^^Q THE HUSSITES. doubtless wholly unauthorized. Neither George nor Eokyzana gave up their hopes; the effort was renewed again and again, now with the pope, now with the Emperor Frederic III., and now with the German Diet, but all to no purpose. Occasionally when there was an object to be gained hopes would be held out, only to be withdrawn. The papal emissaries represented Eokyzana to Eome as the most wicked and perfidious of heresiarchs, whose rec- ognition would be the destruction of what remained of Catholi- cism in Bohemia, and there never was the slightest idea of con- firming him.* When the overthrow of Mainhard of Eosenberg and the con- centration of power in the hands of George Podiebrad showed that no further hopes were to be built on the Catholic party in Bohemia, IS^icholas Y. fell back upon the old methods and resolved to try what could be done by a missionary inquisitor. He had at hand an instrument admirably fitted for the work. Giovanni da Capistrano, vicar-general of the Observantine Franciscans, had commenced his career as an inquisitor in 1417 ; he was now in his sixty-sixth year, vigorous and implacable as ever. Small and in- significant in appearance, shrivelled by austerities until he seemed
- Mn. Sylvii. Epistt. 130, 246-7, 259, 404 (Ed. 1571, pp. 667, 782-3, 788, 947).-
Wadding. ann. 1455, No. 2 ; ann. 1456, No. 11-12. In George Podiebrad's letter of 1468 to his son-in-law Matthius Corvinus, complaining of his treatment by the Holy See, he says, " In truth there were formerly in Bohemia many errors concerning the sacrament, and also concerning the ornaments and vestments in administering the rite, and the veneration of saints, but by divine grace these have been so reduced that there is scarcelyj any difference now existing with the Roman Church. By comparing what was customary thirty or forty years ago with the present, it will be seen that little remains to do in comparison with what has been accomplished."— D'Achery^ Spicileg. III. 834. A notable part of this retrogression occurred in 1454, when edicts were is. sued in the name of Ladislas, with the consfent of Rokyzana, ordering that th^ epistles and gospels, in the canon of the mass, should be recited in Latin an< not in the vulgar tongue; that confession should be a prerequisite to commun • ion; that children should not receive communion without due preparation that the blood of the Eucharist should not be carried beyond the churches fo: fear of accidents; that no one should administer it without letters authenti eating his priesthood; that no marriage should be celebrated without bannl published in full church.— Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet. ann. 1454 (Martene AmpI Coll. V. 486-7).
