had been treated by those whom he had so often led to victory rankled in his mind. Later writers, whose authority is, however, slight, even state that Prokop now entered into negotiations with Menhard of Jindřichův Hradec and other Bohemian nobles, and only rejoined the Táborites when they begged him to do so.[1]
It is, at any rate, certain that about the middle of December, 1433, Prokop returned to the Táborite camp before Plzeň. The deliberations of the diet continued up to the following month, but he had probably ascertained that the concessions which the Council was prepared to make would appear insufficient even to the most moderate members of the community of Tábor. He therefore, forgetting former grievances, returned to the army which he had so long commanded. It must here again be stated that the proceedings in the Táborite camp during the last months before the great defeat at Lipany are shrouded in deep obscurity; the contemporary accounts are few and contradictory. It appears certain that Prokop the Great soon regained the confidence of the army. He again proceeded to Prague in January 1434 as representative of the army and bearer of what may be called an ultimatum. He declared that the Táborites could accept no agreement with the Council which did not declare that Communion in the two kinds should be obligatory in the whole kingdom of Bohemia. There is no doubt that among the Táborite warriors there were many fervent Utraquists who considered it their duty to insist on this point. The Táborite armies, however, at this period included many German, Polish and Lithuanian mercenaries who knew no other craft except warfare. These men were certainly not anxious that a treaty of peace should be concluded. It is certain that the envoys of the Council, who had
- ↑ Professor Tomek, in his History of the Town of Prague (Vol. IV. p. 601, n. 34), quotes the words of these writers. The statement, to which the learned professor himself does not appear to attach much importance, appears to me very improbable. It is, however, characteristic of the atmosphere of mutual distrust and treachery which marks the last months of the Hussite wars.
