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 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

sun.

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

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. HIS LETTER TO TAUSCH. POPULAR INDIGNATION.- COMMUNION OF THE CUP ON TABOR.-PLAN FOR ATTACKING Prague. — WENZEL ABSENT FROM THE CITY. — ATTACK ON THE NEW CITY. ACTS OF V10LENCE. 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. THE QUEEN SEEKS AID OF THE EMPEROR. DEATH OF

DANGER OF THE CITIZENS.

--

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 HUSSITES. INSULTS OFFERED THEM. PROCEEDINGS OF SIGISMUND AT BREslau. — 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.

HUSSITES DIVIDED INTO

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.

the Bohemians,—if respite that condition could be called, in which the exterminating and persecuting bull of Martin V. was continually suspended over them. This fulmination was to them the parting word of the council, its farewell of bitter malediction. It showed plainly enough on what terms alone peace could be made. Unable to secure the persons of the Bohemian countrymen of Huss, whom they might subject to a similar treatment, the council translated the act of his execution into words, and, in the bull itself, despatched into Germany a written auto de fè, a legible funeral pile, every line aglow with the spirit of the inquisitor.

But the logic of this document was a two-edged sword. It cut both ways. Jacobel's treatises on the cup did not contain arguments half so effectual to strengthen the faith of his party, as were contained in the decrees of the council and the bull of the pope. No conclusion is more firmly held than that which is reached by a reductio ad absurdum. The papal fulmination might have been headed by the creed of the Hussites, and followed by a Q. E. D., to signalize the fact that the truth of the theorem was demonstrated. At least this must have been so

to many minds.

But the Bohemians did not choose to pass over in silence so extraordinary a document as this bull of a pope, elected for the purpose of evangelical reform. They answered it, and circulated the reply far and wide through the land. Although it does not appear to have been issued until some months after the publication of the bull, it may as well be given here, as

Cu. XIII.]

MANIFESTO OF THE HUSSITES.

365

showing the spirit in which the bull was received. It is entitled "A faithful and Christian exhortation of the Bohemians to kings and princes, to stir them. up to the zeal of the gospel." It speaks of the industrious efforts that had been made in certain quarters to excite hostility and persecution against the Bohemians.1 แ As well on your part as on ours, many men, both noble and untitled, have foolishly lost their lives. Yet never hitherto have ye in any part understood our faith by our own confession; neither whether we be able to prove the same out of the scriptures or not, and yet in the mean time kings, princes, lords, and cities have sustained great damage. And hereof we do greatly marvel, that you do so much trust and believe the pope and his priests, which give you drink full of poison, and such comfort as no man can understand, in that they say they will give you forgiveness of sins, and grant grace and pardon to this end, that you should war upon us and destroy us, whereas their graces and pardons are none other than great lies, and a great seducing of the body and soul of all them that believe them, and put their trust in them. This we would prove to them, and convince them by the Holy Scripture; and we would suffer that whoever is desirous to hear, the same should hear it. For the pope and all his priests herein deal with you as the devil would have dealt with our Lord Jesus Christ. . . .

"So the devil deceiveth the pope and all his priests with the riches of the world, and with worldly

I have preferred to retain the language of the early English trans

lator, rather than change it to more modern phraseology.