before leaving Basel, come to an agreement with the other members of the Council as to the limit of the concession which could, if necessary, be made to the Utraquists. It is certain that among these concessions was the permission to receive Communion in the two kinds. This practice has frequently obtained in countries professing the Roman Catholic creed, and is at the present time tolerated by the Church among the uniates in Galicia and other parts of Poland. The Bohemians were in a more difficult position. They were, of course, unaware of the fact that the Council had roughly settled to what extent it was prepared to make concessions; they therefore endeavoured to enforce their demands as far as was possible without risking a renewal of hostilities; for, with the exception of a few fanatics, all the inhabitants of Bohemia, which was exhausted by long and uninterrupted warfare, longed for peace. It is unnecessary to give a detailed account of the prolonged debates which turned on the interpretation of the articles of Prague. The proceedings of the diet were not always carried on in a courteous fashion, as had been the case at the first sittings. When Archdeacon Palomar held the Hussites responsible for the terrible bloodshed of the recent years, Rokycan replied that the Bohemians had always desired peace, and that not they, but the prelates at Constance, had caused the war; for they had granted the Bohemians no hearing at Constance, declared heretics those who received Communion in the two kinds, burnt their dear master (Hus) and encouraged King Sigismund to devastate their country. While these vehement debates, which for a moment seemed to render an agreement doubtful, continued the Bohemian divines drew up the first draft of those stipulations which afterwards became famous under the name of the compacts, but which were only brought before the Council of Basel somewhat later.
Far more important than these public debates were the private negotiations which were now carried on between the
