Having represented the most agile part of the Catholic Church, the Jesuits were obviously hated the most by the Protestants and were among the first to be expelled from the territories occupied by the Protestants and to get their properties confiscated there. This leaflet issued by the Protestant party mocks the failures sustained by the imperial army and the Catholic Church, in particular by the Jesuits, when several times defeated in Germany around the year 1630. Katalogová čísla: Collection Český Šternberk, kód: 424/59
Original name: Der Jesuiten grosse Klag, wegen ihrer verlohrenen Häuser, insonderheit in Deutschland. A brief explanatory text in German (quoted above) is written below the image. At the top to the right we can see the siege of a town attacked by an army and hit by the bullets and shots of an artillery. The texts in the engraving are mainly in Dutch. There are for instance big fish eating small ones ships in the sea with the inscriptions warning that the sea is infested with evil sea fish two beasts of prey chasing a stork with an accompanying explanation that this is an evidence that the piety is being persecuted two foxes attacking a chick, meaning that the malicious preponderance brutally exterminates the innocent and defenceless two cats attacking a mouse – a game naturally ending up with the death of the weak mouse, etc. In the background, various scenes take place, allegorically representing subversive activity of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church against the Protestants, or so-called Counter-Reformation. In the sky we can see the God wearing a Jesuit biretta and holding the insignia “IHS” with the nails and the pierced heart.
Behind these figures in the house there are: a Jesuit, several released and deserter mercenaries, as well as a range of other villains the inscription above their heads goes: “Hic Inferis erat in terra Praesidium”, which means: “Here is hell on earth”. To the left, the Jesuit is getting money from a wealthy nobleman for an anti-Protestant propaganda, nevertheless to no effect. They are discussing the upcoming anti-Protestant measures. In its bottom right part, the engraving depicts the Pope, a Cardinal, a Jesuit high official (probably Superior General of the Order) and Prince Primates of the Holy Roman Empire gathered in a cave.
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