against German and Hungarian, the Calixtines and Taborites could not be
induced to suspend their internal quarrels. Z̆iz̆ka, indeed, desired at
first to adopt a more conciliatory policy than was customary with his
colleagues; and he persuaded the Taborites to act with the citizens of
Prague in offering the crown of Bohemia to the King of Poland. But even
he soon felt compelled to adopt a more aggressive line of action; for
the Calixtines had been so alarmed at the power of John of Z̆elív, that
they had prohibited the further introduction of novelties in doctrine,
and had deposed those Councillors of the Old Town who had been
elected under the influence of John. Z̆iz̆ka was so alarmed at these
proceedings, that he abandoned a siege which he was conducting in a
distant part of Bohemia, and marched against the fortress of R̆íc̆an,
which was in the near neighbourhood of Prague.
This fortress had long been a danger to the citizens; but they were
perfectly well aware that Z̆iz̆ka’s present motive for marching against
it was a desire to control the deliberations of the Town Councillors.
Hynek of Crus̆ina was so indignant at Z̆iz̆ka’s conduct that he threw
up the captaincy of Prague, and not long after adopted the cause of
Sigismund. Z̆iz̆ka had his usual good success in the siege; but there
is at least a doubt whether his proceedings were marked by his usual
good faith. The Calixtine leaders had promised to spare the lives of
the defenders of the fortress if they would surrender; yet, after the
surrender was completed, Z̆iz̆ka burnt alive nine of the priests whom
he found in the garrison. But neither the undoubted cruelty nor the
possible treachery of this proceeding could prevent Z̆iz̆ka’s victory
from producing the desired effect on the Calixtines; and they now
consented to admit the Taborites to a free discussion of the points of
difference between them and their rivals.
This discussion had at least one advantage. It showed clearly what
was the point which the Taborites looked upon as the vital difference
between themselves and the Calixtines. For, when the Masters of
the Prague University brought forward a long list of subjects of
controversy, one of the Taborite leaders complained that they had not
come there to discuss all those points; but that they simply wished
for a decision on the question whether they should or should not wear
special vestments at the performance of the Mass. Jakaubek of Kladrau
consented to limit the discussion to this one point; and, although no
resolution was arrived at, the Taborites clearly saw that the majority
in Prague were against them. The fierce spirit of fanaticism, which had
already led the Taborites into such excesses, now roused them to fury
against the Calixtines; and in one town, at least, they proclaimed that
any priest who was found wearing a special dress at the celebration of
the Mass, should be burned alive in his vestments.
But this dangerous division between the thinking and the fighting
forces of the Utraquist party was checked by two events which were both
of considerable importance in the history of the movement. The first of
these was the death of Nicholaus of Hus, who was thrown from his horse
as he was leaving Prague. This death naturally threw more power into
the hands of Z̆iz̆ka; and he had always felt, much more strongly than
Nicholaus, the necessity of maintaining the alliance with the Calixtine
rulers of Prague. The other event, which drew the more moderate men of
the two parties together, was the outbreak of a new division in the
ranks of the Taborites themselves.
That a body, with the origin, constitution, and mode of life which have
been already described, should develop new and unexpected phases of
thought, might have been guessed from the beginning of the movement;
but that the particular doctrine now broached should have caused
division among any section of the Utraquists must sound very strange
to modern ears. In any revolt against excessive priestly power, one
would have expected that such a doctrine as Transubstantiation would
have been the first to be attacked. Yet, while both Calixtines and
Taborites were fiercely denouncing the civil power of the clergy, while
they were attacking every outward badge which seemed to separate the
clergy from the laity, they had yet shrunk with horror from any attack
on the doctrine of Transubstantiation. When, then, Martinek Hauska, a
leading Taborite preacher, began to denounce this doctrine, he roused
the fiercest opposition among his Taborite colleagues; and two of their
more learned members wrote, in February, 1421, to Jakaubek of Kladrau
and John Pr̆zibram, to consult them about the best means for opposing
this heresy. The answer to that question was only too easily given;
for, while each party disagreed with every other on the definition
of heresy, there was a striking unanimity about the right method of
dealing with it when defined. So, while the Calixtines burnt one of
the preachers of the new doctrine in Prague, the Taborites, doubtless
finding them too numerous for such treatment, forcibly expelled them
from Tabor.
