this position. He stipulated that he should be allowed to depart
freely to Tabor, and that the granting of the Cup to the laity should
be permitted in Pilsen. Wenceslaus of Duba, as leader of the Catholic
forces, consented to the terms which Z̆iz̆ka proposed. Unfortunately,
however, the doctrine that faith should not be kept with heretics had
already taken deep root amongst the opponents of the Utraquists. While
Z̆iz̆ka was still on his way from Pilsen to Tabor, he was attacked by
Peter of Sternberg, at the head of a royalist force. Unprepared for
this attack, and very inferior in the number of his forces, Z̆iz̆ka at
first retreated before his enemies; but, finding himself compelled to
fight, he took up his position on the bank of a fish-pond near the town
of Sudomír. There, for the first time, he adopted the plan which became
a special characteristic of his battles. He entrenched himself behind
his baggage-waggons, over which his men fired at the advancing foe. The
struggle was a fierce one; but at last the royalists were compelled to
retreat, and Z̆iz̆ka went on in safety to Tabor.
But though much of the success of the Utraquist wars was due to the
energy of Z̆iz̆ka and his followers, the leading citizens of Prague
had also a very important influence on the struggle; and Sigismund’s
actions soon roused in them that desperate courage which had seemed
for a moment to forsake them. The nickname of Sigismund, “Super
Grammaticam,” has been fixed on this Emperor by Carlyle; but an even
more distinctive name would have been Sigismund “Super Veritatem.” Many
other rulers have told lies in their time of emergency; but surely no
one ever took so much pains to write himself down a liar as Sigismund
did at every stage of his career. It will be remembered that he had
written most urgently to the Bohemians, to express his regret for the
death of Hus, and to assure them that he had done all he could to
prevent it. Yet, as soon as Pope Martin had published his Bull, urging
a crusade against the Hussites, Sigismund seized upon a merchant of
Prague named Krasa, and publicly burnt him in Breslau, on the express
ground that he had disapproved of the burning of Hus and Jerom.
C̆enek of Wartenberg, who had been entrusted by Sigismund with the
care of the fortress of Prague, now declared that he could no longer
serve the king. At nearly every stage in the career of this unfortunate
nobleman, his change of opinion, however excusable in itself, was
stained by some act of treachery. On this occasion he invited the
subordinate governors of the castle to dinner, and seized that
opportunity for arresting and imprisoning them. Having thus mastered
the castle, he placed it under the care of the citizens of Prague.
He then arrested seventy-six of the clergy, and drove several of the
opposing citizens from the town.
But C̆enek was never long of one mind; and he soon began to despair
of the struggle on which he had entered. On the one hand the Catholic
defenders of the Vys̆ehrad held out successfully against his attacks;
and at the same time he seems to have been sincerely shocked at the
outrages committed by the Taborites. In the early outbursts, though
there had been much plundering and some bloodshed, there had been
little deliberate cruelty. Now, however, Z̆iz̆ka began to imitate only
too closely the cruelties of the Kuttenberger; for finding a number of
monks in a castle which he had stormed, he burnt them alive after the
victory was over. When this cruelty was followed by the destruction of
many churches and monasteries, C̆enek began to shrink from the cause
which he had defended, and to urge the citizens of Prague to come to
terms with Sigismund. Finding, however, that he was unable to persuade
them to take this course, he resolved secretly to betray the castle to
Sigismund, on the understanding that the Communion in both kinds should
be permitted on C̆enek’s own estates. Sigismund apparently consented
to this arrangement; and C̆enek secretly admitted into the castle four
thousand of the royalist soldiers, of whom many were Germans. Furious
at this treachery, the citizens made so fierce an attack upon the
castle that C̆enek was panic-struck and fled secretly to Sigismund.
But the attack was made without organisation or arrangement and the
citizens were repelled.
[Illustration: THE CASTLE OF PRAGUE.]
Several noblemen had followed C̆enek in his desertion of the national
cause; and at last the citizens decided to send a new embassy to
Sigismund, under the protection of Wenceslaus of Duba. Sigismund’s
hope and indignation had alike been raised by the recent events; and
he demanded that the citizens should surrender all their arms to the
defenders of the Vys̆ehrad. On receiving this demand, the Town Council
of Prague sent defiance to the king, and resolved to fight till the
last.
