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affectionate anxiety, but the author of it must himself have felt that its success-if it met any-would be due to the armed legions who stood ready to enforce its application. No doubt a large number of the Bohemians were prepared to meet it with a favorable response; but as a general thing, Calixtine as well as Taborite had learned only too thoroughly to distrust the professions of the enemy and the good faith of Sigismund. The reply that was made was one in which all parties could unite, and one which betrayed no trace of variance between the different elements of opposition. While laying down the four Calixtine articles as the only basis upon which any measures of negotiation or conciliation were possible, it proceeds in an unsparing manner to expose the policy hitherto pursued by the imperialists and the enemies of Bohemia. It was a document well calculated to kindle anew the patriotic zeal of the nation, and fire it to fierce indignation against the arts and arms of the invader. Its closing paragraphs glowed with an indomitable and defiant spirit worthy of Zisca himself. It declared that the Bohemians would maintain their rights to the end, and repel force by force, by whomsoever offered. "Your trust," say the authors of the letter, addressing the party of the cardinal, "is in an arm of flesh; but our trust is in the God of armies."

This reply to the cardinal's letter was in reality the manifesto of the Bohemians, and it was sent not only to the cardinal, but to the different states of the kingdom. This correspondence took place during the months of June and July, (1431,) while the

CH. XVII.]

THE FINAL INVASION.

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imperialists were marshalling their army, and the different parties in Bohemia were uniting their forces for a desperate resistance.

The cardinal legate attended in person the march of the main body of the imperialists. He sought, by all the ecclesiastical resources at his command, to enkindle the fanatic zeal of the crusaders. The son-in-law of the emperor, Albert of Austria, was prepared to make a diversion in favor of the imperialists on the side of Moravia, while 80,000 infantry, 40,000 cavalry, and a formidable artillery approached the western frontiers of Bohemia. The Elector of Saxony invested Taschau, while another corps proceeded to Ratisbon. At the entrance of the Frauenberg forest, the imperialists halted. A council of war was held, and scouts sent out to make explorations. Procopius, not unmindful of his danger, took pains to deceive them, and lead them into the belief that the Hussites were divided. The imperialists were duped, and in the confidence of security entered the forest near Tausch. Of a sudden the report spread that the Hussites were united, and were rapidly advancing in order of battle. The Archduke of Bavaria, and all his troops, seized with a panic, broke up in the night and fled. Abandoning all their stores, they hurried back in the greatest disorder to Riesenburg. The Elector of Brandenburg, with the division under his command, betrayed the same terror. His soldiers tore up their standards and fled.1

'Wenzel (History of Germany, ii. 177) says, "The free knights of the empire, filled with shame at this cowardly discomfiture, vowed to restore

the honor of the empire, and to march against the Hussites, on condition of no prince being permitted to join their ranks. The nobility cast all the

The cardinal legate alone showed more presence of mind. He rallied the fugitives again at Riesenburg, a few miles distant from Tausch, and his glowing words restored shame if not enthusiasm to the soldiery. But the approach of the Bohemians renewed the old terror. The army was dispirited and disorganized. They fled, and the flight was a complete rout. The Bohemians met no resistance. They had nothing to do but massacre the fugitives and seize the booty. The mass of the imperialists obstructed their own escape. Eight thousand wagons full of military stores, with all the heavy artillery, fell into the hands of Procopius and his Hussite soldiers. The strong chest of the imperial army was seized, and the cardinal himself barely escaped, with the loss of his hat, cross, sacerdotal robes, and the bull of the crusade. The last was long preserved at Tausch as a glorious trophy of the Hussite victory.

