estates of Bohemia. Towards the end of July the Bohemians began to leave Brno, and it became obvious that the negotiations would here again be resultless. Those Bohemian delegates who had not already left Brno did so on August 3, after having declared that they would again defer the questions concerning the recognition of Sigismund as king and the solution of the religious controversies to the Bohemian diet.
Though the religious disputations at Brno had again ended in failure, the question of the recognition of Sigismund as king had made considerable progress. The negotiations between Sigismund and the Bohemians, in which Menhard of Jindřichův Hradec again acted as mediator, are very obscure. It, however, appears certain that on July 6 Sigismund, when conversing with some of the Bohemian envoys, assured them of his friendship and his conciliatory spirit and of his intention never again to war against their country. The Bohemians, whom prolonged experience had not unnaturally rendered suspicious, demanded that some written statement should be given them bearing witness to the King’s conciliatory intentions. The King shortly afterwards, probably on July 25, acceded to their demand, and signed a document[1] which certainly granted the Bohemians considerable concessions. It was kept secret for some time, and for that reason the ordinary writers of the King were not employed, but the document was transcribed privately by one of the Bohemian envoys. It was only made public by Sigismund when at Stuhlweissenburg in Hungary on January 6, 1436. In this important document Sigismund declared that no benefices in Bohemia or Moravia should be conferred on foreigners, and that the King reserved to himself the right of conferring such benefices. No Bohemian or Moravian was to be summoned to appear before any foreign law-court or to be judged by it. The most important part of the document was, however,
- ↑ This document, entitled “Proscriptio Imperatoris Sigismundi Brunnæ factæ nuntiis a Bohemis ad eum missis pro aliquibus articulis ultra compactata,” is published by Palacký, Unkunden, etc., Vol. Il. pp. 445–448.