Both parties now prepared for action; and, while Sigismund was issuing
an appeal to all citizens and princes to come to help him against
his rebellious subjects, Z̆iz̆ka and Nicholaus of Hus were preparing
to march to Prague at the head of their Taborite forces. Many of the
workmen and peasants were now beginning to stir themselves for the
national cause; and, before Sigismund could secure the help of the
Electors of the Empire, he was to have a slight taste of the dangers
which he was about to encounter. The Kutna Hora miners had roused much
opposition by their cruelties on behalf of the royalist cause; and the
charcoal burners, who had hitherto been dependent upon them, had now
revolted against them. After vainly attempting to pacify their new
opponents, the Kuttenberger appealed to Sigismund, and he sent them a
detachment of the royal troops. The charcoal burners met the soldiers
with stones and arrows; and, cheered on by a Taborite priest, they
drove back the royalists in confusion to the mountains. The priest,
however, was wounded; and the charcoal burners then retreated.
In the meantime Z̆iz̆ka and his forces were on their march. Their
importance was now recognised by their opponents; and Wenceslaus of
Duba attempted to intercept them. Z̆iz̆ka encountered the royalists
near Porc̆ic, signally defeated them, and entered Prague in triumph on
the 20th of May, 1420.
The powerful help of the new-comers was doubtless welcomed by the
citizens of Prague; but they speedily discovered that differences
of habit and feeling were likely to produce as many difficulties in
the relations of the two parties to each other, as had already been
produced by differences of doctrine. Both sections of the Utraquist
Party had desired to introduce a purer life and simpler habits; and
in many cases they had taken steps to enforce them. But the Taborite
ideal, and still more the Taborite methods of realising it, differed
considerably from those of the comfortable and orderly citizens of
Prague. The latter, it appeared, indulged in delicately trimmed beards
and moustachios; their wives wore trains, which seemed to the Taborites
unduly long; and the hair of the younger ladies fell in long and
curiously made plaits on their shoulders. The sturdy peasant reformers
resolved summarily to correct these evils; so they seized the citizens
in the streets, and compulsorily shaved them, cut off the trains of
their wives’ dresses, and even shortened the locks of the girls. The
citizens naturally objected to such strong methods of reform; and
the Taborite captains cut short these proceedings by sending their
followers to dig trenches for the defence of the town.
But the value of the new defenders was soon proved; for a force of
royalist troops on their way to the castle at Prague, were completely
cut to pieces by a sally of the Taborites; and when Sigismund at last
advanced against the city, the approach of this fierce peasant army,
wielding the spiked flails which were generally their only weapon,
struck him with such fear that he at once abandoned the siege of
Prague, and devoted himself to more easy enterprises. Nor were the
nobles of Bohemia more fortunate in their efforts. Ulric of Rosenberg,
who had followed C̆enek in his desertion of the popular cause, was
driven back from Tabor by Nicholaus of Hus, and confined himself for a
time to imprisoning and starving the Utraquist priests whom he found on
his lands.
In the meantime, the appeal of the Pope and the Emperor for a crusade
against the Utraquists was producing its effect. Not only from Germany,
but from various parts of Hungary, Spain, France, England, and Holland,
and in some cases even from Poland, trained warriors came to join
Sigismund’s army.
Prominent amongst the German princes was Frederick of Hohenzollern. He
had been secured to Sigismund’s cause by a transaction which roused new
bitterness in Bohemia against the Emperor. It may be remembered that
Charles IV. had added Brandenburg to the Bohemian kingdom. Thomas of
S̆títný, and other stern moralists, had objected to this acquisition,
considering it as a mere act of personal aggrandisement, and of no
real benefit to the kingdom. But, in the history of every country,
there have been additions of territory which, however questionable in
their origin, have afterwards roused on their behalf a strong national
feeling. Nor must it be forgotten that the circumstances, under which
Sigismund surrendered this territory, certainly justified considerable
indignation on the part of the Bohemians. In 1415, four years before
he was actually King of Bohemia, without any consultation with
Wenceslaus or the Bohemian Assembly, Sigismund handed over Brandenburg
to Frederick of Hohenzollern, whose ancestor had so actively assisted
Rudolf in the conquest of Bohemia.