So disastrous a defeat effectually crushed the hopes that had hitherto been cherished of subjecting the Bohemians by force of arms. Even the cardinal Julian, who had instigated the crusade so effectually, now declared himself in favor of adopting more conciliatory measures. The time was approaching for the assembling of the council summoned at Basle, and he wrote a letter to the Bohemians in the most gentle tone, inviting them to be present and discuss their grievances and present their demands, with the assurance that they should be allowed the fullest

blame on the cowardly or egotistical policy pursued by the princes: the flight, however, chiefly arose from the disinclination of the common soldiers

to serve against the Hussites, whose cause was deemed by them both glori ous and just."

CH. XVII.]

INVITATION OF THE COUNCIL.

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freedom. The council itself (which met Dec., 1431') renewed the invitation. It was accompanied by a safe-conduct, the substance of which declared that they should have entire liberty to remain at Basle, to act, decide, treat, and enter into arrangements with the council; that they should celebrate with perfect liberty, in their own houses, their peculiar forms of worship; that in public and in private, they should be allowed from scripture and the holy doctors to advance proof of their four articles, against which no preaching of the Catholics should be allowed while they remained within the city; that any attempt at the violation of their safe-conduct should be severely punished, and that on their return they should be accompanied by a safe escort to the Bohemian frontier. But even these conditions, favorable as they were, could not at once overcome their deep distrust. In fact, the source from which they came could not fail to excite suspicion. They who but just now breathed only a spirit of exterminating invasion-who had incited all Christendom to engage in a crusade to be marked by plunder and carnageassume a tone too gentle to accord with their former threats.

1 The council had been summoned to meet at Basle at a much earlier date, and was in fact opened at the cathedral church of Basle, July 23,

VOL. II.

1431; but the number of members present was so small, that the first session was not held till Dec. 24. Richerius, iii. 398.

34

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE COUNCIL OF BASLE. CALIXTINE ASCENDENCY.

NECESSITY OF A COUNCIL.- DEMAND FOR REFORM.-SIGISMUND'S ASSUMED LENIENCY.-CONCILIATORY PLAN OF THE COUNCIL.-DISSATISFACTION OF the Pope. -THE COUNCIL OF BASLE DECLARED TO BE DISSOLVED. THE SURPRISE OCCASIONED. REPLY OF CARDINAL JULIAN. THE COUNCIL RESOLVE TO CONTINUE THEIR SESSIONS. THE LEGATE REMONSTRATES WITH THE POPE.- FIRMNESS OF THE COUNCIL. THE EMPEROR.-ITALY.-THE POPE CITED. THE BOHEMIANS AT BASLE. THEIR RECEPTION. HOW THEIR RELUCTANCE WAS OVERCOME.HOSTAGES DEMANDED THE BOHEMIANS BEFORE THE COUNCIL.- ROKYZAN. THE CALIXTINE ARTICLES DEFENDED.- TERMS OFFERED BY THE BOHEMIANS.DISCUSSION IN THE COUNCIL.- UNSATISFACTORY ISSUE. RETURN OF THE Bohe MIANS TO PRAGUE. DEPUTATION OF THE COUNCIL AT PRAGUE.- THE ULTIMA - CONCESSIONS. THE COMPACTATA.- THE CALIXTINES AND TABORITES AT VARIANCE.-CONFLICT.- DEFEAT AND DEATH OF PROCOPIUS.-STRENGTH of the TABORITES BROKEN. DEMAND OF THE STATES OF BOHEMIA. CONSPIRACY AGAINST SIGISMUND. HIS RESOLUTION. HIS DEATH.- ALBERT OF AUSTRIA.— GEORGE PODIEBRAD.- THE TABORITE SUPREMACY SUPpressed.

TUM.

1432-1467.

MEANWHILE, however, changes were taking place in the relative position of the parties hitherto combined against Bohemia--changes which enforced the policy of conciliation. Germany was loudly and urgently insisting upon her demand for ecclesiastical reform. The disappointment of her hopes at the council of Constance only made her more earnest that some measures should now be adopted, which should effectually check the corruption of the church. The cardinal legate, who had carefully surveyed the ground, and had received information which excited his alarm, felt that it would no longer answer to trifle

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