the people. From that time on, the nobility again came in the ascendency, and governed the affairs of the realm. Still the strength and influence of the people continued to be felt for many years, the government paying some regard to their wishes.
CONTINUATION OF THE NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE COUNCIL OF BASIL.
The Taborites having been put out of the way, the negotiations with the Council were resumed through the intervention of Sigmund, who now hoped to bring them to a successful issue. Yet this was by no means so easy as might have been thought. Such great changes had taken place in Bohemia during the war, not only in belief, but also in Church service, that it was very difficult for the Council to settle the trouble, especially as the Bohemians held the new practices as a tight, asking of the Church merely their confirmation. On one occasion at the Diet in Brünn, Rokycan exclaimed: “It seems that your whole object is to kindle dissensions among us, from which we suffer more than before you came! How can it be true that you desire peace and unity? What we ask is nothing difficult; and it is the more amazing that while you constantly declare you wish to do all you can for us, you do nothing. We want an archbishop who shall be named by our king, and elected by the people and clergy. This is done in Hungary, why may it not be done in Bohemia? We ask that foreigners do not judge us, nor give away our ecclesiastical benefices; this, too, is not unreasonable, and good for the peace and unity of the kingdom. See to it that communion in both kinds be regarded lawful in the towns where it is al-
19