Deserted and repudiated by all their neighbours, these unfortunate
exiles wandered about in the woods, till their destitute condition,
acting on their already excited fancy, drove them into a state of
partial insanity. They plucked off their clothes, and declared that
they would return to the state of innocence. That men in such a
condition would fall into acts of impurity seems highly probable; but
it would surely be unjust to believe all the rumours circulated against
people who had no opportunity of stating their own case. The main
fact, however, of their living habitually without clothes seems to be
generally admitted; it was that peculiarity which gained them their
name of Adamites; and it was on that ground that Z̆iz̆ka seized and
burnt fifty of them. They entered the fire smiling, declaring that they
would reign that day with Christ in heaven.
While these events were weakening the opposition between the Calixtines
and the main body of the Taborites, other causes were securing still
more positive advantages to the moderate party in Prague. In April,
1421, Kutna Hora at last fell into the hands of the joint armies of
the Taborites and Calixtines; and this victory was speedily followed
by the capture of the town of Jaromír. Then C̆enĕk of Wartenberg,
Ulric of Rosenberg, Hynek of Crus̆ina, and other noblemen who had
revolted to Sigismund, came back to the Utraquist camp. John of Z̆elív
seems to have been the guide and adviser of the Utraquist forces in
this campaign, and he compelled C̆enĕk to make public confession of
his wickedness in having betrayed the castle of Prague to the king.
When this concession had been made, the nobles returned to Prague,
and regained for a time some of their old power. That power was
strengthened by the speedy capture of the castle of Prague, which up to
this time had held out against the citizens; and the acceptance by the
nobles of the Four Articles seemed to complete the reunion of parties.
On July 1, 1421, a great Assembly was held of nobles, knights, and
citizens, at which the question was discussed whether they should
once more recognise Sigismund as their king. The Moravian nobles
were opposed to his deposition, while the stricter Utraquists were
equally strong against recalling him; and the Estates at last came to a
curious compromise, which was expressed in the following words: “That
they will not have Sigismund for their king unless it is the will of
God, and unless the famous Masters of Prague, the Bohemian lords, the
communities of the Taborites, the knights, soldiers, towns, and other
Bohemian communities, give their consent thereto.”
Then a Council of Representatives from all classes of the community was
chosen to manage the affairs of State while the throne was vacant. And,
if there had been anything of hesitation and compromise in the form
of their decree, there was no sign of such feeling in their answer to
the envoys whom Sigismund had sent to assert his claim to the throne.
They drew up a long list of their reasons for rejecting him as king.
The first grounds of complaint were the deaths of Hus, Jerom, and
Krasa, and the encouragement which Sigismund had given to the Crusaders
against Bohemia. They then dwelt on his surrender of Brandenburg
without the consent of the Assembly; and they wound up their indictment
by denouncing his rejection of the Four Articles. Sigismund answered
this attack by again repudiating any sanction on his part to the
deaths of Hus and Jerom; by declaring himself perfectly ready to
hear discussions on the Four Articles; and, finally, by taunting the
Utraquists with their burning of priests and churches.
But, although a want of confidence in Sigismund might bind together
for a time the various sections of the Utraquist party; yet, on the
other hand, the intense distrust which the treachery of C̆enĕk and
the other nobles had caused, could not be removed by this superficial
appearance of reconciliation. John of Z̆elív, though he had admitted
the nobles to a kind of absolution, was foremost in mistrusting the
repentance which had been accompanied with so much humiliation. A
sudden invasion of Bohemia by the Silesians produced a new cause of
distrust; for the nobles were suspected of having been very remiss in
their resistance of the invaders. This brought to a head the suspicions
which had originally been grounded on points of doctrinal difference;
and the sterner members of the Utraquist clergy declared that they
had no adequate security for the genuineness of the conversion of the
nobles. John of Z̆elív followed up this attack by demanding the removal
of all the clergy who adhered to the old ritual, and who would not
sing in Bohemian. The Town Councils consented to the change, and John
succeeded in thrusting into the vacant preacherships some supporters
even of those doctrines which had been condemned by both sections of
the Utraquist party.