It soon appeared that the national feeling against Germans in general,
and the Hohenzollerns in particular, was not limited to the Utraquists,
but was shared even by those Bohemian nobles who followed Sigismund in
battle. So intense was this hatred that the Bohemians and their allies
had to be quartered in different parts of the field; and doubtless this
disagreement was one cause of the strange delay in the operations of
the army which followed their arrival before Prague. Two weeks were
spent by the captains of the host in raids upon the neighbouring towns,
whence they brought in Utraquist priests whom they burnt in the camp.
One occasion is specially noted by the chronicler, in which three old
men and four boys were brought in, in company with their priest. These
prisoners, after having been struck and insulted for some time, were
ordered to abjure the practice of Communion in both kinds, and when
they refused, were burnt. During all this time Z̆iz̆ka was working at
the fortifications of a hill which overlooks the town, and from which
he hoped to conduct the defence.
[Illustration: VIEW OF PRAGUE SHOWING Z̆IZ̆KA’S HILL TO THE NORTH-EAST.]
At last, on the 14th of July, the invading army grew weary of its
delays, and prepared for a general attack on various parts of the city.
In this plan the invaders were to be aided by the garrisons which
occupied respectively the fortress of the Vys̆ehrad and the castle
of Prague. The battle began by an attempt to storm the hill which
Z̆iz̆ka had fortified. This attack was undertaken by the Margrave
of Meissen, the hereditary enemy of the Bohemians. As his soldiers
charged up the hill they were encountered, not only by Z̆iz̆ka’s
forces, but also by private citizens, and even by women. The stones
hurled by these defenders produced such effect that the first attack
was repelled. But the Germans quickly returned to the charge; nor
could the desperate courage of the defenders wholly prevent their
advance. One of the Germans seized on a woman who was defending the
hill; but she vowed that she would not yield to anti-Christ, and
she was killed in defending herself. Still the invaders pressed on.
Z̆iz̆ka was himself wounded and struck down, and was with difficulty
rescued by the flails of his followers. The Germans had almost reached
the top of the hill, when suddenly the gate of the city, which stood
nearest to the hill on the other side, was thrown open, and a priest
came out bearing the Sacrament, and followed by fifty archers, and
some more of the flail-bearing peasants. At the same moment all the
bells in the city were set ringing; and, with a great shout, echoed
from within the walls, the new-comers rushed up the hill to meet the
advancing enemy. Immediately the invaders were seized with a panic and
fled; three hundred of them were killed in the descent, and others
dangerously wounded. Sigismund’s forces retreated to their tents, and
the citizens of Prague hastened to their churches to return thanks for
their victory. The scene of this battle was called by some Bojiste (the
battlefield) in consequence of the great slaughter of the Germans;
others called it the Hill of the Cup; but the name which has driven out
every other is that which connects it with the general of the day; and
it is still known as Z̆iz̆kov Hora--the hill of Z̆iz̆ka.
It might have seemed that such a victory, however startling, would
scarcely have ended a war, begun with so great preparation, and engaged
in by so formidable an army. But the bitter feeling between the German
and Bohemian Royalists had now risen to such a height as to make common
action impossible. On the one hand, the Germans furiously accused the
Bohemians of having betrayed them in the battle; and, in revenge for
this supposed treachery, they attacked and burnt some of the houses in
the outlying villages, and threw the women and children into the fire.
The Bohemians, on the other hand, were more and more disposed to make
peace with their countrymen; and it will be remembered that some of the
nobles had already shown an inclination to Utraquism. As for Sigismund,
his first and main thought was to secure the crown of Bohemia to
himself with the smallest amount of trouble.
