the peace conference. He refused to leave Basel, and in a lengthy document attempted to justify the proceedings of the Council. He pointed out that negotiations with other heretics formed a precedent for the negotiations with the Utraquists,[1] and declared that in view of the increasing opposition to the Roman Church in Germany pacification was an absolute necessity.
The Bohemians had meanwhile received the conciliatory message of the Council. The citizens of Cheb forwarded it to Prague by a special envoy, and Lord Ulrich of Rosenberg also transmitted to the Bohemians the copy of the letter which King Sigismund had entrusted to him. The town council of Prague received this communication with great joy. The letter was first read out privately to the members of the Council, and then brought to the knowledge of the whole community by the eloquent priest John of Rokycan, who read out its contents from the pulpit of the Tyn church. He then preached a sermon on peace which, as the chroniclers write, was so touching that all present burst into tears of joy. The municipality of Prague, however, found it difficult to give a definite reply. The hegemony over a large part of Bohemia once possessed by Prague, particularly after the victory of the Vyšehrad, had almost entirely disappeared. The Utraquist lords were, indeed, still in alliance with the conservative Old Town, but the lords “sub una,” whose influence had greatly increased in consequence of Prokop’s radicalism, now demanded the unconditional surrender to King Sigismund and absolute submission to the authority of Rome. On the other hand, the practical dictatorship of Prokop the Great, which had been confirmed by his brilliant victory at Domážlice, rendered it impossible to enter into negotiations except in
- ↑ M. Noël Valois in his Le Pape et le concile, quotes a document entitled “De Justificatione vocationis Bohemorum” (Paris, Bib. nat. MS. lat. 1548), which justifies the action of the Council. The author writes: “Et pro illis jam inveteratis hereticis [the Greeks] novum indicitur concilium; cur pro istis novellis, ex quibus majus timetur periculum non permittitur manere concilium ceptum et longe ante indictum.”