But the fear of foreign invasion was once more to drive into the
background for a time the internal divisions of the Utraquist party.
The fiery energy of Martin V. had roused the electors of the Empire
from the panic into which they had been thrown by the failure of the
first crusade; and the Margrave of Meissen, the fiercest of the enemies
of Bohemia, had begun a new invasion on his own responsibility.
Z̆iz̆ka had been recently wounded in his only sound eye; but, at the
rumour of the new attack, he at once hurried out to battle, and the
men of Meissen fled before him. The rumours of the divisions between
the nobles and the citizens had, however, encouraged the Meissener to
renew their attack; and a few successes on their part induced Frederick
of Hohenzollern to organise a second crusade among the princes of the
Empire. The Bohemian peasants fled before the advance of the new army
and took refuge in the town of Z̆atec. So in September, 1421, an army
of two thousand Imperialists marched against Z̆atec, and the terrified
citizens began to despair of resistance.
But their anxieties and dangers came to an unexpected end. As the
watchers were gazing one day from the city walls on the camp of the
enemy, their attention was caught by a sudden glow of fire. The flame
rapidly spread through the camp, and all the tents of the enemy were
consumed. To the astonished eyes of the watchers it seemed as if a
miracle had been worked on their behalf; but the real explanation,
though wonderful enough, was not connected with those interferences
with the order of nature to which conventional phraseology has confined
the name of miracle. The fact was that the Electors of the German
Empire had heard that the terrible Z̆iz̆ka was approaching; and so the
great army of the second crusade had burnt their tents and retreated
without striking a blow.
[Illustration: Z̆IZ̆KA ON HORSEBACK AT THE HEAD OF THE FLAIL-BEARING
TABORITES.
(_From an old picture copied in Dr. Toman’s pamphlet._)]
Sigismund had been absent in Hungary during this struggle, but he now
advanced at the head of a Hungarian army to Brünn (Brno), committing
every kind of barbarity on the way. It will be remembered that he had
recently announced that he had never objected to a discussion of the
Four Articles. He now summoned all the Moravian nobles before him, and
threatened to put them to death unless they would abjure all those
Articles. Apparently the nobles were not made of the same stuff as the
sturdy preachers of Tabor and Prague; for, with two exceptions, all the
Utraquist nobles of Moravia consented to abandon their creed and accept
that of Sigismund.
Doubtless encouraged by this success, Sigismund marched to Kutna Hora
at the head of an army of about eight thousand men. Z̆iz̆ka advanced
to the relief of the town, and the townsmen themselves made a gallant
defence; but some traitor opened one of the gates to the Imperial
soldiers, and the massacre which followed on their entry made so deep
an impression on the imagination of the Bohemians, that in later ages
it was compared to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Z̆iz̆ka’s forces
were now completely surrounded; and, on the 22nd of December, 1421,
he found himself at the mercy of his opponents in a bitter winter and
without any possibility of obtaining food. Sigismund now thought his
victory secure; but he little knew with whom he had to deal. In spite
of cold and hunger, Z̆iz̆ka kept his troops firm and patient till
midnight. Then, having observed the weakest point in the royal army, he
made a sudden and unexpected dash, broke through the Royalist lines,
and was soon raising new forces and new provisions in the country. The
Hungarians now scattered themselves about, plundering and ravishing
in the neighbouring villages, when, suddenly, in January, 1422, a
party of the plunderers were startled in an outlying village by the
appearance of Z̆iz̆ka at the head of a new army. Sigismund was once
more panic-struck. He ordered the town of Kutna Hora to be set on fire;
fastened the councillors to his carriage, and fled as fast as he could
go to the town of Deutschbrod (Nemecky Brod). Z̆iz̆ka, in spite of the
hard frost, followed with all his horses and baggage-waggons; and he so
completely routed Sigismund that twelve thousand of the Hungarian army
were killed, and the King never again entered Bohemia during Z̆iz̆ka’s
life.