Under these circumstances the Bohemian part of the army willingly
entered into negotiations with the defenders of the city; and the
latter proposed, for Sigismund’s acceptance, four Articles of Peace,
which were to become very famous in the following years. The first
of these was the free preaching of the Word of God; the second, the
granting of the Cup to the laity; the third, the removal of the clergy
from rule in secular affairs, and their restriction to the apostolic
mode of life; the fourth was the public suppression of deadly sins.
Sigismund consented to discussion on these points between the Utraquist
preachers and the Catholic priests, who had followed his army. The
leading orator on the Utraquist side was John Pr̆zibram, a man who was
to play a conspicuous part in the coming controversies.
Strangely enough, it was found that the Catholic clergy were willing
to make many concessions in the discussion. But the Conference broke
down on a point which may be called the main issue of the Later
Reformation--the question, namely, whether, in cases of doubt, the
deciding authority should be the Church or the Scriptures. Perhaps few
could have expected that the clerical disputants would have come to an
agreement; and the Bohemian Royalists did not seem to have been shaken
by this result in their desire for peace. Indeed, such readiness did
they show to accept the Four Articles, that the citizens of Prague
considered their cause secure, and consented to elect Sigismund as
their King. So on July 28, 1420, Sigismund, having given a general
promise to govern better, was solemnly crowned at Prague; and two days
later the great army of Crusaders returned, cursing the King as a
breaker of his word and a favourer of heretics.
X.
FROM THE FIRST CORONATION OF SIGISMUND TO THE OPENING OF COUNCIL OF
BASEL.
(1420-1431.)
In spite of the dramatic circumstances of Sigismund’s coronation at
Prague, any hopes of peace or reconciliation, which the citizens may
have entertained, at the moment, were speedily to be frustrated, partly
by the bitter divisions in the Utraquist camp, partly by the incurably
untrustworthy character of the king whom they had chosen. The former
difficulty was the one which first forced itself on public attention.
The Taborites had taken the leading part in the victory which had
just been won; and they resolved that their will should be felt in
the settlement which was to follow it. Furious at the recent burning
of their friends before the very eyes of the citizens, they demanded
that these murders should be revenged by the burning of the prisoners
who had been taken in the battle; and the rulers of the city yielded
to their wishes. Elated by this success, the Taborites insisted that
twelve new Articles should be added to the four which had been already
set forth by the Calixtines. Most of these new proposals were in the
direction of more vigorous provisions for punishing self-indulgence and
immorality. But the bitter national feeling manifests itself in the
demand for the complete establishment of the law of God, in the place
of those pagan and _Teutonic_ laws, which do not agree with the laws
of God. Further, all the revenues of the priests were to be seized for
the public good; usury was to be suppressed; all enemies of the truth
to be expelled; all heretical monasteries and all unnecessary churches,
altars, and ornaments to be destroyed.
The discussion of these proposals was marked by the first public
appearance in Bohemia of a man who was to play a remarkable part in the
coming struggle. This was Peter Payne, an English Master of Arts, who
had been forced to fly from Oxford on account of his sympathy with the
doctrines of Wyclif. He had been welcomed by the scholars of Prague,
and had been admitted to a Master’s Degree at their University also.
Although his doctrinal Protestantism had led him to conclusions far
beyond those adopted by any Bohemian party, yet his English sense of
justice and love of compromise often marked him out as a go-between and
moderator in the controversies of his adopted countrymen. He now came
forward to suggest the senses in which the Articles of the Taborites
might be accepted, without injury to either party. But, although the
Calixtines were anxious to find a method of reconciliation with the
Taborites, the latter were guided on this occasion by much fiercer
spirits than Peter Payne.
[Illustration]
The chief of these extreme advisers was John of Z̆elív, who had so
excited the Utraquists, on the occasion of that first riot, when the
Councillors of the New Town were thrown out of the windows. He now
demanded the deposition of those Councillors of the Old Town who were
opposed to the Taborite doctrines. This point, too, was conceded; yet,
for some reason, not clearly ascertainable, the Taborites were still
dissatisfied, and on August 22nd they left Prague.
