ABSTRACT
It is not my purpose to relate the events leading up to the Bohem ian D iet’s revolt against its H absburg overlord, the E m peror Ferdinand II in 1618, and the subsequent m obilization of Catholic and Protestant armies around these adversar ies. T he ever-increasing clarity o f F erd inand’s intention to restore the Catholic faith in the hereditary lands o f the House of H absburg, in Austria, Bohemia, M oravia, Silesia and H ungary, w orried the elites that had rallied to Calvinism or Lutheranism in the sixteenth century .1 T he Jesuit-bred Ferdinand was an Italophile who drew extensively on their talents as advisers. Equating P rotestant ism with disloyalty, he felt tha t Italians served him unflinchingly, and shared his own views of confessional absolutism m ore readily than his native G erm an and Czech subjects. As em peror, he consulted religious advisers in all m atters political, tended to rein terpret past agreem ents and compromises regarding religious tol eration in the Em pire in a sense favourable to the Catholic C hurch, and swore a solemn vow at Loreto to uproot Protestantism in his realms.2 V ienna becam e the hub of a Catholic reconquest o f C entral Europe, led by talented and m otivated C ounter-R eform ation clerics of diverse ethnic background. Italians, particularly Jesuits and C apuchins selected by Rom e, were the most visible exponents o f this offensive. Simultaneously, V ienna becam e the most Italianate city north of the Alps, a character it retained until the end of the eighteenth century. Italian, m ore than G erm an, was the 'language of the educated nobility7 at court, on p a r with the m ore cosm opolitan Latin.
