Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/202

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THE HUSSITE WARS

that here, as at Konopišt, the divines found it impossible to agree. The division between the two great Hussite parties continued as before. According to the custom of the time the theologians of the university formulated their views in a certain number of “articles”; they referred principally to the seven sacraments, the ritual of the mass, purgatory, and the invocation of the saints. The leader of the Hussite High Church, Master John of Přibram, to whose authority the articles were probably largely due, took a prominent part in the discussion which followed. He appears to have spoken with some violence. Nicholas of Pelhřimov, one of the representatives of Tábor, who, in his “Chronicon Taboritarum,” has left us the only detailed account of the conference, but who, of course, cannot be considered as an impartial witness, attributes the failure of the negotiations entirely to Přibram.[1] Both parties, however, in view of the evermenacing attitude of Germany and Austria, were reluctant to accept the responsibility for a complete rupture between the Hussite parties. The assembly, therefore, before separating agreed to hold another meeting at Prague, which was to take place in the university college. This meeting was also resultless. The author of the “Chronicon Taboritarum,” who, it must be remembered, was a vehement partisan of Tábor, again attributes the failure to John of Přibram. The latter divine, he writes, stated that it was from the ranks of the Táborites that had sprung the agitators who discredited the Hussite movement.[2] It must be admitted that Přibram’s assertion was not entirely devoid of truth. One of the other ever-recurring questions of theological controversy was then discussed. The Táborite

  1. Facta per magistrum Joannem Přibram declaratione terminorum positorum in propositionibus in Konopišt per magistros sacerdotibus Thaboriensibus oblatis blasphemia et fratrum Thaboriensium multum et minus juste confusiva et detractoria omnes ad propria redierunt” (Nicholas of Pelhřimov, “Chronicon Taboritarum” in Höfler, Geschichtsschreiber der Hussitischen Bewegung, Vol. Il. p. 590).
  2. Joannes Přibram more suo in verba diffamatoria prorupit, dicens quod de numero sacerdotum Thaboriensium hic assidentium prodita pessima Picardica hæresis” (Pelhřimov in Höfler as above, p. 590).