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CH. XII.]

POLAND AND FRANCE.

359

The emperor, by the mouth of his advocate, returned thanks to the several members of the council for what they had done, promising, on his part, an inviolable allegiance to the Roman church and the pope, and declaring that in whatever respects the council had come short, it had not been through his fault."

1

Such language plainly intimated the dissatisfaction of the emperor; nor did he stand alone in this feeling, as we have already seen. But the king of Poland felt most deeply aggrieved. He seems to have shown great zeal, as well as humanity, in seeking the conversion of the infidels bordering upon his states, and his efforts had been eminently successful. The violence and rapine of the Teutonic knights were most odious and reprehensible. The king of Poland now saw them shielded by the action of the pontiff, and himself left exposed to the shafts of Falkenberg's malice. He wrote to the pope a letter of complaint? which seems to have been not without effect, although Falkenberg was still uncondemned. Some of the friends of the king of Poland counselled him, as the wisest and most effectual measure, to select some. monk, as violent, virulent, and able as Falkenberg, and set him, with his pen, to maul and demolish his adversary. If such a one could have been found, the counsel might not have been unwise.

The French concordat, on its arrival at Paris, was any thing but welcome. The parliament refused to receive it, and even drew up reasons against it, to be presented to the pope. Years passed before France would accept it. The nuncios, whom the pope sent

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to urge its approval, were driven to maintain the desperate position that a sentence of the pope was to be obeyed, even though it was unjust. Such a maxim roused the spirit of Gerson in his exile, and he met it with a bold and manly refutation.

The Germans felt that they had been cheated by the council. The dioceses, whose revenues had been given over to the emperor, were loud in their complaints. The Archbishop of England, in a spirit worthy of the nation, met the demands of the pope on the privileges of his primacy and the laws of England, in an attitude of defiance. Spain was already almost in open revolt against Martin, and ready to league with Benedict XIII. Bohemia was, for the present, hopelessly lost to the papacy,-volcanic in its indignation and resentment at the proceedings of the council. Italy was too much absorbed in the wretched conflicts that tore her into parties and factions, to have any thought left except for her own misery. In the midst of all this widespread dissatisfaction, it is a most significant fact that the only hearty supporters of the pontiff were the Duke of Burgundy and the Teutonic knights-the patrons respectively of Petit and Falkenberg. Well might Gerson, in his sad and lonely meditations over the doings and results of the council, lament that he had toiled and worn himself out to no purpose. The bright hopes he had cherished were but dreams. The ideal of his life, the image he had worshipped, had vanished. A Gorgon's head, that he dared not look upon, had taken its place. Where a temple should have been, he saw a Babel. Rome was not to be reformed.

CH. XII.]

DEPARTURE OF MARTIN V.

361

Reform would annihilate her. Her disease was past

cure.

And now all were intent upon quitting the scene where so much of good and bad, of learning and power, of eloquence and intrigue, of integrity and corruption, had mingled and fermented together. The pope was in most haste to leave. The emperor begged him, with all earnestness, to stay a few months longer. He represented to him that many things yet remained to claim his attention. But these entreaties were vain. The pope wished to see Rome; he wished to snatch it from the grasp of its invaders. On the sixteenth of May (1418) he left Constance for Geneva. The procession that accompanied him. was splendid and imposing. The "servant of servants" went forth as the prince of the kings of the earth. Ten horses, caparisoned in scarlet and led by hand, preceded. Four horsemen, with pikes, each surmounted by a cardinal's hat, followed them. Then came two priests, one bearing a cross of gold, another the sacrament. The cardinals, in their red caps, with priests, theologians, senators of the city, and canons, bearing wax tapers, made way for the pope, who followed, mounted on a white horse and dressed in pontifical habits. The tiara which he wore shone brilliant with precious stones, while four princes supported the dais above his head that shielded him from the sun. The emperor was on his right, and held the bridle of his horse. The electors and princes of the empire stood near to render their assistance. Then followed the clergy, the nobility, and the various orders, till the procession swelled in number to forty

thousand men. In such state the pope passed the gate of the city. The emperor and princes accompanied him to Gottlieben, where he embarked upon the Rhine, to finish, by water, his journey to Geneva. The emperor himself did not long linger at Constance, and in a short time its former glory had departed.

CHAPTER XIII.1 1

VIOLENCE OF PARTIES IN BOHEMIA.

BEFORE PRAGUE.

SIGISMUND'S ARMY

RECEPTION OF THE DECREE OF THE COUNCIL IN BOHEMIA. — THE REPLY OF THE HussITES. ITS PROPOSITIONS. - DOCTRINES.THE CELEBRATED FOUR ARTICLES. ZISCA. HIS TACT AND ENERGY.

TION.

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HIS LETTER TO TAUSCH. POPULAR INDIGNACOMMUNION OF THE CUP ON TABOR.-PLAN FOR ATTACKING Prague. WENZEL ABSENT FROM THE CITY. ATTACK ON THE NEW CITY. ACTS OF VIOLENCE. RELEASE OF PRISONERS DEMANDED AT THE TOWN HOUSE. — TUMULT. ASSAULT. GERMANS THROWN OUT THE WINDOWS. NEW MAGISTRATES APPOINTED. CONTINUED ATTACK UPON THE NEW CITY. - ZISCA WITHDRAWS TO PILSEN. DANGER OF THE CITIZENS. THE QUEEN SEEKS AID OF THE EMPEROR. DEATH OF WENZEL. ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. PROJECTS OF THE EMPEROR. CITIZENS CALL ON ZISCA FOR AID. Scenes of Violence. CONFLICTS AT PRAGUE. FIGHT AT THE BRIDGE. CONFLICT RENEWED THE NEXT DAY. CONTINUED SKIRMISHES. - A TRUCE EFFECTED. - MOVEMENTS ELSEWHERE. — NEGLIGENT OBSERVANCE OF THE TRUCE. JOHN NAAKUASA Burned. - GURIM ASSAULTED. THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN. CONVENTION SUMMONED BY SIGISMUND AT BERAUN. HIS PROMISES. PRESENCE OF THE BOHEMIANS AT BERAUN. THEIR SUBMISSION. CONDITIONS IMPOSED BY SIGISMUND. HIS LETTER TO PRAGUE. COMPLIANCE OF THE HUSSPrague. ITES. INSULTS OFFERED THEM. PROCEEDINGS OF SIGISMUND AT BRESLAU. HUSSITES DIVIDED INTO CALIXTINES AND TABORITES. — POLICY AND VIEWS OF EACH. THE ADAMITES. THE FANATICISM OF THE TABORITES IN REGARD TO THE ADVENT OF CHRIST. — ITS EFFECTS. DANGER OF DISSENSIONS.

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APRIL 15, 1418-JAN. 9, 1420.

THE dissolution of the council of Constance, and the effort necessary on the part of Sigismund to restore the peace of his empire, gave a short respite to

1 The authorities which have been mainly relied upon for this and the two following chapters, are Cochleius' History of the Hussites, Æneas Sylvius' History of Bohemia, L'Enfant's

Guerre des Hussites, Diarium Belli Hussitici, by a Calixtine author, Life of Zisca, and Life of Procopius, (Prague, 1789,) and the general Church Histories during this period.

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