the interests of the Czech race upon those of the Church, and they became nuclei of the de-Germanizing process.
The German clergy collapsed almost entirely, alas ! before this state of affairs. Not only were they them¬ selves quite useless in a fight for the German cause, but they were unable to meet the attacks of the other side with sufficient force of resistance. Thus the German race was slowly but irresistibly driven back by abuse of religion on the one side and weakness in defence on the other.
George Schoenerer was not one who did things by halves. He took up the struggle with the Church under the conviction that he alone could rescue the German race. The Los von Rom movement appeared a most powerful, though a most difficult, form of attack, but it was bound to lay the hostile Hofburg in ruins. If it succeeded, the unhappy religious division in Germany would be settled for ever, and such a victory would prove an immense gain to the internal strength of the Empire and the German nation. But its assumption and its reasoning with regard to the struggle were both incorrect.