public, was to be exiled as a disturber of the public peace. German settlements or colonies in the cities, having special privileges, were to be prohibited.