But, in the meantime, the divisions in Prague were reaching their
height. John the Priest (as John of Z̆elív was now called) had, on
October 19th, struck a popular _coup d’état_. He had persuaded the
people to depose the nobles from office, and to choose one man as
captain of the city, with four others for each division of the town.
The new Councillors, who were appointed under this arrangement,
proceeded to summon to Prague a certain John Sadlo, who had been a
zealous Utraquist, but who happened to have incurred the suspicion of
the new rulers of the town. He was promised a safe-conduct; but, on
arriving in Prague, he was seized and summarily executed. The moderate
men of Prague now felt that a stand must be made; and they called a
meeting at which Jakaubek of Kladrau and Peter Payne drew up certain
Articles for the government of the clergy. Four directors were to be
chosen to regulate the appointment to every church in Prague, and
to prevent the introduction of novelties in ritual, unless publicly
justified from Scripture. John was urged by his followers to resist
this proposal; but he seems to have felt it better to give way, and
to accept the three colleagues, who were combined with him in the
administration.
But, however much such an arrangement might satisfy the champions
of Utraquist orthodoxy, it could not restore the sense of order and
stability which had been shaken by John’s overbearing proceedings,
and especially by the murder of Sadlo. C̆enĕk of Wartenberg and other
nobles again fled to Sigismund; and, although the citizens of Prague
and the Masters of the University were far from being disposed to that
course, they felt that the security to be obtained by the presence of
a King would be their best guarantee against the encroachments of the
extreme party. The King of Poland had rejected the offer of the crown;
but the Duke of Lithuania seemed more ready to listen to the advances
of the Bohemians. Apparently, however, his sympathies arose rather
from a general Slavonic feeling, and a personal dislike of Sigismund,
than from any doctrinal sympathies with the Utraquists. He had been
a comparatively recent convert to Christianity; and he had all the
consequent zeal for orthodoxy. The Calixtines assured him that they
had no desire for separation from the Romish Church, and that they did
not admit the charge of heresy. In the hope, therefore, of defeating
Sigismund, and of bringing back the Bohemians to the Catholic Church,
Witold of Lithuania consented that his nephew, Sigismund Korybut,
should be sent to represent him in Bohemia.
Prince Korybut, however, insisted that, before he would enter Prague,
Priest John should be deposed from his power. Those nobles who had
remained faithful to the national cause were specially eager to carry
out this understanding. They deposed all the Councillors both in the
Old and New Town; and they arranged that each quarter should choose new
Councillors for a year, of whom none should be priests or Masters of
Arts. At the same time Has̆ek of Waldstein was chosen chief captain of
the town. But the terror which John had excited among the nobles and
richer citizens could not be removed by these arrangements. So on March
8th two councillors were sent to John, to ask him to come to the Town
Council to consult with them. When he came, they asked his advice about
the plan of campaign, and seemed to listen respectfully. Then they went
on to urge him to make peace between the rival parties, before they
went to battle. John answered that, if they desired peace, they must
not take away houses from those to whom the Community had given them,
nor must they depose faithful servants such as the late Captain of the
town. Then, whilst they were still speaking, the burgomaster gave a
sign; and the soldiers rushed in and seized Priest John and several of
his friends, took them into an outer hall, and executed them. As soon
as the people of the town heard the news, they rose in fury, broke into
the Council House, seized and beheaded the leading Councillors, and
compelled Has̆ek of Waldstein to fly for his life.
But it seemed as if the death of John had really deprived the extreme
party in Prague of their chances of final success; for, when in May,
1422, Korybut arrived in Prague, he was able, with apparently little
trouble, to remove the Councillors of the extreme party, and to restore
the Calixtines.
For a time Korybut seemed to give new strength and coherence to the
Utraquist movement; but his reign was not of long duration. Martin
V. had been extremely alarmed at the sympathies shown in Poland and
Lithuania for the Utraquist cause; and by his orders the Polish clergy
persuaded King Ladislaus to organise a new expedition against the
Utraquists, while they induced Witold of Lithuania to recall Prince
Korybut. But, though the summons for a third crusade was sent out to
Poles, Lithuanians, Swedes, and Norwegians, yet the Pope soon found
that it was easier to cajole kings than to convert peoples. Not only
did the Poles and Ruthenians refuse to serve in the crusade; but, in
spite of Ladislaus’s rebukes, they hastened to take up arms for the
Bohemians; and so the third crusade collapsed even more ignominiously
than the former ones.