But the second hindrance to the establishment of peace in Bohemia was
to have an even more marked effect in hastening on the new war. It
was not only the Taborites who distrusted their new ruler; Sigismund
soon provoked against him many of those who had been most desirous for
peace. One of the first points which roused their opposition, was his
demand that the ornaments of the churches and the royal treasure should
be used for the payment of the foreign soldiers, who had just been
employed in the invasion of Bohemia. He also began to renew the old and
evil policy of pledging the monasteries and the royal castles to the
nobles. Lastly, although he had encouraged the citizens to hope that he
would sanction the Four Articles, he still declined to give them any
formal approval, or even to make arrangements for a discussion upon
them; nor would he give the citizens any security against the attacks
of those fierce Catholics who still held the fortresses of Prague
and Vys̆ehrad. These divisions of opinions were obviously too vital
to permit of any friendly understanding between the two parties. So
Sigismund soon after left Prague; and the suspicions between king and
people rapidly ripened to a violent solution of their differences.
Sigismund had now adopted, to the full, the principle that no faith
was to be kept with heretics; and, while he assured the Praguer of his
desire for peace, he was appealing to the Pope and the electors to join
a second crusade for the suppression of the heretics. The citizens
first fully realised the treacherous character of Sigismund’s policy
when they began to renew their attacks on the Vys̆ehrad. The possession
of this fortress by the Catholics was a continual danger to the city;
yet, when the Utraquists sent their next deputation to Sigismund, to
entreat its acceptance of the Four Articles, he demanded that, even
before the Articles should be discussed, the citizens of Prague should
abandon their siege of the Vys̆ehrad. This demand received a still more
startling interpretation a short time after, when the Town Council
intercepted a letter from the king to the defenders of the fortress,
urging them to make a sudden attack on the city, which he would second
from another point.
With some difficulty the citizens now persuaded Nicholaus of Hus to
bring a force of the Taborites to their help. The king had secretly
arranged to send ships down the Moldau to the defence of the Vys̆ehrad;
and the citizens had put chains across the island which lies below the
fortress, so as to hinder the ships from passing. Nicholaus was set
to guard this island; but not even the sense of a common danger could
stifle the differences between the Calixtine leaders and the captains
of the Taborites. The Royalists, in their fear of starvation, offered
to surrender the Vys̆ehrad, if the king did not relieve them within a
certain time. This proposal the citizens were willing to accept; but
Nicholaus was so indignant at the terms granted to the garrison, that
he abandoned the island and retired into the city. A nobleman, named
Hynek of Crus̆ina, now undertook the defence of the city; and when
Sigismund again arrived before it, he found it fortified against him.
Again, the division in his camp between the native nobles and his
Hungarian and German followers speedily showed itself. Some Moravian
barons advised him to abandon the attack, and frankly owned that they
feared the flails of the rustics. Sigismund, whose sympathies were
becoming more and more alienated from his countrymen, taunted the
Moravians with cowardice and treachery. They thereupon sprang from
their horses and declared that they were ready to go where the king
would never be. Sigismund then ordered them to occupy a dangerous
and marshy position on the low land in front of the city, while the
Hungarians were to charge from a higher point. This double attack was
at first successful, for the Utraquists fled in some confusion. But
Hynek rallied their forces, telling them that the Lord would deliver
their enemies into their hands. He and Nicholaus of Hus rushed forward
gallantly with the others; and once more the fear of the flails of the
rustics caused a panic among the Catholics. About five hundred of the
Royalists were either killed or wounded, and the rout was complete.
Then the men of Vys̆ehrad consented to surrender. But though their
captors succeeded in conveying them safely into Prague, they could not
save the church organs and images in the fortress from being destroyed
by the crowd.
The war now raged fiercely on both sides; but while, in matters of
physical cruelty, the Bohemians were as reckless as their opponents,
on two important points there was a marked difference between the
conduct of the rival armies. In the first place, the stern morality
of the Utraquist leaders prevented any of those outrages on women
in which the Hungarian soldiers freely indulged; and, secondly, the
doctrine that no faith should be kept with heretics produced an utter
unscrupulousness on the Imperialist side, in the observance of terms
of truce or surrender, which cannot certainly be alleged, in the same
degree, against the Bohemian leaders.