[Illustration: OLD PICTURE OF Z̆IZ̆KA IN HEAVEN.
(_From Dr. Toman’s pamphlet._)]
The fear of a foreign invasion being thus removed, the nobles resolved
on a final struggle for power with the Taborites. Z̆iz̆ka had
reluctantly consented to recognise Korybut as king; but the recall
of the latter broke this link between the nobles and the Taborite
leader. He had resented the treacherous murder of John of Z̆elív; and
he had special causes of his own for distrusting the leading nobles.
He himself belonged to that Order of Knights, or gentry, which was
in continual rivalry with the greater nobility; while his intense
religious zeal, and his scorn of caste, had drawn him close to the
fiery peasants of Mount Tabor, and increased his contempt for the
vacillations and treacheries of C̆enek of Wartenberg and Ulric of
Rosenberg. The struggle which now followed was a fierce and bloody one;
but it ended in the complete victory of Z̆iz̆ka, and the consent of the
nobles to return to the popular cause. They were the more willing to
come to terms as the King had just mortally offended Bohemian feeling
by granting the province of Moravia to Albert, Duke of Austria, and had
recognised him as his heir in Bohemia. Korybut had now escaped from his
uncle and returned to Bohemia; and, though he was no longer recognised
as their legal ruler, he was welcomed as an ally and a captain in their
wars, and he marched with the united Utraquist army into Moravia, to
deliver it from Albert of Austria. Z̆iz̆ka, though now completely
blind, also led his forces into Moravia.
But in October, 1424, he was seized with a sudden illness and died. His
death naturally created a great sensation; and it is a proof of the
substantial success of his work that the changes which were expected
to take place, in consequence of his death, were much greater than
any that actually occurred. A section, indeed, of his more immediate
personal followers did form themselves into a separate party under
the name of the “Orphans”; but though, like Z̆iz̆ka, they were more
moderate in their doctrines than the rest of the Taborites, they
continued, for all practical purposes, to act with the latter; nor did
Sigismund find that the terror, which the name of Hussite had inspired,
had at all diminished. A married priest named Procop rapidly rose to
the position which Z̆iz̆ka had held; and so far was he from slackening
the zeal of his followers that he soon introduced a more aggressive
element into the warfare. Tired of remaining so long on the defensive,
he resolved that the Germans and Hungarians should feel something of
the misery which they had inflicted on Bohemia; and he began a series
of invasions of Austria, Bavaria, and Hungary, which considerably added
to the terrors which had been produced by Z̆iz̆ka.
Curiously enough, the changes in the Calixtine party became more
noticeable at this time than among those who seemed more likely to
be affected by Z̆iz̆ka’s death. Jakaubek fell at this time into the
background, and John Pr̆zibram came more to the front. Pr̆zibram was
one of those bitter theologians who delight to dwell on the negative
side of their doctrines, rather than on those that tend to unity and
positive faith. He had been willing enough to maintain the cause of
the Four Articles of Prague against the Catholic priests; but, now
that the Catholic cause seemed lost in Prague, he began to express so
offensively and insultingly his opposition to the Taborites, that he
disgusted the more moderate men of his own party; and on Christmas Day,
1426, he demanded, in a further discussion, that the Hussites should
specially condemn the doctrines of Wyclif.
This proposal produced a definite change in the position of Peter
Payne. Although his doctrinal convictions were probably well known,
yet, in the interests of peace and order, he had hitherto been willing
to co-operate with the Calixtines in checking the excesses of the
Taborites. But the attack on his distinguished countryman, to whose
writings he probably looked for guidance more than to those of Hus,
was too much for his personal and patriotic sympathies, and he eagerly
took up the cause of Wyclif. The decision of the meeting, however,
was against the English reformer; and Korybut, who shared his uncle’s
dislike to the heretical position into which the Hussites had been
forced, seized upon this resolution as a sign of their desire to
return to union with the Church. So he sent messengers to Pope Martin
to assure him that this decision represented the real feeling of the
country.